Call and Response (2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5)

We are going to be in 2 Thessalonians 2, starting in chapter 2, starting in verse 13.

If you are able, please stand for the reading of God's word.

2 Thessalonians chapter 2, starting in verse 13.

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation, through sanctification by the Spirit, and through belief in the truth.

He called you to this through our gospel, so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, whether by what we said or by what we wrote.

May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word.

In addition, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored just as it was with you, that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful.

He will strengthen and guard you from the evil one.

We have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command.

May the Lord direct your hearts to God's love and Christ's endurance.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for this morning.

I thank you for the gift and the privilege of being able to hold your word in our hands.

That we are able to read it and hear it and know you and see your heart and grow closer to you.

And I ask, Lord, that you would do just that.

But by your spirit, you would draw us closer to you, that we would continue to fall more in love with you, be continue to be stirred up for you, that you would speak through me all the words you want spoken and none of the ones you don't.

That the hearers would be wise in discerning what is of you and what is of not, what is not, and able to process through that, and that we would ultimately grow closer to you today.

Amen.

Go ahead and have a seat.

Alright.

So this, as we know, we've been going verse by verse, chapter by chapter, through 1 Thessalonians, and now we're in 2 Thessalonians, which is all building on each other.

But what we know is that this is a letter.

You don't, when you get a letter, typically, which for those of you who are young, it used to be paper that comes in the mail.

And stamps were a lot cheaper then.

But you read the letter as from that person.

You don't read this much and go, okay, done.

We'll pick it up tomorrow.

This little chunk, which has nothing to do with the last chunk, okay.

Well, I guess this is what that means.

There's continuity and flow in the letter.

What comes here is a result of what came before, which is a result of what came before.

So what we have for the Thessalonian church is a church that Paul and company brought the gospel to and shared the good news of salvation, and they responded enthusiastically and immediately met persecution and difficulty as a result of giving their lives to Jesus.

And so he has consistently through these verses, through these chapters, encouraged them to persevere, to continue to love one another, to continue to be stirred up for one another, to continue to do good work as a result of these things and not be dissuaded by the resistance that they have encountered.

He also is continuing to give them good information to encourage them against what some of the false teachers have been telling them.

So there's an element of them getting false teaching, an element of them getting bad information and having to correct that.

And so last week there was a lot of information about the end and about deception and about workers of Satan, which does not sound good.

That is not something you want on your resume.

And this passage is juxtaposed against that passage.

So last week we saw the coming of the lawless one in verse 9 being based on Satan's working.

False miracles, signs and wonders, wicked deception, and them not accepting the love of the truth to be saved.

And there being a strong delusion so that they would believe a lie.

And here at the beginning of this passage, we have the opposite of those things.

So you have delusion, lie, false truth here, and over here, belief in the truth.

Over here, you have them not believing and not being saved, and here giving thanks to you for your salvation.

So there is a juxtaposition that you have this disturbing passage of what this looks like for those who are following Satan willingly and resisting the gospel.

And then he's saying, but that's not you.

Yea, that's great, to encourage them in that.

So we see here in verse 13, we ought to thank God always for you.

Brothers and sisters loved by the Lord.

When you read that, when you read chapter 2 going through there, and it's like you have the lawless one based on Satan's working and deception and delusion and condemnation, delighting in unrighteousness.

But we ought to thank God always for you.

Like, but thank God for you.

Why?

Why is he thanking God for them?

Is he thanking God for them?

Because they are awesome.

Because they have done everything and they have earned this.

That they have found the that they have found the secret and have earned this faith.

What does it say here?

From the beginning, God has chosen you.

So there's a couple of things in the process of the life of a believer that we need to talk about here.

And so I'm gonna put up a slide for what's called the Ordo Saluti, which is the order of salvation.

In my uh the master's program I was a part of, I had to write a 20-page paper just on this, and we're gonna go through every aspect of that now.

I actually went back and started reading it and like started to fall asleep.

So, with that in mind, there is some important structures that we go through here.

So, first you have life and life before the gospel.

And these things that happen here, at belief, you have salvation, you have justification, which we don't see in this passage, but it is being declared righteous before God, who is the righteous judge of right and wrong.

Being declared righteous because of what Jesus has done, because of his righteousness, not because of ours.

His righteousness being put upon us.

And then sanctification, which is a cleansing.

So at salvation we have sanctification, which means we have been declared clean and washed, which goes into that aspect of justification.

And then we keep on living.

And sanctification continues forward for the entire life of the believer until eternity, which is glorification.

Now, these words are in the passage: salvation, sanctification, belief, glorification.

That's why this is on here.

That's why this matters.

Because there's a couple of things that we're talking about for this passage.

Number one, we are exalting God for all that he did right here and all he continues to do.

And then we're gonna be able to address what happens in between here before there.

So, with that in mind, it's a little bit of a structure for this passage.

God is, they are thanking God for these brothers and sisters, because from the beginning God chose them for salvation to be saved, to be taken out of wrath and into forgiveness.

Through sanctification by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is cleansing them because of God's, or because of Jesus' righteousness, his sinless death on the cross being imputed to the sinner, and them being washed and decl and declared clean, to have their conscience cleansed, to have a change of mindset as we transfer ownership from our life to God, then there is necessarily a change of mind in that.

And then through belief in the truth.

That's how this whole thing happens.

And he called you to this through our gospel.

So this is the cool thing, it's almost in reverse here.

Why is Paul thanking God for them?

Because Paul and company preached the gospel to the Thessalonian church.

That's the first part.

They hear the gospel.

And then, by the grace of God, they have belief in the truth.

They heard the gospel, and then they believed.

And as a result of that belief, God bless you, that God then, through the Holy Spirit, sanctified them, washed them.

And that's what happened all right there.

So he is saying, we thank God for you because you believed what we told you, the truth of the gospel, and as a result, you have been declared righteous before God, and you have the promise of eternal life.

Which to us, we're like, hey, that's cool, that sounds good.

I have a retirement plan, that sounds nice.

But to a church that's constantly experiencing persecution and difficulty as a result of that faith is even more encouraging.

Now, there are a couple of words in here that, depending on your background, your bent, your beliefs, might make you twitch a little bit.

Because it says, from the beginning, God has chosen you for salvation.

And then he called you to this through our gospel.

And so those things are very much disputed.

And so next week, Pastor Chris will answer all of your questions about that.

No.

For the purpose of what we are doing today, because there's that that is a big discussion, and it's a good discussion.

I'm not saying, hey, don't you shouldn't care, but a couple of things.

Number one, as we are moving, we are in the process of purchasing a house for the first time ever.

That's complicated.

And the process of trying to under, I mean, you have the title company, you have the realtor, you have the mortgage broker who has the underwriter, and then you have the insurance homeowner's insurance, and they all want different things all at the same time in different wings with words I've never heard before in my life.

So there is a lot of confusion of, well, the homeowner's insurance wants the mortgage the loan number.

The mortgage broker wants the homeowner's insurance before they give me the loan number.

Which one comes first?

How do we navigate?

Do you know who is not asking any of these questions?

Our kids.

What they are asking is, when we unload, will there be a house there?

And can I get a dog?

So if I can encourage you, these are important discussions, but not if it takes you out of the miracle of what we are reading.

If what we go and go, well, let me tell you, let me just think, what are the terms of this and how does this work?

And I need to know the exact minutiae of these things, and then we forget that we are praising God for what he has done, that's not great.

Those are good things to think about later, and good things to think about in the course of our salvation, but never at the expense of the passage that we're actually reading.

So here's what I want you to know about God choosing them from the beginning and about him calling through the gospel.

I am confident, a hundred percent confident, that 100% of people who are Christians have been called by God.

That's all you're getting from me.

So, with that in mind, I think that's a safe bet.

We know that.

Prima facia evidence.

Yes?

Yes, good.

Okay.

So, with that in mind, he is thanking God for them because of what God has done.

All of the things God has already done.

It's amazing how much in these passages we forget that God did all of the heavy lifting already.

Isn't that wonderful?

And all the things that we could not hope to do or achieve or accomplish.

So, as we look through this, he continues, he called you to this through this gospel so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yeah, it's weird.

Called you to this through the gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, that is what happens upon entering eternity, glorification.

We shed this mortal body, which still is impacted by sin, the sin nature that still lives within us, and we receive a glorified body.

What does this look like?

Don't have an idea.

I'm still alive.

But what I can say is we're gonna take a look at 1 John 3, 2 through 3.

Dear friends, we're God's children now.

That should be enough, right?

That's do you say that?

We're God's children now.

Isn't that cool?

What we will be has not yet been revealed.

We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we see him as he is.

So when he appears at his coming, we will be like him, and we will see him as he is, and go, okay, I get it.

And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.

Two things about this.

Number one, glorification looks like Jesus.

When Jesus returns, that is how we will be transformed.

We don't really have an analog for that.

Yes, there's the transfiguration in the gospels.

Closest thing I think we can kind of navigate through that.

But as a whole, we're like, that's gonna be cool and weird.

But there's an interesting thing here, because at the end of that passage, he says, everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

Uh, those words for purify are the exact same root as sanctification.

So what's interesting is there's an aspect of because of these promises, we do something.

Now that already makes some people twitchy already, but it's the truth.

Because of those, because of what we have been promised, because of what God has done, because of all the work that He has done, He's called us to more.

So if you can put up that uh slide, the first slide one more time.

Do you ever wonder why we're still here?

If God saved us, He redeemed us from death and eternal destruction, and then we have eternity coming with glorification, why didn't he just kill us?

It would be better, wouldn't it?

That sounds messed up, but true.

Like, why are we still here?

Why do we go through X amount of time between that, between salvation and glorification as we are progressively sanctified, continuing to be refined?

Why?

For what end?

Yes! Thank you.

Yay.

Let's pray.

No, that was exactly, exactly.

So there is work to do, there's continuing things to do.

He didn't stop here.

We see here in verse 15, so then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, whether by what we said or whether by what we wrote.

Let's do this backwards first.

The traditions that we taught.

What is that?

It's what the apostles said and what they wrote, which is what was delivered to them by Jesus.

So, word of God.

Not just we do this because that's what we're supposed to do as Christians, but rather these are the things that God communicated in his word through the apostles to the Church of Thessalonica and also to us as readers.

So, what are they to do?

Stand firm to persist, to persevere, and to hold fast, to not let go, to keep carefully and faithfully.

Stand firm.

Hold fast.

Hold the line.

These are endurance words, which is important for a church experiencing difficulty and persecution, but they are active endurance words.

Why would he have to tell them to stand fast and hold if it wasn't hard?

If I told my kids it's Christmas or it's their birthday, I'm sorry, kids, you're gonna have to open gifts today.

You might get some candy and you might even have to eat it.

They'd be like, Are you kidding me?

You don't have to tell people things that are natural.

You have to tell them things that are contrary to our nature.

So when he is telling them, stand fast, hold firm, these are not comfortable words.

These are endurance words, and they make me think of strength training.

Do not raise your hand because I don't want to not like you.

But how many people love exercise?

Don't raise your hand.

I just don't want to, because then it'll be like, oh, you're one of those.

But it's hard.

You're doing things that are hard for your body for the purpose of building up strength, endurance, and health.

Think about holding a heavy weight or holding things in tension.

Those are holding fast, standing firm.

Eating a donut is not holding fast or standing firm.

There is no firm in that.

So that was for free.

So why do we need this?

Because it's contrary to our nature.

And we have a sin nature that wants to pull us back.

That tells us that it's much easier, better, more comfortable, more beneficial to just do what feels right.

To just do what is comfortable, to just do what we used to do.

And if you don't think that's a normal human response, just read the Israelites in the wilderness.

It's mind-blowing how many times they're like, oh man, I just wish we could go back.

And it's like, you had over 400 years of slavery.

Are you kidding me?

You were crying out to God for deliverance.

And then immediately it's like, you know what I miss?

The leeks.

The fact they zeroed in on that, quirky.

But they're like the meat and the leeks, we could just sit there and eat.

I'm like, you were under hard labor.

We don't remember these things with objectivity.

So he's saying, hold fast, stand firm, hold that tension for the purpose of health and growth.

I love how this passage has two waves of the same pattern, which is God has done all the hard work, therefore you do something, and then we get to this part, a benediction of how God helps you do the thing that you're supposed to be responsible for in the first place.

Isn't that cool?

It's like, hey, God did everything difficult, He has work for you to do, and He's going to help you with all the hard parts of that anyway.

That's awesome.

If we don't come out of these passages just encouraged, blessed, it's like, oh man, he did everything difficult.

So continuing forward, the benefit the benediction here in verse 16.

May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father.

And he could have just stopped there.

Go into the benediction.

But no, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace.

May he strengthen your hearts.

Or encourage your hearts, excuse me.

So even in the benediction, he reminds them of what God has already done.

He's loved them.

He has loved the unlovable, which is us.

He has given us internal encouragement.

There is nothing, as we follow Jesus and as we obey him, there is nothing in this life, no matter how hard it gets, that can take away that promise if we hold fast to him.

Nothing.

We have an inheritance reserved in heaven, undefiled.

We see in 1 Peter 1.

He's done that, and he's given us internal encouragement, eternal encouragement and good hope, that expectation of what's coming by grace.

It was a gift.

It wasn't a, you guys have worked hard for 20 years, and we actually accrued some interest, so that'll be waiting for you.

It was, by the way, here's your trust fund of eternal blessing.

That's crazy.

In the midst of this, so what is he going to do?

He's going to encourage your heart and strengthen you in every good word and work.

Encourage, strengthen.

Odds are good that every follower of Jesus naturally leans toward one of those verses, I mean one of those words, and is naturally averse to the other.

Wants the encouragement and really is like the strengthening.

Okay, well, he's strengthening me by encouraging me.

It's the same thing.

Or strengthening, yes, I have a task and a list to do.

Encouragement.

Okay, thanks.

Don't do that.

These need to be together.

Encouragement and strengthening.

Encouragement and strengthening.

The best way that I can put this of what God is for us, in my analogy, one of the seems to be the hardest jobs in the world would be a personal trainer.

These people have more people energy than I do in the entire existence of Ben.

The ability to encourage and not just encourage to say, good job, you showed up today, no matter what, but rather one more rep.

Do it one more time.

You're almost there.

You got this, you're doing good.

When all that we would want to do in that moment is murder that person.

It is a very strange gift.

But think about this: a personal trainer who does not give clear goals, who does not give a regimen for that, and does not encourage them in those goals in that regimen is nothing but a cheerleader.

It's a participation trophy.

Hey, good job you showed up today.

But there's a certain point where the person who's paying the personal trainer is going to get real mad because they're not getting the results that they were working towards.

This is how I see God to a certain extent balance between those because He encourages unconditionally.

He's given us salvation.

He's already accepted us, He's not mad at us.

If you have a personal trainer that is constantly mad at you, you ain't going back.

You're gonna be like, oh, you know what, this person just like cussed me out the other day.

I really needed that.

I really want that made me want to go again.

But God not only gives us encouragement and continues to do that, but he works to strengthen us.

Same word as previously in every good work.

Something to think about.

All of those passages that we read and read in Matthew as it pertains to the end times and about the Antichrist, read one more chapter.

Jesus gives parable over and over and over again about be a good steward.

Don't be like the ten virgins, the virgins who uh did not bring the oil.

Do not be like the person who sees that their master is gone and starts beating their fellow servant.

It's immediately followed by here's what you should do.

And that makes people twitchy, but it's the Bible.

So there is work to do in that.

Why am I saying this and why am I just beating this into the ground?

This is contrary to our culture, to our big C church culture.

We live in a world, if I can say it this way, because I'm gonna, is worship.

It worships, we worship self.

Comfort now, self-care now.

What makes us feel good at the moment?

And that is, to a certain extent, a reaction of what happened last time, where it was all get to work and you know, make your bed and clean your room.

And then before that was that, it just cycles back and forth and back and forth.

But we live in a world that offers encouragement, but never sets the goals and the encouragement and discipleship and things of you can do this and you can do better.

You got this.

Keep going.

That is like anathema to our culture, is taboo.

And here is my concern with that.

If you just offer encouragement with no defined end, with no defined goals, with no defined, this is what we're doing.

We can all do this together.

It doesn't produce results, it does produce loyalty, which puts butts in the seats and makes it look like people are growing, but they don't grow internally.

From what I have experienced, personally, for whatever it's worth, from over 15 years of ministry and 15 years of leading teams in the secular world, encouragement without accountability feels really good and kills you.

But because you haven't set a goal, you don't see it until it's too late.

You're 10 years down the line and go, wait a minute, I've just been sitting here.

I'll put it this way and then I'll get off my soapbox.

So, in the Odyssey, really, really old book, really, really long book.

Okay, there's a little piece on their journey home about this island with the lotus eaters.

Where they go and they do a party that goes and lands, and then they find these people who eat lotuses, eat the lotus fruit all day.

And then when the sailors do that, they don't want to leave.

There was a kid's novelization of that that I'm not gonna promote that uh had it to where they enter like a building where when they eat that, they lose track of all time and they realize they've been there forever and didn't realize that's what happens.

So if I can put it this way, please be encouraged, but also get to work, find goals.

Goals are not the enemy, that's not works.

Grow, be discipled.

This is the last time I get to say this to you guys, so I'm just being that way.

Be discipled, share your faith, spread it, steward in that way.

Do not just be comfortable in this room with all of our friends, not realizing how much time has passed because we didn't actually measure anything in the first place.

Off the soapbox.

This is why, but why this is what does this have to do with the passage?

The time in between.

Stand firm, hold it.

God's going to help you with this, he will strengthen you.

And then we continue onward in chapter three.

Can you believe we're like almost done with 2 Thessalonians already?

We just started this book.

It it builds on the least on the last one.

So, in addition, brothers and sisters, in verse 1 of chapter 3, pray for us.

It's a small thing, but I love that Paul's always asking them to pray for him and pray for that work.

There's no, we we got this, guys.

We've been doing this a long time.

We got this.

Hey, pray for us.

Intercede for us, not only relationally, but also for the God who's doing the work in the first place.

What's he praying for?

That the word of God may spread rapidly.

I love that word because it literally just means run.

Picture the gospel just running all over the place like a toddler on sugar.

And be honored, to be highly esteemed, to be shown as valuable.

Because it's good that the gospel goes out, but the prayer is also that people would value that and therefore receive it and put their life and hope and trust in Jesus.

Just as it was with you for the Thessalonians.

And then verse 2, and also that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not all have faith.

The enemy hates the spread of the gospel.

More than anything else.

He wants to steal, kill, and destroy.

What does the opposite of those things?

Yeah, God, the gospel, salvation.

So, not only does he want it to spread, but also be treated as valuable with minimal disruption and resistance.

I'm gonna I'm gonna butcher this, but there's a story in Acts basically of Paul giving the gospel to somebody, and then there's just like Captain Antagonistic who's trying to disrupt the whole thing, the whole time.

That's what the enemy does.

In the same way in the church of uh Philippi, there is the they're preaching the gospel, and then there's the demon-possessed girl who's just following them around, trying to disrupt.

So the enemy wants to disrupt the spread of the gospel.

And Paul is asking for prayer that it would go unhindered, that it would be seen as value with minimal resistance.

For not all have faith.

Does the enemy see us as a threat?

It is a strange thing.

It is a very strange thing that basically we're sitting there thinking, okay, life following Jesus, wonderful.

Promises, not always easy.

And then we go, now what we want to do is become a target for Satan.

If we just ended there, they'd be like, you know what?

I have some leftovers from yesterday that I just have to go run home to.

I'm done.

I'm done here.

It continues forward, and this is what I love here.

Pray in verse 2 that I'd be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not all have faith.

Verse 3, but the Lord is faithful.

If you have the most intense ADHD on the planet and you only hear these words, the Lord is faithful.

More than anything else in the hopping around and the pontificating.

The Lord is faithful.

What does he do?

He will strengthen, same word.

We're back to that.

He will strengthen you, he will guard you from the evil one.

What that sounds like?

A shepherd.

Not your average shepherd, but a good shepherd.

Not just a good shepherd, but the good shepherd, as we see in John 10 and 11, I believe.

That's what's interesting, is by following the Lord, by obeying his commands, by going and doing the work that he calls us to, we become a threat and therefore a target.

And yet the Lord is our protector.

Isn't that cool?

The best way to not encounter adversity is just to hide that talent, that coin, in the ground to do nothing.

By following the Lord's work, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them, preaching the gospel to them, obeying what we've commanded.

It gets harder, which the Church of Thessalonica might be like, I don't like that.

But God is faithful, He will strengthen you, He will guard you from the evil one.

If we truly knew the power of God, would we, in a, without being weird, have a little bit more swagger in our stewardship of the gospel?

That we would not worry as much about the consequences?

That we would not worry about feeling weird.

Okay, I don't mean to burst your bubble.

We're weird.

We gather in the morning, on a weekend.

We sing pop country songs to an invisible God.

Then we read an ancient book and we pray to that same invisible God.

We eat crackers and drink juice and say that's his blood and his body, or a remembrance of those things.

We celebrate new life by dunking someone in water and bringing them back up again.

We believe that one day we're going to be taken from this world into eternity.

All of that is weird if you don't have the Holy Spirit working on that in your heart and in your life.

Pressure's off.

You're already weirdos.

So, with that in mind, may we continue to spread with the confidence that God guards us and strengthens us.

He already did the hard work, just like we talked about at the beginning.

And then we have confidence in the Lord about you that you are doing and will continue to do what we command.

I love that Paul is confident that this church is doing a good job and continues to encourage them further.

Those two things are not intention.

You're doing great, do better, are not things that live in opposition.

So with that, he continues, and then the benediction, verse 5, may the Lord direct your hearts to God's love and Christ's endurance.

If you're anything like me, I would have preferred this benediction to just say, may the Lord direct your hearts to God's love.

Period.

But he says, and Christ's endurance.

What does that mean?

Show of hands, how many of you think Jesus had an easy three and a half years on this earth?

But we see in Hebrews 12, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despised the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God.

Because of the joy set before him, which by the way was us.

He endured more than we all will ever know.

And so when we are being directed to God's love and Christ's endurance, I just want to take a few directions here for what that endurance looks like and why that matters to a church that suffers persecution.

So let's look at a few verses here.

Romans 5, 3 through 4.

Not only that, not only what, you're gonna have to read it for yourself.

We also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know affliction produces endurance.

Endurance produces proven character.

Proven character produces hope.

James 1, 2 through 4.

Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

Let endurance have its full effect so you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

And then the author of Hebrews just goes straight for the jugular here in 10, 3 through 6.

You need endurance, so that after you have done God's will, you may receive what was promised.

Endurance is an important characteristic of followers of Jesus, and it's grown by following him, and not just following him in comfort, but in obedience, in stretching, and stepping out, continuing forward in those things.

And there is attention to be had in that God has done all of the hard work and you have unshakable promises that are not contingent upon your performance.

And in the middle of those two things, he has work for us.

That's really hard to wrap our heads around, but it's true.

Let endurance have its full effect so that you may be sure, and then after you have done God's will, you may receive what was promised.

He doesn't say if you don't do God's will perfectly, you're not receiving the promise.

It's all up in the air.

You should have read the fine print, guys.

The promise is sure, is waiting.

That is our eternal hope that we saw in this passage.

But God calls us to get to work in that way.

And in the same way we see for this church of Thessalonica, he's like, you guys are doing good.

Do better, even more.

One more rep.

One more round.

The evil person that invented mountain climbers can't breathe when that's happening.

But if somebody is sitting there going, you can do just one more set of that.

Why?

Not because of our own just for our health, for our well-being.

How much more so for the spreading of the gospel, for the building up of one another, and how much more so does this need to be together so we can participate in that encouragement?

Not only saying, good job, guys, because that's important, but also let's do more.

Take that hill.

If I can leave one thing with you guys take that next hill.

This hill's great.

I like this hill.

There's more.

And God already did the hard work.

You can do this.

And I want to leave you with this.

2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 16.

2 Thessalonians 2:16

May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given Him, given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace.

Encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word.

And then finally, chapter 3, verse 5.

May the Lord direct your hearts to do to God's love and to Christ's endurance.

He who called you to it is faithful.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you for your word.

I thank you for your goodness.

I thank you for your holiness.

I thank you that we deserve none of the good graces you gave us.

We deserve death, you gave us life.

We deserve destruction, you gave us sanctification and wholeness.

We deserve condemnation, you gave us justification.

And you don't leave us there.

You didn't pay off the down payment and then say, go figure out the rest.

You are with us, you encourage us, you strengthen us.

May we steward that gift well without feeling a burden of injustice, of in judge of judgment, but also without being comfortable to the point of inaction.

May we be not afraid of goals, directions, visions, things to move forward to.

May those be aligned with your word and nothing else.

May we be people who simultaneously are in such a way that we spread your gospel, that we disciple one another towards your glory in a way that is a threat to the enemy and demonstrates how eternally impotent He is to thwart your purposes and your care and you love.

May we be encouraged.

And may we continue to take that next hill.

Be glorified.

Amen.