The Model Life: Adoration, Part 7

Take your Bible if you would please, and turn to the 5th

chapter of First Thessalonians. And today we're going to cover

verse #19 we're looking at the model life.

The model life is 1 of adoration.

It truly adores the true and living God.

It's best seen in the trilogy of commands.

Rejoice always, verse 16. Pray without ceasing verse 17.

And in everything give thanks verse 18 for this is the will of

God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

God's will is that you be joyful, prayerful and thankful.

And that trilogy of commands makes up the model life of

adoration, a life that truly adores it's God.

But the the life of adoration is not only defined by by what it

does, it's also defined by what it doesn't do.

And that's where verse 19 and verse #20 come into play, where

he says do not quench the Spirit and do not despise prophetic

utterances. Those who adore their God don't

quench the Spirit. Those who adore their God don't

despise the Word of God. Interesting.

Again, Paul gives no explanation, no instruction, no

application. He just gives the injunction.

This is the command. Do this, don't do that.

And yet he doesn't give any extras to it.

And that's because of First Thessalonians 213.

When they received the word, they received it not as the word

of men, but actually as it actually is the word of God.

And they actually put out the welcome mat and received it.

And these are all new believers that they've been saved for just

a, a few months. It's not like they've they're

old Saints have been, you know, crusty in their walk with Christ

over all these years. No, these are new believers, few

months old. They tells them do not quench

the Spirit. See when when they were born

again, they were they were saved by the Spirit.

Titus chapter 3. They, they were sealed by the

Titus 3 · chapter mention

Spirit. Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

They, they, they serve according to the spirit first Peter

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4, they are sanctified by that spirit.

Titus chapter 2. So he tells them, because you're

Titus 2 · chapter mention

saved, sealed, sanctified, secured, and serve in the

Spirit. Make sure you don't stifle the

spirit or smother the Spirit. How do you do that?

What does that mean? What's it mean?

Do not quench the spirit. Well, let's say you're really,

really thirsty. How do you quench your thirst?

By drinking lots of water, right?

Well, when you quench the spirit, you, you dampen the

spirit you, you retard the spirit, you extinguish the fire

of the Spirit of God in your life.

And Paul simply says, listen, don't do this in your walk with

the Lord. Do not stifle the Spirit's work

in your life. Don't do that, he says very,

very easily. Just don't quench the spirit.

Don't extinguish the spirit. Now we know that the the Bible

speaks of God's presence as a fire.

Remember in Acts chapter 2 and when on the day of Pentecost

Acts 2 · chapter mention

there were there were cloven tongues of fire over the heads

of of all those people who who believed and were baptized in

the Spirit because the the fire would represent the presence of

God in their lives. It was, it was quite a miracle.

You can go all the way back to the book of Exodus, the 3rd

chapter, right? And God spoke to Moses from a

fiery Bush, a burning Bush. You can go back to Exodus

Exodus 24 · chapter mention

chapter 24 and realize that on top of the mountain there was a

consuming fire because that was the presence of God on top of

Mount Sinai. When you think of the glory of

the Lord, you think of the the presence of God manifested in

brilliant light. And that is exactly what what is

happening here. When when you quench the spirit,

you are, you are dampening the fire of the Spirit of God in

your life. And you know what, for the most

part, we have no idea. We are doing that.

We are not waking up today and saying, hey, I wonder how I am

dampening the spirit, how I am retarded.

The spirits work in my life. We don't think that way and we

should because the Bible is very explicit.

Do not do this. Do not quench the spirits.

When the Spirit of God came, Acts chapter 1, the Lord said

Acts 1 · chapter mention

when, when, when the Spirit of God comes, you're going to

receive power. Things are going to be different

than they've ever been before, and you'll be my witnesses all

throughout the world. But when the Spirit of God

comes, something's going to happen and it and it deals a lot

with with our friends with the Lord.

Remember Peter, Peter, whenever he was in the presence of the

Lord, he, he was great. I mean, he could cut off mouth

because his ear in the Garden of Gethsemane, even though there

were soldiers all around him and it was just Jesus and a handful

of disciples. But he wasn't afraid.

He had he had courage. But when he followed Christ from

a distance, when he wasn't in the presence of the Lord, he

would deny the Lord to a little girl by a fire.

But when he received the Spirit of God and Acts 2, the courage,

the boldness, the strength that Peter had to preach and live for

Christ was remarkable. So Paul comes along and says,

listen, I want you to be joyful, I want you to be prayerful, and

I want you to be thankful, but make sure you don't quench the

Spirit of God. How does that happen?

I want to be very practical with you this morning.

I want to be able to explain to you how it actually happens in

our lives and things that you might not even be aware of, but

you need to be. So think about this way #1 how

does 1 quench the Spirit of God? Well, you do it by diminishing

His personality and identity in your life, by diminishing his

personality and identity in your life.

You know, we tend to think of the Holy Spirit as low man on

the totem pole. There's God the Father, then

there's God the Son, and then somewhere down the bottom of the

pole is God the Spirit. And and we forget that they're

equal in nature. There's one God who manifests

himself in three distinct persons.

But we tend to think of the Holy Spirit as as low man on the

totem pole, as if as if he doesn't make that much

difference in our lives. In all reality, he's the

forgotten member of the Trinity. I'm sure that when you woke up

this morning, you weren't thinking about the Spirit of

God. In fact, I would probably reckon

to say that throughout this past week you weren't thinking about

the Spirit of God. But we simply just don't pay

very much attention to the relevance of God's Spirit in our

lives and we simply ignore his dwelling.

You don't mean to. It just happens.

And we, we diminish his personality by not understanding

that the Spirit of God is God. Acts 5, three and four.

Remember when Peter told Ananias that you had lied to the Spirit?

And then he comes back in verse 4 and says you've actually lied

to God, meaning that the Spirit is God and, and, and, and

because he's God, he's a person. That the Spirit of God is not an

it. The Spirit of God is not an

influence. The Spirit of God is not a

force. The Spirit of God is a person,

yet we deny and diminish his personality, thus diminishing

his identity as as God in our lives.

He possesses the same attributes of God.

He's on the present, He's omnipotent, He's omniscient, He

has intellect, He feels we can grieve the Spirit.

Ephesians 430 do not grieve the Spirit of God.

How do you do that? Whenever, whenever you quench

the Spirit, you grieve the Spirit, OK?

The grieving of Spirit is in, is in, or is the result of us

quenching the Spirit. We sadden him, we bring sorrow

to Him simply because we have quenched, dampened, stifled,

smothered, retarded the work of the Spirit of God in our lives.

And it happens simply because we, we just diminish His

personality and identity. We're not really actively

thinking about the Spirit of God, actually God dwelling in

me. And yet the Lord said, I'm going

to send you another comforter, another another of the same

kind. Alas, another of different kind

would be heteros. But this is, alas, this is

another of the same kind. I'm going to send another of the

same kind as me. And he will be in you.

He will be your helper, He will be your teacher, He will be your

guide. He will empower you.

I won't be with you in person, but my spirit will be in you.

And therefore you will never be an orphan.

You'll never be without me. I'll always be there.

And yet we don't think of the presence of the Spirit of God in

our lives as much as we should. So the first way that we we

begin to quench the Spirit of God is by diminishing his

personality and identity in our lives.

The second way is disregarding our spiritual giftedness.

Do you know that you quench the Spirit of God?

You stifle God's spirit when you disregard your spiritual

giftedness. First Corinthians 12 tells us,

verse 11, that the Spirit of God gives us a gift by His own

volition. So Paul in Second Timothy

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 would say these words, verse 14 guard through the Holy

Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been

entrusted to us. So because of the Spirit of God,

we can guard the treasure. What's the treasure?

The treasure is the gospel. The treasure is the truth.

We, we are guardians and protectors of the truth.

By the power of the Spirit of God that dwells within us, we

can stand against those who speak against the Word of God,

whether it's at work or at school, at play, no matter where

we are, we can stand strong because of the Spirit of God.

And earlier Paul would say these words in Second Timothy one

verse #6 for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the

gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my

hands. In other words, this is the

opposite of First Thessalonians 519.

Paul says, don't quench the Spirit Here he tells Timothy,

you need to fan the flame of the Spirit of God, the giftiness

that God's given. You don't, don't retard that.

How does that happen? By ignoring our spiritual

giftiness, by letting that giftedness atrophy, by lack of

use, realizing that God has called us to build the body of

Christ. So let me say it to you very

practically. You as a believer are a

spiritually gifted person. That's part of your identity.

Who you are in Christ is that I am a spiritually gifted person.

God's Spirit indwells me. He has gifted me.

Why? For the sake of His name, His

Kingdom, for the purpose of building the body of Christ.

So because you're spiritually gifted, God wants to use you

within the body of Christ. And when you disregard that

giftedness, you don't use that gift.

You don't use it in such a way that it builds the body of

Christ. You quench the Spirit of God,

thus grieving the Spirit of God. So in other words, we need to be

actively involved in doing that which God's called us to do.

So here's Timothy, he's about 35 years of age and maybe he's he's

reluctant in exercising his giftedness as a pastor, as a

preacher, as a teacher. And Paul says, Timothy, you need

to rekindle afresh, need to fan the flame of your giftedness.

Don't draw back. Keep exercising your giftedness

for the glory of the Lord. And then he says this in verse

#7 For God has not given us the spirit of timidity, but of power

and love and of discipline. Our self-control.

God's spirit is one that gives us power, enables us to love and

to discipline our lives every single day.

This is just so important. You see, we we diminishes

working in our lives by living undisciplined lives when we have

a spirit within us who is God who empowers us to live lives of

spiritual discipline. Think about that.

So whenever your life is an undisciplined life, you quench

the Spirit of God. Whenever your life is is lacking

the love for God and love for the brethren, you quench the

Spirit of God. Whenever you go through life

living as if you have no power, no energy, no strength, you

quench the Spirit of God. And for the most part, we don't

even recognize that. We don't even recognize what

we're doing. And whenever you quench him, you

grieve him. What?

Why would he want to grieve the comforter?

Why would he want to grieve our helper, our teacher, our guide?

Why we want to grieve the one who regenerated us, who who

cleansed us with the washing every generation?

Why would we want to do that? That's the question we have to

ask ourselves. And so when you disregard your

spiritual get to this by letting it atrophy, by not using it, not

our being even ignorant as to what spiritual get to this is,

or just downright denying that you have one and not even using

it in the church, you, you've quenched the Spirit of God.

You know, we go through life every day and you know this we,

we face hardship, we face difficulty, we face decision

making. Sometimes our lives are, are,

are are in shambles and they're and they're, they're falling

apart and we're wondering why without ever recognizing that

maybe we are in the process of quenching the Spirit of God in

our lives. Therefore, his operation in our

life is not what it should be because we have thrown water on

his working in our lives and we wonder why our lives are so

messed up. This need to be that way, see.

And so we need to realize that that we quench the Spirit by by

diminishing his personality and identity in our own lives and

then disregarding our spiritual giftedness as it pertains to

building the body of Christ. If you're here today and you're

a born again believer, you've been gifted.

And if you don't use that gift in the operation and

mobilization of the church, you're quenching the Spirit of

God as we speak, thus grieving the Spirit of God.

And I would ask you, why would you want to do that?

God's gifted you by His Spirit, indwelling you use it for His

glory #3 Not only do we quench the Spirit by diminishing His

personality and identity and disregarding the spiritual

giftedness that He's given to us, but by by denying His

control over our lives. Again, we don't, we don't

purposely do this. We just deny His control over

our lives. The Bible says this in Ephesians

5. He says verse 18 and do not get

drunk with wine for that is dissipation, but be filled with

the spirit. The word filled is play Rao,

which means permeation, domination, control be be

permeated with the Spirit of God.

Don't be drunk with wine and which is excess.

Don't, don't let externals dominate you.

He uses wine as an illustration, but there are other things that

dominate their lives. That control our lives.

Doesn't have to be wine. It could be activities, it could

be another person, it could be all kinds of things.

Whatever it is, don't let that control you, but but be

controlled. Be dominated.

Let the Spirit of God permeate every aspect of your life.

Live in the conscious presence of Almighty God.

But when we deny his control over our lives, we quench the

Spirit. Interesting that Colossians 316

says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Let it be in a home in your hearts.

And it's it's, it's the same thing as letting or or letting

being filled with the Spirit of God.

Why? Because the consequences are the

same. In Ephesians 5, when you're,

when you're filled with the Spirit, when the Spirit of God

permeates your life, when you're dominated by the Spirit of God,

you sing to one another. In psalms and hymns and

spiritual songs, you give thanks unto the Lord and you submit one

to another. When you go to Colossians 3 and

read verse 16, the following, when the word of Christ dwells

and you richly, what do you do? You sing to one another in

psalms and hymns, spiritual songs.

You give thanks to the Lord and you submit to one another.

The same is true of both. Why?

Because they're one and the same.

How do I know my life is dominated by the Spirit of God?

Because my life is dominated by the scriptures I learned the

word of Christ dwelled in me richly.

So when I don't study to show myself a prudent of the God, a

Workman that needed not to be ashamed, I quench the spirit.

When I live a life of meditation and Bible study and memorization

so that the word of Christ dwells in me richly, God's

spirit can't dominate my life. I quench the Spirit of God.

I need to be controlled by God's spirit.

I, I need to live by keeping in step with the Spirit of God.

When I don't do that, then I end up quenching the Spirit of God.

It's like a glove. If I had a glove up here, I

could hold it in my hand and, and, and throw it down and it's,

it's virtually of no use until I put my hand inside the glove.

And if I've put only one finger in the glove, then the only part

of that glove that works is that where that one finger is and the

other four asked for holes with fingers in them are useless.

They can't do, they can't pick anything up, can't catch

anything. But once my hand dominates,

permeates the glove, then the glove can do whatever I designed

it to do. That's the same thing with the

Spirit of God when the Spirit of God indwells us, which he does

at salvation. When I am controlled by God's

spirit and let the word of Christ develop me richly, then

my life is dominated. My feet, my arms, my eyes, my

heart, my mind, everything is dominated by the Spirit of God.

So I think God's thoughts, I speak God's words, I live God's

life, and that doesn't happen, and I quench the Spirit of God,

thus grieving His Spirit. And for the most part, we don't

even think about these things. But it's so important #4 I can

quench the Spirit of God by disobeying his commands.

That's pretty obvious, right? In the three, right before, it'd

be joyful, be prayerful, be thankful.

If I disobey His commands, I will quench the Spirit of God.

Listen, the only reason I can obey the commands of God is

because of the Spirit of God. Remember the book of Ezekiel,

Ezekiel chapter 36 verse #27 God says, I will put my Spirit

Ezekiel 36 · chapter mention

within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and you will be

careful to observe My ordinances.

That's the new covenant promise. I will cause My Spirit to be in

you. And because My Spirit is in you

now, you can obey My ordinances. You can do what I've commanded

you to do. Why?

Because I'll be in you and the Spirit will motivate you.

Well, whenever you decide to disobey those commands because

of pride or because of arrogance or because of indifference or

for whatever reason, you quench the Spirit of God.

Because the reason the Spirit of God indwells you is so that you

can live Christ's life. And when I decide not to live

that life and live in disobedience to that life, then

I quench the Spirit of God. So incredibly important over in

First Thessalonians chapter 4. Remember in verses 1 to 8, we

1 Thessalonians 4 · chapter mention

talked about the fact that what happens when you are a believer

in the Lord Jesus Christ that you are to live in obedience to

His word. And in chapter 4 it talks about

how we are abstaining from sexual immorality.

And when you don't, he says in verse #8 So he who rejects this

command is not rejecting man, but the God who gives His Holy

Spirit to you whenever you disobey the command to this is

the will of God, even the sanctification that you abstain

from sexual immorality and you engage in sex outside of

marriage. You are rejecting the Spirit of

God's work in your life. You're disobeying His commands.

You are quenching the Spirit of God.

Therefore, you are grieving the Spirit of God.

You know, we, we, not we people engage in sex sins outside of

marriage because they want to grieve their partner, but not

realizing that they're grieving the Spirit of God in the

process. And they're more concerned about

grieving their partner than they are grieving the Spirit of God.

That's a problem. See there's so many times we

quench the Spirit by disobeying his commands.

So as I review this, you can pretty much understand that

right when I disobey the commands of God, I quench

spirit, I retard his work in my life, I dampen his effect in my

life. When I when I deny his control

over my life and decide that I want to control my life and do

as I please or let some other substance or some other person

control my life, that quenches the spirit.

We can understand that when we disregard our spiritual

giftedness, we don't do what God tells us to do as people in the

body of Christ, we, we quit the spirit.

When I diminish this personality and identity in my life, I I

quit the Spirit. We understand that we can get

that, but but the fifth one, the fifth one is some something

other than what we necessarily think.

And that is when you depend on your own resources instead of

God's Spirit, you quit the Spirit.

And we do this quite often. We, we depend on human

resources, we depend on, on human strength, human wisdom,

human techniques instead of the spirit of the living God.

And we do this without even thinking about it.

We believe that because of our education, because of our

athletic prowess, because of my leadership, I can just make

decisions, do what I want, live what I want, but all the while

quenching the Spirit. Think about this, the life of

Moses. Moses believed in his

self-sufficient, self reliant self efforts.

He could pull off the exodus, but he couldn't.

And Moses was educated in the finest school system of his day.

In fact, I would venture to say that his education is far

superior to any education you could receive today, no matter

what school you go to. He was educated in the world's

greatest educational system that ever existed in Egypt, knowing

that he was Nixon line to be the Pharaoh.

So his leadership skills were off the charts.

On top of that, he was a athletic, muscular man.

On one day in Exodus chapter 2, he saw one of the Egyptians

Exodus 2 · chapter mention

beating one of the Israelites and he he slew the Egyptian.

Just a matter of moments thinking that the people would

rise up and say this is our leader, but they rebelled

against him. So here is Moses with all the

the education and all the qualities and all the expertise

to lead Israel. But he wasn't ready.

So what did God do? God drove him to the backside of

the desert for 40 years to break him.

So when he comes out of the desert and he and he and he and

he's able to hear the word of God speaking to him through a

fiery Bush, everything about his self-reliance is gone.

Everything about self-sufficiency is gone.

He's like who, who, who shall I say sent me?

If I go, they're not going to listen to me.

Before he thought they would listen to him because he was

Nixon line to be the Pharaoh, but they did not listen and so

God had to break him. Why?

Because God needs to to shatter our independence from Him in

order to establish our dependence upon him.

Because we are so autonomous, we think that we can make it

without God. What we think we can make our

marriage work, but we can't. We do though.

We we think we can make our family work, but we can't.

And we get so disgruntled and so confused and so angry and and so

upset because we're trying to control life from a human

perspective. Wonder why my kids don't obey

one of my wife. My wife doesn't follow.

Wonder why the people at work don't like me instead of

realizing that it's all because of the spiritual work of my

life. And he relies solely and totally

upon Him. We so easy depend upon man made

things that we no longer rest in the sovereign work of God.

Listen to Paul's prayer in Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

When he says these words, Ephesians chapter 3, he says,

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

for this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom

every family in heaven and earth derives his name, that he would

grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be

strengthened with the power through His Spirit in the inner

man. This is Paul's prayer for the

Church of Ephesus, that God would grant you because of His

eternal riches, power that comes only through His Spirit.

That's only in the inner man to accomplish God's will for your

life. You can't do it without the

Spirit of God. Galatians chapter 3 verse #3

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

Paul says, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, having

begun in the Spirit, you think you could be perfected by the

flesh? You were saved by the Spirit.

You were in dwelt by the Spirit. You were sealed by the Spirit,

you were set apart by the Spirit, but now you're trying to

live your life without the influence and power of that

spirit in your life to lead you and guide you.

And Paul says you're just foolish people because the

spiritual life is only accomplished by spiritual means,

not by any other means. So important.

And so we tend to to think that we know better than God, that we

could do things better than God. So we depend upon our own

resources, we depend upon our own intellect.

We lean on our own understanding basically in every decision we

make each and every day. Instead of obeying the

Scriptures which says do not lean on your own understanding

in all your ways, acknowledge Him.

He will make your path smooth. If your path is as smooth, it's

because you're leaning on your own understanding because God

promises to make your path smooth if you trust in Him and

acknowledge Him throughout each and every aspect of the decision

making process. But so many times we just negate

that float out the window and we live our lives as if God doesn't

even exist. But we can't live without him,

without me, because you can do nothing.

Nothing. But we think we can.

And we we forget that that God is working in our lives through

his Spirit. God had to work in the life of

Moses. God had to take him to his, to

his desert, had to take him to the school room of God.

He had been educated in the school room of Egypt.

He needed to be in the school room of God.

Why? Because he needed a PhD in the

ways of God. We're so concerned about getting

a PhD in things that just don't matter.

You need to get a PhD in the things of God, in the ways of

God. And that only comes to the

desert experience, only comes to the suffering and difficulty of

isolation. And he had to learn that.

And once he learned it, he came out of Egypt or came out of the

desert to lead Israel, the greatest leader in Israel's

history, because he would learn to depend upon the living God

for everything. What's what God wants to do in

your life? You live a life of frustration.

You live a life of unsettledness, live a life of

discouragement. Could it be that that you're

just quenching the Spirit because you're trying to make

decisions based on your own intellect, your, your own way of

thinking, instead of trusting and dependent upon the living

God to lead you and to guide you in the way that you should go?

There are some of you today that are even experiencing Psalm One

O 6 verse #15 my mom's favorite verse that God will give you the

desires of your heart but send a barrenness to your soul.

Be careful what you ask God for because sometimes He gives it to

you but sends that absolute barrenness to your soul and

you're so disgruntled. Even though you got what you

wanted, it wasn't what you thought it was when you made the

decision. And now you are so unsettled.

God is saying you need to trust me, you need to believe in me,

you need to lean upon me. But when we depend upon our own

self resources instead of the spirits resources, we quench the

spirit number six. Here's one you don't think of

very often, but it happens. We quench the spirit when we

downplay the spirits working and up play our working.

We downplay the spirits working and up play our working.

In other words, it's it's what I have done.

I got a promotion. I I deserve this promotion.

I got a raise. I deserve this raise.

I've worked hard at it. Other people have worked hard

too, but they don't have a raise.

But you see, I've worked harder than they have.

I deserve this. Not realizing that Paul says in

First Corinthians 4, What do you have that you did not receive

from God? The answer is nothing but but we

think it's because of what I've done.

Look at this this great building I have built.

Look at this great Bible study that I have built that people

are coming in droves or, or we think I LED my, my, my sister or

my brother to the Lord. No, you didn't, but you think

you did. See, because down deep you want

to downplay the spirits working and up play you're working for

your own glory. So we take pride in the fact

that I LED so and so to the Lord, or I went on this mission

tripping and LED this many people to the Lord, or I did

this or I did that. And we want to boast in our, our

achievements. And we, we talked about it on

Wednesday night that, that the true Christian, he, he glories

in Christ Jesus. He puts no confidence in the

flesh. He has no confidence in himself,

but he glories in Christ. He boasts in Christ.

But so often we we want to boast in our own achievements and

accomplishments. I've done this.

Look what I did here. Well, that's because of me.

No, it's not. It's because of the Lord.

God's doing those workings you can think about.

I bought a house. Yeah, you did.

But you have a house because of what God has given you.

It's from, it's from the Lord. What do you have that you did

not receive? Absolutely nothing.

Not just in the spiritual realm, but in the physical realm as

well. That's why I love what James

says. He says, come now, you who say

today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a

year there and engage in business and make a profit.

He says, you who say that I have a plan and this is my plan, I'm

going to make a profit, I'm going to move here, I'm going to

do this and I'm going to this is my plan.

He says, yet you do not know what your life will be like

tomorrow. You are just a vapor that

appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and

also do this or that. And then he says this.

But as it is, you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting

is evil. When you make your plans,

ignoring the Spirit of God, the dwelling of God, the moving of

God in your life, you're just arrogant.

You're boasting your own arrogance.

I'm going to do this, I'm going to take this job.

I'm going to move here. I'm going to do that.

Jesus, if the Lord wills, that should be your prayer.

Listen to these words. So true.

Jeremiah, Jeremiah 10 verse #23 I know, O Lord, that a man's way

is not in himself. I know I can't run my own life,

nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.

But you know what? We think we can.

That's why you're not a great prophet like Jeremiah.

Because you see, he knew he couldn't.

He couldn't direct his own steps.

He couldn't make his own plans. Why?

Because the Lord's in charge, he says.

Correct me, oh Lord. Put me on the right path, and

then this one, Psalm 143 verse #10 teach me to do Your will,

for You are my God. Let Your good Spirit lead me on

smooth, level ground for the sake of Your name.

Isn't that great? Teach me, Lord, Your will.

I want to know your will, Lord. I want to know Your will for my

life, for You're my God. Let your good spirit lead me.

That's the cry of the believer. That's Spirit.

Isaiah 11 verse #2 is described as the spirit of wisdom,

understanding, counsel, strength, and knowledge.

The Spirit that you have within you is the spirit of knowledge,

strength, understanding, and counsel.

That's why God says, I'm going to give you my counselor, I'm

going to give you my guide, I'm going to give you my teacher,

I'm going to give you my wisdom. Why?

Because I want you to have the mind of Christ.

That's who lives within us, the Spirit of God.

So why would we seek counsel outside the Spirit of God and

outside the Scriptures that He's given to us?

Why would we do that when He's given us the Spirit of power, of

love and self-discipline? That's a spirit that lives

within us. But when we, because of our own

sinful nature, downplay the Spirit's working to upplay our

working, we've quenched the Spirit one more.

This will lead us into next week.

You quench the Spirit when you despise prophetic utterances,

which is the next verse verse #20 when you degrade, when you

look down upon, treat as irrelevant God's holy Word.

Why? Because the word inspired is as

equal to the Word Incarnate. Psalm 138, verse #2 it says,

Thou has magnified thy word even as thy very name.

At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow.

At the Word of God, every knee will bow.

Because the Word of God inspired is from the Word of God

Incarnate, and they're on the equal plane.

Solomon says Proverbs 13 verse #13 The one who despises the

word will be destroyed by the word, he says, but the one who

fears the commandment will be rewarded.

The one who reveres commandment is rewarded.

Those who despise it will be in debt to it, and they will be

destroyed by it. That's why you can't ever afford

to despise prophetic utterances over in Second Chronicles

2 Chronicles 36 · chapter mention

chapter 36, which is the last chapter in the Jewish Bible.

It's not the book of Malachi, it's the book of Second

Chronicles because the Jewish Bible ends with the destruction

of Jerusalem on the Temple Mount.

That's why the Jews stand at the wailing Western waiting wall,

whatever you want to call it, and mourn what is taking place

because the Bible ends in Second Chronicles 36.

The Jewish Bible and how does it end, ends this way.

The Lord, that the God of your Father's sent word to Israel

again and again and again by His messengers, His prophets,

because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling

place. Why did God keep sending

prophets over and over again, different ones of them?

Because God had compassion on His people and His dwelling

place. What?

Why does what? Why does God keep you coming to

hear the word of the Lord? Because He has compassion on

you. He wants to teach you.

He wants to grow you. And so He just keeps giving you

the same message over and over and over again.

Verse 16 But they continually mocked the messengers of God.

Imagine that. Mocking Jeremiah, mocking

Isaiah, mocking Daniel, mocking Amos, mocking all these great

men of God who came to bring the message.

But that's what they did. They mocked them, made fun of

them, scoffed at them. They continually mocked the

messages of God, and they despised His words, God's words,

and scoffed at His prophets. They despise the word of God,

they scoffed at His prophets. They mocked the men that God had

sent until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, until

there was no remedy. How sad is that?

There was no longer a remedy. There was no longer an answer.

The word of the Lord kept coming over and over and over again.

And they despise the prophets, they despise his messengers.

They scoffed at them over and over again.

They just treated their words as if they meant nothing.

But they were the words of God, see?

So the wrath of God was kindled against them until there was

absolutely no longer a remedy for them.

Jerusalem was destroyed. Israel's never been the same.

How sad is that? So incredibly sad.

I I say that because how do we quench the Spirit?

But by looking down upon the commands of God, the prophetic

utterances of God, the words that God has given to us,

whether they're inspired words, whether it's the Incarnate Word,

by looking down upon that word and treating it as if it means

nothing but around, he means everything because it's a

treasure of God's word in their lives.

So Paul says to those in Destin, I could don't quench the Spirit.

Don't stifle the work in the Spirit.

Don't smother his influence and power in your life.

Don't do that. Instead, fan the flame, throw

wood in the fire, rekindle afresh the Spirit of God and be

used for the glory of God. May God give us the grace never

to quench the Spirit, so that we in turn then grieve the Spirit,

but maybe walk in the Spirit, taking each step in the presence

of the living God. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for today, the opportunity you give us to

spend a brief moment in your word.

We ask that Lord, we would be the kind of people that adhere

to the words of God, that we not just be hearers only, but doers

of the word that actually we we would leave here saying, I'm

going to recognize God in my life, the street of God.

God lives in me. I'm going to exercise my

giftedness for the glory of God. I'm going to obey the commands

of God, not disobey the commands of God.

I don't want any glory. I want all the glory to go to

the Lord. I don't want to trust in myself.

I want to trust in the spirits working in my life.

And I want to make sure when I hear the word of God, I don't

look down upon it, but then I Revere it for what it truly is,

God's holy word. That's our prayer.

Lord in Jesus name, Amen.