Tag: holiness

Living Hope

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

This past weekend at Eastbrook, I concluded our series on 1 Thessalonians entitled “Hope Rising: 1 Thessalonians for Today.” This fifth and final week of the series I preached from 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 on joining the melody of God’s hope in Jesus Christ with the variations of living response.

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.

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Living as the Good Community of God (1 Thessalonians 5:12-15)

Acknowledge those who serve

Warn those who are idle

Encourage those who are worn down

Turn from grudges

Strive to do good to one another and everyone

Living in Joy, Prayer, and Thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Learning the Imperatives of hope

Learning the will of God

Living in the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22)

Not quenching the Spirit

Living with discernment

Living into the Blessing of God (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

Yielding to the sanctifying work of God

Relying upon the faithfulness of God

Continuing as the Community of God (1 Thessalonians 5:25-28)

Mutual prayer

Mutual affection

Mutual edification

Mutual grace

Dig Deeper

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

  • Memorize 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 or 5:23-24
  • Make a joy or thankfulness inventory this week. Take time to write down at least 25 things you are thankful for or joyful about. Share this with friends or family sometime this week.
  • Choose a portion of this passage to draw, ink, or paint out in a way that expresses worship and prayer.
  • Consider reading:

Holy 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 third week of the series I preached from 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 on how the sacred fire of holy hope shapes the way we live our everyday lives.

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.

“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified” (1 Thessalonians 4:3a)

Living with Holy Hope – Aiming to Please God (1 Thessalonians 4:1-2)

Paul’s overriding concern is that the Thessalonians live to please God (4:1a)

That they do so more and more (4:1b)

To this end Paul offers practical instruction (4:2f)

Living with Holy Hope in Our Bodies and Sexuality (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8)

God’s will and holy hope (4:3a)

The embodied life of holy hope (4:3b-6a)

The seriousness of relinquishing holy hope in the body and sexuality (4:6b-8)

Living with Holy Hope in Relationships and Daily Living (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12)

Mutual love reflects our hope in Christ (4:9-10)

A quiet life and adequate work reflects our hope in Christ (4:11-12)

Dig Deeper

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

A Prayer to the Holy and Gracious God

Matt Erickson1 Comment

For the Lord is righteous,
    he loves justice;
    the upright will see his face. (Psalm 11:7)

My life is small, imperfect, and needy,
yet I lift my eyes to You, my God.
Although You are holy and majestic,
thank You for also being full of mercy and grace.
I look to You.

All around, the world is mixed with awesome wonder and sharp pain.
Human lives yield inspiring love and shaking hostility.
I see this same mixture in myself each day,
so I humbly call out to You for myself and the world.
I look to You.

Trees and mountains tower above me, yet You are higher.
The surging lake depths yawn beneath me, yet You are deeper.
The shimmering stars stretch far beyond me, yet You reach farther.
The blood in my veins pumps all throughout me, yet You are nearer.
I look to You.

Have Your way in me as I consider this day.
and please form Your life in me as I live this, my only life.
Guide my steps in Your pathway of life
and reveal Your presence which is full of true joy
for I look to You.

A Prayer for Wholeness: drawn from Psalm 80

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

“Restore us again, O Lord God of hosts;
show the light of your countenance,
and we shall be whole.”
(Psalm 80:19, New Coverdale Psalter)

You, who are beyond me yet near me,
who are at One with Yourself,
yet interacting with a confused world:
speak wholeness into me.

You, who are God of all and over all,
who are holy, holy, holy,
yet are merciful beyond measure:
breathe wholeness into me.

You, whose presence is brilliance and light,
whose majesty is incomprehensible,
yet whose light brings illumination so personal:
shine wholeness into me.

You, who know all things comprehensively,
who have created the world in grandeur,
yet who intimately knows each one:
mold wholeness into me.

You, God, holy and mighty—
You, God, loving and merciful—
You, God, majestic and personal—
make me whole like You.

What is the Heart of the Spiritual Life with God?: Jesus’ guidance about what truly defiles

Matt Erickson1 Comment

Jesus takes us beyond outward observation into the very heart of our lives. In Matthew 15, a special envoy of Pharisees from Jerusalem arrives to interrogate Jesus. But it is Jesus who confronts them about their confusion over what defiles and what the heart of true spirituality with God is all about.

Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” (Matthew 15:10b-11)

Jesus wants to take His hearers, and us, deeper than mere outward observance. While there is so much more to Jesus’ ministry, there are at least three things we gather that Jesus intends to do through His teaching and ministry here:

  1. to bring us to the end of ourselves and our power where we know we need an intervention from God
  2. to transform us from the inside out through His saving intervention on the Cross 
  3. to grow us in the abundant life with God through obedience as we walk by faith under the influence of the indwelling Holy Spirit

The Pharisees missed the point about what defiles human life. For something to be defiled meant that it was not holy and could not be in God’s presence or that it was displeasing to God. The Pharisees had become so enamored with ritual purity that they thought ritual purity was primarily about what came into a person as the source of defilement. They knew it was not merely food that could defile someone. Skin diseases, bodily fluids, or contact with someone who was unclean also could be sources of defilement. But the principle behind the Pharisees’ approach to living with God was that the external was what defiled. As Jesus says, they are blind guides who will lead others astray into further blindness.

Jesus, however, brings the discussion about defilement to a deeper level. He says it is not what comes into us but what comes out of us that defiles. Our words are one aspect of that, but more deeply it is what comes from our hearts, or our inner life. Look at Jesus’ words again:

But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. (Matthew 15:18-19)

We must turn to our hearts. Again and again, Jesus drives toward the human heart. In Matthew 12, He says:

The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. (Matthew 12:34b-35)

Jesus is a spiritual cardiologist of sorts, a spiritual heart doctor, and He is trying to get us back to that place with the living God. So how would Jesus diagnose our hearts? What soul-surgery would He recommend? How might we invite Him to do what’s necessary in the deep places of our lives?