Certain Hope for Uncertain Times
02/03/2002 - Extreme Christian Living
When I was a high school senior I was faced with the first major decision of my young life, where was I going to college? Up until that point my life ran pretty much on autopilot, not many decisions to make at least not about school. I went to Cedar Road Elementary School, Huntingdon Junior and Abington Senior High School. But now there was no clear next step.
Talking to my friends didn't seem to help a whole lot. Some of them weren't going to college. They were going right to work. Others were going to colleges and universities scattered all around the country and some of my Christian friends, the really spiritual ones, were going to Bible colleges. But what was I going to do?
And I can remember, for the first time in my life, grappling with this thing called the will of God. What was God's will for me? I had heard enough sermons in church growing up to know that God had a plan for my life, but how was I going to find it? I had come to the first big fork in the road and knew that my life would be significantly different depending on which path I chose. And I was scared that I might mess it up!
Since then I've grappled a lot with the will of God, as I'm sure many of you have, because the road of life is full of forks. And the decisions we make have a way of turning right around and making us. Sometimes we want to know what God's will is for our schooling? Sometimes we want to know what God's will is for our career? Should we take this job or should we take that job? What's God's will for this relationship? Should we keep dating this person or should we break up? Is this the one God wants me to marry or not? Those are all great questions that we need to ask and God will guide us.
But knowing God's will for those specific decisions is not nearly as important as doing God's will day in and day out. Ninety percent of God's will for you and for me is found in the Word of God. But if we're not doing what God has revealed to be his will for each one of us day in and day out, we're not going to be in a place where God can easily guide us on those big decisions in life.
Sometimes when we're faced with a decision, we feel like we're not getting any clear guidance from God. At those times our life can look a lot like a clogged sink. The water just sits there, if doesn't move. You open the drain and nothing happens. Sometimes our lives are like that. They just don't seem to be going anywhere. We want to make a move or make a decision, but our pipeline to God just seems all clogged up. When that happens we need a plunger and some spiritual Drano. We need to open up the pipeline so that we can get God's clear direction and things can start flowing again. And that starts by doing what we know God's will day in and day out. You see when we're doing what we know to be God's will for every believer, then the lines are open for God to guide us in those specific decisions of life. So what is God's day-to-day will for you and for me?
That's what we want to discover today as we continue our series called Certain Hope for Uncertain Times. If you have a Bible turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22. Look at verse 16, Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not put out the Spirit's fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil.
In these seven short verses, Paul gives us eight high voltage commands. Each one is extreme. Which is why I've called today's teaching, "Extreme Christian Living." Be joyful always, not just sometimes. Pray continually , not just when we feel like it. Give thanks in all circumstances, not just in certain circumstances. Test everything, not just some things. Avoid every kind of evil, not just your favorite kind of evil. Extreme commands for extreme living, the kind of living that squeezes the most out of life, the kind of living that's God's will for every one of us.
To unpack these seven verses I want to divide them into two parts. In verses 16-18, we have God's will for us. And then in verses 19-22, we have God's Word to us. So what's God's will for us? Paul gives us three aspects of God's routine will for all of us. You want to know God's will in those specific life-changing decisions? Then start practicing God's will day in and day out. That unclogs the drain.
It starts by being joyful always. When I read that this week I thought, "Well, that counts me out! I'm certainly not joyful all the time. I wasn't real joyful last Sunday when the Eagles lost a tough one to the Rams. So what's the next one, Paul? Maybe I can hit two out of three!"
Can we really be joyful always? Joyful about everything that happens in our lives? What about the bad stuff, you know the health problems, the financial struggles, the relational breakdowns? What about the heartache that Satan brings into our lives? What about 9/11 or the tragedies that happen everyday in this world? Be joyful sometimes maybe, but not always.
Remember, Paul's writing this letter to people who are going through some tough stuff. They're not on their dream vacation in Disney World. They're hurting. They're grieving over the death of loved ones. They're getting picked on and beat up because of their faith in Christ. They're struggling. Some of them are out of work. And yet Paul says, "Be joyful."
That only works if we find our joy outside of our circumstances and not inside them. That only works if our source of joy is knowing that God loves us, that God has a plan for our lives, that God uses the bad stuff to make us more sensitive and compassionate and dependent on him. That only works when we understand that joy is not the same as happiness. Happiness does depend on our team winning. It depends on our happenings, on our circumstances. Joy doesn't. It can fill our lives apart from our circumstances. It's not a feeling as much as it's an attitude. It's a choice we make.
Mike Wallace of Sixty Minutes says the most impressive woman he has ever interviewed was singer and former director of the New York City Opera, Beverly Sills. She's a woman that has every right to be bitter. For years her talent went unrecognized. She was repeatedly rejected for parts that she was easily qualified for. She was the mother of two handicapped children, one of whom was severely disabled. At one point in her life in order to escape the frenetic pace of New York City she bought a home on Martha's Vineyard and two days before she moved in it burned to the ground. And yet after going through all that tragedy her friends called her "Bubbles" because she was always so upbeat.
Wallace asked Beverly Sills what was her secret. She simply said, "I choose to be joyful. Years ago I knew I had little or no choice about success, circumstances or even happiness, but I knew I could choose to be joyful." Paul's saying that God's will for every one of us is to choose joy and joy is not found in circumstances but in the Lord.
Second, he says in verse 17, pray continually. We've already talked about prayer in this series. When Paul says pray continually he doesn't mean pray every single second, like you should be praying right now instead of listening to God's Word. Instead he means pray all the time.
The word continually here is the same Greek word that's used for a "hacking cough." A lot of us have had hacking coughs this winter. And when you have a hacking cough you don't cough continually all day long, you cough continually throughout the day. Paul says that's how I want you to pray.
We've talked about praying the first two minutes. Hack up a prayer before you get out of bed in the morning. "Good morning, Lord! Thanks for getting me safely through the night. Thanks for this brand new day. Walk with me through it." Hack up a prayer in the shower, maybe a cleansing prayer of forgiveness, hack up a prayer for your daily bread before breakfast, hack up a prayer during your commute to work or school, hack up a prayer when you get to the office, hack up a prayer before that meeting or that test. Do you get the picture? It's God's will that we have a hacked up prayer life.
Don't just set aside a devotional time and then forget God the rest of the day. Have this running conversation with your heavenly Father, the person who loves you more than anyone else in the universe. God's will for every one of us is that we pray continually.
Third, he says in verse 18, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Again we're not talking about casual Christian living here, we're talking about all out, go for broke, extreme Christian living. Be joyful always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances. Not just when circumstances go our way.
Notice, Paul doesn't say give thanks FOR all circumstances, but give thanks IN all circumstances. And there's a big difference. We don't thank God for the evil that comes into our life or for the evil that goes on our world. Instead, we thank God in it. Because we know that there is no circumstance that Satan can send into this world that God can't use to bring glory to himself. We know that God can use every circumstance, good or bad, in our lives to make us into the person that he wants me to be. God is greater than this world, greater than life or death, greater than any pain that comes our way. We know he has a plan, so we can give thanks in all circumstances.
Paul puts it this way in Romans 8:28, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
On Thursday I was talking to a guy in our church who said, "This has been the worst month I can remember. I've had more problems this month in my business than I had all of last year." So I said, "Well be encouraged, today's January 31, the last day of the month!" Then we talked about this very thing. What does it mean to be joyful in the midst of the worst month you can remember? What does it mean to give thanks in all circumstances? It must have something to do with rejoicing in things that aren't connected to this month's business like the fact that God loves us and he's growing us through the tough stuff and he'll see us through it and Jesus is coming again and one day we'll be with him in heaven. That's what we give thanks for. And this guy said, "Yea and when I get to heaven all my customers will be nice to me." And I said, "Yea or else when you get to heaven they won't be there!"
He said he's been encouraged recently by a sign that hangs outside of church on his way to work that reads, "Even Moses was a basket case at one time!" We're all going to be basket cases at one time or another, but give thanks in those circumstances because those are the times that God uses to make us more like Jesus. That's God's will for every one of us.
Now if verses 16-18 are about God's will for us, then verses 19-22 are about God's Word to us. If you want God's direction in life's big decisions, then stay soft and open to God's Word and to the promptings of his Spirit. That keeps the sink unclogged.
So don't ignore the Holy Spirit. Paul says in verse 19, Don't put out the Spirit's fire. Some translations read, "Don't quench the Spirit." In the Bible the Holy Spirit is often compared to fire. We see that in Matthew 3:11 when John the Baptist says, I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
When we trust Jesus as our Savior, the Holy Spirit comes into our life. He lives inside of us. And like a fire he brings light and like a fire he brings passion. The light that he brings into our lives helps us understand the Bible. Over the years people have said to me, "Before I trusted Christ as my Savior I couldn't understand anything in the Bible. It was like reading Chinese. But after I trusted Christ the light went on. The Bible started to make sense to me." That's the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit.
And like a fire he gives us a passion, a passion to know God, to love Christ and to be more like him, a passion to love people and to want to help them get to know Jesus. That's a Holy Spirit thing. But we can put the fire out. We can snuff out the flame. We can ignore God's Word, stop reading our Bibles and listening to good teaching. We can get so wrapped up in ourselves and our own agendas, lots of good things, but not the best things and extinguish the passion of knowing God and living for him. Paul says don't put out the flame.
Sometimes we put out the Spirit's flame by ignoring his promptings. The Holy Spirit prompts us mainly in two ways, to start doing something that we need to start doing or to stop doing something that we need to stop doing. Sometimes the Holy Spirit prompts us to help a person or to visit somebody in the hospital or to call or write a person who may need our encouragement. Sometimes he prompts us to mend a relationship that needs fixing. Sometimes the Holy Spirit prompts us to stop doing things that are destructive, to get out of a bad relationship or kick a bad habit.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit prompts us to make major life changes, to change schools, or start a new career, take a new job, move across the country. It was a Holy Spirit prompting in the hearts of few families that started this church. And each one of those families had a choice to make, to obey the prompting of the Spirit or to quench it. To obey meant stepping out in faith, taking a risk, making huge sacrifices, doing hard, but very rewarding things for God. Valley View started because a few people responded to a prompting of the Holy Spirit. Don't ignore the promptings of the Spirit.
But how do we know if we're being prompted by the Holy Spirit or just having one of our own crazy ideas? Let me give three simple ways to know the Holy Spirit's voice. First, the Spirit's promptings are always consistent with the Bible. The Holy Spirit is not going to prompt you to do anything that's inconsistent with God's Word. He's not going to prompt you to have an affair, even though you're really attracted to that person. He's not going to prompt you to cheat on your income taxes, so you can give more money to the church. He's not going to prompt you to lie or to steal or to do anything that's opposed to the Bible.
Second, His promptings are usually consistent with our gifts. If you don't like kids, God's probably not going to prompt to be a schoolteacher. If you're musically illiterate like I am, God's probably not going to prompt you to be a music director in a church. Don't get me wrong, God loves to stretch us, but he also knows how he's wired us. And he doesn't ignore the gifts and abilities that he's given to make us more effective for him in the first place. If you sense a leading that is completely contrary to who God made you to be, be very careful.
Third, the Spirit's promptings usually involve servanthood. They usually mean crawling down that ladder we talked about last week. I know when a prompting comes from the Holy Spirit because it usually means humbling myself, serving somebody, encouraging somebody, or giving something away whether it's my time or my treasure. The promptings that come from me are all about me and doing things that put me at the center.
Before we move off of this let me just give you a few more words of caution when you're seeking to discern the will of God. If a prompting requires you to make a major, life changing decision in very short time, be careful. You always want enough time to thoroughly pray about it. Last year, I felt prompted to go to Bolivia on a speaking trip with only about three weeks notice. I didn't know if it was of God's will or not which is why I called on some seasoned Christians to pray with me about it. And after praying about it, each one of them, independently, encouraged me to go. That's when I knew it was of God. If a prompting requires you to go deeply into debt, or endanger someone else, or causes you to comprise an important family relationship or friendship, or creates real unrest in the spirit of a mature Christian friend or counselor, be careful. Promptings from God are what make life an exciting adventure. Pay attention to them, but those that aren't from God can cause an incredible amount of confusion, hardship and pain.
Promptings from the Spirit can come to us directly, they can come to us from other people, friends, parents, my wife gives me a lot of prompting from the Holy Spirit, and they can come from the Bible. Which is why Paul says in verse 20, do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 Test everything. Hold on to the good.
Value the Word of God. When Paul wrote this letter, which many think was the very first letter of the New Testament, God's Word came audibly through prophets. But now God's Word is written down for us. We can pick it up and read it anytime we want. We can come to Valley View and hear it taught on Sundays, we can listen to it on tape or hear it taught on the radio, we can discuss it in our small groups.
Paul says, "Don't treat God's Word with contempt. Don't treat it as worthless. Value the Bible. Listen to what it says. Believe it. Take it seriously." And when you hear it taught by Bruce or another teacher or by someone on the radio, test everything you hear and hold on to what is good. Make sure that what that teacher is saying is accurate to the Bible, make sure that teacher believes that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, make sure that teacher believes in salvation by grace alone and not by human effort, make sure that teacher is a man or a woman of character, make sure that teacher is using the Word of God to build people up. Those are all the tests that are given to us in Scripture.
Don't ignore the Spirit. Value the Word of God. And finally, verse 22, avoid every kind of evil. That's extreme. Not some kinds of evil, but every kind of evil. All of us are good at avoiding some kinds of evil. You have your list and I have mine. And because of that we can sometimes think we're pretty good, we're better than others because we don't struggle with the stuff on their list. But extreme Christian living is ruthless when it comes to avoiding evil. It means going after it all, not just outward behavior, but inner attitudes like pride and selfishness and lust and greed. That's what the Spirit prompts us to do and empowers us to do too.
Do you want to know God's will for your life in those specific life-changing decisions? Then practice God's day in and day out will for your life. God did prompt me, largely through my parent's guidance, to go to college locally at Drexel University in Philadelphia. And when I look back on it now I can see his fingerprints all over it, because staying close to home enabled me to stay deeply connected to my home church. And it was during those college years that God fanned the flame of heart to want to serve him with my whole life.