Hi and welcome back to
Books of the Book where
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we are studying 1 Thessalonians.
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We are going to pick it
up now Jon, with verse 5.
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Let me read that for us.
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Alright, so he here, he
is giving reasons why he is
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thankful, as I mentioned
previously this is all one
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sentence and he is thankful,
that is the main sense.
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I give thanks, I give
thanks for all these things.
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One of them is that the
gospel did not come to them in
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Word only, but in
power and the Holy Spirit
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with much certainty.
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So Paul can see when
they received the Gospel
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they were
changed people. - Yeah!
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The Gospel is not changed,
the Gospel is what God has
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done, what Christ has done.
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But change in our
lives is evidence that God is
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working and so he saw
outward evidences that they had
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power they didn't have before.
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Inward evidences, there
was certainty, they had and an
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assurance, a confidence
that they didn't have before.
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So there was outward and
inward evidence in their lives.
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That is often how you can
see God is working in someone's
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life, you see the fruit,
the Bible calls it the fruit of
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the Holy Spirit, that
love and patience, kindness
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gentleness, I mean there
is a whole list of them there.
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Jesus Himself said, a
good tree produces good fruit,
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inside and out.
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Well what better evidence
do you have that God is working
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in your life then
love, peace, patience, long-
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suffering, and stuff like that.
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That is not normal for
human beings, it isn't natural,
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it doesn't come easy for us.
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When that happens in our
lives it is a miracle of God.
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Paul was observing those
miracles going on, and I want to
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point out one word toward
the end that it isn't usually
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translated this way, but in
the last line of verse five,
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it says, "just as you know
what we became among you for
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your sakes. " Now usually
that is translated, what we were
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among you, but you see English
has a difference between is
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and become. - Okay!
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Greek has a
difference too, emi and getomi.
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Paul here doesn't use the
normal word for just being.
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It is the word for becoming.
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So he is emphasizing over
and over, it occurs five or six
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times in his first two chapters
about becoming, becoming.
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There was a transformation,
there was a change, things
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were moving in the Thessalonians
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It must've been an unusual
church, Paul is so excited by
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this and maybe this is an
experience he didn't often have
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in his preaching of how
people's lives were transformed
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in this way and we want to
emphasize that word became.
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That is why in my translation
I bring out that nuance
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over and over again and
you'll see it again in verse six
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as well. - I think
that is so important Jon.
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Because often times we
think of I accept Christ and now
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I am. - yeah. - becoming
is so important and I try to
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remind people of this all
the time, and my wife tries to
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remind me of this about
myself because I can be hard on
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myself to expecting to
be at a certain place and
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she reminds me and I try
to remind others that we are
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becoming, we are
growing, we are in the process.
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I think this is a huge
call to veteran Christians, if
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you will, within the
church to live that life before
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the younger generations as well.
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Veteran Christians? - yes those
who have been walking with Jesus
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for a long time to show and
say we are all in a process,
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we are all growing, and that
also means being vulnerable.
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You talked about
before, real love is also being
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vulnerable, being able
to ask for forgiveness.
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One of the things of
being a parent, now a veteran
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parents 12 years is we had
to learn a lot of humility.
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There are times when I
had to say to my own kids when
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I have blown it, to
say, maybe one of my children
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didn't do something
they were supposed to do and
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I reacted in the wrong way.
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Maybe in anger, you don't
always have to respond in anger
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to correct somebody and
I hate to admit too often,
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more than I would like to
admit, I've had to go to my son
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and daughter and say, you
know what? What you did was not
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right, but the way I
reacted was not right.
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I did not need to react
that way, would you forgive me?
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I confess that to them and
think that is what can be done
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in the church as well.
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But to live that out, and to
see that we are also becoming
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and that we are
growing, so it is essential.
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I have had so many parents
come to me and say my children
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aren't in the church and it
breaks my heart, what do I do?
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Once I know the situation,
and almost every time the
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appropriate answer is
well an apology would be a good
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start, because kids
are growing, their forming,
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they don't just leave
the church because one day
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they decide to leave the church.
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They are usually leaving
because they don't see the model
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that they are looking for.
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Paul gets into this, and in
the very next couple verses.
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Let's look at that
and verses 6 and 7,
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You know we often say, and I
think it is absolutely right,
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that only Christ
should be imitated.
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If you imitate a human being
they are likely to lead you
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astray, but the reality is
people will imitate us and it
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is important as veteran
Christians, it is important that
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we not just talk the talk,
but walk the walk, you see.
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They will model Christianity
on us more when we confess
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our sins, when we
show a vulnerability then
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when we act so perfect.
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I once was a leader of a
youth group and asked the youth
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what is it? What is the one
thing that would prevent you
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from staying a
Christian when you grow up?
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Do you know what they
answered that, several different
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kids answered the same thing.
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They said people who act
as if they have no problems.
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They could see there were
problems in the church, and they
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can also see the people were
not willing to confess those.
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That imitation was very
discouraging to the young people
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So Paul is saying look,
imitate Christ, but if you have
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never seen, heard, or touched
Him, it almost inevitable
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you will probably fix on
some human being to imitate.
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We need to realize, if we are
veteran Christians that human
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being is us, there is going to
be somebody who is looking at us
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and modeling us so in
our lives we want to be sure
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we don't just talk, but we
also walk, that we practice
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the things that we
are preaching. - Umhumm!
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I've had some role models
in my past experience, maybe
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a dozen that I could
name, just various people who at
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various times in my life
plugged one thing into place.
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I picked up this from that
one, and this from that one,
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and this from that one.
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It's part of growing,
it's part of becoming. - Yeah!
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Paul touches on that
here in these verses.
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Yeah, it is scary to think
about actually being someone
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that someone maybe is going
to imitate, but that is also
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what God has called us
to do as we grow in Him.
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Making disciples, you know
we've reference that before.
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There is imitating, that
part of growing, there is
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a statement, I don't
remember where I heard it.
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But it is great. It says
we teach what we know, but we
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reproduce who we
are. - Oww, that's good!
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That is so true, and that
is why we can say one thing
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but if we are not living
it, we are going to reproduce
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who we are often in times.
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So it is important that
that we. - so if my kids look
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a lot like me, it is
my fault? - Or your joy.
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- Or my joy. - that
is right, that is right!
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Now if you don't like
where your kids are heading
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take a good look
in the mirror perhaps.
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If you do like where
your kids are heading,
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praise the Lord. - that
is right, that is right.
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Well do you want to move
on to verses 8 and 10 here?
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Why don't we. - Let's do that.
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The Thessalonians
must've been amazing.
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A really great church. -
amazing, he is three weeks
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with them and somehow
something happens in such a way
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they are fired up and
talking about it everywhere.
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Paul is saying he has
been to Berea and to Athens and
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to Corinth and in all of
these places people are talking
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about what has
happening back in Thessalonica.
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That's what he's telling
us here, so this was really
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a special church, some really
special things were taking
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place and Paul is excited
about it, and at the end of
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this verse, verse 10
they were waiting His Son from
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heaven. Part of his faith
that was really important to
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Paul among the Thessalonians
was that focus on the
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second coming, the
focus on the return of Jesus.
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They are walking with
Jesus now, they are looking
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forward to being with
Him in person in the future.
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So the Thessalonians are
kind of remarkable, because
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when you think of the
ancient Greek world, the ancient
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Greek world didn't
believe in resurrection.
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According to the Greeks it
didn't happen, there was no
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such thing, if there was an
afterlife, and Plato came up
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with this idea, if there's
an afterlife its some bodiless,
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ghostly existence that I'm
not sure anyone would really
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want, and so to come with
a message of resurrection,
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that the dead can be
raised in bodies and special
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heavenly bodies, with new
powers that are totally foreign.
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It is a crazy message to
talk about raising someone
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from the dead.
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I just did a study of a whole
bunch of Greek works on the
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resurrection of the dead,
so this is fresh in my mind.
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They did not buy it, so
right from the start you are
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bringing them a message
that they know is false.
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Not only that, it was
a crazy Jewish message.
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So you have all these
Gentiles Thessalonians getting
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excited about a message
that you would never expect
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them to get excited about.
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So Paul is thrilled
and excited and he praises
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God for all of this.
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So we have been talking about
becoming, and that gives me
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a chance maybe to talk about
stages of Faith just briefly
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here, because people grow
through various stages in life.
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The first stage is where
you get acquainted with God.
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The second stage is
where you become a disciple,
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you attach
yourself, imitate someone.
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The third stage is when
you become a leader and other
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people imitate you, you
see the Thessalonians they have
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gone through all three
stages that often takes decades
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for people, they have
gone through all three stages.
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But then there is
something else that happens,
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when you are successful,
when you are following God and
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people are admiring what
you do for God, often there
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comes something we call
a dark night of the soul.
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The Thessalonians had that too.
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The dark night is when suffering
comes, when persecution
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comes, when trouble comes,
when inner turmoil happens.
00:12:15.26\00:12:18.73
We may at that time
think God is abandoning us.
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You may be going through a
dark night right now and feel
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like God is abandoning
you, but it is a normal part of
00:12:26.81\00:12:30.75
a healthy growing
Christian experience.
00:12:30.75\00:12:33.72
What it does is it weans
away the pride, it pulls you
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away from those things
which holds you back and allows
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you to serve God in
a more selfless manner.
00:12:42.06\00:12:45.53
So growth will come through
hard times, it did for the
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Thessalonians,
and it will for us.
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We don't need to be frustrated
about that because in the
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end, what we have gone
through those difficult times,
00:12:55.37\00:13:00.14
and when we come more solely
focused on God, then we can
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come closer and closer to
the Spirit and the character
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Jesus who loved others
because God loved them.
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It didn't matter if they
were nice, it did not matter if
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they were friendly,
He loved them because
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they were souls that God loved.
00:13:16.79\00:13:18.96
Well we can see from Paul's
writings that he had a lot
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to be thankful about. - Yes!
00:13:23.53\00:13:24.93
There was a lot of fruit
in their life of what God was
00:13:24.93\00:13:27.80
doing through the
word that He gave them.
00:13:27.80\00:13:30.87
So we are happy that we
could look at this section of
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Scripture, that we can
be thankful all the time and
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keep growing in
God's Word. God bless you!
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