The BIGHOPE of Pay Back and Proof

2 Thes. 1:1-10

• Jesus’ wanted ad for those in gospel: Matt 10
• God isn’t stuck by man’s “free will”
  • Ps 33
  • Isa 44
  • Jer 51:11
• trouble in a believer’s life isn’t proof of God’s absence
  • very much the opposite
    • this is the conflict we expect being in life of Light in world of dark

Reality is…

• as your faith is super-sized and your love lands all over (ie. dispersed amongst community), persecutions & tribulations escalate
  • super-sized faith = super trust in God
    • will bring opposition from those outside the faith AND within the faith
    • persecution can be based on your faith alone
    • tribulations not just a single event
      • does your trust in God grow during these times, or do you trust in something else?
      • although the troubles seem to [unreadable] the righteous judgment of God, He isn’t judging right now; He’s gathering evidence
        • if God was IMMEDIATE in judgment, none of us should be here! (Phil 1:6)

Hope is…

• because God is just; the time of His righteous judgment will come – when Christ is revealed  (v7: apocalypses)
  • remember vengeance belongs to the Lord
  • the tables will turn; the troublers will get trouble; the troubled will get relief
    • For the Troubled: trouble used as instrument to manufacture disciples; evidence of the real
    • For the Troublers: instrument of judgment; evidence for their judgment

Hell is…

• a place of punishment only for those who do not know the God they chose to ignore & do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus they chose to reject
  • Rom1:21; stubborn refusal of relational knowledge of God & only desire head knowledge
  • can’t merit salvation, but can merit judgment
  • Hell is the total expression of what unbelievers want: no God to impact them

BIG HOPE is…

• someday reflect in the glory of Christ and being lost in the amazement of His splendor
  • glory of Christ will completely eclipse what the spirit has been doing
    • Big Hope is you, being included because you believer out testimony to you