Cheering The Champions Still (A Review)

Take your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of 1 Thessalonians. I must confess to a misprint in the bulletin, and it's not Sharon's fault, it's entirely mine. I wanted Jake to read from chapter 1, verse 1, to chapter 2, verse 12. But be that as it may, we'll continue as we look at the book of 1 Thessalonians. Thessalonians. Let's pick it up where Jake left off in chapter 2, verse 13, reading to the end of chapter 3.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the Word of men, but as what it really is, the Word of God, which is at work in you believers for you brothers became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out and displeased God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved so as always to fill up the measure of their sins but God's wrath has come upon them at last but since we were torn away from you brothers for a short time in person not in heart we endeavored the more eagerly with great desire to see you face to faith because we wanted to come to you I Paul again and again but Satan hindered us for what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming. Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.

Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone. And we sent Timothy, our brother and God's co-worker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. for when we were with you we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction just as has come to pass and just as you know.

For this reason when I could bear it no longer I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us as we long to see you. For this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction, we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live if you are standing fast in the Lord.

For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you? for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all as we do for you so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Let's pray.

Father, as we look into your word again today, would you impress it upon our hearts? Help us to change, help us to grow because of what we hear. Don't let us be satisfied with just hearing another sermon or reading the text of scripture. Give us an incredible desire to serve you and obey you and love you and to make these words the very fabric of our life.

Thank you now for your word. Thank you for the Lord Jesus, who has freed us from sin, that we might hear your voice and submit to it. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. We just have to review. That's all there is to it.

I want God's word to find a place in your heart, your thinking, your attitudes, how you look at life, how you interpret things. And so, frankly, we just have to do this. We've been away from the epistle of 1 Thessalonians. by my calculations for two months. We haven't looked at it for two months. And so we need to take some time to review where we've been, which takes us up through chapter 4, verse 12.

I hope you bear with me. But I am convinced that we need to understand these things. We need to make them part of our heart. And if we've been gone for a couple months and we've forgotten most of it, I want to review it so your minds are refreshed and you can once again remember the things that God has said in his word. Now first of all we need to remember the purpose of this book God wants to motivate this church to live like champions until Jesus returns That the bottom line God wants us at LaRue Baptist Church to live as champions until to be a championship congregation until Jesus returns.

A church that stands firm in the gospel. And we need to cheer the champions to the finish. That's what this book is about. Because remember, Paul's refrain is this, is do it more and more. He's saying you're doing right good things, do it more and more. He's trying to motivate them, to encourage them.

He's trying to get them to live in a way that they ought to until Jesus returns. And you recall that the book falls into two sections. I hope you remember this, but if not, here they are. Reflection and direction. Reflection and direction. In chapters one through three, the Apostle Paul reflects on the church and his team's ministry in Thessalonica.

In chapters 4 and 5, he directs them by giving them certain directives to obey. In the first part, he aims to encourage them. In the second, to command them. To encourage and to command. To reflect and to direct. Essentially, he says to them, you've done well, chapters 1 through 3, but there's more to be done. chapters 4 and 5 so think of it that way you've done well chapters 1 through 3 there's more to be done chapters 4 and 5 you're doing well keep it up here's more here's more that you need to be doing now recall the backstory to this book which you remember can be found in acts chapter 17 and 18 remember what's happened the team that came to Thessalonica were composed of the apostle Paul, Silas, and Timothy.

They'd arrived from the city of Philippi, having just been thrown in the stocks, humiliated, imprisoned, treated unjustly, because they had brought the good news of Jesus as King and Savior to that city. Then they came down the road, they came down the road after leaving Philippi, and they came into Thessalonica, gathering more disciples into a church until a mob formed and there was a riot. The mob, you remember, drags Jason and some of the brothers before the magistrates.

Jason puts up bail for Paul that they might, and that night they secretly spirit him away from the city He and Silas are taken away Timothy is left behind evidently but he follows a little bit later They go on to the next town down the road Berea bringing the gospel and the same thing happens A mob forms, there's a riot, and so they get Paul as far as Athens. Paul, leaving Silas and Timothy behind, gets as far as Athens. Later, Timothy and Silas join him.

After presenting the gospel in Athens, he goes to the city of Corinth. That's where he writes this book. He's in the city of Corinth. Now all this time, from Berea to Athens to Corinth, the team worries about their brothers in Thessalonica, because they took the heat that the ministry team basically produced. And Paul wondered if under the persecution, they had remained faithful to the gospel.

That's what he's been worried about. We left. Things were hot. And we wanted to know if, as he says, if the tempter had gotten the best of you and our labor was in vain, we wanted to know if you remained faithful. And so he sends Timothy back to check on them. Timothy returns to Corinth.

We see that in chapter three with a great report about the church at Thessalonica. They've remained faithful in all the hardship, pressure, and persecution that has followed. And so he pens this letter in response to that report. And it is the means by which God teaches us the characteristics of a championship church and how we ought to continue. So let's look first at his reflections.

Now again, we've read the text, well most of it, except for my misprint. And so you follow along as we review this. I'm not going to read it all over again because, well, we'd be here too long and I want to have pity on you. I could talk long. I know I can't, but you go so far and no one hears anymore. So let's try to get through this book, shall we?

I want you to remember these things. I want you to recall. If you've been taking notes, I hope these things ring a bell. If you haven't been taking notes, I hope the same thing happens. I hope you remember what God has taught us in this book. And as we look at chapters 1 through 3, here's the challenge.

Reflect on what you should see in a championship congregation, what you should recognize, what are the things you should recognize in a healthy church. And as we go from chapter 1 verse 1 through chapter 3 verse 13, there are three things that characterize a healthy church. First Chapter 1, 1 through 10. Second, recognize the marks of a proper ministry of the gospel.

Chapter 1, or chapter 2, 1 through 13. And then finally, recognize the marks of a powerful affection of the gospel. Chapter 2, verse 17, through chapter 3, verse 13. The marks of a transforming work of the gospel, the marks of a proper ministry of the gospel, the marks of a powerful affection of the gospel. First of all, the first ten verses of chapter 1.

Recognize the transforming work of the gospel. In these verses, God seeks to encourage faithfulness to the gospel by reminding his people how the gospel has transformed them. He's looking at them and saying, reflect on what the gospel did in your life. Reflect on that. You need to think again about that. I want to encourage your faithfulness by you looking back and seeing how God changed you when we came and preached the gospel.

Look what's happened to you as he begins in chapter 1. You're a people who exhibit faith, hope, and love. The three characteristics of Christian character. Faith, hope, and love. In those opening verses. Your work for God flows out of a faith in Jesus and the promises of God.

Your labor for others. has grown out of the love born in your heart by the gospel. And then lastly, hope. You remain steadfast in hardship and affliction because of the hope you have in Jesus' return. So, he says, your work has been prompted by your love, your labor, prompted by your faith, your labor by your love and hope in the midst of affliction. He says, look, look at yourself.

You show the signs that God has chosen you. You know that you belong to God because the gospel came with the power of the Spirit. It transforms you. It gives you new birth. It came with full conviction, as he says. There is this deep inward persuasion of the gospel's truth.

You recognize the messengers of the gospel, not as self-promoting charlatans, but as they really are messengers with a divine message. and you did not just claim the gospel. In other words the gospel claimed you Let me tell you something If you in the midst of hardship whatever it is you going through hard times Some of you are going through incredibly difficult times right now Understand this that you look back and you see what God has done in your life and you look at how he's transformed you. And that ought to give you hope in the midst of your hardship now, because if God can transform you, he can see you through.

And he's saying to them, God has transformed you. You're not like you used to be. You've abandoned all that you used to love and you've embraced the things you used to hate. He goes on to say that a healthy church imitates godly models, right? You became imitators of us. That's a good thing.

And he goes on to say, and you became a model for other congregations. And so a good, healthy church, the champion church is the term I've chosen to use willingly, purposely recognizes models of Jesus and chooses to imitate them especially those, he mentions who model joy in affliction. Now listen and I know I said this when I preached through this don't fall into the trap of saying just keep your eyes on Jesus don't look at people, they'll disappoint you every time.

That's not what the Bible says. four times in the New Testament. Paul says, imitate me. Is he being proud? No. That's the way you make disciples. Jesus said, you're like the teacher when you've got it, when you become like your teacher.

So in other words, when there's a godly model, imitate that godly model. He won't be flawless. She won't be there with no mistakes. But there are godly people who show you how to obey. Don't shy away from imitating them. And when you do so, you become models for others to follow.

He says in verse 8, For the word of the Lord sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. You remember as we looked at that, that they became a model, and their reputation enhances the message of the gospel. It's not that Paul says, I never have to preach the gospel.

He's saying, you guys have lived it in such a way that everybody sees it. Because of the message of Jesus, these folks have turned their back on everything that important to everyone else They abandoned their idols They gotten rid of all that sort of thing What is going on You see that the way our congregation needs to be This kind of a congregation does not put its hope in everything that's going on around them, but in the returning king who will deliver them, the end of chapter one. You see?

So we have to ask ourselves, are we characterized by faith, hope and love? are we people who not only claim the gospel but are do we show that the gospel has claimed us and has transformed us and do we follow the example of jesus and become example an example for others to follow let me just say this by way of illustration you know the lord has put me in different venues at different times and i i talk to lots of people when i when i teach for example for ACBC and I'm in some place and teaching on one of the weekend training events. My paths cross with all kinds of people all the time. They come up to me.

They're talking to me. What about this? What about that? And it's interesting, or it's great that I can say to them things like this. You know, in our congregation, this is what God has said and this is what we've done. And it's good to be able to say, you know what?

The Bible works. look, it's working here. This is what it looks like. It's wonderful to be able to do that. And I praise God for that. You wouldn't believe what that does. It takes the word of God and it makes it living.

And that's what Paul does. He looks at them and he says, look at how God has transformed this congregation, he says to them. And look what it does. It enhances the gospel. So when I go out, he says, to preach, I don't have to say a whole lot. I can tell people what the gospel is and they can see that it's transformed.

It's done something to a group of people. So recognize the transforming work of the gospel. The second thing he says is recognize the proper ministry of the gospel. Chapter 2, verses 1 through 16. In the first 12 verses, he said we need to recognize and reproduce a proper ministry of the gospel. And here he describes how his team ministered the gospel to these folks.

Once again notice that he says to remember to them He says it in verse 1 right He always talking about remembering Chapter 2 verse 1 For you yourselves know brothers Verse 5 As you know. Right? For we never came with words of flattery. As you know. Verse 9. For you remember, brothers.

Verse 10. You are witnesses. Verse 11. For you know how we did this thing. This whole section is reflecting how we ministered the gospel to you. Right?

A healthy church will recognize that kind of ministry and will seek to reproduce it. Well, what kind of ministry of the gospel is it? Well, it's this. You minister the gospel with boldness, verses 1 and 2. You don't minister the gospel for the purpose of gaining a following for yourself. You don't minister the gospel for your reputation.

You do it for the purpose of gathering the disciples of Jesus. And you do that no matter what, regardless of poor treatment or persecution. You minister with boldness. You say, this is what God says. You minister with fidelity, verses 3 and 4. A healthy, winning congregation is one that refuses to minister a false gospel, that uses false motives or uses deceptive tricks in order to gain a following, to gain wealth, or to gain a reputation. instead of hustling it serves as commissioned servants of God faithfully doing what God's called them to do verses 3 and 4 listen how many churches are out there who are using all kinds of techniques just to get people in and they talk about well we just want to see people come to know the Lord but the point is that they become so non-offensive that no one hears about their sin or the fact that they need a savior right and and they can talk all they want to about about the lord but they just want to get a bunch of people and they measure success by the number of people sitting in the pews okay you minister not with that kind of motive you minister with fidelity there's boldness there's fidelity verses five through nine you minister with selfless love not for fame not for fortune or even the honor that is due you.

Remember he says, we didn't even insist on you paying us. Even though that's due us, we didn't insist on it. Why? He just wants me. Ethel in the ministry. And we minister God's word as gentle, generous, self-denying servants.

Gentle like a mother who cares for her children. That's what he says. We're like a mother who cared for her children. We were generous. We not only gave you the gospel, what? We gave you our lives.

We opened our lives to you. Right? And deny yourself what's even rightfully yours to minister effectively. You're gentle. You're generous. You deny yourself.

All those are part of a faithful ministry. Selfless love. And then lastly, verses 10-12, we're like a father to you. We encourage you, rebuke you. We did all those things like a father would. That is the kind of ministry you need.

Boldness, fidelity, love, fatherly concern. Alright? Then verses 13-16. the mark of a champion congregation is not only that it ministers the gospel in a particular way but it also embraces the gospel it has the marks of faith verses 13 through 16 what are those marks well you believe that the gospel is the very word of God you remember as we talked that Sunday I can remember I talked about some people one theologian in Britain who said I cannot believe, I cannot believe that this idea of a God who's angry until he's made happy by the sacrifice of his own son, that is barbaric.

I don't know if you remember me telling you about that. That's what sticks out in my mind. By the way, I can forget my sermons too. That illustration sticks out in my mind. All right? And he says, look, you accepted that message that the wrath of God is coming unless you find refuge in the death of His Son.

He says that kind of message you accept it as the very Word of God. And He says you not only believe it, but you remain faithful to it. Right? No matter what happens to you, you remain faithful. True faith is not simply believing the truth, but remaining faithful to that truth. true faith is not believing the truth only to throw it out later true faith is believing the truth and remaining faithful to that truth And so we believe and are delivered from God wrath Now again, question, can others see this in us?

Can it be said that this congregation seeks to minister the gospel with boldness, fidelity, selfless love, and fatherly concern? Those are the questions we need to ask. and we're not satisfied with simply proclaiming it. We're the kind of congregation that will embrace it and believe it and remain true to it. All right? The third mark that we find in the first part, in the reflection part, is recognize the powerful affection of the gospel.

You remember from chapter 2, verse 17, to the end of chapter 3, that this is the part of the book that just pulses with the heart of Paul and the affection that he has for these people. It pulses with this wholehearted, deep affection for the people of God. But it's an affection growing in the congregation that proves to be a powerful force in producing distinctive characteristics.

It's not just we just slobber all over everybody in love. You remember in this section, chapter 2, verse 17, to chapter 3, verse 13, it does what? It produces a godly delight in one another. Verses 17 through 20. He says, you are my joy, my glory, my crown. When Jesus comes, I'm going to point at you.

You're my glory. You're my joy. That's what he thinks of them. And our affection should bind us together in such a way that your growth is my delight. You know what? You know how you know you love folks?

I'll tell you how you know you love them. When there's true gospel affection. When they're growing, it makes you happy. And if they're not growing and they're receding, it breaks your heart. Is that the way you think of each other here? Is that the way you think of each other?

That's what needs to happen. That's what we need to be like. when I see someone starting to fall away it ought to break my heart when I see someone growing man it ought to bring delight to my heart you know it frankly and this is the fight against the flesh that addiction to self We so wrapped up in ourselves that if someone growing or not it just doesn make that much difference At least I'm happy. Right?

We ought to, and I don't have time to do it in the review, but in that point we talked about the fact that this comes. As we minister the gospel, as we labor together, as we go through life together, right? And we are in this war together. That's what produces that kind of affection. So it's a godly delight in one another. Verses chapter 3, 1 through 5.

There's a godly concern for one another. It doesn't mean we're indifferent to the struggles of our brothers and sister. It produces a concern that moves to help. When someone is not doing well, we move in to help. Now look, obviously I'm going to, I'm trying not to take too long, but I'm going to camp here for a second, or three or nine. But listen to me.

I know there's godly concern amongst us. but often what's lacking not just here, anywhere is that when you see someone slipping away you don't do anything about it. Right? Because you're scared. I know what that's like. I know what that's like. I still get scared when I have to go talk to somebody or confront somebody or say man I'm really concerned about you.

That's when you have to say I cannot let my feelings of fear dictate my agenda. The commandments of God tell me what to do, not my feelings, not my fear. I need to say, oh, God, help me. Because you may know about someone slipping that nobody else knows about. And you need to step in. And you need to be the one.

Instead of just saying, I don't know what to say, until the problem grows, until it's so big that everybody knows about it. When you could have had a part in helping that person. Let me plead with you this morning. What you do is you get on your knees and you say, Oh God, I am scared to death to say anything to that person. But I going to go Help me please please I know this because I pray this a lot God help me I driving and I praying and I saying God, I don't know what's going to happen when I show up there.

I have no idea what's going to happen. I don't even know what to say. I don't even know enough. I just know something's wrong. Please help me. Please, please, please help me.

That's the way I pray when I'm driving many times. and you step in and you work. That's what has to happen. That's the kind of affection we need for one another. Lastly, and again, part of the same thing, verses 6 through 10, it produces mutual encouragement. We have godly delight, we have godly concern, we have mutual encouragement of one another. Paul longs to see them so he can encourage them. and they long to see him, which encourages him.

So he says, I long to see you, and that encourages them. And then he finds out, hey, they still love me, and that encourages him. That gospel affection should move us to encourage one another, not just confront, but encourage. And then lastly, verses 11 through 13, it produces love for one another that prepares you for judgment. You remember what he said there? he says in those last couple verses of chapter 3 that he wants to come to them and may the Lord, verse 12, make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all as we do for you so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his holy ones.

You know what? It's going to increase our love for one another so that love abounds. and when love abounds, growth happens. Why? Super abounding, overflowing love for one another because unless love grows, selfish desires increase and we turn our love toward ourselves and not toward God which results in an ungodly character and lifestyle. And so we want love to grow here so that we'll love one another and we'll help each other so that we'll be able to give a good account of ourselves when Jesus comes.

And so, do we possess those characteristics? Do we have an affection for one another that only the gospel can produce? And does it work powerfully among us so that there's delight and concern and a willingness to encourage and a love for one another? All right. Now we're in the last part of this review. Chapter 4, verses 1-12.

There the Apostle moves to direction, from reflection to direction. And we got as far as verse 12. Quick review, let's go through it. Verses 1-12. Finally then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. for you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus for this is the will of God your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter because the Lord is an avenger in all these things as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you for God has not called us for impurity but in holiness Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia, but we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more. And then to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

Here we find both the comfort and call of the gospel. He's already given us the comfort of the gospel. You've been delivered from the wrath of God. He's told us that a number of times in chapters 1 through 3. Now we come to the call of the gospel. Having saved us and having rescued us from sin and wrath, God now calls you to live differently.

So after his reflection, Paul gives us direction. Finally then, brothers, let's talk about what you need to do even more and some other things. He says after reflecting on our ministry of the gospel and your reception of it, let's move on to your obedience now to the call of the gospel. All right? Here's the first thing. Obey the call of the gospel because of its authority. you notice that the gospel frees us from the wrath of God but it does, listen the gospel frees us from the wrath of God but it does not free us from obedience to God In fact what the gospel does is to free us from the wrath of God so that now we will be obedient to the will of God.

Can you get that in your mind? Keep that in mind. We've been delivered. We can put it this way. We've been delivered from the wrath of God so that we will be obedient to God. you see how do i know that because he says it comes with authority in those first two verses he says what he says you ought to walk this way and then he says twice in those two verses i've told you this in the lord jesus and i've given you these instructions through the lord jesus it carries the authority of christ and he calls on us notice verse um verse two or verse um Verse 1, we live our lives to please God.

All of our life is oriented to pleasing God. Your work, do you work in a way that pleases God? Do you love your wife in a way that pleases God? Do you submit to your husband in a way that pleases God? Do you lead your children in a way that pleases God? Do you go on vacation in a way that pleases God?

Right? It's all about pleasing God. So, he says, excel at that. Do it more and more. Don't be satisfied with your level of obedience. Keep saying, God, help me so I can learn more how to please you.

So you obey, then, the call of the gospel because of its authority. Next thing he says, obey the call of the gospel for sexual purity. Verses 3 through 8. Now, what is God's will in the gospel? Notice this, verse 3. Your holiness, your sanctification.

This has always been God's intention for his people, that they be holy, right? That they be holy. This is his intention. And God's goal remains the same in the gospel. Those who believe have been separated to God, they have a position of holiness, now they have to act like holy people. Now listen carefully.

The goal of the gospel is not just to get you to heaven. the goal of the gospel is to produce a distinctive people who will live in obedience to the will of God All through the New Testament, you see the same thing. You see this, for example. The law did not produce a people who are holy to God. God said, this is what I expect of you. Now do it or die.

Right? read the Old Testament the old Mosaic covenant was do it or you die it didn't work threaten them with death threaten them with curses they're still not holy so then and it isn't like God went to plan B that's still part of the major plan he did that so we'd see it's not threats that make you holy he says now the gospel comes along instead of saying do or die it says Jesus did now obey. And that's what produces a holy people. The whole, the New Testament is filled.

Make disciples of Jesus. Who are disciples? People who obey what I say. Right? The goal of the gospel is not just to get you to heaven. The goal of the gospel is to produce a distinctive holy people.

And that's particularly true in our sexual lives. What does that mean then? It means you abstain from sexual immorality. He doesn't tell us to moderate our sexual impulses, but to abstain completely from all forms of sexual immorality. Abstain completely. He says in verses 4 and 5 that you know how to control your body.

Don't act like the unbelievers who are just living by their passions. Right? Isn't that the culture we live in? You feel like it? Go ahead, do it. Go ahead, do it.

No. no you control your body and and what i found the most fascinating in this passage was that you do not wrong or transgress your brother in this matter what in the world do you remember all forms of sexual immorality defraud a brother how so because you sexual relations outside of marriage entail taking sexual possessions reserved for somebody else. Either you involved in sexual immorality right Think of this You young people all the kids in your high school they're hooking up, right? I'm using that in the technical sense of the term.

They're hooking up and they're breaking up. And they go out and marry other people. Those kids who are hooking up are defrauding that other person. They're taking something that doesn't belong to them. This person, whoever that person marries, that sexual relationship was meant for the spouse, and you're taking something that doesn't belong to you. Or you're taking possession of something that you don't have a right to.

You're taking something that you don't have a right to until you marry. So you defraud, you swindle someone else when you're involved in sexual immorality. So why should we live that way? He gives us three reasons. Number one, because of God's vengeance against those sins. Number two, because the gospel has called us to purity, not to impurity.

It doesn't say, well, I'm going to heaven. I'm just going to do whatever I want. No, the gospel is intended to call you to purity. And because of a divine person. Remember what he says? To disregard these instructions is to disregard God himself.

And so a church that's healthy has to pursue sexual purity. We must, especially in the culture in which we live, this must characterize us. Verses 9 and 10, obey the call of the gospel to love one another. Brotherly love. We love one another like family. This is something that God teaches us.

Listen, its source is God. You can only love one another if God's worked in your life. But the avenue of it is teaching. It's something you need to learn. Right? And the Holy Spirit teaches it through the commands of His Word.

He teaches it through people who take the commands of His Word and He energizes that obedience. And make it your goal. Notice what He says in verse 10. Do this, what? More and more. You do love one another, He says.

You love one another already. Do it more and more. do it more and more excel at it we need to have a reputation for love again how many churches have a reputation for fighting How many churches have a reputation for fighting? Ours ought to be a reputation of love. People will look at this congregation and say, those folks love one another. The last thing up to this point that he says, obey the call of the gospel to live quietly.

God clearly calls us to strive for a particular way of living. This kind of life should be our ambition. What kind of life? Notice three things. Make it your ambition to live a quiet life. God has not called us to celebrity or to notoriety.

Just a quiet life. To mind your own affairs. Again, remember, you can be so busy with the important affairs of life that you have little time to mow your lawn, love your wife, play with your children, and read the Bible together. Now listen, that's a major one. in a world that's so frenzied with activity. Mind your own affairs. Live quietly.

Enjoy your family. Enjoy your church. Mind your own affairs. Don be out there just trying to get into everything And the last thing he says is to work with your hands To live by good honest hard work for the glory of God A quiet life of work. That should be your ambition. Why?

Two reasons. So that you have a good reputation with your neighbors. You have a good reputation with your neighbors. I think about just living as a you know as a pastor you're always kind of you got a little bit of profile in the town and all that that bothers me a little bit but that's the way it is so when I think about just being a neighbor I think this you know I could get on my soapbox and talk about all the political issues of the day and my neighbors would hate me if I live a nice quiet life right minding my own affairs working hard I think my neighbors would like me I think they would right they might be someone who who you could they could come and talk to you might be the neighbor that they'd come and talk that's what he says make sure and look so you have a good reputation with your neighbors and so that you're dependent on no one in other words he's not saying here so you not dependent on anybody anytime anywhere He just saying you live a life We are not always waiting for someone to provide for you You providing for yourself That's what God calls us to do.

So what kind of ambitions do you harbor? All right? So there it is. We've gone through the book. All right? You've kind of got your bearings again.

We're going to pick it up again next week where he talks about hope, how we in the culture of hopelessness, the culture of death, we can have hope. Now I believe that God wants us to be a champion church like this one. The kind of church whose winning credentials consist of not of numbers, nor even programs, or even a boatload of ministries. alright but the credentials like transformed lives a bold and faithful ministry of the gospel a noticeable affection for for one another lives of purity and love quietness those are the credentials we need to strive for as a congregation those are the sorts of things that God calls us to and that's going to show the world the grace of Jesus who rescues us from our sin so that we can live this way Let pray Father we just spent this time just kind of going over the things we've looked at already.

And I pray, Lord, that it's been profitable. I pray, Lord, that it gives us our bearings, not so we know where we are in this book so we can continue with the lesson, but that we recall what you've called us to be and to do. Father, in a world that's just crazy with immorality and activity and bigness, help us to be this quiet people who are pure and are known for our love, who've been transformed by the gospel and have a ministry of the gospel.

Help us to be that kind of a congregation. And help us to be content with that. Father help us to be content with what you've called us to be not with what we think are the signs of a winning congregation just help us we pray so that we're pleasing in your sight and we bring pleasure to you we pray this in Jesus name Amen