As you are, turn back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. We'll just read the first verse. We won't read the whole section, all 12 verses again, but we'll read just the first verse. For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain." Let's pray once more and ask God's blessing. Our Father, it is a great joy to have the Word of God before us, to know that You, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, have spoken to us, have given to us Your will and knowledge of You through the Scriptures. And to handle the Scriptures is a very serious thing. To hear the Scriptures opened in our midst is a very serious thing. You will indeed hold us accountable for the truth of Your Word. And I pray that You would indeed give us a right understanding of Your Word this morning. And that You would give us the grace to be obedient to it. and that You would give us a desire to please You in all things, that our whole life and all that we are would be one big act of worshiping and honoring and glorifying and crowning the Lord Jesus Christ. In His name we pray, amen. Well, here in this passage we've been away from First Thessalonians for a little while, but here in this passage, we have an account of Paul's ministry among the Thessalonians. We've been looking at this book to see what a healthy church is, and he's spent the entire first chapter commending them for what was good and what was right in the midst of that church and the way they had functioned as a church. And now we come to what in my Bible is heading Paul's conduct or Paul's ministry among them. And it may seem that there's a change of focus. He has been showing us a healthy church and now he's moving along to show us what he did. But I would argue this morning that what he is commending in them, he is not now changing directions and changing course in the letter. But now he's modeling for them. He's showing them, this is how I lived in relationship to the church. And it's a model for us. And it was a model for the Thessalonians. So the way in which Paul related to the church reveals much about the way Paul viewed the church and what our relationship to the church should look like. For the Apostle Paul, The church was not merely a fellowship or an association of friends. It wasn't merely a group of like-minded people who met together in the same location. For Paul, the church was much more than that. It was much more than an association or a friendship or a group of people that he liked. And because it was so much more than a fellowship, He related to the church in a very distinct way. He came to them with purpose. That is to say that Paul's understanding of what the church is governed the way in which he related to the church. It was because he understood the church in a certain way that he then related to the church in a certain way. It governed his relationship with the church. In other words, it gave purpose to his church life. And that's ultimately the theme of the sermon this morning, a purposeful church life. Paul's ministry among the Thessalonians had a purpose. Paul's life with and in the church at Thessalonica was purposeful. And now comes the question already at this point in the sermon. Does your life at Redeemer have purpose? Do you live and interact with the church here with a specific purpose and specific goals in mind? What is your purpose in being attached to this church or to the church in general? If I were to ask you individually this morning, what your purpose is in your relationship to the church, what would your answer be? Could you articulate an answer to that question? Are you purposeful in your church life? Would that answer be filled more with me and I and mine type of answers? Or would it have a different focus altogether? We live in a day and age in which people seem to drift through life purposelessly, passively walking along life's journey with no real aim, no real purpose in life. This is especially a danger for young people. For those of you that have presented yourself for membership, here's a danger for you to join the church with no purpose and no purposeful relationship to others in the church. But Paul tells us in verse 1, that He came on purpose, and He came with purpose. For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. That word vain carries the idea of being empty, and it really can have two meanings, two ways to understand it. It can mean empty of fruit, so that He could be saying possibly, our coming to you was not empty of fruit, In fact, he has much fruit. He's already told them, through our ministry, you turn to God from idols. There's fruit. And he says to them later on in the chapter, you receive the Word of God. There's fruit. But that's not Paul's point in verse 1. He's not saying, you know that our coming to you was very fruitful. Notice the contrast between Verse 1 and verse 2, at the beginning of verse 2, there's that word, but. Our coming to you is not in vain, but. And he doesn't follow by saying, our coming to you is not in vain, but very fruitful. He says, our purpose in coming to you, or our coming to you is not in vain, but we came to speak boldly the things of God. The contrast is one of purpose. Paul is saying our coming to you was not empty of purpose. We came to you on purpose and we came to you with purpose. That is to say, We came to speak boldly to you the gospel, the fruit we leave up to God. But the purpose we came with was to speak the gospel. And this morning I want us to see four aspects of Paul's purpose in coming to the Thessalonican church. Four aspects of his life within the church. But before we get to those, before we start those, I want to take just a moment and clear away any doubts that you may have related to whether or not these purposes should transfer to us. Maybe there's already the question spinning in your mind, well, Paul is an apostle and I'm not an apostle, so maybe what Paul does doesn't apply to me. Maybe it applies to the pastors, but not to us. So I want to clear that objection for just a moment, because I don't want any of you to tune out and think, well, this is just for the church officers, or to listen in such a way as to say, well, I hope my pastors live this way in the church. No, these four purposes are for all of us to imitate. Every one of us should imitate the very purposes that Paul displays for us. And it's very clear that we're to imitate Paul's purposeful church life, because he tells us in 2 Thessalonians 3, he says, how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you." And then he says, not because we have no authority, but we've done what we've done, he says, to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. Paul is alerting the Thessalonican Christians. to this truth that everything I did when I was in the midst of the church, the way I live my life, everything I set aside, everything I took up, everything I did, all of my labor, I did it in such a way that you would follow my example, you individual Christians in the church. This is not merely apostolic purpose. He's saying, I did everything that I did in your midst that you might follow me as I followed Jesus Christ. I was your example that you might live out these purposes. He's saying, you see, we lived this way so that you should live this way. Paul is explaining to him his purposeful walking among them, and he's doing it that they might imitate his life. You, dear Christian, are not exempt from these purposes. These are not only apostolic, but they fall on each and every one of you that belong to the church of Jesus Christ. If you are a believer this morning, it is vitally important that you imitate Paul and follow his example. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us. So then the first purpose we see in Paul's relationship to the church was that it was purposefully gospel-centered. Paul's life among the Thessalonian church was purposefully gospel-centered. He says in verse 4, but as we have been approved by God, to be entrusted with the gospel. He's entrusted with this message. He's entrusted with the gospel. He's given a stewardship. That's another word that we could translate that with, a stewardship. God has given to the apostle Paul his care or stewardship of something of great value. He's given to him the gospel and he said, I want you to have a stewardship of this gospel, protect it, guard it, support it, disseminate it, operate along gospel lines in the life of the church. And now, in spite of what I've said earlier, there's an aspect of this that is unique to the apostles, right? They are the foundations upon which the church is built. Christ himself, the chief cornerstone. There's a truth in that, that there is something unique to the apostles in this. But the apostles are dead and gone. There are no apostles anymore. They've been 2,000 years in the grave. And they have handed off the gospel to the church of Jesus Christ. It is the church who now fulfills that role as the ground and pillar of the truth. And you, as a part of the church, now have a stewardship of the gospel. It's not unique, totally unique to the apostles, but it's been given to us in some sense as a part of the church. It is incumbent upon each one of you to protect the gospel, to maintain the truth of the gospel, to protect it from error and false teaching, to disseminate it amongst the church and churches. The apostles, as I said, are dead and gone. But they have handed off to us the gospel. The gospel has been committed to your care, to your stewardship. Are you an approved steward of God? Have you been approved of God, a steward, and entrusted with the gospel? Do you handle that gospel according to God's purposes and plans. Do you walk purposefully within the church of Jesus Christ in a gospel-centered way? This stewardship, I would argue, primarily falls to us in that we are to declare, to speak, to disseminate, to share, to apply the gospel among our brothers and sisters within the church and also outside of the church. You see, this stewardship requires that we not only keep the gospel pure from error so that we sit around and hammer out all the wrinkles of theology and sit around and work all the various ways in which the gospel impacts our theology, that's good as far as it goes. But we are primarily to be consistently, constantly, faithfully, laboriously, pressing the gospel upon our brothers and sisters. showing them over and over how the gospel applies to their life, encouraging them when they're down, bringing the gospel to them when they're at a high point in their life. We are constantly in the life of the church to be pointing each other to the gospel again and again and again. The gospel is not merely the starting point of the Christian life. It is the life of the church, and it is to be The center of church life is to be the center of our conversation, is to be the center of our fellowship one with another. This, the gospel, is the basis of our fellowship together. We have no other basis of fellowship. together. We are not just friends. We are fellow laborers in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to be always helping each other to see the gospel more clearly, to understand it more fully, to apply it more effectively in our lives. It is this message, the message of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen again, that should be constantly on our lips as a people. It is this that should take up the bulk of our conversation, particularly on the Lord's time. It is this Gospel, this message that should thrill us, that should bring great delight as we hear someone again applying the Gospel to us, and as we apply the Gospel to them, and as that conversation around the Gospel and around the things of Christ, that is what should thrill us, that is what should excite us, that is what should fuel our life together as a congregation. that Paul's gospel-centeredness, his focus on communication of the message is clear from our section, these first 12 verses. Look with me again at verse 2. He says in verse 1, we came on purpose, here was our purpose. We were bold in our God to speak, there it is, to speak to you the gospel of God. Verse four, having been entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak. Verse eight, we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, that is, to speak to you the message, but our own lives. Verse nine, preached to you the Gospel of God. There's communication. These words of communication run through the passage. His life among them was one in which the Gospel was being spoken about, talked about, preached, listened to, received. We were bold to speak. We preached to you. We imparted to you this message. He says this was our purpose in coming. This is your purpose at Redeemer Baptist Church to impart, speak, declare, gossip the Gospel all around. All the way through the passage, Paul is saying that our life with you was full of Gospel conversation. This was the focus of our ministry in your midst. It was central to our purpose in coming to you. It was central to our life with you. These words, there again, speaking, imparting, preaching, is primarily delivering, speaking, imparting this great message to others within the church that Paul has at the heart of his purpose. I came with a message. I came with the message of a Savior, and that's really all I wanted to talk about. It's what thrilled me. It's what caused me to endure suffering for you. It's why I came. It's why I was willing to impart myself to be with you every day. It's why I was a tent maker, that I might be next to you at your workplace, that when work is difficult, I might impart to you the gospel again. All through his time in Thessalonica, there's this constant Gospel life, constant Gospel conversation. And as stewards of the Gospel, God is calling each one of you to be always speaking the things of the Gospel, pointing people to His Gospel, applying it to their lives. We ought to be a people whose conversation is full of Gospel talk. function within the church with this purpose and in this way? You know that word he says, bold. We were bold. in our God to speak to you. It means it's defined as to speak freely, openly, fearlessly. It's an outspokenness, frankness, plainness of speech is how that word is defined. Do you function in the life of a Redeemer that way? Is there a boldness, a frankness, an openness, a fearlessness in speaking the Gospel, a plainness of speech as you conversate with people around the things of the Gospel? Are you having these sort of conversations, these sort of deep, meaningful, life-imparting conversations with people in the life of the church? Is our life together marked by this focus? When is the last time that you had a real, sincere, serious conversation about the gospel with your fellow believers here? That could be a conversation that points someone who is struggling with various issues, pointing them back again to the Gospel. That could be a getting together and an absolute rejoicing, overwhelming excitement about the things that God is doing, things that He has done in His Gospel. That could be a rejoicing and forgiveness of sins together. It takes various forms and various ways in which we can talk the Gospel to one another. But my question really is this, are we as a church moving beyond surface level, how are you doing type conversations to real Gospel centered life together? To the type of questions that get to the heartbeat of the Christian life. You remember in the book of Acts as the Christians were driven out of Jerusalem, and they're described in chapter 8 this way. Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the gospel. That word actually could be better translated. They went everywhere gossiping the gospel. Wherever they went, the gospel was on their mind. The gospel was on their lips. They were gossiping the gospel. I want us as a church to live that way, to move beyond surface-level conversations, to speak the gospel boldly and fearlessly. Does your life reflect this purpose? Paul says, I have lived this way and you ought to follow my example in this. Well, secondly then, Paul and thus you are to be purposefully God-focused. you are to be purposefully God-focused. Notice again the language that runs through our passage over and over again. Verse two, we were bold in our God to speak to you, the gospel of God. Verse four, we have been approved by God, so we speak not as pleasing men, but God. Verse five, God is our witness. Verse eight, gospel of God. Verse nine, gospel of God. You are our witnesses and God. Verse 12, what worthy of God. Everything Paul was doing, was with an eye toward God Almighty. He came with a gospel-centeredness, but he kept his eye on God. He kept his eye on the living and true God. He didn't fear men because he had God before his eyes. God was his witness. God was his reason for what he did. God and God's glory was his purpose. Everything He did, He did with an eye for His glory. Pleasing God was His ultimate aim. He didn't share the Gospel of God first because He loved the Thessalonians. He did love them. He says, you became dear to us. But first of all, because He loved God, He sought to please God. Could it be? Maybe I should say it is so. But could it be that one of the primary reasons we fail to be always communicating the gospel with boldness and fearlessness is just this? that we do not consider God enough. We do not keep our eyes on God. That when we speak, it doesn't run through our language like it did through this verse. It's the Gospel of God. God is a witness. I did it for God. Not pleasing men, but pleasing God. Could it be that the reason we hesitate in conversating around the Gospel is because we don't fear God as we ought? Paul is saying, It was not His purpose in coming, and it was not how He lived among them, was not a me and man-centered way of thinking. He says in effect, I did everything I did. I did with an eye towards God. I sought to please Him, to honor Him, to glorify Him. It was God that approved me. It was God that entrusted me with this message. It was God that is my witness. And it is to God that I'll give an account. And because of that, I was gospel-centered amongst you. That's why I had the conversations I had. That's why I didn't have the conversations that I didn't have. God was everything in Paul's estimation. We did not speak so as to please men, but God who tests our hearts. That's Paul's purpose in the life of the church. We did not use flattering words so as to please men, nor did we seek glory from men, not from you, not from anyone else. God is our witness. We did what we did in the sight of God for God. I came to you with this purpose, to be intentionally focused upon God Almighty and His glory. We cannot be God-centered in that way, in the way that God intends us to be, unless and until we are brought before the very presence of God and live before God every moment of the day. As long as God is small and men are big, we will never have those awkward conversations. You can't. If you fear men, you cannot serve God the way that you ought to serve God. Paul lived here at the feet of God. God was the heartbeat of all that he did. Paul's God was a big God and therefore men seemed a small thing to him. If they are not pleased with me, If they do not glorify Me, if they do not honor Me, so be it My God will, and He is a big God. We did not come so as to please men and seek glory from men, not from you, not from anyone else. We came with our eyes upon the Almighty. He worked and labored purposefully, knowing that God was watching him. Not as an angry judge to say, Paul, you missed a chance to share the gospel. But God was watching him as a loving father who cared deeply for him. And Paul sought in all things to please him, to honor him, to glorify him because he was a good father, because he had been good and gracious to Paul. And that is our approach. Oh, how often do we move in and around the church with very little thought of God? How often do we come even into worship on a Sunday morning to sit before God and have thought very little about Him and what pleases Him? How often we come and think, what pleases us? What makes us happy? What makes me comfortable? Well, I don't like the color of the chairs, or it's too cold, or it's too hot. There's a myriad of things we think about ourselves as we come and choose a church, and pick a church, and join a church. Paul says, when I came, I never gave a thought to myself. I never considered what would make me comfortable. I never considered what I might like. I never considered if men would please me. I never gave a thought if there would be a friendly reception from the Thessalonians. I knew there would be trouble. But because I had God before my eyes, I came to you with purpose. I came on purpose and my purpose was to share with you the gospel of Jesus Christ before the sight of God. The chief end of man is to glorify God. How much of your life then is focused on this primary purpose of your existence? Did you come this morning with this purpose? Have you given sufficient thought to God in all your interactions with the church? Have you come determined to seek Him and to glorify Him in all that He does? And to interact with the saints in the way that Paul does? With God's glory before your eyes? Or was your coming here this morning empty of purpose? Purposeless and thoughtless? Have you come for God? Did you come to serve Him? Did you come to please Him? Or did you come thinking, ah, I hope it's not cold in there. I hope the singing's good. I hope my friends are there. We must have God before our eyes. He must be big. He must be big, or otherwise we'll always stumble here. Thirdly, Your life is to be purposefully self-sacrificial. That flows out of what we've just been saying. Your life is to be purposely self-sacrificial. Now, surely this is not a popular message in today's world. Your life and your life in the church is to be one of constant, almost constant sacrifice. We are never to shirk our duty in order to avoid difficulties. Shirk is maybe a unique old-fashioned word to me. Shirk just means to avoid your responsibilities. We're never to look at the difficulties and say, here's a duty, but there's difficulties in the way. I'll therefore avoid them or go the long way around to avoid those difficulties. We are never to shirk our duties because of difficulties and obstacles in our path. We are to live purposely, self-sacrificially for the glory of God. We are not to run headlong into trouble heedlessly. The Proverbs tell us the prudent man sees danger and he hides himself. Those are true statements. That is the right way to live. Paul himself at one point escaped out of the city, let down through a basket to spare his lives. We're not to put our lives in jeopardy unnecessarily, yet And we have to keep this balance. Yet, for the sake of the gospel and the glory of God and the good of others, we must be committed to sacrifice everything for God and the gospel. We must never neglect our Christian responsibilities merely to avoid difficulties. Notice what Paul says to them. He says, essentially, I came to you on the hills of severe persecution. You yourselves know, brethren, our coming to you is not in vain, but even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak the gospel to you. This is significant. Paul suffered greatly at Philippi, greatly at Philippi, but he doesn't quit. It may be that through that difficulty, God closed a door for him at Philippi, but he went to Thessalonica. He didn't go home. He didn't quit. He didn't be quiet about the gospel. He just went to the next place with the gospel. He went to where God made it available for him to go. He was willing to suffer. And then he says something really interesting to the Thessalonians. He said, when we were with you, we told you constantly, we kept on telling you we would suffer. he went there knowing that he would suffer. It wasn't as if he suffered at Philippi, and he thought, well, if I go over to Thessalonica, I'll be free of suffering. He went to them with the gospel, knowing all along suffering would come, and he kept on telling them, we will suffer, you will suffer. But he did it anyway. Paul didn't quit. He didn't give up. He didn't let severe difficulties put him off from serving God and serving the church. We live in a generation in which the slightest difficulty in relation to church life puts us off. We quit. We walk away. We're not committed. That's the culture we live in. If it's hard or if it requires sacrifice, I'm not willing to do it. Everything revolves around our comfort and ease. If we're a little tired, well, we're really tired. Surely I can't serve them when I'm so tired. Paul was stoned and left for dead and he got up and he went to the next city and he preached again and again and again. Are we tired? If it costs us something, well, it's not a good time for us to make that sacrifice now. This culture that permeates the world we live in has slipped into the church. Maybe, maybe we have adopted it wholesale. That church life should not cost me anything. It's actually for me. It's what I get out of it. Paul is saying to them, it's no longer about me. It's no longer about my comfort, my ease, my pleasure. It's about serving God. It's not about what I can get out of the Thessalonians. I didn't come to get anything from you. He says, I came to give to you. I've come that you might be full. Paul says we suffered greatly. We were spitefully treated. But we came anyway. We came on purpose. We came knowing that. because we serve God, because we love God. Paul tells us in chapter three that they shouldn't even be shaken by this. He says, I kept on telling you these things, brothers and sisters. Paul, knowing that he would endure great suffering, came anyway, he labored anyway, he labored among them, and he was not put off by the difficulties. This is the purpose he had. He came with this purpose. No matter how difficult it gets, until God moves me from that place, I'll serve them there. No matter how hard it is, no matter the severity of the suffering, no matter the severity of the persecution, I've come with this purpose. As long as God leaves me there, I'll be gospel focused with my eyes upon God. If God would have me suffer, suffer I will. Are there difficulties in our service one to another before God? Certainly there are. Certainly you do get tired. Certainly there are times where financial giving is a sacrifice or whatever the sacrifice may be. Paul would have us to know this, don't be shaken by those things. Don't let them shake your faith. They are certain to happen. But in the midst of that, don't forsake your duty to be gospel-focused in sacrificing for your brothers and sisters. Press on in God, he would say. Endure suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Paul's example is ultimately a call from God for you to die to yourself. Take up your cross and follow him. Die to yourself. Sacrifice all for your brothers and sisters in the gospel. Well, what's included in this sacrifice? First of all, it means that we're not to be self-seeking in the life of the church. Notice what he says in verse 5. We didn't use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness. Some translations have that as a pretext for greed. We didn't come to you with flattering words, greedy of all that you had that we might take from you. Paul is in effect saying that he didn't come to them for himself or for his own benefit. He came to serve. Who does that remind us of? Who is Paul following? Who is Paul imitating? He's imitating our Savior, who did not come to be served, but to save, to serve. He's imitating Jesus Christ. the creator of heaven and earth, who could tie a cloth around his waist and bow down at the feet of his disciples and wash their feet. What sacrifice is that? He's imitating our Savior, who was willing to die for no gain to himself, that you might be full of the goodness of God. Paul is saying, I didn't come to get, I came to give. I came with that purpose. I came that you might be filled up with the love and goodness of God. In this he reflects God. He reflects the inner Trinitarian love of God. You see God from all eternity And those relationships between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit was so full of love for one another, so overflowing with love, that He created the world that it might be full of His love, that He might have a place to pour out that love. And having fallen into sin, that love still yearned to rest upon the creation. And so He sent His Son, and in love sacrificed His Son, that that love would not be lost upon us, that we might experience, that we might have it. The Son sacrificed Himself willingly and purposefully that we might be brought into that love. Paul, essentially, in the life of the church at Thessalonica, is living that out. He had been brought into that loving relationship. He had been filled with the love of God. He was overflowing with the love of God. And so he came and he says, I am so full of it. I've come that you might be full of it. I don't need anything from you. I didn't come grasping with greed and covetousness your wealth or your money or your women or your jobs or any of those things that people accused Him of. I come to give you something. I came to give you God. What about you? Have you come to be a part of this church or any church? for what you can get out of it? Is that how we choose a church? What we can get out of it? What we like? Paul came that he might give sacrificially. He didn't come for himself. And then this sacrifice also entails not seeking glory or fame or recognition for sacrifice. You know, there is a way in which we can serve God and sacrifice much, but in the end, we only do it that other people will look at us and say, oh man, look how sacrificially they live. Look how they give. Paul says, I didn't come to be glorified by you. I didn't come to receive praise from you. There's a way in which people came, even in biblical times, and endured much suffering, that they might be accounted somebody. Paul says, that's not who I am. I didn't come to receive praise from you. I didn't ask you for glory. I came as an apostle. I could have demanded from you as an apostle. I could have demanded honor from you. But like a gentle mother nursing a child, I pulled you in to fill you and feed you at great cost to myself. I had honor as an apostle. And I could have demanded it from you. I could have demanded your finances from you as an apostle. He says, but I didn't behave that way among you. I didn't come to be honored by you. God is my witness. God sees me. God will glorify me. I have a crown and joy and rejoicing in that day. I don't need it from you. I came to fill you. Not to be filled with glory and honor. Not to be put on a pedestal. Not for people to look at me and say, wow, he's gospel centered. Wow, he always talks about God. Wow, look what he sacrificed. Paul says, I don't want it. Paul would have viewed it as a great temptation, something to flee from, not something to grasp after. You see, he doesn't demand his rights. As a gentle nursing mother, what a picture of what our life together ought to be. Could you imagine if the church functioned like this all the time? One another, gentle as nursing mothers nursing their children. What a picture of the Apostle Paul. The mighty Apostle Paul. Champion of the faith. A real man. He was stoned once, he was shipwrecked multiple times, whipped and lashed several times, and he endured. Here's a man. A man's man. And when he paints a picture of himself, he says, just like a mother. That's what I am. This is biblical manhood. Giving, giving, giving, giving, filling you at great cost. What a picture of church life. If we are to live the life of God and reflect the love of God in the life of the church, the bar is very high. It's to reflect the very life of God. He says this very thing in verse eight, I was affectionately longing for you. You see, there's a motherly picture. I came with God before my eyes, but I was affectionately longing for you. And I was willing to impart to you not just a message, but like a mother would do, I was willing to give you my very life. to give myself up for you. This is the standard. This is what is involved in being a member of the church of Jesus Christ. This is the purpose we ought to have. To give the gospel, absolutely. We are to be gospel-centered. But we're to sacrifice ourselves and give our own lives for the brothers and sisters. Are you giving your own lives? Is this a reflection of your life? This leads naturally to the final point. you are to be purposefully others focused. This really maybe should have been one point, but notice how often it comes up in our passage. Verse two, we were bold in our God to speak to you. Verse six and verse nine, Paul gave up his rights that he might not be a burden to you. Verse eight, affectionately longing for you because you had become dear to us. Verse 12, my desire was that you should walk worthy of God. Yes, he had an eye to the glory of God. He always kept God before his face. He didn't live in the fear of men, but yet he came for them. He came for their good. Everything he did had this focus, I've done it for you, for you, for you, for you. There is an extreme outward facing affection in Paul. Always flowing out to them. He didn't come in the fear of men and for the praise of men, but He did come for men. He did come loving them. He did come for their benefit, for their good. He labored for them. He put aside His rights that they might be filled. Again, this stands in stark contrast to the way most people live today and to the way most people approach church life. And again, this other focus Life is a reflection of God. It reflects it in that God called you, he says in verse 12, out of darkness, he called you into his kingdom. What benefit could he possibly receive from you coming into his kingdom? Nothing. He gains nothing by sacrificing his son for you. His glory is not increased. He did it for you. There's this outward-facing affection in God that Paul reflects for us, that we are to reflect in the life of the congregation. It's Him doing good to you and for you with nothing gained, not enriched by you. In Paul's words, he did it because he loved you. You became dear to us, he said. God has done this merely because He is a God of love. if we as a church reflect the character of God in this way. If we are being transformed into the image of Christ in this way, so that we, our gospel focus, God focus, others focus, sacrificing ourselves. Paul's life in the Thessalonian church was a life of purpose. He purposely sought the good of others. He purposely sacrificed himself. Kept God before him. He was gospel focused. And in all this, he's reflecting the Lord Jesus Christ. And each of you must be transformed. You must be transformed in this way. You must live this way. God's word to you this morning is essentially this. Walk purposely in my church. Reflect my character in the church. Freely you have received. freely give. Our lives are not to be dead ends for God's goodness, but conduits through which it flows. I know I'm a little over time. I want to give you one illustration to maybe fix it in our minds as we close. It's from a Puritan, Richard Sibbes. I don't want to be crude in any way, and I mean it with all reverence, Richard Sibbes has this fantastic quote of the goodness of God, and maybe I've given it to you before. He says, you know, there is such a goodness in God as in a fountain, or, and here's the picture, or as in the breast that desires to ease itself of milk. That's a fantastic picture of the goodness of God. God's goodness is not something He clings to. He delights to give it. And I don't know, those of you who have nursed and those of you whose wives have nursed, again, I honestly do not mean any crudeness at all in this, but you know how when they're nursing and they hear a baby cry, they leap milk. When we have need, God's goodness It's like a mother's breast easing itself of milk to us. It's natural to Him. And we have to be that way to one another. Sacrificing our very life to feed and nourish one another in the gospel. This is the goodness of God and it is not intended for us to be the place where it terminates and stops, but to flow through us. that others might be nourished by His goodness, easing out of us. Let's pray. Father, we thank You and praise You. for your goodness and love. It is natural to you. It is not strained. It is not forced. It cannot be exacted from you. It cannot be purchased from you by us, but it just flows to your people. God, forgive us for all the times that we did not view you in this way. Forgive us for the times when we thought we must buy it from you, when we thought we must somehow earn it from you. And God, like little children crying, hear us in our struggles. Hear us in our selfishness. Have pity upon us and ease yourself of goodness to us. And for God's sake, help us to reflect your life in the church of Jesus Christ to his glory. We pray in his name, amen.