Last week, we started looking at this first letter by the Apostle Paul to this new church that was formed in the Greek city of Thessalonica. This church was started in a thriving city back then. In Paul's day, it's still a thriving city. In fact, Thessalonica, if you look it up, it's the second largest city in Greece. Athens, of course, is the first. Thessalonica is still a vibrant city. The Jewish population back then was about 25 to 50 percent is what some people believe. Of course, today, after World War Two, a significant portion of those Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust. And there's only about a thousand Jews left in the city of Thessalonica. So there is definitely a change in that city. But this is the city that Paul planted with the gospel. And so he writes this letter. But this church was started with a lot of opposition to the gospel. In fact, Paul had to leave very quickly. If we look back in Acts chapter 17, which is the topic or teaches us how this church was planted, we see that he was there in the synagogue teaching for three Sabbath days. And the Jews, for the most part, rejected him. And he probably stayed a little bit longer teaching the Gentiles and other people that came to know the Lord there. So he probably was there for at least three weeks, maybe a couple of more months. He wasn't there very long. And because of the intense opposition that especially the Jews were giving against him, he had to leave very quickly. Planning a church and then leaving. Obviously meant he was very concerned about those people that he left. He loved them. They were new believers. They were very, very fresh. They really didn't have a solid foundation in the word of God. He was concerned about them because he loved them. And he was wondering what persecution would do to this new church. He was concerned for them. So while he was in Athens, Paul sent Timothy back to see how the church was doing. He said, Timothy, I want you to go and I want you to bring back word what was going on there in Thessalonica. But once Paul finally received that report, Paul was thrilled to hear how things were going in that very young church, probably no more than a year old in existence, because even though physically times were tough, there was still persecution. There was still opposition. Spiritually, things were great. And so this morning, after looking at that foundation last Sunday morning, we come to verses one through four, which is an important start to this letter. And I'd like to read verses one through four, which will be our text this morning. We read again the very beginning of this letter, Paul and Silvanus or Silas and Timothy under the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father. and the Lord Jesus Christ. What comforting, encouraging words to a church facing persecution and opposition. And then Paul says in verse 2, We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. You see, after hearing the good news of their growth as a church, Paul was thinking about them. This is something that we ought to have as a challenge in our church. When you see each other on Sunday mornings, that should not be the last time that you think about them until the next Sunday. We need to think about each other. And that's what Paul was doing, even miles away in Athens, in Corinth, where some believe he wrote this letter. Miles away, not being able to go back to this church that he helped establish. His heart was going out to them, and he constantly thought about them. It says in verse 3, he was remembering them. He remembered things about them. But not only did he think about them, Paul is also thanking the Lord for them. That is what much of verses two and three is. It is a prayer of thanksgiving to God for what God has been doing in the power of the gospel to those church members in Thessalonica. But I believe he takes this a step further. Why would he explain this prayer to them and share this prayer with them? Because not only is he thinking and thanking the Lord for them, But Paul, as their exiled pastor, is also teaching them. He's teaching them. And this morning, as we focus on his thoughts toward this church and his thinking of God for this church, he is also teaching you and me about the importance of having one thing in our life that is of central focus. The lesson that he is trying to bring out in these verses to you and to me, as well as to them, is that the Lord Jesus Christ ought to be the very central focus of your life. He was telling to the Thessalonians, I see this in your life. You are young believers. You are fresh in the gospel. You are experiencing opposition. And I praise God that you are keeping Jesus Christ at the very center of your life. Keep doing that. Keep Christ at the center of your life. This is a lesson for you and for me this morning as well. When times are tough physically, the lesson is that Christ ought to be the center focus of your life. Is He? When times are tough. There were times that were tough in the city of Thessalonica for those believers. There was opposition. There was persecution. Paul had to leave, otherwise he might have been beaten or even killed. He had to escape because of that. We certainly don't have the physical problems that they experience, that kind of opposition. But even when times are physically tough in our lives, Jesus Christ, the lesson here is that he must be center in our life. But even when times are good spiritually. He was commending them toward God. He was commending them in their faith and in their hope and then their love centered on God. And he says, keep doing that. And it shows us that this is one of the things when we are growing spiritually, sometimes it's very simple for us to say, you know. Well, I did this, or I served here, or I believe this, or I quoted these verses, or I was able to share the gospel this many times this week. And we start to take away from the glory of God by focusing on ourselves. But when things are going great spiritually, our central focus must be where? On the Lord Jesus Christ. It's much like when we take a picture. I'm sure this has probably happened to many of you. Isn't it frustrating when you get the prints back from the shop When you look at those pictures, they're either blurry. Those are really frustrating. What do you do with those? Toss them out. Sometimes they are out of center or maybe something got in the way. I love going to sporting events and taking pictures of those sporting events. But because of the speed at which people are playing games, a lot of times you might be taking a picture at one thing and someone gets in the way. Throw that picture away. Sometimes it's frustrating when we take a picture and we forgot to put the flash on. You can't see anything because it's too dark. Throw that picture away. This is what happens when we take pictures from time to time. This is why I love my digital camera, because now instead of having to wait a couple of days or weeks or as it's been in our family, months sometimes. to get the film back, to look at those just to throw them away. I can look at my digital camera. If it's blurry, I delete it. If something got in the way, I delete it. If it's out of focus, I delete it. If it's too dark, I delete it. I love my digital camera. You cannot take a good picture if the subject of your picture is not in focus. That's what Paul is teaching these people. Jesus Christ right now at your young age, at your young stage as a Christian church is your focus. Do not take him out of focus. He ought to be your focus. Many of you have been believers for a long time, been in church for a long time. Paul is teaching you like them. Never let Jesus Christ out of the central focus of your life. You can't take a good picture if your subject is not in the center. If you have something in the way or something that is distracting. This last summer, we went to the air show and my wife and I, we were taking pictures of these wonderful aircraft. And when the Blue Angels came overhead, it's amazing how fast they go. It is very hard to take a picture of those Blue Angels. And I remember one picture that my wife took as she was looking at him and she was trying to trace him through the sky. She took a picture. She took a snapshot. And when we got the picture back, the Blue Angels were over here in the corner. And the rest of it was beautiful blue sky and some clouds. And you know what? It was a pretty picture, but what did your mind and your eyes automatically turn to? What was mostly there? The sky. I ended up, thankfully, because it was a digital camera, I ended up cropping out most of the sky so I could center my attention on those beautiful airplanes as they were going through the sky. If you and I have to take a picture and the thing is not in the center, you can't take a real good picture. If your subject matter is in the darkness, You can't take a good picture either. And that is what our life as a Christian is like. If Jesus Christ is not the central focus of your life, it's not going to be a pretty picture. We can all too easily attest to this, can't we? If Jesus Christ is not the center of your family life, your family life is not going to be a pretty picture. If Jesus Christ is not the center of our church life, our church will not be a pretty picture. If your life is not centered on Jesus Christ, Your life will not be a pretty picture. We need to keep Christ as the central focus of our life. And Paul encourages this young church by thinking about how they have kept Christ as a central focus of their life, thanking God how he has demonstrated that through them. He is also, by recording this, teaching them to keep doing this thing, and that is to keep Christ centered. I believe we see in these verses three areas that we need to keep in central focus about Christ. First of all, keep your position in Christ in central focus. Paul said in verse one, along with Silvanus or Silas and Timothy, he said unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep your position in Christ in central focus. One of the most disappointing things when taking a picture is when it comes back blurry and out of focus. When it's out of focus, any excitement that you had in taking pictures and getting those back is gone. Not too long ago, a few weeks ago, I took my son to go through a corn maze. It was in the middle of the day, so he wouldn't be scared because of the darkness. And we went through that corn maze and I said, Brayden, I'm going to take one of those cameras, those disposable cameras. I'm going to let you take a few pictures. And some of the pictures that he took when we got him back, he was so excited taking those pictures when he took them, he couldn't wait to get him back to develop. In fact, we went to CBS right afterwards to get him developed. But as soon as we got those pictures back, some of them were blurry and out of focus. He didn't take his time to stand there and take the picture that he wanted. Rather, he was moving and it became blurry. He wasn't as excited when he saw how those pictures turned out. That's very frustrating, but so it is when you don't keep Christ as the central focus of your life. It is so easy for things to get into our lives and create a blurriness and take Christ out of focus in our life. Why is it so easy for things to bring Christ out of focus in our life? Because too often we focus on our place in this world. We see in the life of the Thessalonians the place that they lived, and it could have very easily distracted them and brought Christ out of focus in their lives. It says in verse 1 that Paul wrote to the church of the Thessalonians. I already mentioned that Thessalonica was a very popular and very powerful city. It was very large. Several hundred thousand people lived there in Greece. It was a thriving city. It was filled with prosperity. It was filled with pleasure. They had the Roman games there in Thessalonica. They had the Greek theater there in Thessalonica. But also, it was a great temptation for these new Christians. These new Christians realized that the theater was not where they ought to go because it was showing things that were immoral against what God was teaching them through Christ. They realized that they couldn't go to the Roman amphitheater and watch gladiator games because they realized that God said you shall not murder. So they realized that the worldly form of entertainment that was out there was not the place for a Christian. Why? Because Jesus says, come out from among them and be separate. They were learning this as Christians, but it could have been very easy for them to be enamored by those temptations. It would have been very easy for them to yield to those temptations because of the place in which they live, the peer pressure that they could have been experiencing. How many of us hear, oh, well, you want to go see this movie? It only has four or five cuss words. It only shows a little bit of this person's body. It only does this or it only does that. It's not that bad of a movie. Why are we looking at the worldly forms of entertainment when the Bible says be separate from these things? Don't love the world. Because the place in which you live is going to distract you from keeping Christ as the central focus of your life. And this is why many of us are impotent as Christians, is because we do not have Christ at the center of our life. And we forget the position that Christ has for us. Now, the place in which they lived is much like where we live today. You might say, well, they didn't have cars back then. You're right. They didn't have cars. They didn't have computers back then, but whatever was the latest and greatest in technology back then, they probably had it. It was available and it was attractive. Some of you may be like me. I am a techno gadget fella. I like to see the newest, latest and greatest models of anything. MP3 player, digital satellite, the digital cameras, all these different things. I like to learn about these things and maybe even spend some money on some of those things. But how easy is it for us to let the place in which we live The time and the place distract us from what really matters, and that is our focus on the Lord. It is very easy to let our place, like it was for the Thessalonians, to be the focus of our lives. But when we do that, who becomes blurry? Jesus. What is it in this place, the place in which we live, that has distracted you from keeping Christ at the center of your life? We also need to remember that the focus should not be on our place. But as he was describing to the Thessalonian believers, you need to focus on your position in Christ. You see, Paul wasn't just writing to the Thessalonians in general. He wasn't writing this letter to that thriving city. He was writing to the church of the Thessalonians, even though their place may have caused them a lot of problems because there was opposition. There was persecution. It really was their position that mattered. You see, they had been called out of their place, the world in which they live, into a better place. The word church comes from a Greek word, ekklesia. Ekk means out. Klesia comes from kaleo, which means to call, to call out. That is what a church is. Now, this word ekklesia wasn't just used for churches. It was used for any kind of assembly. Sometimes they would have town meetings and they would call out the people that were the politicians or the polytarchs. They would call them out to come to a meeting place because they wanted to have a special event or a special meeting. They would do that for politics. They would do that for clubs. And here Paul is using the same term to describe what a church is like, what it ought to be like. It is an ecclesia. It is a called out assembly of a special kind of person. And that person is a believer in Jesus Christ. Now, you're not called out to a assembly meeting. You're not called out to a place in the world. You are called out of the world and called into Christ. They were special because they were called out by God. There's a different calling. If I called you out and called together a meeting, it's not anything like when God calls you out. God has called you to be different. God has called you to be his child. God has called you to become a part of his church. But not only were they special because they were called out by God, but they were also called out from their place. This word or this phrase to call out literally means to come out of a place. And that's what they did. They were called out of the place that would distract them, but they were brought in. And that's what we look at in verse one. They were brought in to the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father. You see, no matter where you where you live or what place you live in, a Christian's position is in God. This is what you and I need to keep in central focus in our lives. In order to keep Christ central is our position in Christ. We are no longer to be living like the world because we've been called out from the world and we've been placed in Christ. That is an amazing statement. That is an amazing thought. Think about how great the opportunity is for you and for me to have a relationship and walk with a God who created us and redeemed us. No longer do we have to walk around in this world ignorant of what God has done, but now we know Jesus Christ personally, intimately. What a great privilege that we have. Do not let the focus of your life go blurry. Do not let your focus on Christ go blurry by the place in which you live, like the Thessalonians could have done. Very easily, keep the position that you have in Christ in central focus. You are called out of the world and placed into Jesus Christ. That is where you ought to keep your focus today. No matter what happens in your life, whether it's physical, emotional, whatever, whether you're persecuted or face opposition, or whether you go to the doctor and you find out some disease that cannot be cured, realize that it's not the place in which you live that is your central focus and the problems in which you live. It is the position that you have in Christ. Let those problems draw you back to Him. Let Him be your central focus. A second area that we need to keep our central focus is keep your persistence for Christ in central focus. Not just your position in Christ, but your persistence for Christ. In verses 2 and 3, Paul is remembering the report that Timothy gave. Timothy said to Paul, they are growing like weeds as Christians there. No matter what the opposition or persecution, they are growing. And so Paul says in verses two and three, I am giving thanks to God always for you all making mention of you in our prayers. Why? Because I'm remembering what Timothy said about you and other people said about you. I'm remembering without ceasing three things. Your work of faith. I'm remembering your labor of love. I'm remembering your patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. All of this being done in the sight of God, our father. This is the persistence they had for Christ. One of the most distracting things when taking a picture is when your subject is not in the center. As I mentioned before, if something gets in the way, you might as well just throw that picture away. If your attention is diverted from the thing that you really wanted to have in your picture, it's worth throwing away. And that's what it's like when you don't keep Christ as a center focus of your life. Things will very quickly take his place. It's like a vacuum. Last night at the kids night out, I gave a demonstration of the difference between air and water. And of course, I have a cup of water here. I'm not going to do this, but I had a great big tube and I wanted to show that water and air really don't get along that well. But I put the tube right into the water and that cup was filled to the rim with water. I said, what do you think is going to happen when I blow water into this air? Amber, what happened? It splattered out. It exploded all over me, didn't it? I blew because water and air don't get along very well. We need to realize. Water and air can take each other's place very quickly. I held up an empty cup and I said, what's in this cup? And everybody said nothing. I said, you're wrong. There's air in that cup. As I poured water in, water quickly filled the void. That's what happens in our life as Christians. When we do not keep Christ as the central focus of everything that we do in his service, things are going to come in the way. How easy is it for us to serve because we think it's something that we have to do? Or how easy is it for us to come to church because it's just a matter of habit, not a bad habit, not the reason why you come. Sometimes we let things get in the way of what's really important, the central focus of our life, the central focus of our service, the central focus of our day ought to be the Lord Jesus Christ. And if it's not, things will very easily take its place, like the football game this afternoon. I'm excited about it. I want to watch it. It's pretty exciting. The Colts are undefeated so far. What's going to take the place of Christ in your life? Football? Hobbies? Sports? School? Reading? Sleeping? What takes the place? It's so easily. So while Paul is thanking God for their persistence for Christ, because they were persistent, they loved the Lord, they had Him as the focus, he is also teaching them to keep that in their life. To keep what God sees as their central focus and not just what man sees. You see, Paul could see some things in their life. What did he see in verse 3? He saw their work, their labor, and their patience. He can't see hope. He can't see faith. He can't really see the love that is in their hearts. I can still do something for someone without loving them. He can only see what happens on the outside. But God, as it says in verse 3, in the sight of God our Savior, what does God see? God sees what's in their hearts. And God sees what's in your hearts. He sees their faith, their love, their hope. And when they are centered on the Lord Jesus Christ, that is what is good and acceptable in the sight of God. So what are the things that we need to keep from being distracted from God? Do not let your work be distracted from your faith in Christ. The first thing that Paul remembers about them was their work of faith. That work literally means their occupation in the service of God. And it just doesn't mean the things that they do in church. It means the things that they do out in the world, whether you're working, Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, the Bible says, do all to the glory of God. That's what he's talking about. Your occupation in life, whatever you do, I see that. But it needs to be a work of. faith, it is so easily too easy to become occupied with things in life and in church that you are distracted from what really matters. And what really matters is your faith in Christ. Remember the story of Mary and Martha? What was Mary doing? She was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to what he had to say. What was Martha doing? She thought she was doing a good work and she was doing a good work. She was going around and she was getting things together, food for the people, food for Christ. That was a very noble thing. But what did Jesus say was the most important thing? Mary chose the best thing. She was sitting there because she realized I may not be there forever. Do we realize that when we come to the Word of God, we must not be distracted by other things? We must not be distracted by our work, but rather let our work spring from our faith. I might see your work. Other people might see your work, but only God sees where your work springs from. Is your faith in Christ the central focus of your work? Is that why you do the things you do? Do you serve because you believe in what Christ has done for you? Don't let your work be distracted from your faith in Christ. The second thing that Paul remembers is their labor of love. And he says to them, don't let your labor be distracted from your love for Christ. That word labor means to have an intense passion in what you do. It is so easy to get caught up with something with passion and fervency. This is why people, when they go to the Colts game, will paint their bodies blue. Why else? Unless they have a fervent passion for the Colts. Some of us have a fervent passion for everything other than God, don't we? you We have a fervent passion for everything else besides God. If we were truly passionate and fervent about God and having Him at center in our lives, you know what? This place would be filled to capacity. We would be filled on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, Sunday school, Wednesday nights. The kids night out would be filled not only with kids, but with workers. People would be knocking down the door to be serving with God's people at the nursing home. This is what would happen if we labored for Christ. But he says, don't just have a fervent passion without having a love for Christ. I can be passionate about things and really my heart be not in it. Sometimes I'm tired when I do things, especially when I'm preaching or when I'm teaching or I'm with kids or teenagers. We had a corn maze a few weeks ago and I was exhausted by the end of that night. I didn't get home in bed until about one or two o'clock. I've got to tell you, at about 10 o'clock, we were still in the corn maze. I was tired. But I still was kind of putting on a front, trying to show some enthusiasm and some excitement, trying to talk to him and try to encourage him along the way. But my heart wasn't. So easy is it for us as Christians to have the fervency without the heart of love. You know, people might see your labor and we need to have that kind of labor. We need to have that fervent spirit. We need to make sure that what really matters is that God sees what our labor is prompted by, and that is our love for Christ. That ought to be the center of everything we do. Our faith in Christ, our love for Christ. Is your love in Christ the central focus of all your passion, of all your labor? What gets you up in the morning? What drives you? What excites you? Is your love for Christ and His love for you? The third thing that Paul remembers about this is their patience of hope. And he tells us, do not let your patience be distracted from your hope in Christ. So often we base our patience on something else that distracts us from what really matters. Sometimes we think that patience is a virtue, so I need to work on my patience. Sometimes we hear that time heals all wounds, so I'm just going to let things go by. I'm going to let time go by and hopefully with that patience, Whatever my problem is, it will go away. The Bible says I might see you patient. What is your patience based on? What really matters is not you being patient, but what really matters is your hope in Christ. What does your patience spring from? You see, only Christ is the answer to any difficulty that you have or the depravity of anyone's soul. You cannot have true patience without having hope in Christ. I might see that you're a very patient individual, but does that patient come from your hope in Christ and your confidence in Christ? It could just be that you are in your personality someone that just lets things go. You're very flexible. Things don't bother you. So you could have a very patient spirit and a very patient heart, and it has nothing to do with your hope in Christ. What we see here is that our focus needs to be on our hope in Christ that will develop patience in our life. Because only God sees what our patience is inspired by. Is your hope in Christ the central focus of your patience? Do not let the focus of your life become distracted, but rather keep your persistence in Christ central focus. It doesn't matter how man sees you, because as it says in 1 Samuel 16, 7, man looketh on the outward appearance But the Lord looketh where? On the heart. I might see your work, I might see your labor, I might see your patience, but only God sees your faith. Only God sees your love. Only God sees your hope. And is it centered in Christ alone? A third area that we need to keep in central focus is our possession by Christ. Not only our position in Christ, our persistence for him, our service for him, but also our possession by Christ. In verse four, he adds, this is another reason why he was praying to God, thinking about them and thanking God for them. He said, knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. Again, one of the most depressing things when taking pictures and when you get them developed and there's nothing on them, everything is dark. and black because your lens cap was still on. Does that happen to anybody besides me? No one's willing to admit it. Okay. It happens then. I remember when I was in Quebec, Canada, my dad, for some reason, he would put a picture or a copy of the film canister where you would normally see that you had film in the camera. And so he let me borrow his really nice camera when I went to Quebec on a youth mission, a youth trip. And I took all sorts of pictures and it never crossed my mind why I didn't have to change the film every so often. But when I got home and I said, I'm ready to do my film, cash in my film here, my dad opened it up and he said, there's no film in there. I don't know who is sicker. Him or me, I think it was him. He felt so bad. Isn't that what happens sometimes in life? Sometimes we do things or we try to be where God wants us to be and really we haven't done anything in the light of God or his word. It's as if the lens cap is still on and that's frustrating. When there is no light, there is no picture. When there is no light, there is no picture. If you don't have light and if you don't live in the light of God and if you don't keep that in central focus, the world's storms will create darkness in your life and you will not be able to see what God has for you. This is what it's like when you don't keep Jesus Christ the central focus of your life. Life becomes very dark and very difficult. But Paul knew something about these Thessalonian believers, and he wanted them to know it as well. And that was their possession by Christ. He describes it as their election of God. And this shows us two things that they ought to live in the light of. First of all, to live in the light of God's love. To live in the light of God's love. He said, knowing brethren, be loved. If you look at the margin of your King James Bible or some of your other translations, it adds that of God to the beloved. If we add that, knowing brethren, beloved of God, it shows that God is the one that loves them. Wouldn't it be awful to live in this world thinking that God hated you? You need to realize that you, as a Christian, belong to God because of His love for you. No matter what you face, if you are a Christian, God loves you in a unique way. Romans 8, Paul lists many things that we might think or feel could separate us from the love of God. He describes it tribulation, persecution, death or distance. And I'm sure this is what the Thessalonian believers felt in their first year of existence. Why is everybody against us? Why is there such darkness in here? But Paul reassures them, I know of God's love for you. And God's love for you, no matter how difficult your life is, ought to be a ray of light as powerful as a laser beam that shows you and shows me that God loves me and that I don't have to fear the darkness any longer. You see, Paul says in Romans 8.39 that neither height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Remember he said, remember your position? You're in Christ Jesus. And that's where love is. Live in the light of God's love. You are Christ's possession because of His love. And when things get dark, keep that love in focus. When you're going through a difficult time, Look at the promises of God's love towards you. But there's another promise. He goes on in verse 4, knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election. Live in the light, not only of God's love, but also of God's choice. Not only do you belong to God because of His love for you, but you belong to God because of His choice of you. He knew that they were elect. Now, with all the debate on election, we need to realize that it is an entirely biblical doctrine. even though it's mysterious. We don't know all the ins and outs of this, but we also realize that it is entirely dependent on God and His will. But also, as one writer puts it, and this is what we need to focus on, nothing gives security to the idea of salvation like the concept of election. Salvation from first to last is a work of God and it is full of sweet Pleasant and unspeakable comfort. Too often we look at the doctrine of election with a wrong perspective. The purpose of election and that teaching is for Christians to realize that they will never, ever, ever be separated from the love of God and the relationship that they have with God. I don't know about you, but that is the most comforting thought. There is absolutely nothing, if you are in Christ, that will take you out of Christ. A church is a called-out body from the world. You will never be called out from Christ. You are in there forever. He has chosen you before the foundation of the world that we read in other Scriptures. And this is to be a source of encouragement and comfort and peace. If you're a believer and you're in Christ and God has chose you, He will never un-choose you. Isn't that a promise and a blessing? That is the purpose of this wonderful teaching and doctrine. No matter what you face, you and I need to live in the light of God's election. And the Thessalonian Christians were facing a lot of temptation and trials. The place in which they lived were just constantly on them, opposing them, hating them. But you are God's possession because of his election. And when things get dark, keep his love and his choice of you in focus. Don't let the focus of your life become dark, because when there's darkness, there's no hope. When there's darkness, there is no light and there is no picture. Keep your possession by Christ your central focus. The question I addressed earlier I want you to think about this morning is this. Is Christ the central focus of your life? Is Christ the central focus of your life? What would people see if they could take a picture that showed what your Christian life was like? Would it be embarrassing to you? If we had that picture that would show in a nutshell everything about your life as a Christian, what would we see? Thank goodness that we don't have that kind of camera. But you know who does? God has that kind of camera. He knows who we are in our hearts. What would they see? What would people see? Would people see a life that is blurry and out of focus because you're more focused on your place in this world than in your position in Christ? Would it be all blurry? Would it be a life that is distracted because other things are at the center of your life other than Him? Or would it be a life that is dark because you're not experiencing or enjoying the joy that comes from the light that we receive from walking with the Savior? Paul saw the snapshot of the Thessalonian believers life and he saw their work and their labor and their patience. But only God could see deeper than that because God looks on the heart and he sees their faith, their love and their hope. What does God see in the picture? Is Jesus Christ the central focus of your life? We need to keep him there. Keep Christ the center focus of your life. This was the lesson of Thessalonian believers. This is the lesson to us today. When you leave this place this morning. Keep Jesus Christ. The central focus of your life. Shall we close in prayer?