By Looking Forward | Stand Firm | Rick Atchley

Welcome to the hills our online family and a special thank you to all of you Who got out on a cold morning to come in person in north richmond hills and keller west fort worth and dallas I'm excited to begin a new a teaching series with you We're going to walk through for eight sundays the book of first theslonian so you can be reading that every day And i'm going to begin By being vulnerable and telling you about the worst most gut-wrenching day of my life It was the day I left my daughter at college So for a number of years I have spoken at a bible lectureship at a school on the west coast called pepperdine so the Junior year my daughter morgan along with two nieces came with my wife and I on a little vacation to southern california We did the typical tourist things and I said one day would you like to go see this campus? Daddy has talked about so often so we drove up to malibu Beautiful campus. We walked into the field house now the year before Pepperdine won the national championship in men's volleyball. The men's volleyball team was practicing that day It was a gym full of greek gods Everyone there was six foot six blonde and ripped So as we're walking out to the car, my daughter says daddy. Can I go to pepperdine? I said no absolutely not She went over my head and asked her mother And the next year i'm taking my precious daughter to this school Now that's just a quick tip when you take your boys to college send them away far away send them to another continent But don't do that to your baby girls. It will rip you up This is before you could facetime. I don't know when i'm going to see her again And she's crying And my wife is crying And we turn to leave and we're walking down the hill we go by the olympic-sized pool on campus And the water polo team is practicing It's another group of greek gods in speedos And i'm thinking what am I doing worst day of my life? Some of you know what that feels

To be away from somebody You really care about and there's no easy way to know how they are really doing And when presence is impossible Anxiety is often inevitable. Now. This is the angst that missionary church planters live with They help start communities of faith But they can't stay long and they are burdened about how they're doing paul knew this better than anyone I know paul said be anxious about nothing, but he's honest read his letters. He's constantly burdened About how his new churches are doing He wants to confirm that they're standing firm and the things he wants to recognize Are the very things we should be emphasizing in the church today. That's why we're turning to first thessalonians We think it's the first letter he ever wrote And on your hills app every day during this series, we're going to have short devotionals for you and we're really going to dig into This letter because this was a very very important church. Look at this map You can see rome the capital of the world And to the east is thessalonica Now it's on the most important highway in the ancient world called the ignatian way Most of the empire was to the east and if you wanted to get to rome you went through thessalonica And so paul was strategic he liked to choose influential metropolitan centers to plant churches So they could be hubs for regional outreach. We do the same thing today We plant churches in some of the most populated cities in america for the same reason And this church got off to a good start as we heard just a moment ago in act 17 And people are being reached and people are coming to christ, but then jewish Opposition arose probably motivated by racial bias. They were uncomfortable with all these gentiles Getting in on what god is doing And so they start to accuse paul of a subversive Message they go to the officials and say he's defying caesar He's saying we're supposed to be loyal to another king named jesus Oh, by the way side point when you preach the gospel don't just preach jesus as savior Preach jesus as king He didn't come to redeem. He came to rule

and so In the interest of personal safety The believers say paul you need to leave town. It's not good for you to be here. Paul doesn't want to leave town He is not through with what he wants to accomplish. He's not sure this new church is ready to be on its own And so he leaves with a huge burden Because he knows that his leaving is not going to spare them from what's coming. Persecution. And all through this letter we're going to see that opposition is their reality. In fact, in the second letter he starts by saying, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you're in doing. So Paul knew that these trials weren't going to go away just because he did. Because Paul knew the real enemy of the church was going nowhere. You see spiritual warfare is a reality. There's a world we don't see that is just as real as the world we do see. In fact, in the second chapter Paul said, out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you for we wanted to come to you. Certainly I, Paul, did again and again but Satan blocked our way. Now I don't know how he did that. Maybe it was lack of funds, maybe it was sickness, maybe it was government interference. But Paul knew that what's stopping me from coming has a power behind the visible reason. And missionaries understand this. You talk to missionaries today and they know that most of their visible problems are the result of invisible powers. And they have to deal with that. So Paul says, I can't get back. I want to get back. I'm burdened to get back. I can't get back. I can't execute plan A. So we are audibles to plan B. He says chapter 3, when I could stand it no longer I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain. But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love for now we really live since you are standing firm in the Lord. See he was excited to learn that what he had ignited was still burning. Their sheer defiance in the face of persecution inspired him. And by the way it should today. The global church in much of the world is getting fiercely

persecuted. We are doing works right now in the world where we can't tell you the country. We can't put the faces of the missionaries on the website. And we are seeing people decide for Christ knowing it might cost them everything. And that should inspire us. And it inspired Paul. And he wrote to commend them. But he also wrote to command them to keep standing firm. So that's the theme of this series. Each week we're gonna look at another way that we can stand firm in the Lord. But the big overall theme is this. You've got to take a long view. You've got to remember the return of Christ. You stand firm by looking forward. I told you a few weeks ago I have not preached enough on the return of Jesus. This series is going to fix that. And we're gonna be reminded every day that this could be the day that Jesus comes back. Now I did hear about a dad who told his teenage son you need to live every day like it could be your last day. He said dad the last time I did that you grounded me for a month. So I know it can go the wrong way. But here's what I also know. When you live in a hostile culture and when you live in troubled times you need to learn to hope well. And so I put it this way. That standing firm in the present requires a firm understanding of the future. If the chapter you're living is tough you've got to remember how the story is going to end. Every sports fan understands your favorite team is playing but you can't watch so you tape the game. On the way back home you learn that your team wins. And so when you watch the game and your team fumbles or they get a bad call you don't freak out. You know the end result. Here's what Paul is saying. I can't come back but Jesus will. Never forget that. Because if you remember his coming is going to shape who you are becoming. We're going to see that he is going to close every single chapter of this book reminding them I can't come back. But Jesus will. Look at the end of chapter 1. They tell how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath. So how do you stand firm? Well one thing you do is you stand guard against the pull of idolatry. Nobody's faithless. Everybody is trusting something and what? Whatever you are turning to the most is turning you into something.

So standing firm means I am going to stand guard and I'm going to daily turn away from those things that are not turning me into someone that looks like Jesus. Let me introduce you to a man named Gavin Peacock. Now he grows up in the UK where everyone loves soccer. He's small. His dad says, Gavin, if you're going to get on the pitch, you're going to have to be quick and learn to turn. And so he just constantly learned dribbling through cones, changing directions. By 16, he was signed by the Premier League. By 18, he's a starting 11 on the pitch. He's young. He's got money. He seems like he has it all, but he was miserable. Every week if he played well, he felt good about himself. If he played bad, he felt terrible about himself. He decides to visit a church. Has no idea what they're talking about, but the pastor said, we've got some young people coming to my house. Come with us. So he shows up in his fancy car. He's got, quote, everything you're supposed to want. And they have everything he wants, joy. And he begins to pursue and he realizes the problem. He has lived all his life with soccer as his God. He is living to please fickle fans. And he decided to start living to please God. It changed everything. When he retired after a long career, he became a pastor in Canada. And he said, you know, ultimately my dad was right. It all comes down to learning to turn.

You've got to turn away from those things that can never satisfy and turn to the one who can. You see, remembering that Jesus is returning keeps us turning away from things that are eternally irrelevant. And it motivates us to keep returning to the people who are. Look at the end of chapter two. For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. What's he saying? He's saying because Jesus is coming back, you need to stand up for the priority of community. See, trials have a way of revealing what we value most. And most people are trying to find lasting joy in stuff that doesn't last. Paul is saying, put your joy in God's Word and people because it does last. Find your priority in people. We don't wait in isolation. We wait in a congregation. Listen to this word from the Hebrew writer. Let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another. You see, now that the day of his return is drawing near, you hear what he's saying? Why are you people skipping church? Jesus is coming back. You should be getting together all the time to remind each other about that. So I read a few years ago about a woman named Penny Brown, a nurse in upstate New York. She got a night off from ICU and she went to watch her 11-year-old play baseball. So she's watching the game and a boy gets hit right in the chest with a fastball. Do you remember this DeVar Hamlin, that Buffalo Bill safety, got hit right in the chest and his heart just stopped? Evidently, that can happen.

This boy just collapses and his heart has stopped. He's about to die. She knows what to do and she rushes on through the field and she does CPR and revives him and he lives. About seven years later, that boy, Kevin Steffen, who wants to become a firefighter, is working at a restaurant and a woman starts to choke. So he knows what to do and does the Heimlich and saves her life. It's the woman that saved his life. It's Penny. Now, that's kind of a weird story, but that story ought to happen every Sunday. That one Sunday, I need you to pour some life into me because the world's beating me down. And the next Sunday, you need me to show up and pour some life into you so that you'll keep going too. You see, Jesus' return reminds us how much people matter to God. It should also remind us how much holiness should matter to us. Look at the end of chapter three. May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones. If you believe Jesus is coming back, you are willing to stand out and be different. Stand out in your willingness to be different, knowing that Jesus is coming should shape who we want to become. In the New Testament, holiness is always linked to hope. In other words, I'm willing to be different today because I am living for a different purpose. Day than everyone else is living for and by the way, this is especially true when it comes to our sexual ethics We're gonna see Paul say a lot about this in a few weeks, but look at chapter 4 It's God's will that you should be sanctified that you should avoid sexual immorality For God did not call us to be impure but to live a holy

life I Feel like a lot of Christians They think that the values of the church are so strange that we need to modify them and not be weird Listen, the hope of the church is not to erase our weirdness. It is to embrace our weirdness The early church was weird You've heard me say for example, they were radically generous they would help the poor no matter who they were But they were multi-ethnic in a world where no one lived that way they were they were staunch in their defense of the unborn and the just born and They were radically holy in their sexual ethic They believed that sex was God's gift to seal the covenant of marriage between a man and woman and that's where it belonged Now you got to understand in their culture sex was anybody anytime anywhere and These Christians were weird. We have letters from governors in the first century saying I don't get them They will share their food. They will share their home. They will share their clothes. They will share their money. They won't share their beds And by the way, this is one reason why the early church was so appealing to women because I promise you anytime culture says anything goes sexually women suffer the most and And So We are not ashamed of our ethic we embrace it listen to Paul the night is almost gone The day of salvation will soon be here So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes and put on the shining armor of right living do not participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness or in sexual Promiscuity and immoral living instead clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in other words a Bride looking for her groom cares how she looks to her groom If I see a bride and She's wearing soiled clothes and her hair is unkempt and she hasn't bathed and she smells bad You have to wonder how excited are you about the wedding? Because a wedding is in our future and Anticipating a wedding helps the church deal with all the funerals

Look at the end of chapter 4 Some in Thessalonica were worried. Well, some of our loved ones died before Jesus came back. Have they missed out Paul says? Oh, no, no, they'll be the first to rise when he returns and then we'll all meet the Lord in the air He says we'll be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words In other words stand together and cope with hope We know he's coming we don't know how long we're gonna have to wait What we do know is while we're waiting there's going to be some hurting It's one reason we gather often While we don't skip meeting together We take bread and we take a cup and we remind each other that what God has done is the guarantee of what? God is going to do Christians should always be giving each other extra helpings of hope Now I don't know if this is a true story But it tells the truth The story that I heard was of a pastor that was visiting a woman in his church who was elderly and had a fatal illness Because she wanted to make arrangements for her funeral service She told him these are the scriptures. I want read the songs. I want sung the people. I want to speak This is the dress. I want to wear I want my favorite Bible in my left hand and before he left said one more thing I want you to put a fork in my right hand He said what said a fork why all the church socials and potlucks I've gone to when they clean off the main dish if they say keep your fork You know, it's coming It might be chocolate cake it might be apple pie, but you know, the best is still coming You have people walk by my casket when they ask you why the fork you tell them that I said the best is yet to come See my destiny is not in the hands of the undertaker my destiny is in the hands of the upper taker Yours is too if you're a follower of Jesus and We know that when he returns What he started he's gonna finish look at the end of chapter 5 May God himself the God of peace sanctify you through and through may your whole spirit soul and body be kept blameless at the coming

Of our Lord Jesus Christ the one who calls you is faithful and he will do it And so we can stand fast in the confidence of our salvation now Let me be clear. Some people aren't eager for Jesus to come back. They shouldn't be Because there's a lot of wickedness in this world and The Bible says when he comes back, he's not just going to punish evil. He's going to punish evil doers But we just read a moment ago that Jesus has rescued us from the coming wrath I Don't fear God's judgment on my sins because my sins have already been judged Our friend Taylor wall and I saw recently he went to Pepperdine to plant a church you might recall in December There were a lot of fires in Southern, California, and they came right to the edge of the campus It was so serious a threat that Taylor and his family and others had to be evacuated and go and live two days and sleep in the school cafeteria But the fire stopped right at the edge of the campus and burned all the vegetation But Taylor said the fires in January were no comparison He said the wind was so much stronger and it was headed right toward us and no doubt would have consumed us But the fires reached the burn scar From where the previous fire had been and they stopped and we were saved Because the fire could not burn what had already been burned and God when he returns is not going to judge what has already been judged and so We can stand firm because God stays faithful We get together every week and we can look each other in the eye and we can say Maranatha come quickly Lord Jesus and by the way Did you know that Jesus is looking forward to his return more than we are? Two years ago today I was in Israel Every day was amazing But maybe my favorite was Capernaum

To see the synagogue where he stood to literally get to preach on the beach Yards from where he would have preached and to see this home This is how homes were built in the days of Jesus. You see the many quarters In that day a family would build a home and then when the sons would get older and find brides They would tell the bride to get ready and the son would return home and he would build an extra room on the house Remember what Jesus said in my father's house. There are many rooms and I'm going to prepare a place for you Jesus said I don't know the father knows and in that day when the room was finished and when the father Said The son would hear It's ready Go get your bride and bring her to my house and The son's waiting to hear the father say that He's preparing a place for a prepared people And so wait, well listen to Jesus. Oh, brother be patient and stand firm Because the Lord's coming is near You live today for that day, I know it's hard I know the culture is hostile But when the present gets tense live in the future tense Stay ready One last story David Peterson pastor in Spokane Washington said I'm in my study at my house I'm working on my sermon. My five-year-old daughter comes in daddy. Can you play with me? He says honey, I can play as soon as I'm finished I have about an hour of work to do and When I'm through I will come and play with you and she smiled and said, okay daddy And when you're through I am gonna give you a big hug And she's walking out of the study and she gets to the door and she turns around and races to her dad Jumps in his lap and squeezes him so hard. He needs to call a chiropractor He says honey. I thought you were gonna squeeze me after I was through working. She says I am

But I just wanted you to have something to look forward to We have something to look forward to church So stand firm The best is yet to come Pray with me. Thank you God for your faithfulness Thank you for What Jesus did for us so that we could live in Anticipation of the wedding we've been invited to Holy Spirit fill us Help us to live so differently and so joyfully that people have to ask for a reason for the hope that we have. And come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.