Skip to content The True Substance of Spiritual Leadership - What Happened in Thessalonica, Part 3 Apr 16 · 56 min ...more
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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 Here we are in first Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1. For you yourselves know, brothers, that are coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at0:11 Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not0:23 spring from error or impurity or an attempt to deceive. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please man, but to please God0:35 who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, not with a pretext for greed. God has witnessed nor did we see glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made0:47 apostle, demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like nursing like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to0:59 share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves because you had become very dear to us. For you remember our brothers, our labor, toil, we work day and night, that we might not be a burden to any of1:10 you while we proclaim to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how like a father with his children, we exhorted1:21 each 1 of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own glory kingdom and glory. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God,1:33 which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. How many believe today? Yeah.1:46 Yeah. Yeah. How many believe today, though, that when we hear his word, it goes to work? And I don't know where you are in your walk with faith, with Christ. May maybe you just started. Maybe1:57 you just got saved last week at 1 of our Easter locate at out of 1 of our Easter services, and you're thinking, what happened? I don't even understand everything. You don't need to understand. You just need to know that2:07 God is at work in you right now. He started a good work, and he's faithful. He's gonna bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. And I'm so thankful for that. I'm so thankful for it. My trust is not in how2:19 how well I do, but how faithful God is. And so if you've come to church for the thousandth time and you're thinking, man, I should be more advanced than this. I should be further along this.2:30 Give yourself a break. God is still at work in you believers through his word. And I believe he wants to work in you right now at every location. So this is the word of God. Let's ask God to show us what he wants to say2:42 to us. Would you bow in a word of prayer with me? Father, thank you for the moment that we have here to say time out life, time out world, time out stresses and concerns2:53 and problems and challenges. We say, you're not in charge, problem. You're not in charge stress. You're not in charge difficulty. My God is in charge. My king is in charge.3:05 And we say to you, heavenly father, open our ears to hear. Open our hearts to receive, open our minds to receive all that you wanna say to3:17 us and help us to see Jesus, him and him only. In his mighty name, we pray. And everybody said a big Big. Amen. God bless you. Have a seat in the Lord's presence.3:29 Waters Church, we had 1 fantastic weekend last weekend at all locations. What a move of God, powerful move of God, And hardly any3:41 pushback from the fact that I told you Lazarus was the disciple Jesus loved. I'm amazed how well you go with it. You're such a wonderful church. Thank you for being you. And, we3:52 also want to just highlight I want to highlight this. This Alpha class which Isaiah mentioned up here, and I know our location pastors mentioned at our other locations, have your questions answered. That's why there is a4:04 question mark. It's the starting place for people who are on the verge of faith, maybe coming to faith, or just came to faith. You have questions. We all have questions. We have questions about evil in the world. We have4:16 questions about justice in the world. We have questions about how can I know there is a God? All those questions you can freely ask with a group of people and watch some videos that are very informative and help you4:26 explore those realities. Am I getting brighter or is it is it the Lord is coming? Is Jesus coming right now? Hello, Jesus. Welcome. Hallelujah. So questions can be answered4:38 in a very comfortable environment. We'll feed you for 9 weeks straight, and, we wanna make that available to you. If you just got baptized last week, okay. I'm sorry. If you got saved last week, if you got saved last4:49 week, it's time to get baptized. Hey, water shirts at all locations. 71 people came to Jesus Christ at our Easter locate at our Easter services last week. That's fantastic. Now you gotta know5:01 something about baptism. Baptism is a step of obedience in faith. You don't have to pray about it. Thank you. You don't have to pray about getting baptized. You don't have to feel like getting baptized. It's like saying,5:13 well, I I don't feel like loving my neighbor as I love myself. It's not about feelings. It's about obedience. That's what it is. And it's it's a step to say, now I placed my faith in Christ. I'm not there. I'm not where5:22 I should be, but I'm not where I was. Praise the Lord. So get baptized. There's baptism classes at all of our locations. And now also 1 last thing I want to share with you is that in 4 weeks, somebody say 4 weeks. Just5:34 tap your neighbor say 4 weeks. Just tap them. Yeah. Yeah. 4 weeks. We've got a Sunday. I'm calling it really big things Sunday or weekend. Really big things weekend. Some of you remember5:46 2019, August 2019 before the COVID nonsense and all that kind of stuff. There was a big things weekend right here in North Attleboro Waters Church, and I announced that we would start 35:58 locations of our church. And we started over the last 3 years, we started Guatemala, Florida, and Tibernate, South Coast. Those locations are6:10 running the race, and they are they are moving, man. I mean, Apollo Beach last week, you had 409 people at Easter service. 2 years in, 4096:21 people. They went they grew by 80 percent in the last year. 80 percent from last Easter. God is on the move. Headwater Church at Apollo Beach. Our oldest child, we always ignore6:33 Woonsocket here. I don't wanna ignore them at all. They're our oldest and most faithful child, the product of your giving and your faithfulness here in North Thattleboro. Woodstocket broke an all time attendance record6:45 last weekend, and they are on an upward swing of growth. And they are advancing in the kingdom of God. So good things in there. And Tilverton also, South Coast broke an attendance record.6:57 So all over, God is moving at Waters Church, and I'm so excited about that. But we're not done yet. Oh, we got work to do, ladies and gentlemen. I7:09 look at my country. I look at my world, and I say, this country needs Jesus. Well, who's gonna bring him to them? We gotta do it. And so I got a hunger and a thirst more now than7:21 ever before to start some things in our church and through you in these next upcoming years. I got a 3 year plan. I'm gonna I'm gonna map it out for you. Come 4 weeks from7:33 now, really big things weekend. Yes. And I believe we're gonna see something powerful. God is faithful in big things. I know he's gonna be faithful in really big things, and we're gonna take a step of7:44 faith and see God use us to bring the gospel to this nation. Amen. Alright. Take out your notes. What happened in Thessalonica? Part 3. I wanna talk to you on the7:56 true substance of spiritual leadership. The true substance of spiritual leadership. Take out your notes. Oh, if you don't have notes, as I can see some of you are just staring at me blankly, go to waterschurch dot guide8:08 on your phone, and it looks like this. If you're online, you can go there. And then if you click on today's message, you can go right there, and it looks like that. You can fill in the blanks digitally. Okay. So8:20 I don't know if you've noticed this, but I have really gotten, committed to teaching you the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by8:32 book. There's 2 ways that a preacher can preach to you. Number 1 way that is very common in churches like ours well, actually, there's 3. Some of you come from the old style. It's called the liturgy, and8:44 some expert in some office in Rome tells the church what to talk about. That's the liturgical way of teaching you the Bible. Then there are the topical ways of teaching you the Bible. Churches like ours8:55 love this. So the preacher thinks, well, what do I wanna talk about? I'll talk about this. And so then he'll find verses that will talk about that thing. That's topical. And I do that sometimes. But lately, I've just9:06 felt like we just need to go verse by verse through the Bible. We need to just address as God speaks. As the Lord speaks, let's talk about what the Lord says. So in our last9:18 series, You Belong Here, we went through the first 4 chapters of the book of John. And now in this series, we're going through verse by verse the book, first Thessalonians. And this is why it's important that you have a9:29 I think this is why pastors need to get back to this. First off, there is a serious, there is a serious famine of biblical wisdom in churches.9:41 Never mind the world. I'm talking about churches. You know what I'm saying? People don't even know, like, the basics. And then secondly, we got too many preachers that are preaching their favorite subjects. And9:54 what I love about going verse by verse is that God's gonna lead me to places that I don't I wouldn't go to. I wouldn't talk about. But he talks about it through his servants, Paul, Peter, John, the disciples. You know?10:06 So we've gotta talk about what God wants to talk about. Amen, somebody. And that's why verse by verse going through these books is so helpful. Because when I came to chapter 2 in Thessalonica, first Thessalonians, I10:16 realized that this is about Paul telling this church that he started. This is what true spiritual leadership looks like. And here's why that's important. Now now now let's remind10:28 ourselves of this series, which we started 3 weeks before Easter. What happened at Thessalonica is about this church that Paul started. How long was Paul there? Does anybody remember from the first week? 310:40 weeks. 3 weeks. Oh, good. 3 weeks he was there. Church starts. He has to run for his life because they, persecute and chase him out or start a riot in the city. They wanna arrest him and imprison him. He has to10:52 leave. He goes to Berea. He goes to Athens. He goes to Corinth. He finds out from Timothy who he sent back to Thessalonica to check on the church. He finds out that the church that he started in 3 weeks is not struggling11:03 in spite of their opposition, but they are thriving. And I told you in week 1 that that church is still alive and well in the modern Greece city of Thessalonica to this day. 2000 years later, a church that was started11:14 3 weeks is still standing for Christ. Powerful things. And he writes back to this church, the the letter we're reading right now, first Thessalonica Thessalonians, to tell them how he cares11:26 about them and what transpired about them and what they now need to do because they are following Jesus. It is a powerful book. It's a powerful letter. And when he gets to chapter 2, he's like, this is what my leadership11:35 looked like among you. And here's why that matters. And I want you to write it down. Our world is starving for true leadership. Our world needs11:47 true leadership. You wanna know what's wrong with the world? Leaders. What is wrong with our families? Leaders. What is wrong with our communities? Leaders. What is wrong with our country?12:01 Leaders. Political leadership. We are starving for political leadership. Every week gives us a new reason to roll our eyes when we hear what's happening in Washington DC.12:13 2 senators couldn't even make it into the office. We just found out for 3 months. 2 senators, a Republican senator and a Democrat senator, Dianne Feinstein in California and Mitch McConnell in Kentucky could not make it12:23 into office for 3 months. Why? They're too old and too decrepit. There should be an age limit for high office, ladies and gentlemen. If you can't if you can't get to off the12:35 office on your own, then something's wrong. I mean, this is our country. I mean and then there's at the top of the pyramid of power is a president who is barely awake.12:47 Our world is starving for leaders. True leaders. Pennsylvania elected a senator who had had a stroke 3 weeks before 3 months before the election. He12:59 has been in rehab more than he's been in office since he was elected in November. He can't read. He can't speak, and he is elected to 1 of the highest levels of office in this country.13:12 We are in trouble. We are in desperate trouble. I don't know if you understand how bad it really is, but it this is not normal stuff. I'm telling you, this is a sign that13:24 judgment is coming on this nation if we do not repent and seek the God of heaven and earth. Amen. We need leadership. Yes. Let me bring it13:35 closer to hope. We need business leadership. I thank God for the spiritual leaders in this church at all locations who run businesses. I don't really realize I don't know if you guys realize how important you13:47 are. Businesses have been co opted by an ideology of confusion. When you have Nike selling sports bras by using13:59 a man. A man is the spokesman for Nike sports bras. What kind of lunacy?14:11 Bud Light used the same man to sell what they claim is beer. I guess if you're gonna try to sell a beverage that pretends to14:23 be beer, you should use a guy who pretends to be a girl, but that's for another discussion. Leadership in the corporate14:34 world. They're all in on this together. I'm telling you. They're all in on this together to mold you and shape you and lie to you and to see and deceive you. And and this is why because our country's been walking away14:46 from God for many decades. And when you walk away from God, you walk right into the welcoming arms of the devil who deceives and lies and and and upends goodness and righteousness. Our our world14:58 needs family leaders. We need men to be men. We need fathers to be fathers. We need righteousness in the15:09 home. We need fathers to be the heads of your home. Men, if she had to wake you up to get to church, something's15:21 desperately wrong with you. You should be waking her up. You should actually wake up early, make her pancakes. Of course, I don't do that, but I'll give it on to you. I'll put15:33 that on I'll put that on you. It's easy to preach it. Amen. But we need fathers. You know what, fathers, you need to do now more than ever? What I'm doing now more than ever?15:45 I'm getting up in the morning and my knees hit the floor, and I pray for my children. Yes. And I am praying for my children. I'm praying for and listen. You know you don't have to wait until they meet somebody to pray15:55 for their future spouse. You know that. Right? Yes. Yes. I've been praying for my kids' future spouses since the day they were born. Praying that they will have spouses that love Jesus more than they will love them.16:06 Amen. Right.16:08 Because that's the most important thing. If you're single, you need to be a leader of your own life. Wait. Wait. Let me back up. Parents need to be leaders of children. Why are children confused? Because16:21 the leadership of parents has been undermined for decades. Our world is starving for leaders. Leadership I think everything hangs on leadership. And16:33 and and and some of you say, well, good thing I'm not a leader. You haven't touched my my place of life. You are a lead.16:38 If you're a Christian,16:39 you need to understand this. You're a leader. Amen. Even if you're not the boss, you're still you still can lead. You can lead when you're not in charge. Amen. Absolutely. You can be the low level employee that has an16:50 influence on other people because ultimately, leadership is influence. That's what leadership is. Leadership is when you influence somebody else to do and follow what you're following. Yeah. So whether you believe it or17:01 not, you are a leader. When when we're talking about this text, I want you to apply it to me. I want you to apply it to you. I want you to apply it to your life where you are because you, through the power of the Holy17:10 Spirit, can have a divine impact and influence on somebody who desperately needs to know that there's a God in heaven who loves them and Jesus who can save them. We need spiritual leaders.17:23 Our churches are abysmal. Our churches are corrupted. They are corrupted either with prosperity gospel preaching, which is that God wants you healthy, sexy, wise, and and wonderful17:36 and wealthy, or or or God wants to just have you conquer your your dreams and accomplish your purpose. It's all it's all about you. It's the gospel of you, and it totally resonates with me first17:47 Americanism. Or our pastors have totally abdicated to the spirits of darkness and are right in league with the redefinition of family, redefinition of marriage,17:59 the redefinition of human dignity, the redefinition of man and woman. And it's like, where do the people go? Where do people go? For truth. We gotta be a church of leaders, not just me,18:11 you. Leading people through the impact that the Holy Spirit can produce through us to others around us. So you are a leader. Somebody18:23 say, I'm a leader. I'm a Okay. You've you've gotta know what leadership looks like. And that's what first Thessalonians chapter 2 is about. I got 5 points, and then we're done. Number 1, spiritual18:35 leadership is courage in the word of God. You wanna be a leader? Have confidence, courage, and conviction that God's word is God's word. And don't back18:46 down. That doesn't mean you beat it over people's heads. I'm gonna get to that later, but let me stay with being courageous in the word. When Paul talks to the Thessalonians, he recounts to them18:58 what they personally knew of him before he got to them or when he arrived in their city. This is all detailed for you guys in Acts chapter 1619:10 if you ever wanna get some background Acts chapter 16 and 17. If you wanna get some background into this text. And so Paul goes to a church, a a city called Philippi. He preaches the gospel. He casts out19:22 a demon out of a girl. And the people who own this girl, she's a slave, they're mad because she lost her spiritual ability to predict the future. So they arrest Paul and Silas. They beat them with19:33 rods. I want you to think about that. They beat them with rods, and they threw them into the dungeon of the prison. And we know this story is a great story. They were singing19:45 praise praises. They were singing hymns to God. The other prisoners were listening. Great earthquake. God sets them free. But then Paul has to leave the city. They asked him, get out of the city because we're done with19:55 you. We don't want you here. So he leaves. He goes to Thessalonica. And you would think, okay. I'm going to a new city. Same message. But man, I don't know if I should do the20:03 same stuff. I don't know if I20:05 should say the same thing. Maybe I can, and I you have to think about this. Maybe I can say it in a way that won't get me arrested. Well, what does Paul say in first Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1? He says, look at it.20:17 For you yourselves know brothers that are coming to you was not in vain. In other words, we had impact. We had influence. We had leadership in York City in your lives.20:28 Verse 2, because though we had already suffered already what? Suffered. They had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi. As you know, he says, this is a personal letter to a church.20:40 We had, say it. Boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much Boldness. Conflict. Yeah. So hear this. Paul does not change the message20:52 because he got flack for the message in the previous city. This is courage. This is I will say what's true no matter what somebody thinks about21:04 it. They will hate it. That's okay. I'm okay with people hating the truth, but it's not my it's not my job to worry about their response to it. It's my responsibility to tell them what it is. You21:16 gotta have courage now more than ever before. You have to have confidence and conviction, church, now more than ever before that this is the living word of almighty God. That's leadership in21:27 in God's eyes. That's spiritual. I'm not talking about business leaders. I'm talking about spiritual leadership, but spiritual leadership will shape your business. Right. Amen. Spiritual leadership will shape your21:37 family. Spiritual leadership will shape your nation. And and here's the here's the real goal that I believe that our political leaders, our future political leaders could be sitting in our churches, and that's why our21:48 churches need to get back to the word of god. Amen. I'm praying for that too, and I I want you to join me in that as well, that in our locations, in our churches, we will see future congressmen, future principals, future21:59 business leaders, future presidents sitting in our church that have been under the word of God. And they will take spiritual leadership from the church house to the state house.22:11 Amen. But it won't happen if we don't have courage to tell people the truth. You've gotta have courage with your children to tell them the truth even if they don't like the truth.22:23 You gotta have courage, husbands, with your wives. You gotta have courage, business leaders, with your employees. To to be a person of the truth who loves the truth and does not change the message,22:36 does not try to entertain people into Christ. You can't do it. You're gonna have conviction. So write this down. Leadership is formed from courage, born of conviction rooted in22:47 Christ. Say, I don't know if I have that much conviction, pastor. How do I do that? Well, you're getting it right now. You're getting a little bit more conviction right now. Here's what some of you gotta do, though. You22:59 gotta stop Netflixing so much and and start bible reading. Just I wonder what God would do in your heart23:11 the with 30 minutes less of Netflix and 30 minutes more of this. Can I just preach old school for you for a moment? How much do you pick it up? How much do you how much do you love23:23 it? Because this is the word of life. You know why people are overweight in our country? Because they're they they think McDonald's is food. They do. They don't know what23:35 food is. So they eat the wrong food. It affects their body. I wonder how many people are spiritually obese because they're eating all kinds of wrong junk food, and they're not eating right. This is bread. This is life.23:46 You say, I don't understand all of it. Read the parts you do understand. I always love what Mark Twain said. It's not the parts of the Bible that I don't understand that bug me. It's the parts of Bible that I do23:55 understand that bug me. I always love that. You gotta have conviction because you've been in the word. So I'll give you an example. To this day, I'm still learning stuff. To this day, I was24:07 in Isaiah 25 last night. And I'm reading it, and I'm like, what on earth? And I just prayed before I went to bed because I like to journal through the text, and I just didn't know what God was saying. So I prayed, God, I24:19 I'm gonna be honest with you, God. I have no idea what this is trying to teach me. Went to bed. Do you know I woke up, and the answer was in my head? I I love that because he will speak to you. Absolutely. The24:30 Holy Spirit wrote this book. You have the Holy Spirit in you to help you interpret the book. Sometimes he just wants to know how bad do you want it. Do you24:42 want it? Because if you want it, he's going give to you. But he's not going to just he doesn't throw his pearls to swine. That's what he told us not to do. He doesn't do it. He doesn't give truth to people who don't24:52 honor the truth. You've gotta honor the truth. Some of got relationship struggles you could have fixed in a couple of weeks if you acknowledge the truth that God wants to give you. You have financial challenges that25:03 could be fixed in a couple of months if you just surrendered your finances to the truth of God's word. So you gotta have conviction. But and so Paul, I love it what he says here. He says, we had25:15 boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel, what? Those last 2 words, of God. This is the gospel of God. Love those lines. And when we when we,25:27 look at church history and I love this. We see the bold people won the day. The bold people in history for God won the25:39 day. In the Bible, we've got evidence of that Moses going to Pharaoh and saying, let my people go. And Daniel saying to Nebuchadnezzar, I will not eat your food, and I will25:50 not stop praying to my God. And Peter and John on the way to pray saying, we will not stop talking about Jesus. You can arrest us. You could persecute us. You can kill us, but we26:02 will not stop talking about this Jesus. Boldness. Bold people win the day. Even if they're hated in their day. You don't know how much of your culture26:14 has been shaped by bold Christians. In the 7 hundreds, there was a Christian missionary named Boniface. Call him Saint Boniface. In 7 22, he went all throughout26:26 the Germanic world, what is now modern day Germany. You understand that Germany wasn't always Christian. It was pagan. They were worshiping trees and flowers and birds and the moon. And he went26:38 from village to village throughout the Germanic world in the 7 hundreds, 700 AD, and preached Christ to the villagers. He came on 1 particular village, and that village had a sacred oak. They26:50 called it Thor's oak. Yes, that Thor. And they believed that they had to sacrifice a child every, every night, 127:01 night, an early winter to their God Thor at the base of that oak. Saint Bodiphus shows up at the village and says, show me where that place is. He goes to the oak,27:13 brings himself an axe and says to the people, I got news for you. Don't sacrifice your children to Thor because the God of heaven and earth has already27:25 sacrificed his child for you. And he took his axe out, and he chopped down that sacred oak. And the villagers thought that it was said that if you touch that oak, that the Thor would strike you dead with27:37 lightning. He chopped down that sucker and stood there confidently, and lightning didn't strike him, and the whole village came to Jesus. When the tree fell behind the tree, there was a fir tree. And he27:49 looked at the fir tree, and he said, that tree will now be the symbol of the true and living God. That tree never loses its green, symbolizing eternal life that we have in Christ. And that tree's branches point to28:00 heaven, symbolizing that we should look to heaven. And I want you to take those trees and put them in your house because God you don't have to go to God. He has come home to you in the person of Jesus Christ. And every28:10 time you set up a Christmas tree, you're living what he preached in that village 700 AD. Your life is shaped by people who were bold28:22 in the gospel. Aren't you glad you don't have to sacrifice your children at some stupid oak now? Some of you kinda want to at times. I understand. But28:33 we don't anymore. Why? Because somebody in history was bold for Jesus, and God substantiated their testimony. In the 17 hundreds in England, England was28:45 a predominantly Christian country in the 14 hundreds, 15 hundreds, 16 hundreds. Well, like every country, they started to deteriorate spiritually, and they turned to alcohol, whiskey, and most28:57 notably gin. Gin was flowing all over the country even though it was illegal. It was said in the 17 hundreds in England, every sixth house was an illegal gin distillery. God29:09 raised up a man named John Wesley, founder of the founder of the Methodist movement. He'd be rolling over his grave if he looked at his church today. But he went out through he no no no churches would let John Wesley29:21 preach in their churches. Do you know why? Because he was bold. That's when you know your culture is truly corrupt, when they don't let the bold preachers preach in the church. So what does John Wesley do? He went out to29:32 the streets and preached. He preached in the factories. He preached in cemeteries. Went to cemeteries to preach. Many times when he was preaching in the streets, people would pick up bricks and throw them at him.29:44 1 particular time he was at the, the river through London. I forget what it is. The river Thames, I think. And and he was preaching, and they picked up a brick and they threw it at his head. He saw the dodged the brick.29:55 The brick hit somebody and killed the person behind John Wesley, and he kept preaching. 1 day, this is a story that he recounts in his journal. He was riding his horse through the woods, and he suddenly30:07 realized that he hadn't had a brick thrown at his head for 3 days. And so he got down on his knees and said, Lord, have I sinned? Have I backslidden? Nobody's throwing bricks at me.30:19 He gets back up, and some guy that was just listening to him in the listening to a pray behind the bush took a stone and threw it at his head. And John Wesley dodged the stone, got back up on the horse and said, praise30:30 God. I know I'm still with the Lord. God, give us preachers and Christians and leaders who will give thanks when they're hated for being a follower of Jesus Christ.30:42 We got preachers who wanna entertain the creep the people. They wanna get fans and followers. Some of you tell me, oh, pastor, somebody walked out when you mentioned that stuff about30:53 transgenderism. I don't know if you should do that. What are you talking about? If they get up and leave, they're at least they're not throwing bricks yet.31:05 Somebody once said to me, you know, pastor, with all these shootings in churches, just wanna let you know the security team's got your back. I said, please don't rob me of my blessing. God forbid it, but, you know, if it31:17 happens, I would love that moment to get to Saint Peter at the pearly gates and say, hello. How'd you get here? I was shot talking about Jesus.31:29 Right this way, pastor Tim. God bless you. Jesus wants to meet you. Boldness. The31:41 world needs boldness. Christians need boldness. I want you to write this down so you're aware of this. When truth is preached, people will both receive it and reject it at the same time and in the same crowd.31:54 That's what happens when the truth is preached, the truth divides. That's what Jesus meant when he said, do not think that I've come to bring peace on the earth. I've come to bring a sword. I'm going to32:06 divide people. Now this culture wants to say there's this group and that group and this group and that group, and we've got 1000 billion groups that if you say 1 thing about 1 of the thousand billion groups, they will32:16 cancel you forever. Because that's tribalism, and that's the culture of the devil, and that is not the culture of Christ. There are 2 groups of people on the earth. That's it. There's just 2.32:27 People who love Christ and people who reject Christ. That's it. And so some people will receive and some people will reject. What does Paul say in second Corinthians32:39 chapter 2? We are God's aroma. We are to God sorry. We are to God the aroma of Christ. We smell. And it says we smell 2 ways, to those32:51 who are being saved and to those who are being who are perishing, those who believe and those who don't believe. To the 1, we are the smell of death. To the other, the fragrance of life. That's unavoidable.33:02 So younger Christians, listen. You can't be liked by everybody. You can't be liked by everybody. And I don't know how long it's gonna take you, 20 year old and teenagers. I don't know how long it's gonna take33:14 you to find out this really this is a reality about life. No matter who you are, nobody's gonna not everybody's gonna like you. So you might as well be devoted to Christ. Amen. And embrace the people that33:26 don't like you for that reason. Amen. Amen. Somebody's gonna sniff you and say, you stink, and somebody's gonna sniff you and say, you are wonderful. Who are you? That's33:38 what it means to be in Christ. Turn to your neighbor and just say, you smell. Alright. Point number 2. I don't know why I did that,33:50 but point number 2. Spiritual leadership has a strong accountability to God. This is what Paul unpacks for the Thessalonians. He he's accountable34:02 to God. He knows God's watching. Let's look at it here how Paul writes it. He says in verse 4, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. Now that word34:14 entrusted means that that there is a sacred trust to the word of God. It is the job of your pastor to to guard the word for you.34:26 I've gotta guard the word because there's all these kind of false ideologies around Christianity that I we've gotta chop down. We've gotta name. We've gotta demolish scripture talks. We demolish every34:38 argument against the knowledge of god. 1 of the things, like, for instance, that I'll do on a regular basis is I would demolish, and you hear me that do this all the time, good person religion. I'm a good person. I need34:50 to demolish that again and again and again because it is America's favorite religion, and it will and it will lead you straight to hell. Jesus said in Matthew35:01 chapter 7, he said, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not do these mighty works and do these mighty signs and cast out demons? Did we not? And he will say to them, I never knew you.35:13 Depart from me workers of iniquity. Why does he say that to people who did all those works? Because no matter how good your works are, they aren't enough to make you right with God. You've got35:24 to root yourself in the finished perfect work of Jesus on the cross for you. And and and notice that and this is gonna blow some of you away, but you'll notice that35:36 Jesus does not say, I used to know you. I never knew you. There's people in churches all throughout the world that think they're right with God, but they're basing35:48 their rightness with God on what they've done for God, and it's never that way. You gotta base your righteousness with God on his grace, his mercy, shown to you through the work of Jesus Christ on36:00 the cross who has reconciled you back to the father. Hallelujah. Not of works so that no man can boast. We are so I'm entrusted. I've got to guard all that to be said. I've got to guard the36:12 gospel from false gospels for you. That's my job. You've got to guard the gospel in your own heart. But here's what he says. We're entrusted by God with the gospel. So we36:23 speak. To what? Could you just underline that for me if you would in your notes? Not to please man. So sometimes I'll say what you don't want to hear. And sometimes I'll challenge you36:35 on things that need to be changed. He says, we're going to please God who tests our hearts. Let's talk about pastoral accountability. Some of you36:47 come from churches where the board tells the pastor what to do. That's not this church. This is a pastor led church. I I lead. And so some people say, about36:59 who who holds pastor Tim accountable? It's a big question from a lot of people from those kinds of churches. Understand this. If there's a board that's telling me what to do, that's just there's37:10 gonna be a dominant figure on the board. You have to understand this is human nature. There's always gonna be a dominant figure on the board who will tell the board to tell the pastor what to do. So there's always gonna37:21 be somebody. I just prefer to be the somebody. Okay. Now now you say, well, what about your account? Who are you accountable to? Who's your accountability partners? Okay. Let me just say37:33 something. You could have 60 guys be my accountability partners, and none of them know my heart. And I could fake it37:45 every time we see each other. You know what my accountability is? The god who tests my heart. That's right. Do you know what's the most scary thing in the world? To know that god is gonna37:57 judge everything that I've said from this stage. Something that you gotta know about me is before I preach every weekend, I get down on my knees and I say, father, I submit to you. Say what you wanna say to your people.Show more
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Guest Message - Pastor Geyser Pastor Tim Hatch
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