Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham. Why is it that so many broken people ran to Jesus for help. Did you notice in his ministry how he was always with the brokenhearted, the broken people? He was near to people who needed him the most. On today's PowerPoint, Dr.
Graham brings a message on how you can find comfort in the midst of grief.
Now, here's Dr. Graham with his message, the God of all comfort. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 says, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and 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. Two.
Everyone in life experiences pain, sorrow, grief. brief. Tears. No one is exempt. The proverb, the ancient Spanish proverb says, there's never been a home.
without its hush. We've all been in that place described as The Shadowlands. By C.S. Lewis. Grief.
We all have poured out tears from time to time. Whether it is loss, and that's what grief is about, it's loss. I might say parenthetically, before we even get started here, and importantly. That if your loved one has passed away, it is in heaven. You didn't lose them.
You don't lose things when you know where they are. And so we know that they're not lost. But they have left and that brings Great grief, it's loss of any kind. Grief is described as That intense Emotional suffering caused by loss, disaster. Misfortune is deep sadness.
It's more than the usual up and downs of life. It is grief at the deepest level. It is heartbreak. It is heartache. No wonder Jesus said to his disciples facing the cross: he said, Don't let your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe in me. He prepared them. For what? And That's our goal here today, not only to prepare you, but to comfort you with the word of God. It's intense emotional suffering.
It can be the loss of life, the loss of a loved one. It can be the loss of health. It can be the loss of a marriage. It can be the loss of a career. Imagine the oceans of tears.
that humanity Have cried over the centuries. Even your own tears. And yet we are comforted. by the God of all comfort. Christians are not exempt.
From grief. You know that. We all know that. As a pastor, I have walked with Literally thousands of people. At funeral homes, memorial services.
Gravesides. It's a long, arduous journey. And I've watched God comfort them in ways that could only be described. as supernatural. as the power of Christ and The comfort of God.
surrounds us. And why do people Who are Christians cry because you know we. We feel it. perhaps even more deeply than others. We we love deeply and therefore we hurt Deeply.
When we lose someone or something. Dear and near to us.
So we We have real tears. One of the worst things that anyone can do with grief is to repress it or suppress it. But we must release it. Yeah. And release it.
To the people of God. More about that in just a moment. Jesus actually said: Blessed are you who mourn. Send the Beatitudes. Blessed are you who mourn.
Happy are you. Who mourn, for you will be comforted. And it is in the comfort that we smile again. even though it is through tears. We can live again.
We can love again. We can experience life to the fullest again because we have been comforted by God. That verse at the top of our chapter here says. the God of all comforts. He is the source.
of our comfort. The God of all comfort. That includes the one who is described as the father of all mercies. His mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.
God is near and dear to the brokenhearted. And he is God the Father who envelops us, embraces us with his love, and his love will never let you go. God Loves You. Amen. Let that sink in for just a moment.
A moment. And his love is an everlasting love. God the Father. He is the God of all comfort. God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why is it that so many broken people? Ran to Jesus for help. Hurting people. Did you notice in his ministry, in his gospel track? His trek on this earth and his humanity.
How he was always with the broken-hearted, the broken people. He was near to people who needed him the most. The Pharisees, the self-righteous, the religious crowd wanted nothing to do with Jesus except to crucify him and get him out. but the hurdy, the broken. They ran to Jesus.
Why? Because he understands our pain and our sorrow and our grief. The Bible says, The book of Isaiah, the prophecy of Isaiah, he is a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. And when Jesus went to the cross to die for our sins, He also carried our sorrows. He carried our griefs, He carried our sorrows.
What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Jesus is the friend of sinners, but He's the friend of. The sorrowful as well.
The hurting. who need healing. including those with broken hearts. The God of all comfort, God the Father of mercies, Jesus the Savior, who on the cross demonstrated his love for us and bore our pain and suffering on the cross. We have a high priest that understands our pain and our suffering, not one far removed from us, but Jesus came to earth in his humanity, not so he could find out how much it hurts, so that he could.
Uh Understand more. He already understood more. He came to earth and bore our sins and bore our sorrows so that we would know he understands. He's been there. He's done that, not a distant deity somewhere out there.
Not religion. But Jesus The God of all comfort. And then Jesus said in the dark night of his own soul, approaching the cross. In the upper room. His disciples were fearful in the Anxious about what was about to take place, and Jesus said, Look.
I'm not going to leave you alone. I'm going to send to you another one just like me. The paraclete. The Holy Spirit. The one called alongside you, the helper.
the comforter. And the Comforter has come. The Holy Spirit is with us. His living presence is within us. And the comforter has come to Encourage us.
with the very living presence of God our Savior.
So when this verse says, the God of all comfort. It's this God. Religion cannot comfort. Because all the founders of religion are dead and gone. But Jesus, the God of all comfort.
He Comforts us, and with the comfort with which we are comforted, we comfort others. But not only is there this Source of our strength and comfort. And the word comfort. is a very strong word. Comfort is not a weak word.
It's a strong word. You see in the very word itself in English, comfort. It The word fortitude is there. Strength. Comfort equals strength.
The word that is akin to it in the New Testament is encouragement. In fact, comfort and encouragement are often translated in the same way. And the word courage is in that. That word comfort.
So there is fortitude. There is Strength. For the journey. This is how we. are comforted.
God gives us strength.
Sometimes to just take one step. After the other, to keep going every single day. But that comfort is there because the comforter is there, and his comfort comforts us. And with that comfort, According to the passage. We then, because we have been greatly comforted with the men.
washed over with the comfort of God, overflowing, it says, with the comfort of God. abundant comfort of God. Then we comfort Others. We now have been given a mission. Our tears become a testimony.
We We don't just grow in the dark like plants, but we glow in the dark. With the light and the love of Christ. Because God is with us and There are some ways that I want to give you in this message that will help you. Not just get through but grow through and even blow through. The griefs.
of your life, the pain and the sorrow. of your life. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, the God of all comfort. We're excited to share that we have a new way to connect with you. We've just launched a brand new texting service designed to keep you connected with everything happening here at PowerPoint.
You'll be the first to know about upcoming events, special announcements, and truly enriching content. To join, start a new text conversation by texting CONNECT to 59789. Again, text CONNECT to 59789. Our world desperately needs Jesus. Every single day, countless people slip into eternity without ever hearing that Christ offers victory over death and the gift of eternal life.
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Now let's get back to today's message, the God of all comfort. You know, there's a panorama of emotions that are involved with grief. Emptiness, sadness, numbness. Bitterness, anger, guilt, fear, anxiety, depression, self-pity, helplessness. Despondency, even despair.
A broken heart can take your life. I'm convinced that my own dear mother died of a broken heart. Just trying to live through the grief of the loss, the death of my father. You can die. of a broken heart.
But our prayer is that you will live with a broken heart and let your broken heart bless. others and here's how you do this. This is how the God of all comfort comes Comforts us so that we can comfort others. Number one, In grief, God draws you close to Himself. Psalm 34:18 says, God is near the brokenhearted, to those who are crushed.
It feels like a crushing, doesn't it? It feels like a crucifixion. When you grieve. And yet God draws near. to each one of us.
God draws you close to himself. Draw near to God. He draws near to you. And he is always there. He never leaves us or forsakes us.
When you read Psalm 23, the great and famous Psalm 23 written by David, the shepherd king, David most likely. In this passage, this great poem. Is looking back on his life and the tender care of God as the shepherd. He was a shepherd boy himself. And so when he thought of God, the God of all comfort, he thought of the shepherding care and compassion of God, and he wrote, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
And he begins, I often remind grieving people of this great truth regarding the 23rd Psalm. He begins by talking about the Lord. It's a beautiful testimony. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leads me besides the still waters.
He leads me in righteousness for his namesake. He's talking beautifully of the Lord and the good shepherd, the great shepherd. He's talking about the Lord. But then He says, Yea, though, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, so he walks into the valley of. Yeah.
of death. And there he experiences the presence of God. The care. And the comfort of God. He says, Yea, though I walk through this valley of shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
Your rod, your staff, they comfort me. Notice they walk. He walked through the valley because if you're in the valley of the shadow of death, God promises you're coming out on the other side. Because shadows may scare you, shadows may frighten you, but they can never hurt you. When you know the Lord.
Because ultimately the shadows fall behind us. When we turn our face to the sun. We turn our faces to the Lord. the shadows fall behind us.
So David takes that. Walk through the valley of the shadow. It comes out on the other side. And then instead of talking about the Lord. He starts talking to the Lord.
Your rod, your staff, they covered me. You anoint my head with oil. You prepare a table before me in the wilderness. You see the difference? Before, he was talking about the Lord, beautiful testimony of God, but then when he goes through the dark valley, He's closer to God, closer to God.
And now he's talking to the Lord. I tell you, draw near to the Lord. And God draws closer to us. And I tell you this: God will be more real to you in times. of tears.
than at any other time. in your life. Number two, God grieves with you. Know that. When Jesus went to the tomb of his good friend Lazarus, who had died He stood outside that tomb, and chapter 11 of John's Gospel, verse 35.
The one who is the resurrection and the life. It says he stood there. Shortest verse in the Bible, verse thirty-five, and yet sacred ground. Because sacred tears flowed from his sacred head and eyes. Because the Bible says Jesus wept.
And these tears were not trickles. as described in the language of the New Testament. But copious Tears flowing, heaving, sobbing weeping And the same Savior who wept at Lazarus' tomb. in the face of death and sorrow. weeps with us.
He's been to the cross, he's suffered. with us. God grieves. with you. He understands.
This is why So many people run to him. They go to God. They go to Jesus when they hurt because they know He's the one who understands. Oh, we'll understand it better by and by. Our questions, our whys and why nots will be answered in eternity.
But until then, It's enough to know that he knows. That He understands our pain and our suffering and our hurt, and we can leave the burden with Him. God brings us to Him. Grieves with you. Do you believe that?
Number three, God gives you a church family. When you grieve as a believer and follower of Christ. God gives you a church family. We are not meant to grieve alone. And although there are times you don't want to see anybody, be with anybody, and there are seasons for that, but ultimately you need to get up and get going again and get with people who love you and care about you.
And it is at the church of the Lord Jesus Christ where people like we. Have experienced the goodness of God, the grace of God in our grief. And we have been comforted by the God of all comfort, and we can comfort others. It is one of the key ministries of this church and any church to minister to hurting people. To grieve with those who grieve.
The Bible says we mourn with those who mourn. The Bible says bear one another's burdens, and that word burden is also a word that is used for sorrow in the Bible. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Because look, there are some people.
Some here today, some watching online, you're staggering beneath a heavy burden, the weight, you're stumbling, and you need somebody to come along and help you carry the weight.
So it's the work of Christ and the work of the church. Number four, God uses grief. God uses grief to help you grow. It is in grief. That we grow in the dark.
And as I said, we glow in the dark ultimately, but our dependence upon God increases. Our obedience to God, there are lessons that we learn in suffering that can be learned nowhere else. Don't waste your sorrows. Learn everything that you can learn. When you're walking.
In darkness and grief. Number five, God gives you the hope of heaven. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that is, those who have died before us. I would not have you to be uninformed about those who are asleep.
Lest you sorrow as those who have no hope. We sorrow. Our tears are real, but they are not hopeless tears. Our crying is not the cry of despair. It is the cry of hope.
We do not sorrow as those who have no hope. For if we believe. That Jesus died and rose again. Even so them who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord: that we who are alive and remain shall not precede them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. And then we who are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so will we ever be with the Lord. But it doesn't end there. It says, therefore.
Comfort. one another with these words. Comfort one another. with the word of promise. and a future with God.
You know, when you come alongside people, You don't need to preach sermons. Or even quote a lot of verses, just be there. as a person of hope. Point people to Jesus and point people to heaven and love them. But it is in grief, whatever grief.
Remember, there are different kinds of grief. It may be death, it may be the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of a marriage, whatever your grief. is ultimately comforted And the comfort that God gives us, the hope. Of heaven. And one day, one day, one day, he's going to wipe away all tears from our eyes.
But until then, and the last thing is this. God uses your heartbreak. to help others. God's going to wipe away our tears. But until then, God will use your hurt and your hands.
to wipe away people's tears. To weep with those who weep. To grieve with those who grieve. To be present when people are alone. and feeling so lost and so lonely.
No one should ever feel alone. They should know God's presence. and your presence, our presence. And so what God does is He takes our tears. And yes, he turns them into telescopes so that we can see God more clearly.
But he turns them into testimonies. And our tears testify. That even in pain and sorrow and grief. that we are comforted. And we are blessed.
So we praise God through the pain. He starts the whole thing by saying, Blessed be God. Praise be to God the Father of mercy. the God of all countries. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, the God of all comfort.
We're excited to announce that we've been offered a $200,000 matching grant that will double your gift today to help proclaim the life-giving hope of Jesus to people all across the globe. Because your gift is so important. We want to send you a thank you for your generosity by sending you two copies of Dr. Graham's book, Triumph.
to encourage your faith and equip you to share the hope of Jesus with someone who needs it. Please give generously knowing that your gift will be doubled and make sure to request your copies when you give. Text the word overcome to 59789. Again, the word is overcome to 59789. And as a reminder, we have a new way to connect with PowerPoint.
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Just text Connect to 59-789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?
Well, it is absolutely clear that all of us face tragedies, whether those tragedies are on an international scale or whether it's a personal tragedy in your own life, some crisis that you're facing. But you can count on the fact that in the midst of tragedy, in every crisis of life, that God is there and that even pain, incredible pain, is a gift from God to drive us to Him. And God takes our pain and even those questions, those perplexities of our lives, and He mixes them together in the power of His love at the cross. And that's why Romans 8:28 says, For we know. We do know that God is working all things together for the good to them who love the Lord, to those who are called according to his purpose.
And I believe we can write Romans 8:28 over every situation in our lives as believers and followers of Christ. You know, God has given Christians an open door. And that open door is to go to people who have great need in their life and not only clothe the naked and feed the hungry and to take care of those who are brokenhearted, but to share the love of Jesus Christ, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's my prayer: that you, as a follower of Jesus Christ, will get engaged in mission, not only to the nations, but to your neighbors. That you will be sharing the love of Jesus Christ.
First and foremost, you need to have that personal relationship with Christ to share with someone else. And when you do, you can know that your faith will hold against the tides of life, the riptides, the storms, the tidal waves that come against us. And at the same time, you will have a message of hope. and love to share with the world. He is God.
He is always God on good days as well as bad days. Every day He is both sovereign and in control of all of our experiences in life.
So with that faith and with that confidence, we share the message of Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world. that he gave his only son. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift of $10 or more to PowerPoint, we'll send you two copies of Dr.
Graham's book, Triumph, as our thanks. Text the word overcome to 59-789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how you can overcome bitterness and experience freedom. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham.
PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.
