Let’s ask for the Lord’s help as we come to His word. Oh, great God of highest heaven, you who live among the cherubim and seraphim, you who sit enthroned above, you who dwell in unapproachable light, draw near to us as we draw near to you. Condescend, we pray, and speak to us. Stoop down to our lowly ears that all who are of humble heart may receive your word. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Our text this morning comes from 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians Chapter 3. We have come to the end of this short, five-week series on these prayers from Paul in 1&2 Thessalonians and next week, Lord willing, we begin a series, probably a lengthy series through the gospel according to John. This morning we come to verses 1-5 of 2 Thessalonians Chapter 3.
“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
We have been talking for the last month about a church to be thankful for and we have been looking at Paul’s prayers and noticing what is he grateful for in the Thessalonian church. What does a healthy church therefore look like? What is a good church? What should we hope that Christ Covenant is known for? We saw week one he was thankful for the character of the people. Week two he was thankful for their confidence in the Word. Week three he was thankful for the strength of their community, and last week we saw gratitude that they had clarity on their identity. Character, confidence, community, clarity. Wow. Four C’s.
It does make us stop and think, “What do I give thanks for?” What do you give thanks for in your prayers?
This is a quite from D.A. Carson in his book Praying with Paul, which I commend to you. He says, “We say grace at meals, thanking God for our food. We give thanks when we receive material blessings, when the mortgage we’ve applied for comes through, or when we first turn on the ignition in a car we’ve just purchased. We may sigh a prayer of sweaty thanks after a near-miss on the highway. We may utter a prayer of sincere and fervent thanks when we recover from serious illness. We may actually offer brief thanksgiving when we hear that someone we know has recently been converted. But by and large, our thanksgiving seems to be tied rather tightly to our material well-being and comfort. The unvarnished truth is that what we most frequently give thanks for betrays what we most highly value. If a large percentage of our thanksgiving is for material prosperity, it is because we value material prosperity proportionately.”
I find that very challenging. “The unvarnished truth is that what we most frequently give thanks for betrays what we most highly value.” It shows our priorities. It shows where are heart is at.
We need to be steeped in the Bible if we are to give good, rich, deep, Bible prayers. Some of us may rarely offer up prayers of thanksgiving. We may be so quickly moved to pray for the laundry list of that day’s needs or maybe even intercede for others that we don’t stop to thank God for giving us another day of our daily bread. And for others, even though we often give thanks to God, what we offer is, if we’re honest, rarely the sort of thing that Paul has commended to us. I find it challenging in my own life. Are these the things I’m day after day thanking God for? He’s thanking them for the faith, hope, and love of God’s people. He’s thanking them for the reception of the word. He’s thanking God that they are standing firm i...
