2 Corinthians chapter number one. I'm going to read a couple verses in Scripture, and then we'll get into the message. 2 Corinthians chapter one, and we'll begin our reading in verse number, let's just start our reading in verse one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble. by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." This passage plainly states that our God is the God of all comfort, and there are certainly people in our church today who are in need of comfort. We're going to be considering today things that God uses to comfort us. Let's bow for prayer. Father, we pray you'd bless the preaching of your word. And I pray, Lord, that those that are sitting before me, that the word of God would find a hearing ear and a receptive heart. I pray, Lord, that if you're speaking to anybody today about salvation, that you might work in their hearts to be saved. And Lord, I pray for those of our church who are dealing with grief and troubles. I pray that today's message would be an uplifting message and an encouraging one. I pray and I ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. As a father of five and having, my memory is still working well enough to remember what it was to deal with my children when they were young. There were times, and I am not the best at comforting people, but my wife did an awfully good job helping my kids when they went through times of difficulty, skinning their knee, getting hurt. Going to going through different broken bones. I remember my daughter Becca when she fell off a trampoline and broke her arm and me being so fearful about The the compound fracture that that was there and we did our part in her life to comfort her when we went to the hospital Telling her that things would be okay I Parents that are here today. We know about comforting little babies sometimes children They they have needs that they can't express my son. Jacob is not a child anymore He didn't always have the glorious beard that he has today But when he was young, he had, you know, different sensory issues, and one time he was just screaming and screaming and screaming, and we put him in the car, and normally that would calm our children down, put him in the car, but he was screaming like he was having someone stab him. And I looked, and my wife had put a pair of socks on him, and I thought, well, maybe he's just mad that he has socks on, because he liked running around barefoot. And I ripped those socks off of his feet, and boom, it was a flat calm on the waters. Me removing his socks was a comfort to him. I distinctly remember being in a place in my own life, and I felt like I was all alone. And two of the church members from the church where I was a member came walking in. It was unexpected, I wasn't expecting to see them. But as soon as I saw them, I knew they were sent from God. I knew that they were sent to comfort me and their presence made me feel that I had not been forgotten and that I was not alone. Paul opened this second letter to the church at Corinth and he declared that God is the God of all comfort, not of some comfort, not of an occasional comfort. He is the God of all comfort. God has the ability to bring comfort to us. Now in our church, just last week we had this sudden and heartbreaking loss of Sister Deborah, who was a precious soul and a beautiful member of our church. Not only was she outwardly beauty, beautiful, she was inwardly beautiful. And the church, in many ways, from our perspective, suffered what we would call a tragedy. Something that hurts. You know, death hurts. Difficulties and challenges, and we would even consider things like this to be a great tragedy. But I want to remind the church today that the Bible says that it's precious in the sight of the Lord when He takes one of His children home. Psalm 1, 16, 15 says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. So it's God's decision when He takes someone home. It doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt. Sometimes a I reflect on things in life that, what I would consider to be tragic. When my wife and I were teenagers, we used to run bus routes and bring children to church. We'd go through the community and sometimes single parents weren't very interested in coming to church, but they would let you take their children to church because it got them free of watching their kids for a couple of hours, and we were delighted to bring those children to church, and we would always try to win their parents to the Lord. Had a little girl in our church, very pretty girl. Her name was Brandy. And we came to church one Sunday, and the day before, she had spent the night over a friend's house, and a man had started a fire inside of his house to make another insurance claim, and he didn't know that his granddaughter and the neighbor girl was upstairs. And those two girls lost their life that day. And I remember the feeling that we had going to church that day, there was just a little child had lost their life. It was a challenge to get through, but the church people came together and we found comfort in the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes people face tragic losses. In high school we had a young man who ran a stop sign and he He was tragically killed and many of us are going to, all of us are going to face tragedies and things that we didn't expect to unfold in a certain way. You know, that's called life. Life never unfolds the way you think it will. And when the difficult things happen, when the tragic happens, we need to understand what God can use to comfort us. And first thing that we can say about this is God himself is our first and greatest comfort. I'm thankful today that I was raised in an environment where somebody told me to believe the Bible. God can comfort us during times of difficulty. This Bible, the verse we just read, said that He's the Father of mercies and He is the God of all comfort. When we need to be comforted from someone, if you have a relationship with God, you can be comforted by God. God's character comforts us. I remember another scene in my life where my brother was sitting in a living room with me and my family. And we didn't know where we were going. We were trying to figure out what God wanted for us, to direct our steps. And my brother said, can we turn to Psalm chapter 46? We turned there and we read that first verse that says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, and God spoke peace to my heart. God is our refuge and strength, and when you're in trouble, God is a present help. Nahum chapter 1 and verse 7 says the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. God's character helps us get through times of difficulty, and his presence comforts us. The Bible says in Psalm 34 and verse 18 that the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. And we have people in our church today that are dealing with broken hearts. It's difficult to say goodbye to loved ones. It's difficult to see an empty seat. You know, today, if you just consider those of us who knew this dear sister and served along this dear sister. How many songs did Brother John go over to the piano with and work on with Deborah for our church? How many songs did she practice for the choir? How many times did she stand up during a worship service and use that beautiful voice and her songwriting ability to bless the church, and now there's an empty seat? It is normal to have a broken heart when you love someone like that. And last week when I mentioned how that she'd gone home to be with the Lord, there was an audible cry from people who have a broken heart because their friend is not here on earth. But we can be thankful in the fact that our sister no longer is in pain. Many of us were praying for her healing. All of us were. Everyone who prayed, prayed that the God who has the ability to heal would heal her, but that wasn't God's plan. She got her ultimate healing when she was taken out of this life. And she was brought into the presence of Jesus, and the Bible says that there's no sorrow there. And there's no more tears where she is. He'll wipe away all tears. God's presence comforts us. Jesus said in the book of Hebrews in chapter 13, he said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. His purposes comfort us. If you look here in our text in verse number four, it says, who comforted, who comforted us in all our tribulation, not some of our tribulations, but God comforts us in all of our tribulations. He uses things to comfort us. But the comfort we receive, for those of us who are Bible believers, becomes the comfort that we give. Because God doesn't allow you to go through some measure of suffering or affliction without a purpose in it. Do you realize that as one of God's people it ought to be one of our aims to bring comfort to other people? That's what verse number four says, that God comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. You know, we've gone through situations before and every experience that God gives you as a Bible believer is an experience that you can glean good from and try to be a blessing to others. God's Word, not only God's presence comforts us, His character and His purposes, but we also know that His Word is given to us to comfort us. I've already told you this when we read about Psalm 46, but there's been many times in my life when I've run during times of trial, during times of darkness, during times when I did not understand, where I ran to the Scripture, and something God said in the Bible comforted my heart. I remember a time distinctly in my life where I was not going through easy times, and things weren't unfolding the way I thought they would, and I read Psalm chapter 84, around verse number 11, where the Bible says, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. And I believed it. You know, God's Word is to be read. God's Word is to believe, to be believed. Do you believe God's Word? Do you run to God's Word as a source of comfort? It's a privilege today to have my eldest son in church. He lives in Cincinnati for the moment, but I remember that day when he was leaving not to live in our home anymore, he was going on to serve in the military. And I grabbed a Bible and I said, how about one more time to get in God's Word as father and son? Thank God for this book. This book will lead my children just like it's led me. This book will comfort my kids just like it comforts me. This book should be a part of your life. You need to believe this book and there's comfort that's found in the pages of this book. Psalm 119 and verse 50 said, this is my comfort and my affliction for thy word hath quickened me. Thank the Lord for his word. During times of trouble, you can trust that God's word has something to say to you. and say, for you. In grief, God's Word becomes His voice. One person said, when we can't trace His hand, we need to trust His Word. Not only does God comfort us with His presence, and God uses words to comfort us, and the Word of God to comfort us, I praise God that God uses people to comfort us. Aren't you thankful for the people of God? You know, today, after the handshake chorus was over, I saw Miss Lottie walk all the way to the other side of the building to hug some people over here who she may not even know. What'd she do that for? Comfort. Make people feel welcome. Thank God for a welcoming church. Thank God for people who care about other people. You know, God instructs pastors and preachers to bring comfort. You know, we are supposed to preach about judgment, but every message I preach cannot be about judgment. God is a God of comfort. God is a God of love. Aren't you thankful that He forgave you? That He didn't hold you to account for your sins? That He was long-suffering to you? That He kept you alive? That you wouldn't go down to the pit? I mean, thank the Lord for His goodness to us. He's used people to comfort us. In Isaiah chapter 40, the words of God to the prophet was, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. In Isaiah chapter number 61, where the Bible said that the Spirit of the Lord was upon me as a prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the things that Jesus came to this earth to do was to comfort people, to comfort those that mourn. Jesus brought great comfort to those who were mourning, didn't He? You remember when He showed up to the graveside of Lazarus? I think some comfort was delivered there. But Jesus Christ came into his hometown church, and he said, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your eyes. The Spirit of the Lord's upon me, and I've come to bind up the brokenhearted. I've come to comfort those that mourn. Thank the Lord. God uses others to comfort. I've never been to a good memorial service where families didn't get together. A good family got together. and tried to comfort one another. You know, I've seen it go many different ways at funerals. You know, being a pastor and dealing with funeral services, sometimes people just can't wait to get something off their chest at a funeral, and who's going to get after the money of the person who's died and gone behind? And there's been family fights and fistfights and hateful words, but when God's people are around, I'm here to tell you that memorial service is not like that. A memorial service, there are tears and crying, but we don't sorrow as others that have no hope. There's actually a great hope that we have that we're going to see that person again. We live our lives in front of one another at a true church. You see, many times you see more of the church folks that you worship with than you do of your own personal family. And when someone passes, when someone goes through a time, it is a wonderful thing to see people, hey, can I take you out to eat? Or, hey, can I come over and visit with you? Can I put my arm around you? When the hospital visits take place, there's a true church family to be alongside of you. Everybody needs a church. And I'm not gonna run very long on this because I can, I will confess to you this is a rabbit trail. But if you're not a member of a local church, you ought to be. We used to have church covenants that people actually believed, and they would say things like this, that as soon as we depart from this place, we're going to find another congregation to join with. I believe that. I believe that I need to be a member of a church. You know why? Because this is God's vehicle that he uses. And when you're faithful to a church, there's a certain love and affection that people have for one another. We comfort, when someone else mourns, we mourn. There's duties that come along with that, and all I can say to you is that God has used the church in my life. There have been people who've let me down in church, but Jesus has never let me down. And if Jesus loved the church and gave His life for the church, it ought to be important to me too. Amen? And so I want to encourage you, if you're not a member of a church and God's speaking to your heart, I want you to know that if God's trying to lead you to join this church or come to this church to be a church member, I want you to know that our church will receive you. Our church will allow you to be a part of it, and being a church member is one of the greatest opportunities you have to be a part of God's community. And of the work of God in this particular day and age, we thank the Lord that the church and God uses people in a church to bring comfort one to another. In this building today, we have widows and widowers, people who have laid their most precious person in life to rest. And you know what? There's other people in the church who've gone through exactly what you're going through, if that's your case. And there's somebody who understands. There could be a single parent here. There's other single parents here. There's people that have gone through broken relationships here. And guess what? There's people that have broken relationships in any church. What I'm here to say is that God uses people to comfort others. In verse number four, it tells us that we're supposed to comfort those that are in trouble. Christ came personally to comfort the hurting. You might remember when the woman touched the hem of His garment, He said, daughter, be of good comfort. You know who took care of that issue of blood? Jesus did. When Bartimaeus was crying out for the Lord and He said, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me! Somebody came over to Him and they said, go on, get up. They said, be of good comfort. He's calling for you. It's always a good thing when Jesus is calling for you. And when you come to Jesus, you'll always leave different. The Holy Spirit also abides as our comforter. In John 14 and 16, Jesus said he wouldn't leave us without a comforter. He said, I won't leave you comfortless. In John 14 and 18, sometimes people will fail and maybe your emotions will fade away, but that spirit remains. God gives you that spirit once you get saved. And that spirit is given to you to comfort us. that God also uses family to comfort you. Just this week I had a meeting with Brother Ronnie and all of the children and the grandkids, met with them yesterday. It was good to see all the family come together and try to plan out a memorial service and talk beautifully about the wonderful soul that Sister Stevens was. You know, God uses family to comfort you. If there was ever a time for a family to shut down, everything stops, it's when someone dies. We all ought to be that way. Something, you know, this world is awfully busy. People can't stay off their phone. People got so many tasks that they have to complete, but when someone passes away, if there was ever a time for everything to stop, that's one of those times to stop and think. Not just for the person who's left, but for our own mortality. You know, as this person has gone, so we will go. The Bible says that it's appointed unto man once to die. In Genesis 37, when Jacob thought his son Joseph was dead, the Bible said that all of his family rose up to try to comfort him. He was inconsolable, but his family still came. Loving families gather, they embrace, they cry, they laugh, and they support. at my home going service, whenever that will be, I want my family to laugh. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of memories they have to laugh about. Sometimes they could laugh about my poor pulpit jokes, or how my wife didn't like some of my jokes. It's not my fault that God didn't give her my humor. My children all like my jokes, I think, unless they're lying to me. If they're lying to me, they're, you know, get it from her side of the family. But God uses family to comfort you. Now nobody can push your buttons like family. How many of you know that? Nobody can hurt you like your spouse. Nobody can hurt you like your children. And that's where friendships come in because when you have a hurting heart and you have a good friend, a good friend can comfort you. Now young ladies and young men, you may be trying to figure out who's your real friends today and I'll tell you this, your friends will change throughout your teen years because you'll learn things about your friends. Some of your friends have a big mouth and they're going to share your secrets with somebody else and you need to make sure that you're not revealing the secrets of your heart with someone who isn't faithful. Not everybody has earned that right to be your close friend, but if you find one good close friend, if you find somebody that'll listen to you and love you and care for you, then you better stick close to that person. God's given me a few in my life. There are not many. And you need to be careful who you have in your life because if you put people in your life that are going to tear you down, and they're the closest people in your life, you're constantly going to be dealing with that. But oh, that we would have faithful friends like David and Jonathan. You think about this, Saul and Jonathan was next in line for the throne and accepted that David was going to be the next king. And the Bible said that Jonathan loved David as he loved his own soul. That's rare, for someone to love another man, a male to love another male as his own soul. And by the way, there's no immorality, there should be no thought of immoral things when I just said that. These two men had a proper friendship, one with another, and they cared about each other even unto death. And when Jonathan found out that his dad was gonna kill him and was minded to kill him, he went out to protect his friend. You know, friends protect others. Thank God for good friends. You have one of those kind of friends, a good friend who comforts you. You know, I've got a couple of friends in my life who I know if I was going something in deep water, I was going through something, I know they'd answer the phone and they would stop, and even travel a great distance to, hey, I need to be there. And I'm friends with some people that those things are true in my life as well, and I'm just here to tell you, I aim to be a good friend to people. And thank the Lord that God puts friends in our lives. In this church, many people were friends to that dear sister. I thank the Lord for good friendships. God can use friendships to comfort us. God uses shepherding care to comfort us. Jesus, the Bible says in Psalm chapter number 23, that thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thank the Lord for the comforting hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord is near, you know, when the shepherd is near, you don't need to be in fear. You know, if them wolves come around and they're barking and they're coming to take the lives of his sheep, I'm thankful to see Jesus. Because Jesus can drive those woes away. I'm here to tell you, we have a great shepherd. The Bible calls him the good shepherd. He's the great shepherd and he's the chief shepherd of our souls. God uses blessings to comfort us. The Bible says in Psalm 94 and 19, thy comforts delight my soul. In deep water, sometimes God sends even small mercies, strength from a friend, a memory that warms the heart, a scripture that speaks right to the moment. Thank the Lord for their comforts. God brings comfort to us because He is a great God. Aren't you glad for a God that would wrap His arms around you? Years ago my good friend Aubrey Brown, he had a 14-year-old son named Brian. I heard him preach on when his heart was overwhelmed, when his spirit was overwhelmed from the Psalms many times. And his healthy 14-year-old son who came down with leukemia and died in a matter of two weeks. In two weeks' time, his healthy 14-year-old boy who'd never been to a doctor before was diagnosed with leukemia and he was watching his wife sorrow over this boy who was clearly dying. And Brother Aubrey said, I had to get out of that room in Birmingham, Alabama. And I walked into a hallway and he sat down in the hall and he said, Lord, if there was ever a time where I needed to know you were with me, I've been preaching for you for all these years, would you show me that you're real right now? And he said, as sure as I'm standing here, the Holy Spirit came alongside me and wrapped his arms around me and gave me comfort. And he said I was able to go back in there and comfort my wife as we went through that experience together. When Brother Aubrey passed away, they asked me to come down to a place in Goodwater, Alabama to be a part of his funeral service, and I was able to see the grave of his Brian because he wanted to be buried next to his son. I'm here to tell you that God that comforted Aubrey Brown can comfort you. The God that has comforted His people throughout all the ages can bring comfort to your heart today. I'd also like to say that God uses good marriage and companionship to comfort. The Bible says in Genesis chapter 2 that it is not good that man should be alone. Thank the Lord He made a helpmate for men, He made the woman. And thank the Lord for godly marriages, God can use your marriage and I can't count the number of times on my hand when my wife and I comforted one another. with just a hug or a look or a holding of the hand. If God's given you your marriage and you're married, you need to lean on one another and love one another and do it properly. God uses the hope of heaven also to comfort his people. 1 Thessalonians 4 verses 13 to 18 talk about that day when the Lord's going to take us on home. And the Bible ends with this passage in 1 Thessalonians 4, he said, we're for comfort one another with these words. We can find comfort in the scripture. Now there are people here today, and there may be many situations you're dealing with where you find yourself in trouble, or you find yourself along with the old songwriter who said, it's me, it's me, it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. And maybe you find yourself in need of some comfort. Maybe your heart is broken. I'm here to tell you the one who can truly bind a broken heart. You say, I've got a dream and I've had things that I thought would happen in my life that haven't been happening and maybe it's time for you to bow the knee and bring those burdens to the Lord and trust the Lord because God has a way of bringing good things to pass in the lives of His people. Today we serve the God of all comfort and the greatest comfort you could ever have in your soul is to be saved by God's grace. There are no doubt people in this room who are not saved. You don't know Christ as your Savior, you don't know the way of salvation, but you're thinking about it, and if that's you today, I want to invite you with all my heart to give your heart and your life to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no greater place to get saved than in one of the Lord's churches. If the Lord is working in your heart and drawing you to salvation, it's a simple act of faith to acknowledge that you're lost and you need a Savior. And to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if there was anybody who could conquer your sin problem, I'm here to tell you it's the Lord Jesus Christ. He paid for every sin you've ever done. Even stuff you haven't done, He's already paid for. Paid in full. And what it takes is you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one way to heaven, it's through Jesus. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Once you come to Him today, and you may be here with a burdened heart today, you may need to come to the altar to pray. As we stand together and with our heads bowed and our eyes closed today, our musicians are going to come and we're going to play a verse of invitation. Maybe God's spoken to you and you know you don't even need to wait for the piano to start playing. If you need to come to the altar, if you've got that burdened heart, If you need to talk to the Lord about some things, maybe you need to come and pray to the Lord Jesus. Father, we pray you'd bless this invitation. We pray that you'd work in the hearts of people. Lord, we've preached about the truths of your comfort. You comfort us with many things, Lord, your word. Comfort us with people, with our family. Lord, I pray that you'd bring comfort to the Metropolitan Baptist Church. And Lord, I pray today that you would work in this invitation. If there is somebody here who's lost, Lord, and you're calling them to salvation, I pray they'd have the courage to step out and come. And there may be others, Lord, who have a burden of soul, a burden of heart. We ask you, Lord, that you'd work now. As we play Cleanse Me, won't you come? and know my heart today. Try me, O Savior. Know my thoughts, I pray. See if there be some wicked way in me. Cleanse me from every sin and set me free. free as we sing. I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin. Fulfill Thy Word and make me pure within. Fill me with fire, where once I burned with shame. Grant my desire to magnify Thy name. Lord, take my life and make it only Thine. Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine. Take all my will, my passion, self, and pride. Let's sing this last verse without any music. We'll sing the last verse with no piano. Let's sing this a cappella. Revival comes from me. Send a revival. Start the work in me. declares, Thou wilt supply our need. For blessing now, O Lord, I humbly plead. and all the saints of God said. Amen. May God bless you this morning. And we pray that the Lord took the truths of scripture to comfort your heart. And again, if you're visiting with us today, we're very thankful for your visit. I look forward to getting to know some of you returning visitors better. One of the ways that I've determined to try to get to know our visitors is by going to eat with you. On me, I get to pay for your meal. And, you know, I eat probably three times every day. Brother Bob said, wow. I guess I'm the only one. I look around this room and I don't think I'm the only one. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner is about what I have to cut it off at, but I'd love to get to break bread with you, get to know you. If you're visiting here, if God's leading you to this church, we'd love to know if God's working in your heart that way. And we're thankful for the church coming together at times like this. Don't forget that if you have any belongings or possessions here, please take them with you. If you're coming back tonight do that tonight if you'd like to volunteer for some cleanup and and help tonight please do that so that we could straighten up for these funeral services and pray for brother Stevens and for his children and and pray for all their family Ronnie and Deb's family that God might comfort them and during this time of loss. Tonight, we'll be having services at 6 p.m., and choir will be back here at 445. Is that correct? 445 for choir. We're gonna continue working on the cantata, and so we'll look forward to seeing you back here tonight. And don't forget, this Wednesday night, we're not having services. We're doing pie and praise on Tuesday night, and some of you aren't gonna be able to be back for tonight's service. And to those of you who can't come tonight or can't come Tuesday, From my family to yours and from this church to you, happy Thanksgiving. I hope that you have a great time with your family and over food. You know, sometimes those days like Thanksgiving, we should all remember that we live in a land of plenty and should be thankful for it. Most of our tables will have more food than what we even need. And we're thankful for God putting us in a place like America where we're going to probably put a spread out that we wouldn't be able to consume in a couple of days. Some people haven't seen that kind of food on a table in all their lives. But we here in America have that. And so let's be thankful and grateful for that. Brother Tim, if you'd come to the pulpit and dismiss the service in prayer, please. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for allowing us to be in your house today. Lord, we lift up. Brother Ronnie and his family, Lord, I pray that you'll bless them, comfort them. Lord, we thank you for the memories that we have. Lord, I pray that you'll be with each one of our church members. Lord, comfort them. Lord, we thank you for this, our pastor and Lord, the message that he brought today, Lord, we thank you for being the great comforter. Lord, I pray that you'll just work in all of these areas. Lord, we thank you for our visitors. Lord, I pray that you'll bring them back to us. Bless each one as we go our way today. In Jesus name, amen.