Sermon Tone Analysis

No one likes to waste their time.

The other day I had a conversation with one of the CBM builders about our new church auditorium.

One of the things that the guys from CBM are finding out about us, is that we like to change our minds.

It takes us a long time to make decisions, and then sometimes after we have made a decision, we end up changing things.

And I am sure that all of you can guess that they absolutely love it when we change the building plans on them.

If you couldn’t hear the sarcasm dripping from my voice, then you need to go back and grab another cup of coffee this morning.

They hate it!

Why?

It usually means that they have to redo something that they already spent a lot of time and effort making already.

This was the case with the new auditorium.

I changed what the pulpit wall is going to look like, and because of that change- the guys had to redo some of the electrical.

And I had to assure them that it wasn’t going to change again.

They were willing to redo their work, but they wanted a guarantee that this time all their hard work wouldn’t go to waste.

Now why do I tell that story?

Well I think it is helpful for our text this morning to get us to think about our own lives and the work that we put into living them.

I think if we evaluated our lives, and everything that we have done, we could boil down our actions into two broad categories: useful and useless, profitable and profitless, valuable and vain.

I am convinced that Scripture views our lives and views our church using this kind of evaluation.

Everything that we do in God’s eyes either has value or it is vain.

Every effort, program, plan, ministry, or special in our church is either valuable or vain.

Every conversation, encouragement, exhortation, or admonition is either valuable or vain.

That means there is the potential to spend our lives in a valuable way- living it in a way that actually matters, and there is the potential to spend our lives in a vain way- living it in a way that is devoid of any intellectual, moral, or spiritual value- empty.

That means that there is potential for us as a church to serve God invaluably or vainly.

To make what we do here matter, or we come to find out that all of our effort was spent in vain.

Like running electrical in the new church building only to find out that you have to do it all over again.

The Apostle Paul and the Thessalonian church wanted their lives and their church to matter- they wanted to spend their lives on something that had value.

I am convinced that the Apostle Paul oriented his entire life around a proper biblical/theological purpose statement.

And because Paul lived life with purpose- the Thessalonians lived their lives with purpose.

Why is that?

They imitated who?

Paul- and by extension Christ.

The Thessalonian church is the model disciple making church- they were a spiritually healthy church.

One of the reasons that they became a spiritually healthy church is they had the right purpose.

They oriented the entire ministry of their church around a proper biblical/theological purpose statement.

Faith Baptist Church, we must orient the entirety of our ministry around a proper biblical/theological purpose statement.

What should the proper biblical/theological purpose statement of our church look like?

Two fundamental purposes that I want us to think through this morning.

I.

The ministry of our church must major on that which is genuinely valuable (vv.

1-2)

The key word in v. 1 is the word “vain.”

κενός- pert.

to being devoid of intellectual, moral, or spiritual value, empty, pert.

to being without purpose or result.

This is what we don’t want for our church- we do not want our efforts or lives our energy to be vain- devoid of value, empty, without result.

Paul says to the Thessalonians- you yourselves know brothers, that our entrance (our coming to Thessalonica) was not in vain.

What does Paul mean when we talks about their entrance into Thessalonica?

I would cross reference I Thessalonians 1:5-7.

So what was not vain in Paul’s mind?

Coming to Thessalonica and doing the work of a disciple maker.

He came into town, he labored side by side with these dear people, he gave them the gospel, they received the gospel not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance.

It didn’t stop there- then the Thessalonians became imitators/mimickers of Paul and of the Lord- and Paul taught them every thing he knew.

But it didn’t stop there- the Thessalonians turned around and reproduced themselves spiritually in the lives of other people- so that they became examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.

Last week we summed up the totality of the disciple making ministry like this- follow one, win one, lead one.

So when Paul says to the Thessalonians 2:1- you yourselves know what our entrance looked like unto you.

In my mind what Paul means is you understand Thessalonians what Great Commission living, disciple making living looks like.

And you yourselves know it.

Why do they personally know it?

Because they experienced it first hand, and they copied it and did it themselves.

Of course they know it.

But look at what Paul says, He says our entrance in unto you- all of the sweat, blood, and tears we poured into the ministry on your behalf- it was not in WHAT?

VAIN!

Paul majored on the kind of ministry that was not vain.

His efforts were not empty, devoid of value, and without real results.

Paul viewed disciple making- doing the Great Commission- as valuable.

And it became the biblical/theological purpose statement of his life.

It really effected every part of his life.

Look at verse two.

What is Paul talking about here?

He is talking about suffering.

Suffering!

Even after we had already suffered and had been shamefully treated (scoffed at, mistreated, insulted, shamed), as you know, at Philippi.

We read about this suffering in Acts 16.

We don’t have time to read all of it, but do you remember the story of the slave girl who had a spirit of divination?

She followed Paul around crying out, “These men are servants of the most high God.”

Finally after many days Paul couldn’t stand it any more and he casts the spirit out of the slave girl.

This causes her owners to bring Paul before the market place.

And what happened?

This is the reception that Paul and Silas and Timothy got for being disciple makers.

They were attacked, they were beaten, they were persecuted.

Yet Paul can say in v. 2

Why?

How in the world could Paul say that?

Why did Paul leave Philippi and travel to Thessalonica?

Why didn’t Paul go home?

It wasn’t as if the Great Commission, disciple making was easy.

And by the way it isn’t.

It takes a lot of work, and patience, and perseverance.

It is slow, sometimes with little initial fruit.

So why did Paul keep doing it?

He is operating under a proper biblical/theological purpose.

He majored his life on what actually had value.

And disciple making, according to Paul, and to the Thessalonians is something that has incredible value.

And because they believed exactly that- Paul could say- we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God- even in the face of much what?

Contention / opposition.

Even though it was hard, and they were opposed, and they had to suffer persecution.

They kept making disciples because in Paul’s mind it was the only thing of real value.

Why?

Because he was so great?

No, Paul’s boldness was in whom?

In God.

Why does Paul say that?