Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – Affirming the Afflicted, Part 1
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: We don't like pressure, but pressure has a way of
- 0:11Speaker 1: revealing what we're truly made of. In fact, the Bible
- 0:14Speaker 1: teaches that hardship is like fertile soil, the very place
- 0:17Speaker 1: where faith takes root and grows strong. For the Church
- 0:21Speaker 1: in Thessalonika, the pressure was intense. They were persecuted, afflicted,
- 0:26Speaker 1: and pushed to the margins. Yet when Paul wrote to them,
- 0:29Speaker 1: he wasn't sympathetic. He was proud. He boasted about their faith.
- 0:34Speaker 1: Today on Inside for a Living, Chucks Wendall begins a
- 0:37Speaker 1: new study in Second Thessalonians called Steadfast Christianity, and he
- 0:41Speaker 1: opens with a message titled Affirming the Afflicted.
- 0:52Speaker 2: In his book No Greater Power, Richard C. Halverson, former
- 0:57Speaker 2: Chapmain of the United States Senate, wrote this, Crush marbles
- 1:01Speaker 2: and you get fragmentation, disintegration, hard, sharp pieces. You can
- 1:08Speaker 2: get hurt if you're not careful. But crush grapes and
- 1:13Speaker 2: you get fragrant, refreshing wine. Some people relate like marbles.
- 1:20Speaker 2: The fear of vulnerability hardens them. They protect themselves, allow
- 1:26Speaker 2: no one to penetrate. Being vulnerable is high risk, and
- 1:31Speaker 2: they want low risk. They bump up against others in
- 1:36Speaker 2: ricochet around, never enjoying a vital relationship. In brittle lovelessness.
- 1:44Speaker 2: They shatter when crushed and hurt others. Some people relate
- 1:50Speaker 2: like grapes, he continues. They yield to pressure. They accept
- 1:56Speaker 2: their weakness as essential to intimacy. They give love, knowing
- 2:02Speaker 2: love is always vulnerable, knowing love is the heart and
- 2:06Speaker 2: soul of our faith. When Christ they bring blessing, fragrant,
- 2:14Speaker 2: redemptive blessing. Aren't those great words? In the book of
- 2:19Speaker 2: Second Thessalonians, Paul addressed the church at Thessalonika like a
- 2:25Speaker 2: cluster of grapes. This body of believers was caught in
- 2:29Speaker 2: the wine press of persecution and affliction. Yet as these
- 2:35Speaker 2: Christians yielded to God, they began to produce a fine
- 2:39Speaker 2: wine full of faith, fragrant with love, with a sweet
- 2:45Speaker 2: aroma that spread to all the churches in Asia Minor.
- 2:49Speaker 2: In this letter, Paul did not focus on the wine
- 2:53Speaker 2: press as much as he did the wine, the faith, love,
- 2:58Speaker 2: and perseverance created as byproducts of pressure. We're reading from
- 3:05Speaker 2: our father's word in Second Thessalonians, Chapter one. In the
- 3:11Speaker 2: New Testament, Second Thessalonians one, I'd like you to do
- 3:14Speaker 2: something a little different than we normally have. You do
- 3:18Speaker 2: have a pen or pencil handy to mark three phrases
- 3:22Speaker 2: I want to point out to you when I finished
- 3:25Speaker 2: with the reading Paul and Sylvanus and Timothy to the
- 3:29Speaker 2: Church of the Thessalonians. In God, our Father and the Lord
- 3:34Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, Grace to you and peace from God the
- 3:39Speaker 2: Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to
- 3:44Speaker 2: give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting,
- 3:50Speaker 2: because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of
- 3:55Speaker 2: each one of you all toward one another grows ever greater.
- 4:01Speaker 2: Therefore we ourselves speak proudly of you among the Churches
- 4:06Speaker 2: of God, for your perseverance and faith in the midst
- 4:10Speaker 2: of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. This
- 4:17Speaker 2: is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment, so that
- 4:22Speaker 2: you may be considered worthy of the Kingdom of God,
- 4:27Speaker 2: for which indeed you are suffering. For after all, it
- 4:31Speaker 2: is only just for God to repay with affliction those
- 4:35Speaker 2: who afflict you, and to give relief to you who
- 4:40Speaker 2: are afflicted, and to us as well. When the Lord
- 4:44Speaker 2: Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels
- 4:48Speaker 2: in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do
- 4:53Speaker 2: not know God and to those who do not obey
- 4:57Speaker 2: the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay
- 5:02Speaker 2: the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of
- 5:07Speaker 2: the Lord and from the glory of His power when
- 5:11Speaker 2: he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day,
- 5:16Speaker 2: and to be marveled at among all who have believed.
- 5:21Speaker 2: For our testimony to you was believed to this end.
- 5:25Speaker 2: Also we pray for you always that Our God may
- 5:28Speaker 2: count you worthy of your calling and fulfill every desire
- 5:34Speaker 2: for goodness and the work of faith with power, in
- 5:40Speaker 2: order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be
- 5:43Speaker 2: glorified in you and you in Him, according to the
- 5:48Speaker 2: grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Did
- 5:55Speaker 2: you observe as we read the three statements of strong
- 6:00Speaker 2: affirmation mark them verse three as an expression of gratitude
- 6:07Speaker 2: to God for each He said, we always give thanks
- 6:12Speaker 2: to God for you. And then in strong boasting and
- 6:17Speaker 2: affirmation verse four, he added, we speak proudly of you,
- 6:24Speaker 2: mark that we give thanks for you. We speak proudly
- 6:29Speaker 2: of you, and verse eleven. We pray for you in
- 6:36Speaker 2: a big family like ours, and in a larger family
- 6:40Speaker 2: that reaches around the world. So important to remember words
- 6:45Speaker 2: of affirmation. They sort of tie us together and remind
- 6:50Speaker 2: us we're not alone in this pilgrimage from Earth to Heaven.
- 6:55Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, we're one. We're one in
- 7:01Speaker 2: a bond.
- 7:09Speaker 1: You're listening to Insight for Living to dig deeper into
- 7:13Speaker 1: Second Thessalonians on your own. Be sure to purchase our
- 7:16Speaker 1: Searching the Scripture's Bible Study workbook by going to insight
- 7:20Speaker 1: dot org. Slash offer Chuck title today's message Affirming the Afflicted.
- 7:27Speaker 2: It's fun at times to think back of stages in
- 7:29Speaker 2: your life that you passed through while you've been growing
- 7:32Speaker 2: up in the Lord. I remember a stage I went
- 7:35Speaker 2: through that was full of mottoes and sayings. Remember that
- 7:38Speaker 2: time when those things seem so important to you that
- 7:41Speaker 2: you stuck them on your dashboard, and you put them
- 7:43Speaker 2: on your desk, and you stuck them in your notebook,
- 7:46Speaker 2: and on occasion, you put them in the fly leaf
- 7:48Speaker 2: of your Bible. Remember one six word statement that I
- 7:52Speaker 2: thought was so profound. It said, dusty bibles lead to
- 7:59Speaker 2: dirty I was my slogan for the year. I didn't
- 8:05Speaker 2: win many friends or influence many people, but I really
- 8:09Speaker 2: believe that that was a profound statement. As a matter
- 8:12Speaker 2: of fact, I think it would be a little enlightening
- 8:14Speaker 2: and maybe a little embarrassing if many who attend Sunday
- 8:19Speaker 2: worship service had to admit to their neighbor that one
- 8:24Speaker 2: of the parts of a Sunday morning ritual is finding
- 8:27Speaker 2: your Bible before you come to church and then blowing
- 8:32Speaker 2: the dust off. It's always humorous to me how folks
- 8:35Speaker 2: will not miss their Bible until that following Sunday morning,
- 8:38Speaker 2: and it's been here all along, left right there in
- 8:40Speaker 2: the pew where they left it last week. But there's
- 8:45Speaker 2: another side of this dusty, dirty issue that I don't
- 8:49Speaker 2: think that slogan reveals. Sometime a dirty Bible represents a
- 8:54Speaker 2: clean life. For example, it's interesting when you go through
- 8:59Speaker 2: the Bible that you've used for years and locate some
- 9:03Speaker 2: soiled sections. You know where the oil from your fingers
- 9:07Speaker 2: has come off, or you've you've smeared the print because
- 9:10Speaker 2: you've read it so many times, rubbing your finger over
- 9:14Speaker 2: the second. In fact, why don't you open your Bible
- 9:16Speaker 2: and give to your neighbor, and let's have an inspection
- 9:18Speaker 2: of how No, I wouldn't do that to you. But
- 9:22Speaker 2: what you might want to do this afternoon is take
- 9:24Speaker 2: the time to look through your Bible and see the
- 9:27Speaker 2: parts that have really ministered to you. You'll be surprised
- 9:32Speaker 2: I can do that. This Bible I'm carrying today is
- 9:34Speaker 2: one that I've been carrying since April of nineteen sixty nine,
- 9:38Speaker 2: and there are some parts of it that are well
- 9:41Speaker 2: marked and well worn, and other parts of them of
- 9:45Speaker 2: it that sort of cracks when I open it, because
- 9:47Speaker 2: I haven't been in there for a while. During my
- 9:51Speaker 2: pastoral internship back in the summer of sixty one, I'll
- 9:54Speaker 2: never forget praying with a gentleman every week who loved
- 9:59Speaker 2: the and as a matter of fact, he would pray
- 10:03Speaker 2: through the Psalms. I remember kneeling by him, and the
- 10:07Speaker 2: portions of the Psalms in his Bible, honest to Pete,
- 10:11Speaker 2: were worn off the page. The print wasn't there, and
- 10:15Speaker 2: I thought that was the most spiritual looking Bible. I
- 10:17Speaker 2: remember when I would pray with him and he wasn't looking,
- 10:19Speaker 2: I would rub really hard in those sections, rub and
- 10:23Speaker 2: rub and rub. I thought of sandpaper that maybe would
- 10:26Speaker 2: make mine look like his bible worn Bible. Now, chances
- 10:30Speaker 2: are good that the least used sections of your Bible
- 10:35Speaker 2: are those books that begin with the numeral two. You
- 10:39Speaker 2: probably never thought of that before, but it's true. There
- 10:43Speaker 2: are three of those in the Old Testament, and there
- 10:45Speaker 2: are five of them in the New Testament. And if
- 10:48Speaker 2: you toss in one book that begins with the letter three,
- 10:52Speaker 2: there are six of them. Funny, in God's sequels in
- 10:58Speaker 2: his Bible, in his book, we are much better acquainted
- 11:02Speaker 2: with the first of those books or letters than we
- 11:06Speaker 2: are the second. I want to have you turn to
- 11:09Speaker 2: the least used page in your Bible, the table of contents. Seriously,
- 11:14Speaker 2: I want you to locate your Bible has one, and
- 11:16Speaker 2: I want you to find the table of contents. When's
- 11:19Speaker 2: the last time you were in church and somebody said,
- 11:22Speaker 2: turn to the table of contents. I mean, this is
- 11:25Speaker 2: basic stuff. In your table of contents, you'll notice under
- 11:29Speaker 2: the Old Testament the three books that begin with the
- 11:33Speaker 2: numeral two. Second Samuel. We don't know that quite as
- 11:38Speaker 2: well as we do First Samuel. Second Kings is another one.
- 11:43Speaker 2: Second Chronicles especially. I noticed when people read through their Bibles,
- 11:47Speaker 2: that the place they usually stop the project is around
- 11:51Speaker 2: kings or chronicles. We don't really know much about second
- 11:55Speaker 2: Chronicles unless we get serious about this busines. This is
- 12:00Speaker 2: called Bible study. Now over in the New Testament, you'll
- 12:03Speaker 2: find First Corinthians, but but you will know it a
- 12:07Speaker 2: lot better than you will Second Corinthians. Chances are good
- 12:11Speaker 2: you'll know Second Corinthians five seventeen, maybe Second Corinthians six twenty,
- 12:15Speaker 2: But you know very little more about Second Corinthians and
- 12:18Speaker 2: a few random verses. Look down at Second Thessalonians. There's
- 12:23Speaker 2: another one. We're pretty sharp on. First Thessalonians talks about
- 12:27Speaker 2: the return of the Lord. It talks about our being
- 12:29Speaker 2: ready for him and watching for his return. But Second Thessalonians,
- 12:33Speaker 2: what's in that book? How about Second Peter or Second Timothy?
- 12:38Speaker 2: That might run a close second with First Timothy. But
- 12:42Speaker 2: probably we know the truth of First Timothy better, and
- 12:46Speaker 2: second Peter not as well known as First Peter and
- 12:50Speaker 2: second and third John. Look down there. Some time I go,
- 12:55Speaker 2: I preached a series of messages on the one chapter
- 12:59Speaker 2: books the Bible, and I was astounded at how many
- 13:02Speaker 2: people told me they had never even read the one
- 13:05Speaker 2: chapter books of the Bible, and especially would that be
- 13:10Speaker 2: true of books that start with that number two. Well,
- 13:16Speaker 2: I want us to study for a period of time.
- 13:21Speaker 2: The second Letter written to the Thessalonians, one of those
- 13:27Speaker 2: sort of unknown New Testament letters. I think the second
- 13:33Speaker 2: letters are sometimes like second children. They struggle for identity,
- 13:37Speaker 2: they go through a bit of a process of time
- 13:41Speaker 2: before they find their place and they know their purpose
- 13:45Speaker 2: in life. Our interests will focus on this rather obscure letter,
- 13:51Speaker 2: which is only three chapters in length, has only forty
- 13:55Speaker 2: seven verses. And would you believe you can sit down
- 13:59Speaker 2: and with feel read it orally for without stopping, and
- 14:04Speaker 2: it'll take you less than eight minutes. I know I
- 14:08Speaker 2: did that this week, and I found some things by
- 14:11Speaker 2: doing it once. And then why I thought eight minutes?
- 14:15Speaker 2: I could do that again? Not that busy? So I
- 14:17Speaker 2: read it through again, and by the third time through
- 14:22Speaker 2: and all of the project taking less than twenty minutes.
- 14:26Speaker 2: Is that right? Not quite? My math has never been
- 14:30Speaker 2: as good as my reading less than twenty five minutes.
- 14:35Speaker 2: I discovered a couple or three things about Second Thessalonians.
- 14:38Speaker 2: I probably would not have known had I dug right
- 14:43Speaker 2: into the trees, because I'd have missed the forest, for example.
- 14:47Speaker 2: And it is not a moot point. The full name
- 14:50Speaker 2: of the Lord Jesus Christ appears three times in each
- 14:56Speaker 2: of the three chapters. I don't know of another New
- 14:59Speaker 2: Testament bok that that's true. It upholds the mighty name
- 15:04Speaker 2: of our Lord Jesus, It focuses attention upon him, it
- 15:08Speaker 2: calls his name into power. It's a wonderful reminder as
- 15:12Speaker 2: you work through the fearsome circumstances that became the anvil
- 15:19Speaker 2: upon which Paul forged out this letter. I notice also
- 15:24Speaker 2: in the Second Corinthian Letter that Paul signs it at
- 15:29Speaker 2: the beginning of the letter, which is common in the
- 15:31Speaker 2: New Testament letters. I wish we did that today, but
- 15:35Speaker 2: we don't. But in the third chapter, toward the end,
- 15:40Speaker 2: he makes a big deal about his signature, and you
- 15:44Speaker 2: might wonder why I did when I read it. Turn
- 15:47Speaker 2: back to chapter three of Second Thessalonians. Look at verse seventeen.
- 15:52Speaker 2: I Paul write this greeting with mine own hand, And
- 16:00Speaker 2: this is a distinguishing mark in every letter. This is
- 16:06Speaker 2: the way I write. Did you know that that was
- 16:09Speaker 2: in the Bible. I didn't, and I've read this a
- 16:13Speaker 2: number of times, and I'd never stumbled across this is
- 16:16Speaker 2: the way I write. Everyone has his or her own
- 16:21Speaker 2: distinguishing handwriting, and if that person writes you enough, you
- 16:25Speaker 2: don't even have to look and see who wrote the letter,
- 16:27Speaker 2: because you know the handwriting. Doctors especially have interesting handwriting.
- 16:34Speaker 2: They have great education, they just can't write. It's amazing.
- 16:37Speaker 2: You read it just as well out of a mirror
- 16:39Speaker 2: than you could while you look at it straight on.
- 16:41Speaker 2: It's hard to read doctor's handwriting. Paul says, I have
- 16:45Speaker 2: a distinguishing handwriting. I have a distinguishing style. And if
- 16:50Speaker 2: you ever want to check if this letter is mine,
- 16:52Speaker 2: check it with this letter, check it with this signature.
- 16:55Speaker 2: This is the way I write. Before we find out
- 16:59Speaker 2: why that was so important, you might ask yourself, well,
- 17:01Speaker 2: what's the big deal about these forty seven verses? Are
- 17:03Speaker 2: they really that important? Look up from verse seventeen to
- 17:09Speaker 2: verse fourteen. I think after I read this verse, you'll
- 17:13Speaker 2: say it's pretty important. If anyone does not obey our
- 17:17Speaker 2: instruction in this letter, take special note of that man
- 17:22Speaker 2: and do not associate with him, so that he may
- 17:25Speaker 2: be put to shame. Yeah, I'd say that's pretty important letter.
- 17:30Speaker 2: This is one of those rare letters, and he doesn't
- 17:32Speaker 2: have many of them, where he literally says, if you
- 17:37Speaker 2: find someone who won't walk according to this truth, back off.
- 17:43Speaker 2: But he adds in grace, don't regard him as an enemy,
- 17:47Speaker 2: admonish him as a brother. I'd say it's a significant letter. Now,
- 17:53Speaker 2: why is there a second letter to the Thessalonians. These
- 17:59Speaker 2: are fine people. They like the Corinthians, and like the Colossians,
- 18:04Speaker 2: and like the people of Ephesus and other spots in
- 18:09Speaker 2: the New Testament world. These are believers and their world
- 18:15Speaker 2: is a tough world. But why would he take the time,
- 18:17Speaker 2: having written such a fine and rather lengthy first letter,
- 18:23Speaker 2: and write on the heels a second Some feel it
- 18:26Speaker 2: was within days he wrote. The second letter has to
- 18:29Speaker 2: be tied in with his remark about this is the
- 18:32Speaker 2: way I write. There's urgency in that, and it is
- 18:37Speaker 2: in brief he wrote second Thessalonians to clear up a misunderstanding.
- 18:43Speaker 2: That's the purpose. You see. He had said a lot
- 18:46Speaker 2: about the Lord's return in the first letter, chapter five.
- 18:52Speaker 2: Go back there, will you first Thessalonians chapter five. You'll
- 18:56Speaker 2: see what he says about the coming of the Lord
- 19:01Speaker 2: verse two of chapter five. You yourselves know full well
- 19:05Speaker 2: that the day of the Lord will come just like
- 19:07Speaker 2: a thief in the night. While they are saying peace
- 19:10Speaker 2: and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly, like
- 19:15Speaker 2: birth pangs upon a woman with child, and they shall
- 19:18Speaker 2: not escape. Note the change in pronouns. But you, brethren,
- 19:25Speaker 2: are not in darkness that that day should overtake you
- 19:29Speaker 2: like a thief. For you are all sons of light
- 19:34Speaker 2: and sons of day. We are not of night nor
- 19:36Speaker 2: of darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do.
- 19:39Speaker 2: But let us be alert and sober. For those who
- 19:42Speaker 2: sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get
- 19:46Speaker 2: drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of
- 19:48Speaker 2: the day, let us be sober, having put on the
- 19:52Speaker 2: breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the
- 19:55Speaker 2: hope of salvation. He's getting into the sense of urgency,
- 19:58Speaker 2: and he says, let's be alert, let's get a little
- 20:01Speaker 2: rapture fever. Let's remember that any day now the clouds
- 20:05Speaker 2: will split, there'll be a blast of the trumpet, and
- 20:07Speaker 2: the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout
- 20:10Speaker 2: with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God,
- 20:13Speaker 2: and the dead in Christ will be rised first. That
- 20:15Speaker 2: day is upon us. Be alert. After that letter arrived
- 20:20Speaker 2: and they read it, would you believe that a word
- 20:24Speaker 2: began to travel among them within days that they had
- 20:28Speaker 2: missed the coming of the Lord. He said, Oh, how
- 20:33Speaker 2: could they put it? Well, you know how taught goes
- 20:35Speaker 2: in the church and somebody spill the beans from some Well,
- 20:40Speaker 2: look at how he puts it in chapter two of
- 20:42Speaker 2: Second Thessalonians. It didn't just occur in someone's mind. There
- 20:49Speaker 2: was an actual, active deception that had occurred against the
- 20:52Speaker 2: church at Thesalonaika Second Thesalonians two. One. Now we request you, brethren,
- 20:58Speaker 2: with regard to the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
- 21:01Speaker 2: there's one of those times his full name appears, and
- 21:04Speaker 2: are gathering together to him, that you may not be
- 21:06Speaker 2: quickly shaken. That's why he wrote the letter. I don't
- 21:09Speaker 2: want you all shook up from your composure or be
- 21:13Speaker 2: disturbed either by market, a spirit or a message or
- 21:19Speaker 2: a letter as if from us to the effect that
- 21:23Speaker 2: the day of the Lord has come. Got the drift
- 21:29Speaker 2: in one of three ways. The people had begun to
- 21:31Speaker 2: believe that they had missed the coming of the Lord,
- 21:35Speaker 2: a message, a sermon that he had preached, perhaps, or
- 21:40Speaker 2: as he says, first, a spirit. Someone had passed the
- 21:43Speaker 2: word that Paul had had a special revelation, and hadn't
- 21:47Speaker 2: they heard about it? The coming of the Lord has occurred.
- 21:50Speaker 2: They're still here. Someone else had said, didn't you hear
- 21:54Speaker 2: about the sermon he preached when he was standing by
- 21:56Speaker 2: the sea, or when he was on that island, or
- 21:58Speaker 2: after he left you on roots to the next spot.
- 22:01Speaker 2: God gave him a new message, and he declared it,
- 22:03Speaker 2: haven't you heard? Some had said that there was a
- 22:07Speaker 2: letter that had arrived, as if from him. There are
- 22:10Speaker 2: some New Testament scholars that believe that there actually was
- 22:14Speaker 2: a forged letter that arrived in Thessalonaika, the city is
- 22:19Speaker 2: known today as Thessaloniki, still in existence in Greece. Somebody
- 22:24Speaker 2: had sent a letter and it had been signed by Paul, allegedly.
- 22:29Speaker 2: So when he signs this letter, he says, this is
- 22:33Speaker 2: the way I write. You can check this writing with
- 22:35Speaker 2: that letter seems to imply it. By the way, this
- 22:41Speaker 2: is a real good time for me to pause and
- 22:43Speaker 2: say a couple of practical things about misunderstandings in the church.
- 22:50Speaker 2: People still spread messages that are not true, don't they.
- 22:56Speaker 2: We tend to do that in a weak moment. So
- 23:01Speaker 2: I'm going to draw from just the overview of what
- 23:04Speaker 2: we've seen thus far, a couple of very practical pieces
- 23:08Speaker 2: of advice. First is this, if you have been misunderstood,
- 23:13Speaker 2: don't delay in trying to clear it up. Paul didn't
- 23:18Speaker 2: wait very long. One of my sources said it was
- 23:21Speaker 2: within days that he wrote. Second, Thessalonians, don't just let
- 23:26Speaker 2: the information continue to gather a speed and momentum. If
- 23:31Speaker 2: you hear there's a rumor out, go to the source.
- 23:34Speaker 2: If you can't find the source, go to someone who
- 23:37Speaker 2: heard that rumor and correct it now. Sometime it's like
- 23:42Speaker 2: gathering the feathers that have been shaken out of a
- 23:45Speaker 2: pillow on a windy day. You can't get them all back,
- 23:48Speaker 2: but you can try. Paul tried. As a matter of fact,
- 23:53Speaker 2: the word is out in this particular section of our
- 23:56Speaker 2: country every two or three years that Cynthia and I
- 23:59Speaker 2: have been married before and we are now married to
- 24:02Speaker 2: each other. Having been married before always makes me laugh,
- 24:07Speaker 2: because if they knew how young we were when we
- 24:09Speaker 2: first got married, didn't know it had been impossible for
- 24:11Speaker 2: us to have been married before. So we send the
- 24:14Speaker 2: message back and say, no, we're still together, never been
- 24:19Speaker 2: married to anybody else. She got a sympathy cards regarding
- 24:23Speaker 2: my death not long ago, and she needs sympathy because
- 24:28Speaker 2: I'm alive, not because I've gone, you know, and she
- 24:31Speaker 2: had to send back thank you for your sympathy. But
- 24:34Speaker 2: he's still alive and going on together. Let's clear it up.
- 24:40Speaker 2: So if you happen to know information that's going around
- 24:43Speaker 2: it's not true, you know, jump on it like a
- 24:46Speaker 2: hen on a June bud. Just get on it and
- 24:48Speaker 2: clean it up and then go on. Sometimes you can't
- 24:51Speaker 2: do that, so you've got to just go on.
- 25:01Speaker 1: Yes, Chuck and Cynthia are still married since nineteen fifty five.
- 25:05Speaker 1: In fact, that's seventy one years. We're just getting started
- 25:09Speaker 1: in Chuckswyndall's study of Second Thessalonians. It's a series he's
- 25:13Speaker 1: calling steadfast Christianity. And there's much more to this letter
- 25:17Speaker 1: from Paul that Chuck wants to show us, so please
- 25:19Speaker 1: keep listening through the entire eight part series. Inside for
- 25:23Speaker 1: Living has created a brand new Searching the Scripture's Bible
- 25:26Speaker 1: study workbook for second Thessalonians. The spiral bound resource is
- 25:30Speaker 1: available right now by going to Insight dot org slash offer.
- 25:36Speaker 1: One of the themes that Paul weaves into his letter
- 25:38Speaker 1: to the Thessalonians is leadership. Paul poured his life into
- 25:42Speaker 1: a small band of believers in Thessalonika, mentoring them, challenging them,
- 25:47Speaker 1: and refusing to let them settle for anything less than
- 25:50Speaker 1: God's best. That's what great leaders do, and today we're
- 25:54Speaker 1: offering a book that will inspire you to lead in
- 25:57Speaker 1: whatever capacity God has called you to, whether that's at home,
- 26:00Speaker 1: at church, or in the workplace. Few stories in all
- 26:04Speaker 1: of Scripture illustrate effective leadership more powerfully than the story
- 26:08Speaker 1: of Nehemiah. Chuck Wendall's classic book, hand Me Another Brick
- 26:12Speaker 1: draws timeless principles from Nehemiah's remarkable rebuilding of Jerusalem's Wall,
- 26:17Speaker 1: principles that are just as vital for today's pastor, ministry leader,
- 26:22Speaker 1: board member, teacher, or anyone who has a role leading others.
- 26:26Speaker 1: You can request your copy when you send a generous
- 26:29Speaker 1: gift to Insight for Living. It's our gift to you. CHUCKX.
- 26:33Speaker 1: Wendall's book on Niemiyah is a rich, readable journey through
- 26:36Speaker 1: one of the Bible's greatest leadership narratives, full of practical
- 26:40Speaker 1: wisdom for anyone who wants to make a difference right
- 26:43Speaker 1: where God has placed them. You can request hand me
- 26:46Speaker 1: another brick when you send your donation and request in
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- 27:12Speaker 1: org slash donate. I'm Bill Meyer. Chucks Wyndall continues our
- 27:23Speaker 1: study in second Thessalonians called steadfast Christianity Tomorrow on Insight
- 27:29Speaker 1: for Living. The preceding message affirming the afflicted was copyrighted
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