You Can Go When the World Says Stop!

ATTN

Pic - School

As he looked out at the crowd he was nervous. It was a mixed crowd. About half were from local prominent Christian churches. They seemed to have come to just “check things out.” The other half were just non-religious people from the large New Hampshire town. It was the third Sunday on which he had convinced the principal of the local high school to let him use the gym for his worship service. And the crowd had grown . . . from about 50 on that first Sunday to about 100 today. The longer he waited for the music service to end the more nervous he became.

Finally the last note died away and, silently praying for courage, he stood up to speak. The first point of his message talked about the Old Testament Scriptures. He described how the whole purpose of prophecy in the Old Testament was to teach them about Jesus Christ. Then he went to his second point. From the Scriptures he proved to them that Jesus Christ wasn’t just a man. He is the co-existent, second person of the trinity.

As he spoke, Paul could feel the power of the Holy Spirit. When he extended a call to receive Christ, about half of the crowd responded. Several of the religious people came to Christ along with many of those who professed no religion. But after it was over, several of the leaders from the mainline denominational churches and prominent people from the community cornered Paul. They wanted to know why he felt the need to make such a black and white call for a commitment to Christ. The religious people said it made them sound like bad people. The non-churched people said it made him sound like a fanatic. Then they made a few comments about “not wanting cults to move into their town. One person in particular let Paul know that he worked in the mayor’s office and that he didn’t know if he was comfortable with a local public high school gym being used to recruit cult members.

Paul was a little intimidated and didn’t know what to expect, but he didn’t have long to think about it. He and his church planting team had fifty new believers to begin discipling. One of those new believers was the principal of the school whose gym they were renting, a man in his mid-thirties named Jason. Paul decided that he would disciple Jason along with about five of the other new converts. So he tried put the threats out of his mind and get to work. He was successful---at least until Sunday. When he arrived to deliver his fourth message, he was greeted by a picket line. Evidently the mayor’s office had organized a group of routey youth to claim that the church was intolerant because it believed the Bible and really took it seriously. All during the service that morning they could be distantly heard in the background chanting, “2,4,6,8 Paul and Jason stand for hate.”

But, God was still blessing. That morning, twenty more people gave their heart to Christ and that week, they were started in discipleship. This pattern continued for three months. The crowd of thugs protesting outside the gym grew, but the crowd attending the service grew even more. Jason, the principal was called in before the school board. They advised him to stop the Sunday meetings before there was a riot. But Jason wasn’t about to be intimidated. He really believed in Christ and wasn’t going to back away from his new faith.

Pic - Picket line

Finally, on the first Sunday of their fourth month. 200 protestors greeted the 300 attenders who came to church. As Paul and Jason approached their protest line to open the door, they were attacked by the crowd. The police moved in, but instead of arresting the attackers, they arrested Jason and took him to jail. Paul went down and bailed him out. He told Jason that, if his presence was causing so much trouble, he would leave. He told him to tell the church on Sunday that they were to keep meeting and discipling. Hopefully, with him out of the picture, the persecution would lessen.

Now, that is a really believable story, especially in our country as it is today, but it is fictitious. It is, however, patterned after the story of a real church plant that didn’t happen in the U. S. but in Greece . . . back around 47 a. d.in a town called Thessalonica.

Acts 17:1–10 NKJV

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.” And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

You see it in Acts 17: (NLT) Acts 17:1–10 (NLT)

So after Paul and his entourage come to Berea, he ends up starting a church there and receives a better reception. But he can’t get those Thessalonians off of his mind, so he sends Timothy back to check on them. After setting up the church in Berea, Paul goes to Corinth to begin another church. While he’s there, Timothy meets back up with him and reports on the Thessalonian church. 1 Thessalonians is Paul’s response to the report he receives from Timothy. He describes how this persecuted church can stand up and make a difference in their culture. He tells them how you can go when the world says stop.

NEED

And this is a message all of us needs to hear. We live in an increasingly hostile environment. The culture indicts the church for many things today. They say we are intolerant when we claim that Jesus Christ is the only way, the only truth and the only life. They say we are bigots because we adopt a biblical position on moral issues. They call us ignorant because we reject the pseudo-science of materialistic evolution for biblical teaching on divine creation. They call us narrow-minded because of our biblical view of the family and the roles within it that the Bible describes.

Now I hesitate to give you that list of indictments because I don’t want to discourage you, nor do I want to create within you a mentality of retaliation on the one hand or isolation on the other. No, in the face of pressure from our culture, God doesn’t want us to strike out in retaliation or retreat to isolation, God wants us to press forward without fear. He just wants us to go when the world says stop.

TRANS

And you might say, “Well, how, Rusty? How am I supposed to do that?” Well this book of 1 Thessalonians can help us answer that question. You see, I find seven consideration that can help us thrive in a hostile environment. First, if we want to go when the world says stop we can:

You can go when the world says stop when you consider your Father.

D1 – CONSIDER OUR FATHER

EXP

When I say that we should consider our Father, I am talking about pleasing our Father, God. The truth is, who we decide to please will determine what we decide to do and ultimately what we become. There are a couple of reasons that Paul gives us that teach us that we should be focused on pleasing God.

In the first place,

I consider my Father because He is the One Who will judge me.

1 Thessalonians 2:4 NKJV

But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.

1 Thess 2:4 says, But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. Paul tells us that it is God who “tests our hearts.” To test the heart literally means to check it out; to see if it’s genuine. I am to focus on pleasing God because it is God who is constantly checking us out. I consider my Father because He is the One Who will judge me.

I consider my Father because He is the One Who helps me.

But I’m so glad He is also the one who helps me. Look at 1 Thess 3:12: -

1 Thessalonians 3:12–13 NKJV

And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.

And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, 13 so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. Make no mistake about it. God has an agenda! He wants you to be holy and filled with love and it is His Spirit Who births that in me. I keep going when the world says stop by considering my Father.

APP

And it is so important that we understand this truth. Ministry predisposes ministers to please people. In fact, many pastors are people-pleasers and sometimes what we consider success is nothing more than a politician pastor who has perfected the art. But there’s a huge problem with pleasing people. In our desire to please the ones whose opinion does not matter, we may please the One whose opinion really does matter: God.

And here’s the point: In our quest to go when the world says stop, we have to decide God’s opinion is the only one that really matters and learn to hear His voice. So here’s my question: Are you listening? Do you recognize His voice when He does speak? Do you have that awareness of the Holy Spirit’s moving in you constantly?

ILL

Pic - Flock of Sheep

Bill Donahue, tells of His experience as a part-time youth pastor. He was going around to visit his students and he ended up on a farm where two of them lived with their father who kept sheep. The man took him to the edge of his field and challenged him to call the sheep. Well, Bill was young and eager to please, but he didn’t know what to say, so he asked the farmer.

The farmer said, “Just call and say, ‘Hey sheep, come on in.’” So Bill called out, “Hey sheep, come on in.” Nothing happened. The old farmer said, “Hey, they can’t hear you, they’re 75 yards away. Use your diaphragm like they taught you in preaching class.”

So Bill took a deep breath and put every inch of his stomach into a yell that revival preachers all around the world would envy and shouted, “Hey sheep, come on in.” Nothing happened; they just kept munching grass.

The farmer grinned and said sarcastically, “Didn’t you learn anything in Seminary? Don’t you remember what John 10 says about sheep? It says my sheep hear my voice and they know me?” Then the farmer only raised his voice slightly and said, “Hey sheep, come on in,” and immediately all 25 sheep came and stood at his feet.

TRANS

If we are going to go when the world says stop, we have to learn to listen for the Father’s voice. We consider our Father and then we can go when the world says stop when we:

You can go when the world says stop when you consider your family.

D2 CONSIDER OUR FAMILY

ILL

Heather Havrilesky, a journalist and writer, wrote this in her memoir:

Pic - A Mom with Family

If I get sick or lose my mind, I'll ask my husband or my kids or my friends to rise to the occasion and come to my aid. And they'd better come through for me, [darn] it! I dried your tears and paid too much for replicas of lost teddy bears on eBay. I took care of cats and plants and talked you through home purchases and career dilemmas and bad breakups. …

I'll continue to be there, as long as I can be. But someday, you might have to come to my rescue. Brace yourselves, because it won't be pretty. Isn't that what love and friendship are really about?

We weren't meant to suffer alone! We weren't meant to … escape the indignity and frustration of asking for help, for needing help, from someone who might not always enjoy giving it, someone who gets on our nerves, who has never made much sense to us, someone whom we break down and bicker with occasionally. We were meant to lean on each other, as messy and imperfect as that can be, to be capable when we can, and to allow the world to take care of us when we can't. It won't be all bad. Or it will be. But at least we'll have each other.

EXP

The Church, this Church is the FAMILY of God. Nowhere is that more emphasized that in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians.

1 Thessalonians 2:7–8 NKJV

But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.

In 2:7 Paul says: 7 But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. 8 So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. And it seems that they church family in Thessalonica had learned the lesson because Paul says in 1:7 that they have become “examples” to all the other churches in Macedonia and Achaia. Then in 4:9 Paul says:

1 Thessalonians 4:9–10 NKJV

But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more;

APP

This truth is critical to going when the world says stop. If you do not consider your family, you will believe the lie of isolation. That’s what happened to Elijah the prophet when he was running from Jezebel. You remember the story. With great courage this prophet had stood up to the evil Queen, Jezebel. But she was having none of his impertinence and vowed to kill him. So Elijah ran for his life. Finally, in exhaustion, he stops and cries out to God: “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.

Now, when Elijah said that, I am sure he thought that it was true, but he had allowed himself to be isolated. In fact, God reveals to him that there were 7000 more prophets just like him who were willing to stand up to the wicked Queen too. It strikes me, when I stop and think about it, that Elijah had been fighting the battle alone all that time when he could have had 7000 people around him encouraging him!

I tell you the world is too lost and our way too difficult to go it alone. We need our family! That’s why we have life groups in this church! That’s why we have discipleship groups and Sunday school and ManUp and Women’s connection. We need our family! We can go when the world says stop if we do not go alone. We consider our family, and then:

You can go when the world says stop when you consider your opportunity.

D4 - CONSIDER OUR OPPORTUNITY

EXP

At the very beginning of this letter, Paul tells these Thessalonians that their struggle had already brought them great opportunity. In 1:7 he said that they:

1 Thessalonians 1:7–9 NKJV

so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,

Even though these Thessalonians were being pressured and persecuted, they didn’t allow that to stop them from taking advantage of their opportunities to spread the gospel. In fact, their reputation had become so powerful and widespread that when Paul and his missionaries showed up in a new town to plant a church, that town, he says, had already heard of the gospel because of what had happened in Thessalonica. He says that they had already been so thoroughly evangelized by the witness of Thessalonica, that no one else had to say anything!

And this is the powerful secret to going when the world says stop. It is realizing that our very existence in this world is simply our opportunity from God to make an impact for Him. We have a narrow window of opportunity which is our time here on this earth to really make a difference and leave an impact. When you begin to see your life in terms of that opportunity everything begins to change.

ILL

Pastor Wurmbrand was a pastor in Romania who was tortured for 14 years in communist Romania. His story is told in that movie entitled Tortured for Christ. I read an account of something, however, that happened while Pastor Wurmbrand was in prison. He once saw another pastor who had just been tortured and sat motionless on the floor. He had just been thrown into the cell. He was badly beaten. Wurmbrand did not know if he would survive the night.

With loving compassion Pastor Wurmbrand knelt down beside the beaten pastor and asked, “My brother . . . can you say the prayer, ‘Father forgive them’?”

The man winced with pain, touching his swollen, bruised face. It was difficult to speak. The words came out slowly, “I cannot.”

Just as Pastor Wurmbrand began feeling sympathy for the man, the beaten pastor began to speak again. With tears in his eyes he said, “My prayer is not ‘forgive them.’ My prayer is . . . ‘Father, forgive them and me.’ If I had been a better pastor, perhaps there would have been more converted torturers.”

This weary pastor expressed his concern for the missed opportunities to convert his enemies to Christ. Both pastors realized a young member of Romania’s Communist Youth Organization was once arrested and unmercifully beaten by a supposedly Christian police officer. This incident hardened his heart toward Christ for the rest of his life. This missed opportunity for the gospel finally became the dictator of the former Communist nation of Romania. Nicolai Ceausescu was responsible for the torture of countless Christians, including Pastor Wurmbrand and his fellow beaten pastor.

APP

Honestly, I am humbled when I hear of stories like this. I sometimes think of how we as believers in this country have gotten so comfortable and become so much a part of the world that we have so little impact on it.

But I believe that God wants to call us from that complacency! He wants us to engage our lives. He wants to use our homes, our cars, our income and, yes, our time to engage us to make an impact. He wants us to be used for His glory and He wants us to be used to bring life change through Christ-centered relationships.

You might have a little resistance when you hear that. Maybe you think that this missional living I’m talking about will rob you of all the pleasure of life. Far from it! Entering into the fellowship of His sufferings is the thing that brings real joy to your heart, if you really know Jesus. O listen! I’m not asking you to give up ANYTHING when I’m asking you to engage in this ministry of reaching this world. No! I’m offering you the greatest opportunity anyone ever had! I am offering you the opportunity to experience the joy of Jesus Christ.

VIS

Can I just give you a living example of this joy? I ran across this testimony of a guy named Liyang in China. He talks about what it is like to live out your faith in China, but I want you to listen between the lines as you hear this. I want you to hear the passion he has for God and the joy he is experiencing in walking with the Lord in a hard place – PLAY VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKanVzGTKUg