Thank God Continually

I. EXORDIUM:

Do you thank GOD continually?

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To enumerate the ways to thank GOD, the FATHER continually.

IV. TEXT:

1 Thessalonians 2:13 (Amplified Bible)

And we also [especially] thank God continually for this, that when you received the message of God [which you heard] from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the Word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in and rely on it].

V. THESIS:

Thank GOD continually for His Word are accepted as WORD of GOD, not coming from mere men, but they are received by those who believed.

VI. TITLE:

Thank GOD continually

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. They have received the Word of GOD

"And we also [especially] thank God continually for this, that when you received the message of God [which you heard] from us,"

Jeremiah 23:29 (Amplified Bible)

Is not My word like fire [that consumes all that cannot endure the test]? says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks in pieces the rock [of most stubborn resistance]?

Ezekiel 37:7 (Amplified Bible)

So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a [thundering] noise and behold, a shaking and trembling and a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

Ephesians 6:17 (Amplified Bible)

And take the helmet of salvation and the sword that the Spirit wields, which is the Word of God.

Receiving the Word of GOD by men is a fact that needs thanking the FATHER GOD, for out of the simplicity of the way it's preached, it's still accepted by men since it's GOD's Power to save us.

1 Corinthians 1:18 (Amplified Bible)

For the story and message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition, but to us who are being saved it is the [manifestation of] the power of God.

B. They have accepted it not as word of men

"you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men,"

Proverbs 29:18 (Amplified Bible)

Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish; but he who keeps the law [of God, which includes that of man]—blessed (happy, fortunate, and enviable) is he.

Isaiah 8:20 (Amplified Bible)

[Direct such people] to the teaching and to the testimony! If their teachings are not in accord with this word, it is surely because there is no dawn and no morning for them.

Galatians 1:8-9 (Amplified Bible)

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to and different from that which we preached to you, let him be accursed (anathema, devoted to destruction, doomed to eternal punishment)!

As we said before, so I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel different from or contrary to that which you received [from us], let him be accursed (anathema, devoted to destruction, doomed to eternal punishment)!

The WORD of GOD that saved us are not opinions of men, hence, I don't preach GOD's Word with no text references from the Bible, I make sure there are at least 2 to 3 Bible verses that supports what I declare or preach to make it's power clear to those who will hear, and receive it.