Conquering Our Problems Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Conquering Our Problems Part 1. He will be reading out of 2nd Corinthians 1:1-11.

And you have the entire Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit, who work together for your salvation, for your sanctification, and are working together to bring about the comfort that you need in your life.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders, and we want to welcome you to our Hope Worth Having broadcast. We’re excited about the opportunity today to be able to proclaim God’s word. I hope you have your Bible, maybe a cup of coffee, and you are ready to learn.

And today we’re beginning a new study in 2 Corinthians chapter 1. You’re going to literally love because you are going to be encouraged. These uncertain times that we are living in, we definitely need encouragement.

So let’s get into the study and let’s begin in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and learning how to conquer our problems. I want to talk to you this morning about conquering our problems. The Bible tells us that man’s days are full of trouble.

Now many times people often ask the question, why does God allow suffering? And certainly there are many answers that we could give. Their theological in nature relating to understanding the humanity, the depravity, the sinfulness of mankind, and how that sometimes has a ripple effect within our world that we live in.

We certainly understand that there are no good answers to this great question of why does God allow suffering, in the sense that there is nothing that is sufficient that is going to somehow make you feel comforted by understanding exactly why God allows suffering.

The Bible teaches us that the… secret things belong to the Lord. And there are times in our life that though we may walk through trouble and we may face adversity, that we may not always know the answers of all that God is doing within our hearts and through our lives.

The very fact that you are going through a difficult time may be the most significant indication that God is at work in your life. Rarely do we learn in -depth lessons of life when everything is going well.

So the question is not really what is the problem, but it is how do we respond to our problems. Your ability to conquer your problems will always be needed because you will always have problems. So how we handle those problems is the key to overcoming those problems.

And when we come to 2 Corinthians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul teaches us about problems, tribulation, and trials, and he exemplifies for us the attitudes and the actions that are necessary for us to conquer our own problems.

I want you to note with me in verse 1 and 2, the Scripture says Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia, grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I want you to note as we begin this letter that the Apostle Paul founded the church in Corinth during his second missionary journey. Corinth was a mega city. It was a city where a lot of industry was going on, a lot of wealth, but it was also a city that was full of sin, and people were living very selfish and sinful lives.

And so the Apostle Paul being the valiant pioneer, he goes straight to the city and he attacks the devil’s territory and he would plant a church that would be a lighthouse in the midst of so much darkness that is around the city of Corinth.

And he ends up being very effective through the grace of God to lead many people to come to Christ and many of these new believers that Paul refers to as saints. Not saints because of their achievements, not saints because they had accomplished so much, but saints because they were believers.

believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they had become saints not because of their longevity of faith, but because of the sincerity of their faith. And as they believed in Christ, then the righteousness of God was imparted unto them.

And Paul, having established this church through the wisdom and power of God Almighty, finds it necessary to write them a second letter. We understand that there was potentially three letters that the apostle wrote to the Corinthians.

We do not have the second letter. This is most likely the third letter that was written to them. The church leaders in the first letter sent the apostle many questions that they were dealing with within the church.

And chapter by chapter, the apostle in 1 Corinthians is answering those questions. He’s helping the leadership of the church to deal with those tough issues. those issues that sometimes are difficult to navigate through and he gives them biblical principles.

This time he writes to them in 2 Corinthians and he is responding to some of the pressure that he was facing from the church. The apostle details many stress points that he encountered as an apostle, but you’ll note that he starts out saying that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.

And the reason that the apostle would take time to acknowledge his title is not that the Corinthians did not know who he was, nor did they somehow misunderstand his role, or that he was an apostle, for they had all known and learned of this as they sat under his ministry of teaching and preaching and mentoring.

Individuals to love Christ is always the case when the apostle left there were false teachers who followed him on his journeys and they would begin to infiltrate into these new churches. And so the false teachers took time to discredit Paul and to somehow convince the Corinthians that Paul was not legitimate and that he himself was a false teacher and they declared him to be a heretic.

It is with a heavy heart that he is trying to help the folks to understand his credibility and he starts out and he says that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ and he said it is by the will of God. It is not the will of man.

Paul’s mission was not that he would be self -appointed before the Corinthians, that he would be this designated leader before them based upon his own will, but rather it was God’s will, it was God who had intervened in the apostle’s life.

when he was an unbeliever when his name was Saul and as he was on that road to Damascus and as he was heading out to persecute other believers that God knocked him off the high horse that he was on and humbled his heart and brought him to the point of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and that in the desert that Christ would reveal himself to the Apostle and that the Apostle would sit under the personal teaching of Jesus Christ as Jesus would shape him and he would sharpen him that he might be this great apostle for the early church and so it was not that Paul sought this it was not that he desired to somehow be this apostle but that God appointed him and that he was called by the will of God and so he wants the Corinthians to know this But as he begins this letter,

it is a letter that he begins with praise. And in so doing, again, he teaches us how it is that you and I, even when we walk through the trials of life, can conquer our problems. And I want you to learn as we tackle these set of verses.

And the first thing I want us to note is that if we are to conquer our problems, we must recognize that problems always lead us to God’s comfort. The scripture says, blessed be God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

Yes, the Corinthians are doubting Paul. Yes, individuals that he has personally led to Christ have betrayed him, and they have turned their back on him. They have not stood with him. But yet he begins this letter with praise.

He begins this letter giving praise to God Almighty. He says, blessed be the God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort. It is that the apostle is exemplifying before us that when we walk through problems in our life, when we have heartache, when we feel like we have been disappointed by others, or that we have been let down by the circumstances of life,

or even that perhaps this morning you feel that somehow God has overlooked your circumstances, I want to remind you that just as the apostle has done, so should we, and that is to look to the person of comfort.

And that person of comfort is God himself. Paul says, blessed be God. It is an expression. This word, blessed, is an expression of adoration. It’s an expression of praise. And it is the Greek. Greek word eulogio, which we get our English word eulogize.

And when you eulogize, you would speak well of them. And that’s what the word means. So when Paul uses the word blessed be God, he is praising God, he is adoring God, he is speaking well of God. Yes, he is heartbroken.

Yes, he pens these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God and bears the burden of trying to persuade this young church that he truly has their best interest in mind. And they have turned on him, but he starts out and saying to them, blessed be God, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

He is the Father of mercies. When we think of mercy, we understand it in the context of grace. For grace is receiving what we do not deserve. but mercy is not receiving what we do deserve. For all of us, no matter who we are, we deserve the wrath of God.

We deserve the judgment of God. We deserve to be cast into hell, separated from God forever and ever, but out of great compassion and out of great mercy, God sent his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And so you and I have been shown the mercy of God that rather than forgetting us and abandoning us, he has shown mercy upon us by bringing us true salvation. He has called us out of darkness. He has called us into the light of salvation that is found in Jesus Christ.

The apostle has not forgotten that even in his adversity that he has a merciful God, that he is a God that has been good to him, that he is a God that if nothing else has been done on behalf for Paul, that certainly the fact that God has saved his soul, it is more than sufficient to give praise and adoration to God Almighty.

And this is essential in your faith as you look to the one who brings comfort to our hearts. Even though our circumstances are not what we want them to be and they may not always be what makes us feel happy or sense that we are happy, there is a deep abiding joy in our hearts because we know that Christ has saved us and forgiven us from our sin.

And so we do declare as we look to the God of comfort, as we are led through our problems to him, that we look to him and recognize him as the father of mercy and we rejoice in who he is, for he is not only the father of mercies, but the Bible.

says, he is the God of all comfort. The Bible teaches us in Isaiah 51 .12 that God said, even I am he who comforts you. He is the God of all comfort. And the Scriptures teach us that our Savior who walked on this earth, that He identifies with our hurts.

He identifies with our struggles. He understands our fears, our insecurities, and the fact that we think about the psalmist saying that he is so moved and amazed that God would be mindful of him. You have a God that is not distant and a God that has not departed, nor did He just simply wind the clock and let it go, but rather He is intimately involved in every aspect of your life.

He is cognizant and much aware of what is going on in your heart and what you are dealing with. in all your relationships. And Paul says he is the God of all comfort. And the key for us is to let our problems, problems with people, problems with circumstances, problems at work, problems in our homes, problems no matter what it is in life to lead us to the comforter.

And so we propose this question to you. How is it that God comforts us? For if we are led to the comforter and we strive and desire His comfort in our life, how is it that God practically comforts His people?

We start with answering the question, how does God comfort the heart by understanding that He does it through the promises of His word, through the promises of God? You see, the Bible gives us many promises, over 3 ,000 promises for God’s people.

That’s why every one of you needs a Bible promise book. Because every day I need you to latch your life and faith upon a promise from God. I need you to begin your day when you open the scriptures, we look for a sin to confess, but we look for a promise to claim.

And if you’re not claiming the promises of God, you are becoming a vulnerable Christian that is susceptible to the lies and the myths of the devil. But when you hang your hat upon the promises of God, He emboldens us and encourages us and He comforts us through His promises.

The comfort that He bestows upon us, come to us through His promises, through the truth of His word, as we face the times of distress. The promises of God, they help us to focus. The promises of God distract us from the problems.

It’s not that we live in a world that is not real, but that we do not focus. upon our problems we focus on the promise and the giver of the promise and our faith grows stronger. The second way that God bestows comfort in your heart is through people.

His people. You see God comforts you through His promises but He comforts you through God’s people. As we journey through 2nd Corinthians the one thing that will stand out to you are the many people in Paul’s life who brought Him comfort on behalf of God.

And whether it was Timothy, whether it was Epaphroditus, whether it was different individuals in the ministry, in the church, who comforted Paul, who continued to encourage him, it was a significant part of God bringing comfort into the life of the Apostle.

And what I want you to get is this. There’s two sides to this coin. As we understand that God comforts through His people that each and every one of us must make the commitment that we will not neglect the assembling of ourselves together, for God is using each and every one of us every time that we gather to encourage and comfort one another.

And that many times your comfort tank is empty because you have isolated yourself and you have disassociated yourself with the people of God. But the scripture says so much the more, meaning that you and I should be faithful, so much the more as we see the day the coming of Christ approaching.

And if ever there was a time that God’s people needed to be encouraged and that they needed to be comforted it certainly is today, would you agree? And so we come not because we’re simply out of tradition or that there’s nothing else to do for our life is full and our life has much to get done and much to accomplish but we recognize the value and the benefit of receiving the comfort of God through his people.

And so the other side is that I need you to be here because there are many hurting hearts walking through those doors every time we gather. I need you to be the tool that God wants to use to bring comfort into other hearts.

I need you to be the person that seeks to bless rather than always feel that you have to be blessed. I need you to be the person who is looking, listening and praying in that God is wanting to use your life to be a blessing to someone else and whether that is just simply listening to their story or it is praying for them through the trials or it is simply a word of encouragement, a handshake, a hug,

a smile. This is the place that people should find the hope and the comfort of the Lord Jesus Christ and you and I need to recognize our role and our responsibility as believers. that when we come that people ought to walk away more energized and inspired to love God and to love people and that though they walk through the valleys of life that they feel deeply encouraged and comforted by being with the people of God.

How does God comfort us? Through people, through his promises, but through prayer. He comforts us through prayer. God ministers his grace to you through prayer. To be negligent in prayer in my life is to miss out on the dispensation of grace into my heart.

For God dispenses his grace that we find to be more than sufficient for us as we walk through the valleys as we are praying to him. And this morning if you are in great need of comfort that I would say to you, spend more time in prayer.

I would encourage you to get prayer partners. I would encourage you that husbands and wives pray together, that families pray together, that they recognize that as their heart is aching, that there is a God of all comfort who cares and he understands and he tells us to cast all our care upon him.

Why? Because he cares for you. He cares about you. You may feel like it’s insignificant, it doesn’t matter, but there’s a God in heaven who does care and he cares about your emotions and he cares about what just happened and he cares maybe what didn’t happen that you thought was gonna happen and he just cares about you and that it is through prayer that he pours out grace upon grace in your life.

How is it that God comforts me through his promises, through his people, through prayer, but let me also say through his presence. Jesus said this in the Gospel of John, I will not leave you comfortless.

He is saying that through the power of his spirit that he will not abandon you. You will not be left as an orphan with no comfort for you have the Spirit of God who lives in you and bears witness to you that you truly are the children of God and that the Spirit of God affirms in your heart and comforts you as you are grieving, as you are struggling, as you are facing anxiety.

There is the presence of the Spirit of God that lives inside every believer and is providing the comfort that is essential for us to make it day by day. Is there any wonder that the Apostle Paul would begin this letter with such praise and adoration?

Is there any wonder that he would say, blessed be the God and even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of the Lord. of all comfort for Paul understood what it was to encounter these great trials and tragedies in life and yet he said blessed be the name of God blessed be God even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies and the God of all comfort here’s what I want you to note this morning just as the Trinity the father and the son and the spirit work co -equally to bring about your salvation in that the father has called you and the son has purchased you and the spirit has sealed you so it is true that the Trinity is deeply involved in the comfort of God’s people for it is not only the father who comforts but it is Jesus Christ who comforts and empathizes and sympathizes with us it is the spirit Spirit who comforts,

and so they work together in bringing about the comfort of God and encouragement in the life of the believer. And you have the entire Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit, who work together for your salvation, for your sanctification, that is your spiritual growth, and are working together to bring about the comfort that you need in your life.

The problems of life should and do lead us to God’s comfort. The second thing that I want you to learn this morning out of our text is that problems equip us to comfort others. So we jump down to verse 4, and we’ll read, the Bible says, who comfort us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation or our encouragement also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation or encouragement and salvation which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer, or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

And our hope of you is steadfast knowing that as you are partakers of the suffering, so shall you be also of the consolation or the encouragement. Here the apostle teaches us that as we are receiving comfort, that we also are to be comforting others, as he says to us who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them.

which are in any trouble. So the comfort from God in our own heart is not the end in itself. It is not that just that God is desiring to comfort you in your grief or to comfort you in your loss or your hurt, but rather it is the goal that he would not only comfort you, but that your comfort would be recycled into the hearts of other believers.

That the verses, the lessons, the insights, the comfort that you are experiencing as you go through the trials, that you are sharing with others and that you are communicating to others and that you are equipping others as you have experienced the comfort of God in your own heart.

Here he says in verse five, for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us.” What an interesting statement that the sufferings of Christ abound in us. He is not somehow saying to you and I that we add to the sufferings of Christ to have some kind of an effective saving impact upon those who believe in Jesus Christ.

But he is saying simply to us that as we suffer as Christ suffered, not specifically, but as we suffer for the cause of Christ, that as we experience the sufferings of Christ, the sufferings of Christ abound in that in meaning, in purpose, we begin to find and understand the partnership of suffering that we have with Jesus.

The body of Christ, you and me, those who believe. The body of Christ has a partnership of suffering with Jesus. There’s nothing that you can suffer that will make God more pleased with you in saving your soul.

Jesus did all the suffering that was necessary for your salvation on the cross. And there’s nothing that you could suffer that somehow would make some impact upon the fact that you might help others be saved.

But what the Bible does teach us is that we understand the sufferings of Christ in a deeper and meaningful and purposeful way as we suffer for the sufferings of Christ abound in us. And we get it. And not that we have suffered in totality or in equality or in quantity to what Christ has suffered for us, but any small dose of suffering on behalf of Christ.

Christ and for Christ, the cause of Christ, the purpose of Christ, we get it because we see that God is at work. There’s never going to be a day that you wake up problem free. And what the Bible teaches us is that God has a strategy to help us conquer our problems.

And that strategy begins by walking with Him and focusing our heart completely upon Christ. It’s not that God will get you out of the mess, but God will always lead you through the mess and give you the strength to overcome and to live victoriously for Him.

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This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.