Please turn in your Bible to Paul's second letter to the Thessalonian church, 2 Thessalonians. I'm trying to think if there's ever been a time where I've heard a preaching or a sermon series on 2 Thessalonians. We begin this morning, though, a three-part trek through this letter written to encourage the believers of a well-begone church. And for the next two Sunday mornings, we will have it as our goal to overview all that God has to say in these three chapters. Three chapters, three clear messages of God to His people. And so, it's our goal to hear what God has to say, this eternal truth that's for us today, letting Him encourage our hearts as we see within these Thessalonian believers things that they were going through that apply to us today. and perhaps will apply to us even more as the days continue to go on and on. We see fightings and fears within and without this congregation, and so join with me, step into the sandals, if you would, of these early believers as we read through chapter 1 of 2 Thessalonians. Paul writes this, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. Verse 5, this is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God. for which you are also suffering, since 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, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, inflaming 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 the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might when He comes on the day to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed. Because our testimony to you was believed. To this end, we always pray for you. that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." When we read these words, As we read really any scripture, it's best for us to try to step in, as I said earlier, into the sandals, so to speak, of our first century ancestors, of the original readers. These were the days of the early church. In many ways, they were still infant days of this church. And if you've been able to study along with us here during the family Bible class hour, we've been going through the book of Acts. And we see the progress, we see the growing of God's people. And 2 Thessalonians is no exception to the fact that the book of Acts helps us in adding more details and understanding to all the events of what was going on in that day and age. And so we see here in 2 Thessalonians, the context of Paul writing to a separate group of believers. In Acts chapter 18, we see Paul arrives at the city of Corinth. And in verse 11 of Acts 18, which perhaps you've studied a few weeks ago in our family Bible class, we read this. He says, he stayed a year and six months teaching the Word of God among them. And it is while Paul is here in the city of Corinth, ministering to these people, that he starts up this correspondence with this separate group of believers in a far distant place in Thessalonica. He's there with his traveling missionary group, this group that we read of in verse 1. It says, Paul, Silvanus, that is Silas, and Timothy. We kind of We can notch this right on that specific verse in Acts because we don't see this group together again beyond this point. And Paul was there for a year and a half. I think the study in Acts that we've had has really helped me understand, boy, that Paul didn't just hop in his car and drive two hours to this church and drive two hours to that church. There were years. The book of Acts is a lifetime of how God is building His church. And we see this correspondence. Paul was busy. He's corresponding to these other believers. The early church, though, had its great many bouts with growing pains. In those days, both religious and societal persecution swept its way through the church. Not only was there conflict with those within Judaism who rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ, or with the Roman and Hellenistic understanding of gods and demigods and all this, But there was the things within the church, where there were several schisms of truth. People would twist what is true, and they would have their own following, and they would say, I'm of this person, I'm of that person, and there's all these different growing pains showing themselves in ugly ways. But beyond that, the individuals that Paul is probably writing to, these many Jews who were converted, were facing internal issues of family, Or people in society who now are rejecting them because of their grasp of the Gospel. So we see a group of people who are bewildered. As I said earlier, this is a woe-begone church. We even read within that congregation the topic, as we've seen through Acts, the topic of Christian liberty, which came up quite frequently if you really look for it. It's there, everywhere. And how much it was misapplied and disregarded. This early church is feeling adolescent growing pains, if I could put it that way. And so the work of the apostles seemed never to be finished. And yet I think of the words that say, how beautiful are the words of those who preach the gospel. How beautiful are the words who bring good news. And so Paul, despite all these things going on, he takes up his pen. He gets a writing. And God begins to speak to His people concerning these different things. And we see Paul referring in this context here, this church in Thessalonica. Following his greetings, we see in verse 4 that he's addressing them. This morning we see the message of facing persecution. He addresses their issues of strife and these trials. But I think it's important to note, first of all, in verse three, that Paul gives us a helpful conclusion about giving thankfulness. Look at verse three with me before we really dive into the structure of the sermon this morning. We see, we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as it is right. Paul says there is no excuse not to give thanks to God, no matter what you're going through. Paul prefaces everything he's about to divulge by saying, let's always give thanks, because the message, the things he's about to talk about are not pleasant things. The issues, the experiences, the people he was writing to, what they were going through, they were not probably always rejoicing with gratitude. And so Paul says, we're thankful for what we hear about you and how you are responding, so keep on. So are you there yet? Have you kind of stepped in, seen the culture of these people? Have you stepped into their sandals? Have you kind of understood what's going on here? And perhaps you say, well, Michael, that's not necessarily too different than maybe my experience. Perhaps some of us understand those same growing pains as you've come to know Christ and you've felt persecution in a different sense of maybe what they had here directly. But we are often oblivious to really the persecution that goes on in the church today. A recent study by the Center for Studies on New Religions showed that nearly, I quote, 90,000 Christians were killed for their faith in 2016. And that as many as 600 million were prevented from practicing their faith through intimidation, forced conversions, bodily harm, or even death. Another Christian advocacy group, and again, Christian is probably a very loose term here, but it gives you an idea that this advocacy group called Open Doors said in its new report that some 215 million Christians around the world are facing some degree of persecution today. But that number, it noted, could actually be much higher. And again, in many ways, here in America, we sit in our comfortable pews. We have air conditioning, sometimes. And we don't entirely connect with what this level of persecution feels like. But we have brothers and sisters today who are experiencing that. And perhaps there's a day coming in which we will echo the same cries that go up from their hearts and their mouths even this morning. And so I think it's a very, very important message that Paul is giving to his audience in Thessalonica. And it's one that we need to open our minds and ears to even this morning. Because Paul knew a special truth that we need to really embrace this morning. That endless persecution can have a weakening effect on spiritual integrity. Have you ever felt that? You've been in the middle of trials or persecution, and your spiritual integrity is just getting battered and battered. When trials seem to be endless, it seems like Jesus isn't all that close anymore. Perhaps you needed, I hope you were reminded by this theme this morning, we needed to be reminded that Jesus is near, because everything in the world tells us he's not. When we are persecuted or when we face trial, we're constantly being bombarded with this mentality that Jesus isn't really here, is he? We deceive ourselves in thinking that. In the world, when we get deluded with all this bombardment, the word of the cross begins to lose its glory to us, and we fade off into apathy. And the truth is that all that we can do is really despair when we think that Jesus is not able to save us, when we go to those points of despair. And so the message this morning is, there is no need for despair. There's a focus that we need to embrace this morning. That we fall into despair when we lose sight of Jesus. And that's why we need to hear this this morning. Paul's listeners, as one man would stand up and read this letter to the congregation, they needed to be reminded of this during the persecution they were enduring. And I submit to you, it's a relevant message for us this morning. And so Paul gets to writing, God speaks, and there's a call to persevere. There is no need for despair. And this first chapter in our study through 2 Thessalonians reveals two reasons this morning, two points for this call to persevere. The first being that your persecution sets God's righteousness in its proper context. So persevere! Because you demonstrate God's righteousness within a proper context when you persevere. The first thing that I want us to notice as we look at this passage is the terminology that we have, especially in verse four. So take a look there, if you would, with me at verse four and follow along. Paul writes, therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith. in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. The first point we see underneath this idea that we demonstrate God's righteousness through our persecution, that this is a call to thrive, not just survive. This is a call to thrive, not just survive. The word steadfast here in our ESV Bibles has the meaning of the word persevere. And so that call goes out this morning. This is not a simple synonym for the word endure. This emphasizes the fervency of forward progress despite the trials of persecution. Do you understand that when we persevere through persecutions and trials, we're not simply called to cling idly. Persevering is not simply, okay, I'm just gonna put up my shield and just take it. That's endurance. We should have endurance, but we're called beyond endurance to perseverance. That's a forward motion despite everything that opposes us. And Paul says persevere. despite your persecutions. Press forward through trials. That's what these people in Thessalonica had been doing well. They didn't simply hang in there, but they were moving forward. Paul lauds them for growing this forward motion in their faith. Paul and his companions boasted of how these believers seemed to not just survive their sufferings, but that they were thriving during persecution. And really, as our study in Acts again has testified, we see God building His church through this. People were moved physically from location to location, and they took with them good news. Good news. And it spread from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to Columbus, Ohio. Skipped a little bit, but yes. We are an example this morning that when God set out the Great Commission, He's going to accomplish it. We are the uttermost part of the world. God used persecution, and so Paul commends these people. I think it's important these believers weren't being consumed by their persecution, but they were being bettered by it, and Paul lauds them. The other word there, faith, Here speaks, of course, to the unwavering loyalty of these believers for Jesus. They have faith in Jesus. Paul writes to applaud this congregation, boasting of their faith that literally captivated every part of their lives. When the world bumped into these believers in Thessalonica, Jesus spilled onto them. Isn't that a beautiful picture? When people bump into you, what spills onto them? Harshness? hurt words. Maybe it's stuff in your mind that spills all over them. When these Thessalonican believers were bumped into by oppression and persecution, Jesus spilled out into the lives of those around them. And it is this understanding about faith and perseverance that guards us from mere spiritual maintenance. And you're like, what are you talking about spiritual maintenance? Well, what is maintenance? If you don't know what maintenance really looks like, I want to take you on a tour around this facility sometime. There's much as far as maintenance is concerned. And maintenance is a vital thing. It is a good thing. But mere maintenance only prevents regress. It never produces progress. Understand that? Mere maintenance only prevents regress. It never produces progress. Maintenance could be described this way. It's a broad... because it applies to so many different areas of life. It applies to vehicles, buildings, relationships, companies, anything and everything. It's a broad spectrum of activity in which things that are lacking within any given system are addressed with appropriate provisions. We have someone who works very diligently here with one of our deacons and making sure we all have paper towels in the bathrooms here. I thank Pat for her diligence with that. That's maintenance. The carpets here are clean this morning. Thank you. Yes, because of maintenance. But you know what? Maintenance on a good car doesn't mean the car's running. You can have it all completely maintained, but you've never turned the key. You can have a banquet maintained and set up, but nobody arrives. And so it doesn't quite achieve the greater goal, the greater end of maintenance. And so just because something is properly maintained, it doesn't mean that it is fulfilling its purpose. And that's why Paul is commending these people. They were pushing beyond simply maintaining this level of Christianity. They were progressing and demonstrating gospel change. And that is what these believers were doing in this world. They weren't just simply coping through trials. These followers were thriving. And how is it that we can thrive in this way? Well, I think it takes us embracing a specific truth, that Jesus is enough for all of life. That's how we keep from simply staying at subpar maintenance in our spiritual walk. Daily, whenever trials come our way, let's say, we think of Brent. This perfect example, this came to my mind. We think of Brent today. He's gonna be leaving. That's gonna be a little bit of a trial. For some of us, more of a trial than others. You know what keeps us from falling into despair and saying, oh, who's gonna do this? And, oh, I wish he wasn't going. And all these things where we should be wishing him well, we say, what, Jesus is enough. Jesus is enough for me. My world doesn't have to fall apart when God builds His church by moving people away from here. We need to continuously embrace the truth that Jesus is enough for all of life. And so, we're called to persevere. Embracing this truth also means that this is a call to honor God's good judgments. We see the meat of this passage here in verses 5-10 developing. We need to honor God's good judgments, that is, embrace what God says to be good as good. Paul further gives believers encouragement in the truth that nothing we experience now is as it should be entirely. So look with me at verses 5 through 10. Again, he says this, this is evidence. That is, your steadfastness is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering, since 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 when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels inflaming 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 the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. when he comes in the day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed." Paul gives encouragement to say that you do not suffer in vain. And the first part of that is, we see here, this point of God's two-part plan that is unfolding, that addresses His, that exemplifies His good judgments. And the first of that is that He repays affliction. He will repay affliction. Here Paul affirms God's righteousness. God will be just to those who defy His name and who are enemies and who dispense hate and hurt upon His people. God is with the lowly. We learned this last week. We had to be reminded that God is just. He will not let those who sin get a free pass. Our sin has to be paid. And so we see here, Paul encourages these believers with the fact that their perseverance brings to light God's completed righteousness. Endure this because it demonstrates that God doesn't let things go past. So just put it this way, the darker the night, the brighter the dawn. God's glory will be even more manifested when His righteousness is demonstrated through the justice He pours out upon His enemies. And God will not let His enemies get a pass. And this should comfort God's persecuted people. Verses 8 and 9 describe a terrible fate for those who counter God's kingdom. We read those verses. It talks of eternal destruction and a flaming fire that inflicts vengeance on those who do not know God. I see no warrant here to say that these words are merely figurative in nature. God will manifest His wrath with literal eternal flames in a literal eternal place, it says, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might. This is what a simple reading of Scripture in its entirety continuously affirms. And there is no secret meaning here. And if you struggle with that truth, I invite you to consider the words of Christ in Luke 16, where, of all people, who is able to pull back heaven and show us what it looks like, or hell and what it looks like? It's Christ himself, and he does so as he dispenses the truth concerning this rich man and the man named Lazarus. I invite you to read Luke 16 if you struggle with this concept of God's justice. It is a terrible thing to be repaid the affliction that you deserve. It would be very dark to end again this message at that note, but it continues. Because He doesn't just simply repay affliction, there's a second part to God unfolding His plan of showing His good judgment because He grants relief. He grants relief to those who will turn to Him. He gives grace. says, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted, as well as to us. Verse seven gives refreshing news. For all those who are of the party who are doing the affliction, as we will see in a moment, that was us. God gives grace. He gives hope in Jesus. Those who are afflicted will find relief. God's promise of giving this great reversal in the world of how everything is now will not be as it is in the future. God has a plan because of Jesus. And this point of the message is where we see the gospel all over this beautiful passage, all over this beautiful reversal that God's doing. Look with me for just a moment at these words, again, just highlighting in verses six and seven about God's good judgment. It says, God considers it just to repay affliction and to grant relief. Do we embrace that? Do we embrace that by faith? How significant these actions are to the gospel. The gospel has both bad news with good news. And we must embrace the bad news before the good news. Otherwise, the good news, it isn't any good. We need to understand we are being saved from the wrath of God that we rightfully deserve. Because you see, we all were once enemies of God. We all were as these people who were demonstrating to these Thessalonian believers wrath and they were being hateful and divisive and evil towards these people. That was us in our heart of hearts towards God. The gospel has changed everything because Christ, as we learned last Sunday, stepped in as our substitute and so we embrace mercy. And we find this glorious grace of God granting us relief. He doesn't just give us what we deserve because Jesus was our substitute. He took our affliction for us. And so what does He do towards us in His merciful grace? He grants us relief. He doesn't loan us relief. He doesn't sell us relief. It's not dependent on what we can do to make Him happy or appease Him and all these things. He of His grace grants us relief from our affliction. You see, there is an end to the story. And for those who are in Christ, it is a very good end. And so for all of us this morning, we have an awesome prospect in front of us. No matter what we endure in this life, trials or persecution, There is a good end. There is relief. And so how important it is that we live our lives with the understanding that our persecutions and trials are a vital part of God making known His matchless righteousness. This changes everything for us, if we really think of this truth. And this should keep us from being what we are so often are, right? I call us, I look at some people and we're spiritual punching bags. You're like, Michael, what is a spiritual punching bag? What is a punching bag? You punch it, and it goes back, and then it just comes right back, and it hits again, and it goes right back, and it hits again, and you're like, okay, so how are we like spiritual punching bags? Well, because when affliction comes in our life, and God brings trials in our life, and His sovereign goodness to try us and to demonstrate this exact thing that we're learning here, and what do we do? We continuously live as a victim to those things the rest of our lives. Perhaps it's the trial of people turning their back on you. Well-intentioned people may be seeking to minister to you. Perhaps some of you have been in other churches or you went to other institutions or places where you felt like they did you wrong. And guess what? For five, 10, 20 years, you've been living in bitterness about it. You are a spiritual punching bag. and you think you're enduring it really well, and you get hit the next day when you think about what that was, and, oh man, that happened to me, I can't. We're called to persevere. We're called to be free of our circumstances in Christ. We don't need to be a victim of our circumstances. Put down the methodology of being a spiritual punching bag and demonstrate this relief This grace that these people in Thessalonica demonstrated when they were bumped into by trials and persecution, Jesus spilled all over these people. How can we train ourselves to think those things? We need to ask ourselves, are we comfortable with God using us for His own glory's sake, no matter how we feel about it? Often we let our feelings dictate that this is bad, this is not good, and we think, God, where are you? And we forget again that Jesus is near. We allow ourselves to be pummeled by one thing in life over and over and over again. Paul's commending these believers because they persevered. They didn't let this hold them back. They weren't bitter towards people. They loved. Their love was abounding, it says here in the first several verses. So that's what this church needed to be reminded of, and that's what God says to us today. And secondly, we see in verses 11 and 12, the glorious result of our perseverance. In verses 4 through 10, we saw the proper context that we demonstrate of God's judgment when we endure persecution, when we persevere through persecution. And now I conclude with the wonderful result of that. Is it worth it all? Let's take a look. Look at verses 11 and 12, where we read this. To this end, here's the goal, Paul says, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling. Paul's saying, When you get to heaven, it will be a no-brainer that you're there. If this is true of you, live it out despite your circumstances. To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power. so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, this morning, we're called to persevere because your steadfastness proves that Jesus is mighty to save. That's not just, He saved me from my sin, I'm going to heaven now. He saves you from that victim mentality. He saves you from yourself. He saves you from deceit, deceiving yourself. He saves you from persecution and affliction and trials and felt need every day. Jesus is mighty to save. The first thing under this last point that we see is that God works unnatural steadfastness in His people. Again, the emphasis being God works this. God works. And I call it unnatural because everything in verses 11 and 12 tells us, if you take a look there, that we are dependent on God's grace for it. It's nothing that would come natural of us. Because the thing that comes naturally out of us when trials and persecution comes, it's not pretty. We so often kick against what God is doing in our lives. This is again, we need to remind ourselves, are we comfortable with what God is going to bring into my life? Is Jesus enough for all of life? And so we see here an applicable truth. I love how Paul says it here. He's praying for these people. And so this sub-point here says, desperate times call for dependent prayer. The persecutions and trials we face in life prove themselves to be platforms from which we declare our dependence on God and His grace. Often in our flesh we want to stand up and show how buff we are. How well we can respond to those things when we should be open to say, this is not me, this is God who's given me this grace to stand here. And there's no clearer way of showing this than in our prayer. That's why we have a prayer of confession. This is something that I think we need to better do in our own personal lives, and perhaps as a congregation, is confessing to God our dependence on Him. We need God to do this work in us. It's not natural for us. Paul speaking from experience here, right? Concerning all this persecution, right? Because Paul was once the persecutor. And look at the gospel change. Now he's preaching to people about when they endure persecution, how they should respond. Talk about a radical gospel transformation. Paul now points these believers' attention towards the worthy cause of their persecution. It's pointing to Jesus. And this is an important thing to consider, for I hope that our prayer is our most transparent of all conversations. Are we transparent with God? Well, God knows everything, Michael. It doesn't change the question. Are you transparent with Him? Our prayer should be the most transparent of all conversations. Prayer should be a time where we remind ourselves and confess to God, I need you. Or we should be transparent with ourselves and confess to God also that my cause is just, my cause is secure. I am secure in Jesus. And the theme, I think, even as it comes here, this security, this idea we can persevere because we are secure in Christ, seems to be a refreshingly relevant theme, especially in our day and age. A lot of modern hymnody has produced for us many anthems that focus on this idea of our being held by Jesus. We sing these all the time, and I love them. They're probably some of your favorites, like, He Will Hold Me Fast. Or in the song, In Christ Alone, where we see, it says, no power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand. Or even the wonderful hymn, When Trials Come. How refreshing it is to know that the doctrine of eternal security is not based on our quality of faith. on how well we are able to assure ourselves of God's faithfulness, but rather, it's founded on the character of God Himself. It's founded on His faithfulness in preserving His saints. If you would, just take a glimpse at 2 Thessalonians, right here, just turn the page, chapter 3, verse 3. Paul writes this, but the Lord is, everybody say it, faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. How dare we sing those songs that are just listed and others like it, and we doubt eternal security. What are we saying? God's preservation of his people is so vital to our perseverance. And so Jesus truly is mighty to save today, tomorrow, day after. He's mighty to save. Finally, in light of everything we read here about our persecutions, we conclude by noting the purpose of God's grace. Look at the first part of verse 12 here in chapter 1. So that, here's the purpose, do all this, persevere, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you. and you in Him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. So the last sub-point here is that unnatural steadfastness points to a gracious God. God gets the glory for all this. And when there's people in the world, and even those who, it's amazing to hear of testimonies like Paul, when they were persecuting God's beloved how they see, how they would respond to the persecution. It changes people's hearts. The gospel is contagious on this level. The opportunity that we have to live out our faith in persecution is all meant to show Jesus to the world. And our perseverance makes him divinely attractive. And yet, how unworthy are we of this awesome job? of displaying Jesus to the world through persecution. We're unworthy of this. And often we say we don't want it. We're unworthy of this. In 2 Corinthians 4, 7, Paul puts it this way, but we have this treasure in jars of clay. We're unworthy of bearing this gospel. We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. And so these final two sub-sub points, we're reminded of these awesome truths that God has given this light to shine out of clay pots. That's all we are, we're clay pots. We're broken vessels, we're jars. And God puts his gospel within us. And we get to hold onto that. We get to change those around us by it. It's beautiful. We're just a clay pot. God loves us. What wondrous mystery it is that the God of the universe would invest Himself in the redemptive work of mankind. And then to think that God puts us to work in His service. That's why He doesn't, when we get saved, He doesn't just, whoop, okay, come on up. He uses our foolishness. He uses our brokenness and our incompleteness and all of our quirks and stumbling words to communicate His truth. And we do it imperfectly. Why? So that God gets the glory. Because I'm amazed sometimes when people walk up after a sermon I preach and they say, God bless me with that. I'm like, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. It's beautiful how God puts us in His service. And so, we've come full circle. And the final point here is a familiar one. And it's a point of application for us this morning. All of life is all about God. That means that I can persevere in life. Because all of life is all about God, I can persevere. God gives you this grace and he calls you to practice it. Embrace this truth. You see, we don't just say all of life is all about God because we think every church, every successful church needs to have a one-liner, you know? We say this because it is so true. And it gives us hope in life. And that's what the Apostle Paul is calling the Thessalonian believers to embrace. That's what God is speaking to you and I this morning. But because all of life is all about God, I can know, I must persevere in life. I will not settle for being a spiritual punching bag when trials come into my life, when persecution comes my way. When I feel certain ways, I embrace what is true and I persevere. And so I hope this first chapter of Thessalonians will stand out to you as a banner of hope, not only when trials come in life, but also persecutions. And I don't think we made the distinction quite clear yet. But the word trial refers really just to difficulties in general in life. But persecution It's specific. It's referring to attacks based on your faith. And all of us feel that in a different way, and others in other parts of the world feel it, I believe, in a greater sense than we do. But I don't mean to downplay what we go through, because we see in 2 Timothy 3.12, Paul assures us, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. The day of the Thessalonian believers, it wasn't popular to be a Christian. And I submit to you today, those who are of the true faith, those who are true followers of Christ, it's not a very popular movement. So I pray that God would give us a better understanding of what this looks like. So may God in his grace renew our minds with the understanding that the judge of all the earth will do what is right. And all the trials and all the things he sends our way. May God in his grace renew our minds daily that Jesus Christ is mighty to save from every trial. That we have no need to despair. Would you stand with me and we'll pray. Father, we thank you for your word, Lord. And I demonstrated very clearly this morning that you use broken clay pots to communicate your glorious truth. This is a unnatural thing. And we thank you for it. Lord, I thank You for these believers before me, as Paul is thankful for the faith demonstrated by these brothers and sisters of his who are far away from him, who he had ministered among before, that he could thank You because of their faith. Lord, I thank You for this host here. But Lord, there are those this morning. There's one right here who's struggling. Trials come. And we begin to despair because we start to question, is Jesus really worth it? Is Jesus really able to save? Is Jesus really near? Lord, work in our hearts this morning to see with eyes of faith that Your Word is sure. That without Jesus, we have no hope. Lord, renew us that all of life is all about God. Lord, help us to embrace the relief that we receive because Christ has taken the payment of our affliction. Lord, let us rehearse the Gospel in our hearts daily. And may it give us the confidence to persevere and not despair in life. We thank You, Father, for Jesus. It's in His name we pray. Amen.