“Show me your ways, Lord Teach me your path” – Psalms 25:4
Christianity is not a religion but a relationship with the Lord. It is through the sacrifice paid by the blood of Christ that we have been saved. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3: 16).
When we talk about relationships, the foremost important thing is the amount of time and energy we invest in those relationships to nurture them and further evolve with time.
Our God doesn’t need rituals and empty praises. He is looking for a relationship with us.
What does that mean?
It means more than just attending the church service every Sunday. Jesus wants us to be his church. He wants to have a personal relationship with us. What do we do with our relationships? We talk, we share, we cry, we laugh, overall we spend time together. BINGO.
Christ Jesus longs the same from us. So spend some time daily in the presence of God but not just as one of the activity off your checklist. It’s practised. Practise is a verb, an ongoing action word. It needs action. Just knowing about Jesus doesn’t make us a believer. Even the devil knows about God. We need to know and experience Christ as our own personal Saviour every day.
We can spend time with God in numerous ways. Here are few mentioned below –
1. Pray
Pray about everything. Prayer doesn’t mean using elaborated words but simply speaking our heart to Jesus and depending on his strength over the course of our lives.
2. Journal
Write a short prayer, the things you want to thank God for, about anything which is a burden on your heart and submit it to Jesus, your prayers. It’s very interesting to turn back the pages of your book and be filled with gratitude when you see how many of those prayers were answered.
3. Be silent
Relationships are not only about us speaking. It’s also listening to God. Listen and meditate on God’s word. Just be silent. Let God speak to you and reveal his plans for you.
4. Read God’s Word
Read a psalm or a chapter or just a verse. It doesn’t matter how much you read but how much you understand what you read. It can be a verse which you are meditating for the entire week. We are in no competition to show anyone how much knowledge of Jesus we have gained.
He is waiting to have a solid relationship with us and be our companion. He loves to talk to us and spend quality time with us.
Are you ready?
Lord, help me to spend time with you. Fill me with your spirit and help me acknowledge your presence always. Help me surrender my life to you. Amen
Good morning church! I just want to thank God for the opportunity to share God’s Word with you this morning.
If you’ve been tracking with us, over the last few months we’ve been trying to understand this theme “Abiding Faith” from 1 Thessalonians. What we’ve learnt through all those weeks is that it’s ultimately God who sustains our faith. Today we arrive at the last passage of this letter that talks about “Sanctification” which means “being purified & set apart for God”.
Would you join me as we pray and ask God to help us understand and respond to today’s passage?
During my schooling days, there was this condition called “Out of syllabusitis”!
I’m sure many of us might be familiar with this term. We would spend quite a few of the last few nights cramming and preparing for an exam & when we receive the question paper, we are shocked to see questions that we’ve never seen before. Out of syllabus!!
It’s also true that these could have been questions that were in our portion which we didn’t prepare for but we would still refer to them as “out of syllabus” because these questions leave us stumped.
I think similarly when it comes to our Christian faith, there’s a lot of emphasis and encouragement on how to become a believer in Christ through repentance & faith but the common Christian experience after that is often “out of syllabus” for many.
We are left stumped and clueless. Often, we are handed over many commands to follow but as we go through our days as believers be it in our private moments when we are alone or when we are in public interacting with other people, we soon we realize that we simply don’t have the power or the ability to “purify ourselves daily and set apart ourselves for God”.
So brother or sister, if you’re at that place today where you’re confused on how to live the Christian life in purity or if you’re tired of your failing moral performance, just know you’re not alone. What help is available?
1. God’s gracious promise (v22-24)
God’s promise is the only thing that we can rely on to sanctify our lives. What I find interesting is that v22 “Abstain from every form of evil” is a command & imperative for God’s people.
But in the very next verse we are given a promise which will help us obey this command. It’s God’s gracious promise that empowers our ability to obey. But how do I know if God will honour and keep this promise? Let’s look at 3 aspects of God’s gracious promise:
God’s promise is based on the Work of God –Now may the God of peace (v23) – That term God of peace refers to God reconciling us back to Himself through the work of Jesus. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, God has signed & sealed a peace treaty with us who have trusted in Jesus. As part of God’s peace treaty, He has promised no more wrath, no more condemnation on us who used to be enemies of God because the payment was paid in full by Jesus Christ.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
(Rom 8:1)
And I think this is a powerful truth for us because it tells us of how God views us if we’ve placed our full trust in Jesus. God’s not waiting for an opportunity for us to mess up so that we can be relegated back to being enemies.
Neither is God requiring our performance (achievements, self-will, our efforts) to maintain this peace treaty. It’s based on the permanent work of God.
But you may say it’s one thing to have a peace treaty through the work
of God, but it’s another thing to sanctify a sinner like me. That requires
enormous ability. That’s why the second aspect of the promise is important:
God’s promise is fulfilled by the Power of God –May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (v24) – I hope we are able to see the astonishing promise made here in terms of our holiness. Complete sanctification – meaning complete pure and set apart for God! When the Lord Jesus comes again, believers in Jesus would be made “blameless” in their spirit, soul and body. In other words, there won’t be an iota or a remnant of sin left in us!!
What?
And this promise is made to sinners!!! Can God do this? Scripture is filled with testimonies of God doing things that are absolutely impossible for humans. I think this culminated in the Resurrection of Jesus. I mean we think about all that humans boast about and all the medical advances that have been made over the centuries, but yet no human has been able to provide an answer to the reality of Death.
With the sad news of hundreds of thousands that have passed away due to the current pandemic despite all types of efforts to contain the virus, we realize how helpless we are and yet Jesus Christ rendered death powerless! It’s astonishing.
I love the way Ps. David Jeremiah puts it:
“God, by His exerted power, reversed the process of death, overturned the process of decay, caused a silent heart to beat again. He was resurrected with an eternal body which according to Philippians 3 serves as a prototype for our own resurrected bodies”.
Ps. David Jeremiah
If God’s able to overturn and destroy something as fatal and deadly as death, then God can do anything. He can certainly sanctify us completely and make us blameless when Christ comes again.
I think this is an important truth for us especially when we respond to habitual patterns of sin which often leaves us despondent and in despair. God is able to purify you!
God’s promise is sustained by the Character of God – Now you might say I understand the work of God & the power of God – God is able to sanctify and purify us, but 2000 years have passed, what if God changed His mind?
We have had a consistent history of messing up a zillion times and not being faithful to God, what if God alters His promise?
And that’s why v24 is important:He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
God’s character (His faithfulness) is being highlighted here. Brothers and sisters, I realize that this aspect of the character of God is especially important because we trust a person on the basis of his/her character.
Is the person faithful or not? That determines our level of trust. God’s not like us “sinful humans” to make and break promises as it seems convenient. He puts His character on the line to back up this promise and assure us that He will do what He promised to do.
This
committed promise of God is what empowers pure and holy living.
Just to illustrate:
In marriage, it consists of a promise and loving responsibilities. Which among both is important? Both. The promise are the vows made by the couple to each other on the wedding day & the loving responsibilities are the outworking of the promise.
Without the promise, there’s no security for the couple when they mess up in their responsibilities. Without the loving responsibility, there won’t be an opportunity for the couple to care and serve each other.
But remember the promise precedes the loving responsibility. The promise binds and holds the loving responsibility. Similarly, it’s God’s promise to sanctify us is a security that empowers us to live in purity.
But not
only do we have God’s gracious promise, but we also have
2. God’s Gracious Provision (v25-27)
God’s gracious Provision is through spiritual disciplines! That might be a strange idea for some of us because we’ve never thought about it in that way. Many times we view spiritual disciplines like a labourer instead of a son or a daughter.
What I mean by this is that a labourer works to get a salary from His master (spiritual disciplines are a means to grace). On the other hand, a son or a daughter don’t have a transactional relationship with their Father because they are loved and accepted.
All the gifts they enjoy are not a salary payment made to them but means by which they can enjoy and grow in their relationship with the Father (spiritual disciplines as means of grace) V25-27 mentions 3 spiritual disciplines as a provision for us to help us in our sanctification:
Prayers of believers:Brothers, pray for us. (v25) I find it interesting that after sharing so much of biblical truth in this whole letter, Paul closes the letter by asking them to pray for him and his companions.
Despite the fact that Paul was an amazing church planter & preacher, Paul recognizes how much of divine help (grace) is required to help him grow in purity, continue to trust Jesus with his entire life & pursue the mission that God called him to.
And that’s a humbling thought to realize that despite all our so-called accomplishments, despite how many years we may have been as believers, despite how active we may have been in ministry, we are still little children dependent on the grace of God for everything including purity.
Praying is an acknowledgement that we are desperate and helpless & only God is the only one who is able to help us.
Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
It is a humbling thing when we ask our brother or sister to pray for our purity and holiness.
At the same time, it reaches out to God’s enormous power source to come to our aid whenever we are in need.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)
Fellowship: Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. (v26) In biblical times, this kind of “kiss of peace” was a greeting that people would use when they would meet people. However, the NT church, the symbol was much more than just a greeting.
It was to symbolize unity among the members in the church. It didn’t matter what a person’s background is, now that He is in Jesus Christ – He is united to me and I am united to Him as a spiritual sibling.
And especially with this topic on “purity”, it’s significant because it means that we no longer look at our brother or sister as spiritually superior or spiritually inferior but it levels the playing field so that we can be open, honest and repentant to our spiritual siblings about our lives and struggles.
6 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. (James 5:16)
God has graciously given us “fellowship” to help us in our spiritual growth.
Word: I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. (v27) You know as we read this letter in 1 Thessalonians, it is certainly a heartfelt letter to Paul’s spiritual children expressing his deep concern.
However, it was much more than just a heartfelt letter – it is the very words of God to not just provide them with instruction on how to lead a life of purity but these words were in itself the means by which people would be made pure.
In John 17, Jesus prays this for his disciples – 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (John 17:17)God’s Word is truth that purifies our hearts.
Another favourite verse of mine is from Romans 10:17 – 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. God’s Word has the power to produce faith in our unbelieving hearts! The Spirit uses God’s Word to perform a spiritual surgery fixing and purifying our broken hearts.
And that’s really important for us to know because it tells us that even if we are going through seasons when we are struggling spiritually, what we need to hear the most is actually the “word of God” which the Spirit will use to produce faith and call us to repentance.
If we are absolutely honest, we would probably confess that our tendency is to view sanctification as our own performance rather than trusting on God’s promise and God’s provision.
And that’s one of the root sin issues that we need to repent of. And this isn’t a modern sin issue. It finds its origin in the Garden of Eden with our ancestors Adam and Eve. God created them for purity to reflect His purity through their lives.
But they needed to trust His promise and His provision. They trusted in their own performance & broke their relationship with God. From that moment onwards all of humanity has been held captive by that lifestyle of performance.
Even our solution to the sin in our lives is:
“I’ll do better, I’ll fix what I’ve broken, I will cancel my wrongs with the good that I do, I will pray more, I will read God’s Word more, I will spend more time in the church”.
But God in His grace sent His Son Jesus to the earth, born of a Virgin & the only one in the history of humankind to live a life of perfect performance.
And then died on the cross for our sins & failed performance to fix ourselves. He rose on the third Day to freely handover his own perfect performance to those who would come and surrender their lives to Him!
And this handover of Christ performance is what purifies/sanctifies our lives. And one day this handover of Christ’s perfect performance will be complete when He returns.
This great goal is sealed by God’s gracious promise and God’s gracious provision.
So today I invite us to not just repent for the behavioural patterns of sin that we struggle with. But I would ask us to repent of our attitude of performance toward God.
Repent of the times when repentance was just our own performance resolution. Shed aside our weak and failing performance and come to the foot of the cross where our performance ends and trust in Christ’s promise and Christ’s provision today.
28
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Since the last couple of weeks as we’ve been studying through 1 Thessalonians on the subject of ‘Abiding Faith’, I’m learning to become more aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life.
After reading through various scriptures, and reading Ephesians 5:18, it is evident that without the presence of the Holy Spirit, we cannot live our Christian Life the way we are supposed to live.
If we want to have a healthy Christian life, we need the filling of the Spirit.
We need the Spirit not only for our emotional satisfaction, but we need Him in every aspect of our life, whether in studies, at work, in business, in ministry. He is our heavenly helper who helps us with everything in life.
And unlike what people popularly believe that the Spirit only comes with a mighty stirring of the emotions, a sort of heavenly glory that comes over us, I believe He also comes as a gently filling of the whole being with the presence and the power of God.
Brothers & sisters, let us desire more of the Holy Spirit. The first step is to desire of Him, and the second is to ask the Father, who gives generously.
In Luke 11:11-13 Jesus said “What Father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Jesus, through this life, death and resurrection made it possible for us to desire fully and receive fully of the Spirit of God in us.
Lord, we desire the filling of your Holy Spirit, and we ask you for an abundant outpouring, not few trickles.
As a church, we prefer preaching expository – going through the books of the bible, and hence since last couple of months we’ve been doing a series called ‘Abiding Faith’ and we are preaching through 1 Thessalonians.
We prefer Expository preaching because it helps us to faithfully preach through every text in the bible and address every aspect of our Christian faith that is necessary for our hearts, it also prevents us from skipping portions that we may sometimes not feel comfortable preaching, but instead gives the scriptures the authority to speak into our lives.
With that in mind, the passage that we are looking at today is 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21.
Paul is ending his letter to the Thessalonian church and in his ending remarks, he quickly seems to give some very important instructions in just one or two lines. And in our text today he is telling the church
“Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast to what is good”
We are going to talk about prophecies today. We will look at
What is prophecy?
The purpose of prophecy.
And the right way to test prophecy in our current context.
A simple definition of prophecy would be “a message from God to his people” spoken by a person, typically
called a Prophet.
2 Peter 1:21 gives us a little more insight on prophecy, it says
“For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit”
A prophecy therefore is a gift given by the Holy
Spirt for the edification of the church, and the purpose is often to reveal the
heart of God and draw us closer to Him. As a word of caution, remember, the
gift of prophecy or to become a prophet is not the end goal. The end goal is
Love, Love for God and love for people.
In 1 Corinthians 13:8 Paul writes
“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”
In the Old Testament, prophecies were considered very seriously, God in fact even used this gift to give indications of the coming saviour, His son Jesus to save the wretched world from sin and death.
In our passage today, when we hear Paul’s tone of voice and the choice of words regarding prophecy we get a feeling that somehow the church wasn’t taking this gift seriously, because of which Paul had to insist
“Do not despise prophecies”.
To be honest, even at Gathering we haven’t really given too much emphasis on this gift of the Spirit, maybe because we wanted to be careful on how the gifts are used within the church context in a way it glorifies God and not man, and also to protect us from been exploited by some who use these gifts without the right awareness.
But I believe, today, maybe through this text
God is speaking to us and drawing our hearts consider the benefits of this gift
given by the Spirit for the edification of the Church.
Therefore, since the scripture is insisting that we do not despise the gift of prophecy and that we test them and keep what is good. In this sermon, I want to share three ways we can test prophecies.
I want to position these points addressing both parties, to those who receive prophecy and also to those who think have this gift and want to use it in a way it glories God.
1.
Test prophecies against the
Word of God
The first thing that prophetic utterances should be tested by is the revealed Word of God. Is the prophecy in harmony with Scripture? A prophecy you receive from the Holy Spirit for another person or a prophecy you receive from another person will never contradict the written word of God.
At the heart of all the scripture, from Genesis to Revelation is the Gospel, the story of Jesus. The story begins in the garden of Eden where God created us in his image and likeness so that he can commune with us and share the wonderful love and friendship He had with son Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
And even when our sinful heart messed up that relationship by rebelling against God, God pursued us and still pursues us through His son Jesus’s death on the cross, he justifies us, and then he sanctifies us and one day he will glorify us and take us with him in heaven.
Even though this story sounds so simple, there
is so much of depth and theology that one lifetime won’t be enough to fully understand it.
But what we have to be careful is, any remarks
or comments or teachings and even prophesies that violate the essence of the
Gospel message should be discarded from among us.
In Galatians 1:6-8 Paul writes
6 I am astonished that you are lso quickly deserting mhim who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to na different gospel— 7 onot that there is another one, but pthere are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or qan angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, rlet him be accursed.
In the same effect, in 1 John 4:1 John tells us
to test the prophets
Beloved, do not believe every Spirit, but test
the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out
into the world (1 John 4:1).
Brothers & sisters, the gift of prophecy is a wonderful gift, but if our heart is ignorant and unaware of the truths in the scripture, the devil can easily use it to misguide us and set us on a different path.
Therefore, if any of us desire to prophecy let
him or her be rooted in the knowledge of the scriptures first.
At many occasions I’ve also observed that prophecies come
with confirmations from the scriptures.
When I was a young Christian, I remember there
were many prophecies people made over me, but the one’s that I really cherish, the one’s
that stood the test are the one’s that came with a confirmation through
a scripture verse.
But imagine a scenario where we don’t
know the scriptures well, where our theological framework is distorted or
incorrect, where we have not understood the Gospel in its entirety and one day
a person comes to us and tells us ‘thus says the Lord’, on what basis will your
heart confirm whether it is from the right spirit or the wrong one.
If we wish to operate in the gift of prophecy or
we wish to hear God speak to us through a prophecy I suggest that we first
devote ourselves in working on the right theological framework, and once that
is established well, we will be able to test prophecies the way Paul is
instructing the church in Thessalonica.
Some of the ways as a church we provide help is, through the preaching of the word of God, but we also have a program called Roots class where we study theology together.
Brothers & Sisters, I encourage you to invest and use these means given by the Spirit to help build a proper Gospel framework that even protect us in the area of prophecies.
2.
Test whether the prophecy
points your heart to Jesus
Since the ultimate goal of every Christian is to
know Christ, Christ is the ultimate reward we are aiming for.
It is wise to test whether the prophecy we
receive from the Holy Spirit for another person and the prophecy you receive
from another person through the Holy Spirit is ultimately pointing our heart to
Jesus and His saving grace.
In John 17:3 Jesus reminds us the ultimate goal.
And this is eternal life, that they know
you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Paul’s ministry focus was very clear as we
read in 1 Cor 2:1-2
When I came to you, brothers, announcing the
testimony of God to you . . . . I didn’t think it was a good idea to
know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him
crucified (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).
Understand the battle between our Self and the
Spirit, one will try to push you to pursue the world and its pleasures and the
other will push you pursue Christ.
The question we should ask when we want to bring
a prophecy or when we receive one is whether what’s been said is pushing you towards Self
or towards the Spirit, to glorify Jesus in us or whether glorify our self.
If tomorrow someone comes and tells you that God told them to tell you to pursue such and such relationship, or pursue such and such career, or go to such and such place.
The question we need to ask is whether the long-awaited relationship we’ve been asked to pursue draws us to Christ or away from Him, whether the promising career that is waiting for will enable us to grow in Christ and whether the place we are excited to go is putting Christ first in my life.
Is Jesus at the center of that prophecy, will Jesus remain the hero of our story or are we replacing Him with either ourselves or with another person.
If we fail to ask this important question then
we will be easily trapped by a twisted use a gift that is actually not from the
right Spirit.
I remember a prophecy that someone made over me
when I was young, he told me that God has revealed that He has a great plan for
my Life. And he said that if I want to see God doing great things for me, I
need to follow Him and do what He asks me to do because He said the Spirit of
God is revealing things about me.
The question I had to ask myself was, is Jesus
at the center of it or somebody else. I thank God for giving me to courage to
say no. But I know of so many people who have fallen into such trap, where they
have shipwrecked their Faith and fallen into the hands of the enemy.
Brother & sisters, test the prophecies that come your way and ensure that it is ultimately leading you to fall in love with Jesus. And we are in that position only when we are saturated in the Gospel and when we are walking in the Spirit.
3.
Test prophecies against a
consistent moral conduct
The last and the final point I want to make is
to….
In 1 John 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every Spirit, but test
the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out
into the world (1 John 4:1).
There is also a moral test that the prophet must
pass. Is the person giving the prophecy exhibiting moral character consistent
with his office? Jesus warned of these false prophets
Beware of false prophets, who come in to you in
sheeps clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their
fruits (Matthew 7:15,16).
The fruit that people exhibit is the fruit of
their doctrine and the fruit of their lives. Both of these must be in harmony
with Gods Word. Does the prophet live a life glorifying to God? Is he in
submission to the authority to Gods Word? Is he committed to a local body of
Christ? Those who do not conform to Gods standards should not be regarded as
prophets.
If, however, someone meets all these criteria, are we to assume that their
message is supernaturally given? Not necessarily. Apart from false prophecy,
there are other types of messages that may seem worthy, but are not sent
directly from God. Someone can meet all these criteria and give a message
believing that it was from God, yet the source can be that professed prophets
own personality.
I believe the body of Christ, the church is
given to us so that we can receive help in such matters.
God provides Elders, Pastors and Deacons to help
guard ours hearts against wrong doctrines and against false prophets.
Therefore, i believe it is always safe to filter prophecies through godly
leaders God has placed over us.
As I conclude, I wish our church grows in all
the gifts God has given us but let us do it in an orderly way without grieving
the Lord.
With that, I hope I have given you enough
insight on where the church stands with respect to the gift of prophecy and in
case you have any questions pls feel free to reach out to us and we will be
happy to answer your questions.
And he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? – Joshua 4:21
It is overwhelming to live in times of a pandemic and times of uncertainty. God in different ways reveals our sinful behaviours and gives us a chance to repent. There are times when we receive what we prayed for and at other times when the answer to our prayers is delayed. In the latter scenarios, do we still remember past times where God was faithful?
Recently, at the start of the workday, I made a to-do list. The day was going on well as I had planned but suddenly the WiFi got disconnected. For those working from home, you can imagine what a disaster this can be. I couldn’t go ahead with my plans for the day. I was frustrated. When the Wifi reconnected, I could get back to work.
Just as I needed WiFi to get along a simple workday plan, we need the Lord our God, for our lives. Without the WiFi, the to-do list has no significance; without Jesus, our life has no purpose. Certainly, we should introspect the areas where we have not allowed Jesus to take over. Jesus has plans for us, plans to prosper and not befall. He wants us to be his testimony. We have a purpose for which we are born here. It is not by mere coincidence that we are where we are. God has placed us strategically where we are to fulfil His purpose.
The times God has been faithful to us should not be just turned like a page in the book but re-read in moments of confusion and waiting. This is probably why Joshua was told to stack the stones in Jordan, to remind the next generation of how faithful God is to his people and the promises that he has given to us.
When he has told that he loves us, He loves us. Our life is a testimony to show the love of Christ. We are set apart as Christians to love one another. The way we love each other is a distinguishing factor which shows others what Christ-likeness is.
It is not only the good times but also the tough times where we must be showing the grace of Christ.
It will be very creative and thoughtful to put a thank you note in a jar every time you have to Praise God for his grace. And when the times are rough just look at that Thanksgiving Jar and remember Our God is good. ALWAYS.
Jesus, help me remember your love and faithfulness in difficult times when I rely on my own abilities and strength. Thank you for being my provider and help me glorify you at all times. Let me surrender all areas of my life to you. Amen.
James 5:8, NIV: “You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.”
In this fast-paced generation, we are so used to getting everything instantaneously. Right from Eno, which cures acidity in 6 seconds to a handwash which claims to scrub your hands clean in 20 seconds.
In our careers especially, we get so busy with trying to reach the top, that we forget to pause whilst on the way. It is imperative to pause to see how far we have come and introspect if we have shifted our focus and dependence on someone or something else. When life gets difficult and we face struggles, we soon look to God for help and depend on Him. Yet how easy it is to become self-reliant when life is smooth!
In this chapter, James is reminding us that life cannot always be like the Eno or handwash. The verse starts with ’You too’ in which James tells us that just as the farmer waits for his crop after he has done all that he could, we are told to Wait on the Lord. It is also mentioned to stand firm.
God’s word says to believe what we have prayed for. It is very common to think, “Why do we need to pray if God knows everything?” Prayer is an act which shifts our focus from our own strength and depends on Him. It refocuses our trust which we put in the Lord. When we are waiting on the Lord, we need to stand firm as it is very easy to lose our focus at such times of waiting.
The Greek word for “stand firm” is a military term referring to a soldier standing his ground in battle. We are in a spiritual battle not only concerning our souls, but also the souls of mankind. And so when we face opposition from the enemy, we dare not back down but must stand our ground. God does not allow trials to come our way because He likes to watch us suffer or struggle, but because He knows it is the only way to grow us into stronger and make us more like Him.
As Jeremiah 29:11 mentions,’“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
We must wait patiently on a solid ground of faith in God. He knows everything and nothing is a surprise to him. He is working all things for your good as GOD LOVES YOU.
Make use of the waiting time to discover what is God trying to speak to you. Make good use of your waiting times by exploring what God may be trying to teach you.
Today, just pray to Jesus with an open and candid heart to renew our spirit with his Hope.
LORD, I pray for a spirit of perseverance and patience. Teach me ways to depend on you for each and everything and use my time of waiting to know you more and grow closer to you. Amen
This
morning it is my privilege to bring God’s word to you.
While watching the movie Aladdin, have you ever wished or dreamt having the lamp and the genie?
I have and I’m assuming most of us had. Well, I’m here to tell you that we have access to someone, who is even greater than a genie, one who is all-powerful and all-knowing helper from heaven, the Holy Spirit.
In real life, genie doesn’t exist but the Holy Spirit does exist, unlike the genie, the Holy Spirit doesn’t grant us any wish our sinful & selfish heart desires to have, but instead carefully grants only those that bring real joy, the ones that are in accordance to God’s will for our lives, and also He is not limited to just three wishes.
Our passage today is from 1 Thessalonians 5:19 where Paul writes to the Church saying, 19 Do not quench the Spirit.
In my sermon today my goal is to point our hearts to the third person in the trinity, the Holy Spirit, and the mistakes we make when we quench or ignore Him in our spiritual walk as a Christian.
The God we worship is a triune God. There are no three God’s, there is only one God but in three forms, God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit. I won’t go into depth to explain this concept, we can do that some other day. But remember this, throughout the Bible, we see the mention of God in all three forms and with equal emphasis.
Jesus said in John 10:30 “I and the Father are one”
In John 14:9 he said “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father”
2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul writes “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”
These
verses and many others give us evidence of this triune God.
The
thing to remember here is that the Holy Spirit is not a feeling but He is a
person.
In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon God’s people only to accomplish some particular task, but in the new covenant, after Christ redeemed us from Sin and death, cleansed us from all our iniquities, and declared us righteous through the breaking of his body and shedding of His blood, a new experience has been given to you.
Before
Jesus was taken into heaven he told his disciples in John 15:26“I will send you the Helper from the
Father. The Helper is the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father.
And
on the day of Pentecost a great transaction took place, the Spirit of God came
down to dwell among us, in us, forever. And since then, everyone who receives
Jesus as their personal saviour and Lord, the Spirit immediately makes our
heart his dwelling place.
In Galatians 4:6 Paul writes 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
The
above passage suggests that the indwelling of the Spirit in us is the evidence
that we are His.
There is also no separate baptism of the Holy Spirit. What happened on the day of Pentecost was a one-time transaction from how people experienced the Holy Spirit in the Old covenant and how we will experience Him in the New covenant. If there was a separate baptism of the Holy Spirit the scripture would have taught us.
The reality is, the day we gave our lives to Jesus the Spirit of God made his dwelling in us. In 1 Corinthians 3:16 Paul reminds the church saying 16 Do you not know that you[a] are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? Holy Spirit is the Heavenly Helper we receive as a gift from God on the day of our Salvation.
In
our passage today, Paul is telling the church “Do not quench the Spirit”
And
what we understand from this passage is that even though the Spirit lives
within us there is a possibility of us quench its fire from helping us progress
and grow in our Christian walk, in fact we are making a greatest blunder when
we are not taking the help of our Heavenly Helper who is all-powerful and
all-knowing.
In
this sermon I want to point out three most important outworking of the Holy
Spirit in our live that which we shouldn’t ignore or quench. Quenching the
Spirit in these three areas means to STOP progressing in our Christian walk.
1. PRESENCE
One of the primary ministries of the Holy Spirit is to help us experience the Presence of God, and also take us deeper in it, enabling us to have a deep and intimate relationship with the Father. We should never quench the Holy Spirit from doing that.
In
the first place, we have to remember that it was the Spirit of God that opened
our eyes to the Gospel and led us to repentance from our sins and faith in
Jesus.
In
John 16:8-9 Jesus revealed it to us
8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;
After
our salvation, to continually experience the presence of God, to grow deeper in
relationship with the Father, to constantly been convicted (Ehsas) of our sin,
reminded of God’s Holy judgement and sacrifice of Son Jesus on the cross for
our redemption. Unlike what most of us think that it is our decision and
choice, the reality is that it is Spirit of God in us that does that work.
1
Corinthians 2:10-11 Paul writes
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Brothers
& sisters, to live and experience the presence of God is the greatest
blessing a believer can have in our spiritual walk. To experience Him as our
comforter when we are in trouble, to know Him as our provider when we are in
need, to know Him as our healer when we are sick, is the most fulfilling
experiences to have in our Christian journey.
And
all this is only made possible because of the Spirit’s work in our heart. When
we isolate ourselves and close the door on God and from others, when we stop
hearing from God through scripture and through His preached word, when we
ignore a faithful friend who brings rebuke and correction in our lives, we are
shutting the door to all the means through which the Spirit of God is bringing
conviction into our hearts and drawing near to God. We shut the door to living
in the PRESENCE of God, which in fact is the essence of our Christian life.
Psalms 16:11
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Brothers & sisters, let us not quench the Holy Spirit
from living and experiencing the presence of God.
2.
PURPOSE
Another
primary ministry of the Holy Spirit is to help us fulfil the God given purposes
in our lives.
The
ultimate goal of every child of God is to Glorify God by participating in His
Kingdom work of redeeming His chosen people on earth who are living in darkness
and to bring them into the light.
Ephesians
1:11
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
1
Peter 2:9
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
And
though our purpose is one, which is to glorify God but the journey we all take
are unique ones. Some are called to glorify God by becoming missionaries and pastors
and evangelists, some are called to glorify God by becoming doctors, engineers,
architects, film makes etc.
And
to take these unique journeys we need unique giftings, skills and talents, so
that ultimately we glorify God and participate in the extension of Kingdom by
proclaiming the Gospel and lifting up Jesus.
The
Holy Spirit grants with a variety of gifts, from natural abilities to Spiritual
ones. Most people misunderstand the Spiritual gifts, they make them their goals
instead of looking at them as means to fulfil the greater goal. God gives
particular gifts to particular people and we don’t control that. Just because
another person has a particular gift doesn’t mean you should also have it. Yes,
we do ask God for gifts but ultimately we trust in His provision for each
individual, we celebrate the unique gifts he has given to us.
Brothers
& sisters, it is the Spirit of God who reveals and equips us to fulfil the
purposes of God in our lives.
And
when we fail to give heed to the nudgings of the Spirit when He asks us to
choose a certain career, move to a certain a place, not move to a certain
place, give yourself up for a certain task that may sound and look foolish and
unreasonable at times, we are quenching the Spirit of God from helping us
fulfil God’s purposes for our lives.
Brothers
& sisters, let us know quench the Spirit when He is leading us into a
certain direction in our lives to fulfil God’s purposes. And how do we know
whether it is the right direction to go, we will know because the road will
ultimately lead to us into glorifying God and participate in His Kingdom work.
3. POWER
Yes, of course the task set ahead of us is a tough one, in our human capacities, we will never be able to complete this gigantic task. We need courage, we need self-control, we need wisdom, we need Power. The good news is that God provides us the Power we need to accomplish great things for Him.
Firstly,
the Gospel comes with Power. 1 Thessalonians 1:5
5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
The
definition of Power is to have the capability to influence behaviour and
events. And I believe the greatest need for Power in our life is to influence
our self-destructive nature, our Self is the greatest enemy that stands between
God and us. The Power we need is primarily to overcome our Self.
God
wants us to seek for the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of power in our heart and
life, to conquer Self and cast out sin, and to work the blessed and beautiful
image of Jesus into us.
Brothers
& sisters, when we fail to fully surrender every aspect of our lives into
the hands of our Saviour Jesus we are quenching the Spirit of God from
empowering us with His strength and His abilities. As long as we are holding on
to things and controlling it the way we desire we are blocking the Spirit to
take full control of the situation and allow to experience the joy of the Lord.
Let
us not quench the Spirit from experiencing God’s in our Lives.
Finally, as I end, I want to bring to your attention the biggest mistake we make that eventually leads us to quenching the Spirit’s work on our lives. The mistake is our failure to Wait on Him.
We read a wonderful passage that brings immediate joy but fail to reflect on it deeply and allow the Holy Spirit to convict us because we have other things to do. We hear a great sermon but we fail to allow the spoken word to take deep roots by spending time in introspection by communing with Holy Spirit.
Friends, we have not learned enough to wait upon Him, and so we should make a solemn declaration before God; Oh God, we want to wait more for You to show us Your will.
You
may ask, is it really possible to experience life with the Holy Spirit and
clearly hear Him speak and guide me in my day-to-day life. The answer is “Yes,
it is possible to those who are in right fellowship with Heaven, and who
understands the art of waiting upon God in prayer”
Psalms
27:14 David encourages to wait on the Lord saying
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
Lamentations
3:25
The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
Isaiah
40:31
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Brothers
& sisters, what would it means for you to wait on the HolySpirit every day
of your life.
What would it mean to wait on the Lord once every week, maybe in fasting in prayer so you can align your years to the great comforter and helper.
What would it mean to take a break, in a month from work and ministry, maybe for a couple of days to separate yourself to fully focus your heart on God and allow the Spirit of God to experience the presence of God, guide you in the purposes of God and equip you the Power of God, so you can fully live for the Glory of God.
I’m
leaving this to you to answer, and hope you will take out time and think deeply
about these things.
Good morning Beloved church, it is truly a joy and privilege to see all of you. Thank you so much for taking out your time, I pray that God will truly bless all us as we spent time together worshipping God and listening to His words.
Today we shall continue our book study from Thessalonians, our text for today is 1 Thessalonian 5:19.
“Do not quench the Spirit” this is our text for this morning.
The root word for “quench” which means “to extinguish,” “to put out” or “to go out.” It also refer to putting out fires, sparks, or the putting out a lamp.
Church the day we repent our sins and received Christ as our Lord and saviour; The bible says Holy Spirit sealed us and He permanently dwells in us and He is working in our heart like a burning fire.
Knowing the works of Holy Spirit Apostle Paul Urge Thessalonian church that they should not Quench the Holy Spirit. This text is reminding all of us too that we should not quench the Holy Spirit.
To understand the text, “Do not quench the Spirit”, we shall ask four important questions.
Who is the Holy Spirit?
What are the works of the Holy Spirit?
How believers may quench the Holy Spirit?
What are the consequences of Quenching the Holy Spirit?
Who is the Holy Spirit?
There are many misconceptions about the identity of the Holy Spirit. Some view the Holy Spirit as a mystical force or power.
Others understand the Holy Spirit as the impersonal power that God makes available to followers of Christ. These are wrong.
The truth is The Holy Spirit is co-equal with God the Father and God the Son and is of the same essence. Yet He is also distinct from them.
1. Who is the Holy Spirit?
Holy Spirit is a person (He is the third person of Trinity).
Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, a being with a mind, emotions, and a will.
Holy Spirit thinks and knows (1 Cor.2:10). Holy Spirit can be grieved (Ephesian 4:30) Holy Spirit intercedes for us (Romans 8:26-27). He makes decisions according to His will (1Cor 12:7-11).
2. Holy Spirit is God.
The Bible declares that the Holy Spirit is God. we know that the Holy Spirit is God because He possesses the characteristics of God.
For example, His omnipresence is seen in Psalm 139:7-8
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”
Isaiah 11:2, the prophet describes the Holy Spirit this way. He says,
“He is the Spirit of the Lord, He is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”
2. What are the works of Holy Spirit?
a. Holy Spirit draws the unsaved sinner to Jesus.
Holy Spirit plays a primary role in transforming a person’s heart and bringing salvation to the individual.
It is the Spirit who brings conviction to the unbeliever and causes him to see the truth of the gospel in a clear light.
Those who respond to this conviction and place their faith in Jesus Christ receive eternal life and a new nature.
Holy Spirit unites the believer with Christ and places him in the body of Christ, the church.
He also unites the believer with Christ in His death, enabling him to live victoriously over sin.
Application:
As a church, our Primary role is to keep praying for the lost soul for their salvation and keep spreading the good news of Christ to all people around us.
b. Holy Spirit regenerates our human Spirits.
Regeneration which means The radical spiritual change in which God brings an individual from a condition of spiritual defeat and death to a renewed condition of holiness and life.
Titus 3: 5 says. 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit moves an unbeliever and regenerate their heart to repentance and leads them into eternal salvation through Jesus Christ.
c. Holy Spirit Convict both unbelievers and believers.
John14:8. 8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment
An unbeliever cannot get saved unless they are first convicted by the Holy Spirit. It is through the work of Holy Spirit our sins were convict and we repent and turn our heart to the Lord.
For born-again believers, we all need the conviction of the Holy Spirit. so we can be shown the errors of our ways.
d.Holy Spirit sanctifies us in the Lord.
2 Thess.2:13. 13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
Once you get saved and born again in the Lord, God starts to sanctify you and me, what He will do is consecrate and set us apart unto Himself. From there, He will want to transform us by the renewing of our mind, He will want to transform us into the image of His Son Jesus.
e. Holy Spirit helps us with our prayer life.
Romans 8:26. In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Another major powerful ministry that the Holy Spirit has with each born-again believer is to help us with our prayer life with the Lord.
f. Holy Spirit guides us into all truth.
John 16:13. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.
He is our guide
g. Holy Spirit teaches us all things.
John14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
He is our Teacher.
The Holy Spirit is doing an incredible by Illuminating the scriptures to all of us; bringing you and me into intimacy with God; showing all of us the glory of Jesus Christ, guiding you and me into God’s will; strengthening you and me for spiritual ministry, and service.
Holy Spirit purifies us, sanctifies us, cleanses us from all the pollution of sins toward the image of Jesus Christ.
3. How believers may quench the Holy Spirit?
By Neglecting the gift of Holy Spirit.
If we neglect the gift of Spirit, we will quench the Holy Spirit.
1 Timothy 4:14
Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
Illustration: In Old testament there a prophet call Jonah, God told Jonah to go and warn and preach to the people of Nineveh for their wicked life.
But Jonah was afraid of Nineveh people and he ran away from his duty, God caught him in the middle of the sea, he was trying to escape to Tarsus, his sin was found, he was thrown in the ocean and the whale swallow him.
He was in a whale belly for 3 days God allowed him to live again. Remember church if we try to neglect our duty and responsibility and try to run away like Jonah, we will quench Holy Spirit. We should not stop the work of Holy Spirit in our life.
Application: Let us not be like Jonah. (let us not run away from the task and the purpose God has given us in our life).
1 Cor.15:59 says, Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
By Disobedience to the word of God and living an unrepented life. How do we Disobey to the word of God?
by not reading the word of God, by not applying the word of God, by living prayerless life, by living an unfruitful life. By being worry and anxiety, by not growing spiritually. by depending on our self and not God. By being proud and not humble.
After living a sinful life, and when we do not repent our sins to God, our unrepented heart will quench the Holy Spirit.
Application: Are you quenching the Holy Spirit by living a disobedient and unrepented life. If we are displeasing God lets repent our sinful behavior to God.
1 John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
By being worldliness and living a life devoted to self and selfish hopes. Bible directly confront us in 1 John 2:15-16. 1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16For everything in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-comes not from the Father but from the world.
If your, 1.vision in life, 2. your wildest dream in life, 3. your career and 4. the things you are running after in life,
if all these things are alien to God’s will. You are going toward the wrong direction in life, your selfish ambition and your hope and your self-desire will Quench the Holy Spirit.
Application: How are you maintaining life?
Loving God, serving God, worshipping God is controlling your life or Worldliness, living a life devoted to self-desires and self-hope is controlling your life.
You know exactly where your heart is.
Scriptures is warning you and me in Romans 12:1-2 saying,
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
4. What are the consequences of quenching the Holy Spirit?
First Consequence… 1.God will not use us anymore. We have great lesson from the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-5. They Backslide from living God and God is warning them. Verse 2.
2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name and have not grown weary. 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
God will never use us if we are habitually living in sin, a warning to Ephesian church is a great warning for all of us, they are working hard for God, they have perseverance, they didn’t tolerate wicked people, they know the false teachers, they endure hardship and working so hard for God.
But they have forsaken the first love. Means Jesus is not no.1 in their life, some other things have replaced their priority in life.
God is warning them to come back, if not He will remove lampstand which the spiritual gift in their life.
If God take away His spiritual gift, we will not be useful for God’s Kingdom. Our life will be useless and inactive.
Your life will be like a nice smartphone. Looks cool outside but did not work. What you will do with that kind of phone.
2.We shall sin both against God and our own souls.
When we quench the Holy Spirit, we sin against God and we sin to our own soul.
3.We will not bear the fruit of Holy Spirit.
God want us to bear the fruit of Spirit in our life.
Galatian 5:22-23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
4.We will make the Holy Spirit grieve.
Ephesians 4:30:
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
Conclusion:
Church we have mediatated together four questions under the topic “Do not quench the Holy Spirit”
Who is the Holy Spirit? (remember Holy Spirit is a person and Holy Spirit is God).
What are the Works of the Holy Spirit?
How believers may Quench the Holy Spirit?
What are the consequences of quenching the Holy Spirit?
Beloved church we should never quench the holy Spirit, this is a command from the scripture. Rather
1.We should lovingly allow the Holy Spirit to totally control our heart. 2.We should willingly allow the Holy Spirit to fill our heart. 3.We should bear fruits of Holy Spirit in our everyday life. 4.We should always walk in the Spirit.
May the Sweet Holy Spirit Guide you and teach you in every area of your life.
May the power of Holy Spirit be with you to fight and defeat all the power of Darkness.
May He empower you, equip you and use you to be a channel of blessing for all people.
May the fruit of Spirit, love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control flow out of your life and bring glory to our heavenly Father.
Good morning church! My name is Jinson Thomas and I’m thankful to God for this opportunity to share God’s Word with you this morning.
I hope our time today would be an encouragement in your faith. If someone would’ve told me at the start of this year concerning all the events that I was going to witness in 2020, I wouldn’t have believed it!
A pandemic that would ravage the entire globe causing 6.4 million people to be infected & 3.8 Lac deaths!!! Our state alone has recorded the highest number of cases (80,000 approx.) in the country and we have been in lockdown for 11 weeks now affecting people’s livelihoods & causing tremendous hardships for those who relied on daily wages.
People who are on salaried jobs are forced to take pay cuts or unfortunately even being laid off. It is a painful and difficult time. On top of that our country has witnessed 2 cyclones & even an attack from the locusts on our fields in the past month!
In terms of national security – there is trouble brewing on the border with China. I say this not to harp on discouraging news but rather to acknowledge that we stand here today at the backdrop of unimaginable fear and anxiety.
And we can sense this all around us – be it at our workplaces or in our schools or on the news, or on social media or in our neighbourhoods or even in the innermost places of our hearts. And what I believe today’s passage is telling us is that God has given us a wonderful & powerful tool called “prayer” but yet it’s something that is so easily misunderstood. We misunderstand the purpose of “prayer” when we make it out to be something that it was never designed to be.
What is the true purpose of prayer then? I’d ask you to look with me at our main text –
1 Thess 5:17-18:
17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
4
observations on prayer & thanksgiving:-
1.
Prayer is not about performance but about trust (v17)
17 pray
without ceasing
In other words, “Uninterrupted, incessant, continuous prayers”. When we hear this instruction “pray without ceasing”, what naturally goes through our mind? If I’m not wrong, many of us automatically think about it in terms of “performance”.
We think Paul is talking about “unceasing prayer” so that would mean “uninterrupted prayer 24/7 or praying during every waking moment” and then we try to measure ourselves against that standard on the basis of the time we’ve spent in prayer.
When we think on this performance mentality, we pat ourselves on the back and “feel more accepted and loved” by God on days when we’ve spent more time in prayer. On the other hand, on days when we’ve spent little time or neglected prayer, we feel “unloved and unaccepted” by God. And the man-made solution we come up with is “I need to pray more to be loved and accepted by God”.
I love the way Jerry Bridges puts it – he says “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace”.
In other words, it’s not our “prayer performance” that makes God love and accept us, it’s God’s grace (God’s unmerited gift) that He has poured on us through His Son Jesus Christ. Okay, you may ask – so if we don’t pray to perform before God (to gain some brownie points), then why do we pray?
We pray because we exhibit our trust in God through prayer. We basically echo that God is strong and powerful and I’m not. I am in desperate need of God’s help.It’s not about performance but about trust.
I think this principle is illustrated beautifully in one of my favorite parables from the Bible – the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Both of them go to the temple to pray.
The Pharisee (super religious Jew) sees prayer as a means of performing before God. During his prayer, he keeps bragging about him not being as bad as the robbers, the evildoers, adulterers and even the tax collector who is standing behind him. Not just that he then adds that he fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of all that he gets.
At the same time, the tax collector (in those days were known as dishonest and wicked people) stood at a distance and wouldn’t even look up to heaven. Out of his sorrow due to this sin, he beats his chest and says “God have mercy on me a sinner”. He has nothing to brag about. All he is holding on is the “mercy of God”.
It’s interesting that Jesus ends the parable by the saying that the tax collected went home justified. God answered his prayer because it exhibited trust in Him. The Pharisee’s prayer since it relied on his own performance had no trust in God.
Therefore, I want us to realize that when Scripture tells us to “pray without ceasing”, its objective is not to push us to performance but rather to trust God in prayer with all the areas of our lives.
Just like the tax collector’s posture, we come to God humbly in prayer desperately asking God for help in our relationship with Him (we don’t want to be cold or lukewarm but growing in our love for Him), ask God for help to be pure for Him (we need His help to fight sin), ask God to help us with our work (the tasks, meetings and responsibilities for the day), ask Him to help us in our marriages, if we are single where we ask Him to prepare us for marriage & help us be faithful in this stage of waiting, in this time of uncertainty where we desperately ask God for wisdom, provision and protection.
God is glorified when His creatures trust Him. He didn’t create us to be self-sufficient. He created us to be dependent on Him & therefore prayer a wonderfully powerful tool that God has given us to trust Him.
2.
Prayer means that we have unlimited access to God (v17)
The other thing we realize about “praying without ceasing” is that it means that there is no limit to the number of times I can communicate with God. Many of us who have had some experience of working or being part of a hierarchical organization know that the larger the organization is, the harder it is to get connected with the CEO or super boss of the organization if you are a regular employee.
In order to approach the CEO or have an interaction with him, you would probably need to go through multiple managers and heads & then get their approval to get a few minutes with him. And even if there is a rare opportunity to meet with the CEO, it’s quite likely that the next interaction will take a while.
Unlike this case where the CEO is distant and disconnected from regular employees, the amazing truth of the gospel is that every believer has unlimited access to God who is the Creator of the entire universe!
There’s no restriction on the access. There’s no red tape. There’s no certain set of formalities or approval required. That is actually a humbling yet exciting truth!
The other assumption for “unceasing prayer” is that we as believers can be confident to go back to God again and again because God will respond and answer our prayers.
Although God’s answer might not always be what we desire or expect because we think temporarily but God thinks eternally of how we can be shaped into Jesus fully, but yet God always answers!
Another favorite parable of mine is the parable of “the persistent widow”. There was a town in which there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. No moral standards & no compassion and care towards fellow humans – not a great candidate to be a judge.
And there was a widow (oppressed and poor probably) who kept coming to him asking him to grant her justice. Now he kept putting her off but after a while he yielded to giving her justice because he didn’t want to be bothered anymore.
And Jesus uses this lesser to great argument. “If this unjust judge was able to grant justice to the widow, do you think God neglect the chosen ones who cry out to him night and day? I tell you, he will see that they get justice quickly.”
How awesome
this is? To know that we have God who never denies us access to Himself &
also to know that He earnestly desires & delights in answering our prayers.
3. Prayer and Thanksgiving is not based on our
circumstances
18a give
thanks in all circumstances
Thanksgiving means expressing gratefulness. What we see in v18 is that thanksgiving was never meant to be a seasonal activity. It was never intended to be the case where we only thank God when things go well and cease from thanking God during times of pain and difficulty.
Well, you might say – it was easier for the Thessalonian church because they weren’t facing the same troubles or stress that I’m going through right now!
However, when we look at this young Thessalonian church probably a few months old at this stage, we see them as a church not birthed in prosperity but in persecution. They were extremely unpopular and falsely accused of revolting against Caesar by following “another king Jesus”.
Paul who was with their spiritual father & strong support wasn’t present with them because he was driven out of the city by these same persecutors. Think about it – each day remained to be a risk for them ever since they followed Jesus.
With the unpopularity they faced, they too faced a very uncertain future. And in the midst of all that was happening to them, Paul tells them to give thanks in all circumstances! Why does Paul tell them that?
Because what the Thessalonian church and what we need to hear the most in our toughest of times is not optimistic advice but we need to grasp a picture of “Who God is & what He has done for us”!
We need to know how big, strong, compassionate, wise, loving, patient, faithful to His promises, in full control of destiny He is. And that happens through “thanksgiving and remembering”.
As a church in our daily readings we have been going through Deuteronomy and in that I’ve been encouraged to see the numerous times God reminds the Israelites of the time when they were slaves in Egypt and how God brought them out with an outstretched arm.
And these reminders were not to guilt the Israelites or manipulate them. These reminders were given so that they could thank God for what He has done for them and also remind them that He is more than able to fulfill all the remaining promises He made to them.
It could be a gospel song, it could be your own testimony that you remind your own heart about (how God totally transformed your life) or it could be by placing visual reminders of God’s promises in front of you or maybe journaling God’s faithfulness.
There are a variety of things you can do to bring to remembrance and lead your heart to thanksgiving.
4. Thanksgiving and prayer is a command and an invitation
from God
for this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (v18b)
Do you want to know the will of God? God’s will for us is that we pray unceasingly and thank God in all circumstances! When we look at the word “will” in the Greek – it means a decree or command that’s being made by the highest authority.
But the word “will” also means “pleasure & intention” – which also tells us that God doesn’t want us to perform “prayers and thanksgiving” out of mere obligation but rather He intends that we do it in the context of a relationship with Him!
I love that phrase “in Christ Jesus for you” because it reminds us that the basis of our relationship with God is because of Jesus Christ. In the beginning, God created us for a relationship with Him – to know Him, love Him and live for Him. But we willingly chose to go our own way running away from our Father toward our own pleasures & desires.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way (Isa 53:6) Like lost son or daughter, we found ourselves stuck in our own deep & dark pit of sin. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). We tried several attempts to fix the problem and get us out of the pit of sin but each time we fell back in again.
We thought our good works, righteous deeds & number of prayers would be sufficient to save us but none of that could fix our broken lives. When we were dying in that pit, our Father came looking for us and seeing us dying there He came to rescue us. His rescue mission involved giving up His one and only pure Son on the cross to pay for our rebellion and our sins.
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8) But the story doesn’t end there. Jesus Christ was buried and on the third Day He rose victoriously from the grave so that by trusting in Him we can not only be rescued from the deadly pit of sin but have a restored relationship with the Father forever.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12).
That’s
so amazing that through Christ we are no longer enemies and slaves but are now
children of God! Now
through Jesus Christ, in our prayers we relate to the Father as “Abba
Father” & as our “Papa”.
One
verse that always stood out to me was Matt 6:7:
7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles
do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be
like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Why would the Father want us to pray even though He knows what we need even before I ask him?
It’s because our prayers and thanksgiving are not to be viewed like a vending machine or as a burdensome command to obey. The primary purpose for prayer is not merely to get what we want but to know God intimately. It’s as though God is telling us – Son / Daughter, prayer is an invitation for you to grow in your relationship with me.
Undoubtedly
this season in life could be one of most difficult times for us. But God has
given us a powerful tool to call for divine help through prayer! But that
means that we would need to set aside our misunderstandings & baggage
regarding prayer. What I’d ask us all to do now is to spend a few moments
repenting to God regarding the misunderstandings and what we have made prayer
out to be.
1.
Repenting to God for making prayer about a performance rather than trusting Him
will the areas of our life
2.
Repenting for unbelief – Repenting for not believing that God is a good God who
will answer our prayers
3. Repenting
for forgetting Who God is and What He is able to do. Ask God to give us a heart
of thankfulness that is not dependent on our circumstances
4.
Repenting for making prayer out to be a burden by not seeing it as an
invitation to grow in a relationship
And
in faith trust in God’s forgiveness in Christ and ask God for grace to revive
our prayer lives and make it what God intended prayer to be.
The subject we are looking at is Prayer & Thanksgiving; the passage we’re referring to is 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18.
“..
pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of
God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Brothers & sisters, If we are honest, we will all admit that prayer & thanksgiving are the most challenges Christian discipline. It is often not what and how I need to pray and thank God for, the most challenging part I believe, is to make up our mind to pray.
Public
prayer isn’t that hard, but it’s our private prayer life that looks dry and
lifeless at times.
In
this sermon, I don’t want to teach you how to pray and thank God for, but I
want to address the issue of what stops us from making up our mind to go before
God and pray unceasingly every day. Therefore, I’ve name sermon title as
“Breaking the barriers to Prayer & Thanksgiving”
I
want to bring to your attention two reasons why we fail to practice a regular
prayer life and offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
1.
A wrong perspective of God.
As
humans, we often learn and make assumptions about our surroundings, about the
people in our lives and even God based on our human instincts and experiences.
Sadly, we also form opinions about God based on our human understanding.
When
we think of going to Him in prayer, we think ….
He is angry at me because of my repeated sin patterns and habits
He gets irritated when I bothered Him by approaching him with my life.
All
the above responses and thoughts flow out of a guilty heart.
As
long as we have such perceptions about God, we will never be able to see a
breakthrough in our prayer life, and we never be able to offer thanksgiving in
all circumstances.
Why
are the observations we make about God wrong? Well, it because God’s nature is
not the nature of human beings; neither does his emotions fluctuate as the
emotions of human beings. His yes is yes and no is no. What comes out of His
mouth is sealed forever, and He never goes back on it.
To
encourage your hearts to often go to God in prayer, here’s two perceptions we
need to cultivate about God.
a. As a child of God, there is an open invitation for us to enter into his presence with our prayer & supplications anytime and anywhere.
And
here’s what God says in Isaiah 55:1-3
“Come,
everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and
he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come,
buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen
diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
This
invitation is for all us who’ve repented of our sins and have trust in son
Jesus.
Yes,
it is true that once upon a time, God was angry with us. He was out to destroy
us by throwing us into the fire of hell because of our sinful rebellion against
Him. We lived lives as though God did not exist, we disobey Him, disrespected
Him, hated Him. But the Bible says God in return chose to love us, that while
we were sinners, He sent His only son Jesus to die for us and redeem us back to
himself.
Epesians
1:7 says 7 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace”
God
offers a free invitation into his presence for anything in life is because
Jesus made way for us.
Hebrews
10:19, 22 says 19 “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter
the holy places by the blood of Jesus 22 let us draw near with a true heart in
full assurance of faith”
Because of Jesus, God has already declared us righteous; his heart towards us is of a loving and pampering Father.
And therefore, whenever we want to approach Him in prayer and thanksgiving, we should never hesitate to do so with full confidence in His steadfast Love expressed through his son Jesus.
The
second perception we need to form about God in our heart which will encourage
us to approach him in prayer is …
b. He is a God who pays attention to our every request, prayer and always accepts our sacrifice of thanksgiving.
Pslams 69:33 “For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.”
Proverbs 15:29 “The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.”
God
also appreciates when we go to him again and again in prayer, even when we go
with the same prayer requests multiple times.
Luke
18:1-8 Jesus tells us a story
“2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterwards he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Brother & sisters, our God hears our prayer, the only condition he has is that when we pray, we pray with faith and without doubt in our hearts. If our prayer is a prayer of faith, then he will hear us and answer us according to His sovereign will.
2.
A false dependence on our Self
Another
big obstacle in our way to go to God in prayer and offer thanksgiving is
“A false dependence on our Self”.
Listen
to one of the parable of Jesus in Luke 12:16-21
16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”‘ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Friends,
knowingly or unknowingly, often we think to ourselves that life is in our
control, why because we look at our education and think to ourselves that I am
well qualified to get any job whenever and wherever I want. We can look at the
money and possession we own and think to ourselves, I am well supplied and
therefore I can take care our myself and my family. We can look at our
youthfulness and think to ourselves, I am strong enough to take challenges and
achieve whatever I want in life.
But brothers & sisters, we often forget that life is more than these things we possess, what we think is in our control is just a fraction of things that help us survive in this world. There are spiritual realities in life that we are totally blinded to.
Our life ultimately is in God’s hand, and it is his mercy and grace that sustains us every single day of our lives. Therefore, let us throw away the confidence we have on ourselves and lean on God who is in control of all things.
Prayer
is the means through which we express our dependence on him and his saving
grace, giving thanks to God in all circumstances shows that our delight is in
his son Jesus and on nothing else in this world.
And
that is why Paul is writing to the church “.. pray without ceasing, give
thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for
you.”
Therefore,
brothers & sisters, let us develop a lifestyle of prayer and thanksgiving
to God, knowing he is a loving, gracious & pampering Father who loves me
and accepts me the way I am, even though he knows my past, present and future
sins, he loving embraces us in his arms. Not only that but just like a sweet
and loving Father, he even gives us a listening ear.
Let
us also throw away our attitude of self-dependence, and approach God with even
the silliest requests in our heart just how a child would do. It is not what we
ask that matter to God, but how we pray that matters. God may not give you
everything you ask for, but he will grant the desires of your heart that will
help us nearer to him.
