John 6 says, I'm the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread also which I give for the life of the world is my flesh. The messenger calls us this day to feast upon the message. And ironically, the message and the messenger are the same. It's our privilege this day to come and gaze upon a message in God's Word, but through the incredible gift of the Spirit of God, these words become food for our souls. So let us indeed go to a feast this morning. Let me invite you to turn your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, and we'll continue our study of this great epistle. and your bulletin is an outline. Indeed, use that to follow quotes and take notes and the like. 1 Thessalonians 3, if you want to know how to be a great parent, this chapter's for you. If you want to know how to be a great friend, this chapter's for you. If you want to know how to be a great churchman, this chapter's for you. If you want to know how to be a great shepherd, this chapter's for you. This is all about pastoral care. In fact, one commentary that I've got has titled all of chapter three as basically a dialogue on pastoral care. How to be a shepherd. How to be a caretaker of souls. Because indeed that's what this is. We are walking away through this passage section by section, point by point. This is indeed God's word. I'm going to begin reading verse 17 of chapter 2 for the context. We'll go to verse 5 of chapter 3. This is indeed the word of God. Let me invite you to stand together with me out of reverence and respect for our king at the reading of his word. Hear now the word of God. But we, brethren, having been bereft of you for a short while in person, not in spirit, were all the more eager with great desire to see your face. For we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, more than once, and yet Satan thwarted us. For who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? For you are our glory and joy. Therefore, when we can endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone. And we sent Timothy, our brother and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no man may be disturbed by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. For indeed, while we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction, and so it came to pass, as you know. For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith for fear that the tempter might have tempted you and our labor should be in vain. That's Father reading of God's word. Let's pray. Father, what a delight it is indeed as your covenant people to come week by week and fellowship with you in so many ways, one of which is through your word this morning. Lord, we pray you'd richly feed us. God, serve a feast, we ask this day. And with this, Lord, we boldly pray, increase our capacity to eat, Lord, increase our appetite and give us a bigger belly that, Lord, we might be able to consume your word, our Savior, the message this day, to be built up, encouraged, and equipped and conformed to the glory of Christ unto your praise. We commit this time to you now, Lord, we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Listen to a most incredible exhortation on the part of Christ. But go and learn what this means. So Christ told his disciples and us, I got a homework assignment for you. Go and meditate upon this, examine it, study it, muse upon it, and find out what this means. I desire compassion and not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. If you were in my worship class during Sunday school, you would have just been taught that the most fundamental level At the most fundamental level, we as God's people are worshipers. At our most fundamental level. I mean, our Shorter Catechism, Westman's Chief Ed, it says it, to glorify God. Our telos, our purpose, today, tomorrow, for the rest of our lives, for the rest of eternity, is to glorify God. That's worship. Now, we get that from passages like John 4, where we read, but an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people the Father seeks to be his worshippers. You know what evangelism is? It's not saving people from hell. It's bringing true worshippers to God. That's John 4, 23. In fact, do you know another description, another name for a Christian is worshipper, a true worshipper. Philippians 3.3, Paul says we, speaking of Jew and Gentile Christians, we are the true circumcision who worship. One of the characteristic traits of a Christian is he's a worshipper. And from this we conclude that time and eternity and eternity is determined by how and whom you worship. Do you realize that? Your destiny is dictated by how you worship and whom you worship. Philippians 3, 3. Amazing. And that is why when we come to a passage like Matthew 9, 3, which says, I desire compassion and not worship, We don't conclude from this that God has just devalued worship. We conclude from this that God just brought to the stratosphere the incredible calling to love, care, and minister to the body of Jesus Christ and those around us. Christ just elevated to the highest level the importance of God's people in your life. The importance of ministering to those people, perfecting them, growing them, that's the idea behind compassion. I desire compassion for these sinners that they might be talked to, ministered to, built up, encouraged, refreshed. John 13, you will know they are Christians by their love. Family of God, there is very few more important things in our lives than the people of God. We see that in Paul himself. First Thessalonians 2, how does he end it? He was our hope, our joy, our crown of exaltation. It's not even you in the day of his coming. Paul is saying, when Jesus Christ comes back, one of the things, there'll be a couple things, but one of the things, I will be overjoyed. One of the things that will produce in me incredible joy is seeing Christ and looking right and looking left and seeing you standing next to me, worshiping God. Isn't that incredible? From that then, he says, notice with me chapter three, verse one, therefore, the all of chapter three is going to give the consequences of having such a value. Paul valued God's people so highly, and because of that, notice the implication that that value had in his life. Chapter three, one through 13. This whole chapter is a response to when you value God's people. And so we've titled it here, When God's People Are Your Treasure. Thus far, we've seen three implications. Now listen up, brothers and sisters, this chapter should not be a to-do list for you. This chapter is a positive, definitive description of what Christian maturation will look in your life. This isn't so much what you're supposed to do, but this is what you and I will become if you and I grow in our walk with Jesus Christ. So in some ways, sure, I take this and find myself inspired by, oh great, this is how to do it. But more than anything else, this helps shape and frame my mind with regards to what it's gonna look like if Greg Thurston grows in his walk. What will it look like if your children grow in their walk? How do you know someone's growing in their faith? This chapter is going to give you that description. It's the therefore of when God's people are your treasure. And a lot of that, would you notice, when God's people are your treasure? Verse 1, that for which we sacrifice will be people related. Worldlings and worldly Christians, they value money and positions and power. They value grades above all else. They value their time off. They value their health. And thus, when those things get crossed, any one of them, it turns them for a loop. As you grow in your walk, you will find that more and more you value people, God's people. And when God's people are your value, that which you will be most burdened by, that which you will be most willing to sacrifice for is people. You'll find yourself saying, I'd rather take a job where I've got more time to be with my family than a job that gives me more money. I'd rather pass up the promotion to stay to minister to God's people. Isn't that crazy? When God's people are your value, what you sacrifice for completely turns upside down. Secondly, would you notice when God's people are your focus and so your ministry, you're gonna be hurt. John 2, Christ was not entrusting himself to people because he knew what was in man. You're going to be hurt. And if you're going to be hurt in ministering to people, therefore, by definition, verse 2, you must be a people who rely exclusively on the gospel. The more you minister to people, the more you'll rely upon grace. You'll be ones who actively strive to co-labor with God and His kingdom purpose. And thirdly, you'll be ones who labor to hasten the coming of Christ's kingdom in our lives and the lives of those around you when people are your priority. That's verse two. Verse three last week, actually verse 2b, 5b, and 8b, not three. Verse 2b, 5b, 8b. When God's people are your treasure, the focus of your life and ministry will include both the engendering or strengthening the faith of people. We saw last week that the foci of Timothy's ministry amongst the Thessalonians, Paul hand sent him and said, this is what I'm commissioning you to do. Labor to strengthen and encourage the faith of God's people. Now that naturally flows, this is one of those times where you, I wish I had a couple hours every sermon, because verse four and five flow from, or three and four flow from verse two. That brings us to our fourth point, where we are this morning. When God's people are your treasure, notice how it changes your concern. Many of you came this day with various and sundry concerns. I'm concerned about the future of the United States of America. I am concerned about the rise of ISIS. I am concerned about my health. I'm concerned about, name it. When God's people are your greatest treasure, Your concerns will be flipped upside down. Notice the concern. Verse 3a, so that no man, let's pick it up in context. We sent Timothy our brother and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that, henna, purpose, the reason why, so that no man may be disturbed by these afflictions. All right, this brings us back to verse 2, and so let me quickly review with you what we saw last time. We looked at the fall last time. We saw how the fall, what impact the fall had and how Satan worked in causing man to fall. Do you remember that? What we saw is that when God created man, he created man to have a relationship with him, but that relationship was predicated upon man's relying upon God in his word. God's Word framed the relationship. And so that Word was to be that by which man was bound. He was to trust God's Word implicitly. He was to submit to God's Word unquestionably. Unquestioningly, whatever. That's what his call was. And so when Satan came in the garden to cause Adam and Eve to stumble, notice where he aimed, Genesis 3.1. We read, the serpent was more crafty than any of the beasts of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, indeed has God said. First object of his attack was to debunk the place of the word of God in the life of Adam and Eve. He made God's Word now the object of their supposition and examination, or the object of their rule, in essence. They went from being a people under God's Word to being a people over God's Word. Has God said, you evaluate? And does it sound reasonable to you? Does it sound reasonable to you that God says this? From that, that then led to the second huge attack. They not only attacked God's people's trust in God, His Word, God said it, that settles it. He not only attacked this idea that we should live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, but then he turned on, he then moved on to having God's people question the goodness of God. Remember that? Genesis 3, 4. And the serpent said to the woman, you surely shall not die. God's a liar. He's a fool. Or better yet, he's a deceiver. He's holding back from you. For God knows that in the day that you eat from the tree, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. See, he's withholding things from you. He's withholding good. If you ate of that tree, you're going to be more like God, independent, individual, who can do whatever you want, when you want, how you want, where you want, free. That was the temptation, that was the fall. And brothers and sisters, that set the pace for Satan throughout all of redemptive history. Satan's primary objective is to get you and me to question God's authority, God's word, and God's goodness. So when Timothy sent, or when Paul sent Timothy to Thessalonica to minister to them, his first objective was to engender or strengthen faith. That is always the object of ministry. Through the process we might teach systematics, biblical theology, discipleship, etc, etc. But all of those are a means to the greater end, and that greater end is having a stronger faith in Christ. Period. That's what we're after. Now if that is the objective, quite naturally point to on your notes, quite naturally this leads us to the underlying concern when it comes to ministry, when it comes to God's people. Notice with me again, verse three. So that no man may be disturbed by these afflictions. One more time, recall. Paul came down to Thessalonica and he brought the gospel. What's the gospel? Well, this is the gospel. That God is an awesome, holy being. who is offended by your sin. And as such, as sinners, we have over us, under us, against us, a death penalty, a death sentence. We deserve to die. Yet this awesome, holy God, being rich in mercy, was unwilling to allow his people to die, so he himself became man. upheld the original confines of the relationship, God's Word, and then died a sacrifice in our place, a substitute in our place. Our death, He took. His life, we took. The great exchange. And because of that, now we live forevermore with God. From that we know God is with us. We are the beloved of God. God's plans for us are for welfare. So think of it. Man began in paradise. At the fall, man fell into sin. What has Jesus Christ, the Messiah, come to do? Bring us back to paradise. What's the expectation, therefore, in a rudimentary understanding of the gospel? The expectation, brothers and sisters, is simply this. Because God has saved me Life will be a cakewalk. I mean, think of it. I was in paradise. I fell. God became man, died for me to bring back to paradise. I mean, if there's anyone on this earth who expects a great harvest as farmers, it's Christians. Because we're God's people. If there's anyone in this land who expects not to die of cancer, it's Christians. We're God's people. I mean, think of it, the King of kings, Lord of lords, the omnipotent, almighty God reigns over this earth. He sent his son, his very own son, to die for us. He became man, died in our place so that we might live with him the higher life. And from this, we naturally deduce with a natural thinking that therefore life on this earth will be easy. fulfilling, fun, and exciting. And that's the gospel proclaimed in many places today. And yet, look at the passage. I'm sending you north, Timothy, to strengthen and encourage them to their faith, so that no man may be disturbed." The word for disturb is only used here. It's known as a hapax legomenon. That's Latin for once spoken. It's the only time it's used in the Bible here. And this word in secular literature, secular Greek, means to violently shake. Saw a video this past week on how, or actually past month, on how to peel an egg. Stick in a glass of water, water three-fourths up, put your hand over one side of the water, and shake it, shake it, just brutally shake it. The water breaks into the cracks, it peels the egg, you pull it out, it just comes right off on most eggs. But how do you do it? You violently, you disturb, that's the word. You, you, you Sino it, you just shake it to pieces. Paul says, I'm sending you north to strengthen their faith so that no man may be disturbed by these, and these are referencing theirs and Paul's, every one of their afflictions. You know this word. The word is thalipsis. This is a winemaking term. We've seen it so many times because it's used so many times in the Bible. In winemaking, thalipsis was the pressure needed to burst a grape. Hence, thalipsis in scripture refers to pressure. Extreme pressure. Pressure of an extreme kind, which is so heavy, so hard, that you're gonna break as a person. Emotionally, mentally, physically. That's how strong it is. That's the idea behind this term. And get this, brothers and sisters, In a sinful world, life in Christ will have this in abundance. Listen to Acts chapter 14, speaking of Paul and Barnabas. After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith, saying, this is their message, Through many tribulations, our word, through many philipses, we must enter the kingdom of God. Do you know the message that Paul gave to the first missionary journey, and the message we're gonna learn today? He gave it to the second missionary journey, and the message on his third, and his fourth in prison. Do you know what that message was? Affliction. pressure, philipsis. See, brothers and sisters, we've got to realize something. Salvation is much, much more than God redeeming you or paying the sacrifice for your sin. Salvation is much more than that. Do you know what salvation is at its core? It's the violent Overwhelming breaking in into this world of a kingdom called the kingdom of God. And that kingdom therefore is coming and clashing with the kingdom of Satan. That's the message. First word out of Christ's mouth when he began his public ministry was, we already said it, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. First word out of John the Baptist's mouth, repent for the kingdom of God. Paul's message is summarized in Acts as he was preaching the gospel of the kingdom. What are we to pray in the Lord's Prayer? Thy kingdom come. Brothers and sisters, do you understand? You were delivered by the grace of God to be soldiers and servants in God's kingdom, which right now is in conflict with Satan's kingdom. What that means is that life on this earth for God's people is anything but placid or peaceful. Life on this side of the grave will be warfare. I love the words of Ernest Best. Quote, Paul is not thinking of a period of persecution which will pass and the church return to normality. Normality is persecution. Incredible statement. And thus we see 2 Corinthians 8, 1, the Macedonians. Paul wrote, now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God, which was given to the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of Philipsis, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed. Man, you look at that and you go, oh, they had so much money. They were sitting there back in their houses, relaxing by the pools because they're Christians. And because they're Christians, God's going to bless them in this life. They're sitting there going, man, we have all this money. Let's send it to Paul. This text says the exact opposite. They were in a crucible with the heat so hot, they felt the pressure, it was so hard. And in that vice grip, they sent money to Paul. In other words, they were thinking of someone other than themselves. That's what's so amazing. When you're in persecution or in difficulty, you tend to think of yourself. These guys were thinking of Paul. Is that amazing? That's what his point is. Wow, James 1, 27. What is the essence of religion? Pure religion. It's what visiting widows and orphans wear in their vacation homes. In their, the Greek word, philipsis. In their pressure. Brothers and sisters, you want to know what life is like as a widow or an orphan? Philipsis. Not a cakewalk. Not easy. And thus, The ministry is strengthening and encouraging people as to their faith, lest they become shaken about violently by their philipsis. If you're in Christ, we conclude that affliction, trial, hardship, and difficulty will be bedfellows. Indeed, normality is persecution. John 16 and 33, listen to the statement. Not a promise, simply a description of reality for a Christian. In the world, you have philipsis. That's normality. That's reality. 2 Timothy 3, all who desire to have God in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And a lot of this, brothers and sisters, do you understand the issue? What is promised in the gospel and what the Thessalonians received as a result of trusting God were incongruous to the mortal mind. That's the concern. The promise didn't match what happened in reality. Accordingly, the Thessalonians at this time were at the grave risk of being violently shaken to the core in their inner man. Did God lie? Where is God when suffering comes? Why the pain, God? Why the difficult go? If you have suffered in any way on this earth, you know these questions and you know them well. Either you've thought them or you've actually verbally asked them of God. I know most of you, at least who have suffered, have thought them. God, where are you? What are you doing? Why are you doing this now, God? Why? If you haven't lived long in your walk, just wait. Those will be questions that you'll be hampered by, you'll be disturbed by. It's not, what disturbs us most in Christianity, get this, is we don't understand what God's doing. We look and we go, God, we got the gospel, which is individual, which says I'm saved by grace through faith. It's a gospel of victory and glory, which means my life should be easy and nice and mild. And then you, I know you're sovereign, you ordain difficult things. Why? Why would you do that, God? And pretty soon, being shaken enough, you start saying, I think we got it wrong. I think Christianity's silly. I think Christianity is stupid. I think serving your God for 40 years of your life, only to have him give you cancer, or the loss of a loved one, or the loss of health, name it, is not a good payoff. Eat, drink, be merry, brothers and sisters, for tomorrow, it's gonna get difficult. That's the question. Brothers and sisters, that's always up for grabs. That's the question. Family of God, if you're a shepherd, if you're ministers, understand this is the issue of the universe, not just the hour. In your pastoral ministry of God's people, your spouse, your children, your parents, whoever it might be, this is the issue. What does Satan ask God? Will he worship you in ease? Lay forth your hand and let us see if they love you for who you are or for what you're giving them. Is Jesus Christ your Lord because of what he gives or is he your Lord because he's gloriously beautiful? That's the question Satan asks God, and that's the issue throughout all of time on this side of the grave. And what is Satan after? To make, to move us, to disturb us, that we would stop trusting God, relying upon his word, following God according to his word, and believing that God, just without question, is good. That's always it. Think of John the Baptist. I mean, of all the people, you think, John the Baptist, Christ's cousin. He's his cousin. He's born five months older than Christ, and he's raised, in essence, with Christ, and so he knows Christ really well, and he knows he's the Messiah. He is the Messiah. Do you know what that means, Jewish-wise? In the Jewish worldview, in Christ's day, the Messiah was someone who was going to conquer our greatest enemy. And who's our greatest enemy? Rome. That's our greatest enemy. It's not Satan. It's Rome. So John is ministering the kingdom, the forerunner of Christ, his cousin to boot. What do you think John, by way of expectation, would get in life after serving Christ? He's the son on the throne. When Jesus comes and conquers Rome, John's gonna get a couple cities. I'll bet he becomes a governor over a region. His life is gonna be fat and sassy, sit back, relax, enjoy life, because he's in with Jesus. And what happened to him? Well, in Matthew chapter 14, shockingly, he's put in prison. And there in prison, he's maligned, abused, and eventually beheaded. But before he's beheaded, he sends his disciples to Christ in Matthew, and we read this. And John was in prison, heard of the works of Christ. He sent word by his disciples and said to him, are you the expected one or shall we look for someone else? What's going on in John? John's life is this. He's in prison. This is John. And John began cracking and he began wondering, is this a joke? Jesus Christ, I am your forerunner. This cannot be God, this cannot be, Jesus cannot be the Messiah, that's it. He can't be the Messiah, because if he were, I'd be on a throne, not a dungeon. I'd be wearing purple robes, not holy clothes. I'd be eating veal and incredible meals, not getting by on broth. God, there's something wrong here. Do you see the disillusionment, brothers and sisters? That's the concern of many. That was a concern of Paul. Man, I'm sending Timothy because your faith is being completely and totally shaken. And what's up for grabs? is you're going to be disillusioned by the affliction that you've got, that you would be shaken by the afflictions. So what does Paul then say? What's point three, Paul's response to the underlying concern? What's the answer? Well, notice with me three being four. For you yourselves know, incredible, that we've been destined for this. The word destined, you've got the definition there, chemai, which in Paul's day was used of laying things down in a particular place or order, therefore is an active word indicating that things are as the mover or placer, in this case God, intends them to be. It's used, for example, in Matthew 5, it's used of the placement of a city. Go to New York. Look at the Eiffel Tower, not Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building. I know where the Eiffel Tower is. Go to New York, look at the, I would have said the World Trade Center, but of course we can't do that anymore. Go look at the Eiffel, the tall thing, Empire State Building. Imagine a guy walking up saying, can we move that five feet this way? The answer is no, because it's been destined. That's the word that would be used there. No, no, no, that's destined. That is so certain, so sure, the thing will not be moved. That's the word. It's used to refer to, in Revelation 4.2, of the throne of God in heaven. Do you think anything can move God's throne, shake it? No. It is determined. It is set. Paul says, you yourselves know that the affliction has been set in our lives. Leon Morris wrote, speaking of this word, there is a sense of immovability about it. or unchangeable divine appointment. Affliction then is no accident, but an integral part of the life of the Christian." Brothers and sisters, if you doubt that, listen to Philippians 129. You know the verse. For to you it's been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. Hear it again. To you it's been granted for Christ's sake to suffer for His sake. Do you understand? God saved you, Paul says, to suffer. God saved you to be afflicted. You go, wait a second, God, I thought you saved me to co-reign. Yes. And your co-regency in this state of strife. What is the church by definition today? We are the church militant. And in heaven where the church triumphant, right? So on this stage where the church militant, he saved us to fight. Do you understand that? At times, I really wish we wore uniforms as a church. Now, I would never do this in a billion years, but just fantasize with me. Imagine if everyone in Christ's body wore fatigues. Unique to Christianity, fatigues. Fatigues that putting them on made you feel and know at all times. I'm a soldier I've been saved to serve and fight. I mean we come to church dress like this We go to Bible studies dress. Maybe a little bit less than this Or we don't dress at all We go in there in our lounging stuff and our sweats and we go feed me baby with a foot up chips in our hand feed me man and when you've been saved to be a servant in the kingdom of God, a soldier in the kingdom of God, and therefore, by definition, this is World War II, we're going to World War II, you're on the boat, and you hear one of your comrades say, I'll tell you what, when we get there, and we're sitting in those nice ivory towers, and we're sitting in those nice cushy chairs, eating that veal and parmesan and things like that, I'm gonna ride home to my mama, what are you gonna do? You'd look at him and say, buddy, there's a beach in front of us, we're about ready to storm it. and more than likely, you're gonna get hurt. In fact, everyone in this place is gonna get hurt. Every one of us, bruised, beat up, some of us are gonna die. In fact, most of us are gonna die. You'd laugh at them, but we are that person in America, the Christian in America is that person on that thing going, can't wait to get my ivory tower with that cushy chair and all that food. I'm writing mama. I'm writing home. That's who we are in America, because we live in a fat state. Family of God, God's word is very clear. We live in turmoil. A major part of Paul's gospel presentation was, you've been saved to serve as soldiers in God's kingdom. Notice with me verse four, for indeed, when we were with you, we kept telling you this is the imperfect, which is a past tense of repeated action, and therefore we call this iterative. We kept telling you over and over and over and over. Carry on that. Every time Paul opened his mouth, and you see it, we just read about it in Acts chapter 14, going back to the churches and his first missionary journey, what did he say? We have been destined to suffer. That was his message. His message once again amongst the second missionary journey. You've been saved to suffer. We kept telling you over and over in advance that we, you, me, we're going to suffer philipsis. And so it came to pass, as you know. Now, I'm going to address this in one moment, how this can be true. But for one moment, notice with me, this is a doctrine of strength. This is an incredible doctrine, a doctrine of security. Why? Because, brothers and sisters, your God is not a man-be-man-be-God who sits in heaven and says, I want to bless you, but quite frankly, I can't. I'm thwarted by Satan, I'm thwarted by the President of the United States, I'm thwarted by ISIS, I'm thwarted by anything and everything. I'm even thwarted by you. I mean, if you want to do this, I can't stop you. This is an incredible doctrine. God sovereignly reigns on the throne and has appointed us to suffer. He's appointed the suffering. That's brutal, but it's glorious. At first blush, it's scary, but it's awesome. Do you understand there is not anything that happens in your life that a good, loving, gracious, sovereign God has not appointed. Do you understand that? Now, if you question God's goodness, that's the previous point, then this doctrine is horrible. This is awful. Why would God do that? He's an evil God. but if you a priori accept the fact that God is good, he's a good God, taste and see that the Lord is good, then you know what that does? That starts to change my definition of what I'm calling bad and good. My life, my mind gets transformed by the renewing of my mind and I look at life now and I go, I don't understand. I don't understand why God does what he does, but I accept it. I'm going to go back and use the same illustration. In homilics class, I'm doing a no-no here, but I've used it before recently. I'm going to use it again because it's so good. You're a beautician. Every one of you are a beautician. And word gets out that you're amazing. And pretty soon, you get an incredible following of clients that are wealthy and rich and powerful. And pretty soon, word gets out to some really famous movie stars who have already walked the red carpet in the Oscars. And one of these enigmatic, strange lady movie stars, male, doesn't matter, comes and says, cut my hair for the red carpet. And you go, whoa! You know, the Oscars is viewed by the world. I mean, we're talking not just U.S., but millions upon millions upon millions of people in the world are gonna see the haircut that you're gonna do. And they're gonna ask, where did you get your hair done? And they're gonna say, Gene! Right? Wow. So this enigmatic, arrogant, spoiled movie star comes and says, cut my hair, do my hair. And you go, yes, my big break. And they sit down, and you're there just nipping away, and of course, as you typically do, so tell me about that movie filming that you did, you know, making small talk, and right in the middle of it, I mean, you're halfway done shaping, cutting, hacking, you know, what you do when you give a haircut. You're hacking away, and you're halfway done, and the enigmatic movie star stands up and says, we're done. No, we're not done. No, no, we're done. I'm walking the red carpet. Have you ever done a haircut halfway men and women who cut your children's hair and go say, look in the mirror? Okay, you've done that. If you haven't done it, try, it's fun. Look in the mirror. And they look in the mirror and like anytime my kids want to be butched, my boys, I would do all kinds of strange things to them, you know, give them ears, all kinds of fun things. Look in the mirror now. Oh, cool, dad. You know, cut some more. Go look in the mirror now. That's what they look like. They're walking the red carpet looking like that, and they're going to say, they did it. Would that be fair? Would you like to be evaluated based upon a haircut half done? You say, absolutely not. That would not be fair. That would not be a fair evaluation. Brothers and sisters, do you understand what God's plan is and when that plan is going to be consummated? We think because of the gospel, God's plan is consummated today in your life in Christ on this side of the grave. And it's not. This is the land of militancy. This is the land of conflict. God's ultimate plan for you will not be fulfilled and not consummated until the new heavens and the new earth. Until that time, we're in the middle of a haircut. And yes, you look up and say, why would you lop that amount of hair off that side of the head, God? I don't understand. And the Master says, God, wait, now you're lopping the other side. And the master says, watch, just watch as I create a masterpiece. Is that not true? Listen to 2 Peter 3. The day of the Lord will come like a thief in a night. This is God's plan. In which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat. And the earth and its works will be burned up. That's what's going to happen, brothers and sisters. But according to his promises, we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. You know what we're living for? That new heavens and new earth. Not this earth. So yes, your house burned down, but you know what? That's just a precursor of what's gonna happen to the entire world someday. And yes, that's hard, and yes, that may be moving, and yes, that may make us weep, that's okay. But understand, if you understand God's end, everything on this earth will make sense. But if you do not, remember we talked about that with a prophetic tool. You have two lenses. You cannot interpret the near lens. If you wanna see reality, you gotta look through the near lens at the image on the back lens. The back lens is the new heavens and the new earth. The near lens is what's going on in your life. You cannot look at your problems. You look at your problems, you'll always fall. You'll always question God. But if you look through them at God's final end, They make perfect sense. In fact, you see things you could never see by the unaided eye. Do you not? By looking through your problems at the glory and awesome plan of Christ. That's 2 Peter 3, Revelation 21. I saw new heavens and a new earth. This is where we're going. For the first heavens and the first earth passed away, and there no longer is any sea. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, The tabernacle of God is among men, and he shall dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be among them, and he shall wipe away every tear from your eyes." Guess what? God doesn't want you weeping. But when that's going to come to pass, it's the new heavens and the new earth. There will no longer be any death. God, why did you take my loved one? Brothers and sisters, this is the age where that happens. But guess what? God's ultimate plan is that will never happen again, ever. No death, no longer mourning, no longer crying, no longer pain. The first things are gone. And he who sits on the throne says, behold, I'm making all things new. Do you see, brothers and sisters, that God's purpose and plan for you and me goes way beyond the things of this life. Accordingly, to evaluate God's purpose and plan with anything other than the final state and view is to evaluate a work that is not yet complete. Look at the incredible quote by, what is it, G.K. Beale. Too often Christians who suffer do not view their suffering within a redemptive historical context. They may rightly see their sufferings a test of their individual faith and as something through which they need to endure in order to grow in their faith. That'll be our next point. When, however, we are able to view our afflictions through a wider angle lens as part of the great trial that was prophesied to come upon God's people at the end. Our endurance takes on more significance since it identifies us with Jesus' own victorious forbearance and suffering, climaxed by his death and resurrection. We become identified with the redemptive historical storyline of scripture, and in particular with the great messianic victory over evil, which will be concluded at the second coming. What Beal's saying is this, family of God, look at the end times and you're gonna see This land is a land of clashing of kingdoms, and we're soldiers in this kingdom. And because of that, there's a clash going on, there's going to be battles. And when you suffer, no matter how insignificant it is, it might be, that's part of the battle. And Satan's saying, watch them curse God. And God's molding and shaping you to say, God, even though I love my mom, and even though I love my dad, or even though I love my brother or sister, or Lord, I love my health, I love this job, I will still call you blessed, because you are the King of kings and Lord of lords. You are my God. You're co-reigning in this incredible conflict that began with Christ and will be consummated with His second coming. In immediate time, you and I, every time we suffer, suffer difficulty in any way, we are engaging in this climactic, cosmic struggle of Christ's kingdom against Satan's. Incredible. Secondly, in light of that, you must see that every bit of providence ordained by God is for the perfecting of our faith. In the words of Job, anyone will follow a God who sends blessing and ease, but will they worship a God who, in preparing them for glory, slaps them on the cheek? 1 Peter 1, we see this taught throughout, Peter exhorted God's people, in this you greatly rejoice, the second coming. Even though now, for a little while, if necessary, you've been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fire ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your tempering, as though some strange things were happening to you. You can read the rest of the verses. We're almost out of time. Family of God, do you understand what God's doing? One, we're part of a cosmic struggle. Think of the Thessalonians, saved in Mount Olympus, the idol capital of the world, Satan's high ground. You can be sure that the moment that people became Christians there, Satan was threatened, and so he attacked. He sent the dogs and they attacked hard. So these people received vicious attacks. In fact, loved ones were dying. We'll see in chapter four. Wow. And Paul says, I told you. Man, when I shared the gospel, I said, you're part of a kingdom which is in conflict with Satan's. That's Mount Olympus, you can see it right now, see it? This is Satan's territory. And you're gonna follow Jesus here, you're going to get hurt. Some of you are gonna die. And I told you that. I told you that again and again. And you understood that. You accepted that. Secondly, do you understand, brothers and sisters, that this ultimately is for the tempering, the strengthening of your faith. That's verse two. It's all about your faith growing strong. It's all about God's kingdom, of course, God's glory. But in the process, it's about our faith growing strong in Christ, never giving up. Rutherford wrote, you will find in Christianity that God aims in all his dealings with his children to bring them to a high contempt of and deadly feud with the world. I'm gonna just skip around. He is well worth fighting for, says Rutherford, that he may have you holy for himself. That's what God's after. Therefore, when you are in the furnace, think of the Lord as the one who comes to woo you in marriage. He seeks his answer of you in affliction to see if you will say even so. John Watson, Scottish minister of the late 1800s wrote, this world is the school wherein we are trained from the world to come. It is our experience of the earthly home which fits us for the heavenly family. The occupations of this life are the servants of the soul. The suffering of this life is its discipline. The men who have made the most splendid progress in spiritual things are those who have devoted the resources of this world to the service of the soul, not the flesh. Most Christians devote their resources for the service of their flesh. Right? Think of Zachariah. We're building our paneled houses. This guy says, my observation as a pastor is that those people who use the things of this world to serve their soul, those are the ones who grow. It remains with us to choose whether we shall lay the emphasis on the temporal or the eternal. And in the last issue, this is a question of sight versus faith. He who walks by sight will choose what is seen, and he who walks by faith what is unseen, and the reward will be according to the choice. That's Paul's point in 2 Corinthians 4, I'll say it. Therefore we do not lose heart, but there our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light, Philipsis, is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. Well, we look not at the things which are seen, but the things that are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen, those are eternal. And that's what we're living for. So family of God, this is it. Close it up here. Fourthly, when people are your greatest priority or one of your greatest treasures, What now becomes your concern? You know what we should understand is the concern? If you're thinking of reality accurately, your greatest concern for your spouse, your children, your loved ones in this body, and everywhere else, is that the sin and misery of this life doesn't shake their faith so much that they defect. That's the battle. The battle isn't, I mean, we pray for jobs in this church, and we pray for health in this church, and rightly so. But behind every one of these jobless, healthless struggles is the great question, will you still kiss the Lord's hand? Will you still love a Lord who has just smitten you? Will you? That's the question. And if you understand that as a pastor, boy, that gives you the grace to get right to the point. In your fellowship, in your pastoral care, in your counseling, will you trust a God who's bigger than you to see you through? That's what you say to your soul. That's what we say to the brethren. I close with the final quote. If you knew the mind of the glorified in heaven, They think heaven came to their hand at an easy market when they have got it for three score or four score years wrestling with God. When you are come thither, when you're on the other side, you shall think all I did in respect of my rich reward, now enjoined of free grace, was too little. God, I died a martyr. I get this. I had cancer. I get this. I lost a loved one. I get this. I lived in fear. I lived with physical illness. I get this. When you get to heaven, brothers, when you get to the final state, all of us, everyone's going to look back upon this grave and say, that's it? That hadn't hurt at all. That's our concern. Let's pray. Father God, what a delight it is to be called by your name, to be given an incredible, glorious future, which is incomparable to anything on this side of the grave. Father, we therefore live as ones in the wilderness, with a promised land before us, slavery behind us, and a desert in our wake. Father God, in our place, we look at you at these times, and we say, God, be our manna, be our food. Give us the grace to not be shaken from our faith such that we would pine for a food that is not of you, but from this world. Give us grace, O Lord, that we would not seek after the things that are perishing, but we would live and long for that which endures for eternity. So Lord, give us that vision, but also give us the grace to understand as your people that that is a key to pastoral care. a key to parenting, a key in our lives. God, give us the grace to therefore be effective in our fellowship of God's people, to ever and always strive to encourage or engender the faith, and to therefore encourage and strengthen the faith of brethren who are suffering so, knowing their doubts, even before they even think them. May we pray for them and so bear them up. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.