A Life Pleasing to God: A Faith Built in Affliction

Ministry Associate Calvin Chu preaches from 1 Thessalonians 1:5b-10. Discussion points: Faith that never undergoes struggle can be too weak for the real world and the person may fall away from God, everyone goes through suffering and it is intended to refine our faith, true faith serves no one and nothing but God.

• See Transcript

  Scripture reader: [1 Thessalonians 1:5b-10] You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything, for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

  This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

  Preacher: My name is Calvin, get the pleasure of sharing God's word with you this morning and um. Like, I feel like I said, every single time I come up I feel like, oh I need a little bit of context for kind of where I come from. So, before I started coming to CoaH, I the youth ministry, well, student ministry, worked a lot with youth, work, work with, you know, college students, and then, you know, obviously adult volunteers and stuff, but, doing student ministry meant that I had the, distinct. Privilege and challenge of sharing the gospel with people who are like at the very beginning of their faith journeys, you know, I was able to see students who like knew nothing about Jesus, learn about who he is, what he's done, and like come to faith.

  And that's like an incredible blessing to be able to see and again because they're younger than the beginning you you get to see that, for, you know, a good chunk of some folks. I also get to see some young Christians deep in their faith, like throughout, you know. Middle school and high school, you see them as they we mentioned someone hitting puberty, congratulations to that that young man. it's, it's, it's everyone enjoys it, um. And then the people who are outside beginning to see just really think it's just a really incredible time, but kind of going through and seeing them go from this, you know, growing into their body and growing into their like spirituality and come out of it especially like as a senior in high school it's like, wow, like you seem to have like a lot more put together now like you understand a lot more about the world, since you've been through the years.

  But one of the things that I also would be able to see was seeing. Something that kind of honestly broke my heart and seeing those same people who seemed like they're more put together than them when they were like in middle school and they graduate and then they kind of go away to college and then you come back and you connect with them and you see that oh actually they like once took their faith seriously and they kind of like stopped taking their faith seriously or maybe they don't consider themselves a follower of Jesus at all.

  And that that was difficult to see and, and, and you know, people who grew up in the church weren't necessarily like immune to that like just because you were born literally in the church doesn't mean that you didn't face those struggles. so for years I wrestled with like why does this happen and what can I do to prevent it and. You know I'd ask myself what what programmatic changes can I make, what, what discipleship changes can I make, how can I preach differently, so that I can sort of prevent these things from happening.

  And while I made adjustments and and the Lord gave me insight and and and inspiration, the pattern still continued. You'd still see people who took their faith seriously and things would happen and then they would grow up and grow out of their faith. And It's not just like a student issue, right? It's actually something that we all see maybe we're all wrestling with plenty of adults step away, plenty of people who, you know, for years after high school, after college, well into their careers, well into establishing their families, they too run into situations and they also step away and grow out of their faith.

  And you know I, I, I don't assume that every single person here is a Christian. Maybe you're here because you stumbled in because it's cold out and you want a place to sit. Maybe you are coming back to the church for the first time in a long time and you just saw this church building and you walked in and you heard music playing, and if you're here and you're a Christian, I don't assume that everything is going well in your faith that you're not struggling, that you don't have doubts. in fact, I don't know, I, I just have a sense within my heart that like. There is a weight here, uh, in some of us, and, and I, I do wonder if maybe some of us are having doubts right now. And I, I can imagine that if you're here, or if you're watching this online, that maybe you are wondering, is God here? Is God good? Is God on my side versus the other side, wherever the other side is in our minds.

  And I think often these doubts come when we're experiencing these particular moments, these hardships, these challenges. We tend to question God when life is not going our way, when things are difficult. And we assume that these difficult circumstances are bad for our faith. That these trials are actually pushing us away from God, rather than drawing us closer to Him. Or if anything, they, they make us doubt God's existence at all cause if God were real, then surely my life wouldn't look like this. And that is the topic we're gonna be talking about today. What is it about our life? What is it about our faith, and how does that match? With the difficulties and hardships that we face. That every single person faces that maybe you right now are facing and maybe that's the reason you're here listening to me, listening to this worship and and and trying to see what is real about God and and I. For that task I need to pray, because we really need God to open up our eyes and soften our hearts so that we can really hear him this morning.

  So let's pray. Father God, it's not just the hour lost for some of us. Some of us are tired in a much deeper sense of I didn't get a full night's rest. Some of us, maybe even in this room right now are existentially tired, emotionally tired, psychologically tired. And so God, for those of us who are there and maybe on on the cusp of really doubting or maybe we're we're sort of beyond the doubt, we're on the road out already, God, would your spirit. Just catch us by the sleeve, grab us by the collar and and tell us to hold on and wait to hear from you this morning. And God, for those of us who are not there, would this be something that is implanted into our minds, implanted into our hearts so that when the difficulties come we are ready to face them the way that you want us to face them. And God, we need you far more than me in my preparations, God, we need your spirit to move amongst us so that we can hear specifically what you want us to hear through your word this morning, and we thank you that you are a God who is powerful enough, loving enough to do that for us right here. And pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

  So as a little bit of context for the passage here, I really appreciate Fletcher sharing kind of what was happening before for Paul and his and his companions. basically he is right to the Thessalonian Church because he he's sort of saying like, wow, this is like I'm excited for you like verse two, which we didn't read this morning we did read last week, it says we. Give thanks to God always for you constantly mentioning mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. He's writing, he's so excited because Paul and his his his missions team was only able to be in that space for a very short while. He couldn't finish the discipleship program like the, the, the 8 the 8 week program that you know, the Alpha of that day like they weren't able to finish it.

  And for some of us that would be like terrifying like oh no like will there ever, can there ever be believers because we didn't get to week like week 8 like but and so I think naturally we we'd be like inclined to to to feel that way because basically a riot broke out and all that stuff. Reading in acts it's awesome. basically Paul had to run. They, they had like hide him and like let him escape else they were gonna like beat him up or something.

  And so he's writing, he's writing with a sense of deep gratitude because he says wow, God is doing something even though I was limited, even though I couldn't finish the job, he's he's grateful because he sees that God is doing it for 4, for we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit with full conviction. In other words, he's excited about the faith he sees in the Christians in Thessalonica, right, the city there, and he's affirmed in their faith, knowing that God has chosen them. In other words, he sees their faith as a true faith, and that that's so exciting to them. He, he just is so filled with great gratitude and he's filled with gratefulness because he sees God working. And he, the thing that gets him so fired up is what we saw in the the passage this morning.

  Read verse 5B, but then I'll read verse 6 as well. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and you became imitators of us and the Lord, for you receive the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. He sees their faith as true, not only because of the the results of it which we'll get to, but he sees their faith as true because it was formed, it grew, it matured under duress. Their faith was built upon affliction. Not despite the affliction, but in because of the affliction. A faith in the midst of storms is one that see, is one that sees the object of their faith much clearer. The faith that grows in adversity sees God's fingerprints.

  If our faith only thrives when things are easy, then it's, it's not truly strong, it's untested. But a faith that endures through hardship, but one that has been refined and strengthened and made more resilient. Just like when you go to the gym. And you lift weights. Or you're running on a treadmill. Your muscles are getting stronger, not. Because it's easy. It's because specifically because it's difficult if sitting on the couch made us stronger, we would have the anti-digital fast. We'd be a digital, you know, binge, and then we'd just be the strongest believers in the faith ever because we're sitting on the couch that we got the Netflix going, we got the we got the iPad, we have our phone, we're just building up strength because it's easy. We do things like a digital fast or any sort of fasting because the affliction, the difficulty is what makes us grow stronger. And so Paul saw God work despite being unable to complete the program. And he know, he knew even more so that God was real and was working because of that.

  I shared previously, that I didn't grow up in a Christian home most of my childhood. The only time that I ever heard the name Jesus is in Cantonese, and it's when my mom would say to me, basically the, the, it says don't talk Jesus to me, and, and it was this, I don't know if it's like a, a phrase that she made up or something that was popular where she grew up in Hong Kong. but basically when I was trying to like convince her of something like, hey, can I have this? Like can I written this she's like, don't talk Jesus to me. and so it wasn't about like a faith thing, it was just don't try to evangelize to me about not the gospel but something else, something about me.

  And I've been thinking a lot about my mom, recently because the anniversary of her passing was this past Monday. And I've shared previously about, you know, what you know had happened with my mom and how she had gotten sick, and I find God's timing funny because we're talking about origins of faith happening under duress, and the origin of my faith is actually under duress it was, you know, when I was young, my mom got sick. She had a heart attack in her mid-thirties, she had a triple bypass surgery and she in on the, on the operating table she fell into a coma for like a little while and so in my 6th grade mind. Hearing and and experiencing my mom being sick and not knowing what's going to happen.

  My aunt who was the first believer in my my family, she came with her church and embodied the gospel in word and in deed. And when she shared the gospel with me, expressing my need for savior. I was like, yeah, OK, like I, I, I see that. I feel that um. And you know, Like facing that dire situation, I, I, I wanted to see God move and he did, and, and again, as I shared previously that she, she, she got out of that. She lived for many years beyond that.

  You know, as like a side note, like my, I, I don't like go into every single time I'm preaching to like I'm gonna talk about my mom or I'm gonna talk about, you know, like these, these, these difficult situations in my family, but I, I, I can't help but really realize that God has used the life of my mother and the difficulties that she went through to form my faith. And it's not just my mom, you know, you know, obviously I talked about how she died with dementia and ALS and so you know that's a huge dose of that, but my father-in-law, you know, the year after, you know, my my wife Lindsay and I got married, he had a stroke and it was debilitating and he had to go to like a nursing home and then in 2020 there's this new disease that came around and you know, he obviously being a stroke victim, being in a nursing home, we were really, really concerned and then. He got COVID when we didn't really know what it was when we were still spray spraying fruit with like bleach. There's no, there's no vaccines. There's none of those things like we didn't and, and he succumbed to COVID. And then even now, you know, my, my sister, she gave birth to her son on October 5th and then October 18th she found out that she has pancreatic cancer the day before her birthday.

  And you know, if anyone, and I'm, I'm not saying that my life is hard, or the hardest of all lives. But if someone has a couple of, you know, stones to throw at the throne of, of, of, of God, I feel like I can kind of throw a couple of them his way. Yet the way I see the world is different. Because of these things. I see these challenges as God's fingerprints. I see how God has delivered despite difficulty.

  And maybe you soon may face a situation. Maybe you're in a situation right now and you're just like, I don't know. Where is God? How is God going to deliver me from this? And I just am hopeful for you because if you. Hold on, you continue to let your faith grow in the midst of this hardship. I think, and I, I love that we chose this song this morning, the, the story I'll tell, it says, I know that down through the years I'll look on this moment and see your hand on it and know you were here. But there is an element that we have to cling on, we have to hold on to the promises that we read about in scripture to know that God is faithful. And then when we get through that, then we see That God was there.

  And look, I, I know that God can bring unbearable difficulties and, and you know, my faith will be tested soon, I'm sure. I know I'm not immune to doubts just because I've experienced a lot of losses in my life. But as I stand right now, I can say that my faith is stronger because of the afflictions I faced, not despite them. But my story isn't the point. What God does in the midst of affliction is, the truth is, faith that endures hardship is not just powerful, it's noticeable. When people see that kind of faith, a real tested, unshaken faith, it has an impact. It spreads. A true faith doesn't just sustain you through difficult times, it also inspires others.

  As we read in the next few verses, start in verse 6. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction and with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything.

  I mean, imagine that, imagine you go on a missions trip. Or you go, you know, I'm gonna share, share the, the good news with my co-worker, share the good news with my neighbor, you're like, you kind of figure out the awkward like, so what do you think about Jesus? And they go, oh no, we know about Jesus. Oh really? You know what Jesus, yeah, yeah, you know, you know, Fletcher, you know, he, he is from Somerville, like he, he came, he went, he, he was sharing the gospel with everybody. He's just telling everyone about Jesus, like, oh, OK, so, so you don't, you, you, yeah, yeah, we believe in Jesus. Yeah, Fletcher, man, just. He did the thing. Oh, OK. Um. Cool, see you on Sunday? Like, yeah, yeah, I'll see you there. I mean, imagine what that would feel like you kind of do all this planning, all this thinking, and you just see that someone has already laid the foundation for your work and you just get to see and experience it.

  That's basically what Paul is saying like he, we didn't have to preach the gospel because the church of Thessalonica, them, they, they were so on fire. Their faith was so genuine, it was so real, and they, they just talked about it and they got to see and experience and just it, it set ablaze. And again, it's not because they had the best program. It's not because they bought the right curriculum. It's not because they studied the demographics the right way or enough, right? Not not say those are important. But really it's that they were living out their faith through these difficulties and still having the sense of joy.

  And I think it really breaks down to two things of why this type of faith is so like inspirational and infectious. And the first thing is true faith when that's tested and endures difficulty, it embraces reality. What I mean is it's not, it's one that's prepared for real life. You know, life is unpredictable. I mean, you all know this, but in a faith who has been through some things has roots that go deep. A faith that has seen death, destruction, despair. And come, come out of that. Is a much stronger one.

  I was reading a book recently I forget which one but it was talking about the biosphere. I don't know if y'all are old enough to remember the biosphere. You may remember it from a Pauly Shore movie called Biodome. If you know Biodome, it's based off of Ri basically I think it's in California. or maybe Arizona somewhere warm, they said that we're going to create a giant dome and we're gonna plant all this like you know animals and plants and whatever and they had and they said that in this dome can we create the idyllic, you know, living conditions for Earth. And what they had said was, or what they had realized was they had planted these like tropical trees, and because it's in a dome, there was no wind, right? And so they were able to put these, I forget what type of tree is, I apologize, but the type of tree that they put into the ground, it grows really, really fast and so it grows just rock it up these giant trees, and then very soon after they realized that the trees were dying. The way this we're we're watering, it's getting plenty of sun, we're we're taking care of it. What's happening here? And what they realize is that trees. Are anti-fragile. What it means is that it needs wind to blow at it the the the the the tsunami or monsoon season, the the the hurricanes that blow against these trees is necessary because when it blows this way it strengthens up the other side of it and strengthens up here but if it just grows up with no challenges it just topples over.

  Friends, church, we are built the same way. We need these difficulties to strengthen our faith. If our faith goes untested, if it is unprepared for real life, it will. topple over. In a faith that understands that trials are not signs of God's absence. But there's something that is an evidence of his refining work. Then we know that that is a true faith that is prepared for the reality of life. And it becomes infectious because everyone goes through suffering and everyone is trying to figure out how do I get through it and we all have our own solutions whether it's getting lost on the phone, getting lost in substances, getting lost in all the things that we can get lost in or we can find the solution, the one that really works that gets lost in the goodness of God.

  And the other reason, or sorry, the other problem is that a lot of people, even Christians, we struggle to embrace this reality. Because I think of two things. I think the thing that we, we struggle with is when we respond, some of us run away from difficulties. We, we equate difficulties as bad for our faith. We think that if life isn't smooth and comfortable, then something must be wrong. And so we chase ease, we chase comfort, we avoid discomfort. We stay in our lane and run Christianprogramming.exe and we just feel like, OK, we're gonna just keep chugging along here. And then we avoid challenges that might stretch us and grow us. I think on the other hand, Some of us run away, not from difficulty but we run away from God.

  We assume that if life is hard, then God must not be real or he must not be good and we become bitter and convinced that he either doesn't care or he's not worthy of our devotion. Especially if he's allowing us or making us suffer. Without true faith we walk away bitter or delusional. We either break under the weight of suffering or we fade out, we fade down the lazy river of self-indulgent comfort. We either become lukewarm Christians or we become former Christians.

  But true faith embraces reality. It says, yes, life is hard. And it doesn't just help us navigate every challenge. It doesn't just it doesn't deny that hardship is not real or doesn't exist. And it doesn't give in to the bitterness and anger and outrage that's so common in our world today. It's a true faith faces life with both clear eyed. Awareness and an unshakeable joy.

  Verses 9 and 10. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

  The other thing that makes this type of faith contagious is that true faith serves no one and nothing but God. Let me say that one more time, true faith serves no one and nothing but God. The defining mark in the church at Thessalonica was that how they turned from their idols to serve God and that that probably feels really obvious to some of us, especially if you grew up in the church. But there's a nuance here that I think that we often miss. Many Christians try to serve God and. Right, many Christians serve God answer God and serve their family, serve God and serve their career, serve God and serve their political party, their relationships, their financial goals, and the list goes on, the scripture is clear we cannot serve two masters. Jesus said that we will be devoted to one and despise the other.

  Yet we as as Christians, we, we're pretty good at doing, trying to do both. And the world is watching. And that kind of faith looks hypocritical. It's confusing, it's frustrating. It looks like a performance rather than a genuine way of life. No one respects a faith that code switches, that mode switches. That depending on the situation, I'm this type of Christian, then I'm the type of that type of Christian. And I, and honestly I, I, especially working with young people. They can smell in inauthenticity really, really far away. And I think that's why you know you you hear talk about the rise of the nones, rise of people who are no longer interested in faith and no longer interested in religion, which I know this this is seem to be changing, but I think of the rise that we've seen is because of that.

  I think there's been a lot of people who've been saying, yeah, I serve God during these hours only, and then these times I serve everything else. And people can tell. They see Christians who claim to trust God. But panic when life gets difficult or cling to other ideals in the name of Jesus. They preach love but refuse to extend grace. It doesn't inspire people, it repels them. I think because deep down people are searching for something real. A faith that bends and shifts to fit the moment doesn't look real, it looks fake. If even Christians don't seem fully convinced of their own faith, why would anyone else take it seriously? That's why true faith serves God alone. Not not God and our comfort, not God and our ambitions, not God and whatever makes life easier. True faith is anchored in God first. And then everything else falls into place from there.

  This passage calls us to truly turn fully and truly to God, which means turning away from anything that competes for our devotion. Don't get me, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying go and abandon everything in your life and go live in the wilderness, you know, rejecting all the people, all, all the material belongings, that's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is that. We have to focus on serving God first. God is the central piece of our life. And then we end up serving God through serving our community. We serve God through serving our family. We serve God through serving our career, through our finances, through our time management, not at the same time, but through these things. God isn't just another priority on a list. He is the foundation of everything on that list as a whole.

  And I don't wanna overpromise it. It doesn't mean that if you do this, that everyone's gonna be like, wow, Christians are great. They're amazing, wow, I love Christians. No, probably not. But it does mean we position ourselves to be used by God to reflect his image and draw others to himself like how he did in Thessalonica with the believers there. And friends. That's where the joy comes in. The hope is that as you go through these difficulties with a hope with a understanding that you are being strengthened you are growing and as you do these things and hope that others will see. Your goodness not for not as a performance for them, but see your goodness so that they can see your God that your life reflects as a mirror to him and you go, wow, what is an amazing opportunity for me to reflect God's love to those around me. And it's just you're just excited to do the thing.

  You know, some of you have children. Some of you do not. Some of you work with children closely. Some of you do not. One of the things, that all the parenting books talk about and you get to experience if you see it is when there's a little kid that wants to do the thing the grown up does, being able to like be a part of that is very, very exciting, you know, when I was, when there's there's taking a different couple different stages because my, my kids are a little bit older now, but when I was really, really young, I remember. There was a time I was, I was mowing the lawn, which doesn't happen very, very often because I don't love doing it, but I remember I was mowing the lawn and you know my, my eldest, who was obviously the biggest of, of my, my, my pair, he would come and he'd be like, oh, I wanna, I wanna come and help, and just like. OK, this is definitely gonna slow it down, a lot, but I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'll let him do it so because again the parenting books, and so I, I let him push alongside, you know, with me and, and when I was doing that there was, there was just an incredible joy that's there. To being able to be a part of his father's work. I am a part of this thing and I get to be like my daddy. It's a small thing, but for him, it's a lot.

  And I think that's a, that's a reflection of how God is with us. We don't, he doesn't need us to reflect his love. He's perfectly shown it through the blood of Christ. And if he wanted to make everyone know it, he could make everyone know it, but for whatever reason. Probably because he loves us, probably because he wants us to to know that he loves us and he wants us to be part of his kingdom work. He says, yeah. Reflect my love to the world. I'm going to use you to reach them. And there's joy there, knowing that you get to push the mower. That he is really driving, but you get to be a part of it.

  And so friends, I hope that you will embrace a faith that grows in hardship. I hope you will embrace a faith that serves God and God alone. Yes, for yourself. Yes, so you can get through difficulties. Yes, so you can become stronger in your faith for yourself. But I also hope that you will do that because it naturally impacts those around us. I know we're talking about the vision for our church for the next 5 years and part of that does talk about those around us. It does talk about how we are invited to participate in this vision. I use Fletcher as an example, but Fletcher isn't literally going to do everything that's there. He already does a lot.

  But this is part of the invitation for all of us to do our God-given duty, responsibility, privilege to be partners in the gospel. For his glory And so then I guess my question to you is. What type of faith are you modeling? If we were to take a slice of your time, your finances, your energy, your attention. And we would put it on display, because that's what it is doing already. What would it say? What would those who don't know Jesus think about that? Would they go, wow, this whole Jesus guy? I mean, I don't really understand about it, but OK, he's, you take him pretty seriously. Or Is your understanding of Jesus like my understanding when I was a kid. It's just this thing you say when You're just trying to be clever. It's a thing you say so that you can try to fit in. It's just a word of many words that you put into your sentences that doesn't really have a significance, that doesn't really have meaning.

  I don't want you to leave here being like, oh, OK, I'm like ease up. It's, we didn't, we lost an hour of sleep. It's a little, a little heavy for me right now. Here's the good news. The good news is that we don't do it on our own strength. Verse 10 here is very, very clear. And for every verse 9 and 10, for they themselves report concerning to us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and wait for His Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead. Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. That same Jesus that delivered us from the consequences of our sin. The thing that we couldn't even pretend to do, although we try. He's gonna give us that. Surely if he's inviting us to reflect his love to the world around us, to be an impact in our cities, in our workplaces, in our schools. What's giving us the strength to do that if he's taking care of our sin. That's nothing.

  And so friends again, it's this is the the beauty of the of this circle here. God empowers us, so we can serve Him, we can serve him and Him only. And so that he can take the reflections that he is giving to us so we reflect it to the world out there. And so I hope that we will be the kind of people whose faith stands out in the best way. In a real steady faith empowered by the Holy Spirit. Anchored in the work of Christ that others look at our lives and say, I want that. I don't, I, I don't really understand it, but your approach to the difficulties of life, your consistency, your integrity. Tell me more about how you're living because I'm tired of trying to solve my own problems to numb myself from the world around us because I can't deal with it. How are you doing it? And you'll have the opportunity, both in word and indeed to share the good news with them.

  Which is why we gather every single Sunday and we commemorate that by taking communion. Communion is is an opportunity for believers to come together and recognize that Jesus sacrificed for us. And hopefully that, you know, communion meal reminds us of what God has done and what God will continue to do, and how he invites us to participate in this kingdom work.