A Church Shaped by Scripture

In this episode, Brody will talk about how fear, mission, and faith intersect. It’s a reminder that the moments that unsettle us often expose where our trust truly rests.

Through 1 Thessalonians, He will share a simple guide to finding a healthy church, faith being shaped by Scripture, love lived out in service, and hope rooted in Christ’s resurrection.

Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.

Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.

Transcript

Two Questions To Frame Fear

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We'll start off with two questions, and then we're going to get into today today's episode. The first question is this what's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you? Scariest thing that you've ever been through. And the second question is, what's the most dangerous thing you've ever done? For some of you, it's going to be easy to answer those questions. You're a cancer survivor, you're a combat veteran, you're someone whose child went through a terrible tragedy. For some of you, it might even be lighthearted and funny. You know, I went skydiving or there was this roller coaster and I'm scared of heights. What's the scariest thing you've ever experienced and what's the most dangerous thing you've ever done? I want to tie that into what you're going to think this is a jump. I want to tie it into what is what is a healthy church? What is a biblical church, specifically what is a missional church, a church that is on mission to grow the kingdom, to reach the world with the gospel, to make disciples, and to do what God's called us to do as the church of Jesus Christ. I want to connect those two thoughts in this week's episode of No Sanity Required. So thanks for tuning in. Welcome to No Sanity Required.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Welcome to No Sanity Required from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, a podcast about the Bible, culture, and stories from around the globe.

Mumbai Street Tension And Gospel Risk

Counting The Cost Among Competing Gods

Why Finding A Church Can Feel Scary

Coaching A Son To Choose A Church

Preaching That Lets The Text Drive

Worship Without Flash, Voices With Depth

Underground Baptism And Costly Praise

What Healthy Churches Share Globally

Three Marks: Faith, Love, Hope

Work Of Faith: Word At Work

Missional Focus And Local To Global Reach

Persevering Through Criticism And Suffering

Labor Of Love In Everyday Community

Structures That Build Real Care

Enduring Hope In Christ’s Return

Living For The Resurrection

Personal Inventory: Are These In You

Complacency, Calling, And Courage

Low Stress, True Value, And Trust

Applying Faith, Hope, Love In Any Season

SPEAKER_01 1:23

So I I have um I've had a few experiences in my life that were scary, but the scariest experiences were the ones that were connected to the advance of the gospel. And I don't want to, I don't want to uh, you know, romanticize or idealize my role in foreign missions because I've never been a foreign missionary. I've I've been to several countries, I've spent a good bit of time in other countries and supportive missionaries and people that are doing church planting work. But there's places where to get the church established, it it's it's very dangerous. It's very difficult. And um I've been in some scary situations. I've been in a few scary situations. I'll tell you one story. Um I've told this probably before, but uh little and I had Kilby. We were in India, and we were visiting some several missionaries. Kilby was a young, young girl. She was in middle school, and she was really starting to pray about God's direction for her life and missions. Wanted to be a missionary her whole life. And so as a young child, we read her missionary stories, and she read missionary books, and um, that was just always that's always been her her heart and her call and her passion. And so I remember taking her on a trip that I've mentioned on here before, and we spent a couple weeks in India, and we were traveling through a section of Mumbai that is uh it's a Muslim area. Everybody there is Muslim, and little be known to me, and this I learned a hard lesson here, um, pay attention to what day of the year it is, because it was Muhammad's birthday. Muhammad is the the you know, the prophet, the messianic figure and prophet of the r religion of Islam. And we got into this part of town. We were in a rickshaw, we were in a motorized rickshaw, so it's just us sitting in this little rickshaw and um the and a driver, and he's trying to get us through, and there is a parade, and there are about two or three thousand young men in what my my veteran buddies, my combat veteran buddies will call man jammies, you know, wearing the white pajama outfits, the the little white skull cap and the white robe top and the white baggy britches. And I mean, we're in the middle of Islam, you know? And uh, and it was scary. They were, they were, they were loud, they were chanting things, and they saw us, and there seemed to be some attention. I mean, it was a traffic jam. We're trying to navigate through this part of the city, and these men are these young men are filled the streets. And I just told our rickshaw driver, man, I'll pay you good if you get me out of this as quick as you can, find a side street or whatever. And I remember telling, telling Little and Kilby, I said, if if something happens here and they pull us out of this rickshaw or they turn it over, they accost us or whatever, we're gonna crawl under the rickshaw if we can. And I said, Kilby, I'm gonna lay on top of you, and you just we'll all scream for help. And I'll lay on top of you so that if they're punching or hitting with clubs or knives or whatever, I'll just try to protect you the best I can. And that was a very futile thought because there's a few thousand people here, young men. I don't know that I'm gonna be able to do anything, so I need a supernatural intervention here. The Lord got us out of that situation, which is very scary. And I I remember laying in in uh in our bed, in our beds that night. We were we were in this little flat we had rented uh for a couple weeks, and it was right uh on one side was a was a mosque, and on the other side was a little Hindu temple. And I remember laying in bed that night and hearing the the call to prayer because I had jet lag, I was wide awake, and um the the early morning call to prayer, I was already wide awake and laying there, hearing that call to prayer with my 12-year-old daughter sleeping um in a cot beside me, and then um, and my wife asleep and thinking, you know, and I I don't I mean, they probably woke up under that sound of that call to prayer, but then thinking, um, man, I'm responsible for for for this woman and this child, and um, and I've got them in a pretty hostile place. And it just made me think and evaluate the cost of spreading the gospel and reaching the world with the gospel. And then later on, at first light, he started to hear the bells on the Hindu temple ring, and that's part of their worship practice. People were going in and out of this Hindu temple and they ring a bell when they go in. It's to make sure the gods are awake. And just being in a place where you've got a pantheon or a you know, a an intersection of different religions and deities, and realizing, man, I ain't in Andrews, North Carolina, I ain't in the Bible Belt, I ain't in the Midwest, I'm nowhere in America. I mean, Seattle, Washington is more Christian than that place, you know, and and so the most liberal progressive cities in America, parts of LA or Seattle or or or or Portland, it's like, yeah, but there's a gospel presence. There are churches doing good work in those places. And that was so that was one of the scariest situations I've ever been in. And it's because I wasn't scared for myself, I was scared for my daughter, you know, and very scary. Um and so we we can all tell stories like that, but the reason I bring that story up is because I want to talk in this episode about what a healthy missional biblical church looks like. You know, a while back we did an episode where we talked about folks heading off to college and and what that, you know, what that looks like to find a good church and what's the difference between uh the role a church plays in your life and the role of a campus ministry and how do you look for a church? And I have this conversation a lot. I recently had it with my son Tucker, who had transferred, he had to transfer portal, he left Virginia Tech, he ended up at another at another uh in another program um and uh and and made a big move. And when he got to the town, he he he's at FAU, Florida Atlantic University. Um, so he left an ACC school, went to an American conference school, and it's pretty far from home. So we're getting, you know, when he was at Virginia Tech, I could we we would visit him a lot. We go to all the home games, the road games were is an ACC. If you're a sports person, um that designation, you know, it's it's regional, so we could go to all of his games pretty easy. Well, now he's in the American Conference, so that conference is like Army, which is West Point, which is in New York, Navy, which is the Naval Academy, which is uh Annapolis, Maryland, um, University of North Texas, which is Dallas, just north of Dallas, um, Tulane, which is uh New Orleans, you know. The closest game he plays is East Carolina University, which is between seven and eight hours from here. And so there's it's like, man, and then where he's based out of is uh 12 hours from here. He plays at University of South Florida, which is in Tampa. He'll play at the University of Florida in Gainesville, it's eight hours. There's no what I'm getting at is um Kilby's on the other side of the world, but my son Tucker is now kind of out of out of any kind of convenient reach. Now he's a grown man, but I want him to plug in, you know, he one of the conversations we had when we made the move is how do you plug into a church knowing that you're gonna be making those huge road trips for football games in the fall? You're gonna be flying to New York and Annapolis and Dallas and New Orleans, and so you're gonna miss a lot of Sundays, bottom line. Um, or you're gonna get in late, late, late Saturday night and you need to get somewhere close for a worship on Sunday because it's important to be with God's people in God's house on Sunday morning, just worshiping together. But you got to find something close, and that really narrows it down. You know, if you can if you can travel 45 minutes, you can find a solid church, most of us. But what about if you need to be somewhere within 10 minutes? And so that started the search, and I have this conversation a lot with college-bound high school seniors or people leaving our institute and heading off to college. Like, how are you gonna find a good church? So today's episode is kind of driven by um a converse, this a conversation I recently had with Tucker and a conversation I recently had with a high school senior in our youth group at church. And one of the scariest things, so I'd ask that question, what's the scariest thing you've ever been through and what's the most dangerous thing? One of the scariest things can be, and I don't know that scary is the right word, maybe one of the most intimidating things is when you've grown up in a solid church or you've been a part of a good church and you make your, you know, a career move. Finding a good church and plugging into it, that's very intimidating. It's hard sometimes to find a really faithful church that you feel at home at. And so I want to talk a little bit about what healthy churches look like, even in a place that's hostile to the gospel. You know, parts of the Horn of Africa or Iran, or, you know, there's stories of the church just exploding in Iran right now. And churches that tend to grow have certain characteristics. And one of those characteristics is they're not afraid of persecution or they're enduring persecution. But then churches that grow are also faithful in the way they handle the word of God. Um, churches that grow in terms of maturity. Now, numeric growth might be attained by being flashy or whatever. But I had so back to my conversation with Tuck. So he's getting in this new place and he's like, I gotta find a church, and he visited two or three churches, and he's like, ah man, that guy doesn't really preach the word. He, you know, he's just kind of fluffy, and then, you know, one guy was like, I don't know if y'all know this term is from 20 years ago, but he's like metrosexual. And he's like, is this dude gay? Is this dude a dude? Is he, you know, and it's like he mentions his wife and kids, and you're like, okay, well, he's married and got a got kids, but it feels, feels off, and it's like, yeah, this guy's he's not a dude. You know what I mean? He's not a dude that dudes look to. Like, like I'm not gonna bring my blue-collared buddies to this church, and they feel like, yeah, this is a guy I can listen to. You know, dude's got a real tight shirt on with all of his bling showing and bracelets and rings and knuckle tattoos and bleach-tipped hair, and you know, just like, okay, what are we doing on stage here? Are we trying to get seen? Are we trying to get attention? But then more importantly, when he opens the word, Tuck said, Man, I sat there and uh waited for the guy to let the text drive and and and and bring out the point of the message, and it never did. He just kind of danced around and told stories. And so it was it was cool hearing my young adult son say, Man, I I need to find a church that just preaches the word. And I said, Let's find a church where the pastor is a dude. He's a he's he's he's not effeminate, he's not a sissy, he's not soft, but yet he's soft in the sense that, you know, we we use that terminology, he's like a velvet-covered brick. Godly biblical masculinity is gonna be uh strong and firm on the inside, but but gentle and compassionate in the way that uh you see people. And so somebody that's caring and compassionate, but that's strong and resolved and has a backbone and is is definitively masculine. I'm like, you need a church like that. If you're gonna try to bring teammates to church, it needs to be, they need to be under strong, strong masculine leadership. And so having this conversation with Tuck, and when I to be clear, when I talk about masculinity or masculine leadership, I'm not talking about does he drive a truck, does he go hunting? Does he bench press? Does it was, you know, I'm talking about like biblically masculine characteristics. You know, scripture gives us the characteristics of godly manhood. Um a love for the Lord, a love for people, you know, that 1 Corinthians 16, 13 verse says, uh, be strong, act like men, let everything that you do be done in love. So there's strength, but there's love. There's there's a hardness, but there's also a gentleness. There's this blend of characteristics, and that's what you're looking for in leadership. And I don't want to, you know, I don't want a pastor that's domineering and legalistic and manipulative and controlling and mean-spirited, but I also don't want don't want one that's scared to speak the truth. And so we're having this conversation, and I said, man, let's find a let's find a church where pastor's either out of the blue-collar world or a combat veteran. You know, I got one of my favorite churches in America right now, is church 8025 in Thornton, Colorado, right outside right outside of Denver. The pastor's a friend of mine on the board of directors at Snowbird, and he's a combat veteran, and he planted a church out there, and they're they're shout out to those guys. They listen to NSR, but man, they're they're doing good work. They're doing the Lord's work out there, and they're seeing people come to faith in Jesus. And and they're in the they're in the in the like throes of spiritual warfare in a in a place that needs Jesus. And I want a pastor like that, a dude that is bold and unashamed of the gospel and will will exposite the word of God and not make excuses, and but at the same time, he's not heavy-handed and domineering. He cares about, you know, he cares about the people in his congregation to the point that he's gentle where he needs to be. So we're having this conversation, we find a church, Tuck goes to it two Sundays in a row. He's like, Man, it's so solid. The T he said, I've I just filled, I filled my journal up with pages of notes. Guy just let the text drive the sermon and he walked through it. You know, he said it's like being at home. And um and he said, he said something was interesting. He said, man, he said, when they when they worship, they just play a piano, but the people sing so loud and they sing hymns. And it's interesting because Tuck grew up, you know, at Snowbird where we got a band playing, and our band's not super our, you know, one of the characteristics of our worship services at Snowbird is that we're not flashy. It's not, we don't use smoke and lights. Um it's it's not uh it's not synthesized or produced music. It's uh it's a few instruments and and we focus on voices, you know, being raised to the Lord. And but at the same time, there's drums, there's electric guitar, there's a bass, you know, there's keyboard, there's there's there's different stuff going on there. And so Tuck has always appreciated music, and he's grown up in a house where there's a lot of music, and Little, my wife, you know, plays a lot of music, and um, and so it was interesting. I I had I had actually literally prayed that he would start to have an appreciation for depth of worship. And so hearing him say that was really cool. And what he what he highlighted was it's just a piano, but the voices were being lifted. It was so loud the way the people sung in that church, and they sung biblical truth in these hymns. And I was like, thank you, Lord. He's recognizing things that really matter in the local church. And and so that took me to back to the story in India. My my thoughts are kind of all over the place this week, so bear with me as I kind of hash these out. But it took me back to the place in India where on that same trip, we participated in an underground kind of hidden baptism service where these new believers were baptized. It was illegal. Proselytizing as a Christian was illegal in that area, and so it had been kind of a secretive baptism service, and then listening to them sing, they sung the song God is so good. God is so good, God is so good, God is so good to me. He answers prayers, he answers prayers. You know, it's like this simple and there's no music, and they're standing around singing, and uh, they're singing it in in a different language. I think probably Hindi, and it was like uh I just remember the main line was Yeshua Hache. Yeshua Hache. They kept saying that, and but I knew from the tune they were singing, God is so good. I'm assuming Yeshua is Jesus. Um, Jesus is good. But they're just singing, and there's about a dozen people, and five of them just got baptized, and they're just worshiping the Lord together in this kind of secret prayer and worship service. And they had to go out into the ocean into the beach to do the baptism, which put them in, you know, exposed them to potential persecution. So just a lot flying around in my head about, you know, I'm steering my son as he's praying about landing at a church. And then, oh, and then I had a conversation with uh another uh high school senior here in our church who's headed off to a town in North Carolina, and she said, Hey, I need a church to go to that's close to my campus. So I recommended a church and and was sharing with her why I would recommend that church. And at the center of it, it's hey, they teach the word, um, they they're they're faithful to the gospel, and they want to see people come to know Jesus and then be discipled. And so when, you know, from time to time we come back to this conversation on NSR, but what a biblical church looks like. What I wanted to do is give you some characteristics of a biblical church based on our what what we're learning in the in the study of 1 Thessalonians at Red Oak Church right now. And those characteristics come in Paul's opening comments to the church at Thessalonica. And what I want you to think of this, maybe not just this is for some of you, this is you're you're looking for a new church. But for a lot of our listeners, I think this is more, hey, let's make sure this is who we are as the local church and what we're doing as the local church. So the majority of our listeners, you're already plugged into a local church. And I think it's important that that we, as members of the local church, whether you're a pastor, elder, deacon, or just a lay person who attends and gets involved where you can, that these three characteristics are what we're driving in our church. We need these three characteristics in the local church. Um so let me let me let me read a couple verses from 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Now, as we get into this, I won't what I want to do is is kind of talk about how these characteristics are more important than even music style, um teaching style, physical presentation of the church or the pastor. Like these are the things that matter the most. And the reason I say that is I've been in churches in the third world where I mean everybody's dressed pretty rough, you know. And then I've been in churches like Red Oak where people wear t-shirts and jeans. And I've been in churches where it's kind of expected. I spoke in a church last year, really close friends and brothers, and I love those folks. And I was asked to wear a jacket, you know, a sport coat when I spoke there. And that's fine. Like it doesn't really matter. A lot of that's just preferential, and it and it shouldn't, I don't, I don't, I don't like using those types of things to measure if a church is a good church or not. Doesn't matter. What matters is these three characteristics. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 2, Paul says, We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. Now, when you look through the book of 1 Thessalonians, like if you look through the whole letter, and really you could you could continue this into the second letter of 1 Thessalonians. Um and when Paul says, I thank God for you, I I th I can think of a few things that he thanks God for in response to or in in reference to the the church there in Thessalonica. The first thing he thanks God for their response to the gospel. He's he's grateful for their response to the gospel. Um, and you see that in chapter 2, verse 13. He says, Therefore we never stop thinking God that when you received his message from us, you didn't think of our words as mere human ideas. So a healthy biblical church is always responsive to responding to the gospel. They're a church that was is rooted in gospel response and reflection. This this sounds so simple. If you're part of a gospel centered church, this sounds so simple, but y'all, there are churches that are not, this is not how they're rooted. There's a lot of churches in America that are rooted in social activism or um some you know, meditative practices or some ideological. Yeah, listen, the most important thing you can say about a church is that we are we are a gospel planted church. We are our root system is in the gospel. And whether that's from 200 years ago or it's a church that started 200 years ago and got replanted or re you know, whatever they call it, where they re kind of restart a church and rejuvenate a church ten years ago, or it's a church that just started, whatever. Gospel-centeredness, gospel-driven churches are first and foremost churches that have responded to the gospel. And that means the members, the people in that church have responded to the gospel and then are continuing to respond to the gospel. So Paul thanks the Lord that this church is a church that's responded to the gospel. And then he specifically thanks the Lord for this. Listen, as we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your, here's the three characteristics. We think of your faithful work, loving deeds, and enduring hope. Now I'm reading out of the NLT. Y'all know I'm a I love that translation, but let me just read, let me read this out of the ESV for you. One second. Pull a Bible off the shelf and look this up. So NLT says, faithful work, loving deeds, enduring hope. Okay, think about this. Do you notice faith, hope, and love? These are spiritual, these are characteristics of the Holy Spirit, like fruits of the Spirit or love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. But in in a Christ-filled, gospel-filled community, faith, hope, and love are always going to be on display. And I love that he says, faithful work, loving deeds, enduring hope. So you've got faith, love, and hope. The ESV says it this way remembering before our God and Father your work of faith, your labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. So I love that. So there it is. Godly, biblical, healthy churches are going to be churches that are faithful, and that there's going to be an outworking of that faith. So a church is going to a church that is healthy and on mission and contributing to the Great Commission is going to be a church where the faith drives the work of the church. The people are truly gospel planted, gospel saturated, and that's going to motivate gospel proclamation and gospel-driven ministry. So faithful work, super simple. Work of faith. The work of faith. Faith is not dead. Faith without works is dead. But real faith is not dead. It's going to, it's going to be driving the work of the church. And then the second thing he says is loving deeds, or in the ESV, labor of love. So the labor, that work is loving. So it's faithful work because of our faith, because of our response to the gospel. We're doing the work. But then that work that we're doing is motivated by love. And this is what missions looks like. We proclaim the gospel, we support missionaries, we plant churches, we partner with other people around the world because we have a love for humanity. We love people and want them to know Jesus. We love people in the church and want to support the work they're doing. We love the lost because they they need Jesus and we want to give them Jesus. And so there's the the labor of the church is a labor of love. I love what Paul says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15, 58. He says, Um, my brothers, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. A labor that is driven by love for Jesus and love for others and it motivates our work, uh, that labor is it's not um it's steadfast, always abounding in the work of the Lord. It's always abounding. It's not in vain. It's not, it's not in vain, it's not pointless, it's not useless. And I think this is important when uh, you know, you're struggling to see growth and you're not seeing folks really respond to the gospel. And there's a lot of missionaries that get discouraged because they don't see a lot of fruit, but your labor in the Lord is not in vain. And so the labor of love and then steadfastness of hope. Steadfastness of hope is important because um our hope is a hope that endures, and we're gonna get into why. So I want to break down these three characteristics. So consider faithful work. This is work that's being done in the church at Thessalonica that's being driven by the Word of God at work in the individual lives of the believers. So this is an important characteristic. Listen, at your church and in your personal life as a church member, you want to be a faithful church member. So whether you're choosing a church, you're you're you're looking for a church, you're in a new town, you're headed off to school, you've you've landed in a new place, you got a job transfer. You want a church that is faithful in their work and that out of their faith work is being done. So a church that's working, not just that's busy. A lot of churches are busy. I know of a church that, I mean, they're constantly doing stuff, but I don't know that it's it's the work of the gospel. You know, it's activities-based. So and there's a place for that, but there the work, the labor of the of the church is a work that is an outworking of faith. And listen to what Paul says in First Thessalonians 2 14, just a few verses later, he kind of gives us some he sheds some light on this. He says, Um, I'm sorry, verse 13. Uh so in that same verse that we mentioned earlier, where he thanks God that they received the message of the gospel, he says, You accepted what we said as the very word of God, which of course it is. And listen to this, and this word continues to work in you who believe. Continues to work in you who believe. That's in the NLT. In the ESV, he says, uh, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. So the word of God is at work in the lives of believers. First Thessalonians 2.13. So faithful work in the church is driven by an actively engaging relationship between the individual believers and the word of God, and the centrality of the preaching of the word of God in the worship service. So nothing's more important than the work of the word in the life of the church corporately and in the life of the church as believers. That's important. Second thing, when we think of the faithful work, the labor of faith, the work of faith is what Paul's talking about in this church, is that the work is missional. It's missional. It's all about gospel proclamation and making disciples. Healthy churches are proclaiming the gospel and they're trying to win, win lost souls for the gospel, or trying to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that the church at Thessalonica had deeply influenced the area around it. Paul even mentions it. He makes reference to the churches, he he calls it the churches in Macedonia, which would have been the church at Thessalonica, the church at Berea, the church at Achaean, I can't pronounce that word, but there's there's three city churches that he refers to, regional churches, and this is one of them. And he says to the Corinthians, man, they're proclaiming the gospel, they're reaching people, they're reaching the lost, they're baptizing people, they're making disciples, they're they're they're training people up. The work is missional, and it's all about gospel proclamation. And then here's another characteristic of the labor or the work of faith, the work of faith, the outworking of the faith in this in this church. The work brought suffering and persecution. In 1 Thessalonians 6 and 7, he says, Man, you guys, y'all heard the word, you received it in much affliction, and you got you got persecuted for it. You've suffered. And in your suffering, you've become an example to others, which gets us to the third, um, the third character characteristic or fourth characteristic of the faithful work of the church at Thessalonica. Their work has been heard about throughout that region and even throughout the world. Healthy churches are willing to endure persecution. They're willing to do things that might not be popular. I'll tell you this: a church in a in an area like Iran or North Korea, that might bring legitimate physical persecution. But in but in a place like Andrews, North Carolina, if you proclaim certain biblical doctrine, you get criticized for it. Now, that's not persecution, and I don't dare want to compare it to the suffering of the persecuted church. But if you're gonna take a stand on biblical truth and doctrinal faithfulness, you're gonna get ridiculed. We teach the doctrines of grace at Red Oak Church and at Snowbird Outfitters. We believe that God is sovereign in saving people, that people are dead in their trespasses and sin, and that God um God brings the dead to life through the work of regeneration and salvation and and redemption, and and that when he brings someone to faith, it is it is driven by the sovereignty of God, the move of God, the Holy Spirit to awaken the dead. And and then we teach that people have a responsibility to respond to that and and to trust in the Lord and to put their faith in Jesus and to confess that he's Lord. And sometimes when you teach something like that, you're gonna be criticized. Uh, we get criticized by some churches because we don't dress a certain way or use the King James Version of the Bible or in our worship service or whatever. That's not persecution, that's more like criticism. Healthy churches, biblical churches, are gonna get criticized. Biblical churches in in hostile regions are gonna get persecuted. All of this is part of what was going on at the church at Thessalonica. And so he said, Man, because of your faithfulness and and and the work of your faith, it's been heard throughout the entire region, that whole part of the world, hundreds of miles away, within just a few weeks and months, the church, the work of this church was already being talked about, and it was inspiring the work in other churches. And they immediately then started sending out missionaries, sending out people to to go help with other church plants. We see it in the book of Acts in Acts 17 and 18. So that's what that's a healthy church, is a church that has a that there's a work of faith. And you could go on into local ministry, you could break that down. I'm not gonna do that here, but you should uh I think a healthy church is gonna be working in their community, they're gonna be reaching into a bigger circle outside of their immediate community, and then they're gonna be connected to the work that's going on to the ends of the earth. And so uh the the mission of the church is both local and global. I'd say it that way. The second thing he says uh that he thanks the Lord for and he remembers in this church at Thessalonica is their labor of love, or in the NLT, their loving deeds. I want to give you two quotes, one from Gordon Fee and one from Leon Morris. This comes out of their um commentaries on 1 Thessalonians. We think of loving deeds. In Fee's theological framework, the Thessalonians' work and their especially their labor of love include tangible Christian service, serving others, supporting one another, supporting one another in persecution, and living out the gospel demands in daily life. And then Leon Morris says this what says it this way: their labor of love is not simply emotional affection, but self-giving, preserving service to God and neighbor, the kind of love that sustains in the face of hardship and manifests in concrete deeds. So what both those commentators are saying, and what I would echo is that loving deeds or um the labor of love in the local church, let's use that phrase loving deeds. A healthy biblical church is going to be a church where the people love each other, they encourage one another, they're transparent with one another, they're engaging in one another's lives. This is where it's important that you not just have a corporate worship service each week, but that you have a community component, whether that's what some churches would call discipleship groups or life groups or community groups, whatever your your verbiage is, where you meet in smaller groups throughout the week or on Sundays. The more traditional model would be Sunday school, where you're part of a Sunday school group or class where you're meeting in a smaller setting. So maybe there's several hundred people in the Sunday worship service. That small group structure allows you to meet in a smaller group of people and really cultivate and build relationships. And then we're we're encouraging one another. I think in our church, one of the things that I love is the community component. You know, I've talked before about people providing meals when someone's sick or when the new baby comes along. It's not just let's have a baby shower, which is awesome, and we do that, but it's let's get a meal train going. And for the first couple of weeks that mom and baby are home, let's make sure we're putting hot food on their table every night for the family. And and uh, and then we've got an incredible network of support for fostering and adopting. And our church is very active in the foster and adoption community. Um if you're a kid at our church who was adopted or is in foster care, you're you're you like I wouldn't say you're not in the minority. I would just say you're you're one of many in a whole community of it's a it's a culture, it's a community of that. That's one aspect of it. Helping each other when when somebody's sick or when when work needs doing. I I remember um a guy years ago, um, a local farmer, and a bunch of us went and put up his hay, cut and put up his hay because he got sick right during hay season and he was down. Like he was in the hospital, then he was in bed. He since has gone on to be with the Lord. Um but he recovered from that illness and and lived another probably decade of good life. And I remember uh he was so moved by the you know, just the warmth of everyone coming together to bring in his hay so that he could feed his cows that winter. Just that that community aspect that sometimes you see this even outside of the church, don't you? You see it just in the community. It's goodwill, it's human nature and goodwill towards others. But in the church, that should be magnified. And so the labor of love or the loving deeds of the church is just how we simply just serve one another, give of ourselves to our neighbor, persevering service to God and neighbor. Some people might use the phrase, we're the hands and feet of Jesus. That's what a missional biblical church does. And then the last one, um 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 3, he says, uh, so he says, work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope or enduring hope. So a biblical church is a church that has a hope that is steadfast and enduring. Now, in the context, again of the Thessalonian church, it was enduring or steadfast because they were being persecuted. But for us, if you jump over in 1 Thessalonians to chapter 4, verses 13 through 18, listen to what he says. Our hope is in the resurrection. A couple of things: the return and reign of Christ and the resurrection of the believer. Let me just let me read this for you. This is a lengthy passage, but then we'll be done. Uh, this is entitled this section, The Hope of the Resurrection. The hope of the resurrection. Yeah. So 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13. So now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died, so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord, who are still living. We who are still living, when the Lord returns, will not meet him ahead of those who have died, for the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words. Why do we have an enduring hope? These things in these passages right here. The hope of the resurrection and encouragement given in that church in Thessalonica as a result of that hope. It said, Hey, some of y'all are being killed for your faith. We're not only being persecuted, people are being put to death. But but the hope is when you die, you will be raised. The hope of the resurrection is the hope of the believer. And then not only is there going to be a resurrection, but there's going to be a return and a reign of Christ. So we hope in the return of Jesus that one day he's going to return. Y'all know for thousands of years people didn't believe that Jesus, you know, they were like, is the Messiah really going to come? Is he really going to come? And then he did. And now in less time, only 2,000 years since the first coming of Christ, and now we await the second coming of Christ. We don't know when it's going to be, but we know it's going to happen. And it may not be in our lifetimes, but we know it's going to happen. Well, if it's not in our lifetimes, we're still going to take part in it because our resurrection will coincide with the return of Christ. There'll be a series of events where we will be raised. So there's hope in the resurrection. There's hope in the return of Christ, and then there's hope in the reign of Christ because he said there he's going to establish a kingdom where we will reign with him, we'll be with him forever and ever. Then we will be with the Lord forever and ever. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. So the hope leads to encouragement. That's what a healthy church does. We're on mission because we know that Jesus is coming back. To sum up enduring hope in a church where the church works knowing that there is an eternal prize that waits, and that Jesus is going to return, and he's going to usher in his heavenly kingdom. He's going to judge the living and the dead. And we're going to we're going to recognize that the souls of men are at stake. And that's going to go back up to the previous two points, which is we're going to work faithfully, a labor of love, the deeds of our work are going to be that we're going to proclaim the gospel to reach people with the gospel of Jesus. Very important to recognize these three characteristics and to strive for these in my life personally. And I think this starts with not just being not just finding a church that produces and provides these things. That doesn't exist. A church that's made up of believers who individually exhibit and possess and display these things and act out these three characteristics. So are you, the question then becomes, as a Christian, are you working out your faith as a as a person who has trusted the gospel? Is the work of the word ongoing in your life? So is the word of God at work in your life? And is the outworking of the word of God at work in your life and the outworking of the gospel in your life that you're you're doing the work of the church? You're you're sharing the gospel, you're proclaiming it, you're sharing it with people. And then that leads to are you loving your neighbor or loving deeds at work in your life? Are you are you outward focused? It's not first and foremost about me, it's about others, it's about God, it's about people around me, and so my deeds are loving. And then what is my hope? Is my hope in my 401k? Is my hope in, well, I just sold this asset and this asset, and I have a combined$800,000 and I need to get to a million so then I can retire at 65, and that combined with my social security or you know, or my other investments, whatever. Like, what are you hoping in? I'm not saying those things are bad. Those things are good. Those things are biblical. I'm like, invest money for the later years of life, you know? That's that's a good thing. But that's not where your hope lies. Your hope shouldn't lie in the material things of this world. It should lie in the fact that I might die pretty poor in the world's eyes. But my hope is in my inheritance that I'll experience in the resurrection. So let that motivate you. That's what that's what godly people do. That's how godly people live. Faith, hope, and love. In this conversation, uh, faith that leads to works, love that leads to works, and hope that leads to works. I'm gonna work, I'm gonna endure, I'm gonna, I'm gonna labor, and that's what a healthy church does. Now, back to the first thing we said, which was what's the scariest thing, what's the most dangerous thing? For some Christians, the most dangerous thing is following Jesus. It's more dangerous than going into a combat zone or um jumping out of an airplane or, you know, whatever. For other Christians, we don't face that, and so the most dangerous thing for us might be because we don't face that, we become so complacent that these three characteristics are no longer the markers of our life, the marks and distinctions and distinctives of our life. That's dangerous to get to that place of complacency. Um, and so a little persecution, a little squeezing, a little suffering, a little hardship, it tends to realign and refocus us in these three areas of faith, hope, and love. And then I said, What's the scariest thing you've ever done? And for some of you, it might be, hey, it's time to find a new church, or it's time to uh or or we're making a move and and we're scared and it's and it's nerve wracking because we've we've grown um comfortable in a healthy way. We've we're we're comfortable where we're at because we have healthy relationships. We're plugged into our church and we got to go start over. That's scary. Just know this wherever you go, you can be a man or a woman who exhibits faith, hope, and love. Faith that leads to works, love that leads to deeds, hope that leads to an enduring life that's focused on the resurrection and the return of Christ. That we're we're laboring for an eternal prize and inheritance. Um, I hope that that motivates you this week, encourages you. Whatever you're doing this week, you're commuting an hour to work every day and an hour back, and and and you're in the grind and the rat race and life is stressful, or you work right down the road from where you live and your job's not stressful. I got a I've got a cousin who's a really good friend of mine. I say that because he's my cousin, but he's my friend. He's my buddy. I I love him and he's more like a brother. He lived with us a good bit. He listened to NSR. Shout out to Paco. But we were hanging out uh at a ball game the other night. Um both our daughters, it was pretty cool. This is pretty cool. Both our daughters, who are cousins, obviously, um, but go to different schools, they both made it to the final four in st in the state basketball playoff. So my daughter Juju was playing for Andrews High School in the 1A Final Four, and they lost, unfortunately. Um, but then um then uh my cousin Scout, or my cousin's daughter Scout, she was playing uh in the four A Final Four, and my brother is the coach on that team, and we're gonna have my brother and Paco on NSR uh hopefully in the next month, now that basketball season's over. That was the goal is to get through basketball season. But anyway, um we're gonna talk about the early days of Snowbird, and then I'm gonna have an episode with my brother where we talk about uh have have a conversation about my dad from his perspective. But anyway, so we're hanging out with Paco at the ballgame the other night. We get in the car to leave, and somebody else that was in the group said, man, Paco just don't age. And he doesn't. He the the dude, the dude looks the same as he looked 15 years ago. And I'm like, a little bit jealous, not gonna, not gonna lie. But he's he's serious about his health and and uh and he works hard at um not just staying in shape and physically fit, but he eats right and he sleeps right. But I was thinking about this, and I he might correct me on this, I don't think I'm wrong though, but he has a low stress job now. He's now he there was a time where his job was very stressful, and he made some life choices that put him, he's a he's an elementary school PE teacher. And I just we have some interactions surrounding his job where he tells some hysterical stories about things kids will say and do. And I just some days I'm like, man, he's got a cool job. He's teaching, you know, these little kids physical, physical fitness, physical education, and it's so fun. And he, and and you can kind of see he's a dude that doesn't carry a lot of stress. And part of it's because of his faith and his trust in the Lord, but then part of it's because he's made career choices that maybe meant he took a step back or uh what some people might have seen as a step in the wrong direction. You know, he had climbed up to a pretty high level in the education system, and man, it got so stressful. He went through a very stressful season and faced some some real ridicule and criticism, and he's like, I'm not it's not worth it, man. And he he he took a move, and now he just seems to be so stress-free. And as a believer, I think there's something powerful about that. Like you, you our value system is not the world's value system. You don't have to stress. Uh he's a dude that just doesn't seem to stress over, you know, like he keeps up with current events. Yeah, what's going on in the world? Yeah, it's crazy. What's going on in Iran right now is crazy. What's going on in local politics might be crazy. What's going on in our family might there might be some stressful relationships. But at the end of the day, I love the Lord. He's got my future planned. I'm going to live as as low stress of a life as I can possibly live. And for a lot of us, if we would take these three characteristics and just press into them, faith, hope, and love, and quit worrying about the things that, you know, the writer of Hebrews says, don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. I I would encourage you this week, you know, back to what I was saying, some of you got an hour-long commute to a high stress job. My cousin Paco, he goes right down the road and teaches PE at an elementary school, and it's a low stress job. But all of us, if we're not careful, we would, which by the way, low stress, but very fulfilling. It's a cool job. That's the point I'm making. But some of you have a high stress job, but it's equally fulfilling. You know, I talked to a guy who was a uh recently who was a 30-year Blackhawk uh pilot. And I'm like, dude, was there some stressful days? He's like, oh yeah, there's some stressful stuff. When we were doing the withdrawal from Afghanistan, it was pretty intense. There are seasons of stress, seasons of low stress, but for the believer, these three characteristics can be applied to all three of uh to any season of life. No matter what, faith, hope, and love can abide and drive the life of the believer. And if that's happening, a church where the the collective in that church, the members of that church are doing these three things, that's gonna be a church where these three characteristics are on display. That's what Paul is saying about the Thessalonian church, and I love it. Hopefully that motivates you this week, gives you some encouragement. And uh, my plan right now is to drop a second episode this week. We've got so much content that we're wanting to put together right now. We're working tirelessly. Josiah, Carter, um, the guys that work behind the scenes, JB's gone right now, so Josiah's editing and posting this one this week, and um appreciate his hard work. And uh, we'll get him on here sometime so you guys can meet him. But Carter, Josiah, two guys that are doing a phenomenal job. And um, I'm thankful for our team, thankful for Austin Scott, who oversees the entire media and production team, and um the Lord's blessing this, and I hope this is an encouragement to you. So we're gonna try to start putting out some weeks we've tried to put out more than one episode recently, and we're gonna continue to try to do that. Get a little bit more frequency of content, and uh, hopefully that'll be an encouragement to you. Um hope the Lord blesses you this week. Spend some time in the word every day. Um, remember the church at Thessalonica, it was the work of the word that was developing and growing those believers in these three areas. And the work of the word will do the same in your life if you'll submit to it. Praise the Lord for his goodness, and I hope you guys have an awesome week. We'll see you hopefully, Lord willing, in a few days. Pray for JB. We'll let you know uh when she's back and how her trip went, and we'll give you in the future a little more detail on that. See you next time.

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