Text:\u00a0 1Thessalonians 3: 9-13<\/p>\n
According to our calendars January 1 is new years and it is.\u00a0 But today is also a new year.\u00a0 A new church year.\u00a0 A new year of grace in our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Peace be with you!<\/p>\n
Our church year always begins with the season of Advent.\u00a0 And Advent means ____________?\u00a0 It means coming<\/em>.\u00a0 Christ\u2019s coming. You and I live between two Advents.\u00a0 The Advent we will celebrate in a few weeks.\u00a0 The birth of our Savior long ago.\u00a0 We live between that Advent and the Advent that Jesus tells us to expect and be ready for. Will we see Him come this new year?\u00a0 Or will this year come and go like the last? No one can say.<\/p>\n You probably noticed that our Sermon text is a prayer, a prayer for the Christians in Thessalonica. It\u2019s a prayer inspired by the Holy Spirit in the heart of St Paul.\u00a0 They too lived between two Advents.\u00a0 So what Paul prayed for here is a good prayer for us today.<\/p>\n Our Advent Prayer to begin a New Year \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paul came to Thessalonica on his second missionary journey.\u00a0 This city was about 200,000 people back then.\u00a0 It was on a major Roman road.\u00a0 Once there Paul and the others went to the Jewish synagogue.\u00a0 You can read about it in the book of Acts.\u00a0 On three Sabbath days Paul showed them from the Old Testament how Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah God promised.\u00a0 How he had to suffer then rise from the dead.\u00a0 A good number of Jews and Gentiles were brought to faith.\u00a0 They trusted that God\u2019s forgiveness and life were theirs in Jesus.\u00a0 It was by grace they had been saved through faith.<\/p>\n Like us.\u00a0 All these years later someone brought that message to us.\u00a0 That yes, we are lost on our own.\u00a0 The wages of our sin is death.\u00a0 But God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.\u00a0 He put our sin on Jesus who \u00a0paid the awful price for us all.\u00a0 So now we are free.\u00a0 Through faith we will live and never really die.<\/p>\n But trouble wasn\u2019t far behind for these new believers.\u00a0 The unbelieving Jews incited a riot that they tried to blame on these Christians.\u00a0 They went looking for Paul and Silas who by then had fled the city. \u00a0They went on to Berea and then to Athens.\u00a0 And no doubt, Paul was concerned.\u00a0 What would become of these people in Thessalonica?\u00a0 After all, he had only been with them for three weeks. Would they give in to the pressure and give up on Jesus?<\/p>\n So Paul sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to find out what happened and encourage them to hold on.\u00a0 This letter is Paul\u2019s response to what Timothy found.\u00a0\u00a0 9 <\/sup>How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you<\/span>?\u00a0 Thanks be to God.\u00a0 They still believed in their hearts and confessed that Jesus was Lord.<\/p>\n But Paul\u2019s joy was tempered by a concern.\u00a0 He rejoiced at their faith, but they were like little children who had just learned to sing Jesus loves me this I know<\/em>.\u00a0 They needed to grow up and out in the grace and knowledge of their Lord and Savior.\u00a0 And Paul prayed for that opportunity.\u00a0 10 <\/sup>Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n What about us?\u00a0 Can we say that we have it all down?\u00a0 What is lacking in our faith?\u00a0 What have we learned since our confirmation class days?\u00a0 Maybe less than we\u2019ve forgotten.\u00a0 The teaching of this Word is like a house with many rooms.\u00a0 These believers had only got to explore a few.\u00a0 What about you and me?<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t that long ago I offered a class on God\u2019s promises.\u00a0 I posed various situations and asked what promise of God could help you at a time like that.\u00a0 I got a lot of blank stares that day. After the class, someone said to me, we don\u2019t know our Bibles very well, do we?\u00a0 Do we?\u00a0 So let this be our Advent prayer to begin a new year<\/strong>.\u00a0 Lord, build up our faith.<\/strong>\u00a0 Make it stronger.\u00a0 Make it wiser as we take the time to gather around your Word.<\/p>\n There is something we put in our bulletin for visitors.\u00a0\u00a0 We invite them to expect to hear a message from God\u2019s Word, centered in Jesus Christ.\u00a0 But we also invite people to expect something else from all of us.\u00a0 Love.\u00a0 Christian love.\u00a0 What did Jesus say?\u00a0 All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.<\/span>\u00a0 Well here again we find our Advent prayer to begin a New Year.\u00a0 Lord, increase our love.<\/strong><\/p>\n That love was evident in Paul.\u00a0 11 <\/sup>Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you<\/span>. He hardly knew these people but in his heart they were now his brothers and sisters in Christ.\u00a0 His love yearned to help them know Jesus more and more.<\/p>\n But before Paul could do that he heard of the love in their congregation.\u00a0 I get to see it here from time to time.\u00a0 Members looking out for one another.\u00a0 Offering rides.\u00a0 Bringing food in sickness.\u00a0 That love lives here too.\u00a0 How can love not live here?\u00a0 How can it not live in our homes?\u00a0 How can it not show itself in the way we treat the people around us?\u00a0 Our empty hands of faith have received the greatest love ever. \u00a0God\u2019s own Son born for us all.\u00a0 God\u2019s own Son that he did not spare but gave up for us all!\u00a0 So we love.\u00a0 We love because God first loved us.<\/span><\/p>\n But here again we need to grow.\u00a0 We need to mature like these Christians.\u00a0 For all of us have that selfish streak that can get in the way.\u00a0 We don\u2019t take the time for others.\u00a0 We let that memory of a thoughtless word come between us. \u00a0So when it comes to love, we can all do better as Paul prayed: 12<\/sup>May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you<\/span>.\u00a0 That\u2019s our prayer.\u00a0 Lord, increase our love.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now Paul points us to the day, when the Lord Jesus comes again. \u00a0And as someone once pointed out.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter if Jesus comes this new year or even during our lifetime.\u00a0 Either way, we will stand before him.\u00a0 How do we want him to find us when we do?\u00a0 How do we want this One who created all things, who bled and died for us sinners.\u00a0 How do we want him to find us when we stand before his awesome throne.\u00a0 Paul prays here:\u00a0 13 <\/sup>May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones<\/span>. So Lord, make holiness our goal.<\/strong><\/p>\n What is holiness?\u00a0 It means to be set apart from sin and evil.\u00a0 It means to be pure.\u00a0 Is it important that we be holy?\u00a0 You bet it is.\u00a0 \u2026Without holiness no one will see the Lord<\/span>, said the writer to the Hebrews. (12:14) So where does that leave us?\u00a0 On our own, up the creek without a paddle.\u00a0 For we are not holy.<\/p>\n But what is the good news?\u00a0 We can stand at the cross of Jesus and know this.\u00a0 By one sacrifice [Jesus] has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.<\/span> (Heb 10:14) Did you hear that?\u00a0 Because of what Jesus did for you, you are holy before God.\u00a0 On that day that you see him, Jesus will say, Come, you who are blessed.<\/span><\/p>\n But as Christians we don\u2019t just breathe a sigh of relief and go on as before.\u00a0 And certainly we don\u2019t use God\u2019s forgiveness as a license to swim in a cesspool of immorality.\u00a0 No, we make it our goal to please God by the way we live.\u00a0 For what does the Lord tell us?\u00a0 Be holy, because I the Lord your God,am holy (Lev 19:2)\u00a0 <\/span>So this too is our Advent prayer as we look forward to Jesus\u2019 coming. \u00a0Lord, make holiness the goal<\/strong> of our hearts.<\/p>\n And here it seems to me we need each other.\u00a0 Our progress in faith, love and holiness are easy to put aside in this world and in this season.\u00a0 We need each other.\u00a0 That\u2019s God\u2019s design and it\u2019s a good one.\u00a0 It goes with our prayer.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 1Thessalonians 3: 9-13 According to our calendars January 1 is new years and it is.\u00a0 But today is also a new year.\u00a0 A new church year.\u00a0 A new year of grace in our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Peace be with you! Our church year always begins with the season of Advent.\u00a0 And Advent means ____________?\u00a0 It means coming.\u00a0 Christ\u2019s coming. 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\n<\/strong>I.\u00a0 Lord, build up our faith
\nII.\u00a0 Lord, increase our love
\nIII.\u00a0 Lord, make holiness our goal<\/p>\n