A Church to be Thankful For (1 Thessalonians 1:1-10)

All right, so yeah, our church is 13 years old and yeah, we're

just celebrating and the sermon is just normal sermon.

But maybe I bring up stories of, of, of, you know, of our church

a little bit. But yeah, it's more for just

looking back and, and, and thanking God for his

faithfulness and also for eating tacos.

After today, we're starting a new series.

I was kind of just to this week, but I was very intrigued that as

I was studying First Thessalonians, you know, some of

the books pointed out how often Paul talks about thanking God

for this church. I thank God for you.

He repeats it over and over again.

So I was very intrigued by that. So I said, you know what, I'm

going to pick out the passages where Paul's thanking God for

the church and let's just do a series on that.

So we're going to do like a mini series just five weeks on that.

And after that we will go to a Old Testament passage.

I think many of us, like Paul, like Paul is thankful for that.

That's only a church. I think many of us here are

thankful for the church that you go to.

Certainly the longer you have been here, perhaps the more

thankful you are for this church.

If you're new, you know, maybe not many of us are thankful for.

I personally are thankful, like when I see all these kids.

By the way, Annie and Ed gave birth today.

Everyone's healthy. Good news.

Yeah. No, no pictures because this

happened 10:45 AM, so 45 minutes ago.

I'm thankful for all that. I'm thankful like we have kids

from like, day one, like the zero is 1 year, one day old or

zero, OK, One day old to, you know, to high school.

We have kids of all ages. When we first started, it was

just one child, my baby, right? My child was the only baby, one

singular baby in our church. And now there are kids

everywhere. So I'm thankful for that.

We will have our first High School graduate this year.

Nikki, say hi. Yeah.

I'm thankful. Many of us are thankful for

maybe your CGS, maybe you met your, you know, husband or wife

here. Maybe you just love tacos.

You know that we have every once in a while there might be 50

different reasons why we might be thankful for SPMC.

But Paul doesn't mention any of those reasons.

He doesn't say I am thankful for you because all these new kids.

I'm thankful for you because of the food, this and that.

And today or with the entire series, let's find out what Paul

is thankful for. And we could infer based on that

because Paul is thanking God for it.

Perhaps those are some of the goals that we could have.

Those are some of the characteristics that we could

strive for as a church. So, so my prayer is that SPMCA

also will have the same marks of a church to be thankful for.

So that's the question we want to answer today.

What kind of church is Paul thankful for?

What kind of church is Paul thankful for?

And really, that is the entire series.

But today we will be, it will be based on the passage that we'll

be covering today. All right, so if you have

Bibles, let's turn to 1st Thessalonians.

I'll be covering one to 10 before the first point.

I'll be reading just one through 8.

As we read this passage, I want you to take note of three words,

Faith, hope, and love. Paul's going to base on what he

thinks based on those 3 words. He's talked about those 3 words

before in First Corinthians. He talks about the spiritual

gifts and he says all those spiritual gifts will fade away.

Tongues and prophecy and all that will fade away.

But these three will remain forever, even in heaven, all

eternity, these three gifts will remain forever.

Faith, hope and love. OK, so those are the main things

that we'll be talking about today.

So take note of those words, OK? Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy.

Oh, I'm sorry, there's three authors in this letter.

Paul, Sylvanus, also in Silas and Timothy.

For the sake of a sermon, I'm just going to say Paul, I am

sorry the other two, but for the sake of the sermon, I don't want

to say all three people's names. So when I say Paul, just know

that I mean these three. To the Church of the

Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace

to you and peace. We always thank God for all of

you making mention of you constantly in our prayers.

We recall in the presence of our God and Father, your work

produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your

endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Faith, love, hope. For we know, brothers and

sister, loved by God, that He has chosen you because our

gospel did not come to you in Word only, but also in power, in

the Holy Spirit and with full assurance.

You know how we live among you for a bet for your benefit.

And you yourself became imitators of us and of the Lord,

when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcome the

message with joy from the Holy Spirit.

As a result, you became an example to all the believers.

Macedonia and IKEA. The Lord of the Lord rang out

from you, not only Macedonia and IKEA, but in every place that

your faith in God has gone out. Therefore, we don't need to say

anything. Stop there.

Paul is thankful that this church is marked by works

produced by faith, labor motivated by love and endurance,

inspire by hope. What kind of church is Paul

thankful for? He's essentially thankful for a

church that has love, faith, and hope.

Now before I go on to the actual point, I think some of you might

have noticed that these pairings of words might not go together.

Usually he pairs the words faith and works together, and often

they are on opposite sides. People have debates.

Are you saved by works? Are you saved by faith?

These words are usually far apart.

Paul puts them together. He puts the word love and labour

together. Those words don't go together.

You can't say to your wife baby loving you is labourist and you

can't say that yet he puts it together.

He puts hope and endurance together.

Hope seems like a happy feely word and endurance seems hard

and serious. Like endurance sports is like

marathons and triathons and long distance swimming.

It's just hard work. Hope and endurance doesn't seem

to go together. But what what Paul is saying is

1 produces the other. Faith produces works.

Works is hard, but faith produces it.

Laboring to love others is hard, but love produces labor.

Endurance is hard, but hope produces endurance.

So we have to understand that like what?

What is labor? It's it's it's work.

It's no these things, these three gifts from God will

produce these difficult things like labor, works and endurance.

OK, So what kind of church is Paul thankful for?

Let's start with the first one, a church with works produced by

faith. Start with faith, A church that

has works, Not just works alone, but a works that is produced by

faith. Of course labor and work are

essentially the same words, right?

Labor of love and work and labor and work are the same.

So is Paul saying basically faith produces works and love

produces works is the same thing?

Faith and love produce the same thing.

But here Paul is actually applying the work of faith.

He's applying the very specific way.

So it's it's it's applied in terms of the word coming to us

and how we respond to it. So verse 5, it says here that

the gospel did not come to you in Word only, but in power.

So the gospel came to you verse 6.

And then he said, you welcome the message with joy.

And then in verse 8, it says the word of the Lord rang out from

you, not only here, but every place that your faith in God has

gone out. So the word came and they

received it with eagerness. And then they respond by having

that word come back out wherever they are.

And in the verses that we didn't read, the two verses that talks

also talks about how they are turning away from idols and then

they're turning to the Lord. So it's the Word of God coming

and all the actions that follow after it is works kind of

limited to the spiritual aspect. How can we be a church that is

full of works? We have to take the Word of God

seriously. From reading about this church,

it seems like they have eagerness in receiving the Word.

The gospel came to you in power of the Holy Spirit, and they

welcomed them with joy. There's a sense that when the

Word was preached, when it was shared, that they had open

hearts and they received them eagerly.

I'm wondering how many of us have that eagerness in receiving

the Word? Far, many, far too many of us.

So sermons are like a spiritual Ted talk.

It's a speech, it's a lesson. And we're very picky about who

gives us that word. In over the 13 years of our

church, we've had our church always had a lot of preachers,

right? It's just not me, not me.

I'm, I'm, I'm only here about 3035 times and 20 other times of

someone else preaching. And people have complained.

Oh, I like that preacher. I like this preacher.

There was somebody who came after hearing Pastor Esther's

sermon and when she found out that she only preached 5 * a

year and she laughed immediately.

There were, there were people in the past where I mean, I'm

thankful they're like Pastor Tim, we only like our pastor's

sermons. So when we have guest speakers,

they wouldn't show up. I'm like, hmm, are you like

looking for excuses not show up because it's not like our

treasure, our sermons aren't that much better or that that,

you know, anything special. We just preach the word, you

know, just study and re preach it.

But there is this like pickiness.

I like this person. I like this, this type of

sermon. And there's been a lot of people

who've completed on my preaching too.

I remember there was this couple people that really didn't like

my sermons, and then the middle of my sermon I could see them

like I was like, sit in the back, man, like I can hear you.

But even in the Christmas story, the people who saw, you know,

Jesus born very first people to really preach the gospel, like a

Savior's come, Messiah's come. They were not trained preachers.

They were shepherds. They were not people who knew

the Bible. They were not trained in any

oratory skills. It was just ordinary people who

said, hey, Messiah came. Doesn't matter who speaks.

It doesn't matter if we read it. Oh, I don't like that quiet time

book. Oh, I like this authors, you

know, devotional. I don't like that translation.

We're so picky. I wonder how much of a

difference it will make if we are we focus more about the

content that the word of God is preached and then we receive it

eagerly. And then Paul talks about

wherever they went, the word of the Lord went out from them,

meaning they accept the word and it was part of them.

They digested it, they thought about it, they applied it, So

wherever they went, the Word of God just kind of oozed out of

them. And that's exactly the church

Paul's talking about. I'm thankful for you guys

because you guys receive the gospel and it comes back out.

You guys preach it, you guys share, you guys talk about it,

you guys apply it. And I hope that's something our

church becomes the gospel should be.

It's not just evangelism, right? Evangelism part of it, of

course. The gospel should be talked

about and shared everywhere needs to be talked about in our

community groups, in the classes that we teach, in the meetings

that we have. The gospel needs to be part of

the that should be the main point of discussion.

The gospel needs to be shared in people's living rooms, hospital

beds, coffee shops, just one-on-one situations.

Gospel needs to be talked about. Let me give you an example.

Often times when a married couple asked me to come and

like, hey, pastor, can we talk to you?

And we're struggling with this. And one of the things that I say

to really most couples is do you have another couple that you

could talk to? A lot of times people are like,

no, not really. We don't want to, you know, air

our dirty laundry with other people.

It's kind of embarrassing. And a lot of couples don't.

Some couples do, but this is this is my advice, fight another

couple and say, Hey, this is what we're fighting about.

What do you guys think? And the point is not to like

take sides, right? The husband takes the, the guy

side and the wife. You know, it's not, it's not

suddenly you're, you're dividing teams and it's not a group fight

suddenly, but it's an opportunity to share the gospel.

Oh, you guys are fighting. This is just a random example,

right? Many times newlyweds, they have

their habits and routines and they get married and they want

to keep it. Let's say a guy right comes home

and like for the last 10 years, they were either like, Oh, I

like to unwind and you know, watch Netflix for an hour or

video games for, you know, 9 hours or whatever.

They're used to their a lifestyle.

And then, you know, the wife has, you know, the her routine

and it doesn't match and they're fighting over it.

When they share that with another couple, that's the time

to preach the gospel, meaning, hey, our faith.

The gospel is about God sacrificing, right, his Son for

us. The gospel is about Jesus

sacrificing his his God powers, right God's side to die for us

on the cross so he could save us.

The gospel is all about sacrificial love, and the person

could say, the couple could say, hey, we go through that too.

But let me just say, like you guys are fighting to have more

of what you want, your rights and your privileges.

But I think in our marriage, what's helped is when we gave up

our rights and privileges for one another.

It's really helped things out. It doesn't sound like much, but

you just preach the gospel right there.

Gospel needs to be part of everything that we talk about.

So when Paul says work produced by faith, he means receiving the

Word and living it out both in words and actions.

When somebody asks you a question, help me, then the

gospel comes out. That's the works Paul's talking

about #2 what kind of church is Paul thankful for #2A church

with labor produced by love. If you're new to the church, I

know you. You think, oh, there's three

things, Faith, hope, love. They must be one point each 3

point sermon. You're wrong.

I have not preached a three-point in five years and

I'm not going to start today in my anniversary, so this is only

a second point. I'll be closing with hope for a

little bit, but I want to focus mainly on this, a church with

labor produced by love. Let's reread verse four and

seven. Four talks about how love could

produce labor. For we know brothers and sisters

loved by God, that he has chosen you.

And seven, as a result, you become an example to all the

believers. So how does love produce labor?

Well, loving people is hard, right?

It could become laborious. But what Paul saying is, you

know what, what inspires love, what produces love, what

motivates love is the fact that God loved us first.

That's verse 4, loved by God and he has chosen you.

When we know that we are God's beloved, that love, the

understanding of God's love for us produces something in us, The

ability to labor in love. When we know that God loves us,

we are able to labor for others, pray for others, serve one

another meals and liver tears shared forgiveness extended, not

quitting on relationships and that love from one another, if

it's not motivated by God's love for us, then it's you're going

to hit, hit a wall. It's tiring.

It truly will be laborers. But what is motivated by God

loving us first is if that is the source we get, the source we

draw from, then we could powerfully love one another.

You could powerfully be there for each other.

I could honestly say that the love people have from one

another is what allowed us to exist after 13 years when we

started the church, long before I started the church.

I read, you know, I've already graduated seminary and and I, I

read books. Even though I graduated, I went

back to take classes on church planting.

And as I was studying, although experts, you know what experts

have to say about church planning, they all were saying

that I shouldn't start the church.

I even took this exhaustive like test.

It was for the church planner. It was supposed to tell me that

if I was ready or not ready to start a church, I had to pay

money for that and it took hours.

It was it was a very exhaustive test.

Test. You guys think what?

And give me a thumbs up, thumbs down.

The test came out inconclusive. That should have been a sign.

And I was like, yes, the test didn't say no.

I talked to the professor. He said don't start.

He said you need at least 30 to 40 people to start, like ideally

about 100. He said how many people do you

have? I was like, well, 12 when my

wife's pregnant, so 13 almost. I was personally not ready.

We didn't have the money they said you got.

You need money for like at least six months of salary for the and

rent, you know, in the bank account.

We had $20,000. And then my praise reader said,

oh, we got to buy speakers. I said here it's $20.20 thousand

buy speakers. And I didn't know that he was

going to spend most of it. He gave me like 3000 back.

Those are the speakers. I will never get rid of these

speakers. Like someday we get like new

speakers, like better. It doesn't matter.

I will hang those up. Like I'll frame it and hang it

up right. With $20,000 you can start a

church guys. No, I don't recommend it.

Oh gosh, I mean, every anniversary I share some aspects

of it and I don't want to share all of it.

But it was that was just me not being ready.

And imagine, you know, a 32 year old just not ready, immature

trying to start a church. How many things will go wrong

and everything went wrong. So how do we get to year 14?

Well, the first reason is God's faithfulness, but that's not

today's sermon. But I really think the second

reason is labor of love. People who labored with love,

people who love the church. And even now I see the evidence

of people who love the church everywhere.

So many of us drive 3040 fifty minutes to come to church

weekly. For over 10 years, we worshipped

that 1:30 PM. What a terrible time.

If I was not a pastor, I'm sorry, I'm not going to 1:00 PM

church. I'm going to a 10 AM or 11:00

AM. At First worship sanctuary.

It's about this size, a little bit wider.

It's so hot. We had like 12 fans going

around, just rotating hot air. We had one little window and

sometimes like like a, a girl who gets like cold easily would

sit next to the window and then she'll be like, can we close the

window? You know, it's like 85°.

I posted a picture of our service once and somebody asked

me if I was, if I was missions, Like no, that's just no, that's

just my church. I work there.

So how, how did a church not fail?

Yes, God's faithfulness, God gave us some miracles, yes.

But I think really it's countless stories and

testimonies where I've heard where people said, you know

what? My community made a difference.

This person made a difference. I witnessed people's hearts

changing because someone poured out their heart for another

person. I've seen relationships healed.

I've seen people being uplifted, going through hard times and

uplifted by others. For whatever reason, God sent a

lot of people to our church that truly love the church.

Just this week, I was having a pastor.

It was like a pastor's lunch and somebody asked a question to the

pastor next to me. It was like, oh, how long have

you been serving there? And the guy next to me said 08

years. I've been there eight years and

the pastor goes 08 years. That's so long.

How do you guys do it? And I guess he like, the longest

he's ever stayed in one church is five years.

So he was asking the guy next to me like 8 years and how do you

do it? I was like 13, bro, like, but

you know, I'm humble, so I didn't say anything.

And the guy next to me said, you know, when so many people love

the church, it's easy. And I didn't say anything

because my answer would have been exactly the same as the guy

next to me. A lot of things are possible.

Difficult times get easier, and God's people labor with love.

When our love for one another grows, everything becomes

better. The hard times, it just becomes

a little bit easier. The good times become a little

bit more joyful. That is all because of the love

we have for one another. How do you keep that going you

got daily go back to the Lord. Remember it starts with verse 4.

Love by God, brothers and sisters, love by God that He has

chosen. Knowing that you are chosen to

be sons and daughters of God, that is your motivation.

That is the source of love. Without that, it does become too

hard. I want to close with this.

Of course, Paul talks about hope, right?

Endurance produced by hope. Hope is what allows us to look

forward and keep going. You know, so far in the sermon,

I talked a lot of things that happened in the past, recalling

what happened 13 years ago, 10 years ago and all of that.

LA being the, you know, the CG that started 13 years, the only

one that still exists. And we're thankful for that and

all of that. But I want us to not be

satisfied with what God has done in the past.

I want us to be encouraged by it, be reminded how faithful God

is. But we got to move forward and

keep loving, keep the word needs to keep coming out, and that

takes hope in verse 6 pauses this you became imitators of us

and of the Lord when in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed

the message with joy. So this church was going through

a severe persecution and I love one of the commentators said

about this. He said the author said the

severe persecution became a megaphone of their testimony.

Meaning these people going through hard times, they're

literally their lives are on the line and they're able to love,

they're able to serve, they're able to preach the gospel.

And people are like, wait, why are you still loving when your

life is in danger? Your life's not that great.

How are you caring for others? It seems like you barely have

enough time to talk, think about your own problems, yet you're

pouring out for others. So where did I get this?

Hope it's verse 10. I didn't read it yet.

I read it for you. And to wait for his Son from

heaven, whom he raised from the dead.

Jesus will rescue us from the coming wrath.

Their hope comes from heaven. Their hope comes knowing that

Jesus returned. Their hope comes from knowing

that this world is just temporary and our eternal life

is with God. So the Thessalonians are saying,

who cares? What we go through here is

temporary. I want to still preach the

gospel because that is eternity. So how can we move forward?

How can we keep loving? How can we not so be like be

satisfied what we did in the past and keep doing God's work?

Hope, hope in the Kingdom of God.

Otherwise, it's too discouraging.

You know, at least in my marriage, having young children

was the hardest time. And I, I, I think many of you

can say, hey, this is the hardest time of a marriage.

Having young children is a hard time in our life in our church.

Unfortunately, if that's true, well, then half our church is

having a hard time in a worldly perspective, like we, we

shouldn't be able to do anything.

We should just barely survive next five years.

But I don't think that's what God has in mind.

Your hardships provide a bigger way to glorify God.

It is now a megaphone. I'm tired.

Two kids, they're crazy. They're beautiful and I love

them, but they're crazy. And yet I have hope.

I am strengthened by the Lord, and I'm going to care for other

couples. I'm going to care for that

newcomer. I'm going to do my best at work.

I'm going to love my wife, I'm going to love my husband.

I'm going to do this. But the power of God gives me

knowing that God loves me and that just doing that is a

megaphone. The world will see you and say

man, you should be barely surviving, but you have time to

pray for others. You have time to take out that

newcomer out to lunch, You have time to go to mission.

You have time to do this and that.

You have time to be happy. That is all possible because of

the hope in Jesus Christ. Main point, a church to be

thankful for is marked by faith that works, love that laborers,

and hope that endures. Let's take time to pray.