Christ Church of Mt Airy Sermons

Our faith is the most important thing about our walk with Jesus. Paul reminds the church that our faith is regularly in flux and must be strengthened and encouraged. It is constantly under attack by Satan’s lies. But God’s design to protect our faith is through community with other believers, who can support us, pray with us, and speak Jesus to us when our faith is lacking.

God tells us to expect suffering for our faith in Him, yet we need not be moved by this affliction. Though there will be loss and temptation in our lives, God has provided support through church community and hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ.

The salvation of souls is the glory and joy of Jesus. The church is the evidence of Jesus’ ability to redeem, and making His disciples is our crown of boasting and our life's work.

An encouragement to read the Bible and ask God to help to you recieve it, just as the Thessalonians did, as God's very heart to you. Reading the Bible will activate you to accomplish God's purposes, peirce your heart, see Jesus in fresh ways, experience His spiritual fruit, and keep you from being moved (lost) when suffering.

God urges believers to meet together to stir one another up to love and to use our gifts to serve others. This both promotes godly living and protects us from wandering from the faith. In turn, parents can stir up their young children through their love and encouragement, and by charging them to find their worth and identity in Jesus. Older children are entrusted with the job to seek the Lord on their own and through fellowship.

Continuing in 1 Thessalonians 2, Matt resumed discussing the theme that all relationships should image (be like) God. The applications for our own God centered relationships include (1) being intentionally transparent, (2) willingly sacrificing time and resources, (3) actively striving to be blameless in our dealings with one another, and (4) encouraging and strengthening one another.

May God be part of our every interaction. Paul expands on this appeal explaining that to do so the church must (1) have a bold gospel, (2) make pleasing God the goal, and (3) possess an affectionate love for people. The aim of the church is to lead others to Jesus Christ rather than to merely give practical wisdom.

While we are wait for Jesus to return, we often turn to other things to help us feel better about ourselves. Idols are the things we turn to to cope; things become idols when we look to them to deliver us. But they leave you more hopeless. God graciously warns us to turn from idols to serve Him.

The basis of Paul's encouragement to the Thessalonians is rooted in the foundational truth found in God the Father and in Jesus Christ. God has chosen you, and reordered your life through the explosive power of the Holy Spirit. He puts you to work for His purpose, even In afflictions. And you recognize and have hope in Jesus as your deliverer. Therefore live as God's chosen, eagerly serve, and wait until Jesus’ return.

In this letter we are shown what it means to receive a new identity in God and the Lord Jesus. Once hopelessly dead in our sins, our lives are turned upside down, completely changed, and sealed to the Father by the Holy Spirit. And because He who calls us is faithful, as we seek to live God centered and saturated lives, we are kept holy and blameless while we anticipate Jesus’s return.