A LIFE OF INFLUENCE
1 Thess. 4: 1-12 (Veterans’ Day) November 11, 2012
INTRODUCTION:
I have a really good friend named Junior that lives in Lawrenceburg, but works for Toyota in Georgetown…when I knew him he was a deacon at our church…he now serves as an Elder. Junior was born and raised in Lawrenceburg, KY but rose in the ranks at Toyota until he became one of their executives…in this role he had to spend a lot of time in Japan.
I didn’t just misters with Junior…we were friends…I’m not sure if the term accountability partner had been invented, but we were that…we were the same age, both married…he had 2 girls I had 2 girls and 2 boys…
I remember Junior telling me about the intense sexual culture of Japan…how vastly different it was than in Lawrenceburg…Tokyo isn’t the Lawrenceburg of the East…during this time men are almost expected to be promiscuous…it’s a given and wines were to be subservient and expect this lifestyle…into the this culture flew a country boy named Junior from Lawrenceburg who loves Jesus Christ, His wife, His family and the traditional values that made him a Godly leader…I know that in our time he zealously guarded that witness…He was open about the temptations, loneliness, and extreme pressure to be molded into this culture instead of protecting his own.
I thought of Junior as I read these words Paul wrote to the Thessalonians.
Read 1 Thessalonians 4: 1-8 (p836)
What is the goal of Godly Leaders…?
I LIVE A LIFE THAT PLEASES GOD
I shared Wednesday night with the group that’s studying Mark’s Gospel with Jeff…..There are four ways you can live your life…you can live…
1) A life of Reaction…We plod forward until something forces us to change directions…Most people live this life by default…we lose a job…we find another…we forfeit this relationship we look for another…It’s a dangerous way to live…going through the same motions over and over again until something forces us to deal with the curve…other live
2) A life of conformity. We live according to the view of the crowd…we float along the current of popular opinion…We allow appearance to be more important than what we believe….We thrive on being liked…it’s a dangerous way to live because “The easiest thing to be is you. The hardest thing to be is what others want you to be.”
(Author Leo Buscaglia)
Or you can choose the 3rd way to live.
3) A life of Independence…people who choose this life cherish the appearance of a rebel…the rejection of formal generations priorities…they’re trendy…distinguishable from the herd…until they get together with others just like themselves and they’re hard to tell apart…It’s a prideful, self delusional way to live...or as Paul says in our text…you can live.
4) A life of Intentionality…A life with purpose and direction….A life that pleases God…like Paul I believe we were created for this purpose…and somewhere along the line, and I’m not sure how old you will be or when God will ask. “Will you continue to live for yourself?...or will you live for me?
But Junior knew that living for God in a sexually, promiscuous society would require intentionality…a conscious decision to put God living above self-living.
The people in Thessalonians knew about living in a pagan, sexually promiscuous society where men could and would gratify themselves…it was expected. One of their teachers named Demosthenes wrote
“We keep prostitutes for pleasure; we keep mistresses for the day to day needs of the body, we keep wives for the bearing of children and for the faithful guardianship of our homes.”
Even among the Jews who theoretically held marriage in high esteem, divorce had become easy…the Deuteronomic law said a man could divorce his wife if he found “some uncleanness’” or a matter of shame” old school Rabbis became lax in their definition of “matters of shame”…there’s evidence and records that support divorces being granted “over a woman talking to loud”, “Disparaging her husband’s parents” and “putting too much salt in the meal”. Before you knew it any and every reason was accepted as a “matter of shame” so a husband could get a certificate of divorce.
It was to men and women who had come out of a society like that…and would still be required to live in it ever day of their lives…Junior could come home…the Thessalonians were home.
And remember they had only been Christians a very short period of time…possible just a month or so…Paul wrote these verses and we read them expecting Christian to behave in sanctified ways, moral ways…ways that humor our mate…it’s all brand new to these men and women.
[But can you imagine what begins to happen in the homes where real Christian men begin to control their bodies in “a way that is holy and honorable…and they begin to treat their wives as if they, “are becoming one flesh” Paul shared with the Ephesians these words…I bet they were part of. his teaching in Thessalonians also…
Eph 5: 25-33… (p829)
When a selfish, self-centered, controlling master starts to become a gentle, genuine, giving, sacrificing, loving mate and partner…when the father who is feared because of his position and authority become a Dad who talks, teaches, and appropriately disciples his children for growth and life…His motives is their future not his present.
He won’t be sleeping with his neighbor’s wife or someone else daughter…or using a person as a possession…like unbelievers do! He’s not wronging his brother (or sister)…Because the Holy Spirit is at work within him and through him.
James Michener, writing in his book, the Source, tells the story of a man named Urbaal, who was a farmer living about 22 B. C. He worshipped two gods; one, a god of death, and the other, a goddess of fertility. One day, the temple priests tell Urbaal to bring his young son to the temple for sacrifice-if he wants good crops. Urbaal obeys, and on the appointed day drags his wife and boy to the scene of the b boy’s “religious execution” by fire to the god of death. After the sacrifice of Urbaal’s boy along with several others, the priests announce that one of the fathers will spend next week in the temple, with a new temple prostitute. Urbaal’s wife is stunned as she notices a desire written more intensely across his face than she had seen before, and she is overwhelmed to see him eagerly lunge forward when his name is called. The ceremony over, she walks out of the temple with her head swimming, concluding that, “If he had different gods, he would have been a different man.”
The Thessalonians now have a different God…His name is Jesus and they are living to please Him. Paul gave them instructions on how to do that and he longed to give them more…especially since they lived in persecution and in a sexually promiscuous society…All Paul could do was trust the foundation he’d laid and that these committed people would live a holy life…following the Holy Spirit’s leading.
We have that same challenge today…we have even greater instructions in His word, and the same sanctifying Spirit to guide us…but we also live in a society that is sexually promiscuous…and many times is lead by “passionate lust” and people who do not follow God…
When Jesus is your God your truly are….a different man and a different woman…what is our challenge…”Live a life that please God…Peter put it well”
Read 1 Peter 2:9-12 (P 858)
The Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul are in full agreement…”for God did not call us to be impure, but to live a Holy life…the one who rejects this instruction doesn’t reflect man, but God who gives you His Holy Spirit”. ( V 8)
The Holy Spirit isn’t dormant in this sinful cocoon of a Body…He works…His work…to make us like Jesus. It’s called “sanctification”…..it’s the word for Holy…it’s the word for Saints. The Greek word is “Hagios” it literally means “someone who is set apart”
Here’s what the Apostle Paul says makes all the difference.
II A LOVE THAT PERMEATES YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE
Anybody here have good days and bad days? Stupid question, huh? We all do….
But let me ask you…and this for those who have decided to be committed followers of Jesus…Are your bad days different now than before that decision?
Because you’ve chosen to live a life of intentionality does your victory come because your circumstances are calm…or does it come because you know you are loved by a Savior regardless of the circumstances?
Paul uses an intended word for love in verse 9….it’s not Agape…unconditioned…God’s love…He chooses the word “Phileo” Brotherly love”…He did this on purpose not accidently.
[I have 1 brother…His name is Sam. He’s 10 years older…we fought like crazy when I was 15, 16 and he was 25,26…sometimes physical ones…but the brothers bonds was always there…it’s still there …I love him in a way that I don’t love anyone else on earth…He’s my only brother!]
Listen to Paul’s challenge to the church…
1 Thess. 4: 9-12 (p836)
I don’t really have a choice when it comes to living my “blood” brother “Sam” I’ve come to a point I wouldn’t trade him for anyone else (I’m not sure he feels the same).
The Thessalonians are a new family…A family that has been taught by God…through Paul (His Apostle) love each other…and they are…This love has even spread to others in Macedonia (that’s a 120 mile area…between Macedonia and Thessalonians…by foot, donkey or horseback.
I believe in global missions with all my heart…unreached people groups should permeate our heart and soul….there should be a burden for Cameroon “Afade”, 6150 people who have never heard the gospel…I’ve prayed for them dearly since August 22nd…I want to be even more of a church that prepares “God-called” servants into the uttermost…
And yet for most of us love, real brotherly love for those in “Cameroon Afade” has to be real in Louisville and Kentucky or it cannot blossom into something more.
Let me end by sharing with you the Thessalonians had been taught that Jesus is coming back with His Holy ones (some of their families had died in Christ) they were convinced it was going to be very soon…after all they were in the midst of severe persecution and trials…”Get me out of Here” had to have been a Thessalonians prayer.
Sometimes it’s my prayer…and I’ll bet for some of you it’s your prayer too….”Jesus, Get me out of here….come on back, and bring Dad with you!”
But some of these folks stopped living daily and started just waiting…Instead of leading a quite life, instead of minding their own business, they started to gossip and fill their time with other’s shortcomings…instead of working every day with unbelievers right beside them, they confiscated with “just other characters. They let others provide what they needed while they waited…and Paul said….listen
2 Thess. 3: 6-15 (p838)
Don’t get so lost in “Get me out of here” or Cameroon Afade, that you forget…My Christian life is like Manna…it’s daily bread and when Jesus returns he’ll find me doing exactly what I’ve always been doing…”Living to please Him”
A life of intentionality…A life of Influence.
