Called For Holiness -- 1 Thess. 4:1-8 Thessalonica

No Real Sense Of Authority? How do we decide what is proper in modern living? By what authority do we do things? Who determines right and wrong?

Is sex outside of marriage okay? What is marriage? Is homosexuality okay? What about abortion? How about incest? Or pedophilia? Or pornography?

 By the whims of society?  Societal norms are ever changing  Such as profanity  Such as proper dress in public  Such as sexual expression  Such as ………..

Is there ANY authority? For the Christian, the answer is YES! 1 Thessalonians 4:1 -- Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do (walk), that you excel still more.

 Vs For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.  Jesus is the authority  Issued as commands to them to be kept and followed

 The one who shapes your mind is the one to whom you give authority.  God?  Television?  Radio?  Books?  Education?  Internet?

 Remember when Rated X was the worst?  Remember when a single exclamation point was enough?!!!!  2 Timothy 3:13 – “But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

 Story by Soren Kierkgaard

 Paul with them only a short time  Yet clear that he’d spent a great deal of that time on sexual immorality  Important for today?

 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God….”

 Sanctification  HAGIASMOS  Noun form of the word for HOLY  Set apart FROM evil  Set apart FOR God and holiness

 PORNEIA  From which we get the word pornography  Fornication – sex outside of marriage  And MUCH, MUCH more in this context  Anything remotely sexually immoral

 PATHOS – suffering, passion  EPITHUMIA – desire for other things; longing, craving EPI = on, upon THUMOS = passion, craving Luke 22:15 “Greatly desired…”

 We do NOT have to sin sexually.  There IS sexual purity  Society cannot help us know the difference.  God’s word makes it clear

 We live in a time when people do whatever they want because they will NOT exercise self- control

 Vs. 7-8 – “For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.”

 Should we subject God’s Spirit to:  Lust?  Pornography?  Fornication?  Adultery?  Homosexuality?