Good morning. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. Would you all stand with us?

Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come and worship in song. Study your word, Lord. We would ask that you would be glorified this morning as we come and look to you, Lord, the author and finisher of our faith. Bless our time now, we ask in Jesus' name. I want to welcome you to Calvary Chapel this morning. Those watching online, just bless, we ask in Jesus' name.

God in song, you saved us by grace through many saints, loving us that much, Lord, dying in our stead. We deserved the judgment in all. You took our place and we thank you for your grace, bringing us to you. I encourage the Lord as their Savior, forgiveness of their sin, to look to you, to trust you, Lord. We look at this old world that's behind the scenes when it looks like chaos.

Well, there is chaos going on. You are in control. Would you all stand?

In the morning, faith and death faces us all the time, different things that makes us consider. But your word has promised as we live this life, you're with us. And as we leave this life, begin eternity when we were born, because when we leave this body, we're going to spend it somewhere.

I'm looking forward to spending it with you, Lord Jesus. Father, may we consider those eternal things when the temporal tend to really get in the way. Yes, there are temporal things we have to tend to. There are things that we have to look at, and there are joys and all that good stuff. It's temporal. We must have eternity looked at and settled, Lord.

Thank you, Lord Jesus. Now, bless our time in your word as Pastor Ryan comes up to teach. Lord, anoint him. For the power of your Holy Spirit. Oh, fill us afresh this morning with your Holy Spirit. Empower us to live for you and through you. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's have a little fellowship.

Good morning. If you could start to locate your seat. Grab your bulletin, and we'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. Some things to take note of in your bulletin. As always. The things on the left-hand side, take note of those and find some spots to get plugged into. Over in the middle section, ladies, there's a women's breakfast coming up this Saturday at Steamy Joe's at 8 a.m. So come join the ladies for that.

Also, beginning this evening, we will have our typical intercessory prayer time, which we do the first Sunday of the month. But we kind of got to talking about the fact that, well, the world's nuts right now. And an election is coming up that's also going to be kind of nuts right now. And so, we decided that every Sunday until the election, we'll be having an intercessory prayer every Sunday evening at 6 o'clock down at the other end of the hallway.

So please come join us for that. We want to really be praying for our nation, praying for Israel, and all the things that are going on. So starting this evening, every Sunday until the election, we'll be doing that intercessory prayer time. Also, just a reminder that Operation Christmas Child will be thinking about getting those boxes together for that. Janet tried to get on.

If you remember, she pointed out, we always take a group down to the distribution center. Well, she got on Tuesday to try to get us signed up. But where Samaritan's Purse headquarters is in Boone, North Carolina, that's one of the areas that was hit really hard by all of the things going on with the hurricane. And they just don't have the manpower or the internet access to be able to do the sign-ups right now.

So she's waiting to hear back on when that sign-up date is going to be. So everything's a little bit hanging in the balance with whether or not we're going to be able to do that. Whether or not or when we get to go down and work at the distribution center. So continue working on those boxes, but also really be in prayer for Samaritan's Purse and all the people in that entire region because they've been hit so hard.

And, well, I've got a whole lot of other things to say, but I can't. So they've just been hit really hard, and no one's helping. So at least not as far as our government is concerned. So be in prayer for them. And then the last thing is that I'm going to invite Jordan Arrowsmith to come up and share with us about a new ministry. Well, an old ministry that we're reviving again.

So come on up, Jordan.

Good morning. I'm Jordan Arrowsmith, and this is my husband, Michael. We were trying to figure out, like, where we wanted to serve, and we've decided to bring back Agape Fruits. If you weren't here several years ago, Agape Fruits was a food ministry where we would feed the community, those in need. This time around, we're only going to be doing... We're only doing it the second and fourth month of Sunday.

Second and fourth Sunday of every month. Our first meal is going to be November 10th. So we are in need of volunteers, cooks. And if you aren't a cook but you want to help, we're wanting people to come in and kind of try and build relationships with the people who are eating with us. So there will be a sign-up sheet for that back there. We also are going to be in need of donations.

Of, like, money and of food. I have the first six meals planned out before we can actually do, like, a fundraiser. So if you feel led to donate food, meats, there's a whole list back there. And the other thing is we were able to get with Elite Advertising, and we're going to do a little fundraiser of selling T-shirts. So the T-shirts will be... Sign-ups will be back there.

There's three different colors. And the money is going to be due on October 20th so that we can have shirts ready to go and have it for the first meal. And if you do decide to volunteer, we're going to have a little meeting October 27th after church. So if anybody feels led to do it, please come join us. We'd love to have you.

Okay. Thank you guys so much. We're looking forward to that getting going again. So take note of that. Like she said, all those sign-up sheets will be right there by where you grabbed your bullets in on the way in this morning. So 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 are going to be in Psalm 6.

Psalm 6. Looking at the New American Standard for this part so that we all sound the same. If you need a copy of the New American Standard, it should be one around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 6, 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 in the even verses. Psalm 6. For the choir director with stringed instruments upon an eight-string lyre, a psalm of David. O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasten me in your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am pining away. Head, O Lord, for my bones are dismayed. And my soul is greatly dismayed.

But you, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, rescue my soul. Save me because of your loving kindness. For there is no mention of you in death. In Sheol, who will give you thanks? I am weary with my sighing. Every night I make my bed swim. I dissolve my couch with my tears. My eye has wasted with grief. It has become old because of all my adversaries. Depart from me, all you who do iniquity.

For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication. The Lord receives my prayers. All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed. They shall turn back. They will suddenly be ashamed. And Father, we come before you and thank you that you are a God who hears our prayers, Lord. And we can know that whatever it is that ails us, Lord, when we take it to you,

you have dealt with it. Lord, it's something that you take. You take care of it. And so, Father, we praise you for who you are. And right now, Lord, I want to lift up the nation of Israel to you as we come upon the one-year anniversary of that attack. Lord, we want to pray for their safety and for their peace. Lord, we want to pray for protection from any further attacks that would come about.

And Lord, continue to preserve the nation of Israel. And may we as a country, Lord, continue to stand with them. And Father, I lift up our church to you and pray that as we spend time in your word this morning, that you would minister to us by the power of your Holy Spirit. That you would strengthen us according to the power of your Holy Spirit. And that you would speak to us as you see fit.

In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Before we get into the scripture for this morning, I want to share just a little something with you. We talked about vision and mission a few weeks ago. And so I want to kind of share with you what God's doing here.

Before we get into the study. As you can tell, our Sunday school classes just keep growing down there. And about a year or so ago, Sunday school teachers started saying, Hey, we could really use some more room. And I'm like, well, we've used up every bit of real estate inside of this building. Actually, the only real estate we've got is this room back here, but it's storage.

And so I don't have any real estate left in the building to give to any other Sunday school teachers. And so we decided that we're going to have to add on to the building. And so that's what's going to be taking place. Actually, the steel building materials will probably show up sometime at the end of the month. So just to try to kind of paint a picture. Phase one of what we're going to do is what you see now is currently the nursery and nursing mother's room.

As you walked in that front door, that will all get taken out and that will expand into a much larger foyer area. And then that will lead into a building that will go out to the west. It'll be about a 50 by 100 building. That's going to allow us to add some Sunday school classrooms, some bathrooms, and a multipurpose room. So that's kind of phase one. Phase two would be that sometime in the near future, and I don't know how long, but sometime in the near future,

that building will then connect us to a new building that will be a new sanctuary and a gym. That's a little bit more long term, but that is kind of phase two. And the goal is that eventually we'll move all that out there, and this building will just be for kids. So that's kind of the plan. So that's kind of the vision of where we're going with some things.

And so hopefully in the next couple of months, we're going to be starting construction on that. So I'm pretty excited about what God's doing, but I wanted you to know so that if you see a whole bunch of material show up outside, you're not like, huh, wonder what that is. That's what that is, okay? So keep praying for us as a church, for us as a board, for the leadership, that we continue to make wise decisions with all that.

I'm really, really excited about what God's doing, and I think we just need to keep making room, because as the world keeps getting crazier, God keeps pouring out his spirit of revival like it happens. It's happening all over the place right now. And I think we're seeing little bits of that take place in this area too. And so any church that's teaching the word is going to start getting filled up because people are going to want to know the truth in a time where there's not much truth.

So pretty excited about what God's doing, but I wanted to make sure that you all knew kind of what was taking place. So that's kind of what's happening here at Calvary Chapel. Now. Today. As we jump into chapter two of, or get back into chapter two of 1 Thessalonians, we come to part two of our series on the work of the minister. In chapter one, we saw the work of the gospel, how much the gospel changed the people of Thessalonica,

how much it was working in that Thessalonian church. And then as we came into chapter two, we started looking at the work of the minister. We said that Paul had to defend his ministry because those that came along behind him, which was ultimately the reason why he had to go to church, ultimately the reason why he had to leave Thessalonica so quickly, had started to criticize him and criticize his ministry. Because if you can discredit the minister, then you can discredit the message of the minister.

And so chapter two ultimately is kind of a defense of his ministry, but it's also a very tenderhearted picture of what it looks like to truly be a minister of God. And we said that there were six things. The first thing that we said that the minister needed to be is that the minister needed to be bold. There needed to be boldness in the ministry. And you and I can be bold in God.

As ministers of the gospel. Because if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you also have that commission. Therefore, you are a minister. So the first thing that we saw is boldness. The second thing that we saw was integrity. That there needed to be integrity in the ministry. The third is that there needed to be gentleness. That we need to, as people, be gentle.

Because when people come out of that which is false and move into that which is true, there's a certain aspect of adaptation that takes place. And we need to be gentle with those kinds of people. Well, today we pick up in verse 9 with the fourth thing that it tells us to be as ministers. And that is to be diligent. Diligent. Notice what it says in verse 9. It says,

You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved towards you, believers. Just as you know how we were exhorting you and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. Now as we look at this aspect of diligence, this aspect of hard work, Paul tells us there were three areas that they as ministers, and I think we as ministers, were very diligent in the way that they presented themselves. Very diligent in the way that they handled themselves.

Number one, they were diligent in their work. They were diligent in their work. Notice how he starts off in verse 9. For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship. That word labor literally means fatiguing labor. In other words, that which exhausts you. And the idea is that he labored hard in his trade. He labored hard in the trade that he had learned as a boy growing up.

And the trade that he had learned as a boy growing up was the trade of being a tent maker. And so Paul had been given this trade. As a matter of fact, every Jewish boy, even if they were going to go into some sort of an educational field like what Paul went into, they all learned to trade. So that if at any point in time they found themselves in need of being able to provide for themselves financially, they would be able to do so.

As a matter of fact, I tell kids this exact same thing. Every young man that I know that wants to go into the ministry, that wants to say, I want to go off to Bible college. I want to go to seminary or something like that. I always tell them, dual major. They're like, what do you mean? I'm like, I know it's hard work, but you should do a major. You should somehow get a minor in like business or something like that.

Because I'm here to tell you right now, the potential of you having a full-time paying job as a minister is slim. And if you have a trade, then you will always have a job. You will always have a way to make money, no matter what goes on in your life, whether or not a church can pay you. Because sometimes there are situations where a church can pay you. And there are sometimes situations where a church cannot pay you.

So any young man that wants to go into the ministry, I tell them, you better know how to work. Because if you don't know how to work, you're not going to be any good in the ministry. When I first graduated Bible college, I was hoping that somehow I would just magically fall into a place where I would be able to have this full-time job in ministry and it was going to be awesome. And I was going to love it and everything was going to be great.

And I was going to live happily ever after. And then life happened, right? Then I had to work all kinds of jobs. I had to work construction. I had to work grounds keeping. I worked in a coffee shop for a little while. I worked in sales for a little while. Sometimes I did all three of those at the same time while teaching Bible studies. Because that's what you have to do sometimes as a minister.

You have to, I believe it was Gail Irwin. Gail Irwin? Yeah, I think it was Gail Irwin. I listened to him speak on this one time. It was a Q&A with some pastors and he said, sometimes as ministers we have to work to support our habit. And I think that's a really good way to put it because when God calls you into the ministry, nothing else in the world makes you happy except being in the ministry.

But if it doesn't pay, then you have to do something in order to do it. And it's hard work and you have to do that. Paul says, we labored hard while we were among you. We worked at a trade while we were among you. I remember when the last summer before I moved down here, when we were remodeling Blue Valley High School. And that summer we worked starting on July the 5th.

We worked every day, seven days a week until the middle of August. And I was still doing college study at that particular point in time. I didn't even get to go to church, but I would lead college study on an evening. And I remember coming home some days and my wife being like, do you really want to keep doing this? And I'm like, well, I got to pay the bills and I love teaching the Bible study.

And she's like, well, I'm glad you love it because that's just what I had to do. And that's what you have to do sometimes as a minister. And I thank God that I had to go through that because it's helped make me who I am today. I read this thing the other day that said something about the number of pastors that have never worked any other job besides being a pastor.

And all they know is life in the pastoral world. And so they don't always understand what it's like to go to a job every day where the rest of the people around you aren't believers in Jesus Christ and the pressures that you face. And I thought, I praise God I had 10 years of that where I had to do all of those things and be around all those situations and have to do so as a minister and as a believer and as a husband and a father that was trying to seek after God because it helps make you who you are. And hopefully it's helping me understand where you guys are coming from in your world now.

But he says, you remember our labor and our hardship while we were among you so that we would not be a burden to you while we preached the gospel. Now, Paul had no issue with ministers being paid. As a matter of fact, multiple places in scripture he talks about it. And there were really only two places that he went to where he was not somehow supported as a pastor.

One was Thessalonica, the other one was Corinth. And Corinth, because he knew that to maintain his witness, that's what he had to do. And in Thessalonica, they were a poor church and so he wanted to be able to not be a burden to them financially. But he absolutely believed in a minister being paid. But he also had this philosophy, whatever is best for the spreading of the gospel

is what he wanted to do. If the way that he could most effectively spread the gospel was by allowing the church to financially support him, then that's what he would do to spread the gospel. But if he knew that that would be a hindrance to people coming to Jesus, then he was completely willing to not take a salary for a time from the church and work at the tent making trade so that he could spread the gospel. And that's kind of what he did while he was here in Thessalonica.

As he said, while we preached to you, we labored in that toilsome, fatiguing sort of way. But I'll tell you this about work. Because you're sitting there going, Ryan, I've never been paid by a church in my life. I don't know what you're talking about. This doesn't apply to me. Well, let me bring it down a little application to you. The application to you is the same that it is for me.

Our greatest witness is our work ethic. Our greatest witness is the way that we work when we are at our jobs. Because the rest of the world is looking at you. The rest of your coworkers are looking at you. And they're watching how you're going to respond to things. And they're watching how you're going to act. And if you show up one day and say, Hey, listen, I'm a believer in Jesus Christ.

And the first thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to be a man of prayer. The job will come second. But I'm just going to go around and start praying for people. And your boss kind of goes, Listen, I love that you want to pray for people. Work while you do that. Work while you pray. We can't be those people. We should be people that are the hardest workers at our job.

We should be the people that care the most about our job. We should be the people that are the ones that are looked to as the standard for what a work ethic truly is. Because that's our greatest witness. That's how we're not a burden to the people that are around us. Paul will have to address this again in 2 Thessalonians when he tells them, If a man doesn't work, he shouldn't eat.

That's a Pauline statement in 2 Thessalonians. And so our work ethic is an important part of our witness. And so if we want to be ministers, then we should be diligent, first of all, in our work. The second place that he says we should be diligent in is in our walk. Notice what he says in verse 10. You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly, how uprightly,

and how blamelessly we behaved toward you believers. We are to be diligent in our walk. Because our walk is what tells the rest of the world who we really are. Because as we've said before, the thing that the world has the hardest time with is a Christian who proclaims Jesus with their lips and walks out the door and denies him by their lifestyle. You've said it.

I've said it. I've heard other people say it. I thought that guy said he was a Christian. Right? And so Paul says, We were diligent in our walk. And I want you to notice the three ways he says, first of all, how devoutly we behaved ourselves. The word devoutly, honestly, and if you have either the Old King James, and I think even the New King James says, holily.

That's right. I did not use an extra syllable there on accident. They translate this word holily. I don't know why they added the extra IL in there. But the idea is, and I love the Amplified Bible put it this way, unworldly. Unworldly. Devoutly. Unworldly. In other words, completely set apart from the world around us. You saw how we behaved ourselves. That we behaved ourselves in an unworldly sort of manner.

In other words, a manner that was completely set apart from the world. And so you should start asking yourself a question right now. Is the way that I live my life holy? Is the way that I live my life unworldly? Is the way that I live my life set apart from the rest of the world around me? Or does it look just like the world all around me? Because as believers in Jesus Christ,

our lives are to look different. Because if our lives don't look different, we should ask ourselves the question, has my life really been changed by the gospel? Because the gospel changes our lives. The gospel changes our mouth. The gospel changes our desires. Because as believers in Jesus Christ, what we believe should affect the way that we live. And that's what he says.

You saw how we behaved ourselves. That we behaved ourselves in an unworldly sort of way. And sometimes I think the best thing we can do as believers in Jesus Christ, if we've been living in a way that is worldly instead of unworldly, is to go to the people that have witnessed it and say, I'm sorry, that was wrong. The things I've been doing, the way that I've been living, that's not how Jesus wants me to live.

And that's wrong. And I'm going to be changing that. I'm telling you, that will speak volumes to the people around you. And what will amplify it is if then your life changes. And people will say, something really got a hold of that guy. And so he says, you saw how we behaved ourselves. Number one, that it was devoutly. Number two, that it was uprightly. Another way to kind of say the same things,

it was admirable or righteous in nature. And then the third thing is blamelessly. The word blameless means unable to bring censure against. In other words, I can't bring a charge against you. I'm always reminded of Daniel in this situation. Anytime the word blamelessly is used, you remember Daniel. Daniel in the Old Testament was living in the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians.

And even though he was a believer in God, even though he was a Jewish boy, he had been elevated to one of the highest positions in the kingdom. He had been elevated over all of the other counselors in the kingdom. And all of the other counselors in the kingdom didn't like that this Jewish guy had been elevated so highly above all of them. And so they said, let's see if we can find something against Daniel.

Let's pull some opposition research against him and see if we can't find something in his internet search history. Let's see if we can find something in his Snapchat history. Let's see if we can find something in all of the history of the things that he's done, some bad dealings that he's done. And you know what the report of all of these guys was? We can't find that he's done anything wrong

except for one thing, how honorably he follows his God. So the only thing they could accuse him of is worshiping a God different from the Medes and the Persians because his life was blameless. They couldn't bring a charge against him. And brothers and sisters in the world that we're living in today, because I just saw in the past couple of weeks about another pastor that fell because he was having an inappropriate relationship with a 25-year-old girl within the last two weeks.

I think his name's Steve Lawson. It happened again. Why? Because he wasn't living blameless. Because he wasn't living unworldly. Because he wasn't living uprightly. And as ministers, me up in front of you, you proclaiming to follow Jesus, our lives need to be diligent in the way that we walk. Because the world is watching and they're just looking for a reason

to blaspheme the God of Israel. So he says you must be diligent in the way you walk. He says you saw how we walked. You saw how we behaved ourselves. That it was devout and upright and blameless. In other words, our walk matched our talk. But there was a third way that he said that they were devout or that they were diligent. And the third way that they were diligent

was in their ministry. Notice what it says in verse 11. Just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children so that you would walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. See, they were also really diligent in the way that they ministered to people, in the way that they handled the body that they were around.

He says there were three things that we always did. Three things that you witnessed us doing all the time. The first one is exhorting. That word exhorting is kind of an interesting word. It means to call to one side. It means to call to one side. And the idea is to call someone to your side so that you can teach them the way that they should go. So that you can correct, instruct,

or whatever you need to about the way that you should go. And I think in a big, in a church sort of setting, in a big picture sort of a setting, this is what's taking place right now, right? Like right now what I'm doing is I'm calling each of you to my side. Don't come up on stage with me. I'm calling each of you to my side and I'm saying this is what God's word says.

And this is how you should live it out. This is where perhaps it's going wrong and this is where perhaps it's going right. And sometimes I'm given that opportunity to do that one on one with you or in small group settings with you. But quite frankly there's one of me and you're just the first service, right? And so I can't do that with everybody. But now what you can do is you can take God's word.

You can take what I have given you and you now can call someone else to your side and you can exhort them and you can say this is what's right, this is what's wrong, this is what God's word says. Sometimes those people are younger than you in the faith. Sometimes those people are older than you in the faith. Sometimes those people are kids. Sometimes those people are not kids.

But you can call people to your side. That's where those small groups come in really handy and you going to lunch with each other after church is really handy. Hey, did you hear what the pastor said? Did you agree with what he had to say? No, I didn't agree with what he had to say. Well, then you're wrong. I'm just saying, just kidding. You know, and you're calling each other to your side

and saying this is what we talked about. Let's do what he said. Let's do what the word says and you're exhorting one another. But not only do we, and listen, that's a necessary ministry that we have in the church right now. We call it disciple making, right? That's called making disciples. And men, I'm calling on you right now. You should be the one that starts it.

You should be the one that is taking young men aside and teaching them what it looks like to follow Jesus. Calling them to your side and saying this is what it looks like. Here's the way, walk in it. Taking these young men and showing them what it looks like to be a man of God. But if it doesn't start with the men, then it'll never filter down to everyone else.

And I'm just being honest about that. He says, you know that we exhorted you. The second is encourage. The idea is active encouragement. It's a very similar word to exhort. But it has a more active idea to it. And the third is imploring you. The word imploring means testifying. In other words, talking about your own personal experience. And I shared this with you

either last week or the week before. I don't know. It all runs together at some point in time. But that's one of the biggest things that I had to learn to do in the ministry is I had to share my personal experiences. And I would say, Lord, I don't want to say that. And he would say, but I want you to. And so I just started oversharing. At that point in time.

And it seems like it's working. So it's just testifying of your own personal experience. But like I said, sometimes the greatest thing you can do is share your own personal experiences with other people. I've been saying it for years. And I do two different groups of people that I work with. I share this with when I'm doing premarital counseling with a couple.

I always tell them, you should find a mentor couple. You should find somebody that's been married for a really long time. And you should just ask them to go to dinner with you sometimes or have them over to your house and just say, would you just talk to me about your experiences as a married couple? How have you made it 25 years? How have you made it 30 years?

How have you been able to do this? Because I think it's really good to testify to each other of those things of what God has done in your life. But I also have been telling kids for years, you should go find somebody older and ask them to tell you everything that God has done in their life. I actually had a kid really take me up on this one time. And he went and talked,

I think he talked to Pastor Dave. And he was like, Pastor Dave, Pastor Ryan told me to find someone older and ask them about their experiences. And Dave goes, why did you tell him to go find me and call me old? I said, that's not what I said. I said, find somebody older in the Lord that's been walking with the Lord for a long. He goes, well, he called me old.

I'm like, well, that's on him. But I would tell him, go find somebody that's walked with the Lord for a long time and let them testify about what God's done in their life. Because some of the biggest things for me is to hear guys like my dad and Pastor Mark and some of them share about what God has done in their lives and in their ministry over the years. And that's a beautiful thing.

Well, you're not the kids anymore. Now it's time for you to go find some young people and see if you can't share some of your experiences with them. They won't care. Way more than you know, they care. They appreciate hearing those things way more than you know. So he says, not only did we exhort you, we encouraged you, but we implored you, we testified of what God did.

Of what God did in us. And what did they exhort, encourage, and implore? That you would walk worthy. That you would walk worthy. The idea of worthy means to have the same weight as. In other words, that your walk would match your talk. That the way that you live would match your declaration of faith. He says, we exhorted you. We were diligent to exhort you about those things,

to encourage you in those things and to encourage you and to implore you in these things. So he says, as a minister, it's important to be diligent. And as ministers of the gospel, which is what we are, we should be diligent in our lives. Our work ethic should be strong. Our walk should be strong. And our ministry should be diligent in the way that we lead other people.

So, he says, number five, or excuse me, number four, that if we are to be ministers, we are to be diligent. Number five, which is the next one in line, is that ministers are to be fruitful. Ministers are to be fruitful. Notice what it says in verse 13. For this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us,

you accepted it, not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. For you brethren became imitators of the church of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God and hostile to men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved, with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins.

But wrath has come upon them to the utmost. Now, the next thing that we see is that ministers should be fruitful. And I do think we should be able to measure how much we're giving out God's word by how fruitful we're being with God's word. Because when we give out God's word, it always does what it's sent out to do. And we'll talk about that a little bit more

in just a moment. But Paul says, we saw fruit among you guys. And what was the fruit that they saw? Well, the first fruit that they saw is that they received the word. He says, we constantly thank God. This is very similar to chapter one. This is the second time in 1 Thessalonians that he talks about how much they thank God. And what are we thanking God for?

That when you receive the word of God, you accept it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God. Because that's what this is. This is truly the word of God that's being delivered out. In other words, when Paul showed up and started delivering the message of the gospel and teaching them what God's word was, they didn't look at it and say, well, we'll think about it, but we could take it or leave it.

No, they took it as God's word because they realized the impact it could have on their lives if they truly took it in and lived it out. If they truly believed what it said and allowed it to change the fabric of who they are. And so when they received it, they received it like it was straight from God. And what a beautiful thing if we will do the same thing with God's word.

If when we read God's word, we don't just say, that's a really good opinion, that's a really good thought, but that we take it in and allow it to truly be God's word. Because I want you to notice what he says about God's word at the end of this verse. Because the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. Let me read that to you again because I think it's really important.

The word of God, which performs its work in you who believe. Now, God's word is always doing its work in us, especially those of us who believe. The word believe means to have confidence in. In other words, when we put our confidence in God's word, then God's word always does that work. But even if we don't put our confidence in God's word, God's word is always at work.

The Amplified Bible translates it like this, exercising inherent supernatural power in those of faith. Do you approach God's word like that? Do you approach God's word as if it has inherent supernatural power in it? That it has the power to accomplish something in you that nothing else can? Because I would tell you that if you don't, then it probably doesn't.

But if you don't accomplish God's word that way, then you probably just kind of read it, toss it to the side, and go on with your life. Or even worse, you probably just don't read it. Because if you don't believe that it has power, then you're probably not going to spend that much time in it, right? I would say that the margin share of people don't prioritize their own time in God's word because they fail to realize just how powerful God's word is.

And that's why it's so important to me to give out God's word, because I have seen just how powerful it is in life, just how powerful it is to change us. I had a conversation with a guy about a week or so ago, and he said, why are you so passionate about teaching God's word the way that you do? I said, what do you mean? He said, well, you just go straight through the word, and you teach it verse by verse, and you seem to do it like you really mean it.

Why are you so passionate to do it that way? And I never really thought about it, never really been asked that question before. I've always been a Calvary kid. I've seen God's word taught this way my entire life. So why is it so passionate to me? Is it just because it's the way I grew up? Is it just because it's what I've always seen done? And I thought, no,

that's not it at all. It's because I have literally seen God's word heal me. I have literally watched God's word change who I am, change the way that I think, change the way that I feel, pull me out of places that I didn't think anything else was ever gonna pull me out of. And so as I have watched God's word do that, I'm pretty passionate about it. Because it's not just something

someone told me, it's something that the Holy Spirit taught me. It's not just something that someone told me, it's something that the Holy Spirit made so real to me that it's as real as the stage that I stand on right now. Because it is so powerful in the lives of people. I had somebody tell me one time, like, please stop quoting God's word to me. I'm like, I can't,

I can't not do that. Like, I can't stop quoting God's word to you. They're like, I just need to talk out my problems. Quit quoting God's word to me. I'm like, well, here's the thing, God's word answers all your problems. And I've watched it answer mine. So it's really hard for me not to quote God's word to you. That would be like telling me to stop breathing.

I just, I can't do it. Because it has this inherent power. And God's word is always doing what it's been sent out to do. As a matter of fact, turn with me real quick. I quoted this a week or two ago. Turn with me real quick, hold your finger here and go to Isaiah 55. I want you guys to know where this is because it's a really important quote. Verse Isaiah 55.

And I want you to look at verse eight. Isaiah 55, verse eight. It says this. Isaiah 55, eight says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there

without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout, furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so will my word be which goes forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. See, there's a lot of power in that scripture, isn't it? You say, Lord, that doesn't even make sense to me.

Well, he already answered that. My thoughts aren't your thoughts. My ways aren't your ways, declares the Lord. You don't always grasp how it works. You can't always explain how it works because it's God at work. But just know this, just like when the rain and the snow comes and it causes things to grow on the earth and you don't fully understand that, that's kind of what God's word does.

It always accomplishes that for which it's been sent out to do. And he says, the fruit that has been born in your life started with you receiving the word of God. And watching it produce that fruit in your life. Go back to 1 Thessalonians 2. The second fruit that it produced in their life is the ability to endure suffering. The ability to endure suffering. Notice what it says in verse 14.

For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you also endured the same suffering at the hands of your own countrymen, even in Israel as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God but hostile to men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. Paul says you learned to endure suffering and that's a real fruit that was produced in your life.

Because of God's word, because of the stand you've taken on God's word, you have this ability to endure suffering. I love he uses this word again. It's almost exactly like chapter one where he says you became imitators of the churches in Judea. In chapter one Paul said you became imitators of us. In chapter two he says you became imitators of the churches in Judea

because you have also received this persecution from the hands of your own countrymen. Let me put that in a little bit more clear, a little bit more bold of a way. Your friends are the ones that persecuted you just like the churches in Judea. You look just like them. You're acting just like them and that's in a really good way. That ability to endure suffering,

that ability to endure persecution is something that is produced in the life of a believer, a fruit that we bear as we allow God's word to do its work in our lives. Now 1 Thessalonians is kind of an interesting book because suffering is a real theme within the book of 1 Thessalonians. Suffering that is produced through the persecution. I think it's important for us to pay attention to this again because while we still have an immense amount of freedom in the United States of America, who knows what's going to happen?

We don't know and we should be prepared for anything. You say, Ryan, I don't know if I can endure suffering. Well, probably not right now, you can't. But the Lord through His word will produce that fruit inside of you. And all you have to do is bear that fruit of the ability to endure the suffering because that's what God's always faithful to do. He's always faithful

to give us everything that we need for what we experience today, for what's going on in your life today. And Paul says that fruit was produced in you and he kind of starts talking about the suffering. He says the suffering that they endured with the hands of their own countrymen just as they did from the Jews who killed Jesus and the prophets and they drove us out. And I want you to notice what it says about these that we're doing the persecuting.

They do not please God but are hostile to men. They don't please God but they're hostile to men. But we can hold on to one thing if you're enduring suffering. Notice what it says in the middle of verse 16. With the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins but wrath has come upon them to the utmost. Feels like a really good time to insert bum, bum, bum, right?

And we can know that. We can know that those that are enduring persecution can hold on to the fact that God will deal with the persecutors. God will deal with those things. It's not our job, it's God's job. It's our job to endure and continue to show the love of Jesus. And so Paul says that we are to be diligent, that we are to be fruitful, and then number three,

a minister cares. A minister cares. Notice what it says, verse 17. But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while in person, not in spirit, were all the more eager with great desire to see your face. For we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, more than once. And yet Satan hindered us. For who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation? Is it not even you

in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? For you are our glory and joy. The minister must care, must care about the people. When I was a wrestler, we had to sign a covenant with Coach Jackson, and he had his rules for bulldog wrestling that everybody had to sign. And rule number one for bulldog wrestling was you have to care. And sorry if this offends anybody,

but he says, if you don't care, go play basketball. And I always thought that was a really funny statement that he made. But that was the number one rule is he thought, if you're gonna be here and if you are gonna be a part of the team that will cost you, that you'll have to sacrifice for, we have to know that you care, that you care more about your teammates than you do yourself, that you care more about the man serving next to you than you do yourself. And that's the way it is as ministers, because at some point in time as ministers, we have to be people that care.

All of those other things are wonderful. It's wonderful to produce fruit. It's wonderful to be diligent. But at the end of the day, people wanna know that you care. Does your heart hurt for the things that go on around you? Is your heart broken for the world around you? And is your heart joined to the people that you fellowship with on a consistent basis? Paul says that we had

to be taken away for a while. Notice what it says. But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while. Now, if you have any question about how much it hurt Paul to be taken away from these Thessalonian people, remember he served there for a very short time. He was there anywhere from three weeks to three months, pretty short amount of time that he was there.

And he was forced to leave because of the persecution that came up because he knew that him staying would create more of a hotbed for the church than if he left. And so he left. And you notice how he describes this. He describes it as having been taken away. You say, Ryan, that doesn't sound like that big of a deal. But in the Greek, do you know what that word means,

that word taken away? It speaks of a child that has been bereaved of their parents. That's how he views having been taken away from the Thessalonian church. In other words, it tore his heart out. Now, I don't know if you think about that with the body of Christ. Sometimes I think when it comes to the body of Christ, we have sort of a take it or leave it kind of mentality.

We're like, okay, great. If I see the people from church, if I talk to people at church, that's fine. But if I don't, that's fine too. And it's like, well, then you don't really understand what it means to be in fellowship with people. Because to be in fellowship with people means to be joined to them. The word fellowship means koinonia, that which we have in common.

That's the idea of fellowship. Because we have this one thing in common. And the one thing that we have in common is Jesus Christ. That is the one thing that, listen, you don't have in common that you all homeschool your kids. You don't have in common that your kids all go to public school. You don't have in common that some of you like motorcycles. You don't have in common

that some of you like to work on cars or some of you like to hunt or some of you like to fish. If that's the only thing that you have in common, you don't get it. Because the thing that we have in common is Jesus. And that's what makes the church such a unique place. Is it because, it's because it takes people from every sector of life, from every end of the spectrum,

who would be enemies apart from Christ and brings them together and makes them family. A family that's closer together than blood is a family that doesn't unite because you are not united by physical blood. You are united by the blood of Jesus Christ. And that one thing that we have in common runs deeper than anything else we could have in common. It runs deeper

than the fact that you may all like the same football team, you all like the same college. It doesn't matter because the bond of the blood of Jesus Christ is eternal. And that's what makes that bond deeper. And that's why when Paul was taken away from the Thessalonian church, he didn't just say we had to leave. He said, as if a child had been bereaved of their parents.

That's how much it hurt him to leave. And as ministers, as members of the body of Christ, that's the kind of care that we should have for each other. As we should have that deep of a bond that if we were taken away, it would be like being ripped apart. And Paul says that's the kind of care that we're supposed to have for each other. Do you have that kind of care

for each other? Do you know that the person sitting next to you, the people sitting around you, the people sitting in your section, in your row, whatever, they potentially have a deeper bond with you than anybody else in the world? You say, I don't even know their name. Well, today's the day, right? You better figure it out because you're going to spend eternity together.

You better know each other's name. That's what he says. He says, the minister is supposed to care. He says, in a short while, in person, but not in spirit. I love that. He goes, I may have been taken away from you in person, but in spirit, I'm still there right there with you. What does that mean? It means he is laboring with them in prayer, in spirit, even though physically

he's not right there with them, even though physically he's not right there alongside them. And that's the idea of the kind of care and compassion that he had. He says, and we were all the more eager with great desire to see your face because we wanted to come back and see you, but we couldn't. Why? Because Satan hindered us. Oh boy, you want to talk about a verse

that gets mildly controversial with some Bible teachers. They're like, we don't really know what he means by Satan hindered us. And everybody had a different opinion on it. So you know what my opinion on it is? I have no idea what he means by Satan hindered them. I don't know what caused it, but somehow there was a hindrance and it was satanic in nature. Somehow there was

a hindrance that kept him from being able to come back. And I'm hoping God overcomes it someday, but this is the best I can do right now is to write you this letter. He says, for who is our hope or who is our joy or who is our crown of exaltation? Is it not even you? Paul says, our greatest hope, our greatest joy, our greatest crown of exaltation is you. What does he mean by that?

He means the Thessalonian people in their deep walk with Jesus he views as his greatest crown of exaltation. The word crown there speaks of the laurel wreath that when an athlete would compete in either the Olympic games or something along those lines, when they won they would receive a crown. It was a laurel wreath to say, hey, you're the victor. Now we give gold medals.

There they gave this laurel wreath sort of crown. He says, that's who you are. You are our crown of exaltation. You're our gold medal. You and your walk with Jesus Christ is our greatest joy, our greatest joy and our greatest exaltation. He says, he says, is it not even you in the presence of the Lord Jesus at his coming? Remember how we said that at the end

of every chapter in Thessalonians there was some sort of a reference to the second coming of Christ. Well, this is what's referenced here. The Greek word is the word parousia. And the idea throughout scripture is a distinct event that has events of the second coming of Christ. And so he says when Christ comes again you're the thing that we want to present. You're our crown

of exaltation at that second coming of Christ. When is that second coming of Christ going to take place? I believe at the end of that tribulational period. See, I believe that someday soon, maybe today, we're going to hear a trumpet sound. The dead in Christ will rise first. We who are alive and remain, by the way I'm quoting 1 Thessalonians here, and we who are alive

and remain will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And at the end of the book of Revelation it says that Jesus returns again and do you know who's coming back with him? The church at his second coming. Jesus will come again and that was the hope that Paul had. That was the thing that drove him in life is knowing that Jesus is coming again. Jesus is coming back,

I know. The Holy Bible tells me so. So pray with me. Praise the Lord. Shout hallelujah. Amen. Yeah, thank you. That's how the song goes. I don't know if anybody knew the song in here or not. But that's his hope. That's his joy. And when Jesus comes again, he wants to be able to say, here they are. Look how good they're doing. And I got to tell you, I feel the same way.

My greatest hope, my greatest joy, my greatest crown of exaltation will be able to say, here's the people of Calvary Chapel of Arc City and they love you and they're following you and they pursued you. They are blameless because I gave them your word to the best of my ability and I can stand and say, I have declared to them the whole counsel of God. Paul says, that's what we're looking forward to. And he closes out by saying, for you are our glory and joy.

The work of the minister, the work of the minister as Paul, the apostle who started the church, and who pastored the church for that time, the work of the minister that he had put in place, but the work of the ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who've been commissioned by Jesus to go out and be witnesses for him. Amen? Well, this morning is Communion Sunday. And so, in just a moment, the ushers are gonna come in.

Actually, I'll go ahead and invite the worship team to come on up. In just a moment, the ushers are gonna come in and they're gonna hand out the elements and we're gonna partake together. But before we do, I always like to take just a moment to explain what communion is. Inside of each one of these trays are a couple of cups. The top cup has the juice in it

and the bottom cup has the cracker in it. And while it may just seem like juice and crackers to the rest of the world, we know that there's something much deeper indicated by what goes on with communion. Because Jesus, on that last great night of the feast, that Passover feast, he took the bread, as we've talked about before, which is very symbolic of his body, because it was unleavened bread, unleavened matzo bread. And the thing that was fascinating about these little squares of bread is first of all, we know that leaven represents sin in scripture.

And so this bread was unleavened, meaning it was pure, it was sinless. But the other thing about this unleavened bread is that it was pierced. It had all these piercings all over it. And it was striped. And so can you imagine the symbolism of what it was when Jesus stood there and he took the bread that was pure, pierced, and he broke it. And he said, this is my body,

which has been broken for you. Take and eat. And then he took that cup, that last cup of the feast called the cup of redemption. And he held up the cup and he said, this is the new cup, or this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. Take and drink. And he said, as often as you do these things, do them in remembrance of me. So that's what we're supposed to do.

As a matter of fact, Paul told us in 1 Corinthians that when we do this, we declare the death of Jesus. Because the death of Jesus is the one place of hope that we have as believers in Jesus Christ. So we're told to do so in a worthy manner. Of course, first of all, we want to make sure that we understand what we're doing. That while it's just juice and crackers,

it doesn't actually become the body and blood of Jesus. It is very symbolic of the body and blood of Jesus. And we realize that it declares that. And so understanding the gravity of the meal is important. The second thing is we need to know that you're a believer in Jesus Christ. If you're not, it won't mean anything to you, first of all. And Scripture even gives

certain warnings that if you're not a believer, it's probably best not to partake. And then the third is we want to make sure that as believers that our hearts are right before the Lord. So as we go through a week, a month, an hour, sometimes sin creeps in. And while that sin does not take away our sin, our salvation, it does break our fellowship. And so we're told

to confess our sins. And so as the cup is handed out, I would encourage you, and as this last song is played, I would encourage you to allow the Lord to search your heart. If you're not a believer here this morning, it's as simple as putting your faith in Jesus, asking Him to come in and become your Savior, to confess your sin and to accept the gift that He has given to you through Jesus Christ. And so allow the Lord to search your heart and see what's going on on the inside of you.

And so I'll invite the other people to come in. I'm going to ask you to come down as you receive the cup if you would please stand and then we will all partake together.

Would you bow with me? Father, we come before You and Lord, I thank You for the sacrifice of Jesus. Father, I thank You for His body that was broken for us. Lord, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace laid upon Him and by His stripes we are healed. And so Father, we praise You for the sacrifice of the body

of Jesus. And Father, we thank You for the blood of Jesus that was enough to cover our sins. Lord, the blood that purchased our redemption, the blood of the propitiation poured on the mercy seat for us. And so Father, thank You that You have made a way through the body and the blood of Jesus for us to come boldly to the throne of grace. Father, may we always

keep in mind the glory of the sacrifice that You made for us. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.