Dr. McKellar’s Lesson for April 3, 2022

Partners in Progress

1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

1. Introduction

• from the negative to the positive
• no place for coasting/complacency
• Because the goal is to glorify God, progress in your love for insiders and outsiders.

2. Inside the Church: View Sanctification as a Community Project 9-10

• commendation: family language
• continuation: taught by God (Isa. 54:13)
• cooperation: among yourselves and across the region
• culmination: mutual support network

3. Outside the Church: Aim to Attract the Attention of the Unsaved 11-12

• living quietly: our ambition
• minding our business: not meddlesome
• working with our hands: not parasites
• the long nose and lazy hands connection
• incentive not excuse

4. So What?

• Treasure the “team” concept.
• Stop expecting non-Christians to act like Christians.
• Stop excusing the sub-biblical behavior of Christians.
• Aim for a “winsome” witness.
• “Teach me, my God and King, in all things Thee to see, and what I do in anything, to do it as for Thee. To scorn the senses’ sway, while still to Thee I tend; in all I do be Thou the Way, in all be Thou the End.” (G. Herbert)