Final Instructions for Godly Living

Um, in the middle section, uh, a reminder that this evening we are going to be showing the 1916 project. We wanted to do a second showing of that. So if you're able to join us at 630, um, I think that you'll find it very informative and important, uh, important film to, uh, to watch, uh, fellows. We're going to have a men's breakfast next Saturday morning, uh, down at the other end of the hall.

Uh, so come check that out. Um, a reminder that our first agape fruits meal ministry is tonight. And so, uh, be praying for that. And if you are. Signed up to help with that, don't forget, um, and then operation Christmas child boxes are due next Sunday. And we have another, uh, special guest with us this morning.

Oh, it was touching go there for a minute here right now. I do. Hi, how y'all doing this morning? My name's Justin T box. Okay.

Time. I am just in time. For my Christmas box. So you all better be the same because we've got one week. There's like, oh, close to 30 boxes outside in the hallway. So what's the other guy's name? Phil, my brother, Phil, my brother, Phil forgot his name. Phil said to make sure to let you guys know to take a box. If you don't have a box, if you haven't filled a box, if you want to do a second box, do a second box.

Cause you know what? It's not about us, right? It's about the kids that get them and the word that they receive with it. So. Seven days and counting. Don't be late. Okay. Be in time.

Thanks. Thanks, Justin.

I'm pretty sure that's it.

If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced and for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 70, Psalm 70, looking at the new American standard. So that we sound the same. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 70, if you are able, please. Stand in the honor of the reading of God's word.

I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Jared and the even verses Psalm 70 for the choir director, a Psalm of David for a memorial. Oh God hasten to deliver me. Oh Lord hasten to my help. Let those be ashamed and humiliated who seek my life. Let those be turned back and dishonored who delight in my hurt. Let those be turned back because of their shame.

Who say, aha. Aha. Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you and let those who love your salvation say continually, let God be magnified and read verse five with me, but I am afflicted and needy hasten to me. Oh God, you are my help and my deliverer. Oh Lord, do not delay and father. We do praise you for being our help. Lord, the one who delivers us and Lord, we can always trust that your timing is always.

Perfect and so Lord, be with us now as we spend time in your word, may we learn what it is that your Holy Spirit would have to minister to us and may our hearts be open to what you have to say. We just pray these things in Jesus name, amen, you may be seated and if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of first Thessalonians chapter five first Thessalonians chapter five today, we wrap up the book of first Thessalonians. It's been a fun journey that we've had in here. And so I thought.

We would start off with just a little bit of recap to to bring us together. Of course, in the first chapter, we looked at the work of the gospel. Paul had written to these Thessalonian believers to first of all, remind them of what God had done in their lives and how the gospel had done its work and that they had turned from idols to serve the living in the true God. In the second chapter, we looked at the work of the minister.

Paul ultimately was defending his ministry, but in defending his ministry, he gave us principles of what it looks like for all of us. Who've been given the great commission to be ministers. And so we looked at the work of the minister and then we looked at the work of encouragement because we saw that there was a great deal of discouragement, first of all, on the part of Paul and his companions because of having to leave those in Thessalonica. But also on there was a great deal of discouragement within the Thessalonian church because of the persecution that they'd been through in separation from their leader.

And we saw how God used Timothy to bring encouragement to to Paul and to the Thessalonian believers. And so we saw that work. Of encouragement as we came into chapter four, we saw some practical instructions on godly living, practical instructions on walking with Jesus. And then, of course, the last two weeks we've been looking at end times events as we looked at living, first of all, with expectation, expecting the imminent return of Christ.

As we looked at the rapture there at the end of chapter four, and then last week we talked about living in preparation as we talked about the day of the Lord that is coming, that we need to be prepared for and that we should be sober. And vigilant as believers in Jesus Christ, always looking for the coming of our Lord. Well, today, as we finish up the book, we come to the last set of verses here in the title of the message is final instructions for godly living, final instructions for godly living. As Paul often does, he starts to wrap up his book and he starts to go rapid fire on giving instructions.

It's almost kind of like he just wants to throw as much in there as he possibly can. Oh, yeah. Don't forget. This. Oh, yeah. Don't forget this. Oh, yeah. Don't forget this. And so he gives these instructions. Well, as we look at the last twelve or the last set of verses here, there's five things that he's going to tell us. But let's first of all read through these set of verses and then we'll go back and look at it.

Starting in verse twelve, it says this. But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, who have and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction and that you esteem them very highly. In love because of their work, live in peace with one another. We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak and be patient with everyone.

See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek for that which is good for one another and for all people. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing in everything. Give thanks. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances, but examine everything carefully. Hold fast to that which is good.

Abstain from every form of evil. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful. Is he? Who calls you and he also will bring it to pass. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. And so he's going to give us five pieces of advice, five instructions for godly living as he wraps up this book. The first piece of instruction that he gives to us, number one, is that we are to live respectfully. We are to live respectfully. And ultimately, within the church, he deals with two different groups of people.

He deals with the congregants, or the brethren, as he refers to them there, but he also deals with the church leaders. On the part of the brethren, he tells them, first of all, he tells them that they are to do three things to be respectful to those in leadership. First of all, he says that you should appreciate them. Notice what it says in verse 12. But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord.

And give you instruction. The word appreciate means to recognize or to respect. Now, in our culture today, we have a hard time respecting leadership just in general. And I think this is a principle that doesn't just go for church leadership. I just think it kind of goes for leadership in general. Because we live in a culture that doesn't really enjoy being led by anyone.

Mainly, we live in a culture that doesn't enjoy being told what to do by anyone. And so sometimes when people are in charge, everybody tends to want to buck against that because who are you to tell me what to do? Well, that mentality, that thought process is not new to the 21st century. It's something that's been a part of humanity since the fall. After all, Eve wanted to be her own God, right?

We wanted to be our own God. We wanted to be able to decide what was right and what was wrong. Therefore, we all have this attitude in us that does not want to respect those that are in leadership. And Paul, in talking to the congregation, says, first of all, to appreciate, to recognize, and to respect those who are in leadership. The second thing that he tells them is that they are to esteem or to hold in high regard those that are in leadership.

But the third thing that he tells them to do, I think, is actually the best way that you can both appreciate and esteem those that are in leadership. Live in peace with one another. Live in peace with one another. I'm here to tell you right now, as someone who's been in leadership for a very long time, I can tell you right now, the best way that you could ever appreciate someone in leadership is to not cause problems for people in leadership.

I'm just going to be honest about that. If you people can just deal with your business, and I'm talking to me here, too, because I've been the person that leadership has had to address at times. If we could all just be people that could get along, if we could all just be people who can live at peace with one another, then that is the best way that you can show respect to those that are in charge because they never have to get involved. They never have to address the issues.

If there are no issues to address. And, again, in our culture that we live in today, and given the deepening divide that we saw take place again this last week, it's important that we learn to live in peace with those around us. For those of you that loved the outcome of the election, you need to live in peace and not gloat and flaunt the fact that your person won the election. For those of you that are not pleased with the way that the election came out, you need to decide.

For those of you that are not pleased with the way that the election came out, you need to decide. It's time to get over it and live life without the anger that your side didn't win. And I don't care which side won this particular time, I would be giving this exact same piece of advice. Because I am watching things happen right now in our culture that I find disheartening.

Don't get me wrong, the internet has had a field day with the fact that Trump won this election. And may I say, I think it's hilarious. I have loved some of the things that I've seen on the internet, but I've also, on the other end, I've also, on the other end, I've also, on the other end, I've also, on the other end, I've also, on the other end, I've also, on the other end, I've also, on the other end, I've also, on the other end, seen people become very prideful in what's taken place. And we can't do that.

Just like I've watched on the other side, people actually have mental breakdowns and post themselves on social media breaking down over what's taken place. Listen, brothers and sisters, we have to learn to live in peace with each other, even if we don't agree on things. It's the best way that we can show respect to leadership. But he doesn't just address the congregation here.

I know he doesn't directly address leadership, but he does address them because of what he says in verse 12. Because he also tells leadership that they're supposed to be doing three things. First of all, they are to, notice what it says, diligently labor among you. Diligently labor among you. Do you know what that phrase means? That phrase means to work to the point of exhaustion.

To work to the point of exhaustion. And anyone that wants a position of leadership within a church, or anyone that wants a position of leadership, period, needs to understand that with great privilege comes great responsibility. And the responsibility is to labor to the point of exhaustion. If you don't wear yourself out in the work, then you aren't worthy to be a leader.

If as a leader you are asking the people under you to do more than you are doing, then you're not a leader, you're a dictator. Leaders lead by example, and the example that they are to set is to be people who lead by diligently laboring. The second thing that he tells leaders that they are to do is that they have charge over the people. In other words, they are not only in charge of the people, but they are responsible for the people.

And I think anytime someone's in a position of leadership, again, whether that's within a church, or within the business that you run, or the place of employment that you have, if you are in a position of leadership, that means that you are responsible for your people. I'll never forget, when 9-11 happened, and watching an interview with a guy that owned a business on one of the floors of the World Trade Center, and he was one of the few from his business that made it out alive. And I remember watching an interview with him a few days afterwards, and the guy could barely piece together a sentence because he was so broken over the fact that he had lost his employees. He wasn't worried about his business, he was worried about his employees,

and the fact that he made it out and they didn't. Because he understood what it was to be responsible. He understood what it was to have charge over people, and he understood that those people were his responsibility, and they died on his watch, and he could not handle it. Because he understood the responsibility that he had. And if you're in a form of leadership,

you need to understand that's the responsibility that you have. Your people are your responsibility. He says they have charge over you. But the third thing that he tells leaders that they are to do is that they are to instruct. Notice what it says. In verse 12, and give you instruction. You ever wonder why most of our service is me up here talking? It's not because I wanna be the only guy talking.

It's because you need instruction. And that's the task that I've been given. That's the responsibility that I've been given, is to instruct you in what God's word has to say. You may notice that we have small group leaders here, and their main goal is to give you instruction. Our youth leaders' main goal is to give those kids instruction. That's what that job is supposed to be,

because as leadership, our job is to instruct in godliness, to instruct in God's word, because that is the thing that will ultimately change people's lives more than anything else in the world. And so they are to give instruction. And so the first thing he says is that we are to live respectfully. If you are those under authority, you need to respect the authority.

If you are those in authority, you need to respect the position that you have, and the people that are under your authority. So he says live respectfully. Number two, he says to live with discernment. Live with discernment. Notice what it says in verse 14. We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone, and see that no one

repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. The only way that you know how to do what he just said there is if you have discernment, because you need to be able to discern who the unruly are. You need to be able to discern who the weak are. You need to be able to discern who the timid are. You need to be able to discern those things.

And so if we are to do what he said, we have to live with discernment. So let's look at what he tells us, because he gives us some examples of those that we need to discern. First of all, he says you need to admonish the unruly. The word admonish means to warn or to correct, but the unruly is the interesting word that's used here. The word unruly is first of all what you would imagine.

It means the rebellious or the disorderly. In other words, we all as the body of Christ, because he says I urge you, brethren, so this isn't just a leadership responsibility. This is a body of Christ responsibility. We all need to be able to recognize the unruly within the body of Christ. Those who are living in rebellion, those who are being disorderly in the way

that they live their lives, and we are to warn them. What does that mean? It means when you see a brother or sister living in sin, you need to remind them, hey, that's sin. Right, and that's so judgmental. No, it's not. It's telling the truth. If you tell them they can't be forgiven, that's judgmental. If you act like you're better than them, that's judgmental.

Telling the truth, not judgmental. That's what we're supposed to do. But you know, there's another interesting part to that word unruly, because it can mean rebellion. Rebellious or disorderly, but do you know what else it can mean? Idle, let me give you another word, lazy. So when Paul tells them that they are to admonish the unruly, it's not just the rebellious,

those living in sin, it's not just the disorderly, those causing division, it's those that won't do anything. It's those that won't take part in any of the help within the church, it's those that aren't willing to go to work, it's those that aren't willing to do their job when they do go to work. It's those that aren't willing to do their job when they do go to work. Listen, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ and you're working with other believers, and you're being lazy, you should expect them to correct you, you should expect them to warn you.

Hey, you're not living a very good example as a brother or sister in Christ, because as brothers and sisters in Christ, we're supposed to be the hard workers, and you're not working very hard, and it's ruining the example for the rest of us. And so it's an important thing to do, and if you are a believer in Jesus Christ and you have coworkers that are lazy, you need to be willing to warn them. And it even takes place within the church. Within the church, when you see people who aren't willing to pitch in and help, you need to every now and then say, you know, it might be nice if you grabbed a broom sometimes, too.

You can't say that. Sure you can! That's what the body of Christ is for. The body of Christ is to lovingly correct each other and to warn each other. And so he says, first of all, you need to discern who the unruly are, and you need to admonish them. Number two, or the next thing is that you are to encourage the faint-hearted. The word faint-hearted means timid

or lacking spiritual courage. Timid or lacking spiritual courage. Now, this is where you need discernment, because with the unruly, you need to be able to have a hand of authority that says you're being unruly. But with the faint-hearted, you need to have the tender encouragement of saying, it's okay. Jesus still loves you. You still belong to, I know you're having a hard time

really getting founded in your faith. I know you're having a really hard time getting grounded in who you are in Christ, but Jesus still loves you. I've been in those periods of time in my life where I was the timid, or I was the faint-hearted one, and I needed to hear that God wasn't done with me yet. I needed to hear about what my position in Christ looked like.

And as brothers and sisters, we need to be able to come alongside those who are faint-hearted, who feel like they've sinned too much, who feel like they've fallen too far, who feel like they're never gonna be able to be who God wants for them to be, and we need to be able to encourage them. We need to be able to strengthen them in that way. And so he says, encourage the faint-hearted. And then he says to help the weak.

The weak, of course, are the spiritually weak. In other words, those who you see struggling in their walk, not only do they maybe need encourage, but they need someone to come alongside them. My wife and I were having a conversation with a couple of kids last night, and we were just sharing our testimony about not only how my wife came to the Lord, but also how our relationship grew in the college group that we were a part of up in Kansas City. And when my wife first got saved, she got plugged into a college group that this guy was leading, his name was Ryan, and that's me, that this guy was leading, and she got plugged into this college group, and there were several that had just gotten saved, and we all got plugged into this college group together,

and I was going through my own set of things that I needed encouragement about, and so we all kind of joined together and we helped each other. I helped the ones who didn't know anything about the Bible or Jesus, and they helped encourage me because I was kind of weak in my faith in that I was always, I was the faint-hearted at that point in time, and they kept telling me, you keep doing what you're doing because we love what God's done in you, and you may not see it, but we see it. And there was this mutual encouragement that took place there, and we all came alongside each other. And I'm here to tell you right now, we are where we are in our faith because we had that group of friends that encouraged the faint-hearted and helped the weak.

Matter of fact, we still get together with those people almost every summer to either go on vacation or go hang out with them because they're so important in our lives. And that's what we're to be. We have to be able to discern those things with each other and come alongside each other. And listen, I'm gonna throw it out there again. That's why you need to be plugged in

somewhere besides just Sunday morning. This is incredibly important, what we're doing here right now, and it's not just because I'm the guy talking. I think anybody that attends a Sunday morning service, one of the most important things you can do during the week because that's where you get fed the word of God that you then take with you. But you need to be plugged in with people throughout the week as well.

You either need to be coming on here on Wednesday night or you need to also be going to a small group where you're getting plugged in either once a week or every other week where you've got people who can discern the needs that you have, who can discern what you need in your life. That's why those are so monumentally important. And so he says, you have to be able to discern these things. And then number, the fourth thing he says you need to be able to discern is to be patient with everyone.

But Ryan, he said everyone. Where's the discernment? It's because you need to be patient, right? That's where discernment comes in. Because discernment is what tells you you're being a jerk right now. You're not being very patient with these people right now. And the Holy Spirit will say, you just need to give them space. You need to give them room to grow.

You need to understand that they're at a different place than you are. Be patient with everyone. Then he goes on to say one more thing. And he says, don't repay evil for evil. Instead, seek what is good. Don't repay evil for evil. Again, the amount of discernment that that requires is impressive. Because for us to be able to discern someone's doing something evil to me

and I need to know the right way to respond, and then God shows you the right way to respond, which is not in evil, but with good, that takes the discernment of the Holy Spirit. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit. And it takes the strength of the Holy Spirit. Because we live in a world where people do mean things all the time. And you have a choice. The choice that you have is to either strike back in kind

or to strike back and be kind. That's the choice that's laid before us every single day. And as mature believers, we need to be able to say, yes, we are to discern that choice and make the right one. Don't repay evil for evil. Instead, seek to do what is good for everyone. And so he says, first of all, we are to live respectfully. Second of all, we are to live with discernment.

Number three, we are to live prayerfully. We are to live prayerfully. He says, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Living prayerfully requires these three things. The first thing he tells us is to rejoice always. Rejoice always. That in the Greek is actually the shortest verse in the entire Bible.

Jesus wept is the shortest one in the English, but in the Greek, this is actually the shortest verse in the entire Bible. But I want you to notice how conclusive this verse is. Rejoice always. But Ryan, you don't understand what, rejoice always. But I'm in the middle of, rejoice always. But you don't know what they, rejoice always. Do you remember what prompted Paul writing this book?

He had, first of all, gotten kicked out of Thessalonika, then he got kicked out of Berea, and then he was met with apathy at Athens, and now he's living in Athens, and now he's living in Athens, and now he's living in Athens, and now he's living in Athens, in Corinth where God is going to have to come along and tell him, you should stay here even though it's hard because I have lots of people in this city. And in that process, in the middle of those circumstances, Paul writes to the Thessalonian believers who are enduring persecution, rejoice always. That's why sometimes the greatest thing that you can do in the beginning of your prayer time is to praise God for what you know to be true. It's to praise God for what you know to be

true because that's what it means to rejoice always. I keep trying to look up the word rejoice because I always want to know what does that word exactly mean? Like, how can we find a good definition for this? And you know what? All the definitions say the exact same thing, to be joyful or to be glad. I'm like, surely there's something more to it. It's like, nope, it's just that simple.

How can you be glad in the midst of bad circumstances? Because God has not changed. And you can rejoice in what you know to be true about God because God hasn't changed in the midst of everything that's going on in your life, in the midst of everything that's happening in your world. God hasn't changed. His character is still the same, and everything he does is still good. And so he says rejoice always. And

I actually think one of the greatest things you can do to change your mentality is to take that time to rejoice in the Lord and to start praising God for who he is. Because as we've talked about before, we've talked about what we know to be true about God. And we've talked about what we know before. It resets our perspective. It resets our view of things. Because when life is heavy,

that heaviness comes really close to us. And all of a sudden, we've lost our perspective of God. And even though that heaviness is so close to us, it's so much smaller than who God is that when we start to praise God, it puts everything back in perspective. And we realize that in the big scheme of things, God is still God. I am still not. And that won't last forever. And I can rejoice always.

The second thing he says to do is to pray without ceasing. To pray without ceasing. Now listen, I love the thought of this in my brain. Because I think about everything like it's a Looney Tunes cartoon. That's just the way my brain has worked since I was about seven, maybe five years old. I view everything that way. And I just picture somebody walking around with their head bowed

and their eyes closed, running into everything in the world. And I think it's the funniest thing I can imagine. I actually kind of chuckle a little bit when I think about it. I love fail videos for this reason. I know that that makes me a little bit morbid. My wife always looks over and says, I know why you're laughing right now as I'm staring at my phone. And she says,

which fail video are you watching? And people are just falling down all over the place. People are running into things. And that's what I think of when I think of praying without ceasing. Which is why I know that's not what he means. Because otherwise the church would just be one giant fail video. Even though we are sometimes. We would really just be one giant fail video.

But that's not the idea of what he says when he says to pray without ceasing. That's not even real world. Right? Like we can't just constantly be in prayer to God. I can't work right now. I have to be praying. Well, he already told us we're supposed to be industrious. So that can't be what he means. What does he mean by pray without ceasing? It means that that should be the

lifestyle that we live. The lifestyle of prayer that we live. Let me give you a little bit of an example. When I wake up in the morning and I finally know what my name is, I look at my wife and I say, good morning. And I give her a little hug. After I've brushed my teeth, I give her a little kiss. And we've started off our day. Now, Erin and I are not in the same location all day long. She's

out in Dexter, Kansas. And I'm down here at the church doing work. But throughout the day, if something comes up, I'll shoot her a message. And if she's available, she'll message me back. If something really important comes up, I'll give her a call. And if she's available, she'll answer or vice versa. She'll give me a call. And then when we come back together in

the evening, we take a little drive, usually with some sort of a caffeinated beverage in hand. And we talk about our day. And then we go back and we go about whatever evening, things that we need to take care of. And sometimes there's deep conversations. Sometimes we just talk to each other about something random or did you get this from the store? Can you get this from

the store? No, that wasn't the thing that I said to get from the store. Let me just send you a picture. All those kinds of things that you do. And then we say goodnight and we go to bed. That is constant communication with my wife. Now, am I actually attached to my phone all day long talking to her? No. But I started the line of communication when I said good morning.

Ended the line of communication when we said goodnight. And other than that, our line of communication is open all day. That's the way your relationship with the Lord is supposed to be. I always view it like this. When you wake up, you say, dear Lord. When you go to bed, you say amen. And throughout your day, you're just constantly in prayer. And sometimes that means you can

physically be in prayer. And sometimes that means that you just say, Lord help, right? In the middle of whatever's going on. I think I've shared this with you before, but every time I go into a counseling event, which I may or may not have planned, the first thing I say is, Lord give me discernment. Because I don't always know what to say. And sometimes those will happen on the spur of the moment. Some of my best counseling sessions

happen when they're not planned. And I run into someone at Walmart and I spend an hour at Walmart when I didn't intend to, right? And in the middle of it, I just have to say, Lord, I just need your wisdom right now. And that's constant prayer. And that's the way our lives are supposed to be. In constant relationship with the Lord. So we're rejoicing always.

And we're praying. We're praying without ceasing. Continual conversation with the Lord. And then the third thing that he says we're supposed to do if we are to live a prayerful life is that in everything, we are to give thanks. In everything, we are to give thanks.

I've noticed something, and I've watched it happen for quite a few years now, but this is the first year where I've really noticed that Thanksgiving has gotten no say in the holidays this year. I've watched it happen, and I comment on it every year. But this year, there's genuinely just almost no Thanksgiving, right? So on Halloween night, I'm not a big fan of Halloween. I don't

like trick-or-treating and all that stuff. It's just the way that I grew up. So I really don't enjoy it. So we usually find something else to do on Halloween night. And so Violet was supposed to get her wisdom teeth out the next day. So I was like, you know what you need tonight? Steak. So we went up to Texas Roadhouse and ate steak. And then we went to Shields and did a little shopping

because I'm sure that that's what she needed too right before she got teeth hacked out of her head. And we're in the Shields, and I'm trying shoes on because this is what I do. I'm trying shoes on, and I'm listening. I'm going. And I looked at my good friend DeAndre that was handing me shoes, and I said, is that Christmas music playing? And he said, yes. It just randomly started in the

middle of the day. I don't even know who started it. I don't even know how it started. All of a sudden, it went from the normal music we're listening to to Christmas music. I'm like, it's not even November 1 yet. How are we already playing Christmas music? He goes, I know. And every place that I've gone, the next day, I drive by the Scooter's Coffee, and there are candy canes lining everything. Thanksgiving has lost its place. You know why?

Because we're not a really thankful culture. I mean, we can say what we want to about it. Oh, we're looking forward to Jesus. No, you're not. You're looking forward to presents. You're looking forward to everything else. And we've lost track of Thanksgiving. We have truly lost track of giving thanks to God for everything that he's done for us. And because we have lost track of giving thanks to God for everything that he's done for us,

we oftentimes lose that perspective. The other thing that I've noticed is that it used to be every year people would do the Thanksgiving challenge on some form of social media. Now, they were always, and I always made fun of them, but they were always great because it reminded me it's Thanksgiving time. But we don't give thanks anymore. And because of that, we're not content with what we have.

We're not content with our God. And oftentimes, our perspective is off. But he says to give thanks in everything. I want you to notice what he did not say. He did not say to give thanks for everything. There are certain things in life that I'm not always thankful for. I'm not always thankful for the hard things that happen in life. But in the middle of the hard things that happen in life, I can be thankful because I can give

thanks in everything. Why can we give thanks in everything? Well, because Romans chapter 8 tells us, and we know, that God causes all things to work together for the good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. So there's going to be a certain amount, of things that I'm not always very thankful for in my life. There's a certain amount of things that

I find myself not very thankful for in my life. But I can always remember that no matter what's going on in my life, I can still be thankful to God because he will use everything that comes into my life for my good and for his glory if I will constantly keep him in mind. If I will constantly have that perspective. And I watch it happen over and over again in life. I watch it

happen over and over again. I'm like, Lord, I don't know what you're going to do with this one. Like, that's a bad thing. And then God always brings something really good out of it. I'm watching it happen over and over again. And my faith just keeps getting built. Honestly, I think that's why last Tuesday, I really wasn't all that stressed about what was going to take place. I didn't have much faith that it was going to happen the way

that it did. But I was like, whichever direction things go on Tuesday, I think we're going to be okay. Because God's still good. And God still takes care of his people. And I'm going to be thankful no matter what happens. Thankful that God is still good in the process of whatever takes place. It's a slow part of my growth, but it is some growth that I see happening. And that's what

God wants for us. Is he wants us to be thankful in everything and everything give thanks. As a matter of fact, it says, this is the will of God for you. Have you ever thought about that? People want to know what God's will is. Well, so far we've learned that God's will is your sanctification. We learned that earlier in the book of Thessalonians. Immorality. But God's will also for you is to give thanks in everything. So next time you sit

back and go, well, what's God's will for me? Well, have you thanked God lately? Have you lived a life of graciousness to your Savior lately? Because that's God's will for you. So we are to live lives that are prayerful. Live respectfully. Live with discernment. Live prayerfully. Number four, we are to live spiritually. We are to live spiritually. Notice what it says in verse 19. Do not quench the

Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances, but examine everything carefully. Hold fast to that which is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now, when it comes to the work of the Holy Spirit, this is one of the things that the church is divided about. I had a conversation with somebody recently, and they were like, well, you know, I'd have to kind of look into some doctrinal things on that to make sure that we agree. And I said, can we just be

honest and say that there's really two main things that the church disagrees on today? Eschatology and the work of the Holy Spirit. Other than that, we're all pretty much in agreement. If you're a conservative church, if you're a liberal church, you believe all kinds of crazy things, but those aren't in the Bible. The biblical differences that most conservative churches have have to do with

the work of the Holy Spirit. And there's two sides to the camp of the work of the Holy Spirit. On one side of the camp, you have what we'll call extreme charismatic churches, where every Sunday needs to be an extreme usage of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There's people speaking in tongues. There's people, there's healings taking place. Somebody's given a prophetic word. Somebody's got

a word of knowledge. And listen, I sat in a prayer meeting. I stood in a prayer meeting with some people here recently. And my ADHD causes me to struggle with this. I don't know that I necessarily have an issue theologically with this, but my brain won't allow this. They said, let's pray, but we're going to pray Pentecostally. And I was like, I mean, I think we all just pray. I didn't

know we had labels on that. But okay, we can just. And so they're like, why don't you start? No problem. So I start praying. And as I say, dear Lord, everybody starts talking. And I'm like, okay, I can't. Did I say dear Lord yet? Have I said that yet? And listen, if that's how they feel comfortable praying, I have no problem with that. I can't do that. Not because I have a theological difference with it, but because everywhere I look, there's

another squirrel for me to run off on. And I'm like, I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore. I don't even know what I'm saying. Dear Jesus. Right? Just point to them. It's what they said, right? And so there's that end of things. Right? And then on the other end, you have what I will call the extreme conservative end of things where they don't even want to admit that the gifts of the Holy Spirit exist. Matter of fact,

not only do they not want to admit it, they will tell you it's not true, that they ended with the apostles. J. Vernon McGee was a guy like this. And I respect him massively on everything that he taught, but I disagree with him on this. But you know what the funny thing was? Somebody said, do you believe in divine healing? And he said, of course, only God can heal.

You may give medicine, but God heals. And I'm like, hey, J. Vernon, buddy, you may not realize this, but you believe in the gifts of the Spirit. You just don't believe in the crazy outworking of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But sometimes you've got these people on the other end that are so conservative and they don't really want to put any credit on the working of the Holy Spirit.

And both ends of that do what we call quench the Spirit. It really does. The word quench means to put out like a flame. To put out like a fire, like you're dousing a fire, throwing water on a fire. And I believe that scripturally speaking, we have a balance that's supposed to take place. Now, I will admit that sometimes as a church, we lean a little bit more on the conservative end and a little bit less

on the charismatic end. And sometimes I do think that we could probably open up opportunities just a little bit more for the working of the Holy Spirit. But I fully believe in the gifts. I believe that all of those things are for today. I believe that divine healing can take place and that we could pray over someone and if it were God's will, they would heal them.

Matter of fact, sometimes I get a little bit convicted about the fact that I don't get as bold in prayer about some of those things as I should. I believe that the gift of tongues is for today. And that if God has given you that gift, it's primarily your prayer language with the Lord. But sometimes God uses it in the open assembly as long as there is an interpretation, but all things are to be done decently and in order. But we can't quench the Holy Spirit. Well,

how do we quench the Holy Spirit? Well, the first way that we quench the Holy Spirit is by resisting Him. Because sometimes the Holy Spirit is at work in your life. And He's doing something inside of you. And He's pointing you to something and you sort of push back. Sometimes the pushback comes through distractions. Have you ever been in that place where, man, you are just caught up in the

Holy Spirit and God is just speaking to you, ministering to you, and you can just really sense that working of the Holy Spirit and then your phone rings, right? Or you name the day, distraction, your kid comes up and they need a, you know, a popsicle. And you're like, it's kind of in the Spirit right now, but whatever, get a popsicle, right? There's those distractions that take place. But usually it's just us pushing Him away because we're a little

bit scared about maybe what the Holy Spirit wants to do next. And so oftentimes the way that we quench the Holy Spirit is by resisting Him, pushing back what He wants to do in our lives. But sometimes the way that we quench the Holy Spirit is by turning Him into a show. I believe that churches can quench the true working of the Holy Spirit by turning it into a show. Because God never intended the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be a display that

are in and of themselves a display. You say, Ryan, but they're the signed gifts. Yeah, but what are all of those gifts supposed to do? All of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are supposed to point us to Jesus. All of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are supposed to declare Jesus, to explain Jesus, and to bring us closer to Jesus. So if all of the emphasis is on the gifts and not the gift giver,

which is Jesus, then they're not doing their job and you're actually quenching the work of the Holy Spirit because they're supposed to point you to Jesus. But see, on the other end, the way that we can quench that working of the Holy Spirit is just by ignoring it altogether, by not ever opening ourselves up and saying, Lord, what do you want to do? How do you want to move through me? How do you want to move through this time? Listen, if you start surrendering yourself to the Holy

Spirit, He's going to do some pretty cool things through you. It should happen. As I've sat back and said, okay, Lord, I just want to be available to you to do what you want me to do. You know what the Holy Spirit starts doing? He goes, go talk to them, go minister to them. And I'm like, well, I didn't mean that. That's not what I meant by I'm open to whatever

you want to do. I mean, like with me, just, you know, whatever. He's like, yeah, I know. Go talk to them. And then you have to get outside of your comfort zone and you have to go share the gospel with them. And all of a sudden now you're like, okay, that was the coolest thing in the world, especially when they take in what God's word has to say and then receive Jesus through it. But we don't want to just completely quench that work of

the Holy Spirit because He wants to be at work in all of our lives. And so Paul tells them, don't quench the Holy Spirit. And then he tells them one specific way not to quench the Holy Spirit. He says, don't despise prophetic utterances. Don't despise prophetic utterances. You know what a prophetic utterance is? It's the birth of the word of God in a specific way and perhaps specifically into

someone's life. In the New Testament, I don't believe that that gift of prophecy has as much to do with telling the future, although I have no problem with that. Matter of fact, there's some pretty fascinating videos out there right now. And I know I warn you about YouTube a lot, but there are some kind of interesting videos, not the least of which is the Simpsons. Anyway, that's a whole

thing. You should just look up. I don't know if I can say this from the pulpit or not. You should just look up Trump prophecy sometime. That's all I have to say. You should just look that up. It's kind of an interesting thing to do. But I believe in these prophetic utterances that God uses people to speak forth the word in very specific ways. I've seen it happen in my life. I have watched God do

this in my life, and I've shared this with you before, but there are two specific instances that I can tell you about where a word of prophecy was used in my life. The first one was when I was not walking with Jesus at all as a knucklehead teenager, and my dad filled in up at Calvary or led worship up there. I can't remember which one it was. And one of the people that went to church there came up to me afterwards and says, God has a calling on your life. You just need to

know that. God told me to tell you that God has a calling on your life. And I was kind of like, whatevs. Can we leave now? Because I wasn't walking with Jesus at the time. But I've looked back and gone, that was a prophetic moment. And of course, the one that always speaks the most to me was my good friend, Jen. And I actually messaged her not long ago and told her this. She was a friend of

mine. And she wrote me a note one time in class and told me that I was going to go through a time when I questioned my calling, when I questioned what God was going to do, and that when I did that, I needed to hold on to the Lord because he would bring me through. And I remember getting that note and going, well, that's kind of cool. And I folded it up, put it in my Bible and went on.

Well, when I was going through a time exactly like that, I found that note about a year and a half later. I found that note and I read it. And it actually, I was like, man, I'm going to go through that. And she was spot on. Like God knew exactly what he was doing with that. And so don't despise those prophetic utterances. God uses all those things to do his work because we want to live

spiritually. But this is what we're supposed to do with prophetic utterances. When somebody speaks forth the word in a very specific way, perhaps into your life or into a situation, we are to examine, verse 21, everything carefully. Well, what do we examine those things next to? Well, we examine them next to God's word. And as we examine them next to God's word, we determine,

does this line up with what scripture is saying? Does this line up with what the Holy Spirit has been doing? And if it does, then we take in those good things. And we say, okay, well, that must be from the Lord and that must be good. But we always have to hold everything up to scripture because if we don't hold it up to scripture, that's how we get false doctrine. When we don't

hold it up to scripture, that's how we get the Mormon church, right? That's where those things come from. Somebody received a prophetic utterance and it wasn't held up next to scripture. And now you've got an entire cult that started because of it. And so he says, don't despise those things. Examine what is good. Hold fast to that or examine everything. Hold fast to what is

good. But I want you to notice what he says in verse 22, and abstain from every form of evil. This not only speaks, I believe, not only speaks to prophetic utterances, that are not from God, but it's exactly what it says. Every form of evil. Abstain from it. Get away from it. Put it away. Because if you are going to live spiritually, you cannot bring in the flesh

because what fellowship does light have with darkness? And so he tells us that we are to live spiritually. Number five, he tells us that we are to live set apart, to live set apart. Notice what it says in verse 23. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved completely without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he who calls

you, and he also will bring it to pass. I love the way he starts this off and what he refers to God as. Now may the God of peace. I think we could probably, we're not going to, but we could probably just camp out on the ground. that phrase for a little while, because that's who God is for us. In a world full of chaos, in a world full of upheaval, in a world full of conflict, he is the God of peace.

He is the author of our peace. He is the sustainer of our peace. He is the giver of all peace. And in his presence, there is that true place of peace. Now may the God of peace sanctify you entirely. I have a friend who spent some time in jail because he committed a crime, a crime that he was guilty of. And it was while he was in jail that he came to the Lord. He came to know the Lord as his Savior

while he was in jail. And he ended up, really should have served a life sentence for this crime, and he would tell you that if he was standing here with you today. Should have served a life sentence for his crime, but he didn't. Because while he was in prison, he came to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior. And where he was at one point in time was full of anger and full of rage and full of violence.

And after he came to know Jesus, God became his peace. And he became set apart unto the Lord. He said, I started meeting with a group of guys who also loved Jesus. And we knew that we would maybe have the opportunity to sit before a parole board. He said, but we had learned something through Christ that we didn't learn any other way. And what we had learned was, if you want to be

set free, you have to own up to your crime. You have to own up to your charges. He said, so we literally would practice with each other sitting before a parole board, admitting to our crime, admitting what we did was wrong, and admitting that we need the help of Jesus. And he said, because I was able to do that, no one else could hold a charge against me because I had already owned up to it.

I'd already owned up to who I was. I'd already owned up to what I did. And so nobody could hold anything against me. He said, eventually, they paroled me because they knew he's owned up to what he's done. He served his debt to society. He can be set free. See, that's what it means to be blameless. It doesn't mean that you're sinless. It means that you own up to who you

really are because then no one can hold a charge against you. You don't know what he's done. You don't know what he's done. Yes, I do. He told me already, and I've forgiven him. And that's who you and I are in Christ. And so he says, may the God of peace sanctify you completely and preserve your body, your soul, and spirit blameless. And then one of my favorite verses in all the Bible,

it's in my top three. Faithful is he who calls you, and he also will bring it to pass. See, God has called you to be sanctified. He's called you to be set apart unto him. But God is faithful that if he calls you to be set apart unto him, he's going to bring it to pass. He's called you to be blameless. He's going to bring it to pass because it's all about the

work of the Lord, not about whether or not I can ever be good enough. Well, now we come to the conclusion. So he's given us those five pieces of instruction for godly living. But now as we come to this conclusion, it says this in verse 25. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren. The grace of our Lord

Jesus Christ be with you. As he concludes, he says, hey, could you guys pray for us? I love that because there's a great deal of humility in Paul to be able to look at these Thessalonian believers and say, could you guys pray for us? And as you're praying for us, would you make sure that you take time to greet each other? Now he tells them to greet each other

with a holy kiss because that was the custom at that point in time. And there was actually a custom that the men would give the men a holy kiss and the women would give the women a holy kiss. And listen, this is not an uncommon thing in Eastern cultures. I think I've told you before about my friend from Bible college. His name was Pete. He was Egyptian. We called him Pete the Egyptian because we didn't get real creative. And every time Pete would see me,

he would give me a kiss on the cheek. And he would say, hi, Ryan. And I would say, that's weird. Hey, Pete. Right? Because that's just, it was an odd thing to do because he was Middle Eastern. That's what he was used to doing. He was used to doing this. So he says, give each other a holy kiss. Listen, I'm here to tell you right now, don't kiss anybody when you leave here, okay? It's going to be weird. We're all going to

think it's weird and you may get a lawsuit slapped against you. But you could give each other a holy high five. You could give each other a holy hug or a holy handshake or whatever it is that you feel comfortable doing. He says, greet each other. And then he says, make sure that this is read to everybody. And then he closes the way he closes all of his letters. The grace of our Lord Jesus

Christ be with you. Because as we've said before, his grace has brought us safe thus far. And his grace will lead us home. Amen? Let's all stand. If you're able, please join us this evening. It is a very informative video about the state of the culture that we're in today and how we got here. So if you have a chance to join us this evening, that'd be great. In the

meantime, may the Lord bless you. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come to you and thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. I thank you for how good you are to us. And just pray that you would continue. Your work in our hearts and lives. Father, we thank you and we praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

As we leave here, may we just look to you and be in that attitude of praying without ceasing and without running into walls. With that attitude, Lord. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen? Lord bless y'all.