So if you look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and other passages in 1 Thessalonians, it's all based on the teaching of Jesus, which we're going to hit this Sunday morning in Matthew 24 and 25. Everything that the apostles are teaching come right from there in Mark 13, parallel passages. But what he talks about is that there is kind of what Pastor Michael talked about on Sunday night. There's a paradox where in suffering we have joy. And I want you to look at verse five specifically. And he says this, and we're gonna find out what this is in verses three and four, but, this is the evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering. So, the evidence that you are worthy of the kingdom, that you're actually converted, right? Because we're not talking about earning the kingdom. Nobody can earn the kingdom. It's a gift, right? So, the evidence that you're worthy of the kingdom, i.e., that you are born again, you're converted, is found in verses three and four. Your faith is growing abundantly. Your love is increasing for one another. And all the while you're suffering. So this is the evidence that you're worthy of the kingdom and that God's judgment is coming and gonna flip the tables. That's the idea. And so the evidence is that you're worthy, that you're truly converted, is that while you suffer, instead of getting bitter, you grow in love and faith. That's the bottom line. the evidence of God's coming judgment against this world is that the wicked are coming down on God's people. And, you know, in this country it's so It's so ironic because we're so concerned about the politics and we're so concerned about our way of life. But do you know that what we have in America is a rarity? And the norm for Christianity around the world is persecution and suffering. Did you know that probably two or three pastors in Ethiopia died this week? And every month there are many who are dying around the world. And so the norm is that we're going to be suffering. And this is just going to keep going in this country and all around the world. It's not going to get better. It wasn't good in Paul's day. Now, God can bring revival, can't he? He can bring an awakening. But apart from that, things are not going to get better. They're going to get worse. And the evidence of the faithful, that you're truly converted, is that while there's suffering, You're growing, you're abounding in love, you're abounding in faith. You're finding that the pressure is making your roots grow deeper and deeper and deeper. Have you had that experience? That's the experience of the Christian life. And I want you to notice what he's talking about. In this whole passage, he names faith, and love, and then he talks about the second coming, which is hope, right? Faith, love, and hope. That's Paul's triad, right? In 1 Corinthians 13, that these three remain when everything else is shaken, these three things remain. Love, faith, and hope. The greatest of these things is love. But those three things, what are they? Let's define them. What is faith? What is faith? Jerry, you have the microphone. What is faith? Or your wife does, same thing. What is faith, Jerry? When he says your faith is increasing. I mean, do I believe more that Jesus died for my sins? No, but what is faith if it increases? I think your belief deepens. It gets larger in terms of your understanding of God and His sovereignty. As we mature, you should see larger. So, you know, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I think you see more into the unseen as you grow and mature. You realize, wow, God, I don't really control anything. So that that faith, knowing that God loves you more is, you know, sovereignly controlling your life, protecting it regardless of what's going on around you. I think that's the kind of thing that grows. Yeah, so faith could be defined as the revelation of God and seeing things the way God sees them, right? And we're always going to be growing in that, even when we're in eternity. Do you realize that? One of my most beautiful verses that I love in the Bible is Psalm 1611. In your presence is what? Fullness of joy. And at thy right hand there are what? Pleasures. Forevermore, that means every single day that we're with God, from now until eternity, we're going to be learning new things about Him that bring us pleasure. That's growth in faith. It's growth in knowing who God is. And He's infinite, right? So we'll never stop learning about Him. There's so many details. You know, you've seen the Statue of Liberty from a distance. But have you ever gotten up close? There's so many little details. And that's just a statue. We're talking about the infinite God. Wow. This whole passage is divided into two, really. It really is about the righteous, or those who are following Christ on earth, and those who are lost and who are persecuting the followers of Christ. So you have the faithful and the lost. How should we think about what we're going through on a day-to-day basis? This is what Paul is laying out. Paul, by the way, planted this church at Thessalonica in about four weeks. And these people were pagans, right? Their belief excluded Christianity. Pagans, you know, they believed in many gods. So if you believe in many gods and many ways to heaven, That excludes, that denies Christianity, right? So remember in 1 Thessalonians he says, you used to serve idols and now you serve the living God. You put away idols to serve the living God. And so now you have a people who are not polytheistic, they're monotheistic and they're Christian theists. They believe in Christ. They're radically changed, and all of this happened in like four weeks according to Acts chapter 17, I believe it was. And what Paul is trying to tell them, what he is telling them, is that things are going to change in a moment. The suffering, the persecution, the difficulties are all going to change in a moment. He says in verse six, that indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you. Well, that doesn't pass the muster in our society if you say that about God, right? People in this society do not believe that about God. They have a much more airbrushed view of God, but this is what the Bible says. Indeed, God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us. First of all, we're promised affliction in this life. We're promised affliction. And there is a very real rise of anti-Christian sentiment in our culture today. Have you noticed that? And one of the things, one of the attitudes among Christians that really concerns me is this idea that America is this shelter for Christians, right? And that the goal for America is to change the politics and things will be better. And what exactly is that philosophy? What is that worldview? Well, it's salvation through government, right? And that's never been the way of the Bible. Well, except the one who has the government upon his shoulders, right? And so while we have a responsibility to get involved in our community and to vote and to serve and to do all those things, to be a police officer, a firefighter, to be on the front lines of the military, because that's God's way of, you know, Like Romans 13, it says the sword that they hold is really God's sword. He's bringing righteousness and hopefully in righteous wars. But at any rate, when Christ comes, all of the confusion, all of these things are going to be turned around. And those who are afflicting Christians, and again, we see it very, very mildly in this country. but throughout the world. I mean, Bill Rupp is in Morocco, right? What's happening in Morocco? Are Christians dying in Morocco on a regular basis? Are Christians dying in Russia on a regular basis? They are. China, it's all sanitized, but yes, they are. Yeah, people are dying every day. In fact, in the last 100 years, more Christians have died for Christ than in the previous 1900 centuries combined. More Christians have died in the last hundred years. And you know where the persecution is the fiercest right now? Africa. Northern Africa. Ethiopia. Sudan. People are dying. And now we have the Middle East. Christians in Syria are being put to death regularly, right? So this is the norm. in this world. Let's go ahead and turn to John 15. John 15, the end of John 15, the beginning of John 16. Book of John 15. I want you to start reading in verse 18 through 25. Who would volunteer? Okay. All right, David, and then Chris. Maybe, David, you could read 18 through 21, and then Chris, 22 through 25. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, But I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. Okay, Chris. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my father. But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. They hated me without a cause." Okay, and then someone else, verses 25 through the end of the chapter. Gavin, could you read that? But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. And I keep reading until verse 3. I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues, and indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father. nor me." Right. So here we see everything that Paul is saying in 2 Thessalonians 1 is right here. It's all right here, right? It says you're going to suffer. You're going to be rejected. They were losing their families. This is the norm for Christianity around the world and has been for all the centuries. We live in a very unusual place and time as American Christians, but this is not the norm. Don't think that American Christianity is the norm. This, what Jesus describes, is the norm, and this is what they were suffering. And even today there are people that you know and that I know who might be Jewish or Muslim and they convert and their family has a funeral for them. I'm sure you know some people like that, Hindu, who it has a major impact on how their family treats them. And so what Paul is saying is expect this, expect hardship, expect difficulty, expect the world to despise you. And then expect to grow through this, expect to have more love for one another, and expect to have deeper roots of faith, stronger endurance, because he who perseveres to the end shall be what? Isn't that what Jesus says? Over and over, and it's all over the New Testament. It's not that you've got to keep it together so that you can be saved. No, that's works salvation. That's not what he's saying. He's saying one of the marks of a true believer is that God holds him up. God preserves us. until the very end. Isn't that a gift from God? That's an amazing thing. And we're going to see more of that on Sunday. Jesus goes into great detail in the Olivet Discourse. His last private message to his disciples, at least in the book of Matthew. But notice in verses 6 and 7, back in 2 Thessalonians 1, when Jesus comes, everything is flipped around. Everything is flipped around. And I want you to see in Acts 5 and verse 41, you don't have to turn there, but just remember what was happening there. Peter and John were in prison, right? And why were they in prison? Why did the Jews put them in jail? They had a healing, silver and gold, have I none, you know, rise. And, you know, so in the name of Jesus, I'm going to give you what I have. And, you know, the Pharisees get wind of it. And they say, you will no longer preach in the name of Jesus. And, you know, notice what happens in Acts 5.41 when they're released. And they say, you know, we must obey God rather than men. And then they said, they said, Judea's going to hell in a handbasket. We need to organize. Is that what they said? That's not what they said. They said, oh Jesus, thank you. Thank you that we were worthy to suffer for your name. That's what they said. Thank you that we are worthy to suffer. Not, hey, hey, hey, I'm a Christian, I have rights. You see how antithetical that is to the gospel? We're going to march. We're going to demonstrate. Now, I'm all for capitalism. I'm all for freedom. I'm all for marching and demonstrating for certain causes. But as far as Christianity goes, That's a Holy Spirit divinely gifted conversion and newness of heart. And we need to be thankful that we get to suffer for the name of Jesus. That ought to be our attitude. And God is going to, God is going to bring relief from any enemies. All of his enemies will be put under his feet. Look over at Habakkuk. Habakkuk 1 verses 2 and 3. Have you ever looked around you and just said, Oh Lord, how much longer? Maybe you were going through a trial. Maybe you see the pain and the afflictions and the sufferings that is often associated with following Jesus Christ. And you said, Lord, how long? Will somebody read Habakkuk 1 verses 2 and 3? Habakkuk 1, 2, and 3. Who can read? Lori, want to read? Oh, okay. Habakkuk 1, 2, and 3. And then someone else find Psalm 13 verses 1 through 4. Psalm 13, 1 through 4. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear? Or cry to you violence and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me. Strife and contention arise. So we see this, we see this earth, we see the world against the church, we see all kinds of things like this, and we say, Lord, how long? And David had some similar sentiments. Do you want to come? Psalm 13, one through four? Yeah. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say I have prevailed over him, lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. You see, one day the sheep and the goats will be divided and it will be in a moment. And all the wrongs and all the evils and all the injustices in that moment will be settled. It's quite interesting. I'm not going to get into it now, but I can't wait for Sunday. but there will be a sign of the Son of Man, a banner of some kind, an ensign, a sound, a trumpet. There will be something where there's a pause before the coming of Christ. I'm not even sure what that is, and I'll get into it a little bit more on Sunday, but the whole earth's gonna mourn. It's what the Bible says, all the nations of the earth will mourn, and they'll see. This is wrong. The rebellion that this whole world has held against God is so wrong and they'll see it and they'll mourn. but it'll be too late. And in a moment, as it says here in 2 Thessalonians chapter one in verse six, God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to those who are afflicted as well as to us. In a moment, the tables are gonna be turned. Everything's gonna be flipped. In just a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, as it says, there was a story of an encounter between two farmers. One was a believer, the other was an atheist. And at harvest time, the atheist fields were just burgeoning with crops. And the Christian, the humble Christian's field had barely yielded anything. And the atheist was kind of taunting this Christian for being so foolish because, you know, he said, it doesn't pay to serve God. And the Christian replied, it does pay to serve him, but you must remember that God does not always settle his accounts in October. You see, things look dark and difficult in many ways in different times in your Christian life, don't they? But God's not settling accounts today. He might before the end of the day. And when he does, because our account is in Christ, our harvest will be incalculable. Isn't that encouraging? We must remember this. This is the power of perseverance in the saints. We persevere. Why? Because our faith, our understanding of who God is, is growing. And it's not a shortcut. You can't shortcut it, brothers and sisters. How do you grow your faith? Come on, you saints of God. You've been saved for how long? How do you grow your faith? How do you grow your faith? Aretha, Can you, we're recording, so can you hand the, yeah, how do you grow your faith? By practicing the word of God in your life. As he brings the, you know, certain scriptures to you, then you must implement them into your heart and then they should come out in your life, the way you live. So, hold on, we're gonna have a little interview. So, if you're practicing God's word, what do you have to do before you practice it? Well, you have to read it. You got to read it. You have to know it. Some Christians don't know that. They want to practice God's Word without reading it, you know? And does it matter how you read God's Word, Ms. Aretha? What do you mean by how you read it? Well, I mean, what if the goal was just to read it, and I'm not even paying attention to the words? Oh, no. You have to meditate on it. It has to make a difference in your life. He has to speak to you through His Word. And do our eyes sometimes glaze over when we're reading the Word? And our hearts are dry? That can happen, but you can pray. Yeah. So there has to be a strategy for approaching God's Word. But, you know, because we're saved, because we're converted, because we're worthy of the kingdom now in Christ, our love and our faith are increasing. But it's not just like osmosis. You're not just gonna put the Bible on your head and all of a sudden wake up glorifying Jesus. You have to open up the words. Jerry, yeah, did you have something? Yeah, how does our faith grow? It says you're abounding in faith even while you're suffering. Some people get bitter, but true believers, their faith grows. I think you said it earlier, is allowing God to reveal himself through the Word. I find probably my best times with the Word are when I'm in crisis. It's not like I ask for continual crisis, but I reflect back on those times and so I try to maintain that sort of crisis mentality that I'm desperate for you every time I open the scripture and then keeping the thought that I am sitting with the author every time I open it. So that, you know, when I look at a scripture and I don't understand, I say, Holy Spirit, show me what this means, you know, and then, you know, other scriptures will come to my mind and I begin to connect the dots and But it's God revealing Himself through the Word and then us absorbing sort of that revelation and realizing who God is, how big He is, how magnificent and wonderful and that He abounds in loving kindness towards me. So let me ask you, when you're reading God's Word and He speaks to you, are you aware of it? That's kind of a rhetorical question. It's the God of the universe. I mean, he's speaking to us, but sometimes we're not listening because we're lazy and we don't want to meditate on the word. We don't want to chew it up. We just want to swallow it whole. And we end up choking on it, right? So, often when I talk to people and they say, you know what, my faith, it's just not growing. My devotions, I'm reading, I'm reading, but I'm not getting anything out of it. And I say, stop. Stop. If you're reading in Genesis, And God's Spirit is hovering over the deep and it's chaotic in the earth. And you just pass that by and you just keep going and you get all the way to the Tower of Babel and you're like yawning and falling asleep and drooling on your Bible. That's not a good way to have devotions, right? But stop and meditate and try to make connections. Are there connections in the New Testament about creation and the Holy Spirit hovering over the earth? Didn't God say, let there be light, and so Christ has shined in our hearts? Doesn't he say that in Corinthians? And you have to make these connections. I sometimes use the Matthew-Henry commentary. It's an old commentary. dry and I'm tired and I'm exhausted and I can't do more than that. I can at least, and you can get it for free if you have an iPhone or an Android, some kind of a smartphone, you can get it for free, the Matthew Henry commentary, and at least take that and use it as a companion. But, you know, if you meditate on it, you say, oh wow, just like the Lord sent His Spirit to hover over the earth and bring order out of chaos, So the Lord did that for us. He hovers over our hearts, and He converts us, and He brings order out of chaos. And you gotta do that on every page, in every word. And some are easier than others to do that. I mean, I remember when I was in college, I took this very seriously, and I went through the Minor Prophets. And I had Matthew Henry as my companion. And I learned so much about Jesus in the Minor Prophets. Wow. But you gotta slow down, you know? And so, the amazing thing about suffering in the Christian life is that for true believers, for those who are worthy of the kingdom, in other words, those who are converted, made worthy by Jesus Christ, suffering grows our faith and grows our love. So that's the other thing in verses two and three, actually through six, is how does our love increase when we go through suffering? How does our love, we talked about faith, because we're getting alone with God, right? But now, how does our love increase for one another, it says? And by the way, there is a triad in the book of 1 John of proofs of a person's true conversion. One of them is that you have to believe that Jesus is the Christ, right? So that's truth, right? You have to have truth. You have to believe the right thing about Christ and God. And then the second part of the triad is practice. Doesn't he say over and over again that the one who practices unrighteousness is what? Somebody's getting rung. Okay. If everybody stares at him, no. The one who practices unrighteousness is unrighteous. The one who practices righteousness is unrighteous. Righteous. Now, it's not saying that we're, you know, there's people who don't sin and they're righteous. That's not what it's saying. It's saying that those who are converted have a converted life. They generally practice what is righteous because they have the Spirit of God in them. And those who are not converted have a life that is lawless. They do whatever they want because they don't have the Spirit of God in them. They're their own law, right? And so When you look at this, you see a third part of the triad in 1 John. We said truth, we said practice. The third one, what do you think it is? We just named it in 1 Thessalonians. Love, right? If you don't love your brother, you're a what? Murderer. That's what 1 John says. And the one who doesn't love his brother who he can see, how can he, what? How can he love God who he can't see? So if you can think of the marks of conversion in those terms, I do believe who Jesus is, I know he's God, he's equal with God, power and glory, and he's in me and I'm practicing righteousness because of that, I'm converted, and I love my brother. So back in 2 Thessalonians, he says your love is increasing, even while you're suffering, how does that happen? And how is it connected to our faith? We get alone with God, our faith increases, and then suddenly our love increases during suffering. So who would like to say something about that? Joaquin, do you have some idea? How does our love increase? Brother Mike, Chris, Cindy, David. Okay, Jerry. Jerry has something here. And then David. How does our love increase? towards one another. My theory is, I have a theory, that God doesn't treat us as American Christians any different than he treats any other Christians in the world. So while somebody in Algeria may be suffering this physical suffering for their faith, I think God allows the same kinds of things to come to us as American Christians while we have this apparent freedom. that are just as difficult that we have to face. I don't think we're held in any different regard because we live in America. And in those difficulties, as believers, what it should drive us to is in greater dependence upon God. And when you are in that and you trust God to walk you through that, your love grows more and more. I can remember a time I was sitting in a motel and I had just gone through a very traumatic experience and I came to the place that I thought I could utter what Jesus did on the cross. Why did you forsake me? And at that moment, it came to me, no, God really didn't. In fact, God walked me into this situation. And that was a watershed moment for me. And from that point on, hitting that low point, I began to realize, no, God, you allowed this to happen for a reason. you know, my desire for the Word, all those kinds of things just gripped me. And my love for God increased more and more towards Him. And my relationship became far more of a friendship than it ever has been. So that's how, at least for me, how my love grows. And then how about, how does that affect others in the body of Christ? Because he's specifically talking here about how their love in suffering is abounding towards each other as well as to God, you know. Yeah, I think, you know, part of it is when, you know, I suffer then I realize that other people are going through similar kinds of things. They look different, you know, that kind of thing. But it's almost like there's an attraction through that difficulty, realizing that we're both walking through maybe apparently different things, you know, but that God's affecting ultimately the sanctification He desires, and that we can walk together. We tend to, you know, I was actually, I was telling you about a situation we had some years ago here. those that were really, you know, we clung together like a little flock in the midst of this gigantic storm that swirled about us. And we prayed more, and we read our word more, and we looked for brothers of like mind to help us through that stuff. And it's like being, you know, like a platoon in a battle. You go through that together, and you always have that large affinity for each other and it grows apparently in those difficult moments. Yes, yes. I want to make an application here, but first I want to hear David. I think we grow in love through practice and repetition in the same way that we grow in anything else, be it physical, mental, or spiritual. Practice, repetition. Practice, repetition. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, and so that's why one of the things that we do constantly is we meet together, right? There's always opportunities to meet together. practice. Jesus, I mean, God put it in the Ten Commandments, you know, to keep the Sabbath day holy, you know, and so that repetition. But here's something of an application and a challenge to each of us. If you really want your love to increase when you're going through suffering, then you need to let people know in a discreet way that you're suffering. And sometimes we're a little bit too concerned about what people think about us rather than allowing others to bless us. And so, it's not that you wear it on your sleeve. I mean, that's not healthy, right? But you have those people, or if you don't have them, you should have them. Yeah, David and then Chris, yeah. I think one of the greatest practices there is, is love thy neighbor as thyself. Try it. It's really hard. Say it again. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Try it. It's really hard to do. Yeah, yeah. Chris. I got more of a question than a statement. Kind of like what happened to me the other day where I was so stuck in my own brokenness that the Word of God, I couldn't even process it. So instead of trying to process the Word of God, I went with gospel music and then I reached out to my brothers, which, you know, I love you guys more for helping me when I really needed you. Yeah. Yeah. And there are those days that, and each situation is different. Chris has a different situation than Barry and Barry has a different situation than Jerry and Kathy, et cetera, et cetera. They're all uniquely tailored to us trials, right? And if we don't reach out, we lose a blessing of the Holy Spirit, right? We have to reach out to each other. When you're hurting, you've got to reach out. You've got to be honest. I remember a brother, he texted me and he said, I'm sorry I offended you. And I wanted to say I wasn't offended, right? That's what I wanted to say. But I would have been lying. You know, I wanted to just say, cover it with love, and that's what I normally do, but I had thin skin that day. You know, I don't know what it was. It was embarrassing to me that I couldn't cover it with love, and that in order to go forward with this brother, I had to say, I forgive you. That was hard. I didn't want to say that, I didn't want to say, call attention to whatever carelessness or whatever it was, you know, but I said, I forgive you. And that was hard for me, but we gotta be real, right? We gotta be honest. We gotta love each other and that love, it's gonna grow if you share your suffering and your trials with the body. That's the whole point, that's how it abounds. See, now with that brother, I mean, you think we're farther apart or closer because of that? We're closer. We are closer. And I had to sit with him and with tears in my eyes, tell him how embarrassed I was that, you know, he did offend me. I said, with anyone else in the world, probably I could cover that with love, but with you, I really trust you. And that hurt me, you know? And that meant a lot to him. I was honest, you know? And so we need to let love abound among us. We can't be ships passing in the night. We've got to know each other. We've got to pray with each other. And it's not a nine-to-five Christianity. It's a 24-7. We don't have a lot of time, but I want you to see I want you to see that when Jesus comes, he's going to bring relief. Look at verses 7 and 8 of 2 Thessalonians 1, 7 and 8. He says he's going to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us. When is he going to do that? When is he going to do that? When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. There's going to be a sign of the Son of Man in heaven predicted in Daniel 7. And there's going to be this glorious appearing of Christ. And the sufferings that we're going through are going to seem so small, they're going to be so enveloped by the glorious appearing of our Lord. And in that moment, oh, the relief. You're not going to have relief, real solid relief, until that comes. You're going to be a little bit of relief and then another, another Mack truck on your chest. And then a little bit of relief, right Jerry? And then God's going to walk into another valley of the shadow of death and you're going to cling to each other like it's your last minutes on earth. praising or praying to God and growing. This is the Christian life. So we must not be surprised when it becomes this way. And it says further, that he'll give us rest and he's specifically talking about people who are suffering by those who are doing wrong to them because of their faith in Christ. Now sometimes we want to seek vengeance, don't we? On this earth. We want to seek vengeance. But we're never called to seek vengeance, are we? We're never called to get even. Why? Thank you. Vengeance is mine. In fact, if you would go ahead and read Romans 12, 17 through 21, Kathy, but in the ESV, you got to read it in the ESV. If you don't mind. Here you go. Romans 12, 17. Romans 12, 17 through 21. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Yeah, David. The rest of that really belongs into the next two verses in Chapter 13. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. Now, why would he say that right after he said this? Why would he say that? Because what was the government doing to Christians at this time? Yeah, because the government at that time was taking Christians and crucifying them and putting them up, whether it was Jewish or whether it was Roman, they were either putting them in prison among the Jews or crucifying them among the Romans or putting them in the, what do they call that? Where the lions are. The Colosseum. And Nero even hung them up on sticks and lit them on fire. He took their children and put them in a bag and tied the bag with vipers inside, okay? This was cruelty. And obviously, he wasn't saying, you know, go ahead and go headlong into that. But he was saying, just because the government is hell-bent, you must still obey the laws and leave vengeance to me because there would be this real sense of bitterness. Turn over to Matthew 24, and we're gonna get into this on Sunday, but I want you to see this. Jesus says this. All of these teachings are right out of Jesus' teaching here. But I want you to see this in Matthew 24. He says, okay. Yeah, okay, verse 12, verse 12. Actually, let's go. It says then in verse nine, they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death and you will be hated by all nations for my sake. And then will many fall away. Many will fall away from the faith. They will apostatize and betray one another and hate one another and many false prophets will arise and leave many astray. And because of lawlessness will be increased and therefore many Christians are dying and all kinds of things happening and the world's infecting the church. The love of what? Of many will what? Grow cold. God, I can't take it anymore. I can't take it anymore. Look at what they've done to my family. Look what they've done to this person and that person. And you know what? Maybe I should just enjoy the world. And that's gonna happen to many. In fact, some translate this most. most of the people's love in the churches, and this is the inter, this is the age of the church, the age of grace, if you want to say it that way. This is what he's describing in this age, that many times the love of most, or at least many, will grow cold because of bitterness, because of worldliness, because of many other things. And what I want to say is, vengeance is the Lord's, and so we're to do good. That's an evidence of the gospel in you is to do good to those who wrong you. Okay. But now, I want you to see in verse nine, when Jesus comes, verse nine of 2 Thessalonians 1, When Jesus comes on that day, what's he coming for? He's coming to be what? Glorified in his saints. And to be marveled at among all who have believed. Saints of God, we have followed Christ, but we haven't seen him yet. We haven't seen his face. I don't know what he looks like. There's lots of paintings. People paint him differently, right? Used to be we all had a picture of Jesus somewhere in our house. That's not what Jesus looks like. Whatever it is, we don't know what he looked like. But there's coming a day. when he will be glorified in his saints, and he will be marveled at among all those who believe. And you're gonna be there on that day. You've put your faith in Christ, and you're gonna marvel. What a glorious day. And it says he's gonna be glorified. That's an interesting word. He's gonna be glorified in his saints. As I was reading this, John Stott said, it's kind of like the electrical current to the light bulb. The light bulb is powerless and dark until the electrical current fills it, and then it's glorified. It's glorifying the electricity, really. Yeah, Chris. Yeah, do we have a microphone? Yeah, there we go. Yeah, go ahead. I was just curious how far... I get the point where we're supposed to obey the government and not break laws, etc., etc., but when Christianity becomes outlawed... Yeah. That's the point where we stop following the law, basically, at the point of abandoning our faith. No, we keep following the law. That doesn't mean that you turn yourself in and say, I'm a Christian, arrest me, put me to death. You know, because some people would do that in the first century. You know, they would do that. And Polycarp has a whole treatise on this, and he says, don't do that. Even though in the end, Polycarp, he met that death. He met a death. And they would take him from place to place because, I mean, they didn't have Spirit Airlines back then. And so he had to get on a ship and Polycarp would go from port to port and Christians in each one of those cities would find out ahead of time that he was coming and he would preach to them from his chains. But he eventually arrived in Rome and was put to death. But this is the exact reason why he says follow the law right after he says vengeance is mine. is because we have to trust God. And we don't, we can't become lawless because people are lawless towards us. There is a moral law, even if our country doesn't agree with it. We still keep the law of God. And as much as we can, we keep the law of the land, unless it goes against a higher authority, which is the Lord. And so if the Bible commands, or if the, I'm sorry, if the society says no preaching in the name of Jesus, are we gonna stop preaching in the name of Jesus? Certainly not. If suddenly the society says, you know what, in order to keep your tax-exempt status, you need to be open to marry anyone and disregard God's order of creation and marriage. So what are we going to do, saints? Yeah, we're gonna trust God to pay our taxes, because we will not have a tax-exempt status. We don't care about our tax-exempt status. It's just a privilege of freedom, but we're not so naive to think that we need such a thing. We're glad to have it. One last thing here. It says here in verse... Number eight, it says, it speaks of God's judgment. So we're moving from the faithful to the lost. And I want you to see verses eight and nine, that he's coming, he's gonna be glorified in his saints, and in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory. of his might. So he's talking about inflicting. There's affliction and that has the idea of tribulation or pressure. Vengeance has the idea of full and complete punishment. And destruction implies the ruination and loss of all things that give worth to existence. Now, in the word vengeance, it's interesting because the root of it is justice, okay? It's justice. It's not cruelty. God doesn't go farther than what is deserved. So God is really, in his vengeance, is only working out of his goodness and his just nature. So we must understand that when we read this word vengeance, it's not talking about human vengeance that goes crazy and in a vigilante kind of way, gives more than what is deserved. God is just. But this is also very, very fearful. In flaming fire, he's coming. In the book of Revelation, and we'll look at this on Sunday, not this Sunday, but the next, people are gonna be hiding under rocks and asking for the rocks to fall on them. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. God is a consuming fire, isn't he? But it's final as well. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, verse nine, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. We know this in a very childish way. When we were children, you know, or even some adults, would watch a game and You know, it's, you know, the other team is winning, but you know, you see the guy, whether maybe it's football, he's running and all of a sudden he catches the football and everybody's cheering him on and the clock is running down and he trips and he falls right before the goal line and the clock ends. Game over. You lost. That's it. There's no do-over. That's a simple, childish illustration, but if you apply it to the cosmic reality that we are looking at, when Jesus comes, it is game over. It is game over. There are no exits in hell. Hell is a place that, as it says right here, is away from the presence of God. You may say, oh, the wretchedness of being in that flaming fire. The greatest wretchedness is not the fire or the torment. The greatest wretchedness is to be put away from the glorious presence of our loving and amazing God. You see, that's the horror of hell, is to be separated eternally from God. So, as we close and go to prayer, I'd like someone to read Revelation 1, 6 through 8, and then Revelation 22, 20 and 21. So, who will read Revelation 1, 6 through 8? Brother Barry, you haven't read yet. Would you read Revelation 1, 6 through 8? And then, Marcel, would you close us with Revelation 22, verses 20 and 21? So Revelation 1, 6 through 8. It made us a kingdom, priest to his God and father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him, even so, amen. And verse 8? Oh, verse 8 too? 8. OK. Yeah. I am the alpha and the omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. This is? Revelation 22 and verses 20 and 21. He who testifies to these things, surely I am coming soon. Amen. Come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. And amen. Amen. Any thoughts on what we just read and talked about? Anything else? Let's go ahead and then go to prayer. And we need to, yes, Miss Arita. Yeah. When people go to hell, that's the worst part of that is separation from God and that's even worse than on earth because even those who don't know him on earth still have his grace. That's right. Because the sun still shines on all of us. That's exactly it. Yeah, that's exactly it. That won't be there. And their conscience will be seared. They'll be animals almost. It will be beastly. It won't be good. Yeah, David. The shame of it all is the people out there in the world think they're going to have one big party and a good time in hell. Boy, are they in for a rude awakening. They will wail. They will know it. They'll know it's all true when He comes. All that you suffer in any way is as little as we suffer in this country, but all of it will be vindicated in that moment, and the whole earth is gonna wail because they were wrong. They were wrong. Anyone else? Okay. Let's continue to pray for Mike Moffitt, he's not doing well. He's probably going to be going into the city for some serious help and right now he's kind of swollen and in pain and he's taking antibiotics but the C. diff is just raging in his body. He's got some serious pain medicine that he's taking, very, very, very heavy. So we need to really pray because he's not doing well. And if you can visit him, he loves Visitors he's at home right now, but he could be in the hospital Tomorrow, you know, I don't know so Let's pray for Mike Moffitt Pray for my father William black He will have he's got four arteries that are in his neck you people you who know the Carotid art. It's got four of them that are like really bad like like 90% or something So he's gonna have surgery, not four, two, he's got, I'm sorry, I'm making him an alien. He's got two, he doesn't have four. He has two, sorry about that. He's like, who is your dad? Now I understand. So yeah, he's got two and he's gonna get one on the 22nd and then like three or four weeks later, he's gonna get the other one cleared out. So pray for him, he doesn't know Christ and my brothers will be flying in to help care for him from California and Fort Wayne, Indiana. So I'm gonna be having a lot of time with them and I'm gonna be witnessing to them and pray for my loving boldness and that they will be converted and my dad will be converted, pray for that. All right, who else has a request? Continue to pray for Lori and Sasha, and we're looking for, thank the Lord for the huge love offering that we got on Sunday. It was just beyond anything I've ever seen. And so now we have the ability to look for a place for them, for a new start, and just beautiful to see the love of Christ being poured out. Who else has a request? Anybody? Okay. Marcel. Sick grandbabies, we need to pray for sick grandbabies. Did you say six grandbabies, six more? No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Sick grandbabies, you want six more grandbabies, okay. OK, who did you say besides Preston? I didn't hear. Read. Oh, read. Oh, wow. He's too little to be sick. Oh, no. Oh, no. Would you lead us right now and just pray for these things?