302: James Jolly - Exhortation: Comforts in Our Lord

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:13

   Welcome to good crystallion talks. I’m Levi. I’m Chris. I’m Jason. And I’m Brian, thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our Daily News feed. Each week we post a talk that we previewed from suggestions sent in by listeners from around the world.

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   Then we record a short intro beforehand as a personalized recommendation to you on why we are sharing the talk. And now let’s talk more about this week’s talk.

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   This is brother Chris. For this week, we’re listening to an exhortation that was given by brother James Jolly back in September of 2023. This was actually given on Australian Father’s Day in his exhortation, which is entitled Comforts in Our Lord. Brother James is taking lessons from Second Corinthians chapter one and generally overall from the 2nd letter to the Corinthians, where he’s looking at the reminders and the lessons that Paul had for the Corinth ecclesia and how that applies to US.

4. 1:19

   One particular point that he makes about midway through the expectation that I really appreciated was the reminder of the need to be selfless rather than selfish. Because we need to be outwardly focused rather than inwardly focused when it comes to serving and finding our happiness and our joy. And that we need to remember that what we put out is what we get back.

5. 1:44

   And the focus on that and the reminder of that is always a good reminder. And as a father myself, as he was talking about this for Australian Father’s Day, as I mentioned, and in the United States, we just had our Father’s Day just a little over a week ago when I’m recording this, it was a excellent reminder that we need to focus as much on what we’re giving as what we’re getting.

6. 2:06

   So I really enjoyed this expectation. I thought it was a excellent reminder for us to re center our focus and to keep our eyes on the path that is before us. I hope you find it encouraging and that it helps you in your walk and encourages you through the coming week. Thank you again, as always for listening.

7. 2:24

   And with that, I will turn it over to our brother James Jolly for his exhortation comforts in our Lord. Happy Father’s Day. We’ve come to read about a father this morning, and that father was Paul, who’s a father to these people in Corinth. And the book of Second Corinthians is a little bit of an interesting one.

8. 2:45

   There’s not actually a lot of notes and stuff on it. There’s not a lot of writings on it, and it’s a book of a few surprises. When we come to 2nd Corinthians or or Corinthians altogether, they’re actually a very interesting crowd. To say that the Ecclesia of Corinth was a rough seaport is like saying that the Titanic had a fairly bumpy crossing. It’s a complete understatement.

9. 3:12

   This was an ecclesia where they had divisions, where people labeled themselves either of Paul or of apostle or of Christ. Brethren took each other to court. There was poor understanding of marriage that led to serious relationship issues. There were arguments over calm things like circumcision, slavery, celibacy, meets offered to idols, sisters, roles in the ecclesia, spirit gifts, resurrection. There was a deep divide between rich and poor. There was slaves, there were moral purists and there were ex priestesses from a very naughty place up on the hill over there and shaved headed Amazonians from the Isle of Libos offshore. It was an interesting place.

10. 3:55

    Look, we have ecclesias that are made-up of people who have differences of viewpoint, occasional moral issues. We have to work together and and sort things out from different walks of life. And that’s the same as every ecclesia around the world except maybe Corinth. They’re literally off the charts when it comes to the sort of things that Paul deals with. So the first surprise we have with the book of Corinthians is that it’s written at all.

11. 4:24

    Frankly, if it’d been up to you and I, we probably would have given them a post it note that said too hard. So sorry, don’t call us, we’ll call you. And that would have been that it’s a very, very difficult and challenging thing. And yet Paul wrote 4 epistles. I know we’ve only got 2, but there’s a first one mentioned in First Corinthians 5 verse 9, where he says Paul comments and says that he’s already written to them.

12. 4:49

    That appears to be the first book of Corinthians. Then the second book of Corinthians is what we know of as First Corinthians, where he writes to answer a whole string of issues and he goes through and he deals with all these particular problems 1 by 1. And then there seems to have been 1/3, which was mentioned in Second Corinthians chapter 2, verse four, if you’re making notes, and seven verse 12 where he says as of much affliction and anguish of heart.

13. 5:17

    I wrote unto you with many tears. It seems that after the one that we call First Corinthians, There may have been yet another letter in between, which was a very severe slap across the wrist, a very good solid telling off from Paul, which he wrote tearfully worried about what impact would have. And you’ll find as you go through reading Second Corinthians, he’s hanging out to find out from Titus what the response was from this, what he gets to hear from Titus. And he gets to hear that they’re repentant and they actually took it on the chin and they’re willing to accept the criticism. And so he writes Second of Corinthians that we’ve got in front of us.

14. 5:56

    You know, they’re an amazing bunch of people, these Corinthians. It’s the most unlikely place in the world for the truth to thrive, the most unlikely opportunity, you would say, for an ecclesia. And yet thrive they did. And not only thrive, but Paul felt like he was a father to these people. You know, if if anyone we we meet in our life walk or in our ecclesia, we think, oh, look, they couldn’t accept the truth.

15. 6:21

    Just have this thought about the Corinthians in the back of your mind. Paul not only accepted them, he felt like a father to them. And I’m just going to read you from a a different translation here from 2nd Corinthians 7 verse four to your face. I talked about talk. Sorry I I start again to your face.

16. 6:38

    I talk to you with utter frankness, but behind your back I talk about you with the deepest pride. Whatever troubles we have gone through together, the thought of you fills me with comfort and deep happiness. That’s the words of a true father about a a bunch of people who he truly cares for that no mod matter their background that they’ve come from. Look how well they’ve succeeded.

17. 7:02

    How well have they succeeded but in in greatness and and wealth and wonderfulness that they can take such criticism, that they can take such correction and that they can turn back with love and and move forward, but they’ve still got a problem. There’s still a reason for Paul to write this second book of Corinthians, because even though Titus comes back and says, look, yes, they’ve accepted all your particular criticism, all your answers to their problems, the people of Corinth still have an underlying issue. And the underlying issue is selfishness, self in all its manifestations, self-interest when considering the needs of others, self importance when, when when looking at their own opinion in discussions, self focusedness. I mean, we saw a little bit of it in first of Corinthians. Remember the first of Corinthians 11 says that people were eating and drinking unworthily. And unworthily is defined as eating and drinking when someone else is starving.

18. 8:05

    You don’t care about the other person, the other side of the room. You’re going to eat and and to the full and so that’s what he criticized about the memorial meeting. Now selfishness is, I won’t say normal, but it’s common. It’s part of humanity. It’s it’s it’s it’s normal to us Philippians 2 verse 21 Paul says and all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ.

19. 8:30

    You can hear this heavy sigh as he says it. Aaron just seeks their own stuff. Now, is Paul sighing because he wishes you didn’t? Well, he’s actually signed because he feels like you’re missing out. If you seek your own things, you’re actually missing out. Paul’s going to encourage them to find the joy of the truth, the consolation of the truth.

20. 8:53

    And by the end of this book, he’s going to give one of the most rousing appeals to financial contribution, the Jerusalem Poor Fund. Anywhere in the New Testament. There’s a huge slab at the end of Second Corinthians, if you’re reading through it this week, that’s about you can give to the Jerusalem poor fund. He’s taking the selfishness problem and turns that around to the point where he’s going to tell you, why don’t you contribute to this Jerusalem poor fund? So this is quite amazing.

21. 9:21

    How does he do this? How? How can someone turn this around from talking about this problem of selfishness and get around to the point where he’s telling them, why don’t you give to this poor fund? I mean, how do you do that? Well, actually, there’s another surprise for you here, and that is that the first section of the book, about eight or nine chapters or so, that at the start of the book is about Paul. You know, in fact, the word I occurs 186 times, which is approximately 3 to four times more than any other book in the New Testament.

22. 9:57

    Basically, you’ve got a problem of selfishness. What does Paul do? He turns around and talks about himself in spade force, like if I if I do that, I make a complete mess of it. But Paul can do that. How is it that Paul can actually just talk about himself and his own experience? In fact, it’s probably the most we see about the real Paul. If you want to see a heart on your sleeve, open frankness about Paul and some of the things that went on in his life that you don’t learn anywhere else, read Second Corinthians. He opens up and tells you so much about his life story. There’s there’s information there about maybe how many shipwrecks he went through and stuff like that that you don’t get anywhere else.

23. 10:38

    He’s he’s been very open and frank and telling you about himself in order to help them overcome selfishness. Now, how does how could that possibly work? Well, the answer is Paul is an example. Paul has become Christ. He’s lost himself in seeking the needs of others. He’s all about them. That’s all he’s interested in. He’s totally absorbed by the mission given to him, which is to save lives eternally.

24. 11:07

    He is totally empty of self. He is totally free of selfishness and constrained by the love of Christ that moves him. You know, he says in another place that he counted all things as lost for Christ. What does he mean by that? He he counts everything that he previously had as a waste of time so that he could do these things like Christ did, so that he could be like Christ and give like Christ did. Christ gave us all.

25. 11:36

    That’s what I want to be. But what did he have? He had a fantastic qualification. He wasn’t just, you know, this university or that university. He was under the head teacher in Israel. He sat at the feet of Gamaliel. He was a leader in his class, he was top of his Pharisee group, he was top of the table.

26. 11:57

    And all of that he counted as a waste of time and useless because what he really wanted was to be like Christ, because Christ just gave so much. So here’s the understanding that Paul had. He can, he’s actually been transformed so much by Christ that he can actually talk about his own life openly. And that’s an inspiration to other people because he’s a minister of the New Covenant.

27. 12:21

    He’s a man driven and controlled by the love that he saw in Christ. He is ever a cheerful giver. He is an apostle with proven authority. And yet Despite that position given to him, he’s ever selfless. He’s willing to suffer in order to be selfless. He could glory even in his infirmities because he could cease God’s strength working in his own life. He could feel that the things that were being achieved in him were God’s work being achieved.

28. 12:54

    So yes, it’s a very different epistle. As you read through it this week, you might have found first of Corinthians to be a very structured set of answers. 2nd of Corinthians is completely unstructured. It’s it’s got a lot of repetition in there because it’s a personal heart on the sleeve conversation. It’s a sit down on the couch moment with Paul where he tells us about what really drives him in life.

29. 13:16

    But let’s let’s go back then. Now, this is not a Bible class. We, we, we want to talk about what’s Paul’s secret recipe. An exhortation is not just to remember Christ, but also to think about our week ahead and to think about how we can be stood up to love and good works. How can we actually move forward? What was what was Paul’s recipe?

30. 13:38

    Well, I think one of the first parts of his recipe, his secret recipe for actually helping people around you and helping those around you to be selfless is that he admitted weakness. You know, sometimes we had this whole eclesial system where people take roles and it has a flaw in that sometimes that puts people up on a pedestal. Here I am speaking so you assume I’m I’m fantastic and perfect. Well, sorry, I wanted to don’t want to disappoint you too much by telling you all the details, but it’s not the case. And Paul is exactly like this.

31. 14:10

    Paul is one of those true father figures who’s not shying away from his own personal weakness. He wants you to see that you can actually have weakness too and still succeed through that weakness. I just want to read you this section here. We know the section second of Corinthians 12, verse 7. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations that were given unto me, a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, was given to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord’s Christ, that it might depart from me.

32. 14:44

    And he said, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore will I glory in my infirmities and the power of that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake.

33. 15:05

    For when I am weak, then I am strong. Now, now, don’t get Paul wrong. Paul’s not saying here that the more you suffer, the more righteous you are. We shouldn’t go out and flog ourselves like the Catholics in the dark ages and say, there you go, I’m now more righteous because I sit on a bed of nails. I make my life hard and therefore I’m more right. That’s not what Paul’s saying at all. He says when I’m weak, then there’s an opportunity for Christ to shine through in me.

34. 15:34

    The way of following Christ still works. You know, in this chapter he says we we gave up all hope. Would Michael read it for us? I’ll read it from a different translation. Just look at this in chapter one and verse eight. We should like you our we should like you, our brethren, to know something of what we went through in age. At that time we were completely overwhelmed. The burden was more than we could bear. In fact, we told ourselves that this was the end. Yet we believe now that we had this experience of coming to the end of our tether, that we might learn to trust not in ourselves, but in God.

35. 16:16

    Who can raise the dead. It was God who preserved us from imminent death, and it was He who still preserves us. Furthermore, we trust. We trust in Him to keep us safe in the future. Be honest about your life. If you’ve even had a brush with death, you got to see that as an opportunity because what it does is it shows you the miracle of God working in our lives. If God’s miracle is that we should live through danger and out the other side, then the reason we live out the other side is to perform His miracles, to do his work, and to live like he showed us this.

36. 16:59

    This is a good answer to the selfishness problem. The problem that they had of selfishness is answered by Paul who says, look at me, I’m nothing without Christ in me. And all I’m hopeful for in my life is that I’m allowed to go through all these troubles and difficulties because then I could truly see Christ’s work and how Christ’s answers work in all circumstances, and how Christ’s way of living life actually helps people, the world’s way of living.

37. 17:30

    Answers don’t actually fix problems, but Christ do. Even in difficult times, they can help to answer the problems. All right, OK, enough beating around the Bush. Let’s go for the Master. How does he put it? He puts it simply. And if you forget my whole exhort this morning, fair enough, you might be tired.

38. 17:50

    But what about this? Don’t forget this, Christ said, For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. So you could spend your whole life out there struggling around trying to find yourself. And the world offers you this. It says, buy this, this will make you somebody.

39. 18:14

    Get this career that’ll make you somebody. And here you are at 40, working yourself to the bone in this career that’s supposed to make you somebody. What does it make you? Exhausted, tired. Does it make you the wonderful person that they promised? Does the career bring you the happiness that they promised? I tell you it does not, But Christ does.

40. 18:35

    Because you might give yourself to the service of others in some what the world would consider as a little way. Sunday school, preparing a little talk somewhere, going down to Beth Salem and sitting there and spending time with some older person. But here’s the difference. You actually have the answers. When you live the life of Christ, you actually do some eternal good.

41. 18:59

    You know the father who goes off to work, He puts his pennies into a bank account. 2 weeks later, he doesn’t know where they all went. They’ve all vanished, they’ve all been spent. But the mother who rocks the cradle and sings that little song to her child, her child will sing that in the Millennium.

42. 19:18

    Just don’t forget that the woman’s position, if she is a someone who teaches those children, has a wonderful role. She can change lives for eternity. I can’t, not at work. I work with computers that did in three years, you know who’s got the better opportunities. Sometimes it’s not always the case. I know you need to point people to the comfort of Christ.

43. 19:45

    Here’s the other part, the surprising part of Paul’s key. You think if he’s going to talk about all the sufferings he’s going to have, he’s not going to talk about comfort. But he does. In fact, we read it this morning in one of the most repetitious sections of all scripture. I thought that he also himself likewise took part of the same, was saying the same thing over and over a few too many times.

44. 20:06

    But just look at what we read this morning. Have you ever? Can you think of another section of scripture which uses the same word 9 times for consolation or comfort in this section? I read it to you from a a blend of a couple of different translations. I thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He is our Father and the source of all mercy and comfort.

45. 20:28

    For He gives us comfort in our trials, so that we in turn may be able to give the same sort of comfort to others in theirs by the comfort we ourselves are comforted with of God. Indeed, experience shows us that the more we share Christ’s sufferings, the more we’re able to give of His comfort.

46. 20:47

    This means that if we experience trouble, we can pass on to you comfort and help towards salvation. For if we ourselves have been comforted, we know how to encourage you to endure patiently the sort of troubles that we have ourselves endured. We are quite confident that if you have to, you have to suffer troubles as we have done.

47. 21:13

    Then, like us, you’ll find the comfort and encouragement of God. Now the Bible, we say, never wastes words, but that looked to me like it wasted a whole lot. It kind of repeated itself. The word comfort or consolation occurs 9 times, the word suffering about six. That’s a lot. Paul’s trying to drive home a particular point. He’s put this first in his epistle. What’s he trying to drive home?

48. 21:40

    He’s trying to drive home. Look, if you’re of a mathematical mind, perhaps you understand it like this. Suffering brings comfort. Did you get it? You didn’t read again. It’s all there. Suffering brings comfort. Now, don’t get me wrong. We’re not saying that suffering is the thing that makes you righteous. Why does he suffer?

49. 21:59

    He suffers the loss of all things for them. He suffers because it’s a whole life of giving. That’s what his his life is. He gives totally as Christ did. That’s what he’s trying to do in his life and it brings a sort of suffering. What’s the result of that? Where there’s a comfort and consolation that comes out of it. We’re going to, we’re going to talk about that in a minute. But first let’s focus in on this idea of suffering because we don’t live in an age of suffering. You don’t allow yourself to suffer now you think about self 1st and you go, Oh no, look, I know that that’s that’s a problem and I try to avoid that.

50. 22:37

    No, sorry, sorry. Just a minute. We live in an age of selfishness. Just this picture for a second. You have a little conversation with someone from Athens, right? One of the people that Paul’s talked to. So James, right, you’ve got a social profile of yourself up on the Internet for all the world to see and it’s got a picture of yourself called an icon.

51. 22:57

    That’s that’s like an idol, right? Of of yourself. Right. So you’re not selfish, but you’ve got an icon of yourself. Oh, look, everyone does it. You know, this is normal. Be realistic. This is the age we live in. Everyone. Everyone does this. OK. Right. Yeah. OK. So you’ve got an entertainment device either in your pocket or slap to your wall somewhere, and you spend a few hours on that?

52. 23:21

    Yeah. Well, you’ve got to have me time. Sorry. What’s this? What’s this? Me time business. That’s that’s this idea that’s pushed by the the world around you that you’ve got to have me time. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you need to weigh yourself into the ground without a hobby, but seriously, the concept of me time is an excuse given by the world that that we need to sorry, did you find yourself happy from that me time?

53. 23:50

    Because Christ found himself happy from give time from US time. You know, there’s a problem. You hear it in society where people keep talking about me, not us. The world’s desperately trying to break down the sense of ecclesia, the sense of family, the sense of us. It’s us that makes you happy when you lose yourself in being part of giving to us.

54. 24:16

    That’s how Christ found happiness. You know, we look at Christ and we come here and the churches look here and say he miserably suffered on the cross for you. You know what he said just before he went to that cross? My joy I leave with you. My joy is for you, and that your joy may be full. And what I want you to do is you should love others as I have loved you.

55. 24:44

    Was Jesus a happy man or a sad man for going to the cross? I’m going to suggest to you that he was happy to do it because he had a joy of giving and a sense of us that he went to the cross with this sense of us. His whole life has wrapped up in US, not me. And the world teaches us the wrong thing. The world teaches us a me perspective. It’s a lie.

56. 25:15

    It will not succeed in bringing you the comfort of happiness. It won’t. You won’t be connected to people the same way that Paul wants you to do. You won’t be finding the consolation that you should achieve. Do you know suffering’s not an easy thing? Don’t get me wrong that you could listen to this talk, perhaps online and, and go back across and say, oh, James says if you suffer, you’re more righteous or something like that.

57. 25:42

    Be careful with this idea of suffering. It’s it’s an idea. You want to see how Paul defines it in Corinthians. His suffering is that he was willing to suffer in order to give. It’s a connected thought, you know he says here in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 7 and 10. If he endured chastening, God deals with you as sons. For what son is he whom his Father chasteneth not now, no, chastening for the present is joyous, but grievous nevertheless.

58. 26:10

    It yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby. Just look. I I really find it interesting he uses the word exercised. We understand that concept. I’d like to lose a bit of weight. See. So how am I going to do that? Well, I’m going to think about it. I’m going to sit there and I’m going to think about losing weight.

59. 26:28

    Is it going to work? No, it’s not going to work. We know how exercise works. No pain, no gain. Don’t do the exercise, no weight loss. Simple. And Paul says, well, it’s going to yield fruit if you’re exercised by it. You know, the, the actual suffering is not passive. It’s active. You’ve got to do something.

60. 26:52

    So if you’re sitting here saying, oh, why am I upset? Why am I feeling low in my life? Maybe it’s because you’ve lost yourself in me. Why don’t you lose yourself in US? Why don’t you take on say yes to doing Sunday school teaching for the new Sunday school year. Say yes to doing a lecture sometime down the track.

61. 27:11

    Put yourself out to go and help someone else. You know, it’s there’s, there’s plenty of people there at leisure who are working hard to do this. And this is what we need and it it’s a cure in the age of selfishness for this focus that the world’s trying to teach us, a focus on self. What’s it going to bring you?

62. 27:28

    Well, it’s going to bring you this idea of comfort. Now, I’m no Greek expert. No, most of you probably aren’t. Excuse me. I don’t know you as well as I know my pleasure you may be. But I I do know that as Christadelphins, often we’re quite good at picking up on stand out words. And this is one, it’s Paraclete off. And it’s a word that literally means it’s a legal term. It’s for a legal assistant.

63. 27:52

    It’s for someone who you call to be your intercessor. You, you summon them to stand alongside you. Paul said about this in the end of his life when he went on trial and he said there’s none that stood by me. He, he could, he wanted to have someone to stand alongside and be his legal assistant. It’s it’s the same phrase that gets used in Acts chapter 16 and verse 9, which is really nice.

64. 28:17

    One where he has a vision appeared to pull by by night and there stood a man of Macedonia and called out for comfort. It’s the same word paracletos him saying come over to Macedonia and help us. Come come over here and help us. We need the truth. We want you to come over and actually help us so that that come over to Macedonia and help us is this same idea of comfort. It’s in our word exhortation.

65. 28:45

    You know, exhortation doesn’t just mean to stand here. And I, I tell you a whole lot of useful facts. It means to draw someone alongside and and that’s how an exhort should be is that we we feel drawn alongside maybe the speakers that he’s open and honest enough to tell you how he feels and perhaps the fact that he struggles in life and you feel alongside that because and then you feel alongside Christ.

66. 29:07

    That’s the more important thing that you can see things from Christ’s perspective that you feel like you stand alongside someone else who who that that is the comfort. You know Jesus talks about it and he says blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. So he’s he’s got the same idea. Why would you mourn?

67. 29:29

    What’s the mourning? Why would you why would you need comforting? Well, that particular phrase is, is Christ is referring to the quote in Isaiah, you know, the one where he says that he says he’s preached good tidings to those that are bound to that he’ll bind up the broken hearted. He’ll proclaim liberty to the captives and comfort all that mourn In Isaiah chapter 61, You know it, It’s talking about the problem of sin.

68. 29:57

    The problem that we have when we come here is that we feel a problem. We, we don’t feel good about ourselves and we come Sunday by Sunday remembering that we have gone our selfish ways and we actually don’t feel good about that. We would actually like to have been someone like Christ. And when we come here, the example of Christ levels us all. We’re all looking at this table before us thinking I, I just don’t match up.

69. 30:23

    I’m, I’m not good enough. I’ve, I’ve had my failings, I’ve had my selfishness moments throughout this week. Maybe I’ve spoken bitter words. I’ve I let my temper get the better of me feeling that I need to defend myself. Maybe I haven’t. I’ve wasted time that I could have spent helping someone else or I didn’t reach out when the opportunity presented itself And look at Christ.

70. 30:44

    He never missed an opportunity. And we do feel bad about that. We do come here with a sense of of sadness. There’s a good, good thing in feeling a little bit of sorrow when we come here this morning. Paul, did you know if Paul? One of the things about Paul is I think he had an incredible insight into the actual nature of mankind himself.

71. 31:07

    He looked into himself and he said a wretched man that I am who will deliver me from the body of this death. I think Christ, you know what that expression body of this death actually refers to? Sorry. This is a horrible piece of horrible history that they used to get a dead prisoner and a live prisoner and chain the two together until the disease from the dead one would kill the live 1. And that was a torture method, the horrible torture method Romans used to use.

72. 31:33

    And but just a moment, that’s how Paul saw himself. That is the expression that he used. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? He sees that as himself. Wow. That is, that’s his insight into the great apostle Paul, his insight into himself as he saw himself like that and he looked to Christ to deliver him from himself.

73. 31:59

    We, we know where the problem is. If we’re truly honest problems in here, it’s me, ’cause I, I want to be selfish and, and I know that that separates me from God. I feel distance from God when I come here. I feel this is hard, these, these emblems because I come here feeling that I’ve got my faults and I feel distance from God.

74. 32:20

    Well, the comfort is that you feel drawn close to God, James says cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, draw near to God and he’ll draw near to you. You know, so this is what we come for Sunday by Sunday is the comfort. Now the comfort goes like this. The comfort is that God wants to draw near to us. If you’re honest enough to see your faults, if you’re, you really want to commit to the life of Christ of going forward in in a self sacrificing way, if you really want that, then God wants to draw near to you.

75. 32:55

    You know, and, and we’re, we’re given in Romans, that little court thing, Paracletos is a courtroom term, right? So in Romans you’re given a courtroom scene and it’s described like this. What shall we say then? If God be for us, who can be against us? So you’re going to get to the judgement seat and normally Australian courtrooms or as far as I understand, have got the judge up the front and the accusing party and the defending party on the right and left. So you’re standing over on the defending side hoping that someone’s going to stand with you, Paracletus. And you look around and you think, well, who’s on the accusing side?

76. 33:33

    God’s not there, he’s over here. He stands on my side and, and what’s he done? He that spared his own son. So you look at this defender, this Paracletus that you’ve got standing alongside you. How far is he willing to go? You. You come here Sunday by Sunday and you feel in insignificant about yourself.

77. 33:55

    You feel down about yourself and your own failings, right? How far is this paracletos willing to go? It says he spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not more freely give us all things? You question whether God wants you in the Kingdom. There’s your answer.

78. 34:15

    God’s willing to give his Son to get you into the Kingdom. You, his Son, his beloved Son, let that sink in. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? God that justifies. That’s the paraclegos that stands by you. Where’s the condemning? On the other side? Is Christ that died for the sake of you gonna stand over there on the condemning side?

79. 34:41

    Yeah, rather that is risen again and that he now stands almost paracletos, but not quite the right word on the right hand of God to make intercession for you. Where’s the attacking side in all of this? It’s not there. Who is going to separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, shall distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, the sword.

80. 35:07

    Porsches told us that those things can bring you closer to Christ and God closer to you. It is written for thy sake. We’re killed all the day long. We’re counted as sheep to the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we’re more than conquerors through Him who loved us. That’s how you can be a success story.

81. 35:28

    True success is redefined for us. True success is admitting your faults and you’re willing to stand on the accused side, but when you do, God stands alongside you. Christ has given his life to save you if you will accept it, and that is you being a true conqueror. And you go forward in your week willing to accept the weakness of your nature and yet to give to others. And you feel in that position that God stands alongside you, that your Father stands alongside you, your true Father in heaven.

82. 36:06

    I just want to read a little snippet from Seasons of Comfort for our consolations also bound by Christ. The knowledge that Christ is with the Father as our friend and living forever while all is change and death around us. And then he comes again at the appointed time to deliver us from the weakness of this corruptible and to give us a place in the glorious society. The perfected sons of God is a continual comfort in this valley of the shadow of death.

83. 36:38

    On this indeed we must rely as a supreme comfort for all others may fail. And other comforts that Paul experienced, he describes in Romans chapter one as being comforted together with the mutual faith of himself and his brethren. You don’t come here alone, brothers and sisters. If you come here feeling apologetic, a feeling that you’ve got something to be sorry for, when you come to these emblems, you’re not alone.

84. 37:08

    It’s about us. When you come here seeking to have God alongside you and feel like he stands alongside you in your need of that, you’re not alone. You stand alongside all of us. We stand together. And when you go out willing to sacrifice perhaps what you want in life in order to give to others, we work together as us and me becomes lost. That’s not a bad thing.

85. 37:36

    The world tells you, go out, find yourself. It’s rubbish, it’s a lie. Go out and find Christ in you. The hope of glory finding me is the world’s lie. Doesn’t make you happy. Do you know what makes you happy Is to be beyond the focus on self. You’ll be one of those people who don’t need to worry about self. You know, faith looks upward to God. I know this is a a phrase you’ve probably heard before. Whereas selfishness looks down towards the things on earth, they all pass away.

86. 38:16

    And the way Russia’s going, probably the sooner rather than later, all these things that you strive for, they’ll all pass away. But faith looks upward to where God is and the plans that he’s got for you and your brother and sisters and the children in your ecclesia and your future in the Kingdom. And the wonderful thing is that mortals are going to learn because you learnt them now, and you’re going to share those things with them.

87. 38:41

    Hope looks forward to the future that God’s made, not at the selfish achievements that you’ve achieved. It’s funny, isn’t it? You can achieve all sorts of great things in this life, and it takes a while before you realise no one else cares. Who was the football legend who kicked a great goal 16 years ago in some particular Oval?

88. 39:02

    Nobody knows. Who’s the person who achieved that university degree 16 years ago? You might know if it’s you, but nobody else seems to care. All these things are forgotten because that’s looking backwards and the world is set in reverse gear. They’re looking backwards. They don’t have faith that looks upward, they have selfishness that looks downward on the things that earth promises will give them to make them happy.

89. 39:32

    They don’t look forward in hope to God’s future. They look selfishly back at their own achievements. And most importantly, look outward in love. You’ll find happiness there. You can do things which the world might not see as great. Teach Sunday school, go make a meal for someone, turn up on someone’s doorstep and give them a coffee. Time to talk to them and break up their lonely day. Don’t do something for somebody else. Parents who constantly give for the sake of their kids maybe spend hours in a job that isn’t that fun because it pays the bills and helps the family out and allows them to get on with the important things of life.

90. 40:15

    Love looks outwards to others. Selfishness looks inwardly for answers within, and there’s no light in there. Paul’s told us you speak according to yourself. There’s no light in you. So as we come this morning to seek Christ and to seek the comfort of Scriptures, let’s not be afraid of suffering. Let’s not be afraid of giving.

91. 40:42

    Let’s come with repentance for the things that perhaps we’ve done wrong and yet call Christ alongside. Renew your covenant with Christ this morning. Call them alongside as your paracletos and God alongside that you can actually have the thing that makes you feel happy in life, which is to feel close to God and feel close to Christ in your life. Not only because they forgive you over and over again if need be, but also that you’re doing their work. You’re discovering what made them happy. Don’t just sit back and say I don’t have joy in my life. Christ said when he gave us this feast, my joy I give with you, but you don’t have that joy in your life. Try it.

92. 41:27

    Try what he gave you and see if it helps. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast. We hope this talk helped you in your walk and brightened your day. If you would like to hear more, please subscribe for new episodes. We are on all major podcast platforms and also on YouTube.

93. 42:00

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94. 42:38

    God bless and talk to you next week.