Prepare your heart for the Sermon by looking through these suggestions that will assist you in making the most of our time together hearing God's Word.

You will find suggestions for thinking more critically through the passage, meditating more intently on the text, and prayerfully seeking wisdom to deepen your understanding of the passage to be preached this Sunday.

Carefully Think

• Read 1 Thessalonians 1:4-6
• What and where is the subject of the ones “knowing” in verse 4?
• What is it that they know?
  What is “knowing” further elaborating on? In other words, why is Paul saying that he knows this?
• How does verse 5 say that the gospel came to these believers?
• What do these four parts describing how the gospel came reveal?
• What is the deep conviction describing?
• Do the power, conviction, and presence of the Spirit refer to those who receive the message of the gospel, or those who preach it? How do you know?
• What do you learn from verse 6 about the time the group of Thessalonians believers received the gospel?
• What countercultural reality existed in the midst of this tribulation and affliction among these believers? (see verse 6).
• Where does the joy referenced in these verse come from?

Prayerfully Meditate

• What is significant about these believers being chosen?
• Why would Paul include the additional phrase “brothers and sisters?
• Why would he also include that they are beloved by God”?
• Note the triad of terms in verse 3. How might this triad relate to the triad in verse 5?
• Why would Paul point out that these Thessalonians knew that he was marked by these characteristics (power, conviction, Spirit presence)?
• Why would it be “for the sake” of the hearers that Paul and his gospel cohort would display this characteristics?
• Is it arrogant to point out that those who received the gospel were imitators of Paul and his peers? Why/why not?
• How does verse 6 relate to the thanksgiving of verse 2?
• Why is Paul is Paul thankful for their imitation of faithfulness?