Latest / Chapel Talks / More and More | 1 Thessalonians 4_1-12 | Revd Dr Tim Ward

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More and More | 1 Thessalonians 4_1-12 | Revd Dr Tim Ward · Chapel Talks

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  Lord, we ask that as you delight to do as you've
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  done for us countless times in our lives for
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  our good. Would you please now, by the power
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  of your spirit, open our hearts up to receive
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  you, to receive what you have to say to us here
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  and illumine this word for us, we pray. We need
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  that work from you. In Christ's name. Amen. I
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  don't know what a parent might find themselves
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  saying to a grown up child when the grown up
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  child is about to head off and get married. I
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  have not been in that position. If it happens,
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  I think I could imagine wanting to say something
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  like this. And I'll imagine it said to a son
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  rather than a daughter, because rather simply,
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  I have a son and not a daughter. I can imagine
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  wanting to say something like, son, we have taught
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  you to be a good man. We've taught you to be
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  loving and gentle. You've been taught that. And
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  son, you know, I see you living like that. You're
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  not perfect, but you are loving and you are gentle.
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  So son, as you head off into your new life, more
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  and more, just be like that more and more. You've
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  been taught. You are doing so more and more.
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  There might be all sorts of times in life, mightn't
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  there, when we want to say that kind of thing
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  to each other. You've been taught you are doing
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  more and more. Isn't that pretty encouraging?
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  I mean, it seems to me the tone of that is not
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  the tone of a telling off, oh, come on, you've
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  disappointed me again, pull your socks up. The
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  tone is, it's a thumbs up. It's a keep going.
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  It's an I see you. I see you. I like what I see
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  more and more. And that is exactly the tone and
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  actually not just the tone. That is the substance
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  of what God says through the Apostle Paul to
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  the Christians in Thessalonica in in chapter
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  four in this first letter to the Thessalonians.
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  In fact, what Paul is doing in chapter four is
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  he picks up what he drops in at the end of chapter
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  three, and then he just dives into it a bit more
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  deeply. At the end of chapter three, he's been
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  talking about the lives of these Christians,
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  about the quality of their lives. Just listen
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  to the last two verses of chapter three, verses
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  12 and 13. There he says, may the Lord make your
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  love increase. and overflow for each other and
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  for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
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  May your love increase. Verse 13, may he strengthen
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  your hearts so that you will be blameless and
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  holy in the presence of our God and Father when
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  our Lord Jesus comes with his holy ones. He says
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  that he wants two things in their lives, two
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  things in our lives to increase and abound and
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  be established and they are love for each other.
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  And holiness. And in our passage today, as he
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  gets into chapter four, Paul keeps running with
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  those two topics of love for each other and holiness.
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  Towards the end of our passage, he's going to
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  talk about their love for each other. Before
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  that, earlier in the passage, he talks about
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  holiness. And what he particularly homes in on
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  is sexual holiness. So in our verses, that's
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  what we've got. We've got these two sections.
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  One to wait on sexual morality, sexual holiness.
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  And then verses nine to 12 on love for each other
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  in the church. That's how this passage is set
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  up. Now, before I get into some of the details
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  of that, I want to come back to where I started,
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  because Paul. He leads into these two sections,
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  these two sections on sexual holiness and love
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  for each other in the church. He leads into them
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  in the exact same way in each section. You have
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  been taught, you are doing so more and more.
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  See that in verse one of chapter four. As for
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  other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed
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  you how to live in order to please God. As in
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  fact you are doing. Now we ask you and urge you
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  in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. Paul
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  had spent time with them, hadn't he? He taught
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  them the word of God. He taught them the will
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  of God. He says here, we instructed you how to
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  live in order to please God. You know what instructions
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  we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
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  You've been taught. And still in verse one, he
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  says, as in fact, you are living. You are doing
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  it. I know you are. And then third, the end of
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  verse one. Now we ask and urge you in the Lord
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  Jesus more and more. You see the pattern being
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  taught are doing more and more. That's how we
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  lead into the first section on sexual morality.
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  And then. The second section on love for each
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  other, we get the exact same pattern. Different
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  words, same pattern. So verse 9. Now, about your
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  love for one another, we do not need to write
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  to you, for you yourselves have been taught by
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  God to love each other. And in fact, you do love
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  all of God's family throughout Macedonia. Yet
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  we urge you, brothers and sisters. To do so more
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  and more. You see the pattern. You yourselves
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  have been taught by God, he says, to love each
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  other. What does he mean? How would they be taught
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  by God? Well, two ways. Through their ears. Paul
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  had been there. Paul had taught them. Through
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  their ears and in their hearts. God had also
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  taught them through the Holy Spirit, whom he'd
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  sent into them, prompting them, steering them.
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  making it, as it were, internally in their souls,
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  making it as plain as the nose on their face,
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  that they should love each other. They've been
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  taught. Then verse 10, he says, and in fact,
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  you do love all of God's family. They are doing
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  it. And third, verse 11, we urge you, brothers
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  and sisters, to do so. There's the phrase again,
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  more and more. Do you see it's the exact same
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  pattern at the beginning of each section. Being
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  taught, are doing. So more and more. Surely this
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  resonates with our experience of what it is to
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  live as Christians. At some point in the past
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  by someone, you were taught how you should live
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  as a Christian. It's simple teaching. You're
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  not likely to forget it. And in the areas Paul
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  is talking about here, of course, the teaching
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  is at root. Sex is for marriage between a man
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  and a woman. And other Christians are your brothers
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  and sisters, and you've got to love them. Once
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  that foundation of simple teaching had been laid
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  in you, it kind of stuck, didn't it? You have
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  not done the hard work that some people tragically
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  do of trying to rip up that foundation and chucking
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  it out because they want to live an entirely
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  different kind of life now. No, you've been building
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  on it. You've been building brick by brick, layer
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  by layer. God has been building that in you.
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  It's not been perfect. Just to take that kind
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  of building analogy a stage further. Sometimes
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  you can look at bits of your building and you
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  can see they're starting to crumble. Maybe, frankly,
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  you've been actively taking a sledgehammer to
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  bits of the building yourself. But you put the
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  sledgehammer down, you sort it out in God's strength,
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  you build again, you build some more. To the
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  Christian who resonates with that, God is saying
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  to us in these verses, You are a follower of
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  Christ. You are not having sex with someone you
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  are not married to. You are not planning to have
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  sex with someone you are not married to. When
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  the temptation to enjoy thinking about sex with
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  someone you're not married to jumps into your
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  head, what do you do? Well, in the end, with
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  the Spirit's help, you work to put the danger
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  into death. Love for others. You really do love
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  the Christian brothers and sisters sitting around
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  you here. You really do love the Christian brothers
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  and sisters you sit with on a Sunday. OK, sometimes
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  they drive you mad and you drive them mad. But
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  you are not ashamed out there in the world to
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  be associated with them. You share your life
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  with them, your time with them, your possessions
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  with them. If this is us, because we are Christians,
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  what is God's message here? Is it not simply
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  this? God says to us, you have been taught. I
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  have laid good foundations in you. You know the
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  teaching. You're not likely to forget it. You've
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  got reliable teachers who go on teaching you.
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  You've got the spirit in you to go on reminding
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  you. Second, God says, I see you. I see. that
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  you are walking now in the right way. In a world
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  that thinks your sexual ethics are ridiculous,
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  thinks they're harmful, I see how you live, says
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  God. In a world that too often fosters friendships
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  only when they benefit me, I see you giving out
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  to Christians and brothers and sisters when you
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  have nothing to gain and it's only going to cost
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  you. Third, says God, So more and more. This
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  is the right path. I have shown you. You have
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  found it. You are walking in it. Keep walking
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  in it. You know, as I was putting this sermon
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  together, I just had the sense that this first
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  section of the sermon, which is the longest section,
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  that this first section, it just kind of felt
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  deeply ordinary. I looked at this and went, is
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  this going to set the world on fire? It just
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  felt deeply ordinary and also deeply encouraging.
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  I love the thought of someone taking this thought
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  with them into the rest of their week. And this
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  being halfway through week 12, that's kind of
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  quite a week for a lot of us. I love the idea
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  of someone taking this thought with them. God
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  has laid down his teaching in me. He just has.
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  I'm not in the business of ripping it up and
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  chucking it out. He sees how I'm walking and
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  he says it's good. It is not perfect. It is not
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  the finished article, but he says I see and it
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  is good. So now, please, Lord, for another few
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  days, more and more of the same. More and more
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  does not seem so crushing. But if you may have
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  had some. experiences in life some encounters
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  some relationships where basically what there's
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  been is a tone of more and more come on more
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  and more more and more and that's how often is
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  that just crushing and debilitating but now here
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  when it's the lord god who says more and more
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  but he has said to you first you know i've laid
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  the teaching down in you I see you living in
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  it and it is good. When that Lord who was first
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  said those things, when he then says more and
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  more. Is that not encouraging? And not crushing?
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  So I've shown you here what God says to a church
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  that is basically going well in these things,
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  in sexual morality, in love for each other. But
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  now for the rest of my time, I'm just going to
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  get into what Paul does as he spells out that
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  first section on sexual morality. There isn't
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  time for me to get into the details of what he
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  says on love for each other. And in that first
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  section on sexual morality, I'm going to focus
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  on God's message here to a Christian. Who, through
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  this sermon so far, has been thinking to themselves,
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  well, in that first section of the passage, if
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  I'm honest, I'm not sure I am going so well in
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  these things. I'm not sure the Lord would look
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  at me and say, you are doing. In this first section
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  on sexual morality. There can be many scenarios
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  here, can't there? Maybe this might be one in
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  the life of a Christian. And I'm not picking
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  this scenario at random. This is exactly the
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  situation that a Christian I know has been in
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  recently. Out of the blue, an old flame from
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  the past got in touch. And it was fairly evident
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  to the Christian that if they responded to this,
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  one thing may well lead to another. Because that's
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  what the other wanted. And we know, don't we,
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  that phrase, one thing leads to another, what
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  that can mean sexually. A Christian receives
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  that message and frankly, they quite like the
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  thought. They get quite a lot of pleasure from
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  the thought of what a response to this message
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  might lead to. And so right now, a Christian
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  in that situation may well think God is not looking
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  at me in this area with the thumbs up. Well,
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  what the Lord gives us here in these opening
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  verses of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, what he
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  gives us is five motivations, five spurs, five
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  reasons from the Lord not to reply to that out
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  -of -the -blue message open to the possibility
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  that one thing might lead to another. Anyone
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  who needs particular strength from the Lord in
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  this area right now? Well, you could pick out
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  one of these five. I'm going to set them out
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  for you. You could pick out one of these five
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  that just kind of hits you. That's what you need
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  to cling on to. Or maybe kind of you just let
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  the weight of the five wash over you as a kind
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  of a summary of the Lord's strength for you in
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  this. First, if one thing did lead to another,
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  Well, that is simply how people live when they
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  do not know God. Verse 5. Not in passionate lust
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  like the pagans who do not know God. When we
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  know God, we know that he is utterly faithful
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  to us, know he is utterly holy, know how he utterly
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  desires and works for us to share his holiness.
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  How can we live like people who just don't know
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  him? Second, it harms others. Verse six. And
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  that in this matter, no one should wrong or take
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  advantage of a brother or sister. You may well
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  have experienced, as I have done, people in an
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  adulterous relationship who are telling themselves
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  this harms no one. And everyone around them,
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  especially those caught in the crossfire, know
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  that that is a lie. Third, God simply condemns
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  it. Verse six, the Lord will punish all those
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  who commit such sins. Fourth, it's just not our
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  calling from God. It's not what he's called us
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  into. Verse seven, for God did not call us to
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  be impure, but to live a holy life. If this isn't
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  too flippant a way of putting it, being holy
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  is not a nice to have in our calling from the
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  Lord. Holiness in these sexual things is not
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  an add -on extra to our faith for the super keen,
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  like heated seats in a new car if you fancy them
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  and can afford them. It is just the very essence
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  of who we are and how we are called, what we
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  are called to. And fifth, sex outside its proper
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  place disregards God. It ignores, it ignores,
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  it works against the reality that God has already
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  put something into us. He has put into us his
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  own holy presence and his own holy power. Verse
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  eight. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction.
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  does not reject a human being, but rejects God,
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  the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit. I
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  know we know this. In us as Christians is who?
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  The Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Ignoring that message
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  that pops up on your phone, where one thing might
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  lead to another, choosing to ignore that and
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  walking away. What are you doing when you do
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  that? From the perspective of verse 8, what you
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  are doing is you are just living in line with
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  the presence and the power of God who is in you.
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  You're going with the grain of what God has built
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  into your life. You're walking within the power
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  that God has already poured into your life. So
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  five strengthening things here from the Lord
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  to help us. Maybe one of them jumps out as just
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  what we need. Maybe kind of the five work together
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  as it were to overwhelm us again. Holding us
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  in holiness. Calling us back into holiness. And
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  particularly calling us back when the temptation
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  is strongest. There's the temptation. But now
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  that is how people live when they don't know
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  God. But I do know him. If I do this, I will
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  harm someone. The God who I trust with everything
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  else in my life, he condemns this. How wonderful
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  to be called by the God of the universe to be
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  something. And this is not his calling. If I
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  do this, I will disregard the one I love most
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  of all. Whose own spirit of holiness is in me.
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  My goodness, there is an awful lot here, isn't
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  there, with which to feed our own souls and to
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  feed each other's souls. Let me leave a moment
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  for your own private prayer. Then I'll close
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  with a prayer for all of us. Our loving Lord,
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  we know and believe that your words to us are
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  truth and life and power. We want to walk in
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  them. We praise you for every area of our lives
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  where by the teaching you've laid down, by your
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  constant strengthening of us in the power of
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  the Spirit, we are walking in them. Keep us in
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  this. Call us back to this. Day by day, evermore
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  we pray. In Christ's name. Amen.