New Year’s Soul Goal

Message by:
Pastor Terry Carwford
Covenant Church
Shepherdstown, WV

1 Thessalonians 2:1–12
You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results. We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. Instead, we were like young children among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.

Passionate followers of Jesus share a
powerful message through pure motives.

1 Thessalonians 2-8a

Passionate followers of Jesus are
delighted to share their lives with others.

1 Thessalonians 8b

We do this best at Covenant through Small Groups

John 7:37-38
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.

Seven Ways We Give Ourselves

This is what I think God is calling us to in our life together at Covenant — especially in our small groups. God is calling us into these relationships not only because of your need to get, but because of your calling to give. To give yourselves.

1. To take a risk of sharing your soul
2. to put away all deceit and exploitation
3. to renounce man-pleasing
4. to be done with flattery and covetousness
5. to feel tender, mother-like affections for people
6. to be holy, righteous, and blameless in our conduct
7. and to feel father-like desires to encourage and lead others into God-centered legacy

3 Benefits of Small Group life:

1. Encouragement
2. Comfort
3. Challenge

You can live a life worthy of God.

What Life Is About

So I will say it again: This message is intended to lead you down paths that will deepen and strengthen and intensify and lengthen your joy — by pointing you to the work of God, the word of God, and the ways of God.

And one of the ways of God that leads deeper into this kind of joy is the pathway of self-giving. I’m not talking about giving your money, though the happiest and healthiest saints are always the most generous. I’m talking about giving your self, or giving your soul. That’s what this message is about. That’s what this text (1 Thessalonians 2:1–12) is about. And I hope that God will so work in you all that you will say, That’s what life is about.

Small Groups: How Our Church Works

This message is indirectly an encouragement for you to believe in and be a part of the small-group ministry of discipleship and shepherding here at Covenant, if this is the church you call home. The small-group ministry of Covenant, is not a marginal ministry. It is at the core of how the church works.

The elders are charged by God with the spiritual oversight and the equipping of the members of this church. Our calling as elders is to care for you and to help you become mature, devoted, fruitful disciples of Jesus. We do this . . .

1. through various kinds of teaching (including preaching, classes, seminars, conferences),
2. through calling and equipping small-group leaders and helping you get connected with them, in small groups,
3. and through household discipleship where the natural family groupings that God creates are equipped as centers of life-on-life discipling.

Extending Pastoral Ministry

Small groups are overseen by the elders to extend their care and equipping into your lives through the small-group leaders and the members of your group who know you best. Few things are more beautiful to me than to watch a small group respond when one of their members in is crisis. I hope you give and receive that ministry. The ministry of the saints is an extension of the ministry of your pastors.

When Paul said in Ephesians 4:11–12 that Jesus gave pastors to the church “to equip the saints for the work of ministry,” he meant that when the saints minster, it is an extension of the pastors’ ministry. Therefore our plan is that the saints at Covenant be cared for deeply and lovingly and fruitfully by the saints, and that means largely by the members of your small group.

A New Twist: Giving Instead of Getting

So I’ll say it again: This message is indirectly an encouragement for you believe in and be a part of the small-group ministry at Bethlehem. And the way I am approaching it today is different than usual. Usually, I come with a burden that we all realize we need people. We need relationships. We need the ministry of the saints in our lives. So wake up to your need and be a part of group where those needs can be met.

That’s not what I am saying today. All that is true, and we should be humble enough to admit those needs. But today I’m coming at it from the other side. I am not going to talk today about your need to get, but about your calling to give. And specifically, to give yourself.

And I have this path of life — this way of God — specifically in mind when I say: This message is intended to lead you down paths that will deepen and strengthen and intensify and lengthen your joy. We know from experience and from the Bible that the path of self-giving is the path of greatest joy. It’s not free from risk and pain. But it is the path of greatest joy. Paul said in Acts 20:35, “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” More happy, more deeply satisfying, more rich and solid. Especially giving yourself.

You Are a Fountain

This is who you are as a Christian. The moment you become a Christian, you are a giver by nature. You may not have become fully what you are yet, but this is who you are — self-giving is part of your nature, your essence, your identity.

Listen to Jesus: “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him [that’s what it means to be a Christian] will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). That is who you are. You are a spring. You don’t do a spring. You are a spring. Whoever believes in me, Jesus said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). That’s who you are. You are a spring. You are a fountain.

And what makes springs and fountains happy and healthy is when they make streams. If you stop them up, they go foul. If you let them give — if you let them become what they are — they stay clear and healthy and life-giving and happy. This message is our effort to help you be happy like that — a message to encourage you to be a self-giving part of a small group. This time not because of your need to get, but because of your calling to give. Specifically to give yourself — the new self that God has created in you, at whatever stage that new self is, infant or mature.

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy were [literally] “pleased to share their own souls.” Not just the message, but the messenger. Not just the words, but lives. Not just doctrines, but hearts. This is what I mean when I encourage you to be part of a small group, not because of your need to get, but because of your calling to give. To give your selves. Paul is a model for us here.

You Have Something to Give

I know many of you feel like you have little or nothing to give. I am bold to say on the authority of God’s word: If you are a Christian, that is not true. You have Christ (Romans 8:10), you have the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), you have the word of God (1 Corinthians 2:13), you have spiritual gifts (1 Peter 4:10), you are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), and you are a fountain (John 4:14; 7:38). This is not a matter of personality. This is a matter of faith. Trust him, and give yourself.

I tell you this because it is the path of deepest, strongest, longest joys. “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35). And Paul gave not only the gospel, but himself (1 Thessalonians 2:8).

For more information, please visit: Covenant Church