A Healthy Church Community (1 Thessalonians 3:6–13)

People often ask or people often say, you know, I love my church.

Usually they say, because I love the services or I love the

preaching. But let's get real.

Doesn't matter how great of a preacher you are, after a couple

of years, it just all sounds about the same.

Same guy talking about the same thing, right?

But people who've been to 1 church for a long time, when

they say I love my church, many times they say I love the church

community. I love the community.

Now when it comes to saying I love my church community, it

could be a variety of reasons. I have friends there or I grew

up there or, or, you know, things run very smooth there for

whatever reason. You could have many reasons why

you'd like that church community.

But Paul says something different.

It's not something what we usually talk about.

He talks about, he focuses on the spiritual aspect, of course.

So we're going to examine what Paul thinks is a good church

community. So that's a question we want to

answer today. What does a healthy church

community look like? Last week we talked about what

what is healthy church look like.

And we said it was a church that preaches the word and receives

the word faithfully. And the week before that, it was

a church that has faith, hope, and love.

And today we're going to talk about what a healthy church

community might look like. So #1 the healthy church

community is full of joy, full of joy.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to 1st Thessalonians

Chapter 3. We'll be reading 6 to 10.

And this is now working. I have this all set up.

Not working. OK, Potter's out in here.

Is he? OK, that's fine.

All right, before I read 6 to 10, let me read you.

Not read you, but let me just explain.

The background, which is one through 5, is the background.

But instead of reading it, I'll just summarize real quick, and

then let's focus on 6 to 10. So background is that Paul and

his friends, Silas and Timothy were actually in this church.

They were helping out. They started it and but they had

to flee abruptly due to persecution.

So they were kind of torn apart forcefully.

And now that they are in separate cities a few 100 miles

away, of course Paul is is worried about about the

Thessalonian church. So Paul, Paul knows that there's

persecution going on. So Paul fears temptation and

discouragement. So Paul sends Timothy, the the

younger one of the group, the youngest one says, OK, you're

young. Why don't you go to Thessalonica

to check on how the church is doing?

Paul could have himself because he would have probably died if

he went. So Timothy, you know, he's young

and he goes it's, you know, only 300 miles each way, three-week

journey. Some of us live, live like less

than 5 miles from our church. I've never seen anyone walk to

church, but this guy is walking 300 miles.

And then Timothy comes back with the news that, hey, this church

is doing well. They're doing fine.

So of course, Paul is rejoicing after hearing the good news that

this church is doing well. And that's where we pick up at

verse 6. But now Timothy has come to us

from you and brought us good news about your faith and love.

He reported that you always have good memories of us, and you

long to see us as we also long to see you.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and

affliction, we were encouraged about you through your faith.

For now we live. If you stand firm in the Lord,

how can we thank God for you in return for all the joy we

experience before our God because of you as we pray very

earnestly night and day to see you face to face and to complete

what is lacking in your faith. Is this freaking Nope, Potter,

you want to take this reconnect? OK, he's not here.

Just kidding. Just there are a lot of reasons

to be joyful about your church. I said.

I said the healthy church community is full of joy.

And there's a lot of reasons to be joyful about your church.

For a lot of people, it's seeing the church grow.

And over the years I've been here, I really, when the church

grows, I've seen a lot of people just kind of be really happy

about it. And I think that's a good thing

when we see numerical growth. Yeah, a lot of people are happy

even, like when it's not great for great reasons.

Thank you. Even when it's not for great

reasons, like, like, I don't know, like 8 years ago, English

ministry down the street from my church, they closed.

So a bunch of people came to our church and people were like, so

happy our church is growing, God is moving.

I'm like, no, they just closed Now there's like four or five

families still here, you know, from, from that time.

And, and some people like a different kind of growth.

They like the the natural way of growing the reproduction.

They're like other babies in the church.

Personally, I'll be really happy if we finally get to knock down

that wall and we have 80 seats here.

I would love to, I would love it to have this 120 seats, just a

little bit more room, breathing room.

So, yeah, some people like the just the numeric growth or some

kind of building expansion and that that makes people really

happy. For some, it's seeing the

success of church members. It's a little bit more personal.

Like when I went to youth group as a child, as a kid, I remember

the church I went, I was 6th grade.

And then there was this like this buzz and joy about all the

great colleges that people were the the 12th graders got into in

a span of two years. I remember it was Harvard couple

Stanfords and MIT and it was like crazy.

And I could just hear walking around, you know, the Korean

adults saying the words like, how about do Stampa do?

Like they were just very happy. I just kept hearing those words

over and over and I'm like, oh, people are happy.

And I, I have a friend that goes to a, a bigger church.

He's just a member. He's not a pastor or elder or

anything. He's just a member and, and he's

very proud of like, oh, my church member owns that.

He works here. He's not showing off.

He's just very happy. Like, hey, they're doing well.

Look at these, They're looking at this company or they, they

open this restaurant. And then he's just very proud of

how his church members are doing.

So he's tells me this, I said, Oh yeah, six years ago for three

months, we had a guy who now has 3,000,000 subscribers on

Instagram. That's not much of A comeback,

but that's that's what I got. Paul cares about something very

different than what meat most people care about.

Paul cares about their faith above anything else.

I said a healthy church is a church full of joy.

Paul's joy comes from their spiritual growth, Not in

numbers, not in some kind of expansion, not in more programs,

not about cool things in the church, but people's faith.

When people are growing, Paul is overwhelmed with joy.

I find rejoicing. When technology works, is it

working? Oh, thank you.

Thank you. All right, now I could draw

during the sermon. That's what I really wanted

whole time. That's all I wanted to do.

OK, Hopefully and soon you'll know why I want this.

OK, So Paul is is really happy about their spiritual growth.

That's what he cares about. But humanly speaking, think

about it. Let's say this church is full of

persecution. People, people's lives are at

stake here. And then for whatever reason, I

am separated from you guys, that I am 300 miles away and I sent

somebody to check on you guys. And then I get word back.

The first thing I want to hear is everyone OK?

Is everyone safe? And if I'm writing a letter to

SPMC, the first thing I'm writing is I'm glad everyone is

OK. But Paul, it almost seems like

he doesn't care for their safety.

He does. But every time, Paul, thanks God

for this church. I'm glad you guys are OK.

It's not one of them. He's only thankful for spiritual

matters. Week 1 Paul was thankful for

faith, hope and love in the church Last week.

He was thankful that they received the word joyfully or

faithfully. And today, Paul is thankful they

are standing firm in the midst of persecution.

Why does Paul only mention spiritual stuff?

Is he just not practical? No, because people's growth,

people's faith, people's hearts, that is his utmost priority.

What he cares the most is about their spiritual walk.

And when he sees growth with Timothy comes back and saying he

they are standing firm despite persecution, that fills his

heart with joy. And if we look at this examine

this letter or this passage we read, it is full of him being

proud and he being strengthened, being joyful because that they

are growing. In verse 29, he says, remember

our labor and hardship. The verse please.

Verse next next slide sorry one before in 1st 29 last week's

passage he says remember our labor and hardship.

He says we work night and day for you.

Paul's care for them, the prayers, the letters sending

Timothy, he does a lot and then this is what gives him joy.

Verse 7, we were encouraged, we're encouraged about you

through your faith. What strengthens them,

encourages them, is their faith. Verse 8, he says now we live,

now we live that you stand firm in the Lord.

He's saying now I am strengthened, I have life.

I was worried, I was struggling, but I see that you guys are

standing firm in the Lord and now I live.

Verse 9 how we can thank God for you in return for all of the

next joy we experience before our God because of you.

All the joy we experience before our God because of you.

I mean, how, how often can you say that you have tremendous joy

in your heart and you say it's because of you because you are

standing firm in your faith. And we see Paul just have so

much heart and joy only because this church is standing firm in

their faith. In verse 12, he ends with

overflow increase and overflow with love for one another, just

as we do for you. I have my love for you is

overflowing for one another. And he said my prayer is that

you guys have the same. I think This is why right?

He he has so much joy from their growth.

This is why I think it it relates to last week Paul saying

I love you like a mom and he says as a mom nurtures their

child and he says I love you like a father.

There's the advice, the you know, the, the, the nurturing,

you know, the correction, the instruction, mentoring.

So he loves the church like a mother would and also would

father would. And now he's experienced a joy

like a parent would when a child is growing.

The greatest joy for a parent, like our actual parent is to see

the kids grow in their faith. And Paul is saying that's why

you got to love the church like a mom, like a dad, so that you

will feel the joy like a parent would.

It's a special type of joy that you could experience when you

love like Paul and even when your actual parents, perhaps

most of you parents are too young to receive this kind of

joy because the kids are not are, are too young.

But as they get older, from what I hear, as the kids get older,

from what I hear from older parents, is that really that's

all that matters. When I was a youth pastor at the

church I grew up at, I was probably 2526.

And then the older lady in her 60s, she had four children age

25 to 35, you know, all grown up, all out of the house.

And she came to me and she's like, she did she start talking

to me. I'm a youth pastor.

Her kids are not youth age, but she was she was, you know, she

had a we had a nice conversation and she asked me this random

question. She said she said, hey, my son,

the 25 year old said, my son is not really a Christian.

She says, do you think it's my fault?

OK, what I want to say I'm not going to say yes, no, it's not

your fault, right? And then she says, I've been

thinking about like, what I, what I went wrong.

But she's like, I made him memorize Bible verses and I made

him read the Bible. We did family worship like until

he went to high school, I forced him to do all of this.

And is that why he, he's not going to church and he's not

really a Christian? And the immature me, yes.

And the immature me, right? Encourage her.

I said, oh, like, you know, you're, you did the same with

your other three kids and look at them.

They're fine. They're Christians and they're a

doctor, lawyer and a teacher. Look, they're fine.

I don't know why I brought up the profession, but I, I said

that right? Look.

And then her response referring to me saying they're doctor,

lawyer, teacher. She says, you know, I don't

those things don't matter. She says I would trade all of

that for my son to be a Christian.

Hurt, hurt. Three other kids went to

Stanford, Stanford, Berkeley and I just fed their profession and

even the sun is doing very well. You would think they ate a

couple that raised 4 kids very successful when the world looks

like them at them. They're just like what?

What can you complain about? I guess a parent and she's tells

me I will trade all of that, all of their success for him to be a

Christian. I think when you're parents of

young children, yeah, your joy is like, you know, they're

walking and then, oh, they're in good grades and yeah, there is

joy and like there's went to this school and they're getting

this GPA. And but ultimately, when they're

adults, a parent wants their child to have faith, to marry

somebody who has faith to raise their their grandchildren in the

faith. The faith ultimately is the most

important. And older people have told me

that's what it is even in the church.

This is why Paul says love each other like a mother of thought.

That's weird though. We're like similar age

sometimes. How do we love each other?

How do we love somebody older, younger or a little bit younger,

like a mother or father? Well, love them and think about

their faith. Love them for the purpose of

their growth. And then what is the reward?

What it what is the fruit? What is the is joy, the joy of

seeing one another grow? If you call this your home

church, SBMCIIII want you to love our church.

I truly do. I don't know what reasons you

have for loving this church, but if seeing others grow in the

faith isn't one of them, I challenge you to change your

perspective. Don't be satisfied in saying,

oh, I love my church because people are so great, they're

nice, they welcome me. Well, those are good things, but

it's like last week's sermon, right?

I said some of those aren't the side dishes missing the main

dish. Those are good, but you have to

include seeing others grow. I love my church because I've

seen this person grow, because I pray for this person and man, I

they've, they've gone through so much.

And yeah, they are standing firm in the Lord.

May that be the reason why you love the church.

Can we look at verse 10? In verse 10 it says as we pray

earnestly night and day to see your face to face, he says, and

two, complete what is lacking in your faith?

In other translations it says this word is supply.

Supply what is lacking in your faith?

So what does this mean? It means as we pray for others

growth, praying their struggles as we visit them and love them

and care for them. Supply what is needed everyone.

What they need is a little different.

Some people what they need to grow is care and attention.

Some people are like brand new Christians and what they need,

what we need to supply are the basics.

Hey, this is what a quiet time is.

When people say QTQT, this is quiet time.

You know, you see that little booklet?

Hey, this is how you go through it.

Supply what they need for them to grow.

We have youth kids in this service, in this church.

Supply what they need to know to grow.

My, my son, he is balancing school, sports, faith.

A lot of you guys went through that.

A lot of you guys played sports all through high school, some

college. Yeah.

Walk, walk with them. Hey, this is what I struggled.

I bet you're going to struggle the same thing.

This is this is how I found God in this situation.

Complete what is lacking in one another and don't forget to

pray. That is something you could do

on your home. That is, we only see each other

once or twice a week. But you could always pray.

Remember people in prayer. Pray that they will stand firm

in the Lord. And you know what this also

means? It also means that we have to

show up for each other. Sure, we could pray, but

ultimately a lot of this ministry, a lot of this

completing what is lacking in your faith happens face to face.

You got to show up to your CGS so you could listen to their

problems. You got to show up to church so

ask them how they're doing. You got to be there to hear the

struggles and hear their victories.

You got to be there to help one another grow and also focus on

your personal growth as well. When we talk about personal

growth, we usually do it for ourselves.

It's a new year and I want to get fit.

I want to diet and exercise, and I want to get better.

Why? For me, so I could be healthy.

But spiritual growth, yeah, it is for you, of course, but it's

also for the community. It's also for your family.

Your CG needs you to grow. When you're not growing your

perspective inward, you look at your own problems.

Oh, why is my life like this? Oh, I'm struggling with this.

But as you grow, even in the midst of struggle, you're able

to look outwards. You're able to care for others.

You need to grow. Not just for you, but your

family needs you to grow. Your church family needs to grow

too. God needs you to grow so you can

glorify Him further. Focus on your growth so you can

actually help other people. All right #2 What does a healthy

church community look like #2A healthy church community loves

being together. They love being together.

All right, we're going to look at we're going to skip around.

I I think the verses are in order.

Let's start with so Paul, he's a theologian man.

He's a scholar. He's usually like logical, like

just doctrinal. But you see in many of his

letters, he gets like really mushy sometimes.

And this is a good example. Let's look at first.

This is from chapter 2 verse 8. It's not here.

But he says we cared so much for you.

You have become dear to us. And 2:17 says we were forced to

leave you, torn away from you. We greatly desired and made

every effort to return and see you face to face.

I mean, we greatly desired, we made every effort we faced.

These are passionate words. Let's look at the next one.

Verse 20. He says you are our glory and

our joy, man. Those are strong words for

somebody to say to another person.

You are my joy. Those are strong words and he

means it. Let's look at the next one

verse. Chapter 3, verse five.

I also sent Timothy to find out about your faith.

Verse 6 go to the next one. This is the most most of all.

He says you always have good memories of us and that you long

to see us and we long to see you.

Have you guys ever said something like that to somebody

in the church? I long to see you, just like you

long to see me. OK, Obviously this language

here, they're torn apart, right? There's persecution and they're

separated forcefully. So these words are a little bit

stronger. I don't think God expects us to

feel this way when we know we're going to see each other every

week. OK, that's kind of a little

weird, but we should have this kind of sentiment though.

We should miss each other. We sent our missionary, right,

who was who was a church member for almost 10 years, and we sent

him to Thailand. Do you ever long to see him?

Yeah, I think I know he misses you guys, right.

I know he's lonely and struggling.

Oh, great. Now he's going to get like 10

texts this week. Frankie, I long to see you.

I get a lot of weird texts. OK, Be just normal and just text

him that you miss him. But you see from these verses,

it's not just all one sided coming from Paul, it's the other

way too, right, Since you long to see us too.

But The thing is, I think this is a picture of a beautiful

church that like one day, it really was just one week apart.

Like when we get together, people are generally happy to

see one another and they like each other.

They love each other. It is.

It's just pleasant to be around people.

Even if it's family, a group of friends or church, it's just

pleasant to be around people that like being together.

That's just true everywhere. But these days, that is not a

goal that many people have for the church.

For a lot of people, church is a message.

OK, It's a little bit experienced, a little bit better

when I show up. But yeah, Spotify, YouTube, I

could get it on their website. I could just get the message.

I could just extract the praise. I could get what I need from the

church. And I think what Paul's saying

here, it's very different than what many modern churchgoers

want. There's a book called Treyless

and the Vine written a while ago.

And I don't remember much about the book except for the main

analogy of the book, which is a treyless is a, it's like a

wooden, it looks like a wooden fence.

It's a man made fence looking thing.

And then you plant the vine and the vine grows on it and then it

bears fruit, right? In the book, the trail list

represents like church structure, like the building,

the administration programs and the accounting, the website, the

sound system, media, all that, right?

All ministry team is like, you know, like a trail list, right?

And the vine represents the people, people having coffee

together, sharing community groups, hanging out, forming

relationships, birthday parties, people hanging out inside,

outside during church, going on trips together, conversations.

Those are all the vine. The book argues that fruit grows

on the vine, not the trailers that most church people, their

mentality is, OK, I'm going to show up to church and I'm going

to serve my ministry, OK, parking or whatever.

And then I go home. I did my job, I go home.

If everyone thought like that, then it will be a church that

has great structure. But if there's no Vine ministry,

if there's no caring and texting how are you and meeting up and

all of that, then it is also a church that maybe runs really

smoothly. But it's also a church with no

fruits, no real growth, nothing to be joyful about.

And another thing that people say is, you know, Pastor Tim, I

already do that. I love people.

I love, I love being with people.

I miss my friends. It's just that I don't miss the

church. I just miss like my two friends,

my three, my group of friends. And that's like a very common

thing, OK, you you don't want to see everyone.

You have a few friends in the church and you're good seeing

them. You could missing them and you

good caring for them. Well, that goes against a couple

of things Paul saying too, right?

That is not the motherly, fatherly love.

That's just people who are very similar, similar maybe age and a

lot of a lot of similarities. You just kind of like somebody

and all the one another's is not really possible accept one

another. You already accept them.

They're already your friends and loving well, you already love

them. They're your friends.

It's it's not the love and the joy that Paul's talking about.

This is not the motherly, fatherly love.

What Paul's talking about is loving the church community.

And this is different than loving your church friends.

Like if you think of your community groups, most of you

are assigned to that group. You didn't choose that group.

There are people who are different than you, people that

you may not like instantly in there.

And Paul or Paul saying about motherly, fatherly love is

loving those people because that is the gospel.

In love, where the gospel is revealed, that is true love.

Think about it. The gospel is that Lord, I'm a

Sinner, I don't deserve any of your love and forgiveness.

Yet Lord, you sent your son Jesus Christ to die for me and

gave me all these gifts, eternal life, the rights to be child of

God. I'm just a Sinner and you did

all this for me. The gospel love that Paul wants

us to have is wait, I'm a stranger, I'm new to this

community, but you take care of me.

You asked me how my week was and you pray for me.

I'm new here. I don't know you guys.

You're not my friends. But I am loved here.

I am accepting here. That is the gospel revealing

love that the Bible talks about over and over.

That's the love that Jesus shows.

There's nothing wrong with having friends here and loving

them and hanging out there. Nothing, nothing wrong with

that. But you do need a gospel

revealing relationship and that happens in the community.

That's when people's hearts are warmed up and they are, they

change and they open up and and they say, what is this gospel

about? That's the love that helps

people grow. I want to end with just verse

13. Let's read that real quick,

Verse 13. May he make your hearts

blameless and holiness before our God and Father at the coming

of our Lord Jesus with all the Saints, Amen.

He ends with coming of our Lord Jesus.

He ends this section. He says, Amen.

So there's an end, right? He ends it with the coming of

the Lord. The whole point of sermon is not

so that you guys have a better church experience.

A good church community is not the end in itself.

First of all, we aim to create a beautiful community so that we

glorify God. That's number one.

Our job is to be faithful until we see Christ face to face.

But Paul ends with coming of our Lord Jesus like we like.

We want to be faithful until we see Jesus.

He's given us a bigger picture. Anytime the Bible talks about

coming of the Lord, he's talking about living for his Kingdom, a

different Kingdom. What Paul saying is this, when

you commit yourself to the church community, when you show

up, when you forgive, when you pray, when you love, you're

participating in God's work for preparing people for all of

eternity. You are helping people see the

next Kingdom. It's not just so that we will be

happy, so that people could see who Christ is.

Main point The Healthy Church Community is 1 where believers

joyfully commit to one another's faith by growing together and

doing life together in Christ. Let's take time to pray.