This word "hope: You know we hope for a lot of things. We hope for good weather you know, we hope that we get to Al Pastor before they run out of their tacos. We hope our kids turn out well, we hope for a lot of things, but that kind of a hope is wishful thinking hoping. That's not the biblical definition of the Word that Paul is using here.
Read MorePaul comes in he gives corrective doctrine to that false teaching and along the way he begins to introduce a paradigm shift for the kingdom of God and the citizens of that kingdom, among whom are those that believe. So, as those who believe, we are a part of this new paradigm shift and Paul has told us that it changes our theology. He told us it changes our morality. He told us that it changes our ethics, and now he's going to tell us it changes our relationships with people.
Read MoreEvery heresy, every false religion will never be able to produce the kind of character traits that Paul is writing about in this text.
It's just a beautiful thing that God's done for us, to give us the truth of his word and somehow to give us a heart to receive it. And by virtue of that, enter into this life that's miraculous, and that's divine because God's power is working in us and through us.
A heart of faith and love: These are two other qualities that we see are characteristics of a truly born-again Christian. They Have this faith and love and the inspiration for this of course is their expressed confidence in God. I want to give you a very simple definition for faith. Faith is simply taking God at His Word, that's what faith is: taking God at its word. It's not a feeling it can be, it can accompany feelings, but faith is not a feeling. It's nothing that you have to work up, it's nothing that you have to groan for or grunt for, faith is simply taking God at His Word.
Read MoreIn first Thessalonians, Paul tells us that we're to pray continually. How do we do that? Well, the simplest way I can describe continual prayer is not the folding of the hands and the closing of the eyes, and kneeling, and having a prayer list. That's a part of Prayer, that's a valuable part of prayer, but praying continually is just having an ongoing dialogue with God because he's our friend and because he's our Savior, and because we have a life in front of us every day.
Read MoreIt kind of begs the question, what does it take for you to be stripped of a thankful heart? Maybe all it takes is a little offensive comment from somebody, or maybe a little neglect from someone. It could be that an oversight by a worker or by boss, or maybe a physical ailment, or a whining child or Kapaa traffic. You know it's embarrassing, but sometimes, that's all it takes for a thankful heart to evaporate and then what are we focused on, we spend all of our time.
Read MoreAnyone that claims to live in Christ and yet continues in sin, is a liar self-deceived deluded. They're lying and the truth is not in them. That's why that message over and over and over in so many of the epistles is the same, is that if you are a Christian, if we walk with God, if we've truly been transformed by the love and the power and the spirit of God and come to a saving knowledge of Christ, it will produce fruit in the likeness of Jesus Christ and if it doesn't produce fruit in the likeness of Jesus Christ, something's terribly wrong with our theology or our practice.
Read MoreYou can't fake Christianity. If you are truly born again, it's the only possible way of actually living what Paul is going to describe, and what we're going to study today. You can't fake this stuff; you can't maintain it. you can be really loving for a short period of time under the right circumstances, but you cannot maintain agape love outside of the power of a transformed life by God.
Read MoreThe Gospel makes it clear that Salvation is by faith alone in the finished work of Christ and by virtue of that work alone, and faith alone, we stand secure in our walk with God. Now he wants to sanctify us no doubt, he wants to transform us, no doubt, he wants us to be created into the image of his son, no doubt, but our stability, and our foundation, and our standing is based on something outside of ourselves, and that's the work of God. Its about Living the Epic Life - The Abundant Life
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