God's Peace & Comfort - Part 2

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Jesus says, for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and believed that I came forth from God.

So if you want to experience the joy and the peace and the consolation, as we said a moment ago, before experiencing peace with God, you need to first experience the grace of God. And then, and only then, can you experience all of his benefits.

So once a person places their faith in Christ, then we can have the peace and the consolation. And look at verse 33, these things I have spoken to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have what?

Tribulation. But take courage, I have overcome the world. So out there, out there, what are we going to get? Tribulation. That's all that's out there. Tribulation. But in Christ, we have peace. These things, Jesus said, I have spoken to you so that in me you may have peace.

Yes, there's a lot of trouble out there. And because we all live in the world, we're going to face some of the tribulation that comes through the world. But the Christian is called to take courage. I was thinking this week about one of my favorite verses from the Old Testament.

The Lord, how he told Joshua, in Joshua chapter 1 verse 9, the Lord said, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

That's an amazing promise stated to Joshua. Now turn back to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. And as you're turning there, you say, OK, yeah, that's a great word to Joshua. And these are great promises that Jesus is making to his disciples.

But can we really lay hold of them? Well, if you have faith, you can. If you have faith, you absolutely can. I mean, does God want his people to lack courage? Does the Lord want us to be afraid? You remember the verse we kept quoting a few months ago, 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7, that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Do Christians not have the promise that Jesus said, I will neither leave you nor forsake you? That we have Christ in us, the hope of glory? As Colossians 1, 27 tells us. It seems to me we can lay hold of all of these spiritual promises.

And what do these things do? These statements, these promises, they comfort us. They encourage us. And if you say, why, I don't really receive much comfort or encouragement from them. It's because you're not really believing it.

If you really believed it, you would be comforted. So we need faith. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 4, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation. That does require faith, doesn't it?

But remember, it's not all about us. The key to living a joyful life is Jesus first, others second, yourself third. So we're receiving the comfort, but it's not all about us. Look at verse 4 again. We may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

So when you're comforted, is that just for your benefit? And now good, I feel better. And now I can focus on myself some more. That's not the way it works. If God has blessed you in some way, he's blessed you so that you can be a blessing to someone else.

If he comforts you and you receive that consolation, take it and go try to comfort somebody else. There's plenty of people who need it. If God has given you a talent or an ability, use that in service to someone else.

Let's say God has blessed you with a lot of money. Well, he hasn't blessed me with a lot of money. Well, if he has, then take some of that and bless someone else. If God has given you a spiritual gift, let's say he's given you the gift of mercy.

Then pour out that mercy to someone who needs it. One commentator says this about Paul's statements to the Corinthians. Comfort from God is not an end in itself. Its purpose is that believers also might be comforters.

Having rebuked and convicted the Corinthians in his first letter, God used Paul to return to them with a strengthening message after he himself had received divine strengthening. So every Christian, every person you know really, but every believer has gone through something.

And every believer on some level at some point needs comforting. So we can all do so much for one another. No matter what we have gone through, no matter what you have gone through, when you go through it and come out the other side strengthened and renewed by God, you come out a little tougher, a little wiser, having a stronger faith.

And God does that. He puts us through these things to put us in a better position to be able to minister to someone else. You think of a child who, or if you were brought up like this, what would happen?

You think of a child who has no adversity in life. Everything goes perfect. They're given everything they want. They never have to work for anything. Nothing ever goes wrong. By the time they're 20 years old, they're going to be spoiled rotten.

What are they good for?

Something probably, but not much. They're not going to care about other people. They're going to care about themselves. So God puts us through these things for a purpose. You know, it's one thing to have knowledge in your head.

It's another thing to have wisdom. And you acquire wisdom oftentimes through experience. So why does God allow us to go through these things? Well, it's hard to know the exact answer, but we do know Romans 8, 28, that we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and those who are the called according to his purpose.

Whether you know it or not, the Lord is conforming you and shaping and molding you into the image of Christ. Now, why did the Lord allow the apostle Paul to suffer the things that he suffered?

To teach him.

To sanctify him. To grow him. To conform him into the image of Christ. Look at verse 5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. And I think this is something else that the modern church has really lost sight of.

You know, with all the preaching out there about prosperity and positivity and the pragmatism and the worldliness, sometimes believers and churches lose sight of something. And here's what we often lose sight of.

As followers of Christ, we are expected to walk just as Christ walked. We're conformed to his image. And remember, Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. For most of church history, right up until the modern era, most Christians understood that the path to blessing, the path to the kingdom of God, was a path of difficulty and even a path of suffering.

You say, well, I don't like that. Or that doesn't make sense. You know, I wonder, when the apostles were all hiding and Jesus was hanging on the cross, did that make sense to them?

They didn't, yeah.

They didn't know. They didn't understand the purpose of that. It took them a while to learn it. When Jesus said in Matthew 10, 39, he who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

Did that make sense? When Paul will say in chapter 12, for when I am weak, then I am strong. Does that make sense? Spiritually, it makes sense. See, the devil would have you to believe. And the world would tell you that happiness and joy and all of this comes through hedonism or materialism or some other sort of ism.

And while some of those things might bring temporary pleasure, they don't really make people happy. They don't bring any fulfillment or true joy into a person's life. So this is the lie of the devil. Remember in the garden, what did the devil say?

You will be like God's. It's a lie. The path to God's blessing, the path to heaven is often a path that is difficult. To expand on that, do you know what Paul said in Philippians chapter 3, verse 10? He says that I may know Christ, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.

You see, we all want the power.

Everyone wants the power, but we forget what comes next. What did Paul say? That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to death. Paul says that I may know that.

Jesus faced a lot of trials, a lot of tribulation. Here's the great part about it. What was it leading to? His glorification. What is the Christian life leading to? You may be going through a lot. You may be afraid.

What is it all leading to? You know what the skeptic says, the unbeliever says? You live, it's hard, and then you die. What's the Christian life leading to? It is leading to glory. Our glorification. Jesus was raised from the dead, given a glorified resurrection body.

We're going to have that same thing one day. So, no matter what trials you're going through, there's always better times ahead. That's the hope of glory within us. Now, if we are afflicted, and Paul may be referring to himself and Timothy, but he says, if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings with which we also suffer.

Or, if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. One of the things about the writings of the apostle Paul, if you read one of John's letters or even Peter, it's a little easier to understand.

Paul has a way with words. Sometimes you can read some of his statements, and you're like, I don't really know what he's trying to say. Well, try reading it in Greek. Probably even worse, okay? But the New Living Translation puts verse 6 this way.

Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation. For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer.

You know, you've heard of the phrase lately, we're all in this together. The new normal, that's my least favorite phrase. I don't want anything to do with the new normal. But we're all in this together.

You know, I'm not so sure that's the case. Because I don't know what the world is up to. I suspect the world is up to no good. But as believers, as saved believers and dwelt by the Holy Spirit, hey, we are all in this thing together.

And here is the benefit that Christ gives, one of the many, peace and comfort. And then once you get the peace and the comfort, then you can go and give that to someone else. This is how God works. God works through his people.

God works through his church. You have a mission. Paul was an apostle, an official representative. Has not God chosen us? Isn't this what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4, that believers are chosen from the foundation of the world?

You've been chosen. You have a mission. God will strengthen you, comfort you, so you can take that and go minister it to someone else. And then verse 7. And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornickChurch .com.

We'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.