Becoming a Model

Today we started a six week series on the book of 1st Thessalonians. Today we covered the first ten verses which say:

"Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you. We always
thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 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.
For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen
you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with
power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived
among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in
spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the
Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia
and Achaia. The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and
Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need
to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you
gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true
God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus,
who rescues us from the coming wrath." (NIV)

This letter was written by Paul, Silas, and Timothy (two missionaries and a pastor) to a church int he capital of the province of Macedonia called Thessalonica. The population of that city was near 200,000 at that point because of being an important junciton of a hightway and also had a thriving seaport. After they address the fact they are always thinking and praying for those in that church they move on to describe the gospel.

In verse six we transition into our main idea for the day. In it Paul tells them that they were imitating them. They saw how they acted and spoke and started to do the same things. Then he tells them that not only were they imitating them but the Lord as well and that others are starting to see that model of God and mimicing it, in the local region as well as the rest of the world. We too mimic or imitate the things that we see or hear. But we should be imitating God. Whatever we imitate other people will see and model their lives after us. They will start to mimic you! Both those nearby as well as at school and in your family, even to the ends of the earth. It is important that we learn to imitate good things so that we don't give a false impression of what God is like to others, and thus they imitate that example. Be thinking about how you can imitate God as an example to others!





I give this morning: B


Favorite moment of the morning: Jason Hale taking a fall