July 28, 2013

Sunday School

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 & 2:1-17

• Thanksgiving and Prayer is what Paul writes in his letter to the church of Thessalonia.
• Paul praises the church for its growing of faith and their love for one another.
• The love of God has brought us to where we are.
• Through trials we are stronger.
• If we keep our minds on Jesus, we will be in perfect peace.
• Pray always for one another.
• v11 - With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.
• Jesus was the first fruit. He is the way, the truth and the life.
• The first converts are first fruit.
• Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.... do not become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us...whether by a prophecy or by word or mouth or by letter...asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.
• Don't let anyone deceive you in any way because that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed.
• It is important to study for ourselves so that we may know the truth for ourselves.
• We are to stand firm and thank God.
• God chose you as first fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

Sermon

John 15:12-15

v12 - My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
v13 - Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's brothers.
v14 - You are my brothers if you do what I command.
v15 -  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you brothers, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

Subject:

Can't We Just All Get Along? 

 It's All About Relationship Or It's Ain't About Nothing!

• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1-2)
• In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth... ( Genesis 1:1)
• God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion....... (Genesis 1:28)
• I am the true vine, and my Father is the Husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  (John 15:1-2)
• v 9 - As the Father has loved Me, so have I love you. Now remain in my love.
• And now these  three remain: Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
• vs 18-19 - If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love his own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
• In other words, if you are standing with Jesus, Satan will bring all his forces to bare.
• You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:4)
• Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. (1Corinthians 15:58)
• Peace be still, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory. (Ephesians 3:20-21)
• And we shall know the truth, and the truth shall make us free. (John 8:32)
• Pray for a discerning spirit.
• God created us to have fellowship with Him.
• God is looking for "productivity" in us.
• Trust God during your pruning times.
• Be bold in your faith.
• And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God.  (Romans 12:2)
• Have you been tried in the fire and come out as pure gold?
• For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)