Preached February 10, 2008 at Longview Missionary Baptist Church

1 Thes. 1:9-10 (ESV)
For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,  [10] and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. 

The process of metamorphosis in nature is fascinating.  An insect egg is laid and develops.  In 4 days it hatches and becomes a caterpillar.  For two weeks the caterpillar eats, and stores up energy.  It enters the pupa stage and forms a chrysalis (hard outer casing).  For 10 days it is in the chrysalis.  While encased, the caterpillar is undergoing extraordinary transformation.  At the end of 10 days, a monarch butterfly emerges and lives for another couple of months.

Monarchs, the state insect of Texas by the way, are a great illustration of what happens to us when we become Christians.  We undergo a transformation or conversion when we become a child of God.

There was a point in our lives when we were lost, sinful, corrupt, spiritually dead, enemies of God.  But God, in his mercy brought about transformation of our lives through the cross of Jesus Christ, the drawing of the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of our sins.

John 3:3 (NKJV)   Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

    2 Cor. 5:17 (NKJV)  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

    Acts 3:19 (NKJV)  Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

New birth, new creation, new life– all words and phrases to describe our transformation or conversion.  Last week, I told you that God initiates and completes our salvation.  This is called election.  But God uses the process of conversion to save us.  Unless you have been converted, you are not a child of God, your sins have not been forgiven, you do not have a home in heaven, and you are separated from the love and mercy of Christ. Just like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, conversion is a radical reorientation of one’s life.

While some things remain the same, there are fundamental differences.  When we are converted, we are still the same person, but we have new character, new life, new hope, new direction, new focus, new relationship with God.

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 describes the process of conversion, what conversion looks like in the lives of the Thessalonian believers and in our lives too.  What does conversion entail?

1.    Repentance: “turning to God from idols”

a.    The Thessalonian church was filled with Gentiles.

i.    Gentiles worshiped many false gods.  Family gods, city gods, patron gods for their line of work, imperial gods of Rome, cult of Caesar.

ii.    You could have as many gods as you wanted, just as long as you didn’t abandon any of them.  To do so might bring the wrath of the gods down on the community.

b.    But to become a Christian, you cannot worship other Gods.  There is only one God, and he is a jealous God.  He will not allow you to serve him and other gods.  An idol is anything we establish in our lives that might compete with God’s preeminence.  An idol is a God-substitute.  This includes family, vocation, food, sex, entertainment, power, money, and pleasure.

i.    Many so-called Christians today try to have the One True God on one hand and have their pet gods on the other.  They come to worship on Sunday, but the rest of the week, they worship their idols.

ii.    But Paul teaches us that we cannot really worship God if we hold onto our idols.  We cannot be converted if we do not turn from idols.

c.    Turning means repentance.  Repentance is a changing of one’s heart and life.  True repentance is a thorough change both of mind and lifestyle.

i.    Repentance means turning from all sin to all good.  True repentance includes sorrow for sin and a broken heart over our idolatry.

ii.    Repentance is not a half step of merely adding Jesus Christ to your cabinet of worshiped objects.  It is a radical step of abandoning the gods of this world, and the lifestyle of immorality and wickedness the worship of those idols bring.

d.    Repentance is a willful act of turning from one path and proceeding in another direction.  It is turning to God.  This turning to God leads to:

2.    Commitment: “serving the living and true God”

a.    Take note of whom we serve.  God is living and true.  He is not imaginary.  He is not created in our minds.  He is alive.  He is real.  He is nothing like the idols we worship in our hearts.

b.    We are to serve him.  The word serve comes from the Greek word for “SLAVE.”  It refers to total commitment to God.

c.    We must give God our total commitment in worship.

i.    Worship is devotion and love given to someone or something.

ii.    Whom or what do you worship?  Consider what you are most devoted to, what you are most committed to.

iii.    Is it a job, a person, a hobby?

iv.    God alone must receive our highest and greatest commitment in worship.

v.    All of life is to be an expression of worship to God.  We worship.  It is not just Sunday Church stuff.

vi.    When you work, work for the Glory of God.  When you play, play in a way the honors God.  When you go about the mundane of life, do it in a way that screams, “I love the Lord!  I am committed to him!  I offer all that I am to him as a sacrifice of praise.”

d.    Serving God means living a just and good life.  It means we will love our neighbors and show mercy to those who need it.  It means we show love to the unlovely and compassion to those who deserve retribution.  It means we help the helpless and comfort the afflicted.  It also means we confront injustice and defend the weak.  It means we celebrate what is right and pure and noble.

e.    It means we serve our fellow man by taking them by the hand and leading them to the Savior.

f.    This commitment to the Lord does not last for a little while and then expire.  There is no retirement age when it comes to being committed to the Lord.  (ILL– Brother Richardson sharing the Gospel with Jeremy at Colonial Village).

3.    Perseverance: “waiting for the coming of Jesus Christ”

a.    Notice how Christ is described:

i.    He is God’s Son.  He is deity.

ii.    He comes from heaven.  He is seated in the throne room of all creation and rules it.

iii.    He is the Jesus- a real person who lived historically.

iv.    He is the one who died on the cross and rose from the dead, defeating death and by doing so, the one who gives us eternal life.

v.    He is the one who delivers us from wrath.  God’s wrath is God’s righteous judgment against those who are evil and disobey the truth.  It is not an irrational outburst of passion by God or a fit of temper.  Rather if God is holy, pure and righteous, then his wrath represents a just reaction to the wickedness of those who rebel and sin against him.

(1)    And Jesus delivers us from it.  We deserve God’s wrath.

(2)    But Jesus bore it on the cross for us and we can be forgiven.

b.    We are to wait for the coming of this Jesus.  One day Jesus is going to return.  All the promises will be fulfilled.

c.    Until then, we persevere.  We don’t quit.  We don’t turn away.  We don’t give up.  We keep on turning away from idols to serve the living and true God.  And we don’t abandon Him.

d.    Waiting means we are patient and we trust him.  We have sustained expectation.  The result of genuine conversion is perseverance to the end.

Conclusion–

If you remove one of these things– Repentance, Commitment, or Perseverance– you do not have genuine conversion.  But remember, God initiates and completes it. Philip. 1:6 “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”  Have you been converted?