INTRO.- ILL.- Bill, Jim and Scott were at a convention together and were sharing a large suite on the top of a 75-story skyscraper.
After a long day of meetings, they were shocked to hear that the elevators in their hotel were broken and they would have to climb 75 flights of stairs to get to their room.
Bill said to Jim and Scott, "Let’s break the monotony of this unpleasant task by concentrating on something interesting. I’ll tell jokes for 25 flights, Jim can sing songs for the next 25 flights and Scott can tell sad stories for the rest of the way."
At the 26th floor, Bill stopped telling jokes and Jim began to sing. At the 51st floor Jim stopped singing and Scott began to tell sad stories.
"I will tell my saddest story first," he said. "I left the room key in the car!" Wouldn’t you love to hate him? HERE’S ANOTHER.
ILL.- A Redneck buys a ticket and wins the lottery. He goes to Austin to claim it and the man verifies his ticket number.
The Redneck says, ’’I want my $20 million.’’ The man replied, ’’No, sir. It doesn’t work that way. We will give you a million today and then you’ll get the rest spread out for the next 19 years.’’
The Redneck said, ’’Oh, no. I want all my money right now! I won it and I want it.’’ Again, the man explain that he would only get a million that day and the rest during the next 19 years. The Redneck, furious with the man, screams out, ’’Look, I want my money! If you’re not going to give me my $20 million right now, then I want my dollar back!’’
I think we all would say that guy has a problem. But we all have a problem or several problems. We all make mistakes in life and some real humdingers. Consequently, it’s easy to focus on those failures and flubs, but somehow we need to look at the positive things in people’s lives and be thankful for them.
Phil. 2:3-4 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."
Consider others better than yourselves. How can you do that? By focusing on the good in people’s lives!
ILL.- For example, my son-in-law, Chris Santasiere, is a better man than I am and in many ways. He married my daughter, which was a good choice. He is a very patient individual. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him get upset over much of anything. He’s expressed some displeasure but I’ve never seen him blow his cork! He’s an excellent father to my grandchildren. I thought I was pretty good father but after watching him with his kids, I think he is a better father than I was.
Is Chris perfect? No, but I see so many good qualities in him and that’s about all I see. Consequently, it’s easy for me to think highly of him. This is what we should do, must do in our relationships with others.
PROP.- Paul thanked God for his brothers and sisters in Thessalonica.
1- He was thankful for their work of faith
2- He was thankful for their labor of love
3- He was thankful for their endurance of hope
I. HE WAS THANKFUL FOR THEIR WORK OF FAITH
2We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.
3We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
ILL.- A guy stopped at a local gas station and, after filling his tank, he paid the bill and bought a soft drink. He stood by his car to drink his cola and watched a couple of men working along the roadside. One man would dig a hole two or three feet deep and then move on. The other man came along behind him and filled in the hole. While one was digging a new hole, the other was 25 feet behind filling in the hole. The men worked right past the guy with the soft drink and went on down the road.
"I can’t stand this," said the man tossing the can into a trash container and heading down the road toward the men.
"Hold it, hold it," he said to the men. "Can you tell me what’s going on here with all this digging and refilling?"
"Well, we work for the government and we’re just dong our job," one of the men said.
"But one of you is digging a hole and the other fills it up. You’re not accomplishing anything. Aren’t you wasting the taxpayers’ money?"
"You don’t understand, mister," one of the men said, leaning on his shovel and wiping his brow.
"Normally there’s three of us: me, Elmer and Leroy. I dig the hole, Elmer sticks in the tree and Leroy, here, puts the dirt back. "Now just because Elmer’s sick, that don’t mean that Leroy and me can’t work."
I guess the moral of this story is that everybody should work, even if it doesn’t make sense some times. Some jobs may not make much sense, like some government jobs.
I think there are people in our government who do little or nothing from my viewpoint and they shouldn’t be getting paid for it. WE COULD WELL DO WITHOUT SOME GOVERNMENT JOBS.
However, when it comes to the Christian faith I think everybody should work in some form!
If we are to be doers of the Word then we should work! We should work at our faith and our faith should motivate us to work for the Lord! In the church and outside the church!
Matt. 9:36-38 "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
The workers are few. They are few when it comes to certain areas of Christian work or service.
ILL.- I remember many years ago when we had a calling night at our small church in Bayard, IA, and guess how many people showed up to go calling? Three. Me, the preacher, and two elderly folks in the church who were well over 70 years of age. They were very serious about their faith and working for the Lord. And they were willing to do whatever they could!
The workers are definitely few when it comes to the work of evangelizing the lost. And they may be few workers in other areas of Christian service.
What can you do and what should you do? There is always plenty to do in the church and out of the church for the Lord. Our faith should always motivate us to work for the Lord.
II. HE WAS THANKFUL FOR THEIR LABOR OF LOVE
2We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul said that he was thankful for their labor of love. Love does motivate a person to do many good things, does it not?
ILL.- Aleida Huissen, 78, of Rotterdam, Netherlands, has been smoking for 50 years. And for 50 years she has been trying to give up her harmful habit. But she has not been successful—that is, until recently.
She has now given up cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. GOODNESS GRACIOUS! The secret? Leo Jansen, 79, proposed marriage last year, but refused to go through with the wedding until Aleida gave up smoking. Says Aleida now: “Will power never was enough to get me off the tobacco habit. Love did it.”
LOVE DID IT. Love moves people to action. Love motivates. Love works. Love labors hard.
Isn’t this why mothers with children at home continue to wash clothes, cook meals, and clean houses? They do it out of love for their family, their children. And hopefully, isn’t this why dad goes to work every day to provide for his family? THESE VARIOIUS JOBS ARE DONE OUT OF AND FROM A HEART OF LOVE.
And the same holds true or should hold true when it comes to serving the Lord.
ILL.- When Henry Stanley went out in 1871 and found Dr. Livingstone, (remember: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?") he spent some months in his company, but Livingstone never spoke to Stanley about spiritual things. Throughout those months Stanley just watched the old man.
Livingstone’s habits were beyond his comprehension, and so was his patience. He could not understand Livingstone’s sympathy for the Africans. For the sake of Christ and His gospel, the missionary doctor was patient, untiring, eager, spending himself and being spent for his Master.
Stanley wrote, “When I saw that unwearied patience, that unflagging zeal, those enlightened sons of Africa, I became a Christian at his side, though he never spoke to me about it.”
I would say that David Livingstone served in that dark continent out of love; love for the Lord and love for lost souls. HIS WAS A LABOR OF LOVE. Praise the Lord!
ILL.- Wilbur Fields is a former Ozark Christian College professor who now lives in the Spring River Christian Village in Joplin, MO, after teaching over 30 plus years. What landed him there? One of his daughters wrote me and said, "At age 75, he was still teaching full time at OCC. He loved teaching and wanted to teach as long as he could. During that year, though, he began having gradual symptoms of depression and anxiety, becoming very severe by the time he turned 76.
"Finally, after several months of not getting better, he had some brain testing and he saw a neurologist, who discovered that he had some severe frontal brain changes that were causing his moods to be out of balance."
Every time I go back to Joplin, MO, for a convention or whatever, I always try to go to that nursing home and visit with Brother Wilbur Fields. Why? BECAUSE I THINK SO HIGHLY OF HIM. And because I believe with all my heart that he has always labored for the Lord from a heart of love! And that’s what love does. Love always labors in the kingdom of God! IS YOUR LOVE EVIDENT?
III. HE WAS THANKFUL FOR THEIR ENDURANCE OF HOPE
2We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
ILL.- Have you heard of the Ironman Triathlon? It’s held every fall in the US city of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, the race encompasses three endurance events; a 2.4 mile ocean swim in Kailua-Kona Bay, a 112 mile bike ride across the Hawaiian lava desert to Hawi and back, and then to top it off, a 26.2 mile marathon along the coast of the Big Island.
The current course record was set in 1996 by Luc Van Lierde (Belgium) whose winning time was 8 hrs 4 mins 8 sec.
CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW HARD THAT WOULD BE EVEN TO FINISH THAT EVENT? I can’t and I ran 14 marathons from age 44 to 50. And I thought the marathon was hard enough!
There is no way in the world that I would have entered the Ironman triathlon! First, tt would be too hard, too grueling, too long! And second, I would have drowned in the swim!
Well, all of us are involved in a marathon-endurance race whether we realize it or not. DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS? It’s called the Christian life. The Christian life from beginning to end is a very long, endurance race and sometimes, the going gets pretty tough, does it not?
What’s the toughest thing you’ve been through in the Christian life? Well, no doubt, working and raising your family has been one tough thing, but also, at the same time trying to live a faithful Christian life. And trying to raise your kids to become Christians. THOSE ARE TOUGH, TRYING JOBS! Of course, losing loved ones of the one hardest things that we have to endure. And without the Lord how could we ever endure?
And have you ever wanted to give up the Christian life? Probably, at some very discouraging time in your life. What kept you going? Or what will keep us all going when the going gets tough? It’s not the fact that we may be tough, but rather it’s the hope that we have that keeps us going!
Paul calls it, "Endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."
What keeps us going in life, in the Christian life is the hope that we have in Christ. We have the hope of His blessing, here and now. We have the hope of His grace in this life. His grace not only saves us but also sustains us in this life!
Remember Paul’s thorn in the flesh? What helped him to endure it? The Lord said, "My grace is sufficient."
We also have the hope of His continual forgiveness. We have the hope of His strength. And we definitely have the hope of eternal life in the Lord Jesus! AND THIS HOPE IS WHAT KEEPS US GOING AND LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE!
CONCLUSION------------------------
Work of faith. Labor of love. Endurance of hope. These are "musts" for the Christian and the only way I know to get them is to keep working at them.
What happens when you stop using certainly muscles in your body? They don’t work so well when you want them to work. To keep the body well-oiled, so to speak, functioning as well as possible you must keep on doing things. You can’t stop, sit down and do nothing. AND SO WHEN IT COMES TO OUR FAITH IN CHRIST.
If we stop doing and serving, we’ll stop growing. Our faith will grow skinny. We’ll become malnourished and could even die an early death. WE MUST KEEP ON, KEEPING ON: working, laboring and enduring.
