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The Church That’s Stamped with the Savior (1 Thessalonians 1) · Prodigal Hope

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: We were in 1 Thessalonians last week.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: We spent a great deal of time sort of investigating the backstory to this church
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: and why Paul is writing this letter to them and the great deal of distress
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: that they endured as they received Paul's gospel and they believed it.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Even despite all of those ornery unbelievers that were in their midst,
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: so to speak, and making it rather difficult for them to do so.
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  SPEAKER_00: We saw that,
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  SPEAKER_00: and yet despite all those pressures,
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  SPEAKER_00: we noted,
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  SPEAKER_00: and we're going to spend some time on this this morning,
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  SPEAKER_00: we noted how a great wave of,
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  SPEAKER_00: we could say,
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  SPEAKER_00: faith and reception and repentance for the things of God came over the people
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  SPEAKER_00: of Thessalonica.
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  SPEAKER_00: Which Paul details in verse number 9.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 9 again of the first chapter.
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  SPEAKER_00: He says,
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  SPEAKER_00: For they themselves,
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  SPEAKER_00: referring to believers in all the surrounding regions,
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  SPEAKER_00: they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you
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  SPEAKER_00: and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is a note,
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  SPEAKER_00: we could say,
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  SPEAKER_00: of a drastic change that is taking place in the hearts and lives of
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  SPEAKER_00: the Thessalonians as we know that they are quite literally turned around.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Which I think is one of the reasons why Paul speaks so fondly of this church.
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  SPEAKER_00: Of course he's a pastor, he's an apostle of Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: Paul loved every church that he ministered to.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yes, even the Corinthians who gave him so many headaches throughout the course of his ministry.
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  SPEAKER_00: But here with the Thessalonians there is a slightly different tone.
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  SPEAKER_00: A tone we can say of admiration.
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  SPEAKER_00: And care.
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  SPEAKER_00: And thoughtfulness.
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  SPEAKER_00: It kind of oozes.
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  SPEAKER_00: All of those things ooze out of all of Paul's words.
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  SPEAKER_00: Notice verse 2.
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  SPEAKER_00: He says to them, we,
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  SPEAKER_00: referring to Paul, Silas,
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  SPEAKER_00: and Timothy,
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  SPEAKER_00: we collectively,
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  SPEAKER_00: we give thanks to God always for all of you,
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  SPEAKER_00: constantly mentioning you in our prayers today.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think Paul is just sort of pouring it on.
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  SPEAKER_00: This isn't sort of just a nice thing to say,
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  SPEAKER_00: a sort of run-of-the-middle platitude that you want to put at the beginning of
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  SPEAKER_00: a letter just to get it out of the way.
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  SPEAKER_00: No, I think Paul is very indeed sharing his heart,
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  SPEAKER_00: Silas' heart, Timothy's heart for these people.
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  SPEAKER_00: They were genuinely grateful for this church,
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  SPEAKER_00: which I think stems both from the way they received that gospel,
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  SPEAKER_00: the gospel about Jesus, and how it changed them.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it was also due, I think, to how short his time was with them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Remember from last week,
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  SPEAKER_00: he spends roughly three to maybe six weeks in this church
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  SPEAKER_00: before he is snatched away.
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  SPEAKER_00: The word in chapter two is he was torn away from them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not by choice, but he was forced out of their midst for his own safety.
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  SPEAKER_00: And yet I don't even think Paul could have anticipated or predicted the kind
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  SPEAKER_00: of response that the Thessalonians would give to those words.
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  SPEAKER_00: Even despite the short amount of time that he got there.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was forced to move on.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's why he was praying for them.
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  SPEAKER_00: As he says to them, I am praying for you constantly, always.
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  SPEAKER_00: You are always in my prayers.
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  SPEAKER_00: And he's not just giving them a superlative.
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  SPEAKER_00: No, I think he's indicating that he and his ministry team,
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  SPEAKER_00: they are actively remembering and praying for these believers.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not just whenever they happen to think about it.
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  SPEAKER_00: No, it is a conscious choice on their part to remember them and pray for them.
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  SPEAKER_00: As he says, look at verse 3.
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  SPEAKER_00: Remembering before God,
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  SPEAKER_00: our God and Father,
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  SPEAKER_00: your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope
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  SPEAKER_00: in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: I think what was so surprising, even for Paul, I would say.
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  SPEAKER_00: Was to see how truly transformed these Thessalonians were.
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  SPEAKER_00: Continuing on, he says,
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  SPEAKER_00: You know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake.
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  SPEAKER_00: And you became imitators of us and of the Lord.
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  SPEAKER_00: For you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit.
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  SPEAKER_00: The embrace of Paul's gospel,
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  SPEAKER_00: which is just a phrase that refers to the gospel of God,
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  SPEAKER_00: as he says in chapter number two.
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  SPEAKER_00: This embrace on their part wasn't just restricted to the Thessalonian city limits.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not just there.
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  SPEAKER_00: No, but...
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  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, we could say the whole county, the whole province came to know about their faith.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 8 again.
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  SPEAKER_00: For not only has the word of God sounded forth,
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  SPEAKER_00: it's been echoing from you and sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia,
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  SPEAKER_00: but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything.
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  SPEAKER_00: Everyone in the surrounding areas,
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  SPEAKER_00: their neighbors and friends,
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  SPEAKER_00: everyone knew about what was happening in that little local church in Thessalonica.
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  SPEAKER_00: That little church there in what is modern day Greece became an outpost for
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  SPEAKER_00: the gospel throughout the whole surrounding regions.
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  SPEAKER_00: Putting the good news of Jesus on repeat by what they said and also by what they did.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's for this reason that Paul refers to this church as a church of examples.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse number 7.
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  SPEAKER_00: You, so that you became an example,
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  SPEAKER_00: a very informative word, an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.
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  SPEAKER_00: The word example here.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sort of implies like a pattern or like a mold or a model that others should follow.
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  SPEAKER_00: And again, he's making it clear that this church has become that for other churches.
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  SPEAKER_00: They've become a pattern.
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  SPEAKER_00: And more to the point we could say that this word suggests sort of like
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  SPEAKER_00: an imprint that's left behind when you're stamping a coin.
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  SPEAKER_00: Or when you're stamping a wax seal on an envelope.
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  SPEAKER_00: You put your stamp in it and it leaves an imprint in it.
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  SPEAKER_00: And if you trace your fingers along the edges,
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  SPEAKER_00: if you put your finger on a coin,
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  SPEAKER_00: you can feel what was put onto that coin, the image of Lincoln or whoever it is.
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  SPEAKER_00: You can trace the edges.
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  SPEAKER_00: You can feel the indentations of that seal.
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  SPEAKER_00: And you can get a sense of whose image has been impressed on it.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's sort of what is being conveyed here by this word example.
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  SPEAKER_00: To me, it's reminiscent of what Jesus says in the Gospels.
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  SPEAKER_00: Remember that scene in Matthew chapter 22 where there's a bunch of people
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  SPEAKER_00: and they ask Jesus about taxes.
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  SPEAKER_00: Should we pay taxes to Caesar and all that stuff?
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  SPEAKER_00: And what does he say?
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  SPEAKER_00: He says, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.
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  SPEAKER_00: And why?
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  SPEAKER_00: Why did he say that?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, the verse before is because those coins that they bore Caesar's inscription is
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  SPEAKER_00: the word in Matthew 22.
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  SPEAKER_00: They bear his inscription in likeness.
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  SPEAKER_00: His image, his face was impressed upon those coins.
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  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, they belong to him.
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  SPEAKER_00: And similarly,
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  SPEAKER_00: we could say this,
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  SPEAKER_00: that the Thessalonians have been impressed with the image of Christ on them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Through the preaching of the gospel.
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  SPEAKER_00: Such that now they are examples of what the gospel is capable of doing.
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  SPEAKER_00: Of what preaching Jesus is capable of doing in hearts and lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: They were examples of that.
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  SPEAKER_00: Models of that.
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  SPEAKER_00: Their lives have become marked with the likeness of Jesus.
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  SPEAKER_00: Such that now they are impressing others with that same likeness.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not theirs.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're not impressing other people with their own image.
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  SPEAKER_00: But with the image of Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is what happens when the gospel takes root.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is what occurs when the preaching of the gospel actually takes root down
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  SPEAKER_00: in our bones,
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  SPEAKER_00: down in our souls and starts to change things inside of us from the inside out.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now all of a sudden we have a bunch of sinners who've been stamped with
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  SPEAKER_00: the good news of Christ and now they are becoming molds of sorts for other sinners
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  SPEAKER_00: to be stamped with that same message.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's what he's saying.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is what's been happening.
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  SPEAKER_00: And now everyone sees it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Everyone can notice it.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not something that can be hidden.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is what we mean.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about this a little bit last time.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is what we mean when we say that the gospel of God is the power of God.
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  SPEAKER_00: The energy, the dynamism of God for salvation.
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  SPEAKER_00: When that dynamic word.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's received and believed.
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  SPEAKER_00: It leaves behind an impression.
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  SPEAKER_00: And what does it look like?
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  SPEAKER_00: What does that impression look like?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think Paul gives us three things in this section.
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  SPEAKER_00: Three things that we could say define
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  SPEAKER_00: or we could say help us understand what this imprint looks like.
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  SPEAKER_00: Three things this morning.
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  SPEAKER_00: Number one, I would say this impression looks like a faith that turns.
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  SPEAKER_00: A faith that turns turns.
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  SPEAKER_00: Notice again verse number three of chapter number one.
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  SPEAKER_00: He says,
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  SPEAKER_00: remembering before God,
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  SPEAKER_00: before our God and Father, your, notice that phrase, work of faith.
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  SPEAKER_00: Really fascinating phrase, a very telling phrase, I think.
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  SPEAKER_00: I think oftentimes when we hear those two words put together,
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  SPEAKER_00: work and faith, they are often pitted as opposites in most church conversations.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when it comes, I would say, to the matter of how we are saved, that makes sense.
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  SPEAKER_00: After all,
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  SPEAKER_00: Paul says in Romans chapter 11,
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  SPEAKER_00: verse number 6,
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  SPEAKER_00: that he says this, if we are saved by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works.
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  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's what he says in Romans.
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  SPEAKER_00: Essentially,
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  SPEAKER_00: we could summarize it like this,
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  SPEAKER_00: that our hope of salvation is either all grace or all works.
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  SPEAKER_00: You can't have it both ways, Paul is saying.
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  SPEAKER_00: You can't kind of cut middle ground.
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  SPEAKER_00: A gift, if salvation is a gift, it can't be earned inherently.
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  SPEAKER_00: And yet we also know,
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  SPEAKER_00: because we are students of the whole counsel of God,
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  SPEAKER_00: that salvation by grace through faith results in works.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's what happens.
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  SPEAKER_00: It results in them.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's the fruit of what happens when the gospel is received.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2 verse 10.
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  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what that verse says?
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  SPEAKER_00: It says, we were created in Christ Jesus for good works.
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  SPEAKER_00: Which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
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  SPEAKER_00: He has saved us for this to occur.
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  SPEAKER_00: He has saved us so that we might walk in this.
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  SPEAKER_00: An essential part.
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  SPEAKER_00: Of the Christian life, I think is understanding who our good works are for.
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  SPEAKER_00: Who's the audience?
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  SPEAKER_00: Who are they serving?
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  SPEAKER_00: Who are they serving?
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  SPEAKER_00: Doing good,
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  SPEAKER_00: so to speak,
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  SPEAKER_00: good works,
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  SPEAKER_00: so to speak, aren't for God in the sense that we are trying to merit favor from him.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the sense that we're trying to get in his good graces.
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  SPEAKER_00: Rather, our good works,
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  SPEAKER_00: they follow the free gift of God through Jesus to us so
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  SPEAKER_00: that we can serve those around us.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that we can serve our neighbors.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's the flow of them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Of course, salvation is all gift.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2, 8, 9,
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  SPEAKER_00: the verses right before the one I just read,
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  SPEAKER_00: salvation is the gift of God, not a result of works.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of confusion and doubt and discouragement happens
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  SPEAKER_00: when we get those two things mixed up.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Paul here is saying something very pointed and very particular.
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  SPEAKER_00: He says, your work of faith.
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  SPEAKER_00: Faith, of course, means...
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  SPEAKER_00: Here it means something that you believe in, something that you are firmly persuaded of.
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  SPEAKER_00: This firm persuasion.
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  SPEAKER_00: Of who Jesus is.
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  SPEAKER_00: Of what he has accomplished.
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  SPEAKER_00: It leads to actions.
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  SPEAKER_00: James chapter 2 and so on and so forth make that very evident.
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  SPEAKER_00: But properly speaking, faith in Jesus renounces actions on our part.
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  SPEAKER_00: We can't work our way into that favor of God.
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  SPEAKER_00: No, faith is a renouncing of all those actions as essential to salvation.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it's clinging to him.
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  SPEAKER_00: To what Jesus has done.
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  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite writers...
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  SPEAKER_00: He's a Scottish writer from the 1800s.
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  SPEAKER_00: His name is Horatius Bonner.
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  SPEAKER_00: And he says in one of my favorite books by him called The Everlasting Righteousness,
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  SPEAKER_00: he says, quote, faith doesn't come to Calvary to do anything.
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  SPEAKER_00: No, faith saves because it owns the complete salvation of another,
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  SPEAKER_00: namely Christ, and not because it contributes anything to salvation.
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  SPEAKER_00: So now if that is true, which I believe it is, how do we work at that?
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  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean by your work of faith?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think to understand what Paul is talking about,
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  SPEAKER_00: I think we have to fast forward to the end of the chapter.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look again at the end,
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  SPEAKER_00: at verse number 9,
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  SPEAKER_00: where we hear about this report that's going around that was saying
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  SPEAKER_00: about how they had turned to God from idols.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 9.
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  SPEAKER_00: For they themselves, all these surrounding ministries, churches, believers, other places...
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  SPEAKER_00: They themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you
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  SPEAKER_00: and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God.
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  SPEAKER_00: Their faith.
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  SPEAKER_00: Their trust in the gospel concerning Jesus was chiefly demonstrated,
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  SPEAKER_00: Paul is saying, by the seismic turn from one direction to another.
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  SPEAKER_00: This turn that happened in them and to them and through them.
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  SPEAKER_00: This turn, properly understood, is where we get our word for conversion.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's the center of Being turned from serving self,
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  SPEAKER_00: from being preoccupied with everything concerning me and what I need,
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  SPEAKER_00: my needs, my wants, etc.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's being turned from that position, being turned around to serve the living God.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's what's happening in them, to serve God and others.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this is what the Spirit of God means.
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  SPEAKER_00: Is doing in them and through them, through the gospel.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is what happens to us when the gospel is preached and received and believed and trusted in.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we are firmly persuaded of what it says.
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  SPEAKER_00: That Christ Jesus died on the cross for our sins and he went to the grave
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  SPEAKER_00: and he resurrected on the third day.
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  SPEAKER_00: And he is now ascended.
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  SPEAKER_00: When that message is believed and we are firmly persuaded of it.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is what happens.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are turned around.
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  SPEAKER_00: Just like what happened here.
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  SPEAKER_00: Whenever someone trusts in Jesus as their Savior, an array of things happen all at once.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I think,
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  SPEAKER_00: for my own part,
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  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of time,
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  SPEAKER_00: maybe too much time sometimes is spent trying to figure out what comes first.
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  SPEAKER_00: Does faith come first or is there repentance there?
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  SPEAKER_00: Is this a chicken and the egg sort of situation?
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  SPEAKER_00: How sorry do I have to be for it to count as repentance?
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  SPEAKER_00: What's the measure?
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  SPEAKER_00: If faith is a gift, what's my part?
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  SPEAKER_00: How much of my life do I have to clean up before that happens?
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  SPEAKER_00: I think all of those questions assume the same thing,
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  SPEAKER_00: which is that this act of turning starts with us.
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  SPEAKER_00: But actually Paul frames it a little bit differently.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look again, verse 9.
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  SPEAKER_00: For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you
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  SPEAKER_00: and how you turned to God from idols.
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  SPEAKER_00: They turned to God from idols, not the other way around, turning away from idols to God.
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  SPEAKER_00: I think you may say, well, that's not very big.
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  SPEAKER_00: I think it actually is a big difference.
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  SPEAKER_00: I think the point is that we don't first...
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  SPEAKER_00: Empty our hands to lay hold of God by our grit and our effort and our ability.
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  SPEAKER_00: No, instead what you find happening here, the word of God is preached.
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  SPEAKER_00: God lays hold on us and he pries whatever idols are still on our hands.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is what happens when God's word is preached in all of its fullness.
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  SPEAKER_00: That we who are so adamant about clutching ourselves.
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  SPEAKER_00: Our idols,
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  SPEAKER_00: the idols of sin,
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  SPEAKER_00: the idols of greed, the idols of bitterness, the idols of our selfish wants.
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  SPEAKER_00: That we, when we hear those words, God is the one who shakes those words out of us.
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  SPEAKER_00: Who shakes our grips from off of those idols.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is the work of God on those who believe.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so we could say this.
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  SPEAKER_00: That faith and repentance aren't necessarily like two steps.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're one big turn.
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  SPEAKER_00: One big turn that God is eager to have happen in the hearts and lives of sinners
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  SPEAKER_00: as he brings them to himself.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because he's the one who's turning us around.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's the one who's liberating us.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: He's freeing us from the stranglehold of sin so that we might serve the living God.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that story in Mark chapter 3?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells a very short little story that I think is so profound.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Mark 3 verse 27.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: He says that those who've been bound by the strong man,
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: they can't be set free unless a stronger man comes and liberates them.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, who is he talking about?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about sinners who are bound to sin and death
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: who have now been liberated by him, by Christ Jesus.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: He is the liberator, the one who emancipates us and frees us from sin and death.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what's happening here.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's what happened to the Thessalonians.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: They were turned around by the preaching of the word and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: And now you have this great move of God over this whole congregation.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And this, I think, is what Jesus was getting at when he was telling the crowds.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 6, remember John chapter 6?
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: A wonderful, long, lengthy chapter.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is asked this question.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: John 6, 28.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, what must we do to do the works of God?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember how he answers that question?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: What must we do to do the works of God?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, the crowd is eager for those things that we often love.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Give us a list.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, tell me,
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: give me a checklist of things so that I can make sure that I'm doing the works
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: of God.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: How does he answer?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is the work of God, Jesus says, John 6, 29, that you believe in him who he has sent.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, he's referring to himself, that you believe in him as the sent one of God.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: And here in typical fashion,
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is stunning everyone that was within earshot by telling them that the work
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: that God asks for,
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: first and foremost, is simply to believe that what he has said is true.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because when that sinks into our bones, that's when things start happening.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's this beggarly hand of faith, which doesn't offer God anything, but receives what he gives.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Faith receives everything.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Bonner in that same place continues.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says, faith receives everything.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Everything from Christ.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Everything from him,
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: everything from his word and his spirit,
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: the work of faith is this work that God is doing in us.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's the one who is turning us,
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: who is emptying us,
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: who is filling us so that we,
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: instead of clinging to all these other things that promise fulfillment,
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: that promise joy,
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: that promise peace,
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: that promise meaning,
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: we are made to release our grip on all of those things and continue clinging to To
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: the one who is filling us.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: To the one who has turned us around.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: All of those things, they were never meant to fill you.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: They can't.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: They're empty.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're lifeless.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Paul says that you've turned from them to what?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: The living God.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: The one who is alive.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: The one who gives life.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the one who is turning us around is this one who is also filling us.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is the work of faith.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: This faith that turns us.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, I have to hasten.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's another mark,
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: another way we can understand this impression,
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: this imprint upon this church and what it says to us as well.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not only in a faith that turns, but also secondly, a love that serves.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: A love that serves.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think that image of a beggar with his hands out asking
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: and receiving alms I think is a striking one.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it gets to the heart of what Paul is talking about here.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because the hand of faith that receives what Christ freely gives is then free
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: to love God and neighbor.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Which is the second characteristic that he mentions.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse number three again.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Remembering before God our Father.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Your work of faith, number one.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And secondly, number two.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And labor of love.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: The Thessalonians had faith.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: Very quickly, very rapidly earned this reputation for how they toiled.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's that word labor.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: They labored.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: They toiled for the benefit of others that were around them.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's what that word labor implies.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: It implies this kind of effort that leaves you just plum exhausted.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: You are spent.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And they're doing so because of the word that inspires them to do so.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't warm sentimentality.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't sending a heart emoji through a text message.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: I send those and I get it.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Those are fine.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: But a heart emoji can't really replace actual demonstrations of love.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get heart emojis,
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: but I would love to just actually have that person actually go through with it,
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: not just send a text.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is a love that Paul is here talking about.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: This labor of love is a type of love that's willing to get a little bit messy.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: A love that's willing to be inconvenienced for the sake of someone else.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he's talking about.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's a love that's okay with sacrificing itself and its needs and its comfort for
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: the sake of others.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he's talking about.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: And by way of example, we have to go to one other place.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: So keep your finger in 1 Thessalonians.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Go with me to 2 Corinthians.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: You might not have noticed this connection before, but I think it's so profound.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because again, number one, Paul is writing 1 Thessalonians from Corinth.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's writing it from the city.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he's writing this letter from there.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And he mentions something to the Corinthians in this second letter
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: that he gives them that I find incredibly fascinating.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is, in this particular chapter, if you go to 2 Corinthians chapter 8...
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is doing a couple of things all at once, as he often does.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: In the midst of all of this,
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: he's talking about this collection that they are taking up for some other churches.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he takes up this collection,
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: and at the same time that he's talking about it,
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: he's clearing up a wee bit of misinformation about that collection
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: and how it had been taken up.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: He had received a little bit of shady remarks as if he had some hand in it or so on
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: and so forth.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's clearing that up.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can read that at the end of the chapter.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: But he's also,
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: at the same time,
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: he's eager for the Corinthians to take part in this collection too.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let's all join hands for the good of God's kingdom, for the good of the church.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not out of, he doesn't want to compel them.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want them to feel like he's forcing their hand.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's playing a game of uncle with them.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And until they give in, he's going to keep twisting.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, he doesn't want them to feel like they're guilt tripped into taking part.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: No, he wants them to give freely and abundantly.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, cheerfully as the word is.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's the word in chapter number 9.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: The next chapter in verse number 7.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: But he says...
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Notice chapter 8 in verse number 1.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: He says that this giving,
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: this collection that's being collected for the good of
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: the churches has already been accomplished by who?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 8 or chapter 1 verse 8.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 8 verse 1.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: We want you to know,
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: brothers,
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Which...
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is where Thessalonica was.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's referring to this conglomerate of Macedonian churches and congregations
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: who had put their sort of resources together,
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: pulled them together for the sake of others.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes on to tell them that these Macedonian churches, they weren't very well off.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: They were suffering through poverty,
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: through persecution,
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: which are very good descriptors of what we learned when we talked
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: about Thessalonica last time.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: And yet despite all of that,
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: despite everything sort of against them, these churches gave anyways.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Both according to their means and beyond them.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 2.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: And this,
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: not as we expected,
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: They were giving of what they had for the relief of others.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And not because they had to, Paul says.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, they went even beyond that because they wanted to.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Of their own accord.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it was precisely because,
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: as Paul includes at the end, that it was precisely the fruit of what?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: They gave because they gave themselves to God first.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: They gave all of this because they had already been turned to stop serving all
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: of these dead idols and they began serving the living God.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: This has already been taking place amongst them and this is where all
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: of this generosity springs from.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: This demonstration of love and generosity by these churches wasn't a result
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: of them being guilt-tripped or mustering up just a generous feeling.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't come from them at all.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, it was the result of the love of God being poured into their hearts and lives
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: through the gospel.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul says in Romans chapter 5.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 5 verse 5.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: What does he say?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: He says God's love is poured into our hearts through the spirit who's been given to us.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: We love, as 1 John says, because he first loved us.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Our labor of love, therefore.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: Is the echo of God's labor of love for us.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's what's happening.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: These churches are echoing.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: They're sounding forth the love of God by loving others.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because they had been loved by God infinitely and freely first.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that love is made manifest where?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Nowhere better than in the cross.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Where Paul tells us that God has permanently framed.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know that's what that word means?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know the familiar verse, Romans 5a?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: God shows us or God demonstrates his love for us.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: That word show, it literally means permanently frame.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: A permanent frame, an image, a portrait of God's love.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's his son of the cross.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this,
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: this is what is filling the hearts of the Macedonians,
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: we could say, of the Thessalonians.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's that gospel,
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: that true gospel of Jesus emptying himself of all that he had so
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: that we might be filled with all that he is so that his love is overflowing from us,
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: sounding forth from us.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: As he says, 2 Corinthians 8, verse number 9, what does he say?
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich,
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: yet for your sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's preaching gospel to them.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: When that love of Christ,
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: when it takes root in your soul, when it sinks into your bones, what happens?
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: It reverberates out in the rest of your life.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: It can't help but spill out.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's what happens when the gospel is continually poured into your hearts by
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: the preaching of it and the Holy Spirit fills you up.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's what happens.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: By the grace of God, that's what's happening.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: And now here, All of Macedonia, they hear about it.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: All of Achaia, they hear about it.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: All of Corinth, they hear about it.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're all very aware now of what was going on in the Thessalonians.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: They were soon aware of this love that was just bubbling up in their hearts
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: that was coursing through them.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: You see,
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: this is the free gift of salvation through the preaching
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: of Jesus doesn't turn beggars and sinners into misers and recluses.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, it turns us into cheerful givers.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it does.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: The preaching of Jesus turns us into cheerful givers,
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: generous ones who are eager and willing and yes,
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: earnest about loving those who are in need.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: You see, that's what's happening in the Thessalonians.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: These were these beggarly sinners who had received everything from Christ.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: As Paul says, they were now begging for the chance that they could take part to relieve others.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, just give us the opportunity.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: We want to have a hand in relieving these other saints who are in affliction.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: This doesn't just happen.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: That type of generosity doesn't just happen.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because why?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because by nature, all of us, we're turned in on ourselves.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're self-righteous misers.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: We want to collect.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: We want to hoard.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're prone to clinging tightly to what we have because we're afraid
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: that one day it's going to run out.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're prone to turning in on our own needs, our own wants, the things that are closest to us.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: But here we have this new way in which the gospel changes lives.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: These sinners who've been filled with Christ...
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're free to give because they know that all of it came from him anyways.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what it looks like to serve the living and the true God.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Again, look at verse, or go back to 1 Thessalonians, sorry.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 9, as he says, for they themselves report.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: All of these other churches are reporting to us concerning you,
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: the kind of reception that we had among you and how you turned to God from idols
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: to serve lovingly.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Freely, generously to serve the living and the true God.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Namely, by giving themselves in love and service for the sake of others.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: As we know from Jesus, what does he say to us in Matthew 25 verse 40?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: As you did it for to one of the least of these, you did it to me.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: How do we serve God best?
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: By serving others.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: By going out of our way and serving others.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: By going out of our own comfort zones.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: By getting out of our own places of convenience.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: And reaching a friend of need,
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: a friend who's going through a divorce maybe,
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: a neighbor who is struggling,
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: or a co-worker who you know is going through a grievous situation.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Where might be God prompting you to a labor of love?
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to search hard and far and wide for that.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's all around you.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: The love that serves is a love that is eager to reach out to those who are closest
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: to us to serve them.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how we serve the living and the true God.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Churches that understand what the gospel says,
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: what it means, and how important it is, they are defined by that.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: A faith that turns and a love that serves.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: And lastly, number three, they are also defined by a hope that waits.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Paul knows.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: That any amount of labor needs something to sustain it.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Something to keep it going.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Something to feed it.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can sort of imagine a train.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: A train that runs on coal.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: One shovel won't really cut it.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: One shovel full of coal isn't going to get you very far.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: No?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: You have to keep feeding that locomotive a steady diet of coal that keeps
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: that engine burning hot and the whole thing churning forward, moving forward.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: I would say similarly,
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: the faith of the church and the love of the church keeps moving as long as the hope
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: of the church is burning brightly.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: As he says in verse number three of chapter one,
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: and steadfastness Hope
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: is something that burns as it's fed.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you look around nowadays,
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think hope is one of those qualities,
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: it's one of those features that I would say is rather elusive.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to find.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's not easily attained or seen.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: We get little glimpses of it here and there, but it's fleeting.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: It goes away.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Open your phone,
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: turn on the TV,
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: and all of your reserves for the hope of humanity will be quickly dashed.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you look for something hopeful that echoes out of the news or from Washington or
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: from Wall Street, I think that's rarer than a Bigfoot sighting.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's rarer.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Which means that if you're getting a steady diet of all that,
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: no wonder your hopes are thin and your worries are thick.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm guilty of this just as much as anyone.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: We feed our brains on algorithms and headlines and we wonder why we feel
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: so uncertain and uneasy and unsteady.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: There's no such thing as steadfastness of hope in the world.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: You won't find it.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, what do we first grab when our feet hit the floor?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: We grab a phone and we open it and hope to find something there.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the same.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: Hope that's steadfast is a gift that comes from Christ.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he says.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: Did you notice that?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: And steadfastness of hope, where?
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: In hope.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's the one.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's the one who steadies us,
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: who causes us to persevere as he gives us, what's that word hope mean?
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: A confident expectation.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, that's what biblical hope is.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: It isn't this sort of hope so.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like we hope that the weather turns out nice.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: Or that we hope that this winter won't be quite as bad.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Or that we hope our team puts it together and wins on Saturday.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: Which my hopes were very quickly dashed.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Before Saturday.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because my team lost on Friday.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a good statement.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: When we put our hopes in that, they're going to be disappointed.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: Rather our hope is a conviction.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's an expectation.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's an expectation of a certain outcome that doesn't come from our logic,
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: from our wits, from our wisdom.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's an expectation of a certain outcome that comes because of what our hope is in.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's all because of what the object of our hope is.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: What is the hope?
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: What is the object of our hope?
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: What is our hope in?
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Not a team, not a candidate, not a 401k.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: Our hope rests squarely on something that has already occurred,
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: that has already been accomplished,
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: and whose resonance is still resonating in the present tense.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: The church's hope, our hope, is in a person who is alive.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Jump down to verse number 10, because look at what he says.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll read verse 9 again.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception that we had among you
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: for his son from heaven,
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: The one we could say that was crucified and resurrected and is now ascended.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: He one day is coming again.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: That is the root, that is the baseline, that is the thread of the church's hope.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's not something that is wishy-washy.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: It is not something that vacillates and rides a roller coaster of maybe so, maybe it might be.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: It is not like pinning your hopes on the upward string of Wall Street.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, because we know that that's not something to bank on.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is the certain ground of Jesus' own words.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: Just as he said to a room full of wide-eyed disciples.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: John chapter 14.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: A room full of disciples whose eyes were wide over the fact that their savior,
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: their teacher, as he just told them that he's about to go away.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: And what does he follow that up with?
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: John 14, 3.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will take you to myself.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: That where I am, you may be also.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: The hope,
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: the confident expectation that Jesus is returning,
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: that's what is fueling our faith and our love,
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: which I think might explain why every chapter of this letter,
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: by the way, ends with a word about Jesus coming back.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: Every chapter.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think the faith that turns and the love that serves and the hope
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: that weighs, all three, they have the same object.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: They're all, as it says in verse number three, in the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: His image,
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: this is the image of Jesus,
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: that's the image that's being impressed upon us, that's being stamped on us.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's what the Holy Spirit is conforming us to.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 8 talks about that.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: The word for example is just that.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's this impression.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's this imprint that is being left behind through the course of what
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: the gospel does in our hearts, in our lives.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's leaving an imprint on us.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know that word for example?
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Verse number 7.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: You became examples.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: It appears in another place.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: Another place.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: A place that I think is pretty profound.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: Go with me really quick and we'll close to John chapter number 20.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: John chapter number 20 is a related word, but a word that implies much of the same thing.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because this word, for example, appears here in John chapter 20 in the upper room.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: Where Jesus displays the marks of the nails in his hands.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter 20 verse 24.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: We know the story well.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't with all the other disciples the first time Jesus showed up after the resurrection.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: But he, Thomas,
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: said to them,
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: Unless I see in his hands the mark,
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: the example,
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: the imprint of the nails,
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: and place my finger into the mark of the nails, And place my hand into his side.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: I will never believe.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: No, I got to see it.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: I want to feel all of the imprints.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: I want to feel all the rough edges of his body being massacred.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: I want to feel it.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: Unless I do that, I will never believe, he says.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so eight days later.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them, although the doors were locked.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then he said, he looked right in Thomas' eyes.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: Put your finger here and see my hands.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: And put your hand, put out your hand and place it in my side.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: Do not disbelieve, but believe.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: And how is he believing?
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: Believe.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: By tracing his fingers over the imprints of the good news of God's love for him.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: The prints of the nails of Jesus,
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: I would say, are the same sort of marks that are left behind on us.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we are known for.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is whose image we are being sort of made into.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: The church whose faith is upside down,
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: that looks upside down to the world's views,
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: is a church that bears the marks of Jesus' wounds in its faith,
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: in its love, and in its hope.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: Which brings me back to that image of the train.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: On a steam locomotive, the man who's shoveling coal into the engine is often called the fireman.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Which, in some ways,
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: if you can stick with this analogy, I think maybe that's what a preacher is.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_00: My task isn't to get out into the back of the train and push.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: It would prove very futile, I would feel like.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: My job is to keep feeding the fire.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: To keep the engine burning.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: So week after week,
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: just like the fireman,
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: shuffling coal,
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: putting the same coal into that engine so that it keeps burning and it keeps moving.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think the preacher's job is to do the same thing.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: To preach this good news to you.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's preach the good news of Jesus because he's the one whose image you are being made into.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's the image of Christ, him crucified and resurrected and coming again.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's where all of this comes from.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: Not because you've never heard it before,
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: but because one shovelful isn't going to get you very far.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now this I think is the news that keeps our faith burning,
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: our hope serving,
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: and our hope, our faith and our love and our hope burning brightly.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is what frees the church to turn and to serve and to wait.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is what an upside down faith looks like.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: A people who've been marked by the wounds of Jesus, who are waiting for his return.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: Remember what we talked about last week?
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: That every time we participate in the Lord's Supper, we proclaim his death till he comes.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because he didn't stay dead.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's alive.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: And this one,
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: this son from heaven,
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: as it says, he's coming again to deliver us from the wrath to come.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's coming to sweep up his bride, the church that includes us if we believe in him.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so shall we ever be with the Lord.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's what keeps our hope steadfast.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's that word.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's that person.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus Christ.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: In Christ alone, our hope is found.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.