{"id":2179,"date":"2019-07-28T15:27:52","date_gmt":"2019-07-28T15:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/?p=2179"},"modified":"2019-07-28T15:27:52","modified_gmt":"2019-07-28T15:27:52","slug":"are-you-a-comforter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/28\/are-you-a-comforter\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You A Comforter?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text<\/strong>: 2 Corinthians 1:3-4<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Introduction<\/strong>:
One of the greatest needs of the\nworld is for people who are comforters.<\/li><\/ul>
The world has so much:
1) wickedness and depressing things<\/li><\/ul>
2) harsh and critical people<\/li><\/ul>
3) difficult situations and<\/li><\/ul>
4) disappointments and discouragements, that life\u2019s burden can be\ngreat and difficult to bear.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
A wonderful thing about coming\nto God\u2019s house is that we can be among people:
\u2013 who love God and love each other.<\/li><\/ul>
\u2013 who will build each other up,<\/li><\/ul>
\u2013 who will comfort each other so we can better carry on under the\ntrials of life.<\/li><\/ul>
\u2013 who will lift us up and cheer us, who will give us hope and joy\nto carry on, people<\/li><\/ul>
\u2013 who are with us when we are down, people<\/li><\/ul>
\u2013 who we can trust will not treat us badly, people<\/li><\/ul>
\u2013 who will be a blessing to us and to our family.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
The main lesson we want to\nconsider today is how we can:
a) be comforted ourselves, and<\/li><\/ul>
b) be a comforter of others.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
Example<\/strong>:
One job of a pastor is to comfort those who need comforting. <\/li><\/ul>
Anything that hinders his ability to comfort others is an attack\non those needing comforting. <\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
Let\u2019s build an atmosphere of\ncomfort, love and encouragement where we can all grow to our maximum spiritual\npotential.<\/li><\/ul><\/li>
Question<\/strong>: What Brings\nComfort to us?<\/strong>
1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>The<\/strong> Holy Spirit<\/strong> comforts\nus compared to the enemy who accuses us.
John 14:16-18<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
When Saul\u2019s attacks on the\nchurches ceased at his conversion, we see these events in Acts 9:31<\/strong>.
a) the churches had rest \u2013 what a relief, what peace.<\/li><\/ul>
b) the churches were edified \u2013 they had a chance to develop,\ngrow and build.<\/li><\/ul>
c) the people walked in the fear\nof God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.<\/li><\/ul>
d) the churches multiplied.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
The Holy Spirit seeks to comfort\nbelievers and churches.
As we are filled with and led by the Holy Spirit, showing the\nfruit of the Spirit, we are comforted.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
2<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Scriptures<\/strong> give us patience, comfort and\nhope.
Romans 15:4-5<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
As we read the life stories of\nBible characters, we see how;
i) They endured trials and God brought them through;<\/li><\/ul>
ii) They sacrificed and brought blessings to many peoples lives;<\/li><\/ul>
iii) Good came out of bad situations. <\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
This gives us patience to endure\ntrials, comfort that God is working out His plans, and hope that we will be\nkept safe. <\/li><\/ul>
This is one reason why we read\nthe Bible and why it is so popular.
The Bible gives us patience, comfort and hope.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Preaching <\/strong>is a comfort to us.
\u201cBut he that prophesieth (or preaches) speaketh unto men to\nedification (strengthen), and exhortation (encourage), and comfort.\u201d I Corinthians 14:3<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul>
Preaching is meant to edify (strengthen), exhort (encourage) and\ncomfort (console) believers.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Return of a faithful Christian friend<\/strong>. <\/li><\/ul>
Four men who comforted others\nare:
i)\u00a0\u00a0 Titus<\/strong> coming\nin II Corinthians 7:4-6<\/strong>.\n\u201cGod\u2026comforted us by the coming of Titus.\u201d (v.6<\/strong>).<\/li><\/ul>
Paul tells how in Macedonia,\nhe and his workers had no rest, but were troubled on every side. <\/li><\/ul>
Outside were fightings. Inside were fears. <\/li><\/ul>
Paul said in v.6 that comfort came from 2 sources.
a) God comforts those who are\ncast down, and<\/li><\/ul>
b) God comforted us by the\ncoming of Titus.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
Titus coming to Paul was a great comfort because Titus was\ncommitted to helping build people up.
He was a blessing and a joy to\nbe with. Is your coming a comfort and a blessing to others or a curse?<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
ii)\u00a0 Tychichus\u2019<\/strong> arrival\ncomforted the Ephesian\u2019s hearts.
Ephesians 6:21-22<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
iii) Timothy<\/strong> comforted\nPaul by giving a good report of the Christians at Philippi.\n
Philippians 2:19<\/strong>. <\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
Timothy came to Thessalonica to comfort and establish them in the\nfaith.
I Thess. 3:2<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
iv) Justus<\/strong>, Paul\u2019s fellow worker,\ncomforted Paul.
Colossians 4:11<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>The Return Of Christ<\/strong> comforts us.
I Thess. 4:13-18<\/strong>.- V.18 \u2013 \u00a0\u201c\u2026Comfort one another with these words.\u201d <\/li><\/ul>
What words?
i)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t sorrow hopelessly at the death of our loved ones. v.13.<\/li><\/ul>
ii)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The dead in Christ are with Christ in heaven. v.14.<\/li><\/ul>
iii)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The dead in Christ will rise first. v.14-16.<\/li><\/ul>
iv)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We will be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air.<\/li><\/ul>
v)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We will ever be with the Lord. v.17.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Other believers\nFaith <\/strong>and Commitment<\/strong> to God, their local church and\nthe work of God is a great comfort to all believers who are watching.
I Thessalonians 3:7-8<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul>
Your faith, faithfulness and commitment to God\u2019s work and to each\nother is a great comfort to other church members. <\/li><\/ul>
On the other hand, disloyalty is a discomfort to others.<\/li><\/ul>
If we stand fast and hold the traditions we\u2019ve been taught by the\nApostles in the New Testament, we will comfort others and be established in\nevery good word and work.
II Thessalonians 2:15-17<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
7.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Thoughts of going to Heaven<\/strong> is a comfort.
Luke 16:25<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul>
No matter how bad things get, we have the comfort of looking\nforward to joy and happiness forever in Heaven.
This is especially true for those\nwho finish the work that God has given them to do.T<\/li><\/ul>
hey can look forward to\nreceiving a crown of righteousness for faithfully serving Christ to the end. \u2013 I Timothy 4:6-8<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
8.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Speaking Good Words <\/strong>to people<\/strong> comforts them.
Rehoboam should have done this \u2013 I Kings12:1-7<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li>
Conclusion<\/strong>:
We are commanded to:
i)\u00a0\u00a0 Comfort the feebleminded\n( little spirited, fainthearted, fretful, worried) \u2013 I Thess. 5:14<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul>
ii)\u00a0 Comfort those in\ntrouble, by the comfort that we are comforted of God. II Cor. 1:3-4<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
iii) Comfort yourselves and edify\none another even as ye do. \u2013 I\nThessalonians 5:11<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul>
iv) Be of good comfort, be of\none mind, live in peace. \u2013 II Corinthians\n13:11<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
If you do these 8 things I\nmentioned this morning
Allow the Holy Spirit to comfort you<\/li><\/ul>
Allow the Scriptures to comfort you<\/li><\/ul>
Allow Preaching comfort you<\/li><\/ul>
Allow Return of a Faithful Christ Friend comfort you<\/li><\/ul>
Allow The Return of Christ comfort you<\/li><\/ul>
Allow Other believers faith and commitment comfort you<\/li><\/ul>
Allow the Thoughts of going to heaven comfort you<\/li><\/ul>
Allow Speaking Good words to people comfort you.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>
The result \u2013
You will be a true comforter.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Text: 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Introduction: One of the greatest needs of the world is for people who are comforters. The world has so much: 1) wickedness and depressing things 2) harsh and critical people 3) difficult situations and 4) disappointments and discouragements, that life\u2019s burden can be great and difficult to bear. A wonderful thing … Continue reading Are You A Comforter?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa5oei-z9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2180,"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions\/2180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}