Bethlehem Baptist Mobile App Download the Bethlehem Baptist Church Mobile App Available for iOS and Android

Sermons

November 18, 2018

What Even Apostles Cannot Endure

Matthew Westerholm (Downtown Campus) | 1 Thessalonians 3:1-10

Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?—1 Thessalonians 3:1–10

Introduction

This morning, we’re back in 1 Thessalonians, back to our campus specific preaching, back to the series we’re calling “A Healthy Church” and encouraged by and aspiring to all of the wonderful evidences of grace that Paul sees in the church in Thessalonica. Today, in 1 Thessalonians 3, we will see something that we haven’t yet seen in the letter: Paul is overwhelmed with concern. I’ve entitled this sermon “What Even an Apostle Cannot Endure.” The title is meant to be shocking because we’re talking about the apostle Paul. This is a man who endured insults and jailings, who bore up under beatings and whippings, and who handled mobs and shipwrecks. He endured those things, but he couldn’t handle what we’re talking about this morning. Let’s pray and ask the Lord to help us feel what Paul felt.

Outline

1. Feel Paul’s Overwhelming Concern (3:1–5)
2. Hear Timothy’s Encouraging Report (3:6–8)
3. See Paul’s Pastoral Response (3:9–10)
4. Application for Bethlehem’s Downtown Campus 

Our passage, 1 Thessalonians 3, can be understood in three sections: First, in verses 1–5, we feel Paul’s overwhelming concern; second, in verses 6–8, we hear Timothy’s encouraging report; then, third, in verses 9–10, we see Paul’s pastoral response.

1. Feel Paul’s Overwhelming Concern (3:1–5)

Let’s begin by examining Paul’s overwhelming concern that we see in verses 1–5. Start by feeling the fervency of Paul’s concern. See it for yourself in the first two verses of chapter three. Follow along as I read.

Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ—1 Thessalonians 3:1–2

Paul begins with “Therefore,” tying this part of his letter to the previous section (what we heard Pastor Ken preach on last week). Specifically, he is emphasizing his desire to see the Thessalonian church again. Back to the text, “Therefore, when we could bear it no longer.” The Greek word that the ESV translates, “bear it no longer” can be translated “contain” or “endure.” The metaphor implied is a container that is being filled beyond its capacity; it is pushed beyond its limits and finally fails. Paul says, “That’s me. I was pushed beyond my capacity to endure.” What a statement of the fervency of Paul’s concern! This is a man who endured false accusations, imprisonment, persecution, and poverty. He endured those; he could bear those. But what couldn’t he bear? Distance from his church! Separation from this biblical community!

So what did Paul do? See for yourself by looking about halfway through verse 1: “We were willing to be left behind at Athens alone.”[1] It’s sort of counterintuitive, but track the argument here. Paul missed people so much that he chose to send away the people who were with him. This isn’t just a personality preference, like an extrovert who recharges around people. This is a dynamic of love.

Who did he send away? The answer is in verse 2: “and we sent Timothy.” Why didn’t Paul go back to Thessalonica himself? Probably the answer is that Paul was too recognizable as a Jewish troublemaker to return to Thessalonica.[2] Timothy, on the other hand, had a Greek dad and was probably familiar with Greek culture. He could navigate through this Roman capital city without attracting any special notice.

So, maybe strategy and culture are factors, but that’s not what Paul highlights. Look at Paul’s description of Timothy in verse two: “We sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ.” That is some description. That’s going to be a big part of the application of this sermon in a few minutes.

Paul calls Timothy, “Our brother.” Having a brother is great. When I got into a sticky situation about a month ago, the first person I called was my brother. A brother is a wonderful thing. My brother has a black belt in martial arts and a law degree—that’s a good brother. A brother is a wonderful thing. No wonder Paul felt alone when Timothy, his brother, left. 

But Paul not only describes Timothy as his brother—a description of affinity—Paul’s next description is so astounding that later textual variants of this passage, people who copied the passages of the New Testament, sometimes altered this to it tone down.[3] The text in your hand uses the earliest manuscripts and the best evidence for Paul’s words, and they pack a huge punch. Timothy is “God’s coworker.”[4] And notice the small phrase tacked-on the end: Timothy is God’s coworker “in the gospel of Christ.”[5] No wonder he felt alone after Timothy left. Better than black belts and legal advice, this brother is a brother in the gospel. Which to be clear, so is my own physical brother.

Well, now we have felt the fervency of Paul’s concern. Paul’s concern was so fervent that it exceeded his own capacity to endure, and he sacrificed his own comfort and social support to alleviate this concern. But what was the content of Paul’s concern? What exactly was he so worried about? We can see that in verses 3–4.

Paul’s concern was that difficulties the Thessalonian church faced was causing them to wander. We see that in verse three, where Paul writes, “that no one be moved by these afflictions.” Paul wants none of the believers in Thessalonica to be moved, none of them to wander away from the faith. Instead of wandering, we will see in verse 8, Paul wants the church there to be “standing fast.” So he’s concerned that they are wandering because of afflictions.[6]

This sends Paul on a bit of rabbit trail on the topic of suffering. He’s not going to just mention a topic this important without elaborating. He cares about these people too much simply mention suffering without providing some word of teaching, reminder, and care. He’s going to talk about Timothy again in verse 5, but he’s got a few nuggets of wisdom to dispense to his church. Pick those nuggets up for yourself starting halfway through verse 3: “You yourselves know that were are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass and just as you know.” Paul says, we taught you about affliction—that it is the destiny of true believers—and warned you that it was coming. Good news/bad news: Good news: We were right! And you have now moved past hearing a lecture about suffering to an actual heart knowledge. Bad news: it’s really hard. Where do we go from here?

We’ve been talking about Paul’s overwhelming concern for the Thessalonian church: the fervency of the concern and the content of the concern. Now, in verse 5, we see the result of the concern. For those of you who love diagramming sentences or arcing passages, this is called “resumptive” argumentation. He’s resuming his main point. He’s done his rabbit trail and he’s back. Follow along as I read verse 5, “For this reason,” for the suffering and affliction they were experiencing—“when I could bear it no longer”—wow, another exclamation of the fervency of Paul’s concern—“I sent to learn about your faith.”

Again, what Paul wanted was to learn about their faith. Notice that the plurals have disappeared—“I sent to learn about your faith.” Paul himself wanted to learn about the Thessalonian church’s faith. He didn’t want the sentimental Starbucks mug from Thessalonica or a breezy update on how fast the kids were growing. He wanted to discover for himself if the church in Thessalonica—to use a stunning phrase from Romans 5:3—would “glory in tribulations.” He knew their circumstances were hard and he wanted to know if they were wandering or standing. 

But there’s another, more sinister, agent at work that concerned Paul. Look at the end of verse 5: “… For fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.” This, as we learned last week, refers to Satan. Paul has personally experienced Satan’s hindering. He told us that in 2:18. Paul knows Satan does not want this church to flourish, and he knows that Satan will use temptation because that is who he is: he’s a tempter. Satan knows what the real fight is. What will the Thessalonian church choose as their source of life, their source of identity, their source of joy? Will they stand firm and choose God? (That is what Paul has been laboring toward). Or will they wander and choose Satan’s temptation to take the easy way and appease their countrymen? 

That’s the first part of our passage: Paul’s overwhelming concern. We’ve felt the intensity of the concern: Paul can’t stand it any longer. We’ve learned the content of the concern: will the church stand firm during the afflictions of the world or wander after temptations of the evil one? And we’ve discovered the result of Paul’s concern: He sent Timothy.

2. Hear Timothy’s Encouraging Report (3:6–8)

But what will Timothy find? What report will come back to Paul? That brings us to the second part of the passage that we will see in verses 6–8: Hearing Timothy’s encouraging report. 

Here are the words that encouraged the apostle Paul, and they can encourage you this morning. Follow along as I read in verse 6: “But now that Timothy has come to us from you .…” With that word “now,” we can more fully understand that 1 Thessalonians is a letter that Paul is dashing off upon Timothy’s return. Continuing on, Timothy “has brought us the good news of your faith and love.” This is the good news that Paul longed to hear.

Paul began this letter to the Thessalonians noting (1:3) “the work of faith and labor of love” that was evident when Paul first met them. Now, Timothy brought the good news that their initial faith and love is still going strong. And even more personally encouraging to Paul is what comes next. Timothy, “reported that you always remember us kindly.” It’s not just that they haven’t forgotten Paul, but they remember him with affection, not bitterness. In their eyes, Paul is the apostle who brought them the gospel, not rabble-rouser who brought them trouble. The affection he feels to see them is reciprocated in their hearts for him. Verse 6 ends, you “long to see us, as we long to see you.”

This is exactly what Paul has been praying for, and it comforts him. Look at verses 7 and 8. “For this reason, brothers,”—the reason of Timothy’s report—“in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith.”[7]

Paul’s life of distress and affliction was comforted by the faith of the Thessalonian church. Remember how the trip to Thessalonica began. Acts 16:10 tells us that Paul and his ministry team felt like they had been led to Macedonia. But it’s one thing to have a dream and a sense that God is calling you somewhere, and it’s another thing to actually see spiritual fruit. Paul and Silas and Timothy had been on a very difficult, very discouraging, journey. They had been expelled from almost everywhere, and the few places that did receive them, like Corinth, did not end up being opportunities to flex their ministry muscles. Their ministry there, 1 Corinthians 2:3 tells us, had been marked by “weakness and much fear and trembling.” Paul’s missionary journey was not making a great slide show, or an inspiring blog update.

But now Timothy shows up with a report, an important report. The seed of the gospel that they had sown in Macedonia’s capital city had not been planted in vain.[8] It had begun to grow and bear fruit.

Can you imagine all the prayers and laments that Paul’s team had called out to the Lord? And now they learned from Timothy’s encouraging report that those prayers had not bounced off the ceiling. Imagine the party! You can hear it in Paul’s voice. Look at verse 8, “For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.” What does it feel like, Paul, when your churches are standing fast in the Lord? It feels like living. So, what does it feel like, Paul, when your churches wander or are moved? It feels like dying. What encouraging news from Timothy! What an encouraging report from the church! 

3. See Paul’s Pastoral Response (3:9–10)

So, now, we have felt Paul’s overwhelming concern and we have heard Timothy’s encouraging report. Now, in verses 9–10, let’s see Paul’s pastoral response. Is it simply alleviation? Is it simply acknowledgment of receipt and then reallocating his pastoral attention to the church in Berea? No. Paul has three pastoral responses in verses 9 and 10.

Follow along as I begin in verse 9. “For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you.” The first pastoral response Paul makes is thanksgiving. Paul had already thanked God for the Thessalonian church a few times in this letter (1:2 and 2:13), and now we have the specific content of why he was thankful.[9]

The second pastoral response Paul makes is a heart full of joy. The “distress and affliction” that he mentioned in verse 7 have been replaced by joy. And not a self-focused joy or a bare subjective inner sense of self-satisfaction. Paul thanks God “for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God.” He is rejoicing in the very presence of God, just as he talked about in 1:30. This isn’t Paul high-fiving himself or congratulating his ministry team for achieving their monthly quota of ministry metrics. There is not pride here, but simply heartfelt exuberance at God’s goodness in God’s presence.

But as happy as Paul is, as joyful as he feels, the joy he has does not result in coasting or resting. Look at verse 10 to see where Paul’s joy leads him. It’s the third pastoral response that Paul makes: “… As we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith.” Paul’s joy leads him to prayer.

I remember asking my kids when they were younger, “What is a good time to pray?” And they gave the best answers. They said, “When we’re going to eat,” and “When you’re scared,” and, my favorite of all, “Sometimes, just for fun.” That’s Paul’s answer. He is so thankful and so joyful that he is prayerful.[10]

But we can learn from Paul’s prayer from these little phrases. Paul prays, verse 10 says, “most earnestly.” This Greek word is one of those Pauline turns-of-speech that his friends might have teased him about. He loved to stack superlatives on top of each other. He does the same sort of thing in 5:13 and Ephesians 3:20. Here, “most earnestly” might be translated “abundantly fervently.” Paul is red-lining in prayer. He is praying 10 out of 10. Next, he says that he prays “night and day.” That makes sense. He told us in 1 Thessalonians 2:9 that he WORKED night and day for their faith when he was in Thessalonica; now he’s PRAYING night and day for their …. 

Well, that’s a good question. What is Paul praying for? It’s actually a staggering revelation of Paul’s love for this church: “That we may see you face to face.” One of Paul’s favorite themes is a longing for face-to-face reunion (Romans 1:11, Philippians 1:8, 2 Timothy 1:4). For this apostle, letters are not enough, not even apostolic epistles. This letter was meant as an interim between Timothy’s good report and a future in-person reunion.

And why does he want to see them face-to-face? This is the last phrase of our text this morning. He wants to “supply what is lacking in your faith.” Paul sees some things that the Thessalonian church is lacking. He sees some deficiency. It’s interesting that we are studying this book under the heading of “A Healthy Church.” Paul affirms their faith in many places and mentions nothing defective about it. But even a church without deformities in their faith has areas of deficiency that need further instruction.

4. Application for Bethlehem’s Downtown Campus 

And this makes a good turning point in our time together. We have carefully looked through this text. We have seen Paul’s overwhelming concern, Timothy’s encouraging report, and Paul’s pastoral response. As we consider what the Lord did between Paul and the church in Thessalonica, how might the Lord stir our faith this morning? I have two main applications for us to consider this morning.

The first application is …

Expect Hardship

At Bethlehem, this theme is one of the most important strands in our ministry DNA. At Bethlehem, we’ve been talking about this a lot. Our former Pastor for Preaching, John Piper, was a lot like Paul “who kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction.” Even before he came to Bethlehem, in the second- oldest sermon on DesiringGod.org, he preached a New Year’s Eve service on this topic in 1972, entitled “Your Calamity in 1973” to help people prepare for the inevitability of suffering. At Bethlehem, it was a key theme for a series of sermons through 1 Peter in 1993 and 1994. It was a theme of a 2000 conference on the book of Job entitled “Holding On to Your Faith in the Midst of Suffering.” It was the theme of the most recent (2018) commencement address to Bethlehem College & Seminary. And when Pastor Jason Meyer became our preaching pastor, that drumbeat continued. He began by preaching through 2 Corinthians and the reminder that Christ’s power is made perfect when we are weak. And then we spent some time going through Book 1 of the Psalms with a series called “Learning to Lament.” 

Now, let me simply highlight just how strange this is. At many contemporary churches in North America, sermon series are built upon catchy titles and breezy topics that too often reflect a Christianized version of worldly thinking. But we’re not interested in that at all because that sort of thinking and that sort of teaching will not help you when suffering comes and life inevitably gets hard. And it will. Paul said the Thessalonians were “destined” for suffering, and so are we.

The truth is that life is very hard. And learning facts about difficulty is much easier than living a hard life. Attending a conference on the theme of suffering is much easier than living with chronic pain or being a caretaker for a disabled child or parent, or watching a lifetime of work seemingly evaporate in a few fleeting moments. The realities of loss are real. Life is hard. Very hard. The following things are real: Satan, persecution, worldliness, wandering hearts, and deceitful riches. One of the goals of the Christian life, seen in our passage this morning, is this: stand fast. The blessed man, the blessed woman, is described as standing fast like a tree in Psalm 1:3.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

To a culture that values social mobility and vocational ladder climbing, this is counter intuitive, but it’s what Paul calls us to. Stand fast. How? How? How?

There are thousands of things that you could say here. Let me draw your attention to the one in this morning’s text. It’s my second application. 

Get Close to Biblical Community

I hope you see where I’m getting this from this morning. I’ve done my best to walk us through 1 Thessalonians 3. Now, having felt Paul’s agony about being distant from his church, I say to us this morning, get close to biblical community.

This year, 2018, marks the twentieth year of full-time vocational ministry for me. My dad has been a pastor for 43 years, and my grandfather exceeded 60 years of pastoral ministry. So, let me let you in on a little family secret for pastoral ministry. No one contacts the church and says, “I’m driving my faith off of a cliff this week.” No one does that. Here’s what they do: They just slip away. They don’t show up for small group, because, well, good excuse. But then, they don’t come to Sunday worship because, well, medium excuse. And finally then, they don’t come to the church because, well, no excuse. 

And at Bethlehem, your pastors are fervently concerned for you. Paul had overwhelming concern for his church, and your Downtown Campus pastors and elders have overwhelming concern for you. And so, what is our encouraging Timothy Report? How can we hear about your faith and love? How can we get encouraged about your remembering the teaching with affection?

Here’s our main answer: Small groups. Small groups are the Bethlehem hug; it’s how our elders get their arms around the church. Small group leaders are the Timothys that the elders have sent out. Meet together, eat together, talk with each other, and report back. “And now we live if you are standing fast in the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 3:8).

I’d like to draw some application from the two ways that Paul describes Timothy in 3:2: “Our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ.” Let’s resolve to find Timothys in our lives and be Timothys for each other. First, like a brother, biblical community holds you up when you weakly stumble. Biblical community knows you and they see the blind spots that you don’t see (that’s why they are called blind spots). When one of my accountability partners learned I was traveling out of town for a conference last week, he asked me some excellent questions about my plan to care for my wife and kids while I was away. Then, he and his family picked up some relational slack in my absence. I am a weak person, and so are you. Like a brother, biblical community holds you up when you are weak.

The second way that Paul describes Timothy is like a coworker. So, second, like a coworker with God, biblical community holds you still when you sinfully wander. Biblical community holds you up when you stumble and holds you still when you wander. Are you close enough to biblical community that someone will miss you if you aren’t at church? Have you invited them into your life enough that will say, “I didn’t see you at church on Sunday”? Is there someone in your life who can say, “Are you sure you can afford that vacation?” Or, “Why did you say those harsh words to your wife?” 

Most people attend church like they use Facebook or a dating app. They carefully choose a profile picture that they’d like everyone to see. They carefully choose the images that will represent them. They carefully curate what they share with the world. Facebook friends are curious about your life and celebrate your posted victories. But studies show they don’t miss you if you don’t post and they don’t really know you. We are both more technologically connected and socially lonely than ever before.

So, in social media associations and internet friendships, there’s a huge hurdle that people pass called “IRL.” Everyone below the age of 30 is cringing right now to hear me explain this, but for everyone over the age of 40, IRL is an acronym that means “In Real Life.” It’s like that moment in the movie, You’ve Got Mail, when Joe Fox said to his internet friend Kathleen Kelly, “Do you think we should meet?”

This illustration is sprawling, so let me reel it in. People who attend Bethlehem on Sunday Morning Only have a lot in common with social media acquaintances. You carefully curate your image. You show up on the Sunday mornings when you look and feel your best and hope that Bethlehem’s people will be curious about you and celebrate the victorious parts of your life that you choose to share.

But we’ve got to move past this. We need to meet IRL. In real life, people discover more about us than we intend to share. That’s your indicator that you’ve crossed the line into genuine community. People discover more about you than you intended to share. It’s because people really know us.

How many friends at Bethlehem know you well enough to tell you what’s wrong with your cooking? My wife saw her friend chop up food with steak knives and bought her a chef’s knife for Christmas.

How? Two things that you’ve heard us say from this pulpit many times: First, become a member. Second, join a small group. Neither of these admonitions are motivated by numbers. Let me hasten to assure you that what you are hearing is not based upon a secret quota system that the Downtown Campus elders are chasing. We are not competing with North Campus church staff in a membership drive. Pastor Jared is not getting pressured to raise his Q4 small group numbers.

No. Like Paul, we feel overwhelming concern to know you and care for you. Life is hard. The following things are real: Satan, persecution, worldliness, wandering hearts, and deceitful riches. And if you think you can handle them yourself, or with a limited amount of support, you are fooling yourself.

Christians are not meant to shepherd themselves. Last illustration. Sometimes, watching people disciple themselves is like watching people eat at one of those all-you-can-eat buffets. My family went to something called Teppanyaki Supreme Buffet, and I watched people approach the buffet with an empty plate and return with three mini-hot-dog wieners, a yogurt parfait, a waffle, and two bowls of ice-cream. That’s not a meal, that’s diabetes on a plate. No chef would prepare a meal for you like this; no nutritionist would advise that you eat like this, but there we go, filling our plates with our preferences.[11] 

Similarly, many Christians I know fill their lives with their discipleship preferences. Some people, who emphasize practical Christian living, might not know a minor prophet from a major disaster. And yet, their default discipleship preference is “practicality” while their Bibles sit unread on a shelf. 

I know other Christians (more of these, I’d say, at Bethlehem), men and women who have read advanced books, earned degrees, and know far more truth than they live. And yet, their default discipleship preference is “learn more.” Instead of growing in practical love, they are devouring resources on the contrast between Mesopotamian and Egyptian systems of currency.

I say to all of us, don’t try to shepherd yourself. Gain the sort of self-awareness that only results from long-term and deep participation in biblical community. Self-awareness is a result of communal participation. Expect hardship and get close to biblical community.

In the garden of Gethsemane, the Lord Jesus saw that hardship was coming, greater hardship than any we will ever know. He asked for the cup to pass from him. It did not. But since he has done the hardest part, since he has experienced the greatest hardship, let us follow him. Not just as a simple example, but as our Champion, who has defeated the greatest hardship. We can take up our little crosses because he has triumphed over his cross—the biggest cross. He has redeemed us and given us the Holy Spirit. And, among the many things he has given us, he has given us the treasure of biblical community and called us to move close and enjoy.

_________

[1] That’s a strange sentence: “We were willing to be alone.” Your grammar teacher might comment, “If you were ‘we’ then you weren’t really alone.” So it’s not simple to map a timeline here with the book of Acts, but it’s also not impossible. It seems like Paul and Silas sent Timothy (“WE were willing”—a plural pronoun) and then Silas went on some other errand in Macedonia and left Paul all alone.

Then, following Acts 18:5, it then seems like Paul went on to Corinth where he was rejoined by Silas and Timothy

[2] You might remember Acts 16 and what happened to Paul in Philippi where he looked like a Jewish troublemaker.

[3] GK: συνεργὸν τοῦ θεοῦ (“coworker of God”). Other manuscripts omit “of God” or changed συνεργός (“co-worker”) to διάκονον τοῦ θεοῦ (“servant of God”).

[4] In 1 Corinthians 3:9, Paul calls himself and Apollos “God’s fellow workers,” and in Romans 16:21, Paul calls Timothy, “my fellow worker,” but here, Paul calls Timothy “God’s coworker.”

[5] Earlier in the letter, in chapter 2:2, Paul called it “the gospel of God” and in chapter 1:5, he called it “our gospel.” Here, he calls it “the gospel of Christ.”

[6] Earlier in this letter, Paul described afflictions. In 1:6, he said that the Thessalonian church “received the word in much affliction” and in 2:14 he talks about how they suffered from their own countrymen.

[7] Like Titus’s report in 2 Corinthians 7:6–7.

[8] Their faith collapsed. Paul discusses “labor in vain” in other places. “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58); and “holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain” (Philippians 2:16); “I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain” (Galatians 2:2); “I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain” (Galatians 4:11); “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1); “They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them” (Isaiah 65:23).

[9] And this phrasing, you just have to love how Paul is rhyming or riffing off of Psalm 116:12–13: “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.” So, Paul is thankful to God.

[10] The content of that prayer is found in verses 11–13, but we’ll save that discussion for a future sermon, Lord willing, in February.

[11] with what Jerry Seinfeld calls “these death row wish lists. It’s like a working model of all their emotional issues and personal needs.”