Lifting Up Truth, Laying Down Ourself

.Bye, now we've made Good morning 121, will you stand and worship with us this morning?God sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they called him JesusGod sent his Son, they called him JesusGod sent his Son, they called him Jesus<p begin="00.0.13.333.666">He sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they called him Jesus<p begin="00.0.13.333.666">He sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they called him Jesus<p begin="00.0.13.333.666">He sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they called him Jesus<p begin="00.0.13.333.666">He sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they called him Jesus<p begin="00.0.13.333.666">He sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they called him JesusHe sent his Son, they ♪ Prophets to the virgin came the word ♪ ♪ From a throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt ♪ ♪ Praise the Father, praise the Son ♪ ♪ Praise the Spirit, three in one ♪ ♪ God of glory, majesty ♪ ♪ All praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ To reveal the kingdom come and to reconcile the lost ♪ ♪ To redeem the whole creation you did not despise the cost ♪ ♪ For even in your suffering you saw to the other side ♪ ♪ Knowing this was our salvation Jesus for our sake you died ♪ ♪ Jesus for our sake you died ♪ ♪ Praise the Father, praise the Son ♪

♪ Praise the Spirit, three in one ♪ ♪ God of glory, majesty ♪ ♪ All praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ In the morning that you rose all of heaven held its breath ♪ ♪ Till that stone was moved for good ♪ ♪ For the Lamb had conquered death ♪ ♪ And the dead rose from their tombs ♪ ♪ And the angels stood in awe ♪ ♪ For the souls of all who had come to the Father are restored ♪ ♪ And the church of Christ was born ♪ ♪ And His Spirit lit the flame ♪ ♪ Now this gospel truth of old ♪ ♪ It shall not kneel, it shall not flame ♪ ♪ By His blood and in His name ♪ ♪ In His freedom I am free ♪ ♪ For the love of Jesus Christ the life's resurrected King ♪ ♪ Resurrected in me ♪ Thank you for your life. ♪ Oh praise the Father, praise us ♪ ♪ All creation praises you ♪ ♪ You are free in the world, oh God of glory ♪ ♪ All the glory that I see ♪ ♪ Praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ In the dark of the beginning ♪ ♪ Oh with God the Lord most high ♪ ♪ Your hidden glory and creation ♪ ♪ Now revealed that you are Christ ♪ ♪ What a beautiful name it is, what a beautiful name it is ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus Christ my King ♪

♪ What a beautiful name it is, nothing compares to this ♪ ♪ What a beautiful name it is, the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ What a beautiful name it is, the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ We didn't want heaven without us ♪ ♪ So Jesus you brought heaven down ♪ ♪ My sin was great, your love was greater ♪ ♪ Oh, what could separate us now ♪ ♪ What a wonderful name it is ♪ ♪ What a wonderful name it is ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus Christ my King ♪ ♪ What a wonderful name it is ♪ ♪ Oh, nothing compares to this ♪ ♪ What a wonderful name it is ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus ♪ ♪ What a wonderful name it is ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, we love to sing of your goodness ♪ ♪ We love to sing of your kindness ♪ ♪ Oh, how wonderful a name ♪ ♪ Oh, how beautiful a name ♪ ♪ Yeah, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ No one else is mighty ♪ ♪ No one else is worthy no, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ His death could not halt it — Well, death's heard it for you ♪ ♪ The silence, the bust, unsettling ♪ ♪ The heavens are all the praise of your glory ♪ ♪ Oh, for you are raised to life again ♪ ♪ And you have no rival and you have no equal ♪ ♪ Now and forever, God, you reign ♪ ♪ Oh, yours is the kingdom and yours is the glory ♪

♪ Yours is the name above all names ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is, what a powerful name it is ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus Christ, my King ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is, oh, nothing is there against ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ And you have no rival and you have no equal ♪ ♪ Now and forever, God, you reign ♪ ♪ Oh, yours is the kingdom and yours is the glory ♪ ♪ Yours is the name above all names ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is, what a powerful name it is ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus Christ, my King ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is, oh, nothing is there against ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ I just wanna speak the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Over every heart and every mind ♪ ♪ Cause I know there is peace within your presence ♪ ♪ I speak Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ And I just wanna speak the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Till every dark addiction starts to break ♪ ♪ Declaring there is hope and there is freedom ♪ ♪ I speak Jesus ♪ ♪ Your name is power, your name is healing ♪ ♪ Your name is love ♪ ♪ Break every stronghold, shout through the shadows ♪

♪ Burn like a fire ♪ ♪ And I just wanna speak the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Over fear and all anxiety ♪ ♪ Till every soul is captive by depression ♪ ♪ I speak Jesus ♪ ♪ Your name is power, your name is healing ♪ ♪ Your name is love ♪ ♪ Break every stronghold, shout through the shadows ♪ ♪ Burn like a fire ♪ ♪ Your name is power, your name is healing ♪ ♪ Your name is love ♪ ♪ Break every stronghold, shout through the shadows ♪ ♪ Burn like a fire ♪ ♪ Shout Jesus from the mountains ♪ ♪ Jesus in the streets ♪ ♪ Jesus in the darkness over every enemy ♪ ♪ Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name, Jesus ♪ ♪ Shout Jesus, shout Jesus from the mountains ♪ ♪ Jesus in the streets ♪ ♪ Jesus in the darkness over every enemy ♪ ♪ Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name, Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name, Jesus ♪ ♪ Your name is power, your name is healing ♪ ♪ Your name is love ♪ ♪ Break every stronghold, shout through the shadows ♪ ♪ Burn like a fire ♪ ♪ Your name is power, your name is healing ♪ ♪ Your name is love ♪ ♪ Break every stronghold, shout through the shadows ♪ ♪ Burn like a fire ♪

♪ And I just wanna speak the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Over every heart and every mind ♪ ♪ Cause I know there is peace within your presence ♪ ♪ I speak Jesus name ♪ Father, God, this morning we thank you, God. We thank you for the name of Jesus. The name above every other name, Father. The name that holds power, God. The name that holds peace. God, we thank you for the work that was done on the cross for us this morning. And we celebrate and say Hallelujah, God. Thank you for what you've done for us, Father. You are great, you are holy, you are great. Let's give thanks. ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ I would be hopeless without your goodness ♪ ♪ I would be desperate without your love ♪ ♪ Away in the darkness if it were to fall across ♪ ♪ I would have won with your kindness ♪ ♪ Chase me down when I was lost ♪ ♪ Oh, where would I be if it were to fall across? ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, I was a prisoner ♪ ♪ Now I'm not, because with your blood you bought my freedom ♪ ♪ Oh, hallelujah, fall across ♪ ♪ Oh, fall across ♪ ♪ I would be hopeless without your goodness ♪ ♪ You'd be my song, you're the glory, you're the power ♪

♪ Oh, fall across, hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, I was a prisoner ♪ ♪ Now I'm not, because with your blood you bought my freedom ♪ ♪ Oh, hallelujah, fall across ♪ ♪ And by your stripes I'm healed, and by your death I live ♪ ♪ The power of sin is overcome, it is finished, it is done ♪ ♪ And by your stripes I'm healed, and by your death I live ♪ ♪ The power of sin is overcome, it is finished, it is done ♪ ♪ And by your stripes I'm healed, and by your death I live ♪ ♪ The power of sin is overcome, it is finished, it is done ♪ ♪ And by your stripes I'm healed, and by your death I live ♪ ♪ The power of sin is overcome, it is finished, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus was a prince ♪ ♪ Now I'm not, because with your blood you bought my freedom ♪ ♪ Oh, hallelujah, fall across ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus was a prince ♪ ♪ Now I'm not, because with your blood you bought my freedom ♪ ♪ Oh, hallelujah, fall across ♪ ♪ Oh, we thank you, fall across ♪ ♪ Oh, we thank you, fall across ♪ Amen, amen, we give God praise this morning and then you can have a seat as we continue. Good morning. Well, if you are fairly new here in the last couple weeks, that's our Pastor Ross. He is on sabbatical right now, so that's why you haven't seen him, but he did that video before he left for us. But we're really excited about what God is doing among our church, and because of that, God is drawing people in, and so we're creating this four o'clock service to have more space to welcome people in

and to help people live for Jesus Christ. Well, today is Mother's Day, and Mother's Day is a day Mother's Day brings a mix of emotions. We often say happy Mother's Day, but for some it's not that. So I wanna just acknowledge that for several here, this might be a really hard day for you as you maybe are going through the loss of a mother or never really had a mother or haven't been able to be a mother or all of the things that can happen. And so we wanna acknowledge that, that this can be a hard day. And at the same time, we wanna celebrate and we wanna honor the moms who are among us. We wanna honor the sacrifices that y'all have made, how often you have lifted up the truth for your kids and how often you've laid down yourself for the sake of your kids and your family. And so today, I hope that you are just honored in everything that we do here and throughout the rest of the day. I wanna start off with a story about a mom. And this is a mom who lived in the fourth century, so quite a long time ago. Her name was Monica and she was married to a non-believer and there was a lot of challenges that he did not treat her well, but she was rooted strongly in her faith. And so she continued to pray for him

and to pray for their young son. And their son, as she continued to pray, he actually started to press against the faith. He wanted nothing to do with it. He went a completely different direction. He rejected the faith of his mom. He pursued mistresses, he pursued pleasure, he pursued whatever he wanted to. And he pursued these intellectual pursuits. And so because of that, he actually belittled his mom's faith. But that didn't stop her. She continued to just lift up the truth to him. She continued to be on her knees and praying for him. And as a matter of fact, there's a really influential bishop of the day, the Bishop of Ambrose said this about her and her son. It is impossible that the son of so many tears should perish. She was constantly praying, constantly weeping for his soul. Well, something happened when he turned 35 years old. He was in a garden and he heard a voice. The voice was the voice of a child. And the child said to him, take up and read. So he took up the Bible and started reading. And he read from Romans 13. It was there that God convicted him. He said it was like a light flooding in. He was convicted of his sins and he turned to Jesus and he saw the reality of who Jesus was. And from there, he became actually

a really influential figure in the church. Because of his intellectual proudness, he wrote all kinds, he studied, he became a priest. He wrote all kinds of works that we still reference today. They shape the thinking of the Christian church. He also stood up against heresy. There was a lot of false ideas coming at the time and he stood firm for the truth. Now his mom died shortly after he trusted Christ. She had no idea the influence that he would have. But she knew that he trusted Christ. She knew that all of the work, all of the toil, all of the laying down of her life, all of the lifting up of the truth, it all made a difference. Her life was filled with meaning because of what she did for him. We know him today as Augustine of Hippo, or St. Augustine, not the grass, but the guy. And a lot of his writings survive today and they've made a giant impact on the world. But what we don't hear about, we hear about his name, what we don't hear about is all the tears and all the prayers that went into his upbringing and raising. And I love this story because it reminds me a lot of my mom, who prayed for me, who shed tears when I was going a similar direction as Augustine, was pursuing my own path, a path of darkness, a path away from Christ, a path of doing whatever I wanna do,

whatever made me feel good. But yet she persistently lifted up the truth. She persistently prayed and begged God for me. And this reminds me of so many of the moms who are here. It reminds me of my wife, who over the years, daily has toiled, lifting up the truth for our kids and laying down herself day in, day out, giving up what she wants for the sake of our children. And that is so many moms here. And so we just wanna say thank you today for what you do on a day-to-day basis, the difficulty it is to be a mom and the incredible calling it is. to be a mom today. And as we talk about this, one of the things we're gonna see is that what we're gonna see in our text today is that God gives us meaning and purpose in those activities that might seem mundane, but that's where we actually find meaning and purpose in life. So let's look at, we're gonna be in 1 Thessalonians 2, verses one through eight and we've been, as a church, walking through this letter of 1 Thessalonians. So we started three weeks ago in, actually, in Acts 17, and there we learned, because it's kind of the background info to the letter of Thessalonians,

and we learned that Paul is going to this new city called Thessalonica, and while he's there, he is meeting people, he's telling them about Jesus, and some of them are trusting in Jesus and wanna follow Jesus. So he gathers them up and he starts to teach them and help them, and they share Jesus with other people, and then those people trust in Jesus, and so he starts to gather people up, and this is what we would call a church, right? They gather people up to reach others and to encourage and strengthen one another, to grow in their faith, to make disciples. So this is what a church is. So when we talk, at 121, about planting churches, which we're talking a lot about right now, this is what it means. It means just to go into these cities and to start building relationships and forming a church that will reach people for the good news of Jesus. So this is what he did, but God was working in incredible ways during this time with the Thessalonians, but as we often see, when God's working incredible ways, almost without fail, we start to see opposition,

and so in Acts 17, we read this. In verse five, he says, "'But the Jews were jealous, "'and taking some wicked men of the rabble, "'they formed a mob. "'They set the city in an uproar, "'and they attacked the house of Jason, "'seeking to bring them out to the crowd.'" So there are oppositions coming, and the Thessalonians, the Christians there, are saying, Paul, dude, you gotta get out of town. They are coming after you. They are looking for blood. So Paul and Silas, they move, they leave town, and they go to the next town, Berea, where they do the same thing, and then they moved on to Corinth, and they do the same thing, but while he's in Corinth, Paul's wondering, okay, what happened to this church in Thessalonia? Did they continue to thrive in their faith, or did they even survive at all? Was their faith squashed out by the opposition among them? Well, he got good news. Someone came to him and gave him a report of what was happening in Thessalonica, and it was good. As a matter of fact,

we've read about that in the first two chapter, the first chapter, the first two weeks as we read this letter, where Paul says that they have been an example to the other churches, where they have turned from worshiping worthless idols to worshiping the living God, and he says that they've turned the world upside down. Those are pretty good things. So he's excited, because not only have they survived, they have thrived, but he also gets news that the opposition's still there, and they're talking some trash. They're telling these people, why are you believing this nonsense? Paul, who shared it with you, he's not even here anymore. He bailed on you, and so that's what we're gonna pick up today is Paul responding to this criticism that he bailed on, and what Paul is telling them is, remember, he's writing a letter to this church, and he's saying, remember, first of all, the fruit of my time with you, what's become of you, how you've grown, how you've changed, how you're an example to others, and then secondly, in what we're gonna see today, he says, remember how I acted among you.

Remember how I spent my time. Remember how I did. You know me, and I know you. Remember that, and he says this in verse one of chapter two. He says, my coming to you was not in vain, and that word in vain just means empty. It's pointless, meaningless, right? It's like a wild goose chase. My coming to you is not a wild goose chase, and I think this is really important for us today because this is what we all want. Our biggest fear is that our life will be meaningless, right, that our life will be a wild goose chase, will not really amount to anything, but when we get to the end of our lives, we wanna be able to look back and go, there was meaning there. I lived with purpose. I made a difference. Forget the end of our lives, at the end of this week, we wanna look back and go, there was meaning and purpose this week. I made a difference. There was significance to what I did this week. We all desire that, we all want that. So how can we live with meaning and purpose? Well, that's what Paul is gonna lay out because what we see in 1 Thessalonians 2, verses one through eight, is kind of Paul's playbook. He kind of lays it out as like, here's what this looks like.

And we see two really kind of clear pictures in here. The first picture he says is that in order to have a meaningful life, that what he did was he was boldly lifting up the truth. And then the second half, he says the picture here is that he was gently laying down himself. And so both of those things are what it takes to live a meaningful and purposeful life. Now, what's interesting about those things is we often think that those two things are really opposite, that there's kind of a tension there, right? There's strength of lifting up truth and there's gentleness of laying down ourselves. So how do those two things go together? Seems like you kind of pick one or the other, but not for Paul. He says, no, no, no, we've gotta hold these things in tension. And Paul does a phenomenal job of holding these two things in tension. And he says that, keeping both of them is the secret, the key to living a meaningful life. It's not one or the other. So let me read to you this text that we're gonna be going through today just so we can soak in what Paul is saying to us. In 1 Thessalonians 2, starting in verse one. For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you is not in vain. But though we had already suffered

and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as you have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please man, but to please God, who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with the pretext of greed. God is our witness. Nor do we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our very lives, our very selves, because you have become very dear to us. So we see in there that the front half, this idea of lifting up the truth, and in the back half, the idea of laying down ourselves. And we wanna see how do these two fit together and go together? Because that's what Paul says is a meaningful life,

because we have to have both of these things. If we wanna love well, if we wanna have a meaningful life, we have to have both of these pieces. And I think moms intuitively know this well. Moms know to love a child, we have to lift up the truth and lay down ourselves. Picture a mom, I'll give you an example of how this could not work. Picture a mom who laid down herself. She gave it all for her kids. She's the head of the PTA. She goes to every single game. She drives her kids all over the place, right? But if that same mom didn't lift up the truth, never taught her kid, never potty trained her kids, never taught them right from wrong, never taught them, hey, look both ways before you cross the street, what would we say? That's not okay, that's not loving, right? It has to be both, lifting up the truth and laying down ourselves. It's both and, and the vice versa is true. So if we wanna truly love others, it includes boldly lifting up the truth and boldly laying down ourselves. So let's look at both of these ideas as we go into the text and we'll kind of see what Paul has for us so we can know more and more

how we can live this meaningful life that Paul lives. So the first, verse one says, for you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you is not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we have boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. So he's saying that, I, suffered in Philippi. So Philippi was the city that he visited before Thessalonica. And while he was there, he and Silas went there and they proclaimed boldly the good news of Jesus and persecution came and they suffered. They were shamed, it says. There was much conflict. So what we read about in Acts is that not only did they come, but they were arrested, they were stripped naked, put in a public square, beaten, and publicly shamed. They were put into stocks, those things that clamp your feet down, and then they were arrested and put in prison. And none of this should have happened. They were Roman citizens, so it shouldn't have happened. But for most people, if this happens, if they were shamed like that, what most people would do is they would kind of think twice

and kind of back off the truth. Next time around, I might do something a little bit different, right? But not Paul. He presses in, he says, no, no, no, this is the truth of God that I've been entrusted with. We're gonna press on. So he says that we continued on, we boldly declared that truth. And I think this is something that we need to hear today because what our culture screams at us and what we hear, what we think is that if it's hard or if it is, if I'm getting opposition from something, then I must be doing something wrong. I better back off and do something different. That if I am suffering in any way, that it's not okay. I must be doing something wrong. Our culture is built on this idea of comfort. And comfort is like the greatest good. It's the idol of our culture today. And if we're not experiencing comfort, if we don't have what other people have, then we must be doing something wrong, right? But that is nothing could be further from the truth. That is just not reality. And it's not what scripture teaches us. Take a look at several places. In James 1, James tells us, "'Consider it pure joy, my brothers, "'when you face trials of many kinds,

"'for the testing of your faith brings endurance. "'And let endurance have its full effect "'so that you may be perfect and complete, "'lacking in nothing.'" Look at Paul's life. In 2 Corinthians 11, we get a summary of Paul's life. And you wanna see a life of conflict and heart. Starting in verse 24, he says, "'Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, "'40 lashes minus one. "'Three times I was beaten with rods. "'Once I was stoned. "'Three times I was shipwrecked, "'a day and a night adrift at sea, "'on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, "'robbers, my own people, "'danger from Gentiles in the city, "'danger in the wilderness, "'at sea, danger from false brothers, "'in toil and hardship, "'through many a sleepless night, "'in hunger and thirst, "'often without food, "'in cold and exposure.'" That sounds pretty bad, right? And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. So he's worried about these churches that he's planting. How are they gonna survive?

How are they doing? What's going on? Just like a parent is worried about their kids. There's this kind of constant anxiety. If we wanna live a meaningful life, that's what comes with it, is there is toil, there is hardship that comes with it. There are things that don't necessarily go away, and it can be hard. Jesus says it this way in John 15, starting in verse 18. He says, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. And in verse 20, he goes on to say, "'Remember that the word I said to you, "'a servant is not greater than his master. "'If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.'" See, when we step into heart, when we step into conflict, when we step in with the truth, that is the very definition of boldness. Paul says, I was bold to declare to you the gospel of Jesus. That's what boldness is. It's stepping into the heart. It's stepping into the conflict. It's knowing that that's what's probably gonna come, but I value something more than that. I value the truth so much so

that that is more important than my comfort. That's what boldness is. And I think we tend to love the idea of boldness. That sounds like something I want to have. Matter of fact, many of us probably say that we are bold in certain ways. But I think what happens often is although we like boldness, we want to be bold, we don't want to step into that conflict. We like the idea of being bold, but we really more like to play it safe. We want to live for something. Meaningful, but not without the mess. We desire boldness oftentimes, but we seek comfort. And so oftentimes we're afraid to take that risk. And here's the deal, here's what Paul is saying, is that if we're not willing to take the risk, we won't have meaning in our lives. Everything that's meaningful, there's a cost to it, it's hard, there's risk that goes along with it. And so if we want to have meaning, we want to have purpose, we need to boldly lift up the truth. We need to live boldly, we need to take the risk. He says, I boldly declared to you the gospel of God. What does that mean? What does it mean that he boldly declared the gospel? When we see this word gospel, it means the good news. It's a proclamation of what is true. It's like a news brief.

Here's what has happened, here's what is true. And so the gospel of God is the fact that Jesus, this was his message, that Jesus, God himself, came down, became flesh, lived a perfect life for us, and then laid his life down on a Roman cross for our sins. See, when we trust in Jesus, then there's a unity that forms. What is true of him is true of us. And so his right standing with the Father is transferred, is credited to our account. And then our sin, our guilt before God is credited to his. And so he pays the punishment. He bears the consequence for our sins, for our rebelling against God the Father, for us saying, no, I want to be God. He takes the consequence of that. And the consequence is death and separation from God. And then what's true of him is true of us. We are made right with him. Relationship is restored with God. It's a beautiful picture. It's great news, right? So you might say, well, why would anybody oppose that? Why wouldn't anybody not wanna hear that good news? Why would anybody reject that? Well, what we need to understand is in order to understand the good news, we also have to understand the bad news. And the bad news is that we are sinners, that we have rebelled against God.

Not just that we've done this, but that this is who we are. We wanna do things our own way. This is just kind of built into our human nature ever since our earliest ancestors. And because of that, there is just this separation with him. There's a relational disconnect and we can feel it. That's the bad news. And probably the bad news for the culture that we live in is this, that you can't fix it. Our culture says, yeah, we just try harder. We work harder. We do more, right? Surely there's a way we can earn our way back into this thing. And the bad news is no, we can't. No matter what we do, we can't. But Jesus already has. And so the way that we enter into that relationship with him is probably what's most hard for our culture, and that's to give up control. To say, no, you've got this. I can't do it, Jesus. You've got this. You've done this for me. I submit to you. I wanted to go your way. Your way is better. I will do the best I can to follow you in that. That's the good news. Because once we do that, it's taken care of.

And we're made right with God. So that's the good news of Jesus. That's the gospel that Paul's laying out. And we have to not only, Paul says, I declared it to you. So it's not a matter of just us just living good. We have to declare it to others. I hear people talk sometimes about how, I don't really wanna talk about religion with other people. I really just want to live better, and surely they'll get it, right? Well, what they'll get is that you're a good person, but they won't get the gospel. We have to speak it. It's news that we have to speak to others. And so this is what Paul is telling us here, is if we wanna have a meaningful life, we've gotta lift up the truth. That means we have discussions about the good news of Jesus. And in verse three, he says, for our appeal does not spring from error, or impurity, or any attempt to deceive. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak. Paul says, I've been entrusted with the gospel. Love that word, because each of us have been entrusted with the gospel. If you're a follower of Jesus, you have been entrusted with the gospel, which means not just that Paul didn't just receive the gospel, but the word entrust means

that there's an expectation that we're gonna do something with it. If you're a parent, you understand this. You've been entrusted with children. That means you don't just receive them, but there's an expectation that you'll turn around and do something with it, right? If you have a financial planner, you entrust them with your wealth, and then there's an expectation they will do something with it, right? The same is true for us. We are entrusted with the truth. And so we are to lift up the truth boldly. We're to reject error. Paul says that this is not how I came with error, but we are to love the truth. When my daughter, Lindsay, was born, she's my third daughter. So I had two other kids before her. We went to the hospital that morning, Kathy and I, and we got her all kind of set up and hooked up. And then my parents brought our children, our two other kids there. So Drew was our oldest. He was four years old. And so he comes into the room. Kathy hadn't had the baby yet. And so he starts just asking all these questions. He hops up on the bed with Kathy.

Y'all know, if you have a four-year-old, you know all the questions that come, right? What about this? What is that? But then he asked this question. He says, mom, how are they gonna get that baby out of your tummy? Like, uh-oh. Didn't plan on having that conversation today. So we both kind of look at each other, and I'm about to start launching into, well, son, here's how this works. And he said, I mean, how are they gonna open your mouth big enough to get the baby out? Like, okay, all right, he's not quite tracking yet. I don't think it's time yet. But it's a fun, it's an innocent story, right? But what would have happened if we hadn't corrected that untruth? If we just let him believe his whole life that baby's come out of the mom's mouth, right? That would be cruel, that would be unloving. We have a responsibility for truth. So if we have the truth, we need to let people know. We can do it in a gentle way. We can do it in a loving way. We can ask questions around what they think is true to try and point them back to, well, what about this? And to bring them to a place where they understand, here's what we see is true.

Because, guys, we have the truth on our side. And so we are to love that truth, and we are to lift up the truth boldly. In verse four, he says this. He says, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. Paul's not trying to be a people pleaser here. He's got a focus of an audience of one. He is trying to please God in what he says. We see that throughout his ministry. In the 1990s, George Bush was president, and he had a chief of staff named John Sununu. I just like saying that name. But Sununu was asked once. So his job was to run the executive branch of the government, basically. All the people in that branch reported up to him, and he would have to make all those things happen. It was an incredibly difficult, complex job. It's gotta be one of the most complex jobs in the world. And so a reporter asked him once, is your job hard? And he said, no. And the reporter said, wait, wait, wait, I don't think you understood the question. Is your job hard? He said, no. He said, I have one constituent. That was the president of the United States.

He had one person. He had to, all he, what his job was was to do whatever the president wants done. Whatever pleases the president, that's what his focus was. And as long as he did that, he was doing his job. That's what Paul had. He had one constituent. It was God. But how about us? Do we have that mentality where we have one constituent? That's God. That we're seeking to please him rather than trying to please people. And I don't know about y'all, but I struggle with this one. I am, by nature, a people pleaser. I find myself in conversations with people, and I find myself thinking like, okay, I wonder how they're perceiving me. Are they, am I coming across as intelligent? Am I coming across this way? What will they say about me when they leave here? Rather than thinking about what does God have in this conversation? What does this person need? What does this person need to hear? What is this person feeling? How can I encourage this person? How can I challenge this person? With a focus on pleasing God, now we're open to where we don't have to be so focused on ourselves.

Guys, this is hard to do. It's hard to live. It's hard to lift up the truth in these conversations rather than just trying to say what people want to hear so we feel better about ourselves. Nothing kills our boldness quicker than people pleasing. So we've spent time looking at this first chunk of scripture and we've seen that it takes boldness to lift up the truth. But if we want a meaningful life, we need to lift up the truth boldly and what we'll see now is that we also need to lay down ourselves gently. Verse five says this. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, or nor a pretext for greed, as God is our witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. Paul didn't go with flattering words. He wasn't trying to butter them up. He wasn't trying to get something out of them. He wasn't trying to get glory from people. He wasn't trying to make a name for himself or get the likes. His focus was to care for them. He said that he was gentle like a nursing mother. Now, I don't know about you,

I kind of struggle with that idea because when I read Paul, I don't think of gentle usually, right? As I read some of his letters, he's very direct. He is very much a boldly lifting up the truth kind of guy and he does it very directly. I say, okay, well, is that gentle? What does that look like? But I think the challenge is we don't often understand what that word gentle means. We think it means soft. I don't know about you, but when I am praying through the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, I ask God for, God, give me love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. Then the next one's gentleness. Like, whoa, do I wanna ask God for gentleness? I don't know that I really like that idea. It's because I don't fully understand what gentleness is. Gentleness is not softness. It's strength laying down itself for someone else. It's someone who's strong laying down their strength for the benefit of someone else. The word here, the Greek word is napios. No, nepios. It's the word that we use to get the English word nepotism or nepo baby. It's that idea of a parent-child relationship. But the image here is like a big, strong lumberjack

laying down his strength to tenderly take care of a baby. That's the picture here. Gentleness is not softness. It's strength laid down. So I wanna ask, we've been talking a lot about the moms. I wanna ask the guys. We probably struggle with this the most. Are you growing in gentleness? Are you growing in your ability to take the strength that you have and lay it down for the sake of someone else? Laying ourselves down. The picture he gives here, I just love it because on Mother's Day, this is just such a great picture for us, is that he says, I was gentle like a nursing mother. And so just think about that picture. A nursing mother is literally giving her body, giving herself to this baby. And it's a 24-7 thing. A newborn baby for the first several months eats eight times a day. That's every three hours. And in between there, there's changing the baby, there's cuddling the baby, there's bathing the baby, all of these things. It is an all-out sacrifice of laying down everything for this young baby. And I love seeing women because all of a sudden, it's like a switch flips in them and they are grateful to do it.

They love to sacrifice and to give over themselves, give everything about themselves for this newborn baby. And that starts at birth and it continues their whole life. This is what we love about moms. This is what we honor about moms. This is what we celebrate about moms is their willingness to sacrifice so much to lay down themselves in this. I think it's a beautiful picture of sacrificial love, which if we wanna talk about what is love, culture has all kinds of different versions of like, here's what love is. No, love, real love is the willingness to sacrifice yourself for someone else. That's the truest form of love. I wanna read this article, this excerpt of this article that was sent to me from Desiring God, it's a website, to just kind of put, I think he just words it really well in honoring moms in this way. It says, do you ever remember your mom helping you put clothes on? The question came from my wife, a mother of two young boys who have not yet mastered the art of getting dressed. So I thumbed through the files of those early years and I came up blank, thousands of pant pull-ups and shirt put-ons lost to conscious memory. My wife came up blank too. So it was a humbling moment as we imagined our boys

30 years from now, remembering almost nothing of these everyday routines. It was also a moment, and they seem often these days, that put motherhood in a new and hallowed light. The wisest of women builds her house, Solomon tells us in Proverbs 14 one. And house building, I'm learning, is both beautiful and forgettable. Essential and often unnoticed. One of the world's most important tasks and one of the ones most easily overlooked. Clothing children, feeding children, teaching children, discipling children, disciplining children. This is brickwork, painful and painstaking, slow going and mundane. But if you follow godly men and women back to their beginnings, you will often find a mother pulling a foot through a pant leg, reciting a psalm from a smudged index card. And through 10,000 other small moments, building a house whose walls gleam with godly wisdom and on whose floors rests the fear of the Lord. Let's get to the end. He finishes off saying, the praiseworthy hero, as often happens in God's kingdom, is not the one our society would expect. Not the big, but the small. Not the well-known, but the obscure. Not the woman wrestling men in the movies, but the woman wrestling a T-shirt over a toddler's head.

When we rise up and call her blessed, we anticipate the day when everything hidden will be revealed and the forgotten labors of every wise mother will be proclaimed from the housetops. Like he just captures so well how moms are able to sacrifice themselves. And that's why Paul uses this image here. It's in those day-to-day, dying to self, sacrificing self, that we lay down ourselves and we're able to really make a difference. We're able to live with meaning and purpose by laying down ourselves. Not so focused on me and lifting me, myself up, but living for something bigger than myself. That's what it looks like to lay ourselves down. It's a great picture for all of us because we're called to lift up the truth. And oftentimes when we lift up the truth, we're met with cynicism. But what breaks through that cynicism more than anything else is when we're willing to lay ourselves down for someone else. When we're able to show that we truly care about others, that we're willing to step into the mess of their lives, that we're willing to get into it with them. And this is how Christianity spread rapidly in the early years. When the plagues, the great plagues would come and everybody would flee the cities and leave the sick behind.

It was the Christians who stayed, who went in, who laid down themselves to take care of the sick. And people saw this and were amazed. So what would cause you to do that? So they had the opportunity to share, to lift up the truth of who Jesus is and what he was and what he was doing. And what Jesus is and why they would do that. If we want to live with meaning and purpose, we want to lift up the truth and we need to lay down ourselves. Verse eight, it's the last verse here. It says, so being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to... to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. You see, Paul, when he was with them, he lived with them. He didn't just come into town, drop a truth bomb and leave. He lived with them. He had meals with them. He worked with them. They knew each other. As a matter of fact, so many times in this one little section, he says, you know me. You remember me as you are my witness, right? He knew them, and they knew him. And there is a power to this, to being known by others. Each and every person you come in contact with wants more than anything else to be known by someone else.

And when we get to know them, we have the opportunity to lift up the truth to them. And they see the beauty of the way Jesus did things. I can think of so many examples of this as I look out at the people of 121, seeing people who gladly lay down themselves for the sake of others. We've been talking about planting churches. And I think about our church planters that we've sent out or that we've partnered with. It's usually a person and his family who go out and they start a church. And it is hard, lonely work. Lonely work, as they are pouring themselves out, laying themselves down for others, being vulnerable to others. And so that's why we as a church come alongside them. That's why it's so important for us to come alongside them and help them, support them, to help them get started as they plant these churches. But think about lying, dying, laying down our lives. I think about our life group leaders here. I think about so many men and women who lay down themselves for the people in their group, to shepherd them, to lead them week in and week out, to enter into their lives, to encourage, to challenge. Our life group leaders are doing this. I think about people who are discipling other people in our church, who are meeting one-on-one and saying, hey, here's what it looks like to live out your faith

on a day-to-day basis. And they do this together. I think about people who open up their homes. You got like Kevin and Michelle Bays. Their kids have moved out, and yet now they open up their bedrooms, and they always have people coming and staying with them. And it's not just, hey, you can use the room. It's, hey, come have dinner with us. Enjoy, let's talk, and getting to know them. Come along with us as we do life. It's people like Jermaine and Megan Arful, who are opening their house up to students all the time, who are coming over, and they're just saying, here's what life looks like. It's crazy and messy sometimes, but here's what life looks like, and here's how we're trying our best to follow Jesus. So many different ways I see people laying down themselves in order to lift up the truth to others. Now, let's face it, though. As we think about this idea of laying down ourselves, it sounds really easy right now, right? But oftentimes, it takes more boldness to lay down ourselves than it does to lift up the truth, to give up our comfort, to give up what we wanna do, to be willing to be interrupted, to not get all the stuff done on our task list. It's costly for us. It costs something as we live this way,

as we lay down ourselves. But here's the thing that Paul knew is that nothing meaningful happens unless we're willing to pay a price. There's a cost for everything. And so if we wanna live a meaningful, a significant life, then what we need to do is being willing to lay down ourselves, to live not just for ourselves, but to live for something bigger, someone bigger. There's a cost to this, and sometimes that cost is hard. So why would we do it? Why would we be willing to put ourselves out? Why would we be willing to lay down ourselves? That sounds hard for others. I think the biggest reason is because that's exactly what Jesus did for us. He put aside the comforts of heaven. He came and He lived a perfect life in the flesh. He lifted up the truth to us, and then He laid Himself down on a Roman cross for us. When we get that, when we really see that, That should fill us with so much gratitude. And that gratitude moves us to then go, you know what? Okay, what can I do? What do I need to do? What does this look like for me? How do I live like this? Not only that, but Jesus tells us in Luke 9.23, says, if anyone would come after me,

let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but forfeits himself? There's a cost to following Jesus. When we trust in Jesus, it's not just a, hey, I believe in these facts. There is a cost to it. It means that I am really willing to let go of control and follow him and do things his way, to lay down myself, to take up my cross. That's what it looks like to follow Jesus on a day-to-day basis. We've been entrusted with the gospel. What are we gonna do with that? And we've been called to lay down ourselves. Galatians 2.20 says this. I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. There is, if we want to live with meaning and purpose, then we need to lift up the truth, lay down ourselves, look to him as we find a life that makes a difference. Father, thank you. Thank you for this space. Thank you for your word. And even though sometimes it is hard and it cuts,

God, it is so good and beautiful and perfect. And God, I pray that you would stir our hearts for you today. I pray that you would let us know more and more about who you are. I pray that you would move us to action so that we might lift up the truth and we might lay down ourselves. And then God, I pray here for the moms that are here. I just thank you so much for each mom that is here or represented here. I thank you that you have given them this ability and that you've given them as an example to us to what it looks like to lift up truth and to lay down self. God, I pray that we would honor them today. They would feel valued and meaningful. Let's take a minute to just continue to go to the Lord. And if he's been stirring anything in your hearts, just pray through that. What is God's stirring in you today? And then maybe also just to pray for your mom, whatever that situation is, to pray for her, to thank God for her and to pray for her. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. Well, as we wrap up time here together, I wanna invite you, if God has been stirring something during this time, we're gonna have a team of people come up here and pray.

As a matter of fact, if you're part of that team, if you wanna come on up here, we'll have people to pray with you while here. We just wanna invite you to come pray with someone. Don't leave here today without that, if God is stirring. something or there's a burden you have. And then secondly, our worship doesn't stop here. Our time is over, but we continue to worship as we go out through the week. We wanna leave our tithes and offerings as a form of worship and then go and worship all this day, today and this week. And our hope is today that today is meaningful for you and that each and every one of us would step into what it looks like to lift up the truth today and to lay down ourselves. Y'all have a great day. God bless you, God bless you, God bless you.