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Unstoppable: How to be Unstoppable Like Paul
March 6, 2024 · 37 min
Pastor John Mark encourages us to imitate Paul and the Thessalonian church in our Christian walk. Despite facing persecution, this church thrived by having the right motives and practices.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton March 6, 2024 · 37 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
Pastor John Mark encourages us to imitate Paul and the Thessalonian church in our Christian walk. Despite facing persecution, this church thrived by having the right motives and practices. ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor John Mark encourages us to imitate Paul and the Thessalonian church in our Christian walk. Despite facing persecution, this church thrived by having the right motives and practices.
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John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
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Imitating Christ: The Unstoppable Church 0:00 Well, amen. You glad you're in God's house today? Amen. Man, there is no better place to be. I wanna invite you to reach and, grab your copy of God's word and go back to the book of first Thessalonians, chapter 2. A0:11 couple of weeks ago, we started a brand new series, for the year entitled Unstoppable. And, as we look back at this church, we're gonna see a lot, as Paul talks about this church, how0:23 they imitated him as he imitated Christ. They became a model church for other churches to follow. And so we wanna look at that church and see that it was unstoppable even in the midst of persecution and suffering0:35 and hardship and difficulty. And then we wanna glean some insight as to how we can be that kind of church. And so, let's remind ourselves of what we looked at in week 1. Look at0:47 first Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 3. He says Paul is talking about them. He says, we we remember before our God and father. Your work, here's number 1, your work0:59 produced by your faith, your labor prompted by your love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's what Paul said in week 1. So week 1 we said, hey, if we're gonna1:11 be unstoppable, we need to as individuals be like that. Have those key ingredients, those 3 key ingredients, as a part of our lives. And man, we think about this church1:23 in Thessalonica, and it was an interesting church. We talked about this last week that Paul planted it, along with Silas on his second missionary journey. As they were going up through Macedonia, they went to Philippi,1:35 we're gonna come back to that here in a second. Then down into Thessalonica, and just in a few weeks they established a church. Then you had a bunch of different people in this1:47 Greek city that got saved. And they became part of this church. There were there were those who were considered Hebrews of Hebrews. In other words, they, they spoke Hebrew, they read the Torah in1:58 Hebrew, they didn't buy any of into any of the Greek philosophy or Greek mindset. They didn't speak the Greek language. There were also people in this church that were saying there were Hellenistic Jews. They were Jews2:10 but also along with that they had adopted Hellenism, what was referred to as Hellenism. They spoke Greek when they read the old testament Torah. They read it from the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the2:21 Hebrew Old Testament. Their philosophy, their eating habits was more were more Greek. Then you also had gentiles who got saved. And you had all of these different kinds of2:33 people that normally wouldn't come together and form a great church or form a great team and they became, Paul says, as a model church. He says there's this crazy collection2:45 of people with different past and different backgrounds that have come together and become an amazing church and they were just killing it. And Paul calls them the model or the example. But I also want2:57 us to look at another word today as we jump down to first Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 6. He says, talking to this church, you became imitators. That's the word I want to look3:09 at today. You became imitators of us and of the Lord for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with great joy and by the Holy Spirit.3:21 And you became a model, that's what we looked at last week, to all believers in Macedonia, Kea, and other places. Now let's go back to that word imitators. When you think of imitation, there3:33 are both a positive and a negative connotation of that word. Negative, first of all, it means an imitation, a forgery, or or some sort of cheap copy3:45 of the real thing. That's the negative. But there's also the positive idea of becoming an imitator and that's the way he's using it here. An imitation is is basically if you've raised children,3:57 you know that the way your children learn to speak, the hand movements, the gestures, the facial expressions that they have are all part of the imitation process.4:09 Even their words and the way they shape their, their lips when they speak, they are typically looking at a mom, looking at a dad who is interacting with them, that is teaching them. Then they also not only learn to4:21 speak, they not only learn facial expression or body movement, they also become more coordinated. The more a mom or a dad or a brother or sister will sit there and interact with that child, that baby,4:33 the better off they'll be. Whether it's building blocks or or practicing, shaving or, tying a tie. How how many of you had a dad that taught you to tie a tie? He he taught4:44 me, my dad taught me some double Windsor quadruple gainer time. It was like this big. How many of you remember those those times? And and it was like I couldn't get4:56 it. And I remember I'm sitting there trying to copy my he says just do what I do. And I would do what he did and then I'd pull it through and this whole knot would come down. And I remember my dad hollering to my mom,5:07 just get him a clip on. I mean that's kind of in my wheelhouse. When you talk about my skill level, it's it's the clip on. That's where I go. And then I figured out later in life when I got off to college that5:19 there's also this little 1 over and down through. I can do that 1. How many of you know that? Right? But that's how we learn. We learn by imitation regardless of what it is. And so here's what he says.5:31 He says listen, you in a positive way as a church, as Christians, you imitated me as I was imitating Christ to give glory to5:43 God. I mean, that is an incredible thing and here's what we know when it comes to Christianity, it comes to the faith, there are always going to be that negative side of imitation. There are going to be, those people who5:50 are counterfeit, imitations of what it really means to be6:02 a Christian. But we also need to understand that there is the positive aspect which you and I want to live alongside. Now if you look in the old testament, interesting, if you just track track6:14 this Hebrew word, imitation and then take it into the new testament, when you look at this word imitation, it's typically used in a negative sense in the old testament. You first encounter6:26 it in the book of Exodus. The children of Israel have left slavery, they are making their journey to the promised land. As they are on their way to the promised land, God has already told6:37 them there are gonna be people who are in the promised land. They are pagan, they worship the wrong gods, they sacrifice their babies. And here's what he says, God says to Moses and the children of Israel on6:49 their way to the promised land, he says do not imitate them. He says listen, when you go into this new land you're going to see all kinds of crazy things going7:01 on in culture. He says do not imitate them. In the book of Deuteronomy, just before the children of Israel are gonna go into the promised land, Moses gathers them together and said this is what the Lord says, when you go7:13 into the promised land, do not imitate the people that are there. For us today, we need to understand when we think about how we're going to live in our society, we don't want to7:24 imitate culture. We don't want to imitate people that are that are worshiping other gods and doing things that are are are not in accordance with God's word. That's the negative sense. You jump forward in the old7:35 testament. When they get into the promised land, pretty quickly, you know within several hundred years, they start acting more and more like the people in the land instead of the people of7:47 God. And so God sends prophets to talk to them. And you go look in the prophets and you also go look in first and second kings and you'll see the prophet comes in and says you know, when you're headed the7:59 promised land God said when you get in here do not imitate the people who are here, but instead be the people of God. And the prophets from time to time would say, you have begun8:11 to imitate culture instead of being the pre the people of God. Solomon is a matter of fact used this word in Hebrew, imitate. He talked about us as we8:23 learn to live in those wise sayings of Solomon. He says listen, I'm gonna encourage you not to hang out with a man who is constantly angry. Why? Because he says,8:35 you will begin to imitate his actions and you will also find yourself angry. He says, do not hang out with those who are greedy. Why? Because eventually you will begin to imitate their8:47 actions and you will also become greedy. That's the negative. Now when we get to the new testament, we flip it forward and it becomes more positive in the new testament. In the new testament we consistently8:59 see the word imitation used the way Paul uses it here. He says no, imitate me why. Not because I'm doing my own thing, not because I look like culture.9:11 Paul says imitate me as I imitate Christ. He doesn't just tell the Thessalonians this, he tells the Philippians this, he tells the Corinthians this. He says listen, what we always want to do is constantly9:23 find a model to follow that will bring us to a place that as we imitate someone who is walking according to God's word and God's will, then we become more and more like9:35 that person. And the reason why we want to do that is because they're more like Paul who is more like Christ. And as you think about how you grow in your faith and how I grow in your faith grow in our faith, there are9:46 basically 3 ways. 1 is through prayer and study and meditation. That's why we right now, we have a daily bible reading. We want to encourage you always be in God's word each and every9:58 day. And so how do I grow and become a better Christian? Prayer, meditation, study of God's word. I put it in my mind, it goes in my heart. But it doesn't stop with point number 1 or step10:09 number 1. Because once I move beyond prayer, meditation and study of God's word, point number 2 is imitation. I want to look around, find someone who is10:21 really living out their faith in a way in in an amazing fashion and I want to follow them. That's what Paul says. He says, you followed me as I followed Christ. See he says as Thessalonian10:33 believers you study God's word, we're gonna look at that in a couple of weeks. He goes, you begin to follow me because you know I knew I was following Christ. So second step of your faith growth growth process10:45 is study God's word is number 1. Number 2 is find people around you that you can follow as they follow Christ. You say pastor, you said there are 3 steps. Here's number 3. It's10:57 called experience on the job training. That then all of a sudden I, as I've looked at someone else, I begin to identify my spiritual gifts, my talents, my abilities, and11:09 see how God wants to use me. And so I try some things and I realize man, I'm not built for this, I'm not built for that, but God has a ministry for everybody in the room. Now listen, here's the beautiful11:21 thing. Once you've done 1, once you've done 2, once you get to 3 which is your on the job training, then guess what? Others are gonna start looking at you and they11:33 will follow you as you follow Christ. And so as we think about Paul, he's not just throwing a word out here to be imitators of Christ. He's he's not saying mockery, he's not saying counterfeits. We11:45 want to make sure that's when we study God's word. If I'm gonna follow someone, are they living according to God's word? Do they exemplify the fruit of the spirit? Are they really who Christ would want them to be?11:57 If so, then I can follow them for a season, then God is going to allow me to move beyond that where others are gonna follow me as I seek to follow Christ. And that's ultimately our whole12:08 call. So as we think about imitation, week 1 we talked about how can I as an individual be unstoppable? Week 2 we talked about how can we as a church be12:20 unstoppable. Week 3 today, I wanna look at some key ideas from Paul's ministry that we want to imitate as a church. We want to follow him12:32 in the way he did church, way he walked in his faith. We wanna follow Paul because Paul followed Christ. And here's thought number 1. You ready? If we're gonna imitate Paul,12:44 we never back down. We never back away from the truth of the gospel regardless of how hard things get. You say where do you see this? Look at first Thessalonians chapter12:56 2, we'll pick it up in verse 1. Here it is. He says you know brothers and sisters that our visit to you, he's talking about the Thessalonians, was not without results. What is Paul13:07 saying? He goes, you saw it. You saw people get saved, you saw people get baptized, you saw the church get planted, you saw the influence that you had on the community around you, you saw that you became salt and light.13:19 Now notice this, he says we had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi. Circle that word if you ever have because we're gonna come back to it. And he says as you know,13:31 but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel. Here's what he's saying. You remember what happened to us in Philippi? He says, that didn't cause us to quit.13:43 That didn't cause us to back down. So instead we showed up in Thessalonica and we were preaching the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ and we planted you. And guess what? We had strong13:54 opposition, we're going to read it here, and we were we were persecuted there. Then we had to move on but we dared to continue to preach the gospel. Why? Because we don't back down. Regardless of the hostility we face,14:05 he says we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. I I love this and this is a challenge for us. If we're going to journey as a church14:17 forward, as culture more and more begins to turn against us as believers, we're going to have to ultimately have a spiritual gut check. Are we willing to not back down in the14:28 face of strong opposition? Paul says if you're going to follow me as I follow Christ, that's what your ministry is going to look like. I love this. He says, you knew what happened to us in Philippi.14:40 If you want to figure out what he's talking about, go to Acts chapter 16 and just read Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 17 is where he shows up in Thessalonica. In Acts chapter 16, Paul is on his second missionary14:52 journey, Paul and Silas, and they are journeying through Macedonia and everywhere else. And then they come to a place called Philippi and they begin to preach the gospel. Then 1 day it says they went outside the town and15:03 they ran into a number of ladies and they begin to preach the gospel to the ladies. 1 of these ladies name was Lydia. And it says Lydia was from Thyatira but she was down15:15 in Philippi. What was she doing? She was selling purple garments. Lydia was very successful and she was a garment salesperson. Alright. Now here's the key. So it says he15:27 preached to her, she gets saved along with others and invites them to the house so they can tell others about this Jesus. Now, interesting thought,15:39 if Lydia was a successful garment seller, it says sold purple garments, she said how do you make purple garments? Alright. Track me here, you15:51 baptizo the garment. You have dye, you take the garment, you immerse it, dip it or dunk it. That's how you make16:03 a purple garment. That's how you dye a piece of clothing. Same word as baptism. So here's what happened. It says, this lady who made her living baptizing16:14 garments after she was saved and professed faith in Jesus Christ, the first thing Paul did to her was immerse, dip or dunk her. Alright? So here it is, the same word baptism. Next week16:26 is baptism Sunday. You're gonna see some immersion, some dipping and some dunking. We're not dying people purple. But some of you might deserve it. But here's the deal. So they continue to preach16:38 in Philippi, everybody's starting to get saved, the religious leaders don't like it, the legal leaders don't like it, the politicians don't like it. And so they the riot happens, they show up, they send the16:50 soldiers and the guards out, they grab Paul and Silas, they bring them in, strip them down, beat them with rods, throw them in prison. Now remember Paul says, you imitated me as I imitated17:02 Christ even in the face of strong opposition. You probably remember this part of the story from Philippi. So as Paul and Silas are in prison about midnight,17:14 they have been praising God and singing songs all night long celebrating God's goodness and celebrating God's grace. So much so that in the midst of this hardship, this difficulty while they're17:26 in prison prison, they're still celebrating God's love and God's grace in the middle of the prison. Guess who's hearing about it? All the other prisons prisoners as well as a jailer.17:38 And it says about midnight about midnight an earthquake happens, the door opens, the jailer wakes up, sees the door is open, he's gonna kill himself because that's what's gonna happen if you17:50 lose all your prisoners anyway, you might as well just kill yourself and not be beaten first and then killed. And then Paul and Silas said, wait, stop, don't harm yourself. And the18:02 jailer runs in, it says he brings them out and he's heard them praising God and singing about the good news and talking about Jesus all night. And he says these words, sirs what18:14 must I do to be saved? That's in acts 16 verse 30 and 31. And they said believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It says he's saved,18:26 he takes them back to his home and not only did he get saved but he and his whole family. And what's the first thing that happens to them after they're saved? They are baptizoed, they are18:37 immersed, dipped or dunked. So it's kind of interesting as you think about Philippi and as you think about man, what should I do after I come to faith in Jesus Christ? Man, just follow the example18:50 of Paul and those other faithful followers, those new believers. They should listen, identify me with the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's a beautiful thought. So here it is.19:02 Number 1, if we are gonna have a ministry that models Paul who modeled Christ is we don't back down. Here's number 2,19:13 we always want to minister with the right motives. We always want to make sure, we want to check our motives that when we are doing ministry it is all because we want19:25 to tell people follow us as we follow Paul who is ultimately following Christ. All of our ministries do what? They have the right motives. We're always19:37 pointing people to Jesus. Pick it up in verse 3 and we just continue to read, first Thessalonians chapter 2. Here's what Paul says, for the appeal that we made does not spring19:49 from error or impure motives. In other words, check, make sure you have the right motives. He says or impure motives nor are we trying to trick you. He says on the contrary, we20:01 speak as those who are what? Approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. Man, that's who we want to be. He says listen, we we don't want to teach people20:13 error. We want to instead always share the truth. Now sometimes, telling people the truth, it hurts. Telling people the truth,20:26 man, you're going to face opposition. That's exactly what Paul found in those days. But he says, listen, we didn't come in with crazy tricks, we didn't come in like a magician. He says instead, we20:38 came in as those who were approved by God, trusted with the gospel. And I love this idea, we always want to have the right motives. And and and the idea of the wording he20:49 uses is we don't want to be like magicians. You say, why is that? Well, I don't know if anybody in here do magic at all. Here's what we know, you don't do magic. You're an21:01 illusionist. Right? You want to know what the key is to being a good magician? Is to be able to control where the audience is looking. See as long as they're looking at the wrong thing,21:13 you can do whatever you want with the other hand. And that's the word Paul says. He says listen, we came in, we weren't telling you look over here, we're sticking our hand in your pocket over here. He says we're not21:25 trying to do something for our own motives. He says we came in with the right heart with the right motives. He says we didn't teach you error, we taught you the truth of God's word. We didn't back21:37 away from confronting sin but instead we did it in a loving way. Why? Because that's what God's word tells us to do. So as we think about ministry, number 1 is we never back down regardless of21:49 the strong opposition we may face. Number 2, we always want to preach and teach and minister with the right motives. Here's number 3, if we're going to do ministry right as a church, we22:00 never want to be hypocrites. We don't ever want to be hypocrites. Anybody ever heard, well I don't go to church, there's a bunch of hypocrites there? Yep. Hey, what what what is a hypocrite? Someone who pretends to be22:12 something they're not. It's the Greek idea of putting on a mask. Alright? It's the idea of putting on a mask in a Greek play. And why did they say that? Because in a Greek society you would have 122:23 actor playing 4 different parts. You say how did you know which part they were playing? Depending on what mask they walked out with. And Paul says listen, we're not the kind of people that wear mask around you, we're22:33 gonna tell you who we are. And that's what we wanna be. We don't wanna come in here in loving God and worshiping God and pretend we're all perfect. If you're perfect in here raise your22:45 hand. Okay, good. There's none of us, right? There was 1 person who was perfect. What does that mean? We just want to be humble and honest. Man, as I'm journeying through life,22:57 we are saved by grace not because we're really really good. And so I love that's what Paul says, just pick it up and continue to read verse 5. He says, you know we never used flattery. You23:09 might wanna underline that word because it's own that word is only used here in the new testament. He says, you know we never use flattery nor nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed.23:21 God is our witness. I love what Paul does there. He takes that word flattery, which is a Greek word, and remember Thessalonica, is in23:32 Greece and the Grecians loved their philosophers. Their 2 favorite philosophers were Plato and Aristotle. Plato and Aristotle, 30023:44 years before before Paul and before Christ, Plato and Aristotle talked a lot about philosophers who would come in with flattery of speech. And they would talk about the23:56 reality that a lot of times these philosophers would roll through town, they would roll through town, they would flatter you with your speech, ultimately they want to get in your pocketbook. And so Paul says24:08 listen, y'all are familiar with that word flattery. He goes we didn't come with flattery of speech. You go back and read Aristotle on this word, on this word flattery. He said there are 2 groups of people that can be24:19 flattered. He said men and women. That means all of us. What does that mean? You want to make somebody's head swell, just pat them on the back a little bit. Right? How many of you know that? And they were24:31 sitting there going, listen, we're all susceptible to someone trying to flatter us with their speech. And you say, well what does flattery really do? That I'm gonna tell24:43 you what you want to hear so I can get something out of you. That's flattery. And Paul says, listen, I didn't come in town telling you what you wanted to hear just so I could get something from24:55 you. Just so I could get a little money from you. He says, no, I I told you the truth. I didn't put on a mask. I didn't cover up greed. And we're gonna see some of the other things that Paul did. Here's how you know he25:07 wasn't flattering them. Instead, he says, I showed up and I just told you the truth. Go read Aristotle on, on flattery. The next thing he said, he says, look at the people who are25:19 around you. He says you can typically categorize the people who are around you, people who speak to you, the people who flatter you, the people who talk good about you into 1 of 225:30 groups. And these are Aristotle's words. They're either truly your friend or they're a flatterer. You say how do you tell the difference? A friend25:42 just hang out with you, man love you, encourage you and doesn't ever need a dime from you. A flatterer, they're gonna show up when they need something, they're gonna applaud you, they're gonna pat you on the back,25:54 they're gonna say some kind words, but it's all a cover for greed. And Paul says, listen, look at our life. We didn't put on a mask, we didn't flatter you. We didn't tell you what you wanted to hear so we26:06 could get something from you. We told you what you needed to hear and that's who we want to be. Here's the next thing is you just jump down. I I love what Paul says. He says, ma'am, we were God pleasers, we weren't man26:17 pleasers. He says, we didn't roll into town looking to be the rock star. He said, I didn't roll into town thinking everybody ought to fall down and worship me. Look at what he says in verse 4. He says, we are not26:28 trying to please people but God who tests our hearts. Jump down to verse 6. He says, we are not looking for the praise of people. He says, we're not looking to be rock stars. We're just looking to come26:40 in and and share the gospel. He says even though as apostles of Christ, we could have asserted our authority. Here's what he's saying, we could have come in26:53 and said we have authority over you. He says we could have come in and say and I could have said you know what I encountered a risen Christ on the road to Damascus. Have you? And if you haven't, you're not as27:05 good as me. He says listen, that wasn't who we were. And he goes and you know when we preached we weren't people pleasers, we were God pleasers. How do you know that? Well remember what happened in Philippi? They27:17 weren't looking to please the politicians. They weren't looking to please the religious leaders of the day. They were preaching the gospel and they found themselves in jail. Guess what happened when they began to preach27:27 in Thessalonica? The same exact thing happened. They encountered strong opposition. Why? Because they were simply saying we're going to tell the truth. We're not looking for people to pat us on the back,27:39 we're looking for God's approval in everything we do. Well, Paul's an incredible example of that. But but there's another guy in the new testament that's pretty good example of not being a people27:51 pleaser. Anybody remember a guy named John the Baptist? Right before Jesus, John the Baptist was kind of a big deal. As a matter of fact, the early chapters of the new testament are pretty much28:03 devoted to John the Baptist and not Jesus. But what was John the Baptist always doing? He says, I'm a forerunner to 1 that will come after me whose sandals I am not worthy to touch or tie.28:15 And you go to John chapter 3 and John has been talking about this lamb of God, this guy named Jesus that is ultimately the messiah. And in John chapter 3 something interesting begins to28:27 happen. John had always been this great evangelist, this great, he was John the baptist, everybody would show up, he would preach a measure of repentance, he would baptize literally hundreds and thousands of people. In28:38 John chapter 3, John the Baptist's disciples show up and said, we need to talk to you a second. This Jesus that you've been telling people to go follow,28:50 they're following him and not us anymore. And they said, what are we gonna do about this? Because there are more disciples of Jesus now than there are disciples of John the Baptist.29:03 Go read it in John chapter 3. John chapter 3, John the Baptist said, that's exactly what I came for. Not to point people to me, but to point them at Jesus. He said,29:15 why? Because he's the Messiah and I am not. Then if you go down to the bottom of John chapter 3, John tells his disciples, he must increase29:27 and I must decrease. See, that's what Paul is saying. He says, listen, we don't want to be people pleasers. We don't want to speak and minister as a church just so people29:39 can pat us on the back. We want to make sure in everything that we do, and this is going to come up in a point here in a second, is that it is always about Jesus increasing and us decreasing.29:51 That is true ministry as we think about it. Here's the next thing as we just continue to read. We minister with love and care and humility. So here we are, if Jesus is going to increase and we30:03 decrease, it requires that we minister with humility. He says instead we were like children among you. What does that mean? We were innocent. Just as a nursing mother cares30:15 for her children. He says in verse 8, he said so we cared for you. Why? Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel30:27 of God but also our lives as well. I love what Paul is saying. So we're back. He says he must increase, we must decrease, then he also says we minister with30:39 humility. That was anything but the way the Pharisees of his day ministered. That was any anything but the way the rabbis of his day ministered. But instead, Paul says listen, we came in. We30:50 came in like a child. As a matter of fact, if you read the whole chapter, it says we came in as a child, a mom, and a father. How many of you would think that's kind of confusing? Right? Which 1 are you? Here's what31:02 he's basically saying. We came in and lived among you as a child. Completely innocent. Anybody raise children and from time to time your kids will just walk up to you and they'll ask a31:14 question or they'll say something and you're looking into their eyes and go, they don't mean a thing by that. You you ever you ever been in a group of people where your child will come up and ask you a hard question and31:26 you go, we'll talk about that at home. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. We've all if you've raised kids, you've been in that situation. Right? And and you know they don't mean anything about it about31:35 it. They're innocent. So Paul says, hey, we came in as children. We were completely innocent among you. Then he says, we were also like a nursing mother who feeds and cares31:47 for their children. And he uses that term not just mom, nursing mom. Why? He says we knew that as you grew as a church we need to feed you as well. Then he31:59 says I was a father and I led you and I encouraged you and so I love what he does. He brings the whole family involved. He says listen, when we think about ministry, man sometimes we need to have the innocence32:11 of children. We also need to have the care and the love of mom. We have the strength and leadership of a godly dad. And that's the way we minister as we journey through lives. And so Paul says32:23 listen, man as Jesus increases and we decrease, it comes with love and care and humility. Not pleasing people, but always pleasing32:34 God. Here's the next thing. He says, we put in the effort. Now if I he says, we put in the effort. We're gonna run across here in a second a couple of words, toil and32:46 hardship. And both of those words speak to serving and loving and ministering until you break a sweat or you're totally worn out. So you32:58 break a sweat or until you're totally worn out. You say, where do you see that? Pick it up in, verse 9. In verse 9, what did he say? He says, listen, you know how we put in the effort. We made it all happen. We work33:10 for you day and night in order not to be a burden to anyone. He says listen, you saw what we did. We didn't come in, we we didn't drain you of your resources, we didn't33:22 we didn't ask you for things that we didn't deserve. He says as a matter of fact, he says day and night we ultimately put in the effort. We worked hard, we worked in a difficult way. And he goes and y'all33:34 saw it. So I want you to know if we're going to be the church that God wants us to be, here's what you and I need to know. We're going to have to33:45 toil. We're gonna have to put in the work. We're gonna have to put in the energy. And we're gonna have to put in the effort. That means when it comes to our missions day, or serving in children, or33:57 serving in students, or serving in parking lot, or or or or this or that, or leading life groups. We're not gonna be bashful. I want you to know we're not gonna be bashful about asking you to34:09 serve and asking you to put in the effort. Why? Paul says, you followed me as I followed Christ. And so if we are going to be as a church at Cottonwood Creek that follows a model34:21 church in Thessalonica that imitated Paul's ministry, who imitated Christ, then we're going to do the same thing. So as a church, we want to do everything we can to put in34:33 the effort. And then finally, as you just continue to read on, he says, man, our ministry comes with enthusiasm and encouragement. In everything we do, he34:45 says, like a father who cares, who loves, who leads, inspires, exhorts. He's using the image imagery of a dad who comes along a son who34:57 has fallen. And the dad is sitting here going, you can do it. And the son says, I can't get back up. Paul's using the imagery saying, you can do it. Let me help you out.35:09 And the son goes and falls again, and the dad comes alongside with care and love and say, you're getting it. You're getting it. You're getting it. And it helps them back up and he encourages them. And then I love35:20 that Paul uses that word, he urged them. That word urge has the idea of when people get to a place where they don't think they can keep35:32 going, that we urge them to carry on. And so church, that's the kind of ministry we wanna have. We wanna have a ministry35:45 that follows Paul because Paul followed Christ because everything Paul did and everything this church did was about Jesus increasing and us35:57 decreasing. If If we will do ministry that way, we will be unstoppable in 20 24. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for this day. God, thank you so much36:09 for the opportunity just to just to kind of measure our ministry against an incredible model church in Thessalonica.36:21 A people we don't see, a place we won't go, but 1 that Paul thought so highly of. He said, you imitated me and became a model church for everyone around even to this36:33 day. God, as we leave here today, let us take those principles of Paul's life. Let us imitate them and our families, at the office, and our relationships in our community because we36:45 know if we do ministry that way, it will not be without result. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen. Were you glad you're in God's house today? Give God a hand.36:57 Our altar team is right here. If you need to talk to someone about salvation or baptism, or just need some prayer, our altar team's here. God bless. Have a great day.In this video 0:00 Imitating Christ: The Unstoppable ChurchComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
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