BUILT TO LAST: THE CHURCH YOU’VE ALWAYS WANTED

Pastor Jonathan Falwell 

Everyone has a perspective of what an ideal church might look like. Most focus on the things the world says are important, God focuses on so much more. And, when we focus on those things, we will have the church we’ve always wanted!

1 Thessalonians 1:1–10 (NKJV) Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, 3remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father, 4knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. 5For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. 6And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, 7so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. 8For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. 9For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

1. The reason we’re here

Vs 3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father

Vs 3 (NLT) we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• The church you’ve always wanted isn’t a gathering of consumers; it’s a collective of active believers living out their faith.
• Work of faith – taking what we believe, what we know, and what we hear and putting it into practice
• Labor of love – (labor = kopos) meaning “to work hard, to toil, exhausting”
• Patience of hope – never worried about what the day holds because we have a greater future in store
• Vernon McGee said, “In this verse Paul actually gives three graces of the Christian life. The past is the work of faith. The present is a labor of love. The future is the patience of hope. That is the biography of the Christian and the abiding, permanent, and eternal features of the Christian life.”[i]
• David Ewert said, “Since the trilogy, faith, hope, and love, is found repeatedly in Paul, as well as in other New Testament writers…we must view it as a kind of compendium of the Christian life, the quintessence of the new life in Christ.”[ii]
• Ellen Gould White said, “Where there is no active labor for others, love wanes, and faith grows dim.”

2. Secured by His everlasting love

Vs 4 knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God

• We are fully aware of who God is and how He feels about us

• Beloved brethren – we are loved before we ever loved Him back
• Your election by God – God knew us before we were even born and He has loved us before we ever knew His name
• Tony Evans said, “You are saved to serve God by choice, not by chance. God found you before you found him. And that choice was for fulfilling a divinely ordained purpose on earth.”[iii]

• Charles Spurgeon once said, “Election and predestination are but the exercise of God’s sovereignty in the affairs of salvation, and all that we know about them is what has been revealed to us in the Scriptures of Truth.”[iv]

3. Empowered by the Holy Spirit

Vs 5 For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.

• A healthy church is built on God’s Word and God’s power
• Full commitment to the inerrant, inspired Word of God

4. Persevering through it all because of Him…in joy

Vs 6 And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit

• Our faith walk will always include troubles, but God has promised He is greater
• Allowing the Word to guide us in both good times and bad times

2 Cor. 12:9–10 (NKJV) And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

1 John 4:4 (NKJV) You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

• L. Moody said, “The only man that ever conquered this world—was complete victor—was Jesus Christ. When He shouted on the cross, “It is finished!” it was the shout of a conqueror.”[v]

5. Being the light of the world

Vs 7 so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. 8For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything.

• The church doesn’t exist just for us, it exists for all
• “…you became examples to all” (examples = typos) meaning a “copy of, imitation, carbon copy

Summary Statement: The reason we’re here: we are secured by His everlasting love, empowered by the Holy Spirit, persevering through it all because of Him (in joy), and being the light of the world!

[i] J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary: The Epistles (1 and 2 Thessalonians), electronic ed., vol. 49 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 18.

[ii] David Ewert, “1-2 Thessalonians,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, vol. 3, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1995), 1069.

[iii] Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019), 1260.

[iv] Mark Water, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations (John Hunt Publishers, 2000.)

[v] D.L. Moody, The Overcoming Life and Other Sermons (Ada, MI: Fleming H. Revell Publishers, 1896.)