I Thessalonians 1

The Priority of Gospel Witness "Too many churches have become content to be the keepers of the aquarium, rather than fishers of men.“ Vance Havner said, "For a church to say it is going to major in evangelism is like a railroad to say it is going to major in transportation."

The Condition of the Lost The next 60 minutes 7,000 people will die, with 6,000 never having heard the name Jesus one time. It is estimated that 125,000 lost people die every day. That is 5,210 every hour, 87 every minute, and 1 1/4 every second. There are ten times as many people living today who have never heard the gospel as was the entire population of the world when Jesus gave the great commission.

Take 100 people: 75 would be uneducated, under clothed and underfed - 77 would live under communism domination - 25 would belong either to the roman or the eastern catholic church - 15 would be Moslems - 11 would be Hindus - 15 more would be either Confucianists or Buddhists. And of that 100 people only 8 would be Christians.

Someone has well said that they have no fear that the church will not succeed, but that it will succeed in those things that do not matter.

The Practice of Glorious Worship A. W. Tozer has said that "the missing jewel of the modern church is the jewel of worship." "To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God; to feed the mind with the truth of God; to purge the imagination by the beauty of God; to open up the heart to the love of God; to devote the will to the purpose of God."

"Worship is the believer's response to all that he is mind, emotions, will and body to all that God is and says and does." "Worship is giving all that I am to all that God is."

Divine in Its Focus – Now the purpose of worship is to glorify God, but the prerequisite for worship is to focus on God. – R. A. Torrey said, "When we bring our prayers we focus on our knees. When we bring our thanksgiving we focus on our blessings. But when we bring our worship we focus on God. – Psa. 86:9-10, "All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.”

Dynamic in Its Format – Psa. 47:1-2, "O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth."

Delightful In Its Force – v.6 where there was joy – v.9 where people were being saved. – v. 10 where people were looking for Jesus.

The Preaching Of God's Word They Eagerly Received the Word of God They Earnestly Revered the Word of God – John Calvin said, "We owe to scripture the same reverence which we owe to God." – You cannot trust any of it, if you cannot trust all of it. – And you cannot enjoy any of this book and trust any of this book unless you can be sure of all of this book."

They Emphatically Revealed the Word of God "If the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for battle?" (I Cor. 14:8) They were not intimidated by intellectualism, humbled by humanism. Subdued by secularism, afraid of atheism or licked by liberalism, they took their stand on the word of God.

In 1963, 63% of all Americans believed the Bible was the actual word of God "To be taken literally;" today that same Gallup poll discovered that only 37% of Americans believed the Bible is the word of God "to be taken literally."

We must not trim our message down to suit anybody. The more you reduce the Bible, the less you have to preach to your people.