Letter To The Church

• Teaching Text

  1 Thessalonians 5:23-28

  May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

  Brothers and sisters, pray for us. Greet all God’s people with a holy kiss. I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.

  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

• Message Recap

  This Sunday, Pastor Paul continued our sermon series in First Thessalonians. This series is about how the Thessalonian church practiced their faith while under intense persecution by their community.

  “I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.”
  — 1 Thessalonians 5:27

  The Thessalonian church would have heard this letter read out loud by a church leader in a single listening. We structured this unique service to experience this letter in this same way.

  “We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our LORD Jesus Christ.”
  — I Thessalonians 1:3

  Pastor Paul reminded us of the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Those were the final words to the Thessalonians from the apostle Paul and those were the final words about First Thessalonians from our Pastor Paul. We hope this series has brought new clarity to this amazing part of the New Testament, as we seek to become fully surrendered disciples who love God, love others, and share Jesus.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICES

Read Scripture:
Read: 1 Thessalonians 1-5
Look for the themes of faith, love, and hope.
Look for when Paul encourages the church to do something ‘more and more’.

Memorize Scripture:
Together we are memorizing 1 Thessalonians 5:8
Here are a few wallpapers for this series.
Here's a helpful guide we put together for memorizing Scripture: https://faithe.org/memorize/

DISCUSSION GUIDE

Questions:
1) What is one word or phrase that they Holy Spirit highlighted for you during this teaching? Why?
Journal your thoughts and/or share this with someone else.

2) Read this book in a single listening with a group of believers.
How did hearing it all at once change the way you understood the letter?
What are potential benefits to this approach? What are potential negatives?

Prayer:
God, help me to regularly be immersed in your Word. Transform my thoughts, my perceptions, my will, by the renewing of my mind. Re-animate my heart with your love so that I can extend your grace and truth to those around me. Help me be YOUR hands and YOUR feet this week.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.