Open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 3 And it reads but he who prophesies

speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men Today I want to continue to talk to you

about the purpose of speaking and sharing the word with others The apostle Paul teaches in this verse of

scripture that prophecy speaking forth the word in an assembly meeting is meant to build up education

to encourage exploitation and to lift up comfort And that's what I want to focus on

today I want to focus on the third purpose of the verse and that's comfort In a world filled with

pain uncertainty and brokenness God's word speaks to us Yes in this day and time in a world that's filled

with pain uncertainty and brokenness God still speaks to us through His word to bring

peace to bring reassurance and hope To those who have put their faith and trust in Him God's comfort that's

found in His word is his divine reassurance to us that gives us strength and

gives us hope And this divine reassurance is found in his word So what I

wanna do this morning I want to journey through the scriptures and teach about the comfort of God's word

because we need to know about the comfort of God's word I have to be blunt with you this

morning We live in a world that's full of pain uncertainty and brokenness I wish

I could tell you things are gonna get better but the reality is it's not But as believers we have

a place of refuge We have a place of rest We have a place of comfort that

we can go to that's going to help us through these painful uncertain and broken times And that's God and

His word The first thing I want to share with you this morning is that God is the source of

all comfort 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 3 and 4 says this Blessed be the God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercy and God of all comfort Who comforts us in our tribulation that

we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort which we ourselves are

comforted by God First of all comfort begins and ends with God He is the God of

all comfort And this comfort that God provides us is not just occasional This comfort that God provides us

is not just emotional But the comfort that God provides strengthens us to endure life And not only that

it equips us to comfort others This verse says that God has comforted us who are in trouble That

we can now impart and share that same comfort with others who need the comfort of God

Now the word comfort in the Greek is interesting It's the word Paraclitus and it means to come alongside

and help Now if that word sounds familiar it's because this word also describes the role

of the Holy Spirit He's the comforter he's our advocate he's our intercessor he's our counselor he's our strengther

he's our standby This word comfort takes on that same connotation God's word is designed to come into our

lives to give us hope to strengthen us as we endure in life Like I share with you it's not

gonna get better So what do we do We continue to live move and have our being in

Christ And His word and His Holy Spirit comes alongside us to help us navigate through this life So

the first thing I want to share with you this morning is that God is the source

of all comfort The Second thing I want to share with you is that comfort comes through his word Psalm

psalmist says when my soul is being afflicted your word has come to comfort me and to give me life

A renewed sense of purpose a renewed sense of hope and that's what the word of God

does It brings life it brings reassurance when everything else fails One of these days we're going to

understand that it's the word the whole word and nothing but the word Many believers

want to go outside the word To find their strength and hope and comfort But

the reality of it is there's nothing outside of the world that can bring that Oh yeah it might

give you a temporary relief but it won't sustain you through life People are going to a psychiatrists and

they're taking medications and trying to get some relief trying to get some comfort But as

a believer the only thing that's gonna bring relief and comfort and hope to your life is the word of

God Romans chapter 15 verse 4 says this Whatever things were written before were written for our learning

and here's why that we through the patient and comfort of the scriptures might have

hope It's the word of God It's the scriptures that gives us hope It's God revealing to us

the word of comfort that we need that's gonna keep us going and give us hope

for the journey Many people throw up their hands give up Because they have no hope Many Christians have left

the Christian faith and gone to other religions looking for hope not knowing that all the hope

they need was found in the scriptures But for whatever reason they put their hope in a

man they put their hope in the organization and they never found the hope that they

were looking for That's why you can't put your hope and trust in men That's why you can't put

your faith and hope in organized religion Your faith and hope must be in God through His Son Jesus Christ

And he has given us His word to help us achieve this So the scriptures

are God's channel of comfort to us that will produce hope in us The 3rd thing I want

to talk to you about is that God provides us comfort in the midst of trials Now let me take

you back to James chapter one Consider it nothing but joy when you fall into various trials So

the reality of life is you're either coming out of a trial you're headed towards a trial or

you're currently in a trial That's called life No believer is devoid of the trials of life So don't

matter if you're coming out headed towards or currently in we can still find comfort

in God's word Isaiah says this Comfort yes comfort my people says the Lord Even when Israel

was in captivity because they turned their back on God and they started worshiping idols God still had

a message of comfort for them Even when we are not walking the way we should walk even though

we go through these trials and tribulations God still has a word for us in the midst of

our trials and tribulation And it's a message of hope it's a message of comfort it's a message of encouragement

It's a message that edifies all the things that we've been talking about Because it's not God's desire

that anyone should perish It's not God's desire that anyone should suffer But he knows that suffering is a

part of life because we are disobedient hard-headed people But even through our disobedience and our hardheadedness

the comfort of God is still upon our life And as believers we always have

access to this comfort because we have the comfort or the Holy Spirit that resides on the inside

of us John 14:16 to 18 Jesus promises the Holy Spirit the Comforter the helper the parakeet who

will abide with you forever So we always have access to the comfort of God But here's

the question are we seeking the comfort of God in our times of trials troubles and tribulations We have the

spirit's presence on the inside of us that assures us that he is with us

He said in verse 18 I will not leave you as orphans I will come

to you with a powerful verse but we have to seek the Lord and when we seek

the Lord He will give us the comfort that we need through his spirit and through His

word The psalmist wrote in Psalm 23:4 That even though he walked through the valleys of the shadow of

death God's rod and God's staff would comfort him The good news is God comfort can come to us

even in our darkest valleys I'm trying to encourage somebody today I'm trying to edify somebody

today I'm trying to comfort somebody today with the word Because sometimes we go into these

dark valleys of life where there appears to be no light there appears to be no ending But

we need to know and understand that even when we get into these places God's comfort can still come to

us But we have to seek his comfort for our life The 4th thing I want to

share with you this morning is that comfort brings strength and encouragement That's the whole purpose of comforting one another

With the word 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 18 says therefore comfort one another with

these words Now in the context of that verse Paul was writing to the church

in Thessalonica giving him hope concerning the return of Christ They were anticipating Christ's return They were

working for the Lord and they didn't see the results And so they became weary and they became discouraged thinking

that the labor was in vain They had questions about their fellow believers that passed away Are they with

the Lord Are they not So Paul had to write in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 about the return

of Christ Yes he's coming back and he wrote this to encourage them and to edify

them and to comfort them Watch this now This is the transition we're about to make

but then he told them to comfort one another with these words We have received the comfort of God Not

just for ourselves but so that we can comfort another Paul says comfort one another with

these words Specifically he's talking about the return of Christ but we comfort one another

with the word of God and the purpose of this comfort is always to look

forward to the promises of God that will strengthen our faith Now when Paul wrote this letter

to the Thessalonians not like after they read the letter everything changed No But Paul gave them

a word of hope a word of comfort that caused them to look forward to the promises of God to

be strengthened through faith And that's what the word of comfort is designed to do

in your life is to cause you to look forward You still might be in the midst

of a trial You still might be in the midst of a problem circumstance situation but the

word of comfort helps you to look forward to the promises of God That's gonna strengthen you that's gonna build

you up that's gonna edify you and give you hope and comfort Isaiah 41:10 says this

Fear not for I am with you I will strengthen you Yes I will help you The good

thing about being in a relationship with Christ is knowing that God is with us Let me say it again

The good thing about being a believer born again saved sanctified is knowing and we don't

look at the word no and we understand that this word no does not mean an intellectual

knowing because that's the problem We're connecting with God intellectually But we have not connected with God experientially and it's

only when you connect with God experientially that you will know that you know that you know

that God is with you And now you know as we journey through this life as

we live and move and have our being in this life regardless of what trial comes what

tribulation come what trouble come we know that God is with us I'm trying to make a connection here

this morning We're connected with the promises of God that's found in his word that's gonna give

us hope that's gonna to comfort us And he said in his word he promised

that he will never leave us that he would never forsake us Hebrews 13:5 And that word

leave is the word abandon So he promised that he would never abandon us or forsake

us The Lord is not like men who just abandoned you who just leave you

along the sidewalk who walk away from you in the drop of a dime No The promise

of the Lord is I'm with you And not only is he with us but he will strengthen us

and he will help us And we have to know this and we have to

share this with other people that will give them hope that found through God through His

Son Jesus Christ through his word The good news is that God comforts us to renew

our strength He comforts us to encourage us to keep living for Him We talked about people

that give up throwing the towel change religions I think it's gonna be easier But no no no we have

to continue to live move and have our being in Him and he gives us the comfort that

we need to continue the journey So let me leave you with this final word

this morning God comforts us and he lifts us up when life knocks us down Listen that's life There was

an old country song y'all might have heard it back in the day It says I beg your pardon

I never promised you a rose garden Along with the sunshine it's going to be a little rain sometimes That's

life But the good news is whatever that rain is whatever that trouble is whatever that trial is whatever

As believers we have been comforted with the scripture that God is with us And when life knocks

us down God is right there to pick us up God is the God of all comfort

People need to stop looking outside of God for comfort They're trying to find comfort in drugs they're

trying to find comfort in alcohol They're trying to find comfort in relationships Uh uh

God is the God of all comfort because all three of those things are gonna let you

down and you might be the worst for it But when you seek God when

you seek His word when you seek His promises when you seek his will his plans and his purposes He

will give you the comfort that you need because he is a God of all comfort He's given

us His word to comfort us That's why we have to saturate our minds with His word Not so

we can have it up here in our heads so that we can live it out

And as we live out our life the comfort of God will come to us God

is the healer of broken hearts God is the healer of broken relationships God is the healer All the times

when we think of God being a healer we think of God being a healer

in a physical but he also heals the brokenhearted And somebody needs to know that this morning Somebody needs to

know that God is a healer of broken spirits and a lot of believers have been broken

spiritually and they don't know where to turn They are in the church looking for

a word They are on the internet to some internet prophet looking for a word that's gonna bring them peace

that's gonna bring them comfort not knowing that God has already given us his comfort that's found in his

word And if you saturate your mind with his words you have God's comfort And not only

has he given us his word he's given us the Holy Spirit to come alongside

us to comfort us as we walk through the valleys of this life God's comfort is sufficient for us God's

comfort is sufficient for every trial every situation that we will ever face And here's the

good news this morning When we receive the comfort of God We also receive the peace

of God It's a package deal Philippians 4:7 says and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will

guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus As God imparts his comfort to your

life he will also impart his peace And it's a peace that surpasses all of our human understanding and that

peace and that comfort will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as we

journey through life So receive God's comfort today and receive God's peace Then become a channel Of his comfort to

other people Like the apostle Paul wrote to the Church of Thessalonica Comfort someone with the word of God today

Be blessed