Sunday Morning Service 8:30AM- The Work of the Minister Pt 1 - Pastor Ryan

Good morning. Would you all stand with us? We want to welcome you this morning to Calvary Chapel. We also want to welcome those who are viewing online, Facebook, YouTube, all that stuff. You're welcome to just join us. We want you to worship with us and just study God's Word and grow in His grace. We thank you, Lord Jesus. Just bless our time now as we worship in song and study your Word, Lord.

We need your strength, your help, Lord, to be what you'd have us be. And we thank you for your loving kindness, your mercy, your grace, your sovereignty. Bless our time, Lord Jesus.

We can trust Him in every area, every situation, whatever it may be. Whatever you're going through, God is in control. In spite of how it looks in this old world. Thank you, Lord Jesus. You may be seated.

Are you facing any mount? You may be facing any mountain this morning that you need to speak to in the name of Jesus that will be holding you back and trusting, whatever it might be. God is faithful. It doesn't mean it's easy. He didn't promise easy. He said He would suffer. We would go through things. But He promised to be there. And He always has purposes for what He does.

Because He's drawing us closer into His image, closer to Him. That's why all things... All things are working together for the good, whatever they may be, for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. God is faithful. And ultimately, the goal is to be with Him in glory.

Rapture by death. And so, Lord, help us keep our eyes on the prize. Look to you, Lord Jesus. Help us to be faithful servants of you. And live as if you could carry a while. But be ready as if you could come now. And we ask that in Jesus' name.

At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. On earth, under the earth, heaven. Yes. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you for this being in our midst, Lord. As you always are. Because you're all present. You're all powerful. You're all knowing, Lord. There's not a place we go where you're not. Reminds me of that Psalm 139. And Lord, as I'm thinking of that Psalm, Lord, search our hearts.

See if there'd be any wicked way in us now, Lord. That we would just pour our hearts out to you this morning. And be real before you. You're so good, Lord. You are here.

You are here. Working in this place. A worship maker. Miracle worker. Light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. Way maker. Miracle worker. Light in the darkness. My God, you are here.

You are here. Turn up. Way maker. Miracle worker. Light in the darkness. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here.

You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. You are here. who does make the way before us with whatever we're looking at or dealing with. And we thank you for that, Lord.

You keep the stars and all that. You can certainly take care of us as you raise Christ from the dead with the same resurrection power you raised him from the dead. You made us alive in you, Lord. We thank you. So would you all stand?

Keeper of the stars,

Lord of time and space, I will live my life. Lover of mine for the cross and the life you just did. Your name... Lord, you are beautiful, glorious, the God of the universe, holy, mighty.

So much more we can say about who you are, God. So, Lord, we just look to you. And, Father, I know that each of us, I just feel in my heart sometimes that... There's those things we face and we go, wow, God, help. And he's there. Just remember that.

He restores. He picks up. He strengthens each of us. And even before we need the strength, the help, he knows it ahead of time. And he does those things and works those things in our heart that draws us closer to him. Good, bad, the ugly, all of it is working together for the good for those who love God. And, Father, as we continue our service, Lord, I'm just praying that you would just move in this place.

Fill us afresh by your Holy Spirit. Give us a willingness to listen to you, Lord, and to obey because it's the best for us. Not obey in a legalistic way, but because you first loved us. We love you. And we want to serve you and we want to look to you and trust you. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's have some fellowship.

Good morning. If you could start the process of finding your seat. Grab a bulletin. 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... I know, first service is always the worst.

It's the only way I can get you guys to stay awake. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you've joined us. A few things to take note of in your bulletin. Over on the left-hand side are the things going on throughout the week. And so, find one of those spots to get plugged into and then you can have conversations like this once a week with everybody that you want to.

Speaking of which, in the middle section of your bulletin, a few things to remind you of is that there's a potluck tonight that you can come to at 5 o'clock. It's called the Get Connected Potluck. You can finish the conversation that you started right there tonight at 5 o'clock and also get to see who all of the other small group leaders are. And if you're not plugged into one yet, you can...

you can figure out which one that you want to get plugged into. So, come join us tonight for that. Bring a dish to share. Probably a good idea to bring a chair and come on out and enjoy some time with us at 5 o'clock right here in the backyard tonight. Also, ladies, a new Joyful Life study is coming in October. The sign-up sheet is out there. They're doing 2 Corinthians again

Monday afternoon... No, Monday evening, Thursday afternoon. Or if you can't make it to either of those, you can still sign up to receive the study and be a part of it that way. And then also, it is Operation Christmas Child Time again. I know that it doesn't feel like Christmas is almost here, but believe it or not, Christmas is almost here because this is the last Sunday in September, right?

And then the next thing that we have to look forward to is the fact that Archilala is coming at the end of October or basically next week. And then after that, all of a sudden it'll be time to turn your Christmas boxes in and you'll be like, where did the time go? Because that's what happens in life. So, so that's coming up. We're watching the video first before you guys share anything.

Yes, true. Okay, so a quick video about Operation Christmas Child. When that shoebox is open, they're overjoyed. You can see them shouting, jumping. Look at how much they are excited. This is the first time those children are receiving the shoeboxes. They are so happy. You can hear the laughter. You can hear the cheer. You can hear that excitement. It goes and goes and goes.

Right now we're in Ukraine and today we've given out the 200 million shoebox to a little girl here. So it's a lot of fun. It's a privilege for us to be able to come and to help the people as much as we can. Every box is important because every box is an opportunity to tell a child about God's love about His Son, Jesus Christ. There's so much joy that one gift box can give.

They really experience, the love of Jesus. At Operation Christmas Child, we celebrate something as simple as the shoebox because God uses it to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This shoebox gift will impact a child's life all year round. We never dreamed we'd have an army of men and women who would come to make this program happen. This is what it's all about. Telling others about Jesus. These shoeboxes go into 120 different countries where pastors and missionaries are going to use them to bring the gospel to kids. So you may think it's just a simple gift at Christmastime,

but it's the gift of the gospel, the story of Jesus Christ. When that shoebox leaves that distribution center and it goes around the world, that's not just one person. That's the body of Christ joined together delivering the good news of the gospel. They go by plane, they go by ship, they go by riverboat, they go by camels, they go by motorbikes. And these boxes go to some of the most remote areas of the world.

And every box counts. After receiving shoeboxes, children are involved in the process of receiving them. After receiving shoeboxes, children are involved in the process of receiving them. After receiving shoeboxes, children are involved in the process of receiving them. And each of them is invited to participate in the Greatest Journey Discipleship program.

These children have just completed 12 lessons in the Greatest Journey. I believe that discipleship is the key and they are now followers of Christ they will tell their friends about Jesus.

My name is Gladys and I am nine years old. My friend, Kemi, told me that I needed to go with her to church. I wanted to teach her about the Word of God. And when she came to my church, she received a gift box. For a long time, I asked my mom for a blanket. When I opened my shoe box, I found a blanket in it. When I came home, I showed it to my mom, and she said it was great.

I told her about Jesus. Now me, my mom, my grandma, and Kemi go to church together. I am certain of one thing. God is my Savior. Every box counts. Every box touches a child. It's like a snowflake. There's not one shoe box that is the same. And we are reaching millions of children with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you get the heart of the child, you will reach the heart of the parents, you will reach the heart of the family, and then you will touch the community. We are seeing churches being planted. More and more churches have been built. We will do whatever it takes to reach the ends of the earth with the gospel. That gift box is the beginning into their hearts.

Isn't it incredible how these gifts touch the lives of these children? The joy, the smiles, it changes lives. Every year we see tens of thousands of children discipled. And we couldn't do this without you, so thank you for packing the boxes. Thank you for praying for these children around the world. God bless you, and keep packing those boxes.

I told him he's got to be careful. This box might start bulging. Some of you guys packed boxes that bulge. We love it. Hey, we are so excited. I don't think we could say anything that that didn't already say, but we do want to thank you guys for participating in this every year. Once again, we're going to be, you saw a great example of the distribution center in that video,

and we are going to. I am. Tuesday morning is actually the day I have to get on the phone and try to reserve 40 spots, so pray for me Tuesday morning at 8 o'clock. I would like to get, we alternate years. We try to do, this is the year that we will take, hopefully a lot of you would like to go with us to the distribution center to work it, and I try to reserve the 40 spots, and this year it will be,

we will leave it like at noon, hopefully, if I get this spot, on Black Friday. It's the only time that, kids who are in sports can go, and so we alternate years. I know it's not great for some of you who have family coming in, but it is great for other people, so we try to alternate years, and we hope that a lot of you guys will pack a shoebox. I think that explained it really well.

November 17th will be when we collect boxes here at the church, and that will come quicker than you know it, so start packing today. We also have shoeboxes already lined up outside, so if you want to grab some boxes, they're folded up and ready. You have the... This year it did go up to $10 for delivery. As you can imagine, everything has increased. I would tell you also,

I'll go ahead and give you a little forewarning, next year, and possibly even this year, maybe think about leaving your soap out of the boxes. We still have boxes held up in customs, because the dogs don't like the smell of the soap. From last year. From last year, yeah, and so they're going to stop letting us put, soap in all together next year, but so keep that in mind.

We are also going to have a packing party at, once again, at Joe and Danielle's house. November 3rd, I believe, is the week before the packing party, so invite any of you to that as well, but it's a lot of fun, and shoebox, you know, I don't know if he mentioned it, but they do, historically, they figured that one shoebox touches at least 10 people, so, it's, it's you being a missionary, without ever leaving your house. So, thanks again. Thanks guys, see you.

Yeah, when that box falls down, we all have to help, so. 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 are going to be in Psalm 29. Psalm 29. Looking at the New American Standard for this part, just so we can, hopefully all say the same thing at the same time.

If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 29, 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 29, a Psalm of David. Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Ascribe to the Lord justice, as people pray and praise His name. Worship the Lord in holy array. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters.

The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the Cedars. Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the Cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Syria like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the loans of fire.

The voice of the Lord shakes the lounge of fire. Worship the Lord. The Lord is over many waters now. the wilderness the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh the voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve and this and strips the forest bare and in his temple everything says glory the Lord said and the king of the flood yes the Lord sits as king forever and read verse 11 with me the Lord will give strength to his people the Lord will bless his people with peace and father we do praise you for how powerful you are and Lord that your voice that spoke the world into existence is the same voice that speaks to us through your word today and so father may your voice have that same power in our hearts today as

we get into your word or may we learn from you may we be strengthened in you may we be drawn close to you Jesus name Amen you may be seated and if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 last week when we were together we looked at the work of the gospel because we remember these first two or three chapters of 1st Thessalonians are very personal in nature Paul had to leave quickly from Thessalonica after the church was started there and so he wrote this book because there were things that they needed to know and part of what they needed to know had to do with the personal nature of his time there at the church and so in chapter 1 he

talked a lot about the work of the gospel and how thankful he was for what God had done in the Thessalonian people through the work of the gospel but now as we come to chapter 2 we're gonna see the work of the minister Paul because he had to leave quickly and because part of the reason he left was was the Judaizers that came in behind him and it spoke bad things about him it was necessary for him to defend his ministry and to defend what God had done and so chapter 2 is a defense of his character and his ministry and so as he talks about the work of the minister the work that he was able to do among the people through through the power of God I have entitled it the work of the minister and there

will be six things that we will take a look at six principles that I think also kind of apply to us because all of us ultimately do the work of the ministry as believers in Jesus Christ we'll look at the first three of them today we'll start in chapter 2 verse 1 and this is what it is 4, 2, and 1. it says, for you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. But after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel amid much opposition. For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the

gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed, God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our own authority. But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having so fond an affection for you, we were well pleased to impart

to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. And so, we'll look at these first three principles this morning, what it looks like to be a minister, and what it looks like to be a minister. And so, we'll look at these first three principles this morning, what it looks like to be a minister, and what it looks like for Paul as he ministered to the people of Thessalonica. The first principle of being a minister that's given to us in these first few verses is the principle of boldness. Boldness. Notice what it says in verse 1. He says,

for you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. As he starts to talk about this topic of boldness, he reminds them about when he came and when he arrived there. And remember, when he arrived, he arrived and started preaching the gospel in the synagogue. He said, our coming to you, our arrival there, and the work of the ministry that we did was, first of all, not in vain. It was not something that was futile. It was not something that was

ineffective. It was not something that was fruitless, because that's one of the things that he was accused of by those that came in behind him, is that really what he did was just empty work there, because there was no real effect that had taken place. And he said, that's not true. The work that we did there was not in vain, because there was great fruit that was produced, because of it. There was a great effect that took place because of it. The effect was so great

that they had to kick him out, because they didn't like the work that was going on through the work of the gospel. He said, it wasn't in vain. And may I remind us all that as workers of the gospel, because that's what we are as believers in Jesus Christ, our work is never in vain. I don't know if I can emphasize this enough, that the work that we do as believers in Jesus Christ with the people that are in the church, we don't do it in vain. We don't do it in vain. We don't do it

around us. It's never an ineffective work. The work that you do as parents is never an ineffective work. The work that you do as grandparents is never ineffective. God always uses it. But in the same way that Paul's accusers tried to tell him that his work was vain in the city of Thessalonica, the enemy will want to come in and tell you, you're not making any kind of a difference.

What you do doesn't matter. What you do isn't affecting anyone. And I'm here to tell you right now that if you ever minister the truth of the gospel to anyone, if you ever give God's word to anyone, it will always do what it has, what it is sent out to do. We're told that in the book of Isaiah, that God's word never returns void, but it always accomplishes that for which it was sent out to do. And we have to remember that. Now in the short term, we may not always see the work of the

gospel take place in our lives. We may not always see the work of the gospel take place in our lives. We may not always see the fruit of what our work is supposed to do in the lives of the people around us, but that does not mean that God is not at work. I actually think when we get to heaven, we will be amazed to see what God did through the little things that we do in life. Through those times

that you chose to pour into someone's life that in the moment seemed like it did nothing, but in the big scheme of eternity, it started a work in their life that only you could do. Because our work as ministers of the gospel is never going to be a work of the gospel. Never in vain. And Paul says, when we came to you, our coming to you was not in vain. It wasn't

fruitless. It wasn't ineffective. It wasn't futile. It had great power. He says, but after, verse 2, we had already suffered and been mistreated at Philippi. Again, as we talk about boldness, I think it's important to remember the circumstances that brought Paul to Thessalonica. He had been working amongst the Philippian people, and because of his work, it had affected the Ephesians. And he had been working amongst the Philippians. And he had been

the economy of the idol makers in Philippi. And so they faced a great deal of persecution. As a matter of fact, they were beaten and thrown into jail. Those were the circumstances that led him to come to Thessalonica. Because after he was beaten and thrown into jail, and then eventually released from prison, they had to decide, what are we going to do? Well, I don't know about you,

but somebody beats me up for things that I say. I have a tendency to not want to keep saying those same things. Amen? We kind of find ourselves going, maybe I just won't do that again. Because I'm just going to keep my mouth shut, because I know what happens when I speak up, I get attacked. Trust me, I know what that's like. I've never been beaten physically for the things

that I've said, but I've had some people not be real pleased with me about some things that I've said. I've had some people kind of verbally beat me up because of things that I've said before. And you kind of find yourself going, then I just won't talk. That's the way I usually handle situations like that. Fine, then I'll just be quiet. I'll sit over here in my corner and be right,

and the rest of you can just be wrong. Right? And that's not what God wants us to do. You can imagine Paul kind of feeling that way, right? Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, you can imagine him leaving Philippi going, I will never do that again. I will just show up. I will make tents. And if somebody sees the absolutely peaceful look on my face and asks me, hey, what's different about you? I might think

about answering them with the message of the gospel. But that's not what he did. He left Philippi and he went to Thessalonica. What did he do? He got up in the synagogue again. It was like, let me tell you about Jesus. And faced the same kind of persecution. He says, we were mistreated in Philippi. And as you know, we had the boldness of our God to speak the message

of the gospel to you, even in the midst of much affliction. Did you pay attention to that phrase, the boldness of God? That word boldness is kind of an interesting word to translate. From what I understand, it really takes two different ideas to translate it because, carries with it both a lack of fear and a confidence. A lack of fear and being full of confidence. So if we were to translate that properly, we would be able to say confidence

to speak freely. When he showed up, he had confidence to speak freely. In other words, in spite of what he had faced in Philippi, in spite of what he and Silas had faced in Philippi, in spite of what he and Silas and Timothy witnessed in Philippi, they showed up in Thessalonica and they still had the confidence. They still had the confidence to speak freely. And that's what he was

confidence to speak freely of the gospel now i don't know about you but that confidence is kind of hard to come across can we all agree with that we we kind of face that same fear in our culture today because if you boldly speak out for what's true if you boldly speak out for what's right if you boldly declare what god's word has to say about sin if you boldly declare what god's word has to say about salvation a lot of people are not real fond of that as a matter of fact they will call you intolerant they will call you narrow-minded they will call you bigoted and they will call you uh provincial in the way that you think oh that's so antiquated in the way that

you think we've we know so much more now than they did back then and they will mock you and try to silence you for the things that you say and i'm here to tell you in the culture that we live in today we need christians who can confidently speak the truth now listen i want to point out it doesn't say arrogantly speak the truth because sometimes that's what we as christians can be guilty of right is we can be a little bit arrogant in our a little bit arrogant in our knowledge and say what the problem is you just don't understand you're right that is the problem and you being patronizing doesn't help that but you can be confident in what you have to say because what you have to say is bound up in the truth of who god is what prevents confidence what

prevents boldness fear and sometimes not always being confident about the message right sometimes sometimes we lack boldness because we truly fear the consequences we fear what might come about if i begin to really truly declare the truth to the people that are around me if i stand for what's true i hear people say sometimes but if i stand for what's true that's going to affect me in my workplace maybe but god's kind of got that taken care of too god's always going to take care of you in those situations but if i stand up boldly you don't know what that's going to do with my friends you don't know what that's going to mean for the people that i hang out with all the time true you may lose some friends over it but if they

don't like you because you stand for what's true you don't know what that's going to mean for the what's true and what you at your core believe were they ever really your friends i mean it's a really good question to ask right we don't understand people people will mistreat me well that kind of makes you just like jesus doesn't it so i suppose that's probably okay so all of those fears that we have usually come down to the fact that i need to decide that what's true is greater than my fear but the other problem that we have is sometimes we don't have a lot of confidence in the message you know why we don't always have a lot of confidence in the message because we don't always really understand the message

i think more and more one of the things that i realize in church culture today is people are so uneducated about god's word now praise god you guys love to hear god's word taught you guys love to get into god's word for yourselves and so hopefully you are learning what god's word has to say more and more but it's really hard to be confident if you don't have knowledge paul had a great deal of knowledge about the truth because he had spent time with the truth giver and so if you want to be confident in that message you need to stand confident in what god's word has to say i read a great statement on instagram the other day from shane pruitt i don't really know who

this guy is very much but i love everything that he posts and he said the problem in today's culture is that too many christians know their enneagram number and they know their love language but they don't know what the bible says about marriage and i thought that that was a pretty good statement because that little microcosm right there goes with all kinds of things in church and so i'm going to tell you what society says about a lot of things but sometimes when it comes down to but what does god say about it sometimes we lack that knowledge and as believers if you want confidence in the message then you need to be confident about what it says but you see paul's

lack of fear paul's confidence didn't just come because he decided that the truth is greater than the fear and that he was overly confident in the message there was a secret to it did you notice what it said he said we have boldness in god literally what he says is god was the source of our strength and confidence god was the source of our strength and confidence again it comes back to the same thing if you are in touch with constantly the jesus who told you that you would probably face persecution that he's going to keep giving you everything that you need to face the difficulties of life and to be bold in your witness if you are confident or if you are spending your life with confidence in god you

will be confident in the message of the word you see with knowledge comes confidence and with relationship comes that knowledge and that confidence where do we find our confidence in this world today where do we find our boldness in this world today we find it in god there's a wonderful old testament story that goes along with this and kind of follows this same idea and it has to do with david david and his mighty men had come back to the village that they were living in only to find that the village had been raided by the amalekites and all of their families had been taken captive and all of their goods had been stolen and all of the people started looking at david and kind of going

hey wait a second you're the one who's in charge why did you let this happen and according to what we're told in the book of first samuel they were ready to stone him and so do you know what david did it says that david strengthened himself in the lord david strengthened himself in the lord in other words he came back to his relationship with god and he remembered once again that god is the god who had never failed him that god was the god of power that god was the god of strength that god was the god who had put him in charge and god is the god who would keep him in charge and so he strengthened himself in the lord and god gave him a plan and they boldly moved forward in the plan you need to learn to

strengthen yourself in the lord you need to learn to strengthen yourself in who god is by reminding yourself of the truth of who god is you say ryan there's there's so much so much that would want to just make me want to stay silent right now well you know there's an old a new testament story that goes along with this too took place in the book of acts it's the very first time that the the disciples were really persecuted and they were brought in before the ruling body of the jews at that point in time and they were told you should speak the word of god again and they said who are we going to listen to you or god i think we're going to have to listen to what god has to say so they went back to the upper room and when they

went back to that upper room it says they prayed together and do you know what they prayed for they didn't pray that god would take away the persecution they didn't pray that god would uh would put to death those that were persecuting them they prayed for boldness and when they prayed for boldness the room was shaken and from that point on they move forward with boldness and continue to declare the word of god in a bold fashion you say ryan i want to have boldness then you need to pray that god would give you the boldness you need to get to know the god of the message and you need to allow him to be the source of your strength and what were they bold to do they they weren't just bold to go out

and tell everybody that they were wrong i think that that's really important to to say right now is to tell people that they're wrong they they weren't bold to go out and declare their conspiracy theories what were they bold to do they were bold to declare the gospel even in the midst of much conflict even in the midst of much persecution listen when god gives us boldness we need to understand the heart of the boldness that god gives to us it's to go out and declare the truth to go out and declare the gospel to a lost and dying world and so paul says as a minister that we need to have the same boldness by god to declare the truth and brothers and sisters as

ministers in the 21st century today we need that same boldness from god number two second principle of being a minister of god is integrity notice what it says in verse 3 for our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit but just as we have been approved by god to be entrusted with the gospel so we speak not as pleasing men but god who examines our hearts for we never came with flattering speech as you know nor with a pretext for greed god is witness nor did we seek glory from men either from you or from others even though as apostles of christ we might have asserted our authority they moved forward with integrity they ministered with integrity and the

first part of that integrity was to be a minister of god and to be a minister of god and to be a minister of god and to be a minister of god and to be a minister of god and to be a minister of god integrity had to do with the sincerity of their motives as a matter of fact look again at verse three because he points out three things to us he says our exhortation in other words the way that they presented the word does not come from error or impurity or deceit that word error speaks of that which is false that was the source of their message the source of their message did not come from error it came from the truth it didn't come from some sort of a false teaching it didn't come from some sort of idea that

they had dreamed up it did not come from error their source was constantly in the truth the second thing it did not come from is that it did not come from impurity that was their motivation it did not come from impurity that word impurity could also be translated uncleanness and it speaks of any sort of immorality that would be in the life of a person in other words their motives were pure their motives were pure in the things that they were doing there was no immorality in in anything that they did in other words no seeking of of a position no seeking of money from people it was just a pure motive to give out the truth and then number three he says that their motivations also were not in deceit that's the method they did not use deceitful

methods to give out the truth that word deceit is kind of an interesting word it carries with it the idea of being lured into a trap being lured into a trap it's actually the idea of being lured into a trap it's actually a a word that could be used for a fishing lure they did not use deceit they did not use a way to lure someone into a trap in other words they didn't come up with some sort of a scheme to try to quickly build a church it was not in deceit because there was pure motivation and as ministers we need to make sure that there is sincerity in the way that we handle ourselves with the world around us there can be no error there can be no impurity there can be no deceit in the way that we do things

and i say that because again in church culture today there can be this idea that the end justifies the means it may not be the most pure way to to get the job done but in the end isn't really the important thing that we're doing the work of the gospel no it's not just the important thing that you do the work of the gospel it's important how you do the work of the gospel because if your motives are impure then the message will be tainted if your motives are impure then the message , , will be impugned right and so Paul knew he had to defend himself against these things because if I wanted to discredit a message the first thing that I would do is discredit the messenger and he says there was great integrity and our

motives and the way that we handled things but not only were there sincere motives but they were approved by God verse 4 just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel so we speak not as pleasing men but God who examines the hearts before we deal with the phrase approved of God I want to deal with the fact that he says entrusted with the gospel this seems to be a theme that Paul uses in a good number of his letters as he speaks of what he is as a minister in the book of 1st Corinthians he refers to he and the men that were with him as stewards of the gospel in the book of 2nd Corinthians he says we have a treasure in an earthen vessel and here in the book of 1st Thessalonians

he says we have been entrusted with the gospel do you notice a theme and all of those and all of those we have a theme of the fact that we've been entrusted with this great responsibility that we have this hidden treasure that the world is searching for and that you and I have and that with that we have been entrusted with this responsibility and as believers in Jesus Christ we weren't just set free from the world you were then entrusted with a message and now he wants you to take that message to the entire world that's around you and we are to do so with the responsibility that it was brought to us you ever thought about how blessed it is that somebody felt the responsibility to tell you the truth that somebody felt the responsibility to

declare the truth of the gospel to you that it was so heavy on their heart that they were like I just can't let this go I just can't not share the truth and because of that you heard the truth and you received the truth and you became born again and now that you've become born again you as Paul says in 2nd Corinthians, have that treasure in an earthen vessel. And now you have been entrusted with that message, that message to carry the truth to the world that's around you. Have you ever viewed your life that way? Have you ever viewed the message of the gospel that is inside of you as something that you've been entrusted with? And listen, not everybody's an evangelist. Not everybody's a

teacher. Everybody handles the giftings that God has given to them differently. But at the end of the day, you hold the message of truth inside of you because you have been born again by the Spirit of God. And because you've been born again by the Spirit of God, you have been entrusted with a message. And as you have been entrusted with a message, are you like Paul and his companions?

Have you been approved by God? That word approved means fit for service. That's the idea behind it. But what it literally means, is to be tested and proven genuine. To be tested and proven genuine. In other words, if this was a car going through the factory and it gets down to that last spot where they have to run the engine to make sure everything works right, not because they don't think the car is

going to work right, but so that they can prove that the car works right. And once that engine has been run and they go, hey, this one works, they put the stamp of approval on it because it has been tested. And proven genuine. It is now fit for service. You've been entrusted with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You bear the truth inside of you. But now our desire is that we would be approved by God.

How are we approved by God? Well, as we continue to seek the Lord, as we continue to follow God and hold that responsibility personally in our lives, then he begins to approve us because we are tested and then proven genuine. That means that every day in our life is a test. Every day in our life is a test to be proven genuine. Not because God wants to see you disproved, but so that you can see for yourself

that God has changed your life. We don't love those tests. We don't love when those things come along. But what a beautiful thing when we make it through to the other side and we look and we say, look at what God did. We see that we have been approved by God. Approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the truth. And as we have been approved by God to be trusted with the message of the truth, I want you

to notice what it says at the end of verse four. Not as pleasing men, but God who examines the heart. We'll deal with this again in just a moment, but let's look at this real quick. Not as pleasing men. If you want to be approved by God, you can't wait until the day that you're approved by God. You can't worry about what people say about you. Now, I say that as a person who constantly worries

what people say about him, okay? I'm telling you that is something that this is an area that God has been working on me in my life for years now. Because I want to please people. It's who I am by nature. Part of it makes me really good at my job because I care about people and I care what happens in people's lives. Part of it makes me terrible at my job because sometimes I can be

gripped with the fear that I've made myself. And I can't worry about what people say about me. I've made someone mad or I've bothered someone or I haven't done something right because I want to please people. And what God keeps doing slowly but surely in my life is he keeps telling me, don't worry what people say. Worry what I say. Don't worry about whether or not you have delivered

a message that make people happy. Worry about whether or not you've delivered a message that makes me happy. Don't worry about whether or not you've said something the right way. Worry about whether or not you've said it my way. Because at the end of the day, there is one person that I need to seek to please, and that's God. There is one person that I need to seek to be approved by, and that's God. It's

wonderful to think that somebody was blessed by anything that I do in my life, but at the end of the day, I want God to be blessed by what I do in my life. And ultimately, we have to realize as Christians that we serve an audience of one, that we serve God. And as long as God is pleased with what we do, we're going to be blessed. And as long as God is pleased with what we do, we're going to be blessed. And as long as God is pleased with what we do, we're going to be blessed. And we have done

everything that we need to do. And we are approved by God. I tell you this because we live in a culture that is so wrapped up with whether or not we please people. You know how I know? Because there are think tanks that allow politicians to constantly test all of the things that they say and the way that they say it to make sure that people will be pleased with it. You say, yeah,

but I'm not a politician. Aren't you? Don't we all test the things that we say to see if they're going to be pleasing to people? And if people don't like it, then we start to change kind of the way that we say things and the things that we do. And if everybody's like, oh, that's great, then we say it a lot. And if everybody's like, that's stupid, we're like, yeah, I didn't like it either. Right? Because that's kind of who we are

as people. Why? Because we're people pleasers by nature. You say, no, I'm not. I don't care what people think. I bet you care more than anybody. That's what I always like to tell people that say that. I don't care what people think about me. Yeah, I bet you care more than anybody else does. Just like I do. We serve an audience of one. And God is the one person that we need to please.

Why? Because God examines our hearts. See, I can fool a lot of people. You can fool a lot of people just by having a genuine enough appearance in the way that you do things. But you see, at the end of the day, God cuts past all of that stuff and he sees what's really on the inside. He says, I really know why you did that. You may not even know why you did that, but I know why you did that. And you did that to please

people and not me. And God touches places like that in my life sometimes. And I have to say, you're right. I need to get back to just pleasing you. Because at the end of the day, when we are approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, it's not so that we will please men, but so that we will please God who tests the heart. And then the last part of this integrity is that,

we don't seek the glory of man. Notice what he says, for we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with the pretext for greed God has witnessed, nor did we seek glory from men. We didn't come with flattering speech. What does he mean by that? We'll always give you the example that I give of my daughters. When they were real little, when they really wanted something, they weren't sure if I was going to give them the thing

that they were looking for, they would look at me and they would say, Dad, I love the way your hair looks today. And I would say, what do you want? Right? Because I knew that that was them trying to flatter me. Little five-year-old selves knew that if they could somehow appeal to me in that way, that maybe I would do something for them. And how sad when that's what we do as ministers of the

gospel, when we try to flatter people with speech instead of just telling them the truth. Don't get me wrong. We should give the truth in a loving and gentle sort of way. We'll deal with gentleness in just a moment. But what we can't do is we can't give the truth in a loving and gentle sort of way. We can't use flattery in the way that we do things, he says, nor with the pretext for greed. In other

words, I didn't just come so that you'd give me all your money, right? No, we didn't seek the glory of man. We didn't seek the glory of man. Instead, we sought the glory of God. And so as ministers of the gospel, number one, we need to have boldness, boldness in the way that we handle ourselves that only comes from God. Number two, we need to have integrity so that our motives and our

actions are for God and not man. And then number three, we are to be gentle. We are to be gentle. Verse seven,

the gospel of God, but also our own lives. Now, this aspect of gentleness, again, I think is really important for us to pay attention to. You may not know this, but there's been two or three megachurch pastors that have had to step down because of church abuse that's taken place. Usually it's verbal in nature, but it's because they begin to assert their authority in a very harsh, demeaning sort of way. And it's really

easy when you become an authority figure over a church to step down because of church abuse. And it's really easy when you become an authority figure over someone to allow yourself to rule in that harsh and demeaning sort of way. As a matter of fact, we've talked about this before, but the best coaches I've ever had in my life were always gentle in the way that they handled themselves. They told you the truth. They didn't mind telling you the truth, but they were gentle in the way

that they did it because their goal was to make you better, not to tear you down. And it happens oftentimes in churches, and it can happen oftentimes with us. You see, in this world that we live in, today, we hear the ridiculous things that go on around us, and we want to tell the truth. And sometimes we begin to gain that boldness from God, which is a really good thing, but sometimes that boldness that we get from God, if not tempered with gentleness, can become harsh. And we can

start tearing people down with truth. I watch it happen all the time on social media when somebody comes out and really just blasts people with what they have to say with the truth. And we have to understand that we can all at times be guilty of the truth, but we can also be guilty of the truth. We can all be guilty of using the truth as a sledgehammer to try to beat down the people that are around us, but the truth should never be used that way. It should always be used in a gentle

sort of way. And that's the way Paul handled himself. He says, we were gentle among you. And then he gives a beautiful illustration of the gentleness that was among them. He says, we were gentle among you as a nursing mother with her child. Now, that should immediately invoke in you an image, and that image is absolutely gentle, right? Like I just, I just love watching moms with their little kids, you know. Sometimes they got to tell

them the truth and be bold with them, but usually they're just really tender with them. And if I'm being completely honest, what I really appreciate is the example that he does not give here, and that's the example of a dad with their brand new baby. I actually think that that's an almost an even better picture of gentleness that he's talking about here. I love seeing dad's, especially when I worked in the construction world. They were just rough guys, and they were

rough talking guys, rough acting guys. And then they'd get around some little baby, and they turn into little babies themselves. And they start going, oh, look at you, right? And they're acting all tender and gentle. You see them with their own kid, and you're just like, who are you? And what do you do with that guy, right? Because all of a sudden they become gentle, because they realize

that's a little baby that they're holding there. And it's one of the most beautiful things that you see, because that gentleness is what Paul said. That's how we were among them. And that's how we were among you. We were gentle among you as a nursing mother is with her children. Why? Because sometimes new believers need that. People that have been absolutely blasted with the truth

needed to kind of be gentle. I've thought about this a lot, because I know people that have been steeped in their wrong ideas for so long, and I have to tell them the truth. And I've tried to put myself in their position. What if, what if somebody came to me and said, everything that you've been told, since the day that you were born is wrong. It's wrong, and it's an offense to God. It's wrong,

it's an offense to God, and it actually is going to land you in hell. How would I feel at that point in time? Well, I'd start off being defensive, but also I would feel very wounded because of everything that I had just, everything that I'd been taught my entire life was a lie. Can we all agree that that would be a really hard thing to, to take in? Now, that's the way an unbeliever feels

the moment that you start telling them the truth. Everything you've been taught your entire life is wrong. Everything you've been taught your entire life is not only wrong, but it's an offense to God. And everything you've been taught your entire life is not only wrong, it's not only an offense to God, but it's going to land you in hell. Now, if that's what I'm presenting to you,

how do I need to treat you once you come to the truth? Gently, because you are like a deer in the lights at that point in time. And that's the way. we've got to be with people. We've got to be gentle with them because you are absolutely wrecking their world in the most beautiful way possible. But you're having to completely rebuild everything through the work of the gospel. And so it needs to be gentle in the way that it's dealt

with. And part of that gentleness is sharing our lives. Notice what he says. He says in verse eight, having so fond and affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives. We were well pleased to impart to you the gospel of God. That's speaking the truth. That's being ministers of the truth, right? And that's what we're to be. We're to be

ministers of the truth in boldness, but we're to do it gently. And if we're to do it gently, we not only impart the gospel, but we impart our very lives to them. There's an old adage that goes, people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. One of the best supervisors in the world, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, was a very gentle man. And every time we did something stupid, he would say, that was pretty

stupid. Let me tell you about a time I did that. And you did not ever feel nervous around him. You did not ever feel concerned around him. You knew he held you to a high accountability, but you knew he would share that same thing with you and say, and this is how I learned not to do it anymore. You see, that's imparting our own lives to people. And what we have to understand as ministers of the gospel is we don't just have a Holy Spirit shotgun

that's blowing the truth into people's lives. No, we're coming into their lives and being a part of them because that's what making a disciple means. Because that's what making a disciple is intended to be, is people coming into the lives of other people and sharing their own lives with them. That's why the very first time I ever gave a message, God made me share everything that was going on in my life. That's why sometimes I overshare from up here.

It's because God said, that's exactly what I want you to do. I want you to tell them the good, the bad, and the ugly, because that's sharing your life with someone. And I'm here to tell you right now, over and over again, I have found that while sometimes I overshare and every now and then I'm like, that might've been too much. I've never had somebody come to me and say, I wish you'd share less truth about yourself. Because people always appreciate, whether it's in a setting like this,

or whether I'm talking to somebody one-on-one, people always, appreciate knowing that I'm a loser too. And I'm just seeking Jesus myself and trying to learn who God wants me to be. And God wants you to be that way with people too. Now that's a hard thing to do because it means you have to let down some walls. It means you have to be confident in who you are

in Christ. But as you are confident in who you are in Christ, it's a whole lot easier for you to let down those walls and say, this is what I've been through in my walk. Let me help you walk through it too. Because that's what we were called to do. And Paul said, we imparted to you not only the gospel, but we gave you our lives. We just lived life with you. And we told you the good, the bad,

and the ugly. Can you imagine what it was like when Paul showed up at Thessalonica, starts preaching in the synagogue, and some people get saved and they say, I love what you're talking about. What happened to your face? Right? And Paul's like, it's the face God gave me. And that's like, that's not what we're talking about. Who beat you up? And probably with tears in his eyes, he starts sharing everything that he'd gone through. Because

you can imagine the PTSD he had at that point in time. And he starts sharing everything that he'd gone through in Philippi. And it starts pouring out his heart of everything he'd been through in his missionary journeys. And they're like, wow, that's hard. Let us tell you about some of the things we've been through. And all of a sudden, all the walls are broken down. Because they've

imparted their lives. And why did he do so? I love this last part. He says, because you had become very dear to us. In other words, it can also be translated because you became beloved ones to us. They became important to him. He said, we started sharing more of ourselves with you because you were so important to us. You became so dear to us. You became so beloved to us. Brothers and sisters, that's family. That's community. That's the church.

And I'm here to tell you right now, I'm going to tell you again, we did this a couple weeks ago, but I'm going to tell you again, we did this a couple weeks ago, but I'm going to tell you again, we did this a couple weeks ago, God has you here so that you can get to know your family. I love that I don't know who all's here this morning because you're all sitting in different places than I'm used to. And I love that because you all are getting to know different people in the sanctuary. You're getting to know different people in the church. And at some point in time, start letting those walls down and start

sharing with each other. Why? Because I want you all to become dear to each other. Because we're family. And that's what family is intended to be. And that's what family is intended to be. You say, I don't always get along with them. I don't always get along with my family either. That's family. You work it out because you've become dear to each other. Amen. Let's all stand.

Come join us tonight as we spend a little time together sharing with each other, sharing life with each other. Would you bow with me? Father, we come before you and I thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. Lord, I thank you for this church body and I thank you for everybody that's here. Lord, for the work that you have done in them and

Lord, the work that you want to do through them, not only within this, within these walls of this church, but Lord, within our community. And so Lord, make us effective ministers of your gospel. Make us effective ministers of your word as you have entrusted to each of us the truth of who you are. Lord, may we take the message of who you are and share it with those that are around us.

We thank you, Father, in Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed. I just have to say, Ryan made a point about an audience of one. That's who we worship, an audience of one. Amen. Good reminder. Amen. Lord, just bless, bless now each of these folks, each of us as we depart, serving you in a new week, time that you give us, Lord, that you would be glorified in all that we do, that people would know that we spent time with you

and we give you thanks in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Have a great week. See you this evening. Yes. Five o'clock. And be there, be square, round, however you are.