Encore - 984 - God's Will: Sanctification - 1 Thessalonians 4:3

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today I want to talk about God's will for us. What is God's will for us? One of the places where the Bible tells us God's will is in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, and that verse begins “For this is the will of God, your sanctification...” I confess this was kind of a "duh" moment when I first heard this verse.   When I first remember paying attention to this verse, I had been wondering about God's will for my life in my work, and how I would spend my time, and whether or not I should stay in the job I was in, or how I would find a new job. I actually think I was self-employed and considering job transition the first time I really paid attention to this verse.   And my challenge came in the area of what follows this verse. He talks about how we're called to avoid sexual immorality, how we're to learn, to possess our own vessel in honor, and not in lustful passion as the Gentiles do.    Paul is challenging us with the will of God. He's saying God's will is clear. I want you to be sanctified. What does sanctified mean? Well, sanctified means that we're set apart. We're designated for a specific purpose. My being sanctified means I dedicate more of my life to doing what Jesus would have me do, then I spend my energy trying to do what I want to do. The energy of my life needs to be pointed toward obeying Jesus and doing what He says, instead of trying to do what I want, do just what I want, which might be participating in sexual fornication or overeating. That's one of the ways where I don't possess my own body in honor. I eat too much.   It's one of my challenges, and it's one of those places where you can pray for me. Whatever our addictions are, whatever our challenges are, these are the places where we're consistently reminded that there's more of our life to give over to Jesus. There's more of our time, our thought processes, more of our effort and our energy that can be given over to Jesus.   God's will is that we grow up in sanctification; that we work out our salvation, as it says in Philippians. That we turn ourselves to following Jesus, instead of just following our own flesh, chasing after what we seem to want, or what we think we want, whether that was another drink, or another hamburger, or another foray into pornography on a website or anything like that.   We are called to deny ourselves and pursue Jesus, to follow Him. That's what this passage in 1 Thessalonians is telling us. Let's be sanctified. Today, I want to challenge you: Ask God to give you the energy and the strength and the desire to follow Him and to do exactly what He says. When He gives you clear direction, do it.   If He doesn't give you clear direction, then do the next right thing. We always can do the next, most godly thing in every circumstance, in every situation, in our work, in our daily jobs, in the ways that we interact with people. The next right thing is what God calls us to do when we don't have any other clear direction.   I want to challenge you today to trust God, ask Him for wisdom and guidance and then go do the next right thing. Thank you very much for being a marketplace minister and thank you for following Jesus and for making a difference in your marketplace. If you'd like to join us and learn more about Follower of One, head over to followerofone.org, you can learn more about our ministry there.   Join our online community and take the next Marketplace Mission Trip. Thanks very much.