Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

What gives you comfort?

The word comfort means to soothe, console or reassure.

Sometimes you and I need comfort.

What do you go for comfort?

Magazine and internet articles suggest several things we can do for comfort.

We can do stretching exercises that help restore blood flow.

We can take hot showers.

We participate in some activity in nature.

We can visualize good peaceful things.

We can even go find things from our childhood that brought us comfort and touch and feel those things.

The logic is that if they helped us then they can help us now.

Do you feel better now?

I found it interesting that even in articles and websites that spoke about finding sources of comfort, not one that I looked at made mention of God and His Word.

We live in a society that stresses everything to do but spending with God.

Our scripture today gives great insight to turning to God for comfort.

In fact, you will see that our scripture calls our Lord the God of all comfort.

We need not to look anywhere else but to Him as for our comfort.

Listen to :

Several points are made in this passage, but look closely as we look at the source of comfort, the strength of comfort, the security of comfort and the sharing of comfort.

Paul uses the word comfort here to bear witness that God is the source of all comfort and is ready to comfort us in all our troubles.

Paul certainly experienced troubles and knew what it meant to have physical hardships, dangers, persecutions and anxieties.

First, however, let’s look at what comfort means in scripture.

Comfort comes from the Greek word paraklesis that is from a group of words that means to ask, to exhort or encourage, to comfort.

Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit being the great comforter and the Greek word for that is paraklete.

We see the word comfort in various places of scripture, many of which you may have turned to for comfort:

Isaiah

Isaiah 61:

Isaiah 66:13

We celebrate all those passages because as we have seen in

2 Corinthians

God is the SOURCE OF COMFORT.

The Source of Comfort

It can’t get any plainer than that.

The source of all comfort is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible says He is the God of all comfort.

He is the God of every comfort.

Each one.

There is evidence of God’s comfort throughout His word.

2 Corinthians 7:6

How can God be the source of comfort?

Well again in His word, we see that every good and perfect gift comes from Him.

Psalm 8

It is the Lord who imparts the only true and perfect comfort.

Not only is God the source of comfort, He is the strength of comfort.

The Strength of Comfort

How strong is God?

One of His many attributes is His strength and how mighty He is!

Psalm 21:

Job 36:

If God provides comfort, you can count on being comforted.

If the Creator gives you comfort, you can be assured of great comfort.

If the One who spoke the world into existence speaks comfort in to you and me, we can rejoice in that comfort!

That gives us great security!

The Security of Our Comfort

We see in our text that the God of all comfort is capable of giving us comfort in all our troubles.

In the Peanuts comic strip, there was one character that carries around this blanket and he calls it his security blanket.

There are many attempts to help him get rid of his blanket.

Lucy tries to shame him and call it a stupid blanket.

Others make fun of him.

Snoopy wants to constantly use the blanket to lay on.

But there is one time in the comics that we see Linus lay his blanket down.

When Linus shares what Christmas is all about in Charlie Brown’s Christmas, he lays down the very thing that provides him comfort and places his comfort in the God of all comforts.

You see, this takes place precisely when he utters the words, “Fear not.”

Charles Schultz was pretty smart in helping us understand the security of our comfort does not come in the form of an object bu in the One who is the God of all comfort.

Our security is not knowing God can provide us comfort.

Our security comes from the fact the God is our comfort!

Colossians 1:

That is security!

Jesus said in John 10:28-29:

There is security in our God and great security in His comfort!

As a result, we can share comfort with others!

Sharing of Our Comfort

Paul writes from the perspective of a man who knows and had experienced trouble.

The Greek word for troubles here is thlipsis.

It has to do with actual physical pressure.

There is no greater pressure than the pressure of a trouble or affliction that becomes heavy and burdensome.

When you and I experience that pressure, we can become downcast and weary.

However, God’s design and His desire is that we receive comfort.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the word used in this text to help us understand that there is a remedy for our troubles and affliction is what we have translated as endurance.

2 Corinthians

The word for endurance here comes from the Greek word hupomone.

It is not a state of being grim and just getting by, but rather it means triumph.

The comfort we receive is one that is victorious!

It is not only victorious, but takes us to another level.

In taking us to another level, we are equipped to share the victory others!

Now that is comfort!

Not only do we receive comfort, but we can share the hupomone with others!

My mother has had a sunflower grow in her front yard this year.

It seems that sunflower seed fell from the bird feeder and developed into a beautiful flower.

I was reading about sunflowers and learned something new.

I was aware that the sunflower always turned toward the sunlight, but what happened when it was a gloomy day.

I thought perhaps that the sunflower would just hang its flower down toward the ground but it doesn’t.

The sunflower will turn to another sunflower.

What a beautiful picture that is of what we can do as brothers and sisters in Christ.

When we experience the gloominess of our lives and we need comfort, we can realize the source, strength and security of comfort coming from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we can in turn, share it with each other victoriously!

What a hope that you and I can walk this journey together!