2 Thessalonians 3:1

Let's stand together. I lift my eyes up unto the mountains. Where does my help come from?

My help comes from you, maker of the old.

Turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. I mentioned first service. We're finally getting to the end of the book. It seemed like we started Thessalonians in August. First Thessalonians and we've been. Ann said, Paul was only there for three weeks and you've been there for 27.

We're coming to the end of the book and I would ask that you would pray with me as to where the Lord's going to lead us next. I always, as we come to this point in praying as to which direction the Lord wants us to go, what section should we study, Lord? And right now I don't sense anything, which is always exciting. When we came to the end of Revelation, this was the same way.

And I get excited because I'm thinking, hey, we're going home. I don't need to worry about it, you know? So if that's the case, great. But if you just pray with me as far as where the Lord wants us to study in his word next, I'd appreciate it. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 1. Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored just as it was with you.

And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith, but the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen and protect us. He will protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and into Christ's perseverance.

Confidence in the Lord. Let me ask a question and I'm not wanting a visual response from you. I'm wanting you to ponder it in your own heart this morning. Do you this morning have confidence in the Lord? And it's easy for us to think quickly. I do, Lord. I really do. I'm sitting here and I do. But do you have confidence in him moment by moment by moment, situation by situation by situation?

Not just Sundays when we're here and the atmosphere is great and good worship and a good time together and I really feel good. I have confidence in the Lord and then on Monday and then Tuesday and then Wednesday maybe we get together and a little fellowship strengthening and then Thursday and Friday and Saturday and back to Sunday. I'm not talking a Sunday to Sunday kind of confidence in the Lord. I'm talking about do you have confidence in the Lord from moment to moment to moment?

The word confidence means faith. It's defined as faith or trust in. So in your own life are you able to trust him? To have faith in him in every single moment? If you fly, when you get on a plane what do you put your confidence in? You put your confidence in it? I'll get to that. Put your confidence in a plane? There's too many of you that fellowship here that work for aircraft manufacturers

that have told me things that you don't like to fly because you don't have confidence. I don't know how those things are put together. Somebody mentioned pilots. That's on my list. You have faith in the pilot. Have you read the recent surveys that have been taken that almost 50% of the pilots that are flying today fly drunk? Maybe you put your faith in the air traffic controllers.

I mean, you look at the grids that when they show those on TV and you see the grids just one grid of an air traffic controller's radar. He's got all those little bleeps and blips that are and they've all got numbers on them and big deal, you know. And you're supposed to know how far up and down and directions they're going to keep them from running into each other. Do you put your confidence in the air traffic controllers at that point?

At that particular time? Just a few weeks ago out at DIA. What a name for an airport. Dead in action, you know. Denver International Airport. They almost landed a jet on top of a service vehicle that was driving down a runway. And this is a state-of-the-art airport. In a marriage relationship, where do you put your confidence in? You put your confidence in the fact that

your love is sufficient to love your mate through any particular situation? Or do you put confidence in their love for you that they will love you through sickness and in health? Do you know that you could ask every single person who's been involved in a divorce and they would tell you they felt that way when they went into the marriage? That they had confidence in their love for one another?

In this passage in chapter 3, Paul declares his confidence in the Lord. Verse 3, The Lord is faithful and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord. Paul has confidence that God is going to fulfill his purposes. He is going to keep them strong. He is going to strengthen and protect them. But it's interesting to me that he asks for prayer for that.

He asks them to pray for him because I think prayer refreshes that confidence. You see, I think the Apostle Paul had to learn that moment by moment by moment confidence in the Lord. I don't think he had it initially when he was called either. I think it's something that God develops in us. But I think it is refreshed in us through prayer, through praying for one another.

And I think we have in these few verses, three things that we ought to be praying for one another that would strengthen us, that would refresh us as to our confidence in the Lord. Because that confidence doesn't come easily. What about the young mother who has to sit and watch her teenage daughter die from the ravages of cancer? Does she maintain her confidence in the Lord?

What about a husband and wife who have been together in ministry, in ministry, for years and they have supported each other in ministry and then one has been unfaithful and that ministry separates, that marriage separates. Do they still have confidence in the Lord? What about the parents of the children in Dunbain, Scotland this week who may have lost a child to the bullet of a madman who killed himself and no one really knows why he did it now. They'll never be able to ask him why, why.

If you watch the news clips, one of the clips this week showed as the people were coming to that school and playing soccer, chasing flowers and teddy bears along the area where those kids were killed. One of the clips showed the camera moving in on one teddy bear and it had a little note fastened to its head that said, why, why? Do those parents have confidence in the Lord?

Or the brothers and sisters like these Thessalonians who have believed in God's word, have committed their lives to following Christ and now they are suffering torture and crucifixion at the hands of the Romans. Can we still, can we still have confidence in the Lord when he allows things like this to happen? Can we still honestly say that confidence can be there? Absolutely.

Absolutely. And I believe it's refreshed, that confidence is refreshed through prayer. And so Paul asks the Thessalonians to pray three things for him. And you know, you get to the end of one of these epistles and it's real easy to think all the meat and good stuff was back in the first couple chapters and this is just a finally, therefore, you know, so that's a closing.

So you kind of skim over it and want to go on to something else. But nothing's insignificant in the word of God. There's no part of it that is not relevant or significant. And in just these couple verses in chapter three, Paul asks them to pray three things for him. And I ask you to pray these three things for me. And I ask you as you go through your week and you think of one another

as each of you crosses each other's mind, maybe you have a prayer list or maybe you're just driving along and all of a sudden somebody flashes to your mind. I would ask you to remember to pray these three things. You know, often we think, well, I was thinking of you this week and I was, you know, the Lord really impressed you upon my heart. That's something I needed to pray for you and I really didn't know what to pray.

You can pray these three things and be confident in your prayer as well as be confident in the Lord as well as refresh their confidence as you pray these three things. First is found in verse one. Paul says, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly. That the message of the Lord may spread rapidly. That the word of God may spread rapidly. We'll talk about these

individually here in a minute. First thing to pray, Paul asked them to pray for him is that the word of God may spread rapidly. Secondly, is right next to it and you can read over it real quickly and honored and be honored. Pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly. That's the first one and pray for us that the word of God may be honored and then thirdly,

verse two, he says, and pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. Pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. Well, let's look at these three. First of all, he says, pray for us that the word of God or that the message, well, just the message is the word of God, the gospel. Pray that the word of God may spread rapidly. What does this mean?

What's Paul asking them to pray for him? What am I asking you to pray for me? What am I going to be praying for you where this is concerned? Well, literally that says that the word of God may have free course. Maybe that's what it says in your translation or may it run forward as a river. The thought is may it run and may it just move and as a river moves and if it hits an obstacle,

if it hits an object like a rock, it either goes around it or it goes under it or it cuts it in half. It goes through it. And that's the idea that Paul is trying to convey here is that may God's word just have free course. May it spread rapidly. May nothing hinder it as it comes forth. This idea is brought out elsewhere in scripture. In Psalm 147, which is one of the psalms

of high praise, one of the final few psalms that is just dedicated totally to worship and totally to praising God. The first part of Psalm 147 praises God, acknowledges Him for His creative power and the firmament and all that He's made. And then in verse 15 of Psalm 147, it says, He sends His command to the earth. His word runs swiftly. And it has the idea

that when God sets His heart to do something and He sends forth His word, it's accomplished and it's accomplished quickly. In the beginning, we're told in John was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And the word became flesh, verse 14, and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

The word of God came swiftly in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. And that word ran swiftly through life. I mean, you look at the period from the time of creation until the time of Christ, some 4,000 years of history according to the scriptures. And then in 30 plus years, God accomplished that, that He'd sent His word forth to do as Jesus died on the cross for our sins, opening a way for us to come into the presence of the Lord.

The word came to earth and ran swiftly. The word spread swiftly. That's what's necessary. You see, if you really stop and think about it, that's what's necessary in life. We want to stop all the things that are happening that are godless in our society. We want to see people loving each other. We want to stop the gang violence, how are we going to do that? Well, they're forming

task forces all over and blue ribbon committees and presidential committees. We want to see peace in the world. Well, they just had a 30 nation summit on bringing peace to the Middle East and stopping terrorism. Anything accomplished by that? Nothing. What will accomplish it is as the word of God spreads rapidly, as God's word has free course like a river, as it moves into the areas

of the lives of these individuals. You want to stop the gangs, pray that God's word will have free course in the lives of those individuals, that God will bring people into their lives and bring them to an understanding of who Jesus is. That's when things are going to change. We want to stop the use and the sale of drugs. We want to stop the proliferation of those kinds of things

in our country. Those things stop when people come to Jesus. When the word of God is running freely, when it has free course in the lives of those individuals, that tide is stemmed. And you see, the faster the word of God spreads, the more quickly we'll see change. And if you look back down through our history, that's what Satan is seeking to stop. I mean, in moving

in certain ways to stop prayer in school and to stop the listing of the Ten Commandments and to stop any mention of God and to really emphasize the separation of church and state, what is Satan seeking to do? He's seeking to stop the world. He's seeking to stop the flow. He's seeking to stop this flow of the word of God, that the spreading of the word is hindered.

He just wants to stop the flow. He wants to dam it up so that it doesn't flow forth. And the more we pray that this is unheeded, that the word of God spread rapidly, the quicker we're going to see change and the quicker we're going to see the Lord's coming because all we're waiting for is that final individual that God has ordained to receive Christ as his Lord and Savior. And that's what we're waiting for.

And the church is out of here. There's nothing else prophetically that we're waiting to see happen before the coming of our Lord. So the more we see the spreading of the gospel, the more and the faster the word of God is spread, not only our lifestyle is going to change and situation is going to change, but the quicker the Lord's going to come. And people will say, oh, but you have been trying that for years and nothing's happened.

Listen, we have not progressed from 1850 to 1996. We have regressed. The family unit has dissolved. The educational system has degraded. The governmental system and patriotism and allegiance and an idea of unity has disintegrated. We have not progressed. And it's all because Satan is seeking to stem the flow of the word of God. It's what's needed in government.

I mean, it's great that we elect godly men to positions of leadership. That's natural. I mean, duh, that's what we ought to do. But we need to pray not only that they seek to bring in godly legislation, but that, the Lord will cause his word to spread quickly in those places. You want to see a change in the judicial system? The judicial system that we have was founded on a scripture.

We've drifted from it. You want to see the judicial system overhauled? Pray that the word of God would spread rapidly through the justice system. Paul was asking them to pray that the word of God would spread rapidly. Now, follow me on this. But not just bazooka, not just in general. He was asking pray for us. In other words, pray for me, he said, that the word of God

through me might spread rapidly. That the word of God would run its course through his life, quickly through his life. And Paul prayed this more than just here. Back in Ephesians, don't turn there, just listen. Ephesians chapter 6, verses 19 and 20. It's at the end of that section dealing with the armor of God. And we so focus on that, you know, verses 10 through 15.

We're not wrestling against flesh and blood, but powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness. Rulers of evil, in high places. So make sure you have on the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation, the feet shod with the preparation of gospel, sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And then at the end of that is in prayer, you know, and having done all to stand and then pray.

And that's at the end of this is verses 19 and 20. Paul asked the Ephesians to pray basically the same thing. Pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am. And he said, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should.

Paul's asking the same thing that he's asking the Thessalonians to pray here. Pray that God's word would spread rapidly through me, that I don't have to fear, that I'll just speak and I'll stand wherever God has me. He wasn't wanting to be violent about it. He was just saying, let me stand and proclaim it fearlessly, fearlessly, that the word of God might spread rapidly through him.

Hal, let me ask you a question because the Lord really prompted my heart as I saw this. Have you ever prayed that specifically for yourself? Because I know I haven't. I mean, I prayed that God would use me. I prayed that he would use me in the lives of other people, that I'd be a vessel that is a willing vessel for him. And I guess if you look at it, you know, that's kind

of the same thing. That's pretty much the same thing. But I've never said, Lord, may your word spread rapidly. May it run its course through me. Let me say that as you pray this, you are literally opening yourself up to the Lord. You're leaving a door open for God to work. Now, God's going to work. But see, we still have an opportunity to resist. I mean, when God wants

to do something in our lives, we still have that opportunity to resist it. And often I do. You know, God's wanting to do something a certain way and I don't see that way initially. And so I resist. I go kicking and screaming into that place where God finally brings me that place of I fall at his feet. But when you say, God, that your word might have free course

through me, you're saying, Lord, whatever you have to do for that to happen, do it. Now, Paul was an intelligent man. Paul was educated, schooled in the greatest of schools, studied under Gamaliel, one of the greatest teachers of the time. He was the Hebrew of Hebrews, he called himself. He had a great pedigree. His lineage was impeccable, all from great rabbis

down through the tribe of Benjamin. And yet he said, all of that I consider worthless. I count that worthless for the sake just simply of knowing him. But still, now follow me with this thought, because you see, you know, I know Paul was human just like we are. And he had to learn the things that he learned as far as his faith was concerned, just like we learn them.

And yet I still think Paul had the idea of how God would move. You know, there's just, we see situations and we just see how God could move so wonderfully in this situation. Lord, if you just move like this, you know, if you just save this person, wow, what they touch, you know, they, so many people get saved if they just, you turn this person around. And God inevitably doesn't work that way.

And I, and, and I think Paul, I mean, yeah, he had his experience on the Damascus road. Yeah, he spent three years with the Lord in the wilderness. And Jesus told Ananias before he laid his hands on him so that he could see, he said, Ananias said, Lord, you know, this is Saul. This is the guy that's persecuting the church. And the Lord said, yeah, but, but that's okay.

You go lay your hands on him because I, I have many things that I, I got, I have to show him about what he has to suffer for my sake. And, and so God spent the time with Paul, the three years that he was in the desert, learning about the Lord. He spent time showing Paul the things he was going to have to suffer to a certain extent. But, you know, if the Lord laid out for you and I, the things that are ahead in our lives that we have to suffer for his sake, we, we would really wouldn't understand.

And that's why he doesn't show them to us. You know, that's why when you sit up on Monday morning, you say, God, what's ahead for the week? God just doesn't lay out. You know, well, you're going to get run over by a car on Tuesday and you're going to be in the hospital for 10 weeks and you're not going to walk for six months and all that because we just wouldn't, it wouldn't compute.

You know, we wouldn't understand what God was doing. And so I can see Paul even seeing all of this, being like you and me and going, OK, you know, but I'm of high stature and high degree. And Paul was an apologist and he liked to reason. And, and I'm sure he saw himself. I could sit down with, with the pro council in this area and reason with them about the Lord.

I could show them their life, A, and Jesus B, and their life is empty, A, and their need for B, you know, that, that they need Jesus. And I could rationalize that with them. I could, I could talk to them about that. And God's going, yeah, you could. And so I'm sure Paul has it in mind, you know, that it's let your word have free course. And I'm going to go into the house of Caesar

and witness to him. And what a blessing, you know, a pastor thinks those kinds of things. As is out recently that Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek, once a month spends an hour with the president, has an, has an hour to share the Lord with President Clinton. And, you know, a pastor dreams of things like that. You know, you want to go in and, and, and, and, and,

influence people in high places with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And, and, you know, but you, and Paul, I'm sure Paul probably thought that. I want to, I want to influence the pro-council. I even want to go and talk to Nero. I mean, he's crazy. But if I talk to him about the Lord, surely I can reason with him. And God says, okay, you go. And I'm going to beat you

several times first with rods. And, and you'll be flogged a few times as well. And you'll be stoned and left for dead. And you'll be arrested and wrongly accused. And you'll be hated by your own countrymen and spit upon. And you'll get a chance. And to share with the pro-councils of that particular area. And Paul got to share with Festus and Felix. Almost persuaded one of them.

May legend has it that one of them later accepted Christ. And then he got to go see Caesar bound in chains on a ship that wrecked and broke up on the way. He was under house arrest for two years. And then he was chained between two prison guards in the dungeon below Caesar's palace for we don't know how long. But he did get to see Caesar. He did finally get to present

the gospel to Caesar. And then he was beheaded. And you think, we're changed as a result of that. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of lives have been influenced down through history as a result of that. For the word of God having free course through Paul's life. In Acts chapter 21, Paul was moving back down towards Jerusalem. And he came to Caesarea. And Agabus,

who was a prophet, came up from Jerusalem. And he took Paul's belt. And he took his own hands. And he bound his hands with that belt. And he said, such will be the man who is the possessor of this belt if he goes to Jerusalem. He'll go in chains. And Paul's friends begged him not to go. Oh, don't go, Paul. We've got such a great program going. You're planting so many churches.

You know, things are going so well. And in verse 13, Paul answers and says, why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I'm all ready not only to be bound but to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul says, it doesn't make any difference. That the word may spread rapidly. It doesn't make any difference what God has to do with me to have that done.

Do you have confidence in the Lord to tell him to allow that opportunity for him to do that with your life? Are you really willing to lay your life down to that extent? Paul says, pray for me that that would happen. And I ask you, pray for me that that might happen because I'm going to pray for you upon every remembrance of you that that might happen in your life, that the word of God might have free course through you, that it might spread rapidly through you, whatever is necessary for that to happen.

And secondly, he says, and pray that God's word may be honored. Just a brief mention of it there, and be honored. The word honored there means to accomplish that for which it has been sent. To accomplish that for which it has been sent. Again, this is Paul saying, pray for me that the word of God may not only spread rapidly through me, but that it might be honored

in me. It might be honored by me. Well, what was it sent to do? Well, we read in scripture that it was sent to convict the world of sin, that it was sent to draw sinners to repentance, that it was sent to declare the mercy and the love of God, that it was sent to bind up the broken hearted That's what I want God to do through my life. That when I've been around other people,

that his word might have had free course through me, and that others will see that that word is honored in me, that they will see the wisdom of God when I've spent time with them, that they will see the trust of God, that they will see the mercy of God, that their own hearts might be convicted of sin. Not that I'm just going to point out sin in their life, but that they might see so much the spirit of God flowing through that maybe if they are considering sin in their own life, they'll hunger for that and be convicted that it's sin in their own life that's keeping them from that, and they'll fall on their knees and ask the Lord to forgive them and to cleanse them. That's what Paul's wanting in his own life, that wherever he went,

as he said in Ephesians, that he might fearlessly proclaim the word of God, that lives might be changed as God's word is honored, that God's word might be shown to be as it really is, life and light and wisdom, the only thing that brings satisfaction, the only thing that offers, real truth in this life, and he says there in the end of verse 1 that it might be honored as it was with you, as it was with you, and Paul is affirming the Thessalonians in this because he's saying to the Thessalonians, I've seen that happen in your lives, and as a pastor, I'm seeing that happen in your lives, that you are, many of you are asking or have, you know, at least allowed God's word to move through your life and you've honored that word. You know, if you take

1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and compare it to 6, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, you see a remarkable thing, you see growth. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, Paul commends them because they have a work that's evident, that's produced by faith, they have a new lifestyle, they've turned from idols to God, and their lifestyle is evidently different. In chapter 1 of 2 Thessalonians, he says, I thank God continually for you, for your faith is increasing. That means they're growing, their change in lifestyle is growing, and less and less sin is evident, and more and more Christ-likeness is evident.

In 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, he says, I thank God upon my remembrance of you for your labor that's prompted by love, for the fact that their attitudes were changing as well. If you have a change of lifestyle, if Christ really comes into your life, you'll have a change of attitude and you'll begin to learn to love one another. And Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 1, I see that happening because you are seeking to serve God by loving each other. You're bearing with one another.

You're holding one another up. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, there's a second thing he says, I thank my God because your love is growing. So that kind of an attitude was continuing to grow in Thessalonica. I see that happening here as God's word is being honored in your lives. The third thing he said in chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians is that they have an endurance

that's being produced by hope in the soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, he says, your perseverance is increasing and I'm boasting about you to the other churches. So their endurance, their motivation for living that's based upon the soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is increasing in their lives and they're becoming a testimony to those around because of that lifestyle change and attitude change and a motivational change. And Paul says from 1 to 2 Thessalonians, it's growing.

I can see that growing and it's because they're honoring the word. That's what he says here. As it was with you. Do you realize a growth in your own life? Are you seeing those three areas of growth? Faith increasing in your life. Love increasing in your life. Endurance, perseverance, trusting the Lord. Your confidence in God increasing as a result of the word

of God being honored in your life. Pray that. Paul asked them to pray that for him and I ask you to pray that for me and I'm praying that for you. And then thirdly, the final thing he asks is pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. Verse 2. Wicked and evil men depending on your version, your translation that you're reading it may say wicked and unreasonable men.

Pray that we may be delivered from wicked and unreasonable men. The word unreasonable there in the Greek means out of place, improper, injurious, or wicked. In other words, those who aren't part of the kingdom of God. Those who have not faith in the gospel. Paul was writing this particular epistle from Corinth but he remembered that he had been in Thessalonica

and he'd only been there three weeks and he had to leave because the fanatical Jews and the Jewish converts were so upset about the message of the gospel that they ran him out of town. And so he went down the road to Berea and he was there for a while and the Bereans were really, really growing. They were coming along. They were taking the things that Paul was teaching and they were checking them in the word and things were really happening well until these Jewish converts from Thessalonica came down to Berea and they stirred up the people in Berea and they drove Paul out of Berea and Paul had to go on down to Athens and now he's in Corinth and he's writing this epistle to them and he senses that there is unrest around and if you sometime

take time to go back to Acts chapter 18 verses 12 through 17 you'll see this unrest in Corinth that he senses it finally comes to a head and again there's another riot and they take the leader of the synagogue and beat him because they think that he has followed Paul's teaching and all. Listen, as the word of God spreads, as you pray that God's word might spread rapidly through you, as you pray that God's word might be honored in and through you, trouble follows. You will have trouble. Paul lived with that from day to day to day.

That's why he's asking for prayer. That's why he prayed in Ephesians chapter 6, pray for me that I might declare this fearlessly because he knew these problems were there and when he did it he knew the problems were going to be there and he knew it would probably cost him a beating or a stoning or an imprisonment and so he said don't let those things weigh heavy on me. Let me just be able to stand and proclaim it fearlessly. And you know that's true today too where you seek to let God's word have free course and where you seek to allow God's word to be honored in your life, you will have trouble today right here in River City.

There's an article that was in the Washington Watch back in January 27th of this year and you may have heard about it, you may not. On December 19th, Andre, and I'll butcher his name, Crow Kodriskew, a commentator on the National Public Radio's All Things Considered, said this about the Christian concept of radicalism. Quote, The evaporation of four million who believe this crap would leave the world a better place. End quote.

The taxpayer-funded National Public Radio issued an apology but then the week before Christmas, NPR also devoted considerable airtime to commentators who tried to debunk Christianity and it was business as usual over at PBS as well which re-aired the sexually explicit homosexual series Tales of the City. In our own town this past week, we have several committees seeking to deal with the situations in our town. We've had a recent shooting and so there's been a committee formed of several prominent people in our community who are seeking to come and bump heads together and try and come up with some feasible solutions to this problem in our city and one of the individuals who was on that committee is a member of our fellowship and he said that things

in this committee were going along real well. There was some good sharing that was going along and then one of the individuals on the committee just got real heated and began to just go off on attacking the problem and pointing the problem to be the Republican, quote, the Republican conservative pro-life Christian right. They're the reason that we have the problems in the city. They're ultimately the reason we have the problems in this country and they were vehemently attacked and blamed for these problems.

That's right here in our city. As you pray that the word of God has free course through your life, as you pray that the word of God be honored in your life, that people see it in your life, you will find trouble. It will find you and so pray for me as I pray for you that God will protect us from the wicked and evil men. As long as, as God's word is spread, just as God uses dedicated people to spread his word, Satan uses wicked people to oppose the word and Paul says in the end of verse 2 here, for not everyone has faith.

For not everyone has faith. Literally the article is there in the Greek. Literally not everyone has the faith. Paul is saying not everyone has the faith. They don't have the faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They don't have the trust, the confidence that comes from believing the gospel in Jesus Christ. See, everyone has faith in something. We've talked about that before.

You might have faith in the system, that the system is going to work and bring you happiness. You might have faith in the government or faith in man, or faith in man's ingenuity or faith in science or faith in education that these things are going to somehow bring the answers that society needs. But again, all you have to do is look back in history, look back over the past hundred years and though we have advanced technologically, we have devolved relationally. These things have not provided the answers that we need.

Some people have, now watch this one, some people have faith in the unity of the church, the church coming together. You know, I don't see that in scripture. I don't see a big move for, you know, right before the Lord comes for us to all get together and work on things for us to get together as a church. Now, I'm not into isolationism. Don't get me wrong. Follow me on this, please.

I'm not saying we should isolate ourselves. I'm saying the church is an organism. It has different parts to the body that function differently and to try to bring us all together under these different umbrellas can be detrimental. Follow me on this. If we are seeing the word of God spread rapidly through us, if we're asking God to do that, if we are asking for God's word

to be honored in us, we will be working together naturally. We don't have to have programs or seek to bring us all together into one function. It'll just naturally happen. When you see this move for unity and we're going to unify and we're going to do all these kinds of things together, watch it, be cautious, be careful of it. Good things happen, yes. But when we try

to generate that unity on our own like that, we are tools of the enemy and that's exactly what's coming is this unity of the religious systems and the unity of the world government. Just commit your heart to the Lord. Ask Him to let the word of God have free course through your life that you might honor His word and you will find unity with the other brothers and sisters that are doing the same thing. We won't have to have parties.

We won't have to unite our churches. We won't have to unite our schools. We'll just find the natural unity.

Not everyone has the faith. Now by this time, the Thessalonians are probably going, hey, we hear you, Paul. It's happening to us too. This is happening to us too. And you can see that Paul kind of picks up on that because in verse 3 he says, but the Lord is faithful. The Lord is faithful and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. Paul says, pray that the word of God

might have free course through my life. Pray that it might be honored and pray that we might be protected from the wicked and evil men. And I know you're going through it too and so Paul then seeks to comfort them but the Lord will protect you and He will deliver you. You see, it's like just as Paul is asking for them to pray for him, his confidence in the Lord is refreshed.

Just in thinking about it. His confidence in the Lord is refreshed. God will protect you. God will deliver you and strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. Paul knew that God would protect him. He just needed the prayer to refresh his own confidence and I need it and I know you need it because I know you're going through things and struggles that seem overwhelming

at times and it's easy to ask God why. It's easy to seemingly lose confidence and think that He's putting on you more than you can endure. Paul felt that. Go with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and we'll close. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. We'll finish this up. Paul understood that. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 8. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1 verse 8, We don't want you

to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we could Now notice that. Far beyond our ability to endure. It was beyond our own strength. You feel that way today in some area of your life, in some situation that you're facing? So that we despaired even of life.

I mean, where's Kevorkian when you need it, you know? Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. And then Paul says, But this happened. Why? Why did this happen, Paul? Why were you put in that circumstance where you despaired even of life? Why am I in this circumstance that I'm going through right now where I feel that same way, where I feel like it's more than I can endure,

where I would rather die right now? Paul says, It's happened so that we might not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us as you help us by your prayers. What was Paul saying? He was saying, Man, I wanted the Word of God

to flow through me unhindered. I wanted to honor it. But there were these wicked and evil men out there who opposed that. And we were in situations where we despaired even of our life. We wanted to die. We were beyond that that we felt like we could endure. But I learned that God was taking me through those things to bring me to the end of myself and to be dependent upon Him.

You see, you and I can sit here and as we started this off this morning and I said, Do you really feel like you have confidence in God this morning? And immediately you go, Yeah! Okay? Well, see, that's because we don't know our own hearts. And there are certain areas in all of our lives this morning and you know where they are. Maybe you're right there right now

where God, you do fine until you come to this area and then it's hard and then I don't like myself or I don't like the situation or I don't like my family. I don't like my spouse. I don't like this work. I don't like school. I don't like whatever it is. It's hard. And I'm in this situation and I can't seem to get out of it and it seems to be more than I can endure

and where's God? Have we lost our confidence in God? Why? Because we're trying to handle the situation on our own and why has God brought us there? To bring us to the end of ourselves. So we go, Abba! God, help me! I can't do it on my own. And Paul says it's at that point that God delivered us and He has delivered us and He will continue to deliver us and you go,

No, wait a minute. He was beaten and whipped and jailed and finally beheaded and in each case God delivered Him and when He wrote from jail to the church at Philippi and He was chained between His Roman guards He said, I have learned. I have learned. I have learned in whatsoever state that I am therewith to be content. He knew God would deliver Him and you say,

Well, no. Well, wait a minute. He went from there before Nero and Nero had Him beheaded and you know the instant? You know what happened the instant His head was separated from His body? He said, Lord, in Jesus' name, Jesus embraced Him and He was delivered. You see? He will deliver you. Do you have confidence in that? Do you have confidence in Him today? Do you have enough confidence

in Him to say, Lord, let Your Word have free course through my life. I don't care what you have to do. I really don't care what you have to do because it makes no difference. I'm going to be with you anyhow. Lord, I want Your Word to be honored in my life and Lord, I pray that You'll protect me from the wicked and evil men who don't have the faith, who are trying to hinder

that flow of Your Word. Let Your Word flow, Lord. Don't let them stop it in me. Don't let me be afraid of them. Don't let me be afraid of the circumstances that want to hinder that flow. Let me speak fearlessly the Word of God as it comes through me. Do you have confidence in the Lord for that this morning? He wants you to. He really wants you to. And I want you to pray that for me.

I'm going to be praying that for you. Let's stand together. The brothers will be down front as we close. And rather than coming forward to accept Christ, maybe somebody is here who hasn't done that. And if you want to come forward, you can ask Christ into your heart right where you're at. We're not going to have any big show or display of you coming down the aisle

to receive Christ or rededicate your life. But we want the altar open for prayer. If you want to have prayer, just come down and lay your heart before the Lord at the altar. Please do. If you want the brothers to pray for you, that prayer that in the situation that you're in that the Word of God would have free course through your life, that the Word of God

would be honored in your life, that God would keep you from the wicked and evil men, that seek to stifle that. If you need prayer, if you'd like prayer for that, if you want somebody else just to be praying with you for that, please come down as we close. Please take the time to come and have some prayer. Please don't leave with those things maybe still hindering you.

God wants you to have confidence in Him. He wants you to trust Him that He loves you and He will not put anything on you that's more than you're able to bear. But will with that trial or temptation provide a way of escape that you may be able to bear up patiently against it and He will deliver you. He has delivered you before and He will continue to do so. If you need prayer for that,

please come down as we close. Father, I thank you for this morning. Thank you for the time in your Word. I thank you for Paul's example, Lord, and I look at that often and I thank God. I want you to do all these things, but I don't want to be whipped and beaten and stoned and shipwrecked and yet how glorious it is when your Word has free course in us like that.

How Paul could say at the end of all that, I've learned how to be content. God, I can't even be content when my water shuts off or when my tire goes flat, but God, I want to be. I want to be content in these areas. I want to be content as your Word has free course through my life and whatever you have to do with me for that to happen, I really want that, Lord, because I know therein is only true satisfaction.

Therein is only true contentment and God, I want that for this fellowship. I desire that for each of us as believers. That's the only way there's really happiness in life and I know there's a lot of us here this morning that are facing something that seems insurmountable and yet you, who are greater than the trial, you're greater than the problem and you just want us to have confidence in you to just trust you through this time. Not in our own strength, not in somebody else's help, not in a spouse, not in a parent, not in a child, just to trust in you.

You've brought us to this point that we might find that our trust is only in you, Lord. God, if there are those that need that encouragement this morning, that need that prayer, bring them forward for prayer. Don't let them leave hindered or bound this morning, I pray. In Jesus' name.