1 Thessalonians 2:17-20 | Rick Scherr

Leadership 1/19/24
1 Thessalonians 2:17-20 | Rick Scherr

This lesson by Rick Scherr discusses the importance of ministry based on Paul's example in the Bible. It identifies eight key elements for successful ministry: friendship, compassion, anticipation, importance, teaching, reward, hope, and team. These elements stress the value of building deep relationships, showing genuine concern and longing for students, recognizing the significance of ministry, continuous growth as teachers, understanding the eternal impact, collaborating with others, and staying committed despite challenges. The lesson encourages listeners to embrace these elements and find hope and joy in their ministry.

Transcript

These verses, you've heard me talk about them before. I wanted to dive deeper into them and get some elements that were key in Paul's ministry. Paul's ministry to the Thessalonica, summed up in chapters one and two, is some of the greatest scripture when it comes to a picture that captures Paul's ministry. And what is important in ministry? What?

God. Because this is God's word. It's not like this is just Paul's life. This is God's word that is teaching us how to take the love that we've gotten and that God says, I'm giving it to you as a steward, meaning to give it to others. How are we going to take God's love and how are we going to give it to others?

And Paul being obviously a great example of that. But the scriptures here, especially these last three verses, there's some really awesome and powerful things that I think are elements of a great ministry. So when you are ministering and if you're newer to this and as you move ahead, this is the goal. This is where you want to get to relationally with students, where you want to move towards is this that Paul lays out for us. And for many of you who have been doing this a while, this is what you want to always be getting back to and what you always want to lean into.

These eight key things. Just from these three verses, we get eight really powerful and important things. So who wants to read 18 through 20 for me, please, very loudly. Thank you, Beth, for we wanted to come to you. Certainly I, Paul did, again and again.

But Satan blocked our way. For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes. Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. So I also was 17.

Sorry. That's all right. That's my bad. I don't know why I wrote 18 on there, but go ahead and read 17 and do the whole thing again. And you can't read it enough, right?

So let's read it. But brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time in person, not in vice, out of our intense longing, we made every effort to see you, for we wanted to come to you. Certainly I, Paul, did, again and again. But Satan blocked our way. For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes?

Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy, Lord. I just pray that you would remind us of things from your word, not things that we want to see, not things that we think we should see, not things that the world around us would tell us, but your spirit, your word, teaching us, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for the mighty power of your word and its ability and its power to cut into our hearts. So these verses, in these four verses, there are eight things.

The first we see when Paul says, but since we were torn away from you, brothers, the first is friendship. Friendship, real friendship, to the point that when Paul was taken away, he would use the words, I'm being torn away from you.

Imagine that you had some type of trip or you were going away. Would there be any element in your life where you would feel like, or there would be thinking on your part that you feel like, I'm being torn away from these friends of mine? It's important because Paul, over and over again, and the Bible continually reminds us of how important it is that the students that we are helping are really our friends. Right? And this is how you know the difference, right?

The difference is, if they're really your friends, you say, I'm feeling torn away from them. If they're not your friends, you say, oh, I'm really glad to get away from those folks. Or you don't care or don't even think about it. In the early years in camping, as a staff person, you were forced or you had to do what was called an assignment. So when you used to go to a young life camp in the summer, you would see those folks there with their families, and they were there for a month.

Right? And I remember my first time going on assignment, my first time going away, I went to Rockbridge for a month, Amy and I went, and I will never forget how much, by the end of the month, by the time I was there, how much I felt torn away from the students and the leaders at home that I just wanted to get back to. There was this clear feeling of feeling torn away because they were really my friends.

It was crazy, the number of people who would say, oh, I want to do an assignment. I can't wait to do an assignment because I want to get away. I need a break. I need time away. If that is your heart in what you're doing with the students, right?

If there is a part of you, if there is a big part of you that is saying, I just need a break from these guys, that's a problem. That means they're not really your friends. They're probably just projects. They're probably just these side relationships. And therefore, you just need a break.

And so, Paul, we see real friendship.

One of the things that I have tried to do that I didn't do well at first in my early years of ministry was keep my meetings with people to an hour. And when I was first doing ministry and I would meet with folks and I'd have lunch, and it was a friend. And you know how, like, when you're with your friends or you're with some folks at bdubs or you guys don't go to bdubs as much as I do, but wherever you go at your place, right, and you go to some chickfila salad place or something, right? And you sit and you're hanging out with your friends, and an hour doesn't feel like. It's like you could stay there and talk for hours, right?

You guys know the feeling, right? You know the times when you're with your friends where you wouldn't even use the word meeting, right. It would just be like getting with your friends and you want to stay. You're like, I want to stay. I want to keep talking.

I love these guys. I love hanging out. And I would encourage you that when it changes and shifts in your life and it becomes a meeting and you can't wait to get away from the meeting, that's a problem. When you can't wait to get it over, then that should be a signal that you're moving away from what we see in Paul about being with his real friends. I have to, right?

I was talking to Amy, I think, the other day, and we were talking about my schedule and some things going on and talking about how I try really hard to be militant about just meeting with people for an hour. Because if I didn't, it would be overwhelming, right? If I just met with people as long as I wanted, and we're walking around the mall, it's like I'm getting good exercise. Hey, let's do ten more laps, right? Because I am enjoying the time.

Because it's with a friend, right? If I were at a place in my heart where it's know, watching the clock, are we almost done? That's not Paul's heart, right? This is a real friendship, number two, where Paul says, we are torn away from you brothers for a short time, in person, not in heart. The second thing is compassion.

Real compassion.

You might be torn away from them, you might be away from the students, but here's what Paul is saying, that your mind and your heart is not away. You're actually thinking about them. When you're not with them, you're actually praying for them, not because it's forced on you, but because you're thinking about them and you're wanting to pray for them, you're actually wondering what's going on in their life today when you haven't talked to them yet. Right? Because your heart has not left them.

You might be physically separated, but you're wondering what they are doing today. You're wondering where they are, you're dreaming and having a vision for them and what their lives might be like when you're not with them. Do you guys see these elements where Paul clearly says, I'm physically not with you, but my heart is still with you. And what does that mean for us? It means that when we, as we minister to students and we have these key students who we're investing in, these disciples that we're trying to go deeper with and help grow in Christ, that we are not, even when we're not physically with them, you're mentally and you're emotionally with them, or do you never think about them at all?

Is your heart really not there at all? There are many times in my experience where I can remember being almost telling myself, like, having trouble going to sleep because I'm thinking of the students that I'm close to in a hard situation that they're going through or something that's challenging for them and how can I help them in addition to prayer? And I'm thinking, what can I do to help them? There was a time with a bunch of senior guys when Zach Payett and Chad and let's see, who else? Lance Durbin.

You guys probably don't know him, but there were some guys that I was close to and they were seniors and the football team was, it was announced to them for the senior night. At the end of senior night, the football coaches and some parents decided that after senior night and after that big whole thing, that the whole football team was going to go to Hooters. And I was like, first off, I was like, what? Right? They told me, they said, yeah, this is a couple days before, right?

So maybe Tuesday or Thursday. They're like, yeah, Friday night. This is what the coaches want to do. And they could tell those guys, even they were a little embarrassed to tell me. They're like, not, yeah, we'll be at Hooters Friday night and I got to help.

And I remember you could ask Amy, right. We were like, for days I'm thinking about it and I'm praying. I'm like, I don't know how to help these guys. I don't even know what to do. And finally, at one point on that Friday before the game started, while they were in uniform, I grabbed a bunch of them and pulled them.

I don't remember how I did it. I was somewhere where they were getting ready to warm up and there's like four of them. And I sat them down and I said, listen, guys, I don't think you should go. I don't think you should do it. Because I just prayed about it and thought about it, right?

And I was like, you guys, right? And they were like, we didn't know what to do, right? And of course, I was like, I put him in this terrible position. So if you want to know what happened, you can ask Zach. He'll let you know the rest of the story.

But anyway, the point is, though, all week long, I was wondering, I was thinking about praying for them, praying for these guys because they were in this situation that was going to be hard for them. What about your students when they're in a hard situation, when things are tough for them, are you wondering how can you help them beyond just praying? What advice can you give them to help them in their situation? Is it something that you're, like, thinking about? Because that's clearly what Paul is communicating about his relationship with these folks that he's ministered to.

Number three, next verse. Because we wanted to come to you. I, Paul, again and again, wait in person, not in heart. We endeavored the more eagerly with which and with great desire to see you face to face. A great desire to see you face to face.

The next thing we see in Paul is anticipation. Anticipation. What is the difference, right. That we see with Paul in his emotional, engaging anticipation to see the students, to see the folks that he's been ministering to. And he anticipates it.

He's eagerly desiring to get back face to face. It's not, oh, you know, I'll send him a text message and just say, I hope you're doing great. Right? It's not like a phone call. I mean, it's not like anything other than the Bible says face to face.

He desires to be with them. And when it's coming, there's this anticipation that he wants to and can't wait to and is longing to get to be with him. I know what it's like. Right? I have a lot of meetings that I do with folks.

I know the difference. I had a meeting this week that I was dreading. I was like, I'm trying not to think about it. And I really don't want to do this. This is going to be a tough time and dreading the meeting.

And then I have other meetings this week where I look at my schedule and I'm like, oh, this is going to be great. I'm going to see so and so at lunch. I'm going to see so and so around two. And I've already been thinking about how those guys are doing and I'm looking forward to it. I'm anticipating my time, right.

So you all, when your time with your students, especially your key students, that's what we're talking about. You would know the difference. You can tell the difference between dreading and anticipating a time that you're going to get to be with some of your key students. And now let's be clear. Paul is talking about his most key and people that he's been discipling and mentoring.

Right. And that's what we're talking about. Right. I get that. Know one student or a couple students and I've been there a couple students where it's.

Yeah. That I'm not making the connection. It's not like you're discipling them, mentoring them. And there's a little bit of a like, I'm not anticipating being with Jimmy. He's a handful, right.

Or whatever it is. Okay. That's not what we're talking about. Right. Paul is talking about his key students, the folks that he is discipling, he is mentoring the ones that are in his inner circle.

Right. His one, his three, his four or five guys that he can't wait and is anticipating getting to be with again. There's other ways that you might look at getting to be with those folks. It might feel like a job. It might not feel like anything.

You might just be like, doesn't matter to me. But Paul doesn't do either of those. He's clearly communicating a great anticipation to be with the students that he loves to be with the key people that God has put in his life. Number four, because we wanted to come to you, I Paul, again and again. But Satan hindered us.

Satan hindered the next thing. Importance. Importance.

Paul clearly understood the importance of what he was doing by communicating and he very much gave us a picture of how important it is. Consider this so important that Satan himself was trying to stop Paul from getting back with his folks. Do you believe and understand how important it is what you're doing with those main students of yours, the folks that you're trying to help both understand the gospel and grow in their faith? Do you understand that this not only is Satan trying to stop Paul, because Satan knows in the early years here how big of a deal this was, right? This was like, okay, satan is probably caught off guard, and it's like, what is happening?

This Paul guy that was on my side is now on the other side, and he is telling everybody about Jesus, and people are making disciples everywhere, and it's growing exponentially. Satan's trying all he can to stop it and to slow it down. So he's literally trying to keep Paul from being with the Thessalonians again. He's Satan himself, right? The Bible doesn't say demons or this demon or that demon.

That's how big of a deal it was. And in your world, I promise you, demons and evil are very happy, and it is a success for them. If they can keep you from being with your key students. That's what they want. And whether it's trying to make you feel a certain way about it or whether it's just trying to provide obstacles, right?

You wanted to see your guys on Saturday night, and then something came up, and your mom called. And then this other thing happened, and then you got a flat tire, and you're, like, fixing the tire, and by then it's feeling a little bit late, and you're like, I don't know. I'll probably just head home now. Right? Victory.

Victory for evil kept you from. Because that's how important it is. This is really important, right? And Satan knows this, knows how important it is.

Imagine Jesus when it's all done. He goes to heaven. Huge party, right? This is after he's rose from the grave, and now he ascends into heaven, the ascension. And he goes up into heaven, and angels know whatever high five in him.

It's awesome. Way to go, Jesus. Right? We did it. You did it.

It's like, this is great, right? And the angels are like, all right, now what's the plan? And Jesus is like, don't worry, right? I left, like a half a dozen folks down there or so to take care of it. And sure, some smart angel was probably, like, maybe 20 ish type people.

How many people, right? What if they fail? Is there a backup plan? Jesus is like, there's no backup plan. This either grows exponentially from these folks, what we're seeing here, or it doesn't.

There was not a backup plan. Right. God. Jesus put it in the hands. Twelve disciples, some women and Paul, and said, it's up to you guys now.

I'm going to heaven. I'll be up there waiting and preparing a place for you.

Yeah, that's important. Do you think that's important? Do you think what was happening was important? That of course, Satan himself is like, we got to stop that pole guy. We got to keep this thing from moving on forward.

This is a big deal. And it's just as big of a deal today in your world. Important. Number five, just the reference to Satan. Number five is teaching.

Paul was always teaching.

Consider this reference that Paul makes to Satan to understand that Paul was only with them. If you know the story. Like he went, was only there a couple months and then he left, sent Timothy and Silas went back. Right. But Paul was only there for a short period of time.

And the fact that he even references Satan means that he had already taught them about Satan. Does that make sense? And we know clearly from the rest of the scripture in Thessalonians how much Paul was teaching them, right. And training them and trying to help them to learn and to understand things. We have got to become great at this if you want to follow along with how the scriptures teach us to be with others.

We have to learn. And all of us are at a young age, me as well, right? We are all at a young age. So I know that feels a little overwhelming. Right?

If you are NLT, you just walked into the room and I'm sitting here telling you, you're going to have to teach some students. You have to train them. And I'm telling you, yes, that's what we do, right? If there's one thing that navigators is famous for, and there are many, it is teaching and training, right? We are going to do all we can to equip students with God's word and the truth and God's truth.

And we have to become good teachers. Right? And I would encourage you guys to work at it, to work at being a great teacher, to work at being someone who says, okay, I've got these students and they're hungry enough that they're coming together with me. Don't just come together and do highs and lows, please. Highs and lows are great.

I use them. I do them with folks. When I meet with them, I want to hear how they doing. I want to give them a chance to talk, but I don't ever want to just do that. I am always looking for an opportunity to bring God's word, to bring teaching, to bring training to people who I'm meeting with.

Please do that. Even if it's small steps. Try to meet them wherever they at. And trust me, I know I have met with sophomore guys, right? High school guys.

It's been a long time. But I did meet with sophomore high school guys. And I know what they're like. I know how challenging it is to get them to just even focus. But I'm looking for every opportunity to find small ways to teach, even if it means.

Right. Have them read something right there on the spot. Right. Because a lot of times with high school students, maybe it's hard to get them to read something and then come to a meeting and they're going to a Bible study and they're going to talk about what they read. Probably not going to happen.

The younger the students are, right? But you can always bring something. You can bring a devotional and say, hey, let's look at this. My atmosphere is highest and what is on there for today? And let's talk about it.

Think about the teaching that you can do in a very simple way like that. Making that a priority is something that we must become good and better at. Number six, the Paul reaches and says some pretty crazy stuff here because we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, again and again. But Satan hindered us. And 19.

What a verse. For what is our hope or joy or crown or boasting of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you, number six? Where it says, before our Lord Jesus, you. This is about you.

This is about you and Jesus. Not a single other person in this room. Not a single person in your family, not a spouse, not your parents, not me, nobody. This is about you and Jesus. Hebrews 927.

Just as man is destined, as every man is destined to die once. And then after that, face judgment like you will see and be before Jesus. And I know it's hard to imagine, especially when you're younger, but it will happen, I promise you. And yes, maybe it's 50 years from now, but 50 years will seem like a blip on the screen. Trust me.

Right? When you get closer and closer, you will realize you will stand before him. You will.

And the astronomical statement that he's making here about what happens when you stand before him is crazy. It will not matter who you married all the time and thought and fear and anxiety you put into that. And it will not matter in that moment who you married. It will not matter your kids, your children or having children or not having children. It will not matter in that moment what your grades were.

It won't matter how successful you were in any business. It won't matter nothing. Imagine how everything will be stripped away. That matters or doesn't matter, the moment that you are standing before Jesus, which everyone in this room will do, think of all that is stripped away.

It won't matter how big your club was. None of that will matter.

But God makes a statement here about what will matter. That is pretty crazy, because your crown, in that moment, your joy, your glory will be the generations of students and people that you've invested in. That's what it says. When you stand before Jesus, that will be your crown. That will be your glory.

The Henry Morehouse. Raise your hand if you've heard of Henry Morehouse. Really? Gosh, that's so weird. I'm kidding.

I didn't expect any of you to have heard of Henry Morris. How many of you have heard of D. L. Moody? There's a book we've heard of D.

L. Moody, right? D. L. Moody was one of the most famous preachers.

Pretty much. Okay, you go back, you read biographies. You can read all these kind of things. I promise you. Go read DL Moody's.

It will stick out to you. You'll be like, oh, my gosh, this guy was. He did more before the age of 25. I remember thinking this when I was reading his biography. I'm like, this guy has done more before the age of 25 than I have done.

If you put two of my lifetimes together so far, and he's only 25. And I'm like, this guy is what God did in him and through him, right? He was a nobody from the rural nowheres. Couldn't even get any kind of education because they wouldn't even let him in the door. And he ends up being, in many ways and many people had said for many years that he had preached, like, top five people who have preached to those many people ever kind of thing, right?

He preached to millions of people over his lifetime. Huge crowds, especially in those towns, those days. Hundred thousand people, hundreds of thousands of people showing up at places to hear him preach, right? And hundreds of thousands of conversions. DL Moody, right?

This is famous preacher. When DL Moody was in his early twenty s and the ministry around him was starting to take off, like, starting to happen. Things around him were starting to happen. And this guy who was just a preacher from Ireland, his name was Henry Morehouse. And Henry Morehouse meets D.

L. Moody at a conference overseas in England because he's from Ireland. And D. L. Moody had gone overseas and meets him there and says, oh, yeah, I would love to come to the States and talk to you about more about what you're doing.

Like just making a connection with somebody. Well, for whatever reason, this Henry Morehouse feels led by the Lord. Like, you know what? Because he would send telegrams to DL Moody saying, hey, I'd love to come to the states like we talked about and see you. And DL Moody would ignore.

Then it was like, just some random guy wanting to come talk to him, right? He's a guy from Ireland, whatever. Finally, Henry Moros just comes on his own, shows up DL Moody's ministry, and wants to preach. And basically, long story short, Henry Morehouse ends up helping DL Moody have what would be considered his lordship encounter with grace. It was literally what the Lord was waiting for before DL Moody, for the ministry, was going to just go crazy.

And Henry Morehouse, through a series of things, helped moody, right, basically, to understand grace and that God loves sinners. I mean, literally. I know it's hard to imagine, but DL Moody had been preaching up to that point that God hates sinners, right? And this guy totally, radically changed his heart, helped him to see the scriptures and to see the truth about grace and about the gospel and about God's love for people in a different way. And it transformed D.

L. Moody, which then transformed his preaching that went on for a lifetime. Henry Morehouse spent six weeks with him, so not even. Maybe it was eight. So it was two months that he spent with D.

L. Moody and then went back. Henry Morehouse is known as the man who changed the man who changed millions. See, Henry Morehouse was the man who changed, the man who changed millions. This.

Hear me. This is you and us. We, you and I desire nothing other than to be the man or the woman who changes the man or the woman who changes millions.

That is this, right? That is this scripture where Paul says, you're my hope. You are my hope when I stand before Jesus. My hope, right? Evan Griffin.

You guys know Evan, great mentor of mine. He always talks about.

He does this thing every year called the stadium talk, and he brings some of his guys that he's discipling, and he says, hey, I want you guys to meet me at the stadium, Nippert Stadium. And they go to Nippert with him, and they sit with him there, and he gives them a talk that he's given many times now. But essentially, his talk is this. I want you guys to know my life goal. I want you to know what I pray for, what I've prayed for my life, and prayed for it to be for 30 years or however long Evan's been doing this.

He said, look around at this stadium. My prayer is that as a result of your lives in other people's lives, that this stadium will be full in heaven because of the generations that have come from your life, that this stadium, all of these seats, 60,000 seats, will be filled with people because of you investing in discipling a few and them discipling a few and the accumulation of that, that this entire stadium will be full. Right. It's Evan's stadium talking. He's talking about his life, right?

He prays that, lord, please use me in the lives of a few so that a stadium of people in heaven know you. There's a great illustration that is simple that maybe you guys have heard before.

Some people have called it the leadership tree. I would call it the discipleship tree when I've used it before. It's common. It's used a lot. It's just a tree.

If you think of a tree and you think of you yourself, if you think of yourself as the trunk of the tree, and then every branch that comes from the trunk of the tree is someone whose life has been influenced and someone you've discipled. Right. Very simple. Right. And every person that comes from the trunk, every branch, right.

If you look at a tree, you go out front, look at our tree. It's got these big branches coming out from the trunk, and then what comes out from all the other. The next big set of branches come out, other branches not quite as thick, and then coming out of those branches are other branches. And the whole idea is that your life would be a tree, right. Many of you are just a trunk with a couple of branches, but your prayer is that it would blossom and that the tree would grow and there would be branches off the branches that are off the branches.

My prayer lately has been that off of the trunk of my tree, that there would be 100 books written about people on the tree. They might not be people that I personally invested in, but people who would be on my tree, that there would be a biography written about their life. Maybe it's one of you. Maybe it's someone who you're ministering to right now. Maybe.

Right. It's someone who's been in here, who's ministering to others right now, who Amy and I got to help and mentor and disciple that they're a part of our tree. And there's more growing from the tree. That's been my prayer. A hundred biographies, Lord.

Right. And I've asked him right over and over again, Lord, because this is such a big deal, please hear me right. If you don't get anything else from the scripture get the most obvious thing that could not be more apparent.

Your work. Anything you do for the Lord must bear fruit in generations beyond you. That is the way of the spirit. It is the way of the kingdom, because it's not about you. God wants you to take what you've given and give it to a few, and then those few give it to others.

And you don't even know people after that. The biographies that will be written about people who are on my tree won't be people I probably even know or have ever met. But I want to be the man who changed. The man who changed millions. Right?

And if you don't hear anything else, please understand in here that this is your. As a Christian, this is your calling. I don't care if you never come back to this room again. And leading with us is not for you, and you never come back again. This does not change what is said here.

You will stand before Jesus regardless, and it will be the fruit of your life that will be your joy, your hope, your crown and your glory. The generations of people that have come from your life. That's it. In 20 years from now and 25 years from now and someday ten years from now when you're married, please write it down and put it in an envelope and put it in someplace that you're not going to open until you have your third child. 1015 years from now and open that envelope, remind yourself, okay, this is still what matters.

This is still what's going to matter.

Number seven, our hope and our Lord. Number seven is team.

Team.

How awesome that we do this as a team. And if you missed it, paul says, our hope, our Lord. Do you understand the word our? What that means? He would have said, my hope, my lord.

Right. Our Lord means a very, very clear reference to his team. Paul was not alone on his missionary endeavors. Right. Timothy and Silas were with him for sure.

In this case, we know. And when he said our, that's who he was talking about. You and I, this crazy important thing that we're doing, this effort to disciple and to mentor and to see generations come from our life, is an hour thing. You're going to do this and should always be doing this as a team. It's one of the things that I've seen it.

We're trying to figure out at the college level and I see it with a lot of adults. When people aren't able to do it on a team, it's really hard to do. And I would say, because I'm not sure God designed it that way. I think you were supposed to do it with a team. It wasn't supposed to be just you trying to help people at your work and that's all you do and it's just you.

It's supposed to be an hour thing. Consider how you view the ministry that you're a part of. This is where it's important to understand your relationship with all of the students matter. I'm a huge fan of a guy leader with five guys in his Bible study and he invests a lot of time into them. I'm not a huge fan of that.

If he is not loving and embracing and seeing a bigger picture of the other guys and the other girls that are involved in the ministry and how they are also being discipled and helped and wanting to also help them and see them when he can, does that make sense? It is really important that we understand that we're in this as a team. You're in this with your team and your goal is the disciple making and the generations and everything that we're talking about. But it's a we goal, right? First off, how awesome is that?

Thank you, Jesus, right? That we don't have to do this by ourselves and have some independent. He's like, listen, I know this is a hard thing because Satan and all the demons are fighting really hard against you and do not want the kingdom to be advanced. So I'm going to help you guys by having you do it together. I'm going to let you guys go in small teams like Paul and his missionary teams or your teams, and you're going to your schools and you're going to be on these teams and you can do it together because it's going to be tough.

You're going to need each other and you will be able to say together, our hope, our joy. The last thing, number eight.

Hope, joy, crown, glory. The last word is reward.

Reward.

Those of you who've read C. F. Lewis's great divorce, it's a really awesome book. If you haven't read it, I would greatly encourage it. The great divorce is a book written by C.

S. Lewis where he basically talks about a guy who, I know this might sound weird, but he takes a bus trip to heaven and it's older because he wrote it in the so. Right. So it's in that kind of time period. But it is an amazing story that has such C.

S. Lewis brilliant stuff in it. And for those of you who read it, you know, I'm thinking about, oh, gosh, I blanked on her name I looked it up yesterday. Sarah, I think it was Sarah. Yes.

A woman who he encounters the guy who's going to heaven and kind of the main guy, which C. S. Lewis writes from his own perspective. So C. S.

Lewis writes like, I'm the guy that's on the bus and going to heaven, and this is what I'm seeing experience. And he has a person who's guiding him and helping him. Right? And it's George Whitfield, just for fun. Whitfield, also an amazing preacher who C.

S. Lewis really looked up to anyway. He's kind of interacting with all these things and trying to understand all these angels and all these things are happening. And there's this incredible parade and this incredible display of joy and glory that is given to this woman named Sarah. And we begin to learn that it's this, it's that this is happening around.

And C. S. Lewis is like, wow, who is that? And the first thing he says is, she must have been really important. She must have been like, she must have been like this crazy preacher that preached to tens of like, this is what he's thinking, right?

And Whitfield's like, oh, no, you get a very clear picture quickly. She invested in a few who invested in others and then continued to invest in a few faithfully for a lifetime. And you haven't heard of her. You haven't heard of her. The book doesn't say this, but you haven't heard of her because she's the woman behind the woman who changed millions.

She is Henry Morehouse. It's brilliant, the book, but it is for us, remembering the reward that is heaven is vital because Paul is speaking so clearly about it. The word hope is pretty clear. It's a little different if you think of the things he's saying that happen as a result of these things. Right?

Joy, crown of boasting glory. But he says our hope, meaning like what his hope is in as he lives his life helping others, looking and praying and trying to see generations of people happening because of his life. He's doing that every day with a hope that is looking forward to the end, looking forward to heaven.

And the last part of this that I think makes a lot of sense is that joy is listed twice for whatever reason, Paul wanted to when he was writing this, the Holy Spirit guiding his pen. Right? That's two Peter, one. Right. The Holy Spirit guiding the pen of the author.

So God himself, writing the Bible, decided to say for some reason, he said joy twice. Is it not new? Right. For you, he said, but what is our hope, our joy, our crown of boasting before Lord. For you are our glory and joy.

It's kind of like God. You said joy already, but God said it again. And I don't think that's a mistake.

Imagine without there's not enough time. But I want you to do all that you can in your head to imagine the joy that you will experience as a part of heaven. That is one of the most beautiful and joyful things will be your friends. Going back to the beginning, the very first thing that I said.

Your friends will be there and you'll get to be with them. And it will be so fun. And there will be joy. And you will be overcome as each of them begin coming to you and engaging you. Rick.

Rick. I found you. Rick. Look around. And the joy of that cannot be overstated.

And probably why God says it twice. And it all starts to make sense, right?

For your joy.

You give your whole life to helping others to know the joy of Christ so that there will be generations from your life.

Stand firm, brothers and sisters. Let nothing move you, for you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Right? This is the answer to that.

This is the hope that we have.