Sermon Tone Analysis

*1 Thessalonians 5:11-5:28 \\ Healthy Attitudes for a Spiritual Community \\ If you had only one minute to tell someone how to help their church be healthy and spiritually vibrant, what would you say?

What issues would you address?

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*What would you tell them to do—with only one minute to say it?

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*That’s approximately how long it takes to read Paul’s words in the second half of I Thessalonians 5. *

*/He rapidly moves from one exhortation to the next as if someone were standing there with a stop watch saying you’ve only got one minute, Paul.

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*/So he packs in one statement after another telling them how to cultivate a spiritually vibrant church/**.

\\ \\ We are seeking to be Real People, experiencing the Real Power of God, and fulfilling Real Purpose in our lives.

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* \\ The Bar~/Saloon is the secular church---a place to gather to share your pain (a place to numb it--run from the pain--emptiness*

*--in our culture, this is where the sick folk go** \\ Church needs to be a place where people can find God, hear God, grow in God, develop rich relationships with other people, and be encouraged not with superficial platitudes and religion but with love and reality.

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*How many already know that those kinds of churches don’t just happen by accident.

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*There are certain principles and attitudes that we must live by to foster long term health and spiritual vitality.

Paul lays many of those out before us in our text this morning.

\\ \\ 1st He talks about our Attitudes toward ONE ANOTHER in verse 11-15[3] \\ \\ 1 Thessalonians 1:11“Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you are also doing.”

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*   Those words come after a lengthy teaching on the Coming of the Lord.

Your hope and my hope is not limited to this temporal life alone.

/Everything in your life and my life is moving toward something—toward a great eschatological event called in the Bible, the Day of the Lord.

/Jesus went to prepare a place for His bride (the Church), the Holy Spirit is at work preparing us for a great wedding day—One day the clouds will break open an the glorious Son of God will descend out of heaven.

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*Let me quote it from **1Thessalonians 4:16 ** \\ \\ In the light of eternity a lot of things that seem real, real big lose their significance.

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*Are you living with an eye toward heaven?*

* Are you living with an anticipation of His return?*

* Just the mention of these things brings courage to our hearts.

Guess what folks, when it’s all said and done, we win!*

* For if God is for us who can be against us?*

*[4] We have good reason to be encouraged and a good reason to encourage one another.

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*You will find Paul saying **“one another” **quite a bit in his writings—because he understands that this thing called Christianity is not designed for us to live alone but in community with others.*

* It is God’s way to set the solitary in families.[5]

\\ \\ Do these two things for one another.

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*Comfort one another.

Edify or build up one another.

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*Now we will see more specifically, how we can do that as a spiritual community.

\\ \\ Verses 12 & 13 “And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.

Be at peace among yourselves.”

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*1Th 5:13   Elders serve as representatives of the Lord.

Their work is the work of God.

For that reason, they should be held in high regard and love.

The exhortation "be at peace among yourselves" is no incidental insertion.

The number one problem among Christians everywhere is the problem of getting along with each other.

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*Every believer has enough of the flesh in him to divide and wreck any local church.**

Only as empowered by the Spirit can we develop the love, brokenness, forbearance, kindness, tender-heartedness, and forgiveness that are indispensable for peace.

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* \\ Paul says to this church—you need to recognize those I have put in authority over you.

If nobody is in authority over you—guess what you get to do—you get to fight your spiritual battles with no cover—and that is not a good situation for anybody.

Know who is in authority over you.

Then esteem them very highly.

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*Esteem them “in love” for their work’s sake—in appreciation for the work they do.

\\ \\ Now Paul gives instruction for how to handle three particular groups in the church (vs 14) \\ \\ (1) The Unruly or undisciplined—some translations say “lazy” or “idle” because of other information we have in these letters.

We know from the next letter which Paul wrote shortly after this one, that there were people in the church who had quite their jobs and apparently just living off the generosity of the other believers.

And Paul specifically tells those people to “get a job” and “go to work” (2Thess.

3:11-15).

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*What are we to do about people in the church who misbehave?

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*The nice thing to do is just ignore it and hope it will take care of itself.

Occasionally that works.

But there are a lot of churches that are not healthy places to be because there is no courage in the leadership and nothing gets confronted.

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*Paul says you warn or admonish or correct that person.

The correction is to be done in love and humility and always with a motive of redemption.

The goal is not punishment but correction and healing and the well-being of everyone involved.

\\ \\ (2) The discouraged or fainthearted are to be dealt with in an altogether different way.

\\ \\ He’s not talking about coming to a service once a week and exchanging nice greetings and then being done for the week.*

*---He’s talking about taking genuine interest in those around us. \\ \\ (3) The weak can include people that are physically weak, financially weak, or spiritually weak.

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*---They are not particularly discouraged.

They are not rebellious.

They just need help.

And Paul is saying help them—do something practical that makes life better for them.

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*NKJV says “uphold the weak”.

Administer some kind of support.

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*Maybe that person is sick and needs someone to watch the kids.

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*Maybe another person just does not know how to manage finances and is willing to receive help in that area.

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*/~*~*~*~*When we see a weakness in another believer is that a call to gossip or a call to help?/** \\ \\ We’re talking about how a body of believers are to relate to one another and in verse 15 Paul talks about what to do about offenses and injustices.

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*Notice that in that first century Spirit-filled church they had injustices happening.

They had hurt feelings.

They had one believer doing something to another believer that just was not right**.

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*Now Paul’s instruction is two fold.

First don’t try to get back at the person in any way whatsoever.

“See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone”.

That is certainly not what our flesh wants to do, is it?

It takes a lot of the grace of God to just hold our tongues and not malign the person, doesn’t it?

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*/I may think I’m getting pretty mature in the Lord and pretty spiritual—but when somebody really does me wrong, then I get to find out exactly where I am.

How many have learned that it’s a lot easier to talk spiritual talk and read Christian books, and listen to the latest gospel hit than it is to meekly take wrong the way Paul is describing here?

That’s where the rubber really meets the road/**.

\\ \\ Now that would be challenging enough in my opinion—but that is not all that Paul has to say about the matter.

Yes, we are not to retaliate.

That is the negative side.

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*But then beyond that we are to what?** “Pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.”

That includes the stinker that did you wrong.

This is the key to healthy relationships—pursue what is good—pursue that other person’s well-being in every, every case.[*

*8] Here’s how Jesus put it in **Matt 5:43-48 ** \\ \\ In other words, passively taking wrong is not enough—sometimes we must actively do something toward that person’s best interest.

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*~*~*When your flesh is screaming out for vengeance that’s a good way to deal with it—do the opposite of what the devil and your flesh is telling you to do.

The best defense is a good offense.

**Rom 12:21 **“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

\\ \\ 2. In verse 16-17 Paul talks about our Attitude toward Circumstances.

\\ \\ a. “Rejoice always.”

How can I honestly do that?

I have had plenty of times in my life when I did not feel like rejoicing—I didn’t want anybody to tell me to rejoice—come on, anybody else ever been there?

/I don’t think Paul is telling us to close our eyes to the realities that are going on around us.

What he’s telling us to do is to open our eyes to the greater realities—like God—like His eternal plan for you and me—like His assurance of love and interest in our well-being.

There is only one way I can honestly rejoice when everything is going wrong around me—that is when I lift my eyes above the temporal and immediate and consider the eternal./

My favorite verse in all the Bible, **Jer 29:11 \\ ** \\ When we begin to ponder His attitude and heart toward us something begins to rise up inside.

I don’t have to make myself rejoice—I do rejoice not because of the immediate circumstances but because of the eternal plan God has for me.

\\ \\ b. “Pray without ceasing.”

Live in continual dependence upon God.

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*Pray while you work.

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*Pray while you play.