A Reputation For Love

Would you take your Bibles this morning and turn to 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians and we'll read the first 12 verses of chapter 4. 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 instruction 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 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 to be dependent on no one.

Let's pray. Father now take your word and bring it home to our hearts. Help us Lord, help none of us to leave here this morning without the challenge of this text. and help us to be asking the right questions as we leave, and help us to be doing the right and gracious things as we leave. Lord, do not leave us alone to just hear a sermon, but change us through your word.

Lord, we earnestly pray this now. In the name of Jesus, our Lord, amen. Every congregation has some sort of reputation It may have a reputation for being big It may be known for the fact that it aging and almost dead It may have a reputation for being big It may be known for the fact that it aging and almost dead It may have a reputation for having a lot of money or maybe it's known for its youth program or its style of music.

People in town may think it's a strict, harsh, rule-driven kind of church. Well, as I read the scriptures, and particularly as I read our text for this morning, and I get the distinct impression that God wants every church to be known by love. People should point to us and say, those folks love one another. I mean, they are really good at it. That was the reputation of the Thessalonian church.

I want you to look at verses 9 and 10, our text for this morning. 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. In other words, he's saying, here's the reputation of this church.

When it comes to love, we don't have to say very much. You've been taught by God. You're known for love, not only in your congregation, but you're known as people who love other congregations. We just want you to keep doing it. That should be our reputation as well. Now, it's obvious in our text that the Apostle Paul talks about the love of the Thessalonians.

And the heart of that text is found in verse 10. In verse 10, when he says, but we urge you, brothers, do this more and more. this congregation not the one that's mentioned here this one right here the one i'm looking at this congregation must excel in love now frankly i believe like the thessalonian church that we're a championship church and i don't say that lightly but i believe that god is at work in this congregation and i believe that a that a spirit of love and unity reigns in this congregation but we cannot take credit for it and we certainly should not be satisfied with it. Like the Thessalonians we must do this more and more Now you of course have noticed already that I only covering two verses this morning The reason for that is I studied it as I thought through it and different translations put it differently If you have an NIV you notice there a period at the end of verse 11 and the beginning of a new sentence in verse 12.

I'm sorry, between verse 10 and 11. I think he's talking about two different things here. And so I want to talk about just one of those things, and that's love. Next week we'll look at verses 11 and 12, where he talks about living a quiet life of hard work. But this week, as I look at the text, he's telling us that, he's saying this to us today. This is what God says to us today.

Right now, in this place, not long ago in Thessalonica, but right now, in this place, God is saying to us, how can LaRue Baptist Church have a loving reputation? How can we develop even more a reputation for love? How can we grow as a church known for love? Now, I know, I know. We live in a culture that love is just all over the place. Every movie has a love interest in it, it seems, you know.

Everything is about love. But I'm telling you right now, that's what this text says. If that's what the text says, then we've got to deal with it. And it's telling us, we as a church, we, the Rue Baptist Church, should have a reputation of loving one another. we should have a reputation as a loving church. Now, no matter what other reputations are out there, this is the one that we're supposed to stand out with regards to.

What's the first thing we have to understand? The first is this. You must have the desire to love. You must have the desire to love. He says in verse 9, Now concerning brotherly love, Now concerning brotherly love. He's talking about brotherly love here.

He's talking about a family kind of love. The kind of love where we're brothers and sisters. Okay? He calls them brothers, doesn't he? Later on in verse 10. But we urge you brothers.

Right? We are family. And we ought to love each other like the kind of love that permeates a family. Brotherly love. Now we should all have some sense of that Many of you know my sister my sister Miriam Sue You know that she mentally handicapped Now remember as a kid when someone would make fun of her I would be infuriated Now, we could make fun of her.

It didn't bother me. But, boy, don't let anybody else outside of the family do that. My little brother, Andy, well, he's not so little. We're only, like, 15 months apart. So, I mean, we were inseparable. We did everything together.

And you know what? if you attacked him, you were attacking me. If you attacked me, you were attacking him. That's the way it was. If you went after one of us, you went after both of us. That's the way it worked. Now, I could knock the stuffings out of him, but you try it and you're in trouble, right?

That's brotherly love. That's the sort of thing. You're together. You stand with each other. And that's the kind of love, not that we knock the stuffings out of anyone, But this is the kind of love that we have to pursue as a congregation. Brotherly love.

A brother's loss is our loss. A sister's joy is our joy. We will stand with each other. When someone's in trouble, we come to the rescue. When someone is being attacked, we stand with them. We come to the aid of family.

That's what we ought to be. That's how we ought to act. Now, that's the kind of love he's talking about, but he says you should desire to grow in this kind of love. The Thessalonians evidently wanted to know more about this because he says to them, now concerning brotherly love. The reason why that particular phrase is in there is because they've asked him about it.

He's responding to an inquiry from them. Now, concerning brotherly love, implication, the things you asked about. You asked about brotherly love. Let me address that right now. Somehow, either with Timothy, you remember Timothy had come back and had brought back the message about what was going on in Thessalonica to Paul. And you remember Paul received him and was just rejoicing at what he got.

Maybe Timothy had a letter from them asking Paul certain questions. What about brotherly love? And he responds, now, concerning brotherly love, what you wrote me about. or maybe they didn't write a letter maybe they just said to timothy hey look when you see paul again ask him about this we need some help here ask him about it but the point is They had to know what to do in their relationships.

That was their attitude. They had to know. We need some help in this, okay? Now, the Apostle Paul, as you see in these verses, expresses great confidence in their love for one another. He says, well, actually, I don't have to write to you about anything. God himself has taught you.

You know about love. But evidently, things were happening that had given them pause. They're having a little bit of ripples in their congregation. We need to know more about this brotherly love. I don't know what's going on. It could be verses 11 and 12.

It talks about people who evidently are not wanting to work anymore. Not wanting to work for their living. Maybe some members were getting disorderly. Maybe if you look at chapter 5, there's some hints here. Chapter 5, verse 12. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. Right? See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Maybe the emerging leadership, there were some tensions coming up. There were some people who were refusing to work, and those are hard folks to get going.

And then, of course, he mentions things like encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. There are some folks that need some work and they just get irritated, right? But something's going on. They want to know about this brotherly love. Look, we're failing in some fashion. They desired, they longed to be the kind of people who loved one another, who pursued love.

They're interested in it. Now we should have the same desire. We should have the same desire. We should be asking ourselves questions like this. What should we do in order to grow in our love for one another? We need to be asking those questions.

You know, I know a lot of us say, man, someone just said it this week. You know, we have a church that's so unified and loving, and that's great. But we need to be asking the question, what do we need to do in order to grow in our love for one another? how can we love better so that we have a deeper sense of family where are the weaknesses in our relationships that we need to work on those are questions we need to be asking if we want to have this kind of love Let me ask you do you think that way Do you think that way Do you think what, you know, you know I love it here but what can we do to make it better?

You need to be thinking that way. Is it a concern that maybe you don't love like you should? Is that a concern for you or or are you, are you satisfied to come to church and hear a sermon and just stay basically uninvolved in other people's lives and problems. What's your attitude? You like just showing up and hearing a sermon and having a great worship service and that's about it?

You need to address that. When someone loses a loved one, do you care enough to say something to them? Do you care enough to write something to them? Do you care enough even to walk up and say, hey, I'm praying for you? Do you walk by the picture board in the hallway? You know what picture board I'm talking about.

It's out there in the hallway. Do you walk by that picture board and say, you know, I don't know that family. I'm going to make it a point to get to know them. Are there people on that board that you look at and say, I don't know that person. But then what do you do about it? Are you just satisfied to come and have a nice comfy Sunday and not, you know, it's always a little bit hard to get, right?

A little bit hard to get out of the comfort zone and talk to someone you don't know. can I be honest with you here no pastor lie to us of course I'll be honest with you it's in a congregation this size and we're about maxed out in terms of everybody knowing everybody but we should we're not too big for us to know everybody and I cannot tell you how many times I've said well you know so and so and someone says actually I don't know them. We've been coming to our church for four years. Right?

Is there anybody in this congregation right now that you don't know? Get to know them. At least that much. You can't love someone you don't know. I loved my brother. You know why?

Because we were together. And I don't think I'd love my brother if I didn't know him. Right? Have you ever prepared food for someone else here Have you ever taken some food to someone who needed it Have you heard of some trial that another member is experiencing and prayed for him or her and then told him you prayed for him Are you satisfied to write off a brother when you have a problem?

Rather than doing the hard work of reconciling that relationship. That's a big one. You have a problem with someone, you say, fine, we're done. No, no, God does not, Jesus does not give you that option. He only gives you one option, and that is you reconcile that relationship. And when you do that, there's brotherly love.

If LaRue Baptist Church is going to establish a reputation of love, then we need to have the desire to love. We need to say, what do we need to do better, and how can we start doing that? We have to know. We've got to get this down. And here's the second thing that will help us establish that reputation. Recognize the source of love.

Recognize the source of love. Verse 9, last part. You have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. You yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. The source of the love that I've just described can only be in God. Only a work of his grace in our hearts can produce that kind of love.

Now you know what it's like. You've grown up with your brother and your sister, and it was hard enough to live with them, right? And you're bound by family. You're the same blood. You live together. But how do we love one another like that when we're all from different backgrounds, different economic levels, different experiences?

How in the world do I love someone like a brother or sister when that's the case? And I'm telling you, it's only a work of the grace of God in your heart that can produce it. Naturally, we love people who are like us. And we love people who do like us back. They are like us, we are the same, we are the same background, or we like one another. But what about people that are from entirely different backgrounds?

You are supposed to love them like a brother Yeah how is that possible Only the work of God Jesus has to die to break the tyranny of our bigotry and our comfort so that you now have the ability and the willingness to love somebody else like that It requires the grace of God in Jesus. But notice what he says. He says that God continues that work by teaching us to love each other.

You yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. What is he talking about? You yourselves have been taught by God. Yes. How does that happen? God sends messengers who preach the gospel.

Through that gospel, God does an amazing work of transformation, gives us new hearts, and now makes us willing to love other people. Right? And then they gather them together into a church and they teach them how to love one another. And that's what the Apostle Paul did. And notice in chapter 4, verses 1 and 2, what? We urge you, what?

In the Lord Jesus, how you ought to walk, right? Verse 2, for you know what instructions we gave you, what? Through the Lord Jesus. You see, they teach them with the authority of Jesus behind them. The authority of Jesus is there. It is Jesus who's teaching you.

And when you hear me preach the word of God, not my opinions, but the word of God, you are hearing God. And this very day, God is teaching you to love one another. It's by the authority of God, the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see? That's how God teaches you. Not only that, it's always been God's intention. always been God's intention that anyone who's associated with his name will be a loving community of people you heard it from the old testament this morning that lengthy section that Jake read today from Leviticus 19 don't don't harvest your fields to the edges don't pick all the grapes in your vineyards right don't hold the money you owe somebody overnight pay him that day and it all ended up with saying what?

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. All those things were intended to show the entire world that these people belonging to this God are a group of people, community of people who love one another. It's always been God's intention. God has always taught that. Notice this as well. God teaches you because his messengers should make disciples of Jesus.

What are disciples of Jesus? Matthew 28. What did Jesus say? Go and make disciples, teaching them to what? To obey. Do you know that most people get, when I ask, I often ask people this question.

The Great Commission tells us to teach what? You know what most of the answers are that I get to that question? They're to teach the commandments of Jesus. And I say, that's not what it says. what does it say it says teaching them to obey all that i've commanded you it's not good enough just to tell people what jesus expects you have to take another step and teach them how to obey you see all through his ministry so we're teaching people to obey the commandments of christ what did Jesus command we saw one in chapter 13 today did we not what did Jesus say you shall love one another as I have loved you by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another that's powerful you know the very first sermon I ever preached ever that's probably 21, maybe 20, I don't remember, was on that text.

It had so struck me at that young age that this is what Jesus says. They're not going to know us by the fact that we don't do certain things. They're not going to know us by the fact that we're against other things. They're going to know us by the fact that we love one another. That's the main witness we have. Now, please don't hear me wrong.

I'm not saying you never share the gospel. People are only converted when they hear the word of God. But they're not going to listen to us. You call yourself a disciple of Jesus? Oh my goodness. The way you treat one another?

Get out of here. No, sir. The world has a right to look at us and say, I know they're disciples of Jesus. You know how I know? Because they really love one another. They really love one another.

Jesus made that a big deal. And the night he was betrayed. That happened on the night he was betrayed. Look at John chapter 15 for a moment. Same night, same night, it's still what happened when he tells them to love one another. He loved them after Judas Iscariot has gone out John 15 same thing the same night he still talking to them Look at what he says beginning in verse 12 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

There it is. Hey, I'm telling you, obey this command. You start loving one another like I loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing.

But I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. these things I command you so that you will love one another. That's powerful, folks.

That's what Jesus expects from us. Now we love one another like he loved us. We're willing to die for one another. We're willing to stay with one another. We're willing to stick it out together. We're willing to stand together and to give all for one another. not only has has god taught us through his messengers through the message of jesus that they bring but the holy spirit continues to teach you through his word as you read that word and you're struck by those commandments the spirit brings conviction he continues to teach you and he energizes your obedience to those commands of love he's the one that energizes you to obey that command and then you learn experientially the nature of brotherly love you begin to feel that kind of love for one another that's the holy spirit teaching you it's not just teaching you blah blah blah here's the commandments but teaching you experientially this is how god teaches us his holy spirit energizes our obedience and as we step out in obedience we begin to feel that brotherly love.

So Paul says I don't need to add anything to what you heard. I want to make one note here, please note, careful note, that love is something you learn. Do you catch that? God has taught you Love is something you learn It doesn just happen We don fall into brotherly love do we You know, we all like to talk about falling in love, right? I want you to know that I'm a romantic at heart, okay?

Ask my family. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff, right? But I'm telling you right now, you don't just fall in love. You develop love. You learn love. And what he says here is this.

You must be taught, you must learn, and you must obey if you want to grow in loving as a congregation. You got to learn it. Right? You got to be taught it. you have to learn it, and you have to obey if you're going to grow in brotherly love. My family was all, well, most of us were together over Thanksgiving. And the conversation turned at one point to the fact that we are an extremely close family.

You probably figured that out. We really love one another. And all our adult children, the consensus was the reason why that they love one another so deeply is because their mom and their dad made them love one another. They told us, yeah, you guys made us love one another. We didn't have a choice. Go play.

Don't ignore your brother. You go over there and you deal with it and you take care of that problem and you do what you're supposed to do. And by the way, you should, Annie, Annie the other night said, I remember mom telling me one day, Ann, stop practicing your piano now and go play with your sisters or your only memories will be of that piano bench.

I said, you made us play together. You made us do that stuff. That's why we love one another so deeply. And that's exactly, that's exactly what I'm saying here tonight, this morning. don't you don't grow in love if you leave it up to your feelings if you wait until you feel like it you won love one another like you ought to I telling you you know what I tell married couples in counseling tons of times This is what I say to them The reason why you don love one another right now is you're letting your feelings get in the way.

You ever thought about that? You want to see love grow? Then don't depend on your feelings. Don't wait to feel like it to do something for someone. Don't wait until the Spirit moves you to sacrifice for a brother or sister in the Lord. Do it because it's the right thing to do.

And because Jesus commands you to love one another, step out in obedience and watch what happens. If you wait for the feelings before you do anything, nothing will happen, I'll guarantee it. But if you step out in obedience to God, watch what happens to your feelings. You want to love people in this congregation and start serving them, start sacrificing for them, stand with them, join with them in their sorrows, rejoice with them in the good times, and watch what happens, even if you don't feel like it.

What am I going to say? Just tell them you prayed for them. Just do it. But it's so uncomfortable. Do it! And watch what happens.

Learn and obey, and then watch what happens to the love in our church and in your heart. Now listen, I know I'm talking, I'm preaching to the choir here. You all know this. But we want to do this more and more. Now we're going to grow in love only if it sources God. And only if we're seeking to obey him.

The last thing you see here is you must excel at this kind of love. Verse 10. Do you notice something in verse 10? God expects us to extend that kind of love to other congregations, not just our own. we need to love others the thessalonians had a reputation do you notice what it says there it's interesting how he puts it for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout macedonia throughout the entire province they're loving brothers who are not even in their city but in other cities like berea where they've come from right like philippi they're loving those congregations too.

It's like people in LaRue saying, isn't it amazing how the people of that Baptist church not only love one another but they love churches in Toledo and Dayton and Blanchard and Bucharest. They love people all over the place. How did they do that? I want to show you something here. I think this is a clue. Turn back to 2 Corinthians chapter 8.

Here's a clue as to what was going on. Now, 2 Corinthians is written later. Paul, by the way, when he's writing the Thessalonians, is in Corinth. So when he writes the Corinthians, it's some years later. But he says something about these churches, including Thessalonica. the apostle Paul's trying to get a collection together to help the saints in Jerusalem because they're suffering they need help and so he's going to the churches that he's established and saying would you give to help your brothers and sisters in Jerusalem they're hurting big time they need help and so he's going and asking them for money and here's what he says about the churches in Macedonia which include Thessalonica we want you to know brothers now he's writing to the Corinthians here.

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.

And this not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Do you see that? These people are poor, and that didn't keep them from giving. They're poor. They didn have much but they said we love those folks We going to give more than what we able to give We going to give it all Right They amazing That kind of an idea of maybe how they love those other congregations But if we want to be the kind of church described here, then we should look for opportunities to love other congregations.

And of course we have. There are congregations all over the eastern and southern part of Romania that have been touched by the love of this congregation. I know it. I've seen it. They've expressed it to us. There's churches in our fire fellowship.

We need to think about looking again, even for more opportunities of giving our resources, our time, our people, to help other congregations with both physical needs and spiritual needs. And so, we have to ask, one of the reasons why does he ask this? Why should we grow in love? Do you remember what he said in chapter 3? Remember what he said in chapter 3?

Look over at chapter 3, verses 12 and 13. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love. He's been praying for this, hasn't he? He's been praying. They've asked him, what can we do about love? And he says, for one thing, I'm praying that you abound in love.

Okay? That you abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, note, so that he, referring to God, 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. Where love grows, holiness grows. And if we grow in our love for one another, we will grow in our holiness That why we need to pursue it That why we need to excel at this So that we become more like Christ It's much easier to become like Christ in a congregation of love than it is a rigid, harsh congregation.

So we come to the heart of it all. Do this more and more. Listen. we can never get to the point where we're patting ourselves on the back and saying, yeah, we got it. We got love and congregation. Well, yeah, we do, but we can't pat ourselves on the back. We should never be satisfied with where we are.

We ought to rejoice in what God is doing, but never be satisfied and saying, oh God, help us to do this more and more. Help us to look for opportunities. Help us to look for areas of improvement. and we need to pray for the ability to learn and the willingness to obey. What is the reputation of our congregation? I tend to think that we are known as a church that loves.

I think we are. But if that's the case, then we need to love one another more and more. More and more. But it's impossible without Jesus. the Savior who out of love gave himself for the most unlovable creatures in the world, in the universe, gave himself for the most unlovable creatures. He gave himself to make us his own. And because the love of God in Christ has transformed our hearts we now can love one another We can do it We can do it But we have to desire it We have the ability.

We've been given new hearts. But we have to desire it. And we have to pursue it. And if we do, it will certainly happen. May God help us. Father, Father, I want to thank you for this congregation.

You are working here and we thank you for it. But Lord, we're also praying this. Give us eyes to see where we can love one another more and more. Help us, Father, as we've looked at this and thought about it. Help us to step out of our comfort zone. Help us to talk to people that we normally don't talk to.

Help us to love them. Help us to serve one another. God, help us to get away from the excuse of busyness to do the things that are really important. And that is that we love and serve and sacrifice and stand with one another. Help us to do it. God, help us. help us to show the magnificence of your love by loving one another and in such a way that outsiders see it so that's our prayer today help us to leave here now asking ourselves questions looking for answers praying for you to work we'll thank you in Jesus name Amen