God's Will - Your Sanctification: 1 Thess Lesson 25
You must make a decision to start living to please God rather than yourself and then decide to excel still more in pleasing God.
Why should we long for our hearts to be established without blame in holiness before God? Because Jesus is coming back.
Paul’s loving desire for the Thessalonians wasn’t just salvation – it was that the Thessalonians would grow into strong, mature believers in Christ.
A concerned spiritual leader wants to see that the faith of his followers is a faith that perseveres through any and every challenge.
Paul kept the people as his first priority. He kept all the problems in a right perspective. Paul kept his eye on the prize.
Genuine Christians prove themselves to be genuine Christians by the way they respond to the word of God - their thoughts and action align with God's Word.
If others were to see your life, especially that part of your life that is private, would they see an imitator of Christ, or would they see an imposter?
A spiritual father must be committed to the work of the ministry of the word - proclaiming the gospel while reflecting the character of Christ.
If we call ourselves a Christian, then our commitment should be to walk in a manner worthy of the calling we received from God into His kingdom and glory.
The spiritual leader must strike the right balance between truth and tenderness. This requires grace, gentleness, and genuineness.
Spiritual leadership requires a commitment to exhortation from the Word of God. This exhortation must be free from error, impurity, or deceit.
How much courage do you need to remain steadfast and committed to a ministry that is met with suffering and mistreatment and opposition and persecution?
Chapters 2 and 3 tell us more about the nature of the relationship between Paul and the church than any other epistle.
Living expectantly means living with a focus on eternity rather than on this present world. An eternal perspective helps us keep our priorities straight.
A good church is made up of genuine converts. And there is no better description anywhere than this description of a genuine convert.
The real impact of a good church will be seen when the lives of those who sound forth the word live as examples of the power of that word.
The purpose for which God has made you an example as a Christian is so that He can use your example in the lives of others.
A very important question we must answer honestly is this. Are we a people who receive the word of God? Am I truly receiving the word?
So what is it that makes a good Christian church? If it isn’t the things people are commonly looking for today, then what is it?
We should never get so familiar with God’s word that we just pass over it. There is enough truth in a simple salutation to transform our lives.
A good church will be the place where you will find genuinely transformed people who have responded to the gospel, and become imitators of Jesus Christ.
The making of a church first requires the making of Christians - Christians who are devoted to Christ and who live out their faith biblically.
A church will not be a good church unless it is full of people who are genuinely converted. Genuinely converted people are marked by these same marks.
The letters to the Thessalonians will help us focus on remaining the church that God has called us to be. The church is only as good as its members.
