“Living to Please God”
(1 Thessalonians 4:1-12)
New Year’s Day
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
Take your Bibles and join me in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 (page 795; YouVersion).
While you are finding that, I want to remind you of our Wednesday night activities, resuming this week. Several places to plug-in Wednesday. If you’re not connected anywhere, let me invite you to our theology group meeting Wednesdays here in the sanctuary—every Wednesday at 6 PM, beginning this week. We’ll be reading through Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. No reading for this week, it’s our initial meeting and introductory. Theology is a good word—just means the study of God and God is a great topic of study, especially as we begin a new year and desire to grow more deeply in our study of God.
Speaking of the new year I want to say that—for better or worse—this sermon will be my best one [of the second/third service] so far this year! Think about that! I remember 2016—like it was yesterday, haha.
Okay, have you found 1 Thessalonians chapter 4? Good. I was finishing up my reading through the New Testament a month or so ago and, as I was reading through this chapter, I really sensed the providence of God in providing a passage for our study on New Years Day. This passage is about our living to please God. And while the text for our study is verses 1-12 of chapter 4, I’d like to read just the opening verse before we pray and then, you’ll want to keep your Bibles open as we will resume our study of the larger passage after our prayer. Listen for this in the very first verse now, a challenge to live our lives such that we please God.
Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;
Pray.
The prospect of a new year always presents us with fresh opportunities to begin again. To start something new. A new habit. A sort of “re-booting” of our system. New practices. New plans. New changes to improve our lives. This is largely what we mean by New Years resolutions. Goals, ambitions, and so on.
And we know how easy it is to break these resolutions to the point that we even poke fun at ourselves for it—like the woman who said, “This New Years I’m going to make a resolution I can keep: no dieting all year long.”
Inasmuch as dieting so often brings a drastic change to our tastebuds, as we deprive them of the sweets and fats to which they are accustomed, Greg Tamblyn said something like, “If you make a New Years resolution to eat only healthy foods, you won’t actually live longer—but it will seem longer.”
Speaking of living longer and increasing in age, Bill Vaughan said, “Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to.”
I like the one guy who said candidly, “My new year’s resolution is to get better at pretending to know the words to Auld Lang Syne.” Funny song that one.
Well, notwithstanding the challenge of making and keeping New Years resolutions, most of us are here today because we love Jesus and we want to grow more deeply in our love for Him this day and every day, this year and every year. And the Apostle Paul tells us in verse one of this passage that we are to live our lives in order to please God. He says at the end of verse one, referring to our Christian life as a “walk,” he says there is a way we “ought to walk” and that we are “to please God.”—and then, he goes on to tell us how to do just that—and there are three sections of the text here, three sections I have summarized in imperative statements—so three ways we may live to please God. First:
Look to your Personal Holiness (1-8)
Personal holiness has to do with our moral purity. Paul stresses the importance of our walking in personal holiness, looking after our own moral purity. Now before he gets right to that teaching specifically, he exhorts Christians generally. Verse 1:
1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;
Again, every time you see the word “walk” in a context such as this, it refers to our general lives, living in such a way as to behave ourselves. Walk or live in such a way as to please God. There’s the motivation. Living to please God. There’s joy in that!
Every once in awhile something happens to me that causes me to do something I don’t do naturally. Every so often, sometimes out of nowhere, there’s this prompting for me to do the dishes! It’s such an unusual and unnatural thing! And I’ll just find myself, suddenly and surprisingly doing the dishes. So I’ll clean every single one, load the dishwasher, put the clean ones away—wipe the counter—I don’t know what’s gotten into me! Here I am doing the dishes. Everything is spotless.
And then, sometime later, Michele comes into the kitchen. And I wait. With great anticipation. I’m waiting for her to notice everything. And when she notices and she smiles—then I smile. I feel something on the inside of me. It’s joy. I did those dishes not because I had to, but because I wanted to. I did something that brought pleasure to her—and in her pleasure I found pleasure.
Living to please God is doing things not because we have to, but because we want to. There is something on the inside of us that feels right when we live for God—it is joy. We love to feel God’s smile upon us and when we sense that He smiles, we smile.
I read this the other morning in my devotion time, my DQ time, time of daily quiet. Charles Spurgeon. Reflection on Psalm 20 where the psalmist says, “We will rejoice in thy salvation (verse 5).” Spurgeon says: “If joy were more general among the Lord’s people, God would be more glorified among men.” He adds, “the happiness of the subjects is the honor of the sovereign.”
We bring glory to God when we delight in Him. The happiness of the subjects is the honor of the sovereign. When we joy in the Lord, when we live to please God, God is glorified. We were created for this. But we don’t glorify Him through slavish obedience to His laws and regulations. We glorify Him because we want to see Him smile when we do the dishes—see? We feel rightly on the inside. That little electric pop we feel in our hearts, reminds us that we were created by God for this. It feels good! Living to please God.
So Paul says in verse 1 “we urge you and exhort you that you should abound more and more [that you should grow more and more], just as you received from us,” how to walk and please God”—in other words, “Church at Thessalonica, you remember what we taught you about living for God—verse 2:
2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
We gave you instruction about how to grow. Remember that there is justification and there is sanctification. The moment a Christian believes Jesus as Lord, he or she is completely justified—declared not guilty of all sin. Yet, while the Christian is completely justified, he is not fully sanctified. Sanctification is ongoing growth. Justification is complete in this lifetime; sanctification is never complete in this lifetime. Sanctification is ongoing.
That’s why as Christians we can say, “All of our sins have been forgiven—including future sins we don’t even know about yet.” That’s justification. And we can also say, “And when I do sin, I realize at that moment I am not pleasing God. I am needing to grow in my sanctification.”
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification (which in this context is personal holiness; we know this from what we read next): that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
The church in Paul’s day there in Thessalonica was much like the church in our day, here in America. Sexual temptation is everywhere. This term “sexual immorality” is a term that refers to any sexual activity outside of marriage.
In popular culture, sexual activity is encouraged and celebrated in nearly any manner, context, shape or form. In the Bible, however, God relegates sexual activity to the realm of heterosexual marriage, Christian marriage, marriage between one husband and one wife. Accordingly then, every other kind of sexual activity is sin.
4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel (or body) in sanctification and honor,
5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles (pagans; unbelievers) who do not know God;
Paul is saying that Christians are to live like Christians, not like non-Christians. We do not give-in to verse 5—the “passion of lust.” That’s how the Gentiles live, that’s how pagans live, that’s how unbelievers live, those “who do not know God.” See the contrast? You do know God, so you don’t live that way.
6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother (to sin against another person, male or female) in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.
Here is a reminder that all persons are created in God’s image and for this reason to sin against another person in the matter of sexual intimacy is to hurt another person as well as to invite the discipline of God upon ourselves.
A helpful way to battle lust, for example, is to remember that that young man is someone’s son—that young woman is someone’s daughter. That person you are objectifying is a person created in God’s image and has or had a mom and a dad or is someone’s husband or wife. So do not “take advance of and defraud your brother.”
And remember that engaging in sexual activity outside of the proper confines of Christian marriage is to invite God’s judgment. “the Lord is the avenger of all such.” Similar to Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”
7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.
Christians have been called by God, chosen by God, to live a certain way—to live not in uncleanness, but in holiness.
8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
So Paul is like, “Maybe you don’t like this teaching,” some today would say, “It’s out of touch, too strict, too legalistic.” Well, Paul warns in verse 8, “He who rejects this does not reject man, but God,”—God!—“who has also given us His Holy Spirit.”—the very God who has given His Spirit.
And I think there may be another contrast intended there. As though Paul were saying, “You can be filled with the passion of sexual lust or you can be filled with the Holy Spirit. You can choose to sin by walking in uncleanness and rejecting God—the very one who gives His Spirit for your joy—the Spirit fills you with the pleasure of God’s presence.”—as if Paul were saying, “How could you trade the joy and wonder of the presence and pleasure of God, how could you trade Him for the passing pleasure of sin which leaves you empty, guilty, and full of shame?
God has given you the Holy Spirit for your joy! Delight in Him! He will safeguard you from sexual temptation when you walk in the Spirit and live by the Spirit.
Look to your personal holiness. Pray this right now with me: “God, help us to walk in personal holiness, moral purity, for our good and for Your glory.” Living to please God means looking to our personal holiness. Number two:
Love with Brotherly Kindness (9-10)
Verses 9 and 10 are a call for us to grow in our love for one another.
9 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;
Now that’s pretty cool. Paul is like, “You know, I was just talking about the Holy Spirit and there’s something else the Spirit does, He teaches you to do things consistent with the Word.”
Paul says in verse 9, “Your have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.”
It’s much like the prophecy in Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31:33-34 teaches that the day will come when God—through the New Covenant—will “write on the hearts of His people” what He wants them to do. Those who are His children, Christians, we know what we are supposed to do because we have been taught by God—like it has been written on our hearts.
So Paul is saying in verse 9, “You already know you are supposed to love one another. On the one hand, I really don’t need to tell this. You already know it.” Paul continues in verse 10:
10 and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more;
Hear what Paul is saying there? Verse 10— You are doing this already. You are loving one another. You have a love for on another in all Macedonia, all throughout northern Greece. And then—Paul says this, note it in the second sentence of verse 1—“But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more.” In other words, grow in your love for one another.
It’s not enough! Grow in your brotherly kindness. Love more. “increase more and more.”
In the coming weeks we will grow in our brotherly kindness. In the coming weeks, we Christians here at Henderson’s First Baptist Church, we will grow in our love for one another. Cool, isn’t it?! As the weeks go by, we will love each other more deeply.
We grow in brotherly kindness, we “increase more and more.”
It’s a remarkable fact that we don’t stop growing. We grow in personal holiness and we grow in brotherly kindness. Remember justification in an accomplished fact—sanctification is an ongoing process. Sanctification, becoming more holy, more like Jesus, sanctification is a day-by-day living.
Parents delight in their child’s first steps, don’t they?! This little baby boy or baby girl—mom or dad holding them by their fingertips. Then finally that first step. Pictures on Facebook and Instagram—baby’s first steps! It’s a joyful time. But it doesn’t end there, does it? That’s the first step of many more to come! That baby will soon be walking, and then walking more and more, and increasing more and more. That’s growth.
So we come to receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior—we’re like a baby taking its first steps! But we must continue growing, abounding and increasing more and more, growing every day.
That’s one reason why church fellowship is so important! Getting involved in church—joining the church, covenanting together, agreeing to love one another, encourage one another, pray for one another, warn one another. We get involved in both big group and small group—big group; corporate worship and small group; Sunday school—to grow together. To increase more and more. That’s why we have a DQ, a time of daily quiet, to open the Bible every day that we may grow, taking more steps, talking to God in prayer, taking more steps, growing in our walk.
Look to personal holiness, love with brotherly kindness. Thirdly:
Live with Concern for your Witness (11-12)
Live knowing that the outside world is watching. That’s where verse 11 is headed—with a view to verse 12. In other words, verse 12 is the reason for verse 11. Look at both:
11 [See] that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,
12 that (in order that; for this reason) you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.
“That you may walk properly toward those who are outside” is a call for living with concern for your witness—your Christian witness. It’s much like Paul writes in:
Colossians 4:5, “Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.”
Or:
1 Timothy 3:7, “Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside,”
Live with concern for your witness. Live knowing that others are watching and—as we’ve noted before—live knowing that your life is either going to draw them closer to Jesus or push them further away. That’s the power of your witness, your testimony.
Your actions will either draw people closer to Jesus or push people further away from Jesus.
So verse 11 is really about the evangelistic influence of our daily lives. We should live in such a way as “mind our own business.” Don’t be the guy out there stirring things up. Lost people are negatively affected by the poor testimony of a Christian who is stirring things up by way of slander or bitterness.
Also these two verses speak to the matter of our having a good work ethic. Christians are to to live and work in such a way as to be a positive influence and have a positive impact upon “those who are outside.”
So living a life that pleases God means that we look to our personal holiness, love with brotherly kindness, and live with concern for our witness. Now, let me share two important reminders before we close:
**Two Important Reminders:
We all need regular urging and exhortation
We are prone to think that the only people who need urging or exhortation to live in a godly way are those who have already begun to live in an ungodly way. Like, we assume that the person who needs warning or exhorting is the one who’s already beginning to slide into immorality. He’s slipping, you know, so somebody warn him!
But Paul is urging and exhorting a good church. He is urging and exhorting a people who are already doing as they should. He just encourages them to keep on doing so. The NIV especially captures this truth. Hear the NIV of verse 1:
“…we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.”
Do you hear that? They were already living correctly. Paul is just like, ‘Hey, keep it up!” Let’s not reserve our urging and exhorting for only those people who have either already sinned or are fast sliding into sin.
One of the purposes of our gathering together weekly in big group and small group is so that we will hear the regular urging and exhorting to continue to walk in holiness and to continue to live in a way that pleases God. We all need regular urging and exhorting. It is one of the means God uses to safeguard us from sin.
We do better in the accountability of a church family. I do better when I’m with other brothers and sisters and we’re in the Word and we read about continuing to live a life pleasing to God.
And if I’ve failed in some way over the past week or weeks, I thank God for my justification. Don’t you?
I mean every single one of us in this room has made mistakes of one kind or another. We all of us at one time or other has traded the superior satisfaction of Jesus Christ for the pleasures of passing sin and we have suffered the consequences of our actions—shame, guilt, consequences with which we must live.
But the good news of the Gospel is that God does, indeed, forgive us of all sin and places us back on the path of Christian growth and development. We continue to grow in the Lord.
So back to the picture of the baby taking its first steps and walking—it walks and walks and grows, but falls. And falls again. And gets up and walks and walks again. By God’s grace, the Christian continues to keep getting back up and walking, growing, improving over time.
So here’s the second reminder. First: we all need regular urging and exhortation. Secondly:
We all can and must improve in our daily walk
Paul didn’t expect the Thessalonians to be at ease about their current state of growth in the Lord. That’s why he writes as he does in verse 1, “We urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more.” You see the same teaching down in verse 10, second sentence in verse 10, “But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more.”
We never graduate in this life! We can and must grow and improve in our daily walk—growing, abounding, increasing “more and more.”
Remember how Paul talked about his ongoing desire to grow when he wrote to the Church in Philippi? He said in Philippians 3:13-14:
13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul was not complacent. He had known Christ for some 30 years at this point! It’s like in 2 Timothy where we read of his sitting in a dungeon awaiting death any day, yet he asks Timothy, “Bring the books when you come!” THere’s more I want to know of Jesus!! More growth!
We all need regular urging and exhortation and we all can and must improve in our daily walk.
***
So we want to live a life that please God. We must look to our personal holiness. Is there a sin you need to repent of? Have you fallen into lustful thinking, or looking at things you shouldn’t? Looking at pornography, flirting with others—Repent.
Remember: “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”
Now at the beginning of the year is as good a time as any to say, “I turn from my sin and I turn to Jesus!”
Love with brotherly kindness. Is there someone you need to love genuinely? Someone you need to forgive? Do it right now. Forgive.
Some of you need to turn to Jesus for salvation. You can’t live to please God such that you earn your way into heaven. You can’t. You begin to please God by accepting His Son Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you have never done that, do that this morning.
We’re going to sing in a moment and when we do, I’m asking you to respond how ever you need to respond—repentance, coming forward to join the church, or coming this morning to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Let’s pray.
Now let’s stand and sing, and you respond however you need to respond.
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