Caught In The Middle
Caught in The Middle
Am I lonely ?
Am I unhappy?
Am I depressed?
How long will this last?
2 Corinthians 1: 1-9
We read that Paul is writing to the church of Corinth
One thing that comes to mind is that if you’re under water you may feel desperation or anxiety
Panic and fear begin to set in and your lungs begin to burn
You look up and you see the sunlight and has you come up for air you catch your breath and it’s a immediate relief
Paul uses the word “comfort” 9 times in 11 verses
29 times in the 2nd letter of Corinthians
Paul wants us to understand that there is comfort through God when trouble comes
Want to look at some key passages to help us understand the God of all comfort
Not only do we feel comfort but want to know His comfort so has a church we can be a comfort to other people
Have you ever been close to the beach or even walk along the beach??
Some of you may have seen a sign that tells you what to do if you’re caught in a current
Here you are just enjoying the day floating around and probably thinking about how you could have lost some weight before coming to the beach but other than that you are just enjoying the day
You feel the waves come in and has they go out you can feel it pull you but you stand your ground
Has the waves start to come in and go back out it begins to pull you out
The sand beneath your feet breaks away
Has it begins to pull you out, your instincts begin to kick in and you start fighting against the current
That’s what you want to do but it isn’t what you are suppose to do
These signs tell you what to do and it does happen a lot at the beaches
80% of rescues are made up of helping people who are caught in currents and they don’t know what to do
Other than the current being a danger
A few other issues that come up
You begin to panic
If you have a fear that leads to panic then that creates a even bigger problem
Do you feel like you’re caught in a current but not sure what to do
So now there is a little bit of panic and exhaustion
Some of you are caught in a current of fear
You like to have things planned out but what you planned out seems to be falling apart
Now there’s this panic and sinking feeling that begins to set in
Maybe your caught in a current of loneliness
Loneliness can be suffocating
Loneliness can be emotional drowning
Some of have experienced loneliness because we were cut off from our friends because of the pandemic
Then we begin to feel depressed
Now you have time to spend with your friends but you don’t feel like it because you’re depressed
You feel like you’re caught in this current
Some of you feel caught in a current of sin
It seems the waves of temptation comes more each time
It’s what happens when you get emotional exhausted
Discouragement and disobedience have a way of finding each other
When you are at a place in your life when you are struggling, sin seems to be more vulnerable
Morale problems become moral problems
Some of us may have experienced this in some ways
The spirit of anger has become stronger in you
You may not have dealt with it but now it’s right there on the surface and not sure where it has come from
Paul is writing to this church to help tell them what to do
Paul doesn’t want the believers to get swept away when trouble comes
He wants them to be prepared
2 Corinthians 1:3, 4 (NIV84): Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles,
When you get caught in a current, remember who God is
Paul says He is the Father of compassion
I don’t think a lot of us don’t identify Father and compassion
Compassion is someone who’s a care giver who does something about it
That’s more of a mother than a father
Fathers seem to be more encouraging, loving, etc
Father of compassion is not something we identify with when it comes to our fathers
I think we have a wrong idea about who God is because of some bad theology
So when the currents come
God doesn’t care. He sees I’m in this current but He doesn’t care
Bad theology is, God sees it but is powerless to change my circumstances
We have these ideas of God when it comes to compassion that keeps us from experiencing His comfort
Comfort comes from 2 words
Soothing and strengthening
It’s not just feeling better but feeling stronger
Same word for the Holy Spirit that we get the word comforter
Don’t confuse comfort with comfortable
We expect comfort and comfortable to go together but that’s not consistent with the Scriptures
We need to know that we have a enemy. He is known has the Father of lies
What do you think the Father of lies likes to lie about?
One. He likes to lie about anything and everything
Two. He likes to like to lie about the comfort of God
Let’s talk about this word “troubles”
We have different ways to define the word “troubles”
It’s pretty much a generic word
It can mean suffering, struggles
It can even be applied to sin and temptation
I think the word “troubles” is used here as “pressure”
It goes along with what Paul is going through here in 2nd Corinthians
The idea of this word captures a way Paul describes has “crushed”
It’s like you feel so much weight on you that it presses against you that you can no longer handle the weight
Paul uses the dynamic of this word in verse 8
2 Corinthians 1:8 (NIV84): We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.
They felt so much pressure that they said we can’t do this
We are not going to make it
I want you to see something here
Paul is vulnerable and honest about what he is experiencing
Paul is modeling a spiritual maturity that is not about our strength but about our weakness and what God gives us
We need to do what Paul does
- He recognized it
- He revealed it to others
Whatever your struggle is, it’s going to be the most dangerous there is
Revealing is the beginning of healing
Whenever you reveal a struggle or suffering or sin or temptation
When you reveal it than God will begin to heal it
Maybe there are things in your life that feels overwhelming to you that you refuse to recognize it or reveal it because it’s too overwhelming for you
No medicine is powerful than prayer
The more deny things the further that current is going to drag you out
If Paul can be honest about it and recognize it and reveal it then you can do the same thing
It’s not so much what you say but to be supportive of others
People don’t want to be supportive of each other. Relationships are falling apart because of the pressure to try to maintain a strong Christian relationship
People don’t talk anymore
Most people say little has possible and expect their spouses or bf/gf to understand what they mean
But not all messages are clear
Text messages causes more divorces and divisions in relationships or marriages than ever before
People don’t talk. They are caught in the current and they don’t recognize it and reveal it
I’m sure all of us has experienced this in one way or another
Your spouse sends you a text and you’re not clear about it so you text back assuming this is what they mean and they respond back upset because you didn’t get it
Now you both are upset and words are exchanged
We have gotten uncomfortable and you feel the pressure
It’s not what you say but what you have been through that brings comfort to others
You are struggling and frustrated because you don’t talk about your pain or hurt
You say nothing but how can you expect comfort from the Father of comfort when you don’t recognize it and reveal it?
Some of you feel caught in the current of revenge
Things don’t go your way and you want to hurt them like they hurt you
Or maybe you said something to your spouse and she feels hurt so she ponders on it all night because now she’s wanting you to feel her hurt so she gets back at you and now the situation blows up
So you feel crushed or the weight of the pressure from being hurt
We should recognize it and reveal it
Recognize that you was hurt and reveal it so it could have been talked about
Now both of you are hurt and now you are in this current of revenge
Now you don’t have the Father of comfort comforting you