I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me back to the book of 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 will be the text we're going to look at together this morning. And if you don't have a Bible, there's a handout in your bulletin that has those verses printed on it. And if you don't know, 1 Thessalonians is the first book we ever went through at this church. Back when we got started at Marina High School, where we met outside in the bowl, and we did a sermon, Church Is a Family on October 26, 2014, and out of all the studies I've ever done, 1 Thessalonians has probably impacted me the most. This book has literally changed my life. I think about things we learned in our study of First Thessalonians every day here at our church, and so since so few of us were there back at the beginning of Marina High School, the elders of the church decided we needed to go back to 1 Thessalonians.

And so, I'm so glad to open up this book with you. Somebody asked me why we are opening up to chapter 2? It makes no sense. Why are we skipping chapter 1? Well, some of you might remember, when we moved into this auditorium, we did preach from 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1. Does anybody remember that? That was our first service. We went back and did some sermons from 1 Thessalonians 1, and that chapter is about how the gospel rang out among these people.

Paul came to Thessalonica. He preached the gospel, and something happened. This church was built up. They turned from their idols to serve the living and true God. They had a faith in Jesus that he was going to come from heaven and deliver them from the wrath to come. A powerful effect happened with these people because of the gospel. And so, that's what happened in chapter 1. But now Paul, he's going to talk to this group of people, and the way he talks to them, the mindset that Paul has is something we want everybody here to see because he has a church-is-a-family mindset. A church is not a place where people are friendly; church is a place where people are family, and that's what we're going to see in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12. So, out of respect for God's Word. I invite everyone to stand for the public reading of Scripture, and please follow along with me as I read 1 Thessalonians 2, starting in verse 1.

For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

That's the reading of God's Word. Have your seat. And if you're taking notes on that handout, first thing I'd love for you to do is circle that word "brothers" right there in verse 1. And I just want to draw your attention to the term that Paul uses as he's addressing this church of people, he calls them brothers. And if you know how Scripture works, Scripture is written in a masculine tone, but this would definitely include the women there as well. You may have a footnote. Some translations will even say “brothers and sisters,” just to make sure that we all understand that includes he's addressing not just the men but the women as well. He's addressing everyone, and he's addressing them like they are a family.

Now, he uses the word brothers nineteen times. So next to that word, “brothers,” write down nineteen times. That's just in these five chapters of Thessalonians. In fact, if you want to get the context of the whole letter of Thessalonians, you could read through and try to keep track of all nineteen times he refers to someone as “brother,” or he refers to the whole church as his “brothers and sisters,” so he clearly is thinking of them this way. In fact, that's the main way Christians were referred to. If you go through the Book of Acts, we weren't referred to as Christians until Antioch. So, the original term, when Christians were going to refer to one another, the way they would refer to their fellow Christians was “brothers.”

So, if you're taking notes, let's get that down for point number one: We want to “Think of fellow Christians as brothers and sisters.” If God loved you by sending his Son Jesus, and Jesus loved you by dying on the cross to pay for your sins, well, when you believe, you are adopted into the family of God. That's how much God loves us. He adopts us to be his children. He only has one son, Jesus, and the rest of us we get all adopted into the family, and that makes us all brothers and sisters. So, I want to encourage you to think in this way that they thought in the early church. This is how they referred to one another. This is how we should refer to one another here at our church. If you're married, you’ve got some members of your family that are in-laws, and maybe you're thinking to yourself, "Are these people really my family?" Yes, they are your family. Well, when Jesus saved you, you got some members of your family that are your in Christ, and you're thinking, "Are these people really my family?" Yes, they are your family. They are your church family, and you're like, "Well, this church family thing you're talking about, it's not as deep, it's not as profound as blood, like blood family. Actually, that is how we become family in Christ is through the shed blood of our Savior Jesus. Can I get an amen from anybody here this morning? We are all purchased by his blood. In fact, Jesus, we just learned this in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus, when he came to serve, he gave his life as a ransom for what? Many people. And guess who those many people that he gave his blood to pay their ransom to purchase them out of their sin. Guess what? Those many people are your blood brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jesus died to save many, and ever since Jesus died to save many, people at church have been complaining. Why does someone have to sit so close to me at the service? Why are other people taking my parking space? Don't they know I sit here every Sunday? See, a lot of the way people talk, I want a small church. I want to just know everybody by name. I want it to be the same people. I don't want to get uncomfortable with all these new people. Well, why is Jesus given his life as a ransom for many, and then we're over here saying, "Can't it just be a few, please?"

The way a lot of people talk about church is not consistent with what the Scripture says. The Scripture says, "Hey, see that person you don't know? But Jesus knows them.” That means they are your brother or sister, and you should think of them that way. Look at what Jesus said in John 20, verse 17. Did you catch this? Because we read this last week in our service. Jesus said to her, "This is Mary Magdalene. This is when he's appearing to her after his resurrection." Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

What an amazing thing for Jesus! He doesn't say, "Go to my disciples." He says, "Go to my brothers,” and he says that his father is our father, and his God is our God. I mean, what could you have a greater honor than for the Lord Jesus himself to refer to his people as “Brothers.” See this is the way we should learn how to think. In fact, look at what Paul teaches Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:1-2. We know that Paul referred to Timothy as his true son in the faith as he discipled him, and he said, "Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters in all purity.” Like he's training his disciple Timothy. Hey, if you're going to go talk to an older man, talk to him like your father. The older women, mothers. The other men brothers, or the women sisters. This is the way that you're supposed to think.

I remember when I preached that first “Church Is a Family” sermon. I told a story about my brother. I have a brother named Bill Blakey. Have you ever heard of this guy? Have you ever met this guy before? I told this super embarrassing story about him, never knowing he would come and be a part of our church family, right? And I told this story about how people were picking on him at his school, and I was at the same school as him at that time. And when I saw people messing with my brother, I was like, "Hey, that's my brother.” That sense that you have that hey, I care about that person. Hey, I'm in it with that person. Hey, I might mess with my brother, but how dare you? Right? That's my brother. And see that I don't know if God's blessed you with siblings and you've had that familial feeling with brothers or sisters, but over the years now of being a part of this church, I get that thought. That's my brother about people that I didn't grow up with, people that aren't actually my physical brothers.

But I'll tell you, over a week ago now, when Chris Truelove came up at his daughter's memorial service and he spoke the Word of God, you know what I was thinking? That's my brother right there. This week, I heard about two men from our church. They found out another man was in sin, and you know what they decided to do when they got this news? They went over to his house, and they wanted to care for him, and they wanted to minister to him, and they wanted to turn him out of the sin. I'm like, wait a minute, you guys did what? You went to his house? You went and found him. I was like, you guys are my brothers.

I had the privilege this week of watching a man pray and ask God to raise him up with Jesus Christ, to put his Spirit within him, to save him from his sin, and give him a new life. And as soon as he was done praying, I was like, "Hey, here's my phone number. If you ever get tempted to go back to that sin we were talking about, you need to call this like it's a 24/7 hotline. Don't be worried about if it's an inconvenience. It's not a problem. We're family. You need to call me because we're brothers now.”

See, did you ever have that thought about other Christians who are with you, called to his kingdom and his glory, a part of his church, members of the body of Christ. Do you ever think, "Wow, these people! That's my brother. That's my sister. These are my people. I'm so blessed to be in the family of God with them." That's how Paul thought about these people, and the Book of Thessalonians is so unique. Paul wrote thirteen letters, and in a lot of his letters, what he does is he gives you the doctrine, the theology behind how you got placed in Christ. But see, in 1 Thessalonians, it's different. What he writes about in 1 Thessalonians, before he gets to the practical teaching of what you should do because of Christ, he goes over the history of how they became a church, that's what he's doing here. It's like, when I came and preached the gospel to you. Wow, the gospel echoed from you. The gospel resounded from you. You didn't just hear the gospel. You went and told it to everybody else. You told them by your words. You told them by the change in your life. You told them by the way you were looking to Jesus, the gospel. You didn't just hear it and believe it. The gospel, it sounded forth from you. And he's describing the history, and then he's describing how he thinks about them, my brothers.

And we have to now ask ourselves: Wow, I'm a part of the Church of Jesus Christ. Do I think about those people like my family? This is a glimpse for you to see how our minds are supposed to be towards the people Jesus is saving. Now look back at verse 1. He says, "For you yourselves know brothers that are coming to you was not in vain, meaning the gospel had a powerful effect on them. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God. But notice how he says it happened in the midst of much conflict. See, when you're going to hear in 1 Thessalonians such beautiful things about this church that you would think this church must have started in some ideal situation, but the truth is, it started in the midst of conflict.

So, everybody, grab your Bible and turn to Acts 17. We have the behind-the-scenes story of how the Thessalonian church got started in Acts 17:1-10, and this is a part of the Macedonian call. If you know a little bit about the book of Acts, there's this idea that someone from Macedonia is calling them for help, and they come to the conclusion that they should go to Macedonia and preach the gospel because that's what help looks like. If you want to help somebody, share with them the good news of Jesus Christ. And so, they go to Philippi, and if you know the story of what happens in Philippi, they get thrown into jail, and so they're being persecuted. But guess what? They don't stop. They continue on this via Ignatia, this Roman Empire roadway where there was a lot of trade, and they end up in Thessalonica.

Look at Acts 17 verse 1. “Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica.” This is where what we're here to read about. This is how the church got started. There “was a synagogue of the Jews,” Verse 2, “And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.” Verse 10, “The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.”

If you're taking notes, write that down between point one and point two. How long were they preaching the gospel there in Thessalonica? Well, it says in Acts, three Sabbath days. They went to the synagogue of the Jews. They opened up the Scripture and they reveal that the Hebrew Messiah was Jesus of Nazareth, and he had to suffer through his death on the cross. He rose on the third day, and you should believe that this Jesus is the Christ. Three Sabbaths. He says this, and it says, wow, verse 4, “People were persuaded.” Jews were persuaded. Devout Greeks were persuaded. Leading women there in the city of Thessalonica. So many people believed in Jesus. The gospel had such a powerful effect that it caused an uproar. It caused a division in the entire city, and the Jews were jealous by how many people were believing what Paul was teaching that in response they started a mob. And what did they say about Paul and Silas? These men are turning the world upside down. And what do they know about their teaching? They're saying that Jesus is the King. And so, just in three weeks, a ruckus is raised in this city. In three weeks of preaching the gospel, something happened, and now he's writing to this church of people. So, one of the things I learned from 1 Thessalonians that has really shaped the way that I think is when you preach the gospel, you should expect something to happen.

And what that means for us, point number two is: “Expect the gospel to make new relationships.” We should expect the gospel to make new relationships. The Church of Jesus should never think that if we're preaching the gospel, it's going to be the same old brothers and sisters sitting in the same old seats in the same old parking spaces every same old Sunday. We shouldn't be thinking like that at all. If the gospel is going out, the gospel is God's power to save everyone who believes. The gospel is life-changing good news. That just as Jesus died and was raised, so you too can walk in newness of life in the name of Jesus Christ. And if we go out and with that message, if we keep preaching faithfully that message, should we expect God to keep saving people right here at our church? What's the answer, everybody? Yes. And so, who's going to welcome in the new brothers and sisters?

See, there's always going to be, and there should always be, new people at church. If the church is small, how can it stay small if you’ve got the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ going out to more people, because some will reject it, but some will be persuaded. So, all these relationships that Paul's going to talk about in 1 Thessalonians that are going to seem like these deep and meaningful relationships in the church, all new relationships. It all just happened recently, and it's a diversity of people. There are Jews, there are Greeks, some of the leading women of the city there in Thessalonica, probably some people who were just your average everyday folks, some of the leading folks, all kinds of different people, and they're all coming together now as one new family, as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Now, a lot of people, when you do research on 1 Thessalonians, and I love to study this book, a lot of people think he had to have been there longer than three Sabbath days for all of this to have happened. But the thing I want you to see is it only took three times of him preaching the gospel to create a powerful response. And so, you can't think that well, if new people come, we'll just wait to see if they stick around, and then we'll get to know them. No, just in three days, in three Sabbath days, many people were saved. So, we should be expecting there to be new people. We should be expecting God to work. That's clearly what happened in Thessalonica.

Wow! Look at the response in just three Sabbath days. Now, is that just three Sabbath days till people started getting saved or is that three Sabbath days the whole time he was there before the Jews ran him out. We'll go back to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2. Let me give you a couple of reasons why people think he must have been there longer than just those three Sabbath days. And one of the reasons is right there in our text. If you jump down to verses 9 and 10, he says, "For you remember, brothers." So here he is, always addressing them in this way. But one thing you guys remember from when I was there is our labor and toil. “We worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you.” What's he talking about here? He's talking about a financial burden. What he's saying is that while he was in Thessalonica, he was working two jobs. He was working to support himself financially. Paul, Silas, Timothy, the crew that were there, had to make money, and then they were also working in the ministry there to preach the gospel and to build the church.

And so, he's trying to help them realize, hey, as an apostle of Christ, he says in verse 10, I could have made demands, right? I could have said, hey, I'm preaching to you the Word. The worker is worthy of his wages. You guys need to support me so I can keep preaching to you. He's like, I could have said that, but that wasn't Paul's style. When he would go into a new place where there wasn't a church, he didn't expect the church to give. He didn't expect them to have those new, generous, cheerful hearts to give. So, he would want the money to come from somewhere else. And so, in this case, he worked to make that money himself to not be a burden to the Thessalonians because he knew he's just there preaching the gospel. They're just getting started.

You could write down Philippians 4:15-16 because in his letter to the Philippians, remember that's where he was before Thessalonica. That's where he was thrown in prison. That's where he was persecuted. But still, he kept going to the next city. Kept going to the next synagogue, kept preaching that gospel of Jesus, and guess what? The Philippians, more than once, he says, sent him money while he was in Thessalonica. So, in a lot of people's minds, he must have been there longer than three or four weeks if he's doing this work to fund himself. If the Philippians who are so thankful that he came and got the gospel to them, are now sending money to him in Thessalonica, and they do it not just once but twice. That's why, if you read scholars about 1 Thessalonians, they'll say he must have been there longer than just three or four weeks when he's doing all of this work. So, we don't know exactly how long he was there in the city. We know that after three weeks, the gospel had a powerful effect.

And we're actually going to take an offering here in our service later on because we are an established church, and we haven't taken an offering, a physical offering, together in a long time. So, we're going to do that later on. But Paul, he's like, I don't want to ask about money yet. I just want you to hear the gospel. He gives all these reasons. I didn't come to flatter you. I didn't come to please you. I didn't come for any error or impure motive. I just came to give you the gospel, and you guys really heard it. And then he says this in verses 7 and 8. Look what he says in verses 7 and 8. He says, "But we were gentle among you." See, verse 6 is where he's like, "We could have made demands as apostles of Christ.” I could have said, I need you to support me, but I didn't do any of that. We came in “gentle among you." And then Paul says this, “like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.”

Now that's when, Paul the apostle, a guy who came in boldly preaching the gospel, when he now compares himself not just to a mother, but specifically to a nursing mother with her own children, that intimate family picture of a mom nourishing her baby. When he says that, like I'm sure, if you're hearing 1 Thessalonians, if you're in the church and someone's reading this letter aloud for the first time, and Paul refers to himself, Silas, and Timothy, who have written this like a nursing mother. I'm sure that got everybody's attention. That's not a picture you would expect that man up there to say, but he says, I care for you like a mom who's nursing her own baby.

And look at verse 8. Look at how he describes it. “So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.” Or you had become beloved to us. See, it wasn't just that he came in, preached the gospel, got run out of town, and then preached the gospel somewhere else. He says, "When I came to give you the gospel, I came to give you my life, not just the gospel of God, but my own self.” Or it's the word here for soul. I came to give you all that I am. I came to pour myself out. This wasn't just like, oh, you heard the gospel, now it's up to you. I'll see you later. No, you heard the gospel. Now I'm here to give you my life, and I care about you. See, you've become beloved to me. You've become a part of the family. I want you to grow up. I want you to be nourished and cared for like a nursing mom with her kids.

So, one of the things I've learned being at church is there's not enough care going on in the American church. There's not enough care. Even you could write this down if you're taking notes. What the word “pastor” means is someone who cares. That's actually the definition of a pastor. It's like a shepherd, like a shepherd who would care for his sheep. So, the word pastor is supposed to bring this idea of someone who cares for God's people. I think a lot of people might think when they hear pastor, they might think preacher, someone just speaking at them. But the point of the pastor is to not just teach the people. That's the way you feed God's sheep. That's the way you tend to his lambs is you teach them all that God says in his Word, but you also care for the people. You also give your life for the people. And it's been a joy for me to meet many people and to get to know them and to care for them here at the church. But one of the saddest things about being a pastor these days, as I meet with people, they're like almost afraid to meet with me, and I regularly hear people say, "This is the first time I've ever had lunch with a pastor. First time I've ever sat down with a pastor. Oh, I don't want to meet with a pastor. Sounds like I did something wrong." When really, it's like, no, we're just here to care. People have been so little cared for that they're not even expecting it, and this is the idea that there is a love and a care in the church family like a mother with her baby.

So, Paul is saying he cared for these People. That's profound. Because if you know how moms care for their kids, that is a very personal and meaningful kind of love. There's a big difference between mom care and daycare. Do you know what I'm talking about? When we started this church, the kids’ ministry, and I'm so thankful for the people who care for the kids of this church and the kid’s ministry, we only had one service when we started at Marina High School. So, if you did kids’ ministry, you missed the service. So, we would invite the people from kids’ ministry over to my house, and they got to hear the sermon in my living room. And then we did this kids’ ministry fellowship group right there at my house, and one of the guys who came over was this young man named Alex. And Alex walks in, and he's got a bag full of chocolate milks because apparently, he was just working at an after-school program running a daycare. And now he shows up at my house, and he's like, "Hey, can I put these in your fridge?" I was like, oh yeah, yeah sure. And so, every week, when he would come over, he’d be bringing all these guys making out like a bandit, a chocolate milk bandit from this daycare program. I was like, kids aren't drinking chocolate milk anymore. What's going on? You know, eventually, it was just like Alex. My fridge is your fridge. Put all the chocolate milk in. And then I would start talking to him. I was getting to know him. How was daycare going? And some days he would say it was tough or it was this, but a lot of times he was like, "Daycare was great. After school program was awesome." As he's like putting the chocolate milks into my fridge, it was great. You know why it was great? He wasn't hanging out with those kids anymore. That's why it was great. Those kids were now somebody else's problem, and he's at my house with a bag full of chocolate milk, right? And now, if you know the story of Alex, he's become our very own Mr. Alex, and he works full time with the kids here at this church, and while he was serving the Lord here at this church, he met this woman named Ally, and they became the Aldanas. I was a witness when God joined them together, and now God has blessed them with their own children. And if you go over to the Aldana household, there are kids running around all over the place, and they don't go anywhere else. They're Mr. Alex's kids, right?

And there's a big difference between the way you care for your own children, or the way you think about children who are somebody else's problem. And Paul's saying, "I cared for you like you were my children." Do you treat people at church like they're your people, or do you think they're somebody else's problem? The kind of care at most churches is a daycare level, not a mom care level of care. See, if you tell mom something about one of her kids, see, is mom going to cry if her kid's crying? If mom is going to rejoice if something good happened with her kid? Is mom going to be right there depending on whatever's going on with her kid? It would be hard to imagine saying to a mom, "Hey, this just happened with your kid," and mom just going about her day like it's not her business. See, and here in the church, if somebody's weeping, what should we be doing? Weeping with those who weep. If someone's rejoicing, what should we be doing? Rejoicing with those who rejoice. See, we should be so close in our family relationship with one another that how other people go determines how I go. See, that's mom care. That's not like, well, I'm just going to keep having my day over here. I'm not really connected to that. See, that's daycare.

Let's get this down for point number three: We want to “Give Mom Care, NOT Day Care.” Here at the church, we want to genuinely care with a brotherly love. Paul goes so far as to compare himself to a nursing mother, nourishing her own children. I think it's really important there in verse 7. If you could circle “her own children,” see, this isn't like a nurse taking care of someone else's children. This is a nursing mother taking care of her own children, having that level of responsibility, ownership, buy-in to the other people around us. They're not just somebody else's people; they're my people, and I'm going to care for them. This idea of the nursing mother, nourishing, is kind of the idea behind that word. If you look at Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 29 to 30, it says, "No one has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it." The idea of the nursing mother and nourishing, these come from the same word in the Greek. And so, the idea here is, you don't hate your own body; you nourish and cherish it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. We're all one body of Christ. We all have one faith, one Lord, one baptism. We're all united in one spirit.

And so, how can we just disconnect ourselves emotionally? Just disconnect our care and act like well, those people there at the church I'm not going to bother myself with them. No, they are the body of Christ and we're all one body. And so, we have this nourishing care for one another that's what Paul's saying and he's saying it in a way that's meant to get your attention, that's meant to make you think that the apostle Paul just compared himself to a nursing mother. Whoa! He's using phrases like affectionately desirous. He's saying, "I didn't just give the gospel; I gave my life because you became beloved to me." See, most people won't really care what you know until they know that you care. And so, I’ve got to ask you, do you treat church like you're just putting chocolate milks in the fridge, and those kids are somewhere else, or do you treat church like those are your people, and you're going to care for them, and if they're having a hard time, you're going to be there with them in that sharing in their suffering. And if they're rejoicing, you're going to be there with them in thanking God and praising the Lord, because that's your family, not somebody else's problem.

Is that how you think about people? That's how Paul thought about the Thessalonians, but see, he's got more. Go down to verse 11. He's got another picture that he says, and this one we might expect more from the apostle Paul. But after he talks about how hard he worked in verses 9 and 10, he says in verse 11, "For you know how like a father with his children." So, he's called them brothers. He said he's like a mother, and now he says he's like a father with his children. What does that mean? Look at verse 12. “We exhorted each one of you, and encouraged you, and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God.” So, three different words here, and in 1 Thessalonians, things often come in groups of three. Sometimes this is how Paul kind of likes to speak and write, even though he's co-writing here with Silas and Timothy. There are three of them. So, sometimes he gives why use one word when three words will do? That's kind of Paul's style, and so it's like, and he says three times here the same idea. We exhorted each one of you, we encouraged you, and we charged you. So, “exhorted you” there, that's a word that's all over the New Testament, to call alongside. You come alongside of someone, and you speak into their life. You're encouraging them. The second word there that's translated encourage. Sometimes it's translated, we consoled you, we comforted you. You were going through a hard time. We were there for you, speaking God's truth to you. And then when it says we charged you, we testified to you, we told you about it. So, he says, like a father would speak to his own children, so we spoke to you. We came alongside and spoke into your life. We consoled you when all this conflict was going on, and we testified this is the way you got to live for Jesus Christ. It was all about walking in a manner worthy of God.

So, see, he brings up here not just his love, but also his speaking of the truth. And he says, like a father with his children. I remember the first time we went through this; we had to establish all these things as we were getting started as a church, we were like, "How many fathers even know what the Bible tells them to do?" And we defined dad as the Bible teacher of the home. That every father, and this would apply to the mothers as well. But we were calling out the dads, "Hey, you’ve got to teach your kids what God's word says." Go to Deuteronomy, chapter 6. We went all the way back to the foundation to make sure that everyone understood what does a father do for his children. And unfortunately, this is not common in our day and age. Not enough dads are bringing the book at home with their kids. Not enough dads are disciplining and instructing their kids, nourishing them, or bringing them up in the way of the Lord, like it says in Ephesians 6:4. And so we went back to Deuteronomy 6:4. We went all the way back to the Shema, this famous passage in the Law of Moses, and it says, "Hear, O Israel." That's what Shema is, the Hebrew word “to hear.” That's how this passage begins, “Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God, and Yahweh is one.” This profound statement about who their God is. He's YHWH. And then it says the greatest and first commandment in verse 5: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children.

And so, the call goes out to the fathers. Do you love God with your heart? Do you have God's law, God's Word? Do you get the word of Christ to dwell in you richly? Do you get God's Word on your heart so that you're loving God? Because if the word of God is on your heart and you're loving God, then you should take the word that's on your heart and you should teach it diligently to your children. And this isn't just saying you might do a family devotion or a Bible time. You might have a specific time where you would read the Bible. That could be a good thing to do. But look at how it describes it here in verse 7. It says, "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise.” Hey, is everybody on the couch? That might be a good time to tell them the Word on your heart. Is everybody in the car going out somewhere? That might be a good time to tell them the Word on your heart. Is it early in the morning as we're getting going? Is it late at night as we're getting ready to go to bed. Hey, if the words on your heart, fathers speak it to your children. That's the whole premise. And so now Paul, he's referring to that premise, a premise that needs to happen with more dads today. And he's saying, yeah, like a father would speak to his kids to teach them God's Word. A father would say, "Hey, here's what I've learned." That's how I was towards you. If there was something that needed to be said, I wasn't afraid to say it to you. If you needed some encouragement, some comfort, if you needed to get charged up, I was speaking to you, and so that's what he says. Like, yeah, there was an affectionate care, but there was also, I'm going to say the truth.

And see, a lot of Christians today have made some kind of false dichotomy where you can separate care and truth, and you can make them two different things. Is that how it's supposed to be? You'll hear people say stuff like, "Well, I don't really tell people the truth. I just love them." Is that a true statement? And you'll hear other people say, "Well, I love them by telling them the truth,” right? As fire comes out of their nostrils, right? There are some people who are ready to say, "Oh yeah, put me in, coach. I'll tell them what they need to know." And then there' are others who are like, "Well, I just love people. I don't get into that." Can you have one without the other? Can you care? See, is he bringing up like a nursing mother over here, and then like a father over here to contradict each other, or is he bringing up them to complement each other?

See, I'm talking to some people in this room who are like, "Well, I just love people." Well, when do you speak the truth? And I'm talking to some people in this room who are like, "Oh, I'll speak the truth." Well, do they know you care? Because the truth's not going to do any good if there's no love there. And this gets back to who our God actually is. In God, there is no separation between love and truth. No, God, when he introduces himself in Exodus 34, verse 6, when God is letting Moses know who he is, he says that he is a God who is “abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” He's always true to what He says, and then John picks up on that. And when he's describing Jesus in John 1:14, “The glory of the Father who put on flesh, and we beheld his glory full of grace and truth.”

See, if you're going to be one of God's people, and you're going to be conformed into his image, you can't spend the rest of your life just showing care or just speaking truth. No, those two things come together in who God is, and those two things need to come together as you mature, as you grow, as you become. You might start out more on the care side, or you might start out more on the truth side. But if you're going to be one of God's people and represent him, it can't be one or the other. It's got to be both, and that's what Paul says. I cared for you like a nursing mother, and I spoke to you like a father would teach his kids.

And go back now to 1 Thessalonians 2, and it's very important that you understand what his purpose was in speaking to them, because when he says, "I exhorted each one of you, and encouraged you, and charged you," notice what his purpose was to walk in a manner worthy of God. Paul wasn't telling them his personal preferences. Paul wasn't expressing his opinions. He wasn't saying, "Here's what I think you should do." He was telling them, "You need to walk in the way of God, and you need to have your walk match your talk. You need to walk worthy.” All who God is, all that you've heard in this gospel, you need to walk that out in your life. And I want to teach you how to go God's way. I want to train you up in God's way, so when you grow old, you will not depart from it. I want you to walk in a manner worthy of God, and this is an important word for many dads, many fathers who go to their homes and they flex their authority and they teach the rules of their house, not God's rules in their house. They make up their own rules, their own requirements. One of the things it says about fathers is fathers do not what, everybody? Exasperate your children. You start adding your own rules, making up your own standards, telling everybody else in the house what to do. That will exasperate them. No, Paul is very clear. The things he was saying, like a father with his children, were not his things; they were God's things.

And so that's what we're supposed to say to one another. You're not trying to get people to agree with you. You're trying to get people to agree with God. Look at what God says. Look, it's right here. “Now, I'm sure there are some people here, as you're hearing this sermon, you're thinking, "Well, the people who speak like a father that would be like Paul the apostle, or a father in the household, or maybe even like a pastor who would speak." That's not for me. I'm not supposed to speak the truth to other people. Well, turn with me to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter four. I need everybody to turn to this passage, Ephesians, chapter 4, verses 15 and 16. But in the context here, it describes different people in the church. It describes even the pastor teacher who's here to equip all of God's saints for the work of ministry. It says in verse 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ.
So, yeah, definitely, the pastor should be speaking the truth and he should be preaching God's Word, but he's doing it to equip all the saints. He's doing it to build up the whole body, and eventually it gets to verse 15, which says, "Rather speaking the truth in love." See, there it is. You’ve got both of them: the care and you know what to say. “Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in what everybody in love.”

Now let me ask you: after reading those two verses right there, is this just Paul's job, or the pastor's job, or somebody's specific's job, or is this a role for all of us, see if you're a part of the body of Christ. Each member of the body, each part of the body, we all have a role to play in building up the body of Christ. You could be a brand new Christian. Sometimes the brand new Christians, when the Christians get together and they start talking, sometimes you think, "Well, I don't really know a lot compared to these other people. I'm not sure what I would say. I don't have the knowledge of so and so, or I don't have the experience of this person. "When somebody just shows up, sometimes and says, "Hey, I don't know much, but here's this thing I learned, and I realize I got to stop doing this." And Jesus is really showing me this, and they just start getting honest and open and sharing what the word is that's on their heart.

Man, sometimes the new Christians are the ones who encourage everybody the most just by sharing what God is doing on their heart. Do you have the word of God on your heart? Then you have something to say to build up the body. Look at verse 16 again. Let's just if you're taking notes, maybe you want to write this down. Notice these phrases: the whole body. It says, “by every joint, when each part makes the body grow, so that it builds itself up in love.” But these phrases of whole body, every joint, each part, if you're my brother or sister in Christ, that includes you. And as he makes us his disciples, as he makes us to become someone we were not, as he grows us up into him who is the head, we become mature. We become complete. You think, well, I'm not the kind of person who's that good at caring for people, or I'm not the kind of person who's that good at speaking to people. That's the beauty of being a Christian is he takes you from the kind of person you are, and you become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. That's why we started using the word Christians, little Christs, because that's who I used to be. But I'm becoming more and more like him as I see him loving and forgiving and gracious and merciful. But then I see him faithful and true and just. I see who God is and I see Jesus coming with all of his grace and compassion, but being willing to die for my sins and all of the truth that God has spoken and promised. When I see who God is, see, I become like him.

And then I can't just stay on one side of love or truth. No point number four: I’ve got to speak God's truth in love. That's what we're all here to do. From the youngest saved person in the room to the oldest saved person in the room, to the most outgoing person in the room, to the quietest person in the room, to the most on the love side person in the room to the most on the truth side, we all meet at the love and truth of our God, and as we see our Father and we see Jesus, as we become like them, he makes us to be this way, and that's how the church is built up. When you care for one another, when you speak the truth and love to one another. You are a part of building the church. He uses all of us. And so, I’ve got to ask you: Are you ready to be the church family? Are you ready to show real care? Are you ready to speak the word of God that's on your heart to your one and others.

Se, 1 Thessalonians, going through this book, what we did the first year of our church here in Huntington Beach that actually wasn't the first time I preached through 1 Thessalonians because down at Compass Bible Church Aliso Viejo they're the ones who sent us up here to Huntington Beach in 2014. and I was down there for eight years before they sent us up here, and they knew they were going to send us out, and so they said you should start preaching through a book down there at that church that'll get you ready for what you're going to preach in Huntington Beach, and so we decided on the book 1 Thessalonians. I didn't realize what an impact that decision would have on the rest of my life, and they said you’ve got to start preaching this here at that church, so you'll be ready for when you go there. And so, I started preaching through 1 Thessalonians, and I was used to preaching to college age or high school age. Now I'm preaching to the whole church.

This was new to me, and I remember when I was going through First Thessalonians, and I'm learning about the power of the gospel, and I'm learning about the love Paul had for these people. Eventually, you get to chapter 4, and there's this big passage in chapter 4 about sexual immorality. And I was like, "Oh, I'm going to go preach on this to the old church." I mean, I talked about abstinence with the young people, but it felt different to speak to all the adults in the church about sexual immorality and how God is the avenger of people who sin in this way that He's commanded them not to, and they take advantage of a brother. And I was like, "Whoa, this is an intense passage." And so, I'm super nervous, and I'm coming in and I preach this passage. And you know what? I was surprised because people were like, "Yeah, preacher man, give it to him, give it to him, man. Tell him like it is. Yeah, let him hear it." And I was like, people were cheering. People were like, "This is good. People need to hear this in America today. Yeah, people out there need to know." And I was like, "Wow, I survived that. That worked out." And so, then I get to the next passage, and the next passage after that in First Thessalonians 4:9, it's like about “brotherly love,” and I'm like, if we can survive through sexual morality, brotherly love, this will be no problem, right? And so, I go in front of the church, and I open up the Bible to First Thessalonians, and I say you should love people here like they're your brothers, like they're your sisters. I bet there are people in this room right now you don't even know, but guess what? They know Jesus in the same way you know Jesus.

And if you took them out to lunch, if you went to a meal after this service, you could probably have an amazing conversation. And people looked at me like you're telling me to do what? They looked at me like, "How dare you? Why don't you go back to that little high school room? What are you saying? We're going to take people we don't know out to a meal, like literally arms crossed, scowls on their faces, I didn't hear many reports of anybody taking anybody out to eat anywhere, and that's when that was like an introduction to me. That one of the hardest things you're ever going to have to do in the American church is talk to people about actually caring about each other and so, I'm here to talk to our church about actually caring about one another, actually treating people like a family, even people you don't know, people who might be your brother or your sister in Christ. Do you want to get to know them? Do you want to care about them, or are they just somebody in your way onto where you're going,

and see one thing we did last night. I got to go find. It was like a dream come true because we did the family meals. It was like after the service, I sat down at a table, and some of the people I didn't know very well, and they didn't know each other, and we started talking. This really happened last night. I went to a meal just like I said all those years ago. It finally happened, and let me tell you, once Joe over here started saying what had happened in his life and how he'd gotten saved, and then he started sharing some real things, and then somebody else said, "Yeah, that same thing is happening with my family member," and then this lady over here was bold to share her testimony, and then we all started talking about what it really looks like to love people. I was like, people who don't even know each other are having a family conversation. It was like a dream come true. And so, I want to ask you: Are you here to be a family? Or have you made up your own idea about what church is? Let me pray for us right now, and then we'll take an offering and sing some songs in response.

Father in heaven, I just thank you so much that we could open up to 1 Thessalonians this morning. Thank you for every brother or sister you brought here, so that we could hear Paul call these folks his brothers, and we could see the power of the gospel to make these new relationships. And for Paul the apostle, the persevering evangelist who went from town to town, even if they threw him in prison or chased him out, for him to say he's like a mother to them, like a father to them. God, open our eyes to see the love that is here in the Church of Jesus Christ. That we're all one body. We're all one family. God, I pray that at this church here in Huntington Beach, people would really care for one another. That no one would think those people at church are somebody else's problem. There are people, and I pray here at this church, people would really say what needs to be said to speak your truth, and that we would speak it in love, and God, I pray that this would be a place where people would actually know where the disciples of Jesus, because we love one another. And so, if people weren't thinking this is what church was, please use 1 Thessalonians to change their minds, God. Please draw us together with this kind of care, where we become beloved to one another. Please draw us together, where we're not afraid to say what you're putting on our hearts, what we're learning from your word, and we'll say it to one another to build each other up. God, I pray that you'll take this church and you'll unite us together in Huntington Beach. But it won't just be for the purpose of us being together in Huntington Beach. I pray that the place you will take us is your kingdom and your glory. That we will come together as your people, and we won't let each other fall away, and we'll stick with one another till that day that we get to see Jesus. Till that day, we're all dressed in the robes of white, and we're all shouting, "Worthy”! People from every nation, every tribe, every tongue, brothers and sisters, all coming together forever, God. It seems so wrong that people don't want to talk to each other now. But we're going to be with you forever. In our Father's house, there are many rooms, and so let us meet many brothers and sisters in Jesus' name. God, please, over the weeks that we're talking about churches or family, make us this way. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.