100% Maybe

Ep. 33 - Thessalonians: The Lord is Faithful

• CLC Gulf Breeze • Season 1 • Episode 33

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As we close out 2 Thessalonians and our series, we step into chapter 3 and reflect on everything this letter has been shaping in us. Paul reminds us that following Jesus isn’t about checking out of life, but stepping fully into it,  playing our part in the community of faith and recognizing that our work is about more than just making a living. It’s about contributing to what God is doing in the world.

We come back to the foundation of faith, hope, and love; anchors that form our everyday lives and keep us steady when things feel uncertain. And in the midst of big questions about the future, we’re reminded that the end isn’t meant to bring confusion, but confidence. The Lord is faithful, and He will bring all things to completion in His timing. 

So the question isn’t just what we believe, it's how we live in light of it. 

SPEAKER_03

Welcome to the 100% Navy Podcast. I'm your host, Jeff Stewart, the Creative Director here at Community Life Church in Gulf Brees, Florida. Each episode, we'll get together to talk about the scripture passage that we'll be studying in our Sunday services. While this started as a resource for our church, we found it applies to all of us who are interested in what it looks like to follow Jesus. So wherever you are on your journey of faith, we hope these conversations will connect you to the source of life we have in Jesus and to the greater story that God is still writing today. Here's our episode.

SPEAKER_00

These are saltwater. They're supposed to look like bigger lake. Like taking one to the lake? I'll take one? Oh, we got the tickle. Are the saltwaters Will they work there? Yeah, sure they will. These are these look like big fish. For bass, bass will probably eat anything flashy and fast. Okay. Um, but for sure, for saltwater, you gotta get their attention.

SPEAKER_03

All right. Um, yeah. Alright, so I saved this story for right now. That'd be a great way to open. Okay. Okay. Welcome to 100% maybe. Oh, is it are we in? Oh, we're in. Okay. Okay, so you were telling me a couple weeks ago about your trip to Enterprise Alabama. Oh. Right? Where can this possibly go? So, this is gonna be things you love. I'm telling you, it's gonna circle back around and make complete sense why I wanted to tell you about this story. So, y'all told me you and Addy went there and uh told me all about the Bull Weevil. Bull Weevil. So I told you just from where I went. So I've been looking for a truck because Sammy's getting her license and we got to do the third car thing and all that. So been looking at trucks everywhere from here to Birmingham the last several weeks because I'm a researcher. And there's not a single truck between here and there. There's a lot of them. There's a lot of trucks, but looking for a good deal, used truck, all that whole kind of stuff, right? So I find a couple in Enterprise, Alabama. Okay. I think, all right, let's go out there. Uh super awesome wife. She's like, yeah, let's go look at them a couple hours away. I've never been to Enterprise. So driving out there, I'm like, where are we going? And she starts asking me. Yes. And I was shocked when I was still in Florida. I was like, I thought we'd been in Alabama for a while. And then you see the sign, you know, bye. See y'all, come back soon to Florida. I was like, oh my gosh, we've been in Florida this whole time. Yeah. So at one point, I was like, I feel like there's gonna be something somewhere. And she's like, is this gonna be just some guy's yard? Like, are we just pulling up to just some old Gary's used cars or whatever? Gary's used cars. I'm like, I don't know. They they had a website, like they had an actual Ram Chrysler website. It was official. I I think it's a dealership. Yeah, it is a real dealership, very nice. Uh, Mitchell Ram Chrysler, for those of you looking. Uh, great folks over there at Mitchell. And we're looking for sponsors, by the way. Um, so who give us trucks? Uh so I told you it was on Bull Weevil Circle, only in Enterprise. Only in Enterprise. Okay, so end up works out, great, you know, great experience. Get a truck, driving home. Okay, so I've it's been a while. I had a truck in high school, it's been 20 years for me driving a truck. So, you know, it's new to you, working it out, feeling great, driving on these back roads, and you're just thinking, just let me get home, let me get used to all of that. All right, so I'm driving, I'm going about 60. And out of the corner of my eye, I see something appear from the woods. It's not in front of me, so I I don't slam on the brakes. It's I'm going enough to where I think the move is just keep going and never happen. It's day, it's like two in the afternoon. Okay. I got the music pretty loud. It's got a good sound system. Okay, good. That's important. So I kind of hear this thud.

SPEAKER_01

Oh no.

SPEAKER_03

And I see something in my mirror, and I'm like, you have got to be kidding me. On my first ride home, this thing rams the truck. Guess what it was? A deer? A turkey. A turkey flies out of the woods and runs right into the wheel. Now, luckily for your boy here, no damage to the truck. I think he either got caught up in the wheel or something because he was. I don't, dude. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

Did it have a beard? Was it big? Was it skinny? What did it look like? Did you throw it in the back of the truck? That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03

Whirled into the middle of the road, and I just was like, what just happened? Yeah. I've never even seen a turkey out in the wild.

SPEAKER_00

Now you have. I'm so all you need to do. So many questions. That's how you get them without a shotgun, huh? That's how you get them. Like, it's that easy. Just drive those around. It's that easy. Guys are all over. They can't. I know that you guys that are watching are like, we I haven't seen a turkey all year.

SPEAKER_03

That's what I'm saying. I know you've been several trips in the woods without seeing one of those things. My first time in Enterprise, I got one. They're there.

SPEAKER_00

They're there. They're there in Enterprise. Boy, they're there. There's a part on that trip to Enterprise where you're driving down a road and you're clearly going north. Then you turn, and it's not a turn to the right, it's like a turn to the right and back. So it I don't know what angle that is, but it's like a reverse. Not it's not a full 180, but you go backwards. It's the weirdest thing. It's crazy. You're like, who who does this? Yeah. Anyways.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So that's my story. Sorry, man. So the truck's good? Truck's okay. Okay. Turkey's not not well. Turkey was not looking good when I left him. Oh my God.

SPEAKER_00

So last week, um no, that wasn't even. That was on Sunday morning when I told about the snake that got in the church. Oh, yes. So this is like been an all-animal week. A lot of wildlife. Except our animal survived. When you when you get involved, it's not for maybe it's okay. Maybe it was stunned. He was stunned. Maybe. What color's the truck?

SPEAKER_01

It's white. Yeah, I don't know. It's a confused turkey. Yeah. I don't know. There you go. I don't know what you do with that.

SPEAKER_03

But anyway.

SPEAKER_00

Is that gonna have anything to do with Thessalonians?

SPEAKER_03

No.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

I just wanted to tell you that.

SPEAKER_00

I appreciate it. This is therapy. If you need if you need therapy, this is where you need to be. All right, how's that truck? You like that truck?

SPEAKER_03

I love it. Okay, good. I love it. I love it. I love it. Um, all right, let's get into Thessalonians, man. So we're wrapping this baby up this week. We're wrapping it up.

SPEAKER_00

This is gonna be wildly different than last week.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Super practical.

SPEAKER_00

Super practical. Yep, but we had some great insight this week, uh, and I think it is a must to make sure we tie this week to last week.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. It has to. Paul has to be doing that for real.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and and the I think the phrase that came up today. So if you don't know, we're in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Chapter 3. And but chapter 2 is all about um the Antichrist, the Son of Perdition, um, and it's it's apocalyptic in all of the ways. And then you get to chapter 3, and the the probably the heaviest phrase is if you don't work you, don't eat. It's just look, it's like, how do you get there from there? Except for he's now addressing how the church shows up in the world. If we want to prevent people from if you want to have the best witness in this world, there are certain ways that you should live. So here's some instructions for how to do that.

SPEAKER_03

After speaking of end times, faith, hope, love, fear, confusion, I feel like he's really grounded in this about here's how you should live your lives. Because we could talk about the context, because that's super important, just like everything else, because um it does lead the question, okay, well, if you're live if you're super sacrificial, you're living these loving lives, you're taking care of one another. Does this feel like a a bit of a radical shift to say not that guy? Like, if he's not gonna if he's being lazy, like let him fend for himself. Is is it I know there's some nuance in the in the context here, but just at first glance is a little bit like a different message feel like.

SPEAKER_01

Nope. I think it's all together. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

My theory, it's not a theory, it's the truth. Whoa! Can't say that, but I will say that. Uh Paul is writing to a church, and he's writing his letter based on information that somebody, Timothy maybe, has gathered from that church. Church needs encouragement, they need clarity about the end times. They um and they got a group of people for some reason decided that they don't need to work. So Paul sits down and he writes a letter. Oh, oh, and oh, Paul, by the way, somebody wrote a letter and signed our name to it. Right. Paul's like, Deggum it, we gotta write them a letter. And that's what he does. So he says, Hey, get the boys together, we're writing. So glad to hear things are going well, you're struggling. Um, man, the persecution is tough, but it's for your good.

SPEAKER_03

And it's producing a fruit and a witness to it.

SPEAKER_00

And God's gonna judge it. And here's the judgment. For those who are not believers, there's eternal destruction. And um, you know, he clear the clearly lays every piece of that out. And then chapter chapter three, uh, he says, Um he's there's a prayer at the beginning, he's saying, Pray for us. There are people shocking. There are people that don't have faith. And they're evil. There's people that are evil that are don't have shake faith. And in other words, in Paul's world, just like in Thessalonians' world, he's struggling with people in Corinth that are that are attacking them and really taking out on them. So the letter is a response to what they're struggling with in uh the church in Thessalonica. Maybe not all too different than what we're struggling with.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_03

Even his prayer, when he's he is finally closing, this finally is an actual finally from only got a few more things to say. Pray that the Lord's message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you, pray too, we will be rescued from wicked and evil people. Not everyone is a believer, but the Lord is faithful, he will strengthen you. Um it just came to my mind about Paul's prayer is not for his comfort, it's not for his stability, other than keeping him strong and faithful in the midst of uh you know enemies that could be uh you know external enemies, enemies of the gospel. Um are our prayers it just made me think about our prayers, like some so much so sometimes praying for all the the nice things in the world. But Paul here is praying for the message, the gospel to go out, and he uses that word logos, which I only think he uses in Thessalonians for when he says the message, but that the word of the Lord, the word it's good. Are our prayers weak? Look at you, man.

SPEAKER_00

Are our prayers too weak sometimes? Sure they are, or too too self-reflective. I don't know, man. Too small? Too small. I I I would I I think I would always be careful on that because you're always trying to encourage people to pray. But I think at some point you recognize that let's get after it, right? Let's pray for big things, let's pray that God would do what God wants to do. So, yeah, we want to encourage everybody to start somewhere, of course. Yeah, and then develop more and more is what Paul would say.

SPEAKER_03

More and more I love that. That was a thread in group last night of just that really stuck with people more and more what you're doing, the good things you're doing, more and more and more.

SPEAKER_00

How about um you know, you hear the word theology or uh discipleship and you're and you think, well, what does that look like? He says in verse three, but the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. Those are theological truths that he's offering them. Is God faithful? Is he gonna abandon me? No, God's faithful. So he's he's giving them a baseline of understanding all of this together, even in our lives. God is faithful. Right. Um, he he will strengthen you and he will guard you from the evil one. Those are those are truths that you can hold on to in your life. So whenever you read this stuff, stuff, whenever you read these letters, know that Paul is giving them information to bolster their their place in the world, right? Their their faith.

SPEAKER_03

Right. And if you bring that down, there's some really beautiful truths just in these first couple verses before he gets into verse six, but even verse five, may the Lord lead your hearts, may the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God. So even in that understanding and expression, you see both sides of like knowledge, but also that practical side of faith. Yeah. So how does this tie into last week? Because you said it has to it has to be rooted in what happened last week.

SPEAKER_00

This next the next section where they get into the idleness and not work the unwillingness to work. Um it's a pretty it's a pretty hard section. I I think the the somebody, um one of the guys this morning said uh it's gotta be more than just encouraging people to get a job, right? It's not about chopping wood and carrying water. It's not about that. I think it's about the greater intent of what that we were created for purpose. There's a there's a bigger usage of our life. So it's not about going to get a paycheck. It's not and it's not just the thing that you're creating, it's the heart by which you do that. Uh everything has an end user and everything has a process. And maybe in my world, so I'm trying to think of how to articulate this for Sunday, it is a microcosm of the way all things work together. You could look at our creation story and Adam and Eve put in a garden, they're they're gardening. How is that spiritual? Except it's completely spiritual, right? Fruit, uh reordering plants, naming them, giving instruction, bringing shape, uh the way they went about it, they didn't make great decisions. Right. Right? They abused and went against the way that it was it was created, and then you here we are. We see the chaos. So if we could look at the work, the work that we do and not just say, oh, Scott's a pastor. What Scott does is very important. No, no, no. Paul references his work. He's a tent maker. The guy makes tents, but it's just as viable and valuable because he used his work to connect himself to the community. He used it to create a living wage, which then he supported himself with. He does say I didn't have to, but I did because I wanted to set a set a uh I'm gonna answer your question in a second, the example for you. But why but why why did he do that? Set an example for you as a way that you should live back up into chapters one and two. Because people are watching, they're learning. And if as believers, we go about our daily job, whether it's in my world a ministry job, or whether it's in a secular world, if we view all of them as ministry, because that's what they are, then people can look and go, man, the way that person goes about their job is different. Uh uh from a boss's perspective, oh, this is the greatest employee I've ever hired. But promote, promote, promote. And it's not just about what you get, but it's about how I can set this person to any task. What makes you different than every other person that I work for? Or if a person that that works for you sees the way that you love, honor, nurture them, um, caring for them, not always being petulant, not always being hard, but but giving them structure and holding them to the responsibility. I all of those things speak to a greater purpose, which then point to that decision that we make in life, right? So when somebody says, Are you doing this for yourself? No, there's I'm living for something bigger. There's a bigger purpose and a design. Right. So all of it, I think, is understanding that our lives are not our own as believers. Our lives are to a bigger point and a bigger purpose. Does that answer that? Good. So I mean that's that's where my thought is as to how to articulate it.

SPEAKER_03

Is there a shift? I've seen that be difficult for people. I'm not in ministry. They don't get to do maybe some of the day-to-day that we do. Like yesterday, I I don't know, just in a moment of uh transparency here. Yesterday, I was feeling like, you know, there were some task things that I just I didn't really I wasn't that excited about them, to be honest with you. And I got to do it and I I had to make that shift in my mind about this is this matters, this is people's testimony, this is a reflection of like the story that God's telling in these lives. So what could be a task, you know, you I I had to kind of intentionally shift that thinking about no no no, this is this is for the kingdom. You know what I mean? So how is it how what is the shift like for those that maybe feel like uh I mean my work has nothing to do with my faith almost? The separation of work and faith.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think this is where that that relevant part is like, yeah, that's hard to make that reconciliation. You know, as a person. So I'll give you an example. Let's say that you're a person who's um works in a maintenance or a or a facilities cleaning department. Awesome, right? In in my mind, you depend even no matter where it is, I I would try and get in my head the people that are gonna show up that next day. So maybe it's not the excitement about cleaning toilets or doing those things, but the ability to be hospitable and set an environment that's going to allow somebody who might be having a hard day to to you know to navigate through that space and whatever. I or even to pray over that space. I I don't know. Um, but it's a shift and it's a change. Not trying to ask you to see something as it's not. I'm I'm just trying to say maybe start viewing things with the with the lens that God's given you.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Could be coworkers. It has to be to me, it's people-centric. It's about people. Yeah. It could be the people you work with, could be the customers you interact with, could be the people coming into a space, you know.

SPEAKER_00

I would say that I learned more about ministry in my years, 13 years in um uh food service, waiting tables, than I ever did in in uh seminary. Yeah, ever in a classroom. Ever in a classroom.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, it's just just truth. Yep. I learned the I learned thought on God in a classroom, but I learned application and life in those others, taking care of, serving, loving, uh, not getting a tip, figuring out how to reconcile that. You can be frustrated, be mad about that all day long, or you can you can say, okay, that's all right. I'm not I'm not working for that person, I'm working for something else, and yeah, I've still got to feed my family. So you go through that, that, those, those things. Every job probably has that stuff, you know. But but I learned I learned how to be a pastor as a at waiting tables. Right. It's just the truth. And I enjoy it. Waiting tables.

SPEAKER_03

You could do that. I feel like you could go back and do that if you needed to. And do it actually.

SPEAKER_00

My body hurts, though. Like I I uh um we were when we were setting up for Nate's wedding, the um the setting the tables and all that, I enjoy it because I'm obsessive compulsive, so making sure that and and and large portion of my life was working at the Hilton down at Disney World. So banquet service, when you walk into a ballroom, they're so intentional about all everything has to be exactly a certain way. So when you stand at a point, all of the water glasses are lined up this way, all the water glasses are lined up that way. It's just the way we learned it. So being obsessive compulsive, I was like, I've I found it. My calling in life. So there's order, you bring an order out of the chaos, right? Same thing. Every job you've ever done.

SPEAKER_03

You're rewarded for it. And you're like the more detail-oriented you are, you're for me. I did for the others, I'm like, You got you're gonna have to work on that fork the way you do this.

SPEAKER_00

This gotta slide up a little bit. The the you know, the people get their forks turned around on top. No, no, no. I hate it with a hand. Oh, it's just terrible, and it's just so disrespectful. But back to the work. The what and it's not just waiting tables, it's everything digging ditches, it's being an engineer, it's you know, a fishing guide, whatever. Yes. Uh, the way that you care for people, the way that you go about your work, even if it doesn't have a person that you're communicating with on the other side, you are teaching yourself, you're training yourself to understand to think bigger than just that, just that role.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's my thought.

SPEAKER_03

That's good. I like it. Um, as he closes it out, what's we talked a little bit about this shame.

SPEAKER_00

Ooh, that's a hard one.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. What do we do with that? Stay away from them. The people that you you correct them, you let them know, hey man, get to work. Like, let's take care of each other, be a part of this. You know, you've got a responsibility once you do it. And those that won't obey it, he says, you know, stay away from them, not as enemies, but warn them as a brother or sister.

SPEAKER_00

There was a delineation this morning between not just somebody who's idle, but somebody who's idle and destructive to to avoid them. But he does get to the to the shame piece, the which is a hard So in our modern vernacular, we hear have nothing to do with them so that they may be ashamed. Shame, shame, shame. Something you're taught to never do, because shame is such a powerful emotion. So how do you reconcile that? The the way we talked about it yesterday, I think, is um is a good way to look at it. Shame might not be a good word, but I also don't want to remove the punch um from the scripture. This is for the purpose of reconciliation. So it's not shame to to harm, it's shame to help. Not shame to tear down, shame to restore. Yeah. Yeah. So godly sorrow leads to repentance. That's scripture. Uh, so it would be for the pay for the purpose of allowing a person to see, to shift, and to be brought back in. It's not shame to destroy. There's so much these days, body shaming. You know, you go down all the ways that shame is used these days to bring harm or to minimize or to lessen. That's not the intent of this. It's to give a person the opportunity to shift and to become productive. It because he does say uh he says hasn't have nothing to do with them, but then in the next breath he says, but warn them as believers. So I don't know how you have nothing to do with somebody, but then you also warn them as believers that those two things don't seem to work. Yeah. Except, oh, I I tell you, um Uh somebody had a great thought that have nothing to do with them. Where's that verse? 14? What is it? 14 take. Yeah. Please have have nothing to do with them. Uh that the somebody interpreted that as have nothing to do with them as in not to be with them, but do not allow that to be yours. Like don't have nothing to do with them, meaning that that becomes your your methodology or your theology, how you live in life. Don't have anything to do with that. Right. But then warn them as as you would a believer. Let's put this in a different context. Okay. Great thread that we had uh earlier. This is one of his first and second letters. So they believe First Thessalonians was probably his first letter, closely followed by or flip them, Galatians. So Paul is Paul is figuring out the strategy of the birth of the early church, not the birth like day of Pentecost, but the the birth of the organization of the church. Because somebody asked, What who is he writing this to? Yeah. Is there leadership? Is there a pastor? Is there a that's a good question? Whatever. Yeah. So this chapter really has to do with um, hey guys, there's not another church across the street, right? Like we might have a person here that's a a pain and they're unruly and they're not fitting into the things we're doing, and they just not not not because they have good ideas and that we just don't like them, and but but maybe they're they're forcibly fighting against the leadership of the church. There might be a time where you come in and you're like, hey, we love you as we're commanded to do, but you need to go somewhere else. Right. There's a lot of other churches, and we want you to find the church that you fit in, and this is not it. And and that, but they have other churches. Right. You can go 50 yards that way and 50 yards this way, and you can land in a church. That wasn't the case here. There was a church in Thessalonica. The church. The church in Thessalonica. And then there was a church in Corinth. Uh-huh. Now, they they had an understanding of the church because it was the gathering together of all those churches, but they were under persecution. So these were home churches that were meeting probably in silence to some degree. Right. So this writing was to bring health and instruction. Hey guys, you're dealing with people who aren't working. Tell them to get a job. Not just get a job. Tell them to work. It's uh do not become tired and weary and doing what is right. Man, yeah, we're telling you, Jesus is gonna come back at any time, but get a job. Go work, earn, earn your dinner. If you and if a person's not willing to work, they shouldn't eat. It's about the willingness, the desire. Right. Not the ability. Yeah, not the ability to willingness. That's right. It's about the willingness of the desire. So there the chapter shouldn't be looked at as a um a trite treatise on uh people that aren't working. It should be looked at as the health of the church.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Because there is a belief amongst scholars that he's speaking to those that to connect it to last week, felt like, well, if Jesus is about to come back, why would I work that hard and earning things and doing this? I mean, well, if he's why don't I just kind of wait for that? Hey, and he didn't come back. What's for dinner?

SPEAKER_00

Right? Like, I didn't do anything today. I just I was practicing my rapture jump, which I talked about a couple different times. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Are you gonna do that? Nope. One last time.

SPEAKER_00

I did it one time in one service and everybody missed it. You gotta go back to the show. Oh, it's online. It's online, and it was the service that was recorded. Yes. They're all recorded, but that one was posted. Maybe I should repost that for to keep for that could be a meme.

SPEAKER_03

So 13, just to back up a little bit. I don't feel like waiting tables was in your world, but the NBA was probably outside your world. So close. Um never get tired of doing good. Some translations might read that, never grow weary of doing good. What what can we do when we do feel weary? Where do we take that?

SPEAKER_01

What do we what do we do with those things? Because we all will. Yeah. I mean, what do you do with that?

SPEAKER_00

How do you how do you how do you reconcile do not? Because you do. You do. Absolutely. You absolutely get tired of doing it. But maybe um he says what is right. It's not so it's less maybe the the actual doing and more the heart of what's right. So is it a juxtaposition of doing what's right versus doing what's evil? So maybe it's the intent of what what you're doing when you're doing it. So don't grow weary of doing what's right because there's a cost for it. Um so maybe it's not a call to do more, maybe it's a call for the focus on what you're doing. I'm just I'm I'm throwing a lifeline out there because it's because I uh he says do more the more and more, but the more and more is even focused on how we show up, how we tr work on the transformation. It doesn't always equate to busyness, right? Busybodies. There's a word, one of these words in here is translated as busybodies as well. Oh, that's funny.

SPEAKER_03

Don't be a busybody, don't be that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um yeah, refusing to work and meddling in other people's business. Meddling. Same problems we have today. No, they had them. People hundred percent meddling in other people's business.

SPEAKER_00

That's right. Mind your own business. That was originally one of the thoughts that we were gonna call this series, but we opted to not do that.

SPEAKER_03

Well, it's in there, but I felt like it wasn't really the heart of the whole good good call book. Mind your own business.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, it's a piece of that wouldn't have captured the second coming, right? No.

SPEAKER_03

No, so I think it's a piece of it, but it is it's yeah, I didn't feel like it captured the whole, but that's right. Yeah, yeah, a little bit. Um I one new thing for me, I think even maybe it's as simple as understanding this is one of, if not the Paul's first letter. Um, and you've mentioned this about how his theology is being you've used maybe the term model as well, but how his theology is being shaped, maybe in the right word. Um, you see the things that he comes back to because faith, hope, and love is Paul's message throughout all of his letters. I would say all of his ministry is is these things. He was so uh sure to anchor into the hope and faith and love and truth of of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01

The mission was the gospel, right?

SPEAKER_00

I think the model for Paul at at this juncture, and I'll tell I'll I'll I'll tell you where I see a change, but this this one was um he has a trade and his trade is tent making. So he would go into a community and he had it he had access, part of his strategy was access to synagogues because he was well known, so he would go and he would teach. But the other part of his strategy is he would work in the tent making industry, which uh clearly had had um a a a role of prominence during that time because it would probably be easier to put up a tent than it would be to house and a resource. Especially he's traveling and moving from place to place. Yeah, so uh so he but but here's where this pays off. When he goes into Corinth, he's in a tent makers guild, and that's where he meets Priscilla and Aquila. And Priscilla and Aquila become very important parts of of the spread of the gospel. Where the strategy starts to change is then he settles, he goes well after he leads Corinth on this second missionary journey, he goes back to Ephesus, and remember he meets outside of town, right? But he sets up the church in Ephesus as being a um ascending point. So rather than focus on trying to go, he still does, goes to all of these different towns to visit them. He works on Ephesus as being just just like probably just like uh Thessalonica would have been. It's a port city. So all of these people are coming into Ephesus, and he's he's preaching the gospel, and then he's sending them out to the world. So from Ephesus, you get uh Colossians, um, you get these other churches that are out on the periphery, even Galatians, which is up north, that's that whole region that's up there. So his strategy changes from I'm gonna go to this individual community and establish an individual church to I'm gonna take the biggest hub with the most people and then send them out. Never visited Colossians, right? Never got to go there, but there were people that came through that heard the you assume that they heard the gospel, started a church that was a small church, but it still was a church. So, so back to model, faith, hope, and love. If the mission is, if the mission is the gospel, I think he best understood and extrapolated that into faith, hope, and love is how that how the gospel took root in discipleship. That that kind of helped. Right. Because I I would model that today, still, still makes sense today. Um, so if that's the mission, that's how it shows up in a believer's life, you develop those three things, then you're living out the mission, go. Right. And and you see it start to create in his life and and carry on. That that's a that that sounds like a pastoral approach at looking at this, and I don't know if that's helpful.

SPEAKER_03

Well, so let me ask you this. Um Yeah, so that's the whole, and if we use words like model and all that, if we take a step closer for the individual, for the life of the believer, what what is faith, hope, and love in my life? What is even the difference between faith and hope?

SPEAKER_01

That's a question? Sure. Sure.

SPEAKER_00

How Paul explains it? Uh I think Paul explains it as faith is is the transformation, it's the learning, it's it's the individual work that we do in our own lives. Learning about Jesus, allowing that to change who we are, that's the transformation piece. The hope is the looking forward. So the faith is the I'm right here, right now, reconciling, trying to understand, trying to figure this out. The hope is the looking forward to the second coming or looking forward to death and and resurrection, or you know, eternal life. And then the other piece of that is the love. So if the faith is the transformation here, the love is the application of how we uh deal with one another with so it's the self, it's the other, and then the hope is the piece that that binds it all together. So you're you're showing up with the heart of hope that then carries you into the world. I think that's how he that's how he does it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I heard once uh a message about hope, and the point was that hope is always something uh in the future. Because once it's received, it's no longer hope. It could be assurance, it could be a fact, it could be something you receive, but hope is a only a future idea. And I think in Hebrews faith and hope are so connected in that, and even that definition in Hebrews faith is the hope or confidence for what you are believing for that is unseen, but is come to true come to pass. So um interesting. I mean, those two are so related and Paul is anchoring us back in the love of Christ for us. Yeah, and because that's that's the third piece. I mean, if if we want to go in those pieces, they they are all so connected, so practical, but also a lofty, lofty ideas as well.

SPEAKER_00

Aren't you excited that we're going to be studying Hebrews in the fall? We're gonna go through it. I'm so excited. I absolutely love Hebrews. I do too. And it's gonna be really good. There's a couple verses in there. I've I don't know that this is gonna happen on Sunday. I'm hesitant, I'm hesitant to say because some people will will hope we do it. I if the chapter is short enough, maybe we can work through it fast enough. It's also communion Sunday, but if there's time, I want to come back and answer some of the questions that have risen to the surface. Like, what happens when I die? What if like 100% maybe, right? Like here's the scripture that theologians use to inference that. But one of the questions that um I've been looking at is can those people see us? Right. And in Hebrews, there's a verse that says, Since and it's after the hall of faith, since then we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, throw off that stuff that hinders you and run the race with perseverance. And so some would interpret that to say that we are surrounded by people that are cheering us on. Right. I I don't know that that's the case. That's kind of creepy, but but I also like the idea. Could be could be metaphorical and could be metaphorical. Yeah. And witnesses could be, since we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, to infer those who've gone before us that have given us the witness or given us the testimony of I believe that's probably more in line with what it meant to be said.

SPEAKER_03

Right, because we're here as what came before us. Yeah. These faithful believers that carried on the message, so that we would have the opportunity to respond to that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but there's other scripture that kind of leaves the door open to where you just you just wonder. So I don't but if but hopefully there'll be time this week to answer some of those questions because I'm hearing some of the same questions, just this one study in Thessalonians. Boom, boom, boom. I mean, start sparking all kinds of questions about people. Don't you love it though? I do. People are engaged. Love it.

SPEAKER_03

Oh man. Well, you should write, you should go ahead and write your Scott's systematic theology of the end times book because I kept trying to ask my group, like, what kind of questions about end times? Let's talk about. They're all like, we're good. No questions. I'm like, really? That like nothing y'all want to tell you. No. Yeah, Scott, here's the answer. God's gonna take care of it. Well, that's great. God's gonna take care of it. That's great. I was I told him, I said, you know what? Paul would be so happy with this group right now. That's right. Yes, that's what I'm saying is God's gonna take care of it. Now go get a job. He would have something. He would all be. Oh, yes, I yes, he would we'd get our own.

SPEAKER_00

Then we could all fix that.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. Well, are you glad we did this, man?

SPEAKER_00

That's Thessalonians. Yeah, I'm always glad to get through it. This was a chat. Anytime there's a big challenge, it's a it's good. It's so out of my norm, but I taught it in a way that I I that I felt like uh um I could honor, right? I on Sunday morning, I tried to remove the emotion because I once again I don't believe I'm belaboring the point. I want people to look at the facts as it's listed in scripture. Now, if you disagree with scripture, okay, that's fine. You then but but the decision is you choose Christ or you choose self and you get and you get what you get, right? And so if if if if the gospel message is true, and I believe it is, and Jesus took and paid the price, the penalty for our sin, and we received that in our lives, awesome. Then we then we stand reconciled and right, justified before God. Or you have to own it yourself, period. And the cost that comes with it. You have to pay the price. So I I don't know. Well said. Remove the emotion, make a decision.

SPEAKER_03

That's right. Yeah, cool. Well, we're gonna wrap it up Sunday. So hope you can see you guys there or checking us online. And then um next week is gonna be back in the gospels questions of Jesus. That's gonna be a really great series as well. Looking forward to it. Yep, thanks, man. Yeah, man. See you guys.