You know, we want them to be fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge
of God.
So we want them from a practical perspective to live out the Christian life, but we also
want them to learn the Bible as well.
So we've got to teach them how to be faithful, how to be consistent with the church, you
know, so they can learn the Word of God through the preaching of God's Word.
We've got to give them a Bible reading plan so that they can, you know, accomplish reading
the Bible in one year.
We want them to be fruitful in every good work, but also to increase in the knowledge
of God.
We've got to teach them the will of God to please the Lord.
Look at verse 3.
He says, for this is the will of God.
I've always liked this verse because, you know, being a Christian for the last 15 years
or so, you know, I've always run into people who are like, what's God's will, you know?
And they always want to know some secret will, like what's God's specific secret will for
my life 10 years, 15 years from now?
Well, you don't have to go very far to know what God's will is, and in fact, it's literally
laid out here.
He's saying, for this is the will of God.
Oh, man, is it for me to be a pastor?
Is it for me?
Is it going to say that the country that I am called to to be a missionary?
No, it says, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification.
Yeah, well, I know that.
I like to be sanctified, you know?
Okay, well, let's get a little more detailed there that you should abstain from fornication.
I like how the Bible is just very practical.
How do you live a holy life?
Don't fornicate.
That's pretty practical right there.
You say, well, you know, that's a little too practical.
Yeah, but you'd be surprised that some people out there don't know that.
They think it's okay to fornicate and to sleep around and to, you know, be a whoremonger
or be a whore, as the Bible puts it.
They think that's okay because that's just how they grew up, you know, they don't have
a problem with it.
Whereas the Bible clearly lays out that God's will for our lives is to live a sanctified
life, not a perfect life, because no one's perfect, but it is possible to not be perfect
and still not commit fornication.
It's possible to be sanctified, not unto perfection, but at least to the point where you're not
committing fornication, at least to the point where you're not committing drunkenness, you're
not becoming an extortioner, you're not an idolater, you're not these things that the
Bible says.
So, what is God's will for people's lives?
Well, there's many wills, according to the Bible, when you actually study the word of
God, but specifically that's laid out here in 1 Thessalonians 4 is that they should abstain
from fornication, okay?
And you know what?
This was written like thousands of years ago, 2,000 years ago approximately, and obviously
this is something that possibly was taking place in that church, but wouldn't you say
this is also a problem today in 2021?
Fornication is still an issue, even though this is such an old, ancient book, it's so
outdated, you know, it's so outdated, you know, this is so old, it's so irrelevant,
no this is still relevant because people today are still committing fornication, Christians
are still committing fornication.
And they need to be reminded of the fact that the Bible tells us that God's will for our
lives is to be sanctified and to abstain from fornication, and by the way, you can add every
other sexual sin to that, because it's not just fornication, abstain from adultery, abstain
from lasciviousness, abstain from concupiscence, abstain from any type of sexual sin, you know,
the Bible says it is good for a man not to touch a woman, and obviously the answer, because
God's not saying to be some queer or something like that, either he's like the answer is
that you should just get married.
But as a single young man, it is a sinful thing to do to commit fornication or to commit
adultery with another man's wife or, you know, whatever it may be, you know, God's will is
for you to be holy.
And what does that mean?
Well, to be sanctified.
And what does that mean?
Well, to abstain from fornication if you really want to know.