01-13-13 Pastor Dave Lennander – 1 Thessalonians 1

January 11th, 2013
Greetings,

This Sunday, January 13th, at 9am and 10:45am, we will be starting a new series in the Book of Thessalonians. Last week at the State of the Church, we laid out a goal for our church of becoming more “mission-minded” and focusing on getting the gospel out in a greater way this coming year. Thessalonians is a good book to study to get a scriptural foundation for accomplishing these things. Paul came to Thessalonica on his 2nd missionary journey. He was there only a short period of time before being driven from the city by mob opposition. But in that time, a very healthy church got started because the Thessalonians eagerly believed and received the gospel.

This first week I will give a brief overview of the book and then in chapter 1 look at how the lives of the Thessalonians were radically changed by their faith in Christ. The title of the message is “The Gospel Must Rock Your World”. The gospel is not just a nice story we accept and agree with. When we genuinely believe that Christ gave up His life for our sins, a radical, powerful transformation takes place that results in completely different values, attitudes, thoughts and actions.

If you want to prepare your heart, read I Thessalonians 1. Think about: “In what ways did the Thessalonian’s lives change as a result of believing the gospel?” How have you experienced the power of the gospel to change your life?

The worship songs this week are below:
Lead Me To The Cross
Starry Night
Need
Hosanna (Hillsong)
Evermore

Pastor Dave