The Journey of Faith Part 3 - Middle of Your Testimony 3.16.25

So we're with my messages, we're on this series called A Journey of Faith.

And you know, we are we're we're learning about what this walk of, not just walk of being a Christian is, because there's so many people that are Christians who left their faith at the door of salvation.

They walked through that door, they believed God for their salvation, and they never really believe God again.

They never really put their faith into exercise, exercise their faith again.

We don't want to be those.

We want to be those that are constantly exercising, using our faith to believe God, to receive from God, and to get the things that He's He has ready for us.

But, you know, a journey isn't a journey unless we start, and that's what we talked about last time.

Um it begins with believing.

And believing was turning on that switch, believing was starting the car with the good news of salvation.

We learned that we that when we first heard that good news of salvation, we had to we had to turn the switch on to believe it.

But then faith is that accelerator.

Faith is that let me get this car out of park, out of my driveway, and let me get going on this faith this life of faith.

Too many people have started the car and sit in the driveway, and they're just waiting for heaven.

They're waiting for that, Lord, take me to heaven, get me out of this place.

They just sit in the car and don't go anywhere with their journey of faith.

Step after step in our journey is only progressed by believing the word and acting on it in faith, keeping our conscience clear and our obedience on the ready.

But that takes work, as we heard last time.

In fact, the verse we ended on last time is the verse I'll start with this one.

Hebrews 4.11, let us labor, therefore, to enter into the rest that God has for us, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

So there's kind of a contrast here that if we're not really working or laboring to enter into the rest that God has called for us, that land, that promised land, that that area of faith that we're believing for, it could fall, we could start falling off into the example of unbelief that the children of Israel did.

It's not, you know, I use the example of the car.

It's not really, well, it kind of is.

I can sit in my car, I can start the car, I can sit in my car all day long, I've got the air conditioning running or the heat, whatever the day is.

Uh and I have the music going, I'm not going anywhere, but you know, I'm in, I'm I'm comfortable, I'm I'm okay, I'm doing good, I'm not out on the elements.

And then I run out of gas.

What am I going to do now?

And that's that's us falling off that example of unbelief.

If we just sit there and don't do anything, it's really entropy takes over.

And it's really, we start, we're not really just maintaining, we're just really kind of going down after a while.

But for most of us, that initial journey didn't take that long.

In other words, and you may remember it, you may, it may have been so long ago you don't remember the details, but when you first got saved, you heard the good news.

You may have been in a church service, you may have been somewhere, and you heard the good news of salvation, and then you believed.

And that point from hearing the good news to believing to calling on the name of the Lord could have been minutes, could have been an hour, could have been not that long.

Now, maybe you heard it once and didn't act on it and didn't do anything, and then you took a second or third time for it to really go, you know what?

I do believe that.

So maybe it was a period of time.

But that first journey didn't take that long.

So Christians tend to start thinking, hmm, okay, good, all my prayers are going to be answered just like just that quick or just that long.

But journeys are not called journeys because they're short.

They're called journeys because there's duration involved in the journey.

You know, much like the children of Israel leaving Egypt in one day, that was their salvation moment.

They God called them out of Egypt and they packed up their stuff and they left Egypt in one day.

That's an example, a type and shadow that God put in the Bible of us getting saved, called out of the world.

So they did that in one day.

The Bible says there is no feeble among them.

400 years of enslavement, and all of a sudden they're leaving, no matter what the age, the Bible says there wasn't one feeble or sick among them of the millions of people that were leaving that day.

And they left in one day, they got saved, and then all of a sudden they start running into other areas of the journey, and they're like, hmm, this isn't really all I thought it would be.

I thought, you know, we're we're excited to get saved, we're excited to get out of the world, but I didn't think there'd be other problems here.

I mean, there's we're we still need something.

We need water, we need food, we need, we're, we need, we're, we, we run into this Red Sea, we gotta get across this, there's an army coming.

They started running into other parts of their journey that they weren't ready for.

And they didn't think that there would be more to come once they got out of Egypt.

Specifically, leaving Egypt wasn't their final destination.

They had just started their journey, not finished it.

So salvation for us as a Christian isn't the end of our walk.

Salvation is the beginning.

It is the open is the how we step into this life of faith, how we start our journey.

Don't let that be you, though.

Don't let that be your kids.

We'll teach our kids to, yes, you need to be saved, yes, you need to be born again.

But just like Jesus commanded us before he went to heaven, he said, go and make disciples.

He didn't say go and get people saved.

Go and make disciples.

Making disciples is a process, it takes time.

And it also means you have to be a disciple to make a disciple.

You can't make what you're not.

So for us to be able to make a disciple, it means there's gonna be this element that we don't like to talk about, time.

It's gonna take time, which means it's gonna take effort, it's gonna take labor, it's gonna take work on our part to make us a disciple, and then to make disciples of others.

Yes, parents, we're commanded to you know, basically make our kids disciples.

Doesn't say it like that, but that's pretty much our job is to train up a child in the way they should go so that when they're old they won't depart from it.

But we're making those disciples in our in our kids, but also with the people that we that that we are influenced to meet.

It doesn't mean everybody you meet, but it means that there's people in your life that there's an opportunity for you to share the word consistently and to live a life that shows the example of God to a person.

But that's part of our journey.

The labor of entering into the rest of the rest that God has for us is the rest of the journey.

For the children of Israel, you know, we know it took them 40 years, partly because of their own unbelief and their own disobedience, but God still had a destination for them, the promised land.

And it they it took them a while to get there, it took them a whole lot more effort to get there, but they got there.

The ones, the ones that trusted God and the ones that did believe.

So this is for us, the Christian Christian life, it's a marathon.

It's not a sprint, it's not um, it's not always gonna be quick, it's a long-distance drive, it's a post-uh graduate education, it doesn't happen quick.

You know, everything is there's a duration to it.

But there's a reward at the end.

It's not just heaven.

You know, there's a reward that we get in heaven based on the work that we do here.

And there's too many Christians, and I've I've talked to some that are just happy they're saved, and they've said that.

I'm just happy I'm saved, I'm going to heaven, that's it.

That's all I'm gonna do.

Basically, I've got my high school diploma, I'm not doing anything, any other education.

I'm gonna, I'm not doing, I'm done with this, you know, basically life of faith.

I believe God enough to know that I'm going to heaven when I die.

And they will.

But in heaven, there are still a reward for what we do here on earth.

And the only place we get to increase that reward is here on earth by what we do.

There's not, there's no uh extra graduate levels in heaven.

We'll all be learning more and more, but the reward that we're gonna get in heaven is all based on what we get here on this earth, or what we do on this earth.

The journey of faith brings the end result of our prayers, our petitions.

The Lord says He's given us all things to enjoy.

He wants you saved, he wants your needs met, your desires met, he wants you healthy and strong, he wants your children saved and protected.

Those are things that we can start seeing on the journey of faith.

But this journey is a journey.

And how many have been in a car with your kids and said, Are we there yet?

I had my daughter say it as soon as we backed out of the driveway.

I'm like, we just backed out of the driveway.

We got a three-hour drive in front of us.

So let's at least uh give me a few more minutes.

Let's at least get on the interstate before we say, Are we there yet?

I don't know if she was joking or just wanted to play with me, but literally, we had I haven't even put it back in drive yet.

We're still in reverse.

Are we at grandma's yet?

No.

Doesn't look like it.

But this is where it gets, this is where the labor can get tiresome.

So let's not get tired of doing what is good.

At just the right time, we'll reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up.

Galatians 6.9.

Because it's this getting tired of doing what's good, because you're constantly going against the flow, you're constantly going against the enemy who's trying to stop you, you're constantly going against your flesh, which wants to just kind of sit back and let what be, what will be, will be.

But your spirit knows if I don't get tired of doing what's good, I am gonna get the harvest that I'm asking God for.

I am gonna reap it.

But it's it that's where that's where our part comes in.

Don't give up.

Keep the faith.

God's part, there's a lot of verses we can use for this, but this is the one I landed on.

Philippians 1.6.

And I'm certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus returns.

Philippians 1.6.

He's the one who begins the work.

He's the one who has that outcome that he wants for us.

And he's gonna keep working on it, but we have to agree with it.

We have to go with him.

We can't work against him, or we can't do nothing and just say, okay, God, work in me.

There's gonna be some effort on our part, too.

Just like saying, if I just enroll in a college, okay, I'm enrolled, okay, do your work in me, college.

They're gonna go, uh, no, there's some there's some homework, there's some uh lab work, there's some things you gotta do.

We'll work with you.

But to get this degree, uh, you're gonna be doing some work too.

So I think too many Christians have tried to go, tried to just float on the lazy river of life.

The problem is the lazy river usually goes the wrong way.

It's floating against the against the path that God wants for us.

Many there be that take the big, wide road, but few take the narrow road, the narrow gate, because that's the road that has a little more challenges on it.

And it just requires an effort that goes against the world.

That's the road, though, that has the life and the peace on it.

That's the road that has the blessing and the and the desires of our heart.

But the other wide road is the one that looks easier and and and more comfortable, at least to our flesh.

But in the end, it's not the one, it's not the we'll we know that's not the right road.

Revelation 22, 13.

God says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

I love the way this says it multiple times because to God, he's at the beginning, he's at the end.

Now we saw in Philippians that he'll he'll he'll he'll keep performing that work in the middle, but God is really all about the beginning and the end.

He's about, let's get this thing started.

And once I say it started, to God, it's done.

This is a done deal.

Once God said that the children of Israel were gonna go to Israel, he's like, in God's mind, it's done.

When God said, let there be light, there was light.

When he says something, his word is his promise.

It's gonna get done.

He's the beginning and he's the end.

Now sometimes we we have to start, this is the the middle of that is the journey.

We have the start, we have the end, we have the we have the promise of salvation, we've all accepted that.

We have the promise of heaven, we're still working toward that, and we're in this life of life in the middle.

But God is already already there.

He was there at the beginning, he's there at the end, he never changes.

Romans 4.21.

And being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

That's talking about Abraham.

In other words, as soon as Abraham heard the promise of God, he was like, okay, it's done.

That's gonna happen.

Now, there were there was a duration though between that, between the promise and the performing of that promise.

Now, we've been hearing in our in Faith Alive, in Sundays and our Bible studies on Wednesday nights, we've been hearing so many good testimonies here lately.

And I even said that Wednesday nights.

Like, it's so pleasing to hear that because one, it's it's showing that we're making it to the end of these little journeys.

We're making it to the we're we're seeing the results of God working in us and the answers to prayer.

You know, from Denmark to Gabby to you know Angela's uh grants and and so many things we've heard about recently.

Um keep them coming.

Keep them coming.

All of us want the testimony, but many times we get mired in the test part of the testimony.

You know, I was curious what the what the original word in the in the Greek for testimony was, and I had if I had looked it up before, I completely forgot.

The word for testimony is martyria, martyr.

In fact, the word martyr simply means witness.

It doesn't mean somebody who died who gave their life for God.

The word martyr simply means witness.

So testimony is coming from the same word.

In other words, we're laying our will down, we're laying our flesh down to be a witness for God's purpose and what God wants for us.

So if we want a testimony, when we all do, if I said, who wants a testimony?

Who can give a testimony?

We have to go through the test of the testimony.

And that's the journey.

That's the life of faith.

That's the journey of faith, is us going through that test.

It's not God testing us because he's curious what's going to be the outcome.

It's just the test itself making sure that we have that we're staying on the walk of faith.

God knows what the outcome is supposed to be.

He knows the children of Israel are going to get to the promised land, but there's a whole bunch of them who failed the test.

The children of Israel got to the promised land.

God's word came true, but not everybody in that got to receive that.

So for us, when we're trusting God for something, when we're believing God for something, the test is us keeping our mind, keeping our eyes on Him, keeping our eyes off the things that we're seeing, off the things of the world, off the things of the natural.

We look at not at the things that are seen, but we look at we look at the things that are not seen, not the things that are seen.

That's our test, is like, okay, where am I looking?

Where am I looking?

I gotta keep looking at on what God has promised.

That's the are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

Lord, I've been praying for this.

Lord, I'm I'm I'm I'm trusting you, but it's been X number of months, it's been X number of years, it's been, you know, we've been believing you for a church building, Lord, and and you know, it's been over a year now, and we're in the test.

We're in the middle of our testimony.

And when I that that phrase came into my mind this week, and it's like, we're in the middle of our testimony.

In other words, we've done the right things to be obedient, to start the car and to go on the journey.

We've started our journey, and we know God is good.

We know God has a promise at the end, we know our answers to prayers will come.

But we can't give it yet.

We're in the middle of our testimony.

We're looking for, we're looking forward to.

I can't wait to give the testimony of this healing, of this provision, of whatever this is I'm looking for.

But we have to be fully persuaded at the beginning and all the way through it, that what God has promised, He's able also to perform.

Even while we're in the middle of the test.

You know, think about your students who are taking a test right in the middle, they're like, I'm not, I can't, I can't do this test.

I can't do it, I'm gonna send, I'm gonna stop, I'm gonna do it.

And they're you know, a page or however many, how long from the end of the of the test, that they don't complete it.

An incompletion is a fail.

And there's too many times where we are walking and waiting for the promise of God, and we're right in the middle of the test itself, and we only have a few more questions left, and we're like, I don't know, I don't know about this.

And our the devils are right in there going, Yeah, you know, it's been it's been 10 months, you know.

You never thought it'd take this long, did you?

Never thought it would be, you know, well, maybe, maybe this, maybe that, and and start all these other thoughts start coming.

That's the test.

And that's where we have to state going, nope, I'm gonna keep on, I'm gonna keep move, I'm gonna keep doing this, I'm gonna keep doing this test.

I'm gonna

Keep making it through.

Believers, even those who have been walking in this life of faith for years, want the miracle events in our lives.

You know, Jesus, we have 5,000 men to feed.

Right now, they're gonna be hungry.

We got what are we gonna do?

And she's like, Well, we got, oh, we got five right here.

Break, bless, give out, we're done.

You know, we want those quick ones.

We want those, uh, that took, you know, what, an hour?

You know, when you think about timing, it's like from the time that they realize that everybody's hungry, we need to go get we need to get some food.

Oh, we got it right here.

Okay, bless it, break it, pass it out, eat, everybody's full, we're done.

Okay, maybe two hours.

I don't know.

You know, don't know how long it takes to give out the 5,000 plus people.

But you're still looking at just a couple of hours.

So we we're all we all love those, oh, a quick, a quick answer to prayer.

A quick, here's the problem, here's the need, and less than a day later, we're done.

Good.

Hey, that's that's the kind of miracle I want.

And we kind of start to look at that as for everything that we're praying for.

I mean, that's not a journey.

That's just that was just an event, basically, for the for the disciples and the people there.

There was no journey in that one.

How about Joseph in the Old Testament?

It's one of the few stories in the Bible where it gives his age in different parts of the story.

We won't go back and read it, but it's 22 years.

From the time he had his dream when he was 17 to the time he was 39, and it said Joseph remembered his dream.

22 years.

That's a journey.

That's a journey of he knew that at some point some people were gonna bow down to him, that he was gonna be in a spot of leadership.

He didn't know everything that was gonna go about that, but he knew there's some destiny for me.

God's given this to me twice now, and I know there's a plan for my life, I know that God has good things for me, I know that the, I don't know how this is gonna happen.

And 22 years when God says that Joseph remembered his dream.

And it was even after he'd gotten to be second in command.

So even being second in command, it was still a few years later that the Bible says he remembered his dream.

So he was still on that journey, he was still walking that.

You know, we look at the life of Paul.

Paul was converted on the road to Damascus, but it says in Galatians he spent 13 years in the desert after that moment, after he met with the leaders of the church.

He went out into the desert, and many believe that's where he got the revelation for most of what he wrote to the churches in the letters.

But we look at it in the Bible, especially when you read through the Bible, it's so funny because I've been reading through a lot of the Old Testament this year, you know, and they'll, you know, one verse to the next verse, you know it's like 12 years, you know, so many years, because it'll say, you know, and especially in the life of the kings, that this king was king for two months, and this king was king for ten years, and nothing happened, so they just said that king gets two verses.

Like, okay, he lived, he died 10 years, okay, we're now on the next king.

You know, so we can't, we we read through the Bible and we have, we don't really get a good concept of the duration that it took.

We just go, oh, look at Paul.

He went on the road to Damascus, he met with the disciples, and all of a sudden, boom, he's preaching.

But when you start looking at the whole story, the whole timeline, you realize, oh, he lived a normal life like the rest of us did, where things didn't happen overnight immediately, every, you know, day by day, everything was happening.

It's just condensed down into the words of the chapters of the Bible.

They were people just like us, they had the same kind of journeys we do.

So we're many of us are in the middle of our testimony for different things.

You know, Israel, going back to them, because I'm gonna read some verses on them, they vision visibly saw the acts of God, you know, in delivering opening up the Red Sea and giving them miracles of water and food and stopping the armies of Egypt, but yet they kept the next time it came up, the next test that came, they failed it again.

They failed and failed over and over again.

How much more when we don't see those visual things like that, we don't see a big pillar of cloud and fire following us every day and every night, we still have to trust God.

We still have to believe on the things that we can't see with our physical eyes.

You know, in the analogy of our car and our journey, the children of Israel turned off the car right in the middle of the interstate.

And that doesn't usually have very good, very good results.

You know, they you know they started the car, they they believed in salvation, they they got going on the journey of faith, and then are like, eh, let's turn this thing off.

It's not working for us.

And they started complaining, they started grumbling, and all the things that we we see with Hebrews 3.

And who it was who rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice, wasn't it the people Moses led out of Egypt?

Hebrews 3 16.

And who made God angry for forty years?

Wasn't it the people who sinned whose corpses lay in the wilderness?

And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath, saying that they would never enter into his rest?

It wasn't it the people who disobeyed him.

So we see that because of their unbelief, they were not able to enter into his rest.

It wasn't God's will for them to not enter into the kingdom, into the promised land.

But those who didn't did it because they turned the car off.

They stopped believing.

They didn't even just say, okay, I believe God for salvation in heaven.

They just said, nope, we're not we're not even gonna believe God anymore.

We're not even gonna trust him.

It was their fault, not God's.

They were in the middle of what would be their testimony, and yet they failed it.

They failed the test.

Now, how does this all come together with with some of the things we're talking about?

We've all been on road trips, all of us, I think.

Um, road trips can be good if you plan them right, if you you know take the time.

But what to me, one of my favorite parts about a road trip is the stops.

Well, the getting there, yes.

Um especially when you know you're gonna have a long trip ahead of you.

It's like, okay, this is let's plan for this.

Let's let's let's get some places that we know we're gonna stop, let's get recharged, refreshed, let's let's make sure that we're just not completely worn out by the time we get there.

Not just the driver, but all everybody in the car too.

So to me, that's part of the fun about a road trip is kind of planning, okay, where are we gonna stop?

Let's have something good to eat.

Let's, you know, if we have kids, let's go ahead and make sure the kids can run around for a little bit, get out of their cars, car seats, and kind of get some get some exercise going, um, you know, find a playground if they're whatever.

In this life of faith, what this means, this journey of faith, these are the little answers to prayer that we get.

These are the testimonies that we're hearing.

These are the kind of things that keep us charged for the longer journey.

And that's why I love hearing them, because they when we start hearing of an answer to prayer that's similar to what I need or you need, we're like, oh, okay, this is charging me up.

Because I'm still waiting for mine.

I'm still in the midst of my testimony, but I just heard a testimony about the same thing or about how good God is or about something that's happening, that's gonna get help me get toward the end.

That's gonna help me stay charged toward the end.

That's where the excitement comes, that's where the joy comes.

These are the kind of things that propel us.

You know, back when I was in college, um I enjoyed college.

I did pretty good at it, I say, because I did really good in high school, but by the time I got to college, I ended up taking, I changed my major twice, ended up taking six years to get my four-year degree.

And by the time the sixth year was around, I was just done.

I was like, get me out of here.

I'm ready to start doing something besides going to school all the time.

Um and so it was January of the year I was to graduate, and I was just like, Lord, I just I want to get I'm ready to be done.

So I prayed, and I was like, there were three things I had on my list.

I had, you know, I want to graduate, um, I want to, you know, get into a good job and career because I was working part-time, not making much money.

Um, and you know, I want to get married, what, 23, 24 years old.

And within a few months, I graduated and got the job teaching software that ended up propelling my career into being a software instructor and even getting me into the company I've been with now for 17 years.

Um those two answers to prayer happened very quick, five months.

And it was like, okay, Lord, this is good.

It took another 14 years to get married.

But those two answers to prayers of a of something that was had come in a group of prayers, it's like, Lord, I know you've you've done, you've answered these two, I know you're gonna answer that third one.

But I had to keep walking on that journey for that answer to the prayer for that third one.

But it was because God answered the two other two, it's like, Lord, I know you're faithful, I know you're gonna do it because I've seen you do it.

So when we're in the middle of our testimony, think back to the last time.

Think back to the last testimony you had.

Think back or just talk to somebody who's in a similar situation or who's been through a similar situation.

Because it's those kind of things that we can encourage each other with.

In fact, the when I start looking at this in the Bible, the Bible is full of these kinds of scriptures that say, do just that.

In Romans 15, you'll see a lot of these are toward the end of Paul's letters.

Such things were written in the scriptures long ago to teach us, and the scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promises to be filled.

So even Paul saying, Yeah, there's going to be some lighting.

There's going to be there's going to be part of the journey that we're waiting for.

Verse 5, may God, who gives the patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other as is fitting for the followers of Christ Jesus.

Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So he's saying that, hey, these scriptures are given to us for an encouragement.

Make sure you're staying in the Word.

Make sure you're looking at the life of the people who made it.

Don't dwell on the ones who didn't, dwell on the ones who did as an encouragement for yourself.

Then we can all start encouraging each other.

So when you need encouragement, when you're in the middle of your testimony, don't dwell on the negative thoughts.

Don't let that loop start happening in your mind because it'll start to get you off of that.

Instead, and I like this, go to your find a faith buddy.

Should be your spouse, but it could be a fellow, you know, a friend, another female friend if you're a woman, another male friend if you're a male, and say, you know what, I just need some encouragement right now.

And then we, as the people who are who are asked to encourage, we should jump right in and say, hey, let me tell you what the Lord has done.

Let me tell you what the Lord's gonna do.

Let me tell, and just jump right in rather than, well, tell me how you're feeling.

No, we don't need to be, we don't need to be dwelling on how we're feeling, because we all know that we can that'll pull us both down if we start dwelling too much on that.

We need to start jumping right into, let me tell you what God can do.

Let me remind you of the victories we've had.

Let me tell you about the time when God answered my prayer, when God answered your prayer the last time.

You know, Paul Paul again told the churches to do this in 1 Corinthians 16.

He actually tells us, I like the way it starts here, be on guard.

Stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong.

These are very simple commands, but these are the kind of things that help us stay on the journey and stay in the middle of our testimony longer.

Because it takes effort to do that.

And do everything with love, verse 14.

He says, And you know that Stephanus and his household were the first of the harvest of believers in Greece, and they are spending their lives in service to God's people.

I urge you, dear brothers and sisters, to submit to them and others like them who serve with each, who serve with such devotion.

And I am very glad that Stephanus, Fortunus, and Achaeus have come here.

They have been providing you the help you weren't here to give me.

They have been a wonderful encouragement to me.

So even Paul needed encouragement, as they have been to you.

You must show your appreciation to all who serve so well.

So Paul's saying, hey, this Stephanus, he was the very first fruit.

He was the first one that heard our message and received salvation, and now he's actually going around helping the other churches and helping us where there's been a need for help.

He's that's encouraging me, and he's encouraging you.

So Paul's encouraging the church of Corinth, which is in Greece, to say, Hey, be like Stephanus, encourage others, be encouraging to those who are around you.

And that's the one, you know, again, he started with be on guard, be courageous, be strong, and be like this other person who is being an encourager himself.

I'll read one more example.

This one's a little bit longer, but it kind of gives a really good story of this.

1 Thessalonians 3 1.

Finally, when we could stand it no longer, we decided to stay alone in Athens, and we sent Timothy to visit you.

He is our brother and God's co-worker in proclaiming the good news of Christ.

We sent him to strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith, and to keep you from being shaken by the troubles you were going through.

But you know that we are destined for such troubles.

Even while we were with you, we warned you that troubles would soon come, and they did, as you well know.

That is why, when I could bear it no longer, I sent Timothy to find out whether your faith was still strong.

I was afraid that the tempter had gotten the best of you and that our work had been useless.

But now Timothy has just returned, bringing us the good news about your faith and love.

He reports that you always remember our visit with joy and that you want to see us as much as we want to see you.

So we have been greatly encouraged in the midst of our troubles and suffering, dear brothers and sisters, because you have remained strong in your faith.

It gives us new life to know that you are standing firm in the Lord.

How we thank God for you because of you we have great joy as we enter God's presence.

Night and day we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith.

So here is Paul who sent his son in the faith, Timothy, who was a pastor, to go check on the church, because they didn't have Facebook, they didn't have phones, they couldn't text, they were hundreds of miles or thousands of miles away, days or weeks by travel.

So they couldn't just run, check on them, and hear back.

So all Paul knew was well, I started this church, haven't heard back from in a while, have no idea where they are.

Because historically they're in a pagan environment and we're surrounded by pagan shrines and pagan worshipers.

Where is this, is this light still going, or has this light been snuffed out?

And when Timothy came back, it encouraged Paul to say, no, they're still going.

They had not failed the test yet.

They were still on their journey of faith, which encouraged Paul on his journey of faith.

Even we think of these people as, you know, we put them on a pedestal because of what we see in the Bible, but Paul was a person just like us.

He was tested just like us in his persecution and in the thoughts that came to his mind.

So he tells them, though, he ends up saying, night and day, we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith.

We all have run into these gaps.

We've all been in a spot where, yeah, I'm I had this miracle last year, or we had this great testimony, but man, I'm this one prayer, we've been believing God for two years now, or five years now, or ten months now, and it just seems like it's you know, there's no sign of it coming to pass.

There, there's, you know, if you've ever done any kind of home work, home project work, you know, when you're doing, when you're working with your walls and wood and stuff, you're gonna you start to see gaps.

You know, I remember when we we first walked through our house and we bought it what five years ago now, um, you know, you see all the pretty stuff.

It had just recently been redone, oh, it's got great new tile, the floors are done, it's nicely painted, and then you move in, you start going, wow, there's a you know, it's a gap there.

You start looking at all the different, you start to see all the little the nuances.

You know, one of the best things, what's what's one of the best things that we can use to fill a gap in a wall or in a in wood?

I mean, we use caulk.

We just caulk it up.

Um, you know, if we got a gap, got a hole, and let's start caulking it up.

So as we're walking along our life of faith, you know, one of the things we can do with each other is we can we can build it, be a faith gap filler for each other.

We can start to go, hey, takia's walking through a situation right now, and maybe there's a gap in her faith because of the devil trying to get up, you know, to lie to her.

Let's surround her.

Let's fill in the gap of faith.

Let's encourage, let's be an encourager, let's pray for her, let's strengthen her.

Because the next time she may be the one with the caught gun, and she may go, here, I'm gonna help fill in your gap.

I'm gonna walk with you, I'm gonna walk right beside you and help fill in that gap.

So as we start walking this life of faith, this is why the the test.

Testimonies to me were so powerful to keep hearing them over and over again because those testimonies are also a gap filler.

They help us go, oh, that gap's filled now because I'm hearing about what God's doing in others.

I'm hearing that God is faithful.

I mean, we know it, but to hear it from each other, that's when we start really realizing, oh, that's going to fill in my gap.

So remember 1 Thessalonians 3.10.

This is our gap filler verse.

And it's our encouragement to be the encourager for each other.

Amen?

So as we're on this journey of faith, when you find yourself in the middle of your testimony, when you find yourself between the A and the Z, between the seed and the harvest, between the promise and the provision.

Instead of focusing on your own troubles, let's all be ready to be the encourager for others.

Bring your faith caught gun to fill the gaps with each other's faith, and next time you might be the one who is able to give the encouragement.

Amen.