The Marks of a Good Leader: Encouragement

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  The Marks of a Good Leader: Encouragement

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  It's a joy and an honor to get to preach God's Word anywhere, whether it's here in Hickory or overseas. Um, it's the highest privilege. And, uh, part of that is at the heart of a pastor's greatest joy is a singular element that you preach for. And that is, you preach to see the Word of God at work in your people. That...really what is the greatest joy in a pastor's life is, um, not just the act of preaching and maybe seeing how people respond in the moment, watching, looking out and seeing that you are awake and not asleep, but more so Bible open, interested and learning of the Word of God. But really it's in the aftermath. It's in the reports that you hear of people's lives being changed, of transformed lives by the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then the teaching that comes from his Word. All of that put together really is at the heart of what brings a preacher the greatest joy in his work...is in knowing that the Word of God has been at work. We hear that in Paul's words throughout his epistles. Maybe, no more clearly when he talks about in Philippians 1, that though it would be far better to go and be with Jesus Christ, and nobody would argue with that. If to live is Christ, then to die is gain. And he says, I'd like, look, if I could go and be with the Lord, I would. But there's something that's a rival to that down here. And it's not saying it's better, but if there's anything that's keeping me around, that's keeping me going, that's keeping me content, that's keeping me satisfied down here, he says in Philippians 1:25, it's that that I continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith. And that's the heart of a preacher of a pastor is to say, hey, uh, if I believe what I'm teaching and Christ is everything, and he is the treasure in a field that's worth selling everything I have to get him. Well, then of course I want to go and be with him. Otherwise, do we really believe how great he is? But he says, you know what keeps me here? Why I'm okay?...is because when I see someone else coming to know Jesus Christ and then seeing their progress in the faith, their growth in the faith and their joy in the faith. I'm good. I'll stick around a while, because that's the heart of the pastor is to see his people grow in Christ. You hear it in, 3 John 4 when he writes, I have no greater joy than this to hear of my children walking in the truth. We actually got to see a picture of that this morning in the first service, uh, with one of our elders, Chris Peterson, getting to baptize his son, Judah. I mean, right there in front of our eyes this morning. There's no greater joy in Chris Peterson's life than get to baptize his own son, to see Christ save him, and then set him apart and grow him the faith and want to commit his life to following him and make that known publicly. The only thing Chris needed help with that you missed was getting Judah out of the water. He's a solid dude. Unfortunately for Chris, he's getting older and he still has two more boys that are just as big as Judah. And so we're going to put the elders on a weightlifting plan. Um, you know, because, uh, you know, you got to have some muscle to get some of these people in and out of the water. And so, uh, elders that aspire, uh, we're going to get you in the weight room, bench pressing and just testing you physically there to go along with the doctrine. But it really is our joy is bound up in the joy of our people. I say it another way. It's bound up in our people, walking in the truth, being sanctified. I mean, I'd not have much satisfaction, if I just thought we're just plateaued. You know. Let's come in. Do the same things. Say the same things. And check attendance, check giving and check out. There's no satisfaction in that. The joy comes when you see your people walking in the truth. Seeing spiritual growth in their lives. And that's really what chapter one was about when we talk about this series. If you're new here and you've just started coming, we started in January in this letter because we wanted to imitate this church. Thessalonica was a good church. When you read this letter, there is so much commendation. Uh, even you hear the phrase excel still more. And so we said, hey, if we want to be like this church, how did it come to be. In chapter one recap was, uh, the marks of a good church that if you want to be a good church, read chapter one and see the marks of what was happening there. And we said there were four of them. We saw that a good church starts by the grace of God. Number one, God's grace. Number two, that leads to being thankful or having gratitude to God for that work. And we saw that in verses three and four, that Paul comes right out of the gates and says how thankful he is, uh, for God's work in these people. So the grace of God leads to gratitude in God's people for the gospel of God, which we talked about in verse five and really runs through verse ten. How do you have a true work of God's grace in a church? You have the gospel being preached. You have people hearing the gospel, and then the last "G" spiritual growth. And that's what he talked about when he said, you became imitators of us, and the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you. And we've heard reports from places we haven't even been to yet of your faith that it's making a difference. And so if you missed it or you forgot about it, it's been a few weeks. That was chapter one. Paul talking about the church and saying you are a good church by the grace of God. I'm thankful for it. I see the gospel at work growing you into his Christ likeness. Here's the issue though. When you turn to chapter two, you understand that Paul has to now defend himself by way of the things he is refuting. That he is being accused, and we learn this back in Acts 17:1-9, when Paul came with the Gospel to Thessalonica, verses 1 to 4, it was a great reception, as in the people heard the word preached, and it says some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God fearing Greeks and a number of leading women. And right after that, verse five, the Jews became jealous and formed a mob and ran them out of town. So this church was born amidst affliction, persecution, opposition. And it wasn't that they could leave well enough alone by getting Paul and Silas and Timothy out of town, the enemies of the gospel and the enemies of Paul. And that's what enemies of gospel will do. They can't stop the message, so they try to stop the messenger. And so Paul has to defend himself in chapter two. They were trying to undermine the credibility of the gospel of Jesus Christ, by what?...attacking the integrity of the preacher. And you get that...you've seen it. Maybe you've experienced it. That you brought the gospel to people, and some other people were offended by that. And, they can't mess with the gospel itself. It's God's word, but they can look for things in your life to attack. And that's what Paul was experiencing. So chapter two, we moved from talking about the marks of a good church in chapter one to the marks of a good leader in chapter two, and we saw in verses one through 12 that the mark of a good leader, preacher, pastor, person in the pew. It's the same for all of us. It's that you're an example. That people can look at your life and say, that matches up with what?...1 Timothy 4:16, your doctrine. And you're to watch both of those closely...for your salvation and the salvation of your hearers. We call them the twin tracks of the Christian life. How does the train move down the track? You got to watch your life and you got to watch your doctrine. And we can watch our doctrine. We can be precise. But we can sometimes give ourselves a pass on our lives. And Paul, the only way he could defend himself when he was being attacked by these enemies is four times in those first 12 verses in chapter two he says, you know, you know, you know, you know. Whatever they said...they said, but you know what you saw and your eyes didn't lie. You saw the example, I was amongst you. You saw how I taught you courageously. How I led you boldly. Loved you like a mother. And instructed you like a father. And you are who you are today by the grace of God. And by the effort of the disciples who were there. And that's what brings us to our section today, 13 to 20. And what we'll see in this section is the marks of a good leader by way of encouragement. He defended himself and his example in 1-12 in chapter two and now in 13 to 20. He understands that even though he's gone, these people are suffering. They're afflicted. They're being led to believe things about him that aren't true. And they need encouraged. And a good leader encourages his people. And we'll see that in three ways this morning. Paul's encouragements. He'll encourage them in the Word. He'll encourage them in their suffering, and he'll encourage them in their waiting. So let's read together and then we'll jump into the first point being encouraged in the Word. 
Chapter two, verse 13. "For this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. For you brethren became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved, with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost. But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while in person, not in spirit, where all the more eager, with great desire to see your face. For we wanted to come to you I, Paul, more than once, and yet Satan hindered us. For who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy." That's powerful. May it be of us this morning that we hear and receive and accept not the word of men, but the Word of God as it really is. 
Point number one, it's not about my word. It's about God's Word. Paul is a good leader, and he's going to encourage them. And the first way he encourages them to say, listen. Whatever you remember of me and my words it's really not about what I said. It's about what God says. And that's what starts him down the path of encouragement. He gets them back to the foundation of their faith. He gets them back to the root of their faith before he talks about the fruit of their faith. When you're in some kind of turmoil, when things seem flipped upside down, when you're being persecuted for your faith, when you're suffering for Jesus Christ and you don't know which way is up. You need somebody to come alongside you and say, hey, listen, what got you to where you are? You didn't get yourself into this thing. You didn't just follow somebody's bad ideas. Some man's mere opinions. You're not crazy in this crazy world. People telling you you've believed some fairy tale or follow the science or whatever the buzzword is. What did you believe that has brought upon you the circumstances you're in and suffering for the name of Jesus Christ? He tells you in verse 13. He says to this afflicted church. Listen. Looking back quickly to verses 11 and 12, we came. We exhorted. We encouraged. We implored you. Why? So that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his kingdom and glory. And now maybe you're worried a little bit. You're afflicted, you're suffering. Maybe you're wondering, was it worth it? Did anything real happen? So in verse 13, he said, hey, for all those reasons, we preach to you, we taught you, we encouraged you so you would walk worthy of the God who called you. Now we can thank God. Because you're so awesome? And powerful?, and you found that strength within you to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps? No, that's not how it happened. We thank God that when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men for what it really is. You accepted it as the Word of God, and that's how it did its work. That's why you're still standing. That's why you have any faith to begin with. Because it wasn't ever about Paul or Silas or Timothy, no matter how impressive we were as orators. Because in that day and time, yeah, there were a lot of false teachers. I mean, the Jews who were persecuting Paul, Silas and Timothy and trying to cause doubts. They weren't entirely wrong that a new guy could roll into town with some new message. And if he was eloquent enough, if he had wisdom in his speech, if he sounded like the Greeks, the sophists, those who could impress you with their words. 1 Corinthians 1 and 2 come to mind, don't they? This was the world Paul entered into. And he's saying, you know what? It wasn't about the things I was saying. It wasn't about the words of men. That's what they're trying to lead you to believe. But your faith doesn't rest on the words of men. It rests on the power of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Paul says that I was with you in chapter 1 Corinthians 2. He was talking to the church at Corinth, same type of city, same type of melting pot of false religions. And he says, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom. Well, what were they then? I mean, if you weren't that impressive as a speaker, what did people buy into? He says, my words were in a demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Some of you need to hear that this morning. Younger generation, man, you can find some impressive speakers on YouTube. I mean, they're the ones getting the views. They're the ones that are going to pop up in your feed. Are you being persuaded by their fine sounding words that they craft together that makes you go, oh yeah, that sounded good. Is it the Word of God, or is it the word of men? You ever stop and ask that question? Am I really buying into God's Word here...God's truth here? Am I just buying the latest thing being sold?...in the day and age. Is it just flattering me as Paul had to defend against back in chapter 2 where he says, I didn't come with flattering speech, which is just for a false teacher, a pretext for greed. God's my witness. I wasn't looking for glory from you. The only one I care about is the opinion of God. That's who sets me apart and puts me into this ministry. So he says, what does your faith rest on? It rests on the Word of God. Now he breaks it down in verse 13 in kind of three ways by way of the phrases. And actually, it's where the Protestant Reformation, some of the reformers back in the 1500s when they tried to answer the question, what is saving faith. When somebody comes to faith in Jesus Christ, what's it composed of? What's happening? Well, they came up with three words in Latin, notitia, census and fiducia as in...you have to know it, you have to agree to it and you have to trust it. And there's your Latin lesson for today. But it's no good if it's just merely the words of men. I mean, just because some really smart guys 500 years ago came up with it and we're still teaching it doesn't mean it's true. Does it square with God's Word? It's in verse 13. Did you see it? First to know...to understand. He says that when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us...first step of saving faith, you got to hear it and you got to comprehend what you're hearing. That faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the Word of Christ. How will they believe if they haven't heard? Paul asks in Romans 10:14. So the first step of saving faith is what's the content you're hearing? Am I hearing about the person and work of Jesus Christ that alone has the power to save? That's the first step of saving faith. One of the gentlemen that got baptized in first service. He was testifying. Hey, look, man, I was raised in the church. I got sprinkled as an infant. My parents took me to church my whole life. I married a Christian girl, and when we got married, she looked at me and she said, hey, I need you to commit to one thing. You're going to raise our kids to know Christ...to be in Christ. And he just testified up here. He said, yeah, I said yesterday I had no idea what she was talking about. This is a guy that was in church his whole life. Check boxes probably got catechized. Had no idea what it even meant to say...you're going to raise our kids to be in Christ. That's step one. I mean, you got to at least know and comprehend what you're hearing. You got to know who Jesus is...Son of God. Truly God, truly man, sent from heaven. Sent from heaven to do what? What did he do? He came with a message...repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Why could he say that? Because he was from heaven. He didn't have a message from Earth. He had a message from heaven. And he proved it by his works. He backed up his words with his works. He had the power that only God had. But yet his mission wasn't just to come down and impress people with his power. His mission was to seek and save the lost. He was on a mission to die, and he had to tell the disciples that, and it caused some to walk away. It caused some to say, hey, no, I'm not going to let you die. And he said, that's, that's out. I'm here to give my life as a ransom for many. And he did when he went to the cross, suffered the shame, took the punishment that we deserve from God his wrath on him. All of it paid for. Predicted he was going to die and come back again three days later. And he did it. Raised for our justification. That's the person of Jesus Christ and his work. You got to know that to be saved. To know anything less than that means you don't understand really what you say, you know, and that can't save you. So why, even in children's ministry here, from the youngest age, what are we teaching the kids? We're teaching them the gospel. We're making it so they can understand it. Because they got to know it to be saved by it. Paul says you received it as you heard it from us. Second. First is notitia to know. Second is census. You accept it, you agree to it. What are you agreeing to? It's not just man's words, but what is it really? It's the Word of God. Which is another way to say it's the truth. It's the only truth. It's absolute truth. In today's vernacular, it's not your truth. Your truth is code for your opinion. Some of you have been raised to think your truth is the truth. And the culture today has brainwashed this generation to equate how they feel with what is true. And that's absolutely not the truth. But you know what? It plays well to what?...our pride. How we feel...that's going to determine what I decide to do. And then to justify my actions all I have to say is I'm speaking my truth. Well, that's relative. It means nothing. It'll save nothing. It'll do nothing except maybe make you feel good for a little bit. And he's saying, look, this is how you separate it out. You have the Word of God and you have everything else. And if you haven't been able to figure that out, you haven't taken that second step. Not just hearing the Word, but agreeing to the claim of God's authoritative truth. Now, in Paul's day, he even looked back to Acts 17. What was it that was getting them in trouble? What was it was causing the Jews to form a mob in the city and run them out? Well, it was the collision of two truths, two competing truths. Verse 7, they said, there's another king beside Caesar. The Christians were going around teaching that Jesus is Lord. The Greeks were going around teaching Caesar is Lord. Which is true? It's a collision of worldviews, isn't it? And that's what collides in front of you today. You either agree and believe that Jesus is Lord, or there's some other competing truth in your life. What is it? Is it God's Word or man's word? Martin Luther says this about God's Word versus human opinions. We must make a great difference between God's Word and man's word. Man's word is a little sound that flies into the air and vanishes. But the Word of God is greater than heaven and earth, greater than death and hell, for it is the power of God and endures everlastingly. That's the root of our faith. That we believe that even what is a preacher then? A preacher is an earthly messenger with what?...a heavenly message. What's he doing? He's proclaiming God's divine agenda over everything through human agency. So that's all I'm doing. I'm a mouthpiece. I have no authority. But when you sit under the Word of God and you feel the conviction of it on you, what's happening to you in that moment? It's the Spirit of God using the Word of God to convict you as a child of God. This is true. It's one of the ways you know you're a child of God. It's the agreement you have in your inner being when your spirit cries out, yes, that's true. Jesus is Lord. So you agree to it. And then third, and this is the step that I can't help you with. I can make it clear. And I could try to convince you it's true. But I can't do the third thing. What does it say back in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, it performs its work in you who believe. That's fiduciary. That's faith, that's trust. How much faith does it take to be saved? Faith of a mustard seed. Because your salvation doesn't rest on the size of your faith, it rests on the object of it. That's why. Why sit around and try to debate? How much faith does it take to be saved? No, how much of a Savior does it take to be saved? That's what it comes down to. That's why you can have faith like a child. That's why we can preach the gospel to young children over there. And some of them, by God's grace, can come to faith, because they don't have to have every answer figured out in this entire book. It takes a lifetime. You got to have enough faith to believe the one thing you absolutely need to know to be saved, and that's to call upon Jesus Christ as Lord. I was thinking about this...I was trying to find ways I was over in Romania teaching these gypsy pastors how to how to teach. And I'm trying to figure out how to teach guys who are learning it in another language than me. And the idea is you try to get the concept across because the words are going to be lost. And so I was trying to come up with an illustration for this saving faith, this to know and to agree and then to trust. And I talked about getting on that airplane. You know, the first thing I just have to know is like, where's the plane going? Right? Like, when do I have to show up at the airport? I got to know that. Uh, where's it leaving out of Charlotte. Touching down in Heathrow, ending up in Bucharest. And you could try to find out more things. You could try to know more about this thing. You could study it all you want. At some point, I had to agree to what was there and say, okay, I agree that this plane is going to get me from here to there. But it didn't mean anything until I did what? Got on the plane, sat down. That's faith, friends, because I'm sitting there with the notitia and the census going...why does it look like, um, there's like a crack in the wall here. Somebody's going to fix this? And then you look out the window and you're looking at all those, uh, rivets and screws on the airplane, and you're like, I didn't see anybody go out and check all them. Do I need to look under the hood and understand how that engine works? So I'm texting my buddy Casey here, who's a pilot, and then he describes the great engine, and I have no idea what he's talking about. So I just always respond, cool. What? That's a big bird I'm in. You know, because that's the code language. It's a big bird. What really does it for me...the faith that it takes for me to fly. I'm always praying, God, you're in charge of this flight. So, um, I'm either getting to where I'm going or I'm meeting you. Let's try to simplify it. It's my two options when I'm 30,000ft in the air over the Atlantic Ocean. What are your options? But the thing that gets me on the plane, I mean, one, is the object of my faith, the plane itself, but the pilot. I mean, if that guy's getting on this thing, then I can get on it. And I don't check his credentials. I mean, he may not even know what he's doing. He just slept at a Holiday Inn or whatever it is. But if I see the guy sitting up there about to fly and I go, well, if he's confident enough to get this thing up in the air, then I'm going to sit down, too. It's the object of my faith. It's not that I know every single thing about the airplane to get on it, to go across the ocean. So for some of you sitting here today, where are you at? Where are you at? It's okay if you're at step one. It's the first time you've heard the gospel preached. You haven't heard about Jesus before, or you heard a different version. You know, people trying to preach a different Christ. You know, it's amazing what happens when I actually learn about Christ from the Bible. Yeah. It is. Maybe you're at step one and you have more questions about the content. That's okay. We got classes here. We'll meet you during the week. You email us, we'll sit down and have a lunch. Answer every question you got. A lot of you may be in step two, which is do I agree with it? Does it collide with the worldview that I already have, or do I think that all truth what?...comes back to me. One of my friends here, we, um, sometimes, uh, I'll find a stupid saying on, um, a tea bag that I have. Yogi...they always put those inspirational sayings, and I didn't get to text them this morning, but it said your strength is your own knowledge. And I said, ha, no it's not. I mean, like my own, but if my knowledge is about who?...then I've got some strength. But it's outside of me. And that's where some of you are today. You got to say, hey, is what I know and agree to God's truth, or is it my own? And that's the collision that's happening right now. And the spirit of the age has confused what you say is feeling with facts. Your truth is trying to claim an authority that you don't have. You got to submit yourself and humble yourself before the Word of God. And take it at its word. And it said no clearer in all of Scripture than to say, you take it for what it really is, the Word of God. Which means it's true, it's perfect, it's powerful, and it can change your life. So where does that leave you then? Step three. That's where it leaves most people. It's no longer a question of content. It's a question of the cost. Do I submit my life or as the young lady said this morning...Do I surrender my life not to a set of propositional truths. I surrender my life to a person. I believe the truths of what it says about Jesus. How do I know who he is and what he did without those truths? But did you notice what she said? I had to turn from what?...trusting in me to trusting in Christ. That's saving faith. That you believe in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who rules and reigns right now. Do you trust him? And even what you just learned about him in the last 30 minutes is enough to be saved, but you have to call upon his name to be saved. It's not enough just to say you heard it. That won't save you alone. It's not enough to even say it's true. Demons believe and shudder. It's, do you take Jesus Christ as he says he is and what he did for you, the sinner. And then it's something else you do about yourself. You acknowledge the sin in your own life. You realize that I've been trying to be my own savior as that girl said this morning, and you turn it over to him and you say, I surrender, I'm done. I'm not Lord...Jesus is Lord. And you can call upon him this morning. So that's the first thing a good leader does. He takes you back to the roots of your faith in order to talk about the fruits of your faith, which is the next section. 
Paul moves in verse 13 talking about the foundation, the most important thing, the thing to spend the most amount of time on, which is the power of the Word of God that performs its work in you who believe. So what work should you expect to see? Well, 14 to 16 Paul says it's not really about your life. It's about Jesus's life, and the work that you're going to see is that you're willing to endure suffering for him. Rather than think, oh, look what this cost me, and look what I'm losing. He's saying, look what you gained. You have Christ. You may be losing everything else, but a good leader encourages and says, if you just keep your eyes on yourself, that's going to get you nowhere. Let me just ask you to look up real quick in verse 14. Listen, you're not going through anything nobody else has been through. He says, you're just like the churches of God in Christ Jesus. So true Christians, because a true Christian is a what? A person who's found in Christ Jesus, a child of God, but he calls them to look at the churches and the example of the churches in Judea. What's he referring to there? Well, he's saying that first group of believers, those first disciples right after Jesus died, what happened to them? They were either already killed or they had to. What? They had to run. They had to go. And he's saying you're enduring the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews. This isn't some idea of anti-Semitism in Paul. No, he's saying your own countrymen. He's talking to Gentiles. What he's trying to encourage them with is, look your own tribe, your own people, your own family. The moment you have a new allegiance to a new Lord, what's going to happen? They're going to turn on you. Why does he say that? Well, verse 15, they killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and they drove us out. So he's remembering Jesus words back in Matthew 23 is probably the clearest picture of Jesus looking back, present and forward. Matthew 23, He's calling out the Pharisees and he's pronouncing judgment on them. Starting in verse 29 when he says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees...Matthew 23. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets and endure the monuments of the righteous. So these guys, in Jesus own day, were acting like they were the pious and holy ones. And hey, we really love prophets and preachers of God. And he goes, really? Really? You know, when you're doing that, you're just like your fathers. You say that you wouldn't have been with them and shedding the blood of the prophets, but because you're rejecting me, you're showing me you're just like them. You testify against yourselves. You are sons of those who murdered the prophets because they spoke of me. And you're rejecting me. You don't get it. They didn't get it. You don't get it. And then what does he go on to say? Behold, verse 34, I'm sending you prophets and wise men and scribes. That's who Paul talking about now, 20 years later. The people that Christ says, and I'm going to go back to heaven, and I'm going to send more, and you're going to do the same things to them, because you're doing what?...you're filling up the measure of the guilt of your fathers. Some of them, you'll kill and crucify. Some of them you'll scourge in your synagogues. You'll persecute them from city to city. Back over to 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16. He's saying, listen, guys, if I can encourage you who are suffering for the name of Jesus Christ, you're not going through anything that prophets of old went through, that Jesus went through, and that followers of Christ right now are going through and are always going to go through because of what Jesus said in John 15:18. If they hated me, they will hate you, okay? That's the cost of following Christ. And there's no change in that. He said it. It's the Word of God. It's going to happen. It's happened then. It's going to happen now. What else do you expect them to do? If they hated him, they're going to hate you. That's just how this goes. And how does that encourage people? Well, it encourages people that you're part of something bigger than yourself. Is, you know, the way you get rejected by a friend when you try to share the gospel with them, or, you know, when he's talking about your own countrymen will turn on you. He's saying your tribe. That's what the word meant. Your tribe of people, the people you thought were close to you, the buddies you had, the players on the team with you, the guys that you, you know, blood, sweat and tears with the people you worked with, your own family. You think all these people are with you until what?...you say, no, I'm not going to go do that with you. Why? Because I follow Christ. Really?...I mean, that's I mean, that's lightweight, though. They mock you a little bit, but the people that are actually out to ruin now, your reputation to tear you down, to call you out, because they hate Christ. And how do they want to stop his message? They stop you. I mean, that's what he says, Verse 16. What are they really doing? They're trying to hinder us from speaking to the Gentiles so that nobody else will get saved. Somebody like this. And you think they're getting away with it. That's kind of what he's trying to help them with in verse 16. You think they're getting away with it? No. They are filling up the measure of their sins. What's that mean? That they're doing the worst thing they could possibly do. They're not only rejecting me...Jesus Christ is the Messiah. But they're trying to stop other people from accepting him. There's no greater judgment than that. They're filling up the measure of their sins. This goes beyond the lifestyle. This goes beyond the things that they do that break the law of God. This is them trying to what?...lead people astray. What did Jesus say to people like that in Matthew 18? You try to lead one of these little ones astray. It's better I put a millstone on your neck and throw you in what?...the deepest sea. It's the worst judgment you could have. That's what Paul is saying to these Jews and Gentiles, whoever it was in this time that was trying to stop Paul, stop the message, stop the Thessalonians, the measure of their sins will be filled up. And look what he says there...and wrath has come upon them to the utmost. Paul knows something that they don't know. I mean, clearly these people are still alive. So what wrath could he be talking about? God's wrath of judgment that abides on any who reject the Messiah. But this particular group of people, he's saying it's already come, but they're still alive. Basically saying about these people, they got no chance then. That's how far gone they are. Now, Paul, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, can make a judgment like that. You can't. I can't. Because if I go around trying to judge people, even people that oppose the gospel, people that might oppose me, I don't know if they still have a chance. Look at the look at Saul. Before God saved him, he was doing the same thing. So he could say under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, hey, the wrath has come upon them to the utmost. And that phrase, even in and of itself, is a bit broad. It's blunt, but it's broad in a way that we don't want to push too hard on it. We would just say it's not for us to look at some false teachers, some critics, some opponent of the gospel, somebody that hates you because you love Christ and say, yeah, they're far gone...there's no chance for them. You don't have that insight. But what you do have is the opportunity to, when you are reviled, not revile in return, and make them think twice. That no matter how hard they try to stop you, they can't. Not just stop you from preaching the gospel, but stop you from loving them. How powerful of a testimony is that? And how do you know? Maybe that's the thing that causes them to change. So we have the gospel message that we can bring, but that's when we zoom out of our own life and say, we're part of something bigger than ourselves. That's the second encouragement a good leader does. He says, listen, you're suffering for Christ. It's not about you, it's about him. And Christ is glorified in you as your heart attitude continues to trust in God despite the opposition. And it's not just your heart attitude, your actions, your speech, the way you love those enemies. That's bringing glory to God, because it's easy to love the people that what?...love you. But the ones that oppose you. And then, to add insult to injury, oppose you trying to do good to other people by spreading the gospel message. And you want to give up on them, and you want to call Imprecatory Psalms down on them and have them perish from the planet. That ain't your right. Because the mission field is never our enemy. They're the mission field. They may be enemies of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but you're still here to reach them. Is there a time you maybe say, hey, I'm throwing pearls before swine here? I feel like I can't go anywhere else with them. Yeah, you can walk away. You can still pray for them. But we don't know what God might have in store for that person's life. So what are you called to do?...love him, lead him to Christ. And be the example of our Lord who suffered. Suffered for the very ones that put him on the cross as they mocked him, spit on him. That he could say, forgive them, Father. They don't know what they're doing. Do you have that same compassion in your heart? When you read, the wrath has come upon them to the utmost. Were you ready to say...Amen? It's sad if you did. Because we have compassion to the sinner. Because but by the grace of God, that'd be us. Doesn't mean we accept their rejection, doesn't mean we just roll over and we're a doormat. It just means that we're not going to fight fire with fire. We're not going to take eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. We're going to what? We're going to be the example of Jesus Christ. And we're going to back it up with the message that we have that there's still hope. And you preach the gospel to him. It's not about your life, it's about Jesus.

  Last encouragement a good leader gives is it's not about my absence, but about Jesus' presence. He says, but we, we're not who they're trying to say we are or they're trying to talk against us. They're trying to make us look bad. But he says, not us. Yeah, we were taken away from you for a short while, and they're making a big deal about that. These enemies of the gospel, they're trying to use that as proof that I don't love you. And he gives some perspective to encourage these afflicted Christians. He says, first, it's just been for a short while. And it had. I mean, by the time he heard a report from Timothy, when he sent Timothy back to check on this baby church, about a year, a year and a half old. You know, he's been away from them for maybe a year. So he's saying, guys, in the bigger scheme of things, it's a short while. And look, we've only been a part in person, face to face, but not in spirit. As in, you're out of my vision, but you're not out of my heart. I haven't forgotten about you. I mean, that's how they were trying to discredit him, saying Paul forgot about you. He hasn't been back. And he's saying, well, that's not actually the case. First, I am eager...with great desire to see your face. I want to be with you. This letter is okay, but I want to get there to see you. Trust me. And so he heaps up these words of passion, great desire, eagerness just to see you. And then he says, look, in 18, we wanted to come to you. And then he gets first person personal...I, Paul more than once. He doesn't do that often in this letter. Most of this letter he's using the collective, we. He's talking about him and Silas and Timothy and saying, we love you. We were around you. We want to see you. But then, however, he is led in this moment in his passion for these people, says I, Paul more than once wanted to come. Yeah, I was taken away. Look at verse 17 back there again. Another way. He tries to help them feel what he's feeling is that word taken away in your NAS isn't the best choice in my opinion. In the ESV it says torn away. Why is that a better choice? Because it's the original Greek word is a word for being orphaned. You know, some being torn away from somebody against your own will. Is there a more torturous image of that than a parent being torn from their child? But you know what's interesting about Paul? He's not from speaking about this pain from the side of the child. He's speaking it from the side of the parent. Chapter two, he says he's their mother who is gentle with them. He was like a father who guided them. So when he has this imagery of being torn away. Parents, could you imagine that pain? How much you love your kid. And how painful it would be to see them torn from you. Because from the side of the kid, you know, depending on their age. Do they know what's going on? But from the parent? Would that not keep you up all night every night, wondering if they're okay? That's what it did to Paul. Would you not wake up every morning and try with all your might to find where they were, and to get them back? I mean, that's what he's trying to get these people to feel. That we were torn from each other. You were orphaned. You're this baby church. And I love you. And I would do anything to have you back. That's how much I care about you. Why couldn't he? Well, he explains why in verse 18, Satan hindered us. I know some of you want to get out, like your Spiritual Warfare encyclopedia here and try to catalog this one. And how did Satan hinder? Paul didn't tell us. But what we can recognize is that Paul recognized it. Paul knew how to discern what was the work of Satan opposing him to get back to these people. I mean, he could see maybe from the narrative account in Acts 17:1-9, that it could have been the work of these jealous Jews trying to spread lies, threats. Even when you look back at Acts 17 and it says a deal was made. Um, when they received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them. And maybe that pledge had something to do with it that Jason said. We won't let him back in our house. We promise. Because if we do, you're coming for...whatever it might be. We don't know. We just know Paul had the discernment to know when Satan was trying to what?...hinder or oppose the progress of the gospel. Why do I say oppose the progress of the gospel? Because that word for hindered is a military word in Greek terms. And it was this word for when an opposing army would take that only road, you got to get through with your army, and they would cut a massive ditch across it, and they would just keep tearing that road up. To do what? To stop you from making progress. So that's what Paul, whatever is happening, Paul knows what Satan is doing, I get it. Whatever roadblocks he's throwing up, whatever ruts he's cutting in the road, he's trying to keep us apart. Because if he can keep us apart, he can grow us apart. And if he can grow us apart, your love for me is going to grow cold. My love for you is going to grow cold. You think I'm a phony? I think you're fickle. And the church is done. Because when that sets in in a church lovelessness, bitterness, questioning the person that led you to Christ and cared for you in Christ, and then that person that did it on the opposite end is saying, look at them, fickle. They're turning on me. That church will die within a generation. It says, in the end, the love of many will grow cold. It happens in churches, not for lack of light, but for lack of heat. You can have a doctrinally strong church teaching all the truth you want. But when the people start turning on each other, lacking love for each other, growing bitter at each other, clamoring malice, all the things Ephesians 4:20 to 30, 25 to 30 talk about when they stop forgiving each other. Stop being kind to one another. That church is on a road for what? And it's actually not on the road, is it? It's in the ditch. It's in the Devil's ditch. You want to call it that? Call it the Devil's Ditch, because that's what he does when he hinders the progress of the gospel. He cuts a road right across the one path for that thing to go down and says, hey, you want to be bitter? You want to doubt people's integrity. You want to undermine people. You want to talk about them. You want to gossip about them. You want to slander them. You're in the ditch. You want to see the gospel make progress, you find a new way through. It starts with repentance, starts to going back to that person and saying I was wrong. I read you the wrong way. I believe the wrong thing. I was offended by you. I didn't come to you and make it up. And I've been sitting here with these, harboring these bitter feelings towards you for years. Maybe right today is where...that's where you're at. You're in the ditch. How do you know you're in a ditch?...when your love for the local church has grown cold. You know, when you're the person saying, oh, there's no good churches. I've tried them. Huh? You have?...how many? I'm on church 14. What's the only common denominator? Call it like you see it. You've let your love for the Bride of Christ grow cold. Have you been in that ditch? There's no warmth there. There's no warmth there. And that's maybe you live in there for a while and you think you're all right. But there's no progress there. You know, it's interesting the word for hindered here. It's the root word with a prefix. And the prefix here that talks about the hindrance Satan is doing to stop the gospel making progress. It's actually the same root word I read to you already in Philippians 1:25, when Paul says, for your progress and joy in the faith, it's the same root word for the cut. One is a cut to make a ditch, to stop something from happening. The word in Philippians 1:25 that I'll remain and continue with you for your progress in the faith is actually the opposite of that word. It's a military word, but it's when they would not cut a hole or a ditch across a road to stop an army. It's when that army would start cutting through a forest and cutting down trees to find a new way to get to their destination. You get where I'm going with this? Where's your love for the local church? Where's your love for believers today? Are you allowing those obstacles, those ditches, those holes to be where you're going to camp out because you're mad about how people treated you? Or are you saying, you know what, I had a love for the Lord and love for the church. Like Paul, I'm going to cut a new way through. Thank you. But maybe we live up to that. Amen. Because that's what love for Christ does. It doesn't keep looking around, pointing the finger, blaming everybody else with no accepting of your own responsibility in it. And Paul's saying, I'm not going to be duped. I'm not going to be played. I get what Satan's trying to do here. And he's writing this letter with a heart that's bleeding on the page for these people saying, you've been torn from me even though we're not together. I'm with you in spirit. I'm eager to see you. You're my desire. And then to top it all off, look at how he talks about them in 19 and 20. You would think that when he gets to heaven, he's going to be more excited to see them than he is Jesus himself. Look at his language. Who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation? Is it not even you in the presence? That's what I'm talking about in the time he's going to be with the Lord...in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming, Paul is picturing the day he stands before the Lord. And he's saying, you know what's going to bring me more joy, more exaltation, what's going to be the crown that I have to give back to the Lord? It's you. Now, what he's not saying is I'm going to get to heaven based on how many people I bring with me. Because he's going to get to heaven the same way any of us are getting to heaven by one person. The Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness. That's how we get there, and we will, in his presence and in his glory, be blown away just by him. But what Paul is adding here is that when in the moment of that, and in the rejoicing in that, and in the enjoyment of heaven, and in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will have some sense that we helped the cause. Or will you? I mean, the ultimate cause of anybody making it to heaven is Christ. But when he says, well done, good and faithful servant. He is going to turn to us and say thanks for the help. Or else what Paul is saying here isn't true. It's going to say thanks for the help. You tried. You did something. You gave an effort. You made a sacrifice. You endured. You went back to that person again. You. You sought their forgiveness. You tried to build them up. Whatever it was you did for that person, it helped. So who are you doing it for? You know, we talked a couple of weeks ago about having a list. You know, we talked Jesus had 12. You know, just so we know what target we're aiming at. Maybe new motivation for that list is to not write the 12, write my hope, my joy, my crown. Because that's what people should be to us. Helping other people. What? Come to Christ and then walk in Christ and be ready to meet Christ. Because verse 20, they're are glory and joy. That's the greatest work we'll have to stand before the Lord and show is that we tried. We gave something we're not going to stand around and say, hey, remember that. Remember that auditorium? You know, remember that guitar solo I played? Go down the list. You're going to say, remember the person and you don't have to say, remember the person. The person is going to be there. That you invested in. Is that motivation? Does that help you to look up? Get back to the root of your faith. By God's Word, not man's. Get your eyes off of what's going on in your own life and see you're part of something bigger. Its his life that gives your life the meaning. And then last but not least, hey, it's going to be in the presence of the Lord one day that all the effort is going to be worth it. 
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your Word this morning. It's unbelievable to think that standing in your presence. One day, Father. We'll hear "Well done, good and faithful servant." And. It's not going to be for the work we did to earn our salvation. Christ, you did that. So we're going to hear it for something else. We're going to hear it for how we stewarded every relationship we had. And if we gave something. Even if we didn't think it was much, it was something. So motivate us this morning, Spirit through your word. Put that burden on our heart to reach out to that person today, or to be willing to take that call from the person that we've been avoiding, whatever it might be today that we've been carrying with us that we can't anymore. We don't want to stay in the ditch. Your gospel is too good. Christ, your joy is too great for us to waste our time growing bitter. And wasting more days. So by your strength and power and conviction, help us to do what we ask. Amen.