Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church

Guest (Male): Nobody but Jesus! If that's your personal testimony, this is your time to give God some glory, that it is nobody but Jesus. We've come down to the time for the Word, and we will be hearing the Word from none other than our Pastor Emeritus, the Reverend Dr. Michael Wesley Sr. So at this time, we would like to invite him to come in his own way as he will. Dr. Wesley, preach the Word.

Pastor James: Nobody but Jesus. Nobody but Jesus can do the things that He has done. Nobody but Jesus can save our soul. Nobody but Jesus can get us out of some of the hell we've been through. Nobody but Jesus can dry the midnight tears. Nobody but Jesus comes through. I don't know how else to say it. Nobody but Jesus! That's all that needs to be said.

Join me now in this moment of prayer as we ready our hearts for the Word for the morning. Father, we thank You for loving and blessing us. Thank You for keeping us across the years. Thank You for this day of celebration. We celebrate with those, Lord, who are in heaven today, who rejoice to see this day. We thank You for the years given to past pastors and past leaders and all of the people who have been a part of this historic fabric.

We stand today with humility in our hearts, thankfulness, and gratefulness for all that You have done during our tenure. We cast our eye toward the future, and we thank You for what You're going to be. We praise You for who You are. Lift now, again, your human idol self. Fill us with the Holy Spirit. Speak to us and through us in this moment of sharing and bless now the words that are in our mouth and the meditations that are on our heart, that they may be acceptable in Your sight, Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Bless us now, Jesus. In the name of Your holy Son, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

I am again excited and delighted to have this awesome privilege. I want to thank Pastor James for extending the opportunity and the invitation to be with you at this service. I recognize that my tenure has passed and he didn't have to do it. But for whatever reason, the Lord laid it on his heart to say, "Pastor, do you want to step up there?" And here I am. Not that he's incapable. He's very capable and he has a long way to go. If you're in here this morning, you heard some of that capability.

Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.: I just want to speak a minute, just for a few moments, and it won't take us long. The New Testament book of 2 Thessalonians, chapter one. I want to look at the first five verses. There is an interesting matter. I'll read King James. "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

"We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer."

This is the word of God for the people of God. I want to preach for a few minutes today about a church you can be proud of, and a church you can be thankful for. I just add that as a footnote, but I'm talking about a church you can be proud of. Over the years across my desk, I get many pieces of mail. I get over a thousand emails every day, and so sometimes the emails that may be important that come from other people get lost.

But I get a lot of mail that talks about church and talks about church rhetoric on what makes this church or that church or another church more outstanding maybe than another. I recently read about a church that bragged that it had 18,000 members and the building was a million square feet on 42 acres of property. I read about another church who wanted to break with tradition, and they said, "You can come to our church because at our church you don't have to say anything, you don't have to sign anything, and you don't have to be anything."

I began to think about those churches and all manner of different ones that have got their own little mantras and reasons why they are proud of those churches. Now, we've got reasons here. I'll be honest with you. I look at all these men. Look at the men. Stand up over there, men. Just stand up. Those boys look good! That's a reason to be proud. You've got that many men looking good. Wait, ladies, hold on. This isn't "Him" choosing.

But I just want you to know we've got an award-winning choir back here. Stand up, y'all. Just stand up. Been featured, got an award-winning director over here that's a nomination Grammy and all that. Stand up. We've got reasons to be proud. Today we're celebrating 135 years of continual service in the Birmingham community. That means we went through the Depression. We went through a church fire. We went through a stampede.

I won't say it like this, abandonment. We went through pandemic. We went through ran-demic. We went through Bedside Baptist. We have been through everything you can go through, and we're still standing. So if we wanted to say why we were proud, we could say that. But that's not what the text is about. That's not what I'm talking about.

What is so interesting today is what would the Apostle Paul have had reason to say to the church at Thessalonica that, "We are proud of you and we thank God for you"? It certainly would not have been because they had a 135-year history. They were only several months old by the time this letter was written. It certainly wasn't because they had beautiful buildings. They didn't have no buildings. It certainly wasn't because they had a great choir. There wasn't no choir.

It certainly wasn't because they had a famous pastor or five or six pastors. We don't even know who the pastor was. It certainly wasn't because they had rich members, because the church was poor. So what is it about this church that God would single out and note for them that this apostle and the people of his apostolic age would say, "We are so proud of you, and we thank God for you"?

Now, if you don't think that's what the text says, look in verse four. Right here, Paul is saying, "So that we ourselves glory," that word glory means brag or boast, "about you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure." And then he goes in verse three and he says, "We are bound. We've got to thank God for you always." So my question is, what would make this church be so outstanding that the Apostle Paul would say, "I'm so proud of you"?

Or what would make an apostolic letter carry that deep abiding message that, "I'm so proud of you and thank God for you"? Well, I'm glad you asked, because the answer is in these five verses. There are five characteristics or five traits that we can draw out of this that can help us all. Because first and foremost, I want you to understand that the church, when we're talking about the church, "I'm proud of you, a church I can be proud of," he could not be talking about the building.

How many know the church is not the building? The church is what? The people. When we gather, we're the church gathered, and when we scatter, we're the church scattered. And wherever we go individually, we are the church. So don't think that when I'm speaking of the church, I'm talking about this location at 2135 Jefferson Avenue Southwest, because the church has been going on a long time before 135 years, and it will continue to go on until Jesus returns.

So what is it about it? Now, I'm going to say this in a few minutes. It might not even have enough time for this to even be broadcast, I'm going to say it so quick. Maybe I won't say it that quick. Have to say it long enough for you to digest it. But the first thing comes in this introduction. I need to talk about it for a minute. In the first verse, Paul says, "Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Stop right there. First, I noted the names here: Paul, and Silvanus. Silvanus is the Roman name for this man. His name in the Jewish community is Silas, but his Roman name is Silvanus. And Timothy, in the English language, it’s Timothy, but in this original Greek language, it was Timotheus. Timotheus and Silvanus both had a dual citizenship, and Paul did too. Paul especially and Silvanus were both Jews and Romans, and they had dual citizenship, so they both had different names. You know Paul's name really was Saul, and his name was changed later to Paul.

But these men were traveling companions, and I noted that Paul doesn't put "Paul the Apostle" behind his name. He doesn't put "Paul the bond servant of Jesus Christ" behind his name. He does it some places, but he does not do it here because these people have not questioned his spiritual authority. So there is no need for him to put the emphasis on who he is as a man of God. They knew who he was. They accepted him for who he was. He just simply says "Paul," and he moved right on to the other people.

Now, Silvanus or Silas had been probably along the same age as Paul, and Timothy would then be the younger of the three. But these three men were together. They were together when the church at Thessalonica was formed because they had just come out of Philippi where Paul and Silas had been beat and put in jail and God sent the earthquake at midnight and rocked the jailhouse. Timothy was there too. Timothy probably didn't take the whipping, but he was there.

But Paul and Silas and Timothy were there at the founding of the church of Thessalonica. They were together at the first letter that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. He was only in Thessalonica three Sundays or three Sabbaths. That wasn't long enough for him to really be comfortable that the Gospel had taken root. So he sent Timothy back. "Hey, man, go check on that little church and see." Because as soon as he started preaching every week, then Judaizers, troublemakers came and they began to persecute and jump on the people and blaspheme Paul.

It made life difficult, so Paul had to leave Thessalonica. He wasn't sure that the little preaching that he had done had been enough to establish the church. And when Timothy came back and said, "Paul, man, the preaching that you did, even though it was but three weeks, it was enough. The people love you, man, and the people appreciate the Gospel that you preached." But there's always a "but," isn't there? And some of the people, man, when you were talking about the resurrection and the second coming of Jesus, they got confused.

And some people don't even know how to handle themselves when they are being persecuted or pushed against by other folk. And so Paul, then some of the people have just gotten lazy. They don't want to work no more because you told them that Jesus was coming back. And because they believe Jesus was coming back at any time, they stopped working. So it prompted the second letter. And this is the second letter, and in this second letter, Paul writes.

He writes this letter and he shows us the characteristic first right here in this first verse of a church that you can be proud of because he says these people were genuinely converted. Genuinely converted. Don't miss it. Now, how were they genuinely converted? Paul gives the greeting: "Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church at Thessalonica." That's who we're talking about. These are the people. Look at what he says: "In God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." That's the conversion.

Can I tell you something? You can sit here for the next 40 years or the next 100 years, but if you're not genuinely converted, you're not in the church. The church is not a club of attendees. The church is not a gathering of people who attend a Sunday fashion show. The church is not a group of people who come to get their praise on. The church is the body of baptized believers in Jesus Christ. And listen, if you as an individual have not had a personal experience where you are now considered "in God" and "in Christ Jesus," you're not in the church.

You can be in the building, but that doesn't make you in the church. There are a lot of people who have got the last name as Wesley, but they're not in my family. You understand? I mean, there has to be another kind of relationship that is put in place to make you family. And I'm just saying today that whatever building you may sit in wouldn't necessarily make you a part of the family of God. But Paul recognized that these people had been genuinely converted because they are now "in God" and "in the Lord Jesus Christ."

And whenever that relational transition takes place, you are converted. God doesn't save you because your name is what it is. God doesn't save you because you came from this side of the track or that side of the track. God doesn't save you based on your economic situation or your educational acumen. God saves you because you believe the testimony of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And because God sent Him into the world and you accepted that testimony as being the truth, God saves you.

God doesn't save you because you're so pretty. God doesn't save you because you're so fine. God saves you simply because you believe that Jesus is the Christ. So can I ask, is anybody in here in the church? Are you in Christ? Have you been saved? Is your name on the roll? What did they used to say? They used to say, "Certainly, Lord!" Have you been baptized? "Certainly, Lord!" Have you been redeemed? "Certainly, Lord!" Is your name on the roll? "Certainly, Lord!"

You see, when people know who they are, it doesn't matter what other people think. But other people will recognize that God lives in you because you're going to live a certain way. Now, this town, Thessalonica, man, was something. It was founded about 350 years before Paul came. It was founded by Alexander, who had been one of the great generals of the Roman army, and it was a very large metropolis city. But it was located right on the Aegean Sea. So it was a seaport town.

Being a seaport town, it had a lot of mariners. It had a lot of foreigners. It had a lot of passengers that passed through, and life in that city was a mess. Listen, man, crime was everywhere. I mean, people had to bar the doors and bar the windows because crime was so bad. Prostitution was loose everywhere. Illicit sex was everywhere. This was a town, baby. And when this boy came in and he preached for three weeks and these people's lives were changed and they demonstrated a change in their life, he said, "Yeah, I'm proud of you."

Now, who can't be proud of somebody who had a past and whose life was turned around? Don't you tell your child every now and then when you see them doing things the way you want them to do, "I'm so proud of you"? Because I see a difference. I know how you used to be, but I see how you are now, and I know something has taken root or something different has happened. And that's what Paul is saying. Paul, Silas, and Timothy are saying we're so proud of you because you have been genuinely converted.

And can I say that I know that people across these years who have been a part of this family and people who are in here today, I'm so proud of you. Not because you've got a great voice, but because you have been genuinely converted. Now, there's a second thing that he says in the next verse, in verse three. He says, "We are bound." See, we can't help ourselves. We've got to tell people, "Thank God." We've got to thank God always for you, brothers, as it is important or meet because—here it is, here's the second characteristic—"your faith groweth exceedingly."

So the second characteristic of the reason you can be proud of a church is when people's faith is growing. And guess what? I can see your faith growing. Paul could see their faith growing. He was proud of their faith because it took faith to even confess Jesus as Lord in a pagan society. It takes faith to acknowledge Jesus today, not when everybody else is living any kind of way. You know, all these preachers they've got on their collars this morning, but if we were in another environment, they'd be taking off their collar.

They'd put it in their pocket because the society will tempt to make you feel shame of being identified as a child of God. In church, I know we've got that Holy Ghost wave, but we can have that same wave. We can bust those same moves when we go in another environment. The same rock that you've got, the same wave, the same move that you've got, you've got those same moves when you go somewhere else. And so it takes faith, and it takes courage to be a Christian.

Do you know that men sometimes as they begin to date ladies and all that kind of thing like that, they at first don't even want the lady to know that they're a Christian or religious? The lady be trying to find out, "Do you go to church?" "Oh, well, my faith is personal. I don't want you to know." And she keeps twisting his arm, "Do you go to church? Are you a Christian?" "Yeah, I'm a Christian." Then when it becomes popular, "I'm a Christian." But then when it's not popular, then, "What you talking about?"

But it takes faith. It takes courage. Do you understand? It takes courage to walk these aisles. It takes courage to stand up in front of a congregation and tell the people that "I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He came into this earth, that He died on the cross, that He was raised the third day morning." That is not easy. Do you not know that when people join the church for real and they are genuinely converted, you may see them when they walk the aisle, but what you don't see them is when they get in the back?

You don't see the tears in their eyes. You don't see the snot in their nose. You don't see their hearts overflowing and pounding because they have declared. Now, what Paul is saying to these Thessalonians, he said, "I pray, I thank God for your faith, but I know that your faith continues needs to grow." See, it's one kind of faith to become converted, but it's another faith that you're going to need as you live a sanctified life. It's easy to have introductory faith.

Introductory faith introduces you to the principles of Christian living, but it takes more faith to be a Christian and especially in the face of persecution. Now, you talking about what's going to tell you whether or not you're a really Christian is go through something. Go through something, and you're going to find out. That's when the God-man comes alive or the woman of God. Go to the doctor and let them tell you something different. I promise you, you're going to find out then.

You get a call on the phone and say something has happened in the family or something has happened with your child. Man, it will draw something out of you. You're going to find out. So see, that kind of faith that you need then is different from the kind of faith that you need in the beginning when you walk through trouble. Trouble, trials, and tribulation, they don't do anything but expose unbelief. It doesn't kill real faith. It highlights real faith.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when they first got to Babylon, they all watched Daniel. But as those boys grew in their faith, when the fire came, then they said, "Oh King, let us tell you something. The God that we serve might not stop us from going in the fire, but the God we serve is able to keep us in the fire." That's mature faith. And so the kind of church that God can be proud of, the kind of church assembly is not only people who have been genuinely converted, but people who are growing exceedingly in their faith.

You've got to be always growing. If I'm the same guy today as I was the day I started in the church, something is mightily wrong with me. I have grown, and you're going to grow. And I'm going to tell you something, young man, you're going to grow through preaching this Word. You're going to get hit with some of these uppercuts and you're going to say, "God, please don't make me say that. That's going to hurt me." But let me tell you something, when it hurts you, it's going to hurt somebody else.

And when it heals you, it's going to heal somebody else. And so the prayer Paul is bragging about here when he's telling these Thessalonians that he's proud of them, he's telling them, "I'm proud that not only are you genuinely in Christ and in God, but that I see your faith." I mean, and this is just, you know, he came in three weeks, he's out. They had introductory faith. But then persecutors started coming in. Those same people that ran Paul out of town were still running around there whipping up on these other young Christians.

And then somebody even wrote a letter as if it had come from the Apostle Paul. And so some of the folk had gotten even more confused about that. And so it took real faith to persecute through that, to move through that, hold on through that. I remember somebody, how many know you have to read the fine print? I had a young member of my family one day came to me and he said, "Hey, look at this, look at this, look at this. Boy, I done won something!"

I said, "Well, let me see the fine print." And see, on the surface, it's got big promises in bold letters, but you have to read the fine print. And when we read the fine print, I said, "Man, this ain't nothing. So we better not go this route." And he said, "Whew, thank You, Jesus." How many know you have to read the fine print? Life, the world will promise you everything, but only the promises of God will get you through.

So a church that you can be proud of and thankful for is a church where people are genuinely converted and increasing in faith. But then there's a third element there, and he says in verse three, "Because that your faith groweth exceedingly and the charity," which is the word for love, "your love of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth." What is that element? It is a people whose love grows deeper for one another. That's a church you can be proud of.

That's a person you can be proud of. Not only who's genuinely converted, not only whose faith is increasing, but one whose heart love is ever deepening for—you know what I say about this church? What I say about every church? If you warm the church up with love, you would have to lock the doors to keep people out. You know the reason churches are in decline is because of church hurt. People have been ugly. People have not demonstrated what I'm talking about, this genuine conversion.

Man, even in the early years of this particular family, we used to have people on the door who just, I don't know, you have to question whether or not they were converted because, man, if you grabbed that door, "What you want in here?" "Nothing, I'll go somewhere else. Sit down over there! Get up from there! That's not your seat!" And you know, man, you have to understand that kind of stuff, especially in today's society, will not work.

If you're talking ugly to people, people won't listen to that. If you're showing rude behaviors toward other people, people are going to push back against that. Man, it was a story told of a man who was a shepherd. He had sheep. And it was raining real hard, and he took his sheep into a cave. And another shepherd was coming by who had goats. And so the shepherd with the sheep reached out and he said, "Hey man, come on, bring your goats in here with us."

"It's safe in here. We're in a cave and the rain can't get to you and hurt us." And so the shepherd with the goats said, "Okay," and he came on in. And while they were in there, he noticed how the shepherd with the sheep was treating his sheep. He was beating his sheep. He was talking hard and ugly to the sheep. And when the rain passed, the shepherd with the goats said, "Okay, we'll see y'all later. We're going on about our business."

The shepherd with the sheep said, "Hey, stay in here with us. We're all right, we're all brothers." He said, "Man, I can't stay in here with y'all. I saw the way you treat them. And if you treat them that way, how are you going to treat us?" Are y'all hearing me? How in the world are you going to convert the world to Christianity and cause an unbelieving world to want to be in the family of God if the people in the family of God don't know how to treat one another?

But when the church is a congregation that the love grows deeper and more profound for people, man, it testifies to the world that here is an example of genuine conversion and faith increasing and it's a church that I can be proud of. You know what Jesus said to the church at Sardis? He said, "You know, I know your works. You look like you are alive, but you're dead." And he said to the church at Laodicea, "You make me sick. I wish you were either hot or cold."

"He said, 'But because you're neither one, you make me sick. You make me want to throw up.'" Now, God help us. If we're going to go another 135 or how many other years in the future, we've got to be the kind of church that the Apostle Paul would want to write the letter about and say about this church, "I am so proud of you, and I thank God for you because you are genuinely Christian."

"You are increasing in your faith, and your love for one another grows deeper every day." Are you following that? But then there's a fourth principle. Can I tell it? I want to show it to you. I don't want you to think I'd be making it up. It's right here in the scripture. And verse four, he said, "And so we ourselves glory. We brag." See, this is what they were doing. They were bragging because he was so proud. "We are bragging in you to the other churches in God for your patience and faith in all your persecution and tribulations that you endure."

Look here, here's principle number four. A church that you can be proud of is a church who remains hopeful in the middle of trouble or tribulation. To have hope. See, faith is one thing. Faith is to believe that something impossible is there. But hope is to believe that it belongs to me. You can have faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, but it becomes the evidence of things not seen. Faith says it's out there.

But hope says it can be mine. And when you're going through trouble, faith will give you shoes to walk, but hope will keep you walking until you get through what you're going through. Hope tells you that there's another side of this, that I'm going to be all right whenever I come to the end of this. Listen, those of us who have gone through treatment plans and programs have to have hope, baby. You have to hope that when I get through going through, I'm going to feel better than I feel before I started in this journey.

And if you don't have no hope in your heart, you've got to always have hope in the middle of tribulation. I'm so glad trouble don't last always. Don't you know what Psalm 30 says? "Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning." And why do we believe for the morning? It’s called hope! Hope makes me know that even when I've tossed all night, that a new day is coming. That no matter how bad it's raining or storming in my life, there's another day coming.

There is another day coming when I'll walk again in the joy of the sunshine. When I'm broke, busted, and disgusted, I've got hope in my heart that payday is coming. When difficulty and trial is in my life, when sorrow is in my life, when trouble is on my trail, I've got to have some hope because if I don't have hope, I might give up. But where does hope come from? Hope comes from Jesus. He looked at Peter when Peter denied knowing Him.

And Jesus said, "Peter, I have prayed for you that you fail not." And Peter girded up the loins of his own mind. And even though tears were in his eyes because he had denied knowing the Lord, he still had hope. Easter night he had hope. The day after Easter he had hope. Pentecost he had hope. The future came and he had hope. Hope will make you stand when you're walking through trouble. And so the church that I can be proud of is not only a church that's genuinely converted.

One who continues to grow increasingly in faith, one who deepens their love relationship day by day, but also a church that has and maintains hope in the middle of trouble. Let me put it another way. Come here. God gives you two things. God gives you vision, and vision becomes the picture of the future before it comes. But then He gives you hope, a fire, a passion, because sometimes when He shows you the future, there's a delay between the future and the fulfillment of it.

So hope gives you the ability to hold on to the picture until the picture and the present align themselves. So you've got to have hope, baby. You've got to hold on until tomorrow comes! I know I've got to go, but I've got one more. A church that you can be proud of and thank God for. Not only a church that's been genuinely converted, not only one who increases in faith, and not only one who—y'all went to sleep. You'll fail my class because you don't know I'd be testing.

Always come back and give you a test. That's what good teachers do. So I'm going to give you one more time. A church that you can be proud of is a church that has genuine conversion. A church that you can be proud of has increasing faith. A church that you can be proud of has growing in love. A church you can be proud of has hope in tribulation or trouble. And a church that you can be proud of has a kingdom attitude.

A kingdom attitude. You've got to know that you're part of something more than what goes on inside this building. The kingdom of God is greater than any local location. You are on a dry run for heaven. And when you get to heaven, it ain't going to be no Black folk section over there and White folk section over here. We're going to all be part of the kingdom of God. And the church that you can be proud of is a church that doesn't practice segregation.

And all kinds of crazy things, but the kind of church that has an attitude that understands whatever happens in my life, God has a way of working it out for my good. So I don't complain. I've had some good days and I've had some hills to climb. I've had some weary days and some lonely nights. But when I look around and when I think things over, my good days outweigh my bad days, so I just won't complain. God! Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

God! God! God has been good to me! And because He's been good to me, I won't complain. That's a kingdom mindset. A kingdom mindset understands that whatever happens and whatever falls out in my life, God knows how to work it out for my good, and it's going to all fit me for the kingdom of heaven. And so now I can declare for the rest of my life, I will serve Him. For the rest of my life, I will run.

And I want Greater Shiloh to go on into your future and be the kind of church that not only I can be proud of, but you can be proud of, God can be proud of, the apostles can be proud of, the world can be proud of and can be thankful for. And so now it's up to us to take it from here and to go with the rest of our life. Doors of the church are open. Give God your heart. Give one of us your hand.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Thank You, Lord! Hallelujah! That's what conversion is. Genuine conversion is for the rest of your life. It doesn't end the Sunday after service. When you're genuinely brought into the family of God, you're there for the rest of your life. I don't want to miss anybody in case you're in here and you say, "I wanted to get up but I just got scared." Come on, we're going to open the door one more time, one last time. Come on, we've got time. Doors still open. Come on, baby, we'll wait on you. We'll wait. We'll wait. We'll wait.