The Letter to the Thessalonians Intimacy Approached ...Sep 20, 2015 · walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions

The Letter to the ThessaloniansIntimacy Approached, Intimacy Affirmed

1 Thessalonians 4:1-3

Evangel Baptist Church, Wheaton IL 9/20/2015 • www.evbapt.orgAlso available are a text-only version of the outline at www.evbapt.org/docs/evangel_sermon_outline_2015-09-20.pdfor an audio podcast at www.evbapt.org/media/evangel_sermon_2015-09-20.mp3

This is a pdf file for the PowerPoint® notes for the sermon by Pastor Dave Tietjen on September 20, 2015—continuing his series on the New Testament letters to the Thessalonians.

Evangel Baptist Church, Wheaton IL 9/20/2015 • www.evbapt.orgAlso available are a text-only version of the outline at www.evbapt.org/docs/evangel_sermon_outline_2015-09-20.pdfor an audio podcast at www.evbapt.org/media/evangel_sermon_2015-09-20.mp3

http://www.evbapt.org/

http://www.evbapt.org/docs/evangel_sermon_outline_2015-09-20.pdf

http://www.evbapt.org/media/evangel_sermon_2015-08-09.mp3


http://www.evbapt.org/docs/evangel_sermon_outline_2015-09-20.pdf

http://www.evbapt.org/media/evangel_sermon_2015-08-09.mp3

How intimacy can be approached

Evangel Baptist Church, Wheaton IL 9/20/2015 • www.evbapt.org


It is harmed by reluctance

Church authorities issued edicts forbidding sex on Thursdays, the day of Christ’s arrest; on Fridays, the day of His death . . . The list escalated until only 44 days remained for marital sex.

Philip Yancey

from “Holy Sex” Christianity Today, Oct. 2003



It is harmed by reluctance

Our cardinal rule of marriage should never be forgotten: GIVE LITTLE, GIVE SELDOM and, above all, GIVE GRUDGINGLY . . .

Pastor’s Wife ca. 1890s



It is harmed by recklessness

Today, the sexual pendulum has swung from Puritanism to perversion.

Intimacy Ignited, p. 23

Today...




Today...

Puritanism perversion




Thessalonica...

(Paul) was writing from Corinth to Thessalonica, and both cities were famed for their immorality. In Corinth, Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sex and beauty, whom the Romans identified with Venus, sent her servants out as prostitutes to roam the streets by night. . . . John Stott




Thessalonica...

. . . Thessalonica, on the other hand, was particularly associated with the worship of deities called the Cabiri, in whose rites “gross immorality was promoted under the name of religion.”

John Stott



It is honored by reflection



It is honored by reflectionA couple dating then

How are we different?



It is honored by reflectionA church deciding

We are on a journey, and as we travel along, we are called by God to walk in a certain way, which means to live in a way that is consistent with the Word of God.

James Grant

By what standard?....by the whole of Scripture



It is honored by recognition



It is honored by recognition ofthe clear purpose of the author’s instruction

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 ESVFor they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.



It is honored by recognition ofthe clear purpose of the author’s instruction

• Receiving the apostle 2:1-3:13• Serving the Lord 4:1-12• Awaiting his Son 4:13-5:28

The Christian life begins with a step of faith, but that step leads to a walk of faith. Christianity is not a sprint; it is a walk of perseverance along the way marked out for us by Jesus Christ.

Keith KrellEvangel Baptist Church, Wheaton IL 9/20/2015 • www.evbapt.org


It is honored by recognition ofthe chosen path for our intimacy

1 Thessalonians 4:1-3 ESVFinally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality.



It is honored by recognition ofthe chosen path for our intimacy

• Abstain from immorality - “Do without”• Acknowledge impropriety - “Porneia”



How intimacy can be affirmed



Affirming intimacyRealizing its riches and risks

Sex is good. God created it. God created it good, and it existed before there was any sin in the world.

Randy Alcorn



Affirming intimacyRealizing its riches and risks

Like all good gifts from God, sex can be misused and perverted.

Randy Alcorn



Affirming intimacyRemembering its reality

The boundaries of sex are the boundaries of marriage.

Randy Alcorn




Your sexual purity is essential to your walk with God.

Psalm 24:3-4; 66:18; Proverbs 28:9

Randy Alcorn




You are targeted for sexual immorality.

Randy Alcorn




Your body belongs to God,not you.

1 Corinthians 6:22

Randy Alcorn




God would not tell you to abstain from impurity if it was impossible to obey Him.

Randy Alcorn




Titus 2:11-12 ESVFor the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.




2 Peter 1:3-4 ESVHis divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.



Affirming intimacyRetaining the reason:

achieving oneness

When we go outside God’s principles, our “stick-ability in marriage is diminished.”

Keith Krell

Documents

The Letter to the Thessalonians Intimacy Approached ...Sep 20, 2015 · walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions