Together in Hope
1 Thessalonians 4
4 Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already, and we encourage you to do so even more. 2 For you remember what we taught you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
3 God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. 4 Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor— 5 not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. 6 Never harm or cheat a fellow believer in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. 7 God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. 8 Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
9 But we don’t need to write to you about the importance of loving each other, for God himself has taught you to love one another. 10 Indeed, you already show your love for all the believers throughout Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you to love them even more.
11 Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. 12 Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.
13 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.
15 We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 18 So encourage each other with these words.
Holiness in Everyday Life
- God's will is our sanctification.
- Following Jesus changes how we live.
- Holiness takes shape in ordinary life.
- A counter-cultural way of being in the world.
Love in Ordinary Things
- Love one another more and more.
- Love expressed through everyday relationships.
- Quiet faithfulness, honest work, and care for others.
- Responding to hostility with love and generosity.
Hope in the Face of Death
- We grieve, but not without hope.
- Our hope rests in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
- Those who have died in Christ are not forgotten or left behind.
- The future belongs to Jesus, and we belong to him.
- Encourage one another with these words.
Together in Hope
Following Jesus produces a counter-cultural, holy way of life that responds to hostility with love and generosity, motivated by hope in the coming Kingdom of Jesus.
Holiness. Love. Future Hope.
A life transformed by the gospel, shaped by the Spirit, and offered for the sake of the world.
A Prayer for the Church
May we find you in the mundane
Find you in the congestion
Wonder at your revelation
And praise you in our wandering
May we see you in the crowd
And meet you in the wilderness
In our wrestling and protest
May we discover:
You are for us…
Never leaving…
Always faithful…
Be thou our vision, watchword and song
Let us see your face
Approach holiness by grace
Know that we are loved infinitely
By the one who holds eternity
May your love transform us
To love neighbor as we have first been loved
Sanctifying us by your truth
Your Word is truth
Make us one as you and the Father are one
By your Spirit bind us together
Adopt each one into your self
Into Your church
Into Your kingdom…
May it come.
Boldly we approach…
The tree of life that we may eat.
The sycamore that we may climb
For we would see Jesus.
The cross of Christ that we may exclaim “Surely…”
We look to you
Where else would we go?
You have the words of life
And by your Word all things are held together
Your nearness is to us our good
For your presence is everything
In you we find ourselves.
So, we pray, be near.
Consecrate us, oh Lord,
In our bare feet.
And help us get our sandals on
To go where you send us
With your name on our lips and on our hearts.
Amen.
Questions to Consider:
1. How does the presence of God make the mundane holy?
2. Where do you find it difficult to live out your faith in everyday life?
3. How does the way you treat others reflect the love God?
4. How does holiness inform the way we grieve and face death?
5. How does the hope we have in Jesus change the way we live today?
Pray with us for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit:
