11/3/24 2 Thess. 1:1-12 “Prayer Works So Well!”

01 Nov 11/3/24 2 Thess. 1:1-12 “Prayer Works So Well!”

11/3/24    2 Thess. 1:1-12      “Prayer Works So Well!”

I learned a lot of things when I taught confirmation, things we don’t think about too often.  For instance, we were made in the image of God.  To me, this really makes God more personal.  Therefore, for me, God is a light-haired man that is about 6’ tall and, well; let’s just say over 200 lbs.  Now, you may have an entirely different view of God and that is perfectly ok.  We don’t know what God looks like so however you want to picture Him is ok to a point.  We may not know what He looks like but we do know the power He has.  We do know about the knowledge He has and the creation he made.  And best of all, we know the love He has for us, for you.  Last week we talked a little about God’s judgment from Joel in the Old Testament.  Today we are reading again about judgment only this time Paul is writing.  And by the way, today’s talk of judgment is, once again, not included in the lectionary.  Judgment is talked about a lot in the Bible but those old lectionary people don’t want us preaching about it that much.  They would rather that we have a bland watered-down version of God, rather than the exciting, vibrant version where there is lots of love and judgment.  Today, we are looking at the second letter to the Thessalonians where Paul is trying to shore up their faith after much persecution and misinformation.  Let’s see what it says about prayer and being thankful.

There’s an old cell phone commercial that showed us what happened when too much static was on the line.  This caused some confusion for a married couple.  The wife had called her husband on the cell phone and asked him to bring home, ‘a movie, something old.’  The husband thought she said, “Bring home a monkey with a cold.”  This sounds like some of Sharon and my conversations.  Anyway, the next camera shot shows a monkey lying on the couch with a thermometer in his mouth.  Then the pitch men come on to say that the static caused this and that their wireless plan will get rid of all static.  So finally at the end of the commercial and the monkey is still there.  The wife asks, “What about the monkey?”  The pitch man for the cell phone responds by saying, “Have him rest and drink plenty of fluids.”  Life is full of misinformation.  The Thessalonians have a monkey on their couch.

To begin, we should know that there has been much persecution of Christians in Thessalonica.  Along with this, there have been many heretics who are giving them false information.  If I’m not mistaken, someone even forged a letter from Paul.  Even though many things have been happening, Paul is kind and gracious because through all this, they have been faithful.

As a matter of fact, Paul says that they should be thanking God for themselves.  They are not only surviving all the paganism around them but they are growing.  Their church is getting bigger and bigger.  Paul can also tell that their love for each other is getting stronger and stronger.  As a church, they were doing what they were supposed to be doing.  They were adding to the number of believers and taking care of each other.

Today, I would like to take this opportunity to thank God for you people.  You need to be thankful for yourselves as your faith is growing.  Every time I see you or hear from you, I see your faith has grown.  Other churches where we served, collected shoeboxes at Christmas and clothes for poor children.  I could see love and faith in every mission project they undertook.  You can also be reaching out to those less fortunate than yourselves with help in the name of Jesus.  I have seen churches take in needy people of the community.  You can be a very giving people and the whole community will know it.  All of this has translated into growth in numbers as more and more people are attracted to Jesus Christ through your actions.  So, the first thing you need to be thankful for is us.  You are trying to do God’s work and this is so very important.

I think that another aspect of your faith is in how you minister to the children.  Our churches were small in numbers so there aren’t many programs that work for their Sunday school.  Therefore, we had to do a bit of improvising.  I got to see firsthand how well they had done teaching the basics to the children and I also see the pictures on the wall.  You have cared for your youth and your young adults.  You have been doing a fine job.

We need to know this because there is a rough world around us.  If we don’t know that we are important to God, if we don’t know that we are doing a good job in our faith, then the world will run over us and we will no longer exist.  For instance, there are many churches and denominations that are teaching heresy or things that are against the Bible.  They aren’t teaching the truth.  What is happening to these organizations?   They are getting smaller and smaller because Satan is winning their battles.  Now I think that we have a tremendously strong core here and we will be able to withstand these onslaughts, but it won’t be easy.   You need to have the confidence that what you are doing is right and good.

The question may come up ‘How do I know if what I’m doing is right?’  There could be a whole sermon on this topic so I will just give you a couple condensed points.  For some situations we just know what is right and what is wrong.  Sometimes we even make wrong decisions knowing it is wrong but hoping it is right.  The best way to know what decision to make is to go into prayer and ask God.  Then be quiet.  I try to teach this to confirmation classes and you need to know it also.  You have to still your mind and be quiet.  Listen for the word of God to come to you.  When it does, then you will know what decision to make.  If you have to make a quick decision, base it on what you know.  We all know right from wrong so use that knowledge and your relationship with Jesus.  We are human and we make mistakes and listen to the wrong things.  We will be tempted to follow worldly ways which aren’t always right.  It happens to all of us but if you try to live your life doing right, then these decisions become easier and easier.

You need to know and do these things because of the next thing Paul talks about.  He talks of the judgment of God.  He begins by telling us that God’s judgment is always right.  When He judges us to be worthy, then we are worthy and don’t argue about it.  You know what you have done or are doing is right, so do it right and keep on doing it right.  You have God on your side, so go for it, people.

It is up to us to do it right.  There are millions who are doing it wrong.  The worst part of this is that we begin to think that they are getting away with doing evil.  They are not and you can be sure of that.  They may get lots of money or power or anything in this world but they will not get away with it in the next.  So don’t be envious of these kinds of people.  I would say that if they were or could be really honest to themselves, they would all find that something is missing in their lives.  They would find an emptiness that more money cannot fill.  More power will never satisfy them because they weren’t built for power, they were built for Jesus and they don’t know it.  God will have His justice but it may not be in this world.  They will never get into the world to come because they couldn’t face the real king in the world we live in now.  This is some tough stuff.

Notice that Paul doesn’t dwell too much on judgment.  He states it and moves on because the people he is talking to know about judgment.  They just need to be reminded that the persecution they are suffering from will not go unnoticed by God.  The persecution was intense in Thessalonica.  These people need to hang onto the truth but it is hard to do this under such severe conditions.

We don’t have such severe persecution in our country.  What we have is people who make fun of us because of our beliefs.  We have peer pressure all around us to believe as the world believes.  After all, everyone can’t be wrong, can they?  Of course they can.  If you don’t believe this then just take a look at history.  We have seen several times in the Bible where all the Jewish people were wrong except for the remnant.  And which people thrived?  The remnant survived and went on to better things until it happened again.  Guess what?  It has been happening again and we might be the remnant.  This may not happen today or tomorrow or next year or next decade, but it will happen.  You are doing the right things and are on the right track.  You will be saved on judgment day and you are passing along these good characteristics to all you meet.

So once again, how do we stay on the right track?  You have heard me say this over and over again.  All this and much, much more is accomplished through prayer.  Paul is telling these people that he and his companions have been praying for them.  Now there are always some in our churches who have a little doubt about prayer so I would like to give you a little scientific data.  There have been studies done on prayer and I have read a book about some of these studies.  I ran across one that involved about 400 heart patients.  These were people who had some sort of severe heart problems.  Two groups were studied.  One group had people praying for them and the other didn’t.  They were chosen because they had support people back home or in their churches or they had no prayer support.  They found that the people who had others pray for them did significantly better than those who didn’t.  This comes from a scientific study.  Prayer works no matter how you cut it.

Paul and his companions were constantly praying for these people because they were worthy in the eyes of Jesus.  Because of this prayer and their faithfulness in the times of extreme hardship, God will fulfill every good purpose they have and every act that they do because of their faith.  Now there is a statement and a half.  These people are building a church where there has been no church before and God is behind them all the way.  He will help them and bless them in all they do for His purpose.

Now let’s bring this home a little.  What are you trying to do to further the Kingdom of God?  Now you have to be careful here because Satan will try to trip you up with guilt.  We are not all gifted the same to serve God.  Some people are gifted to teach and preach and others are gifted in wisdom and discernment and still others, to name just a few, are gifted to help and service.  But we are all gifted.  Take the gift you have, whatever makes you feel really good, and use it as much as you can in the name of Jesus.  Satan will want you to use gifts you don’t have or be envious of other gifts or he will try to use some other treacherous scheme.  Don’t fall for it!  Do what you can, as much as you can with what you have.

If you can do these things, then you will be blessed in your ministry beyond what you thought was possible.  This in turn will bleed over into your personal life where you will also find blessings beyond your thoughts.  This is how God works and this is why Christianity grew so much in the first centuries.  This is why it is growing so much in Asia and Africa today.  And Christianity can grow like this in this country also.  God is forever faithful, forever faithful if we would just be faithful to Him.  Listen for the word of God as you pray, as you read and as you hear.  This is the way to prevent you from ending up with a sick monkey on your couch.

So, we should always be thankful, especially for our faith and not worry about God’s judgment because He will take care of everything.  And once again we see that we are to pray and pray and pray.  We should be like the 3-year-old boy (that Paul Harvey once talked about) who went to the grocery store with his mother. Before they entered the grocery store, she said to him, “Now you’re not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask.”
She put him up in the cart & he sat in the little child’s seat while she wheeled down the aisles. He was doing just fine until they came to the cookie section. He saw the chocolate chip cookies & he stood up in the seat & said, “Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?” She said, “I told you not even to ask. You’re not going to get any.” So, he sat back down.
They continued down the aisles, but in their search for certain items they ended up back in the cookie aisle. “Mom, can I please have some chocolate chip cookies?” She said, “I told you that you can’t have any. Now sit down & be quiet.”  Finally, they were approaching the checkout lane. The little boy sensed that this may be his last chance. So just before they got to the line, he stood up on the seat of the cart & shouted in his loudest voice, “In the name of Jesus, may I have some chocolate chip cookies?”  Everybody round just laughed. Some even applauded. And, due to the generosity of the other shoppers, the little boy & his mother left with 23 boxes of chocolate chip cookies.

The moral of this story, this sermon, this life is not to ever give up on prayer.  Pray and pray and pray and when you are done, pray some more.  I don’t know what you need specifically to help further this world for Christ but don’t give up on prayer because it works so well.  Jesus loves you so much that He will answer you every time you pray.  Listen carefully to Him.  He will never leave you if you just keep obeying what He says.  That is a promise that is shown over and over in the Bible.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.