Sunday Worship Service November 19, 2023

Call to Worship Psalm 86:12~13
Hymn JBC # 125 All Creatures of Our God and King
The Lord’s Prayer
Offering
Scripture 2 Corinthians 1:3~11
Prayer
Sermon “Rely on God Who Raises the Dead”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 19 Love divine, all loves excelling
Doxology JBC # 679
Benediction

We thank God that we are able to worship Him together in this way today. We gather here weekly to worship Him.
　We are gathered here to worship God because He has called us today, and because we answered the call of God the Holy Spirit.
Let us give great thanks to the Lord God who unites us through faith in Jesus Christ.
　In the Bible passage given to us today, the following verses of the New Testament book, 2nd Corinthians Ch.1 verse 3 ~ say the following:

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,

　These words (almost same words) are also found both at the beginning of Ephesians (Ephesians 1:3) and at the beginning of 1 Peter (1 Peter 1:3).
The fact that these words appear in such other places in the Bible shows how important it is for us as believers to praise God.
And the fact that the Bible says "praise be to God" in several places like this also points to the fact that we as people often say we have faith, but fail, neglect, or forget to praise God.

This is because we have the sin of self-centeredness, the sinful nature and desire to take for ourselves even the glory of God.
We say, "May God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, be praised," or "May God be praised," but in reality, are we not actually wishing for our own praise and to be appreciated by others?
When our desire to be loved and accepted by others grows, our hearts grow distant from God.
If we stay stuck in a self-centered way of life, we will not be able to keep our eyes on God's grace, and we will stop praising God, and we will lack the joy of being able to praise God.
Do we truly praise God? Is our participation in church meetings and being a member of the church equal to having the faith to praise God?

If a church is truly overflowing with the grace of Jesus Christ, it should be a source of great joy and strength for us to gather in such a church. A church overflowing with the grace of God should be filled with joy and power.
And when we receive the joy and power of faith by being connected to such a church, then we praise and glorify God from the bottom of our hearts.
　Let us hope that we can truly declare from the depths of our hearts, "God alone is worthy of praise," and let us earnestly wish to be filled with the pure longing to "glorify the one true God" as an authentic expression of our faith.
Why should God be praised to that extent? It is because we receive abundant "comfort" from God, as we see many times in today's scriptures.
　In the first half of today's passage (vv. 3-7), the word "comfort" appears many times. Of course, God is the one who gives us comfort.

　　In our lives, there will always be hardships and difficulties and each person has their own hardships. When we meet hardship, when we are in the midst of suffering and sorrow, we need comfort, the kind that God offers.
We can live through the suffering and sorrow by receiving comfort from God, who invites us to receive His comfort as we continue walking with Him despite the difficulties of life.
Jesus Christ bore all of our pain, suffering, and sins on the cross (by way of His death).

　Because He bore it all (every kind of suffering) on the cross, He is able to comfort us in every affliction.
The history of Christianity is about people who have been comforted by God in the midst of deep sorrow and pain, who have been allowed to have such experiences, and who have testified of the God's healing and comfort.
　The Christian faith has been handed down through the confession and testimony of those who have seen and believed by faith how kind, loving, and comforting God is.

　When we listen to God's word together in church, it also means that we receive God's comfort together. Through worship we are reassured that the true Comforter is with us.
Our God is One who gives us comfort from within our souls and hearts, even in the midst of hardship, difficulty, and sorrow. I hope that we never stop desiring to learn more of this truth.
And when we receive God's comfort (the true God's comfort), it doesn't simply stop there (within us).

Let's read verses 4 and 6 of today's passage.

4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
　6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.

When we receive comfort through God, it says that comfort is also comfort to others.
　If we ourselves have truly received God's comfort in Jesus Christ, we can use that to comfort others in turn.
　Trials and tribulations can stimulate someone to grow as an individual. Trials can also be a driving force for our growth in faith.

And for Christians, growing in the midst of tribulations means knowing that we receive God's power to make it through the tribulations.
God offers comfort in the midst of suffering and we are also strengthened through such experiences of being comforted by God.
We do not become stronger on our own, but we can be stronger by God.
Spiritual growth for a Christian involves an ongoing journey of learning to increasingly rely on God's presence and being filled with the comforting embrace of God's love.
Having received such comfort from God, we are able to comfort others with the comfort we receive from God. God's comfort will also spread abundantly through us and our church.

In verse 8, Paul, the writer of this letter, refers to his own experience of suffering.

8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.

It is not clear what specific troubles Paul is referring to when he says, "the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia."
Paul encountered many hardships and even danger to his life as he evangelized throughout the land. It is likely that he is referring to the persecution and other hardships he endured as he preached the gospel of Christ.
The hardships Paul experienced were such that he “despaired of life.” Then verse 9 follows.

9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

Paul's suffering was so great that he felt he had lost all hope of living and was sentenced to death.
　Normally, when we feel "condemned to death," we think, "It's over.” We would give up on most things at that point.
　However, for those who receive comfort from God and hope in Him, such hardship becomes a new starting point.
Experiencing the depths of hardship to the point where hope seems lost and death is imminent can serve as a pivotal moment, with God transforming one's life significantly.

　Because we know that when we are placed in a situation where we can no longer rely on ourselves, we come to rely on God, who even resurrects the dead.
　Then we will know that it is not that I do accomplish something, but the God who has resurrected the Lord Jesus Christ from death on the cross, He will do it.
Therefore, when we think, "It is hopeless," or "There is nothing I can do," let us draw near to God.

Let us stop relying on ourselves and turn to God, the source of life, who has made all things new through Christ.
　It is faith in Christ that leads us not to praise ourselves, but to praise God, desiring to give all glory back to Him.
In the midst of hardship, true faith in Christ is the understanding that we can continually receive God's comforting solace. Moreover, it is the realization that with the comfort given to us by God, we can extend that comfort to others.
Let's be a church overflowing with the love of God, where we care for each other and share God's comfort with each other through the true comfort we receive from God.
Our faith lies in recognizing that we don't depend on ourselves but on God, who not only resurrected the dead, specifically Jesus, the one who endured the cross and every form of shame and insult, but raised Him as the Comforter and Savior for all.
As we live out our faith together, let our collective desire be that our God, overflowing with love and abundant comfort, be exalted in our midst.