During my time of convalescence due to carpel tunnel surgery I started reading a book by (Tod Bolsinger Canoeing the Mountains InterVarsity Press). The book is about Christian leadership in today’s culture. He compares the situation of Lewis and Clark on their search for a waterway across the continental US to churches and church leaders today. His point is that Lewis and Clark planned to paddle up the Missouri river, portage across the continental divide and paddle down a river on the other side. That is what they had prepared for but did not find a river but terrible mountains higher than they imagined. In the past church leaders did not worry so much about attendance, people came to church twice each Sunday, no questions asked. We did not worry so much about our young people, we had programs for them and with parental influence they stayed with their church. The church and Christians had a good influence on society, on public education and on the country generally. But no longer, things have changed; people don’t come to church, even Christians, no second service, a case in point, the youth are all over the map as far as what to do on Sunday. We used to put up a sign: “Come and join us for worship”, today, no-one from around the church will join us. We are in a situation now that we could not have imagined twenty years ago. As a result, about 1500 pastors leave the ministry every year, and around 2000 churches close their doors. I am sorry to have to bring you this negative picture, but we all must admit that things have changed. Yet, there is hope because this is the church of Jesus Christ, amen! so, we look to the Word of God for answers. Let’s turn to 1 Thessalonians 2: 1-13 . Read and pray.
The back story to Thessalonica is in Acts 17. Paul is on the Second Missionary Journey with Silas and Timothy. They had just left Philippi where they were beaten and jailed. After release, they went to Thessalonica and preached the gospel to Jews and Greeks and they thanked God for many converts. After only three weeks there they had to flee due to persecution by the Jews. That is why Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church to give them further instruction and to encourage them under persecution. In the book “Canoeing the Mountains” we find this answer for the church of today: “The church must be a community of God’s people that defines itself and organizes its life around its purpose of being an agent of God’s mission to the world. When the church is in mission, it is the true church” P. 10. Paul, in our reading, is teaching us how to do that. God is showing us how we all must be involved in building up our churches. He gives us 7 principles to guide us along that path.
One. “We are approved by God” to be entrusted with the Gospel. Think about that, entrusted with the Gospel, not only Pastors, elders, deacons or missionaries, no, all of us who follow Jesus are approved and trusted with the Gospel! It is not a pastor’s job alone, he is to equip us to lead this church, to be an agent of the gospel here in your town in America and the world. That is all of our jobs, your work is your work, but building up our churches is our job, Amen!
Second, we read: “We were gentle among you” meaning they loved, the second principle to Love is a major command. Paul writes; “we loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well”. Paul is talking about relationships, we all know that relationship with each other, with our neighbors, with our friends, our coworkers and those whom God brings to us is where the rubber hits the road. Amen! A group of people came to us and asked, how do you keep people coming to your church? I answered we love each other. He said: “well, we love each other”, I said “well, maybe you do, I ‘ll give an example, our janitor was arrested for marijuana possession he got a month in the county jail. So many church members visited him that they were glad to be rid of him. When he was released, they released him at twelve midnight. He called me, crying about the love we showed him, I get to keep my position, no other church would love me like that. I said “great! We will keep loving but no more drugs!” When you love you forgive and if you do not do that you condemn, there is no neutral positions for followers of Jesus.
Three. Hard work. Paul writes:” we worked among you day and night”. Evangelism is hard work, I will give you an extreme example from our mission work; my job was to place Evangelists in villages unreached with the gospel that were at least ten miles from an organized church. I was to visit them encourage them make sure they had all they needed to do the job. About half of my people were stationed along a road and I could drive there but many were in the bush so to speak, we had to walk there 7 or 10 miles but a couple of villages were farther away. When I visited Fali we parked the car at the end of the road and started walking, two elders came along and we would hire carriers. It is a nine hour walk, steadily uphill to Fali. Our evangelist wives gave us food but we often brought live chickens for them. We would spend the night and talk with new converts. The next morning, we would head for the village of Sunkaru, five hours across the plateau and down the other side. We would spend the night, have a service the next morning and head back to Fali, spend the night and head home on Monday morning, we spent four days, we had two services and we walked 80 miles. It was hard work but it is no different here in your situation if you get involved in peoples lives you will get calls in the middle of the night to deal with those overwhelmed with life. Your response will be a blessing to you and to that person.
Fourthly, Be an example. Paul writes: “You are witnesses and so is God of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you.” I had carpel tunnel surgery last week and by Saturday we figured out the left hand was infected. We ended up in the ER for intravenous antibiotics, the nurse administering to us was a real talker when he found out I was a minister and that we have been married for 42 years he really started talking, his father had been divorced three times, he him self was divorced and married again. He was from the east coast and he commented on the many people he met around West MI. who were married over 25 yrs. He said he finally figured it out that the spouse has to be more important then you, Yes, you’re right brother, besides the fact that marriage is a covenant with God and your spouse and not just a contract. That was about all I said but when we left he hoped to have more patients like us, all we did was listen. The point is, every action and every word is a sermon when we are in touch with Jesus.
Fifthly. Compassion. Paul writes: “We treated you like a father deals with his children. Encouraging and comforting, urging you to live lives worthy of God.” We got a call one morning from one of our church members that her car was gone, her debit card was gone and her boyfriend was nowhere to be found. We called the bank, her account was cleaned out. We took her to her work and went to look for the guy, we didn’t find him but that night he called and Scott, one of the parishioners and I went to get him. He had to make a choice: his girl and his church or drugs, he chose drugs. But we also faced a choice, our member had no money, it was close to the end of the month she was facing eviction. What good is money in the church account if a person is facing eviction? We paid the rent. We begin by helping not condemnation if we are to show compassion.
Sixth. Be thankful. “We continually give thanks to God for you”. Paul is talking about thanking God in prayer for the new converts. We need to pray daily for the people God places in our path. No matter what the condition is of the person, if you are praying you are moved to compassion and love for that person.
Seventh. Rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul writes; “the Word of God that is indeed at work in you”. The Holy Spirit prepares the way for us. He empowers us, He prays for us. And He prepares all who come onto our path, we are not alone in our job to be an agents of God’s grace. To review.
- Followers of Jesus are approved by God and entrusted with the gospel. 2. The major command is to love and share our lives with those who God brings to us. 3. We work 24/7 in the Kingdom of God. 4. We are to be good examples. 5.We show compassion and encourage. 6. We thank God and pray for each person we meet. 7. We trust the Holy Spirit to lead us. It is up to us, you and me to become agents of God’s grace in our communities. We move forward in the power of the Spirit. Amen! Pray.
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