Stand Firm | A Study Through 1 Thessalonians

You know, sitting in church will no more make you a Christian than sitting in your garage is gonna make you a Buick. The goal is not to come to church. The goal is to be the church. The goal is not to come to church. The goal is to to to follow Christ. And that should make a difference in our lives. [00:38:36] (35 seconds)  #BeTheChurch

Friends, the reality is we were saved not because of anything we did. You didn't do anything to earn God's grace. He gifted that to you. While you were still in your sin, Christ died for you. He gifts you his grace. He saves you by grace through faith. That is a free gift from God. Not of works. Lest any of us should get big headed and boast about it. That's a free gift. But once we are saved, It requires a combined effort between you and the Holy Spirit of God. To begin to transform your life so that you're looking less like you and more like Christ. [00:11:25] (52 seconds)  #SavedByGraceNotWorks

Your goal, my goal as a follower of Jesus should not be to please myself or to please other people. Where are my people pleasers in here? Who live for that affirmation of other people. Paul would tell you don't live for the applause of people because it's fickle. Live a life that pleases God. He says something really important in in verse three. He said, this is the will of God. Your sanctification. Did you hear that? It's God's will that you become sanctified. [00:15:22] (36 seconds)  #GodsWillSanctification

Every day, Every day we decide whether we're going to follow Christ or we're gonna follow ourselves. Paul's telling him you made a good start but keep it up. The first thing that that Paul encourages them on is this. The Christian lives to please God. The Christian lives to please God. That's our goal. We want to live a life according to Paul that is honoring to God. He says to them, I'm I'm writing to you about how you ought to walk and to please God. [00:14:36] (46 seconds)  #LiveToPleaseGod

A slave could be redeemed. If someone was in slavery, somebody could come and give the owner of that slave a sum of money and redeem them out of their bondage. That's the image that Paul is using to describe what happened to you and me when we were saved. Christ paid the price. And we were redeemed from our slavery to sin. So, why do we wanna keep walking in it? Let me ask you a question. How is that working out for you? Still walking in those patterns of sin. It brings hurt, doesn't it? It brings pain. It brings shame. Christ redeemed you from those things. [00:41:21] (44 seconds)  #RedeemedFromSin

Does that mean that you're gonna be perfect all the time? Of course not. But, when you're not perfect, you should be willing to say, hey, I'm sorry. I was not I I did I was wrong. Seeing you humble yourself, and admitting error, admitting struggle. That's a good thing. Because it shows humility and it shows authenticity. But people should see something distinctive from my life. If all I've got as evidence that I know Jesus is that I go to church, I'm in trouble. You can train monkeys to come to church. [00:37:50] (39 seconds)  #HumilityAndAuthenticity

And yes, there's an element of that. Yes, it's true that we want people to to decide. Have a decisive moment where they said, I want to repent of my sin and turn from my sin. Believe the gospel and follow Christ. But see, therein lies the issue. Did you hear the last phrase of that? Follow Christ. See, I'm afraid that's what we're missing in a lot of our modern Christianity. You see, the main idea this morning is this. Jesus not only saves you for eternity. But he also saves you for now. [00:06:27] (47 seconds)  #FollowChristNotJustDecide

And friends, that's a lifelong pursuit that will only be complete when you stand face to face with Jesus. We're told in scripture, it in an instant, in a moment, we'll be completely transformed and changed and we'll be just like him. But until that day, you and the Holy Spirit are working in combination to grow in Christ likeness. And it takes effort. It takes discipline. It takes resolve. But friends, that's what we're called to do. [00:12:17] (39 seconds)  #LifelongSanctificationJourney