The God of All Comfort

[00:00:06] Amen. What a beautiful melody. What awesome words. There from psalm eight you may be. No, please stand. Please keep standing. I was going to have you sit down. [00:00:18] Let's pray for the reading and preaching of God's inerrant holy word. Let's pray. [00:00:28] Lord God, your word is truth. [00:00:33] It is spiritual truth. [00:00:37] And that means that we need your holy spirit to be able to spiritually discern your word, your truth. [00:00:48] And so we pray that your Holy Spirit would indeed make this more than just nice sounding words, words of comfort, words of hope and trouble, but that you would truly open our eyes to see the depths, the meanings, the implications. [00:01:09] Help us to see the Father in all of his mercy, in all of his ministry to us, even in hard times, help us to believe even when belief may come with difficulty. [00:01:28] O Lord, we do ask that you would then bless the reading and the preaching of your wonderful holy spirit inspired, inerrant word in Jesus name. Amen. [00:01:44] Well, our text is two corinthians, and it's chapter one and verses three through eleven. [00:01:55] Hear now God's word. [00:01:59] Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. [00:02:21] For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. [00:02:30] If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken. For we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. [00:02:50] For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers of the affliction we experienced in Asia. [00:02:56] For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. [00:03:04] Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. [00:03:21] You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. This is the word of the Lord. [00:03:32] You may be seated, boy. [00:03:44] Please bear with me as I seem to increasingly, as I mature or grow older, have post nasal drip with all of its accompanying nose blowing, coughing, etcetera. I don't have a cold. You've probably noticed before. [00:04:06] Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Oh, there we go. [00:04:11] The God of all comfort. [00:04:15] What comes to your mind when you think of God the Father? [00:04:23] What's your impression? What do you think the Father is really like? [00:04:31] I suspect that it may be a lot easier for us to view Jesus as the one who's full of compassion and tender mercies and so forth. [00:04:43] But what about God the Father? [00:04:46] It seems that for many, viewing God the Father as being like Jesus in terms of things like tenderhearted mercies might come with a little bit more difficulty. [00:05:01] Some may view God the father as kind of cold, distant, maybe because of your own earthly fathers. I don't know. [00:05:09] Maybe God the Father is the one that's full of thou shalt not and so forth. [00:05:17] But the apostle Paul here in our passage really demolishes wrongheaded views of God the Father. [00:05:27] So I want you to listen carefully to what the apostle Paul reveals to us about God the Father regarding all who embrace Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. And I want you to allow this passage, especially verses three and four, this tremendous truth, to fill your heart with comfort, with hope in life's troubles and fears and so forth, in the midst of all the struggles and pains that we experience. So verses three to four here in two corinthians, listen again. [00:06:05] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and comfort, God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Isn't that beautiful? He's a father of mercies. He's a father who comforts us and would have us in turn minister that very same comfort unto our brothers and sisters in Christ. [00:06:42] It truly is a beautiful passage. So I kind of have this sermon based, divided up into two main sections. First of all, we're going to look a little bit at verses three and four, and then for the second half, we're going to look at some of how does God minister comfort, especially as it relates to the gospel? [00:07:06] So let's dig in a little bit to this really beautiful hope and strength providing passage. First of all, notice here, Paul, how he begins, and I personally find this very striking. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:07:27] Now, if you're familiar with the life of the apostle Paul and even some of what he's laid out about his own afflictions in verse eight and following, you just might be amazed that Paul, somebody who has endured and is enduring such trials, such a persecution, such affliction, that he's able to say, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:07:55] I see this as something very joyful. [00:07:59] In the midst of Paul's own trials and tribulations, he was a man terribly, even horrifically persecuted because of his proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, if you were to be around the apostle Paul, maybe on a hot day, maybe after he's been working on tents and he's hot and sweaty, and he, I don't know, goes over to the water well, and he begins to wash himself off, what would you see on his body? [00:08:35] I think that what you would see would be huge, painful welts and scars across his back from being whipped. You'd see the bruises, more scars from being stoned. He was once left for dead. The stoning was so severe, you'd see a body, I suspect, broken from that kind of persecution, affliction, abuse. [00:09:08] And I also suspect that if you were to look into the apostles Paul's heart, you'd see some inner pain from those persecutions, and even the pain and hurt coming from betrayals and opposition and false accusations. [00:09:25] But here in these opening words, here in verse three, we see something. [00:09:30] Despite all of that. That's amazing. [00:09:34] Paul was able to rise above it all because he had personally experienced God the Father's incredible mercies and compassion, ministered to him in the midst of such trouble and pain and persecution. [00:09:52] And I think that says something to us, how the apostle Paul is able to begin. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:10:02] And you know, one of the reasons Paul was able to praise the Father like this was because God used Paul's hardships to bring about something good, a growth in his faith in God, and even growth and growing closer to God. If you look at verse nine, you see this, he says, in the midst of his persecutions, indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us purpose here. That was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead. Isn't this absolutely glorious? Here, part of our father's mercy, part of the comfort that we receive, is that in our heavenly Father's care over our lives, our hardships, our trials, our pains are not for nothing. [00:10:53] God wonderfully uses even our trials to advance our faith, to wonderfully advance his work of conforming us to the very image of Christ to further our growing towards maturity and even to grow in learning to rely on God rather than ourselves, rather than self reliance. [00:11:20] And self reliance, in the end, really only lets us down because none of us really are that strong. And so again, verse nine. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, and here's the purpose. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead. There's such comfort in this that in the Father's hands, our trials are not meaningless. [00:11:51] It's so encouraging. [00:11:54] But you might wonder, well, how does God bring about this kind of growth in the midst of trials? Well, you see, in the midst of tribulation and struggle and fears and worries and all of those things, those type of things which in good times sustain us, comfort us, provide happiness, they actually prove insufficient, even irrelevant. [00:12:21] Through hardship, God strips us of our smugness, our complacency, our self sufficiency, our pride, and he leaves us vulnerable and exposed. [00:12:35] Well, why would God do that? [00:12:37] Why would God strip us of our self sufficiency and so forth? [00:12:42] Well, because those are the very things within our hearts which oppose growth in Christ, which even inhibit our growing closer to our heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:13:00] Many of you can testify that some of your closest times with our savior and with the heavenly Father are in the midst of trials and hardships and fears and worries. And maybe in those times, you were driven to the book of psalms and the psalmist prayers and the psalmist cries became your own, and you actually felt closer to Goddesse in God the Father's hands. Our trials, our hardships are not for nothing, and that's for our comfort. That's often when his greatest work in our lives takes place. [00:13:39] That's a mercy, and that gives us such hope. [00:13:43] You know, in furniture making, some of the very finest furniture is not made out of the type of wood that maybe you would expect. One would expect that the craftsman would choose all the wood to be this wood with just this beautiful straight grain in the wood. [00:14:02] But often some of the most beautiful pieces of furniture which are even artistically made, they're full of these striking, these gorgeous grain patterns that are full of swirls and twists and curves. [00:14:23] Now, that kind of wood is more rare and it's more expensive, and it comes from trees that grow in places where they're exposed to adversity, maybe constant wind and constant storms. [00:14:39] And it's wood from those kind of trees that often the artisan woodworker will make his finest pieces from. And you see, under that hardship. Those are the trees that inside develop some of the most beautiful, intricate patterns of grain. [00:14:57] They're the trees that, again, that's undergone stress and affliction, and yet they're the ones chosen for the very finest pieces. [00:15:06] And so it's somewhat like that with us. [00:15:11] Trials, tribulations, stresses, storms in our lives. Well, those things in the hands of our merciful heavenly Father often produce some of the greatest and most beautiful growth in character and strength and faith. [00:15:32] Again, verse nine. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on our heavenly Father. [00:15:46] We see this sort of thing in Romans five, three, four, where Paul writes, again, same author, we rejoice in our sufferings. [00:15:56] That's kind of shocking, isn't it? We rejoice in our. I don't know about you, I avoid my sufferings, right? Anything I can do to avoid. But he says, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts. [00:16:24] Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction. God is at work in the midst of our afflictions. [00:16:36] You know, it's enlightening to realize that here in our passage, Paul refers to afflictions and trials some eight different times. He mentions the words afflictions and sufferings. And yet in an entire context here, in which he mentions afflictions and sufferings eight times, he uses the word comfort ten times. [00:17:02] In a sense, God the Father's comfort and mercies trumps our trials and tribulations. You see, God the Father, his mercy and comfort transforms our afflictions, transforms our suffering. Our loving Father brings good, even glorious things out of adversity and trouble. Our afflictions are not for nothing in the hands of our incredible God, our heavenly Father. It's no wonder, then, really, when you think about all of this, that Paul begins this entire letter with such praise and even gratitude. Again, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort. [00:17:49] And here's something else very, very special about the comfort we receive from the father in the midst of our fears and worries and struggles and hardships. [00:18:01] It's that our trials and hardships are not for nothing also, because we are then called to lovingly pass on this comfort that we have received to our brothers and sisters in Christ who are hurting as well. [00:18:19] There's even that greater purpose in it that we then get to. We're called upon to pass this on verses verse four, who comforts us in all of our affliction so that that's words of purpose, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. You see, our heavenly Father's goal is even more glorious than simply being limited to our own comfort. [00:18:54] As our heavenly Father expresses this mercy and compassion and ministry towards us through comforting us in the midst of our own hardships, he in turn then would have us express the same towards others, our even being an instrument of his to minister his comfort. Isn't that wonderful? [00:19:18] So that's part of how the church is meant to function. The fellowship of the body is that just as God the father ministers to us, so we take that and we minister to others. And God, then the father is ministering to others, even through us. And then those who have been ministered to in turn minister to others within the body. [00:19:38] The working of the church, the life within Christ's body, is something beautiful and something wonderful. [00:19:46] The father's loving compassion for us is then meant to flow out of us towards our brothers and sisters in Christ. Again, our hardships and trials and struggles in the hands of our heavenly Father are not for nothing. [00:20:03] Now that sort of is a quick look at the first part of this message, a look at this passage. [00:20:15] Now I want to move on and answer a question, and this is what led to my putting this sermon together a week ago. [00:20:24] How does our heavenly Father comfort us? [00:20:30] That's a question that I was asking, especially as I was in the midst of counseling somebody. And of course, one answer, one way that our heavenly Father comforts us is just bye. Directly ministering to our heart's comfort. [00:20:44] And that is one way that he works. [00:20:47] But there's yet another significant way. And this is what really struck me last week about this and kind of led to my wanting to put this message together. [00:20:59] Our heavenly Father comforts us in the midst of our neediness, our pain, our confusions, even our hardships and afflictions, through the tremendously good news of the many benefits, the blessings, the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. [00:21:16] You see, the gospel and its benefits is one of the great ways in which our heavenly Father ministers comfort to us. And what I want to do now is lay out some of those ways. It's just a sampling, really. There's so much more to us now, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The saving work of Jesus Christ may very well be, in fact, the number one way in which we experience the grace, the mercy, the comfort which our father provides. And hopefully you'll begin to see some of this as we go through this. And it all begins with this message to hurting, sinful, wayward, confused, needy men, women and children. [00:22:02] Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. You and your household believe on Jesus, and you will be saved. Okay, you're saved. Now, what are the benefits right now? I mean, it's one thing to say I'm saved and I'm gonna go to heaven, but what about between now and going to heaven? Well, psalm 103 has a beautiful section there laying this out. Psalm 103, verses two to five, so beautifully describes God's salvation benefits, which is to our joy and comfort. Listen, verses. Yeah, two to five. Bless the Lord, o my soul, and forget not all his benefits. [00:22:50] Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles? [00:23:10] You see, God reaches down into the hardships of life, the trials of life, even into, shall I admit it? The messes we all make of our lives. [00:23:23] He reaches down into our sin, into our struggles to believe, our rebellion, and he forgives us, and he makes us new. [00:23:34] He renews our youth like an eagle's. [00:23:38] When we're down in the pit of despair and we're hurting, what can be more comforting than the announcement of, of God's benefits to all who trust in him, forgives all your iniquity, heals your diseases, redeems your life from the pit, crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. Oh, how many people need love and mercy? And a steadfast love and mercy, one that won't quit, satisfies us with good, sorry, youth is renewed like an eagle's. [00:24:07] This is so comforting already. We're now into gospel good news, through which the father ministers comfort. [00:24:17] Yet another way in which the gospel comforts us in our hurts and afflictions is this great truth. [00:24:26] When you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, your past is now behind you. [00:24:34] Doesn't Paul say, forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward? When you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, your past is now behind you because your heavenly father has redeemed you and is redeeming you? In other words, one of the great benefits of the saving work of Jesus Christ is that we receive comfort even in our afflictions because a new story is being written regarding our lives. [00:25:04] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a. You know what that is. He's a new creation. [00:25:11] The old has gone. [00:25:14] Behold, the new has come. [00:25:17] And please understand, this isn't like a second chance. [00:25:23] The old is gone. The new has come. We're new creations. It isn't like a second chance. It's not like a new year's resolution in which every new year comes along and we resolve, this time, this time I'm really going to change. I'm really going to conquer whatever it is. And once again, we end up right where we were before. [00:25:43] We're not talking about a second chance when we're stuck in the misery of hardships and trials. [00:25:52] The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. [00:25:57] God has begun a new story in our lives. We've been born again when we're stuck in the misery of hardship and trials, this kind of gospel good news, this kind of gospel announcement ministers hope and tremendous comfort. We're not going to be stuck in our misery forever. [00:26:19] Our lives in our father's hands are headed somewhere. [00:26:24] There's a tell us there's an end. There's a goal. [00:26:28] The brand new story is being written, and all of this is being brought about through the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. [00:26:37] This isn't kind of psyching yourself up with a positive self help message, and if you just keep repeating these positive words to yourself over and over, you'll rise above it. No, this is entirely different, because this is the resurrection power of the son of the father at work in us, and that gives us such hope and comfort in the midst of trials and tribulations. [00:27:06] There's yet another way in which the gospel ministers to us because something else takes place besides the old has passed away. The new has come. A new story is being written. Something else takes a place for all who trust in Christ, something that also ministers great comfort in a world where we so often experience hurt and pain and disappointment. And especially if you think about how we experience broken families, broken relationships, broken marriages, this is one of the areas where the good news of the gospel enters into our lives. And this time I'm going to go to John, chapter one, verse twelve. [00:27:52] Here's great comfort, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. [00:28:04] Children of God. [00:28:06] God the Father, in his tremendous love, has adopted us. He has adopted us. He has brought us in in great love into his own very, very, very special family. [00:28:23] No matter what may come our way, we are his. [00:28:28] Our heavenly Father is fiercely for us. [00:28:34] We are his precious, beloved children. And he watches over us, loves over us, cares over us, and he wipes away all of our tears. And this is for our comfort, you see? [00:28:48] And there's more, so very much more, for all who repent of their sin and place their faith in Jesus Christ. You see, no matter what may come your way and no matter how terrible whatever you're facing at some point may be, God, through his mighty power, is going to ultimately deliver you. [00:29:11] Our trials, our tribulations, just like Paul's, are not going to last forever, you see. Let your heart find hope and comfort then, in your afflictions, in the good news of two corinthians now, chapter four, verses 14 to 16, where Paul writes, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and bring us into his presence so we do not lose heart. [00:29:42] Maybe some hardship in life seems to just go on and on and on and on. Where there is light at the end of the tunnel, there really is hope to our comfort again, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us into his presence so we do not lose heart in the midst of it all. And if you want to see just how really deeply meaningful this is, just read like through second corinthians and all of Paul's afflictions, and you'll see how serious Paul is about this, that this gives us hope and it gives us comfort. Think about this. This is something wonderful. The incredible, astounding, mind boggling power by which the Father raised Jesus Christ from the grave. That very same power, that resurrection power, that defeated death, is at work in you right now, even in the midst of your afflictions. And by that very same power, your heavenly father is going to bring you safely home to heaven. [00:30:54] Safely home to heaven. [00:30:58] It's a beautiful biblical truth. And thus, there in two Corinthians chapter four, Paul continues in verses 17 to 18, again to our comfort. For this light, momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. [00:31:30] You see, in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are being saved again. There's a destiny for us. [00:31:41] Sometimes in our society you hear something along the lines of, it's not the destination, it's the journey that matters. [00:31:48] What matters is really where you're at right now and what's happening in your life. [00:31:54] Christianity says, well, okay, you know, living for God's glory, et cetera. But what really matters is the resurrection power at work in us. That's the good news of the gospel, which is going to raise us from the grave, and we are going to be home with our heavenly Father forever and ever and ever. And we are going to be glorified. We're going to be perfected in the image of Christ. And the list just goes on and on and on. So in the midst of life struggles, whether it be an incurable cancer diagnosis, strife with friends at school, whatever it may be, it's not forever. [00:32:34] Our trials and tribulations are not for nothing. God's taking us to an incredible destination. And this great gospel truth is for all who trust in Jesus, and it administers such hope, such comfort. It's part of what God uses to enable us to persevere. [00:33:02] This brings us to yet another wonderful passage of hope, for when our hearts are troubled, that ministers comfort. John, chapter 14, often well used in funeral messages. For example, let me read the first three verses here in John chapter 14. [00:33:24] Let not your hearts be troubled. [00:33:26] That's what was going on with the disciples. Jesus had said, I'm leaving you. [00:33:31] And they were in a panic. [00:33:33] They were troubled at this loss, and Jesus ministers comfort to them. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. [00:33:44] Believe also in me. Even what we've just gone through, that fits with this. Believe in God. Believe in me. In my father's house are many rooms. [00:33:56] If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and I will take you to myself. That where I am, you may also be. [00:34:08] You see, on the one hand, I go to prepare a place for you. When I was studying this passage last week, I'd always heard this talk of, prepare a place for you. That's after Jesus ascends into heaven and he's up there preparing a place. One suggestion was that actually what this is about, Jesus has just told them, I'm leaving you to go to the cross to die. That's his preparing a place for them. In terms of his going to the cross, paying the full penalty for all of our sins, defeating death, defeating Satan, and then rising again in three days, and then 40 days later, ascending into heaven, that was really interesting. I think that may be exactly what he has in mind. But moving on. [00:34:59] Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Here Jesus is presenting his distressed disciples a truly heartwarming message of gospel hope. [00:35:12] And what is this hope which is meant to provide comfort and calm them down, their troubled souls? It's verse two. [00:35:23] In my father's house are many rooms. [00:35:28] If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? [00:35:35] Now, sometimes people get this wrong, and that's because the King James version translates it this way. In my father's house are many mansions. [00:35:47] In my father's house are many mansions. [00:35:50] And this gives us the impression then, this mansions, that Jesus is right now in heaven and he is preparing a mansion for each one of you. Okay? And I've heard many a time christians talking that way, and they kind of get excited in a sense, about, I get a mansion. It's waiting for me. Jesus is preparing me my own mansion. But this really isn't about Jesus preparing a mansion for each of us. Kind of in the back of my mind has always been this thought. If that's what's going on, I've always thought, I don't think that would be so good, because if each of us had his own individual mansion, then we'd all be living alone in a huge, empty house. [00:36:38] That's how that strikes me. I don't know how that strikes you, each one of us having our kind of separate from each other, isolated from each other. But I want you to know carefully what Jesus does say, and I think our ESV does get this right. In my father's house. Pay attention to that word. In my father's house are many rooms. [00:37:00] Not mansions are many rooms. [00:37:05] This is about family being gathered together in our father's home. [00:37:12] Do you see how this is so comforting and so warm? It should give us warm fuzzies. This is about family being gathered into a home. God the father's home. It's about a forever home, a home of forever love. I will never leave you nor forsake you. God's steadfast has said love. It's a forever love. It's a forever warmth. It's a forever togetherness. No more loneliness, no more emptiness, no more pain, fear, worry, anxiety. On and on that list goes. [00:37:49] So the home that Jesus was preparing through his death and resurrection and ascension into heaven is the home of God the Father's beloved family, a place where the father truly, deeply loves each one of his precious children. And we all love one another. [00:38:13] There's going to be no more fights between brothers and sisters and sisters and sisters and brothers and brothers. And that's all going to be over with in this home, in the Father's forever home. It's going to be a forever home of warmth and love and peace and everybody getting along on a profound level. Security, belongingness. It will be our forever home where we will be with our heavenly Father and our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever again. And I could just keep going with the evers. It's going to be awesome. [00:38:54] It's going to be home on a level that we can scarcely begin to imagine or hope for. A forever place of refuge, safety, belongingness, wholeness, no more emptiness, aloneness, boredom, lostness. So many things. [00:39:20] The father and his son, they are going to be with us in this home, and they will comfort us forever. And we will be with them. And again, he is never going to leave us or forsake us home forever. What joy, what comfort. How beautiful is the benefits and the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. [00:39:44] And so, so here we have it, verses three and four. Again, going back to second corinthians, chapter one. Paul begins, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by goddesse. [00:40:14] In a life in which we experience so many hard things, really, at all ages. [00:40:20] Okay, the two year old or three year old that throws himself down on the floor in a fit of tantrum, they're experiencing a trial, right? [00:40:30] This is about all ages. A life in which we experience hard things, including trials, bitter disappointments, afflictions, confusion over. Why is this happening to me? Paul presents us with such good news that the God the Father is truly the father of mercies and the God of all comfort in God the Father's hands. Our trials and our hardships are not for nothing. There's purpose, there's meaning, there's direction, there's even the comfort of our heavenly father, a special, hope filled comfort that we can in turn and are to pass on to our brothers and sisters in Christ. [00:41:17] So perhaps you may be wondering, well, how can I experience this hope, this divine comfort in my own life? Well, we already looked at John, chapter one, verse twelve. But to all who did receive him, but to all who did received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of Goddesse and thereby to receive all this wonderful comfort. It's beautiful. [00:41:41] Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you too will experience his wonderful, beautiful comfort as he becomes your heavenly Father and you become his precious child whom he will never ever let go of. Let's pray. [00:42:03] O heavenly Father, forgive us of all the times that we've, perhaps because of our own earthly experiences, may have doubted you, thought negatively of you, maybe viewed you as uncaring in the midst of our hurts and afflictions. [00:42:28] Thank you for setting us straight that you are a father of mercy and do we ever need mercy. And you are the God of all comfort, not even a little bit of comfort, but the God of all comfort enable these wonderful truths I pray to penetrate deeply into us. [00:43:01] I pray that right now for any who are hurting, that you administer comfort. [00:43:09] And I pray for those who have been comforted by you, that you would enable them to turn around and minister the same comfort to their brothers and sisters in Christ. [00:43:23] And I pray that when hardships and trials and afflictions and were in shock or were hurting, that you would comfort us and that we remember what the apostle Paul has written. [00:43:40] Thank you for being such a warm, loving, merciful, comforting heavenly Father, we praise you and it's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen.