Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon Notes

12-13a: Leadership in the Church

13b-15: General Relationship

16-18: Personal

19-21: Prophecy and the Spirit

22-28: Concluding Remarks

Intro

The English author Samuel Johnson wrote that “The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”

― Samuel Johnson

What he was conveying was the fact that it takes diligence and effort and discipline to form habits.

And those tugs in our life to maintain a habit at first are very weak.

But in time, they are so compelling that they are not easily forgotten.

Habits can be good.

But they also can be to a person’s detriment.

It is important, in fact, to identify the bad habits and replace them with good.

This is what the Scriptures speak to as the putting off and putting on principle.

We put off lies and put on truth.

We put of stealing and put on giving.

We put off the former ways of living, and we put on Christ-likeness.

It is not always easy to form new habits, but they are evident in the life of one who is disciplined.

John Albert Broadus said “If a man has been the slave of evil habits, and wishes to be permanently free, he must proceed by systematic and presevering effort to establish corresponding good habits.”

This morning’s passage very much speaks to us about habit, a continual or regular practice , that is God’s will for us.

Broadus, J. A. (1887).

Sermons and addresses (2nd ed., pp.

45–46).

Baltimore: H. M. Wharton & Co.

1 Thess 5:16-18

Body

Before we dive into each of these, remember the context.

We are speaking of the characteristics of the church.

We looked at the leadership of the church, we looked at our relationship with others and, although, these seem very personal.

They inform us on what the church looks like.

It reveals to us what the people of God look like.

We are a people who rejoice, pray, and give thanks to God.

They are all public expressions we do in our assembly.

Rejoice Always:

Now for the Thessalonicans, this would be one that would not be quite easy.

Remember this is a persecuted church.

This is a church that knew what it meant to face suffering for the sake of the Gospel.

And yet, it was a commendable church.

A church that stood firm for the truth.

Too often, we think that we are the first people to suffer.

But we are not.

We can look to the early church.

We can read of the early martyrs and we can read of the fortitude that they had.

We can be encouraged by their testimony.

We currently live in very uncertain times.

You think about just one hour of news programming and you see rumors of wars, you find speculation about hurricanes and storms, we see atrocities committed as children are kidnapped, murder occuring, maybe you feel uneasy with the current presidential administration.

We live in times that are constantly changing and the morality of a nation that is in question.

Where gender and sexuality is questioned everyday and where the only truth is that truth is not real.

12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you as if something unusual were happening to you.

13 Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of the Messiah, so that you may also rejoice with great joy at the revelation of His glory.

We rejoice!

Those are external.

But then you look internally.

You look at the things that are occuring close in your life.

Maybe you are having troubles at work.

Perhaps you are feeling discouraged or depressed.

You lost someone close to you.

Or you are struggling and cannot seem to find peace.

Maybe you are even being persecuted for your faith.

And so, what are you to do?

It may seem insensitive, but Paul would say that there never is an occasion in which we cannot rejoice.

Rejoice always.

How do we do that?

And this is not the first time Paul says this.

2 Corinthians 6

3 We are giving no one an occasion for taking offense in anything, in order that our ministry will not have fault found with it, 4 but commending ourselves as servants of God in every way, in much endurance, in afflictions, in distresses, in difficulties, 5 in beatings, in prisons, in disturbances, in troubles, in sleepless nights, in going hungry, 6 in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in love without hypocrisy, 7 in the word of truth, in the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and left hand, 8 through glory and dishonor, through slander and good repute, regarded as deceivers and yet truthful, 9 as unknown and yet known completely, as dying, and behold, we go on living, as disciplined, and yet not put to death, 10 as grieving, but always rejoicing, as poor, but making many rich, as having nothing, and possessing everything.

Why?

How is it that Paul can rejoice in all of these situations!?!?

Because of Christ.

Do not forget brothers and sisters where your identity lies!

It is in Christ.

You are a new creation and I tell you this now and forevermore, rejoice always!

You have eternity promised to you and that can never be taken away.

You the promise of being in the presence of God.

You have the promise that God is with you.

You have the promise that he will provide for all your needs when you seek Him first, as opposed to seeking those things first.

You have the promise that when the Son died on the cross, he truly bore the sins of his sheep and they are declared just in the eyes of God.

You have the promise that you no longer will bear the wrath of God.

You have the promise of a peace that surpasses all understanding as you abide in the love of Christ in obedience to His word.

You have all this and so the storms will come, and disappointments will come, and trials will come, but through it all you will hold tight to your only delight, God.

You will stand strong like the wise man who built his house on the rock.

He was the one that Jesus said is the one who hears his words and obeys it.

You will hold fast to God’s word.

You will receive the discipline from God knowing that it is conforming you into the image of Son.

You know this and you can rejoice.

And we feel the pressures of this, and are reminded of

12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you as if something unusual were happening to you.

13 Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of the Messiah, so that you may also rejoice with great joy at the revelation of His glory.

We rejoice!

But not only do we rejoice, we pray.

2. Pray Constantly

We pray that God’s will be done.

We pray for His kingdom to grow.

We pray for the church.

We pray.

We go to God!

Not in defiance, but in worship.

We go to God with a posture of worship knowing He hears us!

How can we offer such little prayers.