Raise you up from the evil sleep, make you whole. Breath of dawn, make you true. Bobby and for bringing us in today we are in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 we're gonna pick this up in verse 8 of 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 you know what we do we read the Bible we discuss it let me just say thanks for listening and by the way always feel free to share this podcast with others we have 802 or 803 of these done and saved on speaker.com or wherever you get your podcast so hey sermon audio please check it out and follow along Verse 8 of 2 Corinthians chapter 1, For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 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. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessings granted us through the prayers of the many. Now, Paul here talking about at the conclusion of our last podcast, we talked about how he talks about how God is a God of comfort and comforts those who are suffering. And he says that God is the God of comfort, and he comforts those who are suffering, and that in the midst of our suffering, he brings comfort, and then he asks us to use the comfort we receive from him, the storehouse of comfort, to comfort other people. We talked about how we don't like the idea of suffering, but the reality of it is that we will suffer. If we're not careful, no, I shouldn't say if we're not careful, we will suffer because that's part of living for the glory of God and living in a broken world. And God brings us through suffering and affliction. And here Paul expresses the reason for which they suffered, he and his companions suffered. And I think we can, by extrapolation, say that he is indeed speaking of the reason for which we suffer. Look at what he says, or one of the reasons for which we suffer. For we do not want you to be unaware of the sufferings, he says, that we experienced while in Asia. He's talking about how they were persecuted, and they were suffering for the sake of the gospel. They were beaten. They were arrested. They were forced out of towns, et cetera. You may be familiar with the story of what took place in Ephesus and elsewhere in the Book of Acts. And so he says, we suffered greatly. He says, we were utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. So the suffering was so severe for Paul and his companions that they despaired of life itself. Now that's a significant statement because Paul is talking about suffering here in the context of severe suffering. You and I might suffer a little bit and somebody doesn't like us. Somebody talks bad about us. Somebody looks down upon us. Somebody pushes us to the margins of their lives because we are those who had followed the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, Paul is talking about suffering in the context of literal persecution, suffering for the sake of Jesus. In other words, We are sharing in the sufferings of Christ because we are proclaiming the good news of Jesus. We are calling people to faith and repentance. We're teaching the gospel. God is using us to be the ones through whom he brings the gospel into the world and it breaks into society, etc. And so Paul says, we suffered as a result of being those who are speaking the truth of the gospel, ministering the gospel to people, et cetera. So he's, because of their faith, they are having to endure hardship and difficulties, afflictions. Now, we in 21st century America or in the Western world may be pushed to the margins of our society, may be ignored, may be considered not as important, may be made fun of, but we're not suffering in the context in which Paul suffers in the same way. However, we do suffer. I'm not going to belittle our sufferings. Okay, we do have hardships and certainly suffering contains in the scriptures all kinds of things. You think about Job's suffering at the hands of the devil. And so he had physical ailments, he lost his family, he lost everything that he had, et cetera. And so we have all those different ways in which we suffer, not just for the sake of the gospel by outward forces, but the devil brings stuff into our lives and we suffer and God allows us to go through it. And so Paul says here in this particular case, we suffered beyond despair. We despaired for life itself. Sometimes suffering can get us to the point where we despair of life. Why am I doing this? Why am I here? What's going on, et cetera? And Paul says we despaired of life, but it taught us The sentence was not a sentence of death, rather it was to make us to rely upon the Lord, not ourselves. So a death to self and self-reliance, but not a death physical, but a death of self-reliance and a death of self to enable us and to teach us to rely upon God. That is the reason for which Paul says, in this particular case, they suffered. And that is certainly a reason for which you and I suffer. God puts us through suffering, brings us through suffering, puts us in the midst of that, in order to teach us not to rely upon ourselves, but rather to rely upon God, to rest in Him. You know, you've heard people say, well, you know, I believe the Bible teaches us that God won't give me more than I can handle. That's not true. The passage they quote is actually from 1 Corinthians, but God, and we talked about this when we read it, but God gives us more than we can handle. He brings us through more than we can handle. but he provides us a way out. He gives us one who bears that burden for us, and bears it along with us. He comforts us in the midst of it, and he gives us strength through his spirit, and he gives us Jesus. And so we indeed do get more than we can handle, but we receive from God enough to endure. And so the purpose that Paul says here is that we did it so that we're not self-reliant, but rather we're reliant upon the God who raised Jesus from the dead. And certainly that's true for you and me as well. We go through sufferings. Oftentimes it teaches us to stop relying upon ourselves and to call us to rely upon the God who raises people from the dead and the power that he has at work within us. Hey, listen, I want you guys to take care. God bless you. I'll catch you next time. Trust the Lord and know he's got a purpose for everything. See ya. of dawn, may you