Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] I'm going to have you turn in your bibles today to one Thessalonians, chapter five. We're going to look at three verses, but I'm also tying it together with a text from the book of acts, and you'll see why. How many know? We all come to those moments in our lives.
[00:00:15] We kind of wonder, what should I be doing? The challenge is before us. What is God really requiring of me?
[00:00:24] What is this will? In this particular situation or moment, decisions, many times are demanded of us. And we may have a rough idea of what we should be doing, but we don't know how the specifics are going to play themselves out.
[00:00:40] Even one who knew the Lord Jesus as deeply as the apostle Paul, he struggled at times, knowing exactly with what he was to do. Isn't that interesting? Someone that knew Jesus as well as him. Paul is trying to bring the good news of Jesus Christ into Asia, which we would say today is present day turkey.
[00:01:04] He's there and he's trying to move forward. We picked the story up in acts, chapter 16. I'm going to go back and forth because my text is first Thessalonians. But we're going to look at those verses in light of Paul's life here. Paul and his companions have traveled throughout the region, Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. I think that's very interesting. God was hindering him from actually speaking in this place. It wasn't the right time, wasn't an open door. And when they had come to the border of Mysaeum, they tried to enter Bithany, but the spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and they went down to Troas. So they just. They didn't stop. They didn't give up, but they just kept moving, looking for where God was directing their steps. How many of you ever had those moments? You know, if you're kind of trying this, trying that, you're trying to figure out exactly what God has you to do. And Paul was certainly doing this. And Troas is actually a city on the Aegean Sea, and we can see it here.
[00:02:07] I'm just trying to think of. Yeah, there's a little light. Okay, so troas is up here, this area. And so Paul is trying to figure out where to go on this missionary journey.
[00:02:20] It says here he was being redirected, and eventually he finds the open door. Look what it says in the very next verse here in chapter nine. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us. Now, Macedonia is actually the northern part of Greece, so it's across the aegean sea from Turkey. And after Paul had seen the vision, we now who's writing the book of acts, but Luke. So Paul and his team now decide together to leave at once from Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to the people there. So we know the gospel is simply the good news about Jesus death and resurrection, and that if we believe in Christ, will experience, to be reconciled to the father and will have eternal life. Now, in Macedonia, they come to a city. It's Philippi.
[00:03:18] The city there is actually a roman colony. And it's interesting, as he comes to this little. This community, which what the Romans would do was actually send a bunch of soldiers, and they would start a new kind of a roman city in another part. And then they would allow there are veterans from the wars to actually inherit land and property, and they wouldn't tax those communities. So there was a lot of benefit to being in that community. So Paul and his team end up in Philippi, that port city there in the province of Macedonia.
[00:03:52] And it says here, because there was no synagogue. Synagogue is a meeting place for jewish people. And there was not ten jewish men to form a synagogue. We read the next verse here on the Sabbath. We went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer.
[00:04:11] We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. Notice there's not men here, otherwise they would have had a synagogue. They started speaking to these women. And one of those listening was a woman from the city of Tayatira, that's back in Asia again, named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of goddess. And the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message goes on here. When she and the members of her household were baptized, we just did that today. See, she became a follower. She invited us to her home. If you consider me a believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay at my house. And she persuaded us. So far, Paul's vision at Troas has not materialized. There's no man telling us, come on over here and help us. How many see that? Okay, but God was doing something, and it's going to become very interesting. What begins to happen? Acts, chapter 16, verse 16. Once, when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which he predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. That should tell us a little bit about fortune telling. If people are really good at it, there's probably, there's a reason for it. And here we find out there was a spirit possessing this female slave. The Bible says she followed Paul and the rest of us shouting, these men are servants of the most high God who are telling you the way to be saved. Now how many know that she was telling them the truth? Anybody see that? You know one of the reasons why we're so susceptible to deception because oftentimes truth is mingled in with falsehood. And that's what we see here. And so Paul was listening to this, and it says she kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. And at that moment the spirit left her.
[00:06:17] Now Paul was disturbed because he recognized she was bringing a lot of confusion to people. How many see that she's aligning herself with that which is good? You know, one of the things you have to be concerned about is when you know something which is evil tries to align itself with something good. That's what. What does that do? Confuse people? Muddies of water. And then people don't know what to believe anymore. Paul also recognized that this future prediction, predicting was actually coming from an evil spirit, a demon. And so he cast that spirit out. You know, isn't it interesting how evil often tries to attach itself to what's good? Now this female slave was set free from the control of the enemy. But the result became a crisis in Paul and Silas life. How so? Because now the people that had owned this female slave now lost their source of income. We read it in the next verse when our owners realized that their hope of making money was gone. How many know a lot of evil is tied to finances?
[00:07:21] Ever notice that all of a sudden their income has disappeared here? They seized Paul in Silas and they dragged him into the marketplace to face the authorities.
[00:07:33] And they brought them there and they said, these men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or to practice. The crowd joined in on the attack against Paul and Silas and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.
[00:07:53] That's pretty intense lack of due process of law, right? How many getting a sense a lot of energy here. There was a lot of excitement. It was almost like a riotous condition. The magistrates stepped in, they said no and they beat these guys up, Paul and Silas. And after having been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison. And the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully, like, these guys are dangerous guys. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. And I just put down to myself, all they were doing, all Paul and Silas were doing was God's business, right?
[00:08:31] And they were not looking for trouble. But how many know trouble found them? Now, I think it's one thing when you and I go out looking for trouble, that's another thing. But if we're just doing what God's telling us to do and trouble finds us, guess what? We have the backing of almighty God. In that situation, we're going to find out what God does. So I wonder how many believers are upset and disappointed or questioning when God questioning God when they're doing the right thing and bad things start happening to them. Anybody ever had that question in your mind, hey, I'm doing what God wants me to do, but why is bad things happening to me?
[00:09:02] Can you see that? That's what's happening to Paul and Silas here. They're just doing God's work. They're minding their own business. You know, they were having a nice prayer meeting. This little girl kept shouting after them, this slave woman. And Paul speaks to the spirit and all of a sudden he's hauled up before the court, he's beaten up, he's put in jail, and, you know, Paul and Silas, God said, well, I've had it, and I'm resigning from the ministry. It's getting a little intense here, you know, I'm getting beat up for doing this. No, they didn't do that. That was not their response.
[00:09:34] So how do we handle life when circumstances turn against us? That's the big question.
[00:09:40] And all of us in this room are going to have experiences in life where we feel like God's abandoned us. Life's circumstances have turned against us. Maybe we have felt misunderstood, maybe we've even been beaten. Most of us probably haven't been in prison, but some people in other parts of the world have. Would you actually feel betrayed, maybe even by God? Why is he letting me go through this experience?
[00:10:04] You know, I'm just trying to do your will, but now I'm suffering for doing it. What's the deal? You know?
[00:10:09] Do you ever question God's directions when things don't turn out the way you think they should?
[00:10:14] This actually happens in marriages and jobs and ministries. And so I want to just talk a little bit about how did Paul and Silas handle what I would call an incredible reversal, which was actually a part of God's game plan. We're going to see that in a moment.
[00:10:30] So what did they do? Well, the Bible says they just began to sing praises to God. They just began to worship God. How many think that's a very interesting response to a very bad situation? How many of us? Is that the way we respond to bad things? Like, I'm just going to start praising God, or do we walk around grumpy and grumbling and complaining? You know what I'm saying? Right. How do we handle it, you know, so how do we handle these crushing moments?
[00:10:59] Well, their response was to worship. And so Paul's life and Silas's life was not defined by their circumstances, but rather by their relationship to God. Here at midnight, Paul and Silas are praying and singing hymns to God and all the other prisoners are listening to him. How many know that when you and I are rejoicing in difficult times, people around us are paying attention because that's not the normal response to problems. How many say that's true?
[00:11:25] People are going to start asking questions. I mean, how can you be joyful in the midst of all this nonsense going on in your life? Because they're not focusing on the problem. They're focusing on someone greater than their problem. They're focusing on the Lord.
[00:11:39] So this is the attitude of thanksgiving that should not just happen once a year, but should be a daily in our lives. And so I'm going to turn it to our text now. In one Thessalonians, chapter five, verses 16 to 18, three little verses. There's three exhortations, three things that you and I need to consider here, and I put down here we find how we should relate to God, which is worship. But let's take a look at. I'm just going to skip over this and get to the three things that, three expressions that always will help us know what God's will is in life's most distressing, challenging and difficult times. Okay, here they come. Rejoice, always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances.
[00:12:33] There it is.
[00:12:35] For. This is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Some people want to know, what's God's will, you know, you ever prayed the Lord's prayer? Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
[00:12:46] Here's a verse you need to know. Here's God's will. Rejoice always. Are you doing that? Are you always rejoicing? Are you praying continually? And are you giving thanks. In all circumstances. I'm going to unpack those ideas here, these admonitions, these exhortations to us. We're going to look at these three expressions that will help us live a life of continuous celebration despite devastating challenges. How many want to rise above your problems? Anybody want to rise above them instead of drowning them? How many are up for rising above? Anybody go above? I'm going up. I'm not going to drown. I'm going over. Okay, so how do we do it? Well, I think the spirit of God can help us. And here's the three things we need to look at. The first one is simply, always rejoice.
[00:13:35] Our lives should reflect the hope that we have. We can live with confidence, not in ourselves, but rather in the goodness and love of God.
[00:13:45] Delight, confidence and hope should exude from our lives. Hey, listen to me. If God is for us, what does the Bible say? Who can be against us? And this morning, in my devotional time, I'm reading from the book of Jeremiah, and these guys are disobeying God. And God's been warning them and warning him and warning them. And finally God says, I'm now against you.
[00:14:07] And if God is against you, who can be for you?
[00:14:11] You can't escape God. All the human help in the world isn't gonna help you. So you have to make a decision. Whose side are you gonna be on? Well, I'm gonna make a choice this morning. I wanna be on God's side, and I wanna do what God wants me to do, because I want God to be for me, not against me.
[00:14:32] How many say, I'm joining you, pastor? On God's side. I want God for me.
[00:14:38] I want to be on that side with God. Sure we do. And then we have to realize we're not just living for this moment. Can I just say that everything you and I see, and I say it often, it's all disappearing. So even the worst problems that you and I are faced with at this moment, it's all going to disappear.
[00:14:56] Is that amazing to you? The only thing that's going to remain is God's word. And that lasts forever.
[00:15:04] God's word is eternal. So all the stuff that you're hearing and seeing and all the stuff that seems so, you know, overwhelming, eventually it'll pass away. You know, some of us are a little bit older. I can look back now. Some of the things that I thought, you know, how are we ever going to get past this thing? Those things are history now. We got past those things. Some of those impossible situations, God came along and just leveled them.
[00:15:30] I just didn't, you know, every time I come up to these mountains in my life, these challenges, these overwhelming situations, and I just cry out to God, God just goes, step aside. I'm going to take care of this.
[00:15:43] He's a level. He levels mountains, folks.
[00:15:46] You know, you and I have to learn how to trust God, help you develop your faith muscles. And how do you do that as you go through difficulties and challenges and trials in your life and you're learning to trust God so that no matter what sides of the problem, I just go, hey, it's not too hard for God. It may seem impossible to me. A lot of times it's beyond my scope. And I just say, hey, God, it's your problem.
[00:16:08] I'm just turning it over to you. I'm not even going to sweat this stuff. I'm not even going to worry about it. It's your baby, handle it.
[00:16:16] It's freeing. Then you can just go on being happy and saying, hey, I'm just following God. He's going to get us through. Whatever God wants to accomplish, he's going to do.
[00:16:26] He can rearrange the deck chairs. Believe me, real fast.
[00:16:32] Circumstances come and go, but God's presence is eternal.
[00:16:37] So what's the idea behind this exhortation, this challenge to express joy in our lives? Well, the idea is to be in a state of joy and well being, to rejoice and be glad. This is not a denial of the difficulty. This is not sticking your head in the sand and pretending there's no problems. I'm not suggesting that. I think we were allowed to acknowledge, yes, there is this problem, but God is bigger than the problem.
[00:17:01] And here's what you and I need to know, that suffering and grief are part of life. We act like these things are intruders. No, that's part of the human condition. It's part of what happened when sin came into the world. Gene Green writes this, joy should always be in our lives in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. The apostles never encourage believers to deny that adversity bring sadness or grief. But they recognize that in the midst of the most agonizing situations, the presence of God through his spirit can infuse the soul with hope and the heart with joy.
[00:17:38] Do you know this is going to encourage you?
[00:17:41] Where does Joy come from? God's presence?
[00:17:46] You know, let me just say this before I go to that quote by Nikki Gumbel.
[00:17:54] If you have God in your life, you have joy. How do you know? Because in the presence of the Lord, there's what? Fullness of joy. The only thing that can rob you of joy is if you sin against God. That's it. As long as you and I say, Lord, I don't want to have any impediments between myself and you. I can live in joy no matter if there's difficulties, pain, problems, sorrow, all the rest of it. As a matter of fact, it's interesting. This week I was reading our little devotion through the year with Nicky Gumbel, and I saw this thing and I. As soon as I read it, I go, yeah, totally true. Nikki Gamble said, suffering and joy go hand in hand in the New Testament. Do not expect one without the other. And, you know, I've done this. I've looked for it. You know, every time you see joy, there's suffering nearby, or suffering, you're gonna find joy nearby. They go together. It's like, you know, the Bobbsey twins, they just kind of hang out together. And so maybe you're going through a time of suffering right now. I say, hey, don't worry about it. There's joy there. There's joy even in suffering. Because where the presence of God is, there's joy. And God is with us in our suffering. So I want to encourage you today. You're not alone in your difficulty. God is with you. You know, don't create any impediment between yourself and God and allow his presence to rule and reign in your heart. And you have this amazing joy. Your focus is not on yourself. That's where we get into trouble. We're always looking at ourselves or we're looking at the problem. I want you to look higher. I want you to look up. Where does our help come from?
[00:19:21] From the Lord. Lift up your eyes and look under the hills. Our help comes from God. Isn't that beautiful? We need to understand that.
[00:19:29] You know, the apostle Paul says this. He's talking about difficulty. He says, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Poor yet making many rich, having nothing, yet possessing everything. He's describing the christian life. Isn't that amazing? See, we think in our materialistic society, unless I have what I need, you know, I don't have enough. You know, I'm just gonna say to you right now, and I have a little sign in one of our rooms at home and it says, gratitude turns everything we have into enough gratitude. It's about an attitude. You know, we have to say, God, help me get the right attitude. And the right attitude is to rejoice. Philippians four, four says, rejoice in the Lord. And again, I'll say it, rejoice. So, you know, you say, oh, I have nothing to rejoice about. Yes, you do. If you're a child of God, you have everything to rejoice about. You're a child of God. You need to be thanking God. You're gonna spend all eternity with him. You need to thank God for saving you. You need to thank God for his grace in your life and his goodness and your favor and his blessing in your life. And you know, you can sit down and put a list of all the things that you have going for you and if you start thanking God for that thing, pretty soon your heaviness will lift. You know, your tears will dry up and you'll say, God, I have so much to thank you for. It's true.
[00:20:47] Theres an amazing paradox of genuine biblical faith is that we can have joy in times of sorrow. And as ive already said, the only thing that can diminish that is our own personal sin. Joy comes from knowing God and knowing God has a good purpose in our lives despite circumstances. John McCarthy says christian joy constantly flows from what the believer continually knows to be true about God and about his eternal saving relationship to him, regardless of circumstances.
[00:21:20] I'm just going to tell you, circumstances are going to come and go. You can't sometimes control them, right? They just come at you. You know, it's always something, you know, I jokingly say, hey, oh, we got through that great, it'll be something else. I'm not being a pessimist, I'm being a realist. That's the way life is. How many can say that? You know it's true. It's always something going on. There's always some challenge presenting itself to you.
[00:21:44] But we can allow those circumstances to define us, we can allow them to rob us of joy or we can say, you know, I'm not going to let circumstances define my life anymore. I'm going to just start focusing in on the goodness of God. I'm just going to start trusting him, I'm going to just rejoice in him. I'm going to be a person. I'm going to decide to be a person that's going to be joy filled. How many like being around joyful people? Anybody like being around those kind of people? No. They're a lot more fun than grumpy complaining, you know? Right mopee?
[00:22:14] I can't handle it. I'm always down, right? I have no friends.
[00:22:21] Be happy, be joyful.
[00:22:24] Okay. Do you know it says in scripture in Romans, chapter eight, verse 28. And we know that in all things, God works for the good to those who love him. You know, Dan Hammer was here two weeks ago and he talked about, we need to know God loves us. A lot of people don't know that yet. Hey, if God before you, who can be against you? God's on your side. It's beautiful. Enjoy it. Know that God is working good, even out of the mess we're in right now, simply that God's purposes are worked out regardless of our circumstances. Even the negative things will ultimately help us become more like them. Sometimes they may simply be allowing the spirit of Jesus to forgive others for their sins, even as Jesus forgave us for our sins.
[00:23:13] Anybody ever been wronged? Anybody here ever been wronged? Anybody ever been offended? Been wronged? Been hurt? Sure.
[00:23:20] There's not one person in this room that can tell me, I've never been wronged. I've never been offended. Of course you have. We all have. Do you know what the thing about forgiveness is? Why we have a problem with forgiveness? Because we're focusing in on ourselves. I'm going to give you a new picture. This is illustrating what I'm talking about. All things work together for good. Something bad just happened to me. So what's my focus? I'm wounded, I'm hurt, and I want to get even, right? That's a human response to the problem. But it's not until I see myself at the foot of the cross responsible for Christ's crucifixion.
[00:23:54] And I think most of us probably haven't had that picture, or maybe we haven't had that picture, but maybe some of us have had that picture where I see myself standing at the foot of the cross, realizing in the crowd that I have helped crucify Jesus. And you say, how have you helped crucify Jesus, pastor? You weren't even alive then. I sinned, and my sin caused Christ to come and die. And I need to see myself as the person who's crucifying Christ. And when I begin to realize that I have been forgiven by God for crucifying him, then I begin to realize I have no reason not to forgive people for crucifying me, offending me, for wronging me, for hurting me. Are we catching on?
[00:24:40] I think there's a lot of people that are living with unforgiveness, and it's eating you alive. You need to let it go.
[00:24:49] You need to say, jesus, I'm going to choose to forgive just like you choose to. You know, he says here in the psalms, the king finds joy in your strength. How great is his joy in the victories you give? There's joy serving God. Listen to Nehemiah. Don't grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So what was the outcome of Paul and Silas? They'd been tried unjustly, beaten, imprisoned. And what did they do? Joy filled worship. They're having a party in jail. All the other prisoners are listening in. How many, how can you guys be so content and happy and you just got beat up? They're singing praises to God. How many? Say, you know, something wrong with these guys or what? They certainly got everybody's interest. And then God came along and we have this amazing experience. Suddenly there was a violent earthquake, and the foundations of the prison were shaken. And all at once, the prison doors flew open and everybody's change came loose. Now, I know that that physically happened, but I see it as a metaphorical picture as well. That when you and I really start to worship and praise God, the chainst that are holding us down and despair and discouragement are broken, and you and I are spiritually set free. Our spirit comes alive.
[00:26:01] I'm gonna give you a test today. I'm gonna get, no, I'm gonna give you an assignment.
[00:26:06] Here's the assignment. You know, sometimes we go to church and go, oh, we just sit here and then we walk away. We don't do anything. Here's your assignment. The next time you are down, the next time you have a bad circumstance, the next time you have despair and you're discouraged, here's your assignment. I want you to sit down and begin to worship God with everything inside of you, even though you don't feel like it.
[00:26:30] And I want you to do it until you feel like it.
[00:26:34] And I can guarantee you, you're going to be praising God like you won't believe.
[00:26:40] You say, how do you know that I've done it? You know, I was working a graveyard shift in a restaurant, and I was really. I was a brand new Christian, and it was kind of dark in this place. I'll just be honest. The people were getting inebriated in the bar, and when I got the job, they said to me, hey, if a fight breaks out in the bar, just phone the police. I go, what about the food? They said, forget it. Don't worry about the food. If you don't phone the police, there won't be a restaurant left.
[00:27:05] That kind of gave you an idea how intense that place was. It's pretty dark.
[00:27:10] I was just down in my spirit. And so I just began to worship God because I knew that God said to rejoice always. So I started praising God and worshiping God, and my spirit began to lift from that heaviness. And pretty soon I'm whistling, dancing, cooking away back there, having a wonderful old time, and people now coming out and making their orders from the bar. And they finally send a waitress back. Then they said, hey, ask the cook what he's on, because they certainly didn't get it where they were at. And I just said to the waitress, just tell them I'm on Jesus.
[00:27:45] That's what it's about, folks.
[00:27:49] It says there when the jailer woke up, when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword, was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. How many know? Roman law was very strict, and they were living in a shame honor culture. And if these guys escaped, he knew that he would be held for trial and execution. But worse than that, he would be forever shamed in the eyes of his peers, but also of his ancestors, because Romans lived to make a name for themselves, to not disappoint their ancestors.
[00:28:23] Isn't that interesting?
[00:28:25] And so he decided he was going to kill himself. And Paul recognized what was going on, and he shouted, don't harm yourself.
[00:28:33] We're all here. The jailer called for the lights. He rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas, and he had them brought out, and he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Now, I want to just say this. This is so interesting to me. Here was a man who at this point had no sense, and there was no sense whatsoever that he even was open to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But the moment a crisis hit his life, he realized that these men had something because they were able to rejoice in their crisis.
[00:29:06] And he asked them, I think we got to go back to that story where Paul was wondering where to go. Where to go, Lord? He said he had a dream or a vision. What was the vision? He saw a man in Macedonia saying, begging him, come and help me.
[00:29:22] I think this is the man.
[00:29:25] This is the man, folks.
[00:29:28] So all of this nonsense that was going on in Paul's life, all this reversal, all this difficulty, all this pain, all this suffering, was to bring about this moment of crisis.
[00:29:39] Paul's crisis brought about the jailer's crisis, which brought about the jailer's salvation.
[00:29:47] You know, we're not just going through crisis for nothing. Sometimes you go, what's the point of all this?
[00:29:52] I can tell you two things. One, your faith is being strengthened even though you might feel like it's being weakened. Number two, this is not just for you. It's for people around you. They're seeing what's going on. How are you handling it?
[00:30:08] Most people don't realize they need help until crisis strikes.
[00:30:12] The greatest sin in North America is going to shock you is self reliance.
[00:30:18] That's the greatest sin because it's keeping us from trusting God. And I see most North Americans are going to spend eternity in hell because they're so busy trusting in themselves and in everything but God. And it's going to keep them away from the only salvation they can acquire, and that's through Jesus Christ.
[00:30:39] I don't think you realize your need for God's presence in your life until your lives are falling apart. That's usually the way it comes. And the circumstances seem to be beyond our ability to handle.
[00:30:51] The very thing that Paul was trying to do in Egypt by bringing this wonderful message of hope is now given to this man, and he's asking for help. Isn't that interesting? And Paul says, believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved and your household. And in response to the message, this man believed and he experienced God's joy. And then it says, and they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house or his household. And the hour of the night. At that hour of the night, the jailer took him, washed their wounds, and immediately he and his family were baptized. Isn't that beautiful? The jailer brought them into his own home. He sent a meal before them. He was filled with what?
[00:31:32] He was filled with joy.
[00:31:35] Rejoice always.
[00:31:38] I'll say it again, rejoice. Okay, so let's move on to the second thing, the second expression that helps us live a life of continuous celebration despite, you know, life's challenges. Pray continually. What does that mean? Pray continually? Well, it's interesting. This isn't like, you know, I'm praying 24/7 that's nobody's talking about here.
[00:32:02] What does it mean to pray continually? Well, Jesus said this to his disciples to show them that they should always pray, not to give up. So what is Jesus trying to teach in this parable? If you read the parable in Luke 18, you can look that up about a widow and a judge, and she's pestering him, and he finally gives in. It's a parable of contrast. The judge is unjust. He finally gives in because of persistence. And then Jesus says, how much more would your heavenly father, who's just and loving, he's gonna do what you're asking him to do. And then Jesus raises an interesting point in verse eight of that parable, the last verse, when Jesus basically says, however, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth? And here's the linkage I want you to see. When you and I are praying, it's evidence that we have faith in God. And when we stop praying, it means that we're no longer looking to God for helping us.
[00:32:55] How many can see that faith and prayer go together? And that's what I mean by praying continually. Praying continually means that whenever something comes up, my first response is to pray.
[00:33:05] And then I don't give up on prayer, but I continue to pray, and I continue to pray, and I continue to pray until something happens. And God answers that prayer.
[00:33:17] Sometimes he doesn't answer it the way I want him to. Sometimes he does something totally different than I expect him to. But eventually there is an answer.
[00:33:27] An answer will come. You know it's true. It will. God answers prayer. I think we give up way too soon.
[00:33:36] I think our prayer is an expression of our hope, our trust, our confidence in God, who is able to hear our cry and answer our prayer. And real praying begins with a confidence in God. You know, this is what the book of Hebrews says. Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. You know, a lot of people's attitude is, I don't deserve for God to answer me. I go, welcome to the club. There's not one person in this room that you deserve one answer to prayer. How's that? So don't use that as an excuse. We're all unworthy.
[00:34:12] This word come with confidence.
[00:34:15] It's a beautiful word. It means, God says, come with the idea that you have the right to speak to the king of kings and the Lord of lords. Do you know monarchs in the ancient world, you just couldn't come up to a king or a queen and start talking to them. I mean, no, that's not the right protocol. As a matter of fact, years ago, when the Queen of England came to red deer to visit the new pediatric ward at the Red Deer Hospital, some of you may not know that, and our own good doctor, Victor Raslife, gave a tour to the queen. You could only speak to her when she spoke to you. That's the right protocol. But you know what? Our father in heaven, the king of the universe, says, I'm now giving you and you and you and you the right to speak.
[00:34:55] Wow.
[00:34:57] Thank you.
[00:35:00] How many? We should take advantage of the right to speak to the king of the universe. And he has all authority and power, and I bug him a lot.
[00:35:13] And you know what? I see wonderful answers to prayer because I keep bugging God. He likes to answer, as a matter of fact, Martin Lloyd Jones says our ultimate position as christians is tested by the character of our prayer life.
[00:35:28] Some of us are probably saying, you know, I struggle with prayer, pastor. I'm a little prayerless. Yeah, you know, prayer is difficult. It's warfare. Prayer is a challenge. Sometimes I don't know how to pray. You know what I do when people come and say to me, pastor, teach me how to pray, or I don't know how to pray. I say, read the Lord's prayer. There's a key to learning how to pray. Just start praying that prayer. Start thinking about what you're praying, and then you can move on beyond that. Or if you're wondering sometimes just taking the psalms, Old Testament psalms, that's the Old Testament prayer book. You can actually pray all of those things into your life and the lives of other people. Let me move on.
[00:36:06] I want to keep moving. I already said that.
[00:36:10] I already said that.
[00:36:15] John MacArthur says something very interesting. He says it's easy to become so satisfied with physical blessings that we have little desire for spiritual blessings and to become so dependent on our physical resources that we feel little need for spiritual resources.
[00:36:29] That's the plight of living in an affluent culture.
[00:36:32] Now, when I travel to India and I'm around poor people, you should hear them pray.
[00:36:40] It's different how many here. If you didn't have enough to eat today and the only way you were going to get it is if you prayed and trusted God for it and believed God for it. How many knew your prayer life would go a lot higher?
[00:36:55] How many think it might go up?
[00:36:57] I think it would big time.
[00:37:01] You see, God answer prayer. The problem is we have so much here, it's actually a hindrance for us to really pray. But I think there's a lot of things to pray about. So what does it mean to pray without ceasing?
[00:37:15] I don't think it means constantly praying, but it's a constant awareness in your soul that God is with you. You're in relationship to God. And I would say it this way, the first response that you have towards the needs around you is to pray. Okay, I'm going to move on to the third point here.
[00:37:36] I want to finish the sermon.
[00:37:39] Okay.
[00:37:41] Rejoice. Always.
[00:37:45] Pray continually, and then to give thanks. Always.
[00:37:52] Gratitude is a constant attitude of a true believer.
[00:37:57] Gratitude is an attitude that reveals whether we're trusting God and believing that God cares about our needs. You know the danger of an unthankful heart?
[00:38:07] Well, let me tell you how dangerous it is. Complaining, grumbling, and constantly being dissatisfied reflects a heart that does not really know or trust God. How's that?
[00:38:17] It's the heart of an. I would say it's akin to being unregenerated. What do you mean by that? See, for a true believer, the spirit of God comes and lives within us. That means we're regenerated by God. Something is changed inside of us. We have the nature of God living within us, and that nature is a nature of gratitude. But if we're walking around grumbling and complaining, we're like the Israelites in the wilderness. They were complaining all along. And you know what happened to those guys? They got into all kinds of trouble because Paul uses them as an example, and he says this, do not drumble, as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel.
[00:38:52] These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the culmination of the age has come. So what are we seeing? When you read the book of numbers, you have ten complaints. And God was really unhappy with him about their complaining all the time. You know, they didn't like the food God provided. You know, all they got was manna. You know, they were complaining about Moses. Look where you've led us. Who is leading anyways? God was leading. Moses was just God's servant. So they're really complaining against God. They were always unhappy. Right? You know, some of us, we got it. We got to change our thinking a little bit. We got to say, you know what? Complaining is not doing you any good. It's making you more miserable. So you need to start thanking God and become a thankful person, and it changes your whole thinking. Not only did Paul warn us about the dangers of complaining, but he also knew from the Old Testament psalms the importance about having a right attitude. Listen to what he said in psalm 34. I will extol the Lord when life is going great and there are no problems. Is that what it says?
[00:40:03] No, it says, I will extol the Lord at all times, even when I got difficulties and there's pain and I'm perplexed and a little bit confused about what to do. I'm going to just keep extolling God. I'm going to keep thanking God. I will pray. His praise will always be on my lips. I'm going to be a hallelujah. I'm going to be a happy person. I'm going to constantly thank God. He says, I will glory in the Lord. Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together.
[00:40:35] That's a great argument for gathering together. Wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be? How many know? It's a lot easier to worship together than it is to worship alone? Anybody figured that out yet? Hey, listen, I've been doing this a long time. I love coming to church, not just because I get to preach, but because I get to worship God. It's fun. I get to meet God's people. I get to. We get to fellowship, we get to pray with one another. We get to bear one another's burdens. You don't do that just watching this. I'm being honest. That doesn't happen. And, you know, I figured this out. On Sundays, I get the most out of this than anybody else in the building. Why? Because I'm here three times. I get to worship three separate times. I don't go sit in the room and wait until the worship's over, and then I come up and preach, no, I'm worshiping three times. I'm having a blast, you know? So the person who, you know, I learned one thing about life. The more you put into something, the more you get out of it.
[00:41:27] So the people that are saying, boy, I'm not getting a lot out of this, my question is, what are you putting into it?
[00:41:35] How many are following?
[00:41:37] So you're telling on yourself and you don't even know it.
[00:41:41] You know, people tell me all kinds of stuff about themselves when they talk. They don't even know what they're saying. A lot of times I'm going, I get it. I get where you're coming from. You know, somebody says, well, I have no friends. Are you friendly?
[00:41:56] I'm just throwing these things out, guys. It's as obvious to me. Look at the book of proverbs tells me that, you know, we got to be friendly.
[00:42:06] Okay, let me close with this. I cannot believe we run out of time so fast, but let me close.
[00:42:12] So here's David. I'm going to close with the story of David. David has got a problem. They went on a raid. While they were gone, some amalekites came along. They destroyed the community they were in. They raided their community. They stole their wives stole their goods. And David shows up with this man at a town called Ziglag. Okay, this is a low point in David's life. The Bible says David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him.
[00:42:39] Each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strengthen in the Lord his God. What does it mean to find strength in God now in that situation, everybody around you is upset. And how many know when people are really upset? They gotta find someone to blame. Has anybody figured that out yet?
[00:42:57] And who usually gets blamed?
[00:43:00] The leader. And David was their leader and they were really mad at him. They were so angry they wanted to kill him. At this moment, David has no allies on the human scope here. All of these guys are ready to stone him.
[00:43:14] What does David do? He looks up.
[00:43:17] I think this is one of David's shortest prayers.
[00:43:20] Help.
[00:43:22] And God gave him strength and David challenged them. He said, listen, you can stone me, but that's not going to change getting your families back.
[00:43:30] They said, what are we going to do? He said, he called the priest. They checked with the ephraim and the thummim and God said, pursue. And they went after those guys and they caught up to them and they recaptured their families. How many think that's amazing?
[00:43:44] You see, you know, stewing and fretting and complaining and doing all that stuff isn't going to change anything except for making you more miserable and more unhappy and more discouraged and more defeated.
[00:44:00] But if you decide, you know what I'm going to do, I'm going to get down with God. I'm going to get down with God.
[00:44:06] Look at what it says, you know, rejoice, always be joyful, be joyful, rejoice. Pray continually. Why? God cares about us. And then it says here, in everything, give thanks in everything. Not necessarily for everything, but in everything I'm going to have a thankful spirit. I'm just going to be thankful. Let's stand as we close the service in prayer today.
[00:44:37] So here's my challenge. You have an assignment. Everybody remember their assignment, okay, what's your assignment? Next time I'm discouraged. Next time I am down. Next time I run into bad circumstances, what am I going to do?
[00:44:50] I'm going to worship God, I'm going to praise God, I'm going to have a hallelujah time. I'm going to have my own little church service. I'm going to put worship music on. I'm going to start dancing, singing, praising. I can guarantee you your spirit's gonna lift you know, people are gonna, you know, you're gonna. You're just gonna feel great.
[00:45:06] Is anything gonna change? Yeah. Your attitude, that's what's gonna change.
[00:45:11] The circumstances may not change at that moment, but I can guarantee you circumstances come and go. They're gonna eventually go, believe me. Don't let circumstances define who you are.
[00:45:24] You're a child of goddess. God, let's go to him. Amen. So every head bowed. How many here today? Say, you know, pastor, I have to admit I'm a little discouraged. Anybody here raise your hand? Let's be honest, I'm a little discouraged. Okay, you got your assignment.
[00:45:41] How many go, I got my assignment. I'm going to practice this.
[00:45:45] When you go through that, here's what I'm going to do. Even ask you. Email me and say, pastor, I tried it and I got to that place where you're talking about. I had a hallelujah breakthrough. Spirit of God came over me. I was so full of the spirit, so full of joy. It transcended my circumstances. It lifted me above them.
[00:46:06] I want you to email me back and say I tried it. And I have to admit it works.
[00:46:12] And I know it works because I've done it on more than one occasion.
[00:46:16] That's how you strengthen yourself.
[00:46:19] Instead of running to people and complaining and whining and all the rest of it, I want you to go to God and start worshiping him. Amen.
[00:46:27] That's your first step. Step number one. If you've done that really well, you won't even have to go to anybody.
[00:46:33] It's true. You'll have a hallelujah time with God and you'll have a confidence now. Okay, here's the problem. God. God goes. Yeah, I know.
[00:46:42] But what changed was my attitude. It transformed.
[00:46:47] And I can handle the pressure now because I'm in a different state of mind. You know, I was in New York this past summer. You know, they talk about a New York state of mind.
[00:46:58] I want to have a heavenly state of mind.
[00:47:02] And the people that are the most heavenly minded, the truly heavenly minded people, they are the most earthly good. It's true. So, father, we come to you today. We lift up our burdens.
[00:47:16] Today's a day of thanksgiving. Yeah, it's slotted on our calendar. But you know what I'm praying today? That every day, all the way through the end of 2024, all the way through 2025, till we get all the way to next Thanksgiving, that we will have Thanksgiving happening now for the next 365 days until it just becomes part of our DNA that we'll be a celebrant that we'll be a worshipper that we'll be full of joy that we'll walk with continuous thoughts of you and when things come up we'll be praying because we are our people of faith and Lord we are going to be thankful in all things because we know that you have a grand design in mind. And even like we saw Paul's life when he went through that difficulty time it was actually designed to bring this man to Christ because Paul's crisis now became that man's crisis which brought that man to faith in Christ because he saw how Paul dealt with his crisis. Lord, help us to be those people that are examples that we have joy in the midst of difficulty so that the people around us are going what makes you so full of joy?
[00:48:32] We have an answer. You're our answer. We thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave.
