INTRODUCTION
• Once we become a Christian, what are we to do? Should there be anything different about what we do with our lives, should there be a different focus for our lives than what we had before we came to Jesus? What should we be doing with ourselves as we await the return of Jesus?
• This is the subject matter of the book of 1 Thessalonians. Chuck Colson has a book out called, “How Now Shall We Live?” This is a good statement of purpose for the book of 1 Thessalonians. What should we be doing with ourselves while we are living out our lives waiting for Jesus to return?
• Our belief and faith in Jesus should have a profound effect on our lives and our priorities in life. Too many times, that is not happening in our lives, then we wonder why we are not winning the lost to Jesus, or even worse, we do not care.
• In the book we are going to study, Paul is going to deal with how we are to live our lives. If you notice as you read the book, you will see that each chapter in the book references the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus.
• If we really believe in Jesus, then our lives will be impacted by the fact that Jesus is going to return at anytime and that once He comes, for those who are lost, it will be too late. Knowing these things should affect our priorities and focus for life.
• Many times we do not reach the lost because we have not allowed Jesus to work in our lives past our morality. We get into personal comfort zones and we do not want Jesus to take us past that. In today’s text, we will see the gospel’s affect on the Christian. Once you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior your mission is not over, it is just beginning.
• The city of Thessalonica had to look like a lost cause. The city was the capitol of the Macedonian providence; it was a center of trade, commerce and pagan religions. In Acts 17 we have the account of Paul starting the church. It was less than 20 years after Jesus had ascended into heaven. The field proved to be difficult but fertile, although Paul had to leave because some of the Jews were going to kill him. Paul left the city for Berea, Acts 17:10-11 says, “The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
• Paul is writing the letter to help the people to understand that Jesus’ return should have an impact on all areas of their lives.
• How has Jesus affected your life? Our text today will show us how He must affect our lives if we are going to be effective in spreading the gospel to the world.
• The gospel will only advance if Christians are sold out to Jesus! People will see evidence of our salvation. Our lives should be evidence for everyone to see!
SERMON
I. WORK OF FAITH
This is the reason we serve.
A. One of the things that the world will see is our faith. If we are going to be able to spread the gospel, our faith must be marked by labor.
1. READ JAMES 2:15-17, 26
2. Just think what would happen if none of us had a working faith, what would happen to the church? Would it grow? Would it die? What would happen to the lost, they would stay lost!
3. All aspects of the Christian life stem from our response of faith
4. The faithful person will show his faith by his activity. If our activity for Jesus is confined to Sunday our faith is not very alive.
5. There is no such thing as a “sort of” Christian. If your faith is not working, your faith is either non-existent or it is very weak.
6. I have heard people say that they have faith, but they just are not doing anything right now, they are not going to church or doing much anything else for the Lord.
7. They have made up some system of religion instead of following, serving, and loving Jesus. Their religion tells them to please themselves, then later try to claim salvation after of life of serving themselves.
8. 2CO 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
9. Some of the new things that come are what we do with our lives when we are saved. Which direction is your life pointed today? What kind of works are you doing, selfish or selfless?
10. The lost will not come to Jesus just because we open the door to some people on Sunday, winning the lost takes a lot of labor
11. Hebrews 11 talks about the faith that pleases God, it is an active faith! The Church at Thessalonica had an affect on the world around them because their faith was active. To me, there is no such thing as an inactive faith. Faith without works is dead. A faithless (a church where works are lacking) will be a dead church.
12. How is you work of faith? Do your works show your faith; do they show where your faith is placed?
13. Our work of faith should be evidence for everyone to see.
II. LABOR OF LOVE
This is the attitude behind our service.
A. When you talk about work, there are many motivations for work. We can be motivated by fear, money or by love.
B. TALK ABOUT THE PROBLEM WITH FEAR, MONEY, and GREED.
C. TALK ABOUT BEING MOTIVATED BY LOVE.
1. When you are motivated by love, you will do most anything for a person. We will put up with a lot from someone that we love.
2. We labor for the Lord because we love Him and we love people.
3. A person who is lost usually lives life for themselves, a person who belongs to Jesus will live their lives for the benefit of others.
D. How much do we love the people who are not a part of the family of God? Do we love them enough to get out of our comfort zones to reach out to them? Our hands might get bitten, but if we love, that will not matter to us.
E. In a typical church, we love each other. We will gear our programs to our likes and dislikes; without giving much thought to how what we are doing will affect winning the lost. If you look at a typical church, you will see most all of the money, time and programs are focused inward. What are we doing to reach the lost?
F. Reaching out to the lost is a labor of love. We really have to love Jesus to be willing to risk the frustration of reaching out to a lost world.
G. The labor of love mentioned here is a strenuous labor, a labor that will wear you out, like bucking hay bails in the middle of the summer heat.
H. Love is not an empty emotion; love is presented as a work.
I. Love is a series of positive behaviors as noted in 1 Corinthians 13.
J. True love is not dependent on the object of love, but the lover. Look at John 3:16, God showed His love.
K. You cannot command emotions, love is commanded
L. The attitude with which we serve is evidence of our salvation.
M. 1JO 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.
N. Our love for God and for people should be evidence for everyone to see!
III. STEADFASTNESS OF HOPE
This is the anchor of our soul.
A. Life without hope is not life. When times are difficult, when people reject the message that we are pouring our heart into, the only thing that we can hold on to is our hope.
B. Our hope in Jesus will allow us to endure the tough times in life. It will also help motivate us to reach the lost because we understand that without Jesus, they have no hope.
C. READ 2 CORINTHIANS 11:23-28
D. What was it that kept Paul from quitting and going back to comfort of his Judaism? It was his hope in Jesus that produced strength and steadfastness of faith!
E. Steadfastness is a word which conveys the idea of endurance or perseverance; literally, it denotes the condition of staying under pressure. It means we do not quit when things get tough. We press on!
F. Hope is confident expectations about the future.
G. Clare Booth wrote, "There are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown hopeless about them." -- Robert C. Shannon
H. Our ability to hang tough in times of trouble should be evidence for everyone to see!
IV. FULL CONVICTION
This is the source of our changed life!
• The only reason we will let the Word of God change us is if we go into it with a the full conviction that the message contained within is true. If you read your bible and are convinced it is true, that will lead you to let Jesus be the Lord of your life and it will make you understand that the most important thing in the world for you is your relationship with Jesus.
• Too many of us do not follow Jesus with full conviction that what He says is true. We do not have full conviction that He is indeed the Son of Man. We are not fully convinced that there is a heaven and a hell and that without being faithful to Jesus we are subjecting ourselves to the reality of spending our eternity in hell.
• You show me a person who is sold out to Jesus; I will show you a person who is fully convicted that Jesus is who He claims to be and that the Word of God is what it says it is!
• Look at verse 5 with me again! READ VERSE 5.
CONCLUSION
• Paul is thankful for the way the reader’s faith manifested itself.
• The evidence of your salvation can be seen by the activity of your faith. How does your faith affect your life? Are you allowing Jesus to make a difference in all the areas of your life? A biblical faith is a working faith; it is not a couch potato faith that does nothing.
• Many times we do not let Jesus take us past being moral and coming to church.
• If we are saved, we will work for Jesus.
• The work that we do for Jesus will be motivated by love. We work for Jesus, we reach out to the lost because we love Jesus and we love others, the last thing we want is to see anyone go to hell because we did not try.
• The hope that we have in Jesus will take us through the bumps in the road. Where is your hope placed?
• We will never carry out the mission that God has for us, (reaching the lost) unless we have an active faith motivated by love and hope.
• We have an awesome task of winning this community to Christ; do we want to do it? Will you allow Jesus to move you from your comfort zone to reach the lost? Will you allow your faith to be active; will you allow your faith to penetrate every aspect of your life?
