Father you have been gracious to Steve Lawson to sustain his voice and his heart and his

truthfulness and now I ask for a similar blessing. And I ask that the effect of both of our word would be radical obedience, and I pray beyond that for a readiness to suffer, which is what I want to talk about, for the cause of Christ. A readiness to take risks

that would look foolish and be foolish were there no resurrection from the dead.

And so I pray Lord that you would prepare martyr material in this room now and that some would be among the number that

would be completed according to Revelation 611.

I pray that we would be freed from the American grip, vice grip of ease and comfort and security and safety.

I pray that you'd keep me faithful to your word now

and balanced in its proportions and protected from the devil and

filled with your spirit, leaving out anything unhelpful in including all that should be mentioned for the strengthening.

And Lord, I pray for those who are not regenerate in this room that you would waken them from the dead.

In Jesus' name, amen.

For those of you who like to see how everything relates to everything, I will take my

starting point from the text that was just preached to you. I didn't know what it was going to be and I'm happy to do that.

So look at verse six and I'll leap from there to my text, which isn't the same text.

First Thessalonians 1-6, you became imitators of us and of the Lord. That's very crucial that you see that.

Steve didn't dwell on that, but the second half, because you got two people there

that are models of something, namely Jesus and Paul. Now here's what they're models of.

Having received the word in much tribulation

with joy in the Holy Spirit. So Jesus was a man who received the word of God in

tribulation sustained by joy, for the joy that was set before him. He endured the cross. And Paul was a man who

received the word of God and was told in the receiving of it, I will show him how much

he must suffer for me and yet said

...