Sermon Tone Analysis

Living a life pleasing to God

God called us to live holy lives

!!! /Lord’s Day 27 August 2006, 9.00am/

!!! Announcements

!!! Short time of silent prayer

!!! Bible presented

!!!

Call to worship

Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.”

“Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.”

(Nehemiah 9:5)

!!! Blessing

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

Amen.

(Galatians 1:3-5)

!!! Doxology Psalm 18:                  /“I love You, Lord” (Tune “Jerusalem”,/

!!! /Rejoice 321; 4 Verses//; followed by “AMEN”)/

!!! Prayer of Adoration, Invocation and Thanksgiving Lord’s Prayer

!!! Hymn No 25:                               /“Great is Thy faithfulness”/

!!! Prayer of Confession of sin

!!! Forgiveness

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

(1 John 1:8-9)

!!! Hymn No 381:                            /“Nothing is mine”/

!!! Tithes, offering and dedication

While stewards wait upon the tithes and offering, remaining seated, we sing:

!!! Hymn 609:                    /“For the fruits of His creation”/

!!! Prayer for others

!!! New Members

1.                Call:

Hannah Nugent

Ga-young (Marie) Park

Glenys Betty Wilson

De Wet Potgieter

Daleen Potgieter

2.                Questions

3.                Baptism

4.                Congregational Support

5.                Aaronic blessing

6.                Elders:  right hand of fellowship

!!! Scripture Readings:                 /Proverbs 5:15-23/

!!! /1Thessalonians 4:1-12/

!!! Sermon                          /Living a life to the glory of God/

Dear brother and sister in the Lord Jesus Christ,

The greatest challenge for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is to battle against worldliness and to pursue godliness.

This is the challenge to each and every member of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The battle is ongoing, never-ending, because our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the powers of the darkness.

The devil seeks to destroy us and he will put everything in our way to see that we stumble, fall and bow out of the race.

The Apostle John writes, exhorting the church “Love not the world”:

Do not love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

\\ For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.

\\ The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

(1 John 2:15-17)

The apostle Paul writes:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

(Romans 12:2-3)

In the same letter the Apostle warns:  “The wages of sin if death.”

Listen to the words of a well-known, extremely gifted writer of many books:

The gods have given me almost everything.

But I let myself be lured into long spells of senseless and sensual ease.

... Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went to the depths in search for new sensation.

... I grew careless of the lives of others.

I took pleasure where it pleased me and passed on.

I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber, one has some day to cry aloud from the housetop.

I ceased to be lord over myself.

I was no longer the captain of my soul, and did not know it.

I allowed pleasure to dominate me.

I ended in horrible disgrace.

(Oscar Wilde – who left his wife to engage in homosexuality.)

In his letter to the Thessalonians Paul commends the believers of that city for their faith, love and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Their /faith/ produced work.

They were not an idle church.

Their /love/ prompted labour in the Lord.

This is to say they did more than just the ordinary things you expect of a Christian; they work hard, always taking into consideration the other Christian as a brother and sister in the Lord.

Their /hope/ produced endurance.

They became imitators of the apostles and as such they endure severe suffering.

But nothing could stop this congregation of the Lord.

They pressed on in the joy given to them by the Holy Spirit.

Now to top off this good report about the Thessalonians:  they were a model to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

Their faith became known everywhere across the known world.

They turned from their idols to serve the living and true God and their whole congregational life were marked by their constant awaiting of the appearance of the Son of God.

Now, when we hear something like this we feel ashamed.

We see our short-comings as we measure ourselves up against the godliness of what God expects of his church.

We see ourselves living in a world so far away from God that we have to be honest and say this is indeed a godless nation.

But more than that, as church and as individual members of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have become worldly.

The desires of the world became ours.

What drive the world have become our driving forces.

Like the world we love pleasure, success, money, sport.

We visit the same places as the world.

We spend our time the same way as the world.

We listen to the same comedy as the world; however we just don’t like the swearing and we lull ourselves into a deeper spiritual sleep trying to convince ourselves that for as long as we filter the bad things out of some of the programs, what is presented then is after all not that bad.

Have we forgotten about the saying in the Word that the same fountain can not have sweet and bitter water?

We do not think God thoughts after Him.

Of a Christian mindset we do not see much.

The difference between church and world has become a very difficult task to determine.

In short, the picture of the congregational life of Thessalonica is not ours!

What do people remember us by?  Are we known as people with a faith which is seen in its works?

Are we known by our love that prompts us to labour in the Lord?