Finding Comfort in the Crucible: A Journey through 2 Corinthians

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now, come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

If you have your Bibles or your phones or whatever you like

to find your scriptures on, let's go ahead and open those up

to Second Corinthians, chapter seven.

And as a former teacher, and in many ways still a teacher, I know

the importance of review.

Sometimes when you go through things for a long time, there is

a tendency in our human nature to forget what we've already taught

on, what we've already looked at, what we've already learned.

And then sometimes when we're trying to build upon those truths,

we have a weak foundation, and we can kind of not be as strong in

our application of those things that we're talking about.

So what I would like to do here this morning, before we begin

Second Corinthians, Chapter 7, I would like to go back in Second

2 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

Corinthians and highlight a few of the main thoughts that we

put our trust in so.

So that we can then build upon that when we get to this chapter

in Second Corinthians.

And so so far, what we have learned is that Paul is explaining

how he has been a faithful minister in the midst of difficulty.

Second Corinthians is written from the heart of a trial.

It's written through the heart of actually multiple trials.

The title of the sermon this morning is the Constant Comfort in

the Crucible.

We're going to talk about what a crucible is here in a few moments.

But the theme that we see is that there is constant comfort in

the crucible.

And so what we can see here in this case is that Paul is explaining

how a minister can be faithful in the midst of difficulty.

And so you have to remember what Paul has been dealing with so

far.

What has he been dealing with when it comes to ministering to the

church at Corinth?

Well, they've questioned a lot about Paul.

They've questioned his motives, they've questioned his actions,

they've questioned his decisions.

And when it comes to whether or not he would visit them or not

visit them.

And so essentially what Paul is doing is he's defending himself,

but really he's defending the truth.

Because what these people have done essentially in the church at

Corinth, they said this Paul we don't trust you, so we don't trust

your message.

And so Paul's heart is not, well, you need to like me.

You need to like my message.

You need to respect me.

Paul's heart is all about the Gospel.

And so Paul's like, well, I'm going to do everything that I can

so that you can see the truth of who Jesus is, so that you can

see the truth of what it means to know him and to rest in his love.

And so what Paul is essentially doing here in this passage

is he's saying this, open your hearts to me, but more importantly,

open your hearts to the truth of the gospel.

And so what he says is this.

You have as a Christian, a new life.

Go back with me to Second Corinthians, chapter five.

You should be in Second Corinthians seven.

So you can just track back to Second Corinthians, chapter five.

What does he tell us?

He says that you now are an Ambassador, verse 20.

You are an ambassador for Christ.

He says, if you are a believer in Jesus, if you have faith in him,

if you are a child of the king, you are an ambassador.

What's an ambassador?

An ambassador is someone who represents their king, their leader,

to another place, a foreign place.

And so essentially what Paul is saying is that you are an ambassador.

You are a representative of God in a foreign land.

Now, what's that foreign land?

This earth.

The Bible says that we should not love the world, neither the things

in this world.

Right?

We even saw that in chapter six of Second Corinthians.

He says, don't be unequally yoked with the world.

He says, don't love this world.

Love your Savior.

Love the one who sent you.

So he says, you're an ambassador now.

And you now have a goal, a purpose, a mission, and that is to

bring people to the reconciliation of God.

Teach them what it means to be reconciled to God.

Teach them what it means to know him and be a new creation.

And so if you just go a few more verses up, verse 17, he says,

therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new

creation.

Old things are passed away.

Behold, all things are become new.

That is your credentials to the job description.

You have a job as an ambassador, and you would say, man,

I don't know if God wants me representing him.

I don't think I'm qualified.

Well, if you are in Christ, you are qualified.

That's your qualifications to the job.

That's your job description.

You are now a new creation.

Old things are passed away.

You've changed.

That's not what you're living for anymore.

You're living for him.

And he even says here in Second Corinthians, chapter five,

we live by faith and not by sight.

And so he says, to be a faithful minister, to be a faithful

ambassador, you have to live in Christ.

You have to believe in who he is and what he can do for you so

that you are a new creation.

And so, Second Corinthians, chapter five, new creation.

You're an ambassador now.

Now, what's an ambassador's job?

Well, we already talked about the big picture, like, represent

my king.

But what specific actions do I need to take to be an ambassador?

Well, he says you have two jobs.

You need to be the one who brings the message.

So you have a message of reconciliation, you have the message

of the gospel, and therefore, you are ministering that gospel.

So you have a message that you are to minister.

What does minister mean?

It means to serve.

It means to give.

It means to present.

And so you all are ambassadors.

If you're a Christian this morning, if you're a believer in

Jesus Christ, you are all ambassadors.

Which means you're all ministers, you say?

Well, ministers.

I thought you're the only minister here today.

You and Pastor John and Pastor Carlos.

No, I mean, we are vocationally in the pastoral ministry,

Pastor, but all of you are ministers.

All of you are called to serve.

And what are you called to serve?

You're called to serve people with the message of reconciliation,

the message of the gospel.

So you could have a side note to this.

We're all messengers of the gospel.

Okay, so messengers of the gospel, that's all of us.

So you guys are all ministers as the gospel ministry calls you

to be.

So then what happens is this.

Second Corinthians, chapter 4.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Paul says, this is what's going to happen when you are in that

ministry.

Lest we think that everything's going to run smoothly,

lest we think that, hey, once I am a new creation, then everyone's

going to like me and that everyone's gonna agree with me.

Paul says in Second Corinthians, chapter four, verse

eight, he goes, you wanna know what it's like?

You wanna know what it's like to be faithful to the Lord?

He says, well, we're troubled on every side.

We're perplexed, we're persecuted, we're cast down, always

bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.

You would say, well, that doesn't sound very attractive.

I don't know if I want that life Well, I left out some words

there.

He did say that they were troubled on every side.

But what did he say?

Yet not distressed.

He said, we are perplexed.

We are confused, but not in despair.

We're persecuted, yes, but not forsaken.

God has not forgotten about us in the midst of what we are doing

for him.

And then he says this.

Yes, we are cast down, but we are not destroyed.

And so what Paul says is, look, the life of a minister, a life

of a faithful minister, is not going to be easy.

But you can have the constant comfort in the test, in the crucible.

You say, well, how can that be?

Because you're really speaking about a paradox, right?

You're speaking about this thing about God wants you to have

comfort, but then he's going to bring you all these struggles.

Like if I went to you and I say, hey, you know, I just want to

give you some comfort, and I started just bringing difficulties

to you.

Or, I need you to do this, and I need you to do this, and I need

you to go out here and do that.

You would say, wait, wait, wait, wait.

I thought you were wanting to bring me comfort.

And all you're bringing me is hardship.

All you're allowing in my life is hardship.

Well, I want you to go a little bit deeper in this study.

Go back to the very beginning in Second Corinthians, chapter one.

It's interesting that this is where Paul starts.

Now, I've kind of worked a review of the opposite.

Usually you start at the beginning and work your way to where

you are.

I've worked from where we are back to the beginning.

And what do we see here at the very beginning?

Paul says something very, very interesting, something that's vital

for a minister of the Gospel.

He says this in verse number three, the third verse after his

greeting.

After Paul's greeting, he says, okay, now I'm gonna get down

to business.

This is the first thing I'm gonna bring to you.

He says, blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of mercies.

And then here's this phrase.

And I want you to think about this phrase, because this has really

helped me understand the character of God.

He says, the God of all comfort, the God of all comfort.

Not just comforting us in the good times, not just comforting us

when we're where we need to be.

He comforts us in all the areas of our life, and then he gives

a purpose to that comfort.

He says, God's comforting you.

And how he comforts you is through a lot of different things.

But ultimately it's through knowing what he has done for you

and knowing what our hope is at the end.

Knowing that ultimately we have a relationship with him.

And then he says, you get that comfort given to you.

And then verse four, who comforted us in all our tribulation,

all of our trials, all of our tests.

Folks, I think it's important to realize that God has not forgotten

about us.

Even if we're tempted to think that, hey, in this trial, he has

forgotten about me.

No, we.

We have to go back to the truth of the Word.

Not our feelings, not our experiences, but the truth of the

Word.

And he says, in all our tribulation, why?

So that we can feel good about ourselves.

No, it's not what he says.

This is different than what we would expect.

We would expect.

The comfort comes so that we can feel good.

He says, yes, there is comfort, but why is there comfort?

So that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble.

It's the selfless love agape that he wants us to show.

You get comfort so that you show comfort.

We receive the comfort of God so that we can comfort others.

Why so it says there, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are

comforted of God.

The only way that you can love a Christian, the only way that you

can love the unsaved, the only way that you can love your family,

the only way that.

That you can be the minister that you're called to be is to rest

in the comfort of God, but then to turn around and to display

that comfort to others, to give them the truth of God, to give

them the peace of God, to give them the gospel message of transition

from darkness to light, that transformation that we can all have.

And that is the comfort of God seen as a minister of the Gospel.

And so what we go back to, we go back to second Corinthians, chapter

seven, and we're going to see Paul basically picking up in that

thought.

Paul has this long parenthetical thought from chapter

two to chapter seven, and now he's kind of picking that thought

back up.

You guys are against me.

You need to open your hearts to the message of the gospel.

And so he's trying to show them what it means to rest in the

love of Christ.

And we're in verse two.

We looked at verse one last week.

Verse one was that new walk, sanctification.

Some of you remember that sanctification, that new, that new

life means that there is a new path.

And then I'm going to grow in that path.

But then he says, Verse 2, Receive us, receive our message.

Love us.

And he's talking about him and those that are around him, preaching

the message.

And then he gives the reasons why.

He says, this is what it means to be a faithful minister.

Says, we have wronged no man.

We have corrupted no man.

We have defrauded no man.

So what is he talking about here?

He's saying this.

To be a faithful minister of the gospel and to display the comfort

of God to other people, we must live with lives of integrity,

love and commitment.

He says, hey, we've wronged no man.

We have corrupted no man.

We've defrauded no man.

We've been honest.

We've lived with integrity so that you can see what it means to

be different.

He says, there is a distinct difference from the way that you

live in Christ and the way that you live in the world.

And he says, Corinthian church, you're used to people living

in the world, and those are the people that you're listening

to.

Those are the people that you're loving.

And he says, instead, love those that are different.

Love those that have the righteousness of Christ in their

life.

He says, basically this.

We have kept our testimony to you, so trust us.

Trust us with the message of the gospel.

These other people that are preaching a false gospel, they're

not honest with you.

They're not committed to you.

And so I'm going to tell you here this morning to be a faithful

minister, which that's all of us, a faithful ambassador of the

gospel.

And for us to be able to comfort those that need that comfort,

we must then live lives of integrity, love and commitment.

Verse 3.

He says, I speak not this to condemn you.

Says, I'm not trying to come here to condemn you.

You think that that's what I'm here to do?

You think I'm here just to tell you all the wrongs that you're

doing?

He says, I'm not here to condemn you, for I have said before

that ye are in our hearts.

He says, I'm doing this cause I love you.

I'm telling you about all these struggles in your life and

the dangers of these struggles because I love you.

And then he goes to show a little bit more about that love.

He says that ye are in our hearts to die and to live with you.

That shows his commitment.

He's like, we're here to live with you and we're here to die with

you.

To.

To.

To be somebody who is going to comfort another.

We have to prove that we are people of integrity, that we are

people of love and that we are people of commitment.

Why?

Because God gives us that comfort in his integrity, in his

holiness, in his love and his commitment to us.

Folks, it is all wrapped up in this.

To be a faithful ambassador, we must be Christ like.

To be Christ like means to live a life of integrity above the

cares of this world, above the lies of this world and to say, you

know what, we're gonna live honestly before man so that we can

be a testimony, not so that people will love us, so that people

will love Christ.

So it's that integrity.

It's that love.

It's agape, folks.

If we can wrap our minds around anything, it's that God has

called us to love him with everything and to love others with

that agape love that is sacrificial.

Love our world, if one lie of this world is devastating to marriages

and to families and to churches, is that love is an emotion.

Love is a selfish thing, folks.

That is not biblical love.

Biblical love is what can I do for this person even if they don't

bring anything back to me?

It's a choice.

It's a commitment.

And so therefore Paul says, I'm committed to you.

This isn't fly by night.

I'm not just swinging through Corinth and saying, hey Corinth,

give me your love offering and let me give you a little, you know,

shot in the arm and we're going to leave.

He says, no, we're committed to you.

We'll live with you and we will die with you.

Folks.

That's the truth.

The truth is that a minister of the gospel that wants to be an

extension of the love of Christ much show that same commitment

that Christ had with us, right?

Jesus said, I'm going to come and I'm going to live a perfect life.

I'm going to live amongst my followers.

And not only am I going to live amongst them, but I'm going

to sacrifice for them.

I'm going to serve them right.

Jesus washing the disciples feet, Jesus taking that humble form

of a servant, then ultimately, in obedience to his father dying

on the cross for our sins, that is the perfect act of love that

Jesus displayed.

And so therefore we are to follow that.

Paul is saying we have to follow that.

So what is Paul doing here?

Paul is sharing his heart.

He is authentic.

I want you to see here this morning.

If you want to minister to people around you and impart comfort

and the truth of God, we must be authentically showing our love.

I put it this way, in my notes, authenticity affords affection.

What does that mean?

That means this.

When I'm authentic with somebody, that's when we see real

affection happening.

If I'm surface level with everything, there can't be any depth

to our relationship, right?

That's with a spouse, that's with our friends, that's with our

church members, that's with the unsaved, that's with Christ.

If everything's on the surface level, like, if I'm not authentic

with you, like, oh, yeah, I'm just gonna tell you what I think

you want me to say.

And I'm just gonna tell you a little bit about who I am.

How is that ever gonna work?

Like, what if I got married to my wife and I said, okay, I'm gonna

keep a lot of secrets from you.

I will tell you what you need to hear or what I feel like I want

you to hear.

There's never gonna be real affection happening there.

True, deep affection.

And that's when it comes to those that were ministering to the

gospel.

Folks, if I had a new person come into our church here this morning

and they say, hey, I wanna know about Jesus Christ.

I wanna know what it means to live the Christian life.

And I just tell them a little bit.

And I go, oh, well, you know what?

Be like me.

I'm plastic and I have no problems in my life.

And that one day you can be like me.

Folks, let me tell you, we're all messed up.

And we all have struggles, and we all have the flesh, and we all

have issues.

And if there's anyone that says that they don't have that, there's

a major problem with their authenticity.

Look, I'm not here to tell you that I'm a unrepentant sinner, but

I'm gonna tell you that I'm a sinner saved by grace just like everybody

else.

And so therefore, it's that authenticity.

Paul says, yeah, I have struggles, I have issues, but I'm

here to live with you and die with you.

It's the authenticity that matters.

Cause that affords affection.

And so what we can see here is that Paul is saying, I'm tested,

but I'm here.

And so I want to go back to that idea of a crucible, constant

comfort in a crucible.

What is a crucible?

Well, literally, it's a container that is used for heating

a substance to a high temperature.

And so it could be used in metallurgy or something like that.

Like, it's a test, right, to see if something is good.

Or see if something is valuable or trustworthy.

And so figuratively speaking, a crucible is a severe test or a

trial, something that is testing us in the most deep form.

So Paul is being tested here.

The people that he's willing to die for, the people that he's

willing to sacrifice everything for, are questioning whether

or not he's a good guy.

And it would be very easy for Paul to say, you know what?

I'm.

See ya.

Macedonia would like me.

Antioch would like me.

I'm going to forget you guys.

But no, he says, I'm here to live and to die with you.

And so I'm going to tell you here.

Paul confronts them out of love.

He didn't want to condemn them.

You see that there in verse three, he says, I speak not this

to condemn you.

So part of this authentic love is going to be confrontation.

Paul confronted the Christians there in Corinth, but he did not

want to condemn them.

And so what we can see here is a biblical truth, that there can

be confrontation without condemnation.

Problem is, sometimes when we want to confront, we condemn folks.

It's not our job to condemn somebody.

That's the job of the Lord.

And one day there will be people who are condemned for their

rebellion.

But ultimately, for us, there is a responsibility to confront.

So Paul says, I'm confronting you in love, but I'm not condemning

you because I'm part of this.

Like Paul, Paul says, I struggle too.

I have issues too.

And so Paul is sharing his heart.

And so as ministers of the gospel of truth, which I hope at

this point you think that you're part of that.

As ministers of the gospel of truth, we must be honest to those

who need the truth, right?

We have to be honest.

And honesty is sometimes a difficult thing to do.

When we were at the men's retreat here this weekend, by the

way, we're gonna have some testimonies at the end of the service

about how God really worked through that.

And the speaker was a fantastic speaker.

And he spoke about friendship.

You don't hear a lot about that.

Biblical friendship.

And part of biblical friendship is telling a person the

truth sometimes.

Sometimes it's a difficult truth, but the truth nonetheless.

If I love someone, I'm gonna tell them the truth.

If I don't care about them, I don't care about them.

And I'm not going to tell them the truth.

And the truth is that what Paul does here is he shows his love

by speaking the truth.

Guys, you're on the wrong path.

Guys, I want you to fix this Guys, this is what God would want

you to do.

And it's done in a way of love, and it's done in a way of sacrifice.

And so, folks, as ministers of the gospel, we must be honest to

the people, the very people that need our honesty, that need

the truth.

Where is the truth found?

We all know this.

Come on.

This is.

If you've been in Middletown Baptist for any amount of time, you

know the truth is found in the word of God.

It's not found in my opinions.

It's not found in a movement.

It's not found in anything else outside of the word of God.

Jesus has sanctified them by thy truth.

Thy word is truth.

And so we must point to people the truth of Scripture.

And so he is bold here.

He says, Verse 4.

See this with me.

So there's integrity, there's love, there's commitment, there's

honesty.

But then we see here that there's boldness in this.

You cannot avoid the fact that as a minister, an ambassador of the

gospel, we have to be bold in what we know about God.

He says, great is my boldness of speech towards you.

He said, I've been strong with you.

The Bible never tells us to be weak.

The Bible does tell us to be meek.

Meekness is not weakness.

Meekness is strength under control.

But the Bible never tells us to be weak because weakness eventually

is going to get to a point where we.

It's a selfish thing, right?

Well, I just don't want to do that because that's going to make

me look this way or I'm not going to do this because that's going

to make me have to feel something here.

The Bible says here very clearly.

Paul says, great is my boldness of speech toward you.

But then he says something interesting here.

He says, so I've come against you really strongly.

He said, I've had some negative things to say about this

church.

But he doesn't just condemn them and say, you guys are all failures.

He says, no.

What does he say?

He says, and great is my glorying of you.

Meaning he's proud of them for the things that they have done for

the Lord.

It's not all negative, folks.

One of the elements that we can get to in our lives and very,

very much a trap within speaking the truth, is that everything

becomes negative, right?

I just pick, pick, pick, and just everything is negative about

that person.

What Paul says is, yes, there are some things that you need to

change, but also I'm very proud of many of the things that

you've been doing.

Now, the King James word is glorying, right?

There's a.

There's a selfish pride and there's a biblical pride, right?

So, for example, like, if my children do something, well, I'm

happy for them.

I'm glorying in the fact that they did well, maybe in school or

maybe in sports or whatever.

And it's not like I'm prideful, and I brought that about.

I'm just thankful to the Lord for what they're doing.

And that's what Paul is saying here.

He says, I'm thankful, I'm excited, I'm happy that you have

some good things going on in your life.

He says, these are good things.

So it's a lot of times what we do is this.

We only condemn people, we only challenge them, but yet we don't

give them what they are doing well for the Lord.

Someone I heard recently says, you know, we need to give a compliment

sandwich, right?

Tell someone something good about them, and then come to the

point where you have to tell them the truth about something that

might be difficult, but then end it with, hey, there are some

really good things happening here.

And so Paul doesn't want to suck the life out of these people.

He wants to give them hope in Christ.

He says, there are evidences here that you are following Christ

to some degree, but you need to change in some areas.

And so he's bold in his business, but he's bold in his boasting

as well.

He's not ashamed of his people.

He's not ashamed.

Like, I'm so excited to call Middletown Baptist Church my church.

I gotta tell you, when I go to other places and I see other churches

and I see good things going on there, you know what it makes me

do?

It just makes me want to think about my church.

Like, I just, like, man, I can't wait to get back to Middletown

Baptist Church.

And there's something to be said about the fact that I glory

in Middletown Baptist Church.

We're at the men's retreat, and I see other churches and I'm

like, hey, there's a pastor, and he's talking about how good his

church is.

You know what I don't do?

I don't go and say, well, you know what, man?

I wonder if that church is different than mine.

Maybe.

Maybe the grass is greener.

I say, well, their church is good.

Great.

My church is even better.

I'm excited for that.

Because if your heart's not where you are, there's a big issue.

And so what Paul says here in this case is like, yes, there are

some issues, and I've had to come down on you, but I also am bold

in my glorying of you.

And so God works through Paul to challenge the church through confrontation,

but not condemnation.

And so, despite the many trials that Paul faced from within

and from without, he found joy and comfort in the good news of the

Corinthian Church.

And so he says, I'm exceedingly joyful.

You see that in verse four.

He says, I'm glorying you.

I am filled with comfort.

Remember, he's saying this in the midst of physical trials.

Okay, we're gonna be in Second Corinthians, chapter 12 here, just

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

in a relatively short amount of time.

And if you remember, Paul is going through something that's a

thorn in his flesh, seeks thrice three times to have that removed.

That's right.

That's right.

Now that's happening in this scene of his life.

Paul has been persecuted.

He's been beaten, he's been.

He's been forgotten about.

He's been left for dead.

He has his own people rejecting him.

But yet he says here.

What does he say?

His testimony in the difficulty is this.

I am filled with comfort.

I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.

I like how he says our like.

He.

He identifies as like.

It's.

It's our struggle, it's our problem, it's our pain.

He says, I'm though.

I'm going through this pain.

He has two elements that characterize his life.

Comfort and joy, Comfort and joy and tribulation.

How can he do that?

Second Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 3.

2 Corinthians 1:3

God is comforting him through this, but God is using other people

as well.

And that's the amazing thing here you see it.

He says verse four, for when we were come into Macedonia, Macedonia

is another place.

So he says, when I traveled to Macedonia, which Macedonia is the

place that he went to instead of Corinth, that they got upset about.

This is why they're mad at him.

He's using that.

And he says, when we went to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest.

He's like, we were struggling in Macedonia, but we were troubled

on every side.

We see him repeating those struggles.

He said, we were troubled on every side.

So basically the thought here in the original Greek is like, I

was surrounded.

I was surrounded by trouble.

I don't know about you, but there's probably been a time in your

life where you felt that, not maybe physically, maybe you did have

trouble all around you.

I can't get out of this but maybe you know what he means by the

spiritual trouble around every side.

Every which way I turn, I see an issue and I can't get out of this.

And that's what Paul is describing here.

And maybe that's you right now.

Maybe you're like, I can't find a way out.

Paul says it's not about finding a way out.

That's the irony of all this.

I think sometimes as Christians, we think, well, trouble

comes, I gotta find a way out.

That's not what he's saying here.

He says, I've got trouble on every side.

My flesh had no rest.

We were troubled on every side.

Without were fightings, meaning without is an old way to

say on the outside, there was fightings around me, so people were

fighting against me.

So these are talking about struggles from the outside in.

And we have a lot of those, right?

Maybe you have issues at work, maybe you have issues in the home.

Maybe you have issues with people that you come across in your

life.

He says, so there was problems on the outside.

And then he says, within were fears.

So we see that he's struggling in two fronts.

Outside conflicts coming against him and inside conflicts

that are coming out.

Like, internally, I am complete with fear.

I'm gonna tell you, one of the things that we struggle with in our

life, whether we admit it or not, is the fear.

The fear of man, the fear of failure, the fear of rejection, the

fear of isolation, the fear of whatever.

And sometimes what Satan does is he works in our hearts on the

inside and the outside from two different fronts.

And he says, okay, if I can't get you to be afraid of what's coming

from the outside, I'm going to get you to be afraid from what's

coming on the inside.

And some of you might relate with that.

Some of you might say, I'm not afraid of any man, but I'm afraid

of what's going on in here.

I'm afraid of what's going on in here.

And folks, the Bible says that there are going to be those external

struggles, but there's going to be internal struggles.

And Paul says, I've got problems on the outside.

I've got problems on the inside.

And he says, but.

But I'm filled with comfort and I'm exceeding joyful in all our

tribulation.

And so he says how God brought the comfort.

God brought comfort to Paul by hearing about the work of God with

other people.

And so he finds joy.

And a part of that joy was the good news for the from the Corinthian

Christians.

And so Paul is saying that God can comfort us in the midst of outward

conflict and the midst of inward conflict.

But how does it come to us?

Well, it comes to us through different circumstances.

Verse 6.

Nevertheless, God, he gives the credit to God for this comfort.

Nevertheless, God that comforteth those that are cast down.

And I just want to tell you that.

And just a side note here, okay.

God can and will comfort those who are cast down.

That word, cast down, that phrase, cast down, it just means

to be defeated.

It means to be downcast, in despair.

Some of you might have said, you know what?

In my life, that's me.

I'm cast down.

I'm in despair.

In some degrees, maybe I'm even hopeless.

God has a heart for those.

If we come to him in faith, if we come to him and plead for his

grace, the Bible says that he comforts those that are cast down.

He says, God that comforted those that are cast down comforted

us by the coming of Titus.

So he says, this guy named Titus comes and visits me.

And what is he talking about here?

Well, this is actually Titus, one of the people that worked with

Paul.

He comes.

Titus comes and tells Paul about the Corinthian Church, about

what's going on in their life.

And he says, and not by his coming only, but by the consolation

or the comfort wherewith he was comforted in you, meaning this.

Paul was encouraged.

This.

When you guys see this, this is going to be amazing.

Paul was encouraged from Titus because Titus was encouraged by the

Corinthian Church.

So indirectly, the Corinthians who are causing Paul, you know, they're

upset with him right now.

He said, hey, there was a time where you comforted me by comforting

Titus.

You didn't know that you were.

But you were comforting Titus.

Titus came and comforted me.

And that's the fulfillment of what happened right in Second Corinthians,

2 Corinthians 1:3

chapter 1, verse 3.

So when I receive the comfort of God and I comfort another person

in that, I don't know who that means is gonna feel the comfort on

the next ripple.

And the next ripple.

Folks, we don't necessarily always know what God is doing in

our life, but all we do is obey him.

And we see it played out here in this case that Titus was encouraged

by the Corinthian Church.

And ultimately, Titus encourages Paul in the midst of one

of his darkest moments.

And he says so not by just Titus coming, but by the consolation

of the comfort wherewith he was comforted in you.

When he was told, told us of your earnest Desire, mourning and

your fervent mind toward me so that I rejoiced the more.

And so Paul hears some news about the Corinthian Church.

What was that news that encouraged his heart?

He says this that they were earnest in their desire.

Their desire for what?

Their desire for the truth of God.

You know, that is what is going to encourage other people.

The more you are on fire for God, the more that is a blessing

to other people that desire what God wants for them in their

life.

Now, if your desire for God makes someone upset, that's an issue

on their heart, right?

Don't be afraid.

Don't shy away from the passion that God gives you for the

call of the gospel.

Never be ashamed if someone kind of squashes your excitement

for the Lord.

There's been times in my life where I wanted to tell someone about

what God is doing in my life, and they're like, oh, that's great.

That's wonderful.

I'm like, well, maybe I shouldn't be as excited for that.

Folks, never, never quench the move of the spirit in another person's

life.

You might not be feeling it at that moment, but be excited for them

in that moment.

Join in with their joy, join in with their desire.

And what we can see here is one of the ways that we can comfort.

Because a lot of times.

What do we think about when we think about comfort?

Well, me just coming alongside of you and going, hey, I want to

comfort you.

Have a great day in the Lord.

Okay, well, that's great.

But remember, actions always speak louder than words.

It's our actions that can comfort people.

And so one of the actions of the Corinthian Church was that they

were passionate.

They had earnest desire.

Our passion for the Lord can encourage others who are seeking

the same thing.

Let me tell you, some of the most encouraging moments of my life

is when I see other people serving God and other people excited

about His Word and Bible studies starting and people saying,

hey, Pastor, I was studying this week and I was watching this

video and.

And God really got ahold of my heart here.

Man, that gets me excited.

That encourages me.

Whether you know it or not, being at the men's retreat and having

300 men or whatever it was, you know, singing out to Jesus and

singing praises to him and guys getting up and giving testimonies,

man, that encouraged my heart.

And they didn't even know who I was.

And the truth is that the more passionate you are for Christ, others

will be encouraged by that.

A little while back, one of my former students Colton Gideons came,

and he's on deputation to be a missionary to Spain.

And I can't tell you how much it encouraged my heart to see a young

man that I saw grow up in Christian school.

Now he's going out to serve the Lord.

I mean, he didn't know this, but, man, I was like, in tears because

I'm like, man, God's faithful, and the faithfulness of others encourages

people.

So what I would say to you is this.

If you want to be an encourager, don't just speak encouragement.

That's one thing you should edify, speak things.

But, you know, you can say something and not mean it.

One of the things that you can do to encourage other people is have

that passionate desire.

But then we see something else here.

He says, you're mourning now.

Is Paul saying, I'm happy when you're mourning.

Like you lost someone in your life and I'm glad that you're crying?

No, he's talking specifically about the mourning over sin, their

conviction.

He says, I'm so happy to see that you're broken over your sin.

Now, that's kind of weird for us to think about, but that is a

beautiful thing to see people broken over their sin because that's

what brings revival.

That's what brings change.

And so one of the ways that we can encourage other people is by

understanding the pains and the sufferings of sin in our life

and mourning over that to get to a place where we can be passionate

for God.

And so he says part of encouragement is for individuals

to recognize the power of sin in their life and overcome the power

of sin by the power of God.

And so, folks, I would encourage you to embrace that conviction

in your life, get right with God.

Because when you get right with God, that affects other people.

Now, it's not riding on your shoulders.

Like, it's not like, well, you had to do this for other people or

they'll never get close to Christ.

But you never know who you're going to influence.

You never know who you're going to comfort by that time where

you walk forward and you kneel at the altar and you get that right

with God.

Whether or not that person even knows your private sin, your

change in your life in that revival will affect other people

around you.

You know, I've dealt with things in my own life personally

that I never told my children, but my children were positively affected

by the change that happened in my life through the conviction of

the Spirit.

Like, I gotta get rid of this.

This is stealing away My desire for my children.

So therefore, I gotta get rid of it.

This is stealing away my desire for the Lord, so I gotta get

rid of that.

People might not ever know that decision that you make, but

the change in your life will be manifested and will encourage

others.

So I would say this.

The mourning over sin, the brokenness over sin, will cause people

to be encouraged, just as Paul was encouraged.

And then we see, he says, your fervent mind toward me, your fervent

thoughts.

He says, your fervent mind towards me, your desire, your passion,

your thoughts of me.

And so what I would say here in this case is just thinking of

others.

Thinking of others in the midst of our life.

Selflessness, Right.

Selflessness is such a need in our culture today.

Why?

Because the opposite side is preaching pride.

Pride, Satan, from the very beginning.

Pride.

It's all about you put yourself first, only help people

that help you.

And that's the total opposite of what is an encouragement.

An encouragement is, I'm going to help you, even if you don't deserve

it, even if you don't ask for it.

One of the things that I was encouraged by our speaker at the

men's retreat.

I'm probably stealing some of the guys thunder when they're gonna

give their testimonies.

Well, I got up here first.

So is this.

He said, you know, an acquaintance says, I'm here for you.

If you need me, let me know.

He said, a friend is, I'm already there, you know, And I was

convicted by that.

Because a lot of times in my life, people that I love, I say,

hey, I don't want to impose.

If you need me, just call me.

He says, you know, a true friend is someone that's like, hey,

I'm already there.

I'm already putting you first.

I don't care what time of the day it is.

I don't care what kind of sacrifice this means for me, folks.

That's what it means to care for somebody else.

And so therefore, he says, hey, you're fervent in mind toward

me.

It's that selflessness.

It's that humility.

And so as much as we wanna beat up at the church at Corinth,

there are some really good elements here that Paul says that

encouraged me.

You're not left without hope.

You still have God working in your midst.

And so that's all Paul is trying to do.

He's trying to convince them and speak boldly to the place of,

hey, get back on path to being an ambassador for Jesus Christ.

Do what you've already done before.

And so what I would say is this.

Paul had a real confidence and hope because Titus brought him a

good report on how things were going in Corinth.

Paul saw.

Paul witnessed the fruit of his ministry through the church at

Corinth.

Folks, we're not always going to see the fruit, but sometimes when

we do, that's the greatest comfort.

God confirms in our heart that we're doing the right thing.

And so our faithfulness to the Lord is an encouragement to others.

If I could summarize it any which way, I could say it this way.

When the greatest encouragement that you can have for

another individual, the greatest comfort that you can bring

to another individual is by staying faithful to the Lord.

Because if you're staying faithful to the Lord, you're gonna

be faithful to them.

If you're gonna be staying faithful to the Lord, you're gonna

love them properly.

And so what I would encourage you is this.

Like, you know, I think a lot of times we're looking for outward

displays of, you know.

And that's sometimes what's manifested by the love of God.

But it's an inward change.

It's always an inward change.

And so how can we have constant comfort in the crucible,

in the difficult life?

It's putting our focus off of ourself and putting it on Christ

and others.

That's really what it is.

I'm never going to find comfort if I'm just sitting and focused

on my test all the time.

Like, woe is me.

This is my problem.

I've got this issue.

And all I can do is think about me and think about how I can't

find comfort.

You know what?

Let's.

And this is what's happened in my own life.

The more I start trying to comfort others, the more I'm able

to get my eyes off of my issue and start seeing the comfort of God.

And I go back and I rehearse how God has been faithful to me.

Folks, I would encourage you to think about that, Paul.

That's what Paul's doing.

He's going back to.

And he says, God, you've been faithful to me here.

You're going to be faithful to me now.

You're always going to be faithful to me.

You're always going to comfort me.

That's where the comfort is found, by seeing the truth of the

situation.

You say, well, I don't know if God's been faithful to me.

Have you seen my life?

You know, what God's taken away from me?

Well, maybe he hasn't taken away from you.

Maybe God's allowed something to be taken away from you.

Well, you don't know what's going on in my life.

You know, I went to the doctor's this week and that news

was not what I thought is comforting, folks.

Let me tell you, when you struggle with that, this is something

that I was learning at the retreat and it's been formulating

in my mind recently.

When we are tempted to think about these circumstances as the

source of our comfort, where do we need to go?

We need to go to what the Bible says is the foot of the cross.

The moment you start thinking that God has forgotten about you,

go back to see what Jesus did for you.

He went to the cross, hanging on that cross, thinking of you.

And if you think about what Jesus did for you on that cross and

you still think he forgot about you, and he still think he's

not comforting you, you've got some major issues.

You're not trusting in what he did on that cross because that's

everything that he needed to do to prove his love for me.

So instead of thinking, well, you know, I had a really bad day

today, you know, my boss went off on me and you know, God doesn't

love me, say, no, no, he does love me.

Look what he did for me.

He died.

He sent his only begotten son for that is what Paul is saying.

It's all about the gospel.

And that's where he ends it.

He goes, you know, so that I rejoice all the more.

I can rejoice all the more here.

And then he's going to bring about in this next passage of scripture,

godly sorrow that works repentance.

And you're never going to be able to walk with Christ.

You're never going to be walking with him in his truth, if

you're gripping onto this world and not falling into a place

of repentance and humility.

And so Paul is trying to get us to look back to the cross.

He's trying to get us to look to the truth of the gospel.

And that's what he's talking about when it comes to being a minister

here.

And so this was Paul's life in the ministry.

If, if it was a life of great blessing, it was also a life of conflicts.

It was a life of fear.

It was a life of people coming against him.

But what we can say through the life of Paul is that he says

here, I'm filled with joy, I'm filled with comfort.

We see this throughout Paul's writings.

Look at Philippians look at the whole book of Philippians.

The theme is, what joy.

He's in prison.

Contentment.

He has nothing, except he's got Christ, which means he's got

everything.

And that's the same thing for you to hear today.

I don't know what you have in your life.

I would be tempted to say that most of us are not where we have

zero in our life.

Even if you're at the bottom of what our culture says, you still

most likely have a place that you can lay your head.

You got here today, whether you drove or not.

Someone took you.

That's transportation.

Most of us are going to have a meal today.

If you don't have a meal, come by and talk to me.

I'll get you a meal.

Okay?

But so many times we love more, we want more, we desire more.

But, folks, if we had none of that and only Christ, it's still

enough.

It's still enough.

And so may we be those faithful ministers to show people

that's the comfort of God.

The comfort of God is knowing Christ.

The comfort of God is having the Holy Spirit.

The comfort of God is knowing that there's something more to this

world.

That's the comfort.

The comfort is not getting out of it.

Like, if, like, Pastor, we need some counseling.

We got an issue in our life.

Usually, like, well, we didn't get out of the issue.

So therefore, this is a failure, folks.

Is Paul a failure?

I don't think so.

Was.

Was Peter a failure?

No.

There was parts of his life that were failing, but he wasn't

defined by his failures.

Was Jesus a failure?

No.

We know that, but yet did God remove all the pain and suffering

from their life?

No.

And so the directive is not run away from the problem.

The directive is run to Christ in the midst of the issues in our

world.

So I would encourage you today to think about this.

Yes.

Can God take away your struggle?

Yes.

Can God take away your trial?

Yes.

Will he?

I don't know.

But what I do know is he can bring you the comfort and walk with

you through it and give you that constant comfort in the crucible.

You're in a big, long test.

So the Bible says, actually it's a life of tribulation.

And sometimes those tribulations can be felt more than

others.

Sometimes that heat of that crucible is heated up a lot more

than it normally is.

But what I will say is that there's that constant comfort that

you can find in knowing Christ and resting in him.

And then what does he say here?

First Corinthians chapter 1, verse 3.

1 Corinthians 1:3

Comfort others.

As you have experienced that comfort, comfort others.

And as you comfort others, guess what?

Your mind is going to be off of your struggles, and your mind

is going to be on the comfort of how God comforted you so that

you can comfort others.

And you're rehearsing in your mind what God has done for you, and

then you're just living in that cycle of comfort.

You know, our world today is all about comfort, right?

Get the most comfortable bed you can find.

Get the most comfortable car you can find.

Speaking of cars, we have a person in our church who remains

nameless that has a Tesla.

Some of you know what a Tesla is.

Okay?

A couple weeks ago, I had the biggest test of faith in my whole

life.

I got in this Tesla, and he says, okay, I'm gonna let you drive

it, but you don't really have to drive it.

Just turn the key, we're gonna plug in this place, and you just

sit back, take your hands off, take your feet off, and just look

at the road.

And I was as scared as I've been in a long time, especially when

I got up to an intersection.

It was like.

And I'm like, are you sure this thing's gonna stop?

And he's like, yeah, it's gonna stop.

And I'm like, wow.

I'm putting a lot of faith in the designer right now.

It was actually a spiritual lesson for me because I'm realizing,

you know, that's how we are in our own life.

And by the way, we got there and it changed lanes, it sped up,

it slowed down, it read when other people were coming.

And that was a weird thing.

But I thought about that from a spiritual sense, like, our world

is looking for comfort.

Our world is looking for automation.

And I'm not saying that's a good or bad thing.

Different people have different opinions.

But in our life, that's a picture of what it means to have

the comfort of God.

You can sit down in the presence of God, you can say, you

know what?

I don't know how to get there.

I'm probably going to mess up.

But, Lord, I'm going to take my hands off the wheel, I'm going

to take my foot off you give me the guidance.

Now.

This isn't like, let go and let God.

I don't do anything in my life, you know, I just sit in my

couch and hope God makes me a missionary.

That's not how it works, right?

God stirs our heart and brings us to a place, right?

He stirs us To a place where we have to go preach the message

of the gospel so there's action involved with it.

But what I will say is it's faith in God, it's trusting in him.

And so our world is looking for comfort in the wrong places.

Our world is looking for automation in the wrong places.

What we do is we say, yes, Lord, I'm willing to give my life

over to you and give you everything.

I'm willing to sit in the driver's seat, but I'm allowing you

to drive.

I'm going to trust you that you're going to do this right for

me.

I'm going to trust you.

I'm going to trust you that this is the right comfort that I

need in this time.

And so I don't think comfort is a bad thing.

I think God designed us to seek after comfort, but a different

type of comfort.

What Satan does is, and the world always does this is he tries

to twist what God has created as perfect and put us to a place

of fleshliness, right?

So you see this in many areas.

You know, physical relationships.

God created those things for a good purpose, but yet the world has

skewed that for evil.

Music, art, all of these things.

Entertainment, God created those things for us to enjoy.

But the world has twisted it.

Satan has twisted it.

Same thing with comfort.

God created us to desire after comfort, but not the fleshly comfort,

the comfort of God in the midst of our difficulty.

So seek after that comfort today.

As Paul says, open your hearts to the comfort of God so that when

you receive that comfort of God, that you can comfort others

so that they can comfort others.

Folks, I'm going to tell you, as a church, if we put others before

ourselves and ultimately put Christ at the top, we're going to

have issues.

But Christ will be with us in the midst of the crucible.

So the constant comfort in the crucible is Christ.

That's it.

It's walking with him.

And so this morning, I encourage you to think about that

and meditate upon those truths.

When you go through your trial, your crucible, I'm going to

ask if you're able to stand with me, every head bowed, every

eye closed as the music plays this morning.

So want to give you an opportunity to respond to that.

There's a couple of different areas of response.

You could say this.

I need that comfort right now.

Not feeling that comfort.

What I say is, get your eyes on Christ.

Get your eyes on Christ.

Get your eyes on others so that you can comfort others as he

comforts you.

Man, the Corinth Church.

They didn't know that they were comforting Paul, but they comforted

Titus and Titus comforted Paul.

And Paul ultimately said, hey, you got a lot of issues, but that's

a blessing.

Are you that faithful ambassador?

Are you that faithful minister?

Are you that faithful person like Paul that had integrity, had

honesty, had love, affection, that authenticity, that commitment?

Are you committed to the gospel message so much that you're

willing to say, you know what?

I don't care if people accept me.

I don't care if people love me.

I want to find my comfort in God, not in those around me.

Maybe this morning you just need to rededicate your life to that

ambassadorship.

Maybe you need that comfort.

Maybe you need to show some comfort.

How selfish is it to hoard all the comfort of God and never show

that to other people around us?

What can we do?

What can we say?

What can we sacrifice for another so that the comfort of God

can be spread to those around us?

Lord, I pray that you'd be in this time of invitation, work in

hearts and lives.

If there's someone here today that needs to know you as Savior,

I pray that today can be the day in which they can have that constant

comfort in knowing you as Savior.

We're thankful for the cross.

We're thankful for your commitment to us.

And I pray that you work in our hearts and lives this morning.

In Jesus name, Amen.

As the music plays, do as the Lord leads here today.

If you need Jesus as your Savior, if you need to know what

it means to trust in the cross, what it means to trust in

the resurrection of Jesus, put your faith in him today.

We have folks up here that are willing to give you that message.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org

or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at joshmasaroiddletownbaptistchurch

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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.