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He is one that knows the Lord Jesus Christ.

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The night before the accident, Christian had been memorizing a verse of Scripture for the

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school where he attends, and nearly every night his family gathered together for prayer.

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One can only imagine the heartbreak and the sense of loss as their nine-year-old son the

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next morning was taken out of this world through the accident.

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Sometimes we have the idea that Christian families shouldn't have trouble.

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In fact, some people, some Christians, try to make their goal in life to be adversity

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free, to have no distress, no obstacles, no constraints.

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But the fact is that whether Christian or non-Christian, every person in the world faces

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difficulties.

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We are fellow travelers through this life, and trouble is like a shadow that dogs our

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steps.

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And so we must not try to wait until we have no more troubles to begin being serious about

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our purpose in life.

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Troubles aren't going to get perfect so that then we can concentrate on doing the will

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of God.

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Indeed, it is while we are in the midst of troubles that God is perfecting His will in

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us.

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Now, as if the normal troubles of life weren't enough, those of us who are Christians can

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expect additional afflictions from Satan and his world system.

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The apostle in this chapter speaks about the tempter who is always going about seeking

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to create temptation for those who are believers, trying to get them to fall.

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Christians become the target of the enemies.

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Paul himself, of course, was in the midst of persecution and trouble as he wrote this

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letter to the Thessalonian church.

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Yet he wrote to encourage these, his children, in the faith.

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I thought this morning the way to approach this chapter might be to talk about how we

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can be encouragers.

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God knows that we need more encouragers in the world and in His family.

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We need people who are committed to help others even though they themselves may be in the

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midst of pain, for the fact that is that all of us are in some kind of pain.

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Yet in the midst of our own trouble, how can we be encouragers of others?

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It seems to me the apostle gives us an example here of four encouraging actions in this chapter.

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As the apostle seeks to encourage these troubled believers, the first thing he did was to send

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them a friend, verses 1 through 5.

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These verses tell us how, though he was left alone at Athens because of it, Paul nonetheless

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sent Timothy to the Thessalonian church.

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He says in verse 2, We sent Timothy, our brother and God's fellow worker in the gospel of

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Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no man may be disturbed

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by these afflictions.

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For you yourselves know that we have been destined for this.

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Indeed, when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer

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affliction, and so it came to pass, as you know.

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The apostle sent them a friend, this man Timothy, whom they knew.

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He did this on the one hand for his own benefit, that he might ascertain their own spiritual

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condition.

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Paul to his own sacrifice sent Timothy to them.

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But as he sent Timothy, he not only wanted to hear back how they were doing, he wanted

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to impart something to them, and he explains what he wanted to do in verse 2.

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There were two purposes to the mission of Timothy.

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First to strengthen them, and secondly to exhort or to encourage them.

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That tells us what friends are for.

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Friends are to strengthen and to encourage others.

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The idea behind the word strengthen here is an interesting one.

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It means to support or to buttress up.

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It's the kind of thought that you see illustrated when people are sandbagging a dike in the

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midst of a flood.

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They are seeking to buttress that dike so that the flood might not cause it to be breached.

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The apostle Paul wanted to be sure that the faith of these Thessalonians would not be

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breached by the flood of persecution and trouble that they were experiencing.

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So he sent Timothy to buttress their faith, to confirm them in their faith.

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The same word is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament in Exodus 17-12 where

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it says that the two men stood beside Moses and supported his hands.

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When his hands might have gotten heavy as he lifted up the rod of God in intercession,

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the two men stood beside him to hold up his hands in support.

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Friends are to hold up one another.

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Often our concern is, who is going to hold up me?

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But in the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus told us the real question ought to be,

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who can I hold up?

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The fact is that when we hold up others, we find ourselves being held up.

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Friends are also to encourage.

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This is that word that means to call alongside of when the Holy Spirit is called our Comforter.

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It means he is the one who has called alongside of us to encourage and exhort us.

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You and I are to do the same thing as friends of others.

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This is the picture of the coach who calls over the quarterback in order that he might

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exhort him or instruct him or encourage him in the next play in the game.

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You and I are to call others to our sides and put our arms around them as it were and

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to give them that word of encouragement that they need for the next play in the game of

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life.

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We are to be there to give them courage, a word of counsel, a note of direction.

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The first thing that the Apostle did to encourage these believers was to send them a friend.

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One of the best things that you and I can do to encourage someone else is to be a friend

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to them, someone who will hold them up and give them that word of encouragement in the

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hour of trial.

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Friendship, if it's meaningful, can be costly.

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Sometimes to be a friend you even have to risk the friendship itself.

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The writer of Proverbs says, faithful are the, do you know the next word?

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Some of you do.

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Faithful are the wounds of a friend.

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You mean a friend will wound me?

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I thought a friend would kiss me.

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Well the writer goes on to say that you have to be careful of those who kiss you too quickly.

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He says the kisses of an enemy are deceitful, but the wounds of a friend, ah, those are

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faithful.

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There are times when you and I, because we are friends of another, must wound them.

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Just as when a person has suffered snake bites, someone has to cut that open in order for

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the poison to be drawn out.

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So there are times when you and I have to come along someone whom we love dearly and

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give them a wound because we are friends.

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There are times when you and I interpret our friends doing that to us as being ugly, as

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being unthoughtful and unkind.

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But let's remember that if they've done it as a friend, they've done it to be faithful

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to us.

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The apostle sent Timothy to be a friend and thus to encourage these troubled believers.

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In verses 6-8 I see the second action that the apostle took to encourage them.

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He assured them of his own love.

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You see Timothy had come from them already to Paul and had brought him some good news.

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Notice how he puts it in verse 6.

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Now Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us good news.

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Literally he says he has come and evangelized us.

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He has brought us good news of your faith and love and that you always think kindly

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of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you.

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The apostle had received some good news from them.

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By the way, this is only one of two times in the New Testament when this word evangelize

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is used in another context than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Normally we think of the gospel as the death of Jesus Christ for our sins, his payment

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on our behalf before God of the price we could never pay, together with his resurrection

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from the dead so that he lives to save all of those who come to God by him, the gospel.

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Here the apostle appropriates the very same idea of gospel, good news.

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He says Timothy brought us the good news that that gospel we preach to you is doing its

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work because there is faith and there is love that is proceeding from your lives.

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The apostle then says I want to tell you what you mean to us.

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He says in verse 7, in all our distress and affliction, we were comforted about you through

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your faith.

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He says in verse 8, now we really live since, is the best interpretation there, since you

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stand firm in the Lord.

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The apostle here verbalizes the importance of the Thessalonians to him.

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Even as in verse 12 he explains to them how his love for them was increasing and growing.

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Paul says it's like a new lease on life to me, to get the word about your continuance

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in the faith.

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You see these people were so loved by Paul that when he got this word of what was happening

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in them despite his absence, there was great joy and comfort that was brought to him.

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If you want to encourage somebody else, let them know how much they mean to you.

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Just be forthright and say it.

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Sometimes we hint around about it and we think well surely they've gotten the message, but

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if you know someone who's troubled, let them know what they mean to you, how important

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they are and that will encourage them.

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Yesterday I had the opportunity to do this with Gene Jordan.

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I don't know how many of you know the Jordans.

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They've not attended here a great deal because of their ministry.

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Gene and Ruth have served the Lord Jesus Christ for almost 40 years together.

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They serve with HCJB, the great missionary radio station in South America.

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In his early days, Gene had his own radio broadcast in Chicago over WMBI playing the

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marimba and the violin singing.

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When he and Ruth married and they moved to Ecuador to be a part of that ministry, they

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were there when the five missionaries were killed by the Auk Indians.

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You remember them, don't you?

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Nate Saint, Jim Elliott, Roger Eudarian and two others.

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They cared for the children of Nate Saint.

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They held up Elizabeth Elliott during that time in prayer.

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In fact, two of Nate Saint's sons, one of whom lives here in Minnesota, dropped by on

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Friday just to see Uncle Gene.

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Ruth, Gene's wife, is a niece of two missionary martyrs that were well known in recent years.

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I don't know if they are today as much.

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John and Betty Stann, who gave their lives for Christ in China back in the mid-1930s.

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Quite a family.

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Yesterday, I had the opportunity to stand beside Gene's bed where he's dying of a brain

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tumor.

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And just to share with him how much he's meant to me through his ministry, including a ministry

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and a tape that Ruth gave me this last week.

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They just did a tape this last April down in Quito.

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On the tape, they did probably half of the numbers about heaven, not knowing, of course,

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that within a few months Gene would be there and shortly we believe God is going to call

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him home.

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It's so important that we tell others what they mean to us and not in the hour when they're

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dying only.

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But every day to express to our husbands, to our wives, to our children, our parents,

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to our friends, to brothers and sisters in Christ, what they mean to us.

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Christian's father, as quoted in the St. Paul paper, said, I'm so glad.

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I'm so glad, he said, I kissed him goodbye.

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When he did that, he didn't know that as he expressed his love to his son, that within

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a half an hour or so he would be killed in an accident.

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We encourage others when we assure them of our love and express that love to them.

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Now the apostle goes on beyond this and he does something else to encourage these believers

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who were suffering.

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He prayed for their growth, verses 9 through 12.

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He expresses his gratitude to God for them.

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His praying was characterized always by joyful thanks.

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A wellspring of memories produced a continuous flow of joyful praise to God.

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And so he says, what thanks can we render to God for you?

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He says we would do this in return for all the joy that you give us before God.

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But then he goes beyond the thanks and his praying is characterized by a powerful intensity

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because look at the phrases in verse 10.

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He says night and day, he says, we pray.

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Notice the emotion here.

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Notice the fervor, the commitment, the passion in his praying.

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Night and day he says we keep on continually praying.

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Most earnestly, boy that's an interesting word, most earnestly.

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It's that same word that is used in Ephesians 3.20.

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That's used again in this very book, chapter 5 and verse 13.

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That means to overflow all boundaries.

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It's the picture of a flood that comes and just washes away every obstacle in its path.

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He says our praying to God knows no obstacles.

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Earnestly we come before God day and night on your behalf.

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He prays for them.

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You can encourage others by praying for them.

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Let them know you're praying for them and then do it.

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That's why we made missionary commitments a couple of weeks ago to pray for our missionaries.

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And all that ought not to be something just routinely done but something that is done

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with passion.

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When we come before God and we intensely intercede with no boundaries to our praying.

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Notice that his praying was characterized by personal requests.

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He asked for them.

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It wasn't a general prayer.

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But he says most earnestly this is what we're asking that we may see your face and may complete

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what is lacking.

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Two specific requests that Paul says we're praying about.

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The first one is he says that we may see your face.

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And so he says in verse 11, may God and our Father himself and Jesus our Lord direct our

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way to you.

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He says may God make the path straight.

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He's already told us as we saw last week that Satan has thrown in some obstacles.

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Satan has cut up the road so that it's unsurpassable for the moment.

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He says we pray that God will direct our way that he'll clear out these obstacles so that

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we can come to you.

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And he says we're praying that God may allow us to complete what is lacking.

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And so he prays in verse 12, may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for

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one another for all men.

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Just like any of us, the Thessalonians had some things in their faith that lacked.

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They needed some shoring up and some repair work done.

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And Paul says we're praying that we can come to do that.

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This word complete is the word used for mending of the nets in the gospels.

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It's a word that means in the medical field to set a bone so that it will grow correctly.

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Paul says we want to come to you and set the bone.

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Put things in order.

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We want to mend and repair your faith.

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And so we're praying that you might increase and abound in love.

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In love toward one another, he says, and really toward all men, even toward unbelievers.

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Paul is here praying that there might be a visible connecting link between the God who

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is love and his people.

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And that this link would so fill them with what God is like that other people would see

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the difference, that here is genuine love in this church.

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You want to really encourage somebody else who's going through a time of trouble, pray

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for them.

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Pray for them intensely.

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Pray for them personally and specifically.

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Pray for them with joyful thanks.

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And finally, as the apostle seeks to encourage these troubled believers, he reminded them

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of their destiny.

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Verse 13.

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What we encounter in life in terms of our troubles has a purpose.

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And that purpose is our holiness.

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God is calling out a people to belong to Jesus Christ, and he is working to conform and transform

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every one of us to be just like him.

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God is not concerned with our comfort so much as he is concerned with our character.

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And so God is well enough pleased to allow us to experience troubles and discomfort so

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that in the midst of those trials that burn at us like a fire, he can purify what we are

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inside.

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We might wish there were another way that God could do this, and I suppose if he wanted

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to he could, just like that.

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But God has purpose to allow you and me to suffer so that we might be more like Jesus.

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God's work will one day be consummated when Jesus comes with all of his saints.

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In that day, in every respect, we will be unblameable in holiness.

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The idea behind holiness is not only purity, but it's to be like Christ in every respect.

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Not to be God himself, not to be deity, but to be like him in character and to be like

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him in body in that day when he comes.

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So in light of that, in the midst of our suffering, we can be patient.

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We should not expect the perfection from ourselves or from others that will only come later when

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we're with Christ.

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We need to be patient with one another, recognizing that God is still at work in every one of

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us.

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We need to learn to overlook the mistakes of others, to forgive the slights of others,

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to give them the benefit of the doubt, to let them have the opportunity to learn through

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their experiences just as we did, perhaps earlier in our own lives.

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That's hard to do.

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Because there's something about us that tends to want to judge others the more mature we

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get, but the more loving we get, the more we realize we need to give them room, give

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others space to let God work in their lives at His pace and in His way.

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I heard about a pastor who had to get up before his congregation a couple of weeks ago and

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say, folks, we just lost $40,000, and it was primarily my fault.

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I admire the way that he did it.

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He said, I blew it.

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I wonder how hard it's going to be for the congregation to forgive him for losing $40,000

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when they're already deeply in trouble financially.

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Well, there may be some things that need to be done there to better administrate the church.

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I don't know.

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I can't judge that.

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But I just know this, that when someone, whether in leadership or someone who is serving us,

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says to us, I blew it, we need to try to be understanding and be patient with them.

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God is still working with all of us.

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Not only do we need to be patient, but we need to be pliable.

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When trouble comes, we need to be careful not to harden our hearts in bitterness against

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God.

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We need to be sure that our hearts are supple, that we are teachable, that we are willing

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to listen to the voice of God in that trouble.

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The apostle reminded the Thessalonians of their destiny, and thus he encouraged them.

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We need a whole army of encouragers in our church, in our community, in our world.

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We don't have to be gifted or brilliant or articulate or extraordinary to serve God as

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encouragers.

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Nor do we ourselves have to be free of personal battles and perplexing problems in order to

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be encouragers.

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We just have to be willing and looking for opportunities.

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We can encourage others by being a friend, by affirming and listening, by counseling

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and healing.

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We can be an encourager by assuring of our love and expressing it, taking time to tell

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others how we feel.

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We can be a friend by praying for the growth of others, asking God to do what is necessary

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to complete them and to mature them.

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We can be encouragers by reminding others of our destiny as the children of God, to

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be forgiving and patient and pliable ourselves, and to point ourselves as well as them to

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the fact that God is still at work in our lives, but that for all of us the glory awaits,

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and that the suffering that we are now enduring is not even worthy to be compared to the glory

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that we shall know.

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As I close, I want to again underscore the fact that God has a design in our troubles.

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God does not waste any experience that he allows in our lives, not one.

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Whatever it is that you are passing through today, God is desirous of using that for a

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wonderful purpose.

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Chuck Swindoll in writing on this text says, In our comfort-at-any-cost society, things

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like affliction, pain, persecution, hardship, and other forms of suffering are viewed as

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enemies.

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Many of us who are Christians are frequently surprised, even angered, when we have to endure

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such difficulties.

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Unlike the message conveyed by Isaac Watts in his hymn, Am I a Soldier of the Cross?,

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numerous believers hope to be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease.

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But Swindoll continues, That is an unrealistic and unbiblical expectation.

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Repeatedly throughout Scripture we are informed that there is no escape from life's brutal

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blows.

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We are also told that we should not view all of them as unfair attacks against us.

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Indeed, our All-Good Lord has included suffering in His plan for each of us.

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On the road to glory there must be some barriers to confront and some mountains to scale.

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Whether we like it or not, the path to the crown is by way of the cross we must bear.

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On this Thanksgiving Sunday, I want to encourage all of us to thank God for our trials, to

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give praise to Him for the troubles, to express our gratitude for the problems.

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And let that be the first step towards seeing them in the context of the road to glory that

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God has paved for us.

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Let's pray.

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Just where you're seated, I wonder if you would quietly, within your own heart, give

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thanks to God for that which is your affliction today.

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Be pliable in your troubles.

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Let the Lord have His way in them.

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Teach you what He would.

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Let Him bless you in the way that He wants to.

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And be patient with your spouse or with that someone else in your life that now you're

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tempted to be impatient with.

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Father I thank you that you are the God of all encouragement and comfort.

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That what you encourage us with, we can use to encourage others.

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Thank you today for our pain.

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Thank you for our problems, ones that we would not choose, ones that you have brought sovereignly

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into our lives.

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And we say have thine own way, Lord.

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Thou art the potter, we are the clay.

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And this week, even this day, make us encouragers of others.

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In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.