Please open your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians 5. As you know, I've been preaching my way through this book, and we will, God willing, continue on into 2 Thessalonians. Today we're coming toward the end of the book, and like many of Paul's writings, he kind of packs a whole bunch together right at the end. And don't forget this, and don't forget this, and remember to do that, and it's that kind of letter. It's one of the earliest books written in the New Testament, probably written sometime in the 50s, the mid-50s A.D. And so we have here actually some of the earliest instructions to a local church, which is interesting for us as these things still apply to our lives today. Paul has spent a long time talking in here about end times things. He is focused on why they need to be actually living for Christ today, rather than sitting around waiting on a hillside somewhere for the world to end. We have seen, even in our day, Folks who have gone off the deep end and said, oh, Jesus is coming on October this, or may that, or whatever. Christ is coming. There's two things I'm certain of regarding the end times. And one is that Christ is coming. And the other is He has not yet come. Those two things you can be certain of. But it's interesting that after all of this instruction about the day of the Lord and how we need to be prepared for that, then he begins to talk about, but how do we now live? It's that same view of Peter where he says, if all these things are going to be burned up, how should we then live? And so, this is what Paul is talking about. This is how you live. In verse 11 he had said, therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing. I want to remind you that this is about a local church. Almost all of the letters in the New Testament, of those letter-type books, are written to local churches. And so, it's always about that one-anotherness that you see him talking. And so, we come to this passage as he begins to lay before them If Christ is coming, we don't know when, we know it will be sudden, it will be unlooked for, it will be loud, and it will be over, how should we live now? And so that's what this passage is about, is how do we live in such a day? Before we dive into this passage, let's give this time to our Savior. Heavenly Father, I ask that You would open hearts and minds today to the Gospel. Lord, may we understand it rightly. And Lord, may we live in the light of Your Word. Help me, Lord, to rightly handle it. In Jesus' name. Amen. And so he has said all of these things about the day of the Lord and how it will come like a thief, and then he comes to verse 12 and he says, 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. He begins, how do we live? Well, we begin by living inside a local body, part of a local church. And so these first few verses of 12 and 13 are particularly pointed at that life inside the local church. Actually, verses 12 all the way down through verse 15. As how do we live inside of a local body? How do we behave toward one another? And it's interesting that he begins with their leadership. It's interesting that he says that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord, and give you instruction. This is not talking about three different offices in the church. One of my commentaries that I was studying this week, he went into this long, convoluted explanation. Well, one part is talking about this person in the church, and this is talking about somebody else. This is all talking about the same thing. the leaders of the church. We hear churches talk about, well, we have bishops, or we have pastors, or we have elders. You do realize that they're all the same thing. They're terms for the same office. If you would compare with me, just turn to Acts chapter 20, Acts chapter 20, and we have this, I call it a pastor's conference, that Paul calls there for the Ephesian church. And in Acts chapter 20, I want you to look at something here, we're not going to take a long time to look at all the details of this, but I want you to notice something here. In Acts chapter 20 verse 17, it says, from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. Now here's something you can learn, is that the leadership in the church was plural. The idea of the dictator type church polity that you see in many churches, where one guy and he controls everything, kind of like, well, Sometimes it looks like here, but it's not our desire. But you and I are acquainted with churches where the pastor is, he just tells everybody what to do, and there's one guy. You'll notice that leadership in local churches in the New Testament is always in the plural. Interesting, no? So he calls to him elders. Now one of the things we can learn about this is that typically, leadership in a church should be mature men. Now that does not mean that a younger man can't serve, but he needs to be mature in Christ. He needs to be a person who's not a brand new believer. Paul warns about that in Titus and Timothy, not to bring in someone suddenly and new. We have seen that here of folks who show up at church and they just want to take over right away. No, we don't do it that way. And so you see that. But then if you look down a little further in what Paul is saying to them, in verse 28, he's giving them instructions of what he's warning them about, and then in verse 28 he says, "...be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock." Who cares for a flock? A pastor, a shepherd. That's what the word pastor means, is a shepherd. For all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you, and then he uses another term, overseers, or some translate this, bishops. Who is he speaking to? elders. He called the elders together. He calls them overseers to, look at this, shepherd, that is pastor, the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. And so, you have these three different roles of the same people. And so, when churchmen get all hung up on, well, you know, we have this, and we have this, and we have this, and this does that, and this does that. It's the same people. Just to help you understand this. So, if you go back to 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 12, he says, we request of you, brothers, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, have charge over you in the Lord, and give you instruction." So you have there these elders that are diligently laboring, they have charge over you in the Lord, they're overseers, and they give you instruction, that's pastoring. It's all the same thing. And, you know, we joke about pastors wearing many hats. And sometimes the hat is the hat of a plumber or other things. But in reality, pastors, this is their work, is that they care for the flock, they care for those under them, they're watching over them, they're caring for them. And it's a lot of work. It's important. Look at Hebrews chapter 13. In the book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews, whom I happen to think is Paul, but we don't have any real proof of that. Hebrews 13, verse 7, this writer says almost the same thing. Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith. Here's a huge responsibility as a pastor. I have to live so that others can imitate me. You hear men say, well, you know, don't follow me, follow Christ. Well, in one sense that's true. But if he's living in a way that does not honor Christ, there is something terribly wrong. Does that mean that men like myself are without sin or without error? Well, that's not true. You folks know me well. Yes, I am a fallen man along with you, but I ought to be living in such a way that I could say, here's how I handle that. And you could listen and say, that's probably godly advice. Look a little further there in Hebrews 13. He says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes, and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were thus occupied were not benefited." And so, part of that role of a pastor and leader is to warn of false doctrine, to keep people toward the right way of thinking. You'll notice we have those book tables in the back. There's a reason for that. I want you guys to be reading good stuff, not the garbage that's pushed out in the so-called Christian book sites and that kind of thing, but to be reading good quality things that will help you. Notice it says, to be strengthened by grace, not by foods through which those who are thus occupied were not benefited. I've known folks that got all hung up on weird ideas about, well, we've got to follow the Old Testament food laws. Those were not a diet for healthy living. They were God's instruction of those people to have them live a separated life. But the very idea of trying to pull your diet from that is a waste of time, is what He's saying. This will not build you up in the Lord. In fact, what it does, it makes people prideful. Well, I don't do that, and I don't do that. Let's look now at what else these men are doing that are leading the church. Look at Ephesians chapter 4. In Ephesians chapter 4, He talks about the local church and what God has given them. And there are two kinds of leaders that are mentioned here. And one kind of leader was given one time to the church for all time. And the other kind of gift is for each church throughout time. Look at verse 11, and He gave some as apostles and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, some as pastors, teachers. And so you have here the apostles and the prophets were given one time to the church. No, there are no new apostles. If you have been influenced by what's called the New Apostolic Reformation, run away. These are the worst of the false teachers. Paul warns of them in Corinthians about false apostles. And we have them today. No, the real apostles were given one time to the church along with the prophets. Those prophets that we see in the Old Testament. were given to the church for a reason, but also he has given to the church in every age evangelists and pastor-teachers. That's actually one phrase there, pastor-teacher. You could put a slash there instead of that and, and it'd be a little more accurate. So for what? Why did God give these men to the church? So that they could enrich themselves? So that they could have big mansions and fancy cars and things like that? Like these false apostles of today? No! They were given to the church for a reason. For the equipping of the saints for the work of service. to the building up of the body of Christ. What men are given to the church for is to train, and to teach, and to help folks grow in righteousness and understanding of God's Word. That the body would grow together. until we all attain to the unity of the faith, of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Churches are to be growing, not just in numbers. We'd love to see this place full, wouldn't we? But even more so, we want people to be personally growing in righteousness and faith. And when that happens, God begins to call more to come and take part with that group. It's what we long for. That idea of maturity. For parents, it's wonderful for us. When you have babies in the home, you're keeping track of, oh, they first crawled today, or they first said mama or daddy or whatever it was. And then when they walk. And these are all milestones. And parents love that. And they keep track of that. And they want to kind of compare that kid with other kids. Is my kid keeping up with the others? or the older siblings, or how is all that working? And we long to see maturity. A healthy parent wants to see that child hopefully someday develop into a self-sufficient adult, and that is able to leave the home and go out and do things. And we take great pride in that. Just ask a grandparent. They pretty much always have pictures in their wallet or in their phone of their grandkids. Why is that? Well, we love to see that growth and that maturity. It should be your longing. Are you longing to be more like Christ? Are you longing in your life, as you walk with Christ, you want to be like Him? Is that a reality in your life? To that measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. I've used this as an illustration in my own life. My mom had two doors that went out of the kitchen, side by side, and in between was this little space, about six inches wide, that was painted, and then you had the door frames, you know. And that was her measuring spot. And my brothers and I, every birthday you got measured. And I was always trying to catch up to my older brother. Reality shows I never did. I'm the runt. Each year, mom would have us back up to that spot. She'd put a ruler on her head and draw a little line and then put the date on there. And each time, well, have I grown since last year? Am I taller? Am I reaching? And of course, I was always trying to catch up to my big brother. And that's a bit of that picture, that as we come to the Word, and we study the Word, and we see Christ, am I measuring up to this? Well, no. Is there a longing to do so? I want to be like my Savior. If there is not a longing to be Christ-like, a longing to be turning from sin and embracing God and righteousness, what is wrong in our lives? Part of that too, in that growing in Christ. Look at verse 14 of Ephesians 4. As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects unto Him who is the Head. Even Christ. How can you avoid false teachers? Well, one thing is, be involved in a biblical local church, where the pastor who cares about you, and is going to warn you, don't be reading that junk. Run away from those people who are telling you those things. Whether it's, you know, God wants you to be rich, or that kind of nonsense. That may be true if this were the only life we have, but we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth. Now, one of the things that a good pastor, teacher, elder, bishop, whatever you want to call him, is doing, is he's warning. Look at that. He says, back in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, have charged you in the Lord and give you instruction." That's literally, notice in the margin, you know, we use the New American Standard here, and one of my frustrations is, every time they say literally this in the margin, that's what they should have put in the text. Every time. Go there, and it says, admonition, verse 12. And admonition is not just, oh honey, don't do that. It's that idea of, what in the world are you doing? It is that idea of, wake up! How in the world does this happen? I have pastor friends that I get together with on a regular basis. And the one fellow was telling me how when he came to that church, The ladies in the church were going through Bible studies by Joyce Meyer. She's a false teacher. The stuff that she teaches is garbage. And here it was right in his church and he had to begin leading those ladies away from that kind of prosperity gospel junk. How does that happen in a church? Well, one of the ways is when the leadership is not admonishing. We have to be warning. Don't do that. Don't go there. As a parent, don't you do that with your kids? Hey, don't run out in the street. Don't, you know, put down that whatever it is they're doing. We have to do that on a daily basis. And in a church, one of the roles of a pastor is to warn and say, please don't read that. It won't do you any good. Here is something better to read. That's why I have, like I say, all that stuff in the foyer of giving you good materials to read. Here's a good rule of thumb. If they're not dead, don't read them. That'll just take away about 90% of the bad teaching that's out there today. But everybody wants the latest new thing. What else do we see in a local church? Not only do we see biblical leadership, we see genuine brotherly love. Look at verse 14. We urge you, brethren, Now this is interesting, he's talking to the brothers here, he's not just talking to the leaders, he's talking to the individual members of that church. What's the first thing he says? Admonish the unruly, or the undisciplined. This isn't the pastor, this is the fellow leader, fellow members of the church, saying to one another, what are you doing? I'm thankful for brothers and sisters along through the years who have come along and just gently said, what are you doing? Why are you doing that? Do you think that's a safe thing to do? Should you be doing that? Should you be reading that? Should you be listening to that? Is that a good thing? And that's what genuine, loving brothers and sisters do for one another. It's that picture from Matthew 18 that we often point to as church discipline. It's really about individual discipline among the believers. And it starts with, if your brother's offended you, go to him in private. How many problems in churches would go away if folks would deal with something right away? Hey, what you said really hurt. Did I hear you right? Did I understand what you were saying? A lot of times. I would say a giant percentage of the problems between brothers and sisters are simply a misunderstanding. One person said something and the other person heard something else. How many times, well, in a marriage do we do that? And there you have to get over it. Well, some couples don't, but you have to deal with it. But in interpersonal relationships, I've known folks that, well, they got upset at a church or whatever. I had a fellow come to me several years ago that had been in a church where I had been. not as a pastor, but I was a teacher there, and this fellow came to me years later, and he said, I've really never been able to have anything to do with you since I heard your views on marriage and divorce. I was like, well, what were those views that you heard? He was 180 out of what I believe and teach. He was completely wrong. He said, I heard you. You said such and such. The question is, is he lying? No, he's not lying. He really believes that that's what he heard. He's wrong, because I can look back over my life and the various times I've taught on that subject, and I've always taught the same thing. So I know that what he was saying, he was mistaken. How many times have you been mistaken? Maybe when you've been really upset with somebody. Is it possible that you didn't hear them right? Brother Steve can identify with this and myself. My wife and I sometimes have some odd conversations. I'm just saying. My hearing is not what it once was. Let's just put it that way. Have you ever answered a question that nobody asked? That can be very embarrassing. How many times, perhaps, have we misheard? Have we thought that the other person answered wrongly and they misheard? We need to give some grace. Those of us that believe in sovereign grace ought to exhibit a little now and then. To assume always the worst? Why would we do that? No, as we look at this, admonish the undisciplined. There are times in our lives when someone needs to come along and say, you need to quit that. You need to quit behaving that way. Don't talk that way. Oh, how offended we would be. I have joked that, you know, people talk about hearing the voice of God. No, if I want to hear what God says, I read this book. But I have joked at times that the sound of the Holy Spirit's voice in my life sounds suspiciously like my wife's. It is those times when she can say, honey, And maybe that's all it takes to stop me in my tracks, and sometimes not. I joke that, guys, if your wife says, go ahead, that is not permission, that's a dare. I'll just lay that out there for you. Go ahead. So as we look at this, are we encouraging one another? Look at this next phrase. Encourage the faint-hearted. What sort of person is this? Help the weak, the faint-hearted and the weak. Is this talking about physical disability? No. He's talking about spiritual disability here. Of the person who is struggling in their faith. There are dear souls that know Christ and love Him and yet struggle, especially with the doctrine of assurance of salvation. Now, we ought not to have false assurance. There are many today that are falsely assured that because they said a prayer one time, that they're okay. You'll hear them say, well, yeah, back when I was six, I asked Jesus into my heart. Nowhere in scripture are you told to ask Jesus into your heart. You are told to repent and believe the gospel. But there are dear folks who struggle with assurance of salvation, and they're very exercised over their sin. I would say that most of the time those folks, although they're struggling with assurance, because they are struggling is a good sign that they truly love Christ. And they don't want to offend Him. They don't want to live in a way that besmirches His name. What I worry about more is the person who is falsely assured. But he says here, help the weak. Be patient with all men. Now, this isn't just inside the church. This is being patient with everybody. You know which ones I mean. That co-worker that likes to push your buttons. That supervisor who is demanding and unfair. Maybe that next door neighbor that plays his music at all hours of the day and night. You ever wonder about folks that do that? Do they really think that everybody else wants to listen to that? But apparently. But are we patient? Are we ready to go have a fight? How else is this going to show up in my life if I am walking with Christ? Look at verse 15. See that no one repays another with evil for evil." Who is he speaking to here? These are church people. Well, church people never have fights with one another, do they? Never do unkind things or say unkind things or behave in... Yeah. Here is the reality, is that justification is that work that God does in heaven, whereby Christ's sacrifice on the cross is applied for all of those for whom He died. And so justification is something that takes place in heaven. It is a legal term that that person is not made righteous, they are declared righteous. Big difference. And so justification is that which God does and takes place. Then there's another word called sanctification. That is the means that God uses through the ministration of the Holy Spirit to bring us more and more in line with His character. Sanctification never stops until death. After that, when we come into Christ's presence, we are glorified. But in this walk in the Christian life, we are being sanctified. Very important, it's not that you had some wonderful experience somewhere and now I'm sanctified, but rather it is that walk day by day. It is that picture of poor old Lazarus being raised from the dead, comes out of the grave and he's still bound in the grave clothes. And Jesus says to those around him, loose him and let him go. What a picture of sanctification. As we encourage one another and as we help one another take off the wrappings of death that were on us. What a picture that is. We're not to repay one another evil for evil. Don't you just want to tell people off, though, sometimes? I do. Do you ever work it over in your head what you could have said, what I should have said? Oh, watch out for that. Because the day may come when the right circumstances come, and you do. And when you do, you'll unload the whole load Ever done that? Ever had that wonderful opportunity to really tell somebody off? Guilty. I've been guilty of that. Did it do any good? It never does any good. What is that? That's evil for evil. And so he's warned, don't repay one another evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another. Am I seeking the good of the other person? Now there are times when in admonishing, they may react with great anger that you've admonished them. But you're doing it for their good. Why do we discipline our children? Just because we want to be mean to them? No, we are doing it for their good. We want to train them. And as one another-ness, we are learning day by day. It says, do that, seek after that which is good for one another, and for all men." Notice how he then takes the focus off of that local church situation, and for all men. That is in all of your life, wherever you are. One of the things that came out of the Reformation was that they broke down that wall between the clergy and the laity. The Roman church had built up this whole idea, well there's these really spiritual people over here, and then the rest of you are just the laity, and how you live is not that important, but they're the ones that really get the righteousness, and they may even have some left over for you if you pay us enough. Read history, that's what went on. Works of super irrigation and all that. I would say it's irrigating all right. Arrogant, but the reality is. that when the Reformation came, they began looking at all of our lives as lives of worship. If I am walking with Christ and obeying Christ, then the things I'm doing at my job or out at the store or there in the home are all to be done to the glory of God. Would that change the way you behave? Oh, but that, you know, that's my church life over there. No, the Reformation taught us that there's no such thing as sacred and secular. It's all sacred. Why? Because God is involved in every moment of our lives. So then, the way I speak to my brothers, the way I act at work, the way I behave in the family all matter. And so that's what he has to say about life in the local body, what that's going to look like. And then he goes on, isn't it interesting that after all this instruction about end times things and Christ's return, that he doesn't focus on, now here's how you figure out the timeline and make sure you spend plenty of time talking about all of these things. He's focusing on daily life. How many of us have known folks that were way excited about prophecy books, and were monsters in the home, and cared nothing for living for Christ on a daily basis, but oh boy, they knew their timelines, and this will happen, and this will happen, and then this will happen, and so-and-so is going to come over here and do this, that, or the other. The reality is, is that you and I live in this world now. And we know that Christ is coming, and we ought to live as though He were coming any moment. And how should we then live? We ought to be living like this. Caring about one another, admonishing one another. And then He goes on to the personal life. He goes from that corporate life of the church, and then He just gets personal. Don't you hate that? You come to verse 16, by the way, here's a tidbit of Bible knowledge that you can use with your friends. What's the shortest verse in the Bible? Jesus wept, right? You know it's not in Greek. The Greek that the New Testament was written in, the shortest verse is this one. It's actually one or two Greek letters shorter than the one Jesus wept. Now, I don't speak Greek worth spit, and so I'm not even going to try to pronounce those words. But actually, in the Greek New Testament, this is the shortest verse. Rejoice always. Isn't that interesting? It's the two shortest verses we have. One is Jesus wept and the other is rejoice evermore. Rejoice always. we can rejoice because Jesus wept. Because Christ bore the wrath of God against the sin of His people, we can rejoice. Our rejoicing is based in the horror of the cross. Isn't that amazing? What a picture that is! Think of Resurrection Sunday. They are weeping. Mary comes to the tomb weeping. Why? Death is a horror. You know that I do many, many funerals. I did the hardest funeral here a couple weeks ago that I have ever done. I had to bury two babies, twin babies. It was horror. It's awful. It's heartbreaking. And you see Resurrection Sunday, and they are still weeping. And what happens? Christ returns. He comes back from the dead, and He speaks to Mary, and He appears to the apostles, and He teaches the disciples on the Emmaus Road, and they have picnics on the seashore. Suddenly death becomes not so scary anymore. Why? We can rejoice. Christ has defeated death. Christ is coming and will defeat ours someday. Whether you and I are laid in the grave or remain until He comes, either way, we beat death. What a wonder that is. Rejoice always. Rejoice evermore. It's amazing. Paul's book to the Philippians, you can read there, and over and over he repeats, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, Rejoice. This is a man sitting in chains in prison saying, Rejoice. The Christian life should be a life of joy. Man, to look at some Christians, you wonder, what kind of faith do they have? You and I have what the whole world dreams of, is joy, and even the thought of death. Remember the songs we're singing, even today, that nearer my God to thee is joy. How can you have that kind of joy? Look at the next verse. Pray without ceasing. Now he's not saying that you have to go somewhere and get on your knees and spend your whole day praying or you're not really a Christian. He's talking about that living in prayer. You don't have to pray out loud for God to hear you. He knows your thoughts. That ought to give us pause of some of the things we think of, right? But He knows your thoughts. You don't have to speak out loud. There are times when we should be pouring our hearts out to God. It's a good thing, maybe even to get down on your knees, help you focus your attention. Some folks use fasting to help them do that. Just one thing about that, don't be bragging about it or God says it doesn't impress Him at all. But we're to be praying, we're to be praying often. I love that picture in the book of Nehemiah. If you turn into the Old Testament to Nehemiah, who, by the way, is my favorite Old Testament character. I love Nehemiah. He was a construction manager. I can identify with that. Love Nehemiah. A man of great faith and love for God. And if you look at Nehemiah 1, He hears bad news about the condition of his people in Jerusalem. And in 1-4 it says, Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And then he goes on to tell you what he was praying about. And this is heart-wrenching prayer of admitting that we have fallen, we have wandered away. It's interesting that in the midst of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was overcome by the horror of that war. And he called for a day of prayer and fasting for the entire country. Oh, would that we would have leaders that would call us to do the same today. So Nehemiah is praying, and if you go on to see, you may not realize this, it says in chapter 1, he tells when this happened, when his relative came to visit him, It was in the month's first verse, in the month Kislev, in the 20th year, and then you see in chapter 2, after all this long prayer and his pouring his heart out to God, this is what he was praying about, and it came about in the month Nisan. No, that's not a Datsun. It's the name of one of their months, and there's a number of months in between. He was spending months in prayer before God. Have you ever had things that you just keep praying about? Praying for the salvation of a loved one. Praying for the resolution of some kind of problem. And so he was pouring out his prayers before God. And then in chapter 2, He's working there in the palace. His job at that time was cup bearer to the king. This would be very similar in our day to maybe the secret servants. What he did was he would taste the wine before anything was drunk by the king. So he would drink from the cup and then hand it to the king. And we're like, gross. Is he drinking after him? Poison. The great fear of kings at that time was poison. And so, if the cup was poison, he'd die before the king did. Very important job. So he's sad in the presence of the king. The king says to him in chapter 2, verse 2, Why is your face sad, though you're not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart. Then I was very much afraid. It was illegal to be sad in the presence of the king. It may be giving away something. Maybe he's sad because something bad is going to happen to the king. Who knows? I was very much afraid. I said to the king, let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad? When the city, the place of my father's tombs lies desolate and its burn gates have been consumed by fire. And the king said to me, isn't this amazing? The word tells us that the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord and he can turn it any way he wants like a stream of water. Isn't that amazing? And here this heathen king says to him, what would you request? Now look at what he says, so I prayed to the God of heaven and I said to the king. Now there's a different kind of prayer. First prayer went for months. This prayer, you can hear it, Lord help me right now. And he didn't have to say it out loud. He says, I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said to the king. And he already had his plan made out. You see, he was praying expectantly that God would answer. What an amazing story. Read it for yourself later. Pray without ceasing. Make prayer a part of your life. You know what? It will help you. You know, I used to really struggle at a place where I worked. There were some bad things that went on there. It was a difficult work environment. Shall we say a hostile work environment they talk about today? One of those songs that we sang this morning was so sweet to me. I would sing that to myself, not loud to everybody else. May the mind of Christ my Savior. It helped me. There are times when you can pray in song to the Lord. In your work, in your home. What do you think about? What goes through your head? Remember what I was saying about, do you ever play over in your head all those things you wish you'd said to so and so? Why not spend your time thinking about the Lord? Lord, help me with this. Lord, I'm struggling with this. Lord, you know how angry I am. Help me. Then he says, do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Is he talking about these people... I had somebody the other day that sent me a message on Facebook that so-and-so had this prophecy for me. I have all the prophecy I need in that sense right here in the Word of God. No, what it's talking about here is that prophetic utterance. It is that sense of speaking the truth to others. When the Word is preached, you know how to quench the Spirit? You quench the Spirit by not listening to the Word of God preached. Not taking it to heart. Not paying attention to what God has for you in the Word. That's what quenching the Spirit is. It's despising what is preached. How many times have we seen that? You preach the gospel, you try to encourage people to understand, and they'll turn away, they'll get angry. Some of you have even witnessed when I've had folks yell at me and storm out. That's okay, I know that rock went home. But there are other times when folks will hear the word and it seems to make no effect at all. I used to preach at a church that I joked that they all came to church with pitchforks. Not for me, but so that they could throw whatever I said over their shoulder to the next guy. Does the Word of God affect you? Does it touch your heart and life? I'll never forget being in a Bible study one time, and this young lady was in the Bible study with us, and we would, like we do here, we'll read the Scriptures together, each taking turn to read, and we do that a lot, don't we? And this young lady read this one passage that happened to speak directly to something that she was guilty of. And she read this verse. And she said, I do that. I mustn't do that anymore. There's that light bulb, aha moment. Don't despise prophetic utterances. Don't despise the Word of God and don't despise the preaching of the Word and the teaching of it. And then he says, but examine everything carefully. Just because somebody gets up and preaches something, just because I preach something, you are responsible to go to the Word of God and say, did He use that rightly? Did He apply that correctly? Is that really what that verse said? And if it does, you are responsible before God to obey it. But if I am incorrect, you need to be aware of that. And frankly, that's one of those places where admonishment comes in. I'll never forget being in homiletics class. That's where you're taught how to preach. Oh, our teacher was brutal. I mean, he would not let you off for anything. There were times when you would make some point. We had to preach to the class. That's part of what you do. And to hear him say, where in the world did you get that out of that verse? Well, it seemed good at the time. We are to be held accountable to the Word of God. I thank the Lord for dear old Bill Houston, who smacked me down more than once. Examine everything carefully. Hold fast to that which is good. And then he says this, abstain from every form of evil. I like the way they translate this. King James will say, appearance of evil. And the favorite thing in the old hard-line, independent, fundamental, mean-spirited Baptist groups that I knew as a kid was that they take that word appearance and take it to mean anything that could be remotely remind you of anything bad. That's not what that word means. What it means is appearance, meaning every time evil shows up, every manifestation of evil, abstain from it. Every time it comes along, run away. No, it doesn't mean that you can sit and look at the other person and go, well, I think that that sounds like maybe they, you know how it goes. These long, convoluted, well, I think that guy is friends with so-and-so, and that so-and-so person is friends with somebody else who said this, and therefore, the other one's a heretic. That idea of, what do they call it, second and third degrees of separation? Give me a break. No, we need to flee, abstain from every appearance, every time evil shows its ugly face, run away. What do you do when things come on the television that you know you shouldn't be watching? What do you do when... You know, one of the things that I had to learn in the workplace, jokes. You know me, I have a highly developed sense of humor. And I love a good joke. But I had to learn the hard way over time, don't joke with the unsaved around you. And here's the reason why. They feel duty-bound to give you one in return. And it's never decent, and it's never funny. And it took me a long time to learn to quit doing that. You know, I love a good joke. You hear the one about the, you know. Be careful how you use simple things like that. How do I abstain from evil? By maybe changing the way I behave and the way I think. That's not easy, is it? Oh dear ones, when we talk about the Christian life and what it looks like to be walking in sanctification, does this sound easy? No, it's not easy. It's a lifetime of walking with Christ, a lifetime of repentance, a lifetime of learning. No, no, no. Won't it be wonderful someday in heaven to be glorified? When that sanctification is finally done, and the last of that old sinful nature is burned up, and we stand in purity before Christ. What will that be like? Don't you long for that day when temptation doesn't even exist? I long for that. That is what he's talking about here. And next week we will look at that God of peace. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your Word that impacts my life, that calls me over and over to repentance. Lord, this sermon has been aimed at me. Father, I see the many times I fail as a church leader. Father, I see how I fail as a man, as a husband, As a brother in Christ, Lord, forgive me. Father, I thank you for these dear and lovely people who obey you and walk with you and care for you and care for one another. Lord, be building each of us up in Christ's likeness. In Jesus' name, Amen.