Staying Up in a Down World

My name is Valerie, I'm one of the pastors on staff here at Twin Lakes Church, and whether you are here in this building with me, or you're over in the venue service, or you're watching on Facebook Live, I wanna welcome you to church today. I am so glad you've chosen to spend part of your weekend with us. And I want to say, just really before I start, to piggyback a little bit on what Paul said about the 2020 dessert that's coming up on Wednesday, and if you've been around here for a few years, you might be thinking, okay, what are we turning into? The Winchester Mystery House? Why do we keep building? Well, let me just tell you that these are not buildings we just thought of off the top of our head, that these two buildings that we're talking about, the College Ministry Building and the Coffee House, out on the edge of our parking lot, and the Craft Chapel are buildings that have been on our master plan since 1971. And we are super excited because we could be the generation, Lord willing, where we see these buildings completed. And so we just wanna invite you out to hear a little bit of that vision.

Well, do me a favor, if you haven't done so already, take the sermon notes out of the bulletin that you were handed on the way in. We are wrapping up our series today, Hope Agent. We're in the book of 1 Thessalonians. Let me just tell you right now, I will not miss trying to say 1 Thessalonians. It is a tricky one to put together. But we are gonna be wrapping up, we're in chapter five, so grab your sermon notes if you'd like to open your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter five, and please listen as I read these verses for today. Starting in verse 16, rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the spirit, do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test them all, hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who called you is faithful, and he will do it. Brothers and sisters, pray for us. Greet all God's people with a holy kiss. I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

You know, I find it interesting in this passage, Paul is suddenly writing in these little tidbits and these quick pieces of wisdom, and the historian in me can't help wonder why. Why is there this sudden shift into short little pieces of wisdom and insight? And we don't know, it could be that Paul was suddenly on the run again, and maybe he had to wrap this baby up and get going to the next town because he was being chased. He might be running out of scroll space, and scroll space is hard to come by, and so maybe he's riding around the edges. It reminds me of how I start to sound when I'm getting ready to go on vacation, and things start coming to my mind, and I start sending out quick emails. Oh, could you help me do this? Oh, please remember to do this. You know, please be sure René is fed and watered. Please be sure to follow up on this. All these little last minute tidbits of information that I wanna communicate.

And I don't know why Paul shifts gears here, and it's tempting to just go, ah, we're at the end credits. I'm the person who always gets up in the movie when the end credits come anyway, so we'll just sign off. But as I looked at these verses, and I prayed about these verses, and read them, and tried to apply them to my own life first, I really felt like Paul was saying to the Thessalonians, and by extension saying to us two words, stay open. I felt like he was exhorting us to stay open. You know, a few months ago, I had a big birthday, the kind that ended in a zero, and in my case, start with a five. You can see how well I'm adjusting. I still six months later cannot even utter the word. But I had one of those birthdays, and honestly, I think there are a lot of advantages getting older. I don't worry nearly so much about what people think of me. Kinda realized, actually, people are not thinking about me as much as I think they are anyway. I get to go to bed as late as I want, or increasingly as early as I'd like to. You know, one thing I really love about getting older is I feel like relationships are richer. Relationships are deeper, and there's a perspective that brings peace, that comes with having walked life for a little bit.

But I've realized one of the downsides, and particularly with my personality, I'm a little stubborn, just a little, but one of the things I've noticed is as I age, I tend to not be as open as I used to be about things. You know, I work on a great staff here with lots of amazing men and women. I work with some men and women who are my age. I work with some like René and Mark and Paul who are much, much older than I am. I also, increasingly, and it's getting easier to be, work with people who are younger than I am. And I add to this fact that I've actually been on staff here almost 24 years, and you kinda have a recipe for saying, "Been there, done that." We tried that in 1980. It didn't work then, and it won't work now. Or we've always done it this way, and it's never failed, so we don't have to change a thing. And I find myself starting to make my world smaller because of my past experiences.

But when I was younger, I tended to do the same thing, but for a different reason. I had all the confidence in the world in my correctness, and my only problem was getting other people to see how right I was. And I spent a great portion of my energy and time endeavoring to help people understand my rightness. I remember when I was 18, I was in a humdinger of an argument with my mom and dad. Oh, my poor mom and dad, I tell ya. But they lived, they survived me, I'm grateful. But I was arguing with them, and I remember this moment where I just kinda pulled out of the argument, and I looked at what was happening, and I just felt pity for my parents. I just felt pity for them. I thought, "These people clearly don't get it." They do not get that I know everything I need to know. And so I just need to help them see that I know everything now, and they can relax. They don't need to tell me anything anymore. And so I was closed off because of my confidence.

And I think the confidence, honestly, that comes in youth is God-given. I don't think we'd have half the innovation we have if it wasn't for the confidence that comes in that moment. But if the confidence of youth or even of age causes you to stay closed to what God can do, 'cause you think, "Well, I know God. I know what he's gonna do." Or if your life experience causes you to say, "Well, I've already seen God, and this is what he does," it closes us off to what God can do, 'cause here's the deal. God will not be contained by us. And so we need to stay open. And so here in 1 Thessalonians, chapter five, I believe Paul first is telling us to stay open to God's ways. You might wanna write that down in your notes. Stay open to God's ways. In verse, starting in verse 16, we read, "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." So what do these verses, and I believe these can be taken kind of as a unit, so what do these three verses, these choices, to rejoice, the choice to pray, the choice to give thanks in all circumstances, what do these have to do with staying open?

Well, I believe that these are three choices that people who are open to the fact that God is bigger than they are, and they're willing to stay open to his ways, I believe these are the choices that people like that make. And when we make these choices, we're freed up. We are freed up to kind of stand on tiptoes and see what is God gonna do in this situation. Starting in verse 16, "Rejoice always." No ambiguity there, rejoice always. The Apostle Paul says this over and over and over again, most notably in Philippians chapter four, verse four. He says, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and in case you missed it or in case you don't like it, I will say it again, rejoice." And you know, I think we can all get on board with this. I think we go, yeah, I wanna be that person. I wanna rejoice, I like people who are joyful. But if you're like me, you might find that sometimes when you think you're rejoicing, I find that what I'm really saying is, yay, things are going my way. And then I just call it rejoicing 'cause it sounds more spiritual. And that's sometimes what we fall trapped to. But what Paul is calling us to here is a rejoicing, is a joy that goes much deeper than our circumstances. He is calling us to something that is deep and something that we need God's help with.

And you might be in this room today in a rough season. You might be in this room in a rough marriage season, in a rough health season. Maybe you've lost a friend. I don't know, but I know that in a crowd this size, people walk in having a hard time. And you might be thinking, you know what? No way. Not gonna rejoice always. Not until this malarkey is over. And malarkey, by the way, is a word that you can say when you're over 50. You can't say it before then. But I'm not rejoicing until this is done. You know what? It wouldn't even be authentic. It wouldn't be real for me to rejoice foul. You know, some of the best words that have meant the most to me, honestly, when it comes to rejoicing, were words from scripture that I heard preached a few years ago by an Iraqi pastor who was in Amman, Jordan, where I was at the time, speaking to a room packed with Iraqi refugees. People for whom God's ways were a complete mystery at that point. They had been tossed out of their homes, horrible things had happened. And I was in a sermon listening to him, and he was calling these people to rejoice. Rejoice. And the scripture he used is one I wanna share for you today, especially if you feel like, no way, Val, I'm not gonna do this. Look at Habakkuk 3, 17 through 18. It says, "Though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vine, though the olive crop fails, and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen, and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my savior." Habakkuk's life, the nation of Israel's life, at that point was one giant no. God says no. No way, no stuff, no nothing. But what does Habakkuk say there? He says, "Yet I will rejoice not in the know, but I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my savior." And the same God that Habakkuk was calling to rejoice in is the same God we rejoice in. And that is why in the darkest, deepest pits of life, when there is maybe nothing else to rejoice in, you can rejoice in the Lord. You can be joyful in God your savior, the unchanging God who made you, who loves you, who knows you. You can rejoice in him.

And also I think that a key to rejoicing always is found actually in the next verse, verse 17, where it says pray continually. And the word translated continually can also be translated incessantly. Pray incessantly. And you might be thinking, this is not helpful. Rejoice always, pray incessantly. They sound equally impossible to me, Val. How do I do this? And I don't think Paul, by saying this, is calling you and I to shutter ourselves up in our houses and be on our knees all day and just pray. But I do think that Paul is calling us to live lives that are in moment by moment dialogue with God. You know, I've been a Christian, a follower of Jesus my entire life. I was going to church before I was even born, and I have not missed a whole lot of Sundays since then. And I have heard a lot of sermons on prayer. In seminary they even had me take a class just on prayer. And I think there are times when we do need to spend extended times in prayer, when we need to just sit for a long time and pray and hear from God and listen to him. But for me personally, honestly, as I live my daily life and go through the ups and downs of life, I have found for years now, Paul's words to us in this verse, to pray continually, to be the best way for me to pray.

And what that means essentially is that when I wake up, I start talking to God. I may not thank him for what time it is, but I thank him that I got up that morning. And I thank him for the things around me. As I walk through my day and I hear prayer requests or something, I talk to him about those things. When I'm driving down the road, we chat about the driver who cut me off. What I think of that driver, what he thinks of that driver, we differ on this point. Turns out he loves them. I do not yet, I'm working on it. When somebody comes up to me and says, "Hey Val, can I talk to you for a minute?" I mean, working in the church office is like a daily surprise party. You just never know what's gonna walk through the front door. And so when someone says, "Can I talk to you for a minute?" I say, "Lord, give me wisdom. Give me ears to hear more than what's being said so that I can be an encouragement to the person who's coming in. Be in an ongoing dialogue with God.

Here's the thing, he is present with you all the time anyway. You might as well just start talking to him. He is there. My mom always liked to make that point very clear to me when I was a teenager. God is always with you, Val. It was not so much in a comforting way as a threatening way when I was a teenager. But it's true. God is always with you. And you're not walking on tiptoe pulling on the coat of the great and powerful God. Will you listen to me, please, God? The Bible tells us that because of Jesus Christ's work on the cross, tells us in Hebrews chapter four, that we can boldly go with confidence into the throne room of God. That we will be heard. If you wanna use confidence, there's where you can use it to go into the throne room of God, to talk to him, to pray to him. And he is there. He is just waiting. So you can be an ongoing conversation.

And I think getting back to the previous verse, when we're in an ongoing conversation with God, when we're daily reminding ourselves, many times through the day, oh, he's God, he's here, it becomes easier to rejoice always. Because we're reminding ourselves, I'm not God. And counterintuitively, for those of us who control freaks, let's just call this beta spade, like I am, it is actually freeing to realize you're not in charge. We are freed up to be in awe of God. We are freed up to trust his ways more and more in our life, in the lives of those around us. You know, we do not have to check up on God. We do not have to double check his work. We don't need to manage him. It's just silly to think we are. But we can relax and just be his child. And that's how you start to rejoice always. That's when you pray continually, you bring that into it. And then the next verse, kind of connected to rejoicing and certainly a part of our prayer life is gratitude. Verse 18 says, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Now it might seem odd, you might think, well, he just said rejoice, and now he's saying give thanks. Isn't that basically the same thing? They're certainly connected, there's no doubt about it. The joy, rejoicing is a deep seated core attitude out of which thankfulness flows. I call thankfulness the simple joys, the specific joys that you see in life. And giving thanks in all circumstances, like praying continually and like rejoicing always, is a discipline. This does not happen magically in our lives. I wish it did. We would all be saved a lot of trouble. And especially what does not happen easily is what this verse actually says, which is to give thanks in all circumstances. Now, before you get all fired up and say, okay, I don't have to, and here's why, I don't have to give thanks right now because this is what's going on in my life, Val, so I'm off the hook here. Notice it does not say give thanks for all circumstances. God is not a sadist. He is not telling you that you have to give thanks for the pain, but He is calling us to give thanks in the pain. He is calling us to give thanks in the chaos. He is calling us to give thanks in the blah of life, in the moments when we don't know where to go. He is calling us to be people of gratitude.

And you know what? If you don't know what to be thankful for, and I know that life sometimes gives you blessed little to be thankful for around you, but if you're looking for things to be thankful for, we live in this beautiful area. You can start with the things you see around you. If you're not from this area, I'm sure wherever you're from, they have lovely flowers and other things that you can be thankful for. Every single thing is a gift. So start giving thanks. And in my experience, particularly this habit of giving thanks in all circumstances will fundamentally shift you. It will fundamentally shift your worldview as you start to give thanks. As you start to give thanks for the people who trouble you, they suddenly become a little less troubling. It's amazing how that happens. If you start to give thanks in hard circumstances, if all you can give thanks for is God, it's amazing how fundamentally the discipline of giving thanks starts to shift your mind. It will shift your worldview.

So this attitude, and I call these three things together, an attitude of joy, the attitude of prayer, the attitude of thanks, these things allow you to stay open to God because they are all in their own way reminders that God is God and that I am not. And they will allow you to stay open. And as a bonus, it says in the verse that when you do these things, you can know you're doing God's will. So often we can tort ourselves into knots about what is God's will, what's the dot, where am I supposed to be? We'll start with these clear things that are laid out, to pray, to rejoice, to give thanks. And I promise you in God's ways, He will move you to the places that He wants you to be. And when we are staying open to God's ways, I think we are number two more apt to stay open to God's work. Stay open to God's work in the lives of the church, in the lives of the people around you, because here's the thing, again, God's work and what He does will not always fit in your box. And honestly, there's sometimes you might think, well, God shouldn't work that way, actually. That's not how it goes. But God will not be stopped.

In verses 19 through 22, the Apostle Paul says, "Do not quench the spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test them all. Hold to what is good, reject every kind of evil." So let's take that first phrase, "Do not quench the spirit." He's referring to the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, who Jesus promised would come and indwell all believers at all times, reminding us that we belong to God and that He is at work, that He is at work doing things. And the idea of the Holy Spirit, I know it can be a little tricky for some people. If you're new to this, you're going, I don't get the Holy Spirit. That just sounds weird to me. If you grew up in a setting like I grew up, you're like, we're not supposed to talk about that, I don't think. Weird things happen over there when people say that word, so we leave it alone. If you're on the other side, you're like, thank God they finally said the word Holy Spirit in this church. I'm so grateful that they're starting to get it. But so no matter where you fall on that spectrum though, I think Paul's admonition to us is still super important. We need to not quench the work of the spirit in our lives. And this work is always going to be in an ongoing way, again, reminding us that we belong to God. Reminding us that His ways are not our ways. Reminding us that He will do things in His own way and they may not fit in our box.

Again, when I was over in Jordan, one of the things that kind of blew my mind was when you hear testimonies of people who are converting from Islam to Christianity almost without fail, they will tell you that they saw at least one vision of Jesus before they converted. That does not fit in my little Baptist box. People don't see visions in my Baptist box, but I'm telling you that God was working in that way. And I need to stay open to that. I need to stay open to the fact that God's work will not always fit in my box. And believe me, the last place I want to be found is quenching that work in the church or in my life either. And Paul says no matter where you fall on this spectrum of prophecy, the next thing we need to all do is the same. Or sorry, we're gonna talk about prophecies treating them with contempt first. I don't wanna jump over that. Because again, like the Holy Spirit, this idea of prophecies can seem a little odd to people. The prophecy is really the God-given gift, and that's an important two words there, the God-given gift to the church for somebody to encourage, for somebody to build up, for somebody to help give correction to the church. And Paul says here, don't treat that gift with contempt. We don't know if the Thessalonians were specifically doing that. It seems like they might have been. They were setting that gift aside. But prophets are also human. And so there can be the temptation for them to say, God says, when what they really mean is, I want. And Christians don't all agree, believe me, on how this gift is manifested today. Again, there are some that think it is as active today as it was in the times of Scripture. They believe that there are people who are specifically given a message from God to share to the church, to build up the church. There are other people who believe that with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit has essentially become the prophet for us all individually. And so the gift of prophecy isn't practiced. But again, no matter where you fall on this spectrum, Paul says, test it. Test what you hear. Because not everything you hear is gonna be from God just because somebody said God says.

A lot of times, I've noticed also, by the way, this comes in the phrase of God told me to tell you. People are really good at that. God told me to tell you, you need to do this. So if your spouse tells you later today, God told me to tell you, you need to mow the lawn. Probably don't listen to that. One time, now I'm gonna get in trouble, great. People, wives are gonna, men are gonna email me. One time, years ago, actually right in this room, right here in the front row, René, our lead pastor, Mark, our executive pastor, and myself were all standing here after Saturday night kind of talking about the service, wrapping up. And a woman came in just before we were leaving and she said to René, I have a prophecy for you. And so René said, all right, I would like, share the prophecy with me that you have. And she said that God had told her that René was to leave his wife and marry her. Yes. Now obviously, she was completely off base. Just because she said God says, she was completely off base. Now just quickly, if you probably wanna know, well how did that all end up? Let me tell you two things I learned that evening. Thing one, René is as gracious as the day is long. Say what you will to him about his sermon, about the church, do not mess with his wife. And I would go ahead and add, do not mess with his grandchild either. I think those are off the table now. But secondly, just that reminder that there are people who genuinely believe they're speaking for God and they are genuinely wrong. So how do we test these things? How do we know? And we test them right here in the word of God. This is God's written revelation to all of us equally. And this is how we test what we hear. And I'm telling you, I come to this every time I preach and I probably hope I will do it till the day I die. There is no substitute for you reading the Bible for yourself. Coming to church and listening for an hour is not a substitute for you being in the word of God yourself.

And you may say, oh man, I don't want to, I don't even know where to start. It's kind of big, it doesn't feel like it's relevant as much. I'm just asking you to start. I'm not asking you to give hours of your life to this immediately. I'm just asking you to start reading. On the back of your notes we have a daily reading list. You could start there and just read those passages. If you don't like to read, feel free to listen to the Bible. There's apps on your phone. There's all kinds of ways that you can listen to scripture, buy some CDs, and you might think, ah, I can't really listen. I gotta stay up on the traffic, the weather. I gotta know what's going on in the world. Here, let me just save you some time, okay? Here's the deal. It's foggy here. It's hotter than you know where over the hill. The traffic is a disaster and the world's not far behind. Okay, so now you're freed up. You can go ahead and listen. Listen to the Bible if you need to.

But also, I have to say, you know what, we're a team. And I know that maybe some of you in this room are totally new to this reading the Bible thing. You have questions. Maybe you're hearing from a friend or something and you just wonder, is this in the Bible? We're a body, we're a team. We are here to support you. You can feel free to ask questions. There are some people who have really applied themselves to knowing the Bible. Paul, who did announcements, is probably the smartest guy on our staff. I'll just tell you that. Sorry, René, I hope you're not listening to this. But Paul is one of the smartest men when it comes to knowing God's word, to knowing theology. Ask questions. When we offer classes that will help you grow in your faith, take those classes, but every single pastor on the staff would tell you the same thing. There is no substitute for you reading the word of God yourself.

You know, Christians, you will find, if you're new to this as you get into it, do not always agree on everything. We, you know, it's shocking actually sometimes how little we agree on. But, having read the last book of the Bible, Revelation, several times, Paul, you can correct me if I'm wrong here, I do not see that there's any time set aside in heaven for us to go, ha, told you so. I totally nailed that and you got it wrong. I told you prophecy was like that. You blew it, lady. But there's no time set aside in heaven for that because here's the deal. When we get to heaven, we will finally have the perspective that God wants us to have now. We will finally understand the bigness of our God and the vastness of his work. The work that is so amazing that sometimes we just completely miss it, but that he has been doing, we'll finally get it. And the only thing that will be left for us to say is holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. So why not start practicing now? Why not start building into your life now that perspective, that mind-blowing idea that God can work in ways that are completely and totally outside your box?

You know, next weekend we're starting a new series called Small Faith, Big God, and we're gonna be talking about some stories in the Bible. René's gonna kick it off next week with Moses. That will blow your mind of God being so outside of our box. Great, amazing things that God has done. So why not practice now? Practice that attitude of, you know what? God works outside my box. Because what you can be assured of is that ultimately all God's work is leading us towards what verse 23 says. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is reminding us that following God here is not a one-hour-on-Sunday deal. It's not a piecemeal deal where you give God one hour and then you get all the rest of the hours in the week to do what you want. No, God is calling us to more and more and more in word, in thought, indeed be like Jesus. And that's what sanctification means. That's what sanctify means, to more and more and more be choosing to act in ways that reflect Jesus. And that's what he's calling us to.

And he's not just calling us to be sanctified so we look all pretty for the other Christians and that we act right and that everything's going well. He's calling us to be sanctified through and through, all the way in, in spirit and soul and body to be kept blameless. And there's another word that makes me just go, oh great, I can't do that. First, you know, you talked me off the ledge of pray continually and rejoice always, but how in the world can any of us be blameless? Stay open and thank God for his most amazing work, which is in verse 24. The one who calls you is faithful. He will do it. And once again, we are back at grace because this is what it's all about, is God's amazing grace demonstrated through Jesus Christ. And it says the one who calls you, and this verb calls is in this timeless, perfect tense. That means the one who calls and calls and calls and calls and calls and calls and calls and calls. So you finally have to take the call. Calls and calls and calls you no matter how far away you are, no matter what you did last night, no matter what you want to do after church, no matter how long it's been since you heard it, the one who calls you is faithful. He is faithful and he will do it. The one who calls you to rejoice, the one who calls you to pray, the one who calls you to give thanks in all circumstance, the one who calls you to be blameless. He is faithful, his character is faithful. He is faithful to all he has promised to you. He's faithful to you and he will do it. And guess what? He will do it in ways and works that we do not always expect, but nevertheless, he will do it.

In the final four verses here, Paul pens his farewell to the Thessalonians. In verse 25, he asks the believers to pray for him. You know, the great Apostle Paul knew that he was not a lone ranger. He knew that he needed the body of Christ, people around him to pray for him. And I would say the same is very true today. We need your prayers. I mean, hopefully as a staff and pastors, we've been transparent enough with you that you think clearly these people need my prayers. And so we hope that you will pray for us. And I'm gonna take a little bit of advantage of René not being here today. You know, you might listen to René's stories and think, oh, you know, the life of a lead pastor looks pretty good. He's going to NFL games, he's, you know, working at camps, he's seeing cool things, meeting people. Let me just tell you that the life of a lead pastor is not a cakewalk. He loves it. He is called to it. God has gifted him for it. But he would tell you to pray. Because he takes on a tremendous burden and amount of responsibility on all of our behalf. So pray, pray for all of us.

On the back of your bulletin is a list of our names. Pray that we will grow spiritually. Pray that we will grow in unity. Pray that we will grow in vision. Pray for the marriages that are represented on that page. But please pray for us. And then in the next verse, this may either sound like the best verse you've ever heard in church or the most frightening verse you've ever heard in church. It says, "Greet all God's people with a holy kiss." I'm here to let you all know that next weekend we'll be changing our greeting time. No, we are not doing that. This obviously has a cultural connotation. The way Paul says it, it probably also says, is meaning, "Say hello to so and so for me. Say hello to so and so." But there's a fondness to the greeting. And while it's not prescriptive that we have to greet each other with a kiss, it is descriptive of how our welcome should be to each other. That when we meet each other, when we greet each other, we should do it warmly. We should do it with affection. Because even though we don't all look alike in this room, we don't all act alike, we don't all think alike, we don't all vote alike, we still are bound together by this amazing grace of God. So greet each other warmly. Be open to what God is doing in and through other people.

And in verse 27, Paul says, "Make sure you read this letter to everybody." Which is something he says a lot. You know, you can't go down to Kinko's and copy a scroll, so there's one copy and it has to be read to the church. But what's interesting here is Paul says, "I charge." Which is a little, it's the only time he uses this word. And so it could be that maybe some of the leaders in Thessalonica were insecure and they were trying to hold Paul's knowledge so they would seem like the smart guys. But no matter what it means, the truth is the same. That these words are for everybody. These words are for everybody. We don't get to pick who gets these words, who hears these words, these words are for everybody. And finally, in the last verse, Paul ends his letter where he started his letter with the grace of God. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. It's all about grace for Paul. It's all about grace for us. The same is exactly true today. And Paul says, "May this grace not just be around you, not just may you have knowledge of this grace, may it be with you."

Here's a truth in life I can promise you. God will not always work in the ways you want him to. God will do methods and things that you think are just outside the box and wild. God will not work in the timeframe that you always want him to. But the one who called you is faithful. He will do it from beginning to end and by the grace of God, he will do it. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much that you are faithful. Thank you that you are the faithful God. Thank you that you are the unchanging God of Habakkuk, the God of the Apostle Paul and our God today. Lord, thank you so much for that. Where would we be without your faithfulness? Lord, I pray for each person in this room, for perhaps a person who's hearing some of this for the first time. I pray that they would stay open to your call to follow you. I pray that they would be compelled by the idea of following a God that's big and a God that's outside the box, God. And I pray for those of us who've been Christians longer time, I pray that you would save us from ourselves, God. I pray that you would save us from our experiences, that you would save us from our confidence, and that we would increasingly more and more stay open to your ways, stay open to your work, God. I pray for those here today who might be struggling with how you are working or your ways in the life of someone they love, a child or a spouse or a friend, and they're just struggling, wondering, are you there, God? I pray that they would have confidence that you are always at work, that you are always calling, not only them, but those they love as well, that you never give up, Lord. Thank you so much. We are eternally grateful for the grace that you have given us through your son, Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.