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1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 [+/-]1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 [4:1]Finally, 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. [2]For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. [3]For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; [4]that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, [5]not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; [6]that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. [7]For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. [8]Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. (ESV)

God is at work in the lives of His children to sanctify us for His service.  Can I say that just one more time; let it soak into your skin and saturate your heart. God is at work in the lives of His children to sanctify us for His service.  It is the God who calls us to Himself and changes us by Himself who does not leave us to ourselves but by His Spirit and through His Word works in us and through us.  This work of God is actively expressed in and through the lives of all of His children. He is working in the lives of others to be sure whom He chooses and whom He calls but his work is the work of conviction that comes through being confronted with the Gospel that in God’s time will lead to real and radical life change.  But every true child of God knows that we belong to God because we sense deeply the work of God within us.  His Spirit does indeed bear witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.  And the goal and sole purpose of this work has nothing to do with us and our desires.  It is that for the exclusive purpose of making us useful in His Kingdom.  With the gift of His salvation He brings spiritual gifting that He nurtures in us so that in connection with other believers in the body of Christ we can be useful to Him in advancing the Kingdom through the proclamation of the Gospel, in building up the body of Christ and in bringing glory and honor to the great name of God.  God works in the lives of His children to make us useful to Him as His servants.  This is sanctification.
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Tags: santification, sexual immorality, Thessalonica

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