All right, let's get after it. If there are any seats by you and you can scoot in or maybe get the attention of an usher, Brian's back there. Wave at him. He'll try to help people get a seat. And guys, this is our last week in these seats, so not next week because we're not here. But then when we come back, we're supposed to have the other seats in here. I'm just going to tell you, it's going to be like flying a legion. All right? We're going to be trying to pack more people in here. And if you're just like, this is not as comfortable as before, I want you to remember this moment. You can look at people standing on the back that don't have a seat. Okay? So it's going to be a joyful sacrifice that we can all make. But the next time you come in here, you will be less comfortable physically and perhaps spiritually, because we're in the second corinthians and Paul's pulling no punches. So let's get after that. Grab your bibles. Open to two corinthians. We're going to be in this book for a while. We'll be in through, we'll take a break at Christmas, but through the end of May, it's got 13 chapters. You're like 30 some weeks in it, and it's got a lot to teach us. And what I love about getting into this letter, particularly this letter and first corinthians, we did that one a few years ago. But getting into a letter to Corinth is the parallels or connection between the culture at Corinth and the culture in America. And I think there's some direct correlations that we can really draw from. Corinth was a place where you could go and make something of yourself. There was a lot of opportunities, a lot of business, a lot of tourism, shops, marketplaces, theaters, libraries, all kinds of attractions. It was a very pagan city. It was very pluralistic, very immoral city, especially sexually. There was the temple of Aphrodite. It was like the goddess of fertility. So they had temple prostitutes at this place, probably over 100 temple prostitutes, where you can go and engage in sexual immorality as a part of worship. In fact, there was a saying that not every man can afford a trip to Corinth that was kind of a contemporary saying of this time. And what it meant was Corinth was a port city. It was a city with a lot of commerce, so a lot of travel in and out city. And when men on travel would go to Corinth. They would spend a lot of money on the wrong type of things and go home broke. So this was kind of this type of city that we're looking into. They also hosted the isthmund Games. It was like second to the Olympics at that time period. It had, like, athletic competitions, but also music competitions, literary competitions. It brought in a lot of travelers to watch this. It was an athletic event, but also a religious event, which you're like, if you saw the opening closing ceremonies in the Olympics, you'd be like, yeah, I get it. Rabbit trail. I'll stop there. But they did this in honor of the God Poseidon in Corinth. And they also had a temple of Apollo. They had the temple of aphrodite, which we mentioned. They had a statue of athena. Everybody who's read Percy Jackson is excited about those names. They also had the temple of the imperial court, where you would go and worship Caesar as lord. Like, the deity of Caesar was kind of recognized as a roman God. So a lot of pluralistic, but also pagan, but also tourism and also great business and also great opportunity and great culture and life, and quite a city to go to. And you look back like, 2000 years removed from that, and you're trying to make sense of their culture. And they did some funny practices and some really lost practices. And we're trying to understand this. But can you imagine, 2000 years from now, somebody looking back at 2024 of american culture and some conclusions they might make of our silliness or our lostness if people are writing about it in 2024, you would have people fill stadiums in, like, sub below zero weather with their shirts off and chest painted, and they put cheese on top of their head and scream at the top of their lungs, right? At these people that were entertaining them in this culture. They loved beauty. Beauty was such a high priority. They would inject themselves with chemicals to get rid of wrinkles on their face, and they would put fat injections in their lips so their lips would look bigger, right? And they just loved their beauty so much. And they had entertainment. They loved entertainment. And if you go into their homes, they would have screens. And these screens just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And whoever had the biggest screen was the most important people. And they would spend hours a night in front of these screens being illuminated by the different entertainment that was provided for them by these actors. And these actors weren't servants, though. They were celebrities, and they would be followed. And people loved these celebrities. They tried to imitate these celebrities they would try to get their hair cuts like the celebrities, and they would read magazines about the celebrities. And sometimes they would watch award shows to watch these celebrities get their awards for the things they do. And at these awards, they would roll out a red carpet. It had to be a red carpet. And they would walk down this red carpet, and some of them weren't wearing much clothes at all, and they would take pictures, right? Isn't it, like, you would look at that and try to study of America and be like, there's some lost, weird people. Can you imagine trying to plant a church in a culture like that? See, the real similarities come with what their culture seemed to value and what our culture seems to value. If you wanted to be somebody in Corinth, it was really important to be wealthy and have status. I mean, you're going there to make something of yourself. You got a lot of opportunity. Are you doing it? Are you invited to the right parties? Are you in the right scene? Do you have the right amount of money? Like, are you fitting in? And they would see wealth and status as the path to the good life. You want to enjoy life, make some money, get in the right circles. Like, this is the path to the good life. And we're honest with ourselves. We feel a draw to wealth instead, don't we? Like, we feel that draw, and we can tend to think that that is the path to the good life. If I want to enjoy life more, I need to have more resources, and I want to be respected and belong and welcomed in my community. Man, to plant a church in that culture, it would be tough. Think of planting a church at Disney World, right? And there's a lot of people that need Jesus at Disney World. A lot of people there say, we're gonna plant a church in the park of Disney world, and you have all these people that you're trying to say, like, no, there's something more to this life than this life. And they're like, I'm just here to have a good time, right? This is Corinth. This is America. There's a lot of shiny things. And Paul started this church. You can read about it in acts 18. He was there for a year and a half before he moved on. And the church at Corinth was high maintenance. They were a high maintenance group. A lot of problems, as you can imagine, planting a church in that context, there could be some trouble. There could be some problems. So Paul, second corinthians, could be the third, maybe the fourth letter that Paul wrote to the corinthians. We just have these two. Paul took several visits to Corinth. One of them didn't go well at all. He kind of got mistreated when he was there. And the issue was there were some people, some leaders that took authority or influence when Paul left, who Paul sarcastically refers to throughout this letter as the super apostles of those super apostles. So, sarcasm, it's blessed, it's in the Bible. Just use it wisely. But Paul's like, if you want to follow one of those super apostles, right? And what these super apostles were doing is they were presenting a Christianity that lined up more with the values of the city. I mean, can you imagine? You can be a Christian and go to the temple of Aphrodite, right? You can do that. You can be a Christian and live how you want and function how you want. You can be like, God just wants you to be happy and healthy, and you're free to live however you want. Don't you think that's an appealing Christianity? Can you imagine people kind of distorting the message to be more appealing to the values of the city? And this is what's happening here. And the attack on Paul was, how could he be someone who's got. Who has it so rough? How could he be someone who's a true apostle if he has it so rough? Like, how could this be somebody we're supposed to listen to and follow when he has such a rough life, full of suffering in a culture that values wealth and status so much like it didn't fit? And we can tend to think like that. I mean, look at who we follow. We follow the wealthy, the beautiful, because that's what we really treasure. That's what we really want. And Paul didn't fit the picture of what that culture valued. But here's the real problem. In the church of Corinth, the culture was influencing the church more than the church was influencing the culture. Do you think that's happened to the american church? Not a rhetorical question. Do you think that's happened to the american church, that the culture is influencing the church more than the church is influencing the culture? Do you think it's possible that it has. Is happening to you not on purpose, but just through the constant repetitive influence? So we get into this letter, second Corinthians, and Paul is pretty raw. He's personal, he's defensive because he's being attacked in his credibility as an apostle. He's challenging, but it's not in this, like, knock it off tone. It's more in this pastoral caring. Like, you're missing it. You're missing it like you want the good life. Who doesn't? Who doesn't want the good life? But you're being lied to on what the good life is. So what is it really, and how do you find it? Second Corinthians, chapter one, we got eleven verses. I admit I bit off more than I can chew. I'm cutting stuff that I won't at the eleven. They're just. It's the last service, so we'll just go all out here. But I'm gonna go fast. I shouldn't have told you that. You're not the eleven. Sorry. But first corinthians, chapter. I'm sorry. Second Corinthians, chapter 1111. You guys ready to go? All right, let's get into God's word. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. So right off the bat, he's saying like, I am an apostle, and I'm an apostle by the will of Goddesse. If you want to kind of discredit my apostleship, you're going against the will of God. I'm here because God put me here. So to reject me is to reject God. He's coming off the bat swinging, he said, and Timothy, our brother to the church of God that is at Corinth with all the saints who are in the hole of a chai. So with all the saints, he's kind of getting into his argument already, like, I'm calling you saints. That is a special title. A saint is somebody who is set apart for God. You are supposed to be set apart from this world. You are not supposed to look like the culture of Corinth. You're supposed to look like the culture of the kingdom of God. You are a saint now. You are to live like it. Now we're going to get into a longer section, or. Excuse me. We'll go verse two. Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, all of that's kind of a typical greeting, but it is packed with meaning. Like, there's a message in there. Grace and peace come from who? God. Right. And what is the delivery mechanism where we receive grace and peace from God? Jesus Christ. Right. That itself. That's the gospel. That's the message. We could spend another week on that, but we're going to keep going, and I'm going to read a further section, and I want to see if you can identify a common word and if you got a header, you already know what it is, but let's see if we can pick it up. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort, too. For if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort which you experience when you patiently endure the same suffering that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken. For we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. So what is the word that gets repeated a lot here? Comfort. Comfort. Yeah, like ten times. Ten different times. In that short section, Paul is talking about being comforted or having comfort, and he's speaking their language. That's what they want in this guy. I want a comfortable life. That's what I moved here. I want more comfort. I want to retire early. I want to enjoy my life like, I want comfort. And he's like, okay, I'm with you, but I'm talking to you about a comfort that comes from God, not our world, and he is the God of all comfort. But there is another word that gets mentioned quite often as, well, not as much as comfort, but a lot in this section. What other word is that? Suffering. Yeah, suffering. There's actually two. Or suffering or affliction. Now, we don't tend to pair those together. Those two things we think are opposites. Like, I don't want suffering. I want comfort. Right? But Paul does. Paul pairs those two things together, and it's the paradox of the christian life. Like, when Jesus says the weird things that he says about, hey, follow me. Take up your cross and follow me. You want to find life? Lose your life. Are you willing to lose your life for my sake? You'll find it, right? Or take my yoke, this, like, labor thing. But my yoke is easy. Like, it's this paradox. Like, you're going to suffer, but you're going to find comfort in suffering. You're going to lose your life. But in losing it, you're going to find it, right. That I'm going to give you the life that you're looking for. It's just not found in where you typically look for it at. This is the paradox of the christian life. And look at verse five. Paul says this. Sorry I said I was going to shave. I'm sorry. I did. It's already back. Just verse five says this, for as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort, too. What he's saying is, as we suffer for Christ and live a life committed to Christ, we're met with the comfort of Christ, but it goes together. I live a sacrificial, devoted life to Christ that's met with suffering. But every time I do that, like, I can't out suffer God's comfort as I do this, God always in his faithfulness, meets me with comfort. You could put it this way. The extent of our suffering for Christ is connected to our level of comfort in Christ. And Paul is willing to suffer for Jesus Christ. In fact, as we get into this letter, he's going to list out the difficulties he goes through in his life being shipwrecked and prison and stoned and arrested. And he's out there suffering for Jesus because he has so much comfort in Christ, the promise of the gospel, his future in Christ, his identity in Christ. In fact, in two corinthians chapter five, which is an amazing chapter, I'm not going to preach it, but let's read verse 13 and 15. He says, for if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. Like, if you look at our life and you think our lifestyle looks crazy, I get it. It's for God. If we're in our right mind, it's for you. Like we're trying to connect to you, we're trying to minister you. And he says, for the love of God or the love of Christ controls us or compels us, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him, who for their sake, died and was raised. So if we look out of our mind, if you look at our lifestyle of suffering and you say, like, I don't get it, I understand that. But do you want to know why we live the way that we live? Because we're compelled by the love of Christ. Like, we've been so wrecked by the gospel. We know that he died for us so that we're not living for ourselves anymore. We're living for him who died for us. And that, to you, looks crazy. I get it. But it's for your. Like, we're living for your good and for your benefit. Their thinking was, Paul can't be a legit apostle for God with a life marked by so much suffering. But Paul is saying, how can I have so much comfort in the midst of so much suffering? Maybe I'm onto something, and maybe you ought to pay more attention, because maybe I found more comfort in my lifestyle than you found in your lifestyle. And my lifestyle is one of suffering for Jesus Christ, and your lifestyle is one of chasing every pleasure that you have. But yet I have more comfort than you do, and I'm doing better with my joy than you are. So maybe I got something to say. Here's what we need to get. Paul wanted the Corinthians to have a better view of suffering and a bigger view of God so that they would join him in a life fully devoted to Christ and find real, unshakable comfort. Okay, I'm gonna say that again because this is kind of Paul's heart here. Paul wanted the Corinthians to have a better view of suffering and a bigger view of God so that they would join him in a life fully devoted to Christ and find real, unshakable comfort. He's like, you want comfort? I got comfort. But it's not found at the temple of Aphrodite. It's not found in your wealth. It's not found in your status. It's found in Goddesse. But to get that, because they were missing it, looking at Paul, to get that, we have to have a better view of suffering. Look at the first part of verse eight. It says, for, we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. He said, I'm not trying to hide my suffering from you. I know that my suffering kind of discredits me in your eyes, but I'm not trying to hide it from you. In fact, I want you to know about it. I want you to be very aware of my suffering. And sometimes people can make bad conclusions going through hard times. Like, does God still care about me? Has he forgotten about me? Did I do something to deserve this? Has God forgotten about me? And the question arises, why would God allow bad things to happen to good people? Have you ever heard that question? You ever wrestled with it personally? Why would God allow bad things to happen to good people? Now, on one level, I'll answer it this way. There's no good people. And what I mean by that is there's nobody in this room that is deserving of. Of a life absent of any suffering and gets comfort all the time. Like, nobody deserves that. According to the scripture, we deserve the wrath of God justly because of our sin. But I understand the question, maybe a better way to phrase the question is, how could God allow bad things to happen to godly people? People that, like, I'm trying to serve you, God. I'm trying to honor you, God. I'm trying to do everything that you ask in the scriptures, goddess, how could you allow bad things to happen to people like that? People like Paul? Because that's what the Corinthians were wrestling with when it comes to Paul. If Paul is such a godly guy that we should listen to, how come God is making him suffer so much? You know? I don't know if we should listen to him. Cause let's say we were gonna have a marriage conference, and we brought a guest speaker up here to talk to you about marriage, and this guy's on his fourth marriage. You'll be like, ah, I don't know if I really want to listen to what you have to say. I think you've got to undermine your credibility in there, right? But if we're bringing a guy in, it's like he's going to talk to you about the joy of the Lord and finding the good life in Jesus Christ. And we bring somebody up, it's like, weren't you in prison in the last town? And didn't they stone you and run you out of town? And haven't you been rejected by, like, what are all the bruises on your face? Like, I don't know if I want a life like you. That's what they're thinking of, Paul. Like, I don't know if I want to follow you. Like, I'm not excited for that kind of lifestyle. But Paul is telling them, you're misinterpreting suffering, and there's purpose in suffering. There's purpose in suffering. Let's look at two purposes to suffering in this text, and then we're going to look at what's the key to having comfort in the midst of suffering. The first purpose is suffering exists to minister to others. Suffering exists to minister to others. Look at verse six. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. So Paul is saying, if I'm going through hard times, and if I'm going through suffering, it's for your benefit. It's not just that you'll benefit from it, but there's a purpose to my suffering. And the purpose of my suffering benefits you. It's for your comfort, and it's for your salvation. Now, we can tend to have a very me centered outlook. So whenever we go through difficulties or something hard happens to us, we make conclusions like, how could this be happening to me? Why is this happening to me? And how has this undermined my plans for my life? This kind of change in my life, this difficulty, this diagnosis, this job loss, whatever it may be, it kind of made a turn in my life that disrupt my plans. And we're angry about that. But what if we had a less me centered view and a goddess, sovereign over everything view? What if whatever is happening to you is for the benefit of someone else? Cause that's what Paul's saying. Like, my suffering is for your comfort and your salvation. What if you took that perspective? What if whatever is happening to you is for the benefit of someone else? What if your hardship serves as an encouragement to somebody else, especially how you handle it? What if your hardship serves as a lesson to somebody else? What if your hardship serves as a warning to somebody else? What if there's purpose to that? And Paul's suffering was leading to their comfort? One, because Paul. The reason Paul's suffering is because he's preaching the gospel. And in preaching the gospel, he's met with hardship and persecution. But the reason he's pressing on to preaching the gospel is so that they would be saved. Like this message is for your good, for your comfort. But also what it's showing them is that it's okay to suffer. I'm suffering for preaching the gospel, and I'm doing fine. The God of all comfort has met me every step of the way. Don't back away from suffering. So to truly minister to others is to graciously accept your lot in life, no matter what it is, in light of gods sovereignty, with others in mind. Let me say that again. To truly minister to others is to graciously accept your lot in life in light of gods sovereignty with others in mind. How can I make much of God in this situation? I wouldn't have picked this situation. I didn't pursue this situation. But it's what I'm in. So how do I minister to others? How do I make much of Christ in it? How do I point people that even though this hardship, God is faithful, God is providing comfort? I'm finding my joy in him like we are, to minister to others in our suffering. And it's a platform, your suffering is a platform to make much of Jesus Christ. Because when people look at you and you don't have what the world values, like, you don't look that way and you don't own that and you don't drive that and you don't have that status, but yet you still have what the world values, joy, peace, contentment. They're going to want to know where you got that. And our suffering is a platform to make much of Jesus Christ. Second reason for purpose behind suffering. Suffering exists to help lead us to depend on God. Look at verse eight and nine. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experience 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. So Paul is saying, this severe suffering that we had to walk through, this, like death sentence, that we thought we got it had a good purpose, really bad, hard stuff, had a good purpose. In fact, had multiple purposes or twofold purposes. One, to teach us not to rely on ourselves, and two, to show us or lead us to rely on God. So, listen, suffering is going to expose what we can't depend on and show us what we can depend on. You tracking with me on that, that's what suffering is going to do. Suffering is going to show us or expose what we can't depend on and show us what we can depend on. And suffering is going to be harder the longer you try to hold on what you shouldn't be holding on to or what you can't depend on through the suffering. So you, you find your comfort in wealth, how are you going to handle a market crash, right? And the longer you hold on to comfort and wealth, the harder that suffering is going to be. Or you find your identity and your health, how are you going to handle sickness? The longer you hold on to finding your identity and health, the harder that suffering is going to be. And if you find your value in your job, how are you going to handle job loss? Or if you find your status and your looks, how are you going to handle aging? The longer you hold on to your values and your looks, the harder suffering is going to be. Suffering is a gift. It's a gift that exposes what shouldn't be clung to in this world and shows us what should be clung to, what's going to last. And you don't have to learn those lessons through your own suffering. It's better to learn through other people's suffering. But the lesson gets taught, don't put your hope in that, don't find your value in that. Don't find your identity in that, don't find your comfort in that. Listen, God is going to shake what can be shaken to reveal what can't be shaken. Look at Hebrews twelve. This is a couple verses before the verse Garrett read. At the beginning, it says, at that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. This phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken. That is, things that have been made, not things of God, but the things of man, the things of the earth, in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. God is in the business of shaking what can be shaken to reveal what can't be shaken. So suffering. It's God exposing what's not going to last to get us to cling to what will last. And Paul is saying, suffering, this severe suffering, it made us rely on God. It taught us to rely on God. What a gift. Like, we thought we were relying on God, and then we walked through that. And then we really were relying on God. Right? I thought I had a prayer life. Then we had to walk through that. Then I really learned what it mean to have a prayer life. I thought God was close to his people. Then I had to walk through that, and I really learned what it meant when God's close to the brokenhearted. What a gift. What a gift. Suffering exposes us and leads us more and more to God. There's purpose in suffering. And no matter what you're going for, no matter how severe the suffering may be, God's comfort is sufficient. Look back at verse three and four. He said, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of what? What's that word? All comfort. Who comforts us in what? All our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in what? Any affliction. So whatever your situation, whatever your suffering may be, God's comfort is sufficient. For that. You cannot out suffer God's comfort. Or you can put it this way, God is sovereign over all suffering, and he is the God of all comfort. And suffering is often the circumstances that helps us realize that. And just how sufficient is that comfort? You look at verse nine. He says, 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 what raises the dead? I. So you can't get a more severe sentence than the death sentence. And Paul's like, that's the sentence that we thought we got. I thought we were going to die. Did I lose comfort? Not at all. Because my God raises the dead. You see, how unshakable this is. You can't take it. What are you going to do, kill me? My God raises the dead. So he's talking to a group of people like, listen, you think you found the good life. You find comfort in your status in your bank account and your wealth and your looks that can get shaken real easy. What I have comfort in can't be shaken like you have a counterfeit comfort. It's just numbing you to the things of this life and it will go away. You are building your house on sandhorn and a storm is coming and it will wash it away. You are setting your hope in the wrong things. But comfort from God can never be shaken, can never be taken away. So here's the key to laying hold of this unshakable comfort. Look at verse ten. He delivered us from such deadly peril and he will deliver us. On him, we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. So you have. He has delivered us. He will deliver us and he will deliver us again. So what he's saying is, my hope is full of confidence because my God has delivered us in the past. I think he'll continue to deliver us, but even if he chooses not to, he's going to ultimately deliver us. What's he talking about in this? Ultimately deliver us? The resurrection, like Christ, is going to come back and make all things new. So no matter how it goes for me, I'm confident God is taking care of me every step of the way. And he has me. But there's an action in this text. The action is Paul. He says, I've set my hope in God or I've set my hope on him. It's nothing, passivity. Like, I'm making intentional decisions with my hope. I'm not putting it there, I'm putting it here. Like that is an activity. These do it. I am choosing to hope in God. Or you can put it this way, you lay hold of the comfort of God by setting our hope in the promises of God. It's future looking. He will again deliver us. That's why I have so much hope. That's what I'm looking forward to, this return of Christ, where he's going to make all things new. So here's what we need to know. Comfort in suffering comes from hope in God. Comfort in suffering comes from hope in God. Because, and here's the reasons with God, there's purpose in suffering. He's going to minister to other people through you and through your suffering. He's going to draw you closer to himself. In your suffering, there's purpose. With suffering and with God, there's future deliverance from suffering. It's not the end of your story. God doesn't leave you in your suffering. He promises to deliver you from it. So there is comfort and suffering and it comes from hope in God. So if you don't have hope in God, this is a rough place to live. There's a lot of things that get shook and if you left, cling to those, you're going to be disappointed. But, and this is more for this church audience, you can also confess a belief in God and have your hope lured to lesser things. But yeah, I believe in God. I believe that. But you've set your hope in other things. You've set your hope in your earthly status, you've set your hope in your bank account, you've set your hope in your health, you've set your hope in your looks, you've set your hope in your job, you set your hope in your. And what I mean by that is you think that's going to deliver. This is what's going to make me belong. This is what's going to give me value. This is what's going to deliver joy. This is what gives me security. This is what gives me importance. So I'm not asking if you believe in God or not, but what I am asking is, are you actively setting your hope? Hope in God? And how do you tell? How do you tell? What does it look like for you? Do you display hope? We don't have time to get into this, but in psalm 42 where he says, hope in God, why are you so downcast? Oh, my soul. Hope in God. Hope in God is the opposite of being downcast. There's a demeanor to it. Hope expresses itself, he says, for I shall again praise him. Right. He's looking to his future deliverance. And he says, my God and my salvation. But I love the King James translation of it because he says, I shall yet praise him the help of my countenance and my God. He said, my hope in God. You can see it in my countenance that they have an optimistic outlook on life because of my hope in Goddesse. In fact, when you get to verse eleven in our text, he says, you also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. That word many literally means faces. So what a literal translation would be like. So the faces of many would give thanks. He's saying, your hope would be evident on your face one, Peter, when he says, be ready to give anybody an answer to the hope that is in you. How is anybody going to ask you about the hope that is in you if it's just internal and private? He's saying, no, because if hope is in you, it is going to be evident on you. So do you hope in Christ has the promises of Christ. Are they affecting your attitude and actions and emotions and demeanor? Now, do you have an expressible joy, an expressible optimistic outlook, because you know Christ is going to deliver you again, guys, we don't distort Christianity to make it more appealing to this world. That's not how you reach this lost world. It's not how it's going to be done. To reach the culture, you need a group of people who are willing to show Christ to be better than this world, that they have a hope beyond this world, that they're willing to live radically countercultural lives because their hope is in Jesus Christ and not in this world. If we're going to reach a world in love with comfort and joy, it's to show them that our comfort and joy is not found in this world, it's found in Jesus Christ. That's what it means to put your hope in God, that people would look at you and want to know about the hope that is in you, because you don't find it where everyone else is looking for it, but you found it. Paul is saying, hey, you want the good life? You really want the good life? I found it. It's not up at the temple of Aphrodite. It's not in chasing all of your passions. It's not in wealth, it's not in status. It's in God. And it's unshakable, can never be taken from you. I've found the good life, suffering and all. And if you want to find it, put your hope in God, find your value in God, find your identity in God, find your comfort in God, find your security in God, find, find your status in God, find your future in God. And when you really do, it'll show. It'll show. And we need to be a church. We need to be a group of people that have so much comfort in Christ that we joyfully suffer for him. What I mean by that is we joyfully take the narrow road. We joyfully lay down the things of this world. We joyfully do that because all that we need is found in Jesus Christ. And if you struggle with connecting the idea of comfort and suffering, look no further than the cross did. The cross destroy our savior? Or is he more alive than ever, seated at the right hand of his father? And why did he endure the cross? It was the hope that was set before him. Church, God has delivered you. Your sins have been completely paid for on the cross of Jesus Christ, and he will deliver you when he comes to make all things new. And in that in between time, we are to live free, not clinging to the things of this world, but completely satisfied in Jesus Christ. Amen. All right. When we celebrate communion and we remember Christ's sacrifice, I pray that it motivates you to live sacrificially for him. Let's pray. Father, we live in a world that is so easily lost in the things of this world, thinking that it's going to deliver happiness and contentment and value and security and belonging. And we can have our hope lured away from you, where we still confess a belief in you, but we've set our hope in different places. I pray that your spirit would remind our hearts of how good you are, how much you can be trusted, and then we would actively put our hope in you. Pray this in your name. Amen.