1 Thessalonians chapter 3 and I want to pick up from verse 1 verse 6 if you would. 1 Thessalonians 3 and verse 6. But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faithful charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, he desired greatly to see us as we also to see you. Therefore brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction, and is stressed by your faith. For now we live if we stand fast in the Lord. What thanks can we render to God again for you? For all the joy we're giving you, joy for your sakes before our God. Night and day, pray exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. Our God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you. And the Lord made you to increase in abound in love one for the other toward all men, even as we do toward you. To the end, he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. If you have been following along with us in the book of First Thessalonians, you know that everything so far in this book has been complimentary to the Thessalonians, Thessalonica. It was common for Paul to open his epistles with a few lines of commendation for the church just when he could. And this letter is unique, though, because basically it's not a few lines. It is three chapters. For three chapters he spends commending this church. And for many, for that reason, many have taken the calling the church of Thessalonica, the model church, because it seems that Paul certainly felt that way. But excessive praise can often be insincere praise. In fact, the more excessive the praise, the more you begin to doubt it. If somebody comes up to me after the service and says, hey, Richard, good sermon, then I might believe that they actually think that. Now, if they come up to the service, that was the greatest sermon I know that that has become excessive. You have fallen off into flattery. The more excessive, the more effusive, the more adjectives that you add to it, the less genuine that it seems. But Paul is very sincere. His heart is so grateful for that church and their stand amidst of trials and persecution. And you can't say enough about them. They have so encouraged him by their stand. And I came to the passage really a couple of weeks ago, because we've been out of Thessalonians for a couple of weeks. And I came to this passage, and I see Paul Hart as a pastor here, and I really tried to find something in the passage that was not what was in it. Because I'm fully aware that so far every sermon from the book of 1 Thessalonians has been about this church's example and Paul's commendation of the Lord. So I desperately wanted to find a different meaning, a different take, a different angle on these verses. Because so far, if you notice, there's not been one exhortation. There's not been one command from the book. There has not been one, do this. And every word has been very personal to this church. Now in chapter 4, we're going to see that in issues chapter 5. It's going to get very practical, and we're probably going to wish that we could talk about that church when we get to chapter 5. But this passage is really just more of the same. Paul, the founding pastor of the church at Thessalonica, is writing a personal letter to a church from a pastor's perspective. And I've already preached on the role of the pastor from chapter 2, verse 1 through 12, preacher that every church needs. But this is the pastor's heart for his people. Just recently I sat with a young pastor and he shared with me some of the difficulties that they're having in his church. And it's a good church and it's a good man, but they're going through a season. And every church will have at least seasons of trouble and opposition. You don't want to stay there. You hope that you get out of that. And as I'm counseling him and his trouble, I was grateful. I'm glad that that's not us. I'm glad that I pastor church where at least I don't know that there is trouble. When I became pastor 26 years ago, I honestly did not want to pastor. I told my wife when we got married, I told her, of course, we're on the ministry. I said, there's two things you can put it down. I will not do, I will not teach this Christian school and we won't pass it. We'll be the angels, but that's what we'll do because that's the life. And so I, and so, so we got married and we taught school for about a year. And then we time for this ministry. Then 26 years ago, the church called and then pastor ever since. We enjoyed the part of ministry that we were doing. But it became obvious at that time that the Lord had called us, or at least me, to this position. And it's amazing to me the transformation of how God does a change in a man's life that gives him a heart for the place that he calls him to. Whereas before I could not imagine myself as a pastor, now I cannot imagine myself doing anything but pastoring. or as a way of changing your heart to love what He has called you to. And so this passage is personal to the Thessalonians. It's also personal to me because it shows the heart of a pastor. So one more time, suffer me. If you would, allow me to preach on the pastor's heart from this passage, and I hope that I can make application to you. The first thing that I want to show you in this chapter, and I'm going to back up to verse 150, I want to show you the pastor's determination. Now we've briefly versed it, but back up to verse number one to refresh our memory. Wherefore, when we could no longer prepare, we thought it good that he left it after so long. Send to Moses our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ to establish you and accomplish you concerning your faith. That no man should be moved by these afflictions, for yourselves know that we are appointed therein to Remember when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation, even as it came to pass. And you know, for this cause, I could no longer prepare. I said to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you and our lady for me and faith. So what you see is Paul's determination to know their affairs. And this is in spite of the fact that Satan has pulled out all the stocks and hindered him from going back to Thessalonica. You see that in chapter two, verse 18. where we would have come again unto you. Even I, Paul, wasn't again, but Satan giveth us. The Greeks called that. Here's his desires, his desires for the people, his new desires, but Satan has thwarted that. So have you ever planned to give? I can't go out there and give a gift. If this plan doesn't work, I'll look for another way. But when he's determined, he's determined to know how they are. And it's mindset was such that I've got so much invested in these people that I'm not going to just walk away. And in fact, we said last time that they hardly would have stopped at chapter 2 and verse 18. That would have been the end of it. No fight, no grit, no determination. In fact, a lot of pastors, a lot of pastors stay in a church until about the first good scrap, and then run away. Look for another church, hoping that there's not going to be a scrap there, but there's going to be. But if you pour into a blood sweat and tears into a place, and if you have a heart for the people, then it's not easy to just pick it up and go, I'm looking for greater pastors. My dad told me years ago, he said, when I took this church, he said, you won't be the pastor for five years. You can take five years for you to deal with the people and earn the trust of the people. And I agree with that. And five years is not a magic number, but you got to stick around a little time to get a little bit of trust and get anything done. And there'll be a thousand challenges, but just determine the city where God called you. I copy this often, and this really speaks to me more than anybody else. So let me read this to me. Somebody wrote this about the preacher. Make him a minister of the word, fling him into his office, tear the office sign from the door, and nail all the signs steady. Take him off the mailing list, lock him up with his books and his Bible. Force him to be the one man in our community who knows about God. Throw him into the ring, the box of God, until he learns how short his arms are. Engage him to wrestle with God all the night through. Let him come out only when he's bruised and beaten in the name of blessing. Set a time clock on him that will imprison him with thought and writing about God for many hours a week. Shut his mouth forever, spouted remarks. Stop his tongue forever, tripping lightly over every non-essential. Require him to have something to say before he dare breaks his silence. Bend his knees in the lonesome valley. Fire him from his country club membership. Burn his eyes with weary study. Web his emotional ploys with worry for God. Make him exchange his pious stance for a humble walk with God as man. Burn up his ecclesiastical success sheet. Give him a Bible, a time for the pulpit. Make him preach the word of a living God. quizzing, examining, humiliating him for his ignorance of things divine, vanity averages, and political infighting, lack of his frustrated efforts to play psychiatrist. Former choir raised a chant and haunted with it night and day. Sir, we receive Jesus. When at long last he airs out the pulpit, asking if he has a word from God, If he doesn't, dismiss it. Tell him you can read the morning paper and digest the television commentaries and think through the day's superficial problems better than he can. Command him not to come back until he's read and re-read, written and re-written, until he can stand up and say, thus saith the Lord. Break him across the board of his ill-talking popularity. Smack him hard with his own prestige. Corner him with questions about God. Cover him with demands for celestial wisdom. Give him no escape until his backs against the wall of the Word. Sit down before him. Listen to the only word he has left, God's Word. Let him be totally ignorant of the downstreet gossip. But give him a chapter in order for him to walk around it, camp on it, suck with it, come at last to speak it backward and forward, till all he said about it reads with the truth of eternity. And when he's burned out by the flaming Word, when he's consumed at last by the fiery grace blazing through him, when he's privileged to translate the truth of God to man, finally transferred from earth to heaven, bearing away gently and blow on beauty, trumpeted and laid down softly, placing two edges scored on his coffin, raised the tomb triumphant, for he was a brave soldier of the Word, and there he died. He'd become a spokesman for his God. I already know that this letter is in response to Timothy's good report of the church. In this letter, Paul has already given a very full defense of his ministry among them in chapter 2. But now in verse 6, Paul references Timothy's report. And he tells them how encouraged he is to hear of their strong stand in the faith. If you'll notice in verse 6, there is an excellent report, verse 6. But now the focus came from you unto us. God is good tidings of your faith and charity. and that you would have good remembrance of us always. He signed greatly to see us, as we also to see you. For a while, Paul did not know how the church was standing. He had been forced to leave so suddenly. He had been chased away even farther when he got to Berea. So he was really distant from them. And as he waits for Timothy to come back, as he waits for Timothy to come back, he's anxious in his spirit. In the absence of good news I, I wonder how that there are great. And I think of that little period of time of his absence when he does not yet know the good things that he would write about them. He does not yet know that the Word will shine out from them. He does not yet know that they still have not turned back to idols that they had turned from the servant to a living God. There had been evidences of their faith in a few weeks. But the real test of faith is when time has come. There were temptations to come. Now we're going to find out if this faith is real or not. When you read about Paul's elder epistles, you'll find him giving warning that Satan will try to steal, try to steal faith away from our hearts. In Acts chapter number 20, the last time that Paul spoke to the elders of Ephesus and the leaders, here's what he said. Take heed therefore unto yourselves to all the flock, all of which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. Watch this, for I know that after my departing shall grievous wolf enter in among you, not sparing the flock, also of your own selves shall they arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. He knew that when the shepherd was away, that the wolves would come. He knew there'd be seducing spirits, and there were gonna be false teachers gonna rise up and say, believe the doctrine, destroy your faith by pressure, or you're trying to choke your faith up by the cares of this world. By this time, Paul is sitting in Athens, and he is concerned. And then comes Timothy, and I love this phrase in verse number six. He brought us good tidings. of your faith in Jesus. You know what else is called good tidings in the Bible? The gospel. The good news. The good news of the gospel. It is glad tidings. It's almost as if Paul is saying that the news I heard from you, it was almost as good as hearing the gospel. It was the best news to hear that Satan had not sinned against you, that you were still standing in the way. Oh, it was an excellent report. But then notice in verse number seven, he's encouraged by the results. Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith. You know, a true pastor does not walk around the church campus and delight in the buildings or whatever things the church might have accumulated. You take pride in your buildings, you want to take care of what God has given you, but you don't really take any joy in a building. A true pastor does not spend time trying to build his reputation and gain a name among the preacher's fellowship. You want to have a good reputation, but your joy is not in building your personal prayer. You know what a true pastor does is strive for success in order to be known as a successful pastor. You want to be effective in ministry, but you don't get any joy from hearing the applause of men. But the joy of ministry comes When the people that you minister to are strengthened, when people are helped, when people grow in the Lord, when you see them grow, well, that's where the joy of the ministry comes from. People can be the greatest joy. People can be the greatest burden. I used to say, you've heard it when I was a child, well, a ministry would be great if it wasn't for the people. But the truth is, there would be no ministry if it wasn't for the people, right? And I think that we all have to to take heed that we don't let what others do destroy our love for other people. I went through a season here after some opposition, and some of you were here, and then I went through a season personally where I did not want to be with people. It wasn't that I didn't love the personality, it had to do with I didn't like people. In that season of life, in that season of life. And I really, I really, I wanted to just withdraw myself, I wanted to bridge on something, and I want to have no interaction, certainly no trust in people. But you can't be a pastor if that's your attitude. You can't minister to people. In fact, you can't help people if you don't love people. And I think that all of us, I think that all of us can stand to have a little bit more compassion in our heart and a little less criticism. I know everybody has hang-ups and problems and warts and people can get on your nerves, but it would be an exercise in Christian compassion to try to be more understanding, more considerate. Paul says in verse 3, For now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord. I'm not sure exactly what Paul was saying, but could he be saying, I was dying to know how you were doing? I mean, when I heard the good news, is like a problem. New life to my spirit was a take dread and an uncertainty, but I was so encouraged by the good news. So Paul says, there's an excellent report. He's encouraged by the results. But then in verse nine, there's enthusiastic rejoicing in verse nine. Well, thank you. Remember that God again, for all the joy where we've been joy for your sake before God. Now, today, praying exceedingly, and we might see your face. Am I perfect? That which is lacking in your faith. You know, if a pastor is depressed and dark in his spirit, it will come through in his preaching. And it will come through in his prayer. If a pastor, if all, not some, if all of his preaching is hard, all of it, the reason why is because he feels like they're drawing on him. And you need to live a person of humor 52 weeks a year. Now, for some of us, that actually might be true, OK? That's possible. But for 52 weeks of our preaching, we've got to tell you, he doesn't take questions. And I noticed, I noticed that my prayers for people used to be basically this tenor, it was a prayer of all the hearts. Oh, Lord, you know, he does not get on him. Oh, Lord, you know, she's on her time. Cut it out. Oh, Lord, you're not going to cut it out. That couple's missing church. You think they need a file? Oh, that could be so depressing. But how are you? It's kind of like, it's kind of like the preacher gets up and preaches and he preaches against all the people that are not here, who are not here. How is that wrong here? You get up and you pray for all those people that you don't feel like are meeting the standard. That becomes depressing. Hey, you know who this prayer belongs to, our brother. I don't need to be his detective. I don't need to be, he already knows. But prayer can also be about fighting God for the progress that has been made. And just pray, God, just keep blessing these families. And if you pray for the good that has been done, and not just always complain about the good that's not been done, you'll get off your knees a lot more encouraged than you used to. That's very good for praying. Here's what he says, he says, he says in verse 9, for what thanks can be rendered to God again, for you've been just so thankful, I don't even have Can you see Paul's heart? Can you see his delight in pastoring these people? And I was writing this, and I studied, and I just stopped. You all have people get on your nerves, don't you? I'm not the only one. I've got people like that. I ain't gonna name nobody. But then I got to thinking. I got to thinking. We had a boy the other day, and I won't name him no more. And we were out, it was during the mission conference, and we were out sweeping those mats out there. And the mats are really hard, they're just hard to sweep. And we were sweeping them and getting warm. And I told this boy something, I said, man, we need to buy some new mats. And I said it kind of impromptu. And that night, that night, that boy, that teenage boy, that ain't got no money. That teenage boy walked up to me and gave me $80. And he said, here, We could get up every week, and holler at the two teenagers that didn't do everything right that week. But here they sit. Here they are. I had a pastor this week ask me, he said, let me ask you a question. He said, how can I be a better people person? He said, I've got some people in my church. He said, I don't spend enough time with them. They feel like I should fellowship more and be more personable. And I said, oh brother, you've got to. You have to do that. You need to represent those men. You need to have a brother. You've got to. I let you ask it, Paul. They say when you hire, they say when you hire, that you hire your weaknesses. If I'm really good in administration, I'll meet an administrator. If I'm really good with youth, I need somebody to come along and help in the areas that I'm not good in. And so my scholarship and being friendly to people and, you know, the hobnobbing and that kind of thing, so we hire Jacob. You know when you pray you ought to let verse 10 be the tenor of your prayer. Night and day pray exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your If you pray for one rebel rebel, but don't forget they're not all rebels, right? Ah, Paul's determination, Paul's divinity. Notice in verse number 11, Paul will float a passenger to repentance. God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all men, even as we do towards you. To the end, he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, These chapters, you see what a pastor does, you see what a pastor says, you see how a pastor feels. Now you see how a pastor prays. Charles Spurgeon said that a pastor may not always be in the act of prayer, but he should always be in the spirit of prayer. for them. And what drives any man to his knees is when he recognizes his dependence upon God. When you realize you've taken ministry, whatever it might be, you've taken it as far as you can with your strengths and your abilities, but if you really want to affect change in people's lives, then it's going to require the power of God. Our church has had a great year, in the honest with you, in spite of everything, but both So in these verses we have the pastor's dependent notice in verse number 11. We're dependent upon God for a directed path. Now God himself and our Father in all the words of Jesus Christ direct our way unto you. Another little phrase, direct our way unto you, I believe in Paul's mind that markets back to his desire to see. Remember he wanted to go back, so he hasn't been able to go back. He worked every angle that he could possibly find. It is not in his power to make it happen. So you come to the place where you say, Lord, this is my desire, here's my dilemma, you will work it out, I will be grateful. And when you can say, when you can say, direct our way and invest in whatever God does, there's peace with that. I'll give you a little illustration, and I laughed at this, I'll give you a little illustration. There's Leah there, and you're, there's one Leah there, I know she loves it, don't you, Leah? So Leah just, so Leah just took But she wanted to go to a mission conference this week in Capital City, Austin. And you know, that's a little thing. There's two areas that Paul prayed for the growth, a bound in faith and a bound in love. You love one another, but may God help you to love one another even more. May God help you and I to love one another, care for one another, give for one another even more. When we hear of a need, may our first response be, how can I help? When we hear of a brother hurting, may our to forgive, to quickly reconcile, to speedily assist, to be more concerned with others' needs than my self-comfort, to be joyful in sacrificial giving, dependent upon people, while I hurry," verse 13, dependent on God, where I did not sigh or finish. 13, to the end, you may stablish your hearts, unblamable and holy before God. Even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, will all his saints, I love the phrase, to the end, to the end. I don't want you to fail. I don't want you to quit. I don't want you to get discouraged. I want you to reestablish your holiness to the end. I feel like it belonged more in my private devotions more than it did in a public sermon. When you're preaching to a book, that's the next message. And it makes application difficult because I feel like the application points back to me. This is what I want my heart to be. And I pray the Lord helps all of us to make wise application to the Word. I pray that as you go through the week, the Lord has a way of bringing things to your heart through scripture, through fundamentals, and even through other And even though a sermon may not have a dedicated point to your sin or your besetting sin, whatever it might be, the Holy Spirit still has a way of putting a finger on your knees. Commit those things to the Lord. Lord, direct my heart. Give me a people who love one another. Help me to stand stronger in these dark days. Pray for your church. Pray for one another. Pray for your preacher. I get a text every Saturday afternoon or evening from Gary Square that simply says, But it just means something to know that somebody did pray for you. I told you yesterday was a day you either laugh or cry, sometimes you do both. So a hurricane hit, took off some sheets, so the blessing of replacing the roof, that's not, that's bad. But the insurance don't pay for it, so that's good. And so this past week we started on the road, Jacob started a lot of while I was away, I got home Thursday morning about two o'clock in the morning, Thursday morning daylighting down on the roof of our house. That's called breaking. Well, the river, you could see the progress coming by. Man, that's called breaking. So we finished up Friday. We knew it was going to rain. So we put some tarp over the roof, covered up the roof. And sure enough, Saturday morning, it started raining. I could hear the rain. I could hear the rain inside. That's not good. That's not good. It's supposed to rain inside. That's not good. So I called Jake Cooper. I jumped up first and I was trying to pull this tarp over and wait for the boys And I stepped on a piece of plastic. Stepped on a piece of plastic. Like a bolt. That bolt just slid right off. It was just as pretty as it could be. Just like a fly. It's not good, that's bad. We have one tree. We have one tree that's our house. It's a bush. I've never liked that bush. I've always thought it was ugly. Thank God for that bush. That's not good. But it flipped me. It didn't flip me on the sidewalk, the concrete. That's good. That's good. It flipped me on the block. I crawled into the house. I mean, it was just one of them days. And then I remember what I saw. This fellow. I looked down there from the evening. And when I looked down, And I'm sitting there looking at mailbox. And I'm looking at everything. And I'm looking at it and I'm just waiting for it to snow now. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for this church. Thank you for these people. Thank you for the spirit that's here. Lord, thank you for growing our church. By the holy, we've got seasons. We've got legs, seeding, and things like that. Give us direction. I pray, Lord, for the people in our church that are struggling, hurting. I think about what we're getting done right now. We're fighting that cancer. My heart goes out to you. We will stand. We haven't been able to be here for a long time. I think about all the people who are fighting that meningitis. We're trying to find a course of action to take with it. Lord, I think of Jack Lewis. Lord, I think of these people that are hurting. My heart goes out to them. Sure, I'm thankful. I'm thankful over the years for the growth that we've seen. Lives have been changed, families have been put together. Of course, speaking of that couple last week, the marriage is completely torn apart. Perhaps you're telling me it's irredeemable. And I'll be able to say, no. No, it's not. I've seen God do great work. So it's just that hope, that hope, or whatever the curse of that is, I pray that you strengthen this church. Strengthen these families. Try to raise these kids for God. Try to keep their hearts tender towards you. I pray that you touch and bless these coming days. I don't know what the election holds. I don't know what the future holds. If you hold tomorrow in your hands, we rescue you. In Jesus' name, let's stand together.