This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Hi, this is Pastor Tom Holliday. I want to welcome you to our look in Drive Time Devotions through the book of 2 Thessalonians. We are in the third chapter this week, the last chapter of this incredible book. Hope you've been encouraged up till this point in how to live the authentic kind of life that God has meant for each of us to live. Today we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 5 of this last chapter. Last chapter of actually the two books we've looked at. We've looked together at 1 Thessalonians and now at 2 Thessalonians. These two books that were written probably within weeks of each other to this new church in Thessalonica to help the people there to understand how to deal with the questions they had and how to live the kind of life that God had made them to live. In the beginning of this chapter, Paul starts by asking for prayer and then he points to our source of daily confidence. Those are the two things we're going to look at together today. Beginning in verses 1 and 2 with his request for prayer. Paul said in verses 1 and 2, "Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith. " Now first it's important that Paul says, "Pray for us. " Let me ask you, when was the last time you asked someone to pray for you? Paul regularly asked people to pray for him. In fact, I ask you, pray for me, even as you're listening to me talk right now. It's amazing to me that we get out of the habit of asking other people to pray for us. Sometimes I think it's because we don't want to bother them by asking them to pray for us. Other times, let's be honest, that we're prideful. We think we have it all figured out, but for whatever reason, we don't say, "Pray for me. " Paul regularly asked other people to pray for him, and I need to too. You need to also. In fact, today, in some situation, in some circumstance, look at someone and say, "Hey, would you pray for me? " And when it comes to praying for other people, pray for others. Pray for others instead of all the other things we're tempted to do. Every time you're tempted to criticize someone or gossip about someone, decide to pray for them instead. Paul says, "Pray for us. " And then he says, "Pray for two things particularly. First, that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, and second, that we might be delivered from wicked and evil men. " First, he says, "Pray that the message of the Lord might spread rapidly and be honored. " This isn't an either/or. This is a both/and. Both of them can happen. The good news can spread rapidly and at the same time be honored. That word spread rapidly, it's a great word in the Greek language that the New Testament was originally written in. It's literally the word run. Pray that the message of the Lord might run, that it might run into the countryside and into people's hearts. In fact, one translation puts this, "That the word of the Lord may run and be glorified. " That God's word might have full freedom to run in you and through you in ways that show the freedom and the glory of God. These verses remind us to pray for those who don't know Christ to come to know him. That the message would be spread. It would run. It would be heard. It would be honored. It would be accepted in ways that glorify God. The way that you honor the message of Christ, by the way, is by trusting it, by accepting it, by trusting him, by accepting him. So let me ask you, when you think about praying that God's message might spread, where are you praying right now for the message to spread rapidly and be honored? Maybe in your family, maybe at your office, maybe at your school, maybe in your country, maybe in some other country. Where is it that in your heart recently you've been praying for God's message to spread rapidly and be honored? If you've forgotten to do this, and we all do at times, we get caught up in our prayers about what's going on just in our lives and forget about the most important thing, and that is God changing eternity in people's hearts. If you've forgotten to pray about this recently, it's a good reminder here. Where are you praying for the message to spread rapidly and be honored? And who? Who are you praying for to hear this message? To honor this message in their lives. Right now in your mind, even as you're listening to this, pray for that place, that spot that you're praying for God's message to go out and pray for that person, that person to hear it and then honor it. Paul says pray for me. Pray that the message can go out. And then he also says pray that I might be delivered from wicked and evil men. Everyone is not going to be for the good news of Jesus Christ, Paul is noting here. Everyone is not for what he is doing. The truth is, if I want to stay wicked, if I want to stay evil, the good news is not good news to me. It's an enemy to me because it's challenging me to give up ground in my life that I do not want to give up. And so Paul, just because he spread the message of the good news, was often treated as an enemy. Now, this talk about the reality of evil in our world and a need for prayer concerning that reality prompted Paul immediately to remind those in Thessalonica of some confidences that they had. He knew when he talked about evil that for all of us, that brings up a sense of doubt, a sense of confusion, a sense of wondering, well, am I going to have to face evil? And if I do have to face evil, how difficult is it going to be? Am I going to have the strength to face that evil? And Paul reminds us very quickly that yes, we do have the strength. And so Paul talks here about four confidences or four assurances. It's based on the word in verse four where he says we have confidence in the Lord in what you are doing. That word confidence is the word that means convinced or persuaded. It's talking about a soul that's been persuaded, that's in a constant state of being persuaded, of being confident. How can I feel that way in this world where there's so much trouble and so much confusion and so much doubt and so much unknown? Well, here's where the confidence comes from. Verses three to five. "But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. " We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance. Four things to be confident in. Number one, confidence in God's faithfulness. The Lord is faithful. It's interesting that Paul notes here, not everyone has faith, but the Lord is faithful. And the fact that not everyone has faith, the fact that there are evil people in this world does not discount the fact, does not minimize the fact that the Lord is faithful. You can count on that every minute of every day. You can count on that every minute of this day. God is faithful. And he says we can also have confidence even in the face of evil. That's a second confidence in these verses. "He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one," Paul says. Jesus in the Lord's prayer prayed, "Deliver us from evil. " And now we read, "Strengthen and protect us from the evil one. " As you read the New Testament, as you read the Bible, there's not in the Bible the idea of being insulated from all evil, as if it's never going to touch your life. No, we live in an evil world. Until we get to heaven, which is perfect, we're going to have to face evil. But the idea in the New Testament is the idea of being delivered from evil, even as you face it. We face the reality of evil, but God will deliver us. He'll give us hope even in the midst of evil. He'll give us good news even in the midst of evil. He will deliver us even when evil comes against us. That's how I can trust him. So if you're facing something evil right now, don't pray, "God, please get this totally out of my life so I know that you're real. " Pray, "God, even though I'm facing this, deliver me from this. And even through this, teach me to grow. Teach me to be more like you. " You can have confidence in the face of evil because greater is Christ who is in you than the one who's in the world, Satan who's in the world. Paul also talks about a third confidence here, the confidence we can have in God's commands. He says, "We are confident that you're doing and you'll continue to do the things that we command. " That's an incredible confidence when you think about it. These people in Thessalonica, he'd only been with them a few weeks. He'd written them a few letters. He'd heard that they were struggling with some questions, but he still has a confidence that they're going to be able to live out what Jesus commands them to live out. Where does that confidence come from? It comes from the fact that he knows that Jesus Christ is with them day by day. If you ever feel yourself lagging in confidence and feeling like, "I can't do this thing. I can't live out the Christian life. I can't love other people like Jesus loved. I can't have the kind of faith that he challenges me to have. " Your confidence is not based on yourself. It's based on Jesus Christ. Your confidence in being able to live out his commands today is not based on what you can do, but on what he can do in you. And on that, in that, you can be confident. In fact, there's a fourth confidence here that ties into what we just talked about, and that's confidence in what God does in our hearts. Confident that the Lord will direct your heart. In verse 5, he says, "May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and into Christ's perseverance. " The idea of direct there means to make straight, to get all the hindrances, all the obstacles out of the way. And many times we will pray, "God, please direct me to know what to do today. " This first reminds me, when I ask for God's direction, I need to start with something more important than that. Now, I should ask God to direct my actions and activities for the day, but there is something more important. I start by saying, "God, direct my heart first. Direct my heart into your love. Direct my heart into your perseverance, and then I will know how to do what you've made me to do today. " The word "perseverance" there is the word we've talked about before in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. "Hupomene" is the word that means I am able to remain under something. I'm choosing to persevere. And the idea behind this word is perseverance with purpose. I'm enduring towards the future, knowing that God is using even what I'm going through, even what I'm going through, to work out Christ's character in me and his purpose in my life. That's where confidence comes from. It comes from God's faithfulness. It comes from God's deliverance, even in the face of evil. It comes from God's power to live out God's commands. It comes from God's daily direction in our hearts. Lloyd John Ogilvie says about this kind of confidence and the source of it, "It is not a gift that Jesus gives. It is a gift that Jesus is. " You see, as we've talked about confidence in these verses, I want you to note that Paul uses the word "Lord" five times in these five verses. That's where the confidence comes from. It comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. So as we pray today, let's talk to him and ask him for the kind of confidence that only he can give. Jesus, as we pray today, first we pray for the message to spread, for other people to hear the good news, because it is good news. And then we pray for confidence to guide our lives, to guide the lives of everyone to whom the message spreads. And for us as individuals, Lord, we pray you'd help us today to focus on our relationship with you, the Lord Jesus Christ. You are the Lord. You're in control of every circumstance I'm going to face. Ultimately, you will have your will done. I may not see it done today. I may not recognize what you're doing today, but ultimately I know that your will will be done. And I put confidence in that today, in your faithfulness, in your deliverance, in your commands, in your direction of my heart. Jesus, I put confidence in you. In your name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to be looking together at 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verses 6 to 12.