Confidence In The Lord
- Details
- Sunday Morning Service
- Pastor James Richards
- Copalis Community Church
- 14 September 2025
- 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5
Thessalonians 3:1:5. Well, we stand for the reading of God's word.
And Paul says, finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. And, Father, as we come before you, we're so thankful that you're the Almighty, that you're on your throne, that nothing happens in this world apart from your will.
And we confess there's things we don't understand, Lord, that don't make sense to us. We wouldn't do it that way. But your ways are higher than our way, and you always accomplish your will. We do lift up Charlie Kirk's family, loved ones and suffering grief from losing a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a mentor to so many. And pray that you'd be working in those people's hearts and bringing them peace.
And then we pray, Father, you'd bring something good out of all of this. And thank you that Charlie is with you, that he knows Christ as his Lord and Savior, that he's seen him face to face, and it's worth it. We pray for this passage, Father, that you'd help us to understand the things that would bring us peace in our lives and apply it to ourselves. In Christ's name, Amen. You may be seated.
Several weeks ago, I mentioned I was stationed at an Air Force base in Eastern Thailand, Ubon Rakatani. And you may not have been there. Turns out one of our missionaries was stationed there for quite a while. But I was in aircraft control and warning those big radars that go around and they go out about 240 miles where we could see enemy planes. And my job was to try to repair those things.
Unless you were going to have a visiting dignitary. In this case, it was a colonel that was going to come to our little radar base. We're about a mile off the radar base, and when you hear about that all of a sudden, ah, we've got to get things ready. And so polish, polish, and, you know, brush, brush. And one afternoon, my tech sergeant, Sergeant Kindred, came to me and said, aaron Richards, would you like to go out and mow the lawn?
Well, the lawn was a full acre. It was 95 degrees out there, and I just mowed it three days earlier. So I thought, well, that's a good question. No, I wouldn't like to go out there and mow the lawn. And to this day, I can still see the look on his face.
And he went out and mowed it himself. And the next four months of my tour there were not pleasant, not pleasant at all. And what I was having to learn was the difference between a suggestion and a command. All commands don't come across as thou shalt. They come in many different ways in our life.
And so I believe that one of the things that we as Christians have to learn is that difference between a suggestion and a command to start to realize and understand when God gives us command. That is not a suggestion. I made a statement two weeks ago in my message. I said, God's work done God's way accomplishes God's will. God's work done God's way accomplishes God's will.
And first of all, we have to understand he has a work for us, but it has to be done his way to accomplish his will, not our will. And when we understand that, we're going to see God working in our lives and accomplishing great things for him. And so, first of all, I'd like to look at that in a little more depth. First of all, what is God's work? What is God's work for you?
For me? If we don't understand that, we're just going to be wandering out of life and trying to make the best of it. And I hope things work out and we won't accomplish his will. I believe there's two parts to God's work. We see one in First Timothy, chapter one, verse 15.
And he tells Timothy, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. That is his work. That is the work that he is calling you and I to. And it's the work that we need to be focusing our life on, whether it's in a professional capability, whether it's in our work, our home, our recreation, that ultimately is the work of God.
And the last thing Jesus told us before he sended into heaven was all authority, and heaven and earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And so it doesn't matter what you're doing. You could be preaching a message, you could be teaching a lesson. You could be training your children.
You could be a representative for Christ in your work. The ultimate work that God cares about is that people will be saved. We, of course, have been focused on what happened to Charlie Kirk this week, and it was horrible. And our hearts grieve. How should we be praying?
How should we be praying now? The young man that committed this crime, he's going to suffer for that. But guess what? God cares about his soul.
God wants him to be saved. God wants him to spend eternity with him. And that should be our prayer for him, that somehow he would come to an understanding of what God has done for him. And we need to recognize that in every aspect of our life. And again, you might be a young mother at home.
Well, ultimately, your goal should be, how do I train those children to grow up and follow the Lord and go to heaven? Yeah, I want to be good citizens and hard workers and enjoy life and all of that, but ultimately, that's all that matters. And if that is not behind what we do, we're not doing God's work, we're doing our own. And it amounts to nothing. Vanity of vanities, the preacher says, here today and gone tomorrow.
So that's the major aspect of his work. The second part of that he says in First John, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but I got an idea. If I were to ask, has the devil done a work in your life? Oh, man.
You know, we look back and some of the things he's done. Jesus came to destroy his work in your life.
And that should be our goal, too, to destroy that work. And how do we do that? Over in Colossians, just back a couple books, we see how Christ did it. And it says in chapter 2, verse 13, and you who are dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us of all our trespasses, according to the record of death that stood against us with his legal demands. And if you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you have been declared not guilty.
And how did he do that? This he set aside nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame. And by triumphing over them in him, and just like Christ won the victory through the cross, the only way that we're Going to accomplish God's work is to pick up our cross daily and follow Jesus Christ. That's what Charlie Kirk did in that day.
And he understood that there was a danger in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. He knew that he wasn't naive, but he deliberately chose to carry that cross and he saw the Lord on that day. And the devil was defeated. The devil did not win. The devil was defeated again.
It was a tragic death. But we're going to see, and we are seeing that thousands of young people are being motivated to carry on that work to proclaim Jesus Christ. We're seeing that our campuses today and young people praying and having services and baptisms all organized by them. And Charlie Kirk was a part of that. I believe.
And I believe that that work will go on because it was God's work and not his work proclaiming the gospel so that people be saved. And on the surface, it doesn't make any sense to us. God, this young man was in the prime of his life. What an amazing impact. I don't know if you had an opportunity to see some of interactions with young people, but it was amazing.
The wisdom that he had, the compassion, the love, the caring, and kids were responding to that. And it doesn't make sense. But God's ways are higher than our ways. And it's often through our death that Christ is glorified most. I believe there will be thousands and thousands of young people who are going to go out and proclaim the gospel as a result of his death.
And so to summarize God's work, God sent his son Jesus in the world to save sinners. You and I, there's no difference. Doesn't matter if you were a little sinner or if you were a big sinner, still a sinner. And Christ Jesus came to save you and to destroy the work of the devil. That's God's work that leads to God's way.
God's way. Obviously there's physical work to be done, things work that has to be taken care of. But we need to recognize that the real battle is spiritual. We read over in Hebrews chapter 11 of the Heroes of the faith and amazing compilation of God's heroes who took a stand for him and won the victory. And what you see is over and over as these people's exploits are explained.
It says, now faith by faith. It's a battle that's waged in the spiritual realm and it has to be by faith. Hebrews 11:6 gives a key to how that works. It says, and without Faith, it is impossible to please him. Who.
Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. And when we commit ourselves to doing God's work by faith, and if it's God's work, it'll take faith we want to see. Show me the results. God, how's this all going to work out? No, trust me.
Someone described faith as a step in the dark. You don't know what's going to happen, but God does, and we have to trust Him. I believe our passage today that we read in Second Thessalonians reveals two aspects to the work of faith in our life. I talked about the one last week. The aspect of prayer that if we're going to see God work, we're going to have to be a praying people.
It is a spiritual battle. Only God can work in the hearts of people and change minds and set things up for him to be glorified. And. And we need to be asking him to intercede on our behalf, to accomplish his work in us first, but second, to accomplish his work through us. My daily devotions, I was reading in Mark and came across the Mount of Transfiguration.
Remember, Jesus went up on the mountain, and John and James and Peter went up, and of course they saw Elijah and Moses and they were really impressed. And. And of course God says, shut up. You know, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. Listen to him.
Well, they came down from the mountain and there was a commotion because the rest of the disciples had tried to cast a spirit out of a young boy that had been demonized. And they couldn't. And when Jesus came down, he asked, what's wrong? And they told him, and he cast the demon out. Later the disciples came to him and said, why couldn't we cast out that demon?
What was his answer? This kind only comes out by prayer. Most of the spiritual battles we are in, the only way we're going to see a victory is through prayer, crying out to God, oh, God, work in my life. Help me change this. Do that.
And we want to see God work in prayer, is casting our cares upon him, allowing him to work in our lives. The second aspect of doing God's work, God's way, is through obeying his commands. And that's kind of what I wanted to focus on today. I am always amazed at people who think they can experience God's blessing while they're breaking his commands. I'm just utterly amazed that, you know, how can you reason that you're Doing the exact opposite of what he says.
And then you think he's going to turn around and bless you. It doesn't work that way. Listen what Moses said after he gave the Ten Commandments back in Deuteronomy, chapter six. Turn over there. And he's trying to explain to the people about the commands.
And he says in verse one. Now, this is the commandment, the statues and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you. And I want to emphasize that Jesus said, teaching them to obey all I've commanded you. One of the primary purposes of the church is to teach each other the commands of God and how to obey them. And if we're not doing that, we may feel good and we had a lot of fun and isn't this nice?
But we're not accomplishing God's word. The statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach to you, that you may do them in the land to which you're going over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son, and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long here. Therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. And the truth is, when we learn God's commands, when we keep God's commands, he says, it will go well with us. That doesn't mean everything's going to work out the way we want it, but it will go well.
There'll be meaning, purpose in our lives as a result of that. I shared a couple weeks ago David's opinion of the law. And he said in chapter 19, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, Making wise this simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and then he sums it up, and keeping them there is great reward.
I don't know about you, but I can say amen to that when I have disobeyed the Lord. Things did not work out well. But when I obeyed the Lord, I look back and I thank God that you revealed your truth to me and you gave me a desire and the ability to keep that commandment. And you start to see the blessings of them in your life. And so I can say amen to that.
I hope that you can. God's commands are like a fence around your life. They did a study when Dr. James Dobson was still doing his ministry, and the kids came out of elementary school on the playground, and there was a highway on the edge of the playground, and the kids just clustered around the school. They were afraid to go out and play near that highway. So they decided, let's build a fence, which they did.
The kids were free to go out and play. They didn't have to worry about the dangers that were on the other side of the fence. And. And the same way when we keep God's commandments, it is like a fence around our lives that keeps the enemy from having an impact on your life. When you break that commands, it's like tearing a hole in that fence and allowing Satan to come in to torment you.
And so that's why Jesus instructed us. And we like to make disciples, baptize them. But then he said, teach them to obey all I have commanded you. Probably as much as anything we should be doing in church on a Sunday morning, is teaching ourselves the commands of God to obey them. Not to be saved.
We're saved by grace through faith alone, but to experience God's blessings on our lives, our family's lives, our church's life, our country's life, and that often comes through teaching. It comes through training, rebuking, correcting, anything to help us to understand the commands of God. A lot of people have the attitude, well, if I don't know them, then it doesn't matter if I don't keep them. It doesn't work that way, does it? No, they're there whether you know them or not.
It's our responsibility to know them, to learn them, and then to keep them. And when we do, I believe that God's blessing will be on our life. And you read through especially the Gospels, and we see the things that Jesus said, well, guess what? Those were commands, not suggestions. For example, he taught us to love our enemies.
That's not optional. That's a command. He taught us to give to those who have needs. Which I just reminded, we're taking an offering today for Jim and Sue because they're going to Peru later this week. And if anyone would like to help with their trip, just Mark Your envelope or your check.
Peru. And that will get to them, and that's going to open some doors for them to do ministry down there, because they'll have the financial means to do that and be praying for them as they'll be spending a few weeks there in Peru. We're told to forgive those who hurt us. We're told to go to the second mile with those who have oppressed us. And when we start learning those commands, we start seeing God's blessing in our life.
That means we're becoming more and more like Jesus, doesn't it? That's the goal. That's who he was and what he did. And we'll start to experience God's blessings and start of the curses that come from breaking those commands. We're seeing this today, the curses in our country and with some of the sin that is being promoted by those in power.
And I want to mention the LGBTQ movement. And again, God loves those people, and he wants them to be saved. Not here to condemn anyone, but. And this push was transgenderism. And what that does is it opens a door for Satan to work in people's lives, in our society's lives.
I just read this morning. I hadn't seen it till the day maybe you had. Tyler Robinson, the man that killed Charlie Kirk was living with a transgender woman.
And I get all confused. Does that mean he's a man that's trying to be a woman or. He was a woman. You know, anyway, living in a situation that God says is a sin. Came out of a conservative family.
His youth worker went with him when he turned himself in. He'd had biblical training, but somehow the devil had convinced him that he could break God's law and somehow get away with it. And make no mistake, that is a work of Satan. Satan was behind that act of crime. But Satan doesn't win.
Christ wins. And we've been shocked by the mass killings that go on in our society, schools and businesses. And they're finding, as they look into these people's lives, that most of the people who committed those crimes were into transgenderism. Is that an accident? No, it's our society opening ourselves to the attack of the devil.
And again, it doesn't mean God doesn't love those people. One of the things I was impressed with Charlie Kirk, when those people had come up to the microphone and some were really angry and antagonistic, and he treated them with love and compassion, he did not take it personal. He was there to try to win them for Christ. That was the goal. And we need to remember that we're not here to put anybody down, but to see people saved.
And again, when we break commands, it opens a door for Satan to work in our life, and we end up missing the blessings that God had intended for us. And so that's God's way, prayer and keeping his commands. Finally, when we do God's work, it accomplishes God's will for our lives. Pastors have been asked over and over and over, what's the biggest question that people ask? You guess what it is.
What is God's will for my life? You know, should I marry Susie Q or should I work in this place or should I do that or whatever. Oh, God, let me know. I think God cares about those things, and he often gives an answer. But the reality is we see God's will for our lives in verse 5 of 2nd Thessalonians, chapter 3.
You want to look at that? 2nd Thessalonians 3, chapter 5. And Paul is closing up her prayer here. And he says, may the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. That's God's will for your life, that you love God.
More experts disagree on, is this God's love for us or is this our love for God? Well, it's both, okay. And I'm finding in my life, and there's something good about getting older. And when I say something that doesn't mean everything, okay. But one of the things about getting older is you slow down and you got more time to reflect on things, to think about things and to meditate.
And one of the things that God is doing in my life is I am appreciating his love. I look back and just see the things that he's done in my life, the things he's protected me, the things he's provided, the relationships, on and on and on. And it just overwhelms my heart with the love of God. And you know what that does or it should do, should cause you to love him more. That's the goal.
That's his will to have a loving relationship with him. And the second part of that, into the steadfastness of Christ, the steadfastness. I'm going to persevere. I'm going to keep going. Nothing's going to stop me from doing the will of God in my life.
That's when we look at Charlie Kirk and there were warnings that I'm going to do what God's called me to do. And in the same way, Christ on the way to the cross. People tried to talk him out of it. Don't do it. You know, you don't have to go that way.
No, I've come to do the Father's will. And he went all the way to the cross. And so the challenge for you and I, as we experience the love of God, it should be producing a steadfastness in your walk with Christ. No matter what. No matter what I face.
And you will face things in this world. You will have tribulation. Christ promised. And that's what Charlie Kirk went through. He gave his life for Christ and for the others that he was trying to minister to.
And he may call us to do that, as Jason shared. He may not. It may just be slogging on, you know, one step after another. Okay. You know, when does this end, God?
When I say so. Your jobs keep going. They give you something else to do. I. I remember once was wondering about whether I should switch churches once. And I tried that a couple times and it didn't work out very well.
And then someone said, your responsibility is to do the last thing that God told you to do.
Your responsibility is to do the last thing God told you to do. If he wants you to do something different, he'll tell you something new. But until then, keep doing what he told you to do. Have faith, believing that it'll accomplish God's purposes and his will in your life. And when you do, there'll be great reward.
We can't even begin to imagine the joy that Charlie Kirk is experiencing in the presence of Jesus Christ right now. Nothing in this world compares, not the love of his wife, the love of his kids, anything to experiencing the full love of God. We're to pray for his family, and God's got that in control. He can handle that and he'll take care of it. But we are to keep doing what God has told us, despite the difficulties, the trials, the tribulations, whatever it is.
And we do, we will have accomplished God's will in our life. And I for one, say that is a life worth living.
Doesn't matter how long it is, it's a life worth living. Everything else is vanity of vanity. Here today and gone tomorrow. We've all experienced that, haven't we? Yeah.
Why not invest in something for eternity? God's work done, God's way accomplishes God's will. Let's pray.