but I enjoy it. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Verse number 1 says, For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain. But even after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile. But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak. Not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness. God is witness. Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others. when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherished her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail. For laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. You are witnesses. And God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe. As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father doth his children, that you would walk worthy of God who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. Let's pray together. Father, I pray that you'd bless us. We came this morning and we believe you met with us. Lord, we heard out of your word and we were challenged. But Lord, tonight we need a fresh anointing. We need a fresh hearing of the word of God. And Lord, we need your fresh presence among us. Lord, the preaching will never be of much good unless you're involved in it. And we ask you to anoint us, fill us with your spirit. And Lord, let us speak with power and let us receive it with all readiness of mind and heart. to let it change our lives, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians presents Paul as an evangelist. As he came to Thessalonica, he was trying to win people to the Lord when he arrived there. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, we see Paul not presented so much as an evangelist as we do as a pastor. And there is a difference. And Paul describes his ministry and his accomplices in the ministry as being one of a pastoral ministry once they got the church going there at Thessalonica. And Paul considered himself to be pastoring these people, nourishing these people. In fact, we'll call the message tonight, Paul the Nourishing Pastor. And God uses people to bring folks to him, and then he uses folks to nurture and disciple those people that were brought to him. And each has its place. And in this passage of scripture, Paul faithfully pastoring these people while he's there. We're reminded, and Paul reminds them of his ministry among them. We'll see three pictures of the ministry emerge. in this passage of scripture. Number one, we see Paul as the faithful steward. Now, we're talking about Paul being one who nurtures, one who pastors, and that's a shepherd leads the flock to the water and feeds them in the green pastures, and Paul was a nourishing pastor. And number one, the way he pastored those people was he was a faithful steward. Paul had been put in trust with the gospel. If you remember studying about the Apostle Paul, he went into Arabia. He didn't get his doctrinal teaching at the colleges and the seminaries in that place of Jerusalem. He went into Arabia and spent the time alone, and God directly communicated the gospel and the ministry of the New Testament to Paul. And Paul gets that directly from God, and so he considers himself a steward. the word, the gospel, and he gave it to me to administer among the New Testament people. And so Paul is a faithful steward. In verse number four it says, in our text here, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust, that's what a steward is, he's put in trust, to be put in trust with the gospel even so we speak, not as pleasing men but God which trieth our hearts. Isn't that the way we ought, all of us ought to minister as pleasing God? Sometimes we try to do it our way and we say we're pleasing God, but deep down inside we may know better. A steward owns nothing, but rather uses everything that belongs to his master. And Paul was a steward and he had nothing of his own, but he used the things that God gave him You remember when Joseph was carried down into Egypt and he became a steward in Potiphar's house, remember that? And he didn't own anything. Joseph was put in charge of everything that Potiphar had. I mean, all of the money, all of the business, the house, all the affairs, business affairs. Potiphar put Joseph in charge of all of it, yet Joseph didn't own any of it. He was just in charge of it from somebody else. And that's how Paul sees himself here. He, this is not his gospel alone, it came from God. God entrusted him and he's a steward to make sure that gospel is ministered in a righteous and effective manner as God would have it to be. Sometimes we think The church's only responsibility is to protect the gospel, to see that it doesn't get changed as it did in Galatia, where Paul wrote the book of Galatians to straighten out those people who are Judaizers there, who are perverting the gospel and adding works to salvation. And sometimes we think, well, that's what church is supposed to do, is just stand strong and protect the gospel. We ought to protect the gospel. Watch out for the wolves. And don't let things get changed. Make sure we're sticking with the book. But that's not all that the church is supposed to do. We must do more than protect the gospel. We must share the gospel. It's not ours to keep. It's his. And he gave it to Paul, and Paul's supposed to give it out freely among the others. Faithfulness is probably the most important quality that a steward can possess. As it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, Verse one and two. We're supposed to be faithful, found faithful as stewards. Notice some things about his ministry that we learn in this passage of scripture. And this is what, we need more of the word of God. And look, I have spent some years in the past, early years, where I felt like I was supposed to be a cheerleader for God and not be too concerned about what this says, but just keep people charged up and motivated and excited about doing something, but we don't know what, because we wasn't sticking too close to this. Been guilty. But I'm more concerned in my later years of ministry that we minister the word as it's been given, because we're stewards of the word. And so while it may take some generating of excitement, encouragement, those are good things, but it doesn't take the place of the faithful word of God that people need more than anything else. Because there are people that go to all kinds of cults and different kinds of religions, and they get excited about stuff, but excitement ain't gonna do anything for them at the day of death. It's the things that God gives us in his word that counts the most. And so the manner of Paul's ministry in verses one and two, he says that we were treated shamefully over at Philippi. We went over there and preached, and man, the people got under a lot of heat, and they got after us, and they beat us, and they ran us out of town. And he said, but we didn't quit. We came on over here. And we kept doing what God instructed us to do. And we're gonna preach to you Thessalonians. And he says it was with much contention. Contention is an athletic term. When you're contending, you know, if you've got runners out there, they're all contending with each other. Or race cars are contending with each other. Weightlifters, like me, we're contending with each other. That's what the contention is here. Now there was contention between them the Judaizers, the attackers, the ones who despised them, and so they preached with much contention, he says, but that was his ministry. Paul said, this is the way it's gonna be. It's not gonna be an easy road. It's not gonna be a bed of roses. And when you raise your family and you live for God yourself, you find out pretty quick in the Christian life, it's not a bed of roses. There's thorns on those vines. When you try to live for God, there'll be people around you that will contend with you. They will be abrasive to you, as they were with Paul. That was his method of ministry, or his manner, I should say. And then there's the message of his ministry. In verse number three, the first part says, for our exhortation was not of deceit. The message I preached to you was not one of deceit. I wasn't trying to manipulate anybody. You know, there are manipulators in the ministry. Did you know that? There's some that'll try to manipulate you. They'll either put you on a guilt trip just to get the profit for themselves, or they will trick you. Deceit. He said, we didn't try to deceive anybody. We just shot straight. That's what I like. Don't you like a straight shooter? And so he says it was not of deceit. And then the motive of his ministry in the last part of verse number three says, nor of uncleanness nor in guile. He was not guilty of uncleanness for his motives were pure. You see there's people in Paul's day who just made religion their employment. They might not have even believed what they were saying, but they made money out of it. Paul said, we didn't come and we didn't trick you, and we didn't deceive you, and we didn't make merchandise of you. We didn't come just to try to get into your pocketbook. We wanted to give you the truth, and so we avoided uncleanness. And that was something that was big in that day because Paul had been accused. Hey, just after their money, that's all he's trying to do. Well, that's the way a lot of the others were, but not Paul. Paul wanted to see souls get saved for the glory of God. He wanted to see souls discipled so that they could serve. Then there is the method of his ministry in verses three, last part of verse three through six, Paul didn't use guile or trickery to win converts. Now let's count out right here just for a minute. You with me? There is a lot of evangelism going on today, and I'm not saying the people who are doing it are insincere. I'm just saying that a lot of it misses the mark. When we try to move in and just give them a quick plan of salvation, we don't see any evidence of the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and I don't care what they say. If the Holy Spirit doesn't convict a soul, he's not getting saved. And if there's nothing from the Holy Spirit moving on that person that we witness to, he's going to walk away. Maybe he'll say the prayer with you, but he's going to walk away just as lost as a goose in a hailstorm. God has to move on the heart. He needs the message, but a lot of people go up and knock on a door. Hey, would you like to go to heaven? Well, yeah, I guess so. Okay, repeat after me. And they get them to say a quick prayer and they go on and win the other one. Aaron and I calculated one group out of Texas that was, they just got back from a big soul winning expedition across the state and they were reporting the number of convert. We knew how many people was in the evangelistic team and we knew the cities they went to and the time that it took them to get there and the time they spent on the streets. and the time it took them to get back, and they came back and they reported some astronomical figure of souls that they got converted. Now look, I'm glad people get saved, but I'm not for the trickery. And they reported the number of souls that got saved, so we sat down and got our calculators out, and if we calculated it right, they would have had to win, and there were just a handful of them in this van that went across the state evangelizing. But if their numbers were accurate, they would have had to have won a soul every 10 minutes, counting travel time, walking up and down the street and everything. That's pretty fast evangelism, wouldn't you say? one nationally known preacher preached, and he said he saw a guy driving a dump truck going into a construction site. He said, I pulled up beside of him. They were dump trucks lined up to dump their load of dirt. He said, I jumped up on the running board and began to talk to him through the window, and before he got to his turn to dump his load of dirt, he had him won to the Lord. Boy, that's pretty fast. Now look, I believe in evangelism. who have trust of the Lord wants to see souls get saved. But there's no benefit in giving people a false assurance. Paul's method of ministry was not that of salesmanship. Hey, I've been through it all. I've been guilty. I went through the one, two, three, pray after me method. I give them, you're lost. Jesus died for you, now pray this prayer. And they're chewing gum and looking out the window and looking at your phone and doing everything else, and I couldn't see any Holy Spirit conviction, but they prayed the prayer. And I went away thinking, I shouldn't have done that. Since then, I've repented. When you find out you're doing it wrong, just repent. Now, I would rather spend time, When I get, I'm gonna present the word. Now if they're looking out the window and they're texting their boyfriend and they're doing this and doing that and they're not paying any attention to what I'm saying and it doesn't look like the Lord is working on their heart, I'm not gonna get down there to the end and say, now pray this prayer after me. I'm gonna find out from them from their own lips if they're interested or not. If they're not interested, I won't insult them but I will say, I'm glad you listened, and I hope you'll consider this gospel message from the Bible. I'd like to come back and sit down with you again sometime, and maybe there'll be a time when you really feel led of the Lord to trust Christ as your Savior, and I'll come back, but I'm not going to lead them to a false assurance. Just because somebody walks to the altar doesn't mean they got saved. Just because somebody bows their head and says a prayer doesn't mean they get saved. And we got way too much emotional, Mark it on your gun belt evangelism today because people want to feed their egos. And if I can come in on Sunday morning and say, hey, guess what, folks? I won 17 people to the Lord yesterday. That's pretty impressive. No, not really. Not unless they were all in one group and they all got under conviction and they all meant what they said they were doing when they trusted Christ. Quick prayerism is deceitful and hurtful. I've heard people say, I don't care what your method is, as long as it works, that's pragmatism. The same thing goes for church services. I've heard people say, well, I don't care how you get them in the building, as long as you get the building filled up. Well, if we wanted to fill the building up real fast, we'd get a keg of beer and put in some crapshoot tables and maybe a roulette wheel, and we'd probably get a house full pretty quick, wouldn't you say? Well, what did we accomplish? I mean, Walmart's got a crowd. That doesn't mean they all got saved. I'm saying we need to use methods that are pleasing to God. Now if we can do something, like some of the things we were talking about this morning, to get the kids to come into Master Club, if we can get people to come to Sunday school, ride the bus, whatever it takes, as long as it's not ungodly and unbiblical, then let's get them in. But we're not gonna have a rock and roll band here to get them in. We're not gonna have that keg of beer, and we're not gonna have, I was up in another town in Arkansas once, and we were visiting, my wife and I were visiting some neighbors, and we were trying to get them to come to church. And they said, well, we've got our own church, but we appreciate you coming by. And once we sat down, they offered us a glass of champagne. My wife took it, but I didn't. Just joking. She didn't. We're talking to them. They were from Las Vegas or somewhere out west. I think it was Nevada. They said, we've got our own church. We go down here to so-and-so Methodist church. And I said, really? I said, so you enjoy going down there? And they said, oh yeah, we love it down there. We're not going to go anywhere else. We have Las Vegas night every week down there. I said, Las Vegas night? What's that? And they said, well, we have a group that brings in dice tables and blackjack tables and roulette wheels. And I guess they saw me kind of looking at them, you know, you do that in your church? And they said, don't worry, preacher, it's okay. We give all the proceeds to charity. Boy, anything to get a crowd, right? Just because we got a crowd doesn't mean we're pleasing God. I want to get all the people under the sound of the gospel that's possible. But we can't do something ungodly and unbiblical to get them together. That's what Paul is saying. Flattery, in verse number five he says, let me find it here. He said, for neither at any time use we flattering words as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness God is witness. Flattery, flattery doesn't really fulfill God's will. A good compliment for something well done, good, I believe in that. We had people here working on work day yesterday at church, and man, I was thrilled with what people got done. I'm grateful to them for what they did. But flattery is when you say something that's insincere, and you're trying to pull the wool over somebody's eyes. And Paul said, we didn't use flattery to try to get you guys to make a profession of faith. We didn't use flattery. We didn't brag on you for something you didn't deserve. A preacher once in a while needs a little feedback, but not flattery. Paul didn't believe in flattery. I don't think God did. In fact, in Psalm 12, verse 2, it says, They speak vanity, every one with his neighbor, with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak. That double heart is the flattery, the motive behind it. Howard Hendricks used to call the, after dismissal of church service and the preacher standing out by the door shaking hands, he used to call that the glorification of the worm service. When people come by and lie to the preacher about how good his sermon was. Now look, I don't need a lot of bragging. I've been preaching for over 40 years. I don't need a lot of bragging to keep on preaching. I'm just going to do it because I believe God called me. A little feedback's good once in a while. If something blessed your heart and you say, praise you, this part right here really spoke to me, that helped me. Then that gives me a little bit of insight into saying, oh, maybe that's the direction we need to be going. And so a little feedback lets you know where you're headed. That's why I'm not a glutton for amens. But if you amen once in a while, it kind of lets me know if I'm headed in the right direction, you know? As my dad used to say, when I was first learning to drive, if I got off of the road just a little bit, and these were old gravel roads, and you'd hear the gravel flying up under the rocker panel of the car or old truck he was learning to drive on, he'd say, it's okay, son, just cross the road every once in a while so we know we're not lost. Well, that's the way it is in preaching. Just throw out an amen once in a while No, we're not lost. We're not headed in the wrong direction. I mean, it's kind of like Brother Chad preaches over the nursing home. It probably wouldn't do a lot of good over there in the old folks' home to go over there and preach against abortion and fornication. I mean, I guess it's possible that it might happen there, but it's not so likely. And so it's possible for a preacher who stands in a pulpit to preach on things that's not relevant, It's not helpful. His target audience just doesn't need that, but he preaches on something else that is hitting the target. It's good to have an amen once in a while, or, hey, preacher, that was good. I like that. That helped me. That kind of helps us to know if we're on the right track. You know, kind of like a hound dog. We're chasing that coon, and if we don't hear the dog bark once in a while, we think maybe he's off the trail. And so that's what we need to do. A little bit of feedback, but not flattery. The next thing we see, Paul is not only viewed as a steward here, but number two, his ministry is viewed in light of motherhood. Now don't get me wrong, we're not going into men getting in touch with your inner emotions and your feminine side, is that what they call it? Men need to get in touch with their feminine side. I ain't got one. My wife does, thank God. but I'd rather just have the masculine side. Now that's a place where you can say amen right there. We got way too many men acting like women. We got too many men dressing like women. We got too many men. I saw a picture of a guy on social media the other day. There was this dude, his hairdo looks like a rooster in the first place, but then he had this big ponytail sticking straight out behind, and people were commenting on it, and here's what I said. I said, I have a weed eater, and I'm not afraid to use it. Now we need to be, men need to be masculine, women need to be feminine, and never the twain shall meet. But here we get the characteristics of a mother is seen in the ministry that Paul and his helpers in the ministry used at Thessalonica. The emphasis of a steward, we just covered. The emphasis of a steward is faithfulness. The emphasis of a mother is gentleness. Look at verse number seven with me in our text. But we were gentle among you, even as an earth cherisheth her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not only the gospel of God only, but also of our own selves, because you were dear unto us. Is there anybody that loves a child more than a mother? Dads are supposed to love their kids, I know that. But mothers have got something built in. Mothers have an instinct. Mother has another sense that men don't always have. And mothers have a way of loving that child that nobody else can do. And Paul's saying to those Thessalonican believers, he's saying, We treated you with gentleness like a mother would her children. He was a man of authority. Now Paul was no wimp. Paul was a man's man. Nothing feminine about him at all. He was a man of authority, but he knew how to be gentle. Paul had patience with new Christians. He's won, as the evangelist in chapter number one, he's won these people to the Lord, but now he has to disciple them. You know, it's easier to disciple people if they know you love them. I mean, I believe in being masculine, I believe in being tough, I believe in being strong, I believe a man ought to be authoritative, but he doesn't have to be a brute. And I remember a fellow several years ago, He was telling me, we were talking, just in casual conversation, he said, we're talking about preachers. He said, man, this one preacher, he said, oh brother so and so, he said, you're probably like him. He said, you ought to hear him preach sometime. He said, man, he's a good preacher. He'll just rip your face off. Oh, well, that's why I go to church, help somebody rip my face off, you know. How many of you want to go to church and get your face ripped off? Mine looks bad enough as it is. A preacher can preach hard, and he can preach against sin, and he can preach the things but it doesn't have to be mean. Paul had patience with these new baby Christians. He likens it to that of the affection of a mother for a child. My wife has become, over the years, she's raised four kids and some grandkids, still working on the grandkids, got a great grandkid now, so I don't know if we'll ever get out of the child raising business or not, I've seen her heart become even more and more tender as time goes on. I've seen her stay up late at night with babies, whether hers or grandkids, and try to take care of them, meet their needs in the daytime. Little Harrison gets to come over and stay with us sometimes. And when it's nap time, she knows he's going to be a little bit of a rascal when it's nap time. And he's going to fight and kick a little bit. Now, he's nearly perfect, but not quite. And she knows when naptime comes, he's going to resist a little bit because he goes into what I call the twilight zone. I'll have him on my lap like I did this afternoon. I'm sitting down in my recliner like this, and I'll prop my leg up like that and put him right down in that little hole right there, and that's his little recliner. And so he'll sit there for a long time, and he'll just be happy as a lark. And we talk about stuff. We talk about fishing and skinning squirrels and things like that. He's good with that for a while, but sooner or later, he goes into that twilight zone where it's nap time. And it's kind of like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Flip a switch. Now he's a monster. Well, not quite. But he gets a little cantankerous when it's nap time. I've seen my wife take him and rock him to sleep, and he's yanking on her hair and grabbing her glasses and stuff like that. So you thought he was perfect, probably. I'm telling on him now. And so after he goes through that little time, literally not a very long period of time, just a minute or two, but he gets kind of cantankerous for a little while and he goes to sleep. I've seen her sit there and just let that little fella have his spell and she just hangs on to him, she won't turn loose of him and pretty quick she's got him to sleep and lays him down and everything's okay. That's what mothers do. They're gentle. They're affectionate. They just have a concern that other human beings don't have. I guess men in particular. I've seen or heard that Erica gets up multiple times in the night when the little fellow needs attention. She'll get up. Her sleep's interrupted. She said goodbye to sleep back in December. She liked to have a nap. She'll get up in the middle of the night and see after the little fellow. He may be hungry, he may just need some comfort, but she'll get up in the middle of the night and go take care of him. Why does she do that? Why do mothers do that? They're gentle. They have an affection. And that's why it befuddles me to know how a mother, a would-be mother, could have an abortion of a little baby. I can't understand it. Don't want to understand it. Mothers have a built-in affection and gentleness. And Paul's saying, that's the way I treated you Thessalonican believers. I was treating you with gentleness and kindness and affection because I wanted to win you to the Lord and I wanted to disciple you so that you could be servants of the Lord. He nourished them. In verse Thessalonians 2, 7, he said, even as a mother, or even as an earth, which one is it? Verse 7, let's read it there. But we were gentle, verse seven. Among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. So like a nursing mother, that little baby is laying there next to the mother's heart and there's a feeling I imagine a mother has that nobody else could quite identify with. And that's what Paul is saying about these people. He's saying I loved you like a mother would love her children. Mother eats food. A nursing mother eats food and transforms food into milk for the little baby, nourishment. Paul's saying, I consumed the Word. I got along with God and got the things from God that you needed. I sat down and studied and prayed and put this together, Thessalonica, so you could be nourished. You could be nourished from the Word of God. You see, the one who's giving the nourishment has to be nourished first and then he can feed others. And that's why we who preach and teach and even parents who teach their children, it's hard to tell them to do something that we're not doing. That would be a good place to say amen right there. Mothers make sacrifices and they have patience and they give nourishment and they protect. They protect that baby. And Paul was protecting these people. He said in 2 Corinthians to those people I mean, these were a bunch of knotheads at Corinth, and Paul said this. I mean, they must have tried his patience a bunch, but he was not a quitter. Here's what he said. He said, I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. He loved them, but they weren't giving the love back. And he said, that's okay. I'm going to love you anyway. As a pastor, there's been times when I tried to love people that I thought I was going above and beyond, but I didn't appreciate it. They turned their back, maybe through a dagger at my back, but they didn't call me into the ministry. God did. And when you minister to people, you'll find, even as a parent, you'll find disappointments sometimes, but you just keep on loving them. Then there's a third thing that's mentioned in this passage, likening Paul to a father. the concerned father. Verse number 9, he says, For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail, for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable to any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. And he says, ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly We and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe. Now the Philippians had sent some missionary support to Paul but I don't think he was over supported because many times he was a tent maker by trade. Many times Paul made tents. That's why he says we worked night and day. I mean he was working with the people he was ministering to and making tents on the side. to make enough money to support himself because he said we didn't want to be blamed. We didn't want to be seen as somebody who's just trying to fleece the flock. We don't want to make somebody think that we're just doing this for an employment, a job. He said so. As a spiritual father, he wanted to meet their needs. And he pointed out three of his duties as a spiritual father. And the fathers, we can get a little bit of instruction here too. Notice first his work in verse number nine, we just read it. He worked. Men ought not to be afraid to work. God put man in the Garden of Eden and told him to work. And it's only in recent decades that people, and especially men, have decided, I don't want to work. I'd rather stay home and get a check. And that's why taxes keep going up, because more people don't want to work. We give all the boys and girls in school, give them a participation trophy for sports. Whether they did anything good or not, give them a participation trophy. Well, they grow up thinking, I don't have to work either. I still need a participation trophy, so send me a check, government. Well, I'd work. A godly father would work. Paul said, I worked when I was with you, Thessalonians. Then secondly, there was his walk. Fathers must live so they're good examples to their children. That's why he said these Thessalonican believers were witnesses. You saw how we behaved ourselves, how we lived, how we walked. We lived what we preached. And a father who is raising children, it's hard to ask them to do things that we're not willing to do. A father needs to be a good example. If you cuss, dad, they're probably going to think it's okay to cuss because you're dad. So you're probably the closest thing to God they know about. And if you cuss, they'll think it's okay to cuss. If you drink booze, they'll think, well, that's okay to drink booze. If you smoke cigarettes, they'll think it's okay to smoke cigarettes. If you take dope, they'll think, well, it must be okay, dad does it. If you treat your wife badly, they'll think they can do that too to their mother and then to their future wife. Sometimes that vicious circle is broken but most of the time people follow it. They act out what they've seen in their childhood. Paul said to the Thessalonians, he said, you saw how we acted. We tried to be a good example and then finally not only showing his work, not only showing an example, but he also took time to speak to them personally. Look at verse 11 in our text. As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged, look at these next two words, every one of you, as a father doth his children, Paul said, you weren't just a congregation, you were like children to me. He said, and I took time. When you were hurting, I'd come and spend some time with you and talk to you and try to be of help and encouragement. He said, if you were joying about something, I'd come and we'd laugh together and I'd rejoice with you. And he did that with every one of them. on a personal basis. You see, there's preachers all over America who are big time, big shot preachers. They'll preach to thousands, but they won't come to your bedside at the hospital. They won't come and preach your spouse's funeral or your child's funeral. Paul said, I interacted with every one of them. He wasn't too much of a big shot to show some personal attention. And a church that's worth its salt, And I believe that's what Thessalonians shows us throughout this book, is a model church, if it's worth its salt, individuals will get attention. I spend a lot of time, and have in the past, day to day. Sometimes somebody will say, preacher, could I talk to you about something? Well, sure, let's sit down and talk. And it might be something big or it might be something small, but they need some attention. I may have the answer and I may not, but they still need to know somebody cares about them and loves them. And fathers, our kids are the same way. They need to know dad can sit down and speak to them one-on-one. Got daughters, take them out for a date night. Don't forget your wife, take her out on a date night too, but take those kids out and spend a little time with them. Take them to the park. If you can't afford to go to a restaurant, buy a pound of bologna and a loaf of bread and invite me and I'll go help you eat it. Paul encouraged these new believers. That's what a father does for his children. He's trying to encourage his children. And he also comforted them. He gave them a word of encouragement. He said, as you know, how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you. As a father, death is children. He spoke to them personally. He comforted them. He encouraged them. Everybody needs a little comfort once in a while. No man is an island. We're all going to hurt sometime or other. We're all going to be frustrated sometime or another. We're all going to need a little bit of friendship at some time. And Paul said, I took time to spend with you and see if I could be of help. And then he charged them. That means that he testified to them out of his own experience. You know, I know there's teenagers, kids a lot of times say, you know, don't tell me that, Dad. I don't want to hear what it was like back in the day. Oh, wait a minute. I think that's false. Kids need to be able to learn from our experiences from back in the day. They need to know if we made a mistake and we corrected it and how we did it. They need to know if something is a trap and we fell into it and we figured out how to get out of it. And so, don't let your children off the hook by saying, you know, don't want to hear what it was like back in the day. Things are just different now. Well, humans are still humans. And parents still have problems and kids still have problems. And they need to learn from their parents whether it's good experiences or bad experiences, we can use those to teach them the right way. Not teach them to go out and sow their wild oats, but rather to teach them to avoid the traps we fell into. A father's words, that's what we're talking about. Psalm 34 11 says, Come ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. That's what we need. Parents that will tell their children how to fear the Lord, how to live for Him. And this is the kind of preacher, the kind of pastor that Paul was to the Thessalonican church. He treated them with such care and affection as a steward, as a mother would, and as a father would. That's a pretty rounded picture. He loved those people and he was respected of them. This passage gives us a really beautiful example of New Testament follow-up. Paul didn't just win them to the Lord and leave them sitting there. He's checking on them, see how they're doing, give them a little bit of instruction later on. If we're going to be anything close to Paul in our life, in our ministries, in our parenthood, we have to be faithful stewards. Hello? Faithful stewards, gentle as mothers concerned as fathers. That's what Paul shows us. Let's pray together. Father, I pray that you'd help us to understand in our own heart just how this church at Thessalonica prospered in spite of the persecution that they had undergone because they had a man of God who loved them as a steward and as a mother and as a father. No wonder No wonder such glowing reports were given of this church at Thessalonica. They had someone to really help them. Lord, I pray that you'd help us in this next few moments just to respond to you if you've spoken to our hearts in any way.