We look at a rough passage that ultimately calls upon the church in Thessalonica to stand firm and hold tight to the traditions that they have been taught by Paul and his companions.
A new work of God in San Diego's East Village
A new work of God in San Diego's East Village
Sermons on Perseverance
In the first chapter of this letter, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy talk about how they must thank God for the growing love and faithfulness of the church in Thessalonica, and how they are confident that when Christ returns, their persecutors will be cleared out, and they will have a clear path to God.
At the end of this letter, with Paul prepared to die and Timothy his primary apprentice, the letter is focused on handing off the ministry from one who has finished the race to one who has a long time left to go. We find a call to look at our own vocations, where God is…
We take a brief detour into the Luke reading this week and find Jesus encouraging us to bring our experiences of injustice, our frustration, our pain to God in prayer. We are invited and instructed to assault God with our prayers. Will we do so? Or will we lose faith?
As we begin our tour of 2 Timothy, we take a hard look at shame. As Paul tells Timothy not to be ashamed of Christ or of Paul’s chains, we find that these are important words in an honor-shame culture, and important words in our culture, still filled with honor and shame.
As we continue to wrestle with the way 1 Timothy calls for the maintenance of the culturally expected social hierarchy of its context, we find that God is inviting us into the fullness of life that is possible when we are content and godly, and urging us to avoid being distracted from the gospel by…
We finish up our stint in Hebrews by looking at what it means to live a life that is shaped like Jesus, both as a church and as individual members of the body of Christ.
We shift, with Hebrews, from faith to holiness. Coming to recognize that Christ is the perfecter of our life and faith, we discuss our call to respond to the sanctifying work of Christ by allowing ourselves to be made holy.
We continue to talk about faith, remembering that the faith we have (however big or small) is no different than the faith of those who have come before. So we run the race with perseverance (not necessarily speed), allowing that bit of faith we have to drive us forward.
We talk about faith. What is faith? What does God ask of us in terms of faith? What does faith do in us?