JUNE 4, 2023
SERIES: DEVELOPING CONFIDENCE TO LIVE IN TODAY’S CULTURE
MESSAGE: CONFIDENCE ON THE ROUGH ROAD
I Thes. 2:13-25

I Thes. 1:6 – In spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with joy.
I Thes. 2:14 – You suffered from your own countrymen the same things these churches suffered from the Jews.
I Thes. 2:15 – Difficulties.
I Thes. 3:3 – Unsettled by those trials.
II Tim. 3:12 – Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Three Truths For The Rough Road:

God’s Word with in us.

Verse 13 – And we also thank God continually because when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of me, but as it actually is, the Word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

Three Things About The Word:

They appreciated the Word of God.

They appropriated the Word.

Verse 13 – We also thank God that you received the Word of God…you accepted it.

They applied the Word.

Verse 13 – The Word of God is at work in you who believe.

You need God’s people around you.

Verse 14 – Once they received the Word and became imitators, they suffered from their own countrymen.

Acts 17:4 – Many prominent women received the truth.

Verse 17 and 18 express His emotions.

Verse 17 – But we brothers, when we were deprived of you.

Verse 18 – Because we wanted to come to you, I Paul did more than once, but Satan interfered with us.

Three Things about Roadblocks:
Determine the intent or hindrance.
Understand the timing.
Understand the personality.

Two Lessons:
Don’t isolate yourself.
Don’t stop helping.

God gives us strength during suffering.

Verse 19-20 – For what is our hope, our joy, or our crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus… you are.

Heb. 12:1-3 – Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.