And yeah, I want to reiterate what Zach said.
Don't worry, Russ will be back.
Okay, so I am thankful that Russ gets to have a sabbatical.
It's something that we kind of started that rhythm about eight years ago.
I think it's healthy for Russ to have a break with his family, but I think it's also healthy for our church to not be kind of centered on Russ.
If we're centered on someone, I hope that it's Jesus.
I'm also thankful that I'm up here and it's June of 2021.
It's not June of 2020.
We all learned a lot about ourselves over the last year.
One comedian that I saw, his name is Nate Bargazzi.
He said, I have some friends that I don't think they know COVID exists, or if they do, they may be trying to catch it.
But then we have other friends that live by themselves and they wear a mask in the shower because their hamster has asthma.
So we all are somewhere in the middle of both of those.
I am doing COVID or was doing it pretty pretty much perfect.
I never wipe down boxes.
You know, I wore my mask at all the right times.
Um but really it revealed to me my kind of infinite ability to judge people that do differently than I do.
And another one of my favorite bits from Seinfeld, he says, um, have you ever noticed when you're in the car how anyone driving a little faster than you is a maniac, but anyone driving a little slower than you is a grandma.
You are the only one that is going the exact perfect speed.
And I can very much relate to that.
Even if someone's driving the same as me, I get annoyed by that.
I'm like, just go or not go.
Um, but anyway, um thank goodness for this church because I need to hear the message of grace, because on my own, I can be pretty judgmental.
Um let me pray before I start preaching through the scripture.
Heavenly Father, um, just thankful for this church.
I'm thankful that Russ gets a break.
Um, it's been a hard year for pastors, and uh I pray that he is refreshed and just enjoys some time away.
I'm so thankful for our staff at our church.
I'm thankful for Annie and Sam and Sam and just seeing um you work through them.
And my prayer this morning is that you would speak through me.
That is my only hope.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
So, um, the next four or five weeks we're gonna get be going through First Thessalonians, and I want you to kind of think about this, not just you're going to church and you're gonna hear another sermon, but like let's take a 10,000-foot view.
So, this is gonna be a little bit of an introduction.
Um, we believe that this is the word of God.
Our church believes that there really was a man named Paul, and he really did write this letter, 1 Thessalonians, to a church plant.
Uh, and we're a church plant too.
We're about eight years old, so I find this letter to be pretty relevant to us today.
Um, one of the guiding principles of our church says the Bible is the inerrant work of God and stands as the ultimate source of knowledge of God's truths for the church.
The Bible alone is the standard.
The Bible, uniquely and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, is the supreme and final authority on all matters on which it speaks.
So Paul wrote this letter, and most of you know who Paul was and his backstory, but just in the way of introduction and context, I think it's important to kind of know what he was doing when he wrote this book.
So Paul started off named Saul.
He was chief of Jews.
He describes himself as, as to righteousness under the law, blameless, steeped in Judaism to the highest degree.
Uh Acts 8 says, Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house.
He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
Well, something happened to Saul.
He had a pretty miraculous conversion.
So he was walking to Damascus and with some other men, and he saw a bright light, and he heard a voice that identified the voice as Jesus.
And Jesus said to Saul, Why are you persecuting me?
And it wasn't just Saul that heard it.
Um, the other people with Saul heard it.
He was blind for three days, and his life was forever changed.
Um, it says in Acts 9, immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues.
And I don't know about you, but I would imagine if you were on either side, a believer or a Jew, I might be a little tentative about this guy who was rounding up people to bring him to jail, and then all of a sudden overnight he has this miraculous conversion.
But I think God wanted to make it clear that it wasn't Paul, it was God working through Paul.
And his life was changed.
Um he wanted to live his life for God, and he wanted other people to have the same experience he had.
So he devoted his life to planting churches.
And the scripture that we're gonna talk about today is a letter that he wrote back to one of the churches that he helped start.
And I think it's important to note that Paul had limited time and space, uh, so I think these words, he was careful about choosing what he wanted to say to this group of people.
Uh, and I think these words are relevant to us.
So a little bit about Thessalonica is in eastern Greece, largest city in Macedonia.
Uh it's about 200,000 people.
And we think Paul wrote this book about 50 AD.
It took place on his second missionary journey, uh, and it was one of his first letters that he wrote.
Um, he preached there for three Sabbaths, and then he got run out of the city.
And so this letter was kind of basically to check in on them and to give them some guidance of what he thought they needed to know.
But before, I'm just kind of gonna go through the verses, but before we do, um so it's Sam Rapha is gonna be preaching next week, and then and then Blue Collar Comedy Tour, Brad O'Kelly.
We'll close this out.
But I was very excited when I got chapter one, I got assigned chapter one.
Um because it's it's all encouragement, it's all good.
Poor Brad gets like rapture and sexual immorality.
But let's just remember this, this sermon, because this is what all of those commands are rooted in.
Um I don't know if any of you have do we have anybody who has seen the show Ted Lasso?
Any Ted Lasso fans?
So it is one of my favorites, like in the last five years, the best show.
Uh and Ted is an encourager, just like Paul.
And one of my favorite Ted quotes kind of reminds me how I felt when I read 1 Thessalonians and I got chapter one.
Ted says, I feel like I got knocked out of the lucky tree and hit every branch going down and landed in a pool full of cash and sour patch kids.
And that's kind of that's kind of how I feel that I got this chapter.
Because in Paul's letters, he always starts with who we are in Christ.
So we call those the indicatives.
So basically, God is indicating who we are, and then he finishes with the imperatives, which are the commands.
So when you hear the commands in later chapters, just remember that God has, he reminds us of where that power comes from to do the commands in the beginning of the letters.
And the order is really important because if we go to the commands first, we end up being prideful or guilty because we can't do it on our own.
Ask me, I know.
Uh why.
So another guiding principle of our church says the unconditionality of God's love to those who are in Christ, known in the indicatives of the New Testament, gives a person peace, security, and bursts a desire for godliness.
We teach the imperatives of the New Testament, what Scripture demands of us, in the context of the indicatives of the New Testament, what God has done for us.
So let's go, let's dive into these verses.
There's only ten verses, pretty short chapter.
Um, verse one Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace to you.
So Sylvanus is Silas, and Paul is identifying this is who's writing this letter, um, and he starts off by saying, Grace and peace.
And he begins his letters by saying those those three words, grace and peace to you.
And it's easy to kind of yada yada over those words and kind of think, eh, grace and peace, let's just get into what he's telling us.
But I think it's one of the best parts.
It sets the tone for the entire book.
Um, so what does that mean when he says grace and peace?
I think he's reminding these people that God's grace is with them.
Um, and one of my favorite definitions of grace is unmerited one-way love.
It's unearned and no strings attached.
And I think when we realize that we are fully known, like our warts, like the stuff I don't want you to know about me, and you probably wouldn't let me preach if you did know these things about me.
Um, but God knows those things, but he loves me fully, that has a lot of power.
And we'll talk about some of that power later, but let's talk about the word peace.
Um is there anything better than the peace of God?
Um, and the order of this is important.
I think we have to have grace first, and then we can experience that peace.
Verses two and three, um, 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.
When the gospel captures our heart, we look for things to be thankful for.
We're um just yeah, more appreciative.
Paul talks about um three important qualities in a believer's life that he talks about in other letters faith, hope, and love.
And I think this community of Thessalonians is an example of people who understand the indicatives of who they are in Christ, and then the outflow of Christ in them is faith, hope, and love.
And I love the picture of just grace overflowing when Jesus is divine, when they are focused on him and not on themselves.
Verses four and five.
For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you, not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction, you know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake.
Paul again reminds them that they were chosen by God.
This wasn't an accident.
They were chosen by their creator.
And he reminds them also that the good news is not just the word of man.
It wasn't just good advice, it wasn't just people delivering some information.
It came through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And the power of the Holy Spirit is not something that we really talk about a lot.
I think mostly because it's hard to get our hands around, it's hard to control.
And I want to talk about that a little bit, but don't get nervous.
Like B team Brian, I'm not gonna come up here with snakes.
Like, we I do want to just talk about the importance of it.
Um, so Jesus tells the disciples before he's crucified, um, it is actually to your advantage that I leave so that the Spirit can come into you.
Uh John 16, 7, this is Jesus speaking to his disciples.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him to you.
Would you rather have Jesus sitting right next to you or the Holy Spirit living inside of you?
I know there are a lot of times in my life where I've lost a loved one, or I'm just trying to make a decision where I would much rather have, or I think I would much rather have Jesus sitting right next to me, and I think what this reveals to me is I I drastically underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit.
Um, and I believe as believers, we have that inside of us.
Um I love the story of Les Miserables.
Uh it's a musical that was made into a movie, it's one of my favorite movies.
Uh and the most recent one, some people has Hugh Jackman in Russell Crowe.
Some people said they didn't like watching Russell Crowe sing.
I can understand that.
But he he has a lot of credit for me from Gladiator, so I tolerated all that.
Um but it begins with a pretty powerful story of grace that I have not seen in a movie before, and its effect on a man that didn't deserve it.
So the story is about a man named Jean Valjean, and he was a prisoner for 20 years, and he had stolen a loaf of bread and got put in jail in France, and so um over time, eventually he was released from jail, but he has this yellow parole paper that identifies him as an ex-con.
So he gets out of jail and he's trying to find basically where he can go and make a living and eat and sleep, but no one will give him a job because he's an ex-con and no one wants to hire him.
So finally, after days of kind of wandering, he finds a priest that lets him in, and the priest offers him food and shelter.
And in the middle of the night, Jean Valjean wakes up after enjoying this meal and shelter, and basically he decides, I'm gonna steal from this guy.
And he steals a bunch of silver from the priest from the church and takes off.
And in the middle of the night, the police find him, they bring him back to the priest, and they say to the priest, hey, this guy said that he that you told him he could have all this silver.
And the priest looks at him and says, Actually, I did.
I did the priest lies.
He said, I told him he could have it all.
In fact, he left, the most valuable things were the candlesticks.
He left the candlesticks.
And Jean Valjean takes the candlesticks and he's pretty overwhelmed.
The the emotion of just shame and surprise.
And the next kind of song that he sings is to me unmistakably Christian.
He talks about by the passion and the blood, and he talks about how could this man forgive me for what I did to him?
Like he gave me shelter and I stole from him, and he still forgave me.
And then in the crescendo of this song that he's singing, he takes his parole papers and rips them up, and he's standing in a graveyard, and he throws them up in the air, and he becomes a new man.
And I think it's a metaphor for what happens to us when we are made new at salvation, when we are a new creation.
The old Adam is dead, and the new Adam is alive in Jandaljan.
And I think that message has power.
The message of we are loved as we are, not as we should be, because none of us are as we should be, creates um just change and power in our hearts.
Let's go to verse 6.
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit.
So Paul is reminding them that they were once lost.
They were going through much affliction, but they had the joy of the Spirit.
I think we all know that as believers our joy kind of ebbs and flows in life, but I think that question can be helpful to turn back to things that are actually true of us, usually when we are not feeling that we are inwardly bound or inwardly focused.
Um I think a great place to start is the indicatives of Scripture, like even First Thessalonians chapter one, um, and just just kind of meditating on what God says is true of us.
Verses 7 and 8, um, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaeah.
For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we not we need not say anything.
And again, Paul is just reminding them that their faith had big impacts throughout that whole area of the world.
Verses nine and ten.
For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Again, Paul is reminding them that their faith created this kind of counter-cultural action.
Um, they were turning away from things that they used to depend on to give them value.
And he reminds them also to wait for Jesus.
Um, God had raised his son from the dead, and he tells them that Jesus is coming back.
In conclusion, um, Paul planted this church, and over two books he wrote them eight chapters.
What did he want to get across in these eight chapters?
Well, I think it's telling that he doesn't start these books with instructions.
Uh, he begins with reminders.
Um why is that?
Well, Elise Fitzpatrick, an author, says we all have spiritual amnesia.
We forget what is actually true about us.
Martin Luther says, I preach the gospel every week because I forget it every week.
So, what about you?
Like, where does this resonate with you?
Where does this connect with you?
Well, we believe, and I believe, that Jesus came to heal broken hearts and set captives free.
And I want to encourage you, just as the last thing I say, to think about this statement individually, not in a group, but I want to encourage you individually that you have been loved and chosen by your Creator in Christ.
You are seen and forgiven, and you are known in your darkest place, but fully loved.
Let me pray for us.
Heavenly Father, I thank you that that is true for us today, and I pray that we would remember it throughout the week.
Thank you for your grace.
Thank you for sending your son, and I pray that um when we think about these things and pray on these things and meditate on these things, that that would give us some peace.
We pray all of these things in your son's name.
Amen.