For those of you who are all
here, are you all here? Good, good, good, good, good
stuff. I want us to turn to a couple
of places in Scripture. It's a little hot today. There
we go. And we're going to do something
a little bit different, different than I've probably done in a
long time, but I'm going to deal with Paul's love for the church. I want to talk about it. what
Paul, what I would call Paul's longing and glory. So turn to
1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. And we know the story of this
community and the power of the gospel, this good report, this
good story that came into these people's lives through the apostles
and As the apostles left and the church was established, the
organized oversight of these people and their faith, we see
in the writings that there were two things that took place. One
is there was an incredible transformation that took place in the life of
these people that began to spread. The word of that change began
to spread across the entire region. And because of this new uptick
in growth and excitement and awesomeness and just change,
people came in who didn't like it. That's what happens. I remember here through the years
in this community, There have always been opportunities for
people to make expansion and grow and do things, and there's
always a small but very loud and boisterous people who come
in on the heels of the ideas of growth and prosperity and
everything else, and they go, no! We don't want you to have
fun. It's like the Grinch. And we
live in a day and age where being a spiritual Grinch, where being
a joy Grinch is just like the thing to have. I mean, we've
got merch and everything. Don't bother me, I'm angry. I
mean, you know, I can see that on the t-shirt. People sort of
enjoy being contrary. And I don't understand it because
it's a miserable place to live. But as the old adage says, misery
loves company. And I find it also interesting,
I've taught through Thessalonians, both letters before, but to get
the heart of what I believe that the Lord's put in my heart this
week on this, let's just walk through a little bit of how Paul
approaches these things. So Paul writes to the Thessalonians,
and he says to them these words. Look at chapter two, 17 through
20. But since we were torn away from
you, brothers, for a short time, in person, not in heart, we endeavored
the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face,
because we wanted to come to you. I, Paul, again and again."
See how he writes that? I wanted to come to you. But
Satan, the enemy, he hindered us. Verse 19, for what is our hope
or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus Christ that is
coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy. Now Paul's occasion to write
this infantile congregation And we don't know how many thousands
of people he's writing to, hundreds of people. I mean, he's writing
to the believers of Thessalonica. It's not like Grace Truth Church
and Reformed Church and this church and that church. I mean,
you know, the body of believers were a community, even if they
had different locations. Oh, my gosh, what would that
look like? We can't even exist on Facebook together. But Paul writes this letter and
his attitude is this. He hears first of things happening
in Thessalonica that bless his soul. Bless his soul. He is so overjoyed and filled
with awe at the work of God in the lives of these people in
his absence. You know, sort of like a parent
when your kids go off to stay with somebody for a day or have
a play date for the first time and you're not there. And you're
always wondering, am I going to get the report that little
Johnny was like a really bad boy? He cut the hair off the
baby dolls and drowned the pet lizard and squeezed the frog.
And I mean, we had friends like that, you know. Their children
would just like run them up and throw rocks through windows.
They thought it'd be funny to put three betta fish in the same
bowl and which one survived. I mean, I'm not kidding. These
are like 10 year olds. I'm going, what is this home alone? But it's always nice when they
go off and somebody says, Oh, your child was an angel. And
you're like looking around, who are you talking about? You know,
but it feels good. It's awesome. Paul talks to the
Corinthians like that. They were running amok and doing
all sorts of nonsense, and Chloe had to tell on them. Chloe, a
leader in the church. Chloe, a host in the church.
Chloe, a teacher in the church. Chloe, a prayer warrior in the
church. Chloe, a partner in the gospel. I want you to get that
in your mind. And then she gives a report after
the lying elders tell otherwise. And he's like, I'm going to come
down there on my stick. He literally says this. and I'm just gonna
beat the daylights out of you. And I'm not saying beating the
daylights out of anything is biblical, I'm just saying that
was Paul's sentiment. If I had a rubber hose, I'd, you know,
that kind of thing. But he says, that's not what I'm doing. I'm
gonna send this, I'm gonna trust. You knuckleheads, you need to
do, in my absence, better than you do in my presence. Well,
the Thessalonians were doing better without Paul there. Not
because he wasn't there, they were just thriving in the gospel.
So he was writing to that occasion, but more importantly, he was
writing to them because some people, these contrary drug dogs
or whatever you want to call them, they were coming in and
they were causing problems and they were saying, hey, y'all
think y'all got it all together? You're too happy. Isn't that
it? You're too joyful. You know what?
You missed the resurrection. You missed the resurrection.
Huh? Y'all talking about the joy of
the Lord and being in heaven. Y'all missed all that. Y'all
was asleep. And it messed up the faith of some. It hurt some
people to hear that what they were longing for had already
taken place, and then it caused fear. And then there were little
pockets. Anyone have a Bible study on how we missed the resurrection?
Yes. I want to know what's going on. You want to watch? You want to
watch the camel news so we can figure out, maybe we can find
the second edition. I mean, isn't that the way it
is today? Remember when COVID hit, how
the book of revelations is like, was it everywhere? Excuse me,
revelations. I'm looking at this only one,
but I'll take it. That's just so common. I mean, you know,
it's everywhere. It's everywhere. It's everywhere.
People are asking me, and emails are coming in through the church
website, and, you know, Twitter's firing up. Is this the last days?
Are we going to see, you know, whatever? And I'm going, I don't
know, and nobody else does, so quit wasting your time with it.
Are you doing your job as a human being in the world, loving your
neighbor, and working with your hands, and staying peacefully,
quiet? and out from under the radar,
off the radar of the governing authority. Stay off the radar.
That's Paul's command to the church in Rome. Stay off the
radar. And the Hebrew Christians. Nobody in the Bible has ever
been commanded, called, incited, or encouraged to be something
big and be known in the world. It's not the way it is, but oh
my goodness, America, I mean, we have Christian excitement,
don't we? And Thessalonica did too. And so Paul writes, but
he writes in a way that does not detract from the beauty of
what God is doing in the life of those people, even though
what's happening is really frustrating. You know how he does that? He
addresses it and moves on. He says, yeah, don't worry about
these people. Just ignore them. Just ignore them. Do you know
why we can't ignore things that bother us? Because our nervous
systems don't let us. You know that, right? It's neurological.
Neurological things cause emotional things. And that's as much as
I'll say about that. But our nervous systems can't
handle it. It's the reason we feel things
in our body. You know, in antiquity, they
thought that the gut, the bowels, the intestines was the heart
of the soul. You know why? Because when they
worshiped, they felt it there. They felt it there. And then later in, you know,
by the Renaissance period, people changed the mindset, and this
might not be exactly the calendar dates of the, but by the Renaissance,
They were saying that the heart was the center of the soul. Why?
Oh, because they had a lot of free time to read and learn and
live a very luxurious life. And man, they just like, they
were loving and heartbreak and loving and heartbreak. And the
anxiety, the anxiety manifest there in the chest. You feel
it right there in your chest. So for every emotion, there's
a physical, there's a physiological expression of that emotion. So
we see, even in the Jewish people of antiquity, that the soul was
the bowels, because that's where they felt their worship. It wasn't
their thoughts that worshipped, it was their bodies that worshipped. And when someone else comes in
and does, we don't notice it anymore because we're in our
heads all the time. And so we're thinking about thinking
about thinking about thoughts. And we're not paying attention
to what's going on in our bodies. And I am a living poster child
of what that can do to you. Over the last two years, it can
destroy everything that you ever thought possible to be destroyed
in your body. When you think you're dying because
your doctor says that you probably have either cancer or a debilitating,
life-changing, never-going-to-get-over-it disease, and then after surgical
intervention and discovery over a nine-month period, they say,
it's stress. You're going, what? No. Really? And then the stress of
that is even worse. The Thessalonians were stressed
out because these people wanted to upset their happiness. Man,
life is good. What have you heard about, you
know? Isn't that the way it goes? People
can't stand it when other people are joyful. Or they tabloid syndrome
them to death. They, well, you know, well, just
wait. Just wait. That's the worst thing you can
do to a young person. Graduating school, going out, getting into
college, getting into, well, you just wait. Life's gonna catch
up with you one day. You look in the mirror, you'll
be ugly, old, and like this. I mean, you know.
No, you don't have to be. We have permission to be joyful
and enjoy life, every aspect of life as believers. We don't devoid the gospel. We
don't march to a drum of debauchery. licensed to do things that we
know are wrong. But we shouldn't live in fear.
We shouldn't live in fear of other people. Paul approaches this
and gives just the right amount of attention. These people are
doing this to you because they can't stand that you are at peace. They can't stand that you are
secure. They can't stand that you're not pulling your hair
out and running around wondering when the next shoe is going to
drop. You are just living your life and they can't stand it. But they don't even know that,
do they? The theys of the world. They're just acting out of their
own nature. They're acting out of their own condition. They're
acting out of their own illness. But Paul's like, hey, you know,
I'm going to talk about some of these things, but I want to
tell you what you're doing great. He says, you're loving. The whole
world, the world around you knows that you are loving. I mean,
listen to chapter one, verse Verse two, listen to this, we
give thanks to God always for all of you constantly. When have
you ever had the attitude of being thankful for something
constantly, much less all people? And Brother Trey's, you know,
he's had a lot of fun with the imprecatory prayer, no, don't
do it, but do it type thing. You know, I mean, it's easy. Be honest with God because you
can't posture yourself in a place of holiness before him anyway.
That's Christ's work. He's already done it. So you
might as well not lie. Oh, Father, I come holy and pious
before you this morning. Liar. Oh, God, I wish I just
had a fly flap. If I had a rubber hose, you see? But Paul is saying constantly,
remembering you before our God and Father, your work of faith,
your labor of love, and your steadfastness of hope in the
Lord Jesus Christ, for we know brothers. And keep in mind when
you see that in the New Testament, it is a plural word for siblings. Even though it is masculine,
English really messes, I had a wonderful conversation with
a Spanish-speaking person this week who establishes that like
this, that English really messes things up, brother-sister type
thing. Brothers, sisters, siblings, we know, beloved, loved by God,
that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only
in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit with full
conviction And in verse six, and you became
imitators of us and of the Lord for you received the word in
much suffering with the joy of the Holy Spirit.
See, that's when it really rubs sideways, isn't it? When people
can look at our lives and the world and there is every reason
to be broken and scared. I want you to hear this. There's
every reason to be broken and scared and disheveled and shimmering and shaking about
the impending disaster, but yet there is a sense of peace and
hope that floats us along. It upsets some. much affliction with the joy
of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example, look at this,
to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For not only has
the word of the Lord sounded forth from you to Macedonia and
Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere. And does that mean every place
in the entire cosmos? No. It's an expression everywhere
that we've been, we've heard it. so that we need not say anything. They would travel to different
places. They didn't have to go in there and start talking about
what was really taking place in the life of these people because
these people were coming up to the apostles going, hey, have
you heard what's going on in Thessalonica? Sound normative? No. I mean, what would the Good
News News Channel look like? That makes me sick. I feel it
here in my soul. Because I know what it would
look like in our day. It would look like some just whitewash nonsense
of Christian culture that has no Christian in it. But probably
just really silly stuff. But what would a real good news
news network look like? What would the news that this
just in? People were singing and having a good time in the
park downtown New York. About what? Were they about to
burn the place down? They were just so excited to
be outside. Huh. Swipe left. Swipe left. Oh, there we go.
Yeah, some dirt. Now we got into the Hollywood
moment. Who is divorcing who and who is hurting who and what
nasty things. I mean, look at the weather channel.
24 hours. coverage of the wind that blows
where it wishes. Talk about a funny thing. And
I love meteorology. I think it's fascinating. But it wouldn't be good news.
Nobody tune in to good news. I don't look at the weather until
there's something headed my way that's going to kill me. Or I
want to go do something outside and I need to see if I need to
do it or reschedule it or wear something different. That's as
far as it goes, and I got an app for that. I don't even need
to look at the weather. Is the weather channel even on?
I don't even know if it's on anymore. Bad news sells, bad people get
attention, and they're always really in the minority if you
think about it. That's what it's like with a lot of believers
there. But they heard about the goodness. They heard, they reported,
verse 9, themselves reported concerning us the kind of reception
we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve
the living and true God. and to wait for his son from
heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us
from the wrath to come. Now think about what he just
said there in the turn in which he said it, the way he phrased
that. How you turn to God from idols
to serve the living and true God. I mean, this is an exclamation
of God's work, and it's a joyous occasion. But what would we do,
listen to this, put this in 2023, what would we do, what would
be the popular way of handling this in the context of today's
culture? The rest of this letter would be about turning from idols. There's 13 ways to turn from
idols. There's five ways you might be having idols for dinner.
There's all sorts of things. The clothes you wear probably
prove you're not Christian. I mean, you look at it, it's
there, it's everywhere. It's what we draw ourselves,
it's what we're drawn to, because we live in a state of fear. And what cast away fear, beloved?
What does the Bible say cast away fear? Love cast away fear.
Love cast out all fear. John says that. Love. So we better be defining love
correctly. And you know what it's not? My bowels and my chest. Those are just the embodied responses
of the things that I feel in my nervous system. That's all
they are. And if we let them control us,
then we are a leaf tossed to and fro. We are alone. We are
isolating. And we are not living a joyful,
fruitful life. And so in chapter two, verses
17 through 20, specifically verse 20, let me let you hear it again.
Verse 19 and 20. For what is our hope? This is
a question, two questions. What is our hope or joy or crown
of boasting before the Lord? Now stop there. Stop there. This
is where, this is it. And I'm just going to say some
things in the next few weeks. I'm going to get back into Timothy,
I promise, and I'm going to do some more Psalms. And, you know, Trey
will continue in Ephesians and other places that the Word takes
us. But there is a sense in which I am no longer interested in
any way of debating doctrine or theology. And I've been tired
of it for a long, long time. It's a hobby, just like I played
chess nine hours a day when I was 15 on the weekends. I played my horns all the time,
and I did magic tricks, and I ran. I don't run anymore unless something's
after me, and then if I don't have a gun, you know, I might
run a little ways or throw you in between us. But there is not,
I mean, there are some things that we just don't do anymore,
and they're like hobbies. Okay, theological studies is
a hobby that I had, because I enjoy invigorating conversation, but
there's a thread that's always been there. It's a thread of
fear. We gotta get this right or else you don't know about
that. Oh, you're just a dumb, weak
Christian. That's the sentiment. And God
help if our sisters stand up and start proclaiming something
they've learned from the scripture. Okay, woman, just be quiet. That's
happened. That's happened in my house.
Not for me. I wouldn't be standing here.
But you know, I mean, this is deplorable. This is not where
Paul is. But when we hear that question
in today's culture, we have the frou-frou, no truth at all, and
then we have this hard, heavy, I mean, like the books that we
had in seminary. I mean, when you start a PhD program
and you're excited, you're like, this is gonna be so fun, and
then you get your first books, and you go, what have I bit off?
The Gagging of God by Don Carson? In the small print, Tom, you've
seen the book. Yeah, I see him up there, he's
getting sick, he's feeling anxious. It's that thick. And the preface made me arc,
I short-circuited. I wasn't in the, that's not living
the Christian life. And honestly, I love that teaching. I loved the interaction around
the philosophy, because it's just something that I enjoy.
I also enjoy quantum physics. I love it. I absolutely love
it. But no one else loves it, so
I just look at it by myself. Every morning I read an article
from a website. Every morning. And then I just
move right along. Theological things are not what
it's about. Is theology important? Yes, because
theology by definition is what God is. But how has God revealed
himself? Here we see in this scripture, this question is not
answered in that way. What is our hope? What is our
joy or crown of boasting before the Lord Jesus at His coming?
And it is also not getting it right. It's not like, well, we
got it all right, we studied real hard. Look how we live,
Jesus. Look how we look, Jesus. Look
how we acted, Jesus. And you know what Jesus would
say if that were our defense? Get away from me, you workers
of iniquity. Your good stuff and your great
knowledge and your awesome attitude is garbage. It's toilet paper,
used toilet paper. You're not bringing that in my
house, right? I mean, if you had a dinner party and somebody
showed up with used toilet paper, I think you might need some.
Not that. Why don't you just go on back
to your house? We'll do this dinner over Skype
or Zoom, whatever it is. No, don't want that. That's not
the answer either. And the answer is, is it something
we've done or decisions we've made? Is it how well we've done?
Because you know, in our best of days, it's not good enough.
What's good enough is the righteousness of Christ. What's good enough
is to know that the promises of God are infallible. What's
good enough to know that His love is sufficient for us in
times where we just don't see it or feel it. So Paul's answer
to that question is, what is our boast? What is our crown?
What is our joy? What is our hope? What are we
wearing before the Lord Jesus to boast in? Is it not you? Let that sit there for a second. Is it not you? You are our glory. You are our
joy, Paul says. Remember what glory means, imagine
it like being seen in your birthday suit, everything you are for
the world to see. I mean, it's fully exposed, fully
revealed. Worth looking at. Nothing to
hide, no shame. You see Genesis one, two, they
were naked and not ashamed. The church has created a culture
of shame that is so deep we can't see it. And the fuel of the lives of
people in Christian culture today, and even us, is fear. And what does it breed? Everything. Resentment, frustration, all
sorts of stuff. It doesn't fulfill, it doesn't
create a fulfilled life. So I want you to see this is
the love that Paul had, a life of loving. And Paul wasn't feeling any good
things in his gut when he wrote these letters. Just like Jesus,
when he loved his people in the Garden of Gethsemane, he wasn't
feeling any good things and he wasn't feeling loving. He wasn't
feeling good. He wasn't feeling at peace, but
he had peace. I think it was our last men's
study, the peace that surpasses all understanding. I think, Trey,
you put it this way, is that when every logical and rational
reality before us says, we should not love, we should not do, we
should not be at peace, and honestly, it's even good, we should hate
this person, we should be upset, we should do this and it would
be the other way, but something deep inside of us goes, but I'm
not. I'm at peace. That surpasses all understanding. See, that's spiritual. If you ever want a hot take to
pull the trolls out of the dirt, just say something about our
lives being spiritual and not mention a theological thing in
front of it. Oh, what are you doing? What
are you saying? What are you trying to say? What
are you not saying? What are you trying? I don't care if I'm not talking
to you. If you don't have ears to hear what I'm saying, I'm
not talking to you. If you don't have eyes to see the love that
I have for you, I'm not loving you. Because if you don't receive
it, I mean, it's still love, but it doesn't do anything for
you. So Paul loved Christ's people, so much so that he rejoiced in
his suffering. What does he say? I pray that
I may fill up what is lacking in the suffering of my body that
is for your sake. Fill up what is lacking in the
suffering of Christ for your sake. Paul was torn away from these
Thessalonians because he's running for his life and going
to prison and messing up his own acquittal. In Philippians 2, I've got a
lot of text. I just want you to hear this. I want you to hear
the word of God and the love of Paul for his people. The love
of God cast away all fear. Beloved, this life, let me just
give you the punchline, this life as believers is about other
people. And the world and the culture
and the Christian culture and the church and the pastors don't
get to tell you what that looks like. The Word of God tells you
what that looks like, and how God has created you tells you
what that looks like. We don't get to decide, well,
you know, so-and-so wrote, or in my last church, or this is
what I think. I mean, there is nothing biblical about the way
we do church right here in the sense of its logistics. Okay? Now, it's not unbiblical in that
we shouldn't be doing it. It's not biblical. There's nowhere
in the Bible that says I have to stand up here. There's nowhere
in the Bible that says you have to sit down there. There's nowhere
in the Bible that says I have to read and have a one-way conversation
that you can't interrupt. But it's just what we've decided.
There's nowhere in the scripture that even talks about us having
the snack version of the Lord's love feast. But it's just where
we are. At the same time, there is no
reason for us to get all fearful and think, oh no, we're not doing
it right. Are we praying? Are we receiving the word? Are
we engaging in opportunity for service? Are we encouraging each
other onto love and good deeds? Are we rejoicing with those who
rejoice? Are we weeping with those who weep? Are we seeking
to do good? Are we looking to have loving kindness? Are we
looking inward while also looking outward? Are we fulfilling what
Paul says at Colossians 3 and Hebrews 10 and other places to the best of our ability? Absolutely
not, but we're working on it. And so we're not going to pull
the rug out from under ourselves just because there's some other
fear, there's some other naysayer, some other contrarian or attitude
even within ourselves that comes along and says, you're not doing
it right. No, we're not doing it right, we're doing it. And we're going to live life
and we're going to do it. And I'm so emphatic on that that
I want to use an explicative just to show you the severity
of it. Frack our neck. There you go. Dag blasted. Oh gosh, that's actually, for
some people, that is wrong. Because it's a substitute for
something else. Come on. You see, let's just take a deep
breath. We're not under that bondage.
Paul writes this letter not to focus on how these people ought
to think positively against the negatively. He says, just keep
doing what you're doing. You're loving people so much that you're,
I mean, have you ever traveled a thousand miles and heard about
someone in a small town loving, being so loving that it impacted
the world? No. But I've heard the trash. I've heard the trash, but not
the treasure. We don't focus on the negative
to get away from it. We don't focus on that. We love
Philippians 2, holding fast to the word of life so that in the
day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or
labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out
as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your
faith, your faith, I'm glad and I rejoice with you all. There's a partnership in suffering.
There's a partnership in rejoicing. There's a partnership. And just
as we see, even though we're not together, sometimes we can't
be together. Sometimes we're sick. Sometimes
we're just not able, just can't function. I've been there. Sometimes we don't know what
to do. Sometimes we're so overcome with our own lives that we just,
there's no bandwidth for us to consider. And then we feel guilty.
That's not of the spirit of God. But even when Paul wasn't present
with the church, his love for them stayed. Yes, you can grow
out of intimacy if you're not close, if you're not touching,
if you're not seeing each other. And it will affect your love,
and it will affect your ministry, and it will affect your relationship. But in the Spirit, you never
lose. You never lose ground. What causes
us to lose ground is when we're trying to apply things that the
Bible has not told us to apply in ways that it hasn't told us
to apply. And then we call it good, right? The inferences seem to be more
powerful than the obvious. What does that mean? I mean,
sometimes the things that we think about coming out of what
we obviously saw become the thing that we want to do rather than
that which was told to us. I want you to drink this cup
of water. What is water? What is a cup? And I'm a kung
fu guy, so this is right up my alley. Be the water. No, drink the water. Drink the
water, because you're dehydrated. Oh, I was just reflecting. It's OK. I'm going to reflect
on the water as I drink it. I'm going to see if it goes to
my love and to my soul, or wherever it is. I'm going to feel it as
it comes. But Paul's like, hey, my life's
being poured out for you. And in the day of Christ, I'm
going to stand before the Lord and I'm going to be proud of you. I'm going to
say, Lord, look at my crown. Look at my crown. Look at them. Is that selfish? No, that's not
selfish at all. That's fabulous. Because you
know what it does for me? It puts in perspective. It puts
in perspective that the hunger that I have in my body for things
is not as important as the hunger that I have in my soul that is
already mine. The promises of God that are
mine already, that cannot be taken away. Nothing, nothing
can separate me from the things of God. Nothing. Not even God. For I am His. And He does not change. You see
that? The Bible says that God cannot
lie. And that's a good thing. Because sometimes we tell the
truth and then we lie because we can't fulfill it. It wasn't
deception, it was just life. Paul says, I'll rejoice with
you all. I will stand here and I will give my life that you
may see. joy, Romans 15. But now, since
I no longer have any room for work in these regions, my work
is done, and since I've longed for many years to come to you,
I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped
on my journey there by you once I have enjoyed your company for
a while. See, Paul, no matter when or why he needed to contact
these churches, his ultimate desire was just to hang out a
little bit. I'll say that again. Paul's ultimate
desire was just to hang out a little bit and let organic life take
over. What is going to happen when
we get together? I don't know. We might sing some
songs. We might play some vinyl. We
might watch a movie. We might play a game. You will
lose, but we will play. Especially Trivial Pursuit. You
will lose. That's okay. Someone has to. And in the midst of all of that,
life happens and conversations flow out of the abundance of
the heart. Sometimes deep things are talked about and sometimes
deep things are worked through, through light living. We're not therapists. We're not
theologians. We're not called to do that,
and I'm not talking superficial life either. I'm just saying,
what did Jesus do when he hung out for four years with those
12 men? Sit quiet, take out your paper. Write this down. No, they didn't
write a thing. They didn't even have notes until they went to
prison. Well, Peter didn't go to prison,
but you know what I'm saying. I mean, John didn't write until
he was exiled. Paul got Timothy and John Mark to come and bring
the papers so they could knock out all these letters we read.
If it weren't for Luke, the doctor, Paul would have died in prison
of starvation. Nobody cared about Paul. They didn't feed you. There
weren't civil rights in the first century. You went to jail to
die, and if your family and loved ones didn't come and bring you
food four times a day and clothes and medicine, you died. Well,
the guy, something's wrong. His head's falling off. Well,
his daddy didn't show up today. Throw him out in the pile. I
mean, this is horrible, but this is life. I'm going to go to Spain. Did
Paul ever make it to Spain? The answer is no. That was his
plan, but God never let him get there. Why? Because when they
said, we don't really have a case for you, he says, well, I'm appealing
to Caesar. Well, you're free to go. Nope,
I want a trial. Why? Because the Spirit of God
put it in Paul's heart to stay in prison three and a half years
until he could get before Caesar so that he could tell Caesar
about what Jesus Christ, the God of heaven and the human flesh,
had been killed and then raised to life and then came to meet
him on the road to Damascus and changed his outlook on everything. And
that though you, Caesar, think you're Lord, you're not. The
real Lord is Jesus, of whom I am the messenger. I mean, was that
a knuckle-headed move or not? I don't know anybody on the pastoral
counseling desk that would say that Paul wasn't an idiot. But
why did he do that? Because he loved God's people.
He loved God's people. He did that because God drove
him and pushed him and pulled him for his love because of the
love of the people. And that's not our calling, to
be like Paul. My calling is to be me. And your
calling is to be who you are. Right now, where you are in life
is where God has called you to be. Don't believe me? Romans 12.
Renew your mind, meditate on these things, understand then
when you do these things, when you meditate on the Word of God,
which is what we're doing today through the life of Paul with
pretexts that speak very loudly to us, we're renewing our mind
on the reality of the love of God that casts away all fear. Paul didn't make it to Spain
and he never made it back to Rome as a minister. Oh my gosh. And yet, I rejoice all the more
in my sufferings, is what he says, because in my weakness
he is strong. What is wrong with you, Paul? I just love you so much. I'd
do anything. I know where the love songs come
from. I'd climb the highest mountain, I'd swim the deepest sea, that
garbage. Paul did. But Jesus Christ climbed the
highest place and fell from the highest place.
From glory to earth, from the ground to the cross, to the cross
to the grave. There's a song about that too, isn't there?
And from the grave to the sky, Lord, I lift your name up high.
Yeah, you got it. Never get away from songs. Romans 1. First, I thank my God
through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is
proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness. And this
isn't gone with the wind. Whom I serve with my spirit in
the gospel of his son, that without ceasing, I mention you always
in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will, that I may now
at last succeed in coming to you. I mean, if you were Paul and
you were in prison, wouldn't the first thing you want to do
is just get out for a minute? Man, I'm out for a minute. I've
got to get at least a staycay, you know? I've got to stay here
and vacation a little bit. Let me just get a little bit
of time for myself. That's what we look for every single day. And depending on our nervous
system, depending on our fear level, it may or may not be enough. But Paul got out of prison so
he could run to God's people and do that which God had equipped
him to do. And until then, he just labored
over them. Philippians 1 verse 7, it is
right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold
you in my heart. For you are all partakers with
me of grace, both in my imprisonment and the defense and the confirmation
of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for all
of you with the affection of Christ." Now, see, Paul's putting
God on the table here, isn't he? God is my witness. How do we know you're telling
the truth? God is my witness. I mean, no, I did not do that
crime. Well, who's your witness? God.
Well, I guess it's over then, case dismissed. I mean, that's
bold, that's a bold swear. And Paul only did it about two
things. He took that bold swear, God
is my witness that Christ called me, no man did. So you can say
that I'm not a messenger of God as an apostle, but I know what
Christ did and he called me. And I'm the outlier and the exception. And then the only other time
is for the love of God's people. He does not lie. And that's the same place we
see in Philippians, you know, for I can endure all things in Christ
who strengthens me. He's talking about not taking
their money. No, no, no, no, no. You keep
it. You've done more than enough. You are enough for me. Keep it. 2 Corinthians 11. And apart from
other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety
for all the churches. Parents, we know what that's
like. No matter what stage you're in as a parent, you know what
it's like to have anxiety for your kids. And we all deal with anxiety
differently. And even though we think sometimes
we can turn it off or we can just like do something The internal
stress of that is always there. And Paul had that for God's people. He asked the question, who is
weak? Who's weak? Am I not weak? It's okay to not
be okay. Being a Christian and being a
pastor and being a leader and being a parent and being a boss
is not about being okay. It's about being still when you're
not okay. Who's weak, Paul asked. Am I
not weak? Who's made to fall? And I am not indignant. And this is honesty. This is
authenticity. Two Sundays ago. Three Sundays
ago. Living an authentic life is being
honest. Being open. That's integrity. Speaking the truth in love is
calculated in that context. I can trust you. But you know what you can't trust?
The American church culture. You can't trust it because love
doesn't cast away fear. The posturing of love that's
not biblical causes more of it. I just love you to death. I want
to talk to you about something, OK? Until March of this year, every
time someone called me or messaged me about having a meeting without
telling me what was going on, how you want to get together
on this, or you want to get together about that, I became fearful. It was a stress response. It
was early in the days of ministry when I was just excited about
life and sacrificing every good thing for nonsense that I thought
was biblical. trusting people who have brought
me into these circles with my family, and doing everything that I could
to just enjoy loving others and leading them to the understanding
of this hope and freedom and authenticity that comes from
the gospel. And then you get that, hey, hey, man, what you
up to today? I'm just doing this. I know it's your day off, but
hey, let's come by the church and let's have a conversation.
And you walk in there and everybody's in death robes. The executioner's
got a mask on. What? We finally do a play? This is one act? This is improv? No, you're sitting right there
in the anxious seat, buddy. We heard from somebody who heard,
they heard from somebody heard. That, fill in the blank, what
say ye? What? You know, that kind of
stuff will scare you to death. Or, well, lookie here, somebody
finally decided to get spiritual and come back to church after
six weeks. You ever been there? You ever miss church so much
that you feel like you can't come back because there is the
one person? 900 people ain't gonna look at
you at all, but that one person, they're gonna be 500 feet away
and you're gonna walk in the back door and they're gonna go, good to see you. She finally
showed back up, Paul. You see? And then that causes,
you're like, I don't want to go back in there. I don't want
to drive by the building. Phone rings, they're fixing to
give you a million dollars they just inherited. Ghost. Well,
I try to give them the money, but, because you're mean, man.
You're always being ugly. It's what we do. It's what the
church has become. It's not like, Paul, I'm a mess.
You're a mess. We're all a mess. Hallelujah.
Love the Lord Jesus. What can I do for you? I can't
do that because my leg got cut off, but what else? First Thessalonians. If you move
back up to like chapter, verse seven, seven and eight, what
does it say there? I just read it. We came to you as an example.
We were gentle. No, that's chapter two, yeah.
Chapter two, verse seven. We were gentle among you, like
a nursing mother taking care of her own children. I mean, when's the last time
you felt like that amongst God's people? Like a nursing child
being taken care of by your mother. Something I'll never know except
as an observer. That's who we are. That's who
we should be. My little children, for whom
I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed
in you. Galatians 4.19. 1 Corinthians
16, that crazy church. Let all that you do be done in
love. For I wrote you out of much affliction
and anguish of heart, and with many tears, not to cause you
pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for
you. Ephesians 3, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may have
strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth
and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love
of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all
the fullness of God. Paul writes, and I've derived
much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because of
the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. I want you to know how great
a struggle I have for you and for those in Laodicea and for
all who have not seen me in person, that their hearts may be encouraged,
being knit together in love to reach all the riches of the full
assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery,
which is Christ. And I've got too much, I've got
like 15 or 20 more passages I want to read. There's some things we've learned
as a church in the last almost 12 years. And I had some of these things
written down. It got to be absurd. We've learned
that in the beginning days, there's always going to be some excitement,
right? There's always going to be some excitement about something.
That excitement wanes. It's always going to be people
that come in and disrupt love. There's always going to be people
that leave that did love and that we love. But we're learning that God has
established the purposes for himself, for us and for our joy.
So we are not on the hook to get all this right. But we are
on the hook to love. And as Paul would tell the Thessalonians,
you are so loving that the world is talking about you. The good news, news. But there's something I need
you to do, Thessalonians. I need you to listen very carefully.
With all the love of Christ I have for you, I need you to love more. That's the teaching. And in doing so, and apprehending
with all the saints the love of God, fear is cast away. That means it doesn't take hold. It doesn't move in. It's there.
It comes by to visit. It's back and forth. It might
be in the same hour or the same day or the same week. It may
come at the same time every few days. It may come under the same
circumstances, stress, fear, anxiety, worry, doubt, but love
is bigger. Beloved, there's one thing that
we've learned to do as a church is love, but there's one thing
that we have not learned to do at all, and that's love. We've got to continue to learn
to do it. We've got to learn to love ourselves in Christ. We've got to learn to love our
spouses and children and neighbors. We've got to learn to love each
other as we are equipped. Not as the world tells us, not
as the church culture tells us, but as the Word tells us. Not
just in Word, yes in Word, but not just in Word, but also indeed in prayer. in presence. Be present. That was every time
Paul talked, right? I just want to be there. I want
to be with you. I want to be close. I want to
know you. I want to see your face. I want to know you're okay. I
want to experience what you're, I want to hear the stories about
how your kids are doing. Whatever it was at Paul. Beloved, I want to love you like
that. I want you to love each other
like that as God has equipped you. Because God has loved us
like that. His son is our righteousness.
He just didn't come to provide an opportunity for us to get
things right and to choose the right way. Jesus is the right
way, and He's pulled us into Himself because the Father has
given us to Him. This is what it means to have
the good story. And so we're to work out our
salvation in fear and trembling. What does that mean? It's not
a command to fear and tremble. It's the statement of fact that
we're going to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, being
uncertain of all things. But what? What does Paul say?
Trusting in Him who is faithful. That's the command we trust.
That's the working there. That's the ongoing action. Trusting
in Him who is faithful. Christ is faithful. He gave Himself.
He gave His body. He died. He came that we may
have life and have it abundant. Beloved, the church needs to
live an abundant life right now by faith in the love of God. And that's going to change for
you and for me. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord,
for the word as richly as it has been for me. I pray that
it has been rich for all of us. Lord, I'd be a fool to think
that these things are just going to transform overnight. Father, we do thank you for these
small reprieves. I thank you for the uneasiness
that comes in my own heart and my own body when I think about
this stuff and how it makes me uncomfortable. To contemplate
my fears and my love. And getting it right and trusting
and resting in the one who is right. Because, Father, I know that
you're with us. I know that you're with us. So Lord, help us to
not exempt the spiritual side of our being and to become so
practical that we forget to live. And at the same time, don't let
us wallow in the poetry of our minds without standing up and
getting some things done. Keep us in check, Father, with
our relationships with each other. Help us to communicate openly
and lovingly and state the truth and speak our needs, speak our
fears, speak our love. For as we've had this time today,
we see your love, we know your love, we are reminded of your
love. And Father, let us take together this table to remember
it. In Jesus' name.