I want to just exhort you this morning
from God's Word.
I want to be brief and to the
point, because I think God's wanted us to
worship and praise Him a lot this morning.
How many just, your heart is still just
bubbling with praise for the Lord and worship?
It's just, you know, sometimes God just wants
us to shut everything down for a little
while and just praise Him.
First Thessalonians, I want you to look in
your Bible, look at First Thessalonians, there'll be
nothing on the screen right now.
First Thessalonians 4, First Thessalonians 4, chapter 4
verse 1.
Finally brothers, we instructed you how to live
in order to please God, as in fact
you are living.
Now we ask you and urge you in
the Lord Jesus to do this more and
more, for you know what instructions we gave
you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
What do we do to please God?
It is God's will, it is God's will
that you should be sanctified, that you should
avoid sexual immorality, that each of you should
learn to control his or her own body
in a way that is holy and honorable,
not in passionate lusts like the heathen who
do not know God, and then that in
this matter no one should wrong his brother
or take advantage of him.
Probably the implication is by getting involved with
his, the brother's wife.
The Lord will punish men for all, and
women for all such sins, as we have
already told you and warned you.
For God did not call us to be
impure, but to live a what kind of
life?
A holy life.
Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not
reject man, but God who gives you his
Holy Spirit.
Number two, now about brotherly love.
We do not need to write to you,
for you yourselves have been taught by God
to love each other, and in fact you
do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia, yet
we urge you brothers to do so more
and more.
Finally, make it your ambition to lead a
quiet life, to mind your own business, I
didn't even know that was in the Bible,
wow, and to work with your hands just
as we told you, so that your daily
life may win the respect of outsiders, and
so that you will not be dependent on
anybody.
Now look up here for a second, let's
see if we can just cut to the
chase quickly.
Paul is writing this wonderful church at Thessalonica,
and he's telling them that he wants them
as his converts, as his spiritual children, to
live a life that pleases God.
That means that it's possible to live daily
in a way that pleases God and makes
God happy, or by definition, it's possible to
live as a Christian in a way that
is displeasing to the Lord.
He would have never taught them to live
in a way pleasing to the Lord, if
it wasn't possible to live in a way
displeasing to the Lord.
And this brothers and sisters, can be a
real tragedy to be a Christian, to know
the Lord, and to live in a way
that displeases Him, which then robs you of
the joy and the peace that God wants
for you and me, that grieves His Holy
Spirit so that we don't get the grace
that we need, receive the grace that we
need.
We lose, God is made unhappy, it's a
lose-lose situation.
So Paul says, I'm writing you in order
that you would learn how to please God.
Now that He saved you, now that He
did all these things for you, I want
you to live to please Him.
Notice the difference between the law and grace.
The law, people who have a legal framework
says, say this, if you don't live this
way, you're going to go to hell.
They think that people will live right, because
out of fear of going to hell.
Grace says something else to it, says because
God has freely given you the gift of
salvation, because Jesus suffered on the cross for
you and me, because He bore the nails
in His hands, He took a spear in
His side for Edwin and me.
Christ gave Himself for me, Paul says.
How many of you are happy here today
that Jesus hung on that cross just for
you?
Come on, wave your hand at me.
Now, because He did that and because we
are Christians, not in order to be Christians,
you don't live right in order to be
a Christian.
Christianity, salvation is a gift, you can't earn
it.
But since He has given us this gift,
now let's live in a way, Paul says,
that's pleasing to Him.
This, brothers and sisters, means that Jesus has
to be very personal to us.
David and Nicole are married, Lisa's single, we're
going to get her a guy here in
New York, we're going to find her some
nice Polish guy.
But let's say, let's say a guy, or
Italian, yeah two, or anybody that God has
for her, but let's say a guy begins
to fall in love with Lisa, and they
make a date, he'll pick her up at
10 o'clock in the morning, and they're
going to spend the whole day together, have
lunch, have dinner, and this guy really loves
her, really starting to like her.
The whole time that he's with her, he
will be trying to do things to make
her happy.
He'll bring flowers, not too many men do
that anymore, but it's a good thing to
do.
Come on husbands, break down and give your
wife some flowers sometimes.
He will bring her flowers, and he'll say
to her, where would you like to eat?
I thought we could go to this Italian
place.
She'll say, I don't really like Italian.
Okay, you don't like Italian, how about Chinese
food, or how about a hamburger place, or
you know, whatever you want.
And he'll go out of his way to
try to please Lisa in every way.
If he brings something up about her family,
let's say her life, and she says, I'd
rather not talk about that.
He'll say, oh I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I
shouldn't have mentioned that.
In other words, everything will be geared around
making her comfortable and making her happy, and
it'll be personal.
It won't be rules.
He'll be reading it as he goes from
her reaction to things.
Well, this is what Paul is saying, that
the Christian life should be.
That we live every day conscious that God
is with us, and that at the end
of the day, we want him to be
smiling by the things we did, or the
things we didn't do.
Notice, certain things that you don't do make
God very happy.
Certain things you do do make God happy,
but notice the consciousness is that this is
affecting God who gave me salvation.
Not too many Christians try to live victoriously
that way.
We have fallen in the trap of, I
got to obey these 20 rules that I
know are from the Bible, and you will
never please God that way.
There has to be the personal motivation of,
he's done so much for me, I want
to make him happy today.
How many want to make God happy today?
I mean, we can make him sad, or
we can make him happy, obviously.
How do we make him happy?
Let's just review it, and then we can
pray.
Look at, starting at verse, go to verse
three, please.
Notice, here's the first way that you can
make God happy.
It's a negative.
It's a negative that make God, that makes
God happy.
Notice, everybody look up here.
It is God's will that you should be
what?
Sanctified.
That you should avoid sexual immorality.
That each of you, men and women, should
learn to control his own body that is
in a way that is holy and honorable,
not in passionate lusts like the heathen who
do not know God.
So, the first way that we can please
God is by taking the temple that he
gave us, which is our body.
He's the Lord of the body.
He died not only that we would have
eternal life, he died so that we would
live a certain way, and he would live
inside of us, and that we would be
his temple here on earth.
How many know that your body is the
temple of the Holy Spirit?
So, here's one way to please God.
Whether it's heterosexual activity or homosexual activity, you
are not to get involved unless you want
to hurt God and end up hurting yourself,
but the emphasis here is hurting him.
I want you to get the motivation here.
Don't displease him by taking the body that
he has made into his temple and doing
dirty things with it, either physically or even
in your mind.
Now, in Thessalonica, that was part of the
Roman Empire.
It had been influenced by the Greek culture,
which was followed by the Roman Empire culture,
which was that homosexuality was rampant and number
two, men kept mistresses in the house, in
a room, living with the wife and the
children.
When Paul the Apostle and the others went
and taught that fornication was wrong, and fornication
is any sexual activity outside the marriage bed.
If you're single, you don't get intimate with
anyone until you're married.
That's what pleases God.
You might feel that it's a battle, but
when you go to bed at night, he'll
give you the grace, and when you go
to bed at night, he'll be smiling at
you for something you didn't do.
Come on, do I get a witness here?
You got to understand what was being said
here.
There are certain things that God is made
happy with if you don't do that.
My mother used to, because my sister used
to annoy me, my mother used to say,
she's here today, she'll remember, don't hit your
sister.
Live one day without hitting your sister, and
when my father would come home at night,
he would ask, how was he today?
Did he hit his sister?
Because my sister was younger and very annoying
to me.
So by not hitting my sister, I made
my mom and dad happy.
By avoiding fornication, by avoiding all the pitfalls
in a very sensual society, when Paul and
Peter were preaching, especially Paul in the Roman
Empire, that fornication was wrong, it would be
like me telling you that to take a
drink of Perrier or water or coffee is
wrong.
There was no concept that anything sexual was
wrong.
The gods that they worshipped were fornicators.
The gods they worshipped got over on people.
So this was, this was a whole new
thing, and this is what Jesus has established,
that if we want to please Him every
day, we're to avoid fornication.
No matter what they tell you, no matter
what the guy tells you, no matter what
the girl says, it's wrong.
It grieves God.
It hurts His feeling, and if we're Christians,
we want to live in a way that
pleases God.
You want to please God?
Notice, you don't have to preach a sermon
from this platform.
You don't have to be a missionary.
You don't have to read the Bible in
a day.
Notice one of the simple ways you can
please God by, on a daily basis, avoiding
immorality.
How many want to do it for Christ's
sake?
Come on, come on.
Although there are temptations and urges, and the
flesh will say, let it all hang out.
Don't worry, God will forgive you.
You'll get married later.
There's a thousand devices that Satan uses.
Don't believe one of them.
Let's remember what God says, be holy for
I am holy.
Number two, go.
Notice, by the way, anybody who rejects what
I'm saying, let's just read through this again.
No one should wrong his brother or take
advantage of him.
The Lord will punish all for such sins
as we have already told you and warned
you.
For God did not call us to be
impure, but to live a holy life.
And can I just say one thing?
Notice, not, He did not call us to
be impure, but what did He call us
to live?
What kind of life?
A holy life.
Brothers and sisters, is one of the lowest
things in our society, that to make a
buck, these so-called pseudo-sophisticated people will
put any garbage on a record, with the
filthiest talk, demeaning to women, with the filthiest
words.
And it's all justified, but let somebody mention
the name of Jesus, and they're in an
uproar.
But let them, let young people be exposed
to the filthiest kind of talk.
Just outright cursing, people are paying to be
cursed at.
Nicky Cruz, last time, a couple times a
year, a couple years ago, he and I
were together, and we went out to shoot
billiards together.
It's something we do when we're together.
And now they have billiard halls that are
nice, family things, family-oriented all throughout the
country, but in New York, it's a little
more difficult.
But we went to one near my home,
and I didn't even know there was a
jukebox there.
And while it was nice and quiet, it
was in the afternoon, Carol was making rice
and beans for dinner, and we're shooting pool,
and somebody puts some money in the jukebox,
and puts on one of these rap songs.
We had to get up and leave, because
every sentence was just like a four-letter
word, just coming right at you.
Everything's filthy in our society.
And you know what's at the bottom of
it?
A dollar.
And these people who pay for these records
to be made, and paid for the lewdness,
and the suggestiveness of the lyrics, and all
of that, when you say, does it hurt
the children?
No, freedom of expression, and all of that.
But you know what's at the bottom of
it?
Money.
Money is at the bottom of it.
They don't care what happens to the children,
who are going to grow up around this
garbage.
But for us, it's different.
God has called us to live a holy
life.
And if you reject this, if you listen
to me, but say, I'm still going to
do my thing, you're not rejecting me.
You're not rejecting me.
Look at verse 8.
Whoever rejects this, does not reject man, but
who?
God, who gives us His.
How will we live a holy life?
By depending on the Holy Spirit.
Number two, second way you can please God.
Here's something you can do, positively.
Now about brotherly love, we do, we do
not need to write to you, for you
yourselves have been taught by God to love
each other.
Notice, brothers and sisters, that you can learn
certain things through teachers, but other things you
can learn, taught directly by who?
By God.
You have been taught by God.
There are some instincts that God puts in
you.
He's teaching you what to do, even though
it hasn't even been instructed to you very
plainly.
This is what was happening in this case.
Now Paul is re-emphasizing it.
And he says, one of the ways to
please God is to love the brothers.
But I want to go further.
Not just the brothers from your island, or
your country, or your color, or your church,
or your denomination.
Because a lot of people love that way.
But he goes further.
And in fact you do love, how many
of the brothers?
All the brothers throughout Macedonia.
Yet we urge you brothers to do so,
what?
More and more.
So what does that tell us?
It's the test of love, is to let
God's love go out to everybody.
Not just the people from your little culture.
Give your culture a rest.
Oh, so you like roti?
I like it too.
But give it a rest, all right?
And have a hot tamale, or have some
Asian food, or get over who you are.
And let, look at people the way God
looks at them.
Because God loves all the people in Macedonia.
So Paul says, I am so happy that
you've been taught by God, not to love
the people in your church, but all the
believers in Macedonia.
And when I go out and speak, boy,
do I learn things, and do I observe
things.
That a lot of times I'm in denominational
gatherings, and people don't know who I am.
And I'm eating in a luncheon, and they're
talking to me, and they don't know I'm
speaking later that night.
And they say, hi, who are you?
Where are you from?
What church?
And are you a member of our?
Oh, you're not.
And they'll turn away, and just ignore me
the rest of the meal.
God doesn't want us to do that.
How many say amen?
To love everybody, of every race, of every
background, especially brothers in Christ, about brotherly love.
He's talking now about loving believers.
And some believers are hard to love, because
they're ornery and abrasive.
But God says, through the same Holy Spirit
that will keep you living clean, that same
Holy Spirit will give you love.
And that love can increase, even if you're
loving everybody now, like William and Carolyn.
I find them very loving people.
God says, you can do so more and
more.
You can do so more and more.
You've reached the end of side one.
Please turn the tape over and rewind to
the beginning of side two.
Love can increase.
You can't content yourself and say, I love,
I feel like I love a lot of
people.
How many feel like God has put His
love in you?
Come on, lift your hands.
God's put His love in you.
Come on, how about the rest of you?
What's wrong with you?
Let me see your hands.
How many feel God has put His love
in you?
Some of you don't have your hands up.
Well, God has to work with you.
But we're called to love.
We're saved because of His love.
What are we going to turn around and
hate after God loved us so much to
give His Son on the cross?
It's impossible, brothers and sisters.
By this shall all men know you're my
disciples, because you what?
Love one another.
Not carry a Bible or call yourself Baptist
or Pentecostal or pray for the sick or
speak in tongues.
That's not how people know you're Christians.
Here's how they know you're Christians.
Because you love one another.
I told you about this man who visited
here about six months ago in this very
building.
And I'll come to a close on this.
He sat among you.
I didn't know he was visiting from another
church.
I had been warned that a visitor was
coming, a leader of a church in the
state of Kentucky.
And this church has the best Bible teachers
in America coming to it, evangelical speakers.
So someone had asked me the favor to
meet this older man and his wife and
pay respects to them.
A friend asked me to do it.
I said I'd be happy.
So I'm walking out the side at the
end of the service.
Craig, Willie, whoever was with me, I said
hello to them.
I said, come up to my office.
You know, we'll talk for a second.
Well, I could tell they'd both been crying.
And from their body language, something told me
or I discerned that they had never sat
in an audience which is as international, as
interracial as this.
But something was happening.
I could tell they were broken.
God was doing something.
We went up to my office.
I was not looking for trouble.
I just wanted to encourage them.
I said to them, well, how are things
going in your church?
Well, our pastor is leaving.
He's been there 37, 38 years.
We're getting a new pastor.
So how's the church going?
Well, it's right now in a low ebb.
But so I said, well, they were fidgeting,
both of them on the sofa there on
my office.
Maybe the new pastor that God sends in
will give you the right leadership.
But they were under conviction.
Something was going on.
So the man just looked at me, who's
the head of the elder board there, and
said, of course, we don't allow black people
in our church.
I said, what?
What did you just say?
He said, oh, there's no sign, but they
know.
I said, then I take back what I
said.
A plague on your church.
That's the truth before God.
A plague on your church.
You need to get saved.
And what kind of Bible teachers come into
your church and all these supposedly good Bible
teachers and you don't love other human beings?
I said, let me get this.
Christ died for a black person or Latino
or whatever.
Christ died for them and hung on the
cross and you don't want them to come
into your church.
You're preaching about Jesus, but you don't have
the love of Jesus.
No wonder your church is in a dip.
It should close down.
And that's how deceptive religion can be, brothers
and sisters.
You can come to this church and think
you're making progress.
You're not, unless you're loving more.
The only acid test of Christianity is love.
And that's how we can please God every
day.
Just by loving people.
You don't have to climb a mountain.
You don't have to give a million dollars
to a cause.
Just love people.
And love is patient.
Love is kind.
You want to make God happy?
Just be patient with people.
That's hard to do.
How many know it's hard to be patient?
Sometimes you want to just tear your hair
out with people.
But God says, this is a way to
please me.
Not only love the brethren, the sisters, but
increase in that love.
Be more patient, more kind.
That's how you can make God happy.
You want to make God happy today?
Just love people.
Be kind.
Lastly, finally, make it your ambition to lead
a what kind of life.
And to mind your own business.
Let's say those five words together.
Why are you laughing?
Brothers and sisters, why are you laughing at
me?
You're laughing like I made this up.
Pastor Bogstev, is this the word of God?
Read it with me.
To mind your own business.
And to work with your hands.
In other words, earn your own living.
Unless there's physical or other reasons, you should
never be living off the state, off the
city.
Welfare is a great thing for people who
must have it.
Otherwise, you have to work with your own
hands.
You don't get over on the society.
That's not what a Christian does.
That's what the world does.
Because everybody, like there's a whole culture of
get over on the system.
Am I right brother Paul?
Paul knows this better than anyone.
Paul, is there a whole mentality in this
country of get over?
Find ways to get over.
And then the people who really need it
get less.
That's wrong.
Christians aren't supposed to be lazy.
You want to please God today?
Again, you don't have to preach a sermon.
You don't have to read the whole book
of Revelation.
Just work.
And mind your own business.
Now, what do you, wait, wait, wait, stop,
stop.
Why are you clapping?
It's in the Bible.
You're acting like I'm preaching that.
I'm not preaching it.
I'm just telling you what's in the Bible.
Isn't this amazing?
Brothers, if you play, we can make God
happy by minding our own business.
Is that an amazing thing?
Paul says, I'm writing to you so that
you might know how to please God.
How?
By living a holy life, no immorality, no
physical sexual contact, no pornography.
I don't care if you came from a
background of homosexuality, you don't go back.
Whom the son says free is free indeed.
Doesn't matter if you were a lesbian, doesn't
matter.
I don't care what you were.
We all come from the same sewer.
It doesn't matter what we were, but we've
been washed.
We've been cleaned.
We've been sanctified.
Amen.
Come on, let's put our hands together.
Jesus has made us new.
Come on, everyone.
Let's put our hands together.
He's made us new.
Now, so live a holy life.
In other words, don't commit fornication, immorality.
That makes him happy.
So today I can make him happy by
just asking God to keep me.
Number two, to love the brethren, all the
brethren and sisters.
Number three, to be busy and lead a
quiet life.
Don't be getting involved in everybody's business and
talking and being loud and getting involved in
everything and judging everything.
And I don't know what she sees in
that man and what and all that stuff.
And did you see what she wore?
What's it your business what she wore?
You watch what you wear and let her
watch what she wears and don't be a
busybody.
And you know what that does?
It makes God happy.
God is made happy and he's hurt when
we are busybodies and when we mind other
people's business.
This is a simple word, but an important
word.
Go back to the first verse, Michael.
I want you to see this.
Look.
Finally, brothers and sisters, brothers is used in
the Bible to include both genders.
We instructed you how to live in order
to please God.
When I was brought, when I was growing
up in the church, my mom and dad
took me.
No one ever told me that just by
living a certain way, you could make God
happy.
You know what I was taught?
If you fast for three days, God says,
wow.
Right?
That's what I was taught.
And don't some of you look at me
strange.
You were taught the same way.
You had some of the same ideas.
If you didn't in another setting, if you
didn't eat meat on Friday, but if you
don't eat meat on Fridays and you eat
just fish and you're a busy buddy, you
might as well have a big steak because
it doesn't matter.
Right?
Here are the things that really matter to
God.
It's how you live.
Don't climb a mountain.
See, you know, the people there in Central
America and certain parts of Central America and
in South America, especially in Mexico, I should
say, they are taught to go to a
shrine, to walk on their knees for a
couple miles and their knees are ripped and
bloodied and scarred and the blood and the
pain they go through, they're taught that makes
God happy because you're suffering.
God doesn't want that masochism.
God just says, keep your vessel in securing
a wife or a husband.
Watch how you do it.
Don't be messing with other people's mates.
And don't consummate until you're married.
The sexual act is saved for marriage.
Number two, love each other.
That makes me happy when you love each
other.
You know, when I see my grandkids loving
each other, when I see my kids helping
each other, that makes me so happy.
God's the same way, more so.
And lastly, live a quiet life.
Mind your own business.
Support yourself.
Give to the work of the Lord.
Use the monies that he's given you to
bless his work.
Let's pray together.
Lord, this is a different kind of message
for us today.
It's a message that makes us quiet.
We want to please you.
I want a personal walk with you, Lord.
I don't want to serve the, I'm not
serving the Brooklyn Tabernacle.
I'm serving you, Jesus.
Sometimes our church and our activities and our
ministry becomes more important than you.
David and Nicole and Lisa are not singing
to make a living.
They're singing for Jesus.
And we lose that easily, Lord.
So we ask you to help us.
We want to be conscious of you.
We give us a new awareness that the
way we talk, the way we walk, the
way we act, the things we do and
don't do, they have an effect on you.
And after all you've done for us, we
do now out of gratitude for the salvation
that you've given us.
If there are people here, Lord, who are
hurting you, forgive them and give them the
grace to live a different kind of life
that would make you happy.
Not in order to go to heaven.
Salvation is a gift and we thank you
for it.
Christ died for us, the unjust.
He died for us, the ungodly.
He bore our sins upon the tree.
Not so that we would just go, Lord,
watch our words so that our words don't
display.
Watch the way we react and keep us
from foolish jesting and filthy talk.
Help us not to be seduced by any
of Satan's devices.
Whom the son sets free is free indeed.
Let love increase.
Help us to not just love.
People visit here and say, boy, your congregation
loves and I've been shown more love in
your church visiting than I have been shown
in my home church in another state.
And Lord, I thank you for so many
of those testimonies over the years.
But we want more love one to another,
Lord.
We don't want to stop.
We want more love.
We do sense your love among us, but
we want to be tighter and more loving
and kind.
We want to support ourselves, other people's affairs
and give our opinion.
We don't
have to preach sermons in front of 5
,000 people in order to please you.
I want to do more to show my
love to please
you in everything.
Warn us by the Holy Spirit.
Let us know, Lord, immediately, even when the
enemy is seducing us away or we're making
mistakes.
Warn us, Lord.
Show us.
Give us a check in our soul.