2 Thessalonians series

2 thessalonians chapter 1. Paul, silas, and Timothy to the church of the thessalonians in god our father and the lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you from god the father and the lord Jesus Christ. We are always to thank god for you brothers and sisters and rightly so because your faith is growing more and more and the love of all of you have for 1 another is increasing.

Therefore, among god's churches, we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All of this is evidence that god's judgment is right. And as a result, you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of god for which you are suffering. God is just. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to those who are troubled and to us as well.

This will happen when the law Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire and with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know god and do not obey the gospel of our lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the lord and from the glory of His might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marvelled among all those who have believed. This includes you. Because you believed our testimony to you.

With this in mind, we constantly pray for you that our god may make you worthy of his calling. And that by his power, he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness, and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you and him, according to the grace of our god and the lord Jesus Christ. All right. Thanks for reading that to us, Rich.

And good evening, everybody. Welcome to Cornerstone Church. Our evening service. Lovely to have you here. And, especially warm welcome to a couple of guests amongst us.

We've got Juwan here. Some of you may recognize Juwan Juwan was, part of our youth group for a long, long time, and, now attends the Globe Church in Central London, but he was, a cracking best man for Sam dryden yesterday. At Sam dryden's wedding down in Bristol. If any of you, want help with, a best man's speech, or just want a best man then Joanne is the 1 to go to. He did a great job.

So it's lovely to have you here. It's also lovely to have some, some members who, were serving on contagious adventure. Last week and, to see them back, James here, and Karen's here, and perhaps a few others as well, looking bleary eyed, but happily so, I would say. Serving these, serving our young people for a week, and so that's, that's lovely. And, it would be good if you could keep that passage open in front of you.

As Rich said in the notices, on Wednesdays, we've been working our way through some of the prayers of Paul, and, this 1 from 2 thessalonians chapter 1 was the 1 that we looked at on on week 1. And the purpose of this summer series is that our prayers as Christians, might be more shaped by biblical prayers that the priorities that we find in the prayers of scripture might be our own priorities as we talk to god our heavenly father so that what we praise more in line with what he says so that our wills are more in sync with his will so that we seek the things that he loves and reject the things that he hates just that the prayers of scripture, would be much more our own, and we would find our own prayer lives helped by them. So that's been the purpose. And as I say, 2 thessalonians, 1 was where we started, and we're really just going to spend all of our time this evening in verses 11 and 12, which is the prayer concluding this first chapter. So do have that open.

Make sure you can see it. And as we come to it, let's bow our heads and let's pray. Father, we thank you that you are a god who has revealed yourself to us in the pages of scripture and that you have made known to us in these words, the things that you care about, and the things that you love, and the things that you hate the things that you have called your people to be and the things that you have called us to forsake and to reject. And we thank you that these prayers help us and have helped Christians across the centuries, to pray. And we thank you that as we come to this 1, we can do so, knowing that you you will speak to us, by your spirit and through your words, and we pray that you would give us all hearts that are receptive we want to, we want to hear you speaking every 1 of us.

We want to hear you speaking to us lord through the pages of the Bible. That we might be more like the glorious lord Jesus and that we might, pray, more in line with what we find in these words. And we ask you in Jesus' name. Our men. Well, I want to, I want to begin this evening with a with a question, and, it's it's quite an important question, I think, and it's 1 that we all will have asked from time to time.

Or at least it's 1 that we all will have thought about subconsciously, from time to time. And, it's simply this. How do we keep good things good? How do we keep a good thing good? And that's an important question for at least 2 reasons.

Firstly, because that's largely what we want to be the case. So the good things in our lives, we want them to remain good things. We want them to stay good. And secondly, it's an important question because very often that doesn't happen. Good things, and you will know this from experience, have an unfortunate way of going downhill.

So in the medical world, and I'm, certainly not a medical person, but I'm told that in the medical world, this is called the law of atrophy, the law of atrophy. And it's often used of muscles. So perhaps you've ever, taken up a sport in the past, you know, it's been a new year's resolution, maybe you've decided to take up a tennis or running or swimming, and you've committed to that new form of exercise, and you've found that as you begin to do it, your tendons get stronger. Your muscles adapt. Your aerobic capacity increases.

You get fitter and stronger, but then say you get ill for a couple of weeks or say you go on holiday, and you just don't get round to it, and then with a fit of enthusiasm, you you take it up again, you find that all the progress that you made over those weeks and months has dropped away. The tendons have got weaker again. The muscles have got weaker again. You're less fit than you used to be, and you think I put hours into this thing. This is not fair.

You know, I've regressed so quickly, and I worked so hard to get to where I was. That's the law of atrophy. Things have a way of if they're not maintained running downhill. It's true of all kinds of things. If you've ever been to a restaurant and you've had a really, really good time, you've had a great meal, some nice wine, the ambiance was just what you would have wanted.

And then 6 months later, you say, should we go again? And you go and you think, Well, this this place has gone down. This isn't what it was 6 months ago. Very rarely, I think, is it the other way around. This place has got better.

Often goes down, doesn't it? It's the law of atrophy. Everything has a way of running downhill. Sports teams, it's true in sports teams. To have a great cup winning team 1 year is a really good achievement.

To have a cup winning team year after year after year is much harder because keeping good things good is quite hard. Apologies if you hate football, but this is why Alex Ferguson was 1 of the most successful and best managers of all time. He managed Manchester United for 26 seasons, and he won year after year after year after year, and what made him such an effective manager is that he asked this question. How do I keep a good thing good? How do I not just win 1 season but make sure I've got the sort of rotation that is needed to have a winning team season after season after season.

How do you keep a good thing good? It's true in marriages. And it's true in relationships, isn't it? If things aren't invested in, if we don't pour into them and make an effort, They have a way of growing cold. Finances.

If we don't look after them, if we don't care for them, they have a way of flying away. It's true, isn't it? In a fallen world, if we leave things and do nothing, good things don't tend to get better and they don't tend to stay good. They tend to go down. And when it comes to the spiritual life of a church, This for Paul was a very important question.

How do we how do we keep good things good? It's interesting verse 3 of chapter 1. If you just read verse 3 again or just glance at it, you'll see that there was a lot of good things going on in the church. Paul and his companions praised god for the faith that was increasing and the love for 1 another that was so increasing. There was a lot of good things going on in the church.

But in verse 11, you can see that Paul does not want them to go downhill and he doesn't even want them to remain good. He wants them to get better. And so in the end, That is the more Christian question, not just how to keep good things good, but how to make sure good things get better. And continue to grow and increase and abound. And for Paul, the simple answer to this question How do you keep good things good or rather how do you keep good things and make them better is twofold?

Christians need to rely on the power of god and they need to pursue the things of god. If we want good things, good spiritual things in this church to remain good even to get better and better, we need to rely on the power of god, and we need to pursue the things of god. That's basically the main center point of the message this evening. For good things to get better in this church, we need to rely on the power of god, and we need to pursue the things of god. That's what this prayer is all about.

And we're gonna come to it tonight, and we are just going to have a look at it really phrase by phrase and see how Paul unpacks those 2 things. And so come with me to verse 11 of this prayer, and he begins with this in mind, with this in mind. And now the question we've got to ask then is what is it that he's got in mind? What has he just been thinking about? Which is now going to drive him to his knees in prayer, what thought has made him want to pray.

And the first and largest thing in his mind at the moment is the bodily return of the lord Jesus Christ. For the apostles, this was a point of absolute certainty. They knew that Jesus Christ had come once in history and that he had opened the door to the kingdom of god through repentance and faith in his message, that he had gone to the cross been crucified, buried, and on the third day risen from the dead and appointed the son of god in power, and he is now the only way by which men and women can be reconciled to god. They knew that had happened, but they also knew that that same lord Jesus Christ was gonna come again in world stopping glory that a real day in history is coming when the curtains of heaven are gonna be torn back, and Jesus Christ in blazing fire with his powerful angels is gonna step once more onto the stage of history. And the life as we know it now will be up, and the new age will begin.

And Paul has just been saying that when that day comes, it will spell trouble for the enemies of god, that those who have spent their days persecuting the church of Christ will be paid back for their hostility, but that those who have trusted Christ and have looked forward in faith to the country that he promised his people will receive relief and sabbath and peace from his hands. And Paul just assures them so wonderfully in verse 10. He says that this includes you you thessalonians will be glorified because you believed our testimony to you. We've just sung those wonderful words that all Christians can say, the sky, not the grave is our goal. That's what he says to them thessalonians.

The sky, not the grave is your goal. That's your home. 1 other hymn we sing causes it blessed assurance. Bless assurance. To have assurance in the Christian life about where we're gonna spend our eternity is a really happy thing.

It's a really happy thing. You imagine a surgeon you're about to go into an operation which is going to be life threatening, and the surgeon sits you down before the operation, and he or she says to you, look, It's gonna be painful. There's gonna be a long road of recovery ahead, but I wanna assure you here and now. Before you go into this thing, I'm gonna get it all. I'm gonna take it all.

And when you come out the other side, you can look forward to a normal, healthy life expectancy. Blessed assurance. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a surgeon who could give you that level of confidence before you went into an operation while this side of heaven, no assurance can be given in those areas. But Christ and the apostle Paul has said to this church, blessed assurance. This includes you because you believed our testimony.

You will be part of the great crowd who is relieved on the last day when Jesus returns. That's what's in his mind. With this in mind, he says all of that that he's just said. With this in mind, he says we constantly pray for you. See that in verse 11, with this in mind, we constantly pray for you.

And notice 2 things about that. Firstly, Paul's confidence about their future doesn't make him careless about their present. Say that again, his confidence about their future doesn't make him careless about their present. In other words, he still knows that despite the security of their eternity, being with Jesus forever, they still need constant always daily prayer. If they are going to live by faith and walk with Christ in this world, their eternity is not meant to breed complacency in them.

They are to push on, and Paul knows that, and that's why he prays. But secondly, notice just his love for this church. It's remarkable, isn't it? Paul Silas and Timothy who co authored this letter. They loved this church family.

They loved this church family. In another place in the new testament, when Paul is talking about all the stresses and strains of his ministry, he lists off a load of physical persecutions. He's been shipwrecked, he's been stoned, he's been left for dead, he's been hated and hunted across the world. And then at the end, he says, and on top of all of this, I face every day anxiety for the churches that I love. I'm concerned about them.

I want them to do well. I'm nervous about their future. That's what Paul was like. He was concerned for his churches. It's interesting in the book of acts when you see him going around establishing and planting churches.

1 of the things he's eager to do alongside that is then to revisit the churches that he planted to make sure that they were okay as he was working his way through Turkey and other places. He wasn't just sort of saying, oh, now, you you know, we've done corinth now. Now it's time to, do Listra And then maybe next year, I'll do Darby. You know how some people talk about traveling. What are you thinking of doing next summer?

I was thinking of doing Thailand. Yeah, because last year, I did Cambodia, and, me and my wife were really keen to do Vietnam in the next couple of years. You know, isn't it? They weren't just destinations that he wanted to tick off. These were real people with real churches and real real saints, and he wanted them to be okay.

He was not like the super apostles who just went preaching for their own reputation. Who just preached for their own bank balance, who were looking forward to their cottage by the sea, their retirement, who just wanted a quiet, peaceful life away from it all, what what he loved and the reason he lived and what burdened him was the health of the churches. And so we ask, what was it that that powered this constant prayer in verse 11. With this in mind, we constantly pray for you. It was love.

Love. He loved them. You see, if you were to ask chat, GPT, or any other computer generated writing bit of kit, if you were to ask it, please write me a prayer in keeping with Paul's theology. I reckon it would churn out a sparkling prayer, but chat GPT although able to write a prayer can never pray a prayer. And the reason it can never pray a prayer is behind real prayer is concern and affection and love for the people for whom you must pray.

And so in verse 11, Paul says, with this in mind, we constantly pray And so just a thought of application on that verse. There are loads of things, that that worry us. And rightly so in in many ways, we we worry about how we're gonna make our next mortgage payment. We worry about the interest levels and what's gonna happen to them. We worry about the health of those we love and those in our family.

But what about the condition of our own precious church family? How heavily does that concern weigh upon you, brother or sister? How heavily does it weigh upon us? Does the spiritual health and the well-being and the faith and the love and the perseverance of the people with whom you are sat this evening. How much does it concern you?

And then think of our youth, our youth and our Sunday school. There's a hundred hundred kids, perhaps more going out every week to be taught the things of god. They go away on camps and are taught the things of god. And then in a couple of weeks time, they're gonna be back in schools, many of them back in secular education, exposed once again to all the horrible agendas and brainwashing of the world. How how how heavily does the health of our young people weigh upon you?

Do you pray for the Sunday school? Do you pray for the children? Does it weigh upon you? That every week that they would really be gripped by the faith and the love of the gospel and want to live and be given perseverance. Does it move you to pray for them?

As they go out into the world. He noticed that is Paul's concern. With this in mind, we constantly pray for you. We love you. We're occupied by you.

We can't get you out of our heads because we want you to grow. And so what does he ask? With this in mind, we constantly pray for you. That our god may make you worthy of his calling, that our god may make you worthy of his calling. And so we must ask here what is this calling he's talking about?

What is this calling He wants them to be made worthy of. We're just a few verses to share with you, and then we'll summarize. If you want to turn to it, you can turn to Romans 8 verse 30, or you can just listen as I read it out. His's Romans verse 30, and then 2 other verses, and then we'll summarize it. Roman's a at this is Paul again, and those he predestined, he also called.

Those he called He also justified. Those he justified, he also glorified. 1 thessalonians 2 verse 12, This is Paul now talking about his own ministry. He says we were encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of god, who calls you into his kingdom and glory 1 last 1, 2 thessalonians 2, the book that we're in, verse 14. We ought always to thank god for you brothers and sisters loved by the lord because god chose you as first fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the spirit and through belief in the truth.

He called you to this Through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our lord Jesus Christ. And so if you are a Christian here this evening, let's just rehearse what has actually happened in your life. At 1 time, you and me were dead in our transgressions and sins. That we were born each 1 of us with a nature that is hostile to the character and the will and the reign of god. And we express that hostility through willful disobedience that we deliberately knowingly and repeatedly turned our backs upon him, rejected his good governance, and we chose instead to go our own way and to do harm to other people instead of instead of loving them.

But then, because god is so rich in mercy, There was a time when he came to each and every 1 of us through the power of his spirit and by his word, and he called us out of death and into life in the person of his son Jesus, that he called us to trust in Christ who was crucified for our sins and raised again, and he enabled us to trust in that same Christ so that we might come to a new spiritual life, find forgiveness and have the hope of heaven. That's what we have been called into called into his kingdom and glory, called into a new holy way of living called into forgiveness and justification. That is what we have been called into. And Paul wants us to know that it is all a work of sovereign grace. And when that grips the hearts of a person, it changes their life.

When our hearts are gripped by sovereign grace, when we hear the call of god in the gospel, it changes our lives. You think about it. If you're, these, illustrations are are are weak for what we are trying to illustrate. But if you are if you are called up to the the first team, let's say you are, you know, you play, you play football or you play hockey or something like that, and you're in the seconds or you're in the reserves. And then 1 day you get an email or you get a phone call from the coach.

And it's call up day. And he rings you up and he says, this Saturday, you're playing for the first. When we think about work, you get a promotion, of all the people in your office. The boss rings you up and says, look, there's a post coming up in the the level above. And I've I've I've earmarked you for it.

I want you. You you I want you to take it. I wanna promote you. Well, how do you feel? When you turn up on the pitch on Saturday morning or when you get into your new office on Monday morning, you wanna play worthy.

You wanna play worthy of your calling. You wanna work worthy of your promotion. That's sort of in you. And so how much more so with this? If you have been called by mighty god, to salvation and a new life in Christ, and you have been called to the inheritance of the saints in light.

And given the gift of glory, Do we not much more wanna live worthy and think worthy and speak worthy of the high calling that we have received? By the grace of god alone. And just if you're here and you wouldn't call yourself a Christian, perhaps you're not a follower of Christ, We are still thinking about where you are with god. Can I say this is just this is uniquely Christian, this idea? In every other world religion, it's the opposite.

If you live well, you become worthy. That's the teaching. That's the doctrine. That's the gospel. Live worthy.

Live well and you become worthy, maybe. In Christianity, we are called and made worthy by the merits of Christ alone. And then we wanna live with hearts that have been transformed. That's what he's praying. With this in mind, We constantly pray for you that our god, he's not just my god, and he's not just your god, he's our god, that our god may help you to live a Christian life.

You've been called, made worthy by Christ, and now live worthy for his glory. But now look at the next bit, and that by, as I told you, we're just gonna go phrase by phrase. It's so good. And that by his power, He may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness, and your every deed prompted by faith. Now this in some ways is the most difficult part of the reading because the word your isn't actually there in the original.

So the NIV has helped us and translated it, but by his power, he may bring to fruition your, that's not there, every desire for goodness, and your, that's not there, every deed prompted by faith. So really, it could literally read by his power. He may bring to fruition every desire for goodness and every deed prompted by faith. But many translators, most commentators take the NIV's interpretation of it. That the deeds prompted by faith can't properly belong to god.

That sounds like deeds prompted by faith sounds like he's talking about the believers. And therefore, it's probably a parallel statement with bring to fruition every desire for goodness, then, deeds prompted by faith that those are the thessalonian Christian that he's that he's talking about there. So most people understand it to to take that interpretation. And if you ask, what is the burden of this part of the prayer? The answer seems to be this, and it's very important, very important what he's praying here.

He's praying that by the power of god, Christian ideas would become Christian actions. But by the power of god, Christian ideas, would become Christian actions. Do you see that? That desires for goodness would what? That they would come to fruition, that the desires for goodness would come to fruition and that the promptings of faith would become, what, deeds?

That the promptings of faith would become deeds. And the desires of goodness would come to fruition. In other words, that by god's power, the gospel would come through their minds and out into their hands. And you know, I find that very challenging because often I leave Christian thoughts as exactly that. Just thoughts.

Just thoughts. So easy, isn't it? Maybe I could, maybe I could sign up for the media team. You know, I've got I've got some media gifts. This is not me personally now.

I'm talking and I this is the generic me. Okay? So read yourself into me if it applies. Maybe I could sign up for the media team. I've got some media gifts.

I've got some competency in those areas. That's a good desire. That's a good desire. Maybe I could join that meal rotor. Maybe I could, cook something on 1 evening for somebody in the church who needs a meal.

That's a good desire. Do you know maybe in the new term, I could start attending the prayer meeting. I've been a member of this church for 6 months, and I've never been to the prayer meeting. Maybe at the start of the new term, I could commit to going once a month on the first Wednesday. That's a good desire.

That's a good desire. Maybe I could start reading my bible. In my own personal life. Maybe I could take up that reading plan or I could buy a resource to help me to read the bible. For myself.

That's a good desire. Maybe I should say sorry to my wife for how unkind I've been to her recently. And how impatient I've been. Maybe I should say sorry to my husband for how mean I've been to him. And for how discouraging I've been to him.

That's a good desire. But I'm sorry to say that so many of my ideas Don't make it into action. And Paul says lord, by your power, bring it to fruition. Bring it to fruition. Every desire for goodness bring it to fruition.

Every prompting of faith, make it a deed. Lord, make it a deed. I need that. I need that. And what's so interesting here, if we take the NIVs interpretation of it is the relationship between god's work and ours.

And so you remember that key question at the beginning? How do you not just keep a good thing good, but make better, rely on the power of god, but also pursue the things of god. If you think about the responsibility of the relationship between god's work and ours, this is such a This is such a helpful verse. When we moved into our house, a few years ago, we needed that we needed the whole house rewired. So we had the house surveyed and, the person who did the survey and an electrician came said it was you know, at best, poor, and at worst dangerous, and there were some pretty awful things that were going on in the electrics of the house.

And so we booked in this electrician, to come and to rewire it. And, that's just what we do when we can't do a job. We we get an expert in. We get a professional in. And so when we booked this electrician, he he he was coming to do the work without any intention of involving me in it.

He was not planning to use me. He was not planning to use my skills. He was not planning to train me. This was not gonna be a cooperative. He didn't want my help.

He wasn't there to invest in me. I have no idea what I'm doing. I would not know where to begin, what tools to buy, and he doesn't want me even to try. And so when he comes, what do I do for a few weeks? I I I get out of the way.

I can't do it and so I have nothing to do with it. That's how it goes. That is not a good illustration for Christian life and Christian growth. It is not that way. I can't produce faith.

I can't produce Christian love in my heart. I can't give myself a gift of perseverance, and so watch. I'll just clear off and let god do it. I can't do it, and so I'm not going to do it. I can't, and so I won't.

That's not how Christian growth works. Because these works of god, and we see this in verse 11, he wants to do, and it is him who does them. He wants to do them in us and with us, and through us, and by changing our will and our affection so that we desire to partner with him in his work. He wants to bring us on board as he, the doer, does what is good in our lives. Philippines 2 verse 12 puts this so wonderfully.

Paul says, therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence. Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For, it is god who works in you to willing to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. So whose work is it? It's god's work.

Whose will is it? It's god's will. Who's good purpose is it? Is god's good purpose? And who does the acting?

God does the acting. But whose work is it? It's my work. It's my work. And whose desires must it be?

Mine. Mine. I've got to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. I've got to do it with fear and trembling with my desires and aligning my will to god's will and sueing his holy calling on my life. I've gotta do it, but I can only do it because he works within me to willing to act according to his good pleasure.

He involves me. Verse 11, we pray that by his power, his power He would bring to fruition, your, every desire for goodness, and every promptings of your faith. Cedar relationship. And so 2 questions for us for application. Firstly, are we relying on the grace of god for this growth?

Because without that, there's no power and we're finished, we won't grow. But secondly, are we partnering with him in this work? Brothers and sisters, do we share this ambition? Do we share that you share this ambition for your life? Disise for goodness, deeds of faith.

Growing in love and holiness and faith. Are we partnering? Do we share god's ambition? Are we in line with the work that he wants to do? In our lives.

But notice, and we'll hurry along now, coming to the last verse. You notice that even that Even that is not the highest goal of his prayer. Look at verse 12, these words are so important to us. We pray this so that the name of our lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our god and the lord Jesus Christ. We pray this so that the name of our lord Jesus may be glorified.

And here's the connection or at least 1 connection between verse 11 and 12. Good desires, desires for goodness promptings of faith are important, but they cannot be seen. Desireers that come to fruition and faith that becomes deeds can be seen. And when that happens, Christ is seen in his people, and Christ is praised for his work. Did you see that?

Paul praise that the desires for goodness would come to fruition so that they would be seen. Because desires of the mind and promptings of the heart remain in the thought life and in the emotion life. They don't translate to visible action, and therefore, they're not seen. They just remain personal, private. Paul wants them to come to fruition so that they may be seen Because when they're seen, he wants the explanation to be, Christ has done that.

Christ has done that. The only explanation for what I'm seeing in this church and what this church is doing in the world is Christ, and therefore he gets the glory. Because his power and his goodness and his work is seen. It's a bit like when Jesus says to his disciples, by this all men will know that you are my disciples, that you love 1 another. He doesn't mean they'll see you thinking about loving each other.

Because those thoughts won't be seen. He means as they see your loving thoughts expressed in self sacrificial action, as they see that, they will know that you belong to me, and the lord receives the glory. That's his desire in first 11. That's why he prays. We pray this for this evidence of faith seen faith so that Christ will be seen in you, and he will be glorified, and you will be glorified in him.

And the only explanation the world we're able to be give is something supernatural is at work amongst these people. God has done this. So you see, Paul loved this church, and he wanted them to run the race, and he wanted them to survive, and he wanted the good things in the church to get better and better but he wanted it so that the name of our lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him. According to the grace of our god and the lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, that's the heart of this prayer. It's the heart of this prayer.

With this in mind, not lose sight of the second coming. We constantly pray for you. Let's have prayerful concern that our god may count you worthy of his calling. Let's never forget the life that we've been called to. That by his power, he may bring to fruition your every desire of goodness.

And your every deed prompted by faith. Let's have tangible, lived faith, also that the name of the lord Jesus will be glorified. That's how you keep a good thing better in the church. You rely on the power of god and you pursue the things of god for the glory of Christ. Should we pray together?

Let's pray. Just give you a minute and you might like to quietly read over the words of that prayer again and, pray some prayers, in light of it to the lord. Father, we thank you for, inspiring this wonderful prayer for us. And, it's only 2 verses and yet it is so rich and it deserves so much more attention and so much more meditation than we've been able to give it this evening. And yet we thank you for the things that you have shown us.

And, we pray the things that characterized Paul's prayers would be our own. And we pray that his deep concern for the well-being of other Christians would be our own concern. And we do ask you lord Jesus that you would help us to live lives that are worthy of the high calling that we have received. We pray that we would be a church full of good desires, and full of promptings of faith. And we ask you, lord, that you would help those always to come to fruition, please.

And that you would help us to put into practice these promptings of faith. And we ask this not so that we might look good. Or so that we might be able to boast in all that we do. But we ask it so that the name of our lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in us and we in him. That we would look at the deeds of love in the church and we ourselves would know them to be Christ in us.

And that the world around would look on and marvel at how we love 1 another and say Christ must be among them. And lord, we pray this again for your great glory, and we thank you that only by your grace can we do it. In Jesus' name. Oh, man.