Episode 1590: Love Increasing

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,590 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Matt Lesser: I'm Matt Lesser. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to find your real definition of success is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this.

The Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer,

Scott Maderer: but those who don't, that they stand up for justice for those who can't stand up for it themselves. That they reach their arms out and open them. For others, that is the mark of a saint and those are the saints that are [00:01:00] around us each. And every day, welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Second Thessalonians chapter one verses one through four and verses 11 through 12, I talk about what it really means to be a saint, and I also share why we're a member of the Saints on All Saints Day and why it's not about what we are in death, but rather what we do in life.[00:02:00]

Second Thessalonians chapter one verses one through four and 11 through 12 says. Paul Venu and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians and God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you at peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We must always give thanks to God for you brothers and sisters as is right because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of everyone of you for one another is increasing.

Therefore, we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God. For your steadfastness and faith during all of your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring to this end, we always pray for you asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by His power every good resolve and work of faith so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and Him according to the grace of our God and the Lord [00:03:00] Jesus Christ.

John Wesley wrote in his journal, why do we neglect giving honor to the saints? That's a question that I think we can ask in different ways. Oftentimes we simply don't notice those people around us that are saintly. We hold that as a particular thing, and we don't see actions and intent that truly is saintly.

Other times we're offended or scandalized or driven away from them because saintly can become a slur or a way of dismissing someone, of making them seem like they don't really understand the world or what's going on. And yet in other ways, we're drawn to them because those that seem to have a secret knowledge or relationship that we don't have can be attractive.

They can seem grounded, confident, and at peace. So according to the New Testament, [00:04:00] what is a saint anyway? In modern parlance, it's come to mean somebody who is flawless or some sort of super believer or super doer. But in the New Testament, it simply says, A saint is one who claims Christ and then seeks to emulate Christ according to the grace given.

And if you stop and think about it, that means any follower of Christ is a saint. All those who come to church, all those who wish they could come to church, all those who never come to church but claim faith in Jesus. All those who struggle and fail, all those who struggle and succeed, all of us are saints and so are those that worship with us.

When you look around and that mom dropping your kid off to the lock-in or the person standing in line at the potluck or the person that comes by church [00:05:00] that's never been there before, our committee meetings, our groups. Everyone is a saint. Those who sing the hymns and those who hear them, those who pray, and those who we pray for, the saints are all around us.

They are us. And when you think about it, that's not something we pay attention to very often. We think the saint has to be someone who goes above and beyond. And that's part of what All Saint Sunday is for, is to call for us to stop and look and see. And yes, a lot of times we equate All Saints with remembering the dead and seeing those who are no longer here, and that is an important part of All Saint Sunday.

But it also is there to remind us to pay attention to the living as well. No one is here forever. And [00:06:00] it wouldn't hurt to stop and pay attention to the saints around us. Maybe they have something to teach us. Maybe they might be able to help us with those naughty problems. Maybe they might be able to add something to our life if we would let them.

And what does a Saint do? Follow Jesus. But I don't know about you. That sounds like a pretty big task at times, and I'm not always sure what all things do and don't do that make up for following Jesus that give us that route. And here. In Thessalonians, Paul or someone is laying it out. There's some debate around whether Paul actually wrote Second Thessalonians for one thing, the address or the entry doesn't sound like Paul.

He normally wrote things like the church at and he writes this [00:07:00] differently, but regardless of whether Paul wrote it or not, there's some things in here that don't sound like Paul, but there's also some things that do. And our on theme with things that Paul wrote the sentiment is very polyon, whether the writer was Paul or not.

So Paul said, what is going on here? How do we identify the saints? And there's a few verses in here that give us some pointers for identifying saints. Apparently the Thessalonians are a little worried and need some reassurance, and Paul says, no, y'all are on the right track. You are doing things well.

Your faith is growing abundantly. And that is one of the marks of a saint. Their faith is growing. Not that they've got it all perfect, but that it's growing. They're studying. They're exercising, they're working. And they're continuing [00:08:00] to grow in faith, and that's a mark. Secondly, the love of everyone of you for one another is increasing it.

It's a rather convoluted phrasing, but it means that they're acting out there faith in real ways. We can see the fruits of the faith in caring for one another. They're including, they're inviting, they're welcoming, they're healing, they're tending, they're comforting. They're lifting up. They're not splitting apart.

They're not driving away. They're welcoming to those that are there and those who are not yet there. And everyone who sees them knows that they love one another, not just exists together, but truly love one another. Wouldn't that be amazing? The saint is someone who loves [00:09:00] one another and wants to love even more.

And then Paul also writes that he boast of your steadfastness and faith. Implying that even when things are going wrong, even when they're a struggle, even when things aren't sure, they turn back and they try the best they can to reflect the image of Christ, even when it's not easy that they pray not just for their friends, but for their enemies that they love, not just those who deserve it.

But those who don't, that they stand up for justice. For those who can't stand up for it themselves, that they reach their arms out and open them. For others, that is the mark of a saint, and those are the saints that are around us each and every day. Thanks for listening.[00:10:00]

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