The Hope of Glory

Want a better year than last?

Follow Jesus,

Give thanks to Him, &  

No matter what comes, hold on to the hope you have because of Him.

Maybe the last year was hard. - many times you struggled to keep pushing on, friends and family left you or died, or God seemed nowhere near you.

Remember, if you are a child of God, God promises He will never leave you or forsake you.

Remember, as James said, God allows trials to come into each of His children's lives to make them stronger and to help them to grow in Christlikeness. 

v  Celebrate that you are a child of God and He loves you so much He wants you to grow to be more like Him.

v  Celebrate you are a child of God and He has prepared a place for you.

v  Celebrate you are a child of God and you have an eternal hope that this world is not all there is. There is more! This world cannot keep you nor can it take away your promised place in God's kingdom.

v  Celebrate in the end, God wins and you are His child!

This year take a stand for God. 

      Stand firm in the hope Jesus lived, died, and rose from the grace to give you. 

      Proclaim God and His glory for His is the glory and He gives the hope of glory.

      Remember the saints who went before us.

      Become a servant of God and His body.

"I (Paul) have become its (the body of Christ, the followers') servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness-- the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:25-27 [NIV])

  

Pleasing and Acceptable

2 Corinthians 5:9  “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”

How can we be pleasing and acceptable to God?

I.                    Romans 14:17-18  “For the kingdom of God is… righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  For he who in this way serves Christ and is acceptable to God  and approved by men.”

1.    How are we to be righteous in the Holy Spirit? 

a.      Righteousness is the way in which a man may attain a state approved by God. 

b.      It is integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking, feeling, and acting. 

c.       How do we have integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, and correctness of thinking, feeling, and action?

2.    What is peace in the Holy Spirit? 

        Peace is – (of Christianity), the tranquil state of…

          i.      a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and

          ii.      content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is.

3.    What is Joy? 

       Joy refers to the extreme happiness with which the believer contemplates salvation and the
       bliss of the afterlife.

II.                  Colossians 1:9-10  “we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and,…so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

1.      How do we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord?  Be filled with the knowledge of His will.

2.   How are we to be filled with the knowledge of His will, spiritual wisdom and understand?  Pray without ceasing, listen to Him and act upon what He says to you through  preaching and teaching, and in studying His Word.

3. What pleases God?  Fruit bearing good work and increasing in the knowledge of Him.  Fruit bearing only occurs if we stay in the Word of God, studying and hearing it and acting upon it in faith as God leads us.

       III.        1 Thessalonians 4:1  “Finally then brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, 

                    that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God

                    (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more."  Vs. 7 - "For God has not called

                    us for the purpose of impurity, but sanctification."

              How are we to be pleasing and acceptable to God?  To be in His Word and to

              walk in His way. 

How do we excel still more?  In verse 7, God has called us for sanctification.  He has called us to be consecrated and purified for Himself so that not only can we read, hear, and act upon the Word He has given us, but so that we can enter into His presence, so that we can be in His presence in heaven for eternity.  He has provided for us a way to purification for all eternity through Jesus His only begotten Son.

This is the joy we have in the Holy Spirit.   

What was our original question? 

How can we be pleasing and acceptable to the Lord? 

This is the way to be Pleasing and Acceptable to God -

 to read and study His Word,

growing in knowledge and a closer relationship to Him,  

so that we love Him more and become more like Him, and

walking in His way. 

This is righteousness as prepared by God.  From this comes peace and joy.