Bring Hope in a Pandemic: Live Your Faith Out Loud (part 1)
Your life means more than you know. Our family, neighbors, friends, and coworkers need to witness faith in action. Now, more than ever people need to hear the hope that is in the Gospel message of salvation.
Let us not focus on the suffering that is going on around us, but rather focus on Jesus and living our lives out loud for Jesus and for all to see, that they would know true joy, healing, and forgiveness.
People need to be encouraged and know others are praying for them, that they are loved and not forgotten, that they are loved by God and that He desires them to experience the grace, love and peace of God.
Encouragement in Times of Trial
Peace, Joy, and Love Out of Darkness
Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians to encourage, strengthen and instruct the believers to continue in the faith as they have been living. It was written from a loving proclaimer of the faith—giving thanks to God for them in prayer and in the Holy Spirit.
I believe people across this nation and around the world need to hear this same message, a message of keeping the faith. A message of grace. A message of God’s love. A message of encouragement.
The gospel message of hope and salvation is needed. It is needed in both good times and in the time of physical suffering. It is needed for both the physically healthy person and someone who is dealing with a sickness, disease or virus. The Gospel’s Good News will inspire joy and faith.
Today, people need to be encouraged and know others are praying for them. People need to know that they are loved and not forgotten. They also need to hear and know that they are loved by God and that He desires them to experience the grace, love and peace of God. People need to know someone cares about them, at a time when so many are shut in because of this virus.
Like Paul, let us not focus on the suffering that is going on around us, but rather focus on Jesus and living our lives out loud for Jesus and for all to see, because as we do we will help those who are experiencing all types of suffering to know and experience true happiness and healing, true joy, true forgiveness that is only found in knowing Jesus as Lord and savior.
You will see, it was because of the Thessalonians faith in Christ that they were commended by Paul and for what they were doing in sharing the Gospel and meeting the needs of those around them.
“Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you. 2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath” (1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, NIV).
Wow, these verses almost sound like Paul is writing an employer’s letter of recommendation. It’s a letter telling the believers to keep going; it’s expressing that Paul was proud of the believers and that they were becoming a model for others to follow.
Paul simply loved them and desired the believers to grow in Christ. Paul appears to have had a deep connection with the believers.
Thessalonica was an important capital city and it was along both the land and sea trade route. If the Gospel was to be spread to all the world, this was a good place for the gospel to launch from and spread over the entire region.
Paul makes it clear that the church in Thessalonica was first and foremost in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The word IN is an important word. This church, this group of believers, were in close association with God the Father and also the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul acknowledges this small group of believers as imitators of Christ. As believers, we are called out of spiritual darkness and into the light of the Gospel.
In Paul’s opening, Paul wanted to extend God’s grace and peace to them. I believe the order of grace and peace is very important. The peace that Paul is referring to is not so much a peace from war or a physical confrontation. Rather, it is an inward peace, a peace within your heart and soul.
It is peace with God the Father that comes only by grace through faith. It is the peace and relationship with God, which Adam and Eve experienced before sin entered the world.
The Peace of God they rejected can only be restored because of the grace of God.
The peace, joy, love and happiness the world seeks is found only in the Gospel message.
The peace, joy, love and happiness that the believers in Thessalonica displayed even in times of severe suffering was being displayed in how they lived each day.
We need to know and experience the grace of God for ourselves if we are ever to know and experience true peace in our hearts and souls.
So what is Grace?
Grace is undeserved favor or kindness towards the sinner and is a gift that God freely gives. The grace of God is revealed in the work and person of Jesus Christ. Whereas Mercy is compassion and the punishment is withheld; grace is not punishment that is withheld, rather it is satisfied. Jesus took our punishment upon himself at the cross.
The peace Paul is speaking about in Thessalonica, is a sense of spiritual well-being that comes from God, through restored harmony with God. In almost all cases God’s grace precedes peace with God.
Because of the grace of God you are justified through faith in Christ.
three ways we honor God
The Thessalonian’s displayed their faith in Jesus and they proclaimed the gospel message to be true in how they lived. They lived the Gospel message out loud for all the world to see. They lived their faith so others might know, because of the grace and peace they experienced themselves in Jesus, and with God.
Paul lists three ways the Thessalonians displayed their love and faith in Jesus:
By their work produced by faith.
Their labor prompted by love.
Their endurance inspired by hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.
First, let’s consider work produced by faith. Paul is clear in his wording regarding faith and works: some people think that because they see themselves as a good person, that will be what saves them. But that is not true. Paul was saying the deeds and achievements that they were doing, were deeds in response to their faith in Jesus.
Second, labor prompted by love. This focuses not on the deed as work, but on the effort and energy exerted. Paul was saying the Thessalonians’ effort and labor of love was selfless and was also an evidence of their salvation. It is a love that seeks to give because God has loved them.
Third we see that their endurance was inspired by hope. The believers were actively loving and walking by faith; they were actively engaged in sharing and displaying their love and faith in Jesus for all to see. The believers were steadfast in hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. The believers wanted others to know and experience the grace, peace and hope they had in their hearts.
Your faith, love and hope in Jesus will help you endure hardships and times of suffering.
Paul commends the Thessalonians that by these three evidences or actions they demonstrated to others their faith in Jesus.
The Gospel came in word, in power of the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. And that is still true, 2000 years later.
Hope Starts With Us
I want to stop here and say that the world today needs to see these three evidences in the life of every church and believer.
We should all try to take an accounting of our lives.
The world needs Jesus. The world need to know and experience the grace and peace of God. Our family, neighbors, friends, and coworkers need to witness faith in action.
People need to see and experience the love of God. People need to know what hope in Jesus is all about. Now, more than ever people need to hear the hope that is in the Gospel message of salvation.
It starts with us sharing our testimony. It starts with sharing our faith. It starts with grace and geace that comes from knowing Jesus and it grows into a deep conviction that is visible to others by how we live our lives of faith.
What do people see in you?
If someone were to write some recommendation about you and your faith in Jesus, could they say that you displayed the grace and peace of God? Have you extended grace – unmerited favor to others who may have wronged you just as God has extended grace to you? Remember Mercy is not like grace. With mercy the punishment is never truly satisfied. But with grace the punishment is satisfied. Extend the Grace you received from God to others. Jesus paid the punishment, He took the punishment for you.
Some honest questions to ask yourself:
Do you act and work in a particular way because of your faith in Christ?
Do you love even those who may have offended you to share the Gospel?
Will you allow the love of God to be expressed not just to fellow believers but to those who you may disagree with wholeheartedly?
Do you endure the work and pain of what may come your way, knowing your hope is in Christ and Christ alone?
Are you looking forward to Jesus’ return?
Do you have the spiritual endurance to keep pressing on in faith?
Are you pressing on in the hope of Christ’s return, even after some 2ooo years?
I want you to hear me when I say: never allow the hope of Christ’s return to fade. The promise is sure.
Allow your hope in Christ arise.
Allow your faith in Christ arise.
Allow your love for Christ to arise.
Each of these are evidences of your salvation. How you act and live each day reveals to others whether you are what you proclaim to be. Do you exhibit love, joy, peace, happiness, and faith in Christ? Do you display the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)? Do you display humility and a willingness to forgive as you have been forgiven?
None of us are perfect.
Like Paul, let’s always remember to put Jesus first and that when I am weak, then I am strong. You have the victory. You are victorious in Christ. Let’s live so others might know Jesus and be saved.
Suggested Praise and Worship
This and other sermons brought to you by Faith Chapel, an Assemblies of God church in Pleasanton, CA.