We began a new series on giving thanks we’re going to walk through several parts of 1st Thessalonians where Paul keeps finding so many things to be thankful for. Now when the church was started in Thessalonica it was he had a vision to go to Macedonia. Macedonia and he they wanted him to come spread the gospel and when he went there with Sylvanius or Silas he ended up wanting to take Timothy with them on their journey and Timothy went with them and they ended up in this place called Thessalonica and he was bearing down for a great ministry there and three weeks later he was run out of town.
Has that ever happened to you? I hope not. But it wasn’t easy and so he left and as they were beginning this progress the church was just in its infancy in Thessalonica. It was just beginning and they had to leave and there was pressure all around for them not to have a church.
So it might have just been a few weeks later is what some commentaries some theologians think that a few weeks later Timothy and Silas were able to go back to Thessalonica and they came back to Paul with a good report. The church is still alive and Paul was so excited he grabbed papyrus whatever he wrote on and wrote them out a letter and he was just so thankful because it was a hard three weeks and he made it out of there alive but he was even more worried about the church making it out of there alive. We’re gonna start with 1st Thessalonians chapter 1 and we’re gonna look at verses 2 through 10.
Will you stand as you are able? We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit with full conviction. You know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake and you became imitators of us and of the Lord for you received the word with much affliction in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything for they themselves concerning us the kind of reception we have report to us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God to wait and to wait for his Son from Jesus from Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come the Word of God inspired by God for the people of God thanks be to God amen you may be seated I don’t know if you have ever been this through this but sometimes when it gets close to Thanksgiving or on Thanksgiving Day you have everybody go around and say something they’re thankful for and it’s kind of awkward thankfulness is something when we give thanks we just have to do it regularly it’s kind of something you get accustomed to and once you start doing it it becomes easier and easier and easier and less like okay I got to find something that I’m thankful for but the more you do it the more that you can do it in all circumstances in all situations Paul talks to those in Thessalonica about how they were in much affliction but they received the gospel in the joy of the Holy Spirit it was a tough situation for them to bring the gospel and for these the pagans there to understand who God is and how there is one true and living God and Paul stayed some places for months even years but he got three weeks there if you had three weeks to tell everyone tell someone everything about Jesus what would you say well he must have had a lot of help from God because we know by this letter that the church survived all of this now in Paul’s excitement it wasn’t like the church there was perfect and they had everything all figured out which is why they needed others to go there and share the Gospels share the gospel and make sure they were on track and they needed to and he started writing them letters and he says in those letters I long to come and see you and he eventually does get to go see the church in Thessalonica.
D. Ermend Hebert says that Paul’s thankfulness didn’t come out of a sense of just thinking man they think I’m the greatest dude in the world he had conflict within the church within his circles with this all happened soon after it blew up between he and Barnabas and happened within the community these troubles he writes a whole chapter later on in this book defending himself against his ministry in the slander of false accusations he didn’t his his gratitude didn’t come because the Christians were morally impeccable he used a whole chapter to warn them against the failings in regard to sexual impurity and his gratitude didn’t come because the Thessalonian Christians were completely accurate in their doctrine he had to correct some of the wrong ideas they had also Hebert says but here for the first time chronologically in Paul’s writings we have possibly the first letter he sent out to the churches and it came out of a sense of this feeling of thankfulness which is a great way to begin a letter if we look at this in verse 2 it says we give thanks to God always and everywhere remembering you constantly constantly mentioning you in our prayers remembering before our God and your father the work of faith and of labor and of love and steadfastness of hope in Christ Jesus why was Paul so thankful for this group of Christians because they worked together they persevered together for the gospel they came together and Paul used here the combination of faith hope and love that we see later on in 1st Corinthians but it’s so important and and how he connects these is is pretty cool that their faith produced work as the nature of the true faith in fact it says father in your work of faith work of faith that it is that work there are a couple of Greek words for work and work is more of a sense there of how it brought joy and how it brought peace and how it brought a sense of satisfaction and they had this work but it also says they had a labor of love now when they use the word labor it connects more to saying that was hard work where they sweat and they anguished and they wore themselves out for the gospel of Jesus Christ and then he also says their hope they had hope that gave them endurance with their faith and love they had hope that gave them endurance that the reason why they were still standing is because they had endurance because they fought through the difficulties but it’s not just what Paul did it’s not just what the people did but he’s pretty clear to say that it will the word came in power and in the Holy Spirit with conviction that they had that the reason why it worked is because of God that they trusted in God and that endurance they had came from their faith and their love of God and what he did for them so it leads to the inevitable question who are we thankful for who are our faithful friends that we can sit back and think we had a labor of love together we work together for the gospel of Jesus Christ now we’re gonna think of a minute in a few different categories one is for the Saints the Saints those that we lit candles for in honor of them those who toiled with us or may have toiled for us when we were young or young in our faith and still receiving the gospel and they gave so much for us I can think of Sunday school teachers who put up with us for some reason when we seemed like we had no business being there but they were patient enough to stay for years and years and teach kids and youth and those who gave so much for us who are no longer with us now another group of faithful friends are the faith forming friends those who are there helping form our faith maybe when we were young in our faith they’re still alive maybe there’s someone we need to call and just say thank you to that we haven’t talked to forever who are your faith forming friends that we need to give thanks for those who walk with us those who care for us those who are there in our lives in everything we do whether it’s in your hope builders groups or your Bible studies or or people you’ve had from the past that said just the right thing at the right time and planted the seed so that now you’re here in faith today so many faith forming friends we need to give thankful thanks for and then the faithful who labor and walk with us now whether we’re going through a health issue or a work issue or just something that is tough who is walking with you now who is caring for you who is there by your side who is there to talk to who is there to answer a text or pick up the phone we all need those kind of people in our lives it’s today reminds me as we thanks for faithful friends that it’s hard to be a Lone Ranger Christian it’s hard to do it on our own we need those other people to lift us up we give thanks for every one of you out here thank you for serving and giving and worshiping with us and being a part of One Hope Church being a part of our lives being a part of who God has called us to be I pray that what we have is a labor of love because sometimes it’s tough sometimes it’s hard but by the power of God we will continue on and we will like those saints that have gone before us be able to bless one another and bless people in our lives we’re thankful for family who have given us so much and and we sometimes take it for granted we’re thankful for those who are praying for us who we don’t even realize who are praying for us thank you for being you thank you for your faith thank you for walking together let’s pray Almighty God today we give thanks thank you God for giving us faithful friends faithful friends whose work produces faith faithful friends who labor have a labor of love with us faithful friends whose hope produces endurance in our lives thank you God for the love you give us in Jesus Christ and help us to remember not just one day a year but every day that we are so blessed we are so blessed with people of faith around us and though we all may be imperfect you are perfect and you are the center you are the rock you are who we lean on and you God because of you we can give thanks all the time for faithful friends in Jesus name amen