14 Commands to Thessalonica, Part 1

So many of you know different numbers from the Bible. If someone was to give you a quiz, what does three days and three nights mean? You would know. Right? Almost everybody here could explain in the Bible what the three days and three nights mean. We could also explain about the seven holy days. Could also explain about the seventh day being the Sabbath. Most can explain that there were eight Beatitudes. You know the story from Christ? There were nine unthankful lepers. There are ten commandments. There are also ten virgins. There were 12 disciples. There were also 12 tribes of Israel. But today, our sermon is another number. You'll see the title is, The 14 New Commandments of Thessalonians. I bring that up because, as many of you know, when you talk about the churches that Paul writes to, they were all so different. Every church was different. From the Corinthians to the Philippians, and they were scattered in different areas. But you had some that were relatively close until you got into the upper areas or near Macedonia. And then the churches began to be more scattered, and they were just different. And Paul was the man to go to all these churches. He spoke, we know, at least five languages. So if you spoke Greek, he could speak Greek. If you spoke Latin, he could speak Latin. Hebrew, Aramaic, he just had a way of... you had a gift. And God prepared him to do this work. But the one thing a lot of people realize, when you read these letters, they're very personable to the churches. And so it's nice to understand, in a little more depth, the churches that he was writing to and why he said what he said.

And so I encourage you this week to read 1 Thessalonians. It takes, if you just read straight through without much thought or study, 15 minutes or less.

But I hope what I give you today will add, because we will actually finish the sermon next week.

Because I just wanted to give you some background and food to live on this week and thoughts, because we'll go in a little bit deeper next week to this. But what letter would Paul have written to this church? Through our little church here.

If he had started this church because he started the one in Thessalonica, what would he have said? What would he have thought of this church? Because you have to view that in reading all the churches. I had a couple, well probably a dozen classes or more, on just the churches that he wrote to as we broke down the books. It helped me to understand more. I realize how important it is because sometimes I would just read a book and not know anything about who he's writing to. And I always think of the story of Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln writing this incredible personal letter to an individual that they had worked with when he was a lawyer. And the guy had really helped him, and so they had to travel and do this case together somewhere. And so back then they would just sleep in this little shed-like thing on one little cot. And it was actually cold being it was up north. And all they had was one cover, and they kind of had to keep each other warm. And then they would stay up late nights talking about the case and just laying there in bed because once it got dark there wasn't a whole lot of candles to light the thing. And so it was this incredible letter that's out there somewhere. I read it at one time. It's probably been 10 or 15 years ago. And so I was so shocked when it was brought forward then that because he wrote this letter to this individual that now there was another agenda and that Abraham Lincoln was now gay. Because he wrote this passionate because he really cared about this guy. And they spent this time and this time together. And he said, you know, I reflect back now on the time we spent together. And yeah, when this was brought forward, I thought who in the world would believe it? But there was an agenda there that brought this letter forward. But when you really read about the individual that Abraham Lincoln had worked with, it was no different than any of us spending the time together. I think because one of the men we didn't this year, but previous camps together, myself and Clark Earls would sleep in the same bed.

He's a dear friend, but it just shows how you have to understand the context. And that's what's so important that I want to bring forth about this letter that I hope all of you will just read. You might want to read it. And it takes only 15 minutes. Read it.

Fifteen minutes starts your day every day. And you'll begin to understand a little bit about a church just like this one that God had called out of this world to follow Him, to believe Him, and to eventually have eternal life. And it is very heartwarming because sometimes you see Paul as this kind of stern guy. So let's look into this today. I want to start out by telling you that, of course, it was written by Paul. 1 Thessalonians, the book, was written by Paul in the early 50s, probably 15 to 20 years after Jesus Christ was put to death. Somewhere in the 52 to 56 A.C.E. or A.D. whatever you want to put it. And he was writing this incredible letter to an infant church. It was a baby church that he started just a little time before this. And almost everyone in that church, they were Gentiles because this was in Macedonia.

You would know it as Greece today. As a matter of fact, if you go to Greece today and you say, take me to Thessalonica, they're probably not going to know what you're talking about. They know it because I happen to have a guy who's from Greece. He just came from Greece. He's been here probably less than 10 years, I guess, in our complex where we live.

And so I actually asked him about the pronunciation being not Greece. And I haven't talked to my friend who used to speak Greek, but he said now he speaks more mostly English.

Stephanos there. But he actually put that, he said, well, it's not called that, it's Salikna.

Salinkia. Nikka. Nikki. I have to really get mine down. So it was actually called Thessaloniki. And so he said that they don't even put the thess, they just put Saleniki if you wanted to go there today because it does exist. It's a very prosperous city there today. But Thessalonica is interesting because most of the people came out when the church was started out of paganism and idolatry. And when Paul was there, it was a city of about 200,000 people. The city was actually started about 350 years before that time. And Paul spent time there, spent time in Thessalonica. I'd like you to go back to Acts 17, if you don't mind. Just a small little account here that most people don't think much about. Acts 17.

In verse 1, it says, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews. So there were actually Jews in this Macedonia. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them. What was his custom? Meeting on the Sabbath, right? And for three Sabbaths, he reasoned with them from the Scriptures. What Scriptures were they?

Yes, the Old Testament Septuagint. That's all they had.

Explaining from where? The Old Testament. Explaining and demonstrating that Christ had to suffer, the Messiah. Had to suffer and rise again from the dead, saying, This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded. And then it says, and a great multitude of devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women. So you had a lot of people here join Paul and Silas as they were starting this.

Verse 5, But the Jews who were not persuaded became envious, took some of the evil men from the market. I think is this where the Old Testament says, Allude fellows of a baser sort. I thought it was a good way to put it. Some evil men from the marketplace, and gathering them into a mob, set all the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, These who have turned the world upside down, have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying, There is another king, Jesus. And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. And it says, Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And so that's kind of the last we hear a lot of Thessalonica.

And it is believed by most theologians that Paul spent somewhere around six weeks in Thessalonica, the first time before he was basically run out of town. Some have even said it could have been six months, but he was laboring and preaching before he was run out of town by the Jewish zealots. Because the Jews at that time, they were the only one basically knew the Scriptures, and all of a sudden you had some man that knew them as well as they did. Plus, he had God's Holy Spirit, and wow, he was turning the city upside down because people were saying, I want to hear more about this.

And so the church started really well there in Thessalonica. The new church, after Paul had left, he actually sent someone back, and his name was Timothy.

He sent Timothy the pastor to pastor the church and to get things going after things had calmed down a little bit because the way they put it, Paul had a way of stirring things up. He was a passionate guy. He was fearless when it came to preaching the truth.

And so the new church continued to grow in numbers and spiritually blossomed.

And Timothy came back and realized, as he wrote the letter to Paul, that you've got something special here, something really special in this area because they'd been starting churches all over, but there was something different here. And so Timothy sends back a glowing report, and you have to realize that there were not any churches close to Thessalonica. The closest church was Philippi, which was 100 miles away over a lot of mountains and hills. So it wasn't something where they had communication like some of the others. Thessalonica was a prominent seaport and capital of the Roman providence of Macedonia, an area we know as Greece today. Thessalonica was actually founded in 315 BC. It was actually founded by Cassander. You might remember that name because when Alexander the Great died, the great empire of Greece actually split into four as the four generals took different parts of the conquered most of the known world at that time. And Cassander actually took this area known as Macedonia. And he actually saw this important port city where people were gathered, and so he gave it. It didn't have a name. And so this general actually named it after his wife. Thessalonica was her name. And she happened to be, how convenient to become a general for Alexander. She happened to be the half-sister of Alexander the Great. So I think that probably helped his stature there. And it is a very historic city if you go there today. A lot of the ruins are still in good shape. But Paul, when he was there during his time of either six weeks on the short end or possibly six months on the back end, when he came in and started the city, him and Silas, they actually would preach in the evenings, actually preach in the mornings, because they worked during the day. When they started this church, they actually labored. Paul was a neighbor about him, and they started exploring. So, he set an example, and the reason he did that is because the culture at the time in Greece, as Greece, you know, was a great learning center. And Alexander the Great's, one of his greatest jobs, not only built paths and roads to all this, but to build libraries. He wanted to educate the entire world, as he knew it, to the Greek way of life. But it's interesting here because when you see a couple of things written in Thessalonians, you'll understand, he talked about himself working and making tents because the Greek mentality was that manual labor was only for slaves. And that if you were a true Greek, true understanding, you didn't do manual labor.

They love to philosophize, as you also see in Athens when Paul, because he actually talked in Acts. I think he's 18 when he goes there, or where I forget when he went to Athens, but he actually said they did. They love to just talk and philosophize and argue about this and talk about that.

So the Greeks were kind of known for this. So in the city of Thessalonica, very prosperous, only the Greeks or the really undesirables actually did manual labor. So here comes Paul as this great philosopher and teacher, but he's also working, earning a living. And so this is a little different for them, and they have to understand that. The book is actually, in theological terms, called an eschatological epistle, which is a fancy word for end times. This only happens in a few books. And the reason it's considered like an end time book is that it has the chapters in it, and at the end of each chapter, all five chapters, there's a reference to Jesus Christ returning and the end times. So Paul makes it consistently clear through each chapter as he's writing this that Jesus Christ is going to return. Because you can imagine all these people coming out of the paganism that was Greece, and all the gods that they believed in, and all this stuff, and now all that had to be thrown out, and they were learning about the true God.

So I'd like to go back, if we will, to 1 Thessalonians.

And I want to read from the New King James. Well, one of the things that I want you to see is, we won't read there, but in 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 20, it says, you are, as he was writing to the church, you are our glory and joy.

He's just overwhelmed for his love for them because he saw this passion, as we've heard about today, you know, of this word that obviously not only changed so many people, obviously sounded like, and you'll read it in your later readings, it changed the whole city and every city around it.

Powerful, powerful impact. So if you'll bear with me here, like you turn to 1 Thessalonians, and I'd like to go to chapter 1 and start in verse 2. I just want to read from the first chapter, from 2 to 10 here, just eight verses. And so here is Paul's very caring and loving letter.

He said, we give thanks to God always for you, all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in the Lord, Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father. This is, they think, somewhere between six months to nine months after he had been kicked out. So he had a little time with them, and then he looks back. This is a baby, our infant, church. But look what examples they were. He said, in the sight of our God and Father, knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God, for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your own sake. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word with much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. The very first time it shows up and they arrest the leader, Jason, and I have to take him to jail and go put these others in jail. Because, you know, so everybody would have known what was going on in that city. It's kind of like when Paul came to town, people knew it. And so, this church picked up from there and had that same kind of passion.

So that you... let's see... much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. So that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth. And I like that because that's the same word in the Greek that is used for a trumpet blast.

And same word used when it talks about the trumpet blowing when Christ returns. So you kind of understand that Paul's saying, boy did you let everybody know. This was something that you should do. Not only a master, anybody else, or Achaia. But also in every place, your faith toward God has gone out so that we do not need to say anything. You don't have to say anything about the gospel needs to be preached. They didn't have to. They were preaching it. Crying to everyone they came in contact with. Because you have to understand the Greek lifestyle at that time would have been philosophizing and talking about, well the gods allowed this and the gods, you know, you have this god in your house. Most of the city would have been that way. Did they go back and go, well I don't really need to talk about my god? No. Had no problem telling about the real, the true, the only god. And so it shook up that part of Greece. Verse 9, For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turn them 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. Even Jesus, the Jesus really should be, who delivers us from the wrath to come. So I put that forward because it kind of gives you an idea and hopefully you can read the other four chapters even this afternoon or during the week. But this is a growing church as you realize the Roman Empire is spreading out and they've taken over a big part. But really the roads at this time were just now being concreted as the Romans actually invented concrete. And so they to make their chariots be able to get somewhere fast and their horses and they didn't have to worry about mud and not being able to travel. They were building roads everywhere through the entire empire. And they were seeing this was going to be a great place because they could ship everything in on the ports and then it could be distributed all to Greece. And great commerce was going to come out of these areas. So you can see why it was the second largest in the Byzantine Empire city. And it happened to be, that's what's interesting, the wealthiest city in all the Byzantine Empire. So it made it an interesting city.

But Paul praises in this letter and he teaches and he encourages this young church.

You know, but above all, he leaves them with one of the most concise and powerful chapters, or a few verses, in his entire writing. And he does it all in about six verses. And it is written to them, but it's also written to us. As we have new people, we have people been around, but we are a fledgling new infant church here in, even though our church has been around a long time. This Fort Lauderdale church has changed a lot in the three and a half, four years since I've been here. People have changed.

But I can honestly tell you, as Paul would tell you, you are a very loving and kind and general church. And it is a pleasure to be your pastor, but it's also a pleasure to have people here that you know, when I have to leave, everybody writes, but man, that is a friendly church. Everybody just talks to you, comes to meet you, they talk scripture.

This is the reason I wanted to go through this. As a matter of fact, I wrote this was my notes on a piece of paper from St. Lucia. I wrote this about four or five years ago.

I think it was actually six years ago. I just wrote down some notes as I was sitting in the waiting to catch my plane about Thessalonica. I started reading these verses and started, wow, this is just what a wonderful church. I sure would like to go to that church, because those people were just incredible there. And I think the same thing today, that's why I actually brought this this sermon forward, because I think Paul could write that church too. I write that letter to us today in this church, because it was a multicultural area in Greece at the time. The church obviously had some Jews, obviously had slaves of all types, and they also had a lot of Greeks in that church. Now, one of the things that I wanted to bring out before we actually go through this, because I actually have these nine verses that we're actually going to cover, and we will not actually get through them, because we only get through half of those today. But one of the things that was interesting was that Paul had to tell them, you need to work with your hands, because you're not really accomplishing a lot.

There were issues, even though it was because it was a very wealthy city, town at the time, some people didn't want to work because they were Greeks, and it would look like they were less than what they were. One of the issues here that you will read when you read 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. So he actually had to exhort them or encourage them, and you'll see it in the writings, he actually says to work with your hands. He also says that, guess what? If you don't work, you don't eat.

Because a lot of them, I'm sure, were using the church saying, well, here were wealthy people who had businesses, others who worked really hard, and so others who were in the church, they just kind of, well, I don't really have anything. And so I'm sure with the nature of this church, they were willing to give and help each other, which is good.

But he's also saying, guess what? Get a job! You know, get a job. This is a prosperous city, and you're not too good to work with your hands. I came in, and you could actually say, I have all kinds of degrees because he had everything you could want, and I not only worked with my hands, I also did the other two. So I want to go through seven of the commandments. Seven new commandments today. That's what we'll do in the time. I only have a few minutes, 15 minutes to finish, or whatever.

We're going to go through seven of those, and we'll cover the next seven next week. The next week's seven will be a deeper spiritual, but Paul actually teaches these, and I'm going to give these today from the New Living Translation, which if you want to read this week, it does because I love the way that it's put.

So I'll write down these seven from the New Living Translation, and you can use them because I think it helps explain it better. And these commandments take place in the 1st Thessalonians 5 verses 14 through 22. And so during these eight or nine verses, he says this so he ends his letter this way, but he makes it so concise and so precise in what he's saying here that it's good for all of us, because I wanted you to understand the background of why he would write this, and I want you to read the recipe because you see his love, but he also encourages, but he also needs to sometimes say, hey, there is a purpose for you being here and being part of the church.

And so I want to give you the first one that he talks about in 14. Verse 14, and that is, his first commandment is, warn the lazy. That's his first commandment to this church. He'd say, well, that's kind of bold. Warn the lazy.

Warn the lazies. Why? Because they love to just not really work, try to find, and there's definitely nothing wrong with education, but you can see even today, you have certain eggheads who have double doctorate degrees that can't find jobs, because they can't relate to anybody and no one can relate to them. They're so smart. So he's saying, warn the lazy so that, you know, nothing wrong. Manual labor, I do it. Go produce something, because you'll find that people are successful.

The successful people in this world, as Paul would have told them, successful in the people in this world, whether they have an education or whether they have no education, they work. They know what work is. They're not afraid of work, and they're going to make it happen. For God to bless this church and for them to continue on. That's what the first commandment he gave them. Now, it's interesting as you think about that, because Paul wanted them to produce something, because at that time, just like today, you have a lot of people, they're not producing anything, but they've got jobs, and that's why this country has the problems, financial problems it has.

We have a lot of people not producing anything. As you can see, it's so interesting now, because I actually watched a program a couple weeks ago. It actually stirred me to give this sermon. Actually, it was on the financial disaster and collapse and potential damage to the entire world that the country of Greece is having right now. Same people, same thing. And when I watched that interesting show, as I was trying to figure out, because everybody's like, wow, you know, this is changing a lot of philosophy, and this could really have repercussions that end up devastating even the United States and possibly China. And they know Europe as they're part of the European Union.

And when you studied that, you began to see, as they were showing this, because these reporters were just reporting it, that Greece has a good economy. They know they do produce things, but they've set up their economy so that, and they did it many, many years ago. So all you have to do before you can retire is work 22 years, and you can totally retire on two-thirds of your salary. So if you're 20 years old, you will retire from working at 42 years of age. They did this many, many years ago when the average lifespan over there was only in the early 60s.

Now it's like ours. It's in the 70s, and so usually people used to work for so long, and then you would retire like here. It used to be you worked 30 years and get a go watch. Now you work 40 years, and you get a pink slip, usually. And sometimes you have to work 30 years and you have to wait for retirement. Well, this is one of the problems. This is why they had protests and everything in Greece because the European Union came in, the International Monetary Fund came in and said, this has all got to change. You can't have guys 40 years old and somebody who are 20 years old that just they're retired. And so you've got all this. It's all built up. So now you've got all this money going out. All these people are retired. Nothing's being produced, and all the money's going out to them. And so when they actually brought this forward and said, we've got to change everything because you're so bankrupt we can't give you any money, the people all protested and said, no way! Fix it, but we're not going to change our lifestyle. No, and when the Germany controls a big part of it, they didn't. Merkel's not buying into that.

And being the European Union, Germany's the only one that does not have any debt.

They kind of help control these things. And so you can see even now that this was back at that time, now we're looking 2,000 years later, and you're seeing that mentality, and that's what's changing in Greece. And they will have to change because otherwise they have no choice, but the people were just in major protest in this because they think, oh, I worked, I've done my time, but that doesn't work that way. Number two, encourage the timid. Encourage the timid.

Interesting. Why would people be timid? Why would they say encourage the timid? Can we relate back to the context of the letter? You had all these people who were so smart. They were philosophizing. It was a wealthy city and everything. And what happens?

People come in, they're new to the church. They're working with their hands. They don't know any of the truth. They're trying to do this. They come into this area. They're a little intimidated.

By this. It's a whole new way of life. Many would have to give up their jobs because some of it was having to do with paganism.

And so they were going to obey God and they needed to be encouraged. So his second commandment to them was to encourage the timid. Just like us today, someone new comes in, we should be very encouraging to them because it's a different way of life. We live a different way of life than 99.9% of the people in the entire world because it's God's way of life. And sometimes you go, hmm, jobs. It can be tough. Right? Faith's been through it. Many of you have been through it.

But it's something we do and it's encouraging because it works. It works. God's way works. But that's why he told them this incredible commandment.

Number three, he says, care for the weak. Care for the weak. Care for the weak.

A commandment.

Care for not only the physically weak who needed help because there would have been older people coming in, but care for the spiritually weak. Think about them.

You don't encourage them with God's Word.

I think of James 1, 27, as I think about that today.

What is pure and undefiled religion before God?

What is it, Dwight?

Yes. Well, it was an orphan. Yes.

And so I'm sure they had it. And so this was a way to promote that, to make sure that everybody's taken care of.

But it goes back to the first one.

You're going to take care of the weak, but you don't take care of those who can work and get these things. That promotes a strong church.

That promotes everybody wanting... You know, if somebody here has problems and you lose a job or it's tough, you know, we're going to do what we can to help each other. But if somebody's just out there not even working, doesn't even care, can work and don't work, not even trying or anything, what's that going to do to the church? It's going to cause more division.

Why should we help him? So he's trying to make a strong church here. Okay? Number four, practice patience. Practice patience. It says, with everyone.

Hmm. That's an interesting thing. Practice patience. How about your family? If you are going in this new church, you know, and we must picture ourselves back in Greece at the time where all these gods and there was so much paganism and we're stepping out and doing this and they're going, whoa, if you do this, the gods are going to turn against our family. What are you doing? Practice patience with everyone, especially your family. Even today, I mean, you take up and go, wait a minute, what do you mean you're not keeping Christmas?

You don't believe in Christ and you think you're a Christian?

What? Wait a minute. That's not right. I remember my grandmother a long time ago, well, I don't care if you don't want Christmas because I'm giving them to him.

That's what I remember my grandmother. She's 90-something years old now, but she got kind of angry with my mother because all of a sudden it stopped.

Oh, Christmas stopped. It was like changing my life. And you guys no longer come up for Easter.

You know, it is a change of life for us and we must practice patience. We can't change because of the book, but we must have patience and practice patience with people and not get offense. Well, yes, I do. I'm a Christian you're not, you little Sunday keeping pagan. You know, that can't be us, you know, swine eating Sunday keeping pagans, but we don't, that's not what we do. We're to practice patience with that, right? Practice patience. We have to practice patience. They didn't have to deal with cars. They were blessed in that way.

We have to practice patience around Miami and Fort Lauderdale because we drive in traffic and it takes a lot of patience, doesn't it?

Yes. I'm going back a minute, I gotta have patience. It does take patience. You must practice patience with everyone, especially the world, with our mates, you know, with everyone. You know what that actually really means?

With your pastor, okay? You need to practice patience with your pastor because he's far from perfect. And I'm sure Paul thought about that, too. Okay, let's go to number five.

Number five, no paybacks. No paybacks.

I want justice. No, you don't. Let God handle that. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. But you still have to remember who he's writing to. These are the Greeks who, three centuries before, ruled the world. They were the Spartans.

The Olympic Games? They were strong. They were physical people.

They believed they were the greatest warriors who ever lived.

And if you do something to me, wrap. That's what you pay back. And you'll be justified, even in the Greek courts, if somebody did you wrong. He's saying, sorry, we answer to another court. Wrap this up. We answer to another court.

So let's try and find my pen. I don't know what I did with it. Start talking. No, it needs to be up there.

Well, just finish it like it is. I don't know what I did with it. My mind. Oh, there it is. Boy, you're going to be glad. You'll be glad when this day is done, and I'll be even glad.

Number six, do good to all people. Six command. Do good to all people. Do you know why I think he said that? Because they were doing such a warm and incredible church.

And he isn't just like, you need to do this. He's encouraging them this, because they're already doing it. And you can read. You read in one of the verses there that he says, I don't need to tell you this, but you're already doing it. But he said, I'm going to encourage you to do more. They're already doing good to all people. Let's just continue to do that. Why do you think the church was growing? Why do you think it was so positive? Because of that. It's in their nature. It's no longer what they do. It's who they are. And I've seen that in this church.

It's no longer because you think you should be doing something. A brethren, it's just naturally easy to like you. Okay? Because it's God in you. And that's what's making the change. Finally, number seven. And you notice, these are all the physical aspects that he's talking about. Next week, we will go into those seven last commandments, where it gets into the spiritual, which goes a lot deeper, because that's the level that he wanted them to move to. And that's the level he wants us to go to. And finally, number seven.

Easy. If he was here, it says, be joyful every day. Be joyful.

Well, all you have to do is come here August 22nd. We're in potluck, and you'll see some joyful people.

And we're known for our potlucks. They're getting there. People are wanting to come. You notice what we have? 30-some people, potluck, 40. Okay? I hope it's more than the food. It's as a lot to do with the fellowship and the people.

So today, I just gave you seven of the 14 new commandments of Thessalonians. I hope you will read it. I hope you will study it. Beautiful, beautiful writing. Beautiful, beautiful church.

And we are right there with them.