What a privilege and an honor and a blessing
to stand behind this sacred desk
And I am not worthy every time I stand behind
this
sacred desk I am
Nervous and
Cuz I know I'm I'm incapable and apart from
God's grace I
Would have never walked up here. So with that
May we pray?
Father what a privilege what an honor
What a humbling opportunity to be here with
your flock at Providence Baptist Church
And I am incapable of doing anything apart
from you
And I want to thank you for saving a wretch
like me
I
Am fallible and feeble and
Wretched
But it's only because of your grace
your mercy and
Your love and your finished work on the cross
through your son Lord Jesus
That any of us
Can hear your word
Can be doers of your word. So that's my prayer
Lord. I
Know
That I have not brought anything to your
salvation, but more sin
And anything more to your ministry, but by
weakness
We know your grace is sufficient
For your powers made perfect in weakness. So
have your way may your will be done
May this precious flock only hear from you
move Kyle a bear
Completely out of the way
Have your way
We love and praise you it's in Jesus name we
say
I'm blessed to be here and just so grateful
for pastor Philip and you know him allow with
me
I got story after story
I could take up all kind of times brother Phil
back there and with y'all y'all have been such
a a
Great part of my life and being on this
journey since I've been home matter of fact
the already brother Phil the
15th of this month I will have gone on to the
parole board
2021 it'll be four years. I walked out by the
grace of God from Angola the 17th of December
of 21
And so here I am in
2025 already. I mean it's been
Amazing and now at Salem Baptist Church, you
know, the Lord planted me at Riverside
And then they sent me and Chad Chauvin over to
Salem and you know, and then Brian Gunner, and
I'm
Brother Phil and then Philip, you know, it was
all in my life. So this this whole God bless
you this whole
precious reform
Doxons of grace flock that we have here has
just
Created the Lord created a fence of love
around me
And and here I stand and just just humble by
that. I just wanted to thank y'all this
morning's message
It's a hard one and and I'm grateful for that
because you know anytime the Lord puts puts a
scripture on my heart and
You know a topic
To you know to really share he he works on me
first. So this sermon is first and foremost
for me
I'll be coming from 2nd Thessalonians chapter
1
verses
1 through 12
but I'm only going to be dealing specifically
with verses 11 and 12 and
The Lord impressed upon my heart the title of
this message is the role of suffering in
sanctification at the at the jail. I've been
going through the order of salvation
And it's precious, you know, we deal with
election
We deal with the gospel call regeneration. We
deal with conversion
Justification and we leave one out between
Justification and what we're going to be
talking about this morning
sanctification, but we've been adopted
Adoption we bear the family resemblance and
then on from
Sanctification we persevere, you know, and I
believe mightily in the perseverance of the
saints
But this sanctification that leads into
perseverance and then finally our final stance
with when we see Jesus face-to-face is
Glorification but the reason I believe so much
in the perseverance of the of the saints is
because of the order of salvation
With God begins in us through his son. He
completes. So we go from election to glor
ification
and in between that there's suffering and
trials and tribulations and and so many
So many churches and I'm blessed that we're
not a part of that any of us that there is
much
Social and prosperity gospel that's being
preached
around the country
meaning that there's a
False and skewed theology being preached that
whenever a Christian goes through something
God owes you something
He owes you a blessing
He owes you to make you famous and we can fill
in the blanks, but this this is terribly ske
wed and false theology about
sanctification
Sanctification y'all is the process by which
God makes the Christian actually holy
Although positionally in Jesus we are perfect
We're sanctified set aside and given Jesus's
imputed righteousness
Practically, we're still raggedy
So in light of us all still being raggedy God
Has to use and rig and cause things in life by
his sovereign grace to sanctify us
To actually take us
from
spiritual
infancy to spiritual maturity and
Suffering is one of the primal ways in which
God utilizes to sanctify every Christian
Although the scriptures
All through them all through the scriptures
and I mean all through the scriptures you can
see
this concurring idea of suffering
with sanctification if
Sanctification I put it this way is
The process by which we become actually holy
Suffering is the superintendent and the fore
man of the construction project of
sanctification in other words
God has a
Hard hat just for hard hats amen
So with that let's open out Bibles y'all to 2
nd Thessalonians
Chapter 12
Chapter one, I'm sorry beginning at verse one
one through 12
But we're gonna be dealing specifically with
verses 11 and 12. I love this y'all
Paul so Venus and Timothy
To the church of the Thessalonians and in God
our father and I'm reading from the ESV and
the Lord Jesus Christ
Grace to you and
Peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus
Christ
We are always
To give thanks to God for you brothers as
Is right
Because your faith is growing abundantly and
the love of every one of you for one another
is
increasing
Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the
churches of God
For your steadfastness and faith in all your
persecutions and in the afflictions that you
are enduring
This is evidence of
The righteous judgment of God that you may be
considered worthy of the kingdom of God
But which you are also suffering
Since indeed God considers it just to repay
with affliction those who afflict you and
To grant relief to you who are afflicted as
well as
to us
When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels in flaming fire
inflicting vengeance on those who do not know
God and on those who do not obey the gospel of
our Lord Jesus
They will suffer the punishment of eternal
destruction
Away from the presence of the Lord and from
the glory of his might
When he comes on that day to be glorified in
his saints and to be marveled at among all who
have
believed because our testimony to you was
believed
To this end
We always pray for you
That our God may make you worthy of his
calling and
May fulfill every resolve
for good and
Every work of faith by his power
So that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glor
ified in you and
You in him
According to the grace of our God and the Lord
Jesus Christ
Here in this passage
We see in the second letter of the Thessalon
ians the church in Thessalonica was viewed as
the model church
however
It is unclear who is actually those
Who are the offenders or the persecutors? I'll
use that word who were harassing the church
Judaism come in we know that much and they was
teaching a
Law-based
salvation a work-based
salvation
But it is clear
According to the scriptures that they were
being persecuted afflicted and will under
severe suffering
And so one of the things about Paul is that he
gets worried about Christians when they
experienced their first
sufferings
He gets really very afraid and concerned and
the reason why he gets very afraid and
concerned is because he is wondering if they
Understand that this is part of the Christian
life
And so many don't today
We want to blame it on the devil and guess
what God is sovereign he can do what he wants
With any of us any of his children
But keep this in mind. I'm gonna say it now
This work of sanctification is not
Punitive meaning for punishment for purifying
That's what prison became for me and I'm gonna
talk a little bit about that. It was not pun
itive
It was purifying. Amen
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is
actually Acts chapter 14 verse 22 through many
tribulations
We must enter the kingdom of God if we can
just get a little bit of taste of that. It'll
change our lives
With these young buck believers here in Thess
alonica
And they're not getting let me tell you they
're they're not getting this that that God has
a wonderful plan for your life
And that everything is going to increase every
day these young buck believers aren't getting
that and
God's not gonna give you an increase
He's gonna bless you and he's gonna take it to
the next level. No
These fellas they knew that sometimes God
subtracts
That was a fundamental Bible doctrine for the
first century for mature Christians
That sometimes God is not gonna bless you by
giving you something you like
Sometimes he's gonna bless you by giving you
something
Most of the time that you don't like
His prayers I will pray as to him always
answered a yes and amen. Just not like how we
want him
But he knows best amen
And so Paul let me tell you this
He understood and what he's relaying to these
young buck believers
In Thessalonica is that life is gonna get fe
isty on you
You're gonna struggle
He's not bringing you to the next level but in
in all certainty he definitely is
Just not how we want it
That was the fundamental Bible doctrine of the
first century and so Paul is wondering whether
or not
They understand this principle
And prayfully by the time we get through this
this morning. This will help you
Traumatically
Through this fundamental doctrine that life
will get feisty, but God is in control and
with you through it all amen
So he's wondering if they understand this that
it it's normal for the Christian and this is
the place and this is the system and
This is the funneling and the piping and the
technique by which God utilizes to grow the
Christian
from spiritual infancy and
Bring us to spiritual maturity and guess what
y'all it is an equal opportunity
employer for every Christian
There is no affirmative action when it comes
to suffering there is no disinfectant that you
could use to anoint yourself out of suffering
It just doesn't work like that and I wish I
could tell you different
But praise God. I can't the word of God affir
ms this
However
God in using suffering
Write this down
He maximizes
What he wants to get out of us by pressing on
us what he's placed in us
So here in this precious passage we see Paul
Say in verse 11 to this end
To what end
Well, we've got to go back to verse 3
And we see that he is encouraging them based
on when Timothy had been dispatched in
first Thessalonians chapter 3 verses 1 through
10
And we can turn in look at that and he went
back
Paul went back there to
To check but Timothy went back to check on him
And so Paul checks on Timothy and encourages
them that the word is
Out about them and let's let's look at this
real quick
first Thessalonians chapter 3
One through ten and this will give us a really
good
Context of what's going on. He says
Therefore when we could not bear it no longer
We were willing to be left behind and Athens
alone and we sent Timothy our
Brother and God's co-worker
in the gospel of
Christ who established and exalt you in your
faith
But no one be moved by these afflictions
But you yourselves know
That we are destined for this
Mark that down in your underline it put
circles destined for this what yes
For you yourselves know that we were destined
for this
For when we were with you we kept telling you
beforehand that we were to suffer
reflection
Just as it has come to pass and just as you
know
In other words, it was a done deal
for this reason
When I could bear it no longer I sent
To learn about your faith for fear that
somehow the tempter had tempted you and our
labor would be in vain
Paul got afraid he got worried so he sent them
the troops
But now that Timothy has come to us from you
and has brought us the good news of
Your faith and love and reported that you
always remember us kindly and love to see us
as we long to see you
For this reason brothers in all our distress
and affliction we have been comforted about
you through your faith
for now we live if
You are standing fast in the Lord
But what thanksgiving can we return to God for
you for all the joy that we feel for your sake
before our God as
We pray more most earnestly night and day
That we may see you face-to-face and supply
What is lacking in
Your faith amen
So Paul encourages them about the word that
the word is out about them
They pass in the tests the believers in the
surrounding areas are being blown away
By the fact that in spite of the fact that the
Thessalonians are going through this hell
acious struggle. They are passing the test
These are young but believers y'all
And for this they're applauding
Faith is being encouraged
Depth is being developed in all the
surrounding areas and the other believers are
being encouraged who are hearing what is
happening
And that's what happens with us
Man when a lost and dying world
Sees one of us going through something
Without complaining and I say that
Just flat-footed because look I'm guilty
But the more I've learned and the more I've
gone through it
The Lord has silenced my mouth and I give him
all the glory look the lost and dying world
who's still under the wrath of God
may not
Understand
How this is happening, but they can see
something's different and guess what it makes
them want that
It makes them want the our calmness our
Genuine our our our understanding of scripture
that going through trials and tribulations is
all part of our walk
Is there anyone in the Bible that escaped any
of this?
We know, you know, we talked earlier, you know
all the disciples martyred except John
They all was imprisoned
Jesus
Come off a death row, but John
Was left around for a reason gospel three
letters and then revelation, but he was
bald on Pat Moss and
placed over there so
When someone comes to me with a with a really
shallow
Theology and been sitting under some really
false teaching of
Emotionalism I
Point them to that you you tell me
So what makes you think you're not going to go
through man? What good father's not going to
chastise
their sons and daughters
Again, this is not punitive the world is under
punishment. We're not the wrath has been
removed
We're in Christ in heavenly places. We have a
good father that is utilizing
Because we're in a fallen world but not of a
fallen world
Sometimes we do get off look there's a narrow
gate, but there's a narrow path and when we do
get off of the narrow path
Guess what happens?
It chastises us and
Causes us to get back on the narrow path and
and again, this is not about good behavior
This is not this is about a loving desire
Taste in Jesus through the scriptures and and
having a desire in our heart
We begin to hate the things we used to love
and now we love the things
We used to hate namely God and people and so
he uses these trials and tribulations
to keep us on the narrow path and
Rarily causing us to depend on him because we
can't do this. There's only one that kept the
law Jesus Christ and
When Paul says that it's Christ's love who
compelled him
This is taught so wrong in so many places it
wasn't Paul's love for Christ
It was Christ's love for Paul that compelled
him. Amen
It doesn't matter if you love Christ does he
love you because we know when he says in
Matthew
They were coming to him says Lord Lord. We've
done all these things and yeah, you my boy and
and and what did Jesus say?
Never knew you don't care what you've done. I
Never that's that's a very sobering
Remarked by Jesus all that day. I never knew
you
And we can look at the thief on the cross or
probably one of the greatest
Salvation and I don't want to go too far into
all that but look at the thief. He had one
minute
He's hurling insults the next minute
He's convicted and he sees Jesus and knew he
had a kingdom
One of the greatest salvation moments in all
the Bible the thief on the cross
So Paul is encouraging them he and and they're
being applauded their faith is being
encouraged
Listen these fellas didn't have Twitter like
we have today, and they didn't have Facebook
They just had some real good word of mouth and
the world was being encouraged because of
their faith going through these trials and
tribulations
So then Paul says in verse 5
That their faithfulness to the gospel heralds
the reality and
points to the righteousness of God
He is excited that they had not defected from
the faith
Which shows that they are being sustained only
by the living God and that God is righteous
And therefore God is using their suffering to
store up wrath for those who are persecuting
Those persecutors are under the wrath of God
and we can see this turn your Bible quickly to
1st John chapter 2
Look you can't lose your salvation
Let me just say that
Plainly and remind I know y'all know this, but
let me show you in Scripture. Look at 1st John
chapter 2 verse 19
They who's they?
These persecute the world
The fake Christians those who come into this
thing go through trials and tribulations and
run
That's why I believe mightily in the
perseverance of the saints
What God has began he will sustain us and he
will bring it to completion and glorify us
they went out from us
But they were what not of us why for if they
had been of us
They would have continued with us, but they
went out that it might be complained that they
all
All are not of us
Look, we we can say all the right things we
can do all the right things look about the
heart of stone if we're doing it for ourselves
We're not born again
This is about glorifying the Lord the heart of
stone removed the heart of flesh being impl
anted and given a new spirit
And he says I'm gonna cause you to walk in my
ordinances and obey my commands. He's equal 36
But this is precious and so verses 6 through
10 now Paul says that Jesus is going
To cause those who cause you suffering to
suffer in greater proportions
Than the suffering they are causing to you
We don't have to have vengeance
God has his children. So
No matter what you're going through this
morning if it's sickness health if it's not
your neighbor bothering you or whatever you
pray for
Even through your sickness Lord, you're using
me here to be able to comfort another with the
same comfort with which you've given me
Isn't that beautiful?
It's all for his glory Romans 828 the good the
bad and the ugly Paul
Asked to remove the throne with Jesus said no
He said for my grace is sufficient for my
power was made perfect in weakness and he
talks about what insults
inflections
Persecutions and trials. He gives a list. He
gives all the context that this
Sanctification is gonna come through. Yes,
although God says yes. He says no to the way
you want it or I want it
Let me put me in this
You know, I was blown up at age five
And I walked around woe is me nine. I was dead
in my trespasses. I didn't I didn't love God
I hated God I blamed everybody for the fire
and then when my dad died, I mean I went
through life
I mean, I started getting locked up at 17 and
from 17 to 34
I had already accumulated and I'm not proud of
this y'all. This is not bragging
This is pathetic, but God used every one of my
98 arrests
For his glory and praise God
I've been able to to meet people the very
people that have hurt and horn and the canker
worm has destroyed because of me
I caused it God has used that for me to be
able to be a minister of reconciliation to my
victims
To family members and individuals that I've
heard and then of course that was I did nine
years from
83 to 99 and then from 99 to 21
I did 22 and a half so 31 years of my life is
behind bars, but the Lord used though from 99
all the way to
221
Purifying me because what he awakened my heart
removing the heart of stone gave me a heart of
flesh
He saved me in the backseat of a police car
and I've never been the same has it been
perfect
Look, I've wobbled sometimes and he buses me
up, but guess what I'm trying to I'm following
my father
My father's leading me and that's the
encouragement this morning no matter what you
're going through. He's got a purpose in it.
Amen
So he says if you think your suffering is
something
wait to see
The one suffering that's put in the pressure
on you
That's what he's saying right here to these Th
essalonians, and he's saying to you this
morning Providence Baptist Church
No matter what you want through whoever is
coming up on you and
bothering you or
Hurting you
He says I got you back
Remember all sin is against God. We hurt
people
That's why it's so important
That we love from God's point of view amen
So this suffering
He tells the Thessalonians of yours is a light
affliction
Because these guys being unbelievers can't
satisfy the wrath of God
The only way that the wrath of God is
satisfied is either in this life on the cross
Jesus Christ the finished work or the unbelie
ver has to spend in eternity in hell God's
wrath will be satisfied
either for the believer the elect on the cross
or the unbeliever in
Hell that's sobering
They can't satisfy it takes an eternity for
God's wrath to be satisfied
So they will spend in eternity in hell and he
will repay them
But what they have done to you and then he
goes on to what I love look at verse 11
To this end we always pray for you
I did a study one time on Paul's prayers and
it's fun and I encourage y'all to do this
Paul's prayers are legendary and
What he prays for believers
All of his prayers from Corinthians all the
way to by Lehman through the pastorially ep
istles the letters blows my mind
How he prays they are?
convicting
They have great depth
They are extremely Godward and they are very
distinct
almost all of Paul's prayers contains
Thanksgiving the God for some aspect of
The Christian fruit that they are bearing and
we can see that crystal clear in first Thess
alonians chapter 5
Look at the last couple of verses 23 and 24
he says
Now may the God of peace himself
Sanctify you completely and
May your whole spirit and soul and body be
kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ
Verse 24 he says he he who calls you is
faithful and he will
surely
Do it amen?
That is precious. So in light of his prayers
Paul gets into the hard part of the prayer
And I'm just gonna walk the text this morning.
We're not gonna leave the Bible. No points to
this end
We always pray for you
That our God
May make you worthy
Of his calling
We're back in chapter 1
finishing up verse 11
I've been trying to wonder I
Mean really wonder what does it look like for
God to make someone worthy of that call?
What's beautiful about him making
Them us me you worthy is that they are not
making themselves worthy
So the worthiness
That happens
During the suffering is an act of God not an
act of man
Even though it is an act of God through man
because of
Conservation our will being taken out of bond
age and joining God's will through regeneration
it's God at work in us and
I mentioned it, but let's turn there. Let's go
to Romans chapter 8 and we're gonna pick up in
in verse
28 and I just want to read through 31 and
This is so beautiful
And this way y'all can go back and look over
this
Beginning at verse 28 look what look at Paul
says and we know
That for those who love God all things
Work together for good the good the bad and
the ugly
But those who are called according to his
purpose
For those whom he foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed
To the image of his son
Why in order that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers and
Those whom he predestined he also called and
those whom he called
He also justified and those whom he justified
He also
glorified
Well, what shall we say there about these
things?
If God is for us
Who could be against us?
Amen, wasn't that precious I?
Went ahead and read 31 so
He is counting them worthy of the calling with
which they were called the act of worthiness
in this passage is that the Christian
Faithfully supports the acts of God and God
makes the Christian worthy through the gospel
Not something that we obtain as a moralistic
act of our volition
Like so many teach falsely. That's a false
gospel
So the idea here is that God would meet
Them in their trial in such a way that he
causes the worthiness of their calling
To be matched by how they are handling the
suffering. It's beautiful y'all
in other words, I
Can put it this way show God by joining God in
your suffering
Show him that he didn't save you for nothing
So this idea that the Christian gets to become
a Christian and has no fruit and doesn't live
out anything
It's not the purpose. That's not the purpose
of salvation. You will know them by their root
But God has saved us with a particular purpose
in mind and because
He saved us with these particular purposes in
mind
He is going to get his glory no matter what
because he is most
Passionate about his glory and we can see that
quickly in verse
Let's read 90 Psalm 96 and we'll look at one
through six and you don't have to turn now. I
'm just gonna read it
He says oh sing to the Lord a new song
Sing to the Lord all the earth
Sing to the Lord bless his name
Tell of his salvation from day to day
Declare his glory among the nations his
marvelous works among all the peoples
But great is the Lord and greatly to be
praised
He is to be feared above all God's little G
For all the little G gods of the peoples are
worthless idols
But the Lord made the heavens
Lender and majesty or before him strength and
beauty are in his sanctuary
That's the walk of the Christian to glorify
our great God amen
That is precious and therefore
Paul is asking that they would be made worthy
of their calling
So that the sotoreological means their
salvation
Goal the end goal of our salvation
Of this is God's calling to the salvation
This salvation his salvation in Jesus Christ
So now what is happening for the Christian is
the Christian is graced by being able to join
God
through his drawing
miraculous breath
For the Christian
Being graced and being able to join God
without a choice because of the suffering that
will come yes
If we had a choice to walk away from this
thing, what kind of God is he that would mean
that God's drawing power
Is weaker than our wills
Think about that. Listen when God calls you
will come
It is impossible for you not to come
Believe that that's the word people say well,
I had to grab a rope. You don't even know you
need to rope
You don't know you need God. It's impossible
this Armenian
Thought process that is a false doctrine that
I'm at the bottom of the sea
But he drops a rope that you're stinking to
how dead does it take to be dead?
We're not only dead. We're stinking dead
And that's the beauty of being alive the
Christ too
Because we're dead to this world. So how can
you offend a dead man?
Amen, we're stinking dead not only just dead
You may say what do you mean? I don't have a
choice
Glad you asked listen
You are always in three places in your
Christian life. You're either going into a
trial
You're in one or you're coming out of one
Three phases that you go through but the issue
is how the worthiness of God
Is being seen as you are going through that
particular trial
So the prayer of course anticipates
The alleviation of their conduct in light of
God's calling on their life
God did not choose to take them out of the
trial. He didn't
And sometimes he doesn't choose to take us out
of it either
That's their calling on their life Paul did
not pray for the trial to be removed nowhere
in the scripture
Paul did not pray Lord deliver them in the
name of Jesus
God bring them out right now in the mighty
name of Jesus
Paul didn't say that anywhere in this text
No, he didn't tell them that because he knew
the secret of this thing
He said count them worthy of the calling with
which they've been called and make them stay
in the trial
David said something interesting and Psalm 4 1
Answer me when I call
Oh God of my righteousness
This is beautiful. Y'all you have given me
relief
When I was in distress
Ah
Rahab in the Hebrew
It's like have an elbow room in the midst of a
tight crowd
This is interesting because
That's a key preposition in in other words
while I was in distress in other words
God gave David a sense of deliverance even
though he did not take them take him out of
the distress
It was like that for me in angola going
through a lot
I mean it was tight spots trying to finish my
seminary work
Elbow room no matter what was going on around
me and the Lord created that space the Lord
gave me that freedom
the Lord gave me that peace
And it's precious y'all
God gave David a sense of deliverance in the
midst of the distress. He didn't take him out
But he gives us
Freedom in the midst of the trial and the word
for distress means a very narrow tight place
Relief rahab
It's where we find relief to have momentary or
sustained alleviation from trouble or anxiety
anxiety anybody anxious
It's like I could describe it best this way.
It's like taking attention
When you release an arrow with a bow
You gotta you gotta pull back you're about to
fire it and you just you relieve the tension
off of a bow an extension of the meaning
also means to broaden my place
As to have more room to move around
God gives us elbow room and actually widens
the territory of our trials and tribulations
in other words
David is feeling pressed like Paul says
Afflicted and afflicted in every way which
means to be surrounded by crowds, but david
prays
You have given me relief within my distress
even though god chooses y'all many times
Not to take us out of the trial. He will give
us a sense of deliverance without being
delivered from the sphere of our suffering
And in that space guess what happens
And we miss it so many times when we skip this
or at least try to skip it
We're really not skipping it. Guess what we're
doing. We're being disobedient
That's where the joy happens
The joy happens when you can say okay god
You gave me some breathing room. This feels
real good
I felt like I was in a straight jacket for a
minute
But you loosened the straight jacket of my
circumstance for a breather even though i'm
still in it
The fire is still hot. You're you've been so
loving to me and so gracious
So I cannot be so focused on my circumstances,
but we will be able to enjoy you
My only enjoyment and have perspective while i
'm in the trial
Can't teach this he's got to break us and
humble us and continue to cause us to decrease
We've read it this morning. James 1 2
Count it all joy
My brothers and sisters
When you meet trials of various kinds
Some of you are in situations right now where
you are struggling with perspectives
You have suffered many times and god has done
many things in you
But I don't know about what it is about
suffering no many how many times you and I go
through a difficult
time in the first quarter of the suffering
We tend to forget what the reason behind
everything is and we begin to complain like
god here we go again
But god is beginning y'all to teach me that
joy should not be situational
I begin to learn that a consistent steadfast
ness on jesus
Through his word is the key in the midst of
adversity
Listen what paul says in collosions 124
Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake
And in my flesh I am filling up
What is lacking
in christ afflictions
for the sake
Of the body that is in the church wouldn't the
world could have been lacking
Surely that propitiation wrath removed
But guess what we get to do now christ took
care of the wrath god the father
In in in god the son
Place the wrath his wrath his wrath
Propitiation just a 50 cents theological word.
It means wrath satisfied wrath removed. It's
been removed
So that's that's taking care of
What we've been blessed with is now the
propagation of the message
Don't tell it to the world
Go share it go live it. Don't be just hear us
but be
doers
And I know we're not masochists beat us down.
We just bought luther, you know
We don't beat ourselves. We allow god to prov
identially
Assign times in our lives that he sees
And that we will go through and he will
ultimately utilize
Everything for his glory
Some days you may feel like this block feeling
it's normal
But the question is will we move and pursue
the joy that god gives us
Because god is near to the broken heart
God loves to scoot up next to those who are
crushed in spirit. He does
been sustaining this knucklehead now for 60
years and I couldn't see it for the first 34
He loves to scoot up he loves to hang out with
those who are having hard times
He loves it because he knows you don't have
anything to prove. I'm broken. I'm at rock
bottom. That's why
I always remind
Those who are with me, you know through this
this journey, you know, especially with re
entry and
I love to help people now, but I can't make
anyone do anything
Show up and I point them to the only one I
make suggestions
Until an individual hits rock bottom. You can
't help
And guess what people have different rock
bottom
At rock bottom I have nothing to prove and the
only place to look is up there
So when you're going through a good time
everything's good, ain't it?
Feeling good everything's good and guess what
we tend to do
I don't need you. I everything's we forget
about him. No, we why it's so important to
read the word every day
spend time and pray a journal
But then when the struggle happens, you know,
your swag is off that day
God doesn't want for us to miss out on his
Consistency of knowing that he is with us. He
is consistently with us
nor to miss out on the unmovable aspect or
part
Of the fruit of the spirit called joy
This is what he's trying to work in us
And trying to get others to see it through us
His joy
I've been blown away as I continually
developed with James at his epistle. We read
it this morning was perfect
That by the testing
Of your faith it produces endurance and let
endurance have its perfect work in you James 1
3
This is a time when joy counts y'all
Joy is great to have all the time. But the
question is does that joy impact us still
While we are going through the difficulties of
our circumstances
So paul says that god may make you worthy
Of his calling then he begins chopping up some
of the ways
In which the worthiness
Is made seen
And the first way is beautiful y'all
It's two maybe three ways in this passage if I
could spend the rest of our time
Going through this
He says and may fulfill every resolve
for good
Fulfill every resolve for good. Here is the
anatomy of how god actually
Keeps us joyous
Now this good
That he gives us may not be good from our
perspective
But good from his perspective
And so the idea to fulfill here means to
complete
To finish something already initiated
The idea appeals to the fact
That they have been purified
Through god using the trials that clarify and
purify his people in such a way that their
passions
That their affections and that their desires
are unified to his
This is huge y'all
In other words god has passions
And god has desires
But most of us want god to be aligned with our
desire
But true joy doesn't come from trying to think
that we can align god with our desires
Because it will always lead to deep depression
and a lack of application of true joy
But if you approach a trial y'all
And say god
My prayer
Is not to align you with my will
But i want to be aligned with your will
Delight yourself in the lord and he will give
you the desires
Of your heart
That's the context of psalm 37 verse 4
well
If you delight yourself in him then your
desires are transformed through the light
In him and therefore when you pray you pray
back to him stuff he already
Is answering because it came from him in the
first place
Why because jesus said if you abide in me and
my words abide in you
Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for
you. John 15 7
There's another one that's twisted by 99 of
the churches around here a lot of people quote
this scripture completely out of context
But when you abide in him and his word proper
context and theology
It's not something that you would normally ask
Listen
When god allows these struggles
He causes us to go through these struggles
These struggles for your joy and for his joy
and enjoying this whole circumstance of
suffering
He's fulfilling every good resolve. That's
based on his understanding of it and not ours
And so therefore we begin to get aligned with
his will and begin to develop god-centered
affections
And so therefore it is a necessity
The construction worker the super intended
called suffering must come from the bottom of
his heart
The construction worker the super intended
called suffering must come in order that the
resolve of god
And the passion of god may be worked in us
during a time that is not unique to us
But very very unique to him
So paul says every work of faith to be done
By his power that's in the latter part of
verse 11
Every work of faith to be done by his power
Let me put that
All together right here. Let's fulfill. He
says every resolve for good
And every work of faith by his power now
before we go back into
This let's go back to that point where god
develops
His resolve many of us need to recognize that
the beauty of god's resolve in us is necessary
for us
So many of us you are here and you are hurting
you're going through a particular time of pain
where you are saying god
I cannot see my resolve
I cannot see your resolve
I cannot see any resolve. I'm frustrated with
you right now
What luther said I hate him sometimes
I can't see it
Some of you may not even admit that right but
right behind the heart of what you are saying
You're saying the right theology
But your heart isn't aligned with proper
theology that god wants to enter your heart
very practically
So god in using suffering to align you with
him
practically
So it just won't be some esoteric information
That's why it says in malachi chapter 3 1
through 4 that the messiah
Is going to come and refine us as
silver
Then he goes further
Every good work of faith by his power. This is
powerful here y'all
This here is interesting because right here in
this text
Paul is talking about the works that are done
while we are going through the difficulties
while god is working the active joint
Into our lives
I love this
It's interesting here
That the work
Is produced by faith
In other words faith based works
Jesus being the object and producer of our
faith
But you have faith in the object of your faith
Jesus christ in other words when he imputes
himself to us. It's his faith not ours
It's the faith of jesus
That's the beauty of it because our faith is t
ainted
God causes these faith faith works to be
empowered in every act prompted by him
Faith is a gift
What it says in Ephesians
Chapter 2 and 8 but what he says
But by grace you have been saved
through faith
And this is not your own doing
It is a gift of god
I'm gonna go ahead and read nine not a result
of
works
Why so that no one may boast
Let me read 10. This is beautiful y'all anyone
familiar with workmanship here
But we are his workmanship homea
Is the greek word
Where we get our english word poem
Guess what these trials and tribulations and
Everything in him that he's putting us through
he's writing out our lives
We are his workmanship. Let me finish this
watching which god prepared beforehand
That we should walk in them
Pomea god is writing out our life as his poem
to a lost and dying world. Isn't that precious
?
Pomea when christians go through difficult
times
God allows a special attention to be brought
to them
So that they might be trophies of his grace
and examples and encouragements
Like paul said to all the saints of god
Oh, how precious that is. So we thank god for
these works of faith faith
That we do do works, but god somehow in the
press
and difficulty
Of our circumstances allows these works
To count more than normal works. Why because
these works were done under the pressure
cooker
These weren't done when the sun was shining
This was done
When the sun
Was not shining
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with
gold silver precious stones wood hay straw
Each one's work
Will become manifest for the day
Will disclose it
Because it will be revealed by fire and the
fire will test what sort of work each one has
done
If the work that anyone has built on the
foundation survives
He will receive a reward. That's paul first
carinthians chapter three versus 12 through 14
right that day
Do you go back and look at it? Then he goes
into a very powerful section
Of this Thessalonian text and gives the
purpose of it all why
Why do we go through all of this? Yes, it's
for the purifying of our faith
It's for the world to see his glory. Well,
they see they see the little light going
through and prayfully
It will awake and he'll use that as the
drawing
Come come he holds back his wrath with one
hand
And he's there's coming a time guess what when
he's not going to hold back his wrath
Come come. He's constantly begging for
everyone to come
We know everyone's not coming but those who
have ears here
But guess what when this comes down and this
hand with with tracks it's over
Great white throne judgment and then here's
the beam of seed
In first Corinthians chapter three 12 through
14 is where the christian goes for rewards
So paul now in thessalonians he goes to this
powerful section
And gives the purpose of this all
We saw that
to this end
paul says we always pray for you and then paul
says
That he may make us worthy of the calling god
does the making of the christian worthy
It is an act of god on the life and in the
life of the believer
To count them worthy of the calling with which
he has called them and to fulfill every result
Of good that means good that god sees as good
And then he goes from there and says and may
fulfill
Every resolve for good and every work of faith
by his power
And then he goes and gives a purpose clause
here. He says
So that the name of our lord jesus may be glor
ified in you
That is so
Powerful to me y'all
He says the purpose of the trial
Thessalonians the purpose of the trial
Providence baptist church and I don't want to
get off focus here
I don't want your joy to be rigged to go off
into a whole another direction
The purpose of this trial is that the lord j
esus may be glorified in you
Now this glorified here is interesting
It's it's in a in the way that it's
I'm just gonna I'm a I'm a explain this to the
best of me being flat footed here with the
with the contacts
And with the greek
It's interesting in the way that it's being
used here. It's in a pro it's called a
prolactic arous
I know that ain't all and it's important, but
it's in other words
This is beautiful y'all
It's a it's in the past tense
But it's talking about something that
hasn't happened
Or maybe is happening
So it's kind of like no it's a done deal
So to speak that if god does this it's a done
deal and he is doing it
That he will be glorified no matter what I don
't look no
It's not on us to go he's gonna receive the
glory no matter how we act in other words
Past present and future
It's beautiful that if god does this it is a
done deal and that he will be glorified
But look at the beauty of this guess where
this glorification comes. It's in the it's in
the place
Of glorification. It's in the same two
We're glorified in him
We get glorification in him and a lost and
dying world sees something different
They may not be able to explain it, but guess
what it points to him and that's the beauty of
all it is
So when the christian is glorified and
honoring god, we are reflecting the fact that
god has given us a divine endorsement deal
I'll put it that way. You talk about college
football and all that we get a divine endorse
ment deal
Amen
Now we don't wear gear on the outside
But we wear gear on the inside
Because paul says in second carithians 4 10
here it is always carrying in the body the
death of jesus
So that the life of jesus may also be
manifested in our bodies
So paul says the goal of this is that the name
of our lord jesus may be glorified in you
Everything that god wants to do he doesn't do
it from the outside in he does it from the
inside out always
That the name
Of our lord jesus may be glorified in you and
you in him. It's beautiful
paul is showing that when the christians
suffer
It is one of the top ways that jesus christ's
name gets honored through them
This of course is the id card of sorts as the
believer most identifies with the person of
christ
Especially in works of faith during suffering
the stress
Is not on the glorification of the saved but
on the glorification of the savior in the
saved
john stott theologian
so i hope
as believers
As men and women who are called to display the
glory of christ during difficult times
Doing many difficulties as laymen as ministers
pastors
Is to be trophies of what it looks like to be
consistent
in the midst
Of adversity that enjoyment of god isn't
flighty because some hell broke loose
But there is an ability
To have the static unshakable joy
While you are still yet in the circumstances
and not necessarily asking for deliverance
from it
But having the theological depth
To say god
Work it in me
And get all you want out of me
olive press me
Geth simony me
All that you want
Will you get it out
Of my life
Listen flock
God is concerned about one thing and one thing
only in your lives is that we look like jesus
He doesn't care about anything else
He is spit shining each one of us
for himself
To make us practically into his image
And he will do this at any cost so get over
yourselves
But he doesn't want it to cost our joy. It's
not to make us better, but to make us better
in him
He wants it to increase
Our joy
Live for the triune audience of one
Pray for wisdom
For skillful visible living
That glorifies god
By drawing a lost and dying world
To him god bless y'all love y'all