Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good Morning Church...

Happy Mother’s Day! Today is such an interesting one…it’s a day we celebrate mother’s but the reality is it’s a day to celebrate God’s gift of the all women in our lives.

From the moment in Genesis 2 when God formed woman to be the helper to man....and breaking that down…being a helper insinuates there is a need for help…and for men and children....boy do we need help...

Woman was a gift to help us men in the areas we are weak.

So, today we celebrate mom’s and motherly figures in our lives.

Not all are biological.

God places women in our lives to support us, encourage us, whip us into shape, love us and help us in those areas we aren’t strong.

Thank God for the women in our lives.

I thank you all.

And if you are sitting there and you can tell your mom thanks for all she has done and does for you…you better do it....if you can’t thank God for her...but also, if you have a special woman in your life, who has supported you, loved you, encouraged you, been there for you…show them that appreciation too and thank them…let them know how much they mean to you today.

And ladies, as you leave today.

We want to show our love for you with a small token that could never match up but a token none the less.

Please take a flower as you leave.

if you don’t want one that’s fine, take it and bless someone else with it.

Pray...

Before we get started this morning I wanted to draw attention to one of the announcements in the bulletin...

...

As we continue in our prayer series…today our focus turns towards maintaining the appropriate attitude.

To establish the proper attitude we must look at what is foundational of that.

These two verses really sum up what our attitude should be set at. Habakkuk is a book all about the coming destruction.

It lays out the evil in the world and how that will all come to a destructive end.

But in the midst of that.

The prophet turns his attention from destruction and lamentation to praise.

WHY?

Because He knows who is victorious in the end....He knows that outcome, even if he doesn't fully understand how we are getting there.

And so this book that is overall pretty dreary…ends on this high note of praise because of the joy that is found only in our God in even the midst of bad circumstances.

Please stand...

Pray

We are only going to focus our attention today on 3 of these verses but I wanted to make sure we saw the context of those.

And allow me to recap this briefly:

Paul was reaching out to the church at Thessalonica to really encourage them more than anything.

They like many of the churches at that time…and for us too…were seeing the spread of false teaching.

They also were experiencing a major influx of severe persecution.

Paul, was wanting to remind them the importance of remaining steadfast, spreading the gospel, living according to the gospel and making sure the gospel remained the focal point of the church during difficult times.

...

And so as we get to this moment in chapter 5…Paul is finishing the letter and giving his final exhortation and instructions to the Thessalonian Christians.

This was not to just leaders…but to all.

...

He reminds them to submit and respect those that God places in leadership and authority within the church…Pastors and Elders.

He reminds them to be living in peace with each other…peace that is given through Christ that results in unity.

He then instructs them to admonish and correct those that had become idle in their faith.

Based on this verse alone…we are to lovingly go to others and admonish them to return to the Lord…

If you aren’t sure what admonish means…it means to warn or reprimand someone firmly.

We are instructed to do that within the body of Christ out of an abundance of love.

That doesn’t mean we are perfect, it means we see something that that other person maybe doesn’t....it also opens the door for when we are blinded in sin and idleness for them to come to us.

We are to encourage those that are struggling, help those that are in need…and be patient with everyone…especially in the midst of admonishment.

We are to look out for one another and make sure we are NOT seeking self retribution…but always seeking to do what is good.

We are to not push the Holy Spirit aside but we are to listen and be guided by His presence in our lives.

We are to learn from what God’s saints have done and said before us.

Everything that comes our way we should be placing up against the God litmus test to see if it’s righteous.

And the final instruction here is to avoid sinfulness completely.

Obviously we fail at that…but it’s a reminder that we should be seeking His wisdom and guidance so that we are more and more successful.

...

So, Paul is packing a lot into this final section…and it shows that he had a lot to say in the book of 1 Thessalonians.

But it is in verses 16-18 that I think we see the core of this…the petitions that help us find success in the others.

....

Through these 3 verses we see 4 instructions.

Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks, Seek God’s Will.

...

These should not be foreign to us if we have been remembering what Jesus said in the Lord’s Prayer.

...

The first main point we see out of this verse is-

Finding our joy in Christ pushes us to pray.

Paul tells us here to Rejoice...

Don’t confuse joy with happy…happiness is fleeting…but true joy…especially joy that is rooted and found in Christ…should result in worship…

Paul is not saying that we are going to be flipping this switch of joy constantly…but that when we remember Christ crucified…when we dwell on what He has done for us…it should bring about and spring forth a joy in our hearts that causes us to worship and pray...

This is why we have joy...

Yes, we can lament for those that don’t and we should be stirred to share and take the message....but not for a second are we to not be joyful and thankful for it.

...

So, when we remember Jesus…that should produce joy…and that should push us to pray...

And what does it tell us…do this always...

It’s creating an attitude within us.

...

The second thing we should be doing is-

We should be praying constantly throughout the day.

If the things we do and the commands of scripture we are following push us to pray…then that should mean we are in a constant state of prayer.

Now what does that mean exactly-

Does it mean we should just always pray and never do anything else?

Does it mean we should avoid certain responsibilities to pray?

That answer is no.

This is about developing an attitude of prayer.

Our journey in this series has shown us that prayer is about motivation....we have seen from Jesus on how we should be praying…the elements we should be focused on.

What we are seeing here is about practical application....how are we putting it into practice in our lives...

‘It is not in the moving of the lips, but in the elevation of the heart to God, that the essence of prayer consists’- JB Lightfoot

This is about our hearts desire…and when something is our hearts desire we do not neglect it.

Jesus is teaching his disciples.... wanting them to see why prayer matters and to not neglect it.

In Leon Morris’ commentary this is how he describes the need to pray constantly.

It is not possible for us to spend all our time with the words of prayer on our lips, but it is possible for us to be all our days in the spirit of prayer, realizing our dependence on God for all we have and are, being conscious of his presence with us wherever we may be, and yielding ourselves continually to him to do his will.

...

Think about those things he lists.....sound pretty similar to what Jesus was instructing in the Lord’s Prayer.

Now, Jesus meant for those to be things we actually pray about..

Morris is saying and summarizing Paul’s intention…i would say accurately …that those same things need to be within our very spirit and our desire so that when we are going about our day we are lifting up prayers of rejoicing....prayers of praise....prayers of thankfulness…prayers that seek forgiveness and so on.

It’s so on our hearts…that it’s our natural overflow.

And this isn’t the only time Paul gives such an exhortation…we see it in Romans and Ephesians to name a few…having the spirit or attitude of prayer is essential for us.

....

The third point we see here is-

We must be thankful in ALL circumstances.

The verse in Habbakuk I read earlier is directly linked to this idea.

Here’s the thing…our joy…when we rejoice in God…also should overflow into our thankfulness.

The prophet was finding joy in the Lord regardless of circumstances…and trust me…His joy in the Lord was rooted in thankfulness…expounded on through prayer.

WHY?

Because of what God has done for us.

That is why we give thanks in all circumstances...

We see thankfulness throughout scripture

Thankfulness shown by King David-

David certainly had reason to not be thankful....much of the time he was on the run…avoiding being killed by enemies…but all the same He knew and understood God was faithful and was worthy to be praised and thanked.

Because all the good came from the Lord…all the evil…was not from God.

...

We see time and time again Paul issuing praises of thanks and exhorting us to do the same.

Paul also had plenty not to be thankful for…most of the time when he wrote these things…he was in chains…in prison for proclaiming Christ but his thanks went beyond his present circumstances…He knew that benefit of following the Lord…and He remembered Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins.

...

We see a similar account within the book of Job.