- Home
- Speakers
- John Wesley
- Blessed In Order To Be A Blessing
John Wesley
John Wesley (1703 - 1791). English Anglican clergyman, evangelist, and co-founder of Methodism, born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, to a rector’s family. Educated at Oxford, where he earned an M.A. in 1727, he was ordained in 1728 and led the Holy Club with brother Charles, emphasizing disciplined faith. After a failed mission to Georgia (1735-1737), he experienced a transformative conversion in 1738 at Aldersgate, London, feeling his “heart strangely warmed.” Wesley preached over 40,000 sermons, often outdoors, sparking the 18th-century Evangelical Revival, and traveled 250,000 miles on horseback across Britain and Ireland. He authored 400 works, including A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1777), and edited The Christian’s Pattern. Founding Methodist societies, he trained 650 preachers and ordained ministers for America, influencing millions. Married to Mary Vazeille in 1751, their childless union strained, but his brother’s hymns enriched worship. A tireless advocate for the poor, he opened dispensaries and schools, and his 1787 sermon against slavery stirred abolitionism. Despite tensions with the Church of England, he never left it, shaping global Protestantism. His maxim, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can,” inspired generations to active faith. Wesley’s journals and letters, still widely read, reveal a legacy of practical holiness and social reform
Download
Topics
Sermon Summary
John Wesley emphasizes that God comforts us in our troubles so that we can extend that comfort to others. He encourages believers to reflect on their own experiences of affliction and recognize how God has provided solace, urging them to share that comfort with those who are suffering. Wesley illustrates this with a fable about a piece of wood being shaped into a flute, suggesting that our trials can transform us into instruments of blessing for others. He reminds us that our pain can be used by God to create something beautiful that brings comfort to the world. Ultimately, we are blessed to be a blessing, and our struggles can lead to sweet music that resonates with those in need.
Blessed in Order to Be a Blessing
Who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:4 In commenting on this verse, Wesley says: “He that has experienced one kind of affliction is able to comfort others in that affliction. He that has experienced all kinds of affliction is able to comfort them in all.” If you are currently struggling, draw strength from the truth that God’s comfort is given in all trials. As you reflect on the tribulations you have been through, try and remember how God comforted you, and then prayerfully consider whether God wants to use you to bring sympathetic comfort to someone similarly afflicted. Just as God blesses us in order that we can be a blessing to others, you have been comforted in order to comfort others. In this way we put the storms in our lives, the things we would rather had not happened, to good use. A fable tells of a little piece of wood that once complained bitterly because its owner kept whittling away at it, cutting it and filling it full of holes. But the one who was cutting it so remorselessly paid no attention to its complaining. He was making a flute out of that piece of ebony, and he was too wise to give up because the wood moaned so piteously. His actions seemed to say, "Little piece of wood, without these holes and all this cutting, you would be an ugly stick forever - just a useless piece of ebony. What I am doing now may make you think that I am destroying you when actually I am changing you into a flute whose sweet music will comfort sorrowing hearts. My cutting you is the making of you, for only thus can you be a blessing to the world." Allow God to compose sweet music from the notes of your pain, and let him lead you to the person who needs to hear your song. A Prayer from Susanna Wesley I thank you O God for the relief and satisfaction of mind that come with the firm assurance that you govern the world; for the patience and resignation to your providence that are afforded as I reflect that even the tumultuous and irregular actions of the sinful are, nevertheless, under your direction, who are wise, good and omnipotent, and have promised to make all things work together for good to those who love you. (From Encyclopedia of Prayer and Praise)
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download
John Wesley (1703 - 1791). English Anglican clergyman, evangelist, and co-founder of Methodism, born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, to a rector’s family. Educated at Oxford, where he earned an M.A. in 1727, he was ordained in 1728 and led the Holy Club with brother Charles, emphasizing disciplined faith. After a failed mission to Georgia (1735-1737), he experienced a transformative conversion in 1738 at Aldersgate, London, feeling his “heart strangely warmed.” Wesley preached over 40,000 sermons, often outdoors, sparking the 18th-century Evangelical Revival, and traveled 250,000 miles on horseback across Britain and Ireland. He authored 400 works, including A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1777), and edited The Christian’s Pattern. Founding Methodist societies, he trained 650 preachers and ordained ministers for America, influencing millions. Married to Mary Vazeille in 1751, their childless union strained, but his brother’s hymns enriched worship. A tireless advocate for the poor, he opened dispensaries and schools, and his 1787 sermon against slavery stirred abolitionism. Despite tensions with the Church of England, he never left it, shaping global Protestantism. His maxim, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can,” inspired generations to active faith. Wesley’s journals and letters, still widely read, reveal a legacy of practical holiness and social reform