3ABN On the Road

Follow The Faithful And Be A Finisher

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Royce Odiyar

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Series Code: OTR

Program Code: OTR000785


00:59 The Bible says for God so loved the world, that
01:04 he gave his only begotten son that who so ever
01:08 believes in him should not perish, but have
01:12 ever lasting life. Today whether you're
01:17 sitting right here or viewing around the
01:20 world. God has a message for you today,
01:24 undoubtedly someone watching this telecast
01:29 around the world, is having maybe the worst
01:31 day of their life. And likely even right here
01:36 someone sitting here this day is struggling with
01:42 the question is it worth it, is life worth it, is
01:47 following Jesus worth it. Does Jesus really care?
01:53 Does God really exist? Today I stand here
01:59 before you with a message from God.
02:02 And that message is, there is a friend, who
02:06 sticks closer than a brother, and that friend
02:10 is Jesus. Today, I stand here before you with a
02:14 message from God and that message is,
02:16 taste and see that the Lord is good.
02:22 And, today I stand before you with a message,
02:26 from God and that message is follow the
02:31 faithful and be a finisher. You see friends
02:36 life is not easy, but there is a friend that
02:40 sticks closer than a brother, is not easy to
02:44 believe in God, but if you taste, you'll see
02:46 the evidence that the Lord is good and that
02:49 he is alive and well and working in your
02:52 life. Brothers and sisters, it maybe hard
02:58 to sometimes believe that Jesus is coming
03:02 again, but if we stick close to that friend
03:07 Jesus, if we see that he is good and if we
03:10 follow him, if we follow the faithful one Jesus
03:13 Christ, we can be a finisher.
03:16 I want to begin with a word of prayer, please bow
03:20 your heads with we as we pray. Dear heavenly
03:27 Father we come before you, and we pray that
03:33 as we're here gathered together that your
03:35 presence would be with us. We pray that, we
03:42 would not be here worshiping in vain,
03:44 but that the spirit of God would come down,
03:47 enlighten our minds, give us understanding,
03:49 humble our hearts, so that we can leave here
03:53 changed and we can live more faithfully for you.
03:59 We thank you for your death on the cross.
04:02 And, we pray that Jesus when you come that we
04:08 will be saved. In your name we
04:11 pray, Amen. The message of this
04:16 morning is titled, follow the faithful,
04:20 and be a finisher. Follow the faithful and
04:26 be a finisher. Brothers and sisters,
04:29 I believe more today than I've ever believed
04:32 before that Jesus is coming again and the
04:35 Bible urges us in John chapter 14 that
04:38 we should not allow our hearts to be troubled.
04:44 Well, why is it that we should not allow our
04:47 hearts to be troubled, and I believe the reason
04:52 that we should not allow our hearts to be troubled is
04:55 because of the multitude of promises in the Bible that
04:58 Jesus is coming again, that he died to save us, so that
05:03 we can be with him in paradise forever.
05:10 And, so we can comfort ourselves with the fact
05:14 that Jesus, like he said in John chapter 14, let
05:17 not your hearts be troubled, believe in God,
05:20 believe also in me. In my Father's house are
05:22 many mansions, if it were not so, I would have
05:25 told you, I go to prepare a place for you, that when
05:29 I come again, I'll receive you unto
05:31 myself that where I'm there you may be also.
05:35 You see, we don't have to allow our hearts to
05:38 be troubled, because Jesus will come again.
05:42 Jesus will come to receive us onto himself.
05:47 So that we can be with him forever where he is now.
05:54 Jesus is preparing a mansion for each and
05:56 everyone of us. And, he wants us to
05:58 occupy that with him and, and because of that
06:02 promise, because of the numerous promises in the
06:05 scriptures, we don't have to be troubled by the
06:08 trials of this life. It's not easy, but we can
06:14 comfort ourselves with the hope that there is a
06:18 better world, there will be a better place,
06:21 there will be a better life when Jesus comes
06:26 again and takes us to be with him forever.
06:31 This is our blessed hope, and if we're to receive
06:37 this blessed hope, we must follow the
06:40 faithful and be a finisher. I want you to
06:46 turn with me in your Bibles right now
06:49 to John, the actually the First book of John,
06:52 so that would be right near the end of the
06:55 Old Testament. John chapter 1.
06:59 So, that's First John it's a little letter
07:01 written by the Apostle John. John the Revelator
07:06 as well as he was known, and this is the first of
07:10 three letters he wrote. First John, chapter 1.
07:15 And, we'll be reading verse 9. First John,
07:18 chapter 1 and verse 9, and the Bible says, if we
07:21 confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
07:26 forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all
07:30 unrighteousness. I want to stop for a
07:33 moment and just let you know that the next few
07:34 verses, we're gonna be looking through.
07:35 Are verses that all include the keyword faithful.
07:40 And, we're gonna be looking out what it
07:43 means, what does it mean to be faithful and who
07:46 is faithful and here we see that Jesus is being
07:53 described as faithful. God is being described
07:56 as faithful, and he is faithful to take care of
08:01 our sins, to forgive us and cleanse us from
08:04 all unrighteousness, and often times the struggle,
08:07 the major struggle in the life that we've here on
08:11 planet earth is the fact that, that we allow the
08:15 sins and the guilt of life to weigh us down.
08:18 And, we don't really believe Jesus, when he
08:22 says, if you confess your sins, I will be faithful
08:28 Jesus says, I will be just, I will cleanse you,
08:33 of the unrighteousness of your heart.
08:39 Jesus died on the cross and if he died on the cross,
08:43 why can't we believe that he could forgive
08:45 our sins, and so someone might be
08:48 struggling here today, somebody watching this
08:51 telecast might be thinking to themselves,
08:54 my sin is too great. I messed up too badly,
09:02 I've messed up too much, I've gone too far,
09:07 too long away from God. And the message
09:13 from the Bible today for you, for each of us
09:20 is that Jesus is faithful. That Jesus is
09:25 faithful and he will forgive us of our sins
09:27 no matter how great, we just have to come
09:33 to him in humility confessing our sins,
09:38 and he will forgive us and cleanse us from
09:43 those sins. And, so we see here in First
09:45 John 1:9, he is faithful, who is he? God.
09:48 God is faithful. And, First Corinthians 5:9
09:53 says, God is faithful. And, Revelation 1:5
09:59 lets actually turn to this one, it's a beautiful
10:00 promise. Revelation 1:5. And, in verse 5 of
10:09 Revelation chapter 1, the Bible describes Jesus
10:15 as a witness, he was the witness of the father,
10:21 He came down to planet earth, to witness the
10:27 character, to demonstrate the character of Jesus
10:31 to all of the world, to all of the Angels in the
10:34 Universe. And, he did a perfect job witnessing
10:41 for Jesus and so in Revelation 1:5, the Bible
10:46 says that Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the
10:54 firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings
10:56 of the earth. Brothers and sisters, Jesus was the
11:00 perfect witness, more than a perfect witness,
11:02 he was a faithful witness. We're talking
11:06 this morning about following the faithful,
11:11 and if you want to, if you want to make it abundantly
11:14 clear to each person here today and each
11:16 person viewing this broadcast, we could add
11:21 the word one. Jesus is the faithful
11:24 one, Jesus is the faithful witness and so
11:32 we've seen that Jesus is faithful to forgive us
11:34 of our sins, God is faithful and Jesus is the
11:38 faithful witness, but we're going to look at
11:40 one more reference in Revelation chapter 20.
11:43 Revelation chapter actually 2.
11:45 Revelation chapter 2 and Verse 10, and here we're going
11:50 to see that the word faithful is used again,
11:52 but it's used in a different application or
11:56 maybe more accurately stated, it's applied to
11:59 different, someone other than Jesus.
12:03 Revelation 2:10, applies the word faithful
12:07 to someone other than Jesus, let's see who it is.
12:10 Revelation 2:10. Do not fear what
12:15 you're about to suffer. Behold the devil is
12:17 about to throw some of you into prison that
12:20 you maybe tested and for ten days you'll have
12:24 tribulation, and then it says be faithful
12:27 unto death and you'll receive a crown of life.
12:33 This is one of the most beautiful promises in the
12:37 Bible delivered, the promise that if we're
12:43 faithful and if we finish the good fight and if
12:53 we've to die and are willing to die that we'll
12:59 receive the promise of the eternal life,
13:01 we will receive the crown of the life that Jesus
13:06 wants to give to each and everyone of us.
13:08 It's powerful, it's so powerful to see that
13:15 God, our God, our faithful Father so loved
13:19 the world that he sent, Jesus God, the son
13:22 to be our faithful example and if we will
13:29 choose to follow that faithful example unto
13:34 death, we will receive a crown of life.
13:39 Brothers and sisters, friends and family,
13:42 viewers around the world follow the faithful one,
13:51 follow Jesus and be a finisher, it's just that
13:57 simple, you don't have to come up with a new way
14:03 to get to heaven, you just have to follow
14:06 Jesus, the one who is already made it there,
14:10 the first born of the dead as Revelation
14:13 chapter 2, chapter 1 sorry, and it's simple
14:20 we just have to follow Jesus in all things,
14:22 he is our example in every area of our life,
14:25 he is the faithful one and if follow him, we
14:29 cannot help but be a finisher because in his
14:33 strength we're made perfect, the Bible says.
14:35 And I believe more today and each and
14:38 everyday that we're living the last days of
14:40 earth's history we've already made this clear, how
14:43 strongly I believe that, I believe that Jesus is
14:47 about to come, we're in the brink of eternity.
14:51 And so now is the time more than ever before
14:59 to more carefully, more faithfully follow Jesus
15:04 and his example, and so today we want to
15:10 take a look at, a careful look, what did
15:14 I say? That's right, a careful look.
15:16 We're gonna take a careful look at the
15:21 example of Jesus and at the special instruction
15:27 that Jesus gives to the Apostle Paul for God's
15:31 last day people, God's last day church.
15:35 How many of you here today want to be one of
15:40 God's last day people. I want to be a part of
15:46 one of God's last day people, and I want to
15:49 be a part of God's last day church.
15:52 And, so today we're gonna look carefully at what the
15:59 faithful one Jesus Christ had, we're gonna
16:02 look at four points, the first two of those points
16:05 are questions. And question number 1 is
16:07 what did the faithful one have? What did Jesus
16:10 have that made him and gave him the ability
16:12 to be a finisher. Let's look up,
16:17 Matthew chapter 3, and we're not gonna
16:22 look up all of them, but we're going to start with
16:24 Matthew chapter 3, and I gonna go through a
16:25 quick list of different examples of Jesus.
16:29 And, what he had that allowed him to be a
16:32 finisher, so let's turn in our Bibles to
16:34 Matthew, it's the first book of the New Testament.
16:36 Matthew 3 and verse 16 and the Bible says, and when
16:41 Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up
16:45 from the water and behold the heavens were opened to
16:48 to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending
16:50 like a dove and coming and resting on him.
16:55 This is Jesus' baptism and when he comes up
16:59 out of the water, we see the spirit of God coming
17:01 and descending on him like a dove.
17:02 I'm going to read a bunch more references from
17:07 the Bible really quickly, and I want you to pick
17:09 out a keyword. Matthew chapter 4 in verse 1,
17:14 the Bible says, then Jesus was led up of the
17:16 spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
17:18 of the devil. Matthew chapter 12 in verse 18,
17:21 I'll put my spirit upon him.
17:23 Luke chapter 1 and verse 80, and that's a last verse,
17:27 you probably didn't even know, that there is 80 verses in
17:29 the first book and the first chapter of Luke.
17:32 The Luke 1:80, and the child grew and became
17:39 strong in spirit. Luke 2:27, and he became
17:43 and he came by the spirit into the temple.
17:46 Luke 4:14, and Jesus returned in the power
17:51 of the spirit into Galilee. Luke 4:18,
17:54 and the spirit of Lord is upon me, we see
17:57 time-and-time again, the keyword is spirit,
18:02 spirit, spirit, spirit, spirit. The spirit of
18:06 God came upon Jesus in the form of a dove.
18:09 The spirit of God led Jesus into the wilderness,
18:11 the spirit of God was upon him.
18:13 He became strong in the spirit, he came by the
18:18 spirit to the temple, he had the power of the
18:22 spirit and the spirit of the Lord was upon him,
18:25 it was because of Jesus, our faithful example.
18:29 The one we're to follow it was because Jesus
18:33 had the spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit
18:36 in this life, that he could be victorious in the
18:43 battle over sin. Because he had the spirit
18:52 he could conquer temptation, he could
18:55 go to the cross without sinning and die a death
18:59 for us, so that we could be saved, it's because
19:01 Jesus Christ had the Holy Spirit in his life that
19:09 made all the difference, all the difference in the
19:12 world. And, so brothers and sisters, the Biblical
19:17 evidence is clear. What did I say?
19:20 It's clear, that's right. The Biblical evidence is
19:23 clear today that Jesus Christ, the faithful
19:26 witness, who is to be our example, in all of
19:29 things, he had the power of the Holy Spirit in his
19:35 life and this enabled him. And, what did I say?
19:38 That's right, it enabled him, it gave him the
19:42 ability to be the faithful one, the
19:46 faithful finisher. You see, he had to
19:50 have the power of the Holy Spirit in his life.
19:52 And because Jesus recognized, because he
19:58 recognized so clear, how hard the battle was,
20:01 and how important and critical, it was for
20:06 him to have the power of the Holy Spirit before Jesus
20:09 left. Before he was resurrected and went
20:15 to heaven. He gave his believers, he gave the
20:18 disciples, the twelve Apostle, he gave them
20:21 the promise of the Holy Spirit. He gave them the
20:27 comforter, because he knew that's what he needed
20:29 and that if his disciples down through the ages,
20:33 and if his church in the last days was to be
20:36 faithful that they would need the Holy Spirit
20:40 power working in their lives. And, so let's turn
20:43 and look at that promise, it's a beautiful promise.
20:48 John, the Gospel of John. Matthew Mark, Luke,
20:51 and John, the fourth book of the New Testament
20:54 John chapter 16, and in John chapter 16, we will
21:00 this promise of the Holy Spirit, given to
21:05 God's disciples down through the ages.
21:08 John chapter 16 and we'll read verse 7 and
21:13 then we'll skip down to 13 through 15.
21:15 Beginning in verse 17. John chapter 16.
21:17 Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is to your
21:21 advantage that I go away for if I do not
21:23 go away, so who's talking here. Jesus, Jesus is
21:26 saying, it's to your benefit that I go away,
21:29 it's to your advantage that I leave and go to
21:33 heaven. Well, why Jesus, why would it be to our
21:40 benefit that you leave. Let's see what the Bible
21:45 says, for if I do not go away, verse 7 the
21:50 helper will not come to you, but if I go, I will
21:54 send him to you and when he comes, he will convict
21:59 to the world of sin and righteousness and
22:01 judgment skipping down to verse 13. When the
22:05 spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into
22:07 all truth. You see, it's interesting, there is
22:10 Jesus said in the Bible, once to the disciples, he said,
22:12 I wish, I could tell you more, but I can't tell
22:14 you, no, I can't tell you more now because
22:16 you can't handle it. And, so it was critical
22:20 that the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the helper,
22:23 our comforter would come, dwell in our
22:28 hearts and lead us into all truth. And, it goes
22:34 to say, for he will not speak of his own
22:36 authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and
22:39 he will declare to you the things that are
22:41 to come, it's powerful. It's so powerful.
22:45 You see, if Jesus didn't leave, he cannot send
22:51 his Holy Spirit to be in all places at all
22:53 times with all believers, who all struggle.
22:56 We could, if it was not for the Holy Spirit,
23:00 we could not have the promise of Matthew,
23:02 with the great commission, where the
23:06 Bible says, I will give you all power, we could not
23:12 all have all power, if you wasn't for the work
23:14 of the Holy Spirit. And, so we see that was
23:19 very important, it was very important to Jesus
23:22 that he have the spirit in his life.
23:25 And, it's very important to the followers of Jesus
23:28 that we have the spirit of God in our lives and
23:33 so the first of the four points, that we're looking
23:37 at this morning. Are one, what did the
23:42 faithful one have, what did Jesus have
23:45 that can make him faithful, and we've
23:47 seen that Jesus had the spirit, the Holy Spirit
23:52 power working in his life. So, now the
23:55 question, the next logical question, it's a simple
23:57 question. Is how did he get the spirit in the
24:02 first place, how did Jesus get the Holy Spirit
24:06 in the first place? Let's turn in our Bibles,
24:11 to Luke chapter 2, Matthew, Mark, Luke.
24:16 Luke chapter 2 and I'm read from verse 40
24:25 and then we'll skip down to verse 52.
24:27 Luke chapter 2 and verse 40, the Bible says, and the child
24:35 grew and became strong in spirit, filled with
24:38 wisdom and the grace of God was upon him.
24:41 Says that Jesus grew, that's the child, that's
24:46 being talked about. Jesus grew and became
24:48 strong in spirit, it's says that, he was filled
24:52 with wisdom. The grace of God was upon him.
24:55 You see, Jesus became strong in spirit and
25:02 filled with wisdom because the grace and
25:04 the favor of God was upon him and the reason
25:09 that Jesus had the favor of God was because
25:15 Jesus followed his father's four fold plan
25:23 for growth, this is powerful. And, this is
25:27 what verse 52 says, Luke 2:52, and the
25:30 Bible says, and Jesus increased in wisdom
25:34 and in stature, and in favor with God and man,
25:40 this is powerful, there's four areas of development
25:43 that happened in the life of Jesus that ultimately
25:49 allowed him to have the favor of God in his life.
25:57 It's says, he grew in wisdom, he increased in
26:02 wisdom. Wisdom means intellect, it means
26:05 knowledge. Jesus grew intellectually, it
26:10 says he grew in stature that means physically
26:12 Jesus grew in physical strength, then it says
26:18 he grew in favor with God and man, you see
26:23 Jesus grew spiritually and Jesus grew socially
26:29 in favor with God spiritually and in favor
26:32 with man socially. And, we're gonna see
26:34 how important this is, near the end of today's
26:39 the message. So, the four things once
26:43 again, our wisdom, stature, favor with God, favor with
26:45 man, that was intellectual growth, physical growth,
26:48 spiritual growth, social growth, and I want to
26:52 take a little bit of time right here to explain
26:55 the importance of this and why this made the
26:58 difference in the life of Jesus. You see one
27:01 of the greatest challenges, one of the
27:03 greatest struggles in the Christian journey, in the
27:08 experience of the Christian is the, the
27:11 struggle of surrendering everything to Jesus,
27:15 every part of our being, every part of our life,
27:19 how is it that we surrender that, it's a
27:24 difficult thing to do, but we must to do it,
27:26 and these four areas, but what if we could
27:30 surrender these four areas of our life to
27:33 Jesus, we could have the full power of the
27:41 Holy Spirit working in our lives, you see it's
27:45 very important, now we surrender our minds, our
27:49 intellect to God. You see because, if we
27:54 do not surrender our minds to God then we will
28:00 think that we're smart, we can do everything
28:04 on our own, we can go through life,
28:08 provide for ourselves, be smart enough to figure
28:11 out, how to over come any obstacle in life.
28:14 So, we must surrender our minds, our intellect,
28:20 our wisdom to God, because the Bible says
28:24 there is a way that seems right unto
28:27 a man, but in the end it leads to death,
28:33 the wisdom of the world does not leave to
28:34 salvation, but it leads to death and
28:37 destruction, and so we must surrender our minds to
28:42 God. Number 2, we must surrender our physical
28:45 bodies, our strength to God because you see,
28:47 it is easy, especially for men to have the idea
28:52 that hey, I'm strong enough, I'm big
28:54 enough, I'm fast enough to conquer the problems
28:58 in my life, to take care of myself, to protect
29:01 myself, we've to surrender that part of
29:05 our physical bodies to God. And, then
29:12 spiritually we've to surrender to God
29:16 spiritually because, if we do not surrender
29:19 to God spiritually then we'll be serving another
29:25 God, a liturgy God of this world as the Bible
29:28 says. So, we must surrender our minds
29:33 spiritually to God and lastly, socially we must
29:39 this part of our life fully and completely
29:42 to God socially. Because you see, if
29:49 we do not surrender the social part of our life
29:52 to God, where we interact with other people
29:55 we will never, I repeat we will never come to love
30:00 people, we will always be at odds with people,
30:04 we will never feel the burden to go out and
30:06 win souls, and to seek and save the lost.
30:10 We have to surrender our lives socially, socially
30:17 to God. And I wanna point something out
30:23 very important, notice I've been talking about
30:27 surrender, not balance because often we think,
30:30 often we think to ourselves, well hey, if I've
30:35 these four components in my life, one, two,
30:37 three, four, then I'm a balanced person.
30:42 A balanced person, and balanced people are
30:49 supposed to be alright, they're supposed to have things
30:51 together, but you see if you've got these four
30:54 components and you're balancing them in
30:56 your life 25%, 25%., 25%, 25% that adds up to
31:01 a 100%, you think you're doing good, you're
31:02 balancing everything out. Notice in each of those
31:07 areas they are still a full 75% that is uncounted
31:15 for, and the reason this is important to point out
31:19 is because often times we think that if we spend
31:28 that 25% or that time in Church, then we're
31:30 doing our spiritual part, but God wants us to be
31:33 spiritual people all the time, often times we
31:38 think, if, if we're nice and we put on that
31:40 smile and we're social and friendly out in public,
31:42 that's good enough, but when we come home
31:45 we can let our guard down and we can be a little
31:48 rough with our spouse or with our brother or
31:51 our sister, and sometimes we think that, that if we
32:00 serve God with our minds intellectually at least a
32:03 little bit of the time and we use the rest
32:04 to make money and, and wealth and popularity.
32:07 Well, that's okay, no it's not okay beloved,
32:10 it's not okay, we have to surrender each and
32:15 every part to God and that brings glory to him,
32:19 and that will gain his favor and because of
32:23 that the spirit of God will fill our lives,
32:26 because we've surrendered 100% to him in every
32:32 major component and so Jesus grew and became
32:37 strong in the spirit because he had these
32:41 four areas covered, and it's not gonna be
32:46 easy to surrender these four areas, but we have to
32:48 especially number 3 and 4, which is spiritual
32:52 and social, and we're going to talk about this
32:55 a little bit more, at the end of the message, and
32:59 so today, we've seen already a powerful
33:03 model, a powerful example of what the
33:07 follower of Jesus needs, the follower of Jesus
33:10 needs the Holy Spirit power in their life.
33:11 Well, how do they get it? How do we have what
33:14 the faithful example had, our faithful witness
33:16 Jesus Christ, we get it by doing what he did.
33:19 Grow in wisdom, in stature and favor with God and
33:23 man. And the reason that these message is critical
33:27 for God's last day people, for God's last
33:30 day church, is because Jesus knew, God knew,
33:34 that his last day church would struggle with this
33:38 very thing, this very thing of being faithful,
33:43 this very thing of being finished, of finishing,
33:48 because without the spirit we cannot be
33:51 faithful, without the spirit we cannot finish.
33:53 And, so God instructed his servant Paul, in First
34:01 Thessalonians chapter 1, he instructed him with
34:08 some special instructions of how we can make sure
34:14 that we have the spirit of God in our lives,
34:17 turn in your Bibles to First Thessalonians
34:20 chapter 5, and so if you're in the
34:25 New Testament, you'll look past Acts and past
34:29 Romans and past all the small little epistles,
34:32 past Corinthians, Colossians and then
34:37 you'll find Thessalonians, First Thessalonians
34:38 chapter 5, and we're gonna read a large
34:43 section of passage here, but we're gonna begin
34:45 with verse 19, because it's a very interesting
34:48 verse. First Thessalonians chapter 1
34:52 chapter 5 and verse 19, the Bible says, do not quench
34:58 the spirit, some versions say, quench not
35:00 the spirit, very interesting, very
35:06 interesting if you read verse 1 of chapter 5,
35:10 the Bible says, now concerning the times
35:12 and the seasons brethren, you've
35:13 no need, to have anything written you
35:15 for you yourselves are fully aware that the
35:17 day of the lord will come like a thief in the night,
35:19 Jesus is talking to the last day church,
35:22 of course, he is writing to Thessalonica, and he
35:25 had a message for them, but he has a message
35:27 for us today because we're living in the
35:29 final days of earth's history, and so he says,
35:32 brethren, you know, you know, that Jesus
35:37 is coming soon, you know that he is
35:39 gonna come like a thief in the night when nobody knows,
35:40 and nobody is aware, I don't need to write to
35:44 you about these things, but there is something
35:47 important that I need to write to you,
35:48 and near the end, we see that very, very important
35:53 element and that's don't quench the spirit,
35:56 don't quench the spirit, you need the
36:01 spirit to be faithful, you need the spirit
36:07 to be a finisher, and so now let's
36:14 read the context alright. Let's read the context
36:17 around it, and we're gonna see something very powerful,
36:19 alright, so we're gonna be begin reading in
36:22 verse 12, so First Thessalonians 5:12,
36:27 and just before you read, I just want to say
36:32 that it appears and is compelling to me that
36:39 God's last day church is in risk of quenching
36:43 the spirit, otherwise Paul would have had
36:48 no need of writing about it, and so we've a
36:52 special message that we need to embrace, so that
36:58 we do not quench the spirit. Let's read
37:01 verse 12, we ask you brothers to respect
37:04 those who labor among you, and are over you
37:07 in the Lord and admonish you and to
37:10 esteem them very highly in love because
37:12 of their work, be at peace among yourselves.
37:15 I want to make two important distinctions
37:18 right now, the important distinctions are, in this
37:22 passage of scripture from First Thessalonians
37:25 chapter 5, I mean chapter 5:12 all the
37:29 way to verse 22, there is two large groups being
37:35 addressed, and a more accurate way of saying would
37:41 be two areas of responsibility have been
37:46 given to God's last day people.
37:49 And that is one, we've responsibility to one
37:52 another and two, we've a responsibility to God.
37:55 We're gonna look at these in details right now.
37:59 So, verses 12 and 13, we already see, that we've
38:03 been asked to respect those who labor
38:05 among us. Paul is writing, he is
38:09 saying hey, we've setup in Thessalonica, leaders
38:14 in the church, elders, ministers, we've setup
38:19 people to take care of the flock, respect them,
38:24 respect those who are working among you,
38:26 admonish them, encourage them, those who oversee
38:31 churches, those who do the work of God, as
38:34 Evangelists, as pastors, as teachers, they need
38:39 encouragement, they're humans just like
38:41 anyone of us here today,
38:43 just like anyone watching this
38:47 broadcast, we all need encouragement including
38:50 those leading God's church. Verse 13 and
38:58 esteem them very highly in love, they need our
39:01 love because of their work, be at peace among
39:04 yourselves. You see, if we've the
39:06 appropriate respect towards those in the
39:09 church, those overseeing the church, if the
39:11 dynamic is right, the inter-personal
39:13 relationships, we can be at peace as a body
39:19 of Christ. Amen. It goes on to say,
39:23 and we urge you brothers admonish the idle,
39:25 encourage the faint hearted, help the weak,
39:29 be patient with them all, see that no one
39:32 repays evil for evil, but always seek to do
39:36 good to one another and to everyone.
39:39 So, there it shifts, he is still talking about
39:42 responsibility to people, responsibility to those
39:45 in the church, responsibility to those,
39:48 who oversee the church. And, those in the church,
39:54 the members if you will, those who are weak
39:58 members, faint hearted, struggling, who are
40:02 going through trials and troubles, we need to
40:05 encourage them, we need to encourage our
40:07 brothers and sisters, that's why the Bible
40:11 says, we are our brother's keeper, and then in
40:15 verse 16, we see a shift and an important one at that,
40:18 the Bible says, rejoice always, pray without
40:21 ceasing, give thanks in all of circumstances
40:24 for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you,
40:27 then it goes on to say in verse 19, do not
40:29 quench your spirit, do not despise his prophecies,
40:32 but test everything, hold fast to that which is
40:35 good, and abstain from every form of evil, from
40:39 verses 16 to 22, we see seven short commands
40:43 and Paul was saying, if you do these things, if you
40:47 obey these commands, you'll be doing your faithful
40:51 part, you'll be being responsible to Jesus,
40:57 to God, and if ultimately I'm over simplifying
41:03 this, I'm gonna break the details down
41:04 in a minute, but, but if you do these seven things
41:08 you'll be responsible, you'll be a responsible
41:11 member of God's body and you will not quench
41:15 the spirit. And, it's interesting,
41:17 verse 19, do not quench the spirit or
41:19 quench not the spirit in the Old King James,
41:21 that's in the middle of a list of seven commands,
41:25 seven short commands, and it's important
41:30 to note that because that's the part, that is lost.
41:35 If we do not obey these commands, if we're
41:37 not responsible to God, if we're not responsible
41:40 to the people, we work with, the people, we,
41:43 we fellowship with, we'll quench the spirit.
41:47 And, if we quench the spirit, we've quenched the
41:51 only thing that God has given to us, in order
41:54 to be faithful. In order to be a
41:59 finisher, and so it's a very, very, interesting,
42:05 actually I'm gonna back up for a minute,
42:07 let's look at each one very carefully, very
42:09 quickly. Verse 16, rejoice always,
42:16 there is an important principle in rejoicing
42:21 always, and that is people who rejoice
42:23 always, they have that hope, they realize,
42:27 hey, in all things whether good or bad,
42:30 they work to the glory of God, we must
42:33 rejoice always, that encourages the spirits
42:36 to work in our life, people who are gloomy,
42:40 people who are complaining, in fact the
42:42 Bible refers to complaining as a sin,
42:46 people who have a bad attitude, the
42:50 spirit can't bless them, the spirit can't work in
42:52 them, so the Bible says, rejoice always, it says
42:54 pray without ceasing, I think that's self
42:58 explanatory, we need to pray always, never give
43:02 up as someone said, pray, pray without
43:04 ceasing doesn't mean to be on your knees
43:06 24/7 pleading, oh! God just help me
43:08 and you're just, you know, making vain repetitions
43:11 towards God, no, no pray without ceasing
43:14 means don't give up, if you have a request, if
43:16 you have a loved when you're praying for, and you know,
43:17 that they are gonna be lost, if they don't come
43:20 to the Lord, don't give up, don't cease
43:24 praying for them, powerful. Verse 18,
43:27 gives thanks in all circumstances, that's
43:31 powerful, we have to, even in the trials of
43:34 life give thanks. For this is the will of God,
43:38 of Christ Jesus for you. Verse 19, do not
43:42 quench the spirit, and I have to point
43:45 something out very important here,
43:47 and very interesting. I believe there is a
43:52 two fold purpose, as to why the Bible makes it
43:55 clear and has a short command, do not quench
44:01 the spirit and that is because one, we need the
44:06 spirit to be a finisher, and number two, the
44:11 spirit, the Holy Spirit power has, wants to
44:15 work in the lives of each of us and he
44:17 wants to give us gifts to use to finish this
44:20 work more than ever before and that
44:24 includes the gift of prophecy, but many
44:28 people in the last days and even in our days
44:31 have become scared of the gift of prophecy
44:35 we think it a weird thing, we think it a
44:38 scary thing, Oh! God could be talking
44:41 so directly to someone. Yeah, that's true brother,
44:45 that's true sister. And, that's why it says,
44:49 do not despise prophecies, if we despise
44:53 prophecies, we're quenching the work of
44:56 God in someone's life and if someone is receiving a
45:00 prophecy, a message from God for the church, and
45:03 we don't respect that, we're harming ourselves,
45:07 we're quenching the spirit in our lives.
45:09 So, it says do not quench the spirit because we
45:12 need the spirit to be victorious. And, we need
45:15 the prophecies, we need the prophecies, so it says do
45:21 not despise prophecies, but test everything, hold
45:25 fast to that is good, I didn't say just accept
45:28 any old prophecy, there is lots of imposters.
45:32 The Bible says, in the last days, false
45:33 prophets and false Christ will abound, I'm not saying
45:36 trust anything you hear, but I'm saying accept
45:41 that last day prophecies, true ones will exist and so
45:47 test them, test those to see which are true and
45:52 hold fast to what is good, that's powerful, reject,
45:57 reject the false, but hold fast, don't let go
46:01 because you need it, if God gives a prophecy
46:06 in the last day, for God's last day
46:08 church, it's something you need brothers
46:11 and sisters, because without it you may be
46:15 deceived and then it is says, abstain from every
46:22 form of evil, and I like the way that this
46:25 version translated, abstain from every form
46:30 of evil. Some versions make it seem as, well
46:34 abstain from the thoughts of evil, but, no, no,
46:37 no, no, no, no, no, no, we got to abstain from
46:39 the form of the evil, the things that are evil
46:43 because God has a powerful work in our lives
46:46 to do, he wants to sanctify us and that
46:49 means giving up the foolishness of this world,
46:52 that means giving up the toys and the entertainment
46:57 and the pleasures that this world provides in
47:02 order to, in order to cause us to be
47:06 lackadaisical, in order to cause us to be comfortable.
47:11 And the Bible said, if we are to read the
47:13 whole passage of John, First Thessalonians
47:16 Chapter 5, we see that we're not to be
47:18 lackadaisical, we're not to be sleeping like the
47:20 people in this world, we must be sober minded, we must
47:23 be awake, we must be children of the day, we
47:26 must be children of light, we're not children of
47:29 darkness who sleep and get drunk with the passions
47:32 and the pleasures and the different toys and
47:37 temptations of this life, and so it's very, very
47:43 important that we abstain from every form
47:45 of evil, and so now we look carefully at verses
47:51 First Thessalonians chapter 5:12-15, we
47:54 need, we have a responsibility to people
47:57 isn't that interesting, we've a responsibility
48:00 to our fellow man, to our fellow brethren,
48:04 our fellow sistren, that's why Jesus sought to
48:08 have favor with man. We have a social
48:12 responsibility and then the last few verses
48:16 16-22, our responsibility to God that is how
48:21 we seek favor with God. Our spiritual
48:29 responsibility and so here we see a social
48:32 responsibility in First Thessalonians 5, we see
48:35 a spiritual responsibility, our
48:37 social responsibility are to those in the body
48:40 of Christ, those who are members of the body,
48:43 those who are leading the body, and we have a
48:46 responsibility to God, whose body it is.
48:54 And, so if, if we follow the exhortation
48:59 of Paul in First Thessalonians 5, we will
49:04 be very careful to make sure that we do not
49:09 exclude the last three points of Jesus', of
49:13 God's four fold plan for receiving the favor
49:17 and the spirit of the God in our lives, and that's
49:19 intellectual, physical, spiritual and social,
49:23 it's pretty easy to nail the physical and the
49:25 intellectual because we don't have to worry
49:27 about anybody else, we're taking care of
49:29 ourselves, but the last two are more difficult
49:33 and Paul recognizes this, and in his last
49:36 message or in his first letter, but at the end
49:40 of his first letter to the church of
49:43 Thessalonica he says, don't neglect your
49:46 responsibility to people, don't neglect your
49:49 responsibility to God, because these things will
49:51 quench the work and the spirit of God that you
49:53 need in your life, that you desperately
49:57 need in your life. I want to read a
50:00 powerful quotation to you, it's just one sentence
50:04 where someone once said, one of the
50:06 strongest evidences, the strongest what?
50:10 Evidences, that's right. One of the strongest
50:14 evidences of true conversion is love to God
50:18 and to man. Isn't that powerful?
50:21 That's dynamite, one of the strongest evidences
50:26 that you brother, you sister are a true follower,
50:31 a truly converted disciple of Jesus,
50:35 is that you love God and you love man,
50:39 you're being responsible socially
50:43 and you're being responsible spiritually
50:45 and you surrendering both of these areas of your
50:48 life to God. And, something very
50:54 important to point out is that when it says
50:58 do not quench to the spirit, the word quench
51:03 means to put out, it means to, to extinguish,
51:09 and someone once said, and that someone was
51:14 General William Booth, and he said, the tendency
51:20 of fire is to go out, the tendency of fire is
51:26 to go out. Brothers and sisters,
51:28 if we're not responsible, if we do not take careful
51:30 measures to be responsible, we will not
51:36 be spiritually sound, we will not be socially sound
51:39 and the spirit will be quenched. You see, fire
51:45 can be quenched by simple neglect and the
51:49 Holy Spirit fire is needed not only as
51:53 a source of power for us to be finishers in the
51:57 last days, but as a safe guard of purity, if we're
52:01 gonna remain pure through these last
52:03 days, if we're gonna have the power to be
52:05 a finisher in these last days, we need the
52:08 spirit and so we must not neglect it.
52:11 We must not neglect it. So, I want to read the
52:17 last closing verses of First Thessalonians 5 and
52:22 that will finish our message for today.
52:24 First Thessalonians 5:23, and may, this is so
52:30 powerful, this is so powerful. Verse 23,
52:36 and now may the God of peace himself, sanctify
52:40 you completely, we talked earlier about the
52:45 four full heuristic areas of a person's life.
52:50 And, Jesus wants that in us, he wants to
52:54 sanctify us completely and may your whole spirit and
52:57 soul and body be kept blameless at the coming
53:02 of our Lord Jesus Christ. See Paul's prayer for
53:07 the believers in Thessalonica and Paul's
53:13 prayer for the believers down through the centuries
53:14 and especially at the very end of time,
53:18 is that we will be sanctified completely
53:22 and kept blameless until Jesus comes.
53:27 And, then verse 24 is powerful. The Bible says
53:34 he who calls you is faithful, what word did it
53:40 just say, he who calls you is faithful.
53:45 He will surely do it, that is so powerful,
53:50 we today must follow the faithful one
53:54 and be a finisher, and it is only in
53:58 following Jesus that we will be able to finish
54:03 and be faithful. And, then the promise
54:08 will be to us. He who is faithful unto
54:12 death will receive a crown of life.
54:16 Beloved, as we close, I want each
54:20 of you to think, you might be watching this
54:23 broadcast around the world, who knows where
54:26 in the world, North America, South America,
54:29 Asia, Africa, India, who knows where?
54:36 And for those of us here today, we must ask
54:41 ourselves the question, are we following
54:45 faithfully? Are we quenching the spirit?
54:50 Are we're going to be finishers. Faithful
54:55 finishers, when Jesus comes in the clouds of
54:59 glory. And, so as we kneel and close with prayer
55:04 and I invite you to kneel with me. I invite those
55:08 who are in their homes watching, just, just
55:11 kneel down, pray that God will come into your
55:14 life, that the spirit will bless you more than
55:17 you've seen before, and pray with me that
55:24 we can be faithful. Let's bow our heads
55:31 and pray. Dear heavenly Father,
55:37 we want to follow the faithful one today,
55:41 and we want to be finishers. Lord Jesus
55:49 I believe you're coming soon. I believe you're
55:54 coming sooner than we even first believed and
55:59 Jesus help us to be faithful, help us to
56:02 follow you, the faithful one, more closely today
56:06 then we've ever done before, help us not to
56:09 quench the spirit of the God in our lives because
56:12 that is what Jesus had, that is what enabled
56:16 Jesus to be faithful, help us not to quench
56:21 the spirit, help us to be faithful like Jesus and
56:26 to finish the good fight, to finish the race and
56:32 receive the prize because the Bible says,
56:36 he who is faithful unto death will receive
56:42 the crown of life. So, Jesus we can't do
56:46 this on our own, we cannot be finishers on
56:49 our own, but you're the faithful one, First
56:52 Corinthians says, First Thessalonians says,
56:56 you're the faithful one who will do the
56:59 good work in us that we cannot do on our
57:01 own, send your Holy Spirit to do that
57:05 work in our lives, today Father and let
57:09 us be one of the many people
57:12 who will enter your kingdom.


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Revised 2014-12-17