Words of Isaiah, therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. Very short verse. What are the springs of salvation? The word of God. So I pray that you will open your ears to hear it as Greg brings us to it. Family of God, turn in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, and we'll continue our study of this great chapter. 1 Thessalonians 3 is a chapter on a transformed value. The value of God, which is people, becomes our value. I'm going to begin in verse 17 of chapter 2 as we've done. I'll read through verse 5, and we'll fellowship around verse 5 this morning. This is the word of a great and mighty king, the king of kings and lord of lords, and it's appropriate for us, therefore, out of reverence and respect for him, to stand at the reading of his word. Let's please stand together. Hear now the word of God. Therefore, I'm sorry, verse 17, but we, brethren, having been bereft of you for a short while, in person and 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? and the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming. For you are our glory and joy. Therefore, when we could 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 when 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." Thus far, the reading of God's Word. Let's pray. Father God, what a delight it is this very moment to come before you with your word open in our laps and with the ability, the capacity to fellowship with you. Lord, we would pray boldly this day, increase our capacity to fellowship. Deepen our understanding of you. Deepen our walk with you, our relationship. Use this time wherein the foolishness of preaching is utilized. Use it, oh God, to grow us in the grace of Christ. God, we pray this to your glory and praise, amen. Amen, please be seated. In Philippians chapter two, we read, Paul gave us this exhortation. He says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. That exhortation implies a couple of things. First and foremost, that we don't have the mind of Christ. Because if we did as Christians, if it was natural or innate to salvation, you wouldn't exhort us to have it. So the fact that Paul exhorts us to have the mind of Christ tells us that Christ's mind is something that is foreign to us by nature. In other words, the way Christ views this world, his values, his desires, his goals, are not our values, desires, and goals. It's not how we view this world. Secondly, we learn from this that the consequence of having the mind of Christ will radically transform us. The text goes on, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. That's the mind of Christ, giving up himself for God. And God's purpose, which means for us, that's the mind of Christ. It will have a radical transformation in our lives. Now, if you study the mind of Christ, you'll find, first and foremost, one of the things that sticks out about Christ's mind is His value. Why did Jesus Christ come to this earth? He came to save His people from their sin. Well, if we have the mind of Christ, that means that our priority in life will be Christ's priority in life, and that will be the salvation of God's people. It will be, therefore, to highly value the people of God. Well, what does that mean? What does it look like if you highly value the people of God? Well, the passage before us answers that question. You see that Paul says in 2 and 18 through 19, we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, more than once, yet Satan thwarted us. He was our hope, our joy, our crown of exultation. Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ that is coming? You are our glory and joy, therefore, chapter 3 verse 1. Chapter 3, the entirety of this chapter, 1 through 13, is Paul's explanation of the consequences of having God's people as his hope, glory, joy, and crown. So what we've got here really is, chapter 3, a description of when God's people are your greatest treasure. Now we've seen four different consequences of when God's people are your greatest treasure from this chapter, and each one of them is a description of Christian maturation. It's easy to look at passage like this and go, this is what we must do. And indeed, this is indeed a calling for us to do, to set as a priority and so forth. But more than that, this is a description that as you and I grow in our walks with Christ, this is what is going to change. This is the mind of Christ that will be transforming our thinking, our wills, our desires, etc. For example, when God's people are your treasure, we saw in verse 1 that when the mind of Christ drives us, that for which we sacrifice will be people-related. The world lean is filled with sacrifice for all kinds of things, money, power, positions, pleasure, fun. As you grow in Christ, that which will be the thing you sacrifice most for will be the people of God. Secondly, we see that when God's people are your treasure, the focus of your life and your ministry, it's going to be, therefore, a difficult life. People are going to hurt you. John 2, John 4, Christ was not entrusting himself to them, to men, because he knew what was in men. If you make people your treasure, you're going to be hurt. You're in the ministry of pain. And because of that, therefore, verse 2a, that which will characterize us, not just must, but will characterize us, if you're going to remain in there, allowing people to bite you and not shrink back with bitterness, is you must be people, we will be people who rely exclusively on the gospel. We will actively strive to co-labor with God and His kingdom purpose. We will labor to hasten the coming of Christ's kingdom in our lives and in the lives of those around us. That's verse 2a. When God's people are your treasure, the focus of your life and ministry will include both. Therefore, the engendering and the strengthening of the faith of God's people. And last time we saw when God's people are your treasure, a major concern as it relates to God's people is that the bitterness of this state of sin and misery doesn't cause them to shrink back, to be embittered against God, to question God's goodness. That's the object of our ministry. This morning we come to a fifth description of Christian maturation, a fifth description of when God's people are your treasure. Notice with me the crisis. What is it that you'll call a crisis in your life and the lives of those around you? Notice with me verse 5. 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." It's the second time Paul says this in five verses. Notice with me verse one, therefore when we can endure it no longer. Verse five, therefore when I can endure it no longer. Clearly, Paul is moved here. Paul is burdened here. In fact, you go, if you notice, if you compare the two verses, you go from the plural when we could endure it no longer. We call that the epistolatory plural. And it's proper here because this is from Timothy and Silas. He goes from the we to the I of verse 5, giving the impression that really the we of verse 1 really is the I of verse 5. In fact, you know this, that of all the epistles Paul wrote, Thessalonica is the epistle where Paul utilizes the we, the epistletory plural, more frequently than any other book. that he wrote. And when he does that, because he does that, when he transitions to the first person, I, it's poignant. It sticks out like a huge trumpet blare. When I could endure it no longer. Paul clearly, brothers and sisters, is burdened here. In fact, you see in verse 5, see the little phrase, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you? In the Greek, that's in the indicative mood. which is plain speech. The implication from this mood is that Paul had the high suspicion that the Thessalonians were compromising already. Paul's fear that the tempter might have tempted you indicates to us that Paul believed that that most likely was the case as he wrote this. Now, Paul had no intel. He did not know what the state of the Thessalonians were. We know that, right? He just suspects that after Satan thwarted him and attacked him, and then Satan turned his focus against these babes in Christ, that these babes in Christ would not last long. as the victims or the object of Satan's attack. But then would you notice the next phrase, and our labor should be in vain? Paul transitions there to the subjunctive mood, which is a mood which is less certain. The implication of this switch is very obvious. It's blaring, glaring, excuse me, it's glaring as you read this text. Paul is saying, I have the high suspicion that they're compromising, but I don't believe that it's over. I don't believe that they fully compromised yet. I just think that they're, I suspect they're in the process of apostasy. And so Paul sent Timothy north. Why? Why did Paul send Timothy north? Well, ultimately, verse five, because he feared. Look at that text, brothers and sisters, for fear. That's huge. In the kingdom of God, in Scripture, fear is a big deal, brothers and sisters. When you read this word, you gotta sit up. Paul is saying, I am operating out of fear at this moment. This is huge. In Scripture, brothers and sisters, when man stands before God, they are left to be in dread. Right? Accordingly, the natural response of moral men before God is one of dread, of fear, abject horror. Listen to some verses, Exodus 20. We read of God's people before the Lord on Mount Sinai. And all the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they trembled. In other words, they quaked in their boots and stood at a distance. This is what redeemed man does in the presence of the glory of God. John Calvin wrote of this, hence that dread and amazement with which as scripture uniformly relates, holy men were struck and overwhelmed whenever they beheld the presence of God. Men are never duly touched and impressed with the conviction of their insignificance until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God. So true. Exodus 34, when Moses was before God, excuse me, Moses asked God, God, show me yourself as you are. Remember this in Exodus 34, God says, no one can see me and live Moses, but I'll put you in a cleft in the rock. And I'll let you see the, the English says my back. The Hebrew implication is I'll let you see where I was. So God was gonna manifest a theophonic manifestation, okay, a theophany, before Moses, and then he was gonna move that theophany, and Moses was gonna, at that point, be able to open his eyes and see where the theophany was. And when Moses opened his eyes and saw where God was, not where he is, but where he was, the text says, Moses made haste to bow low to the earth and worship. Mankind in the presence of God is always undone. Daniel 8, when Daniel beheld the pre-incarnate Christ, we read, Behold, standing before me was one who looked like a man. So he came near to where I was standing. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. Ezekiel, after gazing upon God, we read, And when I saw it, I fell on my face. Mark 4, Christ coming to his disciples, opening their eyes to his deity. We read, they were terrified. They were terrified and asked each other, who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. Do you realize that when Christ came to God's people and just gave them a small glimpse of his deity, God's people were terrified. They were traumatized. And when Peter saw Christ's identity for the first time, when he beheld who Christ really is, With the incident of the fish and the nets, we read, But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. R.C. Sproul, commenting on this passage, wrote, At that moment Peter realized that he was in the presence of the Holy Incarnate. He was desperately uncomfortable. His initial response was one of worship, He fell to his knees before Christ, and instead of saying something like, Lord, I adore Thee, I magnify Thee, he said, please go away, please leave, I can't stand it. We notice that Jesus did not lecture Peter about his sins. There was no rebuke, no word of judgment. All Jesus did was to show Peter how to catch fish. But when the Holy is manifest, no words are needed to express it. Peter got a message that was impossible to miss. The transcendent standard of all righteousness and all purity blazed before his eyes. Like Isaiah before him, Peter was undone. And so it was with John in Revelation 1, when I saw the glorified Christ, I fell down at his feet as a dead man. You've got to realize, brothers and sisters, that mankind in the presence of God is always undone, and that is why in Scripture we are called to fear no one, no thing, nothing on this earth. You realize that? The universal call of scripture, we fear no one, no thing on this earth. Listen to Joshua 1.9. Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous? Do not tremble or be dismayed before man, before armies, before assassins, before kings, before the greatest thing you could ever imagine on this earth. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua, don't fear anything because the Shekinah, awesome glory of God, is with you. We're called to fear nothing on this earth. Matthew 10, 28, Christ told the disciples, do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul. Brothers and sisters, as a people, don't fear ISIS. Don't fear terrorists. Don't fear a king. Don't fear a general. Incredible. Psalm 27, David wrote, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life. Whom shall I dread? There's no one to fear and dread on this side of the grave. Isaiah 43, God told the nation, do not fear. For I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Hence, don't fear a providence, don't fear a man, don't fear a king, don't fear an event, don't fear even death. Instead, thirdly, we are called to live our lives as Christians, subject not to the whim and will of men, but in the reverence of the Lord alone. Deuteronomy 10, 12, and now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you but to fear the Lord your God? That doesn't mean to quake, that means to reverence. God says, because of who I am, And because I'm with you, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That's not quaking, that's reverence. A sense of the high and holy purpose of God because He walks with you and will never leave you. Matthew 10, 28, let's finish it. Christ says, do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul. Rather, fear Him, God, who's able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Don't fear man. Fear God, reverence God, 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1, Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Family of God, be driven by the reverence of Christ in your life, and that alone. Fear nothing, no man, no providence, no circumstance. That's the call. And so it was in Paul's life. You realize that? So it was in Paul's life. Galatians 2.6, Paul standing before or referencing the big hottie-totties of the church says, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. I don't care if the greatest, most august Christian walked in this room. What they are, what they were makes absolutely no difference to me, says Paul. Why? Because God Almighty goes with me. And so it is with you and me. Paul says in Acts 23.3, he's standing before a man who held his life in his hand. And Paul was giving his testimony, and that man said, strike him. So the guards hit Paul with a rod. Whap! And so Paul's response was, God is going to strike you, you whitewashed tomb, or you whitewashed wall. Paul didn't care who he stood before. Paul feared nothing but God. And so when you come to a passage, sorry, that was a big footnote to simply set up this. When we come to a passage where Paul says, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, either Paul's in sin here or he's moved by a weighty concern, something huge. And we conclude what? The latter. Paul here is being moved by a weighty concern. What was it that moved Paul? What was it that would cause this man who feared nothing to fear? Pretty amazing, guys. What would cause this man to fear? Notice with me verse 5a. When we could endure it no longer, same word as in verse one. It's the word stego, which means to cover, to ward off by covering, or to protect. It's a maritime word that refers to a boat that's watertight, or it's a building term that refers to a roof that's watertight, that doesn't leak. Here Paul says when we couldn't endure. The idea behind this is when I could no longer handle it. Paul is falling apart here, brothers and sisters, emotionally. Mentally, spiritually, Paul is at the end of his ropes. Why? In fact, get this, brothers and sisters, it wasn't health. Notice what it wasn't. It wasn't health, financial insecurity, lack of popularity, an evil and depraved government, tragedy, sickness, illness, disease, death. None of these things burden Paul. In fact, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, referring to all of those things and more, they're momentary light afflictions. That's what Paul called those. They're momentary, light afflictions, inconveniences. What is it that would cause Paul to fear? Notice 5C, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you. and her labor should be in vain." The idea behind tempted. So the word in the Greek means simply to test. It's a generic term. It could be translated test or tempt. When used of God, it is used of God. John 6, 6, same exact word, used of God, testing Philip. When used of God, it refers to a test to grow someone in their faith. It's a test to temper their faith, like you would with steel, right? You temper it to make it hardened and strong. When used of God, it's translated as temper or test. Because it's the design of the test is to establish the worth of something, to mold and shape its character. When God tests us, paradozo, when he tests us, it's so that we might grow in the grace of Christ. When used of Satan, it's translated tempted. Because the objective of Satan in this word is to trip up the believer. Okay, so it's translated as tempted in James 1, 13 through 15, as well as here. So when Paul thinks of that which caused Paul to fear in this life, was the idea of Satan tempting God's people. And now notice with me 5b. For this reason when I can do it, I was sent to find out about your faith. Obviously that's the issue here. Paul was so concerned about the faith of the Thessalonians. We saw it in verse 3. Right? Or is it two? We saw it already, yeah, in verse two, that Timothy was sent to strengthen and encourage them as to their faith. What is it that caused Paul to be so burdened? was the faith of the Thessalonians. Now we saw when we got in verse 2 that from the Old Testament at the fall, Genesis 3, 1 through 3, that the objective of Satan and his devices towards us is to cause us to compromise our faith. Either we will question, either we will stop relying upon God and his word, or we'll question his goodness. Do you remember that? In the New Testament, it's the same. You've got some verses there and some statements. Notice, from the New Testament, we learn Satan's first assault against mankind is to prevent people from believing. 2 Corinthians 4.4. The godless world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see. That's a faith term. Satan's objective is to stop people from beholding Christ, from believing or trusting in Christ. If he can't do that, then notice point two, if Satan cannot prevent the response of faith, his second tactic is to destroy someone's initial interest in Christ. Matthew 13, the parable of the four soils, and one on whom the seed was sown on rocky places, This is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary. When affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away." The idea is Satan is about keeping people from faith, and if there is faith, he's about removing it. Compromising it. And if he can't do that, then he's all about weakening it. 2 Corinthians 11 3, but I'm afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. Look at that, or listen to it. That your minds will be led astray. Let's read the verse again. I'm afraid, there's the word again. I'm afraid that your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and impurity of devotion to Christ." What is it that could cause a man who knew Christ the way Paul knew him, who feared no thing on this earth, who in the face of persecution, torture, or even death, could smile and say, momentary light afflictions. What is it that would move that man to act out of fear? Answer, when people's faith should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. From this, brothers and sisters, we get our definition of what a crisis is in God's kingdom. You see it here in verse five. What was it that aroused the deep soul-wrenching concern of Paul? What is it that could possibly move Paul to fear? When the child of God's walk was compromised, when their faith was at risk of falling or failing, when their affection for Christ was diverted, when their obligation to the Almighty went unfulfilled, or when their calling and service of the Lord was threatened. That's a crisis. You see it in verse 5. sent Timothy out of fear that the tempter had tempted you in your faith. That's a crisis. In Family of God, it's not just Paul, it's throughout Scripture. Ezekiel describes this horrible indictment to shepherds. Listen to it. Said a man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to these shepherds, thus says the Lord God, woe shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves, should not shepherds feed the flock? You eat the fat and clothe yourself with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. This is it. Those who are sickly, you have not strengthened. The diseased, you have not healed. The broken, you have not bound up. The scattered, you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost. But with force and with severity, you have dominated them. And so they were, get this, they were scattered for the lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. My flock, my flock, You know what a crisis is in the kingdom of God from God's perspective? wandering around, compromised in their faith, and no one there seeking them. No one there shepherding them. No one there caring for their souls. That's a crisis. That's the chief crisis. Think of Christ in Matthew 9, and seeing the multitudes, that they were distressed and downcast, Ezekiel words, like sheep without a shepherd. Hey, Christ, what's a crisis? Well, I came to this earth to save my people from their sin. Well, what's a crisis, Christ? Let's have the mind of Christ controls. Christ, in your mind, what's a crisis? Well, distressed and downcast sheep without a shepherd. And then it says, he felt compassion for them. That word is the word means to have a bellyache. You know what that means? That means Christ was sitting there with his disciples, and he looked at shepherdless sheep, and he almost threw up. That's what that means. The word means to groan in your bowels, right? There's that nerve that goes from your belly to your eye, such that what you see can make you throw up, right? You know that. That's what happened here. Christ saw something that was so amazing, so shocking, so traumatic, that it made him want to throw up. What was it? What would make Jesus Christ throw up? Sheep without a shepherd. Incredible. Hebrews chapter 10, 35. It's not an overstatement that the purpose of this epistle was to strengthen or engender faith. Listen to what it says. Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what he has promised. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. What would be a crisis in Hebrews 10? Shrinking back to destruction. What's the opposite of that? Having faith to the preservation of the soul. What is a crisis? People's compromising their faith. That's a crisis, brothers and sisters. Now, a couple weeks back in this pulpit, I sort of stole the thunder of verse 5, and I made this comment. I said, brothers and sisters, ill health and the loss of a loved one in Christ is not a crisis. It's an inconvenience. And I know that that offended some. I understand that. Let me qualify that. Let's take what we've learned today and apply it to that. How can we say, is that right? Was that hyperbole? Was that preacher speak? Or is that truth? Family of God, I was not being hyperbolic there. Sometimes I'll be hyperbolic. Maybe some more than sometimes. But in this point, it wasn't. I was being truthful. Loss of health. The death of a loved one in Christ is not a crisis. It's an inconvenience. A crisis in scripture is when faith is threatened or compromised. You gotta see that. In response, let's think about it. If something's gonna be a crisis, think with me. You would agree with me that it has to be God's definition of a crisis. If we're gonna posit a crisis, we gotta say it's God's definition. And if that's the case, therefore, it's not ours. I mean, you might be on a plane flight and be delayed. The plane gets canceled, and that may mean the loss of a business deal, that may mean missing an anniversary, missing a birthday, that may mean all kinds of horrible things. But you know what? There have been times I've been on a trip, I was hoping to be delayed. I was praying for a plane to be canceled. Actually, what I was hoping for is that they come and say, anybody want to give up their seat for another flight? I've done that many times. Any of you guys do that? And yet on that same flight, there's Bob over there going, if this flight gets canceled, my life will be ruined. Brothers and sisters, to Bob, it's a crisis. To me, it's an opportunity to get a free flight. Right? So family of God, listen, one man's pain is another man's blessing. You've got to realize that. One man's crisis is another man's victory. If we're going to define a crisis, it has to be from the perspective of God, and therefore it has to be universal. It can't be individual. It has to be universal. What is a crisis in God's kingdom? What God says a crisis is. And He's made that quite clear in Ezekiel, in Thessalonians, in Matthew 9, in Hebrews 10. That's a crisis. A crisis is not missing a plane. Now, if missing a plane results in someone compromising their faith, that's a crisis. If your job, this loss, causes you to compromise your faith, that's a crisis. If the loss of a loved one causes you to be angry at God, that's a crisis. But the loss of a loved one is not a crisis. The missing of a plane is not a crisis. Secondly, note, a crisis therefore is not determined by how something makes us feel. The eight-year-old boy who's told he can no longer sleep with his teddy bear and he has to stop sucking his thumb, that may be a brutal thing for that child. That's theoretical. Actually, that's my story. I was about third or fourth grade, and I was still sleeping with the teddy bear and sucking my thumb. Let me show you a real crisis to a child. My little daughter, I won't tell you which one, had a blankie. Boy, she loved this blankie. And she loved it so much, she loved it to death. I mean, it was just, it was falling apart. And one night, this was early on, I put her to bed, and her blankie had this long, gross, disgusting brown string, gobble of string sticking on this blankie, because that's what she was playing with. So I'm putting her to bed. I thought, well, you know, she could put that in her mouth and choke or something. I'm not going to let her sleep with that. So I said, oh, come here, hugs, kisses. And I grabbed her blanket. I wasn't trying to be mean. I was trying to help her. I took it, and I went, whoosh, and just ripped it. And her eyes, it's as if I took a knife and cut off her arm. She was like, because that was the favorite part of her blanket, evidently, was that thing that I got. No one here would call that a crisis. You know that my two-year-old daughter lost her little dangly string off her blanket. Crisis, no one would say that, but you know what? It would be so cruel for you and I to look at that child and laugh and say, you call that a crisis? No, in fact, the exact opposite. In Scripture, we're called to weep with those who weep. Christ wept. This world will bring us to tears, and rightly so. And if you and I look at someone who misses a plane, and they think that the world's ended, and you and I laugh at that, or mock at that, that tells you how shallow our faith is, and how lack of compassion we have. Right? That's horrible. But having said that, Personal pain does not constitute a crisis in this world. One man's pain, loss of a blanket, which is a loss of security, we realize that, is another man's big deal. If it's a crisis, it has to be universal. If it's universal, therefore it has to apply to all people. And the crisis we found in scripture is compromised faith. So you may indeed weep at the graveside, rightly so, but your tears are not an indicator of a crisis or the lack thereof. How many people here go to bed at night weeping for the loss, for the lack of faith on the part of a loved one? How many times have you been moved to tears because someone doesn't know Jesus Christ? Well, it's obviously not a crisis then, because you haven't wept. Absolutely not. In God's kingdom, that's a crisis. And as you and I put the mind of Christ on, as we grow in our walks, more and more and more you will find as you grow in Christ, you'll find that's a crisis. Everything else is momentary light affliction. And thus we see in scripture, brothers and sisters, the man standing by the bedside watching their loved one die, that's a crisis to them. It may be. We know ultimately it's an inconvenience. It may be a crisis to them. But listen from God's perspective. Psalm 149.4, memory verse, my memory verse. It says, for the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He will beautify the afflicted with salvation. The afflicted there could be a word that in the Hebrew can refer to suffering. Suffering could encompass cancer. He will beautify a person dying of cancer in Christ with salvation. That word would therefore mean glorification. You know what God does? He comes by the bedside where you and I are praying, oh God heal, oh God heal, oh God heal. Please don't take, please don't take. And God beautifies the afflicted with salvation. Do you think from the perspective of the loved one who's been beautified, do you think they'd call that a crisis? In fact, do you think the family members of the man crucified in the Roman days as a criminal, he was a criminal, he's on a cross, rightly being crucified, do you think the mother, dad, brothers, sisters, siblings, spouses, children, looked upon that and smiled? No, they didn't. They wept. They wept horribly. But do you think that thief, when Christ leaned over and said, today you'll be with me in paradise. I dare say that man blessed that cross. That man in glory today looks back upon that cross and says, praise God that finally God humbled me and God opened my eyes to let me see the glory of Jesus Christ. And so I trusted him by grace through faith and Christ said, today you'll be with me in paradise. Do you think that if you woke up tomorrow morning and you heard legitimately the word of Christ whisper in your ear, today you'll be with me in paradise? Who here would say crisis? You might call a party. Guys, I heard incredible news. I'm graduated today. Amazing. So family of God, what is a crisis? From the text we've seen this morning, a crisis from the perspective of the kingdom of God is nothing less than a clear and present danger when it comes to a person's faith. Disbelief is a crisis. Lack of faith is a crisis. Being bereft and so vulnerable to compromise, apostasy, and or rebellion against the Lord, that's a crisis. The rest, in the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 4, describing serious things, not things to laugh at, serious things, are momentary, light afflictions, aka inconveniences. Hurt, yes. Does life hurt? Indeed it does. Ministering to people will rip your soul to pieces. It did Paul, it will you. Indeed it will. But brothers and sisters, we are so benefited from this passage to understand what a crisis is. This helps us minister, point four. This directs us in our ministry. Get this. The more you go in Christ, and I'm almost done, the more you grow in Jesus Christ. The more you will find yourself defining a crisis less and less about you and more and more about God. See, we, because of our selfishness, define a crisis from our perspective. You know what a crisis is in a growing saint? It's a crisis from the perspective of the kingdom of God. I mean, how many times have you prayed? And you've prayed this, brothers and sisters, because I've got a book filled with prayers that you've prayed. Whether you meant it or not, I don't know. Let goods and kindreds go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill. Woo-hoo! Let it go! Give it up! It's not a big deal! Because His kingdom endures forever, and I'm part of it. Wow! You can look at the greatest king and say, take my life, but you can't take my salvation. You may take my heartbeat, but you can't take my life, because it's bound up to Jesus Christ. You can wound my body, but you can't wound my soul. You say that to Satan with respect. Wow, it helps us in our ministry. If there's any here this morning who what we've looked at has therefore deems your struggles as not a crisis, your pain is not minimized. Your pain is not minimized. If you're struggling with anything and we know about it, our call is to weep with those who weep. If we knew what was going on in your life, I hope as godly people, we would weep with you, and rightly so. This doesn't minimize your grief. But you know what, brothers and sisters, as ministers of Christ, this should help us all minister. Because you know now what the real crisis is. I don't want to see anyone lose their jobs in this church. I don't want to see anybody die of cancer in this church. I don't want to do any funerals in this church. I want the next funeral to be mine. I mean that. I would wish that. Have y'all live another 50 or so years, and then I'll die first. I don't want to do funerals. But brothers and sisters, you know what crisis is? It's not ill health. And as we minister, we need to understand this. A crisis is our children not getting what they want. That's not a crisis. They didn't get the perfect score. They didn't get the scholarship. They didn't get the award. That's not a crisis. That's an opportunity for you to prevent a crisis. Because your focus now is on their faith, their reliance upon Christ. When you minister, brothers and sisters, therefore it's not about what you know. How many people in this body don't minister because they say, I don't know. I don't know this. What am I going to tell someone who's struggling? Family, God, you don't have to know the answers. You just got to know what the objective is. And the objective is that they not compromise their faith. That's it. So your call is to pray for their faith. As you're talking to them, oh God, they're struggling in a major way. The answer isn't go talk to Dave, go talk to Ken. The answer is come alongside and know they're struggling. And before you open your mouth, you pray, God, they're struggling. Give them the grace not to doubt you, not to distrust you, not to question your goodness. And then secondly, Secondly, ministry of presence. In the midst of the trial, you don't need to open your mouth other than put your arm around someone struggling and weep with them who weep. It's called a ministry of presence. You don't need to give the word. You just need to sit and weep with those who weep. Thirdly, time. Factor in time. You want to be a good pastor? Understand timing. The hospital room is not the place to give a discourse on what a crisis is. You know, technically speaking, the fact that your child is there on life support is not a crisis. That is not the place or time. The place and time for that is weeping with those who weep, and mourning with those who mourn, and yourself crying because of the situation, indeed. But cultivating relationships such that in months, maybe years, you have the opportunity to talk to them about God's kingdom. And then fourthly, when the time comes to talk about God's kingdom, your objective is to encourage them to trust Christ. Trust Christ. He's good. If he's good, why did God take my child? I don't know. I don't know why God took your child. Now, if your child's in Christ, Psalm 149.4 is a great verse to begin with. He beautified your child with salvation. Are you crazy? Yes, I understand that that hurts, and that hurts me too, and life is filled with pain, but understand, God's objective, His telos, is so much bigger than you and me. Your will for that person, I love this one, this preacher died, and at the future, at the, what do you call it, funeral, another preacher came up and said to the congregation, no doubt you were praying that God would preserve the life of your shepherd, of one of your shepherds. But the Holy Spirit, Romans 8, was praying that God would take the life of that servant so that he would go home and be beautified by salvation. God heard the Spirit's prayer. Remember that? A great quote. So brothers and sisters, understand ministry. This helps direct us in our ministry. What's a crisis? It helps us also not get sidetracked. A crisis, brothers and sisters, is when a child of God or a non-believer is prevented from believing or doesn't hear, or it's when a child of God trusts God and begins compromising in their faith. That's something to be burdened by. That's something to drop everything and get on. And that's something to have in your mind as you minister in the kingdom of God. This is what we're after. We're going to pick it up next time in verse six and following, when people are your treasure. Let's pray. Father God, what a delight it is to bow before you this day and look at a passage like this. And Lord, make much about small, I suppose. But what an important message for us all to see. Father, from your perspective, what is a crisis? What is an inconvenience? God, we pray that you would therefore transform us as the days go by, that the mind of Christ our Savior would govern our thinking, that it would change what we think, our values, our desires, that Lord, as we age in Christ, as we mature in Christ, we would therefore be better equipped and therefore purposed in our fellowship. to be focused not on necessarily teaching systematics, but encouraging faith, which we know is bolstered by systematics. That we would be a people who are about, that we'd be physicians of the soul about encouraging and building up brothers and sisters in the reliance, undying reliance upon God, your word, your salvation, your cross work, Lord. God, we pray, so mature us And so equip us to live in a state of sin and misery, that we might be effective ministers and faithful servants in your kingdom. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.