the sound. My son has the unenviable
task of trying to make me look good and sound good. Nobody else
wants that job. What a blessing that psalm was
this morning that the Lord gave Brother Sammy and I believe the
Lord gave me a message in that last part of that. Listen to
the perfect, what a perfect sermon outline. Enter into his gates
with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful
unto him and bless his name for three reasons, because he's good. Are you here? Have you entered
into his presence this morning because he's good? And it says
give thanks unto him as you're coming in because he's good.
Look what he, We take for granted everything He's done for us this
past week and the week before that and the week before that.
We live and are blessed and enjoy this life and love because of Him and His goodness. And then secondly, because of
His mercy. Are you here, do you need mercy
this morning? Do you need mercy? His mercy's in Christ, and his
gospel is Christ. And it pleased God by the foolishness
of this, to save sinners, to have mercy on sinners. And then
the third thing, his truth. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. His truth endureth unto all generations. I don't care if you're barely
old enough to understand what's being said, or an old timer that's
been maybe living on his mercy and faithfulness for years. His
truth is one of the reasons we're here, isn't it? A good reason
why we're here. Well, you can forget that now,
because I'm going to preach that one of these days. But what a
blessing to be with you. morning and Let's turn together
First Thessalonians chapter 3 First Thessalonians 3 Verse 9 I've titled this message, A Loving
Prayer. This is a prayer for somebody,
for a group of folks that's prayed by somebody that loves them. And in this prayer for them,
this expression of love, we can learn If the Lord is pleased,
of course the gospel, that's what we always learn from the
scriptures. If the Lord meets with us. How often when the Apostle
Paul expresses gratitude to God, it's for this. Look what he says
in verse nine. For what thanks can we render
to God again? For you, for you. There are so many places in his
letters where he where he does that often in the beginning of
it, just in the very introduction of it, he says, I thank God for
you. There's several examples of that. Philippians 1.3, I thank
my God upon every remembrance of you. Romans 1.8, first, I
thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all. First, I do that. that your faith is spoken of
throughout the whole world. I thank God for that. I don't
commend you because you have such great faith. I thank God
that you do. Philemon 1-4, I thank my God, making mention
of you always in my prayer. So it's for the people of God
that God has saved and caused Cross Paul's path that he often
and seemingly In a special way is thankful
to God for God gives pastors after his own
heart, which is a heart of love and care for his sheep and you
see that love all through this passage of scripture before us
today and He says in this passage, and we're going to read through
9 through 13, Lord will, and we'll see all of that passage.
And look, kind of look through it with me. He says, I thank
God for you. I rejoice in you. I long to see
your face. I long to be of some spiritual
benefit to you. I pray God that you would increase
and abound. I pray that God will render you
holy. before his presence in Christ.
So this is a prayer for them and an expression of thanksgiving
unto God for people, for saints, for believers, for his children
in the faith and for those whom God saved and caused to be in
Paul's life. churches, the church at Thessalonica,
their faith and love and all of the evidences of God's grace
upon them was a cause of rejoicing to Paul. He said, I rejoice.
May that be true among us as well. May we thank God for one
another and rejoice in one another as we see the grace of God and
what he's done. We know that there's no difference
in us and the worst infidel that walks this earth, except God
has made a difference. God has put a difference. But may we rejoice in that. When
the Lord gives someone the grace to endure a trial, and we've
seen that over the years so many times, to endure a trial, trusting
Him in it and submitting to His will, in it. May that be a blessing
to us and a lesson to us and a cause for praise to God for
that and rejoicing in Him. What rejoices this world is fleshly
excitement and entertainment. I've got enough of the world
in me to know. Fleshly prosperity. What's lost
on this world is the quiet joy of the believer in seeing the
grace of God at work. Do we do that? You see, this
is deeper than just going to church. It's being in on it. It's being in on it. And this
verse, let's consider this. This verse is not an empty wish.
When a believer thanks God for something and desires good for his sheep and glory
unto the Lord, it's not just an empty wish. Our Lord condemned
such a thing as an empty wish. You remember James chapter two,
verse 15? If a brother or sister be naked
and destitute of daily food, And what have you saying to them?
Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled. Notwithstanding,
you give them not those things which are needful to the body,
what doth it profit? What's the use of that? There's
nothing wrong with praying for one another and desiring. He
doesn't say they prayed to God that this person would be warmed
and filled. It was just an empty rhetorical Nicety, I guess. Depart in peace,
be you warm to fill. That sounds so noble, but you
didn't do anything about it. The Lord says that's vain. That's
vain. Prayer to God, first of all,
is never an empty wish. If you're asking God to do something,
you can't. That's never an empty wish. It's
never all we can do is pray, it's we can pray. By the grace
of God, we can pray. It's not a last resort, it's
a first resort. And usually, there's nothing
I can do about a situation and praying to God, going to God
about it is never an empty wish. But also, and let me say this
about that, even if God does use us as a means to be a help
to somebody, it's God doing that. That's not you doing something
for God. But when we do have the means to be a blessing to
someone, the proof of love is action, not feelings alone. If you want to do a little bit
of homework, read 2 Corinthians 8, 7 through 12 about that. Be worth reading. Now look at this same teaching
in the next verse. The thing about it being an empty,
just to be warmed and filled. Verse 10, night and day praying
exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that
which is lacking in your faith. We pray to God, not only the
best for you, but that we might be enabled to do something about
it. You see that? Paul's gratitude for them was
not just something nice to say, he desired to do something about
it. How to thank God for them? How
can we thank God, verse one, for them? What is the Lord's
will? What is that which the Lord concerns
himself with in this world now? You wanna thank God, you wanna
do God's will, you want to show your gratitude to God? He said
to Simon, if you love me, feed my sheep. That's what God's doing
in this world. He's blessing his sheep. He's
saving his sheep. He's calling out his sheep. He's
teaching them. He's nurturing them. He's sustaining
them. He's the great shepherd. You
want to thank God? Be a blessing to his sheep. And that's what Paul desired.
It wasn't just, man, I hope everything works out for y'all. He said,
I'm gonna come do something about it. I'm gonna come and teach
you more and we'll worship together more and we'll rejoice. We'll
learn of him together. We'll praise his name together.
And the word perfect there, when he says, that I might perfect
that which is lacking in your faith, that means to complete
or to strengthen, to make one what he ought to be. That's what
it means. In other words, well, let me say it this way.
Let me ask you a question. Do you suppose that there ever
comes a time in this life when you don't need that anymore?
your faith strengthened and that which is lacking in your faith
to be supplied, to be made what it ought to be. Is your faith
what it ought to be today? Is there nothing lacking in your
faith this morning? Then we understand, don't we,
believers, we understand what Paul's talking about. That's
what he desired to do, not just send out good wishes, but to
be enabled of the Lord. He's praying to the Lord here.
We'll see that in a minute, that he could go to them and do something
about it by the grace of God. Now, verse 11. So here's what he's saying. How's
that gonna happen? How am I gonna be able to be
a benefit to them? How can I thank God indeed and
not word only? Well, I depend on Him for that
too. Now God Himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ
direct our way unto you. It means to make straight our
way and to remove all hindrances. Remove all hindrances. It reminds
you of the city of refuge, doesn't it? Take every obstacle, make
it a straight road to that city of refuge. Straight, direct,
shortest path, and take every rock out of the way, every hindrance. And that's what he's talking
about here now. Direct our way to use. Why? For what purpose? What was Paul wanting? To perfect
their faith. Faith just has one object. the
city of refuge, the Lord Jesus Christ. What were the hindrances? Paul's saying, may God take away
all the hindrances. What were they? The previous
chapter, chapter two, verse 18, Paul said, wherefore, we would
have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, more than once,
but Satan hindered us. So Paul is acknowledging here
that that's not a problem for God. Satan in all of his rage
and all of his purpose of thwarting and hindering God's purpose of
saving his sheep and being a comfort, his church being comforted here. In other words, why would Satan
hinder Paul from going to Thessalonica? Or Thessalonia, I never know
how to say that, but Thessalonia I guess it is. Why would he hinder
him from doing that? Well, because some of God's sheep
are there, and Satan doesn't want to see anything good happen
that glorifies God or that comforts his sheep. But that's not a problem for
God. If God is willing, we look to God for that. We don't stomp
around and rebuke Satan. We look to God and say, Lord, direct our way. so that we might thank you in
deed and not word only. God puts Satan in the way and
God can take him out of the way too. Let's remember that in our
lives. And notice the deference to the
sovereignty of God in this whole passage. What a beautiful, this
whole passage of scripture is a bowing, it's a prayer of
love for these people, but it's a bowing to the sovereign
God of heaven and earth. Look at it with me. God is sovereign
in providence, verse 11, direct, direct, Lord, direct. Make straight
my way and remove the hindrances. God is sovereign in the hearts
of men and devils. in devils because God, when he
takes away the hindrances, he's taking Satan out of the way and
removing the hindrances that Satan would throw up. But also
in the hearts of men, verse 12, the Lord bless your heart, increase
this and that, establish your heart, cause these things to abound
in your heart. Who can do that but God? He's
sovereign in the hearts of men. He turns the hearts of kings
and paupers. God is sovereign in salvation,
verse 13. May God render you holy and unblameable
in his sight in the day of Jesus Christ. God's able to do that. God the
Son is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Verse 12 in our text, and the
Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward one another. That's something that happens
in the heart and God's on the throne there too. As we mentioned,
and toward all. toward one another in the church
and toward all believers and really toward all men in the
sense that we have no animosity toward men. We want
to see men saved. We want to see men come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. The enemies of God, we hope God
puts them out of business. We just do. Put them out of business. But there's more than one way
to put an enemy out of business. The way he put Pharaoh out of
business and the way he put Saul of Tarsus out of business. Which would you rather see? Well,
we want the Lord to do what his will is, don't we? His will is
right and good every time. But I know he delights to show
mercy The Lord make you to increase and abound. That means super
abound. To increase richly to an overflow
abundance. Of what? Love for one another. Notice two things about this. This is something that God commands,
doesn't it? a new commandment I give unto
you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you
also love one another. And according to our text, it's
something that he makes happen. He makes it happen. And because Paul loved these
people, he prayed to God that he would make you to increase
and abound in love one toward another. You know, whenever you think
that you see, and it's revealed, we don't wanna think beyond that,
what God has revealed, and we consider something, a reason
why God did something. He tells us why. But we know
at the same time there's a thousand reasons he did it that we don't
even see, that he hasn't revealed. But what a blessed reason that
in the same time period, maybe even the same address to his
disciples, he said, I'm going to be with my father. In a little
while, you won't see me anymore. Wonder why at that particular
time, he said, I command you, I've got something new I want
to say to you. Love one another. Love one another. God has made
it so that we need one another. The way, and we know this from
the scripture, this is not just me being lovey-dovey or something. We know this from scripture,
the way that God expresses his love for us is by each other.
By each other, through each other. So him not being bodily present
with us, he made provision for his sheep to comfort them, to
encourage them, to strengthen them, to hold them up in trial by each other. And I'm telling you right now,
if this is just a social gathering, And all we do is show up and
benefit from the word. Look, there's different levels
in there. There's different levels of being
in on it in there. But if we haven't come to that
place where we lean on one another by the grace of God, in the providence
of God, in the direct command of God, where we are ourselves
able to be leaned on and we lean on others. We haven't entered
in. We just haven't entered in. Not
that we're lost, that a person is lost, but to enter in to what it is
to be a church of God. Paul's addressing this church
and he says, oh, may God make you to do what he commanded you
to do. That's a prayer of love, that's
a loving prayer. And that's how it is with all
that God commands his people. He's gonna have to make you do
it. You know that, don't you? You know that. God demands repentance. Did you know that? He demands
repentance. He commandeth all men everywhere to repent, Acts
17, 30. So what do we do? We pray, Lord, turn us and we'll
be turned. He'll have to make us. He'll
have to grant us repentance. He'll have to give us to do what
he demanded. God requires that his stewards
be found faithful. Did you know that? Are we stewards
of his grace? First Corinthians 4.2. How's that gonna happen? Look
at us. But it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now the desire here is for an
increase in abundance, an overabundance of love. And love, love is expressed
in many ways, isn't it? And just being a shoulder for
somebody at times. And being an encouragement and
being a help in some need. Paul talked about the proof of
the sincerity of your love in supplying need. And not just
saying, be ye warmed and filled, but saying, here's a coat. Here's some chicken and dumplings.
It's Lord willing I'm fixing to eat some up. So think about all the ways that
love is expressed, but notice the words in our text, even as
we do toward you. You see that there? even as we do toward you. Increase
and abound in love one toward another and toward all, even
as we toward you. How did Paul abound in love toward
them? In what way? Did Paul abound in love toward
them? What did it look like? Well,
again, back to chapter two, verse one. Look at it with me. For yourselves, brethren, know
our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain, but even
after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated,
as you know at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto
you the gospel of God. in spite of, even with much contention, we spake unto you the gospel.
For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor
in guile, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with
the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God
which trieth the hearts, he preached the gospel to them. and his desire
was to see them again, why? So he could preach the gospel
to them again. That's how you perfect faith
in Christ. You preach the gospel. So even as we toward you abound
in love one toward another. Now that doesn't mean you preach
the gospel to one another, but in a sense, that's exactly what
we did. To encourage one another in him, There are a lot of different
ways we can express our spiritual, God-given, brotherly love for
one another, but most importantly, it will be in ways that honor
our Savior. Deeds done by faith in Him, without
which faith it's impossible to please God. And with the ultimate
purpose of encouraging one another in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what we need. Whether our need is supplied
or not, whether our heart breaks or doesn't break, we need Christ. So whatever way we help one another
is toward that end. It may be some mundane thing.
Like I say, you remember Dorcas, she made coats. That was her
good works, or part of them. Was her expression of love for
her brothers and sisters But that was encouraging to that
was to the glory of Christ wasn't it that was by faith in him Now verse 12 is about the Lord
causing us to abound in love and works of love Which is God
working in us? That's a work that God does in
us, right? Not I but Christ which liveth
in me. Verse 13 concerns what God has
done for us. And what a blessed verse it is.
To the end, to the end. In other words, the point, the
goal, The words to the end say that
this work of grace in us accompanies salvation, but the ultimate goal
and point of it all is that we stand holy and unblameable before
God in Christ Jesus. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes,
it's not gonna be about your works of love, but his work of
love. whereby we stand spotless before
the very throne of God. Because of his love for us, we
stand. Because of his love for us, we're
pure and righteous. Who are these arrayed in white? Their robes are washed in his
blood. It's what he did for us. whereby,
you see, we thank God for what he enables us to do for him.
He makes us to do, to love and to love indeed. Oh, but his love is the cause
of ours. That's not just a point of doctrine.
That's a reality that we live every day. Turn with me to Colossians 119. Colossians 119. Here is where this final verse
of our text brings us. Verse 13 brings us right here.
Colossians 119, for it pleased the Father that in Christ should
all fullness dwell, and having made peace through the blood
of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him
I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven,
and you that were at one time alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body
of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. That's how verse 13 of our text
happens. That's how it happened, by the
precious blood of our Savior. Paul is saying, we abound in
this love toward you, Pray that you abound in love
toward one another, but we abound in this love toward you, this
gospel ministry to this end, that you might know him, that
you might look to him, that you might trust him who is able indeed
to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. That's love. That's how we pray. To desire
that for someone above all else. We want our young people to succeed
in life, to be happy, to be prosperous, to excel. But none of that means a thing. How do we love them? By sending
them to college? By putting them in sports or
whatever? Is that the extent of our love
for our children? Or do we desire above all else,
even if necessary to the exclusion of all else, that they might
know the Savior and stand spotless before God in Him? It's saying here in verse 13,
that's why we love you this way this much To see that happen And we work to that end Don't
we We do what we do to that end that our children our loved ones
might know him That's what Paul's saying. I came to you, you saw
how we came to you. We were enabled to preach the
gospel to you and we did so without guile, without ulterior motives. And I want to come back so I
can preach the gospel to you again. To that end. by God's grace and power. We
work to that end in our families, in this church, in our lives. May God make it ever more so. Let's pray.