Introduction

Let me begin with a question … for inside your head.  No need to call out.  And the question is this: what is most important to you in life?  OK … if you were to weigh up everything in your life … what would you say is of utmost importance?  Now many of us will probably say … ‘Jesus’ … right … or ‘God’.  And that’s correct.  God is the ultimate treasure.  But I’m NOT actually interested in the correct answer.  Right … if I wanted the CORRECT answer … I’d just Google it.  In case you’re wondering … I DID Google it.  I typed in ‘what is the most important thing in life?’  Google said quote; ‘according to many perspectives, the most important thing in life if your health’. Bu-bow Google.  But I digress.  I’m not asking this to get the CORRECT answer … I’m asking to get the REAL answer.

And by ‘REAL’ … I don’t mean what we know SHOULD be the most important thing … but what FUNCTIONS as the most important thing in our life.  OK … what is it that we spend MOST of our time, energy and money pursuing in life?  Well one of the best ways to figure out what is FUNCTIONALLY the most important thing in our life … is to look at our prayers.  What is it that we (i) pray most often for, and (ii) most fervently for?  What is it that takes primacy in our prayer life?  Because the thing that most dominates our PRAYER life … is quite often what is functioning as the most important thing IN our life.

But THIS then begs the question; how do we pray in a way that shows GOD is the most important thing in our life?  For example … if FAMILY is the most important thing in our life FUNCTIONALLY … then our prayer life will likely be dominated by asking for the general health and wellbeing of our family … right?  So how do we pray in a way that shows GOD is the most important thing in our life?  Well … that’s what we’re looking at today.

Today is the LAST week in our January series looking at the Apostle Paul’s prayers.  And what we’ve been doing across this series is we’ve been comparing OUR prayers … as modern Aussies … with the NT’s prayers.  OK … how closely do our prayers align with the NT’s prayers?

1. So Scott kicked us off a few weeks ago by showing us how to be dynamically Christian … from Ephesians 1.

2. Jack Normand then showed us to pray that our love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight … from Philippians 1.

3. And last week we saw Paul pray that the Colossians live lives worthy of the Lord … and please him in every way.

This week we’re closing our summer series by looking at Paul’s prayer from 2 Thessalonians.  And what this prayer shows us … is what should dominate our prayers … if God is our ultimate treasure.  Yet what dominates Paul’s prayer here will likely come as a bit of a surprise to many of us … because what dominates Paul’s prayers … is quite different to what dominates most of our prayers.

And there are 3 things in particular that surprise us from this prayer … which are our 3 points for today.  And they are (i) The surprising thing Paul is thankful for … v. 3-5, (ii) The surprising framework FOR Paul’s prayers … v. 6-10, followed by (iii) The surprising thing Paul asks for … v. 11-12.  So I pray you can stick with me … as we look at how OUR prayers can closer reflect PAUL’S prayer from 2 Thessalonians … because it shows us what IS of utmost importance in life.

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The surprising thing Paul is thankful for (v. 3-5)

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And our passage begins with these words:

2 Thessalonians 1:3 (NIV) We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters

Now if this sounds familiar … it’s because it’s pretty much word-for-word from last week’s passage.  Yet Paul is a little more forceful here than in Colossians.  Alright … Col 1:3 says ‘we always thank God’.  2 Thessalonians 1:3 says ‘we OUGHT always to thank God’.  Thanksgiving is a moral imperative according to this verse.  We OUGHT always to thanks God.

So … if the NT COMMANDS we always give thanks to God … what should we be thankful for?  Well the funny thing about thanksgiving is … it shows us what is important to us.  Whatever we most frequently give thanks for … BETRAYS what we most highly value.  For ME … if I’m being honest … the things I often find myself thanking God for are:

• My family.  He has blessed me with an incredible family.

• The material blessings he’s given me.  It seems I’m a little more materialistic than I’d like to admit.  Something to work on.

• My job.  I love getting up every day to serve this wonderful church.

• And that God helped me write yet another sermon.  Preaching a faithful and helpful sermon to you all each Sunday weighs heavily on me.  And I am ever thankful that God helps me show up every Sunday with a sermon.

So that’s ME.  What is it that YOU find most often fills your prayers of thanksgiving?  The reason it’s worthwhile thinking about this … is because when we turn to Paul’s prayers … they surprise us.  And they surprise us because the things Paul is thankful for … the things that are important to Paul … are NOT the things that you and I tend to cherish.

2 Thessalonians 1:3 (NIV) We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.

It’s fascinating doing a whole SERIES on Paul’s prayers … because this is the exact same thing that Paul prays for in Philippians 1 and Colossians 1.  The thing that Paul MOST cherishes … is that Christians are growing in their faith.  Christian growth is what dominates Paul’s prayers.

But THIS prayer has yet another surprising twist.  Paul is not JUST thankful that they’re growing in their faith.  He’s thankful that they’re growing in their faith …

2 Thessalonians 1:4 (NIV) … IN all the persecutions and trials you are enduring

It’s almost like Paul is thankful for their suffering.  Well v. 5 makes it clear that he is!  Read it with me:

2 Thessalonians 1:5 (NIV) All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.

So the ‘all this’ at the beginning of v. 5 … is referring to the ‘persecutions and trials’ at the end of v. 4.  So what Paul is saying in v. 5 is … the trials and sufferings that Christians endure … are EVIDENCE that God is righteous … or literally ‘that God’s judgment is right’.  Now HOW can this be?  How can God ALLOWING his beloved ones to suffer … be evidence of his righteousness?

It's because … SUFFERING can help Christians grow.  Now don’t hear me wrong.  Not EVERYONE grows closer to God through suffering.  For some people … suffering is the final nail in the coffin of their Christian life.  Suffering causes some to turn AWAY from God.  But there’s a second category of people … for whom suffering makes them a stronger Christian.  And we are surrounded by such people here at Earlwood Anglican.  We have people in our church who are cancer survivors … or abuse survivors.  We have people who have spent months in hospital … have gone through relationship breakdowns … have suffered persecution for being a Christian … have lost jobs … have lost money … have suffered all manner of trauma.  And the simple fact that they’re still here … still seeking God … means they’re stronger than the average Christian … even if they don’t feel it.

And Paul thanks God for such Christians.  And do you know WHY?  Because GROWING in Christian faith … even in suffering … is evidence that you’re fit for heaven:

2 Thessalonians 1:5 (NIV) … as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering

If God is the most important thing in life … then we should be thankful for those who are ready to meet him in the next.  So here’s our first piece of application for today.  Don’t wait for a person’s funeral … to be thankful for them.  How about once a week … we pull out our church directory … and quietly thank God for how each member of our church is growing in their Christian faith.  That’s what dominated Paul’s prayers.  So it should dominate ours too.

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The surprising framework for Paul’s prayers (v. 6-10)

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Well this brings us to the CENTRE of Paul’s prayer here … which is the pivot … the framework if you like … of this whole prayer.  OK … Paul is THANKFUL for those who are counted worthy of the next life.  He then feels it necessary to explain this next life in v. 6-10.  Paul says this:

2 Thessalonians 1:6-7 (NIV) God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.

So he’s talking about Judgment Day here … when Jesus returns to judge the world.  And the reason Paul is so tankful for the Thessalonian Christians … is because there are only 2 outcomes on Judgment Day.  Outcome number 1 … is to pay for your sins yourself.  This is what’s described in v. 9:

2 Thessalonians 1:9 (NIV) They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord

Hell … is the place where God removes his loving presence.  Now this may surprise some readers of the Bible … because the Bible’s favourite picture for Hell is ‘fire and brimstone’.  Yet ‘fire and brimstone’ is actually a metaphor.  But before you say ‘FINALLY … a preacher who DOESN’T preach fire and brimstone’ … please understand that though ‘fire and brimstone’ are figurative … they’re figurative of something a million times worse.  Being cut off from the presence of God … means being cut off from ALL love, beauty and joy.  All that is left in Hell is the bad stuff … the terrifying stuff … the torturous stuff.  Paul describes it here as ‘everlasting destruction’.

Now some might say ‘well how is it LOVING for God to cut off all his love from people?’  2 things to say to that.  The first is that if God were to simply OVERLOOK evil … NOT punish people for their sin … then he would cease being righteous.  There’s a story that’s JUST come out of the UK … about an incident that happened several years ago … when the police being called to a house because the neighbour heard screams.  When the police arrived … they found 7 Pakistani men in the house … and a naked 14-year-old white girl … who was passed out drunk … and had been sexually assaulted by the 7 Pakistani men.  You may have HEARD of these grooming gangs.  Do you know what the police did.  They arrested the 14-year-old girl for drunkenness and disorder.  Friends … God will not allow himself to be charged with being unconcerned about justice.  He will ‘pay back’ those who have sinned against him.

But secondly … God only removes his presence from people who don’t want a relationship with him in the first place.  In his book The Great Divorce … C. S. Lewis says there are only 2 kinds of people in this world; those who say to GOD … ‘thy will be done’ … and those whom God says to THEM ‘thy will be done’.  There is not a single person in hell who doesn’t choose to be there.

So that’s option 1 for the next life … everlasting destruction.  Option 2 comes in v. 10:

2 Thessalonians 1:10 (NIV) on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.

The word ‘marvelled’ there means to have our expectations exceeded.  When Jesus returns … those who have a relationship with Him will be overwhelmed by his beauty and his glory.  Everything that attracts us to Jesus … will be magnified a billion times.  And what will be MOST overwhelming to us is what Jesus did for us at the cross.  Instead of leaving US to pay for our own sins … like we deserve … Jesus volunteered to pay them for us.  And as our regulars know … what happened on the cross is the Father removed all his love and beauty and joy from the Son.  ‘My God, my God … why have you forsaken me’.  Jesus is the only person in human history … who had the presence of God removed … when he didn’t want it be.  Every single person in Hell is there because they were running from God in this life.  Jesus on the other hand was running TO God … and he was cut off … for us.

And this is WHY Paul is so thankful for the Christians in Thessalonica.  The fact that they belong to Jesus … have turned to Jesus in repentance and faith … means they WON’T spend eternity in everlasting destruction.  They will spend eternity having their expectations exceeded every single day … for all of eternity.

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The surprising thing Paul asks for (v. 11-12)

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And this leads us to our final question.  If God is the most important thing in life … because our relationship with him is the difference between everlasting destruction or everlasting marvelling … what then should be our number 1 request of God?

2 Thessalonians 1:11 (NIV) With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.

In v. 3-5 … Paul said the thing I’m MOST thankful for … is people being COUNTED worthy of heaven.  Remember the Jesus spectacles I put on last week?  I said when God looks at a Christian … he looks at them through the lens of Jesus.  And when God puts these Jesus glasses on … he sees Christians as being every bit as qualified for heaven as Jesus is … even though we’re NOT actually qualified.  Well in v. 11-12 … Paul asks that God will CLOSE THAT GAP … between how worthy God SEES us … and how worthy we are.

If God is the most important thing in life … then the thing we should want more than anything … the thing that should dominate our prayers … is the desire to grow more like him.  Now this is not to MAKE us worthy of heaven … like we can earn our way in.  Jesus has already taken care of that.  We’re already COUNTED worthy of heaven … v. 5.  The reason we want to BECOME more worthy … is to please the one who has MADE us worthy in God’s sight (GLASSES!).  Those who DON’T want to please God … are those who haven’t been pleased BY him.

So … we know WHAT Paul is asking for.  Two quick things to add to this as we close … which is the HOW and the WHY.  HOW do we become more worthy?  We need God to MAKE us worthy … v. 11.  You and I are not strong enough or disciplined enough to stay that course.  We will always be tempted by the world, the flesh and the Devil.  So if we want to BECOME more worthy … then we need God’s help.

Secondly the WHY.  WHY are we seeking our desires and deeds to bear fruit?  Well being counted worthy … as important as that is … is not the ultimate end for Paul.  The ultimate end is in v. 12:

2 Thessalonians 1:12 (NIV) We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him

If God is our ultimate treasure … then the thing we should want the most is the name of our Lord Jesus being glorified.  What does that mean?  It means the name of the Lord Jesus being lifted up in honour … being held in higher regard.  So understand what Paul is saying here.  The name of the Lord Jesus is held in higher honour … when his people are obeying him more.

And that brings this prayer full circle.  Paul started in v. 3-5 thanking God that the Thessalonians were growing in their Christian faith.  He ends in v. 11-12 by praying that the Thessalonians grow even MORE in their Christian faith.  Why?  Because it shows we’re counted worthy of heaven.  But it also brings glory to God … the meaning of life itself.

So let’s put some wheels on this as we close.  What do we do with all this?  Firstly … if God is the most important thing in life … then we SHOW this by spending our time, energy and money trying to please him in our desires and deeds.  OK … we find out what pleases him … and we try and do it.

Yet secondly … we need his help in this.  So this must dominate our prayers as well as our actions.

• OK … are our prayers dominated by things like getting ahead at work … or that we will live lives worthy of our calling … v. 11?

• Are our prayers dominated by things like our kids passing their exams … or finding a good Christian spouse … or that THEY will live lives worthy of their calling?

• Are our prayers dominated by praying that our Bible study members will get through that tough thing coming up … or that they will live lives worthy of their calling?

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Conclusion

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Friends … the thing that God cares about MOST … is that his name will be glorified.  The meaning of life is to bring glory to God.  And it is right and fitting to give glory and honour to He who is most worthy of glory and honour.

But one of the ways God does that … is through making Christians worthy of their calling.  So if God’s MAIN purview for Christians is to make us worthy of our calling … then it is the duty of each and every Christian to be seeking God’s power to do so.  So how about I close by praying that very thing now:

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Prayer

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Dear Lord,

With Judgment Day in mind … we constantly pray […] that our God may make [us] worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition [our] every desire for goodness and [our] every deed prompted by faith. 12 We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in [us], and [us] in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.