This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Ignite the Light Ministries radio and podcast. It is our mission to help listeners develop a deeper relationship with Jesus by sharing what the Bible says and what it means. We aim to encourage and equip you to serve others, share the gospel, and reflect Christ in every aspect of your life. I'm Pastor Wyatt Cudd.
Thank you for tuning in.
So continuing with this series, we're mainly looking at 1 Thessalonians. Chapter 4 Starting at verse 9 and going through verse 12. 1 Thessalonians 4, 9 through 12. We're going to do a clean read-through of it and then we're going to talk about it. Starting here at verse 9.
Now about your love for one another We do not need to write to you. For you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact You do love all of God's family. throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more.
and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. You should mind your own business. and work with your hands. Just as we told you.
so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, and so that you will not be dependent. on anybody.
So we've been looking at this church as the model church. But what does the model walk look like? That's been the subject of last week and the subject of this week. Last week we talked about purity. This week Just following Paul's train of thought, we are going to be looking at four practical duties.
and how to walk with God well. It's all about practicality this week. What are some practical points to remember on my walk with God? This is a great question for us to ask because every believer should be ambitious to please God. This passage gives us four very practical ways we can do that.
So starting here at verse 9. It says now about your love for one another. We do not need to write to you. For you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other, So here's our first practical duty right here. Grow in love more and more.
We see there verse 10, we urge you brothers and sisters to do so, to love more and more.
Now, a couple weeks ago, we talked about a strong love. What does a strong love look like? And we also talked about that there are four words in the Greek for love. We have arrows. Phileo Storgay, what's the last one?
Agape. Agape, yep, agape. We talked a lot about agape in that sermon, because it's the word that Paul used for love a few verses ago. But here in verse 9, Paul says, now about your love for one another, we do not need to write to you. Here, Paul does not use the word agape.
He used the word Philadelphius. It's a parsing of phileto brotherly love. Concerning brotherly love, We do not need to write to you. Brotherly love, it's the kind that binds Brothers and sisters and family together. Family holds each other ever so dearly within their hearts, and that is this brotherly love.
It loves, it nourishes, it nurtures. one another.
Now Paul says there is no need for him to tell the Thessalonians to love each other as brothers. Why?
Well, because they have been taught by God to love each other.
Now when he says that, he says love a second time, he uses agape when he's referencing love that second time.
So we get this sense of I do not need to teach you how to perform this brotherly love, because God has taught you the godly, self-sacrificial love. And it makes sense, you know, if I'm the optimal brotherly love, optimal familial love, oh it ain't throwing rocks at each other, is it?
Well maybe, I don't know. I've kind of been to this I'm kinda new to this community. I plead ignorance on that one. Uh but optimal brotherly love, love between the family will be godly and self-sacrificial, amen? That will be at its optimum.
So, if God has taught them how to be self-sacrificial love, to do self-sacrificial love, it's not going to matter if that other person is their brother, their mother, their sister, some other mister. It's not going to matter who that person is. They will be able to love them well because they know godly, self-sacrificial love. Love. I believe that's what Paul is saying here.
So verse 10, it says, in fact, you do love all of God's family throughout Macedonia, and we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more. Thessalonians, you are loving God's family. You are loving God's family well, but I urge you to grow more and more. Do not stagnate. Keep on growing in your love.
So if the Thessalonians are loving as they should, Why is ba why is Paul bothering? Exhorting them here at all. Why bother spilling ink over this if they're doing it well?
Well, it kind of goes back to what we talked about last week about truth: that truth is truth. No matter how we line up with it, if we are in line with truth, this exhortation to love more and more is going to feel like a pat on the back. I'm doing the right thing, praise God. But if we're not in line with truth, if we're doing something we shouldn't be doing, it's going to feel convicting. Like, oh.
I'm not doing what I should. There are things that need to change that thing is likely me. Christian believers need each other, this filet of love. We need each other to make it in life. We need brotherly, familial, the camaraderie.
We need that with each other.
So think about it like this. Imagine you have a bonfire.
Now I've seen some big bonfires in my day.
Some of them, you gotta stand about 10 feet back if you're cooking a marshmallow any closer, you're burning that thing. I've seen some big bonfires. Uh but you imagine you got yourself a bonfire. All the wood is stacked up and it is burning. Right.
Well, what happens when you take the wood and you scatter it everywhere? What happens to the fire? Dwindles. It windows, yeah, it it smolders. kind of starts to smolder out.
And it's the same thing with us. It's the same thing with us believers. We have the fire of the Holy Spirit in us, and it burns bright when we gather together and we do life together. We lean on each other. The fire in you is going to ignite the fire in me.
We burn brighter together. But when we don't come to church, or if we slip out the back after service, or if we remain emotionally distanced from each other and don't do vulnerability and intimacy with our brothers and sisters, if we're distant from each other, scattered, That fire in us It's gonna feel like it's smoldering out. We need each other to make it through life, and we burn the brightest for God when we are leaning into each other's. Fire. And we will, your fire is going to ignite my fire.
Vice versa.
Now, the greatest threat to this, this leaning into each other, is going to be an internal strife and divisiveness. And nothing is going to destroy a ministry of the church quicker than Criticism, grumbling, clicks. Selfishness Ambition to have one's own way, that's going to destroy a church ministry quickly.
Now if you remember Exodus Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt into the desert. They were going on the way to the promised land.
Now, it's been a short little walk. I mean, Egypt and Israel, they're really close to each other. And God leads them with a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. God says, follow me. And they go.
In a circle. For 40 years Why? 'Cause the whole time They're complaining. Oh, like man, we have to eat this manna. If only I had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt, at least I would have been there with a pot of meat.
But you, Moses, and Aaron, you had to lead us out of slavery, didn't you? You just had to lead us out of slavery. We're hungry. We're thirsty. But this water, this water over here, that water is too bitter.
Man, Moses is taking too long up on the mountain. Let's just build our own God. We'll build our own golden calf. It'll be fine. We don't like Moses' leadership.
etc., etc., etcetera, the whole time for 40 years. It would have been a much shorter journey. God turns it into 40 years of just walking in circle, not moving forward, not progressing, not growing, not moving towards their goal. 40 years of wandering in a circle. What's the lesson in that?
Well, I think it's this. It's not that life isn't hard. Life can be very hard. There can be a need for change to happen. That can be very real.
We can have very good reason for being upset. It's not that that's not the case. It's that grumbling and complaining is is not going to help. And it ain't gonna help and God is not going to honor it.
Now we do, please don't misunderstand me, we do need to take our burdens to the Lord. It's okay to pray for change. It's okay for us to ask God for things to be different. Frankly, we should pray for this, we should bring these things to God. But I just want to warn us.
If we seriously pray for change for God, He just might ask us, well, Why are you? Why not the change be you? Why why can't you be the change? If you want to see change, why can't you be the change? If you want to see revival, well how many people did you share the gospel with this week?
If you want to see growth, how many people did you invite to church this week? If you want to see more church activities and more opportunities to do community together, well, have you considered starting a small group, gathering people together? Here's a thought. If I have Complaints. Maybe they can be And maybe they can point out to me a godly call to action.
Maybe they can. And uh that's something we should all pray about. God teaches us to love one another. Phileo. As brothers and sisters, but to do so with agape, a self-sacrificial love.
There's always need to grow. and love more and more. And that's our first practical duty to grow in love more and more.
So moving on to verse 11 here. And to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, quietly.
So, duty number two: strive earnestly to live quietly. quietly. Uh That is as close to word-for-word Greek as I can get. Strive earnestly to live quietly.
Now, what does that mean?
Well, we got to keep in mind the scenario that the Thessalonians are in. They have problems with persecution. Their neighbors, their workers, the public at large is ridiculing and harassing them for their faith and commitment to Christ.
Now, Paul is saying how they should respond to opposition.
Well, what's the right way to respond to opposition? What does Jesus teach us? You you strike at me, I strike at you back? Do we get revenge? Do we go tit for tat with the unbelieving world?
Mm yeah. No? Matthew 10, 4, Jesus tells the disciples, if you're not received well, This is true. Just a Dust the dust off your feet? Mm.
Walk on.
Now the Thessalonian church was also facing a problem of criticism and divisiveness amongst themselves regarding Paul.
Some accused him of being immoral, deceitful, self-seeking, but even this, there's this call to live quiet and peaceful life with each other, not to be critical or divisive amongst each other, but to walk with a quiet and meek spirit, seeking to please the Lord.
Now some other thoughts regarding quietness. If a fellow brother or sister is in Christ, is in pain. and they need to be heard.
Well, we can't very well hear them. If we're talking, can we? If somebody needs to be heard, two people can't both be talking to them be heard. Uh we have to be quiet and And listen. And in that way we can serve them.
Same thing with the unbelieving world. The unbelieving world is hurting, and most of them don't know why. And if we are quiet and listen, they can tell us where they heard and we can minister to them. This is a principle I teach when it comes to evangelism. Spending time with an unbeliever and just asking them questions.
What are your spiritual beliefs? And they're just listening. What do you believe about Jesus? And then just listening to them tell you what their beliefs are. Do you believe in heaven and hell?
If they're real, where do you think you would go? And then just Listen. Let them tell you what they believe. And you're showing them, I care about you. I want to know what you believe.
It's an act of service. Let me love you. And then uh Come to the end of that, we can share what the Bible. I ask, can I share what the Bible says? About these topics.
I mean, at this point, you've listened to them for maybe 30 minutes. They'll say yeah. I'd be interested to hear what the Bible says, and then boom. We got the open door to share the gospel. And it's quietness, it's active listening that's earned us the right to share the gospel.
in this scenario. I use this strategy all the time. And I've yet to have anybody at the end of it say, no, I don't want to hear, because I've demonstrated I care about them. By by listening, by being quiet. My favorite one to do it is when you're getting a haircut.
I mean, they can't go anywhere. They have to cut your hair.
So you can just ask them: what are your spiritual beliefs? Uh and uh what do you think about Jesus? They're sitting there cutting that you're cutting your hair, they can't go anywhere.
So. Try it sometime. That'll be good. And if they mess your hair cut up, that's a badge of honor. Come to church and say, I did this with my barber.
Yeah.
Well no, it's up. Strive to live earnestly and to live quietly. quietly. Uh continuing here with verse 11. It says, you should mind your own business.
I didn't say it. God said it. Verse 11. Is it on the screen there? You should mind your own business.
I didn't say it. God said it. Not my business, not your neighbor's business, your business. Go ahead and turn to your neighbor and tell them, mind your business. Not quite.
Alright, you got a neighbor on the other side too. Go ahead. Tell them, mind your business. God said, mind your business. Good.
Husbands, tell your wives, mind your business. You know, Wives, tell your husbands you're sleeping on the couch tonight. That's it.
Sorry husbands. At this point, it's not my business. I had so much fun putting this together, y'all. I was like, I gotta tell my church I'm out their business. And God said it, man, it's it's it's fun.
Uh Alright, well, can you believe God says this? Mind your business.
Well, praise God He says it, right? People can fall into the trap of. Getting in your business, being busybodies, meddling in the affairs of others. Where do people do this?
Well, I can assure you it's not without reason. People fall into this trap and it can be uh habitual.
Now maybe a person has has done this for a while and Now it's just natural.
Now that's not an excuse, it's just an explanation. And they they can fall into this trap of it being habitual. Or You know, a person is minding your business instead of their business because they're not seeing, there's a disconnect, they're not seeing where they're coming up short. Uh they think that they've minded their business long enough, now it's your turn. And this is Matthew 7:3 through 5, looking for the splinter in your eye while ignoring the bean in my own eye.
This is that right there. What's another reason that somebody might be minding your business? instead of theirs.
Well, how about this one? Their business Ain't that interesting? Don't worry. How about that one?
Well, and it's kinda your business is more interesting than theirs.
Now take that as a backwards compliment. Yeah, take that as a factor's complement. But honestly, that's a serious shortcoming of a busybody. A person should always be trying to develop and enlarge their own life and affairs to the glory of God. They ought not have time for your business.
They ought not have time because their business is sufficient. It's interesting and it's taking everything they got. If this person, if a person is all in your business, not minding their business, I would argue perhaps they have not fully committed their time to God. I believe that being a busybody, being in your business and not. theirs.
is disobedience. It's it's I have not taken my time and brought it into full submission to God. If I did that, I wouldn't have time for your business. I wouldn't have time. He would fill up my time with work That pleases God.
So that's the third practical duty here. Mind your business, verse 11. Mind your business because God said so. Continuing verse 11 through 12, Mind your business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. Work with your own hands.
Now, the practical duty, the previous one, mind your business, this one is build your business.
Now mind your business this one build your business work hard with your own hands so that you win the respect of outsiders and you're not dependent on anybody build your Business. The gospel message of Christ's return is shocking. It declares a man can live forever, that Jesus is coming back a second time and will build a new heaven and a new earth, and declares us citizens of that. That's a shocking message.
Now, maybe the Thessalonians are really excited about this. And some go a little too far with their excitement.
Well, if Jesus is returning next week, I'll just quit my job. And then I have more time to minister. If I ain't got a job, I got more time to minister. Uh it'll be a sacrificial commitment. You know, I better give away all that I have to the poor.
Right? Jesus is coming back, I don't need it. I'm going to give all that I have away.
Now you got a bunch of Christian hippies that have just throw given everything away, they're not working, and they're sponging off of other believers that haven't given this stuff up. Right? That's too far. That's too far. And I think this is what Paul is speaking to.
You must work with your own hands. Yes, this is our hope, but you must work with your own hands so that you can provide for yourself. For your family. And for others, And so that your work's going to be honest and respectable to the outside world. The first command God gives us is Genesis 1:28 to be fruitful, to multiply, to subdue and gain dominion over the earth.
Genesis 2.15 is to Be a good steward. Of the garden, to be a good steward of the world, to cultivate it, to work it, to tend the garden. Then Ephesians 4:28 is that we are to labor and produce with our own hands for ourselves. but also share with those who don't have. and who are in need.
See, it's God's expectation that we work And we work hard. to meet the necessities of life. If we do that as believers, We will lack nothing. That's because we have two remarkable things working for us. We got our own energy.
We've got our own mental faculties, and we have God ourselves, who promises to provide for us.
So work with your hands. Grow your business. It's practical duty, it's very clear. God does not have patience for laziness. All persons are placed on this earth to contribute.
Uh There's no place for inactivity. And if we grow our business, it's going to help with the previous one minding our business.
So in conclusion, What are some practical points to remember on this walk with God? It's a great question for us to ask if we're ambitiously pursuing God. These points are: grow in love more and more. We can always grow and love more. Second is to strive for quietness.
We respond to hostility with meekness and strive. to understand. Mind your business.
That's the third one. Mind your business, not your neighbors. And then build your business. Work hard at whatever you do for the glory of the Lord. Let us pray.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lord Jesus. God, I'm so thankful for all that you've done for us, Lord. We're alive, Lord. We have breath in our lungs. We're surrounded by a family, by a church family that loves us, God.
And we get to come here every day and praise your name. Oh, every week. We get to come here every week and praise your name, God. Oh, what a blessing. It is.
Hmm. Father, I ask that you be with this church congregation. with your church congregation. I ask you to be with them, Lord. I ask you to sit with them and be as close to them as if you are a tender, loving friend that they can just reach out and touch.
I ask that you be close to them, Lord. Fill them with your Holy Spirit. Fill them with your presence. And God, fill them with a sense of a purpose-filled life, of a purpose-filled direction, striving to honor you, God. I pray this over this congregation, Lord.
I ask this in Jesus' name.
Okay. Hey there. I hope this sermon has enriched your day. If you like this message, I want to personally invite you to join us for Sunday worship. We have two locations in Virginia, Trinity Methodist Church in Concord and Mount Comfort Methodist Church in Appomattox.
Come join us Sunday morning at 9.45 and we will help you get connected. As always, I'm Pastor Wyatt Cudd. Thank you for tuning in.
