1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 - The Way Of The Christian

This morning we are in uh first Thessalonians chapter five.

Next week, Lord willing, we will begin Second Thessalonians.

This morning we are in First Thessalonians chapter five, beginning in verse twelve, and we're finishing out the book this morning.

This is God's holy and inspired word.

We ask you, brothers, 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.

Be at peace among yourselves, and we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

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, do not despise prophecies, but test everything, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it.

Brothers, pray for us.

Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

This is the word of the Lord.

If you know me or you spent some time around me, then you've probably heard me share this little um fact or tidbit of information, um, which I find very helpful and very interesting, and that is that research shows that only 7% of our communication is done with words.

So when we're communicating something with people, words make up 7% of what's being communicated.

38% of what's being communicated is through tone or our vocals, the way we're saying things.

And the remaining 55% of our communication is through our body language.

So when you're having a conversation with someone, whether it's a casual conversation or you're in negotiations or you're in an argument with someone, keep in mind the words that you are saying make up 7% of what they're hearing.

38% of what they're hearing is through the way that you're saying your words, and 55%, the majority is through your body language.

So it matters how we say things and the way that we say things, the way that we communicate.

This is why I think texting and emails kind of a poor way of communicating one to another.

But the reality is that we are to be people who are who are thinking of all these things.

But this is how we communicate.

Or communicate with my communicate with my words.

I want to do it with the way that I'm saying it.

I want to do it with my body language, the whole thing, all of it together.

This is how we communicate one to another.

And as Christians, we can't be people who just say things.

We can't just have a good confession and stop there.

Scripture says, confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and you will be saved.

So we must have the right confession.

That is true, it must be right.

But we then must have the heart that believes, the way that we walk out our life, the way that we live and serve, the way that we love one another.

The way of the Christian is to is through submission, is through grace and through holiness.

That's the theme this morning through this text.

The way of the Christian is through submission, through grace, and through holiness.

And we've been saying this throughout this book.

The theme of 1 Thessalonians is that we're as Christians to suffer well and to live in light of eternity.

We know we're called to suffer, and we know eternity is coming.

We're to live in the reality of those things what Christ has called us to do.

So the first point this morning is the way that you follow.

This is the way that we follow.

Verse 12.

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

Be at peace among yourselves.

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, and be patient with them all.

Now our heart toward those who lead us, who oversee us, says a lot about our heart.

Our heart, our attitude, our kind of disposition towards those who lead and who serve, our heart towards them reveals a lot about ourselves.

And this is a sensitive issue, and it should be.

A lot of people have been hurt by bad leaders, by poor pastors.

Men who are not fit or unqualified, or they've made mistakes, and so hurt comes from that.

And no one is called to blindly follow a leader, just kind of blindly go after them.

And no leader, no elder or pastor, that's the context here in this passage.

The elders of the church, no elder should expect anyone to just obey everything they say, no matter what.

We are to submit and follow God's ways of doing things.

What the Lord has laid out for us.

But some of the ways that we can be poor followers, and I say it's as an elder, and as a church member who's also under elders, is we can follow blindly.

We can follow blindly.

We just kind of jump in, we're excited about what's going on, or excited about the person, and we just kind of jump in and we're kind of blind to the things going around us, on around us.

We're blind to the hurt or to the things that are unbiblical or unwise or unloving.

We follow blindly.

Another area where we can be poor followers is we we follow with resentment.

We're resentful.

Now, generally, these people are kind of prideful that they think, man, I can be doing that better.

I could do it better, they're not doing it right.

They're resentful.

And maybe sometimes in this situation, the leader reminds the person of someone else in their life that has hurt them.

And so they're not really resentful toward that elder or pastor, but but they're resentful towards this person and they remind them, so they're resentful toward the elders.

Another way that we can follow poorly is we we do so rebelliously.

We're rebellious in our heart.

And this one's kind of fascinating because I think if you've been around church long enough, you you you know these people, right?

And if we're really honest, we all have these things in our hearts as well.

So those who I mean, they're kind of they're kind of rebellious.

They they want to be there, they want to be a part of the church and what's going on, and they want to go with the flow, but they're never really content there.

They don't really want to be a part of the team because they have reservations and they have issues and they disagree, and they're always kind of sowing a little bit of division here and complaining about things over there, but they don't want to deal with the issue.

They just want to perpetually kind of complain and kind of be pulling back the whole time.

But the odd thing about people who are rebellious is they usually don't relieve, they just stick around.

So they want to rebel, but they want to stay here and not kind of go do their thing.

So it's frustrating.

Another way that that we can be poor followers is that we're just superstitious or we're suspicious.

We're suspicious about what's going on, and no one really knows.

What are they, what are they, what are the elders doing, you know, in their meetings?

What's going on?

And what are they doing with the money?

And whose decision was this?

And and why don't we all know more?

I would often tell people that people would come to me with questions and you know that they want information, which is a good thing.

And I would say, usually you don't have information because I don't have the information.

It's not that we're not sharing it, there's just nothing to share, which that's maybe a problem too, but that's the reality is don't be suspicious because there's just there's nothing here to hide, because there's nothing here.

But this is the thing, we get suspicious about things.

Oh, we love the brother, we love the pastor, we're grateful for them, but we're suspicious of them.

We're suspicious, we're worried.

And the suspicious saint, they they they they pull back, it stunts their relationship with the church, with the leaders, with other members.

Because they'll they'll go to another person and say, hey, did you know this?

You know what's going on?

Or have you heard these things?

And what happens is they either kind of poison that other person or they kind of break that relationship.

Either way, it's damaging their own soul, it's damaging the unity of the church.

So, as Christians, we must address these things.

But we must extend grace.

We must extend grace.

All these things are usually solved if we're willing to extend some grace.

I'm just a human like you, I have a sin nature like you, I need forgiveness like you, I need correction, I need rebuke, I need encouragement, I need all those things as well.

I need grace.

But as the elder, as one of the elders, and as elders of the church, we work, we strive to show love, to build up the body of Christ, to model what it means to follow Jesus.

We desire to see everyone grow in their holiness, their godliness.

We want to admonish what we need to admonish.

We want to encourage where we can encourage and build up and instruct with firmness as elders.

But this relationship, what Paul's getting to in this church, he's in the midst of suffering, a church in the midst of hardship, he's saying, Listen, you need to respect those who labor among you, who are over you in the Lord.

Now, the relationship between elders and church members is kind of like the relationship between a husband and wife in this way.

The elders are to lead the church, and the wife is to, the husband is to lead the wife.

But our leadership is really more of persuasion than anything else.

I can't force any church member to do anything, right?

I can try to persuade you from the scripture, this is what we're called to do.

Let's do this together, let's do it this way.

But it's it's it my authority is in persuasion.

And same in my marriage.

I cannot force Candace to do something she doesn't want to do, and nor should I force her to do that.

My authority and my leadership is one of persuasion to lead and to God and protect and to pray.

So, as Christians, we are to submit to the local church and to submit to elders and pastors.

And you'll hear this a lot this morning because this is a lot of church membership stuff.

But here at Proclamation Church, we practice what we say, elder-led, congregation-ruled.

That means that the elders are to lead the church.

We're to model what it looks like to follow the Lord and teaching and preaching and all those things.

But the congregation, the members, those who are covenant members of this church, have the final say.

And the vast majority of things.

They have the final say in our doctrine, the way that we uh spend our money, all those things goes back to those who are members.

So that it's not just the elders at the top and everyone just kind of follow along, but we are we're bearing this burden of church together.

Everyone who's a member is responsible for their own holiness, they're responsible for other members' holiness, they're to pray for one another, to encourage one another, to admonish and build up one another.

That's the beauty of being in a church that practices just healthy church membership.

We're just saying we want to live out what the gospel tells us to live out, to love one another well, to be committed to one another, to hold one another accountable.

The vehicle for that is membership.

So Paul's instructing the church, he's instructing them to respect the elders, pastors, which, by the way, anytime you see that in the New Testament, elder, pastor, it's the same word.

It's prosputeros.

It means the same thing.

They're not two separate offices, they're one.

And here we're called in this text to um respect the elders, esteem them very highly in love, and to be at peace with them among yourselves.

This isn't an easy thing to do.

I am uh far from a good, perfect pastor.

I've been under pastors who are not perfect, and Paul doesn't say, listen, if you have an amazing elder, respect him.

If you have a phenomenal pastor who's just awesome, esteem them very highly in love.

Be at peace with them among yourselves.

He doesn't say those things.

He gives this charge to the church to broken people with broken leaders.

Again, not calling them to blindly follow, but giving this encourage to respect, esteem and love, and be at peace.

And this goes against our nature.

This isn't our natural disposition to love and respect those who are who are over us.

We kind of are rebellious in our sinful nature.

When that's a part of the fall, we tend to rebel and push away authority.

We're to walk these things out.

So if there's tension in your heart with an elder of our church, or any elder, I want to encourage you to deal with that.

I want you to talk to someone about that.

Talk to someone, someone, a genuine Christian who's mature in their faith, and you can kind of process that with them and say, Man, here's what I'm thinking, this is the tension I'm feeling.

And if they're a mature believer and they say, I think you're right, I agree with that.

Then come and talk to us.

Talk to us about that.

We want to talk to you about that.

But if you talk to another believer who's mature in their faith and they say, Man, I just don't, I don't see that.

I I think you know that you need to pray about that.

Maybe that's an issue in your own heart.

Then you need to address that in your own heart.

Say, Lord, is this me?

Then pray about those things.

But the worst thing you can do is to leave things as they are, to leave them unattended.

Time and time and time and time again, I've seen this.

The tension turns into frustration, which turns into resentment, which turns into bitterness.

Now this issue has been stuffed down for so long.

It's so complex, it's so wiry, it's kind of gotten into everything in your heart.

And what was something that you could have addressed and had a conversation about and got some clarity, and maybe the brother or sister could have repented, or you could have repented, or whatever needed to happen there.

Now it's grown into this huge thing, this huge mountain in your in your heart, and you can't even look at the person, you can't even hear their name without all these things coming up, all these frustrations and the hurt and the wounds.

Because you didn't address, didn't go to that brother or sister in Christ and say, I'm struggling with this.

I love you, I want to be, I want to be good with you.

I don't want this tension.

Help me work this out.

So always come.

It's better to have the awkward, weird, difficult conversation now than let the situation turn into a thing that's there's sin in your heart.

Where you, biblically speaking, you you can't take communion at that point, right?

You're out of uh a fellowship in your heart with these people because you're you're in sin, you're holding these things, you're not extending forgiveness.

It's better to have the conversation.

I I remember um one example, this was a couple years ago, someone in our church came to me and just said, like they had they had an issue, something I had said, something I had um said to them, and like, hey, I just want to grab coffee and talk with you.

And they were very gracious and they were very kind and they said, you know, here's what happened, and here's what you said, and you know, this is kind of how it hurt me, and and I just, you know, I I know you don't really want to hurt me, but you know, this is what was said, so what do we do about that?

And um it was gracious and it was kind, and I was blind to it.

I was just completely blind to it, the hurt that I caused this person.

And I just repented, I asked for their forgiveness.

I I mean we prayed together.

It was a wonderful thing that I was made aware of what I had done wrong to this sister in Christ, but they had the the courage to come and talk to me about that.

It was a wonderful thing.

Now, that doesn't mean that down the road uh I might hurt them again, or they might hurt me, or these things might happen.

But that's what it means, like in relationship.

I had another situation where a brother came to me and just said, hey, you know, I've been holding this kind of thing against you for a while, and and I don't know why, and um, it was sinful and it was wrong.

And will you forgive me for that?

Again, me?

No idea.

Oblivious to these things.

But this was something this brother was carrying, and it was it was eating at him and he the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and he obeyed that and he shared that.

There's a wonderful time where just seeing the body be the body, where we can love one another, show forgiveness, but it takes courage to do that, takes courage to step up and have those conversations because they're not always easy, and it takes wisdom.

Is this something worth sharing?

Or is this just something that I that's I'm doing?

And I need wisdom, I need someone else to speak to those things.

So we must ask ourselves these questions.

But this is the way that we follow.

Remember what we confess and the way that we walk?

This is the way that we follow what Christ has laid out for us.

We're to encourage one another.

There's this word about urge the brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, and help the weak and be patient with them all.

And this is a word for all of us as we're in relationship with as with brothers and sisters in Christ, in membership, to be patient with one another.

I mean, if you're in the church long enough, there's people that frustrate you.

They kind of get on your nerves.

And some of them, they're just kind of idle.

They're being idle.

Or they're weak, and they need encouraged, right?

There's there's there's a weakness there.

We're just to be patient with these brothers and sisters.

Because there is going to be a season, and most likely there was a season in your life where you were the idle Christian, where you were the one who was weak.

You were the one who is faint-hearted, or you will be the one who is idle, you will be the one who is weak, or the one who is faint-hearted.

And don't you want people to be patient with you?

You don't want them to neglect you and just leave you and say, hey, I hope you figure that out, you know?

You want them to love you and to push and to push you to Christ.

But we are to be patient and loving and kind.

But if we have this tension in our heart with our leaders, there's probably tension in our heart with one another.

It's hard to do those things.

If we're not submitting to God's word, to live as Christians in submission to Him.

It's the way that we follow and the way that we walk.

This is my second point.

The way that we walk speaks to Christ, or our lack of faith in Christ.

Verse 15.

See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

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, do not despise prophecies, but test everything.

Hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

And let's just kind of go through this.

It's kind of a shotgun approach that Paul's doing here.

Let's just kind of walk through this.

Do not repent evil for evil.

Do you have hateful or vengeful or really angry thoughts toward another person?

Is this you?

Are you always seeking to do good to everyone?

What a massive question.

Are you always seeking to do good to everyone?

But when you understand what Christ has called you to, because you understand what he has saved you from and saved you into, you're no longer allowed because you didn't deserve salvation.

You don't deserve to go to heaven, you deserve hell.

But Christ has saved you.

He's redeemed you.

And now he's saying, listen, treat others well.

Think about them, consider them, do good to everyone.

Not as like, well, they deserve it and they don't.

Listen, they don't deserve it and you don't deserve it.

You've been redeemed, you've been given a command to seek the good of others.

So is that a reality in your life?

Not are you getting straight A's in that?

Are you perfect?

But are you working to that?

How are you at rejoicing?

Always rejoicing, sometimes rejoicing, never rejoicing.

This reveals our heart, our attitude.

Are we rejoicing in the Lord?

And I don't mean just collectively as a congregation, but I mean in the day, when you wake up and you're going to work, you're getting there at work and it's early and no one wants to be there.

Are you rejoicing?

I'm not saying are you being annoying, but are you rejoicing?

Giving thanks in all circumstances.

How are you doing with it?

You know, the old saying you're either in a storm or you've just got out of a storm or you're heading into a storm.

It's usually pretty accurate.

Usually in life, like you're you either just left the storm.

Right?

Or you're heading into a storm.

And there might be a few moments of peace.

But are you giving thanks in your heart to God for these things, for what He's done for you?

Is it a pattern in your life to give thanks?

To be a thankful person.

Lord, I thank you for my car.

I'm having car problems this week, personally.

And I don't want to give thanks, but like I have a car and I can fix my car and it's gonna run again, and Lord willing.

Hopefully, I'll give thanks for it.

If it can't, I'll scrap it and I'll get some money off of it.

So thank you, Lord, for what you've given me.

Thank you that we're here.

Thank you that we're here.

There are people who are who are sick right now at home.

They can't be here.

Thank you that, Lord, you have given us life.

We thank you that we have health.

Maryland does not have health.

We're thankful for her health.

Maryland's gonna die and gonna see the Lord Jesus face to face soon.

Thank God for that.

How awesome is that! Praise the Lord for that.

We're to give thanks in all circumstances.

Because this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

This is God's will for you to be a thankful person, to be thankful.

How are you doing with your obedience to the Holy Spirit?

Are you seeking to obey God's Spirit and His Word?

Are you being discerning when you listen to teaching and different people talking about God?

How are you doing with these things?

Do you desire to obey the Spirit?

Are you quenching the Spirit?

Conviction comes and you just distract it with your phone, you distract it with the TV, you distract it with work or with some other good thing, maybe?

Are you listening to God's word?

The final question: are you holding fast to what is good and staying away from every form of evil, every kind of evil?

What's this look like?

Are you walking this out?

Is this the day-to-day walk in your life?

Holding fast to what is good?

But what's good?

Can you even identify what's good in your life?

And can you identify the evil things that you need to stay away from?

The way you walk through your day is really important.

It's really important for many reasons.

But two, as a Christian, you have been given instruction on how to walk.

Right?

You've been given instruction.

You're not free to make it up as you want.

You're not free just kind of have at it and kind of hodgepodge it together.

You've been given instruction on how to walk.

So we have to obey the Lord in this.

The second reason is walking with God, walking in the ways of God, it's life-giving.

It's so life-giving.

It's not really easy most of the time, and sometimes it's not fun.

Most of the time it actually is fun, but it's usually, it takes effort, but it's life-giving.

It brings joy, it brings peace, it brings satisfaction.

All the things the world's looking for.

And the Lord's like, well, just walk this way.

Seek to do good.

Stay away from the things that are evil.

It's not that complicated.

It's the way of life.

So it's important because we've been commanded to walk this way, and it's important because this is the way that brings life.

The way that we walk often stems from the way that we hope.

What's our hope in?

What's our hope, our kind of our anchor, the thing we value the most from that usually determines the way that we walk.

Look with me in verse 23.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

And your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it.

Now I've been using this passage as our benediction, and I hope you memorize this passage.

Just a little tidbit.

Our benedictions, our call of worships, they're not always the same, but they're we kind of stick with similar ones because we want you to remember those things.

We want you to hide God's word in your heart.

But the way that we hope as Christians point to what we value, to what we have our faith in.

We want to hope in Christ.

And in this passage, it reveals the hope.

There is so much hope here.

So much hope.

So much hope.

That God, we learn this about God, right?

He's a God of peace.

Romans 15, 33 says, May the God of peace be with you all.

We know that he's working himself for our sanctification.

1 Thessalonians 3.11.

Now may our God and our Father Himself and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you.

Covered that earlier in the book.

1 Thessalonians.

God is a God of peace, and He is working.

He is not outsourcing this.

Now I know these are kind of abstract thoughts, they're kind of ethereal, but stick with me for a moment on this.

Okay, so the one who made all things, literally the sun in the sky, literally the sun has been coming up for thousands of years.

He made that.

You look out, you see the trees, you see the leaves, you see, like he made all those things.

The earth that we're on has been around for He made these things.

Every molecule, every cell in existence, he made, he knows it, he's sustaining it.

Okay, that's the kind of being, right?

So you kind of maybe a little bit grasp that, get your head around that.

He himself, himself, himself.

It's working in you.

That's some kind of love.

He didn't send the angels to come and sanctify you.

He didn't give the word and step back and say, well, just read the word, figure it out, and do it.

The creator of all things, himself, sanctifying you to completion.

This isn't the Nazarene teaching that you can reach perfection.

This is that God, through your life, is maturing you, and there will be a day when you teach Jesus Christ, well, he will bring you to perfection, and he will sanctify you.

His work to do.

You are not stuck in your sin.

So often we just think, man, I'm just stuck in this sin until I die or until Christ comes back.

You are not stuck in your sin.

Staying in sin is not God's design for you.

It's not what he has for you.

It's not good.

It brings death.

It is this sin that Jesus died for.

He himself will surely do it.

He who calls you is faithful.

He has never not been faithful.

God has never not been faithful to you.

Never has it happened.

He will surely do it.

1 Corinthians 1 9.

God is faithful.

You were called by him into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Philippians 1, 5 and 6.

I am sure of this, that he who started good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.

To completion.

All the striving we're doing, the struggling with the sin in our heart, the struggling with the brokenness around us, the broken relationships, other people's sin that we have to deal with.

The Lord is sanctifying us.

Sanctifying sanctification means to make holy, to set apart.

He's setting apart his people for him.

He will do this.

So if we are Christians, if this is a reality in our life, then we walk differently.

We walk differently.

Even the way that we interact with one another is different.

We're on the way with Christ.

The next passage is the way that we interact.

Verse 25.

Brothers, pray for us.

It's always encouraging when you hear Paul.

This is what Paul writes.

Pray for me.

Pray for us.

Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Paul's asking for prayer.

And then he gets to verse 26.

Most people read this passage and they just get, man, it just catches their attention.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

So we'll address that, right?

No doubt that this is a cultural thing.

We don't live in the culture.

There's many cultures in our day and age who still do this.

They greet one another with a kiss on the cheek.

It's not weird, it's not strange, it's not threatening, it's just like a culture.

If you've been in a culture that's done that, then you know it's it's like shaking a hand or giving a hug.

It's very cultural.

But usually uh, as kind of men, we struggle with this a little bit.

But keep in mind, the whole macho masculinity, kind of Clint Eastwood, John Wayne thing that we do as a culture, that wasn't a thing back then.

Like no one 2,000 years ago was like, hey, I'm not wearing pink, or uh, you know, I don't do that because it's feminine.

There wasn't that kind of language or even ideas.

They were not afraid to give another one another each other a kiss on the cheek.

Even though for us it might seem very um unmasculine.

Now, this morning, um, I just wanted to see like how this would go.

So I didn't know who to try this on, so I just I did it to Jimmy, which is fine.

But I I just gave him a hug and I just kissed him on the cheek.

And Jimmy's like, wow, man, I feel like we're getting a little charismatic over here.

I said, Well, you know, I said, I don't know.

So we were talking about this passage, and there is um, there's only like a couple people in my life who outside of family who've ever done this, like with regularity.

There's a guy I used to go to church with, uh, his name's um Larry Miller, and Larry, every time I'd see Larry, um, still, you know, I haven't seen him for years, but the last time I saw him, he just gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.

And like that was just his thing.

And like the first time it happens, you're kind of like, well, that's that's weird, you know.

But then you you do get used to it, and you I you appreciate it.

Like, I don't know what to say.

I didn't I liked him when Larry wouldn't give me a kiss.

I don't know.

But it was a way of showing this great affection, and this is what Paul's getting at.

So in our culture, we don't really do this, and that's okay.

I'm not saying let's all kind of bring this back, you know.

I don't know.

Anyway, um, but this is a way of showing great affection.

So it was cultural to kiss one another in a greeting.

Man, I love you, I I care about you, this was this was a special thing.

But he's saying a holy kiss, right?

Now that now I don't this doesn't mean like it's like you you anoint it and somehow it's a holy thing, but rather as people, as God's people, set apart, a holy people, show great affection when you greet one another.

Now, this doesn't mean every time you see them, like if I'm hanging out with Wes and Wes walks in the other room and comes back in, I'm not like, hey Wes, how you doing, you know?

But when I when you haven't seen someone, when you're greeting them, this is a special thing.

And there's a a preacher once said, um, you never, this is Alistair Aleister Baggie, you said, you never know when your last goodbye will be.

So make sure that every goodbye counts.

Which is like, you know, now we're all gonna cry, you think about that.

But the reason it's true.

It's true.

You just don't know the last time you will be with someone.

The church I spent a lot of years in my teenage years growing up with, the pastor would always say at the end of the service, and it got to the point I was a teenager at the time, so we kind of not show respect, and we would kind of tease him about this, which wasn't respectful.

But he would just always say, We'll never be assembled like this again.

What Pastor Dan knew was we would never be assembled like that again.

There's just something special about gathering together.

It's a special thing.

And so our hellos, our goodbyes, the way we greet one another as God's people, is to be a special thing.

Because it's a special person.

This is someone God has redeemed, He's died for, this is someone we will worship with God, we'll worship side by side with him, with them, worshiping God for eternity.

So it's a special thing the way that we greet one another.

Then he kind of ends with this again, pray for us and then enjoy the grace of God, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

He's laid out his heart to these brothers and sisters in Thessalonica.

Remember way back when he started, he was only there for a few weeks, just six, eight weeks.

Started this church, started discipling them, was pulled away, torn away from them.

They're growing, they're fledgling, they're struggling, they're being faithful, they're suffering.

And he's saying, He's just the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

As you walk as Christians, as you follow as Christians, as you hope, the way that you interact, be filled with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He has shown you much grace.

So, as Christians, as we're seeking to be obedient to God's word, it's from that grace.

You cannot fulfill these things without the grace of Christ.

The way that we hope, the way that we walk is only possible if you've been saved by Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the only way of salvation.

He alone is the giver of life.

He alone is the giver of true hope.

You can run around acting like you have life together, acting like things are good and all your relationships are good, and you're content, you're filled, and you're satisfied.

But we know, we know without Christ that is not possible.

You might even be deceived in that.

We are not, because God's word is true.

Apart from Him, there is no life.

And as Christians, God has designed us, I should say, as human beings, God has designed us to walk with him, to be loved by him, to experience forgiveness, to show forgiveness, to see his glory in his majesty, to worship him as Christians.

What an amazing gift as believers.

Not a gift, again, we don't deserve this, we didn't earn this.

It's a gift from God that we can see and behold the glory of God, that we can see how amazing he is, we can see his love and his mercy, and that we can fix our eyes on him.

He is a good and sovereign God.

We trust in him alone, and we rejoice in him, we praise him, we walk as followers of Christ to him and with him.

Let's pray.

God, we are aware of our shortcomings, our need for you.

Think about the way that we follow those that are over us, the way that we're patient with those around us, the way that we treat those around us, where our hope lies.

All these things reveal our heart.

And they reveal just how good you are, and that you have called us to a life of grace and mercy, a life of deep and rich relationship with one another as Christians.

You've called us to lay down ourselves, our preferences, our dreams, even our wounds, the things we hold on to as our identity.

We lay those down.

We follow after you, we walk in your ways, Jesus.

Give us strength to do that this morning, I pray.

And I pray for those this morning who may be here who do not walk with you.

Maybe they think they do because they they try to live a moral life, or maybe they're just well aware that they do not walk with you.

But we pray that you would be revealing yourself to them, to reveal their sin, their need for a savior, and that there is a savior.

I pray, God, that you would give us strength this morning.

Help us to be patient.

Or would help us to glorify you and give you praise.

We thank you, Lord Jesus.

Amen.