Strengthening and Encouraging Each Other's Faith

So I'll be reading from 1st Thessalonians 2, verse 17, through chapter 3, verse 5. But as for us brothers and sisters, after we were forced to leave you for a short time in person, not in heart, we greatly desired and made every effort to return and see you face to face. So we wanted to come to you, even I, Paul, time and again. But Satan hindered us. For who is our hope or joy or crown of boasting in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?

Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. Therefore, when we could no longer stand it, we thought it was better to be left alone in Athens. And we sent Timothy, our brother and God's co worker in the Gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you concerning your faith so that no one will be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.

In fact, when we were with you, we told you in advance that we are going to experience affliction. And as you know, it happened for this reason, when I could no longer stand it, I also sent him to find out about your faith, fearing that the tempter had tempted you and that our labor might be for nothing. This is the word of the Lord. A few years ago at Imprint, we introduced a metaphor for discipleship that we think is helpful. And it's called traveling partners.

And if you've received our emails, you've heard us over the last few years, you've heard us use this phrase and call you traveling partners. And we realize we're under no illusion that this is the catchiest and coolest like phrase out there. But we do think that it captures and conveys something critical about the nature of following Jesus as disciples. And it's this is that we're not supposed to do it alone. We're not supposed to walk with Jesus alone or try to follow him on our own.

In essence, we need each other. We need traveling partners. I mean, if you think about Jesus and his actual life on earth and his ministry, he called 12 disciples to himself, not a single person. So discipleship didn't start off one on one. We often think of discipleship as a one on one relationship.

Actually, the first discipleship was a group was a small group of 12 guys that Jesus calls himself. And they literally traveled with Jesus, with him and with each other, shoulder to shoulder. So they had traveling partners. And then really that's a. It's a helpful, I think, vivid and illustration for what our lives are supposed to look like in Christ today, that we are traveling with each other.

The Bible calls us sojourners here, visitors, strangers, exiles, that this is not our true homeland yet until the new creation. Right now, our citizenship is in heaven and always will be, fundamentally. And we are awaiting a savior from heaven who will come one day and make this our true home. And so we are traveling in this life, in a sense, as pilgrims, side by side with each other. We need each other, and that's why we've also sat around here for a while.

There's no discipleship without relationship. The New Testament assumes, even commands, that we follow Jesus together. And a huge part of why we're supposed to live our life of faith in meaningful relationship with each other is to strengthen and encourage each other. We need one another to strengthen us, to encourage us, and we need to be that strengthening and encouraging force for those around us. Last week, I went on a run with my daughter Grace, and I don't have a lot of time left to do that because she just graduated from high school, and next month she's going off to college.

So toward the end of the run, I mean, she's a runner. Like, she's going to run in college. I'm hurting. I want to be done. It's blazing hot, like 70 degrees.

And I told her, in this run, I'm like, toward the end of it, I'm like, Honey, 100%, if you were not running with me right now, I would have stopped a long time ago. Like, that's the truth. And so she goes, well, that's the benefit of running with other people. They help you keep going. And it's so true.

If you've ever worked out alone or you've ever run alone, it's very different than when you're with other people. So what's true for us physically and needing the strength and encouragement to keep going from other people is also true for us spiritually. Think of our life of faith in Jesus as a marathon, not a sprint. You've heard this before. It is a marathon.

And for those of you who run marathons, and some of you in this room have, because you're crazy.

You know, like, it's grueling. Like, that's what life is like. You live long enough, and eventually things get very hard. There's beautiful seasons of comfort and ease, but much of life is just hard. And the longer you live, the more you know this.

And so it is very easy in the life of faith to grow weary and to grow weak, especially when trials hit. Especially, like when you hit the hills, you're already Hurting, you're already sluggish, you're already in pain. And then you hit hills and you have to go up a hill. That's life in Jesus. That is life in the marathon of following Jesus.

So we need each other to help strengthen and encourage each other along the way, just like I needed my daughter to help keep me going last week. In this section of Paul's letter to the Thessalonians that we just read, we see that God uses us to strengthen and encourage each other's faith. God uses us. Now, God has many means of doing things, many avenues and channels for doing things in our lives. But what we want to consider today is that God uses us, you and me, to strengthen and encourage each other's faith.

And so what we're going to do is we're going to look at two ways in which God does this from the text, and one reason why he does this. And so first, we're going to see that God strengthens our faith through meaningful relationships. And second, we're going to see that he strengthens our faith through his grace working through others. And then third, we're going to see why a reason why God does this, which is to ground our faith in trials. So first, let's think about this.

God strengthens and encourages our faith through meaningful relationships. Now, I put that word meaningful there because you can have all kinds of relationships with people and not all of them are meaningful like I'm talking about. Relationships that have some depth to them, some significance, some substance to them. Now, if you remember from last week, Paul was talking in his letter, in that section of his letter to the Thessalonians, that how they had received the gospel message for what it really was, he said, you didn't receive it as the word of man or the human's word, a human message, but for what it really is, God's word. So that's what he was talking about we saw last week.

And then now he shifts to talk about his own personal pain as he was forced to flee the city along with Paul, and along with, sorry, Timothy and Silas, they were forced to flee the city because of severe persecution. So that's the subject change here in verse 17. Read with me. But as for us brothers and sisters, after we were forced to leave you for a short time in person, not in heart, we greatly desired and made every effort to return and see you face to face. So in Paul's mind, it's entirely possible that these new Thessalonian Christians are wondering, why haven't you come back?

Why haven't you and your ministry partners come back? Do you really care about us? Why haven't you come back? So he assures them that the reason they left is because they were forced to. Not because they wanted to, but because they were forced to.

And the Greek word that's used there for forced applies to parents deprived of their children. It can also apply to orphans, to children who have their parents taken away from them, but also to parents who are deprived of their children. So here, this word that Paul uses for is reflecting the truth that it was very painful, emotionally painful for him to be ripped away from them like a father who can't be with his children. So he assures them that though he and his partners were absent in person, their hearts were still with them. Their hearts were still, we're not with you in person, but our hearts are still with you.

We still care about you. I mean, look at his language. We greatly desired and made every effort to return and see you face to face. He's been trying to figure out ways to get back to see them, but so far it hasn't worked. Why not?

He tells us in verse 18, so we wanted to come to you, even I, Paul, time and again. But Satan hindered us. Now the text doesn't tell us how Satan hindered them. Satan does have a measure of power in the world, always on a leash, never outside of God's control. But he does have a measure of power to oppose the gospel and to oppose God and his church.

So sometimes it could be through travel, it could be impediment of travel, it could be physical illness. Satan can cause physical illness. We know that from the scripture. Not every physical illness is necessarily from him. Some of that's just from our broken bodies in a broken world.

But in some ways, Satan's opposing their efforts. Satan doesn't want ministry to happen. Satan doesn't want face to face relationships between believers because he knows there is strength and encouragement that comes from when believers are together. And Paul is here longing to be with them. He has a real and meaningful relationship with them that's at the heart of his ministry.

He says he wants to see them face to face. And this reminds me, it's similar to what Second John verse 12 says. Though I have many things to write to you, I don't want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face. Listen so that our joy may be complete.

Isn't that interesting? Notice that in person, face to face relationship is in fact a source of Christian joy. Now, anyone here remember that desert wasteland of a time we all lived through called Covid? Remember this? The social and relational isolation of that time was brutal.

It was terrible. It was hard. And one of the blessings that came out of that time for many of us and certainly myself, is that we came to appreciate even more just how much of a gift it is to be together with one another, to be in relationship face to face. You recall that when everyone first scattered to the winds and everything went online for a while. Church went online because we didn't know any better.

And there was no things in place yet to allow us to gather back together. I can't even tell you how depressing it was for me to look at a camera and talk. And I know you were some of you out there, you remember this time. So I knew there were people on the other side. But we end, I feel like when we end our gatherings here, it's like I get to worship with you.

And I come up and I always say amen. And there's this sense of like, we are in this together, God is with us. And literally we give it some kind of benediction and we say amen. And then they would turn off the camera and then the lights would come on and Rex Garman would go, great job everyone. And we'd all kind of like shuffle and leave.

And it was the worst. It was the worst. And so the gift of being together, I don't ever want to take this for granted, our ability to be together. Now, as I think about this, I know that there are a lot of churches that stream their worship services and I understand the reason for that. I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

In fact, there are many good reasons to do it. There's many benefits and blessings behind that. But we made it as a church. We made an intentional decision, really a theological decision, a church related decision. And how we're like, what this thing is to not stream our gatherings because we don't want people to stay home, we want people to be here.

Now, yes, you can go online and you can find the sermon afterward if you want, but church is so much more than a sermon. And so that's why, if you've ever wondered why don't we stream our services, it's not because we're lazy and we don't have the technology we do, but we want people here because this is where face to face relationships happen. And it's essential to continuing in the faith. And it amplifies our joy, it amplifies our Joy. Now, further evidence that Paul had a meaningful relationship with them is in verses 19 and 20.

For who is our hope or joy or crown of boasting in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. So there is source of Paul's joy, both now and in the present. When Jesus comes and he says they're his crown of his crown of boasting.

Now, crowns, if you know, in the athletic games in the Greek world at that time, were given to athletes who won an athletic contest. So when he says they're his crown of boasting, is thinking like, think of him saying as, you're my trophies of grace. You are my trophies. He's not boasting in himself, but in the Lord's grace to the Thessalonians. You're my trophies.

You are evidence that my ministry has meant something. That when we get there on that day, when we see you and stand before Jesus, I'm looking at you and you're the trophy of God's grace. Not taking pride in himself, but in God's grace. Them, they're the evidence of God working through his ministry. And I'm not an apostle, clearly, but when I read this, I experienced something similar.

I am proud of Imprint Church. I'm proud of you. I am filled with joy when I see you worshiping. I'm filled with joy when I see you using your gifts and serving. When I see you using your gifts to minister to one another.

This last week, on Thursday, I was typing my sermon. There was nobody else in the building at the time. And so the front doors are locked. And I heard the doorbell ring. And our sister, Vicki Shanks, rang the doorbell.

And she had a box of really nice Bibles that she had somehow collected and wanted to give to the church so that we could give them. So if you're looking for a nice Bible, I got a box of them. I'll give you one. And I took those box. I was so thankful.

I was like, this is cool. Like, Vicki, she loves the Lord. If you ever see her, sometimes she's here first service. Sometimes she's like, she's the one who's dancing and waving her arms. She's going for it.

And she comes to the Bible. She loves the Lord and she loves God's people. She's just effusive in her love for God and his people here. And she gives me this box of Bibles. So I go and I sit down in my office and I start typing away again.

And Then I hear the doorbell ring again. And this time it's our sister, Brooke Kasner. If some of you know her, she's our sister over at Wooderville. She attends over there and she's got this huge bag of coffee for us and she's been buying our coffee for a long time. So here's two women who are just serving the church behind the scenes, glad to do it, joyfully serving quietly, looking for no recognition.

And I thought to myself, this gives me joy because these women are serving the church just out of pure love. I mean, they don't know who's going to answer the door. It's just me. And I'm like, oh, they're doing what I see. When I see active faith, it encourages me in my faith.

And it's evidence of God's grace to his church. And that brings me to this, to our second point here, second way that God strengthens our faith. God's grace through others. God's grace works in others and does something to us. It works for our good.

Now, the word grace is multi faceted. It's multi dimensional. Sometimes when we think of grace, we think of it as forgiving grace. And that is an aspect of grace. Like when God forgives us of our sin, forgives the sin of those who trust in Jesus, believing that he died and rose from the dead to forgive them of sin and reconcile them to God.

That is God's forgiving grace. But grace is also a power. Grace is also a power. Like when Jesus said to the apostle Paul when he was suffering with affliction in 2nd Corinthians 12, he said, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.

So grace and power there are parallel and synonymous. That's empowering grace. It's strength that God gives to us. Now, sometimes God's empowering grace comes to our hearts and we experience it, like directly from the Holy Spirit. Like, if you've ever been felt defeated and discouraged and you spend some time in prayer and you go on a walk and you talk to the Lord, you reflect on his scripture.

Like, you end that time feeling like, wow, God really met me. And that's a beautiful thing. But probably the majority of the time, I guess we can't really quantify it. But my guess is the majority of so much of the time, his empowering grace comes to us through other people. You've experienced this, right?

When someone has strengthened you, when someone has encouraged you. His empowering grace comes through his people. At the start of chapter three. Now Paul's still talking about how he wanted to return to the Thessalonians. He's especially anxious to hear how they're doing because they're brand new believers and now they're being persecuted.

Now if you remember back in that day prior to texts and instant communication, it could take weeks, even months to find out simply how someone is doing. And so Paul is burdened for their spiritual well being. And the uncertainty is killing him. It's killing him. So that's why he says in verses one and two of chapter three, therefore, when we could no longer stand it, meaning I can't stand it anymore not knowing how you're doing.

We thought it was better to be left alone in Athens, meaning leaving Paul alone in Athens. And we sent Timothy, our brother and God's co worker in the Gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you concerning your faith. So they flee from Thessalonica and they go to the town, a city called Berea. And they get driven out of Berea as well because of persecution. And they make their way all the way down to Athens.

And then when they get to Athens, at some point they decide like, we need to go check on the Thessalonians, see how they're doing, because there was serious persecution there. So Paul is willing to be left alone and was killing him. And he sent Timothy away. And at some point Silas left there too, it seems. So he sent Timothy away to Thessalonica to do what?

To do two things to strengthen and encourage them in their faith. Pastor theologian John Stott wrote that the word for strengthening was almost a technical term for building up new converts in their faith. That would involve like fundamental teaching about doctrinal teaching, about understanding what God has done through Jesus Christ, his death and his resurrection, and also the person and work of Jesus. Who is he? What has he done?

Moral instruction on how to live this new Christian life. You just stopped worshiping idols, now you're worshiping God. How are you supposed to live? So this strengthening would involve some teaching to establish them. Some translations say establish them in their faith as new Christians.

But notice Timothy's mission back to the Thessalonians wasn't just to strengthen by teaching. He was also sent to encourage them, to exhort them. It's not necessarily new content, it's not necessarily new information about the Gospel, but to exhort them, to encourage them, to keep going, to cheer them on in their faith. So think of this mission of Timothy to go back there to strengthen and encourage as involving both the head and the heart. They're suffering Persecution.

So he's there to keep them going, to exhort them to keep going. Paul sent more than a letter. Now, he did send a letter, and thank God he sent letters because we get to read them. But he did more than simply write another letter and give it at the hand of Timothy and be like, we'll call that good. He sent a person.

He sent Timothy to be with them, to be with them. Friends, there is a ministry simply in presence. And you've heard this, maybe this phrase, ministry of presence. And I think, and I include myself in this, I think that American Christians in particular underestimate the power of the ministry of presence, because Americans are doers. We do stuff.

We get stuff done. Now, there's a great strength in that. That is really good. But if you've ever been on a mission trip in a developing country where they don't value the clock like we do, we come in with our ideas of productivity and doing, and then the team sits around for an hour waiting for the pastor to tell them what to do or the leaders in the church to tell them what to do. Americans get frustrated.

We came here to do. And so when we take teams on mission trips like we did last year, we took our youth to Nicaragua, we said, they don't operate like we do. And so we're going to flow with them on their timetable, and we're going to be with them, and we want to be an encouraging presence with them. Makes me think of years ago, I went on a mission trip to the Philippines to spend time with very impoverished churches and their pastors in rural areas. And some people of you in our church here know exactly where I'm talking about, because you've been there, too.

They're ministering in areas where there's, like, no running water or even electricity. This is a church. This is a picture of a church gathering where it's just shacks, no electricity, no running water. It's like 100 degrees outside. And these pastors have literally chosen to make themselves poor so that they can go and bring the gospel to these communities.

I remember one of the young pastors was saying, this is our call. This is our call to suffer. And I'm like, I don't even know that level of sacrifice for the gospel. And just moved my heart. So when we were there, we did some things.

We obviously do some things like vacation Bible school for the kids with songs and stories and crafts. But the main value of the trip. And I'm showing you this picture, this is most of the pastors and some of their wives. The main value I discovered was just simply in presence, our presence, being with them, for encouraging them. They kept coming up to me and saying, we are so glad that you have come.

Like we hadn't even barely done anything for them, but just in coming there was something that was done for them. And they're continually expressing their gratitude for us coming to be with them. In fact, I remember after leaving one of the villages where we just did some stories in some vacation Bible school with the kids and the adults are there listening to the gospel too, by the way, which is beautiful. One of the pastors wives told us that after we left the village, one of the women in their church, very impoverished woman, said, the team coming here reminds me and shows me that God cares about us, that God has not forgotten the poor because this team came from the other side of the world to tell us about Jesus. To me that was so striking that God did something in this woman's life to remind this poor woman who sometimes feels forgotten by God because she is so poor.

It showed us God is with us, God is faithful to us simply by ministry of presence. So that's the point. I'm illustrating that God's grace of strength and encouragement comes through others. And we have the privilege of being channels of God's grace, mediators of God's strength and encouragement to each other with when we show up for each other, when we show up for each other, like when we gather around the Bible in prayer at an imprint group, whether that's a co ed mixed group or that's a men's group, or that's a women's Bible study, simply being together. Shoulder, shoulder.

There is an encouragement, there's an encouraging force of God's grace to one another. It doesn't take much imagination to, to think about how weak and sad we would be if we didn't have Christian brothers and sisters around us to speak to each other, to pray for each other, simply to pray. Even if it's a 15 second prayer for someone in the pew or in a row, when you're done with church, someone says, oh, how's it going? I got this. Can I pray for you?

I mean seriously, like 30 seconds of prayer, It's a gift, it's an encouragement. Now we think about our lives and our lives aren't dissimilar to what the Thessalonians are going through with persecution. So we may not be suffering persecution like the Thessalonians, but we still nonetheless need God's grace of strength and encouragement in order to keep going, especially when we're facing trials, because none of us gets through this life unscathed by trials. So far, okay, now we've seen two ways that God strengthens and encourages our faith. First, through meaningful relationships, and secondly, his grace through others.

And here's the reason. Here's the reason why he does this. It's to ground their faith in trials. So grounding faith in trials is the reason behind this. So Paul said in verse two that he sent Timothy, we saw this to strengthen and encourage you concerning your faith.

Verse 3. Now, so that, here's the reason. No one will be shaken by these afflictions. So the purpose of Timothy coming to strengthen and encourage them in their faith is to ground their faith so that it won't be shaken by these afflictions, these persecutions, these trials, so that the suffering won't lead them away from faith in Christ.

Now, Paul knew this was a threat because even when he was still with them, he knew persecution was a threat to them, to their faith, because he made sure that they knew this was a reality that was coming for them. I mean, how would you like that? It's like, here's the gospel, here's Jesus, life and forgiveness, hope, and people are going to hate you and possibly kill you.

It's a legitimate trade off because Jesus says the one who seeks to save his life will lose it, but the one who will be willing to lose his life for Jesus sake and the gospel will save it. You know, we ask people here when we do baptisms, you know, is it your intention to follow, trust and follow Jesus all the days of your life? Yes, and that's good. We should do that. Do you know what our ministry partner and friend over in Myanmar, Pastor Nopum, asks his people?

He says, are you prepared to die for Jesus?

That's startling, isn't it? I wonder how many of us will be like, yep, I'm getting in the tub, die. Oh, no, maybe. And I wonder, would I, would I stay faithful? He says, it's coming.

Verses 3 and 4. For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. In fact, when we were with you, we told you in advance that we were going to experience affliction. And as you know, it happened. Opposition and persecution are the normal experience for believers around the world.

We're like the exception here in the west now. We don't know where things are headed. But I don't think I would even compare ourselves to what our brothers and sisters around the world are facing. If you remember, even the Apostle Peter said this, dear friends, don't be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you as if something unusual were happening to you, meaning this is normal. And then he goes on to say in chapter five, the same kinds of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.

This is normal. This is why we should pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who are persecuted for their faith and know something of sacrifice for the Gospel and Jesus that we don't even know. So Paul's solution, notice to the danger of their faith being shaken, wasn't just to send a letter and say, here's what you're going to do in the face of persecution. Read the Bible more than and pray more. Now, is that helpful?

If you read the Bible more and pray more, is that generally helpful? Yeah, it is. But his solution was to send Timothy.

Reading the Bible and praying is always a good idea, but sometimes for Christians, that's like the standard solution to everything. You're having mental health struggles, read the Bible more and pray more. And it's like, that's not the answer to everything. It's important to everything, but it's not the ultimate answer to everything. Paul sends Timothy to strengthen them.

Timothy would help ground them in their faith. And however we end up suffering, regardless of whether it's persecution or just the pain and the trials of life, we need each other to help ground one another's faith firmly in Jesus. Because I've been a believer long enough to see that suffering can shake people, suffering can shake their faith. Now, for some, suffering becomes the catalyst for a deeper faith, because you realize I've got nothing else. All I can cling to is Jesus.

And that's a beautiful thing. But people can also go the other way where they're just like they think that God failed them in some way. They think that they expected, they didn't even know. They had this assumption in their life that as long as I'm obedient, as long as I'm faithful, God's going to keep me from pain. And that's just not in the Bible.

And as one who has experienced some level of affliction in my life, I still find myself drifting back toward this false belief. If I'm good and if I'm faithful, God will put up really strong walls around me. And then I come back to the Bible and reality. No, he promises to preserve me eternally. And much of the salvation that we see in our life is God saving us from practical, on the ground, daily things, but not all pain and suffering.

So do we believe when we suffer? God, you're still good. You see, sometimes we don't. We think that God has forgotten us. God must be ignoring us.

Why isn't God hearing my prayer for deliverance? And so it can shake our faith. And we are like trees swaying in a windstorm. And we need to be strengthened and encouraged by others so that our faith is grounded in the middle of a storm. I used to live in Salem, Oregon for many years.

And there's this beautiful park there, not too far from downtown Salem called Bush Park. And they have these beautiful, tall, towering White Oaks some 80 to 100ft high. Even this grove here isn't as high as some of the trees that I remember being there. Although this, this is a picture from the park. And in certain spots, the trees are so tall and the branches so wide that it forms this beautiful canopy overhead.

And I remember walking through Busch park after a particularly strong rain and windstorm, and I was surprised to see that several of these towering trees had toppled over. They were massive. And I was like, that's strange. I would think that a tree that's 100ft tall has some pretty deep roots to stay upright. And then I learned similar around here because there is so much rain, like down there in the Willamette Valley, there is so much rain, the roots don't have to reach very far to get water.

So these towering trees actually have a root system that's relatively shallow. So when the windstorm hits, even these towering trees can fall over. Paul is concerned that the Thessalonians roots might not be deep enough to hold them fast in the storm of persecution. This is why he says in verse five, for this reason, when I could no longer stand it, I also sent him to find out about your faith, fearing that the tempter had tempted you and that our labor might be for nothing. So Paul's worried that they had respond.

Whoa. What happened there? I think our sound guy, Mark knew that some of you were falling asleep and he just needed a little wake up call. So Paul is worried that they'd responded to the gospel at first, but that it hadn't truly taken root yet. It's like the parable that Jesus told in Mark 4, if you remember this.

Some people, Jesus said, are like seeds sown on rocky ground. When they hear the Word, in other words, the Gospel, immediately they receive it with joy. But they have no root. They are short lived. Listen, when distress or persecution comes because of the Word, they immediately fall away.

So in Paul's mind, he's probably heard this parable. Maybe they're like the ones that fell, the seed that fell on rocky ground that had no root. That's what he feared. Satan would have maybe used their suffering to tempt them to give up, and therefore all of Paul's ministry would have been fruitless, would have proven fruitless and in vain. But that's also why Paul sent Timothy to strengthen and encourage them to make sure they were still standing in the storm, to make sure they're still believing in the middle of the storm.

And as we'll see next week, Timothy brings back the good news that they, in fact, are still standing. They are still believing. The trees are still upright. So in closing, we should consider how can we have roots that go deep in faith, deep enough to endure opposition and any suffering? Again, the typical Christian response would be, read the Bible more and pray more.

And I'm all for that. I want to do more of that in my own life. Yes, Bible and prayer are indispensable in the fight of faith, but doing that on our own, thinking that all we need is just me, kind of my Bible, and maybe a Sunday sermon here and there is unwise and it neglects the gift that God's given us in each other. And there are so many Christians who just float. And I realize in some sense I'm preaching to the choir because you're here, but there are so many Christians who just float through life and they think they got it because maybe they are genuinely saved people, maybe they genuinely are in Christ, but that's not what we see in the New Testament.

We should take heed lest we fall, and consider the resource and the gift that God has given us in each other. If we're going to be grounded in faith and always cling to the gospel truth that Jesus is the crucified and risen Savior and is coming again and he is our ultimate, then we need each other if we're going to stay holding fast to that hope. So let me close by returning to our traveling partner's image. If you're a disciple of Jesus, are you largely doing this alone? Are you largely envisioning yourself, like, with Jesus, and you're walking down the road and I'm like, who are you shoulder to shoulder with who are your traveling partners?

Are you thinking that all you need is Jesus in your Bible and maybe the Sunday sermon here or there to keep your faith strong and on track? Will you take steps toward meaningful engagement with relationships? And I realize that it can be intimidating and it can be hard to come into a new Church body. But if infant church has become your home or if you're considering it becoming your home, then may I say that this is where we want to invest. This is where we want to be traveling partners together.

God's given us the privilege to be side by side through life and friends. Honestly, like when I think about standing in front of Jesus, I'm going to look at imprint church and I'm going to say, that's your grace. Thanks for letting me be a part of it. And if we go side by side, shoulder to shoulder with each other, then on that day we can look around and go, yes, God, let me be a part of this. You'll be someone else's trophy of grace, and someone else will be your trophy of grace.

I pour it into them. I did ministry with them. I lived life with them.

We need to be a source of grace, encouragement, strength for others. We want them to be that for us. But we want to be that for others, don't we?

May God give us grace to do so. Let's pray. God, we thank you that you are wise and that you know how to organize life and you know how to organize and give us direction for the life of faith in Jesus, to walk with him and to not do it alone, but to do it with each other. So God, thank you for this beautiful truth that you use us to strengthen and encourage each other's faith. And so, Lord, may we individually, may we receive strength and encouragement from others around us.

And then may we also, God, give ourselves to be that source of strength and encouragement for someone else, that we would stand there on the last day when Jesus comes again and look around and say, God, what you have done is amazing, that you have saved us, that you have called us your own, that you've washed us clean through Jesus, through his cross and through his resurrection. We have eternal life in your kingdom forever. God, we don't want to play church. We don't want to mess around. We don't want to just walk through life sort of just lethargically and being spiritually lazy and anemic.

Nor do we want to try to be superhero Christians on our own, proving that we're smart and competent enough on our own to do this on our own. We want to have enough humility, God, to say, I need to help someone and I need someone else's help. So may you make this church community one of strength and encouragement toward one another's hearts for the sake of faith, that we would be trees that send their roots deep, God, into the ground so that when it gets really dry and there's scorching heat of suffering and affliction, we're stable. Stable in your grace. And we help each other.

We pray this, God, for the glory of your great name and the joy of your church, Amen.