Christian Leadership: Insights from 1 Thessalonians

Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church sermon podcast.

We're so glad you're here, and we hope this message inspires you, builds your faith, and

moves you toward a deep relationship with God.

Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible and learn how you can apply it straight

to your life.

So welcome, and enjoy the message.

First Thessalonians chapter 2, in a message I'm calling Christian Leadership.

1 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

Okay.

A couple weeks ago, we started a brand new series going verse by verse through the book of 1 Thessalonians.

And in this letter, the Apostle Paul is writing to a young church in Thessalonica in order to encourage them.

As he does so, as you'll see here in just a moment,

In chapter two, he begins recounting his time with them

because it seems like some people had come along

that who started criticizing the Apostle Paul's ministry.

Now, Paul knew what it was like to be attacked

and criticized.

He was attacked by the Jews.

He was attacked by the Romans.

He was certainly attacked.

by the Judaizers of the day. And the Judaizers were Jews who claimed to be Christians,

but got the gospel all wrong. They said that we are saved by Jesus plus circumcision,

Jesus plus the keeping of the law, Jesus plus rules. And Paul says, no, no, no, we are saved by Jesus

alone.

So let's remember the context for a moment.

In Acts 17, Paul and his team went to Thessalonica

for several weeks and for three Sabbaths,

they went into the synagogue and they declared Jesus.

And some of the people got saved.

In fact, it was mainly God-fearing Greeks.

The Jews, for the most part, rejected the gospel message.

And not only did they reject Jesus,

they stirred the city up into an uproar

and it caused a riot.

And so Paul, Silas, and Timothy,

they were forced to leave the city of Thessalonica.

So they just went to the next city.

Berea. But meanwhile, back in Thessalonica,

these new believers,

they continued to meet and to gather for Bible study and worship and prayer and

fellowship.

Now it's clear from the text that they were radically saved by God.

And so they started telling everyone about Jesus in Thessalonica and beyond.

When that happened,

the enemy, that is the devil, went into attack mode.

And that's something very important for all of us to keep in mind,

especially as God is doing a great work among our church.

Anytime God is doing a great work, the enemy is going to attack.

And that's exactly what he did.

The Thessalonians were attacked from without,

that was with persecution,

but they were also attacked from within

through criticism that threatened to undermine

the Apostle Paul's ministry.

Now, we don't know exactly who was criticizing Paul,

but someone apparently was.

Perhaps it was the Jews who ran him out of town.

Maybe it was the government officials who blamed the city's problems on Paul and Silas and the team.

Maybe it was the Judaizers of the day who got word about what was happening in Thessalonica,

and they swept in to try to destroy the credibility of Paul and his ministry.

We don't know exactly who it was.

But Paul feels the need under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to set the record straight.

And he does so by reminding them of the genuine love and the faithfulness that he and his team displayed while they were with them in Thessalonica.

And today, you and I, we are recipients and beneficiaries of what he wrote.

Because we read in 1 Thessalonians 2.

and we see, we're going to see in just a moment, some key aspects of godly Christian leadership.

And our world is in need of some godly Christian leadership. Amen?

Now, don't panic here.

And don't tune me out thinking, well, I'm not a leader.

I don't even need this message.

Listen, you may not think of yourself as a leader,

but you are.

John Maxwell defined leadership as influence.

And every single human being has influence over someone.

Now, it's not always a positive influence,

but it's influence nonetheless.

And since we all have influence over someone,

that makes all of us, in a sense, leaders.

But the question becomes,

What kind of leaders are we?

In chapter 1, Paul said, he said, you followed us and the Lord.

Let me ask you, if people started following you, would that mean they were also following the Lord?

Or would that mean they were being led astray?

Now, today's message is certainly directed at me as a pastor.

It's directed at all of our pastors, but it's also directed at all of our life group leaders,

every volunteer, every husband and father, every wife and mother, every businessman, school teacher, boss,

every single person who has influence over someone.

We read in verse number one, Paul says,

for you yourselves know, brothers,

that our coming to you was not in vain.

Vain means empty, you're useless, that it was fruitless.

Paul's saying that's not what it was.

Don't believe the criticism.

Our time with you clearly was impactful.

God used it.

You're now walking with God.

Here's our first principle.

Godly leaders love fruitfulness.

It matters that an impact is taking place.

Sometimes Christians will say, well, all God requires of us is faithfulness.

Well, faithfulness is great, but God also wants fruitfulness.

I mean, what wife expects only faithfulness from her husband?

No, certainly she expects faithfulness, but she also expects fruitfulness, productivity.

Do something with your life, right?

God expects the same for you and I.

Jesus said to his disciples, he said, abide, remain in me, and then you'll produce much fruit.

Now, I think the main fruit that Jesus probably had in mind was the fruit of his spirit that's produced within our life.

But the Bible also speaks of the fruit of ministry.

And the fruit of ministry ultimately is the fruit of spirit.

in other people's lives, that fruit is being produced in others.

Now, I quoted this a couple weeks ago, but William Carey, the great missionary, said,

expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.

Paul clearly attempted great things for God in Thessalonica, but he also expected great things.

It was not in vain, he said.

Now, why was that?

It was because God had called him to go there.

And anytime God calls us to do something and we do it, we ought to expect that it will not be in vain.

In fact, Paul told the church in Corinth, he said that our labor for the Lord is never in vain.

It's never empty. It's never without fruit.

Now, you may not be able to see all of the impact that you've had.

Sometimes people work and work for years and even decades.

They don't have the opportunity to see all of the fruit of their labor.

But just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Godly leaders learn to expect that their work for the gospel, the work God is doing through their lives, will bring about fruitfulness that will not be in vain.

Verse number two.

He says,

Not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.

We see here that godly leaders, they're bold with truth in the face of suffering and even conflict.

Now, truth is under attack within our culture, isn't it?

Our culture says that truth is relative.

What's true for you may not be true for me.

What's true for me may not be true for you, that we kind of create our own truth.

If I'm a boy but I identify as a girl, then I'm actually a girl.

That's my truth.

No, that's not what that means.

You're still a boy because truth is not relative, right?

It's absolute.

Mathematically, two plus two equals four.

It's always gonna equal four.

It doesn't matter if you say, well, for me it equals three.

No, it equals four still.

So in our culture, the very concept of truth

is under attack, but in Paul's day,

it was the truth of the gospel,

the good news of Jesus that was under attack.

When Paul and Silas and Timothy were in Philippi,

just before they came to Thessalonica,

Paul and Silas, they cast out a demon

from a slave girl there.

And you'd think everyone would be happy about that,

but they weren't because that slave girl had some owners.

And the owners were profiting from her demon possession.

And so they went to the magistrates of the city

and they stirred up the crowd against Paul and Silas

with their accusation.

And we read in Acts chapter 16,

Acts 16:22

Verse 22, then the multitude rose up together against them.

That's Paul and Silas.

And the magistrates tore off their clothes.

That must have been an embarrassing thing.

And they commanded them to be beaten with rods.

And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison.

That's what Paul had just faced.

And so Paul reminds them all about their suffering before they came to Thessalonica.

And he says, in the face of all of that suffering, all of that conflict,

that's when we shared with you about Jesus without error, without deceit.

Our culture, our world desperately needs some leaders in our homes,

in our schools, in our places of work, and certainly within our government

who are bold to share the truth in the midst of the world,

who rejects it and even hates it, right?

We get attacked as bigots.

Our culture's sort of become an echo chamber

for the worst ideas out there,

so that if someone, anyone claims a truth,

no matter how blatantly untrue it is,

our culture expects us to celebrate it.

But what an incredibly cruel thing for us to do

to celebrate a lie in someone's life.

No, no, no. Our world, what it needs the most is the truth.

Stats will show that depression and anxiety and suicide are on the rise.

Now, I recognize that that's a complex issue.

There's many factors taking place, but certainly.

It's a result of many people being bombarded

with the lies of the enemy,

that he's trying to create a false narrative of this world.

And what our world needs the most

is for someone to tell them the truth with the love of God,

to share with them truth in love.

Jesus said,

and you shall know the truth and the truth shall what?

Set you free.

You guys know your Bible, I love that.

Lies bring about bondage, but truth brings about freedom, doesn't it?

Now, sometimes that's hard, admittedly.

It's hard to tell people things they don't want to hear.

I get that.

Sometimes I'm conflicted.

I struggle with that myself.

I say, Lord, if I say that, I know I'm going to get some emails.

If I say that, I'm going to ruffle some feathers and upset some people.

I don't like that.

You see, I'm the middle child.

I don't know if you knew that, so I'm kind of wired.

Can't we all just get along, right?

Well, yes, we can, but never at the expense of the truth of God's word.

Now, Paul also says in verse number four, we read it a moment ago,

he said that we spoke not as pleasing men, but pleasing God.

We see here that godly leaders, their focus is on pleasing God, not people.

Now, if we could just get that, if we could come to grips with that truth,

that the focus of our life is to please God and not people around us,

that would give us a lot of peace.

That would really simplify our lives.

And Paul knew that.

He said, I can't please everyone.

I mean, it's impossible to please everyone.

So instead, I'm just going to focus all my attention on pleasing God.

You know, parents sometimes struggle with this, being people pleasers or children pleasers.

All of us as parents, we certainly want to make our kids happy.

But unfortunately, our kids learn that and they start manipulating us if we're not careful.

And so one of the keys to becoming a good parent is to learn this little word called know.

You know, sometimes parents, they just don't even know that word exists.

You got to learn it.

Sometimes it's hard.

So maybe you get in front of the mirror, you just practice.

No, no.

Then you go, you have some courage.

No, absolutely not.

No, you know, we've got to tell our kids no at times.

You see, instead of doing whatever is going to make our child happy in the moment,

what we need to focus on is what is going to make God happy.

Our job as parents is not to make our kids happy,

it's to make God happy.

And did you know that whatever makes him happy

is also what's best for our kids?

As a leader, it's so easy to be controlled

by other people's expectations,

whether that's as a parent or a boss or a ministry leader,

when we're supposed to be controlled by God's expectation.

Because Paul reminds us here, he said,

"'It's God actually who's examining and testing our hearts.'"

He's the one we're actually accountable to.

You know what?

God's not trying to trip us up.

Sometimes people think that, well, I'm accountable,

he's trying to trip me up.

No, God wants us to win.

He wants us to succeed.

We're his children.

He's got everything invested in us.

He made us, he loves us.

He died on the cross for our sins.

Jesus did.

His opinion of us is all that really should matter,

not other people's criticism.

I love what John Stott said, and he said,

"'To be accountable to God is to be delivered from the tyranny of human criticism.'"

I love that. I might need to just put that up on my wall so I remember that one.

"'To be accountable to God is to be delivered from the tyranny of human criticism.'"

Now, in verse number four, Paul continues, and he says a little bit more.

We read it a moment ago.

He said, we've been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel.

Godly leaders recognize that they have been entrusted with the gospel message.

Now, Paul had been entrusted with the gospel as an apostle.

None of us are in that category.

But all of us who have trusted Christ have been entrusted with the gospel as a Christian.

If you're a Christian, God has approved for you to be entrusted with the good news of Jesus.

I remember when our kids were much younger,

occasionally we would need a babysitter

and we would be looking for someone

to try to babysit our kids.

And when we did that,

we didn't just entrust our kids to anyone, did we?

No, there was an approval process involved in that.

As we evaluated those people,

we made sure that they understood the weight

of the responsibility we were entrusting to them.

God, in a similar way, has entrusted us with the heavy weight and the wonderful weight of sharing Jesus with people.

Each and every one of us.

We have a circle of influence.

It's not always a position of influence.

Oftentimes, it's just influence within our family, within our neighborhood, our workplace, and beyond.

Right?

And I don't think the people in our lives are there by accident.

God is sovereign.

He has intentionally placed them in our lives for a reason.

And the reason is so we can share Jesus with them.

You see, the gospel, that is the good news of Jesus,

it's the most valuable treasure in all the world.

And God has given it to us, and we hold this treasure.

The good news of Jesus is,

And he's given it to us not to hoard it and keep it to ourselves, but to liberally share it.

So Christian, you've been approved to do that.

It's not that you're approved because you're worthy,

it's because Jesus is worthy,

and God has made you worthy through him.

2 Corinthians 5, verse 20 says,

2 Corinthians 5:20

"'Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ,

"'as though God were pleading through us.

"'We implore you on Christ's behalf,

"'be reconciled to God.'"

Be reconnected to God.

That is our job as Christians.

We're ambassadors not for the United States of America.

We are ambassadors for Christ's kingdom.

We represent the King of kings, the Lord of lords, him and his kingdom.

And as ambassadors, we've been entrusted with the message of Jesus.

In verse number five, he says,

For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know.

nor a cloak for covetousness, which God is our witness.

Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others,

when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.

And skip on down to verse 10.

He says, you are witnesses in God also how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves when we were among you.

Here's our principle.

Godly leaders are authentic.

Right?

Throughout this chapter, Paul keeps having this repeating phrase over and over.

He says, as you know, as you know, as you know, you're witnesses to this.

God also is a witness to this.

We were the real deal among you is what he's saying.

We didn't just talk the talk.

We walked the walk.

And in a moment, Paul also is going to say that we were like nursing mothers among you,

affectionately loving you.

Now, that's a big statement.

Kelsey and I have four kids and I witnessed Kelsey

as she mothered our kids and still mothers them.

I can't think of anything stronger

than a mother's maternal instinct of love

and gentleness and affection,

especially as she's nursing her child.

So how could Paul make such a bold claim

that he was like a nursing mother?

How?

Because it was true.

Paul knew that they knew it was true.

Paul had authentically and genuinely loved

and cared for them so much that we read earlier

in chapter one that now months later,

he says, I'm still praying for you earnestly every day.

As a Christian leader, as a person who's trying

to influence the world around you for Jesus,

nothing is more important than authenticity.

Nothing, whether you're a parent, whether you're a ministry leader, business person,

nothing is more important than authenticity.

Now, the question is, how did Paul love them in that kind of a way,

like a nursing mother loves her children?

Well, it was because he had genuinely, authentically received the love of God in his life

in such a way that he became a conduit of God's love to those around him.

He didn't just kind of go through the motions of love, like, you know, sort of fake it till you make it.

No, he was authentic.

So many people and Christians sometimes focus all of their attention,

all of their energy on mimicking the real deal instead of just becoming the real deal.

It's so much easier to become the real deal because that happens by God's grace.

You know, the old saying says,

more things are caught than are taught.

You can't fake the Christian life for long.

People are going to find out.

People aren't stupid.

And if you're not the real deal Christian,

you may actually do more harm to the gospel than good.

You see, the starting place for leading is always following.

Genuinely, authentically following Jesus.

Verse number 7.

He says, but we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children.

So affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God,

but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.

Here's our principle.

Godly leaders are also transparent.

Right?

I think one of the great travesties of church history

is that in many denominations, in many local churches,

there has been at times a great separation

between the clergy and the layman,

between pastors and the people.

Pastors often get placed on a pedestal by the congregation, which is a big problem because

no one belongs on a pedestal except for Jesus.

Everyone else placed on there is going to fail you and you're going to be hurt in the

process when they're coming down off that pedestal.

Now one of the reasons I think that congregations put their pastor on a pedestal is because

their pastor lets them.

Now, you may not realize that's what he's doing,

but that's what's happening.

If a congregation has put their pastor on a pedestal,

it means the pastor has not led them

with enough transparency,

hasn't sufficiently shared his life openly enough with them

so that they're able to see him for who he actually is,

that he also has warts and faults and shortcomings,

that he too is a real person desperately need

of the grace of God.

Now, whenever that happens,

Who misses out?

Everyone does.

Everyone misses out.

Whether you're a parent or a pastor,

everyone misses out because the pastor

is going to grow more relationally distant.

And in order to...

And he does that in order to live up to that false reality of his life that doesn't exist.

And the congregation is going to miss out on seeing an actual real life model of what it means to follow after Jesus.

Paul said, we didn't just give to you the gospel.

We gave our very lives.

There's an old saying that says people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

The Thessalonians had gotten close enough to the Apostle Paul to see the Christian life lived out and modeled.

To see how one is gentle and loving and strong all at the same time.

Whenever a pastor acts like he's perfect, he's just crippled his ministry.

No one can identify with that. Why? It's not real. It's not real.

What people desperately need is authentic, transparent leadership in our churches, in our homes, our workplaces, everywhere.

Verse number nine, he continues.

He says,

For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil, for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you.

We preach to you the gospel of God.

The New Testament teaches that a pastor who pastors well should be counted worthy of double honor in terms of his pay.

And the Bible says regarding pastors specifically that a laborer is worthy of his wages.

So the expectation was that someone like Paul, who's in ministry, would be supported financially, collectively by the church.

But Paul says, no, no, no.

I didn't receive any financial help from you because I didn't want to become a bird to you as I was preaching.

So I just worked night and day to support ourselves.

Now, we know from other places in the New Testament that the Apostle Paul was a tent maker by trade.

And so he made tents for people to live in.

for a living to support his ministry of going into the world to tell people about Jesus. Now,

why didn't Paul receive financial support there in Thessalonica? Well, I think it's because everyone

there was a brand new believer. This was a new church. New churches are notorious for not being

able to financially support their pastors for a while. They're just, they're baby Christians.

They don't know about financial stewardship and things of that nature. I think that's

One of the reasons why, as a church, we're wanting to plant and start a bunch of churches moving forward.

More than likely, some of those churches are going to need some bivocational pastors for a while because it takes some time.

Here's what we actually see from this verse,

that godly leaders go above and beyond

the standard expectations.

Paul, he could have certainly received support,

but instead he just worked day and night.

Why?

Because the situation at Thessalonica called for it.

And that's what godly leaders do.

They go above and beyond to meet the need.

Jesus, as he's preaching the Sermon on the Mount,

he said, whoever compels you to go one mile,

you go with them too.

You see, in the Roman world in the first century

at that time, a Roman soldier could compel any Jewish man

who he's walking by and he sees him,

he could compel him to carry all of his equipment

and all of his stuff, his gear, for one mile.

And so if he's called on, that man had to draw, he was obligated to drop everything he was doing and to obey.

And Jesus says, if that happens to you, I want you to carry his stuff for one mile and then you carry it a second mile too.

That's where we get the saying in our culture, go the second mile.

That came from Jesus.

It's when a person out of love goes above and beyond what's required and expected.

Godly leaders, that's what we do.

That's what godly leaders do because they're not focused on the bare minimum.

They're not focused even on the status quo.

They're focused on the goal.

What's it going to take to meet the goal?

And I'm not just talking about business goals.

I'm talking about spiritual goals.

And the goal we find from verse number 11 and 12.

He says, as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his own children.

Now here's the goal, the purpose, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

Here's what we see, godly leaders, they help others walk worthy of God.

That's the goal.

No matter what area of leadership or influence that you have within your life,

the goal is to help other people walk with Jesus.

Now, the word worthy here means acceptable or appropriate.

The word walk has to do with live, lifestyle.

So I think what he's saying is my goal was for you to live like you have actually met Jesus.

For what you say you believe to align with how you live.

Now, Paul has said earlier that I was like a nursing mother among you with my affection.

And here he says, I was like a father to you, encouraging you and charging you to walk with God.

And both these metaphors are tender, aren't they?

They're intimate language, imagery.

Paul says, I came to you with the tenderness of a mother and with the strength of a father, comforting and encouraging you.

Now, I think that we often undervalue the importance of encouragement.

Encouragement means to put courage into.

And when we encourage other people,

that's what we're doing.

We're putting courage into them.

Fathers, we have a wonderful opportunity

to put courage into our kids,

and our kids need it, don't they?

They are growing up in a very dark, messed up world.

They need some courage out there.

Fathers, we can do that.

Leaders, influencers, whatever realm of influence

you have in your world, the people around you,

they need some courage placed in them, and you can do that.

In football and certainly in basketball,

there's what's called the home field advantage

and the home court advantage.

Stats will show that most teams have a better home record

than they do an away record.

Now, why is that?

Encouragement.

Encouragement, when they're at home,

all their fans are cheering them on

and it adds a little spark.

It gives them a little courage to keep pressing on.

Admittedly though,

I'm not really great at encouragement.

I've even been told that by people.

When someone tells you that, you've got to recognize,

okay, this must be an area of weakness that I have.

I'm praying that God would help me become more of an encouraging husband and father and pastor.

You know, one of the things that I think Paul did so beautifully well in this chapter was he identified with the pain and the suffering of the people that he was influencing, the Thessalonians.

He knew all the pain and the persecution they were facing.

So he says, hey, when I was in Philippi before I came to you, I also was persecuted.

Paul wanted them to know they're not alone.

You're not alone.

You haven't been forgotten.

And more importantly, God has not forgotten you.

Did you know that God has not forgotten you?

In the midst of whatever pain,

whatever failure you've experienced,

That God sees you, you're not going unseen.

God sees you and he loves you and he cares for you.

You have not been forgotten.

And did you know that you can have a savior

if you'll just call upon him who identifies with you?

He knows exactly what you're going through.

He went through all of it and more.

Hebrews chapter four, verse number 15 says,

for we do not have a high priest, that's Jesus.

who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,

but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Maybe you think, well, no one understands

the temptation that I'm facing.

Listen, Jesus understands.

We say, no one could possibly know the pain

that I'm enduring, Jesus knows.

No one could possibly help me with the mess that I've made of my life.

Listen, Jesus can.

Jesus identifies with your life, and he came to save you,

to rescue us from what we've made of life.

Now, as we wrap up, maybe Christian leadership was the furthest thing from your mind

when you stepped onto our campuses or when you tuned in online today.

Influencing others, that's not on your mind at all.

You've just been thinking about survival.

How do I survive?

How do I get some semblance of peace and rest and hope?

If that's you,

please know that Jesus offers to meet you exactly where you're at today.

He loves you.

No one's ever loved you like Jesus.

The Bible says,

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,

that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

God sees you and he loves you and he offers to meet you right where you're at today.

Now the majority of us in our church here,

that's our story.

We were all in a place where you might find yourself today,

in a place where you just feel the weight of life,

the weight of sin and failure and other people's sin.

It's compounding.

That was our story as well.

And Jesus met us right where we're at.

And he'll meet you right in your pain, in your sin.

And he'll forgive you and give you life and hope and peace and joy.

We want to invite you to experience that today.

Jesus said, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.

Sometimes people walk around their entire life with this heavy weight of their guilt and their regrets.

And it's like, it's this crushing load.

But God did not mean for you to carry that load yourself.

God came to carry the load for you.

See, Jesus will take your load of sin

and He'll put it upon His shoulders,

upon the cross,

and He'll pay for your sin

so that you can be forgiven

and have eternal life.

Now, it could be that you've become a Christian and you've experienced the grace of God,

but in your mind, you think about God's grace, that moment of salvation,

and afterwards, all the failure and all the sin after you became a Christian,

it's weighing on you.

And you're carrying all of these heavy weights that are just crushing you.

God doesn't want his children to walk in such bondage.

He came to lighten our load and to give us freedom.

I want to invite you to do exactly what God said.

He said, cast your cares on him who cares for you.

I want to invite you to take all of that and by faith to confess it to God.

Own it.

Just be honest with him.

He already knows all about it.

Say, God, I'm sorry.

I want to give you this and allow you to forgive me today.

You know what?

God will do just that.

Let's bow together in an attitude of prayer, if you will.

Both here and at Olive Drive, this is a holy moment in the life of a church.

This is a moment when people respond to the truth of God's Word.

and that they respond to the gospel,

which is that Jesus, God's own very Son,

took on flesh, became a human like you and I,

he dwelt among us,

so he could identify with all of our weaknesses,

so he could victoriously do that which we failed to do.

And then the innocent, that is Jesus, willingly died a gruesome, painful death upon the cross to pay for the guilty.

That's us.

And the good news of the Bible is that Jesus did not remain dead.

On the third day, he rose.

showing his victory over sin and the grave.

And he offers now to all who will believe

to give that same resurrection life,

eternal life, but life now,

by his Spirit.

I want to invite you to give your life to Christ today.

In just a moment, I'm going to pray.

And as I pray, as soon as I'm done, we're going to stand to our feet,

both here and at Olive Drive, and we're going to have pastors and leaders

and prayer partners across the front.

And we're going to ask you to just step out and come as you are.

Walk down one of these aisles, walk down one of these staircases,

and take one of these leaders by the hand and say,

I want to give my life to Jesus today.

Today's the day. It's time.

I need him, and I know it.

I'm surrendering today.

Here's the thing.

Sometimes people get confused.

They think, well, man, I don't want to be a hypocrite,

so I need to clean up my life and then give my life to Jesus.

No, no, no, no.

You come to him.

He has to meet you where you are.

Otherwise, you're not going to understand the concept of grace.

You come broken.

You come as a failure.

You come in need and allow God to meet your need.

Maybe you want to be baptized like others today or join our church family.

Come let us know.

We'd love to talk to you about what baptism is and what it means and its significance

or joining our church family.

Maybe you've been coming for a while and God's placing it on your heart

to officially be a member of our local body of Christ.

And say, you know what, I don't just want to be a spectator.

I want to get in the game.

I want to get involved and help.

However God leads in just a moment, let's respond. Let's pray. Father, thank you, thank you, thank you

for loving us so well and so much. Thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for not leaving us alone in our sin. You had every right to do so,

but you loved us anyway.

I pray, Lord, that some people who have not been experiencing your love and your grace would experience it today in a deep place.

They would invite you to meet their deepest needs.

And Lord, I thank you for the great responsibility that you've entrusted to us of the good news of your son.

It is the privilege of our life to be entrusted with the treasure of the gospel.

Help us as a church family, collectively,

and also as individuals

to be good stewards of that,

to not take it lightly or flippantly,

but that we would care for the gospel.

Please do a work that goes beyond

what I've been able to talk about and say,

and take your word, please, Lord.

And would you apply it in over a thousand different ways

to wherever a person finds themselves in today?

Would you please touch them?

We ask in Jesus' name, amen.

Thanks for listening today.

We hope you enjoyed this message.

And if you did, we would be so grateful if you left us a review.

Also, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast

if you would like to be notified when a new sermon is released.

If you feel the Lord calling you to take the next step in faith

through salvation, service, or giving, don't wait.

reach out to us by texting podcast to 88988.

That's podcast to 88988

or connect with us on one of our social media platforms.

You can also visit our website, valleybaptist.org

to find even more great resources.

No matter where you are in your journey,

know that we love you.

We're praying for you

and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.