This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Intense longing, fear, encouragement. These are three of the five emotions of
ministry that we're looking at together this week. Welcome to day three of our
look at chapter three of the book of First Thessalonians.

In our verses today, verses three to nine, we're going to finish our look at
these five emotions of ministry. And just like yesterday, today we're going to
look at two strongly differing emotions. Yesterday we looked at fear and
encouragement.

Today we're going to look at stress and joy. Paul, in these verses, talks about
the emotion of stress. Now, as Paul talks about this, it's very obvious that his
main source for this feeling was very real persecution that he was facing.

This was not just internal stress. This was internal feelings that were caused
by very real external circumstances. Paul had a much better reason for stress
than a lot of us.

He had a stronger source. Paul's facing of persecution throughout the book of
Acts is very, very well documented. That's a very strong, strong reality in his
life.

Sometimes you may feel like everybody's against you. For the apostle Paul,
sometimes everybody actually was against him in the cities that he was in. In
other letters, Paul talks about how that persecution that he faced caused him
sometimes to feel pressed down, to feel crushed, to feel despair.

As you can imagine, it was not easy. But he didn't run from the feelings of
stress that were caused by that persecution. He found a way to deal with this
emotion that goes along with serving others, with God using you to make a
difference in this world.

Paul uses two phrases beginning in verse three that talk about how to reduce the
stress. In verses three and four, the first phrase he uses is he reduced the
stress by realizing I was destined for them. Let me read those verses to you.

So that no one would be unsettled by these trials, you know quite well that we
were destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that
we would be persecuted, and it turned out that way, as you well know. Paul's
stress was reduced by the fact that in one sense he was not surprised by these
trials, these problems.

When he says we were destined for them, he says something even more than that.
He says the problems that come into my life, they are a part of God's plan for
my life. Now that's not saying that God wants every problem in your life, or
that he enjoys you having problems, but we live in an evil world.

And even if Satan tries to throw problems to mess up your life, God will use
even those in his plan. That is the power of God. There is no problem that is
more powerful than the power of God.

God takes whatever suffering I go through in my life, and he uses it for his
glory. I don't know how he does that, but he does. And so Paul says we were
destined for these problems.

When he says that, he's not being fatalistic. That's important to understand.
He's not being fatalistic, he's being realistic.

Being fatalistic is when I say I can't change my circumstances. That's not what
the Bible teaches at all. The Bible teaches us to be realistic.

You're going to face some tough circumstances. Being realistic says I can change
some of the circumstances, and God will work through the circumstances that I
cannot change. I can change some of my circumstances, and God will work through
the circumstances I cannot change.

That's realistic. That's what we all need to be. Paul says we were destined for
these problems, and God's going to use them in his plan.

He realized you preach Jesus, and some will accept the message and love you, and
others will reject the message and persecute you. It's a powerful message. So
Paul says in one sense it goes with the territory.

If I preach Jesus, it's a powerful message. I'm going to be loved by some, I'm
going to be persecuted by others. Paul realized that that's what it means to be
a messenger.

That helped him with this emotion of stress. We were destined for these things.
It's a part of God's plan.

But there's a second thing that he talks about when he talks about the stress
that he faced because of persecutions. He says first we were destined for them,
and then in verse 7 he says we are encouraged in them. Therefore, in verse 7,
brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we were encouraged about you
because of your faith.

A lot of people think that somehow it's like an on/off switch. You're either
under stress or you're encouraged. You can't be both at once.

Well, Paul says he was both at once. In all our distress, we were encouraged.
You and I have to learn to do that.

There's going to be a lot of things that distress you in life and in ministry.
We have to learn to be encouraged in the middle of all of that. Not to have to
get out of it.

How do you deal with stress? One of my favorite strategies is you sit down and
you watch TV until the stress goes away. Does stress ever go away when you do
that?

It doesn't for me. When you turn the TV off, is the stress gone? No, it's still
there, just as much.

I think entertainment can be okay, but you cannot entertain your way out of
stress. You've got to encourage your way in the midst of the stress. Paul says
we were encouraged in them.

So you look for some encouragement that helps the stress to drop off in life and
ministry. The circumstances are still there, but your feelings are different
because of God's encouragement. For Paul, he says that encouragement was seeing
what's happening in your life, seeing the growth in faith in the life of others.

Paul is talking to them here about his persecution, not their persecution, and
that's very important. Paul understands that his persecution might very well
affect them. The temptation sometimes is to stop serving Jesus, not because of
some persecution or some problem that I'm going through, but because of some
suffering, some problem that another Christian is going through.

It's an easy thing to take on the troubles of others. I've often seen people
fall away from serving others because they're not happy with how God's working
in another person's life, the problems he's allowing them to face. You see, you
don't have the encouragement from God to face the problems another person is
facing.

That's for them to find through God's Spirit. You have the encouragement from
God to face the problems that you are facing. So to say, God, you're being
unjust and unfair in their life.

Why do they have to face all of that? I think I'm not going to serve you because
of that. That's the last place in the world that God would want us.

That's the first place that Satan would want us. Paul realizes that the
persecution of others can sometimes make you fall away. When you're in the midst
of it, you realize God is there and he will give you strength and you are
encouraged even in the midst of it.

Paul says, "I faced stress, but I found God even in the midst of it. " That's
the emotion of stress. And then he also talks about a fifth emotion of ministry,
the emotion of joy.

Paul writes to these people that he'd ministered to for a few weeks and he
talked to them about the joy that he has because of them. And he talks
specifically about two times of joy, now and then. First, he says, "Now, in the
presence of God, we have joy.

" Verses eight and nine. "For now," he writes, "we really live since you are
standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all
the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?

" In verse nine, he talks to them about this "now" joy. He's saying, "When I sit
down to pray and I'm in God's presence in prayer, I have much joy because of
you. " And when was the last time you did that?

You just sat down and in prayer and in God's presence, you took joy in other
people. It's easy for prayer to be just about me. But Paul says many times, "My
prayers are about other people.

" It's easy for prayer just to be about the stresses that I'm facing, the
problems that I'm going through in my life. It might even be about the visions
and dreams that I have. It's very easy for prayer to be mostly about us.

But Paul teaches us something here about prayer. He says, "Sometimes I just sit
down and in God's presence, I enjoy what God is doing in other people's lives. "
I don't take enough time to do that.

I bet you don't either. Prayer is for talking about problems and stresses and
visions and dreams, but it's also for enjoying what God is doing in other
people's lives. When was the last time you took some time just to be grateful in
His presence?

Make it a goal to reduce your GPH and increase your TPH. GPH is gripes per hour.
TPH is Thanksgiving per hour.

Take it an hourly, a regular kind of thing to think about things that you can be
thankful for, and one of them is other people. Take time to enjoy what God is
doing in other people's lives. In 3 John 1, verse 4, the apostle said, "I have
no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth.

" In fact, do that right now. Just take a moment right now in God's presence,
enjoy what He's doing in other people's lives. Paul talks about taking joy in
his life, in his ministry, and he talks about now and then.

Now he says, "I sit and I enjoy what God is doing in His presence," but he also
talks about then. When Jesus returns, Paul says, "You're going to be our joy and
our crown. " It is back in chapter 2, verses 19 and 20 that Paul talks very
specifically about this then kind of joy.

He says there, "For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will
glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ when He comes? Is it not you?
Indeed, you are our glory and joy.

" Now by the way, we're reaching back into the last chapter here. Just a
reminder, we are doing a chapter a week in drive-time devotion. It's a great way
to walk through the Bible, but remember that the chapters in the Bible were
added 1,500 years or so after the Bible was written, and they were just written
as reference numbers.

Now they did a pretty good job at dividing up the chapters, yet oftentimes
subjects will go from one chapter to the next. And Paul had started this subject
of his joy in their ministry, in their faith, in their growth back at the end of
chapter 2. He talks there about them being his joy, his crown, when Jesus Christ
comes again, when everything is wrapped up at the end of time.

The word crown he uses here is an interesting word. There are two words for
crown in the Greek language. Theotoma means the crown of a king.

Stephanos means the crown of a victor, like you'd wear in a victory parade at
the Olympics. Stephanos is the word that Paul uses here. The crown of victory,
the victory when it comes to knowing that God has used your life to make a
difference, to make an impact on someone else's life, on all of eternity.

That is the crown of incredible joy. Now it's all because of Jesus. You can't
take pride, not selfish pride in that crown, but you can take joy in it because
of what Jesus did in your life and in another person's life because of you.

You don't take pride in crowns, but you should take joy in them. Now when Paul
talks about this crown, it is awesomely different from any award ceremony on
this earth. The most watched award ceremony on planet earth is the Academy
Awards.

You're going to have a lot more joy than those people who come up to accept an
Academy Award when you get to heaven. A lot more joy than when they hand them a
little gold statue. You know what it's going to be like in eternity?

There's not going to be any little gold statues on that stage. That's not the
award. That's not the joy.

That's not the crown. The reward is the people. It is the people on that stage
of eternity.

You see them walk across that stage in your mind and you realize in eternity, I
had some small part in his life, in her life, and the fact that they're standing
now in God's presence and will be standing enjoying his presence for all
eternity. I did some small thing to help that person grow. For Paul, he just met
these people for a couple of weeks, two or three weeks, but he had some small
part and he said, "I'm going to take joy in that part that I had in your life.

That is my joy. " Paul says, "When I stand in God's presence, when Jesus comes
again, you are my joy. You are my crown.

" That is what ministry is really all about. Take a moment in prayer to express
your joy, to say to Jesus Christ, "Jesus Christ, I look forward to that day. "
You may have had some discouraging things happen this week.

Disgusting things happen most weeks. But in the end, the story is not going to
be a story of discouragement. In the end, the story is going to be a story of
joy.

So look forward in faith right now, in prayer-like faith, to that day. Jesus
Christ, thank you. Thank you not only that you save us and you give us the joy
of salvation, but thank you that you also use us and you give us the joy of
victory, the victory of seeing lives changed.

These five emotions that we've looked at in ministry these last three days, they
are a reminder to us that there are ups and downs, but Jesus, in the midst of it
all, helped us to see you. Help us to look forward to that day when we stand in
your presence. And right now, we look forward to that.

Use our mind, our soul, our heart with a new sense of faith as we look forward
to your joy. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Tomorrow we're going to be looking at
one of Paul's prayers as we look at verses 10 to 13 of this great chapter.