Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

What is likely the most popular question that is asked among Christian circles?

What is God’s will for my life?

I think we have all heard this question and probably asked this question countless times!

It seems like such a big question.

What does God want me to do?

What is His ultimate will for my life.

None of us want to miss out on what God’s will is for us, right?

Yet this mystical way of thinking leads many to paralysis in making life decisions.

They won’t commit to a spouse because maybe it isn’t the will of God for their life.

They won’t commit to a career because maybe it isn’t God’s will for their life.

Some may not even be able to pick out a breakfast cereal because it might not be what God wanted them to eat that morning!

Ok, maybe that last one was a stretch - but we have created this mystical idea of a hidden plan of God for our lives.

There are most certainly wise steps we need to take in making decisions.

Yes, we should seek the Lord in the decisions we make.

Yes, we should pray for His Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us which He will if we are walking in obedience.

And yes, we should always be searching and studying His Word to help us make our decisions because many times we don’t need to pray about a decision - God’s Word addresses it head on and we just need to be obedient!

But it’s like we feel as if God has this plan for us and hides it from us and makes us play hide and seek until we find it!

Brothers and sisters - this is garbage.

Yes - I said garbage.

If I was a proper Englishman I would say rubbish.

God is not in the business of stringing you along and playing mind games with you.

He has wired you and designed you from the beginning to do what He wants you to do.

Once you are saved - He fills you with His Holy Spirit who guides you and leads you.

The real way that we find out God’s will for us - is by obeying what He teaches us today through His Word.

I can promise you that if you a born-again believer and follow the commands in these three short verses well, you will most certainly fulfill God’s will for your life.

Let’s get into today’s message:

Let us pray.

Prayer.

Today we will see three ways in which we follow and obey God’s will for our lives as believers.

The first is...

I.

As a Christ Follower, God’s Will for Your Life… Requires Rejoicing (16)

The previous sermon was on the healthy church family.

It involved instruction on how we should relate to one another in the church.

While the verses for today are more about worshiping the Lord than interacting with others, obeying the instructions of these verses will most certainly aid in a healthy church family and make our relationships better with one another as well.

However, the main thrust of these verses is worshipping God.

Starting with verse 16 we see that we are to rejoice always.

A fun fact before diving into the meat of this short verse - This verse is actually the shortest verse in the Bible if we just look at the original Greek.

It only contains 14 letters in the original Greek.

However it has 13 letters in English.

While our common answer for the shortest verse in the Bible is ‘Jesus wept.’

(which is found in John 11:35) and only consists of 9 letters in English, it actually has 16 letters in the original Greek.

Although this may be the shortest Greek verse in the Bible, it comes with quite a charge.

Rejoice always.

That is quite a command isn’t it?

What exactly does Paul mean here?

When we take a step back and study this book alone, we see that joy is found 4 times in 1 Thessalonians while rejoice is found once as seen here in our Scripture for today.

These references refer to having joy in the midst of affliction (1 Thessalonians 1:6), joy in considering the second coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 2:19), and joy with thanksgiving (1 Thessalonians 2:20, 3:9).

The word rejoice is very similar in the Greek to joy.

The word rejoice is chairō (he-yeah-dro) and means to be glad or rejoice.

It is interesting that although Paul speaks of the persecution of the Thessalonian church often, he uses the words joy and rejoice 5 times in this short letter.

He does a similar thing in the book of Philippians which was written to a church that was also in Macedonia and was persecuted greatly.

In fact, Paul uses the words joy and rejoice in the book of Philippians 7 times in 4 chapters!

Obviously, Paul is trying to tell us something.

We need to have joy and we are commanded to rejoice.

But then we come to the second word in our verse which is always.

This word literally means at all times.

How does that practically look in our lives today?

When you lose your job… Rejoice always.

When your marriage is struggling… Rejoice always.

When you are ill… Rejoice always.

When you lose a loved one… Rejoice always.

When you have financial struggles… Rejoice always.

Some of you may hear this and quickly kick back on rejoicing in these bad situations.

And with a contemporary understanding of rejoice, you would be right in doing so.

Today’s culture equates rejoicing to happiness.

We have cheapened true joy and have replaced it with a temporary feeling that comes and goes with the wind.

But that is not the Biblical definition of joy.

If you remember last week, we saw Paul teach on the need to be patient with one another and be at peace with one another.

We referred to the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 and that these two commands are only possible by the working of the Holy Spirit in us.

We cannot be fully patient or fully at peace with one another in our own power.

And in the same way, we cannot be full of joy without the Holy Spirit.

True joy is found irrespective of one’s circumstances.

True joy is found in Christ.

When we have the fruit of Spirit - namely when we have true joy - we realize that our joy is irrevocable because we have been saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).

We have been forgiven and accepted by our God and Father through Jesus Christ.

We have the promise of eternal life with Christ in heaven as we saw a couple of weeks ago and as we just sang about in our new song, “On That Day.”

This does not mean that we are happy to go through bad circumstances.

We are not to hope for trials.

That isn’t healthy as well.

But we should have such joy in Christ because of our promised salvation and eternal life with Him, that we can have true inner joy and peace despite what is going on in our lives.

Our joy should be driven by a relationship with our Savior which allows us to persevere and express joy even in the worst of situations.

Through our glorious hope in Christ and because of our love for Him and because of His love for us, we can respond like the Apostles did in Acts 5:40-41:

The Apostles would not have their joy stolen.

They actually rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Christ!

Brothers and sisters - what is stealing your joy today?

Pastor John MacArthur gives a great admonition in his commentary on this great book.

Therefore, no event or circumstance in the Christian’s life, apart from sin, can or should diminish his true joy.

John MacArthur (emphasis mine)

Sin is the only thing in our lives that can diminish our true joy.

And that is because it creates a barrier between us and our Savior.

When we have unconfessed sin in our lives, our joy will not be complete.

We will not be able to fully experience the joy God offers us.

If you find yourself struggling for inner peace and joy, I urge you to examine your heart and mind and see if there be any sin that is in you.

As the Psalmist David so wonderfully said:

The Lord promises to reveal your sin to you and He will forgive you of your sin once you repent and turn from it.

Once our sin has been confessed and repented of, we may be sure that we may have freedom with joy and peace in Christ in any and every situation.

If you are not a true believer in Christ - if you have not placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and repented or turned away from your sins.

If you have not confessed Jesus as Lord - the one who came to earth as fully God and fully man and died on the cross for your sins.