Biblical Truths from West Palm Beach church of Christ

Every year we are told to begin preparations because we live in south Florida. When June 1 rolls around we are told that we need to stock up on hurricane supplies. We need to have extra water on hand. We need to make sure we have batteries for flashlights and radios. Make sure your generator is ready to run. Have your trees trimmed back. There are many steps that are given to us so that we can be prepared for any named storms that head our way. But how many of us have done this? When the reminder on June 1 came, how many of us went through the checklist, made the necessary purchases, and have everything ready for this year’s hurricane season? I will not ask anyone to raise their hand. But if we did not make preparations, I want us to consider why not. Maybe we think we are not going to have a storm this year. Maybe we think we can get ready later. Maybe we think we will make preparations when we see the storm heading our way. Maybe we think we are ready and do not need to follow the recommendations given. We can be tempted to approach the return of Christ and our preparation in the same way. At the end of 1 Thessalonians 4, the apostle Paul wrote to those Christians about the future hope of Christ’s return. When Christ comes, we will be gathered together and always be with the Lord. But this leads to Paul’s instruction about being ready for Christ’s return. As Paul concludes his teaching about excelling even more, he wants these Christians to excel even more in readiness…

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The apostle Paul is writing to Christians to encourage their faith to grow further and deeper. While the Christians in Thessalonica are doing well, he is urging them to excel still more (1 Thessalonians 4:1). We have noticed that Paul is looking at areas in the Christian life that might be easily overlooked when trying to be pleasing to the Lord. Paul has written about holiness, exposing the problem of sexual immorality. Paul also wrote about love, exposing the problems of not aiming to live a quiet life, not minding your own business, and not working with your own hands. But in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 the apostle Paul is going to shift his discussion to the second coming of Christ. It seems in our religious culture that there are two perspectives when it comes to the second coming of Christ. One perspective is to scare everyone, suggesting that every world event or every change in the country’s culture must mean that Christ is coming back today. I think this has led to the other perspective which is to suggest that the second coming does not matter at all. The suggested idea is that it does not matter what we believe and there is no reason to study it because God wins in the end and he is going to come back. What we are going to notice in our lesson today that the apostle Paul did not subscribe to either of these perspectives. Paul did not ignore the topic but also did not try to instill a constant fear in these Christians either. What do we need to know about Christ’s return so that we can be pleasing to God? What hope are we to have in knowing that Christ is coming back? Please open your copies of God’s word to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 we are going to look at how we can excel even more in future hope…

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We left off in Romans 8 with a powerful proclamation about who we are in Christ. If we are living according to the Spirit, putting to death the deeds of the flesh, then the Spirit testifies that we are sons of God (cf. Romans 8:12-16). We have received the spirit of adoption so that we can be called children of God. If we are children of God, then we are heirs of God. We have a great inheritance awaiting us. But then the apostle Paul says something that might be surprising at the end of Romans 8:17. Paul does not end his thought by telling us that if we are children of God then we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Paul concludes with an important condition: “provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

I want us to think about what Paul is doing as we begin this lesson. Romans 8 is a glorious chapter about who we are in Christ. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). We have been set free from sin to live righteous lives before the Lord (Romans 8:4-5). We are adopted children of God and can cry, “Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:15). But if we are children of God and heirs of God, what are we supposed to make of the problem of suffering? What does it mean when we suffer? What should be our perspective about our relationships with God when we are crushed by trials? Paul is going to take us through this process to help us understand the role of suffering and the glory of the gospel…

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We are in a series in which we are looking at how we have been called to more. In 1 Thessalonians 4:1 that these Christians in Thessalonica know how to walk and are living in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. But Paul instructs them to excel even more in being pleasing to the Lord. We do not want to become spiritually stagnant. We do not want to spiritually drift away or lose the zeal and love for the Lord that we had at the beginning. So Paul writes to encourage excelling even more in a passionate pursuit of the Lord. In our last lesson we saw Paul’s concern that we would excel more and more in holiness (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8). As we come to 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 we are going to read another area in our lives where we can excel even more…

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Paul is writing to the Thessalonian Christians asking them and urging them to excel even more in living a life that is pleasing to God. Paul does not want these Christians to become spiritually stagnant. Paul does not want these Christians to experience a spiritual regression. He urges them to grow and to keep on growing. Paul did not write to these Christians to discourage those who were striving to please the Lord in their lives. Rather, Paul wrote to warning them about letting up in their spiritual progress. He did not want their intensity for the love of the Lord to wane. He did not want them to become lukewarm or lose the love that they presently have. So it is important to hear what Paul is trying to do for these Christians and for us. Satan is trying to destroy us and destroy our faith. One of the ways he tries to destroy our faith is by tempting us to not continue to strive to be pleasing to the Lord. We are called to grow. We are called to more. Open your copies of God’s word to 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 and we are going to see how Paul is calling us for more holiness…

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We are in Romans 8 where Paul is teaching us how we can have the good life, the transformed life, because there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (cf. Romans 8:1). We have been set free from the law of sin and death and have been enabled to obey Christ. We noticed in our last lesson that the first step is a change in the mind. We must change the way we think. We must change what we value in life. Paul said that those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit (cf. Romans 8:5). The struggle with sin reveals that there are areas in our lives that we value more than the things of God. Now the apostle Paul is going to further motivate this change of thinking in our lives by showing us what we have in Christ. Open your copies of God’s word to Romans 8 and we are going to spend our time in verses 12-17…

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There has never been a sport in which a successful athlete has ever said that he or she does not need to practice any longer. Michael Jordan is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Yet he did not proclaim that he is such a great player that he did not need to practice. His desire for success continued to propel him to practice more and more. This is true not only for great athletes but also for any work or effort. Whether we are talking about music and entertainment or about education or career, no one can remain successful if they stop working at their craft. Yet one of the dangers of the Christian life is becoming content with our current level of faithfulness. It is easy to think that since we have hit particular levels of faithfulness or spiritual maturity that we can be content with that level…

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