Review:
Be the Church!
Be Authentic! (1 Thes 1:1-3)
Be an Example! (1 Thes 1:4-10)
Be Done with People Pleasing! (1 Thes 2:1-8)
Be an Imitator! (1 Thes 2:9-16)
Be the Church!
5 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Trials 20 Years Ago:
- I can't always PREPARE for trials. (1 Thes 2:17)
- I can't always OVERPOWER trials. (1 Thes 2:18)
- I can't face trials ALONE . (1 Thes 2:19-3:3a)
- I can't always AVOID trials. (1 Thes 3:3b-3:4)
- I can't let trials STOP me. (1 Thes 3:5)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!
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00:02-00:05
1 Thessalonians, we are going to be in chapter 2, let's pray.
00:06-00:11
Father in heaven, just now we are turning to your word.
00:14-00:23
There is much that could distract us, but I pray for a supernatural focus right now.
00:28-00:31
Your Word would tattoo itself onto our hearts.
00:34-00:46
In what looks on the surface to be maybe a transitional passage or maybe Paul is just giving some personal remarks passage and let's get to the doctrine kind of thing.
00:47-00:55
You've shown me this week some incredible truths that come from this passage that people in this room right now need to hear.
00:56-00:57
that I need to hear.
00:59-01:13
Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Father, I know there are people in this room that have ears to hear, so let us hear what you are speaking to us.
01:15-01:18
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
01:20-01:24
Just as a review, we're going through the book of 1 Thessalonians.
01:25-01:35
And a series just very simply called "Be the Church." The Christian life isn't about what you do.
01:36-01:41
The Christian life is about what Jesus Christ has done for you.
01:43-01:53
So you see, when we turn to 1 Thessalonians, Paul's not saying, "To be a Christian, do this, do this, do this." is just be who God has already empowered you to be.
01:53-01:56
Be who God has already established you to be in Christ.
01:57-02:19
Find your identity in Jesus Christ, and when you do, He is just simply saying to this baby church in Thessalonica, this little baby church, very sincere but very young in the faith, He is just writing this epistle to say, "Look, just be the church." Just to get us caught up to speed, Remember the first message in this series was be authentic.
02:20-02:20
Be authentic.
02:21-02:23
He talked about faith, hope, and love.
02:24-02:24
Be authentic.
02:26-02:28
And we talked about be an example.
02:29-02:37
That's one of the glorious things in the church and discipleship is we are to serve as an example to one another.
02:37-02:43
We get to chapter two, the apostle Paul says, "Be done with people pleasing." Our aim is not to please people.
02:43-02:49
We love people, but our goal is not to please people, our goal is to please God.
02:51-02:52
So be done with people pleasing.
02:53-02:54
We saw that.
02:55-02:59
If your aim is to please people, it opens the door for all kinds of sins.
02:59-03:00
It just does.
03:01-03:05
Self-centered, self-motivated, we're done with people pleasing.
03:06-03:06
Okay?
03:06-03:07
God pleasing.
03:08-03:11
Also in chapter 2 we saw, be an imitator.
03:12-03:17
He commended them for imitating the churches who were faithful under persecution.
03:18-03:38
And that takes us to chapter 2 in verse 17, where Paul says, "But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person, not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face.
03:41-03:48
Because we wanted to come to you, I Paul, again and again, but Satan hindered us.
03:49-03:50
Let's pause here for a second.
03:50-03:51
What's he talking about?
03:51-03:55
I'd like to remind you, write this down, Acts chapter 17.
03:57-04:09
Paul and Silas and Timothy planting the church in Thessalonica and only there for a few weeks, a riot breaks out and Paul and Silas were sent away by night.
04:10-04:13
And that's certainly not how Paul wanted the trip to end.
04:14-04:28
You know, here he's with this group of young, excited Christians and God's doing big things and you see, he says, "We were torn away from you." And you really sense his heart.
04:30-04:39
He says, "We wanted to see you face to face." I would just add that there is nothing like face to face.
04:39-04:50
I know we live in a day of FaceTime on the phones and Skype and Google Hangouts and phones and all sorts of ways that we communicate with each other.
04:51-04:53
But you know nothing beats face to face.
04:54-04:59
Nothing beats sitting down face to face looking someone in the eye, speaking with them.
04:59-05:02
And that is what Paul was really longing for.
05:02-05:11
Verse 19, he says, "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus that is coming?
05:13-05:14
Is it not you?
05:15-05:23
For you are our glory and joy." Again, you see Paul's heart.
05:24-05:32
You know, a lot of times people ask me, "When the Bible talks about rewards in heaven, what are the rewards in heaven?" And in this passage you see one.
05:34-05:42
People that you minister to, people that you lead to Christ, people that you spend eternity with, that's part of your reward in heaven.
05:43-05:44
Think of how glorious that is.
05:45-05:49
The only thing in this room that we're going to be taking to heaven with us is one another.
05:50-06:21
You see, and Paul found such joy to say, "We have an eternal relationship, and we're going to be spending eternity together. What a joy! Not self-centered whatsoever. Paul's not saying, "Look what we did. When Jesus comes by, we're going to be like, 'Look, Jesus, we planted a church. Aren't you proud of us?'" That's not the attitude or the meaning of this at all. He's saying, "Jesus, look at these amazing people. Look at these people that you changed.
06:21-06:26
Look at these people that you've blessed me to be a part of ministry with. It's awesome.
06:27-06:30
It's awesome what you do, Jesus.
06:32-06:37
The boasting is really in the Lord and in what the Lord is doing through these people.
06:39-06:44
You, you are our glory and joy.
06:45-07:08
He says, "Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind in 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.
07:09-07:12
For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.
07:13-07:46
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." You saw a couple of times in this passage, Paul says, "I just couldn't take it anymore.
07:47-07:55
Some of you younger people, I'm not going to give you the old man speech, you know, when I was a kid, blah, blah, blah, we didn't have this, we played with sticks and rocks, I'm not going to give you that.
07:56-08:11
But I do want to say in all sincerity, younger people, there is a sense in which you don't understand what life is like when you can't pull a phone out of your pocket and have access to all the information on the planet.
08:12-08:12
Okay?
08:13-08:14
I'm not that old.
08:15-08:19
We still had rotary phones and telegraphs and smoke signals and stuff.
08:19-08:21
The Pony Express was a new thing.
08:23-08:26
It wasn't like Paul says, "You know what, you guys?
08:28-08:29
I've been thinking about you.
08:29-08:31
I'm going to give you a call." Or, "You know what?
08:31-08:34
I'm going to look at… Thessalonica has a Facebook page.
08:34-08:41
I'm going to get on there and see how they're doing and look at some of their pictures from their church picnic." He couldn't do that.
08:41-08:45
And it's hard for us to really get in the mindset that Paul had here.
08:46-08:54
He was removed from these people and there was really no way that he could just instantly find out what was happening with them.
08:54-08:56
That's why he's like, "We longed to get there.
08:56-08:57
I couldn't take it anymore.
08:57-09:00
I had to find out how you were.
09:00-09:01
I had to find out.
09:02-09:11
I just couldn't wait anymore." He said, "I was so concerned about your spiritual health." We sent Timothy.
09:13-09:15
I just couldn't take it anymore.
09:15-09:16
I had to find out.
09:18-09:30
Well, this passage is obviously about afflictions and trials, troubles, the hard stuff of life that can bring discouragement or despair or even depression.
09:32-09:38
But things are presented in this passage in a way unlike the Gospel is often presented today.
09:39-09:52
I remember the first real sales pitch I had for the gospel was growing up Methodist, we went through these confirmation classes where you go to these classes and you'd like memorize the books of the Bible and learn like the Apostles Creed and things like that.
09:53-10:09
But in this confirmation class, one of the things that the pastor did was he would individually pull you into the auditorium while there's, you know, everybody's like in the Sunday school class, he would take us into this auditorium for this one-on-one talk.
10:10-10:16
And I'll never forget it, the pastor, you know, he took me and sat me down, just sort of got right to the point.
10:17-10:25
He's like, "Jeff, you don't want to go to hell, do you?" I was like 12.
10:25-10:31
He's like, "You don't want to go to hell, do you?" I'm like, "We...you mean today?
10:31-10:33
Like what do you mean by that?
10:34-10:37
Is there a bus tour going or what are you, church trip?
10:38-10:39
Like what's going on here?
10:40-10:59
But he's like, "You don't get held there yet." And I'm like, "No, I'm gonna go ahead and say no." And he said, "Well, then you want to receive Jesus Christ "as your savior." And I'm like, "Okay." Like fantastic.
11:00-11:19
And every time I saw that pastor since then, He pulled me aside and he goes, "I remember the day that you gave your life to Jesus." And I was like, "Yeah, that was a good day." I had no idea.
11:21-11:24
But that was how the Gospel was presented to me at a young age.
11:24-11:31
"Want to go to hell?" "No." "Okay." "Believe in Jesus." "Okay." Sadly, a lot of times that's how the Gospel is still presented.
11:33-11:37
But the real sales pitch is hard.
11:39-11:50
Because it includes a word that we saw in this text, the thing that Paul was really fired up about here - affliction.
11:52-12:07
In verse 4, we read this, he said, "For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction." This is an extremely personal passage, obviously.
12:08-12:12
Very simply today, I just want to say let's get personal.
12:13-12:21
The title on your outline, "Five Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Trials 20 Years Ago." Like, why 20 years?
12:22-12:23
Because something weird happened this week.
12:23-12:37
I don't know why it just hit me this week, but I'm like, "It's 2015." And you're like, "You just found that out?" Like, it's 2015, I came to Christ the summer of 1995.
12:38-12:39
And for some reason it just really hit me this week.
12:39-12:46
I'm like, "I've been a Christian for 20 years!" And to put that into perspective, I'm going to be 40 next month.
12:47-12:53
That means like, second half of my life I've been following Jesus Christ.
12:53-13:28
And I'm reading through this passage and all these things that Paul's saying about trials and afflictions. The thing that kept jumping out from the pages of God's Word, here are some glorious truths, some hard truths about trials that I wish someone had told me twenty years ago. And there are some young Christians here who maybe have been walking with the Lord for a few months or maybe even a couple of years. And what I want to do with this This message is, I want to tell you some things that I wish somebody had told me about trials.
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And it's all straight from the text.
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You ready?
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Number one is this, I can't always prepare for trials.
13:37-13:39
I can't always prepare for trials.
13:40-13:41
Look at verse 17 again.
13:42-14:02
Paul says, "But since we were torn away from you," I already gave you the context, "it wasn't like, "Big send off, let's have a reception, we'll make some meatloaf and cake, and we're going to have a little going away party for Paul." It was, "Paul, you're going to get out of town now, now.
14:03-14:17
Riots and people are going to start getting hurt or killed and sneak them out of town at night." He says, "We were torn away from you guys." I wish somebody had told me this 20 years ago, but I can't always prepare for trials.
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Something funny about trials is they never RSVP.
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Did you know that?
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Trials never RSVP.
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Trials are never like, this is Clark, I have you down for some extreme hardship Tuesday at 10 a.m., is that good for you?
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Audrey's like, you know what, no Tuesday, I'm visiting a friend.
14:40-14:41
How's Wednesday?
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Wednesday's not great either.
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Do you have anything Thursday?
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Yeah, Thursday at four.
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Great.
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We'll see you Thursday at four.
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That will give you some time to get ready for this trial that's going to come crashing down in your life.
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Trials don't do that.
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They don't do that.
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Trials always seem to sneak up on you.
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And like Paul with this trial, the trials that you've experienced and the Lord knows Those are the trials that I've experienced.
15:18-15:22
I've always felt like getting ripped away.
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Like when you have that relationship that suddenly goes sideways.
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You think everything's great in this relationship.
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Maybe it's with a spouse or with a child.
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You think things are great with the relationship, and then the world comes crashing down.
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Or you're pregnant and you're so excited about having a baby, or you experience a miscarriage, we've been there.
15:50-15:53
Or that motorcycle accident that takes your friend.
15:55-16:01
Or that routine visit to the doctor where you find out very suddenly you have cancer.
16:03-16:05
I can't always prepare for trials.
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Like me, you need to be prepared to never be prepared.
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You're like, "Well, why are you telling me this?" Here's why I'm telling you this.
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I've got this referenced on Matthew 13, 21.
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In Jesus' parable about the soils, Jesus said the trials are a deal breaker for some people to follow Him.
16:31-16:37
Some people sincerely want to follow Christ, but there are people that don't follow Christ because they can't handle the trials that come.
16:39-16:40
They come unexpectedly.
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Some people just, they can't handle that because they're not ready for it, because they haven't been told.
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That's the danger of this false gospel that's proclaimed.
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You know, you don't want to go to hell?
16:53-16:53
Great.
16:53-16:53
You want to be happy?
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Great.
16:54-16:59
Well just believe in Jesus and your life will be rest free.
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That is so not true.
17:07-17:18
Trials are going to come, but this idea that, "Well, just because I'm a Christian means I'm not going to experience any hardship." Jesus said there are people that will decide not to follow Him.
17:19-17:23
They will walk away from becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ because of trials.
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They can't handle it.
17:26-17:32
I'm going to ask you to write a phrase down that has really ministered to me over the last 20 years.
17:34-17:50
these things come up, when these sudden trials come up, I've heard different people say this phrase, you know, whether it's in the context of that motorcycle accident or that car accident or that cancer diagnosis or that, I've heard people say this phrase, you know, that didn't take God by surprise.
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True or false?
17:55-17:56
Didn't take God by surprise.
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You see, there's great comfort in that.
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And it's not as if God had the power to stop it, but was on coffee break and missed his opportunity and oh my gosh, I can't believe, God knows.
18:14-18:14
He knows.
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And there's great comfort in knowing that He knows ahead of time.
18:20-18:23
So I can't prepare for trials, I can't.
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What I can do is I can trust God because nothing is going to happen to me today that is going to surprise Him.
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Nothing is going to happen to me this week that is going to surprise Him.
18:38-18:40
I wish somebody would have told me that 20 years ago.
18:40-18:41
I picked it up along the way.
18:42-18:46
Secondly, I can't always overpower trials.
18:48-18:51
There's a better way to word this, I'm all ears, but you get it from the text.
18:52-18:54
I can't always overpower trials.
18:54-19:07
You see Paul said in verse 18, "Again and again we wanted to come to you." He says, "But Satan hindered us." That word hindered is actually a military term.
19:08-19:11
They would actually dig this trench in the road.
19:12-19:22
So like this military's advancing, you know, the other army would dig this trench in the road to stop the advancement or to slow down the advancement of the army that's coming.
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They were hindering them.
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I'm going to put this, we would just call it a roadblock.
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I'm going to put this roadblock here.
19:29-19:34
I'm going to stop your progress." And that's exactly what Paul's saying that Satan did.
19:35-19:44
I wanted to get to you, but Satan kept putting these roadblocks down and he kept digging these trenches in the road and I'm trying to get to you and it just didn't seem to work out.
19:45-19:46
Couldn't get it.
19:48-19:56
Satan is real, Satan is powerful, and Satan has the ability, apparently, to stop ministry.
19:58-20:09
And you're like, "Not me, not this church." If the Apostle Paul was roadblocked in ministry, it would be awfully arrogant of me to think that I couldn't be roadblocked in ministry.
20:09-20:17
It would be awfully arrogant of me to think, "Well, I'm going to get this ministry done, and the devil himself can't stop me." incorrect.
20:18-20:31
The devil himself hindered the Apostle Paul. He's powerful. Some people want to speak of and treat the devil like he's some stooge, but he's not.
20:32-20:45
He's powerful and he's crafty and the Bible says he's like a lion seeking whom he may devour. You might have to unlearn some things here today, but I love you too much to lie to you.
20:46-20:54
I love "You can't bind Satan." You hear people say that. "You need to bind Satan." You can't bind Satan. Who do you think you are, Batman?
20:56-21:01
You can't bind Satan. I hear people say that. You're just going to bind Satan.
21:03-21:14
You can't do that. Or the other one that I hear more often is, "Rebuke the devil." "You've got to rebuke the devil." Those things are not in the Bible.
21:14-21:15
They're just not.
21:16-21:18
You know what the Bible does say?
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It's in James 4, 7.
21:21-21:22
The Bible says you resist the devil.
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You resist the devil and he will flee from you.
21:27-21:29
But you can't bind him, you don't rebuke him.
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Don't get this idea that you're going to take the devil down.
21:33-21:35
He's hindering my ministry, but I put him in his place.
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That wasn't Paul's attitude.
21:38-21:42
Paul says, "We've been trying to get to you, And Satan put this roadblock up and we couldn't do it.
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Now what's the point?
21:45-21:50
The point is this, some trials, demonically opposed or not, like we know anyways, right?
21:50-21:51
We'll know in heaven.
21:51-21:52
We don't know now.
21:53-21:58
Whether they're demonically opposed or not, there are some trials that you are not going to plow through, okay?
22:00-22:19
There are some trials that you're going to find out you're not strong enough, you don't have enough money, you're not creative enough, and you don't have the right friends in high places that are going to help you get through this. There are some trials that you are not going to plow through. Oh, that is a lesson that I've learned quite well in ten years.
22:22-23:04
When my children were diagnosed with autism, as many of you know, my older son, much more severe than my younger. You know, he's ten years old, he's non-verbal. When I go back 2007, we got this diagnosis and my attitude was, "I'm going to beat this. I am going to beat this." And I have read books and I got online to read all the latest research and looking up all the latest medical breakthroughs and watching these informational videos and these testimonials of this work that we We did this and this worked.
23:05-23:11
Talked to people and talked to doctors that specialized in the field.
23:13-23:22
I can tell you that after dozens of doctors and hundreds of miles and thousands of dollars and ten years, I haven't beaten it.
23:25-23:34
And this is a reminder for me There are some afflictions, there are some trials, that you are just not going to plow through.
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That you are just not going to overpower.
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I want to remind you of this, please.
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I don't want you to walk out with a different wrong view of the devil.
23:47-23:54
In Job chapters 1 and 2, here is a profound piece of theology for you.
23:54-24:02
From Job chapters 1 and 2, the Bible shows us that Satan has to get God's permission before he does anything.
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Do you know that?
24:06-24:09
You don't know that, you need to take great comfort in that.
24:11-24:20
God is never in heaven saying, "I wonder what that devil is up to today." Job shows us that Satan had to get God's permission.
24:20-24:43
He went before God and wanted to afflict Job and God was like, "Here's your parameters." And Satan wasn't like, "Well, I don't like your parameters because God is God and I am not, and God is God and Satan certainly is not." Satan did nothing without God's permission.
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Nothing.
24:47-24:52
There's something else about Job that I could take you all through the Bible and show you this.
24:53-25:01
One of the most profound truths in Scripture concerning our adversary, God uses Satan's work for God's purposes.
25:03-25:05
Satan is not a stooge to us.
25:06-25:08
Satan is a stooge to God.
25:10-25:13
Because Satan's like, "Watch this, watch this.
25:13-25:24
Hey God, do I have permission to this?" God's like, "Okay," and Satan's walking away thinking, "I'm going to destroy that person's life." And God's like, "Satan is totally doing my work.
25:25-25:42
"I want to accomplish some things in that person's life, "and Satan is, "Satan's gonna be driving the delivery truck "to their house and handing them the very thing "that I'm going to use to glorify my name in them." God uses Satan to accomplish God's purposes.
25:44-25:54
I'm not saying that God is performing evil, what I'm saying is in this age that we're in now, God is allowing it, okay?
25:54-25:55
He's allowing it.
25:55-26:00
I'm not saying God's up in heaven like, "What evil can I perform?" Satan is obviously the one behind it.
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You with me on this?
26:01-26:04
I don't want you to leave thinking that God's doing evil things to you because he's not.
26:05-26:07
Satan's out to get you.
26:08-26:14
God's allowing him because God's going to accomplish a purpose through this.
26:16-26:32
In other words, Satan would bring this trial into your life and as you're going through this trial, Satan wants to sit down and just speak into your ear and say, "Be discouraged.
26:34-26:34
You know what?
26:35-26:35
Give up.
26:36-26:37
Is it really worth it?
26:38-26:39
Is it really worth it?
26:39-26:41
Just give up.
26:41-26:41
Come on.
26:42-26:45
Come on Bob, you've been trying and trying and it's not happening.
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Don't be stupid.
26:48-26:49
Just give up.
26:50-27:04
That's the purpose that Satan is trying to accomplish, while God, on the other hand, is saying, "Bob, I want you to learn to lean on me." Because Bob, you don't, listen, you don't have strength.
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God says, "I'm your strength.
27:07-27:08
My Holy Spirit is your strength.
27:09-27:12
I reside in you and I'm your strength.
27:12-27:19
And Bob, I'm going to allow this in your life because I'm going to teach you some things about me that you wouldn't learn otherwise.
27:20-27:22
So Bob, you're going to learn to trust me through this.
27:23-27:30
So Satan's trying to accomplish his purposes and God says, "Yeah, I'm doing the same." And the question for you church is, "Which one are you going to listen to?
27:32-27:36
Which one are you going to listen to?" But some trials are not going to be eliminated.
27:37-27:44
Some trials are going to stick around so that you learn to lean on God's grace and God's power.
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The Apostle Paul knew that well.
27:47-27:48
2 Corinthians chapter 12, remember?
27:49-27:50
Paul had this thorn in the flesh.
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He said, "I prayed, I prayed, I prayed.
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Remove it." And Jesus said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." This was, again, the Apostle Paul passionately praying about this trial in 2 Corinthians 12, and Jesus' answer was, "No.
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You're going to learn that you don't have power.
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You're going to learn that I'm your power.
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You're going to learn that in your weakness, my power is going to be perfected." So listen, if you're going through a trial right now, I've already told you that I'm I'm not God, and you knew that coming in.
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I don't know what God might be accomplishing in your life or what He's trying to teach you.
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But I do know that there are some trials that you're just not going to overpower.
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There are some trials that you need to just throw yourself at the rest that Jesus Christ provides.
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So, we've said I can't always prepare for trials.
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I can't always overpower trials.
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Number three, I can't face trials alone. I can't face trials alone.
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You know, Paul, we saw in this text, he's like, "I had to find out what was going on.
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I had to find out what was going on." Notice Paul's attitude was not, "Well, I mean, they're sincere Christians, right? I mean, they have God's Holy Spirit, so I'm sure they're fine." But you have to see, nor did Paul say, "Do We have like some scrub Bible college errand boy that can just go check on them.
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Paul sent Timothy, which was absolutely the very best that he could send.
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It's like Batman sending Robin out to say, "This is the very best person that I have.
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I'm going to send him out to you." There are things in the Bible that crack me up, you know that, but one of them is in verse two.
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Timothy, our brother and God's coworker.
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You know in some translations they translate that differently.
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Some would say, "And God's servant and God's whatever." And I was studying that this week.
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Actually probably the best translation of that is God's coworker.
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And I thought, "That would be a great thing to have on your resume." Like Timothy, you want to be a pastor at our church.
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So tell me your experience.
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Well, you know, Paul was kind of my mentor and I had some great teaching from my mom and my grandma.
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I was God's co-worker for a while." "What?
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You were what?" He says, "Timothy is God's co-worker." Isn't that a great title?
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Man.
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So why did he send Timothy?
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It's in the text.
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It's in the text.
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Did you see it?
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Number three, to establish and exhort you in your faith.
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He said that's why we sent Timothy.
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It wasn't just to check up on him.
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Like, "Hey Thessalonians, you good?
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Alright, we're good.
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Tell Paul you're good." He said, "We sent Timothy to establish and exhort you.
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What is that?
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What is that?
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Write this down.
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It's nothing new." Okay, it wasn't like, "Timothy, you're going to have to give them some new stuff.
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They're worried about our trials and we're going through this and Satan's obviously involved and there's the whole riot and stuff that happened and you're going to have to come up with some new material to try to keep them afloat.
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It wasn't anything new.
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He said to establish and exhort you in your faith.
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In other words, Timothy went to support the foundation that they already had.
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Do you understand that?
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They had this foundation in Christ.
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I have been free from sin.
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Jesus died for the penalty of my sin.
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Jesus rose from the dead so that I might have eternal life.
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God's Holy Spirit lives in me.
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They knew that.
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And that's what he was talking about establishing.
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He's saying, you need to go support that foundation.
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Remind them of these glorious truths.
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And exhort just means to apply what you know.
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That's just what it means.
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Exhort, we take God's word.
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This is what it says.
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we apply it to our lives.
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This is who you are in Christ, now apply that.
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That's why they sent Timothy.
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I can't face trials alone, because as we saw already, your trial might not leave.
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Instead of focusing on the trial leaving, we need to focus on allowing the Lord to grow our faith.
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That's why I preach the text.
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Okay, that's why at this church, I stand up and say, Open your Bibles, let's see what it says, let's understand what it says, let's apply what it says, it's preaching the text.
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Why am I doing that?
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Because my goal is to establish and exhort you in your faith.
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I'm here to support you and strengthen you in the Word of God.
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Remember who you are in Christ.
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You're going to be in heaven in like 15 minutes, okay?
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So in the meantime, In the meantime, we have each other to walk through life together.
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I'll teach you God's Word.
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Darren will lead worship.
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Felicia will pray with you.
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Jay will encourage you.
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Just like Timothy was sent to do what Timothy does, we have a church full of people that God has equipped to minister.
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And this is something that I had to learn.
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When I first came to Christ, I had this period of time where I was a Christian, I wasn't plugged into any church.
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And it was just like me and this little student Bible and I was really trying to figure a lot of things out.
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And the Lord really ministered to me in that time.
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But I've got to tell you, my spiritual growth really took off when I got plugged into a church.
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And I had people establishing and exhorting me in my faith.
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I can't do it alone.
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I can't do it alone.
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I was never meant to.
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And that's true for you too.
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You're never meant to do it on your own.
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God called you to be part of a body.
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Number four, I can't always avoid trials.
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I can't always avoid trials.
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Look again at verse three.
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He says, "You yourselves know that we are destined for this.
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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." I can't always avoid trials.
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This is something I wish somebody would have told me 20 years ago.
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But as Christians, we are destined for trials.
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That's what the Bible advertises.
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Genesis chapter 3, after Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, God said as a result of sin, work was going to be hard, we're going to have conflict in our relationships, and there's going to be death, as advertised.
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Second Timothy 3.12 says, "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." James chapter 1, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials." Jesus said, "You will be hated by all nations because of Jesus." Matthew 24.9 We are fallen people.
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We live in this fallen flesh.
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And we are living in a fallen world.
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And we are surrounded by other fallen people.
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And the devil is now after you.
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Where did we get this idea that following Jesus would be easy?
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Listen young Christian, I wish somebody had told me this 20 years ago.
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Jesus doesn't eliminate all of your problems.
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Sometimes He introduces you to new ones.
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How in the world can you say that?
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Remember Acts chapter 9?
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Ananias, the Lord says to him, "Hey, here's an address.
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I want you to go to this address and get Saul." And Ananias was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Saul, did you say Saul?
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Lord, I'm not sure if you heard.
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That guy is bad news.
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I mean, Saul is really bad news.
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And you, you want me to do what now?" The Lord says, "He is a chosen instrument of mine." And in Acts 9.16, the Lord says to Ananias in regards to Saul, who became Paul, who we're talking about here, listen to what the Lord says about him.
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He said, "I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." See it wasn't like Paul's like, "I became a Christian and life was great." God's like, "I'm going to show you being a follower of Jesus Christ is not easy." If the Apostle Paul were here today, he would tell you.
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We can read it in God's Word.
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Paul gives the list of the trials that he endured.
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And I would say again, as advertised, I will show him how much he must suffer.
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We can't always avoid trials.
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Like, well what if I behave?
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Maybe God won't give me trials if I behave myself.
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That is not written.
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What if I just work really hard?
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What if I work really hard?
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That is not written either.
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You know, when I give my life to Christ, what if I go to church every week?
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I've never missed church.
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That does not exempt you from trials.
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What if I'm really nice to people?
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What if I go out of my way to be nice to my really nasty neighbor?
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That is not written either.
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There are no exemptions.
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In John chapter 16, Jesus said, "In the world, you will have trouble," as advertised.
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Oh, and then he said, "Take courage.
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I've overcome the world." Jesus never promised that you would avoid trials, but over and over and over and over again in God's Word, He did promise that He would be with you through them.
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"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Why?
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Because you're with me.
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Following Christ doesn't mean you don't go in the valley.
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Following Christ means He's with you in the valley, right?
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He said, "I will never leave you or forsake you." Can't always avoid trials.
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There is a real sense, and I gave you a sample.
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I had to cut out a bunch of them.
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But I could keep you here until suppertime reading scriptures to you that says that we are going to go through hard times as Christians.
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We are destined for that.
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Okay, I can't always avoid trials.
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And then finally for today, I can't let trials stop me.
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Look at verse 5 again.
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This reason when I could bear it no longer I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter, who's that?
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That's Satan, right?
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That's Satan.
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He's the tempter.
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He's described as the tempter.
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He guarded the vineyard, right?
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And the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.
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Now when he says the tempter had tempted you, you know nothing can steal your salvation.
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You know that, right?
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He's not talking about you're going to lose your salvation.
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Satan tempted you to defect from Christ.
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He's not talking about that.
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The Bible is clear.
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John chapter 10, Jesus said, "You belong to Him, you're in His hand, and no one can snatch you from His hand." Anybody that could take your salvation would have to be more powerful than God Himself.
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And like, who's that?
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The answer is no one.
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Nobody can take you from Christ.
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He's not talking about, "I was afraid Satan was going to steal your salvation." He's saying, "I was concerned that you would be tempted to doubt God.
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You would be tempted to give up.
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You would be tempted to say, 'You know what?
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It's just not worth it.
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Trials can't rob me of my salvation, but trials can discourage me.'" And I believe Satan knows that.
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Satan knows that he can't take my salvation from me, but if he can discourage me, I'm going to be a lot less likely to seek to advance the kingdom.
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can discourage me, I'd just rather stay home in bed under the covers and not get out and tell people the good news about Jesus Christ. And that's the kind of thing that Paul is talking about here. He says, "I was so concerned that the tempter had tempted you. Are you going through a trial right now? I know that many of you are. And if you're not going through a trial right now, there's a trial coming. And in either case, I ask I would encourage you to do an exercise that I've had to do often.
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I remember the first time I did this in the middle of a whirlwind of trials.
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Like, "I wish my life was over" type trials.
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I remember getting before the Lord in prayer and just saying, God, by your power, by your grace, I will not give up.
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And I know it's not me, I wasn't self-helping myself.
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I was just simply saying this, God I want to cooperate with your agenda.
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Saving faith is a persevering faith.
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By the power of your Holy Spirit God, I will not quit.
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I will not quit.
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And I think there are some people here today maybe need to say that.
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There might be some people here today that say, "You know what?
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I know there are some people going through some major league stuff right now." There might be some people here that the tempter is tempting you.
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And you are so discouraged.
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And you are so tired.
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There's someone here today that needs to say, "I will not quit.
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I will not quit.
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Things might get a lot harder.
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There might not be any end in sight in the trials that I'm going through, but I will not quit.
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There might be somebody here right now that is going through a very hard trial that says, "You know what?
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I need to pray with someone.
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I need to come down and say, pray that I live out the perseverance that God has given me in Christ.
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And I believe that I experienced the reality of that in my own life.
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We're going to give you the opportunity to do that.
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Yesterday, Big Brother and I were actually working.
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Our youngest niece got married.
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I performed the ceremony and you probably guessed what Darren did.
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He was the bouncer.
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One of the groom's relatives came up to me in the reception hall and he said, "Hey, I just wanted to tell you, I really enjoyed your message in that wedding." He said, "I really enjoyed your take on things." He's like, "I really enjoy..." And then when he said that, "I really enjoy your..." That was really different.
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"I really enjoy your take on things." And he was being very nice.
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I wasn't trying to be snarky, but I said, "It's not my take on things." I said, "All I did was read the Bible." You know, that wasn't like my opinion.
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It's just what the Bible says.
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And Darren, not missing an opportunity, he goes, "You know what?
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He plagiarizes every week in church.
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He just gets up and says what the Bible says every week in church.
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That's all he does.
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This is what the Bible says." And then we get a laugh out of that.
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And today's no different.
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I'm just telling you what the Bible says.
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Don't be surprised at trials.
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What does the Bible say about it?
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Well here's three glorious truths that we've talked about that I'm going to leave you with.
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Trials are going to come, number one.
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Trials are promised.
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Trials are promised.
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Number two, Jesus is with me.
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And number three, it won't be like this forever.
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Bow your heads and pray with me.
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Father in Heaven, I just thank you for the transparency that Paul shared in the Word here.
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And a lot of times, I think preachers and really people in general just try to put on a front and want people to think that maybe we're something that we're not.
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But we see in this passage, Paul had some very deep concerns and some very big burdens and some very real weaknesses.
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And we look at this and we say, Yeah, actually we're probably more like Paul than we realized.
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Father, in just a moment we're going to continue in worship and we're going to open up an opportunity for people to come and pray.
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And I pray for these people here who maybe they need to take that step of faith.
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Just come forward and say, "Look, I need somebody to pray for me, and I need somebody to pray with me right now." Father, maybe there's somebody here that's not personally going through a trial, but maybe their neighbor or co-worker or family member is going through some things, and they need somebody that's going to pray on their behalf.
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Let this be a place of prayer and worship over these next few minutes.
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We thank You that You've given us Your Word.
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Trials don't surprise You, Father, and there is a real sense in which they shouldn't surprise us either.
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Increase our faith.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:5
What is it about trials that make some people walk away from following Jesus (2:17, and see Matthew 13:21)?
Why do you think Satan hindered (roadblocked) Paul (2:18)? What seemed to be Paul's attitude about this?
Why did Paul send Timothy to the Thessalonians (1 Thes 2:19-3:3a)? How are YOU being established and exhorted in your faith?
"Jesus doesn't eliminate all your problems – sometimes He introduces you to new ones." What "new problems" does Jesus introduce a person to? (1 Thes 3:3b-4)
What was Paul concerned Satan would tempt the Thessalonians to do or not do (1 Thes 3:5)? Have you ever been tempted in this way?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for your group to trust God's purposes in the trials being faced. Pray for one another!