SFJ Bible Reading Plan

1 Thessalonians 4

A Life Pleasing to God

4:1 Finally, then, brothers,¹ we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification:² that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body³ in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

The Coming of the Lord

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,⁴ that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Footnotes

[1] 4:1 Or brothers and sisters; also verses 10, 13

[2] 4:3 Or your holiness

[3] 4:4 Or how to take a wife for himself; Greek how to possess his own vessel

[4] 4:15 Or by the word of the Lord

(ESV)

Going Deeper

Worrying About Tomorrow (5-30-15)

Grab your Bible and let’s go deeper into James 4:

Today I want to talk about worry.

Worry is also known as anxiety.

No doubt, worry is a big issue in our culture today.  Consider it for yourself…

How good are you at worrying about life?

The most staggering fact we are given about anxiety and worry is:

It is the most common mental health disorder in America!  — with over 40 Million people diagnosed.

What is anxiety?

Anxiety loosely defined is this:

Anticipating the future in a variety of possible negative outcomes and then FREAKING OUT ABOUT IT.

Jesus says,  “…seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Matthew 6:33-34

Here, Jesus brings up one of the areas we are prone to worry about which is tomorrow!

Jesus says, DO NOT WORRY ABOUT TOMORROW.

Today has enough trouble that you don’t need to borrow from tomorrow.

One of our older saints in our church told me once,  “When you worry about something in the future you are only making yourself go through hardship that hasn’t even happened yet and if it does actually happen, then you are choosing to go through that stress twice- once when you worried about it in advance and once when it happened!”

Our future is what we are talking about today. 

Do you find yourself worrying about your future?

How will the kids turn out?    Will you be able to pay next month’s rent?   Will you ever fall in love?

What will the results show when you meet with your doctor?  What is the future of your chapter?

We are a society that is professional at worrying about our future.  

With this in mind, turn with me to James 4:13-15:

James 4:13-15  “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”

1. Plan Making

James 4:13-15-

13 “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.’”

First, who is this talking about? Any of us that make plans!

Second, we have to ask:  is making plans a bad thing?

–No, God calls us to steward our lives well.

Stewardship is our privileged opportunity to be faithful managers of God’s provisions for God’s glory!

This is actually an area that many of us can work on. Being a good steward is making a plan for tomorrow.  Planning your schedule in such a way that you plan to finish the things God has set before you.

God did not trust us with the gospel so we can sit back and just wait to see what comes our way.

We need to manage it well. To be good leaders or stewards of our lives, we must plan to the best of our ability.

That being said, there is planning that we can do that puts an unhealthy dependence on our plans.

When we make our plans more important than what God is doing at any given moment, we can really get worked up and worried about it.

We can even get resentful at God for not causing the things we planned to work out the way we want them to.

So, how do we have a right practice of plan making while not making them an idol in our lives?

We trust in the one who knows the future and has our best interest in mind!

2. Future Knowing

James 4:14– “…yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.”

Here is the TRUTH.  You and I don’t know how tomorrow will turn out.

This is where our worry comes in to play.

We set in motion in our mind the plans we have and our heart begins to long to see those plans lived out.

Examples: education, career, kids, marriage, vacation, and health which are all good things.

But, again, the problem is WE don’t know how it will come out.

We can’t see ahead in the future.    But, there is someone that can.

Not only can God see what is ahead, but his will for how that future plays itself out is always better than yours and mine.   Not only because his PERSPECTIVE on what is to come is better, but because often our plans are about us- sometimes with good outcomes and sometimes with bad.

His plans are always for his glory and our ultimate good.

So the question is:  Do you trust in the one who sees our future and who’s plans are always better than ours?    Or do you overvalue your plans and end up worrying about their outcome. 

We don’t have to worry about tomorrow if we trust in the one who sits on the THRONE!

à Do you trust God with your FUTURE?

Do you trust Him enough to keep doing the things He has called you to do even when in man’s eyes it’s not producing the change you wanted?  

3. Correct Understanding

James 4:14- “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

Do you see and understand that this life and world are fading away? We are only here for a short time.  Our future, our hope, our home is with God in His eternal kingdom.

So if my plans are only about the temporary, then I am going to be riddled with worry as I have placed an overemphasis in the here and now.

If we can embrace that we are here for a moment compared to the eternity that awaits us, we will be much more ready to embrace God’s will for us and not OVER-CLING to the things we have set in our mind that we want to happen still.

Now, when we really begin to get this we begin to have a CORRECT UNDERSTANDING of our life here on earth!

<>Understand that if you have yet to trust your life to Christ, you don’t have a promise for eternity with God because Christ has not reconciled your relationship with God.

This is why people of the world party so hard in the here and now.

This is why when we have a TIGHT grip on our plans and lifestyle in this LIFE, we are riddled with WORRY.  Because it is all you have!

This is why it makes no sense for Christ followers to WORRY.  In Christ, we trust in God’s will for us.

We don’t need to worry about our future when our future is in God’s hands!

This is GOOD NEWS because “in Christ” we get to loosen our grip on the here and now.

We must deal with the world.  But as we deal with it, we don’t give it our fullest attention.

We don’t ascribe to the world the greatest status. There are unseen things that are vastly more precious than the world.

We use the world without offering it our whole soul.   We may work with all of our might when dealing with the world, but the full passions of our heart will be attached to something higher—to God Himself.

<>We use the world, but not as an end in itself. It is a means.

<>We deal with the world in order to make much of Christ.

“The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”   (1 John 2:17).

3. God Yielding-

Now, hopefully, we understand that it’s okay to make plans as long as we remember who KNOWS the future and as long as we have a correct understanding of what this world is and who we are in Christ.  So, this leaves one thing, how do we not worry about the plans we have made?

James tells us:

James 4:15– “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”

— WE YIELD to God’s will and trust in Him.

Jesus said it best, “not my will, but yours, be done!”

à Jesus did not “want” to be mocked, beaten, have his flesh torn off, and suffer a slow death on a criminal’s cross, but rather than demanding his way and rather than hold tightly to his plans and fleshly desire, he CLINGED TO GOD and made the Father’s desires his desires when he said, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” –Luke 22:42.

I recommend you end every prayer you ever pray with these words!   “Not my will, but yours, be done.”  You may struggle with saying those words authentically, but as you press into Christ, you will grow to truly YIELD to God’s will.  You will learn to truly WANT His WILL, not yours.

So, what is the right view of God that he teaches us to have in

1 Thessalonians 4:15

15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,¹ that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

Footnotes

[1] 4:15 Or by the word of the Lord

(ESV)

?

He tells us two very important things about God.

One is contained in the words: “If the Lord wills, we will live.”

And the other is contained in the words, “If the Lord wills. . . we will do this or that.”

If the Lord wills, we Will live.

First, when he says, “If the Lord wills, we will live”, he teaches us that the duration of our lives are in the hands of God OR that God governs how long we will live OR that God is ultimately in control of life and death. We may not know how long our vapor-like life will linger in the air, but God knows because God decides how long we will live: “If the Lord wills, we will live.”

James is saying, if this is a true view of life and God, then it should shape our mindset and shape the way our heart has PEACE about our FUTURE instead of WORRY about our FUTURE.

THIS is how our heart has PEACE about the FUTURE of our loved ones instead of WORRY about the future of our LOVED ones.

If the Lord wills, we will do this or that.

Now, there is another truth about God in

1 Thessalonians 4:15

15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,¹ that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

Footnotes

[1] 4:15 Or by the word of the Lord

(ESV)

. When he says, “If God wills we will . . . do this or that”, he teaches us that the activities and accomplishments of our lives are in God’s hands.

God governs what we accomplish. Not only are our lives in His hands, our success is in His hands.

“Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills . . . we will do this or that.'”

And if the Lord does not will, we will not do this or that.

Whether we do this or that tomorrow is in the hands of God.

So, what was wrong with what these people said in

1 Thessalonians 4:13

The Coming of the Lord

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

(ESV)

?- “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit'”  What’s wrong with that?

It is wrong because it does not give expression to a true view of life or God.

Specifically, it does not give expression to the truth that life is a vapor and it does not give expression to the truth that God governs the length of our lives and the achievements of our lives.

I pray today that this truth resonates deeply with you.  I pray it changes the way you think about this life.  I pray it changes the way you make plans and especially the way you choose to hold to those plans.

For those of you who do not yet know Jesus as your greatest treasure- as your Savior- as your God, I pray that you do.  I pray that you see that you will never be satisfied, joyful, or peaceful until you know Jesus.

Proverbs 3:5-6   “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

By His grace and for His glory,

-Shepherd

Soldiers for Jesus MC

National Chaplain

1 Thessalonians 3

3:1 Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker¹ in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, 3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. 4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. 5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

Timothy’s Encouraging Report

6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you—7 for this reason, brothers,² in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. 9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?

11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Footnotes

[1] 3:2 Some manuscripts servant

[2] 3:7 Or brothers and sisters

(ESV)

1 Thessalonians 2

Paul’s Ministry to the Thessalonians

2:1 For you yourselves know, brothers,¹ that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery,² as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle³ among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. 11 For you know how, like a father with his children, 12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

13 And we also thank God constantly⁴ for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men⁵ but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,⁶ 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind 16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!⁷

Paul’s Longing to See Them Again

17 But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, 18 because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us. 19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20 For you are our glory and joy.

Footnotes

[1] 2:1 Or brothers and sisters; also verses 9, 14, 17

[2] 2:5 Or with a flattering speech

[3] 2:7 Some manuscripts infants

[4] 2:13 Or without ceasing

[5] 2:13 The Greek word anthropoi can refer to both men and women

[6] 2:14 The Greek word Ioudaioi can refer to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, who opposed the Christian faith in that time

[7] 2:16 Or completely, or forever

(ESV)

1 Thessalonians 1

Greeting

1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace.

The Thessalonians’ Faith and Example

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly¹ mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers² loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Footnotes

[1] 1:2 Or without ceasing

[2] 1:4 Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters

(ESV)