Good morning. We're beginning a series now on First Thessalonians, excuse me. And the first message in this series is entitled Encouragement and Instruction to a Small New Church. Now, this passage that we have in 1 Thessalonians 1, and verses 1 through 7, introduces not only the letter but also the whole theme of Paul's ministry and his understanding of what has happened here in Thessalonica. So let's stand for the reading of God's word as we read 1 Thessalonians chapter one and verses one through seven. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you, or for you all, this is a Southerner talking, for y'all. making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of our God and Father, knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. Let us pray. Our heavenly Father, we thank you for the riches of your word. We pray that you'll open our eyes to see wonderful things here, Lord, things that have been there all along. But Lord, by your spirit, impress them upon our hearts and help us, Lord, to be doers of your word and not hearers only. And we give you all praise and all glory in Jesus' name, amen. Now, before we begin to dive into the text, we need to have a little bit of a historical context. When I was in Bible college, the professors there drilled into our heads that a text without a context is nothing but a pretext. In other words, men will use God's word as a springboard to dive into whatever they want to talk about. And you have to stay in the context. We want the historical grammatical interpretation of scripture. And that means that every word and every phrase is there for a purpose and has a meaning. and that there is a train of thought that it's our obligation to follow, to identify and follow the train of thought. We have a tendency to read the Bible as though we already know what it's going to say. And then we jump to all the wonderful phrases that we like and we miss the point of the apostle or whoever is writing the particular passage of scripture. And so the Thessalonica was a commercial center. It was the largest and most populous center in Asia Minor. And so here we have a map of the New Testament Roman provinces. And here we have Thessalonica down here in Macedonia. Now, this area of the world was a major area of trade. It had multiple languages, but Greek was the trade language. It's interesting to note that God had established in the time of the apostles a trade language in Koine Greek that allowed the apostles to come to any town and know that a certain percentage of the community would speak fluently in Koine Greek. That allowed them to proclaim the gospel to those who did speak the trade language and then they could immediately turn to their neighbors and friends out in the villages beyond the metropolitan areas and share the, not just the gospel, but the sound doctrine that comes along with the gospel and to go into even deep theological ideas that would take years for someone to learn a language proficiently enough to be able to share it with somebody in their own language. Now we spend years today in language studies to go to missions, but there's a lot to be said for utilizing the trade languages of any area of the world. and then to allow those who are native to that area to take the rest of the process out into the villages and towns where the trade language is not necessarily understood. Now Claudius was the Roman Empire during this time and it was a time of substantial peace which meant that there was a lot less disruption of things. You didn't have to be concerned about being conscripted to go to fight. Neither did you have to be concerned about roving bands of enemies coming through your territory. So this time of peace was something, they called it the Roman peace. It was a time that allowed the apostles to do their work of evangelism without great distraction. Now, immorality was rampant in Thessalonica. Baby girls especially were often abandoned. They didn't have abortion in the way that we have today. But if a baby was born and it turned out to be a girl, and girls were less valuable to the family than boys, The girls were often taken out and the ward was exposed. They would be just placed out in the countryside and left to die. And so many of the early Christians would go out and gather these little girls and bring them together and bring them up and raise them as Christians. And that was part of the beginning of the convent movement within the church, this rescue operation of children that had been abandoned by their pagan parents. Crime was also rampant, so much so that homes were built with no windows because of the bandits and the burglars and the other people that would take your stuff. And so homes were actually designed, you know, for those who were in the middle class and lower middle class, with just no windows and then heavy doors to be able to keep people out. Murder and divorce were commonplace in their society. It was not unusual for people to be in their third and fourth marriage, and usually that was at the expense of the women who were abandoned in order to, in a sense, trade in for a newer model. We have that kind of thing going on today as well. So Thessalonica was a lot like every major city in the world today. If you go to certain neighborhoods, even here in Salem, you will find that there's a lot of this type of stuff going on, and it's not being checked by law enforcement very successfully. Now a little bit more historical context. Paul and Silas. Silvanus is actually Silas. In the book of Acts, you read about Silas. And his Greek name is Silvanus. And Paul, Silas, and Timothy were on Paul's second missionary journey, which took this route, if you follow the red line from Antioch all the way up through, you know, Galatia and, or, I can't see all the small print here but I'll just tell you. Thessalonica is right over there, okay. So that's where they're about midway through and they're going to return by, mainly by ship, back to Antioch after going down through Jerusalem. So A little bit more historical context. They came to Thessalonica around 48 to 49 A.D. That means that Christ had been crucified around 30 A.D. And so we have now about 18 years after the crucifixion and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. After leaving the Thessalonians roughly a year earlier, after going to their community and preaching and teaching, Paul is now writing this letter back to the church to instruct them and to encourage them. He is writing to them from Corinth. After having lived through some very intense persecution and hostility, he has gone through a lot of pain and suffering during this time, and he tells the Thessalonians himself that the good reports that were coming back to Paul by the hand of John Mark, or Timothy rather, of Timothy, that the Thessalonians were doing well, that things were going well, that these were the only highlights in his difficult life at this time. And so they were just a joy, it was a joy for him to hear that the Thessalonian church was standing firm and following through. And so with that understanding, we have this small new church standing firm as a tiny island of Christian faithfulness and Christian purity and morality in a sea of pagan immorality and false religion. And it's just, it's miraculous that they would survive. But they are not only surviving, they are thriving in this situation. And so we read in Acts chapter 17 in verses one through four, a little bit of the biblical context in the book of Acts itself. Now, prior to this, you might remember that Paul had received a vision to go to Macedonia, and he ends up in Philippi. And there in Philippi, he casts a demon out of a little girl who is following them around prophesying. She's very valuable because of her ability to predict the future. And so her owners, this is a little slave girl, Her owners go to the officials and they arrest Paul and Silas and throw them into prison. And so they're in prison. They are singing and an earthquake opens all the doors and they're set free. And the jailer comes running over and falls to his knees and says, what must I do to be saved? And we have that famous response. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. You and your household. And so we have this wonderful, dramatic conversion experience by the jailer. And because of that, we can see that when God allows you to get arrested, it's not because you've done something wrong or you've displeased him. He has an appointment for you with the jailer, okay? He wants, you know, if you find yourself in the back of an ambulance someday and say, God, why did you allow me to get hit by that car? And the answer is, because I wanted you to talk to this emergency medical technician here in the ambulance and a few other people at the hospital. So don't worry, I'll heal your leg, you'll be fine. But in the meantime, look for the jailer, look for the person who God is sovereignly bringing you into touch with. And so now they leave Philippi and come down, eventually arriving in Thessalonica. And so when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went to them and for three Sabbaths, that's three weeks in a row, reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying, this Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded. And a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. Now, some of the Jews and Greeks believed, but not all. And those who did not believe were very upset. And so in Acts 17, five, we read, but the Jews who were not persuaded became envious. Imagine some of the prominent women have responded to the gospel and gotten saved. Now, how many of those women were married? And how many husbands were saying, what? You're a follower of Jesus? You're my wife. This is not right. And so we are seeing these women be persecuted by their husbands, and then ultimately the persecution turns to the apostles and the apostolic team. And so they took some of the evil men from the marketplace and gathering a mob, They set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason. Jason was the man who was now hosting the apostolic team in his own home. And they sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren to the rulers of the city. Now this is a pretty rough treatment. They're being dragged to the rulers. Christianity is most often persecuted by competing religions, such as Judaism in the first century, and we see that in this case. Later, during the Reformation period, the Roman Catholic Church persecuted the Protestant believers very, very furiously. And then in modern days, beginning even in the 700 AD, we have Islam on the scene. In the far east, we have in India, Hinduism. It's a major persecuting religion. And also Buddhism. We often think of Buddhists as being very peaceful people. But, you know, when they're in the dominant position in society and can do whatever they please, there was a lot persecution by Buddhists against the Christians. Shinto is the same in Japan. It's always the competing religion that is concerned that they'll lose because a false religion is a means of controlling people. And in some cases in church history, the church itself has been hijacked by men, evil men, and used as a means of controlling people with fear. And so we see that happen in the Roman Catholic Church. And with all due respect to my Roman Catholic neighbors, the history is of using a false doctrine to put people in a state of fear so that they were afraid to disagree with the local priests. And the priests were often in very close relationship to the local magistrate. And so we see that this is where persecution normally stems from. And it often is sparked by one or another of a married couple getting saved. And the one who is not getting saved is usually either a part of another religion or just wants to use the persecuting power of that religion to go after the people who he feels or she feels have ruined their marriage. Now, religious plurality. When we talk about being a pluralistic society, the truth is that pluralism is just a transitional moment from one dominant religion to another. And we are in the last stages of that transition in America where Christianity has been bumped aside and secular humanism has taken its place. And a lot of people don't know what secular humanism is, but it is an alternative religion. It is a godless religion, and it elevates the good of humanity. to the level of God. And in the process, it devalues individual human beings to the level of human resources. And that is why in secular humanism, as we see in communism and so on, people can be a very expendable in order to pursue the quote, good of humanity. And so I fear that we're going to see in the years to come, if certain forces begin to gain ascendance in our culture, that we'll find huge numbers of people around the world are expendable for the good of humanity as we try to fight climate change and whatever else is the target. So, still more biblical context in Acts. Acts chapter 17 and verses 6b, and they were crying out to their magistrates, those who have turned the world upside down have come here too. And Jason has harbored them. And these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king, Jesus. And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And so when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. So these young Christians were required to post some kind of bond in order to be released onto their own homes. Now I want you to notice something, harking back to our, message on the gospel concerning the kingdom of God, that Paul is preaching the gospel concerning Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. It's very clear that these apostles are proclaiming there is another king, that he has his own kingdom. that you can enter that kingdom by means of believing the gospel. And in doing so, you are coming out of the kingdoms of this world and into the kingdom of God's dear son. And that is going to create a lot of alarm on the side, on the part of the government authorities and the religious authorities that are often the handmaiden of those governing authorities. So keep your eyes open. and realize that if you're proclaiming the true gospel that's in the Bible, it is the gospel not only of our personal salvation by faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, for the glory of God alone, it is also a gospel that is transferring people into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And to say that Jesus is Lord is to say Jesus is my king. And he has a higher authority than any other king. And so, just a bit more context here. In Acts 17 verse 10, then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. And these were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, they're talking about the city itself, in that they received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. And therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, and here we go again, and prominent women as well as men. Now, the people of Berea are more fair-minded than the people of Thessalonica as a whole, but, as we're going to see, the church of the Thessalonians is far more amazing. We don't get any record of what the Berean churches were doing, but we do know from Paul's letters to the Thessalonians that the Thessalonian church was just wonderful. It was amazing. So, last little bit of context here. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away to go to the sea, but both Silas and Timothy remained there. And so those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed. Paul didn't want to be there in Athens alone. So he waits for them to arrive. So thus ends the story of the church of the Thessalonians as far as we have record of it in the book of Acts. So now let's dive into the epistle itself. A greeting and a benediction. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the Church of the Thessalonians, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, grace is God's unmerited favor. That's the primary definition of grace. You may be a little less aware of the definition of peace. The peace of God is undeserved reconciliation. A lot of times people confuse this idea of the peace of God with feelings of peace, you know, from temporal dangers. Well, that doesn't play out very well in the Bible. The peace of God that we have is he's no longer my enemy. I have been reconciled with my creator. He's now my father. He loves me. And so whatever I go through in this world, as stressful as it may be, remember Paul is writing from Corinth after having been through tremendous amount of suffering and persecution. So when he talks about the peace of God, he's not talking about a walk in the park. He's talking about going through all the hardships of life knowing that God is with you. has forgiven you and accepted you, that you are reconciled to God. And so that's the peace of God that Paul has in mind. Hebrews chapter four and verse 16, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And so grace and peace as a benediction, as a greeting, enables us to come boldly into God's presence. And we come there to pray. We come there to make requests. So what was so great about this church in Thessalonica? Well, we get a hint here in verses two through five. We give thanks to God always for you all. making mention of you in our prayers. Notice that the apostles are constantly praying for those who have come to Christ. And this is a responsibility that now has been handed down to the elders and to the deacons of the local church, to be continuously praying for the members of the church, praying without ceasing. How do you pray unceasingly if you've got to go to work? You ever think about that? How do you pray all the time if you've got other things you've got to do? Well, I've got a theory about that. I think every thought that we have, we have a choice as to whether we're talking to ourselves or whether we're talking to God. So turn your thoughts to God and talk to God about whatever you're doing. You know, when you're thinking, well, should I go to the grocery store first or should I go to the hardware store first? You could be saying that inside your head to yourself, right? And that's not a prayer. But if you're saying, God, should I go to the grocery store first or to the hardware store first? Now that's praying. And God may just say, go to the hardware store. There's going to be somebody there I want you to meet. And so we're walking in the spirit. We're listening to the Lord. We're talking to the Lord constantly. So whatever you're thinking about, why not think it toward God? And that may be one step closer to praying without ceasing. So these apostles are praying for the church, but here's what they're remembering. Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience, or in another translation, endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God the Father, And in verse five, for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit. So what we see here is that the three aspects of the church are faith, love, and hope. And these three correspond to the works of three members of the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Does that sound familiar to you? In 1 Corinthians 13, verse 13, we read, and now abide faith, hope, and love, these three. But the greatest of these is love. We're gonna find out in a moment why the greatest of these is love. In this same letter, Paul admonishes the Thessalonians. But let us who are of the day be sober. putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. Paul has in his mind a clear relationship between these three, faith, love, and hope, and how they work together to bring us into an experience of our salvation that is observable by the world around us. The relationship between these three is not a mere psychological state of mind, but rather it's a result of God's work of salvation in every believer. Now, going to look to see what John Piper had to say about this passage, I found this wonderful quote. He says, so the upshot of all this is that the faith and love and hope of verse three of 1 Thessalonians 1, are not general psychological principles, that happen to work and make people more productive and stable. Rather, they are profound theological realities. They come from a relationship with the living Lord Jesus Christ. They are the result and evidence of being chosen by God the Father, and they are the work of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of a particular message called the gospel. Isn't that wonderful? I love John Piper. So what is the difference between a work of faith and a labor of love? A work of faith can be any action motivated by faith in God. But it can also be the result of that action as what we would call a work. For instance, a work of art, okay? A work of, craftsmanship. We are able to do a work. And so Paul has in mind here that something is done which creates a result and that that is motivated by faith in God. You wouldn't have done that if you didn't believe in God. It is your faith that's moving you to that action. So an example would be obeying God by paying a tithe is a work of faith. You do it, and now it's done, okay? You paid your tithe, you gave your offering, and now it's done. It's an action, and it was a work motivated by faith. Obeying God just by coming to church is also a work of faith. You say, I'm gonna get up today, and I'm gonna go to church, and you get here, and you attend, and now it's over and done. That's a work of faith. You wouldn't do it if you didn't believe. Now, a labor of love, on the other hand, is the exertion of oneself over time to keep on doing whatever is needed. Now, think about this. This is laborious. This is where it gets tough. Setting up the sound system every week, week after week, is a labor of love, Luke. See, it's not an over and done thing. It's something you do every week. It's a labor of love. Preparing the worship is a labor of love because it's an ongoing and it's often difficult. And you can't say, oh, I'm too tired today. I'm not gonna do that. It's a labor of love. Preaching a sermon week after week is a labor of love. It's not a work of faith that's just over and done. It's a labor of love that is ongoing. And we need both. So a work of faith versus the labor of love is normally, a work of faith is not laborious because the Lord himself actually does all the work. And we simply trust him enough to obey him, such as when we give money that he's the one who provided it. It's not like we're being so sacrificial, he's the one who's providing enough for us to be able to make that contribution. Now a labor of love is also motivated by faith. So don't get this wrong. It's not that faith is not involved in a labor of love. It's just that in a labor of love, we continue to fulfill the obligation because the need is ongoing. A labor of love is stable and dependable over time. And that's what allows us to be able to count on one another. So if you're involved in a local church, we're going to need both works of faith and labors of love. 1 Corinthians 13 again reads, and now abide faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. Can you see why love is the greatest? is because so much of the Christian life is a matter of consistently laying our lives down for one another. And the whole chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians describes what that labor of love looks like. Love is patient, love is kind. These are ongoing and sometimes difficult things that we do because we love one another in Christ. The main difference between a work of faith and a labor of love is the amount of time and laborious effort that is involved. So, working by faith and laboring in love are central to what it means to be a believer. First Corinthians 16, 15 says, I urge you, brethren, you know the household of Stephanus, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, the first ones to come to Christ, and that they have devoted themselves, this is plural, the whole household, to the ministry of the saints, that you also submit to such, that means cooperate with them, make their work easier, and to everyone who works and labors with us. Do you see the distinction there again? There are some we depend upon for works of faith, such as supporting the church with offerings and tithes. The missionary needs works of faith because the missionary is doing labors of love. and it's a long and arduous trail that they're on and they need others to support it by their works of faith. Romans 14 verse 23, but the man who has doubts about eating or not eating something is condemned if he eats because his eating is not from faith. And everything that does not come from faith is sin. Now we could spend all day unpacking this idea, but let me just say at this point, everything you do should be submitted to the question, what does this have to do with the glory of God? Is this a display of his goodness and wisdom, or is this just a display of my own willfulness? If we submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, then everything in our lives should be done in such a way that he is honored and glorified because we are participating in the display of his goodness and his wisdom in our particular situation. And anything you do, even the smallest thing, if you can't do it with confidence that this is the will of the Lord, then to some degree that's sin. So press in. God's not holding back his revealed will. You do what you do with confidence and boldness. That's why Martin Luther was once asked, he once made the statement, if you can't avoid sinning, then sin boldly. He didn't mean that you should enjoy sinning. He meant don't be so timid and hesitant about this that you end up doing it half-heartedly and without confidence. So do what you believe is pleasing to the Lord, and if it's wrong, it's really wrong. You know, just really make a big mistake rather than lots of little ones, right? So we have The principle of whatever is not of faith is sin. So we must be careful not to drift into doing one, such as works of faith, and then failing to do the other, which is the labors of love. And don't drift into just doing the labors of love and think that you're now excused from participating in works of faith. One is a momentary sacrifice, the other is a long trail of sacrifice, and both are necessary. Now the patience of hope comes at this point. The patience of hope is an expression of our confidence in our relationship to Christ. Let me show you what I mean from Paul's writing to Thessalonians. We give thanks to God always for you, for you all, I keep missing that. making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God, knowing, beloved, your election by God. Now, who's doing the knowing in this passage? Is Paul saying, we know you were elect? Or is he saying, your faith, your work of faith, your labor of love, in the patience of your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God, knowing your election by God. I think it's the Thessalonians who are doing the knowing in this verse. And the reason is, it's their confidence in their election that allows them to be sustained in their works of faith and their labors of love. we can endure the difficulty of serving only to the degree that we have a firm hope that our efforts, our labors in the Lord will not be in vain. And that when Jesus returns, and that is, by the way, a major theme in both 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, the return of the Lord, what's gonna happen? Who goes first? All this is there. And they're very much interested in knowing, how's he coming back? When is he coming back? Why? Because it is the basis for their endurance. The basis for their patience in suffering persecution is rooted in their confidence that they have been chosen by God and that all this suffering will not be in vain, that he's coming back and there will be eternal rewards for faithfulness. And if you lose that hope, it's very hard to sustain works of faith and labors of love. The power of the Holy Spirit is the evidence that God is at work to save those whom he has chosen. Knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. Now, Paul seems to be saying in this passage, we knew that you were among God's elect because we were so powerfully anointed by the Holy Spirit at the time when we preached the gospel to you. We were hot. We were really on that day. We could tell God had all the power of the Holy Spirit focusing on breaking through the darkness in your hearts and bringing you out of that darkness and into the light. We could tell God had big plans for you because he empowered us to be so anointed in our ministry that day. When God targets someone for salvation, it often shows up in the extraordinary spiritual power of his evangelist. I don't know if you've ever been out and doing street witnessing, but you will talk to some people and it's like you're just beating your head against a wall. And then you have these other moments in which somehow you just feel like, this guy's gonna get saved. I can tell. It's like every question he asks, I feel like I have a word from the Lord for him. Every direction the conversation goes, it's like a hound is on the trail of a rabbit here. The hound of heaven is chasing this person down. And then they come to Christ, and you go, I knew you were chosen by God, because I'm not usually that good. I'm not usually that on, but I was that day. And I've had experiences like that. Now they received the gospel in affliction, we're told. You became followers of us and of the Lord. Now I want to point out, just because of this phrase, you became followers of us and of the Lord. Why would he say it that way? New believers normally get their understanding of how to live for God by watching how older believers are living for God. And that can be a problem. That's a big problem when the older believers have lost their zeal for God's glory and have become lukewarm. Jesus once rebuked the Pharisees for the fact, he says, you chased down heaven and earth to get a convert and then you turn him into a worse child of hell than yourself. And we can do that in the church as well. We can go out and evangelize and then we bring a person into our lives and into our church and they go, is this all there is? I thought this gospel was life changing. I don't see any life change here. I just see a group of people who like to get together. I don't see anybody setting the world on fire or turning the world upside down. New believers want to be involved in helping take the gospel on to the next person and the person after that. That's what happened in the Jesus movement. During the Jesus movement, when we came to Christ, and then we'd come into a church, and it's a sleepy little church, and they don't really want any visitors. They just want everybody to stay away and leave them alone. And the hippie church, hippie Christians would come in and be, hey, wake up. We're here on a great commission. We've got work to do. And the church could be revived by these young baby Christians who didn't know any better. And thank God they didn't just fit in to a sleepy little church that didn't have a vision for evangelism. So the church in Thessalonica was a church in which they had a vision for evangelism as we're gonna see. I'm sliding here. So revival of older believers in the church often comes from the zeal of newborn believers as they simply take God's word at face value and start obeying it. And it's sometimes annoying to the older believers. And I hate it when I hear an older believer say to a younger believer, well, you'll find out, you'll realize someday, this is not entirely practical. That was for then, that was for then, we don't live then. It's very sad. The Holy Spirit gives us joy, especially in the midst of trials and affliction. in 6B, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit. Now, the reason that there's joy in the Holy Spirit when you're going through affliction is because God is preparing us to live with him in eternity. Rather than expecting times of peace and prosperity, We should expect times of persecution and affliction because God is preparing us to live with him in eternity, not to live here comfortably in this life. So when you go through a trial, it's because God's getting you ready for there rather than just leaving you comfortable here. You know, God, please give us the right kind of trouble. Give us the right kind of trials, the trials that come from obedience. Give us the problems that come from doing what you say in your word. And when something happens, help us to rejoice, to have the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Holy Spirit. You invite somebody into your home, you share with them, They leave, and you notice that some things are gone. Rejoice. You have people over to your home, and their toddler pees on your couch. Rejoice, and the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ are now in your couch, as well as the odor. These are trials that cost you to obey God. You should not go into this with the idea that it won't cost you something. And you've experienced the joy of your salvation and the joy of being useful to God when you experience some of those costs. And so I encourage you, don't be afraid of suffering. Suffering prepares you for eternity and it allows you to experience joy in the meantime. The joy of the Holy Spirit will sustain us through our trials with a peace and a joy that are beyond human understanding. That's why Paul said, if in this life only, you know, we have meaning and we are of all men most miserable. Because we're doing this with the idea that eternity's coming. We are living this way because we know he's coming back. And that hope sustains us in going through these trials. Take that hope away and all of this makes no sense at all. So affliction provides us actually with a great opportunity. I wanna make this statement. The more difficult it is to obey God at any given time, the greater our joy will be when we actually do obey. Now in the moment when you're trying to decide, there's not a whole lot of joy. But when you finally make that decision and do what you believe in your heart is right, there's joy there. And the greater the eternal reward will be when we will receive in heaven because of that obedience. And the greater the glory God will receive by our good example. Now a lot of Christians are a little nervous about this idea that there's great eternal reward for our obedience in heaven. And yet it's all over the New Testament. Don't confuse the freedom of our salvation by grace through faith alone. with the rewards that come from obedience in eternity. Because Jesus talks about it all the time. And there is no conflict between looking forward to eternal rewards and receiving our salvation by faith alone. Consider the work of faith by which the Thessalonians and others gave support to Paul's ministry to the poor Christians in Jerusalem. In 2 Corinthians 8.1, moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, which would include Thessalonica. Okay, now he's writing to the Corinthians. Don't lose sight of that. Writing to the Corinthians, getting ready to come by and receive an offering for the poor Christians in Jerusalem. And here's what he has to say, that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. In other words, because they were going through a trial of affliction, and because they remain joyful as they obey, even though they were going through deep poverty, their contribution counted as much greater than a gift of the same amount given without these circumstances. Now, we know that that's the case. The combination of their great affliction and the abundance of their joy and the depth of their poverty made their gift all the more pleasing to God than anyone else's gift. Do you remember the widow's mite? How Jesus was watching as all these wealthy Jews were coming and putting their offerings into their offering plate, and up comes this poor widow. I don't know if she was this pretty, but we'll go with this, right? She's got her two mites, and Jesus says, she has given more than all the rest, because she gave all she had in the midst of her poverty. It's not mentioned whether she had joy, but we can probably assume there was joy in her doing what she could in that moment, and God counted it as the greatest gift that had been given because she gave it out of her affliction with joy in the midst of poverty. So don't discount this. When things are tight, when things are not easy, when things are rough, Remember the Thessalonians. Remember the people of Macedonia. And then Paul writes to the Thessalonians, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. The remainder of this letter, and also of 2 Thessalonians, we will see how the Thessalonians were exemplary in so many ways. And yet, he also takes the time to point out how they could excel still more and do even better by following some simple instructions from the Apostle Paul. And so, what is Paul's point? Here's a summary statement. The faith in God that produced in the Thessalonian church their works of faith and the love that they had for one another that produced their ongoing labor of love were both motivated and sustained by the patience of their hope that Christ really is coming back one day and that he will judge everyone according to the works that they have done. Their patience of hope supported their works of faith and their labors of love. So live in the patience of your hope. Paul writes in 2 Timothy chapter four and verse one, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word. Live your life in that patience of hope that he's coming back. 2 Timothy 4, verse 8. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day. And not only, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Are you looking forward to his appearing? Are you looking forward to the rewards that come from faithfulness? Are you living in that patience of hope that supports you in actually doing works of faith consistently? And actually engaging in labor of love without becoming weary in well-doing? because you know your labors in the Lord are not in vain, that he is coming back, and that your hope is that when he arrives, it's a new heaven and a new earth, and you will be received into glory and go on into eternity. That's what we are all about. That's what it means to be a Christian. We have been saved from our sins. And now we have repented and turned away from our sins. And we do battle against the temptation to sin. Why? Because we live in the patience of hope that he's coming back and that we will be glad that we didn't give in and go back into the world. Through our eternal salvation is a free gift received by faith alone. The eternal rewards that God has promised. for our works of faith and our labor of love will be ours when our hope of his return is finally fulfilled. And so let us, brothers and sisters, let us live for that day. And I just plead with you, don't let this moment, this morning, pass by and you say, well, that was nice, that was a clever insight there. No, this is life, this is what it's all about. In your heart right now, embrace this truth that your own works of faith and labors of love will be rewarded. And that is the patience of hope that sustains you in finishing the race. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we give you glory and praise and honor. And Lord, we ask that you would continue to open our eyes as we've studied this wonderful letter. that you would instruct us as a new, small church in this community. And we give you praise for it, in Jesus' name, amen.