Finding Comfort
Notes
Transcript
Reading:
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Introduction:
Many of us have probably never had experiences in our life where no words could describe how we felt, what we thought, or what we saw.
Those that have seen war can say they have.
Especially those who have been captured by an enemy and held as a prisoner.
But for most of us; we can only read about what people have endured.
(?) The question I have is, in those moments, can they find comfort?
Among those with stories are missionaries.
There have been some who found themselves in these type of situations, of which we have their stories.
Our scripture for today will be found in Psalm 119:49-56.
Verse :49 begins like this:
49 Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope.
The Psalmist is speaking/singing to God and begins with: “Remember”!
God doesn’t need reminding; but I don’t think that the Psalmist is being dis-respectful with what he’s saying.
I believe it is a reminder for himself; of what God has already told him.
What do we have for comfort in our times of trouble or while in a storm?
We only have:
Our past victories.
Passages of scripture.
and hopefully our mental faculties.
How can we use those?
They can be used as reminders.
Just like the Psalmist, we need to be reminded to have hope!
Hope Brings Comfort (49-50)
Hope Brings Comfort (49-50)
There is a missionary to Colombia by the name of Russell Stendal.
He was a missionary with his parents when he was 9.
His family moved to Colombia to reach the Kogi Indians.
One day Russell’s dad shows up to the home in a plane; which they now owned and used for ministering to the Colombian people.
Russell later used the same plane to distribute radios and bibles to people.
In Colombia there is a Marxist Guerrilla organization known as FARC Guerillas.
They are the Colombian rebel group who are funded through kidnapping, ransoms, illegal mining, extortion, and production and distributing illegal drugs.
When they kidnapped people they would demand a ransom, get it and then kill them.
Russell had gotten kidnapped.
Through the process of getting kidnapped he shot one of them, and nearly escaped.
Because of that he could only sit on a bamboo bench, under a mosquito net, with no shoes and a noose around his neck surrounded with guns pointed at him, hear how he describes it:
“At night, whenever a guerilla shines his light on something, he lays it along side his gun barrel in order to be able to shoot if he decides to. Every time he the guards shine their flashlights on me, I can be fairly certain t hat their gun is pointing at me also.” - Russell
He also talked about how it was affecting him mentally.
“I find that I have to carefully control my thoughts in order to avoid going into a severe depression.” - Russell
He needed hope in these moments of his life.
Many of us have been sitting in uncomfortable scenarios much less than what Russell found himself in, and we needed hope.
Verse :49 brings hope.
49 Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope.
What is providing hope for the Psalmist here?
God’s written promises!
(?) How do you need to be comforted right now in your life?
What passages would bring comfort to your life when you need it?
What instances in your life merit being reminded of when God revealed Himself to you?
How would hope help you?
With the Psalmist we read that he gains comfort because he has hope!
50 This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.
In his current affliction he finds comfort.
The verse continues with more detail.
“That your promise gives me life.”
Let’s go back to Russell:
He has hope; is comforted a little because God reminds him of:
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Even though he is in great affliction God’s promise gives him life.
His mind shifts from the “Why” to the “What”.
He says:
“Can God have a purpose in allowing me to fall into the hands of these Guerillas? If I were to relax and trust God to get me out of here, will He work everything out for good?” - Russell
When he focused on the why; he was powerless.
With his mind focused on what God promised in Romans, he had a new life and purpose in captivity.
Life brings comfort. (51-53)
Life brings comfort. (51-53)
When we have no purpose or belief in something. It defines us and we believe we are useless.
In those moments we should read 2 Corinthians 5:17-18:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
We have a purpose:
To reconcile souls back to Him.
The old life has been washed clean, and are given the tools to accomplish it:
A new heart, new mind, and relationship with God Himself.
We should be comforted with this new life.
That doesn’t mean our new life won’t have hardship and difficulties.
Look what the Psalmist encountered:
51 The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law.
52 When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord.
53 Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake your law.
Verse :52 is the only one that mentions comfort and :51 and :53 tell why he needed comfort.
:51 and :53 are focused on others not on the psalmist.
51 The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law.
Insolent is defined as:
“Proud and haughty, with contempt of others; overbearing; domineering in power; as an insolent master.” - Noah Webster
My mind pictures some professional athletes.
Many are rude, extremely arrogant, with a lack of respect for anyone.
Typically focused on themselves.
What kind of example could we find in our culture that would be considered insolent towards us?
I think Atheists.
The call believers dumb, weak minded, ignorant, naive.
They claim that anyone who teaches their children Christianity are abusing their children.
Teaching kids fairy tales.
They mock God’s word, God Himself, and His people openly.
That is what I think of as a modern example to the insolent that we deal with.
(?) Who else is the psalmist dealing with?
53 Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake your law.
The wicked.
Notice that the wrong doing of others can have power over you.
The psalmist describes his attitude.
Why is he seized by hot indignation, because of others choices.
What they do has power over his attitude, they are in control.
“Hot Indignation”
Indignation:
“Anger or extreme anger, mingled with contempt, disgust or abhorrence.” - Noah Webster
His indignation was towards the wicked because they were forsaking God’s law.
(?) Was the psalmist’s anger acceptable before the Lord?
It makes me think of when Christ made a whip, went into the temple and drove out those who buying and selling in the Lord’s house.
Some might say that a believer isn’t supposed to do something like that, they are supposed to be passive.
Isn’t that what it says in Ephesians 4:26?
26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
This passage is a warning about the danger of falling into sin, when you allow anger to drive the car.
Does this then teach us that the psalmist is in sin?
I believe that He had the kind of anger that Jesus had towards the money changers; which is often referred to as a:
A righteous indignation.
As children of God aren’t we supposed to be upset with un-biblical things so we decide to do all we can to make it right?
Example:
What do you think about abortion?
What is it that we can do about girls choosing abortion?
We can build a bridge into their lives so we have a trustworthy voice for them to hear.
We can have conversations with them about what lies they are believing.
We would be able to provide them with truth so they could have a better choice; when they might not believe they have one.
Then we can direct them to a resource center to get the help they need.
Point:
A righteous indignation pushes us into taking action.
Creating avenues for girls to hear and know the truth, so it would be the loudest voice and most popular thing to do.
Saving children’s lives, and the mother’s mental future.
In verse :53 the psalmist was upset because the wicked didn’t care about God’s laws.
The Psalmist was pursuing a life abiding by God’s laws, which gave him comfort.
Connection:
Know that every day that we wake up we can be comforted knowing that God isn’t finished with us yet.
We are useful and He desires to reach many through you and I.
Reaching souls isn’t always as quick as we hoped even though we possess the answers that they don’t realize they need.
We can get discouraged in our efforts.
To which the Lord knows so He shows us through the Psalmist that there is:
Comfort In Examples. (54-55)
Comfort In Examples. (54-55)
54 Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning.
55 I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law.
What has God given us for examples that would offer encouragement?
His statutes. A Statute is:
“An act of the legislature of a state that extends its binding force to all the citizens or subjects of that state, as distinguished from an act which extends only to an individual or company; an act of the legislature commanding or prohibiting something; a positive law.” - Noah Webster
How can a legislature or law be a comfort?
Illustration:
Everything in our world is based on laws or rules.
Laws provide the constructs for what is right and what is wrong.
Let’s go back to the Lord giving the dispensation of law to the world.
God gave the law to man because they failed to be governed by their own consciences.
Their own consciences betrayed them from living a perfect and holy life as God expected.
A result of that failure was for God to give the law for man to know how they could live a perfect and holy life.
Connection:
The law reveals that we can find comfort in knowing that it’s impossible, yet because of Jesus we are holy and perfect before Him.
Jesus covers our sin.
He is able and will, because His grace is eternal and forever!
The second example we can find comfort in would be the name of our savior: Jesus.
The song: Oh how I love Jesus starts with:
“There is a name I love to hear,
I love to sing its worth;
It sounds like music in mine ear,
The sweetest name on earth.”
Peter and John echo this importance to all present at their meeting with the council in:
11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
We can find comfort through other examples God gave us too:
People remind us:
If you don’t respond and accept the gift of Grace from God you will be eternally separated from God and take your own punishment in hell.
A place that has no peace.
Their lives attest to a lack of peace and joy.
Just know that you can find comfort in those examples.
Transition:
When we find comfort in God we are blessed.
In the blessing God reveals to us that:
Blessings Bring Comfort (56)
Blessings Bring Comfort (56)
56 This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept your precepts.
The Psalmist found comfort through hope, a hope for the future God has for him.
God is in your future too, that hope should comfort you in moments when it all seems pointless.
The Psalmist found comfort through life; every breath he took was a blessing and it comforted him to know God wasn’t done with him yet.
You are here and alive, God isn’t done with you either.
The Psalmist found comfort through the right examples.
Do you find comfort in examples from God’s word?
Maybe in knowing how powerful the name of Jesus is?
Each and every one of us have the opportunity at some point to evaluate all the blessings we don’t deserve but are enjoying anyway.
You can find comfort as you draw near to Jesus.
Final Thought:
Russell Stendall was held for 142 days (almost 5 months).
---Optional if you find the book.
(read pages 124 and 126 the highlighted areas)
That sounds like a man who was comforted by God in a difficult time.
What are you going through right now?
- Know that you can find comfort in God’s word, or at least go and search for what God has for you in the scriptures.
There is comfort waiting for you ask God for it and He will give it.
- Pray!