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It's easy for us to pick up a hymn-o-lan, sing a hymn, isn't it?

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Without knowing the story, sometimes the pain out of which those words have flowed.

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I'm grateful for this understanding that we have been given this morning regarding the

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hymn, More Love to Thee.

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It helps remind us that there are many people just like Elizabeth Prentice who are today

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in some kind of pain.

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Physical pain, emotional pain, spiritual pain.

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And I hope that that reminder causes us to want to be the kind of a person who really

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cares.

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Would you open your Bible, please, to 1 Thessalonians, the second chapter.

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Our text today begins in verse 17.

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But we, brethren, having been bereft of you for a short while, in person, not in spirit,

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were all the more eager with great desire to see your face.

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For we wanted to come to you, I Paul, more than once, and yet Satan thwarted us.

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For who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation?

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Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?

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For you are our glory and joy.

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People who care are desperately needed in our world.

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My hope is that each one of us will determine as we leave this morning to be that kind of

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person, someone who is able to feel the hopes and the hurts of others.

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The apostle Paul, with his characteristic transparency in these brief words, shares

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with us three potential experiences of someone who cares.

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The first is the experience of bereavement.

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We have seen that dramatized for us a few moments ago.

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The apostle says, brethren, we were bereft of you for a short while.

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That is a very strong word, bereft.

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It means to be left as an orphan.

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It means to be left desolate or deprived of one that you loved.

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It is a deeply emotional word.

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It is the kind of word that would describe how Elizabeth felt upon the loss of her child.

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That is how the apostle Paul felt as he was forced to leave the city of Thessalonica.

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You remember the story, don't you?

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While he was ministering in the city after having been there for less than a month, it

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would seem, there was a city-wide riot that was led by Jewish opponents of the gospel.

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Failing to find Paul that they might persecute him, they dragged Jason, one of the believers,

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before the city authorities.

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The city authorities, in order to try to quiet the situation, demanded of Jason a peace bond

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which he had to pay.

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And then they released him.

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That night, it says in Acts chapter 17, that the brethren immediately sent Paul away by

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night to Berea.

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He was sent on this journey of some 50 miles in order that he might escape with his life.

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Now while one might feel some relief in having escaped a riot, the apostle Paul had another

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emotion.

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He felt that he had been orphaned.

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He felt that those that he loved so dearly had been taken away from him.

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Ties had developed quickly, as they do between those who trust the Lord Jesus Christ.

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And though he had led them to faith in Christ and had only known them for a matter of weeks,

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still there was a deep bond that had been forged between Paul and the believers that

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he writes this letter to.

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His being torn away from them was like bereavement.

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If you and I dare to allow ourselves to care for someone else, we too face the potential

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experience of suffering loss.

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We may lose that person that we've grown to care for because of a move, perhaps because

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of death.

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There's another way that we might lose.

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If we dare to care for someone else and reach out our hand to them, we might suffer rejection.

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Or we may suffer the loss of our energy or even money that we have invested in the needs

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of that other person.

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When you and I dare to care, we too may suffer loss, albeit a different kind of loss than

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Paul knew.

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Bereavement hurts.

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Most of us have lost someone or something precious to us.

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And having experienced that loss, we do not rush into an experience where we might have

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it again.

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Our natural tendency is to withdraw ourselves.

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But aren't you glad God doesn't do that?

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The Bible says that God cares for us, and even though God has been grieved many times

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by each one of us in our responses to him, he nonetheless time and time again reaches

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out to us in our needs because he cares for us.

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And you and I are called upon to be a caring people.

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A second experience that often comes along with caring is the experience of burden.

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You see that in Paul's language.

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He says, we were bereft of you for a short time in person, not in spirit, and we're all

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the more eager with great desire to see your face.

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There was burden in the heart of the apostle Paul.

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There was a fervency there that he might get back to these people whom he felt needed him.

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It was with great desire.

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Actually the word there is great lust.

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Paul is not using it here in any kind of an evil sense, but only in the sense of a controlling

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passion.

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His heart was filled with burden for these people because he cared for them.

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He wanted their best.

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He wanted to be there when they needed him.

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He wanted to lift them up.

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He wanted to help them face the persecution that was coming strongly against them.

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He was burdened.

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Some of us say, yeah, I want to care, but I can't afford to be burdened right now.

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If that's our response, we're not really very serious about caring.

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There is sometimes the burden of the needs of others.

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To be one who cares means to be willing to bear the hurts, the heartaches, the tears

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of someone else.

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The apostle Paul carried these people in his heart, and though he was separated by miles,

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he felt close to them.

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That's what he means by in person, not in spirit.

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Literally, he says in face, but not in heart.

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He couldn't see their faces, but his heart was just beating with theirs.

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Indeed, the strings that bind our hearts with those who need us can carry heavy loads.

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The story is told about a soldier who returned from battle.

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Not having seen his parents since he went away to war, he called them on the telephone

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to let them know he had arrived in the States.

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And he asked his parents if he could bring a buddy of his home with him.

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You see, Mom, my friend was pretty badly wounded in battle.

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He has only one leg, one arm, and one eye.

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His mother paused for a long time and then said grudgingly, well, son, of course your

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friend can come and stay with us for a little while.

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But it was obvious that her voice carried another message, and that was that she didn't

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feel that she could afford to be burdened with such a severely handicapped person in

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her home.

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You may know the rest of the story.

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Just two days later, she received a telegram that was sent to her saying that her son had

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plunged to his death from a hotel window.

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They were grief-stricken.

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His body arrived home, and when she went along with her husband to view his body, their son

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had only one leg, one arm, and one eye.

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If we're going to care for others, it means that we're going to be burdened.

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It means that the load that we already have in life is going to be increased and intensified.

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But God calls us to be a caring people.

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Because it means bearing the burdens of others' battles.

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These Thessalonians were going through a tough battle.

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Satan was attacking their church by persecution from those around them.

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They lived in a hostile world, and many were opposed to what they were seeking to do in

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their lives for Christ.

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The apostle shared that burden.

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In fact, as he tried to get back there, he confesses that more than once he had tried

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to do that, and Satan thwarted him.

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The word thwart is a colorful word from Paul's day.

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It was used in the athletic realm to refer to one who cut in front of another in a race,

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to cut in.

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And thus to force another person off the path.

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It was used in the military world of that day.

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And it meant to break through the lines of the enemies.

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Or to break up a road so that it would become impassable for the opposing army.

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So you see how Paul used this term regarding Satan.

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He said, we tried to come back to you, Satan cut in front of us.

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He made the road impassable.

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He broke through the lines, and we've been unable to fulfill the burden of our heart.

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But he tells them about Satan so that they would know that he shares the battle that

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they're facing.

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It's unclear as to exactly how Satan hindered Paul.

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It may have been the Judaizers who were constantly tracking him and opposing him.

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Or it may have been of some circumstance that came to him that we know nothing about.

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But whatever, Satan was the source of it, and Paul interpreted it that way.

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It's interesting that Paul didn't always interpret a hindrance to his plans as from

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Satan.

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You remember before they entered into Europe, he and his missionary team were heading off

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another direction.

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And there the Holy Spirit in some means said no and stopped them.

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It takes spiritual discernment to understand where the hindrance is coming from.

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Sometimes it's the hand of God, sometimes it's the doing of the devil, but it's a burden.

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Whatever God allows Satan to hinder you and me in our plans is because God has a higher

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and greater purpose in mind.

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You say, what could have been greater for Paul than to go back to Thessalonica?

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The answer is very simple and obvious if you stop to think about it.

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Because he was unable to go there personally, he wrote them a letter, which the Holy Spirit

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inspired, which is in the New Testament, which we're studying today.

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That was God's greater and higher purpose, that part of his word should be pinned through

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Paul at this point in his life.

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And so when you feel that Satan has cut in front of you, or when he has torn up the road

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of your life so that you can't do what you would love to do, and you're bearing a burden,

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remember if God has allowed that for you, he has a greater purpose.

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You may not know what it is now.

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It's not important that you do, but it is important that you trust God.

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There's a third potential experience for someone who cares.

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It is the experience of blessing, which the apostle describes in verses 19 and 20.

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You and I never give ourselves to others and caring for them without some return coming

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to us.

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Always, always there is blessing for those who sacrifice on behalf of others.

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Despite the trouble that Paul faced because he had gone to Thessalonica and cared for

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these people, to him the blessing and delight and satisfaction of having ministered to them

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was greater than anything else.

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He speaks of them as his hope, his joy, his crown.

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He seems to be looking forward to that day when they would all stand in the presence

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of the Lord, and he would be able to present them to Jesus Christ.

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And he says, in that day you will be my reward, as was pointed out to us last Sunday morning

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in Keith's message.

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The crown is not necessarily one that we wear on our heads, but it's those that we may present

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to Christ.

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That is the soul winner's crown.

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To have someone or some several that we may present to Jesus.

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The apostle Paul was filled with blessing, as he thought to that day.

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But he says even now, right now, you are presently our glory and joy.

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What he's saying is that people are worth the pain.

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Caring may bring its bereavement and its burden, but it's all worth it.

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The greatest joy that a person can have in this world is to serve Jesus Christ and others.

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That's easy to lose sight of, isn't it?

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Sometimes we become so focused on our own problems and our own battles that we forget

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the blessing of caring for others.

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Charles Swindoll in one of his books says, when we become so intense in fighting our

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battles that we become grim, we lose three things.

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One is our hope, as we come to believe that we will never make it through the struggle,

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we begin to feel defeated.

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We also lose our hunger for God's word.

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As our joy decreases, our desire to read, study, and believe his truth diminishes.

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In the midst of all this, we also lose our sense of humor.

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We begin to take ourselves too seriously and fail to take God seriously enough.

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Thus, it is imperative that we face our struggles with a joyful hope that no person or thing

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can take away from us.

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It's wonderful to note how Paul loved people and how he told them so.

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Isn't it interesting that he wrote this to them?

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When was the last time you said to your sweetheart, that very special person in your life, that

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you've written a word of affirmation and joy and delight in sharing the burdens and

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the bereavements of life with that one?

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Or that friend who's been close to you?

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Or that one who has ministered to you in the time of your need, who really cared?

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You've written a word just to say thank you.

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I want to encourage you to do just that, to write a word.

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I was reminded of this sometime during the night last night, and for whatever reason,

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I don't know.

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The importance of writing to someone.

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And especially if that someone is a person that you love deeply.

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I shared this with you three years ago when my mother died, that I was thankful that I

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had, on at least one occasion, that I can prove, written my deepest thoughts about her

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to her.

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So that after she passed away and went to be with the Lord, and I asked myself, I wonder

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if I ever told her, I could look at a piece of paper that I'd kept a copy of and know

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that I had told her those things.

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I want to encourage you not only to say it, but to take the time to write it down.

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For that person's sake, so that there can be a repetitious reading of it, but also for

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your sake in the future.

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So that you can know that you said those things that communicated your joy and your delight

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and your blessing that came through that other person.

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God has called us to be a caring people.

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Caring for others will bring a dimension of adventure and excitement to your life.

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It provides a catalyst for growth.

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Being ingrown and merely self-concerned only leads to smallness of heart and misery.

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But to take the time and the energy and whatever it takes to invest in others, ah, that brings

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delight in this world and in eternity.

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To care about others can bring rejection.

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It can bring misunderstanding, yes, you can even be taken advantage of.

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But God calls us to risk it.

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God calls us to dare to be people who care.

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We live in a world that is characterized increasingly by what is called privatization.

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There are people in our world today who build walls, and that is a characteristic of the

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90s.

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People are withdrawing into their own homes, into their own worlds, and building walls

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of privacy.

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God calls us to be people who build bridges, not walls.

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People of caring and compassion.

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Who is it that today needs to be cared for by you?

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It may be someone closer to you than you think.

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It may be someone at work.

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It may be someone that you will just by God's appointment meet this afternoon.

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But God has called us to be a people who care.

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Let's be willing to pay whatever price there may be so that we reach out the hand to someone

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who needs the love of Jesus Christ through us in real and tangible ways.

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And let's be bridge builders.

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Let's bow together.

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Father remind us that there are those like Elizabeth who are going through battles, who

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are disappointed, who are fearful, who have lost their way, who are crushed beneath loads

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they cannot carry alone.

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Father, I pray that each of us will realize that there are some like that sitting near

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us right now, or with whom we will brush shoulders this morning or speak later today.

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Fill us with the Holy Spirit that we may be a caring, compassionate people who reach out

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not only to other believers, but also to those who are not a part of the family of God with

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the love of Jesus.

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And in doing that Lord, may we fulfill in our lives that prayer that was sung earlier.

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More love, O Christ, to thee.

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More love to thee.

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With our heads bowed and just before we go, I wonder how many here would say, God has

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touched my heart this morning and I want to be a caring person.

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And God helping me, I'm going to be looking for that person or that family that he wants

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me to care for in some special way.

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I can't care for everybody, but I can care for those that God appoints to me.

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Would you just lift your hand and say that I want to be that caring person that God wants

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me to be.

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Oh, amen.

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Father God, as we go from here today, fill us with the Holy Spirit and strengthen us

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for your calling in our lives.

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May we be like Jesus as we walk through the pilgrimage of this world.

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May we show his love.

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In his name we pray, amen.

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Would you stand together please?

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I want to ask you to pray today for the family of Jim Cook.

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In the service I received word that his brother was staying with them this weekend and passed

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away during the night.

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And so please remember to pray for Jim and his family in this time of their bereavement.

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God bless you, we're dismissed.