Series: Imitators
2 Thessalonians was written shortly after the first letter was delivered. Most likely the deliverer of the first letter noted some serious misunderstandings of The Coming of the Lord and end times beliefs which needed to be addressed. Paul writes this letter quickly upon hearing that there had been a prophetic word or revelation that the Day of the Lord had already happened. There was also an issue of some who had quit working after becoming a Christian. Paul writes this letter to help this young church to mature in their faith and to be a quiet witness with their lives for the people of Thessalonica.
Sermon 6: Boast of His Image!
Thesis: Are you boasting about Jesus and His image – are others looking at you imitating Jesus and boasting about your faith, love and spiritual maturity? Paul did of the Thessalonians! Are there those in our community boasting about our perseverance as a Church or as believers? Do others see us standing up and boasting for the image and the message of Jesus?
Note: We are 84 years old as a church and in April of 2013 we will be 85 years old – what are people saying about us in our community? Are we still proudly holding up the image of Jesus with our lives? Are others boasting of our church and its ministries? Are we boasting of the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus to others? Have wondered how our church is viewed by the world around us?
2 Thessalonians 1:1- 12:
1Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.
4Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
5All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.
6God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you
7and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.
8He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
9They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power
10on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
11With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.
12We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The word “boasting” – defined: 1. To speak with exaggeration and excessive pride, especially about oneself. 2. To speak with pride! 3. To brag!
Synonyms: advertise, aggrandize, attract attention, blow, blow one's own horn, blow smoke, bluster, bully, cock-a-doodle-doo, con, congratulate oneself, crow, exaggerate, exult, fake, flatter oneself, flaunt, flourish, gasconade, give a good account of oneself, gloat, glory, grandstand, hug oneself, jive, lay on thick, prate, preen, psych, puff, shoot*, shovel, show off, showboat, shuck, sling, sound off, strut, swagger, talk big, triumph.
This is what it means to boast about something. So let me ask my questions again to each of you this morning “Are you boasting about what the Lord has done for you?”
Testimony: Derrick and Inga will come up and give their testimony of Emma Corrine their new healthy baby and share what the doctors kept telling them. But we prayed and God heard that prayer!
2 Corinthians 10:17-18: But, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”
We need to be boasting about what the Lord is doing in our lives to others! We need to be boasting to others about what God is doing in other people’s lives.
Father of Lights will do this tonight – it is a movie boasting about the power and the miracles of Jesus across this world. Don’t miss it! Get your tickets today!
We need to make sure we are not like the following types of people!
Two men were boasting to each other about their old army days. "Why, my outfit was so well drilled," declared one, "that when they presented arms all you could hear was slap, slap, click.""Very good," conceded the other, "but when my company presented arms you'd just hear slap, slap, jingle.""What was the jingle?" asked the first. "Oh," replied the other off hand, "just our medals."
source: http://www.jokebuddha.com/Boasting#ixzz290ZDALIy
Two men were busy boasting to each other. The first said, "I can get in my truck first thing in the morning and drive all day before I reach the other side of my property."
The second guy replied, "I used to have a truck like that, too!"
source: http://www.jokebuddha.com/Boasting#ixzz290Zg4xRY
Illustration:
Some race horses staying in a stable. One of them starts to boast about his track record. "In the last 15 races, I've won 8 of them!"
Another horse breaks in, "Well in the last 27 races, I've won 19!!"
"Oh that's good, but in the last 36 races, I've won 28!", says another, flicking his tail.
At this point, they notice that a greyhound dog has been sitting there listening. "I don't mean to boast," says the greyhound, "but in my last 90 races, I've won 88 of them!"
The horses are clearly amazed. "Wow!" says one, after a hushed silence. "A talking dog."
Read more: http://www.weirdfacts.com/component/content/article/146-uncategorised/107-theyre-boasting-about-race-records#ixzz28zqoZwHq
T.S. - We are not to be boasting about ourselves but boasting about the Lord Jesus! People need to look at us and boast about what God is doing in our lives.
1. Is your faith growing more and more? So others boast about it?
a. How is your spiritual faith doing?
i. Is your love increasing?
ii. Are you growing in your spiritual journey with the Lord?
iii. Are you progressing forward spiritually?
iv. Are you becoming better or bitter?
v. Are others boasting about how spiritually strong you are growing.
b. Jeremiah 9:23, 24: 23This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.
i. Quote: http://preachersstudyblog.com/2011/09/boast-in-the-lord/: Bryant Evans states, “Christians do not pursue the trappings of worldly, self centered aggrandizement but instead look unto the Father for all their needs. Such a way of life is counter to the present culture which places emphasis on personal achievement and self-sufficiency.”
c. Faith begins small and grows larger and stronger. By trusting God with the small things and watching him answer, our faith grows stronger. We start to place increased faith in him and his goodness, giving over more and more areas of our life until it all rests in his hands. It takes small steps of faith to give us the faith to walk on water (or to fly!). (Belknapp page 46).
i. So do it one step at a time.
ii. Reference the Movie: What about Bob? It was all about Baby Steps!
1. We need to grow one step at a time!
d. You could ask the question: “How do you grow your faith?”
i. Well here are 5 common ways people grow in their faith. These 5 come from Andy Stanley’s teaching 5 ways to grow your faith http://www.fivethingsgoduses.com/pivotal.
1. Practical teaching – Hearing, learning and then the application of what you learned by doing it are all keys to growing in our faith walk.
a. Making God’s Word practical is the calling of a pastor/teacher.
i. The key: God wants us to not just know the Bible but do the Bible.
b. The problem in America Churches is too many know the Bible but they do not do what the Bible says to do.
2. Providential relationships – In our lives we can name key people who have all played divine rolls in helping us to grow in our faith.
a. Everyone of us can tell of people who have helped us on our spiritual journey these people all played key roles in growing our faith.
i. Name a few key people in your life.
b. God brings someone in your life at just the right moment to help you grow spiritually.
i. Can you identify who these people are?
3. Spiritual disciplines – these include prayer, and giving and striving to stretch us in our faith so it will grow – so we will grow.
a. It’s the key concept of discipline – Examples of disciplines are: like in physical exercise, diet, budgeting, calling my mom, these are things we are suppose to do in life.
b. This helps our confidence in the Lord to grow as He shows the impact these disciplines make in our life.
c. Quote: Andy Stanley: Discipline is all about doing what you don’t what to do know so you can do what you want to do later.
i. It’s all about delayed gratification like going to school to become what you want to be.
4. Personal ministry – Have you ever volunteered to do something you were not qualified for and discovered it helped you to grow because you were actually doing ministry?
a. One way God helps us to grow in our faith is by placing us in places to serve others for the Kingdom and the result is we end up growing.
b. The Story of Todd Cruise from When God’s Spirit Moves!
5. Pivotal circumstances – Life is filled with unexpected surprises. But each unexpected event is a divine opportunity to grow through it.
a. These circumstances can be good, can be trials, can be stressful or stages of life but in these situations God wants us to grow through them so as to teach us His faithfulness and to build our confidence in Him.
T.S. – We are to be growing in our faith more and more each day so that we get to a point of complete trust in the Lord. Question for each of us to ask ourselves, “Are there others boasting about your faith, your spiritual ability to stand strong through the storms of life.”
2. Are others boasting about your ability to stand strong for the Lord?
a. Psalm 44:6-8:
i. 6 I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory;
7 but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. 8 In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever. Selah
1. This is David speaking – David knew where His strength to persevere came from. So he boasted about the Lord to others so they would hear it and heed to it.
a. Who do you boast in?
b. The ability to persevere for the Lord in your faith and the testimony of God’s ability to pull you through hardship is best illustrated by Joni. She is a person who many boast about her faith and perseverance.
i. Biography: Joni Erickson Tada was born in 1949 in Baltimore, Maryland, the youngest of four daughters. As a teenager, Tada enjoyed riding horses, hiking, tennis, and swimming. On July 30, 1967, she dove into Chesapeake Bay after misjudging the shallowness of the water. She suffered a fracture between the fourth and fifth cervical levels and became a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders down.
1. During her two years of rehabilitation, according to her autobiography, she experienced anger, depression, suicidal thoughts, and religious doubts. However, Tada learned to paint with a brush between her teeth, and began selling her artwork. To date, she has written over forty books, recorded several musical albums, starred in an autobiographical movie of her life, and is an advocate for disabled people.
2. Tada wrote of her experiences in her 1976 international best-selling autobiography, Joni, The unforgettable story of a young woman's struggle against quadriplegia & depression, which has been distributed in many languages. The book was made into a 1979 feature film of the same name, starring herself. Her second book, A Step Further, was released in 1978.
3. She married Ken Tada in 1982. In 2010, she announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She emerged successfully from cancer surgery and is hopeful of a positive prognosis.
4. Ministry and public life:
a. Tada founded Joni and Friends (JAF) in 1979, an organization for Christian ministry in the disabled community throughout the world. In 2006 the Joni and Friends International Disability Centre in Agoura California was established.
b. Led by Tada and Doug Mazza, the Joni and Friends International Disability Center has four programs. Joni and Friends, a daily five minute radio program, heard in over 1,000 broadcast outlets. In 2002 it received the “Radio Program of the Year” award from National Religious Broadcasters. The Wounded Warrior program offers family retreats. Wheels for the World collects wheelchairs, which are refurbished by prison inmates and donated to people in developing nations where, physical therapists fit each chair to a needy disabled child or adult.
c. In 2005, Tada was appointed to the Disability Advisory Committee of the U.S. State Department.
d. Tada is a conference speaker.
e. Her articles have been published in Christianity Today, Today’s Christian Woman, The War Cry (Salvation Army), and newspapers around the world.
f. Tada has appeared four times on Larry King Live.
g. In November 2009, Tada signed an ecumenical statement known as the Manhattan Declaration calling on evangelicals, Catholics and Orthodox Christians to work towards changing laws which permit abortion, and other matters that go against their religious consciences.
5. Awards: Tada has received:
a. The American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award
b. The Courage Award from the Courage Rehabilitation Center
c. The Award of Excellence from the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center
d. The Victory Award from the National Rehabilitation Hospital
e. The Golden Word Award from the International Bible Society.
f. She is inducted into the Christian Booksellers’ Association’s Hall of Honor.
g. In 2002, Tada received the William Ward Ayer Award for excellence from the National Religious Broadcasters’ Association.
h. In 2003 she was given the Gold Medallion Award for her book When God Weeps.
i. In 2004 she was awarded the Gold Medallion Award for co-authoring Hymns for a Kid’s Heart, Volume 1.
j. Tada was given the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.
k. She was also named "Churchwoman of the Year" in 1993 by the Religious Heritage Foundation and was the first woman to be honored by the National Association of Evangelicals as their "Layperson of the Year."
l. In 2009, Tada was inducted into Indiana Wesleyan University's Society of World Changers.
ii. She also holds the following degrees:
1. Bachelor of Letters from Western Maryland College
2. An honorary Doctor of Humanities from Gordon College
3. An honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Columbia International University, the first honorary doctorate bestowed in its 75-year history
4. An honorary Doctor of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary
5. An honorary Doctor of Divinity from Lancaster Bible College
6. An honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Indiana Wesleyan University
7. An honorary Doctor of Laws from Biola University
iii. Books:
1. Tada is the author of over 48 books on the subjects of disability and Christianity. Several of them have been children's books, including Tell Me The Promises, which received the Evangelical Publishers’ Association’s Gold Medallion and Silver Medal in the 1997 C.S. Lewis Awards, and Tell Me The Truth, which received the EPCA Gold Medallion in 1998.
2. The life story of Tada was used by Czech composer Ivan Kurz in his opera Veèerní shromáždìní ketho (Evening Divine service).
3. Joni is a person who the Lord is boasting about and others are boasting about!
a. She imitates the Lord Jesus and he testimony has impacted millions of people in all age brackets.
c. Question: Are we still standing proud and strong for the Lord today as we did in the beginning of our spiritual journey?
i. How are you doing at reflecting His image to the community around you?
1. Isaiah 34:2: My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
d. How well have we endured persecution and mistreatment?
i. We need to remember God will deal with those who mistreat us.
1. God’s judgment is always right and on target!
2. God is just! He will deal with everyone in the end justly!
e. Question: Can we be commended or condemned by our daily lives and actions?
f. He is the One that brings relief to us when we are in trouble or stressed.
i. He is the best stress reliever there is!
1. Do you want to stress less over mistreatment then look at it as an opportunity to grow in your faith?
a. Dr. Don Colbert wrote a book called Stress Less in which he tackles the problem of stress in our society. Listen to a few observations he has made as a Medical Doctor. “Did you know that 75 to 90 percent of all visits to a primary care physician’s office are related to stress disorders? That’s according to the American Institute of Stress. What is driving us to the shelves of pharmacy? Feelings of stress! Americans are consuming five billion tranquilizers, five billion barbiturates, three billion amphetamines, and sixteen tons of aspirin every year. Much of this “medicine” is being taken to help alleviate stress or the resulting headaches and pain associated with stress” (5)!
b. We are living in a time where we have epidemic levels of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, alcoholism, drug abuse, road rage, violent behavior, people losing control over minor incidents, headaches, and the list could go on but the truth is this is all related to the excessive stress we face in society today.
c. I here far too often the phrase, “I am stressed out!” or “I feel trapped!” or “I’m in an endless cycle of business!” and “I am so overwhelmed!” The reality check of life modern living seems to be associated with extreme levels of stress. The truth is these stressful lifestyles and feelings are doing damage to the physical and emotional health of our bodies. Dr. Colbert says, “The body’s stress response involves more that fourteen hundred known physical and chemical reactions involving more than thirty different hormones and neurotransmitters. Excessive release of ‘stress hormones’ damages cells, tissues, and organs. For most people, the daily stress hassles are the most damaging to the body” (7).
2. Did you notice what Jesus did to get through this horrible ordeal of the cross and the stress of ministry and other peoples demands? (Matthew 26:36-46).
a. He found a place of solitude.
i. He got away from the crowds of people and even his work.
ii. He made the time to get alone with God!
b. He prayed to “Abba!”
i. He asked for the Father’s help.
ii. He sought clarity about the situation.
iii. He focused on the problem in the presence of His Father.
c. He looked to comfort from his friends!
i. It was not there! But he looked for it! He asked for their help in prayer! Instead they just slept!
d. He prayed again to “Abba”!
i. Notice he did not just pray once but he went and did it again!
e. He asked for “Abba’s” help again!
f. He asked for a different direction but Abba said no this is the only way so surrender your will to mine.
g. Jesus yielded to Abba’s direction and plan and received strength from Heaven to press on.
h. He even got renewed enough to stamp on the enemies head so as to cause him stress.
g. James 1:2-5: 2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
T.S. – Are their others around you boasting of your faith in the Lord? Is God counting you worthy of the calling that He has placed on your life? Is God boasting about your faith and love for Him?
3. Does God count you worthy of His calling and boast about you?
a. Like he did Job?
i. Job 1:1-12
1. Interesting story of God boasting about Job and Satan asking to test him!
a. Why? To prove God wrong that this guy really does not love the Lord!
b. He only loves God because God has given him everything he wants or desires. Satan says “Take it away and he will curse you out!”
2. This man was said to be blameless – hade a pure heart. Loved God but Satan said he is shallow-a fraud only loves you because of the stuff!
a. But Job loved God in the good times and the bad times and once again Satan was made out to be the liar!
b. Question: Does God have something to work with in your life? Are doing things for God? Living for God? Honoring God? Is God able to use things in your life to impact people for the Kingdom of God?
i. Job feared God and shunned evil and God blessed him for that.
1. He had a lot to work with through the life of Job!
a. The bottom line is Job lost everything but stayed faithful and committed to the Lord.
b. He stayed committed to God and in the end God restored all he lost.
ii. Question: Are you fulfilling His call for your life?
1. James 1:22: 22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
a. Are you doing what it says?
b. Are you persevering through a hard time right now?
c. Are you still loving Jesus through the good and the bad?
iii. We are a Priesthood of all Believers – we need to be doing things for God daily!
1. 1 Peter 2:9: 9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
a. Are you declaring His praise – so he can bless you back?
c. Is your faith prompting you to work for the Kingdom?
i. What are you doing with your faith?
1. Is it alive and growing or dead and dying?
2. Are you committed in serving the Lord?
d. Are you doing good purposes for the Kingdom that He can expand on?
i. Are you doing something with your life or wasting your life?
1. Boasting in the Lord: Video of Thank You from Reynosa.
a. There is table in back if you want to sign up to help this colonnade out in Mexico.
ii. Is normal not enough for you anymore? Do you want to do something beyond the ordinary? Do you want to do something that impacts a personal life for eternity?
1. Quote: “Fear is a powerful emotion. It can keep us alive or choke the life out of us. Sometimes fear is healthy, but at other times it keeps us in a rut of doing the ‘normal’ thing. I used to love the huge rope swing my dad built for us kids. That monster swing was like ominous giant I just had to conquer. When Dad said ‘let me push you higher,’ I’d agree-through clenched teeth and with a rush in my gut. Swinging so high that I was out of reach of my dad was absolutely awesome. And when I was done, I’d coax my friends to let dad send them on the ride of their lives. Spiritually, our heavenly Father wants to send us soaring, not like the Thrill Killer who wants us to decline the offer. When we pull back in fear of where God might be taking us, Thrill Killer wins. And we settle for normal” (Clauson, page 6, Thrill).
2. Don’t settle for normal!
Conclusion:
Two Kids Were Always Boasting About Their Fathers.
First One: Do You Know The Suez Canal?
Second One: Yes I Know.
First One: My Father Dug It.
Second One: Do You Know The Dead Sea?
First One: Yes.
Second One: My Father Killed It.
source: http://www.jokebuddha.com/joke/Boasting#ixzz290Zstttn
We need to be boasting about our Heavenly Father like this!
We need to make sure we do not boast about ourselves but about Jesus.
Let not the rich boast in their riches
Let not the evil boast in their iniquity
Let not the religious boast in his deeds
Let not the strong boast in his strength
Let not the church boast in her numbers
Let not the armies boast of their victories
Let not the pagan boast of their Gods
Let not a man boasts of Tomorrow
Let not the Jew Boast of his Law
Let not the Gentile boast that he replaced the Jew
Let not a man boast that he can save himself
This kind of Boasting will produce roasting!
Summary:
1. Is your faith growing more and more everyday and are others boasting about what you are doing for the Lord?
2. Is your ability to persevere through hardship being a boast about the faithfulness and your confidence in the Lord?
3. Is your spiritual journey fulfilling the calling God has on your life so He even boasts about how faithful you are?
Altar time: Prayer
