This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to our look at 1st Thessalonians chapter 3 in Daily Drive Time
Devotions. Our second day of looking at this chapter, verses 5 to 7 today, we
began yesterday a look at five emotions of ministry, of God using you to make a
difference in this world that this chapter reveals. Today we talked about the
emotion of intense longing and what you do about that.

Today let's look in these verses at two different emotions, one more negative at
least when you first look at it and one certainly more positive, the emotion of
fear and the emotion of encouragement. In verse 5, Paul talks very honestly,
very authentically. This is a book about being authentic before God.

He talks authentically about this emotion of fear. He says this, "For this
reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I
was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts
might have been useless.

" He's reminding us here that serving others is scary sometimes. Ministry,
there's a fear to it. In fact, Paul talks very specifically, very honestly about
two kinds of fear here.

He talks about fear for others and he talks about fear for yourself. He talks
about fear for others that they may have fallen and he talks about fear for
yourself that you may have failed. Notice he first talks about fear for others
that they may have fallen.

He says, "I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you, that
somehow you had fallen to temptation. " There's this fear that you might pour
your life into someone or share Christ with someone or help someone to grow and
then they'll fall into temptation. This fear that they're going to start off
maybe right on the road of faith, but then very quickly going to fall off that
road.

The question is, are they going to make it? Now, remember, when you have that
fear that when someone comes to Christ, that is a great joy in your life, but
it's not something you own. They are now a servant of Jesus Christ.

They are following him. This fear that others have fallen, we have to be honest
in saying that part of that fear comes from selfishness in our lives. We don't
want to look bad.

We don't want to feel like, "Well, I didn't share the gospel well enough. I
didn't share with them enough verses. " I mean, Paul had, as we talked about
yesterday, only been able to be with this group of people for two weeks.

So he realized there was much he was not able to tell them and he was afraid
that they may have fallen. He was also honest about where that fear came from.
He didn't blame himself.

He certainly didn't blame God or other people. He realized that if they had
fallen, it would have been the tempter, it would have been Satan that had done
that, it would have been the evil one. It's a good thing sometimes to point to
the source of evil when evil is done.

It's a lot easier to point to the nearest reason for evil and to blame this
person or that person or this circumstance or that circumstance or for some of
us to do a lot of guilt blaming of ourselves. And it's healthy. It's healthy to
realize where I have fallen and made the wrong choices.

But Paul reminds us here that it's also healthy to remember that there is a
tempter. There is an evil one. There is an enemy.

And we need to be recognizing that enemy and praying that he would not, he would
not gain a victory. Paul says, honestly, I had a fear for you that you may have
fallen. But he is also very upfront about the fact that it wasn't just a fear
for them.

It was also a fear for himself. He says, I have a fear that our efforts might
have been useless. A fear for himself that he may have failed.

Two emotions of fear in ministry. Fear for others that they might have fallen.
Fear for yourself that you might have failed.

That what you've poured into someone's life will result in nothing coming out of
it. Ministry serving others is a lot of effort. You can put a lot of your heart
into it.

So it's very natural to fear that this will be for nothing. Do you see how
easily you could become overwhelmed by this fear? It's not an unreal fear.

There are some times in ministry when you do something, maybe you do everything
that you can and still you're disappointed. People that you're praying for to
change don't change. When this happens, a fear can begin in ministry.

So what do you do about it? You have to be honest that it's there. What do you
do about it?

Many believers who have been overwhelmed by this fear take the most natural way.
The way of escape. They just stop trying.

That's one way to escape these fears. You just stop trying. You don't have to be
afraid of no results if you don't pour anything in anybody's life.

Let me give you a picture of ministry. A picture of making a difference in the
lives of other people. Whenever you're going to do any kind of serving, whether
it's in your family or at work or at church or out in the community, the picture
is it's like you're standing at the top of a ski slope.

You're standing there and there is this moment when you have to decide, "Am I
going to launch out down the hill or not? " That is a crucial moment. Am I just
going to stand there and look and say, "It's a long way down.

" Maybe because you've been disappointed before and you allow this fear to begin
to creep into the back of your thoughts, you think, "I don't want to go through
that again. " You stand there and you think, "Am I going to launch out? If I
launch out, I might fall and it might hurt if I fall.

" If you stand there long enough, the fear will eventually overwhelm you. You'll
convince yourself, "I don't want to do this. I'm going to go back and I'm going
to drink hot chocolate.

That's a better solution for me. " I want to alleviate your fears about
launching out into ministry. You're standing there ready to launch out.

Maybe you've been even hurt before and you're thinking you might fall. Let me
help you get over that fear with three little words. You will fall.

You will definitely fall. You think you're going to go the first time down a ski
slope when you've never been down one before and you're going to make it without
falling? Of course you're going to fall.

But guess what? Every time you fall, you're a little bit further down the slope
and even better than that. Every time you fall, God is there to pick you up.

I'm not talking here about falling into temptation, although God picks us up
then too. I'm talking specifically about when it doesn't work out like I wanted
to, when I make a mistake, when things don't happen like I was hoping they would
happen. That's just part of ministry.

But when you're willing to face those feelings and to realize that when I face
that fear and I keep on going, God continues to use me, you will be a person
greatly used of God. Paul faced this feeling often, but it never made him quit.
You face the emotion of fear in ministry, but that's not all that these verses
talk about.

There's a third emotion in verses six to seven, and that is the emotion of
encouragement. And I need that one right alongside of fear. Let me read for you
verses six and seven.

But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about
your faith and love. He's told us that you always have pleasant memories of us
and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. Therefore,
brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we were encouraged about you
because of your faith.

Don't fail to let God encourage you. You're going to have failures in ministry.
We all do because none of us are perfect.

We don't know everything. You have to learn things. Sometimes, in fact, most of
the time, you fail your way to success in ministry and making a difference
through your life.

But here's one place to never fail. Don't fail to let God encourage you. In
whatever serving you do, if it's serving as a parent to your kids and parents
need to serve their kids, in many ways, that may be your most important ministry
if you're a parent.

Whether it's ministering as a parent to your kids or it's serving people in your
office, maybe there's a Christian there who needs encouragement, they're
struggling and you're serving God there, in whatever you're doing, don't forget
to be encouraged along the way. In fact, don't forget two things. This emotion
of encouragement, don't forget to watch people grow.

Paul writes to the people in Thessalonica and he says, "I look at your faith and
I look at your love and I am encouraged by your faith. " When you take the time
to watch people grow, there is something exciting, there's something enthusing
about that. A while back, somebody was telling me the story of how they came to
our church at Saddleback.

They said, "I went and I parked to go into a store, I opened the door, I got out
of my car and I stepped on a little white audio cassette tape. I picked it up
and it said Saddleback Church on it. It was one of the weekend messages.

It hadn't broken so bad," they said, "so I stuck it in my tape player and I
listened to it and I liked what I heard. It gave me faith, it gave me
encouragement. So I came to Saddleback and that's how I came to know Jesus
Christ, through stepping in on an audio cassette tape.

" I love to hear stories like that. Those little stories along the way that
remind me that people are growing, that God is at work. Don't forget to watch
people grow.

A second thing not to forget is don't forget to enjoy the relationships. Paul
truly enjoyed the relationships that he had with those in Thessalonica. Even
though he'd been with them for a short time, he says, "Timothy has come and he's
brought good news and he told us that you always have pleasant memories of us.

We long to see us just like we long to see you. " Paul is saying, "I'm glad we
have a good relationship. " That relationship that he built with them was a
source of joy in his life, of encouragement in his life.

Don't forget to be encouraged by that. Don't get so caught up with being a
perfect parent that you don't have time to enjoy the relationship with your
kids. Don't get so intent on getting the job done that you don't forget to enjoy
the relationships with the people at your work.

Don't forget to enjoy the relationships while you're doing ministry. Some people
are so intent on serving God, they can't enjoy the people they're serving God
with, the very people God made for you to have and enjoy in ministry. As you and
I talk about the emotions of ministry, we've looked today at two very opposite
emotions, fear and encouragement.

Let's talk to God about it. Right now, instead of pretending that you don't have
any fears, say, "God, I'm not going to pretend. " Paul had fears and I have
fears, I would rather not fail, I'd rather it go perfectly every time but it
doesn't.

I'd rather me be perfect every time but I certainly am not. I make mistakes,
even worse than that, I sin. God, I begin by asking you for forgiveness for the
sins that I have committed.

God lift me up and strengthen me to follow Christ and I continue by asking you
to not allow the fears to control my actions in ministry. Help me to choose to
serve. Even though I know it won't all go perfectly, I know you'll be beside me
all the way and I would rather face the failures than do nothing with my life.

And God, as I serve, help me to look more for the encouragement than for the
failures. Help me to watch people grow. Everyone won't grow at the rate that I
hoped that they would but some will grow much more quickly than I ever thought
possible.

God help me to enjoy the relationships. Satan would love to get me focused on
the negative side of ministry, me and my fears. God help me to focus on the
positive side of ministry, you and the way you're at work in people's lives and
the relationships that last not only through this time of serving together but
all the way into eternity.

Thank you for these things Jesus. In your name, amen. Join us tomorrow, we'll be
looking at chapter 3 verses 3 to 9.