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We're going to talk about the comfort of the scriptures, and I felt the Lord drop this
into me, while I was just doing a prayer walk just the other day, so let's have a look at
our key verse, Romans 15:4 In Verse 4 it says: whatever things were written
before, were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures,
might have hope Whatever was written before, speaking about
the rest of the Bible, was written with a purpose in mind for our learning, that we
through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope
So one of the things that's inevitable, is that everyone experiences at some point in
our life, times of pressure, times of difficulty, times of distress
Is there anyone who's never been in such a time? I'd like to meet you! [Laughter] Must
be Jesus Himself Even Jesus Himself had great distress
Well Jesus actually said to us, He said: in the world you will experience tribulation,
or pressures, or difficulties How many recognise that life is not all sweet,
that lots of stuff happens you don't like, or wish it didn't happen? How many have had
that kind of deal? That's right, so what we're looking at is, how to find solutions that
work for you in those times So there's a whole number of sources of problems
Now you can probably add your own list to this, but let me throw out some I was thinking
of Marriage can be a source of pressure and difficulty
and pain; family can be a source of pressure and difficulty and pain, especially when it
comes to the beginning of the year, paying all the bills
Then in their teenage years there's stresses and difficulty
So marriage, broken friendships, can cause real pain and stress and difficulty
Financial set backs, how many have been through a financial pressure, or difficulty, or stress,
and really felt something? How many have had that kind of thing happen? Yeah, we've all
had that happen to us at some point A criticism can be extremely distressful,
injustice can be extremely distressful, conflicts, disappointment
The list goes on In fact, the more you look around, the more
you see that we face a whole range of things, whether it be in the form of betrayals, sickness,
The challenge - the thing we also should expect, that as a believer it's normal to have that;
and as a believer, you'll have more, because you follow Jesus
How about that? It says: many are the afflictions of the righteous
However, the good news: the Lord delivers him out of them all; and I'm interested how
the Lord delivers I want to know how to find, and experience,
the comfort of God in the midst of stress
So the Bible tells us here: that through the comfort of the scriptures; so God has given
you the Bible to produce specific things in your life: teaching, correction, reproof,
and structure on how to live But one thing it says here is, it's designed
to bring comfort to you, and we need to learn how to get comfort from the Bible, and we
need to understand a little about it There's a reason we need comfort, and I want
you to understand this, then we can learn how to position yourself to experience great
comfort in times of distress Next week I want to share on how you can comfort
others with scriptures, and we'll see that very clearly in just a moment
So there are three reasons that I thought of, or primary reasons, why we need comfort
when we're in distress Here's what they are
Number one, when your feelings are hurt, our thinking is affected, and we lose perspective;
so when you're in a lot of pain, it affects how you think about yourself, about God, about
life, about people, about church, about government, about everything, all kinds of things
Your thinking is affected when you're in pain, and the tendency is to lose perspective
Remember Elijah, when he got into tremendous fear and pain, he was fearful of losing his
life What happened, he totally lost his perspective
In the end he said: well I'm the only one in the whole nation that's standing for God,
and God had to tell him: actually there's 7000
[Laughs] So you notice his perspective is all screwed up, and it's messed up because
of pain that he's feeling; so one of the things we have to recognise is, when you start to
go through feelings of pain, it affects your perspective how you think, and for a while
you just don't think straight What you tend to do is to isolate
That's the problem, we tend to isolate In Proverbs 18:1, it says: he that separates,
or isolates himself, seeks his own desire In other words, we're trying to escape from
the pain, we have our own things we're trying to do, and we're isolating to survive
How many understand that? I'm going to show you how biblical comfort addresses the core
problem, not just how you feel, but the root issue that happens, when you go through pain;
and this is what it is: becoming isolated
Church is called to be a community The Christian faith is worked out as a community
It's not just all about you; and God's answers, many of them are provided through the community,
not just directly from heaven to you This Lone Ranger thing, where it's just God
and me, is absolutely a fallacy; and people who get into that zone, end up isolating themselves
It says: their heart rages against wisdom; or they don't take into account the wisdom
of God So one of the first things is, that when our
feelings are hurt and we go through pain, we tend to lose perspective; second thing
is, our sinful nature leads us to isolate We tend to isolate, and then want to find
comfort in all kinds of unhealthy ways: eat chocolate; [Laughter] Watch TV; alcohol, you
know? The list is endless isn't it, of the ways people try to feel better - have a smoke,
got to have a smoke Got to - I've just got to have a smoke, and
the reason usually people have to have a smoke, apart from addiction, is because they're in
pain, and they need comfort, and they turn to the drug
So what was the solution temporarily to the problem, now created a new problem; so the
person who turns to alcohol to comfort themselves, do you feel better? Of course you do - today
you do, while you're drinking, tomorrow you don't [laughter]; and if you keep doing that,
then later on you've got a huge problem with alcohol
So one of the tendencies we have is not to follow God's process of dealing with pain
We tend to have our own way of dealing with it, and it's quite sinful and harmful to us
People go and they seek out *** relationships, they go into ***, they go into all
kinds of things to try and find a solution to pain
The solution is: comfort, the comfort of God God wants to comfort us, and you're going
to see this, the whole nature of God, we're going to see in a moment, is to comfort us;
but I don't know why we just don't turn to Him
Why? So he can then begin to work on your mind, and your emotions, and cause you to:
feel no value, cause you to feel distress, cause you to feel pain, tormented and to lose
all hope that the future could be better Anyone been in a deep depression any time?
pain is real So we're going to talk next week about how
So there it is, three reasons why we need comfort: number one, the first reason we need
perspective goes; two, our sinful nature, we tend to react, and do harmful things, we
my brother, and he felt good about that feeling I know lots of people, and they're just planning
They're comforting themselves in their pain, by harbouring revenge; so these are very destructive
me in 2 Corinthians 1:3 Since we're going into a season of looking
God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort
out there aye? You don't have to be too smart - comfort
Notice what it says: now the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; so you know when
the time He doesn't have: today I'm happy and compassionate;
and when we're in trouble, He loves us, and feels tender feelings, and desire to engage
and so because He's moved with compassion, now He's also called: the God of all comforts;
someone to put their arm around you and there, there, there, feel better and pat you on the
But it's not that In fact, that actually can be incredibly harmful
- I love that - so whatever situation that we find ourselves in, here's the one thing
for your distress, and because He's the comforter He wants to do something to help you in your
All comfort means, no matter what you're going through, you can rely on Him
The word to comfort, actually they can't get the right word to match what the original
How about that? The primary meaning of the word: come alongside someone
You think about that, how many times you have felt isolated, alone
If we just look at another level of this, the main problem of humanity, is we're disconnected
God is thinking: how can I reach through to you, to enter into the pain you're having,
just enough to get you filled up today already isn't it? We've got a bit more though
God is to show mercy and comfort Mercy, we're not going to judge and blame
So you notice it says: He comforts us in all our tribulations, so we may be able to comfort
in every situation, even if it's a mess of your own making
Here's the second thing we want to know: He wants you to experience something
He wants you to have an experience, not head knowledge; doesn't want you just to have a
The Bible points us to a person, and so when you look to be comforted by the scriptures,
Now here's the other thing, God intends you to be able to minister to others, with the
in the deep, dark place, come to you in your valley, and you encountered Him, and He reassured
walked out of that valley, into a place where it all changed, you have a testimony that
He wants your roots to go down, to engage Him in that problem, and also He's got people
This is why your testimony is important Your testimony is how I experienced God in
I can remember when I went over to my daughter, how as I came, I came there just to be with
When you've lost a child, you can't solve that problem for someone
The person's in deep pain and shock, they're in a place of pain
most painful time of the funeral, where actually at the point of cremation, she had an encounter
The reality of God comforts us This is a great thing, God of all comfort
the Holy Spirit, who will never leave you So here's the thing you can absolutely be
He says: I won't leave you He's never going to leave you
Now let's go and have a look at the scripture that we want to have a look at,and we will
Okay and we read here in Verse 4: now whatever things were written before, were written for
so the whole of the Bible is written for your benefit
it? How did God treat him? What did God do in the midst of that? How did God help him
wilderness, and they messed up and fell over and did all kinds of crazy things, it's written
there for you to learn from So God has recorded things about people, and
It's actually Jesus' story, so therefore it's about people engaging with Jesus in various
This is why the Bible's been given to you, one of the reasons
You say: that's what God's like? I wasn't thinking that
Remember, when your emotions get stirred up, your thinking gets messed up, and you look
begins to shift the thinking, so you start to see what is God doing in the midst of this
my thinking to: where is God in all this? What is God saying in all this? What is God's
The third thing it's there for, is to experience the presence and comfort of God, so God wants
So in other words, God wants to use this word for you to experience comfort in the midst
So when you have turned to God in the midst of pain, and engaged the comfort of the scriptures,
depressed It's a major chronic problem all over the
They don't have a positive view of life
situations are, we can look - hope means because it's grounded in God, I can have a positive
that you may abound in hope! I have to believe though
thinking, and respond to Him That's what gets me out of it
Well listen, if you want to be a baby and suck on a bottle for the rest of your life,
You're in trouble, because God wants us to learn how to use scriptures to obtain comfort
and the Bible can comfort us, but we've got to learn how to engage with that, and end
You notice there are two keys that are given in here: number one is that I've got to receive
thinking be shifted, so now I'm thinking right, and starting to act right
I can come out with is: oh, I know God is giving me a great outcome with this
and two, I've got to be patient Of course we're in an instant age, no one
[Laughter] It's so slow starting up, I can't stand it
[Laughter] I like to switch on, it's there - so no one likes to be patient
promises; so if I want to see my situation move and turn around, I have to: first of
me to do in the midst of this difficulty, and then it will pass, and I'll have a great
just feeling good; it's actually about God putting something into you, to get you thinking
In other words, or putting it a different way, God wants you to learn to deepen your
all of these but let me just share with you three ways, practical ways that God does bring
I kind of ask the question: well I'm in pain right now, so how do I use the Bible to feel
so what do I do? Where do I even start? So here's my Bible, now where do I start? I can't
God? That's the question to ask We've learnt that everyone has pain, we've
There's a part I have to play in it Now how do I get the comfort from the scriptures
have verses, and they kind of stand out to you
Lord shall renew their strength They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
why don't you get it in your mouth, and start to speak it out aloud
start to in your heart embrace what you are saying: I thank You
I walk and will not faint You are with me! I believe Your word! Many
got to actually make a decision, to get hold of the word of God, and do something
Though you walk through the water, it shall not overwhelm you, Isaiah 43, because I will
What will happen is, your soul will start to shift, your spirit starts to YEAH! YEAH!
a parrot can speak, but they don't get into faith
My words will not pass away, my word will not pass away, my word will not pass away
See, the Holy Ghost is a comforter, but He comforts us directly by touching us in meetings
We'll get to prophesy - that's another part, but I want to get the word - the word is there
Learn to speak them out, and repeat them over and over, and get them around and in your
verses The more you go through, you'll find of them
the Bible to help me, comfort me; and you will be amazed how many sites will come up
At the end of the day, they're all saying: the Bible, the Bible, the Bible, go back to
Even if you don't become conscious of the presence of God, what will happen is, emotions
while, and what you'll find is: faith can grow, and come, and arise in your heart
to it Don't get into the thing where you're trying
No word shall drop - so that's one of the ways
personalise it, speak it out over your life, and embrace it in your heart as you feel it
I'll just move through this quickly, so how many of you have found you're reading the
felt - what did you feel? God is near! What were you feeling before that? God is far!
So how do you do that? Well ask the Holy Spirit to quicken a scripture
It's His job to open your eyes up and see something you never noticed before, and He
I didn't even know that thing was there? And it was the Holy Ghost quickening a scripture,
Before you just had the scripture, and prayer, and meditation, and confession helped quicken
What does God want you to do in that? You've got to stand and continue to do that, okay
of people who went through adversity, take time to get into stories of people who were
this person facing? What would they have felt in that difficulty? What would they have gone
me the same way, because You're my God also So for example in Jonah, take Jonah
there's a rebellion, a resistance to God He's really opposed to what God wanted him
fear of being discovered, and they discover him and throw him out
you're just going to sink?
What do you feel? You feel like he does, so then what happened? God had prepared something
he had for him So God, what have You prepared for me, that
think in them there's life, they speak of Me, come to Me to find life
us, that we may be able to comfort others, with the comfort we have received
one more time There may be someone here who's never received
decision: that I will acknowledge that He died on the cross for my sins, He died on
to make that decision? You say: but I've messed up so badly, nevertheless He's for you
I wonder if there's anyone here today, and you're in a place of distress in your life,
Father, I just pray for each person here right now, that they would experience the comfort
get hold of your word, and experience the strength of Your presence coming near us
Help us to do that
