Advent calls us to prepare our hearts for Christ’s return, just as Paul urged the Thessalonians to live lives of thanksgiving, prayer, and holiness. In this sermon, "Established Hearts," we explore how God shapes us through His Word and Spirit to be blameless and loving as we await Christ's appearing. Join us in seeking hearts ready for His coming!

Contemplate these questions as you listen to this week’s message:

1. How does Paul’s expression of thanksgiving in 1 Thessalonians 3:9 challenge your view of gratitude in your spiritual life?

2. In what ways can you actively encourage and equip others in their faith journey as Paul sought to do for the Thessalonians?

3. How does the work of God in establishing blameless hearts through His Word and Spirit transform how you live in anticipation of Christ’s return?

Transcript:

Over the last few months, I've been slowly watching through the television series MASH again, an episode here and episode there. I'm currently towards the end of the third season. In one of the episodes towards the end of that season, the inhabitants of MASH 4077 received notification that General Douglas MacArthur is going to come visit them.

He is coming because they have an outstanding record of service and having a high survival rate of people who come into their hospital. As you're watching... Likely aware, the show is set in Korea during the Korean War, and they are not too far from the front. So this is not a fancy hospital. It is a very dirty location. They need to be mobile as often as possible.

So it's not exactly the type of place that is easy to dress up and make beautiful. But regardless, a significant portion of this episode... The episode about General MacArthur coming is about trying to fix up the camp. He is such a well -known figure that they try to clean up a dusty, dirty, dingy army camp in the midst of all the chaos that is going on around them. All the bloodshed that they see, this legendary presence of Douglas MacArthur is supposed to come. And so they want to take... Something as dirty and as dark as a well -worn army tent and try to make it grand and maybe even sophisticated because they know that this person is coming.

So we find ourselves in the season of Advent, and we're preparing ourselves for the coming of Jesus. And the season of Advent is not just to prepare ourselves for... Christmas. Or to serve as a weekly reminder. You come to church and you know, Well, I got four weeks yet to Christmas shop. Well, next week I'll have three. Next week, you know.

We are not serving here by lighting the candles as your personal countdown to getting your Christmas shopping done. That's not the purpose. It's helpful in that way. You can use it that way. But that's not the purpose. The point is that we've come to sing, O come Emmanuel, to remember that Jesus Christ, came a first time, so that we will be reminded that he will come a second time. That he is coming at the end of history to judge the living and the dead.

And so Advent is a season of repentance. As we seek to conform our lives to God's law. And as we seek to live in holiness, so that we are prepared for his appearing. And we see this idea of preparing ourselves, in the passage that we read from 1st Thessalonians this morning. So let's line out three points from that passage and then we'll consider this idea of preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord Jesus.

So the first thing we'll see is that we are to be filled with thanks for what God has done for his covenant people. Second, we see that a Christian life is to be one filled with prayer, and specifically prayer that we would materialize, mature and grow in faith as God's people. And finally, Paul speaks of the call to live a life of holiness that is filled with love for others. And so with those points set out before us, let's turn our attention now to verse 9, and that first theme that we have that we're to be filled with thanksgiving.

Well here, Paul expresses a profound joy and gratitude for what God has accomplished, in the lives of the Thessalonians. This is a joy that is overflowing as he reflects on their faithfulness. And as we consider this verse, we're going to see how a heart established in Christ, begins with recognizing and rejoicing in God's covenant faithfulness. So as we look at this verse today, we're greeted by a familiar and very timely word for us, thanksgiving.

Because we, we serve the one who is the giver of all things. To give thanks is a natural thing. It's what we are to do. And we acknowledge that all good and perfect gifts come from the mighty hand of God. All good comes from his mighty hand. To give thanks to God, that is to be our response to his love and his benevolence towards us.

And here, Paul, is using that truth to show just how grateful he is to God. And so what we have here is a rhetorical question. The context of this passage, is Paul hearing from Timothy, about the faith of the Christians in Thessalonica. So essentially, Paul's acknowledging that God has done such great things in that church there, that there is no way, that Paul could ever possibly, give enough thanks for God, or to God.

And you get what he's expressing here. Whether you have experienced it personally or not, you know of someone who owes everything to someone else. Maybe, maybe this person had their life saved by somebody else. Or maybe they were helped through a particularly difficult time. But we know from knowing these people, that there's no way that they could ever possibly say thank you enough times, or ever do anything to fully repay them for what they've done.

And this idea is so familiar to us, and it is such a concept that we can understand, that it's often used in stories and in movies. We see a character who had their life saved by someone, and then they become a servant to that person for life. Because they saved their life. This is such a well used plot device. I bet if we sat and thought about it, you could come up with two, maybe even three movies that use it, without spending too much time thinking about it.

It is rather common. And the reason that is, the reason it's frequently used, is because we get this idea, that there are some things that are so great, that just saying thanks, doesn't cover it. We can't do justice to some things, when we are helped by others with just words of thanks. It comes out in how we serve, in what we do. We get this idea that Paul is expressing here.

And so he is saying that he gives thanksgiving to God, for the faith that is being shown in the Thessalonian church. But it is such a blessing, that he knows there's no way that he could ever offer, enough praise, enough thanksgiving to God, for this blessing. He has so much joy, for that faith that they have been given. And so, this causes us, to ask an interesting question. Do we feel joy and thanksgiving like this, for the faithfulness that God shows to his people?

Does seeing someone come to faith and trust in Christ, cause us to thank God with inexplicable joy? Or do we just take the salvation of God's people for granted? When our covenant children express their faith in Christ, do we show joy and praise to God, for his being faithful to that promise that he made in their baptism? Are we filled with gratitude? And do we realize that there is no way that we can return to God, enough thanksgiving for what he has done in saving his people?

Back on Thanksgiving Day, oh so long ago, the passage that we had this past Thursday, continually called us back, to that faithfulness that God shows to his people. And this is just another reminder of what we saw on Thanksgiving. Our lives as Christians should be lives of thanksgiving, and if we continually look to God's faithfulness to us, if we look to those who have come before us in faith, and if we remember that God is faithful, and we show thanksgiving, that he's going to be faithful even to the ones who come after us, it's going to lead us to be people who are thankful in the way that Paul is describing here.

We will be looking to live holy lives in response to the grace that God has shown to us and to all of his covenant people. And so Paul's thanksgiving here flows naturally from seeing God's work in the lives of his people. But it doesn't stop there. This gratitude that Paul has drives him to his knees in prayer, and it should do the same for us, seeking not only to praise God, but to ask for his continued work in shaping us and shaping others.

So as we move to verse 10, we see Paul's deep desire for the Thessalonians to grow in faith, reminding us that thanksgiving and prayer are inseparable for us as Christians. So Paul isn't content with where he sees the people in the church at Thessalonica being at spiritually. He prays earnestly. It says he prays night and day for them. He is fervent in his prayer because their growth in their faith matters.

He is filled with thanksgiving because they have shown faith and are growing in faith, but he is not content to leave them where they're at. He And I think too often we see saving faith as a destination, and then we tend to be content in moving on. And I'm meaning from the aspect of prayer here. We might pray for the salvation of someone earnestly, but once they have expressed faith in Christ, we sort of think that they've arrived.

But here we are reminded to do more than just pray that someone would come to faith. We're reminded that we need to continually pray that they might grow in their faith. And specifically here, Paul is praying that he might be able to join them face to face. That he would be able to disciple them and teach them the faith himself. It's not just that he is praying for them to grow in faith, but he's also desiring to be a vessel by which they grow. A means that God uses to help them to grow in faith.

And as I mentioned several times over the course of this service so far, Advent is about preparing for the coming of Jesus. And we see here that being prepared isn't just about getting our own house in order, but we are also helping others to do so as well. We're not sojourning through this life on our own as Christians. We have our fellow believers with us on this journey.

And having personally taken many laps around the sun, and observing the way we look at things as Christians, I think that we too quickly sell ourselves short when it comes to how we can build others up in faith. We think that this idea of helping others to grow is someone else's job who does it better. We believe that our weaknesses, and our struggles, are a reason that we can't help someone to grow. And so what do we do? We sideline ourselves. We restrain ourselves from serving in that way.

But the truth is we all have different abilities and gifts, and we all have different struggles. Maybe the way we've grown through our struggles can help someone who is struggling now. And so as we prepare for Christmas, perhaps your way of preparing yourself is doing what Paul is doing. What he says he is doing here. That he is being earnest in prayer. And perhaps we can pray how we can help someone where they are lacking in faith.

And we see in Paul's example then that challenge to move from thanksgiving to active participation in the spiritual growth of others. His fervent prayer reminds us that preparing for Christ's returns isn't just something that we do individually. We are doing this together. It is a communal endeavor. We invest our lives into the faith journeys of those around us.

So as we follow the example that Paul sets out for us here, the question that I want you to dwell on is this. How can I actively encourage and equip others to grow in their walk with Christ? How can I do that? That is a prayer for us as we prepare for Christ's coming. As we think about Advent and about preparing for Christ's second coming. How can I actively encourage and equip others to grow in their walk?

And while we sit with that question, we come to the last few verses of this passage today and we see what the end goal is in the Christian life. We are on a journey to holiness. Paul has shown us thankfulness. He has shown us prayer. And those are important for spiritual growth. But he is pressing this deeper, further up and further in to what it means to prepare for Christ's appearing.

So a life of preparation is more than just gratitude. It's more than just growth. It's about cultivating a heart of holiness that overflows with love. And so we move on to these verses here. Verses 11 through 13. And we find that Paul's prayer shifts to a focus on the kind of life that reflects of a person who is waiting for Christ to appear when He comes again at the end of history.

And so as we transition here to these final three verses, we see right away with verse 11 that Paul understands that all of this, everything that he's been talking about, is a gift from God. His hope is not that any of this will be earned by the effort of the believers at Thessalonica. He makes it clear that if this happens, and when it happens, it's a gift from God. It is God at work in His people. God will guide Paul to them if He so ordains.

And this doesn't mean that Paul isn't doing anything to make it possible for him to go to Thessalonica. No. It means that he knows that if he does not go, it will happen because it's God's will. And if he does go, it will be because it's God's will. God is at work. And this is not just Paul trusting that God will guide him to Thessalonica. It's not just about the trip there. He knows that if the people in this church are going to increase and abound in love for one another and for all people, it will be the work of God's mighty hand.

That's Paul's hope. And notice that the emphasis here is on love. It's how they care for one another. This isn't just about outward appearances and hoping to look good to other people. This is genuine. It's deep down care for one another. It's something that you can't fake. And as I started out, I mentioned the television episode where they were cleaning up that filthy army camp. You don't dust off a family with a few dirty rocks and put a picture up in an army tent and suddenly think it's the epitome of beauty. That's not how it works.

Paul is talking about the same thing in their lives. They're not just putting on a veneer of holiness, a veneer of loving others. Instead, Paul is talking about a work being done in them in and through them throughout their whole being. Not just for the sake of being nice. Truly loving fellow sisters and brothers in Christ. And notice what he says that this does. It establishes their hearts blameless in holiness.

And once again, we have to notice who is active here. It is God working in His people. It isn't so that you may establish your heart in holiness blameless. That's not what it says. So that God will establish you. It is God who establishes the hearts of His people. And He does this through His Word and Spirit. It's something He has promised to do and it's something that He is faithful in.

But that does not mean that you and I are inactive in the process. As you've heard me say so many times before, this doesn't mean that we sit back and just wait and hope that we're going to be zapped with holiness. That's not how it works. God works through means. And those means are His Word and Spirit at work in us. And so we need to be in the Word. We need to be under the Word. We need to hear the Gospel proclaimed to us regularly.

You won't wake up tomorrow zapped into holiness. But you can trust that when you hear the Word the Holy Spirit is at work in you. Because that Holy Spirit indwells you and is doing that work to make you holy. To make you established in holiness for the day of Christ.

We're able to be confident in that truth because it isn't us doing it. It is God. Our sin rendered us completely incapable of pleasing God. We had been separated from Him but through His life through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus we now have access to God. We have that Holy Spirit working in us. We are blameless because Christ was blameless on our behalf and bore the wrath of God.

We have been united to Jesus by faith and so now we are declared righteous before God. And it is our response to this work that God has done in us that causes us to have a desire to grow in holiness. That we might be prepared at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is not so that we pass some sort of final. We're not doing this so that when Jesus comes we can say I passed, I can go to heaven. That's not the point. The point is not so that we look busy when Jesus comes back.

The point of this is to do the will of the one who has saved us by His grace. He has done this work in us and so we now desire to live a life that glorifies Him. So as we approach Christmas the trees that are now occupying our living rooms and the lights that are adorning homes and trees are going to remind us that Christmas is coming.

Let it remind us that it's not Christmas yet. We are waiting just as we are waiting for Christ to return to judge the living and the dead. So as we see these visible reminders around us of the first coming of Christ may that build up in us a desire for holiness so that we might be prepared for His second coming. That our lives might be a witness to the work that He has done in us. The work that He is doing in us and the work that He will do in us.

This is His promise to His covenant people. He establishes our hearts in holiness. So let's believe it. Hearing the word. Knowing that God is doing this in you and I. Amen. Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God we are so grateful for Your word and how we see that You are doing a good work in us. We pray that we would be a people of thanksgiving that we would be a people of prayer and we would be a people in holiness. Knowing that You have forgiven us and so You are also establishing our hearts to be blameless when Christ returns at the end of history.

May the reminders of the season of Christmas around

us give us a desire to live a life of repentance. And may our lives be glorifying to You that others might see and hear and believe the good news of this One who comes to save His people. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.