How Can I Live to Really Please God?
I Thessalonians 4:1-12
Intro:
1. Benedict’s Scrapbook: a newspaper offered a prize for the best answer to this question, “Why is a newspaper like a good woman?”
2. The winning answer, “A newspaper is like a good woman because every man should have his own & not look at his neighbor’s!”
3. When your life is lived for the purpose of pleasing God & presenting a positive Christian witness - you will benefit by having a meaningful & joyful life.
4. So - How can I live my life in order to really please God?
I. v1-8 - Keep Pure Relationships with One Another
A. What does purity mean?
1. v3 - That you should be sanctified (ἁγιασμός) = separated apart because of your spirituality.
2. v3 - That you should avoid sexual immorality (πορνεία) = fornication. ILL: The difference between adultery & fornication.
3. v4 - That you should learn to control your own body.
B. Why is this important?
1. v1 - It is necessary (δεῖ). We instructed you how (it is necessary) to live in order to please God.
2. v2 - It is a command. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
3. v3-4 - It is God’s will.
a. Ex 20:14 - It’s the 7th Commandment. You shall not commit adultery.
b. Job 31:1-2 - I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. For what is man’s lot from God above, his heritage from the Almighty on high?
c. The Lord’s take on this. Matt 5:27-28 - You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adul- tery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
4. v6 - Your relationship with your Christian brothers will not be hampered.
5. v7 - Your call (the cross) to be a Christian was for the purpose of living a pure life.
II. v9-12 - Keep Love Relationships with One Another
A. What does love mean?
1. v10 - Love more than you’re loving now.
a. You can’t love too many people. ILL: Susanne Wesley when asked which of her 19 children she loved the most.
b. You have to work at loving: in your marriage, to unfriendly people, etc.
2. v11-12 - Love must be expressed in practical living. In Thessalonica church members were quitting their jobs & sitting around waiting for the Lord to return.
3. How are you to wait for the Lord’s return?
a. What do you do with your life? Live it in consideration, respect & love for others.
b. What do you do with your thoughts? Quietly mind your own business.
c. What do you do with your time? Get a job - “work with your hands” - so you will be respected & not be dependent on other people.
B. Why is this important? - v9
1. You were “taught by God”.
a. Though the Lord Himself. Jn 15:17 - This is my command: Love each other.
b. Through the Apostle John. I Jn 4:21 - And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
c. Though the Apostle Paul. Eph 5:2 - live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
2. You were born again into a family relationship.
http://biblelifemessages.org/