Walk Worthy of God - 1 Thessalonians 2:9-12 - Waiting Well

All right. Well, hey, welcome to Mercy Hill. I know this has been said already, but this is your first time or you're newer. We are glad that you are here. If you're newer, I'm sure that I am new to you. My name is Brian Miller, one of the pastors here. Or if you're watching this online, we are glad to be able to offer this to you.

And we hope that if you live in the area, you will come to visit one of our in-person services soon. Well, I have a question for you. How would you answer this question? Is being a Christian more about what you believe or how you behave? Certainly behavior matters, right? I mean, we've got the Ten Commandments. We've got all this moral and ethical instruction. We have Jesus himself saying, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. But then what about belief? Because you have stories like the Philippian jailer asking the apostles, what must I do to be saved? And their response was, believe in the Lord Jesus.

And you will be saved. And Jesus himself said, for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him will have everlasting life and will not perish. So is being a Christian more about what you believe or in how you behave?

I want you to wrestle with that for a little bit and think about it. You see, when it's more about behavior, being a Christian, when it's more of a behavior, it boils down to just do harder, try harder, do better, right? Because what matters when behavior is what being a Christian is all about is what you can do, your effort, your ability. But the problem with that is that in Scripture, the most important action in salvation is always God's. You know, I know it's natural for us to think that I need to try harder to earn God's love, to earn his favor so that God will be happy with me. But that is not the gospel.

The gospel is the good news that God has provided everything necessary for your salvation in Jesus Christ. And the Bible says that the promises of God are for those who do harder, try harder. No, the promises of God are for those who wait on God. To the soul who seeks him.

That's why it's serious. We're talking about waiting. We are waiting on God. Waiting is an expression of faith. We live in expectation of God to act, to move. Waiting is also an expression of dependence. We are desperate for God to do something in our life. We need God to act on our behalf and in our favor. Wait is an activity.

Waiting is anticipation, not apathy. Well, when belief is viewed as more important than behavior, God gets disconnected from everyday life. Like God may matter in the big moments of life. You know, like God may matter when you decide, okay, who should I date? Make sure it's another believer. If only belief matters, then God won't influence how you date.

Impurity just becomes optional. You know, when I decided to go into the ministry, my church, they licensed me to preach, which meant that they had assessed my life and my doctrine and they approved of my aspiration to continue as a pastor. But for most people, what that meant was that I could now perform funerals and weddings. For my family, it also meant that I was the one that had to pray before every holiday meal.

But that just reflects our culture. That God's not important. God doesn't impact everyday life. God only really shows up at the marriage altar or at the funeral. It's a reflection that our culture believes that God is for the afterlife, not for everyday life. If your belief in God doesn't impact your behavior, then he's not the God that you follow. Belief without proper behavior is not authentic belief. So is being a Christian more about what you believe or how you behave? You're smart. You guys are figuring this out already.

It's not a fair question, right? Because you can't separate the two. Our belief in Christ motivates our behavior and our behavior authenticates our belief. That's the main gist of the message. Our belief in Christ motivates our behavior and our behavior authenticates our belief. We learned this in the book of 1 Thessalonians and together as a church, we are studying this letter over the course of weeks, but you could go home and I hope that you will and you could read this letter in its entirety in about 10 minutes. And what you will find popping up over and over, it's in every single chapter, every couple of paragraphs, you see Paul talking about Christ's return, that Jesus is coming back to rule and reign forever in peace and justice.

And so that's why this series is about waiting. We are expecting God to move, to act. But Paul's greatest concern for the church is that in the meantime, while we wait, we live in a manner that honors God. To put it simply, we wait well by walking worthy of God. Walking worthy of God.

We're going to unpack that in today's message. Look with me in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 beginning in verse 9 through 12. Paul writes, For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil.

We work night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel of God. You were witnesses and God also how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers, for you know how like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. Paul's concern is that Christian behavior match up with Christian belief. And this shows up again and again in his letters to the church at Philippi. He wrote that only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel. To the church at Ephesus, he wrote that I, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling.

And to the church at Colossae, he said, I pray for you so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. I have three, my wife and I, we have three incredible boys. We love them dearly. And my wife, she is an incredible mom for boys.

She really is. But there are things about boys that she does not understand and she does not comprehend, right? Like when they decide that it's 20 degrees outside and shorts and a sweatshirt are sufficient for them. And when one of my sons is doing something like that and being stubborn about it, shivering or saying, do you want your coat? No, I don't want my coat. She looks at me and she says, he's your son, right?

What she's communicating is like, I don't understand. That doesn't match my character. That doesn't match my behavior. And what Paul is wanting the church to know is that, hey, Christians should line up with the character of God. Our behavior should match and reflect that of God. Here in 1 Thessalonians, Paul not only gives us an exhortation to behave in a godly manner, he gives us an example of godly conduct as well. Look back at verse nine, it says, for you remember, brothers, our labor and toil, we work night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel of God.

Labor and toil describe hard, strenuous work night and day. Paul exhausted himself. Now we learned from the book of Acts that Paul was a craftsman. He was skilled in the trade of making tents. And he used that skill to make a living while he proclaimed the gospel.

It reminds me of probably seven, eight years ago on one of our college campuses, we met a young college student who plugged in here at Mercy Hill, came to the gathering, jumped into a group, eventually went with us in one of our summer study projects. And he was just a sharp, sharp dude. And as he comes towards the end of his graduation, he's wrestling with, he's got this great entrepreneurial skills and this passion for business. On the other hand, he has now been exposed to the reality that there are billions of people living in our world who have no access to know who Jesus is. And he's wrestling with this tension of what should he do? Should he go and become a missionary or should he go and start a business that God has clearly gifted him to do? And his mentor here at Mercy Hill looked at him and said, you should do both.

So you know what he did? He is now the founder and CEO of a marketing company that has clients from around the world, employs multiple employees, and he's doing it from Southeast Asia in a city where millions have never heard the gospel. All that he needed to get started was an internet connection. So he looked at the skills that he had and the passions that he had and the need in the world, and he said, I'll move my life there so that they have an opportunity to hear. Now he employs several, he has several employees, and he's given them a job that they love. I mean, they have fun working with him. And he also gets to share with them the gospel on a regular basis, a gospel that they had never heard until he showed up. It's a modern day Paul.

He's a tent maker. He's doing what he does best in a place that's strategic for the gospel of God. Now it would have been totally appropriate for Paul and his ministry partners like Silas to have received food, received housing, received payment from the church there in Thessalonica. 1 Corinthians 9 says that in the same way as the priests and the Levites in the Old Testament, the Lord commanded that those who proclaimed the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

Right? Paul understood that he had every right to receive payment from the church. But Paul also understood that he was free not to receive payment, and he chose not to receive payment from the church because he did not want to add a burden to them. I think we are clued in as to maybe why in Acts chapter 17, which is the context for Paul's ministry in Thessalonica, because there the Thessalonians were under persecution. And in one case, a mob, a crowd came and they rushed the Christians and they were treating them harshly and they drug them before the authorities.

And do you know how it ended? The authorities took some money and sent them on their way. There was economic hardship that was being placed upon the Thessalonians because of their belief in Jesus. And Paul said, you know what? I am free.

I don't need to add this burden on you. It is my joy to be able to labor, to work hard if I can free a burden from your back. And so that's what he did. He was demonstrating the sacrificial character of Christ walking in a manner worthy of God. He goes on in verse 10 to say, you are witnesses and God also how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. You know, everywhere Paul went, people divided over his message, but they couldn't find fault in his manner of living. This goes back to what Pastor Andrew taught last week.

You know, the credibility, it flows from integrity. He goes on verse 11 for, you know, how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charge you to walk in a manner worthy of God. Again, Paul's love for the people of God comes through here. He didn't just leave them where they were, right? He didn't just give them a simple, here it is, take it or leave it. No, he wanted to lead them to grow in maturity. If that meant that they needed encouragement, he was going to encourage them.

If that meant that they needed a charge, he was going to give them a charge. If you're a parent, you understand this, right? You understand that parenting requires multiple tactics. Like here we are close to the beginning of the school year and kids are coming home from school and they're tired or they've been made to sit all day and they're wound up, whatever it is. And sometimes they have attitudes, right? And so my wife and I, man, it's a multifaceted strategy for how to handle that. Sometimes we're like, okay, you just need to go have a little independence, a little quiet time, let you reregulate. Sometimes it's get outside and start running laps, right?

Get that energy out. Every parent knows it takes multiple different approaches to lead your child to grow and develop in maturity. And Paul here, with the love of a father, he is looking at the Thessalonians and whatever it is that he needs to do to get the message across is what he's willing to do.

He's not just saying, I've already told you once, why can't you just behave? No, sometimes people need encouragement. Hey, you can do this. You got it. Sometimes they need comforting. I know this is hard.

I'm right there with you. Sometimes they need a firm answer of what is right and what is true. They need that clarity. And these three words in the passage, exhort, encourage and charge, they carry these different nuances. Later in the letter, Paul would write, 1 Thessalonians 5 14 says, we urge you brothers, admonish the idol, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

Love refuses to leave people where they are, but it takes wisdom to know how to lead them. So that's some of the ways that Paul demonstrated godly conduct. Now let's dive deeper into his concern. What does it mean to walk in a manner worthy of God? We've talked about it a little bit. We've seen some examples, but the simplest way that I can think to say this is that it means live your life in a way that honors God.

Live your life in a way that honors God. If you think about the word worth, worthy, right? It's a word that describes value. You ask questions like this all the time, right? You ask, is it worth it to pay a little extra to get the upgrade or the nicer model, right? You ask, is it worth it to pay someone to do the job? Is it worth it to go all that way for such a short amount of time? Sometimes you conclude, yeah, it was totally worth it, totally worth it. Sometimes you say, no, you know, it wasn't worth it at all. Or if you're Pastor Andrew, you say things like the juice ain't worth the squeeze, whatever that means, right?

Your estimation of something's worth, what you believe about its value, it determines what you do with it. I love the song Is He Worthy by Andrew Peterson. There's a line in that song that asks the question, is Jesus worthy of all blessing and honor and glory? And then the response is a resounding, he is, he is worthy. And there are many reasons that Jesus is worthy of us giving our lives to. Earlier in the letter, Paul wrote this, 1 Thessalonians 1 verses 9 and 10, he said, you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

There is not a person alive today that has not put something above God in place of God. Most of the time we put ourselves in that position and we reject God's design, we disobey his law and we refuse his love. Yet Jesus came and he stood in our place because what we deserved was wrath. And Jesus came and he died on the cross as a substitution for us. And he took the punishment that we deserved.

He took the hit, he took the blame, he took God's wrath upon himself so that we could be forgiven. That is the gospel message. And when we turn from putting other things above God and we put God first and we trust in what Jesus has done, rather than trust in our own good works, our own religious activities, then he delivers us from the wrath to come. And that is reason enough to say, Jesus, you are worthy.

But this passage gives us even more reason. Paul reminds us that God didn't just rescue us from wrath. He destined us for his kingdom and glory.

We have an incredible, brilliant future. Look again at verse 12 in chapter 2. He writes, we exhorted each one of you and encourage you and charge you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. When God speaks or when God calls, it is a creation event.

This is more than just a take or leave an invitation. This is God bringing it into being. God's kingdom, it's where he rules and where he reigns in perfect righteousness. And the beauty of all of his perfections are put onto display. And it is what Christians have to look forward to that should motivate and shape our behavior.

Our anticipation of Christ's return motivates us to honor God in all things. Last week, right up here on this stage, we announced that our next church planters going out for Mercy Hill Church are Josiah and Rachel. And they are going to plant churches among hard to reach, unreached, unengaged people in the mountains of South Asia. And it is incredible and just let me just pause and say, hey, there's an interest meeting coming up where you can find out more about what they're doing and what more of our partners are doing.

And so I encourage you on September 10th, right here at the regional campus, come 645, you don't want to miss it, it's going to be awesome. You're just coming to learn more about it, right? But they're preparing to go. And you know what they're doing right now in preparation to go? They're studying the language. They're studying the language that they are going to be, it's going to be everything for them, right? It's going to be how they shop for food. It's going to be how they communicate with people. So they're learning the language now in anticipation of their future home. And they're not the only ones, there are other couples, other singles here at Mercy Hill anticipating to move to another culture and they're doing the same thing.

They're studying language right now. Think about that and listen to what one Christian author writes. He says, the practice and habit of virtue, we could say growing in Christ's likeness, okay? The practice of growing in Christ's likeness is all about learning in advance the language of God's new world.

It's in anticipation of what's to come. He goes on to say that Christian behavior is basically doing things which bring God's wisdom and glory to birth in the world. When God calls us into his own kingdom and glory, our response is not to wait passively with an attitude of, well, I'll see it when I get there. No, we pray and we take action for God's kingdom and his will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

Christ will return and we can start practicing the language of his kingdom now. Instead of trying to steal the spotlight, instead of trying to one-up one another, we can live a life of generous love, of selfless sacrifice. We can encourage and help others to grow in Christian maturity. We can bring attention to the beauty and the majesty of God, that he is worthy of blessing, honor, and glory.

And that's what Paul wants for the church. That's why he urges us to walk in a manner worthy of God. So we've unpacked what it means to walk in a manner worthy of God. And we've seen that our belief in God's kingdom is what motivates our behavior. I want to spend the last few minutes of this message today encouraging you to live out your beliefs in God by focusing on one word in this passage. Walking.

Walking. Notice Paul, he didn't write live in a manner worthy of God. He didn't write behave in a manner worthy of God. He didn't write conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of God.

All of those would have gotten at the same idea. So why did he use walking? Well, I think primarily he used walking because it's a language that we see all across scripture. We see the language of walking with God, walking in the ways of God, walking in obedience. It's used throughout scripture, especially in the Psalms. We've kind of picked up on this in our Christian lingo today, right?

We talk about walking with the Lord or walk with Christ. So to help apply this message, let's consider what walking communicates that these other words might not. You know, during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, I learned that walking is an Olympic sport. I was surprised by that.

I was even more surprised when come to find out that it is not a new Olympic sport, but it has been an Olympic sport since 1904. Now, I wonder why does race walking, as it's technically called, not garner the attraction and the following that the 100 meter sprints or the high dive or the gymnastics all around, you know, attract? I think it's because walking is ordinary. It's common.

It's more routine. And, you know, as my family and I were watching this race walking, you know what we did? We got up and we tried it out, right? It reminded me of like when you're at the pool in the summer and after pool break, all the kids are like walking over to the diving board as fast as they can, trying to get the lifeguard not to yell at them to stop running. You know, this is a little shuffle they're doing.

And so there we are in the living room. We're all just kind of trying to shuffle around. I'm not trying to undermine the discipline that actually is involved in it, right? I'm also not trying to be insensitive to the fact that walking is a monumental feat for some people. But walking is common and it's ordinary. You know, when we were watching the high dive, we didn't dare stand on the couch and say, okay, now watch this double somersault twist from a free position.

We just knew we couldn't, right? So here's the first point of application I want to make. Godliness is demonstrated in the ordinary moments of everyday life. Godliness is demonstrated in the ordinary moments of everyday life. You know, for Paul, getting up early, staying up late, making tents was a daily demonstration of Christ's likeness, putting himself before others.

When a bride and a groom stand at an altar, it is a beautiful expression of love. It is a pledge to be faithful. But in that singular moment, they are not demonstrating faithfulness.

Faithfulness is demonstrated by staying committed day after day after day after day. So honoring God with the big decisions in life, that's important, right? Who you marry, what job you take, what school you go to, where you live, those are tremendously important to honor God in the three, four, five or six big decisions that we face in our lifetime. But what about the thousands of small, mundane, unremarkable moments of everyday life? Those are the moments that define the manner in which we live.

Paul David Tripp writes these words. He says, the character and quality of your life won't be defined by the two or three life-changing moments. No, the character and quality of your life will be defined by the 10,000 little decisions, desires, words and actions you make every day. I'd also like to suggest that the greatest impact that we will make in this lifetime often comes through the moments that come with little fanfare. Choosing to take the late-night call and listen to a hurting friend, forgoing your evening plans to connect with a teenage child, pausing to pray with someone in your community group. Those are life-changing moments. Godliness is demonstrated in the ordinary moments of everyday life.

Another observation we can make about walking is that it's steady and consistent. I recently read a story of a father and son. It was his adult son who went out hiking and this was something that they'd always wanted to do. And they look at the map and they see that the mountain that they want to get to, it's a long ways off, but they think that they can do it in a day if they, you know, if they hustle and are committed to it. So they say, let's do it.

We're going to do it. Well, the father says to the son, hey, I think that we need to just kind of walk and keep a steady pace the whole way. The son says to the dad, dad, there's no way. There's no way that if we just walk, we'll never make it.

Well, they agree to disagree and go about their own way. So the son takes off at a faster clip and gets ahead of the dad. And he's going pretty good for a while. And then he decides, well, you know what? I'm ahead. I'm going to stop and I'm going to pause. You guys know where this is going, right?

It's the torsion of the hair, right? So he paused, he rests for a little while, and then he keeps going again. And he realizes, oh, I'm more tired than I thought.

So he has to stop a little sooner. And then this time he realizes he can look back on the trail and see, well, his dad's kind of keeping up with him. He says, well, I better keep going. So he keeps on going. And then he doesn't just want to stop.

He has to stop. And by this time, his dad catches up to him, and his dad now has more energy to continue the journey, simply by walking with consistency. So the point that we can take from this is that consistency is the key to spiritual progress. Consistency is the key to spiritual progress. So whether it's anger or anxiety, lust, impatience, greed that you struggle with, and you tend to think, why do I still struggle this much?

Change can be slow. Don't give up the fight. Now, some of you are stuck, and you're stuck because you simply stopped. And so my encouragement to you is to take your next step.

That's what we try to do here at Mercy Hills. We try to create opportunities for you to take your next step, so whether that's getting into a community group, as Pastor Jason talked about, or whether, for you, it's baptism. If you are a follower of Jesus, and you have never been baptized as a believer, then baptism is your next step, and next weekend we're going to be baptizing across all of our campuses and locations. So I encourage you, get on the website, fill out the card, talk to one of the prayer leaders afterwards. Baptism is your next step to get unstuck.

Just get going. Consistency is the key to spiritual progress, so take your next step. One more observation about walking is that the way we walk communicates a lot about us.

Have you ever noticed that? I remember the first office job that I got on a church staff. There was an older gentleman.

I just, I love this man. I mean, the most gentle-spirited, generous-spirited, exuded wisdom. One day he taught me, he said, you know, everybody has a walk. I never thought about that, but it's true. And soon enough, as I'm sitting in that office, I could tell who was coming down the hall before I even saw them, because I learned the pattern of their walk.

The same is true in my household. I know which son has gotten out of bed because of the patterning on the footsteps on the floor, right? We all have a walk that shows our demeanor. I can remember in, you know, probably middle school, me and my friends trying to walk like the cool kids, you know?

Kind of getting a little swagger going on, right? We were communicating an attitude with our walk. Pastor Nico shared with me that in theater, that to get into character, you got to learn to walk like that character, right? Walking communicates our attitudes. It communicates something about us. And so the final application point is this, that our behavior flows from the attitude of our hearts. You know, we can choose to walk fast to communicate to people, I don't have time for you.

I don't want to stop. I'm important. Or we can look to a friend and say, hey, let's go for a walk.

Let's connect. Isn't it amazing that in the beginning, the way God designed us to fellowship with him, says that he walked in the garden? God wants to walk with us.

He invites fellowship with us. If we think back to Paul's behavior, the attitude of his heart exuded love for the Thessalonians. That's why he labored so hard. And it was a joy for him to be able to lift a burden off of them.

Right? It was the attitude of his heart coming out in his behavior. Our behavior flows from the attitude of our hearts. So what that means is that true and lasting change always starts in the heart. It may be clear to say that true and lasting change, it starts with a new desire. Some of you, well, let's be honest, most of you are going to forget the words that I've said here.

And that's OK. Ask me in a week and I will have forgotten a lot of the words that I've spoken here tonight. But I trust the spirit of God is moving. And that for some of you, what you will not forget is that there is a new desire that has been birthed in your heart today. That you now see God in a whole new light. That you desire his kingdom. That you desire more of his glory. God is doing a new work in your life. And so here at Mercy Hill, we want to cultivate a culture of response. There's no point in coming and listening to God's word and it not impacting us.

Right? And so I'm going to ask that everyone close your eyes and bow your head just to create a moment that is distraction free. Not trying to manipulate anybody.

Not trying to play on anyone's emotions. Just want to give you this gift to pause and reflect. And if today God is doing a new work in you, if he is stirring a new desire and affection for him, I just want to pray over you.

So if you say that that is you, that there is a new work, that you are seeing God in a totally new way, would you just lift your hand? Thank you. Thank you. I want to pray for you specifically right now. Father, you are our help and our shield. Father, you make our hearts glad. So Father, for those that you are doing a new work in right now, God I pray that you would fortify their faith. That their trust in you would be strong. And God I pray that your steadfast love, oh Lord, would be upon them even as they wait and hope for you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.