{"id":22450,"date":"2023-05-13T14:45:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-13T19:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/sermon\/first-thessalonians-026-in-everything\/"},"modified":"2023-08-09T10:59:13","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T15:59:13","slug":"first-thessalonians-026-in-everything","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/first-thessalonians-026-in-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"First Thessalonians 026 – In Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[97],"series_event":[546],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-22450","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-1-thessalonians","series_event-first-thessalonians","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"First Thessalonians 026 - In Everything","sermon_date":"20230514","sermon_month":"05","sermon_year":"2023","sermon_notes":22448,"sermon_slides":22449,"sermon_mp3":22456,"sermon_id":"51323184358940","series_or_event":546,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":97,"chapter_and_verse":"5:14-15","sermon_transcript":"

First Thessalonians 026 \u2013 In Everything<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15, Dr. Andy Woods, May 14, 2023<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\nWell, good morning.\u00a0 Happy Mother's Day.\u00a0 And if you have a mother, could you raise your hand?\u00a0 If you've ever had a mother?\u00a0 So, I think Mother's Day is kind of important.\u00a0 Also, happy birthday to the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Today is, yeah, Israel, the miracle on the Mediterranean.\u00a0 Today, May 14, is Israel's 75th birthday.\u00a0 She declared her independence May 14, 1948, and everybody thought, well, she's not going to last long.\u00a0 She's going to be wiped out.\u00a0 As you know, she was invaded on all sides.\u00a0 Lo and behold, here she is, 75 years later, actually bigger than the territory that she originally went into.\r\n

PRAYER<\/h4>\r\nLet's open with a word of prayer, if we could.\u00a0 Father, we're grateful for today, even though it's a little rainy.\u00a0 Grateful for Mother's Day.\u00a0 Grateful for this special day for the nation of Israel.\u00a0 I do pray You'll be with us as we depend completely and totally on Your Holy Spirit for guidance and direction.\u00a0 We desperately need that, Lord.\u00a0 We have a tendency to rely on our own crutches and props when really what You're calling us to do is to rely upon You.\u00a0 And so we rely today upon the direction of the Holy Spirit here at Sugar Land Bible Church, the illumination of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 In preparation for that ministry, we're going to just take a few moments of silence to do personal business with You, so that if fellowship has in any way been broken between us and You, we're going to exercise 1 John 1:9[1]<\/a> right now so fellowship can be restored.\r\n\r\nWe are thankful Lord for the promise that if we confess our sins, you're faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u00a0 We understand our position in you is secure, but we can do things as lost sinful human beings that frustrate sometimes our moment-by-moment enjoyment of You.\u00a0 Which is what we really need to receive ministry today from Your word via the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And so that's why we confess our sins just before Bible study to prepare us for that time period.\u00a0 I just ask Lord that everything that happens at Sugarland Bible Church today from opening until closing all the meetings, all the rooms, all the Bible studies that are going on, that Your name would be lifted up and glorified.\u00a0 We pray that people will leave here today changed by the power of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 We'll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus' name and God's people said, amen.\r\n

REVIEW<\/h4>\r\nWell, if you can, take your Bibles and open them to 1 Thessalonians 5:14.\u00a0 We are continuing our verse-by-verse study in Sunday School through the book of 1 Thessalonians.\u00a0 In that second section of the book where Paul is no longer defending himself against accusations, false accusations raised against him, he does that in Chapters 1-3, but in that second section of the book he's really dealing with, now that he's rehabilitated his reputation, he's in the business now of correcting the Thessalonians.\u00a0 So he's moved away from personal experience to practical exhortation.\r\n\r\nHe's dealt with the subject of sexual immorality (4:1-8), the subject of laziness (4:9-12), and then they had some eschatological questions about the future, and they wanted to know, what about their deceased loved ones in Christ, and will they participate in the rapture?\u00a0 Paul says yes, and so he's explained the rapture of the church at the end of Chapter 4, and then Chapter 5:1-11 he's gotten into the subject of the Day of the Lord, which is the prophetic event that will happen to planet Earth after the church has been removed.\r\n\r\nAnd it's there he moves away, he moves from \"we<\/strong>\", end of Chapter 4, to \"they.<\/strong>\"\u00a0 So the \"we<\/strong>\" is the church-age believer who participates in the rapture.\u00a0 The \"they<\/strong>\" is those left behind to experience the tribulation period.\r\n\r\nAnd with all of that discussion now in our rear-view mirror, he gets now into the subject of ministry imbalances that he was aware of taking place in Thessalonica.\u00a0 And he's dealt with, and we studied this last time, a proper attitude towards church leaders.\u00a0 What are church leaders supposed to be doing?\u00a0 He explains that in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13.\u00a0 And then he wants you, as a member of Christ's universal church, once you find a shepherd willing to do what's described in those verses, an attitude towards a member of the church, towards a leader, should be one of respect and submission.\u00a0 And he's dealt with that also in Verses 12 and 13.\r\n

Ministry Towards One Another (1 Thess 5:14-15)<\/h4>\r\nAnd now he moves into Verses 14 and 15 where he is dealing with ministry towards one another.\u00a0 So let's pick it up here in 1 Thessalonians 5:14.\u00a0 He says, \"We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. \"\r\n\r\nSo you'll notice this expression, \"We urge you<\/strong>.\"\u00a0 This is a strong exhortation on Paul's part to the flock.\u00a0 He's clearly dealing with Christians because he calls them \"brethren.\"\u00a0 And I understand that the word \"brethren\" can be used amongst fellow Jews.\u00a0 I think it's used that way in Romans 9:3, right in there.\u00a0 But here Paul is not dealing with fellow Jews, because it was the Jews that kicked him out of the synagogue in Thessalonica.\r\n\r\nAs you study Acts 17, which is really the background of this epistle, the Apostle Paul has been kicked out of the synagogue.\u00a0 He went into the Jewish synagogue.\u00a0 He reasoned with the Jews for three Sabbaths, from their own Old Testament, trying to show them that the things that he is proclaiming about Jesus are not things he made up.\u00a0 Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is predicted in their Bible, Hebrew Bible, that we now call the Old Testament.\u00a0 They wouldn't receive him, so as is typical of Paul, he leaves the synagogue, and he reaps a great harvest amongst the Gentiles.\u00a0 The Gentiles who don't even know anything about the Old Testament have a great interest in the Gospel and the things of Jesus.\u00a0 And that's how the church at Thessalonica started.\r\n\r\nSo when Paul uses the word \"brethren\" here, he's not talking about fellow Jews.\u00a0 He's using the word \"brethren\" the way Jesus used the expression in Matthew 12:46-50, where Jesus was asked, or he was told, \"Your brothers, mother, are waiting for you.\"\u00a0 And he says, \"Well, you know, the ones that are really my brothers and sisters and mother, speaking of a spiritual family, are those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven.\"\u00a0 So Jesus, at the end of Matthew 12, spoke of a family which transcends typical family lines.\r\n\r\nWe all have our own families, but once you believe in Jesus, you're brought into a new spiritual man, a new spiritual family, and if you haven't been brought into that new spiritual family, then these commands here won't make any sense to you.\u00a0 Because you don't have the Holy Spirit inside of you to understand them.\u00a0 You don't have the Holy Spirit inside of you to obey them, and so that's why that word \"brethren\" there is very, very significant.\u00a0 He's not dealing with fellow Jews here, one Jew to another.\u00a0 He's dealing with one born-again person to another born-again person.\r\n

Admonish The Unruly<\/h4>\r\nSo he says there, \"We urge you brethren,\" and I think here he's to a large extent speaking to leadership still.\u00a0 He says, \"admonish the unruly.\"\u00a0 In other words, there are people within the body of Christ that are sort of wayward.\u00a0 Maybe they act unbiblically, or they teach things that are unbiblical.\u00a0 And he's basically explaining that the role of spiritual leadership is to straighten out these unruly people.\u00a0 That's one of the jobs of a shepherd.\r\n\r\nSo think of a shepherd in the natural world who's guiding his sheep, and suddenly one of the sheep just kind of wanders away and does his own thing.\u00a0 Or very, very sadly, the sheep actually have teeth, and they can fight with each other.\u00a0 I've got two cats at home.\u00a0 I love to just go at it with each other.\u00a0 So the function of a shepherd is to separate or resolve fighting sheep.\u00a0 That, unfortunately, is how you spend a lot of your time as a shepherd in the body of Christ.\u00a0 You have Christians that want to say things, or they want to promote things that aren't found in the Bible, or you have Christians that want to fight with each other over different matters.\u00a0 So we would call those the unruly.\u00a0 In that case, I guess they'd be called the black sheep of the family.\r\n\r\nAnd so the role of a shepherd is to straighten out these unruly sheep, which is the part of ministry that really no one wants to do, including myself.\u00a0 I mean, I do it because I have to, not because I want to.\u00a0 It's much more enjoyable to give direction to the sheep that are already moving the right direction.\u00a0 It's a little bit more difficult to deal with sort of malcontents and wayward sheep.\u00a0 But that is part of the pastoral calling.\u00a0 It's part of the calling of an elder.\r\n\r\nIf you look for a moment at 1 Timothy 1, just skip over 2 Thessalonians, and you'll hit 1 Timothy, which is a pastoral letter.\u00a0 Paul the Apostle says to Timothy, who he has installed as a leader in the church at Ephesus, he says, \u201cAs I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.\u201d (1 Timothy 1:3\u20134)\r\n\r\nSo Timothy, you're in charge as a pastoral leader at the church at Ephesus, and your primary job, because it's mentioned right out of the gate, I mean, Paul has only given Timothy two verses before he gives him this third and fourth verse, is you're in that position to instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, or to pay attention to endless genealogies, you know, things that the Bible is not clear on one way or the other, which were causing division.\u00a0 So Timothy, you are to admonish the unruly.\r\n\r\nIf you flip over a few more books to the right, over from 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, then you'll find the book of Titus, which lays out the qualifications, Titus 1 for elders.\u00a0 What's an elder supposed to do?\u00a0 Titus 1:9 says, \"holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he [the elder] will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.\"\r\n\r\nNow, it's much easier to exhort in sound doctrine.\u00a0 Where it gets controversial is where you have to refute those who contradict.\u00a0 So part of, and this is interestingly a part of elder requirements that almost nobody talks about.\u00a0 It's generally, you know, what's their temperament like?\u00a0 People like to get into the big talking about husband of one wife.\u00a0 And I almost never hear anybody talking about Titus 1:9, which very clearly says part of the job of an elder is to refute those who contradict.\u00a0 In other words, people come in with odd doctrines, people come in with strange doctrines, and it's the job of an elder to, quoting 1 Thessalonians, to admonish the unruly.\r\n\r\nA lot of strange things can happen in a church, particularly in small group settings.\u00a0 People want to start a small group, and suddenly you learn in that small group someone is promoting X teacher, or Y teacher, or Z teacher, that we don't think is on course with what we believe the Bible teaches here at Sugar Land Bible Church.\u00a0 So it would be our job as an elder, as elders, to say such a person, you know, go teach whatever you want, but you can't do it here at Sugar Land Bible Church.\u00a0 You can't teach it in the name of Sugar Land Bible Church.\r\n\r\nSo that's why when we have these small groups, fellowship groups as we call them, Sunday school classes, and someone wants to teach something, I mean we want to know, what do you want to teach?\u00a0 Can you submit a curriculum explaining what you want to teach?\u00a0 And people kind of look at that this day and age and they say, wow, what a bunch of control freaks, you know.\u00a0 Boy, what a bunch of micromanagers.\u00a0 And the truth of the matter is no one wants to be, at least at this church that I know of, wants to be a micromanager.\u00a0 But we have to have some kind of awareness of what it is that's actually being communicated in women's Bible study, youth group, Sunday school classes, fellowship groups.\u00a0 And if we just take sort of an attitude of, you know, que sera, sera, what will be will be, we're basically falling down on our responsibility as elders.\u00a0 Because part of the responsibility of an elder is to refute those who contradict and command certain men not to teach strange doctrines.\r\n\r\nAnd sometimes the doctrine is some really sort of myopic thing where the Bible is not clear on one way or the other and it's generating strife.\u00a0 So the function of an elder is to say, you know what, we're not really willing for you to go down that road.\u00a0 And so we would ask you not to teach that.\u00a0 Well, I don't want to submit to your authority.\u00a0 Okay, well then, start your own Bible study.\u00a0 Just don't call it Sugar Land Bible Church.\u00a0 And we're not going to promote it here at Sugar Land Bible Church.\r\n

Encourage The Fainthearted, Help The Weak<\/h4>\r\nSo going back to 1 Thessalonians 5:14.\u00a0 That's what he means here when he says admonish the unruly.\u00a0 \"We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, ...\"\u00a0 So part of ministry involves coming alongside and assisting people that are basically weak and really can't help themselves.\u00a0 They can't help themselves in terms of Bible understanding.\u00a0 They can't help themselves.\u00a0 Perhaps they have some sort of physical limitation, economic limitation.\u00a0 And so coming alongside the weak, assisting the weak, exhorting the weak, in some cases providing for the weak is part of the job of the church as well.\r\n\r\nAnd when you go back to Matthew 9:36, you see that this is what Jesus did constantly.\u00a0 It says in Matthew 9:36, \"Seeing the people, He [that's Jesus] felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.\"\r\n\r\nBy the way, when we're called sheep as God's people, that's really not a compliment.\u00a0 Sheep are some of the stupidest animals on the face of the earth.\u00a0 Sheep will follow each other right off a cliff if given the opportunity.\u00a0 So they're in constant need of provision.\u00a0 They're in constant need of protection.\u00a0 They're in constant need of guidance.\r\n\r\nThis is why Jesus in John 21:15-17 says to Peter, \"Feed my sheep.\u00a0 Tend my sheep.\u00a0 Care for my lambs.\"\u00a0 And that's how Jesus saw people.\u00a0 Matthew 9:36.\u00a0 He says He felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited.\u00a0 In other words, they were weak.\u00a0 And like, which is simile, He's using a metaphor, they were just like sheep without a shepherd.\r\n\r\nSo this is the kind of thing that Paul is getting at back in 1 Thessalonians 5:14.\u00a0 To encourage the fainthearted and to help the weak.\u00a0 And sometimes in the course of ministry, it's easy to lose patience with people.\r\n

Be Patient With Everyone \/ the Fruit of The Spirit<\/h4>\r\nSo Paul adds this little clause at the end.\u00a0 It's very tempting just to pass over what it says at the end of 1 Thessalonians 5:14.\u00a0 He says, \"Be patient with everyone.\"\u00a0 The fruit of the Spirit, you know what that is, right?\u00a0 Love, joy, peace.\u00a0 I can't even get the word out.\u00a0 Patience.\u00a0 Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control.\u00a0 Did I get them all?\u00a0 Which one did I forget?\u00a0 Goodness, I forgot goodness.\u00a0 My goodness, I forgot goodness, Galatians 5:22-23, you'll find them.\r\n\r\n\"But the fruit of the Spirit...\"\u00a0 This, by the way, is how you know you're walking in the Spirit.\u00a0 Not whether you've seen the latest revelation or dream from God.\u00a0 A lot of people define Spirit based on whether they did a miracle or whether they saw some kind of vision.\u00a0 The Bible is much more simple than that.\u00a0 This is how you know you're walking in the Spirit because your life will start to exhibit these qualities towards people.\r\n\r\nIt says in Galatians 5:22-23, \"But the fruit of the Spirit\" \u2013 in other words, these are not things I can manufacture in my own sin nature.\u00a0 \"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, [here it comes] \"patience\".\u00a0 I would encourage you not to marry someone unless you are with them when you drive in traffic.\u00a0 And I'm serious, if you're dating someone and you've ever driven with them in traffic, you might want to expose yourself to that kind of exercise because that will determine whether you're going to marry a patient person or not.\r\n\r\n\"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.\" (Galatians 5:22-23)\r\n\r\nMeaning, it's not the law, the Mosaic law, the Ten Commandments that creates these things in a person.\u00a0 Ten Commandments and the written Word of God can explain to you what these things are and if you're following them or not following them.\u00a0 But these things can only be created in a person as they're depending upon the Spirit.\u00a0 These things will not come to us naturally.\r\n\r\nWhat does come to us naturally is Galatians 5:19-21.\u00a0 If you want to know what we're really like in our sinfulness, Galatians 5:19-21 explains it.\u00a0 \u201cNow the deeds of the flesh [that's the sin nature] are evident, which are: \u00a0immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, [I'm glad that list is over.\u00a0 Paul says not quite.] and things like these, ....\u201d \u00a0So this is just like a short list here.\u00a0 He says the rest of it is obvious.\r\n\r\nSo normally we're just like Galatians 5:19-21, but under the control of the Spirit, we can be the opposite.\u00a0 We can demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, my goodness, I keep forgetting goodness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.\u00a0 So that's where your patience comes from.\u00a0 It comes from the Spirit's ability to give you that capacity.\r\n\r\nI mean what you'll discover about the Lord is He's very patient.\u00a0 He's a lot more patient than most Christians are.\r\n\r\nIt was the Lord that postponed judgment in the days of Noah for 120 years, hoping someone would repent; 120 years is a long time considering what was going on in the days of Noah, all the evil.\u00a0 God postponed judgment over the wicked Canaanites.\u00a0 Very wicked people.\u00a0 Read Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20 and you'll see how wicked these people were and the depravity that they were getting into.\u00a0 God postponed judgment for 400 years.\u00a0 That's like double roughly, give or take, the length of America.\u00a0 That's a long time to be patient.\r\n\r\nThis is what 2 Peter 3:20 is speaking of when it says God waited patiently in the days of Noah.\r\n\r\nIn fact, Jesus, I think it's in Luke 9, came into a Samaritan village.\u00a0 I think it's around verse 51 and following.\u00a0 If you know anything about the Jewish Samaritan conflict, it was a racial conflict.\u00a0 The Samaritans, going all the way back to the days of the northern dispersion of the northern tribes in 722 and the folks that were brought in to replace the displaced tribes started to intermarry with some Jews and they started to not worship in Jerusalem.\u00a0 They worshiped in Samaria.\u00a0 And this was why the disciples hated the Samaritans and the Samaritans hated the Jews.\r\n\r\nThat's why they were astonished in John 4 that Jesus was not just talking to a woman, but a Samaritan.\u00a0 She was racially despised.\u00a0 There's a lot of information on the Jewish Samaritan conflict, and yet here they come in in Luke 9:54-56[2]<\/a>.\u00a0 They would not respond to Christ's message.\u00a0 And James and John, John the love apostle, says, \"Lord, shall we not call down fire from heaven and destroy these people?\" Like Elijah.\r\n\r\nI mean, no patience for people at all.\u00a0 You get on the wrong side of me and let's just nuke them and let's do it quick and let's do it now, Lord, go for it.\u00a0 Destroy these people.\u00a0 And you'll see the Lord rebuking James and John, basically saying you don't even know what manner you're speaking when you say stuff like that.\u00a0 The Son of Man has not come into the world to destroy people's lives.\u00a0 He's come into the world to save people, to liberate people.\r\n\r\nAnd so all of these texts show us that God is very, very patient.\u00a0 So if God the Holy Spirit is inside of us, which the Bible says He is, the moment we trust Christ, and as you walk in dependency upon the Spirit, what you'll see is you're going to be more long-suffering towards people.\u00a0 You're going to have a shorter - like we can get very short fuses with people.\u00a0 What you're going to see is your fuse, I guess we could put it this way, is getting longer.\u00a0 Because it's not you, it's the Lord inside of you, and He by nature is very, very patient.\r\n\r\nSo this is what Paul is dealing with here in 1 Thessalonians 5:14 when he says, \"... be patient with everyone.\"\u00a0 Notice it doesn't say, \"Be patient with the people that you like.\"\u00a0 Be patient with the people that haven't hurt your feelings.\u00a0 Be patient with the people that agree with you.\u00a0 Because to be honest with you, it's easy to be loving and patient with people that you perceive as being on your side, whatever your side means.\u00a0 It's easy to love your own in other words.\r\n\r\nI mean, even the mafia does that, right?\u00a0 The mobsters, they look out for their own.\u00a0 But they don't have any patience with people that come against them or go outside their box.\u00a0 So being patient with somebody that you already like, generally speaking, that's not a work of God.\u00a0 That's easy to do.\r\n\r\nBut to be patient with people that get crossways with you, that's going to take a work of the Spirit.\u00a0 You're not going to be able to manufacture that in your sin nature.\u00a0 But the Holy Spirit will give that ability to you.\u00a0 Because it's God doing it, and He by nature is very, very patient.\r\n\r\nSo 1 Thessalonians 5:14, \u201cWe urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.\u201d\r\n

\u201cSee that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.\u201d (1 Thessalonians 5:15)<\/h4>\r\nGoing down to 1 Thessalonians 5:15, \"See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.\"\u00a0 So the Spirit-filled life is not a life which says, \"Don't get mad, get even.\"\u00a0 I mean, if that's your temptation to get even with somebody, then that's not the Holy Spirit working in you.\u00a0 You're yielding back to the sin nature when we have that sort of ambition.\u00a0 We have to learn to reckon that dead and to have a mindset that we're not going to repay evil for evil.\r\n

Romans 12:19-21<\/h4>\r\nThere's a tremendous treatment that the Apostle Paul gives on this in the book of Romans 12:19-21.\u00a0 \u201cNever take your own revenge, ...\" This is not talking about self-defense where you're put in imminent danger.\u00a0 It's not dealing with that issue.\u00a0 It's dealing with an issue where you've been wronged by somebody.\u00a0 Has it ever happened to anybody in here?\u00a0 Has it happened to any single person in here?\u00a0 You've never been wronged in your whole life?\u00a0 Well, you guys, you might be committing another sin in the Bible called lying, which we're not covering today.\u00a0 I mean, I would say this, all of us have been hurt by somebody, right?\u00a0 And so the temptation is, you know, if someone did me wrong, I want to get them back.\r\n\r\nBut what does the Bible say?\u00a0 Romans 12:19 says, \u201cNever take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, \u201cVengeance is Mine, I will repay,\u201d says the Lord.\"\u00a0 When we're taking our own revenge on things, God says you're taking matters into your own hands.\u00a0 And if you take matters into your own hands, then it's your problem.\u00a0 You handle it.\r\n\r\nBut if someone does me wrong and I say, Lord, you know what?\u00a0 I'm just going to turn this whole situation over to You, and I'm going to let You deal with it the way You want to deal with it, and I'm going to forgive the person and move on with my life, and if feelings of bitterness come up again, I'm just going to keep forgiving and keep forgiving and keep forgiving and entrust the whole injustice to You.\u00a0 Now God says, it's My problem.\u00a0 They're on My hook.\r\n\r\nAnd I've discovered in my life that God is a lot better at dealing with wayward people than I am.\u00a0 You trust your situation to the Lord.\u00a0 You will be shocked at what the Lord will do on your behalf.\u00a0 I mean, sometimes He'll change the person's heart.\u00a0 If that doesn't work, sometimes He'll deal with the person through some sort of divine discipline.\u00a0 I've seen it happen over and over again, and I've noticed that God is not going to do that as long as I've got my fists clenched when I'm trying to handle the situation myself.\r\n\r\n\u201cNever take your own revenge, beloved, ...\"\u00a0 Notice \"beloved.\"\u00a0 You can't do this as an unsaved person.\u00a0 You can do it as a saved person though because someone is living inside of you greater than yourself.\r\n\r\n\u201cNever take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, \u201cVengeance is Mine, I will repay,\u201d says the Lord. \u201cBut if your enemy is hungry, [look at this] feed him, ...\"\u00a0 Rather than retaliating, be kind to the person.\u00a0 I mean, if you're leaving room for God's wrath, you almost start to feel sorry for them.\u00a0 So they deserve kindness, because they don't know what's coming.\r\n\r\n\u201cBut if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.\u201d [I mean, that's going to stumble them.]\u00a0 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.\u201d (Rom 12:20-21)\r\n\r\nI have a lot of Christians, when they interpret Romans 6, they say, well, a Christian can never be overcome by evil.\u00a0 Well, then why does it say here in Romans 12:19-21, \"Do not be overcome by evil.\"\u00a0 As a Christian, I can be overcome by evil because I can make decisions through volition to yield to the old nature and not yield to the Holy Spirit inside of me.\u00a0 Of course I can be overcome by evil, or else the Bible wouldn't say, \"Do not be overcome by evil.\"\r\n\r\nSo, you know, we're not to be people of self-vengeance.\u00a0 We're to leave room for the wrath of God.\u00a0 I'm back in 1 Thessalonians 5:15 now, \"See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always [look at these \"always\" and \"every\" in here ] seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.\"\r\n

Philippians 2:3-4<\/h4>\r\nI think Paul in Philippians 2:3-4 gives another dimension to this.\u00a0 Notice if you will the book of Philippians 2:3-4.\u00a0 I believe you just have to go back one or two books.\u00a0 And notice what he says in Philippians 2:3-4.\u00a0 \u201cDo nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.\u201d\r\n\r\nSo the truth of the matter is I'm really good at looking out for my own interests.\u00a0 Really good at it.\u00a0 In fact, it comes really natural to me.\u00a0 I mean, I want to make sure that I have enough resources.\u00a0 I want to make sure I get enough sleep.\u00a0 I want to make sure that I've got enough gasoline in my car.\u00a0 I want to make sure I get enough rest.\u00a0 I want to make sure that my vacation time is honored.\u00a0 You know, I mean, we're just really good at looking out for ourselves.\u00a0 That's what we're like naturally.\r\n\r\nBut if I have the ability to take this innate desire that I have to look out for number one, and then I start transferring it to somebody else, in other words, the same ambition that I have in protecting myself and my interests, I'm now transferring it where I'm looking out for someone else's interests, now that's spiritual growth.\u00a0 You start walking like that and you're really developing and growing spiritually the way the Lord would have us to grow.\r\n\r\nWhy would I even do that?\u00a0 Because Jesus is living inside of me.\u00a0 And Jesus, the eternally existent second member of the Godhead, did not spend His eternity or His life looking out for number one.\u00a0 That's what the rest of Philippians 2 is talking about, where He left that position of pre-incarnate glory to enter into human history, to die a cruel death.\r\n\r\nI mean, why would you do something like that?\u00a0 Because you had someone else's interests in mind.\u00a0 Because if Jesus hadn't done that, we'd all be on our way to hell.\u00a0 And He did that for us.\u00a0 So why did He do it?\u00a0 To promote Himself?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Because He decided to put our interests above His own immediate comfort.\r\n\r\nSo if Jesus is really living inside of us, and the Bible says he is, he's living inside of us forever, I mean what you're going to start to discover in your Christian life is you're not going to always spend all of your life and energy looking out for yourself.\u00a0 You start looking out for other people.\r\n\r\nAnd really that's where all these church conflicts come from, to be honest with you.\u00a0 I mean church is split all the time, I'm sure you're aware of this, over really silly issues like the color of the carpet and really important things like that right?\u00a0 Here the world's going to hell in a handbasket, and we're worried about the color of the carpet.\r\n\r\nThat's how we get when we get inwardly focused via the sin nature.\u00a0 And usually these disputes masquerade as some great cause, but really, it's like, really what it comes down to is Sister A is mad at Sister B because Sister B or Brother A and B intruded on her or his territory somehow.\u00a0 So let's kind of make up a reason to cause an argument and let's get a bunch of people mad at each other and let's recruit people for my side, and the other person recruits people for their side, and really what it comes down to is you have a bunch of people looking out for number one.\u00a0 That's where these conflicts come from.\u00a0 And it's interesting how so many of them would just disappear if we were looking out for each other with the same aggressiveness that we look out for ourselves.\r\n\r\nA lot of people teach this idea that you really need to start to learn to love yourself.\u00a0 And we're going to put you in some sort of counseling program where we're going to dial into your past and your history and we're going to really teach you how to love yourself.\u00a0 The truth of the matter is folks, we already love ourselves.\u00a0 Loving ourselves comes very, very easy.\u00a0 It comes very, very naturally.\u00a0 I do not need a course on self-love<\/strong>.\r\n\r\nYou hear people talk, \"Gosh, I'm so poor.\u00a0 I hate myself.\u00a0 I'm so untalented.\u00a0 I hate myself.\"\u00a0 Well, if you really hated yourself, wouldn't you be happy that you're untalented?\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 Why would you be upset that you're untalented if you hate yourself?\u00a0 You should be happy.\u00a0 The reason you're upset is because you love yourself and you see a deficiency in yourself.\u00a0 So nobody needs to study self-love.\u00a0 Self-love is already something that we have.\r\n\r\nEverybody today is focused on self-esteem.\u00a0 Do you know where the highest self-esteem is in the American population today?\u00a0 Prison inmates score the highest on self-esteem.\u00a0 I don't think we need more self-esteem.\u00a0 We need to see ourselves the way God sees us, if that's what they mean by self-esteem, fine.\u00a0 But I don't need any lectures or course material on how to look out for number one.\r\n\r\nMy whole problem is I don't take my natural self-love, and I don't extend it to other people<\/strong>.\u00a0 That's my problem.\u00a0 My problem is not a lack of self-love.\u00a0 My problem is my inability to take my natural self-love and transfer it to somebody else.\u00a0 So that's why I need Christianity and that's why I need Jesus because Jesus' whole ministry was to come into the world not to be served, Mark 10:45, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.\r\n\r\nIn 1 Thessalonians 5, 15, \"See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another ...\"\u00a0 And then it says, \"For all people<\/strong>.\"\u00a0 I mean, I'm supposed to do this with every single human being?\u00a0 Apparently, that's what it says.\r\n\r\nOver in the book of Galatians 6:10, Paul explains this.\u00a0 If you're having some trouble kind of putting together Paul's writings, after you get beyond Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, then you're going to hit the big books of Paul, Romans, the two Corinthian letters.\u00a0 Those are easy to find.\u00a0 And then just remember, go eat popcorn.\u00a0 Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.\u00a0 Well, I don't like popcorn.\u00a0 All right.\u00a0 God's Electric Power Company.\u00a0 Remember that one.\u00a0 And then just remember, after you finish God's Electric Power Company, then the T's are located after the company.\u00a0 So that's where you get your Thessalonian books, Timothy books, Titus books.\u00a0 And so actually, if you just have that little mnemonic device memorized kind of flipping from book to book, it actually becomes sort of easy.\r\n\r\nBut you'll notice Galatians 6:10 it says, \"So then, while we have the opportunity ....\"\u00a0 Hey, we're not going to be here forever.\u00a0 This opportunity is not always going to be here to do this.\u00a0 Life is short.\u00a0 Galatians 6:10, \u201cSo then, while we have opportunity, let us do good [to who?] to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.\u201d\r\n\r\nI mean, charity starts at home.\u00a0 You're good to those within the body of Christ.\u00a0 But then Paul says, \"Don't stop there.\u00a0 Be good to all people.\"\u00a0 Because Jesus is really good to His children, but He's also good to the whole world.\u00a0 Because He died for the whole world.\u00a0 Even those that don't know Christ personally, salvation is available for them, just like it is anybody else.\u00a0 And so this is what Paul is getting at with these basic exhortations.\r\n\r\n1 Thessalonians 5:15, \"See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.\"\u00a0 Now that he's dealt with ministry towards one another, he gets into, and this is how he concludes the letter, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28.\r\n\r\nWhat we don't finish here, we will finish in two weeks, because next week is our congregational meeting during Sunday school, right?\u00a0 Do I have that right?\u00a0 So we're not going to be having our traditional Sunday school, we're going to be having a church-wide congregational meeting.\u00a0 But following that, we'll be getting right back into finishing 1 Thessalonians.\u00a0 What Paul is dealing with here, after he deals with ministry imbalances, is he deals with progressive sanctification.\r\n\r\nAnd it's difficult to understand this section, or any other section really, of the Bible, unless you understand the three tenses of salvation \u2013 justification, sanctification, glorification.\r\n\r\nJustification, <\/strong>the past tense<\/strong> of salvation.\r\n\r\nSanctification<\/strong>, the present tense<\/strong> of salvation.\r\n\r\nGlorification<\/strong>, the future tense<\/strong> of salvation.\r\n\r\nAt justification, at the point of faith alone, in Christ alone, we're delivered from sin's penalty in an instant, which is an eternity separated from God.\u00a0 But then God says, \"Okay, time to grow up.\u00a0 Can't be an infant forever.\"\u00a0 So then He moves us into progressive sanctification where we are gradually, justification is an instant, progressive sanctification is a process<\/strong>, where we are gradually being delivered from sin's power by walking by faith, appropriating the resources that God has given us moment by moment.\r\n\r\nSo after I get saved, God says, \"Let's grow and let's learn how to say no to the yearnings of the old nature by My power.\u00a0 Let's learn to say no to the things you naturally want to do in your sin nature.\"\u00a0 Because sin comes very naturally to us, right?\r\n\r\nNo one ever had to sit me down and say, \"Okay, Andy, here's some lessons on sin today.\u00a0 Here's how you do it.\"\u00a0 My parents didn't have to sit me down and say, \"Okay, we're going to give you a lesson today on selfishness.\u00a0 You ready?\u00a0 Here's how you do it.\"\u00a0 And as a child, they never said, \"Okay, here's a lesson on losing your temper.\u00a0 Here's how you do it.\u00a0 Ready?\u00a0 Mom and Dad will practice few times, and then you'll pick it up.\"\r\n\r\nYou know, losing your temper, not getting your own way, all of that stuff, impatience.\u00a0 I mean, that's what we're like naturally.\u00a0 What we have to be taught is the opposite.\u00a0 We have to be taught to not yield to it.\u00a0 And that's what parenting is, right?\u00a0 That's what parenting, that's what my parents were taking me through, saying no to the sin nature.\u00a0 And that's what any parent worth their salt with their own children is supposed to be doing continually with their own children.\r\n\r\nSo we have this society today of shootings and murders and all of these terrible things that we read about in the news.\u00a0 What do you attribute it to?\u00a0 You attribute it to the fact that there really was no parenting that went on in X person's life.\u00a0 They never really knew how to, under divine discipline, say no to the sin nature, and how to replace the yearnings of the sin nature with the desires of the spirit.\u00a0 And so you have a culture now of people that really are just, they're adult children to be honest with you.\u00a0 They just never really learned how to say no to the sin nature.\u00a0 They should have picked that up a long time ago from mom and dad.\u00a0 Where was mom and dad?\u00a0 Why weren't they teaching them how to do this?\u00a0 And that's why you have a cultural breakdown in society.\r\n\r\nIt's got nothing to do with, oh we need some more money for this program or that program.\u00a0 We need to educate everybody.\u00a0 Well guess what you get when you educate a blue-collar thief?\u00a0 You get a white-collar thief if they've never learned how to say no to the sin nature.\r\n\r\nSo in progressive sanctification we're being delivered from sin's power<\/strong>.\r\n\r\nAnd then in glorification we'll be out of these bodies where we won't even have a sin nature.\u00a0 And that, like justification, occurs in a nanosecond.\u00a0 It's either death or the rapture.\u00a0 Where there's not even a temptation to go back to the sin nature because you don't have one anymore.\u00a0 Wouldn't that be nice?\u00a0 But right now I still have a sin nature.\u00a0 I have a new nature because I'm justified before God and the Holy Spirit is inside of me.\u00a0 But I have a sin nature still.\u00a0 I'm dual natured.\u00a0 So I have to perpetually tell my sin nature no and yield to the desires of the new nature.\u00a0 And if I won't do that, then I can't grow as a Christian.\u00a0 I can't become a spiritual adult.\r\n\r\nAnd you don't say no to the sin nature through willpower.\u00a0 You say no to it through the resources that you have in Christ.\u00a0 Which means you have to be in an environment like this one for example, where you're learning about your resources in Christ.\u00a0 Someone has to teach you this.\u00a0 You have to start to read it for yourself in the Word of God.\u00a0 And then you have to start to believe it's true.\u00a0 Because how can I yield to the Spirit if I don't even believe the Spirit's inside of me and has given me power?\u00a0 So that's called sanctification, and then that will lead eventually to glorification.\r\n\r\nSo you'll notice at the bottom of the screen, that's the word \"save.\"\u00a0 The word \"save[3]<\/a>,\" \"s\u014dz\u014d<\/em>\" the Greek verb and \"s\u014dt\u0113ria<\/em>\" the Greek noun, it's used in all three tenses.\u00a0 When it's used in the past tense, Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5, it's talking about justification.\u00a0 When it's used in the present tense, Philippians 2:12, it's talking about sanctification.\u00a0 When it's used in the future tense, Romans 5:10, it's talking about glorification.\r\n\r\nAnd it is sort of interesting, the whole emphasis in the Christian world today is on tense number one.\u00a0 Have you been saved?\u00a0 People ask that all the time.\u00a0 Have you been saved?\u00a0 When were you saved?\u00a0 Give us your testimony.\u00a0 And there's nothing wrong with that, but what you see with Paul is the concept of salvation is a lot bigger than the Christian world today gives credence to.\r\n\r\nGod wants you to get saved and then He wants you to grow<\/strong>.\u00a0 And then one day He's going to take you out of your body that has a sin nature in it, and you will be saved.\u00a0 Have you been saved, brother?\u00a0 Have you been saved, sister?\u00a0 The right answer is, yes, I have been saved, and I am being saved, and I will be saved.\u00a0 Whoa, wait a minute.\u00a0 What church are you going to again?\u00a0 That's too much information.\u00a0 But what you are going to see is this is not a Sugar Land Bible Church teaching.\u00a0 This is what Paul, in his writings, is all about.\r\n\r\nSo as you get into this last paragraph here, Paul is dealing with practical sanctification.\u00a0 So what he does, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, is he says, here are three positive commandments, or commands.\u00a0 Here are three things to do, Verses 16-18.\u00a0 They are, \u201cRejoice always; pray without ceasing; ...\" giving thanks in some things.\u00a0 Oh, sorry, it doesn't say that.\u00a0 \"... in everything give thanks; for this is God\u2019s will for you in Christ Jesus.\u201d\r\n\r\nThen Paul says, here are three negative commands.\u00a0 Here are three things not to do.\"\u00a0 Those are, \"Don't quench the spirit\" (1 Thess 5:19); \"Don't despise prophetic utterances\" (1 Thess 5:20-21); \"And abstain from evil\" (1 Thess 5:22).\u00a0 Three positive commands.\u00a0 Three negative commands.\r\n\r\nAnd you look at this and you say, \"This is just too much.\u00a0 I can't do this.\"\u00a0 And Paul says, \"You're right.\u00a0 You can't do it.\"\u00a0 Some people say, \"You know, the Christian life is really difficult.\"\u00a0 No, it's not difficult.\u00a0 It's impossible.\u00a0 If you are trying to live the Christian life through your own power, you are trying to do something that cannot be done.\u00a0 And you run into believers that say, \"I'm just so frustrated in the Christian life.\u00a0 I'm so burnt out in the Christian life.\"\u00a0 Well, I'd be burnt out too if I spent my life trying to do something that couldn't be done.\u00a0 Here's the goal, and you can never reach it.\u00a0 Wouldn't that frustrate anybody?\r\n\r\nBut Paul says you don't do it through your own resources.\u00a0 You do it through divine enablement, which he explains in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24.\u00a0 And if you were to master that paragraph from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24, you'd have tremendous insight into why it is that some Christians grow, and some don't.\u00a0 Three positive commands, Verses 16-18.\u00a0 Three negative commands, here's three things to not do, Verses 19-22.\u00a0 And oh, by the way, here's your source of power and enablement allowing you to do those things.\r\n\r\nSo with that being said, it's Mother's Day, and we're going to let you out two minutes early.\u00a0 And we'll get back to this in two weeks.\u00a0 Father, we're grateful for Your truth and Your Word.\u00a0 Thank You for Mother's Day.\u00a0 Thank You for Israel's birthday.\u00a0 Help us to not just be hearers of the Word, but doers as we seek to grow in You.\u00a0 We'll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus' name, and God's people said amen.\r\n\r\n[1]<\/a> \"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\" (1 John 1:9)\u00a0 All Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, unless otherwise noted.\r\n\r\n[2]<\/a> \u201cWhen His disciples James and John saw this, they said, \u201cLord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?\u201d But He turned and rebuked them, and said, \u201cYou do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men\u2019s lives, but to save them.\u201d And they went on to another village.\u201d (Luke 9:54\u201356)\r\n\r\n[3]<\/a> See the chart Three Tenses of Salvation at minute mark 51:16.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t