Today we’ll be learning from one of the greatest Christians in history. His name was Paul. And we’ll learn two things from a prayer that he prayed.
We’ll learn that:
More specifically, we should pray for power to be what God wants us to be. And we should pray for glory – to God – because as that turns out, that’s the greatest thing for us.
This sermon is about sex. I think it’s a really interesting topic, but it’s can also be awkward because it comes with quite a bit of baggage.
Looking back, I’ve always wondered why they only used fear-based tactics to teach about sex? Sex is supposed to be a great gift from God. It’s not something to be afraid of or ashamed of. We just need a better theology of sex, even kids these days need to know what the Bible says on the topic.
We can’t avoid the topic, because some research suggests the average age of a person first viewing pornography is 12 years old. For many, the sexual part of our life can be a huge source of guilt and shame. I’ve counselled people who are still affected by sexual encounters from a decade ago. I’ve had conversations with many people whose marriages have ended because of affairs. They’ve told me how it has broken their families.
So, my big question today, what is the best way to handle the sexual dimension of our life? I want to explore the Christian view of sex and why it’s not just “Don’t do it”.
And as it turns out, there is a way to be victorious in this part of our life. No matter how tempted we are, and how much we have failed in the past, we can still please God. That’s what we learn from our Bible passage.
A lot of us, if we are honest, feel this kind of skepticism towards ALL prayers.
But no matter how you try to avoid it, prayer seems to be a huge theme throughout the Bible and therefore, a part of our Christian faith. We’re encouraged and even commanded to pray. Jesus, the one we’re following and imitating, has prayer as a core rhythm of his life and he even teaches us HOW to pray.
The reality, however, is if you ask any Christian about their prayer life, we kinda just look down, twiddle our fingers and say, “Oh yeah… I know I should pray more… but I don’t.”
What if prayer isn’t this dreadful chore but a way to access the source of life and joy, connecting with the one we’re made for. How can we approach prayer in a way that is life-giving instead of life-draining? Because for Jesus, as well as the New Testament writers, prayer was a source of joy! What do they know that we don’t? Let’s explore that today.
We’re halfway through our series on the Thessalonian letters, and Enoch has given me a special task to look through Thessalonians to see what we can learn about prayer because prayer is weaved throughout the entire letter. In the letter, Paul prays for them. Paul brings up the fact, he prays for them. Paul commands them to pray. Paul even asks them for their prayer. So a lot about prayer here. What does it have to do with anything?
Our question is simply: Why pray?
And our answer today is because:
We are expected to put in the energy and time to mentor people- raise disciples strong in the faith. However, this is often neglected and ignored. Maybe because just like parenting; it’s so much work to raise the next generation of disciples. It can be tedious, but we have to understand it’s worth doing/role to play.
So, my big question today, what is the joy of discipleship?
1. There is joy in knowing we will share eternity with our friends
2. There is joy in seeing people grow in faith
We begin a new series on the books of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians in the New Testament.
My big question today is: How can we know that we are on the right track spiritually?
The good news is, we can know. I’ll tell you my answer, and after that, I’ll spend the rest of my time showing you the answer from the Bible, because it’s important that you see it from the Bible. Pastors will fail you, but God’s words will not fail you. So it’s important for you to base your life on the Bible and not what pastors say.
That said, here’s my answer. If we want to know that we’re on the right track, we need to look in three places. We need to look INSIDE, we need to look BEHIND, and we need to look AROUND. I’ll explain what I mean.
We need to look INSIDE of us to see if we have courage to live out what we believe.
We need to look BEHIND to the past for evidence that supports what we believe.
And we need to look AROUND us for the approval of mature Christians.
That’s my answer and I’ll spend the rest of my time up here showing you my answer from the Bible.