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God is Able to Carry You Sermon – 2 Thessalonians

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Download: 2 Thes 3 God is able to carry you until the end 2015-07-12

I don’t have any notes that I can find on this. That just means I saved the somewhere crazy, not that I spoke with no notes!

Here is the gist of this sermon on 2 Thessalonians 3:

  • God will sustain you through the end
  • Guy burned at the stake that raised his hands up (maybe Thomas Hawkes http://www.the-highway.com/Hawkes.html)
  • God will uphold you and sustain you through every awful thing
  • God’s goal isn’t to get the work done, but to work in us. He’s already prepared the work for us to do. I could do it Himself, but He wants to work in you as you do it.

End of the World Sermon – 2 Thessalonians

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Download: End of the World in 2Thes 2 from 2015-07-05

The Day of the Lord and our gathering to Him

How we talk about it and think about it

  • Grace being scared
  • Like a bullied kid when his dad (or more accurately-big brother) shows up
  • The devil uses folklore, stories, weather by campfire, books, or movies, to parody reality, so that we will be afraid of the end of the world, or afraid of the resurrection from the dead.
  • It is a joyful hope for the bullied kid, and a dreadful fear for the bully!

    Hasn’t happened yet

  • When it does, you’ll know it!

    [26] So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. [27] For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:26-27 ESV)

  • Rebellion first
  • Man of lawlessness
    • exalts himself
    • sits in the temple – not in Rome

      [15] “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), [16] then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (Matthew 24:15-16 ESV)

    • proclaims himself to be God

      [5] For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. (Matthew 24:5 ESV)

    • (Paul says he already told them all of this?!)
    • The mystery (hidden message/activity) of lawlessness is already at work.

      [24] He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, [25] but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. [26] So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. [27] And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ [28] He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ [29] But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. [30] Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:24-30 ESV)

      • Jesus will kill him and bring him to nothing by appearing
      • Just. By. Appearing.
    • Lawless one isn’t Satan, but is sent by Satan to deceive many
      • He will have miraculous powers and lead people away from the truth
      • This doesn’t mean miracles are evil. When Jesus gets the glory, the devil is not happy.
      • I have heard a lot of people automatically think that miracles are from the devil, and I can only imagine how miserable their prayer life must be.
    • The man of lawlessness will work miracles for people in the name of unrighteousness.
    • When God works a miracle on somebody that isn’t deserving, and doesn’t work a miracle on somebody that we think is deserving, we are missing out on God’s grace, that heals and works according to His plan, while at the same time loving us a ton apart from what we think we deserve.
  • Paul is so thankful for them b/c
    • The work of the Holy Spirit in their lives
    • Their belief in the truth
  • Stand firm and keep acting like Christians!
    • traditions
    • word they were taught
    • words of the letters
  • eternal comfort and good hope establish all of our good works and words.

Hope for a Kingdom – Sermon on 2 Thessalonians

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This is 1 of 3 sermons I preached on 2 Thessalonians.

Or you can download: HopeForAKingdom 2015-06-28

Here are my super-rough notes.

v.3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers,1 as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

Look at what is being measured here and what they are being commended for: their faith flourishing and their love for one another is ever greater.
They must have had a really great life, right?

v.4 Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. (2 Thessalonians 1:4 ESV)

That is what Paul is boasting in when he goes to other churches. Not miracles, not doctrine, now their accomplishments in the city, but their flourishing faith and their growing love for each other. Wow.

And so Paul boasts about their faith in perseverance and the afflictions they are enduring.

Have you ever talked to somebody and known exactly what kind of parents they had? We knew this family that worked for Wicliffe Bible Translators, and their daughter was just a little girl and she had the vocabulary of a novelist.

I have a friend who’s 5th grader is the best soccer player on the middle school team. He’s a 5th grader. Well, his dad played soccer for at least 20 years, and many of those years were with Arabs and Brazilians.

If you already know these kids’ parents, you know something about the kids that comes as no surprise. And if you meet the kids first, and see how incredible they are, you are not surprised to find out about who their parents are.

2 Thes 1.4-5
therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering.

What if we suffered, struggled, and lived our lives with the knowledge that God is going to come and make everything right?

v.6-7 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, [7] and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels

Are we OK with that? The world wants us to do things directly against this: to find relief on our own, NOW, without waiting, and to afflict our enemies, NOW, without waiting.

Does it help you to wait if you know what God is going to do?

v.[7] and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels [8] in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. [9] They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
(2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 ESV)

What if the number one goal of submission and obedience to the Lord revolves around patience? Or what if it is expressed in patience? What if it is by patient endurance that people come to see who Our Father is?

I have a friend who’s son asked him “Why do we have to worship God now even though we will worship Him for all of eternity? Isn’t eternity enough?”

He asked his son this question “If I asked you to do something and a stranger asked you to do the same thing during the same time so that you had to pick and only help one of us, which one would you help?
I’d help you, Dad!
Why?
Because I love you and I don’t even know that other person.
Then that is exactly why we worship God now instead of anything else, because we are always worshipping and serving something.

One more thing I want to say then I’ll wrap it all together:

v.11 To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,
(2 Thessalonians 1:11 ESV)

God is the one making you worthy, not you! You don’t have to do a bunch of stuff, you just have to be the news.

So what if it’s true?