Unshakeable #1 - Confidence (2 Thessalonians 1:1-5) | Dr. Kurt Bjorklund

In this message from 2 Thessalonians 1:1-5, Dr. Kurt Bjorklund reveals how to distinguish between false confidence based on heritage, past decisions, or religious experiences and true unshakable confidence rooted in Christ's worthiness alone. Discover the three biblical evidences of genuine faith that can give you rock-solid assurance in an uncertain world.

Message Summary and Transcript - https://www.orchardhillchurch.com/blog-post/2025/8/4/unshakeable-1-confidence

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Transcript

Let's pray together. God, we thank you just for how you've worked in Ellie's life and how you will continue to do so. And God, we ask that you'd work in all of the lives of those of us who are gathered this weekend at Orchard Hill. I ask that you would speak in this moment and that my words would reflect your word in content and in tone and in emphasis. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.

I want you to imagine with me that you are hiking with some friends and you come to a ravine, and when you get to the ravine, there's this rope bridge. If you have seen one of these rope bridges, you know what I'm talking about. The rope goes across, has the planks on it, and it sways in the wind and looks a little rickety. And if you're going to continue on the hike, you have to decide, do I cross this little rope bridge or do I not?

Now, I have a theory, and my theory is there are two kinds of people when it comes to rope bridges. There are those who say, "Of course, let's go." And then there are those who say, "You first." And the reason that there are two different kinds of people when it comes to rope bridges is because we have different experiences when it comes to uncertainty and certainty in this world. Sometimes when something is uncertain and therefore we end up being shaky, we have a good reason to be shaky in it, because maybe you've seen a rope bridge that hasn't held.

And so you say, "I'm not walking across this." Other times you can be certain about something. Maybe you saw somebody else walk across the bridge and you can say, "I know that I can walk across it, because if they could walk across it, I can walk across it." Now, sometimes, to be fair, we will be uncertain about things without reason, or we'll be certain without reason. And what I'd like to do today is spend some time looking with you at Second Thessalonians, chapter one, verses one through five, and talking about having unshakable confidence.

We're starting a new series that we're calling "Unshaken and Unshakable." And it's really about how we can navigate living in a world that is full of uncertainty. The issue that was facing the Christians at the church in Thessalonica, a little city in the ancient world that really wasn't remarkable in any way.

And I say that because often when people teach the Bible and they come to a city, they're like, "This was the most strategic city." It's like, how can every city be the most strategic city? Thessalonica was unremarkable. But here is what was happening for the people. They were experiencing a little bit of persecution, and they had been taught that Christ was coming back.

And because they had been taught that Christ was coming back, some of them started to think that they had missed the second coming of Jesus Christ. And because of this, what they came to believe is that maybe they had somehow missed God's work in their life. Now, that may seem like it's an ancient story, but you just heard a story that is very similar. Ellie talked about it when she said, "I was 17, I was sitting in my bedroom and I was thinking, am I good enough? Am I worthy?"

Basically, here's what we see in Second Thessalonians. Paul, who is the human author, says this, verse 5: "All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result, you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God." Now, I don't know how that strikes you. For me, when I first hear that, my first reaction is to say, "Well, wait a second. Doesn't the Bible teach us that no one's worthy?" Does anyone else have that reaction?

Romans, chapter three tells us this, verse nine and ten. Here's what we see: "What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all, for we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: 'There is no one righteous, not even one.'" There's nobody who is worthy of their own accord. That is what that verse teaches. So how does Paul in Second Thessalonians say, "But you're counted worthy?"

Well, what I believe he's driving at ultimately is he was driving at the people who didn't have confidence that they would experience the second coming of Christ or that they had already missed it somehow because of all of the uncertainty in their world. And so they were shaky in their confidence. And so he says, "I want you to be confident. I want you to know..."

[Brief interruption due to power issue]

That has happened like six times in the last couple months. We're gonna have to pay our light bill. All right, where was I? I digress. That was an ADD moment by me.

Here is what we see in Matthew, chapter seven. And this is Jesus talking, and he's addressing confidence in a way. And now he's going to talk about false confidence. And I'm just going to take a few moments and show you Matthew 7 and something in the Gospel of John and show you some of the reasons that we can have false confidence, but then show you how you can have a confidence that's unshakeable based on what Paul says in Second Thessalonians.

Here's Matthew 7, verse 21 through 23. And these are some of the most chilling verses in the New Testament in my estimation. Here's what he says: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and drive out demons in your name and perform many miracles in your name?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"

Now, the reason I say these are some of the most chilling verses in the New Testament is because here are some people who came to that day, the judgment day, the day that they stand before the God of the universe, a day that is coming for everyone. And they are standing there saying, "I could walk across this bridge, so to speak, spiritually speaking, I'm good, I'm counted worthy," and they will be told "away from me, I never knew you."

And then in the Gospel of John, we see this in chapter one, verses 11-13. Here's what we see. I'm going to start at verse 11, but 13 is where we really want to look at this. He says: "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."

Now, let me put these together for a few moments. The confidence that sometimes we have that can be misplaced is confidence that's based on at least five different things based on these scriptures.

Five Types of Misplaced Confidence

1. Heritage Because it says in John chapter one that he gave the right to become the children of God, but not to those who are born of natural descent. And what he's driving at is that for some people, they think they have a spiritual heritage because their mom and dad or their family had a heritage. Therefore, because we grew up around it—"I was around it, I get it." And yet what we see here is that God doesn't have spiritual grandchildren, that there are only those who come to become the children of God.

2. Past Decisions The second thing we see in John chapter one is that past decisions can lead to a false confidence. And what I'm talking about when I say a past decision here is when he says it's not by a human will or a husband's will. And what he's driving at in John chapter one is he's saying, you don't get to just simply say, "I made the choice," but God's at work in a way that supersedes even our ability just to say, "I did this."

Now you might say, "Well, wait a second, don't I believe and doesn't that..." Yes, but here's what I'm talking about when I say past decisions. Sometimes people will say, "Well, when I was at camp that one time I raised my hand when the worship leader sang the song for the 27th time. And I said, count me in. Or I went forward at some meeting or some church somewhere and I prayed a prayer. And they told me if I prayed the prayer and believed it that once I was saved, I'd always be saved." But in the Bible, a saving faith, a being counted worthy, is never about a past decision. It's always about current faith.

3. Doctrinal Rightness And then when we go back to Matthew chapter seven, we see thirdly, that some of our misplaced confidence can be in our doctrinal rightness. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that doctrinal correctness doesn't matter, but what I'm saying is that sometimes you can affirm the formula. "Lord" was a way of saying "kurios." In Matthew chapter seven, when they said "Lord," they were affirming that Jesus was divine. They were affirming something that was right. But we're told in James that even the demons believe, and yet they are not ultimately counted worthy of the kingdom. And so you can have a form of rightness by being close, maybe even correct on some things, but miss the most important.

4. Passion Another kind of misplaced confidence, I'm going to say, is passion. When people in the ancient world wanted to emphasize something, especially in writing, they would double it because they didn't have bold or those kinds of font capabilities. And so to say "Lord, Lord" was a way of saying, these people are very passionate about things, and sometimes you can be passionate, but again, you can look back and according to Jesus, come before God on that day and he'll say, "Depart from me, I never knew you."

5. Success, Miracles and Experiences And then in Matthew 7, we also see that misplaced confidence can be—and I'm just going to use three words here for one thing—success, miracles and experiences. And what I'm talking about here is these verses that say, "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?'" To prophesy was to speak God's word. So they may have had some kind of success in speaking God's word to other people. "And drive out demons"—so this would be an experience. "And did we not perform miracles?"—and so here's the miracles piece. "Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me.'"

Now, you may be hearing this and saying, "Okay, now I'm shaky. I wasn't before." But here's the good news. And that is when Paul writes the letter to the Thessalonians, Second Thessalonians, he's writing to say, "I don't want you to live in a place that is shaky. I want you to have an unshakable confidence that you are counted worthy of the kingdom of God."

What Makes Us Worthy?

So what is it that makes us worthy of the kingdom of God? Well, if you take Romans, chapter three that I alluded to earlier, that no one's righteous, our worthiness comes not from us being good enough, but from us saying, "Jesus is righteous on my behalf." And when you do that, when I do that, there are some things that happen in our lives that Paul points to. And when they're true in your life, my life, then we can say, "I know that God is at work."

And maybe you are somebody who says, "You know, I feel fairly confident about where I am spiritually," but maybe you have a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister, a spouse, somebody in your life that you are unsure where they're at. These are some of the things that you can look at and say, "I can have an unshakeable confidence if these are true."

Three Evidences of True Faith

1. Growing Faith

And the first, I'm just going to simply say, is a growing faith. And we see this in verse three. It says: "We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing." So he says, "Your faith is growing more and more." So what does that mean?

Well, to have a faith that's growing, according to First Peter 2, you should crave pure spiritual milk. But in First Corinthians 3, we're told that if you have milk too long, you haven't moved on to meat, and you're not maturing. And so you could say, "Well, which is it? What is it?" And all that means is that there's an appropriate level of spiritual maturity at different phases of your life, of your Christian life, but you should continue to progress over time.

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but my wife and I had a grandbaby recently. In case I didn't mention it, I just thought I'd throw that out there. But it's really fun to watch my grandson as he is progressing in life. But here's what's true. Right now, he's all about the milk. But if he's all about the milk when he's 13, that will be abnormal and ridiculous. And what growth means is at some point there's a progression in knowledge that you are coming to understand things that you didn't understand before. You're coming to see things that you didn't see before.

There's a growth, I would say, in passion. And even though I mentioned passion before, in terms of some things that are misplaced confidence, here, when it's part of a growth perspective, it means that you have a sense of seeing the greatness of God even more over time, and you care more about the things of God than maybe you did in the past. And there's an increase in alignment. In fact, in Matthew 7, what it says very clearly is that those who do the will of the Father are the ones that are ultimately able to have confidence. And what that means very simply, is that growing spiritually is natural, but it's an evidence to say, "I know that my faith is genuine, and I can say that I know that God is counting me worthy."

2. Increasing Love

And then we can see this phrase here, an increase in love. Here's where we see this at the end of verse three: "And the love all of you have for one another is increasing." Your love is increasing. Now, I haven't met very many people who don't think that they're lovers. And by that I mean loving people. I mean, there's a few people who are like, "Well, you know, I don't really like people." But even then they say, "Hey, I love the people that are important to me." But love means a mix of both our emotions and our actions.

And there's a great extended definition of love. And you may think, First Corinthians 13. And that's true. But there's another description in Romans 12, verses 9 and following, that talks about love and makes it, in some ways, even more practical. Let me just take a moment and read this, because what Paul is saying is that when your love is growing, it's an evidence that you're counted worthy, that your faith is genuine.

Here's Romans 12. Let me just start in verse 9 and read part of this. It says: "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality."

So what does love look like? There's a spiritual component that says, "I'm living my life with passion for God." Here you see the passion piece again. But then the love shows up in practicing hospitality and sharing with those who are in need, in giving deference to one another. Then he says this, verse 14: "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord. On the contrary: 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

Do you hear the emphasis on love? And what Paul is saying in Second Thessalonians 1 is that those who are counted worthy, who have genuine faith, who can say, "I can have confidence, no matter what's going on," that they can have confidence because they see their love increasing.

So let me just take two of these little illustrations here. Lines that are in Romans, chapter 12, it says, "Do not take vengeance, but leave room basically for the vengeance of God." Now, my guess is very few of us here do vengeance the way that it's portrayed in the movies. You know how it's portrayed in the movies. Like, somebody did me wrong. I'm gonna take them out with some... I mean, hopefully that's not where most of us are living. But what can happen sometimes is somebody hurts our feelings and we get just a little cold. Somebody says something unkind about us, and we say something unkind about them. And what vengeance looks like often in our lives is just saying, "I'm going to make sure you..." Instead of the loving response, which is saying, "I step back and I say, this is God's to deal with. My job here is to bless those who persecute me."

Or how about "outdo one another with honor"? What would it look like for you, for me to decide to say, "I'm going to strive to outdo other people who are in my life with honor"? In other words, whatever the honor they give to me or I perceive that I need, I'm going to outdo them in giving back that honor. According to Romans 12, that's part of love. And what Paul is saying is, as your Christian experience is maturing, this will be increasing in your life.

Now, to be fair, it doesn't mean that everything increases all the time in a perfect line that goes up and to the right. But what it means is, as you look back at your life, you will see a difference, that some of your impulses for revenge or vengeance that used to be unchecked might still come out from time to time. But you'll have an awareness of it that when you're in a place where you're trying to get honor for yourself every now and then, instead of saying, "I wish they would honor me," you'll say, "How could I honor these people in this moment?" And when that happens, you'll be able to say, "I know that God is alive in me and working in me in different ways."

3. Enduring in Hardship

And then we see one more thing here, and this is in verse four, and this is enduring in hardship. It says: "Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring." Now, I said, enduring in hardship. There's both persecution and trials here. Persecution means intentional malice, things that are done to hurt you in your faith. And trials is a more general word that's just talking about the things that are going to be hard in your life. And here he's saying that one of the things that happens when you are worthy in the sense of your faith is genuine, is that you do not crumble when you face hardship. Instead, your faith continues to thrive.

I remember years ago, and maybe you remember there was a guy who used to be on our staff here named Brandon Rickard. He was a student ministry pastor years and years ago now. And Brandon, I knew Brandon when Brandon was, years ago, a college student. He'd come to the church I was pastoring and I hired him at that church before he went to seminary and then came here to work.

And Brandon, while he was working with me a long time ago, his mother died when he was like 22, 23 years old. And it was a sudden, unexpected death. And Brandon was really close to his mom. And I remember when this happened thinking, "This is going to be really a hardship for Brandon. This is going to be maybe a crisis of faith." And I ended up at the funeral officiating the funeral. And Brandon stood up at the funeral and did a song. It was the old song that comes from Job: "Lord, you give and you take away, but either way, I will choose to say, blessed be the name of the Lord."

I mean, he sang this song at his mom's funeral when he was 22. His mom was probably in her early 50s at the time. Unexpected death, hard death. And I remember just watching that and saying, "There is somebody who at least in this moment is saying, 'I'm choosing to endure, even though right now the way life is serving something up to me is displeasing to me. But I will choose to say, God be blessed, even if this is not pleasing to me.'"

You see, that's a faith that in many ways may be imperfect. There may be days when you say, "God, why did you do this? God, you let me down." But affirming God's goodness in the face of loss is a way that you can say, "I know this faith is real and I can be counted worthy."

The Result: Thankfulness and Community

And what happens in Second Thessalonians is Paul basically says this leads to thankfulness. He says, "We ought to give thanks for you." And it leads to, he uses the word boasting. And the word boasting here can mean like a joyfulness, a celebration. What he's doing is he's saying, "I want to be somebody who can give praise for the lives of other people."

Do you know how you grow to be unshakable and have unshakeable confidence? Part of it is being part of a community where there are other people who are enduring in trial, growing in love, growing in faith. And you can say, "I can see the hand of God in this and in me."

What If You're Uncertain?

Now what if you say, "Well, okay, that's good, but I'm uncertain. I'm uncertain for somebody else in my life." And by the way, I think that God doesn't make it perfectly clear for us where somebody else stands spiritually because it would lead to horrible self-righteousness. And what I mean by that is yes, he can say, "I'm thankful because I see these evidences." But a lot of times it is hard to know. But if you're uncertain, if you say "I don't see these evidences, I'm not sure," what can you do? I think you can say, "I will pray, I will model, I will invite so that the people in my life, whether it be a child, a spouse, a sibling, a co-worker, that I can say, there is something here that is an invitation for you."

Because there is a God who promises more than simply "try to be better so that you can have a shot at eternity." He says, "You can be worthy of the kingdom because Jesus is worthy."

And what do you do if you personally are somebody who is in a place where you say "I'm uncertain. I don't think the answer is to say, 'Well, I need to try harder to increase in faith, to love more, or to fake it right now because I don't feel all those things.'" I think the answer ultimately is that we all do ultimately what we believe. We all act on what we actually believe.

You know how I know this is true? Because you all act on what you believe is true about gravity. You don't need anybody to tell you about how gravity works. You just know that if you are going to step off of something that is high, that gravity works. And so you say, "You know what, I'm going to take the stairs." It's just how it works. We do what we actually believe. We act on what we actually believe.

And so the answer isn't to say, "Let me try really, really, really hard to grow. Let me try really hard to love. Let me try really hard to have endurance." The answer is ultimately to keep coming back to who Jesus is, to who God is, to what he's done so that your faith is settled in your soul in such a way that whatever shakeable circumstance you find yourself in, you can say, "I have an unshakeable confidence because I know who God is and I've come to believe it at the core of my being." And it will show itself as your faith grows, as your love grows, and as your endurance continues, even in the midst of hardship.

Closing Prayer

Now, I want to take just a moment here today and just give you a chance just to pray in response today. And so I just want to invite you to bow your heads, close your eyes for a moment, and I want to just invite you to consider just your level of confidence today. If you find yourself in a place where you say, "Boy, the faith hasn't been growing, my love doesn't feel like it's increasing. I'm not sure that I'm enduring."

Maybe right now is the time for you just to say, "God, I do believe that Jesus died, that you are... that I've sinned. I need a savior and come back to those basics." Maybe you're here today and you've always kind of thought that your rightness, your goodness, somehow commended you to God. Maybe today is just a day for you to acknowledge your need for a savior who does what you can't do.

Because faith in Second Thessalonians is not just a hope. It's a confidence based on reality that says, "God, I take you at your word."

Maybe today is just a day for you to say, "God, that's where I want to be." Maybe right now you're saying, "Look, I'm fairly confident in my standing with God, but your concern is for somebody you love." And maybe right now is just a time for you to say and pray once again for that person and to say, "God, would you give me opportunity to point them more fully to you and then the courage to take the opportunity when it comes."

God, I thank you that when we're in times and places that seem uncertain, that you're not uncertain, and that we can have an unshakeable confidence about that day. It's not because of what I do, but because of Jesus. And in that, we see the evidences and can stand with confidence. And we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thanks for being here. Have a great week.

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