Instructions to a Gospel Church

Happy Sunday, Crossway. Today you have Pastor Tribes us Or bringing the Word.

And when we think of Pastor Tribes, the word urgency comes to mind.

It's true, Tribes brings a lot of urgency to our church leadership as

the elder team chairman, and Tribes brings a lot of urgency to the preaching

of God's Word. When Tribes teaches scripture, you can tell that he really

desires for the people who are under the preaching to receive it and to live

it. So please welcome Pastor Tribes as he brings a word this morning.

Good morning, Good morning. We got a lot to cover this morning,

so let's get into it quickly. But before we do, the ushers are

coming down. And if you do not have a Bible with you, or

if you do not have a bulletin, you'll need both of those. So

raise your hand and one of the we'll get you a Bible and or a

bulletin. So this sermon's title is called Instructions to a Gospel Church. So

what's implied in this title is that the church is already a gospel church living

out gospel living and it just needs this continued instruction. And so if you've

been with us for any period of time. I have over like a five

year period. As I get the occasion to preach on a Sunday morning,

I've been preaching through first Thessalonian. So that started like twenty eighteen, I

think. So it's been a minute. But where I'm at right now is

in the Final Instructions in chapter five, Versus twelve through fifteen. And in

this section of the letter, Paul is giving final instructions to the church is

how they interact with one another, and then he switches to the individual,

how the individual interacts with God. And we're going to focus on this one

another aspect of Paul's final instructions to this healthy church in Thessalonika. And so

if you would bear with me, last week Ian used I think he introde

with a sports analogy, a sports metaphor, talking about Michael Jordan and his

jersey. So he's given me now permission. That gave me permission to come

with my own sports metaphor to kick this off. In Major League Baseball,

you play one hundred and sixty two games. There's one hundred and sixty two

regular season games. If you continue to win, you go into the playoffs,

and you play more, and you continue to win in the playoffs,

and you go to the World Series, and you would continue to play more

games. So maybe upwards of two hundred games for the team that ends up

winning it all. Okay, I think they've got it figured out. But

every team, even the team that wins the World Series only a few months

later, shows back up to spring training in February in March to work on

the most basic and fundamental aspects of the game. So the team that just

won the World Series goes and works on throwing mechanics, works on hitting mechanics,

works on teamwork and how they work together as a team, fielding the

balls, doing relays, etc. Okay, So everybody, no matter how

well they have it down in Major League Baseball, needs training in the fundamentals,

in the basics. And that's no different than the church in Thessalonika into

the church here in San Antonio at Crossway that we need occasional, period constant,

ongoing reminders of what good health is of a church organization, an organism,

a living organism that we call this local church. And so if I

were to say, well, when I'm talking about like us as a church

and giving these instructions. I want all of us to know, like we're

in the World series, guys, like I'm not just here to pat ourselves

on the back, Like y'all are doing all of these things that Paul is

calling the Thessalonian Church to do in this passage, and that church was doing

them too, so much so that he says, continue doing this, like

y'all are already doing this. Continue And it's just such a praise that I

can stand up here this morning and say, thank y'all for doing all of

these things so well, like we're doing it, let's continue to do it

all the more so if I were to say this in a sentence, this

sermon in a sentence, it would be that a gospel church continues to grow

by the power of Jesus Christ, in their love for their leaders, in

patient discipleship of one another, and in commitment to doing good to one another

and everyone. A gospel church continues to grow by the power of Christ and

their love for their leaders, in patient discipleship of one another, and in

their commitment to do good to everyone. So let's read, and just for

that added context, I'm going to start in verse eleven but our text is

twelve through fifteen. Paul writes, Therefore, encourage one another and build one

another up, just as you are doing crossway. Just as you are doing,

he says, we ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor

among you and are over you in the Lord, and monish you, and

to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace

among yourselves, And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idol, encourage

the fainthearted, help the weak, and be patient with them all. See

that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good

to one another and to everyone. So we're in our first point Versus twelve

through thirteen. Respect and esteem your leaders. That's right out of the text.

Respect those who labor among you, and esteem them very highly in love.

So who are our leaders? Who are our leaders that Paul is referring

to. Well, it's clear from the context and the way that he's writing

this that who he hasn't mine or specifically the pastors, the elders, the

shepherds, the overseers of this particular flock, the pastors of the church.

But he doesn't say that by title. He implies that with what their role

is. He says that they labor among you. He says, those that

are over you in the Lord, and those that admonish you. So let's

talk about that. What is labor among you mean he's talking about the pastors.

Those that are over the church are those that are some of the hardest

working members of the church. We go back to how Paul described himself in

chapter two, verse nine. He talks about remember our labor or toil,

that we work night and day, that we might not be a burden to

any of you while we proclaim to you the Gospel. This is a mark

of a healthy pastor, one that works hard and labors and toils for your

benefit. It was back in March of twenty eighteen when I preached on that

specific text, back in chapter two, and I got to just testify to

the staff of Crossway in the ways in which they have poured themselves out laboring

for us, the staff pastors. I mean, I can't tell you how

much of a privilege it is to be at a church where some of the

hardest working folks in the congregation are the folks on staff. And that goes

not just to the staff, but also to the lay elders, the ways

in which they're pouring themselves out for each one of us. A pastor is

not a title that's given to somebody because they have an MDiv because they've been

to seminary, because they wear a robe, because they've got, you know,

a caller thing going on. That doesn't of you the title of pastor.

It's somebody that is laboring and toiling on behalf of the flock. It's

somebody that is of good repute and character, like first Timothy and Titus breakdown,

and someone who is over you and the Lord that has a spiritual authority

over you, not in themselves, but in the Lord that's bestowed to them

to wield humbly and gently and graciously. Someone who who admonishes the flock.

So they're known in their church by their work. They labor among us.

And I think we all get that, like I don't need to. I

don't think keep explaining how our pastors are over overseers labor. There's some of

the hardest workers among us, and that was the case here and that's Lanaika,

and that is that is what results in healthy leaders in a healthy church.

And so then Paul brings up this other point that they're over you in

the Lord. This is that they're over you not in their own authority,

but that they're over you in the authority of Jesus Christ, who is their

servant leader, and that they then lead out with a servant heart. Because

of that, they're not self rulers. They're under the Lord's authority. So

they lead in the Lord's ways. They lead with gentleness, in humility.

And I would say not perfectly, that's not the standard perfection, but that

is the mark of their lives as they lead under God's authority. Paul uses

earlier in this letter this analogy of a nursing mother, a nursing mother that

is pouring herself out literally for the life of this infant. She's sacrificing her

schedule, she's sacrificing her preferences, she's sacrificing her ways so that this young

life might be nourished up and grow. That is the way that a pastor

handles a new convert. That is a way a pastor teaches and instructs us

as by pouring themselves out the word that they've consumed. They then feed to

us the flock. They feed us and so we respect and we esteem them

for that work. And then when we grow up, as we grow up,

like a father does to his children, the pastor's instruct us. A

loving father will exhort and instruct his children, encouraging them to walk in a

manner worthy of the Lord. But all of this is not done with their

own authority. This is done with the authority given to them by Jesus.

And so again I can't emphasize this enough. It must be done with humility,

It must be done with meekness. It must be done with boldness,

courage, but in all humility. And so he also describes the pastors in

this way. He says that they admonish you. The pastors admonish you.

We should actually respect the fact that our pastors admonish us, which means and

we'll get into this more later, but that means. Admonishment means to warn

against bad behavior and its consequences. In other words, to warn against sin

and its effects and that effect of sin in your life. That's what a

pastor's role is. They're the guard rails of our lives, so to speak.

And that is to be respected and esteemed, which is quite countercultural when

you think about in this day and age, like we elevate personal autonomy,

we elevate we are who we are, and that becomes the highest virtue in

a sense. But no, we are actually to look up to those who

would correct that and bring us back from ourselves to what Christ has called us

to. So we'll talk about that because that is a pastor's role, but

that's also a role for every single one of us. So we're going to

come back to that one. So then, what should our attitude be to

those that admonish us, those that lead us. Our attitude should be one

of esteeming them highly in love and respecting them because of their work, because

of the way they sacrifice for us. We esteem them, we look up

to them, we love them for that. Hebrews thirteen seventeen says that instructions

there says that we are to obey. Says, obey your leaders and submit

to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will

give an account. He goes on to say, let them do this with

joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

We can respect and esteem our pastors because we know that one day they're

going to stand before the ultimate judge and given an account for your soul.

Their responsibility, your pastor's responsibility is you, and they will give an account

to the most high Judge for your soul. Like that is a weighty burden

that's put on them, and that burden and that reality results in our love

for them that they would have to carry that. And so a healthy church,

remember this is a reminder a healthy church. And I'll just stop and

say this, like we're knocking it out of the park in these ways like

Crossway Bible Church, the ways in which y'all interact with your pastoral team,

Like is you're doing all of this, Like the love that you show.

I mean, even after first service, the amount of text and encouragement I

get from the body is unbelievable, Like y'all love y'all's pastors. And that's

like one of the reasons that we have such good health is because of hearts

like y'all's that love your pastoral team. And so this is what Paul is

saying, like reminding us this is a mark of a healthy church is healthy

leadership that is loved by its people, admired, respected, esteemed. We

are experiencing this right now. The way that we as a church that you

are a part of, are sending off Josh and his family on their sabbatical,

like the outpouring of love for him and his family that has been reflected

by y'all is like, it's amazing. They feel it, They've already been

testified to it. I'm seeing it. The pastoral team here is seeing it,

like y'all love y'all's pastors, and so not to make this about us,

but I think it is right and good to celebrate God's good gifts in

this flock. We can celebrate that the ways in which you care for your

lay pastors, Eric Fulkerson and myself, like we know that y'all care deeply

about us, that y'all love us. This is right and good and healthy.

And I would just say this that if we were to look at okay,

well, how is a church? Can we grow in this? Because

right like this is the instruction. Keep doing it. Y'all are doing it,

Keep doing it, keep doing it all the more will it's implied there

is that you will continue to grow in it. I would say one way

we can grow in it is that as a congregation we would be so marked

by our love and admiration and looking up to the role of pastor, that

we would be raising up lay pastors, that we would be raising up church

planters to be going out like sending out, that we'd be as sending church

in five to seven to ten years. What's going to keep you from loving

and aspiring to this role so greatly that you go out and plant your own

church? Like that is the next iteration. That is what a healthy church

does. It sends. It doesn't just hire mercenary pastors to go plan elsewhere,

though that's a part of it, but it sends from within. So

who's next, Who's going to do it in seven years? Who's going to

do it in ten years? Like? That's where our That's where our minds

needs to be on and as we continue to grow in these ways, the

Lord will take us there. And so we see in this last sentence that

almost seems shoehorned into the passage, he says, be at peace among yourselves.

So this is directly related to this interaction between pastor and member. Be

at peace among yourselves. I love what the theologian John Stott said about this,

and I'm just going to read it to you. He said, what

attitude should the local congregation adopt towards its pastors? He says, they are

neither to despise them as if their pastors were dispensable, nor to flatter or

fawn on them as if they were popes or princes, but rather to respect

them and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. He

says that this combination of appreciation and affection will enable pastors and people to live

in peace with each other. And as the pastors and the people live at

peace with each other, then the church is healthy. The family unity is

there. And too often we see in the church this tension where pastor and

people are in conflict. And what does that result in? It results in

pain for the pastor, results in pain for the people. It results in

hurt. It impedes growth in the church body, there is no unity,

It impedes growth in the individual believer. And not only that, but how

greatly does that mar the public testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ when the

family of Christ is at odds with each other? But by contrast, how

happy is the church family in which pastors and people recognize that God calls different

believers to different ministries, exercise their own ministries with diligence and humility, and

give to others the respect and love that God appointed labor demands. That church

will live at peace with each other, that church will be a healthy church.

That church will bring much glory to the Lord. So a healthy church

it has healthy, humble leaders. A healthy church has a healthy view of

its leaders. Its members have a humble, healthy view of its leaders.

And so Paul starts here with how we interact with our leaders and a healthy

church, and then he moves out to how we interact with one another and

how we relate to one another takes on a specific mode, and it's that

of patience. So that brings us to our next point, our next point

in verse fourteen, that we are to pursue one another with patience, and

by pursue, this is a word that I've just added to it. But

what I mean by that, and I'm trying to capture is the word pursue

is that we would admonish one another, that we would encourage one another,

that we would help one another, that we would you pursue and minister and

care for one another, that we would be in each other's lives, that

we would pursue each other like there's a closeness to pursuit, and the existence

of pastors and doesn't relieve the Christian of their christianly duties to one another,

to serve and to care for and disciple one another, like that is a

role that we all have. This is one hundred percent that instruction, and

Paul shifts one. Verse fourteen is directed to us as a church. And

just like Paul instructed the church in Ephesus in his Letter and Ephesians, he

says specifically says that the pastors, your elders, your shepherds, your overseers.

Their job is to equip you to minister to one another. They're to

equip you to minister to one another. This is Jesus's command to us as

followers. The Great commission is to go and make disciples of all nations,

like that is our job as Christians. So looking here, then we see

in verse fourteen that we are to admonish, that we are to encourage,

and we're to help. And I think it would be helpful for us to

walk through each of those and let's talk about them a little bit. The

first is the first thing that you and I are both called to is to

admonish the idol, which, again admonishment means to warn against bad behavior,

to warn against its consequences, to serve as guardrails in one another spiritual lives.

And so if that's the case, then it begs the question who are

the idol? Like the idol the people that are just twiddling their thumbs,

well, yes, that might be a trait of an idle heart, but

it's really those And I got help from an article that I read this week

on this that it's really it's more what he's referring to is a disordered worship.

The idol are those with a disordered worship. In other words, if

right ordered worship is God others self, they have self flipped on top.

So it's disordered. And so that plays out a number of different ways.

You can play out in laziness, you can play out in divisiveness and isolation

and addiction and outright rebellion, just to name a few. But the heart

issue, the primary issue behind that, is a heart of pride. That's

who the idol are is a heart of pride. And it would be really

easy for us to go like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,

that okay. So the heart of pride will this person in my small group,

or this person or this family member or you know that person sitting over

there, like, and you start thinking about all the other people and just

totally skip yourself. Oh I'm not idle, Yeah, you're not always idle.

But each one of us and then our fallen state has aspects of our

heart where pride is elevated, where self is elevated above God and above others.

So I would just encourage all of us to be thinking about this admonishment

and the reception of admonishment in light of the fact that our hearts might have

some aspect of misplaced worship, of disordered worship. An admonishment itself just runs

up against the cultural tide. Like in this culture, the idea of telling

somebody they might have it wrong is like such a faux Paul. We live

in an era where like self, you know, autonomy is you know,

elevated at the highest, Like it's virtuous to be true to yourself however you

want to be, that's who you are. And so who is to say

that I'm wrong? Well, it's not our own opinion, it's God's word.

Laid bare on one another's hearts. Okay, it's God as the authority,

but that's hard. Admonishment is hard. It's hard to give it for

those reasons. And I would say, if we were honest with ourself,

that whole cultural reality has seemed deeper into our church and our own hearts than

we would give it credit for. And so when that admonishment does come our

way, we're very quick to say you have no right to do that,

maybe not out loud, but by the manner of our hearts. And I'll

just say this, like this week, I'm preparing this message, I'm in

this text, and I have a conversation with a dear brother of mine that

in that conversation he admonished me, and like, I'm all in on admonishment.

I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to teach admonishment. And after

he admonished me, I was ticked off, and hopefully I held it back

and I didn't show it with my face and my attitude, but that's how

I felt inside, even so that I went home and talked to my wife

and like, I just really didn't appreciate that, and she's like, well,

maybe he had something to say, and I'm like, well, I

don't care. And so if I'm all in on this, I think y'all

are all in on it too. But if we're this, we're that all

in on this whole admonishment thing, giving and receiving it. And yet it's

that hard for us to take, like, man, we need Christ,

we need Christ. And that was my story. Like, by God's grace,

it's you know, the next day and I'm still in the passage and

I'm praying. I'm like, show me where I need to be humble,

Lord, help me receive that. And you know, then another day of

that, like, Lord, just help me. I feel so weak.

I'm trying to teach on this and I'm ticked off still that I've been admonished.

And by God's grace, before I step into the pulpit this morning on

Saturday, I did my business with the Lord and he finally just made it

clear to me, Yes, that's what you needed to hear. That brother

loves you too much to not share it with you. He risks something for

sharing this to you, and you need to thank Jesus for that, and

you need to thank him for that. And so it's not going to be

easy. It's not going to be clean, it's not going to be neat,

it's not going to be all buttoned up, and it isn't that's not

how it is here. But we're doing it imperfectly, trusting in Jesus and

in his perfection. He's changing and growing us, and we need to continue

to be committed to that. Like our commitment is right now, sitting in

this chair saying, I'm going to be committed to being a person that has

the courage to admonish my brothers and sisters in complete patience and humility. And

I'm going to be a person that has the courage and the humility and the

rightly ordered pride to receive admonishment. And so when it comes this week it

might be challenging to hear, but we're going to be committed to receiving that

not for yes, for our own good, but mainly for God's glory.

Okay, So how else we're also supposed to encourage the fainthearted, encourage the

fainthearted. Our job is to encourage one another as we struggle with doubts,

anxieties, discouragements, fears, as we're fainthearted and that's just not like one

mark of a type of Christian, like that's all of us in certain ways.

Christians that fear, we're not supposed to get impatient with that person and

say just get over your silly fear, like I see it so clearly.

No, we are supposed to be patient with them. We're supposed to encourage

the faint hearted. And like I say, I think Josh actually says that

when he's discouraged, he can hardly take out the trash. I'd say,

when I'm discouraged, I can hardly get out of bed, and that happens

far too often than it needs to. I can hardly get out of bed.

But man, if I have the encouragement of my brothers and sisters in

Christ, and then if I have their help with me, not only can

I get out of bed, but I'm willing to go hike over that mountain.

I'm willing to go hike over the next mountain and come back like we'll

tear it up. But I need y'all. We need each other's encouragement regularly.

And I'm like my wife's sitting over here, like, yeah, you

need to preach this to yourself more. I need to be a better encourager.

I think we all need to grow as encouragers, and we also are

to help the week, help the week. The word help that Paul uses

evokes this image of stronger Christians in that moment, literally holding onto clinging to

them, putting their arm around this weaker brother or sister. And I want

to be clear to say not lesser brother or sister, not lesser Christian,

but in that moment weaker. There's times when I am weaker, when we

are weaker. I think when I was preparing this, I was thinking of

the story of Exodus seventeen when Israel was fighting against Amalek, and Moses had

the word from the Lord that when he held up his staff, Israel would

prevail. Okay, Moses, like in the Hall of Fame of the Faith,

he had this word that he if he held up his staff, Israel

would prevail. Well, the battle is going on all day, and when

he held up the staff, Israel would would take the battlefield. And as

he tired out and weakened and the staff came down Ameleks would mac would take

the field. And so what did he need? He needed brothers, Aaron

and her to come and literally hold up his arms for him. Was Moses

weak? Sure in that moment he physically needed the help, But when his

brothers came around him and held up the staff, then Israel prevailed and God

got the glory. And that's the same way with us. As we interact

with one another. There will be times when we will be weaker in our

state than our other, whether spiritually or physically or otherwise, and we need

each other to help hold our arms up. And there's no shame in that.

There's no shame in going and helping to hold up your brother and sister's

arms. There's no shame in receiving that. That is part of the Christian

life that God has ordained for his glory. So what does that mean?

We help each other with meals, we'd help each other with rides, we

help with kids in parenting, we help with accountability, we help with difficult

conversations. I would say that the most important conversation that I had in my

life was one that I needed to be admonished going into. I needed to

be called out to walk a certain way, and then when I was too

fearful, I needed the encouragement of the same brother that admonished me to tell

me that it was actually going to be okay, that God had my best

interest in mind. And then I needed him to actually essentially hold my hand

going into that conversation, to hold me up because I was weak. And

if it wasn't for the courage of that brother, the patience of that brother,

the care of that brother to admonish me in the way that I needed

to be corrected, to encourage me that it was going to be okay,

that God had my best interests in mind, and to actually help me get

there and do it, my life would be radically different. And that's not

that's a story. But there are a hundred of those stories out here this

morning, and so we can be committed to that. We can be committed

to also this the proximity that these things require, Like we have to be

in each other's lives. We can't do that from a distance. We can't

admonish in these ways, We can't hold up each other's arms from a distance,

Like we have to get close. So we have to let each other

in. And I get it that can be scary. But God has our

best interests in mind. This is what he's called us to. And here's

the best thing is that y'all, I know this, just like the church

in Thessalonika, are committed to doing it with complete patience, complete patience.

That's how we do all of these things, humility and patience. My biblical

counseling friends here this morning, which I think there's a lot of them,

especially in our church, they want me to preach a whole sermon on discerning

the manner of the heart and how do we discern who's idol? And how

do we discern? Which is a worthwhile lesson to learn and a sermon to

be heard. But this morning, what we have time for is that we

are to discern these things with humility and patience. It's going to take time.

We're gonna have to be near to each other, and we're gonna have

to be patient with one another. And after all, that is God's character

patience. I was reading in my Bible reading plan in Niemiah's in Niemiah chapter

nine, verse seventeen this week and just wanted to include this, like this

is an example of God, This is a testimony of his patience. He

says that, but you are a God ready to forgive, gracious, merciful,

slow to anger, in a bounding and steadfast love, and you did

not forsake them. God does not forsake his people. This is how God

deals with sinful humanity. Patiently. His wrath isn't rushed. He patiently woos

his people until they come to him in repentance. That's God's character with us.

It's his loving kindness that leads us rebellious sinners to repentance. That's the

character of Jesus. We see Paul talking about Jesus Christ himself in Second Thessalonians,

and he says that may the Lord direct your hearts to the love of

God and to the steadfastness of Christ. And that word steadfastness Paul uses is

the same word translated elsewhere, patient, endurance. Patience is the very essence

of Christ's life, ministry, and sacrifice on the cross. And so that's

how we handle one another. We look to Christ's example as we worship the

way in which He was patient with us. It allows us to be patient

with one another. And so a healthy church, a gospel informed church,

pursues one another with through discipleship. They get into each other's lives, they

get within close proximity of each other. They admonish, they encourage, they

help, and they do it with grace filled patience toward one another. A

patientless, graceless church is not a gospel church. Are we going to be

patientless at times? Are we going to be graceless at times? Yes,

I'll be the first one to confess that I will be that way at times.

But that needs to be just that confessed and put before the Lord,

and we need to call on his mercy and grace to change us and grow

us in grace filled patience like you are already doing. Praise the Lord.

So gospel churches, if they are not patientless and grace patienceless and graceless,

they're also they don't retaliate. They don't retaliate. That takes us to our

third point. In verse fifteen, we see Paul's instructions. So Paul starts

out, you know, the church's interaction, relationship with its leaders, and

then the relationship with one another, and then he moves to, okay,

you're now relationship with the outside world, and he says that y'all don't retaliate.

A healthy church is not marked by payback, both inside the church and

outside the church. So just as a survey. Here, raise your hand

if you have been sinned against by somebody else in this room. So has

somebody in this room sinned against you at some point? Okay, everyone's hand

should be up, except for maybe this is your first time and you don't

realize that somebody maybe has already sinned against you. You just don't know it

yet. So we're going to sin against each other. You get a room

full of sinners, doesn't matter if we're in church. We're going to sin

against one another. And so God's command to us through Paul is that we

cannot retaliate. We cannot be a people that retaliate. As you live out

your gospel life in the world, you're going to get pushed back from the

world. We cannot retaliate, Paul says. He leaves no doubt. He

says that let no one repay anyone evil for evil, but always seek to

do good to one another and to everyone. That's all encompassing. And after

all, isn't this what Jesus Christ himself taught at the Sermon on the Mount.

He said the whole thing about if someone slaps you on the cheek,

turn to him your other cheek also, or then later in the sermon when

he says that you are to love your enemies and pray for those that persecute

you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

In other words, our humility with even those that might persecute us is

an essential mark of a son and daughter of the Father in heaven. So

healthy churches are marked by a people that do good to one another because of

Jesus's command and because of Jesus's example, and they do good to the world,

the outside world looking in. And I think this is a word for

us in this growing culture of hostility toward Gospel Christians, that we are to

be marked not as a people that retaliate, but as a people that do

good. That retaliation is for Jesus. Upon his return, he will have

the opportunity to judge. And you might say, well, what if they're

rude to me? The instruction is do good? What if they make fun

of me because of what I believe Paul says, do good to them.

What if they make things up, what if they slander me? On social

media? Do good? Social media isn't a different There's not a different set

of commands for social media. Scripture transcends all of our venues. What if

they persecute me, Well, just like the church here was persecuted, we

are to do good to the persecutors. What if they try to coerce me

to capitulate on my beliefs? The answer is, you stand firm in your

belief and you do good to them. Still, there's a story that I

feel like captures this so well, and I'll end with this illustration, and

it's a story about a prisoner of war in World War two, guy by

the name of Louis Zamperini. There was a best selling book called Unbroken written

about his whole story, which is a saga in itself that I can't get

into all the details, but I would recon in that book to anyone.

It's a very good book. But the part of Louis story that I want

to zone in on is when he was he was an Olympic runner, a

world class runner for the United States World War two hit. He goes and

serves in the Pacific theater, ultimately gets captured put into a pow camp in

Japan. Because Louie was a world class runner, well for one POWs in

World War two, Japan were horribly mistreated. They were horribly mistreated, and

that was just the way it was. But Louis, specifically because of his

because of his being a world class runner, an olympian, was especially targeted.

He was targeted by this particular Japanese officer that they nicknamed the Bird.

Okay, so the Bird made it his mission to Louie's life unbearable to the

point where he almost killed him a number of times physically, but like just

broke him mentally, emotionally, all of these things. And so fast forward,

the war ends, Louis somehouse, survives, that torment gets back to

the States, and while he's back in the States, his life is in

shambles. He said his testimony was his only hope in life was getting drunk,

because that was his escape from the pain that he was feeling and fantasizing

about getting back to Japan so he could personally kill his chief tormentor the bird.

That's what was getting him through life. He didn't want to live.

He otherwise wanted to kill himself, but he was willing to continue to live

so that he could get drunk and so that one day he would have the

chance to go back and kill the bird. But the thing with Louie and

the thing for us, is that everything changed when he heard and received the

Gospel of Jesus Christ. Everything changed when he encountered the saving grace of Jesus.

Once saved, Louise's desire for vengeance just completely dissipated. Not only did

he not want to go and kill the bird, he wanted to go do

good to the bird. And he knew that the bird's ultimate good was to

hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ himself. And so a man that was living

his life fantasizing about killing this particular man, he wanted to live the rest

of his life so that this man might hear the Gospel of Jesus. And

I want to read this. I'm going to ask the band to come up,

and I'm gonna read this letter. So Louie ended up going over to

Japan in the fifties, and when he went over there, he had the

opportunity needed to share the gospel with most of the prison guards. But who

was noticeably missing from that group was the bird. They had thought he had

died. In reality, the bird was unwilling to face his own demons.

He did not want to interact with Louie. He did not want to receive

that grace though. Some of the prison guards there. When Louie came and

greeted them, he went and embraced them with a hug. They literally shrieked

back because they thought he was gonna, you know, want to hit them,

and he embraced them with a hug. Some of those guards came to

saving faith in Jesus Christ because of Louie's goodness to them. But he wanted

specifically to deal with the Bird, his chief tormentor. He wouldn't show up

he found out he was alive, and he wrote this letter. I'm gonna

read this to you, he says to the bird. As a result of

my prisoner war experience, under your unwarranted and unreasonable punishment, my postwar life

became a nightmare. It was not so much due to the pain and suffering,

as it was the tension of stress and humiliation that caused me to hate

with a vengeance. Under your discipline, my rights not only as a prisoner

of war but also as a human being were stripped from me. It was

a struggle to maintain enough dignity and hope to live until the war's end.

The post war nightmares caused my life to crumble, but thanks to a confrontation

with God through the evangelist Billy Graham, I committed my life to Christ.

Love has replaced the hate I have for you. Christ said, forgive your

enemies and pray for them. As you know. I returned to Japan in

nineteen fifty two, and it's graciously allowed to address all the Japanese war criminals

at Sugamo Prison. I asked then, I asked then about you, and

was told that you had probably committed suicide, which would have been the honorable

thing to do in that culture, he said, which I was sad to

hear. But at that moment, like the others, I also forgave you

and now would hope that you would also become a Christian. Brothers and sisters

cross way. That's not just some It is an amazing story. But that's

not a story relegated to Louis Zamporini because of the incredible trials that he went

through. That is every one of our stories as a follower of Jesus Christ.

It has rightly received the gospel. We're able to love and do good

to those that cause us the most harm. We're able to forgive because we

have seen the goodness of Christ and his forgiveness of us, his perfect goodness

displayed on the cross, the goodness that would you see it as the one

who mocked him, Like the song says, I hear my mocking voice calling

out among the scoffers. And as he hung there, he said, Father,

forgive them, for they know not what they do. And when you

look at that Christ, just like Louis, you are filled with a commitment

to goodness that defies human reasoning, that defies understanding. And that's how you

do good to everyone. Like when Paul says everyone, he means everyone.

That's what fuels your goodness to everyone, including our persecutors. The last thing

I'll say is, and if you're here this morning, say that you haven't

ever encountered that Christ encountered Jesus in that way. Yeah. Sure, he's

a good teacher, he's a great example, he's you know, all those

other things. But I've never encountered Jesus in that way. That would change

me that radically. I would say, now is the time to respond,

repent, turn to that Christ, and you will surrender your life too.

So that you would gain everything and live in these ways just as you are doing way