Well, I welcome you, and we're glad that you've come to worship Christ with us. I wanna welcome the people watching online, and even this week, got some real nice feedback from people watching in different venues, different places, some out of state even. And I'm just thankful that we have people that are serving Christ here by doing this. I have really nothing to do with it, but just making the ministry of Trinity available. to those who would choose to participate. Some of our own people here who just aren't able physically to come, but they are still able to be a part, in a sense, of our church family. And we welcome all of you. I'm excited about this new series in 2 Corinthians. And we'll continue today. It's our second message in 2 Corinthians. The theme, I'm calling it Gospel Ministry. There are verses in the Bible that are awesome. And we love them. There are verses that just encourage us to think good thoughts about God, and they comfort us. And we sometimes memorize them by accident because we just read them, and the next thing you know, I know it. Sometimes they show up on coffee mugs, maybe on T-shirts, I don't know. And I think this is one of them, 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3. Paul says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort. you could preach easily a whole message on that one verse and not do anything except talk about God in light of that verse, and you would be blessed, and I would be blessed, and that's awesome. I've heard sermons on this verse. Now, one of the things I want to do when I'm preaching through a book is I want to help us understand why this verse is here. And this week, I have not only continued to be blessed by this verse, I have been doubly blessed because I'm understanding better why Paul said this. And as we look at the context of the verse this morning, my prayer for you is that you will have the joy that I've experienced this week, because this verse has ministered grace in my life this week in new ways, because I'm seeing it in the context of the book. Now, for that to happen, we're going to have to cover some background information, especially at the beginning of the message today. And so I hope you'll do your best to pay attention, and even if it seems to be a little bit academic, I hope you'll hang in there, because it'll really help us to get to a place that I think will be very heartwarming. You say, what are you talking about? We're talking about Paul's letter that we call 2 Corinthians, written to the city of Corinth, the church in the city of Corinth. Now, let's just do a quick review. And those of you that have been reading your Bible and have been Christians for a while, I don't think you'll hear anything new. I just want to remind you perhaps of what you already know. Corinth was a well-known city, famous or renowned for a thriving commerce. I mean, this was really kind of a cosmopolitan, financially secure city. And I think if I could remind you what it looks like geographically, it'll remind you why that's so. I put up here a picture of the second missionary journey, Paul's missionary journey. And I know that might be a little bit hard to see. He's leaving over here from Antioch, and he's heading out all the way through Asia, up into Europe, and he establishes the church at Corinth. And there's a little bit of a bigger picture that hopefully makes it more clear. If you look kind of down towards the bottom left corner of that picture, I think you could see right above Achaia is the city of Corinth. Notice there's a land bridge. So if you're taking goods east-west on the Mediterranean, it's a very nice thing to be able to just sail right up towards Corinth and then your goods could be unloaded and then you could pass them over the land bridge and then reload them on the other side going east or west. Or what they did with actually some smaller boats is they left the boats loaded and they actually would take logs and they would pull the boat over that little land bridge. Now, there's also commerce going on north and south. And so, here you are in this incredibly financially successful, business-savvy city. Corinth was famous for that, but it was also renowned for its athletic events. They had there what are called the Isthmian Games. They would be very similar today to our Olympics. Very popular. People would come from all over the known world. Kind of like the Olympic Games, but they also had chariot racing, which I think would be pretty cool. But they also had poetry contests, and they had various other types of art items that would take place. Here's this well-known city of Corinth. That happens every other year. In addition to that, it was renowned for its pagan temples. And at the top of the list is the temple of Aphrodite, and she's the goddess of fertility, This is a widely known temple that boasted an exceeding number of temple prostitutes. And part of the worship of the false god there would be engaging in prostitution with the priestesses. That was life in Corinth. And that sounds shocking to us. It wasn't shocking in Corinth. It was a city that was renowned for its sexual immorality. As many of you have heard, if you wanted to refer to sexual sin, you would just refer to Corinthian behavior. To Corinthianize was to engage in sexual immorality. To call a girl a Corinthian girl was to say something very derogatory about her. That's the city of Corinth. That's the kind of place that Paul goes to on his second missionary journey. And he shares the gospel. And people come to follow Jesus Christ in the midst of a culture that is absolutely ungodly in every way. Keep all of that in mind. Now let's talk a little bit about Paul and the Corinthian church there. As we've already mentioned, he establishes the church on his second missionary journey. He shares the Gospel with people. People put faith in Christ. The believers come together. And then there's a church. You say, what happens next? Paul goes on, as you know, a third missionary journey. And I want to review that a little bit. Now, the third missionary journey, he's going to again leave Antioch, and he's going to head for Europe, and he's going to head to Corinth, but he's not going to go there right away, close up. Paul is going to spend a lot of time, bottom right-hand corner, in Ephesus. Ephesus is going to be a key place for the Apostle Paul and for us to understand this letter, okay? So Paul is in the city of Ephesus, and he knows things at Corinth are a mess. They are tolerating sexual immorality in the church. And that is so wrong that Paul writes a letter. And what do we call that letter? We call that letter the lost letter. We don't have it. But we know it was written from 1 Corinthians 5-9. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5-9, I wrote to you previously. So when we read 1 Corinthians, we know there's an early letter. So this first letter, sometimes we would call the lost letter. So Paul writes the previous letter. It's a letter of rebuke. And he writes it on his third missionary journey. He writes it from Ephesus. Question. How does the people in Corinth respond? First thing is they misunderstand the letter. And that's why in 1 Corinthians 5-9 Paul says, I need to clarify this for you. Paul writes a second letter. Paul's second letter is our 1 Corinthians. Why does he write it? Because he has to clarify the first letter. I don't want to spend too much time on this. I preached through 1 Corinthians. But Paul said, you guys are tolerating sexual immorality in the church. You know what the believer said? We are going to be separatists. We are going to separate ourselves from ungodly, sexually immoral people in the world. That's what we're going to do. And Paul said, wrong! That's not what I said. I didn't say separate yourself from sexually immoral people in the world because then you have to leave the world and you can't do that. Don't allow sexual immorality in the church. So he writes 1 Corinthians to clarify their misunderstanding. Secondly, he writes 1 Corinthians because the Corinthians had a lot of questions. And those of you who are familiar with 1 Corinthians know that there's a little phrase that pops up at least four times, if I'm thinking correctly, now concerning the things about which you wrote. And they have questions for Paul. And they ask Paul questions about marriage and meat offered to idols and spiritual gifts and an offering. And that's in 1 Corinthians 7-16. He thirdly not only wants to clarify the previous letter, the lost letter, answer the questions they had, he needs to address other problems that are going on at Corinth. You say, name a few. How about incest, lawsuits, prostitution, idolatry, and drunkenness, just to name a few. So that's why we have Paul's letter that we call 1 Corinthians. That's why he wrote that. Actually, most would believe his second letter. You say, how is that letter received? Not so well. And so Paul is still burdened. And so even though he's on his third missionary journey and he hasn't even made it to Corinth yet, most people believe that he actually makes a quick visit to Corinth. And commentators call this the painful visit. Because what happened there was very painful. He again is rebuking this young church and they're not responding well to him. And Paul is so burdened. Why don't they want to just fully embrace Christ and live it out? And it's a challenge. So he leaves Corinth, goes back to Ephesus, and he writes his third letter. And we call it, commentators call it, the severe letter. And he really, he kind of puts the hammer down. And he makes it very clear. You guys are followers of Jesus. You have to live godly lives. You cannot tolerate. I know you live in a cesspool of sin. It can't be in the church. Now, he sends it by way of Titus. Please don't think, Greg, this is a little bit overwhelming, the information. You have to know this, or the first almost half dozen, at least five chapters of 2 Corinthians aren't gonna make sense, because what's going on, we'll read about this in the weeks to come, is Paul writes the severe letter and he gives it to Titus, and Titus takes it to Corinth. Titus is supposed to come and meet Paul in Troas and say, Paul, here's what happened. Titus doesn't show. Paul loves the church at Corinth. And he's thinking they may reject the Gospel. They may reject his teaching. Where is Titus? You know what Paul does? He's in Troas ministering the Gospel. The Bible says the door is wide open, and he says, no more, I'm out of here. I am so anxious, I've got to find Titus. I don't know if you've ever heard somebody say, I'm going to stay right here as long as God keeps the door open. and I'm not leaving until God shuts the door. I'll just give this as one example of where the Apostle Paul didn't do that. The door was open, and Paul said, I've got to go find Titus. What's happening in Corinth? Paul finally finds Titus. You say, what did he receive? Good news and bad news. Good news, the church did not reject Jesus Christ. The church continues to believe the gospel, and the church is still receptive to the Apostle Paul as a whole. Bad news. The bad news is there is a group of false teachers, some call super apostles, and that phrase will come up later in our study, many, many weeks from now. And they're saying that Paul is really not an apostle. You say, how do you know Paul's not an apostle? Paul says, okay, I'm going to have to deal with this issue. He writes 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians is a letter where Paul is defending his ministry. And let me clarify, if someone attacks me and I defend myself, that could be a pride thing. Let's remind ourselves, guys, Paul is an apostle. To attack him is to attack the gospel. So when Paul is defending himself, it's not like, hey, don't give me a hard time, I want to have a nice life. He is defending the gospel that he preaches. So he writes 2 Corinthians and he's arguing that the false apostles, the super apostles, the guys who were against him are wrong, that he actually has the apostolic authority to do what he's doing. That's 2 Corinthians. His fourth letter, the second canonical letter, we know is 2 Corinthians. Now, if you're thinking, if you're with me, I hope you're with me. What were these people saying Paul was guilty of? Well, I think knowing that will understand us what we're going to read in just a little bit. Let me hit that real quick. Here's the objections to the Apostle Paul's ministry. Ready? The guy's fickle in his travel plans. Paul's the kind of guy who says, you know what? I'm going to visit you here, and then I'm going to go there. And he doesn't always do what he says. He changes his plans. We'll address that as time goes on. Secondly, he lacks apostolic credentials. You know, if you're an apostle, you're supposed to have letters from churches that basically say, yep, we testify, Paul is an apostle. Where are Paul's letters? We're not seeing them. Number three, Paul is not a dynamic speaker. Boy, there's applications for today, right? Would you listen to a boring speaker who loves Jesus and preaches the gospel well? Would you believe you can be a godly man and be a boring speaker? See, back then, rhetoric was such a big deal that they said, God's hand is not on this guy's life. He might be good at writing letters, but in person he's nothing. He's not the kind of guy you're going to listen to his podcast, I assure you. And they were putting him down because of that. But more than that, he's not even effective in reaching his own people. I mean, come on, Paul, you're sharing the gospel with all these Gentiles. Can I remind you something? You're Jewish. Where are all the Jewish converts, Paul? I mean, if you're such a great apostle, how come your own people aren't following Jesus? Paul will address that in 2 Corinthians. But here's the one we're gonna spend our time with today. Paul is a man who experienced great suffering. And guys, if you are God's man, and the hand of God is on you, wouldn't you have a blessed life? Wouldn't you? If you're really a great leader, wouldn't you have a church as big as the church where Joel Osteen preaches? Wouldn't you have a head of hair like Joel Osteen? Wouldn't you have white teeth like Joel Osteen? Wouldn't you have a pretty wife like Joel Osteen? I got that one. Okay? Wouldn't you have all of those things? Because isn't that what God does? And if you suffer, and maybe your health's not good, and maybe your speaking ability's not good, and maybe you're not the kind of guy who looks like Mr. Success, then obviously, God's not blessing you. That's what the false teachers were saying. And Paul has a response. And specifically, that last point is the point that you'll see covered and addressed even as we begin reading 2 Corinthians 1. I'll begin reading today in verse 3. Notice the emphasis that there will be on suffering. There's a reason He's answering His critics. 2 Corinthians 1, beginning in verse 3. 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'll be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. Or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort. I called the message this morning, Praise the God of All Comfort, and we're going to have three simple points, and the first one may seem obvious, but I would suggest practical experience shows me it's not as obvious as you may think. The Christian life abounds with suffering. That's our first point. I picked those words carefully, and I'd like to explain why. Let's begin, first of all, with the Christian life. Notice verse 3, please. Paul says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, and we worship Him as our Lord. Paul is talking to Christians, and he's speaking as a Christian. So my point is the Christian life abounds with suffering. Why would I use the word suffering? Well, I'm reading from a New American Standard. The word affliction or suffering occurs eight times between verses 4 and 8. In my translation, affliction occurs four times. Twice in verse four, also in verse six and verse eight. The word suffering occurs in verse five, twice in verse six, again in verse seven. Put four and four together, I have eight references to suffering and affliction. And if that's not enough, guys, check out how Paul ends verse eight. He says in verse 8, We do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves. Now certainly if you were reading this and looking for any one word that stuck out, no doubt it would be the word comfort. And between verse 3 and verse 7, you will find the word comfort repeated no less than ten times. But can I quickly remind you, you don't need to be comforted unless you're suffering. When you're having an awesome day and someone says, I want to comfort you, you're like, whatever. The very fact that there's an emphasis on comfort also supports the point, the Christian life abounds with suffering. You say, Greg, why would you put abounds? Do you know, I actually had it worded initially something like this, the Christian life includes suffering, but the text changed my mind. Would you look at verse 5, please? Just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance. The word abundance means to overflow. Have you ever been going down the street and a water main has popped or broke, and there's just water flowing right out of the asphalt? And I mean, the whole street is flooded? and it just goes and goes and goes. That's affliction. That's suffering in the life of a Christian. That's why I use the word abounds because that's the word Paul used. I'm making the point, guys, that suffering as Christians should not surprise us. It clearly was part of Paul's life Can I remind you it was part of Jesus' life? Notice verse 5, please. Just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance. Now, and I'm okay with this, by the way. Theologically, here's what normally commentaries do right here. The sufferings of Christ are ours. How? What does that mean? Those are valid questions. I'm not going to deal with that today. I want to deal with the more simple question. Did Jesus suffer? Yes. The sufferings of Christ can't be mine unless Jesus suffered. Jesus, God in the flesh, had a life of suffering. And we sometimes push back, if I could say it that way, we think if God's hand of blessing were on you, your life would be awesome. I mean, your job would be going well, money would be going well, school would be going well. You would have a together life. If God's hand of blessing were on you, you wouldn't be suffering. And I think that is a common way of thinking. We see it in the apostles, right? Mark 8, just one encourage, Jesus began to teach them, the Son of Man, that's Him, must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. That in itself just boggles my mind. Rebuking Jesus. Peter. Because he was so clear in his mind that if God's hand of blessing is on you, you don't suffer. Jesus is God. Jesus wouldn't suffer. And you may think, Greg, that's in the false prosperity gospel. You've already mentioned Joel Osteen is one person that teaches that. I don't think that's alive and well at Trinity. I'm just going to be very honest with you. I think it's more in our church than we realize. I think it's more in my heart than I realize. Have you ever been surprised when you suffer? Have you ever been angry when you suffered? Have you ever heard a Christian say something like this? Where is God? Stop. Can we just unpack that? Where is God? Okay, what do you mean? Look at my life. My kids are a mess. My parents are a mess. My marriage is a mess. My finances are a mess. My health is a mess. Like, where is God? Guys, stop and think. So you're telling me if you believe in Jesus, you're not supposed to suffer. Oh, no, I don't believe that. That's like the health and wealth gospel. I don't believe that. So why are you asking me where is God? Well, Greg, you don't see. See, Greg, I've been suffering, and I'm praying, and it's not going away, so God doesn't love me, right? And I say, where in the Bible does it tell you that if you put your faith in Jesus, you would never suffer? I'm reading Paul suffering frequently. I read of Jesus, my Lord and Savior, suffering. Did you honestly think you're better than Jesus? Why would you think you wouldn't suffer? People say, I cry out to God and I don't think He hears me. Why would you say that? Well, because He's not taking away my pain. Why do you think He would take away your pain? Well, because I'm one of his children. I understand that and I rejoice in that. But why would you think that means you were never going to suffer? Why? Why would you come to that view? I know, you know, I think. I know of people who used to be faithful in church, who used to actually say they are followers of Jesus, they believe the gospel, they've been born again. And something very, very hurtful, painful comes into their life and they suffer. And I am not negating that. And I don't in any way want to try to deny the intensity of the pain. And here's what sometimes happens. Where is God? Because obviously God doesn't want me to suffer, so if I'm suffering, that means God's not here because that's God, right? And it's not right. They're believing what the false teachers in Corinth were believing. The Bible makes it clear that we as Christians will have lives that abound with suffering. You say, well, then Greg, why do people love verse 3? Let's go back to verse 3 then. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a praise. This is Paul excited. I'm suffering and I'm blessing God. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction. That's our second point. God comforts us while we suffer. Notice what the text is saying here. God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, what is He? He is the Father of mercy. Isn't it awesome that God is merciful to us? The Bible says that, and I love that. One translation translates the word mercy as compassion, and they're certainly very related terms. I am so thankful that God is compassionate to me. I love Psalm 103, verse 13. Just as a father is compassionate on his children, so the Lord is compassionate on those who fear Him. He Himself knows our frame. He's mindful that we are but dust. God understands us. He's compassionate, He's merciful, He's kind. He's not only the Father of mercies, He is the God of all comfort. That's His character. And it's shown in the next verse, verse 2 words. Who comforts. He's not only the God of all comfort, He comforts us. This verse is a promise that when we're experiencing suffering, we can count on God, our heavenly Father, comforting us. You know, I think here of Isaiah 66, 13, as one whom his father, excuse me, his mother comforts. So I will comfort you, and you'll be comforted in Jerusalem. Now, this illustration works for me. It's going to depend on what kind of mom you have. I had and still have, she's still alive. I have an awesome mom. And she sometimes listens to sermons. I hope she listens to this one because I want to get credit for it. I have an awesome mom, and I really mean this. I have memories of my mom comforting me. I used to get strep throat maybe twice a year, which I didn't mind because I hated school. And so I'd get out of school a lot. Seriously. And so I didn't mind it. But I would get strep throat a lot and I would sometimes get very sick and I would have flu-like symptoms. I actually, seriously, I have memories of being up late at night in the bathroom being sick to my stomach. I'm in grade school, and it's the middle of the night, and you're young, and it's a little bit scary, you know what I mean. And my mom would be in the bathroom with me the whole time. and she would just kind of rub my back. She didn't heal me, she couldn't, but she would comfort me, and she would care for me. And then after I was physically able not to need to be in the bathroom, I have memories of my mom. I would go back to my bed, I would lie down, and she would rub my feet and sing. She had a beautiful voice. And those are my memories of my mom. It's awesome. Every now and then I say to Nancy, will you rub my feet? She says, no. Now, I don't get bitter because that would be sin. You say, what do you do? I'm just thankful that my mom said yes. I'll just say that. And I'm so thankful that my mom was that kind of mom. You say, what are you illustrating, Greg? I am illustrating, many of you know this, the word comfort. We get the word comforter, the Holy Spirit, the paraclete. Some of you know that. It means one called alongside of. That's our God. You know what God promises? He doesn't promise us that we'll never suffer. He promised us that in our suffering, He, the Father of mercies, verse 3, and God of all comfort, He will comfort us in all our affliction. I want you to think about that with me. What does that mean? He will comfort us in all of our affliction. Here's what most of us think, and I'm convinced of this. Cancer. Oh Lord, heal me. I want to be comforted. Heal me. Oh, I'm healed. I've got comfort. Man, I still have cancer. Where is my comfort? Most of us define comfort as take suffering away. That is not what the Apostle Paul is talking about. And I'd like to show that to you. Would you please look at verse 4 carefully with me? God comforts us believers in all our affliction. Praise God. Keep reading. So that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Let me kind of like paraphrase that loosely. God comforts us so we can comfort others the same way. Let's stay with the wrong idea, for the sake of argument, that comfort means take away my suffering. God, I have cancer. Comfort me. Heal me. Okay, God heals me. Why? So I can heal you when you have cancer. That's what verse 4 now means. So if God comforts me by taking away my cancer, He does it so I can heal you when you have cancer. You say, Greg, the problem with that is you can't heal me. That's my whole point. Verse 4 can't mean that. God does something for me that I can do for you is what v. 4 says. So what v. 4 means is that God comforts us in our affliction so that we then will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. So when I'm in the midst of my suffering and God is faithful to comfort me even as I continue to suffer, I'm able, by God's grace, to comfort you as you suffer. And I'm able to share how God comforted me even as I suffered, even as you suffer. And what Paul wants us to understand is, yes, the Christian life abounds with suffering. Don't listen to these false prophets. Don't listen to the modern-day health and wealth gospel. I'm telling you, beloved, I think it's in our hearts more than we realize Number two, God never promised us that we weren't going to suffer, but God did promise that He'll comfort us while we suffer. You say, why? Even this is not selfish. The Christian life is not about us. It's about living like Jesus, living for other people. Notice again what verse 4 says. He comforts us in all our affliction so that it's a purpose. We will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. That's our third point. God's comfort enables us to comfort other people. That's what's going on. So, I suffer, I pray, God blesses me. How? By comforting me in my suffering so that when you suffer, I then would have an opportunity to comfort you in your suffering in the same way that God comforted me in my suffering. You say, Greg, I want healing. That would be my comfort. Guys, I get that, but the Bible doesn't promise that. You say, well, then what is the comfort? I think verse 6 will show us. And this has been such a blessing to me. Look at verse six, please. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. Okay, so what Paul is saying is we're ministering the gospel, we're trying to be a blessing, sometimes we're afflicted, but we just want to help you. Your comfort, your salvation. Okay, fine, keep going. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort. In what way are you comforted, Paul? And in what way are you comforting others? Paul, help me out. It's in the next part of verse 6. which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. You say, what is the comfort? Let me read again that last phrase in verse 6, the last portion. Which is effective in the patient enduring, the patient enduring, the perseverance of the saints, The kind of comfort that allows you to be in the midst of suffering and you continue to believe the gospel. You don't bail out on Jesus. The kind of comfort that comes to you and you say, my life stinks right now. Everything's falling apart. But you want to know something? God is good. And He's always good. And I don't even know why I'm suffering right now. But He's my good, heavenly Father. And I believe in Him. I trust Him. You say, Greg, what about all the people who walk away from God and just dump the whole Christian faith because they're like, look at my kids, look at my parents, look at my health, look at my money. Look what happened to me. Where is God? They don't know God. The problem is not what happened to them. The problem is they expected to never suffer. And then once life got hard, they bail out on God. Guys, that's the worst thing that could ever happen to any of us. When I'm suffering, this is what I think. Oh, my bank account's going down. What if I don't have any money? Oh, I have cancer. What if I leave this life early? Guys, that is not the greatest worry you have. The greatest worry you have is leaving this world and not believing in Jesus. That's the greatest thing that could happen. What we need to do is we need to believe what is true about God. Our problem is not that we suffer. Our problem is that we have a false view of God. We think He's our servant. We think now that we're a Christian, we're supposed to never suffer. And then when we do suffer, we say like, well, the heavens are brass. I'm praying, but I'm not hearing anything. Have you ever heard anybody say that? The heavens were silent? People sometimes say to me, Greg, like, what do you do when God is silent? And I don't mean this sarcastically, but the first time He's silent, I'll let you know. He's never been silent. Open your Bible and He's talking to you. Do you know what we generally mean by that, beloved? The heavens are silent. What does that mean? I'm suffering and I'm praying and He's not helping me. You're defining help as deliverance. He never promised He was going to take away your suffering. Paul's whole life is suffering. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered. We all suffer. We're living in a sin-cursed world. We suffer. Sinners sin against us. We suffer. And let's be honest, we are sinners. And we do things that are very wrong. And sometimes we suffer. But you know what God does? God comforts us and He helps us to continue to believe. That's in that word. Do you see it there in verse 6? The patient enduring. We persevere in the faith. I think it's very closely tied to many other texts. I'll just show you two real quick. One out of James 1. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. That's a key word. And let endurance have its perfect results, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Don't raise your hand. How many of you are going through a trial right now? This is God's Word. Count it all joy, because the Lord is going to help you to persevere in your faith. Your faith is going to become stronger. You say, Greg, that's not what I want. I want deliverance. Guys, life is not about what you want. You say, but when I put my faith in Jesus, I had it explained to me like everything would always be awesome. You heard a false gospel. That is not the true gospel. There is coming a day when everything will be awesome. That's not in this world, that's in the next. In this world, you suffer, but you can count it all joy, because if you believe what is true about God, you know that He's faithful, you know that He loves you, and He's helping you. and you will persevere in your faith and endurance will have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Beloved, this is what the scriptures teach. You say, okay, that's James. Give me another one. How about Hebrews? You know this well. And yet my guess is some of us misunderstand this verse. Let me see if I can help. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, that's Hebrews 11. What's Hebrews 11 about? It's about suffering. People who believe in Jesus, we would say in a New Testament sense. Yet they're suffering. And the writer to Hebrews says, come on, look at all of these people who suffered, but they kept following Jesus. So let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. What is our greatest need when we're suffering? Beloved, it's not healing. It's not deliverance from the trial. Our greatest need is endurance by believing what is true about Jesus, even when you suffer. I'd like to go back to a commonly misunderstood phrase. Do you see it? Let us lay aside every encumbrance, here it comes, and the sin which so easily entangles us. Some of you know it in another translation, the sin which doth so easily beset. Aha! Greg, everyone has a besetting sin, right? Okay. I don't know. I just know that verse has nothing to do with that. That verse does not teach that everybody has a besetting sin. You may, but another verse has to teach it. You say, well, what is that verse teaching? Read it again. Lay aside the sin which so easily entangles us. What is that sin? In one word, what is it? Unbelief! It's unbelief! Everybody struggles with the same besetting sin of Hebrews 12. Lord, my marriage is not going well. What's wrong with you? Lord, you're good? And my kids aren't even following Jesus and you're good? And this is what I get? You know what the problem is? You're not believing what is true about God. That's the problem. You're failing to persevere in your faith. What we need to do, let's keep going, is look to Jesus. Hebrews 12, verse 2 says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. Same word. He persevered in the midst of suffering. despising the shame. The shame was real. But he continued to trust. And he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself. Why? So that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Beloved, don't grow weary. Don't lose heart. It's easy to believe what's true about God when everything's going your way. And in our sinfulness, when life gets hard and we suffer, it's so easy to think, what's wrong? Something's wrong. I always knew this was going to happen. Oh, now I'm never going to get married. Man, I'm never going to get married. I can't believe it. Oh, we're never going to have kids now. I can't believe God's doing this to me. And then we start torturing ourselves with, yeah, I was young, and I was immoral, and now God's punishing me, and that's what God does. Oh, and I should have given more money to the church, and I never really did, and now my business is falling apart, and God here is not being kind to me, but I guess He's getting me back. Who would want to serve that kind of God anyway? Knowing God is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who promises to come alongside of you in your suffering and to encourage you to keep believing what is true about Him. I mentioned, and I don't like to be overly personal, I mentioned a previous service publicly, so I'll finish it off publicly. My wife Nancy has had some very severe pain in an unusual way, and the doctor said it may be shingles, but she didn't really think it was. She thought it was something internal. So we're thinking like big time surgery stuff is going to be happening in our lives, life is going to change. We're very thankful that the doctor is actually pleasantly surprised it turned out to be shingles. Now, they're very painful, but she's doing all right. She's on medication, whatever. She's still coming to church. She's working in a nursery today. And she still goes to work. But in her time of where we thought maybe something big was coming up, and then we found out it's only shingles. What a blessing to be able to say it's only shingles. Not once did she say, hey, Greg, what did I do wrong? Not once did she say, Greg, I thought Jesus loved me. Not once did she say, Greg, why is God doing this to me? But we continue to believe what is true about God. And I want to be really careful because some of you could say, Greg, that's a fairly low stress trial compared to what I'm going through. And I would agree with you because I know some of your trials. And shingles doesn't hold a candle to what some of you are going through. And I acknowledge that. but it doesn't change the reality that what God wants you to do is to continue to believe what is true about Him. And that's how He comforts us. The Christian life abounds with suffering. God comforts us while we suffer. God's comfort enables us to comfort others. Here's our conclusion. Christians involved in Gospel ministry, I'm talking about Christians, and I'm talking about Christians that are actively serving Christ, like the Apostle Paul, going on these radical missionary journeys. Christians involved in gospel ministry must expect to suffer. Again, I don't want to overplay it, but when we first got the news of Nancy's challenge, I said this to her literally. I said, baby, here we go. Man, we're in a church filled with people who suffer. And I just feel like God has spared us from so much suffering that my brothers and sisters are facing. Our time, I think, has come. And she agreed with me. And you say, what did you do? We just thought God is awesome. And we just rejoiced. Yes, we're going to suffer. We never thought that once we got saved, somehow we got to pass. Expect to suffer. But number two, praise God in the suffering that He comforts us as we endure in our faith even while we suffer. On behalf of my dear wife, I am now praising God. Because even this morning when I said, baby, how are the shingles? And she said, last night was hard. And I said, how are you doing? She says, you know, it's fine. And then we both say, and isn't it a blessing that God is so good to us? And we persevere in the faith. And maybe it's these smaller trials and God's getting us ready for the big ones, which I fully expect to face. I spent time praying with a sister who hasn't been to Trinity for a very long time because she can't leave bed anymore. And I was there to visit her, read the scriptures with her, and pray with her, and she is suffering in incredible ways. Her husband passed away roughly a year ago. She'll be going to heaven probably sooner more than later. And you say, what is she doing? She's persevering in her faith. She believes God is good. She's still trusting in Jesus. And I'm so blessed that I could be there and pray with her and try to encourage her. And I realize there's going to be a day where I'm going to be the guy who's there. And who knows, maybe some of you younger ones or even not so young will be coming over and praying with me and encouraging me that we continue to trust in Jesus. Praise God that He comforts us as we endure in our faith. And then number three, we must comfort others as they endure in their faith as they suffer. What do you do when you visit people, Christians, that are suffering? Here's what I think we frequently do, putting us close to the false teachers in Paul's time, in Corinth. Maybe making us closer to Joel Osteen than we realize. Man, I can't believe you have this illness. I'll pray that God heals you. I'll pray that God heals you. Yeah, I'll pray for healing. You know what, I'm gonna send out an email, I'm gonna ask everybody I know, pray that God will heal this person. Oh, pray for healing, pray for healing, pray for healing. Because you know, God doesn't want us to suffer, you know that. So pray for healing, pray for healing, pray for healing. Now, if God does heal, praise the Lord. Okay, that's great, I'm not making fun of that. What happens when he doesn't? Oh, some God you have. Guys, maybe you've been praying the wrong way the whole time. Maybe if we took this text seriously, we would be visiting one another in our suffering and say, Lord, if it pleases You, would You deliver my brother and sister? But there's something so much more important. Lord, would You give them the grace to persevere in their faith? Lord, help them to continue to follow Jesus well. in all of the pain, help them to follow Jesus well. That's what we should be praying. Comforting others as they endure in their faith, as they suffer. I close this morning with a book recommendation and I'm not gonna say it's the greatest book on this topic it's just a book that I read this last week and it has blessed me and the title and the picture of the book is somewhat small in an attempt to be more modest some of you remember a Pulitzer Prize winning picture that came out of the Vietnam War of a young Vietnamese girl running out of a temple with napalm burning on her. And it's an iconic photo that epitomizes the suffering of war. How many of you know the picture I'm talking about? Raise your hand. Can you help me out? Some of us know that well. If you go home and Google napalm girl, the picture comes right up. So that picture was taken. I want to tell you a little bit about that girl. That girl, napalm, it's in bombs. And by the way, the United States did not drop that bomb. The Vietnamese army dropped that bomb, and I'll get to that. Napalm, a gelatin that burns. When it sticks, you can't get it off. You can't brush it off. The little girl is screaming and on fire. And she's horrified. And they try to put the flames out. But as soon as it hits oxygen, it reignites. She's taken to a hospital. She's unconscious in pain. It's clear she's probably not even alive. They don't even let her into the hospital. They put her in the morgue. Triage. If you're gonna try to help somebody, at least spend your time with somebody who has a chance. She has none. Dad is looking for his little daughter. Dad goes to the hospital where he just assumed she was taken, and no one has seen her. She's never been admitted to the hospital. How can that be? Dad finds a janitor, and he says, please help me. And the janitor says, Dad, you're looking in the wrong place. Maybe you should look in the morgue. He goes into the morgue area and amidst all of the bodies is his little girl. And he picks her up. She's alive. He holds his little girl who's unconscious, begging for help. No one will help her. She has no chance. He finds, by chance, a friend he went to college with 20 years ago, now a medical doctor in Saigon. They recognize each other. And the doctor says, I'm going to try to help you. There is one hospital in Saigon that maybe would deal with this. And dad says, come on, let's call them. And the doctor says, we can't call them because they're so slammed. They have a waiting list. They will turn us away. Don't call. Come with me. We're going to go there and just try. They go to the hospital, and someone at the hospital has compassion on them and says, we'll try. And the girl survives. The napalm girl survives. It's a miracle. and she's in intense pain every day of her life. She has skin like an elephant. As a little girl, her playmates won't play with her because kids don't understand. Who wants to play with an ugly person like that? Mom says, you know, life's going to be hard. You're in pain every day. You're never going to get married. You can't have children because you've just been harmed so much. But that's the way life is. Be glad you're alive. And she's thinking, well, what am I going to do? She finds one redeeming thing to do. I'll be a doctor. Maybe I can help other people. But you know what? They won't let her complete school because the Vietnam Communist government uses her for propaganda. The Vietnam government takes the little napalm girl who's now a little bit older and said, this is what the United States did to her. It wasn't our troops, guys. And yet they would interview her through an interpreter, and the interpreter would actually lie and not say what she said. And she would say, it's actually the Vietnam government that dropped the bombs on the temple. The interpreter would always say it's the United States government. And so she can't do the one thing that she thinks will give her life meaning, which is become a doctor. She says, I have no peace. Life is not worth living. She plans to just commit suicide. What else are you going to do? She comes across the New Testament. She reads a portion of the Gospels. She reads about Jesus, and she's blown away. She prays. Lord, I'm going to go to a Christian church, and I'm going to pray that there will be an older woman sitting by herself, and I'm going to pray that if you're real, you'll have that woman talk to me. She walks into a Christian church. She walks in, and in the middle of the row is an older woman sitting alone. She looks at the woman. The woman looks at her. And the woman says, hey, whatever, are you new? Sit with me. And the woman befriends her. And I could park there for a little bit. Do you ever wonder if maybe that would happen here one day? When somebody on the edge of life, thinking of suicide, would walk in and is looking for answers, and maybe one of us... Okay, different story. She meets the woman, she talks to the woman, and she puts her faith in Christ. And she is gloriously saved from her sin. Suffering every day. still in incredible pain, still being used as a propaganda puppet by the communist government who lie about her story. And she's so glad to know Jesus, but she's still suffering. You say, what happens? She ends up in Cuba. and she's able to go to medical school, and then she defects to Canada and escapes the communist government. She's with her unsaved communist husband who didn't want to defect, but she basically told him, I am going, come with me if you want. He said, I'm coming. They're there in Canada. She finds a gospel preaching church and she begins to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. and she begins to know God well. And she changes from being angry and bitter towards people who caused her suffering to seeing the hand of God in her suffering. She began to believe better what is true about God. That God is a God who uses suffering for good. And the change was so incredible that her atheistic, communist husband, who thought her Christianity was garbage, one day said to her, let's talk about your Jesus. He came to Christ. Her parents, who disowned her because of her change to Christianity, watched her long enough and said, okay, talk to me about Jesus. Mom and dad came to Christ. And her husband begins a Bible study in Canada for refugees from Vietnam, and they're seeing people come to Jesus. That's her book. That's what I read this week. Isn't that a blessing? I promise you that beats romance novels and video games, okay? Beloved, read something that will warm your heart. You want to know my goal in reading? It's why I love reading true stories of people who know God, because it helps my faith. It helps me to believe what is true about God. That's why I'm listening to sermons through the week and reading books like this, and you say you're a spiritual giant. If I were a spiritual giant, I wouldn't need to do this. But I am a guy who needs to be encouraged in my faith so that when my suffering comes, I can continue to believe what is true. Just like the napalm girl in that book, Fire Road. That's my prayer for me and my wife. That's my prayer for our church family. Beloved, that's my prayer for you. Some of you, you guys are tore apart. because you're sharing your requests with me. And there's people you love so much, and they're not believers in Christ, and they've rejected the Gospel, and it hurts deeply. And parents that are acting in ways that are just horrific, even though they claim to be Christians, but they don't live like it. And kids who show you no honor. I understand that. And financial challenges. And the suffering that's sometimes physical, sometimes emotional, psychological, whatever you want to call it. And my prayer for you is that you will know well the God who is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. And beloved, He will comfort you. And by His grace, He will give you the ability to continue to persevere in your faith and believe what is true about Him. That's my prayer for you. I hope that's your prayer for me. Let's pray.