Exhortations and Blessings (I Thessalonians 5:12-18)

First Thessalonians chapter five starting in verse twelve.

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you and to regard them very highly in love because of their work.

Be at peace among yourselves.

And we exhort you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

See to it that no one repays evil for evil to any one, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all.

Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks to ever give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Don't stifle the spirit, don't despise prophecies, but test all things.

Hold on to what is good, and stay away from every kind of evil.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

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

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

Brothers and sisters, pray for us also.

Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss.

I charge you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers and sisters.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Let's pray.

Father, as we dig into your word this morning, we ask for your spirit to come here upon us and among us, that you would work from the inside out, convicting, admonishing, encouraging, speaking, uh that you would work and be glorified in our in and among us as individuals and as a body this morning.

I ask that you would speak through me.

Uh Father, keep the cold at bay.

And you ask all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Lots to get through this morning.

We're wrapping up the book of First Thessalonians.

This is Paul's first letter to the church that is in Thessalonica, and that's really his first letter.

Pretty cool, huh?

In the in the New Test New Testament.

First, Paul's first letter.

And so just contextually, Paul the apostle was writing to the Thessalonians.

And if you remember in Acts 16, he went to Philippi first first uh church plant in Europe.

Pretty cool.

He went through, uh he left Philippi, went to to uh Thessalonica, he was there for a few Sabbaths, just a few weeks.

All of this letter and all of this intimacy, this closeness is just from a few weeks with this group of people.

Kind of like a short-term mission trip.

If you've been on a short-term trip, um you spend a ton of time with someone for for a week or two or with a group of people, and man, you actually really know those people, right?

And you might leave and go, I just keep in touch with these.

Like you really, you just you know what's going on in their lives.

Think of that.

Like uh this is not like he popped in and stayed at a motel six and he kind of didn't see a lot of people because he was busy, right?

He he actually grew really close with them.

So we're seeing that come out in the letter.

Paul left, went to Berea, uh Athens, and then Corinth.

And then as we read, a short time later, he writes back to the Thessalonians.

He's just got he's just uh so endeared with them, he's writing to check in with them.

He has very little to say negatively about them.

It's highly exhortational, but he will talk about the idol.

There's a couple things he'll he'll actually repeat himself, and uh he's gonna encourage him like a parent to uh to children.

He's gonna reflect on their faith.

Uh and this is sort of recapping, right?

He's gonna exhort them in their sanctification, and we'll do that again this morning in the uh closing of the letter to remind them of the hope they have and of those who've died in Christ, and to be vigilant in their faith for the uh for the coming of Jesus.

As we're wrapping up, he's not just done and ready to hit a benediction.

We have an onslaught of exhortations this morning.

I mean, just we could we could probably have done this in two weeks, because there's a there's just a lot we could dive into.

But Paul, in the last half of chapter five, is diving into a series of exhortations, largely exhortational, uh, some warnings.

So we're gonna dive into verse 12.

He says, now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord, admonish you, and to regard them very highly in love because of their work.

Be at peace among yourselves.

Who better to give this exhortation than Paul?

If you'll notice, there's two main things he says do recognize and regard.

Regard them highly and recognize them, right?

And I realize this this exhortation may come, we all bring things to the table, right?

And some of us, there's some with leaders and pastors in the church, some of us may be bringing in like the that experience, the abuse, some bad relationship.

And it can be hard to say, I don't feel like recognizing or or uh uh um giving recognition, regarding, right?

But but but we should be able to.

And God wants to do do something in there, but a healthy pastor, when you find that church, when that pastor or the leaders are there caring for you and working among, that's what God desires for you.

And there there's something there.

We're gonna just work from a healthy perspective in this, though.

For that pastor or leader, he's saying three main things about those people.

He's saying they labor, they lead, and they admonish.

They labor, lead, and admonish.

They labor among.

Hear that word, that prepositional phrase among?

They're here among.

That leader is here among the people, not stepping away, not isolated.

They're hands-on, right?

They're not just a title where you don't see them and they kind of do their thing.

He says they lead you.

Who do they lead you to, or the text say?

They don't just lead you, they lead you to the Lord.

These things are super important because if you find a leader who's not leading you in the Lord, and I'm telling their there, there's a we're really spoiled.

We try to keep it simple about, right?

But there's lots of leaders, and in the church, they're gonna they want to lead in that power within, right?

Which is malarchy.

That's that's not uh that's unbiblical.

They may, it may be in new age wisdom, right?

All sorts of things that are not Jesus, and it might even be things in the cloak of spiritual out spirituality, but the the leaders we're talking about to recognize and regard, they're leading in the Lord.

They admonish you.

This word admonish means to warn or caution, to reprove gently, so we're not talking uh major discipline, right?

Uh we're advising firmly, right?

This admonishing, we all need it.

So, and this person is doing that or willing to do it.

And we all need, we may need that word, right?

This is not just the encouraging someone, this is the warning, this is the cautioning.

And then what does Paul say to do?

He says to regard these people highly in love.

This is not esteeming because of a title, because of talents, because of looks, because of how successful their fellowship or their ministry is.

Paul wants us to take these people, he wants us to esteem them highly, regardless highly in love.

All right.

And he says, be at peace among yourselves.

So uh contextually, this is this is like, okay, no jabbering, divisiveness among yourselves.

If you can regard those leaders highly, it's it's gonna make life easier and uh and bring unity to the body.

All right, so verses 14 and 15, and we're breaking some of these chunks up.

They're not just individual exhortations, right?

There's groups.

So in 14 and 15, this is what best best is the best way I can summarize this is approaching various people.

Verses 14 and 15.

He says, And we exhort you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone, see to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all.

Warn those who are idle.

All right.

The New King James uses the word unruly.

And idle unruly, you may think, is there difference, right?

They're actually very similar.

These are part of the same concept.

There's they're actually used in, they were used in Greek society to describe someone who didn't show up for work in the morning.

Does that help paint the picture a little bit?

I do think a little bit about the homeless problem in San Luis, where there's a number of people, there's a culture that's not working, and they are really uh rambunctious, right?

There's a just not interested in the rules, there's some rebellion going on, there's that spirit of rebellion.

Um, this is the person who's not working.

And I and I there's people in the past, you know, maybe it's that person who's not working and they're spending a lot of time on the internet.

You know, where does that go?

It just goes nowhere.

It actually goes really bad, right?

All right, and Paul three times already, three times in five chapters, has addressed the idol.

3-6, he said, keep away from every brother or sister who is idle.

He says, For I hear some among you in verse in 3.11 who are idle.

I hear that there are some among you who are idle.

Sorry, I need to say that clearer.

They are not busy, but busy bodies.

I'm telling you, we don't want to be busy for the sake of being busy, but it's good because in 4.11 he says, seek to lead a quiet life, mind your own business, and work with your hands, right?

He wants it's good.

We've we've been designed to work.

That was from the garden.

We're designed to be about the about business.

All right.

And you've heard the saying, idle hands are the devil's workshop.

But it's kind of true, right?

Yeah.

Uh I wasn't sure how well that was going to go with my cold.

Um but seriously, what what happened to David when he he kind of he was idle?

David stumbled, and he actually then ended up having someone killed.

Next he says, this is number two, comfort the discouraged.

The ESV, and I like the other translations because sometimes different words help me understand.

It says, encourage the faint-hearted.

Kind of the other, maybe the other side of the spectrum.

Instead of the unruly, the idol is the discouraged.

And you notice Paul's not saying warn them, he's saying comfort them.

We're not comforting the unruly or the idle.

Some might be unruly, some might be discouraged.

The strongest version or definition, little spirited, feeble-minded.

Maybe this is part and parcel with being uh timid or lacking courage.

Discouraged.

Have you ever been, or maybe you are, the discouraged one?

And this is maybe more where I'd fall on the spectrum.

Uh struggling with sin that won't go away, of expecting that you'd be in a different place in your walk or in your life.

There are plenty of discouraged among us.

And Paul's saying to comfort.

Comfort is what he's saying to bring to the table for that person.

Let me spin this the other side.

Have you ever been frustrated with the discouraged?

Yeah, and I think there's some people among here because man, uh, you could be a type A, right?

And that discouraged person, you go like, pull your britches up.

I need you to just be positive, right?

Our flesh can really get frustrated with.

Did I say britches?

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Our flesh can really get be frustrated by the discouraged, right?

Paul's saying, comfort them.

Comfort them.

All right, next.

I'm gonna try to keep keep pace going and keep things moving.

So pardon uh the pace.

Uh help the weak.

Next verse, uh, next person, verse 14.

That weak is infirm or feeble.

And in this is, I had to go to Strong's because I'm like, is this physical?

Is it spiritual?

Strong defines this as lacking in decision about things lawful or unlawful.

I would kind of more pin this as like a spiritual thing.

I don't think it matters if it's physical or spiritual, though.

Paul says later to the Galatians, he'll say, Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won't be tempted.

Carry one another's burdens, and you'll fulfill the law of Christ.

All right, here's another kicker, number four.

Be patient with everyone.

Should I keep going?

Is this convicting enough?

Patience just happens to be on a list in Galatians 5.

You know what that list is?

Fruit of the Spirit.

Driving in the fast lane at 55 on 101.

Just random hypothetical.

Who are we supposed to be patient with?

Everyone.

The Spirit will work in us, uh, I think.

That's the cool thing here, is that I don't really have to say much.

I think we all we want to be open to what he wants to say and speak to us.

So I'll leave that with you.

And with me.

Cool.

Okay.

And then the fifth, I just I call this part of the fifth, is revenge.

I use the word revenge.

See that no one, see to it.

That means you're supposed to do something about this, right?

See to it that no one repays, evil for evil.

Jesus even, and this is straight from Jesus.

You've heard that it was said.

This is Sermon on the Mount, chapter 5, Matthew, chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

You've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

But I tell you, don't resist an evildoer.

On the contrary, if anyone steps, slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

One who wants to take away your shirt, let him have your coat also.

This might have been pretty tough to swallow after you remember what happened in Thessalonica?

The Jews went and grabbed some, I didn't write the word down.

They grabbed some wicked men.

They developed a mob.

So this is what Paul's coming after.

He this city just they just basically came up and rioted against him.

What would you want to do if someone just came and just is really messing with your faith?

And you're like, I I think I want to do the same thing to you, right?

But that's the flesh.

So he's saying, No revenge.

The next little section, 16 to 18, I call this the attitudes and habits of the mind and heart.

Attitudes and habits of the mind and heart.

This is a gem.

Rejoice always, pray constantly.

Give thanks and everything, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

It's like a recipe.

Or I c I I would call it uh written down here the trifecta.

These go together, right?

It's not just one and the other.

These really go well together.

We're gonna talk about it.

Rejoice.

This is to show joy or delight.

Have you ever have you met Elena Johnson in her fellowship?

Do you know that sh I think I can say this?

I mean, she's she has health problems.

But uh, I'll tell you she shows up and there is joy in the woman.

It just comes through.

We rented a car two weeks ago, and it was a rental car, and uh you know, we had on a road trip, right?

The wiper, it must have been bowed because when it came across, it didn't touch the windshield in this spot.

So you turn on the white, the sprayers, and it just makes it wet, which just makes it dirtier, right?

The way I look at this, because I would err on the side.

Maybe there's two sides.

There's really joyous people who just it they just exude joy.

And you're like, oh, how does it how do they do that?

And then I I would err on the side of the person who I gotta work on it.

Because my my wipers don't always touch the windshield.

Sometimes it's the dirt and the bugs, and they stay there.

I can spray it all I want, but spraying.

But if you don't wipe your windshield, you tend not to remember the crosses out there, and instead you just see all the gunk.

And so this joyf this rejoicing sometimes has to be intentional.

We have to work on it.

Sometimes you got to stop and clean the windshield or get mad at the rental company.

Okay.

Paul says, rejoice always.

And this seems, this may seem impossible, but this is not us mustering it up.

And this, and and but God doesn't desire us to be gloomy, an eeore.

An eeyore.

Guys, my windshield is always dirty.

It says not, but he doesn't desire.

So what he desires to do is worship him in spirit and truth, because in spirit that's genuinely, that's what that means.

And in truth, that means we're gonna put truth on it.

Because sometimes the truth is what we're going to go to because it doesn't change.

We can go to the truth, and the truth is going to help transform our mind and our heart.

Okay, so rejoice always.

Next thing, pray constantly.

This is in the New King James without seizing, literally without ceasing.

Let's define a couple things.

Praying.

It's just talking to God, okay?

High level.

This does not mean just asking for stuff.

Ask for stuff constantly.

That's not what it means.

Okay?

It's also not about physical location.

That's not about sitting here in the seat with your head bowed and your your hands folded, right?

Quietly.

Praying, this is praying constantly with your Abba Father.

This is talking with your Abba Father constantly.

Does that mean you you can't go to bed at night and you're only ultra-spiritual if you stay up and get two hours of sleep because you're talking and praying?

It doesn't mean that.

It did mean for Jesus, he said, stay awake with me and pray, right?

Yeah.

So there might be some more to it than just this sleeping.

But God wants us to be in a constant communication, a constant, that constant conversation.

It may be a word.

You have a friend, you spend sometimes an hour or two talking about something, maybe.

Maybe it's one word, right?

Maybe it's a look, even I've got a s I've got a story.

And we we don't have time, I'm sure, but two weeks ago we were on our way to Legoland.

We were having type three phones.

That's the kind of fun that you don't want to talk about later.

Water pumps gone out in Carpenteria.

All of our stuff, car seats, our stuff is piled at the mechanics.

We're waiting for the tow truck, and I'm waiting for my Uber.

Upload my, I'm up, I'm updating my Uber app, haven't used it in I don't know how long.

Uber shows up, Black Lexus.

I am on my way to Santa Barbara.

I'm going to get a rental car.

Sore throat, it's coming on.

Everything's going great.

I throw my stuff in the backseat of the Uber and sit down, and the guy says, Oh, a sigh of relief.

I hear that a lot.

How you doing?

I said, I'm doing good.

God's in control.

I see his eyes hit that rear view mirror looking at me.

He says, Tell me more about that.

Are you praying at that moment?

You pray.

But you know I'm not doing?

I'm not, excuse me, I need to pray that I don't stick my foot in my mouth while I'm talking to you about spiritual things.

But what I say is, God speak to me.

In my mind, silent right there, very fast.

That's praying constantly.

Praying constantly.

In the midst of being broken down, all these things going wrong, everyone's getting sick.

On and on.

The Uber driver says, What do you mean by that?

He later says, Um, so what do you do after that point?

You know, he's he's asking me right here.

I'm just trying to get my rental car.

I'm like, okay, slow down.

We're having a conversation.

Okay, pray constantly.

And I I wanted to share that story, whether we have time or not, but that's pray constantly.

All right.

Number third item in the list: giving thanks in everything.

All right, whereas we're whereas joy shows delight, or rejoicing shows joy or delight, thankfulness shows gratitude.

What happens when we're unthankful?

You know what happens?

Does just nothing happen?

I get discontent.

I get focused on the negative.

What I do is if in my fleshly default, man, I'm thinking about the negative thing.

Well, this is what's going to happen.

Or, and maybe that's that's just my my nature is I'm gonna see, okay, this these are this is this is what could go wrong.

Well, if we're not, if we don't exercise in thankfulness, our flesh wants to be really consult.

And it breeds discontentedness.

And he says, don't be thankful for everything, but in everything.

That means you're sitting at the repair shop, right?

You've got sore throats going around, you're waiting for the tow truck, trying to figure out if you gotta pay for it, if you get Uber's coming.

Is the rental car big enough?

Uh he says, be thankful in everything.

So guess what?

You're not you don't need necessarily need to be thankful for that circumstances, but be be thankful for what's happening in those circumstances.

All right.

And here's some application for this.

What a reason I call it trifecta.

One thing this week I'll challenge you to do is the axe prayer, A C T S.

There's different versions of this adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication.

A C T S.

This is something that helps me think about prayer, not just the asking, but adoration.

Start by adoring the Lord.

What something about his character, about who he is.

Confession, getting that sin out of the way.

Thanksgiving.

We're gonna be, sometimes you've got to camp here because you might get to this point and something's going on.

Uh, if you say, I can't think of anything, that means you need to spend time there.

Spend some time in Thanksgiving.

You may just have to say, thank you, that it's warm outside.

It may be something very simple, but get that momentum going.

Get the momentum going.

Spend camp out, camp out.

Then supplication.

And that the idea there is you're not supplicating or asking until the end, right?

You need to get that rhythm of praying in all these different ways.

All right, verse 19.

Don't stifle the spirit, don't despise prophecies, but test all things.

Hold on to what is good, stay away from every kind of evil.

Don't stifle the spirit.

Don't get weirded out.

This might trigger some thoughts or some experiences or some preconceived notions, right?

Other translations will say, don't quench the spirit.

So, really quick.

The new covenant brought in a couple big things.

Who's the spirit, by the way?

Holy Spirit, God's Spirit, third person of the Trinity.

Okay?

This is this is this is this is God, we're talking about God.

New covenant comes in, we usher in two big things.

Sorry, my ears are getting plugged.

The indwelling and the empowering.

Jesus came, he died on the cross.

He, for the first time, would he sent his spirit to indwell inside of us, to live inside of us his very own spirit.

He also in Acts 1, he said, I'm gonna send my spirit, this paraphrase, and he's gonna come upon you and give you power to be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, and uh Samaria and the other parts of the earth.

And abide, we believe, in the full dispensation of the gifts of the Spirit.

We believe they're active and living.

But let me tell you, and I think this is all good stuff, right?

Let me tell you that Jesus says in John 14 through 16, the Spirit is being given to glorify Jesus.

If what you see happening is not glorifying God or Jesus, if it's drawing attention to man, I would question it.

Okay, so we're not talking, when we say quench, if someone says, You're quenching the spirit in me, well, is the spirit glorifying you, glorifying man?

Something might be up there.

Okay, so we're not talking about quenching some chaos.

Okay?

Don't quench the chaos.

We're not talking about that.

But we are talking about the indwelling and the empowering, right?

So there is the God in his spirit, he's positioned himself to work in us and through us.

He's positioned himself in a way to work in ways that we can't even work ourselves, and he wants to work in and through us.

In Ephesians, Ephesians 4.

Remember, he talks about the gifts of spirit of bit, and he says they're to equip the saints for the work of ministry to build up the body until we reach the unity in the faith and the knowledge of God's Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness.

God wants to work by his spirit in his body to mature us and to build us, to mature us and edify us.

Okay, all let's say you quench the spirit, quench or stifle, that's just like putting a cover over a fire, right?

If God wants to work, this is important, we're gonna get in the next verses.

If God's working, we don't want to stuff him down.

We can do that through indifference, we can do that through denial.

Let's keep moving.

Verse 20, don't despise prophecies.

What are prophecies?

Think foretelling and forthelling.

God foretelling or foretelling a special message through his people.

These could be warnings, comfort, revealing of the known, or foretelling things.

Why might we despise prophecies?

Couple reasons.

Potentially, we're just tired of the false nonsense stuff.

The second could be some things that are just been tough to hear, and we're just tired of hearing the warnings or the cautions, right?

Don't know, but he's saying don't despise them.

Give them time, give them space.

Okay.

Paul balances, don't despise the prophecies.

What's the very next thing?

But test all things.

Okay?

Don't just despise them, test all things.

He's given us his spirit, the indwelling, right?

And how do we test it?

By the word of God.

Test all things, test it by the word of God.

Keep reading.

Hold on to what is good, stay away from every kind of evil.

Okay.

Don't quench the spirit.

Don't despise the prophecies.

God wants to speak.

Right?

May not all be good.

Test the things, hold on to the good, stay away from the evil.

All those things make sense together?

John in John says, or Jesus says in John 16, the Spirit will guide you into all truth.

We can trust God's Spirit to guide us into the truth.

But we don't want to miss out what God's going to say.

You remember in Acts 21, Agabus, this guy Agabus grabs Paul's belt and he binds himself up and he says, the guy who owns his belt, he's surely to be bound and taken to Rome.

Prophecy.

And you could despise that if you weren't ready for the message.

Okay.

Verse 23.

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

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

Paul talked about sanctification in chapter four.

And what does that mean again?

It means to be set apart.

And he's not leaving anything out, spirit, soul, and body.

He's saying, may the whole thing be sanctified.

Okay.

He wants every part.

That means we don't bifurcate.

That means he wants, you know, not just our spiritual side on a Sunday morning.

He wants every part of what we're doing.

He wants it set apart unto Jesus.

Who's doing the sanctification when Paul is blessing this upon them?

Who's doing it?

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

This job, the job of sanctification, is God's work.

Remember the indwelling part?

He's in us.

God's not drew this from the inside out.

He's doing it and he can do it from the inside.

This is where that windshield, you wish you could clean the windshield from the inside, right?

But God can do the cleaning and the sanctifying from the inside.

And so when we do it ourselves or we try to do it ourselves, a couple things can happen.

We can be discouraged terribly, or we can be prideful.

Sometimes that discouragement is pride, though.

But it's still self-focused.

So the work of that sanctification is God's work, but it's a two-way street.

We bring our willingness, our intentionality, and our discipline.

God brings his spirit.

Okay?

Without our intent, our willingness, intentionality, man, we uh the it have the habits just they just fall away.

They just the unintention the unintentional person, the unintentional habits.

And the way I put this was uh spiritual disciplines are us working on intentional habits and practices, like prayer, studying the word, right?

So we work on the in the disciplines.

This isn't legalistic, this is just our our bringing the soil to the table, and it's God's spirit.

Paul says in Philippians, therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is working in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure.

Verse 24 of this passage says, He who calls you as faithful, he will do it.

So I have a question.

Is there something right now that God is convicting you, bringing to light, that needs to be sanctified, needs to be set apart?

It could be anything.

It could be a show you're watching.

It's as simple as the stuff we're putting in our bodies.

Or we are we building that soil?

The time in the word, things like that that grow the soil for God to do the sanctifying.

And this morning, he's working from it in us.

So all we need to do, we don't need to worry about it.

We can just say, God, would you sanctify me this morning?

Give him permission.

Have you given him permission lately?

Because that's all he wants.

He just wants our willingness to say, God, I'm not sure.

Just make me more like Jesus.

Set me apart.

You know, we have a bathroom in our house, and that bathroom is set apart for something, right?

The toilet is set apart for unclean things, and we have other things in our house.

I forgot my coffee cup up here.

It's set apart for wonderful caffeinated liquid.

It's not my coffee cup, but okay.

God wants to set us apart unto things.

So we want him permission to set us apart, sanctify us.

And just say that this morning.

God, would you sanctify me?

Make me more like Jesus.

You have permission.

You have permission.

And he'll work by his spirit.

Let him do the work supernaturally.

Okay, last section here.

Brothers and sisters, pray for us also.

Brothers and sisters, pray for us also.

Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss.

I charge you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers and sisters.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

So here's Paul.

He has a humility to ask for prayer.

Notice that.

He wants to be, he's greeting, he wants the Thessalonians greeted.

He wants everyone to read this letter just much like we're doing now.

He wraps the letter up with grace.

He started the letter with grace.

He's wrapping up the letter with grace.

This morning.

This morning, none of this means anything outside of grace.

Very, very simple.

All these exhortations.

In fact, there's a lot we can't do outside of the Holy Spirit.

And we the Holy Spirit's not part of that equation if we don't know Jesus Christ personally.

God wants to work this in us, but the first and foremost thing of all of these things, have you put your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins?

First and foremost.

First and foremost, all the things fall into place.

As much as Paul was an expert in the law and in the scriptures, he brings it back to grace.

May the grace, may grace be with you.

What is grace?

It's unmerited favor.

Our Christian faith, unlike any faith, is based on God's unmerited favor.

This is fundamentally it.

Christianity starts with the premise, what God has done for me.

Every other religion says what I can do for God, what I bring to the table.

This morning, none of this starts until we address the question: what are we doing with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

But here's what the Bible says The Bible says all have fallen short of the glory of God.

None is righteous, not none.

That means as much as you think you've tried to do the right things for years and years, that that doesn't mean anything.

The heart is deceitfully wicked above all things.

We each deserve, we each deserve eternity apart from God and all that is good.

That means that everything on earth, the good on earth, the most we're going to experience good if we don't know Jesus is on earth, and we will we will experience an eternity apart from God and all that is good for eternity apart from his grace.

But the good news is the free gift of God.

That means nothing that we've done.

The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

And how do we experience that?

We confess, God, I'm a sinner.

We believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, that that was enough to pay for our sin.

So, first things first, if you don't have a relationship with Jesus, if you haven't personally put your trust in Jesus' work on the cross and his blood to cover your sin, that's the first step this morning.

Not the exhortations, not stifling the spirit.

These are the things that are for the body this morning.

For if you haven't put your faith in Jesus, first step is the grace of the Lord to be with you, and that is through the blood of Jesus.

Pray with me.

Father, we thank you for that you've not left us orphans, that you've given us your spirit.

Father, to be with us to lead us into truth, to glorify you, that you desire to do a work, maybe through a word of prophecy.

Father, there are those who are weak and discouraged among us.

May we comfort them, may we help them.

May we not be the unruly or idle, but that you would set our hands and our minds upon good things.

Pray that you would, by your spirit, that you this morning would have permission to do your work of sanctification, the setting apart unto Jesus and the works that you've created, that we would walk in them.

That you would uh wipe away the things that don't look like Jesus and that you would make us more like your Son.

Father, I pray that you would uh fill us as we go forward into the week all the things in our minds internationally, the car's concerns of the leadership of our country.

But you would work through us as a body, that you would plant your word deep in our heart, that we'd walk in it.

We lift all this in Jesus' name, amen.