The Apostle Paul was also a fairly determined fellow. Yet, his drive did not come from a desire to be the best or to be well known. He was driven by a conversion experience that had so impacted his life that he had to share it with others so they too could have an experience. Granted, Paul’s conversion, like Tiger’s golfing prowess, is a bit extraordinary. Not everyone gets blinded by a light, knocked to their knees, hears a voice from heaven, and three days later regains their sight while being filled with the Holy Spirit. But the important part of Paul’s conversion experience is not the how, but the what. What changed his life is the gospel.

Thus Paul was driven. Driven to share the gospel in every city he journeyed to. Jew, Gentile, slave, free, male, female: it did not matter to him. All needed to hear the gospel and who better to tell them then Paul. Let’s look at some of his career stats: Three missionary journeys spanning approximately 15 years. His travels reached from Jerusalem all the way to Rome (a mere 1,428 miles as the crow flies). Along the way numerous churches started and thousands of lives changed by his sharing of the gospel. The Apostle Paul – Lived to Share the Gospel.

Now, every golfer tries to mimic Tiger. Sure, most of us duffers cannot hit the ball three-hundred-yards in two shots, let alone one tee shot. But when we are staring down that rare fifteen-foot putt for birdie, it is fun to pretend we are Tiger, and that sinking this putt will win us the coveted Green Jacket! Yet, how come every Christian doesn’t pretend to be the Apostle Paul? If both are to be admired, are not both to be copied?

Almost all of us, like Paul, have been impacted by the reality of the gospel. Our encounter with the good news of God’s grace has compelled us in some fashion. You could even say, that we have been pushed or pulled by the loving hands of God and drawn towards living a gospel filled life. This is exactly like Paul! However, it is safe to say that if we examined the details of our lives, they are not exactly like Paul.

I know, I know. It isn’t fair to compare our lives to anyone, especially Paul. After all, Paul lived almost 2,000 years ago and is a Super-Christian of sorts. He is freakishly spiritual and a glutton for punishment. Need I repeat his impressive resume? He was a missionary before there were missionaries. His spiritual gifts were not what ours are. It is not fair to compare our lives to Paul’s because, well, Paul is apples and I am oranges.

Yes, we all do have different sets of spiritual gifts. And yes, we are all called to different vocations. Some doctors, some ministers, some parents, etc. But all of us are also called, as Paul was, to love God and to love neighbor. We are called to live the gospel. That we do have in common, with Paul and with each other, and thus we are all apples, or oranges. Take your pick.

Paul embodied the gospel to the people in Thessalonica. He lived it out in such a way that their lives were transformed. The message he preached was unlike the other ones they had heard. Other philosophers and religious types filtered through their city preaching and teaching their ways to any who would lend an ear. They used flattery to win over the audience for the purpose of financial gain and to build their own egos. Through monetary contributions and human praise their kingdoms grew. And eventually they moved on, and when they did, their kingdoms went with them.

Paul’s message was different. It was one that did not use flattery to win the audience. Nor did it survive only on financial contributions or care about human praise. His message, the gospel message, is tied to a higher purpose, it is tied to a calling. Yes, Paul’s work in Thessalonica did result in the continued growth of a kingdom. The difference is, when Paul left, the kingdom stayed, God’s kingdom stayed. The gospel remained in Thessalonica.

Now it would be easy for us to point fingers at those who are living lives characterized by deceit and trickery. They use flattery to get ahead, and only care about two things: money and themselves. There are plenty of people who fit this description. Some even use the gospel for these purposes. Yet, the point of Paul’s words and the point of this sermon is not to point at others, but rather to point at ourselves and ask hard questions.

What drives our life? Is it the gospel, or is it something else? If and when our life is driven by the gospel, by loving God and loving neighbor, why do we do it? Is it because of the reality of the gospel in our own lives? Or is it because we feel we are obligated to? Or so people will notice us, think that we are good, and say nice things about us? Don’t get me wrong; praise from people is not inherently evil. It was Augustine who said that we are “not to make the praise of people our motive for doing right, yet for the sake of people we are to seek what is worthy of praise.” (Letters 231.1.4) Praise itself is not bad. But, God knows our motives, and I think if we search ourselves hard enough, we know our own motives as well. Every single one of us has been given one life to live. The question is are we living our life driven by the gospel, or driven by something else?

In the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon plays the lead character, Will Hunting. Will is a janitor at prestigious MIT. What you discover early on in the movie is that he is also a math genius. To simplify a wonderfully well-made movie, Will must ultimately decide whether to stay in the good life, the one he has made for himself in South Boston, a life of friends and familiarity, one of comfort and control, or to venture outside of his nest and explore the depths of his own genius in the hopes of finding a full life.

Is your life driven by the desire to live a good life, or the desire to live a full life? There is a difference. A good life is one we can accomplish on our own. We can be successful in business, raise good kids who become productive members of society, have wonderful friends who are always there for us, and retire with no monetary concerns and plenty of time to devote to family and our own interests. I think we can all agree that would be a good life, but it is not a full life. A full life is one that cannot be experienced outside of the gospel. A full life could include success in business, raising good kids, having wonderful friends, and retiring with resources to give. The difference is a full life is driven by and focused on the gospel.

A good life or a full life? The difference may seem subtle, and at times it can be. Still I find the difference best articulated by a minister friend of mine. He recently returned from a mission trip of sorts to Peru. He was asked if the trip was life changing. He responded, “I'm not sure what that means really--I have the same job, live in the same house, drive the same car, still love my wife and daughter like my life depends on it...so I don't know about life changing, but I do know that I'm awake in ways I wasn't before." (Erin Conaway per email exchange) A full life, one driven by the gospel, is awake in ways that it cannot be apart from the gospel.

Paul’s life was full and he lived this full life before the Thessalonians. They responded in such a manner that he ultimately shared his very soul with them. Through a full life, through a gospel driven life, both Paul and the Thessalonians were awakened! An embodied gospel is infinitely more powerful than a verbal one. The primary example of this is Jesus himself. Jesus lived out the gospel he came to proclaim. The Apostle Paul followed his example by preaching and practicing the commands to love God and love neighbor. To copy Paul is to copy Jesus. The end result is awakened lives! Living a life driven by the gospel opens up the gift of intimacy and richness in relationships and in all of life. This full life is much like a newly opened bottle of champagne. It can’t help but spill over onto the hands of those around it.

Wilshire, your gospel driven lives have spilled over onto mine. This residency is a prime and personal example of how you do live and share the gospel. Recall also the wonderful outpouring of support for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, or the current efforts to build a home in partnership with other churches and Habitat for Humanity. There are numerous other ways in which each and every one of us live out the gospel. Paul challenges us to live our whole lives driven by the gospel. To let our entire life be a witness to the gospel’s ability to awaken and bring fullness to all of life.

When I was a kid, I loved GI Joe. I collected the action figures, staged mock battles between good and evil, and loved to watch the cartoon. Each cartoon ended with a brief public service announcement. The lessons ranged from how to cross the street safely to how to be careful around electricity. At the end of each lesson, one of the GI Joe characters would always say “and knowing is half the battle.” What they meant was, if you know how to cross the street safely and fail to do it, if you fail to live it out, you don’t win the battle, the car does.

Thomas Merton puts wonderful words around this battle of knowing and doing. In his Thoughts In Solitude he writes, "A purely mental life may be destructive if it leads us to substitute thoughts for life and ideas for actions . . . Our destiny is to live out what we think, because unless we live what we know, we do not even know it." (Thoughts in Solitude, 16)

We know the power of the gospel to awaken and bring fullness to life. God has shared this truth with us and given us one life to live. Let’s each us and all of us show the world what we know. Amen.