Do This 3 Decisions

I. EXORDIUM:

Do you decide on things?

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To show 3-fold decisions we make every moment of our lives.

IV. TEXT:

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 (Amplified Bible)

But test and prove all things [until you can recognize] what is good; [to that] hold fast.

Abstain from evil [shrink from it and keep aloof from it] in whatever form or whatever kind it may be.

V. THESIS:

We test everything, holding to the good ones and avoiding every kind of evil ones.

VI. TITLE:

Do this 3 decisions

VII. EXPLICATION:

A. Author: Apostle Paul

B. Date written: 49 to 54 B.C. but uncertain

C. Purpose: to comfort believers and encourage them to a life of purity

D. To whom written: Thessalonica church

E. Main themes: Most personal of all of Paul's epistles

F. Keyword: Sanctification

1 Thessalonians 4:3 (Amplified Bible)

For this is the will of God, that you should be consecrated (separated and set apart for pure and holy living): that you should abstain and shrink from all sexual vice,

G. Key verses:

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 (Amplified Bible)

And may the Lord make you to increase and excel and overflow in love for one another and for all people, just as we also do for you,

So that He may strengthen and confirm and establish your hearts faultlessly pure and unblamable in holiness in the sight of our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) with all His saints (the holy and glorified people of God)! Amen, (so be it)!

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (Amplified Bible)

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud cry of summons, with the shout of an archangel, and with the blast of the trumpet of God. And those who have departed this life in Christ will rise first.

Then we, the living ones who remain [on the earth], shall simultaneously be caught up along with [the resurrected dead] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so always (through the eternity of the eternities) we shall be with the Lord!

Therefore comfort and encourage one another with these words.

VIII. MAIN BODY:

A. Test everything

"But test and prove all things"

We can test GOD's People.

Jeremiah 6:27 (Amplified Bible)

I [says the Lord] have set you [Jeremiah] as an assayer and a prover of ore among My people, that you may know and try their doings and be like a watchtower.

We can test false prophets.

1 John 4:1 (Amplified Bible)

BELOVED, DO not put faith in every spirit, but prove (test) the spirits to discover whether they proceed from God; for many false prophets have gone forth into the world.

Test our experiences as well and go for the excellent things.

Ephesians 5:10 (Amplified Bible)

And try to learn [in your experience] what is pleasing to the Lord [let your lives be constant proofs of what is most acceptable to Him].

B. Hold on to the good

"[until you can recognize] what is good; [to that] hold fast"

Hebrews 3:6 (Amplified Bible)

But Christ (the Messiah) was faithful over His [own Father’s] house as a Son [and Master of it]. And it is we who are [now members] of this house, if we hold fast and firm to the end our joyful and exultant confidence and sense of triumph in our hope [in Christ].

Hebrews 4:14 (Amplified Bible)

Inasmuch then as we have a great High Priest Who has [already] ascended and passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession [of faith in Him].

Hebrews 10:23 (Amplified Bible)

So let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgement of it, for He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word.

Revelation 3:3 (Amplified Bible)

So call to mind the lessons you received and heard; continually lay them to heart and obey them, and repent. In case you will not rouse yourselves and keep awake and watch, I will come upon you like a thief, and you will not know or suspect at what hour I will come.

Hold fast the good, we live by faith, as long as you decide to hold on the good, your faith will carry you thru.

1 John 5:4 (Amplified Bible)

For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world; and this is the victory that conquers the world, even our faith.

C. Avoid every kind of evil

"Abstain from evil [shrink from it and keep aloof from it] in whatever form or whatever kind it may be."

It's not automatic. It's not an excuse that you are holding on to the good, you still need to avoid every kind of evil.