1 Thessalonians 2 says, 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'll
Paul again and again, but Satan hindered us. What is our hope
or our joy or crown of books and before our Lord Jesus at
his coming? Is it not you for you are our
glory and our joy. Therefore, when we could bear
it no longer, we're willing to be left behind at Athens alone.
And we sent Timothy, our brothers and God's coworker in the gospel. of Christ to establish and exhort
you in your faith that no one be moved by these afflictions.
For you yourself know that we were destined for this. For when
we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we would
suffer these afflictions 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. Let us pray. Oh, great God, I pray that you
would show me your slave mercy this morning, Lord, and give
me the grace to preach your word accurately, Father, in context,
Lord. And I just pray, Lord, that my
words would be clear, Lord. I wouldn't become sidetracked
unless it's for your purpose, Lord. And I just pray, Lord,
that you'd be glorified through that which is preached this morning,
Lord. I pray that as your word goes forth this morning, Lord,
it would capture our minds and capture our ears and our hearts,
oh, God, and that we would Come closer to You, Lord. Come more
intimate with You, Lord. Come more obedient to You, Lord. And of all, Lord, that we will
rejoice through all things, that so when the world looks at us,
they might glorify You and Your coming. And we ask this in no
other name but the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, Paul, Silas, and Timothy
planted this church right after they planted the church of Philippi. As they come in and they planted
this church, they was only there for a short period of time, and
then because of the persecution which Paul pretty much received
everywhere he went, he didn't have a long visit there. He was,
I think, by a man named Jason in the book of Acts, was keeping
them and Paul at his home, and they come looking for Paul to
have them arrested, and they were not there, so they arrested
Jason, and Paul was able to escape a beating this time. And Paul,
Like in all the places he preached and teached, whether he was there
for two years like he was in Corinth or here, he fell in love
with the people. He become very intimate with
them, which when you think about it, the Spirit of God lives in
me and it lives in someone else. We do become more intimate, especially
the more that we're together. And Paul, from 17 to 19 of chapter
2, he's expressing that, you know, his longing for them, he's
expressing how he wants to see them face to face and he reminds
them how he was torn away. And in a way there, it was as
though they become an orphan and Paul become an orphan father.
As though, could you imagine you being torn away from your
children? How much pain and how much agony that will cause you. And how much pain and agony it
will cause the children to be torn away from their parents. There would be great agony in
there. And though Paul had no physical children, he considered
those whom he ministered to often to be his spiritual children.
So the same agony that we would feel being torn away from our
physical kids is the same agony Paul felt being torn away from
those whom he considered to be his children, though he only
spent a short period of time with them. He had a great love
for them. As if you remember in the book
of Philippians, when Paul talked to them, he says in verse one,
I mean, chapter one of eight, he says, for God is my witness,
how I yearn for you all with affection of Jesus Christ. Paul,
that's what he said to them. And I believe he feels the same
way about this, that in his heart, he yearns to see them. He yearns to be with them. He,
he yearns to, to, to live with them day in and day out. And when you think about that,
do we long to be with each other? Do we long to see each other
face to face? Is gathering with the saints
a hassle or a burden to you? Because it was definitely not
a burden to Paul to be with the saints. His heart longed to be
with them. But in our day, a lot of people
are okay with missing service. They're okay with not being in
the body. And I find that strange. When
we're okay not being in the body of Christ, we need to test our
hearts through the Word of God to see if truly we have been
born again. Because if the Spirit dwells
in us, we long to be with the body of Christ just as much as
we long to be with our children. or we long to be with our parents. As I was saying earlier, Paul
considered himself to be a father to them. He had considered himself
to be a mother to them. In chapter 2, verse 7, this is what he says. He says, But we were gentle among
you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So,
being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing and ready
to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own
selves, because you had become very dear to us. He said, we
were gentle with you like a mother with her babe. Though we gave ourselves to you
in the gospel, we just wanted to do more than just give the
gospel to you. We wanted to give our lives to you. We wanted to
spend the rest of our lives with you, Paul was telling them. And
is that our hearts with each other? Are we content in spending
the rest of our lives with each other? Do we want to spend the
rest of our lives with each other? Are we broken when we're apart? It's something we should all
ask ourselves. And if we're not broken, it's because we're not
growing intimate with each other. That we truly don't have the
love of Christ in us that's causing us to love each other. So he
considered himself to be a mother, and in verse I mean, chapter
2, verse 11, he refers to himself as a father. He says, for you
know how like a father with his children, we exhorted each one
of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner
worthy of God, who calls us into his own kingdom and glory. CPC
Father says, I was like a father to you. Though you had no spiritual
father, I took that role because I loved you. I wanted to see
you grow in Christ. I encouraged you to grow in Christ. Paul loved these people. And when we get into chapter
3, verse 1, listen to what it says, "...and therefore when
we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind
at Athens alone." Paul was with Timothy and his heart was worried
about them because he knew how much suffering they were going
through. So he worried if somehow or another they had fell away.
We know in Corinthians, when Paul gives this long list of
suffering, at the very end of it, he says, daily I have anxiety
for the churches. Fear that they had fell away,
worry that they had fell away from the faith. And Paul, when
he could bear it no longer, he says, look, I'm just going to
be left alone here and I'm just going to send someone to you.
I'm going to send Timothy to you. Now picture that, you're
Paul, You've got your beloved son with you, Timothy, the one
whom God has used you to raise up. And you consider him like
a child to you. And you say, you know what? I
love the body of Christ so much. And I'm so worried about them
falling away. I'm just going to risk my son going to you. I'm going to be alone. I'm going
to send him to you so that you might be encouraged. So you might
be exhorted in your faith. Knowing that if he sins Timothy,
it could cost Timothy his life. He could never see Timothy again.
I mean, let's be honest, we know that day of persecution that
when you were going somewhere to preach the Gospel of Christ,
it very well could cost you your life. And remember, Paul had
to escape the suffering from this church, knowing that if
he sent Timothy back, there's a good chance that he would never
see him again. But Paul, for the sake of the Gospel, was willing
to risk those who were very dear to him. And I got to thinking, you know,
what? And us, are we willing and praying
for God to send our kids to places that might cost them their life
for the sake of the gospel? Are we just praying for them
to live the American dream? You know, the comfortable life Are we praying, Lord, send them
for the sake of the gospel? Send them so that the gospel
might go forth. Lord, send them to them churches that don't have
true pastors. If we're honest, most of the
time we're praying, Lord, send them to college. For them to
get a college education and become very successful in this life. There's nothing wrong with that.
If I purpose behind that and I'm going to a campus somewhere
to preach the gospel, instead of just get an education. See,
Paul, Paul was willing to risk his beloved son for the sake
of these believers whom he longed to be with himself, but Satan
hindered him from going, so therefore he sent Timothy. As we see in chapter three and
two, and we sent Timothy, our brother, and God's co-worker
in the Gospel of Christ. Notice he called Timothy a brother.
He didn't call him a son, as he does in other passages of
Scriptures. He didn't degrade Timothy any. He didn't want them
to think that they were just getting some mediocre guy. He
says, look, I'm sending Timothy to you, who's also a co-worker
in the Gospel with me, because you just imagine these people
will... Man, we want Paul to come. I
mean, Timothy's good, but we want Paul to come and minister
to us. Isn't that kind of where we're
at sometimes that, well, we don't really want that guy. We want
this guy. And see, Paul could have said,
well, you know, me an apostle, I'm sending Timothy the evangelist
to you. And believe it or not, Paul considered
himself equal with Timothy. a minister of the gospel. He's
a minister of the gospel. Timothy's a minister of the gospel.
So he sent them through. We know the Corinthians, some
of them were saying, well, I follow Peter. And someone said, I follow
Paul. And Paul says, we ain't saved
you. Christ saved you. That we shouldn't
be following men. but rather following Christ and
thankful for whoever God sends to us to minister us the gospel. Well, a lot of times, you know,
people, you know, a lot of times when they hear their pastor ain't
going to be preaching that day, they don't even come to church. I mean, I've been in them churches.
Well, our pastor's on vacation, so I reckon everybody goes on
vacation when the pastor's on vacation. Because we, we esteem them. We have a thing in our culture
to esteem our pastor above all men. And when someone else comes
in and says, no, well, he's just second. I mean, he's just second
to the pastor. He's not as good as the pastor
is. But, but we're all ministers of the gospel. We're all saved
by the same God. We're all used by the same God.
That God uses different people to bring his message. And when
God uses someone to bring his message, we should be just as
thankful of our pastor bringing it as someone we don't know who's
bringing it to us. He said, we sent Timothy, our brother, our
sibling in Christ, and God's coworker in the gospel, God's
minister, of the Gospel. God's tool of
the Gospel. God's vessel of the Gospel. That Timothy was a minister of
the Gospel of God. He was a tool that God used to
glorify Himself. And there's no greater calling
in this life than to be a minister of the Gospel. It's very easy to say, well,
build Jesse up here because I'm a minister of gospel or build
James up because he's the minister of the gospel. But beloved, beloved,
if we had been saved, then we are all ministers of the gospel. We are all ministers. That's
what I love about this First Australian Church. Though they
did not have a deep doctrine, though they didn't have a widespread
of how much Bible they knew, they were willing to go outside
of the four walls of their congregation and spread the gospel to everyone
to come. And they didn't even have a good grasp of the depth
of the Scriptures. But they knew the gospel. And
because they knew the Gospel and the Gospel saved them, they
automatically became ministers of the Gospel. To such a point
that Paul says to them, look, when we went somewhere, we didn't
even have to tell them about you, they already heard about
you. Your faith is spread all over
the world, Paul said. Why? Because they knew the importance
of being ministers of the Gospel. They were willing to flee, flee
all other things in this life. To what the ministers of the
gospel? The other things just wasn't
as important anymore. Do we consider that important
to us? Do we consider that being a witness
for Jesus Christ is way more important than working for a
company? or being a boss. Being a minister of the Lord
Jesus Christ is a greater calling than anything else. See, that's the good thing that
God in His grace uses us all in different ways. Does he know
that I can't work where you work at? You work there. Why do you
work there, church? Because God put you there to
be a minister of the gospel. Though He has put you there to
take care of your family, your bigger purpose of being at this
job is what? To be a minister of the gospel.
Before God saved you, you could care less about being a minister
of the gospel. But now He has saved you. Your heart longs.
to see the Word of God go forth in the lives of the people around
you, does it not? I pray it does. I love what Paul
writes in 1 Corinthians 5.20. He says, therefore, we are ambassadors
for Christ. God making his appeal through
us will pour you on the behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. It wasn't Paul just being ambassadors
or his disciples being ambassadors. It's all of us. representatives
of the true King, Jesus Christ. The truth be told, many churchgoers
love more being a representative of America than they do Christ. They'd rather defend all these
worthless things that will perish in the end. defending the true
God, Jesus Christ, who lives for eternity. You notice everything that we
defend in this life that is not pertained to the words of Christ
is pointless and vanities upon vanities? Think about that. Like fighting
over a flag. Or fighting over guns, whether
we should have them or not. Not saying these things aren't
important, but the thing is, what's way more important? What's more
should I spend my time looking up and defending? A flag? Guns? Or the words of Christ? What's going to glorify Christ
more? Sending his word out? Or spending our time defending
all these countless wasteful things? It's sad to me because we shouldn't
be so quick to defend these other things, especially when we're
so slow to defend the gospel. So hesitant. It's like, should
I do it? Should I not do it? But when it comes to defending
other things, we just jump right in it. And she would not be jumping
right in, defending the Gospel at all times. Taking these things
and turning people's eyes to Jesus. We've been called to call men
to repent of their sins and trust in Christ so they can be saved.
So they can escape the wrath of God like we have escaped. The wrath of God. The best news we could ever tell
anyone. There's no greater news to tell
anyone than that. It's better news than telling
someone that they've been cured of cancer. Could you imagine getting that
news? You'd be over excited, but should we be not more over
excited when we hear the gospel? Because even if we get cured
of cancer, we're still going to die. The better news is the Gospel,
because as we hear it and we believe in it, we live for eternity.
Though we die, we live. But those who do not hear the
Gospel, though they die, they die. We are ambassadors for Christ,
representatives of Christ, and it brings us great joy to be
that. Does it not? That joy there outweighs all
other joys that this world has to offer, does it not? That when we think about that
calling in our life, it causes our hearts to jump out of our
chest, does it not? Overwhelming joy. Paul being torn away from these
people. He says, we send Timothy, our brother, and God's co-worker
in the Gospel, to establish and to exhort you in the faith, to
strengthen and to encourage you in the faith that Paul was worried
about these people falling away, so he sends Timothy in there
to do what? To give them the Gospel again. What do we need
when we're suffering in this life? We need the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. We need to feed on the words
of Christ. But in our nature, that's not
us. We want to feed on this other
stuff. We want people to call us and tell us everything's going
to be okay. Not the Gospel. I already know the Gospel. I already
know the Gospel. But as Christians, we long to
hear the Gospel every day. Every day, the death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ is what encourages us and strengthens
us in our faith, is it not? It's on our minds at all times. How do we go a day without thinking
about that? yet be overexcited when someone
tells us about it. Most Christians, when you try
to strengthen them in their faith, when you give them the gospel,
they cut you off half-sentence. Yeah, we go to church. That's
the only response they give you. We go to church. Because they're
not excited about the gospel. They don't want to be strengthened
in their faith. They want to continue on living
a mediocre life. They want to continue on in their
affliction without hearing the gospel. They want to hear something
else. They want something else. They're so worried about getting
out of this problem. They'd rather be handed a check
rather than handed the gospel. It's true. But Timothy and Paul knew that
these people didn't need nothing more but just the gospel to feed
their souls. Just the gospel to cause them
to continue on in their faith. See, that's what I love about
these brothers, because they didn't look at the physical things of this
life. They looked at the spiritual
things. That's why Paul was willing to
risk Timothy of going there. Because he looked at the spiritual
things of this life. He looked at the faith of these
people. He wasn't worried about whether they were going to be
able to pay their rent that much. Not saying we shouldn't worry
about them. He was more worried about them falling away from
their faith. Because they were losing their homes. Because they
were being beaten. Because they were being locked
up. That Satan was trying to destroy them. And Paul was worried
about it. So he sends Timothy once again
to preach the Gospel to them. To encourage them in their faith. To exhort them. Did you hear
him? Brothers, it's worth it. All this suffering that you're
going through, it's worth it. Because when Jesus is revealed,
You'll see that it's worth it. It's worth it all. It's worth
losing everything in his life for the name of Christ. Brothers, don't look at here
and now. Don't look at your sufferings
in this life. Don't look at the situation that
you're going through, but look to Christ, for if you get so
caught up in the situation that you're going through, you'll
live in the flesh instead of the Spirit of God. How in the world when Paul and
Silas was locked up in Philippi with their hands to the the wall
cuffed up after being beaten, how in the world did they break
out in hymns at midnight? Because their eyes weren't on
their afflictions. Their eyes were on Christ. And
they counted it all joy to suffer for the name of Christ. Think about that. It's midnight.
And they've been beaten. And most of us, if we were real
with ourselves, we'd have been up in a ball worried about the
physical. But we can't do that. It doesn't
glorify God. It causes us to step away from
our faith. It causes Jesus to become something
second or third or fourth or fifth. It plays into the hands of Satan. Because that's exactly what he
uses them things for, is it not? To take our eyes off the one
whom we love most, Jesus Christ. What does he say to the Corinthian
church? He says, do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting
away, our inner self is being renewed day by day for this light
momentary reflection is preparing us for eternal weight of glory
beyond comparison. As we look not to the things
that are seen, but the things that are unseen, for the things that
are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
That's what Paul writes to the Corinthian church in chapter
4, 16. Don't lose heart. This is light affliction. Momentary. It's preparing us for the way
of glory that we will experience and see at the coming of Christ.
Don't look to here. Look to the future. Look to the
coming of Christ. Don't get caught up in this light. the trivial things, especially
in your afflictions and your suffering. Because when we do, we look just
like the world. The world moans, the world groans,
the world complains when they're going through afflictions. But what do we do? We rejoice. We rejoice. Why? Because we have Christ. If we
didn't have Christ, then we could not rejoice. Could we? No, we couldn't. But because
we do have Christ, we rejoice. I say we won't weep, we won't
cry, but we have peace, we have comfort because our Lord and
Savior is with us. He says, we send Timothy, our
brother and God's co-worker in the gospel of Christ, that no
one be moved by these afflictions. I'll say, look, we're suffering,
you're suffering, and we sent Timothy to you because as y'all
suffer and we suffer, we don't want y'all to be removed from
the body of Christ. We want you to be taken away
from Christ. Because this is what these afflictions
are trying to do in our lives. And we know they suffered. Look
at chapter 2, verse 14. It says, For you, brothers, became imitators
of the churches of God and Christ Jesus that are in Judah. For
you suffered the same things from our own countrymen as they
did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets,
and drove us out, and displeased God, and opposed all mankind
by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might
be saved." that Paul acknowledged that they
became imitators of the first church in Judea. I mean, think about that. Paul
said he recognized them just like the first church. Not about
how righteous they seemed to be to everybody, but how much
they suffered for the gospel. That who were they suffering
by? Their own people. Was it not
Jesus' own people who crucified him? Was it Stephen's not own
people who stoned him to death? And what happened when he got
stoned and everyone had to flee? And the same thing is going on
right here in this church. They're being afflicted by their
family. They're being afflicted by their
friends. Being afflicted by those who told them they loved them
their whole life. And yet now, They cut them off. Because they believe upon Christ.
They just don't profess out of their mouth that these people
were living for Christ, so they were being afflicted by the people
of the world. And Paul was scared that as they
were doing this, that they were going to be removed from Christ. But the crazy thing, not only
were they imitators of the first church, of how much they suffered
for the gospel, they also were an example to other churches. We see that in verse 6 of chapter
1, that they were an example to other churches because of
how much joy they had while they suffered. That other churches
were encouraged by their suffering. Look, brothers, they're suffering. They're not being moved. They're
rejoicing through it. Oh, how great our God is to not
let his sheep go astray in their suffering. Look how God is working in their
hearts to continue preaching Christ as though they're beaten.
As they're being beaten. Look how much joy they have in
their life as they're losing their homes. How can this be? Oh, our Lord and Saviors continue
to finish the good work that He started within them. They're
not falling away. They're not losing hope. They're continuing on. And guess what? As we suffer,
We will rejoice. We will not be murdered. Because
the same spirit that dwelled in this early church, and dwelled
in the first church of Judea, is the same spirit that dwells
in us. The same spirit that will their
hearts up to rejoice in Christ. It's the same spirit that wills
our hearts up to joy in Christ in the sufferings. The same spirit
that caused Silas and Timothy to break out in hymns while they
were in jail. It's the same spirit that causes
us to break out in hymns when we're suffering. that Paul sent Timothy to encourage
them and exhort them in their faith because he wanted no one
to be removed from Christ. He was fearful that his work
might have been in vain. He says that no one be moved
by their afflictions for you yourselves know that we are destined
for this. Wow, Paul. that we were destined for this
suffering? That God and His purpose and
His plan has predestined His church to suffer for His namesake? As Paul would say, that as I'm
filling up the sufferings of Christ, as he writes to the Romans, that
we will be heirs with Christ, provided that we suffer with
Him, that if He is glorified through His suffering, we will
be glorified through our suffering, that God has purposed and planned
every momentary affliction in our life for His namesake. We know what He told Paul from
the get-go, do we not? No. He writes, or the Lord says
in Acts 9, 15, talking about Paul after he blinded him and
set him on, he tells Ananias, he says, The Lord said to him,
Go, he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry out my name
before the Gentiles and the kings and the children of Israel, for
I will show him how much he must suffer for my namesake. From
the get-go, Paul was destined to suffer for Christ. So when
Paul writes that long list of Corinthians, God purposed every
one of them. God sent him into every one of
them. Why? Why? Why does God do that? because He knows it's for our
good and for His glory. And it exalts His name to the
highest. Let me put you this way. When everything's going good
and we exalt Christ, the world kind
of looks like, okay, they're Christian. But it does not blow
their minds when we're suffering and we exalt Christ. It's strange to the world, but
it gives God all the glory. When we lose our loved ones and
we continue on praising, the world looks at it strange.
But God is most glorified. That we are destined for every
trial that we go through in this life. Every time we are mocked
for the gospel, God has destined us for that. So I'm trying to get you to trust
in the sovereignty of God right now in your trials. We shouldn't go, where's God
at? No, he sent us into it. He's
with us. He ain't forsaken us. He's with us. He's purposed and
planned it for our lives. so that he would be glorified
through it. If Paul was a chosen instrument
by God to carry out his name, but also a chosen instrument
to suffer for his name, is it not the same for us? If the first church was destined
to suffer and they suffered, and then the Son of Church was
destined to suffer and they suffered, and Paul was destined to suffer
and he suffered, what makes us any different if we're the church
of Christ? Think about that. I mean, isn't
that what most preachers preach in this day, though? They read
and they say, well, yeah, these churches are, but God's not going
to cause us to suffer. So God's going to deal with us
differently than what He deals with others. Now, we might not be killed for
the name of Jesus in our culture, though it might come to that
point, but we will suffer. We will suffer because God has
destined us to that end. But why do these churches suffer?
One, we know God's destined, but what would cause their suffering
to come upon them because they're outspoken about the gospel? Hear that? They're outspoken. See, when he says destined here,
he's not talking about regular old trials that we go through
in our life. He's talking about being hated
specifically for the gospel. Everyone, worldly people, goes
through the same trials we go through in this life, do they
not? But worldly people ain't cussed
at and mocked and kicked out of their family because of the
gospel. See, these early church members,
as I said before, though they were not deep in doctrine, they
knew the gospel. They took it forth. And that's
why their suffering came their way. They were outspoken. They
were going outside of the four walls of the church, which most
churches do not do in this day. And they were telling people
about Jesus. They were destined to do that because they were
of the Lord and they were destined to suffer as they done that because
they were of the Lord. And if we do the same, we also will suffer
just as they suffered." He says, for you yourselves know
that we were destined for this. You know we were destined for
this. I can just imagine Him referring to the words that the
Savior said about picking up our cross. And talking about
how narrow the way is. And few go down it because it's
hard. I can see Timothy reminding them of these things. That look,
remember, that we must pick up our cross along with Christ. Can you imagine how narrow it
was when Jesus walked with His cross to be crucified? He probably
had people on each side of him, punching him and spitting on
him and mocking him. And the same way is just that
narrow for us, that people will be lining up on each side of
us as we walk that narrow way to persecute us. That's how narrow
it is. Listen, for when we were with
you, in verse 4, for when we were with you, we kept telling
you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction just as it
comes to pass and just as you know. See, He was reminding them.
He's reminding them, look, you remember that when I was with
you, I told you that this was going to happen. And now you
know. And church, I tell you that if
we live for Christ, suffering is going to come. We're not going to escape it.
We want to escape it in the flesh, but it is impossible to escape
the sufferings for Christ. It's impossible. There's never
been a person born again that escaped the suffering of Christ. Or was it mocked for his faith?
Or was it hated for his faith? That's when Paul didn't come
in there and preach an easy gospel to them. He probably told them
straight up. He probably told them what he
had suffered, which he did. He probably told them what the first
church suffered. He probably told them what Christ, of course
he did tell them what Christ suffered for them to be saved. So you
hear Paul, you can see him telling them, look, brothers, sisters,
these same things are going to happen to you. They lost their home. You're
probably going to lose your home if you believe in Jesus. Yes,
their daddy and their mother wants nothing else to do with
them. Matter of fact, some of them are trying to have them
arrested. The same thing is going to happen to you. Your family is going to disown
you. I can see Paul telling them, you must count the cost before
you say, I'm going to follow Jesus. There's one man, and we remember
Jesus said, Lord, I'll follow you. And Jesus said, foxes have
holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to
lay his head. What was Jesus telling him? Young
man, if you follow me, you might not even have a place to sleep. That's what the early church
did when they lost their homes. I mean, you imagine when Stephen
was stolen and they were running away from the city of Jerusalem,
they didn't have time to grab everything they wanted to grab.
It was to get it and go. They didn't know where they were
going to lay their heads. You see Paul telling them, look,
it's probably going to cost you everything to follow Christ.
And now he's saying, look, now you know. Now you see it. Don't
find it strange. Don't find it alarming when these
things happen to you. But a lot of times we do, we're
like, what in the world? What in the world, what's going
on? This shouldn't be happening. I love Jesus, everyone else in
South Georgia loves Jesus. So why they hatin' me? This is strange. That was me
when I first coming up, that's strange. What in the world, why
won't anybody wanna talk about Jesus? They say they love him.
but said they don't even want to be in conversation with me
no more. That was alarming. That was strange to me. But now
I see that if we truly love the Lord and we obey Him, we're going to suffer for it. We cannot contain the gospel. We cannot keep it in the closet
of our homes. We can't keep it in the four
walls of a church, even when we know when we take it outside
of the church, we're going to be hateful. We can't do it. It's
deep in our hearts. We can't contain it. It must
come out of our mouths. But a lot of times Christians
do not do it. Why? Because they love
the glory that comes from man rather than the glory that comes
from God. They do not want to suffer for
the name of Jesus. That's the reason their faith
is private. They don't want to lose their
jobs for the name of Jesus. They do not want to lose their
loved ones for the name of Jesus. Or if they did, they would be
outspoken about it. They would be compelled to do
it. And as we do it, they know it's
going to come. They know it's coming. But they
do it anyways. They're rejoicing in it anyways. I mean, you imagine when Stephen
was preaching the gospel, he knew the Lord suffered. Do you
not think in a moment of that time when he was filled with
the Holy Spirit preaching the gospel that he knew he was about to suffer
also? They just killed his Lord and
Savior and here he knows that if he speaks this boldly in front
of these men, they're going to kill him too. He knew that was going to happen
to him. He might not to the point of being dead, but he knew he
was going to suffer for it. For he remembered what the Lord
had said, that if they hate me, your master, they will hate you
too, my servant. And it's coming. It's coming upon us because we're
of Christ. And he says in 5, 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. Paul was reminding him about
all the, about all the, the suffering and the affliction. He said,
this is the reason why I sent Timothy to you because I had
to learn about your faith. I had to know where you were
at with the Lord. It's not when people come into
fellowship and then they go outside of fellowship for a while, or
they're back and forth, back and forth. We worry for them. It grieves us. Where are they at? Our hearts
break over them. We weep for them. We cry for
them. We pray for them. We go to them and try to strengthen
them. We love them. Remember, that's
where Paul was at with his people. When he sent Timothy to them,
he had to know where they were at with God. Because he wasn't
with them in person. So he was grieved by the fact
that he didn't know where they were at. That's when he prayed
night and day for them. He probably was getting word
how they were suffering. How he knew they were suffering.
And he was worrying and praying to the Lord that he would go,
but Satan wouldn't let him go. He said, I'm just going to send
my beloved son Timothy to them. Because I must know where they
stand with God. Why? Because he knew Satan. He knew about the line that prowls
around looking for someone to devour. I mean, Paul himself knew personally
because he suffered. Paul knew to such a degree that
he was the tool of Satan to approve the killing of Stephen. Paul knew how the devil worked.
He was used by the devil. And after God saved him, then
the devil came after him. Trying to persuade him to leave
the love of his life, Jesus Christ. That's what Satan does. He uses
our afflictions and sins, suffering our way to get us to move away
from Christ. To cause us to flee Christ, but also the body of
Christ. Most of the time when suffering
hits people's lives, They run away from Christ because they're
running away from the body of Christ. They're not separated. We like to separate Christ and
his body, but you cannot do that. Can't do that. That if we're
running, if we're running to Christ in our sufferings, then
we're running to the body of Christ in our suffering. Remember
that God used Timothy to strengthen them in their faith as they suffered. And God uses the body of grace
truth to strengthen each other in our sufferings. And if we're
of the Lord, we're constantly seeking that. And if we're possibly
not of the Lord, we're running away from it. The last thing we want to do
is hear about Jesus. We're giving ourselves over to
Satan. I mean, that's truly what it
is. You're taking the bait which
Satan has put out there for us to gobble up and eat. And it
lures away from Christ and it's in the plan of Satan. He will do everything that he
can do to steal your joy in Christ. Remember what he did to Job?
He went to the Lord. Yeah, you've got to do that.
What if he killed his youngins? He took his livelihood? caused him to hate the Lord,
he afflicted his flesh. And God allowed it all to happen. Because Satan's priority is what? To do whatever is necessary to
us to deny the one whom we love. To us, the blaspheme the name
of the one whom we love. I've run into Christians that
have had hardships in their life or lost loved ones in their life.
Instead of glorifying God, they blasted Him in His name. Why? Because they were never
of Him. And a little bit of truth they had, Satan just snuck in
and he snatched it out and stole it from them. He was like the
people in the Siege of the Sower. The fourth seed received the
Word of God and they rejoiced in it. But the second, third
seed, they received the Word of God and they rejoiced for
a moment. Just for a moment. And then when
the trials and persecution of the Word, they took them away. See, we must know this, church. We must know how Satan operates. Paul knew how he operated. And
we must know, so when we see it coming, we grab hold of Christ. That we know that we don't wrestle
against the flesh and blood, but the prince and power of the
air. It's really not your spouse. It's Satan. It's really not the people at
your job, though it is, it's Satan working in them. Is Satan
working in your family members to not want nothing to do with
you? See, when we look at that, we
put a whole different perspective on it. When me and Brooke are having
problems, I go, wow, this is just the devil trying to get
us to be mad and angry with each other instead of praising God
with each other. See that? Because, I mean, think
about it. Most time our arguments, most time in a relationship is
what? Pointless. They are vanities
upon vanities. It's something so stupid. But Satan knows how to dangle
that bait to get us after each other. To cause us not to worship
Christ. For instance, the old man I've
been trying to minister to a little bit, a friend I grew up in, in
Glenville, and he's on drugs real bad. He says, man, I just,
every time I go somewhere, they're there. He goes to the gas station,
he runs into one of his buddies that wants to sell it to him.
I said, brother, when you see him, turn around and go to the
next gas station. My uncle Satan does that. putting
other people in his pathway to cause him to come off the narrow
way. And Satan does the same thing
to us. If he can't get our friends to
get to us, he'll use our mom and dad. If he can't get his
mom and dad to get to us, he'll use our children. I mean, could you imagine Of
course, some of you know your kids professing to love Christ,
and the next thing you know, they're hating you. They don't
want to have a conversation with you no more about Christ. It's the devil working in that
to get us to leave Christ, to be hush-hush about it. He labors. Here at this church,
the devil labors every day in our lives to get us to look away
from Christ. And another way you can look
at this, though, I don't think it's because he's talking about suffering
here for the name of the word that the devil can also offer
us money, prestige, a great job. One of my buddies who preaches
full-time on the street, he gave his job like a four-month notice
that he was about to go full-time in ministry. And by every month,
they come and offer him a raise at his job. And by the time it
was said and done, he got an $80,000 raise at his job. It was between $80,000 and $100,000
raise at his job. Because Satan wanted to keep
him there instead of out doing the gospel. offer us money at our jobs. He
calls us to seek the worldly things of His life that have
no eternal value. He'll do everything He can in
a worldly sense to keep our eyes off of Christ. I like to use
this example. When we go in a big city, if
you look up where there are signs everywhere, is they're not trying
to get your money. We're just real about it. Advertisement. And Satan does
the same thing. We're on this narrow way and
he's advertising all around us. Whether it be a TV show, a movie,
a computer. You know where I'm going with
that. He's there. He's trying to get us to pour
our affection away from Christ trying to get us the lust after
after that very thing That will kill our souls He uses us as I said earlier
to or something like this to offer our kids to American dream
just as the school offers them the American dream You must do this, you must do
this, you must do this, and you must do this. And then Christ
is something second. So you live for this, you live
for this, you live for this. And then you live for Christ.
No, we live for Christ in all things. And if we're living for Christ
in all things, all these other things are just not as important
no more. He's after us. Don't you hear
that, church? He's after us. That's the importance
of being in the Word every day. That's the importance of being
in prayer. That's the importance of being in fellowship every
time the doors are opened. Because He's after us. And these
are the things in our life that will strengthen us. to overcome
it. Because apart from the Word of
God, apart from prayer, apart from the local body of the church,
we will all fall away. We will all fall away. I tell people, you give me a
week, two weeks, outside of the body, outside of prayer, and
outside of the Word of God, I'm fell away. I'm living for the devil. Once again. It's vital to our souls. It is vital to our soul to be
in God's Word. It's vital to our souls to be
in prayer with Him. It's vital to our soul to be in the body. It's the only thing that's going
to keep our mind on Christ when everything in the world is coming
down around us. The only thing. That's Satan
bringing everything down around us. The only thing that's going
to continue us worshiping Christ. Not these other things. Christ. Feed. Listen. Feed on the words
of Christ every day, even if you have to skip the physical
meal. Even if you have to skip sleep. Is that important? Because I know Jesse. And even
being in the word is still a fight. It's still a struggle. And if
we don't and if Jesse does not eat the word of God, how much
will I fall? How much will I sin? Not perfect even when we're in
the Word. We're still not perfect. We still have that battle and
we still sin. We're just being real. But how much more will we continue
on in if we're not in the Word of God? If we're not in prayer,
if we're not seeking our Master who bought us with His own blood. Who took our sins upon Himself
and drank the full cup of the wrath of God so that we could
escape it. That He died on the cross and
that He was buried for three days and He rose again. And by
His grace towards us, we have come to see this truth. We have
come to turn away from everything this world has to offer. And
we have come to what? Pursue Christ because He has
opened our blind eyes. That He has given us the faith
to pursue Him. So therefore, we pursue Him.
And we love Him and we praise Him. Let us pray. Father God, I pray that You would
take Your Word and bless our souls with it. I pray, Lord,
Your Word would cause us to bear Your fruit, Lord, and cause us
to hold dear to it. That we would hunger for it every
day, Father. That we couldn't sleep at night
unless we'd been in Your Word. that we would feel like as though
we're going to die, we're going to perish, if we're not in Your
Word and not in prayer. Oh God, we just want to grow
more intimate with You, Father. And Lord, we want to overcome
the schemes of the devil. Lord, we do not want to be caught
up in his work. Lord, we don't want to take hold
of the bait. We don't want to defame Your name, Lord. We want
to glorify Your name with our life. Lord, give us the strength
through Your Word. Give us a strength through prayer,
Lord. Give us a strength through the local body, Lord. Do not
fall away from the grace that You have given us. And above
all, Lord, give us a love for each other. Lord, give us the
love that You gave Paul, Lord, that he had an agony in his heart
and he grieved when he was not with those whom his heart desired
to be with, Father. But I pray that we would, as
a body of grace true, grow more and more intimate with each other,
Lord. And if we're not loving each other in that way, Lord,
that we would test our hearts and ask, oh, Lord, why isn't
your Spirit causing me to love your people more and more and
more? God, always have mercy upon us
as you have so far. And we ask this in the name of
Jesus. Amen. God bless you, church.