Comforting the Uncomfortable | Rev. Paul Lawler

What if comfort isn’t about escaping pain, but about discovering God’s presence within it, and being changed forever by what you receive?

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[0:18] Our scripture reading this morning comes from 2 Corinthians 1, verses 1-7.

[0:24] Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

[1:34] Amen and amen. And I greet you this morning in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. My name is Paul Lawler. I have the honor of serving as a lead pastor here at Christ Methodist, and we welcome you, whether you are a member, guest, or regular attender.

[1:49] So the title today's teaching is Comforting the Uncomfortable,

[1:55] because this is where God's Word takes us. And as Nathan so well led us in prayer this morning, one of the things that I have a holy hunch all of us are aware of is that suffering can play a role in our life where we can come out of it better.

[2:15] Or we can come out of it bitter. And suffering has all kinds of faces. We all know that—disease, cancers, natural disasters, persecution for one's faith in Christ, war, broken relationships, the death of a loved one, financial hardship. We could go on and on, and all of it could be characterized as symptoms of a fallen world that place us at times in our lives in something we might title the furnace of affliction.

[2:46] There's an author who wrote an article not too many years ago named Simone Well. The title of the article was The Love of God and Affliction, and I'm going to share with you what she wrote as an examination of how difficult it really can be at times to walk with God in the furnace of affliction and come out on the other side. I'm going to provide not only her words, but some of what Tim Keller also commented on based upon her insights. And many of these things were prayed just a moment ago. But there are vulnerabilities that come with suffering. Let me list five of those. One, you have a vulnerability of what we would call the problem of isolation.

[3:33] Suffering almost immediately makes you feel cut off from the real world, isolated from friends that you may feel really don't understand you anymore.

[3:43] It's also true that many friends may also stay away from a person when they're going through affliction because they're seeing something in you and what you're going through that they would rather deny, that suffering can come upon anybody. And it causes others to face their own mortality as well. Secondly, there's the problem or vulnerability of self-absorption that can come in seasons of suffering. Suffering, understandably, makes it very difficult to think of others when you're in heightened pain. You have no margin or energy or thought of anything but your own troubles and your own needs at the height of pain and uncomfortableness. And over time, your trials can even lead to a type of pride. It can make you feel noble and superior to others who have not had to undergo the deep waters that you presently are navigating.

[4:45] Thirdly, there's the problem of feeling shame and condemnation. Simone Wells points out that many of us don't feel guilty or even ashamed about some of the things that we perhaps should. But when great suffering hits and it's hard, sometimes it's difficult not to feel as if you're being punished. There may be things that have no direct connection to the suffering you're going through that you may now feel guilty about, and you may feel a vague, persistent sense that we've been condemned because of the suffering we're going through. Then there's the problem of anger. And this depends upon a great deal upon the context of the problem you may be facing. And you may have anger at God or other people, or even anger at yourself that can burn hot and fierce, and you simply feel that you cannot control it. And so there's a more subtle form of anger that can begin to arise in a heart in the form of cynicism or sarcasm, and you become deeply sarcastic about the injustice or the emptiness that we face in life at times. And then there's the problem of complicity that can arise in suffering.

[6:05] And that is that when a man or woman becomes complicit with the affliction that they're facing, Simone writes that suffering can, little by little, turn the soul into its accomplice by injecting the poison of an inertia into it. We may actually become comfortable with our discomfort, and we may find the idea of going back into responsibilities of life, too daunting. And our self-pity can become sweet and addicting, and our suffering can become an excuse for behavior that you would otherwise not justify. Or you may feel that you need to somehow pay for your sins, and suffering is a way to do it. So you choose to stay miserable.

[6:53] Now, I want to invite you into some contrast.

[6:57] As we listen to the vulnerabilities that come with suffering, think with me about the gospel and the revelation of God. Think about a God who comes to earth and shares that the good news that he has, the liberation that he's bringing through his death, burial, and resurrection, as he describes it in Luke 4, is so liberating that it's going to set you free and it's going to bind up a broken heart. Think about the inference that the Son of God, God encapsulated in skin, understands a fallen world so completely that he knows that there are going to be times when we encounter the furnace of affliction to the degree that it breaks our heart.

[7:45] And yet God is proclaiming that the love of God through his gospel, through what Christ has done, is so powerful, it has the power to liberate and to heal brokenness. Think and process the meaning behind Isaiah's words as he's inspired by God to write in Isaiah 49, 13, Shout for joy, O heavens!

[8:11] Rejoice, O earth! Break forth in song, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted his people, and he will have compassion on his afflicted ones. Now, there's a context for that verse, but what I want to invite you to think about is think about the nature of a God like that, who has that kind of compassion, who has that kind of heart for his people? Again, quoting the words of Isaiah 42, verse 3, and again, what kind of God would inspire words like this? A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice. What kind of nature does our God have in light of revelation like this. What kind of God, as we quoted last week in 1 Peter 5-7, says to his people, cast all your anxiety upon me because I care for you? What kind of God, as we will get to later as we're in part two here of the prodigal church in 2 Corinthians,

[9:19] what kind of God inspires Paul to write the words, but God who comforts the depressed. And the question that we ask ourselves is this, is all of this a fairy tale or is it true?

[9:38] And this is the subject of our teaching today. Our God, Paul proclaims, is a God of all comfort. And the Word of God proclaims it. First, 2 Corinthians 1.3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.

[9:58] Now, loved one, when you think of comfort, you may picture a warm, soft blanket. it. Some of you might picture eating a pint of ice cream in your favorite hoodie with your house shoes on curled up before the television. Some of you might picture binging on Netflix to escape your troubles or at the very least numb yourself to those troubles. But that is not what the Apostle Paul is talking about here. He is not talking about God removing pain and suffering, but he is declaring that God comforts his people in it. In fact, in just verses three through seven, no less than nine times do we see the word comfort.

[10:44] And this word has much more significance than somebody coming along, patting you on the back and saying, there, there now, don't cry, suck it up.

[10:54] You're going to be okay. This word is loaded. This word is the Greek word paraklesos, and it literally means that God is coming alongside you. It literally means that God is providing an encouragement, a comfort, a consolation, a strengthening, and it signifies active support, not passive sympathy, that God is actually active in your heart and life as a believer, when you cry out to him, when you worship, and when you praise him in the midst of your suffering. And so God is described in a very unique way in this context. Notice what Paul does for us, the apostle, when he writes that this is not just anybody, this is God.

[11:41] The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies. One of my favorite little passages in the New Testament or in the Gospels is that little phrase that says, and Jesus moved with compassion when he saw broken people, people like sheep without a shepherd. And Paul describes him in this context as the God of all comfort. Think on the nature of God. Think on this reality, loved one. Think about Jesus when he's getting ready to go to the Father and he tells the disciples, it's better that I go away. And that has many reasons that we don't have time to get into this morning. But one of the things he said to his disciples, that when I go away, John 14, 16, I'm going to ask the father and he's going to send you.

[12:39] A comforter, the person of the Holy Spirit to come alongside you. In fact, the text gets real specific in terms of the kind of suffering that the Lord is declaring. He's going to get next to you in. He's available to you to get next to you. All of our troubles and suffering as well as suffering through persecution. Look with me again, verses three and four. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, God of all comfort, who comforts us in, say the word with me, all. In fact, if you have a Bible with you, I would invite you to circle the word all. All our affliction. This word affliction in the Greek literally means any trouble involving direct suffering. Loved ones, I submit to you that is too good to be true, too true to ignore. And so we recognize any suffering, disease, cancers, natural disasters, war, sins, and the fallout, the brokenness that comes from it, broken relationships, the death of loved ones, financial hardships, we could go on and on and on.

[13:51] But it also includes persecution, which is why Paul writes in verse 5, for as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in his comfort too. The Corinthians were not only a church that was healing from problems and healing from drifting from God, but it was a church also that was facing persecution. Loved ones, my great joys in life, not unlike you, are certainly Jesus, the gospel, my wife, my children, my daughter-in-laws, my son-in-law, my grandchildren. Those are great joys. I need to say that to keep it all in perspective in light of what I'm about to say, because what I'm about to say may come off a little nerdy.

[14:44] But one of my great joys in my library is a section of my library known as Missionary Biography. Why is that? Because other than the Word of God, when I read Missionary Biography, I read of people in whom the world is not worthy.

[15:06] Thousands of years, people who've risked much for the gospel of Christ, people who have risked much out of the love of God to take the gospel to people who do not know God. A moment ago when that picture was up and it said Asia, but all that red part, loved ones, represents two to three billion people on this earth who do not know Jesus. Two to three billion people on this earth in which only three percent of missional giving goes to. And the majority of missionaries don't go into this area of the earth. I'm thankful that we have families in our church that have sons and daughters serving in that region of the world. Glory to God. Somebody say amen. And we need to keep them prayed over and prayed for.

[15:56] But in reading missionary biography through the years, I want to lift up two episodes to you. This is a book called The Heavenly Man. I'm not here to promote a book. I'm going to share with you something out of the book, And it's by a man named Brother Yun, who was in prison for his faith in China. This book, I'm not going to share the author. I'm not going to share the title because I'm going to share some things that are less than flattering. And so this book will remain a secret for now.

[16:31] This person, when he's in prison for his faith in China, experiences the presence of God. When you read these pages of the heavenly man, you see that even though he's suffering, he knows joy in the Lord. Even though he's suffering for Christ, he knows the Lord's peace, even in prison. This person documents in his book when he's in prison in the nation of Turkey as a missionary that he knows no joy, he knows no peace, and he suffers without a sense of God's presence and peace.

[17:14] This person, Brother Yun, did something different that this person, whom I'll leave a name, did not.

[17:23] This person, Brother Yun, sang hymns to God in prison. This person, when he's in prison, shared his faith with other prisoners. This person, while he's in prisoner, sees prison guards come to know Christ.

[17:41] This person, while he's in prison, praises and worships God. This person, by his own admission, while he's in prison, suffers from the five vulnerabilities in suffering that we highlighted a moment ago out of Simone Miles' research and also out of the threads that Nathan prayed around the vulnerabilities that we all face in suffering. Loved ones, it's a tale of two lives, and it's a testimony for us that if we become self-absorbed in our suffering, we forsake the comfort that God offers us in our suffering. I remember being in the nation of Laos a number of years ago and being ushered forth secretively to an upper room in this persecuted country meeting with Christians. And I remember the trip leader asking the question in this room of 50 to 60 people, how many of you have been in prison for your faith? Half the hands in the room went up. And then the trip leader asked the question, how many of you have a loved one who has been martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ? Five or six hands went up.

[18:56] And we wept together. But then we began to sing hymns to God and began to worship God in song and pray. And loved ones, the joy of the Lord, the peace of God permeated the atmosphere. And you could sense the shift in the room. Loved ones, how many of you were here last Sunday in person?

[19:21] Was there something happening at our closing hymn?

[19:29] That goes beyond words, that as we offered praise to God, that the peace of God, the comfort of the Holy Spirit was among us?

[19:45] It's not a coincidence, and it's easy to miss this, that when Paul is teaching the church on the comfort that we can know in Christ, in union with Christ, even in suffering, Paul frames it in a way that he's modeling worshiping God. Do you see it in verse 3? Look how the verse starts. Blessed be God. Do you see what he's doing? You're going to find out next week, unless you've read ahead, that Paul actually writes this while he's suffering. And we're going to unpack that next week more deeply. But he's suffering. But yet while he's suffering, he's turning outside of himself. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's exalting God. He's moving beyond self-absorption in the suffering. And please, I don't say that as your pastor with insensitivity to the suffering we go through. I say it because I want to help you with the reality of what the Word of God

[20:47] is demonstrating for us this morning. Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforts us in our afflictions.

[20:59] That's what those Laotians knew in that persecuted country. That's what Brother Yun experienced, even in the furnace of affliction in a Chinese prison. Paul goes on to write that, yes, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions. He goes on to say, who comforts us so that, note that, and again, if you have a Bible open, And I would encourage you to circle the word so that we can see also what this is unto, that we may be able to comfort those in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's suffering, so also through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. And as we practice what the Bible refers to as the one another's in Scripture, love one another, build one another up in love, carry one another's burdens, pray for one another. As we practice these and make them verbs in our lives, God is ministering to one another, ministering to the body of Christ to also share comfort with others as they're suffering.

[22:14] My first appointment out of seminary, I've referred to this before, was as an associate pastor of a county seat church, Tuscumbia First Methodist in North Alabama. There was a lady in that community in Tuscumbia that over a period of about five years, she lost her husband. She had previously lost a son in war, and she lost her other two sons in car accidents. Different car accidents. And that's hard to wrap your head and heart around. And every time I was around her, I just marveled. Because while the suffering was real, she never sugarcoated the suffering. She knew a joy and peace in God that just didn't make sense rationally. And I would watch her.

[23:25] Somebody would go through the tragedy in a church and she was often the first one there not just in the church i was serving but in other churches in the city she would just show up and speak words of hope in people she was living this pattern living that as she knew comfort in Jesus, and she had learned to even praise him and not become self-absorbed.

[23:56] Now say that tenderly, loved ones. She had praised him in the storm. She knew a comfort from God that she wanted to encourage others who were going through tragedy and suffering to know that same comfort.

[24:11] That's what the love of God does. That's what we see Paul exhorting the church to live into, for all of us to live into. And he says in verses 6 and 7, if we are afflicted, it's for your comfort and salvation. It's because we're going to discover next week Paul's suffering as he's writing this. And if we're comforted, it's for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. And all of this is emanating out of the Apostle Paul's union with Jesus and the church's union with Jesus.

[25:00] And again, I remind you, church, our union with Jesus, your union with Jesus is not transactional. It's not just, okay, I'm in Christ. I've been delivered from the domain of darkness, and now I'm in a kingdom of light. It is that. But we do want to make much of that. But let's remember, this is a living union. And that's why the writer of Hebrews says, your relationship with Jesus is a new and living way. It's not like a cold rock. It's alive. You in Christ have a holy animation that comes from his presence, the person of the Holy Spirit. This union with Christ is intended to be a living union. It's not passive. It's active, and it's designed. He's designed to bring light and life into your circumstance.

[25:50] This is very personal. I sometimes cry when I share it, and I want you to know it may or may not happen. If I do, I'll get through it. Nobody, you don't need to come rescue me, okay?

[26:04] When I was a little boy, starting about seven years old.

[26:14] All I can remember in terms of when I would put my head on the pillow at night, was my mom and my dad arguing at the top of their lungs, and saying things that really a little boy shouldn't hear.

[26:36] And doing that into the night almost every night. And that went on for several years, and I can remember the night that I heard my dad come up the steps from the den, and I heard him walk down the hall and I heard the closet door open and I heard him pull out the leather suitcase I knew what was happening I heard the buckles pop I knew that was my dad's suitcase, I could hear the sound of the coat hangers on the coat rack being pulled off I could hear him putting clothes I could hear in the suitcase I could hear mom and dad arguing back and forth calling each other names, and dad locking the suitcase I heard him walk down the hall and walk out the front door and I heard my mom slam the door and I can still hear the sound of the door locking behind him. And my parents divorced. I was 10 years old at that time.

[27:53] At 10 years old, you don't have a category for the hurt that you feel. You don't have a category to name suffering. Because as a child, you just think what's happening, it's just your normal. You know something's off, but you don't know exactly how to name it.

[28:22] And so I would often sit and talk to my dog. This is one of the reasons I love dogs. And my dog would listen. I would just pour out my heart to my dog. He would just sit and listen. I know now, as a pastor, counselors will tell you that's called transference. And that was good. That was a part of God's provision. I believe that. That's a whole other conversation. But there was something else I did, that I didn't fully understand at the time. I look back now and I understand it, but there was a song we would sing often on the Sunday night church in the church I grew up in, called Love Lifted Me. And I would sing that song. And I'm not a very good singer. I know that, but I literally, as a child, in trying to just deal with that pain, love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else would help, love lifted me.

[29:44] And as I sing that song, I would sense a comfort. When I moved, even as a child, out of self-absorption and put my eyes on the Lord, even though I didn't understand everything that was happening, there was a comfort.

[30:13] And that's the pattern paul's unmodeling for you this morning the apostle, hear jesus words everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock, I want you to know I didn't read Jesus' words this morning in a spirit of asking if you're measuring up, I read you Jesus' words this morning because I want to remind you of what's possible in him, because in all of our lives there are going to be seasons have been, are, and will be seasons when the winds blow they beat on our house, but loved ones it doesn't have to fall I read you Jesus words to remind you of what's possible in him I read you Jesus words to remind you that he is good I read you Jesus words to encourage you that suffering does not have to win but Jesus genuinely offers, comfort and strength and pain.

[31:38] And I remind you, as the word says in 1 John, God is love. And that can sound so cheesy and trite to some people. But it's the truth that he does not have harm in his heart. He has good in his heart. Good for you. And even though you are not perfect, nor am I, God went to a cross in Christ because he knew that, he chose that, and it's rooted in his love so that imperfect people could be completely forgiven. And then reconciled in a living union with the Father. And that's unto many things. But one of the things it's unto is so that you can draw close to Him. And in drawing close, know His strength, His comfort, His love, and His power in your circumstance.

[33:00] In Jesus' name, amen. Let's pray.

[33:08] So, God, I particularly lift persons gathered here that are in seasons of suffering, grief, loss, and I pray, God, a bruised reed you will not break. And I pray that you draw near. I'm not asking that you take the pain away. but I pray, God, glorify your name through the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Come alongside and help.

[33:53] Strengthen, deliver, and build up, we pray, through the cross of Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, amen.