May 12, 2024 • 15 mins
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Embark on a spiritual odyssey with me, Pastor Brandon, as we journey through the profound verses of 1 Thessalonians. Experience the transformational power of testimony in ministry and bask in the anticipation of our Savior's return. Through the trials faced by the Thessalonian church, we'll uncover the strength found in faithfulness and the importance of holding firm against false teachings. As we navigate the themes of holy living and eschatology, I'll share my heartfelt reflections on the end times, reassuring you that the intricacies will unfold as they should, in God's perfect timing.
Feel the embrace of hope and the joy of salvation that resonates through 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, urging us toward a life of continual rejoicing, praying, and thanksgiving. Our conversation becomes a tapestry of encouragement, each thread a story of redemption and grace that equips us to stand as beacons of light in a world often shrouded in darkness. As we celebrate the testimony of the Thessalonian believers, let their unwavering faith inspire you to share your own journey with Christ, knowing that your story too holds the power to uplift and minister to souls in search of hope. Join us for this episode as we affirm the unshakable love of God and the blessed assurance of His eternal presence.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon, today.
1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, and, as always, we always kind of
give you a little bit of abackground about the book before
we jump into it.
But chapter 1, the title todaywould be your Testimony is your
Ministry your Testimony is yourMinistry.
(00:21):
We'll get into that in just amoment but, as always, if you
like what we're doing here, makesure you like, share and
subscribe to the YouTube channeland the podcast.
Leave us a five-star review onthe podcast it really does help
and also leave us a comment onthe YouTube videos.
It also helps us.
We love engaging with everyoneand just answering questions and
hearing your feedback.
We love it so much.
And then, when we all gathertogether together at the Bible
(00:50):
Breakdown Discussion on Facebook, man, the more we dig, the more
we find, and we have such agreat team of people who do a
wonderful job over there and Ilove it so very much.
Well, 1 Thessalonians is a veryinteresting book, and not just
because it's one of the hardestbooks in the Bible to pronounce.
Okay, you can try it and thentry spelling it.
Okay, 1 Thessalonians all right, very interesting.
We'll give a little bit ofbackground about this and we're
going to enjoy this because it'ssuch a wonderful, wonderful
book.
But first of all to say it waswritten by the apostle Paul.
(01:15):
The church in Thessalonica,which is the city that this was
from, they actually this was achurch that was started by Paul,
but he probably only stayedthere for just a few months,
maybe three or four months, ashe was going on his second
missionary journey he had hewanted.
His long missionary journeycame home and then he wanted to
go back out again and check onthe different churches and
different things.
And when he goes out he goes tothis small town called
Thessalonica and while he'sthere he ends up staying for a
(01:38):
few months.
He starts a church, put someleaders over them and he leaves.
And so after he leaves thoughhe gets worried about them
because he'd already been havingsome of these problems with the
city of Galatia, where heeventually writes the book of
Galatians back to, because falseteachers, especially Judaizers,
would come right after him andstart distorting a lot of what
(01:59):
he had said and kind of changingstuff up and just confusing
people.
And so Paul sends Timothythat's kind of his protege, his
right-hand man.
He sends Timothy back to go hey, are they okay?
And that's where we end upfinding this letter, because
Timothy comes back and he's likeno, they're good.
There are some false teachersthat are getting them a little
confused about Jesus and thiskind of stuff, but other than
(02:20):
that, they're doing really good.
And so in response to this,paul, in spite of the Holy
Spirit, writes what we now haveas 1 Thessalonians, where he is
correcting somemisunderstandings that they have
, but also just celebrating thatthey are doing so well in the
kingdom of God, and so he'sclearing these things up.
He's also writing a little bitabout holy living, what that
(02:41):
looks like, and he's alsotalking about something that's
going to come up more and moreas we get closer and closer to
the book of Revelation, which isthe last part of the New
Testament.
And so the overall theme of 1Thessalonians is that be
encouraged, jesus is coming.
Be encouraged, jesus is coming.
(03:03):
Now there's a lot of differentfaith traditions under the big
umbrella of Christianity.
There's a lot of people thatbelieve a lot of different
things, but there's a few thingsthat are just essential that
everybody holds to.
That's considered to beessential doctrines if you are
going to be a follower of Christand people have put them into
things called the Apostles'Creed and stuff like that.
But if you want to kind offigure out, one of them is that
(03:25):
truth is knowable, becausethat's like where everything
starts.
If you can't know truth, thennone of this works right.
Another one is that there's aTrinity Father, son and Spirit
one in essence three in person.
That Jesus is the Son of Godbecause otherwise John 3.16
doesn't work.
That he came and he died forour sins.
We were in sin.
The Bible is the divinelyinspired word of God, that
(03:50):
salvation is faith alone inChrist, alone, by grace alone.
And then there is a secondcoming of Christ, one day to get
the saved and judge thecondemned right.
But there's a second coming ofChrist.
That's a lot of those things.
You can go back and look atthose, but the one I'm trying to
get to is that most allOrthodox that means like good
(04:15):
faith traditions all believe ina second coming of Christ.
Now there is a lot of ways thatthey divide that up.
Some people believe that thereis a rapture of the church, then
a seven year of tribulation andthen a second coming of Christ.
Some people believe that thereis like seven years of
tribulation and then, right inthe middle, there's a rapture of
the church and then, at the endof seven years, there is a
(04:37):
second coming.
Some people believe there is aseven years of tribulation and
then there is just a secondcoming, no rapture, and then
some people believe that thereis no.
There is no, uh tribulation,but the rapture and the second
coming are the same thing andthat happens.
However, that works for you.
The bottom line is there is asecond coming and people ask me
(04:58):
all the time, pastor, what areyou, are you, are you in?
And there's a lot of thesereally, uh, really fancy words
for what's called the study ofthe end time, eschatology.
So it's like are you pre-mill,pre-trib, all this kind of stuff
.
Can I tell you I have what Icall pantheology, which means
it'll all pan out in the end,and I mean that because I have
studied end times doctrine andeschatology for a long time.
(05:22):
And can I be honest with youand tell you, the more I studied
it, the more confused I got,because I think that prophecy is
one of those things that wedon't know it's happened until
after it's already happened.
Look at the New Testament.
The Bible said that thePharisees and Sadducees and
scribes and Pharisees they couldtell you all about where the
Messiah was supposed to be born.
(05:44):
When you look in Matthew,chapter 2, the Bible said that
when the what we call the wisemen from the east they came and
said where's the king of theJews going to be born?
They said in Bethlehem.
We have all the prophecies, weknow all about it.
Yet they didn't recognize Jesushad come until after he had
already come.
And then afterward they werelike, oh, that's how that works.
Can I be honest with you?
(06:04):
As I get older I'm starting tolook at Bible prophecy like that
, going, hey, I love it, I lovethat we study it.
I think it's really cool,really interesting.
But I just trust the Lord and Igot a pretty good idea that
we're not going to know what'shappened until after it's
happened.
And we look back and we go, hey, there it was.
So I want to encourage you aswe get into 1 Thessalonians,
(06:25):
because every chapter is goingto talk about the coming of
Christ.
I want to encourage you as weget closer and closer to the
book of Revelation and the bookof Daniel and it's called
apocalyptic literature to notget obsessed with what's going
to happen in the future.
Be encouraged by who's alreadyin the future, and it's Jesus.
Jesus sits outside of time.
(06:49):
He sees time like a book, fromone end to the other.
So that means, if you can getyour head around this, that he
can go all the way to the frontand be with Adam and Eve in the
garden and go all the way to theend and be with us in what we
would call the kingdom reign ofChrist at the end of all time.
So he's already in the future.
So it's interesting.
Love studying it.
(07:09):
Love studying that kind ofstuff.
Think it's great.
But don't put your hope inprophecy.
Put your hope in Jesus.
Be encouraged that whatever hedoes, he is trustworthy.
And so I don't know how he'sgoing to come.
I just know that he is.
God's word is clear Jesus isgoing to come again.
We just don't know how he'sgoing to come.
I just know that he is.
God's word is clear Jesus isgoing to come again.
We just don't know exactly whenand where.
We just know that he is andthat's what Paul was trying to
(07:33):
fix inspired by the Holy Spirit.
And so I think 1 Thessaloniansis still so very relevant, of
course, today, because there'sstill so many people that get
discouraged.
Is Jesus going to come now?
Is he going to come then?
Is there going to be a rapture?
Is there going to be a secondcoming and Paul's going?
Here's the thing Focus on Jesus.
Not always about that, butfocus on Jesus and trust that
(07:54):
when he comes, it's going to beawesome.
So be encouraged.
And so we're going to read thistogether over the next few days
.
There's only just a fewchapters, but as we read it,
we're going to be encouraged,not nervous and excited, not
discouraged, because we trust inthe one who's already in the
future.
You ready, here we go.
1 Thessalonians 1, verse 1 saysthis this is a letter from Paul,
(08:19):
silas and Timothy.
We are writing to the church inThessalonica.
We always thank God for you alland pray for you constantly.
As we pray to our God andFather about you, we think of
your faithful work, your lovingdeeds and the enduring hope that
(08:43):
you have because of our LordJesus Christ.
We know, dear brothers andsisters, that God loves you and
has chosen you to be his ownpeople, for when he brought you
the good news, it is not onlywith words, but also with power,
for the Holy Spirit gave youfull assurance that what we said
was true, and you know that ourconcern for you from the way we
(09:06):
lived when we were with you.
So you receive this messagewith joy from the Holy Spirit,
in spite of the severe sufferingit brought you.
In this way, you imitated bothus and the Lord and, as a result
, you have become an example toall the believers in Greece,
throughout both Macedonia andArchaea, and now, with the word
(09:27):
of the Lord.
Now the word of the Lord isringing out from you to people
everywhere, even beyondMacedonia and Archaea, for
wherever you go, we find people.
Wherever we go, we find peopletelling us about your faith in
God.
We don't need to tell themabout it, for they keep talking
about the wonderful welcome yougave us and how you turned away
(09:47):
from the idols to serve theliving and true God, and they
speak of how you are lookingforward to the coming of God's
Son from heaven.
There's about Jesus coming,jesus whom God raised from the
dead and he is the one who hasrescued us from the terrors of
the coming judgment.
Wow, do you notice the theme inchapter one where Paul is
(10:08):
saying man, your testimony hasbecome a ministry to everyone.
When people hear about how youturned from your idols and how
it cost you something.
You had to turn away from whatyou'd always known and turned
away from all these other thingsand you turned toward Jesus.
It cost you, it wasn't an easything, but, man, you were
(10:29):
faithful and you turned towardhim and it has been an
encouragement to me and I'veeven heard of people that don't
that you don't know, but they'veheard about you and it's
encouraged them and he's likeand now we're so excited and
we're encouraged because of thecoming of our Lord Jesus.
And so what do we take awayfrom this?
First of all, don't forget whatI said, because we're going to
(10:51):
come up to it.
It's going to talk about thecoming of Jesus in every chapter
.
We believe at Real Life Churchand I hope you believe that
Jesus is coming again.
And we could get intowonderfully long debates on what
exactly that's going to looklike, and I would love to have
those, but for the purpose ofthis discussion, I'm just glad
he's coming.
So, however you want to sliceit, I have that pan theology.
(11:14):
It's all going to pan out inthe end and my joy is, I'm
encouraged that my Jesus, yourJesus, is coming again.
And here's the thing I also wantyou to get out of this is that
your testimony is your ministry.
And I tell you, I've talked topeople who have amazing stories
about how God did amazing thingsin their life and they're
(11:36):
ashamed to tell their storybecause they're ashamed that it
will make them look bad, makeGod look bad, make other people
look bad.
I've known people who you knowtheir story isn't about you know
they went and joined this gangor they went over there, but
their story is still amazing andit's powerful because it's
about how God worked on theirheart and worked them through
these different things.
And they're ashamed becausethey don't think they have a
(11:59):
story.
Can I tell you your story?
Your testimony is your ministry.
I believe it's a fact that Godhas put people around you right
now that, yes, maybe there areother people that wouldn't
understand your story, but thereare people that God has put in
your life that will understand.
I tell you, my story is aboutgrowing up in church with a
loving father who loved me andraised me to know who God was.
(12:22):
My dad was a pastor.
I knew all about God, but thatdoesn't change anything, because
until I learned who God was formyself and I started reading
God's word for myself, it wasall a bunch of words.
But then one day I trustedJesus for my salvation and it
changed my life.
There are some people who don'tunderstand that story.
There's other people who knowexactly what I'm talking about,
because they grew up knowing allabout who God was but never
(12:45):
experienced God for themselves.
Can I tell you, your story isyour ministry.
Don't be ashamed of your story.
Now that doesn't mean you'vegot to tell every detail and all
that kind of stuff, but whatabout the part where you didn't
know who Jesus was and about howit hurt a whole lot?
And then, when you just aboutgave up on yourself, jesus came
in and he rescued you.
(13:06):
I love that phrase at the endof that.
He is the one who has rescuedus.
And I tell you, never beashamed of telling people about
your rescue, about how you weredrowning and Jesus rescued you.
Your testimony is your ministry.
Let's pray together, god.
Thank you so much that you'refor us.
And then we have an enduringhope.
(13:27):
The number one.
Hope is the greatest miracle wecould ever hope for.
We've already received it'scalled salvation, but on top of
that, you work on us, youdeliver us of all of our pain,
and it's a lifelong journey andthen one day, either we die from
this life and we go be with youin eternity, or one day we may
have the joy of being alive whenyou come again.
We don't know when that's goingto be, but we trust you that it
(13:49):
will be and I pray that we willbe encouraged in our hearts to
realize you are for us and youare with us more than we can
imagine.
We celebrate that today InJesus' name.
We pray Amen and amen.
Well, the theme verse for thisparticular book of the Bible and
as you can tell, this is goingto be an interesting book, I'm
excited to get deeper into ittogether.
But the theme verse for thisone is going to be 1
(14:13):
Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18,that says this always be joyful,
never stop praying, be thankfulin all circumstances, for this
is God's will for you who belongto Christ Jesus.
God's will for you is to bejoyful, to never stop getting to
know him, never stop prayingand to be thankful in all
circumstances.
I love you, I'll see youtomorrow.
For 1 Thessalonians 2.
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon, today.
1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, and, as always, we always kind of
give you a little bit of abackground about the book before
we jump into it.
But chapter 1, the title todaywould be your Testimony is your
Ministry your Testimony is yourMinistry.
(00:21):
We'll get into that in just amoment but, as always, if you
like what we're doing here, makesure you like, share and
subscribe to the YouTube channeland the podcast.
Leave us a five-star review onthe podcast it really does help
and also leave us a comment onthe YouTube videos.
It also helps us.
We love engaging with everyoneand just answering questions and
hearing your feedback.
We love it so much.
And then, when we all gathertogether together at the Bible
(00:50):
Breakdown Discussion on Facebook, man, the more we dig, the more
we find, and we have such agreat team of people who do a
wonderful job over there and Ilove it so very much.
Well, 1 Thessalonians is a veryinteresting book, and not just
because it's one of the hardestbooks in the Bible to pronounce.
Okay, you can try it and thentry spelling it.
Okay, 1 Thessalonians all right, very interesting.
We'll give a little bit ofbackground about this and we're
going to enjoy this because it'ssuch a wonderful, wonderful
book.
But first of all to say it waswritten by the apostle Paul.
(01:15):
The church in Thessalonica,which is the city that this was
from, they actually this was achurch that was started by Paul,
but he probably only stayedthere for just a few months,
maybe three or four months, ashe was going on his second
missionary journey he had hewanted.
His long missionary journeycame home and then he wanted to
go back out again and check onthe different churches and
different things.
And when he goes out he goes tothis small town called
Thessalonica and while he'sthere he ends up staying for a
(01:38):
few months.
He starts a church, put someleaders over them and he leaves.
And so after he leaves thoughhe gets worried about them
because he'd already been havingsome of these problems with the
city of Galatia, where heeventually writes the book of
Galatians back to, because falseteachers, especially Judaizers,
would come right after him andstart distorting a lot of what
(01:59):
he had said and kind of changingstuff up and just confusing
people.
And so Paul sends Timothythat's kind of his protege, his
right-hand man.
He sends Timothy back to go hey, are they okay?
And that's where we end upfinding this letter, because
Timothy comes back and he's likeno, they're good.
There are some false teachersthat are getting them a little
confused about Jesus and thiskind of stuff, but other than
(02:20):
that, they're doing really good.
And so in response to this,paul, in spite of the Holy
Spirit, writes what we now haveas 1 Thessalonians, where he is
correcting somemisunderstandings that they have
, but also just celebrating thatthey are doing so well in the
kingdom of God, and so he'sclearing these things up.
He's also writing a little bitabout holy living, what that
(02:41):
looks like, and he's alsotalking about something that's
going to come up more and moreas we get closer and closer to
the book of Revelation, which isthe last part of the New
Testament.
And so the overall theme of 1Thessalonians is that be
encouraged, jesus is coming.
Be encouraged, jesus is coming.
(03:03):
Now there's a lot of differentfaith traditions under the big
umbrella of Christianity.
There's a lot of people thatbelieve a lot of different
things, but there's a few thingsthat are just essential that
everybody holds to.
That's considered to beessential doctrines if you are
going to be a follower of Christand people have put them into
things called the Apostles'Creed and stuff like that.
But if you want to kind offigure out, one of them is that
(03:25):
truth is knowable, becausethat's like where everything
starts.
If you can't know truth, thennone of this works right.
Another one is that there's aTrinity Father, son and Spirit
one in essence three in person.
That Jesus is the Son of Godbecause otherwise John 3.16
doesn't work.
That he came and he died forour sins.
We were in sin.
The Bible is the divinelyinspired word of God, that
(03:50):
salvation is faith alone inChrist, alone, by grace alone.
And then there is a secondcoming of Christ, one day to get
the saved and judge thecondemned right.
But there's a second coming ofChrist.
That's a lot of those things.
You can go back and look atthose, but the one I'm trying to
get to is that most allOrthodox that means like good
(04:15):
faith traditions all believe ina second coming of Christ.
Now there is a lot of ways thatthey divide that up.
Some people believe that thereis a rapture of the church, then
a seven year of tribulation andthen a second coming of Christ.
Some people believe that thereis like seven years of
tribulation and then, right inthe middle, there's a rapture of
the church and then, at the endof seven years, there is a
(04:37):
second coming.
Some people believe there is aseven years of tribulation and
then there is just a secondcoming, no rapture, and then
some people believe that thereis no.
There is no, uh tribulation,but the rapture and the second
coming are the same thing andthat happens.
However, that works for you.
The bottom line is there is asecond coming and people ask me
(04:58):
all the time, pastor, what areyou, are you, are you in?
And there's a lot of thesereally, uh, really fancy words
for what's called the study ofthe end time, eschatology.
So it's like are you pre-mill,pre-trib, all this kind of stuff
.
Can I tell you I have what Icall pantheology, which means
it'll all pan out in the end,and I mean that because I have
studied end times doctrine andeschatology for a long time.
(05:22):
And can I be honest with youand tell you, the more I studied
it, the more confused I got,because I think that prophecy is
one of those things that wedon't know it's happened until
after it's already happened.
Look at the New Testament.
The Bible said that thePharisees and Sadducees and
scribes and Pharisees they couldtell you all about where the
Messiah was supposed to be born.
(05:44):
When you look in Matthew,chapter 2, the Bible said that
when the what we call the wisemen from the east they came and
said where's the king of theJews going to be born?
They said in Bethlehem.
We have all the prophecies, weknow all about it.
Yet they didn't recognize Jesushad come until after he had
already come.
And then afterward they werelike, oh, that's how that works.
Can I be honest with you?
(06:04):
As I get older I'm starting tolook at Bible prophecy like that
, going, hey, I love it, I lovethat we study it.
I think it's really cool,really interesting.
But I just trust the Lord and Igot a pretty good idea that
we're not going to know what'shappened until after it's
happened.
And we look back and we go, hey, there it was.
So I want to encourage you aswe get into 1 Thessalonians,
(06:25):
because every chapter is goingto talk about the coming of
Christ.
I want to encourage you as weget closer and closer to the
book of Revelation and the bookof Daniel and it's called
apocalyptic literature to notget obsessed with what's going
to happen in the future.
Be encouraged by who's alreadyin the future, and it's Jesus.
Jesus sits outside of time.
(06:49):
He sees time like a book, fromone end to the other.
So that means, if you can getyour head around this, that he
can go all the way to the frontand be with Adam and Eve in the
garden and go all the way to theend and be with us in what we
would call the kingdom reign ofChrist at the end of all time.
So he's already in the future.
So it's interesting.
Love studying it.
(07:09):
Love studying that kind ofstuff.
Think it's great.
But don't put your hope inprophecy.
Put your hope in Jesus.
Be encouraged that whatever hedoes, he is trustworthy.
And so I don't know how he'sgoing to come.
I just know that he is.
God's word is clear Jesus isgoing to come again.
We just don't know how he'sgoing to come.
I just know that he is.
God's word is clear Jesus isgoing to come again.
We just don't know exactly whenand where.
We just know that he is andthat's what Paul was trying to
(07:33):
fix inspired by the Holy Spirit.
And so I think 1 Thessaloniansis still so very relevant, of
course, today, because there'sstill so many people that get
discouraged.
Is Jesus going to come now?
Is he going to come then?
Is there going to be a rapture?
Is there going to be a secondcoming and Paul's going?
Here's the thing Focus on Jesus.
Not always about that, butfocus on Jesus and trust that
(07:54):
when he comes, it's going to beawesome.
So be encouraged.
And so we're going to read thistogether over the next few days
.
There's only just a fewchapters, but as we read it,
we're going to be encouraged,not nervous and excited, not
discouraged, because we trust inthe one who's already in the
future.
You ready, here we go.
1 Thessalonians 1, verse 1 saysthis this is a letter from Paul,
(08:19):
silas and Timothy.
We are writing to the church inThessalonica.
We always thank God for you alland pray for you constantly.
As we pray to our God andFather about you, we think of
your faithful work, your lovingdeeds and the enduring hope that
(08:43):
you have because of our LordJesus Christ.
We know, dear brothers andsisters, that God loves you and
has chosen you to be his ownpeople, for when he brought you
the good news, it is not onlywith words, but also with power,
for the Holy Spirit gave youfull assurance that what we said
was true, and you know that ourconcern for you from the way we
(09:06):
lived when we were with you.
So you receive this messagewith joy from the Holy Spirit,
in spite of the severe sufferingit brought you.
In this way, you imitated bothus and the Lord and, as a result
, you have become an example toall the believers in Greece,
throughout both Macedonia andArchaea, and now, with the word
(09:27):
of the Lord.
Now the word of the Lord isringing out from you to people
everywhere, even beyondMacedonia and Archaea, for
wherever you go, we find people.
Wherever we go, we find peopletelling us about your faith in
God.
We don't need to tell themabout it, for they keep talking
about the wonderful welcome yougave us and how you turned away
(09:47):
from the idols to serve theliving and true God, and they
speak of how you are lookingforward to the coming of God's
Son from heaven.
There's about Jesus coming,jesus whom God raised from the
dead and he is the one who hasrescued us from the terrors of
the coming judgment.
Wow, do you notice the theme inchapter one where Paul is
(10:08):
saying man, your testimony hasbecome a ministry to everyone.
When people hear about how youturned from your idols and how
it cost you something.
You had to turn away from whatyou'd always known and turned
away from all these other thingsand you turned toward Jesus.
It cost you, it wasn't an easything, but, man, you were
(10:29):
faithful and you turned towardhim and it has been an
encouragement to me and I'veeven heard of people that don't
that you don't know, but they'veheard about you and it's
encouraged them and he's likeand now we're so excited and
we're encouraged because of thecoming of our Lord Jesus.
And so what do we take awayfrom this?
First of all, don't forget whatI said, because we're going to
(10:51):
come up to it.
It's going to talk about thecoming of Jesus in every chapter
.
We believe at Real Life Churchand I hope you believe that
Jesus is coming again.
And we could get intowonderfully long debates on what
exactly that's going to looklike, and I would love to have
those, but for the purpose ofthis discussion, I'm just glad
he's coming.
So, however you want to sliceit, I have that pan theology.
(11:14):
It's all going to pan out inthe end and my joy is, I'm
encouraged that my Jesus, yourJesus, is coming again.
And here's the thing I also wantyou to get out of this is that
your testimony is your ministry.
And I tell you, I've talked topeople who have amazing stories
about how God did amazing thingsin their life and they're
(11:36):
ashamed to tell their storybecause they're ashamed that it
will make them look bad, makeGod look bad, make other people
look bad.
I've known people who you knowtheir story isn't about you know
they went and joined this gangor they went over there, but
their story is still amazing andit's powerful because it's
about how God worked on theirheart and worked them through
these different things.
And they're ashamed becausethey don't think they have a
(11:59):
story.
Can I tell you your story?
Your testimony is your ministry.
I believe it's a fact that Godhas put people around you right
now that, yes, maybe there areother people that wouldn't
understand your story, but thereare people that God has put in
your life that will understand.
I tell you, my story is aboutgrowing up in church with a
loving father who loved me andraised me to know who God was.
(12:22):
My dad was a pastor.
I knew all about God, but thatdoesn't change anything, because
until I learned who God was formyself and I started reading
God's word for myself, it wasall a bunch of words.
But then one day I trustedJesus for my salvation and it
changed my life.
There are some people who don'tunderstand that story.
There's other people who knowexactly what I'm talking about,
because they grew up knowing allabout who God was but never
(12:45):
experienced God for themselves.
Can I tell you, your story isyour ministry.
Don't be ashamed of your story.
Now that doesn't mean you'vegot to tell every detail and all
that kind of stuff, but whatabout the part where you didn't
know who Jesus was and about howit hurt a whole lot?
And then, when you just aboutgave up on yourself, jesus came
in and he rescued you.
(13:06):
I love that phrase at the endof that.
He is the one who has rescuedus.
And I tell you, never beashamed of telling people about
your rescue, about how you weredrowning and Jesus rescued you.
Your testimony is your ministry.
Let's pray together, god.
Thank you so much that you'refor us.
And then we have an enduringhope.
(13:27):
The number one.
Hope is the greatest miracle wecould ever hope for.
We've already received it'scalled salvation, but on top of
that, you work on us, youdeliver us of all of our pain,
and it's a lifelong journey andthen one day, either we die from
this life and we go be with youin eternity, or one day we may
have the joy of being alive whenyou come again.
We don't know when that's goingto be, but we trust you that it
(13:49):
will be and I pray that we willbe encouraged in our hearts to
realize you are for us and youare with us more than we can
imagine.
We celebrate that today InJesus' name.
We pray Amen and amen.
Well, the theme verse for thisparticular book of the Bible and
as you can tell, this is goingto be an interesting book, I'm
excited to get deeper into ittogether.
But the theme verse for thisone is going to be 1
(14:13):
Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18,that says this always be joyful,
never stop praying, be thankfulin all circumstances, for this
is God's will for you who belongto Christ Jesus.
God's will for you is to bejoyful, to never stop getting to
know him, never stop prayingand to be thankful in all
circumstances.
I love you, I'll see youtomorrow.
For 1 Thessalonians 2.
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