Keith Battle - God's Benefit Package - Part 7

Comfort that’s so good! Before I delve into this, you know, I don’t know if anything—with all the pain in our world, and all the tragedy, grief, suffering, and sorrow—not just in the world, but also in our lives—what a treasure it is to have access to God’s Comfort. Before we dig into this passage and discuss Comfort, let’s revisit that survey. I am curious to know how it turned out. Where are we? Some of you are still voting, but this is the current status, as we experienced some delays. Most of you feel most grateful for all of them. Here’s one of the blessings: you don’t have to limit yourself to just one benefit; all of them are ours! You can take that down. But here’s one thing you need to know: every benefit comes with an attack from the enemy. There is no benefit that God has made possible for us as believers that won’t be attacked by the enemy. For example, the way the enemy attacks the gift of forgiveness is by inducing guilt, making us feel shame and condemnation. Whenever you feel condemned, that’s not from God. You know why? Because there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That’s the devil trying to make you feel ashamed and hang your head so that you won’t feel you have the right to live for God or serve Him. How many have ever gone through that? Like, «I don’t need to say anything. I just need to sit down and shut up.» That’s the devil. We fall down, but we get back up again. A just man falls seven times and rises again. As Christians, our life is not fall-free; we just keep getting back up and walking from where we left off. That’s the blessing of being part of the family of God.

The benefit of healing that God has provided for us is also under attack. The way the enemy tries to disrupt that is through sickness and symptoms. Sickness and symptoms, in a sense, are like how the devil tempts us to sin; he distracts our gift of healing through sickness. Sickness is an offer, and symptoms are an offer to enter into sickness. Now, I’m not blaming the devil for all sickness, but I’m not exonerating him either. Some sickness, however, is due to bad behavior or poor habits, but wouldn’t it make sense for the devil to want us to be sick? Because even if being sick is not a sin, it is debilitating, depressing, and it disables you. It is contrary to God’s best for our lives. He says, «I will heal you of all your diseases.» What I’m trying to say is that every benefit will experience an attack. The benefit of wisdom is attacked by self-pride. The benefit of provision is challenged with, «I’m going to provide for myself, ” where you’re relying on your own strength. The benefit of peace is attacked by worry. This benefit of comfort is also under attack, and I’ll tell you how it’s attacked: the way the enemy attacks us is by creating counterfeit comfort and unhealthy ways of being comforted when we’re in pain.

So, let’s walk through this passage and see what we can learn. In verse three of 2 Corinthians chapter 1, it says, „Praise be to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Father who is full of Mercy.“ Everybody say, „Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!“ By definition, mercy means to restrain something, to hold something back. Often, when the Bible describes mercy, or when people define it, they compare it to grace. Grace is when God grants us something we don’t deserve; He extends something to us we don’t deserve, like His favor, goodness, and kindness. Mercy, on the other hand, is when God holds back something we do deserve that could be bad. That’s why if you ever feel pain in your life, it’s not punishment. Because God is full of mercy; He is full of mercy. The Clark Sisters have a song that says it could have been me and it should have been me, and it would have been me if it wasn’t for the blood; that’s mercy. And the Bible says God is full of that.

So, what happens? When you experience pain, as we will learn in this passage, what you experience when you have pain in your life is not punishment; it is purposeful. God is going to use that pain for His purpose and His plan in your life. It’s not for punishment. So, He is the God who is, first of all, full of mercy, and He is the God of all comfort. That means God will never run out of comfort. There’s not a trouble you can have in your life for which God doesn’t have comfort. Yolanda Adams’ song says there’s no pain Jesus can’t feel and there’s no hurt He cannot heal, and all things work according to the Master’s perfect will. No matter what you’re going through, remember, God is only using you because the battle is not yours; it’s the Lord’s. Well, watch this: the Lord is only using you. He’s only using you. No matter what pain you feel, the Lord is using you.

Well, how does that make sense, Pastor, that the Lord is using me through my pain? This is how it works: when you suffer pain, difficulty, and trouble in your life, the comfort that God brings you sometimes comes through wisdom, perspective, or healing.