Walk in a Manner Worthy of God

Please stand to your feet and join us as we worship. Come on. ♪ Blessed are those who run to Him ♪ ♪ Place their hope and confidence in Jesus ♪ ♪ He won't forsake them ♪ ♪ Blessed are those who seek His face ♪ ♪ Bend their knee and fix their gaze on Jesus ♪ ♪ They won't be shaken ♪ ♪ Come on and praise the Lord with me ♪ ♪ Sing if you love His name ♪ ♪ Come on and lift the voice with me ♪ ♪ He's worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ Blessed are those who walk with Him ♪ ♪ Whose hearts are set on pilgrimage with Jesus ♪ ♪ They'll see His glory ♪ ♪ Blessed are those who die to live ♪ ♪ Whose joy it is to give it all to Jesus ♪ ♪ And for Him glory ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus offer your glory ♪ ♪ Come on and praise the Lord with me ♪ ♪ Sing if you love His name ♪ ♪ Come on and lift the voice with me ♪ ♪ He's worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ Come on and praise the Lord with me ♪ ♪ Sing if you love His praise ♪ ♪ Come on and lift up your holy hands ♪ ♪ He's worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ All our praise ♪ ♪ Bless God in the sanctuary ♪ ♪ Bless God in the fields of plenty ♪

♪ Bless God in the darkest valley ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I'll bless your name ♪ ♪ Bless God when my hands are empty ♪ ♪ Bless God with the praise that cost me ♪ ♪ Bless God when nobody's watching ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I'll bless your name ♪ ♪ Bless God with the weapons for me ♪ ♪ Bless God with the walls of falling ♪ ♪ Bless God as He goes before me ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I'll bless your name ♪ ♪ Bless God when my hands are empty ♪ ♪ Bless God who's always with me ♪ ♪ Bless God who's always for me ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I'll bless your name ♪ ♪ Bless God in the sanctuary ♪ ♪ Bless God in the fields of plenty ♪ ♪ Bless God in the darkest valley ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I'll bless your name ♪ ♪ Bless God when my hands are empty ♪ ♪ Bless God with the praise that cost me ♪ ♪ Bless God when nobody's watching ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I'll bless your name ♪ ♪ Bless God when the wind is blowing ♪ ♪ Bless God when the walls are falling ♪ ♪ Bless God as He goes before me ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I'll bless your name ♪ ♪ Bless God for He leads a victory ♪ ♪ Bless God who's always with me ♪ ♪ Bless God for He's always with me ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I'll bless your name ♪

♪ Every chance I get I'll bless your name ♪ ♪ Every chance I get I'll bless your name ♪ ♪ Praise God more than me ♪ ♪ See Him in love this day ♪ ♪ Lift your voice to Him who lives forever ♪ ♪ Christ with me, he's worthy of our praise ♪ ♪ Come on and make your life complete ♪ ♪ Sing with you all his praise ♪ ♪ Come on and live of your holiness ♪ ♪ Yes, he's worthy of our praise ♪ ♪ Yes, he's worthy of our praise ♪ ♪ Yes, he's worthy of our praise ♪ Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Praise God. Thank you. Thank you. Well, good morning, everybody. It's good to see you. I don't know if you've met me yet, but my name is Caleb. So if I haven't got the chance to meet you, I'd love to meet you out in the hallway or out in the lobby or in front of the doors after this. That would be awesome just to get to know you. But yeah, I get to serve as a worship minister here. So that's like my favorite thing to do in life is to worship, is to sing praises to the Lord. And that's what we're here to do.

So we're gonna continue to sing and continue to worship, but I just wanted to welcome you guys. And if you're joining us online, welcome to you too. If you're joining us in your prison cell, the Lord sees you and the Lord hears you in your worship, even from wherever you're at. So we're gonna continue to sing. We're gonna continue to praise this song called This is Amazing Grace. It's an oldie, but it's a goodie because it just talks about the amazing grace of our Lord Jesus, the lamb that was slain for us. So come on, let's continue to sing. We praise you, Jesus, you're so good, you're so strong, God. We sing, who breaks the power? Who breaks the power of sin and darkness, whose love is mighty and so much stronger, the King of glory, the King above all kings. Yes, who shakes the whole earth? Who shakes the whole with holy thunder, who leaves us breathless in awe and wonder, the King of glory, the King above all kings. We sing, this is amazing grace. Amen. This is unfailing love that you would take my place, that you would bear my cross. You laid down your life that I would be set free. We sing, oh Jesus, I sing for

all that you've done for me. All that you've done, God. Who brings our chaos back into order? Who brings our chaos, come on, back into order? Who makes the orphan a son or daughter? The King of glory, the King above all kings. Who rules the nations with truth and justice, shines like the sun in all of its brilliance, the King of glory, the King above all kings. Come on. This is amazing grace. Sing it out. This is unfailing love that you would take my place, that you would bear my cross. You laid down your life that I would be set free. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. We sing for all that you've done for us, oh, let's worship the Lamb who was slain, sing. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, every voice. Worthy is the King who conquered the grave, worthy is the Lamb who was slain, worthy is the King who conquered the grave, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Worthy is the King who conquered the grave, worthy is the Lamb who was slain, worthy is the King who conquered the grave, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Worthy is the King who conquered the grave, worthy is the Lamb who was slain, worthy is the King who conquered the grave, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Worthy is the King who conquered the grave, worthy is the Lamb who was slain, worthy, worthy, worthy. Oh, this is amazing grace, this is unfailing love, that You would take my place, that You would take my cross. You laid down Your life that I would be set free. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that You've done for me. Oh, this is amazing grace, this is unfailing love, that You would take my place, that You would bear my cross. You laid down Your life that I would be set free. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that You've done for me. Oh, we praise You, all that You've done for us, You're worthy of it all, God, we sing. Worthy of every song we could ever sing, worthy of all the praise we could ever bring, worthy of every breath we could ever breathe, we live for You, Jesus.

Jesus, the name above every other name, Jesus, the only one who could ever sing, worthy of every breath we could ever breathe, we live for You, oh, yes, we do. We sing holy. We sing holy. Lift her up, sing Jesus. Jesus, the name above every other name. Jesus, the only one who could ever save. Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe. We live for you. Sing it to heaven, we live only for you. And holy, there is no one like you. There is no one beside you. Open up my heart. Open up the eyes of our heart, God, and show me who you are and fill me with your heart. And lead me in your love to those who love. Sing holy, Lord, holy. There is no one like you. No one compares to him. There is no one beside you. Open up my heart. Open up the eyes of our heart, God, and show me who you are and fill me with your heart. And lead me in your love to those that love you. Amen. Oh, lead us in your love, God. Lead us in your spirit, Lord. Oh, when we are, you are God. If we have you, bless. Teach us to walk in your ways, Lord. We want to walk with your father.

We sing, I will. I will build my life upon your love. It is a firm foundation. And I will put my trust in you alone. Come on, from the front to the back, can we sing this? And I will build my life upon your love. It is a firm foundation. And I will put my trust only in you. And I will not be shaken. I will. And I will build my life upon your love. It is a firm foundation. And I will put my trust in you alone. And I will not be shaken. Holy, there is no one like you. There is none. Open up, open up. Oh, and show me who you are. And fill me with your heart. And lead me in your love to those around me. And lead me in your love to those around me. I bow before you, Lord. I bow before you, God. You can use my life however you want to. It's all for your glory. It's all for your glory. We sing, I won't bow to idols. And I won't bow to idols. I'll stand strong and worship you. And if it puts me in the fire, I'll rejoice

because you're there too. I won't be formed by feelings. I hold fast to what is true. If the cross brings transformation, then I'll be crucified with you. Because death is just a doorway into resurrection life. If I draw you in, you're suffering. Then I'll draw you in. ♪ You rise and when You return in glory ♪ ♪ With all the angels and the saints ♪ ♪ My heart will still hold my soul ♪ ♪ Cause death is just the door, death is just the door ♪ ♪ Oh, into resurrection life, if I join You, it's all response ♪ ♪ It's all response, I'll join You when You return ♪ ♪ When You return in glory, with all the angels and the saints ♪ ♪ My heart will still be saved, my soul will be the same ♪ ♪ Oh, Christ be magnified, sing it out, let His praise rise ♪ ♪ Christ be magnified in me again, we sing, oh ♪ ♪ Christ be magnified, from the altar of my life ♪ ♪ Christ be magnified in me again, we sing, oh ♪ ♪ Christ be magnified, let His praise rise ♪ ♪ Let His praise rise, Christ be magnified in me again, oh ♪ ♪ Christ be magnified, from the altar of my life ♪ ♪ Christ be magnified in me again, we sing, oh ♪ Amen, can we give God a hand of praise? So good, amen. So continue to worship and sing in praise. Continue to remember how worthy He is. He's worthy. ♪ My Lord is worthy, my Lord is worthy, my Lord is worthy ♪

♪ My Lord is worthy, my Lord is worthy, my Lord is worthy ♪ Sing it with me. ♪ I am a mention of exaltation ♪ ♪ I was born to lift the name above all names ♪ ♪ You hear the melody of all creation ♪ ♪ But there's a song of praise that only I can hear ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy? ♪ ♪ There's no one, only Jesus, who else is worthy? ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy? ♪ ♪ There's no one, only Jesus ♪ ♪ You are the author, God of the ages ♪ ♪ And yet you trust in me, my hope goes wild in place ♪ ♪ And you heal my brokenness, show me your glory ♪ ♪ So I have songs of praise that not even angels sing ♪ ♪ And who else is worthy, who else is worthy? ♪ ♪ There's no one, only Jesus, who else is worthy? ♪ ♪ Only Jesus, who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? ♪ ♪ No one, there is no one, only Jesus, who else is worthy? ♪ ♪ No one, who else is worthy? There is no one, only Jesus ♪ ♪ Only Jesus, who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? ♪ ♪ No one, there is no one, only Jesus ♪ ♪ Only you, God, who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? ♪ ♪ Only you, God, who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? ♪ ♪ No one but You, God ♪ ♪ Oh, no one that I've found ♪ ♪ Nothing that I've seen is worthy like You ♪ ♪ Every single limb of God, every limb of God ♪ ♪ You're the Lamb of God, I want to be with You ♪ ♪ Your eyes and ears and knees, Your seat on the throne ♪ ♪ Oh, You're holy, holy, righteous Lord ♪

♪ You shed His blood, You purge His wounds ♪ ♪ You're Father's love, Jesus Christ be lifted up ♪ ♪ You're the Lamb of God, yeah ♪ ♪ You're God, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one ♪ ♪ You're seated on the throne, I am lifted up ♪ ♪ You're seated on the throne, You're righteous, my Lord ♪ ♪ Your eyes are watching, oh, You're the Lamb of God ♪ ♪ You're Father's love, Jesus Christ be lifted up ♪ ♪ You're worthy, You're worthy, You're worthy, You're worthy ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy but You, there is no one other than Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, no one other than You, there is no one ♪ ♪ Only Jesus, there is no one, there is no one, no one ♪ ♪ Only Jesus, there is no one, only Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, no one other than You, there is no one ♪ ♪ Only Jesus, there is no one, only Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy, there is no one ♪ ♪ Only Jesus, there is no one, only Jesus, there is no one ♪ ♪ There is no one, only Jesus ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all, You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all, You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ For from in our office, into You our office, You deserve the crown ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all, we sing, You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all, lift Your voice, You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ For from in our office, into You our office, You deserve the crown ♪ ♪ For from in our office, into You our office, You deserve the crown ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all, just the voices, You are worthy of it all, we sing ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all, we sing, for from You our office, into You our office, You deserve the glory. ♪ ♪ For from You our office, into You our office, You deserve the glory. ♪ Amen. Give God a hand of praise. Amen. Yes, Lord, You are worthy, God. You are worthy of all of it, Lord.

So we just give You all of our attention this morning, Lord. We give You just our life, just at Your feet today, God. We just ask that You would speak to us, Lord, so we open ourselves to receive from Your Word, God, from the Gospel, Lord, and just from the encouraging challenge that You have for us, God, to be Your hands and feet, to be imitators of Jesus. So, Lord, thank You for this time of worship, God, as we continue to worship through responding to the Word and singing later on, God, in the Lord's Supper, we lean into You. In Jesus' name, amen. May we see You. Amen. Y'all can take a seat. From the very beginning, the church... didn't grow by accident. It spread by planting new churches. Throughout the New Testament, we see this happen, especially in the book of Acts. In Acts 1-8, Jesus tells his disciples, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. You see, the gospel was never meant to stay in one place or with one people. It was meant for everyone, everywhere. Then in Acts 8, something unexpected happens. After Stephen is martyred, a great persecution breaks out, and believers are scattered. But wherever they go, the gospel goes with them. You see, what looked like a setback became a catalyst. New communities of believers forming in new places. Then we meet Paul, who was once a persecutor of the church. Now he's radically saved, and he's sent to the Gentiles. And he travels city by city through Asia Minor, preaching in synagogues and forming churches in places like Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Dermian. Then on his second journey, Paul plans to return to those same regions. But God redirects him. Through a vision, he's called to Macedonia, which is in modern-day Europe, where new churches are planted in places like Philippi, Thessalonica, and Corinth. And Paul wasn't alone. By the time he writes to the church in Rome, a place he hadn't even visited, the gospels already spread there. These churches were multiplying, sending people out, and planting more churches. You see, God used unexpected circumstances and faithful people, and the result? The gospel spread across the world, turning it upside down. Churches were established, and the faith grew. And that mission hasn't stopped.

Today, at 121, we get to be part of that same story, continuing the work of planting churches and reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. What's up? I'm Zach, I'm from New York City. So you guys are gonna have to bear with me, okay? I told Pastor Ross I would be good replacing him for today. So glad to be here. I want to introduce myself, my family, the church. We're gonna look at some scripture in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. And so this is my third go-round. This is great. So I love, I love preaching in Texas. I'm originally from Texas. I grew up in San Antonio. Spent seven years in seminary here in the DFW area, and then planted, helped plant the Borough Church in Brooklyn, New York about seven years ago. And so I do have some photos. I do have a video I want to show you. Before I show that video, I got to tell you, so I love preaching in Texas because, you know, the two most prideful states in the U.S. It's New York and Texas, amen? And so when I came a couple years ago, I remember I was up on a panel with Pastor Ross and my guy Tim Green and you know, New York, we talk a little bit, you know, we get a little bit of, you know, just a little bit friendly, just honest. And so, you know, so I get up here and one of the first things I start taking a hit at is, I'm just, I'm being honest, I start ragging on the Cowboys. So I'm like, you guys are Cowboys fans. And so Tim gets up next after me. He's like, yeah, New York needs Jesus bad. And it's so funny because afterwards we get off, I'm like, oh, so you, you talking a little bit with New York? He goes, you started it, brother. So love being here. I have a video for you guys. So if you guys could watch this video, you can see our church. I want to thank you guys so much for your support, your prayers, your finances. Not only do you support the borough and us in Brooklyn and my family, you also support City to City New York. It's a church planting endeavor network that's helped plant over 200 churches in the last 10 years, which I am also a part of. And so if you guys don't know or familiar with some of your

missions on some of those things, it's a big deal that 121 is involved in New York City. So thank you guys so much. Please enjoy the video. Put your phone down and raise your attitude. The God who made the bird see sun and the moon isn't somewhere far away. He is standing in the room. So let it scream. Let it shout. Let them know what you're about. Keep it moving and grooving. Don't leave a single doubt that today is the day that the Lord has created. Why would I sit around just waiting? Let's have a celebration. It's time to clap our hands. And stop. Okay, that was IG, it cuts off like that, okay? But yeah, that's our church a little bit, you kinda see us around. I was in a suit, that was because of Easter, I usually wear a backwards hat, amen? So I decided to give you guys some New York. This is my family, I've got a photo of our family up here. Just so you guys get to know, that's my wife, Caroline. We've been married over 11 years now, praise God. And my eldest, Bethany, is in fifth grade. She's going to be a teenager. Man, that's hard to say, in the next year. And she was born here, actually, in Mansfield, okay? So she's a Texan, all right? The other two were actually born in New York City. Rebecca, she is autistic. And a couple years ago, she was diagnosed,

you know, special needs autism, nonverbal. And God has answered her prayers, and she started speaking some of her first words the last couple years. And so yeah, praise God. Which I gotta, can I share a fun, I'm gonna be a dad, I gotta share this fun story. So she does these one-liners. She'll say like one word when she wants something. So like, she wakes up in the morning, and like her hair's messed up, and she'll just look at me and go, bagel, you know? Like, chop to it, get to it, right? So the other day, I fell asleep this last week on the couch, and like, I'm like half asleep a little bit. And I hear her scream, ice cream! And then she realizes I'm asleep, so she comes up and opens my eyelids. It's ice cream! So that's Rebecca, she's awesome. She's in a special needs program. Jonathan, this is where all the gray hair started, amen? Got him, and he's fun, he's super outgoing. Took him to a water park not too long ago with the other kids. And he rode every ride with me that he could. In fact, he started crying when he couldn't ride the bigger rides, because he wasn't high enough. So Jonathan is crazy awesome. That's my family, but seriously,

from one family to another, thank you guys for your all support. You guys help enable us to do ministry in Brooklyn, amen? So a couple things about today that I wanna break down. So listen, I'm Brooklyn, so I'm gonna talk. I'd love for you guys to talk back. So whether it's amen or something else, you can say whatever you want, okay? That's just how I roll. So the sermon title, if you can get anything from today, is the word walk. So everybody say walk. Walk. Like walk, like we're thinking New York, like I'm walking here, walk. Okay, say walk. Walk. All right, good. So one of the biggest things about Christianity, especially even in New York City planting a church, is I love in New York is that there's no filter for them. So I can go play on a basketball court, and you know, these guys will talk trash to me, and they'll know I'm a pastor. They'll cuss me out even though I'm a pastor. And they'll say it just to challenge me to say, oh, I just wanna make sure your walk with Jesus is real rather than fake. And as Christians, I think it's important for us to understand if we're gonna give our life to Christ,

it is not something we do, it's who we are. And who we are is in relationship with Christ. You know, you think about walking, right? We walk with, I used to walk with my mom around the neighborhood. Growing up in San Antonio, we would walk around the neighborhood with her dog. My dad, we would go a lot of walking when he would take me to basketball tournaments, walking or driving the car. And when you drive and walk and all this stuff, you get to know someone, there's conversation happening. You get around the dinner table, you're hanging out with people. There's a relationship that started. And Paul, when he's addressing the Thessalonians here, the background is, if you look at Thessalonica, it's one of three cities in the northern part of Greece. You have Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. And Paul, on his second missionary journey, you guys saw this on the mission video, is Paul goes up through these places, preaches the gospel. Most of the people reject him or persecute him. And then a few handful of people come to Christ and he kind of disciples them for however long he's there. And then he goes to the next town, and then the people who didn't like him in the previous town go to that town and kick him out. So he's actually probably written some of this letter

when he's traveled from the Macedonia area down to Achaia, which is Athens and Corinth. So when you see 1 and 2 Corinthians, he's probably writing this letter to the Thessalonians. And the Thessalonians are instantly a church because he shared the gospel, they've received the word, and immediately persecutions happened. So a lot of the letter of 1 Thessalonians. is addressing the future coming of Jesus coming. Because them as Christians are going, okay, we're believers. Is Jesus gonna come back tomorrow because we're facing trouble right now? So Paul is encouraging them and addressing them. I loved Pastor Eric last week was preaching on Mother's Day and how Paul uses in the previous passage about how Paul is like talking like, you know, issuing as a mother addresses the children. And he talks about how you wanna speak the truth in gentleness. Well, this week he's gonna bring up dad and dad's gonna bring down the hammer and he's gonna do some exhorting and challenging, amen? So in this text, that's the background of this. And so when we go through this, there's three points we're gonna talk about, okay? The first one is walk in a manner worthy of God. The second one is to be imitators of Christ. And the third one is so people get saved, all right? So let me review that.

The first one is to walk in the manner worthy of God. The second one is to be imitators. The third is to be saved. So let's break down the scripture. I am a expositional preacher, say expositional. All right, this means I wanna take the verses line by line, verse by verse. Had a lady in Brooklyn who's part of our church. She said, oh, are you a preacher that preaches from the Bible? I said, yeah, I think all preachers should preach from the Bible, right? She goes, yeah, well, some people say they're Christians and preachers and they don't even open up the Bible, okay? So I'm all about when you're learning about God's word, is breaking down the text line by line, verse by verse so you don't take it out of context, amen? All right, so 1 Thessalonians 2, verses nine through 16. Let me start with it. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses and God also how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct towards you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you, encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. And we also thank God constantly for this,

that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. For you brothers became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus there in Judea. For you suffer the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out and displeased God and opposed all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved. So as always, to fill up the measure of their sins, but wrath has come upon them at last. All right, let's go back up to verse nine. I love this about Paul. So Paul is reminding them that authentic walking, he didn't come in being deceptive or anything. So a lot of times, you know, in Corinth, he actually has to address this in 2 Corinthians. He's like, they got these people called, they call them super apostles. There were people coming in, they said they would do a miracle or something, and they were demanding money. Sounds like prosperity gospel today because it was going on then. So Paul's coming in saying, hey, listen, we didn't do that. We actually came in working. It's likely, you know, Paul's side hustle,

his job is tent making. We see this because in Acts, he runs into a couple in Corinth named Priscilla and Aquila and they do tent making together. So Paul likely has support from his own job and is also raising support, not only for himself and his ministry, but also for churches like in Jerusalem and stuff. So he comes out and he says, look, we work night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel. In other words, you know we weren't trying to proclaim the gospel to you to receive any benefit for us. It was authentic. And then verse 10, he says, you're witnesses of this, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct towards you believers. There's a, this is the 90s. I was a fan of 90s Christian music. So now you look at like, you know, those former albums like Michael W. Smith. Some of you guys ever listen to him? DC Talk. Okay, so DC Talk, it's got the song Jesus Freak. I still love it. It's great. Praise God, amen. But there's a song in there at the beginning of the song. I love it.

They had one, there was a mentor in there. And he says, the greatest cause of atheism today is when a Christian acknowledges Jesus with their lips. and goes out and denies them by their lifestyle. He says, that is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable. And he's right. And that still is happening today, is people who are not Christians, they want to see if your conduct is in step with Jesus. In fact, the term Christian wasn't even given by the disciples to each others. The term Christian is from the non-believers who looked at the disciples and said, they're a bunch of little Jesuses. It means little Christ, that's what Christian means. The believers called themselves disciples. So Paul is trying to push the Thessalonians here, your conduct doesn't need to be like it was before, it needs to represent what you are now. And that's the beauty of the gospel, is all the previous conduct and all that stuff, it was crucified with Jesus on the cross. What we do now doesn't earn our salvation, but it does reflect our salvation and what we do with others, amen? So on this first point, look at this, he looks at the next verse and he says, for you know how like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you

and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. This word walk implies conversation and relationship. You know, when you walk with someone, you get to know them. One of the things about my dad, I brag about my dad, it's coming on Father's Day, is my dad, he still does. He's in his late 70s and he reads the Bible every day in the morning and at night, five minutes, when he wakes up in five minutes at night. And then he would do a Bible story after dinner. So I now take my kids and before they go to bed, all of us, is we have discipleship at night and do a Bible study before we go to bed. So we watch, we'll do like Chosen Kids, we'll do Superbook, I don't know if some of you guys use some of this stuff, we'll do Bible stories and Bible books, anything I can to just pour in as my dad did. And I love this about Paul, is Paul's trying to address the Thessalonians to walk in a manner that represents Christ. You know, I worked for a pastor in Grand Prairie here in Dallas, I'll never forget the first funeral I did. He was leaving out of town, he said, hey, I need you to do this funeral. So when you go pastor and you're ready to do funerals and weddings, but their mother, the son, the grandson plays on my son's baseball team and the pastor was their coach. And he said, their grandmother had been a pastor and their grandmother had dementia for 10 years,

passed away, so I need you to do the funeral. So I go to catch up with this family, the grandma who passed away, I catch up with the son and his wife, the grandson wasn't there. And I'm talking with them, they're like, yeah, we don't really go to church or anything. But you know, we love Daniel, man, he just, he's kind, he buys the kids, you know, jerseys, he spends time with them, he invests in them, like he invests in our son. He's kind of like, you know, and it was like, on the tip of the tongue, he's kind of like, I go, kind of like Jesus? He goes, yeah, like that guy. I said, man, that's great because it's good to know that my pastor represents Jesus outside the church. See, your conduct and the things that you do represent Christ, church can't be something you do on Sunday, Christianity has to be who you are every day. So in order to walk with the Lord, you have to submit to God's word. I love the following verse, he says, in verse 13, we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. In other words, they accepted and submitted to the gospel. You know, the word submit, when you study the scriptures, is really a military term to say,

man, they're the general and I trust them and understand whatever they say, they know what they're doing, okay? I love this because the Thessalonians took Paul and they accepted the gospel for what it is. You have to submit to God's word. So I have a story I shared at Live Weekend, so I'm gonna share it with you guys. Is that cool, amen, is that all right? Some teenagers, I know you've already heard this story. So I was a senior in high school in San Antonio, I played basketball, I was on the varsity basketball team, and one of my last classes I took was an art class. And it was a requirement for the class and I waited till my senior year to take it. So most of the classes, like 30, 40 students were teenagers in the class, or were all teenagers. like freshman and sophomore, and then I was a senior. So you know, the beginning of every school year, the teacher has you come up, say your name, and something you like you do. So I was part of FCA, I was bold. So I get up, I say, hey, my name is Zach, I play on the basketball team, Varsity Basketball, and I love Jesus. I get up, walk off, not many people think of it. The next kid comes up, and he goes, hey, I'm Alex, and I don't love Jesus. And so you know, the whole class is like, oh, you know, all right.

So it gets weirder, though. So I go to sharpen my pencil, you know, for something that we're starting, and he comes up next to me, and no joke, he goes, ugh! I go, are you barking at me? So he does it again, he goes, ugh! I'm like, brother, do you need a cough drop? Are you okay? And he goes, no, I'm a Satanist, and I'm trying to get demons on you. It's like, oh, yeah. Whoa! So we had assigned seating. Guess who's seated next to me? Alex. So he sits next to me, and then there's another guy next to me, and he's brand new. I go, so hey, you know, what's your name? And he tells me, and he goes, yeah, I'm brand new to the school, I just came to the school this week. I go, you know, so what made you come in the middle of, you know, or just starting here? He goes, well, I was part of the other high school, but I got kicked out because I'm known as the drug dealer of that high school. I'm like, this sounds like a bad joke. You know, you walk into art class, you got the Christian, the Satanist, and the drug dealer.

And so I gotta tell you, over the next two months, we had some interesting conversations. And I'll never forget, though, one double period, we have this intense conversation about the Scripture, and is it really the words of God? And I'll never forget, the drug dealer afterwards, we have this intense conversation, and I just said, so where you guys at? And the drug dealer walks off, and he looks at me, and he says, Zach, I believe every word you said, but if I have to follow Jesus, I have to stop dealing drugs, and I don't wanna do that. And he walked out and left. The Satanist came up to me, and he says, hey, Zach, I believe every word you said, but here's the thing, if I follow Jesus, I can't do what I want, I have to submit to him. But if I follow Satan, I can do whatever I want. And he walked out. Listen, in James, it says, even the demons believe and shudder. This is not just an acknowledgement of a fact, this is a submission to your king. That's why he says to walk in a manner worthy of God, because you're a citizen of his kingdom. My dad used to say, you never take a U-Haul to your funeral, because we don't take our stuff with us into eternity. Whatever we do should be pointed towards eternity, because this is temporary, amen? Listen, a non-believing world wants to see Jesus,

but the worst thing you can do is be fake about it. And notice I say the word fake, not perfect, okay? Two people denied Jesus in the garden, or up that night, both Judas and Peter. The difference was Judas just betrayed innocent blood. Peter actually believed Jesus was the son of God. So to walk with God is not to necessarily walk in perfection, it's to walk in authenticity. As believers, who are you reaching? Do your coworkers know that you're a Christian? Do your classmates know that you're a believer? Do the people that you do business with know you've come to a church? How about your family? Because it's one thing to do church, to play church, it's another thing for it to become your identity. For Paul, when these guys became Christians, it had to be their identity, because they were persecuted for it. And if it was not real, there was no way they were getting persecuted for it. So say walk. Walk. That's the first thing, is you're called to walk in a manner worthy of God. Let the gospel live out in your actions. Two, verse 14. For you brothers became imitators of the churches of God and Christ Jesus that are in Judea. This word imitate, say imitator.

Imitator, think about this. It comes from the Greek word, means to mimic or mimic. It's to mimic. that like be a mime, okay, what does a mime do? Right, they do this thing, they imitate without speaking. Okay, but it's a Greek origin word here to mean to copy or to look like something else. Okay, when you are a Christian, one of the biggest things is to reflect and look like Jesus. That's why Paul here, the Thessalonians a brand new church. So one of the things that they must do is copy not just Jesus, but the other churches around them. Okay, they're supposed to imitate them. All right, so parents, we've got some parents in here, raise your hand if you're a parent. All right, we got a ton, okay. So when you have little kids, you know, those of you got, if you got the little baby stage, okay, what do the babies do typically around the parents? They imitate, right? They mimic, they do all the facial expressions, other stuff, you know, my son, he's at four. And so now he's talking and he's running. And so like we run around our little home together and I'll play Batman. So when I play Batman, I throw him on the couch and I say, justice. Problem is he imitates that and he goes to recess and does it with his friends. But little kids, they imitate and copy what they're doing.

You are made in the image of God. What do you think an image does? It reflects the glory of the one it's made in the image of. So when we sinned, we're no longer imitating our God. When we come to Christ in the gospel, now we have a new creation. We're supposed to reflect and look like Jesus. We imitate him. So I love this about imitation in discipleship. I wanna bring up a photo here. So this is the heartbeat really of the Borough Church. I've got three of my guys here. This was taken at the very start. By the way, our church started March, 2020. You guys know that month? That was wild. Okay, so this is taken in Barclays. I'll get more into that. Julian, this is seven years ago. Julian, we just ordained as a deacon and he's getting married in August. And we are sending him out to Scotland. He's got an art, he got into an art school there. So we're excited to send him out to go make disciples there. Ako was from Kenya, spoke five different languages. And Ako moved away from Brooklyn a couple years ago. He was in our church the first three or four years. He got married, it was the first wedding I did. He got married to a girl named Erin in our church.

And then they sent off and he got a job in Kansas City. So he went out, he just called me a few weeks ago and says, hey, Zach, my wife is a head of a ministry called Care Portal in Kansas City, which deals with foster kids and getting into homes. And I was just named in our church, the International Church Planting Resident. So my goal is to plant churches in Kenya and the Caribbean. So I want you to know all the stuff we learned in Brooklyn, I'm gonna apply. Seth, this is awesome. We have another guy in here named Noah, actually lives here. He got married to a girl named Gita, the last couple that went to King's College. Noah started a Bible study, he's involved and his wife got baptized here, here in Dallas area. Seth, Seth is awesome. Seth was 17 years old at this time. He's born and raised Sunset Park, Puerto Rican. In fact, he's the one that named our church the Borough Church. Said, Zach, we're gonna meet people. I had all this stuff and it went out the window March 2020, amen. But Seth said, if we wanna reach people for the gospel, I wanna be a church for the borough, like the Borough of Brooklyn. Each borough is called, in New York City, it's 8.5 million people in a 25 mile radius. Brooklyn is 2.5 million people in a 15 mile radius, okay.

So he goes, I wanna be a church for the borough. And Seth took, he got a full scholarship to Fordham University, which is in the Bronx. It's like a two hour train ride from the Brooklyn. And he started a Bible study at their university, it's a Catholic university. They told him he couldn't start it, so he started one anyways. And it became bigger than our church. And it's still meeting together. He graduated a year ago. I went to go preach at it, I said, hey brother, this is bigger than our church. But he was the first one we baptized in our church, and he got married to the second one we baptized, a lady named Zena. And he's in the Marines, and he got shifted off this last year. In fact, your team, 121, was there this last year. It was our send off with her this last summer. You know what's crazy, is he sent me a Christmas, probably one of the best Christmas presents, he sent me a video of him baptizing his whole unit in Okinawa, Japan. And so, listen, you don't have to be super talented. and gifted to disciple someone. You just have to be able to mimic what you learn. And you can't mimic what you don't know. You gotta be able to walk with someone.

Yo, okay, so I've gotten to know some people here at 121. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna have some fun with it. So I roasted just a little bit because they roast me all the time. I roasted Kevin, I roasted Ethan, and I'm gonna roast Jermaine at this one, okay? And Jermaine, as you guys know, is the youth pastor. This is Jermaine, okay? Anytime I talk with Jermaine, I call him the predator because he's always coming in to me and he's always talking trash to me and it's out of love. So he'll come to me, he'll be like, I'm a Spurs fan. And bro, every series they've had this year, he's like texting a thread. He's like, Trailblazers in five, T-Wolves in six. And bro, the cool thing is he'll be like Jesus in six too. So he's very consistent. And he does this thing and he'll come in, he'll talk like that, and he gets passionate like this. But I know that, bro, by Jermaine because I spend time with him. Listen, you can't mimic and imitate Jesus if you don't spend time with him. You gotta invest your time daily with him. Get in his Word, be praying. And then you gotta be challenging other people to do it with you. So I love this. We have a five-step model. We apply in our discipleship in our church.

And listen, I didn't make this up. I got it from other people, okay? It's just me copying somebody else. And it's they watch you do, you help, or they help you do, you help they do, you watch they do, they do, someone else watches. It's simple. So let's say you started a prayer group or a Bible study where you work at. You're like at lunch, maybe invite a couple coworkers, and I wanna start a Bible study. So typically when you start something, people are watching you and you're kinda engaging and leading it. The goal should be discipleship, okay? So like the goal should be, hey, you do that for a few weeks, a couple months, well then maybe they're helping you by them studying the next text or whatever you're gonna do. And then the goal is to get them to lead at some point where they lead the discussion and do it, and you're helping them. With the ultimate goal is somebody else, they're inviting somebody else into that. And then eventually they can do their own kind of Bible study of this. All right, let's do a little bit of math here, okay? Can we do math on a Sunday, is that okay? All right, if I witness and share the gospel with 2,000 people and they give their life to Jesus today,

and I do that just once a year for the next 20 years, how many people would come to Christ at the end of 20 years? You can say it. Man, some of you guys are like, a lot. 40,000, did I get that right? Yeah, 40,000, okay, I still got some math, amen. 40,000 come to Christ, that's a lot of people. Yo, if I, I got some yo's and bro's in Brooklyn, okay? Yo, if I discipled two people this year to disciple two people in the next year, that's two to the 20th power. How many people would that be after 20 years? You can look it up if someone wants to look it up. One million. Listen, you don't have to be a gifted speaker or preacher. You just have to imitate Jesus to one or two people. You know, I tell people, they wanna know what the secret of church planting is. There is no secret, it's an ax. You just copy and paste. In fact, some of those coworkers, the only Jesus to them is probably you. So we're called to walk in a worthy manner of God. Say walk. Walk. We're called to imitate both Jesus and these other churches. And the third point here is so that people will be saved. Look at this. And it comes with suffering, by the way.

It says, for you suffer the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews. All right, so I always tell people, like we started our church in 2020. It's crazy, March 2020 was our first, my first sermon, we said yes to do the borough, and then COVID hit that week. So my first sermon was on Microsoft Teams. You guys remember Zoom? It was brutal. It was the worst sermon. In fact, Chaz and I combined our Bible study groups, and I said after that Sunday, I said, well, no, it's the Holy Spirit that brought this church together, not my preaching, because that was awful. So we actually grew out of that, is we were one of the only churches to meet in person by that summer, is we would meet in the park. We didn't have any music. We didn't have anything that I thought we would do at church, and we would just open up, invite people word of mouth, and share the gospel. And we grew to about 20, 30, 40 people. It was crazy, and so within two years, we're growing. I'm involved with City to City New York, and then Satan took a grenade and threw it at our church. In six months to a year, before that, we had had our, my wife had moved up.

We had two miscarriages before we had the two babies. And then starting in 2022, Chaz almost died from COVID. He was one step away from ventilator. I had a children's leader that was hospitalized with pneumonia. I had a worship leader that was lit on fire. Our youth pastor, who's still involved, some of you guys met him, his name's Will, got involved in our church, got a diabetic ulcer on his foot and got his leg amputated, was hospitalized for a year. My daughter was diagnosed with autism, and for any special needs parent, it's a challenge. It's a difference, and it's something we have to work through and love and understand. And I remember January that year, I'm like, Lord, I left everything. Why am I suffering like this? And I was on a call with the city to city coach, and he was my mentor for the last two years up to that point and we were planning out a small sabbatical. And then I missed a call with him a couple weeks later, and two hours after that, he had a heart attack and died on the spot. I remember going through that process going, Lord, why I left everything to go up to do this? Why is this all happening to us? And now that I look back on it in two years, I'm so grateful because there's nothing like suffering with people that helps you understand them more. And listen, when we imitate Jesus,

that means we're gonna have to experience some of his sufferings too. That's what it means to be Christian. You know, I look back at that stuff and our churches were growing, we're back up in the, it almost killed our church, literally, we almost died. And now we're at a place where we're growing, we're in this new venue, I see all this momentum. And I never realized that that suffering was just spiritual warfare to sharpen me to become more like New York. How can you be more like your coworker to help them reach Jesus? So look at this, this is what he says here at the end. He says, you guys suffered the same things from your own country as they did the Jews. They killed Jesus, the prophets, they drove us out, they opposed mankind, they hindered us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved. Now, there's spiritual warfare that happens when you start following Jesus and walking with him. But the goal is still, the end goal is to see people come to know Christ. And that's gotta be the ultimate goal for every Christian, is to make disciples who make disciples, amen? Go look at this, I always tell people, you know, this is strong language here. Like, he's like, wrath has come on them at last. You know, in Revelation, by the way, Revelation, I love Revelation.

For those in Christ, it's like a wedding celebration at the end when he comes back. But if you lined up against Jesus, it's a funeral. It's a warning. It's also true. So as believers, I wanna challenge you guys, how are you walking in a manner worthy of the Lord? How are you imitating or copying what you learn? You can't copy someone you're not around. So if there's some changes you need to make this week, I would challenge you to make some changes. Get in the Word some more. Start spending some time, get together with a couple other believers and say, how can we reach our friends or our coworkers or neighbors? Yo, people in your culture. Yo, in my church, I'm like the only white guy. Did y'all know that? It's awesome. We got Haitian. We got, you know, it's all Caribbean, black, Jamaican. We have Puerto Rican. My youth group's Chinese, mostly. Mexican, Arabic. That's just New York. That's my neighborhood, okay? You gotta reach whatever your neighborhood is. It's crazy. We have, you know, Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving meal. Ooh, we eat good, man.

So when it comes to us replicating, we wanna see people come to Christ. And to do that, our conduct must reflect the Gospel. So I wanna invite you guys. We're about to engage in the Last Supper. I wanna thank you guys so much for being here, for y'all's continued support. Just know you have some brothers and sisters in New York who pray for you guys. Our church loves some Texas, especially Texas barbecue, amen? But I wanna encourage you guys, dude, be the missionary you are here. Be the missionary in your backyard to your neighbors. If you can't, you know, if you, you gotta reach your neighbors. That's what counts. And you don't have to be super talented. Like I said, maybe it's just one or two people. Maybe God will take that and run along like 10, 15 years down the line. You know, it's funny, I'm in high school. I'm doing a Zoom discipleship with a high school basketball player. I used to do a Bible study for my high school basketball teammates, and they all rejected me. Didn't like me, any of that stuff. One of them called me up years ago and said, hey, I came to Christ and I remembered you.

So now I'm helping disciple him on Zoom, and he's discipling some of the other basketball players. So you never know what you're doing now could have effects 10, 15, 20 years down the line, amen? So right now, I wanna invite, I wanna invite those who are part of the Lord's Supper, if you wanna get up and head over to kind of get the materials going, and parents, if you wanna go get your kids, if they're gonna engage in the Lord's Supper with you, I wanna break down the Lord's Supper with you. I'm gonna pray, and then we'll kind of reflect and engage and just spend some time with Jesus. But my challenge to you guys remains the same. Walk, walk, say walk. Walk. Walk in a manner worthy of God, be imitators of Christ in the church, and let's see some people get saved through the Holy Spirit, amen? Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I wanna thank you so much for this church, for my brothers and sisters here. Would you bless them and give them courage and boldness? Would you give them spiritual fervor to be bold to the people around them? Lord, we don't have to be talented or gifted people. We can be common, uneducated men, as you said in your word. It can be fishermen. Whatever we're doing, Lord, we just have to submit to you.

So would you give us the strength and the boldness to reach the people around us, to reach our neighbors? I pray for my church that's about to meet the borough. Would you bless them, give them the strength to bring guests in and help the borough to be bold to the people around them? Bless my wife and my kids as they engage in that. My friends up there. My friends up there that have grown to love and accustom. God, may we be a brotherhood that transcends even politics or anything else that would separate two states, that your gospel would be spread and that we can encourage one another all the more as we see the day approaching. Lord, I love you so much, Jesus. We worship you today. You are king and master. And I can't wait for the day that you return and every pain and tear will be gone. And until that day, Lord, help us to live and walk in a way that represents your salvation. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So on reflection, I'm gonna invite you to partake in the Lord's Supper. I wanna invite you, if you're not a believer in Jesus, you do not have to feel pressured to take this. This is for the believers. This is for those who profess their faith in Christ and believe in him. It's like being baptized.

You wouldn't get baptized if you don't believe in Jesus. So for those in Christ, I wanna invite you to the table. I love, really it's a picture of the Passover meal. Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, he took the bread and the wine. And the bread, he says, this is my body which is broken for you. Break the bread. And it was a representation that his body was gonna be broken on the cross for them. Then he said, take the drink. And this represents the blood of the covenant which is poured out for the sins of many. Drink this in remembrance of me. If you really think about this, Jesus is giving something to the disciples to imitate. He says, when you guys get together, do this in remembrance of me every time. He's discipling the disciples right there. Always to remember what he was about to do for them on the cross and for you. Do you know in the third cup, I love this, in the Passover meal, when you study Jewish culture, they would actually drink the cup and say certain things four different times in that Passover meal. And on the third cup, it was the culmination of the meal. They would drink it and they would say, at the end of it, it was supposed to be a representation that the angel had passed over, that God had saved them, and they could now be free from slavery

and enter into the promised land of freedom. In that third cup, they would drink it and they say, it is finished. Remember when Jesus says this, right? He says this on the cross because that wine was a representation of him canceling out our debt and our sin and freeing us from that yoke of slavery. So when you partake in the supper, we remember the gospel and what he did. So I wanna invite you guys to stand up, engage in the Mysterio, come back to your seat. If you wanna get up and worship, if you wanna sit down, just spend some intimacy with Jesus, amen. Let's do it. Let's do it.