Paul's Prayer To The Thessalonian Church

I. EXORDIUM:

Do we pray for the love and heart of our brethren?

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To enumerate what we should pray for our brethren.

IV. TEXT:

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 (Amplified Bible)

And may the Lord make you to increase and excel and overflow in love for one another and for all people, just as we also do for you,

So that He may strengthen and confirm and establish your hearts faultlessly pure and unblamable in holiness in the sight of our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) with all His saints (the holy and glorified people of God)! Amen, (so be it)!

V. THESIS:

Our heart and our love for the LORD.

VI. TITLE:

Paul's prayer to the Thessalonian church

VII. EXPLICATION:

A. Author: Apostle Paul

B. Date written: 49 to 54 B.C. but uncertain

C. Purpose: to comfort believers and encourage them to a life of purity

D. To whom written: Thessalonica church

E. Main themes: Most personal of all of Paul's epistles

F. Keyword: Sanctification

1 Thessalonians 4:3 (Amplified Bible)

For this is the will of God, that you should be consecrated (separated and set apart for pure and holy living): that you should abstain and shrink from all sexual vice,

G. Key verses:

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 (Amplified Bible)

And may the Lord make you to increase and excel and overflow in love for one another and for all people, just as we also do for you,

So that He may strengthen and confirm and establish your hearts faultlessly pure and unblamable in holiness in the sight of our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) with all His saints (the holy and glorified people of God)! Amen, (so be it)!

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (Amplified Bible)

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud cry of summons, with the shout of an archangel, and with the blast of the trumpet of God. And those who have departed this life in Christ will rise first.

Then we, the living ones who remain [on the earth], shall simultaneously be caught up along with [the resurrected dead] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so always (through the eternity of the eternities) we shall be with the Lord!

Therefore comfort and encourage one another with these words.

VIII. MAIN BODY:

This is a famous verse, often over quoted when one of our brethren is celebrating his/her birthday. Well, it's a fact, that we need to pray for his/her being (his/her heart) and his love.

A. Our love - to increase and overflow for everyone else

"And may the Lord make you to increase and excel and overflow in love for one another and for all people, just as we also do for you,"

Matthew 22:39 (Amplified Bible)

And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself.

Leviticus 19:18 (Amplified Bible)

You shall not take revenge or bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

1 Peter 1:22 (Amplified Bible)

Since by your obedience to the Truth through the [Holy ] Spirit you have purified your hearts for the sincere affection of the brethren, [see that you] love one another fervently from a pure heart.

Romans 12:9 (Amplified Bible)

[Let your] love be sincere (a real thing); hate what is evil [loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from wickedness], but hold fast to that which is good.

A sincere love that comes from the heart is first of all, not a feeling but a decision from within us. We love by hating what is evil and holding/cleave/join company to what is good. That's why as believers, we can't love unbelievers because it's not good for us, because they're living in sin while we are living for the LORD.

B. Our hearts - to be strengthened - so that we will be blameless and holy in the Presence of GOD

"So that He may strengthen and confirm and establish your hearts faultlessly pure and unblamable in holiness in the sight of our God and Father,"

Luke 8:15 (Amplified Bible)

But as for that [seed] in the good soil, these are [the people] who, hearing the Word, hold it fast in a just (noble, virtuous) and worthy heart, and steadily bring forth fruit with patience.

A heart that is strong is a noble and good heart, retains the WORD of GOD, perseveres in bearing fruit.

Jeremiah 24:7 (Amplified Bible)

And I will give them a heart to know (recognize, understand, and be acquainted with) Me, that I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.