You may have seen a cookie shaped like a pumpkin.  You may have seen a shrub shaped like a hippo.  You may have seen a coffee mug shaped like a donut.  But, have you ever seen a gospel shaped church?  This week, Lord willing, we’ll be getting back to our New Testament study of Acts, sort of.  We’ve been jumping out of Acts whenever it seems that Paul wrote one of the other New Testament books.  We’ve studied Galatians and for the next couple of months we’ll study 1 & 2 Thessalonians.  When Paul was in Corinth, (Acts 18), he was visited by Silas and Timothy who came from Thessalonica.  In response to what he heard, Paul wrote letters to them to encourage and equip them to face the trials of persecution.  In our passage for Sunday, he commended them for their work of faith, their labor of love and their steadfast faith.  Eventually, he also mentioned how quickly the news of their faith was spreading.  The church in Thessalonica was a gospel shaped church.  What I mean is, the good news of God’s love through Christ and His work shaped the way they lived.  Because they believed the gospel, they worked.  Because they believed the gospel, they loved through pain.  Because they believed the gospel, their hope in the return of Christ was steadfast and strong.  All this in spite of the fact that they were being persecuted.  The Holy Spirit was giving them joy and the news of gospel transformation was spreading like someone was blowing a trumpet.  Please pray with me that there will be a gospel shaped church in our day—in Greenville—in the middle of a hay field—the church that has the three crosses near the front drive.