Unshakable Faith

has been made possible by the generous support of viewers like you. Welcome to All In With Pastor Jordan Easley. Today's message is about to begin and we invite you to prepare your heart and mind to hear an inspiring message from God's Word. We hope and pray for God to speak to you today as you seek to live your life. All In For Jesus Christ. And now from First Baptist Church in Cleveland, Tennessee, here's Pastor Jordan Easley. (congregation applauding) All of us can say we've walked through seasons and we've walked through situations where the world starts to shake. And let me say it this way, when that happens, the only question you're left with asking is this, what am I standing on? When the world shakes, the question is, what am I standing on? And today we're gonna begin a sermon series that continues to ask that question. It's called Unshakable. And in this series, we're gonna walk through Paul's letter to the Thessalonians. In fact, if you have your Bible, I'm gonna encourage you to go ahead and open it, crease it because we're gonna be here for a while. In fact, we'll be walking verse by verse through first and second Thessalonians over the next several months

because I believe God has a word for us today in this world and in this culture. See, Paul was writing to people that we can relate to. These were first century believers that were living in a world that was shaking. They were surrounded by opposition. They were facing persecution and they were learning how to live holy lives in a culture that didn't share their values and didn't love their God. Paul was writing this letter to show them and I believe to show us how to stand firm and how to have an unshakable faith in a shaking world. And here's what I want you to take note of today. He didn't tell them to panic when they found themselves in that situation. He didn't tell them to blend in or to camouflage themselves into the culture. He kept pointing them back to the only foundation that was truly solid. He pointed them to something that was stronger than Rome in that day, stronger than the fear that was in their heart. He continued to point them back to the person of Jesus Christ. And I believe if the world is shaking under your feet today, the message is go back to Jesus Christ and plant your feet firmly on the foundation of who he is. And if you're listening to this day, to this today, and you feel like your world is shaking. And I know you are. If you're a parent that is trying to raise kids in a culture that feels unstable,

if you're a student that's trying to stay faithful and everybody around you seems to be compromising. If you've been walking for Jesus for decades, but for whatever reason, you are tired and you are weary. If you're a brand new believer and you're new to the faith and you're wondering, can Christianity actually hold me up? If any of those things are true, then the series is for you. Because the gospel isn't fragile and the church is held up by emotions and your faith isn't built on circumstances. So give this in your notes today. You ready? In Christ, your life can be unshakeable. Many of you don't believe that right now because you are being shaken from the left and the right. But I want you to hear me say this again. In Christ, your life can be unshakeable. And that's what Paul was saying to this church in Thessalonica. And I believe that's what God is saying to this church and he's saying to us even today. I want to kind of give you a big idea statement that we're going to unpack as we walk through the text today. And here's what we're gonna learn right off the bat. Unshakeable faith is built on a gospel that doesn't move. It is built on a gospel that doesn't move. If you're going to plant your life on a foundation, you want that foundation to be strong and immovable. And the Bible tells us that Jesus is that foundation.

I want to say it another way. Unshakeable faith isn't the absence of pressure. It is the presence of the gospel. We all feel pressure in this life. And yet when the gospel is the foundation under our feet, we can have an unshakeable faith even when the world is crazy around us. In this book, Paul is celebrating a church that didn't just try religion. They didn't just add Jesus to their already busy lives. No, they didn't just get emotional for a weekend or a walking aisle or be dunked in some water. No, they received the gospel in power. The Bible tells us. And that gospel created the kind of faith that held them steady when the shaking came. So today I want to show you from God's word four marks of unshakeable faith. And I want to encourage you to ask the question, do I have the unshakeable faith that's demonstrated right here in the word of God? Unshakable faith is rooted in identity, not environment, in identity, not environment. You know, there's a lot of people that believe that I can have unshakable faith because I'm an American, or because I'm a Baptist, or because I'm a member of this church, or because I live in this city, or because I have this last name. But in verse one, Paul, he begins with a greeting

that says something differently. Look at verse one, he said to the church of the Thessalonians, in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that phrase, in God the Father, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe is important because he describes to them who they are, but not only who they are, whose they are. And notice, he doesn't just say to the people who attend the church building, or to believers who live in this particular city called Thessalonica. No, he says, you are a church that exists in God. In God, don't miss those words. In God, that's identity language. He's saying your location might be Thessalonica, and in the same way, your location might be Tennessee, or America, but your foundation is God. And that matters because your environment might be hostile today. I have believer friends that live in places where it's against the law to receive Christ, or to live for Jesus. Your environment might be crazy right now. Your surroundings might be scary. But listen, your identity is secure if you are in Christ. Man, some of us try to build stability on things that cannot hold us. Would you agree with that? A lot of us, and we've been through seasons in our journey

where we've tried to plant our life and build our life on a foundation that was not designed to hold us up. We feel steady as long as our money is steady. We feel steady as long as our relationships are steady. We feel steady as long as life is predictable, and everything is good, and our body is healthy, and all of the things. But the moment the world starts to shake, what happens? You start to shake. If you build yourself on a shaky foundation, when the world starts to shake, you shake. So right here, Paul was reminding these people, you're not just living in Thessalonica, you're living in God, which means you're not held up by what's around you, you're held up by who's over you. You get the difference? Listen, it's a different ball game when God is your foundation. When you're in Him, you are in something that is immovable. But then notice as you move forward, Paul goes on to speak a blessing that every believer needs. After saying that you are in God, he goes on to verse one to say, "Grace to you and peace." Grace to you and peace. That's one of those sayings that I tend to fly by. You're like, well, that's a nice thing to say. It's like, y'all have a good day, or take care, or whatever, you think it's almost a saying, but I want us to really unpack what these two words are so that you can understand the intention

of what Paul was saying. See this word, grace, it's defined as God's undeserving favor. But the word peace is defined as God's calm in your chaos. And so that was his message to these believers who were planting their life in Christ. He said, "Hey, God is giving you these things. "You are entitled to these things through Christ." See, grace isn't just what saves you. Grace is what sustains you. Peace isn't just the absence of trouble. Peace is the presence of Christ. And so when Paul said, "Grace to you and peace to you," he was talking to people who were walking through some difficult things. And you need to receive those words. Maybe you're walking through a season like that right now. If you're worn out, and I know many of you are, if you're afraid, if you're discouraged, if you're angry, if you're spiritually shaky, here's what I believe Paul would say to you in this moment. He would say, "Grace to you and peace to you." Not because you deserve it, not because you've earned it, but because you are in God the Father, and you are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the first mark of unshakeable faith. Are you ready? You can be steady even when your world isn't because your faith is anchored in a person and not a place. When you're planted in Christ, you are planted in a foundation that doesn't move.

So the question is, are you in Christ? Consider that today. Ask that question of yourself. Am I confident that I am planted in Christ? If so, then you can have an unshakeable faith. It's rooted in identity, not in an environment. The second thing I want you to jot down is this. Unshakeable faith produces real fruit, not just religious feelings. You know, we've talked about this a lot throughout the years, but if you are going to produce apples, you've got to be an apple tree. If you are going to produce oranges, you must be an orange tree. If you're an orange tree, you're not going to produce apples. Here's the thing. The fruit hanging off the branches of your tree are going to tell the truth about what kind of tree you really are. The fruit doesn't lie, right? You can't fake the fruit for very long. And a lot of us are looking at the branches of our tree today, and I believe God wants to evaluate the fruit that's hanging off of the branches. Hey, you want to know what it looks like to be in Christ? You want to know what it looks like for a person to actually live their life for Jesus and fulfill the great commission and be the person that they were created to be. This is the pattern and the picture that we were given in Scripture. These three things, so don't miss these things today. The first one is this. He said, you ought to have a faith that works, a faith that works. Look at the Scripture.

Your work produced by faith. Hey, if you're a believer in the room today, I want you to ask this question. Do I have a faith that works? Is my faith motivating me to action? Because I believe Scripture is very clear to say that faith isn't just believing facts. Faith is trusting Christ enough to obey what he says. So real faith, what is it? I believe real faith gets up in the morning and says, Jesus, you're going to be Lord of my life today, not me. That's real faith. Faith is something that says, I'm going to forgive today because I've been forgiven. I'm going to repent today because Jesus is better. Real faith says, I'm going to serve the Lord with the energy that he's given me. I'm going to give because God has given me so much. I'm going to tell other people about Jesus because I don't want anybody to go to hell. I want to populate heaven. Listen, genuine faith doesn't just believe Jesus is Savior. It lives as Jesus being Lord. And so that's what Paul says. He recognizes in them that they have faith that works. The second thing he mentions is that they had love that labors. Look at the Scripture, your labor motivated by love. You're like, do I have that kind of love or not? Hey, love isn't just something you feel. Love is something you do. It's something you demonstrate when you don't feel like it. Love is something you demonstrate when you don't feel like it. Listen, there are people in this room right now who are demonstrating and doing the hard work of love right now. And I know that. And that's what Paul recognized in these people as well. A faith that works.

A love that labors. And the third thing he says is that they had a hope that holds. A hope that holds. Look at what it says. Your endurance inspired by hope. He said, your hope led to endurance. Hope in the Bible is never defined as wishful thinking. Hope in the Bible is having confidence in what God has promised. And so you have to ask the question, do I have that kind of hope? Do I have that kind of hope that Jesus is going to do what Jesus says he's going to do? Listen, hope looks at suffering and says this isn't the end. Hope looks at death and says resurrection is coming. Hope looks at persecution and pain and punishment and says Jesus wins in the end. So whatever I'm enduring right now, ultimately it's not even going to matter. Unshakable faith produces real fruit, not just religious feelings. Let me give you a third thing that the Scriptures are going to teach us today. And that is, unshakable faith is born by God's power and not by human persuasion. God's power, not human persuasion. And Paul kind of breaks this down and he explains that there is a difference between the two things. Remember, he's the first missionary to Thessaloniki. He walks into an environment at the second largest city in all of Greece. There's idols everywhere. People are worshiping all these things. There are false teachers teaching all kinds of different truths for the day. And none of them actually work. All these people that he meets and all of the people that he sees. They're planting their life on foundations that have a lot of holes in them and they're shaking. And he's explaining that Jesus is the only one that is trustworthy. He's the only one in which you should build your life. And then he points to the difference and he's saying, you've got these things over here that are untrue.

And then you have Jesus who is the truth. And you've got to recognize that there's a difference by all the things you're hearing. And verse 4, he says, "For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you. Because our gospel did not come to you. and with full assurance. Saying there's a world of difference between something that's man-made and something that's God-ordained. Man can manufacture emotions, and man can build statues and monuments, but only God can produce resurrection. So right here, Paul was saying the same thing. He's telling these new believers, you've got to remember how real and how powerful our God is. You've got to remember the moment he changed your life. The Bible says he chose you, he loved you, he's moved in power in your life, and the Holy Spirit has worked with assurance in your story. This wasn't just persuasion or marketing or emotional manipulation, this is spiritual resurrection. Listen, what they were experiencing wasn't man-made. They'd grown up in a religious culture, they'd grown up hearing all the stories and about all the false gods. They'd grown up hearing all the facades and the fake gods. But now Paul was saying, this is real and you've seen it, you've experienced it and you can even sense it. It wasn't man-made, it was God-ordained. And here's what I believe these verses are saying to us today. If your faith can be produced by people, it can be destroyed by people.

But if your faith was born by the Spirit, it will be sustained by the Spirit. You see the difference? If it's man-made, it can be destroyed by man. If it was spirit-built, then it can sustain you in the storm. See, the gospel didn't just inform these believers, the gospel transformed these believers. He's saying you have felt conviction from the Holy Spirit, you've been awakened to the truth, you have been changed from the inside out. This is not a God thing, or this is not a man thing, this is a God thing. And he's showing the difference between the two. Hey, listen, in your own story, can you tell the difference between the man-made experiences and the God-ordained moments? Can you remember the time that you sensed the Holy Spirit and you responded to him? You experienced the power of God and you were moved to him? It's not gonna happen if we're motivated by people. It only happens when we meet the God of the universe and we allow him to do in our life what he wants to do. That's why Paul told these people, we've seen this happen, we've been in this environment long enough, we've experienced the difference between what happens out there and what happens in here. The gospel didn't come to us in word only, Paul said. It came in power. It came through the Holy Spirit

and it came with full assurance. Hey, let's keep going, verse five. See, he said, "You know how we have lived among you "for your benefit." I like that because once again, Paul was telling them, "Hey, we didn't just come to this city and preach at you." He's saying, "We lived among you. "We shared our lives with you. "We demonstrated what it looks like to walk with Jesus "and to obey His commands. "We showed you what it's like to love the Lord." Hey, we need more people that are willing to do that, by the way. We need more people that are willing to demonstrate to a new generation. What it looks like to love Jesus and make Him the priority of your life. Listen, people don't need just truth explained. People need truth demonstrated. Hey man, we can't just talk about Jesus. We've gotta live for Jesus if we expect the people that we influence to pursue Christ like we have. Unshakable faith is born in God's power, not human persuasion. Let me give you one more and then we're done, you ready? Unshakable faith is proven in persecution. It's not preserved in comfort. It is proven in persecution. It is not preserved in comfort. I know this is a message that we hate to hear

because we're like, man, why do we have to persevere through all these hard things? And yet over and over again in scripture, you see that when the church really takes off and when the church really gains the most influence and it makes the greatest impact, it's when the church is under fire. And right here, Paul tells them the same thing in verse six. He said, and you yourselves became imitators of us and of the Lord when in spite of severe persecution, you welcome the message with joy from the Holy Spirit. Now I want you to let that sink in today because what Paul says is these people were welcoming the gospel in spite of severe persecution. Not when it was easy, not when it was safe, not when it was legal or not when it was convenient. No, it says they embraced Jesus Christ and the gospel message they embrace Jesus, when it costs them something, and the Bible says they received it with joy. Now obviously that's not natural joy, that's supernatural joy, because there's a big difference between the two. Have you picked up on that? Hey, natural joy, let me give you a definition for that. Natural joy says this, I am happy because things are good. I am happy because things are good. Then you flip the page and you try to define spiritual joy,

supernatural joy. It doesn't say I'm happy because things are good. It says I'm steady because Christ is good. I'm steady, no matter what I walk through, I'm steady no matter what the circumstances may be. That doesn't mean I don't get sad or upset or angry from time to time, but what it does mean is the foundation under my feet hasn't moved. I still have as much joy and as much hope, as much satisfaction as I always have. Why? Because Jesus has changed my life and he's the one that holds me up. Listen, some of you have a version of faith that only works when everything goes your way. And let me say that is a dangerous place to live. It's dangerous to say I'm gonna have faith as long as everything goes good and as long as everything God does everything according to my plan. But right here I want you to pick up on the fact that Paul is celebrating a faith that was thriving in the fire, a faith that was standing strong in the storms. Verse seven, he says, "As a result, "you became an example to all the believers "in Macedonia and Acadia." Think about that. These weren't seasoned Christians. These weren't people who had decades of Bible study

and comfortable church buildings. These were brand new believers. And yet the Bible tells us because of their response to the gospel, their faith became a pattern for the entire region to follow. So Paul told them as you have persevered through persecution and as you have suffered because of your faith in Jesus Christ, your life has become living proof that Jesus is worth it and that Jesus is worthy of your worship. And here's what that shows us today. God doesn't waste the suffering of his people when their faith stays anchored in him. So you say, I'm walking through a hard season right now or the world is shaking all around me. Let me tell you, your hardest season might just be your loudest sermon. Your darkest valley might just be a lifeline for someone else who's desperate. Your endurance might just become someone's proof that God is real or that God is worth it. In verse eight, Paul goes on to say, "For the word of the Lord rang out from you. "Your faith in God has gone out." I love that phrase rang out. That word rang out is a word in the Greek that literally means to echo like a trumpet blast. It's the same word used in scripture to describe thunder that rolls through a valley and it doesn't just hit once.

You can hear it roar and roar and roar and roar for a long time. Paul saying, your church isn't just meeting or worshiping or surviving, it's sounding out. And everyone who encounters you can tell that you are different, you're a different kind of family because of Jesus. That's what an unshakable faith does. Unshakable faith doesn't hide in hardship, it testifies in hardship. So you walk through a season that's tough because that may just be the opportunity for you to ring out and sound out in a way that changes someone's story. This isn't just theory, it's history. Paul tells us God raised Jesus from the dead because Jesus walked out of that grave. Nothing you face has the power to ultimately take you down. So let me share this word for those of us who are believers. You may be a believer here today and some of you are saved, but you've been shaken and you know who you are. You look at your life right now and you're like, man, I love Jesus, but I'm tired. I believe, but I'm worn out. I have faith, but even my faith feels fragile in the season that I'm walking through. And let me just say that the enemy absolutely loves that because the enemy knows he cannot steal your salvation. He knows that.

And so if you can't take your salvation, you know what he's gonna try to affect your stability. He's gonna try to affect your stability. But Paul shows us something powerful here and that is unshakable faith is possible in ordinary people like us. Why? It's not because we are so good or we are so strong, it's because our God is. So here's a word for us who are believers today. Stop measuring your faith by how you feel and start measuring your faith by where it's anchored. If you're anchored in Christ, the Bible says you can stand. are searching and you haven't found Christ yet. You will never be unshakable until you are first saved. The shaking in your life is not your biggest concern. In fact, the Bible says it's not even your biggest problem. Look at again in verse 10, what does he say? Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath. You know what that tells us? It tells us wrath is real. Wrath is coming, but rescue is offered. The Bible says Jesus absorbed the judgment that we deserve. He died in our place and God raised him from the dead. So if you're here today and you're like, "Pastor, I want to be saved. I want to be forgiven. I want to be set free. I want to stand on the foundation of who he is and not be shaken." Listen, the Bible doesn't say you can do those things and experience them if you try harder or if you behave better. Now God's Word said you can be saved if you turn away from your sin and if you trust Jesus with everything. In the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, a cup of water can be the difference between life and death. Well, this month I got to walk where the need for water is greatest. While we were there, we were preaching and we were worshiping and we were praying with thousands of believers at the Pefakimbo Church. We held children in an orphanage that we support who have almost nothing. We sat with widows who walk miles a day just to find water that isn't clean. But on this trip, we also celebrated something

a little bit different. A brand new water well in the Kibera Slum commissioned with our partners at Together We Church, First Baptist Cleveland and Swahiba Networks. Together, we joined forces to bring this clean water to families who have literally never had clean water in their lives. You know, in John 4, Jesus said, "Whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again." That's the water that saves souls. But he also calls us as believers to give a cup of water in his name and that's the water that saves lives. To every all-in partner who gave so that this well could exist, let me just say thank you. Today, people are drinking fresh water, clean water, because you've said yes. But there's more wells to dig, more villages that are waiting, more lives to save. And so my question to you is, will you continue to go all-in with us? If so, follow the prompts on the screen right now to partner with all-in today. We never want to end our broadcast without giving you the opportunity to know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. If you'd like to make the decision to trust Jesus and want to know more about what it looks like to follow Jesus, get in touch with me right now. Follow the instructions at the bottom of the screen so that we can pray for you and also put information in your hands right away. Today, we celebrate your decision and look forward to being a part of your personal journey of going all-in with Jesus Christ. This episode of All-in with Pastor Jordan Easley has been made possible by the generous support of viewers like you. We hope today's message encourages you as you strive to live your life fully committed to Jesus Christ. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)