This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:01] Grab a seat, everybody, and grab your Bible once again here at Compass Bible Church and open up to the book of 1 Thessalonians.

Welcome to week number two. Wow, what an exciting week we had last week. We had 480 people show up, a lot of them friends from our church, Compass Bible Church Aliso Viejo. And it was an overwhelming experience. We set it up and all worked. It all happened. And I was exhausted afterwards. And then I woke up on Tuesday morning and I was like, what? We're going to do that again. Oh, wow. We got to get ready for that. Who here? This is your first time that you've joined us. Can we can we welcome everybody if this is your first week joining us on week two? We are so glad to have you here. Like I said last week, I'm sure I moved here. I'm ready to be here for decades. I'm ready to die here. I'm excited to see a start here in this little hot melting pot of a bowl and see where the Lord takes us over the years to come. And, you know, a lot of us are coming from different places here today. We've got a lot of maybe pass church experience. Maybe we've been to different kinds of churches. Maybe we've got some friends here. You haven't even been to church that much. And I don't know what your expectation is. And there's a lot of different ways we could decide how to do church. Some people, they just say we've always done it this way. Let's just keep doing it that way. Some people, they just make up how they want to do it. They think, well, what will the people like? Let's if people will like it, let's just do it, because that's what people like. Well, the great thing is, is we're start now. We don't have to make up how to do church. All right. God gave us a book that tells us exactly what he wants us to do. In fact, Jesus Christ gives us commands that he wants us to follow. And so we're not doing anything based on our own personal experiences or our own expectations. We are going to follow the example that we have here in the Bible of this church. The First Thessalonians, this letter that is written to a church that is called an example to us. And we got an introduction to this book. But we're just going to look at the first three verses here this morning. So if you could follow along with me, as I read here, the first three versus is all we're going to get through here today. Follow along, please. Here, the process, lenience. Chapter one.

[00:02:14] It says Paul Silvana's and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians in God, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. And we give thanks to God always for all of you constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and father your work of faith and labor, of love and steadfastness, of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as Paul he's writing a letter. He's got his brose, Silas and Timothy next to him, and they're right into this church in Thessalonica. And you can read about how the church got started in an Act 17. Paul comes into the crowd and he starts preaching the gospel there and people start getting saved. And so he says, as he's writing the letter constant, he giving thanks constantly for these people. I was a typical way to begin a letter back in the day. But he says something specific. The phrase we want to focus in on here this morning, louvers three, remembering before our God and father your work of faith and labor, of love and steadfastness, of hope. When he thinks about them, something specific comes to his mind that he prays to God about. And it's that this church, they were workers. He I mean, he mentions it three different ways. Work, labor, steadfast ret work. They were doing things. Labor that were there gets to like they were expending effort. They were sweating. They were they were toiling and then steadfast there. That has the idea of like they stuck with it, they persevered, they endured. When he thinks about this, churches like I think God, so much for you. And here's something that jumps out about you guys. You guys were hard workers.

[00:03:57] Unfortunately, people who go to church today and in Orange County and the time that we're living in people are not known as hard workers, especially not at church. Right. I mean, we live in a culture where a lot of it's tough to just get people to church. And if they go to church, they act like, well, I went to the service. What more do you want from me? I mean, that's the attitude a lot of people have.

[00:04:19] And so what we're gonna see here is that maybe our experience or maybe even our past is that kind of attitude that we've had about church. When we look at the example of the Thessalonians, this church, they were known for people who wanted to do work. And are you that kind of person? That's a distinctive if you've got your bulletin, flip it over. We've got eight distinctives above CompassHB Bible Church, eight things that we want to be known for that we want. We think these are things that culturally that we want to stand out and you can look at and there's a bunch of ones we could've talked about, but we're just following along with Thessalonians, and it starts us out at number six. Take your eyeballs down to number six there and you'll see that one of the distinctive something that we want to be a little bit different about our church is we want to have. Highly committed participants. When we say, hey, we need some help doing something or. Hey, we need some people to show up here and do some work. We want to have a group of people that's like, yeah, I signed up to serve. I'm here to work. Now, if you know the statistics about this, you probably maybe heard this step before. If you've gone to church at all, that 20 percent of the people do what? Anybody heard this before? Eighty percent of the work. We've heard that, right? Yeah. I mean, even the attitude that people kind of have when I tell you that I'm moving to Huntington Beach and I'm going to plan a church.

[00:05:31] They kind of look at me like, well, how big is your family like? Do you have a big uncle? How many kids do you have? Because I hope they're there to help you set up the chairs, you know, because I don't think anybody else is going to help you as your extended family come. And when they like like how's this going to work, you know, because they don't expect people at church to do work. That's not the expectation of our culture. That's the expectation here, though, in the scripture. Now, I understand the desire to work not coming naturally. OK. And I want to just make this very clear right now in case we haven't met and you haven't gotten to know me too much. I might come up here and seem like I'm excited. I'm into it. So you're thinking, well, this guy is just a hard worker. That's his personality. If you had known me growing up, you would realize hard work was not exactly what you would associate with Bobby Blakey, actually. I had a nickname growing up and my own father gave to me and it was half a job. Bob, that was the nickname that I had half a job. But that was how my dad raised me. That's how I grew up. All right. It would be like, you know, we did. We were crazy back at my house. It was like kids were expected to do chores. That was one thing that was crazy. And one of the really strenuous tasks that I was given to do was take out the trash. I don't know if anybody's been burdened with that. Right. And so I'm taken out there. Here we go. Taken out the trash. You know, I'm kind of lethargic about it. And then there's this trick. It's like a sneak attack. They get you from the back. Like, not only do you take the trash out, but apparently you're supposed to put a bag back in the trash can. Like, I didn't know about this. That wasn't on the short list, you know. And next thing you know, it's like here comes dad throughout the whole house so everybody can hear half a jar. Bob strikes again. Everybody just threw my trash into an empty can. Oh, boy. Watch out, everybody. He's on the loose. That's how I grew up. Right. One of my least favorite chores was cleaning up after the dogs. The scoop of the poop is what we used to call it. Right. And for some reason, I don't know why I always would miss, you know, a poop here, poop there. Just a little bit of poop that I would miss.

[00:07:29] And then, you know, Dad would be out throwing the ball with one of my bro's and you could literally hear it throughout the entire neighborhood. Up stepped in it. Everybody half a job. Bob, on the case, you know, I mean, that's how I grew up.

[00:07:42] Now, my dad was here and he heard me telling the story. He would be like, he's already apologized to me multiple times for for calling me half a job. But the truth is that helped me as a as a boy who just wanted to play games, needing to grow up into a man who does work. And being called half a job was I don't want to be like that. I want to be a hard worker. So I just want to if you have a hard time working hard.

[00:08:04] I understand that's where I came from. But I have been convinced by the scriptures that that is not acceptable before God and that every single person here is called to work heartily as hard as you can with all of your might. Go to James, chapter one. And let's just look at an important passage that really goes against the way that a lot of people are thinking about the church today. James, chapter one, everybody. Let's hear the sound of Bible pages turning here this morning and look at it with me, James, chapter one, verse 22. And you'll see this passage is so important. We've kind of even structured our church based on the idea here in this passage. James, chapter one, verse 22. It says, This book be doers of the word and not hearers, only deceiving yourselves for if anyone is a hear of the word and not a doer. He is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror and he looks at himself and he goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, that's the Bible. That's what we're looking at this morning and perseveres. There's that word again. They're steadfast. They work hard. They stick to it being no hearer. Who forgets, but a doer who acts. He will be blessed in his doing. I mean, here's a warning in the scripture that if all you do is go to church and you only hear the word, but you don't go and do the word, yeah, that's a dangerous place to be. It says, watch out. You might actually be deceiving yourselves. You might be thinking that just because you heard it, therefore you get it. Therefore, you will live it out. Therefore, you've arrived at some kind of level because you heard it. But it's saying that's not the test that God's going to evaluate you by. You're not going to go to heaven and get some kind of quiz of how much of the Bible do you know? No. Here's the test. Are you a doer? Of the word. And so we've even tried to structure our church. Like, we're gonna come here and hear from the word whether we're meeting outside here or we find a place with air conditioning. I mean, wherever we're at, we're gonna be getting in the word. And then the idea is, let's go do it. That's gonna be the point of this church. Whatever we hear, we're now responsible to go and do. That's even why we have these home fellowship groups. So you can hear it. Now we're all sitting face forward. I'm speaking the word of God. Preaching hopefully the Holy Spirit. Speaking through me straight to you. We're all here in it. But later, we want to sit in a circle and we want to talk about how we're going to do it in our lives. That's why we've got home fellowship groups. And so think about it. People who are patting themselves on the back saying, yeah, I went to church. I'm good, thanks. Actually, the Bible saying, no, actually, you just heard it. Now you're more responsible. Don't deceive yourself into thinking that you're good because you heard it. No. Do you do it? Do you do. Work. That's what Jesus Christ is looking for. He's not looking for if you know the commands he's looking for. If you obey the commands to have been to a Friesians in other passage that that we just got to clarify here this morning is a fusions. Chapter two, one of the most helpful passages may be really in all the Bible, because there's something that I need to make clear, especially as we're just beginning here. I need to make it very clear. I'm not trying to say that by doing good works. Do you get into heaven? Can we. That is heresy. We do not believe that here at Compass Bible Church. You cannot work your way, earn your way. You cannot be good enough. Do enough good things to please a holy God. And at this Ephesians chapter two is super helpful in that regard. It states that explicitly look at Ephesians Chapter two versus eight nine. So I just need to clarify. As we start hearing this sermon about doing work, let's just make it very clear in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight. Look at this with me. It says four by grace, you have been saved through faith. That's what we were talking about last week. If you were here putting your faith in the gospel of Jesus. Four, By grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. You can't do it. You can't save yourself. It is the gift of God and not a result of works so that no one may boast can. I hope that nobody will come to this church and hear a message about let's go do some things. Here's some ways that you can serve. Let's get out there for Jesus Christ and think, well, OK, I hear what you're saying. So I'm just gonna try harder. I'm just going to be a better person. And if I just do this, this and this, I'll get to heaven. We don't believe that here at CompassHB Bible Church. We don't believe that. That's not what the Bible teaches. But if you actually think that by doing something good, you guys, a sinner could somehow merit favor with a holy God, that just shows you don't really understand how it works. Nobody here can do good things that impress God in Ephesians two has already set that up. Look back at verse one. Here's here's a verse that really will help your self-esteem. Look at this officiants. Chapter two, verse one. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins. And when she once walked us out to pick her up before anybody right there, does that just make you feel good? Here's here's how you are without Jesus Christ. You're dead. How many good works does a dead person do? Zero good works. Right. I mean, that's the ideas that you as a sinner before God. I can't do good things. But we get to the good news in verse four. Look at this. But God, it lots of bad news and versus one to three. And then here's the good note. Good news. God didn't leave us like that. But God being rich in mercy doesn't give us what we deserve because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead. And trespass is. Here's what he did. He made us to live together with Christ. By grace. You have been saved. There it is, the theme in this passage. And he raised this up with him and he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So then in the coming ages, he might show the riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. You don't get saved by doing good things. You get saved by admitting you can't do good things, that you need God to come and work on your heart, that you need God to do a supernatural work. We call it salvation. Where he makes you alive in Jesus Christ. That's what we talked about last week. Hebrew. Anybody remember last week, right? Jesus, he is the Christ. He died for our sins and he rose again. That's the gospel. And when you put your trust in that, God raises you up to a new life. So the kind of work, the hard work that I'm looking for here is not a work to earn salvation. We need to be very clear about that. It is a work based on your salvation. Now you do work. So point number one, let's put let's put it down like this. We need to thank Jesus for doing the work for us. Thank Jesus for doing the work for you. That's the way you could write it down. Point number one. Thank Jesus for doing the work for you. We're here to say Jesus Pated. All we already saying that here this morning, Jesus Christ, he died for one hundred percent of your sin. And if you put your trust in him, you will be 100 percent forgiven. All of your sin done with erased and then you will be raised with Christ and given a new life and you'll have a new power. You'll have a new ability to do things like you never could before. That's the gospel that we preach.

[00:15:21] We didn't come up here and be like Jesus met me halfway. I met him halfway to. We met on a bridge of love. I'm a heretic.

[00:15:31] That's not what we came here to sing this morning. Right? We came here to sing that Jesus Christ paid for every single one of your sins. Everything that you've ever thought, said or done that grieved the holy God Jesus erased it all. You had a bad stain. You were crimson. You were dark and Jesus. He washed you as white as snow. Can I get a man from anybody on that? That's what we're here to talk about. I don't want anybody here at our church being like, hey, I did some good works. Look at me. I'm impressing you. I'm impressing God. That's not how it works. We are here to be impressed with Jesus Christ and to give him the glory. But then the logical conclusion from that is if Jesus paid at all, I should give a half hearted effort back to him. Is that the logical conclusion?

[00:16:18] No. If Jesus paid at all. Then what do I want to give back to him? All to him I owe. I want to give him a hundred percent. I want to give him everything I've got. Romans 12 one puts it like this. I want to lay down my life as a sacrifice and just offer myself completely to Jesus Christ. It's the only reasonable response is to say if Jesus would do that for me, then I'm ready to do anything that he would ask of me for him.

[00:16:43] Now, that, unfortunately, is not the reputation that people at church have today. We're known as people who are barely going to show up if maybe if it works out in our schedule. This is saying, no, we need a church who's like this. We do the work of faith. See, our faith produces good works in our life. And we do it because we love Jesus Christ. We labor. We sweat. We strive. And when it gets tough. When it gets hard. When I don't feel like it. Guess what? I stick with it because I believe love is not a feeling. It's a commitment. That's the kind of church I would like to have you. Anybody want to be a part of a church like that? What when you're when you're saying I move in? Well, you know, my wife's having a baby. Something's going on at my house. You've got some friends who are gonna show up and do work to help you. That's the kind of church that we want to be and we can't forget. This poor, lonely verse in the Bible. Look at verse 10 here in Ephesians. Chapter two, everybody knows Ephesians two eight nine. That's a very popular passage. But then you got little verse 10 here, too. Can you even find that verse? See, verse 11 is way down there, separated by a couple of spaces versus eight nine. I like a big click. And then you got this poor verse 10 lonely verse. He says, for we are looking at it says, for we are his workmanship. God has done a work in us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Hey here's here's what salvations about. God does a work in you. He recreates you in Jesus Christ, he makes you a new person. And actually the reason God saved you is he's already planned out a path of good works that he's expecting you now for the rest of your life to go and do. Why did God save you so you could do some work for him? That's how he's decided to work in our world right now through his people that he has saved. Just think about that right now, the rest of your life. God already has laid out a path and he's just wanting you to walk down it in obedience. He's already prepared you. It's a beautiful word here. This workmanship is the word POMA. It's the word that we get pome from. It's like everybody hear your life story is a poem like hand picked phrases put together and you're going to walk down this path and God's prepared you to do good things, not not the person next to you, not somebody else. There are good things that God save just you to do. And you should want to run and do those things for God with all that you have God term with me in first Corinthians. Fifteen, First Corinthians, fifteen. Another very pivotal chapter in the Bible, First Corinthians, Chapter 15, just a few pages over to the left here from where we're at in Fusions. Now, this Passion's passage is one of the longest chapters in the New Testament, 58 verses. And it starts out with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It says in versus three to four. I want to tell you the gospel, that Jesus is the Christ. He died for your sins. As it says in the Old Testament, he was buried and he rose again, as it says in the Old Testament. So the whole chapter is about the gospel, how Jesus rose from the dead, how that now gives you a new life, gives you a hope of heaven after you die. This powerful chapter on the resurrection. And then it ends like this. If you really understand the gospel, here's the conclusion that you should be coming to at the end of it, first Corinthians 15, all the way, verse 58. Therefore, after fifty seven verses about how. Awesome, it is to be saved by Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Could you underline that phrase? Could you write that down on your notes? Always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. That's like a 100 percent statement. That is all inclusive. There's no way out of that statement. Always. That's 24/7 abounding. That's all that you've got on the inside. Coming out on the outside. Here's what where the call is. If you understand what Jesus Christ really did for you, that sacrifice that he made on the cross to die for you, the power that he has in his resurrection, then the only response that makes sense is always abounding in the work of the Lord. Everything I do that I do in Jesus name. And it gives you a great encouragement here, knowing that your labor and the Lord man, it's gonna be hard. You're going to toil. You're going to strive. You're going to sweat. Can I get a man from anybody on the sweat part right now? I got 110 SPF all up in my eye right now. This is not this is no no bueno. I mean, we're toiling out here just by going to church today is work, right? I mean, we're here. Well, it's not in vain. In fact, the verse you could write down is Mark nine 41, where Jesus says an amazing statement. He says, if you give somebody a cup of water in Jesus name, you will not lose your reward. Here's how much Jesus cares about the things that you do for him.

[00:21:28] Even handing somebody a drink of water, man, he's like, I'm keeping track of that. I'm going to reward you for that. Anything you do that's really from your heart for Jesus Christ, man. He wants to promise you. Here's a promise in scripture that was not worthless. That was not wasted time that that mattered to him. And he's going to reward you. And he's going to use it here in this life and give you reward in the next life. That's who Jesus Christ is.

[00:21:54] And so are we really living with this full time for Jesus mentality? I like to call it this 24/7 Christianity that now I'm not trying to fit Jesus into my week. I'm not looking at my calendar thinking how much time can I give to Jesus and the church? I'm looking at my calendar thinking this whole thing is for Jesus Christ. I mean, from when I wake up to when I go to sleep and maybe I even need to adjust those times to serve Jesus Christ, I want to always abound in his work. I can clearly remember the day when this verse convicted me to my soul.

[00:22:29] And I was a guy who already at that time in my life, I worked full time at a church. This was up in Northern California after I graduated college and got married to my wife, Crystal. We started doing high school ministry at this church. I'm on paid full time by a church.

[00:22:43] And I remember I was walking through the parking lot and this verse pierced my soul and I thought, man, if I'm going to do youth ministry, if I show up, I'm going to do something at church and it's going to have Jesus his name on it. Man, that needs to be the best. Youth ministry that has ever existed if it's for Jesus Christ. And I just was so convicted because I would. I worked full time at a church, but I did it in a part time way. I mean, when I was done at the church, it was like I punched the clock out and I went home and it was like in the evenings it was Bobby time. It was. It was. Meantime, if I wasn't doing what I wanted to do at the end of the day, I had an attitude. I had this kind of have this this just grumpiness that would come out because I needed time for me to do what I wanted to do. And I remember walking through a parking lot one day and I just got convicted in my heart and I prayed to God as a God. If I'm going to do this, I need to do it all in. I can't be clocking in and out for you. And that I don't think I got saved that day. I think I was already saved. But I think that's the day that I went full time for Jesus Christ. And I decided that, I mean, things changed in the youth group. We had this small little youth group wasn't really going anywhere. And we started reaching campuses. We started doing exciting things. God led me to CompassHB Bible Church, really. I think that thought that I had in that parking lot one day, that's really kind of where this church is coming from because I realized he is worth it. There is nothing that I could ever do to out give what he has given me, everything I could ever give to him for the rest of my life. It's worth it. And I decided I was going to go and just give everything I had. And I started fill in that time that I would save for myself. I started filling it with other people. I started filling it with time with the Lord, and my life got better. The busier I got, the better my life got because I was working for Jesus Christ. Have you had that moment in your heart where you've realized I need to be ready to serve? I mean, I'm not talking to everybody here today. What's been your commitment level so far to Jesus Christ and particularly to his bride, the church? Would you would you describe yourself as someone who's doing the work of faith and a labor of love and steadfastness of hope? Or would you describe. Yourself, kind of more of a halfway Christian kind of kind of half their part timer right now.

[00:25:06] That doesn't make sense because there's no such thing as halfway salvation. So how can we have halfway Christians? Everybody track them down. God didn't forgive half your sins. God didn't give you the power to rise halfway to a new life. He went 100 percent for you.

[00:25:21] We need to check our hearts here today and ask ourselves, am I really ready to go 100 percent if that's really how I'm operating? 100 percent always abounding in the work of the Lord. Let's put it down like this for point number two here. Don't just spectate, but participate. Let's get that down. Don't just spectate, but participate. I mean, when we come to church here, we're not talking about going to an Angels game. We're not we're not talking about going to some kind of event where we're gonna watch a show at Disneyland or SeaWorld. And then at the end, everybody says, well, well, good show, Pastor Bob, you're good. Show up here. Ryan piercer. Hey, good show everybody here. That's not over here to do. This isn't a spectator sport. If you feel like you're sitting on the sidelines watching church happen, let me officially in the name of Jesus Christ, invite you to get off the bench and get into the game here today. Okay. This is a participation sport. There's there's no there's no cheerleading. There's no sidelines here in the game for Souls and in lifting. Hi. The name of Jesus Christ. There's workers and there's people who are who are not workers. There's there's only two categories. And so I just want to encourage you as we start a new church with this could be an exciting new season for some of you who have been church attenders, but not church participants, not people who are making the church happen. This could be an exciting new season for you here as we begin this new church.

[00:26:47] And I really want to just encourage you to think about that. And I know even as I say this right now, I know how this works, because the number one thing that I hear whenever I give this kind of a message or have this kind of conversation is people say, well, I'm just not in a good season of my life right now to serve the church. I know. I don't know if I just pulled anybody's thought out of your head right now. Sorry if you feel a little awkward. I'm not doing any kind of weird brainwork. I've just heard it many, many times. Right. And it went to awesome is I hear that from every single possible season of life because college is a terrible time to really be involved in church. Right. I mean, college, it's you you know, you're away from home maybe, and you're just so busy with school and and then you just got so much going on at college. It's really it's a once in a lifetime experience. You know, I mean, it's just unique. There's nothing else like it. So you can't really get that involved in church and in college. I mean, it is just hard, especially if you're only somewhere like half the year and then you're gone during the summer. Who can do that? And then I talk to people who got married. And, you know, that's really easy time, right, when you just get married, right? Oh, yeah. No, actually, no, that's not what they say. We all in the honeymoon stage and they're trying to figure it out and they're both working to make money and cause, you know, their careers haven't really gone off yet. And so they feel pretty busy. You know, and we're kind of madly in love. And it's hard to really be, you know, not be looking in each other's eyes for a few minutes. So. So, you know, marriage, the honeymoon time, that's not really the season. So then when you start having kids, that's going to be the season to really serve the church. Right? I mean, just throw them in the Baby Bjorn and let's do some business that's going to really work. Right. Everybody went that way, right? When they start having babies is like, all right, sign me up. Now, those seasons are over. Now I can do some. Well, no, that's not really what's happening either. Right? Having kids, that's kind of a big deal. I can get any man from some people on that. Right. It's kind of a full time job right there. Am I going to do stuff at church? Well, you got these kids. All right. That's kind of going on. Well, maybe the kid wants the kids get a little bit older. Right. Then it'll be fine, right? No, because then the kids go away to college. Right. And then what do I hear from people Amen, you know, understand how hard it is to put these kids through college. All the finances these days. Yeah. So eventually we're gonna get to retirement where we can all serve the church. Right. Am I right? No, because then we got to go on that trip we've been saving up for. And then we got to visit the grandkids. Right. And then there we go. Right. And then at some point there it may be even you know, you know, our bodies stop. We'll stop working like we would want them to. And it gets a little harder to serve. So let me ask you, my friend, when is the season of life where you're going to start serving?

[00:29:22] OK, this is the season of life, whatever season you're in right now. This is the day the word of the Lord came to you.

[00:29:29] And he said, I want you to be a part of a church. You're invited here to be a part of a church. Well, we're going to do work. Not like most churches, maybe. Now we're going to be a church that hopefully is remembered by people as a church who has work, labor and steadfastness. Why? Because here's what we believe. Jesus paid it all.

[00:29:46] And I'm ready to give it all to him no matter what season I'm in. No matter how busy my life is, there is nothing more important to me than Jesus Christ. And it's hard to say that Jesus Christ is the number one priority in your life. If his people at church are the least priority in your life. And he's not going to accept that Jesus is going to want everybody here to do something here to participate to help make this happen. So the question that's coming to you today is, what are you going to do to be a part of making a new church? The invitation? Hey, if I'm the coach, if that's how this is going to work for the analogy, I'm clear in the bench right now. All right. All players on the field maybe have never stepped on.

[00:30:28] You're a rookie here. You've never stepped on the field before. We'll take you. All right. We'll we will. We will equip you. We will encourage you. We want you to do work now. Go back to First Thessalonians, Chapter one. And let's just look at this phrase here again. I mean, let's just see how we're doing here, because we're not we've emphasized the work part. That means we actually are going to have to do something to something that that says we're serving or participating.

[00:30:56] But it also gives you a motivation here of why you would want to do this. It's not just work, labor and steadfastness. Look at it again as he's praying and thanking God for these people. He's remembering before our God and father your work of faith and your labor of love and your steadfastness of what hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you might have heard these three words used by Paul before, if you're familiar with the Bible at all. Right. Faith, love and hope are sometimes they're put together in different orders. Love, hope, faith. These are like the Trinitarian Christian virtues right here. These like the three most common things that Paul's going to talk about. You could write down First Corinthians 13 13 as a cross reference, a one of many where he refers to these three things. Maybe you've even seen somebody have a bumper sticker before Faith, hope and love.

[00:31:46] I mean, this is what the Christians all about. So now we're getting into to the heart issue here. The heart issue is, why do you do work at church? Am I trying to bully anybody into doing work? I'm not trying to make somebody feel guilty. I'm hopefully appealing to the fact that you've already, in the past, put your trust in Jesus Christ in the present. You're living out of love for Jesus Christ. And as you look to your future, all of your hope, not only for this life, but for eternity, is in Jesus Christ. I'm hopefully appealing to the fact that you have faith in Christ, love for Christ and hope in Christ. That's why you would want to do work, for Christ's sake. We do things on the outside. Not to put on a show or not because we're forced to.

[00:32:29] We do things on the outside because hopefully they're an accurate reflection of what's going on on your inside. Hopefully those three words describe you. Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Go to Revelation, Chapter two. Everybody turn with me to Revelation Chapter two, because we could come here and we could do a lot of stuff. We I mean, we could setup as many easy ups as possible and we could hand out a lot of free ice cream. I mean, we could do work, but the point isn't to do work just for work's sake. Look at what Jesus Christ says to this church in Revelation, Chapter two. Here's one of the letters from Jesus Christ to the church and emphasis. Look at revelation to verse to follow along with me here. Thanks for turning in your Bible. It says, I know your works, your toil and your patience. Endurance.

[00:33:17] Now, does that sound familiar to anybody right there? Work, labor, steadfastness. Those are the same exact three Greek words that we have in First Thessalonians. Chapter one, verse three. I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. You guys are doing it and how you cannot bear with those who are evil. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not. And you have found them to be false. I know that you are enduring patiently. You're bearing up for my namesake and you have not grown weary. Wow, what a great statement about a church. I mean, if this is the ultimate pat on the back right here, Jesus is saying you guys are doing work, you're sticking with it. What a commendation.

[00:33:57] But then he says this. Look at this. But I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works. You did it first. If not, I will come to you and check this out.

[00:34:14] Remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent lamp stand. That's the analogy here in revelation of a church. We had a commissioning service back at CompassHB Bible Church, Aliso Viejo. And afterwards, our pastor back there. Pastor Mike Foobar, as he said. All right at a lamp stand has been lit. There's a new church that got started. And here's Jesus Christ saying you guys are doing great work. But here's the thing. You're not doing your work out of love.

[00:34:41] And if it's not out of love, I'd rather have no lamp stand at all than a lamp stand that doesn't love me, even if you're doing good things. It's about to. You love Jesus Christ. That's the question really on the table. Now, the practical application is, will you sign up to serve? Will you help out? Will you do something? But the real hard question is, do you. You right now love Jesus Christ in your heart. When we sang that all to him, I oh, did that really come from the inner most part of your being, your soul? Singing to Jesus Christ. I want to give everything I've got to him. That's what he's looking for. In fact, he says, if you don't love Jesus like you did at first, he says you need to. What does he say? Repent. He says you have to turn from that sin. It's a sin to love Jesus. Alas, the only acceptable thing is to love Jesus more. So I want to talk to some people maybe who've been loving Jesus for a long time. I mean, some of you guys, maybe when I talk about faithful service, you're saying a man because you have been faithfully serving Jesus Christ for decades, maybe you've been going strong for Jesus Christ. Well, here's a question for you this morning. Can you tell me here today that you love Jesus now as much as you have ever loved him? Can you say that here this morning? Because if you can't, he says to you, remember the heights from where you have fallen, repent and get back to what you used to do at first. I mean, can you imagine he's put that in a human relationship, right? Can you imagine? Hey, somebody was celebrating their twenty seventh anniversary here this weekend. Can you imagine if you're sitting down at your twenty seventh anniversary dinner and you say to your your spouse, wow, those first 10 years were really awesome, weren't they. Last 17 kind of mediocre, you know. But those first 10 love those. That would be a kind of a bad dinner I think. I don't think that chocolate fondue would go down so, so well, you know what I mean. I don't think that would be a very apt to. Can you imagine if one of your kids came up to you, your kids, like eight, nine, 10 years old, and you look at your kid and you're like, yeah, you were you used to be really cute. You know, I used to just want to give you kisses and eat your little creams up, you know? But now, you know, you're kind of a punk. I mean, can you imagine saying that to your kid? I, I used to love you. Can you imagine if you gave your kid the impression today that you used to love them more than you do right now? Now, that wouldn't be acceptable with your spouse. That wouldn't be acceptable with your children. So may I ask you a question? Why is it acceptable with your lord and savior? Why is it acceptable with the one who gave everything, the one who loved you way more than any person ever has? Why is it acceptable among Christians to think of like that time when we were new Christians, our first love? Like, that's a unique time. And then we kind of become normal Christians. I'll tell you what, I don't ever want to be a normal Christian if it means you don't love Jesus Christ with your first love. I want to be an on fire Christian. I to have a passion for him cause I know that's how he was for me. I want to be that way towards him.

[00:37:47] Turning Galatians Chapter six. Let me just encourage those of you who have been serving Jesus Christ for a long time. And let me just tell you, if you have experience serving Jesus Christ, you are a valued commodity here at CompassHB Bible Church, Huntington Beach. We need every season saint, every experienced prayer warrior, everybody who knows how to do a good Bible study or set up or do the kind of stuff we do at church. Man, we need you. We need a whole army of people here at this church ready to serve. And so if you've had a great season, here's here's another excuse I get for people why they don't want to serve.

[00:38:22] Well, I had a season of intense service, say I went. There was a while where I really did everything I could. Like, people will look at me like you don't understand. I did youth ministry for a while, you know, like I was really in the trenches, you know. Oh, yeah. I went to summer camp one time.

[00:38:37] I really went all out for Jesus Christ then. Right. And sometimes the excuse that I hear is that we're bringing out our resum�. We're looking at our past and we're saying, you know, you might not know this here at CompassHB Bible Church, Huntington Beach, but back in the day, I did quite a bit of service for Jesus Christ. Well, we need you if you've done service in the past. And we need you to do it right now as we're trying to get a church started. If there was ever a all hands on deck, let's all get in together as a team. I mean, it's when you're starting a church right here and Galatians six four seven, I think, has some words of encouragement for those of you guys who've been servant for a long time. Look at it. It says, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever you. So you will reap. However you conduct yourself. That's how it's going to work out in the end for the one who sows to his own flesh will, from the flesh, reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit will, from the spirit, reap eternal life and let us not grow weary, my friends of doing good.

[00:39:33] Don't get tired of it. For endue season, we will reap all the harvest that we will see here at this church. If we do not give up, so then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

[00:39:50] And we're trying to build up a household of faith right here. We're starting to rise up a new church. And we have such an opportunity before us right now to do good to so many people, to invite so many unchurched people in here to encourage one another. As Christians, we have such a great opportunity. And if you've been serving at other places and we need you to serve here now, don't grow weary in doing good. Don't check out. We are going to reap a great harvest if we commit ourselves to the work of Jesus Christ. So I just want to speak to some of you, because I know you're like, you know, I've had times where I've really served. But right now it just feels tough. It just feels hard. That's what it means to be steadfast. That's what it means to persevere. Maybe you've heard that Greek word before, Pupo many. Anybody who ever heard that word before. It's a compound word, Menno. Is this word that means to abide, to remain, to stay. And then who bow this part here? This prefect's. It means under. It means. Yeah. This is what it's like to serve Jesus. It's like there's this pressure. There's this burden. It feels like work. It feels like you're trying to care about people's souls. That's a burden on your back. You're trying to get to church early to set up. That's a burden on your back.

[00:41:01] And you feel kind of like, wow, this is hard work that I'm doing. And it says, here's what it means to be steadfast. You remain under that pressure. When the going gets tough, you don't get going. No. That's what we're looking for. Christians who stay there, man. When CompassHB Poppel Church has Huntington Beach has its 10th anniversary, we celebrate one decade of ministry here, which I lord willing, if Jesus doesn't come back. I would look forward to. I hope that you would be there. And I hope that we would be able to say a decade from now. Man, we're still going hard and we'll be able to look around and be like, look at the harvest that God has reaped and we'll be excited for even more work, not less.

[00:41:41] So I just want to encourage those of you who have who have experience in serving the Lord Jesus Christ, man, we need to hear it here at this church. So not only do we need you to do something, we need you to check your church motives. Let's get that down for point number three. Check your church motives. We need you to ask yourself here, am I really doing this out of a love for Jesus Christ?

[00:42:02] And and really, if you love Jesus Christ, the secondary question that's kind of come along is, do you love his people? Do you love his people? Do you see people as Jesus saw them? Do you see people as souls and really care about others? Why do people today they want to say that their love just goes this way? They love Jesus Christ, but Jesus is always going to challenge us. If you love me, then love the least of these. That's how he always puts it. In fact, when it says labor of love, it's probably not even just referring to our love for Christ. It's actually referring to a love for one another. That's what motivates us. You could write down First Thessalonians for nine to 10 where he commands them that they know how to love one another. That's the time when it talks about love in First Thessalonians. It's actually talking about a horizontal love for other people, more than it's talking about a vertical love for Jesus Christ. So that's why we're having a cold sandwich barbecue after the service, because we want to get to know people. We want we want to learn how to love people. That's what I'm appealing to you. I'm saying I need you to come and do work, not for just the sake of the church. I need you to do it for the sake of the other people who are here today because we need each other. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've felt exhausted. And I've been like Amen small groups or tonight. Oh, man, I got that meeting with so-and-so and I'm thinking I'd rather go home and lie in bed. I'm thinking I'm I'm thinking I'm tired and I suck it up. I think I'm gonna go. Not for my sake. I'm gonna go for so-and-so sake. I'm gonna go for somebody else. I'm gonna go to small groups tonight because I got to see them and I got to make sure that they're encouraged. What is gonna happen to them if I don't go and encourage them? And I suck it up and I go to small groups. I go to that meeting and how do I come away every single time? Pumped up. And I have new energy. I have the life of Jesus Christ. I've been renewed in the power of the spirit. Because here's the truth. It is more blessed to what to give than to receive. And stop thinking about yourself. Stop thinking you need more time for yourself. You know what you need. You need more time to give to other people. That's a more blessed way to live. That's what Jesus Christ says. That's acts 2035. If you want to write that down, it's this weird statement of Jesus Christ. It doesn't come to us in the midst of the Gospels. It comes to us. Paul quotes it in the Book of Acts. He says, Remember what Jesus said? It's more blessed to give than receive. Well, you can't find that in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. But it's like this little secret that Jesus would say maybe. And it's definitely a secret that Paul knew. I mean, they're guys. They loved people. They did a lot of work. How what was their secret? Well, they knew something. It's better to give it a life away. Then to try to receive it for myself, let me just promise you this.

[00:44:45] You did commit to giving more of yourself to other people here at this church. You cannot out give the giver. You cannot be more generous and gracious than God will be to you. I promise you that. Go to Matthew, Chapter 20. I want to end with this statement here from Jesus Christ in Matthew, Chapter 20. You know, we got a major problem in the church today that we're trying to correct with this sermon. And the major problem in the church is when people hear a church service and we just say those two words, church service more. Most people think about something they would go to rather than something they would want to do. Church service. What does that phrase sound like to you? Does that sound like something that's going to happen Sunday at 11:00 or that something like sound like something you want to get signed up for? I want to serve the church. I want to help other people out. What does that phrase mean to you? We can't have people coming to church in Jesus name if they're coming to be served because Jesus Christ himself, did he come to be served? Look at this verse with me, Matthew. Chapter 20, verse 28. Jesus Christ. Giving us his heart motives of why he came.

[00:45:52] He came to seek and to save the lost.

[00:45:55] And it says here in Matthew 20, verse 28, let this verse be an example and an inspiration to you, even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. What a legacy that Jesus Christ leaves to all of us, not only the example, but in his name, we actually have the power to live that way, to come to this church, not to be served.

[00:46:20] So many churches are going to give you 10 reasons why you should come so you can benefit. Here's what we're doing at our church, a little bit different. We're giving you one reason why you should be a part of this church, because you can give your life away to other people. That's why you should be a part of this church, because you can come here and you can serve other people. And the more you give, the more you will draw closer to Jesus Christ, because that's what he came to do for you. Let his example spur you want and come to serve. Now, obviously, we've got some very practical ways that we could use some help around here because we literally have to set up our tent church that we're putting on here every week. Okay, so we got just a very practical application. I have a friend named Dan Lawter. He's sitting there in the back and everybody who say, hi, can we just clap for Dan Lawter in the back there? He is the leader. Yeah, he is the leader of our setup tear down crew. And I think they're doing a great job here so far. And here's the exciting thing. If you're just joining onto this church, we have a group of highly committed participants that are here to plant this church. I don't know if you've gotten to meet some of the people that moved here to Huntington Beach to plant this church. These people are devoted servants of Jesus Christ. They're here to serve, not to be served. Dan Lauder's one of one of the many that I could refer to right now when I heard that, hey, we're going to plant a church. And I was going to be a pastor. First thing I'm doing is getting Dan Lotter on the phone like broer U.N.. OK, then we're gonna do this, you know, and we're going to move forward because we need a whole team of people. I mean, imagine if we had a team of people always abounding in the work of the Lord. Can you imagine what we could do for Jesus Christ around here? So just starting level, we need some practical things. We need people to set up stuff to come in. I mean, we want shade. Can I get a man from anybody on that? Right. We want some shade out here. We're gonna do this. We need people to come early and help set. Set it up. And then afterwards, we need people to to pack it up and tear it down. And I can just tell you, from week one to week two, we had some more hands show up, willing to serve and many hands make light work and it makes it much more enjoyable. It's actually a really encouraging time of fellowship. So that's Dan Lawter. So maybe you could just go to him right after the service and say, hey, sign me up. That's the first step. It's come early. Stay late. Even today, we've got to take these easy ups down. We want to get over to the park, have some lunch. So if you want to help tear down, that would be a very practical way to apply today's message in and talk to Dan Lawder. So thank you guys so much for being here week. Number two, we're gonna continue our worship of Jesus Christ. Hopefully you can express your love to him. Let me pray. Wrap up our time of teaching here together. God, we thank you so much that Jesus Christ really did pay at all for us. He really gave it all upon that cross.

[00:49:05] And God, we are so grateful. When we think about his blood being shed, when we think about his perfect life being poured out for us, his righteousness and God, we know as sinners, we can we could never live the perfect life. We could never earn favor with you. And so we we look at Jesus on the cross and we realize that is our hope. And we put our faith in Jesus Christ on that cross. And we love him for what he has done for us. God, I just pray even as we sing these words again here today, that as we think about Jesus paying at all, that we could really sing back from our hearts with our voices as loud as we can sing all to him, I and God, that that would be our burning desire, our passion, our zeal, that we would want to do good works for Jesus Christ, that we would want to do them because we love Jesus Christ. That's our motive.

[00:49:58] And then when it gets hard, when it's tough, when we don't feel like it in our flesh. That we would say today, I'm going to love Jesus Christ and I'm and remain steadfast him and remain under this pressure to give up. And I'm going to keep going and I'm going to go see the harvest that we're going to repair at CompassHB Bible Church, Huntington Beach, because I'm all in. Jesus, he did not come to Speace serve.

[00:50:23] He came to serve.

[00:50:24] And he gave his life as a ransom for us. And now we want to say thank you right now for Jesus Christ. And we want to worship you. We thank you that he is worth giving our entire life. We pray this in his precious name.