SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: In July of 2007, a nurse politely ushered my wife and I into a small somber gray room illuminated by icy cold fluorescent tubes flickering intermittently as if they're going to die any moment.
SPEAKER_00: On a cart, the nurse pushed into the room.
SPEAKER_00: A little human.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, so tiny but so noticeable was Annabelle's facial features.
SPEAKER_00: We got a mom's nose and my chin, and we sat there for I don't know how long, but we just couldn't explain the situation.
SPEAKER_00: There was no words, but I do remember Job said, The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Grabbed Annabelle one more time and handed her over to the nurse, and we left the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: It was a long and quiet drive back home.
SPEAKER_00: Almost seven years to the date during a routine ultrasound visit, I overheard the words fetal demise.
SPEAKER_00: Fetal demise?
SPEAKER_00: What is that?
SPEAKER_00: Those words sound familiar.
SPEAKER_00: We sat in the car after the doctor's ultrasound appointment for I don't know how long, but I just couldn't bring myself to say these words.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: A few days later, my wife was scheduled for a DNC, a procedure that should have lasted no more than an hour or so.
SPEAKER_00: But two hours into the surgery, the surgeon burst through the door saying, We have to make a decision.
SPEAKER_00: Your wife is losing a lot of blood, and we will lose her if we do not do emergency surgery on her.
SPEAKER_00: I said to the doctor, can I take some time to think and pray about it?
SPEAKER_00: He says, if you could do it quickly, that will help.
SPEAKER_00: My wife had to spend the next few days in the hospital, and we once again left a maternity ward empty-handed.
SPEAKER_00: It was a long and quiet drive back home.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Three years later, we're sitting in a waiting room and a nurse calls us into this little cubicle.
SPEAKER_00: Susanna, that's my wife's real name.
SPEAKER_00: We've got your test results back.
SPEAKER_00: You have stage two ductal carcinoma.
SPEAKER_00: Ductile what?
SPEAKER_00: Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Van Strauten, your wife has cancer.
SPEAKER_00: It was a long and quiet drive back home, and I could definitely not bring myself to say, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Human grief and sorrows are like waves of the sea.
SPEAKER_00: They roll in and out.
SPEAKER_00: Life often is lived in a sea of tears.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the Lord gives, and sometimes the Lord takes.
SPEAKER_00: But blessed be the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The heroes of the faith were not spared of pain, sorrow, and grief, and even they had to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis 37, verse 34, Jacob tore his clothes and grief.
SPEAKER_00: He put on sackcloth on his loins and mourned for the loss of Joseph for many days.
SPEAKER_00: It says he was inconsolable.
SPEAKER_00: Afflictions roll in like waves of the ocean into the life of David, the man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_00: First, he mourns the loss of a newborn in 2 Samuel 12, 23.
SPEAKER_00: And later in 12, 2 Samuel 13, 37, David mourned the loss of a rebellious son, Absalom.
SPEAKER_00: Job mourns loss.
SPEAKER_00: First, his wealth, then he lost all his children, and then his health went.
SPEAKER_00: And Job in Job 1.21 says, The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What type of person says this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the apostle Paul was certainly familiar with affliction, grief, and pain, and many sorrows, and yet in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 3, he said, Blessed be the God and Father.
SPEAKER_00: Both Job and Paul, despite grief, pain, and affliction, says, Blessed be God.
SPEAKER_00: Now passage here contains valuable truths that I will aim to unpack for us, but there are so many lessons here from other people.
SPEAKER_00: I will use examples from the life of Jacob, Job, David, and Paul, but we will also learn today that our God reveals himself as the God of compassion and that he is the God of all comfort.
SPEAKER_00: And hence the title of my message, The God of Comfort, Compassion and All Comfort.
SPEAKER_00: People are often consolable, inconsolable when they experience loss.
SPEAKER_00: They are often looking for something, but they don't really know what they are looking for and where to find it.
SPEAKER_00: God's people in turn find themselves at a loss of words.
SPEAKER_00: They are wanting to be sensitive and caring towards somebody in grief, but often they don't know what to say or what to do.
SPEAKER_00: There's so much fear and uncertainty, and how do we comfort somebody who has gone through some painful experiences?
SPEAKER_00: Yet God's people are told that they are God's children and that he is the father of all compassion and comfort.
SPEAKER_00: They are comfortered in order to be comforters.
SPEAKER_00: This is the message of 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3 and 4.
SPEAKER_00: Have the slide up there, but you're welcome to follow along in your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll read this for us.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the God and Father.
SPEAKER_00: And that sounds like Job, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's a very Jewish thing that Paul is doing here.
SPEAKER_00: Baruch Hashem.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the name.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that, notice the so that, 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.
SPEAKER_00: For as we share abundantly in Christ's suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
SPEAKER_00: This passage is surely about suffering, grief, and sorrows.
SPEAKER_00: But there are three things I want to highlight here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Firstly, is that God is the father of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: God is the father of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, that God is the God of all comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Verse four.
SPEAKER_00: And then we will learn that God comforts us in order to comfort others.
SPEAKER_00: God's compassion is the one side of a coin, and his comfort is the other side of a coin.
SPEAKER_00: But like a gold coin, God deposits that into our lives for the purpose of comforting others, no matter their affliction.
SPEAKER_00: Firstly, God is the father of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Now you may ask me how, Antonia, how do you see the word compassion in this passage?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it says here that blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies.
SPEAKER_00: That word mercy is a very rarely used Greek word.
SPEAKER_00: Very rarely used in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: But it's got a strong Old Testament connotation.
SPEAKER_00: In the Septugent, it's used ubiquitously.
SPEAKER_00: And it's translated compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Compassion.
SPEAKER_00: And I will make a case here that I think that this is probably better translated as the father of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: It will make it very consistent with how the Greek word is used in the Greek Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: That he is the God of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Give you an example.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 4.31.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord your God is a compassionate God.
SPEAKER_00: He's a compassionate God.
SPEAKER_00: He will not fail you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers, which he swore to them.
SPEAKER_00: So God is there, ultimately identified as the God that is compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: We often say mercy is not getting what we deserve.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's just one little slice of the rich meaning of the word mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy, in a sense, have connotations with sympathy, pity, and mostly the word compassion.
SPEAKER_00: On one rare occasion, this word is translated as compassion.
SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of confusion when you look at uh Romans 9, verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: But he quotes there, he says, For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion.
SPEAKER_00: There's that same Greek word, compassion on whom I have compassion.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why the translators didn't just pick to use the word compassion, but I guess it's kind of an archaic word.
SPEAKER_00: We don't use it that much today.
SPEAKER_00: And so I would identify here that God is the father of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 3.12 translates that very same word.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says to the people of Colossae, he says, put on a heart of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: You be compassionate like God is compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me try and uh wade through the English here a little bit, uh, because we have English words like empathy, sympathy, right?
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me split them apart for you a little bit uh here.
SPEAKER_00: Compassion and mercy is very similar in meaning theologically, and compassion and sympathy through the old testament, it is it's synonymous.
SPEAKER_00: And so in the sermon, I'm gonna use the words sympathy and compassion interchangeably because they so closely connected.
SPEAKER_00: Sympathy is the desire to share in the pain of someone, even choosing to suffer with that person.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to show sympathy.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Job's friends?
SPEAKER_00: They came out to meet him and to show sympathy to him.
SPEAKER_00: Show sympathy.
SPEAKER_00: If you have the ESV, you will see that Job's friends came out to show him compassion interchangeably.
SPEAKER_00: We can use the word compassion and sympathy interchangeably.
SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, empathy is such a popular word today.
SPEAKER_00: People want to go, well, you got to show empathy.
SPEAKER_00: I have not really found any evidence in the Bible for empathy.
SPEAKER_00: Empathy, by definition, is the ability to understand or relate with someone's experiences.
SPEAKER_00: The ability to understand and relate with someone's experience.
SPEAKER_00: Be as it may, you had a similar experience.
SPEAKER_00: Now you can relate with that person.
SPEAKER_00: If you can't relate with this person, well, sorry you can't show empathy.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is not focusing on empathy.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible focuses on sympathy or compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Sympathy focuses on the ability to feel the person's pain regardless of one's own experience or understanding of the cause of their pain and affliction.
SPEAKER_00: And to better understand God's compassion, I'm gonna give you four aspects of God's compassion.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna move through these quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I want to be done by noon.
SPEAKER_00: Firstly, divine sympathy, or rather, divine compassion is an attribute of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus 34, 6.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious.
SPEAKER_00: God is a compassionate God.
SPEAKER_00: He's a sympathetic God.
SPEAKER_00: That's who he is.
SPEAKER_00: God is compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, he does and never fails to have compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Lamentation 3, 22 and 23.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's loving kindness indeed never cease, for his compassions never fail.
SPEAKER_00: We know that one.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a song.
SPEAKER_00: They are new every morning.
SPEAKER_00: Great is thy faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: God's compassion is is renewed every morning.
SPEAKER_00: They just there.
SPEAKER_00: One thing you can count on tomorrow morning is that God's compassion in you is going to be there.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, divine sympathy, or rather, divine compassion is like that of a father for his children.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think there's nothing that hurts a father than a child getting hurt, right?
SPEAKER_00: Dads?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you're like, yeah, you were stupid, but I feel sorry for you.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, that was not very smart to do.
SPEAKER_00: You should not have jumped off the table pretending you Batman.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: That cape has no value, and breaking your fall.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, Psalm 103, 13 says, just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
SPEAKER_00: Those who fear him means that the Christian, the saint, has God's compassion like a father has compassion on his children.
SPEAKER_00: Three, divine sympathy, or rather, divine compassion relates to the omniscience of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is omniscient, he knows.
SPEAKER_00: Well, just people often say, well, God just doesn't know.
SPEAKER_00: God hasn't lost his job.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't lose a wife.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't lose a parent.
SPEAKER_00: Well yet in uh Exodus 3, verse 7, God says, I know their suffering.
SPEAKER_00: God is omniscient and he knows.
SPEAKER_00: He knows.
SPEAKER_00: God knows everything and he knows everything perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: But through the second person of the God it, he knows experientially.
SPEAKER_00: Get this?
SPEAKER_00: He knows experientially.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 53, verse 3 says, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people have a problem in thinking that God cannot be sympathetic because you know God doesn't know what I'm going through.
SPEAKER_00: And it's true, God doesn't know what you're going through, but God is acquainted with sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Hebrews 4.15.
SPEAKER_00: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he was without sin.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 4.15.
SPEAKER_00: And again, then that word sympathize, you can put the word compassion in there.
SPEAKER_00: He can feel for you because he knows what is pain, he knows what is loss, he knows what is grief, he knows.
SPEAKER_00: Divine sympathy, or rather divine compassion, does not compromise God's perfection, holiness, and his unchangeable nature.
SPEAKER_00: God is not shocked when he hears bad news.
SPEAKER_00: He's not like us.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's rocked my life here.
SPEAKER_00: God is impassable.
SPEAKER_00: That's a word you can look up on the internet, the doctrine of impassability.
SPEAKER_00: And the doctrine of impassability says that God is not changed.
SPEAKER_00: He's unchangeable.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing affects him, nothing stuns him, nothing surprises him.
SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, God is not the tin man of the wizard of oz who has a brain but no heart.
SPEAKER_00: Because John 11, 35 says, What?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_00: Unless it was a show, but Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_00: And so God knows, He is intimately acquainted with our sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: And so what conclusion can we draw at this point?
SPEAKER_00: The verse there says, and 2 Corinthians 1 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Compass.
SPEAKER_00: You can pencil it in in your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's not sacrilegious.
SPEAKER_00: As the God of compassion, he certainly not only knows how to sympathize with us, he knows how to comfort us.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the thing is, if we don't have compassion, if we don't have sympathy, forget about giving comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: If you can't feel somebody's pain, you're not going to be able to comfort them, period.
SPEAKER_00: Because, like I said, the way that this verse is presented in the Bible is that it's a it's one coin.
SPEAKER_00: On the one side you have compassion, and the other side you have comfort, and they have to go back to back.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at this other aspect in this passage, and that deals with God's comfort.
SPEAKER_00: The Father of mercies or compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our afflictions.
SPEAKER_00: Do you notice something there?
SPEAKER_00: God of what type of comfort?
SPEAKER_00: A certain type of comfort?
SPEAKER_00: Only the comforts that he can cover is the God of what?
SPEAKER_00: All.
SPEAKER_00: And what type of affliction?
SPEAKER_00: What type of affliction can he comfort?
SPEAKER_00: If you have the NSB, all.
SPEAKER_00: If you have the ESV, any.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if all of any makes all the difference, but there's nothing outside the scope of God's comfort.
SPEAKER_00: His comfort is comprehensive, he is comf is all sufficient, and it's all complete.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we need no other comfort than God's comfort, and nothing can substitute.
SPEAKER_00: God's comfort.
SPEAKER_00: There's no substitute for God's comfort.
SPEAKER_00: It is the comforts of all comforts.
SPEAKER_00: Everything else is matchless to God's comfort.
SPEAKER_00: But lo and behold, his comfort is effectual and efficient.
SPEAKER_00: It accomplishes something.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll explain that to you soon.
SPEAKER_00: One author speaks of this comfort that God gives.
SPEAKER_00: It's a presidency verb, showing that God comforts us constantly, unfailingly, not spasmodically or intermittently, and he does so in all our affliction, not just certain kinds of afflictions.
SPEAKER_00: If God was empathetic, it would be limiting him.
SPEAKER_00: But because he's sympathetic, he can comfort us in all kinds of afflictions without affliction exception.
SPEAKER_00: This Greek word, comfort, is fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: Parakaleo.
SPEAKER_00: You can throw that around at lunch.
SPEAKER_00: Para kaleo, and people will think you very smart.
SPEAKER_00: But it's got a variety of meanings.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's generally translated as comfort, but it's also translated as encourage.
SPEAKER_00: And it's also translated as help.
SPEAKER_00: I mean that's how tricky Greek is.
SPEAKER_00: When I left Saminary, my last Greek class, the professor said, you know now enough to be dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: It's tricky because that Greek word can take on many meanings.
SPEAKER_00: But here's a clue.
SPEAKER_00: John Wycliffe in the 14th century was responsible for translating the Bible into English.
SPEAKER_00: And he sees this word parakaleo.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, what shall we use in English?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And he's walking up and down, I don't know, watched a little TV, and then went back.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Paracaleo.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, aha! I've got the word comfort.
SPEAKER_00: We can translate it, comfort.
SPEAKER_00: And where does the understanding from of comfort come from?
SPEAKER_00: It comes from the Latin.
SPEAKER_00: The Latin root there in the word comfort is fortus.
SPEAKER_00: Where do we get the English fortitude?
SPEAKER_00: Courage.
SPEAKER_00: Strong, brave.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what one commentator says.
SPEAKER_00: He says the word comfort in modern day English has gone soft.
SPEAKER_00: The idea of comfort is to do something more than giving sentimental assurance.
SPEAKER_00: It's not some tranquilizing dose of empathy that only dulls the pain, but rather this word comfort in the old English meant to strengthen somebody or to encourage somebody.
SPEAKER_00: He says it's a stiffening agent that fortifies one in heart, mind, and soul.
SPEAKER_00: So this word comfort, when God gives us comfort, it's not just like a sentimental thing, like, yeah, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that gives us the strength to face tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: God's comfort is about strengthening weakness and sustaining sagging spirits so that one faces the troubles of life with unbending resolve.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: See what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: That God's comfort is an effectual comfort.
SPEAKER_00: It does something for you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some more ideas on this comfort thing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you four ways in which God comforts us and how he sustains sagging spirits and strengthens weak knees so that the saints can face tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, God's comfort oftentimes comes in the form of help and a solution.
SPEAKER_00: God comforts us is like, yeah, I fixed it for you.
SPEAKER_00: That helps.
SPEAKER_00: You know what happened with Jacob?
SPEAKER_00: Jacob was inconsolable after the loss of Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: And after many, many years, he's reunited.
SPEAKER_00: God ordains it for him to be reunited.
SPEAKER_00: And he says in uh Genesis 46, 30, uh I'm now reunited, now I can die.
SPEAKER_00: I'm good now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: Hannah, do you remember Hannah?
SPEAKER_00: Hannah was the unloved wife, unable to conceive.
SPEAKER_00: And in 1 Samuel 1, 17, she was praying, and then Eli the priest said, You will have a baby.
SPEAKER_00: God answered your prayer.
SPEAKER_00: God can fix things.
SPEAKER_00: David said in uh Psalm 86, 17, because you, Lord, have helped me and comfort it.
SPEAKER_00: God's help comforted him.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: But notice the word sometimes, not always, God doesn't always fix the situation, but he will comfort you.
SPEAKER_00: Point number two here.
SPEAKER_00: God's comfort usually takes the form of the promise of his presence.
SPEAKER_00: I find Psalm 23 fascinating in this aspect.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 23, verse 4, in the NIV says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
SPEAKER_00: Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
SPEAKER_00: Just this idea that God is with David, even though it be a rod and a staff that disciplines him, he's like, at least God is with me.
SPEAKER_00: And that, my dear friends, should trump everything in life.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, but no matter how things turn out, knowing that God is with you, that should say enough.
SPEAKER_00: At least God is with me.
SPEAKER_00: In the end, that's what we will have.
SPEAKER_00: The rod affliction gives the sheep the assurance that the shepherd is there.
SPEAKER_00: He is present with them, for you are with me.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 119, verse 76.
SPEAKER_00: Let your steadfast love comfort me according to the promise to your servant.
SPEAKER_00: God promises.
SPEAKER_00: His steadfast love is his covenant loyalty.
SPEAKER_00: He's there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here, there with you.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna be alone.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what you're going through, you're not alone.
SPEAKER_00: I'm with you.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that sometimes what we hunger for when we we are really sad?
SPEAKER_00: There's bad news, loss of someone.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to be lonely, do you?
SPEAKER_00: And even when you're lonely, God is with you.
SPEAKER_00: God is with you.
SPEAKER_00: The presence of God for David was a great assurance when he lost a newborn son and when he lost a rebellious son.
SPEAKER_00: And that comforted him, and that comfort gave him an unbending resolve to face tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, God's comfort comes in the form of scriptural truth.
SPEAKER_00: This book is probably the greatest source of comfort you will have, dear brother and sister.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can beat this.
SPEAKER_00: David says the following, Psalm 119, verse 50.
SPEAKER_00: He says, This is my comfort in my affliction that your word has revived me.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God is what strengthens and revives and gives us the fortitude to stand and face the troubles of life.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in Romans 15, 4, for whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures, the patience and the comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture is gonna teach you patience, and scripture is gonna give you comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: In one book.
SPEAKER_00: One book.
SPEAKER_00: You want to have a book on how to comfort people?
SPEAKER_00: Number four.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: This is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: This is really amazing.
SPEAKER_00: God comforts us by the indwelling of the divine comforter.
SPEAKER_00: What's another word for the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Quick test.
SPEAKER_00: Comforter, helper, encourager.
SPEAKER_00: Same root word as the word comfort there in 2 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: He is called the paraclete, the one who encourages, the one who strengthens, the one who helps, the one who comforts.
SPEAKER_00: And he indwells the believer.
SPEAKER_00: Here's John 14, 26.
SPEAKER_00: The old American Standard Version says, but the comfort, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring to remembrance what I've taught you.
SPEAKER_00: He is a comforter.
SPEAKER_00: The comforter dwells within us.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to go far to find help, dear brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: And so there you have it.
SPEAKER_00: God comforts us in at least four ways.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, helping, fixing things.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, giving us the assurance of his presence.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, giving us the truth of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And number four, giving us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God's comforting grace is his deposit.
SPEAKER_00: It is an investment into our lives for a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if we can all spot the purpose for which God comforts us.
SPEAKER_00: There's a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: See in red there?
SPEAKER_00: So that.
SPEAKER_00: It's either a result or a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: I've not figured that one out.
SPEAKER_00: It's either a purpose clause or a result clause.
SPEAKER_00: But either way, God does something so that we are able to do something.
SPEAKER_00: And what does he say there?
SPEAKER_00: He says, the God who comforts us in all our affliction does it so that we are doing the following: able to comfort those who are in any affliction.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that is huge.
SPEAKER_00: We know comfort as Christians, and now we can give comfort to others.
SPEAKER_00: We know what is compassion, now we can give compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Now, once again, Christians often because they've been influenced by modern uh thinking on comfort, uh they they go down this pathway of empathy.
SPEAKER_00: And and when they think about empathy, they go, oh, I can't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: I've never lost anything.
SPEAKER_00: I've never lost a family member, a child, or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: I never had bad news given to me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh life was good this far, so I can't I can't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: Forget about empathy.
SPEAKER_00: Empathy is not a biblical thing.
SPEAKER_00: We seldom will be able to relate with a person.
SPEAKER_00: We will seldom understand the cause or the source of their trouble.
SPEAKER_00: But empathy is not the point, period.
SPEAKER_00: What is the point is that we are compassionate, just like God is compassionate, we must be able to show sympathy because we have been shown God's sympathy, but we will also be comforted by God in that same comfort.
SPEAKER_00: We are now able to comfort others.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 3.12 says, so as those who have been chosen by God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Once again, I'm often shocked at Christians how cold-hearted they can be.
SPEAKER_00: They've got no clue.
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you a quick story.
SPEAKER_00: I'm over time.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see how much I owe you.
SPEAKER_00: We can sit here for a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: I had a friend, very godly man, Josiah Grauman.
SPEAKER_00: And he was the chaplain at the USC Medical Center in Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_00: Rough place.
SPEAKER_00: Woman comes in.
SPEAKER_00: She wants to have an abortion.
SPEAKER_00: She wants a chaplain.
SPEAKER_00: Josiah meets with her.
SPEAKER_00: Josiah says to her, I don't think you should have this abortion.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be bad.
SPEAKER_00: And he gives her all the reasons.
SPEAKER_00: He gives her scripture, he gives her the gospel, she says, I'm gonna think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Next day, he's doing the rounds.
SPEAKER_00: He hears a woman sobbing profusely in a room, and he takes a peek.
SPEAKER_00: Guess who it is?
SPEAKER_00: The woman who he told not to have the abortion.
SPEAKER_00: She's oh Pastor, come here.
SPEAKER_00: I was looking for you.
SPEAKER_00: She's not pregnant.
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: I I took the abortion and I'm crushed.
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: This will always stick with me.
SPEAKER_00: You know what a Josiah said?
SPEAKER_00: I prayed that God will give me compassion.
SPEAKER_00: And we're like, tell us what you did, Josiah.
SPEAKER_00: Did you open up the scriptures and just whack her over the head with the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: He said, No, I whipped.
SPEAKER_00: I wept with her.
SPEAKER_00: Can you and I do that?
SPEAKER_00: If we can't show compassion, the compassion of God, forget about comforting people.
SPEAKER_00: But we as Christians, we are probably the most comforted people in the universe.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna turn here to the Heidelberg Catechism because I can't think of a better way of explaining this to you.
SPEAKER_00: We know what it is to be comforted as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Question one, the first Sunday of the Heidelberg Catechism.
SPEAKER_00: What is your only comfort in life and death?
SPEAKER_00: Question.
SPEAKER_00: What is your only comfort in life and death?
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
SPEAKER_00: Answer, Pat answer.
SPEAKER_00: We as kids had to memorize this and recite it adverbum.
SPEAKER_00: That I am not my own, but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He has faithfully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and he has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Christ by his Holy Spirit assures me of eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Your problems are solved.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is huge.
SPEAKER_00: This is huge.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how things go, you're not your own.
SPEAKER_00: You belong to Jesus' body, soul in life and in death.
SPEAKER_00: He's paid for your sins by his precious blood, and you've been freed by the tyranny of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: And no matter how things work out, you're gonna be with them.
SPEAKER_00: How about sharing that?
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Josiah did.
SPEAKER_00: He says, after I wept with her, I gave her the good news of Jesus Christ once more.
SPEAKER_00: Dear brothers and sisters, difficulties beset us so that God might bestow much comfort on us.
SPEAKER_00: But such comfort is not merely for our own benefit.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord entrusts His comfort to us that we might share it with others.
SPEAKER_00: And again, we are so influenced by humanistic and philosophical thinking that we say to yourself, I can't help.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't had a similar experience.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand this complex situation.
SPEAKER_00: So I would rather not say something or do something because I fear I would mess it up.
SPEAKER_00: They probably need to go to see a professional or somebody else needs to help them, but I'm not the person.
SPEAKER_00: And then I would ask you, dear brothers and sisters, have you been comforted in life and death by Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is yes, and is like, okay, now you go.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this passage is saying.
SPEAKER_00: So that we are able to comfort others.
SPEAKER_00: We like, well, this person is going through a lot.
SPEAKER_00: I better not say something, I better not do something, because they're probably so overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_00: That's the worst thing you could do.
SPEAKER_00: Not engaging somebody who's going through a trial, no matter what, not engaging them is not an answer.
SPEAKER_00: It's more damaging to not than to.
SPEAKER_00: Saying nothing is not better than saying something.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you illustration that would help you understand.
SPEAKER_00: At the time of Annabelle's death in 2007, our very, very close dear friends were silent.
SPEAKER_00: They were gone.
SPEAKER_00: And here we mourning, my wife and I.
SPEAKER_00: And we did not hear from them for several weeks, if it wasn't a month or two.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, by some strange event, we get together with them and we said, why didn't you talk to us?
SPEAKER_00: Where were you?
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't you visit us?
SPEAKER_00: Their answer was perplexing to me.
SPEAKER_00: They said, We didn't know what to say.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't do that, but I was thinking.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it would be hard.
SPEAKER_00: We love these folk, and praise God, they've grown to be great supporters and in our journey.
SPEAKER_00: But they said we kept on rethinking what to do and what to say, and we every time we like, well, we don't understand, we don't have a category for this, we don't have experience.
SPEAKER_00: We we've got to do more harm.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're not gonna do more harm.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be doing more harm by not saying anything or not doing anything.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the idea of comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Comfort, sympathy, let me explain this.
SPEAKER_00: Sympathy is more feeling-oriented, right?
SPEAKER_00: Comfort is more deed-oriented.
SPEAKER_00: Either what you say or do, but there needs to be action.
SPEAKER_00: Comfort is action-oriented.
SPEAKER_00: And so, my dear friends, say something or do something.
SPEAKER_00: Say and do something.
SPEAKER_00: It's better than doing nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a few biblical examples.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis 50 21, uh, Joseph finally meets up with these scoundrel brothers, and he felt compassion on them.
SPEAKER_00: He felt sorry for them, and it says there, then he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
SPEAKER_00: Just think of anything kind to say.
SPEAKER_00: How difficult can that be?
SPEAKER_00: Just think of anything kind to say.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a proud of gazillion kind words that you could use from this book.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Uh just say something.
SPEAKER_00: Boaz comforted Ruth.
SPEAKER_00: He spoke kindly to her, but he also did something for her.
SPEAKER_00: He gave her.
SPEAKER_00: Food, shelter, and protection.
SPEAKER_00: Ruth 2.13.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said, I uh then she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, for you have comforted me.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, how did you comfort me, Boaz?
SPEAKER_00: You spoke kindly to me.
SPEAKER_00: People thrive on kind words.
SPEAKER_00: But he also did something for her.
SPEAKER_00: He gave her barley because it was the barley harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Job 42.11.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if I've got this slide.
SPEAKER_00: Is it big enough?
SPEAKER_00: This is so cool here.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is from the ESV.
SPEAKER_00: Job 42.11.
SPEAKER_00: These are now the brothers and sisters of Job.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the brothers and the sisters of Job.
SPEAKER_00: And they showed him sympathy and comforted him.
SPEAKER_00: Sympathy and comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Compassion and comfort.
SPEAKER_00: And it says that each one gave him a piece of money and a gold ring.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, come on, let's get you, let's get you a nice pair of clothing.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to comb your hair.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to put your gold and yeah, your bank account's wiped out.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just, you know, get your 401k taken care of.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: One less thing to worry about.
SPEAKER_00: You see the combination of compassion and comfort, sympathy and comfort, they go back to back.
SPEAKER_00: One is feeling oriented and attitude oriented.
SPEAKER_00: The other one is action-oriented.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can, dear brothers and sisters, and we must comfort people.
SPEAKER_00: I love this one.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Thessalonians 4.17.
SPEAKER_00: If we don't know what to say to people, tell them simply this.
SPEAKER_00: One day this will all be over, and you will be with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're with Jesus, it's going to be okay.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you're not going to think about it.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Thessalonians 4.17.
SPEAKER_00: Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together.
SPEAKER_00: There's that rapture word that we don't like, uh, or some like.
SPEAKER_00: We're raptured, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But what's the point of the rapture?
SPEAKER_00: To be together with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to meet him.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care where your rapture theory sits, you know, pre-primatrib, post-trip, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: The point is you're going to meet Jesus in the clouds.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what.
SPEAKER_00: I know things are terrible right now, but you're going to meet him up in the clouds.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be good.
SPEAKER_00: I know you've got fear of heights, but it's going to be okay.
SPEAKER_00: And what do you say this, Anton?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
SPEAKER_00: Woo! Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Revelation 21, verse 3 and 4 say, Once we meet with Jesus and we with them, everything's going to be okay.
SPEAKER_00: Everything's going to be okay.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: And I heard a loud voice from the throat saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
SPEAKER_00: You are with God now.
SPEAKER_00: You're with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them.
SPEAKER_00: Can you see how many times it says he's going to be with us?
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be with them.
SPEAKER_00: And then comes the party.
SPEAKER_00: Neither shall they be any mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things are gone.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't these assuring things we could tell people?
SPEAKER_00: I know this sounds like cheap comfort, but it's not.
SPEAKER_00: For David, you are with me.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 23.
SPEAKER_00: For the people who are persecuted in Thessalonica, this is going to be over.
SPEAKER_00: This is going to be over.
SPEAKER_00: Just think of it.
SPEAKER_00: You got to meet Jesus in the air.
SPEAKER_00: I had a guy once always when you see him, he would say, if I see you not here, I will see you there, or I will see you up in the air.
SPEAKER_00: And I, you know that?
SPEAKER_00: But that's that's kind of cool because we will be with him.
SPEAKER_00: And the tears will be wiped off.
SPEAKER_00: God is just so cool.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be with us.
SPEAKER_00: He will wipe away your tears, dear brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: And your mourning will be over.
SPEAKER_00: Your crying will be done, and pain will be no more.
SPEAKER_00: For the first things have passed away.
SPEAKER_00: So, dear friends, you're you're some practicalities.
SPEAKER_00: Say something.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know what to say, turn to this book, say something.
SPEAKER_00: Read a psalm, pray a psalm, pray with somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just pray for somebody, pray with them.
SPEAKER_00: But if you've got any other ideas, here they are.
SPEAKER_00: Bake a cake, wash a car, scrub a floor, babysit a child, run to the store, snowplow a driveway, rake a lawn, pay a bill, write a check, buy a gift cup, make a call, go to the doctor's with them, go to the funeral home with them, pick out a coffin, pick up a kid from piano lessons, make lunch, make supper, go to soccer practice, even take out the trash.
SPEAKER_00: These things make huge differences.
SPEAKER_00: I remember during the time we had seminary, life is hard, we poor, just lost a baby.
SPEAKER_00: And here this family comes.
SPEAKER_00: Knock on the door.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a tray.
SPEAKER_00: Man, this could have been made in in some hotel.
SPEAKER_00: Little little glasses with like cocktail umbrellas, terramasu.
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, yeah, we brought you dinner.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, this is a spread.
SPEAKER_00: This is supper.
SPEAKER_00: And we eating away.
SPEAKER_00: We're like we we we forgetting.
SPEAKER_00: We we we we hurting, but but here's some calm.
SPEAKER_00: And there I see a little gift card to Applebee's.
SPEAKER_00: You might go, wow.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you.
SPEAKER_00: I knew at some point I'll take my wife to Applebee's.
SPEAKER_00: This too will be over.
SPEAKER_00: One day, this will be over.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna be at Applebee's, you're gonna sit at Jesus' table.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.