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For every single precious soul in this church, we ask that you please bless our pastor tonight as he preaches your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Okay, we're in 1 Thessalonians chapter one. Of course, the book of 1 Thessalonians deals a lot with, or talks a lot about the rapture, the second coming of Christ. And the reason for that is because the apostle Paul keeps bringing that up in light of the persecution that the church of Thessalonica is facing. And so there's a lot of tribulation, there's a lot of affliction, there's a lot of persecution. And in light of that, the apostle Paul basically takes advantage of it to just remind them that when there is persecution, when there's affliction, when there is tribulation, the thing that always comes after that is deliverance. And so he's constantly talking about that. In fact, the book of 1 Thessalonians is the famous chapter, famous book, should I say, where it has the famous chapter, which is chapter four, dealing primarily with, at the latter end of chapter four, dealing with the second coming of Christ. And of course, chapter five deals largely with that as well. And so the church at Thessalonica is facing a lot of persecution. And we talked about its inception, its origins, how did it start? And I wanna encourage you, when you're reading through the epistles, go back to the book of Acts, because the book of Acts is basically a bird's eye view of everything that's taking place when the Apostle Paul is writing these epistles. And so when you look at certain things, you can find those specific stories in the book of Acts. And if we're to look for where this is taking place, obviously the events that we see leading up to the start of the church is in Acts chapter 17, because the Apostle Paul is in Macedonia, he's in Philippi, and then he goes into Thessalonica, he goes into the synagogue of the Jews, he gets a bunch of people saved. Of course, the Jews aren't happy about that. They begin to persecute him. He ends up fleeing into Berea, gets people saved there. Then they start a church in Athens, and then they go all the way down to Corinth. I mean, the work continues. So you can follow that story in the book of Acts. And that's basically how the church at Thessalonica started. It started because of the fact that the Apostle Paul is just trying to get people saved. And this is a good principle for us, that if you wanna know what God's will is, just do what God says is already his will, and he'll lead you the rest of the way. A lot of people are like, I wonder what God's will is for my life. And God wanted me to be a pastor, who am I gonna marry? Why don't you just do what God has revealed for you to do already, and then God will open up doors for you as you go along in God's will. And it's better to do the revealed will of God, and then the unrevealed will of God will reveal itself as you do that will. I being in the way the Bible says, the Lord led me. And so this is what happened to Paul. He's just preaching the gospel. He just wants to get people saved. And in light of that, a church started in Thessalonica, one of the best churches, okay. And it's a church that's suffering a lot of persecution, because there is a synagogue there. And the Jews are one of the main adversaries in the New Testament of the gospel. And it's my personal belief that, you know, the persecution is so thick there that people are actually dying. And the reason I even say that is because at the latter end of chapter four, when the Apostle Paul is talking about the second coming of Christ, he talks about, look at chapter four and verse number 13, but I would not have you ignorant, to be ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. So he's giving them that hope that those who have passed away, they're gonna see them again at the second coming of Christ. He's not just bringing this for no reason, you know, he's not just talking about this for no reason. This is potentially because of the fact that people at Thessalonica have perished, they have died due to persecution. And so this is a heavily persecuted church. And we don't really even know all the members of this church. I mean, we know of Jason and his church, but a lot of people were, they're unknown to us, but they're obviously well known to God. And so the most apparent doctrine, as I mentioned, is the teaching of the second coming because of all of the persecution and affliction that the Thessalonians are facing here. Now in chapter two, we're gonna look at the preceding events leading to the establishment of the church at Thessalonica. We're gonna look at Paul's conduct among the Thessalonians and the events that led up to going to Thessalonica. Look at verse number one. He says, for yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain. But even after that we have suffered before and we're shamefully entreated. As you know at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. Now what is he talking about there? Because he says, look, you know our entrance unto you. Entrance basically, he's talking about when we first met. You know what happened, what situation we were in when we first met you. He says that it was not in vain. That's a really interesting statement. Kind of is like, what does he mean by that? Well, what does vain mean? What does vain mean? You can answer. Pointless, empty, right? He's saying, look, our entrance unto you, it was not in vain. In other words, he didn't come empty handed. And he's gonna explain what that means in just a bit. He says, even after that we have suffered before and we're shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi. So what is the order of sequence of events that we see take place here? Well, chapter 17 is where the church at Thessalonica started. But chapter 16 is where, what happens? Well, we see the Apostle Paul received the vision of the Macedonian call. You guys remember that? You know, come over into Macedonia and help us. The Apostle Paul goes into Macedonia. And more specifically, he heads to Philippi, which is a chief city in Macedonia. He gets Lydia, the seller of purple, saved there. And it's the same area where this demon-possessed woman, the woman who's possessed with the spirit of divination, she's there and she's bearing witness, so to speak, to the truth. She's saying, these are men of God. But she's kind of nagging. She's being a loudmouth. And she just keeps saying to men in the service. She's saying, these are men of God, these are men of God, and all these things. And the Apostle Paul, him and Silas are preaching the gospel, but he kind of gets fed up with this. And then what does he do? He rebukes her. The demon is cast out of her. And what ends up happening is the men of the city, the magistrates of the city, are very much angry and wroth with Paul because of the fact that this demon-possessed woman who was possessed with the spirit of divination brought in a lot of money, a lot of business, due to her divination, her sorceries or whatever, okay? So the Apostle Paul is messing with his paycheck, with his money, okay? So what they do is that they round up the baser sword, the magistrates of that land to come and they beat Paul, they beat Silas, and they're saying, oh, these people are bringing in customs that are not customary to us. These guys are Romans. They're bringing in different customs and practices. And so what do they do? They throw them into jail. And you know, if you were to place yourself in Paul's sandals, okay, you think to yourself, man, this is a bad situation. Like, I'd be having a rough day here. Like, I'm just trying to do God's work. I'm just trying to serve God. I'm just trying to get people saved. I have a sincere heart. And you know, people can easily think, why am I in jail? Why am I suffering? You know, because I'm preaching the gospel. But this is the way babes in Christ can think sometimes. I mean, we can think sometimes, even though we're mature in the Lord. But here's the thing, all things work together for good. And these things fall into the apostle Paul, as he says in Philippians chapter one, rather into the furtherance of the gospel. Now, why is that? Well, because when they're thrown into jail, that's where we get the famous story of the Philippian jailer. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Acts 16, 30, 31. You know, we see these verses that are being mentioned. How many times have we used those verses out solely? I mean, not just us. I mean, so many churches that have used the book of Acts, Acts 16, they're preaching the gospel. That verse has been repeated. I mean, the Philippian jailer has been quoted as an unsafe person in someone's gospel presentation more than most people are, you know? I mean, that's an intricate part of our gospel presentation, right? And so a lot of good came out of this. He ends up getting saved, and then the magistrates come, and they find out that the apostle Paul's a Roman. And they're like, oh man, get this guy out of here, because this is kind of like illegal what we're doing here. This guy has Roman citizenship. We're not allowed to do this to him. So they say, hey, just get out. And the apostle Paul's like, well, you beat me uncondemned. You know, this is not right. Come fetch me out or whatever. And he starts going back and forth, but he ends up fleeing from Philippi into Thessalonica. Okay, and that's how that church in Thessalonica started. You understand? So he's telling the church at Thessalonica, look, you know our entrance unto you. We weren't taking a missions trip to Thessalonica. We didn't come, it wasn't in vain. In other words, we came with baggage. We came to Thessalonica because we were being persecuted. They're fresh out of jail. You know, they're fresh out of prison. And he says, but even after that we have suffered and were shamefully entreated, because they were shamefully entreated. They were beaten, they were thrown into jail unjustly. They didn't do anything wrong. He says, as you know, at Philippi, look what it says. We were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. Now, don't let that phrase confuse you. He's not saying he's just going over there, get saved. What's wrong with you? You know, he's contentious and he's just angry. When he says with much contention, contention, another, a synonym for that would be opposition. So he's saying, look, we came to preach the gospel with opposition, you understand? So as they're seeking to do the work of the Lord, they're also kind of like fighting off this opposition. Okay. With much contention, a lot of opposition, the opposition of the damsel, the loud mouth damsel with the devil, the magistrates beating them and cast them into prison. You know, Paul and Silas being kicked out of Philippi. I mean, this is a lot of opposition. So it's not like, you know, I think we're gonna plan a trip to Thessalonica. We're gonna preach the gospel there, get a lot of people saved. They're forced into Thessalonica because of the opposition. So he says, we didn't come to Thessalonica in vain. In other words, empty handed, we came because we're being persecuted. And he says, and we came preaching the gospel unto you in spite of the opposition that we're facing. And the principle that we can learn there is that when you're going through a difficult time, when you're going through tribulation, that's not a time to put the service of the Lord on pause. Still serve God. Still win people to Christ, preach the gospel, get people saved, read your Bible, disciple people, come to church, be able to simultaneously do those things. In fact, serve God with much contention. You know, I'm having marriage problems, then keep coming to church. You know, I'm having child rearing problems, then keep coming to church. The only time we don't recommend for you to come to church is if you're projectile vomiting or something, or you have like a fever or something. You know, the old IFP had this philosophy, Brother Howes used to say, don't call in, crawl in. I don't believe in that philosophy, okay. They used to say, don't call in, crawl in. No, don't even call in, just don't show up. Okay, I'm a strong believer that if you're sick, stay home. All right, because one, you know, I don't want what you have but more than me, my kids don't want what you have because if you get one of my kids sick, then all my kids get sick and then I get sick because they keep me up all night, you know. And then, you know, everyone else gets sick. That's why when people get sick in church, we all get sick because everyone's shaking each other's hands and stuff. Why am I even going off on that? Is anybody sick in here? No, I'm just kidding. What I'm saying is, you know, stay home. Obviously, if you're sick, you know, stay home if you died, you know, stay home if like, you know, if you just cannot make it to church for whatever reason, obviously, but when we're talking about opposition where you're not, you know, debilitated spiritually speaking and you can still make it to church, you know, I just can't, you know, make myself get out of bed. I'm so depressed. Come anyway, I mean, so debilitated, just so depressed, you just stay in bed. Folks, look, we all get depressed from time to time. Get up out of your bed, come to church, come listen to the preaching and get yourself out of that state of depression, okay. And by the way, you know, people tell me like, oh man, I just, you know, I just, my hair hurts or something. You know, I can't come to church. They don't say that, but you know, I have this pain, this pain in my knee and that's why I don't come. Well, here's your choices. You can have the pain in your knee at home or you can have the pain in your knee at church. Like does the pain stop when you like stay at you, like I'm not going to church today, voila. I'm staying home today, voila, the pain is gone. Like does your knees like, hey, if you step outside these doors, I will incite the pain. You're gonna have pain either way. I'm saying if you're contagious, stay home for what, you know, whatever sickness you have. But if you have like a little bit of pain, you have one of two choices, either have pain at home where you're by yourself, you're probably, you know, gonna do things that are not pertaining to the things of God or you can have it here. Listen to some preaching and forget about the pain for an hour. And so, you know, do God's will in spite of opposition. Okay, don't let opposition hinder you from serving God, coming to church, reading your Bible, winning souls to Christ, et cetera. You know, a great and effectual door is open unto us and there are many adversaries. So anytime we have a door of opportunity to do something great for God, just expect that there's gonna be opposition. And obviously the apostle Paul understood this, he knew this. And you know, for example, for me as a pastor, this is sometimes on a different level, okay? Because I face opposition, you know, I have people who hate my guts and they criticize me. I have saved people who hate me. You know, I have reprobates that hate me, people who contact me on a regular basis with threats or whatever it may be. But this is just part of the Christian life, you know? And here's the thing, not everyone's called to be a pastor or not everyone should be a pastor because sometimes people go into the pastor thinking that it's gonna be all roses and daisies and it's not. You know, you're hated of the world, especially if you're like a new IFB pastor. People despise you. They think you're the off scouring of this world. Go to 2 Corinthians 11, hold your place there in 1 Thessalonians chapter two, go to 2 Corinthians 11. You know, the pastor is not an easy position to have, okay? You know, it's not, people, what do you do? You just preach on Sunday morning and Thursday. That's not too hard. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's all we do. I don't even see this building. I don't do any work of the Lord other than when I come here and preach or something, you know? No, actually preaching is about, you know, 10% of what a pastor does. Now, it's a heavy 10% because, you know, you have to preach doctrine. You gotta know what you're talking about. You gotta help God's people. But a lot of other stuff is just problems in the church. And then you have to face the reprobates. You gotta face the opposition. You gotta face all these things. Look what the Bible says in verse 23. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more and labor is more abundant and stripes above measure and prisons more frequent and deaths often, off, which means often, of the Jews five times received I 40 stripes save one. A little exaggeration there. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I have been in the deep and journeyings often and perils of water and perils of robbers and perils of my own countrymen and perils by the heathen and perils in the city and perils in the wilderness and perils in the sea and perils among false brethren. Oh man, does this list ever end? In weariness and painfulness, that's the knee problems, you know? And watchings often, that means he stays awake. And hunger and thirst and fastings often and cold and nakedness. Look what it says in verse 28. Beside those things that are without. So he goes, aside from all this nonsense that I have to deal with, you know, these people who are against me, the perils among false brethren, the persecutions, people trying to kill me and stuff, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. So the care of all the churches doesn't take a break. It's like, hey guys, can you help me out? These Jews are trying to kill me right now. You might just hold it off on your problems for about a month while I deal with these Jews real quick and run from them and make sure they don't kill me. Hey, I'm shipwrecked. You guys mind? You know, I'm trying to survive the sea right now. Can you guys just wait off on your marriage problems? Can you just not have any child-rearing problems? Can you just have no contentions between each other? Hey, could there be no offense in the church for a couple months? I'm just kind of dealing with some stuff right now. Doesn't really work that way now, does it? Because when there is opposition, when people want to kill you, when people are trying, when they're persecuting, they're afflicting you, problems on the other side, or the problems that come in the churches, they don't go away. People still have problems, right? People still, you know, there's relational issues, there's bitterness in the church, people fighting with other people in the church, gossips in the church, railers in the church, you know, people who are discouraging the church, people who are depressed or, you know, just dealing with things, and this is not, I'm not saying this in a manner of like, I'm complaining, I'm telling you the reality of the situation. You say, well, you sound like you're complaining, you know, you sound like, you know, you don't really like, I love my job. And you know what, if I didn't love my job, I'd be doing something else. Like, I'd be like, you know what, forget all of you, I'm done. Forget your marriage, you're on your own, forget your depression, you're on your own. I don't believe that though, okay? I love what I do. I love helping you, you know, with your marriage, I love helping you with your child rearing, I love helping you with your finances, I love helping you with anxiety and depression or whatever you're experiencing. What I'm saying is that those who are considering the pastorate don't think it's just, you know, oh, I'm just gonna be dealing with this and not with this. No, you're dealing with both. And you know what the thing is? Sometimes they come to you simultaneously. And then, so the problems, it says the care of all the churches, but then how about the care of your family? So you got your family, you got the church, you got the enemies of God, and they're just kind of, you know, you're just kind of like, doing them all at the same time. You said, why mention that, go back to 1 Thessalonians. The reason I say that is because of the fact that, you know, a lot of pastors or people who wanna be pastors, they think, hey, why don't you just preach the gospel, brother? Why don't you just preach, just get people saved. I am getting people saved. Stop using such a stupid argument. Almost like you're implying that I'm not getting people saved. I'm still preaching the gospel, still getting people saved. But the thing is, I'm preaching the other parts of the Bible that are pissing people off and causing people to hate me. And I have to deal with that. Why don't you get some stones and start preaching the same thing and face that persecution? The pastor is not just preaching the gospel. You understand? The pastor is not just preaching the gospel. It's not just preaching, you know, everlasting life. That's part of it. We have to preach everything in here and deal with all these situations. You know, oh, you're just contentious. The Christian life is filled with contention. It's not in vain. It doesn't come empty. You know, the Christian life comes with baggage. When you go into the Christian life, it's like, here's problems. Here's other people's problems. Here's your own problems. Here's your family's problems. Oh, look, a new person. That's their problem too. Here you go. And these people want to kill you, okay? That's how it is. Now, I'll be honest with you. I love it. I honestly do love it. You say, why? Because I don't want to live a boring life. Boring life sucks. Boring life sucks. It wants to just live just a regular life. No, no, look, obviously, ideally it's just like we just get people saved. Everyone agrees with us, you know? But that's not a reality. It's a fantasy. The reality is this, is that there's always gonna be problems, and I don't want to live a boring life. So there's always something exciting going on at First Works Baptist Church, you know? And so I love pastoring, but you know, we should always keep in mind that the Christian life is not in vain. It comes with contention. And you know what? When you have all those, that mixture there, it makes for a lot of people getting saved. It makes for a lot of people's problems getting fixed, people being turned to righteousness. It's great, okay? So he talks about the events prior to the start of the Thessalonian church, the events at Philippi. And then he's gonna talk about their exhortation was not deceitful in verse three. He says, for our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts, for neither at any time use we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness, nor of men's sot we glory, nor of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. What is he saying? He's saying, look, the fact that we're coming in with contention, people are persecuting us, should show you that we're not coming to get your money. He's like, I'm coming here to get you saved. And if I was like some flattering false prophet, you would know. You would know what I was about, you know, but here's the proof that I'm not a false prophet. Here's proof that I don't come with flattering words. I got kicked out of Philippi. So if I was a, you know, flattering type pastor with the cloak of covetousness, they would have kept me at Philippi, right? That's what he's saying. He's like, they kicked me out because of what I was preaching. So it kind of goes to show you that, you know, what I'm preaching is not a deceit. It's not flattering. It's not a cloak of covetousness. It's sincere, it's an exhortation. You can trust what I'm telling you because obviously I'm not looking for the glory of man. You know, I'm looking for the glory of God. I'm looking to please God and not man. That's why people are kicking me out. That's why people hate me. And let me say this, when you seek to please God and only God, you're going to make a lot of enemies. When you seek to please only the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to have people, whether reprobates and false prophets, or even save people who just don't like you. That's just the nature of the beast, okay? He says neither at any time would usually be flattering words. What's a flattering, what does flattering mean? Flattery is excessive and insincere praise or compliments. Okay, the most extreme example would be like a Joel Osteen. God loves you, you know? Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, Steve Furtick, you know, all these guys have, I was going to say one thing in common, but not just one, they have many things in common. One of the things that they have in common is they all flatter people. They're all devils, okay? They're all false prophets. No, I think you're exaggerating a little bit. You know, I feel really good when I hear Steve Furtick. Well, you know, you might want to check your good odometer because more than half of what that guy says is not even biblical, it's false doctrine. And he's just filling you up with flattering words. He's just lying to you, why? Because he wants your money. He has a cloak of covetousness, okay? And it's the same thing with these prosperity gospel preachers, you understand? They lie to you, they have a cloak of covetousness, don't listen to them, okay? Flattery is an indicator, you know, or should I say, an indicator that someone's trying to deceive you as if they flatter you. Now we have to be able to differentiate what is flattery and what is a compliment, right? Because I said, you know, flattery is excessive and insincere compliments. There is such thing as a sincere compliment, okay? So don't go overboard on this and never compliment me on my sermons ever again, please. I appreciate when you compliment my sermons, okay? If you say great sermon and then you're like, well, no, I'm not gonna flatter pastor at all. The sermon sucked, pastor, you could have done better, okay? Don't go overboard on that. I appreciate when people say, you know, hey, that sermon really helped me, thank you so much. That was great and sincere, but it's the other ones where it's just this insincere, just excessive where it almost makes you feel uncomfortable, okay? And the Bible says a man that flatter with his neighbor spread at the net for his feet. So in other words, when someone flatters you, it typically means that they're trying to trap you. They have a nefarious agenda against you and so they flatter you in order to deceive you to make you think that they like you, but they really don't, okay? They're gonna backstab you or they're gonna do something wrong to you. And so, you know, so apply that to the preacher. Imagine a preacher getting up and flattering his congregation. This is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Now that's not to say that, you know, some safe pastor out there does not flatter his members. I'm sure there are many out there and the reason why they would possibly do that is because they don't wanna lose anybody. So they flatter their members because, you know, they're concerned that, you know, their building program, whatever money might go away or the tithe might go away. Safe people can get caught up in that nonsense. The Bible says in 2 Peter 2, 3, through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not. So these are people who flatter you in order to get something from you. And in fact, the Bible says that they follow the way of Balaam, the son of Bozor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, okay? Look at verse seven. He says, but we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls because you were dear unto us. So he's talking about his earnest love for them. He's basically saying like, I actually love you guys. I love you. I want you to be saved. I was willing to give you not just the gospel, but also my own soul. And I believe what he meant by that was that he just put his life into getting a lot of people saved in that region, put everything in good. And I don't think he just preached the gospel. I think he preached pretty much everything he knew about God's word. He gave his own soul. He preached the entire council. Now that doesn't mean that when we go soul winning, as soon as you get them saved, we just teach them about the reparative doctrine. You tell them about poster pre-wrath. You tell them about the Jews, you know, get them into church and we can teach them those things. We can impart our soul into them at that point. And we got to keep into consideration that Paul the apostle was here for quite some time. And he's preaching the word of God unto them. He's imparting his own soul. He's showing them his earnest love, okay? Paul is obviously a man who loves people. And let me just say this, don't lose that, okay? Don't become a cold hearted Christian. Where you're just kind of going through the motions when it comes to the gospel, but there's no sincerity in it. You should love the people that you're talking to. You know, when you're talking to someone, just recognize this person, this person's body houses an eternal soul. It's gonna go somewhere. And I hope this person gets saved, okay? Don't be angry with them. Don't, you know, don't look to just debunk them. Don't look to embarrass them. The attitude should be, I want this person to be saved. You know, I need to make sure that they understand. I don't want to just like be able to raise my hand and say that I got a salvation or something. Obviously we want to count the numbers. We want to get a lot of people saved, but more than that, we just really want them to get saved. We really want them to know the gospel, you know? And so have earnest love, have sincere love for the people where you give not the gospel of God only, but also your own soul. And you know what helps? That actually helps in your gospel presentation. Because sometimes you're preaching the gospel, you can be so mechanical, and then you make more mistakes. You know what I mean? Because you're just trying to memorize like, okay, point number two, point number three. But actually, if you just talk to people like they're people, you know, you just kind of like, you laugh with them. You just kind of casually talk to them. You know, you actually end up, your gospel presentation actually flows better. Because it's coming from the heart. A lot of people, they preach with their mind. We should preach with our heart. Because out of the abundance of the heart, they're not speaking. And so I understand we got to preach with our mind sometimes because we got to memorize the things, but you need to learn how to transfer preaching from the mind and preaching from the heart, okay? Having earnest love for the people you talk to. Look at verse nine, for you remember, he's going to talk about his exhaustive, or yeah, his exhaustive investment. It says in verse nine, for you remember, brethren, our labor and travail for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you. We preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses in God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe, as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father doth his children, that you would walk worthy of God who has called you unto his kingdom and glory. So he's talking about like the amount of investment that he placed upon the Thessalonians here, okay? And he's liking it unto giving birth. He said laboring night and day, travailing night and day. Now there's women out there who, when they give birth, it's like they're travailing night and day. You know, their water breaks, and then they go to the doctor to go deliver, and they don't deliver for like 12 hours or something like that. How many, has anybody here ever gave, was in the hospital for like 12 hours? 12, exactly, I prophesied. Ms. Nicole? How many, Ms. Nicole? Just throw up some hands. Chris, where's Chris? He's around here somewhere. How many, was it 12, 15, 20? Whoa. Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, and look, it's not a walk in the park. I'm not speaking from experience, because I have no idea, but I mean, that's not a walk in the park. And so look, is the Apostle Paul exaggerating here? He's liking it unto laboring night and day, because it's hard work. You know, he's just like, we gotta get these people saved, we gotta, and possibly he's doing this because of the fact that he knows that persecution is coming soon. So he's gotta get as many people saved as possible. But notice that he's not only getting people saved, what does it say in verse number 11? He says, as you know, how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father, doth his children. So even after he got them, say, what do you do? He charged them. What does that mean? He taught them the word of God. His children. Do this, don't do this. Do this and don't do this. He's charging them, okay? Verse 12, that ye would walk worthy of God who hath called you into his kingdom and glory. He challenged them. Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, the Bible says. So what does this tell us? This shows us that, you know, the ministry is not just getting people saved, it's discipling people too. Right? A large part of the ministry is obviously getting people saved. Soul winning is extremely important, but you know what's also extremely important? Discipling people. Getting them into church, teaching them the word of God, leading them into righteousness, teaching them how to be husbands and wives and children, good employees, good responsible members of society, you know, learning to obey God's commands and charging them to live a holy life. That's what he did. Takes a lot of work. He says in Colossians, you don't have to turn to verse nine, it says, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you into desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. So he's talking about his entrance into them. He's talking about his conduct. He's saying, look, we didn't come empty handed. We came with much contention. We didn't come with covetousness or flattering words. We were sincere. We gave you the word of God. Now he's gonna get into his constant running with the Jews. And look, this is something that's constantly on Paul's mind. I wonder why. But first he's gonna get into the receptivity of the Thessalonians. Look what it says in verse 13. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that belief. That's a great statement here. He's saying, look, when you guys received the word of God, it wasn't like, oh, because Paul said it, it's true. It's more like, no, that's what God's word says. So they understood that Paul was the instrument by which they would learn these things, but they placed a heavier emphasis on the fact that it was God's word being preached. That's what he's saying. He says, you didn't receive it as the word of men. You received it as it is in truth, the word of God. And that's what we want when people get saved, first and foremost. We don't want them to buy into who we are. We want them to believe the gospel. But even thereafter, we want people in church not to listen to Pastor Bruce Mejia because it's Pastor Bruce Mejia. We want to listen to Pastor Bruce Mejia who's preaching God's word. And the weight is in the word of God, okay? He says, verse 14, for ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. He said, look, you guys became in Thessalonica what the churches are in Judea. You're sowning church, preaching God's word, preaching the gospel. You're emulating what they're doing there. You became followers of those churches. And look, folks, there's nothing wrong with the church following another church, right? We're all independent churches, but there's nothing wrong with the church looking at another church as an example. There's churches that I look to as an example, but there's churches that look to us as an example as well. And there's nothing wrong with that. We're to be examples one to another, amen? Now, again, you don't want to go overboard on that and have this attitude where it's like, well, hey, they don't do this at so-and-so Baptist church. They do it like this. Shouldn't we do it like that? No? Well, so-and-so does it like this. Well, that's so-and-so's church. That's so-and-so pastor. And this is this church, right? There's different administrations. Same spirit, different administration. Because, you know, we've had that in times past where people, they'll pull out this card, you know? They get corrected on something, like some weird sowing that they're doing or something like that. And they're like, well, brother, pastor so-and-so does this. And we do, we go like this, we go. We love pastor so-and-so, but this is this church. Amen. And this is not putting any shade on any other pastor or any other church. That's the way they administrate that church. You understand? So we, you know, you could go to the extreme on both sides. Some people would say, well, it's us four no more. You know, we're better than any other church. No, never have that attitude. Okay? Now, I believe this is the best church, of course. You know, it's the best church for me and my family. You know, it's a great church, but not at the exclusion of other churches also being the best in the eyes of their members as well. You know, we never want to have this attitude that we're the best and that church sucks. We're way better than them. No, that's a childish carnal attitude. Nothing wrong with saying that our church is the best in the eyes of our members. Of course, that's why we're here. Right? But you know what? The people who go to other churches, that's the best church for them as well. And every member should have that attitude about their church. Okay? But on the other side, you never want to have this attitude where it's just like, well, you should do things exactly the way Faithful Word Baptist Church does it. Or exactly the way Verity Baptist Church does it. Or exactly the way, whatever, Steadfast Baptist Church does it. Because that's an unhealthy extreme as well. Okay? You have to understand that every church has its administration, its ordinances, its rules and laws that are established by the God-given pastor. You understand? So appreciate your church and don't try to make it like another church. Now, look, I love visiting my friends' churches and I always get ideas from them. Anytime I go visit a church, I'm like, we're going to start doing this. We're going to start doing that. Anytime I visit Verity Baptist Church, I always get an idea. And I'm always like, you know, how do you do this? What is it? Because it's good to get a, why? Because they're an example and we follow that church. You understand? So he says, for you, brethren, became followers of the church of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. Look what it says here. Why? For, another word for for is because, ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews. He's like, you know what one thing you guys have in common? Persecution. You're suffering persecution of your own countrymen like the disciples in Judea are suffering of the Jews. Okay? And this is where he kind of just begins to vent a little bit. Because he's from Judea. You know, he's in that region. He is part of that. He experienced the persecution. And in fact, he's experiencing the persecution of the Jews there in Thessalonica, all in Greece, because you know, the Jews have come past land and sea to make one, not just one proselyte. It made many. Because there's synagogues in these areas. There's a bunch of Jews there. Okay? So what is the commonality between Verity Baptist Church and First Works Baptist Church? I mean, one of the commonalities is that we're both persecuted like crazy in California. How about that? That's why I was like, when me and my pastor friends get together, you know, when me and Pastor Shelley get together, for example, it's just like, we're both being persecuted by the sodomites. We both suffer persecution. So it's like, I can talk to him about, you know, the persecution and the trials that we're going through, and he can be like, yeah, I know what you're going through. Because we're suffering the same thing. I can't really do that to an old IFP pastor. Not that any old IFP pastor would even want to talk to me. But if I were to go to some old IFP pastor and be like, yeah, this fact is just, you know, they're persecuting us, and they stole my vehicle. They'd be like, are you right with God, you know? Maybe God's judging you or something, you know? Maybe you should start a ministry to reach them or something, you know? I'd be like, you're not part of the churches in Judea. Like, nevermind, you know? Wrong person, wrong number, sorry, wrong number. Just like, hang up on them or something, you know? But when I talk to my pastor friends, this is just commonalities that we have. So, you know, he talks about how they suffered things, like things of their own countrymen, even as they have the Jews. Verse 15, this little, you know, this statement in the parentheses, who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and persecuted us, and they pleased not God, and are contrary to all men. Tell us how you really feel, Paul. He just, like, threw this verse in there. You know, it's about the Thessalonians and the sufferings, and you guys are just like the churches over there, because the churches over there are persecuted by the Jews, who, by the way, killed the Lord Jesus, and by the way, they killed their own prophets. Oh, and by the way, they persecuted us. Oh, and by the way, they don't please God. Oh, and by the way, they're contrary to all men. Yeah, I'm kind of wondering if he's just waiting for the reader to be like, is there something we should know about the Jews, Paul? Why do you ask? Well, since you asked, let me tell you. But look, folks, this isn't an isolated verse. And in fact, you know, I preached this sermon a while back called Major Themes of the New Testament, okay? And I talked about the overriding themes of the New Testament, and one of those themes basically is the Jews persecuting Christians. That is the main adversary of the New Testament, was the Jew, not a Jehovah's Witness, not Ishmael, you know, the Muslims. By the way, Jews represent Ishmael. You know, it wasn't the Muslims, it wasn't the Hindus, it wasn't the Buddhists at that time. Who was it? It was the Jews. They're mentioned throughout the New Testament as being those who are adversaries of the gospel, okay? And he says there that they killed the Lord Jesus. Now, were they the ones who drove the nails in the hands of Jesus? No. Were they the ones who drove the nails in his feet and put a crown of thorns upon his head? No, but they aided and abetted those who did. They're the ones who convinced the Romans to do so. They partook in that, and in fact, they took credit for it because they specifically said his blood be on us and on our children. You know, when the Bible says that his blood is on your hands when it uses that phrase in Ezekiel, they are okay with the blood being on their hands. They're okay with taking responsibility for the death of Jesus Christ. And by the way, this is a common sermon that you hear throughout the book of Acts as well, where the apostle Peter, as he preaches in the gospel, he gives him a replacement theology first. You know, he's like, you killed the prince of life. He's all, you know, you did it as your rulers. You guys are the ones who crucified him. I mean, that's the constant thing that the apostles are talking about when they're facing the Jews. These guys are bold, right? Very bold. Because they're facing a group of Jews who could potentially kill them as they kill Jesus. And Peter's just like, you guys killed Jesus. All you guys killed Jesus, you know. The rulers, you and the rulers, you guys all killed Jesus. But he says they both killed Jesus and who? And the prophets. So he's saying, look, this is not their first rodeo. Putting Jesus to death was not the Jews' first rodeo. They've been doing it since the prophets of old. Go to Matthew 23, hold your place there. Oh, here you go again with the Jews. But folks, it's in the text. Verse 15, verse 14 and 15, I mean, he's just going off on the Jews. Is Paul, I mean, Paul, he's not anti-Semitic, folks. He's of the tribe of Benjamin. He's an Israelite indeed. And in fact, we see his heart in Romans chapter nine and 10, saying that if he could, he would be a curse from Christ to get his countrymen saved. Because he had a heart for the Jews. The Jews that he hated were those who hated Jesus. Okay. But look what it says in Matthew 23, verse 29, won't you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites? Because he built the tombs of the prophets and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous and say, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would have not been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. So these guys just condemned themselves. They didn't even think about what they were saying. If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would have not partaken in the blood of the prophets. Jesus, verse 31, look what he says. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. He's like, all right, you just condemned yourself by what you said. Because you're admitting that you are of the generation of those who hated and killed the prophets. He says in verse 32, fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. He's all, put those shoes on. Put your daddy's shoes on and fill you up the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers. What's a viper? It's a serpent. What is a serpent a picture of? Satan. What is God called? What is Jesus called? The synagogue, the synagogue of Satan. What does he say in John 844? Ye are of your father, the devil. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers. How can ye escape the damnation of hell? Folks, when Jesus tells you that, that means you're not escaping. He's like, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? I send people to hell. They're not gonna escape the clutches of Jesus. Go to Galatians four. So he says, look, they killed the Lord Jesus. They killed the prophets. He says they persecuted us. They don't please God. He just threw that in, they don't please God. God's not pleased with them. He's not happy with the Jews. Okay. And by the way, this is in a passage where, 1 Corinthians seven, where he says, this isn't the Lord, this is me speaking here or something. I speak by permission, not of commandment. He didn't say that here. You guys ever seen that meme? It's that Asian guy, he's sitting back and he says, he's like, I'll allow it. You guys ever seen that? You guys never seen that? Come on, where's my memers at? You know, it's just like, he's sitting back in a chair. He has like a sombrero hat, it's an Asian guy and he's like, I'll allow it. When Paul's pinning this down, the Holy Spirit's like, I'll allow it. In fact, he's the one who inspired it. So offensive, why did you, it's God's word. Because what he's saying is true. He says, and they're contrary to all men. Folks, the severity and the truth of that statement is not only subject to the New Testament, as far as the Bible's concerned, it's historically true as well. Amen. Because when he says they're contrary to all men, that means all men don't like the Jews. I mean, just, you know, statistically speaking, where's the proof of that? They're the apple of God's eye. Or here's the proof, they've been kicked out of 109 countries. How about that? The Jews have been expelled from 109 countries, folks, throughout the years. Why? Because they're contrary to all men. Because of the rejection of Jesus Christ and the predatory lending practices. And in fact, Genesis 16, which is a prophetic statement of Ishmael, excuse me, it's speaking of Ishmael, but it's a prophetic statement of the Jews, says in Genesis 16, 12, and he will be a wild man. His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brothers. Go to Deuteronomy 28. So Genesis 16 is talking about Ishmael, and Ishmael in the New Testament is an allegorical character that represents Jews according to the flesh, okay? Israelites according to the flesh. Isaac represents all believers. So if you're a Mexican in here, if you are a Russian, if you're Armenian, yes, even if you are Armenian, but you're saved, you're of Isaac, you're of Abraham. But if you're a Jew according to the flesh, and that's what you adhere to, according to the Bible, you're of the spiritual lineage of Ishmael. And the Bible says of Ishmael that his hand will be against every man, okay? Look at Deuteronomy 28, verse 64. He says, the Lord shall scatter thee among all people from the one end of the earth even unto the other, and there thou shall serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. Go to verse number, go to 36, go back to 36. Verse 36 of Deuteronomy 28. The Lord shall bring thee and thy king which thou shalt set over thee unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, and there shall thou serve other gods, wood and stone, and that shall become a what? An astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee. You say, why would God say that to him? Because he's telling him, if you disobey me, if you break the covenant, this is what's gonna happen to you. And fundamental Baptists are just blinded to this, willingly ignorant of the historical fact that God has literally cursed the nation of Israel where they're scattered into all nations. They've been rejected of all people throughout the ages because of the rejection of God. More specifically, the rejection of Jesus. They're scattered. But yeah, with the infiltration of dispensationalism and Zionism, they're like, oh no, but God still has a plan for them. There's still God's chosen people. Here it says that they don't even please God. What are you talking about? Here it says that they're contrary to all men. Go to Romans 11, Romans 11. I'm gonna read to you from 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 16. He's gonna talk about their rivalry against the gospel. It says, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved. He's saying the Jews forbid us to speak unto the Gentiles that they might be saved. Now folks, that is wicked as hell. Super wicked. For someone to wanna stop you and say, I don't want you to get anybody saved, stop preaching to them. It's not because, oh, you might bring them into the temple and defile and pollute the temple. No, it says that they might be saved. They don't want Christians spreading their message because they're afraid that people might get saved. How wicked and evil do you have to be to say, let's try to stop these people because they're trying to get people saved? Folks, that's reprobate. It's reprobate. Look folks, there's some pretty wicked people out there who I believe are not reprobate. Just ignorant people. But then there's a tier about five levels beyond that where they're so wicked and evil that they would want to stop people from getting saved. That's an evil that none of us could ever understand. Right? He says they forbid us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved. How do they do that? By just following Paul around, beating them up, trying to scare them, trying to get them to stop preaching? He says, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved. Listen to this, to fill up their sins always for the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. So if that boils your blood, which it should boil our blood, right? When people will try to stop us from getting people saved, how much more do you think it boils God's blood? Yeah, right? So what does he do in return? He allows them to fill up their sins always. Romans two puts it this way, they treasure up wrath against the day of wrath. They're just piling on the judgment, piling on the judgment. And he says, the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. What does that mean? They can leave Israel and go to Japan if they wanted to, wrath is gonna find them there. They can go to Europe, they can come to America, they can run Hollywood, they can go anywhere, but wrath will come upon them to the uttermost. They can get on a freaking spaceship if they wanted to and join Elon Musk on Mars if they wanted to. The wrath will follow them there folks. Surely someone in the comments section, Mars isn't real. The earth is flat. Look at Romans 11. Verse 29 says, for I would not brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery lest ye should be wise in your own conceits that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved as it is written, there should come out of Zion to deliver and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. Look what it says here in verse 28. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes. For your sakes. Now who is they referring to? Referring to Israel. He goes, when it comes to the subject of the gospel, they're actually enemies of yours. They try to forbid you, they wanna stop you from preaching the gospel, they're your enemies. But look what it goes on to say, but it's touching the election. They are beloved for the Father's sake. Now at this point, he's not referring to Israel according to the flesh. Because what is the election? Election is referring to those who are elected according to grace, the election of grace. People who are saved. So he says, the Jews who are elect, in other words, those who are saved, they're beloved for the Father's sake. And he's not talking about Father as in God the Father, he's talking about the Father as like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Because the promise still pertained to them, especially now that they're saved. Now they don't claim to be Jews, and I don't believe anybody who's a Jew who gets saved should still call themselves a Jew. There's no such thing as a Maisianic Jew. If you're a Jew, you get saved, you're no longer a Jew. But I'm a Jew based upon nationality. Hey, in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. Bond nor free. You know, by the way, American is not my religion. Guatemala is not my religion. I don't identify as an American. I don't identify as a Guatemalan. Who do you identify as, as a Christian? I'm not a Guatemalan Christian, an American Christian, I'm just a Christian. So again, he says there that there are enemies for your sakes concerning the gospel. Go back to 1 Thessalonians, excuse me, chapter two. Now why is Paul the Apostle telling the Thessalonians this? Well, because they're suffering at the hands of the Jews from the synagogue in Thessalonica. And in their minds, they're like, why are these people persecuting us? I thought, you know, they believe the word of God, you know, they believe in the law of Moses. And the Apostle Paul's telling them, hey, they're contrary to all men. All men includes you. They don't please God. What? Yeah, they persecuted us too. What? They're enemies of the gospel. What? It's like when a fundamental Baptist learns replacement theology, they learn the truth about the Jews, they're just like, what? What? What? Brother, don't give people a hard time if they don't believe that yet. Some of you born into the new IFB, chill out a little bit. Let that code red come into a cool blue. Okay, and don't flip out on people if they don't believe that right off the bat, because yours truly read the Bible cover to cover many times, and I still wasn't replacement theology. I still believe that Jews were God's chosen people at one time. People who taught you that believe the Jews were God's chosen people until literally they started pastoring, or like a year into pastoring. How about that? And all of a sudden you're just like, no, they got to get this right off the bat. I can't believe, how can you be so stupid? It's right there. How did you not see it? Folks, I guarantee I could pull out verses from the Bible that you've probably read and didn't even know was there. There's so much in the word of God that you still haven't learned. Be patient and gracious with people. Obviously, if you show them and they're just like, contrary to all men, synagogue of Satan, nah, they're still God's chosen people. Okay, then you're just willing and ignorant then. Now I wouldn't say that they're wicked. I just think they're prideful. I just think they're just prideful people. Obviously, the wicked ones are the dispensationalists, like these rucktards. Sam Gipp is a wicked, wicked son of the devil who teaches that Jesus Christ is not our Messiah. What in the world? He's not my Messiah. Yeah, you're right. He's not your Messiah. You're actually right about that, Sam Gipp. That's actually the truest statement you've ever made. He's not your Messiah because you're not even saying you're a false prophet. He's just a Jew-loving heretic. Now obviously, look, we should love Jews in general and just assume that whatever Jew we run into is a sincere person. And not just write them off like, oh, they're Jews. I don't wanna even talk to this person. They're probably so close to the gospel. That's not the right attitude to have. Okay, if a Jew comes, by the way, we had a Jew come to our church and they liked the service and everything. And don't treat them like a second-class citizen either. Don't criticize them. Don't look down on them. Don't make comments out in the open about them. They should be treated like any other person, any other unsaved individual. Now obviously, if they come in here with a shofar, and they start blowing a shofar in here, and they got the shawl or whatever, then they're getting the nine and a half boot. Okay, but no one's gonna come in here with a shofar, especially not now, especially if they watch the sermon. You come with a shofar, I'm gonna throw you shofar. You know, you'll land on the train tracks. All right, go back to 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 17. But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavor the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. So obviously, what does this show? This shows us that the apostle Paul really loves these people. And honestly, you know, this kind of reminds me of me, and that may sound weird, but let me explain to you why. Sometimes I can't wait to see God's people. Like, I look forward to Thursdays. I look forward to Sunday. I look forward to being with God's people. Like, I greatly desire to see, you know, if I'm having a rough day or whatever it may be, you know, if I come here and I see God's people and I see their faces, it brings me a lot of joy. I love being around God's people. And I think you can say the same about me, hopefully. And if not about me, you can say that about each other. And the reason I know that's true is because when church ends, you guys stay here to like, I mean, a long time. And I tell you, Lisa, just go turn off the lights. They're not getting it, you know. But he's saying, look, obviously he has a sincere love for the people. He's like, I want to see you. I want to see your face. I have a great desire to see your face. Verse 18, wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again. Look what it says here. But Satan hindered us. Now let me explain something. I'm done, okay. This doesn't mean like Satan just pops out like, yeah. Like a spirit just comes down and he's just like, oh man, the spirit is hindering me from going. Satan, when he says Satan hindered us, he's referring to people who work for Satan. So when we read this in context, who is he talking about? He's talking about the Jews. Because they're the ones who are what? Enemies of the gospel. They're the ones who are persecuted. They're the ones who are forbidding him to speak unto the Gentiles that they might be saved. So in context, when he says Satan hindered us, he's saying these Jews hindered us. You're such a racist. Folks, if that's racist, don't read Revelation 2 and 3. Where Jesus says that they're of the synagogue of Satan. That means if Jesus were here today and he went to Bixby Knolls in Long Beach where that synagogue is at, he points to say this is a synagogue of Jews. This is a synagogue of Satan. That's what he would say, right? He would say this is a synagogue, they're interchangeable sometimes. A synagogue of Satan, right? That's what he would say. So he views every single synagogue that exists today as a synagogue, a congregation of Satan. So the apostle Paul's not even being controversial here. He's like Satan hindered us. And you know what the Thessalonians are thinking? Oh, he's talking about the Jews. Because he just said that in the letter. Because no one else is hindering Paul. Is there anybody else? In fact, what do we see? We see the Romans helping Paul. Do you remember the party that they put together to escort Paul and save him and rescue him from the Jews? Remember that there was a group of Jews who literally made a vow to say, we're not gonna eat anything until Paul is dead? And then the soldiers like, get all these horses, get all these soldiers. We're gonna escort Paul out of here to save him alive. So it's obviously not the Romans, okay? It's not the Romans. That was the shofar, okay? The ones who are hindering him are the Jews at this point. Look at verse 19. For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ that is coming, for ye are our glory and joy. You know, the greatest joys of the Christian life is just getting people saved. You know what's even greater joy than that? Is seeing the person you get saved come to church and seeing them grow in the Lord, learn the word of God. He's like, that's my joy right there. That's like my crown of rejoicing. That's my hope, my joy, my crown of rejoicing. You in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ that is coming. Ye are our glory and joy. One of the major things that we look forward to in heaven is the people we got saved. And you don't really know, obviously you know the people you got saved, but you don't know everyone that you got saved. And I guarantee you in heaven, if you're a consistent soul winner, you're gonna run into people who are like, I got saved because of you. You gave the gospel to me as a little boy and I got saved and I'm here because of you, you know? I believe that. You know, I believe we're gonna run into a lot of people and we don't really know the impact of our influence until we get that. And so the apostle Paul is like, I desire to see you because you're my joy. You know, this is the reason I suffer persecution and I allow all these bad things and I just try to have a good spirit about it because I look forward to seeing you. I look forward to you watching you, you know, walk in the light as he is in the light. I look forward to you growing in the Lord and suffering persecution and following in these footsteps. That's a joy. And I'll be honest with you, you know, one of the greatest joys of me, of my life as a pastor is obviously getting people saved and seeing them grow. But you know, I also really enjoy sometimes what causes a lot of delight in me as far as the church members are concerned is when they're willing to suffer persecution. When they grow into that level right there. Where it's just like, I'll suffer persecution for first works, that's my church. It's represents Christ, it represents the Bible. I'm not ashamed of having pastor when he is my pastor or going to first works Baptist church. I'm willing to suffer for the cause of Christ. That brings a lot of joy. That's like, whoa, this person got it. That's awesome. A lot of rejoicing. So you can see why the apostle Paul would be so proud of these people. He's like, you guys are sticking it out. You're still in church. You're preaching God's word. Jason's doing a great job. You guys are doing great. You're my crown of glory and rejoicing. And I can't wait to see you again. Great chapter, Amen. Spire heads on our word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and Lord, thank you for the souls that we were able to get saved this year. So many people that got saved Lord. And we really truly don't know the impact we'll make until we go to heaven Lord. And although the Jews were obviously a major, major opposition to the Christians of the New Testament, we obviously don't necessarily have that today, but we still have people who work for Satan, who try to stop us almost at that same level. And Lord, I pray God that you'd help us Lord to preach the gospel of God with much contention, with opposition present. And when difficulties come our way, may we never see that as an excuse to just put the, put the gear on cruise control or, or stop doing the work of the Lord. Help us to do all things simultaneously. Strengthen us when we're weak Lord. And I pray God that you'd help us to do so. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. He's gonna take care of it. Okay. The camera? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. He's gonna take care of it. I'm a lefty. You're a lefty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, we got a baptism tonight. Tell us your name. Joshua. Joshua, have you trusted Jesus as your savior? Yes. Upon your public profession, I will now baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, going to cross your arms over your chest, buried in the likeness of his death, raised to the newness of life. Congratulations. Watch your step. All right, let's pray. We'll be dismissed. Father, we thank you again for this day, Lord. We're thankful for the Book of 1 Thessalonians. Lord, thank you for the baptism. I pray, God, that you continue to prosper our church, help us to get more people saved, baptize them, disciple them, Lord, teach them the ways of righteousness, and bless us as we go on our way home, Lord. Bless this weekend that the work of the Lord may be done as pleasing as it is in your sight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You are dismissed. .