Text: 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

 

Introduction: Have you ever had some bad things to happen in your life? Bad things happen…do you agree? So how can a LOVING, yet HOLY God take the BAD things that happen in our life and TURN them into GLAD things? The same way He took the terrible suffering of Jesus Christ, His Son, and TURNED it into the most PRECIOUS blessing of life – because of His resurrection and the promise of His Second Coming! Paul who suffered numerous hardships instructs believers to take (3) steps to TURN BAD into GLAD:

 

1. Take the BAD! (2 Cor 1:4)

“Who comforteth us in all our tribulation.”
The word “tribulation” is thlipsis, which means pressure, trials. Do you feel any pressure? Why?
• Bad predicaments
• Bad people
• Bad problems

 

2. Don’t be MAD! (2 Cor 1:3)

“Blessed be the God, even the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.”
•”Blessed” is the word eulogetos, which means to speak well of, or in this case, speak of God
•”Comfort” is the word parakaleo, which means to come to one’s side

 

3. Be GLAD! (2 Cor 1:4)
“…That we might be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
• Bad turned into Glad
• Bad turned into Glad if we don’t get MAD

 

Conclusion: Do you see how God can take the BAD and make us GLAD? Even though BAD things happen to us (God’s children) in life, with the Holy Spirit “in us,” “beside us,” and working “thru us,” we become a BLESSING to others because of God’s peace, presence, and power.

 

Praise the Lord! He’s the God of all comfort!!
Love y’all,

Dr. Randy Reese