We Thank God For You!
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Title: “We Thank God For You!”
Scripture: Romans 15:7-13
Occasion: Freeway Sanford | Colonial Room Farewell
Date: August 8, 2024
Scripture Transitions Sermon Title|Quotes |Emphasis| Illustration
PRAY
Ephesians 1:2 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Introduction
January 2020 before the craziness of the pandemic, the Lord was working in the hearts of a few people here in Sanford.
The Lord was knitting hearts together in faith, in love, in hope, and in mission.
Provide short history, timeline and God’s faithfulness of Mr. Bill 1977, michelle became a servant and disciple of Bill 1989, and Simouex’s took over in 2012 Pray For Sanford (Jan 2020-2023) /OBC Residency (2020-2021)/Freeway (2023)
Listen carefully:
We could not have done this without the Simoneux Family.
The Simoneux family is absolutely instrumental in planting Restoration Church of Sanford, and as a result all the ministries that flow from our Church.
All I can think of as I recall God’s faithfulness over the last 4 years, is Michelle and Jason.
The Scripture that Just seems so fitting tonight to honor this precious family is the words of the Apostle Paul to the church plant at Thessalonica out of 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3
We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. -1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 (NIV)
Tonight as we study this text shortly, I have two goals:
To be faithful to the text.
To honor and give THANKS to and FOR the Simoneux family.
I have entitled this sermon, simply:
“I Thank God For You!”
PRAY
We will navigate these two verses with 3 points:
Thankfulness Induced by Prayer (v2)
Remembrance conduced by God. (V3a)
Work Produced by Faith. (V3b)
Let’s start with our first point:
Point One: Thankfulness Induced by Prayer
We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. -1 Thessalonians 1:2 (NIV)
Context: Paul, (we) Silas, and Timothy (mentioned in v1) on Paul’s second Missionary Journey founded and planted this Church at Thessalonica. (Acts 17:1-11)
He is writing to the Church plant to encourage them in their faith, in their work and labor in the Lord, and to give them a hope in Christ as they face persecution.
This letter has been encouragement to me since the start of our Church plant because I can relate to Paul In this letter. I feel like I share some solidarity with Him as a pastor, church Planter, and as a fellow servant in the gospel.
Church planing is not for the faint at heart.
Not everyone is called to Church planting or to be a part of a Church Plant.
This Church plant in Thessalonica was planted with much persecution and opposition.
In Acts 17:1–11, Luke recounts Paul’s visit to the city.
He entered the local synagogue and on three consecutive Sabbaths “reasoned with them from the Scriptures” and proclaimed Jesus as the Christ (Acts. 17:2–3).
Some of the Thessalonians “were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women” (Acts 17:4).
Nevertheless, a band of jealous Jews “formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason (YES JASON, HOW ABOUT THAT!), seeking to bring them out to the crowd” (Acts 17:5).
Unable to find Paul, Silas, or Timothy, they dragged Jason and some others before the authorities and charged them with sedition (Charge for inciting people to rebel against the authoriries): “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus” (Acts 17:6–7).
Narrowly escaping by night, Paul and his associates journeyed west to Berea, where, Luke notes, the Jews were “more noble than those in Thessalonica” (Acts 17:11).
However, on learning that Paul was in Berea, some of the Thessalonian Jews “came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds” (Acts 17:13).
Paul’s next destination was Corinth, where he remained for 18 months (Acts 18:1–18).
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians from Corinth around AD 50–51, on the back end of his second missionary journey.
First Thessalonians is probably his earliest New Testament letter after Galatians (c. AD 48).
Now, why do I tell you all of this?
So you can understand the context in which this letter was written and how it is so relevantg to us.
So you can understand the depths of Pauls thankfulness for these faithful Christians Giving their life to serve Christ and proclaim the hope of the Gospel.
Paul in every one of his letters never misses an opportunity to thank God for the people of God.
Pall understood that He could not do ministry without partners in the gospel.
As I look around the room on a Thursday and on a Sunday, it almost brings me to tears every week.
These are tears of joy.
I’m overwhelmed with thankfulness.
I know that this ministry, and all the many lives that have been touched by the hope of the gospel , is made possible because of each of you.
Jessica and I couldn’t do this on our own.
What started as a prayer to reach Sanford, is now a reality.
Take it in.
Michelle and Jason, Emeli, and Jason’s Jess, Jeremy, take it in- What was sown in prayer is now a reality. God hears and answers the prayers of his people.
We understood from the very beginning when the Lord placed this burden on our heart, that THIS (circle hands around the room) would happen after prayer.
Jessica and me in 2016 were praying in Alabama as we were dreaming up what the Lord could do if the Lord desired for us to plant RCS.
We were praying for people we didn’t even know that would be partners in the gospel.
To look at this front row, and now see who God had in mind to join us on this rigorous mission to plant a Church, I’m overjoyed and overwhelmed with thanks That’s it’s YOU. (Michelle and Jason)
Paul Thanks God for those faithful Christian’s in Thessalonica.
He knows it was God who providentially brought forth these faithful partners in ministry.
I know that it was God who brought us you, Michelle and Jason. And I’m so thankful it was you.
From the early days of meeting in the banquet hall, we were committed to prayer.
I’m convinced not only by this scripture, but my own experience (testifying to Scripture!) that Thankfulness is induced by prayer.
If we want to be a thankful people we must be a prayerful people.
Prayer grows us in gratitude.
It’s hard, if not impossible, to be mad at someone you are praying for.
Why?
Because it is in prayer that God reminds you of who you are and who God is.
He reminds us of His Holiness and that we are sinners too undeserving of God’s goodness and grace. But He lavishes us with good gifts and shows us mercy. (throne of mercy and grace, Hebrews 4)
The most precious gifts of his goodness and grace are people.
That’s clearly reflected in the 10 commandments isn’t it?
When you really have an understanding of who God is, and what He has done for you, You can’t help but to respond in Love for God, and consequently that love pours down like a waterfall down on to people. (The opposite is true too!)
Prayer allows us to see people as He sees them.
It is in prayer where God shows us that we are all broken sinners in need of Christ’s mercy.
It is in prayer where God show us where we have wronged or hurt our brothers and sisters in Christ.
It is in the secret, impudent, chambers of continual prayer were God grows us in our love and gratitude for God and His people.
It is in prayer where God unites his people in love and in mission.
Are you lacking in gratitude and love for God and His people? Run to Christ in prayer.
Pray this,
“God give me a heart for prayer that I might gain a heart for you and your people.
That I would see your people the way you do.
That I would grow fonder of your people.
That I would not only pray for them but learn to give thanks for my family in Christ.”
This 28 days of prayer has been a sweet blessing to my heart.
As we connect with 5 other faithful churches through prayer, God unites us, and grows our love for one another, like nothing else can.
Pastor Jeremy just preached at Sent Church, and He told me how dearly he was loved by our Sent Church family, and how profound his love is for that body believers.
I believe that God has grown that love, that gratitude, through prayer.
Over the years, as we have prayed for you Michelle and Jason, the Lord has grown in me and Jessica a deep love and gratitude that I believe is supernatural.
No matter what we face in the future together, our love for you, and our gratitude for you, will only grow deeper and fonder.
Thankfulness is surely induced by prayer, but what Paul shows us next is that Remembrance is conduced by God.
Point Two: Remembrance Conduced by God.
We remember before our God and Father- 1 Thessalonians 1:3a
The word “conduced” means to help bring about.
The reason I used this word is because without the Lord bringing to mind His faithfulness, we will quickly forget all that he has done.
Amen?
One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 103:2 that says,
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
David understood that He was a very forgetful.
We must understood here today that apart from God bringing to mind His faithfulness, we are in a lot trouble.
Sometimes God bringing to mind his faithfulness is not just about looking back, but having our eyes open to His work in the present.
As I mentioned before, Jessica and I prayed for partners in ministry, and poof, the answer to years of prayer is right here in front of me.
Sometime we get so caught up in ministry, so caught up in our own world, we forget all the answered prayers that we are walking in.
As I look at this dinner- I see God’s faithfulness. We prayed for a place to pray at and reach sanford out of. Here we are!
We prayed that God would help us restore the broken and help the struggling find wholeness and freedom in Christ, and here you are Philip. Here you are Jessica.
We prayed that God would help us to reach the addict and God answered a bought us a house to reach not one addict by many for generations to come.
Not just breaking a chain, but breaking chains upon chains upon chains.
As we look to God, He helps us to remember not only what we prayed, but that we are walking in the answers to those prayers.
And over the last year we have been praying for a new building so that we can reach more people in Sanford with the gospel.
We outgrew this place months ago.
BUT this growth is no small cost for the Simoneux family.
Michelle is here at 5 in the morning and she stays cleaning until we are out of here.
She has been doing that for 4 years straight!
Michelle and Jason, God has heard your prayers.
He has answered our prayers for rest, for rejuvenation, and for relocation.
Next week we will walk in the faithfulness of God.
We will do ministry out of a location that is a direct answer to prayer.
How do we not forget the faithfulness of God moving forward?
Look to God.
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
Looking to Him will keep us from ingratitude and from growing weary of doing Good.
Looking to him will remind us where our help comes from-”It comes from the LORD, the one who made heaven and earth.”
So far Paul has shown us that Thankfulness is induced by prayer, Remembrance is conduced by God, and now we close by seeing a kingdom work that is produced by faith.
Point 3: Work Produced by Faith.
We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. -1 Thessalonians 1:3 (NIV)
This is the verse that immediately stands out when I think of you two (Jason and Michelle).
When I first met Michelle she informed me that She was praying that God would use her and her business to make a gospel impact in Sanford.
He heard you sister.
But I need you to understand something that Paul is saying here that is true of Michelle heart and anyone else who works for the Lord:
The reason that those young believers at Thessalonica were giving their life for the gospel, was because of the faith That God the Father produced in them at regeneration.
They were not working for their faith, they were working from their faith.
Meaning, they were not looking to get a pat in the back from God; they were laboring tirelessly, and even being persecuted for their gospel work, because they understood that they were forgiven, accepted, saved, and redeemed by the blood of Christ.
Their works were the fruit of their salvation not the root of their salvation.
Here is what I have learned in my almost 17 years of following Christ:
Those who are looking for a pat in the back from God and from people, after a couple months and in some cases, years, will leave the ministry.
Not just because they want recognition, but because there were not saved!
They did not have faith that was produced by God.
Faith produced by man will never produce the works of God.
Yes, unsaved people serve God.
They make professions but they do not actually possess really saving faith.
This is a great time for inner reflection.
Do you have real faith?
A faith that is a sole work of God.
A real faith produced by God is always accompanied by works for God.
Because God save us on purpose for a purpose.
God produces faith in us because he has work prepared for us.
That’s seen so clearly in Ephesians 2:8-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
These works that God has for us, that He has allowed us to be a part of, that he has prepared for us in this next season of RCS and Freeway Sanford, is a work that will reap dividends for eternity.
If it ain’t kingdom work, it ain’t going to last.
Every single time that we work for the Kingdom we are reaping rewards in the kingdom of God.
Jesus says in Matthew 5:12
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
The rewards we gain in heaven are not like the rewards we earn here on earth. We tend to think in material terms—mansions, jewels, etc.
But these things are only representations of the true rewards we will gain in heaven.
A child who wins a spelling bee treasures the trophy he receives not for the sake of the trophy itself but for what that trophy means.
Likewise, any rewards or honor we gain in heaven will be precious to us because they carry the weight and meaning of our relationship with God—and because they remind us of what He did through us on earth.
The closer we were to God during this life, the more centered on Him and aware of Him, the more dependent on Him, the more desperate for His mercy, the more there will be to celebrate.
We are like characters in a story who suffer doubt, loss, and fear, wondering if we will ever really have our heart’s desire.
When the happy ending comes and desire is fulfilled, there comes a completion.
The story would not be satisfying without that completion.
Rewards in heaven are the completion of our earthly story, and those rewards will be eternally satisfying.
Psalm 16:11 (ESV)
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
But the greatest rewards will be hearing the words of Jesus say to the faithful-I’m certain to you Michelle and Jason,
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
Paul was thankful to God for the work produced by faith, but he was also thankful for their labor promoted by love.
This is where the phrase “labor of love” comes from.
This is no ordinary love.
This is in reference to the love of Christ In Us. Given to us at conversion.
Romans 5:1–5 (ESV)
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
The love of Christ in us produces selfless acts of love through us.
And these acts are not always big extravagant acts of love that everyone can see.
I actually think it the labor that no one can see but God.
It’s the cumbersome long hours.
It’s the sacrifice of comfort.
It’s the generosity of care.
It’s showing up time and time again and loving others when your tired, discouraged, and feel that you are alone In the ministry.
This has been Michelle and Jason for the last 4 years.
That have labored in service to King Jesus, behind the scenes, behind closed doors. Providing meals of mercy to those in need out of their own pocket. The list is too love.
Sometimes it can be hard to serve in unseen ways.
The pride of our flesh wants to be noticed and applauded for the things we do.
Our sinful hearts often have mixed motives: wanting to help others in need, but also wanting to seize some of the glory for ourselves.
In Matthew 6 Jesus confronts our tendency of wanting to practice righteousness in order to be seen by others:
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
Laborious love is humble and content in please an audience one-Christ, serving only for God’s glory.
But Don’t miss this simple truth from verse 3- Love acts. Love works. Love labors.
If you say you have the love of Christ, I will say “let me see it”!
But it is vital that we check the motivation of our labor.
Here is a diagnostic to check whether the motivation of your heart is in the right place:
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
Why?
Because 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Don’t forget what Paul says at the end of this hymn of love:
1 Corinthians 13:13 (ESV)
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
We have gained much by your love, Michelle and Jason.
And we are left with Paul giving thanks to God for the Churches “endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
What I know about ministry is this: If love for Christ and His glory is not the reason we do what we do, we will fall out of the race.
Paul is extremely encouraged that this young church has their eyes fixed on Jesus and His return.
The result of a heart that knows not only what Christ has done but what Christ will do when he returns- IS HOPE.
The biblical definition of hope is this:
HOPE:
“The sure and confident expectation of receiving what God has promised us in the future.”
This is vital.
If we are only looking for short term gain, we will always be discouraged and possibly hopeless in ministry.
But if we see Christ our glory as our reward we will not grow weary in doing good.
What keeps us in the race is the hope that we will finish as promised and we will receive the crown of life.
James 1:12 (ESV)
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
Philippians 1:6 (ESV)
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
This is our endurance.
No matter what comes our way hold on to our hope of the future.
As Paul says to the Church at Corinth, I say to you:
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
We are victorious in Christ! He is our hope and our strength!
Let us look forward and onward.
Conclusion:
As we enter into this new season of Freeway Sanford and RCS, may thank God our Father for the work He has done here in us.
May we desperately seek the Lord’s face to recall all that he has done, and in order that we might see all that He is doing, and respond in thanksgiving and praise.
Address Michelle and Jason:
Michelle and Jason we will never forget your work produced by faith, your labor promPeter by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank you for all your years of love and service To King Jesus, His Church, His Kingdom, and this precious community and city of Sanford.
1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV)
My beloved [brother and sister], be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Invite them to come up to honor them with a plaque and pray for them in this new season of serving King Jesus.
