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The Masterful Sermon Of A God-honoring Life

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: I Thessalonians 4
Meditation: I Thessalonians 4:11-12

“Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before.  Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.”

Shift Your Focus… In Paul’s day, some of the believers were so convinced that Jesus was going to come back at any moment that they simply quit life and waited. They quit showing up to work, they quit earning a living, they quit taking care of stuff around the house.  Why bother?  Jesus was coming back.  So they just waited.

And they became a burden for everybody else.  Others had to do their work.  Others had to provide food for them.  Others had to take care of the things they were supposed to do.

We have words for people like that:  Irresponsible, irritating, lazy.  And they are a terrible witnesses for Christ.

I haven’t seen too many people in our day who have quit life and are just sitting around waiting for Jesus to return to rescue them from the daily chores of life.  But I have seen a fair number of people who are terrible witnesses for Jesus.  Not so much because they don’t give an adequate verbal witness—they talk a good game.  They just don’t play it.

Their lives don’t match their language. Seekers can’t see Jesus because their lifestyle gets in the way of their language, their work ethic clouds their witness, their nosiness and noisiness is incongruent with their beliefs.  They cut corners, do sloppy work, show up late, gossip—working as unto the Lord is not something that describes them.  Sinners can’t see the purity, reverence, industriousness and excellence of their Christian faith simply because those Christ-like values are consistently missing from their actions.

You’re life is a sermon.  The question is, what is it preaching?  Paul is saying that your life—your behavior, attitudes, words and world-view—at all times must generate respect for your Lord. People are watching you, and whatever they see in your life day in and day out paints a picture of your Jesus.

Hope you are painting a masterpiece!

“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” ~St. Francis of Assisi

Prayer… Lord, help me today to so live that when people look at me, they will see you, and be attracted.

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A Perpetual Example Of Joyful Faith

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: I Thessalonians 3
Meditation: I Thessalonians 3:7-8

“Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. For now we? really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.”

Shift Your Focus… Paul had been the one who led the believers in Thessalonica to faith in Christ. He had established the church there, and then his work needed to be duplicated in other cities, so he moved on. But the great Apostle Paul was worried.

Paul was very much concerned that the Thessalonican’s experience with persecution and hardship would dampen the fires of their faith. Like a father worrying over his children’s heath and welfare, Paul worries that they will be unsettled by their tribulations (vv. 2-3), he is afraid Satan might tempt them to bail out on their faith because of these difficulties, and as a result, he fears that his efforts in leading them to Christ and establishing them in a church will be rendered useless (v. 5).

As it turns out, however, these believers are weathering their storms quite well, and in spite of their newness in the faith, they have a level of spiritual maturity that is remarkable. News reaches Paul that he can tick the Thesslonicans off his worry list because these Christians are doing just fine—and this just makes his day. In fact, the very first thing you notice in chapter three is Paul’s longing to be with them (as opposed to his need to visit the Corinthians for disciplinary reasons—see II Corinthians).

The Thessalonicans are a perpetual example of the kind of faith we ought to exhibit. Our lives should be lived in such a way that we become a continual source of joy for those around us, especially our spiritual leaders. When we exhibit an unwavering devotion to God, receptivity to his Word, and determination in the face of adversity, we become a source of thanksgiving rather than anxiety to those who are looking after us.

Does your spiritual leader take pleasure in the genuineness and quality of your Christianity? Is your spiritual life a source of encouragement to other believers? Can the people who love you check you off their worry list, knowing you have a faith that endures in the face of difficulties?

People who love you—especially your spiritual leaders—are watching your life. So go ahead, make their day. Give them good reason to check you off their worry list—they’ve got enough other folks to worry about who don’t quite get it yet!

“Joy is not the absence of suffering. It is the presence of God.” ~Robert Schuller

Prayer… Dear Father, make me a source of encouragement to those who know and love me. May I be for them a continual cause of joy rather than worry, even as I endure difficulties.

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Called To Suffer

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: I Thessalonians 2
Meditation: I Thessalonians 2:14-15

“You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved.

Shift Your Focus… Most likely, you have never suffered for your faith—really suffered. Neither have I.  We suffer when the doughnuts don’t show up for church, or the sermon goes too long, or the music is too loud, or the sanctuary is too cold, but for the most part, we don’t really pay a heavy price for our faith in America.

Other believers do, however. Even as you are reading this blog, Christians are being persecuted in other parts of the world simply for believing in Jesus Christ as their Savior and for sharing the Good News. According to Voice of the Martyrs (www.persecution.com) approximately 160,000 believers are martyred for their faith every year.

By the way, how many of those took place in America?  I don’t know for sure, but my guess is none!  But just because the suffering Paul speaks of is rare in our country, it is certainly not rare for our Christian brothers and sisters around the world. In fact, I would venture to say that when you consider the panorama of church history, the believer who doesn’t suffer for Christ is the exception rather than the rule. As Paul taught in I Thessalonians 3:4, “we warned you troubles would come.” In Philippians 1:29, Paul said, “It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.”

Since the beginning of the church, Christians have suffered. They have been rejected, beaten, imprisoned, and killed. That’s what they do best. Within three hundred years of the birth of the church, beginning with only a ragtag band of twelve disciples, Christ’s church overtook the once hostile Roman Empire, converting it to Christianity. How did they do it? Not by fielding an army or gaining political power or suing for their rights. All they did was to suffer and die. That’s what Christians seem to do best. And that’s what makes them—that’s what makes us so powerful. Tertullian, a brilliant Christian apologist, said in the third century, “The blood of the martrys is the seed of the church.”

Of course, that doesn’t negate the reality of the pain and devastation suffering brings. So could I encourage you to take a moment today to pray for the persecuted church.  While you are at it, say thanks to God for the country you live in where freedom of religion is still possible.

And if you are called upon to suffer today—suffer in a way that brings glory to Jesus.

“How naturally does affliction make us Christians!” ~William Cowper

Prayer… Dear Father, I pray for all the believers around the world who are undergoing persecution, hardship and suffering.  Strengthen them for the battle, encourage them in their spirit, give them boldness to speak for Christ, and use their hardship as the seeds of revival in their community.  Lord, hold them close to your heart.

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Are You Expecting?

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: I Thessalonians 1
Meditation: I Thessalonians 1:9-10

“They marvel at how expectantly you await the arrival of his Son, whom he raised from the dead— Jesus, who rescued us from certain doom.”

Shift Your Focus…  Are you expecting? Expecting the Lord to return at any moment, that is.

The believers in the city of Thessalonica to whom Paul wrote these words believed that Christ could come back at any second. They were young in their faith, only about one-year-old in the Lord, and they were already getting a reputation in the region for their action-oriented faith, their love-inspired good words, their unshakable hope in the face of persecution, and their passionate expectation of Jesus’ imminent return.

Their expectation of Christ’s soon return was not some silly pie-in-the-sky sort of wishful thinking. It was not a form of escapism to ease the pain of their persecution. It was not rooted in reality avoidance so they wouldn’t have to carry out the daily responsibilities of being good Christians. It was simply an authentic belief the Jesus was going to do as he promised: return soon and take them home to be with him.

Rather than writing them off as overly emotional or shallow new believers, Paul praises them for this spirit of expectation. Because there was a fundamental sense of the Lord’s return, these guys were turning the heat up on their Christian living: They were busy doing the Lord’s work. They were paying attention to holy living. They were not shrinking back from their Christian testimony in spite of hardship. They were passionately living out their faith. They were fully engaged in what it means to be Christian precisely because they knew the Lord would come back at any moment, and they wanted to be the kind of church that Jesus would be proud of upon his return.

That is the way believers ought to live. We should be living with a passionate expectation that Jesus could return at any moment. And as a consequence of that belief, we ought to be living fully engaged Christianity so that the Master will be proud of us upon his return.

Let me ask you this: How would you live the rest of this week if you knew Jesus was returning exactly seven days from this moment? What would change about your behavior between now and then? What people would you share Christ with? What relationships would you make sure were reconciled? Would “I love you” be said more often around your house? How about “I’m sorry?” Or “how can I help you?” Would your church attendance, your tithing record, your daily devotions, and the way you relate to people improve between now and then?

The real possibility is that Jesus just might return between now and next week. We just don’t know. But what we do know is that Jesus has called us to live as if he could return at any moment. Since Christ could come at any moment, Paul teaches throughout I and II Thessalonians that we are to live:

  • In holiness—especially in the area of sexual purity…and he says this with a sense of urgency.
  • In harmony—that is the result of truly loving each other…so much that we are willing to lay down our lives for one another.
  • In humility—to live in such a way that we draw the attention of others, not because of how sensational we are, but because of how honest, hard working and honorable we are.
  • In hopefulness—which occurs when we allow an eternal perspective to permeate the very core of our existence and affect everything we do, say and think.
  • In helpfulness—living out faith so practically that our lives are characterized by servant-heartedness and sacrificial selflessness toward one another.

When we live in the kind of readiness that Christ could return at any moment—in holiness, harmony, humility, hopefulness and helpfulness—the natural bi-product will be that contagious faith will exude from our lives in much the same as it did from these amazing Thessalonians Christians.

Are you expecting? You should be!

“God destines us for an end beyond the grasp of reason.” ~Thomas Aquinas

Prayer… My affirmation of faith, O God, is that Jesus is coming again.  He is coming for all who long for his appearance, who have readied themselves for his return.  I want to be counted in that number.  So again today, I ready myself for that possibility and I pray in my spirit, “even so, come Lord Jesus.”

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What Is That To You?

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: John 21
Meditation: John 21:22

“Jesus said to Peter, ‘If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.’”

Shift Your Focus… Jesus had been addressing Peter, drilling down to some issues that needed to be resolved in this rough fisherman-turned disciple. This was a difficult conversation that needed to happen before Peter could become the apostle Jesus had in mind.

And Peter did what so many of us do: When the spotlight got focused on him a little too brightly, he tried to shed some light on John’s junk. But Jesus kept the focus right where it needed to be: “Peter, quit worrying about what will happen to John and just focus on what I’ve called you to do. If I allow him be alive until I return, that is none of your business. You’ve got enough to worry about just taking care of your own junk let alone John’s. Just take care of you and you’ll be fine!”

Not bad advice! I would save myself a whole lot of wasted energy by just minding my own spiritual business. The time and emotional drain I spend worrying whether someone else is walking with Jesus the way I think they should takes away from the spiritual energy that could be focused on growing me up in Christ.

That is not to say that I shouldn’t express loving concern for another’s progress as a believer. There are appropriately levels of attention that I must bring to bear in challenging them to step it up in their spiritual formation. But I’ll be honest, my challenge is not reaching those appropriate levels, it is exceeding them.

I have a feeling that may be true of you as well. It is a fairly regular occurrence for me as a pastor to have believers come with “concerns” about what another sister has said or how another brother is living or what another local shepherd is doing or the kind of theology a prominent Tele-evangelist is espousing. “Did you know ‘so-and-so’ didn’t even quote Scripture on his last television show?”

My typical response to those concerns: What is that to you? You just worry about you and make sure you are following Jesus!”

You see, those other people will have to answer to God for their lives one day, but so will you. It is very likely that you will not be able to change them one bit by all the energy you spend worrying about their spiritual condition. All you can work on is your own obedience. Beside, if you really want to see them change, the better focus of your energy would be to pray for them. Spend at least as much time bringing them before the Father in prayer as you do thinking and talking about how upsetting they are to you.

Do that and change will happen…but it will be you that changes! So mind our own business today—it is not such a bad thing to do!

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”  ~Carl Gustav Jung

Prayer… Lord, there is so much work yet to do in me, so keep me focused on my own spiritual development.  Help me to mind my own business, working on the things that I can change and leaving the rest up to you.

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Reckless Abandon

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: John 20
Meditation: John z20:3-6

“Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb.”

Shift Your Focus… You’ve got to give Peter credit—he was never one to hold back. John outran him to the tomb, but nervously stopped at the entrance to peek in. Not Peter! When he finally arrived, huffing and puffing, Peter pushed past John right into the place where great respect was to be given and strict protocol was demanded.

Of course, the greatest part of this story is that Jesus wasn’t there! He was alive forevermore, the victor over death and sin. If the body of Jesus had still been sealed behind the stone entrance to that tomb when they arrived, nothing else about this story would matter. As the brilliant historian Jaroslav Pelikan put it, “If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen—nothing else matters.”

But Jesus did rise, and that is why the other details of this story matter. Even small, seemingly insignificant details become both interesting and instructive—like Peter pressing in past John to witness the reality of the resurrection first hand.

There was a spiritual pushiness about Peter that endeared him to Jesus. His personal deficiencies are well documented; the entire world knows of them thanks to the Gospel writers. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John pulled no punches in their accounts of this braggadocios, foot-in-mouth, leap-before-you-look, think-before you speak disciple.

Yet is was Peter’s reckless abandon when it came to spiritual expectancy that led Jesus to declare, “Peter, on your kind of faith, I am going to build this small team of disciples into a world-wide force called ‘the church’ that will take back Planet Earth from Satan and return it to its Rightful Owner.” (Matthew 16:18)

Sure, Peter got into trouble more than his fair share, but he was the only disciple to actually get out of the boat to walk on water—albeit a walk that was short-lived and ultimately very wet. He was the first to go into the tomb—Ground Zero of the Christian faith. And he was the one who was called upon to give the first sermon of the Christian era—where two thousand people responded to his altar call.

Jesus loved Peter’s brassy boldness. That was the kind of raw material the Lord could work with. It was certainly raw, but it was ready. It didn’t take much to light a fire with Peter; he was a tinderbox waiting for combustion.

I think we could learn something from Peter’s example. Peter didn’t have it all together in his life, but he was always willing to offer all that he had, raw as it was, and press into Jesus with full expectancy of what could happen when raw readiness met with resurrection reality.

Be Peter-like today in your journey with Jesus: a bit bold, daring to go so far as to be a little spiritually pushy. Chances are, you will encounter some resurrection power. Word has it that it’s still floating around out there.

“Faith takes God without any ‘if’s.’”  —D.L. Moody

Prayer… Lord, help me to cast off my natural reserve for a little Peter-like raw readiness today. Enable me to see those opportunities where walking on water is calling me to get out of my boat.  Pour some fresh resurrection power into this ready heart.

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God’s Sovereignty, Our Submission

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: John 19
Meditation: John 19:11

“Jesus answered, ‘You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above.’”

Shift Your Focus… There is nothing in this world that happens apart from God’s sovereign knowledge and by his sovereign permission.

Jesus understood that as he stood before Pilate, who nervously tried to impress upon our Lord that he held the power to either crucify or free: Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?” (John 19:10)

That is when Jesus, who had previously held his peace, looked Pilate directly in the eye and informed him in no uncertain terms that even though he might be a high officer of the Roman court, he held no such power—only God did.  In the awful light of what Jesus had been through, and what he knew he was about to go through, what an amazing statement of not only an understanding of the sovereign will of God, but complete trust and submission to it.

That was the reason Jesus could so calmly and resolutely traverse the terrible way of the cross.  And that is the reason you can walk through the difficulties of your life as well—even if your path takes you through the valley of the shadow of death.   As King David said, you don’t have to fear even death because “Thy rod and Thy staff will comfort me.”

You can know what King David knew that our Lord Jesus knew:  Because of God’s sovereign control over all the affairs of this universe, and because of his immeasurable love for you, this world is a perfectly safe place for you—even if you are standing before your cross.

Before you begin this day, take a moment to read the Shepherd’s Psalm printed below.  In fact, you may want to read it every day this week before you head off into the busyness and challenges of your world:

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

No matter what you face today, be strong and courageous—the Lord is your Shepherd!

“Much that worries us beforehand can afterwards, quite unexpectedly, have a happy and simple solution…Things really are in a better hand than ours.”  ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Prayer… Lord, my life is in your hands, therefore I will not fear.