What Is Evidence of Faith? Live Your Faith Out Loud (part 2)
Your life means more than you know. Our family, neighbors, friends, and coworkers need to witness faith in action. Now, more than ever people need to hear the hope that is in the Gospel message of salvation.
When you are an imitator of the Lord, you become a model of how a person of faith should act and live.
Let us not focus on the suffering that is going on around us, but rather focus on Jesus and living our lives out loud for Jesus and for all to see, that they would know true joy, healing, and forgiveness.
People need to be encouraged and know others are praying for them, that they are loved and not forgotten, that they are loved by God and that He desires them to experience the grace, love and peace of God.
Encouragement in Times of Trial
Love, Joy, Faith, and Hope For All
Last week we learned about three evidences that the Thessalonian believers displayed because of their love and faith in Jesus.
Work produced by faith.
Labor prompted by love.
Endurance inspired by hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The believers were responding to the Gospel message that Paul preached. How each believer lived displayed the fact that the Gospel message made an impact upon their hearts and lives.
Believers across this nation and around the world need to hear a message of salvation and keeping the faith. Paul’s message was a message of: grace, God’s love, encouragement, hope and salvation.
It’s been over 2000 years and the grace of God is still being extended to whosoever believes.
The gospel message is needed in both good times and in the time of physical suffering. It is needed for both the physically healthy person and those who may be dealing with a sickness, disease or a virus pandemic.
With all the violence that is being reported on the news these days it can be emotionally depressing.
For some people, having to be shut in due to the virus looks endless and the hope that the situation will change quickly is somewhere off in the distance.
Returning to some type of normal living appears to be a long way off.
Simple joys of family gatherings or friends going out to a restaurant for dinner is all in the past, at least for the immediate future.
For many the timing of returning to work is unknowable. The business is closed and money is awfully tight.
Bills are piling up and savings are gone.
Tensions are building and some personal relations are being stretched and strained. The kids may be getting on each other’s nerves with no end in sight. No in-person classes at school. Wearing a face mask is getting old.
And no end in having to social distance is in sight.
However, the gospel message is good news and it will inspire love, joy, faith and hope to all who will believe. The gospel message and the truth regarding Jesus’ life, death and resurrection will change lives today just as it did 2000 years ago. The gospel message is powerful; it is life changing; it is a free gift from God to all who will believe. It is the message of Hope that people need to hear at a time when they are feeling helpless and discouraged due to hopelessness. With that let’s read.
“Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you. 2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath” (1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, NIV).
Grace and Peace with God
Paul opened his letter extending the greeting of God’s grace and peace, a greeting that every believer welcomes and experiences. I said last week that the order of grace and peace is important. Peace with God can only occur because of the grace of God. Experiencing the grace of God in one’s life brings true peace; however, rejecting the grace of God results in rejecting much more than the Peace of God.
It means rejecting God’s love and eternal life.
It means rejecting Jesus and one day having to endure eternal punishment of sin.
We learned last week that grace is undeserved favor or kindness towards the sinner and is a gift that God freely gives.
While we were still sinners, Christ died once for all. The result is that when you put your faith in Jesus, you will experience God’s grace and also peace with God in your life.
No longer are you separated from God.
No longer are you under the curse of sin and death.
What is evidence of faith?
Knowing all this, I want to continue to list some additional evidences that Paul gives us in this first chapter of Thessalonians. Walking in faith and victory in Jesus has a look all its own. The verses we read earlier gave us additional evidences that will remove any doubt of the believer’s faith in Jesus. Paul tells us that these evidences signal to all those around that these believers are followers of Christ.
How do you determine if a person is a Christian?
Do you base your decision according to what they proclaim to be?
What others might say about the person?
What they look like or how they dress?
Is it whether they attend church or give in the offering?
Is it their moral language or a particular view point they profess that may cause you to think they are a Christian?
Is it based on a one-time impression or a single act of kindness—maybe their generosity?
Understand, there are many people who have moral ideas. They may display a moral and kind lifestyle in public; and yet they may deny Jesus.
Paul looks deeper. Paul looks to the motives and actions that drive a person to live the way they do. What we look at today are not necessarily the key evidences of faith, but they are visible signs of a person’s faith in Christ.
Additional evidences of faith are seen when you:
Receive the gospel with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction (verse 5).
Become an imitator of the Lord (verse 6).
Develop joy in your heart, even in the midst of suffering (verse 6).
Are viewed differently by others (verse 7).
Live your faith out loud, speaking and living the message of Christ for all to see (verse 8).
Turn to God from anything that takes your attention away from God (verse 9).
Look forward to Jesus’ return (verse 10).
1. Receive the Gospel
Paul tells us that the believers received the Gospel message with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. Their lives were changed. The Holy Spirit made the words alive in their hearts, and with a sense of deep conviction they believed.
2. Become an Imitator
The Thessalonians became imitators of Paul and the Lord (verse 6). Their way of life changed. The way they view things changed. Their priorities changed. What was once important to them had changed, and no amount of suffering that came their way because of this new way of life would cause them to return to their previous lifestyle. They remained steadfast in faith.
3. Develop Joy
We also see in this verse that the believers developed a Joy in their hearts by the Holy Spirit (verse 6). Their faith in Jesus brought a new sense of Joy within them, which was not there before. A joy even in the midst of suffering. The grace and peace of God was manifesting itself in them through the love, hope, and newfound Joy that was becoming evident in their lives because of their faith in Christ.
4. Viewed Differently
We find that another evidence of the believer’s faith in Christ is seen in how others viewed them (verse 7). Paul saw the Thessalonian believers as becoming models of how a person of faith should act and live by:
Laboring out of love.
Enduring in hope.
Living in God’s grace and peace and the joy of the Lord.
Giving no thought of themselves but desiring to see others come to the saving knowledge of Christ.
Living and walking in faith and victory.
5. Live Your Faith Out Loud
Paul brags on the Thessalonians by saying the Lord’s message rang out to regions and their faith became known everywhere (verse 8). People were hearing how the Gospel touched and changed their lives. The Thessalonians did not hide or keep the message of Christ to themselves. Their faith in Jesus became known even outside the city limits. News of their faith in Jesus traveled far and wide. They lived their faith out loud for all to see and know.
6. Turn to God
The believers turned to God and turned away from worshiping idols and false gods. They worshiped God and God alone. They proclaimed to live for the one true God.
7. Look Forward to Jesus’ Return
The believers also looked forward to the time Jesus would return and rescue them all from the coming wrath. The Thessalonian believers knew their lives were changed for all eternity and there was no denying it. Their response to the Gospel proved it. Their lives witnessed it. Their worship declared it. Their actions revealed it. Their testimony proclaimed it. And others witnessed their changed lives and could not deny it.
Do you exhibit evidence of faith?
Faith is demonstrated by:
Work produced by faith.
Labor prompted by love.
And endurance inspired by hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Can you say these statements are true for you?
My faith is witnessed by my changed life through the power of God’s word.
I try to imitate the Lord.
The joy of salvation is evident in my heart and is seen even in times of suffering.
I have become a model of how a person of faith should act and live.
I live my faith out loud, spreading the message of the Gospel by the way I live and act; others know of my faith.
I look forward to the return of Jesus.
Let others see Jesus in your life:
You are not the same person as you once were before you knew Jesus.
Let the Gospel message ring out as clear as a well-tuned piano.
Don’t compromise with the world.
Tell others what God has done in you and how the grace and peace of God could be theirs.
Let your life be a powerful witness of the power of God.
People are watching. Let the fruit of the Spirit develop and grow unhindered for all to see.
Be a person of faith who points others to Jesus. Let the evidences of your faith in Jesus be seen by all, so that others might know and see Jesus in you. Live each day knowing that it is only by the grace of God and the power of His word through the Holy Spirit that you are who you are in Christ; remembering always to look heavenward for His return.
Suggested Praise and Worship
This and other sermons brought to you by Faith Chapel, an Assemblies of God church in Pleasanton, CA.