The Stand (2 Thessalonians 2:15-17 Jeff Kliewer)

I want to say good morning. If you are here, take a seat in the hallway. If you want to come in, grab a seat.

We're joining together again in the Lord's presence for worship. What an amazing day today is going to be.

There are so many things and I don't know which one is going to be the biggest highlight, whether it's going to be the singing, whether it's going to be

Pastor Jeff's message. That's got to be up there somewhere, right? We have Hamilton Banda who's going to share his ministry.

You'll hear more about that. We have baptisms. We have all kinds of stuff today.

But I want to start us out with a word from Psalm 119, verses 1 and 2.

Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the

Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart.

Our walk is... No, no, no, that's okay.

Normally, I am totally unflustered by things that go on. Thank you, Phil. As people who live in this world, first of all, if you are a believer, you are a new creation.

All things are new, all things have gone away. We do know that and we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But I got news for you, the world is still out there giving us all kinds of issues and stuff to deal with.

This passage is a promise. It says, if you are walking in the law of the

Lord, if you are seeking him with your whole heart, your ways are blameless and you are blessed.

That really presumes that you are actually in the law of the

Lord. You are reading it, you are praying over it, you are meditating on it. And it presumes that you are surrendering your heart to God.

But the promises that we have as believers are unlimited.

Today is an amazing day, as I said. We're going to start out with our worship service.

And Hamilton Band is going to come speak about how God is calling him into a very, very incredible ministry.

After this service, we are going to not be going outside.

Why not, I hear? I don't think it's going to rain for 40 days and 40 nights, but today it's going to be...

Anyway, we're going to do not an indoor picnic, but an indoor Breaking the Bread Fellowship together.

Our lunch is going to be provided. It will be out there. I'm going to give you guys a little bit of a secret.

Pastor Jeff encouraging Second Service to come back. They may be out there getting their sandwiches before you guys.

First Service will. Anyway, we will just stay here. We're going to be breaking bread together.

You can use the sanctuary classrooms or whatever. So it will still be a time of fellowship.

And then somewhere around 1230 -ish, we'll be returning back in here and we'll be having our baptism.

What an amazing time to be able to experience and to witness the testimony of these lives publicly proclaiming their citizenship with Christ.

So we're looking forward to that. Come back at 6 for our prayer meeting. If you didn't make the prayer meeting, but please come back around 7 -15, especially the men, but the women are invited as well for our movie.

I do not remember the name of the movie. Show Me the Father. Come back for that.

Our regular schedule of activities this week with the Women's and the Men's Studies. The Isaiah study on Wednesday, small groups is going on.

So please take advantage. On Saturday is our Love Life Prayer Walk out at the

Women's Center. It'd be a great time to join in prayer and holding up before the throne of God those young innocent lives.

A congregational meeting is scheduled a week from tomorrow, the 20th at 7 o 'clock.

So go ahead and put that on your calendar and at this time, Mr. Banda, it's all yours.

Good morning church. Let's bow our heads to prayer.

Dear God, thank you for this wonderful morning. Thank you for these beautiful people and thank you for this opportunity to share what you are doing in my life and also the lives of children back in Malawi.

I pray that as I'm sharing you speak to their hearts. In the name of Jesus, I pray, amen.

There is a scripture verse in Luke chapter 12, verse 48.

And the verse talks about to whom much is given, much is also required.

Basically talking about our responsibilities to what God has given us and I know that God has given us so so many things in our lives that we need to be responsible for and this morning

I'm standing here knowing that God has also given me a lot and yeah,

I'll be sharing about my testimony, my story, but also what God has put on my heart which is a ministry that I'll be going to do back home in Malawi.

So yeah, my name is Hampton Douglas Banda. I was born in a family of two and my parents passed away when

I was five years old. So I grew up in a poor family, but also grew up in Malawi, which is one of the poorest countries as well.

So that's in LA, that's me when I was young.

And then I started living with my grandmother, I and my big brother, and later on my brother was taken away by some people, which was five hours away from my home and I was the one left at the home with my grandmother.

So my grandmother she was providing food and she was breaking kweli like small stones to sell and just to provide food for me.

And she was very old at that time that she couldn't do that anymore, like to provide food for me.

So later on at the age of six, I started, I wasn't even going to school and I was just walking up and down in my community to find food from other people and I met some also friends and at the age of seven, some of my friends told me like, hey, let's go into the city, which is the capital city of Malawi.

So I went there and I started asking money from people and some people gave, they were giving me money and I bought some food.

I was like, this is a good place, like I should be coming here. And at the age of seven,

I ended up staying there as one of the homeless kids in the streets.

At that time, there was no facilities that were taking care of kids. So I just ended up there walking up and down with my friends.

We had to ask money from people and sometimes they could not give us money, but I had to do anything to find food.

So sometimes I had to go to the restaurants where people were eating and get the leftovers and eat.

Sometimes like the sleeping places, there are no places like for people to sleep.

So I had to sleep on a bare floor with some of the friends and there are these some nights which were very waste for me, whereby you had some people like other boys that could come and find us sleeping at night and then they'll wake us up and say, hey, give us money.

So failure to do that, they had to put us in a ring, you know, like a wrestling and had us fight.

So just for entertainment and that was the life. But then as I was in the street,

I was just hopeless because I had to do anything just to survive for that day.

And then I was just hopeless. Like I thought that could be my life forever.

And one day I was at a mosque. I was begging money and a gentleman approached me and said, hey,

I'm doing an after -school program. Would you like to come and join? I told him no because I didn't know the person.

But then as he was talking to me, there was another one of his friends was in a shopping mall getting some snacks.

He had bread, bananas. And then he came out with those bread and bananas and he was talking to his friend like, hey,

I'm ready. Let's go. And the guy asked me again. Hey, would you like to come and join us? And I said yes, not just because I wanted the food.

I was so hungry at that time. So I went with the guy at an after -school program.

They started teaching me about God. We had games. And then

I was just waiting for this night time to eat. Once I ate the food, I left and I came the following day for the food.

And I just ate the food and I left. But one day as I was there, he sat down with me and said, hey, why are you here in the street?

Tell me, like what's your story? So I started to explaining to him. And then he was like, okay,

I'm going to take you out of the street and put you in a home. So he took some of me and some of other boys.

He took us in an empty home. So we went there. It was just empty. That night we slept on the floor and the following morning some kids, they started running away.

They were like, no, we cannot stay here. But that day he went and bought some blankets. And then the house was now coming up as a house buying some other stuff.

We were sleeping on the bed. It was a house with electricity. Even with a flushing toilet.

It was just amazing. And then he started homeschooling.

Because at that time I couldn't even read and write even my own language. So he started teaching me and then later he sent me to a public school.

And then I went to a public school. I was just a smart kid and getting good grades.

I went to high school. Then I went to college. And graduated from college.

And oh, that's me there. Yeah, so I graduated from college.

First person in my family to graduate there. And then when

I was in college, that's when I I had this calling from God to go back into the street and reach out to the children that were homeless and orphans there.

So one day I just went there and told some of other kids like, hey, let's meet at this place.

And I went the following day. It was 45 kids waiting for me. And I went there.

I was like, wow. So I bought some snacks and we played soccer. We like soccer.

So and then I taught them about God. Just stories.

And then the kids, the number was just increasing coming to the program. And then

I started sharing about, you know, like they have to go to school because they are kids. Ages 7 to 16.

And I started telling them about school and some of them they were like, I want to go to school.

But then I was, the advantage I was working on a public school. So I talked to the headmaster and the headmaster said, yeah, you can bring them here.

So I enrolled four of them. The four one dropped out of school. These kids were still living in the street facing all these challenges.

But then in the morning they could put on a school uniform, go to school, come back. That just amazed me.

And there was a dine ministry in the street and I went there. It was just an empty property.

So I asked the owner like, hey, can I bring the boys to stay here so that they can go to school?

He said, yeah, but you're going to provide for food. I said, okay. And then I put the kids, the number grew up to 16 kids, started with elementary school.

Some of them were going now in high school. Now I have one kid who will be graduating from high school, probably soon will be going to college.

So that's how I started the the ministry. I know you can lead there.

That's our, that's the vision and the mission of the ministry. So some of the programs that I want to be providing to these kids, basically is to give them shelter.

That's the first thing, to take them out of the streets and put them in a in a house.

Those are just some of the faces of a kid. The other ones that started, I started with them when they were young.

Now they're in elementary school and some of them, they're in high school. So I want to do an after -school program, which is,

I want to provide literacy support to the kids. Our education system is so poor.

They, it's like one teacher to 30 kids. So most of the kids, they go to school, but it's just noisy.

They can't, you know, it's hard for them to ask questions, know how to read and write. So I want to provide those programs as well.

But the other program is to provide a home for the kids, which is an orphanage, to take these kids and bring them into the home, provide them with everything, shelter, food, but also education and teach them about God as well.

And yeah, I'll start with eight, eight boys and eight girls in the home.

These will be two different homes. And I'll have someone to take care of them and just see them going to school, graduating and going anywhere in the world and make a difference as well.

And the other program I'll be doing, a summer camp program, whereby I want to bring these kids together so that they can also have that social aspect of making friends, but also at the end of the day, just to take them to some trips.

And in Malawi, we have a beautiful lake. It's called Lake Malawi with fresh water.

It's so big. And a lot of kids have never been there. So it's always an opportunity when you take them, just to go and see the beauty of God.

And I appreciate that. So that's what I want to do as well. And the last one is the feeding program.

So the feeding program, we are still facing a lot of challenges, especially for kids going to school without food.

Kids that are still like orphans, they do not have food, like to be provided by food.

So I want to start that program, whereby you can go and provide food for these kids so that they can also stay in school and do well.

Yeah, so later on, I applied for a program here in the States and to do my master's.

So I came here for my master's program, and I'm almost done. Then I'll be graduating with a master's program and be heading home at the end of this month.

Yeah, so that's what God has done for my life. Finally, I'll be doing a farming project because learning these programs will need me to provide food for the kids.

So which means every month I need to buy food from other people. But getting a land and do farming on my own to grow crops.

We call it sima. That's our staple food. It's made from corn flour.

So growing corn and that will be providing a lot of food for the programs as well in my ministry.

So that's what I want to go and do. And I'm just happy to have people like you so that you can play about it.

Yeah, thank you. Hamilton, we thank

God for you. And we can see the hand of God's favor on your life that first of all he chose you and saved you, rescued you with the gospel.

So we want to pray for you to go out preaching this good news and also looking after orphans in their distress.

Isn't that true religion? Amen. James 1, that is true religion to look after orphans and widows in their distress.

Let's pray. So Father, we want to thank you for our brother Hamilton. We thank you that you have saved him, that you sent the gospel to him and captured his heart and forgave him of all his sin, washed him with the washing of renewal by the

Holy Spirit and regeneration. Thank you, Lord, that you have also gifted him by your Holy Spirit and given him a heart of compassion for these orphans,

Lord. We pray, Lord, that you would send Hamilton out to preach the good news, that he would first of all be about preaching

Christ and him crucified, to know nothing else. Lord, and also, Lord, that he would help orphans, that he would be established in the work he plans to do.

We pray that you would provide these buildings for the girls' home and the boys' home. We pray,

Lord, that you would provide acres for the farms. We pray that you would provide hands to work that farm and,

Lord, that the food would come forth to feed the orphans, Lord God. We pray blessing on everything

Hamilton sets his hand to do, that you would go before him, be his rear guard, and keep your hand upon him.

Bless this ministry, this work, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Did you catch how he referred to the young people that are being blessed by God through him, my kids?

I just absolutely see the heart of compassion. It is exciting to see how

God's working through you, and we do pray for you, we pray for each of these children.

Let's pray right now. Oh God, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your activity, it says in Psalm 119.

We see this young man, Hamilton, who has been touched by your grace, who has been blessed in so many ways by this other ministry that reached out to him, and now his heart is drawing out, and he calls them my kids.

We pray for brother Hamilton as he prepares for this ministry, as he finishes his study, as he pursues the land, as he looks for buildings, and Lord, that you would bring the children to him, that he would have the wisdom, that he would be able to be prepared by your grace.

We pray for him, dear Lord. Father, I pray that we, as your children, being touched by your

Holy Spirit, that our hearts might also be moved to being steadfast in keeping your activity, that we would choose to walk even as our brother

Hamilton is stepping out. Lord, for the many who are preparing for baptism, today we rejoice.

We pray, Father, that this would be an incredibly special day for them as they publicly proclaim their citizenship in heaven, being your child, and that we, as those who are going to be able to witness it, would be encouraged as well.

And Father, as our church continues to move forward, and today we would be seeking about the time when the land will be actually purchased this week, and then moving forward, we need you as the guide.

We do not want to be taking this on our own. This is your church. This is your kingdom.

Keep us obedient to you, moving out in the power of your word, that this lamp that's lit here, sharing your word, would remain forever true.

And so protect Pastor Jeff as he proclaims truth. Lord, now today, as we gather together and we consider this message of standing for your truth, we pray,

Lord, that you would prepare the words for Pastor Jeff and our hearts to hear. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Let's all stand and exalt his name together. Join me

I would refuse

But as I ran my hell -boundness indifferent to the cost

You looked upon my helpless state and led me to the cross

And I beheld God's love displayed You suffered in my place

You bore the wrath reserved for me Now all

I know Is grace All I have is

Christ Jesus is my life

Now Lord, I would be yours alone and live so all might see

For the strength to follow your commands Could never come from me

Oh Father, use this ransomed life In any way

You choose And let my song forever be

My only post Is you

All I have is

Christ Jesus is my life

All I have is

Christ Jesus is

God be all save that thou art

Thou my best thought My day

By night Waking or sleeping

Be thou my wisdom

The world I ever With thee thou with me my lord

Thou my great father and I thy true son

Thou in me Riches Now and always

My treasure May I Whatever Still be my vision.

Oh ruler You give life

You are love You bring light

To the darkness You give hope

You restore Every heart

That is broken In our youth

It's your breath Oh, we pour out our praise

Pour out our praise It's your breath In our lungs

So we pour out our praise to you You give life

You are love You bring light

To the darkness You give hope You restore

Every heart That is broken

Great are you? It's your breath

In our lungs We pour out our praise

We pour out our praise It's your breath In our lungs

So we pour out our praise to you All the earth will shout your praise

Great are you? All the earth will shout your praise

Our hearts will cry and these songs will sing Great Are you?

Lord And all the earth will shout your praise

Our hearts will cry and these folks will sing Great Are you?

It's your breath In our lungs So we pour out our praise

We pour out our praise It's your breath In our lungs

So we pour out our praise to you Great Are you?

Great Great Are you?

Great Are you? All right

Let's go to the lord in prayer So father, I want to open by praying for my mother -in -law loretta as she has fast spread in her lymph nodes

We're asking in jesus name that right now you would halt that spread And just touch your body and heal and give release in jesus name

We also pray for charlie's mom Hoping charlie's mom that you would touch her and bless her as she's in the hospital as well

And we pray that you would heal her of pneumonia in jesus mighty name We know that you are able to do all things and so we call upon that name that is above every name

And now lord as we open your word. Our prayer is that The words of my mouth as I preach

And the meditations of my heart and the meditations of the hearts of all the people gathered and listening

Would be pleasing in your sight our god Our rock and our redeemer in your name we pray.

Amen You will look back on your life and remember

That the times that you had to make a stand for jesus christ were the best days of your life

Stephen when he was stoned For the gospel he was preaching endured great pain

But his reward was in heaven where jesus stood to meet him as he rose The stand that is our our subject today taking a stand martin luther, of course was famous for the stand

He had to take remember that When he had recaptured the essence of the gospel justification by faith

The roman catholic church came against him and called him to trial and at the diet of vermes

He said to go against conscience is neither right nor safe here I stand

And recently for those of you who are maybe baseball fans The rays in tampa bay

Have undertaken to be politically correct and put a rainbow flag on their shoulders of their uniform In honor of so -called pride lgbtq pride but five of the players

Said that they were believers in jesus christ and they could not compromise that conviction They tore that thing off their jersey.

They said no and they took the field in the name of christ making their stand

Come what may It's a hard thing to do When all of the world is against you one of my favorite stories along these lines

Comes from a book called why I stand Written by jonathan isaac and bob nichols gave me that book and I read it this last week.

It was amazing jonathan isaac grew up in new york city

His dad was actually the manager of that mcdonald's in times square Anybody may be eaten there at the mcdonald's in times square a famous restaurant there

But sometimes his dad would work the night shift and the kids would be sleeping up in the second floor of mcdonald's just enjoying that smell all night long

Or not enjoying it. Whatever may be the case But um, anyway when jonathan was young just maybe five years old his mom picked up and left

And took the kids to florida and his dad stayed in new york and he hardly had a relationship with his dad

So jonathan isaac grew up with great anxiety in his life He always missed that father figure.

So he looked for approval from other guys and he really wanted to fit in He became a basketball player

But as he got better and better at basketball the expectations upon him kept going higher and higher

He was ranked nationally and he was like a top recruit to all of the colleges by the time he got to florida state

He was so riddled with anxiety he thought he had asthma But it wasn't actually asthma it was panic attacks

Where he would lose his breath in a couple occasions before games and as the difficulty of it

Mounted and the pressure on his shoulders all the world watching. He actually passed out a couple of times from the panic

So I set this up to say here's a man from within He didn't have the courage to make a stand

He had anxiety But something changed a couple years after he got into the nba

A chaplain For basketball chapel one time. I actually got to speak to the rays myself

Actually when I was a youth pastor in florida, I didn't really follow baseball So I was like sure i'll go speak at baseball chapel

So I had these two professional baseball teams and i'm just preaching and then afterwards people asked me about it

I didn't know any of the players names. I just preached like anything else But in this case, it was basketball chapel and the speaker told him and all the people who gathered these these christian guys

Listen, unless you're willing to take up your cross and follow him You're not following him at all

Count the cost stand believe in christ and make your stand with him

Well, jonathan isaac knew at that time he had never been a christian So he began to read the word and read the word and then he met a man in the neighborhood who he began to call doc

Later, he learned he was called doc because he was dr. Hepburn a pastor in a local church

And this man took jonathan under his wing and began to disciple him. They would meet at six o 'clock every morning to pray

And jonathan says the first time he got to a 6 a .m. Prayer meeting. He lasted five minutes and he was sleeping on the floor

Anybody sympathize with that you start praying the next thing, you know, you're sleeping But by discipline he grew in his ability to pray his discipline grew his prayer life

Grew and he began to study the scriptures And be taught the word of god well 2020 happened

And the culture began to vilify the police of this country the actions of one man derrick chauvin

Horrifically putting his knee on that man's neck on george floyd's neck for eight minutes That person's action got transposed onto all police and the narrative began that that the police of this country are systemically racist

And the country began to believe that not just the police but all manners of law enforcement and actually all areas of society

Were deemed racist and here's jonathan isaac On a professional basketball team the orlando magic

Now mind you just a couple years earlier The rookies had all gathered for a camp And they walked they talked about their their exploits with women

And they went around bragging about these things until one basketball player named semi ojala

They asked him and he said oh, I don't I don't do that. I'm a virgin and all of the rookies mocked mercilessly semi ojala

They ridiculed him for this But later jonathan asked him Why did you say that?

Why are you a virgin? And he said because i'm a christian And he was unashamed and even though jonathan isaac at the time was joining in the ridicule

He noticed the stand he noticed the boldness of this man who was not ashamed of the gospel and not ashamed to wait for marriage

That stand did something to jonathan it showed him that it can be done in 2020

After they came out of This covid lockdown and they went into the bubble remember the bubble where all the basketball players met in orlando and walt disney world

And they were all locked in there to play basketball And the point of the bubble was a social justice political statement

All of his players were bound and determined to take a knee But on that day with black lives matter painted on the court

And all of the world watching all of the people whose Approval he always wanted he wanted to be a man's man

He wanted to be accepted by everybody and he even had panic attacks when he was afraid that he wouldn't

Having read in the scripture the truth of god's word And growing as a young christian

With everybody else kneeling at the national anthem there stood jonathan isaac with his orlando magic jersey making the stand

He stood And that took incredible courage. Where does that courage come from?

Here's the lesson today. It didn't come from him It came from god It was a supernatural courage not by might nor by power

But by my spirit says the lord of hosts now How do you think the media treated him when he came out to the press conference after making his stand?

He and his darker skin having stood for the truth A woman with white guilt said to him

Don't you think that black lives matter? Don't you think that black lives matter she asked him

Mocking him for his stand now. Listen Whenever you make a stand for christ, especially in word

Your words will be twisted to mean something different than what you meant Her tactic is what is called the mott and bailey

Give you a little lesson here in apologetics the mott and bailey comes from the old mott and bailey castle

The castle would have a mott which was a well fortified castle But outside of it was the place where people would want to live

And that was only defended by a small moat just a small ditch or something When the assaulting marauders would come they would fight them in the bailey

But if they couldn't handle it in the bailey, they would retreat to the fortified mott so the mott and bailey in rhetoric

Is when somebody makes some smaller claim, but when they can't defend it they retreat

To the mott Black lives matter was a mott and bailey if you said

That you stand on the word of god that all people are made in the image of god that race is one in adam

And you deny the supposed social justice idea that all the police are racist

They will turn around and retreat to the mott and say what you don't believe that black lives matter

Do you see? You're not saying that black lives don't matter All christians believe that all lives matter

This is the word of god and how we stand but from that day on jonathan isaac was vilified

As one who does not believe that black lives matter Twisting what he said it's called equivocation the mott and bailey now

I bring this up because in this day and age Every one of you in this room and listening online if you're a christian who stands upon the word of god

Will have to make your own stand Before 2020

Jonathan, isaac never probably thought he would have to stand for the word of god's teaching in the area of race.

Did he? Before 2020 none of us thought that we would have to stand for our own right and liberty in christ

To have determination over what's put inside of our bodies And that's a stand that jonathan isaac also had to make

Regarding the vaccine whether it would be mandatory All of us have to make choices in a culture that's becoming increasingly pagan

And as christians we must stand for every single word that god has given us in the text

Our verses today our second thessalonians 2 15 to 17 And it is an imperative it is a command after much doctrine and teaching

Now we come to that application of the text Where paul will tell?

The thessalonians to stand stand and hold

We're told in philippians that we hold fast the word of life in a crooked and depraved generation in which we

We shine like stars in the universe as we hold it fast Because many live as enemies of the cross of christ

Their destiny is destruction their god is their stomach and their glory is in their shame

We talked about this last week that the lgt movement whatever it is

Lgbtq etc etc They take pride pride month in june in shame

But the christian will be shamed if we don't stand With them and so here let's read it.

It says now so then brothers stand firm And hold to the traditions that you were taught by us

Either by our spoken word or by our letter Now may our lord jesus christ himself

And god our father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace comfort your hearts

And establish them in every good work and word There's the command in verse 15 stand hold stand and hold

So where does the strength to do that come from? Let's look at the context and remind ourselves of that in order to to get the answer to that question

The first thing to remember is the book of second thessalonians is written to christians

Who are under fire under pressure? They have come to believe in christ in a pagan culture

And in the roman culture if you did not Confess That caesar is lord

You were deemed to be an atheist If you didn't worship the pagan gods

All of the multiple gods of zeus and hermes And and all of the gods of rome you were called an atheist.

In fact It was required of all people to take a small pinch of incense

And throw it on the altar to zeus and say kaiser kurios

Caesar is lord It only required a small pinch of incense

And you're fine. You may not believe much. You don't have to do anything. You simply have to make that Statement just say those words

But the christian could not Could not pinch the incense on the altar and say kaiser kurios.

Caesar is lord because we believe that jesus is lord

And there's no other lord And so the result of this confession that the christian would make is that they began to lose their jobs

They were put out of the trade guilds. Some of them were actually killed martyrdom in thessalonica in the first century

They're losing their lives. They're losing their jobs. They're under pressure now when you have a vulnerable people people who are suffering

There is an opportunity for false teachers to sneak in And very often when your adrenaline is high when you're emotional when you're afraid

You're more susceptible to being led astray so what happens in chapter 2 look at verse 2

Paul is reminding them not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed. Why what's going on?

It says either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us

To the effect that the day of the lord has come So the context here some false teachers are speaking

And they're saying the day of the lord has come the reason that you're being persecuted that you're suffering

The wrath of god has come the day of his wrath is upon us You must have missed the rapture the day of the lord is here

That's the teaching That's coming into thessalonica Now notice paul refutes that by saying that's utterly impossible because three things have to happen first.

What are they? The apostasy the antichrist and the abomination of desolation

And he reminds them of those things verse 5 He says do you not remember that when I was still with you?

I told you these things Then he says it's the restrainer the holy spirit through the church.

That's keeping the day of the lord from coming This isn't the day of the lord They're tricking you

That letter that you think that I wrote I didn't write it It was written pseudonymously written falsely in my name.

It's a forgery I said no such thing Remember what

I did say remember what I did write that book called first thessalonians That one's from me

So as you get to verse 13 We've heard about the coming antichrist and all of the horrible things that are about to happen

Paul is teaching them. This is not yet the day of the lord That day is coming But you need to stand strong.

Yes, you're suffering you're being persecuted. It's hard. It's hard to make your stand But listen

It can be done And last week we actually learned the first point of where this comes from It's surprising

Jonathan isaac Take a knee every teammate in The locker room told him that before they went out you're going to ruin this team.

You're going to ruin the league You're going to ruin our message Just take a knee just bow the knee

And jonathan isaac said no, where did that strength come from? The world will tell you it comes from within The strength comes from you.

You just got to dig down deep. You just got to toughen up Look within yourself

Discover the power. I am woman. Hear me roar You know, it's within you the power is you

I was on a run yesterday and I saw A young girl getting ready for some prom or something

Some teenager and she had a beautiful dress on and she was taking pictures with a sword

And I thought How sad is that? I think she got that from the black widow or captain marvel or something like that Where the world is saying that women are men and men are women.

There's no distinction of role I am woman. Hear me roar look within yourself.

These are the messages of the culture the absolute last thing That anyone would expect

To answer the question of where will the strength come from? How is it that you will stand on the day of trial?

The last place that anybody would think to look Is in the doctrine of predestination

But that's right where paul goes in verse 13 And not to teach some complex esoteric

Theological concept but simply to say listen If god the father chose you and you came to believe by sanctification and belief in the truth in time

You can be sure that you're chosen for glory That's what he says verses 13 and 14 is a god -centered worldview that teaches them deep doctrine

He roots them in the deeper things of god God That's what they need.

They actually need to see the world through God's worldview. And so what does he simply say?

I'm not going to teach anything other than what what he says here God chose you His words not mine

And he said he did this through the gospel that's the means that god employed So that you may obtain the glory of our lord jesus christ

He goes back from choice to belief in time until the future glorification It's just like romans 8 30 that he whom he foreknew he also predestined he whom he predestined

He also called he whom he called he also justified he whom he justified he also glorified golden chain of redemption

And as you look at the world this way that it's god who knew you before you were born

It's god who sent that effectual call into your life you see that in verse 14 that word called

Through the gospel is both the inward work of the spirit and the outward call the message of jesus christ him crucified buried and risen

That call in first thessalonians 1 5 through 7. It's a call.

That's not just words It's not just telling somebody about jesus It's also the demonstration of power the holy spirit and conviction so that you receive

With joy the message that is preached to you The gospel is an outward call.

It's the message of christ But it's also the inward drawing of the spirit being drawn of the father.

John 6 44 in order that you would believe Being sanctified set apart by the spirit in verse 13.

Now, it seems like a lot of deep doctrine But we're going to move on from it now With that as the basis if it's god who's doing this

You can be sure of something You can be sure of this philippians 1 6

That he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of christ.

Jesus Here's how I know that i'll stand No matter what trial comes whether it's covid restrictions and government totalitarianism

Let it be the one world government as it arises, but we'll be raptured out of here before the abomination of desolation

Let it be whatever it is come what may the reason that I know that I will stand is because he saved me

And so he'll also glorify me My future is kept secure in heaven by him not by me voddie bachem likes to say

If it were up to me i'd fail But because it's him

I'm sure Philippians 1 6 paul says and I am sure of this that he who began a good work in you

Will complete it until the day of christ. Jesus when you begin to think that way When your hope is not in yourself

But in the god who saves sinners like us And you recognize it was him from the beginning.

It'll be him at the end Now you're on a sure foundation that will not be shaken on the day of trial

You will be glorified In christ. Jesus, you're gonna make it All right.

So somebody came to me and said If that's the case, then why have verse 15?

Why have a command Why command us to stand isn't it possible then that we wouldn't stand if we're being commanded to stand answer

God ordains the means as well as the ends Part of how

I will stand is because i'm commanded to stand That command as well as the warnings of apostasy in hebrews is the means

That god uses to keep me until the end Not just the warnings, but also the encouragements

The reward promised to me when I read hebrews chapter 11 and i'm told that faith

Believes not only that god exists, but also that he rewards those Who believe in him he's the rewarder as well

That reward becomes part of the motivation for which I live This is a little deep, but I think when we get to heaven

There will be differences between christians We'll all be glorified but jonathan edwards talks about differences in capacity for joy

Differences in reward there are crowns in heaven crowns for soul winners Crowns of various kinds mentioned in the new testament.

What are those crowns? But the joy the rejoicing of knowing god for all eternity

Some might have a higher capacity for joy. But as we look at John, mcarthur and his capacity for joy in heaven.

There will not be the slightest Semblance of jealousy or envy in any of us in seeing the joy of another

But here's what i'm saying. There are rewards promised to you for faithfulness Stephen made his stand and his reward is kept secure in heaven according to first peter

You are motivated by the promise of reward and the warnings against apostasy in the book of hebrews

Chapter 6 chapter 10 chapter 12 These are means that god uses and it's also here a mean so let's look at it verse 15.

So then brothers this command Will be a means that god uses for you to do what he's telling you to do so then brothers stand firm and hold

Does it say next to the gospel Anybody have euangelion there after hold

Of course not it says Traditions, why does it say traditions there?

Because our evangelical tradition includes hatred for traditions

Because I think we've responded to the traditionalism of roman catholic theology and you know judaism with tradition tradition tradition

Tradition itself is not a bad word. The reason it's used here is because it speaks to the whole counsel of god

It's not likely That the government will come to you and say deny the lord jesus christ

It is likely That they will come to you and say deny this aspect of the christian tradition

Deny christian ethics at the point of sexuality or race or gender or economics or liberty

The christian tradition here is the whole counsel of god paul says in acts chapter 20.

I did not shrink From declaring to you the whole counsel of god

That is our tradition that we need to hold to And the stand of a christian

Is upon the whole tradition Not narrowly christ in him crucified. Although without that we have nothing else

What does it look like to stand firm and hold It looks like second samuel chapter 23 david's mighty men

You know of the first of the three mighty men Who stood with the spear and resisted 800 philistines by himself

When everybody else fled there was the one standing And killed 800 on his own

What does it look like to stand eliezer One of the mighty men

Stood and fought off 300 philistines with the sword And the bible tells us that he battled so hard in that fight as others retreated

That by the end of the battle His hand was frozen to the handle of his sword

Picture that it's like a spasm in the muscles of his hand He had gripped so tightly and fought so hard that when the battle was over.

They had to massage his hand to help him let go Christian that needs to be you holding not the sword of a physical fight

But the sword of the spirit, which is the bible the word of god Your hand has to be holding this word so tightly that it's like a spasm your hand freezes to the word and nothing

Nothing would ever convince you to let go of even one thing that god says That's eliezer

And the next he took his stand in a field of lentils Everybody else fled but there stood the one man in that lentil field swinging away fighting

The battle of the lord David's mighty men They stood and they held stand and hold that's what our text tells us to do

So does the strength for this come from us? Or for elsewhere finally, it's verse 16 and 17

The strength to do this is not by might Nor by power but by my spirit says the lord of hosts

Comes from the ordinary means of grace Many christians this morning will spend their sunday morning on a golf course

And there's nothing sinful about golfing But what they will not hear is the spoken word and the letter

At the end of verse 15. It says you're to hold what was spoken that refers to preaching

Every church according to ephesians 4 is giving given a pastor teacher. It's one person pastor hyphen teacher

And this one is to expound the truth of god Being faithful to what was written the epistle at the end of verse 15 is the letter

It's what paul has written and all the other apostles and the old testament This is our sword

And this is the means by which you are strengthened while someone is swinging a golf club

You're here And you may not know what's happening supernaturally In the spirit world and in the depths of your own spirit, but you are being strengthened

And so in verse 16 and 17 As I read these words to you, this has been done for 2 000 years

Paul speaks a blessing. It's a doxology. It's a word of praise but it's it has

Efficacious power over those who hear because the power is in the word So listen as we read these words god himself is doing it in us

Here and now these ordinary means of grace baptism the lord's table

Testimonies evangelizing hearing the word of god praying these means

Come from god We do them Obediently, but it's god at work in us to will and do according to his pleasure.

So let's read it now May our lord jesus christ himself

Pause there and let that hit you. He doesn't just say may the lord jesus.

He says may the lord jesus himself Jesus who died and rose and ascended to the right hand of the father is also interceding for you

And he himself will come to strengthen you through the word Now may our lord jesus christ himself and god our father

Who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace

Comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word

That's where the power comes from comes from god at work in us And as this word is read over us, it's god who's accomplishing these things

This is the means he uses now. Does he want us only to speak? Sometimes we'll have the opportunity to speak but notice what comes first in verse 17

May the lord comfort your hearts and establish them In every good work and word

We must be established in the faith to help start an orphanage in malawi

Hamilton When when you go back to malawi? You're going to open a farm

Which is going to require the sweat of your brow to bring forth. What did you call it?

Seema? Seema, I got it right a kind of corn meal From the earth it's going to require workers to work the field and bring forth that food to feed the orphans

Guess what church listen to this every time you go to work Monday to friday and you put in dog days of hard labor

The young guy who just recently got a job in Putting in utilities

That's a hard work week 50 hours 60 hours And you contribute to the church

And the church sends that to the mission field You are working for the lord your secular work

To provide for yourself for your family and to have something to give to the poor

To help others is holy Holy we need to be established in that work recognizing it is a powerful thing that's happening

God must strengthen our hand to work hard and to stay at it day after day after day

And word Because when you're in the workplace and everybody else

Is making jokes like jonathan isaac's rookie camp But How easy is it to begin to take the knee

To join in to lose your good confession and your witness but to take a stand

And to tell someone who's lost in the ways of the world about jesus and him crucified

Takes a courage that comes from beyond you some of these young guys were out witnessing in the park this week

Inviting people to come to see the baptisms and to experience a picnic Where does that come from that work comes from the holy spirit?

Not from us so in closing All of us if you haven't yet Are going to need to take a stand

It's not going to be an easy stand It will seem a lot easier to take an easy way out simply take a knee go along with the cultural moment

Go along with your workplace It will be much easier for you

To bow the knee to pinch the incense and drop it on the altar

But our text this morning tells you to stand firm and hold to the traditions That you were taught by us by the preaching of the word by the written word that we're given

The strength will not come from within us it comes from god So, where do we get the heart

By availing ourselves of the means of grace By opening the text every day and spend time in the presence of god

It removes your fear of man Pray and ask the holy spirit to fill you give you a fresh filling fire from heaven

That your tongue would burn to speak the truth of jesus christ. It has to come from him.

It will not come from us Ask him to do that work the strength necessary to stand remember ephesians 6

After having done everything to stand The spiritual war it comes from god, but we must avail ourselves of the means of grace.

Let's pray Father we thank you for Second thessalonians 2 15 to 17

We hear your call your command even To stand and hold

And lord, we know that the last couple of years have revealed that it can be very difficult to stand on the traditions of the word of god

Can be very difficult And yet we anticipate it's only going to get harder

Not easier We will be misrepresented Those who oppose us will equivocate

Changing the meaning of what we actually say into things that we never said And yet we trust in you god to be our

Fortress our defense that rock that strong tower where the righteous run into you and we are safe Lord, we pray that you would establish us right now for every good work and word

We pray that you would strengthen your people to stand and having done everything to stand

As romans 14 says and we will stand for you are able to make us stand

Thank you lord give us the strength to do it in jesus name we pray amen, let's stand and sing

In the presence of jesus

How marvelous

How wonderful And my song shall ever be

For me it was in the garden

He had no tears for his own But sweat drops of blood for mine how marvelous

How wonderful How wonderful Is Is And my song shall ever be

Is It will be my joy

How marvelous how wonderful and my song

Is Is All right, well so we have sandwiches out in the foyer

But we don't have tables like set up because there's no room obviously in here So what we're going to do is just get your sandwich potato salad drinks and everything

You can come back in here and sit and eat or sit in a classroom or I think right now it's not raining

So if you want to sit out front talk mill about You're welcome to do that.

But at 12 30, so 40 minutes from now We're going to have baptisms and guys it's going to be powerful.

You do want to stick around The testimonies and then seeing people baptized as they proclaim their faith in christ

So, um, you're dismissed after I read this benediction, which we also studied today

Now may our lord jesus christ himself And god our father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace

Comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. Amen.

And let's pray for the food father Thank you for the food We pray that you would bless it to our bodies and strengthen us by it to do your work and to preach your word