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6-16-13
1 Thessalonians 3:6-13
When I was in high school, and I know you’ve seen me share or heard me share these stories
before, but when I was in high school, I ran cross-country. Our cross country team was
somewhat interesting; we had, if you don’t know the way a cross country team is set up in high
school, there are seven members, seven members on a team all of whom score in a race but the
last two don’t count unless there’s a tie. So there were nine of us total in the program on the
guy’s side. We had this thing, we were kind of known as something because out of the nine of
us, 4 of us were pastor’s sons, 3 were deacon’s sons and then 2 were derelicts. No, I’m just
playing! The truth is that we were known for that but we were also known for some other things.
One of the things that we did was, every week we had a pep rally. It was the coolest thing ever to
be on any of the sports teams because I don’t know how they did pep rallies then, back in the day
maybe or how they do them now but I know how we did them. And what we did was we had the
big pep rally in the gym every Friday to prepare for the football game because we live in Texas
and it’s the only sport that matters, apparently. And so we had the pep rally for the football team.
But at our school they allowed the girl’s volleyball team and the guy’s cross country, the guy’s
and girl’s cross country, to be a part of it and so what they would do is, we’d all get lined up and
then they’d play the music and the cheerleaders would be out there and we’d all get to walk into
the middle of the basketball court and everybody would cheer and say “Yeah!” Because the
football game was that night but the cross country meet was always the next day and so they
were always cheering for us you know, everything else. So what we would do is on Fridays we
would all look the same. We’d do it on purpose; you know because at a pep rally all the football
players were wearing jeans and then they wearing their football jerseys; they always got to wear
those on Fridays. And we, it would be really weird for us to wear jeans and our cross country
jerseys since they were really like really thin tank tops. So it wasn’t really allowed but we would
do is, we would decide on Thursdays what we were going to wear on Fridays. But then it got to
be a little unhealthy and so we started deciding like on Mondays, and Tuesdays, and
Wednesdays, we started deciding what we were all going to wear the next day. And we all
matched; we all looked the same. And so we would show up; we would all be wearing brown
flip-flops and khaki shorts and our cross country shirt on a Friday. But one of the things that was
interesting even if it wasn’t Friday, you could always tell if somebody was on the cross country
team especially on the boys varsity team because we all decided that it would be a great idea to
bleach our hair. So we all bleached our hair blond and I’m talking like, white blond. And then we
all ran outside constantly every day, and so we were all very tan and if you know what pooka
beads are, those bead made out of shells, we wore those and then we all wore 4 or 5 bracelets and
stuff. And I’ll go ahead and admit it in public; we shaved our legs we did all that stuff. And so,
we looked the same, so even if it wasn’t on a Friday, you could be walking down the hallway
and you could immediately know, that guy was on the cross country team. You just knew it.
Why? Because we looked weird. I know that now; we looked different; we stood out. But over
time we started making it where if you were going to be on the team, you have to look like this.
We made it a prerequisite, if you going to be on the team, if you going to identify with the team,
you need to look a certain way. And then we say, “Oh, that’s not good, that’s sounds like it’s
getting into legalism.” Well, it doesn’t matter because it’s a sport. But in church, did you realize
that the church, that God’s Word tells us the church is to look a certain way. It is! Not
legalistically, but the church is to look a certain way. There are to be certain things that mark the
people of God that make the church stand out from the rest of culture that make the church stand
out from the rest of the world. In fact, Peter in 1 Peter tells us, “that we are a peculiar people.”
Not we should be but we are. Why? Because we are a people who believe in a God who turned
into a man and died on the cross at the hands of evil men and rose from the dead and ascended to
heaven and is still alive today. And that’s odd; that’s weird; that’s strange; that’s peculiar. We’re
supposed to stick out from the rest of the world. Well, this morning, Paul tells the Thessalonians,
he speaks to the Thessalonians, he still describing how he feels after Timothy has come back and
given him a good report of the fact, we talked about last week, that they have been experiencing
extreme persecution and still standing in their faith. And so he’s still talking about that and in
verses 6 through 13 this morning, we will see that The Church of God Should be a People of
Strong Faith, Deep Love, Striving for Holiness. Strong faith, a deep love, striving for holiness.
We Should be Growing and Living in Faith (v. 6-10)
Look at verses 6 through 10 with me; “But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has
brought us the good news of your faith and love, and reported that you always remember us
kindly and long to see us as we long to see you, for this reason brothers, in all our distress and
affliction, we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live if you are
standing fast in the Lord for what thanksgiving can we return to God for you. For all the joy that
we feel for your sake before our God as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see
you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith.” The first thing this morning is We
Should be Growing and Living in Faith. We should be growing and living in faith. You know
it’s interesting, Paul speaks to them and he tells them, “I sent Timothy,” if you remember in last
week’s passage, don’t look now, you can look later, last week’s passage, Paul tells them, he tells
them, “You know, I was worried because of all the persecution I knew you were experiencing,
finally when I couldn’t handle it anymore, I sent Timothy. I sent Timothy to check on you and to
make sure that your faith was not wavering, to make sure that you were standing firm in your
faith.” And then he says in verse 6, that Timothy has come back and when he says Timothy came
back, Timothy reported about your faith and notice this, he added something, cause he said, “I
sent Timothy to check on your faith and he came back and he report on your faith and what? He
reported of your faith and love.” Why is that interesting? Well, you remember in chapter 1; it all
goes back to this main clause in chapter 1; he says, “I remember these things, and I remember
your work of faith, your labor of love and your steadfastness of hope.” And remember we said
those phrases mean something very specific. They mean your faith that works and your love that
labors or it toils to the point of exhaustion and your hope that is steadfast in the coming of Jesus
Christ. So, he says, “This is what everybody talks about, this is what I remember about you and
then when I was worried that maybe your faith was wavering I sent Timothy and when Timothy
came back and he reported to us, he reported about your faith and your love.” If you remember,
Paul, whenever you think about love and you think about the text, the scriptures, everybody says
what about 1 Corinthians. Right? The passage on love that Paul wrote and describes all the
different aspects of love; that it’s not jealous, it doesn’t boast, it doesn’t seek itself, it does not
envy, all those things. And so we think of love and Paul’s the one that wrote about love, but in
fact if you read all of Paul’s epistles, if you read all of Paul’s epistles, you find something out, is
that love is the greatest thing that a Christian can do. In fact, we talked about last week; say well,
“I’ve known non-Christians who don’t love.” No you don’t! This is something that is very hard.
It sounds simple but it’s very hard for people to grasp. The truth is that the scripture says that
“God is love!” Not a manifestation of love, not an example of love, not a kind of love, not
anything other than “God is love.” That means equals God is love! You know what that means?
It means that in the end, when it boils down to it, all the way at the bottom, that if you don’t
know God through His Son, Jesus Christ, you do not have the capability to love in the Biblical
sense. You don’t have ability to love the way the Bible speaks about love. See, he talked about
fact that the Thessalonians had a love that labored; it toiled to the point of exhaustion. It’s a love
that puts everything for other people before itself. Paul described that in Philippians; He says,
“Think of others more highly than yourself.” He talks about the idea that love is something that
is ultimately seen in the cross of Jesus Christ. Who? Though equal with God, did not consider
equality with God something he had to grap-a-hold of cause he already had it but he chose to
come in the form of a man. That’s love. He did something for someone else, devoid of his own
feelings and putting off Himself, taking off His ability to show His glory and all of His power,
He set it aside; He set His divine prerogative aside in order to come in flesh and die on a cross.
That’s an example of love. Now, we say, “I know so and so, and their maybe not a believer but
they really do love.” This is where the rubber meets the road as Christians. How do we define
love? Do we define love the way it makes us feel and the way the world defines it or do we
define love the way the Word of God defines it? You know I talked a several weeks ago about
the book that Matt Chandler and few other guys wrote called “Creature the Word”. But even
more specifically, you know back in the 80’s when the conservative resurgence in the Southern
Baptist Convention was happening; we kinda got this nickname as Southern Baptists. We were
known as people of the Book. People of the Book! And I think that’s a good description; we are
people of the book. We are a people, a group of people who live according to what this says, or
should live according to what this says.
And so when we define love, we define love the way this defines it and the scripture says God is
love. And so love is a distinctly Christian action. And he says this, he says, “When I sent him to
find out about your faith, he brought good news of your faith and your love. He reported it how
you always remember us as kindly and you longed to see us and you long to see you. For this
reason brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your
faith, for now we live if you are standing fast. For what thanksgiving can we return to God for
you for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God as we pray most earnestly night and
day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith.” This is
interesting that Paul in speaking of their faith, he says, “I sent Timothy to make certain that your
faith was standing firm and when Timothy came back he reported about your faith and your love.
And this just overjoyed us; this excited us!” In fact he says, “And now we live!” It’s interesting.
What does that mean? Well, it actually means Paul is saying, “I found about this and now it
makes life worth living.” That if I had found out that having been pulled away from you, like he
said last week, having been ripped away from you, destroyed your faith, and the persecution and
the difficulty that you faced, destroyed your faith, I could bear to live anymore. But now that I
found out from Timothy that your faith stands firm, now life is worth living; that’s what he tells
them. He is so overwhelmed and so overjoyed by the fact that they have not abandoned their
faith, but in fact, not only did they not abandon their faith, but they’re actually living out their
faith. You know Paul says that he wanted he wanted to come to them and restore or to fill up
what was lacking. What does he mean? He doesn’t mean lacking anything that was their fault,
cause he says, “For what you have, what you know, you’re standing firm; your doing a good job,
but there’s more.” Cause he tells them, “I was ripped away, I was taken away from you when I
didn’t want to be taken away; there’s a little more I need to teach you; a little more you need to
know.” So that’s what he means when he says, “To fill up what is lacking in your faith.” He’s
saying, “There’s a few more things I need to teach you,” and I think after this text, beginning in
chapter 4 he begins to teach them some of those. Remember in chapter 4 he tells them what? He
says, “That we sorrow but not as those who have no hope,” and what does he say? He says, “I do
not want you to be ignorant brothers concerning those who have fallen asleep.” So there’s an
issue that they don’t understand. It’s not that their sinning, it’s that they don’t know and they
need to be told. And so Paul is speaking to them and he says that he needs to fill up what is
lacking in their faith but what interesting is even on the little bit that he’s given them, they begin
to grow, they begin to show love. It’s interesting how in the world, in creation, if we plant a tree,
if we plant a tree and the tree begins to grow and it gets to a certain stage and it quits growing,
we know one thing, there is something wrong. Why? Because a tree should grow. If you go out
and lay sod in your lawn, you prepare it; you get everything ready; you put the sod down; you
water it; it gets watered in; it starts to grow, then all the sudden it just quits growing, you can
know one thing, something’s wrong. Because grass should grow; trees should grow. You know,
LouAnn and I, when she was pregnant with SarahBeth, she had, SarahBeth had this thing. It was
going along fine, everything was okay, and then all of the sudden, she went to the doctor one
week and the doctor said, “There’s something wrong,” and we were living near Beaumont at the
time and he said, “You need to go; we need you to drive to Houston and be checked by this
specialist.” So she went to be checked out by this specialist and the specialist came back and she
calls me and she upset and everything else because the specialist says, “The baby has what’s
know as IUGR,” which just stands for “Intrauterine Growth Retardation” it means, in the short
version, it means she’s is not growing at the rate she’s supposed to. This was not super early on
in the pregnancy but still fairly early on; we still had several months to go and so something was
wrong. They couldn’t really tell us what was wrong; we just knew the baby wasn’t growing.
Why? Because babies should grow. It’s a natural thing; in fact if they don’t grow we know
something. There’s a medical problem; there’s a medical reason as to why. Well, low and behold
as we continue to go on, she’s not as big as she should be but she’s healthy. The doctor kept
assuring us, “She’s healthy! She’s healthy! She’s healthy!” Well then, one day, it’s time; they
induce her; she goes into labor and she labors and she labors and she labors and she labors and
nothing happening, nothing happening; she’s not progressing any and we can’t figure out why.
The nurses keep coming in and checking and going out and coming in and checking and talking
amongst themselves and looking at the little paper and then going out and then coming back in.
They keep doing this for hours and I don’t know what’s going on I mean, I know nothing, I’m
just a man. I’m just sitting there, eating a Chick-fil-a sandwich. I don’t know what’s going on;
she’s shaking her head. I’ve gotten in trouble for that one already, so. The deal is, we don’t know
what’s going on. Her mother is a labor and delivery nurse; her mother is there. Her mother is
trying to get information but she can’t really find anything out. Then the doctor finally comes in
after several hours and he pulls out the little sheet, that long piece of paper that comes the deal
and he begins to look at it and he looks at the nurses and points a both of the and does this (?)
and he walks out in the hall and I can’t tell you what he said but just imagine it. He was
screaming at them, he was yelling at them and when they came back in to prep her for surgery,
they were crying because he had ripped them apart out in the hallway. The reason was, is every
time she would have a contraction, the baby’s heart rate would drop down into the double digits;
they would just plummet and as soon as the contraction would go away they would go right back
up. But what he noticed is over the hours, the heart rate got just a little bit lower each time that
happened and so the baby was going into distress; she had been laboring for hours. They rush her
into the operating room; they decide they are going to have to do an emergency c-section. He
opens her up when he pulls the baby out and he can’t even get her out because the umbilical cord
was wrapped around her throat twice and it was so tight, he couldn’t get his finger underneath it
to loosen it. He finally had to cut it to get it out from around her neck. So the point of the story is,
he looked at me and said, “See Dad, had not caught this, your wife and your baby would have
died.” Because something would have happened, something would have ruptured, something
would have burst. Why? Because something was wrong that was causing everything to go array.
But what come to find out later is he told me, “Guess what? You know that whole, IUGR thing?
That’s what caused this. She’s had a double umbilical cord wrapped for months. That’s what was
causing the blood flow to go down a little bit and so it was making her not grow as quickly and
all those other things.” And so there was a reason for the fact that they weren’t growing and
Paul’s concerned and when he sends Timothy and when he sends Timothy he founds out, not
only is their faith standing firm but their growing in their faith because they are showing love.
Timothy reports about their love about their love; the love they have for everyone around them.
The love that they experience from the inside out; a distinctly Christian characteristic. Just like
with babies; babies should grow unless there is something wrong. This is the thing, is that, as the
church, we’ve come to expect or come to accept the fact that people can accept Jesus Christ and
not grow for decades and then claim Christ. But the truth is that real, authentic Christianity
requires, it necessitates growth. Faith grows; faith does not stagnate. Faith produces things; the
presence of the Holy Spirit produces fruit within us and what’s the first one? This is the fruit of
the spirit. Love; it’s the very first one in the entire list. He says, “This is the fruit of the spirit; this
is what evidences in authentic faith in Jesus Christ, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. These are the things that mark Christianity.”
So as believers in Jesus Christ, we should be growing and living in our faith. Look what he says
here in verse 7, “For this reason brothers, in all our distress and affliction, we have been
comforted about you through your faith.” What distress and affliction? Well, he described the
fact that in the last chapter, he says, “When we couldn’t stand it any longer, we were willing to
be left alone in Athens and send Timothy on ahead to check on you.” Left alone in Athens. Well,
if you remember in Acts chapter 17, Paul had an experience on Mars Hill, the acropolis (?) and
he preached and he preached the gospel, and he preached it boldly and it says, “They were all
very interested, very willing to listen.” Then when he mentioned the resurrection they began to
make fun of him; they began to deride him; they began to tell him that he was crazy and to go
away. But there were some of them that said they wanted to hear him again. But by in large, the
story in Acts 17 makes it sound like it’s great that people came to faith in Jesus Christ but Acts
17 almost sounds like it was a little disappointing. Because he had them but when he mentioned
the resurrection, the crowd turned against him. But then in Acts 18, Paul describes what’s going
on in Corinth when Paul went into Corinth, Luke describes what’s going on there and when
Paul’s in Corinth and he’s ministering, Jesus himself spoke to Paul in this passage and he tells
him, he says, “Listen, stand firm, even though its going to to get really, really bad.” And in Acts
18 it does get bad; they begin to arrest people; they begin to beat people; they begin to take the
before the rulers and all those other things. Guess where Paul is when he’s writing 1
Thessalonians? He’s in Corinth and so when he writes this, he’s experiencing extreme distress;
he’s experiencing affliction; he’s experiencing persecution from all different sides. He says, “In
the midst of all that, your faith just kinda lifts us above that.” It brings us out of that; it makes us
realize that you know what? All of this is worth it. You get in that time, where sometimes maybe
it doesn’t seem that maybe it’s not all worth it. Maybe you’re downtrodden, you’re beaten down;
you feel like this world is against you; you feel like everything is turning against you. They say it
happens in three’s; I don’t know about you but in my life it happens in like tens. You know, just
one after the other, after the other, after the other, and they tend to pile on. And there might come
a point where you just get to the place where you just go, “Is it worth it? Is it worth it?” You
know those times, what I tend to do, I tend to pull out and my family does, we do this a lot too,
we’ve read together at night with the kids; I tend to pull out biographies. I want to read about
some great Christian, some great believer in history; I want to read about them. One of the best
one’s we ever read as a family, the kids loved it, we read “The Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten
Boon; the story of Corrie Ten Boon. We read that book; if you’ve never read it, go get it today
and read it; it’s a phenomenal work. When you read it, you find something; that woman suffered;
her family suffered for the cause of Christ and yet she always had this joy about her. She always
had this strength of faith and even when they were in Nazi concentration camps and people were
dying around them right and left, she was holding church services in the midst of swarms of fleas
and winning people to Christ right and left in the midst of these concentration camps. She
watched her own sister die in front of her and still led somebody to the Lord. This is a woman
who stood, and when I read that, and I read the fact that in the midst of that, her faith was strong;
it tends to make what I’m going through seem like nothing; and it just kinda lifts me out of it.
And that’s what Paul says, he says, “In the midst of our distress and our affliction, we heard
about your faith and it just kinda lifted us up.” See as believers of Jesus Christ, as the church of
Jesus Christ, we’re to hold one another up; we’re to stand with one another and it’s not just so
that we can stand against the attacks of the enemies but it’s also because of this, it’s because, no
matter what happens, no matter what comes, whether its from the outside or the inside when one
of us falls, there is a person on each side to hold us up or to stand for us or to sometimes to stand
in front of us and take the onslaught. Paul says, “When we heard about you, it lifted us up; it
excited us.” And he says, “We pray most earnestly night and day that we might see you face to
face and supply what is lacking in your faith.”
We Must be Marked by Love for One Another (v. 11-12)
Look at verses 11 and 12. “Now may our God and Father, Himself and our Lord Jesus, direct our
way to you and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all
as we do for you.” The second thing this morning is We Must be Marked by Love for One
Another. We must be marked by love for one another. One of the biggest issues, and we talked
about this several weeks ago, one of the biggest issues today, in the world today, is people see
the church, as people look at the church, now granted, people aren’t going to believe because of
their sin. Sin is what keeps people from believing in Jesus Christ but the people of God can
compound that and cause a bigger problem. The Scripture says that the cross is a rock of offense,
it’s a stumbling block. You know, the truth is, it’s not exactly the best line, you know if you were
to go out to eat with someone you’ve never met before and as you sit down, the first phrase that
comes out of your mouth is, “You’re a sinner.” The meal’s probably not going to go well. Right?
Because that’s the last thing that anybody wants to hear. “Hey, by the way, before we get our
appetizer, you’re going to hell because of your sin and you’re violating the law of a righteous
and a holy God.” Is that true? Absolutely, it’s true! But this world doesn’t want to hear that and
Paul says that, “We have to be marked by a love for one another.” And look what he says; he
says that, “We are to have this love for one another and for all.” Sometimes the church can be its
own enemy. Sometimes you’ll hear churches saying, “Oh, the enemy just attacking, the enemy
just…” I heard this a lot growing up. “The enemies attacking; you know we try to reach out into
this community, we try to do the things we are supposed to do the enemies just coming against
us and we’re just praying and standing firm.” Can that be true? Yes, that can be true but there are
sometimes, and I’ll go ahead and tell you, I’m not going to the mention name or anything, but
the church that I grew up in, used to say things like, “We’re trying to get out there in the
community, we’re trying to do things but the enemy is just coming up against us.” But the truth
was the biggest enemy this church had it itself. It was itself; you know why? Because this church
decided one day, they had a guy stand up in front of the church and say, “This is what God wants
the church to do!” And the church said, “No, no, we don’t think that’s what the church needs to
do. Why don’t we talk about it?” And he said, “No, you decide now. You do this or you don’t do
this!” And so he went away and a large group of them decided they didn’t want to do this. And
so he found out about it and a few weeks later, he stood back up in front of the church and said,
quote, “God called me to split this church!” end quote. Now first of all, you need to know
something, God never, ever calls His people to destroy their witness. See, this is what happens,
he said that and a church that was running 400; two services on Sunday morning; vibrant and
active; shrank to a church of 35 overnight. Who cares about the numbers, the people who left
went down the road, built another building; started church. First service had 250 people; within 3
months they were running about 15 people and guess what? This happened over 18 years ago,
cause the truth is, the majority of the people who were in both churches weren’t even there when
it happened. All those people have either died or moved on or moved away but the truth is this, is
no matter how hard you try, if you were to walk in that town and say you were from either one of
those churches, the majority of people would go, “I don’t have time for this.” Why? I’ve got
enough drama in my own life; I don’t need to get it at church. Why should I accept Jesus, as you
say, and be filled with the love of Christ, and come in there; I treat my family better than you
treat each other. Why would I want to be a part of that?” See what Paul is say defines them? He
says, “Their love for one another and for all.” Remember last week we talked about the
definition of love. I gave you a definition of love. Love is not what Hollywood says. Love is not
fireworks; although there could be fireworks; it’s not fireworks; it’s not just wonderful beautiful
music in the springtime. Love is when the sky is dark and cloudy and there’s no sun to be seen
and that person’s sick and that person is hurting or even better yet, that person is not very lovely.
Love, is even in those moments putting that persons need and that persons concerns well before
your own. That’s love. What is love? Love is denying yourself for the good of others. There are
times when I have an opinion or you might have an opinion but guess what, what trumps it all is
that we love one another. There’s a difference by the way between opinion and the truth of God’s
Word. We can divide sometimes over the fact that if you say, “Jesus is not the Son of God,”
we’re going to divide; that’s not an opinion. But what color something should be or when we
should meet or how we should do it, is an opinion and at the moment it begins to divide
anything, it becomes ungodly. Because the scripture says, the number one thing that marks us as
believers, Paul says, “I sent to find out about your faith but he came back and reported about
your faith and your love.” What does faith look like practically worked out? It’s love! Faith
practically worked out is love. Look what he says; he says, “Now may our God and Father,
Himself, and Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you,” and he’s praying, “And may the Lord
make you increase and abound,” literally, increase, “and overflow, overflow with love for one
another and for all as we do for you.” He says, “I want your love, he came and reported about
your faith and your love and I was overwhelmed; I was so excited; I give thanks to God for this
faith and this love that you have.” Then when he prays, what does he pray for? He prays that
they abound and that they overflow in love. He says, “I give thanks to God for the love you have
but it’s not enough, you need more. I need you to abound in it and then when you abound in it,
that’s not enough, I need you to overflow in it.” You gettin the picture of what Paul is saying? Is
no matter how much love you have as a believer in Jesus Christ, you can always have more. You
can always show more. You can always step out and do more. But this is what’s interesting, you
know; we talk about, we need to love one another, and we do; we need to love one another in the
church but that’s not all actually that Paul says. Look what he says here; he says, “That the Lord
make you increase and abound with love for one another and for all.” For one another, in the
church. We take it for granted that why I said it a minute ago, we take it for granted that we
should love one another in the church and we know that, but you notice he says we’re also to
have love, and he doesn’t distinguish between loves. You should love your church family this
way and love other people this way. No, he says, “You should have love for one another and for
all.” Why? Because there’s not two kinds of love. Love! Putting other’s needs and concerns
before your own. You know, this is the truth is I know, sometimes Christian’s get accused, and
we do, and we shouldn’t do this, Christians get accused of wanting to win people to Jesus Christ
just so they can get another notch on their evangelist belt. That’s not the reason we tell people
about Jesus Christ but you can come off that way. Why do we tell people about Jesus Christ?
You remember what Paul says? He says, “The love of Christ compels us.” That’s what drives our
mission; the love that Christ had for us and because Christ loved us, we love you and I want God
to increase. I want Him to cause you to increase and to overflow in you love for one another and
for everybody out there. That’s what I want; that’s what I desire; that’s what I wanna see; I
wanna see you sacrificing; I wanna see you stepping out financially, emotionally and physically,
stepping out and doing things for other people; denying yourself to see their good, their benefit,
their encouragement in Christ. You don’t go out and do things for the world to show concern for
the world just so they have a good opinion of us. No! We don’t give a cold drink of water just
because it hot outside, although that is true, we give a cold drink of water because it’s hot
outside. We don’t put a coat to someone because it’s cold outside, although that’s true. If all we
do as Christians is go out and give water or we go out and give a coat to someone who’s cold or
we go out and help someone pay their bills or we give somebody a ride if they need a ride, or
whatever else; if we do those things, just to do those things, then those this are a waste of time.
Say, “Mmm, that’s kinda strong.” No, it is a waste of time! Because you can make sure someone
is warm is the winter and cool in the summer and have a ride to go wherever the need to be and
to make sure they’re healthy and to make sure they’re taken care and to make sure they have a
roof over their head but there’s going to come a day when it visits them, when death visits them,
and they die and spend eternity somewhere and that cup of water and that coat at winter time and
the roof over their head and vehicle you gave them a ride in doesn’t matter because they are
going to stand before God and have to give an account and He’s going to say, “What have you
done with my Son?” So we give a cup of water, in Jesus name and we give a coat in the winter,
in Jesus name and we give people a ride and we help them out in any way that we can, in Jesus
name. Why? We don’t want to help our community just so the community looks and goes,
“Wow, those are some nice people!” We need to be in a place where we care less, where we
could not care less if people remember us or what we did. We want people to walk away from a
conversation not going, “Wow, he’s such a great guy! He’s such a nice person!” We want people
to walk away doing like the lame man that Peter and John ran into at the steps of the temple.
Right? He didn’t walk away going, “Wow, those are some nice guys! Those are some great
guys!” What does the scripture say he did? Peter looked down at him; he looked him in the eye
and said, “I do not have silver and gold but what I do have, I’m going to to you. In the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And what does it say he did? He stood up and he
walked and he leaped and he did what? He praised God! Jesus says, “Let you light so shine
before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” The goal is
not so that people look at us and go, “Man! They’re awesome!” The goal is for them to walk
away and going, “God is amazing!” Trusting in Jesus Christ. So we are supposed to cram the
gospel down their throat? No, you don’t cram the gospel down their throat. If you show genuine
love and concern, not everybody but a large majority of people will be willing to listen. Why?
Because of the next statement he makes. Look what he says here, “We want you to do this; we
want you to be marked overflow and abound in love to achieve this.” Verse 13, “So that He may
establish your hearts, blameless and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our
Lord Jesus with all His saints!”
We Should be Secure in Holiness (v. 13)
The third thing is We Should be Secure in Holiness.” You know why, when you show genuine
concern for people, genuine, that’s the key word there, genuine love and concern for people,
people are willing to listen a little more sometimes. It’s because there’s something different
about you. Everybody else always wants something from me. You don’t seem like you want
anything from me. It’s genuine; I’m willing to listen. What does it mean to be different, to look
different? What is that word? You know the scripture says in the book of Leviticus, you know
with God was telling them to set up the tabernacle. He told them to take these certain things; to
take these cups and to take this alter and to take these things and he says, “And I want you to
take them holy unto the Lord. Holy unto the Lord. You know what that means? It means that
cup right there is to be used for nothing else except God and His temple. You see that priestly
robe right there? You don’t wear that to the ball game; you don’t wear that to go out to eat with
friends; you wear that in the temple and the temple only because it is holy unto the Lord. He
even told the Levites, an entire tribe of men; he told them, “You are to be holy unto the Lord.”
You don’t go out and do this, you don’t go out and do that; you don’t work here, you don’t work
there; you are to be in sole service to the temple of God. You are to be holy, set apart for a
specific purpose.” What does Paul say? He says, “I want you to abound and overflow in love,”
verse 13, “so that, He may establish you’re hearts blameless and holiness.” How do we get
established in holiness? You know the scripture tells us all the time, “Be holy! Be holy! Be
holy!” God himself said, “Be holy, because I am holy.” How am I holy? Does it mean I just
don’t watch certain things that other people watch? That might be part of it but the truth is, is
holiness is much more. Holiness means to be set apart for a specific purpose; for a specific
reason; for a specific use. He says, “Love one another, abound in love for one another and
overflow in love for others so that he might establish you in holiness.” What makes the church of
God, holy, different, set apart for a specific use? What makes it that way? The love that it has for
one another and everyone else; that what’s make the church different; not that we get dressed up
and come here on a Sunday morning. Guess what? People get dressed up to go to the theater;
people get dressed up and go out to eat; people get dressed up and do all kinds of things. So it’s
not that! And it’s not that we come here on Sundays or we have Bible studies on Wednesday
nights; people have PTA meetings; they have lodge meetings; they have all kinds of things all
the time, so it’s not the fact that we meet at a certain time. There’s one thing that trumps it all; no
matter where they are and no matter what they do, the church has a monopoly on love. Why?
Because God is love! He says, “If you want to be established in holiness, you have to abound and
overflow in love for one another and in love for everyone else.”
Conclusion
The truth is that if we have the gospel, the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, then it is the greatest act
of love to share that with someone who is going to spend eternity in hell because of their sin. The
greatest act of love that ever occurred in my life was not when my wife said, “I do,” and it was
not when I said I do to her. The greatest act of love that has ever occurred in my life is the day
that I recognized my status before God as a sinner and my need for the salvation of Jesus Christ
by grace through faith. This salvation, when I saw that, when I recognized that, when I accepted
that and then the scripture says, “All those who come to me,” what did Jesus say, “All those who
come to me, I will no wise cast out any of them.” So when I ran to the Father, the Father
wrapped His arms around me. That is the greatest act of love that has ever occurred in my life. If
you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, no matter what you think, that is the greatest act of love that has
ever occurred in your life. Why! Because one day, you’re going to die and you’re going to spend
eternity, if you’re a believer, you’re going to spend eternity in heaven. Guess what? You will
give an account for your marriage but you won’t give an account for your spouse. You’ll give an
account for how you acted in your marriage but you won’t give an account for your spouse.
Why? Because every person stands before the Lord individually. Not a group of us. Say, “Well,
as a group we did a good job.” No! No group dynamics here! It’s you and you alone. The
greatest act of love that has ever occurred in your life is the time, the day, the moment that Jesus
Christ saved you and the Holy Spirit entered your heart. This is the thing, there are literally
millions of people, there are hundreds of thousands of people within a 5 mile radius of this
property who do not know Jesus Christ. They don’t know Him at all. Odds are that one of them’s
going to die today; actually possibly several more than that are going to die today and are going
to spend eternity…we tend to separate ourselves from that; we tend to not think about that. But
the truth is that just a few hundred feet from this building somebody will probably die today.
Why? Just statistically, it’s probably going to happen. And those people, statistically, do not
know Jesus Christ. And not statistically, truthfully, realistically, they will die and spend eternity
apart from Him; devoid of grace and we are His people. We have and Paul says, “This treasure in
earthen vessels.” But it’s still a treasure. What we need to ask God to do is, “God, there’s this
treasure inside this vessel,” and maybe some of us, some people might try to pour it, and we
can’t really figure out how to get it out of there; some just might try to shake it and do it but you
know, many of us you know what we need God to do? We have this treasure in earthen vessels;
we need God to just take a hammer and break us. Breaks us so that it can be used; so that it can
be spread everywhere. So what does it look like for God to break you? When God breaks you,
He makes you recognize the fact that you have the cure for the problem that this world suffers
from. You have the gospel. You know Jesus Christ and there are so many people who do not and
Paul says, “To be established and blamelessness and holiness you must be marked by love for
one another.” Sometimes we think that gets us by, but it doesn’t. He said that, “I want you to
abound and overflow in love for one another but love for everybody out there too.” That means
you have to love your neighbor who won’t cut his grass. You have to love the person across the
street whose dog keeps coming and tearing stuff up in your yard. You have to love them! What
does that mean? It means to share the everlasting, loving, saving gospel of Jesus Christ with
them if they don’t know Him. Is inviting them to church a good thing? Absolutely it’s a good
thing! Is inviting them to Bible study? Absolutely it’s a good thing! But we’ve already
established that coming to church and coming to Bible study doesn’t save you. The gospel of
Jesus Christ saves you and you need to show the love of Jesus Christ to them where your willing
to go above and beyond to do things for them for no reason other than this. They look at you and
go, “Wow, that guys different; that ladies different! There’s something about them!” You know
what it is? It’s that you are being established in holiness because of your love for others and that
is the characteristic that marks the believer. Why? Because Paul says, “When everything’s done
and all things are washed away, there will be these three that will remain: faith, hope and love.”
Remember he says that; tells them, “I remember your faith that works, your love that labors, and
your hope that is steadfast. Faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love.” He says, “I want
you to abound in this.” This is what God’s people are supposed to be - we’re supposed to be a
people of faith, a people of great love and a people of holiness. If we want to be established as
God’s people; if we want to be established as a light on this hill for all the world to see and be
drawn to Christ; if we want to be established by that, then we have to show love for one another
and love for everyone out there by doing the greatest thing we can for them and that is bringing
the gospel to them. If you don’t know Jesus Christ this morning, you can. The greatest act that
God did to show you His love was to send His Son to die on the cross to pay for your sins, when
He didn’t have to, He didn’t have to do it, but He did; He sent His Son to die on the cross and
then the greatest act of love that He showed His Son is that He raised Him from the dead
showing that the price He paid on the cross was enough to pay for your sin and my sin. The
scripture says, “If you repent of your sin and turn from it and you believe in Jesus Christ that He
will grant you the gift of the Holy Spirit and He will forgive you if you trust in Him, believe in
Him. Say, “You’re my Lord; you’re my master; I’m done ruling my life, I want you to have it, I
want you to do it.” And if you’re a believer in this room today, maybe this earthen vessel that’s
filled with this wonderful treasure; maybe this morning, your prayer needs to simply be, “God,
break me so that I can see, the treasure I have; the hopelessness this world lives in and the fact
that I could be used even in a small part to show your love to them. Forgive me for not doing it
before and God give me the strength and grace to do it.” Let us pray …