Let’s Wake Up To A Contagious Style Series

SERMON OUTLINE:

(1). Thanking and Remembering (vs 2-3):

• (a). Work produced by faith (vs 3a).

• (b). Labour prompted by love (vs 3b).

• (c). Endurance inspired by hope (vs 3c).

(2). Evangelizing and Affirming (vs 4-8):

• (a). Words (vs 5 & 8).

• (b). Deeds (vs 5b).

• (c). Signs (vs 5c).

(3). Reporting (vs 9-10).

• (a). They looked to God (vs 9b).

• (b). They looked to the fields (vs 9c).

• (c). They looked for Jesus (vs 10).

SERMON BODY:

ILL:

• A true story is told of a nursery school that had about 20 or 30 toddlers,

• The school was well run but they had a problem,

• They could not get these little children to eat their dinner.

• They tried just about everything;

• All the usual tricks.

• i.e. The food on the spoon pretending it’s an aeroplane and they have to open their mouths for it to land. But often they close their mouths and you get a crash landing!

• i.e. They had plates with pictures on, and they encouraged the kids to eat up their food;

• So that they could see the pictures on their plates.

• Whatever trick the teachers tried, it failed!

• The children would not eat their food.

• And every meal time nearly all the food was thrown away.

• Until one day, a little boy called Timothy came,

• Now Timothy was only very small and very quiet,

• And no-one took much notice of him until dinnertime.

• At dinnertime when the put his plate of food in front of him,

• Timothy grabbed his spoon and in about 30 seconds he had scoffed the lot.

• He then look round and saw that the little girl sitting next to him had not started hers,

• So without saying a word he grabbed her dish and ate that as well!

• Timothy then looked up at another boy sitting opposite him,

• He had not touched his dinner;

• So Timothy reached over the table and started eating that one as well.

The next day exactly the same thing happened again:

• By the third day the girl next to Timothy,

• Thought, “He’s not gonna have my dinner”, and she started to eat it.

• So did the person the other side of Timothy.

• Frustrated Timothy had to get up and walk round the table;

• To grab some ones untouched food.

• And by the end of the week:

• All the children on that table was eating their dinner as fast as they could.

So, the teachers, realised that they had a winner here:

• And they moved Timothy to another table:

• And once again the same thing happened.

• And within weeks all the children were eating their dinners in that school.

• And this is perfectly true;

• They even borrowed little Timothy to another school!

• And the local authorities published a pamphlet about him,

• The solution to the problem of children not eating is a Timothy!

• TRANSITION: Timothy was enthusiastic, he was contagious;

• And he infected others with that enthusiasm!

• The first letter to the Thessalonians shows a contagious Church;

• Or we could say it was, “A Church with the right stuff!”

ILL:

• A husband came down to breakfast and was delighted to hear his wife say;

• "Darling you are a model husband'.

• Now he was so flattered by the remark;

• That latter on that day he decided to look up the meaning of the word in his Oxford dictionary.

• He found the page and began reading:

• "Model, a small plastic imitation of the real thing".

• Tough Question: Too many Churches are: “Small imitations of the real thing?”

• So this morning we are going to look at ‘the real deal’,

• That is “A Church with the right stuff!”

When Paul described these Christians and this Church (verse 5) he said concerning it:

• "You became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia".

• That is high praise indeed, of no other Church does Paul write and say;

• "You are a model to the other Churches "

• Or Curley translation “A Church with the right stuff!”

• In fact on four occasions in this letter;

• Paul gave thanks to God for this Church,

• No moaning, no fault-finding but genuine thankfulness:

• Chapter 1 verse 2, chapter 2 verse 13, chapter 3 verse 9, chapter 5 verse 18)

Note:

• I am not going into any detail regarding the location of the Church;

• Or when the Church was founded etc.

• You can do that for yourself at home,