CONFIDENCE IN THE LORD
TEXT: II Thess. 2:13-15
My friends, it’s good to know that we serve a God who is “pulling for us.” Life can certainly be a struggle – a “tug of war” at times where you are just not sure if you are pulling with God or against God or whether you are headed in the wrong direction or in the right direction. Your presence here this morning along with your desire to seek Him cements the fact that God has you just where He wants you. Just in case we’re not sure about that, Paul writes these words of encouragement to us today.
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you 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. (II Thess. 3:13-14)
“GOD ___________________ YOU”
- Our Salvation Depends on God (2 Thess 2:13-14)
- From the very beginning, before the Thessalonians came to Christ, God had chosen them to be the objects of his love. (See John 15:16 and Ephesians 1:11)
- The Bible clearly teaches that all of us together who come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ were elected by God...
- The church is simply “God’s ______________”
“GOD __________________ YOU” (He called you to this through our gospel)
Our Salvation Depends on our response
Notice the immediate response to the Gospel in the early church.
- (Paul preached at Philippi) The Lord opened her (Lydia’s) heart to respond to Paul's message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. (Acts 16:14-15)
- At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. (Acts 16:33)
- (Paul preached at Corinth) Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized. (Acts 18:8)
- (Paul preached at Ephesus) He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 19:4-5)
So then…
“STAND ________________”
- So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. (II Thess. 2:15)
- We can be sure God will finish what he started in our lives because our spiritual progress depends on God.
YOU CAN BE SURE THAT YOU ARE SURE THAT YOU ARE GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. HE’S PULLING FOR YOU!!!
