{"id":22501,"date":"2023-05-27T22:05:38","date_gmt":"2023-05-28T03:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/sermon\/first-thessalonians-027-test-all-things\/"},"modified":"2023-08-16T09:01:44","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T14:01:44","slug":"first-thessalonians-027-test-all-things","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/first-thessalonians-027-test-all-things\/","title":{"rendered":"First Thessalonians 027 – Test All Things (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[97],"series_event":[546],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[],"class_list":["post-22501","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-1-thessalonians","series_event-first-thessalonians","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"First Thessalonians 027 - Test All Things (Part 1)","sermon_date":"20230528","sermon_month":"05","sermon_year":"2023","sermon_notes":22499,"sermon_slides":22509,"sermon_mp3":22511,"sermon_id":"526232033240","series_or_event":546,"service_type":[473],"speaker":false,"books_of_the_bible":97,"chapter_and_verse":"5:16-20","sermon_transcript":"

First Thessalonians 027 \u2013 Test All Things (Part 1)<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

1 Thessalonians 5:16-20, May 28, 2023<\/p>\r\n \r\n

PRAYER<\/h4>\r\nGood morning, everybody.\u00a0 Let's open with a word of prayer and we'll get started.\u00a0 Father, we're grateful for Your Word.\u00a0 Grateful for the fact that the Word of God is never failing.\u00a0 The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord stands forever (Isa 40:8).\u00a0 Heaven and earth will pass away, Jesus said, but My words will never pass away (Matt 24:35).\u00a0 So we're grateful, Lord, in a changing world, in a compromised world, we have the uncompromised Word of God.\u00a0 I just pray today that as it's taught, You would take it and apply it to the deepest needs of the listeners.\u00a0 Only You can do this, Lord, through the ministry of illumination.\u00a0 A human teacher cannot do this.\u00a0 You've promised that the Spirit of God would guide us into all truth.\u00a0 And so in preparation for that illuminating ministry of the Spirit, we're just going to take a few moments of personal silence to do personal confession to You, not to restore our position, but to restore broken fellowship if necessary.\r\n\r\nWe're thankful, Lord, for the promise of 1 John 9:1[1]<\/a> that if we confess our sins, in other words, agree with You that our sins are wrong, You cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u00a0 We realize, Lord, that our position can't be altered, but our moment-by-moment enjoyment of You can be altered.\u00a0 And when that happens, there's an impediment to the teaching of the Word.\u00a0 We can't really receive all that You have for us.\u00a0 And so we thank the Lord for the promise that You've made for us and the provision You've made for us in every area.\u00a0 I just pray, Lord, that as today your Word is taught at Sugar Land Bible Church, not just in the main sanctuary, but also in all the different classes, youth group, nursery, children's classes, that You would cause us to leave here changed people.\u00a0 Either we get a perspective we didn't have before, a salvation occurs, a relationship perhaps that we didn't have before, we enjoy, maybe a broken relationship gets healed, whatever the case may be, but we do ask, Lord, that we would leave here today where we would be able to authentically say it was good to be in the house of the Lord.\u00a0 We look to You and You alone to accomplish this great work.\u00a0 We lift all of these things up in Jesus' name and God's people said amen.\r\n

REVIEW<\/h4>\r\nWell, if you can locate in your Bible 1 Thessalonians 5:15, we're going to see if we can make it through verse 22 in Sunday School.\u00a0 And I appreciate your guys' courtesy.\u00a0 Usually everybody starts laughing when I say that.\u00a0 So thank you for restraining yourselves.\u00a0 Because I have a tendency to go sort of slow through the Bible.\u00a0 You're like, gee, pastor, I never noticed.\r\n\r\nBut we're in a section of God's Word, 1 Thessalonians 5, where Paul is now sort of addressing the issues that he was aware of in the Thessalonian church.\u00a0 The first part of the book, 1 Thessalonians 1-3, he's defending himself and his ministry and his methods and his apostolic credentials really.\u00a0 Because people had, when he left after planting the church, circulated a bunch of half-truths and complete untruths about him.\u00a0 So it's hard to correct people that don't accept your authority.\u00a0 So he's sort of reestablished his authority in Chapters 1-3, looking backward.\r\n\r\nAnd then beginning in 1 Thessalonians 4:1, he says, \"Finally\"\u00a0 and that's the clue that he's now looking forward.\u00a0 And he's dealing with practical issues that were reported to him about the Thessalonian church.\u00a0 So it's in that section he's dealt with immorality (4:1-8), laziness (4:9-12), and then beginning in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 all the way through 1 Thessalonians 5:11 he gets into the subject of the end times.\u00a0 The rapture, end of chapter 4, and then the day of the Lord which will come upon planet earth subsequent to the rapture.\u00a0 He finishes that discussion in Verse 11.\r\n\r\nAnd then in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15, he talks about some ministry imbalances.\u00a0 He talks about the proper attitude people in a church should have towards their leaders (5:-13) and then he deals with ministering to one another (5:14-15).\r\n

PROGRESSIVE SANCTIFICATION (1 Thess 5:16-28)<\/h4>\r\nAnd now beginning in Verse 16 really through the end of the chapter, he gets into the subject of progressive sanctification.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 So here he's not dealing with justification, the past tense of our salvation.\u00a0 He's not dealing with glorification, the future tense of salvation.\u00a0 He's talking about what happens to the Christian in between the two.\r\n\r\nSo I have been saved and I am headed towards glory, but obviously I'm here for a reason, or God would just take us all to heaven immediately upon conversion.\r\n\r\nSo what do we do in the present tense as Christians<\/strong>?\u00a0 And that deals with the subject of not getting saved again.\u00a0 You already are saved.\u00a0 He doesn't deal with the subject of oh, no, maybe I lost my salvation because your glorification is certain.\u00a0 But how do we live in the present?\u00a0 How do we live in the nasty now and now?<\/strong>\r\n

PRACTICAL SANCTIFICATION (1 THESS 5:16-24)<\/h4>\r\nSo what he does here is he gives in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 three positive commands.\u00a0 Here are three things to do.\u00a0 And then after that, Verses 19-22, he gives three negative commands.\u00a0 Here are three things not to do.\u00a0 The words \"stay away from these three things.\"\u00a0 By the way, these are not suggestions in the original Greek.\u00a0 It's not like, hey, try this out and see how it works.\u00a0 These are commands.\u00a0 And then you get to the end of Verse 22, and you say, wow, this is a hard teaching.\u00a0 I don't have the energy to fulfill these commands.\r\n\r\nThat's where he reminds us, Verses 23-24, that we have divine enablement.\u00a0 So God has not called us to fulfill these commands on our own.\u00a0 He's given us the ministry of the Spirit, which is resident within us, to live out these commands.\r\n

THREE POSITIVE COMMANDS (1 Thess 5:16-18)<\/h4>\r\nSo let's take a look, first of all, at the three positive commands.\u00a0 Here are the three things to do.\u00a0 I mean how do you know if you're a growing Christian?\u00a0 Because you'll begin under God's power to implement these three commands into your life.\r\n

1.\u00a0 Rejoice always (1 Thess 5:16)<\/h4>\r\nThe first command is in Verse 16, and it's to rejoice always.\u00a0 Notice verse 16.\u00a0 Two words, the way it's translated.\u00a0 \"Rejoice always<\/strong>;\"\u00a0 It's not so much the rejoicing that stands out to me.\u00a0 It's the word always.\u00a0 Because from the human perspective, the moment anything impinges on our convenience or our comfort, we have a tendency to look at such an item as an unwanted intruder.\r\n\r\nSo I can rejoice if I get promoted on my job and get a raise, but what happens if I get demoted on my job and my pay goes down or I get laid off from my job and I have no pay at all?\u00a0 What am I supposed to do then?\r\n\r\nWell, the Bible just gives you two words -- rejoice always<\/strong>.\u00a0 Because God has allowed those circumstances, whether they're viewed favorably or unfavorably from the human perspective, God has allowed those circumstances into our life for our growth.\u00a0 So you'll recall the book of James 1:2-4, it says, \"Consider it...\"\u00a0 Anybody know the next two words?\u00a0 \"All joy.\"\u00a0 Notice that word \"all.\"\u00a0 \"Consider it all joy, my brethren...\"\u00a0 so you can't fulfill this unless you're part of the brethren.\u00a0 A Christian, you have to have the Spirit inside of you to do this.\r\n\r\n\"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when your life is working out great.\"\u00a0 Oops.\u00a0 The Bible doesn't say that.\u00a0 \"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, ...\"\u00a0 The last time I studied that word \"various\" in the Greek, it's used in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, to describe Joseph, who I'm hoping we're going to get to at some point in the book of Genesis, before the rapture.\u00a0 We have to finish Jacob first.\u00a0 But Joseph, from his father, was given a multi-colored coat.\u00a0 Remember?\u00a0 And so, when that multi-colored coat is described in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of Hebrew Bible, is what I meant to say, that word \"various\" is used.\r\n\r\nAnd so that's the word James uses when he's describing various trials.\u00a0 It's like they're multi-colored.\u00a0 All the colors of the rainbow.\u00a0 In other words, God has different trials in our lives to achieve different purposes.\u00a0 You might be struggling with one area of your life and God sends you a trial.\u00a0 And then later on in your Christian life, you might be struggling with another area.\u00a0 God sends you a different trial.\u00a0 And so God is sort of like a surgeon where He takes different tools out of His toolbox, or a talented carpenter we should say.\u00a0 You don't use the same tool for every single thing.\u00a0 I don't use a screwdriver to hammer a nail.\u00a0 Different tools for different purposes.\u00a0 I mean I might use that if I lose my tool kit, you know, but it's not going to work well trying to hammer a nail with a screwdriver.\r\n\r\nSo that's how God is with our trials.\u00a0 He doesn't use the same trial over and over again.\u00a0 He uses different trials because He says, oh there's a deficiency in their character here.\u00a0 Let's send them this issue.\u00a0 It's kind of like sandpaper, you know.\u00a0 Once that sort of gets fixed, God says, okay, there's a different issue in their character over here.\u00a0 Let's send them a different trial.\r\n\r\n\"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, ...\".\u00a0 Well, why, God?\u00a0 I don't like trials.\u00a0 James continues, \"...\u00a0 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect [mature in other words] and complete, lacking in nothing.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhy, I like the endurance part.\u00a0 Lord, I want to be a person of endurance.\u00a0 And I want to be a person of maturity.\u00a0 Is there any way I can circumvent the process and avoid the various trials part in the middle tense of my salvation as I'm trying to grow?\u00a0 No, doesn't work that way.\r\n\r\nSo even in trials themselves, the attitude of the Christian, and I'm not saying you go through life sort of denying reality, denying pain, sort of a plastic smile on your face all the time.\u00a0 I don't think that's what it's dealing with.\u00a0 I think it's this idea that even in suffering, you can internally rejoice because you have a divine promise that God is going to use this to bring you to the next level of spiritual maturity<\/strong>.\r\n\r\nOver in Philippians 4:4, you know this verse.\u00a0 It says, \u201cRejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd there's an actual song, right?\u00a0 Which I'll be singing for you right now.\u00a0 No, I won't do that.\u00a0 I couldn't carry a note with a handle on it.\u00a0 My wife says you can sing in the shower, but that's it.\u00a0 No singing around the house.\u00a0 So this is how you know you're growing as a Christian, because you're rejoicing in all your circumstances.\r\n\r\nI mean, you can ascertain your level of growth by our ability to rejoice when things are favorable when things from the human perspective are unfavorable, because as far as God is concerned, it's all favorable.\u00a0 Because God uses it all as sandpaper to refine different parts of our character, to achieve God's ultimate purpose in our lives, which is what?\u00a0 Romans 8.29, right?\u00a0 To conform us into the image of His Son.\u00a0 He wants us to be more Christ-like in our character.\u00a0 That's what He's trying to do in our lives.\r\n\r\nHis ultimate goal is not to make us rich and famous.\u00a0 It's not to make us poor or miserable.\u00a0 But it is to produce in us Christ-like character.\u00a0 And every single thing you face as a Christian, you can rejoice in because God has sovereignly brought it into your life to produce Christ-like character.\r\n\r\nNow, I'm not talking about here the decisions that we make that are just sinful, where we bring consequences on ourselves.\u00a0 Of course, God can use consequences of sin to mature us also.\r\n\r\nI'm talking about things that happen to you sort of like in the book of Job, where Job is just enjoying his life, and one day he loses his family, his property, his health is inflicted as he has sort of a skin issue from head to toe, where he had to break pottery just to scratch himself to alleviate what was going on with his skin.\u00a0 And then his wife comes along, and she's a real encourager.\u00a0 She says, \"Why don't you just curse God and die?\" \u00a0Well, thank you honey for that wonderful word of exhortation.\u00a0 And everybody in Job's life says, \"Well, Job, the reason this happened to you is it's your fault.\"\u00a0 All of his counselors, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar.\u00a0 I mean, I put \"counselors\" in quotes because they're pontificating about things that they have no understanding of.\u00a0 Another guy shows up late in the book named Elihu.\u00a0 He piles on.\u00a0 I think there's one point in the book of Job where Job says, \"What miserable counselors you all are\" (Job 16:2).\r\n\r\nSo we have to be very careful when we're interacting with suffering fellow believers.\u00a0 We don't have any idea why they're suffering.\u00a0 There's a real tendency to say, \"Oh, you brought it on yourself.\"\u00a0 Maybe they did.\u00a0 Maybe they didn't.\u00a0 Job didn't bring it on himself.\u00a0 We know that because we read the first two chapters of the book of Job where there was a conversation between God and Satan in heaven concerning Job that Job didn't know anything about.\u00a0 And so the whole point of the book of Job by the time you get to the end is trust God's sovereignty.\u00a0 He knows what He's doing.\u00a0 Don't trust in limited human finitudes where we try to pontificate about why this happened and why that happened.\r\n\r\nSo when we have that frame of mind, we can fulfill these two words in 1 Thessalonians 5:16, \"Rejoice always.\"\r\n

2.\u00a0 Pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17)<\/h4>\r\nThe second command is translated into English with three words, \"Pray without ceasing<\/strong>.\"\u00a0 So right there in Verse 7, you'll see it, \"Pray without ceasing.\"\u00a0 Now, this word \"without ceasing\" is used not in the Scripture, but it's used in extra-biblical Greek literature of somebody with a hacking cough.\u00a0 Just coughs and coughs and coughs.\u00a0 And it's a medical problem where they couldn't stop coughing if they wanted to.\r\n\r\nI guess today if someone like that is in the airport, everybody would scream, \"Put your mask on!\" or something.\u00a0 But it's just like a consistent cough that won't go away.\u00a0 So when you think of something like that, that's to be our approach to prayer.\u00a0 We're to pray consistently.\u00a0 We're to pray without ceasing.\r\n\r\nIn other words, prayer to the Christian should be as natural as breathing<\/strong>.\u00a0 The book of Ephesians 6:18 talks about prayer after mentioning all of our spiritual armor.\u00a0 And it says, \" With all prayer and petition pray at all times ...\"\u00a0 It's the \"all times\" that jumps out at me.\u00a0 \"... at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,\u201d\r\n\r\nPrayer and petition at all times<\/strong>.\u00a0 It's kind of like as natural as breathing.<\/strong>\u00a0 I mean, I don't really think about breathing.\u00a0 Okay, let me concentrate.\u00a0 I'm going to take my next breath now.\u00a0 Okay, let me concentrate again.\u00a0 I've got to exhale.\u00a0 I mean, I don't have to sit and think about that.\u00a0 It's kind of interesting when you sit and think about it, then you have to think about it.\u00a0 Normally when you're not thinking about it, you're just breathing.\u00a0 You don't have to do it on cue.\r\n\r\nThat's sort of the attitude of prayer.\u00a0 It's just something that we persistently, consistently do.<\/strong>\u00a0 It's kind of like Nehemiah in the Book of Nehemiah, where Nehemiah wanted to go from Persia back to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall.\u00a0 And he has to get his boss, Artaxerxes, to sign on to that, because Nehemiah was the cup bearer there in Persia for Artaxerxes, there in Susa.\u00a0 And I think it's in Nehemiah Chapter 1.\u00a0 He just needs his manager or his supervisor's heart change.\u00a0 And so he just offers up this quick prayer unto the Lord.\u00a0 I think that kind of thing is what should characterize our lives.\r\n\r\nAll kinds of circumstances are happening in your life.\u00a0 I mean, traffic.\u00a0 There's a way that's going to test your sanctification right there.\u00a0 Houston traffic will test your sanctification to the absolute breaking point.\u00a0 And the only reason I can handle Houston traffic is I came from California, Southern California, where it's actually worse, if you can believe that.\r\n\r\nSo, you know, all kinds of circumstances are happening in your life.\u00a0 And it's not necessarily an audible thing any more than your thoughts are audible.\u00a0 You're just offering up to the Lord constantly these quick prayers.\u00a0 Pray without ceasing<\/strong>.\r\n\r\nNow, does this mean that we have to pray every single second of the day?\u00a0 And I can't even sleep?\u00a0 Because I don't really pray when I sleep.\u00a0 Do you guys pray when you sleep?\u00a0 And how would you know that you're praying when you're sleeping if you're unconscious?\u00a0 I heard one person say, \"I pray when I sleep.\"\u00a0 I'm like, \"Well, how do you know that?\u00a0 You're not even awake to determine if you're praying.\"\r\n\r\nThese are the weird things I think about.\u00a0 So, I don't think he's saying unbroken, 24-hour prayer around the clock because when you look at 1 Thessalonians 2:9, he describes his work ethic as a tentmaker.\u00a0 He says, \u201cFor you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.\u201d\r\n\r\nI mean, a lot of people have this view that you're on your knees 24\/7.\u00a0 Obviously, that's not Paul because he's supporting himself in his ministry and he's working.\u00a0 I would think though, as he's working, he's in constant communication with the Lord.\u00a0 Over in 2 Thessalonians 3:8, he says the same thing.\u00a0 He says, \u201cnor did we eat anyone\u2019s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you;\u201d\r\n\r\nBecause a lot of people, when they see this expression, pray without ceasing, they think that means that you have to drop out of reality.\u00a0 Drop out of life.\u00a0 Quit your job.\u00a0 Don't sleep.\u00a0 Don't have an occupation.\u00a0 And obviously, Paul is not communicating that because Paul was a man with a tremendous work ethic.\u00a0 In fact, it's that work ethic that he used to defend himself earlier in the book against the false charges that were brought against him by the some in the Thessalonica congregation and those outside of Thessalonica who were basically stirring up false accusations against Paul.\r\n\r\nHe says, \"Don't you remember when I was with you my work ethic?\" \"I was never in the ministry for money,\" is what he's saying, \"because I worked to support myself so I wouldn't be a financial burden to anybody.\"\u00a0 So obviously, Paul had this tremendous work ethic.\u00a0 And in the process of introducing that work ethic, he also says, \"Pray without ceasing.\"\r\n\r\nSo when you're going to develop a philosophy of prayer, make sure you look at the entire book and not just two or three verses.\u00a0 Because a lot of people misconstrue those verses by making it sound like what this means is you basically join the monastery or something like that.\r\n\r\nIn 2 Thessalonians, people are going to use the second coming as a basis for dropping out of life and life's responsibilities.\u00a0 Paul is going to correct them there on that.\u00a0 So obviously if he's going to correct them there on that, he would not tolerate a mindset that says I'm going to use pray without ceasing as some sort of excuse to drop out of life's responsibilities.\r\n\r\nI mean, I struggle with things all of the time.\u00a0 I struggle with computers.\u00a0 I struggle with sermon prep.\u00a0 I struggle with trying to understand the Word of God.\u00a0 I struggle with, you know, in spiritual leadership, you know, you have to have all these meetings with all of these people all the time.\u00a0 Elder meetings and all of these kinds of things.\u00a0 And some of them are enjoyable.\u00a0 Some of them are sort of a struggle.\r\n\r\nAnd so the right mindset as you're going through these struggles is you're just constantly in prayer asking for God's guidance.\u00a0 You don't have to even say anything audibly.\u00a0 Kind of a quick Nehemiah prayer.\u00a0 I need your guidance here. \u00a0I need your help here.\u00a0 Lord, I need you to change so-and-so's heart here.\u00a0 I need your grace, etc., etc.\r\n\r\nSo this is how you can ascertain if you're developing as a Christian.\u00a0 Developing out of infancy.\u00a0 You're rejoicing always.\u00a0 You're praying always.\r\n

3.\u00a0 Give thanks in all things (1 Thess 5:18)<\/h4>\r\nAnd then the third positive command is you're giving thanks always.\u00a0 You start to develop an attitude of gratitude.\u00a0 So notice Verse 18.\u00a0 \"In 95% of things...\"\u00a0 Oops, doesn't say that.\u00a0 \u201cin everything<\/strong> give thanks; for this is God\u2019s will for you in Christ Jesus.\u201d\r\n\r\nSo we're back to rejoicing in everything<\/strong>, giving thanks in everything<\/strong>, and if I run that through the grid of James 1:2-4, I should be giving thanks even in my trials<\/strong>.\u00a0 Lord, I don't want to go through another valley, but here I am.\u00a0 And I know that You sovereignly put me into this valley because obviously there's something that You want to teach me in this valley that You can't teach me otherwise.\u00a0 Lord, if I had my preference, I'd stay on the mountaintop because God gives us mountaintop experiences, valley experiences.\u00a0 If I had my druthers, I like the mountaintop much better, Lord, but the Lord says, \"Yeah, but you can't mature very much on the mountaintop.\"\u00a0 I know you like it and I know it's comfortable, but there's not going to be a lot of growth.\u00a0 So fasten your seatbelts.\u00a0 Here we go.\u00a0 Once again, we're going to encounter some turbulence.\r\n\r\nAnd so I start to go through that, and I just say, \"Well, Lord, thank You.\u00a0 Thank you for this because You're going to make me into a different person.\u00a0 You're going to broaden and deepen my character through this valley in a way that couldn't be done if I just stayed on the mountaintop.\u00a0 So we're giving thanks in all things<\/strong>.\r\n\r\nThat's how you know you're growing as a Christian.\u00a0 Ephesians 5:20 says, and there's the word \"always,\" \"always giving thanks for all things.\"\u00a0 I mean, wow, there's two \"all's\" right there.\u00a0 He's not just saying \"y'all,\" He's saying \"all y'all.\"\u00a0 \u201calways giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;\u201d\r\n

God's Will for You<\/h4>\r\nNow did you notice there at the end of 1 Thessalonians 5:18, \"... for this is God\u2019s will for you in Christ Jesus.\"\u00a0 Oh man, I want to know the will of God.\u00a0 I want to know God's will for my life.\u00a0 And God says, \"Well, here it is.\u00a0 Here's God's will for you.\u00a0 You're giving thanks in all things.\"\r\n\r\nSo when I'm going through a valley and I'm thanking the Lord for it, I'm in God's will.\u00a0 This is actually the second time he's spoken of the will of God in this letter.\u00a0 If you go back to 1 Thessalonians 4:3 when he's talking about sexual immorality, he says, \u201cFor this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;\u201d\r\n\r\nSo everybody wants to know God's will, and there is God's will in written form.\u00a0 But how do I know I'm in God's will?\u00a0 Well, because when you have an opportunity to commit adultery and you turn it down, or to start an inappropriate texting relationship with someone, and you say no to it, because it's out of bounds in terms of God's priorities, you're within God's will.\u00a0 And your channel surfing and something racy comes across the television screen.\u00a0 I know that never happens to your guys' television screens.\u00a0 It just happens to my television screen, and you see that, you say, ah, you turn the channel.\u00a0 You're in God's will.\r\n\r\nAnd then all of a sudden, your life starts to bottom out a little bit because you're in a valley that you weren't in a month ago and you're thanking the Lord for it.\u00a0 You're in God's will.\r\n\r\nSo finding the will of God for your life is not some kind of complex thing that you have to sit and strain and struggle to find<\/strong>.\u00a0 And what the Bible actually says is if you're faithful with the little thing, God will trust you with the what?\u00a0 The bigger thing.\u00a0 (Luke 16:10)\r\n\r\nSo there's so much question marks in our minds about what is God's will for my life?\u00a0 Should I live in this city or that city?\u00a0 Should I work this job, or should I work that job?\u00a0 Should I enroll in this school, or should I enroll in that school?\u00a0 And we do all these things.\u00a0 We're looking for some kind of golden fleece or fleece in the book of Judges and all of these sorts of things.\u00a0 Really, what it comes down to is you just obey God in what you know to do.\r\n\r\nYou rejoice in the midst of trials.\u00a0 You turn down sexual immorality.\u00a0 And God says, oh, they're faithful in the little things that I've given them to do.\u00a0 Now I can trust them with the bigger things.\u00a0 And suddenly you start to discover the bigger picture for your life.\r\n\r\nAnd so when you're counseling people and they say, I can't find God's will for my life, I mean, the answer is, have you been faithful to God's revealed will?\u00a0 How in the world is God supposed to trust any of us with the bigger picture when we can't even obey Him on the smaller things?\r\n\r\nBut you see these passages:\r\n\r\nThis is the will of God for your life, thanksgiving in trials<\/strong>, rejoicing in trials<\/strong>;\r\n\r\nThis is God's will for your life that you abstain from sexual immorality<\/strong>;\r\n\r\nand you start to focus on those things and suddenly your life starts to take on more significance, more meaning, things start to move in a more God-ordained direction.\u00a0 Because he who is faithful with the little thing can be trusted with the greater thing.\r\n\r\nSo am I really growing as a Christian?\u00a0 Well, here's three positive commands to follow to determine if you are.\u00a0 <\/strong>\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. Are you rejoicing always?<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Are we praying without ceasing?<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. Are we giving thanks in all things?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

    THREE NEGATIVE COMMANDS (1 Thess 5:19-22)<\/h4>\r\nWell, I'm sure glad this lesson is over.\u00a0 No, not quite.\u00a0 Because now as you go down to 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, Paul gives three negative commands.\u00a0 He's told us three things to do, 1 Thessalonians 6:16-18.\u00a0 Now he says, here's three things not to do.\u00a0 So what are those?\r\n

    1.\u00a0 Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thess 5:19)<\/h4>\r\nNumber one do not quench the Spirit.\u00a0 There it is, Verse 19.\u00a0 Do not quench the Spirit.\u00a0 Now one of the questions that's come up a couple times on our Wednesday night studies that we were doing last quarter on the book of Acts is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 When you go over to Matthew 12:31-32, as Pastor Jim and I do the Q&A show on KHCB, the last two Thursdays of the month, or the third and fourth Thursday of the month, I mean this always comes up.\u00a0 Jesus says, \u201c\u201cTherefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. \u201cWhoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd everybody says, \"Ooh, that's bad.\u00a0 Blasphemy of the Spirit.\"\u00a0 Well, what is blasphemy of the Spirit?\u00a0 I don't know, but whatever it is, it's really bad.\u00a0 And so people are completely terrorized by this their whole life because they never, for whatever reason, get any explanation on it.\u00a0 But if you simply put it back into context, you'll see exactly what it is.\r\n\r\nIt's something that the nation of Israel did in the first century<\/strong>.\u00a0 And God said, \"I'm not using Israel anymore for a season.\"\u00a0 First century Israel is done.\u00a0 They're moving off into divine discipline.\u00a0 It's not saying an individual Jew can't get saved.\u00a0 What it's saying is Israel is exiting the stage and the church is about to enter, and it's going to be that way for 2,000 years.\u00a0 God's hand is not on Israel.\u00a0 It will be on a new man called the church.\r\n\r\nThe reason God did that is because first century Israel committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit<\/strong>.\u00a0 The leadership did.\u00a0 In other words, this is national. \u00a0Matthew 12:24 is the hinge of the whole book of Matthew.\u00a0 It says, \u201cBut when the Pharisees heard this, they said, \u201cThis man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.\u201d\u201d\r\n\r\nChrist had done a great miracle or miracles in their presence that they could not explain away.\u00a0 When you can't explain away the miracle and can't say it's David Copperfield magician work or something, you just say, \"Well, the devil did it through you.\"\u00a0 That's the blasphemy of the Spirit<\/strong>.\u00a0 It's a one-time unique thing that first century Israel did.\r\n\r\nSo whatever you're doing with Matthew 12:31-32, rather than going off into gambling or pornography or, \"Gosh, I did this as a Christian, I committed adultery,\" all these other subjects, forget all these other subjects in terms of interpreting this and just put it back into where it belongs, and you'll see very clearly what it is.\r\n\r\nThat becomes the hinge of Matthew's entire gospel.\u00a0 Matthew's entire gospel most likely is set up like a chiasm[3]<\/a>.\u00a0 Chiasm comes from the Greek letter chi (\u03c7\u03b5\u1fd6) which looks like an \"X,\" which means the themes in Matthew Chapters 1 and 2 are repeated in Chapter 28.\u00a0 You move inward.\u00a0 The themes in Chapters 3 and 4 are repeated in Chapters 26 and 27.\u00a0 The themes of Chapters 5 through 7 are repeated in Chapters 24 and 25, so you keep moving inward and inward and inward, and the center of it is where everything changes.\r\n\r\nWhere everything changes in Matthew's Gospel is Matthew 12: 24.\u00a0 They committed the blasphemy of the Spirit.\u00a0 They were finished as a nation.\u00a0 That's why Jesus, subsequent to that, says to first century Israel, \u201c\u201cTherefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, [who I believe is future Israel] producing the fruit of it.\" \u00a0Matthew 21:43.\r\n\r\nAnd how did they get to that point?\u00a0 They committed the blasphemy of the Spirit.\u00a0 The leadership's heart was so hard that they could not acknowledge who Jesus was even though He performed an obvious miracle in their midst.\u00a0 The problem was the hardness of their hearts<\/strong>.\u00a0 And obviously anything Jesus did for them from that point on would be of no avail.\u00a0 So they're finished.\r\n\r\nIndividual Jews can be saved but the nation is not going to be raised up.\u00a0 In fact it's going to be destroyed by the Romans.\u00a0 God is not going to use the nation as He has done in days past.\u00a0 We're entering a new interim period of time called the inner advent age which is spelled out in Matthew 13 because Matthew 13 follows Matthew 12.\u00a0 See how easy this is?\u00a0 That's the blasphemy of the Spirit.\r\n\r\nAnd everybody whether it's Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Dwight Pentecost, whoever you want, Stanley Toussaint, read any of their commentaries and they'll tell you that was a one-time thing that is not reproducible today.\u00a0 So when you get into the epistles, which are not the wives of the apostles, amen, the epistles are letters to the church.\u00a0 They are binding on the church.\u00a0 There is no command against blaspheming the Spirit because it's something you cannot do.\r\n\r\nAs a Christian, you cannot blaspheme the Spirit<\/strong>.\u00a0 The nation of Israel could.\u00a0 You can't.\u00a0 And you say, \"Phew, I'm off the hook.\"\u00a0 No, not exactly.\r\n\r\nBecause there are other commands describing other sins that we can commit against the Spirit.\u00a0 I can't blaspheme the Spirit the way it's described in Matthew 12, but I sure can quench the Spirit<\/strong>, Ephesians 5:19.\u00a0 I can resist the Spirit<\/strong> towards the end there of Acts 7.\u00a0 I can do that pretty good.\u00a0 I can grieve the Spirit<\/strong>.\u00a0 Ephesians 4:30, \u201cDo not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.\u201d in the epistles again, because the Spirit of God is inside of me forever, right?\r\n\r\nSo when I commit sins, I'm actually dragging the Holy Spirit into that sin<\/strong>.\u00a0 And the Holy Spirit is not, it's not like the movies, okay, the force and some kind of impersonal source of energy, you know, kind of thing.\u00a0 He's an actual person who has actual emotions.\u00a0 And so when we sin and the Spirit of God is inside of me, I am actually dragging the Holy Spirit into that sin and causing Him to grieve.\r\n\r\nNow there's a command for us.\u00a0 Do not grieve the Spirit<\/strong>.\u00a0 We can clearly do that.\u00a0 Do not quench the Spirit<\/strong>.\u00a0 We can clearly, we can clearly do that as well.\u00a0 By the way, that's the point of Paul's whole exhortation in 1 Corinthians 6 against sexual sin.\u00a0 Because what was happening in 1 Corinthians 6 is the Corinthians were going into pagan temples and there's a big, there's a remnants of a big pagan temple right there in Corinth.\u00a0 I've been to it a couple of times.\u00a0 And you can go into that pagan temple, and you could, in the name of religion, have sexual experiences with prostitutes and call it religion.\u00a0 It's called the Greco-Roman mystery religious system, and there were actually people in the church of Corinth that were doing that.\r\n\r\nPaul doesn't say to them, \"Well, gee, you all lost your salvation.\"\u00a0 What he says is, \"Do you not understand?\" is what he says there, 1 Corinthians 6:19, \"Do you not understand?\" In other words, it's a lack of knowledge.\u00a0 \u201cOr do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit ...\"\r\n\r\nIn other words, you just took the Holy Spirit into that pagan situation with that prostitute, and in the process, you just grieved the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 So there is a sin that we can do called grieving the Spirit.\u00a0 Here in verse 19, there's another sin we can do called quenching the Spirit.\u00a0 But there is nothing in the epistles which govern the church that say, \"Don't commit the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.\"\r\n\r\nSo when people are throwing around this expression, \"blasphemy of the Holy Spirit,\" they're dispensationally, if I can use some big words here, misapplying the Bible.\u00a0 The doctrine of dispensations, which we offer no apology for teaching here.\u00a0 But there's a difference between Israel and the church.\u00a0 God has a program for Israel nationally, He's got a program for the church.\r\n\r\nPeople mix the two all of the time because the pastors are trying to raise money.\u00a0 And Malachi 3:8-11 sure looks like a convenient passage to use because I can tell people bring the whole tithe into the storehouse and then God will pour out so much of a blessing unto your life that you won't have a room to contain it.\u00a0 Great fundraising device has nothing to do with the church age.\u00a0 The promise has nothing to do with the church age.\r\n\r\nDispensationally understanding the Bible helps you understand what promises go with what.\u00a0 All scripture is for us, but not all scripture is about us<\/strong>.\u00a0 And the problem with us is we think everything should be about us.\u00a0 Every command should be about us.\u00a0 I mean there's even a song that we sing, you know.\u00a0 I can't remember the words, but every promise in the book is mine, every sentence, every line.\u00a0 Does that sound right?\u00a0 Something like that?\u00a0 That's not biblical thinking at all.\u00a0 There are certain promises that go for Israel, certain promises that go for the church.\r\n\r\nBlasphemy of the Holy Spirit, National Israel, quenching the Spirit, grieving the Spirit, that goes for the church-age believer, <\/strong>and we have to grow to the point in God's Word where we learn to separate the two.\u00a0 But yeah, pastor, but I like it better when every promise in the Bible is about me.\u00a0 Well, now you're not doing exegesis anymore, you're doing narcigesis.\u00a0 Because it's all about me.\u00a0 And that's one of the reasons people don't like the doctrine of dispensations is because it ruins fundraising, it ruins Christian worship, it ruins terrorizing people that maybe they've committed the blasphemy of the Spirit.\u00a0 I can't do that as a pastor if I'm a dispensationalist.\r\n\r\nSo there are sins we can commit against the Spirit and one of them would be do not quench the Spirit.\u00a0 So if I have the ability to quench the Spirit or grieve the Spirit, I have the ability as a Christian through bad choices to stay an infant in Christ<\/strong>.\u00a0 I have that capacity.\u00a0 First Corinthians 3:1-3 (NKJV[4]<\/a>), Paul says, \u201cAnd I, brethren, [speaking to Christians, right] could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal<\/u><\/strong>, as to babes<\/u><\/strong> in Christ.\"\u00a0 Babes in Christ.\u00a0 There is a category of believers called a babe in Christ.\u00a0 Carnal is flesh, or the sarx<\/em> (\u03c3\u03ac\u03c1\u03be) in this case, I would call it the \"sin nature.\"\u00a0 Which, by the way, you still have as a Christian, you still have a sin nature.\r\n\r\nCan I get an \"amen\" on that one?\u00a0 All right.\u00a0 I'm just sometimes wondering if I'm speaking to the right crowd here.\u00a0 As I'm looking out there, you guys are very quiet, attentive, listening, you've got your Bibles open, you're taking notes, and I'm thinking maybe this crowd out here doesn't have a sin nature.\r\n\r\nBut biblically, we all have a sin nature.\u00a0 And just because you got saved doesn't mean the sin nature says, \"See you later!\" What you have now is a new nature that you have to feed so that you can say no to the desires of the sin nature.\u00a0 And you're going to have that sin nature until your dying day or the rapture of the church, whichever comes first.\u00a0 It's not until you're shifted into glorification that the sin nature is gone.\r\n\r\nSo as we grow in Christ, we have to learn to live according to the desires of the new nature and reckon dead the desires of the old nature.\u00a0 Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:1\u20133, \"And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.\u00a0 I fed you with milk, but not with solid food.\u00a0 For until now you are not even able to receive it.\u00a0 And even now you're still not able ....\"\u00a0 You're still on the milk when I wanted to give you the meat, is what he's saying.\u00a0 \"... for you are still carnal ....\"\u00a0 Well, how do you know if you're carnal?\r\n\r\nLook at this, second part of Verse 3.\u00a0 \"For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you,\" I'm glad that never happens in modern Christianity, \" For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?\u201d\u00a0 Who are the mere men?\u00a0 The unsaved.\r\n\r\nFour Kinds of People from 1 Corinthians 3:1-3[5]<\/a><\/strong>\r\n\r\nYou'll notice here that Paul introduces four kinds of people<\/strong>.\u00a0 First of all, you've got the world of the unsaved, mere men, <\/strong>and then Paul takes the world of the saved and he divides it into thirds, three categories.\u00a0 Most people, their thinking is very, very shallow on this.\u00a0 They don't think like Paul does.\u00a0 The only difference in their mind is saved and unsaved.\r\n\r\nBut the problem is the saved person is dual natured<\/strong>.\u00a0 So you have this big scandal, you know, these scandals that erupt in Christianity.\u00a0 The latest one I could think of, and I'm not trying to call attention, you know, to anyone just because I'm trying to out them.\u00a0 It's a well-known scandal.\u00a0 It's the Ravi Zacharias scandal, you know, where he was involved, you know, he was doing all these things for the Lord in terms of Christian philosophy, but there was also all of this prostitution and all of these terrible things, and people are like shocked.\u00a0 How could that happen?\u00a0 How could a man be used of God and yet act that way when no one is looking?\r\n\r\nIt's very simple.\u00a0 Most of the Christian world would say, \"Ah, he was never saved.\"\u00a0 I'm not sure Paul would say that, because Paul has a category of saved people that still have a sin nature.\u00a0 He did not, in the walk of discipleship, appropriate the resources of God by faith and say no to the sin nature.\u00a0 He cultivated a habit of feeding the sin nature when nobody was looking, and the problem is, when you feed the sin nature, eventually whatever you're doing is going to come out in public.\r\n\r\nYou cannot negotiate with sin, you can't debate with sin, you can't dialogue with sin.\u00a0 Sin is far more powerful than we recognize.\u00a0 I mean, if sin wasn't powerful, why did Jesus have to go to the cross to deal with it?<\/strong>\u00a0 It's obviously a force much larger than ourselves.\r\n\r\nAnd so, in his case and in other people's cases, whatever scandal you want to think of, it's someone that's feeding the sin nature behind the scenes when they shouldn't have been doing that.\u00a0 They should have been developing in the middle tense of their salvation as we describe it.\r\n\r\nOne of the most damaging doctrines that confuses everybody on this is this idea that after you get saved you only have one nature.\u00a0 And then they say, \"Well, what about sin in the life of the believer?\" And they have all these fancy words they use, \"Oh, that's just residuals from the past,\" whatever that means.\u00a0 No, it's not residuals from the past.\u00a0 It's an active nature, the sin nature that wants to draw you back constantly.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIt's just this time around, as you're a new creature in Christ, you have the resources in you to say no to it and to say yes to the new nature.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nSo Paul never preaches this one-natured view of the Christian.\u00a0 What he says is, within the Christian realm, there are three categories.\u00a0 The spiritual man<\/strong>, and these are people that are growing Christians in the middle tense of their salvation.\u00a0 Then there are the infant Christians<\/strong> that don't know any better.\u00a0 They haven't been saved for very long.\u00a0 They haven't been discipled.\u00a0 They don't have much of a knowledge of God's word, and so they're still returning to the flesh.\u00a0 And it is sort of cute in a certain sense, I guess, because they're acting age appropriately.\u00a0 They don't know any better.\u00a0 But then there's this third category, a very sad category, called carnal Christians<\/strong> of people that frankly should have grown up a long time ago.\u00a0 And it isn't cute anymore when a 16\u2011year-old is still sucking their thumb and lying in a crib.\u00a0 It loses its cuteness.\u00a0 See that?\r\n\r\nSo notice that Paul develops this because he uses different words to describe each category.\u00a0 Which means I have the ability as a New Testament Christian to quench the spirit and stay in a state of carnality.\u00a0 Yeah, but will you arrive in heaven?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Because you're saved by grace.\r\n\r\n1 Corinthians 3:15 talks about a man at the bema seat whose life is going to be put through the fire.\u00a0 His works, I should say, not his life.\u00a0 They're going to be found wanting because they're made of wood, hay, and stubble.\u00a0 But it says as clearly as it can be said in 1 Corinthians 3:15, \u201cIf any man\u2019s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire<\/strong>.\u201d\r\n\r\nSo there is a real category for such people.\u00a0 I just don't want to be one of them at the end of the day.\u00a0 That's why Paul is warning the Corinthians, who are saved people, and still having sexual relationships with prostitutes.\u00a0 Do not understand your position in Christ.\u00a0 Do not understand what is going to happen to your works at the bema seat judgment of Christ, although the Holy Spirit is inside of you and although you will be saved through fire.\u00a0 It is a very severe warning, and it is not a warning about hell because those folks are not going to hell.\u00a0 They are believers.\u00a0 They are called saints, but they are in that terrible category of carnality.\r\n\r\nHow do you know they are carnal?\u00a0 Envy, strife, jealousy.\u00a0 They are even suing each other, 1 Corinthians 6.\u00a0 Bringing their disputes before pagan judges that don't know Christ at all.\u00a0 And what is the pagan judge supposed to think?\u00a0 These Christians, they talk about love for one another for Jesus.\u00a0 I don't really see much of that.\u00a0 They talk about all men will know you are My disciples by your love for each other.\u00a0 Well, I don't see a lot of love here in this courtroom.\u00a0 And Paul says you are discrediting the gospel.\u00a0 You are defeated already.\u00a0 You are destroying your rewards at the bema seat.\u00a0 You are destroying the witness of the church in Corinth because you are in this state of carnality.\r\n\r\nAnd what they were doing is they were actively grieving the Spirit.\u00a0 They were actively quenching the Spirit.\u00a0 Boy, this is just too convicting.\u00a0 I need to move on here.\r\n\r\nHow were they quenching the Spirit<\/strong>?\u00a0 How do you quench the Spirit?\u00a0 Oh, I'm so glad you asked because that leads to the second negative command.\r\n

    2.\u00a0 Do not despise prophetic utterances (1 Thess 5:20-21)<\/h4>\r\nThese are in Verses 20 and 21.\u00a0 First, Verse 19, \"Do not quench the Spirit;\" a command, negative command.\u00a0 How do I do that?\u00a0 Negative command number two, \"do not despise prophetic utterances.\"\u00a0 Verse 21, \"But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;\"\r\n\r\nHow do you quench the Spirit?<\/strong>\u00a0 You despise prophetic utterances<\/strong>.\u00a0 Now this verse was written during a time when the canon of Scripture had not yet been completed.\u00a0 The New Testament was just developing.\u00a0 The church had no completed canon of Scripture.\u00a0 And what was happening is 1 Corinthians 14 was happening where God was guiding the church without a completed canon through revelations coming directly from Him to a prophet to the church<\/strong>.\r\n\r\nNow that the canon of Scripture has been completed<\/strong>, and John has finished writing the book of Revelation, we believe that such a ministry of these sporadic revelations coming to a prophet from God have ceased<\/strong>.\u00a0 They're not needed anymore because we have the completed canon of Scripture.\r\n\r\n2 Timothy 3:16-17, of this coming completed canon of Scripture says, \u201cAll Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for [what's the next word?] every good work.\u201d\r\n\r\nEverything you need to develop the way God wants you to develop is right here.\u00a0 The canon is shut.\u00a0 Meaning that the sporadic prophecies are no longer needed.\u00a0 Jude 3 of this completed canon says, \u201cBeloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe revelation of God is finished.\u00a0 Once for all handed down<\/strong>.\u00a0 That's why the book of Revelation, the last book in the canon, closes the way it does.\u00a0 \u201cI testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, ...\".\u00a0 Pastor, let me give you my personal vision.\u00a0 Okay, let me add a page to my Bible here.\u00a0 We'll call this Revelation 23.\u00a0 That's what you're doing when someone claims some kind of direct revelation from God.\u00a0 \u201cI testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.\u201d (Revelation 22:18\u201319) \u00a0That sounds pretty serious when people add or subtract from the 66 books that we have.\r\n\r\nSo since this passage was given during a time when there were prophetic utterances and the canon was opened, and we're living in a time where the canon is shut and the prophetic utterances have ceased, I guess 1 Thessalonians 5:20 doesn't apply to us, right?\u00a0 When it says, \"Do not despise prophetic utterances,\" I guess I can't do that, can I?\u00a0 There aren't any prophetic utterances, Pastor, as you've described it, so I guess I can't violate Verse 20.\r\n\r\nThe truth of the matter is Christians violate Verse 20 all of the time because they despise the revelation that God has given in these 66 books.\u00a0 Any time a church takes human wisdom in its teaching, whether it's psychology, origins, marketing, and mixes it with the Bible, you just despise the prophetic utterance.\u00a0 Any time, boy, do I say this, community softball is more important than church, you just despise the prophetic utterance.\r\n\r\nAny time when the Word is being taught with authority and clarity and you're spending your whole time looking at your watch wondering when he's going to stop, who I'm going to eat out to go out to lunch with afterwards and your mind is elsewhere, you're despising a prophetic utterance.\u00a0 Any time that this book, the Bible, sits on your coffee table as an ornament, a placeholder or something, and you're not actively spending time in it with yourself and your family, you're despising a prophetic utterance.\r\n\r\nAny time a father is not leading his family through the teaching of God's Word at home, through family altar or whatever you want to call it, you're despising a prophetic utterance.\u00a0 See that?\r\n\r\nSo my point is, yes, I completely understand that the canon is shut and there aren't active prophecies today, but we violate this all of the time because we ignore the prophetic utterance that God has given in these 66 books<\/strong>.\u00a0 Anytime my life is so crowded with peripheral things that I really don't have time for the Word of God, we're despising a prophetic utterance.\u00a0 Every time the alarm clock goes off and I say to myself, \"You know what?\u00a0 I'm just going to go to Bedside Baptist Church this morning and sleep it through.\u00a0 What's the big deal?\" We're despising a prophetic utterance because God has given us, I think, multiple opportunities to hear from Him in His Word.\r\n\r\nAnd if I say no to those opportunities, then it's just like in the original church, before the canon was shut, a prophet gives a message, and you just despise it even though it was from God.\u00a0 And I just want us to understand that even though the canon is shut, we can despise prophetic utterances constantly<\/strong>.\u00a0 In fact, boy, I've already gone out on enough of the limb.\u00a0 I might as well just keep walking.\r\n\r\nMost churches within evangelicalism despise prophetic utterances because the church is not set up to teach.\u00a0 It's set up to do anything and everything other than teach.\u00a0 Teaching the Word of God is not a priority.\u00a0 Any time a pastor stands up and gives three points in a poem and is not actively leading the people through a deep study of God's Word, he is despising a prophetic utterance.\u00a0 I mean, have I given enough emphasis on this?\r\n\r\nSo what do we do?<\/strong>\u00a0 Rejoice always.\u00a0 Pray without ceasing.\u00a0 Give thanks in all things.\r\n\r\nWhat should we not do<\/strong> to demonstrate that we are growing Christians?\u00a0 We should not.\u00a0 I'm having a very difficult time here finding my slides.\u00a0 We should not quench the Spirit.\u00a0 And one of the ways we quench the Spirit is we despise prophetic utterances.\r\n\r\nYeah, but pastor, does that mean I have to believe everything that comes across every pulpit?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Because part of this command is to test all things.\u00a0 Which is a bummer because I entitled this message \"Test All Things\" and we're not even getting to test all things.\u00a0 So we'll get to test all things next week.\r\n\r\nLet's pray.\u00a0 Father, we're grateful for Your truth, grateful for Your Word, grateful for how it steps on our toes when needed.\u00a0 But we're here to develop and grow as a Christian.\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> See Three Tenses of Salvation chart at minute mark 0:6:29.\r\n\r\n[3]<\/a> See chart showing the chiasm:\u00a0 Matthew Outline at minute mark 0:37:23.\r\n\r\n[4]<\/a> The New King James Version<\/em>. 1982. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.\r\n\r\n[5]<\/a> See chart at minute mark 0:49:09","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