The Thessalonians 1 Of 13 (2 Of 2)

The first thing we see is that the apostle Paul loved this church. This should be an obvious trait of all of God’s children--that they love God and they love His church.

Illus: Show me a person who professes to be saved and love God, and yet all week they constantly attack God’s church and I will show you a person who does not really love God. However, show me a person who truly loves God, and I will show you a person who truly loves God’s church.

Paul loved God, and He loved the church Christ died for.

We can see His love for the church at Thessalonica displayed in three ways:

(1) We can see it in the expressions of affection in his writings to them.

(2) We can see it in the fact that he cared enough to write this second letter to them.

(3) We can see it in the concern he expressed for them as they suffered for the cause of Christ.

Because of his concern, we have the letter of 2 Thessalonians.

Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:12, “Yea. and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

The members of the church of Thessalonica lived godly lives and they suffered persecution. Paul wrote to them, to tell them that while their enemies may have been getting great pleasure out of persecuting them, they were to continue to trust in God.

Often when people do us wrong, we want to retaliate.

Illus: This reminds me of the story of the farmer who had been pestered by a carload of people who delighted in climbing his orchard fence and eating his apples without asking permission.

One day, as he walked up to them, one of them smiled sheepishly and said, “We hope you don’t mind that we took a few a few of your apples.”

“No, not at all” said the farmer, “And I hope you don’t mind that I took some of the air out of your tires.”

Being recipients of evil, we are always to remember, THEY ARE DISHING IT OUT NOW, but one day GOD WILL DO THE

DISHING OUT FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO US!

Let us look again at this passage from the perspective that God is going to be the One DISHING OUT TO THOSE WHO HAVE DISHED OUT EVIL IN THEIR LIFETIMES.

In the previous message, we looked at THE GREETING, and THE GROWTH. Now let us look at...

III. THE GIVING

“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...”

You would think people would fall on their knees and give Him their lives, out of love and gratitude! How can we think otherwise, when we consider how good God has been to all of us?

Some people remind us of the parrot who seemed to never learn.

Illus: A Christian lady wanted a parrot that could talk. She looked in several shops before finding one. The owner told her, however, that the parrot had previously been owned by a bartender, and though he could say anything, he also, on occasion, used profanity. She told him she would buy him anyway and teach him to say good things. Everything went well for about a month. He learned to say “Praise the Lord,” and a number of other Christian words and phrases. One day, she forgot to feed him. When she came into the house, she heard him cursing. She grabbed him up and said, “I told you not to talk that way. I’ll teach you never to do it again.” So she put him in the refrigerator and shut the door. A few minutes later she took him out and asked, “Have you learned your lesson?” The bird shivered and replied, “Yes ma’am.” She asked, “Are you going to talk that way anymore?” The parrot replied, “No...ma’am.” About seven months went by, and not a bit of bad language. Apparently the bird was cured of his rascally habits. Then one day she forgot to feed him, water him, and clean his cage. When she returned home that day, he was carrying on worse than ever. She grabbed him, and put him back in the refrigerator, but then decided this time she would place him in the freezer, since he had not learned his lesson the last time.

However, she got busy and forgot she had put him there. Then she remembered, and got him out and put him in his cage to thaw out. Finally he began to move and talk a little, and she asked him again. “Did you learn your lesson?” “Yes ma’am,” he retorted! Then he sat there quietly for a few more minutes shivering and said, “Can I ask you a question?” She answered, “Yes.” The parrot said “I thought I knew all the bad words there were, but just what did that turkey in that freezer say?”