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November 10 - 1 Thessalonians 2 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello friends, it's Sean here and it is a new week.
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  It is the 10th of November. Great to have your company.
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  This week we are going to read through the rest of the book of
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  First Thessalonians all the way through to the end.
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  And in this book, as you'd remember from last week, we are
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  going to hear the happy trio, Paul, Silas, and Timothy, who
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  will be writing to this new church who are struggling to
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  work out how do we remain true to our faith, this new faith,
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  when everyone around us is telling us that we are numpties
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  for doing what we're doing and trying to convince us to turn
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  our backs on Jesus and go back to all the other gods that
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  everyone else has been happily worshipping.
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  And thank you everyone for your lovely feedback about getting
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  Yvonne involved on Fridays. She was tickled pink to hear
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  your feedback, so that was wonderful.
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  So of course, by the end of the week we will dive back into
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  Proverbs, and I will be joined by the lovely and very popular
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  Yvonne who will read and reflect with me.
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  But that is Friday, and today is Monday, and we have got some
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  wonderful New Testament epistles to get to read.
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  So let's do that today, shall we?
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  Let us read together First Thessalonians chapter 2.
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  You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our
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  visit to you was not a failure. You know how badly we had been
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  treated at Philippi just before we came to you, and how much we
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  suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage
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  to declare His good news to you boldly in spite of great
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  opposition. So you can see, we are not
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  preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery, for
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  we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the
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  good news. Our purpose is to please God,
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  not people. He alone examines the motives of
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  our hearts. Never once did we try to win you
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  with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we
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  were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money.
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  As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or
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  anyone else. As apostles of Christ, we
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  certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead
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  we were like children among you, or we were like a mother feeding
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  and caring for her own children. We loved you so much that we
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  shared with you not only God's good news, but our own lives
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  too. Don't you remember, dear
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  brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you night and
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  day? We toiled to earn a living so
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  that we would not be a burden to any of you.
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  As we preach God's good news to you.
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  You yourselves are our witnesses, and so is God that we
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  are devout and honest and faultless toward all of you
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  believers. And you know that we treated
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  each of you as a father treats his own children.
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  We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your
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  lives in a way that God would consider worthy, for he called
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  you to share in his Kingdom and glory.
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  Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you
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  received His message from us, you didn't think of our words as
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  mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the
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  very word of God, which of course it is.
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  And this word continues to work in you who believe.
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  And then, dear brothers and sisters, you suffered
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  persecution from your own countrymen.
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  In this way he imitated the believers in God's churches in
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  Judea, who, because of their belief in Christ Jesus, suffered
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  from their own people, the Jews. For some of the Jews killed the
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  prophets, and some even killed the Lord Jesus.
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  But they have persecuted us too. They failed to please God and
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  work against all humanity as they try to keep us from
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  preaching the good news of salvation to the Gentiles.
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  By doing this, they continue to pile up their sins, but the
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  anger of God has caught up with them at last.
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  Dear brothers and sisters, after we were separated from you for a
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  little while, though our hearts never left you, we tried very
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  hard to come back because of our intense longing to see you
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  again. We wanted very much to come to
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  you and I Paul tried again and again, but Satan prevented us.
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  After all, what gives us hope and joy and what will be our
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  proud reward and crown as we stand before our Lord Jesus when
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  he returns? It is you.
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  Yes, you are our pride and joy. Jesus, thank you for this model
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  of ministry by these three ministers of your church that
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  they didn't walk around just giving you lip service, just
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  sharing the good news and then moving on.
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  But they stayed and they loved and they gave their lives in
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  relationship and community. I'll let that be the model to
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  us, that when we bring you and the good news that you have for
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  us to our friends and our families and our communities,
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  that it's partly by what we say, but so much more by the way that
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  we live and love and are present and generous and allow the
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  fruits of your Spirit to grow in US and change the way that we
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  are. So, Holy Spirit, come transform
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  us and give us boldness to not only speak about you, but to
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  live in a way that points to you.
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  But to do that, we need your help.
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  So please, Lord Jesus, continue your work of transformation in
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  us. We love you, and we want to see
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  your Kingdom come here just as it is in heaven.
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  And we pray all of this in your transformative name, Amen.