An eighteen-year-old discovers a passion for preaching the gospel and runs straight into a problem: trace almost any trouble he has and you find a person at the root, and people are what he cannot stand. So he prays: if you want me to do this, teach me to love. From that prayer the road leads to Paul’s letter (1 Thessalonians 1), where you see what a faithful pastor finds his greatest joy in. Paul writes in three names, because Jesus entrusted the message to a community rather than to a single speaker, and when he has to flee Thessalonica too early, he sends Timothy and learns that the young church is still standing. Listen if you carry a passion for something you have no heart for.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- Paul opens the letter with three names: Paul, Silvanus and Timothy. In a world full of con artists and traveling speakers, why did it matter that the gospel came through a community of witnesses rather than one man?
- Paul had to leave the Thessalonians too early, yet despite persecution Timothy found a living church there. What in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 shows that they truly received the gospel and not just on the surface?
- The speaker shared that as a young man he had a passion for the Bible but no love for people, and he asked God to teach him to love. How do a passion for truth and love for people come together in your life?
- The sermon said God takes the unready, the immature and the inexperienced to show the world His power and love. Where do you see God's faithfulness in people or situations that, humanly speaking, had no chance?
- How do you respond when someone asks whether the Christian faith is just a fairy tale for gullible people, and what helps you talk about it calmly instead of taking offense?
- The speaker listed things we turn away from, such as greed, resentment, consumerism and perfectionism. What is God calling you to turn away from this week, and what sign of His work among you do you want to thank Him for?
