Models of Faith

SUMMARY

In this sermon, Karl Ihfe opens a four-week series called Faith in Real Life by examining 1 Thessalonians 1, where Paul celebrates the young church at Thessalonica for developing a faith worth imitating. Karl challenges the congregation to move beyond merely knowing the gospel to being transformed by it — turning away from the idols competing for their hearts and toward the living God. A faith worth imitating, he reminds us, is one that works, labors in love, and endures with hope, ringing out into the world around us.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Well, if you have your Bible with you, I invite you to turn over to first Thessalonians Chapter one that Avery read so beautifully just a moment ago. We're going to spend our time together there today. We're actually launching into a four week series this morning called Faith in Real Life. And this morning we're going to think about what does a faith look like that's worth imitating. I know this has been a busy weekend.

So many traveling coming and going. If you are in town for graduation, we're so glad that you chose to be here today and hope your time with us will be a blessing to you. You, whether it's in person or online, we're excited to get together as God's family here at Broadway. Have you ever noticed that if you've come across something that really impacts you, you can't help but talk about it? Maybe it was a movie that you've seen recently or a book that you've read, or maybe a television show you have watched.

Maybe it's a restaurant that you visited that turned out to be way better than you expected, or a place, a vacation spot. Maybe even a moment, just a moment that has stayed and hung in the air. You don't have to be told, you know, you should go tell somebody about that. It just comes out. We can't help but talk about it and think about it.

Nobody has to remind you to bring it up, you just do. Well, when something genuinely gets a hold of us, it naturally comes out. I think that's where we find this church in Thessalonica. This morning, as Paul is writing to this church, Paul says, everywhere people are talking about you. They're talking about the life that has taken hold of you and the things that are happening in you.

Not because they had a clever Marketing strategy or because they were impressive or had any kind of influence or power, but instead, Paul says, your faith is real and when we encounter real faith, it can't help but impact us. What God had done to start a change in their life was beginning to spread out wide and deep. What's amazing about this church that we find in Thessalonica is they were a young church. Not necessarily age wise, but maybe age wise, but they were young. They were brand new believers.

They didn't have decades of faith and life to lean on when things would get hard. They didn't have all this time together in relationships. Instead, we're discovering they were already facing persecution. And so Paul is writing to them and saying, it's amazing to hear the way that God's work is happening in you the way the gospel has changed and transformed your lives together. Their message, it sounded strange in that culture.

A crucified Messiah, a risen king, only one true and living God, really, that disrupted everything. Following Jesus in that city was a new thing. I came across some research in April of 2025 this last year, Barna asked. And what they discovered was two out of Americans have said they've made a personal commitment to following Jesus. It's actually up in the last four years about 12 or 15 points.

That was not the way of life in Thessalonica. It was way smaller than that. That was not their situation. But Jesus had changed their lives. He changed the direction that they were going.

He changed the way that they were thinking about things. He changed their loyalties and where they would spend their time. And yet, somehow, in the midst of all this pressure, in the midst of facing a culture that didn't believe what they believed, Paul says, you're becoming an example, not just to the people in your city, but outwardly in Achaia and Macedonia. It's an amazing thing. They were developing a faith worth imitating, which invites us to ask this question that I hope will chase us together for the next few weeks.

It's this. If people looked closely at our lives, what kind of faith would they see? If they followed you around and just were fly on the wall. In the conversations that you had, whether at your workplace or in school, in your living room or out at a restaurant, what kind of faith would they see? You see the Thessalonians, their belief in Jesus, their faith and trust in him, it changed everything.

And they couldn't hide it. It kept showing up all over their lives. Which reminds us that if we're going to develop a faith worth imitating, it begins by recognizing that faith is not just informational, but it's transformational. God's great desire for our lives is transformation. Paul says, for we know, brothers and sisters, loved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit, with deep conviction.

In other words, the gospel that they received didn't just change how they think about things, it changed everything. They didn't just merely hear a sermon, they began to embody this belief. They were gripped by the reality of Jesus. You see, one of the things that was true back in Thessalonica, but it's also true in Lubbock, Texas today, is it's easy to hear constantly about truth, to know it, but to never let it take hold of your life. You can know verses, you can know churchy language, you can even have a degree in theology.

But it doesn't necessarily change who we are. We can still keep Jesus safely at a distance. But when the gospel begins to take hold of our lives, when it becomes more than words that we say, but a life that we live, we begin to see our priorities shifting and our desires changing, our perspectives, how we see life and how we see other people. Because the gospel isn't just information. It's intended for transformation.

It's about helping the kingdom of God come on earth as it is in heaven. And so we pray that prayer that Jesus taught us to pray and say, Jesus, start with us. May those changes happen first in me. Begin with me. Because following Jesus is not merely about just improving your life.

It's allowing Jesus to become lord of it and letting him change and reshape the way that we behave, the way that we talk, the way that we think. That's what was happening in Thessalonica. That's why it was so powerful to hear of God's work in them. This church became deeply convinced that Jesus really was the Messiah, that he had died, had been raised back to life. And because of that, now they had a future hope that they didn't have before.

And once that settled in their hearts, they began living differently. Because, see, faith isn't just about information. It's transformation. But not only that, faith changes our direction. The end of the passage, verse nine, we're told that they, these others tell how you, the Thessalonians, turned to God, from idols to serve the living and true God.

That word turned there that Paul uses. It's a powerful word. It's a strong word. It's this idea of an army repelling the enemy against turning them away, pushing them back. Paul says you all turned away from idols and to the living God.

And this wasn't a small change. This was a conversion experience. This was a transformation. Things were going in one direction, but now all of a sudden they're going in another. As I was thinking about it this week, I couldn't help but wonder if maybe Paul's own transformation experience on the road to Damascus might have been in his mind as he's thinking about and hearing the.

The stories of the Thessalonians really changing their ways, doing a 180 we're told in Acts, chapter nine. Maybe you've read the story. If not, I invite you to go back and read Paul's conversion story once again. Where Luke tells us that Saul was still Paul, known as Saul. At this point in Acts, chapter nine, he was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.

And so he goes to the high priest and he asks them for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now, as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, saul. Saul, why do you persecute me? And he asked, who are you, Lord?

The reply came, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. Now, Paul, then known as Saul, goes into the city and he meets a man named Ananias. And Ananias helps to change his life a little bit by telling him about what God is doing. And then we're told that Saul, for several days he was with the disciples in Damascus.

And immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue, saying, he is the Son of God. Now, all who heard him were amazed. And they said, is this not the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests? Saul became increasingly more powerful, and he confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.

You see, before Jesus, Saul was one way. After Jesus, he was a totally different person. So much so that others who knew him and they knew his life before said, isn't that the guy you see in the Thessalonians? Their lives revolved around idols. Now, I know we hear idols, and that sounds kind of a churchy word, or this object that's over and against.

And we don't follow idols, do we? But if we're honest, idols are simply something that we put on a pedestal, whether literally or just even in our imagination that takes God's place. Things that we bow down and worship to. We may not think of it in that kind of language, but anything that we would look to for identity or security or salvation other than the living God. See, Thessalonica was full of these idols.

There were household idols and civic idols and political idols. Even the emperor was known and seen and worshiped as a deity. The culture argued, these are what save you, this person, this deity, this God. If you have a problem, simply hope you do the right dance and make the right sacrifice. The gospel came announcing, no, there's Only one true and living God, and that's Jesus, the Messiah.

That message, it demanded decisions. And the Thessalonians, they responded. They made a turn. Not halfway, not selectively, not when it was convenient for them to do so. Instead, they repented.

They made a 180 change. And so church. The question that we're invited to consider this morning is what gods? What idols are competing for the heart, for the throne of your heart? What are the idols that tempt you to think, if you just trust in me, then you'll be satisfied?

If you just had the right job, if you just had the right amount of money, if you just met the right person, if you just did the right thing, then, then your life would be meaningful. We look around our world. It's not hard to see some of the idols that we have in our culture. Right? Sports and teams, image, politics, success, our own bodies, our fitness.

You see, following Jesus is not adding onto, adding spirituality onto an otherwise unchanged life. Paul says it's making a change. It's doing a 180. It's moving away from the counterfeit idols and instead turning back to God. Because a faith that's worth imitating is a faith that not only transforms and a faith that changes our direction, but it's also a faith that becomes visible.

Paul described the Thessalonians with these three remarkable phrases. He says, we always give thanks to God for all of you, and we mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father, your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in the Lord Jesus. Work, labor and endurance. Paul says that is what visible faith looks like. That's what a faith worth imitating.

It looks like something. Faith that works not. Faith that talks, not faith that posts on social media. Faith that is active and it trusts God enough to obey him no matter what he calls us to do. But not only faith that works, love that labors.

And again, this word, agape. Love is a sacrificial. It's a costly love. It's a time intensive, tiring, practical love. The kind of love that serves people even when it's inconvenient.

A faith that works, love that labors and a hope, he says, that endures. And this kind of hope, it's not fragile optimism, it's not pretending life is easy. This is the kind of hope that remains steady under pressure because it's anchored in King Jesus. And notice how all of these verbs that Paul uses, they all require action. Faith that works, love that labors, hope that Endures.

This isn't shallow Christianity. This is a transformed life. I know many of us have seen this kind of faith lived out for us before. Maybe for many of us as we think about our own mothers. I certainly thought of mine this week.

A mom who loves really well. Or maybe it was a grandmother. Maybe it wasn't biological, it was a spiritual grandmother or mother. We've seen it in faithful women who have followed Jesus and quietly modeled him, not perfectly, but faithfully, over and over again. Because their faith, it made an impression on us.

We saw how it was lived out and it impacted our lives. Not because they were loud or they commanded our attention, but their faith was real. Maybe you saw it in the way that they prayed, the way that they talked to Jesus like they knew him, like they had this one on one relationship. They could talk to him about anything. Or maybe you saw it in the way that they endured hardship.

Some of the people that have had the most impact on us were not the ones that had everything handed to them easy, but folks who were willing to endure, to keep going. Maybe you saw it in the way they kept showing up over and over and over again. Maybe you experienced it in the way that they loved you or others around you sacrificially. See, many of us came to faith. We understood, we began to see faith because it was lived out in front of us and church.

That's exactly what Paul's celebrating here. A faith worth imitating, a faith that transforms, a faith that changes directions. A faith that is visible and a faith that rings outward. I Love this. Verse 5.

Paul writes, you know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord. For you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord's message rang out from you.

Not only in Macedonia and Achaia, your faith and God has become known everywhere. Your faith has rung out. He says it's ringing, it's resonating like ripples. When you throw a rock into the water and those ripples just explode and expand over and over again. He says people everywhere are hearing about the kind of faith that you are living with.

And again, it wasn't them trying to build a reputation or because everything was going well. We know as we read through the rest of the letter, we'll see they were facing all kinds of persecution and yet still they were holding on to faith.

Transformed lives are hard to ignore, aren't they? They're hard to turn away from because people notice when peace shows up in the midst of suffering. Instead of bitterness or anger or resentment, people notice when generosity shows up in a selfish world. People notice when hope survives, Even when enduring hardship, people notice when joy exists in the face of opposition and difficulty, people notice. Paul says you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

Two words that don't often go together, suffering and joy. Paul says people noticed how in the midst of your own struggle, in the midst of your own hardship, that you had something that the Holy Spirit gives you, that you had a joy. And it was causing people to stop and to wonder and to question, what kind of life am I living? See, that's the power of the gospel, Paul says it's not the absence of hardship, but it's the presence of Jesus with us in hardship. See, the truth is that kind of witness.

It's contagious. It's contagious. We live in a world of people who want to be influencers. Paul. Paul says, you don't have to be famous to be influential.

You just gotta be faithful. Just be faithful. It's an amazing thing what happens when a faith that transforms and changes direction is as visible, is ringing out. And a faith that lives with a future in mind, a future in view. He says they tell these others, tell how the Thessalonians turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son, and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead.

Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. See, their lives had this new horizon built in. They understood. In fact, every chapter of this letter, Paul ends every chapter with this reminder of what God is doing in the future. And so, as they are living in their lives in the daytime, they understand that Christian hope isn't escapism.

It's confidence that what Jesus started, he will finish. Confidence that suffering is not final, that sin is not final, that death is not final, that Jesus is coming again. And when your future is secure in him, oh, then you can live differently. You can endure with hope. And so here's the question the text leaves us with today.

It's one that I'll leave you with. What kind of faith is your life producing? Because, see, you're already an influencer. You're an influencer in the world all around you, in the relationships and the people and the circumstances, in the neighborhood that God has placed you in. You're influencing somebody Your kids or your grandkids, your co workers, your neighbors, your siblings, your parents.

You're influencing those that you work with and those that work for you. See, the question isn't, is your life making an impact? It's what kind of impact is your life making? Paul looked at the Thessalonian church, and he saw a faith that worked and a love that labored and hope that endured. He said, church, that message is powerful.

It's ringing out all over the world. People so transformed by Jesus that their lives couldn't help but make noise. So, church, what kind of noise will we make this week? Will we live a faith worth imitating? Let's pray, God.

That's the question that we are invited to chase this week as we get a moment even today to celebrate those that we love, who have meant so much to us, who have modeled to us a faith worth imitating. God invites us to consider what kind of life are we living? And we live in a world that is competing for our attention. So many other idols that want us to give our allegiance to. And yet, God, what we see in this young church in Thessalonica, a church that didn't have a lot of years behind them in faith, they didn't have a lot of wisdom or knowledge or power or influence, as the world would say it.

Instead, they were captured by your gospel and they began to live differently. Their relationships looked different, how they spent their time, how they treated others, it was different. The ways that they interacted and engaged with the issues of their day, it just. It was different because they had this future focus in mind, that they understood Jesus, that you had died and come back to life, and that you had created an opportunity for your kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. And they were willing to sell out toward that.

So, God, would you help us to do the same this week as we go to school, as we go to work, as we live out our lives in our neighborhoods, as we eat in restaurants and visit other businesses and grocery stores, all the different things that we do in the daily life? God, would you help us to do it in and for the sake of Jesus and his kingdom? Would you help us to treat people differently? Would you help us to have a faith that works and a love that labors, a hope that endures? Oh, God, thank you for the models who have shown us that way.

Would you help us to be those for the next generation? We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.