November 9, 2025 - Where Comfort is Found in the Hours of Darkness - Pastor Paul Vallee

Rick Warren, former pastor of Saddleback Community Church in Southern California, shared the tragic death of his son, Matthew and his struggle with depression that led to his ‘suicide.’ Rick related that Matthew struggled with this his entire life, even though they sought extensive treatment, counselling, and prayer over the years. He shared that he continued to believe God for a miracle and also encouraged Matthew that, even if he did not receive complete freedom, he should pray for God’s strength to manage the challenges he was facing.  Despite all these efforts, Matthew ended his life after twenty years of struggle. This catapulted Rick and Kay into a ministry they never wanted, but God indeed called them into: ministering to others who are struggling with the loss of a loved one. Six months after the death of their son, Rick and Kay Warren expressed the following sentiment in an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan. “We intend to spend the rest of our lives comforting others with the same comfort God has given us. …Your deepest life message will come out of your deepest pain.”

As we begin our journey through the most autobiographical sketch of Paul's life, we discover something of the nature of the gospel, the challenges, the sorrow, and the ultimate hope that God’s gracious message brings into our lives.

In the introduction to this letter, Paul writes that he experienced his greatest pastoral challenge at Corinth. Linda Belleville, in her commentary on 2 Corinthians, explains that itinerant ministers were challenging Paul’s credentials and his authority.

“Paul’s focus on visions, revelations, and the miraculous suggests that the issue was what constituted an appropriate witness to the gospel. A mistaken emphasis on the miraculous by these so-called super-apostles resulted in a misconstrued view of Jesus as a wonderworker rather than a suffering servant, and a misrepresentation of the Spirit as a miracle empowerer rather than a guarantor of the gospel message. In so doing, they effectively put forward “a different gospel” (11:4). For Paul, the role of the miraculous was to validate, not displace, the gospel. This is clear from the recurring thought in his letters that his preaching was one of word accompanied by power, conviction and the Spirit (1 Thess 1:5; see also Rom 15:19; 1 Cor 2:4; Gal 3:5).”

In Paul’s greetings to this congregation, he appeals to three essential concepts regarding the nature of the gospel. This gospel of Jesus has the power to comfort us in the hours of darkness, where suffering and pain can at times overwhelm us.