I Thessalonians 3: Established, Not Shaken

This week, we continue our study of I Thessalonians with special guest, Quortney J from @running_redeemed. Quortney discusses the importance of being established in our faith so we will not be shaken when afflictions, suffering, hardships come--and they will come. This episode is filled with encouragement that will help you weather the storms of life with an unshaken faith!

Check out Quortney's website (lots of great resources available). 

We will continue our study through I and II Thessalonians for the next several episodes. Here's the link to the study guide if you'd like one to accompany your study. 

Available Bible Studies and Bible Study Guides (affiliate links):

• It's Time.
• Arise, Go.
• Pullin' Weeds, Plantin' Seeds
• There's a Fly in my Tea!
• Study Your Bible With Me Series

Connect with me:

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi there! Welcome to Wisdom for Wednesday, your midweek pause for truth, encouragement, and practical faith. I'm your host, Crystal Ratcliffe, author, speaker, and fellow traveler on this journey of growing in God's Word. Each week we'll dive into Scripture together and have the opportunity to be encouraged in the truth that never changes. If you're able, grab your Bible, a cup of coffee, and let's seek God's wisdom together.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Hey y'all, welcome back to the Wisdom for Wednesday podcast. I'm Courtney. You may not recognize my voice. I'm feeling in for Crystal. Some of you might know me from Instagram. I'm running redeemed over there. So I'm taking over this week and I want to talk to you about 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. So we've been going through this epistle with Crystal, and we've come to chapter 3. And so if I had to put a title on this chapter, it would be Established, Not Shaken. Because Paul says that no man should be moved by these afflictions. So the storm may come, the pressure may be real, but it was never meant to shake your faith loose. So today we're talking about what it means to be rooted in truth, comforted by God's word, and able to stand when life gets hard. So Paul sends Timothy to find out how the church is getting along. And we know from chapter two that he wanted to be there himself, but he couldn't. So he sent Timothy. And then in chapter three, verse two, we find out why. He says to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith. And then verse three goes on that no man should be moved by these afflictions. So that first word, establish, I want to talk to you for a second about it. It means to strengthen, to fix firmly, to make stable, to set fast. It's actually a construction word. Um they use it in construction. Think about like foundation. Think about like your roots. Um, think about something that doesn't move when pressure comes. Paul didn't send Timothy just to make them feel encouraged, he sent him to make sure they were anchored. So both establishing and comforting are necessary, but establishing comes first. One commentator that I read, he said, we can really only encourage someone after we are established in the right direction. Otherwise, we're only encouraged in the wrong course. So encouragement without truth can become just emotional permission to stay weak. But biblical comfort always comes after biblical establishment. So, in other words, God doesn't comfort us by ignoring reality, he comforts us by rooting us in truth. And that's why comfort in scripture is so much deeper than, oh, it'll be okay. It's it's like, here's truth strong enough to hold you. And then comfort flows from that truth. So think about Matthew 7, 24 and 25. That comes to my mind when I think about being established. The Bible says, Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not. This is the picture of the word establish. Established faith is not faith that avoids storms, it is faith that survives storms. Now think about 2 Thessalonians 2, 16 through 17. It says, Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. So notice here Paul is pairing them again: comfort and establishment. It's a pattern. So comfort and stability, they belong together. It's not random wording. This is this is a ministry philosophy. Like some of us want comfort before correction. We want peace before we're planted. But God loves us enough to establish us first. The Bible says in our text in verse 3 that no man should be moved by these afflictions. That word moved, it carries the idea of being shaken loose, like unsettled, thrown off course. And this is such a strong image. Affliction doesn't just hurt, it tries to dislodge you. It tries to move you off what you know to be true. The enemy's goal in suffering is not just pain, it is movement. He wants to move you off the rock. And that connects back to Matthew 7. The storm comes, but the house doesn't move because it was already established. So as Timothy establishes and comforts them, they wouldn't be shaken by these afflictions. Timothy would help them endure their present hardship. And this is exactly why Timothy had to establish them first. Because if your faith's not rooted in truth, affliction will move you. And the verse going on, for yourselves, know that we are appointed thereunto. Paul knew, and many seasoned Christians have learned that without a good understanding of the truth concerning the place of suffering in the life of the believer, we are in great danger of being shaken in our faith. He wanted them to know that their time of suffering was still in God's control. Some believe that affliction means, you know, that God's angry at you. But the truth is that affliction means that God loves us enough to give the best when we may only desire what is easy. I'll let that sink in for a second. Remember, the symbol of Christianity is the cross, right? It's not a big comfy couch. Affliction is just part of following Jesus. And Paul knew that Christians are appointed to affliction, and he wanted to be sure that these early Christians knew it too. He even says in verse 4, for verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation, even that even as it came to pass, and you know. You ever heard John 16, 33? In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. Jesus himself promised tribulation. Not maybe, not sometimes. He said, Ye shall have. And Peter says in 1 Peter 4, don't think it's strange. And Paul says in our passage, we are appointed to it. And Jesus says, Ye shall have tribulation. Scripture consistently teaches that suffering is not abnormal for the believer. But the comfort comes in knowing that it's all in God's control. Some of you are interpreting hardship as abandonment, but scripture says this is not strange. You're not forgotten. You're not outside his will. God is establishing something in you that ease never could. Now, Paul doesn't stop at saying suffering is part of the believer's walk. He takes it one step deeper and shows us why hardship can be such a dangerous place spiritually. He says, For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to you, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you and our labor be in vain. Paul was not primarily worried about whether their life was hard or not. He was worried about what hardship might be doing to their faith. The real battle is not the affliction, it's what the affliction tries to produce. The tempter uses pressure as an opportunity. Hardship becomes fertile ground for lies if faith is not established. Sometimes the temptation in a hard season is not rebellion in the obvious sense. Sometimes it's the temptation to doubt the character of God, or the temptation to believe God left you, or to stop praying, or the temptation to isolate, or to grow bitter, or to quit, or the temptation to interpret silence as absence, or to define God by your pain. That's exactly how the enemy works in affliction. The serpent's first attack was on God's word and God's character. Yea, hath God said, In suffering, the tempter still whispers this same thing. If God loved you, would this be happening? Did God really say he would never leave you? Where is he now? The enemy has not changed his strategy. He still uses pressure to make us question God's word and the goodness of God. In Luke 22, 31 and 32, Jesus says to Peter, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sit you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. Notice again, not your comfort, not your ease, not your circumstances, your faith. Paul and Jesus both point to the same battle. The enemy wants your faith to fail under pressure. Pain that is not processed through truth becomes a breeding ground for lies. And this is why Timothy had to come establish them first, because suffering without truth often turns into spiritual confusion. James 1, 2 through 4. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James teaches that trials produce patience and maturity. The enemy wants hardships to destroy your faith. God wants hardships to develop your faith. It's the same pressure, it's different purpose. So let me ask you something before we end today. What has this hard season been moving in you? Has it moved your peace? Has it moved your prayer life or your confidence in God or your obedience? Because Paul said Timothy was sent so that no man should be moved by these afflictions. The storm was never meant to move you off the rock. The pressure was never meant to uproot your faith. The enemy may have used this season to whisper lies, but God is using this season to establish you. Some of you have been reading the hardship as rejection, and some of you have been interpreting the silence as abandonment, and some of you have let pain start talking to you louder than God's word. But hear me clearly. Hardship is not proof that God has left you. Sometimes hardship is the very place where he's building something in you that comfort never could. He's establishing your roots, he's strengthening your faith. He's teaching you how to stand when everything around you says collapse. Don't let the storm move what God is trying to make immovable. Don't let the pain preach a theology that Scripture never taught. You are not called to fold in affliction. You are called to stand. And maybe that's the word for somebody listening today. Stand. Stand when you don't understand. Stand when the answer hadn't come. Stand when the tempter gets loud. Stand when your feelings are screaming something different. Because the same God who allowed the storm is the same God who's holding you in it. Let this season establish you, not destroy you. Let it deepen you, not move you. Let it drive your roots deeper into the rock. Because when this storm passes, you're gonna come out stronger, steadier, and more grounded in truth than when you went in. Not because life got easier, but because your faith got stronger.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Oh, that was just so good. I appreciate Courtney so much for stepping in to record. Many of you, if you follow me on Instagram, you know that my father did pass away on April 7th. We're getting ready to have his service this Friday. So just a lot going on with my family. I appreciate her stepping in and I knew she would do a wonderful job. And as I studied, that is exactly what I was seeing was those words established, not moved, stand fast, because Paul desired to really help those new believers get firmly established so they wouldn't fall away in the midst of affliction. And that's the same thing for us that we have to be established because the afflictions will come. And Courtney just did a wonderful job explaining that. Um, I will say, let's pray for one another to stand fast, to grow and mature spiritually, to increase in love and live a holy and blameless life. We see that at the end of the chapter there. Let's pray for one another in that way. And so I appreciate her so much doing that. And I will leave a link to her Running Redeemed website. She has a lot of resources available, so you definitely want to check her out if you have not already. And I will see you back here next week for 1 Thessalonians chapter four. Mr. Ratcliffe and I are actually planning to do that together as a joint episode. And I know some of you love it when he comes on, so make sure you come back next week.