Living For Him

Living For Him; NV 4/26/02 (1 Thess. 4:1-8)

OS: When a lot of things begin to happen at once it is easy to loose your focus. (Holiness – focus)

“Jesus, what is most important?”

Our purpose is to Love God with all we have and love our neighbor as our self. We are striving to reach people and help them grow to become like Jesus for the glory of God.

ü      Small Groups – Shuffle opportunity. We are going to take off June 30 & July 7. New leaders, Sign-up will begin on June 23 and continue through July 7. Shuffle. (To reach people and help one another grow spiritually to become more like Jesus for the glory of God.)

ü      Two Services – Beginning next week. Why? To reach people. Fill those soon to be empty chairs with others.

ü      Bible 101 – David (9:00 – 10:00)

ü      VBS (June 29) – To teach our children to know Jesus, but yet also to reach out to others who do not know the Lord.

ü      Closing in on signing a contract – why move? To reach more people and help them grow with us for the glory of God.

I see all of that and think “wow!” yet, I think, “this is great” because we are doing our best to be the church that God wants us to be, and we are loving Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we are extending a loving hand to our neighbor. Jesus said there is nothing more important.

TS] We are focused exclusively for God and that is what holiness is all about.

Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

          (Holiness deals with more than just sexual purity. But let us not forget. Anything sexual, outside of the marriage of a man and woman, is a perversion from God’s plan. Thus it is unholy.)

Holiness is how we are to live in order to please God.

TS] First things first – happening everyday

I.      God is busy trying to make you holy.

A.   Holiness is very much akin to character.

B.    Romans 8:29 (Like Jesus)

C.   Phil 2 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

                      1.          In who? ME! / Prayer – “God work in them…”

TS] God is trying to bring this about in your life and let me give you a couple of reasons why you need to cooperate.

II.    It’s Good for you. Satisfaction in life.

A.   Because it save you future problems.

                      1.          Text: A lack of holiness in the arena of sexual relationships cause a life time of hardships.

B.    Because intended from the start.

                      1.          God said, “Be holy, because I am holy”

                      2.          Because God is holy, and He created us in His holy image, until we pursue holiness we’re missing something. (void)

                       3.          In our age, as in every age, people are longing for happiness, not realizing that what they are looking for is holiness.

C.   Because pursuing holiness is the building of Character. (Live longer sleep better.)

III.           Pursue holiness because it affects your relationship with Him.

A.   Text: Called…invited…summoned…

B.    2 Corinthians 7:1

C.   Hebrews 12:10, 14-17

                      1.          eating rind / watermelon rather than the meat…

Most of us feel as if God doesn’t like us because we see our own un-holiness easily. We believe He loves us, but struggle to accept the fact that He likes us. But, God delights in His people and the blood of Jesus continually cleanses us of all sin while we walk in the light.

Psalm 147 10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the

horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; 11 the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. 

Zephaniah 3 17 The LORD your God is with you, he is

mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will

quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with

singing.”