The Good Church Has a Gospel Culture | The Church God Calls Good | Pastor Joe Coffey

first Thessalonians 5:

12-28 we ask you Brothers to respect

those who labor among you and are over

you in the Lord and admonish 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 be patient

with the all see that no one repays

anyone evil for evil but always seek to

do good to one another and to everyone

Rejoice always pray without ceasing give

thanks in all circumstances for this is

the will of God in Christ Jesus for you

do not quench the spirit do not despise

prophecies but test everything hold fast

what is good abstain from every form of

evil now may the God of Peace himself

sanctify you completely and may your

whole Spirit soul and body be kept

blameless at the coming of our Lord

Jesus Christ he who calls you is

faithful and he will surely do it

Brothers pray for us greet all the

brothers with a holy kiss I put you

under oath before the Lord to have this

letter read to all the brothers the

grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with

you hey everybody uh welcome great to

have you thanks for coming um we are in

the sixth week of our 10we series we're

calling the church God calls good and

we're looking at two letters that Paul

wrote to a little church in a city

called thessalonica and this first and 2

Thessalonians and today we're actually

closing out the first letter so if you

have your Bibles go ahead and turn to 1

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

Thessalonians chapter 5 uh you can look

it up on your phone uh the words will

come up on the screen uh eventually and

then if we going to use one of our

Bibles in the pews or over in the back

of East Hall it's on page

929 page

929 all right uh so this passage that

you just had read to you sounds like

Paul is just taking a scatter gun and

just listing out uh a bunch of things uh

he especially in verse 14 he says we

urge you Brothers admonish the idol

encourage the fainthearted help the weak

be patient with them all verse 16

Rejoice always pray without ceasing give

thanks in all circumstances it's like

boom boom boom boom boom uh a bunch of

unrelated things he's trying to cram in

before he signs the letter and sends it

off but I don't think that's what Paul

is doing I think Paul is actually

talking about just one thing just one

thing uh let me start with a story that

Jesus tells in Matthew chapter 18

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

uh in Matthew chapter 18 Peter asks

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

Jesus a question it's a good question

it's a hard question uh Peter asked

Jesus how many times do I have to

forgive someone who hurts me how many

times do I have to forgive someone who

sins against me in response to that

question Jesus launches into a story and

this is a story he says there was a king

who had servants and one of his servants

owed him

10,000 talents now a Talent was a

measurement of money it was an enormous

amount of money my Bible actually says

that 10,000 talents was equivalent to

200,000 years of

wages

200,000 years of wages it's like Jesus

said this guy owed the king a bazillion

dollar like he uses just an

astronomical number and the King calls

his servant in and says pay me what you

owe me and the servant says I can't and

he says please give me mercy and the

King uh decides to forgive him of his

debt which is crazy

amazing it would be amazing if he just

cut the debt in half or if he if he cut

it all the way back to just say one

lifetime of wages or even one year of

wages but instead he wipes it

completely out

and so that servant who came in with an

insurmountable debt had that debt lifted

and was going out forgiven it's a great

story until that servant ruins the story

by going and finding a fellow servant

who owed him a hundred days of

wages and uh he says pay me what you owe

me and his fellow servant says I can't

please show me mercy and this servant

who had been forgiven for so much ends

up saying no and he has him thrown into

prison and Jesus point was that that

first

servant didn't get the

gospel and of course this story is about

forgiveness which means it's a story

about the gospel because if this servant

had gotten the gospel it really

understood it he would have acted

completely

differently and and it it's so obvious

that Jesus doesn't even take the time to

explain it he just lets the story hang

there a church that God calls good is a

church that's filled with people who get

the

gospel who understand that we are like

the the servant who walked into the

king's presence with an

insurmountable debt and we walk out

completely

forgiven and debt free there's there's

nothing quite like it I don't know if

you you've ever seen the show Undercover

Boss uh few years ago I just binged on

that show I just I don't know if it's

still on or not but if you're not

familiar with the show it's a a boss

goes undercover in a company large

enough so no one would recognize them

but I love the end of each show and the

end of each show the boss sits down with

an employee or several employees one at

a time and the boss ends up saying

something like I've I just want to

surprise you and give you

something and then the boss says I'm

going to pay off your house I'm going to

start a college fund for each one of

your kids here the keys to your new car

they're outside and the employee just

starts to to cry and the the camera

follows them outside when they call

their spouse or a family member and

they're crying they're just saying I

can't believe it it's unbelievable

what's happened to me what they don't do

is go outside and call somebody who owes

them a hundred bucks and says pay me

what you owe me right that'd be the

farthest thing from their

mind what Paul is telling the Thessalon

thessalonica church and what he's

telling our church is that if we're a

church that's filled with people who

understand the go gospel we

know we are like the the employee goes

outside and calls Anybody Everybody and

says my life has become

unbelievably wonderful because of Jesus

you know whenever you get a group of

people together there's a name for the

the vibe that that group of people as a

whole give off they call that Vibe what

they call it is the culture of that

group uh football teams can be described

as having a winning culture not in

Cleveland but in other cities right

businesses have cultures families have

cultures churches have

cultures what what Paul is doing here

and listing out all these things he's

reminding the

Thessalonians about their culture he's

saying if you are a church that's filled

with people who understand the gospel so

this is your culture this is what you

you will ooze to anybody who comes in

contact with you it's it's unlike any

place in the whole universe let me read

the verses again and then I'll give you

my three points and my three points are

really just going to be the three

characteristics of a church whose

culture is shaped by the gospel this is

what it says we ask you Brothers to

respect those who labor among you and

are over you in the Lord and admonish

you to esteem them very highly and love

because of their work be at peace among

yourselves and we urge you Brothers

admonish the idol encourage the

fainthearted help the weak 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

Rejoice always pray without ceasing give

thanks in all circum cumstances for this

is the will of God in Christ Jesus for

you do not quench the spirit do not

despise prophecies but test everything

hold fast what is good abstain from

every form of evil now may the God of

Peace himself sanctify you completely

and may your whole spirit and soul and

body be kept blameless at the coming of

our Lord Jesus Christ he who calls you

as faithful he will surely do it

okay A a church that is shaped by the

gospel will do two do three things right

the first treat your pastor like a coach

treat each other like a Band of Brothers

and treat yourself like a lottery winner

okay those are my three points you know

I sit in my office and I try to think of

three points that'll be sticky and

you'll remember and I wrote These down

when I got these I was I I made myself

laugh um treat your pastor like a coach

treat each other like a band of brothers

treat yourself like a lottery winner

okay first treat your pastor like a

coach this is what it says we ask you

Brothers to respect those who labor

among you and are over you in the Lord

and admonish you to esteem them very

highly and love because of their work be

at peace among

yourselves when Paul says that what he's

saying right away he's implying there is

a a government kind of structure in a

somebody's in charge in a

church and it it's spelled out more the

qualifications of leadership in the

church are spelled out more clearly in

first Timothy and

Titus but in this these couple of verses

he uses some words that are really

important for a pastor he uses the word

labor and

admonish for people in the church he

uses the words

esteem and

respect and love and the result of that

is

peace as your pastor my my job is to

care for you but but more than that my

job is to develop you into a a follower

of Jesus into what God created you to be

and that word admonish has two parts to

it it means to encourage courage and it

also means to correct both those

things and I say treat your pastor like

a coach I grew up playing basketball in

high school and in college and my coach

in college was a man named Paul

Patterson and Coach Patterson was a he

was a great coach uh he was a very

demanding coach he had a bunch of saying

that he would uh repeat over and over

again he would drill it into every team

member and now you know those of us who

were on a Coach Patterson team like over

the course of Coach Patterson's career

of 20 30 years we can all give these

same sayings and here are some of the

sayings I actually have on a

bookmarker he says uh respect the

process appreciate the struggle good is

hard hard is good hard work is first a

separator then a unifier you have to get

comfortable being uncomfortable the game

honors toughness I mean you can kind of

catch what kind of a coach he was by

those says let me tell you one quick

story about Coach Patterson that I

remember is uh we were running skeleton

offense skeleton offense in a basketball

team is uh where the offense gets in no

defense so it's it's really for muscle

memory it's like you to run a play you

pass pass pass to this guy pass to that

guy pass it in score the bucket right

you and then the first team goes out

second team comes in past it's really a

Mindless thing all right so I had been

uh on the floor my group was off I went

to the side kind of away from coach and

then when I rotated back in we went pass

pass pass and I took a shot and the

whistle blew immediately and Coach

Patterson said everybody on the

sidelines 16 Sidelines that was the

worst punishment it was brutal

punishment and I said for what and he

said uh I said no more shots from the

corner and I said I didn't hear you and

he said it's your job to hear me and I

was so mad I mean I was just like I

can't believe this now I just told you

that Coach Patterson was a great coach

what I was convinced of no I I should

tell you too that I never walked off on

the other side of the court again in my

whole career I always went right next to

him because was my job to hear him but I

was really mad at him because I felt

like he had done something that was not

right but I loved Coach Patterson by the

end of my time there and when he passed

away three years ago I cried and I went

to his funeral with all the other

players that he coached because what I

was convinced of with Coach Patterson is

that he wanted me to be the very best

version of me as a player and as a young

man and he worked hard to do that and

that took encouragement and correction

and sometimes he would make mistakes but

I knew he and I wanted that for me I

wanted to be the best basketball player

I could be I wanted to be the best

person I could

be people who are pastors and I can

speak for every Pastor on our

staff we only do

this for

you we only do this because we really

want you to become what God intended for

you to

become and he uses the word in verse 23

sanctify and I I mentioned that word a

few weeks ago sanctification means

becoming the person God intended you to

become God created you to be radiant to

be glorious to be joyful to be beautiful

and that will take encouragement it'll

take correction at times and we'll make

mistakes at times but what Paul says if

you have pastors that that want that for

you that will do that for you then

esteem them respect them love them

because that's hard work it's hard to do

listen I need to tell you this too long

before there was a portal for athletes

where they could jump into the portal

and transfer to another school the

minute they didn't like something their

coach did or said there's been a church

portal where people can jump in and go

to another church don't do that so

quickly I don't know if if there had

been a church or a portal back when I

was playing for Coach Patterson I don't

know I might have jumped in it a couple

of times because I was hurt or

frustrated or thought he made a

mistake and now some 40 years later I'm

so glad I didn't because I'm a better

man today because of staying there so

that's the first thing that Paul says in

a church that's shaped by the

gospel treat your pastor like a coach

the second thing is treat each other

like a Band of Brothers this is what he

says in verse uh 14 and 15 and we urge

you Brothers admonish the idol encourage

the fainthearted help the week be

patient with them all see that no one

repays anyone evil for evil but always

seeks to do good to one another and to

everyone in uh 2001 HBO came out with a

miniseries called Band of Brothers it's

my alltime favorite miniseries I think

it it Chronicles the the true story of

uh easy company in World War II of the

the 506 parachute regimen of the 101st

Airborne Division

and it Chronicles their whole experience

from training camp all the way to the

end of the war and each episode begins

with the the soldiers themselves they're

old men now and they are

recounting uh their experiences and

they're they're even though they're old

men their memories are still fresh and

the bond that they formed uh was amazing

as they went through the experiences now

as soon as I read these words uh that

Paul wrote I went I started thinking

about Band of Brothers because if you

remember the reason that Paul is writing

these letters is because he started this

church in thessalonica almost

immediately after he started the church

persecution arose that was so Fierce

that Paul had to run for his life and he

knew that the church was involved in

persecution so he sent Timothy back to

find out how they were doing and this is

a response these letters are a response

to the report that Timothy brought back

and the reason my mind went to Band of

Brothers is because in many ways being a

Christian is like being in a battle

thessalonica was a hostile place our

country is becoming more and more of a

hostile place for

Christianity and what Paul is saying is

that a church with the whose culture is

shaped by the gospel will do certain

things where we will help each other in

the fight and there are five things that

he lists out the first thing he says is

admonish the idol what I realize in Band

of Brothers is that uh no one was

allowed to do nothing everyone had a job

no one could just be Idol and every job

was important and my point is that if if

Christianity if being a Christian really

is going to get harder and harder then

we're going to need each other and

they're going to be times in your life

for going to you're going to feel like

becoming Idol uh spiritually that you're

going to begin to stagnate you're going

to want to stop coming or stop serving

or stop giving and you're going to need

somebody to call you up and say no don't

drop out come on we need you we need you

and there are people that you know that

are not here and that are dropping out

that you need to call this week to just

say

don't he says admonish the idol the

second thing he says is uh encourage the

fainthearted there's a scene in Band of

Brothers where there's a private named

private blle and uh in a firefight he's

in a foxhole and he's just Frozen with

fear and there's a man named Lieutenant

Winters who's standing uh over him like

in the line of fire and he's shouting at

private ble saying get up ble

you can do it you can do it he is taking

his me away from the battle to like lend

courage to ble and ble finally stands up

and

engages listen our culture is going to

become more and more hostile which means

there going to be times where you're

going to need to encourage people to

lend your courage to people you're going

to need courage and to be a Christian in

the midst of your family or your

schoolmates or your work environment or

your neighborhood where we will have to

encourage each other uh when we're

tempted to shy away and

disengage or we're Frozen with fear the

next thing he says is

uh help the weak you that word weak

actually can mean several different

things in this context it can mean uh

that where you are weak because of

sadness because of Doubt uh because of

anxiety and fear or because of sin and

what Paul is saying is listen you need

to help them the way we that you help a

wounded soldier you go to them you you

throw them on your shoulder you take

them you patch them up you care for them

in a church that is defined by the

gospel we do not shoot our wounded no

matter how you are

wounded right then the fourth thing he

says is be patient with them all one of

the things I noticed you know be patient

is also the word for longsuffering but

one of the things I noticed in banded

Brothers is that uh there was the least

amount of friction among them when

between them when they're actually in

battle it was when they were not on

Mission that they began to get on each

other's nerves so one of the things I

want to encourage if there are people

around you that are sitting around you

right now that are getting on your

nerves it may be that you need to get in

Mission get back on Mission but what

Paul says is that if the gospel really

permeates this place if we really

understand and get the gospel that we

are forgiven we can be patient with each

other because God has been patient with

us and finally he says do not repay evil

for evil and what that means is don't

fight among

yourselves you there's enough to fight

against if the gospel permeates this

culture we we don't escalate things we

don't have feuds that are ongoing feuds

we we talk good about each other we do

good for each other and the reason that

we can treat each other like a Band of

Brothers is because of my third point

which is treat yourself like a lottery

winner it's what he says at the at the

end Rejoice always pray without ceasing

give thanks in all circumstances for

this is the will of God in Christ Jesus

for

you okay there's this this vibe that

comes with a group of people uh the

culture of a group of people oozes out

of them so that when people come into

this place they're going to catch that

Vibe and Paul describes that Vibe with

three things that there is

Joy there is prayer

and there is

Thanksgiving and one of the things with

joy is that we don't want ever go very

long here without reminding ourselves of

the Gospel that's one of the reasons we

take communion every week is to remind

ourselves that we are the servants that

walked into the presence of the king

with a debt that was

insurmountable and we walked out like

the employee and under cover boss to

call anybody to call everybody and tell

them how our life has become absolutely

wonderful because of

Jesus if we remind ourselves of that all

the time we will be characterized by a

deep and

abiding Joy the second thing is

prayer you know every time what I

realize is that the less I pray uh if

I'm not looking up then I'm looking down

and the less I pray the less clearly I

see what is true and what is right you

know uh Pastor Zach has a podcast called

wake up look up uh it's every day it's

five days a week it's it's really good

if you haven't tuned in to that probably

should he he says it's to connect

everyday events to the Gospel of Jesus I

like it because of the content but I I

like it even more because of the title

because what he's saying is wake up look

up for me every time I look up it helps

me to keep things in perspective to

understand things more clearly there's a

reason why here at this church we wanted

to put something in your hands we called

it lean in 24 days of prayer looking

toward the 24 election so that we could

keep our minds kind of stable in the

midst of this of all that's going to go

on in the next couple of weeks all right

keep doing that because prayer is one of

those things that Paul says as part of a

culture uh where the go where people

understand the gospel and finally he

says Thanksgiving give thanks in all

things you know Studies have shown over

and over again that happiness is

connected to gratitude the most grateful

people are the happiest people the

happiest people are the most grateful

people

show me a church that is

overflowing with gratitude and I'll show

you a church that you want to be a part

of listen every church has a culture

this church has a

culture we want to have a culture that

is permeated with the gospel and if we

are a culture that is defined by the

gospel uh and the understanding of what

Jesus has done for us

the way we do that is for you to treat

your pastor pastors like like

coaches treat each other like a Band of

Brothers in the midst of a battle

because if we're not in one now we will

be and then treat yourself like a

lottery winner because you are the

servant who walked into the presence of

the king with an insurmountable debt and

walked out completely and absolutely

forgiven because of

Jesus let's be a

church with a culture permeated with the

gospel so we can be a church that God

calls good all right pray with

me Father in heaven we come to you and

uh I am so uh

grateful uh I'm grateful for uh all that

you tell us in your word but I'm

grateful that we can have a culture that

is shaped by the gospel because you have

given us

Jesus I pray that you would remind us uh

even

today uh

that we have been

forgiven of a debt we can hardly even

comprehend and because of

that uh we can be free we can be alive

we can be loving we can be forgiving of

each other I pray that you equip us as a

group to treat each other in such a way

that we will be able to uh be in the

midst of a hostile environment and show

your love and your

grace thanks for every person here uh

thanks for giving us uh this your church

and I pray that you'll make us into a

church that you call good we pray this

in Jesus name amen