For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication;
4 sermons cite this verse
… 1 Thessalonians 4. For this is the will of God. Can we get clearer? Can anybody like, do I need that in the Greek? This is, right? I'm buying pillows at Ikea. Do you have a house, right? This is the will of God. Your sanctification. Godliness would be synonymous with that. Sanctification means set apart or more like Christ in your day-to-day living, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that you would know how to possess your own vessel in honor and sanctification, not like the Gentiles who go about in passion of lust because they do not know God. If you know him, if you've seen him, if you really have had your mind blown by the one who is the image of the invisible God, who is the firstborn over all creation, whose head and hair are white like wool, whose eyes are like a flame of fire, feet are like burnished brass, who comes on a white horse with a two-edged sword coming out of his mouth to judge. …
… People say, I want to know the will of God. God says very clearly in 1 Thessalonians 4.3, here's God's will. Be holy and stay away from all sexual sin. So I don't know what's happening in your life and if you've wondered about this, but this is clearly taught in Scripture. But now we come to an issue of sensitivity. Where they say, tell them to not eat food that was offered to idols. Now this is hard for us to understand today. So let me give you a little history. Back in this day there were pagan temples everywhere. Temples built for all these gods that the people worshipped. These are the Gentiles. And they would offer meat or animal sacrifices to these idols. so you could get a killer deal on this meat. You could go in and buy it at a greatly reduced price. It was a lot cheaper than the kosher meat down at the market sold by the Jewish merchants. And so the Gentiles are like, hey, we know these idols are false. …
… Command. or this is the will of God, your sanctification. Or, verse 18, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you, to give thanks. Give thanks, that's God's will for you. So which is it in Paul's case in Ephesians 1? Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. He commanded me to be an apostle or he set me apart to be an apostle. Here's Galatians 1.15. He who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace. You're going to be an apostle, Paul. Period. I'm God. So right now you hate me. I'm knocking you off your horse. I'm going to shine down from heaven. I'm going to blind you for three days. You're mine. I'm taking you. Isn't that glorious? You know an unbeliever in your life that's like Paul? I do. he can take them. He can take them. Okay, that's my answer to the question, what does the will of God mean? …
… He gives thanks to God on the good days, the bad days. For this is the will of God for Etienne. you didn't choose this you would never choose this this is the will of god and there's no quick fix there's no snap your finger and everything's different this is the will of god see we god is in the process a miracle is in motion when you're praising and you're rejoicing and you're giving yourself to pray about it and you're being thankful truly grateful to god he's and you're saying he's still a good God. He hasn't answered everything. I don't get it. Why doesn't he do something? You know, I don't know, but I know what the will of God is for me and for you and for everybody out there going through it. So keep on rejoicing. And if you can't do it, get you a praise partner. Call them up. Say, I need you to, I'm having one of those bad days, but I am not depression. …