Mobilized in the Madness | II Thessalonians 3:3 (CSB)

2 Thessalonians chapter number 3. I think I want to begin reading down verse number 3. Word of God reads, but the Lord is faithful, he will strengthen you. And guard you from the evil one. You may be seated. Thank God for his word and for the perpetual nature that lasts there forever. Just a few moments this morning to attempt to preach from the subject Mobilized in the Madness. Mobilized in the madness. I don't know if any of you have had to go through physical therapy, but in physical therapy, one of the things that the therapist will do is to make you stand while interrupting you. Therapists will— at least in my experience— therapists sometimes make you stand on one leg. Sometimes while standing on that one leg, they don't just let you stand there, but the therapist will throw a ball at you. To interrupt you. Therapist sometimes will make you stand on one of those balls that move so that while you're standing, you won't remain stagnant, but you will be interrupted.

Reason that therapists do that that because they believe in the concept of perturbations— perturbations are intentional disruptions that are called and thrown at the patient because the therapist understands that if the patient is really strong they can stand and be stable even in the midst of interruptions. Because you're really not strong if there is nothing going against you, right? But in order to see if you're really growing, the therapist allows you to stand and interrupts you while you're standing to see if you're going to keep standing while interrupting. Can y'all come with me this morning to 2 Thessalonians? We're dealing with the church of Thessalonica. The church of Thessalonica is a church that is going through the interruption of false teaching. They are discouraged because there is a teaching going on in this particular case that's telling them that they are already in the day of the Lord. And the church at Thessalonica is discouraged because they think that they may have missed something. They think that they may have missed the party. And so Paul writes this letter, this second epistle to the church at Thessalonica to correct the false teaching and to encourage them in the midst of evil.

And in this third chapter, Paul asked them for prayer.

He prayed—

he asked them and writes them, said, I want you all to pray for me that the gospel that I preach would spread rapidly. Because people are not faithful. And in the next verse, in verse 3, he tells them to be encouraged because the Lord is faithful. And in the midst of the evil, that God will protect them, preserve them, and guard them from the evil. Say it one more time, Gavin, to really set your case. There is evil around them.

Paul prays. He asked them for prayer and asked them to pray that the gospel would not just spread, but he asked them to pray that the gospel that he shares would spread rapidly.

And he says he asked them that, but that for him to be delivered from the evil that's around them because people are not faithful. And in the next verse he says, but God is faithful and God will strengthen you. I know that evil is around, Paul says. I know that things are chaotic. I know that things are uncomfortable. And I know that people are faithless. I know that there are devices being formed against you. I know that there are things that are going on that are not going in your favor. And I know that you deal with people who have no faith. I know that you deal with people who have no God. I know that you deal with opposition that is demonically influenced. I I know that you see what's going on in the country about voting rights. I know that you see what's going on in our economy and rising prices.

I know that you see what's going on in school systems, and I know that you see what's going on in churches, and I know you were experiencing what's going on in your house. And I must be honest with you today that the source of what's going on is not the person, but the source of what's going on is evil.

But here is the good news: in the midst of evil, God is still faithful, and God is still on the throne. I haven't even gotten to my thesis yet, but I want to know if I'm in somebody's business this morning who may be dealing with evil all around you. The evil on your job and the evil in the community, the evil in the politics, the evil everywhere you go.

And it seems like evil will not leave you alone. But in the midst of you seeing evil, I want somebody to know today that you serve a God who is faithful.

He is true to his word and he will not fail, and he will keep on blessing.

He will keep on keeping you.

He will keep on providing.

He will keep on healing. He will keep on sustaining. I came to let somebody know today that you serve a God who's not just good, but you serve a God who's faithful, who's dependable, who can keep on being who he is, who still sits high and looks low, who still keeps on blessing you and who still keeps on anointing you. Has God been faithful to anybody in this morning?

I find in my strength in the midst of the mess.

Paul is telling them, don't worry about it, God's faithful.

I know they some fools, but God's faithful.

I see what's going on, but I'm still faithful. I see your tears, but I'm still faithful. I know what's going on in your mind, but I'm still faithful. I came to kill a demon this morning who's been keeping somebody up all night, where you full of anxiety and you can't rest because of the evil that's going on around you. My simple word for you this morning: God is faithful.

Gavin, be disciplined this morning. Be disciplined.

Here it is, Bridget.

Since I love your dress, I'mma give you my thesis, Bridget. The faithfulness of God stabilizes what the enemy tries to shake. Richard ain't like it, so now let me talk to my boy K since he back.

The faithfulness of God stabilizes what the enemy tries to shake.

Just like the therapist tries to shake you to prove that you're strong. You know that you're strong, that's when you can deal with the shaking.— and you can still stand there. You're not cleared for takeoff until you can stand when the environment is not stable. You're not a true Christian if you can't stand when there's chaos all around you. You're not a true believer if you quit church when things get hot in your life. But if you are really a strong Christian, who you say you are, and you serving the Lord to the day you die, then where are you when things get tough?

Tony, you know I'm happy to see you, man.

And if they don't want to hear it, I want to tell you, the faithfulness of God is going to stabilize everything you see that the enemy trying to shake up. I don't care if it's in Washington, Baton Rouge, Little Rock, Austin, Japan, Russia, Africa, Egypt, Mars, Pluto, Uranus, Saturn— wherever it is, my God is faithful through it all.

I wish I was a preacher this morning, but, but let me, let me, let me—

I got where I want to go. We know that the Faithfulness to God stabilizes what the enemy tries to shake. There are some nuances that God has highlighted for me I'm really anxious to share with you this morning, and if y'all want to hear it, I will give it to you. Get out your way, get in the car, and we gonna go north to south of 167. Are y'all interested? This text this morning teaches us Big word alert about coexisting continuity.

Why y'all looking at me like that?

Coexisting continuity.

Yeah, but can I say it a different way?

Yeah, you can say it a different way. It's continuation of two forces that are going on at the same time. Unpack it for them, Gabby. Paul says, pray for me that the gospel will spread rapidly. And he says, pray that I will be delivered from evil, cause people are faithless but God is faithful. Notice if you go back, verses 1 and 2 of this third chapter in the second epistle to Paul's letter at Thessalonica, Paul addresses the evil that's present. And I would be a false prophet this morning if I stood here and told you that you so mighty in God that all you gotta do is speak in tongues for 3 minutes, put them all in the shape of a cross, and evil will flee. I would be a false prophet if I told you that on first Sundays, that's real good church because the pastor put a suit on on first Sundays, and so when he preached with a suit on, evil is gonna flee. But since I try to be honest with Paul shows us in his prayer request that you do not have to ask for the elimination of evil in order to ask for the effectiveness despite evil. Do you get preaching today, Gavin?

Here it is.

Paul says, I know that evil is there.

But I want you to ask God that the gospel that I preach will spread rapidly. The reason—

part of the reason that evil is there is because of the gospel that Paul is preaching.

Paul doesn't shut up, but Paul says, I'm not going to let evil shut me up, but since my God is faithful, I'm gonna preach anyhow. And if I preach anyhow, even though evil is around, if we talk to God about it, then God is able to overcome all of the evil that I'm dealing with.

Good Lord.

Paul never says that evil will leave. Paul does not even ask for them to say, ask God for evil to flee. Because the truth of it, brothers and sisters, is that we are living in what's called a fallen world due to sin and due to what man has done and due to the presence of the enemy.

There will always—

until he comes again—

there will always be the presence of evil. So it's not social media, it's not these kids and this music, it's not that that's causing evil. Evil has been here since the beginning. And guess what? With your saved and sanctified self and filled with the Holy Ghost, as long as you stay on this earth, you're gonna have to live on this earth in the presence of evil. No matter how many books you buy, no matter how many books that you buy to tell you that you can pray the evil out of this country and evil out of this world, you can't do it.

But Paul says this: I'm not gonna pray for the evil to leave.

Because that's something that's already been set up.

But I know a God who, even when he done remove evil from the world, he puts something on the inside of me that I'm able to be effective even in the presence of evil. Now I'm trying not to raise my voice. I'm trying to be professorial because I got a jacket on and you know I don't like to sweat. When I got the jacket on.

But I'm—

so I need y'all to understand what I'm saying. I want to know if there's anybody this morning who can admit that, Pastor, I'm around some evil stuff.

I work with some evil.

I live with some evil. I go to church with some evil. I look in the mirror and see some evil. I see some evil on TV. But God is challenging us today that even though evil continues God says, I am still here and able to allow you to accomplish things even in the presence of your evil. Your God is too big for you to stop because evil is in the world. Your God is too great for you to be intimidated by the evil you see. Your God has been too good to you for you to see some evil on your job and for you to shy away from it and think that they are going to overtake you.. But the God that I serve has told me, I don't know about you, that greater is he that is within me than he that's within the world. So I can go to any job, I can go to any setting, I can go to any place and stick my chest out and let the world know that God is in me.

And if you let God keep on working on me, he will use me to overcome the evil in this world.

Paul says, I don't just want the gospel to spread, but I want to really make the devil mad.

I want the gospel to spread rapidly because I know that what I'm doing is making the devil mad.

But I know that I got a God who can protect me. I got a God who can preserve me. And when you are doing what God has called you to do, you can go in valleys full of death and know that God is with you. When God is with you, you can go with people who know— you know are against you. You can look at their faces and tell that they can't stand you. You can look at their faces and tell that they are plotting against you. God will even let you see and discern the conversations they're having. He will let you discern the text messages that they're sending. He will let you discern the meetings that they had behind your back. But God will say, don't shy away from it. Show up anyway and let them know that I am too big of a God for you to be shut up. If God be for me, who can be against me?

I, I wish I felt like hearing me preach today. He did not ask for evil to leave. He just asked for God to come. Did y'all hear what I just said? He did not ask for evil to leave because he says that if God comes, evil can still be there and evil won't stop nothing.

Evil will just have to look.

And God is calling this out.

God is calling you, brother and sister, to move anyway. The year—

I, I gotta get out of here— the year 2008, I'm on the yard, Grambling State University, in, uh, 1998.

Mercury Sable. My mother died in 2003 and she drove the Mercury Sable. So when I got my license, Daddy wasn't gonna buy me a new car. He's just gonna say, you're gonna take your mama's car and you're gonna drive that since you the baby.

You can have her car.

I'm the man now because not only am I in college, not only am I away from Winfield, but I got a new car now. But to my embarrassment, I got in the car one day, said I'mma go to the yard, let the window down, and let them girls see me drive. Took a turn and I noticed my car made the most embarrassing noises that a car can make. Went to a mechanic, mechanic told me, say, man, you need some ball— ball joints on your car are worn out. That's why you hear that squeaking. Well, I'm in a pickle now. I don't want to call Dad and hear a whole lecture about him having to give money to pay for some new ball joints. So I asked the mechanic, so if I don't get this fixed, is the worst thing that's going to happen is I'm just going to make some noise? Because if that's the case, I just get some WD-40, spray on it, and stop the noise.

The mechanic taught me something that preached me great.

I'm gonna do my best to tell it to you. He said the ball joint does more than just stop noise, but the ball joint really essentially keeps things aligned as it moves. And I asked the question, I said, break that down for me. He said, are you able to change potholes in the road? No, I can't do that, sir. Are you able to go and rebuild all the roads and make them straight?

No, I can't do that.

So what you need, sir, is some new ball joints, because what ball joints do It helps you remain stable with things that you can't change.

Who am I talking to in here today? You just need some spiritual ball joints because you're dealing with some rough roads and you're dealing with some twists and turns and you see all kind of noise. But God say you got some ball joints where you can not only just endure the potholes, but you can keep on moving while the potholes are there. And I want to let somebody know today that the Spirit of God that's living on the inside of you keeps you moving even in the madness. It keeps you moving even in the mess because you stay stable even while things going on around you.

Now every time I hear car squeak, I get happy. I say all they need is just get some ball joints because you can't do nothing about these roads.

But what you can do is what's going on inside of your car.

Get out of here, get out of here.

They don't want to help you. Cage back. Cage gonna think you forgot how to preach. So see what you can do with the second one. Not only do we deal with the coexisting continuity, but, but Tony, also I see in this text clarified credibility.

Credibility or confidence that's been clarified and straightened up. Can I unpack it for you? Paul says, after he prayed, asked for prayer for himself, he said, I want to let y'all know this evil in this world, people are faithless.

But verse 3, God is faithful. Paul says that he will strengthen you and guard you from evil. Evil is there. Paul, you just prayed about the danger that you're in. You told us that the people have no faith, and that's a part of evil that you're going through. You ask for prayer for you, Paul. Then you come to verse 3 and say, God is faithful, he will protect and preserve you.

Paul, you can't speak for me. Paul, you're not going through what I'm going through.

I'm dealing with some evil, I'm dealing with hell, I'm dealing with situations And you telling me to keep on believing in God, but you not here in Thessalonica. Paul, how are you gonna fix your epistle right now to tell me what God is gonna do for me?

I know what he's done for you, but you are an apostle, Paul.

You the pastor, so you got a special anointing from God. And you, since you the pastor, don't have to deal with hell because all you gotta do is call God on his special number that only you got.

Paul teaches us. He answered my question.

I kind of agree with old Thessalonica. Paul, how do you fix your epistle right now to tell them what God's gonna do for them?

Here's what answer Paul says: I'm not telling you what I heard.

But I'm telling you from an autobiographical lens of some things that I've seen God do in my life. I've been persecuted, I've been in prison, I've been beaten, all for the sake of the gospel.

And I know that if God did it for me He's able, willing, and likely to do it for you.

I hear Thessalonica again. Paul, I just told you that you're an apostle, and he do it for apostles.

He do it for church folks. He do it for people who wear suits. He do it for people in white dresses. He do it for people who know not to watch him.

But how can I know he'll do it for me?

Paul came in again. Paul says, y'all reading my epistle, but y'all don't know me before Acts chapter 9.

Y'all know me as Paul the Apostle, but what y'all don't know about me is that I used to be Saul, and I used to be a persecutor of the church. But one day on the Damascus Road, I was blinded by a light, and I was knocked off of my beast. And God did not throw me away, but God not only saved me But God called me, and God, he's in the calling business and in the saving business still.

So y'all think y'all letting these titles fool y'all?

Y'all let these church dances fool you? You think that you— you letting folks think that they got a monopoly on God? You letting people know, think that they got the secret prayer to how to get a prayer through with God. But let me tell you how all of us in here got a prayer through to God, because God just simply heard us with our ratchet, messy, lying, evil, sinning, manipulative, disobedient selves, and God looked beyond our folks and met every last one of our needs. So if God can do that from the pastor down to the pew, there is no secret what my God can do, because what he's done for others, he can do the same thing for you. With your criminal record, with your children out of wedlock, with your classes that you fail, with your jacked up credit score, with you losing your job, with you going through bankruptcy, with you going through divorce, with you going through exposure He can do it for you too. See, when you know the truth about that, you don't let these folks here intimidate you. You say, I can go to God boldly because his son went to Calvary one Friday— I feel like preaching— and died all day Friday and got up Sunday morning. And that same Jesus is available for me right now.

I'm past my time.

I'm past my time, and I done sweated 2 times. I only want to sweat 1, so I'm over my sweating and my time.

Can I tell you the secret about this text?

Notice this. I know this.

Watch this. Watch, watch.

Where the church God is all the— and all the— God is—

well, watch this, watch this. Don't kick out the lecture. Watch this. I stay getting in trouble.

I saying don't say that.

Watch, here's her shout. Here's the chapter, verse 3. Paul didn't say God is good all the time, all the time God is good.

Can I teach the text? In verse 3, Paul goes with a different adjective, and he says that God is faithful in the midst of a faithless nation and people.

God remains faithful.

Can I give you what faithfulness is theologically?

Faithfulness is consistency based upon character. Yeah, yeah, because you trying to figure out why God's been so good to you. Why God just keep on blessing you? Why God just keep on saving you?

Why God won't stop talking to you?

Can I tell you why? Because he's consistent based on his character.

And when your character didn't line up with his character, he didn't come out of character. Gavin Robert Hampton, if you don't preach with your full eyesight, I'll say it one more time. The reason that God kept you when you came out of character, because he's consistent with his character and remained faithful. And here's your shout: I just get blessed on him remaining faithful to his character. Is there anybody this morning who don't want to lie to me, who know that you ain't always had the right character, you hadn't always acted like you supposed to act, but he remained faithful and didn't come out of character even when you came out of character?

That's 3 pounds, I swear. Get out of here, Gavin.

I gotta leave now because this girl said she know what she want to eat after church, and that's rare. We usually have an hour argument about what we gonna eat, so I better get out of here now while the getting's good. Y'all remember a few weeks ago I told y'all about my grandma?

Gave me those antibiotics because she didn't finish taking all hers, and I got mad with her later on because she stopped taking the antibiotics and because she quit too early. It's some more preaching than that.

I wish I might go to the cemetery today and tell her, "Mama Pluca, you done helped me." Here it is, I found out I love somebody too. The reason that she stopped taking antibiotics—

good night— is because she used an excuse and she said, you know, it's something about them antibiotics that make me kind of sick, so I stopped taking them because those antibiotics started making me sick. Kinda like I might need you to help me with this, but I messed around and learned something, and I wish I could tell her today what I learned. All she needed to do was go to the doctor and tell him that the antibiotics made her sick, because you know what doctors do. Here's something that I learned about prescription medicine.

Pills, medicine, uh, drugs have two types of ingredients.

You have the active ingredient, and some pills have what's called an inactive ingredient.

And a lot of times people quit on medicine because they let the side effects of the inactive ingredients prevent them from getting the benefit of the active ingredients. Said one more different way, Gabby, pills come with different ingredients.

Some ingredients are really the true ingredients that's supposed to help.

Some ingredients in the pills are what's called fillers. Sometimes they produce a certain diet or make a pill or something taste better. It's really not doing anything for you, but the active ingredient that's in the pill is what's really helping you become better. So if I can go to my grandma today, I would tell her, "Poo, all you had to do, go back to the doctor." and tell the doctor that the pills were making you sick, the doctor would have did this for you. He would have gave you some new pills.

He would have kept the active ingredient but got rid of the inactive ingredient.

So all I'm trying to tell you is that you can't mislabel what's working because of what you feel.

Y'all miss all of that. Many of us in the house today are feeling different things in life. But don't you let that take you away from the active ingredient. Who, Gavin R. Hams, is the active ingredient? He is Jehovah Jireh. He's my provider. They call him Mary's baby. They call him a bridge over troubled water. I know I feel some stuff in this world, but every time I feel that, I go to the active ingredient who keeps me and who saves me and who restores me and who saved me and anointed me Who keeps me, who rocks me. Anybody know about the active ingredient this morning? And don't you let—

I'm done.

Don't you let—

y'all hear me?

Don't you let what you're feeling take you away from who's working. I got the peppermint in my mouth, so you know I'm done. We all for Jesus this morning.