Exhortation, Part 3: Don't Grow Weary

Magnified in sin, most of the church hymn of praise Where Christ be magnified in each choice Cause you're there, what is true brings transformation I'll be crucified with you Cause death is just the doorway into resurrection life If I join you in your suffering Then I'll join you in time with all the angels And there can be very, very many little idols. It's not like a calf, maybe. It can be other things that we idolize rather than you as our Lord and Savior. And so we, Lord, we ask that you help us.

Oh, God, give us strength when we are put in the fire. And help us rejoice because you're there with us. Oh, we give you praise, Lord. We thank you. Holy God, who is in control of everything, who trusts you on the cross for us, paid for our sins, and you sealed us with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit keeps us. And just as Jesus said, I won't leave you as orphans,

but I will send a coming Holy Spirit that directs us.

And, Father, we know, too, that as we live this Christian life, live through it, walk through it, there are times we feel weak. We need strength. We have concerns, Lord. But as deep cries out to deep, we say, Jesus, come. Holy Spirit.

And it's those times that put us in positions, different places, that put us in the place where we see, yes,

perseverance, build character in our lives as we experientially learn things about ourselves. And we ask that you'll teach us, Lord.

We're just the branch. Our source is from you, the vine. It's the husband, as it states there in John chapter 15. And so, Lord, we entrust ourselves to you.

Magnify. We want to recognize and sing of your holiness. We want to rule our thirsty if we can come to the fountain.

That as we, and we know, Lord, that we just want to praise you. Would you all stand?

Have some fellowship and then be in your work. Cause our attention span to be stretched. As we're like the sheep, Lord, we understand it can be a short attention span. So, Lord, we ask that you would stretch our attention span today. That, Lord, we could, receive that which you have, Lord, as Pastor Ryan comes up and shares, that we would be focused on the things of you, Lord,

and enjoy, you know, enjoy Super Bowl dinner and all at the right time. I'm a Super Bowl type guy. So, Lord, we ask that you would just cause us to focus on you, Lord, to look to you, the author and finisher of our faith. Amen? Let's have a little fellowship. God bless you. Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seats. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. Handful of things to take note of. As always, over on that left-hand side of your bulletin where it says weekly gatherings, those are studies that go on throughout the week. So, find yourself a spot to get plugged into. Keep growing in the Lord. In the middle section, just a reminder,

I know we're into February. Now, if you're already behind on the Bible reading plan, that's okay. You can either pick up where we are now or just pick up where you left off and keep rolling with that. We have a new grief share group that's going to be starting up February the 18th. It'll meet on Tuesdays from 1 to 3 p.m. here at Calvary Chapel. I'm going to run through May the 13th.

And if you have any questions, you can talk to Holly Gage about that. And then, fellas, we have a men's breakfast coming up next Saturday. So, come join us. It's on Saturday the 15th at 8 o'clock down at the other end of the Agape room as we take a little time to eat a little food together, have a little fellowship, a little Bible study. It's always a good time to really grow in the Lord together.

So, those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 39. Psalm 39. Looking at the New American Standard for this part so that hopefully we all sound the same. Okay? To copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 39,

if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. And hopefully we won't have a dance party up here this time. Right? They don't even know what I'm talking about. But it was pretty awesome. Psalm 39. For the choir director, for Jedithune, a Psalm of David. I said, I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue.

I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle while the wicked are in my presence. I was mute and silent. I refrained even from good and my sorrow grew worse. My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned and then I spoke with my tongue. Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days. Let me know how transient I am. Behold, you have made my days as a hand breath

and my lifetime as nothing in your sight. Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah. Surely every man walks about as a phantom. Surely they make an uproar for nothing. He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them. And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the reproach of the foolish.

I have become mute. I do not open my mouth because it is you who have done it. Remove your plague from me because of the opposition of your hand. I am perishing. With reproofs you chasten a man for iniquity. You consume as a moth what is precious to him. Surely every man is a mere breath. Selah. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry. Do not be silent at my tears

for I am a stranger with you, a sojourner like all my fathers. And read verse 13 with me. Turn your gaze away from me. That I may smile again before I depart and am no more. And Lord, it's true that our hope is in you and we wait for you, Lord. And so, Father, that's what we want to do this morning as we dip into your word, Lord. And we just want to wait for you

to hear what you have to say to us. And so, Father, move through this time this morning. Move through your word. May your word go out with power. And Father, may it do the work that it was sent out to do, Lord. Whether it's encouragement, whether it's comfort, Father, whether it's correction or instruction, Lord, may we do that. And may we receive what your Holy Spirit has for us this morning.

In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3. Well, today we come to the end of the book of 2 Thessalonians. And we said that in general it broke down three ways. The entire book did. Chapter 1, he encouraged the believers because of the difficulty that they were going through.

Chapter 2, he encouraged the believers because of the difficulty that they were going through. He encouraged them to keep serving, to keep walking, to keep living as God had called for them to live. In chapter 2, he instructed them, in particular about end times, events. And then in chapter 3, he has exhorted them. And he's exhorted them for three things, or he will exhort them for three things.

The first one we looked at was that he told them to pray hard. The second thing that he told them to do is that they needed to work hard. And today, as we come to the last section here, the last exhortation, he's going to tell them, don't grow weary. Don't grow weary. And so we pick up in verse 13 of chapter 3, and this is what it says. But as for you, brethren,

do not grow weary of doing good. If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with him so that he will be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Now may the Lord, peace himself, continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all.

I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, and this is the distinguishing mark in every letter. This is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. And so he ends with this closing exhortation. And really, there's three things he's going to do in this last set of verses. He's going to give them an exhortation. He's going to give them a prayer.

And then he is going to give them a, a benediction. So we start off with the exhortation. He says, verse 13, but as for you, brethren. Now, he distinguishes who he's talking about. And to build context for understanding why he does so, I'll remind you of what he talked about last week. What he said last week was that there were some among them who had decided to,

rather than busying themselves with work, had become busybodies. And so what they needed to do instead is that they needed to find themselves working because they had decided if Jesus is coming, if he's coming back at any point in time, then why are we messing with all of the things of this earth? We should just wait for Jesus to come back. Sit down on a mountainside somewhere and just wait for Jesus to come back.

And because of that, they were becoming a strain on the rest of the community because they had refused to work. And so he told them, he said, remember what we told you when we were among you that if a man doesn't work, you shouldn't eat. Instead, what should take place, in verse 12, is such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in a quiet fashion and eat their own bread. That's what he told the people.

He told the people who weren't working at that point in time. And now he distinguishes this message to the rest because he says, but as for you, brethren, all the rest of you that have faithfully continued on with your work, faithfully continued on with what God calls for you to do, faithfully lived as God has intended for you to live, don't grow weary. Don't grow weary. The word weary means exhausted or to lose heart or to lose faith.

Or to become faint-hearted. The idea seems to be something that we deal with a lot. Can we all agree with that? It's very easy to become exhausted in the world that we live in today. It's very easy to become faint-hearted or to lose heart in the world that we're in today, especially with many of the things that we continue seeing. It's amazing that the first month and nine days

of the year 2025 have been filled with more tragedy maybe than all of last year combined. Can we agree with that? And it's almost a little bit exhausting when we say, see what's taking place and the same thing is happening with lives of individuals. We've even seen it in our own county just with really difficult things that have taken place. And because of that,

it's easy for us to grow weary. Well, in the direct context of what he's talking about here, as he tells them not to become exhausted or faint-hearted, the direct context is in their hard work. It's really difficult to be around people that don't work very hard and you be the one guy that's always working and not find yourself a little bit discouraged by that. Can we all agree with that?

Can we all agree with that? Can we all agree with that? Can we all agree? And again, if there's a message for 2025, maybe this is the one, that don't grow weary when you're the one guy that works hard at your job. And so he tells them, hey, don't grow weary in working hard. Even though it seems like everybody else around you doesn't want to do anything, even though it seems like

everybody else around you doesn't actually want to work, you keep doing it. Don't grow weary in what you're doing. The sort of indirect context based just upon the book is that he tells them not to grow weary because the entire reason he wrote this book to them is because they're not because they were dealing with so much suffering and so much affliction in their lives as believers, as the church, that they actually thought that the wrath of God was being poured out upon the world because of how hard their lives were. I don't know if you've ever thought about that, but that means your life is pretty hard.

If you're like, well, this must be it. Like this must be God's wrath being poured out upon planet Earth and I missed it. I missed the rapture and now I've got to go through all of God's wrath. That's how hard their lives were. So in an indirect context, he says, in the midst of your hardship, in the midst of your affliction, in the midst of your persecution,

don't grow weary. But in overall biblical context, it really speaks of every good work. In every good work that God has called for you to do, in your walk with Jesus Christ, don't grow weary. Don't find yourself faint hearted. Listen, it's one thing to grow weary in the work. It's a whole other thing to grow weary of the work. And he tells them, don't grow weary.

Well, this has really been marinating in my brain this week. I've been thinking a lot about it and I've thought, okay, so what causes us to lose heart, right? What causes us to become weary? Because I do sense that that's an easy thing for us to do as human beings. Otherwise, it wouldn't be said as often in scripture as it is to not grow weary. So what are some of the things

that cause us to grow weary? Well, like I like to do, I made a list and I counted it up this morning. I got four things. I wrote down a whole lot more, but I've simplified it down to these four things. Four things that cause us sometimes to lose heart or to become weary in the midst of what God has called for us to do. Number one, it's just not exciting anymore.

It's just not exciting anymore, right? You probably remember the day that you got saved or the day that God called you to go a little bit deeper in your walk or maybe called you to some sort of a work and that was an exciting day, right? Like, man, the day that you came to know Jesus, a little bit painful in hindsight because God did something to bring you to that place. But at the end of the day, man, it was such an exciting day, right?

Because you felt the release of salvation. You had the burst of emotion that usually came about with it. And man, there was just so much excitement and you were just geeked. You didn't know what anything meant. You'd never heard any of the words the pastor said before. You were just excited to be there, right? And maybe when God called you to go a little bit deeper,

called you to do something, you were excited because you were like, man, I heard God speak to me. Like, this is what God said to me. And there's a lot of excitement in the beginning, but eventually the excitement starts to wane just a little bit, right? And it comes down to just a commitment. The guy that I used to work for when I worked construction, Roger Firehurst always told us this.

He said, you have to realize at the beginning of the job, everybody's really excited because everybody gets excited when the circus comes to town. But eventually, elephant poop starts to stink, right? And that's the way it is in our lives. Like, we get really excited in the beginning, but eventually it's just one more day and another day. And another day and another day.

And now it's not passion, now it's commitment. And that's okay. We have to realize that in the midst of that, don't grow weary, stay committed, right? Like, it's almost the middle of February. It's February 9th now. And when I first jumped back into the gym the beginning of January, it was really packed, right? Didn't matter what time of day I went there, everybody was there.

Everyone was excited. None of them know how to use the machine, so they looked really, really funny the way that they did it. But everybody was excited. Well, now this last week, first week of February, not as much excitement. Everybody there knows how to use the machines now. Not because they finally figured it out, but because they're the same people that I worked out with last year.

Because everybody started off excited, but then it turns into commitment. And sometimes we grow weary because of this. It's just not exciting anymore. Number two, it's not popular. It's not popular. I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but if you really are gonna follow Jesus with all of your heart, if you're really gonna make a commitment out of it,

then you're gonna become an unpopular person. And listen, I don't like to tell people that. I don't even like to think about that. But the fact of the matter is, it's just true. People might respect your decision, but they might not wanna follow you with your decision. And sometimes it's not a real popular thing to do, because usually you're standing in the way of some sin

that everybody else wants to be walking in. That's why the entire world is mad right now, right? It's because somebody's standing up and saying, "'Hey, this is right, and this is wrong, "'and everyone's throwing a fiddle. "'What's the point about it?' But it's not always popular, and because it's not always popular, man, every now and then, it's just nice to have people like you, right?

And so sometimes you're like, "'Dude, it kinda wears you out to be the person "'that no one likes all the time, "'or that makes people mad all the time.'" And it's like, oh, it kinda wears you out, makes you a little bit weary. And sometimes we grow weary, because sometimes it's just not popular to follow Jesus. The third reason why sometimes I think we grow weary is we don't see results. We don't see results.

You're like, man, I've been praying about this thing. I've been reading, and it doesn't make sense to me. I've been walking, and I don't see the results in my life. Listen, this is where fellowship is really important, because we don't always see the results in our lives. Sometimes if it weren't for the people around me saying that they see me grow, I would think that I was exactly the same

as I was at 17 years old when I first started walking with Jesus, because I only see my flaws. I only see my failures. And that's where fellowship is really, really important, is because in the midst of fellowship, they can say, no, no, we do see what God has done in you. We do see what God's doing. And I love to be able to be that person that comes alongside someone and says,

man, I know you probably don't see it right now, but your life is dramatically different than it was when you first started walking with Jesus. But we don't always see those results in our lives, and we definitely don't always see those results in our prayer life, right? And we're like, Lord, I've been doing this. I've been giving out God's word, and I just don't see the results.

And listen, results don't come immediately. When God calls you to do stuff, you may not see the results on this side of eternity, but you definitely might not see them for years down the road. I know that from working with youth, right? Like, I'm starting to see some results now after being at it for about 21 years, because you're like, wow, okay, I'm starting to see some kids come around, and I'm seeing what God's done in their lives.

You don't always see that in the beginning. If anybody understood that, it was the prophet Jeremiah, right? Jeremiah was one of the greatest prophets that ever lived, wrote one of the biggest books in the Bible, and God told him when he started, he said, listen, no one's gonna listen to you. Everyone's gonna be against you, but I have set your face like flint so that you can stand in the midst of everybody being opposed to you.

And you know, as far as Jeremiah knew, there were zero results of anything that he did, but there were results. You know why? Because along came a guy by the name of Daniel. And Daniel, who came along much after Jeremiah, quotes Jeremiah in his book, he said, I was reading in the writings of Jeremiah. And when I read in the writings of Jeremiah, I saw that the time was almost done

for the captivity of the nation of Israel. He never saw those results, and yet God counted him as faithful. But sometimes when we don't see those things, we grow weary. Number four, it's just plain old hard, right? Like, walking with Jesus is hard, and I think we need to know that. For far too long in the Western culture, we have sold this easy gospel, right?

Listen, if you want a better life, if you want a more fulfilled life, if you want to feel good about you, then walk with Jesus, because all of your dreams, you know, it's like voting for Pedro. All of your dreams will come true, right? Like, in that moment, oh, everything's just gonna be perfect, world peace in my own apartment, it's the Barbie dream house, everything's gonna be amazing. And then you start walking with Jesus, and you're like, that's harder than I thought it was gonna be.

It's like, yeah, it's because no one really told you the truth. Because you know what Jesus told his disciples? I love it, because Jesus was never like, this is gonna be the greatest thing you've ever done. No, what did Jesus say? He's like, if anyone wants to follow me, you need to deny yourself, you need to take up your cross, and you need to follow me. Because anyone who loves his life, he's gonna lose it.

But anyone who loses his life for my sake, he'll really find it. Now, I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like he just sold an easy gospel, can we all agree with that? He sold them the fact that this is gonna be hard. Listen, most fulfilling thing you'll ever do in your entire life, greatest thing you'll ever do in your entire life. My love for Jesus is greater now than it was at 17

when I first started following him, because he took away my sins, and he gave me a reason to live, and he's given me a purpose to live my life. But that doesn't mean it's easy. And when things get hard, we wanna give up. Because we live in a culture that says, if it's right, it's easy. And I'm here to tell you right now, that's not true. Because the greatest things you'll ever do in life are hard.

But when it gets hard, sometimes we lose. We lose our heart. Well, as I looked up this word in my Strong's Dictionary, it gave me several different instances where this same Greek word is used. And so we're gonna take just a little bit of a journey, only like four places in scripture I want you to go. We're gonna look and see what scripture has to say about it.

So the first place that I want you to go is I want you to go to Luke. Luke chapter 18. I want you to look at verse one. Luke 18, verse one.

This is Jesus, speaking to his disciples, giving them some of the kingdom parables. It says, Now he was telling them a parable to show them at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart, become weary. Same Greek word. That they should always pray and not lose heart. You know one of the biggest places we sometimes don't see the results and so we give up on is prayer.

Prayer's so easy, right? But I prayed about it for three whole minutes and nothing happened, right? I prayed about it for three whole days and nothing happened. Listen, sometimes prayer takes time. He says, pray and don't lose heart because you don't know what spiritual battle is being waged while you pray. I'll give you another example from the book of Daniel.

In Daniel, Daniel received a vision from the Lord and it absolutely stressed him out and he was like, I don't know what that means. So he prayed and he asked God. He said, God, give me understanding of this vision. And it says that three weeks later, Daniel received the answer. And the angel said, I left to give you this message. The minute that you prayed.

But the prince of Persia withstood me. I even had to bring in Michael the archangel for help because of the spiritual battle that was going on. Brothers and sisters, we ought to pray and not lose heart because even though you don't see the results and even though it's hard, you don't know what spiritual battle is being waged while you pray. You don't know how close you are to a breakthrough in your prayer life.

You don't know how close you are to a breakthrough in your life because you've continued to pray. And so he tells them this parable that they should, excuse me, pray and not lose heart. You know why? Because he's gonna go on to tell a parable about a widow. A widow who was persistent and kept after a judge. And even though the judge was an ungodly man, because of the persistence of this woman,

he finally answered her request. How much more does your God not answer you when you pray? He told them this parable so that in all things, they should pray and not lose heart. Next place I want you to go in scriptures, I want you to go over to 2 Corinthians chapter four. 2 Corinthians chapter four. And I want you to look down at verse 16. 2 Corinthians chapter four, verse 16.

Paul, in writing to the church in Corinth, who knew their share of affliction, and in the process of him writing this, Paul had been through a great deal of affliction, says this. I still hear pages, I'll give it one second. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16. Therefore we do not lose heart, grow weary. Though our outward man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day,

in spite of physical problems. Paul says, though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day. Therefore we cannot lose heart. Listen, I don't know what kind of physical suffering everyone's going through in this place right now, but I know that there is some. I know that there are people in this room and watching online right now

that have been given a diagnosis that you're never gonna be cured from. As a matter of fact, it's gonna take your life. And you are dealing with the fact that your body is decaying. And sometimes it makes you wanna lose heart because it's hard, because you don't see any results, because all of these things are weighing you down and you say, I'm dealing with this issue, but you cannot lose heart.

Why? Because even though the outward man is decaying, the inward man is being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16. Some of you are dealing with the cough that won't go away, right? I've heard the medley of coughs throughout the place. Like if we could all harmonize this a little bit, we could have a sweet cough medley running in this entire place.

I will start it off because I'm the best at it. But we're dealing with these things. You're like, am I ever gonna be better? Listen, your outward man may be decaying, but your inward man is being renewed day by day. And some of us, we just deal with chronic pain, right? Some of you in this room, you deal with pain that you don't tell anybody about, but it won't go away.

Because you deal with it every day of your life. And maybe you're even on some sort of a pain management regimen. And you're like, oh my gosh, my outward man is decaying. I can't do the things I used to do because I deal with this chronic pain. I just want you to know something. Your outward man is decaying, but your inward man is being renewed day by day. Because God is using all of the physical affliction

that you're going through to bring about something better in your life. So don't grow weary. Because even though physically you're dealing with things, even though physically you're dealing with the issues of your body, spiritually God is creating in you a masterpiece. And he's using everything that you're going through to create that masterpiece. So don't grow weary.

Next place I want you to go to is over to Galatians. Next book over to your right. Galatians chapter six, and look at verse nine. Galatians chapter six, verse nine. Paul, again, writing to the church in Galatia. He says this. Let us not lose heart in doing good. For in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. You see, we don't grow weary when we don't see results

because we realize that God has a perfect timing. That God has a perfect timing for when he's gonna produce the right results. We're told in the book of Ecclesiastes that he makes all things beautiful in their time. That he makes all things complete in their time. And I don't know what it is that you're waiting on. I don't know what results it is that you're looking for.

But don't stop doing good. Don't lose heart in the doing good because God will produce the results in the time that he sees fit. Because the results are not on us. The results are not our job. Our job is the faithfulness of what God has called for us to do. Because after all, it says one plants, another waters, but it is the spirit that brings the increase.

You keep faithfully doing what God has called for you to do day in and day out. Don't grow weary and let God produce the results. One more place I want you to go, over to Ephesians. I want you to look at Ephesians chapter three, verse 13. Basically like one page, maybe two to your right. Ephesians chapter three, verse 13. He says, therefore I ask you not to lose heart, grow weary,

at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. Paul says, please don't grow weary about the tribulations that you're seeing take place in my life and maybe even in yours, because they're producing something. They're producing good for you, glory for you, and what God wants in me. We can rest in the tribulations that we go through that maybe they're the physical issues of life and maybe it's just the difficulties of life that are making you want to grow weary.

The hard things that you're going through in life. He says, don't lose heart because of those, because they're actually for your glory and ultimately for my good and God is doing something amazing through it. See brothers and sisters, God doesn't waste anything in our lives. He uses it all for good, so don't grow weary in it. Now, hopefully those spoke to you, but if you are someone

here this morning and you're going, but man, I'm feeling like giving up. My marriage feels like it's about to end. My job isn't going the way that I want it to. I've tried to be a witness and that seems to go nowhere. I don't understand what I'm reading in scripture. All of my prayers hit the ceiling. I've been trying to give my kids the truth and they're walking the exact opposite direction

and quite frankly, I just want to give up. What do you do when you have grown weary? Because it says don't grow weary, but did you notice how many times that phrase was used? Just in the short amount that I took us through? It's almost as if this is a problem that we struggle with. It's almost as if our flesh has a tendency to grow weary in the midst of what we're doing, that we have a tendency to become faint-hearted,

that we have a tendency to become faint-hearted, that we have a tendency to become faint-hearted, that we have a tendency to become faint-hearted, or to lose heart. So what do you do when you find yourself in that place? What do you do when you're the person that just says, but I just want to give up. I think I'm done. Go with me one more place in scripture.

Go over to Psalm 61. Stay with me, don't grow weary, keep turning. Psalm 61, I want you to look at verses one through three. It's another Psalm of David. And in Psalm 61, one through three, the Psalmist David writes this. Hear my cry, oh God, and give heed to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I,

for you have been a refuge for me, a tower of strength against the enemy. Let me dwell in your tent forever. Let me take refuge in the shelter of your wings. Selah. So what do you do when you're the person who goes, I'm not doing what he says right now, I'm struggling with this, because I do want to give up. My heart has grown faint, my heart has grown weary,

and I'm just done. Well, you gotta go back to Jesus, because that's what he says to do. He says, hear my cry, oh God, and attend to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I cry to you when my heart, and I love the old King James on this, it says, when my heart is overwhelmed, then lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Because that's the way you describe what it looks like

when you want to give up, is your heart is overwhelmed. It's more than your heart can take in, it's more than you can take. And you find yourself going, I think I'm just done with this. I think I'm over it. I think I'm just gonna quit and go back and go fishing, just like Peter did. And what happened? Jesus shows up. And I'm here to tell you right now, the Psalmist David wrote this,

not because he'd heard it somewhere, but because he had experienced it himself. His heart was overwhelmed. He had grown faint, and he was crying out to the Lord. And he had learned that God had become his refuge, his strong tower, his shelter, a strength for him. And I'm here to tell you right now, I've been there, and I'm not reading this to you because I've heard about it somewhere.

I'm telling you about this because I've experienced it in my life. I know what it's like to hit a place where you go, I don't know if I can keep doing it. I don't know if I can keep rolling. I just wanna give up. I'm not seeing the results. And when I did, I had to run to Jesus. And he became for me a shelter from the enemy. And he became a strong tower for me.

He led me to that rock that is higher than I when my heart was overwhelmed. And that's what you have to do. You cannot avoid the fact that this life will wear you out. You cannot avoid the fact that this life will make you wanna quit, because that's the world that we live in. But you can run to the person who can continue to give you everything that you need to keep you going,

to keep you rolling, to keep you running, because he's always there for us. It doesn't make you a freak if you're tired in here this morning. It doesn't make you weird if you're worn out. And it doesn't make you a bad Christian if you feel like giving up. It means it's time to run back to Jesus. Because the hope that he gave you when you came to him, when he first gave you the gospel,

is the same hope that we have for every believer who is weary and needs the strength of their savior. Back to 2 Thessalonians. He says, but as for you, brethren, don't grow weary of doing good. He continues on with the exhortation in verse 14. He says, if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and don't associate with him so that he will be put to shame.

Yet don't regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Paul picks up the same thing he was talking about in previous verses about those that won't work hard. He says, if anybody won't obey the instruction that we give you in this letter, then you need to do two things. Number one, you need to take note of them. Number two, you're gonna do a lot. two, don't associate with them. Now, let's understand what this means. You should take

note of those who aren't willing to work, those who have become lazy, those who have made it their life's goal to depend on everyone else to take care of them, not because they can't work, but because they're not willing to work. He says, you should take note of them, and then you should disassociate from them. It does not mean you kick them out of the church. It means that your fellowship with them is now different, because there is some correction that needs to take place.

But I want you to notice what he says that we're to do. There's a purpose in the disassociation, and the purpose in the disassociation is that they would experience shame. Ryan, I didn't think we were supposed to have shame. Understand what he's saying here. The shame is one that leads you to repentance. See, there's two different types of sorrow in Scripture. There is sorrow that is

worldly, that leads you away from God, and there is sorrow that leads you to repentance. There's sorrow that is godly, that brings you to God. That's the sort of shame and sorrow that he wants to produce. The one that says, I miss the fellowship. I miss the way it used to be. I'm going to repent and return to the Lord. Repentance is always the goal. He goes on to explain it like

this in verse 15. Don't regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. And I love that he puts that qualifying phrase in there, because we in the church today are not good at dealing with sin in confrontation. Can we all agree with that? We usually do one of two things. Either one, we completely ignore it, and we just let that sin continue, because that's the tolerant

thing to do. Not the biblical thing to do, but it now reminds the tolerant thing to do. And so we just don't confront sin. But the other end of it is that when we do confront sin, we have now treated them like an enemy. And we don't talk to them. We don't look at them. And quite frankly, we're pretty hateful towards them. And that's not what we're supposed to do either. We have got

to understand as the church that we are a family. And family sometimes has to deal with family business, right? Sometimes you've got to deal with issues within the family. And within the family when there's problems, you've got to confront the problem. But you don't kick them out of the family. You love them like family. Because he says, we don't hate them like an

enemy. We admonish them like a brother. The goal of confrontation, the goal of any sort of discipline is always restoration. That's what it's always supposed to be. I had somebody come to me back in December. And they said, hey, I know somebody that has kind of an issue in their life. Should I confront this? And I said, well, explain the issue to me. And they explained it.

I said, yeah, that probably needs, you need to have a conversation, but you need to have the right kind of conversation. I said, well, how do you have the right conversation? I said, okay, you have to understand the purpose of any confrontation or any conversation. The goal is always restoration. Restoration. So your goal is not to prove that you're right and they're wrong. Your goal is not

even to expose their sin to anyone else. Your goal is to go to them and explain what the Bible says and how God wants them to be made right. I said, let me put it to you like this. Whatever the issue is, you need to go to them and say, this is what I see in your life. This is what the Bible says is going to happen if this continues. Let me help. Let me help. I want to walk you through this.

I want to walk with you through this. You see, that's not hating them like an enemy. That's admonishing them like a brother. I praise God for people in my life who have said, we see a problem. Let's walk through it together. We see a problem. Let's work through it together. And that's what's got to start taking place in churches. That's what's got to start taking place in the body of

Christ. Because all too often, somebody leaves a church and we treat them like they just left a gang, right? Like, no, you're dead to me now, right? And that's not the way it's supposed to be. That's not what God has intended. Our goal is always restoration. And that's what Paul tells them that they need to do. He said, you brethren, don't grow weary in doing good. Even if that means

sometimes you have to confront a sinning brother, but do it in the way, not because they're an enemy, but because you want to admonish them like a brother. And so he gives them this exhortation. But the second thing that Paul does is he throws up a little prayer for them. Paul's done this, three, if not four times now throughout this little epistle of 2 Thessalonians. And I

want you to look at what it says in verse 16. It says, Now, may the Lord of peace himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all. It's a short little prayer, but let's spend a few minutes looking at it, shall we? He starts off by saying, now, may the Lord of peace himself. I love the way he phrases that because he refers to God as the Lord of peace. The word Lord there

literally means he to whom it belongs. That's what that word means. And so he to whom peace belongs. Now, may the Lord of peace, the one who is the author and the giver of peace, may he do these things in your life. Well, I got to thinking a lot about peace. And sometimes we lack a lot of peace in our lives, right? Kind of like we grow weary really easily. It just seems like there's

turmoil always in the life of us. And so I want you to think about that. And I want you to think about the lives of people right now, partly because that lack of peace comes about because of the fall. And so I started thinking about what is peace supposed to be? So I looked up the word. The word peace means tranquility. Man, isn't that a great word? Doesn't that sound like the name of

a spa, right? You know what I think of when I think of the word tranquility? Follow me on this. Don't make fun of me. Well, you can later, but not right now. When I think of tranquility, I think of a gentle flowing stream on about a 78 degree day, by just beautiful green grass, maybe the occasional tree kind of hanging over. Nothing like what it's going to be like this next week, right? It's tranquil. It's peaceful.

And you know what it made me think of? It made me think of how God always gives us this peace in our lives. Because the same psalmist that wrote Psalm 61, David, also wrote Psalm 23. And you know what David said in Psalm 23? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. And he leads me beside still waters. The word still waters means quiet waters of rest.

That's what he does for us. So maybe that seems really not too far off of a biblical understanding of peace. Can we all agree? And now you really want it to be May, right? Don't we all? Anyway, that's neither here nor there. He says, And so as I thought about this word peace and tranquility, I thought, how is peace used throughout the Bible? Well, there's three ways that peace is used in Scripture, okay?

Number one, we have peace. We have peace with God. We have peace with God. And our peace with God comes through the gospel. It comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because you and I, before we came to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we were at war with God. You may not have realized you were at war with God, but you were at war with God. Because your sin caused you to be at war with God.

Because God hates sin. Sin is an affront to God, and we were happy to live in that sin that is an absolute affront to God. Therefore, we were at war with God. Only God made a peace treaty with us. We're told in Scripture that He made peace with us through the blood of His Son. And so God created this peace treaty. He said, He offered the peace treaty at the cross, and now the day that Jesus got a hold of your heart,

and you came to Him and said, You're right, my sin, I'm at war with you. And I don't want to be at war with you. I don't want to be at war with you anymore. He says, perfect, I have a peace treaty for you to sign. All you have to do is believe. And once you sign, the payment's been made in full. And you say, well, that sounds like a really good deal. And you finally surrender yourself to Jesus, which is signing the peace treaty.

And now you have peace with God. And you have this brand new relationship with God because you're at peace with Him now, right? The second thing, the way that peace is used in the New Testament especially, is that we can have the peace of God. Now, just because you're at peace with Him, doesn't mean that you experience the peace of God. Because the peace of God comes from not only resting in the truth of who I am in Christ,

but resting in the sovereignty of God, who is in control of every situation, and so I don't need to fret or worry about those things. This is where sometimes we struggle with the peace of God, right? Sometimes the peace of God is robbed from us because we live in the shame of our sin instead of the truth of the peace treaty that He made with us because of the blood of Jesus Christ. And so we don't have the peace of God because, our sin tells us that you're guilty instead of believing what Jesus said about the fact that you've been forgiven.

But the real issue that most of us deal with is that we see all of the craziness in our lives and all of the craziness in the world and we start worrying about it. And as we worry about it, our peace is robbed from us because we forget that the God that spoke the world into existence is the same God who loves you with all of His heart. And if He can speak the world into existence, then anything you're struggling with, anything you're dealing with, anything you're worrying about is really not too big of a deal because I'm pretty sure that God can handle it. So you can experience the peace of God as you begin to rest in the truth and as you begin to believe in a sovereign God.

And listen, I'm just going to say one more thing about this. If you're struggling to find that peace of God in your life right now, you know what the Bible says you need to do? You need to cast all of your anxieties upon Him. It says don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. And then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

And then there's a third word for peace. And that idea is that we can have peace with others. The idea is restored relationships. And restored relationships all take place through Jesus Christ. Most people don't have restored relationships because they don't first surrender themselves to Christ. You see, it's really hard to restore a relationship with someone else

if your relationship with God isn't correct. You see, usually a restored relationship involves confession and forgiveness. Repentance and forgiveness. Same with us as it was in our relationship with Jesus Christ. And unless you're willing to admit that you're wrong, then you can't be forgiven. And unless you're willing to offer forgiveness, then there can't be restoration.

And so we can have peace with others, but it still comes through Jesus Christ. That's why when Paul says this, he says, now may the Lord of peace Himself, because He is the author and He is the giver of peace, tranquility in our lives. He says, now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. Continually grant you peace in every circumstance.

Do you realize the continual nature of that statement? That it's not something that He just does once and then leaves you alone. It's a continual work. He says, I want Him to continually give you peace in every circumstance of your life. Why does Paul pray this for these Thessalonian believers? Because what are they struggling with right now? Peace. Why? Because they're living in the midst of persecution and affliction.

And he says, therefore, in the midst of all of your persecution, in the midst of all of your affliction, in the midst of all of your fear, in the fact that you have a tendency to grow weary in the doing of good, may the Lord of peace Himself give you all the peace that you need for every circumstance in your life. For every circumstance in your life. How does he do that? Notice what it says at the end of verse 16.

The Lord be with you all. The Lord be with you all. The continual presence of the Lord. Where does peace come from? It comes from the Lord. Therefore, if I need peace in my life, what do I need more of in my life? I need the Lord in my life. So what do I need to understand every day? That God is with me. That continual presence of the Lord. In reading in Exodus, it says,

this past couple of weeks has just been really cool, because you see that that was God's plan all along with His people, is that He would dwell with them. Matter of fact, I really took note this year going through Exodus of all of the times where it was like, because this is where I will meet with you, because this is where I will be with you, so that I can be in the midst of you. That's what God wants to be. He wants to be in the midst of who we are.

As a matter of fact, that word, with, literally means in the midst of. And that's what He wants to be with us. He wants to be in the midst of our lives, so if you need peace in your life, you need to pray for the understanding of God's presence in your life. Lord, be with them all. What did Jesus tell His disciples in Matthew chapter 28? Matthew chapter 28, He says,

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. How is He with us? John chapter 14. He says, I won't leave you orphans. I will come to you. And I will dwell in you and make my home in you through the person of the Holy Spirit. And that's how He's with us always. But you need to pray for that spiritual understanding of the presence of God. We lack that understanding in our lives today.

Maybe when you come here and you show up to church, hopefully, you sense the presence of God at work here. Because we're praising God together. God's people are together. We're studying God's word together. We're praying together. And you sense God's presence here. But then you leave, and sometimes we forget that God's presence goes with us everywhere that we go.

But I think if you really want to know the peace of God, you need to pray to know the presence of God. Because He is with you always. And so, Paul makes that little prayer for the Thessalonian people. And so now we close out in verse 17 with the benediction. He says, I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. And this is a distinguishing mark in every letter.

This is the way that I write the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. It's almost universally accepted that Paul dictated almost all of his letters. I think there's a handful of reasons behind that. I think first of all, many scholars believe that he had some sort of a vision issue that kept him from being able to write very well. And so somebody would write down for him

because it was such a strain for him to see in order to write. I personally think there's two other reasons why. I think that Paul was an incredibly passionate human being who didn't sit still very well. And I think that based on what I have watched in the book of Acts, that he just could never stay in one place for very long. And I don't think he sat still very well.

And sometimes to sit down and actually write would have been hard. I always want to know how many times whoever was writing was like, whoa, whoa, three lines back. Okay, this is what I had last. Go. Right? And I think that that's part of it. I think he just paced around a lot. Maybe it's because I'm a Nichols and that's what we do. But I think he paced around a lot

and just sort of dictated these things. But I think there's a third reason why. I don't think he wrote very well. I think he had really bad penmanship. What he wrote there, he goes, I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. It's a distinguishing mark. This is the way that I write. I deal with this because people look at my handwriting and they're like, how old are you again?

I'm like, I'm 44 and I've been writing this way since I was three and I don't plan on stopping now. This is the way that I write. That's not really why he dictated. But he does include this for a reason. Remember the entire reason he had to write this letter is because a false letter had come around saying it was from him. Saying that they were living. In the midst of the day of the Lord.

And so when Paul does this, he says, this is from me. This is how I write. This is my signature. You can know that this is the authentic, real deal. And then he closes out and he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Paul ends all of his letters like this. Because the one thing that we need in our lives is the grace of God. If you want to live

in the midst of persecution and affliction, you need a greater measure of the grace of God in your life. If you want to not grow weary in doing good, you need a greater measure of the grace of God in your life. If you want to keep yourself focused on the truth when there's all these crazy reports going around, you need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. As that great hymn writer wrote, His grace has brought me safe thus far.

And it's His grace that will lead me home. Amen? Let's all stand. Let's all bow with me. Father, we come before You. I just thank You so much for the time that we've had in Your Word this morning. Lord, I want to lift up every person in the room. Everyone that might be feeling weary in some way in their life. Lord, they're becoming faint-hearted. Some of them want to give up.

And Lord, I want to pray that Your Holy Spirit would minister to their hearts and that they would know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God, that they would just run to You with everything that they have in them. That they would run to You with all of the things knowing that You will lead them to the rock that is higher than them. Father, I want to lift up those who are in the midst of the work and they're just continuing on trucking.

And just pray that You would keep them strong in You. And Lord, I want to lift up the people in the room that just don't have any peace in their lives. Maybe they don't know the peace with God. Lord, if there's people here this morning that don't know You, Lord, would today be the day that they come to You and say, I don't want to be at war anymore. I want to follow You.

I want to believe the Gospel. Lord, if there's people here this morning that just cannot seem to experience that peace of God in their lives, that they would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that You are in control and that they can rest in You. And so Father, be with us as we go out from here. Moved by the power of Your Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Be blessed. I remember hearing I shared this at first service. It just came to my mind when Ryan was talking about not being weary and not seeing results. And I heard a quote something like this by that was by John Quincy Adams, one of our forefather early presidents, I think the sixth. And he said, we do our due diligence and then we leave the results to God. Amen.

You see, God's in control. Yes. Run to You. You're our strength. You're our shield. We not forget it. Sad feelings. That doesn't change who You are. It's not based on us and all the mess we are. It's based on what You've done for us in Christ Jesus. Amen. The Lord bless you all. Have a great week.