Weekly Sermons

Eternal Life NOW                   I Thess. 5:16-22

The 100^th anniversary of WW I…Sergeant Alvin C. York.

 

In I Thessalonians 5:12-15 we looked at the believer’s outer life with other believers; In today’s verses we will look at the believer’s _______________ life with God, which makes the outer life possible!

 

Six Attitudes that show we are experiencing eternal life now:

1.         Joy/Praise                                                       V. 16

Joy is a _____________, fueled by the believer’s faith, hope, & love.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.                  -Galatians 5:22-23

On your worst days you can still rejoice because you are still saved and bad days and people can’t take that away! On your best days you can still rejoice and say, “This was a truly great day, but the best is truly yet to come in Heaven!”

 

2.         Prayer                                                             V. 17

Continual prayer involves the set time that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 6:6 when he called us to have a place set aside for _____________ prayer.

Continual prayer also involves praying with your eyes ____________ throughout the day: as you are driving from place to place, walking from space to space, or sitting down at your desk.     Proverbs 3:6

Continual prayer also involves ____________________ and praying throughout the day.

3.         Thankfulness                                                  V. 18

Not thanks FOR everything, but thanks IN everything!

Habakkuk 3:17-19

 

4.         Obedience to God the Holy Spirit                 V. 19

The secret to victory in the Christian life is to say ‘_________’ to God the Holy Spirit, one decision at a time.

There’s more here at stake than your own sense of experiencing eternal life now – it is the ________________ God has for you in inspiring others to get in on what God is doing!

As fire requires fuel, so grace requires our prompt response, that it may be ever fervent.              -John Chrysostom, writing in the 400’s AD 

 

5.         Being ___________ when others speak God’s Truth to you                   V. 20

The word for prophecies here relates to the preaching of the Bible (see Rev. 1:3; 2 Peter 1:19-21).

 

6.         Use the Bible to _____________ all things               V. 21-22

These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.                -Acts 17:11

The thief comes only to kill, steal, and destroy; but I have come that they might have life, and have it to more abundantly.                        -John 10:10