TXT. Adam Hamilton Sermon Notes – (Free PDF Download) – 2021 , The outline for this sermon is also available as Free PDF Download , enjoy Transcript below and share.
sermon from church of the resurrection
i pray that god will use this message to
speak to you and help you grow in your
faith journey
if you’re in the casey area i’d like to
invite you to join us next week
at one of our services or join us in
live worship online
at core.org worship church of the
resurrection
is one church in multiple locations to
learn more about the service times in
our ministries please visit core.org
hope you enjoy this week’s message i’m
daryl burton one of the pastors here
at church of the resurrection as we
continue in worship
i invite you to join me as we read
paul’s letters
to the thessalonians from paul salvenius
and timothy
to the thessalonian church that is in
god the father
and the lord jesus christ grace and
peace to all of you
we always thank god for all of you when
we mention you
constantly in our prayers this is
because we remember your work
that comes from your faith your effort
that comes from love
and your perseverance that comes from
hope in our lord jesus christ
in the presence of our god and father
brothers and sisters you are loved by
god and we know that he has chosen you
we know this because our good news
didn’t come to you just in speech
but also in power and the holy spirit
and with
deep conviction you know as well as we
do
what kind of people we were when we were
with you
which was for your sake you became
imitators of us
and of our lord when you accepted the
message that came from the holy spirit
with joy
in spite of great suffering as a result
you became an example to all believers
in macedonia
and archaea may god had a blessing to
the reading hearing and understanding of
scriptures
scripture calls us to be light
in the darkness
to let our light shine
in the first words written in our new
testament
paul called a small group of new
christians
to be children of the light
two thousand years later the first
letter to the thessalonians
still offers powerful guidance for us
today
as we live as people of the light
lavon and i had the same washer and
dryer for over 30 years we bought our
very first washing machine
32 years ago i think it was we bought it
uh from montgomery wards it was about
the cheapest one you could buy
and uh and it’s worked well for us for
32 years i find that amazing
and then when we bought our first house
there was a dryer that was left by the
previous owners
and so we have a dryer that’s about the
same age about 32 years old
and it’s worked well all of these years
but but this last year lavon said do you
think we could get a new washer and
dryer i mean
you know they’re starting to make a
little bit of noise and i just think we
could you know have something more
energy efficient a little quieter and so
so i began the research i love to
research stuff like this so i read
consumer reports i’m reading all of the
articles i could find online about you
know which is the best washing machine
and dryer you got to decide is it front
loading or top loading and i decided
well
top loading saddle you know it’s not
like what we needed and then we began
looking at
stainless steel or is it white or black
or some other color and we said well
let’s just get white it’s a little
cheaper and
and you know nobody’s gonna really see
it and and then we began to look at we
want
energy efficiency highly efficient and
we went quiet so i looked at all this i
began reading all the reviews from all
the major retailers across the country
and i began to settle in on a couple of
different washers and dryers and as i
did part of what i discovered
was really discouraging is that there
are no perfect washers and dryers
i found that that no matter how many
good reviews there were there was always
somebody said i thought this was a dud
or i didn’t think it cleaned my clothes
very well or you know this
i didn’t it didn’t work for me and my
needs and so after a while i thought
well where are you going to find the
perfect washer and dryer and so finally
this is what i bought us take a look
okay i didn’t really buy that for us but
you know if you want the perfect washer
and dryer that’s what you need
it’s the one that you’re going to do
yourself the old-fashioned way because
nothing else is going to be as quiet
energy efficient or perfect as that
if you’re a perfectionist and and that’s
going to point towards
the theme of our sermon today and that
is there are no perfect washers and
dryers
and there are no perfect people and so
we’re going to talk a little more about
that but before we do
i want to introduce our theme for the
next four weeks we’re going to be
studying
paul’s first letter to the thessalonians
this is the earliest
letter that paul writes most scholars
believe it’s the earliest letter that
paul writes
and paul’s letters are the earliest
documents of the new testament
so the gospels are written uh first
thessalonians written about 80
50 20 years after jesus death and
resurrection paul is writing this letter
he’s written letters before this it’s
just nobody saved them they weren’t kept
so
this letter was the first one that was
kept and so ad50
mark’s gospel which we just studied a
few weeks ago was written about a.d
70 20 years later the first gospel is
written and then luke’s gospel matthew’s
gospel john’s gospel written after that
so of all of the books we have in the
new testament likely
the earliest document we have is this
letter we’re going to study
right now for the next four weeks first
thessalonians i’d like to invite you if
you have a bible handy
go grab it we’re going to walk through
first thessalonians chapters 1 and 2.
and i think you’re going to find this
fascinating get a pen and paper so you
can take some notes
so paul writes letters and as he writes
these letters he has important things to
say
to the people in the you know the first
century christians
and i just remind you everything in the
new testament aside from matthew mark
luke and john in the book of acts
everything else is a letter so even the
book of revelation was a letter written
to churches in modern day turkey what
was then asia minor
and so these letters are very very
important to our faith
now i want to remind you too that you
know how they came to us so paul wrote
letters on papyrus and i want you to see
what these look like this is a
document from the year 200 and 175 to
200 225
and this is a part of a larger document
that contained a variety of text from
the new testament
it’s called p46 and here you see this is
uh the
one page from paul’s letter to the
philippians and uh
and so this is what the letter would
have looked like although it would have
been you know not
tattered when it came to the philippians
uh when it came to the thessalonians
first thessalonians is the equivalent of
two eight and a half by eleven type
sheets of paper in terms of the length
of a letter it’s not very long you could
read it
in about 10 or 15 minutes we’re gonna
take a little more time with it than
that
i want you to know just a little bit
about the context where it comes from so
so if you uh if you take a look at the
map this is the mediterranean
and you’ll recognize of course the holy
land is over here
and you recognize spain is over here and
this is italy right over here you see
the boot of italy
well paul starts off on his second
missionary journey from antioch over
here
uh syrian antioch and he makes his
journey
uh over here near this area this is uh
southern galatia
makes his way over to ephesus travels to
the north makes his way over here
ultimately to philippi and then to
thessaloniki or thessalonica i’ll just
take
a little closer look so this is the
journey he’s making and you know i’m not
capturing it exact but you know
basically this direction he hops on a
ship he ends up over here
and he makes his way to philippi now
there’s an ancient roadway that
that captured that took the traffic the
main traffic that crossed here actually
came down a little to the south it was
called the via ignatia
and thessaloniki or thessalonica was on
the via ignatia the main highway
so uh i want us to see this is where
this letter is being sent is to
thessalonica
it is uh it is a church community that
was built at a harbor or a port
that was one of the safest large ports
in the mediterranean it was
on the northeast portion excuse me the
northwest portion of the aegean sea
all right so if you were to visit there
and i have visited there i took some of
you there a number of years ago you have
a chance to see there’s not a lot of
roman ruins to see because the modern
city was built on top
of those ancient ruins so you’d have to
tear things up in order to get down to
the ruins but there are a few things
here’s a little of what you’d see if you
were visiting modern day thessalonica so
this is the
um this is the ancient forum where the
shops were you can see those areas there
were shops in the first century
uh this you have a chance to see the
stadium where uh where people would run
or races would take place and uh and and
large gatherings would happen
in the city all right so if you read
luke chapter or acts chapter 17 and i
hope if you have a bible you’ll actually
open there to acts chapter 17.
we’ll read this and i’m going to skip
through a little bit of acts chapter 17
verses one through nine
paul and silas came to thessalonica
where there was a
jewish synagogue as was paul’s custom he
entered the synagogue and for three
sabbaths
interacted with them on the basis of the
scriptures through his interpretation of
the scriptures he demonstrated that
christ that the christ had to suffer
and rise from the dead he declared this
jesus who i am proclaiming to you
is the christ some were convinced and
joined paul and silas
including a large number of greek god
worshippers and quite a few
prominent women so there were greeks who
who and romans who would come to the
synagogues they weren’t circumcised they
hadn’t converted to judaism
but they were drawn to the to the
message of the hebrew bible the old
testament they were drawn to god
and some of these people began to be
drawn to the fact that
paul had proclaimed the long awaited
jewish messiah had come his name was
jesus he was the king that god had
promised
of old so what they heard about jesus
they were drawn to this they were the
greek
they were often called god fears god
worshipers and there were prominent
women
who were drawn to hear more of what
jesus or what paul had to say about
jesus
so these are the people that paul is
writing his letter to all right so we
have a chance to see how the church was
formed it started
paul preaching the synagogue and then
eventually he was sort of driven out of
the synagogue so
luke doesn’t tell us how long he stayed
in thessalonica makes it sound like he
was only there three weeks
most people read this and think and read
the epistle and think he was there
probably for three or four months in any
case acts goes on to tell us that soon
the leadership of the synagogue turned
against paul
so they didn’t they didn’t accept that
jesus was the messiah
and they were a little frustrated and
maybe a little threatened and jealous
because there were many people who were
being drawn to paul’s preaching
and that didn’t feel so good if you were
the leader of the synagogue so this is
what we read next
they brought along some thugs who were
hanging out in the marketplace you just
saw the marketplace a moment ago in that
video
they formed a mob and started a riot in
the city they attacked
jason’s house jason we don’t know of him
anywhere else in the new testament but
we know he
he had a house and and paul and silas
must have been staying there in this
house and the early christians were
meeting there in this house
they attacked jason’s house intending to
bring paul and silas before the people
when they didn’t find them they dragged
jason and some believers before the city
officials
they were shouting these people who have
been disturbing the peace
throughout the empire have also come
here what is more
jason has welcomed them into his home
every one of them does what is contrary
to caesar’s decrees
by naming someone else’s king namely
jesus
so you hear what they’re saying about uh
about these christians they’re saying
there’s another king besides caesar
so this it goes on to say this provoked
the crowd
and the city and the city officials even
more after jason and the others posted
bail they released them as soon as it
was dark
the brothers and sisters sent paul and
silas on to berea
when they arrived they went to the
jewish synagogue as paul usually did the
jews from thessalonica learned that paul
was
proclaiming god’s word in berea so they
went there too and were upsetting and
disturbing the crowds
the brothers and sisters sent paul away
to the seacoast
all right so you get a sense of what’s
going on this is what happens everywhere
paul goes he creates
problems everywhere there are people who
get threatened or upset or people who
disagree with him or
think that he’s teaching something false
and then they round you know rouse up
the crowds or sometimes it’s the it’s
the
gentiles the pagans who are upset by
what he’s done and so he ends up often
he’s thrown in jail he’s beaten and left
for dead i mean again and again and
again
wherever he goes almost wherever he goes
he finds this is the result
and yet there are a handful of people a
small group of people who are drawn to
what he says and come to believe that
jesus is the messiah and he forms him
into a little church
and then he goes on to another community
so again if we look at our map
we’re going to see that paul leaves
thessalonica and he travels to berea
which is somewhere in this vicinity over
here
then he makes his way after the
thessalonians come the jewish leadership
comes and they
chase him out of berea he’s sent by ship
goes to the coast again sent by ship and
he makes his way down
uh actually i think he comes down
through this way and makes his way down
to athens
over here and and then eventually he’s
going to make his way to corinth and
he’s going to spend 18 months
in corinth then while he’s in corinth
he’s going to write the letter that we
have as
first thessalonians so what happens is
paul
sends timothy to go be with the
thessalonians after he leaves he says i
need you to help these folks i need you
i’m worried about them i’m worried about
whether they’re going to be able to
maintain their faith i’ve only been with
them for a couple of months
and they’re people harassing them and
opposing them and criticizing them and
criticizing me would you go back and
and help them timothy so timothy goes
back to thessalonica
and he encourages and cares for them and
then he brings a report back to paul
down in corinth and says
it’s amazing paul they believe
they continue to believe they have
courage and faith and other people are
being drawn
to jesus through their ministry and
they’re doing wonderful things they’re
actually living out the gospel there
despite the criticism that they’ve
received and so as a result of that
report
paul writes this short letter to the
thessalonians we know of his first
thessalonians it is a short letter
it’s really only if you printed it off
on eight and a half by eleven pieces of
paper in
11 point or ten point times it’d be two
pages it’s pretty short
and the letter starts with words of
encouragement
words of encouragement and gratitude
because the thessalonians listen
they refuse to give up in the face of
criticism
i want you to hear that because that’s
really the dominant message of chapters
one and two of first thessalonians we’re
going to combine these two chapters
together
and i want you to hear what paul is
saying to them it is a word of
encouragement
and affirmation and and praise and love
uh just a
just a pastoral care kind of message to
these uh these early christians because
they didn’t give up on their faith in
the fate of opposition in the face of
opposition
or uh or criticism or harassment
they continue to remain faithful the
word faithful is a really important word
in in first thessalonians it appears six
times and there are actually variations
of it that appear
beyond that and the word means
trustworthy someone that that you could
count on someone who is
full of faith someone who actually
trusted despite the adversity
and paul’s gonna praise them for this
and here when we’re looking at paul’s
letters and we’re asking how do these
letters speak to us
we’re asking what did he say to them and
what was going on in that church and
then how does that relate to us
and i think in this letter in chapters
one and two we’re going to hear the call
to be faithful and we’re going to hear
the call to persevere
even in the face of opposition criticism
harassment
all right so i don’t want you to miss
that they refuse to give up
now first thessalonians chapter one
begins with then with this expression of
gratitude from paul i mean he’s just
he is so excited and so grateful that
they’ve maintained their faith in the
face of opposition
and this is what he writes hear these
words again we always thank god for all
of you when we mention you constantly in
our prayers
this is because we remember your work
that comes from faith
your effort that comes through love or
from love
and your perseverance that comes from
hope
hope in our lord jesus christ in the
presence of our god and father
so we remember the work that you’re
doing in your city we’ve heard from
timothy what you’re doing we’re so proud
of the work that you’re doing
and we remember the effort that you’ve
been put been putting forth as followers
of jesus to live out the kingdom and his
message
and we’re so thankful for your
perseverance that you didn’t give up
in the face of hardship now way to take
a look at the next uh the next line
uh this is again uh first thessalonians
chapter one brothers and sisters
i love this brothers and sisters you are
loved by god
and we know that he has chosen you you
became imitators of us
and of the lord when you accepted the
message that came from the holy spirit
with joy in spite of great suffering
all right so you hear this theme again
like he’s so grateful that they became
imitators of paul despite the fact that
they were suffering but despite the fact
that people wanted to arrest them or put
them in jail
and then he says as a result you became
an example to all the believers
in macedonia and acaia macedonia decay
that’s basically modern-day greece
and he says all of the believers you
know everybody that have already led to
faith people here in corinth who who are
hearing about you and
people in berea and people in athens and
and and people in philippi
they’ve all heard about you and what had
they heard they had heard that the
philip
or the thessalonians refused to give up
despite the adversity and the opposition
and the harassment that they faced that
was what was remarkable
look at their faithfulness even when
it’s hard i mean paul lived that he had
he’d experienced he had been beaten and
abused and
left for dead many times but but to find
others who imitated him in that
i mean that was remarkable and so he’s
praising them for this
now i love paul’s words here assuring
them you are loved by god
right and so we read those kind of words
we think you know paul could say that to
us too you are loved by god
you were loved by god and i want you to
notice he says you were chosen
by god god chose you to be a part of
this family the very fact that you know
you were those who said yes to the
calling god must have called you
like you responded and so in all of
these things we again hear
god’s word to us as well you were loved
by god and you were chosen by god
because you responded and when you
responded you became a part of his
chosen people
and the virtue that they had was their
perseverance
and their persistence in imitating paul
and in doing the work of the gospel in
their community
despite adversity criticism opposition
turn to first thessalonians chapter two
now uh beginning with verse three
because here we’re gonna find in chapter
two paul begins to defend himself
and and so it’s clear when you read paul
defending himself it’s
you know one of the interesting things
things to do it’s a little detective
work
is to say well based on what he says
what must be the word of his critics
right so he’s defending something that
points to what somebody else was saying
about him so let’s just see if we can
figure out
what his critics were saying about him
because you see they came into town
or you know those people who lived in
that town they they were determined to
say
that the man who you heard this gospel
from uh he’s no good
he’s just no good so let’s just see what
they said about him paul says our appeal
does not spring from deceit
or impure motives or trickery so if he
has to say that then it must be that
people were saying that paul
you know paul’s message came from in his
attempt to deceive people
and that he had bad motives and he was
tricking people
right so paul says i’m not doing that
look at verse five
we never came with words of flattery or
with a pretext for greed
nor did we speak uh seek praise from
mortals whether from you or from other
people so what are they saying well
paul’s just doing this because he’s
greedy he just wants your money all paul
cares about you know and look he just
wants to
have you you know have you be impressed
by him and he says look i didn’t do
anything to flatter you i didn’t try to
impress you in any way
and i certainly didn’t try to you know
take your money
i didn’t do that and then he goes on to
say
we preached god’s good news to you while
we worked night and day so we wouldn’t
be a burden to any of you
paul was a his training was to be a
rabbi but he also learned
in his hometown of tarsus the job that
he had was to make tents and so it’s
presupposed that he was making you know
he’d had the materials there to make
tents or other kinds of things that he
could sell
in the marketplace and so somehow you
know he’s working whatever his job is
he’s moonlighting so that he can
share the good news of jesus and teach
and preach as he was able
but he didn’t ask for any money from
anybody he’s doing all of this
on his own and and so he’s saying look
you know the people are saying we we
came to take advantage of you all we
care about his money we didn’t take any
of your money don’t forget that
now all of this the criticism and the
slander against paul
and perseverance of the thessalonian
christians in the face of harassment
opposition
uh criticism leads me to the primary
point i want to i want us to focus on
today
all right the the main point i want us
to take away from first thessalonians
chapters one and two
and that is that we are all unfairly
criticized at some point in our lives
right we all face harassment of one kind
or another maybe not for our faith for
some it is because of your faith
for some it’s because of the way you
lived out your faith or a stand that you
took based on your faith
but but regardless all of us have
moments where we are harassed or we are
picked on or we are teased or somebody
somebody uh uh you know impugns our
character somebody says that we had
motives that weren’t really our motives
uh somebody says things bad about us on
social media or somewhere else but may
not happen to you often
but it happens sometimes and when it
happens
it’s really discouraging when it happens
it can lead us to be
silent when we should be speaking up
because we don’t like the criticism it
doesn’t feel good to be criticized
none of us thinks it feels good to be
criticized so
so i want to begin by asking how do we
deal and really begin to wrap this up by
asking how do we deal with criticism
now when criticism come first of all not
all criticism is bad some criticism is
really good for us we need some
criticism
like unless we think we’re perfect and
none of us are perfect
and so we need constructive criticism
positive criticism we need feedback we
need to be able to take that and
and what happens is when people begin to
criticize or say something we need to
improve
we find our defenses go up so let’s just
recognize upfront that there are times
where we need criticism
and we need to figure out how can i
receive criticism in a way that allows
people to share it with me
and allows me to grow so
i want to grow i want to be a better
pastor
next year than i was last year i want to
preach better sermons next year than i
did last year
i want to be more the disciple jesus
wants me i want to be a better husband
i want to be a better father a better
grandpa to my to my granddaughter stella
i want to be you know in every way i
want to be growing but the only way
you’re growing is if you’re sometimes
getting feedback
that’s helping you see the places where
your growing edges are
so instead of seeing criticism as a bad
thing we often need to see it as a gift
right so even when somebody doesn’t know
how to share that criticism well
right so we talk about constructive
criticism a lot of people don’t know how
to share constructive criticism
and they share it in a way that’s
awkward and uncomfortable or sometimes
they say it in ways that are hurtful
but when i get criticism part of what i
try to do
i i won’t say i’m perfect at this but
part of what i try to do
is when i get those you know emails or
you know
snail mails or whatever is to say okay
god is there something i need to learn
from this
how can i grow from this what truth is
there in this help me to see the truth
because
if i could see it before i wouldn’t be
doing the thing that somebody’s
complaining about
so and same thing in the relationship
you know with lavon there are times
where she’ll you know she might be
frustrated or irritated and sometimes
the way she tells me something
doesn’t really help her make the case
right because i find my defenses go up
but then somewhere along the way i gotta
go okay wait a minute
my wife really loves me and clearly she
feels
that this is something that’s irritating
or frustrating or whatever else how can
i learn from that
and where do i need to grow as a result
of that and if you’re not receiving
criticism you’re probably not growing if
you’re not accepting
you know the fact that people might have
something to add to your life or help
you be better
then i would just say you’re a fool so
part of what we have to do is be able to
say when somebody comes to us
with a critical word to be able to say
i’m so sorry
i didn’t realize that i did this thing
or that i acted in this way or i i i
hurt you in some way
even if at the moment we don’t we’re not
really sure we did anything wrong
but to be able to say you know to maybe
it’s apologized sometimes it’s not
apologizing sometimes that what you did
was exactly the right thing but
but in those cases it’s thank you so
much for helping me hear
how this affected you and and i you know
i want to reflect upon that i want to
pray about that and i really
you know appreciate you taking the time
to tell me it’s amazing the book of
proverbs says a gentle answer turns away
wrath and i found people
really angry about something that i said
or did when i can say you know i really
appreciate you coming to tell me this
and i’m grateful for that and i will
think about this it’s like
the anger goes away now it’s hard to do
that right it’s easier to just get angry
or frustrated back at somebody else but
but there’s an opportunity you know to
to be able to say i’m sorry or thank you
and help me to learn better
to ask clarifying questions and to try
to figure out is this true or not and is
this something
is this an area where i need to improve
as a parent as a spouse as a friend as a
as a worker as a neighbor as a christian
all right but that kind of criticism
isn’t what paul’s talking about in first
thessalonians chapters one and two
like these were people who were who were
impugning his character these were
people who were harassing
uh the followers of jesus trying to get
them to stop following jesus
right so this was born of jealousy often
you know people’s criticism is born of
jealousy
sometimes it’s born of they’re not
liking what they see in you that they
actually see in themselves but they have
a hard time acknowledging uh sometimes
it has to do with our own
you know failing or or weak ego strength
and so we find ourselves you know having
to put you down in order to feel better
about ourselves
usually or oftentimes people are most
critical and most you know
angry in their criticism when they feel
hurt in some way personally which may or
may not be your fault
or maybe when they find their own egos
bruised or perhaps
they’re finding their deeply held
convictions are challenged and that’s
unsettling to them
now most of us have times when we’re
ready to quit in response to criticism
and i guess i want to ask you that
can you think of a time in your life
where somebody was critical and you just
felt like
thrown in the towel as a result you felt
like giving up
because that happens to some of us you
know this last year there was a whole
lot of pastors across the theological
spectrum
so conservative pastors you know
centrist pastors progressive pastors
who found in their congregations was
hard to navigate and we talked about
this a few weeks ago
how to deal with coven you know half the
congregation wanted to be back in
worship the other half didn’t want to be
back in worship the half that wanted to
be back in worship said i’ll only come
back if you’re wearing a mask and
and the other half said i won’t come
back unless you’re not wearing a mask
and
and so you know it just was you know
there was that unsettledness and then
there was of course
you know the the polarization in
politics and so no matter what was said
it would almost feel like
it was you know it was a proxy for
something else and and so
you know my politics you know as an
individual all of us as individuals our
politics were
they were sometimes so strong and we
felt so strongly one way or the other
that we had a hard time listening to
people who were standing in a different
place
and a hard time not getting angry and uh
and so we didn’t want to be around
people who were different from ourselves
and often we would write critical things
or say critical things on facebook pages
or whatever
uh and so you know so there was that and
then of course there was uh there was
what was happening in
our country when it came to uh racism
and
pain and brokenness and and how we were
analyzing that and again once more
you had people you know based upon their
politics we’re seeing things
in a very different way and so so we
found ourselves
you know hurting and pastors found
themselves struggling
trying to figure out what to say and so
some pastors just said
i’m just not going to say anything i
just won’t talk about anything i’m just
going to try to find a way to hunker
down
and to not talk about anything that’s
happening in our world and how the
gospel might relate to that
right even if they had strong
convictions they were just afraid
because
criticism just doesn’t feel good and you
get the letters from people who are
going to leave your church they’re mad
or they’re going to withhold their
giving because
you know you said something that didn’t
line up with their deeply held
convictions
which is really not how the world is
supposed to work but it’s how the world
has been working lately we become we
find ourselves paralyzed
there there’s a a truth that when it
comes to criticism if you try to live
your entire life without being
criticized for anything
well actually it’s often attributed to
aristotle but albert hubbard seems to be
the one who said at the 19th century
writer and philosopher he said the only
way to avoid criticism
is to do nothing to say nothing and to
be nothing
so you know that’s not a way to live but
that is how sometimes we live because we
just don’t want anybody to say anything
that might hurt our feelings
might bruise our you know wound our egos
or you know leave them
turning away from us or rejecting us and
can you imagine if paul had said that
if paul said you know what that was just
so hard when they beat me up in galatia
i’m never going to do this again
right and that would have been the end
of the christian faith but thankfully
that wasn’t the end of the christian
faith because he said you know what
sometimes
you do the right thing and you’re going
to get beat up for it and you got to
keep doing it
i was thinking of uh you know just
really anybody who we would consider a
great leader
in our world they’re all going to tell
the same story
of how hard it was sometimes there have
been multiple polls done of americans to
say you know who was the best president
of the united states
and there are two names that come up at
the top of the list every time there’s
george washington
and abraham lincoln right you would have
guessed that george washington abraham
lincoln the third is
uh is fdr uh franklin delano roosevelt
and you know people to this
day are divided about fdr as to whether
they like them or not but generally
people like george washington
and abraham lincoln so it was
interesting the washington post ran an
article last year
uh that captured an important historical
truth i think was last year
here was the here was the title everyone
loved george washington until he became
president
and and what happened was you know
during the years that he was a president
an increasing number of people began to
have great disdain for the president and
people were you know people have been
very positive and really trying to
get him to become president ended up you
know despising him and ridiculing him
at the end of his presidency this is the
guy that we have rated as the top
president
that we ever had in our country and
thomas paine uh who was a pretty big
critic of many politicians at that time
said said of washington the world will
be puzzled to decide whether you were an
apostate or an imposter
whether you have abandoned good
principles or whether you ever had any
at all
that’s what he said after he left office
and his analysis of george washington’s
presidency who we’ve rated as the top
president
in the history of our country abraham
lincoln he was hated by the south
he was hated by the democrats he was
hated by many of the republicans in his
own party
and ultimately he was assassinated right
i love how abraham lincoln though took
criticism he took it with humor and
humility
so uh when he was debating stephen
douglas at one point stephen douglas
says abraham lincoln is two-faced and
maybe you remember this
lincoln’s response was if i had two
faces do you really think i would wear
this one
now you know he acknowledged in his
responses to his critics that he could
be wrong
he said i may be wrong and if i’m wrong
history will judge me as wrong
but i’m trying to do right as best as i
know and understand now
right and that’s what all of us are
trying to do i’ll just tell you as your
senior pastor
you know every sermon i preach that you
know somebody gets upset about or every
you know i’m trying to do right the best
as i know how
reading scripture praying trying to ask
how does the scripture speak to the
complexities of our world today
and i could be wrong any group that
joins our church almost every coffee
with the pastors i say listen
i want you to bring your brain i don’t
want you to check your brain at the door
when you come to the church i want you
to be able to ask questions i want you
to be able to
to you know to really you know wrestle
with these things i’m not saying i’m
always right i’m just saying i prayed
hard i have two degrees in this stuff
and i’m really trying
to hear what god would say to his people
about what’s going on in the world
and so you know it’s okay to disagree we
don’t have to hurt each other when we do
if you look at the at the scriptures by
the way abraham lincoln practice what uh
first peter says in first peter 3 9
don’t pay back evil for evil or insult
for insult
instead give blessing in return
i love that that’s just a basic way of
living your life don’t don’t get even
don’t
don’t provoke back don’t get nasty when
somebody’s nasty with you
because that doesn’t work but if you
bless them instead if you try to be kind
to them
paul says quoting from the old testament
it’s like pouring heaping coals upon
their head they feel shame because
you responded with kindness to their
unkindness and their
you know their insensitivity and that’s
what
living the gospel looks like paul would
teach his followers i think about you
know all of the folks in scripture
that we find every one of those leading
figures in scripture
were criticized by people there were
folks who didn’t like them doesn’t
matter
who you’re talking about every one of
them found that they were
you know harassed and criticized and so
you know you have moses who leads the
children of israel to slavery you know
out of slavery in egypt we talked about
this a few weeks ago
what do they do they want to kill him
and elect another leader and go back to
egypt because they don’t like the food
he’s providing for them
and elijah we’ve talked about him you
know the great prophet and he’s
preaching and teaching and yet you know
he’s teaching against the prophets that
had been
you know the prophets of baal in the
land and pretty soon the king and queen
want to kill him and he has to flee in
the wilderness by himself and he prays
both moses and elijah prayed
god please take my life i don’t want to
live anymore
that’s what it can feel like when people
are being critical of you
like it doesn’t matter what you know
what we’re talking about whether it’s a
parent and your kids are telling you
you’re the meanest parent in the world i
hate you
right or your spouse saying you know
what i just can’t hardly stand living
with you anymore you’re just
or at work or you know this is just
part of life because sometimes criticism
comes
by the way i think about our daughter
rebecca who was the most vocal in
you know occasionally letting me know i
was the meanest dad in the world
and uh and today as an adult she’s like
dad i’m so sorry
you know i’m so sorry i’m really nervous
about having kids myself someday because
i know i’m going to get it back what i
gave
and and so somewhere along the way we
come to the place where we go you know
what
maybe my mom or dad were right or maybe
that other person had something you know
i needed to listen to or maybe
i mean you get the idea john wesley the
founder of methodism wherever he
preached there were people who harassed
him they
you know this some of you know this they
brought rocks and they would throw it
while he was preaching from the you know
from the town square
or or rotten eggs or rotten tomatoes
they would pummel him one time there
were people who brought a whole load of
manure while he was preaching they snuck
up behind him and poured a whole sack of
manure on his head
at one time he was taking a nap on a
sunday afternoon after he’d been
preaching in the morning before he
preached in the evening somebody lit the
house on fire where he was at
almost every major newspaper in england
had lampooned him on the front page of
their newspapers
but he didn’t quit he just kept going
and going i think of you know
mother teresa now saint teresa of
calcutta search the web you’re going to
find plenty of criticism about her dr
king
you know there were people who hated him
in his life bigots and others who hated
him but but there were also people some
in his own denomination a black baptist
denomination
who didn’t really like what he was
saying or what he was doing or how he
was approaching things he was
often roundly criticized billy graham
the saint of evangelical protestantism
but if you search the web you’re going
to find there are lots of conservative
christians
who didn’t think he was conservative
enough and really thought he’d lost his
mind and his soul when he started
working with catholics and when he said
that they were going to have to you know
he would integrate his crusade so black
and white could worship
together at his crusades
so no matter where you go you’re going
to find there are no people out there
who are only receiving positive reviews
and no negative reviews and if that’s
true of all of these saints in the bible
and it’s true of all of these great
leading figures including the you know
great presidents of the united states
it’s going to be true for you too there
are going to be times that people
be critical and the question is what
will you do about that
do you give up do you fold hopefully you
learn if there’s something valuable
you’re always asking god is there
something i need to learn how can i grow
from this
but you don’t give up that’s why paul
wrote first thessalonians because they
refuse to give up that’s why the
churches
you know and the christians all across
you know what is modern day greece we’re
we’re thinking the
the thessalonians were amazing
christians because it wasn’t for
any remarkable thing they’d done in the
four months they had been a church it
was the fact that they had refused to
give up
in the face of opposition i remind you
what jesus said in the sermon on the
mount blessed are you when people revile
you and persecute you and utter all
kinds of evil against you falsely on my
account
rejoice and be glad for your reward is
great in heaven for in the same way they
persecuted the prophets who were before
you
over the last 31 years you know there
have been just plenty of times where
there have been letters that came
sometimes anonymous
now it’s more social media and you know
posts and those kind of things and and
you know it doesn’t matter that you get
100 really great ones the thing you
focus on is the one mean one or the one
hurtful one or the one that you know is
hyper critical and
and uh and you know there are times i
think i had three or four in the last
two weeks
and uh and when you get and mostly i get
really positive affirmations i’m not
looking for affirmation from you i get
plenty of that i just
here’s what i want you to know there are
moments where i get these things and i
just go i’ve told lavon last week i said
you know what
the thing i will most look forward to
i’m gonna i’m gonna regret a million
things you know just dread retiring
someday ten years from now whenever i
retire
i’m gonna miss a million things you know
what i will not miss is the criticism
and the people who leave the church over
something or the people who are
you know nasty and send you anonymous
things i just am not going to miss that
at all
but here’s the thing i’m not going to
give up because of it
i’m going to try to learn i’m going to
try to figure out how can i be better
but
but i’m not going to throw in the towel
because you’re throwing the towel
and you missed out on life and you can’t
just be silent you know and never say
anything or do anything or be anything
if you want to make a difference in the
world and live for jesus
all right so here’s the word from first
thessalonians 1 and 2 that i think we
need to remember
is don’t give up you’re not perfect i’m
not perfect i’m going to mess up a
million times i need that criticism to
keep growing
and i’m not going to give up in the face
of criticism i want to keep going
and i want you to do the same thing and
let me just say this
i don’t get that much criticism three
three or four the last couple of weeks i
mean i get
so many a year and it’s okay like you
know at the age of 56
it really doesn’t bother me so much but
i do try to learn from it when i was 30
it was really hard but
paul’s modeling for us and teaching us
don’t give up all right so uh
the last thing i want to say about this
is that you know it’s not just that
there are other people out there
who are you know mean-spirited people
who are critic you know critical
we are those people like this is also an
invitation for us to say when have i
been critical of other people when i
really shouldn’t have when
when did i not show them grace when i
when i was really mad at somebody
because
i saw something in them i don’t like in
myself when was it that i spoke up you
know like i had all the answers when i
really didn’t have all the answers and i
had no idea what that person was going
through
when have i shared my opinion what i
really didn’t need to and i would have
been wiser to keep it to myself
when did i treat others in a way that i
don’t want to be treated
and the truth is we have all done that
too
which is why jesus had to say to his
disciples at the end of the sermon on
the mount
don’t judge so that you won’t be judged
you’ll receive the same judgment you
give
whatever you deal out will be dealt out
to you why do you see the splinter
that’s in your brothers or sister’s eye
but don’t notice the log in your own eye
right i know i’m going to be judged in
the same way that i judge
i’m going to be really careful to show
an awful lot of grace because i know i
need
an awful lot of grace
and that leads me to end with this
statement it’s a it’s a part of a much
longer
not even a homily it was a speech that
that theodore roosevelt was giving in
1910 he was in paris it was april 23rd
1910
he was no longer president united states
and uh and he gives a speech really
great speech but the part that everybody
remembers
and you undoubtedly have heard this
before i shared it in a sermon a number
of years ago
it is a part that talks about the man in
the arena
listen to these words it’s not the
critic who counts not the man who points
out how the strong man stumbles or where
the doer of deeds could have done them
better
the credit belongs to the man who’s
actually in the arena whose face is
marred by dust
and sweat and blood who strives
valiantly
who airs and comes short again and again
because there is no effort without error
and shortcoming
but who does actually strive to do the
deeds who knows the great enthusiasms
the great devotions who spends himself
in a worthy cause
who at the best knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement and who at
the worst if he fails
at least fails while daring greatly so
that his place shall never be with these
cold and timid souls
who know neither victory nor defeat
here’s the word i want us to remember
from from first thessalonians chapters
one and two
don’t give up don’t give up it’s how you
face criticism and keep going
that paul points out for the
thessalonians was a mark of remarkable
discipleship
and will be for you too everyone is
criticized
there are no perfect washers and dryers
there are no perfect husbands
wives parents children fellow co-workers
bosses or employees neighbors or
christians
don’t give up don’t give up
don’t give up let’s pray
god how profoundly grateful we are to
you for your love for us
for your mercy and grace when we fail
and we do over and over and over again
there’s not a person listening to this
message
that hasn’t failed in a million ways and
yet we keep getting back up and you
raise us back up and you show us mercy
and grace
and then you use all of the places we’ve
fallen
to perfect us to make us the people you
want us to be
lord you know that there are people
listening to this message right now that
feel like giving up on their marriage
giving up as parents giving up as
children giving up is giving up on life
giving up on their jobs giving up on
their ministry on the ways that they
serve
you know oh god what it’s like for us to
be criticized jesus you know
well what it’s like to be criticized
so renew our strength we pray help us to
keep our eyes on you help us not be
afraid to speak up and speak out even
though we know
we’ll garner criticism help us to be the
people you want us to be
help us to be those in the arena
in jesus name amen
thank you for watching this week’s
sermon we’d love for you to join us
again
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have a great week
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