“Comforted to Comfort” – FBC Morning Light (12/2/2024)

Well, good Monday morning to you and welcome to December. We're closing out 2024 pretty quickly, aren't we? Well, we're also closing out this year's Bible reading plan. We've been reading through the Bible chronologically.

And so we got to a certain point in the Book of Acts where we broke away from the Book of Acts and started reading some of the Pauline epistles. And eventually we'll come back to the Book of Acts and so forth.

Comfort from the God of All Comfort in 2 Corinthians

But today we're in 2 Corinthians, reading the first four chapters. The next couple of days will be in that particular book, Letter of Paul. And what strikes me right away at the beginning of this letter, in the opening chapter, Paul says that God is the God of all comfort.

And he says he's the father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all of our tribulation. So one of the attributes of God is that he is a God of mercy who comforts his people. And I find great comfort just in knowing that truth about God, that he is not just he's not some aloof entity out there in the universe somewhere that pays no attention to what's going on in this world and doesn't really care about anybody.

But no, God, who is our Father, is a God of mercy and a God of comfort. And Paul says he comforts us in our tribulation. Now, two questions. How does he do it? And secondly, why does he do it? How does he do it?

How does he comfort us in our tribulation? Well, one of the ways that he gives comfort, well, of course he gives comfort through his word. And just reading his word, you can find some comfortable truths, such as the fact that God is a God of comfort.

But one of the primary ways that God comforts his people is through his people. God comforts us through the ministry of others. Let me show you this. Later on, we'll get to this, I think it's tomorrow in our reading.

In chapter 7, Paul speaks about God also being a God of comfort, and he says this. He says, great is my boldness, in chapter 7, verse 4, he says, great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf.

I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation. Now, he says I'm going through a time of tribulation, but I am filled with joy, I'm exceedingly joyful, and I'm filled with comfort.

How was he comforted? Because he says in verse, then he says in verse 5, indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears, we needed comfort.

Then he says this, God, nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us, and here's how, by the coming of Titus. And not only his coming, but the consolation, the comfort with which he was comforted in you.

You see what's going on there? Titus is able to comfort Paul in his affliction, his tribulation, because Titus was comforted, encouraged by the Corinthian believers. And so God will comfort us, this father of mercies of ours, will comfort us in our tribulation through the ministry of other people.

And it may not necessarily be conscious on their part that they are comforting us. We may be comforted just by their presence, we may be comforted as we are going through a time of tribulation or affliction, and we go to church, we gather with God's people, and in the corporate worship together, the fellowship we have, there's comfort.

But that's how God does it. He comforts, generally, through other people. Why does he do so? Why does he comfort you? Well, Paul goes on in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 4, to say, he comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

So your comfort that you receive from God is not an end of it. I mean, it's not to end there. You pass it on. There's a lot of emphasis on that idea today, and it's not a bad idea to pass it on, pass it along.

Something good comes your way, and you have an opportunity to share that with somebody else, take it, pass it along. That's a good thing. And this is certainly true with the comfort that we get from the Lord.

And we're not the end of that. We're to pass it along. Now, here's something else I want to emphasize. I want us to understand from this discussion about how God comforts his people, I want us to understand how absolutely vital it is for those who profess to be Christians to be part of a local church, part of a Christian community.

Why? Because you then are in a position, you're in a place where you can be comforted by those in that community, and furthermore, you then have the opportunity to minister to others. And I'm afraid I've seen this too many times in recent years in the professing church, where Christians think they can be Lone Ranger Christians, that they can be a believer, and they don't have to go to church, they don't have to be a part of a local church, and so on and so forth.

And what I've discovered in a lot of those lives is that they don't know how to deal with affliction, and they don't have support in their tribulations that they would otherwise have. Oh, listen, I hope that's not you.

I hope that you are a part of a good Bible-believing assembly, a church, where God's people minister to one another consciously or even just by their very presence with one another, that you can be ministered to in that kind of an environment, and so that you can minister to others.

May that be our perspective. Thank you, Father, Father of mercies, and God of all comfort. Thank you for the comfort with which you comfort your people. Bless these thoughts to our hearts today, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, well, listen, I hope your month of December gets off to a great start, and God will bless you today on this Monday.