"O to Be Worthy!” – FBC Morning Light (11/25/2024)

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good Monday morning to you. Today we're reading in Acts chapters 18 and 19, just a few verses in each of those chapters, and then also reading the book of 2

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Thessalonians, so all three chapters of 2 Thessalonians. Sometimes when we read these epistles of Paul, he will, in the course of his writing to these different churches, he'll just break out in prayer for the people to whom he's writing.

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And this is certainly the case here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. So verses 11 and 12 record

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Paul's prayer for the Thessalonian believers. Listen to what he says, he says, Therefore we also pray always for you, that our

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God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power, that the name of our

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Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our

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God and the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we read these prayers, one thing can be helpful is to apply them personally.

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So you could take this prayer that Paul's praying for the Thessalonians and say, well, Lord, you know,

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I pray that you would count me worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and so forth.

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But one of the things I want us to understand is the context of this prayer. And that is, you know,

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Paul prays and he says, I want you, I would pray that God would count you worthy of this calling.

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What calling is he talking about? Now there's times when the calling that is referred to is the calling to salvation.

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God, in his gracious call, brings you to faith in Jesus Christ. But in the context, that doesn't really seem to be fitting.

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But what is in this context, is Paul is pointing out that the Thessalonians are suffering persecution.

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So when you look back at verse 4, well, verse 3, he says, we're bound to thank

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God always for you, brethren, as is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you abounds toward each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God.

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Now notice this, for your patience and faith and all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is a manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer.

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So what Paul is saying here is the calling that the

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Thessalonians have received is the call to suffer persecution for the sake of the gospel, and their faithfulness in that persecution demonstrates their worthiness of the kingdom of God.

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And then when you get to verse 11, what he's also praying here for the people, he's praying for the people now, that in the face of this persecution, that God would grant them the grace to handle it properly, to handle it well, that they would fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power in their lives as they face that persecution.

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In other words, so what Paul is doing is saying that I'm praying that as you face the persecution, you don't wilt under it, and you don't turn your back on the

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Lord in it, but instead that you will be faithful to endure the suffering and the persecution, the tribulation that you face, so that, verse 12, the name of our

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Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you glorified in him.

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How would the name of Jesus Christ be glorified in them? Well, as has happened so many times in church history with martyrs, when they're about to be executed for the faith, for their belief and trust in Christ and the gospel, they're called upon to renounce him, and they refuse to do it, and say something like,

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God in his grace and the work of Christ has redeemed my soul, I will not turn my back on him, and then they're executed.

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That glorifies Christ. But what also happens as God has given them the grace and the work of faith to pronounce that fidelity to Christ, that glorifies the faithful believer in that they demonstrate

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God's grace in their lives, and they demonstrate their fidelity to Christ.

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So yes, let's take this prayer and apply it to ourselves that whatever calling that God has given to us, that by his grace he would enable us to so live in fidelity and loyalty to him, that we would be counted worthy of that calling, and that Christ would be glorified in us as we fulfill that calling, and that we might be glorified in the sense that our fidelity to Christ becomes evident to all.

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It's a good prayer for us to pray as well. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us to be faithful to that to which you've called us, and we pray it in Jesus' name, amen.