This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Welcome to day five of our look at 1st Thessalonians chapter one and daily drive time devotions. Our last day of our look at this chapter. Today we're looking at verses nine and ten. Let me read those verses for you. Paul writes, "For they themselves, those in the regions around Thessalonica, they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. And they tell us, they tell us how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. " Here is this young church that Paul is writing to. He went and he just preached a couple of weeks, but the message got through. They heard the good news of Jesus Christ. And because of the Holy Spirit in their lives and the news of Jesus Christ, their lives began to change. And he says they all around are talking about the kind of reception that you gave to us. And when he talked about the reception that you gave, he doesn't talk about the dinner parties that they may have thrown or, "Hey, you had us in your house. " They may have done some of that, but that's not what was important to Paul. What was important was life change. What was important was what happened in their lives. And when he talks about the kind of reception you gave us, he talks about two things. And these are the two things that I want to be the kind of reception I give to the good news of Christ in my life, that I want for you to have be the kind of reception that you give to the good news of Christ in your life. He says the first thing you did is you turned from and you turned to. You turned from idols. You turned to God. And he says the second thing you did is you learned to wait for his son from heaven. So let's focus on those two things. First he says you turned from and you turned to. You turned from idols to serve the living and true God, idolatry. In Thessalonica, it was about people who were materialists. They had a business center there and so people loved money. That can be an idol. In this city, it was about people who were philosophical intellectuals, the Greek society, the Greek culture, and a philosophy and a pride in your own philosophy. That can be an idol. In this city, there were many religious people. About a third of the city was Jewish and many Roman people who worship Caesar. Then a religion can become an idol. Not true worship of God, but a religion where I set up some man-made rule, list of rules that is important to me, that can become an idol. In fact, we can make an idol of almost anything. When we think of idolatry, we think of little stone gods that were beside maybe a fireplace in ancient times. But the idea of that is what they did with those little stone gods. They believed that those little stone statues could somehow meet their need. If they didn't have it, then life wouldn't be all that it should be. We can make an idol of almost anything. You can make an idol of a possession. If I don't have that possession, my life is not going to be all that it should be. You can make an idol of a person. I have to have that person in my life for my life to be meaningful. You can make an idol of a passion, some hobby, something that's important to you. If I'm not able to experience that, express that, then life is not all that it should be. You can make an idol of a principle. I'm not talking about a high school or grade school principle, I'm talking about a principle of life. I've got to live this way. It's not a principle from the Bible, it's your principle. You can make an idol of the past, look back to the past and think that's the way that life should be and I'm never going to forget that. I'm going to hang on to that instead of heading towards the future. You can make an idol of a place. I know a lot of people who make an idol of the first church that they ever attend and come to know Christ in and they feel like no other church could ever be like that. Well, of course not. No other church could ever be like any other church but God wants you to serve him the rest of your life wherever he happens to move you, wherever he happens to put you. An idol is anything beyond God that you believe that you have to have in order for your needs to be met. God is enough. Now, he uses some of these things that we just talked about to meet your needs but once you start to trust the gift instead of the source of the gift, you've made of the gift an idol and that's easy to do. There's a lot of evidence for that in history. It's what the Israelites did. They took the gold that had been given to them as a gift when they fled the land of Egypt. Remember the story from the Old Testament? When they left the land of Egypt, they were told to ask the slave owners for a gift of jewelry and they gave them gold and they took that gold and they took it out of the land of Egypt. The people of Israel took that gold that had been given to them as a gift and they melted it down and they made of that gift an idol. We do the same thing. We do the same thing. We make of God's gifts an idol and in opposition to idols, Paul said, "You have chosen instead to turn from all of that and to serve the living and true God. " I love that phrase, the living and the true God. Idols are dead. God is living. Idols are a lie. God is true. And they had decided to serve God and not idols. Why do people serve idols? Because they think they're going to get what they want. Idols are a way for us to get out of some God, some power that's higher than us, what we want in life. But when you serve the living and true God, all that goes away and you realize it's not about what I want and me manipulating God to meet my needs. An idol is a God that's small enough that you feel like you can manipulate that God to meet your needs. No. When you serve the living and true God, you realize the truth of life. I serve him. He doesn't serve me. I serve him. And they learned that. And Paul says, "I rejoice in that. " That's the kind of reception that you gave to the good news. That's a great reception. You learn to turn from and turn to, he says. And you and I need to learn that also. And he also says, "You learn to wait great. You learn to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. " The hope of the second coming is a theme throughout the books of Thessalonians. And this sets the tone. You wait great when you wait for a person. You learn to wait for his son from heaven. We're not waiting for an event, the second coming. It's an event. No. Jesus' second coming. We're waiting for a person. You know, when it comes to teaching about the second coming, I believe that we too often focus on the events surrounding the second coming. And we focus to the exclusion in a way that clouds the main focus, the person. If you'd been separated for, say, six months from the person you're going to be married to right before your wedding, you don't want to get a note from them that says, "I am visualizing what the weather will be like on the day that we finally get back together. " No, no. You want to hear them say, "I can't wait to see you. " That's the truth of the second coming. We wait for his son from heaven. You wait great when you wait for a person, and you also wait great when you appreciate his rescue. Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. Jesus is our rescuer because we all need to be rescued. He rescues us from God's wrath. Now, some are tempted to play God at this point. They're tempted to think, "God's wrath? Wait a minute. We as human beings, we aren't all that bad. We don't deserve wrath. " God knows a lot more than we do, and he says that our sin deserves wrath. God loves people a lot more deeply than I could ever hope to, than you could ever hope to. And in his love and wisdom and justice, he declares that the proper response to sin is wrath. If you think that wrath against sin is unloving or unwise or unjust, you're just playing God. And that's a game that's never gotten anyone anywhere. There's good news here. The good news is that's not the end of the story. He doesn't leave us in our sin. He sent a rescuer. The rescue is guaranteed the moment I put my trust in the rescuer, Jesus Christ. It's not guaranteed if I just consider that there is a rescuer. If I'm halfway down a cliff and someone throws a rope down to me and I think, "Oh, great, there's a rescuer there," but I never grab the rope, I never let myself trust the rescuer enough to bring me up off of that ledge, then I'm not rescued. You have to trust the rescuer. The moment I put my trust in that rescuer, rescue is guaranteed. We are already experiencing the first benefits of that rescue and the abundant life that he gives us in our relationship with him in this world, and we're waiting for the full joy of it. When he comes from heaven, as we take a few moments to pray together today, I'd like to thank Jesus, our rescuer. Let's pray together. Jesus, thank you for your rescue. I was lost, but because of you I am found. I was hopeless, but because of you, my trust in you, my faith in you, I can have hope. Jesus, I was on that cliff about ready to fall off to my destruction, but you threw the rope down. You got it right there where I could grab it, and then you are the one who is pulling me to safety, and inevitably I know I will be rescued because of your strength, because I can trust you. Jesus, you're my rescuer, and so forgive me. Forgive me for sometimes depending on idols. Some sense of power, some sense of God that I can manipulate to get what I want. Lord, I think that what I want is most important. I think that's what's going to make me happy, but the truth is, it's what you want. It's what you've designed for my life that's going to bring me true joy. I know that. Deep down, I know that, and so instead of depending on idols, I want to depend on the living and true God and to wait for you, Jesus, from heaven where you'll come to rescue me I am grateful for your love, in your name, amen. Join us next week. We're going to be looking at the second chapter of the book of 1 Thessalonians.