Comfort Shared Through Prayer

Transcript

GR 1790
11/16/14
Comfort Shared through Prayer
2 Corinthians 1:7-11
Gil Rugh

We're going to 2 Corinthians in your Bibles, Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. Paul begins this letter in an unusual way for his letters. He doesn't express gratitude to God for His work of grace in the lives of the Corinthians, he is gracious to them and he wants God's grace to be manifest to them, then to continue to express the peace of heart and mind that God brings as he said in verse 2. But he draws attention as he moves into the letter with verse 3 to the graciousness of God, that God is worthy of honor and praise because He is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He is the One who is merciful and shows mercy to us, who brings comfort to our hearts. And we noted in that expression at the end of verse 3, “He is the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction.” And that in some ways becomes a theme for the letter to the Corinthians—God's comfort in affliction. We noted that word comfort in 2 Corinthians carries the idea of the strength and enablement that comes in connection with God's comfort. Affliction and comfort, God's strength manifest in weakness. Our weaknesses be manifest in the afflictions and sufferings that come to us. That word comfort is the key word in verses 3-7. He goes from verse 3 to verse 7, ten times the word comfort. We know it as paraclete, the paraclete. John shared with me he spoke at the junior high group this morning and talked to them about the paraclete. They thought he was talking about the parakeet. The paraclete, the Greek word for the one who is called alongside of to give aid and comfort. We noted it is used of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus promised in the Gospel of John, I will send you another helper, another comforter, another one like Me.

So what Paul wants to talk about is God's enabling comfort in all of our afflictions. It's all God's comfort in all our affliction. It's not a selfish comfort that comes, not just so I can feel better and have some relief from the trial, but it's a comfort and enablement God brings to me so that I can be a vessel through whom He brings it to others. So verse 4 says, “God comforts us in all our afflictions so we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” That does not mean that some people get comforted directly by God and other people have to make do with people who are comforting. What he is saying is God brings His comfort. One of the ways He brings it is through His people. The source of comfort is always from God, but it is usually mediated through God's people.

So the comfort that God brings has a two-fold purpose—it brings an enabling peace to the heart of the one in the affliction; it also will be a means of communicating that comfort to others. When God saved us He brought us into His family, one of the pictures. Another picture is we are His body. The point being God did not save us so we could be in isolation here by ourselves. Sometimes you meet people who say, I can read the Bible on my own and I can pray and I have the Holy Spirit. That's all I need. It is not all you need. How do I know? God says it is not. When He saves a person He causes them to be born into His family. His intention is that we function in the context of one another as a family of God, as the body of Christ, each one having a part to contribute. And true believers function in the context of the body of Christ, the family of God.

In verses 6-7 which we have mentioned in our previous study, “If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we suffer.” What Paul is doing here is drawing a picture of how we are involved in one another's lives and our need one another. The background of all this and will flow through this letter to the Corinthians is a conflict that has arisen between this church and the Apostle Paul. And it has caused criticisms to be directed toward Paul. And this church has been affected by what we would call today perhaps, if I can use the term generally, the health and wealth teaching. It seems the church at Corinth had developed an admiration for those teachers who came who seemed dynamic and powerful and successful. Sort of like we have many today who present themselves to the church as those who are exceptionally effective, and they bring a message that God doesn't want you sick, God doesn't want you suffering, God doesn't want you poor, God came to deliver you from trials and suffering. And the church at Corinth in light of that message began to look at Paul and say, what do I see? I see somebody who is rather weak, who has a lot of suffering and afflictions in his life. And these teachers remind me that he writes a good letter, but when you see him in person, he's not very impressive, he's not one of the better speakers that you will hear. So Paul is having to deal with this because these false teachers, in attempting to discredit Paul as God's messenger, were in effect attacking the message that Paul brought.

So we begin this letter in 2 Corinthians 1 by Paul talking about afflictions and suffering and God's comfort. And then at the end of verse 6 Paul talks about that these Corinthians are enduring the same comfort and sufferings. The same kind of afflictions are theirs and they experience the same comfort from God. It's amazing, isn't it, when you see health and wealth preachers. You’ll see people, and people who are dirt poor will send money to them. Why would you do that? These health and wealth preachers are already rich and yet they are telling you if you will send your last dollar to them, that will be a seed that God will use to multiply and make you rich. And people continue to believe them.

Paul reminds the Corinthians, you have the same kind of afflictions, you go through sufferings, you need the same comfort of God as I need. It is characteristic of God's children. So we experience comfort so we can comfort you; you experience affliction and suffering, but you are comforted with the comfort God brings to us. It goes on. There is no such thing as the Christian life without affliction. We talked about this in our previous study. The afflictions that believers endure, sometimes they are specific and connected to our faith and we are persecuted because of our testimony for Christ. But afflictions are not limited to that. We live in a fallen world, we experience the same thing. We get sick, loved one die, we lose jobs, we have financial pressure. Afflictions come.

Come over to Ephesians 3. Paul reminds the Ephesians that we share in afflictions, we share in the purpose of affliction. Affliction has come to my life so that you might benefit; affliction has come to your life that I might benefit. So in Ephesians 3:13, “Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations,” my afflictions. Same word we have in 2 Corinthians 1. On your behalf. They are for your glory. That's God working. We are a body so afflictions that come to you have a purpose, a purpose for you individually and a purpose for the body of Christ that you are a part of. And you know what that's like. If you have a loved one who is going through perhaps a serious illness and you are there ministering and comforting and encouraging and helping that loved one, God is encouraging their heart through you. But you are also being encouraged by seeing this believer going through the suffering and experiencing the comfort and enabling grace of God. And we grow together in that way.

So Paul saw all his afflictions because we are all a family. Whatever the affliction, whatever the suffering, whatever the hardship, everything has to be seen in the context of our belonging to Him. He is our Father, I am His child, we are His children, brothers and sisters together in Christ. So we share together in the blessings and in the sufferings that go on in one another's lives. That's what God intends.

Come back to 1 Peter 5. Peter writes, verse 6, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you at the proper time. Casting all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert, your adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him firm in the faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering,” same word we have suffering in 2 Corinthians 1, “are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.” Some of the sufferings are a direct result of persecution for our faith in Christ. And that's being in view here. But the devil is walking about, desiring to attack believers. And there are sufferings, there are afflictions that come, we'll talk more about those, of a variety of kinds. But we keep in mind we are a family and our Father is in control of it all.

Come back to 2 Corinthians. In verse 7, “Our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing as you are sharers of our sufferings, you are also sharers of our comfort.” We belong to the same God, He is our Father, we are His children. So Paul reminds the Corinthians the danger of overlooking this truth. You are going through many of the same sufferings that we go through, that I go through. We're going to zero in on a particular issue in a moment. And you also share the comfort because God loves you and cares for you as He loves and cares for me. So we view our afflictions in that context.

Come back to Romans 5:1, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have also obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. We exalt in hope of the glory of God, not only this we exalt in our tribulations.” There is our word again. We don't just endure them, we exalt in them. “Knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, perseverance proven character,” and so on. We don't rejoice because we like to suffer, enjoy pain. We rejoice because we see the hand of God in our suffering, that God causes all things to work together for good. The devil may attack us, may bring suffering and affliction into our lives, and he does and he will. But that is not a frustration of the plan of God for us. That is part of God's plan to develop us and mature us as His children. He is in control in the best of times and the worst of times. James 1 puts it this way, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various trials,” into various testings. Making the same point as Romans.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 1. Paul wants to give a specific example out of his own life. He is under attack, as we move on into the rest of the chapter and the letter in future studies to see how Paul ties it together. When you're looking for something to criticize in a person and some of those at Corinth have become critical of Paul—he is not trustworthy, you can't depend on him. He said he was going to come and visit and he hasn't come. You never know what you can believe and what you can't. So Paul is going to give an example of his own suffering and God's enablement. And in that he is going to show how God has used them to bring about the comfort and deliverance in his life from this specific trial. It's a severe trial. From what is written here it is one of the worst that Paul ever had to endure, so bad that he gave up hope that he would survive. He was sure that it was the time of his death.

So verse 8 begins, “For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia.” Now Paul had been in Asia before he came over into Macedonia. Paul wrote the letter to the Corinthians from Macedonia, Macedonia is the northern part of Greece, Corinth is in the southern part, in the province of Achaia. Before that he had been in Asia. Asia is the region we know as Asia Minor where the church at Ephesus is located, or the seven churches of Asia addressed in Revelation 2-3. The church at Colosse was part of Asia as well.

He says, I don't want you to be unaware, brethren, I don't want you to be ignorant. I want you to know and I don't think you realize or know how severe the trial that I had to endure while in Asia really was. Now he doesn't tell us the details of the trial. We're not sure what it was or even for sure where in Asia it took place. His focus will be on the severity of the trial, the hopelessness of the situation, the intervention of God and the part that the believers in the church at Corinth played in his deliverance. This trial was so great he says at the end of verse 8, “We were burdened excessively, beyond our strength. We despaired even of life, we had the sentence of death within ourselves.” Paul suffers a lot, we'll see some of the list of his sufferings when we get further into the letter and he'll enumerate a list of all that he has gone through. But this stands out as exceptionally difficult and hard.

What it was, there are varieties that people trying to decide what it was. One of the most popular views is Acts 19 when Paul ministered at the church at Ephesus. There was persecution there, opposition by the Jews, the city was turned into a riot. Remember they all went into the stadium and cried for two hours, great is Diana of the Ephesians. His friends had to keep him out of the stadium. Some think that this wasn’t even associated with those kinds of things. It's interesting he says it happened in Asia. Since he refers to Ephesus in his first letter and also in his second letter, you wonder if it happened in Ephesus why he didn't say at Ephesus. But it's a possibility.

Another possibility, and I think there is merit to this especially, some think it is a reference to a possible recurrent illness that Paul experienced. And here it was of such a serious nature that it didn't look like he would survive. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 12, Paul refers to such an incident, such a situation. In the first part of 2 Corinthians 12 he talks about the revelations God gave to him, special revelation. Remember he is an apostle, God revealed new truth to him that he could pass on to people. But he received some revelation that was so startling, he was not permitted to pass it on. And as a recipient of such revelation there is a danger he might develop pride—I am more important, more significant. Who else has been caught up to the third heaven for such visions?

So verse 5 he says, “On behalf of such a man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast except in regard to my weaknesses. For if I do wish to boast I will not be foolish, I will be speaking the truth.” I just want you to know how this happens. “Because of the surpassing,” verse 7. “greatness of the revelations for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. I implored the Lord three times to deliver me. He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, power is perfected in weakness.” That's why Paul says, “Most gladly, therefore, I will boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. I am well content with weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. And the life that I live I now live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and died for me.” My entire life is to be lived for Christ's sake. “You are not your own, you have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.”

So whatever comes into his life, he says in verse 10, “weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties for Christ's sake. When I am weak, then I am strong.” That is something the world does not appreciate. And we even as the evangelical church get caught up with our celebrities, and we begin to admire those who are more successful. And it's all right even if they pass through a Laodicean church—it is big, it is rich, it is well-known, it needs nothing. We ought to learn to do church like they do. And those kinds of teachers, false teachers that infiltrated the church at Corinth, they look at Paul and say, I don't see what the world would admire.

I've shared with you, a professor wrote a book that said what we really need is a Christian Harvard so we turn out scholars that the world recognizes and admires. Our seminaries desire to turn out scholars that will have recognition in the world. And here comes Paul, this little frail Jew, that we'll see the Corinthians, some of the false teachers said, he is nothing to look at. He writes a far better letter than he gives a sermon. He is always sick, he is always suffering. Is that the kind of person you want to follow? You want to follow somebody strong and powerful and successful. So Paul has to deal with this at the church at Corinth.

He says I had to have these sufferings, God wants to use me in a greater way. That means I have to have greater suffering. He wants the Corinthians to see their sufferings in that light so they can appreciate one another.

Turn over to Galatians 4. In Galatians 4 Paul reminds the Galatians of what brought him to Galatia to preach the Gospel the first time. In verse 13, “You know that it was because of bodily illness that I preached the Gospel to you for the first time. And that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe. You received me as an angel of God, as of Christ Himself.” You see there is some kind of bodily affliction and I think it is reasonable to connect them with what we just read in 2 Corinthians 12, a messenger of Satan to buffet him. And at times when this illness overtook him, he was a pitiful sight. Paul said it was a testimony to God at work that the Galatians just didn't despise and loathe him—I don't want to hear anything from him, he's not even anything I want to look at. This may have been why John Mark bailed out. When Paul was going to come into the region, we are told in Acts 13, on the first missionary journey, John Mark turned around and went home. It may have been just a combination of things and the difficulty and now Paul is so ill and disgustingly sick, I just don't see that I want to continue this trip. So he went back to Jerusalem, as we've talked about that on occasion. At any rate Paul has some kind of bodily illness.

Come back into 2 Corinthians 4:16, he says, “Therefore we do not lose heart but though our outer man is decaying,” this physical body is decaying, “our inner man is being renewed day by day.” And that is true for all of us in a sense, but Paul may be referring to something more specific here—his own situation. I realize the deterioration of this physical body, but the inner man is growing. And that's the very thing that Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 1. The comfort of God comes to strengthen us, to enable us, and through this affliction we grow stronger spiritually and more useable to God. “Momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory.” You have to keep your eyes on the things God has promised, not on the things you see now. Then he goes into 2 Corinthians 5 to talk about the reality of spiritual death and what it means.

All of that, as you come back to 2 Corinthians, we don't know for sure what this particular affliction was that came to him in Asia that brought him to the brink of death. But it is serious. Perhaps the Spirit of God doesn't direct him to be any more specific so that it is general for us, because what is true, is true whatever affliction and trial we go through. We talked about your adversary the devil goes about seeking someone to devour so be on your alert, be on guard. Think about the book of Job, God gave Satan permission to afflict and bring suffering to Job, but that involved a variety of areas. It involved the death of his children; it involved the loss of his wealth, reduced him to poverty; resulted in the loss of his health, the pain and suffering that made him abhorrent to look at. And there was no way to get comfortable, you remember. Scorn and abuse from people who at one time respected and admired him. False accusations from those “friends” who came to comfort him and tried to tell him, you must have sinned because God wouldn't bring this into your life if you hadn't done something seriously sinful. He says, you are miserable comforters, you add to my burden.

So we see there is a variety of kinds of afflictions and sufferings in the plan of God that Satan is permitted to bring into our lives. Those are not frustrations of God's best for us, they are part of God's plan that is best for us. I have to say, I read about Paul and I think, what could he have done in our day? What could Paul have done with a computer? Sending letters out, sending them by e-mail. We think our regular mail can be slow. Theirs had to be carried which would take time, letters that had to be written by hand. And then you have to wait until it gets carried there, you have to wait until you hear back. Think if he had a computer and was texting, e-mailing. And it's easy to think, Lord, here is a man you would give the best of health, who would have strength and energy to burn. And then God says, “My strength is perfected in weakness.” Easy for us to think, if only the Lord would do this for me, I would . . . I know, you have never thought, if I won the lottery, think of what I could do for the Lord. Too bad the Lord doesn't know that. He knows how untrustworthy you are, you would waste it. He gives us what is best for us. It's like if you love your children, you don't spoil them giving them everything, you give them what is best for them. You have trials. I used to hate it when my parents sent me to the dentist. And we were poor, so they told me I could get a Novacane shot to deaden it if the dentist said it was really going to be bad. I just hated going to the dentist. I told my parents, I can't wait until I am old enough to get all my teeth pulled and I can have false teeth. I didn't have any idea. My parents told me, when you get older you won't want that. So they sent me off for the painful thing, and I had to walk because we only had one car and my Dad was at work. And all the way I'm walking I'm trying to whistle like I'm happy. Why did they send me off for the painful thing? It was best for me. Now at 70 I still have some of my teeth. I'm glad and I realize that they were doing what was best for me in that.

That's what God says, understand and suffering is part of My plan. And furthermore, the more you suffer, the more you realize you have to be dependent on Me. That's where we're going. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:8, “This trial was so big we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength.” And there is a preposition repeated here that stresses the burden this was—“burdened excessively beyond our strength. We despaired even of life.” We gave up on thinking we could survive. “Indeed we have the sentence of death within ourselves.” That's what he means, he despaired even of life. I have come to the conclusion in my own heart and mind that there is no possibility of survival here. My life is going to come to an end as a result of this situation.

“We had the sentence of death within ourselves. Then,” and here Paul brings the reason why he had to endure this. Not because God was mean, not because things got out of control and things happened. He had caught an illness, malaria or something at one time, or whatever the affliction was. “This happened to us so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.” Now here is the Apostle Paul who has endured so much but he says on this occasion in Asia I had to come to the brink of death so I would learn further not to trust in myself.

You know when he wrote to the Philippians in Philippians 3 he said he had given up everything and he counted those things worthless, all for Christ. Turn to Philippians 3. You see Paul is in process, we think of Paul, he just had a strength that normal Christians don't have. Yes and no. Yes, he did have strength that the normal, average Christian doesn't have. No, he didn't have that because he was unusual. He went through the fire, he is strengthened. Philippians 3:7 he says as he gives his testimony, “Whatever things were gain to me, those things I counted as loss. More than that I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. I count them rubbish so that I may gain Christ, I may be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. That I may know Him, the power of His resurrection.” He's going to talk about the God who raises from the dead in our verse in 2 Corinthians. “Know the power of His resurrecting power, the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect.” That's what we're reading in 2 Corinthians 1. He hadn't already become perfect. I had to come to the point where I was convinced I could not survive this trial that I might learn even further in a greater and deeper way not to trust in myself. Paul hadn't already arrived. It's a growing process. I haven't already become perfect. Paul is still being matured by God.

You stop and think about it, it's in our greatest trials or most hopeless situations, those times when we just feel like almost all the air is crushed out of us. What do I do? What does that bring us to? Hopelessness, helplessness. God, I can't do it. That's when we really grow. We think when I am strong, then I am strong. Remember what Paul will write in 2 Corinthians 12? When I am weak, then I am strong. We learn the futility of our own strength. We can't do it. And that's why trials come into our lives. Things even out, things go well, the job is going well, the family is going well, the doctor says I am doing fine. And we just move along, and pretty soon we think, I can handle this, I can take care of this, I think I have things under control. There is an element where that is okay, there's an element of truth. But when I begin to depend on myself and think, I can take care of it . . . I need affliction, I need trouble, I need trial. Where did that come from? I wasn't expecting that, I don't know what to do here. How am I going to get through this?

That's where Paul is—in the worst of times. He has had many trials, but this caused him to give up any hope of living, “so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” It's in trial we come to that. Our own personal trials and the trials of others around us. Let's face it, if a loved one of yours has a special trial, it becomes a trial of a little different kind for you. They may have to bear the surgeries and all that goes with it, but you have to bear the sense of helplessness. I wish I could do something, I wish I could . . . But you can't, you can't fix it, you can't change it, you can't make it better. And so not only is the fellow believer that is being afflicted in one way learning to trust in God, you are also. And so you see how God is working. But we learn to trust in the God who raises the dead. Paul says, I was so close to death, it's like a resurrection from the dead. And you come to the point only God can intervene. He is the God who raises the dead and raised Christ from the dead, will raise us from the dead. And He is the God who can do what I cannot do, what no one else can do.

“He delivered us from so great a peril of death and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. He will yet deliver us.” He is not only the God of past deliverances, He is the God of future deliverances. Paul doesn't think that this most severe trial is the end of trials, but it has helped in a greater way than before. Fix my hope on Him, my trust in Him, my dependence on Him. And that gives me confidence that He will deliver me from future trials. And those of you who have been believers for some time know what that is like. You can look back on a life of walking with God, of having Him care for you, provide for you, and that gives you a strength in facing today's trial. Different than maybe a young believer, an inexperienced believer like John Mark was when he bailed out in Acts 13. I don't think I can take this. But Paul went on, Barnabas went on. They had matured. John Mark had to mature, God wasn't done with him, but he needed further maturity.

Come back to Psalm 119. Remember Paul had a background as a Pharisee in Old Testament Scripture. We don't know how many of these passages would have come to him. Psalm 119, note what the psalmist writes. Look at verse 71, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. The law of our mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” See what the psalmist says, it was good that I was afflicted, it was good, the suffering that You brought into my life that I might learn Your Word, the preciousness of Your Word. How long have you been, if you have been a believer very long, when things come up and you don't know what to do so you just go into a room, close the door, open the Word and read and say, Lord, I don't know where to turn. What do you have to say? You read the passages that comfort and encourage and you are reminded this is what God says, this is what He says He will do. He is in control. I realize I get frustrated, I get fearful because it is out of my control and I can't do anything. I can't fix it, I can't make it better. But that doesn't mean it is out of control, it doesn't mean that God's plan for me is off track. It is good for me that I was afflicted that I may learn your statutes when they come. Your Word is more precious than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

In Psalm 119:67 he says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your Word.” Suffering narrows our focus to where it ought to be, it helps to trust the Lord in a deeper and greater way.

Come back to 2 Corinthians. Verse 10, “God delivered us from so great a peril of death, He will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope, He will yet deliver us.” He is the God of the future as well as the God of the past and the God of the present. Every trial, no matter what you have been through, is a new trial. It is a new testing, it is a new suffering, another opportunity for me to grow.

Come back to Psalm 118. You note how this psalm starts out. “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His lovingkindness is everlasting. Oh let Israel say, His lovingkindness is everlasting; oh let the house of Aaron say, His lovingkindness is everlasting; let those who fear the Lord say, His lovingkindness is everlasting.” You see that's what we learn through trial. His lovingkindness is everlasting, that grace and comfort that sustained me in those past afflictions is the same grace that comes to me in this new affliction, and gives me courage for tomorrow. It is everlasting lovingkindness. “From my distress I called upon the Lord, the Lord answered me, set me in a large place. The Lord is for me, I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

Verse 8, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man, better to take refuge in the Lord than trust in princes.” Verse 18, “The Lord has disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death.” You have that great passage, anticipating Christ, verse 22, “the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” He is the pattern in His suffering, His death, His resurrection; demonstrates the same power that will work in us. Psalm 118:28, “You are my God, I give thanks to you. You are my God, I extol you. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

Come back to 2 Corinthians, verse 11. He says, God will yet deliver us. And now he brings in that God is sovereign. But remember we have been talking about God working and His children working, God bringing comfort and His children bringing the comfort of God to others. And we have the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man that so sometimes troubles us. Verse 11, “You also joining in helping us through your prayers so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.” The Apostle Paul whose prayers we study to learn something of how to really pray says that I am confident that God will deliver me in the future as He has from these past sufferings. “You also joining in helping us through your prayers.” He believes that the prayers of the Corinthians had been used of God to bring the deliverance that he has experienced, and he wants those prayers to continue because the result of that is “so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.” In other words you pray for me, God brings His comfort and strength and carries me through this affliction and many people join together in giving God thanks for His delivering grace. And this was brought about through the prayers of many.

I love the connection in the last part of verse 11—“thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor.” That word translated favor is the Greek word charisma. You are familiar with it because the Greek word for grace is charis, charisma. “For the grace bestowed on us through the prayers of many.” God's grace is that which is unmerited, undeserved, but God's grace is bestowed in response to the prayers of His children. Remarkable. The Corinthians shouldn't be critical of Paul, looking for things to criticize about him. They should be appreciating that Paul's very survival should be a cause of thanks on their behalf. They think his weaknesses and afflictions are cause of criticism and disdain. Paul says you miss the point, you miss the blessing. If you prayed for us, God's grace was bestowed in response to your prayers. And that should cause many to give thanks to God. Remarkable.

I don't have the answer to the absolute, total sovereignty of God, that God sovereignly planned before the earth with all the details. And yet man is fully responsible and the prayers of God's people are used of God to accomplish what must be done. We have to be careful we don't fall off either side of that mountaintop—God is totally sovereign, man is fully responsible. I'm not going to sit back and say God will do what He will, I leave it in His hands. After I've prayed, I may say that. I've prayed, I've brought it before the Lord, I've earnestly asked Him, but I don't tell Him. But I don't want to stand before the Lord and hear Him say, I wanted to do much more but you never asked. Remember what I told you? You have not because you ask not. Why didn't you ask? Well, I thought you would do what you wanted to do. Why didn't you do what I told you to do? I thought your sovereignty overruled my responsibility. Who told you to think? Just do what I tell you. The power of our prayers.

I have to look at a few verses with you before we close. Come back to Romans 15. We think the Apostle Paul needed anybody's prayers? He can pray himself. But there is something in God's people joining together in prayer. Romans 15:30, “Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” Don't just throw off a prayer, Lord, bless Paul. And get on with your life. I want you to strive together with me, agonize together devoting your energy. True prayer is hard work, it is draining. “Strive together with me in your prayers that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea.” Couldn't God rescue him without the prayers? Well, God thought the prayers of God's people would be used to that end. “That my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints.” The offering that we are going to be talking about in 2 Corinthians 8-9. they thought the attitude of the believers in Jerusalem would be affected positively because the saints prayed, saints in Rome. Remarkable. “That I may come to you in joy by the will of God.” Their prayers would be effective in bringing about the will of God. There you have man's responsibility and God's sovereignty. You pray so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God. Well if it's the will of God we don't have to pray, it will happen. What blessings we miss because we find reasons not to pray, when our heavenly Father says come, it's a throne of grace. Jesus said whatever you ask in My name I will do it. The blessing that will come.

Come over to Philippians 1:19. Paul is in prison and he wants the Philippians to pray for him and he says whatever the outcome it is in God's hands. But, verse 19, “For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Christ.” Well if God is going to deliver you, Paul, He'll deliver you. Don't need me to pray. Paul says I need you to pray because when you pray, that will bring about my deliverance. Remarkable.

Colossians 4:2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Praying at the same time for us as well that God will open up to us a door for the Word, that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I have been imprisoned, that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.” Do you like my sermons to be better? Pray more, it's your fault. No, but it has a part in it, doesn't it? I mean, Paul is saying pray for us that the Lord would open the door to speak, that I would speak as I should, that I will make it clear as I should. You pray for me that I will do that. Down in verse 12 he commends Epaphrus as a faithful servant of Christ, “always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.” God's people praying together, praying for one another. That binds us together and it also is used of God to work in one another's lives.

Sometimes we have had some of our senior citizens who couldn't come out, physical problems keep people home. And they would say to me, I can't do anything now but pray. I say, thank you, Lord. Maybe we need more homebound people. What is more effective than praying? What more would I desire than to have dozens of people praying for me? What would you desire more in your life and ministry than to have many believers praying for you? I think of Martin Luther who said his day was so busy that he could not begin the day without 4 hours of prayer. We think our days are so busy we just have to jump into the day, and Lord, bless the day, and I'm on my way. Wait a minute, do I really believe my day is busy? Is what I'm doing today for the Lord? Then we ought to seek His blessing, ought to seek His direction. I should ask Him to make effective whatever I am doing today, wherever I am. I am there as part of His body, a member of His family, I am there presenting Him. Lord, give me wisdom, give me strength. Pray for one another. What will it be like when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ, ready to get all the rewards, all the things I have done and I'm ready for the reward, and He calls up so-and-so. Yes, they prayed, that's why I worked. Oh, I thought it was me. All right, next. Here is so-and-so they get . . . Oh, not me, either. They prayed, they prayed, they prayed. What blessing. We can be involved in one another's lives. Think about the reward for those who were praying for Paul, and Paul was blessed in his ministry through the prayers of God's people. We don't remember their names, but God does. Yes, I answered their prayer, they prayed for you. Paul recognized it.

So our afflictions, our comfort, they come. We are bound together and in our afflictions we can pray for one another and God responds to our prayers in bringing about His purposes in those lives. We are a body, a family, we do appreciate one another on that level. That's what Paul is reminding the Corinthians of. And in suffering our appreciation can grow.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of your grace, a grace that continues to be poured out upon us in abundance, a grace that brought us to salvation in Christ and a grace that brings enabling sufficiency in power to our lives in every situation. Lord, a grace that enables us to give you thanks and count it a joy when affliction, suffering, sorrow and difficulty comes into our lives, not because we like to suffer, not because we enjoy pain, but we appreciate that you our Father are working your purposes in our lives to bring us to maturity, to perfection in Christ, preparing us to experience what you have promised, which is our hope—glory in your presence. May we serve you in the days of the week before us with these truths in mind. We pray in Christ's name, amen.