The book of Acts takes up decades of
years, tens of years.
So it's very interesting to wonder why certain
things were included and why not others.
Why do certain days, same as true in
the gospel, why did the writers pick out
certain days led by the Holy Spirit and
tell us what Jesus taught and did while
he ministered for three and a half years?
Imagine all that he did.
Well, imagine all that happened in the book
of Acts.
We don't know where Matthew went.
In fact, I just heard from the people
in Ethiopia that they believe, their tradition tells
them, it's not in scripture, that Matthew went
down to northern Africa and was one of
the first people to bring the gospel to
Ethiopia.
That's not in the Bible, but that's something
that their church tradition tells them.
But we don't know where Matthew went.
We don't know where Thomas went.
There's reason to believe, historically, that he possibly
went to India and brought the gospel there.
So we don't know what Paul was doing
on other days.
We don't know what the apostles were doing
during the book of Acts.
They just focus in on Paul, and at
that, we just have fragments of his actions
and achievements in the Lord.
We're gonna now, in our following of his
second missionary trip, he's with Silas.
He's with a Dr. Luke who wrote this
book.
He's with a young man by the name
of Timothy who's a fairly new believer, and
we just left them.
We took two weeks just to talk about
their visit to Philippi where they ended up
in jail.
God delivered them, and they got a beating
before they went in jail, a very severe
beating, persecution, got out of the jail.
The jailer got saved, his family did, and
then after encouraging the believers, they left town.
Now, that visit to Philippi, later Paul wrote
back to that church, and what is that
letter called in the New Testament?
Philippians.
That's the letter to the church in Philippi.
So now we're gonna try something today a
little bit different to help you when you
study your Bible.
I'm gonna look at this a little differently
than I normally would, and we're gonna learn
about the next stop.
Paul left Philippi, and the next place he
went to was Thessalonica.
This is how it all began, all right?
Let's look at it.
When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia,
they came to Thessalonica where there was a
Jewish synagogue.
Who's they?
That's the team I told you about, headed
by Paul and Silas.
As his custom was, Paul went into the
synagogue.
What's a synagogue?
That's where the Jewish people would meet to
worship.
And on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with
them from the scriptures, so hold that, three
Sabbath days, that's Saturday to the Jewish, right,
calendar, and that would be, he's there at
least three weeks.
He reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining
and proving to the Jewish people there and
the other Gentile worshipers of God that Christ
had to suffer and rise from the dead.
This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is
the Christ, he said.
Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined
Paul and Silas, as did a large number
of God-fearing Greeks.
Who were the God-fearing Greeks?
These were non-Jews, but who worshiped in
the synagogue.
They were not considered Jewish, but they were
called God-fearers, and they met because they
were drawn to the monotheism and morality of
the Jewish faith versus the looseness of the
Roman Empire with all their gods and of
the Greek culture.
And not a few prominent women, these were
wealthier women, well-known in the community.
But the Jews, who didn't believe, were jealous,
so they rounded up some bad characters from
the marketplace.
There are always bad characters in every marketplace
in the world.
Formed a mob, that's not hard to do,
and started a riot in the city.
So now some are getting saved.
You have revival and riots happening at the
same time.
It is what it is.
So you have some getting saved.
Well, I thought Paul was anointed.
Yeah, he was anointed.
I thought he was an apostle.
Yeah, he was.
Did everybody get saved?
No, that is a faulty kind of triumphalism
that is sometimes propagated in our circles today,
that if God is with you, everybody will
get saved, and if they don't, something's wrong
with you.
That's wrong.
Jesus didn't have everybody converted to his way
of thinking when he was here.
But some were saved, but the Jews were
jealous, the ones who didn't receive, so they
rounded up some bad characters in the marketplace,
formed a mob, started a riot in the
city.
They rushed to Jason's house.
We don't know who Jason was, but obviously
it's where Paul and Silas and the group
might have been staying or connected to him
in search of Paul and Silas in order
to bring them out to the crowd.
That would have been bad.
But when they did not find them, praise
God, they dragged Jason and some other brothers
before the city officials, shouting, these men who
have caused trouble all over the world have
now come here.
And Jason has welcomed them into his house.
They are all defying Caesar.
That's the ruler of the Roman Empire.
Caesar's decree saying that there is another king,
one called Jesus, and when they heard this,
the crowd and the city officials were thrown
into turmoil.
Then they made Jason and the others post
bond, they paid bail, and let them go.
And as soon as it was night, the
brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea.
On arriving there, they went to the Jewish
synagogue in Berea.
In these nine, 10 verses, we have the
founding of the church in Thessalonica.
So let's just analyze this.
Paul and Silas, who had that beating, went
through these Greek cities that are just mentioned,
and they went from Philippi to Thessalonica, and
that is about 100 miles.
See, in just one little sentence, they went
from here to Apollonia to this and all
of that, but that was, on the map,
about 100 miles.
There were no taxis and there was no
airplane.
That meant they walked 100 miles after taking
a beating that could have killed them.
The scourging that they took was called 40
minus one because they had given 40 lashes
or 40 hits with wooden rods, and it
killed some people before they could get them
in prison.
So they made a law in the Roman
Empire, you only do 39 because 40 could
be fatal.
So after taking that beating and getting thrown
in prison, they now, in obedience to their
commitment to Christ, they travel 100 miles on
foot to go to Thessalonica, and where do
they go?
You talk about courage.
They go to the synagogue.
They always did that, it seemed.
They started to the Jew first, also to
the Greek.
They started in the synagogue and would start
there.
Paul was Jewish, Jesus was born to Mary
in a Jewish home.
The message came to Israel first, so they
went to the synagogue.
That was their custom if there was a
synagogue in the city.
And then, depending on what happened there, they
would then turn to the Gentiles, in this
case, the Greeks, and give the gospel.
So with their courage and endurance, they traveled
100 miles to go to a place where
there was nothing but trouble looming for them.
They were going to a synagogue to tell
people, Jesus is the Messiah, y'all missed
it.
That usually does not get a great reaction,
but this is what the Lord told them
to do.
And he said, there would be hardship when
you do it.
He said, not everyone will believe.
And the Western mind that we have been
invaded by, our Western mentality, you know, knows
nothing about hardship here in America when you
preach the gospel.
We might have somebody look at us and
say, you're a jerk, get out of here.
Somebody in the elevator in the building that
I live in, I was coming down in
the elevator today, and she was with two
children, and she looked at me, and she
said, had my attache case, my, you're dressed
up for a Sunday morning.
And I said, yes.
She was smiling, you're dressed up.
And I guess I had talked to her
children, they were so cute, and they had
a little dog.
I said, yeah, I'm going to church.
And the minute I said church, she went,
oh, you get that reaction, don't you sometimes?
You know, if you're going to Crack House,
they would go, yeah, have a good time.
But going to church, going to church, where
are you going to church?
What are you talking about, church?
Are we talking church here?
To us, that's like a little inconvenience, but
where I was just now, I found out
that when the communists took over the government
in Ethiopia, all kinds of pastors were put
in prison.
Some lost their lives.
They had to evade the law, because they
had another king named Jesus who they were
going to obey, rather than the communist government.
A Muslim faith is making militant inroads in
the eastern part of the country, near Somalia,
so now there's difficulties of another kind.
So to serve Jesus in many parts of
the world means trouble, and to the western
mind, that's like, we have these evangelists and
televangelists, if you serve Jesus and just quote
that word, you'll get a raise in your
job, and you'll have a bigger home, and
you just speak that word, and the western
mind, which has an appetite for materialism, these
ministers are very clever.
They know, they're not interested in what the
Bible says, they know what the people want
to hear.
So they cherry pick verses, and leave out
all the other verses like this one.
They travel 100 miles, and they go to
the synagogue, and then you get this mixed
reaction, which we've talked about.
When you share Christ, not everyone will believe.
That's not our business.
Our business is just to share Christ.
God has to do the saving.
How many say amen?
And how they get saved, and how we
plant the seed, and what will happen now,
then, later, all of that.
Imagine when we get to heaven, and we
meet people that we possibly talk to, who
we saw them reject, but that seed was
planted, and maybe a half hour before they
died, they said, Lord, have mercy on me.
And they're gonna be with us in heaven
for all eternity.
So you never know, you just keep talking,
inviting, loving, knowing that not everyone will have
a positive reaction.
Some believe, Jews, God-fearing Gentiles, prominent women,
and then others say, what?
The Bible says they were moved by jealousy
to make trouble for Paul and Silas.
So now let's just talk about that for
a second.
We've seen this now in several places, that
jealousy is a motivating factor for a lot
of trouble when it comes for Christianity.
Jesus was delivered up for jealousy.
When they saw the crowds, the religious leaders
saw the crowds he was drawing, they were
jealous because he had authority, and people were
drawn to him, and they were losing their
sway and their perks over the people, and
that's when the Bible says they plotted to
kill Jesus.
And when they delivered him to Pontius Pilate,
Pilate, who was very streetwise, he knew in
a second he read this thing, and he
knew, they're just jealous of him, that's why
they've cooked up this charge to try to
get rid of him.
And now we see, why did the Jews
persecute Paul?
Because they were so against what he was
teaching?
No, because people were leaving the synagogue and
saying, no, I'm gonna follow Jesus, I wanna
hear more of the teaching of this apostle
Paul.
Jealousy is an ugly thing, isn't it?
And it not only can be that kind,
it can be among Christians.
Denominations are jealous of other denominations.
Churches in the same city are jealous of
other churches.
I know pastors who rejoice when they hear
a bad report of something happening in another
church.
And if they hear that God is blessing
some other church, they go, yeah, well, you
can't be sure about all of that, you
really gotta check it out.
Anything to just, isn't that a horrible thing?
Woman buys a nice dress, she looks in
the mirror, she's so happy, she looks nice,
comes to church, sees someone who has a
nicer dress, ruins her day because of jealousy.
Same way with men, women.
Come on, aren't we all the same?
Jealousy, you don't have to teach jealousy.
You just give toys to children.
I watched that one Christmas, giving presents to
my grandchildren.
Minute they opened it, and they were playing
with it, and they loved it, and then
their cousin opened another present, I want that,
I want that, I want that, and they
had their own gift.
No, it just, let's ask God to save
us from jealousy.
Let's rejoice when other people are blessed.
Because when you're jealous of someone, what you're
doing is saying, God, I don't like the
way you're blessing that person.
That's not a good way to start the
day.
Just, let's rejoice.
There will always be people more wealthy than
you, more talented than you, nicer personality, whatever.
That's what it is, it is what it
is.
Let's just be thankful for what God has
given us.
Do I get an amen here?
Come on, let's say amen to that.
So now, the Bible says, in the synagogue,
how did he win converts?
The Bible says that he reasoned with them
from the scriptures, proving that Christ had to
suffer and then rise from the dead.
All right, let's think about this.
How did Paul preach the gospel?
There was no New Testament.
He couldn't say, for God so loved the
world that he gave his only, he said
it, but he didn't quote John 3.16.
John hadn't been written yet.
So what did he do?
He reasoned with them from the scripture.
And what he tried to tell them was
Christ had to suffer and then rise from
the dead.
What was the stumbling block to the Jew
about Jesus being the Messiah?
What kind of Messiah are you talking about?
The guy died on a cross.
The Bible says in the Old Testament, cursed
is everyone who hangs on a tree.
You're trying to tell me this guy's special?
He was arrested and put on a cross,
and you're trying to tell me he's special?
So this was a stumbling block to the
Jewish mind because they wanted a triumphant Messiah.
They wanted a Messiah who would take the
Roman Empire and put it under his heel.
He would use verses that they had already
accepted as scripture and said, no, you got
it wrong.
Don't you see God foretold what would happen
to Messiah?
Messiah, by the way, is the same word
as Christ.
Christ is in the Greek language, and Messiah
is the Hebrew term.
The anointed one is the one Christ, and
the expected anointed one to the Jewish mind
was the Messiah, same word.
So he would quote verses like this.
Look in Isaiah 53.
Isaiah, writing hundreds of years before, how would
he write this and know that this would
happen?
Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed?
He, this is the suffering servant of the
Lord.
This is what Isaiah is prophesying about, not
himself, but he's about someone who will come.
He grew up before him like a tender
shoot and like a root out of dry
ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract
us to him, nothing in his appearance that
we should desire him, speaking of Messiah, that
would come.
He was despised and rejected by men.
He was a man of sorrows and familiar
with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces,
he was despised and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities and he
carried our sorrows yet we considered him stricken
by God, smitten by him and afflicted, but
he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought us peace was upon
him and by his wounds we are healed.
We all like sheep have gone astray.
Each of us has turned to his own
way and the Lord has laid on him.
Praise God, the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did
not open his mouth.
He was led like a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers
is silent, so he did not open his
mouth.
That's exactly how Jesus died.
He didn't argue and fight with Pilate.
He didn't argue with the Roman soldiers.
He didn't fight with the Jewish Sanhedrin when
they trumped up charges.
He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities and what
Paul did was said, no, you have the
wrong idea.
You're our own scripture.
Show, this is what Messiah would do.
So he tried to prove to them from
scripture.
He fulfilled all those things.
Let us tell you what Jesus of Nazareth
suffered in Jerusalem for you and that he
also would rise again.
So he said, don't you remember what David
said in Psalm 16?
He wasn't speaking about himself because his grave
is with us.
He lived, he died.
He stayed in the dirt.
But who is he talking about here?
Psalm 16, I have set the Lord always
before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I
will not be shaken.
Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue
rejoices.
My body will also rest secure because you
will not abandon me to the grave nor
will you let your Holy One see decay.
He said that was written prophetically that the
Spirit of God would come upon the Old
Testament writers and they would not only write
for the people of their day but sometimes
the Spirit would lift them and they would
begin to speak of things that would happen
hundreds of years later.
And he said to them, let me prove
to you this was spoken of Jesus.
David is dead, he's in the grave.
So who is this one that he speaks
of that would not see corruption?
It's Jesus, the Messiah.
And he appeared to me and he told
them of his conversion and many other words.
He gave them the good news of Jesus.
This is either true or it's the biggest
con game that's ever been invented.
Either Jesus died and rose again or he's
the biggest religious imposter along with Paul and
along with the scriptures that ever came down
the pike.
It's either true or it's not true.
It's not just true for me and something
else is true for another person.
True is true.
It's according to reality.
And the reality is that God inspired people
to prophesy things that Jesus had done to
him which were beyond his control.
The beating, the scourging, the crown of thorns,
all of this was predicted.
The rejection, being spat upon.
They ripped at his beard.
The spittle ran down his face.
This was all done but predicted hundreds of
years ago.
The Hebrew and Greek scholars who know the
Bible know that Isaiah was written hundreds of
years before Christ.
Isaiah was written hundreds of years before Christ.
How could they predict exactly what happened to
Jesus?
Because God inspired this book that we call
the Bible.
Can we say amen to that?
Many people don't like what it says and
many people don't want to say I'm a
sinner and I need to repent and that's
why they fight what the Bible says.
Not that the prophecies aren't true.
They just don't like the content of the
message.
He did that and some were converted and
others fought him and that's interesting that we
could use that when we talk to people
and point out those prophecies.
Study your Bible, get in your concordance and
find those prophecies in the Old Testament.
Do you know that Micah even said the
city that he would be born in?
Out of you, Bethlehem will come the Savior
and Jesus obviously could not control where he
was born.
That was in the providence of God that
God would fulfill every word spoken.
Oh, I'm so happy that I am worshiping
the true and the living God and his
son Jesus.
So now, the people who are jealous of
him, let's close.
People were jealous and they went out to
the town square like where people hang out
and they got together a mob and they
talked some trash to them about Paul and
Silas and the next thing you know, you
have a mob and now they're gonna catch
him.
Oh, it looks like another beating for Paul.
Will his body be able to take it
or are they gonna put him in prison?
What are they gonna do?
We don't know where they were but thank
God, they weren't at Jason's house and they
went to Jason's house, they weren't there so
they pulled Jason there.
I want you to notice two things that
they said which is interesting about Christianity.
They said to the crowd to work them
up.
We gotta get rid of these guys.
This guy Jason took them in.
This Paul and Silas and their group.
These are the people who everywhere they go
in the world, they cause trouble.
Christians were called troublemakers because Jesus said, I
didn't come to bring peace.
What did Jesus say he came to bring?
A sword.
When the gospel is preached, it has a
reaction that people believe or don't believe but
the people who don't believe, they get up
in your grill quick.
Well, why should they?
We're gonna find out that these people in
Thessalonica were so hostile that when Paul goes
to another city, next week maybe we'll study
this, he goes to another city.
Do you think they leave him alone?
They follow him to that city and try
to kill him there.
Why?
The guy just sees things differently.
Let him have his view, you have your
view.
No, no, no, no, no, not when it
comes to Christianity.
Jesus says they hated me, they will hate
you.
They rejected me, they'll reject you.
They persecuted me, they will persecute you.
I'm telling you that because I wanna be
a faithful servant of the Lord and tell
you the whole counsel of God.
When you witness for Christ, trouble will sometimes
come.
I've seen that in houses.
One person gets saved, they were fine.
No, how about this?
I've seen this 100 times since I've been
in the ministry.
Someone's living the wildest, craziest life, dropping out
of school, not fulfilling commitments, on drugs, alcohol,
whatever, and then they hear the gospel.
Sometimes right in this church, they get saved
and they were fine with their family.
They were fine, nobody said a word.
They're coming home at 4.30 in the
morning, everything was cool.
The minute they say they're Christians and they're
going to church, all hell breaks loose in
the house.
All kinds of things explode.
Everybody's against them.
What are you doing?
You think you're better than us?
Why are you going to church?
Bunch of holy rollers that are there.
They just want your money.
And before, when they were living crazy, everything
was fine.
Why is that?
It's because what we read in the Bible.
There's something about Jesus that separates people.
How many have witnessed that or experienced it
yourself?
You know what I'm talking about.
It's Jesus.
Watch what's gonna happen in the months and
years to come with this current administration, our
government, whatever's happening now.
Other religions who've sold certain views about teachings
in the Bible about sexuality or different things,
they get a pass.
They're gonna come after the Christians.
Watch that.
But it is what it is.
We're serving Jesus.
How many have determined no matter what, we're
gonna serve Jesus, right?
We're gonna follow Jesus?
No turning back?
No turning back.
One other thing was made accusation.
I pray this accusation will come against us
too.
They said, you gotta get rid of these
guys because they're teaching that they have another
king.
They don't buy into Caesar.
They got another king.
They're disloyal.
Wouldn't you like someone to say that about
you?
You know what I don't like about them?
They're not a Democrat.
They're not a Republican.
They're not Americans first.
They're not into their West Indian thing.
They got another king named Jesus.
And what he says, that's what they go
by.
And they relate to people in his kingdom.
And his authority is supreme to them.
And they have a loyalty first to him,
not to the government or their culture or
their race.
They're troublemakers because they have another king.
I wonder how many of us could have
that accusation made about us, the way we
live on our jobs and the way we
carry on that people would say, you know
what, she's different, he's different because they got
another king.
They go to the sound of another trumpet.
They're following another whole thing.
They're just, they live in another world.
Wouldn't you like that accusation made?
That was the accusation made against the early
Christians.
Now, the question comes to us.
How long did they stay there?
Nobody knows.
We know they went on to Berea.
How long did they stay in Thessalonica because
when we read 1 and 2 Thessalonians, they
had a dynamic church.
How did Paul do that?
Was he there two or three months?
He could have been there just three weeks.
But that's all we hear about.
When did the persecution come?
We don't know exactly, but definitely, they weren't
there for a long period of time.
So how were they so effective to preach
the gospel, preach Jesus?
They were faithful to preach Jesus.
They based it on the word of God.
How were they so effective in planting a
church?
I know they were anointed by the Holy
Spirit.
I know they gave the right message of
Jesus.
But I wanna know as a pastor, and
we should wanna know, are there any secrets?
Let's look at those 10 verses.
No, the 10 verses don't tell us.
And this is what you can do when
you read the book of Acts.
If you can, where were they in Thessalonica?
Later on, Paul wrote a letter to them,
two letters, called 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
And just look at the secret to how
Paul did this and was so effective.
He anointed by the Holy Spirit.
He gave them the message of Jesus.
He didn't say, join my church, join my
denomination.
Ah, he preached Jesus.
But look, as apostles of Christ, he's writing
to them in Thessalonica.
We could have been a burden to you,
but we were gentle among you, like a
mother caring for her little children.
We loved you so much that we were
delighted to share with you not only the
gospel of God, but our lives as well,
because you had become so dear to us.
Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship.
We worked night and day in order not
to be a burden to anyone while we
preached the gospel of God to you.
Ah, there's the secret.
They not only told them about Jesus and
depended on the Spirit, their hearts were filled
with the love of God.
And love wins people to the Lord.
You know what our problem is a lot
of times?
We don't love people, but we try to
tell them the truth.
And they can pick up our harshness and
say, I don't wanna know about your Jesus.
Spare me your Jesus.
You're obnoxious.
You're impolite.
You don't care about me.
You're just trying to convert me to your
religion.
Am I not right?
You know what the secret for all of
our churches are around the world, around this
country?
We gotta be baptized in the love of
God so that we are tender with people
and kind to them.
The picture there in the Greek, which I've
told you in the past, where Paul says
we were like a mother tenderly nursing her
babies when we were with you, it's a
picture of a woman pulling down her dress
and taking a newborn baby to her breast
and nursing the baby.
Paul says that's how we were when we
were with you.
Oh, shame on us pastors.
And shame on us believers that we're not
filled with more of the love of God
so that people can say, how tender you
were.
How kind you were.
How loving you were.
You know what?
I wanna be filled with more of the
love of God.
I want truth.
I want the Bible.
I wanna tell people about Jesus.
I believe in the power of prayer.
I believe in the power of the Holy
Spirit.
But notice what Paul says.
He said, you all remember how I was
when I was with you.
I was ready to give you not just
the gospel, I was ready to give you
my life as well.
Like a mother would.
Oh yeah.
You know, choir, don't you know we have
people in our church, I've met them in
the past.
They walk up to me and I haven't
seen them in years.
And they've aged like 15 years in six
years than the last time I saw them.
And I wonder why they're looking that way.
And as I'm shaking their hand, this has
happened a few times, I'm going, hi, how
are you?
And they went, Pastor, I want you to
meet somebody.
This is my son.
He just graduated.
He's the first one ever in my family
tree to graduate from college and I'm sending
him to law school now.
He's gonna be a lawyer and he loves
Jesus.
And then I notice her hands and they're
gnarly and she's been working two or three
jobs to make that happen.
Like a mother nursing her baby, that's how
I was when I was with you.
When you love your child, you're gonna do
anything for your child, am I right?
And Paul said, when I was with you,
you were like children to me.
I was ready to do anything.
No one taught him that.
You can't teach people to do that.
I'm too selfish, you can't teach me to
love like that.
It has to be something that God puts
in us.
You know what, we want to witness to
more people.
Don't we need to ask God as we
close, God, baptize me in your love.
I don't want to just talk the talk.
I want to walk the walk.
I want to show people love and compassion
and concern.
You win people by love.
Don't you know how many wounded people there
are in New York?
They've closed themselves in because they've been hurt
by so many people and they won't even
listen to us when we tell them about
Jesus at first.
You gotta sometimes win their ear by loving
them, by showing them kindness, buying them breakfast
or just something that God will lay on
your heart.
Then they'll open up and say, I can
trust you because we got a lot of
people around us who don't trust a soul.
They've been hurt.
They've been hurt and the walls are up.
And I've met them in my office, I've
met them in the street and you want
to talk to them about the Lord but
you realize, I try to get out of
here with that religion.
That'll be their reaction.
But sometimes you just gotta begin by, how
are you today?
Something I can pray about, something I can
help you with.
Well, let's ask God to fill us more
with his love today.
Shall we bow our heads?
Father God, there's no altar big enough for
all of us to come to.
Would you fill us with your love today?
Baptize us in your love.
Help us to reason from the scripture.
Help us to share the message of Christ
everywhere we go.
I thank you for all you've done in
our lives.
I ask you to forgive us for our
trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed
against us.
But God, as we study this passage, it
just stares at us that they weren't just
robots speaking a word but their hearts were
full of mercy and compassion and love.
Paul, Silas, Luke, Timothy.
Would you forgive us, Lord, for our selfishness
and our lack of concern for other people?
That we don't mind sharing a word and
a verse but then when it comes to
really loving them, Paul says, I worked hard
day and night so I wouldn't be a
burden to you.
God, would you put that in our heart,
please?
Let the testimony be when people come in
this church, not the building or a minister
or a choir but let people say, God,
please, for Christ's sake, let people say, I
felt the love of God in that place.
The people loved me.
I was greeted, I was encouraged, I was
welcomed.
Tomorrow or tonight, tomorrow, if you give us
another week, can we spread your love everywhere
we go, Lord?
Would you help me to be more than
a preacher?
Help me to be a man of love,
Lord?
A man of kindness and gentleness?
Would you help us to want to be
with people?
Some of us are loners, we isolate ourselves
and then we wonder why more people don't
respond to us when we talk to them.
Would you help the choir behind me, Lord?
Would you help us all today and baptize
us with the love of God shed abroad
in our heart by the Holy Spirit?
It can't be our love, God, because I
don't have that kind of love.
You know who I am, Lord.
But we pray in the name of Christ
that you will do a new work in
us, Lord, and make us tender, make us
sensitive, make us compassionate, not just to people
of our own race or people who are
like us, but help us to love everyone
the way you love everyone.
Help us to see people the way you
see them.
Help us to feel what you feel.
God, if I would just feel what you
feel about people, I would preach so much
better.
So God, I ask you to work in
us and soften us and give us that
spirit of Paul, which is the spirit of
Christ.
For God is love.
He that abides in love abides in God.
If anyone says he loves God and doesn't
love his neighbor, the truth is not in
him.
Save us from the delusion that we love
God and we don't care about people.
Save us from that.
Some of us have been brought up in
churches, Lord, where we were taught devotion to
you and then the people don't matter.
Save us from that, Lord.
Save us from that.
And visitors who you brought in here today,
God, who have been misguided in their concept
of Christianity, would you straighten out all of
us today and fill us with your love
and compassion that we can minister one to
another?
We pray this in Jesus' name.