Attwood, Michael: Mens Intensive Bible Study The Rapture Reinforced Part 8 ~ 1 Thessalonians

Okay, we're, um, verse, uh, seventeen uh now, please, of chapter two. It says, but we brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoring the more abundantly to see your face with great desire, wherefore we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope, our joy, our crown of rejoicing, and not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ that is coming? For ye are our glory and joy. And so we, we get something of Paul's compassion again for them. Uh, he says, being taken away from you for a short time in presence. And that phrase, taken away from you, uh, it's the idea that it's kind of a word that describes being orphaned or losing a loved one. And he's already told them that his conduct toward them was like a father and like a nursing mother. And because of the o- opposition and Jason's bond and all the rest of it, he has been snatched away from them, as it were, and he feels bereft of his children, right? And he, he misses his children. He, he has longings for his children. And so he says, we brethren be taken from you, orphan, bereft, as it were, for a short time in presence, but notice not in heart. Not in heart. So, so physically we can be apart, but in heart there's still that love. There's still that longing. There's still that compassion. And that's a wonderful thing, isn't it? To have that heart love for the people. And again, it's interesting, isn't it, how, um, they may have known each other for just a short few months. Let's just say three months. But eternal bonds were formed in three months. And you feel like that with the people of God, right? You meet a believer, you don't see him very often. I mean, uh, I- I've got friends all over the continent, and you don't see him very often, but in your heart, you're still, you love these people, right? You- you just, you in- you appreciate them. You appreciate Christ living in them. We've just been singing, by- by the way, do we realize what we're singing? Amazing, right? Christ liveth in them. And so we love these people, and Paul loved them. And and he says, um, yeah, we're we've been, uh, bereft of you, not in presence, but not in heart. In heart, we're right with you. In heart, we're we're still there with you, in a sense. We want to be there with you. Our hearts with you. We love you. And he says, we've endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. So so the idea is this, we've made every effort to get to you. And again, it's this, I wanted to sense for a second this Christian love that's so different to the world. He loves these people. He wants to be back with them. He wants to see them again. He wants to, uh, you know, they're like fam- they're his family, right? They're his children. He- he's the father of mother. They're the children. He loves them. He wants to be with them. And so there's this eternal relationship. And remember what the Lord Jesus said, and I think it's good to keep reminding ourselves of this. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. If you wear a dark suit and carry a big black Bible under your arm. Sorry, that is called that. How will the world know? Love one. How we doing, brethren? Do people sense that? You know, we were around our neighborhood, and it was interesting. One of the neighbors, close neighbor to our chapel, and he said, I'm not a church-going person, but he said, I want you to know that if I was, I'd come to your church. And we said, why is that? He says, because it's so obvious you love one another. I mean, he's just watching us coming into the car- car park and then going to the chapel, but he's seen something, and isn't that interesting what he's seeing? He says, I go there because I can see your loved one. That tells me a couple of things. One, we're being watched. That guy's watching us right there in the neighborhood, and he's watching us, and he's observing things. And praise God that he's observed something good. Wouldn't it be terrible if he said, I'm not a church-going person, but if I was, I wouldn't come to yours because you're a bunch of cranky old people, right? That's not what he said. I- I pray, I- I feel thrilled that that's what he said. So again, we just need to ask it, is that love evident? And again, you say, well, you don't know the saints in my assembly. And, and we said there are sandpaper saints, right? And called sandpaper saints. Some Christians are hard to love. But we, it's not us that's doing the loving. The love of God is shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost who was given to us, Romans five five. And, and so the fruit of the Spirit is love. I can't love them. It's not up to me. I just have to yield to the indwelling heavenly guest, and he'll love him through me. Yes. This is tough, but I've had the experience working with people, my name is Randy. I encouraged him to go to the chapel, but we have a big band. Uh, we scrutinized really hard who could break bread on Sunday morning, and we refused Randy, even though Randy was Christian. Okay? And his comment back to us was, you're more hard to get into than my Catholic church. How do we handle that? I struggle with that, Mike, and Yeah. I'm not picking on the chapel. I respect Right. where the chapel's coming from. Yeah. But is there a balance? Yeah. Well, let me just say this, first of all. I- I personally believe there's a clear demarcation, a within and a without. And it should be clear. Those that are in fellowship, those that are without. And there should be no question mark, okay? Define fellowship. Huh? Define fellowship. So, so I would put it this way, that, um, if somebody is still in the, an apostate church, like the Catholic Church, I'm not sure that, you know, the openness of our meetings, the last thing that I would want is somebody in that background who may say he's a Christian. I said, I would have said I was a Christian in the Catholic Church. I was no more a Christian than my pet dog, you know, but I thought I was. So, so I think there has to be care in reception, and there, and, and in, in his instance, he took umbrage and got offended. But I know people who have had the profoundest respect for the fact that there's a clear demarcation, and they, they, they appreciated the fact that there's those that are and those that aren't. So I, again, I think we got to follow scripture. Whether it, it is culturally acceptable or not is, is irrelevant. It's what does the scripture say? In the scripture, there's a clear, and, and it does say to somebody who's in an apostate system, come out from among them. Now, if he came out from Catholicism and got baptized, I'd have no difficulty, if he has a clear testimony, receive him into fellowship, none whatsoever. But if he's still in, I, I would be very reluctant. So we used to, I used to do this in, in the assembly in Ireland. I, I'd be standing on the door. Uh, this is a true story. A guy came to our assembly, and I, I, you don't know this person from Adam, so I asked him, tell me, how did you get saved? Well, he gave the biggest testimony I've ever heard in my life. I mean, I, I, like, I thought if this man saved this, and I, maybe, maybe it's me. So I asked another brother to talk to him just to make sure that it was just me not hearing right or whatever, and he said something funny about this. So we asked him to sit in the back seat. And, uh, at the coffee break, after the breaking of bread, we got talking to him further, and it turns out that he was part of a group called the Children of God. The Children of God was a cult that practiced child sex and incest. What? Yes. Yeah. Jeez. I mean, serious cult. Wow. And I was never so thankful Mm. that we took care Mm. in who we allowed to break bread, right? So because, now I'm not trying to keep the Lord's people away from remembering him. I'm not trying to do that. Please don't misunderstand that. I'm not trying to do that. But at the same time, we- our meetings, the format we have, what if you had somebody who was like this man and got up? Can you imagine the damage limitations you'd have to do? You see what I'm saying? So I think you- you- we've got to exercise great care when it comes to the World Supper. In all fairness, spending the time with Randy at the time that he was coming up, he was, he was confessing that he was a Roman Catholic, but he was listening to Charles Stanley. He was in the scripture. We got into scripture. I quizzed him, you know, what did Christ do for you? He shed his blood so you could be saved, and he was answering all the right things. So I kind of feel like I did the homework. Yeah. But can I, can I make a suggestion, Michael? Yeah. Um, can I suggest to you that, uh, sometimes this demarcation, most times this demarcation, um, is, is motivated by love. It's motivated by the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of his word, and the love of the person that, that, that, that we're looking at. We certainly don't want him to participate and to act as if he's among us if he's not safe, and I, and I'm encouraged that you tested him out. Yeah. That's why we have elders, right? They guard the sheep, Yeah. they protect them, and if they're not convinced, the most loving thing to do to for him or her, the fellowship, and most importantly for the Lord Jesus Christ, is to wait. The holding principle is nothing bad. Let, let's just wait, and let's just make sure so that everybody's safe and the Lord is well. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And, and just one, one more thing to add to the mix, and then we're going to get back to Thessalonians. And that simple thing is this, that the pattern in Acts two forty one and forty two, those that gladly received his word were baptized. So I, I, we had a couple that came to want to be in fellowship in our assembly, and they had two teenage children, and uh, they wanted to come in fellowship, and uh, I- I said- I asked them if they were baptized as believers, and the husband and wife were, but the children weren't. So I said, well, we can receive you, but we can't receive them. Well, the mother was, oh, she was so irate. My children are saved, why wouldn't you receive them? So I- I said, well, let me show you what the New Testament says. And I went through every verse on salvation and baptism, and I said, you know, this is God's order, and why should we accommodate God's order to suit your children? Should we not please God rather than them? And the kids spoke up and said, why aren't we baptized? So we say, well, look, let's do this. Next Lord's Day, we can shift our meetings around. We're flexible. We'll have a baptismal service, and then afterwards we'll receive you, and then you can break bread. And so we did, right? So in, in other words, we've got to stand on the word of God, and, and again, not be affected by our emotions, right? We've got to sta- and again, we've got to be in love. Um, I was out of love for those people. I want them to be obedient to the word of God, and and I'm not loving them if I let them think that they can remember the Lord and be disobedient to the clear commands of the Lord. That is, you know, the idea of an an unbaptized believer is completely foreign to the New Testament. In fact, the longest delay between conversion and baptism in the New Testament is three days. That's Saul of Tarsus, and he had a good excuse, he was blind. But the minute that he could see, it says immediately he was baptized. So, so why should they be an exception to the rule? Okay? I'm not being a hardliner, I'm just trying to be faithful to the text, and I think that's, that's what it comes down to. Yes, two really quick comments. The first is, um, one is that a lot of this is dealt with by the expectation of the people. Off- often people who come in are people we know already, right? They're contacts. And, um, we we have a lot of friends. My wife and I have a lot of friends who, um, would meet in very different ways, very different places, um, you know, college friends, history. We've really made an effort to maintain friendships with them, and they come and stay with us, and we would take them to the assembly, and we spend some time making sure they understand what to expect. And, and when you take the time to do that, it's very unusual, very unusual for that to be an issue next to that. I think the follow-up would be just to encourage, uh, people in a assembly failure to bring other believers or others who maybe have never experienced how we meet and how we, you know, see this as a work you can do. People are willing to come, and, and you can bring people in on a Sunday morning. And I, I feel we've got a little bit squeamish about doing this in some ways. Yeah. We just don't want people to see what we do. We're embarrassed about what we do, and particularly around this issue of what their position would be in that, in that meeting. And I would just encourage people to, to actually see this as a way that we should be evangelizing, or, or at least, uh, yeah, it's, it's the wrong expression, but evangelizing other Christians, discipling other Christians, bringing them in, having them see, um, what we're doing. It rarely, rarely is an issue. Um, and I just to reiterate what you've already said, Mike, I think we we're at risk of losing so much of assembly if we we're not clear on this. Yeah, yeah. And it interesting, when we were in Ireland, because we're in a sea of Catholicism, we did a lot of evangelistic Bible studies. And once somebody got saved in those Bible studies, before rushing them to the meeting, we would say, okay, let's look at what happened in the New Testament when somebody got saved. And then we'd go through Acts two forty one and forty two uh and maybe take four or five studies. Okay, those that gladly received his word, we'd spend a session on just going over their salvation, what's happened, how they received the word of God, what had happened to them. And then, uh, they were baptized. So we'd spend a whole night on believers baptism, and we go through every scripture. And, you know, u- usually when we went through that study, that they say, well, can we, can we be baptized? We want to be baptized. How do we do that? So we do that. And then they were adding on to that when we talk about fellowship, what it means to be in fellowship in a, in a local church, the, the privileges and the responsibilities. And then we talk about the, the Apostles' Doctrine, and we talk about breaking of bread, and we do it in, we did breaking a bed, we do a whole exposition of First Corinthians eleven, starting in verse two. and we talk about headship, and we talk about head covering, and we talk about head remembering. Mm. And they'd say to us, do you know any churches like this? We've never seen it, we've never seen anything like this. Oh yeah, we do. You think we could come and see? Sure. And when they come, they say, wow, this is just like the Bible. They're not saying, well, you're a bunch of weirdos. They say, wow, this is just like the scriptures, right? Because you've taught them before they even showed up. So again, we just need to think, how do we, how do we obey the scriptures without compromise, and at the same time help people to grasp these principles? Yeah. Okay, gotta get back here. So, in verse seventeen, it says, uh, endeavor the more of want to see your face with great desire. So they wanted to get back, and then he says, gives a specific example, wherefore, uh, we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered. So, so there've been attempts made to return, but Satan hindered. Now, three times in the Thessalonian epistles, first and second, um, Satan is mentioned. Here, he's mentioned as the hinderer, okay? Satan hindered us. And so the adversary hindered us. And so it's about him trying to hinder the work of God. We'll, we'll speak more about that in a moment. We just want to do a general before we get to the specific, uh, of concerning this. And then the, the next reference is in chapter three and verse five, where he's the tempter. For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and I'll lay be be in vain. And so it is focusing on his temptations, and and in this instance, the temptation is, because they're under persecution, the temptation is to back off and stop being so outspoken in the gospel, uh, to to kind of throw in the towel, to take the easy way, to be the secret disciple. That's the that's the temptation there, and and he says our labor would be in vain, right, if that was the case, because we want you to be like the Lord. And so you're not going to be like the Lord if you're not going to be, uh, giving out this message. And then in chapter two— uh, sorry, in second Thessalonians chapter two, we see him once more, and he's in verse nine and ten, the deceiver. Even him who's coming is after the workings of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. So th- three times, three different aspects of his work. Deception, temptation, hindering. Which m- makes us realize that he has different strategies and methodologies in different circumstances. Right? He doesn't just use one thing. Sometimes he tries to hinder us, sometimes he tries to tempt us, sometimes he tries to deceive us. Okay, so we've got to be conscious. Obviously, we're not ignorant of his devices. Right? And we can't be ignorant. We, you know, we don't want to be obsessed with the evil one, because that's what he wants. He loves attention. But we do need to pay attention to scripture when it tells us about him, so that we're, we're well armed. We're not going up against the enemy without any intelligence. You know, like one of the big things in the military is military intelligence, right? Uh, of making sure you know your enemy, you know his strengths, you know his weaknesses, right? W- we need to be aware of that too. And so we don't want to obsess with the enemy because he loves attention, but we want to just be aware of it. And so here he's the hinderer. And the idea is that we tried to get back to you, but he keeps putting roadblocks in our way. That's the kind of idea of the language here. He's, he's putting roadblocks to stop us returning, and I believe the big roadblock is Jason and his bond, right? This, he's on bail. Paul shows up in town, he's back in jail. Paul didn't want that to happen to Jason, and so he was trying to find ways around it, but but every time he tried to find a way around it, there was a another roadblock. But he tried, he he really had tried. And it's interesting about how the Lord guides his servants. Sometimes his he he allows, because Satan can only do what the Lord allows him to do. He's on a chain. He really, I mean, he's not bound, but he's on a, he can't do what the Lord, I mean, even Job, if you remember that, that very important instruction, he couldn't touch Job without permission from the throne of God. And so, so, so sometimes he, he does hinder and, and he puts roadblocks, and, and, and his servants are guided by that. Like there's a, there's a, there's a roadblock here, can't get through it. Sometimes Paul was hindered by open doors elsewhere. He wanted to visit Rome. Just look at Romans fifteen. You'll see that, you know, the big question was, how come the apostle to the Gentiles has never been to the capital of the Gentile world? I mean, if he's supposed to be the apostle of the Gentiles, why has he not shown up to the epicenter of it all? In Romans fifteen twenty, he says, yea, I strive to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation, but as it is written, to whom it was not spoken of, they shall see, and they, uh, and they that have not heard shall understand, which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you. So his hindrance there was there were so many open doors, so many places where they hadn't heard the gospel. There's already a church in Rome, there's so many places where there isn't one, that he's so busy it going through these open doors that he hadn't had a chance to go to Rome yet. And sometimes people say, well, when can you come, uh, and have ministry in our, our assembly? And it, and it could be a couple of years out. Now, why is that? Not that I'm not interested in your assembly, but there's already a full calendar. There's so many open doors, you can't, you can't be everywhere, right? And you, you got to spend some time at home sometimes too, to recharge your batteries and, you know, get to know your wife again, you know? So, so you have to recognize these things. Sometimes just open doors, and there are many open doors. And sometimes it's the Holy Spirit. Look at Acts sixteen. Acts 16, couple of verses here, verse six and seven. Sixteen, verse six and seven, where he says, now they had gone through, throughout Phrygia in the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. And they were come to Mysia, and they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not. So sometimes it's the Holy Spirit that says no, it's not time. Now, later on, Paul went to Asia. He spent three years in Ephesus, but at that moment, it wasn't God's timing. So the Spirit said no. And again, there is such a thing as, now, brethren, I've got to be careful what I'm saying here because this is easy to get misunderstood, but I think we believe in the leading of the Holy Spirit. Am I right? I mean, have you ever been in an assembly meeting, a remembrance meeting, where it's just so obvious that every brother that got up, that there was the leading of the Holy Spirit, and there's a theme ripped through the whole thing, and it's so evident, the Spirit of God. So I know you believe in the leading of the Holy Spirit. So if he can lead you at the Lord's Supper, the problem with many of our assemblies is that we think that once the Lord's Supper is over, the Spirit's exhausted and he's done, and there's nothing, nothing left to give. He can, he can lead you on Monday morning just as clearly as he can lead you, right? So are we, are we open to the leading of the Spirit? And so, for instance, I was invited to go to Northern Ireland. I love Northern Ireland. I've preached there many times, and uh, and as that we were getting closer and closer, I just had no peace, absolutely no peace. In- in fact, so much so that almost like the Lord was impressing on them, you're not the man. Very clearly, you're not the man. And so I wrote to the brethren, I said, I don't think I can come. I have absolutely no peace, and I know it was the Spirit of God. And, and they said, if, if you don't have peace, we don't want you to come. Praise the Lord. And, and I don't, I don't know why. I mean, I, I'd love to go back there. I love Northern Ireland, but I just had no peace. And the only thing I can say is, it was the Spirit of God that was saying to me, I don't want you to go. I'm thankful, right? I, I don't want to go where the Spirit of God didn't want me to be. I want to know his leading. And- and so there's different ways that the servants of God can be directed. But we do have an adversary, and we need to remember that sometimes he wants to do everything that he can to hinder the work. And so he says here, I would have come to you, even I, Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered. And you almost think, if you're not, if you're not thinking properly, you can almost get the impression that Satan won here. Paul wants to go back. These believers are in persecution. They need encouragement. Like, how come Satan won? Ah, but you see, you got to think for a minute. You see, if Paul had have gone, then he wouldn't have sent Timothy to find out how they were doing, and Timothy wouldn't have come back and given the report, and Paul wouldn't have been so thrilled when he heard the report that he sat down and wrote First Thessalonians. Yeah. And Second Thessalonians. And we would have been robbed. In fact, we won't be studying First Thessalonians this week if Satan hadn't succeeded. And so I don't know what we'd have studied, but I'm really glad that Satan seemed to win, but he didn't. Because the Lord, he meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And the result is these two fine epistles that are speaking to our hearts, I hope, this very week. Amen. Yes, Doc. Uh, in Colossians three fifteen, it says, let the peace of God rule Mm. in your hearts, in which you're called in one body, and be thankful. So the peace of God can give us direction. We have two decisions to make. Which is he giving us peace on? And we go that way. Yeah. Yeah. And and again, I think that the Holy Spirit can disturb our spirit so we don't have peace Yeah. if he doesn't want us to do something. Yes, sir. Yeah, I think that's a great verse, and I looked that up and remember that in Ukraine, that rule is the same word like our umpire. Umpire, yeah. And he'd say, what is safe and what is not safe? Like, you're in or you're out or safe, what's what's not safe? Yeah. So I've always remembered that. Yeah. That an umpire, being an ex-umpire, that was very important. Yeah. Yeah. So, so while we're we're on the subject of the the leading of the spirit, a fabulous book, and it's on Stem Publishing. Is it .com or .org? Anyway, Stem Publishing. On the leading of the Spirit is, it's a, it's a biography, and it's by Charles Stanley, and not Charles Stanley of Atlanta, Georgia, but Charles Stanley of Rotherham, England. And he was a exclusive brother in the eighteen hundreds. and this book is called Incidents in Gospel Work, and the subtitle is The Way the Lord Led Me. It's a wonderful book on the leading of the Spirit. So this guy, he was a, he had a kind of his own business, and he sold hardware, but he just used that as a reason to preach the gospel, and he was a wonderful evangelist. And so he would, he would go to the railway station and he'd pray, Lord, where do you want me to go today? I've got to sell some things to make my money, but where can I preach? And the Lord would impress him, go to this place, and he'd go and preach. And always there was a resp- and it's just thrilling, but there's a one great story, and I probably told it here before, so forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but he went he he had this distinct impression to go to this place to preach. And when he got there, there's nobody there. Everybody's out in the fields working. There's not a soul in sight, but he knows the Lord's called him to preach. So he stands on a doorstep, and he preaches the gospel to nobody. But behind the door is a family waiting to come out, but in those days people had manners, so they wouldn't, they didn't want to disturb this man. He was clearly on their doorstep speaking, so they waited patiently till he finished, and every one of them got saved. Amen. Behind the door. Now, is that the leading of the Spirit? Oh, you want to bet it is, right? And you read that book, and I'll tell you, it'll thrill you, and you'll, it'll make you say... And of course, a mark of sonship, right? Those are that are the sons of God are led by the Spirit of God. So again, let's not allow charismatic confusion rob us of our birthright as sons, and how we need to be praying for the leading of the spirit. Even in terms of ministry, I don't know if you've ever had this, I'm, uh, it's a true story. I was at an assembly, and, um, we're singing the last hymn. My wife's next to me, and she says to me, she says, you know what you're speaking on? I said, I haven't got a clue. Now, I'm not, I normally know way ahead of time what I'm going to speak on, but, and I had brought a message, but I had no peace about it, none. And she said, well, what are you going to do? I said, I don't know. Probably have a heart attack and go to hospital, I don't know. But, but anyway, the hymn finished, I went up and I put my Bible on the platform. As soon as I put my Bible on the platform, I knew what to preach. I gave a message, and it was interesting, the elders came up in tears. They said, how did you know? I had no idea. The Spirit of God knew, and he knew that the message I had wasn't what they wanted to hear. Another time I was at a conference on Sunday morning, and I had my message. I'd been doing a series, absolutely no peace, couldn't even look at it, but I was reading in my Bible that morning, and the passage I was reading on, couldn't get it out of my head. I couldn't even think about the other thing because of this passage. So I spoke on that passage, and I said, this, brethren, this could be over in ten minutes. I have no notes. I'm just, I just know I've got to speak on this. I spoke for an hour. I had such help from the Spirit of God. Everybody said it was the message of the conference. You know why? Because it wasn't my message, it was the message of the Spirit of God. What happened to me here, speaking on Labor Day. I did have my notes. I have everything. I was reading, I was reading my notes, making sure that I was on point, you know, all the points organized. And I looked at the crowd and I was fighting, you know, something within me said, what are you doing? What are you talking about? It's not bad stuff, but it's stuff. What are you doing? And literally, right in the pulpit, I took my message, I ripped it up in pieces, I opened up the Bible, and I, and, and, and, and I started preaching what the Lord wanted me to preach. And it was a life transforming Bible study when you're reading the word of God to change. And so, uh, and you could tell that the Lord was working in the hearts of people because, you know, they came up to you and really appreciated what they heard because they needed to hear. So I, I didn't know what they needed to hear. Obviously, God did. Such a trap too, Mike, because how do you know? How do you separate the leading of the Spirit between emotionally mystical stuff? Yeah, and I think the bottom line answer is this, that the Holy Spirit will always lead you outside your comfort. The flesh will always lead you to what you want to do, but the Spirit of God will lead you outside. So, so for instance, to, you know, it's not my nature to walk up to a complete stranger and talk to them about their souls, but sometimes I've been so heavily prompted, I know I'd be disobedient. It's completely outside of my comfort. It's leading the spirit. Yeah, I'm going to come back to you. Go ahead. I just wanted to, I didn't get the name of the book that you Yeah, it was called Incidents in Gospel Work, and the subtitle is The Way the Lord Led Me. Thank you. Incidents in Gospel Work. Yes. So how many other guys lead on Sunday nights, or do they then say, like, cast us, he helped us out, you know, we call out hymns. The only reason why I'm saying that, I've had numerous experiences in my life meeting the hymn at the, at the chapel Mm. and having the speaker come up after me saying, Fran, I had two messages. I didn't know which one to speak, but your hymns Yep. told me which one. Yep. Oh, and I've had that happen so many times. Either con- confirmation through the breaking of bread Yeah. to the message that I was thinking I should speak, Yeah. or in the hymns that the brother picked that he had no idea what I was going to speak on. Yeah. But it affirmed, or it caused me to think I need to preach on something else. So, so again, all I'm saying, I'm just appealing us to all of us to, to, to, again, this th- this stuff doesn't happen all the time. I'm not saying it does. Most time we know what we're going to speak on, we speak on it, but please, let's pray, Lord, help me to be sensitive to the leading of your Holy Spirit. Right? Whether it's in personal work, whether it's in ministry, whether it's at the Lord's Supper. Right? Sometimes I've, I've had a thought, and it's been really clear in my mind for the Lord's Supper, and when the theme developed, what I had shared was just not pertinent, so I didn't say anything. But the following Sunday, Mm. it was perfect. It's like he gave me a week in advance, and he didn't want me to get up and share because he wants other people to have an opportunity. Mm. Right? So it's again, this idea of just letting the spirit lead. Oh, and when he leads, it's so much more precious Mm. than when men organize. Right? And we're so, we're so one, and I'm not saying disorder, but sometimes human organization, it, it crushes what the Spirit wants to do in the meeting. So we've got to have that, that awareness that this is the Holy Spirit's work. It's not our work. It's his work, and we need his power, we need his leading, we need his direction, we need to be sensitive. Never saw this verse like this where... that Satan hindered Paul, and quite a bit true, but Satan hinders, and the Holy Spirit does too, you know? Yeah. And God is always in control. Yeah. He wouldn't be allowed to do anything. Yeah. And, and again, I want us to get the, the victory note in this verse, that Satan's hindrance was actually for the furtherance of the gospel. Because we got First Thessalonians as a result of it, and aren't you glad? I'm so happy to have First Thessalonians. If we'd have gone there, we might never have got it. And so this is a blessing. And so what is our hope, our joy, our crown of rejoicing, are not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming, for you are our glory and joy. And so we're brought back to the second coming of Christ, and Paul had this confident expectation. What is our hope, our common expectation, our joy, our crown of rejoicing? And it was the idea of this that he could see beyond what was going on now, and he could see the day when the Thessalonians would be with him in glory and would be glorified. Right? Because God saves us, and he sanctifies us, and he glorifies us. Right? And so he could see this. He could see down the pike, you see. He's seeing that right now they're in the midst of persecuting all these difficulties, but he can see what they're going to be in the coming day. Imagine what we're going to be like in the coming day. Don't think about what you look like now, but in a coming day, you're going to see him, and you're going to be like him. Amen. And you're going to be glorified. And Paul says that you're our crown of rejoicing. The soul winner's crown. You know, there are crowns, rewards in scripture, the victor's crowns. Yes. And he could see that these genuinely saved people who are a great example one day are going to be his, when he gets to heaven. He's gonna say this. It will be worth it all. When we see. Yeah, because he's gonna see them glorified, and it will be worth it all. And, uh, these crowns, and there's several of them, and I'm not going to take the time to go into the crowns of scripture. It's a great topic, but, and it's very fascinating, but there's, there's different ones, the martyr's crown or the victor's crown, if you like. Uh, there, there's, uh, the, the crown for the faithful shepherd. When the good, when the chief shepherd appears, they're going to get a crown. Praise God. Difficult work to be a shepherd. The Lord's gonna re- they don't get much reward here, in the sense sometimes it feel why they get not, but in the coming day, he will reward them for their faithful service. But the bottom line is this, that if we get crowns, and however many crowns we get, we'll have the privilege one day of casting them at the feet of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Because we'll say, Lord, if any good ever came out of my life, it's not because of me, it's because of you, and you alone are worthy. Amen. And what a privilege it will be to cast a crown at the feet of the Lord Jesus. Imagine having no crowns. Yeah. Well, imagine at the judgment seat of Christ standing in a pile of ashes. Because wood, hay, and stubble will burn up. If we stood before the Lord Jesus, there's just a pile of ashes around us. And you see, it's kind of interesting, I just was speaking on a, in a different book, but I was talking in First Peter about being strangers and pilgrims on the, on the earth and abstaining from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. And the idea is this, that if you lose your pilgrim character, like this is not home. We don't really belong here. We're just passing through. And the minute you lose your pilgrim character, you end up like Lot. Remember when Lot lost his pilgrim character? He became a resident in Sodom, and everything he owned ended up as a pile of ashes. Sodom burned, and he he got out of there with nothing because he lost his pilgrim character. And if we lose our pilgrim character, we too will stand at the judgment seat of Christ. And everything that we lived for that wasn't Christ is gonna go up in a pile of ashes, and even our service is just gonna be wood, hay, and stubble. And so it's just gonna be ashes, the whole thing. So it's important to live here as strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And that's a sobering note with which to end this session, as it is now.