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The Lord Leads Us! Where? 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5
The Lord Leads Us!
Where?
2 Thessalonians 3:1-5
† Jesus, Son and Savior †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ enable you to consciously walk with God, following where He leads!
Intro: He who wanders is lost
So, anyone recognize this proverb? Can you tell me if It is from proverbs, Ecclesiastes, or maybe a New Testament quote?
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
It’s actually from JRR Tolkien’s , Lord of the Rings, and though some geeks might think that classic is scripture, it is not.
I’ve heard people rely on this proverb to justify their own wandering, their own experiment with life, to find their own way.
To get lost deeper and deeper in the wilderness.
Yeah – all those who wander are lost – and they need someone to guide them out of the darkness and into the light of God’s glory!
Why would He pray this?
Paul stars chapter 3 of 2 Thessalonians with something we would probably expect – a plea for prayer for the mission of Christ. He asked, “Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you.”
That’s the reason we pray for our missionaries, and for our work as missionaries to Cerritos, and Artesia, to the folks at Fire Safety and USC and Brea Olinda High School, and to doctor’s offices all over Southern California.
But Paul’s request turns strangely personal, “2 Pray, too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone is a believer.”
It is almost like he feels like he is in one of Tolkein’s stories, in the Mirkwood or one of the other nasty, haunted parts of the story.
You ever feel that way, like the evil and wicked ones on earth oppress you and haunt you? Where the brokenness of all life, the trauma, and when we are so overwhelmed we need to know we aren’t alone. When we don’t know if God is hearing our prayers, (which He is!) and we ask others to share our burden.
When we talk about the blessing of confessing our sins, most of us know and depend on God forgiving our sins, but we forget that He cleanses us of all unrighteousness.
If we forget that, it is easy to fall into despair and doubt, it easy to forget who is watching out for us, and who would guide us
It is easy to forget, that is why the writer of Hebrews tells us,
25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Hebrews 10:25 (NLT2)
We have to remember that who is with us, is greater than the world….
That is why Paul talks q12r45about Christ leading us…
Look where He leads us!
3 But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. 4 And we are confident in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we commanded you. 5 May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.
I love how the NLT phrases this! In the Greek it is simpler with some translations saying just direct your hearts to the love of God- but the preposition isn’t to, as if that is the target, it is into.
Brings to mind the old idea of you can lead a donkey to water but you can’t make him drink, or you drop the donkey right into the river!
God doesn’t want us to look at His love, to study it like a scientist, He wants us to be enveloped by it, to understand, as Paul prays for us,
16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Ephesians 3:16-19 (NLT2)
Same consistent thought in Paul – experience the love of God!
Dwell into it, dive into it, be consumed by it, revel in it.
Share it with others.
Treasure it like nothing else you know in life, for God’s love is worth all it and more.
And deeply drawn into the love of God, you will know a peace that goes beyond the dark, dim, sin dominated world, even if we can’t understand how that happens!
God’s Plan in the Spotlight! A sermon on Ephesians 3:1-12
Epiphany – In the Spotlight
Ephesians 3:1-12
† In Jesus Name †
May the grace and mercy of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ enable you to live out the plan brought to life in Christ’s coming – that we are to live boldly and confidently in God’s presence!
- The Plan… Hidden
This week was the anniversary of the birth of one of the great Christian philosophers of the last century. J.R.R. Tolkien is probably best known as the writer behind “the Hobbit” and “the Lord of the Rings.” But one of the things we should rejoice about from his life was his impact on a fellow writer and philosopher.
Eric Metaxas tells us how Tolkein joined Jesus on Jesus’ mission one night on a walk with his friend Jack. He didn’t beat the gospel into him, in fact, he only alluded to Jesus in one question, about whether all the myths could have some source in an event that was real, that once God did invade reality. (https://stream.org/j-r-r-tolkien-helped-lead-c-s-lewis-faith/)
His friend Jack, the angry, arrogant agnostic who disliked any discussion bordering the religious, was only nicknamed Jack. His given name was Clive Staples Lewis – one of the best-known Christian writers of the last century.
Joining Jesus, in this case, was simply a matter of shining a light in Lewis’s life, and letting the Holy Spirit work illuminate the plan that God had for Lewis, the same exact plan He has for each one of us, from the prophets and the wise man that adored Jesus at His birth, to you and I today.
It is simply a plan of illuminating God’s plan in their life, revealing His love, and His work in their lives.
This is what Epiphany is all about – putting God’s plan in the spotlight – for all to see. That is what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, that we saw this morning, this wonderful plan, with a wonderful result.
- The Plan Revealed
Both Tolkien and Lewis talked about writing a lot, and you see a similar style in them. The main characters are always aided by a more mysterious and powerful character. In Tolkien, it is Gandalf, a servant of a Deity never quite revealed. With Lewis, the guide was Aslan, who was also the destination.
But in the journeys, as in many good stories, the plan that these guides had was not fully revealed to those making the journey. That keeps a reader, or moviegoer interested, as the plan is revealed step by step. For those on the journey, it is a bit frustrating.
I want to know where I am going, how I am going to get there, how much earlier I have to plan to leave, so I actually leave on time and leave enough time for a bathroom stop or five on the journey.
During the Old Testament, the journey wasn’t always well known, they wandered for years, and they still didn’t understand the tabernacle or the Temple and what they pointed to, in fact, many today still don’t understand. Paul knew…. And he talks about the plan,
Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus.
- The Plan Explained
You see the plan for the journey there. The plan includes who is on the journey, and how the journey is accomplished
The ones on it are those who believe the good news, what we call the gospel. It doesn’t matter whether we are Gentile or Jewish, what matters is that we believe, that we depend on the Good News. – the news that God loves us enough that Jesus would die for us.
And the way the journey happens is simple – we receive all these blessings because we belong to Jesus. That in our baptism, we are united to Him, we are made one with Him, in His death, and in His resurrection. This is the incredible mystery we confess when we sing the Memorial Acclimation – that because He died, was buried and rose, we, who were dead in our sin, rise with Him! And when He returns, for us, we will be with the Father forever!
How do we say it around here? Alleluia! He is risen indeed! (He is risen! Alleluia) and therefore, (We are risen indeed! Alleluia!)
His plan, it has been since the beginning, that our salvation would occur as we are intimately tied to Christ’s death and resurrection, as we are intimately united to Him!
- The Result of the Plan
The plan doesn’t end with the journey though, like our salvation, our being saved. Whatever epic, whether Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, or even Star Wars, the destination is arrived at, in a place where peace finally reigns. They got the idea from scripture of course, and their novels are based in a hope truly seen in scripture.
Oddly enough, they all arrive at the place where they started, with the difference being the peace that is known, finally. That is why I call the destination, “our perfect home” Paul will describe the plan’s destination this way:
11 This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.
We have a hint of that home now, for as we presently dwell in Christ’s presence, and He in us, we have the shadows cast by this reality to comfort us. For we dwell with Him now, and yet, we are still on the journey to the point where we see His return. To the point where we boldly enter the presence of God our Father, confident because of the work of Jesus that we belong there. AMEN!
Fictional Epics and the Church
Devotional Thought of the Day:
Whether it is the fantasy epics of Tolkein and Raymond Feist, or the novels of James Clavell, or the military and naval historical fiction of writers like WEB Griffin, Alexander Kent, or Dewey Lambdin, I love multi-volume epics, the kind that chronicle a life time or more of the events of a group of peoples lives. That detail their struggles, their weakness and their heartaches.
They create worlds in which we can get lost for a time, and in a way, we learn lessons from them.
Some of which can apply to the church.
The first of course is that we don’t know the end of the story. We may know how it resolves – but the getting there and the character development is the story as well. So to it is in our lives – what God uses to develop us into who we are. We really don’t know what is around the corner – who will be introduced into the story, which struggles they will face, even who will be redeemed – and who will not!
So too are we not the writers of our own stories, the journeys and struggles, the unexpected joys, and the victories that seem more a blessing (or luck) than any skill we have.
The key in reading such a story is to entrust yourself to the writer- to buy into His storytelling. The key to living in such a story, as we do in God’s story…is the same – to trust in Him, to wait for the resolution – and to enjoy the ride.
I get the feeling – that for many of us, this year will be another epic trek…. as we journey towards a peacful kingdom – and a feast that celebrates what we’ve found.
May we go it at God’s speed, and depending on His mercy!
