1 (No) Heart for Christ(mas) 2 Thessalonians 1:5-2:17 Temple Baptist Church 12/4/16 Introduction: Good morning, Temple Baptist! It s really great to be with you all this morning. How are you all doing? (Audience response) Now I may have missed a few voices, but I believe the majority of you responded to the question by answering, good. Now, I realize that you all can t actually tell me how things are going for you in this given moment, because then we wouldn t have time for a sermon. Perhaps, you re thinking, Hey! That s a good idea! Now, my intent isn t to give you a hard time about how you responded to this question as I myself would respond in a similar way, but I am wanting to draw attention to why we chose to respond in this way. Now, for some of us that are posed with this question we are able to express at length and in great detail the inner workings of our heart and mind where we don t necessarily feel uncomfortable divulging vulnerable information about ourselves. That s fantastic if you are one of those people, but I would be willing to bet that the majority of us don t fall into that camp. Rather, when the majority of us are faced with the question, How are you doing? our tendency is to give as little information as possible while making sure to include a positive spin or inflection in our response. Hey, how are things going? Oh, I m not doing too bad. You guys are picking up what I m laying down, right? As North Dakotans we could be facing financial ruin, a broken marriage, the ravages of cancer, and the heater on our car going out in negative 20-degree weather and when someone asks us how we re doing we respond with, Oh, not too shabby. Man, if that s what not too shabby sounds like then I can t begin to imagine how awful shabby must look! Am I right though, guys? These are the responses we often give. I mean, seriously, the only time your average North Dakotan gives any indication that they are struggling is when they respond to this question by saying, Oh, I m gettin by just taking one day at a time. From my experience when we hear someone give this type of answer we can almost always assume that they are facing difficult circumstances. Although our Upper Midwestern culture plays a role in how we answer this question, the greatest driving force behind the why we choose to respond in this particular manner is a matter of the heart. Now, I m not going to ask you to vocally respond, or stand, or raise your hand this morning, but a question that I want us to consider internally this morning is, How healthy is my heart? And I m not talking about the physical health of your heart, although that s important too, but what I m asking is what is the state of your heart in relation to the Father? Last week Pastor Randy talked about home no longer being home as our culture has transitioned away from our Christian heritage and values and has moved into a post- Christendom period where God is no longer the focal point, but rather places the emphasis on
2 the self. And as our culture moves further and further away from the heart of God it comes as no surprise that Christianity, now a sub-culture, is experiencing hostility from the very culture that once was predominantly Christian. Friends, I just have to ask, while living as Christians in a time of exile do you feel your heart growing numb to the life the Father has called you to live? Have you arrived at a point where you say, Okay, God. Enough is enough! I have worked tirelessly to try and conform my life to your will, but yet here I am floundering in nearly every aspect of my life while others that don t follow you indulge in every selfish desire under the son. God, you re not doing your part! Folks, during this Christmas season are you facing so much disappointment and despair that when push comes to shove you would say that you couldn t care less about Christ coming to earth? Now, if you re like me, during those times where I am lacking heart the best way that I can take heart is to experience others that have heart. So, let s do just that by taking a look at the heart of the believers in Thessalonica. If you are able, please stand with me and let s read together 2 Thessalonians 1:5-12. Body: Now, Pastor Randy is going to be speaking directly to the topic of the present hope we can have in Christ in a few weeks, but here we find the author largely addressing the future hope believers will experience at Christ s return if they continue to persevere in the faith. At the end of v. 4 we read that the severity of the persecution Thessalonian believers received at the hands of those who opposed their faith was really beginning to intensify. And with the intent of encouraging believers to stay the course, we find the author recognizing the Thessalonian believers steadfastness to the Lord in the midst of affliction when he writes in v. 5, This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering. You see, for 1 st century Christians living in Thessalonica as well as for 21 st century Christians living in North Dakota the key to persevering under hostility without lashing out at our persecutors is to recognize the horrible judgment God s enemies will face if they do not repent of their sin. As we just finished reading a few minutes ago in v. 8-10 we see the fury of our just Lord unleashed on those who afflict the people of God. Scripture says that this will be done, in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. The Word says that those people will, suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. Folks, it s going to get real ugly real quick for the enemies of the Lord. All that is contrary to the will of God will be put to an end. But, what again was said about Christians lashing out towards others? What an outlandish concept, right?! Christians don t lash out towards our enemies we love them! I wish I could I say I ve always loved and never lashed out. Perhaps you find yourself feeling the same way this morning. Or, maybe you re at a place where you know you ve said and done things that
3 have hurt others, but yet you feel little to no remorse for these actions, which brings us back to the question of How healthy is my heart? Like with the physical body, our spiritual body is only as healthy as the things we put into it. What things is your heart consuming that may be negatively impacting your relationship with Jesus Christ? If we re putting things into our hearts that go against the will of God we can t possibly believe that our relationship with him will become stronger. So, we arrive at the second question on the back of your bulletin, which asks the question, What sin is causing my heart to grow numb towards God and his goodness? Friends, if we re caught up in a cycle of perpetual sin that is devastating our relationship with God, which leaves us feeling numb to his presence then we must put an end to it. Whether it s a cycle of complaining about our work, or about our wife, or about the car we drive, or about the house we wish we could have we need to turn from this sin and move back into the presence of God. Perhaps your cycle of sin doesn t involve complaining, but rather involves sending secret text messages to someone that isn t your wife or isn t your husband. Maybe it s even escalated further than that and you re asking yourself, How did I get to this point? We must need to turn from sin and get back in the presence of God. So, how do we do this? How do we get back in the presence of God when our hearts have grown numb to him? Well, a couple of places where we find our answer to this question is in the Advent readings that we heard earlier this morning. James 5:16 reads, Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Also 1 John 1:9, which states, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What role does confession play in your life? I believe Scripture is clear on the matter that we need to both confess our sins to one another and also confess our sins to the Father. So with that being said, who in your life do you have whom you can confess your sin? A brother or sister in Christ that we can be completely and unashamedly honest with about the wicked desires of our hearts. And we in return can be the same for them. Folks, confessing our sin to one another as Christians is a biblical mandate. This is something we must be doing on a regular basis if we are wanting to stay in the presence of God and on mission with him. Over the past few months we have spent a lot of time talking about TBC s Life Groups. I believe that our Life Groups foster an atmosphere of safety and understanding and should therefore be utilized as an arena for us to share our sin. Perhaps the thought of unloading our wicked thoughts to our entire Life Group is too overwhelming of an endeavor. In that case I would suggest that you pull one group member, preferably someone that you can relate to, and ask if you can get together one-on-one to discuss the evil desires of our hearts. What about confessing our sin to the Lord? Christians, we know what we re up against in this world. We are bombarded with messages that promise satisfaction if we indulge our hearts, and minds, and bodies into things that gratify the desires of our flesh. Yet, I m going to go out
4 on a limb here and say that everyone of us in this room at one point or another has tried to satisfy our desires through what the world has to offer and it has left us more empty than when we started! I m just going to say it bluntly; the world makes promises it can t keep. They re empty. Friends, the Father already knows the wickedness of our hearts, but yet as it states in 1 John 1:9, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Do you hear that? It doesn t matter how filthy and disgusting our hearts are because when we earnestly and honestly confess up the sin of our hearts we have a God of love that not only forgives us, but cleanses us! He wipes our slate clean. In chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians we find the author exhorting the believers in Thessalonica to remain steadfast in their faith as earthly trials wage war against them. In v. 3-4 Scripture indicates the future coming of the man of lawlessness or the son of destruction and refers to him as the one who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. The man of lawless or the son of destruction as the text refers to him, is evil incarnate. He will feast on the wicked hearts and evil desires of those that have not come into the presence of God. His only intent is to destroy what God has created. As we read in v. 9 Satan utilizes false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception to ensnare God s creation. The evil one puts on a façade that if we indulge our most wicked fantasies than we will experience lasting satisfaction, but friends I have to tell you this is a lie. Satan is a liar. He s a charlatan. He s an imposter. And the unfortunate reality is that there will be people who will be condemned to Hell, because they did not believe the truth of the Gospel, but rather found pleasure in unrighteousness. Scripture is very clear on this matter. So, what about the believers? What about us? How then are we to live? I believe we find the answer to this question in v. 15 where Scripture says, So then, brothers (and sisters), stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Friends, for many of us it comes down to the simple fact of doing what we know we re supposed to be doing. Now, I want to conclude our message this morning with asking one final question. What practices promote a heart for Christ s coming? As I was spending some time in prayer earlier this week the Holy Spirit gave me a few words to receive as both comfort and conviction and I want to share them with you this morning, because I believe they not only can pertain to your life as well mine, but that they also help us answer this last question. The first phrase he gave me is, You are faithful so be faithful. I think this phrase links up with what we just read in v. 15 where Scripture tells us to hold firm to our Christian traditions and beliefs. We know what to do, so do it. The second phrase the Spirit gave me was the single word, Serve. Folks, if your heart is distant from God I can guarantee that when you take the initiative to serve God and others out of a pure heart that your heart can only grow closer to
5 the Father s. The third phrase that I received from the Holy Spirit was, Come, rest in me. Friends, I m not going to ask you to raise your hands, but I m curious as to how many of us in this room this morning are utterly exhausted. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. If that is you this morning, then set aside time where you can simply be in the Father s presence. No cell phones. No TVs. No computers. Simply be with the Father. And finally, the last phrase I received from the Spirit this week was, Help the hurting. This can be through practical acts of service, which is a wonder gift, but this can also look like taking the time to ask someone, How healthy is your heart? It s amazing to see how our hearts can become re-aligned with Jesus when we actively choose to follow the principles that God has outlined for us in his Word. And when we inevitably fall short in following the Lord s commands we humble ourselves before his throne and confess of our shortcomings. Friends, we have a God that loves us so much that he gets jealous when we pursue things outside of his presence. So today, and this week, and this season, let s model our hearts after our Father s perfect heart.