I believe many of you have heard and perhaps have even said the phrase:  “It ain’t over till it’s over.”  Here is a bit of education on this for you.  This particular phrase has two main sources:  It seems to be from Baseball Hall of Famer, Yogi Berra.  Yogi is given credit for coining the phrase in 1973.   A similar reference is in the world of opera.   It seems that many performances end with a set-piece aria, sung by a well-built soprano.  So the phrase, “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings,” was brought into play so people would know exactly when the opera would be finished.

And now Paul is reminding us, and all Christians, through his letter to the new believers at Thessalonica, of something which we already know.  The Christian life and walk with Christ, “Ain’t over till it’s over.”  This means we keep going, keep pleasing God, keep doing His good works, until the day we die.   Paul says that the Thessalonians  already know how to live in a way that pleases God.  They know this because Paul, Silas and Timothy have personally instructed them when they were in Thessalonica.  No one can claim ignorance.  What Paul now writes is nothing new.  Actually what I am about to say, is nothing new.  But that doesn’t mean you can tune out.

            Paul reminds these believers of their continued need to please God.  He is complimenting them on their spiritual progress.  Even so, they must not relax.  As we saw in a previous chapter these Thessalonians bring sincere joy and delight to Paul.  But Paul always expects and urges believers to do more; to excel more.  The call to godliness never stops.  Paul himself modeled this kind of living.  Living in a way that pleases God is not optional.  It is expected from each of us who choose to follow Christ.  It is a moral necessity and an obligation.  The Thessalonians have known this from the start.  Pleasing God is the point of our life.  As our Creator and Savior, God has the right to tell us how to live…and He has the right to expect us to obey.

            Theologian and commentator, John Stott says this about “pleasing God” as a guiding principle of Christian behavior.  “First, it is a radical concept, for it strikes at the roots of our discipleship and challenges the reality of our profession as believers.  How can we claim to know and to love God if we do not seek to please Him?  Disobedience is ruled out.    Secondly, it is a flexible principle.  It will rescue us from the rigidities of a Christian Pharisaism which tries to reduce morality to a list of do’s and don’ts.  True, we will need to be instructed … and this for us will necessitate the developing of a Christian perspective through biblical meditation.”  “Nevertheless,” Stott continues, “our incentive will be not so much to obey the law as to please the Law-giver, and this will become increasingly a matter of Christian instinct as the Holy Spirit trains us (Christ’s sheep) to discern our Shepherd’s voice.  Thirdly, this principle is progressive.  If our goal is to be perfectly pleasing to God, we shall never be able to claim that we have arrived.  Instead, we are summoned to please him more and more.”

            Of course, there is always something else we can learn, one more habit we can conquer, another practice we can adopt….No matter how old, no matter if we are retired, or a newly celebrated 50 year old.  Paul makes very clear the areas that are important regarding our holiness and pleasing God. The areas in which Paul specifically points out in this particular letter where we are to please God are sexual self control, daily work and grief.  Please note the grief aspect we will cover next week.

            For now, let me just say that if Pastor Dave and Moses Pulei can say a few “shocking words” in their sermons, I can at least say S-E-X.  You tuned back in didn’t you?  You see, Paul spends five verses on sex, sexual self-control and, more so sexuality.   Actually Paul talks about sexuality.  You see, it is not surprising that the apostle begins with sex or sexuality, not only because it is the most commanding and dominating of all our human urges, but also because of the sexual laxity, even promiscuity, of the Graeco-Roman world.   Back then, it was widely accepted that men either could not or would not limit themselves to their own wife as their only sexual partner.  Besides, Paul was writing from Corinth to Thessalonica, and both cities were famous for their immorality.  In Corinth , there was Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sex and beauty.  The Romans identified their goddess Venus with her.   Aphrodite sent her servants out as prostitutes to roam the streets by night.  Thessalonica, on the other hand, was associated with the worship of deities.  The rites held gross immorality and was promoted under the name of religion.  No doubt neither Corinth nor Thessalonica were much different than other cities of that period – or our own, for that matter. 

            So all around these Thessalonian believers were the pagans who combined sex and religion.  Sex was a religion among the Greeks.  One could go to Corinth and find this.  It was rampant.  But a Thessalonian did not have to go to Corinth .  They could find it right in Thessalonica.  In other words, a Moorparkian does not have to go to Los Angeles or San Francisco to find the seedier side of life, which often combines sex and religion. 

            You see, today we see the rise of the worship of Satan and the practice of the occult.  There are all kinds of amulets and rituals connected with this sort of worship.  Also there is astrology which seeks to tell people about themselves.  And today we have internet pornography.  Much of all this is often associated with or even “promoted under the name of religion”.

            Whether we live in Corinth , Thessalonica, Thousand Oaks or Moorpark, whether the first Century or this Century, God’s Word is very clear.  And Paul is very specific in that we are to control our own bodies in a way that is holy and honorable… and he is speaking sexually.  We are to learn and practice self-control.  Self- control is not automatic – it involves work and discipline.  Self-control is one of the evidences of God’s Spirit at work within us.  And it does require our vigorous attention. Because, as we heard last Sunday, we are set apart for God’s use.  The life of self-control is not through rigorous rules and disciplines; while those can be helpful.  Rather this is done by turning our bodies over to the Lord. 

            The original Greek says that God wants His people to “avoid sexual immorality.  Very literally these words can be translated “hold yourself completely apart from sinful sexual intercourse.”   The Greek people in Paul’s day are not so different than in ours.  Many popular love songs and love stories in movies and on TV today promote the same ideas on sex and marriage.   Marry someone to have sex.  If you can’t wait, have sex before you marry.  Or, have an affair while married or with someone who is married, simply because you are “in love” with that person.  God says all this is sin And God, as the avenger, will punish.   So perhaps the best translation of that Greek phrase is:  “Let each of you know how to obtain a marriage partner in a way that is holy and honorable.”

            And did you pick up on the fact that Paul has not mentioned “love” in these five verses on sexuality.  Knowing how to love one another is not the issue.  The issue is wanting to do the unselfish actions of love.  We are not to be lustful.   We are not to wrong another or exploit a brother or sister – economically, sexually, mentally, physically - or any other way.  We are to remain faithful in marriage and chase in our singleness.  In other words, each of us is to control ourselves – honoring the other person, as we please God in faithful obedience.

And then we see that Paul does not miss a beat in calling on love for our neighbor – others within the church, or even outside the church.  As a person comes to believe in Jesus, our heart is filled with love for God.   In that love for God comes love for our neighbor – our brother and sister in Christ, and those who are not yet within the community of faith.  To the Thessalonians, and to us, this means to limit our talk to what is wholesome and helpful.  We are not to be pushy and overbearing.  Nor are we to be  involved in gossip.  We are not to be idle when there is work to be done.   We are to be involved in honest work and labor.  We are to help and support others in God’s good ways.

We read in the Gospel of John that it is impossible for a person who loves God, not to love others.  “We love because God first loved us.  If anyone says, ‘I love God’, yet hates their brothers or sisters, is a liar.  For those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.  The commandment we have from Him is this:  Those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”   This is Holy and Honorable.

When you and I do this we spread God’s love throughout our own church, our community and around the world.   That means our job is never done.  We need to work hard at good and wholesome and responsible lives.  In other words, how we live is noticed!  And remembered!  If we are habitually late for work, or meetings, or gain a reputation as the office gossip, or don’t help when there is something to be done, it hurts the name of Christ.  Non-believers do not separate our faith from our behavior.  Nor should we.   Someone once said, “If the church is to be slandered, let it be without grounds.”  Our desire as believers should be to live exemplary lives.  We are to do this not only to please God.  But we are to do this to achieve a good reputation for Christ’s church and His people. 

            We can choose the easy route.  We can be satisfied like many around us, building less than pleasing lives.   Paul was never satisfied.  He was never at rest in his pursuit of becoming like Christ.  He wrote about it with such energy in every letter we have from him. 

            Now, at this point on your outline it says:  “A word from C.S. Lewis.”  Well I changed this part Thursday after everything was run.  So pretend the outline says:  “A word from The Pilgrim’s Progress.”   This fall, starting in September, I will be teaching on and about and from John Bunyan’s 1678 classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress.  (Just a little advertisement.)   As I re-read the book and other resources in prepping for the class one obvious thing I am reminded of about Christian, the Pilgrim on the journey in the book, is that he is progressing on the journey.  He is constantly moving.  He travels at various paces on the journey.  He meets various challenges in life and then, finally, he arrives.  That is what our real-life pilgrimage in growing and in pleasing God is all about.  Progress.  John Stott said it as the third guiding principle of Christian behavior.  That is why Paul urges us to excel in that which we are already doing, saying, being…aiming to be like Christ.  We are never to be content in being like everyone else. None of us wants to be a partially cooked or half-baked Christian.  We are to continue pleasing God, for God’s purpose, for a live time.  Our journey calls for nothing less than our total commitment.  Our journey in our walk with Christ is not over till it’s over.