Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

As we pick up our next few verses, we see here that we are chosen by God.

It is good, especially here, to look at various translations.

For example, I think the New Living Translation is a great interpretation of these verses.

I love the phrase, “God loves you and has chosen you to be His own people.”

What an understanding that is of the Gospel!

The Gospel is simply the glad tidings of salvation through Christ.

The Gospel is not found in other false teachings.

In fact, there is a stern warning about this is other passages.

For example, Galatians 1:6-7 states:

There is one Gospel that will help you in your relationship with God.

The WHO of the Gospel is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Paul makes this clear in Romans 1:8-9:

Paul indicates that he is preaching the gospel of God’s Son.

I believe this is quite important for us as well.

It is not Mitch’s gospel I preach or teach, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

You and I should not ever stop doing that as we see it was the example of the apostles.

So who do we proclaim this Gospel to?

The whomever of the gospel is anyone that chooses to receive it.

I again love the New Living Translation because it tells us that the gospel is adelphoi, which means “brothers and sisters loved by God.” God so loved the WORLD means that the whomever of the gospel is everyone.

Everyone potentially can receive the gospel.

However, not everyone will choose to accept the gospel,

Paul is writing the Thessalonians in these short verses to reiterate that being chosen means we also have the capacity to choose.

As we are chose, we are, as the title of the message implies, chosen to choose.

We can say yes to the Lord Jesus Christ, or we can say no.

We should understand what it means to be chosen to choose.

Chosen By Christ (vs.

4)

First, we see that we are chosen by Christ.

The word translated chosen means “the are of being picked out or God’s elect.”

Now there is a whole other discussion about what it means to be God’s elect.

There are theologians that have argued over the centuries about this.

However, this is what you need to know: we are all chosen by God.

We are all God’s elect.

However, some simply to not choose to be chosen.

In other words, some will flat out reject the gospel.

So what exactly does it mean to be chosen by Christ?

I believe the first thing we can do is to celebrate that we are chosen by Christ for salvation.

The Bible tells us that we are sinners by nature.

Because we are, we are subject to receive the punishment of sin which is death.

However, we do not have to experience that wrath because of salvation.

We are also chose in our salvation to be part of the royal priesthood.

Dear friend, you have been called out of darkness into His wonderful light of salvation.

As one chosen by Christ, you and I must realize that our lives should be different.

We are chosen for salvation which means we are also chosen for sanctification.

The concept of sanctification is the ongoing work of God to rescue justified sinners from the disease of sin and conform them to the image of His Son.

It is the process of becoming holy, Christlike and empowered to do good works.

We should strive to be people that are changed and no longer give in to the ways of the world, but we are different and becoming more like the image of Christ.

For some of us, sanctification is a tough process.

We should strive to become more sanctified.

We should become more personally dedicated to God especially by becoming more distinct, devoted and morally pure.

In other words, we allow ourselves to not just hear the words but live the life.

This is the concept of saturation.

When the gospel becomes more than words, we are practicing saturation.

Saturation is the theological concept that is also called fulness.

Fulness is that which is filled, that which fills up, and that which is brought to fulness or completion.

From our salvation and the processes of sanctification and saturation, we are chosen to live by conviction.

Chosen to Live by Conviction (vs.

5)

Conviction is a word that seems to get a bad rap.

When a criminal goes before a judge, if he or she is convicted, they are punished accordingly.

Perhaps you can remember the old church meetings where people testified that they were convicted of sin and they decided to live their lives differently.

In our text today, conviction is not a term that makes us feel guilty, but rather it is the full assurance and most certain confidence.

Conviction comes to us powered by the Holy Spirit.

We see similar verses like this but what exactly does this mean?

Here, we see that the power of the Holy Spirit helps one to speak the word of God boldly.

The power of the Holy Spirit helps us to be strengthened and encouraged.

The power of the Holy Spirit lives within us to help perfect us.

Being chosen to live by conviction also means that we are persuaded by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit helps us persuade others to follow God’s way.

We are overseers.

This is not just for ministers or pastors, but for everyone that is called Christian.

In other words, we have instructions on how to live and persuade others how they too should live in Christ.

We ought to be different than those that choose not to be chosen.

Chosen to Conform (vs.

6-7)

Because of the fact we are chosen by Christ and convicted in how we live by the Holy Spirit, we must realize that we are chosen to conform.

This conforming is not to the pattern of this world as described in Romans 12:2.

Rather, we conform to be a model for others to follow.

Notice the last sentence of 1 Thessalonians 1:5: “You know how we lived among you for your sake.”

Verses 6-7 use the words “imitators” and “model” to help us understand this concept.

Now we are all created uniquely and we are all very different.

However, we are chose to conform to the image of Christ.

What is the image of Christ?

We are to show love, mercy, kindness and gentleness like our Lord.

As those who are chosen to conform, we are given a mantra in life.

Jesus said it this way:

In doing so, we given a ministry that echos throughout the hills and valleys of the land. 1 Thessalonians 1:7 says:

If you look on the map in your Bible that has Paul’s missionary journeys, you will see the areas of Macedonia and Achaia.

It consists of about 175 radius from the city of Thessalonica.

Think about it this way, if we were to take a 150 mile radius from our church, we would include areas as far as Charleston, West Virginia to the north, Raleigh-Durham to the East, the outskirts of Columbia, South Carolina to the south, and Knoxville, Tennessee to the west.

That is a pretty good influence of a church isn’t it?

See what the power of God can do with those whom He has chosen?

That is just an example of the territory that this church became an influence to and a model for those believers.

Church, who are we modeling our ministry to these days?

We don’t have to be greedy and go 150 miles.

What if we should love and compassion for a 10 mile radius?

What if we showed love and compassion on our block?

This past week we had a bunch of rubber mulch delivered to our church that we can put in the playground.

It came on 5 pallets in the back of a tractor trailer truck.

The delivery was scheduled and the question was asked, “Do you have access to a forklift?”

I went and talked with management of Earth Fare to see if they would be willing to help us.

They were more than willing to help out.

The truck arrived and I went out to meet the driver.