1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 "When God's Word Comes with Power"

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful

that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either

by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray

for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really,

I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,

they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will

do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a

non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't

hesitate to send us questions. It helps me, actually, to know, as I'm preaching, how to

deal with the types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

It's a privilege to bring the message once again, as our rector, George, is away. If I didn't say my

name earlier, I'm Steve, and I'm delighted to see you here this morning. I see some new faces,

so I do look forward to chatting with various ones afterwards.

Driving home from Florida a few weeks ago, my wife Stella and I had the chance to spend some time in

the area of Massachusetts that once witnessed a great spiritual awakening. In fact, the first of a

series that we refer to as the great awakening that began in the 1730s there. Now today, 300 years later,

the same churches that witnessed that revival have been swept quite thoroughly up into the new thing,

the new form of Christianity, which H. Richard Niebuhr, excuse me, he described so well when he said,

some decades ago now, that this new form of Christianity tells the story of how a God without

wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without

a cross. But in the 1730s, God moved in a very special way. Now in my history class that I got to

teach at McGill about a year ago, we got to read about it in Jonathan Edwards' narrative called

A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God. That was from the year 1737. We didn't read the

whole thing, but we read a good chunk of it. In that piece, Edwards wrote about how, quote,

at the latter end of the year 1733, there appeared in our young people, listen up young people, a very

unusual flexibleness and yielding to advice. This came as a big surprise, and Edwards tells us why.

The greater part of the young people seemed at that time to be very insensitive to the things of

religion. They were, many of them, very much addicted to night walking and frequenting the

tavern and lewd practices, wherein some, by their example, exceedingly corrupted others.

It was their manner very frequently to get together in conventions of both sexes, for mirth and

jollity, which they called frolics, as they would often spend the greater, I'm sorry, and they would

often spend the greater part of the night in them without regard to any order in the families they

belonged to. But a great change happened, said Edwards. Not just one or two, but a great many of them

had become teachable, moved by what they were hearing from the pulpit on Sunday. They were,

after all, a church-going culture. And they became open to correction. And before long, in groups of

five or six, they were all, to all appearance, savingly converted. And some of them wrought upon in a very

remarkable manner. I've shared with you just the early moments in that narrative, because

I want us to consider, guided by the chapter that Morris read, 1 Thessalonians 1, what it looks like

when God's word comes with power. As we heard, Paul said to the church in Thessalonica,

for we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you

not only a word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. I invite you to

pray with me once again before we get into our text.

Father, we, to enter into those secret places of our heart, and we trust that you do that,

even as we open our hearts to hear your word. And we ask that you would show us our need,

and also that you would, above all, show us Christ in all his glory, and all his majesty,

as we hear your word today. This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, to answer the question, what happens when God's word comes with power?

We're going to begin in the middle of the passage, verse 6, and then we'll make our way back.

Just a quick word by way of background to the letter. It was around the year AD 50 that Paul

had planted a church there in Thessalonica. If you've been to that area of northern Greece,

it's Macedonia. It stretches into the Macedonian part of, I guess, the former Yugoslavia,

and we have Thessaloniki there, which is the modern Thessalonica in that part of Greece.

But he was soon driven out, very soon driven out by a mob that had formed when some of the leaders

of the synagogue didn't like all the details in his message. He didn't get to witness the church's

growth there personally. He did get to hear about some of that from Timothy not long after.

And the report Timothy brought gave rise to this letter, probably Paul's first epistle,

written when he's further... And it's full of encouragement to the young church there in Thessalonica.

So we're in the book of Acts in an indirect way. Okay, so a little bit further ahead, but

George gave me the privilege of selecting the passage. I've pondered this passage a lot,

and I've never had a chance to teach it or preach on it, so this is a good opportunity for me.

Right in chapter 1, I say there's a great deal of encouragement in it, because right in chapter 1,

beginning with verse 6, and already in the context of giving thanks to God, Paul reminds them what

happened once they embraced and took hold of the good news of Jesus. Let's look at that under three

headings. Participation, pattern, and proclamation. The first thing Paul rejoices in is the fact that

the believers in Thessalonica have come to participate in Jesus's sufferings. Now, Paul

doesn't use that word. I'm borrowing it from Peter, from 1 Peter 4.13, because the theme is the same.

Peter says to the Christians in Asia Minor, the scattered ones up there,

rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed

when his glory is revealed. The point is this. Christ, in Christ, suffering and joy actually go

hand in hand, as if they were a single blessing. How is that? Well, see what he says, Paul says in verse 6,

you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy

of the Holy Spirit. In the context of the whole passage, Paul's meaning is this. You've been united

to Jesus in his sufferings by the work of the Holy Spirit, who gives you joy in the midst of the

suffering that you're having to endure as you wait for his coming. Paul himself may have been run out of

Thessalonica, but these believers had, if you like, extended his visit in their own person, extended his

impact as they took up his example, facing challenges really on two fronts, from the wider pagan world,

but also from the Jewish leaders who were opposing their message. What an encouragement for us today

is as we face very similar challenges. Insults from those who think we're too religious, or maybe just

jeers, I don't know, and condemnation from those who perhaps think we're not religious enough.

It's an interesting conundrum, isn't it? Too religious in one context, because we say to modern pagans,

those whose only real concern is maybe the here and now, there's a day coming when we're all stand

before the judge of all the earth, like Paul said there in Acts 17. But we're not religious enough

in another context because of the freedom we have found in Jesus. We don't have to try to earn

or merit God's favor. So let's turn from that participation to the word pattern. The second

thing Paul rejoices in is in verse 7. He says that by participating in Christ's sufferings, they became

an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. That's the regions immediately close by.

Macedonia and in Macedonia and Achaia to the south. That is, in their union with Christ by the Spirit,

who gave them joy in their sufferings, Christians in their region and in nearby Achaia to the south

were able to look to them as models and patterns of life in Christ, even as they imitated Paul,

and in imitating Paul, Jesus. And the lesson that I think that you and I can take from this

is that while God surely sees fit to use these under patterns in our life, if you like,

godly men and women, the true and the real pattern is, for the Christian life, can only be Jesus.

He's our model for our formation and our reformation, so that if we want to know how we're supposed to

remain in Christ, once the Spirit has done the initial work of uniting us to him, we only need to

look to Jesus' example, asking the Holy Spirit to fashion us according to it. And what does that

pattern look like? Well, we know that Jesus is priest, king, and prophet. We refer to this as his

threefold office. As priest, very briefly, as priest, what does he model? Well, he models the way of

self-sacrifice. As king, he models the victory that we have through that sacrificial death on the cross for us.

And as prophet, what does he model? Well, he models the way in which we, as that royal priesthood that

Peter talks about in 1 Peter 2.9, declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness

into his wonderful light. See that, how we're included in Christ's threefold office by the Holy

Spirit who unites us to Jesus. So from participation and pattern, we come to that third

reason that Paul rejoices, and it's in the word proclamation. As a result of their example, in

verse 8, he says this to the church there in Thessalonica, not only has the word of the Lord

sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia nearby, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere,

so that we really need not say anything. Of course, that's hyperbole, isn't it? But because he does say

something, but it's as though we didn't need to say anything. What we see here is that life in

obedience to Jesus translates into verbal witness. That is, we see God's word here literally going far

beyond the Thessalonian churches, Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. Their verbal testimony was a local one,

but the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus had made it a global witness, hadn't he? As Jesus' followers

simply passed the good news along. The Holy Spirit, if you like, multiplied that witness,

even as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes. I think it's good to remind ourselves here that

this came about not through big preaching campaigns or professional evangelists and apologists,

but as God used ordinary Christians just like us. In his book, Evangelism in the Early Church,

Michael Green describes the evangelism that happened, quote, in homes and wine shops,

on walks and around market stalls. These people did it naturally, enthusiastically. Having found

treasure, they meant to share it with others to the limit of their ability. I think what's important

there is that within the gifts that God has given to us, within even considering our temperament and

the way we just naturally raise the question of the things of God with friends, just this natural

lifestyle and personal evangelism that happens. Not because our purpose in befriending others is to

gain converts, but because we want to share that treasure that is ours and that we simply want to pass it on.

If you have a look at the end of our passage, verses 9 and 10, you'll see that Paul names three habits

that are essential to the church's witness. We're still on the topic of what happens when God's word

comes with power because these habits serve as means of grace. They form and they fashion us as God's

people so that verbal testimony flows more or less spontaneously out of these habits. And the three

habits that I want to highlight are welcome, worship, and waiting. Welcome, worship, and waiting. I'll just

look at them very briefly because they're really only in verses 9 and 10. Verse 9 begins like this,

for they themselves, that is the believers in Macedonia and Achaia, report concerning us the kind of

reception we had among you. Here Paul, I think, is referring to the welcome they gave not only to him

and to his traveling companions, Silas and Timothy, but to the message they brought when they were with

them on Paul's second missionary journey. And if we stay with the rest of the letter, we'll see that the

message and the messengers go together because of the bonds of fellowship in the gospel.

In chapter 2, for instance, Paul mentions how eager he has been to see them again. He just loved being

with them. This is a tribute to their hospitality, but also to his desire to be with them and to see

them grow in the faith. The habit of welcoming the word in our lives and in our homes and in our

congregations is linked to a new way of worship. Paul reminds them in the second part of verse 9

that they, what did they do? Well, they turned from idols to serve the living God. I think we need to

grasp how radical this change was because the point is that the believers in Thessalonica hadn't just

stopped burning incense in pagan shrines and that sort of thing. If in the welcome they had given to the

gospel, they turned away from that self-sufficiency that is natural to us, here in their rejection of

idol worship they were saying no to self-worship ultimately because that's where idolatry leads.

This truth came through rather powerfully for me when I read the testimony of a man called Rabbi

Maharaj, a former Hindu guru in training in his book, Little Book, The Death of a Guru. Since his

tradition had taught him that it was proper and good to venerate and worship things, objects in creation,

in the world, one day he, as he was contemplating his own image in the mirror, he asked himself,

well, what's really keeping me from worshiping myself? And this produced such a feeling of horror

in him that he was led eventually to seek to know the living God and to trust in Jesus as his Savior and

Lord. You can read that in that book, Death of a Guru. I think I may have shared with you a personal

experience that's really in the same category because I was, I suppose, in the early stages of

imagining that the real mediator between God and man was a more or less impersonal cosmic Christ.

Sounded Christian because I was still talking about Christ.

But this cosmic Christ that Jesus of Nazareth really only pointed to the cosmic Christ so that in effect

Jesus could be a Savior, but not the Savior and Lord of history.

And when I came

came to realize that one day,

that's where my thinking,

when I came to realize that that's where my thinking was actually heading,

I felt a shock that Rabbi Maharaj must have felt because

I became aware that I wasn't really thinking in Bible categories of another worldview.

So back to idols for a second.

We should remember that the business of turning from idols is also a discipline in the Christian life.

It's not just a one-off,

but as Calvin said, we're a factory of idols, in fact.

In fact, we know how well we invent our own and how much we need God's grace daily to help us not to confuse things

that are passing with things that are eternal.

From true worship, Paul turns to the third habit of waiting.

So we have this welcome.

We have a new worship, and then we have a waiting.

In verse 10, he reminds the church in Thessalonica that they began to wait for God's Son from heaven.

What we see here, I think, is the way God adds a new blessing to the new identity that he gives us in Jesus.

It's the blessing of a new orientation or direction.

History now has purpose, and the flow of time is no longer meaningless.

That's because Jesus' promise to return for those who are waiting is a sure one.

When we take these three habits together as a bundle,

we can see how they form the basis of our witness in the world.

They account for the strong global witness that even that young church there in Thessalonica had.

And the lesson for us is this.

To welcome God's word is to receive a treasure that we have no business locking up in a safe,

since it's meant to be shared.

While to turn to the living God and to wait for Jesus from heaven

is in effect to say no to the gods of the age and to man-made kingdoms.

And that decision, when we take it to heart,

sooner or later manifests itself publicly as a testimony to what is real and lasting.

And the world, insofar as it remains in a state of unbelief,

is going to be pushing back, to be sure.

As Paul contemplates all these signs of God's power,

his first instinct is to give thanks.

And that's why the whole context of this first passage is one of thanksgiving.

And he says, we give thanks, in verse 3, to God always for you, all of you,

constantly mentioning you in our prayers,

remembering before our God and Father your work of faith,

and labor of love, and steadfastness of hope.

There's that triad of faith, hope, and love in our Lord Jesus Christ.

What he acknowledges here is that true faith, by its very nature,

is a living, dynamic faith.

Why? Well, because the same spirit who unites us to Christ

also gives us the power to obey

and to be confident that God's promise is sure.

Now, having looked at some of the lessons in that second part of this chapter,

at this point I have to change gears a little bit.

Because as we read on and come to the middle of the passage,

we bump up against something that's fairly puzzling.

Maybe it stood out to you too.

And it has to do with the word chosen.

I know George spoke about the twin word,

predestined, a few weeks ago.

So before we consider how this passage might challenge us today,

I think we need to take a little bit of a step back

and do something maybe a little unusual in a sermon,

but that's try to ask,

what is Paul saying about this business of election?

Let's hear verses 4 and 5 again.

For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God,

that he has chosen you,

because our gospel came to you,

not only in word,

but also in power,

and in the Holy Spirit,

and with full conviction.

Now, I'm sure you know there's an age-old debate

among Christians about this matter,

and I think it's safe to say

it comes down to something like this.

Does God's yes of election

come logically after my yes of faith,

or before it?

Can I say that again?

Does God's yes of election

come logically after my yes of faith,

or before it?

Now, whether the answer is clear to you already,

or it sounds like I'm launching into an exercise

in hair-splitting,

bear with me just a minute.

It's a difficult topic,

and the difference matters.

I'll try not to make the question

more complicated than it is,

but I'll also try not to oversimplify it

as if we could just resolve it neatly once and for all.

After all, there are godly men and women

on both sides of this intramural debate

among Christians.

In one way of looking at the matter,

God elects you and me

on the basis of our faith response

to the message of Jesus.

So Paul's message in 1 Thessalonians 1

would go something like this.

When the Holy Spirit impressed upon you

the truth of the message that we preached to you,

you responded in faith with deep conviction.

Your yes to God then led to his yes,

and he included you in his family.

Got it?

And the other way of looking at the matter,

election is unconditional.

So the meaning of what Paul says is this.

When the Holy Spirit impressed upon you

the truth of the message that we preached to you,

he gave you such a deep sense of conviction

that we have reason to believe

that he has chosen you.

His yes made your yes possible.

It freed you to respond in faith.

So is there a huge difference here?

Well, some say no,

because if there were,

then we would have sorted it out by now

in the churches

after all the centuries.

But I think the difference is important

when it comes to thinking about

our assurance of salvation.

And with this, I can offer the main reason

why I think the second way of looking at the issue

is the right one,

or at least the one that creates the fewest problems.

And when I teach theology,

I try, and I'm asked my opinion on thorny questions,

I say, I think, in my view,

this creates the fewest biblical problems.

And that's how I approach this.

In the first approach,

in which God's yes comes after mine,

I'll be inclined to link election

to my faith response.

I'll tie them together.

Election, my faith response.

And I bundle them together.

And this means that if I ever sense

that my faith is weak,

or even gone,

which is going to be inevitable,

I'll doubt that God has made me

his own after all.

And when I doubt that,

I easily start to imagine

it's something I have to earn back.

I proceed in the Christian life asking,

have I done enough

to please God

and to enter into his kingdom?

But in the second way of looking at the matter,

I link election to God.

Now, how does that make a difference?

Well, I think it makes all the difference

because when I think about the assurance question,

I let it rest with his decision,

with his faithfulness,

and working in me that conviction

that his promise is sure,

and that apart from his forgiveness,

I'm lost.

And what I find in the Christian life

is that God uses my moments of doubt

and hesitation and wandering,

as we sang, prone to wander.

He uses these themselves

to bring me back to him.

What I hope is clear at this point

is that while God's work in election

certainly makes me receptive,

it doesn't make me purely passive

so that I just kick back.

How do I know this?

Well, I know it

because after Jesus says to his disciples,

already you're clean

by the word I have spoken to you,

he adds this.

You remember?

Now abide in me.

John 15, 3.

As George explained a few weeks ago,

I think,

God's predestination of events

does not undermine human freedom.

Rather,

it establishes human freedom.

So too in election,

God's word frees us

to trust and obey.

And while we're in John,

consider the priority

of the Father's yes

over yours or mine

when Jesus says,

all that the Father gives me

will come to me,

and whoever comes to me

I will never cast out.

John 6, 37.

And Jesus restates that promise

a little later in John 10.

My sheep hear my voice,

and I know them,

and they follow me.

I give them eternal life,

and they will never perish,

and no one will snatch them

out of my hand.

Verses 27 to 28 in John 10.

Now, at this point,

we might still want to ask,

doesn't this second way

of looking at the matter

make God's decision

kind of arbitrary?

And if God can elect some,

well, why doesn't he elect everyone?

Well, the answer to the second question

might be this.

If Scripture is our guide,

as it ought to be,

we can say that God

hasn't revealed why he elects some

while passing by others.

Just as we can't really say

why he doesn't right all the wrongs

in an instant.

Why he didn't make a way

for Adam and Eve

to go straight back into the garden.

Why some are born into the privileges

of a Christian home

and others aren't.

Why he turned Northampton, Massachusetts

upside down in 1737

and not say Quebec City.

Or for that matter,

why some people groups

are drawn into the scope

of salvation history

while others are left out.

These things belong

in the category

that we mark

the deep things of God.

And I don't think it's a cop-out

to keep that category there

because there is so much

that God has not made plain

in his word.

And in any case,

it's pretty clear

from all these examples

that the fairness question

is still there.

It doesn't go away.

God works powerfully here

and not there

whether you take

the first view or the second.

And so you're left grappling

with why?

Why does God work like this?

This way here

but not there.

Well, what we can say

to answer the first question

about this arbitrary business

is that nothing that God does

is arbitrary.

We know this

because Scripture

reveals to us

his attributes,

his qualities,

his qualities of faithfulness

and justice

so that his works are perfect

and that he does no wrong

as Deuteronomy 32

and verse 4 tells us.

What God has revealed clearly

and beautifully

is his purpose in election.

It's so that his children

can be assured

of forgiveness.

It's so that his children

can have joy

even in their suffering.

It's so that

they can go out

and be a light

to the nations.

There's nothing in them

that made them electable.

He just chose them

and he said,

here,

I want you to have

the assurance

of my love.

I want you to have

the assurance

that I'm with you

in your suffering.

And it's precisely

because our focus

is on what God

is doing

through election

to reach the nations

that we have

a good hope

of everyone.

We have a good hope

of all.

The Swiss reformer

Heinrich Bollinger

wrote in 1560,

he said this,

and although God

knows who are his

and here and there

is mention

made of the small

number of elect,

yet we must hope

well of all

and not rashly judge

any man

to be a reprobate.

While the Bible

is clear

that not all

will be saved

in the end,

the picture we have

of the last judgment

in Matthew 25

reminds us

that there will

be surprises

on that day.

To bring this

towards a conclusion,

I don't even know

how long I've gone,

but I'll bring it

to a conclusion.

What might God

be saying to you

and me this morning?

I can imagine

someone,

whether here

or online

or down the line

or downstream

or whatever

the right term is,

I can imagine

someone here

saying,

wow,

I'd love to have

that assurance

you're talking about,

but I'm not really sure

that God's word

has ever come to me

as Paul wrote

with full conviction.

There's so much

that really

is unclear to me.

Well,

what I want to say

to you

is that we need

to be clear

that by full conviction,

Paul isn't talking

about having everything

figured out.

You can see

I haven't got

everything figured out.

he's talking about

that heart confidence

that God is trustworthy.

That heart confidence

that God is trustworthy.

That he promises,

that,

I beg your pardon,

that the promises

set forth

in the gospel

are sure.

That is,

that as I put my hope

in the very putting

of hope

in that promise,

I can be sure.

I experience

the assurance

that his death

on the cross

covered my sins,

all my sins,

and that Jesus' words

now apply to me.

My sheep

hear my voice

and I know them.

That's what it means

fundamentally

for God's word

to come with power.

Even when we don't see

mass conversions,

our response

is simply

to come to him

just as I am

without one plea,

but that his blood

was shed for me.

And in doing that,

find in him

the rest

we desperately need.

And what a joy

it is simply

to know

that in Jesus,

the living God

knows us.

There's this dynamic

aspect of election.

Election is

of the Father,

but through the Son,

through the proclaimed word,

challenging us,

confronting us,

speaking to our hearts.

That's what I would want

to emphasize here

in Paul's message.

Maybe someone else

is thinking something

a little different.

Maybe someone's saying,

I have trusted

in God's promise,

but if I'm honest,

I'm not sure

that my life

could exactly

be described

as one of waiting

for Jesus to return.

And I think

God's word for you,

as we've heard

from Paul's letter,

would be something

like this.

You've heard

how the welcome

we give to God's word,

how turning from idols,

and how waiting

for God's Son

from heaven

are all bound up together.

In other words,

to have one

is to have the others

by the work

of the same Spirit

who brought us

to Jesus

in the first place.

So take hold

of his word.

Let his word

do its work

in you,

and you will

find yourself

longing

for the new creation,

even as creation

itself is

in its own way,

as Paul explains

in Romans 8.

Longing

for what?

Well,

for the children

of God

to be revealed.

Dig into Scripture

and you'll find

yourself longing.

I've experienced that,

and I'm not

the greatest prayer

or the greatest

Bible reader,

but by God's grace,

as we get

into his word

and his word

gets into us,

we find ourselves

longing for his promise.

Someone else

might here be thinking,

wow,

it's wonderful

to think that

mission belongs

to God,

that's encouraging,

and that the business

of changing hearts

is his work.

So does that mean

that evangelism

is not really

such an urgent task

after all?

He's doing the work.

Maybe we can

remain somewhat passive.

And I have to admit

that it's sort of

tempting to think

that way.

And hence,

the blessing

of preparing

this sermon.

Because I'm forced

to ask again,

what exactly

is urgent

about the task

of evangelism?

So,

I'll end

with just two points.

Well,

first,

I think

the task

of evangelism

is urgent

because as long

as people

don't turn

to the living God,

they remain

in idolatry,

without hope

and without God

in the world,

as Paul says

in Ephesians 2.12.

We can ask ourselves,

where were we

before

the gospel

came to us

and we were able

to take hold of it?

What was our state?

And in getting

the good news

of Jesus

to sinners

from every tribe,

tongue,

and nation,

God has seen fit

to use human witnesses.

He could

reach them

directly

if that's what

He so chose to do,

but He has chosen us

as His witnesses.

As Paul says

in Romans 10.14,

how can they believe

in the one

of whom

they have not heard?

And how can they hear

without someone

preaching to them?

The second reason

that the task

of evangelism

is urgent,

I think

perhaps

the more profound

reason,

even though

the depth

of wandering

and sin

is profound,

but I think

the more profound

theological reason

why the task

is urgent

is because

God's command

and call

carries its own urgency.

It's in the very

nature of God's call.

When the living God

speaks,

His word

accomplishes

its purposes.

That means

that when He

declares through Isaiah,

turn to me

and be saved,

all the ends

of the earth,

for I am God

and there is no other,

we're not

simply in a position

to say,

well let me consider

that a bit

and I'll get back

to you.

See what I'm saying?

God's call

has its own urgency.

And I

learned a bit

of that

reading

Bonhoeffer's

call to discipleship.

Even back there

with my students

at McGill,

I'm privileged

to read these books

with people

who believe

all sorts of things

and yet

McGill gave me

the privilege

of reading

these books

with them

and we read

The Cost of Discipleship

or at least

part of it

in that class.

And that point

is so strong

in that book

that God's call

has its own urgency

as when Jesus calls

and we simply

get up

and leave our nets

and follow Him.

So,

may God strengthen us

to do that

this morning

without delay

according to our need.

thanks be to God.