It's Not Supposed To Be This Way
One Anothers • Sermon • Submitted
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Comfort One Another
Comfort One Another
Opening
This is our third week with this sermon series. I think we will begin to see a pattern. You can’t give what you don’t have.
Likewise, what we are given, what we do have in Christ is not to end with us.
Let’s read together our passage this morning.
Read 2nd Corinthians 1:3-11
Introduction to Comfort
Introduction to Comfort
Let’s talk about comfort for a second. I’ll be straight, most of us have a anemic view of comfort. We have a bad understanding of comfort because we import it from culture.
If I had to describe comfort to you, I would probably have some combination of the following things; Ice cream, Streaming services, and bed. That is the cultural product that we get fed. And it is so lacking.
Let’s talk about why, what does the Bible say about comfort? Well it is almost never, i don’t want to say never, but almost never used in the way we use it today. All the things I talked about where things that you do alone. Sure you can do those tings with other but the main thing is the stuff. It’s the stuff that brings you comfort.
That’s not at all how the Bible describes as comfort. Most of the instances I could find spoke of comfort as something that flowed from one person to another. (PASSAGES). Stuff doesn’t bring true comfort. People do. The greek word is a composite of the words para - to be alongside, and kaleo, to summon or call.
Comforting Ourselves
This is why comforting ourselves is a ridiculous notion. If you are the one who is in distress, you cannot comfort yourself. You need someone to come alongsie you to do that.
Yet it doesn’t stop us from trying does it. There is so much we try to comfort ourselves by doing. We all have habits we have built up to keep us from discomfort. (Examples)
But these things we do, these practices we have developed to distance us from the possibility of discomfort, keep us from reality. And they keep us from experiencing true comfort. These things are often huge blind spots to us. Why we need others to point them out to us!
The God of All Comfort
Comforting Other