An Introduction

Would you all stand? I want to welcome you here to the Calvary Chapel this morning.

Would you join me in prayer? Father, we want to thank you for this opportunity to gather as believers. And if there have been any among us that you're visiting this morning, we want to welcome you and let you know that Jesus loves you. Would you bless our time now as we sing as unto you and study your word, Lord? Be glorified. I'll say that again. Be glorified.

We ask for your encouragement today, Lord, that you would move in our hearts, Lord. May we just let go and worship, Lord, as we live our lives for you, that we would be salt and light, Lord, that we would reflect you and that salt that we would be that would have that little sting, but yet that zest, that seasoning that would cause people to say, Wow, I see that you're living. You're living a life in a peaceful way that this world doesn't seem to live. And it's because of you, Jesus, and we thank you.

This opportunity to worship in song will never leave us. I remember times in a crowd where I felt alone, but I didn't know you, Lord. I just felt so alone. But you're so good to us, Lord. You're always there for us. You're worthy of our praise. In our hearts, we just praise you right now. Hallelujah, Lord. You are so good.

If you're hurting and broken within, come to Jesus. Call on Jesus.

If you're feeling very worshipful, it's because of Jesus. We can worship him no matter how we feel. There's times we don't feel grace. But by faith, we say, Lord, you're worthy of our praise. You created us. Glory to God, huh? Amen. Yeah, God is good. All the time. All the time, God is good. Father, we just thank you for this opportunity. We've had to worship in song now.

And now, as we get into your word, would you anoint Pastor Ryan with the power of your Holy Spirit? And fill us all afresh, too, Lord, with your Holy Spirit. That you would anoint him to bring forth your word with power. That it would speak to our hearts. That we'd be open to what you want to teach us and then be willing to live it out by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We thank you in Jesus' name. Let's have some prayer. We're going to be doing more of that, too. But let's fellowship.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm really glad that you've joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of. Over on the left-hand side are the things going on throughout the week. Please take note of those. In the middle section, fellows, we have a men's breakfast coming up next Saturday morning at 8 o'clock. Down at the other end of the hallway. So come join us for that.

And then we have an event that's coming up this coming Sunday, the 22nd. And the heart behind it. Is that, you know, at the end of July, we lost another young person in Arc City to suicide. And after that, some of us got together and we said, man, we've got to do something. With what the Lord's doing kind of throughout the country and in different places, we want to see something like that take place here where we can start to change the hearts of kids.

Where we can start to turn the tide. And a lot of that took place over at the old, what used to be a bridge over on Chestnut. Well, look. Logistically, we couldn't do anything there because it just couldn't take place. The closest we could get to there is the parking lot of the swimming pool here in town. And so we're going to put on an event there. It's called Made for More, A Night of Hope.

And it's next Sunday evening from 630 to 730. It's going to be the worship team that does the worship events at like Venue 208 and Oasis up in Winfield. It's made up of some different worship leaders from throughout the community as well as some kids from the worship team. At Southwestern College. And James and I are going to give a little message. It's going to be some worship.

And our hope is, and Hogs Dogs is going to be there serving hot dogs. And our hope is just to get as many people there as we can, but especially young people. Because we want to declare to this generation that there truly is a hope. That they don't have to keep going down this road any longer. And so that's next Sunday. You're not supposed to cry in the announcements.

So that's next Sunday. So please. Please bring a friend. Bring a chair. Let's fill up that place. Let's have to block off the street because we can't even get everybody in there. But that's my hope. That's the desire. So take note of that, please. And be praying about it between now and then. Because nothing good will happen if we don't pray about it and see God at work in all of it.

So then the other thing that's coming up is we have a potluck coming up in two weeks. And so I'm going to have Joe come up and share just a little bit about that. Our sound man is doing double duty because he's by his onesies. He's back there today.

Good morning. So we noticed that almost every single Sunday, Ryan's up here saying, hey, look in the bulletin. Look at all these things that are going on throughout the week. Please try and, you know, get connected in the body in some way. But we realize that that can be a little bit intimidating to showing up to a study and not knowing who's going to be there.

Maybe you don't know the leader very well. Same thing for a home fellowship. It can just be intimidating when you don't really know. What you're what you're getting into. So what we're going to do is Sunday, the 29th, five o'clock, we're going to do a potluck. And the vision for this is to have each study or group or ministry that's going on throughout the week is going to have a table set up there.

And they will have some representatives from the group just kind of hanging out where you can come, see who the leaders are, see who some of the people are that are attending these different groups and studies. And just kind of hang out. And just kind of hang out. And just kind of hang out. And just kind of hang out. And just kind of hang out. And just kind of hang out.

And just to get the body together to have some time of fellowship and break bread together. There's going to be some yard games and stuff going on for the all ages of entertainment, but especially to keep the little ones occupied. And so if you can, if you are part of a study or leading a study and I have not talked to you yet, please come and find me. Else I will be looking for you because I would really like to make sure that every group and study that's going on.

And where people can get connected in Calvary is represented here. And if you are not a part of a group or a study, please plan on coming, fellowshipping with us, talking with the different groups and leaders and kind of seeing where you might be able to plug in. Thank you. All right. Very good. So that is in two weeks. So take note of that. All right. Those are the things that are going on.

If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we're going to be in Psalm 75. Psalm 75. Looking at the New American Standard for this part. If you don't have a copy of that, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 75, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word.

I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 75. For the choir director, set to Al-Tasheth, a psalm of Asaph, a song. We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks. For your name is near. Men declare your wondrous works. When I select an appointed time, it is I who judge with equity. The earth and all who dwell in it melt.

It is I who have firmly set its pillars. Say law. I said to the boastful, do not boast. And to the wicked, do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high. Do not speak with insolent pride. We're not from the east nor from the west. Nor from the desert comes exaltation. But God is the judge. He puts down one and exalts another. For a cup is in the hand of the Lord, and the wine foams.

It is well mixed, and he pours out of this. Surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs. But as for me, I will declare it forever. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. And all the horns of the wicked he will cut off. But the horns of the righteous? Will be lifted up. And Father, we come to you now. And we do praise you that you are the sovereign God who raises up one and puts down another.

And Lord, as we come into this season of choosing a new leader for our nation, it's good to know that we can rest in the sovereign work of a sovereign God in all these things. And so, Lord, I pray for our nation right now. That we as a nation would turn back to you. That you would begin to do your work in our nation, in our state, and in our community. And Father, we also want to lift up Israel.

And we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And Father, just pray for those that are still in harm's way. And Lord, for those enemies of Israel to be pushed back. Lord, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And now I ask God that you would bless us as we spend time in your word this morning. Draw us near to you and move by the power of your Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Thessalonians 1. 1 Thessalonians 1.

Over the past couple of weeks, we did a short series on the vision and the mission here at Calvary. Now it's time to get back into what we do. And that's going through God's word together. And so we're going to continue on in our journey of the Pauline epistles. And the next one that we come to is the epistle of 1 Thessalonians. And we're not going to cover much in 1 Thessalonians today.

As a matter of fact, we're just going to cover the first verse of 1 Thessalonians today. Because I would like to give us a good introduction to know exactly who these people are and how we can best understand what God wants to speak to us as we know what their context was as Paul presented it to them. Now, when you wrote a letter in Paul's day, there were three things that were always included in the introduction of your letter. There was always included who the writer was, who the recipient was, and some form of greeting.

And so Paul gives us each of those three things in 1 Thessalonians 1. So in 1 Thessalonians 1, it says this, Again, not much to cover today, but we do want to cover those three things. So the first thing that we look at is we look at the writer. There's actually three names that are mentioned in the very beginning of this chapter that I would like to point out to you just a little bit about them so that we have a better understanding of what they mean.

We have an understanding of who these fellows are that are writing this book to the Thessalonians. The first one that's mentioned, of course, is Paul. Now, I won't spend a great deal of time talking about Paul because we've done multiple Pauline epistles, but I do want to give just a little bit of background in case there's someone here who's not been attending for some of the other times we've done these introductions. Paul, of course, had been a member of the Jewish ruling eldership.

He was about as high up in the Jewish religion as you could be. And as far as Judaism goes, he was almost considered to be perfect, but he had one problem. His life was wrapped up in religion, and he did not like Jesus. You see, for the Jewish people, when Jesus came, he fought against their traditions because some of their traditions had gotten outside of the bonds of Scripture, and he fought against their idea of legalism because their view of righteousness came from their works instead of by faith.

And so Jesus presented a much different look than they had seen before. And so for many of the Judaic, leaders at that point in time that weren't a real big fan of Jesus, and Paul was no exception. As a matter of fact, he hated Jesus, and he hated everything to do with the church to the point where he tried to destroy the work of the church. He was actually a persecutor of the church.

But at some point in time, when he was on his way to Damascus to go and arrest more Christians, the Lord Jesus appeared to him. And when the Lord Jesus appeared to him, it broke his heart. And he got in contact. He had a real experience. He had a real experience with the real Jesus. And when he had a real experience with the real Jesus, it completely transformed his life.

And I don't know why I feel like I'm prompted to say this right now. I think that there's people that are probably sitting in here this morning that have had an experience with religion, you've had an experience with church, but you've not had an experience with Jesus. You know maybe some of the right things to say. You know how to find some things in your Bible, but you've never really had an experience with Jesus.

And the Lord Jesus said, I want you to know that what he really wants for your life is for you to have a real experience with him. Because church can't change your life. Jesus can change your life. Church can't make you a better person. Jesus will make you who he wants for you to be. And you need a real experience with the real Jesus. And that's what Paul had.

And when he had that real experience with the real Jesus, he went from someone who was vehemently opposed to the church and persecuted the church, to somebody who became the greatest preacher of the gospel perhaps the world has ever seen. And would go on to write the greater percentage of the New Testament books. All because the gospel got a hold of his life and he had a real experience with the real Jesus. And so the first writer that we see here is Paul.

But with Paul is a couple of other fellas. One known as Silvanus. You know him better as Silas. You see Silvanus was the Roman version of Silas' name. Now Silas is a pretty fascinating character in scripture because Silas, was a part of the church ruling body in Jerusalem. He was a firm believer in Jesus Christ but he was very high up as far as the church was considered in Jerusalem.

As a matter of fact, after Paul's first missionary journey, a lot of Gentiles had come to Christ. And they had to decide, what do we do with all of these new believers? Do we have them be Jewish in their customs? Do we let them just follow Jesus without any of the customs of the Jews? And so they went to the church in Jerusalem and the elders of the church in Jerusalem

to determine what they needed to do. And what they told them was, be sensitive to your Jewish brethren but ultimately follow Jesus with all of your heart. And so Paul was sent back with a letter of instructions back to the church of Antioch to tell them exactly what they were supposed to do with these new Gentile believers. And he was accompanied by one of the leaders of the church whose name was Silas.

You can find that in Acts chapter 15. Well, Silas went back with Paul to deliver the determination of the Christian ruling board at that point in time. And it was at that point in time that Paul said, hey, let's go on another missionary journey. And Silas was the one who went with him. Silas accompanied him on this second missionary journey. But Silas wasn't just a guy that knew some stuff.

He was down for the struggle too because Silas was with Paul and Philippi when Paul and Silas were arrested and then beaten and then put in stocks in the prison there in Philippi. Guy was a solid believer in Jesus. And as a matter of fact, Silas would go on to continue to be one of the pillars of the early church as he would be the one who would carry the letter that Peter would write known as First Peter to the churches at that point in time. And so Silas was a faithful brother in Christ and he was a faithful friend to Paul.

But not only was it Paul, not only was it Silas, but the third name that's mentioned is the name Timothy. And you've heard that name before. And I got to tell you, I really appreciate Timothy in Scripture because if there's any person in Scripture that I find myself relating to the most, it's Timothy. Timothy was a young pastor, which BT dubs, he was 40 when they called him a young pastor.

I appreciate that. Timothy was a young pastor, but he was also someone who dealt with a little bit of anxiety. He was a little bit timid. He was kind of a worrier and had a hard time really taking a stand and sometimes was a little bit insecure in his ministry. And I can appreciate that because I can relate to those kinds of feelings. Well, Timothy joined Paul and Silas

on the second missionary journey at a town called Lystra. Paul referred to Timothy as his son in the faith. So many think that Paul was who actually led Timothy to the Lord, but he also discipled Timothy. But Timothy had two other really big influences in his life as far as faith was concerned. And it's mentioned multiple times in Scripture that the two biggest influences in his life

were two women by the name of Lois and Eunice. They were his mother and his grandmother. And I think it's kind of interesting that one of the greatest influences in the life of one who would go on to become a pillar in the early church and a pastor that Paul would eventually write the books of 1 and 2 Timothy to was greatly influenced by his mother and his grandmother as a young man. They poured Scripture into them.

They poured the truth into him. And I point that out because I know that sitting in this room this morning is a good deal of mothers and grandmothers. And you have kids and you have grandkids. And I want to tell you, it may not feel like it right now, but you have a major influence in their lives. You have a major influence for good in their lives. And you need to keep pouring into them.

You need to keep giving them the truth. You need to keep giving them Scripture even when they don't know what the chapter and the verse is. Keep giving them the truth. Because I'm here to tell you right now, I can tell you from my own personal perspective that that's true. And I can tell you from the things that I've seen that it's true. You have a great influence in the lives of your kids.

Now I know what it's like. I've got a couple of, I've got a teen and a preteen right now. And I know what it's like to feel like you're talking to yourself when you're trying to influence young people. Sometimes you're like, oh my gosh, do they hear anything? Can you hear the words coming out of my mouth? Right? It feels that way sometimes. But I'm here to tell you right now,

they're listening more than you think that they are. I've been so blessed, as a youth pastor, getting older and having former kids come back to me and say, thank you for all of the time that you poured into my life. Because it may not have felt like anything at the moment, but it meant everything to me now. Because there's some kids that I poured into that for a while I was just like, I don't know how this whole thing's gonna go.

I don't know if they're gonna end up having any kind of walk with Jesus or not. And quite frankly, just had to say, Lord, you gotta take care of them now. And so many of those kids have come back to me and said, not only am I walking with Jesus now, I'm walking strong with Jesus now. I'm serving him now. And quite frankly, a good number of men are in this church.

And it does my heart so much good. And it reminds me, it really does matter. They really are listening more than you think that they are. And so moms, grandmas, keep pouring into those kids because you have one of the greatest influences in their lives of anyone around you. And so, Timothy was so influenced by his mother and his grandmother. Again, he would go on to become a pastor.

He would end up becoming a pastor in the church in Ephesus. And according to church tradition, he eventually died a martyr's death while he was pastoring there in the church in Ephesus. And so these three men, faithful men of God, who serve the Lord with all of their hearts, have this amazing influence. And now they're writing to this church in Thessalonica things that they will need to know.

Well, now we come to the recipient. And so, hold your finger here and go over to Acts chapter 17. We're actually going to spend the margin, the greatest portion of our time in Acts chapter 17. Because Acts 17 will give us the story of the founding of the church in Thessalonica. Now again, let's give a little background as to how Paul ended up in Thessalonica.

So again, it's his second missionary journey. He had taken his friend Silas along with him. And Silas and Paul picked up 10,000 sheep. Paul picked up Timothy and Lystra as they're going back to some of the churches where they'd ministered to. And telling them not only the ruling of the Acts 15 council, but also encouraging them in the things of the Lord. And as they're going through,

Paul's great desire is to go to a new area to preach the gospel. An area known as Asia. We know it as Asia Minor. And he really wanted to go into Asia to preach the gospel. But the Holy Spirit kept telling him no. As a matter of fact, two, maybe three different times, he attempted to go into Asia and the Holy Spirit would not let him. It says that the Holy Spirit prevented him

from going there. Now, I've always wondered why would God do that? Why does God do those kinds of things in our lives? Because you know, Paul wanted to do the right thing. And as a matter of fact, on his third missionary journey, he would be able to go to Asia and he would start a little church we know of as Ephesus to which he would write the book of Ephesians to.

And a great work would take place in Asia. But listen, he wanted to do the right thing. It just wasn't the right time. The timing wasn't there yet. And so God was saying, wait, I've got something else that I want for you to do first. And so while they were waiting on the Lord, which is the right thing to do when you don't know the direction to go, was they were waiting on the Lord,

God revealed in a vision to him a man from Macedonia who was saying, come over here and help us. And so Paul took that as direction from the Lord and so they went to Macedonia. Which we know of as Greece. So the first place that they went to was Philippi. Philippi was a place where they showed up and there was no synagogue but there was a group of women down by the river

praying together. And so Paul preached the gospel to them and a lady named Lydia, who was a prominent woman in the town, came to faith and she allowed them to set up shop in her home. And so he started preaching the gospel in Philippi and an amazing revival was taking place. But while this great revival was taking place, there was a young lady who had a spirit of faith and divination.

She was a medium, if you will. And she started following Paul and Silas around declaring, these are the men of God. And kind of just being really obnoxious about it. And so finally Paul got super annoyed and he cast a demon out of her. Now I don't know what that means about obnoxious people, but you draw your own conclusion. But eventually he got a little irritated

and he cast a demon out of her. And it made it to where the people that were making money off of her as a medium couldn't make their money anymore. And it's one thing when you preach the gospel and people get saved. It's a whole other thing when you preach the gospel and it affects the economy, right? And so everybody got real upset with Paul and Silas. And so they take them and they arrest them

and they beat them and they put them in stocks. And while they are there, Paul and Silas, in prison, in stocks, having been beaten with rods, bloodied, beaten, and bruised, they decide in the middle of the night, since they can't sleep, undoubtedly because of the pain, they decided the best thing that they could do is just start their own little worship service. And so they had a worship night right there together. And as they're having this worship night, a great earthquake takes place, and the stocks fall off of them, the prison doors open, and the prison guard thinks, oh no, everyone's gonna leave.

Because he knows his fate won't be good if all of the prisoners escape, he decides it's time for him to take his own life. And Paul looks at him and says, don't do that, we're all still here. The Philippian jailer says, what must I do to be saved? What a beautiful moment in the life of Paul and Silas in spite of the difficulty they were going through. And so they lead the Philippian jailer

and his entire family to the Lord. And the next day, they depart Philippi. And as they leave Philippi, they work their way down to a little city known as Thessalonica. Now Thessalonica was quite the city. It was a capital city of one of the four Roman provinces that they had in Macedonia. And it was a very large city, a very prosperous city. It was actually a city of probably somewhere near 200,000 people.

So a large city for that particular point in time. And it would be that city where Paul would see this church in Thessalonica start. So we start in chapter 17 of Acts, verse 1. And this is what it says. Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul's custom, he went to them.

And for three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. And attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people.

And when they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, These men who have upset the world have come here also. And Jason has welcomed them. And they all, contrary to the decree of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus. And they stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things.

And when they had received a pledge from Jason and others, they released them and immediately sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. Now, as they show up there to Thessalonica, Paul does what he always does. He finds himself a local place to be able to set up shop and preach. So he goes to the synagogue. Remember, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago. The synagogue model was that

a group of Jewish people would gather together. A teacher, either local or itinerant, would stand up in front of everyone. They would read from Scripture and then they would explain it to them. Well, so that's what Paul would do. He would go. And he would, he says, he reasoned with them from the Scriptures. That word reasoned is kind of an interesting word.

It means that he dialogued with them. It means that he spent some time with the people there discussing the things of the Scriptures. But as he discussed the things of the Scriptures, there was one main theme that he covered. The one main theme that he covered was Jesus. He said Jesus came, Jesus was crucified, and Jesus rose again. And this Jesus is the Christ.

We would use the word Messiah. In other words, the chosen one to take away the sins of all of the people. And he continued daily for three Sabbath days to go and preach to these people. Now I find it fascinating that the two things that he preached were first of all from the Scriptures, and second of all always had the theme of Jesus. Because listen, as believers in Jesus Christ,

the theme that we must continually present to people is the theme of Jesus. Because again, church can't save you. Jesus can. You see, Jesus is the one who he had had a real encounter with. Jesus is the one who had transformed his life. And Jesus is the one he wanted to present to everyone that was around him. And so he presented Jesus to them as having died,

and having been resurrected, and having been the one that is the Savior for all of humanity. We're told that Paul did this for three Sabbath days. And there's a little bit of debate as to how long Paul was actually in Thessalonica. Some people say it was only three weeks. Some people say it was longer. I tend to be in the second camp. I think Paul was actually there longer than three weeks

for a couple of reasons. First of all, because it seems as though, based on what we read, he then set up shop in Jason's house, which is why that's where they went to find him when they got so upset. Second being just how much work he did amongst them and how much they tended to know. And then the third being that Philippi was sending him support. And Philippi was a very long ways away,

and it would have taken him a long time for them to get to him with the financial support. So I think he was there a little bit longer. However long he was there, Jesus was the thing that he pointed out to them. And of course there was fruit. It says that there were some converts. There were three groups of converts. Some of them, it says in verse four, were persuaded.

That would be the Jewish people. It says God-fearing Greeks. We would call them Gentiles. They'd be like us. And then some of the prominent women in the community, women who were probably married to many of the leading men in the community. So quite a widespread working of the gospel. So much so that the Jewish leaders became envious or jealous of Paul and his ministry.

That would indicate that there was probably a great deal of people coming to Paul. A great deal of people coming to Jesus through his ministry. And so these Jewish leaders got really upset with Paul. Notice what it says. But the Jews, becoming jealous, verse five, and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar.

And attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the authority, saying, These men who have upset the world have come here also. They couldn't find Paul and Silas. And I always wonder where Paul and Silas were during this whole thing. Somehow God protected them, I feel like.

I feel like maybe God knew they can't take one more beating right now. They still need to heal up. Because just think, when they showed up in Thessalonica, the bruises would have still been on them. The cuts would have still been on their faces, undoubtedly. And so I think God just sovereignly protected them from another beating at this point in time. And so as he did so,

they of course dragged Jason, who is one of the heads of the synagogue, but also the home where they were meeting. They dragged him in. But they bring two charges against them. And I thought these charges were kind of interesting. The first charge, essentially, is that these men who have upset the world, in other words, they have upset the city that we're living in.

Now, if you're reading the Old King James, congratulations. But also, if you're reading the Old King James, it says they have turned the world upside down. And I love that statement. Because, and when you look at the word world, it doesn't mean the local world, it means the world. They had turned the world upside down. And he said, we want to bring these guys into you

because they are turning the world upside down. And can I just say, as a pastor, nothing would do my heart more good than to hear that in our city, the gospel was turning the world upside down. Than to hear that in this area, that the gospel is turning the world upside down. Because that, essentially, is what the gospel is supposed to do. The gospel is supposed to turn the world upside down

because the world has been destroyed through sin, and now the gospel turns it upside down through the message of hope. We have to understand something about this message of hope. And this work of the gospel, and this world turning upside down, is it doesn't just happen immediately. It doesn't happen without prep work. It doesn't happen without groundwork. You know,

the gospel is moving throughout the country right now. I don't know if you guys are noticing this. I don't know if you're paying attention to the things that are only being posted by random people on social media. Most news outlets aren't covering it. Which is fine, because the revival doesn't need to be televised for it to happen. But if you've noticed what's going on,

there's pockets of revival breaking out everywhere. It kind of started at that Asbury school, and now it's taking place all over. And at the beginning of this year, a group of Ohio State football players met on their campus and held a good old-fashioned revival there. And lots and lots of people came forward and got saved. I think almost 60 people got baptized.

And I think way more than that came forward to say that they wanted to receive the Lord. Well, I watched a little clip about this. And one of the guys who helped head this thing up talked about the fact that God gave him this vision a year ago. And when God gave him this vision, it was of his teammates and his friends all coming to know Jesus. And he said, so I started putting all my buddies in a text thread.

And as I put them in this text thread, I started inviting them to church. And all these things, hey, let's go see what God wants to do with all of this. And he goes, it just wasn't happening. Like, no one was responding. No one was coming to church. And I'm going, God, you gave me this vision. I don't understand. And he said, I really felt like the Lord ministered to me.

Not yet. It's not time yet. And so he said, I decided that I was going to start praying. And I got my church praying. And we started praying that God would move in the lives of these people. And he said, this year, it was time. And so we got everybody together. And we decided just to stand up in front of all these people on the stage and start declaring what God had done in all of our lives.

And he said, we had no idea the outpouring that was going to come from it. He said, except that I had a vision. And brothers and sisters, I have a vision. And the vision that I have is of this community getting turned upside down, of this area getting turned upside down, and it's starting to happen in small little pockets. And listen, I started thinking this a long time ago.

But now it's time to really get serious and pray. I want you guys to be on board with the vision. I want you guys to be on board with what's going on here. And the way that you can do that is to get behind this in prayer. Because I'm here to tell you right now, prayer is what lays the groundwork for what's going to take place. If I want next Sunday evening to be successful,

it won't be because I'm a really good speaker, and it won't be because the worship team is really good. It will be because God's people pray. Because God's people caught the vision, and God's people got on board, and they said, you know what, let's make this thing happen. Because we want to see the world turned upside down for the gospel. Or maybe I should say, have the world turned right side up through the gospel.

And that's what they charged these guys with. They have turned the world upside down with their message. And now they're here. What a great thing to say. They've turned the world upside down, and now they want to do it here. But you know, the gospel can't turn the world upside down until it turns you upside down. Because we can pray for revival out there, but it's going to have to start here.

We can pray for revival in the world, but if it doesn't happen in the hearts of everybody sitting in these seats this morning, then the gospel won't really do a work out there. Because revival always starts in the church. Revival always starts with believers having their lives turned upside down by the gospel. And so if your life needs turned upside down by the gospel, then maybe today's the day for that to happen too.

So that we can take that message to the world that's around us. Amen? And so he first of all charges them with turning the world upside down. But then comes the real charge. And they've said that there's another king besides Caesar. And that's Jesus. Now, there's two things that the Roman world did not put up with. Disorder and worshiping another king. Or having another king.

The Roman Empire didn't put up with that. These were pretty serious accusations that were brought against the church. And luckily, by God's grace, all that they had to deal with, because Paul and Silas couldn't be found, all they had to do was have Jason pay some sort of a fee, like a bond, if you will, to be released. And then they sent Paul and Silas away.

Well, after Paul and Silas got sent away, they went on to Berea and had a great ministry there. And then after Berea, they left for Athens. But Paul sent Silas and Timothy back to Thessalonica because he was concerned about this young church. You see, it was a church that was on fire for Jesus, but it was a church that was about to face a great deal of persecution.

It was a church that was on fire for Jesus, but it was a church he didn't have a great deal of time to really teach. It was a church that was on fire for Jesus, but had the potential to get swept up in the doctrines of the world. And so he sent his friends back. He sent Silas and Timothy back. To check on things that were going on in Thessalonica, to make sure that things were good there.

Well, after Paul left Athens, he goes on to Corinth. And at Corinth, we're told that Timothy and Silas catch up with Paul, and they say, you're not going to believe it. Not only is the church surviving there, the church is thriving there. It's amazing what the Holy Spirit is doing with the church. And Paul, filled with exuberance and joy over hearing the report

of how good the church was doing in Thessalonica, sits down and writes a letter. And that letter is called 1 Thessalonians. And so that's kind of the background of how we get to this letter of 1 Thessalonians. And so go back to 1 Thessalonians 1. And so as we look at this letter, Paul's going to mainly address three things. He's going to address persecution.

He's going to address Christian living. And he's going to address the second coming of Christ. And may I say, the second coming of Christ is going to be the overarching theme in the entire book. As a matter of fact, every chapter of the book of Thessalonians ends with some sort of a message about the second coming of Christ. Because he knew that if they were to endure persecution,

and if they were to live a Christian life, they needed the hope of the second coming. Which is why it's really important that we understand what the knowledge of the second coming does for us, because it's going to do the same thing for us that it did for the early church. And so there's three things I want to tell you. I want to tell you about the effect of really understanding the second coming of Christ.

Number one, the knowledge of the second coming of Christ sustains us in times of persecution and suffering. It sustains us in times of persecution and suffering. We are given a wonderful promise in Scripture that all who seek to live godly in this present age will suffer persecution. We've been pretty immune from it here in the United States, but as I've been saying for quite some time, now I do sense the tide turning, and it's continuing to turn slowly but surely, where the world seems to be more and more disenchanted with the things of the world, and so they don't like Christianity because we present a different philosophy, and we're nothing but a bunch of hateful bigots and all these kinds of things.

More and more, we're going to see persecution begin to arise. But even if persecution doesn't continue to arise, suffering is still going to continue to take place amongst us. And as we face times of persecution, and as we face times of suffering, we have the knowledge that this too shall pass. This is not the end. There will not just always be persecution and suffering in life

because there is going to come a day when God will deal with his enemies. There is going to come a day when I will find a place of ultimate peace and rest. There is going to come a day where all of these things come to an end. And it's a lot easier to sustain when you know that there is a hope for the end. And so he reminds them of the second coming of Christ

because as he addresses persecution, he reminds them that Jesus is coming again. Hold fast, my good friends. But the second reason why it's important to focus on the second coming of Christ is because it motivates us for holy living. It motivates us for holy living. I use this example in first service, but I don't know about y'all, but when I was growing up,

you know, like junior high into high school, like, my mom would leave for work. My mom and dad would leave for work in the morning, and my mom left us a list. Anybody else's mom leaving a list? Like, you better get this. It was always on the back of some random envelope too, right? Texted some list. It was an envelope, probably a bill that she was angry about,

so she wrote on that. Posted on the fridge. That better be done by the time I get home, right? And so you wake up in the morning, and it's summertime, and so, you know, 9 o'clock, you're all out of bed, and you're like, there's the list. It's only 9 a.m. I've got till 4. I've got all the time in the world, right? So then it gets to be about noon, and you're like,

oh, we'll eat a little lunch, then we'll think about it. Then it gets to be about 2, and you're like, oh, crap. It's 2 o'clock, and that list was longer than I thought it was. I thought there were only two things. There's 12 things on that list. And so you hurry up and get it all done. Why? Because the knowledge of her coming motivated you for service, right?

Because you knew if you didn't get it done, you would not make it till tomorrow. And so that's kind of the way that it is with us in the second coming of Christ, although it's not so much fear as it is joy. We know that he's coming soon, and it's a motivator for Christian living. It's a motivator for holy living because we go, man, if I'm going to see Jesus sometime soon, the last thing I want to do is kick the dog right before I see him, right?

Like, if Jesus is coming sometime soon, I want to occupy till he gets here. I want to be doing what he wants me to do when he gets here. And so it's that motivator for holy living. And so it pushes us to be who God has created for us to be. And so that knowledge in the back of our minds not only sustains us, but it also, motivates us. And then number three,

it's the hope that we continue looking for. It's the hope that we continue looking for, right? So today is, I still don't even remember what today is. I did this first service too. Today's September 15th, right? So on September the 12th of 2003, I asked one Erin Hahn to marry me and to be my wife forever. And as it turns out, she said yes, which is why she's now Erin Nichols.

And so 21 years ago, I asked her to be my wife. And I'm here to tell you right now, the hope that I looked forward to was great. I was like, man, I can't believe she said yes, right? Like, quick story time, okay? Settle back. That has nothing to do with the Bible. This is just life. So it was a cool fall evening. And I was stressed about what I was going to do

because I've got this ring and I'm stressed about, can you just put a ring in your pocket? Like, what if I end up pulling something out of my pocket and I lose the ring because that's the guy that I am, right? So I'm like, okay, I need to have a box. But if I put a box in my pocket, it's going to stick out and that's going to look weird. And she's going to be like,

what's going on here? So I'm like, okay, what do I do? It was cool enough for jacket. It was jacket weather. So I put my jacket on and we go eat down at the plaza. I did this right. We went down to the plaza and then we went to this park where there's a bridge over a pond. And I got to get down on one knee and say, will you marry me? It was a great night. And all of that created a lot of hope, right?

Like, she said yes. And now the day that I was looking forward to was May 1st, 2004. Because that's the day that she will finally say, I do. And it was a day I looked forward to. It was the hope that I had. How much more so is it not that way with the second coming of Christ? Because you see, Jesus gave us an engagement ring, a down payment, a dowry, if you will.

It's called the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit that he gave us is the guarantee that he will come back to take us home to be with himself. And now we are looking forward with hope to the day when he will come back when we get to spend eternity with the one who created us, with the one who gave us purpose and the one who gave us new life. And it's the hope that we continue to look forward to.

That's why Paul taught them so much about the second coming. Because he says, if you're gonna endure persecution, you need to know that there's a second coming. If you are going to live a holy life, you need to be motivated by a second coming. And if you're going to live in this world, you need to be motivated by the hope of a second coming of Christ. And that's what Paul ends every chapter

in the book of 1 Thessalonians with. And so, we've seen the writer, we've seen the recipient, and now we see the greeting. It's the typical Pauline greeting. Notice what it says at the end of verse 1. Grace to you and peace. Paul always gave, almost always gave this exact same greeting. Two different words. The first word that he gives us is the word grace.

It's the Greek word charis. And it simply means unmerited favor. Unmerited favor. Because he knew that if this Thessalonican church was to stand, they needed to stand firm in the grace of God. Not to stand on their own works, not to stand on some hope that would lead them to nothing, but to stand firm in the unmerited favor of the grace of God that came about because of the work

of Jesus Christ in their lives. And so he reminded them in this greeting of what they stand on, and that's their grace that comes through Jesus Christ. But there's a second reason why he gives us this greeting of grace. Because grace is how all of the Gentiles greeted each other at that point in time. It was a very Greek thing. They would say, grace to you.

So he greeted the Gentile believers. The second word that's given to us there is the word peace. He says, grace and peace to you. Now, we all love that word peace, right? But I've never really looked it up to find the meaning. Or if I have, I forgot, which is entirely possible as well. But I looked it up, and it gave a couple of words that go along with it.

And it says, peace means quietness and rest. Nothing relaxes you quite like hearing the words quietness and rest. And quite frankly, one of the biggest things we need in our world right now is some quietness and rest. Can we all agree with that? But you see, you can't have any peace in your life. There can't be quietness and rest in your life until you have first known God's grace in your life.

Because once you truly understand God's favor that's been placed upon you through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, then it brings about a great deal of peace inside of you because you can rest in his finished work. Now, the second reason he gives this greeting, not only because grace and peace is what they stand on, but the word peace is the Hebrew word shalom. And that's how the Hebrews would greet each other. When they greeted each other, they would say shalom.

And so we are reminded in this greeting as he gives the Greek greeting, and he gives the Jewish greeting, we are reminded that the gospel is for everyone. The gospel transcends culture. The gospel transcends background. The gospel transcends color, race, ethnicity. It transcends all of it. Because in Christ, none of those things matter. What matters is that you are in Christ.

And so it transcends. And so whoever you are, whatever your background, whatever your racial identity is, whatever your ethnicity is, whatever your ethnicity is, whatever nationality you claim, at the end of the day, that's not your true identity. Your true identity is in Christ, in which he has given you his grace, and in which you have found his peace. Because the gospel is for everyone.

Amen? And so brothers and sisters, we look forward to getting into this book of 1 Thessalonians where we will learn much about the second coming of Christ, but where we will also learn much about what it looks like to be who God has called for us to be. And so if you would please stand with me. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come before you and I thank you that you have blessed us again

with another opportunity to spend time in your word together. Lord, I thank you that you have blessed us with the power of your Holy Spirit to make it understandable to us. And Father, I pray that as we go out from here that your word would sink deeply into our hearts. And Lord, may we truly know and understand that power of the gospel that is at work in us.

The power to change us, the power to transform us. And Lord, that there is a real Jesus that we can have a real encounter with. And so Lord, continue to do your work in our hearts. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. We trust in you, Lord, today. Lord, just bless each one as we leave today. Give us a blessed and safe and adventurous week. And we do ask for your blessing on the event next week, Lord.

Folks there, that you would move in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a great week.