Welcome to Books of the Book.
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We've been working our way
through the letters of Paul
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to the Thessalonians
and we're coming now
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to our concluding program.
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We'll be looking at
the end of Chapter 2
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and Chapter 3 of
Second Thessalonians.
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I'm Jon Paulien, and with
me is my Pastor Jon Ciccarelli.
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Jon, it's good to
be with you again.
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We've been
through quite a journey
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and now we've
reached our final episode
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here in Second Thessalonians.
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And its been rich and I
look forward to the study today
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and we're going
to pick it up today
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in Second
Thessalonians, Chapter 2
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verses 13 through
Chapter 3, verses 18
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and Paul is writing
and he's writing them
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about preserving their
past, but yet having to deal
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with the present and
looking to the future as well.
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And there might be some
things that required change
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and how do you, how do
you stay true to the past,
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but yet be
relevant to the present.
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We need to look at
all those things today,
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I think you'll guide us in that.
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I think the major theme
that we're looking at from
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Chapter 2:13 through the
end of Second Thessalonians
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is the theme of
tradition, the theme
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of staying
connected to the past.
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Now churches have to
grow, they're like plants,
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if you don't
grow, you're gonna die,
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that means
churches need to change.
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Yeah. Change can be scary
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but they need to change,
but not all change is good.
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Yeah. And I think Paul,
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wants to make very clear here
that as you considering change
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as the necessary change
that the church is going through
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is happening, but you need
to stay connected to the past.
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You need to stay close
to the best of the tradition
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and the best
concept to that term.
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Yeah. I like that,
Jon, its--you know,
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growth always means change,
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but change doesn't
always mean growth.
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Oh. You know, when something
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is growing, when it's
alive, its going to change.
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You know, again I think of my,
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my kids just using
kids as an example.
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My son you know,
now 12 going to be 13
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he's not the little boy he
was, he now wears a size 10
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you know, he's a big boy,
thinking of plants they grow,
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they change
because they are growing
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they weren't the
seed, they once were.
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And so I think if we're growing
in God and we're bearing fruit,
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we're going to see change.
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But I think its
also essential that,
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that we be
sensitive to the past,
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because we can
learn a lot from the past.
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We don't want to
forget what God has done.
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You know, God is
doing a new thing,
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but we always-- He
calls us to remember
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as well what He
has done you know,
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I'm God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob you know,
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but He is also Jesus.
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And so I think that's important
and so again just kind of
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little plea for the
multigenerational churches.
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You know, because
we need to remember.
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So often times in my ministry
when I've been with someone
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who is, who is older
than I and walk down the road.
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I can be stressing out about
something and they're all relax,
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they go, I remember
when that happened you know,
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and then they talk
about what happened.
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And we need to keep
those relationships,
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the church needs to be, to
be whole like that as well.
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The tradition
isn't always a good word.
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I mean, tradition can simply be,
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we've always done
at that way before.
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It means staying in the rut.
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It's not what, Paul,
is talking about here.
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For him tradition is
positive and the tradition here
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is first of all the
word of God that was brought
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to them through the scriptures.
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But before that was
written down they were oral.
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So he saw tradition is the
word of God that came to them
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in Jesus and the
things that Paul was saying.
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Second of all it's a
spirit guided consensus
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from the people of
God led by the spirit come
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to a consensus on
what the word of God is.
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That also is a
positive tradition that we need
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to stay connected to
even though we may change,
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even though we may
worded differently,
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never the less we
need to stay connected
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to that early tradition.
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Why don't we get
started with Chapter 2, verse 13
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and I should probably
remind our viewing audience
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that the
translations of Thessalonians
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in these programs are
my own design to catch
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some of the new answers of
Greek grammar and Greek words
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that may help us
understand what Paul,
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was trying to get across.
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Paul says in
verse 13 of Chapter 2.
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But we are obligated to give
thanks to God always for you,
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brethren loved by
God, because God chose you
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from the beginning as
first fruits to salvation
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in sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth.
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The language here
reminds us of the prayer
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all the way back in
First Thessalonians 1.
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Its almost as if Paul knew that
these two would be a package
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and he brings the theme back
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to all the way to
the beginning here.
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But I want to
point out something
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in the text as I translated it.
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It says God is chosen
you from the beginning
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as first fruits to salvation.
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Now here is interesting point,
the Greek word here is aparkay
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or as modern Greek
might say it aparkee.
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And if you take it as a single
word aparkee means first fruits.
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But if you separate it
up- arkay, up means from,
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so it's from arkay,
ancient times archaeology.
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Okay. From the beginning,
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so we don't know if
Paul, wrote from the beginning
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or first fruits,
because the original writing
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didn't have
spaces between the words.
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So sometimes Bible
translation difficulties,
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manuscript difficulties come,
because there were no spaces
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between words and you're
not sure if its one word or two.
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So just a little
piece of history there.
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So if he's saying you
are there from the beginning
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he's saying God chose
you, right from the beginning.
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You know, He had a plan for you,
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His foot prints were in
your life before Paul got there.
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If he's saying first fruits, he
says we're offering you to God.
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The first fruits
were-- the early crops that
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people brought to the temple.
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And the Old Testament
said, here God thank you
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for the whole
crop, but our thank you
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is to bring you
the first and the best.
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That's good, that's good.
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Lets move on to verse 15 here
and Paul continues and he says.
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So then, brothers,
stand and hold fast
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the traditions
which you were taught,
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whether by word of
mouth or through our letter.
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Yeah, we got to do
that 'cause truth tends
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to slip overtime
if we're not careful.
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That's, that's so true
you know, its kind of like
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unattended garden if you
will, you know, a garden--
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I would love to have a garden,
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but I am not very
good attending that.
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And so we actually have quite
a bit of space at our house
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with a vision for big garden
and when I always try to start
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a garden it always goes bad,
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because I don't
attend to it very well.
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And so the weeds come
up and everything else
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and so fourth and
it's just like the garden,
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if we don't tend to the things
of the past and the truths
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that are
important and essential,
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then it does slip you
know, weeds grow things happen
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we have to give it that
attention and intention.
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Well, verse 15 the traditions
that Paul's talking about
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came to them by word
of mouth and by letter.
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So its two types of traditions
here there's oral traditions
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word of mouth, and
there is written tradition
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and both of those
are important safeguards.
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Oral traditions is less subject
to intentional distortion
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that's why preaching
is still a good thing,
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because when you're
preaching you've got gestures,
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you've got tone of
voice, its hard to mistake
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what a person is saying
when they are preaching.
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The same words written
down can be less clear,
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so oral tradition preserves
us from intentional distortion
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where people are
trying to mess with it.
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But written
tradition is less subject
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to unintentional distortion.
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You know, overtime
oral traditions tend to fade
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and people start
getting them confused you see,
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having something written down
make sure that it stays steady
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as the years go
by, so both types
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of tradition
are important. Yeah.
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So, tradition was not a
dirty word in the New Testament.
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Yeah, it was essential
to, to God's revelation
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of His love to people,
the remembering the saying
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and actions of Jesus, you know,
and the writing of the apostles.
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You know, but yet
we have to be careful
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'cause Jesus said some
pretty strong words in Mathew.
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When He said to
the religious leaders,
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He said to them you
nullify, or you invalidate
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the word of God
because of your traditions.
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So we have to be really
careful that we don't worship
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the tradition themselves
that we don't make them higher
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than what God did through them
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and what He is doing
out for us in the present
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and growing us to bring
about that positive change
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and transformation
in our life as well.
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One author said the seven
last word of the church are,
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we never did it that way before.
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You see, that's a
negative side of tradition.
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That's the way we
do things around here.
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It fixes you in a place
and plants can't be fixed,
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they have to grow,
they have to be changing
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in order to stay healthy
and because that is the case
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church that just sticks
with what they have done before
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is not a church that's growing,
its not in a healthy place.
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Let's go on to Chapter
3 and verses 1 through 5,
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I think I'll read that for us.
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Finally, brothers,
pray for us in order
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that the word of the Lord
might progress and be glorified,
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just as it is with you.
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Isn't that kind
a humble he says,
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you do you're
progressing so much I hope
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to keep up with you pray for me.
00:10:20.42\00:10:23.15
In order that we
might be delivered from
00:10:23.15\00:10:26.15
out of place and evil
men, for not all have faith.
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I think I've met
those guys anyway.
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But faithful is the
Lord, who will strengthen you
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and guard you against evil.
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Now here in the
Greek it says the evil,
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and it's not clear
if its evil in general
00:10:41.87\00:10:44.04
or if its Satan in particular,
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so that's why I put
in both options there.
00:10:45.51\00:10:47.74
Guards you against
evil or the evil one.
00:10:47.74\00:10:50.25
And we have confidence
in the Lord concerning you
00:10:50.25\00:10:53.11
that what we command you are
doing and will continue to do.
00:10:53.11\00:10:58.75
Now may the Lord direct
your hearts into the love of God
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and into the
patient endurance of Christ.
00:11:03.12\00:11:08.20
Finally bothers, he
says at the beginning.
00:11:08.20\00:11:11.03
That's how Paul
loves to end a letter.
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Finally brothers,
its family, he reminds us
00:11:14.00\00:11:17.21
this is all about family
and family has to be aware
00:11:17.21\00:11:21.94
that there is evil in the world.
00:11:21.94\00:11:23.98
There are threats to the family,
00:11:23.98\00:11:25.88
there is an evil one
who is working everything
00:11:25.88\00:11:29.52
with the goal of
undermining what God
00:11:29.52\00:11:31.79
is doing and
sometimes even shows himself.
00:11:31.79\00:11:34.59
Yeah. Its could be a
scary thing you know,
00:11:36.16\00:11:40.50
you brought this out in
a, in a previous episode
00:11:40.50\00:11:43.47
and I thought it was so
powerful that when the Gospel
00:11:43.47\00:11:46.20
is powerful Satan is forced
to be reveal himself you know,
00:11:46.20\00:11:50.41
that, that when he's
trying as hard as-he's throwing
00:11:50.41\00:11:53.94
everything he can to
stop people from knowing
00:11:53.94\00:11:56.51
the love of God and that's,
that could be a scary thing.
00:11:56.51\00:12:01.15
But yet if we
trust in Christ you know,
00:12:01.15\00:12:03.02
we have that strength
you know, the greater is He
00:12:03.02\00:12:04.62
who is in us than
he who is in the world.
00:12:04.62\00:12:06.79
But you think of stuff in
the world like maybe I know
00:12:06.79\00:12:09.02
we're talking just a
week about Africa You know,
00:12:09.02\00:12:11.93
I mean, what are some
things you see in Africa.
00:12:11.93\00:12:14.36
In Africa the
Christian are seeing
00:12:14.36\00:12:17.20
satanic
manifestations all the time.
00:12:17.20\00:12:20.27
You know, maybe we shouldn't
if everything is going smoothly
00:12:20.27\00:12:23.14
we shouldn't be too comfortable
about that 'cause maybe
00:12:23.14\00:12:25.34
Satan's not disturbed
about what we are doing.
00:12:25.34\00:12:28.71
I have had a
couple of encounters
00:12:28.71\00:12:30.95
with the
demonic and its not fun.
00:12:30.95\00:12:32.78
But I will tell you this that
Satan's got somebody greater
00:12:32.78\00:12:38.62
than him, its not me, if
I'm close to Jesus Christ,
00:12:38.62\00:12:42.66
if the name, the power,
and the blood of Jesus Christ
00:12:42.66\00:12:45.69
is in my heart,
Satan cannot hurt me
00:12:45.69\00:12:48.96
and his power can be dealt with.
00:12:48.96\00:12:52.00
There's a greater power
in the world than Satan.
00:12:52.00\00:12:55.07
And so Paul is
asking for two blessings
00:12:55.07\00:12:58.51
one that his work
will prosper and grow
00:12:58.51\00:13:01.41
and the others that
he'll be delivered from
00:13:01.41\00:13:03.41
these out of place and evil men.
00:13:03.41\00:13:06.92
And then he says that the
Lord will direct your hearts
00:13:06.92\00:13:11.09
into the love of God, the
patient endurance of Christ.
00:13:11.09\00:13:15.56
And isn't that the goal of
the spiritual life you know,
00:13:15.56\00:13:18.49
to be directed
into the love of God
00:13:18.49\00:13:22.36
and to be like Christ
patient and endurance.
00:13:22.36\00:13:26.87
Through our love we
want to be more like God.
00:13:26.87\00:13:29.30
Absolutely. And
our patients will be
00:13:29.30\00:13:31.47
more like Jesus Christ. Yeah.
00:13:31.47\00:13:33.44
That's beautiful.
Well, its time for a break,
00:13:33.44\00:13:36.64
and when we return
00:13:36.64\00:13:37.75
we will continue with
Second Thessalonians 3.
00:13:37.75\00:13:40.78