(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh You're giving me number three I Hear the Savior say Indeed is small This watching Jesus He Oh I Think y'all so much for joining us for pure words this evening if you turn your hymnals a song number three We'll get started this evening with song number three. Jesus paid it all Thank you for being here this evening song number three Jesus paid it all and the first I Hear the Savior say thy strength Indeed is small child of weakness watching play finding me Thine own Jesus paid it all Oh To in my own Then that left the crimson stain he washed a white By Can change the leopard spots and Jesus paid it all To in my own Sin Crams insane He washed it wide and slow or nothing good Where by the grace to claim I wash my garments why in the blood of Islam Jesus Crimson stain Complete Jesus died myself to save my Himself still repeat Jesus paid it all all to him Hey Very good singing for the Jeffrey. Would you lead us in prayer this evening, please? You And let's go to song 147 Song 147 leaning on the everlasting arms One hundred and forty seven leaning on the everlasting arms What a fellowship What a joy divine leaning on the everlasting arms What a blessedness What a peace is mine leaning on the everlasting arms Safe and secure Oh sweet to walk in this pilgrim way on the everlasting arms Right the path goes from day to day Safe and secure On the everlasting arms What am I to tread what am I to fear leaning on the everlasting arms I have blessed peace with my Lord so near on the everlasting Safe and secure Oh Thank you so much for coming if you need a bulletin they should be on this back cabinet and we have our new Bible memory verse that we're memorizing Psalm 47 and We're on verse number one. Oh clap your hands all you people Shout unto God with the voice of triumph you're able to quote this you're under the age of 18 18 or under you get an ice cream treat right after the service So it's starting to heat up so that ice cream will taste good right on the inside. We have our service and soul winning times Also our church stats. Is there any soul winning to report that hasn't been reported last few days? You have the great work on soul winning you need to pray for the Darnell's we're expecting in June Also upcoming guest preaching May 1st for the David Keefer From faithful word of Baptist Church is gonna be coming out here and he's gonna be preaching for us I believe he's preached at least one time at peer words in the past And so it'll be a blessing to have him come back out here and he's a Hawaii guy So don't give him too hard of a time But you know, I guess he's coming more inland, you know, he's got a surf his way down here Brother Keefer is a great guy. And so definitely thank him for coming out here for the Benjamin. My name is gonna be coming May 15th And then pastor Anderson is gonna be actually out here. God willing July 7th, so That'll be a great treat. He's actually doing like a kind of a road trip thing. So he's gonna be preaching The week before in Oklahoma City, he's gonna preach that Sunday What is that gonna be like third or something like that? Maybe the second or the third? I'd like at a calendar. He's gonna preach that Sunday before both services He's gonna preach the Wednesday night service at steadfast for the July 6 service And then he's gonna come down here and preach the July 7th service And so he's making a quick little run through Texas and then he'll want to get out of here He doesn't like Texas for some reason. All right, but it's okay We you know, we know the right place to live. So and then down below upcoming events May 7th is gonna be a Mother's Day tea and It's gonna be in Pearland It's from 5 p.m. To 6 30 p.m And so we'd love for you to attend the address and location or put in here. There's also I think a Facebook Event so you can sign up that way But please at least either text my wife or email the church or something like that There should be even a sign-up sheet back here. So Fill out all of them or at least one of them or something. Just let us know we'd like for all the ladies to attend No, dudes no dudes wanted to come okay, we got it right now and So just make sure to sign up for it all all ladies and their daughters. We'd like for you to bring Your your daughters you can invite also if you want to invite your mom Your aunt or anybody that was born female. You're welcome to do so and it's still currently female, right? Emphasis on that probably But it is a Mother's Day tea and but we want all ladies to Participate and so that'll be a great thing. Please do sign up. It does say by The 24th on here, which now I think about it really soon So this Wednesday I book or this this Sunday I guess this Sunday night maybe is when the clock is gonna strike 12 So make sure to sign up very soon so that we have some kind of an idea and we can plan for that May 21st, we're having the soul-winning marathon in Austin, Texas. So that'll be a lot of fun I've never I've never been there soul-winning. So I don't know what to anticipate We do have some friends and some people that come to our church occasionally from that area and they say it's pretty good. So Well, we'll give it a go and it's definitely a large area growing and everything like that I don't know what's growing with like answer like liberalism cancer But you know, we're gonna go and make it normal. We're gonna go perform surgery we're gonna cut some of that liberals out right so and I'm excited about that. I'm also a couple prayer requests pray for the steadfast Baptist Church pray for the Goodwin family they're a steadfast family pray for brother Edward and Also pray. Hey, he's there. He's here. So, you know, all right. Praise the Lord Pray for miss liberties daughter-in-law miss mother Catherine the mouthful daughter-in-law's mother and then we'll be praying for her foundation also pray for brother Joel for just drink and personal issues So he was asking for extra prayer on that and so we'll continue to pray for him That's pretty much all I have on the prayer quest. We'll just say it. Let's say a quick prayer For those who are mentioned. Thank you heavenly father for our church. Thank you for this opportunity to be gathered I pray that you be with those that are not able to be here Please give health unto our church family is give them strength. I pray that you would just help us all to be bold Gospel soul winners for you and that you would continue to bless our efforts here in Jesus name we pray. Amen Let's go to our third song song 12 on number 12 Blessed Redeemer You Song number 12 blessed Redeemer and the hymnal song number 12 Up Galvary's mountain one dreadful morn walk Christ my Savior Weary and worn Facing for sinners death on the cross That he might save them from endless loss Blessed Redeemer Precious Redeemer Seems now I see him on Calvary Street I Did For sinners Blind and unheeding dying for me Father forgive them the steady pray In while his life flow fast away praying for sinners while in such woe No one but Jesus ever loved so Blessed Redeemer Precious Redeemer Seems now I see him on Calvary Street Wounded and bleeding For sinners pleading Blind and unheeding dying for me Oh Him Sager and friend How can my praises ever find him? Through years on number on heaven's shore My tongue shall praise him forevermore Blessed Redeemer Precious Redeemer Seems now I see him on Calvary Street Wounded and bleeding for sinners pleading Blind and unheeding dying for me Very good singing at this time. We'll turn in our Bibles to 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 brother Samson's gonna read for us 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 will pass the offering plate Hey 1st Thessalonians chapter number 5 you would find your places. Let's read this chapter together as always Follow along with me start right here in verse number one where the Bible reads But of times and seasons brethren you have no need that I write unto you For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord shall come it as a thief in the night when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction coming upon them and Prevail upon as a woman with child and they shall not escape But ye brothers are not in darkness that that they should overtake you as a thief You're all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor darkness Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober But they that sleep sleep in the night they that be drunken or drunken in the night But let us who are of the day be sober putting on the breastplate of faith and love For an ailment the hope of salvation God has not appointed us into wrath But a pain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep We should live together with him Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also you do We beseech you brother to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and To esteem them very highly and love for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves Now we exhort you brother warn them that are unruly Comfort the people mind it import the weak be patient toward all men see that none render you before you will unto any man But ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men Joyce every more ever more pray without ceasing Everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you quench not the spirit Despise not prophesying prove all things hold fast that which is good Staying from all appearances of you and the very God of peace sanctify you holy and I pray God your whole spirit And soul and body be preserved blameless into the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Faithful is he that call it you who also will do it brethren pray for us Read all the brethren with unholy kiss I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you Amen So we're in First Thessalonians chapter number five and we're kind of finishing this chapter and we started out with in chapter number one Just to kind of give you a quick recap the fact that they had gone through a lot of tribulation a lot of persecution And that's basically how the gospel came unto them was through a lot of tribulation Verse or chapter number two he kind of elaborates on that and gets more of the details and the specifics of what that tribulation looked like chapter three He kind of finishes up that same thought and then in chapter number four As we kind of moved on to kind of a little bit different point he reminded them in the latter portion of the chapter the importance of You know the the coming of Christ and and just kind of what that impact has now before he got there he reminded them in chapter number three the importance of Serving God and walking the right kind of walk. It's look at chapter four for a second look at verse one Furthermore then we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus That as he have received of us how he ought to walk and to please God So you would abound more and more now What's what's interesting when you when you think about this entire book of the Bible is That this thought that kind of starts in chapter number four verse number one is going to be how the chapter five ends So it's kind of like it's still kind of the same thought and then just in the middle Which is kind of the end portion of chapter four in the beginning of chapter five it talks about the return of Christ, okay? well, I believe that that's important because in thinking about Christ returning is going to be a motivating factor for you to what be pleasing in his sight you're Anticipating his return you're thinking about spiritual things So it kind of seems random a little bit when you're just kind of like reading chapter number four Then all of a sudden just brings up like how the crisis returning we're supposed to comfort one another And how we're not going to prevent them with sleep And then you get in chapter five and it starts off and chapter number five is not a Solidary thought because it's relying or it's basically coming after all of that previous sentiment all that previous thought or train of thought here in chapter number four because look what it says in verse number one, but You don't really start you know a new thought with the word, but okay You're it might be a new thought, but it's in conjunction with the previous right It's kind of answering something that you've already said so he's talking about how Christ is going to come But then in chapter number five verse one it says, but of the times in the seasons brethren You have no need that I write unto you So he's talking about the return of Christ, and he says hey, but I want to make something clear You don't need me to tell you when this is gonna happen, okay? Why verse two for now he's gonna say why for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night When they shall say peace and safety Then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape But ye brethren are not in darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief Okay, so we want to make sure we understand this first few verses here But essentially what he's saying is hey you guys don't need me to tell you exactly when Christ is gonna come You guys already know you guys are already aware And when he's talking about you guys he's just talking about the saved the saved are gonna know the saved are Gonna be aware of Christ's return but the unsaved to them the return of Christ is gonna be like a thief in the night and if we think about a thief in the knife, it's just a Metaphor for what it's gonna be like a thief in the night is someone that you're not anticipating And you're not watching for and he comes when you don't expect it, okay? So basically you're just you're having a good old time. You're sleeping You're basically enjoying life, but then this thief breaks in and they're there to basically take your goods That's gonna catch you off guard That's gonna catch you by surprise if you knew that he was coming you wouldn't gone to bed You would have been like waiting for him or something like that right so the illustration is just kind of an illustration of No one that gets anything stolen from them was anticipating it right a thief coming in the night and stealing whatever You know I've had things stolen from me lots of times, and it's really frustrating I one of the dumbest thefts in my opinion that I've ever had against me is I had an old Honda Accord and The previous owner had put like a brand new deck when I say deck It's a CD player. That's what we call it. They put a new deck in there. It wasn't the factory one it was one of these cool ones that lights up or whatever and The guy jacked in my car, and then took off just the cover plate, so he didn't take the CD player He just you can basically there's like a little tab there And you can just basically peel off the little cover, and I was looking online. It was like on eBay They're selling for like 15 bucks or something like that, and I'm just like how hard up is this guy? That they jacked my car, and then they steal my deck cover plate and the reason I noticed is because Mike They didn't close my door so they drained my battery on top of it Thanks, buddy because basically they just they didn't quite slam it all the way shut so then the overhead light was on And I'm like I didn't leave the overhead light on in my car And then I go look and my deck plates gone and you can see things are kind of shuffled and then it was just like oh man and I thought they told the took the whole CD player, but they didn't have enough time They just took the cover plate, and I'm thinking to scalp 15 bucks. Maybe I mean. I'm just kind of like really and and so That's just something. I wasn't anticipating though. I didn't see it coming. I never thought anybody would steal that I wasn't thinking like oh man Let's put a lock and chain on that or something, but but see this is the point being made here It's not that the Lord is a thief. It's not that the Lord is robbing or stealing. That's not what's being mentioned here What's being mentioned is the fact that it's going to come and you don't expect it at all the unsaved are not anticipating Christ Whatsoever they do not see it coming. They will not see it coming at all so if we See the contrast though is those that are saved. They are gonna see it now Let's go to a couple of verses go keep your finger go to Luke chapter number 21 go to Luke chapter number 21 And Look what it says a verse number 34 and take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and Drunkenness and cares of this life and so that day come upon you Unawares for as a snare shall that come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth so it's saying like For those that are unsafe for the world. This is gonna be like a snare now a snare is a trap and Typically I always think of like a bear trap or some kind of an animal trap They hide those things you take a snare and you basically put it in the bushes you put it in brush So you can't see it, but when you step on it It comes up out of those bushes, and it'll catch you and it just it's the worst day You're ever gonna have and so basically it's just kind of picturing the fact that when Christ comes for them It's like a snare where they're just strolling through the park Just having a good time, and then all of a sudden just BAM, and that's what Christ coming is gonna be like To the unsaved the rest of the world you know we kind of sometimes people paint this idea of like when Christ comes It's gonna be like this Armageddon And you know like there's just all this turmoil and chaos And it's just you know it's like the water world or Mad Max movies or something or they think like the whole world is destroyed Or something like that, but the Bible doesn't really paint that picture if you really study what the Bible teaches about Christ return So the unsaved they're gonna think that it's every this is the normal Everything is normal and just fine and dandy and I mean think about it They're gonna get the mark of the beast and think that it's great You know they're not like going around there. They're like sweet. I don't even have to carry my my credit cards around anymore This is really convenient You know I just get all my foods and get all my good You know something got the head one. They're like I got the head one man You know they're like this is cool. You know I mean there's no problem They're gonna be going and buying all their booze and all their liquor and all the stuff that they all their idols and everything They're gonna go watch movies. They're gonna go watch the new Netflix show and everything I mean they're gonna eat ice cream and and pop-tarts and whatever McDonald's you know Big Mac and everything like that, but then just all of a sudden just Christ is coming Just BAM whoa That's what it's gonna be like for the unsaved go backwards to chapter 17 go back to chapter number 17 And look what it says in verse number 26 and as it was in the days of no Or no we know as we know them so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man They did eat they drank they married wives They were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered in the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all so notice the Bible Is telling us hey exactly like it was with Noah? Where it's just like fun and party and whatever and the Noah gets on the ark and starts raining. It's like what happened It's like and then the fountains of the deeps burst open and it's just rain coming down everywhere I mean that wasn't a surprise to everybody. They're just kind of like living their life I mean, it's also you know it's not in the Bible But it makes me think of there's a small town like in the Europe area That was destroyed with a volcano, and I had it in my mind someone remind me What is it Pompeii yeah, yeah, Pompeii basically, it's just like they're having fun and then all of a sudden just the mountain erupts and it's just fire coming down out of Nowhere, and you know makes me think of this next one though look what it says it says in verse number 29 But the same day that lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all so they're saying like It only was a matter of hours that it went from just normal economy everything's great No problems to just complete destruction immediate destruction and basically the Bible is painting that picture how the world is going to be going on Business as usual things are fine and dandy normal economic activity normal just even social Activity notice people are getting married. I mean talk about a bad day to plan a wedding Right talk about a bad day to do anything I mean eating drinking marrying wise they're given in marriage you know the day you got engaged you know talk about kind of a spoiling and so you know there's a lot of Things that the Bible is painting here as a picture to give you some kind of a semblance to give you some kind of an Idea of what is going to happen now Let's go back to first Thessalonians chapter number four or five. I'm sorry for system in chapter five Well, you do have to understand though is for a Christian It's not going to be like that okay, so I'm not saying that it's just fun like the anti-crisis fun or something like that No, but it's basically picture painting the picture that for the world is going to be fun, but for us. It's going to be Hell on Earth literally. I mean it's just going to be The greatest tribulation the greatest persecution greatest affliction, but you know we have that Happen all the time think about right now in America people are having fun We're going out and having ice cream and shakes and and doing whatever we want While some parts of the world are literally going through war famine Intense you know Struggle I saw a movie and you know it kind of Takes you back, but it's like it's called like American sniper. I don't know who's seen this movie anyways in this movie, okay? it's about one of our soldiers going over in Afghanistan and basically he's like a sniper and Some of the people that he basically killed while he was over there And it's kind of like a war propaganda film a little bit in my opinion I don't really necessarily agree with all the premises of the film, but What I thought was interesting is how like in America. We're just having fun and doing whatever over there it's like a literal war zone and Yet there was so many people living like there's so many people like they have to live in a constant state of fear And they have us soldiers there that could kill them at any moment, and then they have Taliban leaders that are there Basically threatening them could possibly hurt them and kill them as well And they're just living in rocks and hiding and just basically like they their lives are just a train wreck Okay, but then us over here in America. It's great. It's fun. You know we're having no parties party You know and to me that's kind of what I'm thinking is like you know for the Christian We're gonna be like those Muslim refugees in these cities that are just it's like a complete war zone And like death and destruction under them and everybody's an enemy under them Whereas for the rest of the world is just fun and party and they can use YouTube and whatever you know the front no problem Okay, but you know we're not going to be able to have those luxuries in fact. It's funny like The YouTube censorship has gotten so crazy now One of my pastor friends pastor Stephen Anderson. I I've made some old clips of his preaching I just started uploading it and just immediately taken down It's just like if you just have any video with him in it It just they just take it down, and it was like he was just preaching against liberal churches. It wasn't even anything like Sensitive or content. I mean he was just basic. It was just like what in the world you know you try to appeal It's like he's just been unpersoned you know or whatever. It's like that's what they're gonna do to Christians You know you think like oh, it's just him and like no no that's just the warming up Eventually, it's gonna happen to all kinds of people every single person. It's just the tip of the iceberg for Christianity, okay? So I don't want you to be confused about what I'm saying I am NOT saying that you're gonna have a party all the way up until Christ return You know that's what the pre-trippers want to believe, but really it's kind of funny because the pre-trip mentality is Like the exact opposite of what this is saying this is saying that those that are gonna Basically have a party until Christ returns or the unsaved okay the saved We're going through chapters number one two and three of tribulation tribulation tribulation And then saying like now we need to make sure that we're walking the right walk up to what Christ return We're working hard. We're praying for our bills. We're doing that which is right, and And we realize that even if you've already passed away You're still gonna come with Christ And I don't need to you know constantly remind you of when this is gonna happen because it will not take You as a thief You have a built-in Security system you know when the thief breaks the window and the sounds like But that's the Holy Spirit inside of you when the Antichrist starts showing up You know you're not gonna be able to just pretend like nothing's happening or whatever You know it's not gonna be like you can just I don't know what's going on You know this guy wants us to worship and calling himself God is causing people to get a mark smaller great I mean that's not gonna like not affect you You know that's gonna be real on the forefront of your mind You know every single decision And he says in verse number five year all the children of light and the children of the day We are not of the night nor of the darkness verse 6 therefore let us not sleep as do others Let us watch and be sober now the word sleep means a few different things in this book In one context it means that you've passed away So you basically your body is on earth in the ground and your souls in heaven So it's like a euphemism for being dead, but another time. It just means what you would think of you're sleeping Okay, and then another time in this context. It's just kind of a euphemism for the fact that you're not paying attention Okay, so you have like three different meanings of the same word all in the same book right you're sleeping taking a nap You're sleeping meaning you're not paying attention. You're sleeping. You're with Jesus. Okay, so in this context though When it says therefore let us not sleep as do others. It's saying we don't want to be the type of Christian That's basically not paying attention to Christ return so of Course once it gets to the culmination of the Antichrist revealing himself I don't think it's possible for anybody to do that saved to not Understand what's happening at that point? But what this is really essentially you know trying to tell us though? Is that leading up to that point there could be a lot of Christians that are basically just not caring Not going to church not taking the things the Lord seriously until it's basically forced upon them You know they're basically just not taking Christianity seriously at all Until it affects their food until it affects their buying habits or whatever you know until it affects their world And their carnalness is they can actually wake them up a little bit, okay, and that's kind of a sad reality But that's basically what he's saying and and of course he's saying that they're asleep because if they were awake There's no way to you know essentially not See what's happening? Verse 7 for they that sleep sleep in the night, and they that be drunken drunken in the night But let us who are of the day be sober putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of Salvation so again. He's using a lot of just pictures metaphors Things that we see in regular day occurrences to help us understand kind of what he's talking about from a spiritual perspective But you know there's kind of you know two people that he's describing there's two different attitudes There's two different behaviors in the evening one is you're taking Good rest you're going to bed and the other group doesn't sleep. They just get drunk They basically just party at night and whatever and basically waste the night and ruin their lives You know there's tons of people they'll instead of like getting good night's sleep They'll just get drunk all night, and they'll just stay up all night, and then they'll call in sick to work And it's like why are you sick again? Because you got drunk last night not because you're actually sick not because you actually caught some kind of a cold or something like that But it's just because you're you know basically a terrible person You know you're basically just wasting your life away Just drinking your life away Doing absolutely nothing and look what drinking does is it's basically like just pressing a button that just says fast forward But you know in a really bad way, you know it's like You know and then you wake up. You're like got a headache man That was that was weird you know and then they're like I just feel so crappy. I'm do that again And then when they do it the second time it's like a worse headache You know and then and then they just keep wanting to do it and just it basically just spirals out of control Because the only fix to them is just basically keep pressing fast forward because when you drink lots of alcohol What happens is you forget everything? You forget that you're even there time passes like that I mean time just starts going super quick you forget where you're at you forget what you did you forget who you are you forget? That you were married You forget everything and you just basically just ruin your life destroy your life, and it's just a waste you know there's been lots of movies and Chinese parables even about these type of things there's a story Like a Chinese parable the guy has like a string of yarn or something and every time he tugs it like fast forwards in his life There's a they made a whole movie an Adam Sandler movie about it. Okay. It's called click Anybody know I'm talking about I want to see the worldly ones in here, okay? Basically he has a remote control, and he can basically fast forward on his life It's based on the same principle. You know you pull this yarn the string of yarn, and you basically can just Skip some event that you don't want to have to go to this is like going to the dentist pulling that yarn You know or whatever it is bad thing that you have to go through but what ends up happening is they end up just pulling the yarn through almost all of their life and They realize like wow I wish I could go back and live all of it You know even the bad parts made the good parts good, and you know if you're only gonna live the good parts It's like five minutes your life anyway, so it's like you know no point, and it's just like she might as well Just go ahead and live it okay and and Again, why why just drink your life away? You know and that's what that's pretty much what the world does is it tries to get you hooked on something that basically just makes the time fly What's another one of those TV? Sports Movies things that just make time just games you know whatever it is and again There's nothing necessarily wrong with a lot of these some of these activities They're just kind of vanity, but at the same time. It's just like God did just put us here to just waste time They're just basically just press fast forward on our lives and especially not with a poison like alcohol It's not only in his fast-forward time It's gonna destroy your internal organs gonna destroy every part of your body notice that the opposite is sleeping You say well. I don't know how to not get drunk. Okay. We'll go to bed early Isn't that a pretty good tip? I mean you know most people don't even start drinking until like 10 11 You know unless you're an alcoholic and you start drinking whenever yes, they're like it's five o'clock somewhere You know it's like there's a dumb philosophy, but you know don't go to the bar Don't buy the alcohol. Don't don't do these things. You know because if you find yourself there That's what you're gonna, and they there be drunken or drunk at night notice that evil activities happen when? tonight Another good reason even try to go to bed early now You know if you can't you can't you know I'm not gonna get to go to bed early tonight, okay? So I understand you know it's gonna be really hard for me to get drunk driving home Okay late at night right if you've got a legitimate activity that you're doing okay Do it, but if you have nothing to do, and it's night. You know you should do go to bed Because nothing good is happening at night basically is the picture that is being pointed here And he's saying the people that are wicked do wicked stuff at night the people that are good They sleep during the night, and they do good stuff during the day and since we're of the day Spiritually and metaphorically speaking as the Bible is describing you know we don't want to be like the world and act like the world and Do the things the world does we want to do is something completely different while they're doing their thing We're doing our thing completely separate right so the world does their Wickedness and debauchery and filth while we go out soul winning reading the Bible and singing praises to God, okay? So there's a complete dichotomy here of the day and of the night, but there's a lot of Christians who don't want to Live in the day. They want to live in the night, and he's basically saying like don't be that Christian That's living in the night. Don't be like the world don't act like the world you ought to walk Like a Christian you ought to walk like Christ you ought to do that which is pleasing under the Lord and especially when we start Getting closer to the time of Christ especially when we are approaching the coming of Jesus Christ How much more than do you want to make sure that you're doing that which is right? You know if you know your parents are coming home You know that's when you really want to get your butt in gear and start cleaning up the room and clean up the cookies and Whatever else that you got into right you want to kind of like have an appearance You're doing the right thing You don't want to just basically destroy the house And then just be sleeping on the kitchen counter when they walk in or something like that They find you on the roof or something. It's like. What are you doing? You know it's like no they want to you that you want to be up and ready, and you're waiting you're watching And so that's why it's important You know that's kind of what the emphasis is of Christ coming in this chapter is emphasizing again our need to what do that Which is right, and I think the return of Christ is an important doctrine to motivate us to be a better Christian How does the pre-trib rapture motivate someone to be a better Christian Now it does in the same context of the fact that well if he's if he could come at any moment We better you know make sure that we're serving him, but the problem with that approach Is The pre-trib the pre-trib theory is that Christ can come at any moment for any reason like there's nothing like We're not really looking for anything. He's just like bam. You know whatever my clothes disappear. You know my clothes fall down I disappear or something right as the movie describes But the other picture for ours is that hey things are gonna start getting more serious Persecution is gonna start ramping up We're gonna see all these events unfolding Which is gonna be a constant like kick in the butt a constant spur to our high You know side or whatever it's basically saying like hey start serving God start taking this serious start taking this seriously And that makes a lot more sense that the coming of Christ is gonna try and spur us into gear Get that kick in the pants that we need to say like we need to take this to another level We need to take Christianity seriously and kind of hold on For the last little bit that we have you know do some big exploits for the Lord when that day starts approaching You know if they start doing animal sacrifices and a guy's conquering the world and it's World War three and whatever It's like you know I'm not gonna be thinking about my 401k I'm not gonna be thinking about what summer home. I can have you know I'm not gonna be thinking about you know Ten year leases or whatever in fact. I might be finding like we'll sign a hundred year lease Yeah, but I'm just saying like that's the time to be like let's take another mission strip, right Let's let's go let's extend soul winning by an hour in fact Let's extend church. You know fellowship a little bit more too because in the world is so weird right You know that's when you start getting more serious about church. You know it talks about in Hebrews Not forsaken to assembling ourselves together as the man or some is it's like and so much the more as You see the day approaching meaning like when we're getting really close. We might want to hang out more not less You know and why not I Appreciate good fellowship especially depending on how weird the world gets You know or they start censoring everybody and canceling everybody and people can't even jobs and stuff It's like man. We're gonna have to rely upon one another even to survive to some degree, right? But he's saying hey when we're of the day We need to be sober taking our life seriously putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation You know the helmet of salvation is also pictured in Ephesians when talks about the armor of God and why I think it's kind of You know that the helmet Aspect is the the head pictures the control system The decision-making process right if I know that I'm safe if I know for a fact I'm going to heaven no matter what That's gonna. Help me in my decision-making Because if if I think I could lose my salvation If I think it's dependent upon works if I'm not certain of my salvation You know it's gonna be a lot more difficult for me to want to be a martyr for Jesus Christ or To serve the Lord or to do that which is right You know when you have that armor of salvation in the sense that helmet specifically you say like hey the worst thing you can do Is send me home early You know worst thing that's gonna happen to me is I'm going to heaven Whereas you know the fear of death could be a really big snare to a lot of people When they don't have that certainty of salvation You know a lot of people are really a terrified of dying because they're thinking like I don't I don't know where I'm going so I don't want to go yet You know when you know you're going to heaven in fact sometimes you're kind of like let's go The apostle balls like I have a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better now when you're young I don't believe any young person has that that thought so if you're young and you think like I don't want to die it All don't worry. I don't think anybody does, but as you get older Parts your body start to hurt. You know things don't work the way they used to work You know you've kind of lived a lot of the experiences that you wanted to live already They didn't even live up to the hype Okay, then you start thinking like heaven sound a little bit better you know I just my personal opinion is every day you get older heaven just sounds a little better and Just it's just like you know. I didn't really want to die You know and I mean there's some days. You know you're just like that sounds great You know you know when you're going through the hard times. You're going through something difficult sometimes. It's not even that scary and I think that that's important though because it helps keep you motivated to do that which is right and And to serve the Lord and and to even be willing to put it all on the line Hey, you know you kind of have that safety blanket as it were you know a trapeze artist might not be is Bold if there's not that net underneath the ketchum essentially right But when you have that net of the grace of God And you know you're going to heaven you're like let's do as many backflips as we can on this thing You know let's let's try to let's try to do something cool You know rather than like hang on so tight and it's like look if you follow you fall in the net You know I thought that big a deal right so that's why you kind of have that helmet of Salvation and it's kind of that picture there, and it's gonna help us with our faith It says in verse number nine why for God had not appointed us to wrath, but themselves it But to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ think about this also because we know we're saved When we see that sudden destruction coming we're not afraid at all We're not like Am I gonna go through that it's like no You know the locust from hell gonna get me not at all you know it's like sweet. You know it's like hey I don't have to worry about these kind of things. I don't have to worry about the wrath of God I don't have to worry about hell. I don't have to worry about any of that kind of junk you know Obviously they can kill us, but then the Bible says after that death. There's nothing they can ever do again Think about that. You know it's like the worst thing you can do kind of is like kill me But as soon as you kill me you're done with me you never get to hurt me again even for one second It's all over, but as soon as you die your pain never ends Like the it's and it gets worse Because you go from hell to the great white throne to the lake of fire I mean you know they have things to not look forward to Their life just keeps getting worse and worse and worse and worse And I kind of imagine that that's how hell is you know the first day Maybe they're lying lying to themselves and thinking like I don't maybe this isn't forever But you know the second day comes The third day then the great white throne, and they're like sweet. I knew purgatory was real, and it's like nope And then it's like hell is like a fire, and they're like is there another judgment option or is there a peel you know? Nope, okay And then once I see the devil thrown in there, it's like It's over and just just the permanency of hell's has got to suck. It's got to be horrible. It's the worst thing imaginable That's why we go out and preach the gospel right and he's not appointed us to wrath But what to obtain salvation by Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep We should live together with him now. I like that saying hey Remember that even if you're alive right now, or you're in heaven You know what hey? We're with Jesus right where he's there with us as soon as you die You're with Jesus right now. He's with us. Okay, so we're he's never gonna leave us nor forsake us is what the Bible said and Isn't that a great comfort? You know he's trying to comfort us Notice what he says in the verse in the next verse wherefore comfort Your cells together and edify one another even as also You do and so again when we we talk about difficult subjects in the Bible We want to make sure that we're always balancing it with the fact that it's still comforting The fact that hey, we're gonna go to heaven though You know even though we have to go through some difficulty even though we have to go through some struggle There's gonna be some evil that will befall some of us. You know at the end of the day What Christ won't abandon you that I could abandon you you know who can never abandon you is Christ You know your family could abandon you your spouse could abandon you your children could abandon you your parents could abandon you right? But you know we'll never abandon you is Jesus That's a really comforting thing you know and of course if there's any person that you don't want to abandon you. It's Jesus Right like I'm not that great. Jesus is great. You know if it was like hey Pastor Shelley's my friend or Jesus my friend. It's like you picked Jesus every time okay. He's way better of a friend He's way more gracious. He's way way better in every category, okay, and The same is true in comparison to any of us That's why we get this great comfort, and we also want to comfort each other though We don't want to be selfish with the Lord Jesus Christ We want to share him with others and we want to share the comfort of the Word of God and edify means to build One another up so again even though we hear hard messages The goal is still to be built up to build people up church should be building you Not destroying you not taking away from not making you a worse person, but making you a better person and and so here's here's how I think of church and You know you say. I don't know what's yours to go to I don't know how to evaluate church Think of yourself as a person in a prior state say like what was I like a year ago as Opposed to today, and then ask yourself this question do I feel like I'm better or worse You know Then think five years ago think ten years ago and think like hey am I reading the Bible more am I going to church more? Do I know more doctrine you know if you were to meet? Five year five or five years old ago version of yourself right five years ago You take five years off your life, okay? And you say go back in time you're gonna talk to yourself, and you're gonna talk about doctrine Okay, who's gonna win that argument? The guy today or the guy five years ago right who's you know more spiritual this guy or that guy right? Who's been you know who's got more awards or you know you kind of think of that? That's a good way to say like hey, it's what I'm doing building me up Is what I'm doing you know I think a lot of Christians would look at themselves in the mirror, and they'd say I'm like the same I Really nothing's changed in my life. I don't really know anything else oh I I haven't done anything. I'm not going anywhere. That would mean you probably need to get a different church You know some people say I don't like that church because the preacher made me mad one time. I didn't like what he said But that's not necessarily good litmus test because if he made you mad, but then you got better You know is that really how does that work? You know it's like man. He always makes me mad I don't like it is uncomfortable, but I keep I'm just a better person Yeah, it's like hey. There's a reason you know think about this working out now if you like working out This will make sense to you, but normal people You know working out sucks like I never go, and I'm thinking like this is fun You know I don't like it. You know all the exercise at first it can be okay But then when you start getting to like your done point start getting fatigued on a certain rep it hurts It's it's you know exhausting. I'm constantly thinking like I don't want to do another one I don't want to do another one. You know or running or any of these activities right, but then why do people work out? Because they are built up I Am going to make a strong Okay I'm going to pump you up You know if you are going to work out every single week with Arnold for an hour And you got you got like basically weaker You know you got like this puny and skinnier, and you couldn't even lift as much weight. You would stop going Or what if it was the exact same? You just nothing's different the exact same. It's like eventually you would think like this. This is pointless Okay, this doesn't make any sense Right this is how you should evaluate church is you should say hey am I getting built up am I becoming a better person? Are things in my life better than they were before and I'm not saying always in a carnal sense because of course you know Carnal things fluctuate whether you have more money less money bigger house less house is okay I don't know all that kind of stuff is ebbs and flows Sometimes even the consequences of our sin But from a spiritual picture you got to really look at yourself try to examine yourself and try to say hey Where am I at and you know if you say man? I feel like I'm way different. I was really involved with sin I didn't know anything about church. I wasn't even saved or whatever then it's like hey, you're in a good path Why don't you keep that going then and see where the Lord can elevate you see what kind of gains you can get? Spiritually by serving God and and that's the point of church to build people up You know if you're gonna ever preach a sermon If you're ever gonna share the Bible with someone you should ask yourself this question is At the end of the day when I'm done communicating my message is this person can be better or worse You know not everything in the Bible even though. It's true is necessarily gonna build someone up I mean I could I could point out things in the Bible that are true That aren't necessarily gonna really benefit you or really be that positive You know so you want to be even careful When you know using the Bible that you don't basically use it for destruction You know the apostle Paul talked about this and some of his epistles how they're not going around trying to destroy people They're trying to build them up Essentially okay, and you could take certain passages of the Bible And you know false prophets do this a lot, but you know they'll basically just make people feel miserable and terrible And more carnal by twisting scripture by using it out of context by not a not balancing things in the Bible Making people feel terrible when they shouldn't feel terrible or making them feel good when they shouldn't feel good and basically just ruining the scripture So you want to make sure we always have the right balance, but the goal should always be the same building you up Sometimes that building up hurts like working out Sometimes that building is is comforting because you were struggling and it's you know that ice cream. It's that you know Relaxing pad. It's that hot shower or whatever. I like a hot shower. You know that that's comforting You know that's enjoyable and look sometimes in the Bible. It's a hot shower sometimes It's you know a kick in the pants You know that you kind of you didn't really want, but you need it But at the end of the day we want to make sure that our preachings always edifying want to make sure when we share the Bible someone It's it's in a goal to try and build them up not to not to just tear them down not to just make them seem like a terrible person okay, and the Bible says in verse number 12 and we beseech you brethren and know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and Esteem them very highly and love for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves so He tells you and a lot of 1st Thessalonians 5 I could probably find the exact same thing in another passage because Paul repeats himself And it's important that he repeats himself in Hebrews chapter number 13 He talks about obey them that have the rule over you okay, and so this is very similar to this passage But he's saying that you're supposed to esteem them very highly you know and and specifically that when we're kind of Looking to these people when we're noticing what they do It says that they labor among you notice in verse number 12 And they're over you and notice this they admonish you so there's kind of a three-part system here people that want to be a leader in a church should realize that they still have to work and Some some preachers and some pastors they kind of only want the latter portion. They only want to admonish you But it's hard to take admonishment from someone that's not doing the work You know it's it's hard when someone or that someone doesn't know the job you know this kind of will happen in some companies where they'll hire young managers and the manager has no experience and The actual work they're just they just got a business degree and management or something They're like let's put him in charge. You know and it's like or he's the nephew You know nepotism or something like that, and it's like it's really hard to Appreciate the guy that's basically just telling you what to do when he has no idea how to do it Or he never did it himself, or he's a hypocrite about it. Okay, so as a Leader you always want to make sure that you're doing the work You know if the soul winning leader never actually went so winning with the group That would be kind of weird. You know you want the soul winning leader To actually go soul winning you know you want the guy that's preaching buying the pulpit to actually live that kind of a lifestyle You know you don't want him to get up and just rip on how? Everybody's you know lying and stealing and cheating and do whatever and then he's doing all that right. He's kind of being a hypocrite Or he's being a jerk or you know telling people how their family should be in order and his family's not in order right you Know see it's important that as a leader You're living out that righteous example But when you have somebody that is laboring among you and is over you and is admonishing you notice What it says you're supposed to esteem them very highly In love notice this for their works sake so you notice them doing all this work You should truly appreciate their work. You shouldn't take it for granted you shouldn't Just say well, that's your job You know you're expected to do that or something like that. No you're supposed to actually appreciate them Love them do good unto them help them assist them and and honestly from from my perspective The greatest way that someone could appreciate the work of a pastor minister a leader is For you to just do it Because because you know it really is kind of meaningless if someone comes up to me And it's like pastor Shelly that was a great sermon, and then they don't actually take any of the advice from the sermon As opposed to the guy that never tells me that was a great sermon ever But as soon as I preach the message they just do exactly what the sermon said you know It's like there's plenty of people though. You know you'll preach a sermon on soul winning, and they'll come up No, but great sermon, but then they don't go so long and Then there'll be people that don't say anything They might even criticize the sermon, but they go so winning. You know who I like more The person that just went so winning Because it's like if you really are gonna Appreciate the work that the minister is doing or the leaders doing the best way to appreciate is by doing it and And I liken this into a gift. It's kind of like if someone gives you a gift You know I want to think of an example that no one's giving me, so I don't hurt anybody's feelings But it's like you know someone gives you a gift Let's say they give you a gift card okay, and they give it to use like in now all right And you say thank you, and then you just like I hate their fries and throw in the trash You know that's not really a very that's not really a cool way to appreciate the gift What you do is you say like sweet? I'm gonna buy a lot of burgers with this and only burgers with this okay But you know the best way to appreciate that gift is to go and use it Someone gives you a Bible read it you know someone gives you a gift card spend it You know someone gives you a bike ride it you know someone gives you whatever it is The best way to appreciate is use it, and you know there's been times where people give me gifts And I don't use it that much, and I feel bad I kind of feel bad about the gift because I'm thinking like I Really like that they gave me a gift I really appreciate this But I just don't have a lot of utility for it or maybe I'm just not thinking about it or whatever and that typically People don't get as much appreciation out of it as they would when you actually utilize it and so to me Taking this verse and putting into practical application you know really think about If there's a person you know if there's a pastor out there that's doing a lot of work They're preaching the faithful gospel It you know they're admonishing you you should really try to think about like What they say is something I should actually do and if even if you kind of disagree with it Or even it's kind of hard. You should say like maybe I should just do it Because it's really hard for all of us to observe our own faults There's a reason why you have problems is because typically you don't recognize them in yourself You know when you have a blind spot. It's easy to veer and hit the next car You know it's hard to run into a semi when you see it because you see it right But that tiny little Kia thing or whatever you can't see or whatever. It's real easy Just want to like ram into that thing a motorcyclist because you can't see them I hear them, but you know it's really easy to hit those people so in your life there are sins that you have and One of the big reasons you have that sin is because it's a blind spot It's because you don't really notice it You don't really see and and like I feel like it's very easy not just for me for other people if someone comes up to you They're like hey, how do I fix this in my life, or what should I do with my life? It's like you could just write down on a list like five things that would just fix their life like that Because it's real. It's real clear to you. It's real easy to you, but to them. They're just thinking like And then and then you know basically they don't realize why they have the problem They do is because they won't just do what the person said They won't just take their advice you know it's like it's not hard to fix people's lives is that they just don't want to do it and Typically, it's from the blind spots that they have but you know if you just submit yourself to good leadership to good instruction It'll often fix a lot of problems, and you'll be on the right course people often ask for my advice But not because they're very serious about taking it you know and then when you actually give them the vice They don't do it, and then they screw up, and you're just like you know it's not like I have some special wisdom I really don't believe that at all It's just like it's just when you're not that person It's a little bit, and you know what the Bible says it's pretty easy to just tell people what to do You know I never really find that the instructions of the Bible are so radical thing It's like okay. Go to church every time the doors are open that wasn't hard right read the Bible on a daily basis pray regularly You know love your spouse will win every day What about when they treat me bad? Just treat them good? You know people come to you with marriage advice I don't know how to fix my marriage, and it's just like just do good to them No matter what, but you don't know my situation. I do you're married Yeah, but you don't know how he treats me yeah, but you don't know what she said you don't know what he did You don't know it's like look. I'm married Okay, everyone's married everybody knows that no one's perfect Okay, obviously I married my wife because she's the greatest woman ever so I've got a better situation than you But at the end of the day, I'm still married to a woman That's not a hundred percent perfect right and of course when they do something. That's not perfect. What do you do? You just love them anyways The advice is typically not hard to know what to do. It's hard to do it People just don't want to do people don't want to drag themselves to church people don't want to drag themselves people don't want to work Hard you know it's like. Oh, I have all these money problems these money issues, and I'm just thinking like okay Well work 60 70 hours a week and spend a ton of time studying for a really highly skilled position It's like I don't want to do that. It's like okay welcome to money problems It's like you know what do you want, and it's like well? I want what that guy has that guy doesn't money problems And it's like yeah that guy studies really hard and has a lot of skill and works really hard And he always says yes to the boss, and he shows up, and he's clean-cut You know it's like well, I don't want to do any of that, and it's like yes There's a reason why you have this issue okay, and of course. It's it's hard for us to see some of our blind spots that's why it's a blind spot and the best way to appreciate What people are telling you that you esteem someone highly in love is to do it because if? I give someone advice, and they don't do it. It doesn't really seem like they esteem that opinion very much do they It's like why even should why even come to church to listen to me rant for an hour if you're not even doing it Do something else You know it almost. It's almost like disrespectful you know and it's it's it's I Have to say this like I don't police my church because I don't care, but you know I notice it But I see and sometimes people even bring it up to me like hey this person's doing X Y & Z and it's like man I guess they didn't listen to the sermon But you know what I'm not gonna do I'm not gonna call them up and harass them on top of it because they didn't listen to me the first hour Why am I gonna give you another 30 minutes? you know it's like why even show up and Listen to the guy you know preach the word of God to you if you don't want to actually do it You know actually implement in your life, and I actually make you a better person And that's how you esteem someone highly enough you know and Joe said hey when I laughed everybody would shut up And when I walked into town they're standing up hey when I told them what to do they're gonna do it and If Jesus walked in the room someone that you should have highly esteem if he told you do something you do it, right? He's like hey go go with me on somebody's like yeah You know quit doing this. He's like yeah, no problem done. You know and Again, I'm not the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not trying to say I'm anywhere close to it's not a fair comparison What I am saying is the this is the Lord Jesus Christ And when someone's getting up and delivering the Lord Jesus Christ unto you you should take that very seriously And you should esteem the words of the preacher as an important thing I mean Why do you think I read the Bible and study and pray and everything like that just to get up and just to tell you? Fox warmed over Fox News Charles Spurgeon's commentary you know go read that on your own Right We're supposed to get up and preach the Word of God to teach people how to live their lives and and really when you Appreciate the words by implementing them in your life. That's the greatest way you can show life That's the greatest way that you can take them seriously and sometimes it means doing things that you don't agree with But sometimes when you do things you don't agree with you end up realizing why you're wrong You're like I don't want to do that, but then you start doing you're like actually that was the right thing to do Actually, I can see why I was supposed to do it that way you know I didn't want to do it that way, but they're right you know or usually It's really convenient when they hear their pastor say something They don't want to do that. They'll be like I heard another pastor say it, and then I started doing it It's like I don't care as long as you're doing it. You know It's like yeah, that's a great idea. I wonder who came up with that you know Look at verse 14 now we exhort you brethren warn them that are unruly Comfort the feeble-minded support the weak be patient toward old men so of course well It's frustrating when you give someone good advice, and they don't take it We don't get we don't like punish them for it on top of that You know we don't get mad and we're supposed to be patient toward people long suffering praise the Lord God's like that with us That when we struggle we take a long time to fix things and get things right You know God's like okay. I'll you know give you some grace and but again We're supposed to warn people like hey, you're in a dangerous territory. You're doing something wrong You need to fix this area of your life the unruly meaning. They're here in the preaching, but there's not doing it It's like you can't sustain that buddy, and you need to be warned that bad things are coming Says in verse number 15 see that none render evil for evil unto any man But ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men now What's interesting when we get to the end part of this chapter? It makes me think of another chapter the Bible Romans 12, and I'm not gonna go there But if you know Romans 12 pretty well I mean it was a chapter we memorized previously it kind of has this just generic List of just like all these different things and has a lot of the exact same Basic statements commandments that are instructions But we got to realize what was the context the context of chapter 4 was? We need to walk a certain way Okay in order to walk like Christ. It's not a one thing. It's everything That's why you get sections of the Bible like this where it just feels like he's just hitting you with just like and do this And that and this and this and this because you know serving God is is a full-time job You know the idea of full-time ministry. I'm like we're all in full-time ministry You know It really is a full-time job serving the Lord Jesus Christ and even when you go to your secular job You're still on the clock with Jesus Christ, okay, and We're not supposed to render evil see was the verse 50 see that none render evil for evil and any man But ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and all men notice that we're supposed to just do good Constantly just do good good good good good, and we're not rendering evil This gets confusing to some people Because they think that when we preach against sin that's like evil or something hey preaching hard against sin is not rendering evil That's still rendering good, and you know they'll get mad at certain statements like hey I wish murderers would be put to death or rapist or you know the LGBTQ HIV or whatever you know But here's the thing I'm not gonna do that I You know how many of those people I've hurt physically zero You know how many people I've hurt physically in my life I mean, I don't even know if I have if I have I've forgotten it. You know I never I didn't I don't punch people. I don't kick people. I don't go around trying to harm anyone I you know I can't remember stealing from anybody I know I've stolen in my life, but I can't remember it. You know it's usually just like Walmart an accident or something Okay, so that's that's not a man right. That's an entity so I'm not saying it was right though. Okay. We're not supposed to go around to an evil hurting people harming people We're just supposed to be a good dispenser Christians are just a good dispenser here. Hey. I'll give you the gospel. I'll give you the Word of God I'll pray for you. You know if it's a person that doesn't deserve any kind of goodness We're just we just turn away. It's like okay next person You know but even that person. You know I would I would if I had to do something. I'll just render good You know I'm not gonna end or render evil. You know there's no point unto it. You know vengeance is mine I will pay say if you would not have to worry about what's going on. You know if I Have like let's let's give you a practical example Let's say I like go to a restaurant I'm going somewhere and have to give a tip and I'm like questioning like whether or not this person's like a child of the devil I still tip them I Don't like you know now. I might not give him the greatest tip in the world or anything like that You know what I'm not just gonna go around You know dispensing evil doing wickedness. I'm not gonna stiff the check or some stupid thing like that You know cuz I wouldn't even be really hurting that person to be hurting the company. You know is It's a kind of a fool's errand anyways you know I'm not going around sticking sticks And you know they're they're bicycle spokes or whatever you know while they're riding around town. I mean I'm you know and some people They want to do this though like because People like us you know Christians that love the Lord. What will the what will the wicked do well? They'll try to harass you at your job They'll try to dox you they'll try to call you and leave you horrible voice messages. They'll make all these like Videos attacking you they'll call your employers. They'll call your customers They'll try to just ruin your life or whatever and sometimes the thought is like you know what I? want to call that guy's boss and and basically you know Render him some evil you know go ahead and get him fired Now of course if it's in the normal course of your business, it's not about them It's about like hey if I go to the restaurant, and they put you know bugs in my food or whatever I might just like hey, there's bugs in my food or this person did wrong where hey There's always the point you know someone commits a crime. We tell the police right? I'm not saying we don't go through the proper channels and report evil and report crime But I'm not going to go and actually punish them myself We're not the punishers We do good. How many people did Jesus punish in his ministry? Even the woman caught in adultery He says hey my ministry is not a condemnation ministry and neither is ours We're supposed to be like Christ, and you know when Christ comes into a person that he can't really do any good to he just You know rebukes him and goes away. You know he doesn't really he doesn't really have any good for them But he doesn't do any evil unto them. He doesn't hurt them. He doesn't push them around He doesn't slap them around or anything like that. He basically just moves on and that's how we should be we need to be peace Makers as the Bible bless it are the peacemakers right verse 16 rejoice evermore a Christian should always be rejoicing verse 17 pray without ceasing always praying 8 18 and everything give thanks But this is the will of God in Christ Jesus turn you you know it's a great verse to couple with this entire book because His entire books just like tribulation and sorrow and evil and whatever, but he's like hey Reminder and everything give thanks Even in tribulation because tribulation makes you a better person Hey, I should be thankful about working out because it makes me a better person, okay? Thankful for everything that you get every opportunity everything that's before you rejoice pray to God give thanks to God Do you have another day to serve him? Praise God that I haven't even if it's the worst day of my life. Just praise God I got the opportunity to be a servant that day and To go through that experience and have an opportunity to basically Do something you know even job? You know you can be thankful for the day that you lost all your children and goods and got boils on your body Just because you had another day Praise the Lord blessed be the name of the Lord you know when he lost everything bless the Lord still And what a great testimony We still read about it We use as one of the greatest examples So is that really a day that we just count as a chalk up as a loss? Or in fact is it actually one of the greatest days in human history one of the greatest days in human history when a man loses everything and Still praise the Lord to show his love and appreciation towards us so even though we may face a great evil tomorrow Look at as a great opportunity to serve the Lord and say be thankful that the Lord gave us that opportunity Okay Verse 19 quench not the spirit you know quench means to extinguish Meaning you know some Christians. They basically just turn off the Holy Ghost inside of them You can't get rid of them, but you can quench the spirit meaning like hey You just get you just try to get this out of your mind You know one of the best ways to do that is to be on drugs and alcohol right? I mean you just get just basically destroy yourself These are exterminating the spirit because you can't be filled with the Holy Spirit and with familiar spirits You know and be not drunk with wine. We're in his excess, but rather be filled with the Holy Spirit, right? so when you're filled with one spirit, you're quenching the other and Let's see. What's the opposite? Oh well when I fill myself with the Holy Spirit guess what I'm I want to quench that other spirit Right I want to quench that other evil in my life verse 20 despise not prophesying. Hey, don't don't mad am I preaching That's biblical You can't not like my sermon You must love my sermon as long as everything. I'm saying is from the Bible. You're not allowed to hate it You're not allowed to get mad at the preacher You know I thought you were mean when you said it. Here's my question was it true Well, I don't like how you delivered it was it true though It's like if it's true. You can't get mad at me for it You know every these people want to get mad like well, I agree with what you said I just don't like how you said it. Well. You're not allowed to do that You're not allowed to tell me that you can't like how I delivered it because if what I said was true What does the Bible say despise not prophesize? Well, I want to deliver it a little bit different. Sorry Go find a different preacher then I'm sure he'll have a better sounding voice or preach shorter or better or whatever. I don't care But you know what you're not allowed to dislike the truth Dislike preaching well, I think you could have said it nicer well, then you do it Why don't you go at you show us how to do it then? You know you go you go start a church you go you go serve in a church until some man of God lays hands on You and goes tells you to do it all right But you don't despise prophesying okay verse 21 prove all things Hold fast to that which is good Meaning hey you prove what the Bible says and Whatever is true hold fast to it verse 22 abstain from all appearance of evil That's an important verse changed in all the modern versions to like reject every kind of evil That's stupid everyone agrees with that even evil people agree with that because evil means something different to everybody else But this is saying a abstain from all appearance of evil Verse 23 in the very God of peace sanctify you holy and I pray God your whole spirit and soul Body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ You know it's a important aspect of this verse is that God? Does not only care about the inward man? Think about this. He's saying your whole spirit notice this and soul and Body why because God wants you to also take care of your body You Know some people would be like oh God doesn't care how I dress or how I look or if I grew myself Or you know any of these outward things, but it's like oh no no no he does He just wants you to get the inward right first Then that way the outward can also be righteous You know what God cares about all of it and notice he wants you to be blameless in all three aspects your spirit your soul And your body you know some people ask what's the difference between these well? There's a lot of similarities a lot of overlap, so you can't necessarily pull them apart But you know one way. I've heard it described and from another preacher, and I like this is he says your your Body is how you relate to people? And there's this world to this world really you know basically the physical reality and then your Souls I relate to people okay, so you basically everybody is the world so like food You know the you know basically exercise You know the things that you enjoy that are pleasure as your body the soul is you know friendships laughter? Relationships you know and then you basically have your spirits they relate to God So you have your body to this world you have your your spirit to the God you have your soul to? mankind and it's like you know that's a good way to word it and that's that's some of the aspects of this and The soul is kind of like who you are the body's what you look like And your spirit, you know is essentially how? How close you are to God you're you know your holiness? You know basically you're striving towards the Lord and so In your new man, you know and then the spirit of the soul are so tightly wound the other Bible talks about the only thing That can divide is really the Word of God Meaning if we didn't have the nuances of Scripture we wouldn't even understand the difference between these two elements Okay, but notice that God wants the whole package God wants you to do right not just to him, but the people and to Yourself and the meaning how you treat yourself in this world right and of course there's commandments for all of these right Print marks you know you're not supposed to print marks on your body is that the soul of the spirit. No, that's the body Right the love the brother is what your soul Love God is the spirit so you kind of have that body soul and spirit And it's all encompassing and we want to be preserved blameless Unto his coming verse 24 fables he that calleth you who also will do it brethren pray for us Read all the brethren of the holy kiss Yeah, it's important to ask for prayer. He also says a holy kiss You know I think he says a holy kiss is in Proverbs 27. It says the kisses of an enemy are deceitful So the picture of a holy kiss is the fact that it's sincere that it's done in righteousness You know we don't want to show great affection towards one another and it not be sincere Don't go up to someone be like man. I love you brother, and then they're like hey I need this and it's like oh, see you later Or hey, I'm going through our time. Hey, will you pray for me? Hey, can I whatever and just like you know? How can you say you love somebody you love? I mean, what is the word love me love means Jesus dying on the cross for all our sins, okay? How can you say you love someone and then you can't even help them out in any way you can't be inconvenienced by them That just means you don't actually love them So if you're gonna greet someone with a holy kiss you should mean it you know and Judas comes and gives a kiss to the Lord Jesus Christ was that in sincerity Absolutely not it was a kiss of death. You know as a kiss of the seat And you know a lot of people throw out the word love. I love you brother I love you, man, or whatever and as soon as they can they'll drop you like a bad hat Soon as it's not popular for them as soon as it's not convenient for them as soon as you are causing them problems, right? And and so it's important that you use your words carefully, and you don't go around just you know telling everybody look I mean Absalom Every man that came to David to seek after David Absalom would take them aside And say your matters are good and right and the Bible says he would kiss them He'd give them a kiss Meaning he did indiscriminately is just giving a kiss under every minute and think about a kiss is like kind of a picture of the most intimate Action between Spouses and in fact, it's kind of reserved. You know like me and my wife I'm not gonna kiss another woman. I'm only gonna kiss my wife, right Meaning what that she's special unto me that I love her what if a person were to kiss any woman You know what if a man kissed anyone that would mean that it's not really a very holy kiss is it it's not very sincere It's not really done in righteousness It's not really the it's just kind of a deceitful thing so you know we look at this this passage greet all the brethren Oh, holy kiss. You know obviously in our culture. We don't kiss as men and if you try to I'll throw you out, okay? but Only mean that literally But but here's the thing some cultures have had this and it's not weird. It's just weird in our culture, okay But really the what we gain from this is that your love towards the brethren should be sincere and done in righteousness You know not done feigned not done with ulterior motives What would why would someone come me? I love you pastor Shelley So they can get close to you to take advantage of you to use you or to flatter you Essentially in order to gain some kind of advantage or take advantage of you So when we do that to others we want to make sure that we're not doing it through flattery that sincere you mean it verse 27 I Charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read and all the holy brethren Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all men, so we finished first lessons chapter 5 and You know is it kind of just a quick recap You know I've preached a little while this evening, but a quick recap again. We have tribulation in our lives We know Christ is coming, and we should be motivated to Be the best Christian that we possibly can you know one of the great? things in the Gospels when it talks about Christ return It says pray that you're counted worthy to escape all these things You know if you actually worry About the end times you say you know it sounds really scary The best thing you can do is live the cleanest life Because you say I don't want to go through all that evil and all that problems You know you say I want to make it to the end. You know or that kind of proverbial I want to like guy in my sleep as it were or whatever It's like you know who's gonna get that the person that's living their most righteous life Now you probably get a lot more persecution and tribulation But you'll actually escape a lot of the consequences of not And that's really just kind of a consistent theme in the Bible that those that were the most righteous those that love the Lord End up living the longest most successful lives Sometimes they're martyrs we understand that but if we were gonna say who lives some of the great who loved the greatest lies in the Bible it's like look at Moses This guy lived forever. You know look at Job Job had ten kids, and then he had another ten kids You know think about how much time that was and then grandchildren right and he had so much money and wealth at the end of His life, but he went through that really rough patch, but he stayed on the right course That's what got him to the end. You know you look at Paul Lived a really long life You know you look at a lot of the men of the Bible that get all the way to the end really successful life Look at Daniel Daniel had some rough spots You know lot counters with you know evil and and kind of scary moments, but he made it through the end How about Jeremiah Jeremiah going through a really really? Evil time and nobody wants to hear the Bible a lot of horrible persecution. I mean who's been thrown in a dung pit lately Anybody that's weird you know thrown in a dung pit nobody wants to hear him preach But you know what he made it through all that evil didn't he? The Babylonians came in fact they promoted him and So what I'm telling you is you know serving God has his benefits Don't think like oh, man if I'm really righteous if I'm really separated if I'm in that upper echelon I'm gonna get it the worst you might get it the best You might have the best situation and and so there's always a benefit There's always a reward to doing that which is right And we should be comforted with the fact that even if you're the worst Christian ever well You're still going to heaven okay, Christ is still coming, and you know you can't prevent them with sleep Lots gonna be there okay, and if lots gonna be there you're gonna be all right. Let's go some prayer Thank you Heavenly Father for this great book of the Bible Thank you for sending your son to pay for all of our sins and only do good into this world and We anxiously wait his return Knowing that he is returning knowing that we're not asleep that we're sober I pray that you would help give us the strength and the boldness and the courage to stay sober to walk a Successful Christian walk that we would take our lives serious that we would take the admonishments of the Bible seriously That if we are confronted with something in the scripture that we know we're not doing That we would have the resolve to just do it And we would take the words of the Bible very seriously and the preachers and men in our lives And and I pray that you would just bless this church that you would deliver us from the evil They would allow us to be a bright and shining light all the way to the bitter end in Jesus name we pray Amen We're last on 327 327 Higher ground three hundred and twenty seven Now the first I'm pressing on the upward way new lights I'm gaining every day still praying I'm onward bound Lord plant my feet on higher ground Or lift me up And let me send my faith on heaven's table and a higher plane Then I have found Lord plant my feet on higher ground My heart has no desire to stay where doubts arise and fears dismay Though some age well where these are bound my prayer my aim is higher Ground Lord lift me up And let me send my faith on heaven's table and a higher plane Then I have found Lord plant my feet on higher ground I want to live Above the world Though Satan's art at me or her For faith has caught the joyful sound the song of saints on higher ground Lift me up And let me send my faith on heaven's table and a higher plane Then I have found Lord plant my feet on higher ground I want to scale And catch a gleam of glory bright But still I'll pray till heaven I found Lord lead me on to higher ground Lord lift me up And let me send my faith on heaven's table and a higher plane Then I have found Lord plant my feet on higher ground Thank you so much for coming. God bless. You're dismissed You You You You You You You You You