Guest Speaker: P.V. Russ

Matthew 13:44-46

Jesus was a great story teller and a lot of the things he taught were in a parable. One main thing he would teach was about the kingdom of God. All these stories had a point and teach us something about God.

As the pearl merchant found out, all his little pearls could not beat his love for that one, special pearl he had been looking for. He sold all he had to purchase the pearl. Jesus is telling us that cheap things and valueless things will never fill our hearts. We were created to know God and to be in a relationship with the living God. Long before we were born he loved us, he knew us, and he put his love upon us.

When the love of God touches our hearts, we come to realize that he is more beautiful than being successful, having the cool cars, and the big house. Jesus is more beautiful and it grabs our hearts. As it cost the pearl merchant everything he owned it will cause us everything to receive the kingdom of God. This doesn’t mean we need to sell all our possessions. We can love the things we own but we need to love God so much more, so that if we lose everything, we really don’t lose much at all.

Brotherly Love

1 Thessalonians 4:9

Christianity is not too much about what you have and don’t have, or how big your church is. The one thing that separates and distinguishes Christianity from all other religions in the world is love. It is how the world will know that we are the disciples of Jesus Christ. It’s not about what goes on inside the four walls of the church but about how we interact with one another outside the church. Love is the hallmark of Christianity.

1) Love origination: V9 We have been “taught by God to love one another”. Of all the writers in the bible, from King David, to the prophets, to Paul and John in the New Testament, none are able to teach the topic of Love better then God. This is because love originates from God.  It begins with God. It will be demonstrated by God. The love of God is the central force that motivates us to love one another. It creates in us a new divine nature that is quickened by the Holy Spirit. We should now have this ability and nature that allows us to love a way we have never loved before.

There are millions of fish in the oceans. There are ugly fish, pretty fish, big fish, small fish, etc. They are so different but they all have one thing in common, they all swim. This is because it is in their nature to swim. Similarly, when we become believers, we naturally love.

2) Love outward expression: V10 Paul says that the love of the Thessalonians has been expressed and they have been doing well. However, he urges them to continue to love even more. He advises them to keep on loving, to love better and longer. How do we do this? V11.

a) Lead a quiet life: Don’t stir trouble or arguments by your zealous and passionate belief in something.

b) Mind your own business: Don’t get into people’s business. Don’t gossip. Do the task you were assigned to do, not dig into someone else’s.

c) Get to work: don’t be lazy. Paul says to “work with your own hands”. For the Greeks, people who worked with their hands were considered as lowly as slaves. To the Jews, every Jewish boy was taught to learn a trade regardless of his background. The Vietnamese culture can be in conflict with God. Working with our hands is an honorable thing. Earning an honest living is not a bad thing.

3) Love impression: V12 if we love one another, we will “earn the respect of those outside of the church”. The world will chase after fame, money, and power but we should chase after love. The only way that we can make our “invisible God” visible to those who don’t see Him is to love one another. Love provides growth internally for us. A loving environment in the church will help us to grow steadily.

The hallmark of Christianity is about love. It will become the glorious mark to the world and they will know the Lord through our love for one another. More importantly, loving one another pleases the Lord.

Sexual Purity

Sanctification:

V3 God wants us to be holy. He wants to set us apart for his purpose. The moment you accept Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells in you. He will not allow you to be in anything immoral. Every day, he will mold you and shape you to be sanctifies as Jesus Christ. We should yield the members of our body into sanctification. God demands that we separate ourselves from evil. Sexual immorality is something that has gotten in the way of the church.

It wasn’t normal for the men to have just one wife in the past. Many men went out and engaged in plenty bad things. That was the culture in the day. However, this is also the culture of our day, today. The sin that Paul saw in the people of his day is the same as that in our day. This is a serious problem. God has called us to sanctification.

Subjection:

V4 Bring the members of your body in subjection to control. Watch what you allow your eyes to see and body to do. Bring your body in subjection to your spirit. We need to starve our flesh and feed our spirit. We need to starve our flesh to death. Contrarily, we need to feed our spirit with sermons, fellow Christians, and the bible. Eventually, the flesh will no longer be heard. Our bodies will be disciplines.

Separation:

V5 When the world around us is saying that it is ok to have sex; we need to close our ears to it. It is ok for us to have sex, God made it for us. However, it is only ok between a man and woman in marriage.

Judgment:

V6 In our culture, men get away with doing sexually immoral things. The woman is the one that takes the short end of the stick. The man needs to realize that the girl they are taking advantage of has a father, mother, brother, or sister. That person may be a person in the Lord. You may think that you will get away with it but you won’t. Even if no person finds out, God will take care of it. He knows and your sin will be judged by him. You will be forgiven but there will be severe consequence.

Empowerment:

V7-8 God did not call us to be unclean but to holiness. God is nudging and tapping us. He is calling us to return to Him, to confess to Him, so that He can restore us and sanctify us.

What Pleases God?

1 Thessalonians 4:1

When Jesus was on earth, he saw a man that had been demon possessed. Jesus got on a boat and went to the place where the man was to set him free from the demon. He saw a young boy who was dead with his mother mourning beside him. Jesus gave him life again. He saw a multitude following Him and realized that they were hungry. He fed them. There were many instances in the bible where Jesus went out and did good. But why? Jesus would say, in John 8. “I always do the things that please God.”

This should be the goal and desire of our lives, pleasing God.

1)      It is a radical principle. It changes our lives. If we lived our lives with this method that Jesus used, everything about us would be changed.

2)      It is a flexible principle. Pleasing God doesn’t require us to constrict ourselves to a list of do’s and don’ts. We are called to be obedient to the moral law of God. We aren’t trying to please these laws, but please the one who had given them.

3)      It is a progressive principle. There is no end in pleasing God. We can never reach the fulfillment of it. The more we please the Lord, the deeper we want to please Him. It takes us from one level to another.

What do we need to do to please God?

Colossians 1:9-14

1)      Fruitful living: being fruitful in every work. Bearing fruit for the name of Jesus. As a vine produces its own fruit; Jesus produces His own fruit, us. Are our lives similar to a bowl of fruit? Our lives should be like this. When people walk by us, they should want to come and receive something from us the way they would a beautiful bowl of fruit.

2)      Increasing in the knowledge of God: knowing God and increasing in our knowledge. The way we know God should be more then it was yesterday, last month, and last year. A lot of people know a lot about Him but don’t have knowledge about him in a profound and personal way. Paul says if we want to please God, we must know God.

3)      Strengthened and powerful living: living a life pleasing to God means that you are strengthened by His glorious power. This power in unlimited. God’s power is everlasting. It will continue to carry us through. The bible suggests that we will be strengthened by the lord’s might. Powerful living pleases God. It shows that we are tapping into the power that the Holy Spirit provides. When we depend on Him, it pleases God. We receive powerful living from God so that we will have patience and longsuffering.

4)      Thankful: giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance, pleases Him.

What Every Pastor Should Be

1 Thessalonians 3

Paul’s sacrifice, protective care, and appreciation of the church demonstrated his heart for them.

1. Sacrifice: Paul was able to endure pains we couldn’t even think of; being whipped, beaten, slandered against, stoned, and more. However, being away from the church was something he could not handle.  He sent Timothy to the church to encourage and strengthen them. This was an act of selflessness.

a)      It was a great loss of companionship for Paul to part with Timothy. They had been on this missionary trip with one another with endless trials, pains, and tribulations. Timothy was side by side with Paul for months, but Paul was willing to send him away. This left Paul by himself.

b)      It was a great loss in personal comfort. Timothy was there to help Paul and comfort him. He was the one who would make sure Paul had a meal to eat or a blanket to sleep with. Sending Timothy away created a void in Paul’s heart, but he loved the church in Thessalonica enough to do it.

2. Protective Care: Paul told the church that they, along with every other Christian, are destined to severe trials. We as followers of Christ have been appointed to tribulation. Everywhere around the globe, there are struggling Christians. Paul knew that Satan would put afflictions upon them was sending Timothy to establish them in a secure faith and foundation. He wanted to make sure the church was still intact with God.

3. Appreciation: The church’s continuation in the Lord was what Paul, Timothy, and Silas were thankful for. Paul probably didn’t receive much from the church because they were such new believers. Paul didn’t need anything from them. He was just happy that the church shared the same faith in Christ that he did.

1 Thessalonians 2:17-20

Paul defends himself to the church in Thessalonica against all the accusations against him. It could have easily been misunderstood that Paul had forsaken the church or that he had abandoned them.

Love: V17 Paul loved the church but he was taken away from them by force. His love for them was compared to an encouraging father. He loved them with as a mother loves her baby (V7). Paul’s love for the people was unlike the usual. He was so attached to these people who he had only known for a short period of time. His love, however, was not exclusive. He loved people everywhere, not just in Thessalonica. He loved God’s people.

This is a pattern for every minister of the Gospel, to love God’s people. When Paul was taken away from them, he still prayed for them every time he thought about them. He wasn’t with them in person but he was with them in spirit.

Care: V18 Paul wanted to see them “face to face”. When you see a person face to face there is an intimacy and fellowship that cannot be felt on the phone or computer. Paul wanted to be with them. It is a sorrowful thing for a leader to not have the desire to be with God’s people.

Jesus came down to Earth and became human so that he could feel our pain and sorrows, to experience the things that tempt us and hurt us. Jesus searched for the missing sheep and lifted them upon His shoulders and gave them rest. Caring is about commitment, about sacrifice, and putting away our own agenda to make time for others. A challenge for us is to become the shoulder of Jesus for people.

Discernment: V18 Paul wanted to go and see them but “Satan had stopped them”. Satan is powerful and we can’t underestimate that. He is here to cause havoc in the lives of the people of God. However, God is more powerful though and be can’t even begin to fathom how much bigger it is then Satan’s. Paul had that spiritual understanding of when God wanted him to stop.

Sometimes Satan will shoot arrows at us and we will hold grudges against the people of God because we lack the discernment that it is a work of Satan.

 Joy: Paul’s joy was to see people open their hearts to receive Jesus as their lord and savior. They were his joy and his crown. The people were what Paul had lived for.

Jesus’ life was the same. He saw the cross and because of the joy before Him, He endured the pain. Jesus was God, He had everything. He was Lord of Heaven, he could calm the storms. Jesus had it all but He became a man and endured the shame because He had joy in the hope that we would be saved.

As Christians, our joy should be to see the salvation and success of God’s people the way Paul and Jesus did.