Transcript

Podcast Introduction

Today our reading is 1 Thessalonians 1-3. Afterwards, I’ll have some thoughts to share with you, and I’m calling today’s episode “A Pastor’s Heart.” 

Comments on 1 Thessalonians 1-3

As we read these chapters, I hope you saw that Paul had the heart of a pastor. I guess before I continue, I should quickly define what a pastor is, for those who don’t know. Sure, you probably know that a pastor is one who leads a church, but where does that name come from…what does it mean? And why do we use the word? “Pastor” literally means “shepherd”. Of course, a shepherd cares for a flock of sheep. We’ll talk more about that in a minute, but why do we use this specific analogy for someone who leads a church? Because in John 21:15-17, Jesus said to Peter three times, “Feed my sheep.” Actually, Jesus said “feed” twice, and “tend” (as a shepherd tends his sheep) my sheep. This title of “pastor” was literally Jesus’ idea. 

So how does a shepherd tend his sheep? It’s more than just feeding them. He also makes sure they have water, and a shepherd watches over them to be sure they are safe from predators.. Sheep really have few defense mechanisms. They need the shepherd’s protection.

Back to Paul.

As we’ve been reading through his letters, it’s clear that he dearly loves the people who are part of the church. He prays for them, he worries about them, he looks for ways that he can be a blessing to them, and he admonishes them to live lives that will be pleasing to the Lord. I hope that sounds familiar to you. I hope this could be a description of your pastor.

I’ve been blessed to have had some great pastors in my life. While each one has been very different in their personalities, they each loved God and the people God put in their care. And since I have usually been very involved in every church I have attended, and most of them have been on the small side, I’ve gotten to know most of my pastors on a personal basis. They have been my friend as well as my pastor. One of my pastors was one of my brothers-in-law, too. We had a very close relationship. 

Why am I telling you this? I learned from my close friendships with pastors that a pastor’s job is often lonely and difficult and thankless. Most pastors don’t have someone they can go to to unload their heart. They seldom have a peer to share their difficulties with. Your pastor prays for you and seeks God’s will for you. Verse 10 of chapter 3 could probably have been written by your pastor: “Day and night we ask him with all our heart to let us see you personally and supply what is needed in your faith.”

Today, I’d like you to encourage your pastor. Let him know that you pray for him (You DO pray for your pastor, don’t you?). Let him know how you have been changed by a recent sermon. Be specific. Don’t just say, “Good sermon” as you leave on Sunday. Let him know which specific words really spoke to you, and what you are going to do to put them into practice. And don’t just do this in passing on Sunday morning. Write him a note. On paper. With your own hand. And drop it in the mail. Remember snail mail? Use it to deliver your note. And in the note, think about including a gift card to a really nice local restaurant. Many pastors can’t afford to go to really nice restaurants. Or maybe buy him tickets to a local sporting event if he likes that kind of thing. And then there’s always cash.  

Let your pastor know that the love he puts into your life means something. Let him see the gifts of the Holy Spirit at work in your life. 

Do something so that your pastor can say, “Now we can give thanks to our God for you.”

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 1-3 GNT

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Transcript

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Steve Webb 0:00
Where does that name come from? What does it mean? And why do we use the word?

Steve Webb 0:13
This is the Lifespring family Audio Bible coming to you from Riverside, California and podcasting since 2004. I am your OG God casters Steve Webb, I’m so glad you’re here today. And I’m glad we’re on time at least I think this is gonna be on time. This is the daily show where we’re reading through the entire Bible in a year. I’m sorry, yesterday’s episode was about 12 hours late. Just before posting the episode, the entire Lifespring Media website crashed. And so it took that long before I was able to fix it. I was able to get it working just enough so that it was not offline for very long, but it was really just barely working. It wasn’t until about 12 hours later that I think I have it fixed. But while I was limping along, there was just no way I could post the show. By the way, if you are a WordPress expert, and you’d like to contribute value for value in the way of time, and if you’d like to help maintain and or fix things when they break at Lifespring media, or if you’ve got ideas for improving Lifespring media.com as a website, contact me at Steve at Lifespring media.com. Alright, enough of that. Today I reading is First Thessalonians one through three afterward, I will of course have some comments for you. And I’m calling today’s episode, a pastor’s heart. The show notes page for today is at Lifespring media.com/s 12, e 207. Let’s get started.

Steve Webb 1:41
First Thessalonians chapter one.

Steve Webb 1:45
From Paul, Silas and Timothy, to the people of the church of Thessalonica, who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May Grace and peace be yours. We always thank God for you all, and always mention you in our prayers. For We remember before our God and Father how you put your faith into practice, how your love made you work so hard, and how you’re hoping our Lord Jesus Christ is firm. Our friends, we know that God loves you and has chosen you to be His own. For we brought the good news to you not with words only, but also with power and the Holy Spirit. And with complete conviction of its truth. You know how we lived when we were with you? It was for your own good. You imitated us and the Lord. And even though you suffered much, you received the message with joy that comes from the Holy Spirit. So you became an example to all believers in Macedonia and aka for not only did the message about the Lord go off from you throughout Macedonia and AKA, but the news about your faith in God has gone everywhere. There is nothing then that we need to say. All those people speak about how you received us when we visited you, and how you turned away from idols to God, to serve the true and living God, and to wait for his Son to come from heaven, His Son Jesus, whom he raised from death, and who rescues us from God’s anger that is coming first.

Steve Webb 3:08
Thessalonians chapter two.

Steve Webb 3:11
Our friends, you yourselves know that our visit to you was not a failure. You know how we had already been mistreated and insulted in Philippi. Before we came to you in Thessalonica. And even though there was much opposition, our God gave us courage to tell you the good news that comes from Him. Our appeal to you is not based on error or impure motives, nor do we try to trick anyone. Instead, we always speak as God wants us to, because he has judged us worthy to be entrusted with the good news. We do not try to please people, but to please God who tests our motives. You know very well that we did not come to you with flattering talk. Nor did we use words to cover up greed. God is our witness. We did not try to get praise from anyone, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ, we could have made demands on you. But we were gentle when we were with you, like a mother taking care of her children. Because of our love for you, we were ready to share with you not only the good news from God, but even our own lives. You are so dear to us. Surely you remember our friends, how we worked and toiled, we worked day and night so that we would not be any trouble to you as we preached to you the good news from God. You are our witnesses, and so is God, that our conduct toward you who believe was pure, right and without fault. You know that we treated each one of you just as parents treat their own children. We encouraged you, we comforted you. And we kept urging you to live the kind of life that pleases God who calls you to share in his own kingdom and glory. And there is another reason why we always give thanks to God. When we brought you God’s message you heard it and accepted it not as a message from human beings but as God’s message which

Steve Webb 4:59
Indeed it is, for God is at work and you who believe our friends, the same things happen to you that happen to the churches of God and Judea, to the people there who belong to Christ Jesus. You suffered the same persecutions, from your own people that they suffered from the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and persecuted us how displeasing they are to God, how hostile they are to everyone. They even tried to stop us from preaching to the Gentiles the message that would bring them salvation. In this way they have brought to completion, all the sins they have always committed. And now God’s anger has at last come down on them. As for us, friends, when we were separated from you for a little while, not in our thoughts, of course, but only in body, how we missed you, and how hard we tried to see you again, we wanted to return to you, I myself tried to go back more than once. But Satan would not let us after all, it is you, you know less than others, who are our hope, our joy and our reason for boasting of our victory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when He comes, indeed, you are our pride and our joy.

Steve Webb 6:11
First Thessalonians chapter three.

Steve Webb 6:14
Finally, we could not bear it any longer. So we decided to stay on alone in Athens while we sent Timothy, our brother who works with us for God in preaching the good news about Christ. We sent him to strengthen you and to help your faith so that none of you should turn back because of these persecutions. You, yourself know that such persecutions are part of God’s will for us. For while we were still with you, we told you ahead of time that we were going to be persecuted. And as you well know, that is exactly what happened. That is why I had to send Timothy, I could not bear it any longer. So I sent him to find out about your faith. Surely, it could not be that the devil had tempted you. And all our hard work had been for nothing. Now Timothy has come back. And he has brought us the welcome news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always think well of us, and that you want to see us just as much as we want to see you. So in all our trouble and suffering, we have been encouraged about you friends, it was your faith that encouraged us because now we really live if you stand firm in your life in union with the Lord. Now we can give thanks to our God for you. We thank him for the joy we have in his presence because of you. Day and night we asked Him with all our heart to let us see you personally, and supply what is needed in your faith. May our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus prepare the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love for one another, and for all people grow more and more and become as great as our love for you. In this way, he will strengthen you and you will be perfect and holy in the presence of our God and Father, when our Lord Jesus comes with all who belong to him.

Steve Webb 8:00
Well beloved, as we read these chapters, I hope you saw that Paul had the heart of a pastor. I guess maybe before I continue, I should quickly define what a pastor is. For those that don’t know. Sure you probably know that a pastor is one who leads a church. But where does that name come from? What does it mean? And why do we use the word? Well, Pastor literally means Shepherd. Of course, a shepherd cares for a flock of sheep. We’ll talk more about that in a minute. But why do we use this specific analogy for someone who leads a church? Because in John 2115, through 17, Jesus said to Peter, three times, Feed my sheep. Actually, Jesus said, Feed twice and tend once tend as in a shepherd, who tends his sheep. So the title of pastor was literally the idea of Jesus himself. So how does the shepherd tend to sheep, it’s more than just feeding them. He also makes sure they have water, and to shepherd watches over them to be sure that they’re safe from predators. Sheep really have very few defense mechanisms, they need the shepherds protection. So now let’s go back to Paul, as we’ve been reading through his letters, it’s clear that he dearly loves the people who are part of the church, he prays for them, he worries about them, he looks for ways that he can be a blessing to them and he admonishes them to live lives that will be pleasing to the Lord. I hope that sounds familiar to you. I hope this could be a description of your pastor. I’ve been blessed to have had some great pastors in my life. While each one has been very different in their personalities, they each loved God in the people God put in their care. And since I’ve usually been very involved in every church I’ve attended, and most of the churches have been on the small side. I’ve gotten to know most of my pastors on a personal basis. They’ve been my friend as well as my pastor and one of my pastors

Steve Webb 10:00
was one of my brothers in law two, we had a very close relationship. So why am I telling you this? Well, I learned from my close friendships with pastors that a pastor’s job is often lonely and difficult and thankless. Most pastors don’t have someone they can go to to unload their heart. They seldom have appeared to share their difficulties with your pastor prays for you and seeks God’s will for you. Verse 10, of Chapter Three today could probably have been written by your pastor it said, day and night, we asked Him with all our heart to let us see you personally in supply what is needed in your faith. Well, today, I’d like you to encourage your pastor, let him know that you pray for him. You do pray for your pastor, don’t you? Let him know how you’ve been changed by a recent sermon. Be specific, don’t just say, good sermon. As you leave on Sunday, let him know what specific words really spoke to you and what you’re going to do to put them into practice. And don’t just do this in passing on Sunday morning, sit down and write him a note on paper with your own hand and drop it in the mail. Yeah, put your note in an envelope and put a stamp on the envelope and take it to the mailbox. And if you can, in the note, think about including a gift card to a really nice local restaurant. Most pastors are not paid a tremendous amount of money and many times they can afford to go to really nice restaurants. Or maybe you could buy him tickets to a local sporting event if he likes that kind of thing. And then there’s always the good old cash that’s always appreciated. Let your pastor know that the love he puts into your life means something. Let him see the gifts of the Holy Spirit at work in your life. Do something so that your pastor can say like Paul, now we can give thanks to our God for you. So go to Lifespring media.com/s 12 e 207. And let me know what you’re going to do for your pastor. Our reading tomorrow will be Leviticus 19 through 21 Boost.

Steve Webb 12:17
On this date in church history, march 2716 67 Going way back, John Milton, the English Puritan poet published Paradise Lost on this date. Paradise Lost, of course, is an epic length poem about humanity’s creation and fall. It’s a classic obviously.

Steve Webb 12:47
Let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. We are safe in your care. And we pray for the pastors in our lives. Bless them, Lord, encourage them and give them someone that they can be free to be themselves with. Give them mentors and peers. It can be a lonely calling at times and I pray that You would help our pastors through those times. Use us to encourage them Lord and make us thankful and appreciative of the things they do for us. I pray this in Jesus name, amen.

Steve Webb 13:29
When was the last time you shared the show than a while well go out there and tell one or two or three or 10 people. Tell your friends tell your enemies tell your neighbors tell your boss tell the person at the checkout stand at the mark. Take out a billboard littered on your socials. Comment on the show at Lifespring media.com/s 12 207. Email me at Steve at Lifespring media.com And until tomorrow may God bless you richly. Thank you for being here. Have a great Sunday. My name is Steve Webb, being encourager. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai