This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We're looking today at
verses 16 to 18 of 2 Thessalonians chapter three, and we're also coming to the
end of our study of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. We're going to look at those final
three verses in a moment, but before that, let me just remind you of some of the
main themes, some of the main truths that we've looked at together in these two
verses.

These are books about how to be real. They're about how to live the authentic
life that God has made you to live. They're verses and books about real life,
real confidence, real love for others, real work, real hope, real life.

A life of faith, hope, and love. That's a theme that came up often in these
verses. Real confidence.

Confidence is based not on my competence, but on the faithfulness of God. That
came up often in these books. These are books that are about a real love for
others.

A love that gives itself to fellow believers, often in courageous ways. And a
love that gives itself to those who have not yet come to know Christ by letting
the good news of Christ run its way into the world. These are books about real
work.

Just the practicality of working hard with your own hands. Of he who will not
work, neither let him eat. The practicality of the influence that you can have,
the impact you can make in this world, just through the simple work that you do
in ways that honor God.

And these are books that are probably more than anything about real hope. Paul
returned to this theme again and again. And he talked about the kind of emotion,
the kind of heart that we should have as we think about, as we look forward to
the second coming of Christ.

He says the emotion we should not have is an emotion of confusion or anxiety.
But we should have a sense of anticipation as we look forward to the fact that
Jesus Christ is coming again. Now with all of that in mind, let me read for you
the last three verses of 2 Thessalonians chapter three.

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace in all times and in every way.
The Lord be with all of you. I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which
is the distinguishing mark in all my letters.

This is how I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Paul
talks in these three verses about three simple things that change absolutely
everything.

He talks about peace. He talks about a greeting. And he talks about grace.

Let's look at those three. Peace, a greeting, and grace. First he says peace.

He says may the Lord of peace give you peace in all times and in every way. That
says that there is never a time. There is never a circumstance in which I am
supposed to be without peace.

Now this is important because we've talked about being authentic. We've talked
about being real in these verses, in these chapters. We all want to be
authentic.

And so in a difficult circumstance, we think, you know, maybe I'm not being
authentic if I'm at peace in this circumstance because this is a difficult
circumstance. No, you're not being authentic if you fake peace. But these verses
remind us that it's God's will for us to be at peace in all times and in every
way.

In fact, Jesus said over in John chapter 16, I have told you these things so
that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble, but take
heart. I have overcome the world.

That's the kind of peace that he's talking about. Now an inauthentic peace is
the kind of peace that pretends there's no trouble. And I understand that desire
for us not to pretend there's no trouble.

Jesus said in this world you're going to have trouble. So don't lie to yourself.
But authentic peace recognizes in this world where we do have trouble, we have
Jesus Christ.

And so we can take heart because Jesus has overcome the world. I may not feel
that today, I may not see that today, but that's the truth today. How do I
experience peace in all circumstances at all times?

In me, Jesus says, you will have peace. Paul says here in 2 Thessalonians, may
the Lord of peace be with you. It is God's presence that produces peace.

Peace comes from the Lord of peace. Peace is not a philosophy. It's a
relationship.

And maybe even more important to remember is this. Peace is not a mindset or an
attitude. It is a relationship.

When I feel a loss of peace in my heart, when I feel an anxiety, an anxiousness,
a worry, I'm not being invited just to think in a different way or to have a
different philosophy about life. I'm not being invited just to be more positive.
When I feel that loss of peace or that lack of peace, I'm being invited to lean
on my relationship with Jesus Christ.

Because the promise of God is that no matter what your problem is, you can have
peace. I can have peace in solving that problem. And the peace comes not from
the problem, not from solving the problem, not from my attitude about the
problem.

The peace comes from my relationship with Jesus Christ. Peace at all times and
in every way. And then a second thing in these three verses, Paul just brings
simple greetings.

Greetings, he says. It's a reminder of the fact that Paul dictated this letter.
And then at the end, he wrote down in his own hand to authenticate the fact that
he was the one who dictated this letter.

And we don't know why Paul dictated his letters. It might have been because
that's what many people did in that day. It was a common practice.

But there's another thing that's very important in the reason he dictated his
letter. He indicates in some other letters that the reason he had to write down
just a simple greeting at the end was that he was not able to write himself
because of some sickness, some ailment, some difficulty that he had. Some people
think that it was an eye disease.

Other people think that it was something attacking his nervous system. But for
whatever reason, Paul had difficulty writing. And so at the end, he would write
with, in one book it says large letters, write this greeting, the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you that said to people, this is Paul actually
writing.

Now to me, the exciting thing about that is that God used Paul, a man, a human
being, to inspire through the Holy Spirit perfect words, words that change our
lives. And not everything that Paul did was perfect. Many of the things that he
did were far from perfect.

But in the writing of these books of the New Testament, the Holy Spirit inspired
him in such a way that the words are perfect. Paul's personality shines through
and yet the Holy Spirit inspired him to write something that is perfect. Now if
you don't think that God could do something perfect through a human being,
you've forgotten about Mary, that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, came into this
world through an imperfect girl named Mary.

God perfectly conceived in an imperfect Mary, perfect Son of God. And the
scriptures are perfect. That perfection is what gives them such personal power
for change.

It is not a perfection that's just meant to be admired. Many people miss that.
Not a perfection that's just meant to be held up and said, wow, isn't that a
cool looking thing?

Like you might admire the perfection of a diamond. No, it is a perfection that
is meant to be reflected in your life. The Holy Spirit inspired these words and
Paul's greeting at the end is a reminder of that fact.

You've got peace, you've got greetings. Then there's a third thing in these
verses. We have grace.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. That's the common ending to
all of Paul's letters. And so it's easily ignored by us as something familiar.

When somebody says something often, as Paul said this often, it could be just
repetition or it could be because it's so important to them. And in this case,
it's because it was so important to Paul. Grace was the driving force in his
life.

He'd experienced it. He wanted all of us to experience this grace. He wanted
people to receive the gift of grace, but he went further than that.

He wanted people to live out God's grace. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
not just be accepted by you, but notice the words be with you. So here's the
question.

Is God's grace going to be with you today? Oh, you may have accepted his grace. You
may know that you're saved by his grace.

Is God's grace going to be with you today? It is, but are you going to recognize it?
Are you going to recognize it?

You can lean on, depend on his grace today. We are all, as we often say at
Saddleback, trophies of grace. We are all saved only by grace.

We all have a relationship with Jesus Christ through his grace. And today, will
you lean on his grace? Recognize that his grace is with you every moment of the
day.

As we pray together today, I'd like to pray about peace and truth and grace.
God, I pray for someone who's listening to this right now who is not at peace.
I've been in the place where I'm not at peace, where I lay awake worrying about
something, anxious about something, wondering about something.

But Jesus, your words and the words of Paul here remind me that peace is
possible in any circumstance. So I pray for the person who's without peace right
now. Help them to know that your peace can be a part of their life today.

God, we pray in gratefulness for your truth today. That your truth can be leaned
on in our lives. That your truth can be counted on in our lives.

And that your truth is perfect, not just to be admired, but to be reflected in
our lives. And I pray that in some way, maybe known by us, maybe unknown by us,
that your truth would be reflected to those who are around us. Jesus, let other
people see you in me.

And Lord, we want to thank you for your grace today. Without your grace, we
wouldn't know you. Without your grace, we would not be forgiven.

Without your grace, we wouldn't be headed for heaven. And I pray that for each
of us, your grace would be with us today. We'd be aware of your grace.

We'd live in your grace. We would be in appreciation of your grace throughout
the day today. And that that grace would form and fashion the decisions and the
direction of our life moment by moment today.

We pray this together in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I want to thank you for being a
part of this study of first and second Thessalonians. And I want to encourage you,
don't stop now.

Pick one of the other books that we've done off of the website. You can study
one of the other books that we've already done. Or you can stay with us as we
continue on for the next book that we're going to study together.

10 minutes a day, a chapter a week, a book at a time, and we're going to learn the
Bible together. And I want to leave you with Paul's encouragement. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.