Why Gather?

Intro

Welcome to Gather! A place where our goal is two fold. To create Community and Help you find Purpose through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

My Name is Matt, and I wear a few different hats here at Gilliam. One of which is serving as your College Pastor.

I’m so excited to see what the Lord is going to do with this ministry, mainly because if it weren’t for Collegiate ministry, I wouldn’t be standing here today.

So Tonight, I want to do a few things.

I want to Encourage you from the word

I want to give some vision as to what to expect from our ministry

I want to give you some opportunities to take your faith Journey into your own hands

So Why Community and Purpose?

Well the answer is pretty simple, it’s because those are the things that have likely been largely decided for you to this point.

I recently had an interesting conversation with a young woman who is entering into her Junior year of College. She told me that she always looked forward to college! All of her older friends always made it look awesome on social media. She was Cheer Captain, straight A student, who was involved in multiple organizations while in high school. All signs showed a strong, independent, and outgoing young woman who should thrive when she made the jump to college life. But midway thru her first semester, she found herself depressed and often locked away in her room. I asked “what happened?” Her reply was simple yet profound. “I’ve always had the same friends. and really, they were picked by either my parents at a young age, or because of the activities i was a part of. I don’t have either of those things here, and i can’t figure out how to start over.”

I imagine some, maybe not all, but some of you can relate in some way to this young woman.

And hear me when i say that you aren’t alone!

I went to Jacksonville State University in the fall of 2008. In my first semester, I had no purpose, and though i had community, it was far from the community that i needed. In High school, i had been relatively low key, I was an athlete, i had good relationships with my classmates, but i was fairly quiet, and i definitely had my friend group. So when i went to college, i found the few who went with me, and i clinged to them as tightly as i could. I quickly became the DD or “Babysitter” as i like to put it. It was only by the grace of God that i was able to maintain my integrity, but the late nights and missed classes began to add up, and i almost flunked out in my first semester. I had community, but my purpose was all off.

It wasn’t until after Christmas break, when i had scraped by but my friends hadn’t, that i found myself alone in the cafeteria. The Lord audibly told me where to go on campus. And when i Arrived, I found my Community, and through that community I found my purpose.

In one of Paul’s letters, we read of a group of people just like this. A group of people who had searched, gone through some difficult things, and ultimately figured it out.

1 Thessalonians 1:1–10 ESV

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. 2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Body

So In the Academic “and enlightened” world, the church does not have a great image. Whether that’s due to bad decisions made in the past, or because of seemingly unprovable supernatural claims, the idea of someone believing in something that can’t be proven or quantified seems unthinkable or crazy.

But we have to remember, that “everyone believes something.”

Paul experienced this first hand, as he went place to place. People would be saved by the Gospel, and people would become uncomfortable and would run Him off! That’s what happened in Thessalonica!

if we go back to the book of acts we see Paul’s first visit with them. And they were a different group of people.

Acts 17:1–10 ESV

1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. 10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.

Now it may be hard for us to see how what happened in Thessalonica has anything to do with us?

Well, Let me hit you with some knowledge.

Thessalonica was a harbour city in the kingdom of Macedonia. The Kingdom of Alexander the Great. This great city was the halfway point between Rome and Constantinoble (the capital city of the Macedonian empire.)

I’m sure that most of you know Alexander the great as a great leader and war hero, but He was really a great missionary! Unfortunately, He was spreading the Gospel of Hellenism. Hellenism was the faith in academic thought, government policy, and technological advancement. Alexander’s main motivation was to see a world unified under hellenism. Some call this universalism.

I don’t know if you’ve realized this, We live right outside of one of the fastest growing cities in the country. A city that’s primary focus is what? Academia, Government, and technology. We live in an area that is a lot like Thessalonica.

Both Paul and Alexander the great saw how important this city was! If the Gospel was rooted there, it would spread both ways, and eventually to the whole world!

That’s the way that we should be thinking about our area! How can we spread the Gospel not only to Arab, but to the world!

Now i know that when we hear that, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. To tell yourself that you’re not ready.

That’s why we’re here.

We see a huge shift in these people from when we see them in acts (forming a mob and chasing Paul) to 1st Thessalonians.

Paul writes

1 Thessalonians 1:2–4 ESV

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,

So what changed?

They Built Community and the found Their purpose

How do we do that?

Well i’m glad that you asked.

in this passage, we see 4 main Marks of the Believer.

Marks of a Believer

Conviction

1 Thessalonians 1:5 ESV

5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.

There are two ways that we use this word as Christians

Is that we know that our actions are in direct opposition to the will of God

Is that we believe is something so strongly that we are completely committed.

Both of these principles are absolutely necessary for us to follow Jesus!

Imitation

1 Thessalonians 1:6 ESV

6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

Have yall ever heard of Comic Con?

it’s a conference where people dress up as their favorite comic book character. But we’re not talking costumes from walmart. Some of these people commit all of their time, money, and attention to imitating these characters

Our effort to imitate Jesus should far exceed these people! People should think we are odd, because they see so much jesus in us!

Perseverance

1 Thessalonians 1:6 ESV

6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

And because of that, we’re gonna receive some hate. But that is the true test of our faith. if we persevere.

Consistency

1 Thessalonians 1:8–9 ESV

8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,

We are called to grow, and take the Gospel everywhere we go.

We can’t only be christians in certain places, then take “time off” when we are at school, work, with friends or on vacation.

These people did life together, and that’s what i’m challenging you to do. So tonight, as we sing and as we pray, I want you to ask yourself

Am I Committed to Jesus?

Have I let something that has happened, or someone, hinder my relationship with the Lord?

Do I want to grow in my faith?

And when those voices try to tell you that you’re to busy for Jesus, Know this:

You will always do what you really want to do.

Pray

Announcements:

Next Gather Night will be Tuesday, February 7th

so make sure to spread the word and invite your friends. They don’t have to be from Gilliam, or even from this area to come!

Gather Groups

One of the things that we’re going to be doing to help create the community that we talked about tonight, is by starting Gather Groups. These are going to be small groups that meet on the weeks that we don’t have worship for yall to dive into the scritpures and to grow in Christ! So if you’re interested in being a part of a group. Make sure to put your name and number down on the sign up sheet in the back.

College and Career Sunday School

We also have a sunday school class that’s just for yall. It meets at 9:30 on sunday mornings, and is taught my the Ozments. And I know that they’d be thrilled to have you! Let’s come together, let’s make a difference, and let’s get to work!

Thank yall so much for coming tonight, I pray that you have an awesome first week of classes.