Paul Washer | The Results of Selfless Love | Christ Church Radford

please open up your Bibles to first Thessalonians we'll be in Traktor 3 and we'll be beginning in verse 9 and make our way through the rest of the of the chapter first thessalonians chapter 3 verse 9 for what thinks can we render to God for you and return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face and may complete what is lacking in your faith now may our God and Father himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and for all people just as we also do for you so that he may establish your hearts without blame and holiness before our God and father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all the saints let's pray father I come before you with an exceptional burden at least on my part Lord this passage has revealed so much this week to me and about me now such a small passage Lord could be like a hammer and if the scripture is my friend then I have been wounded by a friend this week but O Lord thank you so much for your word knowing what I've learned Lord I know that the change is not going to be wrought in a day or a week but I pray Lord that you would teach me to love and teach our congregation to love as Christ loved as Paul the Apostle sought to imitate your son that we would love in Jesus name Amen I counted one of the greatest privileges of my life to have spent the last couple of weeks with you teaching you it means more to me to be able to teach here than it does anywhere else in the world what I'm going to teach tonight is it's not going to be pretty I'm going to be eloquent I don't even know if there'll be much power or sense in it all but I can tell you that rightly understanding this passage I won't say that it transforms your life immediately but I will say it it's like a hammer that like a light that exposes things that are wrong like a hammer that knocks you back into the place where you ought to be or at least begins to knock you back there you know years ago I read the voyage of the Dawn Treader and the Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis and they find a man as they're in the boat and they're travelling making this long sea journey they find a man in this pitch-black darkness and he's utterly terrified I mean he is beyond terror he's pale with terror he's insane with terror and when they pull him out of the water their question is you know what has terrified yourself and he's saying flee flee this darkness why why should we flee we're brave men were sailors and he says no flee they said why and he said this is the place where all your dreams come true and as the sailors heard that they were smiling they were Wow all right what why would we run from this and he says you don't understand this is the place where all your dreams come true and at that moment you saw the joy on the sailors faces turn into terror why because something they thought they understood they didn't understand in the moment they understood it really understood it it just literally came like a cataclysmic flood like a fireball out of heaven and they turned around and they ran for everything they were worth well that's kind of the way this passage has been I hope that this passage is for you we say that it really is in the Christian life all about love that it's all about selfless love and we can say that over and over and over and never really truly even begin to understand what we're saying it just becomes cliche and then every once in a while it's like God just kind of pulls back the curtain and you go what have I been saying if this is true it doesn't make the Christian life easy makes it impossible apart from the Spirit of God and it makes entrance into heaven oh the law all the requirements of the law they pale in their demands compared to this one thing to love because the one who is loved has kept all the law of God you get support where you sit there and go I'm not mature because of my theological complexity I'm not mature because I understand certain things and teach them to the Saints I'm only mature to the degree that I love so we're going to look I'm going to lash myself to my notes there's so many things here I want to say I don't think I'll say them clearly but pray and pray that God will open up your heart and mine to see something that once you see it you're going to be glad you saw it and then at the same time you're going to wish you hadn't seen it because you see the demands of the Christian life and it really is all about love selfless love and I want us to look at four results tonight in our passage of selfless love one is joy in others joy in others the other is Thanksgiving for others the other is prayer on behalf of others and then finally ministry to others for things that we see in this passage that are the result of a heart that loves as the Lord Jesus loved that loves as the Apostle Paul sought to love and so let's look at that let's begin in verse 9 for what things can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account if we truly love then when we see spiritual progress and blessing in the people of God as a congregation like this or in the life of a single individual it will lead to inward joy it'll make us forget about us and lead to energy and that energy will lead to a manifestation a visible rejoicing do you see that how can you know if you really love when you look at your brothers and sisters in Christ are you so concerned for them are you all wrapped up in your own concern how do you know that you love it's when you see them grow you see them learn you see them progress in the faith you have joy unspeakable because your life is no longer about you it's about them it's about about others here in this text I think it's very important that Paul uses the word joy and rejoice the Greek word Chara is the noun form of joy but then he takes the verb form of that noun Kaido and it's like he's I don't know he's like just almost repeating himself I I rejoice with joy I'm rejoicing in joy I joy in joy he's doing everything in his power to emphasize the joy that is in his heart because of other people now I'm not like that so I know a lot you can't get the the first thing down you know a lot but maybe you're so caught up in yourself thinking about you that when when you you don't even look or I don't even look at what's happening in other people so what I'd like Christianity 101 and I've already failed my love your love is manifested when we have joy even though we're suffering we have joy because we look out and we see the beautiful thing that God is doing in other people's lives in our church in individuals you see that kind of joy can only come when you're not distracted with self you see that when you're always looking at others you're concerned about others now he also says joy here in verse 9 and I find this kind of interesting he says the joy with which we rejoice before our God now I know we read that we think rejoicing before our God but let's put that in the context of Isaiah 6 in the year the King Uzziah died I saw so the Lord High and lifted up in his train train of his robe filled the temple and above him stood the Seraphim each one having with two wings each one having six wings and with two wings they covered their face and with two wings they covered their feet and was two they did fly and they cried to one another holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and opposed to the door moved at the voice of him who cried and the house was filled with smoke then said I was me I'm undone now here is this godly Isaiah in the presence of this castle always in this kind of God this holy holy God and yet Paul is saying that he's rejoicing before this God unhindered extravagantly lavishly he is rejoicing in the presence of God without embarrassment without shame and you say yes Paul that's because of the finished work of Christ on his behalf and his comprehension of that yes but there's another reason you see he was wild with joy before the presence of his God but that emotion that joy came out of a heart of selfless love the end of all the commandments is to love as Jesus loved love fulfills the law this was a a pure and blameless emotion because it wasn't caught up in self but it was the result of his great concern for others I mean the idea here is almost I think sometimes of David you know as he's dancing and rejoicing before the Lord it's scandalous to most in Israel but to God it's pleasing because it was this heart that was just full of thanksgiving for God in this case it's a heart Paul's heart full of Thanksgiving to God but because of what God had done not for Paul but for what he'd done for others I mean if my whole world was crashing down around me but my brothers and sisters in Christ were prospering I asked myself this question would I have this kind of joy because that's the measurement of whether or not I truly love isn't it it really is I'm also reminded of John's attitude when he wrote in 3rd John 1:4 I have no greater joy than this than what and my children but I hear that they're walking in the truth no greater joy you can't take away my joy even here on the Isle of Patmos because I hear that my children are walking in the truth that God's children are oh ok they're doing all right you see the selflessness that's there now the main point that I want to make here in this is that inexpressible joy is only possible to the degree that you and I grow in selfless love a mean stingy self-centered heart does not have the capacity for this kind of joy it doesn't know let me give you an example from a friend of mine that I haven't seen in years but I'll never forget him Marty Brown and he's a pastor in Paducah Kentucky I think he may still be pastoring there that's and and he because of an operation and a mistake that a doctor made he had to be sent to Nashville and he was literally laying in his deathbed full of infection in his throat terrible terrible pain and I found out as soon as I got back from Peru us in the airport someone called Marty's in the hospital he could die his pain is extraordinary could you go visit him and I'll never forget walking into that hospital room and Marty his classical clapping his hands together like this he's laying there on his back in horrifying pain tubes and wires and everything he looks as he hears the door open and his face lights up I'll never forget this and he goes oh oh praise God that I see your face oh brother Paul I've been so worried about you in Peru I'm so glad that you're okay and he went on and on and on and it's one of those lives where you sit there and go he's never gonna be a famous preacher he's never gonna write a book I can't carry this guy's sandals why I mean everything I talk about it's a reality in him we all just think we're in a competition to know more the guy who knows the most gets to go speak in all the conference's it just shows you how skewed everything is you see that now I don't want to leave you with this but without any help so I want to say two things one it's a benefit it is a great benefit to learn to love like this it is a great benefit to you to the degree that you increase in selflessness not thinking about you to that degree your capacity for joy grows exponentially you see everything that Jesus commands and demands of you is for your benefit another thing I want to just talk about how a brother Paul you're telling us we ought to do this how do we do it first of all I want to say this renewing the mind I'm sorry I can't we can't get past that first step it begins and renewing the mind you're not going to hear about love like this in the secular world from fallen men it's ludicrous it's crazy it's unnatural so we got to go to the scriptures and we've got to renew our mind second thing we must do is repent of self-love when you see it go after it like Israel was to go after the the Philistines the Canaanites go after it with a sword give it no mercy because it'll show you none let's kill it not because you want to be a morbid type of hermit but because you want joy you know this thing is going to kill your joy so kill it first just kill it also crying out to God prayer because regardless of all the wisdom about you may know the doctrine of love inside and out but without prayer you'll not have the power to live it also persevering in relationships especially the difficult ones it's the training ground relationships or the training ground for this kind of love and especially the difficult ones let me give you an example have you ever noticed a parent of a severely challenged child I have I've seen a few and I hope you've seen the same thing being in that relationship with that severely challenged or handicapped child did something to them they were just different I don't want anybody to write me and say I've got bad theology but common grace I think will allow me to say I've even seen this in unbelievers especially a lot of times when there's a severely challenged child and the father decides he's had enough and just leaves and there's the woman alone all her life dedicated to feeding bathing taking care of this child with almost no benefit being received and the person is somehow transformed also marriage relationship this whole idea of compatibility is so so wrong God for the most part brings two people together who aren't compatible at all why so if they learn unconditional love they learn this kind of love and see even if your marriage isn't exactly where you want it to be let me share something the first thing the enemy is going to do in your life is say it's meaningless your years are passing and it's meaningless no it's not every rasp of that bad relationship is changing you is changing you now so it's joy that is one of the results of selfless love now another result is thankfulness for others thankfulness in verse 9 again for what things can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account the joy in our lives that result from us seeing God work in other people in the people that we love it leads to a sense of permanent indebtedness to God a debt from which we'll never be free a which is paid by Thanksgiving and by service now brothers and sisters in Christ when I look at the life of the Apostle Paul and his writings in the life of other men when I look at 2,000 years of church history and the sages that have come and gone that did not write inspired but left us indeed something that was beneficial I have found this that thankfulness is the hallmark of godly men and women Thanksgiving is the hallmark of godly men and women holds your place in first Thessalonians and just run over to Colossians just go to your left one book Colossians look at 3:16 let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with songs and hymns and spiritual songs singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks through him to God Paul you already said that yeah I'm saying it again the thankfulness permeates the life of the godly look in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 in the book that we're studying look at verse 16 rejoice always always in the Greek means always that meant something else I guess they would have put something else it means always it's an attitude of constant joy pray without ceasing and every thing give thanks look at that Paul was talking about rejoicing he was talking about Thanksgiving and now at the end of the book he's doing the same thing he's commanding us to rejoice always Paul even when I'm in prison yeah thankfulness even when my back is bloody from the whip yes why reasons without number reasons without number and then he says and everything gives thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus why because God has some need to be thanked all the time no because that attitude is what gives us the capacity for joy when we see all that God has done is doing we'll do what does it lead to oh I'm the most blessed I'm the most blessed praise the Lord thank you lord thank you for what you're doing in your people thank you that I can be a part of it thank you that I'm here thank you thank you thank you and then if necessary go to the lowest realm of why you should be thankful to God why are you so thankful to God I'm not in hell thankfulness always and then he says do not quench the spirit do not despise prophetic utterance now I know that the quenching of the Spirit can have something to do with despising the Word of God when it's preached but it's also linked back to this idea of thankfulness and rejoicing it's the very opposite of what the spirit would have of us we should be thankful we should be rejoicing and then he says he says for what thinks can we render to God I want you to notice something here God receives the glory the steadfastness and faithfulness of the Thessalonians Paul does not attribute it to their dedication and devotion nor does Paul attribute their steadfastness to his own ministry but he attributes it to whom to God all to God comes from God goes back to God it's all God God's done it all God's done it all sometimes people have this idea that when they go to heaven you know if someone will walk up to them and say you know hey what did you do on earth I don't really think that'll be the thing it's all about what God did for us on earth give me your testimony my testimony it's the same as everyone else's here God but God God and God alone well don't you want to talk about something else why God in God alone now there's so much that we could study here but we just don't have the time I'm going to go on I want to give you a quote by Hebert and if you ever going to study first and second Thessalonians I recommend getting Hebert he says what by human standards would have been regarded as a triumph for the missionaries what is that that under persecution the Thessalonians continued their converts stuck you know you can hear preachers I've heard them say that my converts they stick my converts are real oh really by what what by human standards would have been regarded as a triumph for the missionaries Paul humbly acknowledges to be the work of God let Christian workers beware of taking credit for results only God can produce now you parents those of you dot every I cross every T and your children our showcase if there's any of us like that in here know this be careful because God would sooner promote parents who were humble and did none of the right things you do rather than a proud man who does all the right things but is proud here's something that I want you to see when you take credit you are expecting the Thanksgiving that belongs to God to be redirected to you or you're saying that it ought to be directed to God and you as though you dwelt in some kind of conjunctive relationship with God and that's a monster you can't feed always wanting Thanksgiving always wanting praise always wanting to be recognized very very dangerous it will not add to your joy it'll take away from your joy our attitude should be like the psalmist in 1:15 one not unto us O Lord not unto us but to your name give glory because of your loving-kindness because of your truth everything good that we see in ourselves in our individual brothers and sisters in Christ in the church has to do with God's loving-kindness and truth all glory all praise be to him if you can ever if you're ever supposedly used of God to create a big ministry or a big church or something and then you can write a book about how you did it well that doesn't match up very well with the Scriptures it's about how God did it it's about how God did it now he says also on your account on your account look at that in three verse nine we rejoice before our God on your account literally because of you and you here and I want to emphasize this is plural Paul was giving thanks for what for all of them not just the spiritually elite not just those who contributed to the advancement of the church not just those who were you know doing their part carrying their load we're a blessing to others know he's even given thanks to those who are kind of like weights sponges those that are needy those that are broken for all of them again it's something I said at the very beginning of this study several weeks ago and it's this you see anybody converted even the least Saint even the most troubled Saint even the most immature and they're truly converted that is a miracle greater than the very creation of the cosmos and for that we ought to give things I'll never forget one time I walked in to do a to preach at this university and this church had put it on and I knew the pastor who was partly responsible and as I walked in there was a praise band and they were kind of all really cool I mean you know blue jeans with holes in the knees and and their hair was kind of long and one of them looked kind of like Keith Greene really all bearded up and and everything and and this guy the pastor he comes he goes broad Paul you know this might two of my children up there and you know I hope that that's you know doesn't bother you they're kind of shaggy I said brother what kind of monster do you think I am I said brother I'd give everything I own everything I am for my children when they grow up to be what I see in the faces of your children that God was banging on a guitar pretty loud but his face was glowing that girl she was singing she was something tears running right down her face I don't care about the rest you've got everything to be thankful for everything to be thankful for the smallest of his mercies is worth the lifetime and eternity of Thanksgiving now it's your life marked by that kind of Thanksgiving you say no okay I don't want to leave you in the cold what should you do you should do what Israel was constantly commanded to do go back and look at God's redemptive history in your life you know the old song I know it's corny count your blessings name them one by one think about what you were think about what he's made you think about how he's rescued you think about every good and perfect gift that is in your life comes from him Oh thankful thankful thankful now another thing is prayer on behalf of others prayer look at verses 10 and 13 10 through 13 especially verse 10 he says as we night and day keep praying most earnestly now there is no way to give more emphasis to the place of prayer in Paul's life first of all he says day and night the genitive here is probably would be best interpreted to say we were praying by night and by day it doesn't mean he prayed 24 hours a day it just means through the long hours of the day through the long hours of the night you could find Paul involved in prayer it was a style of life for him it was like breathing for him you would see him at different times during the day and even times during the night and that he would be praying Garrard says this and just think about this and compare your life to this it is evident from st. Paul's epistles that a very large part of his private life was occupied in prayer and Thanksgiving a very large part of his private life was occupied in prayer and Thanksgiving now I don't want to dissect Garrett here are doing exegesis of what he just said but let me just say this he says prayer and Thanksgiving and I just want to make this small remark the idea here prayer has more to do with intercession on behalf of men Thanksgiving kind of has more to do with ministry to God and this is a part where many evangelical and reformed believers really miss it that there is a real calling for us to minister to God I mean in heaven what do they do they're ministering unto God and we've been called to join that marvelous band of saints and angels and that as we on our knees just thanking him what are we doing we're ministering offering praise were ministering unto God now also the continuity or the the place of Prayer and the life of Paul is also seen in the phrase keep praying it is a present tense participle indicating continuous action a style of life can you begin to see how much Paul prayed and how prayer was a part of his life but also know this it wasn't so much a discipline as it was flowing out from real love from real love also usually the word Pro sukima is used with regard to prayer that's a very common word for prayer here he uses dilma which literally means ask beseech or beg we don't need to get caught up I want to say this right we do not need to get caught up in some erroneous idea that to constantly be begging or asking God shows some sort of greedy or piggish spirit yeah piggish really is a word I just met so many people who said well you know I don't ask things from God as though that was sort of spiritual but we shouldn't be asking for ourselves all the time but we should ask for ourselves every need but we should also abundant ly be asking for others listen to what he says in Psalms he Psalms 81 10 I am the Lord I the LORD am your God who brought you up from the land of Egypt open your mouth wide and I will fill it he's saying I'm God I redeemed you there's nothing greater I could do for you I have redeemed you now do you think I'm gonna withhold things from you hoping your mouth proves me on this prove me on this now listen to Romans 8:32 if you want a New Testament verse he who did not spare his own son Redemption but delivered him over for us all a Redemption that cost a lot more than pulling a bunch of people out of Egypt how will he not also with him freely give us all things this idea of believing God asking God Paul said I kept praying I kept asking and then he uses the phrase most earnestly now just listen to what this this this word is a double triple compound word it has a root and two suffixes but we're going to look at the root and then the most important suffix first of all the root petty soz what does it mean it means abundant excessive extreme how is he talking about his prayer life his prayer life was abundant excessive and extreme but now there's a suffix that goes on to that ooh better re per depending on how you want to use old or young or new pronunciation of Greek I prefer Eber because it has the idea of hyper that's where we get that idea and what he's saying he puts that with petty Soze and what he's actually saying hyper means over or beyond so he's saying I keep praying for you beyond abundant beyond excessive my prayer life is beyond abundant my prayer life is beyond excessive my prayer life is beyond extreme my prayer life for you is beyond beyond now how do we fall short of that now I'm going to save you from the from the grass of kind of I don't know a pragmatic or materialistic or discipline prayer has an element of discipline but here's what I want you to see don't go home and necessarily throw yourself into prayer but go and look at the motive the thing that's pushing Paul and what is it love selfless love let's deal with the root of the problem and that root of the problem is selfless love now the only other place this word is used is in Ephesians 3:20 and listen just listen as I read the text now to him who is able to do far more abundantly same word beyond look at that far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us it was God's promise of super abundant blessing that led to Paul's super abundant praying do you see that it was just this impetus because it's like you know even Spurgeon says you know it's like just a checkbook all signed by God fill in the blank now I know that wrong doctrine can take what Spurgeon said and twist it into something horrible and distorted but nonetheless the way he said it in that context is right open your mouth ask for yourself ask for your family ask for your children ask for the people of God ask and keep asking over beyond abundant beyond extreme no I just wanted a couple of thoughts here this is not a hyperbole or an exaggeration Paul's not trying to just speak of Angela sztyc Allah this is true and here's what I want you to see is Paul saw prayer along with the Word of God as the chief means of advancing the kingdom of heaven not only in the lives of individuals but in mass in the church as a whole old preachers used to say all the time boy the battle is won in prayer preaching is just clean up activities clean up the battle is won in prayer now I want to point something out that pastor Anthony pointed out Sunday that just literally I almost sometimes I don't know how to deal with you people because I want to start jumping up and clapping and screaming and everything else and you guys just sit there all proper and reformed but I want you to notice that Paul considered himself to be indebted to God to a point that he would never be able to repay him he was indebted to God for all that God all the prayers God had answered all the things got into Paul considered him total considered himself totally indebted to God and never getting out of debt but he keeps asking for more he keeps asking for more you know you go to someone over and over and over and you almost you get some sort a sense of shame they've done so much for me how can I go back and ask for more that is contrary to biblical Christian thought but the idea is he's done so much will he not do more can he be exhausted can his glory can his kindness can his graciousness can it be emptied out absolutely not so if he's done so much in your life you haven't even touched the foothills of this Everest of the kindness of God he's saying don't stop don't get content with my blessing in your life don't get content with how much I've used you don't get content now again I know every time I preach this way I think oh gosh then back on my mind I'm thinking TV evangelists and prosperity gospel but I'm not going to allow them to rob for me what the scripture is actually saying because I'm not saying I'm not asking for a new car or a new house I'm asking for a greater sense of his presence greater power and ministry in order to advance his kingdom the good stuff not the little stop no his brother Anthony pointed out you know but Moses here I mean - what else can you do he's got the biggest ministry in the Old Testament the biggest ministries in the world ever what does it just show you you've been converted you can have the whole world you can have the whole ministry you can have it all and it won't won't you won't be content you see if you've been a if you've become a Christian you become a new creature with new desires that are so high if they took the world away from you it couldn't you said and if they gave you the world it couldn't make you content and all the ministry in the world cannot make you content what can make you content God's presence God's presence now how do we develop a capacity for prayer because I never want to tell you these things and then just kind of leave you one recognition of inability recognition of our inability now you can learn this the easy way or you can be like me and learn this the hard way you'll probably be like me and do a little of both now what do I mean how can you learn about your inability well you can do it the easy way you can just believe what God says about you that the flesh profits nothing that in ourselves we can do nothing that apart from him we can bear no fruit you can just go ahead and believe that or you can learn it the hard way go out there and do just a whole bunch of stuff in your own power your own wisdom your own scheming and plans and watch it come to nothing as a I've said you can do it the easy way or the hard way but the first thing is recognize your inability the second is recognition of the power of prayer I really want to encourage you to see how God answers prayer in the Old Testament but here's something else I want you to also see how God has answered prayer throughout church history now why is that important because sometimes we make this division that's unhealthy we go yeah that was in the Old Testament or yeah that was in the New Testament or yeah that was with the Apostles now it's different no it's not that's why it's so helpful to read books like the autobiography of George Mueller our to read Ian bounds our other works on prayer the return of prayers is another excellent book so that you can see no this continues on it really does he hasn't been exhausted he never will be no one has taken him as serious as he should be taken with regard to his inexhaustible supply now to whom is the prayer Oh another thing not only a recognition of the of prayer but disciplining ourselves to set times of prayer sometimes I'll meet people and they go well I don't really pray you know like a specific time I just pray all the time I am I'm sorry I just don't really believe that I believe that the capacity to pray without ceasing to make prayer like breath is learned through disciplined meeting with God I do believe there are disciplines in the Christian life and that we need to deny our flesh and here's something the flesh hates the study of Scripture but I think this flesh would rather study Scripture than pray because at least the flesh can boast and knowledge has nothing to boast about in prayer unless of course you go proclaim to everybody just how long you're praying now to whom is the prayer raised look in verse 11 now may our God and Father himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you now let me just share with you something first of all to unite the Father and Jesus equally as objects of prayer now that is evidence of deity you see that you know everywhere you look in the scriptures is just evidence of Christ deity you don't put somebody less than God in this kind of a conjunctive relationship also I want to point out something I just had never seen this before it's true I've checked it with some Greek scholars it's really true it's amazing look at it says the father and son okay you see in our passage now may our God and Father himself and Jesus our Lord so what do we have here a plurality don't we we have two individuals two persons real persons of the Trinity two persons plural but the verb direct in Greek is singular they say well what does that mean well if you have a plural subject you're going to have a plural verb the fact that they have a plural subject and singular verb is teaching us what Jesus always said he and the father are one here we see in the scriptures in the New Testament clear as a bell both the plurality the plurality of God and the persons of God God is one that the father and the son are one now what does Paul pray for first of all he prays for greater communion with believers that we may see your face first and Paul was not content with anything but faced the face communion with these people why because he loved them he loved them now I want to ask some questions what is the typical answer to this question why aren't you coming to church isn't the typical answer well I'm not getting anything out of it or my needs aren't being met I I now I do agree should I be going to a church where you're not being fed the Scriptures but that I I think sometimes appears just too much and our reason for being down on the church because I'm just not getting fed or I'm being neglected when was the last time you heard this when you ask somebody are you heard someone ask somebody why aren't you why haven't you been in church the person says I've just run out of people to minister to and bless when was the last time you heard something like that or when was the last time you heard I have run out of things to talk about with regard to God in Jesus Christ I think I've exhausted every subject now do you see how our neglect of the people of God is just a reflection of our lack of selfless love lack of love now I want to show you something here that it's not running a rabbit it's in the text and it's going to really I think encourage you because it has me in verse 10 he says that we may see your face what is Paul praying about he wants to see their face why is Paul so shook up in chapter 2 he does not see their face he does not know what's going on and what does Paul do he prays I want to see your face now what do we learn from this book Paul is hindered by whom by Satan Satan is working overtime to keep Paul from these Thessalonians you see that so Paul's praying I want to see your face the devil is hindering him to the point where he's not going Paul's not going to Thessalonica the devil has hindered him and so the devil is parading around victory victory victory let me show you how God mocks the wicked Paul didn't make it to the Thessalonians at least up to this point the devil is all smiles but because the devil won we now have two epistles first and second Thessalonians that for 2,000 years have strengthened believers all over the world so as yes all of hell is prancing around victory victory victory there's a clearing of the throat have you noticed two letters have been written that I will preserve not only for the church in Thessalonica but for my people of all time become a part of that canon of that immutable word and served to save people and bless people and encourage people for thousands of years God knows how to mock the wicked doesn't he he's not going to be be as one Puritans said can roll with all your might against the will of God and you'll only find yourself a row with all your might away from the will of God only to find that you've rode right into it he wins always always now also he a prayer for opportunity to minister in verse 10 that we may complete what is lacking in your faith now we'll look at this in just a little bit later I'm sorry this is going on but I really want to get through this chapter and it's all together but the one thing that that I want to point out here is just that Paul does not want this communion for personal gratification he wants this so he can complete what's lacking in other people's faith and that's another reason why we come to church isn't it it should be to minister to one another and I know there's a lot of churches very good churches they don't have a meal afterwards maybe they're too large but we not only have a meeting here we have our fellowship meal and you know a lot of people come to me they complain say brother Paul I have a secular job I never get to talk about Jesus I never get to minister but then you come to the church and they continue talking about secular things and I think that we need to be more intentional about wow I get this couple hours because I mean you guys sometimes stay here just on and on and on I've got a couple hours here I can do what I've wanted to do all week I can minister to people now having said that let's not create some kind of task force that's going around listening to conversations okay someone talks about a baseball game and all of a sudden you stand up and start preaching like whitfill at them don't do that that's not what I'm talking about but all of us and our conscience and prayerfully trying to be a little bit more intentional on that now here's a big thing here he also praised that believers will grow in love look at verse 12 and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound and love for one another and for all people just as we also do for you so that he may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ first of all who is the author of Christian love it is God Hebert says this the missionaries are well aware that the spiritual growth and development of the readers is not dependent upon their ability to return but is in the Lord's hands Paul says here may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love it is ultimately the work of God and that is why prayer is so important is it not the will of God specifically stated in the scriptures that we all increase in love is that not his will it is you don't need a special word from God it's what God says in his word his desires that we all grow in love now if we pray according to his will and he hears us he'll answer listen to what John says in 1st John 5:14 and 15 this is the confidence which we have before him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us and if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask we know that we have the requests which we have asked from him there are certain things brothers and sisters in Christ that are in the Word of God they're there their commands if their commands they're God's will we should pray these things for our congregation we know it's God's will that we abound in love we know that's the root of all true virtue love for God love for men now let's look at the measure of that love he says increase and abound and love the idea is this I want you to increase in love until you are super abounding until you are overflowing it's not a miserly or meagerly love I love the word lavished the grace with which he graced us he lavished upon us he doesn't do things meagerly just pouring it out and that's the kind of love that we have here it's not a love that just meets the demand okay it's a love that goes beyond the and notice this in some of the epistles we get this idea where God does not meet our need according to the need God meets our need according to his sufficiency according to his riches and glory so the idea here is that we abound in so much love that it's like pouring love into the lap of a person and then it's just falling all over the floor spreading upon everything we could almost call it an extravagant wasteful love just throwing it everywhere Hebert says love overflowing love's overflowing presence is the tangible evidence of a robust faith now the extension for one another and for all people literally for one another and for all he leaves it open-ended to love everyone our brothers and sisters in Christ is one circle everybody else in the other circle to love every one this is what baffled and eventually conquered the entire Roman Empire the Roman authorities you read history they didn't talk about why we it's amazing the miracles they didn't talk about that didn't talk about blind people seeing or lame people walking or anything do you know what they talked about how do these people love like this I mean after all their sin thien's Greeks Jews poor rich those with authority those under Authority slaves Freeman and they're all together they have nothing in common and they love each other to the point of offering life for life and then they love their enemies this is what was it to paint it wasn't apologetics even though it has its place and it's a wonderful thing it was this extraordinary expression of love now let's look at the goal verse 13 we're getting close to the end so that he may establish hearts without blame and holiness before our God and father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints now I want to read what I've written here because I want to be very precise if you look at this it's kind of difficult that were to abound and love so that he may establish our hearts without blame in holiness in his presence at the coming of Christ I mean how does that work well here's the way that I see it and in other commentary writers and scholars much wiser than I would vouch for the same interpretation Christ increases as we pray Christ increases the believers love for God and for man this love strengthens our establish establish as the heart in that it makes it more resistant to sin which would demonstrate lovelessness to God and man so you like strengthens the heart with love and this love for God and for men makes you resistant to the temptation to sin against God and against men in turn this love also strengthens our establishes the heart making it more prone to desire the righteousness which would most show love to God and men and I've written here true biblical love for God and man is the great route to a blameless and holy life apart from it there is no holiness apart from love there is no holiness thus the heart that loves in this way will have little to fear on the day of judgment now let me read some beautiful things from some men Barnes writes the idea is that if charity were diffused through their hearts if love flowed through their hearts they would abound in every virtue and would be at length found blameless that it's love that leads us to obey God and to benefit men Matthew Poole writes in a negative way the hypocrite will fall in an hour from temptation because he wants or lacks love what makes you strong against the temptation to sin love you Tim Tait you're tempted to sin but you don't because how can I do this and love God a man is tempted to some immorality it's love for God love for his wife love for his children love for his brothers and sisters in Christ that says no no it's love D Michael Martin writes and this is beautiful blameless sanctified hearts can only grow and bloom in the soil of a genuine and abundant love you see that the church today needs this message but it is a message now listen I'm not an elder here but I am a preacher I am older than most of you so this fits me fits Anthony fits mark it's the Deacons and that's why I want to lay this at our feet the church today needs this message but it is a message they must see their leaders live not just hear them proclaim to be true to the scriptures today's apostles he puts in ministers what he means today's ministers must demonstrate by their action that love lists Christianity is an oxymoron then a gospel lacking love is a heresy and that true Christian maturity is measured by the character of one's love not the complexity of one's theology guys an MIT program guys studying to be meant that yes you ought to know that theology it's foundational they take nothing from it but the complexity of your theology does not prove the maturity of your faith now how can we cultivate this kind of love well one is recognizing that self-love is the greatest enemy of our souls love of self is the greatest enemy to our souls and the greatest hindrance to spiritual growth we must repent of it the hemin Italy and violently now listen to those words I mean you see that spring up just just kill it just kill it attack it with everything you got for those of us who are married just attacking think if we spent more of our time attacking our self we'd spend less time attacking or spouses because ultimately the problem is me and you inside us we got enough to deal with in our own garden another thing is recognizing that selfless biblical love is the fulfillment of all the commands and we must pursue it ravenously i'll give you an idea what that ravenous what that means viciously ravenously pastor Anthony brought a huge box about this big of Girl Scout cookies I don't know where they came from and if you could see let me just put this way so if all of us in the office pursued love as we have pursued those Girl Scout cookies in the last two days would be the most loving men on the planet ravenously look look go after truth go after theology but it's a means to this other thing that if you don't get everything else is worthless it's worthless now through renewing the mind is another thing that is absolutely essential to grow in love or cultivating the mind of Christ through the scriptures now let me say this it is wonderful when this kind of love just flows spontaneously okay and that's that's the goal isn't it to be so filled with the Holy Spirit so transformed in our character that this love just flows blamelessly but sometimes it's not the case sometimes in the moment you're caught there and your mind is engaged and you know you've got to make a decision really it's a battle in the mind it can be it can flow spontaneously but many times the situation presents itself someone is angry with you put out with you impatient with you not giving you what you feel like you deserve everything else it becomes a battle of the mind in that moment you must make a decision and I'm going to say something I thought I would never say one of the things you need to ask yourself is what would Jesus do now just because someone's put that on a bracelet and turned it into something less than profound he always watched his father and he did what his father did you and I should watch the Sun in the scriptures in respond as he responds am i loving at this moment am i loving I've got to make a choice which choice does love demand also by allowing the scriptures to cross examine our deepest motivations listen to this Hebrews 4:12 for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit for both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart I submit to you that this week at least I'm a great example of this passage of what this truth is saying in Hebrews why oh as a minister I would tell you about love I describe love to you I take you to first Corinthians 13 I've memorized it but as I'm reading Paul the Word of God going into joint and marrow and the deepest part of the heart going you're not like this you're not like this you're not like this finally ministry to others is the way we show love and this is just going to be very quick verse 10 we've gone back to as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face and may complete what is lacking in your faith cut but be so is the word and it means to complete or pounce Greek scholar mount says to adjust thoroughly to knit together to unite completely Paul is not saying that their faith is defective he's not saying that what they have is wrong he's saying their faith is deficient that they need to grow and mature in that faith you see the difference now that can be applied to the greatest saint walking on this planet as a matter of fact the plural is used here so that he's saying you're lacking in a bunch of different stuff and again for the most mature among us the most mature walking on this planet I can assure you they are still deficient we are still deficient in many things listen know what John Calvin said we learn from this that those who are far out who far out distance others are still a long way from their goal Paul said this not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus brethren I do not regard myself as having laid a hold of it but one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and reaching toward forward to what lies ahead I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ now is this your heart are you wanting your faith the deficiencies to wane just become more mature well good but let me show you even something better concerned about the faith also of your brothers and sister in Christ's coming here going to each other's homes in order to make up what is deficient now that doesn't mean that you are the gods scope who you know what's wrong with everybody and you're going to fix it it's not saying that you're looking for areas where everyone else is falling apart and you're gonna go fix them that's not the idea the idea is more general is that we all recognize that we have deficiencies and that through our communion and fellowship together without even knowing what those deficiencies are through our communion and dwelling together we grow mutually in regards to how spiritual you think you are or how unspiritual the person that you're with you think is listen to what Paul says for I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you that's not some charismatic gift that's just some spiritual blessing that you may be established that is that I may be encouraged together with you while among you each of us by the others faith both yours and mine it's just it's not that you've spotted something wrong it's just that you know and this is a pleasant thing that you could go to the most mature man or woman on the planet and you could be a new convert and yet by fellowship not only are you going to gain from them but they are going to gain from you let us have this attitude when we come together to do this because what's going to knock over this area yeah we need to do evangelism we need to do a lot of things but it's going to be the love that we have spilled over spilled over all right well let's pray father thank you for your word and thank you for the patience of your people oh dear God and thank you that word I'm just amazed like Sunday was one side of this coin and this one's the other side how it just all kind of came together Lord transform us save us save your people in Jesus name you

Channel: HeartCry Missionary Society

Views: 20,848

Rating: 4.9320989 out of 5

Keywords: paul washer, heartcry, jesus christ, missions, bible, sermons, gospel, missionary, society, god

Id: tATiHjaPPm8

Length: 72min 7sec (4327 seconds)

Published: Tue May 19 2020