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Hi, I'm Pastor Tom Holliday and I want to welcome you to our look at daily drive
time devotions. We are starting a look today at the book of 1 Thessalonians,
we're going to be looking at the first couple of verses in the first chapter.
With starting a new book today, it's a good opportunity to remind you of the
goals that we have for these daily drive time devotions.

Two simple goals, first understanding the books of the Bible, we're going
through a chapter a week about 10 minutes a day to see what God's word has to
say. And the second goal is the result of understanding the books of the Bible
and that is a sense of closeness to God that results in a deepening confidence
that he really can, he really will change your life. First Thessalonians, the
book that we're beginning a look at today is a book about refreshing and real
life change.

Paul is writing to this young church in Thessalonica, they have questions and
Paul is inspired by God's spirit as he writes to give them direction from God.
Lloyd John Ogilvie says in his book about First Thessalonians, "This is a book
about life, life as it was meant to be, authentic life. " First Thessalonians is
about real life, it was written only about 20 years after Jesus's death and Paul
is telling this young church how to live the real life that results from Jesus's
resurrection.

And even in the first two verses as Paul begins an introduction to this book,
you get the quality of the book in mind by just reading these verses. In fact,
I'd like to focus in on three essential qualities of this book, just from the
first couple of verses. It's personal, it's practical, it's powerful.

First it's personal. In a sense, this is not like sitting in church listening to
a sermon. Now I love sermons in church, I love to preach sermons in church, but
I also know sometimes it doesn't feel as personal as we'd like it to.

This is more like sitting in Starbucks talking with a friend. The intimacy of
the good news of Christ comes through in every page of this book. Let me read
for you the first couple of verses of First Thessalonians chapter one.

Paul, Silas, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians and God the Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you. We always thank God for all
of you, mentioning you in all of our prayers. It's interesting, Paul wrote 13
letters.

In 11 of those letters, he includes some kind of title in the opening, Paul the
apostle, Paul the servant, Paul the prisoner. It's interesting that in First and
Second Thessalonians, he does not include a title. It's just Paul.

It's very personal and that helps you to understand the tone of the letter and
to see that God has something to say to you in this letter. It's always good
when you pick up a book of the Bible to understand the tone, the feel of that
book as you begin to read it. When you pick up the book of Romans, you realize
as you begin to read it that it has the tone of a courtroom in some ways.

It's logically going through the truth, presenting the truth of the good news of
Christ. You pick up a book like Proverbs and it has the tone of a wise man
sitting down to share with you the wisdom, the sayings of God that can change
your life. A different tone.

You look at a book like Galatians in the New Testament. Paul was angry when he
wrote Galatians because they were giving up the good news of Christ for other
things. And you get that tone.

Well, this book, First Thessalonians has a unique feel. I describe it as heart
to heart. It has that tone to it.

Paul sitting down and talking to them heart to heart. I'd describe it as gentle
and caring. You sense Paul being the father of their faith, sharing with them
how to live out this faith.

First Thessalonians, when I think of the tone of it, it is simple and it's
basic. It gets down to the real basics of what we need to live out the kind of
life that God's made us to live. The tone of First Thessalonians is personal and
it's direct.

Paul goes right to the heart of the issues. He doesn't draw back at all from
telling them the whole truth. There is throughout the book of First
Thessalonians, there is this tone, there's this air of expectancy.

Jesus is going to return. Let's look forward to that with expectancy. But also
the expectancy of God is at work in your life.

He's doing things in your life that result in growth and change. Sometimes you
think, wouldn't it be great to have someone with the heart, the passion of the
apostle Paul, sit down with you and share with you the how to's of faith. Well,
he did.

And we have it right here in his letters to the churches. We have it right here
in his letter to the Thessalonians. It's a personal letter.

It's also a practical letter. When I say practical, I think I'd begin by
reminding you to understand the two addresses that this book was written to. He
writes to the church that's in Thessalonica, but he also writes to the church
that's in the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, two addresses.

First of all, this letter was written to a city, the city of Thessalonica, large
city for that day, city of about 100,000 people, a coastal town on a major Roman
road that ran eastward from Rome. Because it was a seaport, it was close to a
rich, well-watered coastal plain. It was a rich city.

This made Thessalonica one of the largest, most important commercial and
political centers in all of Macedonia. It was also a resort and health center
because of some hot springs that were there. It was the place to be.

It was an exciting place to be. And Paul writes to this group of new believers
in what much of the world saw as an exciting place to be and help them to
understand the real excitement of life, the real joy of life. This city, because
it was an economic center, a hub of transportation, had people from all
backgrounds of life, all philosophies of life.

And to all of them, Paul writes and lets them know that God has a way of making
a difference in all of our lives. This city, Thessalonica, will happen to be at
the foot of Mount Olympus, the mountain that even today we look back on in Greek
mythology and think of the worship of false Greek gods. Paul writes to tell them
about the real God.

This is a city that was at the center of economic wealth, and Paul writes to
tell them about real riches. This is a city that had a large Jewish population.
There was a great Greek philosophy about this city, so there was a lot of
religious talk in the city.

But Paul writes to tell them about the true Messiah, Jesus Christ. These letters
of the apostle Paul were written to this church that was situated in an
extremely dangerous world. As exciting as things were in that city, there were
also the dangers of immorality.

And he lets them know that it is a time of great change. They have great
questions, and Paul answers those, but it's also a time of great change. I can't
think of a letter that better fits our times.

They had a lot of questions, a lot of fears about the future. So do we. They
were struggling to find a moral compass in a world where there was none, and
many of us are that way.

They were trying to figure out what leaders they could really trust. There were
a lot of new believers that needed the foundations of faith. And Paul writes and
says, "Let's get down to basics.

Let's get back to basics. Let's start with the basics. " When you watch the
prose, you realize you can build on the basics, but you can never get away from
the basics.

So maybe going through this letter the next few days is a way for you to start
with the basics, or maybe it's a way for you to get back to the basics. This
letter was written to a city, but it was also written to a church, to a group of
people that were in Jesus Christ. Jesus told us that just like the branches in
the vine, we are to be in Christ.

We draw our strength. We draw our energy from him. If you want to understand the
power of God to work change in your life, you have to remember those two
addresses always.

I live in a city, but I also am in Jesus Christ as a follower of Jesus Christ.
And when I understand those two addresses, I see the practical way that God
wants to work in my everyday life. He wants to work in my life where I live,
where I am right now, but he also wants to work in my life because of what Jesus
Christ can do, because he is in me.

This is a personal book. It's a practical book. It's also a powerful book.

Even as you begin to read it, it's clear that God has something to say to me. In
fact, if you don't think that, why read the book? God wants to use this book to
change your life.

At the very beginning, Paul writes and he says, "Grace and peace be to you. " In
fact, he says, "I thank God for you. " Those simple phrases to me provide the
right climate for growth and change, the power of God to grow and change our
lives.

Grace, peace, and thanksgiving. Grace and peace were reminders of the usual
Greek and Jewish greetings, but they're also reminders of God's climate of
growth in our lives. Grace, peace, and thanksgiving add up to growth, lasting
growth.

Some people try to grow in a climate of guilt. It never works. Grace is the key.

Other people try to grow in a climate of fear. It always fails because peace,
peace in my relationship with God is what's needed. Some people try to grow in a
climate of pride.

What can I do? How much can I do? And it always fails because thanksgiving to
God is what's needed.

So grace, peace, and thanksgiving, that's the climate of growth in my life, in
your life. As we start this study of the book of 1 Thessalonians, I want to pray
together with you that God would use this study to change my life, change your
life, as the basics of the truth infiltrate every corner of our lives. Let's
pray together.

Jesus, thank you that you personally came to this earth to bring the personal
message of change. And thank you for the opportunity to hear from the apostle
Paul, inspired by you, as he passes along that message to this church in
Thessalonica so that we could hear it today. God help us to take the message
personally.

Help me to take the message personally. Not to listen to it as if it were for
somebody else, but to see personally how in a practical way you can change my
life, because I am in Christ Jesus as I've trusted you, and in a powerful way
you can change my life, because your grace is real, your peace is real. And so I
begin with grace, peace, and thanksgiving, trusting in you, leaning on you,
thanking you.

In your name, Jesus, I pray, amen. Join us tomorrow as we continue our look at 1
Thessalonians. We're going to look together at verse 3, some powerful concepts
in verse 3 of chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians.