Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Turn to First Thessalonians, chapter 2.
[00:00:06] We're going to start reading in verse 17.
[00:00:10] We're going to read the passage we have tonight. First Thessalonians 2, 17, 3, 13.
[00:00:21] But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time in person, not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, again and again. But Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy. Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone. And we sent Timothy, our brother and God's co worker in the Gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction just as it has come to pass. And just as you know, for this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.
[00:01:22] But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us the good news of your faith and love, and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us as we long to see you. For this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction, we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live. If you are standing fast in the Lord, for what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
[00:02:24] So the Civil War's ending is probably. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this. One of the most important days in American history. For example, even if you're not a history buff, you're aware of the Civil War and that it has ended. Maybe you don't know when. I hope you know when. But it has ended. A divided nation was unified on that day.
[00:02:48] And not only did we end slavery, but the nation is stronger when it's together. That was the driving principle. And that's what we believe today. That's why we are still a union today, because we believe that we are. Different states have personalities of their own. We, we are stronger together.
[00:03:07] In a similar way, this is kind of what the church is like. It brings different people together, though they have different identities and personalities because ultimately we are better together. We belong together. Not in isolation, not as a lone wolf type of Christian, but no, we belong together. Fundamentally, that's what a Christian is. The Christian life is not meant to be taken on alone. And in this passage we've seen now, and we'll continue to talk about the theme of union and its importance and how it's really emphasized here.
[00:03:48] But first, let's review. We want to remember what we've gone through. It's not too much, but we want to remember what this letter or these two letters that we're studying are about. So here's the review. Paul, Sylvanus or Silas and Timothy preached to and planted the church in Thessalonica. They are missionaries. They were chased out after doing this by an angry mob of pagans and Jews. And then eventually, because they loved this church so much, Paul and Silas sent Timothy back to check on them.
[00:04:24] And Timothy came back to them and reported, as we just read, that they're good, they have kept the faith, they have stood strong in the face of persecution. And Paul, being overjoyed, then wrote this letter that we're reading to encourage them and to then exhort them to continue in the faith as we will start to unpack next week.
[00:04:48] And then last week, we kind of saw Paul continue to talk about the same sort of idea, but also throw in some defenses of his ministry towards them.
[00:04:58] But here in this section, we kind of see him still talking about them keeping the faith in persecution, him wanting to see them, them being separated. These same ideas come up again and again. But now we're seeing an emphasis on communion and togetherness and presence and what exactly those do for the Christian life. So this intense yearning, this need for communion as in presence and unity and togetherness, it's a firm reminder that Christians, even from the beginning, belong as members of local churches. And so the main idea of this passage is this, because Christians are destined for difficulties, or you could say persecution, because Christians are destined for difficulties. Christ has given us the church for joy, encouragement, endurance and prayer.
[00:05:57] The church is central in the Christian life.
[00:06:01] And as we reflect on what exactly it does, let's remember the theme of 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
[00:06:09] Excel still more in faithfulness for the sake of Christ. That is to continue to excel in the faith, be faithful and do it more and more and increase in that point. Number one. The Church is for joy. The Church is for joy. Let's reread those first few verses to remind ourselves.
[00:06:35] But since we were torn away from you brothers for a short time in person, not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly, with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you. I, Paul, again and again. But Satan hindered us.
[00:06:57] For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you, for you are our glory and joy. Stopping there, Paul tells them emphatically that they are the joy of him and his fellow missionaries.
[00:07:16] But let's remember before we just skip over this phrase that we might be tempted to do so. Let's think, why does he feel this way? We can recall that after preaching the Gospel and seeing many of these Thessalonians convert to Christianity from paganism, the locals were furious. They chased the missionaries out of town. We know this, but we should remember at absolutely no point were the missionaries Paul, Silas and Timothy surprised that this happened. They weren't caught off guard by the angry mob or the persecution. We've read last week or two weeks ago that Paul had told them about how they were poorly treated in Philippi. This is a pattern, and this is Paul's second missionary journey. This is a pattern that he has endured time and time again. But Paul is still so concerned with them, he's not surprised. And so it appears that his primary concern is their faith.
[00:08:15] He has a selfless love for their faith, and it was manifested in this deep care and interest that they would endure through persecution, that they wouldn't succumb to the temptations of the devil and walk away from the faith, because they could have done that. They could have gone back into their normal lives.
[00:08:35] And so we can sympathize with him as this. He's having this driving desire to get back to them, to care for them. Remember a couple weeks ago, he said he was both like a mother and a father to them. The love he had for them was so intense and deep.
[00:08:57] In the movie Taken, Liam Neeson's daughter is taken. That might be a spoiler, but she is taken. And he says these famous words. He says, if you let my daughter go now to the kidnappers, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you. I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you. I will will find you and I will kill you.
[00:09:21] I think it's sort of like this now. Paul doesn't say these words, he's not threatening to kill anybody, but the desire to get back to them I think is, is analogous. I think we can kind of draw that connection. The point is he has this mind boggling and heart gripping love for these fellow Christians that he was really only with for a short while.
[00:09:49] And he's only not able to make it to them because he says Satan hindered him.
[00:09:57] Now that's interesting. How did Satan hinder him? We don't know the specifics of this. We should remember that Paul's theology said this last couple of weeks, it's like a foundation of a building when he writes. We can't always see it, but it upholds everything. He's writing like a building on top of it.
[00:10:18] Paul believes that the enemy, that Satan is at war with him. And not just him, all Christians everywhere. He believes in the phrase, you might have heard spiritual warfare.
[00:10:30] The way Paul wrote, he's not saying that they just didn't have time to come, that he's like, ah, well the devil made me do it. And he's just kind of excusing. What he's saying is, no, they tried. They had intentional plans to come again and again and again and again and they were stopped every single time. In fact, that word hindered in verse 18 he says, Satan hindered us. It may be a different word for you. Whatever it is in Greek, it is a militaristic term for stopping thwarting in battle. You can think when Germany tried to invade Russia and Russia thwarted them, they hindered them, they stopped them. It is this sort of stopping that Satan is doing. This is a war between the spiritual powers of evil with Satan and Christians on earth.
[00:11:22] But the love the missionaries have for these Christians can't be thwarted.
[00:11:29] Obviously Timothy got there eventually. That's actually why we have the letter today. It was delivered and so they made it. The love that they share with other Christians, for other Christians through Christ cannot ultimately be defeated by any hindrance of the devil.
[00:11:51] They love this church so much that they call this church their glory and their joy.
[00:11:58] It's hard to think of more intense language to talk about a group of people. The faith of other people make them feel that way. I want you to think about that. The Faith of other people make them feel that way?
[00:12:14] Do you even feel that way about your own church?
[00:12:18] These missionaries were with them for such a short while. Do we feel this way about our church? Do we feel this way about another church?
[00:12:27] Are we instead discontent, wishing that our church did music differently or had shorter sermons or whatever it might be, or something that the church your friends go to has? Is that what you want instead? Or maybe you look at all the other churches and you think, oh, those are all bad and those are enemies. What is it? Do we love other Christians? Whether they're here amongst us or at the church down the road? Do we love them the way that Paul loves these Christians?
[00:12:57] I think that's what we are called to other churches. Other Christians in their existence should be joyful for us, because the church is for joy.
[00:13:10] It is for sharing joy. No matter what circumstance we're going through in life. If you're happy, rejoice with the church. If you're depressed, find solace and comfort in the church. No matter what the shifting tides of life bring to you. The church stands strong like a lighthouse on the rock. You can see it. It does not move. It's there to remind us of the truth of the Gospel and the love of Christ.
[00:13:40] And Christ amongst us in the church. He is our joy.
[00:13:46] So the church is for joy.
[00:13:49] Point number two. The church is for encouragement.
[00:13:54] Look down at chapter three. Now, starting in verse one, he writes, therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind to Athens alone. And we sent Timothy, our brother and God's co worker in the Gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith that no one be moved by these afflictions.
[00:14:15] For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction just as it has come to pass. And just as you know, for this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor was in vain.
[00:14:36] So again, Paul and the other missionaries had warned them about this persecution. And Paul was worried about them. He thought they would be tempted. He didn't want the labor to be in vain. So they send Timothy, which we read about a few weeks ago in Acts 17, if you remember, and Paul has referenced it several times already for this. I just want you to think of your best friend, whoever that might be.
[00:15:03] It could be a parent or a sibling or a friend.
[00:15:09] When you are down when you need somebody else, to whom do you go?
[00:15:16] Now imagine sending that individual away into a dangerous zone where physical persecution of Christians is happening.
[00:15:29] That's what Paul did with Timothy.
[00:15:32] His love for the church was so great that he was willing to part ways with his friend and partner and son in the faith. And likewise, Timothy's love for the church was also so strong that he would leave his friend and his father in the faith to re enter persecution to check on this church.
[00:15:51] But interestingly, they don't make this sacrifice just because they want to self sacrifice to help this church. They're driven by love. They're driven by love. And they part ways for encouragement, to encourage the church and to be encouraged themselves. Right? They are longing to see them. It's not just trying to build up this church. This is also for the missionaries. They want to see these people and know how they're doing.
[00:16:22] The church was their joy and it was their source of encouragement.
[00:16:28] I think we all need a source of encouragement. We don't always think about it that way. Maybe you do.
[00:16:35] I think about when I was young, when I was a boy, when I would be down or sad about something, probably a bad basketball game, but it could have been anything. My dad was my source of encouragement and he would always tell me something and he would say, there are three things that will never change. God is good, God's on the throne, and I love you. And he'd say this all the time throughout my childhood. Now I won't have my dad on this earth forever. And many people don't have parents that love like that. But if you're in Christ, you always have the church. The church is always there to be your source of encouragement.
[00:17:20] It's always there. Even in deep depression. You can be like these missionaries who find encouragement in hearing of the faith of fellow Christians.
[00:17:30] I had the privilege of seeing a few of my now closest friends become Christians while I was in college. I want to tell you about one of them. His name is Jax.
[00:17:41] I have a lot of very fun stories about Jacks that I would love to tell you. So you have to ask me about him. He is just the craziest person on the planet. When I got to know him in college, he was not a professing Christian. He did not grow up as a Christian at all.
[00:17:55] But over time we got close somehow just became friends. And he saw that myself and another friend of mine named Garrett, we had a different source of joy in the Lord and he became curious about that. He just wanted to know more and so Garrett and I were going to this spiritual retreat in Colorado, and he randomly just really wanted to come. I don't even know if he was invited. And so he came with us. And on the airplane from Oklahoma City to Denver, I shared the gospel with him, just with a little illustration on a piece of paper. And he professed faith. And then he really struggled to live Christianly because he didn't know anything about it. He had no background, he'd never done it before. But today I get to enjoy so much encouragement because he is a faithful member of a church where he lives in Texas.
[00:18:51] This is encouraging to see people walking with the Lord.
[00:18:57] It doesn't do anything for me that necessarily that he's a Christian, but it is encouraging to see.
[00:19:03] So what we should do is get out there, share the gospel and walk alongside new believers, and you will start to understand the encouragement that these missionaries felt from seeing these Thessalonians walk with the Lord through difficulty.
[00:19:20] And in that way, the church is their encouragement.
[00:19:26] Point number three. The church is for endurance. The church is for endurance.
[00:19:36] Looking down at verse six now, but now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us the good news of your faith and love, and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us as we long to see you. For this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction, we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live. If you are standing fast in the Lord, for what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith.
[00:20:13] So the church is for endurance. These missionaries are comforted by this church. In all distress and affliction, they're comforted. And this comfort, as well as the encouragement and the joy, lead to endurance. We want to focus on endurance because this is a common theme of the letter. Remember endurance in the faith. This is central to the whole point of what he's writing. If the Thessalonians are to excel in the faith, if they're to continue living faithfully more and more, then they need endurance. They need some source of endurance. They can't make it up themselves. They're not endurance factories.
[00:20:56] As individuals, they need some help.
[00:21:01] How can we grow and do better in the faith if we don't endure and persevere?
[00:21:08] These missionaries are encouraged by a couple of things that I want you to know. First, we say that they're encouraged by their faith and love, the faith and love of the Thessalonians. And they're also encouraged that we read that they long to see them, right? They long to see the missionaries as the missionaries long to see them.
[00:21:29] Now, I'm not sure how the news for Paul could have been any better than this.
[00:21:35] The people that they love dearly are walking with the Lord. They're loving one another and they miss them. They have a mutual love, a shared love for one another.
[00:21:47] Now, I'm curious. We do mission trips consistently at this church. Have you ever thought about why we do mission trips?
[00:21:59] What is, what is the actual purpose?
[00:22:02] Maybe you think, you know, maybe you just assumed an answer, but think about it for a moment. Why do we do mission trips?
[00:22:09] Well, the missionaries, they long to see their friends. And the church longs to see our missionaries, for one. And so we go visit, we encourage them and we assist them.
[00:22:22] That means, in case you've had it misunderstood, we don't do missions for us. We don't do it for ourselves. Primarily, I don't sign up for myself. I sign up for the people I'm going to. In fact, if we're doing it for ourselves, I think we've missed the benefit and the goodness of missions. The goal of these short term trips we take should always be to encourage and comfort and assist missionaries or pastors or church leaders that live there. So if you have an opportunity to go, which you do, you can go to Colorado. Yes, that is a mission trip. And we can support and encourage and assist and help the local church there and that church's church leaders, we actually have the opportunity to do this. And when we do this, instead of wearing out the missionaries or the church folk, we actually charge them up. We give them endurance to persevere in the work longer. We help them with the extra energy and people that we might have.
[00:23:31] Now, while it's not quite the same, you know, us and our partnerships with the church in Colorado and this, you know, the Thessalonian Christians and these missionaries, not quite the same. You know, the Thessalonians didn't say these missionaries, but they were planted by them because another church sent them. The mutual love and encouragement and endurance that they get from one another is the same.
[00:23:54] The encouragement shared between these parties really does give them endurance.
[00:23:59] And now look at how Paul responds. Look at verse eight. He says, for now we live. If you are standing fast in the Lord. He. They live because the Thessalonians are faithful. That's remarkable. Now, they're not Living physically only because of it, but in the sense that they are spiritually renewed. When they hear of the faith of the Thessalonians, we kind of understand this difference that Paul understands between our outer self, our flesh, our physical bodies, and the inner self, the soul that's being renewed by the Lord. He says in 2nd Corinthians 4:16, Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
[00:24:49] So our bodies waste away the older we get.
[00:24:53] But despite that, whatever is happening on the outside, if we are in the Lord and we're walking with him, we're being renewed by the Spirit day by by day. And when they hear of these Thessalonians of their bodies wasting away, they are renewed. They're giving. They feel like they have been given new life, new encouragement, new endurance to persevere in the faith. That's what he's saying when he hears of their faith.
[00:25:18] So if you know the Lord Jesus, if you believe, then even now, your inner self is being renewed by his spirit, day and night, by day, and that's encouraging.
[00:25:30] And then in verse nine, he responds and says that they give thanksgiving to God, right? He says, for what thanksgiving can we return to God for you?
[00:25:40] Now, at first glance, this is seems like a very Bibley phrase, very Bibley verse. We're not surprised to hear him talking about giving thanksgiving to God. And that's good.
[00:25:52] But think about it just for a moment with me. They are giving thanks to God for the Thessalonians.
[00:26:01] So the Thessalonians faith, they're giving thanks to God for that faith.
[00:26:10] Now, in our world, this can actually be confusing, but here his theology again is beneath the surface of I believe, guiding us to understand that Paul sees faith as a gift, a gift of grace from God.
[00:26:30] We often talk, even if we don't really admit it, that faith really is something that comes from me, that I come up with it. And it's purely and 100% just my will and decision that creates it. But if that's the case, why then is God being thanked for their faith?
[00:26:51] It's because Paul understands that even this faith is a gift. He says in Ephesians 2, by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God.
[00:27:05] So I believe this is saying that salvation by grace through faith is a gift from God. And it is a gift because that means God gets all the glory.
[00:27:17] Yes, you actually do repent of your sins and put your faith in Christ. But you do that if God gives you that gift. And that means God gets all the glory.
[00:27:29] Even when the Thessalonians excel in their faith and endure intense persecution, it is God who gets the glory.
[00:27:38] If faith and endurance are just attained by us, then technically we do deserve a little bit of the glory and praise for being able to keep the faith. But it's God who keeps us. It is God who takes us in to begin with. And therefore God gets all the glory and we return thanksgiving to him as Paul does here and then the missionaries even so thanking God for how much glory and joy and endurance and encouragement they're getting from these Thessalonians. They still long to see them. They long to be together again.
[00:28:14] And if they've been hindered this many times, what else is there to do but pray?
[00:28:20] What else to do but pray? That brings us to our fourth point. The church is for prayer.
[00:28:27] We'll read this prayer at the end.
[00:28:30] Now, may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. The church is for prayer.
[00:28:56] And here Paul prays. This is not the first time he's talked about prayer. It's not the first time he's prayed. So last few weeks, I think every single time I've mentioned we should pray for other Christians, I'll say it again, we should pray for other Christians. But after this is different, I want us to kind of focus on a different angle. We're seeing after Paul goes on basically a three chapter monologue regarding the faith of the Thessalonians and his desire to see them, he seamlessly just slips into a prayer for them.
[00:29:28] Prayer to some of us, maybe most, maybe all, doesn't usually seem that easy. I think at least some of you in the room think it doesn't seem that easy to just slip into prayer.
[00:29:43] I'm assuming. So maybe answer this in your head. If I asked you about your prayer life, you would probably say you don't pray as much as you want to. You don't pray as much as you ought to. I think that that's the case for most Christians. We want to pray more. I think that's a good desire.
[00:30:02] But why don't we pray?
[00:30:04] Maybe you have a lot of different reasons. Sometimes I've heard people say, well, I just, I don't feel like I have Time to carve out, like time to pray throughout the day.
[00:30:15] Maybe you are busy, but do you see how just mid speech, Paul slips into this prayer?
[00:30:23] Why not pray like that?
[00:30:26] Spontaneous short prayers are an easy way to pray all the time. We don't have to. Let me say first, it is good to carve out a longer period of time for you to pray and, and maybe even more than once a day. But oftentimes our prayers can be short, 1, 2 sentence, spontaneous prayers to God and we can be living in prayer in a faithful way like that.
[00:30:54] So if that's what prayer can be, I think if we're not praying, then it's more likely because we don't think about God, we don't think about prayer. We're caught up in our relationships with people that are around us. We're caught up with the busyness of what we're doing. But if we stopped and thought and you look back at the day, maybe there are several occasions where you can slip into prayer just like this.
[00:31:22] Now we want to do this, but we need to keep God's Word on our mind. That'll help us. So think of God often, pray often, study the Bible regularly, memorize it so that it's on your mind, you're thinking about it, be committed and coming to church.
[00:31:42] And over time, God can and does shape our affections, our desires to want to pray to him more.
[00:31:51] And the reason you should do those things like pray and study the Bible and memorize it and come to church and do these things consistently, consistently all the time, is because they feed your prayer life. Not only does it help us to be of the right frame of mind to pray, but it feeds our prayer life. I just want to look at this one example in this brief prayer. Paul's theological knowledge, what he knows about the Word and who God is, kind of shines through and I think a cool way. It's not necessarily the main point of everything, but it's. I think it's just beautiful. But we can kind of miss it in English.
[00:32:27] So he prays that the Father and the Lord Jesus the Son would direct them to the Thessalonians. We see the word direct in verse.
[00:32:38] Is that 11? Yeah, verse 11. I don't know if you have a different word. It might be something like direct.
[00:32:45] Well, interestingly, all verbs in the Greek language, fun fact, they look different, they have different endings. We would have direct, direct directs. Directed directing. That's pretty much all. That's pretty much all we have. But each like option, if you're Talking about one person or two people or those people or me or us all have different endings. So what he's saying here, what you see as you read it in Greek, is that this verb is a plural verb, or it's not a plural verb like you would expect. It's a singular verb. So he's saying the Father and the Son direct. But the direct is referring to a singular person.
[00:33:29] Paul is saying that they are one God and the one God would direct them.
[00:33:36] So we see Paul knowing who God is. It floods his prayer life. Every word he says is sprinkled with his theology, and it's just beautiful.
[00:33:47] He understands the Trinity and he prays like it, too.
[00:33:51] And we also see in this prayer that his priorities are aligned. We see now the Word. And at the beginning of verse 12 is a word that almost always is translated as but. And I think it should be translated that way. So we read that he's asking God to direct them to the Thessalonians, but may the Lord make you increase. I think that's a better way for us to understand. Because he's not just saying that. He wants God to help them come to them, and he wants God to help them grow in the faith. What he's actually saying is, God, we want to see them again.
[00:34:30] Help us see them again. But even if not, what's far more important is that they continue to grow in the faith. That's what he's saying in this prayer. He's understanding that ultimately, even if they never get to see one another again, this desire and longing he has, if it's never fulfilled, he wants them to grow in the faith. That is far more important.
[00:34:56] So this is so important, because as Christians, we do need to hold people with an open hand. God might take people away from us. We might never get them back.
[00:35:08] They could move, they could die. They could just move on to another area. But whatever happens, we must love the church.
[00:35:17] This actually reminds me of the seminary hymn of my seminary that they sing at every graduation that has a line where we sing, we meet to part, and part to meet.
[00:35:32] And a bunch of grown men just sob when we sing it. Because what we're saying is, we come together knowing that we're going to go out. We build these bonds knowing that we probably won't see each other ever again. But we know that as we part, one day we will be united together in Christ, in glory.
[00:35:52] This is the eschatological, the long thinking that Paul has. He knows that one day Christ will return, whether or not they get to see each other on this earth. And they will be unified once again.
[00:36:07] But whatever happens, we must love the church. We must love the people of the church, and we must grow in holiness, which means we need to kill sin, run away from it, and live more and more like Jesus, because Jesus is coming back one day. Christ gave up his life to redeem sinners like you. And if you believe in him, then shouldn't your life reflect that reality? And Paul loved these people so much that he prayed for their love and holiness. That's what was on his mind, their love and their holiness.
[00:36:46] Students, the love with which Paul had for these people, I think is similar to the love that your parents have for you, that your pastors have for you, that your small group leaders have for you, that I have for you.
[00:37:03] Soon, some sooner than others, you will not be in this room.
[00:37:09] Youth group's not forever. At most it's six years. That is not a long time in the grand scheme of your life. You will face difficulties. Your faith will be tested. It'll even be tested when you're here. But all the more as you go on, your faith will be tested. And all we all want is for you to keep the faith, to stand firm, for your faith to be authentic and genuine, for the labor of the church to not be in vain. And one of the best ways, the prescribed way that God gives us for you to do that is to be a member of a local church. That is the key. That's what you need to do whether you're here or whether you move somewhere else and it's at a different church. Whatever it is, you almost certainly, I can almost guarantee you that you will not keep the faith if you want to be a lone wolf Christian because you'll be vulnerable to the attacks of Satan, no shepherds to protect you as a sheep, you will not stand firm either, because you will have no one to grab onto you when you stumble, which we all do. But in the church, your brothers and sisters are here to catch you when you fall.
[00:38:21] You will not increase in love without the church. Because with whom can you share love and affections more than the church, where we are all unified by a belief in our Savior.
[00:38:32] Christ loved the church so much he died for her. You too must love the church. You also will not live a holy life without the church. Sin increases in power when you live anonymously behind closed doors without any accountability. But when you're a member of a church, your brothers and sisters see your sin and you confess it to them. And they don't throw you out. They don't judge you in that way. They help you repent. They help you to return to holiness because they love you.
[00:39:02] You will not find such love without the Church. Paul and the missionaries knew this and they were teaching this to the Thessalonians because Christians are destined for difficulties. Christ has given us the Church for joy, encouragement, endurance and prayer. Let's pray.
[00:39:24] Father God, we thank you this evening for the Church. God, help us to see why it's so important, how it helps us in our walk with you, Lord, grow our love for the church and God for those of us who don't know you. We pray that they would see the trouble of living in the world apart from you without the fellowship and love of the Church.
[00:39:47] God, call them to yourselves. Help us to learn more from your word as we discuss it now. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
