Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Have you ever been hiking and come to a fresh stream of water?

Maybe you were desperately thirsty and that water was exactly what you had been waiting for.

It looks so pure and safe as it flows over the rocks.

It’s peaceful music that is produced by its flowing is like a sound machine that is relaxing and calm.

Surely this water must be safe to drink.

While sometimes the water actually is fairly pure, many times there are microscopic parasites and germs that will make you regret drinking that water.

Today we are going to see a church that seemed to be doing pretty well.

From afar, they were walking with Christ.

They were loving one another and Paul, Silas, and Timothy.

They seemed to be pure.

However, we are going to get a more microscopic view of this infant church today.

And when we pull out the microscope, we are going to see that there were some parasites that threatened the integrity of the church.

As we study these first eight verses of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, I pray that we are able to reflect on our lives and zoom in on any impurities that we might find in ourselves as well.

Lets look at our text for today:

Let us pray.

Prayer.

Today we are going to discuss three actions that a Christian should make top priority in his or her life.

The first is...

I.

As a Christian, You Should… Please God (1-2)

Paul has just finished giving a wonderful prayer on behalf of this church at the end of chapter 3.

He has prayed for their readiness at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and has prayed for their holiness.

In verse 1 he asks and even moves on to urge them to walk in a way that is pleasing to God.

Note that he doesn’t just give a suggestion here.

He doesn’t stop at the word ask but moves on to urging or exhorting the church to walk in order to please God.

He actually admonishes them to do so more and more.

Some translations use the word abound or excel here as well.

We should abound or excel in pleasing God.

I think it is important for us to understand a little more about what it means to please God.

This is a topic that comes up time and time again in Scripture.

Here are a few Scriptures that show us how we can walk in a way that pleases God:

1.

We must walk by faith.

(Hebrews 11:6)

2. We must not walk in the sinful desires of the flesh.

(Romans 8:8)

3. We must keep His commandments in obedience to Him. (1 John 3:22)

4. We must trust in Him alone, fear Him alone, and hope in Him alone.

(Psalm 147:10-11)

5. We must seek His will and not ours or anyone else’s and we must serve God lovingly from our heart.

(Ephesians 6:6)

6.

We must be humble.

(Psalm 149:4)

7. We must allow Him to work in us.

(Philippians 2:13)

8.

We must walk in holiness and be above reproach.

(Colossians 1:10)

In summary, those who seek to please God are not just those who do what is right.

Yes, obedience is definitely part of it as we saw above.

But those who seek to please God seek Him because they love Him, because they appreciate the sacrifice that He made by sending His son to die on the cross for them, because they appreciate the free gift of eternal life that comes through repentance (turning away from sin) and putting their faith in Christ alone for salvation, and because they desire to be with Christ for all eternity in heaven.

Those who seek to please God see His will as their primary motivation for living.

As Christ so beautifully gave us an example of this when He said:

Are you seeking to please God my friends?

Paul had heard that the church in Thessalonica was walking with the Lord as we saw from the good report Timothy gave him as mentioned in chapter 3. Yet he still pled with them to continue moving forward in the race of life.

He still encouraged them to excel and abound.

You see, life is always in a state of motion.

As believers, we are either moving closer to Christ or we are moving further away from Him. Paul understood this and so he urged the church in Thessalonica to continue on more and more.

He knew that even though this young church was following Jesus, there was still spiritual growth needed.

There was still a battle of the flesh at hand.

This battle of the flesh is what he discusses in the next point of our sermon...

Scripture References: Hebrews 11:6, Romans 8:8, 1 John 3:22, Psalm 147:10-11, Ephesians 6:6, Psalm 149:4, Philippians 2:13, Colossians 1:10, Luke 22:42

II.

As a Christian, You Should… Practice Purity (3-6)

Verse 3 starts off with one of the most important instructions that he gave them.

It was that the will of God for them was personal holiness.

We will see this phrase ‘will of God’ again in chapter 5 and will go into more detail at that time.

But in this context, we see the will of God in relation to personal purity and holiness.

God wants to see His children becoming more like His Son Jesus Christ.

And this happens through sanctification.

This is a big religious word that we use often.

The word sanctification refers to the process of making one more holy.

Once a person is saved, the Holy Spirit fills them and starts conforming them more and more to Jesus Christ.

This process occurs through the work of the Holy Spirit and through spiritual disciplines such as prayer, Bible reading, quiet reflections with the Lord, worship, fasting, and serving.

These spiritual disciplines are key in the sanctification of the life of the believer.

The Holy Spirit actively sanctifies us through His work in these spiritual disciplines.

Note that Paul then urges them to abstain from sexual immorality at the end of verse 3.

This word abstain means to keep far away from and to avoid.

It means not to partake in.

Paul is speaking to a church that is in the midst of a pagan culture.

It is a culture that celebrates sexual immorality even among their religious activities.

There were cult prostitutes that participated in rituals that celebrated immorality.

Even the revered great thinkers and philosophers of that day such as Cicero argued for sexual freedom and expression.

Sounds fairly familiar doesn’t it, Church?

We are in a time much like this church in Thessalonica.

We are in a time where immorality is celebrated.

We are in a time where the lines of truth are blurred.

We are in a time where homosexuality and trangenderism is normalized.

Not only is it becoming widely accepted and normalized - it is being celebrated with pride in the month of June.

We are in a time when marriage is considered optional.

And we are in a time where explicit images are available to anyone at any time.

However, we are called to abstain and avoid all forms of sexual immorality.

Some people read the phrase sexual immorality and do not understand the layers of teaching that are in this one command.

This command specifically means that believers should avoid any sexual relation outside of heterosexual marriage.

Any sexual contact that is not in the bounds of a covenantal marriage between one biological man and one biological woman is sin.

Jesus even went so far as to let us know that we can sin sexually even in our minds (Matthew 5:27-28).

Note the high calling from Jesus here.

Even thoughts of lust are as if one has committed the actual act in the eyes of God.

My friends, we live in a culture that idolizes sexuality.

How are we to practically fight against the impurity of our world today?

How are we to purely walk in a world full of impurity?