[0:00] Amen. Okay, kiddos, you are dismissed to your King's Kids class, and if you'd open up your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians 5, we're going to be looking at verses 12-22.
[0:15] It's on page 1174 of your pew Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Lord, we ask you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.
[0:37] Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
[0:51] Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.
[1:02] Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. May God bless the hearing of his word.
[1:16] How do you handle waiting? Let's say Saturday rolls around. You have people coming over for pizza in a rousing game of Dutch Blitz. Who knows Dutch Blitz?
[1:28] Everybody else, you're invited over to my house this coming Saturday. Dutch Blitz is awesome. Well, they're arriving at 530. So what are you doing leading up to their arrival?
[1:42] What are you doing leading up to go time? Here's what I'm doing, and I realize that you'll probably psychoanalyze me while I share these very vulnerable and transparent things.
[1:53] I'm typically cleaning and watching. I'm cleaning outside. I'm cleaning inside, and I'm looking at my watch saying, how much longer until they get here?
[2:07] And as 530 approaches, I am looking out the window. I'm looking down the road. I'm looking for the cars of the coming ones, of these dear ones.
[2:18] I'm looking for the cars of the car. I'm looking for the cars of the car. I'm looking for the car. I'm looking for the car. I'm looking for the car. Another way to describe it is like, I'm like a golden retriever waiting for his master to come home after work.
[2:30] That's how I get. 1 Thessalonians repeatedly brings up a prophecy of Jesus Christ that he is coming back.
[2:43] We're one day closer. Sure, the thing is, we don't know the time nor the hour, but we're not to fear that. We're to be ready for that. But the question is, how do we as a church together wait for God's Son to come from heaven?
[3:00] What are we supposed to be doing? Wouldn't it be great to have a list of things we should be doing while we're waiting for the Son? Well, look, 1 Thessalonians 5, 12 through 22 gives us a list of 17 commands.
[3:15] I'm only going to take 10 minutes on each one. Just kidding. What we have here is 17 commands in rapid fire succession.
[3:29] And these commands are urging us to walk in a certain way together as we wait on the Son. And so here's what I want to convince you of from this passage. That together, we walk by the Spirit as we wait on the Son.
[3:46] Together, we're going to wait. We're going to walk by the Spirit as we wait on the Son. And so these 17 commands are not organized in some kind of random, haphazard fashion.
[4:00] They're actually grouped into four groups. And that's going to walk you through this morning. And the four groups are these. Together, we're to respect our leaders, 12 and 13.
[4:14] Together, we're going to care for those who are needy in our midst. That's in 14 and 15. Together, we're to turn to God always. That's 16 through 18.
[4:25] And together, we are to stoke the fire of the Spirit. That's in verses 19 through 22. So how are we to wait together for the coming of the Son?
[4:36] Together, we walk by the Spirit as we wait on the Son. Now, you may be a little surprised to hear me reference the Holy Spirit as a part of the main thrust of this passage.
[4:51] But what I want to help you see as we go through this, that there are some very obvious clues as we go through that this passage is about walking by the Spirit. So group number one, together, we are to respect our leaders in verses 12 and 13.
[5:06] Paul starts this section with an appeal. He says, There was a leadership vacuum.
[5:41] But God had raised up local leaders of the first Christian church of Thessalonica. And what we have in this grouping are three commands.
[5:52] The first two are signaled by the word respect and esteem. So we ask you, brothers, to respect. And in verse 13, and to esteem.
[6:05] The word respect in the original language is a little more nuanced than what we have here. It means to actually acknowledge someone. To recognize them as a leader. To say, yes, you are in fact a leader in this church.
[6:19] And it's not just to recognize someone. But verse 13, we are to esteem them. We're to be able to appreciate them. So what we're being told here to do as a way of walking by the Spirit is to acknowledge and appreciate the leaders in our midst.
[6:38] This past Thursday was Veterans Day when we as a nation take time to acknowledge and appreciate the veterans in our midst for the work that they have done for the good of our country.
[6:50] We're grateful for our veterans. And what we're being called here to do is to express acknowledgement and appreciation for our leaders. Did you notice how we are to appreciate, honor our leaders?
[7:05] We are to esteem them very highly. And we are to do that in love. And the reason why we're to do that, to esteem leaders highly and in love, is because of the nature of the work God has called them to.
[7:22] We see that in verse 12. Just kind of an elaboration of the work. Those who labor among you are over you in the Lord. The Lord has entrusted to them the responsibility of some kind of oversight and responsibility.
[7:36] Who admonish you in the Lord that they will say hard things in love to you to build you up into Christ. Leadership in the church is not easy.
[7:50] It's difficult. You regularly find yourself in tense and complicated situations. And so what the church is being called to do here is to esteem, to acknowledge that, and to appreciate the leaders in our midst, elders and deacons, life group leaders, who are having to exercise some kind of leadership for the glory of Jesus.
[8:15] It's to be tenderhearted. Tenderhearted appreciation. That's getting at this to do so in love. But it raises the question, what if you don't appreciate your leaders?
[8:32] What if it's not a tenderness of heart? What if you're not affectionate towards the leaders of your church? What if you've been offended by them?
[8:43] If you've been regularly disappointed by them? If you're harboring resentment, you're avoiding them, you're being sinfully critical of them, you're regularly tempted to say ill things about them with other people?
[8:56] Well, what you need to recognize there, that's a check engine light on your soul. That's saying you're not at peace with somebody. You're not at peace with one of the leaders of the church. And so when you see in verse 13 where it says, and to esteem them very highly and love because of the work, be at peace among yourselves, that is in the context of leadership.
[9:18] Seeking to be at peace with the leaders of your church. One of the things that Jasmine Aldrich has seared into my mind when it comes to peacemaking is this little phrase.
[9:31] I think I got it right, Jasmine. Don't be a peacebreaker or a peacefaker. Be a peacemaker. And so far as it depends on you, Romans 12, be at peace with everything, with everyone.
[9:49] And so if you're wondering, well, what I do if I'm holding something against a leader in my church, Matthew 18, 15 through 20, you go to them. You tell them, show them their fault.
[9:59] And if, like an elder, has been approached by two or three people and they still are unrepentant for sin, then the church is to bring that elder in front of the church and rebuke him publicly.
[10:15] That's 1 Timothy 5, verses 19 through 20. What I want to help you to see is the love with which you are to appreciate your leaders and then the peace that you are to strive for with them these are fruit of the Spirit.
[10:33] The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. And so these things that we're being called to do are walkings together by the Spirit of God as we pursue unity together.
[10:50] So this first grouping focuses on leaders but to walk by the Spirit in a particular way as we wait on the Son.
[11:01] The second group has to do with caring for brothers and sisters in need in our midst. And we can see this in verses 14 and 15. Now imagine you go to the doctor with flu-like symptoms and you get diagnosed very quickly and the doctor prescribes you a medication to reduce your symptoms to just kind of like diminish in two days.
[11:25] Well, a week later, your symptoms haven't diminished. They've actually gotten worse. So you go back to the doctor and you say to her, what's going on? So she orders a battery of blood tests.
[11:37] She asks you a bunch of more questions. And what becomes evident is that your doctor had misdiagnosed you. You don't have the flu. You have Lyme disease. And so the treatment for Lyme disease is very different than the treatment for the flu.
[11:55] And so what we see in this section, in verses 14 through 15, what we have is a series of spiritual diagnoses followed by accurate prescriptions to ensure the health of these people in need.
[12:13] So let me walk you through it. Verse 14 starts with another appeal. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, and then comes the first command.
[12:24] We're told to admonish the idol. The diagnosis is idleness. And so if you're wondering what idleness is, you might think, well, if you're idle, you're lazy.
[12:36] And to a certain degree, that's true. But this idleness being talked about here is in unruly, undisciplined idleness. This is someone who is unwilling to apply themselves to normal, adult, responsible conduct and behavior.
[12:58] And so when someone who is idle, the prescription is to admonish them, which is a loving kick in the pants. It's not comforting them in their idleness.
[13:12] It's admonishing them. In fact, in 2 Thessalonians 3.10, the next letter that Paul writes to the Thessalonians, this issue of idleness had become even a greater problem in the church.
[13:26] And so Paul tells them, anyone not willing to work, let him not eat. And so who he's talking about is people who are able-bodied, able-minded, but are unwilling to apply themselves.
[13:42] And so what Paul's trying to do is to prevent people from becoming unnecessary burdens to the church. So he's calling them to a responsibility. Admonish the idle.
[13:54] The next diagnosis is faintheartedness. Encourage the fainthearted. Diagnosis, faintheartedness. That's when someone is despairing.
[14:05] That when someone wants to throw in the towel, they're like, I am done with this following Jesus business. Remember, this church had been suffering intense persecution.
[14:18] And when you are suffering like that, you're gonna be tempted to throw in the towel. They've seen friends die in their church. It would have been tempting just to say like, I'm done. But the cure, the prescription for faintheartedness is to encourage, to comfort.
[14:37] It's saddling up next to a fellow brother and sister and saying things like, Jesus is worth it. We're one day closer. Don't grow weary in doing good.
[14:49] Your labor's not in vain. You won't regret this when you stand before him someday. And so the way that we kind of deal with faintheartedness is by encouragement.
[15:02] And then we read, the next is help the weak. Diagnosis is weakness. Some kind of inability to function normally. And that might be a physical weakness.
[15:14] That might be a mental weakness. Some kind of mental health issue. Joblessness. Food shortage. Shelter, clothing, transportation. It might be temporary. It might be ongoing. But what we do know, it's not a result of idleness.
[15:29] It's not the result of someone being unwilling to do what they need to do. But this is because of something that they, and relatively speaking, can't control.
[15:40] And what we're to do is to help them. To help the weak. To come alongside them and roll up our sleeves and say, I am here to help and I'm here to bear with.
[15:56] The only qualification I'd add here is that when we help people, and our deacons are dialed into this, we're going to help them in a way that doesn't make them dependent upon us.
[16:09] We're going to help them take responsibility for life. We're going to help them get skin in the game. We're going to help them to be able to be part of the solution to their situation. That dignifies people.
[16:22] That treats them as image bearers. And so we're going to help the weak. The next diagnosis and prescription is just a prescription.
[16:34] Be patient. Be patient with them all. And what that is getting at is a diagnosis that can affect people who are trying to help people in need.
[16:47] And that is, you become impatient. That is, you become harsh. What's your problem? Get your act together.
[16:58] You should have been out of debt seven months ago. We treat people impatiently, unlovingly.
[17:12] This patience is another fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience. And when we are exercising patience with people who are in need, what that gives us the benefit of is being able to rightly diagnose an issue which leads to a healthy prescription which means long-term health.
[17:42] This patience is a spirit strengthening to help us long-suffer with others, to bear with others. We need to be patient and could you imagine what would happen if you're being impatient and you start helping someone who's idle or comforting someone who's idle or you start to admonish a fainthearted person, admonish someone who's weak?
[18:13] You're going to end up with a problem much greater than where you started. We need patience and wisdom in coming alongside of people and caring for them.
[18:26] In verse 15 we have a don't do this and a do this. The diagnosis in verse 15 is vengeance. It's retaliation.
[18:38] See that no one repays anyone evil for evil. Our tendency is when we're wronged we want to in our flesh wrong back. and we're being told no.
[18:49] See to it that no one repays evil for the evil and then positively it says but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
[19:02] One another those within the church other Christians to anyone non-Christians we're to do good to them all. We're not to respond repay evil with evil we're to repay evil with good goodness through the Spirit.
[19:22] Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness. And so the Spirit helps us in those moments where we wrong each other or we're wronged by someone else.
[19:36] this would apply to this church who's being persecuted by people outside of the church. You are not to respond in evil to them but you're to do them good. This is following Jesus what Jesus taught about turning your cheek about responding to curse with blessing and when we deal with that with non-Christians they'll be like what?
[19:59] This marks a follower of Jesus Christ. This section this grouping of diagnoses and prescriptions it's together how we walk by the Spirit as we're caring for people in need patience and goodness.
[20:20] This is the second grouping of what we do as we wait on the sun. The third grouping is found in verses 16 and 18 and it's together we are always turning to God.
[20:40] It's what's being described here is a really compelling Christian community. What we see here is a Christian culture that's ablaze by the Spirit.
[20:56] here are the three commands. 16 rejoice always 17 pray without ceasing 18 giving thanks in all circumstances.
[21:10] To rejoice always means to be joyful and the source of the joy being spoken of here is not your circumstances but God himself. You are delighting in your God. You are in wonder of him.
[21:24] You think that he is amazing. You can't help but lift your voice in praise to him because of who he is and you have this abiding confidence that no matter what you encounter because God is both good, loving, holy, and sovereign whatever you encounter he's always working for your good.
[21:47] Romans 8 28 right? James 1 3 considerate joy whenever you encounter trials of various kinds because God's always working in that to make you mature.
[22:02] So we have this first command to be joyful. Our tendency is to question God, is to ignore him.
[22:15] The second way we are to turn to God is to pray. Pray without seeking. It's asking God to work in a particular way. We are to ask, seek, knock.
[22:31] This is Luke 11 and when we ask, seek, knock, we remember the heart of our Father who loves us and wants good for us. He's not going to give us a stone.
[22:41] He's not going to give us a scorpion. He's going to give the Holy Spirit to all who ask him. And so when you come across a passage in Ephesians 6 or in Jude that says pray in the Spirit, we are to pray along the Spirit's will, what the Spirit wants to do in our midst, along the grain of the Spirit.
[23:07] You know how a grain and wood moves a certain way? We are to pray along the grain of the Spirit's intent and we know the Spirit is always looking to build up the body of Christ. we are to pray.
[23:22] The application of this is simple. You know how when we gather together as a church and before and after the service or maybe at a life group or some other gathering, you're having conversations with another brother or sister in Christ and they're real conversations, they're good conversations, they're horizontal and you can walk away from like a coffee shop and say that was really good.
[23:46] What I want to encourage you to do is go vertical. Go vertical in those conversations. That conversation is not done yet until you go vertical to God with that conversation.
[23:59] Bring your brother or sister to the throne of grace. Simple. You just say, hey, I'm really glad to know that. Can we pray about this?
[24:11] Can we turn to the Lord right now and ask God to act? you don't need permission to do that. God is telling you to do that. It's his will.
[24:25] What we tend to do is lean on our own understanding. We spend a lot of time anxious, fearful, trying to think through all the different scenarios and solve them where we can turn to the Lord right then and there.
[24:44] We're told to give thanks in all circumstances. If joy is the abiding confidence that God is at work even though I may not see it, giving thanks is giving God credit for when he does work, when he does move.
[25:04] And what we're being told here is we are to give thanks in all circumstances, which means Christian, you always have a reason to give thanks. No matter what is going on in your life, you can always thank God for his gracious, merciful, powerful work of delivering you from the domain of darkness and transferring you into the kingdom of his beloved son, of justifying you, of adopting you, of sanctifying you and one day glorifying you.
[25:35] You always have something to be thankful for. Thank you for saving me. You can say that in any context as a way of expressing thanksgiving to God.
[25:47] The temptation is to grumble and to complain and forget what God has done. And then when you are praying and God answers your prayer in specific ways, you're not done until you give God the credit for that.
[26:04] thank you God for answering that prayer. Thank you God for raising up that musician. Thank you God for caring for that person in that way.
[26:19] Ephesians chapter 5 talks about commands us to be filled with the Spirit continually. and then verse 20, that command to be filled by the Spirit shows up in giving thanks always together.
[26:37] Thankfulness as a church is a working of the Spirit in a church. Did you notice the always? Did you notice the without ceasing? Did you notice the in all circumstances?
[26:49] All of us, all the time, in all situations, are to be turning together to our God and as we do, what He will do will form in us is a Christocentric culture ablaze with the Holy Spirit.
[27:08] Walking by the Spirit. Joy in God, prayer to God, thanksgiving to God. Verse 18, we're told this is God's will for us in Christ Jesus.
[27:23] it's what we know the Holy Spirit is seeking to do in us. This is the grain of the Spirit revealed in God's Word. You don't need permission.
[27:37] God is telling you to do this. He says, well, this culture of always turning to God is what it means to walk by the Spirit.
[27:49] Together we walk by the Spirit, always turning to God as we wait on the Son. What do we do as we wait for the Son? We rejoice, we pray, we give thanks.
[28:03] Finally, the fourth grouping is together stoking the Spirit's fire. This is verses 19 through 22. And this grouping of five commands starts off with a negative command.
[28:19] God, do not quench the Spirit, as in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who has sealed us for the day of redemption, the Holy Spirit who has applied the finished work of Christ to our lives, the Holy Spirit who Jesus says, when he would come, he will glorify me.
[28:40] We know that the Spirit is seeking to spotlight the Son. And he's being compared to a fire. Don't quench the Spirit. Who doesn't love a campfire?
[28:53] Who doesn't love a backyard fire pit? Let's say that you're sitting warming yourself at a campfire and someone walks up with a bucket of water and they just pour that water on top of your fire.
[29:08] Squenching, quenching the fire, stifling it. That's the picture. Quenching the Spirit's work in our midst. Stifling it.
[29:21] What I've been wanting to show you is the Spirit's work doesn't begin in this passage in verse 19. It began in verse 12. We who, we are to love and be at peace with our leaders.
[29:37] That's what it means to walk by the Spirit and to resist that is to quench the Spirit. We are to be patiently caring for the needy. We are to be responding to evil, not with evil but with good and that patience and that goodness that's fruit of the Spirit.
[29:55] And if you are resisting that, you are stifling the Spirit. We are to be joyful, prayerful, thankful in every situation.
[30:05] But if we're questioning God, leaning on our own understanding, grumbling, complaining, that's a stifling of the Spirit. Spirit. It's up to this point. What I've wanted to show you is the Spirit's been behind this passage all along.
[30:19] And when you get in verse 19, it's kind of a summary statement. Don't quench the Spirit. Don't pour water on what the Spirit wants to do. But it's also a pivot into verse 20 where there's another negative command.
[30:33] Do not despise prophecy. And what Paul is referring to here is a specific Spirit-given gift to build up the church when the church would gather.
[30:47] You can see that spelled out more in 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 14, Romans 12, and here in 1 Thessalonians 5. Now here's the question, and this is where I'm going to get a little technical.
[31:02] Is the gift of the Spirit prophecy functioning today? When our church gathers, should we be seeking the gift of prophecy?
[31:20] There are two groups of Bible-believing Christians who answer this question very differently. There is Bible-believing Christians who say, yes, the gift of prophecy continues.
[31:33] Wayne Grudem, who is a seminary professor of mind, defines prophecy as this, telling what God spontaneously brings to mind. And so when the church gathers, they're to make space for God spontaneously bringing things to people's minds.
[31:49] And what Grudem does is he wants to apply prophecy to everyone in a church, but unfortunately what he doesn't do is he fails to recognize, this is with great humility, that there's a different definition of prophecy happening at that point than the Old Testament definition of prophecy.
[32:10] And the Old Testament definition would be prophecy is a thus says the Lord, infallible, divinely authoritative.
[32:27] There's another camp, Christians who say, no, the gift of prophecy has largely ceased. Tom Schreiner would be a representative of this, and he wrote a book called Spiritual Gifts, and he makes a pretty compelling case.
[32:44] That there is no clear and compelling reason to think that the New Testament prophecy that we see practiced in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 and Romans chapter 12 being referred to, there's no clear and compelling reason to think that that prophecy is different than Old Testament prophecy.
[33:03] And if that's the case, that would mean that New Testament prophecy, when the church gathers, would have been functioning and being spoken with tremendous weight, infallible, carrying divine authority.
[33:17] Now, these two understandings of prophecy remind me of a Miller Lite commercial. Do you remember that commercial back in the 80s?
[33:30] If you're not alive, no worries. There'd be like a bar scene, people at the bar, and there's like half the group would say, tastes great, Miller Lite tastes great.
[33:42] And then the other group would say, less filling! It's a brilliant campaign, because everybody's drinking Miller Lite. You're just emphasizing a couple different aspects to it.
[33:55] Whether you are in the camp that prophecy continues today, or you're in the camp that prophecy has ceased, you've got to understand that everybody believes in the active presence of the Holy Spirit, especially when the church gathers.
[34:12] And everyone believes that God's revealed written word is the final authority for life and practice. The risk for all of us is that we define prophecy by our experience, whether good or bad.
[34:31] Or we define prophecy by the tradition of a church. Or we define prophecy by some other kind of means, other than according to our Bibles.
[34:43] So if your background with prophecy is more Wayne Grudem than Tom Schreiner, I want to give you some food for thought. The role of prophecy in the New Testament, when the church gathered, is indisputable.
[34:59] There was a gift that was functioning, and it was designed to build up the church. But I just want to remind you of a couple passages that may help you have a more rounded view of prophecy.
[35:16] If you would open up your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2. In 19 and 20, we read this. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
[35:32] I'll wait till you get there. 220. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
[35:47] What seems to be happening here is that at the beginning of the church, apostles and prophets had a foundational role of laying doctrine about Jesus.
[36:02] foundational. The cornerstone being Jesus himself. And so I believe what this means is revelations given, words of knowledge that were given, in large part had to do with Jesus.
[36:18] In order to establish a church foundationally, doctrinally, on the person of Jesus. We didn't have a complete canon at that point.
[36:31] Revelation chapter 19, verse 10 says, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. At the heart of prophecy, the revelation, God making known, is what the whole Bible declares that salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone.
[36:50] So I've been persuaded that the primary, primary function of prophecy in the New Testament church when they gathered was to build up the body into the head of Jesus Christ.
[37:06] Christ. Now, my theology of the Holy Spirit also helps because in John 16, 14, we're told Jesus himself says of the spirit, he will glorify me.
[37:19] He will bring to your remembrance things that Jesus had said. So I believe that the Holy Spirit functioning in a church is seeking to spotlight Jesus in a variety of different ways.
[37:35] And what I'm persuaded of is that New Testament prophecy, when the church gathered, had a very weighty, doctrinal, revelatory weight and function to it.
[37:48] on the par with infallibility, on par with full divine authority. My goal this morning is to get you thinking.
[38:02] What does your Bible say about New Testament prophecy functioning when the church gathers? May raise another question.
[38:14] Are we despising the gift of prophecy by not making space for prophecy when we gather? I'm going to argue no. Are we quenching the spirit? I'm going to say no.
[38:27] Why? Because I believe the Old Testament and the New Testament, the completed canon supplies everything we need for life in godliness.
[38:38] It is sufficient and it is complete. So I believe the completed New Testament canon supersedes New Testament. It is complete and infinite prophecy.
[38:49] It is what Jude talks about when the faith has been handed down once and for all. So all the revelations, all of the words of knowledge about Jesus that we need have been preserved for us in the New Testament.
[39:05] Complete and sufficient. We have no more need for new revelations about Jesus. And so I have three implications.
[39:17] I know I'm short on time. But let me just whiz through these. When we gather together as a church, we prize the faithful preaching of this book.
[39:34] This objective and true revelation of God. Not subjective. Not given to error. It's God speaking to us.
[39:47] The same spirit who gave the gift of prophecy in the first century is the same spirit who's inspired every word of this book. And so I believe when this word is faithfully proclaimed, it will stoke the fire of the spirit in brothers and sisters in Christ.
[40:07] It's the spirit accompanying his word and power. You want a spirit revival? You preach the Bible. Remember in Luke 24, Jesus is on the way to Emmaus.
[40:23] And he's just been raised from the dead. And he says to them, two of his disciples, O foolish ones and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
[40:33] Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.
[40:46] Jesus then has a meal with them. Verse 32. After vanishing from their sight, these two disciples say, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?
[41:02] Did our hearts not burn? That's spirit ablaze. That's a spirit blaze around all of the scriptures making a revelation of who Jesus Christ is and why he came.
[41:19] When we gather, we want to prize the faithful preaching of this book. The second implication was taking the last three commands of this passage seriously.
[41:31] I'll let you look at that. Applying it to preaching today. I don't believe preaching and prophecy are the same thing, but I do think that they're analogous. The third implication is this.
[41:44] It's the language we use. I believe the Spirit of God is active in our midst. I believe he impresses things on our hearts, burdens us, brings scripture to mind, prompts us, nudge us to act in faith.
[42:01] So in light of that, in wanting to avoid language that can be confusing, language like, God told me, God is saying, God wants me to tell you this, but it's not from the pages of this.
[42:21] This is an impression you had. When we speak that way, that can be very confusing to those people who are hearing. And it can puff up the person speaking it.
[42:34] So a better way is to humbly qualify these kinds of things. Hey, I was reading the scriptures this morning, and I believe God put a passage on my heart, and I think, I think you can benefit from it.
[42:53] And then you share it with that person. You're not claiming to be infallible. You're not being, claiming to be the source of a divine word. I think God is prompting me to, to share this with you.
[43:09] I don't know where it came. I was, I woke up thinking about you. Would you take it with a grain of salt? That's how we humbly qualify these things. God is active in our midst.
[43:20] What we want to be careful of is not claiming a, an authority and an infallibility that's not ours to claim. So I don't believe we're quenching the spirit.
[43:36] I want to be part of a church that stokes the fires of the spirit, asking God to cause his spirit to fall afresh upon us.
[43:46] So what do we do? As we wait on the sun, we appreciate our leaders in love and pursue peace.
[43:58] Walk by the spirit. We care for those in need, wisely, patiently, doing good to those who do evil to us. It's walking by the spirit. We seek to be part of what God is doing in creating a culture of God-centeredness, of joy and prayerfulness and thankfulness, walking by the spirit.
[44:17] And we stoke the spirit's fire by not despising impressions, burdens, but we are elevating the finished, complete, sufficient word of God.
[44:36] the scriptures. Would you pray with me? Spirit of the living God, fall afresh upon us.
[44:50] Would you break us? Would you mold us? Would you fill us?
[45:04] Would you use us? Father, would you pour out your spirit upon us in greater and greater measure? That you would knit our hearts together.
[45:17] That you would cause the word of Christ to dwell richly among us. that we would regularly speak to each other truths from this book to the glory of Jesus Christ to build one another up.
[45:39] God, would you lead on? In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you.