Not in Vain (1 Thessalonians 2:1-8, Jeff Kliewer)

I didn't want to give you more pressure. Oh, no. That's good. Well, good morning. All right, a few announcements, and then we're going to pray. And we're going to pray for the mission team here, so you guys be ready.

So we are having a movie night on January 6. That's only for the men. So guys, we're going to go see American Underdog, the Kurt Warner story. Have dinner before, and so keep your calendar clear for January 6, guys.

On the 1st, we're having a New Year's brunch at 11 o 'clock. So show up here, 11 o 'clock. Let Kimberly know if you're planning on coming, because she's planning the food. And I think that about does it for announcements.

Am I forgetting anything? Options, yeah. Options Pregnancy Center. We're doing a collection for options. So here are some of the things. You can take a shot with your cell phone, or you can get that on the app.

So please contribute to that if the Lord leads you to do that. So before we pray, I would like to introduce you guys to some missionaries who have been studying in Hawaii. That's a tough job right there, huh?

Studying the Bible in Hawaii? That's like heaven on Earth. That's amazing. But the harder part, then, is you're en route to Africa, Guinea-Bissau? How do you say it? Bissau, OK. And so because of some technical snafus, you guys have a week between training and there.

And for this week, you're here with us in New Jersey. So we're going to ask you guys to come on up. If you could just stand right here. We want to just pray over you. We know that there's been issues with passports, and COVID testing, and all kinds of things like that.

So we're going to pray for you guys that the Lord will open the door of opportunity, that His will will be done. And also, we just want to pray for His power to be upon you. They're going to be going from village to village preaching the gospel.

So how long will the trip be? Wow. So two months. OK, a two-month trip for the gospel. Amen? That's awesome. All right, so guys, why don't we all just join together in praying for the mission team, that the Lord would bless them and help them.

Prayer for Missionaries and the Worship Service

So Father, we come to you now this morning. And we thank you so much for sending these missionaries to the ends of the Earth to preach the good news of Jesus Christ. Lord, your word tells us, how will they believe unless they hear?

And how will they hear unless someone preaches to them? And how will someone preach unless they are sent? And Lord, we thank you that you are sending these young people to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

Father, we pray for all the logistical details. Lord, for the one who's lost the passport, and that needs to come through. We pray that a miracle would happen, Lord God, that you would provide that passport.

You are able to do it, and we're asking in Jesus' name. Father, we pray for those with the COVID testing and vaccination and all of that stuff, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name that you would open the door for these young people to go, that nothing would hinder them from going on this mission.

Lord God, we ask that in Jesus' name. Father, we pray, most importantly, for the gospel to go forward. Lord, we pray in the villages that hearts would be made ready, and that when they hear the good news of Jesus Christ, they would respond and believe.

They would turn from sin, from idols, to serve the living God. You are able to accomplish that. Grant repentance and faith. Lord God, we pray that you would protect this team from the evil one, that your hand of favor would be upon them, that you would go before them, that you would be their rear guard.

Keep your hand upon them. Lord God, build that hedge of protection, Lord, that the evil one would have no foothold. Lord God, protect them from the evil one. Give them protection from all dangers, Lord.

We also pray that you would remove any fear that might be in their hearts, Lord, that they would be free of fear, and they would walk with boldness in the gospel. Lord God, we pray for the anointing of your Holy Spirit.

We pray that your Spirit would fill them afresh, that they would be full of the Spirit and wisdom and power. Lord, that they would speak in the fullness of conviction and of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we thank you for them as they're being sent out.

We just cover them in our prayers, Lord, and we ask that you would remind us when to pray throughout the time of their journey, Lord God, that we would pray for these young people. Father, we thank you for what you're doing in sending missionaries to the ends of the earth, and we pray that you would send all of us to our neighbors and to those around us, Lord, that your gospel would speed ahead.

So we thank you and we give you praise. We submit all of these things also to your will, if it be your will. We are humbly submitted to you, God, and yet we call on you to act powerfully. We trust you for it.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Awesome, thank you guys so much. Appreciate it.

Thank you. We will be praying for you. Church, make sure you're praying. Yeah, awesome.

Come on in, guys, and let's pray again, this time praying for this worship service that the Lord would consecrate it unto himself. So Father, we do now come into a spirit of worship asking that you would help us to worship in spirit and in truth.

Lord, we are not here to go through motions. We're not following a script laid out for us, Lord. We are here to follow your word. We are here to listen to your voice, Lord, and we pray that you would help us now to worship you in spirit and in truth.

God, only you can accomplish this in us. So now come and help us fill your people that we would fill this place with praise as you deserve, in Jesus' name, amen.

Worship in Spirit and in Truth

Let's stand. Every breath we live for you He's just the only one who could ever save me of every We live for you, for you, who is not beside you That's the name of Jesus, the only one who could ever save me

We live for you, open up my soul. Declaring it, you are awesome, willing to come and die for us, willing to remove yourself from the holiest place, heaven, down to be with sinners, so that we can be with you.

We are humbled before your throne, Lord Jesus. It's our sacrifice in bringing him an offering of worship and praise to the king. We're a star, we're a shepherd, travel from afar. Hoping to find the child from heaven on their knees.

They bow before the humble prince of Jesus. May you receive the honor that you're due, Lord. I bring an offering of your love. There's no shadow in your presence to stand before your throne of heaven.

Only by your blood and it's only through your mercy, Lord I come. I bring of worship to my king the praises that I sing. Jesus may you receive the honor that you're due, oh Lord. I bring an offering to you

I bring an offering to you. Your prayer this morning, let's sing that. I bring an offering. I bring an offering of worship to you. Jesus may you receive the honor that you're due, oh Lord. I bring an offering to you

We bring that gift to you, Lord Jesus.

The Offering of Worship and the Treasure in Jars of Clay

All right, let's pray and then open the word together. So Father, we thank you for the offering that you gave for us, Lord. Your one and only son to die in our place, rise from the dead. And Lord, we pray that you would receive the offering that we bring to you.

Lord, our lives on the altar. God, we pray that you would come now and help us in opening the word that this time would be an offering to you. God, I confess that I am a jar of clay. Drop me and I'll shatter into a thousand pieces.

But the all-surpassing power comes from you and not from me. You are that treasure in the jar of clay. So I pray that you, Jesus Christ, the hope of glory, would reveal yourself through the preaching of your word.

Use this imperfect vessel to carry that all-surpassing power. God, I pray for all of us who hear the preaching of the word. That you would grant us ears to hear, eyes to see, a heart to believe. And Lord, we pray that you would empower us for ministry going forward.

In Jesus' name, we pray these things, amen. The Syrian king, Ben-Hadad, marshaled his troops against Israel. The Israeli king at the time was Ahab, and you know him as a wicked king. So when the Syrian king threatened him, Ahab was ready to crumble.

The king, Ben-Hadad, said, give me your silver. Your silver and your gold are mine, and your wives are mine, and your children are mine. Well, Ahab, of course, being a coward and not a man of God, he completely cowered to that demand and said fine.

And then Ben-Hadad realized what Ahab was up to. He was gonna get rid of the wives that he didn't want. And so Ben-Hadad said, well, wait a minute. I'm gonna send my servant to watch you in your home, and then I'm gonna take the wives that you like.

And that was too much for Ben-Hadad. Now, he sent back the word to the king of Syria. The answer is no, you're obviously looking for a war. And Ben-Hadad, at that time, was furious. He, in fact, had been camping in front of Israel.

He was in a booth, and he was getting drunk. And he writes a reply saying, I am going to wipe out Israel. It'll be like the dust in Syria, the number of people I take captive to my homeland. Well, finally, the wicked king Ahab actually said something good.

And it's one of my favorite expressions in the Bible. They say that even a broken clock is right twice a day. Well, King Ahab was a broken clock. And yet, what he said here was good. He said, the one who straps on the armor ought not boast like the one who takes it off.

The wicked king from Syria was boasting about what he was going to do. But King Ahab said, the one who straps on armor should not boast like the one who takes it off. The one who takes off his armor has already won a war, and he survived it.

The one strapping on the armor shouldn't be in a place of boasting. James said something similar in chapter four. He said in verses 13 and 14, come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. We ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will do such and such. If the Lord wills, Cornerstone will continue to grow the way it's been growing.

Over the last few years, we've seen the church grow from 40 to 60 to 80 to 100. Now we're between 200 and 300 people. This is the Lord's doing in the last few years. If the Lord wills, the church will outgrow this building and will build something here or on another site, if the Lord wills.

This year, we saw the most baptisms in our history. If the Lord wills, we'll see more in 2022 and coming years. If the Lord wills, we'll plant more churches and the gospel witness will continue to extend in this area.

And the gospel will begin to infect the culture like salt and light. And politicians in this area would be thoroughly ashamed to admit that they're pro-death, and the gender dysphoria that they're pushing on our children will become a relic of the past.

And the new attempt at socialism, as socialism is tried again and again from generation to generation, once again it will be put down. The church will begin to have an influence in the culture beyond what we've already had and push back the forces of darkness, if the Lord wills.

This would be our desire, our plan as a church, but all of it depends on the power of God. The results, the fruit, the productivity of a church is in the Lord's hands. We ought not boast in what we're going to do.

We ought to do what God calls us to do and measure success by faithfulness. Faithfulness is the indication of what pleases God. Now that being said, is there anything in God's word that teaches us what we are to do that he is pleased to bless?

Sadly, many ministries exist in the world and they're vain. They come back empty. They attempt things and they expect big results. But they inherit the wind, vanity upon vanity. It's like chasing the wind.

Why is it that some ministries turn back void and others progress in power? The all surpassing power does not come from us, but from God. We are just jars of clay. So where can we look? The answer, of course, is in the scripture.

Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 2. And here in this passage, we have eight verses to explore today. And Paul will teach us why it is that his ministry progressed in power. It did not return void. It was not vain.

It was not arrogant. And it didn't return empty. Two major points will be made. The first is that Paul's ministry was marked by an unflinching, uncompromising pursuit and proclamation of truth. There was no shading the truth.

It was unadulterated truth. And then secondly, his ministry was marked by love. The apostle poured his very life into the disciples that he was making. He did not stand on high. He didn't appear on a stage with dimmed lights, proclaim a message, and then disappear into a backroom office after speaking at.

He came and poured himself, his very life, into the people that he was ministering to. So ministry with unflinching commitment to truth and genuine care for the people served to not prove vain. Truth and love empower ministry.

So turn with me now to 1 Thessalonians 2, 1 to 8. For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. There's the title of my sermon today, not in vain. Paul's ministry was not in vain, and here's why.

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 the 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. So notice in verse one that Paul sets himself up as the paradigm for ministry.

That might seem a little bit arrogant, but Paul was uniquely gifted and called as an apostle for this purpose, and given scripture to write. He says to the Corinthians, imitate me as I imitate Christ.

And he says to the Philippians, follow my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction.

Their God is their stomach. Their mind is on earthly things. But Paul sets himself up as the example to follow. So in verse one, you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. He reminds them of what they saw in him.

So Paul came to Thessalonica and was there for three weeks, he with Silas and Timothy, and they watched him and they met him. Rubbed elbows with him, and they saw how he conducted himself and his ministry.

It was the example. There are many men who have set out to follow the example, the pattern of ministry that we see in Paul. One was Charles Spurgeon. He always made Paul the example that he was trying to follow.

Another was George Whitfield. Recently I heard John MacArthur say, my pattern in ministry that I follow is the Apostle Paul. That's a wise course of action. The Apostle Paul set a standard for us to follow.

So what are a couple of the things that we can notice from the Apostle Paul? Here we have them in verses two to four. Notice, first of all, an unrelenting, tireless pursuit of the truth and willingness to say the truth no matter what.

Comes. Verse two, though we had already suffered, when had he suffered? Well, the previous town in which he ministered, of course, was Philippi. And there in Philippi, he was beaten with rods, and he was strung up in a prison.

And the Lord shook the prison and set him free. And after talking to the officials to secure the blessing of the people he was leaving behind, he traveled from Philippi to Thessalonica. So imagine this, Paul did not come in full strength of body to Thessalonica.

The wounds from Philippi were still on him. The scabs were still fresh and not yet fully healed. The muscles were still sore. And yet despite that, it says in verse two, we had already suffered and had been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, it didn't slow him down.

I use the word in first service, indefatigable. And one of the English professors said, you said that wrong. I don't know how to pronounce that right. Somebody who's better at words could tell me that.

But the point is, nothing could fatigue him, nothing could tire him, nothing could slow him down. He says here, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.

The suffering that Paul was experiencing in the body indicated how much Paul treasured the truth that he was bringing. It was so valuable to him that he was willing to suffer for it. The suffering didn't stop him, he kept pressing.

So he tells us why, verse three. Four, our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive. So the way Paul taught the Bible, the way he preached the gospel sprung from, it came from not error but truth, not impurity but purity, no attempt to deceive, but a forthrightness, a genuineness.

So let's look at each of those words for a moment and consider the time in which we live, error. Nowadays in ministry, error is tolerated. The mantra is that what really matters is that we love one another and not squabble about minor differences.

The teaching is that truth needs to take a back seat to love. And you see this manifest in a variety of ways. Many churches that are willing to tolerate certain levels of error, even things that they probably know are error, for the sake of winning approval, to be approved not by God, but from men.

Where do we see this in the churches? There are the happy, clappy churches. Happy, clappy churches, by which I mean churches that are concerned about making people feel good, motivational speaking. And there will be pastors who will deliberately exclude from their preaching anything negative, and even say, I don't talk about sin, because people already know that.

They need something encouraging and positive, inspiring. Caleb, positive and inspiring becomes a lens and a grid through which everything is read. And therefore, error enters into the teaching, because the harder things of scripture are deliberately put to the side.

Other teachers preach health and wealth, right? Prosperity preachers. And whereas there is truth in the department that obedience results in blessing, there is also truth in the way that suffering is to be expected as part of the Christian life.

And if we so minimize the suffering that we must go through to enter the kingdom of God, and only emphasize the blessings of the Christian life, we begin to distort the truth. Error becomes the foundation of our teaching.

There is, of course, the social justice teachers, which is pretty much all of liberalism. Having exchanged the truth of God for a lie, having left behind substitutionary atonement for the individual redemption of sinners, all they have left is social religion.

And so the goal becomes to find out where somebody has been aggrieved. The power dynamics of who has power over who, who's been the victim of who, and trying to right those wrongs, becomes the lens through which they see the world.

And it ignores the full counsel of God and the concerns of the scriptures. Again and again, we see teachers who leave behind the full counsel of God in order to pursue some agenda. And this is precisely what Paul is against.

Look what he says in verse three. Our appeal does not spring from error. Paul is worried about error. Paul is concerned that something that he would teach would be contrary to the word of God. And so how can he be sure that he's not teaching error?

I mean, after all, we're all fallen, right? Nobody's perfect. He concerns himself with the text of scripture and saying nothing beyond what is written in the book. And as he brings new revelation as an apostle of Christ, he has that authority to do that, as he refers to here, as an apostle, verse six.

He can bring new revelation. But we, in following his pattern, must stick only with what has been written and clearly taught. The church doesn't need the opinions of men, the agendas of men. We need the full counsel of God, the full truth, and nothing but the truth.

Many will say doctrine doesn't matter, that theology is just a matter of preference. And what matters is that we simply have orthopraxy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Theology matters. Error always causes sin, division, and all manner of wickedness.

Being doctrinally pure and true absolutely matters. Error is in the crosshairs here. Secondly, impurity. Impurity, this Greek word for impurity, always refers to sexual sin. And it was the case that in Thessalonica, like Philippi and all of the pagan cities of Rome, the priests and priestesses were involved in abominable practices as part of their religion.

Quote, that would come to town, peddling their message, often involved sexual rituals in what they were teaching. So when Paul came into town, the Thessalonians would assume he has some impure motive for being here, like Rasputin in Russia before the First World War.

It's common for peddlers of religion to actually be pursuing sexual impurity. Paul names it and says that the truth has none of it. He was genuine and pure in his life and in his teaching. Or, lastly, any attempt to deceive.

Now to understand what Paul means here by any attempt to deceive, we need to look at the next verse because he expounds by contrast. In verse four it says, 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. Now this is very important because what Paul is saying, we make no attempt to deceive. And then he defines that as preaching or speaking as one who's being watched by God.

And the audience that he's preaching for is God himself, not the listener. Many preachers err at this point because reading the audience, they lean this way or lean that way in order to approve and be approved by the listener.

This capitulation to the opinions of man. When the cultural winds blow this way, the preacher leans with the wind. The attempt to deceive is the shading of truth. Withholding certain things because they're not popular at the time.

Saying things in a certain way to look good to the listener. Because the preacher is actually posturing for the audience. And guys, I speak of preachers because this is what Paul is referring to. But notice from the scriptures, every Christian is a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It does not apply to the pulpit alone, but to every Sunday school class, every community group leader, every women's teacher, every leader, every Christian, every father teaching your children, every mother teaching your children.

It is very easy to begin to lean with the culture to appease the person that you're teaching, rather than to hold with fidelity the truth of God, and here's the secret to ministry. When you don't try by your own effort to massage the truth, to win approval, and to please the most number of people, you actually tap into the power source itself.

You see, power in ministry comes not from the man or the woman, but from the word of God. This word is our strength. The power comes from here. All of the outward appearance of success crumbles if it's not built on this foundation.

You could have a church of 30 ,000 people, and half of them could be goats. It could look to the world like this is the most successful church. But if you've gained the whole world and lost your soul, what have you gained?

Spurgeon lamented that it seems that preachers in his day were more interested in entertaining goats than in feeding sheep, and if that was true in the 1800s, how much more in 2021? So we want ministry from the pulpit in the classroom, in the churches we plant, that are not based on man-made methods, but are empowered by the living God.

We want ministry that does not return void. It's not empty. It's powerful. It's effective. It changes things for eternity as God is working in the world. That's what we want, right? So turn with me to Isaiah 55, verses 10 to 13.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater. Stop there in Isaiah 55, 10.

Here's the simile, the comparison. As snow falls from the sky, or rain from the sky, and it accomplishes something in the ground. It waters the vegetation, and it brings forth life, and it provides bread for people to eat.

It does that before it evaporates and goes back to the sky and the cycle repeats. It accomplishes something. In that way, look at verse 11, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

The word of God is like rain and snow falling from the sky. It will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent. When the preacher and each of us as ministers in our own context, teach the word of God accurately, we let it fall from our lips to the ears of a person listening.

If it's true and unadulterated and unflinching and bold, nothing but the truth. It will accomplish the work for which it is sent. And it will result in the kind of joy that this world cannot match. Look at verses 12 and 13.

Having been ministered to under the power of God's word, you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing. And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn, there shall come up the cypress. Instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle. And it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. This is what the word accomplishes.

This is the Christian life that we get to live. Making a name for the Lord as Christian parents go forth having children and raising them in the knowledge of the Lord. By the way, what becomes of the culture of death?

It dies. So a culture of aborting children and the LGBTQ agenda which is contrary the production of life. What comes of a culture that turns towards death? That culture cannot sustain itself. But what comes of a church that is built upon the principle of life?

We have as many children as we can. We win as many souls to Christ as we can and raise them up. We bring life and by nature, that seed multiplies. So if you look out at the culture, should the Lord tarry for 10, 20, 30, 40 years, our expectation is that the culture of death keeps dying and the culture of life keeps growing.

And what looks like death and hopelessness, because the church has been departing from the truth, if we return to this foundation, I expect victory, not defeat. I don't know when Christ is coming. I hope it's really soon.

And there seem to be signs of the times that it could be definitely within our generation. But what if he tarries for another 100 years? By then we should have been able to plant enough churches to turn New Jersey opposite of where it stands now.

That's how we need to think. This scripture teaches us about what's effectual, what's productive, what's powerful, and that is the word of God. Do you trust it? Moses told the Israelites, after he sang them a song, he gave them the law of God, and then he said to them, this is your life.

He tells them to hold on to the word, this is your life. Paul tells Timothy to rightly divide the word of truth. He understood, he had left Timothy with everything he needed for life and godliness. We have the sword of the spirit, which is powerful for conquering.

We have what it takes through the power of the word of God. Secondly, and lastly, look at verses five to eight. Ministry will prove to be vain without genuine care for the people served. It says, we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with the pretext for greed, God is witness.

When someone brings words of flattery, are they genuinely interested in building you up? No, they're interested in getting something from you. They're flattering you with words so that you, in turn, will give something to them.

Job said, I don't even know how to flatter someone. God would cut me off if I did. Paul is saying here, he wasn't preaching to get something from the Thessalonians. He didn't want their esteem. He wasn't looking to feel good.

He was there genuinely concerned for them. Look at verse six. Nor did we seek glory from people. Sadly, many preachers rise in popularity and become more and more distant from people. What they want is the glory of the spotlight.

And after they preach the sermon, they disappear. They say of Ravi Zacharias, who it breaks my heart about his fall, that he had gotten to the point after so many years of popularity that nobody was close enough to him to question him.

He was above everyone. And so when he opened a massage parlor and then had a masseuse traveling with him, no one began to question him, is this wise, what's going on? He was just unquestionable. He was Ravi, and he fell.

How many preachers on conference circuits want the limelight? It's not the ministry of Paul. Look at verses seven and following. He compares, this is a strange analogy for a man to make. He says, we were gentle among you, like, simile, a nursing mother taking care of her own children.

This is not Pete Buttigieg kind of stuff. This is a different era. This is a different context altogether here. But why would Paul make this analogy? The analogy is not to him. The analogy is to caring.

He's saying how much he cares for the Thessalonians. It was not this distant ministry kind of thing. He loved them. And there is nothing more beautiful and demonstrative of care and concern for another than a mother nursing her children.

Husbands, you understand this. When you've seen your wife when we had babies, how she cared for that baby. It's gotta be the purest picture in the Bible. Of care. And so Paul uses that analogy to teach what ministry is really like.

You care about the actual people you're preaching to. Community group leader. It's not just about gathering one day a week. It's about caring for every person that you're shepherding. The love in the body.

I've seen it this year probably greater than ever before in our church. The true love and concern of the body for one another. That's ministry. It's not a detached thing. And so Paul will say in verse eight, so being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but what?

But also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. That's ministry. I was talking to Tim Robinson, our youth pastor, and thinking about how we got together in ministry. And it actually started, Tim wasn't yet believing.

He started listening to the gospel on Bill Luebkeman's Hope FM and became saved. And then we started what was called the discipleship table. So we played basketball together at Lifetime Athletic. But afterwards, we would go sit at a table and just spend a couple hours talking about life.

Ministry, but life. Everything going on. And talking about the Bible. And so that discipleship table was how he began to grow in the faith. And now we've seen him grow to become the youth pastor. And he does the same thing with our youth.

It's life on life, going to somebody's game. One of the teenagers going to their basketball game. That's ministry. Sharing life together. Young adults, we have a new ministry that we've been doing recently called the discipleship table.

It came from that basketball scene. Now we just meet here at the church on the second and fourth Friday. We get together and we talk theology. And we talk about life and whatever it is that comes up. That's where ministry happens, life on life.

And all of us need to be involved in that. Are you here this morning? And the only time you're involved at Cornerstone Church is Sunday morning. You need a little bit more contact than that. There are community groups on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

There's a women's Bible study Tuesday morning. There's a men's group Monday night. Prayer meeting Sunday night. Discipleship table on Fridays. Youth group on Fridays. There's something happening every night of the week.

I want to encourage everybody here to get involved beyond Sunday morning. It's very important because we don't just share the gospel, we share our very selves. And ministry is caught as well as taught.

And this is what Paul is saying. We didn't just preach the gospel, we shared our very lives with you. If we will do those two things in closing, if we will be a church that is, I almost said indefatigable, but I know that's not pronounced right.

That's tireless in preaching the truth that no matter how the cultural winds blow, we remain more and more steadfast in the truth. Think of this, the church now is facing a godless culture, a wicked and depraved generation.

Which means, when we hold fast to the word of life, shining like stars in the universe, when we hold fast, the contrast will be all the more stark. When you preach the whole counsel of God in this culture, people will call you names.