We Belong To The Day

I. EXORDIUM:

Do you belong to the day?

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To show that we are self-controlled, wearing the armor of light and assurance of our salvation for the Day draws near.

IV. TEXT:

1 Thessalonians 5:8 (Amplified Bible)

But we belong to the day; therefore, let us be sober and put on the breastplate (corslet) of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

V. THESIS:

We are self-controlled, wearing the armor of light and assurance of our salvation for the Day draws near.

VI. TITLE:

We belong to the day

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. Be self-controlled

"But we belong to the day; therefore, let us be sober"

Be self-controlled is like being sober, meaning "abstaining from wine", "discreet", "watch"

1 Thessalonians 5:6 (Amplified Bible)

Accordingly then, let us not sleep, as the rest do, but let us keep wide awake (alert, watchful, cautious, and on our guard) and let us be sober (calm, collected, and circumspect).

2 Timothy 4:5 (Amplified Bible)

As for you, be calm and cool and steady, accept and suffer unflinchingly every hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fully perform all the duties of your ministry.

1 Peter 5:8 (Amplified Bible)

Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour.

Our balanced came from our being temperate, sober of mind and that is our day to day decision, we choose to live like that as belonging to the day.

B. Putting on faith and love as a breastplate

"and put on the breastplate (corslet) of faith and love"

Isaiah 59:17 (Amplified Bible)

For [the Lord] put on righteousness as a breastplate or coat of mail, and salvation as a helmet upon His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal [and furious divine jealousy] as a cloak.

Romans 13:12 (Amplified Bible)

The night is far gone and the day is almost here. Let us then drop (fling away) the works and deeds of darkness and put on the [full] armor of light.

2 Corinthians 6:7 (Amplified Bible)

By [speaking] the word of truth, in the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand [to attack] and for the left hand [to defend];

These are the armor of light that we have to put ourselves by using our faith.

C. Put on hope of salvation as helmet

"and for a helmet the hope of salvation"

Hebrews 6:19 (Amplified Bible)

[Now] we have this [hope] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whoever steps out upon it—a hope] that reaches farther and enters into [the very certainty of the Presence] within the veil,

1 Peter 1:13 (Amplified Bible)

So brace up your minds; be sober (circumspect, morally alert); set your hope wholly and unchangeably on the grace (divine favor) that is coming to you when Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is revealed.

Galatians 5:5 (Amplified Bible)

For we, [not relying on the Law but] through the [Holy] Spirit’s [help], by faith anticipate and wait for the blessing and good for which our righteousness and right standing with God [our conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action, causes us] to hope.