Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Thessalonians 3:11–13

A Prayer for the Hard Times

 

/Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you.

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.

May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones/.

Counted among the members worshipping in a former pastorate was a Dutch family who had endured the long night of Nazi occupation of Holland from 1939 to 1945.

On occasion Gerrit and Trudy would take me into their confidence, speaking of painful memories from those trying days.

One memory related was of especial interest to me because it spoke of the churches and the response of the people to the agonising occupation.

Prior to the invasion the churches were empty and religion was at best tolerated.

Immediately after freedoms were lost to an occupying army the churches were filled as the people gathered to pray.

What had been neglected during times of peace and plenty became precious in time of deprivation.

Most of us would agree that prayer is a vital component of a healthy Christian life.

Most of us would also agree that the discipline of prayer is difficult to master.

What we have not perhaps considered is that the difficulty experienced in praying is related to the situation in which we find ourselves.

What I mean is this.

When we enjoy good times, when we have no serious challenges to our health, to our financial stability, to our family, we find it easy to forego prayer.

We feel no need and thus we neglect prayer.

But when hard times come, as they surely must, we find it easy to pray.

I would not have any of us waste the opportunity for productive prayer when the hard times come.

I do not say that we ought not to pray for relief from whatever pressure defines our particular hard time; we would be foolish to refuse to face the particular trial.

I do say that while God has our attention in this present hour we are well advised to seek to stretch our heart while it is tender to embrace those whom God esteems – our fellow Christians.

One poignant example of such stretching is provided us in the prayer Paul offered when separated from the Thessalonians and in deep concern for their welfare.

In the* **tenth verse* which precedes the text Paul states that the missionaries prayed/ //night and day … most earnestly/ for the Thessalonians.

In our text he actually includes a prayer … perhaps the very prayer which the missionaries offered up for the Thessalonians.

There are many prayers included in the Bible which could serve as models for our own prayer life, and this brief prayer is likewise a gem if employed to instruct us in our own prayer life.

Let's learn together a prayer for the hard times.

A Prayer For The Opportunity To Serve [*verse 11*] — I find it interesting to note that Paul's prayer, though it has at its heart the welfare of the Thessalonians, nevertheless focuses first on the missionaries.

In short, seeking benefit for these beleaguered saints in Thessalonica he first prays for the missionaries that they might have opportunity to serve.

Why, if he meant to strengthen and encourage these pressured saints, would he first pray for the missionaries?

In this prayer is found wisdom frequently neglected by those of us who profess Christ.

Review the work of church ministry.

The labour of service is misunderstood often and perhaps more often still it is gravely distorted in our minds.

The Church of our Lord Jesus Christ was never intended to be a one-man show.

It is less that we/ /*go to church* than that we/ /*are the church*.

When we meet together on a Sunday morning, although the pastor speaks and although the choir sings the purpose of their service has nothing to do with our entertainment.

The service of worship which is offered up each week is the culmination of the prayers representing the hopes and aspirations of the Body offering up during the week past.

The church, if it is to truly be the Body of Christ, must realise that each member has a role.

Providing instruction for the badly fractured Corinthian Church, Paul stated the timeless principle applicable to all churches for all time:/ /Now *to each one* the manifestation of the Spirit is given *for the common good* [*1 Corinthians 12:7*].

Only infrequently have I heard a Christian confess that he or she was weaker in the Faith than a fellow believer or perhaps less capable than another in the arena of spiritual conflict.

Most of us tend to view ourselves somewhat more highly in the realm of spiritual conflict than is wise.

We tend to be imbued with great confidence in our spiritual abilities and moral attributes, through such attributes and abilities are but occasionally tested.

We tend to esteem ourselves more highly than our abilities warrant.

Whether this is because we have yet to confront the grave challenge of spiritual conflict or whether this is simply a perverse failure to see our weakness as God sees it, I cannot tell.

What is germane to this message is the knowledge that our need for one another is greater than we might be willing to concede.

Therefore, to strengthen ourselves during the hard times we should first seek to extend ourselves to another.

In order to pray powerfully we must learn first to pray that we may have opportunity to serve, even if such service should be unrecognised by the greater body of members.

You may recall that Jesus said the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve [*Matthew 20:28*].

Each of us would acknowledge that Jesus in the days of His flesh revealed a servant's heart.

Since the Master came with a servant's heart, it follows that those who would follow Him must likewise manifest a servant's heart.

The servant heart Jesus revealed is consistent with teaching provided long years prior to His coming.

Solomon, in *Proverbs 11:24-26* has written:

 

One man gives freely, yet gains even more;

another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

A generous man will prosper;

he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

People curse the man who hoards grain,

but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell.

There are two seas prominently mentioned in the pages of the Bible.

The Dead Sea is spoken of often as is the Sea of Galilee.

Either sea is fed by the Jordan River.

The Sea of Galilee receives the inflow of the river and spills over at the other end to enrich the land.

The Dead Sea receives the outflow of the Sea of Galilee, although there is no egress for the water from that salty water.

In the heat of the desert the water evaporates to insure ever-greater salinity for the waters of that sterile sea.

The one sea receives and spills over, giving back again what it has received.

That sea teems with life and the water is a sweet blessing to the people living in that arid land.

The other sea receives, keeping all that pours into it, never giving again what it has received.

That sea is dead, sterile, a curse to life.

Consider the two waters: the one sweet and teeming with life, the other sterile and barren of life.

The picture of these two bodies of water is a parable of Christian life and service.

We may receive blessings and in turn be a blessing to others as we bless them, spilling over the joy and hope we have experienced.

Or we may receive blessings and attempt to keep them, growing ever more bitter and barren in our life and in our service to the Lord.

In either instance the blessings showered on us are from God who gives generously to all alike; He will not be stinting in blessing us.

But the impact of those blessings on others depends on us.

Serve one another in love, is the apostolic injunction in* **Galatians 5:13*.

It is but the natural application of the freedom we discover in Christ.

Again we hear the apostolic command: Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others [*1 Peter 4:10*].

Whatever we receive is for the benefit of others.

I say that failure to bless others through giving of ourselves is prostitution of our spiritual gifts.

Reflect on this thought: What do you have that you did not receive?

And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

[*1 Corinthians 4:7*].

The gifts you have received are for the benefit of the whole Body of Christ and you are responsible to bless others.

In a West Texas protracted meeting the opportunity to speak a good word for Jesus was given during a time of testimony.

An old rancher, seizing opportunity to speak a good word for Jesus, stood to exclaim, "Hallelujah!

My cup is running over!"  Sitting nearby was a sour-faced deacon, who dourly responded, "I don't believe in these protracted meetings.

My cup never runs dry so it never needs to run over."

"Huh," replied the first man, " and I'll bet your cup is full of wiggle tails."

The cup that receives and never spills over is a cup which is soon growing all sorts of strange and unappealing life forms.

I would rather find it necessary to replenish my joy from time-to-time than to find that nothing ever changed in my life and that I had grown stagnant.

The sure way to avoid such a stagnant life is to seek to bless another through the blessings you yourself have received.

Pray first that you may bless others.

A Prayer That We May Fulfil The Law Of Love In Daily Life [*verse 12*] — Having prayed that the missionaries might be an answer to the need of other saints, Paul prayed for the Thessalonians themselves, asking that they might be a blessing to one another.

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else.

Christian love anticipates growth …* *it cannot be static.

Either we are growing in love or we are declining in love.

Either our capacity to love is constantly expanding or we are becoming less and less capable of loving.

There is no possibility of holding the line on love.

Vibrant churches are those in which the members are growing in love for one another.

Dying churches are those in which the members have ceased growing in love.

At the beginning of his letter to the Philippians, Paul included a prayer for them.