1 Thessalonians: A Reminder | Guest Speaker: Brad O'Kelley

You're stuck with me for today, which luckily, as Reed told you, Russ is coming back next week.

So do not fear.

Just deep breath.

Let's get through this one today.

And I also love the fact that Brian Robinson and Sam have kind of carried us through this uh whole part.

I get the last portion of this thing, and they got the hoorah, everything's great part of 1 Thessalonians, and then I get the junk.

Um so we're gonna dive into the weeds this morning a little bit, and I just want to warn you up front, like it's some stuff, man.

So um I'm gonna pray in just a minute, and uh we're hopefully gonna just kind of weed through this thing and make it work.

And I just want you to know that don't shoot the messenger, okay?

Don't shoot the messenger.

It's just I'm just reading from the word of God, all right?

I promise you that.

So one more time this morning, let me pray for us, and then we'll get rolling.

Father, thank you for the day.

Thank you for this church.

Thank you for all these folks that are here.

Father, my prayer this morning is that your word would be a roaring lion.

That you'd just allow me to open the cage.

Father, I just pray that as we study your word, as we see you, as we see your word come to life before us, God, that you'd prepare our hearts for that this morning.

We ask all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Alright, so we've we've kind of gone through 1 Thessalonians where Russ has been out, and he's gonna close this thing out next week.

And the best way that I can describe this without having to go all the way back to the beginning, if you haven't been here or whatever, is 1 Thessalonians is kind of a dad book, okay?

Paul's kind of the dad, he's writing to the kids at the church at Thessalonik, they're young believers.

You know, they're just trying to figure their way out in the world and all this stuff, and it's a it's very much a dad book, and for me that resonates because I know that I spend the majority of my time now trying not to be a certain dad.

Does that make sense?

That's the stage of life I'm in, is that I am a dad.

I try to do the best I can, but I'm also trying not to be a certain guy.

And I'll give you a perfect example is that we uh started soccer.

We we were soccer people this past year, you know, for like the second time.

And let me just tell you that that world right there, buddy, like it's you better get ready, you know?

Like you gotta get in the mix of the soccer game, and you gotta know what you're doing.

I have no clue how to play soccer.

I know you're shocked by that.

I know you're shocked by the this guy has no clue what you do in soccer, none whatsoever.

I take a very American football mindset into everything, which is find ball, hit person, take ball.

Like, that's all I know of it's if I'm coaching soccer, that's all I know how to do.

Find ball, find person with ball, hit them, take the ball away.

Like, that's it.

And so we got into the mix a little bit in this soccer world of, you know, there were some times where I'm trying not to be that dad.

I'm just the guy on the sidelines.

I keep reminding myself that.

I'm just the guy on the sidelines.

But there's a couple teams that show up, you know, and I wanted to be the check and birth certificate dad.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, there's always one of those guys, too.

And I almost turned into that guy a couple times, like, whoa whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, come here.

How old are you?

You know?

When's your birthday?

It's like check, I want to check some IDs, you know?

Like, what are you doing here?

How old are you?

Why are you seven foot tall?

You know?

What's going on here?

I I want to know these things, right?

And so I'm trying not to get into that role, but finally we play this one team and they were giants.

They were just giants.

And they're, I'm, I mean, just kicking the ball everywhere.

Our girls are scared to death, they're running away from these girls.

And so finally I call my oldest over to the sideline.

I've just I lost it.

I was like, that's it, I can't do it anymore.

So call my oldest over the sidelines.

I'm like, you listen to me.

Daddy's gonna teach you a phrase right now, and you're gonna remember it for the rest of your life.

Do you understand?

She's like, you know?

I'm like, that phrase is speed kills.

Speed kills.

These girls are giants and they are ugly.

You are fast and beautiful.

Do you understand that?

Like, here's what you do.

You go out there and you be faster than everybody else, and you take the ball away from them and you run as fast as you possibly can and you make them catch you.

I was like, Do you understand what's happening?

Yes, you know, she's like, like, please.

And so then I'm like, this is good, this is a good thing.

I'm giving you the encouragement here.

You're beautiful.

I love you, you're beautiful.

Now go do this, okay?

Please go do this.

And sure enough, then they're like little sponges, you know.

All of a sudden it was like it clicked, it was like, wait a minute, the girl is slow.

I'm about to burn this girl, you know, and here we go, we're off to the races.

And I sit there when I read a book like 1 Thessalonians, and I see how Paul's writing to this church, it's literally the exact same thing.

Because what we've done up to this point is he's told them how awesome they are.

And now we've got to get into the weeks.

Look at verse 1 of chapter 4.

There's three things I want you to see today.

Look at verse 1 of chapter 4.

It says, Finally, then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk, that you excel still more.

For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

Paul looks at this group of young believers right here, and there's there's kind of a threefold thing happening just in these first two verses right here.

The first thing is, is he's telling them, you're still awesome.

Okay?

Don't forget, all the way up to this point, I've reminded you how awesome you are, and I don't want you to forget that.

Look at what he says in verse 1.

He says, just as you actually do walk.

What he's saying is, he's not sitting there going, you're not doing this, so here's what you need to do.

This is a reminder to these believers that you are doing this.

But like a true dad, what's the second fold of this reminder?

Look at what he says.

You excel still more.

Is that not a true dad phase right there?

That's the part I love the most, is that he looks at him and he goes, You're awesome.

You can always be better.

Right?

Isn't that the message that we would love to instill into our kids?

Is that, hey, I love you and you're awesome, but there's still room to grow, isn't there?

There's always room to get better.

And then the last thing, look at what he says in verse 2.

He says that Christ is the authority on these things.

And I love this because he says, For you know what commandments we gave you.

And as Sam and Brian kind of taught us in the beginning of this thing, this is Paul and Timothy and guys that have shown up into the church, and now they've been run out.

And so Paul's writing back to them this letter, okay?

And he says, You know the commandments that we gave you by what?

The authority of the Lord Jesus.

And this is a beautiful thing because what Paul is doing is he's reminding these young believers, hey, you're not gonna let me down.

You're not getting me off the hook, you're not hurting me by not keeping the commandments.

These aren't our commandments, these are God's commandments.

Just like I told you in the beginning, is that there's some strong stuff in this passage of scripture.

Don't shoot the messenger.

Why?

Because it's not mine.

It's God's, it's not mine.

What Paul's doing is he's looking at these believers and he's going, hey man, you need to remember, here's a reminder for you that not only are you awesome, but you can still keep growing.

And as you grow, guess what?

Grow in the way of the Lord, not in the way that I instructed you.

You know, this is it's a it's a beautiful picture.

It's the same picture that I get when our kids go to grandparents' house.

We have grandparents in this room in here today, and they know.

They know how terrible they are.

Because you send your children to your to the grandparents' house, and what happens?

They come back, and it's three days of reprogramming.

It's three days of reprogramming the children because they've been at the grandparents' house, and no, you will not eat ice cream for breakfast, you know?

No, you cannot have that.

And and you're and you just you have to look at them, you have to go, hey buddy, you're back in gym pop now, the warden's in charge.

You know?

Like, you're not with grandma's not here anymore, you know?

Like, you have to have that conversation.

And my mom's the worst.

She's the worst because she takes them and she lets them do anything they want to do, regardless of the instruction that we give her.

And then when she does it, the excuse is always the same.

I'm the grandparent.

I don't care what you say.

She's opening us about it.

And so we reprogram, right?

It takes three or four days to reprogram.

What Paul's doing is he's been sent out from out of the presence of these believers in this church, and he's writing back and he's going, Hey, the world's throwing all kinds of stuff at you guys.

I'm trying to help you get reprogrammed into not what you were taught by us, but the authority of the God that we taught it on.

It's an amazing thing than a reminder that we all need in our own lives that sometimes the world throws all kinds of stuff at us, and some of it's good and some of it's bad, and some of it's rough, and some of it's easy, or whatever it may be, but at the same time, we have to remember what?

That's not the authority that we're looking for.

The authority that we have is from the word of God.

That's the reminder that we need every single day.

Look at the second thing today.

This is where we get into the junk.

You ready?

Second thing I want you to see is the separation.

Look at verse three and four.

For this is the will of God.

Remember, Paul just got done telling him, don't, don't see the messenger, it's not me.

This is this is God's word, you ready?

For this is the will of God, your sanctification.

That is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

We've spent three and a half chapters at this point being told how awesome we are.

We've been told, here's how you should do church, here's how much we love you, here's why I'm writing this to you.

All of these wonderful things have come piling in.

Even the beginning of chapter four, they're probably still on cloud nine thinking, we are really awesome.

And then they get to verse three, and Paul looks at them and goes, This is the will of God, and they're shaking their hands, going, okay, your sanctification.

The word sanctification literally means to be set apart from sin into holiness.

To be set apart from sin into holiness.

So Paul's looking at him going, This is the will of God, part of your sanctification, to be set apart from sin into holiness.

And then what is he, what kind of bombs he drop on these people?

Abstain from sexual immorality.

And they're going, that's like an uppercut.

Like, what, what?

Where did this come from?

Well, in order to understand that, we have to understand why in the world this would even be an issue.

And the reason it's an issue is because these young believers in the church are being influenced in two different ways.

Right outside the door of their church is a very Greek culture and a Roman culture coming together at the same time and weaving together.

And in both of those instances, there's a very liberal view of sex and sexual immorality.

And that view says anything goes.

And everything is okay.

Man, can you imagine living in a terrible world like that?

Yes.

We can.

Anything goes.

And the reason that Paul has to butter you up a little bit with this is not my word, it's the word of God, is because he's about to look at people and go, don't forget that God designed this thing.

That not only did he design it, he laid it out step for step in his word.

And anything outside of a sexual relationship between a married man and woman is off limits.

That's the one that gets you invited from the parties.

Gets you uninvited.

That's the one that everybody's.

I'm done with that guy.

Don't shoot the messenger, man.

That's the one where we wash our hands and go, no, thank you.

But at the end of the day, the reason Paul is writing this is because right outside of their door, it's happening in front of their faces on a daily basis.

And the ease of walking out of the church and into sexual immorality is easier than you and I driving down the street to the grocery store.

Look at what he says in verse 4.

It says that each of you know how to possess his own vessel.

Again, in what?

Sanctification and honor set apart from sin to holiness.

That you know how to control yourself.

I love that the Bible constantly brings up self-control.

Because, see, that's the one thing that we hate talking about.

In all instances, we do not like talking about self-control.

We don't want to know what the Bible says about certain things because it would cause us to have to do what?

Control ourselves in such a way to abstain.

What did the verse say in verse 3?

That you abstain, you hold yourself back, you tell yourself no.

We don't like self-control.

But here's the beauty of self-control.

In Galatians 5, verse 22 through 24, it's not going to be on your screens, but anybody know what that is?

Galatians 5:22–24

It's a fruit of the Spirit.

It's the fruit of the Spirit.

And it literally teaches us what an indwelling in us of the Holy Spirit looks like.

And here's what it says in verse 22 but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

And it gets worse, you ready?

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus, Galatians 5, 24, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions.

They have crucified the flesh with its passions.

Why?

And desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

That's the other one that gets you uninvited from the party.

You want to know why?

Because it means that my opinion doesn't matter.

It means that your opinion doesn't matter.

It means that God has already laid out and designed certain things for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in believers to put aside the lust that belongs inside of us, the lust that comes with our flesh, and to be set apart, sanctified from that into holiness.

And there's no way for us to do it on our own.

It's impossible.

Here's what verse 5 says in 1 Thessalonians, back in chapter 4.

Here's what it says not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God.

I love this part.

You want to know why?

Because Paul isn't taking this thing.

He isn't taking this reminder, taking this sanctification process and set apart, being set apart from sin to holiness.

He's not taking that and putting it on unbelievers, which is what we like to do today, right?

As Christians, we'd love to go out into the world and make the world believe what we believe, right?

We'd love to go out into the places out in our own town, and we'd love to say, you need to act like we act.

You need to do the things that we do, right?

And the unbelievers are looking in and going, No, I don't want to do what you do.

I don't want to be a part of this.

I don't want anything to do with that.

And we expect, we have this expectation that it's on them to get like us.

And do you know what Paul literally blows apart right here in verse 5?

He says, Not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God.

He's going, it's not on them.

You're the one in Christ's likeness.

You're the one being sanctified.

You're the one having to walk every single day in the life that God has called you to, being in God's will.

It's on you.

It's not on them.

But you see, it's a whole lot easier to live a life that says, no, you need to get like me.

Look at verse 6.

And that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things.

Just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you, for God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.

Paul looks at him and he goes, and not only does this problem affect you, the problem he's writing about sexual immorality, and he's looking at these people and going, the thought of sexual immorality, we love to blow this issue up and make it think that it's a very personal thing that only hurts you.

Folks, let me tell you something.

Sexual immorality has a ripple effect unseen in all of our lives.

The word sexual immorality in the Bible, the Greek word is pornea.

Do you know what word we derive from that?

The word pornography.

It's the root word for pornography.

And in the Bible, Paul is literally not just laying out your big picture view of sexual immorality.

He's laying it out as anything that takes you from the position of God's design of sexual morality and moves you outside of those bounds.

Anything.

The things your eyes can see, the things your ears can hear, the things your lips can say, all of those things fall into that umbrella, under that umbrella.

And he's looking at him and saying, it's not just you that gets hurt.

It hurts the body, it hurts the brethren, it hurts other people outside of the church.

And it causes us to go into a place that we shouldn't have been in the first place.

And then in verse 7, look at what he says.

For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in what?

Sanctification.

It's a reminder again of Paul saying, you have a separation.

You've been called to be separated from the world, from sin, into holiness.

You haven't been called to impurity.

Impurity is what happens all around you.

But what God has done in you through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit in you is he has set you apart.

He set you apart in sanctification to go and live a life of holiness.

We don't like that.

Because that is not popular.

You know what else is not?

It's not fun either.

You miss out on a lot.

Paul continues on, look at what he says.

In verse 8, he who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Don't shoot the messenger.

This is the work of God.

Now, we get into the last thing I want you to see today.

The last thing I want you to see is the action.

There's always got to be some action, right?

So here's the action.

People think this little section right here that we're about to read should be a whole separate deal, okay?

Should be out of there.

But I see some correlations between the two.

Let's just look at it.

You ready?

Look at verse 9.

Remember, this is the action.

Now, as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.

Here goes Paul again.

What is he saying?

You got, you don't need any, you're awesome in that.

In loving one another.

You're doing awesome.

And it's because you've been taught by God.

It's not us, it's God doing the work.

That's why you're awesome.

But look at verse 10.

For indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all of Macedonia.

But, it's a good dad line, you ready?

But we urge you, brethren, to what?

Excel still more.

This is where we really like to wash our hands and go, nothing's ever good enough.

It's just never good enough, is it, Paul?

We can just never get it right because every time we do, you tell us that we should be doing more.

The beauty of that is that Paul, if he were here, could point back to the verse before that and go, it's not me.

This is an Almighty God.

It's not me.

And then look at what he says in verse 11.

And to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business.

And work with your hands just as we commanded you.

What?

What are we talking about?

Living a quiet life and minding your own business and working with your hands and doing all that?

Like, what are we talking about?

Paul, right here, this is the best part, you're ready, because you know what he's doing.

The culture that is happening outside the doors of the church, he's taking a chisel and he is bashing it into small little bits with every single word.

Because the Greek culture was the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

That means whoever's standing on the tallest stump, speaking the loudest, they're the ones that's most important.

Not only that, but then he looks at him, what does he say?

Mind your own business.

Paul, this is Marietta.

Come on, bro.

If we didn't worry about anybody else's business, we wouldn't have any business to worry about.

And then the last one, I love this.

Work with your hands.

Work with your hands.

Greek culture, do you know what they thought about manual labor?

If they thought the person standing on the highest stump talking the loudest was the most important, what do you think they thought about manual labor?

It was worthless.

Worthless.

The biggest and baddest jobs around were to do what?

To be a philosopher, to be a thinker, to be someone in this high-level government position, all of these things.

Can you imagine living in a terrible world like that?

There's no cause for working with your hands.

And so Paul chips away at all of these cultural norms right here and he says, No, what I'm telling you is that make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, attend to your own business, and work with your hands.

Why?

Watch verse 12.

This is the best part.

You ready?

Verse 12.

So that you will behave properly towards outsiders and not be in any need.

You say, I miss it.

What's so great about that part?

There's one word in here that's that's great about this part.

You ready?

I'll slow it down.

Verse 12.

So that you.

Remember when Paul took all of the stuff off of the world outside, he didn't blame them for anything.

And what he's doing is he's looking at believers and going, it's your job to go out and live this way.

You're the one that goes out in sanctification and being set apart and puts your head down and goes to work and minds his own business and does all of these things.

Whose job is it?

Yours.

Why?

So that you won't be in any need.

The action here is the complete opposite of what we are taught on a daily basis.

To be loud, to have the important title, to do all of these things and go out and make our force our will onto somebody else.

And the truth of the matter is, Paul is looking at believers and going, actually, I want you to do the opposite.

I want you to be quiet, put your head down, go to work, do the things that God's called you to do, live the life that God's called you to do, and watch how people will separate you, sanctification, from everything else that goes on in the world.

I can remember being a young minister, and I got kind of pushed into a conversation at one point in time that I had no business being in.

And this guy was had incredible problems.

Marriage was falling apart, his wife was basically a functioning alcoholic, and there were affairs, there was all kinds of stuff was happening.

And it was a perfect storm.

I was young.

I was in this group that heard all of this, and at that time, in my mind, as a young minister, my thought was, I have the answer to this.

Because I thought, you know, hey, I'm I've reached this point, you know, I'm gonna give my opinion.

I'll never forget being in this room with these guys, and this conversation is just pouring itself out in an incredible way.

And I remember just inserting myself like I'm an idiot into this conversation and spouting this off, and I'll never forget the guy looked at me.

He looks at me and he says, That's easy to say when your world's not the one burning down.

And I never ever forgot that.

Because what that guy in that moment needed to see, he didn't need to see the guy standing on the stump shouting the loudest, saying, I've got the answer.

What he wanted was somebody to get into the mud with him and just walk.

Is there anybody that would do it?

What Paul is looking at these young believers and saying is he's saying, get off the stump and walk.

Brothers and sisters, do not miss this today.

God has called us as believers to be sanctified, set apart from sin and to holiness.

And there is no way for us to achieve that on our own apart from the love of Christ and his indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us.

Everything else will be considered a failure.

Let me pray for us today.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for this message, we thank you for the time that you've given us to study your word.

Father, I pray that I handled it with accuracy, with love, with all the things that you've called me to do.

I pray that it would pierce hearts this morning, Father.

And that, Lord, you would have your will in your way as we move forward with our service as we take communion.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you for your son, Jesus.

And we ask all this in his name.

Amen.