Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM- The Work of the Minister Pt 1 - Pastor Ryan

Good morning. I was telling Glenn a while ago, I said I need to have Alan or whoever's up there play this song by Love Song called Little Country Church. It's kind of fun, you know, not right now, but, you know, during our hanging out time or something.

I want to welcome you to Calvary Chapel this morning. Those of you who are with us live and those who are watching online, Facebook and all those books or whatever they are, the, you know, Good Grief, yeah, online, YouTube. I wonder if there's a WeTube, you know. Would you all stand?

Father, just bless our time now as we worship you in song, as we prepare to study your word together. We lift our service to you, Lord. Be glorified. We come to you just as we are. As we say sometimes, warts and all. Strengthen us, Lord. Help us be real before you, Lord. Help us not hold back to worship you, Lord. Let not our feeling like we can't sing well

or pride or whatever it may be hold us back from singing to you. Because you're worthy of our praise. Singing is just one other way of doing that. We do it with our work. We do it with our tithes. There's various ways we worship you. But as we corporately do that this morning, may we sing this unto you. May you be glorified, we ask, Lord.

And treasures that fade and put me back together.

Because this takes a little, you know, a little capacity sometimes. So, and then we can sit down. Lord, we thank you, Lord, that you are so faithful, Lord, that we can trust you. You're good to us. God is good. God is good.

You know, we sometimes have a mountain that we speak, we had to speak to the mountain because it's, God's greater than that mountain we're facing. That which goes before us that seems too hard to deal with. But we have a faithful God. And he has a purpose in everything he allows. As he draws us closer to his image, as he uses things in our life to make us more like him.

And we thank you, Lord, for that. Creator God. Jesus. God. Jesus. Praise his name. The Word. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. All things were made by him and not anything that was made was, that was made by him. We thank you, Lord. Creator God. Jesus. Emmanuel. God with us. Thank you for coming down here, Lord,

and living among us. And then dying on the cross for us. Raising from the dead. And ascending up to the right hand of the Father. Making intercession for us. We thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your healing touch, Lord. We can trust you in every area of our lives. You put your healing touch on us. Lord, you're moving this morning in hearts. You know the hearts of each of us.

You know what we've looked at and dealt with through a week. And you know the times we felt like we were struggling, Lord. You know the times when, you know the times when we thought, oh wow, Lord, this is another thing to face. And you were there all along. Helping us through. Lord, I want to lift up each one here this morning, Lord, that they would just sense your presence.

That they would know that you love them, Lord. That as they've given their hearts to you, and as we've given our total being to you, Lord, and we ask for that cleansing, that forgiveness of sins, you saved us, Lord. And so, Lord, just fill us afresh this morning by your Holy Spirit. And if there be any here that feels like they've just kind of gotten themselves going in the wrong direction, we know your word always talks about just, you know, doing those first things.

Doing those things that you know right. First of all, repent and then can redo the works. Begin to do the works that are those things of you. Fellowship. Enjoy time with others and you, Lord. And so, Lord, if there be any among us this morning that have felt like they've strayed, may they just begin to just take those steps. Just walk back. And know that you're there.

Would you stand? Keeper of the stars. Simply means praise the Lord. Hallelujah, Jesus. Everlasting God. Hallelujah, Jesus. Beautiful you are. So, Father, now would you just bless now as we continue our service that you'd be glorified, that you'd anoint Pastor Ryan by the power of your Holy Spirit to bring forth your word. Lord, we want to lift up the children's church down there, too.

Those teachers as they teach those youngsters. The future of our church until you come again, Lord. That you would anoint them to bring forth your word to them. All that which goes on right here in this church, be glorified, Lord. And we thank you. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's have a little fellowship. Good morning. If you could start to locate your seats.

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. A handful of things to take note of in your bulletin. Over on the left-hand side are the different studies that go on throughout the week. So take note of those and get plugged in in a spot that looks really good. And speaking of which,

we are having a potluck tonight at 5 o'clock in the backyard here so that we can hopefully get as many of you plugged in as possible to some of these studies. So it'll be a time to gather and have some food together and fellowship together. But also, all of the small group leaders will have a little table set up so that if you want to get plugged into one of those, you can go talk to them and kind of find out what it's all about. And so that'll be at 5 o'clock tonight.

So bring a dish to share. Probably be a good idea for you to bring a chair with you as well. And we'll have some, we'll have some fun visiting together tonight. Again, that's at 5 o'clock. Ladies, there's a new women's study starting up in October. Again, the sign-up sheets are out there in the lobby. There's the Monday evening, the Thursday afternoon, or if you just want to pick up the Bible study and work on it on your own

because you can't make it to one of those times, you can sign up for that as well. And then, last but not least, it's Operation Christmas Child time, which I know that doesn't seem right, but this is the last Sunday in September, which means that next week's basically going to be Arkalala. And then the week after that, it's going to basically be the day that you have to turn your boxes in. So really, there's only three weeks.

And so that's not true. We have until, hang tight. We have until November. So we got a little video to watch, and then we're going to have a little announcement about that. When that shoebox is open, they're overjoyed. You can see them shouting, jumping. 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. That excitement, it goes and goes and goes. Right now, we're in Ukraine, and today we've given out the 200 millionth 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, and Jesus Christ. There's so much joy that one gift box can give. They really experience the love of Jesus. At the Christian Christmas Show, 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 Christmas time, 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 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 9 years old. My friend Kemi told me 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 shoebox, 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 shoebox 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. And more and more churches are being built.

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. All right. Oh, hey, all right. Here we go. So all of you know me as Phil, correct? Phil A Box. All right. So, hey, we're kicking off this year's new drive to get shoeboxes. And as the video shows, you know, this is a very important ministry from Calvary Chapel and from all the churches,

from all Christians who send this stuff out. When we were in Guatemala, didn't we find boxes down there? We found one of the shoeboxes there, right? So they go all over the place. And every shoebox that we send out has the opportunity to touch at least ten other lives. So just because you put some toys in one, they take it home, share it with their parents,

share it with their siblings, and God's Word gets to be shared many times over. What was the other thing we wanted to talk about? It's only eight weeks, right? The collection is eight weeks from now? November 17th. November 17th. That's just eight weeks. It's going to, like Ryan said, it'll be here before we know it. So lots to do between now and then. Yes.

And we thank you guys for participating so heartily every year. Last year we sent 245 boxes out from Calvary Chapel. Yeah. So thank you guys. As you can see, it makes a huge difference in these kids' lives. I did want to, when we went to our kickoff meeting in Wichita a couple weekends ago, they are looking for, if any of you guys like to sew, they're looking for people

who might like to sew Barbie doll clothes. There's a lot of the ladies up in Wichita, well, not a lot actually, two ladies up in Wichita are putting together packages that, I have a couple, I didn't bring one this morning, but they pack like 20 pieces of clothing in with a Barbie doll. And some little girl you know would have a blast with that. So if any of you sew, you know, you can't pack a box wrong.

Well, you can. You can put, there's forbidden items. There are forbidden items, like for instance, snow globes and maybe, what did you say, soap? Soap. They're doing away with soap now. Doing away with soap. So it's, you know, who knows. We'd like to give them soap and a washcloth because some of them don't have it. But there's boxes from last year that haven't been delivered as of today

because they're held up in customs due to the dogs who sniff out the soap. Yeah. And, you know, sets them off, so. Yeah. So anyway, if any of, if anybody's interested in sewing, I was asked to spread the word. I have the lady's name and address if you're interested in that. Oh, I did want to add that this year, shipping has gone up to $10. Some of you may not want

to pack a shoebox, but you may want to donate toward that. We're, definitely would be, you know, open to that as well. So she'll, she'll collect the money, right? Yeah, I would, I would collect that money. We'll donate toward shipping or just towards the ministry and we'll make sure it gets it to Samaritan's Purse. Yeah. And November 7, oh, I didn't tell you about,

you, you guys saw the distribution center. We have so much fun. Last year, we took 33 people. Every year, we've taken over 30, I think now, for the last five or six years and the church graciously rents us vans to take people down. If you're interested in going down, it is a blast. You heard that we, we, Glenn Davis could actually do a really good cheer and I've never heard them

celebrating a full box. It's, it's a blast. But, if so, if you're wanting to do that, I'll have a sign-up sheet out there next week for that and Joe's gonna tell you about a packing party that we're gonna have. So, something that we've found with our younger kids is it's difficult to find a ministry that you can really do with them. A lot of times, like going on the

Guatemala mission trip, I had to find somewhere for my kids to stay for a week and my wife went off and we did some awesome things in Guatemala. I'm looking forward to going back, but there's so many opportunities like that where you, it's, it's difficult to take the little ones along and really disciple them and show them what's important and how to serve people and just, just disciple them. So, last year we had the idea of doing this packing party and what the, what it is, is, we have all of the supplies already laid out to pack boxes. You guys don't have to bring anything except, you and your kids.

We're gonna do it on, you know, you know, on, November 3rd, which is a Sunday. We're just gonna do it in the afternoon, come to church, go eat lunch, come over, pack some shoe boxes. We're gonna pack a ton of shoe boxes and I'm really looking forward to it, but that is not the main, the main point is to be able to have a ministry in our church where you can take your kids along and do ministry with them. So, we're really looking forward to that.

I'll give some more details as we get closer to time, but mark your calendars for that, November 3rd. Perfect. And there are shoe boxes out there today. There will be more. Feel free to take as many as you'd like. We're gonna go see the kids, so don't be surprised if they ask you for collections. All right. Thanks, guys. Okay. For our responsive reading this morning,

we are gonna be in Psalm 29. Psalm 29. For this part, we will be looking at the New American Standard just so that we all sound the same. 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. Worship the Lord in holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness

and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calf and strips the forests bare. And in his temple, everything says glory. The Lord

sat as king at 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 your power. And Lord, we praise you for your voice that speaks directly and clearly and powerfully. And so Lord, we ask that you would speak to us this morning through your word. And

Lord, that it would be directly and clearly and powerfully. And Lord, may we take in exactly what your Holy Spirit would have for us this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Chapter 1, we look at the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. We looked at the work of the gospel. We said that these first three chapters of 1 Thessalonians that

Paul has written to the church in Thessalonica were very personal in nature because the church was very important to him. And so that first chapter, he gives thanks to God. And he thanks God for the work of the gospel that had taken place in the life of these Thessalonian believers. And as we come to chapter 2, we will see the work of the minister. The work of the minister.

Paul had spent a short time in the church. He had spent a long time in the church. He had spent a short amount of time in Thessalonica and left in a pretty abrupt sort of manner. And because he had left in an abrupt manner because of the fact that there was great opposition that he was facing, he felt necessary to write to defend his ministry. Because those who had come in after him

had begun to say that he had left early because he really didn't have pure motives. He had left so quickly because he wasn't really invested in the people. And so he felt it necessary to give a lengthy defense of his character and his ministry. And that's what he does for us in chapter 2 of the book of 1 Thessalonians. And as he does so, I have out of this chapter pulled out six

different characteristics of what it looks like to be a minister. To what it looks like to be a minister of the gospel. Because while you may not bear the title of minister, while you may not actually be in the ministry, all of us are ultimately ministers of the gospel. And all of us ultimately are in the ministry because we've each been given a commission by the Lord to go out and to make disciples, to go out and to minister the truth to the people around us. So these are

principles that not only apply to ministers, but they apply to us as well as those who have been entrusted with the gospel. And so we will cover the first three of them today, but let's get into what it says in chapter 2 verse 1. It says,

As you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition.

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. 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 are 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 three of those we'll cover today. The first one that

we'll look at as far as principles of what it looks like to be a minister, the first one is boldness. Boldness. I want you to take note of what it says in verse 1. It says, For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. Before he deals with this subject of boldness, he once again reminds them about the ministry that he had among them. He said, I want you to know something. Our coming to you was not in vain.

Our coming to you was not something that was in vain. That word vain means futile or fruitless or ineffective. In other words, when we came and ministered the gospel to you, it was not an ineffective time because one of the things that his detractors had said about him is that his gospel had no effect on the people of Thessalonica. That the church there really was not started because of him. It was just because of circumstances that he really wasn't all that effective of a

minister. And he says, I want you to know something. Our coming to you was not in vain. And can I speak something to everyone that sits here this morning? The work that you do for the gospel, the work that you do for the kingdom of God, the work that you do of giving out the truth to the people that are around you is never in vain. I don't know about you, but I have found myself oftentimes in a position where I think

what I do doesn't make a difference. What I do doesn't really mean anything. The things that I say fall on deaf ears. The work that I do is just ineffective. And that's a lie from the enemy. That's a lie directly from the enemy because he wants you to stop giving out the truth. He wants you to stop reaching into the lives of people. And so for those of you that are here this morning

and you're ministering the truth to your friends, you're trying to give out the truth to the people that are around you, I want to tell you, do not stop what you're doing. If you're here this morning and you are a parent and you're trying to minister the truth to your kids, you're trying to pour God's truth into them and it feels like you're ineffective, I want to tell you, you're not going to stop what you're doing. If you're a grandparent here this morning and you're trying to reach into the lives of your grandkids, I want to tell you, do not stop what you're doing because the work that you're doing is not in vain. You may not see the results today. You may not see the results on

this side of eternity, but I'm here to tell you right now, when you give out God's word, it is never in vain. As a matter of fact, we are told in the book of Isaiah that when God's word goes out, it never goes out. It never goes out. It never goes out. It never goes out. It never goes out. It accomplishes the purpose for which it has been sent. His word never returns void. It always does

that which it's been sent out to do. And I can tell you right now, I have been watching over the past few months, some people come to me that I've ministered to a long time ago that I thought that work may have been in vain. And I have seen it was not because I have watched what God is doing. I've been watching what God has been doing in the lives of people. And every now

and then God will give you a little bit of a glimpse into what he's doing so that you will know that's not in vain. The stuff that you're doing is not empty. It's not futile. It's not ineffective. God is absolutely at work and you have to keep doing what you're doing. Because like I said, sometimes he'll give you a glimpse of that on this side of eternity, but the greater glimpse

that we'll get is on the other side of eternity. I think we will be shocked when we get to heaven, when we get to spend eternity with brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, how many people will come up to him and say, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. You don't know this, but what you did affected me more deeply than you'll ever know. Because God's

word never returns void. And so Paul said, we could be bold because our work among you was not in vain. He said, but after verse two, we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know. Again, I'll remind you of the circumstances that brought Paul to Thessalonica. He was there in Philippi and he was ministering to the people of the world. And he was there

ministering the gospel. And as he was ministering the gospel, a revival was taking place. And because a revival was taking place, the idol makers were losing their money. Those, those peddling idolatry were losing their money. And so they said, it was one thing when he presented the gospel. It's a whole other thing when I don't get a paycheck. And so they got really angry with Paul,

brought him up on false charges and took he and Silas and they beat him with rods and they imprisoned him. They stuck him in those shackles. And as he was there, they praised God together and God set them free from that prison. But you can imagine what it must have been like to return to another city to go preach the gospel. After you just got your tail kicked for preaching the

gospel in a previous city, you might think that he would find himself going, I am just going to keep my mouth shut. Right? Because we've all been there at some point in time where, where you've told somebody the truth, or you've tried to minister to somebody and all of the work that you put in came back to bite you. And now they're angry with you. Trust me, this happens. I've had

people be mad at me and I don't handle it very well, but that's the fact of the matter. And sometimes when that starts to happen, you just kind of go, you know what? I'm just going to keep my mouth shut. I'm just, I'm done. I don't want to do this thing anymore. That's what Jeremiah tried to do. The prophet Jeremiah, after he got his tail kicked a few times for preaching the,

the, the message that God had given him, he was like, that's it. Nobody's going to listen. I'm just going to keep my mouth shut. But you know what happened to Jeremiah? He said, but the word of God burned in me. He had to say something. And that's why Paul found himself in this place where he had to keep being bold with the gospel, because the love of Christ was going to constrain him. The love of

Christ compelled him to give out the truth. And so he says, you know what happened to us in Philippi? And it would have been easy for me just to say, forget it. I'm not going to do that anymore. But instead what happened is he showed up to Thessalonica and notice what it says. We had the boldness, verse two, in our God. To speak to you the gospel amid much opposition.

That word boldness is an interesting word. It actually takes two different Greek words, puts them together, and you have to kind of define them differently because it means two different things. It means lack of fear, but it also means full of confidence. So if we take those two meanings of this phrase, we put it together, it means the confidence to speak freely.

The confidence to speak freely. Now we're living in a time, where the confidence to speak freely is starting to wane. Can we all agree with that? That it's getting a little bit harder to really, really declare the truth and be really confident about it. But I'm here to tell you right now, if anybody understood this, it was Paul. If anybody understood living in a culture in a time in which preaching the gospel, preaching the truth, standing on what's

true could get you in a little bit of trouble, and it was a little bit hard to be confident about it, it was Paul. And yet when he showed up to Thessalonica, he said, in spite of what happened to us in Philippi, in spite of how we were, mistreated in Philippi, we showed up and we had boldness, the confidence to speak freely. Well, why do we sometimes struggle with this boldness? Why do we struggle to be bold as God has called for us to be? Well, we struggle to be bold because of fear. You see, boldness means

lack of fear. So why do we struggle to be bold? Because we have fear. You see, we have fears to really stand up for what's right. We have fears to really speak out on what's true because we say, you don't understand, if I stand up for what's right, if I say what's true, that might cost me my job. Who gave you that job in the first place? God did. And is God going to leave you begging for

bread? No. David said, I was young and now I'm old, and I've never seen God's kids begging for bread, right? Well, you don't understand. If I stand up for the truth, I will lose every single one of my friends. I'm here to tell you right now, if your friends don't like you because you stood up for the truth, they're not your friends, and you need to find a different group to be around. Because

being alone is not a good thing. You need to be alone. You need to be alone. You need to be alone. Being alone in the truth is better than being in the crowd in false, right? And so, some people say, well, you don't understand. If I stand up for the truth, somebody's going to be mad at me. So what? People are going to get mad at you. I'll talk about this in just a moment. People

are going to get mad at you. That's all that there is to it. How do we overcome that fear? We overcome that fear by understanding that God is greater than all of our fears. What are we told in the book of Isaiah? He says, fear not, for I am with you. But not only is it fear that sometimes causes us to lack boldness, sometimes we're not all that confident in the

message. Can we all agree with that sometimes? That sometimes the reason why we have a hard time standing up and declaring the truth is because we're all afraid somebody's going to ask that question that you can't answer. What if I don't know enough? What if I don't understand the message well enough? And I do fear sometimes. I don't know enough. I don't know enough. I don't

know enough. I don't know enough. I don't know enough. I don't know enough. I don't know enough. And I fear sometimes in the church in the 21st century, we are an uneducated church in the Western culture. I read this thing on Instagram. Shane Pruitt put it out. I don't really know very much about him, but I like everything that he posts. And he said, the tragedy of today's culture

is that Christians know their Enneagram number, and they know their love language, but they have no idea what the Bible says about marriage. And that's a microcosm of everything else going on in the church today. We know all of the little psychological truths. I'm not saying there's those things, but we don't know what the word says. And so sometimes it's really hard for us

to stand up boldly and say, this is what God says, if you don't know what God says. And so you need that confidence that comes from that knowledge of God, that confidence that comes from that knowledge of the truth. Paul says, when we were among you, we were bold. We were able to be bold, but how were they able to be bold? Notice what it says, that we had the boldness in our God.

We had boldness in our God. In other words, he was the source of our strength and our confidence. God was the source of their strength and their confidence. How does that happen? How does God become the source of your strength? Well, it always comes back to your abiding righteousness. How does that happen? How does God become the source of your strength? relationship with Jesus Christ. Do you remember what Jesus told his disciples? He told his

disciples, in this world, you will have trouble, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. You see, when I get to know a God who has made a promise that he has overcome the world, then it's a whole lot easier for me to walk in boldness because I know that I'm not walking in boldness alone. I am walking in boldness with the very God who has promised he has overcome the world. And as I get to know him better in my abiding relationship, it is not hard for me to be

bold because I say, you know what? If they persecuted Jesus, they're going to persecute me. If he's overcome the world, then I have nothing to fear because my God is with me. But you can't be confident like that if you don't have that kind of relationship with Jesus Christ. If you don't have that abiding relationship with Jesus Christ, then you can't be confident like that.

Jesus Christ, because that is the source of your strength, because that is the source of your boldness. Because as he was bold to stand up and give the truth, so that boldness flows through you as you have an abiding relationship with him. Because can we all be honest and say that courage is not the lack of fear? Courage is standing in the midst of fear. And you can stand in the midst

of fear knowing that your Savior is with you. That abiding relationship doesn't just deal with our fear. That abiding relationship teaches us, more about the message. Do you remember what the Holy Spirit, what Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would do when he came? He said, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will testify of me. And he will teach you the things that you need to know. Therefore, if I want confidence in the message,

then I need an abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. Because in my abiding relationship with Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit teaches me the things that I need to know. And he instills in me the truth that I need to be able to stand. Confidently. That, brothers and sisters, is where boldness comes from. There's a wonderful story about this in the New Testament. It's in the book of Acts. The disciples had found themselves in a

place where they were being persecuted for speaking the truth. It's pretty early on in the book of Acts. And they were brought before the Jewish religious leaders who said, you have to stop speaking in the name of Jesus. And they said, hey, listen, here's the thing. If speaking in the name of Jesus is wrong, then we don't want to be right. Right? I mean, that's basically what they

said. A little paraphrase on my part. But that's basically what they said. And they said, hey, And so they went back to the upper room where the other disciples were gathered after they had been beaten and told not to preach the name of Jesus anymore. They gathered together and they prayed. You know what they prayed for? They did not pray that they would stop being persecuted.

They did not pray that God would lop off the heads of the persecutors. They did not pray for more freedom. They prayed for boldness. Boldness to declare the truth. And do you know what happened when they prayed for boldness to declare the truth? The whole room was shaken. Why? Because when you pray for boldness, God answers. Because that's the way he rolls. And so he says, we had

boldness in our God. And what were they bold to do? They were bold to preach the message of the gospel in the midst of trouble. I point that out because God will not make you bold to declare your conspiracy theories. Okay? God will not make you bold to be a jerk. God will not make you bold to promote your political candidate. God will not make you bold to be a jerk. God will not make you bold to

promote your political candidate. God will make you bold to declare the gospel. Okay? That's an important distinction that needs to be made in the culture today. And so we see that the first mark of a minister is boldness. Number two, integrity. Integrity. Notice what it says in verse three. It says, 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 the heart. For we never come with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed, God is witness, nor do we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ, we might have asserted our authority. Integrity. Integrity as ministering.

Why is it important that a minister of the gospel have integrity? Because the greatest thing that the enemy will try to do to any minister of the gospel is to destroy their integrity. Because if you can destroy the messenger, then you can discredit the message. And that's what's happening in the culture today, is messengers are being discredited. Messengers are being discredited

because messengers are being discredited. The message is being disparaged. And as believers in Jesus Christ, we want to stand strong in our integrity. And that's what Paul says he did. He says, our exhortation, he speaks first of all of their motives. He said, our exhortation did not come in error and didn't come in impurity and it didn't come by way of deceit. It didn't come in error. In other words, as its source, it wasn't

some false teaching that he brought. It wasn't some idea that they dreamed up of. It wasn't something false that they were bringing. It was the truth. It was the very truth that they were bringing. The truth of the word of God supported throughout all of the Old Testament that he was bringing. He says, it was not from error. And that's why as ministers, we need to make sure we know what we're

talking about. Because as ministers, if we truly understand the message, then we don't have to worry about the error because that's the source that it comes from. He says, second of all, our exhortation did not come in impurity. That's the motivation. The word impurity can also be translated uncleanness. Then it speaks of any form of immorality. Whether it be the immorality of greed or whether it be sexual in nature, it just speaks of

immorality. In other words, they had pure motives in the way that they taught. Their motivation was pure. Number three, he says, and it was not in deceit. That speaks of the method. The word deceit there is kind of interesting. It's actually a word that can be used for a fishing lure in the Greek. And it has the idea of being trapped by your actions. Being trapped. In other words, we didn't

use some sort of a, some sort of a, trap to lure you in. Something deceptive to lure you in. And then, ta-da, never mind. This is what we meant, right? That's what cults do. Cults lure you in by sounding way too good to be true. Cults lure you in by sounding like this is the only way. And then all of a sudden they spring all of the rest of it on you because they lure you in and you go, that makes sense to me. And then you come in

and you're like, that doesn't seem right. But you're already in there because you've been lured in. He said, we didn't do that to you. We were honest from the word go about what we were doing. We were declaring. And as believers in Jesus Christ, as ministers, we too need to be honest from the word go about what we're declaring. Be upfront about the fact that you believe the truth,

you believe the Bible, and you believe everything else is false. We have to be upfront and we have to be honest. And so that was their motivation. But then he moves on to say that we have been approved by God. Notice what it says in verse four.

Not as pleasing men, but God who examines the hearts. I want to take those in just a little bit reverse order because he says we've been approved by God to be entrusted with the message. The second one is what I want to talk about first. Entrusted with the message. It's kind of fascinating because Paul uses this symbolism a lot in his writings. In the book of 1 Corinthians,

he says that he referred to himself as a steward of the mystery. Or a steward of the word of God. In 2 Corinthians, he says we have this treasure hidden in an earthen vessel, speaking of themselves. And now in the book of 1 Thessalonians, he says we have been entrusted with the gospel. And that should create in your mind an idea of something. What it should create in your mind is that each of us has a responsibility with the gospel that we have

been given. With the gospel message that has been preached to us, we now have a responsibility with it. You say, Ryan, what are you talking about? I want you to think about whoever it was that shared the gospel with you. Who shared the gospel with you? Was it a preacher? Was it a friend? Was it a family member? Was it in a one-on-one situation? Or was it with a whole bunch of people there? No matter what it was, somebody felt the

responsibility to declare the truth that was inside of them to someone else. Someone looked at you and said, I want to share the truth with them because I've been given the truth. I have this treasure in an earthen vessel. I've been given a stewardship. I've been entrusted with this. And I don't want to keep it to myself. I want to give it out to as many different people as I

can. And because they felt that responsibility, they then shared the gospel with you. Have you ever viewed it like that? That that's why you're here. It's because somebody used their responsibility, used what was entrusted to them, used the treasure that they had in an earthen vessel wisely, and they said, I can't keep it to myself. I want to share it. And now you have living

inside of you. A treasure. And it's hidden in the earthen vessel of you. And you have been entrusted with it. What are you going to do with the treasure? What are you going to do with the responsibility? What are you going to do with the stewardship? Ryan, I'm not an evangelist. I don't get out and talk in front of people. That's okay. Do you have friends? And if you don't, that's a different conversation,

right? But if you have friends, go start talking to them. You're going to share your life with them. Because as you share your life with them, if the gospel's really taking its hold on you, it's going to naturally come up in conversation. When I worked construction, I got to have conversations with people all the time about Jesus. You know why? Because if anybody was willing to listen, I would say, you know what I read in the Bible this morning?

And some of them would say, shut up, right? And move on. And some of them would say, no, what did you read this morning, Ryan? Tell me today. And the conversations start like that because I just shared the truth. And that's the way you can be too. You can just share the truth of what's going on inside of you. The truth of what's happening. Because if Jesus is the most important thing in your life,

it can't help but come up. I am married to a woman that I am absolutely in love with, and she comes up in conversation a lot. You know why? Because I talk about her a lot because she's incredibly important to me, and she's a part of my life. I have two wonderful daughters, and they come up in conversation a lot. You know why? Because they're incredibly important to me, and I like to talk

about them. I'm really proud of them. That's the way it should be in your walk with Jesus Christ. That's the most important thing to you. It's kind of hard to hide it. Amen? And so he says, we have been entrusted with something. And as we have been entrusted with this, we have been approved by God. That word approved literally means tested and proven genuine or fit for service.

Now, imagine, if you will, that you were working at the Ford factory, or what it is today. I know most of them aren't made in the USA, but let's pretend today that they are. That you're working at the Ford factory, and the car comes through, and all the pieces get put onto it. I have no idea how this process takes place. All the pieces get put onto it. The engine gets

put into it, and I feel confident to know. I know they do this with steel weed eaters, so surely they do this with cars too. Before it leaves, I bet they start that car, and they start that car to make sure that that car runs, and they test that car. Why do they test it? Do they test it because they want to disprove it? No, they test it because they want to disprove it. They test it because they want to disprove it.

They want to prove to themselves and to everyone else that car works. Once they test it, and they send it off, they put a stamp on it that says, approved, fit for service. You're kind of like that car in that factory. God is always testing you to see if you're fit for service. The test that he gives us is, how do you handle your responsibility? How are you handling what

you have been entrusted with? Because as you start handling it properly, in the small ways, he says, you are approved. You are tested and seen as genuine. You are now fit for service, and that's the people that we want to be. We want to handle God's word properly in the way that it takes its effect on our life, so that we can handle God's word properly in the

way that we apply it to other people's lives, so that we can be approved by God. But you see, my integrity is important for my approval. You can't live like the world and then declare the gospel. The rest of the world finds that unbelievable. If you're living like the rest of the world, you're not fit for service, because you are not tested and proven genuine. We have to start going, if your life matches up

with the world, have you really been saved? Has God's word really taken its hold on your life? Are you really tested and proven genuine and fit for service? Paul says, we were approved by God. And entrusted with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then he goes on to say one more thing about this. Notice what it says.

Not as pleasing men, but as God who examines our hearts. Now, this is real time with Ryan, okay? Everything has got to stay here and on the internet. this is real time with Ryan, I struggle with being a people pleaser. It's who I am by nature. I want to make people happy, and I like for people to be happy with me. It makes me good at my job, and it makes me bad at my job. It makes me bad at my job because

sometimes I worry about what people think about the things that I say or the things that I do because I have to deliver hard truths sometimes. And I'm here to tell you right now, that makes it very hard for me. It's really hard for me to get bold and just lay out the truth sometimes in people's lives because I don't want people to be unhappy. I don't want people to be upset with me, and so that can be a real struggle for me and one that God has been working me through for the past 22 years of ministry. He's been working me to a place of saying, it's okay. I don't have to worry

what people think. I only have to worry what God thinks. It makes me really good at my job because I care about people, and it makes me compassionate, but it makes it really hard. But I'm well aware of the fact that I'm not the only person that struggles with this because we live in a generation of people pleasers. We live in a generation of people right now that

want to make everybody else happy, and the reason why we do that is because we want the approval of man. We want the approval of people. We do it with our social media posts. We do it with the way that we handle ourselves. We do it with everything. We product test all of the statements that we make. Have you ever noticed that about yourself? We give politicians a real hard time, and sometimes we should because they have these focus groups where

they market test their different statements. No, don't say it like that because people didn't respond well to that. Say it like this because people respond well to this, and we go, politicians. You do the exact same thing. You ever started to use a phrase and somebody goes, that's dumb. Don't say that. You know what you do the next day? You don't say that. Why? Because

somebody said, that's dumb. Don't say that. We market test it, right? Why? Because we care about what we think, but at the end of the day, we are not to please man. We are to please God. We have to understand something. You were made to serve an audience of one. You were made to report to an audience of one, and that's God. People will talk. People will say good things. People will say bad

things, but at the end of the day, there is one opinion that matters more than anybody else's opinion. And that's God's. Because at the end of the day, he is the one person that we're serving. We have to stop worrying what people have to say. We have to get set free from the opinions of people. I actually call it the idolatry of opinion because sometimes we bow down to that idol and say,

I won't do this because of what people say, or I will do this because of what people say. But then we have to come to a place of realizing that our lives were not made to please the people around us. Our lives were made. To please God. And if we will begin to focus on what pleases God and not what pleases man, we will live a much happier life. If we focus on what pleases God, not what pleases man,

then we will live a much more productive life. And if we focus on what pleases God and not what pleases man, we will live a true life of a minister. Because a minister seeks to please God, not man. Why? Because God tests the heart. God tests the heart. You know what that means? It means God sees past all of the layers, right? We put up layers with people. Have you ever noticed that? And depending on who you're around,

that's who you put the different layers up with. And so when you're around this group of people, you act like this. When you're around this group of people, you act like this. And God sees past all of it. He says, I can see past all those things and I can get down to the very motivation of your heart. And that's a real scary thing. Because sometimes we don't even realize that.

That's what the motivations of our hearts are. But in fact, we're told in the book of Jeremiah that the heart of man is deceitfully wicked above all things. Who can know it? Only God. And God gets right down to the nitty gritty with us, right? As J. Verdemig used to say, right down there where the rubber meets the road, right? That's what God gets down to with us. And he sees what really goes

on in there. That's why we have to constantly lay ourselves bare before him. Every now and then I say, Lord, I did that one to please people, not you. Lord, I got caught up in the idolatry. And I need you to forgive me and get me back on track where I need to be. But if we're to live lives of integrity, then a life of integrity says, my goal is to please God,

not to please man. And so he goes on from there to say, 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 anyone else. The last thing he closes with is he says, a life of integrity doesn't seek the glory of people. And it starts off by saying, we did not come with words of flattery. Now, I shared this with first

service. I'll share this with y'all as well. When my girls were little, little meaning, I think this happened three weeks ago. But anyway, when my girls were little and they really wanted something, they would come to me and they would say, you know, dad, your hair looks really good today. And that was how I always knew they're about to ask me for something that I probably don't want

to give them. And so they're trying to flatter me. That was how, that was what always came out. And that's what we want to be aware of as believers in Jesus Christ. And that's what we want to be aware of as believers in Jesus Christ. And that's what we want to be aware of as believers in Jesus Christ. Listen, we don't want to come with words of flattery and, and try to like convince people

to, to want to follow Jesus. We don't come with words of flattery. And there's also no pretext of greed. In other words, we don't make it all about us. We don't seek glory from man. Because if I'm living to please God, then I don't need the accolades of people. I don't need the glory of man. I want to know the character of God. And so he says, if we are to be ministers,

number one, it requires boldness. Number two, it takes integrity. Number three, we need to be gentle. Notice what it says. Verse seven, but we proved to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children, 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 because you had become very

dear to us. Now, this is one of those things. Again, I think that can sometimes get left out in the culture that we live in today. As a matter of fact, there's been a handful of mega church pastors that have had to step down because of their lack of gentleness. Because when you're in a position of authority, sometimes you can become someone who likes to Lord the authority, someone who tries to suppress the people and they do it

in harsh sort of ways. And there's been men that have had to step down because of this. And so as believers in Jesus Christ, we have to understand that being gentle is so important. After all, it is one of the fruits of the spirit that he produced. We are to be gentle among you. Paul says, when we showed up, we were gentle. Yes, we were bold with the gospel, but we were gentle in the way that we handled it. And he uses an illustration.

He says, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Now, in this church, we should absolutely understand how tender a nursing mother is with her children because we have lots of them all the time, right? And so you see, I love watching moms with kids, right? I love watching moms with those brand new babies. First, pictures of first-time moms, when they're in the hospital and they're holding that baby, it's just truly,

there's just nothing quite like it because there's a look of love and tenderness that they have on their face that is just, it's unmatched by anything else because they realize that is a part of who I am and I just want to preserve them and care for them. And not to step outside of the bounds of scripture here, but when it comes to gentleness, do you know what says that even more to me? A dad with their baby. So having worked construction for a long time, I was around some of the roughest, toughest guys that you can imagine, and there is nothing better than to see the big, rough, tough bricklayer see a baby and him go, oh, you're so cute. And, you know, get all

tender and you're just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, who are you? What'd you do with Phil, right? Bring that guy back because I don't know what's going on right now, but everything about this feels weird. And it's because it brings about a tenderness, a gentleness, because you realize that that baby is just so tender that you have to be really gentle with it. And I think that's what I'm

with it. So why is it important for us to be that way? I want you to think about something. And we'll get to this a little bit more about sharing the gospel, but I want you to think about something. I've thought about this a few times. I thought about what it must be like for myself if someone were to come to me and say, everything you've believed your entire life

is wrong. Everything you've believed your entire life is not just wrong, but it's an affront to God. It's offensive to God. Not only is everything that you've believed your entire life wrong and it's offensive to God, but its consequences are eternal separation from God. But here's the truth and you can follow it. I'm here to tell you right now, that would rock my

world. Now, that's what we do to unbelievers when we give them the gospel. I'm not saying we don't give it to them. I'm saying you need to understand what you do when you give someone the gospel. You tell them everything that they've believed their entire life is wrong. You tell them everything that they believe their entire life is wrong, and it's an offense to God. Everything that they've

believed their entire life is wrong, and it's an offense to God, and it's going to land them in eternal separation from God. Now, once you've dropped that atom bomb on their life, don't you think it's a really good time to be gentle with them? Because you've absolutely rocked their entire world. I've thought about this a lot. Like, how hard would that be for me?

Obviously, I don't have to deal with that because I believe the truth, but how hard would that be? What do we do to unbelievers? That's what the gospel does is it drops an atom bomb on their world, and you've got to be a little bit gentle with them. You've got to be a little bit gentle with a brand new believer. You've got to be a little bit gentle with someone who you have just

declared the truth to, and that's what God wants us to be. Paul says you have to be gentle. We were gentle among you as a nursing mother with her children. As a matter of fact, he says we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives. I love this because Paul said when we were gentle among you, it made us happier than anything in

the world to not only impart to you the gospel, because that's really important, but to impart to you our lives. In other words, to share everything of who we are with you. I always wonder what some of those initial conversations that Paul had with people in Thessalonica were like when he first showed up. Remember, he and Timothy, or he and Silas were tore up from the floor up, right?

Like they got their rear ends kicked in Philippi. And you can just imagine, he preaches the gospel, like maybe his eyes still a little bit swollen, a lip still kind of swollen. He has a hard time walking up the stairs, not because he's wearing a box, but because his body has just been destroyed. And so they're like, hey, we love that Jesus message. Bro, what happened to your face? Like

what? Who rocked your world? Well, you see, I was in Philippi. People didn't really like it all that much. So I got back up and I was like, I'm going to go to the church. I'm going to go to the church. I'm going to go to the church. So I got beaten pretty bad for it. Dude, was that hard for you? I mean, harder than I thought it was going to be. I didn't love it. And then there was that whole prison

scene. I mean, can you imagine him sharing that with them? And all of a sudden they start saying, we understand because I think there's some people here that aren't fond of the gospel either. And now all of a sudden, it's not just giving out some sort of a message. It's not just delivering a Bible study. Now you're sharing life together. You see, that's what a minister does. A minister

is not just to declare some sort of a message. It's to declare who we are and what God has done in our lives because of the message. The very first time I ever got up in front of people and taught was not actually here. It was actually at Calvary Chapel Bible College. I got to give a devotion. And I remember I shared things about my life. And I was just really open and honest

about it because that's what God told me to do. And I was like, ooh, hope that wasn't sharing too much. And everybody loved it. You know why? Because we like to relate to people in their lives. And since then, God has told me, share your life with people. And that's why I overshare sometimes. That's why sometimes I tell stories about myself that are probably not really good for me to share

that my wife tells me. If I tell those stories again, she's never coming back to church because I overshare those things because I want to share my life with you. Because if I share my life with you, you're not just members of my congregation. You're part of my family, right? And that's what we're intended to be, is you're not just here. Filling up a seat in the church. You're not just here so that I can be excited that the church is

filling up. You're here so that you can get to know a family so that you guys can share your lives with each other. So that when you leave here, you don't just leave here not knowing anybody, but you leave here being a little bit closer to somebody and sharing life together. That's why we're going to gather tonight at 5 o'clock p.m. in the backyard, if you like that shameless plug, for a potluck so

that we can get to know each other. Because when we eat together and we spill things on ourselves we get to know each other better. Because we're sharing our lives. Sharing who you are. And that's what we as ministers need to do. One of the best bosses I ever had in my life was so good at this. You would absolutely do the dumbest thing in the world. And he would come and say,

that's the dumbest thing in the world. Now, let me tell you about the time I did it. And he would share the story about when he did something really, really similar. And all of a sudden, there's not boss and employee. It's a couple of friends. I respected the authority, but I also knew when he came down on me, it was because he knew what it was like to be in my position. Because we shared life with each other.

It says, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel, but also our lives. Why? I'm going to close with this. Because you had become dear to us. In other words, you had become beloved to us. In other words, we just kind of started to love you guys. Again, brothers and sisters, ministers of the gospel, share your life with people. Be gentle with people. Because God ultimately wants you to love those people that are around you.

Amen? Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you that you've blessed us with another morning together. Lord, I thank you for this family that you've blessed us with here at Calvary Chapel of Ark City. And Lord, I pray that you would bless us with another morning together. And Lord, I pray that we would continue to pour into each other. Lord, that we would be bold with your word,

but that we would be gentle with the way we present it. And so, Lord, may our lives reflect the truth of who you are. And may your Holy Spirit continue to do your work in us. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. Yeah, I want to share what, along with what Ryan shared about this audience of one. You know, that's what worship is. We're singing, we're worshiping an audience of one. Amen?

How important that is. Yes, Lord. Father, we just ask for your blessing on our week as we leave here, Lord. Be glorified in our lives, Lord. Strengthen us in all that we face and whatever might be ahead of us, we thank you that you know ahead of time and you'll prepare us. We give you praise and thanks for this day and just bless. In Jesus' name. Amen. God bless.