PREPARATIONS FOR A JOYFUL DAY
2 Thessalonians 1:1-5
To have a joyful day, start
out expecting a day of joy.
I want to use the analogy of
baking a cake.
When you start thinking about
baking a cake, you expect
it to be good and enjoyable
to eat.
You wouldn’t think about a
cake with the end result being
something you can’t eat.
When cooking a cake, you have
the expectations of something sweet and delicious.
The first thing you do is lay
out all the ingredients.
Eggs,
flour, milk, sugar, butter, baking power, flavoring
Each ingredient has a job to
do. Flour provides the structure; baking powder and baking soda give the cake
its airiness; eggs bind the ingredients; butter tenderizes; sugar sweetens;
and milk provides moisture.
Having the ingredients does
not make a cake
You have to stir up the mixture.
Heat the oven to the desired
temperature. There is some wait time.
Put the batter in a cake pan
then the oven. There is some bake time.
Once the cake is baked, you
have some cool down time.
You have to set yourself up
for the sweetness each day.
You live life one day at a
time. Prepare your self for joy
each day.
In this text, Paul sets the
church up for the sweetness in life.
It was not a good time to be
a Christian. They faced extreme
opposition from the Jewish
leaders who did not want them to
exist.
Paul encouraged the Church
with grace and peace from the Father.
He gave them the attitude for
peace in the mist of persecution.
Prov 27:9
Ointment and perfume rejoice
the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel.
You have set yourself up each
day for Joy.
You have all the ingredients
for Joy
PEACE, YOUR DAILY
OBJECTIVE
V:1. Paul, Silas and Timothy,
To the church of the
Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace to you from
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
A. I liken the
sweetness of life to God’s Grace and peace.
Without the thinking, you want make any plans
to enjoy grace and peace.
God’s grace, His favor is all around you.
You woke up this morning
With God’s favor. What plan do you have to take advantage of
His grace so that it results in your peace?
1. Paul gives us all the ingredients for a
peaceful day.
2. I liken flour to the Word. The Word of
God is the structure
Of Christian living
3. Start each day off in prayer. Meditate
on your favorite
Scripture.
B. I liken the milk, the
moisture, to Jesus Christ.
John 4:10
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the
gift of God and who it is that asks
you for a drink, you would have asked him
and he would have given you
living water."
The living water is eternal life. Our life is a journey to eternal life
with Jesus. Our focus on Jesus takes us
beyond daily
activities.
C. I liken the baking power and the baking
soda to the Holy Spirit
1. The Holy Spirit comfort us each day and
reminds us of the
Promises
of God which lighten burdens and enlightens our
minds.
2. We have to submit ourselves to the Holy
Spirit for it to do its job.
D. The sugar that sweetens, I
liken to God’s compassion for us.
Matt 9:36-37
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion
on them, because they were
harassed and helpless, like sheep without
a shepherd.
God knows what you are going to go
through during the day.
1. God’s compassion causes Him to move on our
behalf.
2. We should have that same compassion for
others.
E. The butter, the
tenderizing agent, I liken to tolerance.
Tolerance softens us to the problems and
needs of others
Romans 2:4
Or do you show contempt for the riches of
his kindness, tolerance and
patience, not realizing that God's
kindness leads you toward repentance?
1. We have peace with God because of His
tolerance through Christ
2. Since God is tolerant with us, we must
learn to be tolerant with others
F. The eggs the binding ingredient, I liken to
the study of God’s Word.
1. When we come together as a group we are
binding ourselves together
in
the body of Christ.
2. In the Word, we will find all that we
are and all God expects
of us in the study of God’s Word.
3. There is power in the Word.
Power to change
Power to convict
Power to love
Power to serve
STIR UP YOUR GIFT
Now that you know you got all the ingredient
for a peaceful day,
what are you going to do about it?
To
get the peace that surpasses all understanding,
you
Got to stir up the gift.
2 Tim 1:6
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou
stir up the gift of God,
which is in thee by the putting on of
my hands.
G. Like baking a cake, it want happen unless
you stir up the ingredients.
1. The peace of God don’t happen all at
once. You can’t just snap your
fingers and be peaceful with your
situation.
2. To be at peace is a time consuming
process.
3. In baking a cake, you got the preparation
time, you got the bake time.
and you got the cooling down time.
4. In
order to enjoy grace of God’s peace you have to learn patience.
Becoming patient takes time.
a. You got the preparation time which is the
study of God’s Word.
b. You
got the stirring up time, when you are submitting yourself to
the
guidance of the Holy Spirit.
c. You got baking time when you are growing
in the spirit.
d. You
got the cooling down time when you are determined to be like
Jesus.
You
are cooling down when you are getting rid of any attitude that
is not pleasing to God.
You are cooling down when you learn to listen
and not argue.
You
are cooling down when you are meditating on God’s word.
You are cooled down when you get up in the
morning expecting
with
confidence that you are going to have a peaceful day.
You are cooled down when you can look at
trouble and see
the goodness of God.
BEING GRATEFUL A KEY TO
PEACE
V:3. We ought always to thank
God for you, brothers, and rightly so,
because your faith is growing more and
more, and the love every one of
you has for each other is increasing.
A. When baking a cake you stir up the ingredients
with love.
1. Like setting the temperature of an
oven, You have set your
temperature or attitude for a joyful
day.
2. Start your day by being thankful for
what God has done
in your life.
Meditate on the goodness of the Lord.
Be thankful for what He did in the
past.
Be thankful what He doing in the present.
Remember that God is good all the
time.
GROW YOUR FAITH
1. Allow your faith to grow by continuing to
study God’s Word.
2. Faith come by hearing and hearing by the
Word Of God.
3. Study
the Word and know that all the promises of God apply
to you
4. Practice
being in a loving mood.
God gave us two important commands.
God loves us first by sending Jesus
to die for our sins.
a. We must love the Lord with our
heart, mind and soul.
b. Then we must love our neighbor as ourselves.
5. It is the expectation of a joyful day
that you should work toward.
Like cooking a cake, you expect
something good.
This is the day the Lord has made, I
will rejoice and be glad
in it.
6. You Got peace and Grace through Jesus
Christ
Grace and peace is promised to you by
God.
BOAST IN THE LORD JESUS
V:4 Therefore, among God's
churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and
trials you are enduring.
5 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
A. One of the keys to your
joy is boasting in the Lord. We should boast
about the work of others in the Lord
1. Boast about what God has done for you.
2. Boast about what God has promised you.
B. Watch this, peace is not
the absence of problems, but seeing them
as
the evidence of God counting you worthy of the
1. Get up in the morning knowing you going
to face problems, but
expecting God to work them out in your
favor.
2. Get up in the morning expecting peace
and joy in the mist of
troubling situations.
IN SUMMARY
START YOUR DAY WITH THE
EXPECTATION OF GOD’S GRACE
AND PEACE
EXPECT A JOYFUL DAY
STIR UP THE GIFTS THAT GOD
HAS GIVEN YOU
FACE THE PROBLEMS OF YOUR DAY
WITH JOY, KNOWING
THAT GOD IS WORKING IT OUT IN
YOUR FAVOR
LOVE THOSE WHO HATE YOU. BE
KIND TO THOSE WHO CAUSE
TROUBLE.
Rev. M. Mitchell
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