1st Thessalonians Part 3 – Lawson Perdue

Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. We’re talking today from 1st Thessalonians 3, and we’re talking about dealing with difficulty. None of us really wanna talk about it, but James says, “Count it all joy when you fall into different kind of troubles,” and Jesus said, “In the world, you are going to have trouble. So cheer up, because I’ve overcome the world.” You can overcome difficulty. So stay tuned and learn how. Praise the Lord. We’re talking about in hope of eternal life. We begin in 1st Thessalonians 1, and Thessalonians is really talking about the hope that we have in Christ and how we live in light of that. And in chapter one, what Paul really talks about is living as an example. In verse seven of 1st Thessalonians 1, he says, “So you were examples to all who believe in Macedonia and Achaia.” So these Thessalonian believers were great examples of the gospel, and their faith was being spread in the whole area around. So it wasn’t just right there, but people were hearing all around about their faith and they were a really great example. And then in chapter two, he really talks about our relationship with the gospel. And he talks about in verse two, how they were declaring the gospel. In verse four, he says, “We were put in trust with the gospel. We were entrusted with the gospel.” I counted a big thing to be entrusted with the gospel. You know, the scripture says in 1st Corinthians 4:2, it’s required in stewards that a man, first of all, be found faithful. We need to be faithful. We’re been entrusted with the gospel. And then he talks about, in verse eight, “We were imparting the gospel to you.” And finally, in verse 13, he talks about how they were receiving the gospel. How many of you know the Word of God needs to be received, so people can receive a harvest off of it? Now, in 1st Thessalonians 3, he moves into another aspect, and he’s talking about dealing with difficulty. Guess what? I just talked a little bit about that. But if you live very long as a believer, you’ll experience, right, dealing with difficulty. And really prior to Christ coming, we’re gonna probably, you know, there’s some difficulties. The Bible actually talks about it in Matthew 24. In fact, I want to just share a couple things, because Jesus is talking in Matthew 24, about verse four through 14 about signs of his coming. But notice what he says, he’s actually answering three questions in Matthew 24, but he says this in verse nine, in verse 10, “They will deliver you up to be afflicted. They will kill you: you will be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.” You know, it’s a sign of the coming of Christ that Jews and Christians will be hated of all nations. He says, “And many will be offended and betray one another and hate one another.” So, that’s kinda… He’s talking about, “Jesus is gonna come. But these are some of the things.” And Paul’s talking about in 1st Thessalonians 3, how we deal with difficulty. And as we read verse one through four, he says, “Wherefore, when we could no longer forebear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone. And we sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, our fellow labor in the gospel to establish you and comfort you concerning the faith, that no man should be moved by these afflictions.” Guess what the Bible says? Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. That’s the good news you need to remember, God will deliver you. ’cause he’s not the author of the affliction, but we live in a world that’s been affected by sin and Satan, and there’s some stuff that’s gonna be out there. He says, “For you yourselves know that we are appointed thereto. For verily when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation, even as it came to pass, and you know.” Now, when Paul says we are gonna suffer tribulation, he’s not talking about the great tribulation. He’s not talking about God pouring out tribulation, right? The time of the scripture talks about the time of Jacob’s trouble, right? A tribulation that’s to come in the book of Revelation. And when it talks about the time of Jacob’s trouble, names of that in the Old Testament and the tribulation period, that’s a future thing. The tribulation is really a couple things. Number one, it’s God dealing with the nation of Israel to bring them to Christ. Number two, the tribulation is God dealing with a world that has fought his church. And you read this in 2nd Thessalonians 1, he talks about it clearly. It’s God dealing with a world that has really been fighting his church since Christ, you know, sent the Holy Spirit till he comes back again. So the church has really been in tribulation for about 2,000 years, but it’s not tribulation from God. And the tribulation isn’t what purifies you. You know why the tribulation doesn’t pur…? If the blood of Jesus Christ and faith in Jesus Christ, they not purify you, you’re not gonna be pure. But the tribulation that he’s talking about is worldly people coming against his people. And so he’s talking about some of these difficulties. Now, he said, we’re gonna look at a couple examples. In fact, I want you to turn with me to 2nd Corinthians 11, and we’re gonna read in verse 22, or actually 23, 23 to verse 28, 2nd Corinthians 11. And Paul’s talking about some of the difficulties that he faced as a minister of the gospel. And he says this in verse 23, “Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times I received 40 stripes save one.” Jesus was beat with 39 stripes, right, before he went to the cross. But Paul said, “This happened to me five times. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned.” You can read about that in Acts 14. You know, in Acts 13, they threatened him and ran him out of town. In Acts 14, he went and preached the next place, and they threatened him and ran him outta town. And the next place he went, they not only threatened him, they stoned him and left him for dead. And then his disciples gathered around him and prayed for him. I believe they raised him from the dead. And you know what Paul did? He went right back where he just left, where they just threatened him, where they just beat him, where they just stoned him, where they just ran him out of town and kept preaching the gospel. Man, that’s amazing to me. The disciples were filled with joy in the Holy Ghost. So, Paul says, “I was stoned, three times I suffered shipwreck, and night and day I’ve been in the deep, in journeyings often, perils of water, perils of robbers, perils by my own countrymen, perils by the heathen, perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.” You know, I told some of my friends the other day, I said, “You know, I think the only thing that’s meaner than politics is the church.” And they’re talking about the church. I said, “No, the church right here, the church that I deal with.” And Paul says that “I’ve seen all kinds of trouble. I’ve been in weariness, painfulness, watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that come on me daily, the care of all the churches.” Now, most of those things that Paul suffered, if not all of them, were primarily because he made the decision to follow Jesus and preach the gospel. And if he didn’t follow Jesus and preach the gospel, he wouldn’t have dealt with a lot of that persecution and affliction. So he faced some difficulty. In fact, in Matthew 10, Jesus sends his disciples, Let’s go over here to Matthew 10. We’ll just look at a couple scriptures and I wanna make sure I’m saying the right thing. Matthew 10, he is in verse one. It says, he called on his 12 disciples and gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out to heal all manner of sickness and manner of disease. And then he begins to talk to them about going and preaching the gospel and healing sick, so on and so forth. And he says, as he gets down, you know, “You go to these cities, you preach the gospel, whoever’s worthy, go there.” But he says in verse 14, “Whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart out of that house, shake the dust off your feet.” And that’s kind of what Paul was doing in Acts 13:14, right? He says, “Verily I say to you,” in verse 15, It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.” He says in verse 16, “I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be therefore as wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” And he goes on down. But I want you to notice in verse 23 through verse 25, he says, “When they persecute you in this city, flee to another: for verily I say unto you, you will not gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of the household? Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.” So he’s talking about, if we go up there in verse 22, I missed that one, but he says, “You’ll be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endures to the end shall be saved.” So, if you go preach the gospel, if you’re bold about your faith in Jesus, not everybody’s gonna love you. Not everybody’s gonna like you. Right? That’s what Jesus said. Praise the Lord, friends, I’m so glad that you’ve been watching the program today. I’ve been teaching live in church on a Wednesday evening service sharing about the hope of Christ coming. We have all of these teachings available to you in downloadable form, free of charge on our website, and many more at CharisChristianCenter.com. How many times have we been in a place where we’ve suffered a great loss, a great difficulty, a great problem, and maybe we didn’t even realize it, but Jesus was right there with us all the time. In fact, the scripture says that he will never leave us and he will never forsake us. Thank God, even when we don’t feel it, he’s there so many times. So dealing with difficulty, we deal with difficulties. Now, what should we do when we’re dealing with difficulty? We’re gonna deal with difficulty. If you live very long after you get saved, you’re gonna deal with difficulty. And if you live very long in the church, you’re gonna have opportunity, hopefully, it’s not me, but, you know, I’ve offended a few people. I don’t try to offend people, but listen, I just kind of am who I am, right? So once in a while I offend somebody not even trying to offend somebody, ’cause I don’t walk on eggshells. See what I’m saying? So I hope I haven’t offended you, but I might’ve. And if you’re here, maybe you got over it. Somebody said, grace, I need lots of grace. But how do we deal with difficulty? One of my friends said this years ago, he was very close to me. Years ago he said, “Well, in the world,” he said, “they’ll stab you back and run over you.” And he said, “In the church, they’ll stab you in the back and run over you. And they’ll say, ‘God told me to do it!'” I’ve had some of that happen. Anyway. So, how do you deal with difficulty? How do you deal with persecution, affliction, rejection? What are we to do? And Paul tells us, and he’s talking about in hope of eternal life. And that’s what he’s dealing with here before he gets talking about Christ coming. So, he tells us in verse five through eight, let’s read this, “For this cause when I could no longer forebear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you and our labor be in vain. But now when Timothy came from you to us and brought us good tidings of your faith and love, that you have good remembrance of us always desiring greatly to see us and also we to you. therefore we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith, for now we live if you stand fast in the Lord.” You know what Paul says? When you’re dealing with difficulty, when you’re dealing with persecution, when you’re dealing with affliction, when you’re dealing with rejection, what you need to do is look out there and see the fruit of your labor. Don’t forget what you’ve been doing. Don’t forget how the seeds that you’ve been sowing are growing. Paul said, “So we sent Timothy because we wanted to check up on you. And when Timothy got there, we found out that you’re really strong in your faith and you’re strong in your love. So you were an encouragement to us.” Hallelujah. “He told us the good news of your faith and love. In fact,” chapter one, he said, “we know the work of faith, labor of love and rejoicing hope.” He says, “We were comforted over you in all of our affliction and distress.” We were going through affliction, we were going through distress, we were going through problems, we were going through rejection, but we were comforted when we saw your faith, because we’ve been sowing some seeds and those seeds are still growing. So don’t forget the good seeds that you’ve been sowing, and don’t forget the good fruit that’s been growing. Amen? And he says, “Now we live, if you stand fast.” We’re gonna keep living. We’re gonna keep going forward. We’re gonna keep rejoicing. Because you know what? We see that the seeds we’ve been sowing are growing. We see the fruit from the years past. Amen? So, remember to look out there and still, everybody say, see the good. You gotta see the good. You gotta remember the good that God’s doing. You gotta remember the good that God’s done. Amen? Even sometimes, right? Sometimes it happened in Paul’s life, right? Paul was with Barnabas and they had a disagreement about Mark, John Mark, and Paul said, he’s a sissy, he’s a mama’s boy. Send him home. He’s a pansy. I’m so tired of these pansies, you know? Right? So Paul and Barnabas disagreed. So Barnabas took John Mark, right? He went one way and Paul took Silas and he went another way. And guess what? There was fruit that was abounding. Now later Paul says, “Hey, hey, send Mark over here because he’s profitable for the ministry.” So he saw that he grew up, so he saw the fruit of Barnabas’s labor. Now, Lester Sumrall did say this. He said, “You never heard about Barnabas again.” ‘Cause you gotta watch who you fight with. If you fight with the wrong people, you might not hear a lot about ’em again. Okay? So. There’s just some people, I’m not gonna… Listen, I might decide to go a different way. I might decide that we need to do something different, but I’m not gonna fight with ’em. Amen? So just see the fruit. Look for the fruit and rejoice in the good and leave the rest alone. So he says, “Now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord. So see the fruit of our labor and see the fruit in the Lord.” Now in Philippians 4, Paul makes a statement and he says, “Rejoice in the Lord,” in verse four, “always. And again, I say, rejoice.” Now you gotta keep rejoicing. Then he tells us how to do it: “Let your moderation be known to all men. Let your gentleness be known to all men.” Pastor Lawson, you can work on that area. “The Lord is at hand. Be careful, don’t worry about anything and everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” But I love verse eight. He says, “Finely, brethren, whatever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely of good report. If there’s any virtue, if there’s any praise, think on these things.” Now guess what? You have to train yourself to think on positive things. Because we live in a world that gravitate towards the negative, right? In fact, I don’t watch very much of the media’s news on conservative formats, almost none on liberal formats, right? Because you know why I don’t? Because they’re all negative. And I know if I want to get where God wants me to go and accomplish what God wants me to do, I’ve gotta stay positive. In fact, if you take a lesson from Solomon, the first thing that Solomon did when he took over the kingdom was he had a big sacrifice. And they had a great big time of thanksgiving. And he made a big offering and thanked God for everything good. And guess what? The kingdom grew and prospered like it had never grown and prospered before. Amen? So if you want things to go well, stay focused on the good. So when you’re dealing with difficulty, when you’re dealing with rejection, when you’re dealing with affliction, when you’re dealing with persecution, look for the fruit of your labor. See your fruit in the Lord. Look for the good things, amen? And rejoice in them. Now, Paul goes on, let’s read the rest of this in 1st Thessalonians, go back to 1st Thessalonians, we’ll be in chapter three, and we’ll begin reading here in verse nine. “For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God.” In other words, we’re rejoicing for you and we’re rejoicing for your sakes before God. Night and day we pray exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith.” So Paul said, “Listen, we sent Timothy because we wanted to check on you, but we’re waiting for the day we get to see you. And he says this in Romans 1. He says, “I long to see you,” I think it’s verse 11, “that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, right, “to the end that you might be,” I think it says “you might be established,” but he says, “I want to impart a spiritual…” He says, “Listen, we want to perfect.” Now that word perfect is the Greek word katartizo. And it means to complete, repair, equip, strengthen, or make one what he ought to be. And this is what the fivefold ministry are actually supposed to be doing. Ephesians 4:11, it says, Jesus gave these gifts to the church, apostles, prophets, evangels, pastors and teachers. He did it for the perfecting, right? And that word perfecting is a form of the same word. It’s a little bit different. It’s katartismos, and it means completing, furnishing, or equipping for the… He gave these fivefold ministries to complete, to equip, to furnish the saints, to mature the saints. Another word you could use there is mature. What I’m really trying to do is help people grow up and mature, so that they can do the work of the ministry. Because guess what? We’re all called to the work of the ministry. We’re all called to share Jesus with people around us. Now, as we read this, as we go back to 1st Thessalonians 2, he says, “So night and day praying exceedingly that we might see you, and might help you mature that we might equip you, that we might complete you, that we might help you get to where God wants you to be, that we might impart to you what is lacking in your faith. Now, God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward one another.” Guess what? We need to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus, but we also need to increase and abound in love toward one another. Amen? And you know what? It’s not easy sometimes. It’s not as easy to do it as it is to say it, right? So he says, the Lord make you increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all men, even as we do toward you. To the end,” this is what he wants to, “he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all of his saints.” So he says, here’s what we’re dealing. We’ve been dealing with difficulty. So what we’re gonna do when we’re dealing with difficulty, whether it’s affliction, whether it’s persecution, whether it’s rejection, we’re gonna look out there and we’re gonna look for the fruit. We’re gonna look for the good. We’re gonna rejoice in what we see that God’s done. Friend, we’ve been talking about Christian maturity, and it’s amazing how many people struggle with walking in love, walking in maturity. But you can be a person of maturity. You can let the love of God flow through you to other people. If you’re watching today and you need prayer, I want to encourage you today to call us. 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