GOD OF ALL COMFORT

GOD OF ALL COMFORT? Really? Why is life full of discomfort? Our common view of comfort today is based more on emotional results and deliverance than on God Himself. God has Paul write this letter for the church so that we can truly know the One who will come along side us, the GOD OF ALL COMFORT. #2corinthians #2023

Starter

• Can you remember a specific instance when God clearly showed you His grace (unmerited blessing) through a financial gift? Explain

Pray

Thank you God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ that you came from heaven to earth to come along side us and bring us your comfort. Thank you for the example of those who even during severe testing by affliction and deep poverty expressed their abundance of joy and overflowed with a wealth of generosity to your people. Would you help us be testimonies of your great grace through our giving according to our ability and beyond our ability. Give us hearts that would beg for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints financially. Keep us from giving under compulsion and lead us to pray and plan. May we give ourselves to the You, and to one another and excel in The Gift of Grace. Amen

Study Questions

Paul, an apostle, is writing God’s word to a church just a few years old that he founded and then left to plant other churches. The church has encountered numerous problems from inside and outside the church. Other self appointed leaders have worked to undermine Paul’s influence and God’s authority so they could substitute their own. God has Paul write to deal with these issues and help the church deal with the problems they are having like holiness and hardship, generosity and church order, and their testimony to the non‐Christians around them. He wants them to know and cling to the GOD OF ALL COMFORT.

The word comfort God has Paul use is not a feeling or a deliverance from circumstances. It is the word Paraklesis which means to come along side. It is the same root word Jesus uses for the advocate and counselor the Holy Spirit (John 14:16, 26). God wants to come along side us through life feeling what He feels and becoming more like He is so that we can know and show others the GOD OF ALL COMFORT.

READ: 2 Corinthians 8:1-17

1. Giving financially to meet the needs (not the wants) of the church family is called The Gift of Grace in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. The root word charis=grace (undeserved favor or blessing) is used multiple time in the text:

   8:1- “know…about the grace”

   8:4- “privilege of sharing in the ministry”

   8:6- “complete this grace”

   8:7- “excel also in this grace”

   8:9- “know the grace”

   8:16- “Thanks be to God”

   1. Do you tend to view finances as The Gift of Grace in your life, in the life of the church, and in the life of others? Why or why not?
   2. How can/should our view of grace and works effect how we give The Gift of Grace?

2. In church, individual, and family relationships, why do you think we tend to be weary and hesitant to talk about finances as the The Gift of Grace?

   1. How might 2 Timothy 4:1-8 help guide us on how to speak as boldly as Jesus and Paul about the $The Gift of Grace$?

3. READ Mark 12:41-44, Matthew 6:24. In what ways does 2 Corinthians 8 help reinforce the principles that Jesus taught in Mark 12:41-44, Matthew 6:24?

   1. Discuss some of the ways we might be able to tell if we are finding our comfort in The God of All Comfort or just in our finances?
   2. How might our tendencies to not think about money OR constantly thinking about money expose our false beliefs about finances The Gift of Grace?

4. Look at 2 Corinthians 8:1‐5.

   1. Why is it so difficult to practice The Gift of Grace when we are stressed by circumstances, bills, and pressures?
   2. What can we learn from the example of the Macedonians in 2 Corinthians 8 and the poor widow in Mark 12 about practicing The Gift of Grace?

5. READ and compare 2 Corinthians 8:8, John 13:34-35, 1 Corinthians 13:3. According to these verses, what should the attitude of followers of Jesus be when they give and receive grace through finances?

6. READ and compare 2 Corinthians 8:9 with Philippians 2:5-11. .

   1. When was Christ rich, and how did he become poor?
   2. Contrast that with 1 Corinthians 4:8-13 and answer, How does Christ make His people rich?
   3. We talk often at fxchurch about understanding “the already but not yet” that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. **How does understanding “the already but not yet” help us to navigate The Gift of Grace and prevent the deceptions of the prosperity gospel and the sacrificial gospel? prosperity gospel= You should have earthly comfort and wealth now. The sacrificial gospel= You should not have earthly comfort and wealth now.,

7. The church at Corinth had made many mistakes, but its members were doing well in many other ways. From this passage and passages we have looked at so far in The God of All Comfort series, in what ways are the Corinthian believers serving God well? How can this comfort us?

8. What arrangements had Paul made to make sure that The Gift of Grace to the church would reach Judea safely?

   1. What good principles can we from these arrangements?
   2. How can asking questions about protections and arrangements like this help us to make decisions to whom we should entrust with the $The Gift of Grace$?

9. Today we often teach, reward, and enable people in excelling in the gift of taking. It often never crosses people’s minds not to take free things or even ask the question of who is really paying the price for and extending these graces to us.

   1. How should we who understand The Gift of Grace combat and help challenge that taking attitude?
   2. How can we challenge taking but still be willing to receive a gift of grace thankfully?