Sunday Sermon: The God Who Raises the Dead (2 Corinthians 1:5-11)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabrielle Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is our Old Testament study, and then we answer questions from listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the letters to the

Corinthians. This is the sermon that was preached last week from our pulpit. Here's Pastor Gabe.

In honor of the word of the King, let's stand. Second Corinthians chapter 1, verses 1 through 11.

The Apostle Paul begins, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort, too.

If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction that we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us.

On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Let's pray. God, our Father, as we come to this scripture this morning,

I pray that we would be reminded that You are the Father of mercies and the

God of all comfort. As we examined in the scriptures last week, so we come back again to this today, desiring to be comforted in our souls, to know eternity with our

Savior, to have eyes that are fixed heavenward on the throne of God and the kingdom that awaits us if we endure to the end.

Help us in our weaknesses. As we struggle this morning with doubt and with uncertainty, or perhaps we lose our sight because of pain or mourning in this life,

I pray that You would revive our hearts and rejuvenate our spirits, that You would guide our souls back to You, our gaze heavenward, lifting our chins, our faces, to look upon the

God of all comfort. And when we are comforted by the words that we read in the scriptures of God, may we then be a comfort to others who need the

Word of God to still their souls, to know the forgiveness of sin that is in Christ, and the hope of a kingdom eternal.

We pray and ask these things in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, amen. Thank you, you may be seated.

I was listening to Sinclair Ferguson reflect upon this second letter that we have in canon that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, and Sinclair Ferguson said, whenever I come to 2

Corinthians, and I start reading in this book, he says there is a scene that plays out in my mind.

And it's not too implausible a scenario, but it's nonetheless just his imagination, just imagining something that had transpired between Paul's first letter and his second one, between 1

Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. As I mentioned when we were going through our introduction to 2

Corinthians, that Paul had visited this church between these two letters, and he's writing this letter as a replacement for having to make another visit to them again, a painful visit as he describes in chapter 2.

So during that visit between his first letter and the second letter, imagine that he came to Corinth to see if they had made many of the corrections that he wrote them about in the first letter, and he confronted them on some of those sin issues that needed to be corrected in the church.

And in those conversations, there was probably much mourning. There were tears, there was sadness, there was even some rejoicing, as some repented of their sin and desired once again to live the path of righteousness.

But it was deep affliction that was coming to them from the apostle, and Paul's saying even in the second chapter that it was indeed a painful visit.

And perhaps over the course of those conversations, with as much affliction as was being born through the word of Christ, of hearing about sin, but then also hearing about forgiveness in Christ, maybe over the course of that discipline,

Paul said to the church in Corinth, hey, why don't we just have a time of fellowship, a time that we can get together and rejoice?

And so the church of Corinth probably had what would have been the first century equivalent of a church picnic.

So they got together there by the sea at Corinth, and they had whatever would have been the first century equivalent of hamburgers, hot dogs, and potato salad.

But it would have been meat that was not sacrificed to the false gods in the pagan temples.

So clean hamburgers and hot dogs. And the ladies probably found a place to congregate with themselves and sit and chat and enjoy the

Corinthian sun, while the men had whatever would have been the first century equivalent of a softball game.

And the game ended tied, and they just decided to resolve the game that way because extra innings hadn't been invented yet.

And so then one of the young men decides, well, now let's go for a swim. So they run down to the bank of the sea, and some of the men, you know, very, very zealously kind of throw off their robes and start jumping into the water.

Well, Paul, we read about, he was a zealous, enthusiastic guy himself. So he runs down to the edge of the sea also, and there are some that already know what's about to happen.

And they kind of start to gather around Paul because they want to see it. And there are some of the older men that have their youngest sons, and they're actually kind of trying to put their young sons behind them.

They don't want them to see what it is that's about to happen, because as Paul stands there at the edge of the sea, ready to jump in the water, he takes his robe off.

And there, everybody who is kind of gathered around to see it, they behold the back of a man who has been beaten five times with 40 lashes of the whip minus one.

He's been beaten three times with canes by the Romans. This is the back of a man who's been beaten for the gospel of Christ.

And somewhere in that, in the hushness of those who are gathered around Paul, there's a young boy that manages to scurry around his father, what his father is hiding him from seeing, and he sees the back of the apostle

Paul. Some are scarred wounds, some might even be fresh bruises. And the little boy breaks the silence and says, is it hard to be a

Christian? Daddy, is it hard to follow Jesus? Here is a man who's been beaten to within an inch of his life.

As a matter of fact, we're even given an illustration that once Paul died and God brought him back again.

This man who suffered so much affliction for the gospel of Christ.

And what we read in the bulk of the New Testament is a gospel that was delivered by a man who suffered for the sake of the gospel.

We don't tend to think about this because we're 2 ,000 years into the future, but Paul suffered even for us.

And he shared the sufferings of Christ. Just as Christ suffered for us, so did

Paul. So did the rest of the apostles, but nobody suffered more than Paul did. And there's an awareness or a reality that I want to bring you to as we continue to talk about God being the

God of all comfort. That was the title of the sermon last week from verse 3, that we would know the

Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. As we read about these sufferings, and Paul says, we suffer for your comfort, and he talks about suffering nearly to the point of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but God who raises the dead.

As we look at the sufferings of Paul, and as he talks about comforting us in the midst of suffering, there's a reality that I don't want to be lost on anybody as we discuss these things.

There are two things that I want to make you aware of. First of all, this is about Paul. So again, as we started in our letter to the

Corinthians, the second letter to the Corinthians, I mentioned that 2 Corinthians was very largely autobiographical, more so than what we've seen in any of Paul's other letters before or after this.

Paul refers to himself quite a bit, recalls personal experience a lot in this letter.

So when we're talking about suffering, when we use that word suffering, when Paul says that we have suffered abundantly for your comfort,

I don't want you to put yourself in that paragraph. You're there in the comfort part.

You're not there in the suffering part, because you have not suffered like Paul has suffered. None of the apostles suffered like Paul suffered.

Paul suffered more than any of the other apostles of Christ. You think about those 12 men that Jesus chose.

One of them who betrayed Christ, then there was 11, then there was a 12th one added back in when lots were cast for Matthias.

So 12 men for the gospel of Christ, these 12 were the primary ones that were chosen.

They weren't the only disciples, but they were the 12 apostles. And then

Jesus added another one. When you're reading through the book of Acts, and you're reading about the beginning of that church, you get to Acts chapter 9, and you read about this man named

Saul who persecuted the church. Now, the interesting thing about reading the saga over the course of the book of Acts is that any person that came to Acts and is reading that book, they already knew who

Paul was. Luke even writes that letter to Theophilus with the assumption that he knows who

Paul is. So when you get to that character in the story, when you get to Saul, also the apostle

Paul, it's not like Luke is introducing us to somebody that the Christian church would not have been unfamiliar or would have been unfamiliar with.

He is introducing us to somebody who was very known to the church because of what Paul suffered for the gospel.

But Luke gives us the backstory as to how Paul came to know Christ and went from being a

Pharisee to one of the most suffering apostles there was. And one of the things that Jesus says to Ananias in Acts chapter 9, after Paul has been knocked to the ground, he's been blinded, he goes into Damascus.

His friends who were with him, they take him into Damascus. They take him to a street called

Straight. He goes into a house. He's there fasting and praying for three days.

Jesus speaks to Ananias and says that he's to go to this house and he's supposed to baptize

Paul. And Ananias knows who this guy is. He's a persecutor of Christians. He's been putting Christians to death.

I even know why he's here in Damascus. He's here to arrest Christians. You want me to walk right into his presence and just give myself up?

And Jesus responds to Ananias that I am going to show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

That's Acts 9 .16. So it was even prophesied about Paul before he became an apostle that he was going to suffer greatly for the name of Christ.

In Galatians 1 .15, Paul says that I was chosen for this before I was even born, that he would suffer for the name of Christ.

And there is maybe no one in the history of the church who has suffered as greatly as the apostle

Paul suffered for the gospel. So that's number one.

Again, as we come into this and we talk about suffering and comfort, I want you to know that this is not you.

You suffer in aches and pains in your body. You suffer when somebody makes fun of you for being a

Christian or you get stabbed in the back by a close relationship or something like that.

Sure, those are certainly kinds of sufferings that we go through. But don't put yourself in there where Paul talks about his suffering as though you somehow can relate to the kind of suffering that Paul has been through.

When we read about Paul's suffering and the comfort that he receives in Christ, what we should gather from that is, though we would suffer greatly,

Paul has suffered more, and yet he's comforted by Christ, so don't you know that Christ can comfort you in your suffering as well?

So that's number one. Second thing, the second thing that I want you to be aware of as we come to this section again today is that it is not necessary for you to suffer as Paul suffered in order to be a good

Christian. Sometimes it's thought of that we have to go through a great deal of persecution, and if I don't go through persecution, if nobody is persecuting me, maybe

I'm doing something wrong. Maybe I'm not really a Christian. Maybe I need to go out and find somebody who will persecute me.

I don't know that any of you have that kind of mindedness in here, that you're just looking for someone to persecute you, but they exist.

There are people that will come to that sort of mindset, that I need to be persecuted in order to be a proper

Christian. After all, Paul said to Timothy, those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Will be persecuted. But my life is doing pretty good. Nobody's making fun of me for my faith, so maybe

I'm not doing something right. Maybe I need to go out and get some persecution. You know, the

United States of America is an anomaly, not just in the history of the church, the church the way it exists in the

United States, but as a nation, it's an anomaly. There has never been a nation on earth that's existed like the

United States. There has never been a document like the Declaration of Independence or like the

Constitution that governs our laws. There have never been such documents in the history of world government.

So because we have a document that states for us, protecting our freedoms, like the freedom of religion, then we can enjoy in good comfort the preaching of the gospel like this and not fear the persecution of our government or anyone else.

Now, maybe someone will take it upon themselves to think they need to persecute a church this morning, but if they do so, they're going to be punished for that.

If they come in and try to harm people within that church, something like we saw happen in Southland Springs, Texas last year, just a few months back, with the shooting that took place at that small church in Rule, Texas.

That man was killed by somebody who was protecting those congregants from being killed further than they were already being slaughtered.

And the man that killed that gunman is exonerated. He's not going to stand court or trial for defending those people.

If it was law enforcement that had shown up, they would have put that gunman down to protect the people that were inside that church.

Why is that? Because we have rules in this country that protect our right to worship, that we would not be persecuted for doing this.

The government's not going to persecute us, and if anybody else tries to persecute us, they will be punished by the government because of what it is that we have written on our laws.

There is really not a place like the U .S. where we can worship freely like this and not fear persecution by our government.

Folks, we can gather in a church and preach the gospel and sing the songs that we've sung this morning, and you know what?

We can even announce who we are. There's a big steeple on the top of our building, and there is no doubt what this building is for who gathers here on Sunday morning.

We can announce, here, here we are, and nobody's going to come and fight us because of who we are and what we're doing this morning.

In fact, they all wish we would just stay in here and not go out there with the stuff that we do on Sunday morning.

So we have protections in this country because of the laws that govern our nation, and we're able to worship in comfort and without fear of persecution.

So we really are an anomaly in that sense, but it is by the blessing of God that we do not face persecution like this.

It's so wonderful that we can worship unimpeded, that we can worship without fear of being fined or imprisoned or beaten or any of these other things, and yet we're still so timid and so fearful of going out with the gospel to the world as we should and preaching the gospel in the places where people have not heard it.

It's very sad to say, but there are churches even in this town this morning that are not preaching the gospel, and there are congregants that are going to leave those churches believing that they're

Christians or believing that they're saved because they've done their spiritual duty this morning, and they are no closer to God than they were when they walked in the building.

And so it shouldn't be something that we just take for granted that because we have these protections, because everybody in the

U .S., for the most part, goes to worship somewhere on a Sunday morning, but we should know that there are many who are not hearing the gospel and still need to hear the gospel of Christ, that they would turn from their sin and worship

Christ. And because we live in such an unusual area where we do not fear persecution for what it is that we believe, there might be a tendency to think that we're doing something wrong because we're not being persecuted, but it is the blessing of God that we're not being persecuted.

Paul said, and as I had quoted to you last week from 1 Timothy chapter 2, "...desire to live a godly life, peaceful and dignified in every way.

This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior." So we're not going out looking for trouble. You're not going out trying to stir up trouble.

But for preaching the gospel and believing the things that you do, you will be persecuted. There are people that are going to make fun of you for that.

Because again, as Paul said to Timothy, those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Notice that he doesn't say there, those who go out and preach the gospel on a street corner will be persecuted. He says those who desire to live a godly life.

People will hate you for the godly values that you hold. You don't even have to speak the name of Christ.

They will just hate you because you believe what the Bible says. And so we must stand steadfast in this way on the truth of the gospel, but not thinking that we need to go be persecuted in order to be good

Christians. So I bring those two things to your attention once again.

You're not the Apostle Paul, and the suffering that you go through is not Paul's suffering. And secondly, that you don't have to suffer the kinds of persecutions that Paul went through in order to be a good

Christian. God has called you out from this world to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

And if he so desires that you are going to be persecuted for your faith, that's God's will. But in whatever situation that you find yourself in, rejoice in Christ and lean on the everlasting arms.

Amen. So I want to come back and read once again verses 3 and 4, and we're going to go on from there.

Where Paul says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.

That was the focus of the sermon last week. Who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

So notice the differences there between verses 5 and 6. Verse 5 is very much about himself and his own missionary entourage and the work that they're doing for the gospel and the persecutions that they're suffering because of that work.

They're going from city to city to city. This church in Corinth is just in Corinth. They're not going from place to place to place.

So Paul refers to himself autobiographically first and then gives the application for his readers.

Verse 5 again, for as we share. He's not talking about we as in me and you who

I'm talking to. He's talking about himself and the missionaries who travel with him. As we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

When Paul wrote to the Philippians, one of the concerns that the Philippians had was hearing that Paul had been thrown in prison and maybe it was discouraging him from preaching the gospel.

And so he wrote to the Philippians to say, thank you for the gift that you sent to me and I also want you to know that I'm doing fine.

I'm doing great. In fact, here's what's being accomplished because I've been thrown in prison. There are even some of the

Imperial Guard who know what has happened to me and they've become Christians just guarding me while I'm under house arrest.

And so that would cause all the Philippians to rejoice together in hearing what's been going on with the

Apostle Paul. So this is Paul saying to the Philippians in his own way in that letter, that though I suffer,

I share abundantly in comfort. Yeah, I'm suffering, but we're also being comforted because the work of the gospel is accomplishing the thing that God has sent this word out to do.

So then he gets to verse 6 and he welcomes the Corinthians to be a part of the comfort that they are experiencing.

So even though I suffer, I share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, verse 6, if we're afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation.

And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort. Paul is basically saying to the

Corinthians here, you're getting the good end of this deal, okay? We're suffering, you're comforted.

When we're comforted, you're comforted. All in all, you're being comforted. Amen. Praise the

Lord. It's for your comfort which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer, when you yourselves are persecuted there in Corinth for believing the gospel of Christ.

You're not going through anything that we're not going through out here. So as we're comforted on the mission field by seeing the work of Christ accomplished, so you can be comforted as well, knowing this, this is

Paul saying to the Corinthians, knowing this, that God is working something for His glory.

This is for your good. He has not forgotten you. So be comforted that we worship the

God and Father of all mercies and God of all comfort.

As we're comforted, you are comforted, even as you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

Now that's kind of the bridging point between what we studied last week and what

I'm going to focus the rest of our time on for this week, and that's in verses 8 through 11.

So now look at this next paragraph. Paul says, for we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia.

Now we don't know exactly what that affliction was. There are many speculations that maybe this is talking about Ephesus, because that would have happened before this particular letter, where Paul was in Ephesus and the

Ephesians eventually were gathered together in a great mob against the apostle Paul and the gospel that was being spread there.

And they gathered in the Colosseum there that was in Ephesus, or the big amphitheater, rather, and they started shouting, great is

Artemis of the Ephesians, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. That was the goddess that they worshipped there.

Great is Artemis, great is Artemis, to try to drown out any of those guys that were trying to share the gospel.

And Paul wanted to go in there. He wanted to go in the amphitheater to try to quiet the crowd, but his friends who were with him were saying, no, no, no, no.

We need to get you out of here is what we need to do. So as you have the Ephesians, this riotous mob, described like beasts, that are gathering there in the amphitheater, and they're joining together in chorus saying, great is

Artemis of the Ephesians, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. That's not too unlike something that Planned Parenthood has been attempting to do on social media lately.

And I don't know who it is that is behind this, but lately Planned Parenthood has been posting things on Twitter and Facebook repetitiously over and over and over again.

Ridiculous stuff like some men have uteruses, some men have uteruses, some men have uteruses, some men have uteruses.

And they do it over and over and over again. It's absolutely ridiculous nonsense.

Abortion is healthcare, abortion is healthcare, abortion is healthcare. They'll just do that over and over again. It was

Denny Burke, who is one of the professors at Boyce College in Louisville, Kentucky, who finally took one of those tweets and said, great is

Artemis of the Ephesians, great is Artemis of the Ephesians, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. To show that this is the idolatry of our current secular age.

They're doing exactly what these beasts did at Ephesus to try to drown out the

Apostle Paul. And we have people even in our age today that are trying to drown out the truth by repeating such nonsense as Planned Parenthood is doing with their latest social media campaign.

Same sort of cultic repetition that was in Ephesus. You can observe happening even in our culture now.

Now I say all of that only to say that that's probably not what Paul's talking about here.

The reason why I don't think, I'm just saying that that's usually the most common explanation for 2

Corinthians 1 .8. The affliction experienced in Asia, it must have been Ephesus because that was the most recent event and that was the biggest thing that happened to the

Apostle Paul. So maybe that's what he's referring to here, but I don't really think it is because he's talking about receiving a sentence of death.

He was not near death at Ephesus. He actually got out of there before he faced any physical persecution.

So this is some unnamed circumstance that had happened to the Apostle Paul in Asia and maybe we just won't know exactly what it was.

But we know that Paul went through great sufferings, things about which are not even recorded in the

Scriptures, at least as far as the narration is concerned, explaining the story and the life of the

Apostle Paul. He gets to some of these things in chapter 11 that he suffered. So much suffering where he says we were utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. Have you ever heard it said that God will never give you more than you can handle?

That is a lie from the pit of hell. As a matter of fact, God might give you more than you can handle.

I've become very careful with the way that I articulate that. I used to say God will give you more than you can handle.

Well, he might not. You might actually enjoy a very peaceful life and die very peacefully in your sleep.

Wonderful blessing of God if that is the way that your life goes without too much drama, without too much circumstance, without any serious illness that you have to fight through, fight for your life through.

But others of us may actually go through such tremendous suffering that we feel like we cannot even bear it anymore.

Paul did, and that's what he's referring to here. He's referring to suffering that he's gone through that was so great he thought, this is it,

God, just take me. I'm done. I find the story toward the end of Acts where after Paul was shipwrecked and he's building a fire, and he reaches for wood, and a snake jumps out and bites his hand.

I don't know why, but I crack up just about every time I read that because it's like Paul's out there for the gospel.

He's preaching the gospel of God to the world. He's doing what Christ has told him to do. He was just shipwrecked.

They're on an island. He's building a fire. He reaches for wood. A snake jumps out and bites his hand. I mean, at what point does

Paul go, God, come on. I mean, really, give me some relief here.

Give me a break. But that wasn't Paul's reaction. That wasn't his response. In fact, he just went, it's better now.

There we go, and then he continued. He was an apostle. He could do that. You can't do that. You've got to suck out the poison and get to the hospital immediately.

But Paul could just, he could name it and claim it. You can't, okay? So at what point does

Paul get frustrated with this work, with all the suffering that he endured?

Yet he says here, we see him say here in 2 Corinthians 1 .9,

Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

What a comfort it is to know, my brothers and sisters in Christ, that we worship a

God who is a raiser of the dead. That is his character.

You understand, it is God's character to raise his children from the dead.

That's one of the loving character aspects of God, that he will raise us from the dead.

He raised his son from the dead. And if you're a follower of Jesus, you are called sons and daughters of God.

So as he raised his own son from the dead, he will raise you from the dead. So it is in Christ Jesus that we have the greatest comfort we could possibly be afforded.

And it is only in Christ that we find that kind of comfort. When we struggle, when we cry out to God, when we feel like we've received a sentence of death,

God ultimately has a purpose for this, to perfect our faith, to make us more like Christ.

And so we would rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

God might give you more than you can handle, but it's to make you rely on him who is a raiser of the dead.

I don't know where that cliché comes from. God will never give you more than you can handle.

I don't know where it originates from. I tried to find out one time. I tried to do some research on it.

Where does this phrase originate from? Most theologians will say that likely the origin of that phrase is from 1

Corinthians 10 -13, where Paul says, No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability to resist.

But with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

But this is talking about temptation. This is not talking about the sufferings or the pains or trials that you'll go through in this life.

It's talking about temptation. It's saying God will not allow you to be tempted beyond your ability to resist that temptation.

So you can't ever say, God is tempting me, or I'm being tempted so all

I can do is give in to sin. I can't help myself. I'm going to have to do it this time, God.

Now the scripture says God will never allow you to be tempted beyond your ability to resist. If you are in Christ, if you are indwelt with the

Holy Spirit, you have been given the power to be able to resist that sin and to cling tightly to the

Lord Jesus Christ who forgives and delivers us from the schemes of Satan.

But there's nothing in the Bible that says God won't give you more than you can handle.

In fact, the likelihood is that you will face more than you can handle.

Martin Lloyd -Jones in his book, Seeking the Face of God, he said, nothing is so wrong and indeed dishonest as to pretend that the moment you become a

Christian, all your problems are left behind and you will never have any difficulties from then on.

That is just not true. For even Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 that to follow him is the difficult road.

Things are going to get harder because you become a follower of Christ, not easier. Yet we have those prosperity teachers out there that are trying to tell us that if you follow

Jesus, it's nothing but health and wealth from here on out. You know who benefits from the prosperity gospel?

The prosperity preachers, that's right. That's who benefits from that gospel and all the studies in the world have shown no one who follows what it is those teachers teach benefit from any of that.

They afflict a burden upon you that does not satisfy. It is only

Christ who satisfies. And we see this come up in the scriptures over and over again, that the trials, the struggles that we face are meant to make us rely more on God who raises the dead.

In fact, I want to look at three of those together with you. If you would turn with me to the Psalms. Let's go to the

Psalms. Psalm 13 was one that I referenced to you last week. Let's read it together because it's a real short

Psalm. Psalm 13, David, he was himself being persecuted.

He was being pursued by Saul who was trying to kill him. The man had to sleep in caves, had to hunt in order to find his food, in order to survive.

During a time of fleeing for his life, David prays this in Psalm 13.

How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me,

O Lord my God. Light up my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest my enemies say

I have prevailed over him. Lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

David thinks that he has received a sentence of death. But remember, once again, as Paul pointed out, this was to make us rely more on God who raises the dead.

For look at how David concludes this Psalm in verses 5 and 6. But I have trusted in your steadfast love.

My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the

Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.

And I don't really think that when David was writing this Psalm, that relief happened to him while he was writing the

Psalm. If you understand what I'm saying. All of a sudden his troubles went away. Oh, I'm not being afflicted anymore.

Saul is no longer pursuing me. Just while I was writing this Psalm out. I don't think that's what happened there. Rather, though David feels like he's been abandoned.

Though he is looking for God and doesn't see God working at the time that he's penning these words.

Nonetheless, he's not shaken from his faith. He says,

I have trusted in your steadfast love and my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

You have delivered me before. You have dealt bountifully with me. I know and I believe that you will deliver me again.

And that's what Paul says in that next passage. He has delivered us before and I know that he will deliver us again.

Let's go to Psalm 46. Turn over to Psalm 46. Another short

Psalm, just 11 verses. David begins, God is our refuge. I'm sorry, this is the sons of Korah.

This is not David. God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way. Though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea.

Though its waters roar and foam. Though the mountains tremble at its swelling. God is our refuge and strength.

We will not fear though the earth would fall apart around us. Though everything around us would look like a disaster movie.

That's what you have described there in those first three verses. The psalmist goes on in verse 4 to say,

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. The holy habitation of the

Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns.

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters His voice, the earth melts.

The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Come behold the works of the

Lord. How He has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth.

He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am

God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us.

The God of Jacob is our fortress. I want to go back to a line there. I didn't mean to read through it so quickly, but perhaps you had noticed it.

In verse 8, Come behold the works of the Lord. How He has brought desolations on the earth.

Where do these natural disasters come from? They come from God. I have never understood the debate that happens whenever a natural disaster wipes out a huge area or affects a large number of people, and there are people that go, no,

God didn't cause this. I always want to, if I was part of that conversation,

I want to raise the question, then who did? Who caused it? Are you a deist?

Do you believe that God just set things in motion and then took His hands off of it and doesn't interact with creation or with His children anymore?

Is that what you're arguing? If that's your approach, then I understand why you would say that. You're wrong, but I understand where you're coming from.

But if you claim to be a Christian and you say that God didn't cause this natural disaster, who do you think did it?

Satan? Well, yeah, in the book of Job, it says that Satan caused all these things to come upon Job, until you get to the end of the book of Job where it says that God did it all.

Satan was the agent that made those things happen, but God was the one that caused them. God did not allow

Satan to do anything that was outside of His will to have taken place. Why do we have so much suffering and so much disaster in the world?

As I said again last week, and I remind you once again, it's because of sin. It's because we've sinned against God and the world has been subjected to futility.

That's why there's so much disaster in the world. It's because it's full of evil people. And our sin against God was so great, it sent the entire universe into upheaval.

Our sin against God was so great, it required the sacrifice of His Son in order to pay that debt against God, so that all who believe in Him would be able to understand these words.

In the midst of desolation and in the midst of natural disasters and chaos and sin and depravity all around us, we would still be able to be comforted by these words.

Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations.

I will be exalted in the earth. My brothers and sisters, do not forget these words.

Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord. As I've heard Matt Chandler say, you will either bow or you will be made to bow.

How much better it will be for you to be one who sees the love of God and comes and bows the knee yourself before God before you are bowed the knee in fear of judgment before the throne on that day.

Let's look at one more Psalm. Psalm 121. Psalm 121.

This was the Psalm that I read with the praise band this morning. I lift up my eyes to the hills.

From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper.

The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life.

The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

As I've said to you before and I say to you again, it is the Lord who saves you and it is the

Lord who keeps you saved. Through all these struggles, all these strifes, yet we have a

God who is faithful and protects us and loves us to the end and will deliver us into his eternal kingdom.

The things that we go through in this life, no matter how great, no matter how sorrowful, are meant to make us rely more on God who raises the dead.

Let's look at those final two verses in 2 Corinthians 1. In verse 10,

Paul said, he delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us.

On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

So as I said to you last week and we come to the same conclusion again this week, the

God of all comforts has comforted you and you are comforted so that you might comfort others who are still struggling to find a resolve to the sufferings that they endure in this life.

And in this case, when I use that word sufferings, now I am saying the general sufferings that every person experiences.

Sufferings of sickness, sufferings of loss, sufferings of any other health ailment, sufferings of personal strife, just the general suffering of what is the meaning or purpose of life?

What is after this? Is there any meaning or purpose to anything? And you have the message that provides the answer to that question and the answer is

Christ. The answer to what comes after this is Christ.

It is appointed for every man to die once and after that comes judgment as it says in the book of Hebrews.

And so when we stand before God in judgment, how will we know that we will hear the words well done good and faithful servant and not depart from me you worker of iniquity because you were a follower of Jesus Christ?

And that truth is the most comforting truth that we could ever have and it helps to put meaning and purpose into all these other areas of our lives.

When we know that the God of all comfort is with us. Charles Spurgeon said the idea that trials are an unusual experience should be banished at once and forever.

C .S. Lewis once said we should stop looking at interruptions of life as interruptions.

They're life. It's part of life. And so no

Christ who comforts us in all our afflictions. Let me finish with these words from Isaiah chapter 40.

You know Isaiah 40 31. Many of you could probably quote it for me, right? They who wait for the

Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint. You know that verse, don't you? Let's consider it in context. With Isaiah talking to an

Israel that has been exiled because of their sin and rebellion against God. Something that has not happened yet but is about to.

So Isaiah is speaking preemptively to this group of people who are going to be driven from their land and exiled into the hands of the enemy.

And Isaiah says, Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the

Lord and my right is disregarded by my God. See, unlike David in Psalm 13 who is saying,

How long are you going to forget me forever? But I will yet trust in the Lord who has dealt bountifully with me.

Here Israel is crying out and saying, My way is hidden from God. Not even God knows where I'm going. Not even

God knows what is going to happen to me. I am so afflicted. I am so burdened by what is going on. And Isaiah says,

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting

God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary.

His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint.

And to him who has no might, He increases their strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary. And young men shall fall exhausted.

But they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint. We often take that verse,

Isaiah 40, 31, as some sort of description of heaven. And I kind of smashed that myth a few years ago, only to have a woman come up to me after service and got real mad at me.

And said, You have ruined everything that I thought heaven was going to be. I thought we were going to get wings.

I thought we were going to run forever and not get tired. And you laugh, she was really mad.

She really was mad that I put that in context for her and took away that illusion. Folks, what we're reading about here is something that you can have right now.

That now, in the comfort of Christ, you will have renewed strength.

You will have wings like eagles. You will be able to run the race that is set before us,

Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, and not be weary. And you will walk with the

Lord and not be faint. This is the promise of God for the people who rely on Him for their strength.

Who rely on the God who raises the dead. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.

For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, Growing Together in Christ, when we understand the text.