Chris Hustler: G’day, this is Brother Chris.

I’m an evangelist from the Calvary Baptist Church in Bayswater in Melbourne, Australia.

I’ve had the blessing of being at camp with Brother Ryan and a whole bunch of crazy young people from churches in South Australia.

I’d just like to share something with you today from the book of Thessalonians.

Sometimes when we go out shopping, we look at things that we would like to have.

We go drooling over the sports store or the menswear or the sportswear or maybe the car yard.

I read through the book of Thessalonians in chapter 1.

I find myself drooling at the thought of the testimony of the Thessalonian Christians.

In chapter 1 it says in verse 6, And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that ye are examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.

For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God would be spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything.

For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto 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, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

Amazing testimony the Apostle Paul shares of these Thessalonian Christians who had come to Christ in great affliction, who were being savagely persecuted by their own countrymen, And yet through the midst of all their suffering, the Apostle Paul, and by the way, he is the writer of the scripture, but the Holy Spirit is the author.

So he’s not making this up.

He’s not exaggerating.

But he says that these people have such a testimony that is spread from beyond Thessalonica throughout all Macedonia and Archaea.

And so Paul and Silas and others, as they’re carrying out the gospel ministry, are constantly running into people who are saying, oh, you’re the guys with the gospel.

Oh, yeah, we heard what happened.

Oh, that’s amazing.

Tell us more.

And Paul says, we don’t even need to speak anymore because you’ve had this wonderful conversion, this experience that has been reflected in your changed lives, in your turning to God from your pagan idols.

And people everywhere were gossiping the gospel because of the changed lives in these people in Thessalonica.

You say, well, that’s what’s supposed to happen when we get saved, when we get born again, when we trust Christ.

But you realize these people had three Sabbath days where Paul went into their synagogue in Acts 17 and preached, opening and alleging that Jesus is the Christ of God.

And then they were driven out of town.

Paul and Silas, they’re gone.

So we have a very small window of opportunity.

Paul tells us in chapter 2 that they were laboring night and day.

So around the clock they had people coming and asking questions and seeking answers and searching in the scriptures together.

And yet even after Paul and these others are gone, the Spirit of God is still at work in these people’s lives and we have this amazing testimony of these people in Thessalonica.

And we have to ask ourselves, well, if they didn’t have the teacher there, how could this be done?

If they didn’t have the servants of God there to encourage them and uphold and uplift them, how could this be done?

If they didn’t have all this input spiritually, Well, you look in chapter 2 and you find the answer to what happened to these people.

It says in verse 13, For this cause also, thank we God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which ye heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

I want to tell you the power of the Word of God is undersold by multitudes of Christians today.

They don’t have a good devotional life.

They don’t have a proper reading and studying time in the Word of God.

Or they may go faithfully along to church and the youth group and Sunday school and prayer meeting.

But you need to be feeding on the Word of God.

You need to be giving the Spirit of God, the Word of God, that he delights in, and then maybe you’ll start seeing victory in areas of your life where you’re still struggling.

These people, in the most difficult of circumstance, were bearing this beautiful spiritual fruit.

It wasn’t during a happy season, but it was a fruitful season.

And the measure of their spiritual growth was simply found in their obedience to the Word of God.

Let me ask you, when you sit under the sermon on Sunday morning, is it old, you know, Reverend Puddle Duck or Pastor Fluffy Head or whoever he is, is that your attitude to the man of God, to the Sunday school teacher, to the preacher?

Or do you actually receive it as it is in truth not the word man but the word of God if we start to revere and and with the fear of the Lord receive the word of God as we’re meant to revere and respect it and receive it it’ll begin to do the work that it did in the lives of the Thessalonians it worketh effectually in you that believe.

That simply means it does what it’s meant to do.

There is cleansing power in the Word of God.

There is conviction in the Word of God.

There is strength and wisdom and guidance in the Word of God.

Everything, not just a young person, but any child of God needs to have a joyful, victorious Christian life and a radiant testimony for the glory of God begins with our obedience. to the Word of God.

Thank you, Ron.