Are you confident you know how to walk and actually please God—or do those phrases feel vague and unattainable? In this sermon from 1 Thessalonians 4:1–12, we explore Paul’s call not just to walk in a way that pleases the Lord, but to “abound more and more” in that walk. Building on Romans 8 and 12, the message unpacks the basic mechanics of the Christian life: how the Spirit uses God’s Word to renew our minds, direct our bodies, and move us from merely knowing our identity in Christ to actually living it out. We also examine the difference between positional holiness (who we are in Christ) and practical holiness (how we live), and how God’s will—our sanctification—shapes every area of life.

Paul’s warnings about “fornication,” coveting, and defrauding are applied beyond sexual sin to dishonest, self-serving patterns in daily life, including work and business. The sermon presses into how lust, greed, and fraud reflect the way “Gentiles which know not God” live, and why believers must instead “possess [their] vessel in sanctification and honor.” Finally, we consider what genuine brotherly love looks like: being “taught of God to love one another,” increasing in love beyond the local church, studying to be quiet, minding our own affairs, working with our own hands, and walking honestly toward those outside. All of this is set in the larger context of God calling us not to uncleanness, but to holiness, as we await the coming of Christ.