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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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The Ministries God Blesses 0:02 Well, good morning. We hope you welcome all of our brave campuses who are worshiping with us today. So great to worship with all of you. I wanted to give you a quick announcement so that you'd be praying about it this0:12 week. As you know, our radio ministry has been expanding all over the country, and we got a call recently, for 2 of the largest markets in the entire country to be on early in the morning. So starting tomorrow morning,0:25 both in Washington, DC and in LA, we're gonna be broadcast on the radio. And it's a pretty big deal because these for Salem are 2 of the largest markets,0:37 that they have. So, I believe in Washington DC, we follow Charles Stanley, and then, Jack Graham follows us out of that show. And in LA, we follow Robert Jeffers at 10 30 in the0:49 morning, who I just met for a second time here a week ago, and then coming out of that David Jeremiah. So we're kinda sandwiched in between some pretty good, people. And the really the prayer is that the gospel would go1:00 forth, that we would have more people listening to the word of God, engaging with the word of God, meeting Jesus Christ, and we're seeing great results with that. So if you'd be praying for that, we would really1:10 appreciate it. And with that, let's continue our worship this morning as we go before the Lord and get ready to hear his living and active word among us. Will you pray with me? Our father in heaven, we do. We give you1:19 praise, glory, and honor, Lord, for your word. We thank you as a church that you are expanding our reach. Lord, we do pray tomorrow in Washington, DC, in our nation's capital, and all around as well as in LA. Lord, that1:30 you would let the word sound forth like a trumpet. That lord you would be lifted up and magnified as more and more people get to hear your word and we thank you for the privilege of that. And father we thank you this1:40 morning that we have the privilege of hearing your word among us because we as a people lord believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, that you are speaking. So our prayer this morning is1:52 speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now for all those who have gathered, who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you, and who will, by faith, put into2:02 practice what he shows you. Will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, amen. Amen. This morning, I wanna talk to you about the ministries that God blesses. The2:14 ministries that God blesses. It seems to me that every believer wants to have the blessing and favor of God on their life. When I talk about ministries, I'm talking about you as a Christian serving the Lord. That's what2:25 a ministry is. So as you serve the Lord in your church, as you serve the Lord in your job, as you serve the Lord in your community, as you serve the Lord in your family, how is it that we can2:37 experience the blessing of God on that? You know, why is it that so many Christians would say, I'm a believer, but I don't experience the blessing of God in my marriage. I'm a believer, but we're not experiencing2:49 the blessing of God in our church. I'm a believer, but I'm not seeing the blessing of God in our community. But yet when I read in the word, in the book of acts, in a different places, it seems that when people gathered3:00 and sought the Lord that God was blessing the work that they do. So is there a way which I can experience the blessing of God, the the favor of God on my life in3:12 different ways? And I wanna tell you the answer to that upfront is yes. You can experience the blessing of God in your life. God wants to bless, but there's certain ways that God blesses and there's certain3:24 requirements for God to come and bless different areas of your life. And so today, in first Thessalonians chapter 2, that's what we wanna talk about. We wanna talk about 4 ways that you3:36 can live in such a way that God will bless your life. So I encourage you to open up your Bibles to first Thessalonians chapter 2. And while you're turning there, you remember that this church was a church that got3:47 started because of the boldness of Paul, Silas, and Timothy preaching the gospel to a group of people among great opposition. They even got driven out of the town because of what they did, and yet they were completely4:00 faithful in what they shared, and a church was formed there. And the apostle has written to us, and he's written to the church, and we get to read what he wrote, how they become, a great encouragement4:11 to all of Greece because of the way in which they serve the Lord. So I want you to hear the word of the Lord today, these 12 verses, and then we will unpack them together. Here's what he says. He says, for you yourselves4:22 know, brethren, that are coming to you was not in vain, but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God4:34 amid much opposition. For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel so we speak4:46 not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. For we never came with flattering speech as you know, nor with a pretext for greed, God is witness nor did we seek glory from4:58 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.5:09 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 have become very dear to us. For you5:21 recall brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaim to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses and so is God how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly5:33 we behave towards toward you believers. Just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each 1 of you as a father would his own children. So that you would walk in a manner worthy5:46 of God of the God who calls you to his own kingdom and glory. And here as the apostle writes to the church in Thessalonica that he loves, that he's encouraged by. He's gonna5:57 share with them about the ministries that God blesses. And as we read his letter to the people inspired by the Holy Spirit, we too can learn how can I live a blessed and favored life by God?6:10 Because a lot of people think, well, if you talk about blessing and and prosperity, you're you're just 1 of those prosperity preachers. No. That that that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the prospering6:19 God that wants to bless his children. How do I get in on that? And what How do I get in on that and what does that look like? And here it gives us 4 ways to do that. And the first is is this, if you're gonna be a6:30 ministry that God blesses, the service that God blesses, you need to engage with gospel boldness. Most. He says for you6:42 yourselves know, brethren, that are coming to you was not in vain. It was not useless. There I I wanna tell you something about gospel ministry. There's always a return on6:53 investment for gospel ministry. Every time you share the gospel, there's always a return on investment. The word of God goes forth. It always returns. It always has a return on investment even when you don't see7:05 it. Even when you feel like you failed. Even when you feel like nobody understood. Even when you feel like it's not working. The gospel always has a return on investment.7:18 He says, but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much7:30 opposition. So as they were in Philippi, and they were being opposed there, and they left, and they came to Thessalonica, they had every opportunity to say, this is too hard. If you've shared the gospel,7:41 you are naturally gonna feel sometimes, this is too hard. Share the gospel with your neighbors. You're going to sense that sometimes this is too hard.7:53 If you go down to 16 street in Denver and you share the gospel, there are going to be times where you say, this is too hard. Because the gospel doesn't always produce immediate results to everybody that you share with in8:04 a positive way. It's not that, hey, we have the best thing going. It's Jesus Christ. If you really knew what I was telling you, you would bow your knee right now and worship him. 1 day you will. Every knee will bow and8:16 every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. But just because that's true, doesn't mean when you share the gospel, everybody's going to respond that way. Many times people reject the8:28 gospel. Many times people say, I want nothing to do with the gospel. Many times their actions outwardly are anger towards you as the 1 who shared the gospel. And if you share the gospel, you will8:39 experience opposition from time to time. There's no way around it.9:01 Realities. When you die, you will go to heaven or you will go to hell. And there is a chasm that cannot be crossed. And a majority of the world right now, if the world ended, would be in hell. Because9:13 the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ, who's the way, the truth, and the life. And the only way to have a relationship with him is to repent of sins and to trust that he's the savior. That's it. Majority of the9:24 world doesn't believe that. Now if you believe that that's true based on biblical authority, then the majority of people that you know and the majority of people that you come eyeball to eyeball with are on their way to9:36 hell. And that should grieve your spirit. The only way to get God's blessing is to engage in gospel boldness. And gospel boldness is not just sharing the gospel, it's living the gospel as you're gonna9:48 see. And if you're gonna experience, for instance, in your marriage, how do I engage gospel boldness? Christian. And the way you engage in10:00 gospel boldness is by serving the Lord and speaking as to how you serve the Lord and honoring the person that you're married to even though they don't honor the Lord. But even when you're both Christians, how do you10:10 engage in gospel boldness? Because Christ is in you, the hope of glory. You model the gospel in your marriage. Men are called to lead. Men are called to be the10:22 authority in the home so that they can bless their wives and their children. How well are we as men doing that? Women are called to submit. Wives are called to submit to their husbands. How well are our wives10:34 doing that? And no matter how good you're doing it, no matter what grade you'd give yourself, there's always room for improvement. Amen. No matter how well you honor your kids and build them10:46 up, there's always room for improvement. There there's no perfect parent or perfect husband or perfect wife on this side of heaven. We're all growing in Christ, but we need to engage in gospel boldness. And when10:57 you do, you'll realize this. The reason that you're here is to give worship, glory, and honor to God in everything you do. And to tell as many people that whatever they're worshiping other than Jesus is11:09 wrong, and they need to worship the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and savior. And if in your family, you're both worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ, then that's a model of how you express that to 1 another. So11:19 when people see your marriage and your kids watch your marriage, they say, that's what it must be like to serve Jesus. But it always starts with gospel boldness. It always starts with being willing to know that the11:30 foundation of any ministry worth anything is that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. The Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 1 16, for I am not ashamed of the11:42 gospel for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who what believes.11:57 The gospel for everyone who believes. Well, then why do we share with non believers in hopes that they'll believe. And then who do we share the gospel with? Ourselves daily who say we believe it, so that12:09 we grow in it. We grow in our identity in Christ. We grow in our sanctification in Christ. We grow in giving God more glory and honor. We grow in our worship of Christ and our obedience and all that we do because12:20 we say, we believe this gospel. So we learn to forgive better. We learn to love better. We learn to care more because why? Because the gospel is central to everything that we12:32 are. And when we wake up and say, this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. We're saying, thank you, Jesus, that I belong to you. And thank you, Jesus, that you saved and rescued me. And thank12:43 you, Jesus, that I belong to you. So therefore, I wanna live my day so you can live your life in and through me in every relationship for the glory of God. Amen? And when you read through the book12:55 of acts in different places where the gospel was spreading rapidly or you read stories, in our church history about places where the gospel was spreading rapidly, you'll see that people engaged with13:07 gospel boldness. You remember in Acts chapter 4 and verse 13, or verse 12. Actually, when the apostles were talking, they said, there is salvation in no 1 else for there13:19 is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Who are they talking to? The apostles are talking to all the Jewish priests and leaders, all the religion of their day. And they're13:31 saying there's no other salvation other than Jesus. And it says in verse 13, now as they observe the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they13:42 were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. What's this saying? Saying you don't have to be overly educated. You don't have to be smart. You don't have to be a bunch of things. If13:54 you spend time with Jesus, you are his witness everywhere you go and everything that you do. Religion says, be good on Sunday morning when you're at church. Religion says, do the14:06 right thing when people are watching. Religion says be a good person. The gospel says you're not a good person. You never were a good person. You needed Christ because he's the only good 1 and14:18 he's God. Repent and believe and keep on repenting and believing that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. That's gospel boldness. Amen? And when you look at ministries that don't proclaim this,14:30 there's no blessing of God on them. You go to a church that doesn't proclaim the fullness of Jesus Christ being Lord. There's no blessing of God on that pulpit. There's no blessing of God in that14:42 church because all they're doing is promoting their own individual religion in some way, telling people in some way to be good people. That's not what we see in the apostles. We see14:53 crazy things like in acts 4 31 and when they had prayed the place where they had gathered was shaken and they were all filled with the holy spirit and begin to speak the word of God with what15:05 boldness. Boldness to share the gospel. Here's what I think. When I read about the Apostle Paul, I read about a man who understood he was a sinner that15:17 repented and believed that Jesus was the Christ and devoted his life to sharing the gospel everywhere he was in prison, whether he was under threat of persecution or death. That's all he spent his life.15:29 Even so much so that he said for me to live is Christ. The day is I'm looking forward to and that's the goal of my faith. I get to be with J. A. S. A. S. A. R. A. S. A. R. A. S. A. R. A. S. A. R. A. S. A. R. A. S. A. R.15:41 A. S. A. R. A. S. A. R. A. S. A. R. A. S praying for boldness? I mean, this is 1 guy that's I don't care if you kill me. I don't care what15:53 you do. Doesn't matter. I'm gonna be with Jesus either way. To God be the glory. And what's he praying for? Boldness. What do we need to pray for? Boldness. It needs to be the foundation of all of our ministries.16:05 The gospel is not an add on. The gospel is not, hey, later we'll talk about that. First, let's talk about how to be a good person. First, let's talk about how to have a good career. First, let's talk about how to make16:16 money. First, let's not talk about any of that. First, let's talk about the fact that heaven and hell are real, and Jesus Christ is Lord, and you need to repent and believe that he's the way, the truth, and the life.16:24 Let's talk about that. And then and then let's keep talking about it. Like, what else is there to talk about? Well, I'm saved. Now, teach me how to16:36 have a good job. How about you're saved? Let's talk about the cross even more, because you can't even begin to plumb the depths of how much God loves you until we look at the cross. Like, why are we talking about16:48 anything else? So when you engage in gospel boldness, that's what he's talking about. Even when Paul writes to Timothy in second Timothy, starting in chapter 1 and verse17:00 7 and he tells him, for God has not given us a spirit of timidity but a power and love and self discipline. There he says this, therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or me his prisoner,17:12 but join with me in suffering for what? For the gospel according to the power of God. What was Paul's message? Paul's message was Jesus Christ is Lord. What was the Apostle's message? That Jesus17:24 Christ is Lord. What was their message? Repent and believe that he's the Lord. Repent and believe that he's God's 1 and only son that was born of a virgin, that came here and fulfilled the law, that died on the cross in17:34 your place, that rose from the dead, and all the power of the Holy Spirit is imparted in you when you believe. And when you believe and the Holy Spirit is in you, then walk in a manner worthy of the gospel for the rest17:44 of your life. That's all they preached. They didn't have seminars on how to be a good person. Be a waste of time. It's still a waste of time. Not that you can't17:56 benefit from secular teaching on some tips or trades or the the but that's not what changes your life and it's not what changes people around you. The gospel does.18:08 Amen? So if you wanna have God's blessing on your life, engage in gospel boldness, ask yourself the question, your job, in your marriage, in your singleness, in your church. Is the gospel of Jesus18:19 Christ central to all we say and believe? Is it on the front of our minds and is it rooted deeply in our hearts that when you think about those ministries, people would say, I know that man. I know that woman. I know18:31 that family. I know that church. I know that neighborhood. They put Jesus Christ first over everything. That's why God bless us when you're worshiping the Lord and18:43 savior Jesus Christ. Notice what else. Not only are you to engage with gospel boldness, but you're to exhort with unwavering conviction. Notice what he says, For our exhortation,18:55 that is our that is our that is our teaching. That's where we're persuading you. We're encouraging you. We're pleading with you. We're begging you. We're exhorting you. Our exhortation does not come from19:07 error or impurity or by way of deceit. We're not tricking you. Not trying to win you over with air. I'm not I'm not trying to do a bait and a switch here. I'm gonna I'm19:19 gonna give you all truth to everything that the word of God teaches. But notice what he says, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we19:31 speak not as pleasing men but God who examines our hearts. What does he say? We've been approved by God. Having been approved by God, it took place in the past and it's still ongoing. What does that mean? To have19:43 the approval of God in your life. How do you get the approval of God in your life? By repenting and believing that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. Then you're marked with approval. Every single person on19:53 the planet has value because they're created in the image of God. But those who truly repent and believe Jesus Christ is Lord have an approval on their life. God is pleased with you. And he's not pleased with you because20:04 of what you've done. He's pleased with you because what you've done with his son. You've accepted his son. And he's so pleased with his son. And because his son is in you, he's pleased with you. What difference does20:16 it make to walk around knowing that God is totally Yeah. A no doubt is totally Yeah. A total I know God is totally pleased with you. When off in my mind and in my heart some years ago, I started to live20:29 It was like many of you, and I still am. Not perfect. I don't I don't do everything right. I the things I'm preaching, I'm growing and increasingly, not perfectly. I'm trying to get there, and I'm better than I once was,20:41 but I'm not arrived yet. But what I used to feel is when I wasn't there, I beat myself up. How come I don't get this yet? How come I'm not doing it right? How come I'm a loser as a Christian? How come I'm no good? How20:52 come I can't get it? But when God began to show me, it's not about that. You're already approved and there's nothing you can do to make me love you more and there's nothing you can do to make me love you any less because21:02 you're my son, because you trusted Jesus. I approve you. Change every day. Because then instead of walking around trying to do good so that God was pleased, I began walking around knowing that God21:14 was already pleased because of the blood of Jesus that covers and cleanses me from all my sin. Amen? And that's true of every believer. You're21:25 approved and then what? Entrusted with the gospel. It means you've been made worthy of the gospel. You're his witnesses. You're his ambassadors. You're you've been approved so that you can witness. That's the great21:37 commission. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. That's the great commission. You're my witnesses everywhere you go. You're my ambassadors. You represent me everywhere you go. I didn't save you so you could just21:47 be 1 of the people I plucked out of earth and took to heaven. I saved you as my witness here. So I want you to exhort with unwavering conviction. You've been entrusted with the gospel.22:00 Every believer has been entrusted with the gospel. So we speak not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. It means we're not swayed by cultural compromise. Well, the22:12 world doesn't like that, and the world doesn't want to hear that. And that makes people upset, to which we say, sorry. We're still going to keep preaching and talking about Jesus. You don't waiver. You don't you don't22:23 flinch. You don't back up. When the government says this, if it goes against the word, you keep speaking the word. When the school system says you do this, we don't do that because the word says we do different. We live22:34 as families different. We do what Jesus says. And We live as families different. We do what Jesus says. And while we love you, we're not gonna compromise on what the word of God teaches. We're gonna exhort with22:46 unwavering conviction. Notice what he goes on to say. How did he preach? For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God has22:58 witnessed, nor do we seek glory from men, either from you or others, even though as apostles of Christ, we might have asserted our authority. He said, as apostles, we had every right to come in and say, hey, we're23:09 apostles. We've been called of God to build the church. You know that. We didn't exercise that among you. And what else didn't we do? Notice these 3 things. We never came with flattering speech. We never came and23:21 told you and tickled your ears with what you wanted to hear and hope to win you over to us. We weren't trying to persuade you to like us. We weren't concerned with how you felt about us.23:33 We weren't flattering you to make you feel good about you so you would say, they make us feel good about ourselves. We didn't do any of that nor did we come with a pretext for greed. In other words, we didn't say23:44 things so that you get excited so you give us your money. We we weren't persuading you for your money. It wasn't about money. It's about the cross. Everything we brought to you was about23:56 the word of God, and we were uncompromising. And what does he say? God is witness. What is he saying? God's watching us, because we know that as preachers of the gospel, we know that as those that are gonna24:08 share it, we're gonna answer to the 1 who entrusted us with this message. Friends, that is the most important part about24:20 gospel sharing. When you share the gospel, God's watching. You're sharing on his behalf. Spokesperson. He doesn't need you to soften the edges. He24:32 doesn't need you to try to win people so that they like you, so that over time as they like you, then you can share. Because if you share the gospel or whisper the gospel, they can still be completely offended by the24:42 gospel. So just share the gospel. Just do it. It angers me at my core with a holy anger of preachers in our nation24:54 that don't do this. That are too afraid to share the whole counsel of God for fear of what people are going to think, or afraid that they're not going to be liked, or afraid that they're going to leave the church,25:06 they're not going to have ties, sickens me because it sickens God. Says teachers will be held to a higher standard because you're25:18 speaking on behalf of me. So when I speak and when I preach and when I'm sharing on an airplane or when I'm 1 on 1 with somebody, I'm speaking knowing God is witness. God, you're watching.25:30 I'm doing this for you. Do it through me. You honor yourself through me because I know 1 day I'm standing before you and I don't never wanna stand before you knowing I said something false, Which is why I25:42 always back that up with, I'm doing my best, but if the word ever says something different than what I say, the word's the authority not me. Amen? It's the word of God. And that's how we're all called to share.25:54 And then he goes on to say this final 1. Not only flattering speech or pretext for greed, but we didn't seek glory from men. Glory from men. I'm not trying26:06 to win your approval. I'm not trying to make sure we're buddies. I'm not trying to make sure you like me. I wanna make sure you love God. I wanna make sure you have every opportunity to love him because if you really26:17 knew the God I was telling you about, you would fall in your face and worship him because he's that awesome. And he loves you unconditionally. And this is how the Apostle lived. I mean, it wasn't just in Corinth. I mean,26:28 think about in Galatia when he wrote to the churches in Galatia in chapter 1 verse 8. He said, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have26:40 preached to you, he is a cursed. He said, we're bringing you such pure undiluted truth from the word of God that even if an angel in heaven, even if you say, well an angel spoke to me. I don't care what the26:52 angel said. If the angel says something contrary to what we said. As you've as you have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he27:04 is to be a curse. That's anathema. That's and they go straight to hell. That's what he's saying. Paul says, for am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? I27:16 love this line. If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ. He's saying, if I were still trying to please men, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. If I wanted to be best buddies27:28 with you, I wouldn't preach the things I preach from this pulpit. I would never do that. I mean, it's interesting for me because having traveled the world and been an evangelist, as an evangelist, you have like 20 to 4027:39 sermons that you recycle with different stories, and you share the gospel, you share the cross, you share the message. As a faithful preacher of the word in the pulpit, you're going through word by word, verse by verse,27:50 thought by thought. There are so many things I preach from this pulpit I would have never even dreamed to preach. That I think sometimes if I was a guest preacher, this isn't the text I would preach. And yet it's all28:00 true, is it not? Isn't it good for our souls to hear the whole counsel of God? Even those times where we're like, I didn't wanna hear that, but boy did I need to hear that, and I didn't realize God thought like28:12 that, and I've reoriented my life so I can be more like God and honor him rather than live for me and think I have all the right opinions. That's what the word of God does. And that's the ministry he blesses. God blesses28:24 a ministry that's engaged in gospel boldness, and God blesses a ministry that exhorts with unwavering conviction. And we live in such a woke culture, don't we? I mean, 4 years ago, I didn't know what the word woke28:35 meant. Started hearing woke. I'm like, are you woke? And I'm like, I don't even know what it means. Now I know what it means. And the woke culture craves 2 things that are huge for the woke culture, tolerance and28:47 affirmation. We welcome everybody and we tolerate everything, and we just wanna affirm you for whatever you believe about you. And they're drunk on the world and they call it love.29:00 So if you believe whatever you wanna believe, my job is just to believe whatever you wanna do and affirm it and tolerate it. Here's the only thing they don't tolerate, Jesus Christ being Lord and his word being exalted.29:13 But when you champion, instead of craving tolerance and affirmation, when you champion truth and repentance and you're filled with his spirit, we call that worship. Amen? And that's what we're called to do.29:25 We're called to champion the truth and call people to repentance. And when you champion the truth and call people to repentance and you're filled with the holy spirit, when you do that, that's an act of worship. It's a29:35 spiritual act of worship And that's what God wants us to do. And if you're in a ministry, any service in any church, service in your marriage, serving as a single, engage with gospel29:47 boldness, put the cross center in everything that you do, and then exhort with unwavering conviction. It It means if you really believe what you say you believe, then speak about it. Everybody speaks about what they29:57 believe. People are speaking about what they believe about the NCAA tournament and all their convictions even though they're wrong. Right? People are speaking their convictions about politics. People education. People30:09 are speaking their convictions about education. People are speaking their whatever your conviction is, you'll speak. So make your conviction the gospel. Make that the 1 thing that you know is true, that you don't waiver30:18 from, that's central to all the other peripheral things in your life. And God will bless that. Let me give you a third. He says to encourage with sacrificial love. He wants30:30 us to encourage with sacrificial love. Notice how the Apostle Paul says, these are great word pictures. He says, having so fond and affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the30:42 gospel of God, but also our lives because you had become so dear to us. I skipped the verse. Verse 7. But we prove to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her30:54 own children. You get that picture? Ever see a mother nurse her baby, she's just holding that child. She knows she's responsible for feeding that child. She cares for that child. She holds it so tenderly. Paul says,31:05 that's how we feel about you. We were bold in our proclamation. We were exhorting with conviction, but we love you. We we care for you. We we came alongside of you. We not we didn't just give you the gospel. You we31:17 gave you our very lives. We we poured into you. You we spent time with you. We served alongside you. We we gave of our lives to you, and that's what it looks like for gospel ministry. And31:29 here's the challenge. Here's 1 of the here's 1 of the myriads of reasons we don't share the gospel. There's myriads. We make excuses all the time for why we can't. But here's 1 of them. Well, what if I lead them to the31:39 Lord and then they're gonna expect me to disciple them and I don't have time for that? Seriously. Seriously. I I did enough evangelism before I was a pastor that when you would do evangelistic events or31:50 crusade evangelism or whatever you see, hundreds of people come forward. And the way we would do it is we would set up disciple making tools afterwards, so people could come. I remember 1 time, we're in my hometown of32:01 Peoria, Illinois. We we did an event for youth. We had 4000 people show up at the civic center. Over 500 students came to Christ for the first time. We had an event the next week to kind of walk them through for a period32:13 of 3 weeks how to get your footing, how to get started in the gospel, what to do. We invited every youth pastor. We invited all of the 500 plus people who got saved. Guess how many people showed up? 3.32:25 And I was 1 of the 3. Because that's how we share the gospel. Hey, as long as you get saved, don't worry about it. Now you're going to heaven. Now go live your life any way you want. You will not find that anywhere in32:36 the scriptures. Now you've been approved by God so you can be entrusted with the gospel to go share. That's who you are. You just you just changed allegiances. You just changed your worship. And if you say, well, I32:47 didn't wanna do that. I I didn't I didn't sign up for that. I was just signing up to pray that magic prayer you gave me. I don't want that Jesus. Then you're not saved. Amen. And so what Paul was32:58 saying is not only did I come and boldly share the gospel, but I walked around and I lived among you and I let you see my life and I let you see the lives of Silas and Timothy and we we gave our lives to you. Like like a33:10 nursing mother with her own child who was young and can't take care of itself and so we poured into you the gospel. We lived among you. We let you see here's how it works and here's how you do it and here's how you33:21 experience it, which is why cadres and community is so important in the church, so you can be around other people who have done it longer than you. You say, oh, that's how you love your wife. Oh, that's how you submit to33:32 your husband. Oh, that's how you discipline your children. Oh, that's how you do that. I mean, because nobody knows. I mean, we get the we get the bible as a manual, but we spend the rest of our lives learning how that33:44 manual works out. We don't become experts on it. Oh, I wish we did. Wish I could tell you. I've been married to Kim for 20 years, but after year 7, we nailed it. We33:56 got it figured out. Wish I could tell you after 7 years of having kids. We nailed it. We got it figured out. Wish I could tell you after 7 years of being a pastor, I've nailed it. I've got it figured out. I don't have34:05 any of it figured out. I have this figured out that Jesus Christ is central, and the worship of him is important, and caring for God's people that know Jesus is important. But beyond that, I'm still growing in34:16 everything, And so what Paul was saying is he was talking to his first 2 points about declaring faithfully the gospel. Now in these next 2, he's gonna come by and he's gonna talk about,34:28 hey, but but our heart is for you. And and I'm gonna spend my life for you. He said to the Corinthians in second Corinthians 12 verse 15. He said, I will most gladly spend and be34:39 expended for your souls. What was his motive? His motive is souls. I want souls. I wanna see people love Jesus and walk with Jesus and I34:51 will spend the entirety of my life for that. Now here's the reality, regardless of your vocation, regardless of your lot in life, that should be your heart for people.35:04 Should be your heart for people. Well, I'm called to be a dentist. I'm called to be an attorney. I'm called to be a coach. Great. Then do that to the glory of God, but the burden that you should feel in your life is for35:13 the souls around you to watch you, to see what it looks like, to be around someone that speaks about Jesus and lives for Jesus in every way. That's your calling. And if you say, well, I can't do my job35:25 and be for Jesus like that, then here's what I would say. Quit your job. Amen. And find a job that you can. Amen. Well, you don't understand who's gonna provide for my family. God. Do you understand what I'm35:37 saying? I mean, we're always looking for the blessing of God so that we can do our own thing and then ask God to bless it. We wonder why he doesn't bless it. Here's why God doesn't bless it, because he's not first and35:46 foremost in your life. If he's primary in your life, he will bless what you do. He will provide for what you do. He will care for what you do. He'll give you wisdom on what you do. He'll grow you and how to do it.35:58 Anytime you put God first, he'll take care of it. Scriptural, Matthew 6 33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. We all want the36:10 blessing of God without putting Jesus first, and I'm telling you, there is no way to get the blessing of God unless Jesus Christ is first. And so Paul's talking about the Thessalonians. Here's this group of people. He's36:19 only gotten to spend weeks with them, maybe a couple months. And yet, he shared the gospel with them. And he has such a fond affection for him. He's even looking back. I had the weeks that we were there. We gave our36:29 lives to you. We spent time with you. We loved you. We had conversations together about these things. And I still feel that way about you. And that's what he was talking about.36:43 Gentle among you as a nursing mother. I mean picture this the Apostle Paul, as bold as anybody in his proclamation and yet as gentle as anybody in his disciple making. What an awesome36:55 combination. Amen? I mean to be around someone that has completely convicted that Jesus is Lord and this is the only way you can do it and yet have the grace to come alongside and be like,37:06 hey, here's how you can go and here's how you can get there. And I'm walking just like you and let's do this thing together and let's grow in this together. You can understand the bible and I can teach you how to pray37:16 and we can show you how to evangelize and let's just do this together. Let's come along. I mean, what an incredible combination. Bold conviction and great humility and gentleness. What a combination. That's what he wants37:27 all of us to be. That's how we get the blessing of God on our life. Amen? Then our proclamation, we're bold. We don't waiver. I was at a funeral yesterday for a friend of mine. He and his wife and their family helped us37:39 very early on when they we started our church. So they were in our very first small group together. And I was doing his funeral yesterday and had the privilege of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. And afterwards, a37:49 number of people came up and said, hey. Thank you. I was sitting next to our Jewish friends and we've been praying for our Jewish friends and you said religion doesn't matter. And hey, I was sitting there next to my37:59 Muslim friend and there were Muslims there, there were Jewish people there. What difference does it make? Jesus was there. Amen? People need to hear about Jesus. Why? Because eventually, the service is gonna be about38:10 you. And if you're not ready for that service, then you're really not living the life God wants for you to have. Amen? Such a way that if today were your last day, it's not a big38:22 deal. It's a translation from this life to the next to the glory of God presented faultless before the father. And what a glorious day that will be. So encourage with sacrificial love. Give of yourselves toShow more In this video 0:00 The Ministries God Blesses
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