Invite you to turn in your Bibles to the letter of 2 Thessalonians. We are in 2 Thessalonians, and I would like to read for you this morning again verses 1 through 5 as we're making our way through this first section, which we've entitled, The Marks of a Healthy Church. And we've asked the question, how are you living? and the you could be translated as y'all. So how are you as a church living? So let us read 2 Thessalonians 1, 1-5, and I know you're all comfortable now because it took so long to get ready, but let's have you stand as I read the word of God. 2 Thessalonians 1, 1-5, hear the word of the Lord. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, In God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater. Therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which indeed you are suffering. So in the reading of God's word, may we be blessed as we study it together. You may be seated. How are you living? How are you living? How are you expressing your life as being transformed by Christ? That was the question I posed to you last week as we began our look now at this second letter to the Thessalonians. Let me remind you of a few things that Paul is writing to an incredibly young church in this moment. It's less than 18 months old, contrast with that with Hope Community Bible Church, which has been here since 1978. This is a church that's been around for a while. This 18-month-old church, this congregation of saints is sitting right in the middle of a pagan setting, a secular culture, a culture that was not inclusive of Christianity. It was a culture that tended to be hostile to this new sect, this new religion known as the way or Christianity. Not only were the believers in Thessalonica coming out of all the worldly thinking that was so prevalent in Thessalonica and was coming from Rome and all of that pagan thinking. They had grown up with this worldly thinking. They're not just coming out of it, but it's all they know. It's what they thought, it's how they lived with all of its idolatry and all of its immorality. There was this constant influence upon the church, not to be godly, but to be ungodly. Not to be righteous, but to be unrighteous. And certainly not to be holy, but to continue in unholiness. There was, and the same is true for us today, a constant pressure for the church to be influenced by and adopt the ways of the culture. I would like to say with the Apostle Paul, may it never be. It is the tendency of the evangelical church to just mirror the culture. We just do it 15 to 20 years later. Brothers and sisters, the culture is to be influenced by the church. You and I have a mission and it's not just summed up in those words, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, although that encapsulates it all. But what does that mean? It means that you're living a life that is influencing others. People are looking at how you live and they should see a joy, they should see a trust, they should see Jesus in such a way that God draws them and asks you to give a reason for the hope that is within you. When a group of people do not abide by the established status quo, When that group of people seeks to point out the flaws and the failures of a way of thinking that is accepted as normal, the natural result will be hostility and persecution. There's no way around it. The more that we proclaim the truth of God's word in our culture, the more the culture will resist, the more the culture will lash out, the more the culture will not be amused. So whether it is in the celebration and worship of many gods, as might have been part of the case in Thessalonica, whether it is participation in cult immorality, whether it is the mixing of Gnostic ideas into Christianity, whether it's the acceptance of same-sex unions as normal, or if it's the integration of aesthetic philosophies or atheistic philosophies like critical race theory, the church must always be aware, must always be on guard against all behaviors, every manner of thinking that contravenes and contradicts the clear teachings of the Word of God. All of the first century churches, in fact all of genuine Christ-honoring, word-centered congregations must be prepared to fight the urges and the tendencies to compromise and to capitulate to the demand of the culture around them. You and I, when we leave this place, will immediately be put under the gun to compromise and fall into worldly thinking. Is it any wonder that Paul said this to the Corinthian church? He said, "'For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.'" Listen, this is the church. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against what? The knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. There's the mission, to be such an influence in the world that others are saying, whoa, wait a minute, that's not what I was taught. That's not what the school taught me. Remember that the question, how are you living, is not intended then to be merely a personal one. It is a corporate question. How are we, as the body of Christ, living? What is it that the culture sees when we leave our gatherings, whether it's a Sunday morning or a Thursday night or whenever else we might come together? What does the culture see? What does it experience when it comes into contact with those who have been with Jesus? I love the account in Acts chapter 5, the church gathers together. And of course, when the church gathered together in Acts 5, what happened? We had a couple of people die in the middle of the congregation because they sinned or they lied to the apostles, they lied to God. And they dropped dead right there in that service, and all were in awe and wonder, and they had their worship service, and they left, and it says that the city was all looking at them and seeing them as those who had been with Jesus, and none of them dared associate with them, is what it said. Because, well, if I'm living a sinful life, and I associate with one of those people, and I go to their worship service, what might happen? I might drop dead. Talk about influencing the culture. What does the culture see? What do your neighbors see about your Christianity? How are you living that Christianity out? If we can put this another way, and this might step on some toes, do you realize that being a Christian in a hostile culture is to live with a target on your back? That's the way you should see it. I mean, typically, you say, I don't want to have a target on my back. I don't want anybody shooting arrows at me. But I promise you, whether you are some sort of secret Christian or you're living your life out there, you have a target on your back. And your enemy, the devil, is very aware of it. He doesn't need to shoot at you if you're not saying anything. That would be an easy way out. Beloved, being a Christian, A genuine Christian is to wear that target, not to hide it, but to put it on full display. The church belongs to Jesus. The church has been established by Christ himself. This is his church and his intention is to put his church on display, not only for the world to see, but are you ready for this? According to the word of God, he wants to put the church on display for all the powers and all the principalities for every creature that is in the spiritual realm to look at the church and say, there is a church that's living for Christ. As it is written in Ephesians 3, verses 8 through 10, to me, Paul says, the very least of the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. Right now, we are to put the work of Christ on display for all the world to see. This is what you and I have been made part of. This is the church, a redeemed people, A people who are billboards, people who are monuments, people who put on display the power and the grace of God, who put on display, as Paul said in this text, the manifold wisdom of God for all to see here on earth and under the earth and in the heavenly realms. Thus, as we noted last week, to live for Christ, to truly live in his power and by his standard, is to surprise the culture. It ought to shock the culture. Why would you live that way? Why would you think that way? Why would you do that? Why do you spend so much time in an archaic book? Why is it that you get up and mess up your weekend by going to church on Sunday? And some of you do it twice on Sunday. And some of you do meetings between those meetings, and you're just busy on Sunday. Why would you take such time to do that? Because I've been bought with a price. By the blood of Jesus Christ, I am not my own. I serve the living God and I desire you to see him and know him too. To live for Christ is to live by a new and greater standard. God's standard is higher than anything that this world has ever seen or ever known. As Paul begins the second letter to the Thessalonians, he begins, as we noted, by thanking the Lord for all that the Lord has done to save these and establish these believers, to put them there in Thessalonica. He gave them the truth, preaching the gospel and told them to preach the gospel. And one of the themes that forms in this letter comes out in that little question that I've been asking you. How are you living? To ask the question, how are you living, should bring to our minds how such a life in Christ is being lived in the company and community of the church itself. Last week I made a bold statement, I'm going to say it again and then I'm going to add a little thought to this. I said last week, a believer who is cut off from the church is not living well. A believer who is cut off from the church is not living well. And I said it does not matter if the reasons are valid, quote-unquote, or if they are simply the result of willful sin. A believer who is not actively engaged, regularly involved, and connected to the body of Christ is simply not living well for the glory of God. But let me clarify something. While there are valid times in which we might not be able to meet, where we might miss the gathering of the saints. There may be a definitive illness, there may be a legitimate job obligation. Let me remind you that those are to be the exceptions and not the rule. And the truth of the matter is this, that even when valid reasons are found by which we might miss the gathering of the saints, They diminish not only the one absent, but they also diminish the church. There's no way around it. Let me put it to you this way. God has an ideal and God's ideal and his design is for the church to be gathered and to be gathered as often as possible and to do so all the more as you see the day approaching. And I think we say so often these days, even so Lord Jesus come. The day is coming and we should not be meeting less, we should be meeting more. This is God's ideal. But let me say, it is possible, is it not, to function outside of God's ideal. It is very possible. I'm grateful for God's grace for single parents. You think of a single mother, a godly single mother, who may do an outstanding job of raising her children By the grace of God, to be a single mother, though, by definition, is not God's ideal. It is to be an exception and not the rule. It means that something went wrong somewhere, somehow. In similar fashion, I would submit to you that to be disconnected from the church, even for valid reasons, is not God's ideal. That's not God's design. And so we pray all the more for the first responders and the doctors and the nurses for our military and others who because of their responsibilities must miss the regular consistent gathering of the saints so that their absence is not used by the flesh or by the devil to impact either their spiritual well-being or the spiritual well-being of their congregations. So we pray for those folks. Remember that 2 Thessalonians was written, as we said, just a few months after 1 Thessalonians, as Paul understood that the church was experiencing its share of problems. And one of the problems that they were undergoing were the persecutions for their faith in Jesus. Additionally, we noted that there were those in the church that had literally grown lazy. There were those who were not working. They were mooching off of the blessings and benefits of others. And yet, by and large, Paul regards this community of believers as a healthy church, one that was growing in faith, in love, and in perseverance under persecution. And so last week we looked at the first two of five characteristics in these first five verses that marked this church as being healthy. And we have them listed for you right now. The church is to be distinct from the world, dressed in the grace and peace that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, devoted to God in faith and to one another in love, determined despite persecution and dedicated to God's glory. We looked at last week that idea of being distinct. The church is the church. The definition of the word church means the called out ones. The men are going to be talking today from J.C. Ryle's Practical Religion about being separate from the world. Come out of her, my people. We are to be a distinct people, a distinguished people, one that have the definition of Christ written on our hearts and written on our lives. We also noted that we are to be dressed in the grace and peace of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And we defined the definition of grace as the ongoing divine empowering of the believer to live according to God's word and God's way. We can't even live God's way apart from his grace. And so grace to you, Paul says, more grace be bestowed upon you. And then he says, peace, which were identified as the reality of spiritual well-being and rest that is found only from having been reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ. You have peace with God because of Jesus Christ. And may you realize that all the more so that when the world throws its arrows at you, when the enemy comes after you, you can say, I'm at peace with God. And if I'm at peace with God, I need no other peace. Well, with that, let us consider the remaining three. of these characteristics of a healthy church. And the third one is this, the church is devoted to God in faith and to one another in love. We'll flesh that out just a little bit more. Look at verse three again. Paul writes, we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting because your faith is greatly enlarged and the love of each one of you towards one another grows ever greater. Well, Paul begins this second letter much like he begins the first, giving thanks to God. We saw that in 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 3. By doing so here, he's actually affirming the Thessalonians. He's pointing out to them that you indeed are making progress. Before, it was, I'm giving thanks for this, I've gotten this report, but you're continuing in this, and so I have to continue to give thanks to God. I'm pointing out that the progress is being made. By giving thanks to God here, he also reminds them that their faith and love are actually not products of their own. but they're products from God himself. They come out of a healthy relationship to God. As I'll point out in just a moment, you do not ever properly love one another unless you have faith in God. And until you have faith in God, you will never properly love one another. So you can have people coming together. You can have a group of people that hang out in a bar and they have some sort of camaraderie. They might say they love one another, but it's not love the way God intended it because there's no faith in God. While believers bear a responsibility to grow in faith towards God and in love towards one another, we must remember that those qualities only come from being in a right relationship with the living God whose spirit dwells within us. And last in the chapter five of 1 Thessalonians, one of the commands was do not quench the spirit. Do not do anything that would hinder the spirits working in you by which you might grow to love God more and grow to love one another better. No one grows in faith and love apart from being right with God. These believers were gathering considering the gospel and whatever scriptures were available to them. And to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus is to grow in faith to God and love to one another. By way of application then, I would submit to you this, that we ought to pray more earnestly for ourselves for our families and for one another, that God would increase our faith and that that would be demonstrated in an increased demonstration of our love for one another. But what is this faith and love? Let's look at this. And we begin with this idea of being devoted. These Thessalonians, this healthy church, was devoted to God and faith. Now, that seems pretty straightforward, right? If you're going to be a healthy church, well, you ought to believe in God. Right? Well, everybody knows that. I mean, we have churches meeting today, some very strong Bible churches who would agree with that, but you would have churches that we would say probably aren't really churches, and they would probably still affirm the statement, we must be devoted to God in faith. But notice how Paul begins verse three. He says, we ought always to give thanks. And then he adds this little phrase, as is only fitting. Now, the word ought there, we ought, could be translated as this, we are under obligation. I'm obligated to give thanks to God for what I see in you. Have you ever thought about the fact that you are obligated to actually thank God for what you see God doing in the lives of other believers? It's not to be an option, it is to be what you ought to do. It's what we ought to do. And why is this? Because God is the one clearly responsible for the growth. If you see somebody delighting in Jesus all the more, you see somebody that is digging into the word, you ought to thank God for that because that's a God thing. And when we don't, we start propping up the person rather than our God. By adding, though, this phrase, as is only fitting, would seem to indicate that the Thessalonians had perhaps protested Paul's praise of them. Have you ever had somebody lavish praise on you? And what do you want to do? You're like, stop. Stop! You know, you start to get embarrassed. They're putting all this, you know, Pastor, that was the greatest message I've ever heard in my life. Stop! You know, I mean, you have all these, you have these lavish statements that Paul's making for these Thessalonians. You know, how do you feel when someone praises you, particularly in the manner that Paul did. Again, listen to how he did it back in 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 3. He says, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, commending a church for being so faithful, so loving, and so hopeful. And if I were to say that to our church, I am so grateful for the way our church is growing in faith and love. And you're just so steadfast in hope. There will be some of us that would say, that doesn't always describe me. I don't know that we should be saying it so much, because if you really knew some of the things I'm struggling with, Pastor, you see where we're going. So Paul adds this little phrase as his only fitting. For those who know their shortcomings and struggles, they may have felt that Paul was just being over the top. I mean, how many times have you found verses like this in a Hallmark card, right? I mean, it's like at the bottom, you go into the Christian bookstore, and you buy a Christmas, or a card, and at the bottom, we ought always to give thanks to you. Yeah, and we're like, oh yeah, I'm gonna send that. Paul comes back in this letter, having already given them this lavish praise, and he encourages them all the more. Why? Because he sees the hand of God at work in them. It's not so much that he's praising them, but praising God. Don't ever stop somebody from praising God for what they're seeing God do in your life. Paul begins with faith. He says here in our text, we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, so it's addressing the church, as is only fitting because your faith. The word faith is pistis in the Greek, if you're familiar with that. It is the noun form of the verb to believe. So the word faith speaks of having been persuaded with a moral conviction or with a creed. For Christians, faith is being persuaded about the person and work of Jesus Christ, that he is God in the flesh, that he did dwell on this earth, that he did die for my sins, that he did rise on the third day, that he has ascended into heaven, and that he will return again just as he said. There's the encapsulation of the gospel, that is faith. At the moment of salvation, we come to God with what we might call an initial faith, a salvific faith in the person and work of Christ. In that moment, we take God at His word that whoever believes in Jesus, His Son, has received eternal life, just as John 3.16 says. But that faith that first brought you to God, that faith that first opened your eyes to behold Jesus as your only Lord and Savior, That faith that revealed to you that you were a sinner that needed Jesus is not a singular event. Christians are never called to believe just once and then be done. Did you know that? It is not in the Christian's vocabulary ever to say, I have believed and I'm done. What we are to say is, I believe, and I'm a work in progress. For example, we read in John 1, verse 12, this great statement. It says, but as many as received him, Jesus, received, arist hence, past, once and done, you receive him as Lord and Savior once. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God." Listen, even to those who believe. Now, if you're reading in the ESV, I think they made a grave error here. This is a present tense verb. It should not be translated as the ESV says, believed. But it says, even to those who believe, present tense, keep on believing, always are believing, never stop believing. in his name. I believed Jesus when I first came to faith. By faith, I continue to believe in Jesus and I will believe in Jesus all the way through eternity. Believers received Jesus at one time event, but having received him, we become children of God and being children of God means I continually believe. If he is my father, why would I not continually come to him? I believe in him. If I believe in Jesus, why would I not continually trust in him? Beloved, faith continues. Faith in God, in his promises grow. Anyone who has been a believer knows this. The longer that you have walked with God, the greater your faith, the greater your dependence, the greater your confidence will be in him. With that said, there's one thing about faith that we do not often talk about, or I might say we do not talk enough about, and you might say, well, what is that? Beloved, growing in faith most often comes through difficulties and trials. If you want to grow in faith, now it's not that I'm saying to you go out and find something hard and difficult and throw yourself under the bus of persecution. But I am saying that growing in faith comes most dramatically through difficulties and trials. So often we can live our lives for Jesus when all seems to be going well. That's easy. But when the trial comes, then comes the doubt. When the trial comes, then come the tears. I may have a health issue. I may have a relationship problem. I may lose a job. I may be betrayed by a friend. I might have hostility expressed because of what I believe concerning Jesus. Have you been there? And in those trials, things can be overwhelming. In those trials, that's when you wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning and all seems lost. Everything's darkest at 2 and 3 in the morning, right? When those trials come that are far more than you can handle, what do you do? What is the natural response? Murmur? Complain? Why me, God? We might doubt that God really cares for us even just for a moment. When we do that faith diminishes, faith shrivels up. But if we cry out to him who is our heavenly father believing that he is good and has our best interest in mind then our faith grows. There's an illustration of this found in the Old Testament that I think you'll be familiar with, but we'll apply it. Israel had been wondrously delivered from slavery in Egypt. They had witnessed ten plagues on the nation, completely devastating Egypt. The Lord opened up the Red Sea, though, as Israel passed through on dry ground. So they've seen the 10 plagues. They're at the sea's edge. The waters open up and they go through on dry ground. I mean, I can't think of anything more spectacular than that, except maybe one thing, to actually see the visible presence of the Almighty God and what we call the Shekinah glory going through before. This is what they saw. The Egyptians, of course, saw the sea open up and the ground was dry and saw that Israel had gone through. So they're like, well, whatever Israel can do, we can do better. So Ah Pharaoh's army goes into the midst of the parted Red Sea. Israel, I imagine there would be some in that moment going, well, great. We're just going to get slaughtered on the other side. And they watched the Egyptians go into the midst of the sea. And you know the story. Devastating. The Red Sea closes up and kills, drowns all of Israel's pursuers. There was a song, Exodus 15, Lord is my strength and my song and he's become my salvation. Miriam and the others singing this song. They see this great work of the Lord and they go travel three days in the desert to worship him. And there's no water. So they complain. You brought us out here to die of thirst. God says, here's some water. Having seen the Lord do all of these things, you think that they would have delighted in the opportunity. Say, Lord, you brought the 10 plagues. You let us come out of Egypt. You've given us all of their spoils, all of the gold, all the silver. You've drowned the army that was pursuing us. There's no water. What are you going to do, God? No, they complain. They complain. They complain to Moses. They complained to the man God had put over them in the Lord, and by definition, complaining to Moses was complaining to God. The Lord provided for them, and how did they respond? Well, they continued to complain and murmur, and they actually accused Moses of intentionally bringing them out to the desert to die. Now not of thirst, but of starvation. So the Lord comes along to the stubborn, stiff-necked, obstinate people and he rains manna down on them and brings quail to them day by day. Should have been enough, but not for the sinful heart. They complained to the point where God swore in his wrath that their unbelieving generation would not enter into his rest. We read of this in Hebrews 3, verses 7-13. Consider these words here. Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried me by testing me and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was angry with this generation and said, they always go astray in their heart. And they did not know my ways, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not Enter my rest. Can you imagine? Only two in that generation made it, right? Joshua and Caleb. Well, why do I share that with you? Because I want to read the very next verse, a verse that we refer to often, but I want you to see it in this context. What's the next verse say? Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, what's he say? Unbelieving, faithless heart that falls away from the living God. Paul's commending the Thessalonian church for being faithful, full of faith. Here is a congregation that was faithless, had no faith. And then speaking to a congregation of people, the author of Hebrew says, y'all take care of one another. Context, context, context. This is not just for you. This is for you all to be taking care of one another. You make sure that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart because those hearts will fall away from the living God. Faith will bring you to God. Faithlessness will make you fall away from God. And here in 2 Thessalonians 1-3, Paul says the opposite of what Israel had experienced. He tells them that in the midst of their trials and persecutions, as they're now trying to follow the Lord in the midst of a hostile culture that's coming after them, as they're seeing God's hand of provision, they're trusting in him more, not complaining more. And he actually uses a phrase here that's outstanding. He says, in the midst of your trials and tribulations, your faith is greatly enlarged. That tells you something about faith. However big your faith is now, it can be bigger. I don't know how big your faith is today, but I'm going to go back to 1 Thessalonians for a moment. You can excel still more. You want it bigger. You want to get it as big as you can. There's no limit to it. You're not showing off, because if you're saying, you think I'm showing off, look how big my faith is, then you don't have faith. Because it really should be, look at the faith God has granted me. And you point to the Lord. It's interesting that the word for greatly enlarged there in our text is used only here in all of the New Testament. The idea of something greatly enlarged, it's the idea of expressing vigorous growth. I was at a birthday party yesterday and a couple of the guys were talking about, I'm gonna get it all wrong, they'll correct me afterwards, but they're talking about some form of tomato plant. That just goes bonkers that if you don't keep up with it and keep it trained on whatever ropes or strings are going to do every three or four days, it'll just go over. That's the idea. This is just going crazy kind of growth. When was the last time you had that kind of growth in your spiritual life? When was the last time we saw as a church just this sense of our faith is so greatly enlarged? There's been such vigorous growth. That's what he's saying here. In verse 4, Paul mentions that the vigorous growth has taken place even in the midst of persecutions and afflictions. Beloved, all of this is to say that whenever you have a trial, whenever you go through a difficulty, you have one but two responses. Either you can respond, you ready? There's only two. Make it really easy. You either respond with an evil, unbelieving heart, or you respond with a good, believing heart. Those are your only choices. How simple is that? And which do you choose? As for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord, right? You can either respond with a vigorously growing faith that allows you to trust in God's promises and his providence all the more, or you can give up and give in to the doubt. Again, what is true on a personal level is also to be true on a corporate level. As a church goes through trials, it is to respond in faith to the promises and providence of God. And sometime we ought to just rehearse a little bit again, rehearse more of the history of this church, all the ups and downs. That there is a church called Hope is because of the promises and providence of God. Well, not only are we to be devoted to God in that kind of faith, Paul also says we're to be devoted to one another in love. It's interesting to me that one of Paul's favorite couplings is the idea of faith and love, and sometimes it's a triplet, right? What's the other one? Faith, hope, and love, right? But he always likes to couple faith and love, and I've given you some references if you want to look at those later because they're scattered throughout Paul's writings. But as presented here, we are to see that the way in which love for the saints is expressed, by which love for the saints is increased, is actually by growing in your faith towards God. Put another way, if you want to know if you have a growing faith in Christ, I can ask you this question. How are you loving the saints? What is your love life like with the saints? That was not easy to say. How am I loving the saints? So the problem I have with this idea of loving the saints is we are the Hallmark generation. The second time I've used Hallmark, okay? We're the Hallmark generation. We love the saints. general, sentimental, sappy, warm, fuzzy kind of feeling love, right? I mean, just give, we can, again, I don't hardly ever send cards unless I hand write them, and I can't hardly write, so it's all typed now, but anyway, I mean, have you seen some of these cards, the poems that they put in here? No, I'm not even gonna try. Anyway, that's not what we're talking about. It's not just a general fond affection. I mean, I really like Brad. He's a good guy. He has a beard like I do. I mean, what could be wrong with that? The love that's described here in the Greek, it's agape love, and so many of us are familiar with that, and I have my ongoing definition, my working definition of what agape love is. I define it this way, a one-way, unconditional act of the will and attitude of the heart that seeks the highest good for another regardless of the cost and all to the glory of God. That's a mouthful. That's what's being expressed in this text. I'm gonna love my brothers and sisters in Christ even if I don't get anything back. Praise God that that doesn't generally be the case, right? Generally, we've got this reciprocal love going on, but even if they don't, I'm gonna go one way. It's not gonna be based on whether they deserve it because quite frankly, I don't deserve the love of God. So if I use their condition, something that they need to do A, B, and C before I'll love them, well then I have to say, God, you better use A, B, and C before you love me. This is an active love, it's an engaging love, it is a relational love with those with whom we worship God, with whom we fellowship with one another. This interaction is noted as Paul speaks of the love of each one of you toward one another. each one toward one another. So, you know, there's a little bit of an inventory going on in Paul's mind, and maybe there ought to be one in our minds. It's easy to get along with just a few people in a congregation. We got those people we click with, right? We got those people that share some of our life experiences, and that's great. I'm not diminishing that. Praise God that we do that. But part of this is, how am I loving each one? In the congregation, do I know this other person? I've been going to church with him or her for one year or five years, 10 years, and I don't know much about him. Paul is saying these believers were interacting one with one another. It is our Lord Jesus Christ who gave this command that you're familiar with in John chapter 13. Maybe you've heard this a few times. John 13, 34 and 35, a new commandment I give to you. What is that commandment? That you love one another even as I've loved you. Love one another even as I've loved you. How are you doing with that? Excel still more, right? that you love one another, even as I've loved you, that you also love one another. So he repeats it. And then he says this, this is how I know, but we need to work on being demonstrable in whatever it is Jesus is saying, because he says in verse 35, by this, all men will know that you are my disciples. If you have, if you put on display, if you possess, if this is part and parcel of your habit, love for one another. Back in 1 Thessalonians 1-3, Paul had already commended these saints for their love. Back in 1 Thessalonians 3, verse 12, Paul prayed that the Lord would cause their love for one another to increase and abound all the more. In 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 9 through 10, Paul had commended them again. He says, there's no need for me to teach you about how to love one another because you're already loving one another. But this is one more thing that I'll add to it, Paul says, excel. Still more. Your faith has greatly enlarged, now let's see the love greatly enlarge. Because if your faith in God is genuinely growing, it ought to translate into an enlarged love for the saints. Upon hearing the report of how their love had been growing greater and greater, now in our text, he's thanking God for what? Answering prayer. answering prayer. He thanks God for how the Thessalonians had worked to make this loving one another an increased reality. However, the lesson for all of us is this, no matter how well or how much we love the saints, we must always strive to love them more. We will never arrive until the Lord Jesus returns. I have a t-shirt that says, A T-shirt that I won at a white elephant Christmas party. You know those kind of T-shirts? I only wear it when I sleep. It reads this way. It says, I used to be a people person. Then people ruined it for me. You're laughing because you relate. Yes. Beloved, how easy is it to love people from a distance. Oh, it's easy. We can make so much of people that we don't even really know. I can tell you I love John MacArthur. I've read, I think, every single one of his books. I've heard multiple messages. I've been to his church. I've met him. Been able to shake his hand. His hands are huge. Crushed my head, I think, if he wanted to. I love Steve Lawson. He wrote me a personal email one time just commending me on pastoring a little church. It was about 15, 20 years ago. Indeed, these men and their faithfulness to God is something for which all the saints can see and know and love them for. But I'm going to tell you something, I cannot and I will never ever be able to love them as I can love you in this room. Because I don't get to sit down with them. I don't get to cry with them when they're crying and cry with them when they're crying or laugh with them when they're laughing. I mean, unless it's on a real general level, right? I have a relationship with you. I can interact with you. I can live my life out with you. You can see my strengths and my weaknesses as I see your strengths and your weaknesses. Beloved, it is in the nitty gritty of living life together that we can greatly love one another all the more. Beloved, the place which we practice love the most are those with whom we are around the most. And so, where is the front line of all of this? The greatest revelations of love ought to be experienced first between husband and wife, and then children and parents. Sometimes we get irritated with a spouse. I never get irritated with my spouse. But we work through it, right? We work through it. Sometimes your children will frustrate you. You're wondering, like, why did God ever give these children to me? This is more than I can handle. Yet they will always be your children. in the same way in the church as we experience the ups and downs, the routines and the dramas, the trials and the triumphs of one another's lives. That is the fertile ground upon which this kind of love grows. As believers, we are to be open to one another. As believers, we are to confess sin to one another. We are to bear one another's burdens. And while we are never asked to stand before a congregation to reveal all, as it were, we are called to come alongside of others or to call others along to our side so that we might be open, that we might be accountable, that we might be, you ready for this, lovable. Are there people you think they're not that lovable? Come alongside of them in the grace of Jesus. Love them. You'll show them. All right. What is it that hinders that kind of experience of love in a church? What is it that keeps us from being that kind of church? I'll give you one word. Selfishness. Selfishness. When we're locked down, when we are turned inward, when we are self-concerned, when we're more absorbed about what we think or we get so concerned in our heads about what others might think. If I were to share this weakness, if I were to share this concern, if I were to reveal this about myself, they might not love me. You're right. They'll never love you the way you need to be loved unless you open up. And again, I'm not saying that everybody, we're going to start Sunday night and everybody's going to come up and stand up here and we want to know everything that's wrong in your life. But you should be finding another brother or sister or two in the faith and say, I need to be open. I need to be open. I need to share with you what's going on in my life. If we are to grow in love for one another, We must think in terms of putting another person's needs ahead of our own. We must at times put aside our own, what we feel are our so-called rights and expectations, and we sacrifice time in order to invest in another. It's interesting, in Philippians chapter 2, there are two sisters, Euodia and Syntyche, and they're going after one another. I mean, there's just some disharmony going on, and Paul addresses them by name in chapter 4. They were having a conflict. And it's interesting that he brings them up, because earlier in that book, What does he actually say to them? So it's one of those things where he kind of puts the statement out there, and then a couple of chapters later, he says, now, Yoda and Sentaiki, did you hear what I said before? And what did he say before? Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others. That's living out of love. If you remember, again, 1 Thessalonians 1-3, Paul not only thanked God for the saints' faith and love, but he also included hope, right? The steadfastness of hope. Here in chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 it might seem as though Paul has left the idea of hope out. He doesn't seem to mention it at least directly. That is until you look carefully at verse 4 as though it seems that their hope is more than implied. How? In the way that they sought to persevere through difficult persecutions and afflictions. How do you ever get through anything of difficulty? You have hope. Let me also point out that the word for perseverance in verse 4 is the same Greek word as steadfastness of hope from 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 3. The point is they were still being steadfast which means they were still holding on to hope. So the question again is how are you living? By way of application is your faith in God regardless of what kind of circumstance you find yourself Is it growing? How do you know if it's growing? Are you interacting with other believers, demonstrating love for them? And you know what the opposite of that is? Murmuring and complaining. Isolating yourself, keeping yourself away from everybody, and just, woe is me. If you are aloof, if you are hard to talk to, if you're floating in and out of a congregation without engaging others, if you are not purposely seeking to impact others with whom God has given you to worship, I ask you, how could you ever say that you're growing in faith toward God or love towards one another? If your love for one another is not growing, then your faith in God is not growing. The more you love the saints, the more your faith in God is actually manifesting itself. For the markers of a healthy church, in this instance, is one that is devoted to God in faith, seeing faith greatly enlarged, and to one another in love, a one-way, unconditional act of the will and attitude of the heart that seeks the highest good for another, regardless of the cost, and all for the glory of God. Now all that pre-mic stuff so absorbed my time that I couldn't get to the last two, so we'll come back to those next week. But I think God's given us enough to work with as we seek to be devoted to God in faith and to one another in love. Let us pray. Father God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for not only the principles that we flesh out, but the illustrations that You give to us, whether it's looking at Israel in the Old Testament or considering what Jesus also said about the very things that we're looking at. We thank you for the continuity of your word. We delight in your word. We want to be those who are people of the book, people who live according to your precepts and principles, and that we practice them so that you are glorified and that the world will see that when God is at work in the life of a person, there is a transformation. So Father God, I pray that you would help us to apply the truth that we have that we considered this morning. Help us learn greater devotion to you. May our faith be enlarged. We pray that you would give us opportunity to love one another, that we might reveal the extent of the faith that you've given to us, that it will help that not only does it bring glory to you, but it will be that which builds up the church. It'll be that which helps us to have a greater evangelistic presence in this world as we speak of the love that we have for one another and the love that has come to us from God, the God in whom we believe. We ask and pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.