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Comfort for our Days
October 4, 2009
World Wide Communion Sunday
Holly Grove Mennonite Church
Isaiah 40:1 - 31 (NRSV) 1 Comfort, O comfort my
people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry
to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she
has received from the LORD’S hand double for all her sins. 3
A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make
straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley
shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven
ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see
it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” 6 A voice
says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass
withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it;
surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower
fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. 9 Get you
up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your
voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do
not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10
See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his
reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will
feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep. 12
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the
heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and
weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? 13
Who has directed the spirit of the LORD, or as his counselor has
instructed him? 14 Whom did he consult for his enlightenment,
and who taught him the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge, and
showed him the way of understanding? 15 Even the nations are
like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as dust on the scales; see,
he takes up the isles like fine dust. 16 Lebanon would not
provide fuel enough, nor are its animals enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before him; they are
accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. 18 To
whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? 19
An idol?—A workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and
casts for it silver chains. 20 As a gift one chooses mulberry
wood —wood that will not rot— then seeks out a skilled artisan to set up
an image that will not topple. 21 Have you not known? Have
you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not
understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he who
sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like
grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads
them like a tent to live in; 23 who brings princes to naught,
and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. 24 Scarcely are
they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the
earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries
them off like stubble. 25 To whom then will you compare me,
or who is my equal? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes
on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and
numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength,
mighty in power, not one is missing. 27 Why do you say, O
Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my
right is disregarded by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have
you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends
of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is
unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and strengthens
the powerless. 30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and
the young will fall exhausted; 31 but those who wait for the
LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like
eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
What is your response to someone in pain?
The Jews in Babylon devastated by their exile.
God responds with a word of comfort. Through a prophet and a people (Jerusalem vs 9)
The response to the call to comfort, What shall I cry? How shall I comfort?
How do you provide comfort to the broken hearted?
How do you want to be comforted in your grief and loss?
God’s comfort– The God of all comfort 2 Cor 1: and 7:6 But God, who consoles the downcast, consoled us by the arrival of Titus
The comfort of God resides in His:
a. Constancy vs 6-8, vs 28
i. Comparison with human reliability– all people are Grass
ii. Comparison with human instituions vs 17
iii. The word of the Lord Stands forever– That word is the promise that God will fulfill his plan of blessing the world through his people.
b. Competence vs 12-14 26 ff— He does all things well
i. Knowledge
ii. Power– pressure
iii. Wisdom
c. Commitment– vs 11 29-31
i. I wills
ii. Power to the powerless 1 Cor 10:13 Stand up under the
iii. Rest for the weary
d. Commission– Cry comfort to the oppressed because of the God of all Comfort–
i. 2 Corinthians 1:3 - 11 (NIV) 3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. 8We 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. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
2. The comforter has come
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