How To Please God: I Thessalonians 4:1-7

What this episode covers

1 Thessalonians 4:1-7 Blank Outline Completed Outline Okay, we’re going to read some Scripture, this is from 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, the first seven verses, Paul writing to the church at Thessalonica. And you can follow along as I read, and then we’re going to jump into this in a little bit here. Paul says, as for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God. As in fact, you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God’s will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality, that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans who don’t know God, and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins as we told you and warned you before. God did not call us to be impure, but to live. A couple things before we get into 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, and I’m looking at these flowers here. These don’t appear by accident, but Cindy Embry gets these from her garden and brings these beautiful arrangements every Sunday. So, thank you, Cindy, for doing that. Much appreciated. Also, Lord willing, next Sunday when you come to church, there’s going to be a little different landscape out here. We’ve been working on three or four different projects, some of them more visible than others, but we voted in our business meeting to buy a big play structure for our kids in the church, our Awana kids, beyond Awana and the kids that attend here. So, there’s going to be an ark out here, and it’s going to be placed kind of between the youth barn, storage barn, and where the pavilion is. There’s a little rise a little bit behind that, and that’s where this ark structure will go. And so next Sunday you can visit the ark, and hopefully that’ll be a great blessing to our kids. Well, we’ve been in the book of 1st Thessalonians, and the theme is be ready. And what are we to be ready for? Well, we’re to be ready for the second coming, because it’s interesting that in all five chapters that, of course, we know Paul didn’t put these chapters in. These are man-made divisions, so we can find Scripture easily, but so at the end of every chapter, Paul talks about the second coming of Jesus. And next Sunday we’ll look at verses 13 through 18, the rapture passage, and dive into that. So, the theme is to be ready, but this morning we’re going to look at the first 12 verses of 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, and the message is entitled, How to Please God. I hope that title piques your interest. How to Please God, because that’s what Paul talks about here in these opening verses. It’s interesting that the Bible calls this to self-examination. 2nd Corinthians 13:5, let a man examine himself to make sure they’re in the faith, Paul writes. If there’s one area of life that you do not want to make a mistake on, you do not want to miss, it is your eternal destiny. Matthew 7, Jesus talks about a narrow gate and a wide gate, a narrow road and a broad road. Many are on the broad road, it leads to destruction. There are few at the narrow gate and the narrow road that leads to eternal life. And so, the Bible says you need to examine yourself, make sure that your faith is in Jesus, and Jesus alone, that we’re saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. The communion passage, the Lord’s Table passage, also encourages us to examine ourselves, and this is in 1st Corinthians chapter 11, verse 28, everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Like, don’t come to the Lord’s Table without doing some serious inventory. And so, this morning we’re just going to think about, what is the focus of our life? And who are we living our lives for? And

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