Paul's Ministry, Your Ministry
Tom Shrader works through 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12, drawing on Paul's account of his ministry in Thessalonica to show that every follower of Christ — not just paid clergy — is called to active, fruitful ministry. He highlights Paul's courage under suffering, his refusal to flatter or deceive, his gentleness toward those he served, and his hard work as a tent-maker to remove financial obstacles to the gospel. The teaching closes with a series of direct self-examination questions, challenging listeners to ask whether their motives are pure, their lives are consistent with what they profess, and whether God is truly being pleased by the way they live.
“You cannot see fruit in your life if you are not giving the gospel in word and then supporting it in deed.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: 1 Thessalonians
Recorded: 2000 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 44 min
Themes: ministry, courage, integrity, gentleness, service, motives, hard work, sharing the gospel, feeling unworthy of ministry, new believer, marketplace worker, struggling with mixed motives, mentor, young adult, questioning my purpose, new to leadership
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12, 1 Thessalonians 1:3-4, 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, 1 Samuel 16:7, Galatians 1:10, John 8:29, Matthew 20:20, Ephesians 4, Colossians 1:10, Acts 18
Theological Themes: laity ministry, priesthood of all believers, sanctification, pastoral care, biblical integrity, servant leadership, vocation, spiritual fruitfulness
Full Transcript
You Are a Minister
Open your Bible with me to 1 Thessalonians. If you were not here last week, you may be wondering what we are doing in 1 Thessalonians. Last week we explained our strategy as we work our way through the book of Acts. Especially now as we complete the book of Acts, we really have the life of the apostle Paul. As Paul travels through the end of his second missionary journey and then through his third missionary journey and then off to Rome, Paul frequently writes back to the churches he has been a part of establishing and nurturing — and those are the epistles we have.
So what we are going to do is, as we reach a point in Paul's life where he is writing these letters back to the church, stop and study those letters. When Paul arrives in Corinth in Acts chapter 18, he writes 1 and 2 Thessalonians. We will look at 1 Thessalonians, then go back to the book of Acts and study Paul's brief time in Corinth, then 2 Thessalonians, and then work our way through until we have covered all of Paul's writings as they take place sequentially in the book of Acts. It should be very helpful to have an even fuller understanding of the context in which Paul is writing.
We looked last week at 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. This week we are at the beginning of chapter 2, the first twelve verses. In my Thinline Bible the heading on this chapter is "Paul's Ministry." In the MacArthur Study Bible I think it says "Paul's Conduct." It really is a chapter about ministry. I was even thinking as I studied this week that this would be a great chapter to teach at a pastor's conference. But as I thought about that, I wanted to make sure you did not miss the application to your own life.
You are a minister. You are a servant. We go out of our way at East Valley Bible Church to point out to you again and again that we are all in full-time ministry. There are some who are paid for it and make their living at it, but every person who is a follower of Jesus Christ is a minister. When we look at Paul's life, we can apply the same principles, characteristics, and purposes of evaluation to our own lives and our own ministries as well.
It is so important for you to keep fresh in your mind that you are a minister and that God has given you a ministry. Maybe it is at work — maybe it is in a cubicle across the aisle where God has divinely ordained a person for you to minister to. Maybe it is friends you spend time with, or people in your neighborhood, or family members. You have to see your life in the context of ministry. All of your life is ministry for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ministry in the Home
I want to speak especially to one group here this morning — the ladies who have small children and are staying home ministering to those kids. I know how hard that can be. I watched Susan do that with Sarah and with Haley. We were not Christians at the time, but we simply thought it was the best thing for our family that when the girls were born, Susan would quit working. On New Year's Eve, Susan worked until one o'clock in the afternoon, and then that night at nine o'clock she had Sarah. I like that — determination right to the end.
When we had Sarah, we only had one car, so Susan was essentially home with her. Then Haley came along. I saw firsthand how difficult that season was, especially in a world that says it is not that valuable and that the real value is in the marketplace. I would come home some days and Susan would say, "I don't know if I can take this anymore. All day long all I've said is no, no, no, stop, no." She said, "I just need to hear an adult speak to me." And I would say, "What's for dinner?" — which was not the right answer.
I sometimes fear that mothers in that season do not understand that what they are doing is a ministry. I remember one day Susan was particularly worn down by a diaper-changing day, and I had the privilege of reminding her: "Susan, this is a ministry. Right now it may seem like all they do is eat, get rid of what they eat, and complain. But someday you are going to see the fruit of this ministry." And we praise God that we have seen that fruit.
You are in ministry. I do not care where you are — you are in ministry. I was talking to a man this week who said he hears about all the things God is doing in other people's lives but that it is not happening in his own life. If it is not happening in your life, it is because you are not following the principles of ministry that Paul has laid out for us here. This should be your life.
Our Coming Was Not in Vain
That is the backdrop. We are studying the life of the apostle Paul in this second chapter, but there is rich instruction for our own lives as we work through it. First Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 1: *"For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain."*
As we noted last week in the introduction, there were those coming along trying to undermine what Paul was doing — false accusations, minimizing his work, doing anything they could to stop him. Paul says, "You know yourselves — you saw this — that our coming to you was not in vain." The New Living Translation renders it, "Our coming to you was not a failure." The idea is that what we are involved in is worthwhile. Your desire, I would think, is to have an effective ministry.
A Ministry That Makes a Difference
Paul says our life was worthwhile. How does he know? He points to three things in the first chapter. He says the people they touched showed a work of faith, a labor of love, and a steadfastness of hope. In your ministry, that is what you should see happening around you. You should see people coming to Christ.
In verses three and four of chapter one, Paul describes a work of faith, and in verses nine and ten he defines it: they turned to God from their idols. In our context, that means they came to Christ in repentance and faith. They gave up their own efforts at trying to appease a holy God and trusted Christ and Christ alone. But that is not the end — that is the beginning. There are people in your life who are right now in the process of that work of faith.
There is also a labor of love, which means to toil, to serve the living God. We serve God as we serve one another — that is the purpose statement of the church. We help one another learn God's truths and live biblically changed lives. We serve one another in the body of Christ, and we serve a lost world.
The preeminent way we serve a lost world is by proclaiming to them the Word of God. Here is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you do not know Christ, that is the problem in your life. If you want to understand the meaning of life — who am I, why am I here, where am I going — you have the answers. It is the gospel.
The Steadfastness of Hope
Then there is a steadfastness of hope. These people never waver. They may get down, and they certainly have hard times, but they bounce back. There was a toy when I was a kid, a rubber inflatable thing with sand in the bottom. You would punch it, and it would go down and pop right back up — face right there, as if to say, I am here, you cannot get rid of me, I am back, you cannot stop me. Not because of personal determination, but because He who began a good work will continue it.
That is the characteristic of the church. We are a persistent group, a little church that could — not because we are so strong, but because it is not that we have a hold of Him, but that He has a hold of us. There is a steadfastness, and it is grounded in hope because Christ is coming again. Every one of the five chapters in 1 Thessalonians ends with Paul referring to the second coming of Christ.
That was a prevalent thought in the early church. They knew Christ was coming again. They knew this was real. They knew there was a day not far away when they would be face-to-face with Him forever. So there was a work of faith and a labor of love to the point of exhaustion, because they knew Jesus was coming again. Paul says that is the effectiveness of our ministry.
Courage in the Face of Opposition
In verse two, Paul tells the story. He says, "After we had suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amidst all sorts of opposition." He is reminding them of what they already knew. When Paul and his companions came to Thessalonica from Philippi, the Thessalonians had heard what happened there. Paul's back had been laid open. He had been stripped naked. His Roman citizenship was ignored and he was thrown not merely into prison but into the dungeon, shackled there to inflict humiliation and pain. And even at Thessalonica, he eventually slipped out of town at night under a pledge never to return.
As you read through the book of Acts, this is a courageous man. What is interesting is where that courage came from. Paul says it plainly: "We had the boldness in our God to speak to you." The New Living Translation renders that same portion of verse two this way: "Yet our God gave us the courage."
It would be easy to look at Paul and conclude he was just naturally a courageous person. But when he wrote back to the church at Corinth, he said, "I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling." Writing about his time in Macedonia — which includes Thessalonica — he said their flesh had no rest, they were afflicted on every side, conflicts without, conflicts within. But God gave them the courage.
Where Courage Comes From
You might be sitting here thinking, I am a devout coward. Join the party — so am I. Where does that courage come from? It comes from knowing who Christ is, from living for Him, from following Him. By committing my life to Him in prayer, by studying His Word, by living this out, when I do it there is a courage that comes with that. It is not self-confidence. It is a confidence in Him, a confidence rooted in understanding who He is. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.
There is a strength, a courage, and a boldness that come from knowing who He is. Paul says we came to you with all sorts of conflict and suffering, and by nature we came in fear and trembling, but God put courage in our hearts.
Courage and Truth in Ministry
God did it. In your ministry, there needs to be courage, but it's not just courage. Look at verse three. He said, "For our exhortation does not come from error, impurity, or by way of deceit." Paul said that when he came to them, he told them the truth. There was no error — the word there means it was factually accurate. There was no impurity, no misplaced sexuality of the kind associated with pagan religion, where actual orgies were performed as part of worship. There was purity in the message and purity in Paul's life, and he was not trying to deceive anyone.
We may have people who come knocking on our doors with courage — cold calling, if you will — but when they share with us, they don't share the truth. They share falsehood. Paul says that is not how he came. He understood the truth, and he shared the truth.
Approved and Entrusted by God
Verse four reads, "Just as we've been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but pleasing God, who examine our hearts." If you take out the middle portion of that verse, you see the core connection clearly: we've been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. God signed off. God said these people are worthy and can be trusted. The idea is a fiduciary relationship — something is transferred to a person whom you trust with it — and God says to you and me, you are trustworthy.
Why are we trustworthy? Because He has examined our hearts and looked at our lives. To be approved is to have been tested and tried. As one author writes, the literal translation is that God approves our hearts. To test someone and prove them is to approve them for a task. God never entrusts the gospel to anyone He has not first tested to see whether they are sufficiently committed to present that gospel.
You can fool each other. You can come in here and fool me, and I can fool you, but you cannot fool God. God has examined you, tested you, and looked at what is truly there.
God Looks at the Heart
You know the story of David. Samuel goes to Jesse because it is time for a new king. One boy comes out, then another, then another. Each time, God says that is not the one He has chosen. Samuel asks Jesse if he has any more sons, and Jesse says there is one left — a shepherd out in the field. When the boy comes in, there is nothing physically dominating about him, nothing you might associate with a leader. And yet Samuel says, that's him.
The reason is found in 1 Samuel 16:7: "The Lord said to Samuel, 'Don't judge by his appearance or his height. I reject them. The Lord doesn't make decisions the way you do. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at a person's thoughts and intentions.'"
When we have a message to send out, we want to send it in the right package — tall, dark, handsome, articulate. God says, well, maybe, but give Him the short, unimpressive one instead. I had a lady in one of our studies who came up one day and said it was the last study she would attend. I asked if she was moving, and she said no — she simply could not take another study that I taught. I asked whether I had done something offensive, and she said no. She said I was driving her nuts because I dangle participles. I am painfully aware that in my life I do not measure up to human standards. But somehow God said He is looking at the heart.
The same is true in your life. There are certain cards you have been dealt, certain skills, certain gifts, certain appearances. That is not what God is looking at. God is looking at your heart — at what is in it and what your motives are.
Pleasing God, Not Men
In the middle of all this, Paul says we do not speak in a way to try to please men. We speak in a way to please God. Galatians 1:10 from the New Living Translation reads, "Obviously, I'm not trying to be a people pleaser. No, I'm trying to please God." That is the issue. What is the motive of your heart? Is it to make everybody happy, to please everyone around you? Now, there is nothing wrong with people being happy from their encounter with you — in fact, that is good. Paul says at one point that to the Jew he became a Jew.
Pleasing God, Not Men
As much as I can be, I want to accommodate the people around me. These things hang in tension. Paul says he is sensitive to those around him, not wanting to put up unnecessary obstacles. But the driving force is not to please a man, a woman, or a group. The driving force is to please God, and that ought to be the case in your life.
Charles Spurgeon speaks to the challenges that come with pleasing men in the pulpit. He tells this story: a minister said to him, "If I were to preach in your bold style, I would lose some of my richest people and offend the rest." Spurgeon replied that if he did that, would he not have an easy conscience, and is not that worth more than money? The minister who cares for any man's opinion when he is doing his duty is unworthy of his office.
There is a problem at epidemic proportions in the church today — an overriding problem of the church at large. You have men and, pitifully, women in pulpits who are trying to make people happy, telling people what they want to hear, trying to please them, trying to see how large a crowd they can gather, making all sorts of decisions about what to teach and how to teach it based on what the people would think. I have never been in a meeting at East Valley Bible Church where the issue was how to make people happy or how to get the most people in. What I hear in the meetings I am in is: what is the right thing to do?
It is very simple. We teach the students the same thing we teach the adults and the same thing we teach the kids — the truth. I received a letter from someone who was visiting the church, and I believe they were from Texas. The letter was very critical of a great many things, including the way I dressed — which told me right away this person lacked discernment. It was critical of the music, critical of everything, and the closing sentence suggested that we had clearly decided to appease a generation and to appeal to them in spite of the truth. I thought: really? I must have missed the meeting where we suddenly decided to see how many people we could appease.
What we actually did was sit down and ask: what opens our hearts and our minds to worship? Whether that appeals to a large number of people is largely irrelevant — that is God's concern. As for how we study, I believe the best method, all things being equal, is chapter by chapter, verse by verse, because you simply cannot avoid the hard passages. You have to go right through them. There are times when we will take a brief departure to address a particular topic, but we return to this method, because working our way through Scripture ensures we receive the whole counsel of God.
Proclaiming Truth in Hard Moments
It is so important that you understand this in your own life as you live out the gospel, because as you proclaim the truth to the people around you, you will encounter those who do not want to hear it. This is especially true in times of suffering — that is where you really understand what your faith is all about.
Perhaps recently you have been to a funeral for a non-believer. I speak with many people who come back from funerals and describe something sad: the deceased was placed in heaven almost instantly, and suddenly everyone at the funeral assumes they are going there too, because the person was a good person. That is when it becomes genuinely difficult. What do you say to the people you work with whose mother, father, child, or spouse has just died without knowing Christ? How do you hold firm?
You love them and you care for them, but it is vitally important to remember what Jesus says in John chapter eight, verse 29: "He who has sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things pleasing to Him." What is the pleasing thing to do? It is to tell the truth.
Paul's Example: Honesty, Humility, and Gentleness
Paul said that they were approved, that their hearts had been tested, that they had been entrusted with the gospel, and that they lived not to please men but to please God. In verse five he says they never came with flattering speech — they were not blowing smoke. They did not come under any pretext of greed. God was his witness. He was not there to see how he could profit from this, not trying to cash in on the message. They came to serve, not to flatter.
They did not seek glory from men — not from the Thessalonians, not from others — even though as apostles of Christ they might have asserted their authority. Paul said he never once played the apostle card. He never once said, "I am the apostle, you listen to me, and you owe me." Their entire mission was to come in the midst of affliction and present the truth honestly and realistically, not for their own personal advancement, but so that others might hear.
Instead, Paul says, "We proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children." There are enough illustrations of that walking around this campus — mothers with their children. There is something truly special there. There was a woman out in the lobby not long ago with a tiny newborn baby. I said that was rather cute and asked if I could hold the baby. She hesitated, but handed the child over. I assured her I had held babies before, that I knew how to support the neck and manage it fine. I had the baby in my arms, and she was staring at me as though she was certain I was going to drop it — as though I had no idea what I was doing. I asked her if this was her first child. She said yes and asked how I knew.
Nurturing Those You Serve
Remember the context. I am to come to somebody, share with them, tell them the truth, and be unwavering — but I am to nurture them and love them in the midst of this. I don't just beat them up. I have friends who are very proud that nobody can stand their truth. Bam, bam, bam. They say, "I must have told the truth, because nobody responded." No — you're a jerk, and nobody wants to spend time with you. That's the issue. It's not the message. The message can be offensive, but the messenger drowned out the message.
Paul said, "having thus a fond affection." It's a term that's rarely used in the New Testament, and it speaks to the idea of yearning or longing. He said, "We have this yearning, this longing, this love for you. We were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but our own lives." Do you understand what he says? That is the same thing you have to do in your ministry. He said we didn't just tell them the gospel — we lived this. We gave them the message, and we gave them our lives.
The word translated "lives" there is also translated in Scripture as heart, mind, soul, and person. He said we gave them everything. When we came to you, we told you the truth. You know the courage that it took. You know the gentleness that it took. You know we were unwavering, and when we came, we did it gently. But we love you — we gave you everything. That's the way you're supposed to live.
Giving Your Life, Not Just Your Words
There is a great scene in Matthew chapter 20. The mother of John and James comes to Jesus and says, "I know You're going to reign, so I want one to sit on the left and one to sit on the right — positions of power." Jesus called the disciples together and taught them a lesson. You see that pattern throughout the Gospels — Jesus gathering people and speaking directly into their lives.
Remember the incident where Jesus is apparently sitting and watching people give money. They would give money frequently into these large vessels — a reverse trumpet-shaped container — and the more powerful or prestigious a person was, the more he would have an entourage traveling with him. They'd come in with great fanfare, and then he would say he wanted to anonymously give a very large gift, and drop it in. Then a woman comes along and gives two fractions of a penny. And there's that phrase again: Jesus called the disciples together. He said, "Guys, come here. Did you see this?" That is the whole idea.
Everybody wants to be mentored and discipled right now. But what does that mean at its core? It means giving not just the word, but giving your life. Jerry Smith and I have had breakfast almost every Friday morning for ten years. We take life and the issues we're facing and the things coming into our lives, and we face those things together. He'll say, "What do you think?" And now, more often, I'm the one saying, "Jerry, what do you think?" That's the idea.
You cannot see fruit in your life if you are not giving the gospel in word and then supporting it in deed. You have to be involved in the lives of people. You can't sit back and say, "God, use me in a powerful way," and then say, "But I don't really want to be hassled by anybody." I heard a man say the other day — and I've heard it a thousand times — "This ministry thing would be great if it wasn't for the people." Let me help you out: the ministry is the people. That's the whole point. If you don't like people, you're in the wrong deal. This is about loving people, spending time with people, being with people.
The Ministry Belongs to All of Us
Here's what I want you to see: the staff and the leadership cannot do all of that. How many people can any one person truly be involved with in their lives? A half dozen? Maybe a few more. We're going to have 2,200 people in this room and on campus today. You are in the ministry. Our purpose statement is to help one another learn God's truth. You have to do that. You will never have an effective ministry if you are not pouring your life into other people. That is the model right here.
Then Paul says this in verse 9: "You recall, brethren." That was a sweet word to their ears — brothers. They came from all sorts of diverse backgrounds and all walks of society. They were misunderstood, mistreated, persecuted, and beaten down. But when they came together, there was a bond that held them — something that held them closer than a chain of DNA. It was their shared experiences and their love for the Lord Jesus Christ. One author puts it beautifully: "It is a beautiful thing to see people linking their hearts and lives together for a common cause and a common love. There is no stronger bond."
Paul said, "You know, brothers, we labored night and day — labor and hardship, toiling to a point of weariness." That is what the word means. He said they worked night and day so as not to be a burden to the people they served. He made clear they had every right to receive financial support. Is he saying that if you work for the Lord in full-time ministry, it is wrong to be paid for it? No. In fact, as we study this alongside the book of Philippians —
The Gospel of God, Our Gospel
At the time Paul is ministering in Thessalonica, he is being supported by the church in Philippi as well. There is a subsidy taking place there. But he is saying that he did not in any way want them to think his motive was to take money from them. So he doubled his effort. He worked all day and all night, making tents, working with leather, doing everything he could to generate funds so he could come to them and give them the truth while removing every obstacle. He would not ask them for anything — they simply needed to listen.
He proclaims the gospel of God to them. Last week we made the point that Paul spoke of "our gospel," but today, four times, he refers to "the gospel of God." Which is it? The answer is both. The gospel of God references the authority of Scripture, the power of Scripture, the deity of Christ, the incarnation, and the substitutionary death of Christ. Christ died on the cross for His people, He rose again, and now we have salvation by grace through faith. That is the gospel — and yet Paul calls it "our gospel," the gospel of God that they own, the privilege of which is to proclaim it boldly.
A Life That Matches the Message
In verse 10, Paul says that both his audience and God are witnesses to how he lived — devoutly, uprightly, blamelessly. Just as a father encourages, exhorts, and implores his own children, Paul and his companions lived in a way that matched what they said. There was a man in town who had a large Bible on his credenza and a Bible verse on his desk — you could not walk into his office and miss the Bible. The problem was, his reputation in the community was that he would take advantage of you for next to nothing. That is no way to live, and Paul is saying they did not do that.
Paul's manner of life and message matched together. You could never make any accusation stick against them, because they lived uprightly, and just as a father tells his child how to walk, that is the same message they brought. Verse 12 makes the goal explicit: "so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His kingdom." This is the same idea found in Ephesians 4 and Colossians 1:10 — to conduct our lives in a way worthy of the calling God has placed on us. If you are a Christian today, it is because God has separated you out, chosen you, and now you live accordingly.
There is a lie going around that says all you have to do is believe, and then you can live any way you want. That does not even remotely come close to what Paul says here. He proclaims the truth and lives the truth, and your ministry will be empty if those two things are not matched together.
Questions for Your Own Ministry
This passage is about Paul and his ministry, but it is about yours as well, so we close with a question — several, in fact. Is your ministry marked by courage? Do you find yourself backing off and lacking the boldness to share the faith when God places opportunities before you? What are your motives for your life? Is your heart pure, or is your Christian faith somehow something you use to show what a great person you are, to draw attention to yourself?
Are gentleness and love visible in your life? The gospel is definitive and narrow, and our responsibility is to share it gently and in love. Do you work hard — not at the office, where a good day's work for pay is presumed, but in your Christian life? How much time each week do you spend in prayer? How much time each week do you spend actually studying God's Word — not simply reading through it in a year, but studying it so you know what it says and are prepared to make a defense when someone asks why you believe it? Are you someone who says, "Let me call someone from the church to come visit you"? Or do you answer the question yourself? Do you work to the point of exhaustion in these things?
Is your life a life worth following? When Paul says "Follow me, be an imitator of me," that is a strong thing to say. Can you say that? Perhaps you are here today and there is simply nothing going on in the ministry God has given you. You have been a Christian for 25 or 30 or 50 years, but you have not had 25 years of growth — you have had one year of growth repeated 25 times. The same books, the same ideas, the same conversations, the same thoughts, everything the same, nothing new happening. It has been a decade since God used you to bring someone to Christ.
If your ministry is ineffective, here is why: you have not been courageous, something is wrong with your motives, you are not gentle or loving, you are not working hard, or your walk is not matching your talk. Because when you have a life where all of those things are in order, that is what God uses — that is who God uses.
I was reading an interesting website this week called Truth or Fiction. What they do is take the stories circulating on the internet and research whether they are true or not. There must have been 75 stories listed, and I believe 72 of them —
Living a Life That God Can Use
One of the stories this man shared — which he confirmed was true, having verified it with her church — was Jane Fonda's conversion. She had been complaining to her chauffeur about her church experience, describing it as sterile, with nothing happening. Her chauffeur, who happened to be a Black man, invited her to come to church with him — a little Baptist church — and apparently God saved her there.
Think about that. There were all these people trying to reach out to powerful, prominent figures. God looked at R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, Charles Stanley — right here in Atlanta — and said, no, I think I'll use the chauffeur. I love that. And here is why: that chauffeur did not have an attitude, because if he had, she would never have listened to him.
How about you? When you strip everything else away, here is the real question: is the way you live pleasing to God? If it is, that is all that matters — and He is going to use you. If it is not, it is not going to happen, and here is the sad thing: you are wasting your life.
You are going to get to the end of your days — going to heaven, absolutely — but you are going to look back and say, I wish I had it over. You do not get yesterday back. But you do have today.
So live to please Him — in a courageous, loving, gentle way. Work hard. Keep your motives pure. Let your life line up with what you profess. Share the truth, and God will use that.
Father, that is our prayer — that we would be men and women, individually and collectively, who are pleasing to You. Let us be gentle, loving, and courageous, with pure hearts, sharing the truth. And God, let us be men and women who work, and work hard. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen.