Great Impact

Well hello and good morning. Good morning balcony. Thank you. That was a rousing kind of greeting time there. That was really cool. You had a lot to talk about. So I love that. That's so cool. My name is Mark by the way. I'm one of the pastors. I want to wish you a happy new year. And we are so glad that we can be together here both in this room and those of you joining us online. And we're just glad and grateful to be together. And I really sincerely hope you had a wonderful holiday season.

And here we go. We are focusing on having a great start in 2026. I almost feel like after the worship, the focus of just wanting to glorify and honor God with our lives, that, I mean, we could practically adjourn, but we're not gonna, so don't get your hopes up. But that's a really, really great setup to what we're gonna be talking about.

And when you talk about having a great start, I just want to invite you to ponder this question. Do you ever wonder what kind of impact my life will have? What kind of impact will my life, will your life have on others, the people in your world? The question is not, you know, how will I be remembered? Or if I will have an impact? The question is what kind? And it's not just, I mean, this is one of the most important questions that we can ever ask ourselves, to be honest. And it's not just important, it's urgent.

Just a couple years ago, one of the books that was on the New York Times bestsellers list was called "4,000 Weeks." Because if you live to the ripe old age of 80, you got about 4,000 weeks. Mathematically, it's just a little bit more than that, but they're maybe deducting for the years that you're like in diapers or something like that. But it's basically 4,000. That does not sound like a long time if you ask me. So in the time that we have for this message, our focus is going to be on how to make the most of the time that we have in our lives. You with me? Here we go.

This Great Start series is a five-week study of the book of 1 Thessalonians. We call it a book, but it's actually a letter that the apostle Paul wrote to brand new believers in a city called Thessalonica. The big idea is that the Thessalonian believers, they got off to a great start, even though they only had the apostle Paul teaching and pastoring them for about three weeks. And not only did they get off to a great start, but there has been an uninterrupted Christian presence in that city to this day. A legacy spanning 2,000 years. And so the question is, how can we get off to a great start that doesn't fizzle out in February? You know what I'm saying? That's what we're learning from Paul's words to these brand new young believers.

And by the way, there is a free daily devotional book that Rene wrote that walks you through every verse of 1 Thessalonians. If you didn't pick this up last weekend, they're free. They're out in the lobby. Make sure you get one of these because this is a really great resource. And in our weekend messages, we're going to focus on just some of the verses in the chapters. And today we're in chapter two about having a great impact.

And by the way, if you missed us last weekend, strongly encourage you to catch up. You can just listen to the message online, tlc.org. And for now though, here's some context for us. When the apostle Paul arrives in Thessalonica, it was his custom, he would go to the synagogue on the Sabbath where he would share the message about Jesus Christ, his life, his teaching, death, his resurrection, and he would really weave it together, kind of overlay it with Israel's scriptures to basically demonstrate to his audience, this has been God's plan all along.

And like I said, he does this for three weeks and he's presumably pastoring on the weekdays as well and teaching. And one of the things we need to appreciate is that what Paul is sharing, and Paul knows this full well, by the way, the message he is sharing with these people in Thessalonica and elsewhere is completely crazy when most people hear it. It's like, wait a minute, the Messiah crucified. If you have a Messiah that's been crucified, especially on a Roman cross, that's just a non-starter for most folks. You know, it's like crucified Messiah is a contradiction in terms.

But even so, through the power of the Holy Spirit, God's word, some people come to faith, they receive His message. Others do not. And some of them oppose Him and they stir up this riot. And so Paul has to flee Thessalonica under the cover of darkness to save his own life. Again, three weeks into it. Eventually Paul ends up in the city of Corinth, which is 350 miles away. And so days turn into weeks, weeks into months. And Paul is desperate to hear word. How are these new little baby Christians doing back in Thessalonica?

And finally, his young apprentice Timothy arrives in Corinth with amazing news, because the church in Thessalonica is thriving. I mean despite opposition and persecution and suffering, these baby Christians are actually becoming model believers for the other churches. And so understandably, Paul's on a high when he writes them in 1 Thessalonians. And he says this in chapter 2 verse 1. He says, "You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results." That's putting it mildly, okay? Not without results. It's like, Paul, this is one of your greatest ministry successes. And he's like, yeah, it was not without results.

But Paul knows, Paul knows that you can't chalk up what happened in Thessalonica to like human effort or skill or cleverness, this was a God thing. In fact, even those who opposed him, opposed his message, acknowledged the impact it had. In fact, the very same people who led the riot against Paul, Acts 17 kind of gives us a little bit more of the story. And it says this in Acts 17. They're talking about both Paul and his fellow missionaries, Silas and Luke and others. And he says, "These people who have been turning the world upside down," turning the world upside down, that's kind of like no small thing, right? No small result. "They have come here also." They're in our city now.

And I want you to imagine, you know, you're a citizen of Thessalonica. You know, maybe you're the average pagan and you hear about these guys who are turning the world upside down. And so you ask your neighbor like, what's the deal, these guys, did they show up with an army? Is that how they're turning the world upside down? No, no, it's just a couple of guys. What are they doing? Oh, they're talking about Jesus. And they're not like us. They live kind of differently.

Verse 7 of Acts 17: "They're all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor," well, that's a big deal if you're in the empire, "saying that there is another king named Jesus." Wow, that is a very big deal because when it comes to making an impact, it's not just about information, that's important, but moreover, it's about transformation. What and who we become in Christ. How our King shapes our lives. And that's what these people are saying, like these guys, they're different. They got a radical message, but they also have a very radically different way of life.

Now I want you to keep that kind of front and center as we delve into what it looks like, how to actually make a great impact. And it's not a formula. It's really in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, I see four things, four behaviors, character traits in the apostle Paul that I think we can connect to the impact that he's making. And the first one is really foundational, so you might want to write this down. It is to live for an audience of one. You know what I'm saying? Live for an audience of one.

Now this is counter-cultural because, you know, we live in what's called an attention economy, right? The larger your audience, the larger your impact, the more you stand to gain, so they say. But Paul says, now there's actually one person whose audience is infinitely more important than anyone else's. And he says in chapter 2, verse 4, "We are not trying to please people. We're not trying to please people, but God who tests our hearts." And others, God's like, I'm gonna live my life before God. That's my, he's my audience.

He's basically saying, yeah, you live your life for an audience of one, and rather than to please people, you may not actually have the biggest platform. But you will make the biggest impact, the biggest difference in the lives of others. For example, if you were with us last weekend, I love the quote that Rene shared about Mother Teresa. How many remember Mother Teresa? Yeah, I mean, this woman had a global impact well before there was anything called social media, right? But one time, Mother Teresa was told by a journalist, "Pulling dying people out of sewers, I wouldn't do that for all the money in the world." And she responded, "Neither would I." But then she goes on to say, "I do this for Jesus who did this for me."

Well that sounds a lot like something Paul says in his letter to the Galatians. When he says, "The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." This is the secret to Paul's motivation. This is what fuels his fire, not personal ambition, not, "I'm just going to be this great person." No, Paul simply wanted to love and serve the one who first loved him and gave himself for him. That was the center, the core, of what motivated him in life.

And you might go, well, okay, to what effect? You know, what kind of impact did Paul have? Well, second to Jesus Christ, it's hard to think of someone who's had greater impact in the history of the world than the apostle Paul. I mean, after all, Paul founded most of the churches in that day. Paul wrote nearly half of the books in our New Testament. And his sway is in fact, especially in western civilization, it's just inarguably immense.

But you know, here's the thing, no one would have said that at the time. No one would have said that, man, that guy, he's going places. Now he's just some itinerant preacher, he gets kicked out of one town after the other. In fact, just a few years after Paul wrote these words to the Thessalonians, Nero would become emperor of Rome. So the eyes of everyone, pretty much, the most important person, the most powerful person in the world is Nero. Paul, he's a nobody. And eventually, Paul would actually be imprisoned in Rome, not once, but twice. And sometime into his second imprisonment, it would be Nero who would order Paul's execution. So again, Nero, he's big deal. Paul, he's gone. But who actually had the greater impact? Nero or Paul?

There was a man at Cambridge years ago named T.R. Glover. He put it this way, I don't think anyone's put it any better. He said, "The day would come when men would call their dogs Nero and their sons Paul." Pretty much says it all. But if you want to have great impact, make it your desire to live for an audience of one.

And then when it comes to how you relate to the people around you, the second thing I see in Paul's life is be there. As in be present, show up. Because the most impactful people in life are not actually the ones who are just looking out for number one. They're actually the people who make it their desire to love and to serve others. And Paul puts it this way in 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 8 when he says, "Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel but our lives as well." I would be there.

And I can't read this verse without thinking of one of our former pastors, Dave Hicks. Dave retired about five years ago. Dave's still alive and well by the way, I don't want you to think this is a eulogy. Hi Dave. Everyone turn around and wave to Dave. He's gonna watch this, he's in San Diego, I'm sure. All right, we love you Dave. But when Dave started at Twin Lakes several years ago, many years ago now. He announced pretty early on that his life verse was 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 8, that as a pastor, he wanted to share not only the gospel, but his very life as well.

And that's what Dave did. I mean, Dave was always doing stuff with people. It could be a staff event, could be a church event, could be a thing like last Sunday night at the Warriors type of event. In fact, because of this, we quickly called Dave, his title was Pastor of Adult Ministries, we called him the Pastor of Fun. Because there was no party that Dave didn't want to be at. And he just was a gregarious guy. And he was more than that though.

Dave actually became the first Protestant pastor in America to serve as a priest for a program called Retrouvaille, which is a Roman Catholic outreach to couples that are in crisis. It has a tremendous success rate. And so this really blue ribbon ministry, they trusted Dave and his wife Pam along with him to serve as priest at the retreats in our area. That's what they thought of him. And by the way, Pastor Jim Josselyn and his wife Susie have carried on that ever since.

But Dave was also pivotal in the formation of our Monday night recovery group and pivotal in kind of advancing the culture here at Twin Lakes where recovery is not something to be ashamed of, it's something to be cherished. And now amen indeed and so we have multiple groups meeting every week and we have space that we are creating in the Hope Center for recovery and for life and restoration. And Dave's part of his legacy here. We're still kind of riding that wave and it continues to build.

Now, if you've never met Dave and you're kind of going, well, that's great, you know, but there's actually in this devotional on January 9th, there's a description of Dave. Not intentional, but it fits him perfectly. It says this, "Paul's approach," and I would add Dave, Dave's approach too, "reminds us that the gospel is best delivered, not just with words but with life. Because it's not merely an invitation to a system of belief, it's an invitation into relationship."

This is why Paul uses so many relational terms in 1 Thessalonians here, especially chapter 2, when he says at verse 7, "We were like young children among you." You know, we were humble. We weren't lording our authority over you. He says they were also, same verse, "We were like a nursing mother." We were gentle. We were nurturing. We were accommodating. And he says in verse 11, "We were like a father." We were encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God. In other words, they weren't just talking heads. They were in relationships. They were sharing their lives alongside the gospel. They made it a priority to be there, to be there.

Now this next point, this next trait, if you will, it really goes with this because when we are in community with people, this next thing that is really important is to be real. You know, be there and to be real. And by that, I mean two things. First of all, be the real you, you know, authentic person that God created you to be. You know, going back to Dave, when he was being, you know, the extroverted pastor of fun, he was just being himself. Okay, he didn't have to kind of put that on. That's just who he was.

But here's the thing, God makes all sorts of personalities. All sorts. And God uses us all according to the gifts that He's given us and our experiences to make a difference in the lives of others. You don't have to be the life of the party. Just be the you that God created you to be, because there's only one of you.

I remember many years ago, when I was just starting out as a pastor, there was a pastor's retreat up at Mount Hermon, and the speaker was a pastor, legendary pastor, named Chuck Swindoll. How many of you heard of Chuck Swindoll? Yeah, Chuck had a national audience. I mean, he was, everybody knew who Chuck Swindoll was. And frankly, a lot of pastors just wanted to be like Chuck Swindoll. And pastors aren't, you know, immune to comparison anymore than anyone else.

And so I'll never forget this is his message in a nutshell. He said, "The most important thing I have learned over the course of my career is know yourself, accept yourself, and be yourself." Know how God has kind of wired you for his purposes. Accept that, you know, he was onto something when he did that, you know, don't try to overrule God in the way that he made you, accept yourself, and then be that person. Delight in the ways that he created you. Don't try to just be like the next person. Because like I said, God made each of us with distinct personalities and gifts for a purpose. So that's one way of being real, kind of being your authentic self.

But the other way has to do with being real when it comes to being really Christian, in the sense that there's authenticity to our lives, our character, and that there has been an impact, an increasing impact, a growing impact of Jesus on our hearts and lives. For example, in Thessalonica, these new converts, they had no idea what it looked like to be a Christian. Okay, they lived in a pagan culture where there was pagan worship and it was really dark, gross. And so Paul, Silas, Timothy, they have to show these baby Christians what it looks like to live like a follower of Jesus.

And so Paul says in verse 10, he says, "You are witnesses, and so is God of how holy, righteous, and blameless we were among you." You're like, wow, Paul. That's kind of like patting yourself on the back. But on balance, you can go to Romans 7. Paul will spend an entire chapter talking about how much of a failure he is. So this is not a claim of perfection. What you can say about Paul, he wasn't perfect anymore than we are, but he was credible. There was an authenticity that was recognizable in his life, in his heart.

And would you agree, eventually people figure out whether or not you're the genuine article or not. You know, they're not expecting perfection, but they're going, "Yeah, there's something credible about your faith." And so we make it our desire. We make it our prayer to say, "Lord, I can't overcome my flaws. I can't overcome my shortcomings. But Jesus can, and I think I'll let Him." In fact, in recovery, it's often said, "I can't. He can. I think I'll let Him." We live in that place of humility that invites the transformational power of God's grace into our lives. Not through human effort, but through faith and trust in Him so that over the course of our lives we will make a good and godly impact on others.

I'll give you a powerful example. We've all heard of Bishop Desmond Tutu. But few of us know a man named Trevor Huddleston, but if it wasn't for Trevor Huddleston, there may have never been the anti-apartheid leader, Bishop Desmond Tutu. Here's the backstory. Once Desmond Tutu was asked to identify the defining moment in his life, like the defining moment. And without hesitation, Desmond Tutu spoke of the day that he and his mom were walking down a sidewalk together and coming the opposite way towards them was this tall white man in a black suit.

And during the years of apartheid, whenever a black person and a white person would meet on a sidewalk like that, it was expected that the black person would step off, allow the white person to pass, and nod as a gesture of respect. Desmond Tutu says this. He says that before me and my mom could step off the curb, the white man stepped off and as my mother and I passed, he tipped his hat as a gesture of respect to my mother. That man was Trevor Huddleston, an Anglican priest who bitterly opposed apartheid.

And when his mother told Desmond that Trevor Huddleston had stepped off the sidewalk because he was a man of God, Desmond Tutu found his calling. Nine years old he says when she told me that he was an Anglican priest, I decided there and then I wanted to be an Anglican priest too and what is more I wanted to be a man of God. Now that's powerful. An encounter that transpired over a matter of seconds changed the trajectory of Desmond Tutu's life, changed the trajectory of a nation when it comes to apartheid. Wow.

And God, who knows what he may do in and through us. You can be sure, Trevor Huddleston, by the way, here they are on screen together. They became friends. Trevor Huddleston was a mentor and a ministry partner with Desmond Tutu. I mean, what a beautiful story, so powerful. But again, he didn't know that in the moment that this was gonna be this massive figure on the world stage. He was a nine-year-old kid to whom he showed respect on behalf of Desmond and his mom. And God may use you in ways you can't even imagine.

And so we live for an audience of one. We make it our desire to be there for other people, to be real. And finally, to stay on message. That's the fourth way that we can make a great impact. Stay on message. A lot of competing messages out there. But we have a very distinctive message. And they even heard it back in Thessalonica, right? That there's this king named Jesus.

And Paul's words were more than just rhetoric. He writes in verse 13, "When you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe." Paul's saying God's word is more than just mere words. In fact, he says something similar in chapter 1, verse 5, when he writes, "Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction."

He's saying, "When God's Word gets into you, it goes to work on you." You know what I'm saying? It goes to work on you. It goes to work on marriages. It goes to work on families. It goes to work on friends and neighbors and co-workers, and many of us can attest to the power of the Word in our life. And it's all inspired. It's all important, God's Word is Scripture, but there is a center to it. There is a central person, and that is the person of Jesus Christ. He is the center, the core of our message.

And that message is that the good news is this. In order to rescue us, God became one of us. And He not only taught us, but He showed us how to be truly human. And then he offered himself up on the cross. And he took upon himself our sin, our death. And he took it all the way to the grave. But he did not stay there. No, no. Christ is risen. And with him we will rise too, because his kingdom has arrived, the new creation has begun. Do you believe this today, church? Amen.

So, in just a moment, we're going to celebrate and remember that the core of our message is Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us and did for us what we could never do on our own. We're going to do that through communion. But as we close, I really want to say and speak to any of us who quite frankly, you wish you're thinking of maybe a moment, a time that you could go back. You could go back to a conversation. You could go back to a moment. A relationship. You could go back to a behavioral pattern that you now regret and do it all differently. But you can't. And so you're haunted by that.

But this is where the good news of the gospel comes. Because Jesus comes with mercy and Jesus comes with grace and Jesus comes with forgiveness and power to change and power to heal and power to make amends. And so we lean into that and we celebrate that. In fact, there are no shortage of things that I wish I could go back and do differently. And yet today is a new day. And one of the best ways that we can get off to a great start is to offer ourselves anew and invite Jesus to do in us and through us what only He can do for the good of others and for the glory of God. Amen church. Amen.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you are so good and gracious to us and we are just mindful of that in this moment that we could just be here together before you and place ourselves before your word and invite your spirit to bring it to life in our lives. And so Lord, I just pray that you would be doing that. I know you will. And so I thank you. And I pray for the people, any person who is within the sound of my voice, who's just struggling with something, that Lord, as we enter into communion, there would just be this fresh awareness of your grace. And the depth of your love and forgiveness would penetrate our hearts at a deeper level and it would just inform our outlook on everything. We just live our lives in response to that. And so with anticipation of all these things, Lord, we ask that you bless us at the start of this year and we look forward to what you have for us in the days ahead. I pray this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and all God's people said. Amen.