God of All Comfort: Sharing Christ's Sufferings Together

we're gonna discover three different truths about real suffering and real comfort. Three different truths, things that I believe God wants us to know about real suffering that we encounter and the real comfort that is available to us. The first one you can write down in your outline is this, every believer will share in Christ's sufferings. Every believer will share, will experience sufferings just as Christ suffered on this earth. To put it another way, you can't follow the man of sorrows without experiencing some sorrows yourself. [00:06:51] (44 seconds)  #ShareInChristsSufferings

Whatever it is that you're going through, the hardship that you're encountering, I want you to know, the apostle Paul walked through some of that too because Jesus himself walked through some of that too. You've got brothers and sisters who are walking through some of that too. And as we encounter the suffering and affliction in this life, I wanna encourage you. Turn to Jesus alone for comfort. God gives comfort as we share in Christ's sufferings. Amen? [00:36:28] (36 seconds)  #JesusIsOurComfort

You know, it's amazing. One of God's purposes in the suffering of Christians is that we would experience direct personal comfort from God. Just as with his death and his resurrection. How could Jesus show his resurrection power unless he gave his life on the cross? And how can we experience the comfort in affliction unless we walk through some of that affliction in life as well? [00:22:52] (35 seconds)  #SufferingBringsGodsComfort

We can also take a look at the cross of Jesus. We already talked about his finished work, but we know that at the cross, that's the how. That is how he provided salvation for us. That he demonstrated God's absolute wrath against sin on the cross. But he also demonstrated his absolute love for us, And his just wrath and his love for us met at the intersection of the cross. [00:20:40] (34 seconds)  #CrossOfLoveAndJustice

So while each person experiences suffering in this life, sharing in Christ's suffering is the best kind of suffering to to experience. Why is it? Why is sharing in Christ's suffering better than the average suffering that every other person will go through? Well, it's because as we share in Christ's sufferings, we know, and this is your second point in your outline, that every believer is comforted through Christ. Every believer receives comfort that can only come from Jesus Christ. [00:14:52] (39 seconds)  #ComfortOnlyInChrist

As you encounter your need for God's comfort, as you encounter that suffering and the hardship, I encourage you to turn to God alone for that comfort. That's the final point for us this morning is that every believer must depend on God for deliverance. We saw every believer is gonna share in Christ's sufferings. Every believer is comforted through Christ, and so my encouragement to you is that every single one of us must depend on God for deliverance. [00:23:41] (34 seconds)  #DependOnGodForDeliverance

But a big part of the book of second Corinthians is going to be us discovering just because you've gone through difficult things in life does not mean that you're counted out from God's purposes for you. Each one of us, we're gonna discover, experience suffering and hardship, but we can live an authentic life before God himself because our God calls us to that. [00:05:04] (31 seconds)  #PurposeDespiteSuffering

The finished work of Jesus. That's the what. What he did in coming to earth, taking on human flesh, living a perfect life, doing ministry and miracles, and demonstrating who he actually is, going to the cross, going to the grave, rising again, revealing himself to hundreds of people, and ascending into heaven. The finished work of Jesus Christ is something that can bring us comfort because we know everything that we needed to have earned for us everything that we needed someone to earn for us to be with God forever, Jesus finished it. [00:19:20] (39 seconds)  #FinishedWorkOfChrist