WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.099 Good morning everyone, it's great to have you here. I'm glad that the kids were sitting 00:00:08.099 --> 00:00:12.080 there otherwise it would seem like you're in great fear of me all sitting towards the 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:17.400 back of the building. In a previous life I used to work for the National Parks and Wildlife 00:00:17.400 --> 00:00:24.339 Service and one of my jobs that I used to do was to build walking tracks and I always 00:00:24.339 --> 00:00:29.339 wanted to go the easy option and so what we, I managed to convince our boss to buy this 00:00:29.339 --> 00:00:34.140 little bulldozer which was quite powerful but small and I would build walking tracks by driving 00:00:34.140 --> 00:00:41.460 that through the bush and then effectively going back over it and putting a hard surface 00:00:41.460 --> 00:00:46.980 anywhere there was a bit of a dip in the track with gullies or creeks we would build bridges 00:00:46.980 --> 00:00:52.159 across it. Effectively by the end of it you could walk along it in an evening gown with 00:00:52.159 --> 00:00:57.519 high heels shoes on. It was almost a five lane highway, it was fantastic in the middle of 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:02.080 nowhere. It used to cost a bit of money but it was a good product at the end and that 00:01:02.080 --> 00:01:07.359 was my idea of hiking. My idea was you would make it as easy as possible for everyone who 00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:12.640 would walk along that road and so a number of years later, in fact only just a few years 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:17.480 ago, I was in Canada and a friend of mine suggested we go on a hike and I thought, hike? That sounds 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:23.280 fantastic. Long stroll through the bush? Sounds like a great idea. Anyway, on the way to Glacier 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:27.239 National Park I picked up a newspaper which talked about Glacier National Park and we 00:01:27.239 --> 00:01:30.219 would flick through this paper and sort of work out where we were going to go until we 00:01:30.219 --> 00:01:35.439 got to the middle and we opened up this double page spread in the middle of the newspaper which 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:41.980 said warnings about walking in Glacier National Park. It mentioned things like black bears. 00:01:43.260 --> 00:01:50.560 That was a surprise to me that black bears apparently are generally fairly timid but if they attack 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:55.680 you are meant to stand up against them and fight them back. That seemed logical. I was okay with 00:01:55.680 --> 00:02:00.920 that. Then it mentioned grizzly bears. Apparently grizzly bears if they attack you don't fight them 00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:05.140 back. You actually lay down as if you're dead and you let them attack you for two minutes. 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:11.360 So and then apparently if it goes longer than two minutes then it's serious. So if it's chewing 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:17.640 off your arm, you got your arm, you got two minutes here dude and then we get serious. So that didn't 00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:23.479 seem terribly logical to me. I figured that I would attack if a grizzly was going to attack me. I couldn't 00:02:23.479 --> 00:02:28.419 imagine just calmly laying down and allowing it to have its way for two minutes. And then there were 00:02:28.419 --> 00:02:34.560 cougars. Now cougars, they would stalk you and then they would jump on you from behind. So you can 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:39.839 imagine a 10 kilometer hike consistently looking over your back waiting for a cougar and up in the trees 00:02:39.839 --> 00:02:44.259 and on the rocks and just waiting for a cougar. And apparently then there were wolverines. Now wolverines 00:02:44.259 --> 00:02:49.519 were quite shy but if they got nasty they were nastiest of all of them. They were even worse 00:02:49.519 --> 00:02:55.759 than the grizzly bears. And so I'm thinking this is not a great idea to go for this hike. 00:02:56.259 --> 00:03:00.620 Friend convinced that it was a great idea so we got there and he said look what's the chances 00:03:00.620 --> 00:03:06.199 of this happening? What's the chances? Of course then I went and googled grizzly bear attacks in 00:03:06.199 --> 00:03:11.620 Glacier National Park and got a long list of the history of grizzly attacks and I figured it's been a while 00:03:11.620 --> 00:03:19.599 since the last one so maybe it might be time now. But apparently the best thing to do was make lots 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:29.560 of noise and carry a big stick which was really basically useless and or to buy some bear spray. 00:03:30.840 --> 00:03:36.540 Yeah yeah that's what I thought, bear spray. I thought go figure. And so we went around looking 00:03:36.539 --> 00:03:40.319 for bear spray. We couldn't find any bear spray. All the shops were closed. It was a public holiday. 00:03:41.299 --> 00:03:45.479 And so the best thing we came up with was my friend's wife had a can of hair spray. 00:03:46.219 --> 00:03:52.019 And we figured that would do. At the very least after it finishes a tack on me it's going to look good. 00:03:54.479 --> 00:03:59.699 So we figured we'd turn it into a flame thrower. We had some matches and we flicked these matches 00:03:59.699 --> 00:04:05.099 and tried to get this hair spray to light up. We discovered it was non-flammable hair spray. 00:04:05.959 --> 00:04:11.959 And so at the end of four attempts I said to my friend, oh we're dead. We're dead. And he said, 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:18.539 no no it's fine. It's okay. We got to the beginning of the trail and there was this big sign. 00:04:19.060 --> 00:04:23.579 Grizzly bear with two cubs seen in vicinity yesterday. Caution! 00:04:23.579 --> 00:04:31.919 We have time to turn back. We do not have to do this walk. We did and we never saw a grizzly 00:04:31.919 --> 00:04:35.539 which sort of was sort of bittersweet kind of thing. I would have liked to have seen one 00:04:35.539 --> 00:04:42.319 a long long way away. But in the end it was a great walk. But at the time I remember thinking 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:47.560 that it was very different than my experience of strolls in the Australian countryside. 00:04:48.459 --> 00:04:52.519 And I was reminded as we're walking along the old saying, when the going gets tough 00:04:52.519 --> 00:05:01.000 the tough get going. We know that when things get tough a person's true character come to the 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:07.099 fore it's then that you see what they are made of. This morning we are beginning on a couple of 00:05:07.099 --> 00:05:14.500 month journey through the book of 2 Corinthians. It's one of those books which effectively you see 00:05:14.500 --> 00:05:20.339 the Apostle Paul's character coming to the fore as things are fairly tough. And we need to, 00:05:20.339 --> 00:05:24.539 it's one of those books where you need to jump to the end to sort of check out the end of the story 00:05:24.539 --> 00:05:29.799 to give you perspective on the early bits. It's like reading a good thriller or one of those 00:05:29.799 --> 00:05:34.060 thriller movies you know where the last little bits sort of, you know, sort of hit the, 00:05:34.599 --> 00:05:37.899 makes everything make sense. You know up until that point you're sort of a bit confused. 00:05:38.699 --> 00:05:43.159 I'm one of those people who ruin movies for people. When I get it I make sure everyone knows it. 00:05:43.559 --> 00:05:47.399 We were watching The Sixth Sense one day with a bunch of people and I went about a third of the way 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:51.919 through them. Oh get this, he's dead. And everyone just ruined it for everyone at that point. 00:05:52.379 --> 00:05:55.099 So we're going to do that. We're going to jump to the end of the book and we're going to have a look. 00:05:55.699 --> 00:06:00.239 We're going to discover here that the Apostle Paul, the founder of this church of Corinth, 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:05.659 has been sidelined by the church of Corinth by these new, what he calls, super apostles which have 00:06:05.659 --> 00:06:10.039 come in. So in chapter 11 at the end of the book he says, but I do not think that I'm at least inferior 00:06:10.039 --> 00:06:15.279 to those super apostles. I may not be well trained but I do have knowledge. We have made this 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:20.979 perfectly clear in every way. So what is happening here in this book is that Paul's authority and 00:06:20.979 --> 00:06:26.659 leadership are being challenged by these bunch of guys that he calls the super apostles. That's who 00:06:26.659 --> 00:06:32.799 he calls them. I think he uses the term quite sarcastically. The main issue of Hurt is that 00:06:32.799 --> 00:06:40.159 this church has been so ready to believe the criticisms against him. Things like he's a moral 00:06:40.159 --> 00:06:44.979 coward or that he lacks sort of inner strength and he's actually an imposter and some people actually 00:06:44.980 --> 00:06:50.660 saying that he's a fool and even that he's mad. And so what is happening is that this Apostle Paul 00:06:50.660 --> 00:06:56.620 here is forced to defend his teaching and his ministry and his character. So we need to have 00:06:56.620 --> 00:07:01.080 that in the back of the mind as we look at these early chapters that what is happening here is that 00:07:01.080 --> 00:07:06.860 this Apostle is on a fight for his life against these false apostles and not just his life, the life 00:07:06.860 --> 00:07:11.840 of this church of Corinth. And so with that in mind let's have a look at the beginning. So grab, 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:15.279 there's some Bibles in your pews in the front of your pews there or if you brought your own, 00:07:15.619 --> 00:07:26.239 the ones in the pews is page 1109. Actually 1119 would be better, 1119. Grab a Bible and flick open. 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:32.979 So knowing the end of the story it makes perfect sense why he would begin this letter with Paul, 00:07:34.099 --> 00:07:37.399 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. 00:07:37.399 --> 00:07:46.739 The key words there is when he says by the will of God. You could miss those words so easily if you 00:07:46.739 --> 00:07:53.599 didn't understand what was happening in this letter. The very first words as he sets out, 00:07:53.859 --> 00:07:58.819 he wants to make it clear, he wants to make it straight, I'm an apostle appointed by the will of 00:07:58.819 --> 00:08:05.199 God. I didn't choose one to be one, God chose me to be one. And what he's doing there is referring 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:11.000 to his Damascus Road experience. You see once upon a time Paul was actually a persecutor of the church. 00:08:11.139 --> 00:08:17.199 He was a religious, religious, religious guy. Super religious, more religious than any of us here. 00:08:17.779 --> 00:08:22.279 He would be this kind of guy that would be at church each week, he'd own his very own prayer book, 00:08:22.719 --> 00:08:27.579 he would be the kind of guy who'd, you know, just everything was rules and regulations, 00:08:27.919 --> 00:08:32.139 he would pray, he would give plenty of money and make sure that he gave the right amount of money, 00:08:32.139 --> 00:08:37.600 all that sort of stuff. And he was on his way to persecute Jesus, even though he was so religious, 00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:45.399 he hated Jesus and those who followed Jesus. He was a rebel. And so he was on his way to persecute 00:08:45.399 --> 00:08:50.240 Jesus and to persecute the followers of Jesus. And Jesus appeared to him and said, man, what are you 00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:57.039 doing? That's my paraphrase. Well, what are you doing? What are you persecuting me for? And Paul's 00:08:57.039 --> 00:09:02.860 life turned inside out and upside down. He went from someone who hated Jesus to loving Jesus. 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:10.159 And at that moment, Jesus set him on course to be his apostle, to be his sent one to the world. 00:09:12.039 --> 00:09:16.919 One of the really interesting things is that even though he could point to this Damascus Road 00:09:16.919 --> 00:09:23.579 experience as the basis of his apostleship, the actual hardcore evidence that he was an apostle 00:09:23.580 --> 00:09:32.080 was actually in his lifestyle. While the source of his authority was Jesus, the evidence that he had 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:37.960 authority as an apostle was not from some spectacular deeds. It wasn't that he was particularly gifted and 00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:42.379 that he did amazing miracles. It wasn't any of that sort of stuff. It wasn't those things, 00:09:42.600 --> 00:09:49.500 interestingly enough. It wasn't some spectacular power that he had. It was actually a pattern of 00:09:49.500 --> 00:09:55.179 hardship, of weakness, of sacrifice, and self-giving. Those are the things that he consistently looks 00:09:55.179 --> 00:10:07.059 back to as evidence of his apostleship. And it was his lifestyle that the super apostles ridiculed more 00:10:07.059 --> 00:10:13.000 than anything else. And so being under siege and in great distress for his church, he gets to the 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:17.980 point in verse three, praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion, 00:10:17.980 --> 00:10:23.700 the God of all comfort. In those short paragraphs there and a few verses afterwards, the word comfort 00:10:23.700 --> 00:10:29.600 is used ten times. The word trouble, suffering, is used three times. Directly or indirectly, suffering is 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:36.759 referred to 17 times. And the suffering that he has in mind here is particularly the pressure that he's under, 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:42.220 the difficulties under because of his ministry. The burden that Paul carried because of his challenge 00:10:42.220 --> 00:10:49.540 to idolatry in Ephesus, you guys, you're worshipping created items rather than the created God. He 00:10:49.540 --> 00:10:55.259 challenged them and they really hated him for it. And he was under so much pressure that he even expected 00:10:55.259 --> 00:11:01.680 to die from the pressure. His concern that people know Jesus and that his passion for the church, 00:11:01.779 --> 00:11:07.779 they continue to honour Jesus. His faithfulness to Jesus himself were the cause of his suffering and 00:11:07.779 --> 00:11:15.339 pressure. And so what Paul experiences from God the Father is that he is the God of compassion, 00:11:16.039 --> 00:11:23.519 the God of comfort, which means he is a compassionate God and he's also the source of all compassion and 00:11:23.519 --> 00:11:29.319 comfort. God is the source of mercy and compassion and they come to us via the Lord Jesus. 00:11:29.320 --> 00:11:37.940 Paul says in the following verses that with all that he's been through, with all that he knows of God, 00:11:38.180 --> 00:11:45.300 he knows this thing to be true, that he's a merciful and he's a compassionate God in times of trouble. 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:52.080 But it's often quite difficult for us to see that though. I mean, if you're in the midst of it, 00:11:52.520 --> 00:11:57.280 it's very difficult for to see that. If you're in the midst of trouble and hardship and distress, 00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:05.860 frankly, in those times we feel so powerless. I remember a number of years ago, a friend of 00:12:05.860 --> 00:12:14.319 mine had a child and the child was born with a hole in its heart and they had to have a surgery to 00:12:14.319 --> 00:12:20.539 fix the hole in the heart. The baby was about six months old and they were told it was a routine 00:12:20.539 --> 00:12:26.379 operation. I was down there with the family at the hospital when the doctors came out and said, 00:12:26.379 --> 00:12:34.480 we've got some bad news, it didn't go as well as we thought. And to sit in a room with the doctors, 00:12:34.620 --> 00:12:40.919 a team of specialists with this family and for them to say, your child has got a 50, 50% chance of 00:12:40.919 --> 00:12:48.759 living. When I hear someone say that, I hear a flick of a coin. I hear that. We don't know and it can go 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:59.259 either way. To feel so, at that moment, it was so powerless. And I remember, I've got no words 00:12:59.259 --> 00:13:05.659 of comfort for you. I can say a few things. I can say that I know that God is the great God of 00:13:05.659 --> 00:13:10.299 compassion and mercy. And I prayed with them, the God who's got everything in his sovereign hand and 00:13:10.299 --> 00:13:16.220 in his control. I prayed with them. But I remember hopping in my car and driving out of this car park. 00:13:16.220 --> 00:13:23.360 And as soon as I exited the car park, just bursting into tears with the weight of the burden that this 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:33.399 family must be feeling right now at this time. And needing God to intervene because I am completely 00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:38.820 powerless. They are completely powerless. And even the doctors acknowledge that they were powerless. 00:13:38.820 --> 00:13:46.060 And so we have to turn to the all-powerful God. And it's great when you come to a passage like this 00:13:46.060 --> 00:13:50.080 and realize that times like that, that suffering is never purposeless. Verse 4 says, 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:55.040 who comforts us in our troubles, that is God, comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort 00:13:55.040 --> 00:13:59.140 those in any trouble with the comfort that we ourselves have received from God. 00:14:00.180 --> 00:14:05.960 Comfort, it says here, God comforts us in our trials so that, here it is, 00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:10.879 so that we can comfort those in any troubles with the comfort that we ourselves receive from God. 00:14:11.740 --> 00:14:16.860 What the Bible says here is saying that it is only in suffering and going through that process 00:14:16.860 --> 00:14:21.680 and being comforted that we ourselves can comfort others. We don't often think of it in those sort 00:14:21.680 --> 00:14:27.940 of terms though. We often think, I'm going through some stuff here, God. You sort it out for me. 00:14:28.460 --> 00:14:34.940 You comfort me. Yeah, I will if you pass it on to others. Suffering isn't purposeless. 00:14:34.940 --> 00:14:39.940 The comfort that we receive as we persevere through the suffering, we are able to pass it 00:14:39.940 --> 00:14:45.180 on to others. We are able to comfort others and only comfort others if we ourselves have received 00:14:45.180 --> 00:14:50.760 comfort from God ourselves. Have a look at verse 5. A great verse, one of the keys, I think, 00:14:50.820 --> 00:14:52.340 to Paul's defense of his apostleship. 00:14:52.940 --> 00:15:01.660 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort 00:15:01.659 --> 00:15:08.799 comfort overflows. The comfort that we receive from God through Jesus is never for just for me 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:15.379 and for us to use for ourselves. And the difficulty in our society though is we often shrink back 00:15:15.379 --> 00:15:20.620 in those moments. We shrink back from relationships when we are going through difficulties. 00:15:21.199 --> 00:15:24.719 When we're feeling particularly vulnerable, we move away from people. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:29.220 And yet what it says here is that when we go through the difficulties, we go through the 00:15:29.220 --> 00:15:33.580 struggles and the sufferings and God, comfort overflows into us. We actually should be drawing 00:15:33.580 --> 00:15:36.860 closer to other people and expressing comfort to others. 00:15:38.460 --> 00:15:43.440 It's one of the most, I think, the most difficult things about ministry, pastoral ministry. 00:15:43.740 --> 00:15:49.360 It's not the workload. It's actually the fact that I've got to get up week after week after week 00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:57.060 and day after day after day, a moment after moment after moment, and do ministry to broken people 00:15:57.060 --> 00:16:04.159 with a broken heart myself. As God comforts me and I pour that comfort out to other people. 00:16:05.659 --> 00:16:11.139 The comfort that we receive from God through Jesus is never just for me. And therefore it means 00:16:11.139 --> 00:16:15.940 that for us as a community, we need to, as a church community, to listen to each other and care for 00:16:15.940 --> 00:16:20.300 each other and know each other and pour our lives into each other and comfort each other 00:16:20.300 --> 00:16:26.540 and pray for each other. But the main kind of suffering that is referred to here is the result 00:16:26.540 --> 00:16:35.740 of those who follow Jesus. That is, suffering comes because you follow Jesus. You see, I think most 00:16:35.740 --> 00:16:41.860 people have this view. The most view of Jesus in this society is that Jesus is either a good bloke 00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:50.539 or he's a lunatic. One of those sort of views. Let me say that neither of those views is actually 00:16:50.539 --> 00:16:55.159 Christian. Jesus wasn't a good bloke. I don't know why we get the idea that Jesus was a good bloke. 00:16:55.220 --> 00:17:00.180 You don't crucify a good bloke. You know, first century Palestine, Jesus is a good bloke. Let's kill him. 00:17:01.700 --> 00:17:06.460 They killed him because they hated him. They hated what he stood for. They hate the fact that he challenged 00:17:06.460 --> 00:17:12.140 him. They hate the fact that he went in amongst their religious meetings with a whip and pushed 00:17:12.140 --> 00:17:18.100 them out. That he turned over their tables. They hated him for that. They hated the fact that he 00:17:18.100 --> 00:17:24.299 challenged the conventions of religious people. They hated him for that. They hated the fact that 00:17:24.299 --> 00:17:29.740 he walked along and said, guys, if you, that I am God and I'm here in your midst and I'm going to come 00:17:29.740 --> 00:17:34.799 and deal with your sin, that he exposed the sin of people. They hated him for that. He was not a good bloke. 00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:44.460 And the fact is, if you want to align yourself to this Jesus, this true Jesus, this true message 00:17:44.460 --> 00:17:49.579 about Jesus, Paul himself has done, then we too will suffer as a result of it. Because the fact that 00:17:49.579 --> 00:17:57.519 Jesus is God is not a message which is well received in our culture. When Jesus says, I am the way, 00:17:57.619 --> 00:18:04.200 the truth and the life, and no one comes to God except through me, that's an offensive message. 00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:11.619 And you either have to put Jesus in the category of being offensive, being a lunatic, or being who 00:18:11.619 --> 00:18:21.000 he says he is. And if you say he is who he is, then you'll suffer. Without exception, just as Jesus 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:27.720 said, to follow him is not into a nice comfortable existence, but to pick up your cross as Jesus did 00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:35.759 and walk to the place of execution. Ministry as the Bible describes it, the Christian life as the 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:43.100 Bible describes it, is one of pain and suffering and sacrifice. But the comfort flows over to us 00:18:43.100 --> 00:18:48.059 without exception as well. I think the super apostles are saying basically that suffering and true 00:18:48.059 --> 00:18:53.220 Christianity don't mix. Paul is saying they do. Because why? Because I'm following in the footsteps of 00:18:53.220 --> 00:18:57.819 Jesus. In verse 6 and following, Paul answers the question, the purpose of suffering again. 00:18:58.180 --> 00:19:02.480 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comfort, it is for your comfort, 00:19:02.579 --> 00:19:07.940 which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:13.100 because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. 00:19:13.779 --> 00:19:18.120 Paul is saying here that even when suffering comes and we don't understand it, and there seems no logic 00:19:18.119 --> 00:19:25.079 to it, it's still not purposeless. God will bring an evil thing and turn it around for good. And the 00:19:25.079 --> 00:19:31.199 good that he wants out of it, according to another part of the Bible, in Romans chapter 8, is that we 00:19:31.199 --> 00:19:37.379 might become more and more like Jesus, more and more dependent upon God. He says here two reasons. 00:19:37.659 --> 00:19:44.819 It is both for our comfort and for our salvation. God is keen for every person to know Jesus and to 00:19:44.819 --> 00:19:52.000 continue to follow Jesus right to the end, till we enter his glory forever. And that the process that 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:59.439 he uses to effectively put on our faith muscles and to train us for that ultimate goal is suffering, 00:19:59.879 --> 00:20:06.720 difficulties. When we go through suffering, it produces in us patient endurance. We keep going 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:11.139 because we know that God is the God of all comfort. He's the God of all salvation. 00:20:11.140 --> 00:20:17.320 And being with God in perfect harmony is the goal. 00:20:20.900 --> 00:20:26.580 And so in verse 8, Paul wants to remind us sometimes how hard it can get and certainly 00:20:26.580 --> 00:20:30.320 how hard it got for him. We don't want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardship we 00:20:30.320 --> 00:20:34.420 suffered in the province of Asia. You know, in other words, what he's saying is I don't want you to 00:20:34.420 --> 00:20:38.080 downplay my hardships that I went through. I don't want you to think it was just a matter of 00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:42.079 lost the keys to the donkey or, you know, I've stubbed my toe in the shower or something like that. 00:20:42.379 --> 00:20:47.759 You know, we were, he says, we were under great, great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure 00:20:47.759 --> 00:20:53.079 so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts, we felt the sentence of death. 00:20:53.339 --> 00:20:58.659 The word ability there means power. He's saying here that he was beyond his own power. To paraphrase it, 00:20:58.879 --> 00:21:03.740 what he's saying is that we were indescribably beyond our limits, 00:21:03.740 --> 00:21:12.480 our limits of power, and we were brought down to the very depths in despair. In other words, 00:21:12.519 --> 00:21:18.180 what he's saying is our resources had run out and I needed to draw upon God's power. It was not, 00:21:18.259 --> 00:21:24.500 it was beyond my power to endure, but it wasn't beyond God's power to endure. And it got so black 00:21:24.500 --> 00:21:32.460 for him that he even despaired of life. He despaired of life. He despaired that he was alive. He, 00:21:32.519 --> 00:21:38.180 he wakes up in the morning and wished that he hadn't. And maybe some of you have experienced that. 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:42.660 But he remembered that God is the God of all comfort. 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:50.460 But he makes a significant point here. God's comfort is always partial in this life. 00:21:50.460 --> 00:21:58.400 We may recover from an illness. We may, the suffering that we go through, 00:21:58.539 --> 00:22:06.880 may be temporary and may pass on. But there is no way that we will ever sidestep our last and 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:13.819 greatest enemy, death. We are intimately entangled in the sorrow and suffering of a world. 00:22:13.819 --> 00:22:18.659 And the only way of hope is life after death with Jesus. 00:22:20.839 --> 00:22:25.779 Which is why we should always rely upon God. Verse nine, but this happened that we might not rely 00:22:25.779 --> 00:22:31.119 upon ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril and he 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:36.700 will deliver us. On him, we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us as you help us by your 00:22:36.700 --> 00:22:42.439 prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answers to the 00:22:42.440 --> 00:22:49.960 prayers of many. Through this experience of utter helplessness, Paul came to this new appreciation 00:22:49.960 --> 00:22:56.120 of the power of God who gives life to spiritually dead people. And if we're going to make it in the 00:22:56.120 --> 00:23:03.840 Christian life, then we need to rely upon God. If things are good, then we don't need God. Only in 00:23:03.840 --> 00:23:08.900 suffering will we ever develop the character of Christ. You see, I think Paul is having a bit of a dig at 00:23:08.900 --> 00:23:15.300 these super apostles and this church of Corinth. You see, I reckon they're like me. You know, I prefer, 00:23:15.780 --> 00:23:21.040 be honest about this, I prefer the no suffering option in life. That's my general preference. And I 00:23:21.040 --> 00:23:29.840 imagine that you're the same. But we cannot know that he is the God of comfort unless we need comforting. 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:37.199 We cannot know it unless we need it. And so maybe it's a hard prayer to pray, but maybe it might be 00:23:37.199 --> 00:23:42.959 working back. I want to be there in the end. I want to endure. And so God, train me to endure. 00:23:44.439 --> 00:23:49.139 Train me to endure. May I know that you're the God of all comfort. It's a tough prayer to pray. 00:23:49.140 --> 00:23:56.680 It's a tough prayer to pray because frankly, in our country, we are relief seeking missiles, 00:23:56.940 --> 00:24:02.220 is what I'd call it. When difficulties come, we just change. Difficulties at work, I get a new one. 00:24:03.660 --> 00:24:08.560 Difficulties in marriage, I get a new one of those as well. Whatever it might be, we, in our own 00:24:08.560 --> 00:24:13.900 particular ways, for some of us, it's, you know, we hit a bar of chocolate with a certain amount of 00:24:13.900 --> 00:24:17.980 vengeance. If it's a really difficult time, we hit the bar of chocolate directly from the fridge, 00:24:17.980 --> 00:24:24.259 scooping out the ice cream for the freezer at the same time. Or it's the TV. We hit the TV. We just 00:24:24.259 --> 00:24:29.579 want to blow our mind with just random mindlessness. So we just keep chicken flicking through the 00:24:29.579 --> 00:24:37.920 channels. For some of us, we try and find, blow our mind away from the struggles and the difficulties 00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:43.620 and sufferings of life that drive us to the edge by jumping out of aeroplanes or over cliffs and 00:24:43.619 --> 00:24:49.079 hopefully somehow in finding the meaning of life and purpose by having an almost near-death experience. 00:24:50.199 --> 00:24:54.159 Or it might be through incessant travel, trying to find somewhere else in the world where I feel 00:24:54.159 --> 00:25:02.459 like I can fit in. Or it just might be just down at Chatswood Chase or Westfield, shop to shop, 00:25:03.339 --> 00:25:06.659 buying up things that will hopefully fulfill that hole in my heart. 00:25:06.660 --> 00:25:13.940 You see, these verses challenge our view of what happiness is. That happiness is actually not the 00:25:13.940 --> 00:25:23.120 ultimate goal in life. The ultimate goal in life is to be with God and to know that He is the God of 00:25:23.120 --> 00:25:28.600 all comfort and compassion. The ultimate goal in life is to know Jesus, the source of comfort, 00:25:28.800 --> 00:25:34.800 compassion and salvation. That my happiness and my comfort is not the ultimate goal, but to be more 00:25:34.799 --> 00:25:41.940 like Jesus. And so friends, some of us here have learned things that other of us of here are yet 00:25:41.940 --> 00:25:48.119 to learn. And some of us here are going through sufferings now that other of us are here have 00:25:48.119 --> 00:25:55.180 already been through. And so any comfort that we've received from Christ, any lessons that we've learned, 00:25:55.339 --> 00:26:02.619 any encouragement that we've obtained and comfort we've experienced is meant to be shared together. 00:26:02.619 --> 00:26:09.819 It's meant to be shared. We are to be a church that upholds each other in prayer, 00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:16.299 that rejoices with those who rejoice and to mourn with those who mourn. The reality of our own 00:26:16.299 --> 00:26:22.500 powerlessness is often the precondition in discovering God's power and our own suffering, 00:26:22.639 --> 00:26:25.539 the precondition of discovering God's comfort and compassion. 00:26:25.539 --> 00:26:33.079 The difficult times should not drive us away from God or his people, but bring us closer to him. 00:26:34.539 --> 00:26:42.700 Paul's helplessness in the face of strong forces led him to experience of God's power to deliver him. 00:26:43.859 --> 00:26:49.559 And so friends, we're in it together. So let's pray for each other, help each other follow the Lord 00:26:49.559 --> 00:26:57.700 Jesus, the God of comfort, the God of compassion, the God of salvation. It may be a rough and difficult track, 00:26:58.740 --> 00:27:03.440 but when you've got God on your side, you've got everything. Amen.