MORE!

September 6, 2015     NOTES NOT EDITED

More

1Thessalonians 3:6-4:12

SIS—The church cannot do more for the Kingdom until we do more for the church.

I did not grow up on a farm.  I did help put up hay for a farmer one summer as a kid.  I also worked at a feed store one summer while in college.  But, I don’t think I have farming in my blood.  So, I was impressed when I read a story about three-legged chickens.  A salesman was driving down a country lane.  He looked out his window and a three-legged chicken was running alongside his car.  Suddenly, the chicken picked up speed and disappeared around the next bend.  There was farmer in the field so the man pulled over and said, “I just saw a three-legged chicken speed past my car!”  “Oh, yes, them’s our chickens.  We have a bunch of ‘em.  We bred them to feed our family.  You see, there’s the three of us and we all likes drumsticks.”  The salesman asked, “Well, how do they taste.”  “Dunno,” said the farmer.  “Never been able to catch any!”

Well, the moral of the story is clear:  more legs are better if you are a chicken.  This also illustrates my sermon nicely.  My sermon is titled, “MORE.”  If we want to do more as a church, then we have to do more as Christians.  Good enough never is.  Let’s see what the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write about “MORE.”  1Thess. 3:6-4:12.

1.  MORE PRAYER (3:10-13)

⁹ How can we thank God for you in return for all the joy we experience before our God because of you, ¹⁰ as we pray very earnestly night and day to see you face to face and to complete what is lacking in your faith? // ¹¹ Now may our God and Father  Himself, and our Lord Jesus,  direct our way to you. ¹² And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another  and for everyone, just as we also do for you. ¹³ May He make your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord  Jesus with all His saints. Amen.

If you get nothing else out of this message—and I hope you do get more—get this:  “the greatest need in the church is MORE prayer.”  We could use more people.  We can use more money.  I’ll talk about these later; but, “the greatest need in the church is MORE prayer!”

I’m sure that as we read these words together you felt the urgency and passion in Paul’s words.  It is almost like you could feel the emotion rising in Paul’s heart as his prayer for the Thessalonians rose up to God.  There is almost an “agony” which can be noted in Paul’s prayer.  It was not some “three-minute” Hail Mary before for a meal.  Paul declares his prayers went on “night and day.”  His earnest, agonizing prayer for the ministry of God through the Thessalonians kept him up long into many nights. 

The Holy Spirit also led Paul to carefully craft his words in regard to prayer.  In fact, Paul constructed a new word to describe his prayer.  Paul often took prepositions, adjectives, or adverbs and smashed them together with other words to make up “superlative” version of the words to increase the “intensity” of the meaning.  In other words, Paul compounded words in the same way many athlete’s take steroids to boost up their muscle power.  Paul coined the word, huperekperissou (hyper-ek-per-ees-sou), to describe how he prayed.  It is translated, “earnestly,” but even that word lacks the passion and power of the one Paul created.  It would better be translated, “super (hyper) abundantly (ekperissou). 

The word he choose for “prayer” also has some special significance in reference to intensity or passion.  The word, deomai (deh-o-mī), originally had the meaning of “lacking or wanting.”  It came to have the sense of “asking out of an extreme need or desire, or begging, particularly to someone with the means to assist,” and occasionally it referred to simply asking.  In our text, Paul obviously choose this word to indicate the intensity with which he was praying.  So, if we look at what Paul declares in regard to prayer we might expand our translation to say, “out of our great need we beg God from early mornings to into many long nights with superabundant passion that when we see you face to face we will see that God has completed every thing that might be lacking in your life.”

The only prayer the Bible recognizes as true prayer is prolonged, passionate, prayer that stays at it until God breaks through in glory!  It is the kind of prayer where your spirit has difficulty distinguishing from feelings of fear and feelings of ecstasy.  The O.T. knew this kind of prayer.  Isaiah describes a prayer encounter he had with God (Is. 6:1-3):

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord  seated on a high and lofty  throne,  and His robe  filled the temple. ² Seraphim were standing above Him; each one had six wings:  with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  ³ And one called to another:  Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; His glory  fills the whole earth.  ⁴ The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke.

When was the last time God shook the very room in which you were praying or filled your prayer closet with smoke?  The N.T. knows this same kind of passionate, powerful, persistent, prevailing prayer:

When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place.  ² Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind  came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying.  ³ And tongues, like flames of fire that were divided, appeared to them and rested on each one of them. ⁴ Then they were all filled  with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages, as the Spirit gave them ability for speech.

 How’s that for a prayer meeting?  In 38 years of ministry I have been in only a couple of times of prayer where something even remotely like these two experiences took place—AND I HUNGER TO SEE IT AGAIN!

I would love to continue speaking about prayer but I must go on.  Let me only point out that nobody’s life of service will ever exceed his or her life of prayer.  What we need most desperately is “MORE PRAYER.”

2.  We need MORE PIETY (3:13; 4:3-8)

Look at Paul’s prayer in chapter 3, verse 13:   May He make your hearts blameless in holiness  before our God and Father at the coming  of our Lord  Jesus with all His saints. Amen.

The focus of Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians, and in deed the focus of God for His people, is that we would “be blameless and holy.”  Then, the text expounds on what this “holiness” would look like in chapter 4, verses 3-8:

³ For this is God’s will, your sanctification:  that you abstain from sexual immorality, ⁴ so that each of you knows how to control his own body  in sanctification and honor, ⁵ not with lustful desires,  like the Gentiles who don’t know God. ⁶ This means one must not transgress against and defraud  his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses,  as we also previously told and warned you. ⁷ For God has not called us to impurity but to sanctification. ⁸ Therefore, the person who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who also gives you His Holy Spirit.

The key word in this passage is, “sanctification.”  The word translated sanctification is related to the root word for “holiness.”  I’ve used the word, “piety,” to help you remember this outline.  Piety refers to “religious devotion, or holiness.”  Piety relates to those activities that seek to please God.  Our word looks down upon piety and the word has taken a negative connotation, but that need not be the case.  Piety is synonymous with sanctification.  

In this passage the particular form of the word is related to the verb forms of the word holiness and indicates an active, participation in those activities that make us more like God.  Sanctification is nothing more than “acting like God.”  Or as Paul says in verse 4:1, “walking to please God.”  One discipline leading to a sanctified life is prayer, which we have also discussed.  Bible study, in all its forms such as sermons and Sunday School, is another discipline leading to a pious, sanctified life.  Fellowship with other believers and Evangelism round out the main activities that help us develop a life of piety, or sanctification.  All of this we do in the context of regular, enthusiastic times of worship where we encourage one another to, as Paul writes in Hebrews, “love and good works” (Heb. 10:24).  

You will often hear people say, “Christianity is not a religion but a relationship.”  Like most clichés that has a hint of truth but it is not by any means a complete truth.  Every where from Genesis to Revelation God has outlined attitudes and behaviors that lead His people to pious, or holy, living. Jesus said, Himself,  “If you love Me, you will keep  My commands” (Jn. 14:15).  The entire Book of Leviticus presents a number of “religious activities” designed to show us that God is holy and we must be holy in order to please Him.  Jesus did not die so remove God’s holy standards but to provide the means by which we can be holy (pious, sanctified).  Look at verses 4:7-8:

For God has not called us to impurity but to sanctification [piety]. ⁸ Therefore, the person who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who also gives you His Holy Spirit.

As I said before, the form of the word translated, sanctification (piety), is a noun built on a verb form which indicates an activity, not merely a principle of idea.  Holiness is what we do because of what Jesus has done, and we have the Holy Spirit to help us do it.  If our church is going to do more we must do more and for us to do more in the Kingdom we need MORE PIETY. 

A few years ago I heard a story about a man who back in the woods in Mississippi.  I think his name was Elias.  One day Elias was walking through town all dressed up and carrying his Bible under his arm.  A friend saw him and asked, “Hey, ‘Lias, where ya’ headin’? Why you all dressed up in your Sunday best?”  Elias had a big grin on his face and answered, “I’m headed across the state line to N’Orleans.  I hear there is a lot of cheap liquor, places for gamblin’, and nightclubs full of loose women.”  The friend was a bit puzzled when he heard what naughty pleasures Elias intended to enjoy.  He asked him, “Then why ya’ takin’ your Bible?”  Elias replied, “Well, if it’s as good as they say it is, I might stay over for church on Sunday.”

Well, sadly, there are too many people like Elias in churches.  But, in order for our church to make more of a difference in the world, it first has to make more of a difference than us.  We need MORE PIETY.

3.  MORE PARTICIPATION (6-9)

But now Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news about your faith and love and reported that you always have good memories of us, wanting to see us, as we also want to see you.  ⁷ Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we were encouraged about you through your faith. ⁸ For now we live, if you stand firm  in the Lord. ⁹ How can we thank God for you in return for all the joy we experience before our God because of you,

We get accustomed to hearing or reading the Word of God and we can easily miss some valuable lessons by overlooking something as simple as whether words are singular or plural—especially pronouns, and even more especially, second person pronouns.  Notice that the pronoun, “you,” appears several times in verses 6-9 and throughout the Book of Thessalonians, as with other books of the Bible.  In English, we do not distinguish between a “singular you” and “you” as it applies to a group.  In Latin I teach our students to translate the plural form of you as, “you all,” to distinguish it from the singular you.  So, what’s the big deal?  Well, more often than not the “you’s” you see in the Bible, especially the N.T. are plural—they refer to the Body of Christ.  The Christian life cannot be fully experienced without other Christians.

Notice in verse 3:6 Paul speaks of “encouraging one another.”  In 3:12 he speaks of “overflowing love for one another.”  Then again in 4:10 he speaks of “encouragement.”   If we are going to accomplish more for the Kingdom of God, we need more PARTICIPATION from every member of the church.  The church is not a “buffet” where you take what you want and pass up what you don’t want.  Church is a family meal around the table of fellowship where each family member encourages all the rest.  Church is a “family activity,” for the “whole” family.  When you do not participate in a church function you should be a part of, someone that you should be encouraging with not be encouraged—in fact, your absence can lead to discouragement.  Church is not only for you, but it is an opportunity for you to encourage others.  Paul was very clear about the responsibility we have to “PARTICIPATE” in the fellowship of the saints

^{Hebrews10     24} And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, ²⁵ not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other,  and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Now go back and read our text again in verses 6-7:  But now Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news about your faith and love and reported that you always have good memories of us, wanting to see us, as we also want to see you.  If you are a member of the church and you don’t look forward to getting together with your brothers and sisters to make eternal memories, then you really aren’t a member of the church at all.  Doing more for the Kingdom of God involves MORE PARTICIPATION in the activities of His church.  For most people, church is an “I-can-take-it-or-leave-it” proposition.  In this case it’s usually not long before the “leave-it” altogether.

For our church to accomplish more we need MORE PRAYER, MORE PIETY, MORE PARTICIPATION, and . . . stay with me:

4.  MORE PAYOLA (9-11)

⁹ About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.  ¹⁰ In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers in the entire region of Macedonia.  But we encourage you, brothers, to do so even more.

Thessalonica was a strategic city in the broader area of the Greek isle known as Macedonia.  You might compare Thessalonica to a city and Macedonia to a region, like Thousand Oaks in the Los Angeles area.  Paul does not state specifically what Thessalonica did to show the love to others in the region, there is a hint in the word, poite (poy-eh-tay) translated “are doing.”  The word first appears in Classical Greek to refer to the product of ones actions such as, “making a grave, building a house, or producing a work of art.” This same word is used in Galatians 2:10, They asked only that we would remember the poor,  which I made every effort to do (from, poieō, same root).

The word carries with it the idea of something tangible or measurable.  The Thessalonians assisted the others in Macedonia in “tangible” ways.  We know that Macedonia was noted for its poverty as we read in 2Cor. 8:1-2.  Most scholars believe “Paul is reflecting on the way the Thessalonian church lent economic aid to needy believers in other parts of the province.” (Pillar Comm.).  This certainly seems the intent of the passage from a simple reading of the text.

It takes money to do ministry.  No money.  No ministry.  Little money. Little ministry.  Same money.  Same ministry.  More money.  More ministry.  “Payola” actually has a negative connotation, but I use it to help you remember the importance of money in ministry.  Payola actuall refers to a record company getting their songs played on commercial radio without the radio station declaring they have been paid to present the song.  It’s sort of like “product placement” in movies and T.V.  Anyway, you get the idea:  “money is what makes the monkey dance.”

Somehow it has come about that the worst sin a preacher can commit is to preach about “money.”  Well, Jesus preached about money.  Paul preached about money.  The majority of the parables in the N.T. deal with money in one way or another.  The fact is that many people are going to spend eternity in hell because they “loved money (mammon) more than they loved God.”  Jesus warned us in the strongest language:  ²⁴ “No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money (Mt. 6:24). 

People who do not give generously to the church and hold on to their money do so because they fail to understand that money is “t’ainted”:  it t’aint yours, it is all God’s.”  When we hold on to our ten percent, or we fail to give generously above our ten percent, we demonstrate that we really do not understand the “value of our salvation.”  We fail to see that if we trust God with His tithes and offerings, we will never need to worry about having all that we need.  God has promised this to us in one of the most encouraging passages in the Bible:  ^{Malachi 3   10} Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in My house.  Test Me in this way,” says the Lord of Hosts. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure. 

Someone clipped a news story out of a paper about a young man named Danny Simpson, from Ottawa, Canada.  At the age of 24 he robbed a bank in Ottawa, Canada, at gunpoint.  He made off with $6000.  The sweat on his brow was barely dry before he was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to a long time in prison.  Here’s the real sad part of the story.  Danny had acquired 1918 45-caliber semiautomatic Colt handgun that he used to rob the bank.  That gun was worth over $100,000.  Danny did not realize the real value of what he possessed.  He went to jail for $6000 when he possessed a treasure worth $100,000.  Danny squandered his possessions.  Esau sold his treasured birthright for a bowl of red beans.

Holding back on God “shuts the floodgates of His goodness” in your life.  It also stunts the ministry of God’s church.  If our church is going to do more, it will take MORE PAYOLA.  More prayer. More piety. More participation. More Payola. 

As we close, let’s let the words of God’s instruction manual ring in our ears:  Walk and please God—as you are doing—DO SO EVEN MORE! (1Thess. 4:1).

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