WEBVTT 00:00:00.440 --> 00:00:07.280 Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day again. We're grateful to be able to 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:12.800 worship you. Lord, you know our hearts. You know the hearts of every person in this room. 00:00:13.540 --> 00:00:19.039 And we ask you, Lord, to look with compassion upon our hearts, but also in your wisdom and 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:26.100 in your kindness to speak from your word the words that we need to hear. Through Jesus Christ we pray. 00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:32.460 Amen. If you have a Bible or if you have an app on your phone, please turn to the New Testament 00:00:32.460 --> 00:00:39.880 reading from 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. But if you do use your phone, please make sure it's quiet. 00:00:40.980 --> 00:00:46.579 Appreciate that. You got plenty of music to listen to in the way back in the background. We even, 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:53.700 you know, you don't need your phone, right? Got that. 1 Thessalonians 2 has long been a go-to 00:00:53.700 --> 00:00:59.460 passage for me in talking with and counseling and encouraging clergy. For four years, I was a 00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:05.240 full-time itinerant missionary traveling between three continents, and at that time also a deeply 00:01:05.240 --> 00:01:12.400 appreciated small investor in United Airlines. And I taught this passage often. But interestingly, 00:01:12.540 --> 00:01:17.060 it sort of disappeared from my thinking when I became an Anglican church planter. And I've only 00:01:17.060 --> 00:01:22.740 just recently rediscovered it in my work as a bishop. But as I dig back into this text, I really have a 00:01:22.739 --> 00:01:28.299 hard time finding a better passage to building a more effective vision for pastoral ministry. 00:01:29.099 --> 00:01:34.919 Just as thorough going. And in that process, what I want all of you to hear is not only what I'm 00:01:34.919 --> 00:01:39.599 going to say to Jeff, but I'm going to want you to hear this through the ears of realizing that your 00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:47.859 true shepherd is Jesus. And whatever we are exhorting Jeff to do from this text, Jesus has already done. 00:01:47.859 --> 00:01:53.640 And he is doing in your life and in my life at all times. So I actually really want you to hear it 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:59.780 that way. I want you to hear that this model of pastoring is simply a reflection of Jesus, and you 00:01:59.780 --> 00:02:05.840 have a relationship with Jesus as your good shepherd. So please hear it and take it very personally as the 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:13.819 receiver of what we are going to read. I want to begin by noting something from chapter 1. Paul writes to 00:02:13.819 --> 00:02:18.819 this church with great joy because he encountered something when he first went to Thessalonica as a 00:02:18.819 --> 00:02:24.599 missionary church planter. And subsequently, he had heard reports that confirmed and even expanded what 00:02:24.599 --> 00:02:31.539 he personally seen when he was there. What he had seen is a great spiritual awakening. Look at verse 3. 00:02:31.599 --> 00:02:37.699 Remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope 00:02:37.699 --> 00:02:44.560 in our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm remembering your faith, hope, and love. For we know, brothers and 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:50.159 sisters, loved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word, 00:02:50.379 --> 00:02:56.500 but in power and in the Holy Spirit. And with full conviction, you know what kind of men we prove to be 00:02:56.500 --> 00:03:05.560 among you for your sake. This church represented a significant spiritual awakening among a group of people 00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:11.400 who had largely been pagan idolaters. There were a few Jews there who had a biblical worldview when 00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:15.599 they began to hear the gospel. But most of the people, as we're going to read a little bit in a 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:23.000 couple more verses, were converts from Greek and Roman mythology and paganism. And of course, more than 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:29.900 anything, the emperor cult that was rampant throughout Rome. And so they were not deeply rooted in a 00:03:29.900 --> 00:03:36.260 biblical worldview. Quite opposite had happened. And so their conversion was a remarkable transformation. 00:03:36.920 --> 00:03:42.680 Look at verse 6. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, and you received the word in much 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:47.780 affliction and with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers 00:03:47.780 --> 00:03:55.560 in Macedonia and Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and 00:03:55.560 --> 00:04:00.319 Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we don't need to tell anybody 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:04.879 to you. Paul is running around the Mediterranean world, and he's hearing about the church in 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:10.659 Thessalonica and what an incredible transformation had happened there. They themselves report concerning 00:04:10.659 --> 00:04:17.279 us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living 00:04:17.279 --> 00:04:23.779 and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead. There is this enormous 00:04:23.779 --> 00:04:28.579 conversion experience and transformation and revival and awakening that happens in Thessalonica. 00:04:29.539 --> 00:04:36.639 And so the question comes with such an effect, what is the adequate cause? You know, there's always 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:42.319 got to be an adequate cause for such an effect. So what is the cause of such an effect? Well, I've already 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:47.239 read it back in verses 4 and 5. If you look at it, it says, God's love was poured out upon them, 00:04:47.240 --> 00:04:54.500 the gospel of Jesus was preached to them, and the Holy Spirit came in power. So it's a Trinitarian 00:04:54.500 --> 00:05:00.720 outpouring, right? The love of God, the gospel of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit. But all of 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:07.900 that was mediated and embodied by missionary pastors of whom Paul says, you know what kind of men we proved 00:05:07.900 --> 00:05:12.960 among you. Now, you usually don't say that unless you can stand behind it. In other words, you can look 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:21.000 and see what kind of people you were. And you know them. It was already there. God's father love, 00:05:21.359 --> 00:05:28.680 and God the Son's message of redemption, and the power of the Holy Spirit came through these men 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:34.719 who were exemplary pastors and preachers. And by the way, that's God's normal methodology of 00:05:34.719 --> 00:05:41.799 transformation. As He takes the Word of God, the love of God, the gospel itself, the power of the Holy 00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:47.699 Spirit mediates it through people into our lives. And that's both the conversion experience and the 00:05:47.699 --> 00:05:54.000 long-term transformation process. And it's amazing to think that He's wrapped up His power of 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:58.879 transformation in the lives of people who communicate. So again, just click on that. Think on 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:05.840 that. Who are the people that have and do communicate God's love and power to you? And thank God for them. 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:11.859 Praise God for them. Acknowledge it. Receive it. Let it soak into you as a gift from God. 00:06:13.239 --> 00:06:19.060 Through what kind of people? Paul says, you know what kind of men we were. And chapter 2 expands that 00:06:19.060 --> 00:06:24.899 phrase, you know what kind of men we were. And he focuses on two broad categories that these good 00:06:24.899 --> 00:06:29.459 young people have read to us today. Thanks, guys, by the way. Really appreciate it. You guys did a great 00:06:29.459 --> 00:06:37.859 job reading. Right? Amen. Amen. Amen. Two broad categories of what kind of men we proved among you, 00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:44.359 character and love. So let's talk about character. That's in the first five or six verses. 00:06:45.019 --> 00:06:49.719 Their character means their allegiance to God and their integrity before God. 00:06:50.519 --> 00:06:54.799 And their allegiance and devotion is in verses 1 through 4. You know what, brothers and sisters, 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:59.379 that our coming to you is not a vain. Though we've been suffered, already suffered and been 00:06:59.379 --> 00:07:04.439 shamefully treated in Philippi, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in 00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:10.699 the midst of much conflict. They came in the midst of opposition and from opposition. And they, 00:07:10.960 --> 00:07:15.379 our appeal, therefore, does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:21.740 because frankly, it would have been beaten out of them. Okay? The purification process of 00:07:21.740 --> 00:07:28.519 persecution had made them even more determined to suffer for the cause of Christ. Eventually, 00:07:28.699 --> 00:07:34.759 in Paul's case, to die a martyr's death. They were wholly devoted to God. They themselves had 00:07:34.759 --> 00:07:41.060 experienced a radical transformation through Jesus. And I want to just stop here and remind you of 00:07:41.060 --> 00:07:44.920 something, one of my favorite passages in Scripture back in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:52.379 Paul talks about his own conversion. He says in chapter 5 that he used to regard Christ according 00:07:52.379 --> 00:07:57.740 to the flesh. That's a little phrase. I used to see Christ through the eyes of my flesh. And do you 00:07:57.740 --> 00:08:02.600 know what that's a reference to? Before he was a Christian, he was a Jew. He would look at the cross. 00:08:02.860 --> 00:08:06.400 He would see Jesus, this man, died on the cross, and his conclusion would have been what? 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:13.980 This man was cursed of God. Therefore, he was to be rejected and opposed with all of his heart. 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:21.980 Because that's the Old Testament. But then, what happened is we regard him thus no longer. 00:08:23.160 --> 00:08:27.000 Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away. The new thing 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:32.899 has come. And he goes on to tell that what he realized by the power of God through the encounter 00:08:32.899 --> 00:08:41.519 he had with the risen Jesus is that, yes, Jesus was cursed on the cross for our sake. And he goes on 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:47.659 in this very passage to say, he who knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness 00:08:47.659 --> 00:08:55.759 of God. And so, what was happening on the cross was the bearing of the curse in our place. 00:08:56.759 --> 00:09:03.519 And the resurrection just completely flipped his eyes of Jesus. He had this incredible encounter 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:09.159 with Christ in this transformation that he saw Christ in a completely different way. And now, 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:16.159 he says this in chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians, for the love of Christ controls us. Having concluded this, 00:09:17.079 --> 00:09:22.100 that one has died for all, therefore have all died. And if he died for all, that those who might live 00:09:22.100 --> 00:09:27.259 should no longer live for themselves, but for him who, for their sake, died and was raised. 00:09:27.259 --> 00:09:34.179 And so, where he scrolls forward, and what I'm trying to get us to in this passage in 1 Thessalonians 00:09:34.179 --> 00:09:40.899 is that Paul was transformed and inspired and literally captivated by the love of Jesus. 00:09:41.899 --> 00:09:47.000 And therefore, he was willing to suffer for the love of Jesus. And he was willing to suffer to 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:53.039 proclaim the love of Jesus. Because behind the cross, he saw this immeasurable love, and that love 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:58.899 drove him. And that love for Christ, and that love for his message, and his mission, and for the people 00:09:58.899 --> 00:10:06.299 that he died for, was purified and honed by the fires of suffering. These pastors and missionaries 00:10:06.299 --> 00:10:12.459 were deeply transformed in their character, because their allegiance and their love for Christ 00:10:12.459 --> 00:10:18.919 was purified through their allegiance to the greatest martyr and witness of all time, 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:26.599 who was Jesus, right? And all this fed into their integrity before God and mankind. Verse 5, 00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:32.819 you know, you know, for we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor were the pretext for 00:10:32.819 --> 00:10:37.120 greed God as witness, nor did we seek glory from people, whether it was from you or from others, 00:10:37.419 --> 00:10:43.079 that we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. Paul says, I was not there for my personal 00:10:43.079 --> 00:10:47.139 needs. I was not using you to meet my needs. I was not using you to meet my financial needs. 00:10:47.139 --> 00:10:52.679 I didn't take greedy money from you. In fact, I worked to provide for myself so that I could give 00:10:52.679 --> 00:10:58.879 you the gospel for free. And he was not there for psychological greed. I'm not there for you to 00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:05.199 make me feel good about me. I'm here to love you for the sake of Christ. And that gave him the freedom 00:11:05.199 --> 00:11:10.679 to speak the truth to people in every direction, because he was not there to be loved by them, 00:11:10.679 --> 00:11:18.579 but to love them. And he was not there for them to make him wealthy in any way, materially or 00:11:18.579 --> 00:11:24.719 psychologically. And he was beholden to no one except God. And so this devotion to God, this allegiance, 00:11:24.919 --> 00:11:30.519 this love for God, and the integrity of living unto him and for his pleasure alone made them the kind of 00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:37.860 men that they were. Character, character, character. I want to pause just for a minute and reflect on 00:11:37.860 --> 00:11:44.779 integrity, because I use that word in this character development. Jeff, you can take the concept of 00:11:44.779 --> 00:11:50.399 integrity and rightly assume that every, all sorts of specific dimensions that pertain to integrity are 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:55.899 involved in that word, okay? Involved in that sort of picture of integrity, of things like truthfulness, 00:11:55.899 --> 00:12:01.319 no lying, no deceit, not exaggerating or stretching stories to make yourself look better, 00:12:01.819 --> 00:12:06.840 not taking credit for what others have done or what God alone has done, but giving credit where 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:14.819 credit is due. Humility, an honest self-assessment of always standing before the judgment of God so 00:12:14.819 --> 00:12:20.819 that his evaluation is what we listen to. The whole realm, obviously, of sexuality is involved in this, 00:12:20.820 --> 00:12:28.200 this purity and staying within God's bounds for sex and where it's to be used. The integrity of 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:32.720 pursuing healthy relationships and loving friendships, giving an honest day's work. 00:12:33.900 --> 00:12:37.260 Later on in this text that we've already read, and we'll mention it again in a moment, 00:12:37.400 --> 00:12:44.080 Paul describes his conduct as holy and righteous and blameless. Those are bold words to describe 00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:49.380 yourself. But as a man who is determined to stand consistently before the judgment of God, 00:12:49.379 --> 00:12:54.700 I don't think Paul would have said that unless he could back it up. Rodney Stark talks about the 00:12:54.700 --> 00:13:00.659 rise of Christianity, the conversion of the Roman Empire, and how it was transformed in about three 00:13:00.659 --> 00:13:06.100 centuries through the presence of the church and the growth of the church. And the conversion of the 00:13:06.100 --> 00:13:13.559 Roman Empire was carried on the wave, the current of a radical new ethic, Rodney Stark observes, 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:21.299 a radical new morality, a new integrity. And so I want to just, again, think about this with you as a 00:13:21.299 --> 00:13:28.099 congregation, because our gospel must be a gospel of not only the proclamation of Christ, but the 00:13:28.099 --> 00:13:37.119 living out of a different lifestyle. Sexual purity, Rodney Stark says, was crucial to the church's early 00:13:37.119 --> 00:13:43.539 growth. An incredibly confrontive way of living sexually that opposed the rampant and almost 00:13:43.539 --> 00:13:49.779 unimaginable sexual promiscuity of the Roman Empire. So you could even talk about the gospel 00:13:49.779 --> 00:13:54.899 of sexual purity. And that led, of course, to the guarding and the honoring of marriage and the 00:13:54.899 --> 00:14:00.240 family. A second part of their ethic was that women and children, the vulnerable and the weak and 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:07.259 the powerless, were honored and given a place and a voice within the church. A third aspect is how 00:14:07.259 --> 00:14:13.279 slaves were treated. Again, read your stories of the history of the Roman Empire. Slaves, over 50% of the 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:21.519 people of the Roman Empire were slaves. And they were treated unspeakably horribly, used as any way 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:28.159 they possibly would. But now suddenly in the church, slaves and slave owners are standing in worship next 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:36.519 to each other. A fourth aspect of their integrity was that they did what they said. They gave an honest 00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:42.939 day's work for their wages. And then finally, they were willing to attend to the needy in times of 00:14:42.939 --> 00:14:49.960 plague and war and disaster in ways that risked their own lives. So Stark does a thorough theological, 00:14:50.059 --> 00:14:54.319 excuse me, sociological research into what transformed or what was going on in the Roman Empire, 00:14:54.519 --> 00:14:59.740 and it's those five aspects. And every one of those aspects reveals a new integrity 00:14:59.740 --> 00:15:08.220 that confronted the world around them. And brothers and sisters, I believe we're in that same sort of time. 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:14.879 It's our lifestyle, our gospel proclamation, but the integrity and the morality that we live out 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:21.519 that will be essential to the power of the gospel in our communities. And as you reflect on those issues, 00:15:21.879 --> 00:15:27.419 Jeff, I want to mention something that I read from a spiritual writer named Tilden Edwards. It sticks in 00:15:27.419 --> 00:15:32.599 my mind. I keep it in his mind. He writes this, every obedience, he's writing concerning obedience, 00:15:32.779 --> 00:15:40.279 every obedience, however small, as if there are any small obediences, take us in the direction of deep 00:15:40.279 --> 00:15:45.879 personal transformation. And so I just think in this whole realm of character development, 00:15:46.599 --> 00:15:51.519 our obedience to the still small voice of God and the Spirit's prompting is essential. 00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:58.620 And every obedience is a big obedience, no matter how small it may seem, because it will shape us in a 00:15:58.620 --> 00:16:05.259 direction. It moves us in a direction. There are many people who have noted and warned leaders about 00:16:05.259 --> 00:16:11.620 the snares of the big three, money, sex, and power. But I want to add also deception and pride. 00:16:11.620 --> 00:16:17.360 And in light of those categories of character behavior, I'm going to remind you of a familiar 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:25.759 text, Proverbs 4.23, guard your heart with all vigilance, for out of it flow the springs of life. 00:16:26.460 --> 00:16:32.159 Guard your heart. Guard your heart, brother. Now, there is another category of the kind of men that 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:37.259 we prove to be among you, and that is love. Two aspects, character and love. That's the kind of men 00:16:37.259 --> 00:16:45.399 they proved among you. And Paul describes his love in two descriptions, mother love and father love. 00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:55.659 And he shared in both of those the sacrifice for the sake of the children. Now, I want you to keep 00:16:55.659 --> 00:17:00.360 in mind as I say this, and this is not any kind of prophetic prediction, okay? So please don't hear it 00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:06.519 that way, okay? But Paul was not married when he was talking about loving them like a father and a mother. 00:17:07.259 --> 00:17:15.759 He was not a father in any physical sense. But in other words, this invites all of us to understand 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:21.160 the fact that we as Christians, but particularly the leaders, married, single, whatever, are called 00:17:21.160 --> 00:17:26.900 to a kind of love that Paul describes as father love and mother love. And again, I'm going to remind 00:17:26.900 --> 00:17:33.279 all of us that that's the kind of love that we have from Jesus himself. So let it kind of alert you 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:39.700 to what Christ has done. And I don't want to get distracted from the substance of love that Paul 00:17:39.700 --> 00:17:44.879 wants to describe in some big discussion about gender differences and parenting skills, okay? 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:50.599 This is not about the particular things that any particular individual do. And the dimensions of 00:17:50.599 --> 00:17:56.660 parental love exist on a bell curve, and we all fall somewhere on that. But the fact is that God 00:17:56.660 --> 00:18:03.300 describes his love for us throughout the Bible as father-like and mother-like. And both of those 00:18:03.300 --> 00:18:10.740 reflect the love of God. And I want to think of them in some ways as iconic, an icon, a way in which 00:18:10.740 --> 00:18:18.140 we view the love of God through an icon, sort of an image of something. Well, mother love is iconic 00:18:18.140 --> 00:18:23.980 for gentleness and affection and nurturing and the self-giving dimensions of love. Paul says that. 00:18:23.980 --> 00:18:29.519 Verse 7, we were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So being 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:35.059 affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also 00:18:35.059 --> 00:18:42.259 our own selves, because you'd become very dear to us. And we were willing to bring our strength under 00:18:42.259 --> 00:18:48.759 control. That's mother love, by the way. Strength under control. By the way, if you don't think that's true, 00:18:49.059 --> 00:18:52.880 I'm going to give you a little bit of an illustration. Years and years ago, when we first moved to the 00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:58.100 Triangle, we went up to the Breed Love Reading Room in the Duke University Library. There is a Breed 00:18:58.100 --> 00:19:03.900 Love Reading Room. It was really sweet of them to put that aside for me. But anyway, but we went up 00:19:03.900 --> 00:19:08.720 at the Breed Love Reading Room, this big library, this beautiful library, Gothic library. And on the 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:14.720 wall were 27 banners of people from the Duke community. And they had their picture on it in this 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:19.620 long banner with different things that they had asked each person. And so it was administrators and 00:19:19.619 --> 00:19:24.719 groundskeepers and professors and students and, you know, all sorts of male, female, all the races and 00:19:24.719 --> 00:19:29.039 everything. And they had a number of questions, who they were and all this kind of stuff. The last 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:35.439 question was, who's the most important person, most influential person in your life? 22 out of the 27 00:19:35.439 --> 00:19:43.819 had the same answer. Guess who it was? My mother. So I want us to understand that there is this 00:19:43.819 --> 00:19:53.019 power in this icon of mother love. And it's the way in which impacts people when we give ourselves, 00:19:53.379 --> 00:20:00.099 when we nurture ourselves, when we serve up nourishment invitingly. We do not throw food 00:20:00.099 --> 00:20:08.240 at, quote, a spoke, like Elmo's Diner. You know what I mean? You actually make it palatable what you say. 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:14.720 And you make it pleasant what you say. And you communicate in ways that can be received. 00:20:15.140 --> 00:20:21.859 Affection, sharing our own lives. Paul, a single male, says, I shared my life with you like mothers 00:20:21.859 --> 00:20:29.839 have affection for their children. Making themselves vulnerable. The risk of hurting for others. 00:20:29.839 --> 00:20:32.119 The risk of bearing the pain. 00:20:35.740 --> 00:20:43.519 This hinge verse, verse 9, I think replies to mother love, but also to father love that's going to come. 00:20:43.980 --> 00:20:47.980 For you remember, brothers and sisters, our labor and toil. We work night and day that we might not 00:20:47.980 --> 00:20:54.480 be a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel of God. Whether you're talking about 00:20:54.480 --> 00:21:03.500 mother love or father love, it is a sacrificial love. In every way. And he goes on to talk about 00:21:03.500 --> 00:21:10.099 the sacrifice and toil on the father side. What is iconic of father love? As Paul describes it, 00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:18.240 he talks about it as exhortation, encouragement, and witnessing. Exhortation and encouragement are both 00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:26.240 Greek words built on the prefix para, which means alongside. Walking alongside. You know, maybe you've 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:31.700 heard the phrase, the Greek word for the Holy Spirit, the paraclete, the one who walks alongside 00:21:31.700 --> 00:21:38.799 and talks and calls out from us. Well, Paul says, I paracleteo'd you. I was a paraclete to you. 00:21:39.160 --> 00:21:46.660 I walked alongside to call and encourage and invite. I also was a parametheo, a different word. 00:21:46.660 --> 00:21:54.080 I was counseling you. I was consoling you. I was comforting you. I found it interesting over the 00:21:54.080 --> 00:21:59.560 course of my pastoral ministry and also my fathering life that taking a walk with a person 00:21:59.560 --> 00:22:06.940 that I'm seeking to talk to and care for, especially my sons or maybe other men, opens up the heart of 00:22:06.940 --> 00:22:13.400 communication in ways that sitting in a table doesn't. It's strange, but they have actually found 00:22:13.400 --> 00:22:17.840 scientifically now medically that the, and I don't even know what it is. Sally can tell you about it 00:22:17.840 --> 00:22:22.700 because I don't remember, but it's the walking, the cycle, the rhythm of walking, which actually 00:22:22.700 --> 00:22:27.560 moves both parts of your body. And they found out that it literally opens up your brain and your heart 00:22:27.560 --> 00:22:35.040 and it opens things up. And Paul says that I did that in the spiritual realm. I walked alongside you. 00:22:35.480 --> 00:22:38.320 And whether he physically walked alongside people or not, we don't know, 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:44.700 but he certainly did it in terms of encouraging, counseling, consoling, inviting. 00:22:49.259 --> 00:22:52.759 Hi, welcome. Good to see you. 00:22:57.179 --> 00:23:05.079 Scrolling forward, having this encouragement and exhortation, Paul adds the last phrase in verse 12, 00:23:05.079 --> 00:23:11.480 we exhorted you, encouraged you, and charged you. And the word in the original is really, I think, 00:23:11.519 --> 00:23:17.240 easier to understand. It's the word martyr. We martyred you. We were a martyria. We were a witness 00:23:17.240 --> 00:23:23.559 to you. Witnessing and speaking out of the conviction and experience of our own lives. Paul says, 00:23:23.659 --> 00:23:29.980 I personally shared the stories in ways that offered you guidance. And I want you to notice this last 00:23:29.980 --> 00:23:34.899 phrase for all of us, but Jeff, particularly for you and your ministry, I charge you to walk in a 00:23:34.900 --> 00:23:41.240 manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. And I believe that you and your 00:23:41.240 --> 00:23:48.759 ministry and the proper ministry of an encourager is to give people, bear witness, draw a picture of 00:23:48.759 --> 00:23:56.700 the purposes of God for the lives of his children and paint a picture of them, of the glory of God being 00:23:56.700 --> 00:24:02.400 displayed through their lives. I think it is a dimension of naming somebody in the spiritual realm, 00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:09.880 helping them to see who they are called to be and can be by the power of God. Taking verses like 00:24:09.880 --> 00:24:14.860 Ephesians 2.10, which says, we're God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, and helping 00:24:14.860 --> 00:24:21.920 people discern what their good works are meant to be. And again, that's what father love, according to 00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:30.900 Paul, iconically does, is help people, in a sense, live up to the image of Christ. Draw the picture and say, 00:24:30.900 --> 00:24:36.840 step into that and live into that and live up to what God has called you to be and given you that 00:24:36.840 --> 00:24:43.340 opportunity. Jeff, this is a lot of information, but let me gather it back together. I've been talking 00:24:43.340 --> 00:24:47.640 most recently about parental love, and I think that there is a lot for parents to learn from this, by the 00:24:47.640 --> 00:24:54.980 way. But the topic is not a home, a family life. The topic is Paul's ministry as a pastor, as a single 00:24:54.980 --> 00:25:01.680 man, a childless man, to his church. And he's basically saying in a pastor, as a pastor, he's 00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:10.940 called to deeply love, like mother's love and father's love. And it's a huge picture. And I do want to give 00:25:10.940 --> 00:25:18.620 you one more encouraging word. Look at the pronouns. None of them are singular. All of them are we. 00:25:18.619 --> 00:25:25.319 So in your pastoral ministry, build a team. Help other people to learn to share the love with you. 00:25:28.099 --> 00:25:34.119 Character and love. This has been a rough, rough season for the church of Jesus Christ. 00:25:35.439 --> 00:25:40.239 Not only are people in our culture increasingly comfortable with openly rejecting and scorning 00:25:40.239 --> 00:25:46.939 Christian beliefs, the Christian faith is seen as an enemy of human freedom and therefore of human 00:25:46.940 --> 00:25:52.660 flourishing. There's this deep-seated conviction that freedom to fulfill oneself in whatever ways 00:25:52.660 --> 00:25:58.340 we define is key to human flourishing. That's what our culture believes. So a faith that builds any kind 00:25:58.340 --> 00:26:05.059 of guardrails for human identity or human behavior that calls us to stand even willingly or eagerly 00:26:05.059 --> 00:26:11.840 before God and his opinions of us, his truth about us, to the world, it seems like insanity. It just 00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:19.379 seems like a way to commit suicide spiritually or mentally or psychologically. And so the church 00:26:19.379 --> 00:26:25.039 and its message are increasingly discordant of the world. But this is not new issues. Every church has 00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:30.879 shared many of those same criticisms in every age, and it suffered greatly. And it was the endurance and 00:26:30.879 --> 00:26:36.119 the witness unto martyrdom that was a normal part of the first 300 years that was also part of that 00:26:36.119 --> 00:26:42.279 transformation. And more and more I believe that we are going to have to stand firm even at the cost 00:26:42.279 --> 00:26:51.099 or the willingness to face rejection or even death. But what seems different now to me, brothers and 00:26:51.099 --> 00:26:56.759 sisters, and to you, Jeff, as well, is that we've handed our opponents the knives that they wield against 00:26:56.759 --> 00:27:04.059 us. We've sharpened them and given them a knife. What weapons have we sharpened? What have we put in the 00:27:04.059 --> 00:27:09.220 hands of the skeptics or the rejecters? Well, the number one reason, it seems, if you look at the 00:27:09.220 --> 00:27:16.940 record out there, is the shame and sin of leaders who have been the opposite of what St. Paul describes. 00:27:17.399 --> 00:27:22.819 They have not been men of character, women of character. They have not been men and women of 00:27:22.819 --> 00:27:30.259 integrity. They have not been men and women of true love. We have around us examples of people who 00:27:30.259 --> 00:27:35.359 have stretched the truth, deceived, lied for personal gain, had hidden lives, secret cell phones 00:27:35.359 --> 00:27:42.440 by which they could conduct their sinful behavior. They've gained financially, greedily, mismanaged money. 00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:46.539 They've been dishonest in their work. They've failed the test of integrity. They've not loved 00:27:46.539 --> 00:27:52.500 sacrificially like a mother or loved sacrificially like a father. And I don't think we can complain 00:27:52.500 --> 00:27:57.079 that the church has fallen on hard times when in fact we have failed in our basic commitments. 00:27:57.079 --> 00:28:03.659 To be the people that we are to be. Our commitments to the sheep, our commitments to the community, 00:28:03.779 --> 00:28:10.679 and our commitments to God. So I appeal to you and I urge you, young man, be determined to willingly 00:28:10.679 --> 00:28:16.599 suffer for the sake of the gospel. To face death rather than compromise, and your public witness, 00:28:17.139 --> 00:28:22.279 if it were to come to that. Live in that way, even though I doubt you'll ever face that issue. 00:28:22.279 --> 00:28:28.099 Live a life of thoroughgoing and growing integrity. Stand before the judgment of God. 00:28:28.920 --> 00:28:36.839 Remember that there are no small obediences. Love like a mother. Love like a father. And by all means, 00:28:38.220 --> 00:28:43.339 serve and do not seek to be served. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.