1 Thess 4:7+8, For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. 
	As we are proceeding through these letters of the Apostle Paul to the church at Thessalonica, we have seen that the Word of God is the wellspring of our hope in Jesus Christ. It is powerful and mighty in the life that it gives through the effective work of the Holy Spirit. There is a newness about it that meets our every need as we hide ourselves in the truths that are opened in us by the active Word of God Almighty.
	Before we proceed, we need to consider an attitude within each of us before the Lord. This is nothing that we need to defend among ourselves or try to substantiate our position and our activities and our consciences unto one another. We need to realize that we stand singly before God with our attitudes as to the manner in which we consider His Word. What this means is that we need to go before God and ask Him to inspect our hearts as to the manner in which we approach and consider and appreciate and seek to have Him apply His Word in our lives.
	So often we look at the Bible and the words recorded therein only in line with the fact that we should have it with us when we go to church or to Bible study. Once that need is accomplished, we put it on a shelf until the next week. We treat it like we would documents from work, valuable and to be studied in preparation for an upcoming meeting. Many of us consider scripture only in terms of the spiritual needs of our lives. It has its place and purpose when we are in spiritual want, but we may have the tendency to set it aside for our day to day living. That we trust to manuals and reports and textbooks and legal documents. We consider many other written sources for guidance in the practical day-to-day living, rather than the Word. We fail to see its value with things other than Bible Stories for the young and spiritual inspiration for the heavy laden spirit. 
	  Let us each ask ourselves as we are standing before God, how much do we value His Word? Is it merely ceremonial and occasional or is it the focus of our life? Are we satisfied to have others read it to us, or do we need to feast on it daily as the very source of our life on this earth? Consider that we have the written record of the words of God as put down by men under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Do we read it that way? Do we value it in that manner? If we did, it would become the single most important aspect of our lives. It would treasured far above gold and silver and precious jewels. It would become a delight and a pleasure to spend time in the Word, not because we have to or because we know we should, out of obligation. 
Rather than that, it should create in us a fascination to read more and more, a hunger that can only be quenched by the Word of God as we eat it and let it nourish our hearts and souls and minds. We should be willing to set aside everything else in order to be privileged to enter into communion with God as we ponder and reflect on the expressions of life that are contained in His Word. 
If we treasured this gift of God above all other possessions and commitments in our earthly walk, we would find that spiritual power of the Holy Spirit being infused into our day to day life in this world. We would soon discover that we could not start a day without the sustenance of this gift of manna from God. It would lead us forward into the course of the activity of the Holy Spirit to bring God’s glory and comfort and joy into our hearts for all of eternity.
If we truly value the Word of God, our lives will be enlarged and charged with the ability to show forth the testimony of Christ indwelling us. The Word does this within us as we read and desire to have our lives brought more and more into conformity with Christ, to be sanctified daily by the Holy Spirit. We will cherish the instructions that tell us to consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God through Christ, and seek to have that truth livingly manifested in our lives.
As there is that spiritual ongoing, in line with the Word, and in direct obedience to the Holy Spirit, we will show forth the true difference of a life that is completely centered in the Word as opposed to a life that deems the Word of God as too hard, too final, too demanding. To live by faith in the Lord is to live by the encouragement and the nourishment of the Word, and that becomes our living testimony of the power of Christ’s life.
As others see that we live in a manner that is completely foreign to this world, they will recognize that there is something unique and altogether unusual in our conduct and dealings with others. They will not see the anger and the frustration and the judgmental attitudes and the justification of our actions. Rather, they will see the love and the concern and the caring and the power and the strength and the endurance and the ability to always proceed in the calm, confident assurance that God has all things well in hand, no matter what. Rom 8:28, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 
This is a testimony that relates to daily life, meaning that the truths of the Word of God are livingly seen in our day to day walk on this earth. As such, we are able to show forth the wonders of Our Heavenly Father in our lives, not just theory and doctrine. This will be a life that we now live, as defined and ordered by His Word.
Listen to the Psalmist in Ps 66:16, Come and hear, all who fear God, And I will tell of what He has done for my soul. Also in Ps 71:14-16, But as for me, I will hope continually, And will praise Thee yet more and more. My mouth shall tell of Thy righteousness, And of Thy salvation all day long; For I do not know the sum of them. I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord God; I will make mention of Thy righteousness, Thine alone. 
	The Love of God that gave us life is at work within us to express that life unto others. It will be a testimony filled with power and with truth. There will be nothing able to hinder or stop that life of the living Lord Jesus Christ from being expressed through us unto others. Again we turn to the Psalms as witness to the courage and the determination that God’s Word is in our lives on this earth. Ps 119:13, With my lips I have told of All the ordinances of Thy mouth. Ps 119:46 I will also speak of Thy testimonies before kings, And shall not be ashamed. 
	The key aspect of this powerful testimony is that the focus is not centered in us. Rather, it is a life that recounts God’s blessings in everything and in every way. The source and the strength are from God and unto God. We declare Him in all His loving-kindness and His tender mercies and His strength and His glory and His might. Listen to the prophet Isaiah as he extols the magnificence of God’s Love. Isa 63:7, I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, According to all that the Lord has granted us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has granted them according to His compassion, And according to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses. We are the living affirmation of service to the only true living God of Life and Light. He is to be praised for His excellencies in all His provisions for men in Jesus Christ. 
	This love of the Lord should so impact our hearts and beings that we must proclaim His glory in our words, and our thoughts, and our deeds. There should be an inner fire unto the Lord that causes the Love of God to burst forth in unadulterated and irresistible joy in Jesus Christ. The prophet Jeremiah knew this truth of not being able to bottle up the full consideration of the Lord God Almighty. Jer 20:9, But if I say, "I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name," Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it.
Think back to those times in our lives, when we did not want to give forth the evidence of Christ, because we were more concerned with ourselves and with our comfortable nonentity in this world. It may have been in a time of rebellion within us or nonchalance toward the things of God. Whatever the reason, we could not continue in that denial of the One indwelling us. We were soon so internally inflamed that we had to cry forth unto God with tears of joy in His love and anguish in our refusal to acknowledge Him. That is the Holy Spirit at work deep within causing us to realize that we can no more hold back the living witness of Christ, than man can prevent volcanic eruptions. There will come that time of release when we are bursting forth in all the manifested Love of God.    
There is no manner of containment of the Word of God’s Love, either from within us or from outside us. Many governments have tried to silence the Word of God, and none of them have been able to do so. The Holy Spirit is actively opening up the reality of Christ, even behind the doors closed by oppression, by persecution, by tribulation, and by execution. There is no power in heaven or on earth that can hinder the loving Word of God as it brings forth the message of salvation and deliverance and freedom in Jesus Christ.
	 That testimony of Christ is utterly irrepressible. In but one example, let us look to the early church as the world power was trying to stop the spread of the name of Jesus of Nazareth. In Acts 4:19+20, we have the account of the Jewish High Council as it questioned Peter and John about the healing of the lame man in the name of Jesus Christ. But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard." They could not stop testifying of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, even when faced with beatings and death. 
This is further evidenced in Peter’s response later in Acts 5:29-32, But Peter and the apostles answered and said, "We must obey God rather than men. "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. "He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. "And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him." 
	When the Apostle Paul was before King Agrippa and Governor Festus, he gave a stirring testimony of his ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. He was facing those with the power of death over him, and he never once missed the opportunity to declare the Lordship of Jesus. He ends his testimony in Acts 26:21-23, "For this reason some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me to death. "And so, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He should be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles." 
	These are the authentications of some of the members of the early church, facing death and tribulation. While that may not be our lot at this time, there should still be the desire within us to livingly proclaim the risen Lord Jesus Christ. We may not be one of the Apostles, but we are now made one with Christ. Our testimony is not just to be declared before the authorities over us, our witness of Christ is to be the everyday expression of His Love. That is what makes the Word of God the very source of all our actions and interactions with others. As we read in Mal 3:16, Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name. This was a sharing of the Lord among the people. 
	This was also evidenced in Matt 9:31, when the two blind men were healed by Christ and could not withhold that wondrous event from others. But they went out, and spread the news about Him in all that land. These were ordinary men who could do nothing other than proclaim the One by Whom they were healed.
	We can so live forth the testimony of Christ only by the power of the Holy Spirit as He is at work within us. It is the Holy Spirit who will give us the words necessary to declare Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who is our strength and endurance and courage to face anyone and proclaim the risen Lord. It is the Holy Spirit who opens the Word of God into our beings and shows its every practical application in the lives that we now live before God. This was evidenced most forcefully on the day of Pentecost, when the timid Apostles were so inspired by the Holy Spirit, that they could only, boldly, declare the Word of God. Acts 2:4, And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. 
	As the Holy Spirit is our strength and courage, so all the more does our life evidence the outgrowth of faith. We become increasingly dependent upon the Holy Spirit to be our everything, and He never fails or disappoints. We always sense His presence, His guidance, and His depth of Love in our lives as we continue our walk on this earth. As the Apostle Paul considered this indwelling of the Holy Spirit, he makes a great proclamation of faith in 2 Cor 4:13+14, But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, " I believed, therefore I spoke, "we also believe, therefore also we speak; knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. 
	It is because of our faith in the risen Lord Jesus Christ that we can so believe that which the Holy Spirit puts into our hearts by His Living Word. This is so different from that which we label book learning because an intellectual knowledge can be challenged in a number of manners. Our intellect is a weak vessel through which to appropriate complete truth. Many people know of Christ, but we need to push on in the assurance that Christ is the complete source of our life. That is done as what we know mentally is made, by the power of the Holy Spirit that which we live forth from the deepest core of our being.
	This inner, living relationship with Christ is attested to as our faith in Him becomes more and more our day to day walk on this earth. We are thoroughly encouraged to stand firm in this faith by many writers of the Old and New Testaments. This morning, we will conclude with a key Biblical example of the living power of the Holy Spirit in operation to bring forth the testimony of Christ from one who denied Him, the Apostle Peter. What a change of heart and direction we see in blossom in his life’s testimony of the risen Lord. 1 Peter 5:12, Through Silvanus, our faithful brother (for so I regard him), I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it! 
Stand firm in it! What an exhortation to be a living witness of the One Who is now our very life. We are to stand firm in the Lord, living lives that are completely pleasing to Him. We are not to fear the consequences of our relationship with Christ, but rather to live in such a manner as to draw attention to the source of our life. This interest is not in terms of entertainment or intellectual devises; it is for the expression of the Love of God that is found only in Jesus Christ. Let the Word of God richly empower us to be the ever purer witnesses of our Lord as we treasure and cherish our time within the Scripture, as we yearn to more and more fully be lead forth by the Holy Spirit in the life that is ours in Christ. Amen.   
    	For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. Amen

	Today’s benediction is found in Rom 5:1-5, Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 	Amen