Excel Still More

Introduction

Please go in your Bible this evening to the book of 1 Thessalonians. When you make your way there to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I’m not going to be taking you all over the place this evening. We’re going to park ourselves in one place in the Bible. The book of 1 Thessalonians. We may go to a passage in 2 Thessalonians at some point, but for the most part, we’re going to park ourselves right there in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. As you turn there and get ready to study the Word of God. Let me just take a moment or two, if you will allow me, to express appreciation. I’m very, very thankful. I’m thankful for the opportunity your shepherds have given me to be here with you over the past few days.

I have thoroughly enjoyed myself.

And I really appreciate them trusting me with this pulpit over the last few days. Thank you so much. Also want to thank your preachers. I know they do wonderful work here. I know you appreciate them and their families. And I love them so much. I respect them. And I’m just so very thankful that they do such good work in the kingdom. And I know you’re thankful for them as well. And I’m thankful for this church. I’m thankful for your love for the truth, how you’ve been standing as a beacon of light, shining as a beacon of light here in this community for so long. Thank you for the meals that you provided for me. Thank you for the accommodations. Thank you for being so kind and so encouraging and listening so very well.

And following along in the Bible and loving the truth. I appreciate that. I appreciate that so much. I love all of you. May God bless you. I’ll be keeping you in my prayers. And please pray for me and my family as we do God’s work as we’re all part of the same kingdom together doing the work of God. But it’s been a wonderful week, and I hope we’ve all been made better and more like Jesus as a result of our studying together. First Thessalonians chapter 4. You there in your Bible? I’m in the New American Standard Translation. That is the translation that I that I usually preach from. And I like how this translation puts verse number one of chapter 4. And 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse number 1.

The apostle Paul wrote these words. Finally, then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk, that you excel still more. Good enough. Good enough. Good enough for government work. You ever heard that statement before? That statement actually has a very interesting origin in history, but today it essentially implies mediocrity.

You ever had that mindset after you did some yard work for a couple of hours? Or after you spent some time trying to put some furniture together in your living room, or after building a tree house for your kids, or maybe you’ve had that kind of mindset on your job. Maybe while doing a report or project on your job for a long period of time, you eventually began to get tired and frustrated, and you settled for mediocrity. You settled for a less than excellent effort because all you cared about was completing the project. You ever had this kind of mindset on your job? And what about being a Christian? What about your walk as a Christian? What about your walk as a spiritually transformed person in Jesus Christ since beginning your walk as a spiritually transformed person in Jesus Christ?

Have you been excelling and growing and striving to do that better each and every day? Or have you been just doing enough to get by? Or have you been settling for mediocrity and a half-hearted effort? Or have you been doing what you feel is just good enough? I want you to look back at this verse here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 1. I want you to notice how when it came to the Thessalonian brethren, while they were doing some good things in the kingdom of God, while they were pleasing God, while they were walking in a way that brought glory to the Lord, the apostle Paul says during that verse that they did not need to settle. They did not need to be content.

They did not need to walk around with a it is good enough mindset. Instead, they needed to excel. They needed to excel still more. They needed to do better and grow and strive each and every day to be more and more like Jesus. That’s what Paul says there in that verse. And unfortunately, so often, so often Christians don’t do that. Unfortunately, so often Christians don’t excel and strive to do better for the Lord each and every day. Now, they may start out well. They may start out passionate and zealous and on fire for the Lord. They may initially come up out of the waters of baptism and they’re eager to do evangelism and read their Bibles and pray and go to all the worship assemblies and really live for the Lord, but let a few weeks go by or a few months, and in some cases, a few years, and for some Christians, they stop growing.

They stop being zealous and passionate and excited about the Lord. They stop striving for excellence in the kingdom of God and they develop a it is good enough mentality. Unfortunately, that happens to Christians all the time.

1. Excel in Matters of Holiness

That is not right. That is not the will of God. God doesn’t ever want his people who are supposed to be born again and spiritually transformed to settle and engage and have hearted and mediocre service to him. He does not want his people to ever have a mindset that said that says this is good enough. Instead, he wants us to excel. He wants us to excel still more. In fact, there are at least four areas where God expects his people to grow and excel in every single day that Paul actually talks about right here in this letter. And the first area is found beginning in verse number two. Look at verse 2. After in verse 1, Paul talks about exceling still more.

He goes on to say, For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification. That is that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel and sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God, and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warns you, for God is not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So he who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Do you see what Paul is urging brethren to do in those verses?

Do you see it? Notice how in those verses, Paul is telling us where God wants us to excel. In those verses, Paul says, God wants us to excel in matters of holiness. Matters of holiness and sanctification. Paul actually uses the word holiness to set up this section in verse 13 of the previous chapter. You see the word holiness in verse 13 of chapter 3. That word holiness that Paul uses there means to be set apart. It means to be sanctified. It means to be made separate and spiritually clean so we can then be used for God. That’s what that word holiness means. And in order for us to really appreciate why Paul is talking with these brethren about that, we need to pause and take a moment or two to say some things about the city in which they live, the city of Thessalonica.

We need to understand that like most big cities in the ancient world, the city of Thessalonica in the time of the Apostle Paul and these brethren was loaded with all kinds of sexual temptation. It was loaded with all kinds of gross sexual immorality. In fact, a big part of the quote unquote worship that took place in the pagan temples involved sexual immorality.

That’s what was going on in the ancient city of Thessalonica. And in verse 1, Paul tells us that while these brethren in Thessalonica were striving to be holy and pure and sanctified before the Lord, they needed to keep growing. They needed to excel, they needed to strive to become more and more disciplined and the battle that they were waging against sexual temptation. That’s what they needed to do. And you know who else needs to do that? We need to do that. You need to do that. I need to do that. We all need to do that because I don’t know if you notice or not, but today we also live in a culture that is immersed in all kinds of sexual immorality. Like these people, we also live in a culture where so many people, the vast majority of people, they could care less about holiness and the need to live a holy life.

We live in a culture where nearly two-thirds of people believe that cohabitation, that is living together without the benefit of being married, they believe that is morally acceptable behavior. And 65% of people believe that same-sex relationships are okay. And 70% of people believe that having children outside of marriage is okay. And nearly 50% of people believe that looking at pornography is okay.

Living in a culture that is immersed and rapid and all kinds of gross sexual immorality, where Paul tells us what to do in these verses. He tells us we need to excel. We need to excel still more. We need to excel at our holiness and sanctification. We do this first by becoming more and more sold on what the scriptures teach about morality. We do this by being bought 100% into what God’s will is for the sexual relationship. We do this by abstaining from sexual immorality, as Paul says in verse 3. And by possessing our own vessel and sanctification and honor, as he says in verse number 4, and by not being slaves to lust, as he says in verse number 5. And by truly believing that God will punish the sexually immoral, as he says in verse number 6, and by understanding that if we reject God’s standard for holiness, that is equal to rejecting God.

That’s what he says in verse 8. You see, excelling in holiness involves doing everything. Paul talks about there in those verses.

If we’re going to excel in our holiness before God, we have to be bought in 100% on what the scriptures teach about morality, and we also got to guard our marriages.

We got to make sure that we’re not using our social media pages to reconnect with old boyfriends and girlfriends from high school and college. We got to make sure that we’re not taking advantage of situations where people are vulnerable and in troubled marriages. We got to guard our marriages if we’re going to excel in our holiness. And we also have to guard our eyes. We got to guard our eyes. We got to guard our minds. And Job says he did that. Remember in Job chapter 31 and verse 1. Remember in Job chapter 31 and verse 1, Job says that he had made a covenant with his eyes that he would not what? Gaze upon a virgin. Job, a blameless and righteous man before God. He fought the battle against lust.

He had to make a covenant with his eyes. And then Solomon, as he talks about the heart. In Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23, remember Solomon says, watch over your heart with all diligence, because from it flows the springs of life. When Solomon talks about the heart there, you’re many of you are familiar with the fact that he’s talking about the mind.

Guard our minds involves avoiding looking at sexually explicit movies.

Guarding how we dress, guarding how we dress, making sure we cover our bodies and we’re modest and we’re dressing in such a way that reflects the glory of the God we serve. This is challenging. But we have to do it. If we are going to excel in matters of holiness and sanctification, we have to do these kinds of things as people who are supposed to be spiritually transformed and born again by the blood of Jesus Christ. We have to excel still more in our holiness because we serve a perfectly holy God. And we also have to excel still more in our love and our love for the brethren. And we see that also when we go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, please. Going back just right to the text.

2. Excel Still More in Our Love for the Brethren

1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and in verse number 9. Paul goes on to say this. Now, as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you. For you yourselves, notice, are taught by God to love one another, for indeed you do practice it. You do practice it toward all the brethren who are in Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to what? Excel still more. I want you to notice carefully that language in verse number nine. You see that language? The love of the brethren there. The Greek word that is used there for love of the brethren is the word Philadelphia. Philadelphia. Philadelphia is a word that speaks to how brethren treat each other. It speaks to brotherly kindness and affection.

It speaks to having real, genuine, authentic relationships in the body of Christ. Paul says in verse number 10 that these brethren had that. They were doing that. They had the proper brotherly love towards one another, but they didn’t need to settle. They didn’t need to be content with where they currently were. They needed to grow. They needed to excel still more. They needed to continue cultivating that spirit. And they never needed to be satisfied with a good enough mindset when it came to their relationship with each other. They needed to excel in brotherly love, and we do as well. We do as well. Now I’ve only been here a few days, but I’m confident. I’m very confident that this church, the South Bumbi Church, you already do a great job with this.

I can see that. I can see you do an amazing and wonderful job treating each other with brotherly love. But brothers and sisters, there’s always room for improvement. According to the Apostle Paul, there’s always room to grow and get better and excel in our relationships we have for each other. There’s always room to become more patient with brothers and sisters and to become kinder and more caring and respectful and more concerned with one another’s feelings. There’s always room to get better at avoiding having uncontrolled anger and rage towards one another and becoming more forgiving towards one another and becoming more gentle and becoming more of the kind of people who are who are willing to overlook past mistakes and offenses. There’s always room to become more unselfish towards each other and more aware of the needs of one another and more willing to put each other’s needs even before our own needs.

There’s always room to become more peaceful and more helpful and more active in trying to restore brethren who have left the Lord and gone back out into the world. There’s always room to grow and our brotherly love in the spiritual family. But for that to take place, we have to have humility. We have to be humble. We have to value these relationships we have as brothers, the sisters in Christ, we have to constantly strive to imitate the love of God and be willing to take the path of service that Jesus took when he gave his life on the cross for our sins. Paul says a church can be practicing brotherly love, but that doesn’t mean they need to stay where they are. They don’t need to settle.

3. Excel in Our Influence With the World

We need to excel in holiness. We need to excel in brotherly love for each other. And thirdly, he says we need to excel in our influence, in our influence with the world.

Verse 11. After telling us to excel in our brotherly love towards one another, in verse 11, he goes on to say this. Verse 11, and to make it your ambition. Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that, here is why you need to do that. Jesus will behave properly for us outsiders and not be in any need. There’s several things I want you to notice here from what the apostle Paul is saying. There’s just so much meat on this bone. First, I want you to notice how Paul says, he says in verse 11 that as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, we need to make it our ambition.

We need to make it our goal to lead a quiet life. We need to lead a quiet life. What does that mean? Well, that means that as Christians, we need to be peaceful people. We need to be the kind of people who are avoiding being stuck all the time in the middle of some controversy and problem. We need to avoid being the kind of people who are always stirring pots and looking for trouble. We need to make it our ambition to lead a quiet life, and he says we need to attend to our own business. You see that. We need to attend to our own business. Our language today, how do we say that? We would say we need to mind our own business.

He is not saying that we should not be willing to confront each other in love when we know we notice each other in sin, but he is saying we should avoid being gossips. We should avoid being busybodies. We should avoid being nosy and meddling in affairs that have nothing to do with us. We need to make it our ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to our own business. And notice, he says we need to work with our hands. We need to work with our hands. How would we say that in our time? Well, we would say it this way: we need to be responsible. We need to get a job and do our best to keep that job. We need to avoid being lazy and sitting around waiting on other people to take care of us, sitting around waiting on the church to take care of us, sitting around waiting on the government to take care of us.

We need to get a job and provide for ourselves. And again, don’t misunderstand. While there are times when we might need some help. While there are times when some circumstances may happen in our lives that are beyond our control, and we need some help from brothers and sisters in Christ or from our family. There are times when that stuff happens. You know that. I know that. But Paul says to the best of our ability, if we can help it, we need to work. We need to work with our hands. We need to do this so we can avoid being a burden on other people and so we can have influence with outsiders. Do you see that? Working with your hands, working with our hands helps us have influence with the outsiders.

Who are the outsiders? Well, the outsiders or the people outside. That’s the world. That’s the people who are not Christians. That’s the people who have not yet been spiritually transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul says that a failure to excel in these matters and do these things can hurt our influence with the outsiders. It can push them away. It can be a stumbling block to them. It can affect how they view Christianity and the Jesus that we serve. That’s why this is so important. And Jesus preached this first, right? We’ve already made reference to this verse in our gospel meeting this this week. Remember Matthew 5 16. Sermon on the Mount. What did Jesus say? Let your life shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and as a result want to glorify your Father who is in heaven.

What is the Lord commanding us to do there? He’s commanding us to stick out, to shine, to stand out and be unique and be different in a dark and sinful world. He is commanding us to reflect the glory of God at all times. Reflect the glory of God on our jobs. Reflect the glory of God at school and when we’re playing sports and when we’re hanging out with our friends, and even when we’re interacting with people on social media, Jesus says that our influence plays a critical role in our efforts to draw sinners unto God, and that’s why we must always grow in this.

We have to always be conscious of the fact that when it comes to effective evangelism, the first step, the first step in effective evangelism is living right. Living right at all times, living as a true Christian at all times. When we’re our families and when we’re with people in the community. You see, by the way we live our lives, we can send a message to the world. We can let the world know that we’re not like everybody else. We don’t talk like everybody else. We don’t treat others like everybody else. We don’t laugh at the same kinds of jokes. We don’t tell the same kinds of jokes. We don’t watch the same kinds of things. We don’t cause the same kind of trouble on social media.

4. Excel in Our Gratitude for Our Blessings

We’re not busybodies and irresponsible like everybody else. We care about our influence. We have to excel in our holiness and our brotherly love and in our influence with the world as we try to win souls for the glory of God. And then the final thing I want to say very quickly, and you’ve listened so well, is in this letter, we also see that we need to excel in our gratitude and our gratitude for our blessings. And Paul doesn’t so much say that here in chapter 4, but he does say that at the beginning of this epistle. And so I want to ask you to go there in your Bible, please, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. First Thessalonians chapter 1, as we start with verse number 2, please.

1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and in verse 2, after Paul begins by extending a greeting and identifying himself as the writer of this epistle. In verse number 2, he says this we give thanks to God always for all of you, mention, making mention of you in our prayers, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the presence of our God and Father, knowing brethren, beloved by God, his choice of you for our gospel, then I come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction, just as you know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake. Verse number six, you also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

For the word of the Lord has signed forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything, for they themselves report about us what kind of reception we have with you, and how you turn to God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, that is Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come. So appreciate with me how this epistle begins, especially when you compare it to some of the other epistles written by the Apostle Paul. Notice how this epistle does not begin like the book of Galatians, right? In the book of Galatians, you can tell right away that Paul’s temperature is hot.

He is upset, he is mad. He does not begin Galatians extending a bunch of gratitude and thanksgiving. Instead, he begins Galatians by blasting these brethren. He is upset that they have allowed false teachers to deceive them and to believe in a different gospel. He wastes no time going right into the brethren as he begins the book of Galatians. But here you don’t find that. Here in this letter, Paul doesn’t begin, begin it by expressing frustration. He he is not mad. He doesn’t begin this letter by voicing displeasure with the fact that these brethren are being deceived by false teachers. Instead, he begins it with words of gratitude. He begins it with thanksgiving. He is thankful for these brethren. He is thankful that they’re growing and that they’re doing good work in the kingdom of God.

He is thankful that they are enduring and pressing on despite being persecuted for their faith. He is thankful that they’re imitating the Lord and they’re also imitating himself and the other apostles. He is thankful that they’re being examples to other believers in that region. And they’re doing effective evangelism. And that they have truly repented of their sins. They’ve turned away from idols, and now they serve the one true God, and they are eagerly awaiting the return of Jesus. Paul is thankful for so many things at the beginning of this epistle, and he doesn’t stop there. This theme of thankfulness actually weaves its way throughout all the Thessalonian epistles. For example, if you go to chapter 2, please, chapter 2 and verse 13, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13.

Paul says this for this reason. We also constantly thank God that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs his works in you who believe. So here Paul is expressing thanksgiving. He’s thankful that the Thessalonians are just like the people here. They love the word of God. They love truth. They’ve accepted teaching from Scripture as teaching that is coming from God. He’s thankful for that. You then go to chapter 5, chapter 5 and verse 12. And 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 12. He says, but we request you, brethren, that you appreciate. Be thankful. That you appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction.

Paul here is saying, be thankful for your leaders. Be thankful for your church leaders. Be thankful for your shepherds, for your elders, for those who watch over your soul and are trying to help you go to heaven. And then look over at one verse in 2 Thessalonians. And 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and in verse 3. And 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 3. Paul says, we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as it’s only fitting because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater. Do you see it? It’s all over the place. All over the place, Paul is expressing gratitude, thanksgiving. He’s urging brethren to grow in their gratitude. And let’s just be honest, so often we struggle with that.

I know I do. We struggle with that. We struggle with being thankful. So often we only want to focus on the bad stuff. We only want to focus on our problems and all we think is wrong with our country. We only want to think about the things that are just so wrong with our lives, and we fail to be thankful for the blessings God has given us every single day. We fail to be thankful for the same kinds of things that Paul was thankful for throughout these epistles. We fail to be thankful for our brethren. We fail to be thankful for the relationships we have with our brethren. We’ve had to be thankful for the spiritual progress and growth of new converts.

We further be thankful for the progress and the fruit of evangelism that takes place in a local church. We fail to be thankful for our leaders. We fail to be thankful for our elders and for our deacons. We fail to be thankful for the love that permeates itself throughout a local church. We fail to give thanks in all things, as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 18. So often, and I’m talking to myself first on this. So often we fail to live our lives with gratitude. But if we’re going to truly grow and be the kind of spiritually transformed people that God has called us to be, we have to challenge ourselves every single day to be better. We have to do this better.

We have to stop the grumbling and the complaining and the whining about everything we think is wrong with our lives, and we got to be thankful. We got to be content. We got to be people who are growing every single day in our gratitude because we know that no matter how bad things get for us in this life, the Lord took care of our greatest need 2,000 years ago when he died on the cross.

Conclusion

When it comes to being a spiritually transformed person in Christ who walks with Christ, good enough is never good enough. Good enough is never good enough. We serve an excellent God who gave us his best 2,000 years ago when he gave us his son, and he demands that we give him our best. He demands that we give him our best effort. He demands that we grow and we mature and we thrive and we excel in every area of Christianity and our service to him. That’s what God requires of people who live transformed lives. And I’m going to ask you just one more time, the final time for this gospel meeting. Are you living that life? Are you living a spiritually transformed life in Jesus Christ? Have you even begun that process?

If you have not yet begun the process of spiritual transformation, you can begin it tonight. And you can begin it because of Jesus, because of his gospel, and because of his power to save your soul. If you’re willing to confess him as the Son of God, as the Lord, because you have faith in him, that he died on the cross for your sins and was raised from the dead. And if you’re willing to repent, like the Thessalonians repented, turn away from sin, turn away from idolatry and turning to the Lord. And if you’re willing to obey his commandment to be baptized for the remission of your sins according to Acts 2 and verse 38, the Lord will wash away your sins, and you can be raised a spiritually transformed person out of the waters of baptism.

You can begin that process tonight. Or if you’ve done that, but you haven’t been living as a transformed person should. You have not been growing. You have not been excelling in your service to God. You can hit the reset button, the spiritual reset button tonight. If you’re willing to repent, ask God to forgive you, and maybe you want prayers and encouragement. We’ll give you all you want because we’re your family. We love you. We want to help you in your service to God. So if there’s anyone here who needs to respond to the Lord’s gospel, this song is for you. Come to the front. Let’s stand, let’s sing.