Brown, Michael: 1Thessalonians 1-02

Good morning, one and all. Uh, turn with your Bibles, please. Turn in your Bibles, but yeah, turn with them, in them, by them, for them. First Thessalonians. We'll start with a word of prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for an opportunity to come today and worship you freely without fear of reprisal in a country that, by and large, allows it, and we don't know how much longer it'll do that, so let us not take it for granted. We, uh, thank you for a word that's true and a spirit that guides us in it. I pray, Father, for, uh, words for me and hearts prepared. In Christ's name, amen. It's kind of a special Sunday today, you know, time changed, so the numbers are down, there's no meal, so, you know, everything, everything is just pretty good, so everything's special but the message, so I'll work on that while I'm up here. First Thessalonians chapter one says, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith, and labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For no one has the word of the Lord sound- for not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but you- but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living God and true God, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. I've decided to embark on a series on, on First Thessalonians. Um, I don't know necessarily why I was drawn to it. I, I don't, I just know I was or am drawn to it. Um, I'd like to be able to, uh, say like Paul, I had a vision in a dream with somebody saying, go to Macedonia, but I didn't. I didn't have that. And you know, I, I did a series on Ephesians, and it took me two years, and uh, I would hope that I could get this done in less than two years. But, when I started reading chapter one and looking at it intently, I decer- I determined that there's probably enough material in it for a minimum of four sermons. That's just chapter one. You know, there's talk about true there, you, it covers the true church membership, it covers election, uh, the universal evidences of saving faith, um, the consistency of a believer's conduct. It talks about repentance, it talks about the wrath of God, and it talks about Christian hope. So maybe two years on the first chapter, and then I'll move on. And I have to tell you, I went down a lot of different rabbit trails on this. They aren't really rabbit trails in this book. They're all sound doctrinal things that we need to be aware of. And I've talked to a lot of you about them, and uh, so I'm sure that some of the things I've said to you will, will come up again. Um, if you'd rather that not happen, you need to talk to the guy who schedules the speakers, and maybe he'll put me off a little bit. So, uh, anyway, that, uh, that just might happen. By and large, First Thessalonians is a book of encouragement. It was written by Paul, uh, during his eighteen-month stay in Corinth, during his second missionary journey. Uh, it's probably the first letter that Paul wrote. Um, and this, this church, this specific congregation got, brought great joy to Paul. It just gladdened his heart in all respects. And it's evidenced not only in the first chapter and the things he says, but in chapter two thirteen, it says how they'd accepted the word for what it was, that it was the word of God, and they were following the pattern of the other churches. Um, that made him happy. In chapter three, Paul had sent Timothy back to get a, to get a report on the church and to make sure that they hadn't been tempted to Satan to, to, uh, to be moved away from the faith, but he found them full of faith and love. Um, in four nine, um, he said that they had a love for all the brethren, and they practiced it, not just in Thessalonica, but all through Macedonia. They were practicing, you know, what they knew, and that they were constantly, in chapter five building on one and up, one another up and encouraging one another. One of the commentators I looked at, um, said that every church is going to be known for something, um, even ours today. And it seems like the church in Thessalonica was, was known for the model that it had become all throughout what is modern day. And you know, that in and amongst itself is kind of amazing, in light of the fact that Paul really spent a very, very short time with him. If you, when you look at it, he spent three weeks, you know, three Sabbaths in the, uh, synagogue, and depending on who you read or what you think, probably not more than anywhere from, from six weeks to a few months, very few months. And just with that short amount of time there, it all had come to fruition. So, anyway, it's, it's kind of an amazing church. If you're, uh, going to look at this, you kind of need to do a little background. And if you read any of the epistles, or when you study any of the epistles and you want to know where they fit into the scheme of things or how they fit into the, how they fit into the church, you really need to go back to Acts, you know, because Acts is, is the big historical book. It's, it's the, the history or the minutes, as it were, of the early church, of the first century church, and what the apostles did. It starts in Acts in, in for Thessalonica, it starts in Acts sixteen. And you can read this on your own. You don't, you don't need me to read it for you. I would encourage you to do so. It's really pretty interesting. And this is, at this point, it's right after Paul and, and, and Barnabas had split up over Mark, and Silas joins Paul in his second missionary journey. Um, they go to Lystra. This is where they pick up Timothy, um, who was a, a young, well, you know what Timothy is, young half Greek, half Jew that was just extended in the faith, and, and Paul picked him up and saw the promise and did all those things with him. Um, primarily their their their journey started out to be traveling through modern day Turkey or Asia Minor, whatever you want to call it, and they were delivering the apostles, the apostles, it's what they'd set forth, a decree. If you if you look further back, this is where this is what we tell the Gentiles, you, you know, abstain from blood, uh, be sexually pure. They didn't have to keep all the laws, and they were, they were, this is the message they were given into, given to the churches as they traveled through Asia Minor. And, um, but for some reason, the Holy Spirit had determined, had, was keeping Paul and Silas and Timothy from actually ministering or preaching to, to the churches there. They would just deliver this message. And they, there were areas they just weren't permitted to travel to. And, uh, by the time they get to verse eight, they'd landed in Troas, which is up in the northern part, and two things happened there. First, Paul gets his vision to go to Macedonia. That's in the night where the, the, the Macedonian guy is saying, come help us, come help us. And Paul knew right away he needed to. And the second thing is, is they pick up Luke. Now, in First Thessalonians, it doesn't say anything about Luke, but Luke's traveling with them. More than likely, Luke's the one who wrote this, but he's, he's that, uh, silent partner that, that you hear about so, so often. And so they knew this is where they needed to go. Um, the next day they say they do, they just get up, they go, and, and they, and they head off, and they stop in Philippi. So the next stop. And this makes Paul the first missionary in Europe. Um, the, the Gospels at this point has been shifted from the east to the west. It's, it's going to Europe as opposed to going to Asia. And when he gets there, Paul goes outside the city, goes to the river. They didn't have a synagogue there, which meant they didn't have a, enough, uh, Jewish men to have a synagogue. And as is the custom, sometimes they'd go outside of the city to pray in different areas. And, um, one of the things that happens while they're in Philippi is, is Lydia gets saved. And if you read that account, God opened her heart to respond. I'm going to tell you that just to, I'm going to just as a background, just remember that phrase. God opened her heart to respond. Uh, we'll see a little bit more about that later, as time permits today. Um, so in the, as the story goes on, as the, the, uh, Paul casts out a demon, and he starts a riot. Now, my experience has been anytime you mess with somebody's income, they really get upset. And the way they make it, I always said it was just, you know, you're messing with their God. And then it's kind of what it is, because for most people, you know, they live for their income, they live for the money, and so if you mess with that, you're going to be in trouble. So, you know the story, Paul and Silas get beaten, they get thrown in the center of the prison, um, they're in stocks, they're singing in the middle of the night, um, they're miraculously released out of the prison. Um, once that happens, they, uh, the the jailer gets saved, him and his, he and his household. Um, they come out of that, and then they get run out of town. As I stated to some earlier, you know, as if you're Silas and Timothy, you're going to have to be saying, are you sure this is where we were supposed to go? But, uh, because it get only gets better as you see how it went in Greece. So they leave Philippi, and they go to Thessalonica. Now, Thessalonica was a major trade center, and it also had a very large Jewish population and also a very large synagogue. So, as as you as you read in Acts, Paul went to the synagogue for three Sabbaths, which was his, which was his custom, and he reasoned with them. Now I say, I emphasize he reasoned with them, he didn't preach to them, and he reasoned with them from the scriptures. And what he tried to do, or what he did do, was proving that Christ had to suffer and had to rise again, and that Jesus was the Christ. Now I went to the Jews first, just not only because of his cousin, but there's a, a reason behind that. That's what the commentators would say, is because if he'd gone to just the Gentiles first, he would have lost all credibility with the Jews. They would say he's just some, some Gentile crazy, and we don't want to have anything to do with him. And, and Paul, as you, as you read in Romans today, his heart was for his countrymen. I mean, that that's where the gospel came to, that's where it came out of, and so he wanted, he went to there first, and obviously he didn't stay because they didn't want any part, part of it. Um, and also this gospel presentation he gave is kind of a good example for us. If you notice it or look at it, really, um, he didn't go to him talking about, hey, we got, our synagogue has the best potluck. You know, he didn't, he didn't talk to him about that. Or he said, we have the, our synagogue has the best, uh, music program or, or children's program. And he didn't say, well, really, our building is better than yours, or you ought to come to it. He didn't go to him talking about trendy social issues, you know, you know how much the, the whatever the Roman coin was at the time, how that's devalued, or they're doing this with our taxes or doing that with our military. He didn't do that. He just talked Jesus. He just talked to him about Jesus, who he was and what he did. Um, in First Corinthians, it's not unlike him. In First Corinthians, he says, you know, I preached to you nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And that was the important thing. And it, I always, always state that is because there are a lot of programs for evangelizing and taking the gospel to people, and they've all got trendy little things, or you hear people say, well, I want to talk about my faith, and what they end up talking about is their denomination or some social issue that really is a bug to them. That's not what they do. That's not the example we have from the scripture. It's Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's the gospel message and how it pertains to us. Um, and later on it talks about, you know, the last part of that is the wrath of God. That's one of those things that you never hear, and I'll bring more into that when, when I get to that message, but it's something else you don't hear about anymore, is the wrath of God, and, you know, we really ought to. And it says that some people were persuaded, including a large number of the God-fearing Jews. Now, you'd have to ask, what's a God-fearing Jew? Because they weren't a God-fearing Greek. I were, I, I typed that in wrong. It's got to be a typo. The computer messed it up. Some were persuaded, including a large number of God-fearing Greeks. Um, you know, the Greeks were not monotheistic. They had a, what they call a Greek pantheon, which is all these gods, not unlike the Roman gods. And these Greeks were disillusioned with that, and um, they were disenchanted with the Greek paganism. It just wasn't doing it. They wanted some sort of reality in their life. You know, when you get on to Athens in the book of Acts, all the things they just wanted to debate philosophy, and and Paul affronts that. So these, these Greeks, these Thessal- these non-Jewish Thessalonians had attached themselves to the one true God. You know, they were ripe for the gospel. They couldn't be, they couldn't be true blood Jews, for lack of a better word, but but they'd attached themselves to it, and they were listening to it on the outside. So those were some of the people who were getting saved, those few, those few Jews, and then, then, then these Gentiles. And so the Jews get jealous of the preaching is going on and how the Gentiles are getting saved, they get ran out of town. So that's pretty much what happens in Thess- in Thessalonica. You go on to verse ten, you know, Paul and Zias, they go to Berea where there's more noble, more noble Jews, and they go to the synagogue there, and then the Thessalonian Jews are so embittered they come down and run them out of Berea, and Paul goes to Athens, and he leaves Silas and Timothy there, um, and Paul leaves there and goes to Corinth, and then that's, as they say, it's pretty much history. I'd like to talk to you just a little bit about Thessalonica as a city, but mostly today is going to be a history lesson. I guess it's just the introduction as to what I want to get into, and so that may be why it's going to take two years to get through the first. I don't know. First, Thessalonica was named Therma because it has warm springs there, and um, people would go there for that. In approximately three fifteen BC, it was founded by one of Alexander the Great's generals. Um, he was posted there, and it's, it's a, it's a strategic place as well as a trade place because of where it hits the east-west road, what they called the uh, Ignatian Way. It was a major trade route east-west, and it's northernmost uh, seaport. So not only was good for commerce, but it was, it was good strategically. You know, people, you know, they could go anywhere to defeat anybody from any way, and an enemy that couldn't easily get to them. Interestingly enough, this general was also Alexander the Great's brother-in-law, so it's named after Alexander the Great's half-sister, which was Thessalonica. Um, Greece at this time was divided into two, what we call Greece today was divided into two countries. In the north was Macedonia, and it had Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, that was its major cities. And in the south was Achaia, A-C-H-A-I-A, and that's where you found Athens and Corinth. Um, Thessalonia became, Thessalonica became, uh, the capital of Macedonia under the Romans, and it was a free city, it was self-governing, um, it had political autonomy, it didn't counter Rome. It had a population at the time of Paul of approximately two hundred thousand people, which is pretty good size for, for, you know, for that day. Like I said, it was a major trade city by land and by sea. And it was famous, um, in that part of the world for its vices, for sexual perversion, for its rampant prostitution, uh, which, uh, makes you wonder if this is a letter of encouragement. Like I said, you know, in, in chapter four where they were exhorted to abstain from sexual immorality, that's why, I think, because it was like that. It was, they even painted, um, obscene pictures on their houses, you know, just, it's a whole different meaning to tag in a place, not like the gangs do now. History tells us that crime was so rampant in test- in, in, in that city that they made their houses without windows. They made just doors so that, you know, so that people couldn't break in and steal it is that way. Um, divorce was very frequent. Babies there were often abandoned, just left to die, which would have been their form of abortion. Um, murder was common. This is the place where the church in Thessalonica thrived. Fun place. And they were still known for all these great things that Paul's going to tell us about. Um, because, you know, like I said, because it was a large place, because of the trade center, there's a lot of Jews there. They had the synagogue that I mentioned early. Um, the Jewish community stayed in Thessalonica until Hitler killed about sixty thousand of them at the start of World War II. So it's, as a matter of fact, the town's still there, the city's still there. It's called Solonica. I'm not Greek, so that's, that's the English translation of whatever it's really called, but it has a population of about three hundred thousand people today. It's still there. So you can see how it's been a, it's been there a long time, and it's, and it's a major, major place. So that's what the city is, was, and hopefully won't be forever like. Now then, what about the letter? He starts out, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace. This letter is unique to all the epistles because it just starts out Paul. You think, huh? Well, if you look at all the rest of them, Paul had, he, Paul was either the apostle or the called one. He had to, he had to justify or verify that this is what he was, and he didn't seem to have to with the Thessalonians. Um, like I said, it's the only epistle that Paul wrote that is true. Maybe it's either because it wasn't in questionnaire or no one there was questioning it. You can see others where he had, he actually had to take parts of his letter to defend his apostleship. He doesn't have to be. So it's a real personal letter. Um, it thrilled his heart so that he could just say, this is just Paul. You know, you know who I am, you know what I am. I don't have to tell you, I don't have to defend myself. And there's Silvanus. Now, Silvanus is a Roman, or the proper name for Silas and Timothy. These are the three that write this greeting, write this encouraging letter, or just back up. And we know that probably Paul wrote all of it, but they were all in one accord. To the church, this is the ecclesia. Uh, it meant a popular assembly of people. Um, but he says, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wants to, wants them to know that this letter was not written to just any assembly, any gathering of people, but to those who are, are the church, those who God had called out from darkness. This is to the church, um, in, in God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ. This is a true church in which God the Father and the God the Son share something with the, with the people. They're united with the people. So this is written by this, by Paul, it's to these believers, and he says, grace to you and peace. Now, that's a common greeting, and we don't say it anymore. I don't, I don't even know if there's anything comparable that, that we would say anymore. But, um, grace, of course, is God's unmerited favor towards sinful man, and he's asked him to do that. And peace, um, peace is not just, you know, we we know from Romans that that because Christ died for us and that's all taken care of, we have peace with God. But it seems to be this is more than that, not just absence of conflict with God, um, but it kind of echoes the Jewish mindset of shalom, where your personal life with God is at peace and everything else is is is in harmony or or balanced because of it, both physically and spiritually, so that all is well. Grace and peace is what he, he wants to bring to them. Then he says, we give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God, before our God and Father, your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit with full conviction. The purpose of chapter one is we give thanks to God. That's pretty much the, the whole gist of the first, first chapter. Um, he gives it, he, he thanks them for the gospel and what is done in their lives, and he, in the subsequent verses, it's all about God. For all of you, he says, um, not just part, but the whole body that's in Thessalonica, for all of you. He doesn't say that in any of the other books. Um, not all churches then or now are real. Do what you want, they're not all real, they're not all the elect, as we're going to see later, they're not all the chosen. If you look again at the epistles in Galatia, there were some who, they were preaching salvation by circumcision, they were preaching salvation by law keeping, by works of righteousness, and and some taught damnable heresies, is what Paul says in Galatia. In Ephesians, in Ephesus, they were teaching strange doctrines, uh, they were following myths, they had endless genealogies that they were trying to come up with, and some were wanting to be teachers of the law, and even some of their leaders were blaspheming. They weren't all the true church in Ephesus. If you want a real rundown, turn to Revelation two and three and see what Jesus himself says to some of the so-called churches that were in Asia Minor. And of course, don't forget Corinth, that's everybody's favorite, where there was nothing but chaos and confusion, and, um, some of the men even under the guise of, uh, spiritual gifts, were calling Jesus accursed. Not everyone who calls himself a Christian, not every church is true and is chosen and is full of the elect. And there's something else that, like I said at the first, that we'll have to encounter later and talk about election. What was Paul thanking the cur- the, uh, thanking God for in the Thessalonians? He says that we want you to know we're thankful, that's in verse three, for your work of faith, your labor of love, and your steadfastness in hope. Now, was he thanking the people for this, for this is what they've done? No, he was thanking God, because these are all God's works, they're not man's works. Um, salvation is his work of faith in their lives. He was thanking God for bringing salvation to them, for opening, as as I said about Lydia, opening their hearts to the truth of the gospel so that they, you know, they might be changed. Their labor was produced by his love, and their steadfastness and hope was in his son, not in some, sorry, some some church creed or denomination or thing they do, but the hope was in his son. If it's not God's work, not only in the church's life, but an individual's life, it's not real. It's fake. I don't care what you say, what you've done, who you said did it for you, when they did it, if God didn't do the work, it's not real. Um, the NET Bible that is seems to be pretty popular right now says that these are Christian virtues. They're workers by faith, and the motivate, the labor was motivated by love, like I said. One of the commentators who has, uh, got a few Bibles around said, the work of faith is turning to God from idols, which is compared in 9 vers- in in verses nine and ten. The labor of love is serving the true and living God, and steadfastness is hope is waiting for his son from heaven. They correlate the, the the two verses. They say it lives in harmony. I only want to look at one little thing on that. I mean, we know it's, it's God, I said it's God's work, and, and he does it all. Uh, labor of love, we kind of take this as a little thing. You've heard it, you know, this is, oh, this is a labor of love, you know, like I pushed Haley's, I pushed Haley's trash to the road for her. No, that was a labor of love, you know. Um, or I, I take Vic a cop, a cup of coffee in the morning, you know, that's a labor of love. This labor in this verse is not like that. This is arduous work, hard toil, break a sweat sort of work. This is bucking bales in the middle of the summer sort of work, you know, and those of you who haven't done that really can't appreciate it, but been there, done that, and threw the t-shirt away, it was nasty. But, but this is, this labor of love is not just some off the cuff little thing. It, it is, it's hard work, and then, and we look at it, and this is the way we want to love the church. We want our love for the brethren to be a labor, but not something we hate, not something we dread. We're glad to do it, you know, brethren, loved by God, that he has chosen you. This chosen means elect. That's the same word. Um, I know you've heard me kicking that around a lot lately. I'm st- I'm stuck on it, and and I and I I'm gonna bring it up. I'm just, I just got to, because it's kind of an important doctrine, really. The more I've thought about election, the more it's changed my mind on a lot of things, about a lot of things, the way I look at people. Uh, if God hadn't chose to open Lydia's heart to the truth, she never got saved. So maybe the Larrys in our life, God hasn't chosen to open their lives. So why am I dogging him? He, it's not, it's not really his fault, you know? Yeah, I can't blame God because God's perfect, but I, I, I can be more compassionate. Well, I should just be sad rather than be agitated. And so that, but that's, that's a sermon for another day. I don't have notes for that right now. I will, I promise. Anyway, Paul could see that they were beloved by God. Um, they were beloved and elect. That, that was really important. They were true, true believers, and they were the true church. They were a real church. And it's, and it's a theme. There's, there's several themes here, but this is one of them, and they also talk about the second coming of Jesus, that's a theme, and, and the wrath of God is another theme in, in the Bible, but this, this first part, they were the true church. They were, they were truly the church. And you look at it, that's really the nature of the true church, you know? It's not a specific building where we go, and of course, probably didn't have many buildings in the first century, and it's not we're gathered together to sing specific songs or say specific trees, but the true church are those who are chosen, and it's, and it's all through scripture, and the election is, um, election is just God's s- loving, sovereign will to, to, uh, to choose us. And if you look at it, the church was often called the elect to those, um, in Matthew, Jesus says that Satan would deceive the elect if given a chance, and he says he's coming back for the elect. That's also true in Luke eighteen where he talks about being elected. Romans eight thirty three, nobody can bring a charge against the elect. That means they can't bring a charge against the elect under judgment, in a condemnation, you know, that they're just special people. And Paul says that he does in, in second Timothy, he says we do all things for he, he can endure all things for the, uh, you know, for the elect, and we ought to be that way too. And Colossians, in Colossians three twelve it says we are the chosen of God. And Paul could say that. He was assured that they were loved by God because, and of God's choosing in their election, because in verse five it says, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Um, the gospel that Paul and, and, and, and Silas and Timothy preached wasn't just words. It wasn't some canned speech. It wasn't something off, off a track that they hang out. It was characterized by power, um, the miraculous power, um, not only in their preaching, but also in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit manifested to people that this was true, and his presence proved it, and and then they were fully convicted, or they were fully, yeah, they had full conviction. They had that transparent sincerity that what they were preaching was right, what they were saying was true. There wasn't any doubt, there wasn't any stubble. Um, and do they had that because they had been changed by the gospel. They had been changed. Paul had gone from the persecutor to the preacher, you know, they'd all been changed. And if you think about any place that the, that the gospel was preached, you know, if it is, is it was empowered by the Holy Spirit at that time, and they believed it, and you could prove that that was that, and they lived it, you know, in the next section, the people were living it in the last part of it in, in eight through ten. It really, it really had changed them, and so they came preaching the gospel because they believed it, and the Holy Spirit empowered them to do so, and people were changed. Now, you know, I can stand up here and I can preach all these words, and anybody, well, anybody can, basically, but if the preacher or the speaker isn't one of the chosen truly, and they don't have true conviction in their words, they just know what they've read, and and they mimic it back to people, and they parrot it back, and if their lives truly aren't consistent, you'll see in the next part that their lives truly aren't consistent with what, with what they're saying, it's empty. It's not going to change lives of anybody because it's not true in their life. How can they expect it to change the life in anybody? You know? Before, you know, before I was saved, I sat in, I sat in that, that church, and I heard the guy, you know, and everybody just said, mm, that's cool, you know, and there, he wasn't saved, and people weren't getting saved, and, and, you know, God was gracious, and, and he opened the scriptures in my heart, showed me that I could be saved, you know? And so, I mean, I'm, I'm gonna say this, and don't, please don't take this as just vanity, but I can stand up here with true conviction and tell you the gospel changes lives because it changed my life. And I've seen it change pe- I've seen it change people's lives. I can look at people, I can see people out here that I know, and it's changed their life. And so, when they say it to somebody, they can see it with clear conviction, and the Holy Spirit will use them. Anyway, I started to say I was, I'd get off my soapbox, but that's why I'm up here, isn't it? Um, so you can ask the question, i- is what we have, is it a true and vibrant church? You know, can can do do we do what we have here, and I don't mean exclusively just six to now, I mean, but, but kind of exclusively six and Elm. That's not saying that they can't be elsewhere, but just right here, because this is the, this is the assembly that God brought me to. This is the one I'm concerned about. Um, do we have that here? Do we thank God for one another? I mean, that's what Paul did. I mean, do we really thank one- thank God for one another? Do we thank him for what he's done in the other people's lives, not just for what he's done in our lives? Do we, do we go to him in prayer and say, thank you, Father, for the work you're doing in da da da da da da. I think just, okay, uh, she's not here, that's too bad. Uh, Connie Murphy just made a profession today, just got saved, you know, and that's great. Did we thank God for what he did for her? You know, did we? Did we love him that much and love her that much we did? Uh, are the things in verse three true of us? Uh, and, you know, um, do we have a labor of love and and those things for one another? Can we see them in each other? I would hope so. I hope we can. Um, are we sure God's chosen us individually? It's a pretty important issue, and it's a real important issue. We can't ride anybody's shirttail. Has he chosen us? And are our, are the words we say and the lives we live, are they just words? You know, is, are we just going through the motions? Are we empowered and energized by the Holy Spirit because of the change in our life? Are we the true church? We want to think so. I'd want to pray so that that would be the case. You know. I want us to be that. Not for us, not because I want us to be the champions of the faith, but because God is faithful, and God makes us this way, and people would get saved, and would get saved. So, anyway, that's part of chapter one. Just think you have two, three more years of this. Oh no. Let's pray. Father, I pray personally that, that it is true of us, that, uh, we would be a true church. And if there are those among us who don't truly know you for whatever reason, that are playing some religious game, that you would open their hearts and their minds to the true. Show them that so they might come to you. They might come to you. And I pray, Father, too, that our lives would, would just exemplify our choosing of us, that they would, it would show that it is true and it's real and it's changed our lives. I thank you, Father, for this letter, and I thank you, Father, for the time to study it, and uh, I pray, Lord, that as we go through it, that it would, it would help us to grow, help us to be like the image of your son, and as we look to Sunday school, that it would become precious to us, ever so precious. I pray, Father, your blessing on the rest of our day, the rest of our times together, the rest of our week. Uh, we love you, and, uh, in Christ's name, amen.