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Alright, so I'm back. So I gotta remind y'all have been, you know, out of maternity leave, I got a chance to preach as well somewhere and I was just like, Yo, I'm miss you guys a lot. Like I really, really, really, really miss you guys. And so also want to remind y'all myself. I know it's been just a few weeks since I've been in the pulpit. And so I don't mind the amens. I don't mind the hallelujahs I don't mind the celebration. I know we've been kind of like out of the rhythm of that but I don't mind y'all celebrating when you feel it just stirred up the same way we are celebrating when the Chiefs when the Super Bowl. We can celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, amen.
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Amen. Hey, on the count of three, let's go in and read chapter four verse one through 12 on the count of 3123. Finally then brothers, we ask an urge you and the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us You ought to walk into please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body and holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an Avenger and all these things as we told you beforehand, and solidly warned you, for God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards not man, but God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you for You yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that, indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers to do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
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I want to simply entitle this message just keep walking. Just keep walking. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, thank you so much for your word. And God I am desperately desperately in need of your spirit to fill me to preach it. God we are so thankful to be gathered this morning to celebrate the one and only Jesus Christ. He is our king. He is our Lord. He is our Savior. He is the Redeemer and reconciler of all things and we come to celebrate him and God we are also just thankful to learn more about him to grow and I union with him and to grow in our understanding of what it looks like to be more conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Lord, would you be with us in this time? Would you soften hearts, just allow for someone, someone, someone, even just one person to receive the Eternally good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ this morning. Pray all these things in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior. All God's people say, Amen. Amen. You can take your seat and take a seat. At 2003 movie came out. That was one of our family favorites. And it was a movie by the name of Finding Nemo. Love Finding Nemo. Yeah. And it was an oppressive movie. So for so many reasons, but it was the first movie that they actually filmed in in sort of this like a computerized animation way that was actually all done underwater. So it was amazing film amazing film. But in this movie, the whole premise Is that this father loses his son. And he's going to look for his son NEEMO. And on the way, he runs into this particular character, Dory. And Dory suffers from a particular illness. She suffers from short term memory loss. So she goes all over the place, just kind of repeating things over and over to herself in order to remind herself of particularly the important things. So she'll repeat different addresses. So repeat different names, but one of the odd things that she repeats in the movie is this phrase, Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. And the reason why it's odd is because your fish like you gotta have it bad. If you're a fish and you can't remember to just keep swimming. We come to a particular passage, where it seems as though Paul understood There's that the church suffers from the same thing that Dori suffered from which is short term memory loss. As a matter of fact, that is the reason why he wrote the book of Galatians. Because the people at galatian had come into the faith, and then had started to walk in the faith in a different way through which they came. And so he says to them, man who bewitched you, you came into this relationship with Jesus Christ, through repentance and faith, walk in him in the very same way. Just keep walking. Well, we come to this passage in First Thessalonians. And he's saying the exact same thing. He said, Listen, I taught you the faith taught you well. Spent good time with you guys suffered a lot so that you can hear the gospel preached. And what I preach to you is that through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, you can have an eternally awesome relationship with God. But I don't want you to come to faith in Jesus Christ in a different way than the you walk in. This relationship with Jesus Christ, the same way you begin the relationship is the same way that you are maintained in that relationship, repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. So he says, just keep walking, just keep walking. And he's going to tell us to walk in three different ways. I want you to write these down because these are important. He's going to say walk in holiness, walk in purity, and walk in love. Good, tell us to walk in holiness, walk in purity, and also walk in love. Now once you to understand from the gate, that the last two have subservient to the first one, that that walking in purity and that walking in love is actually subservient to the walking in holiness. What he's going to show us is that the overarching goal, and this should be the goal that we set for anyone where discipling is for our sanctification that we be made holy. That's the overarching goal. But I love that Paul is a good disciple maker. Because after giving the overarching goal, what he then does is look specifically at the church at Thessalonica. And ask the question, What do you specifically need? And he looks at them and says, Here's two things I can say to you. But I love him because he's not a drill sergeant. nor is he like your old grandma, who just says, hey, you're good. You're good. You're good Grace, Grace, Grace, Grace, Grace, Grace, Grace. But he's also not that like the drill sergeant, who tells you over and over again how terrible you are. He's a little bit of a mix between a drill sergeant and Grandma, grandma sergeant, amen. Because what he does is he exhorts the church challenges the church in terms of their sexual purity, but he encourages the church in terms of their love. But before he gets there, he wants to give the overarching goal of sanctification walk in holiness.
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Now, there are three things that he wants you to know about holiness. And before we move on, I want to kind of define sanctification. So you know, the tie between holiness and sanctification. sanctification is literally meaning just to be made holy. As a matter of fact, when I'm disciple and Dude, I use the word y'all know how I define justification is you being right, justified, right? Well, sanctification is you being holy five. So that's all sanctification is is you being made more holy in Jesus Christ. And what we say here, Cottage Grove, is that sanctification is not the process of becoming something that you are not. sanctification is the process of becoming more and more of who you already are in Jesus Christ. So there's three things he wants us to know about this wonderful process of holiness. The first thing he wants us to know is that holiness is the Lord delight. Somebody say the delight.
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Look at verse one of chapter four, I lost my place. I don't know how I lost that job. First Thessalonians chapter four. It says this it says finally then brothers, we ask an urge you and the Lord Jesus, that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and here it is, and to please God, just as you are doing that you do so here it is more and more. See, what Paul wants us to understand is that if you really want to please God, you need to become a persistent pedestrian in our practices. In other words, just keep walking the walk, don't walk a walk, don't walk your Walk, walk the walk. The same walk that Christians have been walking for thousands of years. You just keep walking. They ain't no new walk. We ain't gonna add a live to it. Yeah, this is just the normal walk that Christians have been walking for centuries. And he says, just keep walking. Now, as he says, this is important to understand that we don't really understand how to walk unless we know the two steps of the Christian walk well, and so I want to define for you the two steps of the Christian walk. So you can even assess Am I really walking in Jesus? Or am I just pivoting in Jesus? So the two steps of the Christian walk are simply this. You should know right? We already talked about it. Repentance and faith, repentance and faith. The same way you came into this relationship with God is the same way you are maintaining this relationship with God. Nothing changes. You just repent a lot more and you just believe a lot more repentance and faith. Mark chapter one verse 15, says it like this. Boom sorry. Is that me? I don't know I Mark chapter one, verse 15 says it like this. He says that Jesus Christ went proclaiming that they are called to receive repent and believe. Yeah, Luke chapter nine, verse 23, says, deny yourself, follow me. A piece of chapter four verse 23, to 24 says it like this, put off the old self, put on the new self. Romans chapter 611 says, consider yourself dead to sin, and alive to God and righteousness through Jesus Christ. So do you see that the whole Walk of the Christian faith can all be embedded in this idea of turning away from something turning to something repenting of something, believing something else, loving Jesus, I mean, repenting of your lack of love for Jesus Christ and loving him all the more. This is the walk of the Christian faith. The problem is, some of us only like one of those steps. And now ridiculous as it was, somebody looks Like this, it says, I'm walking with Jesus. Bro, you ain't going nowhere. It's sort of some of us who love this idea of faith. I love Jesus. I am in love with Jesus love going to church, calling me a Christian, all of those things and yet they have never repented in their lives. hate the idea of repentance. Yeah, you love profession but you don't love confession. You love this idea of gone to church, you love this idea of a relationship with Jesus, and yet you have never repented. And friends, this is not the walk of the faith. But on the other hand, you have people who got more apologies than Justin Martyr and Augustine combined. That's the whole like, church fathers joke right there. Somebody I'll never forget that one. We got so many apologies. I'm sorry. I did again. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. And I was literally watching a documentary of a particular person. Media go ahead name his name, but a particular comedian and he was just talking about how many times he's messed up and his relationships and his marriages, in particular, the very one that he's in right now. And he just kept saying, Yeah, I messed up again, screwed up again. did it wrong again. And the problem is, is that he kept saying, sorry, he kept so called repenting, but never turning to the one who can transform his sorry, into a solution, Jesus Christ. So if we're doing this, we're not walking. If we're doing this, we're not walking. But we are called as Christians to do the same thing that we did when we came into this relationship, repentance and faith, turning away and turning towards and this The Scripture says, brings to light to God the Father in the same way that I am going to be so joyful when my young boy Jonathan takes his first two steps every time we want We bring the light to our dad. And so call yourself like, like, literally hold yourself accountable to this. Am I in a regular consistent practice of repentance and faith?
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But here's another thing I love about walking. Notice the text it does not say that you ought to hear it is horseback ride yourself through this faith. You notice that there's a drive through this faith. It says walk. See, driving and horseback riding is easier, but it's not as simple. And listen, walking is simpler, but it's way more straining. But this is the call of the text that we walk. be walking is time consuming, but it's intentional. Walking can be both relational and progressive. So the dope thing about walking is that we could do it with one another. Don't walk the streets by yourself is a bad idea. A man somebody know that right? Somebody know says somebody free in another way right now. somebody knows don't walk by yourself in these streets. Not a good look. Have a walking buddy. And this is what we're talking about in discipleship. And here's what's true. You can say like I'm in this discipleship relationship with this person. Yeah, mentoring them. Yeah, I'm pouring into them. They're walking repentance, faith, repentance, faith, repentance, faith, and you're on one of those you know, scooter electric, John's just like, Hey, bro. Like, and some of us do this man. Like, we literally are calling people to do stuff that we ourselves are unwilling to do. But if you're going to mentor somebody, if you're going to walk with somebody, you yourself need to be walking in the same way. repentance and faith, repentance and faith, you will get repentance and faith and this is the call not only of the Christian, but also the disciple maker, amen. So he says holiness is the delight of the Lord, the next thing he says his holiness is the Lord's demands. Not only is the light, but it's also his demand. Look at verse two. It says before you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus, a part is important for you knowing instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. So here's what he's saying. This is now twice that Paul has couched his communication and the Lordship of Christ. In other words, it matters who the instruction comes from. Don't be trying to make disciples and not opening up the book. People need more of your advice. You've given enough away and it's not that helpful. Let you know we were in this phase, but guys, I'm telling you, we really think the whole world needs to know what we're about to drop right now. They know they're going to be fine without it. So that's why we're discipling someone we need to be open Winning the Booker T. It's funny, watching the office, there's only a couple of times a couple of times that they left Dwight in charge of the office you'll see those episodes. And all the times that they've done is terrible. One of the times he like literally shot a gun off in the office, tried to explain it. The other time he he is a you know, kind of putting on the entire office. All of these like harsh requirements in terms of their insurance. I mean, it's very terrible every time they leave Dwight in charge. Now think about this. Think about this. If the office is taught us anything, is to understand that if you're going to receive instructions, make sure it comes from corporate and not from the assistant to the regional manager. And in case you got it twisted, God corporate, you assistant to the regional manager.
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We need to make sure that all the instructions are coming from the Word of God. People don't need to hear your opinions. They need to adhere to God's commandments. Amen. Now, next thing he says not only His Holiness, the Lord's delight, holiness is the Lord's demand. Next thing he says his holiness is the Lord's design. Look at verse three. It says this, for this is the will of God, Will of God, this is what he's playing. This is what he's purposed. This is what he's designed your sanctification. Do you hear that? We're always asking like, what is my life? What is God's will for my life? What is God's desire for my life? And in a world of uncertainty, Paul declares that there is one undeniable desire of God that you be made holy. You'd be made holy mistake, nothing new. Leviticus chapter 11, verse 44, so Is that we be holy as He is holy. Matthew chapter five, verse 48. He says that you'd be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. john chapter 17. Jesus says, Sanctify them by your truth, your Word is truth. And it all culminates in this Romans chapter eight verse 29, that those who he for knew he predestined Listen, to be conformed into the image of his son. The whole goal of the Christian walk is that you be made more like Jesus Christ. The work of God in your life, and he's made it so clear. This is how God has designed it, your sanctification. Man, I am so convinced nowadays. The so many of us come to Christianity either because our parents told us this. This is a good thing to do, or Because we recognize the benefits of it, that out of Christianity, you get what heaven. But I'm convinced that if you come to Christianity for heaven, but have never really turned to Christ to be made holy, you will miss out on heaven and holiness because both are only brought through the name of Jesus Christ. The whole goal of the walk is not for you to become more helpful, though he calls you a servant.
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It's not so you can become more happy, though. He says, Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, so that you would be made holy, your sanctification. So he says walk in holiness. This is the overarching goal of discipleship. Now, he wants to get specific to the church at Thessalonica. And he begins with the exhortation and then he's going to end with an encouragement but the exhortation is to walk in purity somebody say purity. y'all gotta say like you meant to say purity. All right. All as of here one more time. Just I know everybody's saying it together. purity. There we go, there we go. There we go. Okay. So purity, the purity. Now I was reading this and and I was wondering to myself, why does Paul get specific on purity? Specifically sexual purity? Like, is it because he's riding from corporate to Thessalonica? Because we know what happened in the church in Corinth. They were sexually immoral all over the place. And while many theologians believe that might be the case that that was probably on his head, therefore, he's like looking at the church of the rest of the night and said, well, because I'm in Corinth, and I'm experiencing all of this sexual immorality, I can probably consider that you are struggling with the same thing. I just want to say something else. It don't matter if you write in from Korea, it's a desolate Nika from Des Moines to Philadelphia or from Philadelphia to Africa, from Africa to Asia, it really don't matter everybody deal with sexual morality. It's a human problem. And if you are going to disciple someone, here's what hit me in this text, one of the primary things you need to explicitly deal with is what is going on with that person sexually.
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So is that when we don't want to talk about. That one, we got to tiptoe around. You be asking so How you doing? Like good, works fine. really struggling right now with my kids. And then you're like, I so let's deal with the kids. That's a fun way to do it. Right? But you never just go there and s what is purity look like right now brother. Because it's uncomfortable, or even worse sisters. Because we we in our society act like our sisters don't struggle with sexual morality as well. So we kind of leave it off limits for them. But what would happen if we had a culture of when you come into this fold, and you can into this church and you are a believer in Jesus Christ. You just got to know it comes with the territory. Somebody's going to ask you about your purity. See, we need this because sexual immorality is the very thing that will cause us to run far away in the opposite direction of God and then still call ourselves Christians. But notice what the text says. We're going to be looking at verse four through eight for this is the first thing I mean, verse three beef to verse eight. The first thing he says is this at the end of verse three he says that you here's the word, abstain. abstain, abstain from sexual immorality. So the word for abstain is a wonderful word. It doesn't just mean what we think it means just don't do this. Stay away from that. That's bad for you. That's demonic. That's a terrible movie. Like that's not what it means. The word for abstain simply means to Take hold of something by letting go of another hope that preaches right there Yo, holding on to something by letting go of another. It's the picture of a child literally letting go of their favorite toys so that they can hold their parents. The picture of my boy, Barry Sanders step offering a defender so that he can make progress on the field. It's the picture of a mom saying, I'm going to give up all my dreams, all my business so that I can pour the rest of my life into my children. It is this giving away of something so that you can rightly take hold of something else. And here's the point. You cannot embrace your sin and your Savior at the same time. Same really want to hold the god if you really want to clean up God, you gotta let go of some stuff so that you can rightly embrace So he's so worth it. He's so worth. So staying from sexual morality. And I love the fact that he used sexual morality here is a word coordinated in Greek. And when for now is it's an all encompassing word for humans like us who try to find our way around this word sexual morality. So when Paul comes up with lists, you'll notice that all the list that he puts down, he normally includes the word sexual morality, as though he didn't already talked about some acts of sexual morality. So he'll talk about homosexuality, he'll talk about adultery, go talk about fornication, and then he'll still say, pornea. Why does he do that? Because he knows our minds. He knows how we work. We are going to find a way to say he didn't say my sin. And we're going to find a way to try to wiggle out of it. But he uses this overarching word as if to say anything that you thinking of is probably Dead Sea. Why? Because in the Bible you need to understand this in the Bible in the Bible in the Bible. sexual immorality is more defined by what it is not than what it is. Human sexual morality is more defined, but what it is not than what it is. See what it is, is pornography. What it is is adultery. What it is, is fornication. And after I end that list, you're going to be like, Well, you didn't name this sin and you didn't name this sin and you didn't name this, and you're going to be like, well, I guess that leaves me free. But what the Bible would say is, listen, I'm not going to define it so much by what it is as what is not. And what it is not is sexual pleasure within a marriage between a man and a woman. So what the Bible was saying is that anything that is not sexual pleasure between a man and a woman within the covenant of marriage is sexual immorality.
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So you hear that. So that throws everything in there. Absolutely everything in there. And this is important for us to understand. Paul is not just simply deciding to pick on certain people, he's saying y'all got a problem, deal with it through Jesus Christ. Do you hear that? This is how you know that you're trying to claim to your sin and your Savior at the same time. When you try to look at the Bible, in such a way that makes your sin seem right, or you try to look at the Bible in such a way that makes God seem wrong. Whenever you're doing either one of those things, you're looking at a Bible saying, well, it says in this context that well this was particularly talking about a particular people group at a particular time whenever you use a whole bunch of particulars you already know you are. You I know. Because some stuff is real plain, don't do it. On the other hand, We then go and look at the Bible as though God is wrong. How could God have known? Love is love. The Bible says love is not love. See, love is not love. I define love because I created it. And if you want to actually enjoy it rightly do it the way I've called you to do it. Amen. So after this, he keeps going on sexual morality. He says this, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor. I can't even I can't even I can't even really truly, I can't even properly execute what he means by control his own body because the phraseology, there is just the best way they can do it and keep it PG. But what he's really saying is control your instrument. I much leave it at that. That's what the text is most literally say. So the Bible is saying control your instrument. Control your body in such a way That you have hold your body. Listen, in both holiness and honor. Do you hear that? What he's trying to say is keep your body set apart and held high. Keep your body exclusive and esteemed. So your body is worth something in the eyes of God. And only way I can illustrate this is going back to high school. We never won the state championship. We have anybody else like your high school did win the state championship. Okay, I only saw one hand. That's impressive right there. Wow. Okay, well, we got we got a bunch of not winners. Let's say it like that. So I would go to these other buildings and they would have these huge trophies, massive trophies of their state championships. And they were beautiful that weren't like the participation trophies we got that you throw in a jar sir. And you fight your brother with no I wasn't like that. These were like, yo, somebody put time in today. I mean, it was was carved All right. They had this specific year of the championship and all of that. And it was always placed behind a glass display. And it was put on the top shelf in order that ain't cake came. Doesn't anybody put the greasy fingers on it, you know me. And as I looked at that trophy, and I'm thinking about this text, I think that is what God is saying to us. phases chapter two, verse 10, says we are His workmanship. As his trophies, we shouldn't be set aside. Set Ha. We shouldn't allow anybody in anyone to put their fingers upon us. And we should remember that we were called in a wonderful image in order to commemorate a major victory the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is how we should have Our bodies. And when we don't look at what the text says, He says, not as the in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. Do you hear what he say? He's saying when you don't, you are acting as though you have no relationship with God. Understand this, the whole purpose of, of him making us holy is so that we would be a light to the world. Do you get that? So we are called to make God known. But you can't make God known if you're living like you don't know God. And here's what the text is, is ultimately teaching us that every time we live holy lives, two things are happening. We are magnifying God and we are magnetizing the world.
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It's attractive when you're different. That's not attractive about sameness. It's not an attractive about being just like the world but when you're different. They're intrigued. The drawn in the magic ties today. And that's why we're called to live in this particular way. But he doesn't just say to, to walk in purity simply because it magnifies his God and it magnetizes the world. He also says that when you don't you transgress, and you take advantage of your brother. That is a hard word. And we in our society can't even say how is that doing wrong to my brother or sister? How is that somehow taking advantage of them? Think about the words take advantage and transgress man, those are words that you use of somebody who hates you. What the Bible is saying is to not abstain is to a bore. But how is it hatred? How is it hatred? How is it hatred, to live in a sexually immoral, immoral way? It's hatred because of this and I need you to hear me on this. It's hatred because the way the Bible looks at things, the Bible looks at things and says, I'm not just looking at who is your spouse now. I'm looking at Who your spouse will be in the future? And even if it ain't on this side of eternity, it'll be on the next one. We are all were to Jesus Christ. So I am keeping my daughters and my sons pure for their upcoming wedding, not just their status right now. So when we foreign a tape, or when we commit adultery, or we do any of these sins, listen, we are actually hating our brother or sister. It's hatred to do so. That's why you can't go around saying and I just love her too much to abstain. Know you lust her too much to abstain, and you lust her more than you love her. And the Bible is actually saying that really what you're doing is you're hating. Do you hear that? It's a hard word. And you know, the Bible says, it says Don't you hate my daughter and my son. It says he's an avenger of those who practice Such things an Avenger don't know nobody want to fall into the hands of an angry guy. For instance, live in purity. And let's love one another in purity. This is the call of the text. But he doesn't just say that he goes on to say this for God has not called us for impurity but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this disregards not man, but God, remember who the instructions come from, who gives His Holy Spirit to you. Verse seven, and eight can be summed up in this way. God has both called and equip you. He has drafted you for distinction. There was my favorite player in the world NFL player named Randy moss. Randy moss played for quite a few teams in his day. One of the teams he played for was the Oakland Raiders. And you can tell by his gameplay, he hated being there. He didn't run routes. They really care about practice. I literally To this day, don't remember who the coach was. was at the time, Randy moss did not care. Now, that same player with that same attitude, and that staying same skill set, then signed with the New England Patriots. And him and Tom Brady went on to break all types of records together. Then you ask yourself the question, how can the same guy, same attitude and same skill set, somehow now playing for a different team somehow change everything. He changed everything, because the team he was playing for was radically different. Here's what the text is teaching us that we should have radically different behavior because we now play for radically different coach. I got a question for you. someone looks at your life, specifically your sexual life. When they look at your life, can they tell can they tell? Can they tell that you have been traded from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light? Can they tell that you signed with a different team? Or does it look like you still play for the same team you used to play for?
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This is a hard question we have to ask ourselves walk in purity. But he ends off not with an exhortation, but with an encouragement. And this one is a real easy one from verse nine through 12. Let me read this over you because here's the whole call to this part is walking love. But the encouraging part is the saying you're already doing this. Verse nine to 12 says this. Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. For that is indeed what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you brothers to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs. Best translation, mind your own business, and to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent upon no one. If I could sum up what this whole section is saying is saying, you already love affection at least. So keep loving, you already give generously. So keep giving, and you already serve tirelessly. So keep serving. That's what this whole section is about. He says you love affectionately. You have been taught by God to do so. I love a word Where's me says about this particular text. He says it like this. He says nature is the determining factor for action. Because a fish has a fishes nature does what it swims. Because a hawk has a hawks nature it does when it flies. And he says because a Christian has God's nature, he or she loves for God is love. The one she said just keep loving, just keep doing what you're already doing. He says you give generously. He said, You've been loving our whole city of Macedonia. That's crazy. only way you can do that is by giving generously. And what Paul is saying is that charity and generosity are inseparable. How you love is an indicator, I mean, how you give is an indicator of who you love. And then he finally goes on to say me you serve tirelessly. So keep serving. Keep giving and keep working. And there were some people who are lazy. And so they just kind of got grandfathered in to those who are encouraging and work so far as to say, keep working. Just keep doing the things that you've been doing so that you can only be dependent upon God and no one else. Now, after all of that, you might be wondering, why does he end with this unique encouragement of these three things, loving giving and working? He ends with these three things. One, because the Thessalonians church is doing these things, but to because these are essential nature's of the kingdom of God. I mean, think about john 316. For God so loved the world that he was gave His Son so that whoever believes in Him and what does it look like to believe in him believe in his person and his What? Work? See, this is all the essential nature of the kingdom of God. God loved us enough to give to us and Jesus Christ comes working. And it is the work of Christ that actually purifies you. Do you see that? how that all works together? You are now sanctified because Jesus has been slain. It is his word that is accomplished this and don't ever go around thinking that somehow now your purity is somehow based upon yourself. Yes, strain for purity. Yes, fight for period. But remember, ultimately if you have placed your faith and confidence in Jesus Christ, he has already made up your Hello john 15 says he says already you are clean because the word I have spoken to you. Right in that same section. He says that those who bear much fruit he prunes. Now, help me. Help me Jesus. How can you say we're already clean and then you say we got some cleaning that we need done. Guys, this is both the positional and the progressive salvation that we found through Jesus Christ, positionally we have already been made pure. But progressively we are being made pure. But the latter doesn't change the former. You are already pure in the eyes of Christ. And if you didn't believe me, Second Corinthians 521 says that well, for our sake, he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. That's who we are in Jesus. Therefore, walk Therefore, same way you came in a relationship there for walk. But what I love about this walk y'all is that Jesus doesn't leave us alone for this journey. He's not like those people you go to a brand new city you ain't never been to before. And you say, hey, do you can you tell me how to get to the Capitol building that I have right here take a ride on this real world called Morris road and take a left on Luna six road and and you already are just like, I'm done. I'm not gonna make it.
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And then after all of that, they know they just gave you 16,597 directions. And after all, that, they have the nerve to say good luck. And we sometimes think that Jesus is doing that to us. But he's given us these instructions. It says, just saying good luck. That's not what God does. God gives us the GPS, the Word of God. He gives us the instructions for how to walk. That's the law. He gives us the instruction for what it looks like when you don't walk rightly. That's the whole testament.
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He gives you a picture of what it looks like to write what perfectly, that's the Gospels. And then he tells you that I'm awaiting your arrival. Once you get here. That's the book of Revelation. And all the time, he has sent you a better hydration than Gatorade. That's the Holy Spirit for your entire walk.
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Now, if you need anything else, I don't know what to tell you. But God has equipped you with everything you need to walk. Therefore, just keep walking. If you've never taken a step, if you've never be good walking by Christ, and you will do the do so today. trust in Jesus Christ. He will begin you start you on this journey, this relationship with Him that will never fade away. It's a wonderful relationship with him just walking with And no. But if you've been walking with Jesus, just keep walking. Amen. Let's go before the Father, thank you so much Lord for your word.
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I pray for anyone who has kind of sat down or taking a break or said I'm tired of walking. Would you just strengthen them even today to just keep walking, to repair to take that next step to believe to take that next step to repent again and take that next step and to believe and take that next step? God show them what they need to repent up and show them what they need to believe. God our faith and our confidence is in you and you alone. And I just pray for anyone who has not placed their faith in companies and you have not repented and taking that step and believe in you Lord Jesus Christ and taking that step would you call them to do that today? To allow for the heart to turn away from their sin and turn towards a loving safety what you do We will forever be grateful for those of us who know you are just walking more and more. Lord Jesus Christ. We pray all these things in our Lord's name, Jesus Chris, Amen.