Plezgodsrm
Pleasing God
1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
You already know how to please God in your daily living, for you know the commands we gave you from the Lord Jesus himself. Now we beg you—yes, we demand of you in the name of the Lord Jesus—that you live more and more closely to that ideal. [1 Thessalonians 4:1-2,Living Bible]
Intro: Last weekend KC Royals baseball player, Geo. Brett, was inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown,NY. A radio talk show discussing the event commented upon Brett’s speech in which he referred to his relationship with his father. George Brett indicated that a big part of his motivation to succeed came from his desire to please his father. Every single person who ever lives seeks affirmation in someone or something. It is a part of human existence.
The absolute best affirmation possible is that which comes from our Creator God--our Heavenly Father. Most people are greatly deficient in affirmation because they seek it in other places and ways which never can provide complete fulfillment. They continue throughout life unsatisfied and incomplete. Many Christians unnecessarily follow the same experience because of a lack of understanding or deception by our enemy. We all seek to please someone--parent, spouse, friend, relative, boss, teacher, some person we consider significant or important--whether or not we’re even conscious of it. Christians only need to please God. When we do that all of the rest of our relationships will properly be taken care of.
In his letter to the young Christians in Thessalonica Paul reminds them of the instruction he had given them to live to please God. Up to this point in his letter Paul has reinforced his relationship with them and his ministry to them by recounting what happened, and by expressing his concern for them. At this point in is letter he gives instructions. What is most important to young, nearly baby Christians?
In these first dozen verses of 1 Thess. 4, six times he refers to instructions already given. Twice he said to do this more and more. What the Thessalonians needed and what we also need as Christians is greater appreciation what is already known and greater application of it to a greater degree. You don't need to know more to do better--to last longer as a Christian--to live better. Do more of what you already know.
Mark Twain is quoted as having said, “It’s not the parts of the Bible that I don’t understand that bother me. It’s the parts that I do.” For most of us, it’s not that we need to know so much more as it is that we need to do so much more of what we already know. This is one of the major purposes of our cell groups. To help each other put into practice what we have already been instructed in.
This encouragement is especially needed because of secondary responses as a Christian. After our initial response to becoming a Christian, what do we do? Some become faddists, cynics, or complacents. Faddists follow the latest Christian emphasis. [latest concepts of prophecy; Bible Code, teachings of a popular teacher/preacher, one of them now is spiritual warfare and territorial spirits.] Cynics say, “been there,” and are not enamored. Complacents say, “I’ve taken care of all I need” and go on to occupy themselves with other things.
Even more than we need freshness and growth, we need to do these things for the sake of “outsiders.” “Win the respect of outsiders”[vs 12] -- not for our sakes, but for their salvation. We need to live and act not our perfection but for their conversion. That’s what Jesus lived for. “He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”
What is it that we need to do more and more of? How can we live to please God? He gives a simple code of conduct for Christian living: holiness, love, responsibility--Live purely, Love brotherly, and Labor productively.
Most of the verses address the first issue and so will I.
I. Live Purely
Because of human condition and the cultural context, the first concern our Father addresses through His apostle is the matter of living pure lives even in the midst of a sex-saturated society.
"God's plan is to make you holy, and that entails first of all a clean cut with sexual immorality" (1 Thessalonians 4:3, Phillips)
A. Cultural background
As difficult as it seems to live a pure life today, conditions were much worse for these brand new Christians in Thessalonica. There was no generalized opinion that sexual promiscuity was wrong. In fact, it was ritualized as part of popular religion. Houses of prostitution were not in sleazy red light districts of town, but were included in the downtown temples of pagan gods. The religions were man-made so they instituted rituals that pleased them. Sex was part of their pagan religion. There was no such thing as sexual morality. Divorce was a matter of whim. Seneca said, “Women were married to be divorced and divorced to be married.” Juvenal quotes an instance of a woman who had eight husbands in five years. Demosthenes of Greece said, “We have courtesans for the sake of pleasure; we have concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation; we have wives for the purpose of having children legitimately, and of having a faithful guardian for all our household affairs.”
Greco-Roman ethics were based largely on the principles of self-interest and respect for another s property. The individual was expected to do what was to one’s advantage, regardless of its effect on others, so long as one did not violate another person s property. No action in itself was immoral, except for incest, cannibalism, and murder of a blood relative.
To this culture God says, “My plan for you is holiness. Make a clean cut from sexual immorality.”
B. What's the big deal with sex among Christians any way? Why are we so hung up on preaching a certain morality on this subject? We are told that we seem uptight about it. We are told that we are phobic and a little unbalanced, mentally, about it. We are told that we are ill-informed about it and sadly backwards. Why should we have a problem if a man (or woman) wants to arrange a sexual liaison with someone other than his (or her) spouse? What’s the problem if a woman decides that she would rather explore and seek sexual intimacy with another woman rather than with a man? If a guy wants to cruise around on the internet and find erotic pictures or even subscribe to them and then look at them and do whatever "comes naturally," why should we have a problem with that? Why should we judge it "wrong" if a person wants to copulate without commitment--becoming married?
Reasons:
1. Why not? “you know the commands we gave you from the Lord Jesus himself.”
Command. God says, "No" To reject God’s command is to reject God. It’s saying, “I don’t want what you have for me.” We don’t have eternal life if we don’t live the life of eternity.
When it comes to morality, philosophy, and spirituality people want to think they can believe whatever they want--that there are no absolutes. Nothing in the experience of actual living on earth teaches this. The only way we live on earth and grow and develop technology is because the universe is consistent. Gravity doesn’t change because you want it to, or you move to another country, or because you are younger or older, or even because it’s the 90’s. Neither does murder, and neither does morality--because that’s the way God created it. Now we have the freedom to choose to ignore gravity and suffer the consequences and the same is true with morality.
Living to please God is to live a holy life and avoid sexual immorality.
2. Rationale- “victimless crime” “consenting adults” “private matter” [Disease, divorce, and addiction are results of such activities and involve other people.]
Someone always is hurt--future partners [unless this is a lifetime commitment to a monogamous relationship]--self too. You may say, “I don’t care who gets hurt--not my problem” but you cannot say, “it doesn’t hurt anybody.”
"Do not defraud" (take something that doesn’t belong to you--even if offered it doesn’t belong to you. If I go into the store and another customer picks up an item from the shelf and hands it to me it doesn’t belong to me. It wasn’t his to give to me. Somebody has to pay for it.) God put the items of our lives on the shelf. He says the proper exchange for sexual activity is a lifelong, monogamus commitment in marriage. Because someone comes along and offers some freebie doesn’t make it yours to take.
3. So what? "I can" (do it, get away with it. I’ll take my chances, experience the consequences. “I can handle it.”)
The answer is, “No you won’t get away with it. You can’t handle it.” That person has no idea what he/she is saying. The Lord will punish men for all such sins. God is avenger. That person makes himself an enemy of God [rejects Him] and will face Him someday. It’s not a place anyone wants to be in.
C. Called to be pure. Abstain (clean cut) Can say "no" Have been given Holy Spirit. He is the ennabler/Helper.
"The calling of God is not to impurity but to the most thorough purity, and anyone who makes light of the matter is not making light of a man's ruling but of God's command. It is not for nothing that the Spirit God gives us is called the Holy Spirit." [1 Thessalonians 4:8, Phillips]
D. Holiness (sanctification) means:
to be like Jesus.
"But, if I become more like Jesus, I won’t get to be immediately gratified when I have a hunger."
"If I become more like Jesus, then some of my friends might think I’m not cool."
"If I become more like Jesus, it may affect my profit margins."
"If I become more like Jesus, I might have to make amends with people from the past."
And more immediately, in this context:
"If I become more like Jesus, I will have to abstain from sexual immorality."
But if you become more like Jesus, these things are also true:
1. You get joy; real joy--such as cannot be copied or compared in the world.
2. You fulfill the plan that God has for you, personally.
3. You become a real blessing to other people.
4. You are blessing God; by receiving what He created
5. You become an honorable person (vs. 4b). “Carnality”) is never honorable. Satan spreads the lie that it CAN be honorable. But it cannot. Becoming something other than what God wants you to become is ALWAYS dishonorable. It is NOT noble.
E. Special note to singles: John Stott now retirement age and never married:
"An additional paragraph is needed for those of us who are single and therefore lack the God-given context for sexual love. What about us?
"We too must accept this apostolic teaching, however hard it may seem, as God’s good purpose both for us and for society. We shall not become a bundle of frustrations and inhibitions if we embrace God’s standard but only if we rebel against it. Christ’s yoke is easy, provided that we submit to it. It is possible for human sexual energy to be redirected. . . both into affectionate relationships with friends of both sexes and into the loving service of others. Multitudes of Christian singles, both men and women, can testify to this. Alongside a natural loneliness, accompanied sometimes by acute pain, we can find joyful self-fulfillment in the self-giving service of God and other people."
F. What do I do with my mess? before, now, and as Christian?
1 --What if I was sexually immoral before I became a Christian? 2 Cor 5:17 (NLT) . . . those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!
Most of us messed up our lives before we became believers.
If you were sexually immoral before you became a Christian God’s Grace and Forgiveness has made you a virgin in God’s eyes.
2 -- What if I am presently in a relationship that clearly contradicts scripture in this area?
To use the Biblical words --flee from it immediately.
Don’t worry about the inconvenience or the consequences. God will always honor those who honor him. John 8:10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11 "No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
3 -- I am a Christian and I have fallen into sexual sin what does God think of me?
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
God has told us we can live a holy life. The words of a great hymn that Promise Keepers’ Conferences have reinvigorated says what we need to hear today:
Rise up, O men of God,
Have done with lesser things.
Give heart and mind and soul and strength
To serve the King of kings.
Lift high the cross of Christ,
Tread where his feet have trod.
As followers of the Son of man
Rise up, O men of God.
“God wants a community of beautiful people whose lives are under control and kept so by the Holy Spirit. Such a people will constitute an island of refuge & resource for the drifting multitudes, the slaves of lust, who are damaging and wrecking their lives all around us.” (Ray Stedman)
Live purely. One of the reasons is so that we don’t wrong a brother. This is the second code of conduct Paul says for living a life pleasing to God.
II. Love Brotherly
"As regards brotherly love, you don't need any written instructions. God himself is teaching you to love each other." [1 Thessalonians 4:9, Phillips]
We don’t need more instruction. We have the example of God in giving His Son for all of us, and we have His Holy Spirit within us teaching us how to be like Him.
“in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.” vs. 10
How, he does not say, but probably through hospitality as an expression of love. Hospitality not just inviting over for dinner or a party. In those days it was taking a person in need into your family to be treated as a family member--sharing in and enjoying whatever the family has and the person needs. Not just a matter of doing something kind for someone who would return the favor, Not the mutual exchanges between friends, but giving of self and what one has for the need of a brother. To be “Brotherly” is to act responsibly toward another by treating that person as family. Families take care of each other.
Love is to extend to all the brethren and not just to a few with whom one might have special rapport. Modern Christians seem often to choose to hang out only with their own kind--people who think, act, feel, and believe they way they do. They let people who are otherwise find a place like them. It’s natural, a sociological principle, for “birds of a feather to flock together.” The Kingdom of God is not a natural thing, it is a supernatural thing. In God’s Kingdom there is a place for everyone and each one is connected to the body. The world makes places for people like themselves--clubs, neighborhoods, businesses, social organizations. The church is the place for natural barriers to come down and the power of God to replace them with bridges of love to one another. It’s one of the first things people outside the church recognized about Christians-- “My how they love one another.” Jesus said it should be expected, “By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another.”
It’s so much easier to stay comfortable in cliques than to intentionally work to build bridges to people not just exactly like us. Even when we assemble at church it’s easiest to sit in the same place and talk to the same people--our friends, the people we most enjoy and look forward to seeing at church. We can say it’s our personality--I’m shy--and excuse our lack of reaching out because “I’m just not comfortable doing that.” Young people are uncomfortable talking to older people and older people are uncomfortable trying to talk to younger people. Single people feel disconnected from married couples and married people feel held at a distance from singles. People of limited means feel insecure around people of greater means and v.v. Even in our cell groups we often feel as if we want to be with people like ourselves. Folks, if the person is a Christian he is more like you than anyone outside of Christ ever is and we need each other. Our differences are God’s gifts to each other to deepen our experience and bless our lives. Enjoy people who are different from you in some way. Don’t retreat. Love one another more and more.
"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another. [Romans 13:8]
When you feel like you've notched in a love-event in your logbook, do you get smug for a few minutes or a few days? Do you say, "Well, I've done the love thing for this month. Surely Jesus is satisfied with me for a while and I can devote the next few weeks to myself?" If you host a dinner or give someone a ride, fill up a Christmas box, do you then back off for a period with the thought, "I've done my part." We need to become more continuous with love and with sacrifice and with "contributing to the needs of the saints."
No matter how much we love, due to the very nature of love and the difficulties with loving, there is always room for improvement in our capacity to love both in quantity and quality.
We need reminders to deal with the forces in our own hearts that are so debilitating to our ability to love our fears, our self-protective strategies for dealing with our hurts, our lack of maturity, and our failure to reckon with our own sinfulness. Because of this, we simply need to love all the brothers more and more.
Live purely, love brotherly and...
III. Labor Productively
“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” [verses.11-12]
Nothing disrupts the peace of a Christian community more than the unwillingness of members to shoulder their part of the responsibility for it. That violates the love in a truly Christian community. Some of the Thessalonians apparently were imposing on the brotherliness of others without contributing with their own work.
Work is not a curse. Work is a blessing and a gift.
There are a number of reasons why work is a blessing and is to be promoted by the Christian community and supported in society:
(1) To provide for our needs and our family’s needs (1 Thess. 4:12; 1 Tim. 5:8).
(2) To keep us from being a burden on others (1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Cor. 11:9).
(3) To give to those who have need within the guidelines of 2 Thessalonians 3:10 (see also Eph. 4:28).
(4) To be productive in society. God has ordained work to meet the needs of others by providing goods and services. Work is not a curse. It is a way to use the gifts and talents God gives us in productive ways.
w As the creator and sustainer of the universe, God is a worker (Isa. 40:28; Col. 1:16-17).
w As created in God's image, man has been given creativity and abilities, and needs to work to experience true meaning in life. Scripture even calls work a gift of God (Eccl. 3:13) and declares that man has been given responsibility to care for creation, the works of His hands (Ps. 8:6).
w Work is not the product of sin. God gave Adam and Eve things to do in the Garden before the fall (Gen. 2:15).
(5) To avoid idleness which leads to temptation and meddling (cf. our passage and 2 Thes. 3:6f.).
Some Thessalonian Christians were so enthralled with the imminent return of Jesus to take them away, that it is all they were consumed with. They were excusing their behavior and bringing disrepute upon the Christian community with their irresponsibility.
The “quiet life” Paul is promoting was not one of less exhuberance, but one less frantic. Paul is talking to some who were causing a stir in their community. We need to live our lives in a way that will honor God-- not compromising but also not causing trouble among those who don’t believe like we do. This takes great skill and balance and has to be thought out carefully. There are many social issues today that we can get worked up about and maybe we should but we must be wise in how we do so. It is ultimately more important that those we work with see our godliness and sense the peace in our lives.
We must labor productively to earn the respect which gives us the opportunity to share our faith with the unbelieving world. We must live in such a way that makes people thirsty for God. We are called to make Christ holy in our lives and thereby prepare an answer for those who seek the hope we have. Then people will be saved. This pleases God.
Living holy, loving brotherly, and laboring productively will completely fulfill our lives. We will be pleasing to God and it’s a big enough project to keep us busy the rest of our lives if we never learn another verse of Scripture.
Concl. Well I am going to tell a story today. It is a story told by a man named Tony Compolo. Tony is a Christian, a sociologist, a college professor and a gifted speaker, so he gets asked to go and give presentations all over the place. One time he was called from his east coast home to go to Honolulu. Now if you have ever flown from the East coast to Honolulu you know what happens to your time clock. He was in the hotel the first night and he woke up, wide awake, a little bit before 3 in the morning. His body said It is 9 o'clock, time for breakfast, so he got dressed and went downstairs. Nothing was open so he went outside from the hotel and wandered around a bit until he found a place, a diner, a real greasy spoon -- one of those places where you are afraid to open the menu because you're not sure what might crawl out? And there he was in that place, no one else was there. He ordered a cup of coffee, and then, in a weak moment, he also ordered a donut. And then this rather obese, unkempt, unshaven man -- named Harry -- that was working behind the counter came out, wiped his hands on his dirty apron, reached into the jar and gave Tony a donut. Tony wished Harry had given it to him in a different way, and yet there he was. So he was sitting back, musing to himself and drinking his coffee and eating his donut when the door suddenly burst open and 8 or 9 rather boisterous prostitutes came in. Now Tony was even more uncomfortable. They sat down at the counter next to him, because there wasn't any other place, and he drank his coffee, tried to look inconspicuous, and listened to the conversation. And one of the women said, Tomorrow is my birthday, I'll be 39. And her friend said, So what do you want from me? I suppose you want a party or something, maybe you want me to bake you a cake? And this woman, whom he later found was named Agnes, said, Why are you so mean? I don't want anything from you. Why would I want anything from you? I've never had a birthday party, and no one has ever baked me a cake, and why would I want anything from you? Be quiet. Right then Tony got an inspiration. Soon the ladies left and he said to Harry, behind the counter, Say do they come in here every night? and he said, Yes they do. And he said, This one next to me? and Harry said, You mean Agnes? and Tony said, Yes, that's the one, does she come in every night? And Harry said, Same time just like clock work every night she is here. So Tony said, What about if we throw a party for her, a birthday party? Tomorrow's her birthday. Harry began to smile a little bit and called to his wife who was back in the kitchen cooking, and said, Hey, this crazy guy out here wants to have a birthday party for Agnes. And they said what a wonderful idea!
So the plans were made and everything was set for the party. The next night Tony came back to the same place, same time, and the place was decorated with crepe paper, and the sign on the wall said, Happy Birthday Agnes. It was cleaned up and it looked like a different place. They sat down and waited and pretty soon people began to trickle in. The word had gotten out on the street, prostitutes from all over Honolulu were filling up the place. The place was full and at about the appointed time Agnes and her friends came bursting through the door and they said Happy Birthday, Agnes. Her knees buckled a bit, her friends caught her and she was stunned, speechless, touched. They led her over to the counter and she sat down. They said to her again Happy Birthday, and Harry brought the cake out and her mouth fell open and her eyes began to fill with tears. They put the cake down in front of her, they sang happy birthday to her and Harry said, Blow the candles out so we can havesome.
Agnes just stared at that cake. Finally they convinced herto blow the candles out and Harry handed her a knife and told her to cut the cake. She looked at it and said, Do I have to? let me wait a minute. And Agnes looked at that cake, so lovingly, like it was the most precious thing she had ever seen, a sacrament of love for her, and she said, Do I have to cut it? And Harry said, Well, no, I suppose you don't have to cut it.
And then she said something even more strange. She said, Iwould like to keep it for awhile - I don't live far from here. Can I take it home? I'll be right back. They looked at her with a puzzled look on their faces and said, Sure, you can take it. She picked the cake up and Tony said she carried it like she was carrying the Holy Grail in a sacred Cathedral and she walked out the door. There was silence, stunned silence, and Tony said he did something on the spur of the moment that he wondered about. He stood up and said, What do you saythat we pray?
Now what an improbable picture this is. A Christian sociologist surrounded by every prostitute in Honolulu in a greasy spoon diner and he says, let us pray. But he did. A simple prayer. He prayed for Agnes that somehow she would meet Jesus, that somehow she would find salvation and that God would be good to her, especially on her birthday. He said Amen and the party resumed. Harry said to him, Hey, I didn't know you were a preacher. And Tony answered, I'm not a preacher, I'm a sociologist. And Harry said, Well what kind of a church do you come from anyway? Tony, inspired by God's spirit, said, I guess I come from a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3 o'clock in the morning. And Harry said, No you don't, there's no such church like that, cause if there was, he said, I would join it.