The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Reliance - Prayers Before Plans

Episode Date: April 21, 2024

God bless the Menking family.

Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men. For not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and will do the things we command you. Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ. But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly

among you, nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. For even when we were with you, we commanded you this, if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.

But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all. The salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every epistle, so I write the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for the opportunity to come together to read your word and to petition God, you for all of the blessings that we need.

for all of the blessings that we need. We need your might. We need your transforming power. We need your grace. We need your love. We need your forgiveness, Lord. And we are completely dependent upon you for these things and so much more, for everything, Lord.

You and you alone, Jesus, are high and lifted up. Yours is the name above every name. We praise you and we give thanks to you for all that you have done, for all that you will do. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the exceeding great and precious promises that we have secured to us because of what you have done and what you have established. God, you are good and your mercy endures forever. We worship you and know, God, that you are worthy of it. Holy Spirit, be with us. Holy Spirit, give us grace. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear. Speak to us, Lord. Help us to understand the things of God and help us to know how we must

apply them in our own lives. Lord, encourage us with this word. Move us forward in our faith. Help us to grow. Help us to be transformed from image to image and from glory to glory according to your word and your promises. Jesus, we bless you. We pray that you would redeem this time, that we would only speak and think things that are edifying and things that are edifying of you. We love you, Lord, and we bless you. In Jesus' name, amen.

We've spoken previously from this chapter in 2 Thessalonians 3 about not growing weary in doing good. And it is another opportunity to highlight that exhortation. We should not and cannot grow weary in doing good. Although that temptation will come all the time, it's one of the things that happens when we earnestly maintain a pursuit of the Lord and seek with all of our hearts to grow and to expand our understanding of God and our application of the principles of the word of God in our own lives. There will come times of weariness, whether it is in our church, in our families, in our jobs, in our spiritual lives, in general, in prayer, in anything that we do. We have such little strength. The strength that we have comes from God and he is powerful, mighty, and just, and righteous, and true. And he is so faithful and loving to equip us and to strengthen us. For when we are weak, he makes us strong. And so brothers and sisters at the outset,

just let me encourage you not to grow weary in doing good. Perhaps you have sown things into your family and you haven't yet reaped or seen the harvest that comes as a result of that. Be reminded, brethren, that we may sow, another may reap, but in any circumstance, it is God who gets the glory for the increase. Maybe we have prayed and prayed and prayed for the salvation of our families or for others. I encourage you today and encourage myself to continue persevering in that effort. Keep going. Keep praying. Keep seeking the face of the Lord. If you need a breakthrough, fight the good fight of faith until the breakthrough arrives. God hears you. God knows you. God loves you. Sometimes the answer to our prayer doesn't come in the timing that we want. Sometimes the answer to our prayer is no, but regardless of the answer, our obligation and our duty to pray for others, for ourselves, for the glorification

of the name of the Lord Jesus does not fade away. That obligation remains and it stands, and God knows when we are weary and need rest. He knows that we have little strength. He knows that he is the one who needs to empower us, to quicken us. But let us be attentive, brothers and sisters, to the Holy Spirit. Let us be open to receiving what God has for us because of the transformative power that the word of God can have in our lives. Keep pressing through. The breakthrough is worth it. Do not grow weary in doing good. I want to focus on the text in verse 3. But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. What does it mean, brothers and sisters, that the Lord is faithful? Has he shown you his faithfulness recently? Have you been looking for his faithfulness?

He has been faithful to you in many ways. He has kept you from things that you're not even aware of. He has moved you from one place to another. He has transformed your heart. He has given you a yearning for him. And he has given us, brothers and sisters, a means of salvation, a great victory in Jesus who triumphed over sin, death, hell, and the grave. And God is faithful to establish us, to equip us.

He is a good father and he will not leave us to be opposed and confronted and accused and set upon. He will guard us. He will establish us. We have been established in Christ. Jesus is the cornerstone. We are part of his kingdom. We are part of his family. We are part of his body. We are seated with him in heavenly places. It is because of Jesus that we understand and can act on these things and know that God's faithfulness, even if he didn't answer a single prayer for the rest of your life, God demonstrated his faithfulness in a completely sufficient and all-pervasive way in the work of Christ. But brothers, it doesn't stop there. God will answer your prayer. He will establish you. He will guard you.

We don't have the means to establish ourselves and to guard ourselves. Whatever we build up in our own strength ultimately will be torn down. Whatever we establish ourselves will ultimately be burned up. But what we do when we allow God to establish us, when we allow God to guard us, that is true security. That is where we can find the peace and the rest that is so necessary for our souls. That is where we can find the quiet confidence that the world seeks after and cannot find in other areas of stoic philosophy, of self-help, of mindfulness, and other such things. There is a genuine security that comes from being in the Lord and knowing his faithfulness and understanding that he is faithful even through the trials that

we go through and that the trials that we go through are part and parcel of a demonstration of his faithfulness and that he is faithful to fulfill his promises. He has promised us unbelievably incredible things. An eternity with him, we can't even comprehend it. A time when sin and death are no more, we can't comprehend it. These blessings are hopes that reside in the recesses of our souls and come out in the groanings and yearnings that we have when we look around the world and we see the state of affairs, perhaps even in our own hearts, our own minds, our own families, our own spheres of influence. But there is something, brothers and sisters, the seed of faith, the presence of the Holy Spirit, this guarantee, this first fruits deposit of our inheritance that keeps us looking

to the Lord, that keeps us focused on what he has for us, that keeps us faithful. He is faithful, so let us place our faith in him. He is perfectly trustworthy. He is absolutely reliable. He is the one who we turn to in every situation and in every circumstance. And as we're talking about God's faithfulness, I want to encourage you in prayer, brothers and sisters, specifically to my fellow men and husbands and fathers out there. There is a tendency that we can have where we will go to prayer, but it won't necessarily be our first instinct. We have in many ways, and this is in a majority of cases, has been programmed in such a way as to seek solutions first and foremost.

And as a consequence of the days and years and decades that we have spent, oftentimes our first instinct is going to be to present the solution that occurs to us. I see a path forward. I know how to get from A to B. Here's how we do it. Here's how we go ahead. Here's how we go ahead. Let's make a decision. Let's go forth. And that kind of decisive leadership is a positive characteristic, generally speaking. It's something that we need to have. It's a component of our

character. It's a component of our being that is incredibly valuable, that is incredibly important, particularly in the responsibilities that we have as husbands and as fathers to take the lead and to be decisive and to chart a course and to make progress. But I might propose to you brothers in particular, that if we only go to prayer when we have exhausted our other options or the solutions that we have proposed don't necessarily pan out the way that we should or that we think that they should, we are missing out on an opportunity to experience and understand God's faithfulness in an even greater way. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't have the capacity to put plans together. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't be decisive. But what it means is that we should seek first the input of God and his Holy Spirit. And even if the decision is small, there is never anything wrong with proceeding in prayer, of walking actively with the Lord and seeking his guidance, because

we may have a solution to something that comes up that is perfectly workable. It's something that's going to be effective and it's worked many times over. Maybe it will even work in this situation. Maybe it's a low risk, a low stakes kind of circumstance. But what we see time and time again in scripture is the way that Jesus behaves in his ministry, the way that the apostles behave, the way that the prophets behave. In many different cases, God's plan and God's approach subverts expectations. The biggest example of this is Jesus going to the cross. This was God's plan for a big situation, the biggest situation. It is the redemption of all mankind. And it was done in such a way that was completely unexpected and something that was foretold and yet not seen in the way that it could have been.

But when we notice this and when we understand this, brothers, not that our own situations compare in their scope and importance, but what we do want to say is that God's solution and the correct path forward, the appropriate way forward, may not be in accordance with the primary plans that we would put together using our own strength and reasoning and instinct. Even if we're experienced in things, even if we have a very good understanding of the contours of what is going on, may I present to you a couple of points. Number one, we do not have all the information and context about any situation. In many cases, we have enough to make a good decision that we believe is reliable, but we should always admit that we don't have the full perspective.

However, we know that God does. And so it may be the case that in certain circumstances, God has a surprising way for us to move forward that we would not have seen, that we would not have understood, that would not be a product of our own reasoning. Number two, when we are praying for these things, as opposed to architecting our own solutions, we are relying upon someone who is perfectly faithful, perfectly loving, and perfectly knowledgeable about the circumstance. We can trust and rely on the character of God. God is absolutely loving, completely worthy of worship. There are thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands and billions of things that he has done each and every day. If you count, let's say, the successful operation of every time that one

of our cells divides without causing harm or causing damage or containing a harmful mutation in it, all of these things are out of our control to a meaningful extent, to an almost complete extent. Yes, we should do the right things and keep care of our bodies, the temples of the Holy Spirit that the Lord has given to us. We can help these things with better nutrition and everything else like that and avoiding exposure to things that we know are harmful. But we don't control these operations, but the Lord does. He has oversight over all of his creation. So just think about that from an order of magnitude perspective. So again, number one, we don't have all the information. Number two, God does. Number three, his character is such that our dependence upon him should be a matter of great joy.

What we see in the word of God, especially in the book of Acts and also in these passages in 2 Thessalonians, is the security, the peace, and the joy that those who are following god with their whole hearts have and we have likely seen in our own misadventures here scenarios where people try to project that kind of peace in that kind of circumstance. They try to represent themselves as having these things, but there is something about an authenticity of genuine peace that passes all understanding that cannot be replicated. It cannot be counterfeited. It cannot be manufactured out of our own strength, no matter how strong the cultural conventions are for it. But brothers and sisters, we have a God who is worthy to be worshiped and

served and adored. And because that is what we are created for in large part, to have a loving fellowship with God and to see his name glorified and his kingdom advanced. Because that is our primary purpose in totality at the highest level. Then when we are seeking God in everything, in these small things, when we can ask the Holy Spirit to help transform our hearts, to move us away from the instinct to just immediately implement solutions and to take just a small amount of time to ask, God, what would you have me to do here? I'm ready. I might even have a potential solution. Lord, put a check in my spirit if I'm supposed to do something different. Speak to me, Lord. Show me a scripture. Bring me something or someone across my path that will move me in a different direction. And brothers, those kind of beseeching prayers will be answered in one way or another. And maybe our plan is perfectly legitimate. Maybe there isn't another

opportunity here. Maybe what we have put together is actually in alignment with God's will. And praise God if it is. But we need to give God the space to give us direction. And this is one way, and we want to be a little bit nuanced here. where the role of the heavenly father is distinct from the role of an earthly father. When we are raising our children, we have an end goal in part of them being self-sufficient. We want them to be able to operate independently. We want them to be able to operate independently. We want them to have the experience and to inculcate the lessons that are necessary for them to make good decisions, for them to make the right decisions, for them to not stray from the way in which they have been brought up.

But God is not exactly relating to us like that as our Heavenly Father. There is always going to be a greater degree of dependence that we have on God, as opposed to this earthly father relationship. And yes, God wants us to grow. God wants us to persevere. God wants us to develop all of those things. But the end goal for God is not our own independence in decision making. The end goal for God and mature, we achieve a position of greater dependence on him. And it's one where our attitude and our temperament and our disposition and our hearts are transformed and adjusted in such a way that we can say

maturity is walking in God's will and following the lead of the Holy Spirit. And that provides a different type of independence, a different type of freedom. It's not the freedom to make our own decisions. It's freedom from the constraints that our fleshly and sinful circumstance impose upon us. It's not a freedom to be independent in the way that the world understands it, although there are aspects of that that are positive, it is a different kind of independence. It's a freedom to follow God wherever he wants us to go in any capacity. And God is faithful in all of these things. God is faithful in all of these things. And this represents a significant distinction between the worldly system and the kingdoms of this world and the heavenly system and the kingdom of heaven. And again, we look to God as our Father in all of the best ways, but that doesn't mean that we can necessarily

extend that analogy in every aspect of the way that we relate to our children, let's say, to the way that God relates to us. Again, the key distinction here is that we have an end goal of wanting our children to be independent, and God has an end goal of wanting us to be dependent on him. And by doing so, become increasingly independent of the systems of this world, the systems of captivity that would keep us bound and restricted. God wants us to be increasingly independent of all the constraints that prevent us from walking in full relationship with him. Because God, as the ultimate good, can have no better goal and no better direction than for us to be reconciled and to be drawn nearer to him. And so we think about all of these lessons and sermons and discipleship programs about following God, about spiritual disciplines, and all of them are good and valuable.

But I want to highlight, brothers and sisters, that our instinct to implement plans and to come up with solutions and just to go ahead and then to have prayer as a backup or saying, all right, this is what I'm going to do. Lord, bless this endeavor. Or, well, that didn't work. Lord, I'm in trouble. Help me. in trouble, help me. That we move prayer up in priority, that we move seeking the face of God and seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit up in priority before we act. And again, this is not even talking specifically or more narrowly about situations where our plans are awful and are going to get us into potentially extremely dangerous circumstances. I'm talking about the day-to-day

situations, conversations with our loved ones, engagement with our co-workers, our fellow brothers and sisters in church, our perspective on the world, all of these things. All of these things are critically important to the Lord. And when we make that extra space, when we understand that God may have something even better, he may have a better approach. And it wouldn't be surprising to us, or at least shouldn't be surprising to us, if God has a better approach because he has all the information and he knows the end from the beginning, right? It's not just that he understands the contours of the situation. It's that he knows how the situation will play out

in every possible eventuality. And, brothers and sisters, we know that the Lord is faithful. And, brothers and sisters, we know that the Lord is faithful. If we are seeking his guidance and we are hearing from him and we are moving forward in that, then that is the extent of our responsibility. We have sought the face of God. We have been ready to obey and we have faithfully obeyed. And sometimes obedience is extremely difficult and challenging because of what it brings about. But as we understand more about the faithfulness of God, as we see it manifest in our own lives, as we see the will of God being established,

as we understand more, as we grow more, the easier it will be to say, God is faithful. the easier it will be to say, God is faithful. Lord, what would you have me to do? Here am I, Lord, send me. Understanding that in many cases that can lead to challenging circumstances, because there are challenging circumstances around us. And we are called in many ways to confront these things, to be a light amidst the darkness, to be a testimony of God's faithfulness, to do these things and to follow the Lord even into great trouble as the New Testament shows, as even the example of Jesus himself shows. So brothers and sisters, let us understand the situation that we are in. And let's look to verse 5 and this initial part of Paul's benediction to the church at Thessalonica. Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

the patience of Christ. Wouldn't we all be in a better position if our hearts were more regularly directed into the love of God and into the patience of Christ? God is long-suffering towards us, and there is great patience in Christ. And patience, I think, is bound up with hope as an attitude, with hope as a mindset. If we have hope and we understand the love of God and we are aware of his faithfulness, then we can be patient. Sometimes when we think of a plan or a solution to a problem or something like that, and we implement it, it may just be that the timing isn't exactly right, and that we have to wait on the opportune moment to implement something, to say yes or no, to have the right words for someone in the right circumstance. But brothers and sisters, we can

pray for all these things. In the Bible, it says you have not because you ask not. And so let's keep it simple here today. All the nuances aside, all of the finer points in the background, are we asking for the help of the God of the universe, of the one who knows the right path forward, of the one who has promised to show us the right path forward, of the one who is perfectly faithful and who has demonstrated that faithfulness time and time again through the work of Christ, through the word of God, through witness of the Holy Spirit in our own hearts. Are we relying on our father or are we taking things into our own hands? I dare say that wherever we are on that spectrum, we can do more relying on God and less jumping to the plans that we have made. And maybe for some people,

this looks like a tendency to go over conversations, hypothetical ones or past ones again and again and again and again until it wearies you, until it becomes more confusing rather than more clarifying. Maybe we can put that aside and think about the love of God and receive from the Holy Spirit the patience of Christ, of knowing who God is and his faithfulness. Maybe for others it looks like jumping to conclusions and plowing ahead on a path and ignoring the indications that get put in our trajectory to steer away from it. Let us be dependent upon the Lord. defines such an emphasis on the value of independence and self-sufficiency that we have applied that to our spiritual lives in ways that are not perfectly appropriate.

Maybe it is a good thing to understand that we are bondservants of Christ, that we were bought with a price, the most precious price, the blood of Christ himself, and that it is our duty to be dependent upon Jesus. And if that's troubling to us for one reason or another, and we say, well, you know, that's not necessarily something I want to do, if we're still pushing back against this, maybe if it's upsetting to us for one particular reason or another, maybe in the presence of some theological logic, we will do it for the sake of those around us. If you had a choice and you had to pick someone to make the decisions for someone you loved, would it be themselves making the decisions and implementing everything? Would it be you making all the decisions and implementing everything?

Or would it be a perfect, almighty, and loving God making the decisions and implementing everything? It's a leading question, obviously. The only reasonable and appropriate answer is the final, ultimate option, that the Lord should be in charge. And so when we model that behavior, when the Lord is in charge of our paths, it will benefit the people who we love. It really will, because God is faithful. And as we see him working in our lives, as we develop a greater dependence and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, we will have more of this love of God and this patience of Christ. And that will be something that will help those around us, that will encourage them to follow God as we are, to look to him and to receive this peace that Paul speaks of. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every way.

Peace always in every way. Not just partial peace in some ways, not just a little bit of peace in certain circumstances, but leaving it out over there. Peace always in every way, a permanent pervasive peace that is characterized by love, by patience. And all it takes is just saying, I want to be dependent upon God. Let me pray before I act. This is something I need to grow in as well, tremendously. But it's an area where we can all grow closer to God. And having that concretely, as opposed to just in the abstract as a desirable goal is something that is really helpful. And so brothers and sisters, let us move forward. Let us go with God. Let us put ourselves out there and be willing to acknowledge any constraints or blockages that we have that are preventing us from going in this direction, whether it's in our own character, external circumstances, tendencies that we have,

whatever it may be. Let us go in obedience. Let us work in quietness and eat our own bread. Let us demonstrate the love of God. Let us receive peace always in every way from the Lord of peace himself. And let us show forth the patience of Christ. This kind of testimony is what the generation that we are in is thirsty for. And it is something that is available to us because of the mercies and the grace of Almighty God. Jesus, thank you for this time. Thank you that you are the Prince of Peace. Thank you for the patience that you can provide us and that you will provide us and that you want to provide us and that you love to provide us. Lord, we ask boldly that you would give us peace always in every way, that you would be with us, that you would strengthen us to pray,

and that you would change our instincts, Lord, from immediately implementing plans and concocting solutions to consulting you. For we know, Lord, you are perfect in goodness and knowledge and power and love, and that you love us, Father. Thank you that you are there for us. Thank you, Jesus, for your intercession on our behalf. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for helping us to pray when we don't know how. Thank you, God, that you know the end from the beginning. Thank you, Lord, that you are all in all and that there is no name like yours. Jesus, we bless you. I pray for my brothers and sisters that they would grow in their walks with you, that they would take another step forward in the faith, that they would see the fruits of it quickly and immediately, that they would take another step forward in the faith, that they would see the fruits of it

quickly and immediately, that they would receive the positive reinforcement from making a step towards you and drawing near to you, that they would be immediately rewarded with an incredible blessing from you, Lord, as a testimony of your faithfulness. Lord, it's not a test that you put us under, and we are not putting you to the test, but we pray, Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ, that as your people make strides towards you, as your people turn to you and pray for your help in whatever situations they're in, that they would hear from heaven and that you would guide them and that you would establish in their hearts the peace that passes understanding in such a way that they are absolutely convinced that it's not something that the world has

provided them. It's not something that their own reason or strength has provided them, but that it is a direct deposit, Lord, from you. Holy Spirit, thank you for ministering to us. Thank you for your word. Thank you for bringing us together. We pray that you would continue to minister to us, that you would continue to lift us up, that you would help us, that you would make us more dependent on you, that you would bring us into closer fellowship with yourself. Jesus, we love you. Thank you. Thank you for all that you've done. Give us the patience of Christ. In Jesus' name, amen.