I get so much joy from my kids, especially when I see them working together.
There's nothing like seeing Isaac playing with Micah, building a tower that they then
smash together, seeing Tamara make Micah laugh.
My children have this amazing ability to bring so much pleasure to me.
There is something profound when all the guidance, all the teaching, all the no, don't hit
her, use gentle hands, something profound when it all comes together.
I suppose because I know how beautiful they can play and share and love each other, it
makes me so frustrated when it's not ideal.
When they are as good as they can sometimes be, it's amazing, but when they're not, it's
tough when they don't obey and hurt each other, when all it seems to be is conflict and self-centeredness.
I wonder what God thinks when he looks at us.
Do you think he finds joy in us?
Do we please him?
Or is he just as frustrated that we are not living as we should, angry that we can't play
together nicely?
Is that all God sees?
Christians believe that they are justified and forgiven by God's grace in Jesus' death and
resurrection.
But is that all that it is to the Christian relationship with God?
Is he just a judge who forgives our crimes?
We're saved by his grace and sanctified and he sanctifies us to fit his heaven and now we
work hard to obey?
Is that all the relationship with God is?
It seems a bit transactional.
God loves us.
He gives us his grace and we obey him.
Is there anything that we do to please God?
Is there anything we can do to please him?
Today we're continuing looking at the book of 1 Thessalonians, standing firm in faith, hope
and love.
And today we're looking at issues of holiness.
We're looking at issues of sexual purity and loving one another.
key issues for the church and for the Christian.
And in light of these issues of obedience, we're going to see whether there is anything
we can do to bring joy and to please our Heavenly Father.
So as we have a look at this passage, I'm going to pray for us.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can indeed call you Father.
Father, and as we look at your word this morning, help us to know you better and to know how
we can please you.
Amen.
So as we've seen over the last couple of weeks, Paul and Silas were in Thessalonica, likely
for a couple of months before they were chased out by a mob of Jews.
And Paul has received word about how this new church was going.
And he spent the first half of the letter celebrating the church and what God was doing in them
and through them.
And he's explaining and defending his motivations for coming.
But now Paul turns to issues within the church.
Everything seems to have been going well, but Paul still needs to address a couple of issues.
And so he begins this with a section of prayer that shows us what he is going to talk about
over the next couple of chapters.
From verse 11 of chapter 3.
Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you.
May the Lord make your love increase and flow for each other and for everyone else, just
as ours does for you.
May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our
God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
So he mentions three things in particular.
I want you to increase in love.
I want you to strengthen your hearts, particularly in view of holiness.
And I want you to hope, keep hoping that Jesus will return.
Faith, hope and love.
It's the three themes of the letter.
We saw it at the start.
It's here again in the very middle of the letter.
And now it's the themes for the last couple of chapters of the book.
They have heard the message of adoption, of acceptance, forgiveness, all by God's radical
generosity.
They've heard the message of faith in Jesus, of hoping in his return and loving one another,
which he reminds them of.
Not only does Paul remind them of how they are to live, Paul has some amazing news for
them.
Chapter 4, verse 1.
As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please
God, as in fact you are now living.
Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.
For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
The church was instructed how to live, how to live in order to please God.
And not only have these people been saved by Jesus, they're being sanctified, they're taking
off their old way of life, being changed, but it actually pleases God.
And it's not some impossibility, as it says, we instructed you how to live in order to please
God, as in fact you are now living.
They were pleasing God.
The lives that they were living were amazingly pleasing to God.
This is not legalism or a works-based theology that makes God have to forgive us if we obey
Him.
Not at all, but it's a reminder that God is a person.
He thinks, He feels, we please Him and we displease Him moment by moment within His loving,
forgiving hands, inside His fatherly care for all of us.
Through the finished work of Jesus on the cross, the way we are living our lives, the obedience
we do, we have to God, the good deeds we do, it is actually delightful to God.
Maybe you're feeling unsure at this point, because you don't really have a relationship
with God as Father.
Maybe you relate to God as Lord.
He's a God who is very far off.
He is distant.
He's a distant master who doesn't take joy in His servant.
He just expects His servant to obey.
Is God a judge that doesn't find happiness in the fact that the criminal has gotten away
with murder when they're found innocent?
But God is our Father.
Have you ever thought about how your actions, your obedience, could see the infinite God who
made the universe, could actually bring Him joy?
That He sees everything at once, and He sees you, and He takes delight in you, when you choose
to continue to follow Him over other things, over yourself.
What would you do?
How far would you go to please God, to bring God joy?
This made me think of marriage.
When two people get together, their best thoughts are often of trying to make the other person
happy.
You can probably imagine a newlywed couple.
Think of a newlywed couple.
I'm not sure if we have any newlywed couples here.
Is there any newlywed couples here?
Anybody that wants me to use an example of them?
Doran, when you get married, brother, that would be a wonderful thing.
Let's just use two people.
Who can we imagine?
Should we just use Stephen that?
Maybe, maybe not.
Let's just imagine this young married couple.
They're just like puppy dogs.
They're really sweet.
They're so keen and eager to make the other person happy.
They'll do anything for them.
Maybe this was you when you first got married.
Maybe this is still you.
I'm not sure.
One of the things that I do, that I continue to do to bring Alyssa joy, is to deal with
the spiders in our house.
I've never really been a kill spiders kind of guy.
I prefer to take them outside.
I used to be okay that there were spiders because spiders eat flies.
And I don't like flies.
And spiders, they just kind of hang out in the corner.
But Alyssa, she's not a fan of any kind of spider.
And so I had to change.
I changed so I could bring her joy.
Well, less fear, more joy, I suppose.
I changed who I am.
So I became the Spider-Man of the household.
I'll take them out.
I'll gas them.
I'll squash them.
I'll set them on fire.
Whatever it takes to get our house free of spiders.
But there is a truth to this.
We change who we are to bring people joy.
If Alyssa didn't like me having a beard, well, I probably wouldn't have it.
My preference is to have a beard and to have my head bald.
But I don't like having these locks of questionable color.
Somewhere between blonde, brown and red.
But Alyssa likes me having hair.
And so I keep doing that to bring her joy.
Now, we are not married to God.
But we do have a relationship with Him.
The Bible actually describes the church as the bride of Jesus.
Our God has shown His radical love to us.
And so He has the right to say,
This pleases me.
And this doesn't.
I don't like this behavior.
But this is wonderful.
The God who accepts and loves and delights in us,
He is also capable of saying,
We need to sit down and have a talk.
It's time for some serious changes in your life.
And so Paul encourages and urges the church in Thessalonica
to continue to please God more and more.
Particularly, he urges them in faith, hope and love.
And we're going to look at the first two of those,
faith and love.
And next week we'll be looking at hope.
So Paul, when he was with them,
he gave them instructions on sexual purity.
But because it is so important,
he writes to them again.
Chapter 4, verse 3.
Living in this way is both God's will for our life
and it pleases God when we do it.
The kind of, not a little bit of change from,
you know, leaving the dirty clothes on the floor
to putting them in the basket.
This is massive change in the lives of the Thessalonian church.
Paul calls on them to avoid sexual immorality,
not to reduce it,
not to keep a small part of sexual immorality in their lives,
not to keep some hidden deep in our hearts and homes
where no one else sees,
but to avoid sexual immorality,
to abstain from it,
to have control over each of our bodies
in a way that honors and brings pleasure to God,
to show that we are set apart,
that we are holy for Him.
Controlled by our desire to please God
and not please ourselves,
not in passionate lust like the pagans
who don't know God.
Instead, for people that do know God,
that we would have self-control and self-mastery.
The Gentile, the non-Jew,
the members of the Thessalonian church,
would have found it incredibly difficult
to understand how their conversion
to the Christian God
meant that they had to change their behavior
and abandon their pleasures.
You see, the other religions in the area,
with the exception of Judaism,
all of the other religions,
promoted sexual immorality.
The cults of the gods, Dionysus,
Aphrodite, Osiris, and Isis,
they all encouraged sexual license.
Female slaves could be used to satisfy desires.
Prostitutes were at the service of any person.
Sexual immorality on view here
is anything outside of marriage,
and it was easy to access for people in Thessalonica.
And so if you moved from one religion to another religion,
you would continue in those practices.
But moving to Christianity meant radical change.
And Paul gives four motivations to seek sexual purity
on top of seeking to please God.
From verse 6, have a look with me.
And that in this matter,
no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.
The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins,
as we told you and warned you before.
For God did not call us to be impure,
but to live a holy life.
Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction
does not reject a human being,
but God,
the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.
So firstly,
sexual purity is desired
so that no one wrongs a brother or a sister.
Sexual sin was not just a sinful liaison
between two people or alone.
It actually damaged relationship between people
and relationships with God.
It damages existing relationships
between husbands and wives.
It steals what should be kept for marriage
from the marriage bed.
Sexual immorality corrupts the eye
and the heart of the viewer,
leading to damage in later relationships.
And so Paul says,
don't wrong someone else
by sinning sexually.
Secondly,
Paul says that the Lord will punish those
who commit such sins.
Now, this warning wasn't new for the church
because sexual sin
doesn't just damage the community,
it damages the relationship with God.
And God says that he will punish those
who sin.
The third thing,
God called us to be pure.
He called us to himself
to be pure,
to live a holy life.
He didn't call us to himself
to be corrupted.
The question of sexual immorality
is not a question of
what little things can I do,
how far can I go,
what is permissible,
or what can I get away with.
It is purity.
How pure can I be?
And fourthly,
it's not Paul being rejected.
Paul motivates them by saying,
this is the word of God.
If you reject what I say here,
you are rejecting God himself.
These are not man-made words.
These are not words of a culture.
They are not words of a particular time.
It is God
who calls us to be pure.
God's will is that we are to be pure
and holy
and blameless before him.
And when we are,
it pleases God.
Living pure lives
is actually a delight to God.
Have you ever made an omelette before?
Anybody made an omelette?
Did anybody have an omelette for breakfast?
No?
Okay.
I've occasionally made an omelette.
Imagine you're going to make an omelette
for the person you love most in the world.
Let's say I'm making it for James Cason
just because he's right in front of me.
And so I'm making an omelette for James.
And I've got the bacon already chopped.
I've got the cheese,
the chives,
the mushrooms.
James,
anything else you need in there?
Egg.
Okay.
We'll get to the egg.
We'll get there.
Anything else?
Tomato?
Peppers?
Capsicum?
Okay.
Salt and pepper.
Okay.
And of eggs.
Eggs.
Okay.
So I've got the eggs.
I've got six.
Don't worry.
I don't really have eggs.
This is all hypothetical.
And the recipe calls for six eggs.
And so I go to my fridge
and I've only got six eggs left.
This is really good.
This is good.
This is just going to feed James.
James is a very hungry,
growing boy,
isn't he,
mum?
And so,
you know,
six eggs is just going to be good for him.
And this omelette is going to bring
so much joy to James.
And so I crack the first egg
and the second egg
and the third egg
and the fourth egg
and the fifth egg.
And I crack the sixth egg.
Remember,
I need six eggs
or he's going to be hungry
and he's not going to be satisfied.
And it stinks.
It's rotten.
Now,
we don't get too many rotten eggs
these days.
I can't remember the last time
I got a rotten egg was,
but I got it today.
But this recipe calls for six eggs.
So what do I do?
Do I put it in anyway?
Let's put it in anyway.
Because I really want to please James.
I need six eggs.
How much do you think
that little bit of rotten egg
is going to influence the whole?
And so I cook it up.
I present it to James.
And before he can even get his fork into it,
the smell hits him.
It's just awful.
He goes green.
What is this disgusting mess
you've put before me?
He shouts.
Impure.
And he tosses it on the floor.
He's an angry guy.
He's not.
He's lovely.
We wouldn't present something like that
to someone we love
to consume,
would we?
And yet we bring bodies and minds
that are far more rotten than an omelette.
And yet we offer them in marriage.
We say,
God,
this is enough for you.
We've been loved by God so much,
and yet we respond by giving him the good parts
mixed with bad,
and we think it's enough.
Brothers and sisters,
God calls you.
God chooses,
and he's called us not to live a life
mixed with good and bad.
God loves you.
Not the good eggs with the rotten eggs,
but to one of purity and holiness,
to be a delight to him.
Now let me encourage you,
even though we have all sinned in many ways,
we have all sinned sexually,
there is no time better
to change our lives,
to live a life pleasing to God.
God,
if you are struggling in this area,
come and talk to me after church.
We can have a good chat over a coffee.
Come and,
if you're a woman and don't want to talk to me,
come and speak to Deb.
Speak with your community group leader.
It is good and right
for God to command us
to obey him with our lives,
to live lives of purity,
and when we do,
they are a delight to God.
And so,
in very similar language
to Paul's encouragement to sexual purity,
he encourages them
to continue to live lives of love.
So,
have a look with me at verse 9,
as we start to have a look
at Paul's call to love.
Verse 9.
Now,
about your love for one another,
we do not need to write to you.
For you yourselves
have been taught by God
to love each other.
And in fact,
you do love
all of God's family
throughout Macedonia.
Yet,
we urge you,
brothers and sisters,
to do so more and more.
And to make it your ambition
to lead a quiet life.
You should mind your own business
and 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 anyone.
So,
Paul encourages
the Thessalonian church
to love,
to love one another.
Not just the people around them,
as they've been doing,
but their love
has actually gone out
into the whole of Macedonia.
And he urges them
to do so more
and more.
Here,
Paul speaks about those
who
should mind their own business
and work with their hands.
Because it appears
that there are those
who had become lazy.
They'd become lazy
for one reason
or another.
And so they'd become
a burden
on their brothers and sisters.
Now remember,
this was a time
before
there was social systems
like ours.
And so,
they didn't have a government
who would
hand out assistance.
There wasn't
a dull system
in those days.
What you had
was family.
You had
your brothers and sisters
in the church.
The burden
would have been
on the family
to provide
for someone
who wasn't working.
The burden
would have been
on the new church family.
And so,
Christians should
either work
or be seeking work.
Now,
Christians,
you're all usually
a nice bunch.
You're a good bunch
of people.
But Paul encourages
everyone
to keep working
with their hands.
Because it would be
very easy
to become a burden
from someone
in the church
to other people.
It's similar
to Paul's comments
on sexual purity.
Brotherly love,
loving others,
is good for the community.
It wins the respect
of outsiders.
And instead of being
dependent on other people,
working means
that they could love
one another.
They could love
those in their church
and they could love
those outside
of the church
throughout Macedonia
as they had been.
It creates a view
that says,
I want to please God
and so I'm not
going to be selfish.
I'm going to please God
with my body
pursuing sexual purity
and I'm not going
to be a burden
on those around me.
Instead,
I want to work
and provide
for those people
around me
because God
has provided for me.
These
are really important
words
for a young
church
in Thessalonica.
He wants
this church
to continue
on for many
years,
to continue
to share
the gospel
of God,
to continue
to grow
and spread,
to continue
to share
the good news
of Jesus.
Now these
are messages
that are important
for a young
church to hear,
to be sexually
pure
and to love,
not being a burden.
Because unfortunately,
I've heard
too many horror stories
of churches
falling apart
because of
sexual immorality.
you may have
heard of
similar stories
where the devil
has dangled
temptation
in front of
the leader's
eyes,
hoping to
destabilize
a church.
Imagine this
church in
Thessalonica.
They are
influencing the
country and
the region
around them.
How easy
would it be
for temptation
at the top,
those who are
leading the
church,
so that
they sin
sexually
and the
church falls
apart?
How easy
would that
be to
happen?
When people's
eyes slip
from seeking
God to
seeking their
own pleasure,
it destroys
churches,
it destroys
people's lives.
And loving
brothers and
sisters more
and more,
it will combat
against all
kinds of sins
and personal
agendas in
the church.
staying pure,
staying blameless,
loving more
and more,
it effectively
future-proofs a
church against
attacks from
outside and
inside.
And so we
should be
praying,
we should be
praying that
this church
here would
continue to
love more
and more.
We should be
praying for
one another,
we should be
praying for
our leaders,
you should be
praying for
me,
that we
would please
God with
our lives,
that we
would avoid
sexual immorality.
We should be
praying so
that our
families continue
strong in
the Lord,
so that our
daily lives
would win the
respect of
outsiders and
ring out into
the area around
us.
God has
saved us,
he has
forgiven us,
he has loved
us,
and he
delights in
us.
Obeying
God actually
pleases
him.
We can
please the
God of
the universe.
How can
we not
change and
seek to
live lives
to bring
delight and
joy to
the God
who loves
us and
made us?
Let me
pray.
Heavenly
Father,
you have
indeed loved
us so much,
so much that
we can't even
imagine it.
Heavenly
Father,
thank you that
you have
brought us
into your
family,
that we
can indeed
call you
Father.
And Lord,
we thank you
that when we
obey you,
when we
live lives
that bring you
honor,
that it
actually
pleases you.
God,
we seek to
do that
with our
bodies.
Help us to
do that in
purity.
God,
we ask
that you
would help
us to
do that
with love
to one
another,
so that
our church
would stand
firm,
so that
our lives
and our
families
would stand
firm in
faith and
hope and
love,
so that we
can please
you and
bring you
all the
glory.
We ask
this in
your son's
name.
Amen.