December 1, 2013

Three Encouragements & Four Directives

Preacher:
Series:
Passage: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28
Service Type:
  • Love your God will all your heart
  • Love your neighbour
  • The greatest commands
  • v12-22: various exhortations - what it means to love God and your neighbour
  • Recap of last week's ministry: esteem, be at peace, comfort, uphold, patience, who to react to evil
  • Last week was about our horizontal relationship with our neighbour
  • This week is about our vertical relationship with God

Overview

  • v16-18: three encouragements (positive things)
    • Rejoice always
    • Pray without ceasing
    • Give thanks
  • v19-22: four directives (negative things)
    • Do not quench the Holy Spirit
    • Do not despise prophesies
    • Test all things
    • Abstain from evil

Can be thought of as seven P's

  • Praise
  • Prayer
  • Pattern of thanksgiving
  • Not putting out the flame
  • Not prejudging
  • Proving all things
  • Purposely abstaining from evil

Three Encouragements

Rejoice always

  • The Thessalonian church had great joy even in the midst of persecution
  • It is a command
  • It doesn't mean we won't know sadness
  • It means we are to be a joyful people
  • We have every reason to rejoice in God
  • Psalm 108
  • "Count it all joy when you fall into various trials"
  • "The joy of the Lord is your strength" - written in the book & time of Nehemiah

Pray without ceasing

  • Doesn't mean to pray every minute of the day
  • Our natural tenant must be to lift things to God in prayer
  • We pray with the Spirit's help
  • Pray for all types of people, at all times, on all occasions
  • Do you see this command as a burden or as an invitation?
  • Is it our desire to be more prayerful people?

Give thanks

  • This is qualified - it is the will of God
  • Psalm 103
  • There are some many reasons to thank God in the Bible

Four Directives (Warnings)

Do not quench the Holy Spirit

  • The Holy Spirit is a person
  • He guides, comforts, teaches
  • You can grieve the Holy Spirit
  • The Holy Spirit indwells the Church
  • The Spirit of God dwells within people
  • We must not do things man's way and not God's way - quenching the Spirit
    • Holding grudges, disobeying God, disobeying the bible
    • Too rigid in church, finishing meetings or sermons at set times, dampen a new believer's enthusiasm
  • The Holy Spirit is pictured as a flame
  • We are to stay in step with the Holy Spirit

Do not despise prophesies

  • There were Old Testament prophets and prophets in the New Testament church
  • The church was founded on the apostles and the prophets
  • New Testament prophets were less about forth-telling but teaching the church of God
  • In Acts many in the young Church were blessed with gifts
  • Prophets are not needed today since the cannon of Scripture is complete

Test all things

Test all things, just like the Berean Church

Abstain from evil

  • Evil comes in all sorts of forms - from the fragrant to the 'naughty but nice'
  • We are to call sin 'evil'
  • There may be the appearance of evil
  • We must not give a bad testimony
  • We must be very careful

Summary and recap

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