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Hey, I’m going to invite you to open up your Bibles this morning to First Thessalonians. We’re going to be together today. We’re going to be in chapter two. As we last week kicked off a six week series for us in the book of Thessalonians, and we talked about the importance of this church and the early church of Thessalonica, and really the example that it becomes for us today as we study the book of Thessalonians together. One of the things I mentioned to you is this is the likely the third book written in the New Testament. Your New Testament is not put together in chronological order, but rather it’s put together according to literary genre. For example, all of the Apostle Paul’s letters are clumped together in your New Testament as Paul’s epistles, and they are put in order according to the size of the book. So have you got your Bibles put together in chronological order, please? No, that is not true. But the book of Thessalonians was the third letter that was likely written for in the New Testament. And when the Apostle Paul is writing this letter he’s he’s writing it Having on a second missionary journey. Having spent time in the city of Thessalonica, but just a minimal amount of time there, he was very concerned with with the state of this church because of of what he knew this church was going through. In fact, he didn’t know all the details, but he knew that they were under some persecution and became very concerned.
And so if you if you follow the Apostle Paul’s journey in his second missionary journey, he went from an area of the east in Lystra, Iconium, and Derby, and he traveled west across the Aegean Sea to the city of Philippi, which was the first church to be established in Europe. If you study the the cradle of Christianity, you find Christianity really began where where Asia, Europe and Africa come together. But the Apostle Paul, the first church established in Europe was in Philippi, in what is modern day Greece, and then into Thessalonica, which is still in modern day Greece. And this church became a very impactful, powerful church for the sake of the gospel. We even looked at last week where Paul acknowledges that the whole gospel had gone out to the region of Achaia and Macedonia, which makes up most of modern day Greece today. And the Apostle Paul says it even went beyond that. And so here’s this, this, this little church in the city of Thessalonica, which is a major metropolitan area. During the Apostle Paul’s day, some estimate between 100 to 200,000 people. It was along the Ignatian way, which is a major trade route in the Apostle Paul’s day that went across Greece, crossed the ocean over into Italy and ended in Rome. And so the Apostle Paul, when he would often go establish churches, he would go to the, the, the major hub for population densities.
And he would preach the gospel there to see a church established, because he knew if the the church could take root in the city, it would influence the countryside. And so much of his his journey was about reaching these, these major population dense areas that that the gospel would be preached. And this happened in Thessalonica. But one of the things that makes Thessalonica such an exception is that the apostle Paul spent a minimal amount of time here. If you read about it in the book of acts, chapter 17, Paul talks about him just preaching there for three weeks before the persecution broke out. And it wasn’t a surprise the persecution broke out because he had been facing this all along the way. As he was traveling on his second missionary journey in Philippi, the city he was just before Thessalonica, he was publicly beaten and thrown into prison with Silas. And then they were released and he goes to Thessalonica. In just three weeks, persecution breaks out against this church. Paul and his companions Silas, Silas and Timothy, they all decide to to leave, and they go to Berea. Persecution breaks out again. Paul then runs to Athens. When he’s in Athens, he tells Timothy to please go back to the church in Thessalonica and just check on it. He was worried. He thought they’re only going to be there. We were only there for three weeks preaching the gospel.
This church then went through incredible adversity. I’m really worried about where they are. Paul comes back or excuse me, Timothy comes back to Paul and reports and and said to Paul appalling. The gospel not only has taken root there, the church is not only thriving there, but in all of Greece. And even beyond that, it is incredible what’s taking place. And so the Apostle Paul writes this letter to continue to encourage the church. And so through their example, we have the opportunity to now learn. Okay. What does it mean for me, in light of Jesus, to follow him? Think about our own faith journey. This church is saying to us, with just a really minimal discipleship, that that the Lord can use this in incredibly powerful ways. If you would just grab Ahold of it with your own faith journey and live out some certain things. Now let me just say, when it comes to your growth in Jesus, we don’t want to just stay with what we learn in the first three weeks, and then we never grow beyond that, right? Like, there are some certain things that are foundational Christianity that once you learn it, you should just always come back to it. Right? But we want to continue to churn within us that our growth in the Lord and our relationship with him. But looking at this church gives us a very important place to examine where we are here in the 21st century, part of Alpine Bible Church and saying, My God, how can you use us today and learning from this church and what we are to do in light of of who Christ is? And and in chapter one, Paul really talks about the transformation that took place in this church.
I mean, he said to us, okay, this is this is what the church valued in order for their lives to to find that transformation in him. And in verse six he told us it was it was the word of God and the joy of the spirit. And we talked about the importance of those things in our life taking precedent. And in verse three he talked about the way it took precedent. Right. We don’t have joy just for the sake of having joy. It’s important that your joy be rooted in the Lord, because just joy, for the sake of joy or happiness for the sake of happiness, it will just be temporal. It’s based on the circumstances of life. We need something that transcends that, something that says to us, no matter what the world throws at us, we will not lose this, because what we have in Christ lasts forever. And so that’s the the deeper joy that only the spirit can bring. And so we have the joy of the spirit and the word of God. And, and in verse three he told us, really the foundation that that laid for us it was faith, hope and love.
And we talked about last week the importance of that foundation. And by the way, I want you to I’m not recapping last week’s sermon to just fill time here. Okay. I want to recap it because this this sets for us a foundation for where we’re going today. And it is pertinent. And so he said to the church, look, when you come to the Word of God, this is what the Word of God roots you in faith, hope and love. This is what gives you the joy of the spirit is faith, hope and love. And it’s important for us to understand faith, hope, and love. And we talk in terms of faith, hope and love as a follower of Jesus. To recognize that those words have biblical root and meaning. And the reason this is significant is because sometimes when the when the world uses words that, that, that Christianity has that belongs to us, it has a tendency of redefining those words, and it makes it something altogether different, like in our culture today. We might say things, well, you just gotta have faith. In fact, we might sing it right. Gotta have faith. The faith. Like we just. We’ll just talk about having faith for the sake of faith. And it’s like you just. Just believe for the sake of believing, right? It’s just. It just doesn’t make any sense.
There’s no guarantee that what you’re trusting in has any sort of foundation at all for which to shape you. And so in Christianity, we talk about the faith of Christianity. It’s very much identity rooted in the identity of a person. And more important than that, it’s rooted in the identity of an event that this person accomplished for us, who is Jesus. And that event is the resurrection of Christ. In fact, in first Corinthians 15, Paul says, if the resurrection of Jesus hasn’t taken place, Christians should be pitied more than anyone on the planet. And so, so it’s helping us understand. We put our faith in something. It’s not just the idea of a faith, but it’s an understanding of who Jesus is and what he’s accomplished for us. And here’s what faith does. It gives us a foundation that’s secure so we don’t have to have this concern. We know what we’re resting in is dependable. And with that, what we learn is what Jesus has accomplished for us, meaning our past guilt and shame and everything that you might be embarrassed by and everything that separates you from God. All of that has been taken care of by Christ on the cross for you and for me. And so therefore, we get to put our faith in what Jesus has accomplished for us, and in recognizing what Jesus has accomplished for us, not only gives us a foundation for our faith, it gives us a hope for our future meaning.
Because he overcame the grave, he promised that we will overcome the grave too. And so we have this incredible confidence in the identity that we receive, not because of what we’ve accomplished, but because of what he’s accomplished for us. It gives us this faith foundation, this hope for the future. And so when we talk about hope as Christians, oftentimes what the world means is, is more like a wish. We say it like this. Like, golly gee whiz, I sure hope so, right? Like, we use the word hope. That’s what we mean. We’re just kind of substituting word for wish. But when the Bible talks about a wish or excuse me, a hope, it’s talking about a confident expectation. So when the Bible says that the church has a hope, it’s this confident expectation of what we’re going to receive because of what Christ has done. It’s not based on what you do, but what’s been done for you. And when our faith and hope is secure, then it gives us the opportunity to love. Because when you’re worried about your past and your future, you can’t focus on anyone else. Your concern is for yourself. But when you know your your past is taken care of and your future is secure, it then gives you the opportunity to use your life for the benefit of others, because you have found your life shaped in something so enriching that it has filled your life up with this confidence in who you are because of who he is.
And so therefore, we get to live what theologians refer to as the supreme ethic. I don’t know if you ever think in terms of this, but when it comes to the idea of faith, hope and love, one day your faith will be sight and that hope you will walk in. But love is that ethic that continues forever. And in, in, in the Lord we we get the opportunity then having our faith and hope secure to live in love. And when you look at this early church, what makes it incredible is they find their identity shaped in the Lord. They are transformed. And in that transformation, they live in such a way that it makes a difference in the lives of people around them. They’re able to love in this way and not not in circumstances that any of us would would find easy in any stretch of the imagination, under hardship and adversity, under persecution. Just three weeks the Apostle Paul spent here, and this church is making such an incredible difference because first they found their life transformed in him, and then they start to live that out. And so this is what we’re going to look at today as we look at chapter two, how do we make that kind of difference when we when we, in light of our our own relationship with the Lord, then turn in this world and make a significant impact because of what Christ has done in us.
In fact, we’re going to talk about today two markers of meaningful ministry. And I think for all of us this morning, we all want to live our lives in a way that makes a difference. Like nobody wants to get the inner life and be like, just wasted it, right? Like, I just I just did terrible things and wasted everything, every moment I had, like, nobody, nobody wants to do that. In fact, in chapter two, verse one, this is the way the Apostle Paul starts. He says, for you yourselves know, brothers that are coming to you was not in vain. I mean, Paul is acknowledging that like, this wasn’t wasted and we don’t want to waste our lives and but we’re just rejoicing in the fact that we’re making a difference and and seeing meaningful ministry take place. You know, this is this is why it’s important when we look at chapter one and two to understand how this is laying out. Right, like finding your own transformation in the Lord. Before we talk about ministry, how we serve. Because it’s the your own transformation of the Lord that should drive all of this. And we think in terms of, of, of doing ministry for the Lord, like religious people. Get this backwards. Religious people have the tendency of thinking, well, I better do so that God will be happy with me in order to accept me so that my life could be transformed.
But that’s not biblical understanding of the gospel at all, right? We’re not we’re not in this about trying to tell you. I’m not trying to tell you this morning. Look, you need to do ministry. You better modify your behavior so that God will love you, and then your life can be transformed. Right? We’re talking about a model. We’re going to look at a model for living our life. But I want you to to understand that it begins with an outflow of the own transformation that happens in your own heart. And when you find your life enriched in the depth of Jesus, you want that as it wells up in you to pour out out of you in order to bless the people around you, because you’ve you’ve discovered what it means to know God. So how do we how do we live in meaningful ministry? And we can even say it like this as we look at chapter two, especially when adversity comes, because it will, and this church becomes a teacher to us. And in recognizing, how do I move in this life? Like this early church with just three weeks of the Apostle Paul saw this such a magnificent transformation in their life that it not only not only impacted them, but it impacted all of Greece and even beyond. How did they do that? Now, when we talk about meaningful ministry, I want to clarify something for for all of us that I’m not just in talking, talking in terms of formal ministry, where like you come to Alpine Bible Church, you see there’s ministries here, you sign up for ministry and that’s your ministry, right? Like, you can have a formal ministry and that’s good.
And you can think about how to make an impact on formal ministry. And that’s great. I hope you do. But but I want you to understand that God has called all of us to be ministers. And sometimes in a church setting, there might be a position in the church where we might refer to an individual as the minister, right, or the pastor. But God has called all of us to be ministers and to be shepherds in some way. And if you want to understand where that calling is, can I tell you it’s it. Just look at the area of your life where you’re putting on different hats. And what I mean is where where you might be a mother, a sister, a daughter, an employee, an employer, a father, a friend, like all those different ways you might wear hats in this world. Those are places where you have influence and the people around you, and that is the exact place God has called you to minister to people for his glory. And it starts out of the own transformation in your heart, and then it pours out of you.
So how how do you do this faithfully? Well, let me give you point number one. We’re just going to look at two simple words really this morning. Two simple words for for markers of meaningful ministry. Number one is motive. Motive. The world has this way of trying to convoluted the simplicity of what it is to know Jesus and follow him. I think it’s critical for God’s people to never lose sight of the motive of your heart. What transformed you in the Lord continues to transform and refine you every day. The world would love nothing more than to deter, deter you, discourage you, distract you. But God’s desire is that the pursuit of your life would remain single. And in Thessalonians you see this with the early church. He says this. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi. As you know, we had boldness in our God to declare you the gospel of God in the midst of conflict. For our our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive. Here’s what’s what Paul is saying. He remained honest with the truth. Paul is saying, look, we didn’t get distracted in other lies in this world, but but we walked with this boldness. And what gave them this boldness was the truth of their own identity in the Lord. The truth of who God, who God is, which helped them understand who they were.
And this is what they refused to let go of. And the truth has this incredible way of creating this boldness within you. And let me just say, and it shouldn’t be an arrogant boldness, but rather this confidence that really produces a humility within us, because this is not a truth that we created, but rather it’s what God has done for us in the gospel that we are sinful. But but God didn’t give up on us. He gave his life for us, that we could find freedom in him by becoming flesh and dying on the cross, that we we could be delivered and restored and reconciled to the Lord. It’s like it’s not anything about what we’ve done, but what he’s done for us, which puts us in incredible position, not because of what we’ve accomplished, but because of of who he is. And therefore we get to move in this world as his representative, his ambassador. It’s it’s not about me earning a position, but the position that Christ has given to me. And and so Paul is saying that truth that that’s what aligned our hearts. And we remain focused on on this idea. The truth the truth is critical. Now, let’s just say, when it comes to the idea of truth, that not all truth is equal, but there are certain truths that that when it comes to the core of who you are as a human being that you should not stray from.
No matter what this world throws at you, no matter how much it tries to tempt you, to pull you, distract you, that this is paramount to your own identity and not just your identity. The success of who we are as God’s community, right? And so let me give you an example. Like this morning I drove here in my car. My car is black. And you know, I will stand on that truth claim. My car is black. But if someone comes to me and says, are you willing to give your life for that? Like, no, I don’t care. I don’t care what you think about the color of my car. You can just make it whatever color you want. That’s not something I want to give my life for, right? That’s not that’s not paramount to to the identity of who I am and what I’m called to live in this world. But the gospel understanding who I am and who in light of who God is, that is significant to not only my identity, but to all those around me and what God has done for us. I mean, he gave everything so that I could know him and walk with him and find my life connected to him forever. And so this is what the Apostle Paul is saying is the motive of your heart becomes important. And and here’s why I’ll say this sometimes to our ministry leaders here at church, because sometimes we we can get in the, the, the busyness of doing things and sometimes even on Sundays.
I’ll just remind us this because in your own life, you can you can get caught up in the mundane of the doing just for the sake of doing. And and over time, you just start to wear out. And I’ll say it like this often that constructs without conviction leads to burnout. So the idea of constructs is just the day in, day out grind of doing certain things that are expected of you that you think that you need to do, but constructs without conviction leads to burnout. And it’s the core of who we are, the conviction that drives us. That if we come back to again and again, it reminds us the importance of why I’m doing what I’m doing and the places God has called me to minister, because the richness of who Christ is and what he’s done for me, it is. It is paramount that I don’t lose sight of this thing, this one thing, the motive of my life that determines everything that I do. So Paul is saying that for us, he’s encouraging this idea to refresh our our minds again and again. So in verse four he says this. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so speak not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.
I suppose he’s saying to us, look, here comes the temptation. There are going to be certain things in this world that are going to pull you. People in your life may be influencing you in certain ways, but there is something that should take precedence above all of that. And that’s what we’ve been approved by. What other people say about us is not really what determines who you are. The the wealth and the beauty of who you are is far deeper than that because you were created by someone else. Someone. Someone greater of more authority and of more importance than just simply listening to the opinions of others. So Paul is reminding the church, like, if you want to live in such a way that your life makes a difference, here’s what you do. You don’t have to remember everything, but just let your life be about one thing, which is your motive in Christ. What is spurring what you do. Remembering that transformation out of that well then determines how I live. There was a man by the name of George Mueller. Some of you might be familiar with who was a minister. He was born in Germany. He was a minister in England, and he was a he was a pastor. And he went on to start an orphanage. And during his lifetime he he ministered to over 10,000 children. And towards the end of his life, as he had faithfully lived this life to honor God and bless others, someone asked me, what was your secret? How were you able to to to live a life that way.
And, you know, oftentimes we might think of people that are heroes to us and we kind of idolize their accolades and sort of set goals for our own life based on seeing what they’ve accomplished. And sometimes we kind of romanticize that and want that to. And, and so we pull behind the curtain and we recognize just how much sacrifice it entailed. And we kind of want the praise, but we don’t want the sacrifice. But how? How knowing the Christian journey isn’t always easy. George Mueller, how were you able to do that? How were you able to to honor God with your life? And he said it like this. He said there was a day when I died. By the way, George Mueller is Abraham Lincoln’s doppelganger. There was a day when I died. Utterly died. Died to George Mueller. His opinions, preferences, tastes and will died to the world. Its approval or censor. I died to the approval or blame, even of my brethren and friends. And since then I have studied to show myself approved unto God. And here’s what he’s saying. You want to know the secret? I really just made my life about one thing, and that is to find who I am in light of who he is, to surrender to that.
What made the church in Thessalonica so powerful is they weren’t distracted by the things of this world, even when it would cost them, but rather remain focused on their identity in Christ. Because to do that, you don’t have to be this deep theologian and lofty towers. You’ve just got to be committed in your heart to keep your focus on one aim, one pursuit. And the Apostle Paul as he goes on and verse five and six, he then talks about things that Lord, the first century church. Or it’s really things in light of persecution that might try to tempt them. He said it like this, he said, for we never came with words of flattery, like we weren’t just trying to puff you up just to make you feel good for the sake of feeling good. Flattery gets you nowhere, but rather, as you know, nor with a great pretext for greed. God is a witness. You gotta think if you’re going to face persecution, maybe. Maybe you might be able to accumulate enough wealth. You could buy yourself out of it, right? Or in verse six. Nor do we seek glory from people. Just just to be let you be impressed with who I am. So you think great of me, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. And these are just a few things that the Apostle Paul lists that could be temptations.
This is not an exhaustive list of everything, but when you read a passage like this, this is a this is a place to just stop and ponder and maybe ask what holds you back? What keeps your life from fully surrendering to the Lord? What is that battle you constantly struggle with rather than trust in Jesus? Maybe we could ask it like this. Why do you believe that Jesus isn’t enough. What might it take for you, really, to trust in the fact that Jesus is more than enough? Paul’s acknowledging we all have that lure to wrestle with this, but what’s critical in your life is that you don’t lose sight of that motive. Number one motive. Let me move to number two. Then number two, then is is model. Paul talks about this church making a difference as they first understand their motive, the transformation of their heart that would then lead them to model. Right. This is this is important. Maybe if I use an example in terms of parenting, anything is raising a kid. If you’re not careful as a parent, sometimes in raising your kid, you might just speak to the to the conforming of their life, not the transforming of their heart. You can run right past their heart to try to get them to perform some way, without truly speaking to the depth of who they are. And can I just tell you, for all of us, and even as you as a parent for your child, God is far more interested in our hearts than anything else.
Now, certainly we want to live a healthy lifestyle, but but it’s the transformation of our heart that leads to that. That’s why we talk about the idea of motive here in the beginning and laid out chapter one, what’s the motive of your life so that we can get to the idea of a model and we look at a model. What we’re talking about is that really the habit of our life or the the kind of culture that we’re creating? So there’s a there’s a type of culture we want as a church that we would consider as a healthy group of people, like in light of our relationship with Jesus. Like, how should that look in our life in order to make a difference in this world? We want to we want to model that. We want to create that kind of culture collectively as a community so that other people, when they belong, they could be a part of a healthy culture making a difference in this world. What does that look like? As a church, we we have core values, right? And we want these core values to help us set a culture. Like we say, number one is to know Christ. And then we want to speak truth and in love. And we want to care for for every soul.
We want to be devoted to one another and we want to impact the world. Those are those are our values. As a church, we wanted to help us create a healthy culture. So we want we want to have this kind of healthy culture and we want to model that. What does that look like for us to model? And so, Paul, for us in this passage, he sets out two examples. He’s saying, look, if I want to teach you what it looks like to model that, I’m going to use two examples. And in these examples he uses the idea of a of a mother and a father. He says, okay, in terms of your life, you’ve been transformed in Jesus. Here’s what I want you to think about. I want you to think about your life in terms of as a mother and a father. Now, in looking at these verses, I want you to know he’s not saying, okay, women, let’s put you in the gender of mother here. And men, let’s put you in the gender of father. What he’s really saying is, as a believer, there are aspects of a mother I want you to model, and there’s aspects of a father I want you to model. And understanding both of those helps create the healthy culture and a church. So. So we need to ask ourselves, okay, what is it about a mother and what is it about a father that the Apostle Paul wants us to know in order to set that healthy culture for a church that makes a difference? Well, in verse seven he says this, but we were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us. So let me just say, when we look at the idea of a mother, he certainly talk about nurturing here. And he’s not just speaking about a mother, he’s talking about the idea of the role of a mother in the early years of of being a mother, because we’re acknowledging a child that that is needing to be nursed. Right. So this is just at the infantile state. Right? And when we think about the gift that it is to be a parent, I think children are wonderful. Kids are cute, right? That’s all All great things. But Paul is also acknowledging something here about the adversity of being a parent. And if you’ve you’ve had kids, you know, in the early stages, kids are not givers. They are they are completely takers. Like the idea of they’re helpless and dependent. They’re completely takers. In fact, one of the things that that just surprised me with the birth of our first child, I mean, I kind of knew this, but experientially, I get to learn this like I had one role.
It wasn’t a tough role. It was just show up, right? Birth. The first kid is just show up. But after that first kid was born, I felt like we went through a war. Like it was there was a lot involved there. Like, I’m just looking at my wife thinking, the only thing I can do here is just apologize. And. And even we got to the end, like there was this panic that set in the room as. As our Grayson was our first child born. And there was this panic. The doctors got really worried, and we had this last minute C-section. And you know, you’re in for it. When the doctors are getting worried, you’re like, these guys have done this a lot. So when they’re stressed out that’s that is something right? So it’s a very traumatic experience. Am I having the first kid. And after that I thought to myself, we’re just going to be a one parent or one child family. That’s this. That’s all that’s going to work. And that is okay based on how that war went. You know, I am good with that. But it didn’t take long before my wife came back to me and she was like, I want the second kid. And I thought, that is crazy, right? Like I was there. Do you did you just amnesia? Like what? Do you not remember what that was like? But she was already ready for a second child.
That was wild to me to think about that. But that is that is the picture of motherhood. And this is what the apostle Paul is saying. The affection of a mother. I mean, I can think as a as a young parents taking your kids out for the first time, you put that nice little outfit on and and you go out to dinner, maybe for the first time that you’ve been out of the house and who knows how long. And you discover that really, kids have one, one superpower ability and it’s called poop. Their neck. Like, doesn’t matter how many times every time you put a new outfit on them. That’s just what happens instantly. Right. It’s like how when you when you are involved in parenting, yes. It’s rewarding. But it’s also a lot of sacrifice. And this is what Paul is saying when we talk. About modeling Jesus. It is a life of sacrifice. Now, why would you do that? It’s because your life has been enriched in the beauty of Christ. And you see. What that transformation has done in you. And being so blessed by it, you want others to experience it too. And so you’re willing to lay your life down for the benefit of others, in fact. When when Paul describes this in verse nine, he talks about labor and toil. He says, you remember, brothers, our labor and toil.
We worked night and day. When it talks about this, this idea of labor and toil, this, this phrase in the New Testament is actually a term used for slaves, that it was the slaves position that was considered the position that had to do the manual labor. And so what is acknowledging about a mother is her willingness to get in the trenches, to get her hands dirty for the benefit of another life. When you understand the richness of what Christ has done for you, that Jesus was willing to sacrifice himself in that way for you, that he joined us in the mud, in the dirt, in the dust, that we could find freedom and forgiveness in him, new identity, and that it becomes our privilege then, to represent our King in the same way, to model after him. That is very much like the role of a mother in nurturing the hearts of others. That people come into this church as, as babes needing to know the richness of who Christ is and who they are in light of him. And so we nurture that soul in Jesus. And look, we’re willing to do that At any time, night and day. I remember as a as a kid. There came times in our home where my mother would change her name, and she wouldn’t tell us what her new name was. And the reason she would do that is because she got she got sick of hearing the same thing over and over.
Mom. Mom. Mom. And she would say, I’m not responding to that today because I’ve changed my name. And I can’t respond to you until you figure out what it is. It was her way of telling us you needed a break. Right. But. But night and day. That’s that’s really the life of a disciple. It’s not saying you get to pick this moment where you minister. It’s to realize you’re an ambassador for Christ. Wherever you go and at any moment, Jesus can use you and the hearts of people around you. And the heart of a mother is critical to create healthy culture within the home. But to but to also understand how you’re led by your own identity in Jesus, that motive. And then he goes on to the idea of a father. In verse ten he says, you are your witnesses, and God also. How holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct towards you as believers? So you think about your example. It’s not just do as I say, but also as I do in verse 11, for you know how like a father with his children, we exhorted each of you and encourage you, and charge you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom. So as the idea of a mother nurtures for strength, the picture here of the father is to help them understand how that strength is to be used for God’s glory, to take that strength and point them to that through that hill that God has called them on for his glory.
Right? So he’s using this word in courage, which is to speak courage to charge them to walk worthy. I need to talk about walking worthy for a moment, but let me just say it like this. When you come to the idea of nurturing, to recognize as a Christian, like here we are this morning, receiving, but we’re not receiving just to sit on this receiving because God is strengthening us in this in order to take that strength and do something with it for his glory. Every once in a while, like in my home, I’ve got four boys and I just remind him of this. Guys, God has made you strong. And if you use that strength for your glory, it will destroy people around you. But if you use your strength that God has given you for his glory, it will be a blessing to those around you. And so how do I use that strength? How do I surrender that strength to the glory of God to the benefit of others? And it’s helping them learn how to move in that so as as the soul is nurtured and strengthened and we call that soul into more, we help you recognize when God wants to do an incredible work in your life and not just as an individual.
What he’s saying here is this is collectively as God’s community. When our life has given over that way that the church is a powerful force to be reckoned with, that makes a difference in the world around us, that we would walk worthy. The idea of walking worthy is not about earning, but rather living in the position that’s already been earned for you by Jesus. And we’ll come here this morning to prove anything to God, because he’s already proven everything to us by giving his life on the cross. But rather, we come to be enriched in the position that we’ve already received in him because of his grace. If we surrender our life to what Christ has done. And we get to move in, that the motive of my heart leads to the model of my life, because who I am determines what I do. And here’s the last point to give you, and we’ll move on. This is this last point is is the result of it all. This is saying to you and to me, look, this is not something you do, but this is something you need to recognize. This is something Christ does that we need to recognize is this we need to make sure to enjoy the fruit. Make sure to enjoy the fruit. When you read in verse 13, it says, and we also thank God constantly for this. That when you receive the Word of God with which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the Word of God which is at work in you believers.
Thank God for you. Brothers became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things for your own countrymen as they did, for the Jews were even willing to give our life for it. But we we need to pause and just be thankful. God, thank you for the way you’ve been working. So what we recognize in this story is really it’s a beautiful gift that the motive of my heart has changed. And it’s not because of me. It’s because God pursued me to give his life for me. And it gets me to find a whole new identity in in the way I live my life and the purpose for which I’ve been called in Christ, the reason for which I’ve been created. I can know God and then live for him, and how I muddle him in this world and I. It’s not about me making changes in the life of other people, like I’m not the Holy Spirit, but rather I get to be a conduit through which the Holy Spirit moves. But what’s beautiful is that he does move and that lives continue to be transformed. I mean, it’s to look at a room like this right now and just say, Thank God.
Thank God for what you’re doing, Lord, in the hearts of your people this morning. Thank God for the way that you may have moved in someone’s heart for the first time to come and listen to a message in a church. God, thank you that you’re still at work today. Thank you that we get to be a part of that. God, thank you for what you’ve done. It’s a beautiful place just to stop and appreciate. And and here’s one of the things it does. It relieves us from having to wear the stress of feeling like it’s up to us. All I am is a conduit to point back to you and God. You continue to be faithful in the way that you move. One individual that reminds me of this is a man by the name of Philip Larkin. Lockton. Philipp melanchthon is a friend of Martin Luther. So the guy on the right with the hat, that’s Martin Luther. Martin Luther did ministry in the 15th and 16th century. He was a part of leading the Reformation and leading the Reformation. There was a lot of pressure that came with this. If you remember, Martin Luther, very early in the Reformation, was called before the king and the Pope to denounce what he was doing, and he refused unless he could be convinced through the Word of God. And he continued on. But as he continued on, they continued to be threatened politically.
There was all sorts of turmoil at any moment. They could be captured and, and, and killed in some violent ways. And Philip was one of Martin Luther’s closest friends, and he was a deep student of God’s word. And Martin Luther loved him. And and he taught God’s Word to people. But he always walked around with anxiety because he put the weight of the world on him, the pressures of life and and all the things that were weighing in that world he kept wearing. And Martin Luther again and again would often repeat the same thing. He would say, like this. Let Philip cease to rule the world, but Philips ceased to rule the world. Guys, when we think about doing ministry in this world, you can’t approach it from an anxious soul. God has called me to to help make a difference. And if things aren’t changing, it’s my fault. And all the burdens and all the stresses of things you want to see different. But God doesn’t call you to be the Holy Spirit, nor does God call you to carry the weight of the world that belongs to him. What we’re called to remember is who’s truly in charge to align our lives with him, the motive of our heart, and to be a model to this world, a conduit for his glory to be made known that he alone will continue to do his beautiful work.