Tag: 1 Thessalonians 5

Future Hope

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

This past weekend at Eastbrook, I continued our series on 1 Thessalonians entitled “Hope Rising: 1 Thessalonians for Today.” This fourth week of the series I preached from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 on how belief that God holds the future brings hope into the way we live with God now.

You can find the message outline and video below. You can access the entire series here. Join us for weekend worship in-person or remotely via Eastbrook at Home.

“Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13)

Grieving, but with Future Hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13)

The Thessalonian believers’ grief

The rest of humankind grieves without hope because without Christ

The importance of grieving – even Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus

God’s Truth About Future Hope (1 Thessalonians 4:14-18)

What we believe about Christ and ourselves (4:14)

The teaching of Jesus on this, summarized by Paul (4:15-17)

Encourage one another with this future hope (4:18)

Living Now with Future Hope (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11)

The reality of the “day of the Lord” (5:1-3)

The contrast of night and day, darkness and light (5:4-8)

The truth on which we build our hope for the future (5:9-10)Encourage one another and build each other up with this future hope (5:11)

Dig Deeper

This week dig deeper in one or more of the following ways:

Senior Pastor Video Update in the Time of COVID-19 (May 13, 2020)

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

Here is my latest video update for Eastbrook Church as we navigate the time of COVID-19. I will continue to re-post these weekly video updates here at my blog for those who have not seen it or who are not part of our church but could use the encouragement. You can watch it here or at the Eastbrook Church Vimeo channel.

In this update I reference 1 Thessalonians 5:17, one of the shortest verses in the Bible:

 pray continually… (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

The word behind “continually” in the Greek is also used of things like a persistent cough. We are to be persistent in prayer or, as the New Living Translation renders it, “Never stop praying.”

The life of hearing God must continue into our lives beyond set times and places. Some of the best guides on this are two men from vastly different times: Brother Lawrence, a 17th century French monk, and Frank Laubach, a 20th century missionary and worldwide ambassador for literacy. Both of these men learned how to cultivate everyday conversation with God, both speaking and hearing. I would encourage you to read their books, Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God and Laubach’s Letters by a Modern Mystic and Games with Minutes. Hearing God does not mean we withdraw from life but that we engage in life with God. We can begin to converse with God in the midst of our activities, work , and other conversations.

This serves as a counterbalance to set times of prayer, which I talked about last week in my video update. Fixed-hour prayer and Scripture reading overflows into conversational relationship with God in prayer, while conversation relationship with God in prayer fuels our fixed-hour meeting with God in Scripture and prayer.

Live Thankful

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

thankfulEvery year in the US, we mark out a day to reflect gratitude for life and what we have. Thanksgiving Day, in my opinion, is actually one of the few culturally meaningful moments that still exist in our country. In this time, as a nation we actually take time out from work and normal routines to simply celebrate and enjoy the goodness of life. Of course, like all things, Thanksgiving Day can be trivialized by commercialism, but it is still a powerful moment in our country’s experience.

As Christians, Thanksgiving Day takes on even greater significance because of our relationship with the Living God through Christ Jesus. The wonder of the life with God is that each day spent following Jesus propels us into thanksgiving. The abundance we have received from God through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is beyond words. Today, we want to come alive with thankfulness.

Throughout the Scripture, we encounter many sacrifices offered in worship of God. In Psalm 50, however, we encounter a different kind of sacrifice:

I have no complaint about your sacrifices
or the burnt offerings you constantly offer.
But I do not need the bulls from your barns
or the goats from your pens.
For all the animals of the forest are Mine,
and I own the cattle on a thousand hills. (Psalm 50:8-10, NLT)

God is familiar with all the burnt offerings and sacrifices of the Israelites, but He is looking for something else. And here is what it is:

Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God. (50:14, NLT)

Thankfulness brings life to us. When we make our lives an altar where gratitude rises up to God like a sacrifice, He is pleased. At the same time, offering thanks back to God for who He is and all He has done brings life to us. Thanksgiving brings life to our souls because when we voice our thanks we are forced to reflect on all His goodness toward us. Thankfulness draw us closer to God.

At that same time, we may soon realize in life that thankfulness is not – or at least should not be – limited by our circumstances. Circumstances change with seasons and times of our lives, sometimes for good and sometimes for ill. Yet God, in all His unchanging faithfulness, never alters in His work in us and goodness toward us. So as Paul urged one early group of believers that they – and we – can learn the way to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Today, why not come to life with God by offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving? You might even want to stop for ten or fifteen minutes right now to thank God for all He has done, for all He has given, and for all the things You may not even know that He is doing right now in Your life.