We have God's word to that are His instructions, the Bible to guide to living a Christian life.

         Could I ask everyone here an important question? Answer the question honestly in your own heart. I want to stress being honest with yourself and the Lord.

         Do you really want to live your life for the Lord Jesus Christ? This is the heart of the matter. Do you realize that if your are going to receive the blessings of God you must live by God's principles? Do you want to live the best life possible and honor our Savior, or are you satisfied and simply want to get by. Are you satisfied with your present life? Do you feel that living a godly Christian life is too strict a life for you?

         Many times I did not feel like studying, writing all the papers that was required, reading dozens of book for collateral reading, but I knew it was important part of learning and that a test was coming. My goal was to begin the ministry as soon as possible.

         My first course of study was for a Bachelor's degree in Theology and was a five year course. In my desire to serve the Lord, I finished five years of study in only four years. It was hard, yes, but my motivation kept me on course. It took me five years to finish the course from my MBS. The last semester I contracted a disease and had ten abscesses on my liver. I was difficult to do the work because of my weaken physical state. I went to class wearing a fanny pack with a pic line in my arm which gave me strong doses of antibiotics every four hours around the clock for over a month. I wanted to please God, I refused to quit, because I knew that if I did I could reach others better for Christ, and there would be reward, and my family would receive the blessings of God. I wanted the Lord to use me. I am no different from any one else and have no special abilities. I just wanted to serve the Lord.

B. Jesus Christ wants us to walk...which means to live....our lives by His principles. He made us and He wrote the manual, His very word, and we would be foolish if we ignored it or refused to follow God's instructions. Would you agree with me on this point? (v1)
1. God wants us to "abound more and more." (Verse 1) That means to mature or grow stronger in our ability to live a godly life.

2. Verse 2 tells us how. We are to live by God's commandments. This means His instructions. Let's be honest....most people do not like the term "commandments of the Lord." Many times we take a commandment in a negative way. Being commanded to do anything, kinda sticks in our craw. We do not want to be told what to do.

ILLUS: I do not want to bore you with my military stories, but I always had officers and higher ranking non commissioned officers than I was over me. (I was a non-comm a Staff Sgt.) It was reassuring to have someone who was in charge and most times they knew what they were doing and when they gave orders things went well....that is they were followed.

         Jesus Christ is our supreme commander and His orders are always perfect and He knows all things. What a joy and relief it should be to the believer to have the privilege to follow our omniscient God.

3. But think about this. Suppose you have a serious disease and the doctor prescribes a course of action that requires taking various medicines and physical therapy. How many of you would follow the doctors commandments? We would rather think of them as simply instructions, right? How many of you would leave the doctor's office, throw the prescriptions away, and go on with your life as if nothing was wrong?!

ILLUS: I have partial kidney failure. I have less than half the use of my kidneys. It is a disease that does not cause pain. Because they do not work properly I experience fatigue most of the time, sometimes severely, but not pain. I could ignore it easily. I am not able to live up to par, but I can live a mostly normal life. I have to take into consideration my situation and follow the doctor's commandments so I will not get worse and loss what kidney function I have left. I could easily ignore the doctor's instruction, however, one day it would catch up with me! I could wind up on dialysis or dead.

         Folks, we all need to listen to God's instructions, take His medicine, and exercise our faith by living as God tells us too. We all have a common disease with comes from our human or carnal nature. We have a bent to sin and sin is destructive in our lives.

C. God wants us sanctified in Jesus Christ. (1 Thess. 4:3) Sanctification is not some mystical thing that overcomes us...or like some emotional experience.
1. Sanctification is the biblical name for growing in Christ. The word literally means to "be purified." It is the process of purification that helps us overcome sin and its destructive influences in our lives.

2. There are three stage or states of sanctification.

- We are sanctified in Jesus Christ when we are saved. That means God has forgiven us our sins. We are legally forgiven and not under the ultimate penalty for our sins. "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Hebrews 10:10)

- We are being sanctified. That means in reality we are still in our human bodies and have the human nature. Sanctification is the process of overcoming our carnal nature and letting our spiritual nature direct us. It is the process of growing more and more able to overcome sin and living a godly life which is God's will. (1 Thess. 4:3-4)

         As a believer desires God's presence in their life, they yield to the Holy Spirit's influence. (Eph. 5:18) They allow the Holy Spirit to guide them and in the process they learn that following the Lord is the best life they can have. They learn also how to overcome temptation and sin. So the learn the ABCs of Christian living and graduate over time to a higher spiritual relationship with the Lord.

         Today, many churches and preachers are falsely teaching there is a short cut to spiritual maturity. Some pastors and churches simply have a service each Sunday, go through some ritual and listen to a sermonette that never challenges people to live for the Lord, but rather expresses vain platitudes. Some teach you just have to learn how to speak in tongues and you will be closer to the Lord. NOT SO! Some, say sing little choruses and chants and this praises the God...and you can become spiritual. NOT SO! I had a lady who once attended our church, who wanted us to take up modern so called "rock and roll Christian music" and a contemporary worship service. She said what a blessing it was to her. Yet, her life shows a serious lack a spiritually. She rejected God's word on several subjects and was clearly deceived. Some, get all worked up in a modern contemporary so called worship service and think that makes them get closer to the Lord. NOT SO!

         Coming to spiritual maturity is a process. It is a road we commit ourselves to. By the way when you are on the road you are as close as you can be to the Lord in this life....because you are living in His will. He will get you to where He wants you to be.

- The third stage of sanctification is future. It will come at the Rapture when the believer is resurrected and given his/her new glorified body and then for eternity will life in the presence of our God and Savior. "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10:14)

A. Like the Thessalonians the temptation of fornication is something that we all face. Fornication is sexual sin done outside of marriage.

God tells us "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." (1 Corinthians 10:12)

         Peter wrote "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness." (2 Peter 3:17)

B. God says we are to control our bodies in sanctification and honor. (1 Thess. 4:5) "Concupiscence" is the sin of giving in to evil and selfish desires.

         Paul understood this possible failure saying "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." (1 Corinthians 9:27)

1. This means we must not debase or pollute it; that is, that we should honour it as a noble work of God to be employed for pure purposes. We are holy unto the Lord. That means separated unto Him for His service. My friend do you see yourself as belonging to God and being wholly dedicated to be used by Him?

2. It is the mark of a lost man that he lives to please himself and to seek sinful gratifications. Why so many divorces? The unsaved live to gratify themselves. If their spouse does not please them as the want...they go and get another.

         However, divorce in our age is the same for Christians as for the lost world we live in. Does that alert us to a problem? Worldliness is defined as sinful gratification. Christians are to flee from worldliness. Many ignore this principle and they suffer greatly from their failure. Self gratification only brings sorry and pain. Sin never satisfies nor ever gives one true gratification.

3. God has not called the Christian out from the world for him to continue to live in sin. Believers are to live clean decent lives. Sex, money and power are the driving forces in our society. Society is obsessed with the homosexuality, gay and lesbian culture. There are even gay and lesbian preachers and pastors in apostate Protestant churches of our day.

C. Selfish gratification is overcome by giving ourselves to others. Where there is godly love, agape love, there can be no concupiscence or sinful self gratification. Godly love seeks the best for the other person and seek not its own. (1 Thess. 4:9-10)
1. Let's go back to verse 6. We are told not to defraud a brother in any matter. We should be warned. If we defraud a brother it is the Lord who will avenge the deed. Folks God will absolutely chasten His children when they sin and take advantage of another.

ILLUS: When I was in Price I was having problem with my truck overheating. I could not find the problem. So I took it to a radiator shop in town. The man running the shop was name Mike Stubbings. He fixed the radiator for me which was partially stopped up. He noted my southern accent and ask why I was in Price. I explained I was there as a church planter. We talked for a while and he told me he was saved as a young man, but had stopped serving the Lord. He asked lots of questions. When I asked for the bill he said there was none. I said just because I was a preacher I never sought asked for or took a discount or asked for free service. I refuse to default anyone. He explained about a pastor in town who demanded a discount because he was in the "clergy." He said you never asked for that and he perceived I was an honest man. He began to attend church his wife and son would not come with him. She was not saved and did not want to come. In about three months however, she began to come which was an answer to our prayers. She was saved as well as their son, Michael Jr. It is fraud to seek discounts because we are Christians or preachers and think we desire some special treatment. We are not to defraud others.
2. Paul states the truth saying he does not have to write them about brotherly love. A true Christian receives salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He receives the love of God and knows he too should love as Christ has loved him/her. (1 Thess. 4:9)

3. The church at Thessalonica showed love in their church and also to the Macedonians, meaning people of their country. (v10) Paul commends them for their love, but stresses that should grow more. There love should grow stronger in deed towards their own people, but outward to the world also.

         Love is a matter of growing also and the sanctification process applies to love as well. The love of God is the motivation to love others and to live a godly life.

         Like sanctification, love should also grow. It is not automatic, but something we must strive to let become a greater influence in our lives.

A. It is well said that you only hit what you aim at. Having a godly testimony both in and out of one's church is vital in having a good witness for Christ.
1. I like what Albert Barnes says in his commentary on this verse. He explains that studying to be quiet and doing your own business this way. "Orderly, peaceful; living in the practice of the calm virtues of life. The duty to which he would exhort them was that of being subordinate to the laws; of avoiding all tumult and disorder; of calmly pursuing their regular avocations, and of keeping themselves from all the assemblages of the idle, the restless, and the dissatisfied."

2. The word "study" means to labor and strive for something. The word "quiet" means to be at peace. "Business" refers to a person's own private business. This would refer to his home, family and work.

3. Believers should be productive and earn their living with their own hands. This statement was made to this church because there were some were lazy and would not work. This mild admonishment did not get the job done and in Paul's second Epistle to them he was more direct. "For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread." (2 Thessalonians 3:11-12)

4. Idle hands will produce laziness and being a busy body. A busy body is someone who is always complaining about other people and what they do. Instead of attending to their own lives with its faults and needs...they take it upon themselves to correct others and be gossips. This sin will destroy the person who does it and often others as well.

B. Christians cannot have an effective and positive testimony for the Lord if they do not conduct their affairs honestly and reputably in the outside world. (v12)

The word "honestly" means more than being fair in our dealings with other, but refers to our general treatment of others.

ILLUS: We live in a Mormon dominated society. If you are offended at them and show them contempt you will never win any of them to the Lord. They will not respect anyone who does not respect them. I have a man write and say he wanted to come to Utah and help tear down the Mormon church. I wrote him a very pointed letter pointing out the error in his thinking. We are not here to tear down the LDS church. It will be here long after we are gone and the Lord will take care of it when He returns. Our calling is to be a godly witness and win all people in this state to the Lord by preaching and living God's truth.

1. I asked the question earlier if we would all be honest examine ourselves to see if we truly want to honor the Lord and do we want to mature and grow in Christ? You do not have to raise your hand or come down an aisle to answer the question. You will answer the question honestly the next time you have an opportunity to show your faithfulness to the Lord. Our answer will be seen in how we live our lives.

2. Our Bibles will reveal our honestly about our desire to live for the Lord.