God has, God is, and God will deliver us.

2 Corinthians 1:9–10 AV

But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;

Passage Analysis:

2 Cor 2:3-11- The God of Comfort (HCSB), Thanksgiving for God’s Compassion and Comfort (LEB), Comfort in Suffering and Delivered From Suffering (NKJV), Paul’s Thanksgiving after Affliction (NRSV).

I. God is our merciful Father and the God of all comfort (Verses 3-6)

a. God is our merciful Father and God of all comfort.

God is our Father, He is Father in creation, who created the heavens and the Earth. He is the originator. Secondly, God is our Father because when we believed on Jesus Christ and He saved us, he placed his Spirit in us. Metaphorically a father is one who is not only an originator but also a transmitter of anything. God transmitted his Spirit to us and when he done that it means that we should be more like Him. We inherited our righteous nature from the fact that God put his spirit in us. Thirdly, a father is one who looks after another in a paternal way. A father has many roles: to guide, to teach, to praise, to discipline, to take care of and provide, to protect, to support, to provide love. These are just a few of the roles that a father participates in. When we receive the Spirit of God, we then become the children of God:

John 1:12–13 AV

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

We find then that our natural fathers should be a reflection of a Heavenly Father and that God loves us, He provides for us, He protects us, He disciplines us, He encourages us, He guides us, He teaches us.

When we come to the realization that God is our Father we should no longer live in dread or fear of God in terms of cowardice or shrinking back because He is the judge of sinners, but rather we revere and adore Him are reconciled to Him as a loving Father.

The scriptures tell us in verse 3 that God is the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.

This suggest that God is not only lenient and forgiving towards us but it also entails that God is compassionate towards us. He is compassionate, He has compassion for us meaning that God is first off aware of us, He has deep awareness of our lives, He knows what we go through, and He is concerned about you. He (God) sympathizes with our suffering and plights. Sympathy involves understanding someone who is going thru suffering, while empathy entails understanding suffering because you experienced suffering. God does both, because Jesus suffered in His flesh. He knows about pain, He knows about rejection, He knows about hardship and struggles, because he went through that. He sympathizes with us because of our sin nature, Jesus was without sin, so he doesn’t know what it is like to fall for sin but he has mercy on us and He is compassionate towards in that He forgives us of our sins and when we are being tempted, when we are fighting against sin, when we want to do right, he is compassionate and sympathizes for us because He wants to help us overcome sin, he wants to help us overcome bad things, he wants to help you over guilt and shame, He wants to help you and stablize you when you are feeling weak, He wants to help you in your suffering!

God is the God of all comfort. Comfort can be several different things: freedom from worry or disappointment. You mean that God can bring me to a place free from worrying.....oh yes....if we believe in Him and if we whole heartedly trust Him. He can bring you to a place where you are not disappointed too.....God can do anything. Comfort can also mean being relaxed or without pain. Oh yeah God can bring you to a state of relaxation even though there is turmoil all around you. He will keep them in perfect peace who’s mind is stayed on Him because he trust Him (God). Yes, God is able to bring you to a place where you don’t experience pain (witness). There is physical but there is also mental pain....God is able to alleviate pain! God is the God of all comforts.

b. God comforts us in all of our tribulation.

Paul says in verse 4 “Who (God) comforteth us in ALL our tribulation”. Comfort also means that God is able to bring you to a place of well being, whether it be physically, mentally, or spiritually. Paul says God brings us to a place of well being.....even in our suffering. God does this so that we are able to comfort those who are in any trouble. It is hard to tell someone else that something is going to be alright if you never went through what they are currently going thru. If you haven’t been through nothing and you tell someone that it’s going to be alright....those are just nice words. But if you been through what they went through and God brings you out of it, you can testify to someone that “yes my brother and sister I understand, I been there, but let me tell you the LORD brought me out of it, and if He brought me out of it, He can bring you out too.

II. Purpose of Suffering

a. When you live for God you can expect suffering however God will comfort us.

There was a purpose for Paul’s suffering, he declared in

2 Timothy 3:12 AV

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

You are going to suffer for what you believe in.....but it will be okay because the God of all Comfort is in your corner. You’ll suffer from those who might not believe what you believe, you will be persecuted and even discriminated against, but remember this, God is there to help you and to strengthen you and bring you to a place of well-being. Matter of fact Paul says in verse 5 that “The more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ”. Why? Because He doesn’t want us to give, because He knows that we need help, so God will lend us a helping hand.

b. Your suffering can too lead to others salvation.

Verse 6 says “Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation”. When you suffer and God brings you out of it, it is not for you to keep to yourself, you need to testify about it, you need to encourage others who very well might be in the same predicament as you. Your testimony might cause someone to not give up, your testimony might give someone hope, your testimony may cause someone to turn the the LORD, don’t get quiet, don’t remain silent while God is blessing you, open your mouth and testify to someone that even in troubles God will comfort you, even when you are weighed down with troubles God can bring you out. Your suffering, can lead others to salvation!

c. Paul’s confident hope that as Corinthians share in suffering, they will also share in comfort.

Paul wanted to encourage the believers in Corinth, he preached the gospel to them and they believed. He was concerned about their spiritual well-being and the progress. They were suffering right along with Paul and he wanted them to know that I understand what you are experiencing because I’m going through it as well…but let me tell you that God will comfort you in your hardships, he will comfort and strengthen you in your test because he has and he is strengthening me and as you share in the same types of suffering I experience, the same way experience suffering and comfort you’ll be able to share in the comfort that I receive.

III. Paul’s Extreme Suffering.

a. Paul’s suffering in Asia Minor.

Verse 8 “Paul wanted the church at Corinth to be aware of the suffering he had experienced while he was in Asia Minor. Paul said “We were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired of life:”

Paul experienced extreme severity as the text suggests that he strains the language to the limit to express himself. He says we were under great pressure, literally weighed down, far beyond our ability to endure (utterly beyond our strength). Have you ever felt great pressure? Have you ever felt that you were at a breaking point “Lord I don’t know how much more of this I can take?” Have you ever felt like you were just going to lose your mind?

Paul’s pressure was so intense that he despaired of living. The word “despair” implies the total unavailability of an exit or way of escape. He thought that the situation that he was in was so bad that he certainly would not live through it. Have you ever felt like that? Sometimes things can get so bad in your life that you may find yourself like Jonah “Lord I want to die”. When we examine the life of Paul we see that many times in his ministry he faced near death experiences, but this time, he thought that it was all over this time.

b. We too may experience suffering.

There will come times in your life that you may experience suffering like this too, somebody today might actually be there, you are pressed-down, weighed down by troubles, family troubles, health troubles, job troubles, neighborhood troubles, home troubles, car troubles, pet troubles, all kind of troubles.....but the good news for this morning is that God is aware of your troubles and that God is going to comfort you in your troubles, and I believe that God will bring us out of our troubles! Testify to someone and encourage them by saying “Neighbor God is going to bring you out of your troubles! I got scripture for that:

Psalm 34:19 AV

Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

I believe that Paul probably took this scripture and latched ahold of it while he was going through his trouble. I need you to latch on to this too.....

Psalm 34:19 NLT

The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time.

The Lord is going to come and rescue you, the Lord is going to come and rescue you, testify to your neighbor and say “Neighbor.......HEY Neighbor.....the Lord is going to come and rescue you!”

c. Put your trust in God.

You need to ask the LORD to deliver you, you need to ask the LORD to comfort you in your trouble, you need to ask the LORD to help you! ASK in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed, for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the LORD. You need to ask and then believe, you need to name it and then claim it!

You gotta put your trust in God, don’t be a double minded man, don’t be unstable in all your ways.

IV. God Will Rescue Us

a. Paul’s deliverance.

Paul was in precarious situation, he didn’t think he would make it out of it alive. Paul said “we had the sentence of death” that means “we expected to die”. He expected a bad outcome to happen from this situation. He said “we had the sentence of death within ourselves”. When combined with the previous scripture it seems as if Paul is alluding to the facts of the previous statement. However, here we see that this sentence is intended to assert an alternative that improves or replaces the previous statement. In the previous statement He was in dire straights, but now Paul says that a positive came out of what he and his companions were dealing with.

The good that came out of this situation is “that we should not trust in ourselves” the perspective was set straight for him. He could not depend on himself or nobody else, the good that came out of this situation is that he learned how to trust in God. He said “learned to rely on God” it is a lesson that we all are going to have to learn, you can’t rely on yourself, it is good to have a spouse and I thank God for my wife, I thank God for my children, I thank God for my parents, but I/we have got to learn how to rely on God! God is a very reliable source because God cannot FAIL! If God has the power to raise the dead, Paul came to a realization that regardless of what He suffered God was going to rescue him. Even if He died, Paul believed God would one day rescue him from death and the grave! So regardless of how it looks, how it feels, or what is going on......I believe GOD! I believe that God will rescue us! Paul addresses a three-fold tense: God delivered/rescued us (past) and doth deliver/ (present tense), and because he trusts God, will deliver/rescue us (future tense). One more time, turn holla at someone else and tell them God is going to do it!

b. In need of prayer.

Towards the end of this context, Paul said “You also, helping together by prayer for us”. We need to pray for one another, you can help someone else by praying for them, I don’t know about you but I need all the help I can get. If you feel like I feel, tell your neighbor I need help. Paul believed that if he prayed and if they prayed to God

We are in the middle of a pandemic and if we were out of this season I would ask you to grab your neighbors hand. But we don’t need to grab someones hand, I want you to stretch your hand towards them and just pray to the God of all comfort to deliver them! Pray this simple prayer “God deliver them right now”. Come on everybody, now pray your own prayer of deliverance over someone right now......stretch your hand and start praying!

V. Praise for God Answering Prayer

Paul now gives a positive intention concerning a future event “so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many”. In other-words, Paul is saying that if you pray for me and I pray for you that God will answer our prayer and that all of us will have a reason to give God glory and that He answered prayer. But you know what, I’m not going to wait until my prayers are answered, I’m not going to wait until I come out the storm, I’m going to praise Him through the storm, I’m going to praise Him while I’m in the storm, I’m going to praise in my pain, I’m going to praise Him in the uncertainty, I’m going to praise Him because I believe his going to bring me out!

Cross References:

Philippians 1:19 AV

For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

Psalm 34:19 AV

Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

Some of us are guilty of sitting down on God, others are guilty of quietly throwing in the towel.

There were times in his ministry that Paul was afraid and hesitant to speak or say anything about Jesus but the Lord encouraged him (Acts 18:9). The Lord said “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent! For I am with you! Another time (Acts 27) Paul was imprisoned and heading towards Rome on a ship. The bible says, that a ship with prisoners were headed to Rome during the winter time and usually the weather was rough on the seas during winter. The sailors thought that they could make it, but Paul spoke out against and said “I perceive, that there is trouble ahead if we go on, shipwreck, loss of cargo, and danger to our lives as well. While they continued their journey, the ship and its crew got stuck in a noreaster and the sailors couldn’t control the ship. Paul knew that the ship was going to be shipwrecked but an angel appeared to him the night before and told him “Don’t be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar, and that God in his goodness has granted saftey to everyone sailing with you. Paul told them to take courage “For I believe God”.