More and More: Pleasing to God

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 104:2-9, 33-34
• Hymn — God, All Nature Sings Thy Glory (#253)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin — Isaiah 53
• Assurance of Pardon — 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10
• Hymn — Sing Aloud to God Our Strength (#81)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
• Sermon
• Hymn — Lord, You Have Searched (#139)
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26

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Sermon Title: More and More: Pleasing to God

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

I. Why Your Life Must Be Pleasing to God

Paul urges believers twice (vv. 1 and 10) — the image of a parent wooing a child to walk — to let their lives be more and more pleasing to God. That such a thing is even possible is stunning given the depth of human sin.

A. Because of God's Will for You (1 Thessalonians 4:3, 7)

1. "This is the will of God, your sanctification" — God has not called us for impurity but in holiness
2. Answers the common question: "What is God's will for my life?" — the answer is your sanctification
3. Sanctification: the ongoing work of God by the Spirit, enabling us more and more to die to sin and live to righteousness, progress secured in salvation

B. Because of God's Work for You (1 Thessalonians 4:1, 8)

1. Paul frames the whole call "in the Lord Jesus" — the context of Christ's person and finished work
2. Sanctification follows upon justification; it is not its cause but its natural consequence
3. Justified believers are already counted holy and righteous in Christ; as a holy priesthood they offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God (1 Peter 2)
4. Because of what God has done for you in Christ, walk out your salvation, letting your life be more and more pleasing to him

II. How Your Life Must Be Pleasing to God

A. By the Conduct of Your Sexual Ethic (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8)

1. "Abstain from sexual immorality" — the Greek word porneia is broad, covering all manner of sexual sin contrary to God's design
2. God designed sex as good, set within marriage between one man and one woman; sin distorts and twists this good gift
3. Sexual ethics encompasses both body and heart — the seventh commandment (do not commit adultery) and the tenth commandment (do not covet) together show that sinful desire itself is sin (1 Thessalonians 4:4-5)
4. "Abstain" carries the force of a clean cut and total separation — remove sexual sin as far as possible, as one cuts away rot from fruit
5. The answer is not withdrawal from the world (the cloister fails because we take our sin with us) but setting Christ as the target: his perfect example, his death and resurrection breaking sin's chains, his blood covering even sexual sin for those who trust him
6. A horizontal dimension: sexual sin wrongs a brother or sister; the Lord is an avenger of the unrepentant sexually immoral (1 Thessalonians 4:6)

B. By the Conduct of Your Work Ethic (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12)

1. Brotherly love is to be expressed more and more; the Thessalonians were already doing this throughout Macedonia but are urged to increase
2. Idleness appears to be a specific problem in Thessalonica (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:14) — the idle person is able to work but unwilling
3. Paul gives one attitude and two activities (1 Thessalonians 4:11):
   • Attitude: Aspire (make it your ambition) to live quietly — a disposition of peace, contentment, and calm stability
   • Activity 1: Mind your own affairs — do not meddle in what does not concern you
   • Activity 2: Work with your hands — those not busy with their own business become busybodies
4. Goal: to walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one — supporting oneself and one's family is itself an expression of love (1 Thessalonians 4:12)
5. Work hard as unto the Lord, not as idol-worship, not from anxiety, but from godly diligence before a watching world