Dear Christian friends:
I have told you before and I will tell you again that you
are a very fine church group. During the past twenty-five
years I have served many deaf congregations, some very
good. But you are the best. I thank God because of you.
Because His Spirit has given you faith and love to serve
Him. Paul felt the same way about the Church at Thessalonica.
But here in our text which is part of a letter he wrote to
them Paul tells them to "do so more and more." So you
although you are a very good church, you can still improve.
You are not perfect yet and never will be on this earth.
So:
Live To Please God More and More
Why should we want to improve in serving God? Paul says,
"We beseech you and exhort you in the Lord Jesus Christ."
(verse 1) If you love Jesus, and I know you do because He
first loved you and died for you, then you will want to
do what pleases Him.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ wants us to improve in
serving God. Our God wants us to improve. This gives glory
and praise to Him. It shows the power of His love. When a
sinner stops his stubborn sinful ways and habits and
changes to serve and obey God many people see that change
and that improvement and give praise and glory to God.
(Give an example here of someone you know that changed)
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul says that God saved
them from sin and the devil so they could serve Him in
doing good works.
Ephesians 2:10,
"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love
with which He loved us, when we were dead in our wrongdoings,
made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been
saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him
in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages
to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you
have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one
may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so
that we would walk in them."
So we surely ought to want to please God more and more.
Now Paul explains one way they need to improve. Live to
please God in marriage. Thessalonians lived in a very
immoral society and many sexual sins. Paul knew they were in
danger of going back to those sins and doing like the
unbelievers.
1 Thessalonians 4:4-7,
"That each of you should learn to control your own body in a
way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like
the pagans, who do not know God; 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."
Our society here in the USA is becoming worse and worse
about sex sins, adultery and divorce. One in four P.O.W.'s
coming home from Viet Nam are surprised and shocked to see
how we have gone down: Dirty movies, dirty books, V.D.
worse now than anytime since 1919. Two baseball players
for New York Yankees now plan to exchange wifes.
So we also are in danger, and tempted to accept the sinful
and dirty ways of our wicked society. Paul says, "each one
of us should know how to take a wife for himself in holiness
and honor" - not like heathen (unbelievers) who see a woman
only as a sex-object. Women's Lib group is right to complain
about men who see women only as sex-objects.
Women should not play the game men want them to play. Refuse
to be a sex-object. Don't dress like one or tempt like one.
Dress like a lady, and be a lady! Men should see and respect
their wives as a gift of God. A wife is a friend and helper
God gives who is joined with us for life. "They are no more
two, but one. What God has joined together (in holy marriage)
let not man separate." The Bible says.
Paul says when we do these sex sins we do wrong against a
brother. Someone always gets hurt or destroyed when people
break the Sixth Commandment. A wife or a husband or the
children. Paul says God will punish all who do these things.
A final reminder God did not call us to live immoral lives but
to live holy lives respecting marriage.
So you are a good church, but watch-out for the temptations in
our very sinful world. Please God more and more.
Amen.