Good morning, brothers and sisters.
I think you heard Ray last night express his gratitude for the prayers that he has been getting. I also want to say thank you. I have never been prayed for so much in my whole life. And I was thinking, what if I could get this every day? That would be pretty nice. So, thank you.
I am Jeremy. I am from a suburb of San Francisco called Concord, California. Back in February, John emailed and asked if I would be willing to share, like Ray, on this practical outworking of endurance. He said it would be nice to hear from a younger brother.
Well, I am pretty nervous right now, but I just turned 40. So I am hoping that, if things go well today, I might get promoted to the status of middle-aged brother. It is a stretch.
My amazing wife homeschools our three children, and I am glad to be here.
When given the opportunity to speak, I like to occasionally share about this day in church history. So, what happened today in church history? A lot of things. William Booth, though—I will talk about him briefly.
William Booth grew up poor. He was only educated until he was 13, but God put in him a heart for the outcasts in England. He was a Methodist, but he was unconventional, which does not fit with Methodism. So it kind of put him on the outs with a lot of the clergy.
This is a quote from an article in Christian History magazine:
One evening in 1865, William Booth left his West London lodgings and walked along Mile End Waste, a one-and-a-half-mile stretch of shows, shooting ranges, petty dealers, and quack doctors. Outside the Blind Beggar pub, he listened to some street evangelists. When they had finished, he was invited to speak and found it an invigorating challenge.
At midnight, he returned home. He told his wife, Catherine—like I would say, “I’m never going back”—but he said, “Catherine darling, I have found my destiny.”
Booth then decided to hold a series of evangelistic meetings in the same crime-ridden neighborhood. Rather than using a church building, he rented a tent and set it up in an old Quaker graveyard in East London.
Now, this day is slightly disputable, but it is not important. On this day—today, July 5, 1865—William and Catherine Booth founded the Christian Mission in East London. A few years later, the Christian Mission changed its name and became the Salvation Army.
One statistic says that between the years 1881 and 1885 alone—just those four years—an estimated 250,000 people came to know the Lord as a result of their ministry.
I like this in regard to the power that light has to restrain darkness. Charles Spurgeon once said:
If the Salvation Army were wiped out of London, 5,000 extra policemen could not fill its place in the repression of crime and disorder.
The theme verse of the conference is Hebrews 10:36: “You have need of endurance.” Then it follows with God taking no pleasure in those who shrink back.
What follows is a list of people who did not shrink back in Hebrews 11. Then Hebrews 12 says, “Therefore, since you are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses”—all these people you have to look back on.
And I wonder: that is what the author of Hebrews said 1,900 years ago. He was saying, “Look at all these witnesses. Look at all these people who have gone before us.” If the believers were surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses then, what about now?
At the end of Hebrews 11, he says, “I would run out of time if I tried to remind you of all the incredible brothers and sisters that have gone before us, who have carried the torch.” Well, if that was true 1,900 years ago, what about now?
We are indeed surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses today—a great cloud of witnesses probably far greater than the author of Hebrews ever imagined. This is wonderful.
So praise God for people like William and Catherine Booth, who considered the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of this world, for they were looking for a reward.
I am going to open with a word of prayer.
Lord, we are so glad that You are gracious, that You are compassionate, and that You do not tire of speaking even to a people who are often slow to hear. We are indeed surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
Like them, we ask by Your Holy Spirit that You might grant that we too would run this race with endurance. Today, please give us the ability to hear what it is that You have on Your heart. If You are for us, who can be against us? Amen.
I have a few verses to open with. The first one is Hebrews 10:36, which you already all have memorized:
For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
I am also going to turn to 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:
Therefore we do not lose heart.
But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day.
For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen;
for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Another verse: 1 John 3:2.
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.
We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
A couple more. Matthew 25:21:
His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful slave.
You were faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.
Enter into the joy of your master.”
Finally, a verse that I am going to use to frame what I have on my heart this morning is 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3:
We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers;
constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the presence of our God and Father.
So, those three phrases are: work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope.
In addition to these verses, I think it is good that we have a framework—a common working definition—for endurance. It has already been shared a lot. Oftentimes, it is translated as patience, patiently enduring, or steadfastness.
But it is more than what we think of as merely being patient, like, “I can tolerate this thing just a little bit longer. I am being patient.” It has to do with the opposite of weariness and shrinking back. We see it juxtaposed to shrinking back.
One definition I found says, “Patient endurance is the temper which does not succumb under suffering.” It is a temper. It is controlling yourself—hopefully by the Holy Spirit—and not succumbing under suffering.
It carries with it the connotation of going through a difficult time, but not just surviving. It is going through a difficult time victoriously. Overcoming is a word that we use. Another word we see in Scripture that fits this is abounding. It is not just surviving; it is abounding.
Last night, Ray talked about running through first base—not falling and barely making it, stretching out and barely touching first. You are getting through it.
I have been asked to talk about practical application as a matter of endurance. I am a younger brother. When you think about enduring, somebody who is 70, 80, 90, or 102 can talk about enduring. But I do have a couple decades.
My disclaimer is always this: I am never speaking from a position of, “I have attained. I have arrived. I have gotten someplace.” Like Paul said, “I have not,” but I press on. I press on with you, brothers and sisters. We press on.
The three things I want to talk about relate, for me, to enduring. They may seem like disconnected points, but to me they connect in my mind. So, God have mercy on you guys.
The first phrase is “work of faith,” and I want to look at the life—or the perspective—of Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes.
The last few months, I have been considering Ecclesiastes. It is a challenging book, at least for me. But the Lord has given me some help and understanding in this book that has been challenging and encouraging.
I want to lay a little groundwork for Ecclesiastes. Who wrote the book? Good answer: Solomon. I agree with you.
There are many who like to maintain that Solomon did not write it, for various reasons—people whose brains have gotten too big. But there is internal evidence that Solomon wrote it, and I will tell you why I think he wrote it, and also why it is very important that he wrote it.
Ecclesiastes 1:1 says:
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
The author does not identify himself by name, but as the Preacher, who is a son of David and king in Jerusalem. David had many sons and grandchildren, but not all were king in Jerusalem.
Then Ecclesiastes 1:12 says:
I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.
Again, David had many sons, and so did Solomon, but only Solomon was king over a unified Israel in Jerusalem. So we know that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes.
Also, in Ecclesiastes 2:4-9, he says:
I enlarged my works.
I built houses for myself.
I planted vineyards for myself.
I made gardens and parks for myself, and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.
I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees.
I bought male and female slaves, and I had homeborn slaves.
I also possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem.
Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces.
I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men—many concubines.
Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem.
My wisdom also stood by me.
More than all who preceded him in Jerusalem. First Kings 4 and 1 Kings 10 say that Solomon was richer and wiser than any man—than all the kings of the earth.
So Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes. Here is why that matters: Solomon had credentials. My students would say Solomon has street cred. When he says something, you can believe him.
If I said, “Brothers and sisters, money is never going to satisfy you. All the riches—it is never going to satisfy you,” you could say, “Well, what do you know, brother? You only have fifty dollars in your savings account.” Good point, right?
If you confided in me that you were having marriage trouble and said, “Sometimes I wonder if a new wife would be the solution,” and I said, “No, brother, that is not the problem,” you might ask, “What do you know?”
But if the man had 300 wives, and you came and told him, and he said, “No, that is not the issue,” maybe you would believe him. Solomon has credentials for what he is going to say.
Have you ever considered that in Ecclesiastes there seem to be statements that are not true? This was very challenging to me.
For instance, Ecclesiastes 1:11 says:
There is no remembrance of earlier things, and also of the latter things which will occur.
There will be for them no remembrance among those who will come later still.
The author seems to be saying, “Your life is worthless. Nothing is going to be remembered. Nothing you do is going to be remembered. Who you are is not going to be remembered.” Is that a true statement?
Then Ecclesiastes 2:11 says:
Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
He is saying that all you work for, all your labor, all your accomplishments—it is worthless. It is nothing. Is that true? Is there no profit in hard work and diligent labor?
The next section says there is no difference between the wise man and the fool, for they both die the same and the same fate befalls them both. Is that true?
It says working hard is a waste. One man works hard and comes to nothing; another man is lazy and gets lucky and rich. So it is all waste. Is that true?
In Ecclesiastes 2:24, he says there is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. Just have a good time, pat yourself on the back, and say that is good enough. Is that true?
Again, there are a lot of these statements, but I will go to one more: Ecclesiastes 4:1-3.
Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were done under the sun.
And behold, I saw the tears of the oppressed, and that they had no one to comfort them;
and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them.
So I congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still living.
But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun.
Is that true? Better to be dead—maybe I can agree with that somehow, like the people who have gone before us—but better that you not even be born? That does not sound right. But it is God’s Word, so it is true. How is it true? What is Solomon talking about?
There is a phrase that appears frequently in Ecclesiastes. In 30 verses, this phrase appears: “vanity of vanities.” Another word for vanity is futility or worthlessness. Again and again: worthless, vanity, futility—it is all a waste.
Is everything we do a waste? He says all is vanity, but what is the “all” to which he is referring?
There is another phrase in Ecclesiastes that appears almost as frequently. It appears in 27 verses, and it is this phrase: under the sun.
Over and over, Solomon says, “It is a waste. It is vanity. It is futility”—under the sun. All this work, all this labor, under the sun is coming to nothing.
In the early 1500s, there was an astronomer named Copernicus. I am glad Christian Chen is not here to correct me on anything right now.
Copernicus was an astronomer and a mathematician. He made some propositions that were very controversial at the time. Copernicus said there is the sun, and the planets go around the sun. The sun is in the center of the solar system, and the planets go around it.
This was controversial. People got very upset. All of Copernicus’s works were burned and condemned by the church. Other mathematicians, such as Galileo, who stood up for him, were put under house arrest for the rest of their lives just for defending the man.
What was the big deal? It has to do with perspective.
The scientists and the church of the day looked up, like we do, and saw the sun move through the sky. It does. It goes from there to over there. I can see that. It looks like the stars move as well.
When I look up in the wintertime and see certain constellations and the Big Dipper, then look up in the summer and do not see them, the winter and summer sky is different. It looks like it is moving.
The scientists had maps and charts. They had mathematical proof that the earth was in the center. When Copernicus came to them with this different perspective, this different idea, it was an affront. It was very challenging. It was called heresy.
But what if we pull way, way, way, way, way back and look at the solar system and space from a different perspective? If we pull way back, then all the maps are wrong, all the charts are wrong, all the science is upside down and wrong.
It turns out there is something way beyond the physical realm. There is something way beyond what we can see. There is something way beyond the sun.
All those seemingly erroneous statements in Ecclesiastes are true from the perspective of under the sun. But is that all there is? We know not.
Way beyond the visible realm is what we see when we have the eyes of our hearts enlightened.
The phrase from 1 Thessalonians 1:3 that frames this part is “the work of faith.” Is our life here of no purpose? No. By faith, we see that we have been created with a purpose. In Christ Jesus, we have been created with a purpose.
Are all our works of no lasting value, as Ecclesiastes says? No. We have been created in Christ Jesus for good works.
It is by the gift of faith that we labor and strive—not for what is under the sun, but because we believe our work done in faith here, right now, counts for eternity.
There is a book called Secular Work Is Full-Time Service. I do not know if it is still in the bookstore. Sometimes in our mentality, we get the idea that there is clergy and laity—these are the workers, these are the responsible brothers and sisters, and this is everybody else.
We may think, “I am just a truck driver, a schoolteacher, or whatever.” Is there such a thing as secular work if we are in God’s kingdom?
Everything—all our work, all that is done in faith—counts for the kingdom. Like James, might we all learn to say, “I will show you my faith by my works.” This is the work of faith.
What gives endurance, the ability to patiently endure difficult situations, is the faith that there is something way beyond the sun—the physical sun—way beyond what we can see.
Paul encouraged the Colossian believers:
Set your minds on things above, not on the things that are on earth.
How do we endure? The verse in 2 Corinthians 4 says the same thing:
We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen;
for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Solomon was the richest and wisest man ever—under the sun. But something greater than Solomon is here.
The work of faith is first that gift which enlightens our eyes and our hearts, and it comes by hearing God’s Word. Secondly, the work of faith is the work that we do by faith on earth which we believe counts for eternity.
We are able to endure when faith enables us to see what is beyond the sun, like Moses, seeing Him who is unseen.
I am going to transition to the second point. In 1 Thessalonians 1, it says, “Your work of faith, and your labor of love.” Your labor of love.
The second idea I want to consider is this matter of legacy. When I say legacy, I mean: How will you be remembered?
As I said, I am a high school teacher, and one of the classes I teach is called Career Transitions. It is a mandatory elective, which is an oxymoron, I understand. But some of the students get to take my class, and I teach them practical skills.
We look at personality profile tests. We do skills tests to see what they might be good at. The results of these tests give them career clusters that they might be interested in pursuing. After that, we do job applications and resumes. That is fun.
But I have this one lesson that has to do with death, and I do it at the beginning of the year. This is how I start the lesson: “You are all going to die.”
All of you—you are all going to die. And they freak out. They panic. I am not kidding; they panic. “What are you talking about, Mr. Reckten? What do you mean? You do not know that for sure.”
Every year, a couple students will say, “You do not know that for sure.” Yes, I do know that for sure. I could tell them, “Unless Christ comes first,” but it is a public school, and I need a job.
So I just say, “It is true. You are all going to die.” Honestly, it is as if they have never considered it. But after they panic, they get real quiet, because eternity is in their hearts.
I hope talking about something real settles them just a little bit. But what is the point of the lesson?
The point of the lesson is that I have them write their epitaphs. How do you want to be remembered? We draw a little headstone, put their name on it, and I do not let them put an end date. Then they write a slogan: How are you going to be remembered? Just a few words.
Because you are all going to be remembered.
They study for exams, and that is not fun. They work hard for the SATs, and that is hard. They practice hard in sports because they want to get better. We regularly endure difficult situations to achieve a desired goal.
So I ask them to consider: What about the final result? What about the end goal? Most young people do not think about their end when they are young.
How do you want to be remembered? The idea is that having this goal way down the road could be like a coach or guide—something that reminds you, as you live your daily life at Concord High School, as you go to college, and whatever else you do, that this goal might guide you.
The workbook has some examples. Some are silly, and some are good:
It did not really say that.
I thought about how I would be remembered. I like coffee a lot. What if, at the end, some people said, “Jeremy, he really knew a lot about coffee”? How lame does that sound? I do not want to be known for my coffee expertise.
Will you be remembered for the clothes that you wore? Will you be remembered for your culinary savvy? Will you be remembered for your social media activity? Will you be remembered for your music collection?
Maybe these things sound negative. Not necessarily. Would you be remembered for your service to others? Will you be remembered for your Sunday school lessons? Will you be remembered for the mission organizations that you supported? Will you be remembered for your generosity?
We have this lesson because perhaps having an end in mind might direct our lives a little bit now. If you are stingy now, no one is going to remember you for your generosity, right? So if this is a goal, it is going to direct my life a little bit today.
But this is from an earthly perspective, as far as I can go in a public school classroom. What about the heavenly perspective? Are there epitaphs in the Bible?
Look at Hebrews 11:
Another passage speaks of Abraham as God’s friend. Moses was “the most humble man on the face of the earth.”
It is a fact that how we live our lives, how we number our days, matters. It will affect how we are remembered on earth, yes, but that is temporal. It matters in heaven as well.
I recently got to listen to Brother T. Austin-Sparks’s memorial service. It is on the Christian Testimony Ministry website. I do not know the name of the man officiating the service, but he said something that was very challenging to me.
This brother asked a rhetorical question: “Was T. Austin-Sparks’s life a success? Was he successful?”
Then he said:
If spiritual success means to communicate something more of the wonder, the glory, the power, and purpose of Christ, then our brother’s life was a success.
Then he said:
If the result of his ministry was that others had a fuller and deeper knowledge of Christ, should any of us wish for more than that?
That, as a result of our lives, others would have a fuller and deeper knowledge of Christ.
So, how will we be remembered? How will you be remembered? What are we laboring for? What are you laboring for and striving after?
This passage in Thessalonians talks about a labor of love. Do we labor to be someone who sought first the kingdom of God and His righteousness?
Proverbs says that a wise man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children. Brother Stephen has been talking about Hudson Taylor’s great-grandfather. Did he leave a big monetary inheritance for many generations? No.
What he gave was generations and generations and generations of a very rich inheritance—something that far exceeds and far outweighs any natural inheritance that he could have passed down.
Do we labor to be remembered as someone whose zeal for the Lord’s house consumed them? Will we be remembered, as it says of those listed in Hebrews 11—and I would suggest many thousands since—as men and women of whom the world is not worthy?
I think having a goal can help us stay the course. What gives endurance is having a goal. I am talking about a goal with a lowercase “g”: How do you want to be remembered?
Paul made references to athletes training and beating their bodies into subjection to achieve a goal, that they might receive a prize. Some people may frown on prizes. They may think wanting a prize is carnal. But if rewards are given to those who please the Master, then count me in.
Paul talks about competition and athletes training, and then he says, “Suffer hardship with me.” Has anybody ever invited you to do that? “Brother, sister, let’s go suffer.”
Paul said, “Suffer hardship with me.” Why? Why would I want to go through a difficult situation with you, Paul?
So that we may please the One who enlisted us.
Pleasing the Lord was Paul’s aim. Pleasing Him and serving Him is our labor of love. We love because He first loved us.
Because we love Him, we labor for Him. What is our labor? It is to offer our bodies—a living sacrifice, which is only our reasonable service.
We serve His body. If we are married, we serve our wives and husbands. We serve our children. We serve our coworkers and our brothers and sisters.
I will conclude this second point by saying that I think it would behoove us to consider our legacy—how we want to be remembered—and to let the objective goal, with a lowercase “g,” help direct our steps.
Again, 2 Corinthians 4:17 says:
For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.
I do not know what you are going through, and I am sure that if you are going through it, it does not seem momentary and light. But the encouragement is that it is working an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.
What do you want on your gravestone? “Like Jesus.” That would be pretty wonderful.
How can that goal be realistic? How can we be transformed into His image? Again, I think it is a theme verse from the conference: seeing Him who is unseen.
One of the verses from 1 John that we opened with says:
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.
We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
We know this is one day, but every day—even today—as we see Him, we endure. As we see Him, we are conformed more and more into His likeness. We see His labor of love, and our life becomes a labor of love as well.
The final thought, the final point I have, has to do with this final phrase in 1 Thessalonians 1:3: steadfastness of hope—endurance of hope.
Paul praises the believers in Thessalonica, saying that he is constantly bearing in mind their work of faith, their labor of love, and their steadfastness of hope.
The word steadfastness here is the same word as endurance: endurance of hope, steadfastness of hope.
I was fellowshipping with the Millers the other day, and the question “Why?” came up. Why do we have need of endurance? Why does the Lord speak so much of endurance in the New Testament?
He also speaks much of the opposite, which is weariness: “Do not grow weary. Do not grow weary.” You would not say over and over, “Do not grow weary,” if weariness were not an option.
Why did the Lord put it on the hearts of the conference planners to have this word for us this year? Why did the Lord have this verse for us this year: “You have need of endurance”? It is because He knows. He knows what is coming.
It is so we are ready, and so we do not grow weary.
Endurance, or steadfastness of hope, is necessary only because the world in which we are living is hopeless. The world is lost. The world is without hope. But it is becoming increasingly hopeless, and I think it is even recognized as such.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for.
Jesus did not use the word hope when He set His face toward Jerusalem, but He had hope. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.
There are more than 50 verses about hope in the New Testament. If you are ever in need of a pick-me-up, get out your concordance and look up hope. It is encouraging.
Acts 23:6 says:
I am on trial because my hope is in the resurrection of the dead.
Later Paul says, “It is because of the hope of Israel.”
Romans 4:18 says:
In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”
Abraham is called a man of faith, but Abraham was a man of hope. Even when there was no reason to hope, Abraham kept hoping. The father of faith was the father of hope.
Romans 8:24-25 says:
For in hope we have been saved.
But hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Romans 15:13 says:
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
First Corinthians 15:19 says:
If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
If there is nothing beyond this life to hope in, then we are miserable. I think the preacher in Ecclesiastes would totally agree with that.
How did Paul pray for the churches? Ephesians 1:18:
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling.
The world is without hope. I have little kids—11, 9, and 3—and there are children’s movies. You see things differently as an adult than as a child.
Recently, we watched a movie called Moana. It is a little kids’ movie, but there is a scene at the end of the movie where I thought, “I have seen that scene before.”
At the end of the movie, death is creeping over the earth. Death is touching everybody. Everything is dying. But in the end, because evil is conquered, new life comes. New life spreads and takes over the whole earth.
I thought, “That is not an original ending. That keeps happening. Where do I see that?” I see it in all my kids’ movies.
In Frozen, ice has taken over the whole world, and suddenly green and new life come at the very end. In WALL-E, earth is a waste place, and eventually new life comes and green health spreads over the whole globe.
In The Lorax, again, the hope and the goal are that new life comes, real life comes, and takes over the whole earth once again.
The end of The Lord of the Rings is the same thing. Death has taken over, but then, at the end, there is victory. New life comes, green comes, and takes over the whole planet.
What is it in these movie writers and producers that causes them also to long for a new heaven and a new earth? Eternity is in their hearts.
These are in children’s movies. Even little kids are longing for something more. There has to be something new. There has to be something better. There is something bigger and better beyond what is in front of me.
They look out, watch the news, see the headlines, and see how their parents react to the headlines. The kids are shaken up, and they are feeling hopeless. Is there no purpose?
The National Institutes of Mental Health recently released a report on suicide rates. I only bring it up because what better statistic is there for hopelessness? How do you measure hopelessness?
The study covered the years 1999 to 2015. Probably no surprise, but in every single age bracket, the numbers are going up—not just the numbers because the population is going up, but percentages. There has been a percentage increase in every single age bracket.
The two biggest age brackets, interestingly enough, in terms of percentage increases, are girls ages 10 to 14 and men ages 50 to 65. I am not a psychologist, and I am not going to try to explain why that is. I have ideas.
The world needs hope. Our coworkers need hope. Our students need hope. Our neighbors need hope. Our children need hope.
I once read a church history book called The Torch of the Testimony. The idea is of passing a baton from one generation to the next. It is a fine book, but I am going to use the phrase “torch of the testimony” to mean something a little different right now.
If I were to ask you the first thing that comes to your mind when I use the words “light of the world,” go! Sunday school answer: Jesus. Of course—Jesus is always the answer.
But Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.”
Let your light shine.
I am going to suggest that this light, this torch, is a torch of hope that we believers are supposed to hold. There is light. There is hope.
But what if we, who have this hope as an anchor, lose hope? What if we despair? What if we, who have the hope, become hopeless?
This is a real possibility. In the last days, the love of many will grow cold. We have to recognize that it is possible for us too to become hopeless.
If my treasures are laid up in heaven, then there my heart will be also. But if my treasures are on earth, and moth and rust begin to destroy—if I lose my job, my home, my friends, my children—then I am shaken.
In the second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul talks about lawlessness increasing, and finally the lawless one being revealed. But right now, he says, there is something restraining him—restraining lawlessness and the man of lawlessness.
The world is becoming increasingly dark. What restrains darkness? Light. It is simple. Light restrains darkness.
This is, I think, what Spurgeon was talking about when he said that if the Salvation Army were removed from East London, 5,000 policemen could not do the job they were doing in restraining vice, disorder, and other things. Light restrains darkness.
If you look at 1 Thessalonians 1:3, Paul says he is constantly bearing in mind their work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the presence of God our Father.
Now turn to the beginning of 2 Thessalonians. It is similar, in chapter 1, verse 3:
We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater.
That sounds really nice too. What is missing? Hope. He does not mention hope in 2 Thessalonians.
What happened? Between the two letters, the persecution was unrelenting. It was very difficult for the brothers and sisters living in Thessalonica. False teaching and heresy had come in. The brothers and sisters were shaken.
Paul says, “I write to you so that you are not so easily shaken. Do not be so quickly shaken.” What happened is that they lost their hope.
Work of faith, labor of love, steadfastness of hope in the first letter—but in the second letter, there is no mention of hope.
Why is steadfastness necessarily linked with hope? Because Hebrews 12:26-27 is coming:
At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”
This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
The Lord knows what is coming. He is mindful of us and our weaknesses. He is doing what He can to prepare us by telling us ahead of time and by giving us the Holy Spirit.
This shaking—about ten years ago, in the summer of 2007, Dana was sharing at WCC in Santa Barbara with our brother Lance. It was one of them, but I think it was Dana. The theme verse was this verse about a great shaking coming.
Brothers shared about this shaking, why the Lord would shake, and how He would use it to purify us and make us vessels of honor. I remember being really touched by the message, and I think many people were.
So we prayed, “Lord, please shake us.”
Lance used to say, “Be very careful what you pray for,” because the Lord loves those prayers. He will take them seriously. “Lord, please shake us, that we might be pure.”
And so the Lord shook. All of a sudden, I forgot about those crazy prayers, and then you start asking, “What is going on? What is going on?”
I withdrew my application for graduate school. Then I had no job, and I was moving into my parents’ back house. Friends throughout the whole district were getting affected because the housing market crashed. People were getting pink slips. Teachers who had been teaching for five years were still getting pink-slipped.
There was general panic everywhere, struggles at home, and my wife and I struggling to be one. There was marriage counseling. “Wow, Lord, what is going on?”
Remember that prayer?
The Lord is so good. He is so gracious and compassionate, and He never gives us beyond what we can handle. The Lord knows that we need steadfastness and hope.
Steadfastness is strong. The only thing that is not shakable is the house built upon the rock. Everything else is going to shake.
So that all that can be shaken will be taken away. Is that not wonderful? Stay the course.
Parents, this is me preaching to myself. If the parents are hoping only in this life—or if the parents here are despairing, growing weary, shrinking back—do we think our kids are going to believe the message that we speak?
I was convicted by a quote from a non-Christian, actually. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Who you are thunders so loudly that I cannot hear what you have to say.”
There is another saying: “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.” I think maybe St. Francis said that.
I am not saying, “Do not speak.” My children hear me talk a lot. But how I am living before them is my testimony. It is what they are reading, what they are seeing, and what they are hearing.
If I say, “I am looking forward to heaven, and it is all about living with the Lord and eternity and Jesus coming back,” but I am totally panicking and losing it because of my situation at work, popping off and yelling at them over here, while telling them they need more self-control, there is no testimony. There is no life.
Faith, love, and hope are nothing more than empty words if there are not accompanying actions—especially to our children first, but also to our coworkers, neighbors, and the world around us.
Hope, love, and faith are the visible evidence of whether we really believe what we say we believe.
Ray touched on this last night. When a coworker says, “How are you doing today?” and you say, “Great,” they think, “Whoa, that is weird.” Do we have this hope that is an anchor for us—that every day there is hope?
I will conclude with this: it is not an individual message. It is a corporate one.
If we know what is on His heart—what is on the Lord’s heart—it is a body. It is a bride. God is not looking for trophies to put on a shelf.
There is an individual work that needs to be done in all our hearts, and then we see His heart is for a body, so that we could stand with, encourage, and support our brothers and sisters.
First Thessalonians talks a lot about the Lord’s return. The end of every chapter talks about the Lord’s return. The Lord is going to return.
Why does Paul do that? In 1 Thessalonians 4:13, he says:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
Then, in 1 Thessalonians 4:18, after talking about the Lord’s return and the rapture, Paul says:
Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Why is Paul teaching us about the rapture? So that we have our eschatology all lined up? No. Encourage one another with what words? Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back.
And He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him: work of faith, labor of love, steadfastness of hope.
Christ is why we live and work now. Loved by Christ—that is how I want to be remembered. Hearing one day from Christ, “Well done, My good and faithful servant,” is what I hope to hear.
Let us close in prayer.
Thank You, Father, for Your Son, by whom we have been fully accepted in the Beloved.
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your intercessory ministry. We thank You, Holy Spirit, for speaking to our hearts and transforming our lives.
We pray for a powerful and transforming work of Your Spirit, an enduring work to be done in all of us, that we would be the generation that welcomes back the King.
If You tarry, Lord, may we be part of that great cloud of witnesses for future generations.
Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.