Father, once again, as we see so often in Paul's writings, we come before you and we say thank you. It's with great gratitude and overflowing joy of appreciation and thanksgiving that we come and we recognize what you've done. And we are constantly learning and growing. We don't always please you in everything that we do, and you gently guide us and teach us, and sometimes we're a little more obstinate and you spank us. because you love us, and we thank you for that. In spite of living in a world where that is becoming illegal, we thank you that no one's going to tell you no and make you stop. So please guide us and use us. Help us understand what's going on here in Paul's life as he shares with the Thessalonians the relationship he had with Timothy. And help us today to figure out who that Timothy is in our life, or if we're the Timothy, who the Paul is. as we seek to make disciples and obey You and walk by Your Spirit. So we thank You for Your faithfulness and ask You to work through Your Word today on us, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We are in 1 Thessalonians 3. If we could catch these lights right above me here, Gary, give me, in my failing eyesight, everything else is failing. I've told you many times that we are like meteorites entering into the atmosphere. That's what life is all about. You're a whole meteorite when you're born, and the longer you live, the more parts fall off on the way down. And then there's this all of a sudden, there's this crash. So as we wrestle with that in our lives, we're learning to trust God in spite of whatever may come our way, and realize there are no accidents, that He's at work and using all of those things in us to help us. The Thessalonians, young or old believers? Young believers. So we've got young believers here. Are they going through easy times or hard times? Hard times. Now that's an interesting mix. That makes or presents some serious dangers, doesn't it? Is that when you let your two-year-old play out on the freeway? I would call that a young child in a serious trial, hard trial. And no, you don't do that. If you have any kind of control over it, you don't let them talk to strangers. You build parameters around them. You prepare them. And eventually, then you ship them off to Columbia for snakes to bite them and whatever happens, right? As our daughter had happened down there. But Paul has these young believers. He couldn't stay very long. They're going through very hard trials and they're in great danger. And so like any good parent, what's Paul doing far away? He's trying to encourage them, but inside he is worrying a little bit, which he tells you not to. I understand he writes that down, but Paul's struggling. You'll see a little bit of that come out. They're about 200 miles away from him. He's in Athens, as he discusses in here. And so you just don't jump on a train or a plane and head over there in an hour or two. It is a very long journey to get anywhere. Dangers of robbers. There aren't hotels along the way. There aren't easy places to stop and get food. So it's a whole different world they lived in. And Paul himself, we saw last week, had tried repeatedly to visit them. What happened? How come he didn't make it? Satan thwarted him. And the word thwarted means literally he prevented him. It's a general meaning of it, but literally it means to cut a trench or a ditch in the road. He put up a roadblock. He put something in his way over and over and over again. And so Paul eventually has to settle for the fact that he can't go. And so Sylvana stays with him, also known as Silas. And where does Timothy go? He shifts them off. And so here you have, like ours, this monstrous church. You walked in here and you were lost, right? You needed a map to figure out the campus and where things were and how to find the restrooms. We made them rather easy to find in this building. And you're struggling with all the same masses of people. You don't recognize anybody here. Is that how it is? No. We have a very small church compared to many. We have a close fellowship where you recognize who's a stranger even though they don't know who's who. And so you come in here and you have close relationships. And so we would love to take half of our church and ship them off on a trip. That wouldn't affect us at all, would it? That's what it looks like today. We shipped off about 20 or 30 of the regulars. And they're not here. It makes a big difference to us. Who is Timothy in relation to Paul? He's his right-hand man. Paul says, I'm going to cut off my right hand, whichever, that's this one here, cut off my right hand, I'm always trying to think in terms of how you guys look at things, and I'm going to send it away for a period of time, it may be at least weeks if not months, that he's not going to see it. What is Paul saying about the Thessalonians when he does that? They're very important to him, he loves them, and I'm willing to Sacrifice my enjoyment, my fellowship, my time of instruction and interaction in the Word from someone that I love being around. And I'm going to send him to you because you need him more than I do. And I will use him to get information back to me personally. That's what's going on right here. We read this and we go, well, this isn't important. 1 Thessalonians. I can take it or leave it. There's some good parts. I'll memorize the good verses and kind of do a Reader's Digest cutout version of the rest of it. Right? What does God say about His word? All scripture is God breathed or inspired of God and profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness. That's what this passage is. As we move into it, we see Paul sending off Timothy in his place to do two things. And we'll see it as we go down through it. But in verse two, he says to strengthen and to encourage you as to your faith. How are you doing in your faith today? Well, what's the focus of our lives? We've been going through our prayer class, Sunday school. We tend to pray about what area? Physical needs. All the time. All kinds of physical problems. Some serious, some minor, but that's what we focus on. And what does Paul pray for? Spiritual things. We've gone through all of his prayers in the 13 letters that he wrote, 12 or 13, and he writes down the things specifically he's prayed for, and not once in those letters did we find him praying for something for himself. That's kind of interesting to me. And so here he goes in and he wants the Thessalonians to be built up. It's their faith he's concerned about. They're young believers. They're very vulnerable to the dangers. They're very vulnerable to the same devil that has thwarted Paul from being able to come see them. And your faith is being tested on a regular basis. If you really know Christ, you're being stretched on a regular basis. And what Satan wants you to do is listen to him, not God, follow the world, not the scriptures, and enjoy your flesh to the utmost. Does it satisfy? When we walk by the flesh as believers and choose not to walk by the Spirit, what does it do to us? It tears us up. Does it satisfy? What are some things that it doesn't do? You come always to the end of that and this is empty. Right? You guys are really quiet this morning. You came in here quiet, you sang quiet, and now you're listening quiet. Makes us look like everybody else, okay? That's true. Oh, the noisy ones are the ones missing out of the middle here. I'm going to tell my wife you said that. And the Murphys, they're getting up on you. You know, you better be careful with that one. Ashley? It doesn't just cause destruction with you, but destruction with those around you. Okay? Sin leads to death. We think, well, that's just talking about eternal death. No, it isn't. Sin corrodes and corrupts in our present life. If we choose to sin, we suffer the consequences and those around us suffer the consequences. And that's why we were talking about how you say, well, I was having a good day until you... And we start blaming other people. Other people have nothing to do with me having a good day. In spite of that, it's common how we say it. So we will corrode those around us. We're like battery acid when we're walking by the flesh. It eats. Spill some on your car if you don't believe me. See what it does. And that's what Paul's trying to get them to get away from. He's concerned that their faith is going to stumble, that they're going to get off into Paul's doctrine, that they're going to have some issues here. And he deals with that in some of the other letters even better with Timothy. But Paul is concerned. So look at verse 1 here, chapter 3. I have to stretch this out because I only have five little verses. Unlike 1 and 2 Samuel, some days I'd have 50. I really have a lot of work with. I have to make these stretch. Verse 1, Paul says, Therefore, when we could endure it no longer... The therefore is coming off the fact that he couldn't get to them himself. And they were his glory and his joy. Satan had thwarted him from coming. Therefore, when we could endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone. Just him and Silvanus. And we sent Timothy, our brother and God's fellow worker, in the gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no man may be disturbed by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we have been destined for this." That sounds like Star Wars. It's your destiny, right? What's going on here? But as it goes into contribution, the plan, Paul says, we thought it best. We reasoned. We thought, well, it seemed good to us and the smart and the right thing to do when we couldn't endure it any longer. What's he kind of hinting at there? What could he not endure? Separation, the unknown, not knowing what was going on. It's kind of like young people when they get separated, they're separated for 10 minutes and they can't stand it any longer, right? Especially when they're engaged. Couldn't stand it anymore. So what do they do today? They get on the phone. Texting, whatever means possible. They go over and see them. They're only two minutes away, maybe, or whatever it may be. Bev and I ran up the biggest phone bills we ever had in our life when we were engaged. And she was 50 miles away going to school. I didn't pay her phone bills. But anyway, think about how that works. I think I was the one who had to call her. But as we go through here, we're recognizing that he is concerned. He's kind of hinting at the idea that he's a little bit anxious. Just like a parent who sends their child off to school for the first time. Right, Siri? You're already starting to feel it. The pressure's there. Mom's concerned. Dad doesn't care. But mom is really concerned. And there's some others that are going out for the first time. And I don't mention everybody that's here. And so here you have these anxieties a little bit in a positive way. But Paul says, I thought it best to be left behind. I couldn't go, but I'm in Athens. I'm alone. And they're talking about just the two of them. And they send Timothy off. It's a struggle for us in this regard. And we have to ask ourselves, do I have that kind of relationship with believers? There's another believer in my life that I feel that way about. Remember the discipling? The process of asking you, is there someone or a few someones that you're pouring your life into? And it'll be just like this, just like Paul was with Timothy. What did Jesus say when He left? He said a lot of things, but immediately at the end of the Gospels, first chapter of Acts? He gave them instructions, but what did He say about their relationship? I'm with you always? I'm leaving, but I'm going to... What's that? Oh, I'm going to come back? I'm preparing a place for you. I will send you another helper or comforter that will come alongside. He filled them in. They kept asking him what's going on. And he kept trying to give them instructions about it. And some of that you'll read later when they finally get to understanding it. And they write, he told us this when he was here, but you recognize they didn't understand it until later. And that's how we are. But the problem today is we live in a country with big bubbles, those comfort zones that we want to keep everybody away. And when someone gets close to us, we feel uncomfortable and we kind of figure out a way to back up without making a big scene out of it. And the problem is we're doing that in our relationships, even in our discipleship. We don't open up to people. Why is that? Just like in a court of law, whatever you say, can and will be used against you, right? So you're really hesitant to be honest with someone and you have to build a relationship and sometimes even in those good close relationships they still mess up. I've passed, oh there you are, I didn't see you over there, so good, but you aren't too worried. about your daughter leaving. Concerned, yeah, right. We don't go there. I'm sorry for interrupting that. But we have this whole struggle that we go through as we watch what's going to take place in those relationships. And what Paul wants to do is he wants us to care about one another. He wants us to notice who's missing in the fellowship. He wants us to take on the responsibility of calling them up. Some of you do that really, really well. And it's critical. I see cards and letters in the mail. Since there's a number of us in the house, some of you are writing people on a regular basis. And when something happens, you write a note. And I noticed Bev got two this week and I didn't get any. And she's gone. I can't even open them up to read what's in them. And I know they're probably being sympathetic. It's probably your cards, we're sorry you live with Jack kind of cards, you know. They're just trying to encourage that. She gets those on a regular basis. But that happens a lot in the fellowship, and I want to encourage it even more. Some of us are not good writers. Some of us don't write at all. My mother probably could count in one hand the number of letters I wrote her. I mean, I wrote more in college. But, you know, that's not a good thing. I'm not happy about that. But I called a lot. I talked to him regularly. I visited as often as I could. And so we're trying to build those kind of relationships here in the church, but we have a tendency to think that somebody else is doing it. And it'd be better for them to get ten cards than to get zero. Paul loved Timothy and he loved the Thessalonians. He's trying to do this balancing act to provide the needs of both. And yet he needed Timothy. Paul is struggling, in and out of jail, in and out of riots, in and out of all kinds of things that took place in his life. But he needed to know how they were doing, not physically, spiritually. It's their faith that he's concerned about. That's what we want to check on on a regular basis. So that's why I asked you earlier, how's your faith? Do you reveal that to anybody? Do you have relationships where you tell somebody? I get a phone call from a couple people on a regular basis and they'll tell me very personal things that I cannot pass on. But they'll let me know when they feel like Satan is really attacking. This last month for me has been non-stop. And life is normal, all of us have problems going on, but there's just things I'm starting to look back and to see a pattern where every time I turned around I was getting punched. And I didn't handle all of it that well. And what I've done in my business is I've gotten further away from God, not closer to Him. And so he and I were talking during How Great Thou Art, during a couple of the songs this morning, trying to restore that and tell him, OK, here's what I've got to do in the next week, in the next few days. I've got to lock in time. I used to set aside Tuesdays, the half day, just to get away, until the police found me out in the woods and asked what I was doing. I've got to get back to that. I've got to walk in time where it's just God and I, in His Word, not preparing for anything, just talking to Him and letting Him talk to me. This last month, it's been everything you can think of has gone wrong, including snake bites and a variety of other things. And they're far away and you can't do much. And now the bills are coming. And so we're praying that there's different things that are probably going to cover that, but there's paperwork galore. You can't imagine the paperwork from one country to another. And if Josh and Julie had not known very well the emergency room doctor who signed on the dotted line to let her leave. For thousands of dollars, the doctors hoping that we get the paperwork back in. They took responsibility for it. That's not normal. God continues to answer and yet he brings in things where you sit there and you go, I can't do anything. Nothing I can do. They're going to make a decision. Amputate fingers. They're initially making a decision. Is she going to live? All kinds of stuff. And you sit there just like Paul's doing with these believers. He's doing it more in the spiritual realm. I was praying for the spiritual realm and a little bit caught off guard by the physical. But that's what God's doing on a regular basis. And there's other issues. And the cancer returns and a variety of things that happen in your life. And you're just kind of going... And God goes, if you were close to me, this wouldn't be a problem to you at all. And so He's pushing me in to Him. And He wants to restore that. He can just as easily remove the cancer again. That's not the issue. The issue is my faith, my walk, my commitment. How I'm sold out to Him. Paul laid down his life for them. Paul had one goal in mind. It wasn't to get rich. It wasn't to be famous. He already was. He was already one of the top leaders in the Jewish realm in that day. Trained under Gamaliel, one of the top teachers of the day. Paul could have had everything. He pushed it all aside to follow Christ. And that's our struggle today. We don't want to let go of the rice seed that's inside the coconut. You know how the monkey reaches into that hole, grabs onto that rice and he won't let go, and so they catch the monkey. And there's a lot of believers running around trying to have both. They're straddling the fence, they're trying to enjoy the world while they walk with Christ. You can't do it. One hour on Sundays will not cut it. You need to head out to the woods. I can tell you where not to go where the game warden wonders what you're doing sitting out there. And then when he pulled up, I knew him. And so he was very friendly. But I don't know what he was going to do if I didn't know him. And so here we have Paul concerned. Concerned. Good word. About the Thessalonians. He had developed a close relationship in a very short time. And it was because he was there when they were born. a maternal relationship. Remember, he acted as a mother to them and as a father to them in chapter 2. And so he says here in verse 2, First, he says that. That's his relationship to me. He's my brother. He's part of the family. I let him go because he's God's fellow worker also. And he's God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ. Timothy had also set aside his life, his ambitions, his glory, his fame, his power, his ability to achieve money, his comfort. I keep looking at Josh and Julie down there in Columbia and realizing the conditions they're living in. And I hear more and more people talking. And the snake There aren't very many of them down there. She took care of the one. Now it's safer than it was. Right? And we look at all the physical concerns instead of realizing Josh and Julia are there because of the spiritual need. And they're loving it. They're watching God work through them in spite of the inconveniences that Columbia gives to them. Don't pull away. Jump in. Let God work through you. And so he tells him, he sends Timothy down there as a fellow worker to strengthen. This carries the idea to stabilize them. What are you doing with a five-year-old on a bicycle? As you're running behind them, you're stabilizing them. They still were on training wheels. They were trying to get more and more independent, spiritually speaking. Paul says, I wanted to stabilize them, to get them fixed, to confirm them in the faith. I wanted them to know what they believe. There's so much going on today, so much that's mistaught. So many people think they can lose their salvation today when the Bible is crystal clear. It's an impossibility. And yet the majority of churches that believe the Bible in LaPain believe you can lose your salvation. Why is that? Because they've been deceived. They've been led down a road that says it's up to me. Some think they have to earn it. Many of them think they have to keep it. That's not what my Bible says anyway. The whole idea of the pre-wrath rapture. I have reactions. I get funny things at the door when I bring it up in services. I try to tell people the church is going through the Great Tribulation. There are people that get downright irritated at me. And yet I try to explain in short ways as I did last week. The Great Tribulation is going to be cut short. God's wrath, the day of the Lord, is going to be poured out to the uttermost. They're not the same thing. The Bible is very simple and very clear on that. And everybody goes, well that means I'm going to suffer. You're not suffering already? I don't mean your physical inconveniences because you couldn't have tacos the other night. I'm talking about because you're sharing your faith and even some people at work are irritated at you. They don't want to hear it. They're going to react to you. Neighbors are going to react to you. I told you when we moved in here 26 years ago, the guy straight across the street from us on one side, we were on a corner lot, he found out I was a preacher, he would not talk to me. I literally went to the same area, mailboxes, I would say hi to him, he acted like I didn't exist. He would look up in the trees, he'd look at the birds, I'd try to make conversation with him, I found out later, he found out I was a preacher, he hated preachers. He would not talk to me, unless he was drunk. When he came to his mailbox drunk, we had great conversations. Little did he know what he revealed about himself to me. But you're in a world that has warped ideas about what it's all about. They're struggling. I don't know if it's guilt. I don't know if it's anger over something that's happened to them in the past. But as you go out, you're going to have reactions from people. Expect it. We're running away from it. We're afraid to say anything. And I say a big fat we because I do the same thing. I don't like causing problems. But God sent us into the world and said, in the world you shall have tribulation. And the problem is at the end it's going to be great tribulation. But you're going to tribulate. One way or the other. And so as we go out into that, people react. And they go, that's not what the Bible teaches. And I'm going, I don't know what Bible you're reading. You've made up stuff. That's what it teaches. Get in there. Expect the suffering, expect the reactions from people, but get in there and tell them what Christ has done. Don't hold back. Make that be the goal of your life. Preach the gospel, make disciples. I think I've been harping on that for a little while. And I just realized that I'm looking around and I don't see Gordon Tween. One more you can call this week. Anyway, maybe I should throw more names out that aren't here right now. But as we go through the passage, he says, I want to stabilize them. I'm going to hold on to their bike as they take the training wheels off and are growing up. I want to encourage them. Now, this is an interesting statement here. This is the idea to come alongside. It's what the Holy Spirit is, the one who's a comforter. We always think of it being the nice side. There's two sides to that. What do children need besides encouragement? It's kind of how this is presented. What's the other side? What's that? Discipline, rebuke. You need to tell them, don't ride your bike in the street. They ride their bike in the street, then what does the loving parent do? They disobey. It wasn't out of ignorance, it was out of defiance. They get a, shh, don't tell anybody. They get a spanking. That's what God tells us to do if you love them. Our world hates that, because it comes from God. But it's part of the process here. So in encouraging them, Timothy may come to them, find out some things they're out of line on. He would straighten them out and change their course. Bring them around. And it may not be all that enjoyable on their part. It may cause pain. So on the one hand, it may be a bandage. On the other, it may be a swat. Because they've done something wrong. Timothy's come in representing Paul, but ultimately representing Christ, and he wants to find out about their faith. Now we're assuming they have it. That's another one I get in big trouble for today. I keep challenging people that the majority of the religious people in America, they tell you it's like 80, 85% of Americans claim to be Christians. And God said in his word, it's more like 5%. And I don't even know if it's that high. But in Matthew 7, few there be that find it. That's what he said, clearly. It can't be 85%. It'd be nice, and I'd love to be proved wrong, but he says you'll know them by their fruit when it comes to leaders in Matthew 7, but you're also going to know them by their good deeds. And when you go into Titus and other places in Scripture, it's obvious whether or not they're children of God or children of the devil. And I keep touching on these themes, but it's what we have to expect. So the majority of people who are telling you I'm in are really out. They're not in. How do you reach them? They've been inoculated. They've been given a shot, but they don't really have the disease, if I could put it in those terms. It's hard. Who do you think did that? Who orchestrated that idea in America, ultimately? Satan did. He's the deceiver. He's the one leading people astray. He's the one who presents doctrines of demons, as we'll find in some of Paul's writings. It's dangerous. They've been lied to. Some think because they went up to an altar down a sawdust trail that they're in. Some think because they prayed a prayer that they're in. Some think because they've been giving money to the church. You mean all that money was a waste? I don't have salvation? Right. Some think because they're baptized, they're in. Some think just because they're good looking. Some think because they were born in America that they're in. What does the Bible say? You, individually, do what? Believe. It's a requirement. And if you're really believing, you're repenting because you're putting faith in something new and turning away from something old. So there's a repentance, a 180 degree turnaround, you're going in the opposite direction. That genuine belief shows in works. Faith without works is dead. This is where you can go to easily half the people in the United States, maybe more. Maybe two-thirds of the ones that are professing do not live it. I was just talking with someone this week. They had professed to be a believer to me in the past. I think they forgot they made that profession because when they were talking to me, some of the things they were saying, some of the stuff coming out of their mouths, some of the stories that they were telling me, I'm kind of going, I thought this person was saved. This is what I'm saying to myself as I'm listening to them. For about a half hour, I interacted. And I'm going, that doesn't sound like they're saved. That's not what a state person says, and that's not what they say, and that's not what they say. That's not how they live. And again, I'm not God, and when I bring this up, I'm not sending anybody to hell. I've stressed that to you many times. That's not my job. But I have to be, as they call it, a fruit inspector. If I come up to somebody, how do I know to share the gospel with you, or to spank you because you're disobedient? Reprove you would be a better way of saying that. Rebuke you. How do I know if I should practice what's called church discipline? Not a biblical word. Or if I should overlook your sin, because what do I expect out of an unbeliever? And that's a hard thing. I'm constantly having to make choices in that regard. So if you tell me you're saved, I treat you like you're saved. And I've had a lot of professed Christians get really upset. I've had people in my office professing to be saved, living in immorality, telling me that God said it was okay. Living in adultery, living in fornication. I've had all kinds of things where people try to do it. I've had a guy mad, I thought he was going to get up and punch me one day. Because I told him no. I called it what it was. People don't like that. I try to do it gently, as gently as Jack can do it. I try to be honest with them because what I'm doing is warning them. Others when I've done that too, I've had people repent, had people bawl and acknowledge their sin. One couple had been married, one I think five times, the other one seven times. And they were acknowledging they were wrong. I said, this is it. This is the end of the road. There is a roadblock up here. I don't care what you've done in the past. This is it. No divorce, no more breaking away. You're going to make this work. And they finally acknowledged, yeah, you're right. Because they came in kind of asking, well, what should we do? Should we separate? What does the Bible say? So you have all these people out there that are deceived. The better you know the scriptures, the better you can be a Timothy and go in and strengthen and encourage them regarding their faith. But you have to know, what does the Bible say about these various doctrines? Why are you waiting for me to tell you what it says? One hour on Sundays doesn't cut it, folks. You could preach at me 20 hours a week and I wouldn't remember a lot of it. It's you getting into the Word. It's you putting it into practice. It's you obeying what God says, and you're going to find people will respond. Believers will respond. Unbelievers will come to Christ. The majority are going to hate you, as he said in John 17. The world's going to hate you because it hated me. So you should be looking at everybody that lives around you, all your contacts, everybody at work, and you should have a majority of people who, if your name came up, they would say, I hate them. And that should be normal. Right? Isn't it? You're going, you're kind of ridiculous. I'm not. America's heading to hell. And they think they're on the train that's going to heaven. They got a false ticket. And it said, one free ride to heaven. Satan printed it up. It's a lie. Paul saw the Thessalonians genuinely, as he said back in chapter 1, turn to God from idols to serve a true and living God. He saw the work and he saw their love and their faith and their hope. Remember the things we've touched on going through here? Paul can see the reality. So he says, okay, my children, humanly speaking, God allowed me to lead them to Christ. I'm going to make sure they mature in Christ, present every man complete. That's what they're there for. I still have people in my life like that. I told you about Mark Barrett. He'll come to the camp in. I've had opportunity to be involved in his life over and over and over and over again through the years. Shaughnessy McGee is another one I've had opportunity to put emphasis into. Steve Dixon is another one that I've had opportunity to have a lot of input into his life. These are two out of 70 kids that were in a youth group that I was able to lead. Majority of them were saved. Their parents came to the church. A lot of them weren't saved. The church is watering things down. We have to know the scriptures. We have to challenge people. And the only way we can do that is with integrity. We have to live it. You cannot be a hypocrite and have any kind of impact that way. Acts 17, 16. Chapter 17, verse 16. This is the passage that talks about Paul and Thessalonica. He leads up in verse 16, just makes a little statement. Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was beholding the city full of idols. We don't realize the idolatry that was around the Thessalonians, the Athenians, and the Lepinians. Idolatry is everywhere. What's it look like? What do people worship in Lepin? Money drives them. Big time. Okay, I got a couple of them, what's that? Okay, give me some specifics. Football. Uh-oh, we can't pick on football. You just reminded me, I was... I better not share that, that was in the dream. I had a dream of something that went on last night, but anyway. What else? What specific things? Are people worshiping? Idols like, how do you know somebody's worshiping? What do you term as worship? What they spend their money on or their time with. Ultimately, there's two words in the New Testament that are primarily, there's actually four words for worship. Two of them are primary. One means to, liturio means to serve. And the other one, proskynuo means to Kiss the hand. Kiss the hand. It's kind of a nebulous thing there. But so you've got them either serving, whatever they're serving with their life. That's Latruo is described as worship. What are people serving in La Jolla? Themselves. Okay. That's a big idol today. Recreation, winter, summer, all kinds of things. They buy a boat. I said, well, if you buy a boat or they buy an RV and I said, if you buy that RV, you've got to use it. When are you going to use it? Well, I only have weekends. So I've had people apologize to me. I won't be at churches often. It's like, what? Why would you purposely choose to buy something that keeps you away from what God's instructed you to do? That seems kind of lame. But anyway, we won't go there. So you've got all these things that people are serving. It could be your garden. It could be your job. It could be whatever is giving you acclaim. Whatever makes you get excited. They can be retirement. And all you're doing is working 18-hour days, because one day I'm going to retire. And all of these things get in the way of serving God. And he's concerned here as he writes to them. He has a plan to send Timothy. Timothy is a partner that causes a great sacrifice for them. And he says in verse 3, so that no man may be disturbed by these afflictions. So he's assuming these things are going on in their life, these afflictions. He uses the word philipsis. Philipsis is where we get our word tribulation. So affliction, tribulation, it's the idea of pressing in. It's being in a pressure cooker is one way we could put it. They put you in there with a little bit of water, put the lid on, drop that little pressure valve cover on there, and just turn on the heat. God does that on a regular basis. He's cooking up stuff all the time. The only problem is, I and you are in the pressure cooker. And He says that's what's going on with the Thessalonians. They're baby Christians. So if they're baby carrots, how long do you cook them? Not very long. They'll be mush. But if there's some kind of hard potato or something else you got to stick in there, God can allow it to go longer. But he says he doesn't want them disturbed. What's this idea of disturbed here? What's he talking about? Troubled, disheartened, unsettled. What's funny about this word is it kind of describes a dog wagging its tail. It's kind of an illustration that would go. It's the idea of going back and forth and back and forth. I don't want you disturbed by this and then running over here and you just run around putting out fires. You are troubled in that kind of disturbance. That kind of being disheartened or unsettled. You're up and you're down in your faith. It's just what a new believer does. It's what children do. They don't know everything that's going on all the time. They have to trust in a parent or somebody that's over them. So Paul's taking that role and he's trying to make sure that they're okay. He says, for you yourselves know, it's oida, it's head knowledge. You know in your heads that we have been destined for this. Your destiny. You've been appointed or set for this. And it's funny here, people would walk on and say, well, this is predestination. The only problem here is this is the middle voice. This is for you yourself. This is something you yourself are doing. As you make decisions to follow Christ, to walk with Christ, this is what's going to come to you. The afflictions are going to come. It's normal. And yet we do everything we possibly can to avoid it. How many of you were teachers' pets in school? Come on, come on. I know there's a few out there. You love pleasing the teacher. Okay, there's one, there's one. I didn't get any hands over here. Oh, okay. Reluctant teacher's pet. But you enjoy doing what you were told. You did a great job at it. You did it with all your might. You were the chalkboard eraser person, or you ran the projector if you've lived long enough to know what those are. Or you door monitor, or safety patrol. You got to walk out there with that special arm badge and the stop sign. You'd walk out in the street. You had no power whatsoever, but can't imagine what they let grade school children do back then. We could stand out in the street. There were no adults around at all. fifth graders, sixth graders. Would they do that today? No way, because those signs are targets. They're worth a lot of points to run over one of those kids with one of those signs. And then you steal the little armband that says safety patrol on it. Anyway, so here you have... I don't know where I'm going now, I just got lost. Oh, the idea of being destined for these afflictions? Yeah, I still don't know where I was at, so I don't know what I was leading to with that. But he's trying to warn them about what's coming. And the uncertainties that were there, and God has prepared them. And we'll get back to that. It'll pop into my brain when I get done with it here. But here's the contributions. This Timothy is going to add a lot to the ministry that Paul wanted him to have. Satan had gotten in the way. Paul couldn't go. And so here he is now, sending off his partner. But this destiny, this tribulation is temporary. That is great enjoyment. Some of you are very quiet this morning because you're in pain. There are a number of you who are struggling regularly with pain. It's part of life. Some of you struggle with pain to the point where you don't even feel it anymore. Well, you feel it but you don't pay attention to it. You kind of ignore it. That's kind of what Paul was doing as he struggles here. But it's there and it's real. And Paul's concerned about it, even though it's happening. It's good. It's going to be useful. God is going to protect it. But there's a there's a contribution. He's trying to make a difference. So here's his concern that comes out in verse four. He says, for indeed, when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction. And so it came to pass, as you know. Now, that is an interesting statement to me. Who else did that? Who else told them ahead of time that they were going to struggle, suffer affliction? Jesus did. Paul didn't get discipled by Christ in the same way that the other apostles did. He didn't hang around him for years, watch his ways, learn his methods, kind of become like father, like son kind of a style. So here's Paul. He's acting exactly like Christ. How did that happen? He's being led by Christ, so that's going to make it happen. And what does a loving parent do? You're constantly teaching. A little here, a little there. You're adding to their needs. You're passing on information. You're preparing them for what they know is coming. Your parents have already told you some things, haven't they? They're telling you things about college, aren't they? Here's what to watch out for. Here's what some of your needs are. And they're going to do everything they possibly can and you're going to get over there and you're going to be going, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. It'll take a few days and you'll settle in, learn where things are, find out, yes, they still feed you when you're there and all the stuff that's going to happen and you kind of will grow up and you'll move in that space and then when you come home, sorry to say, when you come home, you will no longer be the same. You've just moved into a new realm. You don't want them to hold your bicycle anymore. You definitely don't want training wheels, but you can show them how you can do loop-the-loops and then pretty soon you're popping wheelies on one of those banana bikes, whatever they were called back in the good old days. And then you're falling down and busting your face up because you, look, mom no hands. And I remember hitting something in the road and I went face first right into the asphalt. But you're learning things and you change and you have to let go and let go. And it's like letting that kite out we talked about last week. A little more strength, a little more strength, a little more danger, a little further away. And this was taking place. And so Paul's warning them, knowing what's coming, they're going to be tested. And he says, he puts an imperfect tense here. When we were with you, we were with you. That's ongoing, continuing action in pastime. We kept working with you. I don't know if this is only a few weeks or if there's something missing here that Paul got back to them again. But he gives them another imperfect tense in the Greek. He says, we kept telling you in advance. We repeatedly told you and told you and told you what was coming. We're trying to prepare you that we were going to suffer affliction. Philipsis is again the root word that he uses there. And he says it was going to happen. And so when it came to pass, and so it came to pass, as you know. This is Paul really concerned, not wanting to let go of his baby birds, but it's part of the process. And as I mentioned last week, you find the mother bird sometimes having to push them out of the nest. Because it's time. Some of us are more reserved than others. This is what we have to do with those that we are discipling. If you're not discipling someone right now, I will say it and it will come across harsh, but it's true and it needs to change. If you're not discipling, you are sinning. Do you understand that? Do you understand what he said? As you are going, what was the command? Make disciples. Where are they? Make learners. That's what the word Monte Caste means. Disciple. Where are they? Can you point to them? Can you give names? Are there people that you pray for regularly? That you give thanks to God for? That you're constantly in contact with? Just a few that you're trying to make sure stay on track? You can only handle so many. But there's going to be a few of them. If they aren't there, there's something wrong. Now that's all I'm going to do as far as stepping on toes today. Okay, I'll try to be nice the rest of the sermon. Ask God to fix that and to open up a door for you to find and train a disciple. It will go both ways. Hopefully you're always being discipled by someone who knows more than you. And then secondly, you're always discipling someone else. You're passing on what you're learning to somebody else. That is the best way to learn. The best way by far to learn is to be a teacher. If all you are is a stagnant lake where the water just keeps running and running in and there's no place that's going out, it doesn't work well. So ask God, start on your knees. It may not happen very quickly, but there's somebody out there that needs your attention. They may be in the church already, that you just need to approach and ask them, how about if we meet? Don't even tell them what you're doing. Don't steer the living daylights out of them. Say, I'm your teacher. This is your destiny. Come with me. I will show you how you should live your life. But just take them out to lunch or have them over to the house or do something. This is how Titus 2 talks about with older women teaching the younger women. You think, well, they've got to have a class. Regimented, with all the handouts like Jack does all the time. And you've got to have a test at the end of it. You've got to make sure that it has nothing to do with Titus 2. Titus 2 was the older women showing up at the young woman's home by invitation or by calling them up and asking if they could come over. Sitting and talking. The children come in and out. The needs come forward. The growth takes place. This is what should be happening on a regular basis. It's not one hour on Sunday mornings. That's not discipleship. I have a few people that I'm trying to deal with more than others. Some of that happens with Bible studies on Wednesday night. Some of that happens in the men's group or prayer time. I have opportunities to share things there. But it's got to be going on. This is what Paul's doing here with Timothy. And he's taking on the responsibility with the Thessalonians. And now his Timothy is ready to pass on things to them without Paul being there. But he says you're going to suffer. This is severe. This is a hard time. Look at chapter 1 verse 6. He says, You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation. You see that? With the joy of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 2, verse 17, But we, brethren, having been bereft of you for a short time in person, not in spirit, were all the more eager with great desire to see your face, for we wanted to impart to you. And he talks about Satan thwarting us. And so the problem comes into the pressures that are there. He says, For this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction, we were comforted about you through your faith. Paul's just sharing it again when he gets into 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 4. Therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. It was normal. Verse 6, For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you. and to give relief to you who are afflicted, and to us as well, when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. There isn't a rapture, a seven-year period, in the return of Christ. He gives relief, and He says He gives judgment. He pours out, as I just turned the page there, affliction, dealing out retribution, in verse 8, to those who do not know God, at the same time. Remember I talked about last week, one coming. He comes to meet the church in the air, deal out retribution of the earth, feet touch on the Mount of Olives, thus we shall ever be with the Lord, we come back to reign with Him. That's not popular teaching. Some people think I'm a heretic, even for saying that. All I'm doing is reading my Bible. I'm not sure where some of the other stuff has come from. It's not changing a whole lot. It's just telling me I'm not escaping the way I think I might. We see America headed toward what? Possibly its own destruction because of its own sin. But also there may be a bigger picture, a worldwide picture, it may be heading toward the Antichrist himself coming in on the scene. It's becoming a one world government, bank, policies, judicial, the law, everything's coming together. I don't know how long it's going to take, but you can see it. It's coming. Is he going to have to break America to make it work? Probably. Our Constitution does not go along with what's going to happen with the Antichrist. It's got to go away. What do you see happening? They're taking away a little bit of time so people don't react too strongly, but it's going away. So here you see it coming. We're going to expect to have persecution arrive. What's my response? Has your blood pressure going up in the last few minutes? Hope not. Who's in charge? God. Who won't allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able? But in the temptation will provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it. God. Where's that found? verses that you need to start getting a memory verse, pack it out and start learning some basic verses. I keep reminding you, we keep putting it off. I don't know what's more important. Something is, but we've got to get the scriptures into us. And so he says, as he closes off here in the last part of verse five, I mean the last verse here, for this reason, he gives another reason. He says, for this reason, when I couldn't do it no longer, he's just backed up to what he said in verse 1, I also sent to find out about your faith. Reminds me again of what he just said in verse 2. And he says, for fear of that. That's what we're concerned. He's not really afraid. In fact, it isn't even the word fabas that's normally for fear here. It really should be translated, lest, in some of your versions I didn't do that, lest the tempter might have tempted you and our labor should be in vain. Uh-oh, they're losing their salvation. Is that what he's saying? Is Paul laboring for their salvation? Nope. That's a gift from God. That has nothing to do with what Paul's talking about here. He says, the tempter might have tempted you, but not beyond what you can handle. And he says that our labor, our great efforts, the travail, the toil that we poured into you, what was he travailing over? What was he after? He wants them to be faithful, but what's the goal? What is he aiming toward? Colossians 128-29 says this. Maturity. That we may present every man complete, teleos, that's the form of that word, maturity, perfect, in Christ. That's what he's aiming toward. He'd come up to you, Dick, and he'd say, OK, let's take a measurement here. What's missing? Take inventory would be a better way of saying it. Nothing. Perfect, right? Just kidding. So as we go through, he'd find some things, he says, Paul says, okay, we're going to work on these. Here's what we need. A little more muscle work on the abs and a little more, you know, a little more biceps so you can carry some of the loads we're going to put on you. So we'll start working on that. The same thing with whoever else. I shouldn't say name names. I get people nervous and in trouble. But Paul comes along and he says, you're a believer. He establishes that first. And he says, OK, here's your exercise regimen. This is what we're going to work on. We want to look like that. And you see this model of Jesus, you know, with these great bodybuilding picture is almost in a spiritual way. That's what we're working toward. What's it going to cost me? No more blizzards. Oreo cookies might have to go. Don't eat after seven o'clock at night because that just puts fat on. But I don't want to do that side of it. Then this side of it. I'm going to start working out. I'm going to start... You guys are still being quiet. You're right along with me. Eating right. Eating right. Oh, that'd be a good idea. I'm going to start speaking up. I'm going to tell people the truth. I'm going to start warning them about what they're eating. I was awake for about 2.30 last night. My shoulder felt like it was on fire. And all that told me was I ate something wrong. I have reactions to a lot of foods, but it tasted so good. I ate some ice cream that I didn't read the box before I ate it. Now I gotta go back and read what was in it. I ate it too late at night too. It's okay if I eat it, we won't get off on all of that stuff. But I was in agony. I couldn't even lift my shoulder off the bed. I chipped onto it, I got up, and I got some pain medication, which I hate taking. So I go back to sleep. That's normal for a lot of you. But the idea here is I've got to make sure I eat right. I've got to make sure I'm not around the wrong things. I've got to make sure when I go into a situation that the good overcomes the bad. It outweighs it in Romans 12. It overcomes the evil. That's what my life is supposed to be like. Not that they influence me, but I influence them. And there's some situations where I can't get into because they will influence me. I've warned John about a bunch of those going into the military. Never been there, but I've been a man all my life. And I've been around a lot of things, and I understand, I've talked to a lot of men that have been in the military, and I understand what he's going to encounter, and somebody he's not going to be able to avoid. There's times you're going to have to walk into some situations with your eyes closed. Don't even look. You see him at Lackland Air Force Base in the news this week? They've had some serious issues, immorality issues, with some leaders misusing some of the women recruits that are there. It's dangerous out there. So I pray for that realm of his life a lot. And so here we have him trying to tell them, I sent to find out about your faith. I sent to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith. I was concerned lest the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor should be in vain. It should be pointless. I'm wasting my time with you, because everything I do right, you do ten things wrong. This is the frustration of pastors I'll reveal a little bit to you. Some of you, and I thank God for this week, I'm listening to you as I hear you grow, as I watch responses in your life. You make my day. I just told somebody that the other day. They did something very obedient, very clear, very definite. They did it on purpose. I said, yes! That's like a parent standing back and watching their children obey when nobody's looking. That makes my day. You want me to be a happy pastor in an influential way? Obey God. That's all it takes for me. I'll be overjoyed. But you want me to be frustrated? And He says in Hebrews 13, 17, Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your soul. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. You want a grumpy pastor? Disobey God. I can't justify that. I can't make an excuse for me being that way. But it weighs me down. And so Paul says my work would be empty. It would be void. It would be pointless if this is what happens to you. I'm wasting my time. It would be much better for me to go spend that time over here with somebody else. So you find pastors quitting. I just heard a statistic on the news recently. I could not believe. In fact, I counted it up. I said, there were so many pastors leaving the ministry every month. I don't know how many coming into the ministry, but quitting. And a lot of it was just discursion. And so we try to have a different kind of church here. We don't bring you here to entertain you. That's why you're bored. You understand that, right? Once in a while. If you come in here tired, if you didn't get a proper night's sleep for the last few days, one night doesn't destroy it. And if you're not in the Word the last few days, the last week, if you aren't walking with God in obedience, if you brought your flesh with you today, and you're wearing it out front, you are going to be greatly disappointed. This church will not impress you. It will not entertain you. You will not find fleshly things that are going to make you really excited here. They just aren't here. Almost everybody here is volunteer. And most volunteers you heard recently are looking for another volunteer to take their place. Because they just stepped in to fill in a hole, and they'd rather be doing something else. They're not trying to be lazy. They're not trying to get out of serving God. They just don't think that's the best place for them. But somebody had to do it, and so here they are. I think that's kind of humorous. And I look back over 20 years, and that's how, 22 years, that's how this church has grown. I think that's humorous. You got your pastor the same way. I didn't volunteer. God says, you're going to need this church to grow up and become all that I want you to be. So here I am. You're serving me. I'm serving you. But the critical thing is here, if you're a younger believer, you need help. You need training wheels. You need somebody grabbing your butt. But recognize you're going to have severe trials. It's not going to be easy to walk with God. The second you get on your knees, you declare war, spiritually speaking. And everything seems to fall apart. And I've had to cry out to God some of those times and watch Him fill in holes. Big holes. And I'm not talking about cancer. Cancer is not a hole to me. Cancer is an expectation. It's something that's going to come. It's just what we don't know is what way are you going to go? And I still think it's going to be the rapture before it happens, but that's not the issue to me. The issue is other things, whether or not I'm being God, whether or not I'm pleasing Him. Paul's goal over and over and over again, he said, his desire was to be pleasing to God. I almost picked that up for Wednesday night Bible study. We still may do that down the road. It's amazing how many times Paul brings that up. Everything else was reporting for duty. John, as I'm watching him in the military, many of you have shared the same thing. I'm here to please my commanding officer. It may cost me everything. But if He's pleased, I'm successful. And so as soon as I let go of my goals and my pleasures, I move away from the world to idols, and I find true joy, true satisfaction, true accomplishment. That's what He's after. If you're an older believer and you're not discipling, and you need help, come see me. But pray for me too. I need new ones. I'm asking God to give me some new people that I can spend a lot of time with. Ben doesn't know it, but this summer he's been immersed in Jack. That's not always a good thing. Ben's been stretched in some ways that he doesn't want to be stretched. He's learned some stuff, things that he wasn't expecting to learn. I've learned some stuff from him. But I set it up that way. I didn't tell him that until just now. Now he wants to quit, but he only has three weeks left. Who are they? Pray for them. Ask God to give you someone to pour your life into. And then do it with everything you've got. Help them to become complete in Christ. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for Paul and his genuine love for you. I thank you that that obviously rubbed off on Silvanus and Timothy. They made an impact on their disciples. And in turn, they rubbed off into the whole chain that we can look back on. Anyone who's in this room today who knows you has come to know you through the first century church because they were obedient. You multiply the process. Help us to see that part of the reason that we're stagnant is because we're not obedient. And part of the reason why we're not growing very much is because we're not obeying you in specific areas that the world can persecute and other young believers can learn from, that will help us to grow even more. We don't want 12 people dependent on us as Jesus had, but it's exactly what we need. So may you give us a whole passel of young ones, clamoring for direction, needing prayer and instruction. so that we can really grow up the way we need to. We thank You for what You'll do, Father, in Jesus' name, Amen.