Flourishing Faith and Increasing Love in Community

Paul is very thankful for the church in Thessalonica and ask some questions Sunday are you thankful for the church in Thessalonica are you thankful for your church and and I asked that question listen I'm going to acknowledge I know there are some great good solid churches in in saint mary's county and around the world i mean there are god's people everywhere and that's kind of the part of uh the gospel is we want to see the word of god expand um you know and we should be thankful for the church that we have [00:04:56]

And so I think sometimes we break fellowship too easy, and I think that usually happens when we become disgruntled. We become critical. We're disgruntled. I'll talk a little bit more about that tomorrow, probably, or that maybe Friday or Thursday, excuse me, but we need to guard our hearts against that. And Paul is saying, look, Thessalonica, you got it good. You got some good stuff going. They had issues, though. They had affliction and persecution, but he's saying, be thankful. I'm thankful for you. I'm boasting about you. [00:09:35]

And so when we look at justification by faith, and we look at, uh, you know, that righteousness we have before God, that standing before, God. And then we have, uh, faith that is the evidence of things we hope for. It's the faith that leads us to believe the things we believe. By faith, I place my faith in Jesus. So a faith that flourishes, I think, is strong in belief. Belief in Jesus. [00:12:41]

Belief in what Jesus has done. Belief in the crucifixion. Belief in the resurrection. Belief in the ascension. Belief in his return. Belief in the resurrection. Belief in the resurrection. Belief in the resurrection. So, you know, you've got that crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, his return, all those things. You know, that's pretty much obedience to the gospel. That's the gospel message, right? So that, and this church is focused on making sure that their faith in Jesus Christ in the midst of a pagan world flourishes. [00:13:09]

I have five essential things up on the wall. And the first two, if you've ever been in my office, the first two is reminding me, create a culture of grace. I've worked hard at that, you all. And I think we're getting there. What we saw Sunday is an example of grace. Grace. Will we have a church that has a culture of grace? Secondly, though, is biblical truth. Will we be biblically true? [00:14:09]

And then the last, the fifth one is unity. Will we have a unified purpose? Will we be a unified body of Christ? Imagine those things coming. That's if our faith flourishes, I believe we do those things. There's grace. There's grace. There's grace. There's grace. There's grace. There's grace. There's grace. There's truth. There's belonging. There's create a home, a sense of home family, right? We create unity. [00:15:02]

What's increasing love mean? You know, our love increasing, you know, I mean, John the Baptist used language like this, like, I must decrease so he can increase, meaning Jesus. But Paul says, I see that your love for each other is increasing. This is a very positive thing, right? Because one of the things, and it's one of our values, is to love God and love others, loving God and loving others. [00:15:53]

Now, now we need to love even our enemies and love the world. And there's levels of that. So don't, don't think I'm only compartmentalizing this, but I need to, for a moment, focus on the love that we have for each other in the church should be genuine. And it should be growing, increasing, right? It should be increasing. We love God and we love one another. So there's a horizontal and there's a vertical, there's a vertical, excuse me, and a horizontal. [00:16:41]

But when we come together and we're in community, we should be known for our love. We should genuinely care for one another and love one another. Genuinely desiring to see good things for you. Agape love. I want to love you. Selflessly. And that's hard to do. It is hard not to love. And eros, you guys, I'll be honest. It's hard not to love with a love that's like, what's in this for me, right? [00:17:30]

I can almost look at every single person that's ever left a church that I've pastored at, or I've been a part of love was absent. I can't even think back as a little boy at Harris Creek Baptist church, the issues they had love was absent. It was more of eros. What's in this for me. I think the more selfless we become, the more love can increase. And so I think an objective for you and me and me too, man, I gotta work on myself. [00:19:45]

Then that's love that what God wants for her, right? If I want that for you as the people of God, as your pastor, but also your friend, as your brother, I really want you to experience the fullness of God and, and have his love poured out in your life and have his spirit empower you and have you experience all the goodness that God has for you and to bless you. I want to love you that way. That's selfless. [00:20:34]

And then may we be thankful for the church that God has given us. So Lexington park Baptist church. I love you. I'm encouraged that our faith grows. And I am thankful to be a part of this family, even through the difficult times and the good times. And obviously the good times are better, but no matter what love requires us to work through life together and love can flourish and increase just like faith can increase and flourish. [00:21:49]