I invite you to take your Bibles, please, and go to 2 Corinthians chapter 7, please, 2 Corinthians chapter 7 this morning. It is our desire and hope that the conference will be an encouragement to you. I know sometimes conferences can be the opposite of that. Years ago now, I guess it was over 20 years ago, I was up at the Heart Conference. And so I know I was in my early 30s, so it was probably 23 years ago, 24 years ago, or something like that. And there was a morning session in which Charles Wood was the speaker. And during the session, a man named Mark Rizzo, some of you may know Mark Rizzo, Jails R Us. He did an announcement. And after the service, I was walking through the hallway and this, you know, young college student came up to me and said, excuse me, sir, was that you up there this morning speaking? And I was thinking, Charles Wood is as old as my dad. I said, no, that was Charles Wood. And then he said, no, no, the person who did the announcement. And I mean, I'm a big guy. But I'm a small guy next to the guy who was doing the announcement. I mean, it's like, you know, maybe two of me. And so I'm just like, depressed. I'm walking out of there. And I walk down to the dining hall. And I'm standing in line with Les Olala. And they had announced a basketball tournament for guys at the conference who are 40 and older. And Les goes, are you going to play in the tournament? And I look, and I said, Les, I'm 30. I'm 31. What are you talking about? So from that point on, I called it the disheartening conference rather than the heart conference. I mean, it was borderline depressive. I mean, obviously, those are, you know, those are, I wasn't really depressed about it, but it was sort of scary. But you know what, you probably have had experiences where in rapid fire succession, maybe over the course of a day, over the course of a week, over the course of a month, you've had things happen in your life or your family or your ministry that have progressively just knocked the wind right out of your sails. I mean, you find yourself just you know, just listless because of what has been coming your way. Maybe connected to things in your own life, but possibly connected to things in the lives of people to whom you're ministering. I mean, it's not exactly like what happens in Job 1, but you can feel like it. There's just bad news after bad news after bad news, something happening. to people you care about, or to the church, or people who are just walking through deep valleys. And the nature, really, the nature of ministry is that it is going to be a part of the process of serving God and knowing God. And that's why it's not surprising that when you read books on ministry, Often, they include chapters on discouragement. I mean, one of the most famous ones, probably because the book is famous, is in lectures to students. Spurgeon has a chapter called The Minister's Fainting Fits, which is clearly like a 19th century kind of title. But the reality of it was that he thought it was a significant enough of an issue from his own personal experience and interactions that he included. And he said in there this, fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy. There may be here and there men of iron to whom wear and tear work no perceptible detriment, but surely the rust frets even these. And as for ordinary men, the Lord knows and makes them to know that they are but dust. And that's the reality of it, I think, when we consider ministry. And so what I'd like to do this morning is actually look at a pretty short text of Scripture in which the Apostle Paul reveals to us that he walked through this kind of valley as well. that it was, in fact, a reality of life in a fallen world, that those who follow Jesus faithfully and serve him faithfully will, in fact, get worn down, that it will happen. Look at 2 Corinthians 7, please, and I'd like to read Just so we have a sense of the context, verse 5, along with our text this morning, verses 6 and 7. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 5 says, For even when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side, conflicts without, fears within. But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more. Notice verse six, because here's really sort of the center cluster of it, but God, who comforts the depressed, or the downhearted, some translations have, or the downcast, God who comforts the downhearted, comforted us by the coming of Titus. So, Here's what I'd like to do, just sort of unpack these verses in regard to the subject of spiritual comfort, because it's my experience personally, and as one who interacts with those in ministry and Christians just in churches, that there is a need to understand, I think, and properly respond to. I mean, and I'm certain in the next 21 days things are not going to get any brighter, all right? So maybe I'm just preparing us for what's coming in November that we would be ready for it. Let's start by looking at the need for spiritual comfort, and that's in this word here, the depressed. As I said, it's translated by some, downcast, downhearted. N-I-V-E-S-V is downcast, and that Bible is downhearted. The word that's used here is often translated humble. And so in context, it means, I think, more though than humble. In fact, some take it almost as humiliated. That is, God comforts those who have been humiliated, meaning in sort of the circumstantial context that they've been brought low by their circumstances. They've encountered some kind of circumstance that rather than lifting them up and exalting them, it's actually brought them low. They've been brought down by it because of it. In fact, the standard Greek dictionary actually says it pertains to, quote, the relative inability to cope. Because of what's been experienced, the person is brought into a position where they are weakened, they're cast down. Probably, if you're looking for a biblical kind of parallel, Psalm 42 describes that, right? The author of the psalm says, I'm in despair, I'm cast down. And so I think that that's what's here. And so my point really is to remind us of something we're inclined, I think, to forget or deny. That is, the path of a believer and the path of God's servants is not free from discouragement or depression of spirit. And I'm not meaning that in a technical sense, right? I'm not trying to... do a clinical thing of depression, but, you know, just think like this, your spirit is here, and then your spirit's here. Right? That we're not free from that. We're not immune to that. And I think that's something that perhaps previous generations understood better than we do. And it may be partly because we've been insulated from so much of what they experience. I mean, if you've ever gone into parts of the world where they're not buffered by all the things that we're buffered by in terms of medically and provisions, you know that life can be lived almost perpetually sick. and almost no families escape death at really quite early stages among family members. And so we have a little bit of a buffer to it. When Jonathan Edwards' daughter, Esther Burr, fell deathly ill, The daughter wrote to her about the trial and the grace that God had given her during the trial, and then Edwards responded to it. And this letter, I think, is interesting for us. He says, Dear Daughter, I thank you for your most comfortable letter, but more especially would I thank God that has granted you such things to write. How good and kind is your Heavenly Father! Indeed, He is a faithful God. He will remember His covenant forever and will never fail them that trust in Him. But don't be surprised or think some strange thing has happened to you if, after this light, clouds of darkness should return. Perpetual sunshine is not usual in this world, even to God's true saints. But I hope, if God should hide his face in some respect, even this will be in faithfulness to you, to purify you, to fit you for yet further and better light. I am your most tender and affectionate father, Jonathan Edwards. And I just had to read that last part, because I just love the way they wrote. I mean, I've never said that to my sons. I am your most tender and affectionate father. Probably should. But did you grasp what he said there? Perpetual sunshine is not usual in this world, even to God's true saints. That is probably something that you have not heard much Because we have inherited sort of a mindset that to experience a period of being downhearted actually reflects some failure in you. If you really were trusting the Lord, you wouldn't be feeling this way. or there must be some sin in you that's producing it, so you need to find out what it is. And we send the person in on a seek and destroy mission internally. But here's God's servant, and that's really the next thing I'd want us to consider, that this is the Apostle Paul. Obviously, we don't think Paul is perfect, but he was Paul, right? And he, if you look at the language, says, God who comforts the depressed doesn't say, and so some of you losers who were depressed, God comforted. He says, but God who comforts the depressed comforted us. Which I don't think produces airtight logic to say that he was depressed, but I think that's clearly the implication of it, right? He's suggesting that God is the one who gives such comfort and I was in need of it because he says God did this for him. And again, my point would be that our tendency to think deep discouragement is always rooted in sin doesn't square with this text. Paul here is not confessing his sin. He's not saying to them, so dear Corinthians, I want you to realize that I went through a period in which I wasn't right with God and therefore was discouraged. That's not what he's saying. He's saying in the course of my ministerial experience and my service for God, I was at a place where I was downhearted. I was downcast. I was deeply discouraged. He was like, many of the psalmists, if you read the laments. But I would even take it a step farther because we need to consider it that this kind of experience is not necessarily tied to sinfulness Because the Lord Jesus describes himself at one point as being deeply, deeply swallowed up in sorrow. Matthew 26, 38, then he, Jesus, said to them, my soul is swallowed up in sorrow to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me. In John 12, he says, now my soul has become troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I came to this hour. So here's a sinless one, who in a sin-cursed world, and with the realities of what was on the road ahead of him, could say that he was swallowed up, deeply in sorrow. And it wasn't an expression of sinfulness. It wasn't that he was saying here, I'm not responding properly to the providences of God. I mean, you do agree with me, right? Jesus was not admitting any sinful infirmity at this point. He was expressing the reality of fully understanding what was coming at him and what he was going to experience. And I think that that means for us, the ramification is that we need to think about that discouragement is not necessarily rooted in sin, and it is not necessarily evidence of God's judgment in our lives. And obviously, I put in a wiggle word there, necessarily. And I don't intend it to be a waffle word. But the reality of it is, we do have to have a humble recognition that there isn't a single answer to the question, why am I battling with deep discouragement? I would not want to say to you, it is never because of sin. And it is never because of God's discipline. You can't say that either. But our default to think it is because of sin, and it is some evidence of God's hand of discipline on us in a negative sense, I think is not correct. It could be. I mean, it could be that you've chosen a sinful path. But here's what I'd say in that, and you may not agree with me on this, but I don't think God plays hide and seek with people about their sin. I mean, if you're in the state you're in because of sinful choices, I believe God will make that apparent to you. He's not going, yeah, you've got some sin in your life. I wonder how long it'll take you to figure it out. Because God's desire is to make you like Christ, and the Word will speak to the issue, and the Spirit will apply the Word to the issue. I don't think there's some hidden thing that God's going to just keep holding from you so that you go deeper and deeper into the skirt. I don't think David was oblivious to his sin when his bones waxed and ached within him. It was because he knew his sin, and he wouldn't deal with his sin. So if it is because of sin, I think the Lord will bring that to light. But it may not have anything to do with cherished sin in your life, but may simply be the result of the brokenness that is caused by sin. It just may be the reality of life in a sin-cursed world. And so Paul, I think, helps us understand that by the fact that he experienced this as well as those who were writing in the Scripture, like the Psalms and even our Lord. So there's no easy answer here. I mean, because there's no perfect diagnostic. Probably for Paul, you can see some of the answer to why he was discouraged. Look at verse 5. That's why I had us read it, right? I mean, maybe this is the description of your life in ministry right now. But look at what he says. Our flesh had no rest. Clearly, that means his body, right? He's not talking about the sin principle. So we had physically no rest, but we were afflicted on every side, conflict without fears within. Yeah, I think that could be discouraging, right? I mean, from the broader context of this book of 2 Corinthians, we know that Paul experienced physical and mental weariness. I mean, if you go in chapter 4, he talks about all the things that he was experiencing, being downcast, bearing about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus. If you jump over to chapter 11, he talks about all the physical issues he was experiencing. So he says his flesh had no rest. I mean, he's not just saying, hey, I could use a vacation. I've been getting the daylight speed out of it. And he couldn't find the rest that he needed. And sometimes that can be the case, right? I mean, our bodies can affect our spirit when they are without rest and physically taxed and perhaps sick. That's where it could come from. We know that he had taxing spiritual responsibilities. That is, he says in chapter 11 that who is weak among the churches and he doesn't bear that anxiety. Right? He has such a keen sense of the spiritual realities at stake that that presses down on him. I mean, you know that, right? I mean, you sit across the table or the desk from somebody whose life or perhaps their marriage or their family has just been devastated by spiritual failure. I mean, you don't just like, hey, it's been good talking to you, head home, and there's no impact of that. I mean, that weighs on the soul. And that's, I think, a part of what Spurgeon was saying. I mean, listen to him from that chapter. Our work, when earnestly undertaken, lays us open to attacks in the direction of depression. Who can bear the weight of souls without sinking to the dust? Passionate longings after men's conversion, if not fully satisfied, and when are they, consume the soul with anxiety and disappointment. To see the hopeful turn aside, the godly grow cold, professors abusing their privileges, and he's talking about people who profess faith, not teachers there, and sinners waxing more bold in sin, are not these sights enough to crush us on the earth? How can we be otherwise than sorrowful when men believe not our report and the divine arm is not revealed? All mental work tends to weary and to depress, for much study is a weariness of the flesh. But ours is more than mental work, it is heart work. The labor of our inmost soul, such soul travail as that of a faithful minister, will bring on occasional seasons of exhaustion when heart and flesh fail." Have you ever felt that? I mean, is that not a common experience of people whose whole sense of what God's called them to do involves a battle, a spiritual battle? And that's what he talks about. And sometimes, I mean, I can relate to this one, I think, at times. Spurgeon says, I feel as though I had created a great machine and it is ever grinding, grinding, and that I may yet be its victim. You ever feel like you just got so much stuff going and it's just gonna crush you? And that's what he talks about. Sometimes it's relational difficulties in opposition. I mean, Paul knew what it was like to have satanic opposition, to have human opposition, to have messengers of Satan that were trying to destroy his ministry, and that had an impact on him. I mean, it affected him, it caused his discouragement. In fact, we'll see this, but I think one of the reasons that he was discouraged was the breach in the relationship with the Corinthians. And so it harmed him. You know, Jonathan Edwards was a great instrument of the Lord, but sometimes we don't think about the fact that just after the Great Awakening, he basically got booted. Listen to what he says about his finishing his ministry there. The people most manifestly continued in a constant flame of high resentment and vehement opposition for more than two years together. And this spirit, instead of subsiding, grew higher and higher till they had obtained their end in my expulsion. Nor indeed did it cease then, but still they maintained their jealousy of me as if I was secretly doing the part of an enemy to them. So long as I had a being in the town, yea, till they saw the town well cleared of all my family, so deep were their prejudices that their heat was maintained, nothing would quiet them till they could see the town clear of root and branch, name and remnant. How'd you like to live into that for two plus years? And some of you have. I mean, I regularly interact with pastors who have a sense of that. There are people who are against me, and I can't do anything to stop that. And then they're discouraged, and they think, I must be sinning because I'm discouraged. And people will just sort of pat them on the back and say, hey, just rejoice in the Lord. Which is true in a command, and I'm not trying to deny it, but there is not a category that can be sorrowful yet rejoicing, like Paul talked about. And I think we need to recognize that. Some of you can relate to the experience of Spurgeon. The brother most relied upon becomes a traitor. Judas lifts up his heel against the man who trusted him, and the preacher's heart for the moment fails him. We are all too apt to look to an arm of flesh, and from that propensity many of our sorrows arise. Ten years of toil do not take so much life out of us as we lose in a few hours by Ahithophel the traitor or Demas the apostate. The trials of a true minister are not few and such as are caused by ungrateful professors are harder to bear than the coarsest attacks of avowed enemies. Let no man who looks for ease of mind and seeks the quietude of life enter the ministry. If he does so, he will flee from it in disgust. I mean, have you ever had that? The person that you thought was on your side, You find they're on your side, but it's because they got a knife coming in around behind you. I mean, that can take the wind out of our sails. Chapter 12 would also reveal that he had and experienced a specific attack of Satan against him, right? A messenger of Satan to buffet him. Here's what Luther said. In brief, the devil is determined to blast God's love from a man's mind and to arouse thoughts of God's wrath. Right? You get that? And that's my point. If I could just sort of conceptually, you might be in discouragement because you have cherished some sin and the hand of conviction is upon you. The answer there clearly is repent and confess. Find mercy with the Lord. But if it's not that, then one of the things that could be at stake, what I think Paul would be saying, right? He had a messenger of Satan to humble him. It was something actually that caused him to feel low. And what Luther's saying is this, is that what the devil wants to do is blast thoughts of God's love out of your mind and convince you you're under God's judgment. That is, make you think you're over there for some reason when you're not, so that your confidence in Christ and confidence in the grace of God begins to get shaken, because if God's on my side, why am I experiencing this? And I think we've set ourselves up for that at times. You know, it could come from, as we've said here, it could come from other people, it could come from weaknesses in ourself, weaknesses in our body, it could be that the hand of Satan is against us. And here's what I would say, I think in all of these, though, none of those are outside of God's control. So it may be that God is putting us in a position like chapter one talks about where we need comfort from God so that we can give comfort to other people. It may be that God's teaching us our weakness and coming to our aid in our weakness so that we can be prepared to do so as shepherds among sheep who experience. Because it really is true that God's people will face discouragement in a sin-cursed world, right? And if all we do is paint on a smile and act like it never happens, then we are not able to minister to those people who are actually experiencing it. whose child has been diagnosed with leukemia, or whose wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer, or who has some horrible thing happening, or maybe they themselves are walking through some valley of affliction, and if we only think, well, it must be the hand of God's judgment, or it's actually not real, you're sort of overestimating it, just sort of click your heels and act like it doesn't really happen, then we can't shepherd sheep well. So sometimes God wants to bring us low so that we can be taught. So let's look at the text and see the source of spiritual comfort, which is no surprise, I hope, but God who comforts the depressed comforted us. So here, let me just give you, and I hope in this context it really generally is, just some reminders about that, right? God is the God of all comfort, who moves toward his people in their pain, We must affirm this from our hearts. That is an aspect of our faith and trust in God, that God is the God who comforts the depressed, and he is the God of comfort, and he moves toward his people to comfort them. He comforts the depressed. And so we need to preach that in our own hearts. And I think that's important, we'll see in a moment, because if we don't believe that, we're gonna look for comfort somewhere. You're not going to be passive about finding alleviation from the pain that you feel. And if you're not going to God, then you're going in all the wrong places. So we need to have clear in our heart that God is the one who is the God of all comfort who comforts the depressed. And I would say as well, it's important for us to remember that God may push us to the boundaries of our strength, but he will not push us past the breaking point. And I know there's, I mean, actually, you know, people debate about this, God will never give you more than you can handle, and really what they're doing is they're just, in my opinion, They're just doing a word game trick, like saying, prayer doesn't work, God works. You know, so basically you're trying to put a dichotomy between prayer and God, as if prayer is irrelevant, it's God who works, when in fact, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much, so it sounds like the scripture says prayer does work, it avails much. And so saying God will not, whoever says God will not let you have more than you can handle isn't right. God will not let you face more than he will enable you to handle. And it's like, okay, whatever. I mean, 1 Corinthians 10, 13 says, God is faithful, right? Who will not allow you to be pressed past what you can handle. So God may push us to what, I mean, and here's the problem for us, right? I'm pretty sure a lot of times that my boundary line is like right here. And for some reason, God's got me on the other side of what I think is my boundary line. So the problem is I'm saying, God, wait a minute. We're out past where you said. And you know what, based on that text it is? The God who knows everything, The God who is faithful actually is trying to help me see, you know what, actually, that's not true, Dave, because here's part of the reason I bring trials into your life, right? So it can build endurance, and endurance will have a result of maturing you. So you didn't think you could go past there, but in fact, I can enable you to go past there, and you need to trust me about that. Because I am faithful. Right? So we need to recognize that. And I think it's important for us to recognize it, because it does affect our perspective on what we're experiencing it. I mean, if we think we have reached the end of our rope, so, and here's what we wouldn't say, so we have every right to quit. Right? I'm at the end of my rope. I can just sit here and soak in this right now. I have a legitimate reason to be like this. I mean, we start to be Jonah, right? God says, do you have a right to think this way? And you know what his answer is? Yeah. I mean, that's always stunning to me when I read that. I mean, he looks at God and says, yeah, I do. And what I'm saying to you is if we think we set the boundary on what we can handle, then we think we're past it, then we think we have a right to say to God, you didn't do right by me. And I think we've got to deal with that in our hearts. Because God is not going to be unfaithful to us in that. And we need to be reminded that God's kindness to us in affliction is actually to move us away from self-confidence and to trust in him, right? Now, I've been referring to a lot of texts, but go back over to chapter one for a moment, because I really want us to see this one, because it sort of, I think, crescendos in the point that I'm trying to make the reminders, all right? Verses three and four. God is described as the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, and so we need to affirm this from our hearts. Then look down at what Paul says in verses 8 and following. For 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. Let me just stop there for a second. And here's what, I mean, I'm just gonna shoot straight on it, all right? I don't know if you've ever gotten to the point where you've thought, Lord, it sure would be nice either for Jesus to come or me to go. I mean, that's what it says here, disparate of life. He's like, I'm ready. I'm ready. Now, here's what I'd say to you, okay? We would probably criticize that. I mean, what Paul admits here is quite probably something that you would never admit to your congregation. You might not admit it to anybody. And what I'm trying to show you is, is that because Paul's a problem? I mean, is Paul wrong here? Would we have pulled Paul aside? You know, done a sort of like Peter with Jesus thing. Paul says this, we come along and say, hey Paul, listen, you can't say that stuff, because you're gonna hurt your ministry. You can't say stuff like that, because that's gonna cause people to think that you really don't, you know, you're really not happy in the Lord. Paul, you gotta ixnay on the despair state kind of stuff. Yeah, you can't do that. My guess is that's what we'd be inclined to do. Now, I mean, trust me, I am not a fan of whiners. I am certainly not encouraging you to walk around with me, the sky is falling. What I'm actually trying to do is make certain our hearts are aligned with the scriptures, and we're not actually trying to project a phony spirituality. And so here's Paul saying he despaired of life, so that we despaired of life. Then look at what happens in verses 9 and 10. Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and he will deliver us, he on whom we have set our hope. And he will yet deliver. So clearly, Paul is in a very physical situation at that point. I think, though, it's not exclusively about this. But the point I'm trying to drive towards is what it says in verse 9, is that God's kindness to Paul, I think, was that he moved him away from self-confidence to trust in the Lord. And that's true in chapter 1 with a physical circumstance that Paul had. Chapter 12 tells us that there's also this reality connected to the messenger of Satan to buffet him. so that he might not be exalted, right? So his conflict in chapter 12 is also intended to call Paul not to have confidence in himself or to be exalted about himself, but actually to have confidence in the Lord and boast in the Lord. So if you experience, the thing that Paul's experiencing, the perspective I think that we need to have on it is that God is a God of comfort, that God will not put us in a position beyond what his faithfulness will not sustain in us, and in fact, it is the kindness of God to knock out the self-confidence of us. It's a kindness when God causes us to feel our weakness so that we actually will have confidence in his strength. That's, I think, what we need to see. Go back, if you would, to chapter seven, please, because I mentioned as well not just the need for spiritual comfort and the source of spiritual comfort, but also we see in this text something of the instrument or means of spiritual comfort for Paul. Look at chapter 7, and verse 6 says, but God who comforts the depressed comforted us by the coming of Titus. So there's one aspect of it. And then secondly, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you. So Paul mentions two things here. At the end of verse 6, he reminds us that God uses faithful and loyal servants of Christ. And I hope I don't have to convince you that Titus was that kind of man. I mean, when you read what Paul says about Titus, you understand that Titus was a faithful servant of God. He was one who was committed to God and to Paul. And so here's Paul in a circumstance where he is deeply discouraged And the instrument that God, who comforts the depressed, uses to comfort Paul is the coming of Titus. It's this human instrument. And so what we have here is, I think, the combination that we need to hold. The source of spiritual comfort is God. It's God who does the comforting. But God graciously uses a human instrument to accomplish that, the coming of Titus. And I think we need to make certain that we do not confuse the source and the instrument. Trusting in the instrument will not produce lasting spiritual encouragement. If Paul's entire hope for encouragement was actually fixed on Titus, then his encouragement is entirely wrapped around Titus and is subject to the frailties of Titus and also the presence of Titus. He is not trying to magnify Titus here. He's magnifying God. The focus is God, who comforts the oppressed, comforted us, but God does that through people that bring encouragement. Let me make certain that we're balanced on this though, right? Neglecting the instrument is not spiritual maturity. And again, here I think sometimes our pastoral pride can be our Achilles heel. We don't need a Titus. We have God. You know, if someone, we're talking depression, discouragement, we're like, God comforts the depressed. And we put a period there. We don't read it and it says he comforted us by the coming of Titus. We don't think we need a Titus because we're close to God. God will take care of us. And I think what we do at that point is deepen our discouragement by a kind of false spirituality. And I think we need to recognize that, all right? Many years ago, I heard this story of, I mean, obviously it's apocryphal kind of thing, but there was a flood that came through and there were people on the, had to get up on the house rooftop and they started praying and saying, you know, God, please rescue us. And someone in a canoe comes by and offers to take them and they say, no, no, no. And they're, God, please help us. And then another boat comes by. And basically what they were doing was thinking somehow God was going to help them apart from these people who showed up. And then the end of the cartoon thing was like, I sent you three boats already. They somehow thought God was going to work apart from the human means and instruments. And we can fall prey to that. We're in the kind of condition that Paul's talking about, and instead of cultivating Titus-like relationships that can be an encouragement to us, we keep receding deeper and deeper into ourselves. We keep thinking, okay, I'm just going to seek the Lord about this. when, in fact, God has already told us where some of the encouragement is supposed to come from. I mean, read the book of Hebrews, chapter 3, chapter 10. Why are we not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together? Why? So we can keep our attendance records up? No, it's so that we can encourage one another, and all the more so as you see the day approaching. So God has actually told us how he's going to encourage us. And it's in relationships like this Titus relationship. And so you and I need to cultivate those when we're fighting discouragement. Because it's a false spirituality that thinks discouragement equals sin or refuses to recognize that we are discouraged when we actually are. Or that tries to tough it out on our own. because God's intention is not for Christians to be lone rangers. He saved us and brought us into a community, and that applies for pastors, too, right? It does apply for us. Look at verse 7. Not only does God use faithful, loyal servants, And this one's a little bit tough to put into like a snazzy homiletical sentence, so let me give you one that's a little awkward, all right? God uses his gracious, progressive work among his people. Okay, so look at verse seven. Not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more. Okay, are you familiar, you're familiar with 2 Corinthians? You familiar with the conflict between Paul and the Corinthian church? You realize after chapter 7, Paul is going to be saying things like, you know, you bear up with these false apostles, and I'm concerned about you. And actually, by chapter 12, he says, I most gladly will spend and be spent for you, for your souls, even if I love you. The more I love you, the less I'm loved by you. So here's Paul, though, in the midst of a relationship and a group of people who are anything but perfect. I mean, think of the church at Corinth. I mean, really, would you want to pastor that church? Yet Paul sees even there the gracious work of God in the lives of these people, because in at least this case, they responded to his severe letter. They actually took his side in this matter, rather than the person who was fighting against Paul. And so Paul has the objectivity enough to look at what we would probably say is mainly a mess, and he looks through it and says, look what God did, and it caused him to rejoice. And so here's what I'd suggest, that part of what we need to recognize is that God is working to lift our spirits, but sometimes we just refuse to see it. Because we live in a world that tends to be all or nothing. I mean, you realize there's not a person in here who pastors a church that is all or nothing? You realize you're not all or nothing? I mean, sadly at times people use that in horrible ways. You know, I almost was going to make a, you know, like a firm commitment not to refer to the election, but here comes my second one. I don't know about what ticks you off, all right, but when I see someone post something that uses Samson as an illustration about, you know, God used Samson so he could use Trump. And the thing I get ticked off about is not the Trump part of it. It's the theological rationale that's going on that essentially says, you know, it really doesn't matter what you're like. Right? So I'm not trying to argue like that. But what I am trying to say is, you and I are far from perfect. And if we look at ourselves in the mirror and we think, we are all right with God and it's all good, That's why we can't live with the fact that there's this point in this that's deeply struggling. Because if we admit we're deeply struggling, then the whole house cracks down. And the same thing can happen sometimes when we look at the people in the pews, is all we see is a mess. Or we look at our church and we think, it's all bad. And we get blinded to the work of God's grace, even among people who are deeply flawed, like the Corinthian church, that Paul, in the midst of his discouragement, is lifted by the work of God through Titus and by the work of God in people that he cares about. And that meant he had to take up his eyes off of his circumstance and see what God was doing. And there are times at which I think we have to remind ourselves of our theology, right? Anybody here ever quote Philippians 1.6? Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will continue it to the day of Jesus Christ. We quote that, and then we see somebody who's struggling and we forget that. Because we think all or nothing. Or we see a church that's struggling, and we think all or nothing. Instead of the fact that the faithful, gracious God who promised if he began the work, we'll continue it until the day of Christ, he's at work, so I need to lift up my eyes and see where he's at work so that I can be encouraged that the devil is not gonna win among God's people. There is hope and strength in what God is doing. God's people are never all or nothing. True Bible gospel churches are not all or nothing. I believe, honestly, and the reason I've chosen this text and this subject for this morning is I think it's an important part of our sanctification to understand and properly respond to the reality of discouragement. We won't grow as we ought to grow if we deny biblical truth. So, for instance, a biblical truth like, in a fallen, sin-cursed world, even those who are faithfully following and serving Jesus Christ can become deeply discouraged. If you deny that in your heart, then you won't be growing properly because you won't respond properly when that happens in other people or in yourself. You won't be living out the truth of God. We have to make certain that we handle the hard realities of life in a sin-cursed world on God's terms, not ours. We accept his word and its sufficiency to speak to even this truth. Believers are still humans and humans feel deep sorrow. And here's the reality, even sinless ones do. Jesus said, my soul is swallowed up in sorrow, and he was sinless. So it's human to experience sorrow in the face of sin and its consequences. To not feel it, to not feel it would be inhuman. and ungodly. And sometimes sorrow happens in services. God's servants, perhaps, are uniquely placed to experience spiritual discouragement because we're aware of our own weaknesses. And maybe not, you might not be the kind of person, but I mean, quite honestly, I hardly ever finish preaching where I think, man, I just You know, you wanted to really get this across, and it's like, ah, ah. You know, the fact is that we're regularly confronted with our own weaknesses, with our own struggles, with devastation happening in other people's lives. We ought to expect it, not deny it. I mean, it is a part of life in this world as servants of Christ. And in fact, to some degree, we should embrace it as a part of God's plan to change and use us. But we shouldn't walk this path alone. And honestly, it's a convicting question for me when I say this, but who's your Titus? Let's say if someone here this morning is really right now, you find yourself in the position that Paul describes here. So who is the Titus that would be the instrument? I mean, if you've cocooned yourself from all spiritual encouragement and help, then you're not following the plan of God. And though you have taught it to the people in your church, you actually are not living by it. Is there like a Amber Alert going on? Okay. So if you see anybody that needs to be turned in, call them in, right? Should do some spiritual twist on this. See, God wants us to have an Amber Alert for our souls. Let me ask you this, for whom are you a Titus? I mean, seriously, for whom are you a Titus? Or when you have a brother, servant of Christ, who is walking through this deep valley, are you like Job's friends for them? Or would they think, when they see the phone and the number, they go, oh, he's calling. Or would they go, Here comes some fresh water for my soul. I mean, are you a Titus kind of person? Do you have Tituses? Do you apply the theology that you believe to your life and to the church? I mean, God's at work. God is at work. He's at work in you. He's at work among those who know Christ. I'll grant that sometimes people in our churches don't, right? I mean, we have no regeneration detectors at the door, so sometimes goats are in among the sheep, and they can gore God's people and God's servants. But I hope you don't think the whole church is goat. But I've seen guys who have allowed their perspective to become so jaded that they don't see the grace of God. And we need to fight that in our souls because if everybody's not right with God, then your ministry is significantly out of step with God's work. And it's not true. It's just not true. Don't believe the devil's lie. So probably to start a conference on encouraging, equipping, and engaging with a message on depression might be a bad choice. Right? But I hope it will be an opportunity for us to think better, to respond more faithfully and, in fact, encourage one another. Right? So you're going to be here for a day and a half or so. If you're really walking through that valley and you're like, I know I need to be here, but you know what? I'm going to hate walking around smiling for two days when my life is caving in. then don't, don't put on the facade. Find a Titus. Rejoice, let God work in your heart. And let's be that to each other, okay? Because right now, the sun may be shining for us. It puts us in a good position to help somebody who's in the storm. And if you're in the storm, look for somebody who's in the sun. And let's help each other and strengthen each other. Let's pray together, please. Father, thank you very much for your word. May its truth shape our minds and hearts. May you take this simple text and I hope hopeful thoughts regarding it and use it to equip and prepare us for those moments in our lives where we experience the kind of discouragement that Paul references here. so that we think about it right, respond to it right, and therefore can grow through it. And as well, that we can help others when they happen to step out of the sunshine into the shadow in your providence. And Lord, please use it to strengthen and help us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.