Pastor Jeff emphasized the importance of engaging in gospel ministry with boldness and unwavering conviction, noting that God blesses those who are committed to spreading the message of Jesus. He highlighted that true ministry involves sacrificial love and personal investment in the lives of others, encouraging believers to exemplify holiness in their actions. The sermon called for Christians to actively live out their faith and share the gospel, while maintaining a spirit of tenderness and encouragement towards fellow believers. In closing, Pastor Jeff invited everyone to surrender their lives to Christ, assuring them of the transformative power and blessings that come from a genuine relationship with God.
Sermon Transcript
Everybody, will you help me welcome all of our brave campuses that are worshiping with us today? So great to be here with you. Want to make one quick announcement in addition to First Tuesday coming this week. Just so you know, our radio ministry continues to expand. We're on, we're in all 50 states but sometimes we get asked to be on major stations and that's just happened for us.
So starting tomorrow we're going to be on in the morning in Washington D.C. and the largest market in the country, which is Los Angeles. And, and so I'm sharing that with you so that you can be praying. I believe in Washington D.C. we follow Charles Stanley and then Jack Graham follows us.
And in la, Robert Jeffers leads in and David Jeremiah leads out. So it's a pretty big opportunity for us as a church to get the gospel message out there. So I would just encourage you be praying for our radio ministry. We're already hearing back from people around the country that are listening and we just pray that the gospel would go forward and more people would hear the life changing message of Jesus Christ. Amen.
So with that, let's continue our word. Amen. Let's give God praise for what he's doing.
And as we continue our worship this morning, would you, would you pray with me and prepare your hearts to hear God's living and active word among us. Father in heaven, we thank you for your son Jesus Christ and your holy Spirit who indwells all of us who believe. And Father, today as we look into your word, we pray that you would have your way with us. Lord, transformation is possible every time we hear your word. If we're receptive to what you're saying and we're obedient to do what you show us.
Because Lord, we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you are speaking. So our prayer this morning is speak Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, Amen. Amen. How many of you would like more of God's blessing on your life?
Amen. When we talk about the blessing of the Lord today, I want to talk to you about the ministries that the Lord blesses. And when I say ministries, I'm talking about as a believer, anything you do to serve the Lord. So as we serve the Lord in our church, as we serve the Lord in our marriage, as we serve the Lord in our singleness, as we serve the Lord in our homes, as we serve the Lord in our job, as we serve the Lord in our communities. When we're ministering to the Lord, how can we experience more of the blessing of God?
Because it's real that if you look at Christians, God just doesn't bless every single Christian. There's people who are definitely born again marriages are not being blessed. There are people who are in a job that are Christian, their job's not being blessed. There are people in their neighborhood, their neighborhoods not being blessed. So what is it that would cause God to look down and favor your ministry as a church?
What is it that would cause God to look down and favor the church that you're a part of? What are the requirements that God would have so that he can put his hand of blessing on the service that's being done by his people? Because all of us, just like you as believers, will say, of course I want more blessing. Why wouldn't I want more blessing? I want more of the favor and the blessing of God.
But God gives requirements for what that blessing should come from and how we should live in order for God to put his fingerprints all over that. So if you're looking to have more of God's favor and blessing in your service to him, I believe that God has a word for you this morning. So would you open your Bible up to First Thessalonians, chapter two, First Thessalonians, chapter 2. We're going to be in the first 12 verses today. And as you're turning there, we've already been in chapter one.
We took a look at how in Acts 17, Paul, Silas and Timothy went in to the town of Thessalonica, preached the Gospel for three sabbaths for the Jews. Many of those Jews turned and came with Paul. Many of the leading women came with Paul, many of the Greeks and Gentiles came with Paul. And a church got formed even after Paul, Silas and Timothy were driven out of town. Paul has a great concern for this church.
He hears how great they're doing in their service to the Lord. He writes them back encouraging them to continue to do what they're doing. And that's where we pick up today in First Thessalonians, chapter two, starting in verse one, hear the word of the Lord this morning and then we'll unpack it through together. He says, for you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. But after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the Gospel of God amid much opposition.
For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with pretext for greed. God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ, we might have asserted our authority.
But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children, having so fond an affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the Gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us. For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day is not to be a burden to any of you. We proclaimed to you the Gospel of God. You are witnesses, and so is God. How devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behave toward you, believers, just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
And here, as the Apostle Paul writes, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to the people in Thessalonica, we can see God's heart for what indeed God blesses and how we can experience more of God's favor in our life. So when you think about the ways in which you serve the Lord, and you want more of God's favor on those areas of service to the Lord, here's four truths that you can employ so that God will use you more greatly. And here's the truth. Truth number one, about the ministries God blesses. If you're going to be a ministry that God blesses, you must engage with gospel boldness.
You must engage with Gospel boldness. There's a centrality to the cross of Jesus Christ, to the person and work of all that the Lord did, to his resurrection from the dead. In everything you do, notice what he says. For you yourselves know, brethren, that are coming to you was not in vain. But after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you.
The Gospel of God amid much opposition. So think about this. They were in Philippi they were in northern Greece. They were being abused there. So they left there.
They get to Thessalonica. They preached the Gospel for three Sabbaths. May have been there more, but they were at least there that long. They get driven out of town. Paul, Silas and Timothy, they can't even stay there anymore because there's such opposition.
Remember, they go to Jason's house and they drag him to the courts and all the things that went on. So Paul has to leave with his companions and go further south in Greece. And he's writing back to them, telling them how grateful he is that the Gospel has taken root in their lives. And here's what you need to know. There is always a return on investment.
When you share the Gospel. There's always a return on investment. You may not see it with your own eyes. You may share the Gospel with somebody. You may have shared the gospel with 30 people in your life or 100 people.
You might even say stuff like this. I'm not really an evangelist. It never works for me. Let me correct you. You have no idea what you are.
Every time the Gospel gets shared, every time the word of God gets shared, it always has a return on investment. Always. And this is what Paul's saying. We know our coming to you is not in vain. It wasn't a waste of time.
It's never a waste of time to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's never a time where I'm too busy for that. It wouldn't work anyway. There's never a time where you're faithful to God and you are sharing the gospel, that Jesus Christ died for your sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose from the grave according to scriptures. There's never a time that gets shared where there's no return on investment.
There is always a return on investment. Always. And this is what he's saying. If you're going to experience the blessing of God in your life, you have to engage in gospel boldness. Boldness means I'm not too weary, I'm not too tired to live this gospel and to share it.
It's essential to any church, any marriage, any ministry anywhere that God is going to put his fingertips on, where the centrality of that individual or group's life is set, centered on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through Him. And here's what happens in churches, even churches that believe that. We think that's like a primer for all the Other great things in the Bible.
The gospel is central to everything else in the Bible. It's what the Bible revolves around is the person and work of Jesus Christ. And if you're going to experience more of the favor of God in your life, your life needs to center around the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice this. The ministries or churches or families or cadres or communities that God's blesses, they do not shrink back in the face of adversity.
Notice what he says. We spoke to you the gospel of God amid much opposition. That's kind of an understatement, right? When, when you're being driven out of town. Because the one thing you're doing is telling people that Jesus Christ died for your sins and that he rose from the dead.
And that's what you must believe. And if you don't believe that you have no relationship with God, you have no hope, you have no future, you will go to hell, you will be punished, it will be just. And you'll get everything that you deserve. But God sent his son, Jesus, the one and only way to the Father who died on the cross, who rose from the dead, who was resurrected. And by turning from your sin and turning to Christ, you can have everlasting hope, complete forgiveness of your sins, and live forever with God.
And that's the message. It either gets accepted or rejected. And oftentimes it gets rejected. But I want to tell you something. Even when it gets rejected and even when the opposition is big, it doesn't mean there's not a great return on investment.
There's always a return on investment. It, it, it lets people be without excuse. Romans 1:20 says, there's nobody that dies in their sin. That is without excuse. We have creation, we have our conscience.
We know there's a God. We know there's one greater than us. And when you look and say God reveal he will do it. There's nobody that is is able to say and leave this planet, well, I wasn't chosen. God didn't do this.
No excuse for you. And by the way, every time that the gospel is preached, you're accountable. You're accountable to anything that the word of God teaches once you've heard it. And if we're going to experience this life, the favor of God, Most of us think of the favor of God as I want more money, I want him a nicer house, I want to do. That's not necessarily the favor of God.
The favor of God is his blessing on your life. And when the ministry of Christ is Central, everything around you begins to change. Just think about in the book of Acts when the apostles were first starting to go out and preach the Gospel. Here's what they were preaching in Acts 4:12. And there is salvation in no one else.
For there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Who are they talking to? Religious leaders of the day. Jews, People that don't believe in Jesus, people that are hostile, people that are arresting them, people that are threatening persecution and death. And what are they saying?
Hey, we just want to tell you this. There is salvation in no one else but Jesus. There's no other name given unto men by which we must be saved. And notice the response now. When they had observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.
You don't have to be super educated. You don't have to have walked with Jesus for a long time. But if Jesus Christ is your consuming passion, if you really wake up and say, this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. If you really realize that your life here is just a mist or a vapor and it's gone. Even if you live to be 135, it's over in a heartbeat in light of eternity.
And you wake up every day knowing Christ saved me and I belong to him and my life is for him and he's central to all I'm thinking about and doing in my life. Everything around you will begin to change. Everything around you begin to change. And let me tell you why this is important. Because for many of us, here's what we think.
We think the gospel is just for non believers. It's not. Romans 1:16 says, For I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who what believes. It's for believers. For the Jew first and then the Greek.
It's for the gospel's for believers. We have this false idea in church of let's tell the lost about the gospel. Let's tell the lost about Jesus dying for them and rising. And I would say this, yes, let's tell everybody. Let's tell the world that Jesus died and rose for them.
No problem. But once you accept Christ, it doesn't mean, well, I already did that. That was like 101. Now I'm going to get into big Christianity stuff and really learn how to live my life. Jesus Christ is still central to everything we talk about within Christendom.
The cross and the resurrection is central to it all. You can't talk about singleness, marriage, money, serving anything at all without the gospel being central to everything in your marriage. Well, we're saved. She's saved. I'm saved.
How come it is that two saved people don't have a blessed marriage? Because they're not living out the gospel. You can't live out the gospel and not be blessed. And I just want to say this because I said it first. Service.
I'll say it again. I'm not against marital counseling. If marital counseling is somebody that's opening their Bible and exhorting you to live godly, there's a time and a place for that. But if you're just spending 200 plus dollars an hour to have somebody ask you about your feelings and what's wrong, you are just wasting your money. You're wasting it.
Every marriage has communication problems. You know why? Because men and women are different. Every marriage has communication problems. Every marriage has a difference of how you see money problems.
Every marriage has every kind of problem. But, but, but listen, listen. Your marriage isn't being blessed, but you're both Christians. It can be blessed like really, really fast. Because here's what we do.
When Kim and I counsel and you're coming in and you know, well, she, she, she, she, she, blah, blah, blah. Well, he, he, he, he, he, blah, blah, blah. Here's what we say. Shush. Nobody cares.
Husband, love your wife like Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. What did he do? Well, he loved this church that hated him, that spoke bad about him, that rejected him, that physically hurt him, that verbally abused him and eventually put him to death. And he loved her. So do that for your wife.
And the worse she gets, the more opportunity you're going to have to be like Jesus and then wife, submit to your husband as unto Christ in everything. So unless he asks you to break a law, do everything he says as you would for Jesus. Now you both do that because you'll have great opportunity to do. You can't do that apart from being filled from the Spirit. But if you live that kind of gospel boldness in your marriage, God will put his favor and blessing on your marriage quickly.
Marriages that have been jacked up for decades, God can heal in weeks if you'll just do what God wants you to do. That's why the gospel's so central. Because if we don't know who Jesus is or what he's Done, then how do I live out the instructions that he wants? Or singles like, how do I live that out? Because Jesus demonstrated how to live out a relationship as a single, filled with the spirit, to the glory of the Father and bless him.
I mean, that's why the gospel has to be central. That's why the gospel has to be central in the church. Lord, have mercy on churches that don't preach the good news of Jesus. Lord, have mercy. Like, why else would you gather.
What else are you talking about? Like, every religion in the world has a way that you do this and do that and do this and do that, and then God will hopefully do this and do that. That's religion. That's damnable. Everybody that believes that goes to hell.
Here's the gospel. You can't do anything good. You're not good. You'll never be good. You're not getting better.
You're dead. But Christ died for you in your place and rose. And he offers you his very life. So if you give him all your sin, he'll give you all his grace and forgiveness so that his life can be lived through you. And it's not your own doing.
It's God's work in you. And if you want it, you can have it. That's the gospel, right? And so when Paul was coming, he was saying, that's what I'm preaching. I'm preaching Jesus.
You can accept him or reject him, but we're not gonna. Shut up. And even if the opposition gets hard, and even if the culture says we're gonna cancel you, and even if they say we're not gonna listen, you just keep preaching it. If they drive you out of town, then you go to another town and preach it there. That's what all the apostles did.
That's what any faithful church has done. That's what faithful marriages look like. Why? Because God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and love and self discipline. And that's why we're called to join in the sufferings of Christ as we engage with gospel boldness.
Yes, our city needs the gospel. Our city will always need the gospel until Jesus gets here. This city needs Jesus. It's dying. And here's the.
Here's the deal. If you understand the eternal realities of heaven and hell, you will live differently. And I don't just mean understand them. I mean own it. Like, if I knew for fact that this building was going to be bombed in 30 seconds and all of us inside were going to be blown up and I didn't share it because I didn't want to offend you.
And I know you're comfortable. It's a little bit rainy outside, and I don't want. You have to, you know, I don't want to. I would be. I don't even know what the word is.
I believe eternal realities of heaven and hell. And I believe when you die, you go to heaven or hell and there is no chasm and you can't cross over. And once you're in one place or the other, there's no going back. And then a majority of the world's population is on their way to hell. And the reason I know that's because Jesus said that.
And the other reason I know that is the only way to experience life with God is to repent of your sin and believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, which majority of people don't believe and even people in churches don't believe. And if that doesn't pain you, when you're looking eyeball to eyeball with the majority of people that you're gonna spend time with and the majority of your family members that you know, and you're like, well, you know, I would share, but it's gonna mess up our, you know, NCAA afternoon this afternoon. Shame on us. Shame on us. We should be so gripped by the gospel of Jesus Christ that we can't help but share the good news and leave the outcome in the Lord's hands.
Amen. Amen. And if we want to be a church or a family or a community that has the blessing of God, we have to engage with gospel boldness. Second thing we need to do is this. We need to exhort with unwavering conviction.
We need to exhort with unwavering conviction. These first two points are about the proclamation of the gospel. The next two points are about how we make disciples. But notice what he says. He says, for our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit.
His exhortation, when he's earnestly requesting or pleading or appealing to his people, he's telling them, I'm begging you, I'm persuading you with this gospel, but what does it not come with? He says it doesn't come with error or impurity or by way of deceit. He says this. I'm just going to tell you what the Bible tells you. I'm going to tell you what Christ shared with me personally.
And I'm asking you to respond. Respond to that. I'm not Trying to trick you. I'm not trying to make it sound all good. I'm just going to give you all of the undiluted truth and I'm going to share it with great conviction.
Because this gospel I'm sharing with you saved my life from hell. And this gospel I'm sharing with you is empowered by the Holy Spirit and has given me incredible hope. Because one day I know I'll be presented faultless before my Father in heaven. And you get to decide whatever you want to decide, and you get to do whatever you want to do with it. But one day you will stand before Jesus Christ to give an answer and account for your life.
And either you will tell him I repented and I believed in your shed blood on Calvary for all my sins, and you'll hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant, present you faultless before his Father and welcome you in, or you'll hear these awful words depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you. And then you'll be cast into hell, awaiting the lake of fire. That's fact. Here's what Paul says. I didn't hold back.
I didn't shriek back. I wasn't afraid to tell you the whole truth. I wasn't using cunning or trickery or persuasive speech to get you to believe something kinda in and then explain the rest of it later. I had unwavering conviction. It had no error, no impurity, no deceit.
And notice what else he goes on to say. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. Maybe one of the best verses for preachers in the entire New Testament. Notice what he says. We've been approved by God.
Well, what does that mean? It means you're approved by God if you've trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. I want to tell you something. You're approved by God. All people are created in the image of God, so all people have value.
We've talked about that from this pulpit. But when you repent of your sins and trust Christ, you become a child of God. You become a son of the King, you become a daughter of the King. That's who you are. And this is really important because early on in my Christian walk with Jesus, when I was trying to read my Bible and trying to pray and trying to do good, I was trying to do those things so that God would approve me, so that I knew I was getting better than when I wasn't saved and it wasn't working.
But once God got ahold of my heart and my identity, and I recognize that through the cross, by simply trusting in Jesus, that God the Father looked down on me and said, you're already approved. You're completely approved because you've trusted in my Son and His blood has cleansed you from all your sin, past, present and future. You're already approved. I love you no matter what. And there's nothing you can do to make me love you anymore.
There's nothing you can do to make me love you any less. And then everything changed. Because then it was no longer me trying to do good so that God would approve me. I was already approved. And so I wanted to please the one that had already approved me and everything changed.
And notice what he says as believers in Christ, if you've trusted in the shed blood of Christ, you're already approved Christian. Listen to me. There's too many Christians like, I hope when I get to heaven, God doesn't show that sin. I hope when I get to heaven, I'm not embarrassed. You will not be embarrassed as a Christian in heaven.
All your sin was paid for at the cross. You're approved. And what else were you? You were approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel. So why did God approve you?
Because when God approves you and you truly love Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you're his witness. You're his ambassador. You're on a mission to go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel and share it. That is your co mission with Christ. That's what you're called to do.
If you say, well, I don't want that. Like, all I want to do is just get saved to go to heaven. I don't want anything to do with Jesus. I don't want Jesus living my life, then you're not saved. Salvation is God saving you.
And you become a new identity. And now you're living for him and you want that and you want to grow in that. So now you were dead in your trespasses and sins, and now you're in the kingdom of God's Beloved Son. You formerly had no purpose in his agenda. Now you have purpose.
And you're his witness and ambassador to go out and share the Gospel everywhere you go. Why? Because you're approved and now you're entrusted. And God says, I'm testing, I'm using you and you're the one who's worthy to go out and share the gospel. Well, wait, I thought it was Just my pastor's job to do that.
I thought that was just for priests and stuff. No, no, it's y'all, it's us, it's the church. If we've been approved by God, we've been approved by God to be his witnesses and ambassadors. And there's no higher calling on this side of heaven than being an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't care what your title is and I don't care how much money you make, it's secondary or tertiary to be called an ambassador of Christ.
Amen. And when God saved you, he approved you and he entrusted you to go share the good news of Jesus, to tell other people about the hope that you have in Him. And so we speak. Listen, the reason you were approved and entrusted is so you'd speak. Everybody speaks about whatever is the most important thing to them.
Everybody speaks about their convictions. I mean, in the last couple weeks people have been speaking to me about the NCAA tournament and their convictions and most of them have been wrong, but they speak about them. Some people speak about politics, some people speak about school, some people speak about discipline, some people speak about freedom. Whatever is most central in your heart, you're going to speak about. You can't keep it down.
It's like a blown up beach ball trying to go under the ocean. Whatever your conviction is, it's going to come up. And here's what he saying. Because we've been approved by God and entrusted with the gospel. So we speak.
We have to talk about the gospel. If you're truly saved, you couldn't go through a long period of time and not tell somebody about Jesus. Unless you don't understand what Jesus has done. Like if you really understand, like you were dead. Like it wasn't like you were kind of dead.
It wasn't like you were kind of a bad person. It wasn't like you were religious. And then you know, it wasn't like it's you're dead, you were dead and you were on your way to hell and Jesus Christ resurrected your life. You're a co heir with him. He's gonna present you faultless before the Father.
He's put you on a mission on the earth. He's empowered you with His Holy Spirit to live with Him. He wants to put his fingerprints and blessing on your life. If you can't tell somebody about that, that's not happening to you. Like if that's happening, you can't keep it silent.
You can try, but you can't. And Paul says we've been approved and entrusted with the gospel. So we speak. And notice how we speak not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. That's the unwavering conviction.
We're not speaking for men. I'm not speaking so that people like me. I'm not speaking so that hopefully everybody will think I'm a nice person. I'm speaking because God is watching, he says. Nor did we seek, he says, for we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed.
God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others. Even though as apostles of Christ, we might have asserted our authority. He said we had every right as apostles of Christ sent by God speaking on his behalf, to tell you, hey, we need your help with all this stuff. But we didn't do that.
And here's what we didn't come with. Notice these three things. We didn't come with flattering speech, pretext for greed or glory from men. Think about this flattering speech, deceptive, manipulative, influence for personal gain. He goes, we didn't come that way.
We didn't come to deceive you. We weren't coming to build our ministry. We weren't coming for you to look at us. That's not why we came. We didn't come to persuade you or manipulate you, or to bait and switch you, or to say, hey, Jesus is really good, but we gave you everything.
We didn't flatter anything. Now listen, I love you and you're gonna hear more about that in this message. Cause I do. This is kind of hard and sometimes it encourages me. I'm human, right?
So I like affirmation like anybody else likes affirmation. But sometimes affirmation to me is when somebody says, I would never go to that church. That place makes me feel bad. I'm not making you feel bad. You're hard hearted towards the gospel.
That's why you feel bad. Cause the same thing you feel bad about there's other people sitting in this room saying, praise God, glory to God, that somebody's finally preaching it. Amen. So he didn't come with flattering speech or pretext for greed. That's hidden motives for personal gain.
Like, hey, if I give you the gospel and if I've kind of saved your life, then you kind of owe me, you know, and I need to get paid and I'm doing it for none of that. He said, God is witness. Why is that so important? Because Paul understood, like any faithful preacher understands, that you're your Audience is God, he's the one that's watching. And that's why teachers are judged more harshly.
Because teachers put bits into horses mouth. And if a teacher's kind of winding you in a certain way, it better be the way God wants you to go. That's why I pray all the time, Lord, help me be faithful with the word. And I've told you many times, if there's somewhere in the Bible, I'm not being faithful. Trust the Bible, not me.
I'm not an authority. The Bible's the authority. Amen. But he's like, God is the witness. I mean, there are things that go off in my heart when I hear people in a pulpit preach things that are anesthetical to everything that the Bible teaches.
Where I want to cry out, lord, have mercy. Because that person is taking God's position and telling a group of people, don't listen to God, listen to me. Lord have mercy. Lord have. That's why so many churches in our culture do not have the hand and blessing of God, because they don't even live it from the pulpit.
They're not even speaking what God speaks. Amen. He's like, I didn't come with flattering speech, pretext for greed. God is my witness. Nor did I come for glory for men.
I'm not craving recognition. I'm not preaching to be liked. I'm not serving in the church so I'll be noticed. I'm just doing what I'm called to do. I was dead.
Jesus made me alive and I'll give my life for him. That's all he was saying. And this is what we need more of in the church and we need more of in our homes and we need more of in our communities are people that are centered on the gospel with unwavering conviction. I mean, we live in a culture that's woke. I didn't even know what woke meant like four years ago.
I'm like, what's woke? People are asking, are you woke? I'm like, I don't even know what it means. What's woke? Right.
Wokeness is ridiculous. Woke is a joke.
It is.
If you're woke, there's two things that you crave, tolerance and affirmation. Woke people crave tolerance and affirmation. They're drunk on the world and they call it love. Wokeness is however I feel and whatever I wanna feel. I need you to tolerate me.
And not only tolerate me, I need you to affirm me. Cause if you don't, you're unloving. And you're mean friends, that's garbage. It's absolute trash. It just is.
Rather, instead of craving tolerance and affirmation, and by the way, they say they're tolerant and affirming except for any biblical values, and then they're intolerant and they don't affirm any of them. Here's what we should be doing. We should be championing truth and repentance, being filled with the Holy Spirit, because that is what's called worship, right? If you were born a man, you're a man. If you're born a woman, you're a woman.
I mean, I don't need to tell you that. I mean, everybody knows this. But if you're like, that is so mean that you would say that. No, that's so godly that I'd say that. Because I love you enough to tell you the dang truth.
Amen. I love you enough to tell you that marriage is between a man and a woman till death do you part. I love you enough to tell you if you're single, to be celibate. I love you enough to say that if God's given you resources tied to your church, I love you enough to tell you the truth, even if you don't like the truth, still truth. And I love you enough and care for you enough and I care for your soul enough that I'm willing to tell you the truth that even if you hate me, one day you're gonna know I was telling you the truth and I was doing everything I could to persuade you to turn your life over to Jesus Christ.
Amen. And that's where we need to be as a culture. Not all of you are called to be preachers. It doesn't matter. But all of you are called to be ambassadors and witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ everywhere you go.
And to exhort with unwavering conviction. I mean, here, the apostle's heart. It's not just in Thessalonica, when he wrote the letter to the church churches in Galatia, he said this. After he preached the truth, he said this to them. But even if we.
This is Galatians 1:8. But even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we. Let me start again. But even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. In other words, we gave you the truth.
Even if you say, well, my angel told me, who cares? It's he's wrong. The word of God is true. Your feelings don't matter. Truth matters.
As we have said before. So I will say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed. That's anathema. That's may he go to hell. For now I am.
For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ. He's saying, if I were still trying to please men, I would not be doing what I'm doing. If I were trying to please men, I would not be the pastor at Brave Church.
I would not preach the sermons that I preach at Brave Church. And as a matter of fact, even when I before I came here and I was an evangelist, I still preached the word. I still did what God was calling me to do. But as an evangelist, when you're only centering on the cross for salvation, you usually have about 20 to 40 messages that you kind of package. And you know when to pause and how to get people to laugh and what stories to tell and all that.
But when you come and pastor a church, you can't tell the same story every week. And you can't stay in the same text every week. And by pastoring the church and preaching through multiple books of the Bible, verse by verse, line by line, precept upon precept, I find myself teaching things on a weekend sometimes that I would say, I would never choose this text. I don't want to teach this right. And yet I do.
And every time I do, God's faithful in growing me and growing our congregation. Because isn't it true we all want to hear the fullness of the counsel of God and not just a part of it? Amen. So this is what he's talking about. And this is the proclamation part.
This is the declaration part of the gospel. The gospel is not the gospel until you speak it. Well, those know by the living my life, no, there's a lot of people that are around you that see you live your life while they're still going to hell. And if you don't open your mouth and tell them, they're never going to know. How are they going to hear unless somebody speaks the gospel's to be spoken.
You have to tell people, introverts listen to me. Well, I'm kind of an introvert. Then talk to one person.
Introverts have a depth that we extroverts do not have. So talk to them about the depth of Christ and what he's done, and the heights and the depths and the widths and the breadths of the love of Christ in your life. Tell somebody they need to hear it from you. Amen. Friends, this is what it's all about.
When it comes to demonstrating the Gospel, we have to engage with gospel boldness. We have to exhort with unwavering conviction. And then he begins to get into, how then do we come alongside those who have and who have come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior? And he says this. Encourage with sacrificial love.
Encourage with sacrificial love. Notice what he says in verse seven. But we prove to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having so fond an affection for you. We were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives because you had become very dear to us.
What's he saying? Paul's proclamation is bold. It's unwavering, it's unflinching. He's not going to water down truth. But when it comes to loving people, he's going to have a tenderness and a gentleness and a humility to walk alongside anybody that's trusted Christ.
And it's an incredible combination. When you're with somebody that's not going to waver on any part of the truth. But you know, when you spend time with them and you think they're going to judge you and they're not judging you, they're like, man, I want to help you grow. I want to see you take the next step. I want to see you become all this.
This is what Paul was saying. He uses the analogy as the tenderness of a mother nursing her baby. I mean, you can picture that tenderness, right? Just holding that little child. I mean, just after service down here, Kim and I were praying over twins that are each about five pounds.
His mom was holding one, dad was holding the other. There's right there, just looking. And they didn't have their eyes open. Just totally such a peaceful, tender care from mom and dad holding that child. That's what Paul was saying we need to do with disciples of Christ.
Because oftentimes what we tend to do is we take the proclamation part and then we translate that into the discipleship part. And it doesn't work. Because the way that it works is, yeah, the truth never changes. Don't waver on the truth. Don't tell people it's okay.
But come alongside of them and say, I get it. Cause I Get it? Cause I've been walking with Christ for over 35 years. And there's still times in my life where I think I'm gonna do right and I do wrong. And I'm wondering after 35 years, how's that possible?
How's it possible for me to know this is exactly what I should do? I prayed about exactly what I should do. I'm gonna do this. Cause this is what God wants. And I do just the opposite 35 years into my walk.
How? Well, it doesn't help me if somebody's shaming me because of it. It helps me when somebody says, hey, you're right. That was wrong. They speak the truth, but there's a tenderness about them that says, but I'm going to come alongside of you and I'm going to pray for you, and I'm going to help you grow.
I still need that. Everybody still needs that. So truth is important. Yes. We don't want to waver on the truth.
And it's unloving to not be truthful. But it's also just as important to be gentle and tender with the people in our care, to be gentle and tender with our spouses and our kids. To be gentle and tender with those in our neighborhood, not wavering on truth, but having a heart. Because why? Because God loves them and God created them, and God's got purpose for them.
And so that's the picture he's giving us. He's. He's giving us this picture of sacrificial love, Genuine, genuine, tender love for the saints by sharing your very lives. Notice what he says. He said, you know, we had so fond of an affection for you that we did not only impart to you the gospel of God, but also our own lives.
Because you've become very dear to us. You get all of me. I'm not just speaking to you. You get my life. You get my heart.
We get to hang out together. You get to see how I live. You get to see my shortcomings. You get to see what I do. You get to see how much I love Christ.
So you see, see in bodily form what it looks like to see a man, or in your case, perhaps a woman that lives to the fullness of who God wants him to be. If you're new in the faith, I would strongly encourage you get around some people that seemingly are further along than you because you'll. Because Christianity sometimes is more caught than it is taught. If you're new in your marriage, I strongly encourage you get somebody that's been Married for a couple decades, and you look at them, and they're still in love with each other, and they're still joyous about their marriage. Get with them.
Like, what do y'all do? We do that all the time. Kim and I have done that from the time we got married. Hey, tell us what y'all do. How do y'all set a budget?
How do you guys get date nights? What. What does it look like in your life when you fight? How do you fight clean? Like, tell us about some of your biggest.
That was so important to us, still is important to us. Hey, how do you read the Bible? I'm brand new to this thing. I don't know what a Philippian or Corinthian is. What is it?
Get around somebody that can tell you and kind of coach you through it and talk. It's okay, right? And so that's what he's saying. Be tender with people. Come alongside people.
Encourage them. Be humble with them. Invite them in. Share your very lives with them. Some of the best discipleship opportunities we've ever had have been sitting around the dinner table with other people that are further along in the faith, just asking questions, having meals together.
What do you do? How do you do that? How do you discipline your kids? What's worked? What hasn't worked?
How come we've learned so much just from doing that outside of God's word? From people that have had an experience with the living Christ, that love God, that have lived longer with him, that are able to speak wisdom into our lives. It's important. Amen. And that's what you want faithful shepherds to be, right?
I mean, you want faithful shepherds in the church to be able to proclaim the word, faithful shepherds in the church to drive out wolves, but also to hold sheep close and love them. So the people that come say, no, I know I'm loved here. Even though truth is spoken and sometimes it doesn't feel good, but I know that I'm loved. And I know that it's being shared with me because I'm cared about. Paul said to the Corinthians in Second Corinthians 12:15, I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls.
Like, what was he saying? He was saying, the soul of a human being is the most important entity that's taking place on planet Earth. And where that soul is and how it is with their soul is so important that Paul was willing to spend his life for this. And he was saying, gospel ministry is more than words. It's about giving our lives away for other people.
Right? I mean, as a family, you know this. I mean, marriage is more than words. It's about giving your life away for another. You know that?
Family is more than words. It's about giving your life away. Giving your life away for others. Right? Church is more than words.
It's about giving your life away for others. And what we see in the apostle and many of his companions is that they tirelessly worked and did this. And here's why. Because their model was Jesus Christ, and that's exactly what he did. Jesus said in John 15:13, Greater love has no one than this, that a man will lay down his life for his friends.
So what extent did Jesus go through to show us not only truth, but sacrificial love? He went all the way to the cross. He didn't pass go. He didn't wait. Father, if there's any other way.
No, no other way. I'm going. I'm going to set my face towards that cross and I'm going to endure it with bravery. I'm going to do it just in obedience, just the way you want me to, dad. So if our Lord and Savior, the one that we say our whole life is centered around, gave up his very life for a group of people that were rude and insensitive and hateful and hurtful to him, then what's our motto?
To do the same for others. Yeah, but they're mean to me. Love them even more. Love your enemies. And what?
Pray for those who persecute you. Don't change the truth. You don't have to water it down. I have friends that believe things very, very differently than me in a lot of arenas. And I know that they're wrong, you know, but it doesn't affect our friendship.
I'm not going to waver on what I believe. You don't have to waver on what you believe. I'm just going to live who I am. I'm comfortable in my own skin. Right?
And that's what God wants us to be. He wants us to be so comfortable living a life with Christ that no matter where we are, we can live that out regardless of the outcome, regardless of the consequence. We're going to live for him. And we're going to genuinely love the people that are around us so that they know from us that they're not going to hate us because of our hatred. They may hate us because of our love, but we're going to love them unconditionally.
Amen. And that's how we encourage with sacrificial love. And then the final one he gives us is this. We exemplify with compelling holiness. We exemplify with compelling holiness.
We walk out the Gospel with holiness. Notice what he says in verse nine. For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaim the Gospel of God. What was Paul saying? Yeah, we didn't come with a pretense for greed.
As a matter of fact, we worked the whole time we were there. So you didn't have to give us anything. I mean, any of the food you gave us, the bread you gave us, we worked for that bread. We wanted to let you know that we're going to earn what we came to do because we don't want to have anything go onto our account other than the gospel that we're giving to you freely. He says you are witnesses and so is God.
How devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behave towards believers. You know what that means? That means they were living out their devout faith. They were walking in righteousness. They were walking blamelessly.
Paul was a sinner, just like you and me. So he didn't do it perfectly. He was doing it increasingly. But here's what he was saying. We like to say, do as I say, not as I do.
Paul was saying, watch what I do and do what I do, and you'll be fine. Jesus said, follow me. I'll make you fishers of men. Paul said, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. So here's what he was saying.
Hey, church, listen. You should be able to tell people, hey, you want to know how to have a good marriage? Watch what I do. You want to know how to live as a single, faithfully? Watch what I do.
You want to know how to handle your money, right? Watch what I do. You want to know how to be a good neighbor? Watch what I do. You want to know how to handle church situations?
Watch what I do. You want to know how to honor God as a man? Watch what I do. Or daughters. You want to watch what I do as a woman?
Honor. Watch what I do. You'll honor God as a woman, whatever it is. And for many of us, like, well, no, no, don't look at me. I mean, my life's not put together.
Yeah, no, I want to look at you and I want to see you and I want your life to be a fishbowl so I can see what it looks like for you to live with Christ and Oh, by the way. By the way, if you want to grow, live like that. Because most of us hide and compartmentalize our Christianity. And then we wonder, well, I. I'm not really one of those devout Christians.
You make your life a fishbowl and let everybody see it, and people speak into it. All of a sudden, you're going to have to change and grow to become what God wants you to be. So in front of your kids, let them see your Christianity. In front of your spouse, let them see your Christianity. In front of your neighbors, let them see your Christianity.
In front of your people at the workplace, let them see your Christianity. You speak about it and live it so that they see a genuine article of somebody that genuinely loves God. Not a perfect article, but a genuine article that serves a perfect one. Amen. And that's what we're seeing here.
It's growing in holiness. It's growing in holiness. Notice what he goes on to say in verse 11. Just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each of you as a father would his own children. Now he's using the example of a tender mother.
Now he's talking about a father. And how does a father exhort his children? Well, I'll tell you what a good father does. A good father wants his children to go beyond where he's at. A good father wants the best for his kids.
A good father wants them to be the fullness of everything God created them to be. A good father is not going to tolerate mediocrity when they know they can be better. That's what a good father does. He's giving direction. He's giving discipline.
He's moving. Paul said, that's what we did, too. We were tender with you, but we were helping you grow in the way that God wanted you to grow and become what God wanted you to become. And then he closes by saying this so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. I mean, think about this.
I'm very proud to be an American citizen. I am. I love our nation. I love our country. But I'm way more grateful that I'm a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
Way more. It's an honor to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
And here's what he's saying. He said, walk in a manner worthy of that gospel. If you're going to talk about the Jesus that you say is so good, then walk in a manner that pleases him. Now, here's the deal. You can't ever do it perfectly on this side.
You never will be able to do it. But here's the thing. You can do it increasingly, you can do it in such a way that when people see your life, they can say, I can tell that that person there, that woman, that man, that boy, that girl, they're walking in a way that there's something different about them. There's. There's something different about the way in which they're living there.
They're taking their cues from somewhere else. That's. That's the gospel of God. And the beauty of it is this. You shouldn't feel this burden that says, oh, my goodness, I'm listening to this message today.
I'm like, way over here, I'll never get there. There is no there. Jesus takes you all the way there. Don't worry about that. But you can start today right where you're at because of the cross of Jesus Christ and be completely forgiven for everything.
See, the beauty of the gospel is not hearing a message like this and say, oh, shucks, I messed up. I've wasted three decades and now. Now I'm in my 80s and now I can't do any. No, no. The beauty of the gospel is if you're hearing the truth of God today, you can repent and be washed afresh, and you can start right now and have the fullness of God in your life to take your very next step, and God will meet you right where you're at.
That's the beauty of the cross. That's why the gospel's so central. This is not a message of let's try harder. It's not the message. See, church, this is the moment to ask, are we the kind of ministry that God can bless as a church?
Are you the kind of ministry that God can bless in your marriage? Are you the kind of ministry that God can bless in school? Are you kind of ministry that God can bless in the workplace? Because I gotta be clear, it's not from trying harder. It comes from surrender.
All this comes from surrender. I can't do it, Jesus. I read what you want me to be, and I know in my ability, I don't have the ability to do that. But I also read that if I surrender to you, you'll fill me with your spirit and you'll do it. So I'm surrendering today.
Today's the day. Because I want to be a ministry and a people in a church that God can breathe on and do amazing things through. I think we are I think we're all growing in that. I think God wants to do the same things. Right?
I mean, we read about the Book of Acts and people say stuff like, well, wouldn't it be cool if we could live like in the first century? I'm glad I don't live in the first century. Personally. I like the century God gave me. I like the generation God's given to us.
But can we see some of the same things? Absolutely. Can you see some of the same things in your life? Absolutely. You don't need to wait around for anybody else.
And here's the beauty of this message. The beauty of this message is not about you getting right with God. It's about you repenting and letting God take over your life. Amen. It's about you saying, I want that in my life.
I want the fullness of God. I want the blessing of God. And when you live central with God and you engage in gospel boldness and you're unwavering in the truth and you're sacrificial in your love, and you walk in with him saying, jesus, whatever you want, that's what I want. I want to do it your way. God will put his fingerprints on your life in a way way that will blow you away.
And guess who he wants to do that with? Every single one of you. For some, it means today, stop playing religious games. Some of you think you're a Christian because you're a better person now than when you first started coming to brave. And that doesn't make you a Christian.
That just means you're working harder. Christian is one who has surrendered his or her life to the Lord Jesus Christ, who has been approved by God through the cross of Christ and is now entrusted with the gospel to go share it. And if you want that, you can have it. God loves you so much. He sent Jesus so you'd never have to experience his wrath.
All you could experience was his forgiveness, his grace, his mercy, his love, his joy, his peace, his hope. And I want you to have that hope. So today as we close in prayer, I'm going to invite you to stand. We're going to entrust our time to the Lord and ask him to move in and through us and do a work in us as a church so he could put his hands on our church, that we would be a blessing to the nations. Father in heaven, we come before you and we thank you for your word today.
Lord, you've entrusted us with gospel boldness. You've entrusted us with unflinching loyalty to your word. Lord, can we be the kind of people that will stand on the truth no matter what, yet at the same time, Lord, be the kind of people that are gracious and merciful and tender and gentle to help every single saint take their next step step of faith? Lord, we just pray you'd have your way with us, that you glorify yourself in and through us. If you're here today and you never trusted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, here's how you can pray.
Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, but I believe you died for my sins and rose from the grave. Lord, come into my life right now. I commit my life to you. I give you all my sin. Give me all your life.
Give me all your forgiveness. Give me all your joy. Flood me affliction with the person of Jesus. And Lord, for those of us who know you, Lord, help us just today to be reminded of the fact that we're cleansed from our sin. That you're the same God yesterday, today and forever.
You still do all the same things. Help us walk right now in the fullness of all that you have for us. We give you glory, honor and praise in Jesus name. Amen and Amen. Can we give God praise for his word among us?