This Is The Will of God

There the Apostle Peter writes to stir you up by way of reminding you, knowing that I shall shortly put off my tent just as the Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.

Father, we do thank you for Your Word. Lord, we recognize that we can be very clearly forgetful. We thank You that You take the time to remind us, Lord, by Your Word, by the work of Your Holy Spirit, and by even some very tangible things like what we will partake of today—communion, holding the bread and the cup. These are reminders, something You instituted, knowing the frailty of our minds and our ease of forgetfulness.

God, I pray that at the beginning of this year, as we prepare to step into the good things that You have prepared for us, we would do so with our minds set on You, remembering the good things that You have for us and the good things that You want to do in us. So, Lord, speak to us by Your Spirit and through Your Word. We ask this as Your people, and in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen. You can be seated.

The Apostle Peter, as he's nearing the end of his life, wrote this letter, 2 Peter, recognizing that the end is coming. He understands that the day of his death is nearing. He is one of the very few people who knew implicitly what his death would look like. Jesus tells him in the Gospel of John, in the last chapter, how Peter would one day die. That would be a pretty heavy thing to know and carry about. But Peter was informed by the Lord that he also would be crucified. There did come a point in Peter's life when he approached his death.

This is nearing that point. Second Peter is written right around that time, and he recognizes that the day of his death is coming. When that day actually approached, he did not consider himself worthy to be crucified like his Lord was. So he asked, he petitioned, to be crucified upside down, head down. He knew that time was near, as we see in verse 14 of Second Peter, chapter 1: "Knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, this body, just as the Lord Jesus Christ showed me." He says the Lord showed him and told him that this would be the case. He acknowledges that he knows that day is approaching; it is not too far off in the distance.

Peter expresses a desire to ensure that he does something before that day comes. This is interesting because three times in these three verses—verses 12, 13, and 15—Peter uses the word "remind." In verse 12, he states, "I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things." He wants to put them in reminder of these things. What things? The very things that Peter had committed his entire life to proclaiming and declaring after he met Jesus. He wants to proclaim the gospel and ensure that they understand and know the word of Christ. He wants to know that they are firmly rooted in these things.

He emphasizes that he will not be negligent to remind them always of these things, even though, as he notes in verse 12, they know them and are established in the present truth. I will confess that this message I am giving today is very similar to a message I have given before because it is an important message that I think we all need to be reminded of occasionally. We need to be put in reminder of things we may have heard 20, 30, or even 40 times before.

How many of you will admit today that you are forgetful? How many of you have experienced this: you are in one room and say, "I really need to go and do such and such," but when you walk into the next room, you already forget what it was you were going to do? I get a pretty good workout every single day at home because we have a two-story house. Not a day goes by that I don’t walk upstairs three or four times to do something, only to get to the top of the stairs and wonder, "What was I doing?" I have to go back down, and then when I get down, I remember and go back up, only to ask again, "What was I doing?"

For some of us, this leads to thoughts like, "Gosh, is this a sign of old age? Am I already progressing?" I'm 34 years old. However, I stumbled upon an article about a month and a half ago that encouraged me. Apparently, there is a research professor at Notre Dame who has been studying this with his team. They have found that a doorway for your brain actually creates something called an event boundary. When you are in one room and decide to do something, walking through a doorway triggers something in your brain that...

You compartmentalize the thought that you just had, and now you've come into a whole new thing. It’s actually scientifically researched, and they’re starting to prove that there is an event boundary that takes place in the doorway. It’s not just Alzheimer’s. So it’s good, right? An event boundary. We’re all going to blame it on that from now on. Your wife will ask, "How come you didn’t remember this?" Well, I passed through an event boundary, dear. You need to be delicate with me.

Peter says, "I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things." I think it’s right, in verse 13, to stir you up by reminding you a second time of these things. My time is short, and so I want to use my time wisely. In verse 15, I want to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things. He goes on to talk about a number of topics in the following chapters of 2 Peter. It’s a short book, and I’d encourage you to take some time to read through it. Maybe some of you have already begun a read-through of your Bible in a year plan, so you’ll get to 2 Peter if you make it past Leviticus and keep going.

I would encourage you to take some time to read through 2 Peter to be reminded of the things he discusses. One of the things Peter speaks about in 2 Peter is the sureness of the prophetic word of Scripture. We looked at that last week a little bit as we considered the coming day of the Lord—a day that we look forward to. The church is instructed to have hope for that great and glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, a time when He will come and create a new day. He’ll make all things new and wipe away all tears. There will be no more pain and death, and so we look forward to that day with hopeful expectation.

Peter says he will remind us of these things, emphasizing the sureness and steadfastness of God’s prophetic word. He continues to give exhortations that, if you’ve been a part of a church for any length of time—whether it’s a year, two years, or ten years—some of these things you’ll recognize. You may not be able to tell me the exact location in the Bible where it’s found, but you remember it. It’s something we need to be reminded of.

Every parent in this room knows that we’re constantly reminding our children of things, right? After a while, they start to mouth the words back at you as you say them: "Look both ways as you cross the street," "Don’t hit your brother," and those sorts of things. We find that we need to repeatedly tell people these things over and over.

Over again, Peter is doing that. Now, if you turn from 2 Peter to the left in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians, it's a short distance away. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 is where we're going to spend most of our time this morning.

In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, as the Apostle Paul is concluding his letter to the church at Thessalonica, he writes about future prophetic events. In the first 9 or 10 verses of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, he speaks about the second coming of the Lord. He is also encouraging the church at Thessalonica about the Lord's second coming and the sureness of prophecy. In the midst of that, he exhorts the church to do a number of things. In light of what God is going to do in the future, he tells them to be watchful, to be sober-minded, and to walk and work in faith, hope, and love. That's the exhortation of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

The Lord will come again. We may not know all the intricacies of when and how His appearing will happen, but we have the sureness of prophetic utterance that He will come again. In light of that, the church is called to be sober, be watchful, and to walk and work in faith, hope, and love.

Now, earlier in that very same book, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, Paul commended the church in Thessalonica for doing that. In 1 Thessalonians 5, he is saying to continue to work and walk in faith, hope, and love. But back in chapter 1, he said this: "We give thanks to God always for you, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and all men."

So, in chapter 1, he rejoices in the fact that they are working out their faith, laboring with the love of Christ compelling them, and being patient in hope, even though they go through difficult things. It is very clear when you read through 1 and 2 Thessalonians that the Thessalonian Christians were going through trials. They were experiencing challenges because of their faith—not just the normal challenges that everyone experiences, but in addition to that, they were facing difficulties because of their profession of faith in Christ. Paul acknowledges that they are patient and enduring those things, hoping for the coming of the Lord.

In chapter 5, he says, "The Lord will come." Be encouraged and comforted in this truth that the Lord will come. However, continue working in faith, laboring in love, and being patient in hope.

It's interesting that this letter to the Thessalonians begins with a commendation, a congratulation, for the fact that they are doing this. Then, in chapter 5, he emphasizes the importance of continuing to do so. Clearly, there is a recognition that one can be walking in faith, laboring in love, and being patient in hope at one point, and then, at some point in the future, no longer be doing that.

He encourages them to keep doing these things. It is not a given that we will be working out our faith, laboring in love, and being patient in hope five years from now or ten years from now. There are many things along the way that might derail, distract, or diminish that in our lives.

As we sit here today on January 5, 2014, I guarantee that probably every single one of you can think of at least one person who, in the past, was working out their faith, laboring in love, and being patient in hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, you haven't seen them for a long time, and now they are not. They have been distracted, maybe derailed, or have simply drifted.

It's very easy to drift. We all understand that, living here in Southern California, with the beach so close. You can go out to the ocean, to Oceanside, Carlsbad, or wherever it is that you like to go. You might find yourself in front of Lifeguard Tower number six, and a couple of hours later, you realize you are in front of Lifeguard Tower number eleven. You didn't have to swim to Lifeguard Tower number eleven; all you had to do was basically do nothing. If you do nothing, you will drift.

You have to actively work to avoid drifting. This is a very clear reality that we all understand because of our proximity to the ocean. The same is true in our walk with the Lord. You can be in the right place today, and yet months or years down the road, you may no longer be in the right place. You might even look back and wonder, "How did I end up here?"

It's not that you specifically made a decision in your heart to go the wrong direction or to follow a path that led you astray. It's just that you didn't do what you should have been doing to maintain consistency or maturity. Now, you find yourself where you shouldn't be.

And these words are important: the concept of faith, hope, and love. Faith, hope, and love are seen a number of times in the New Testament. Of course, we all know 1 Corinthians chapter 13, that great chapter of love. At the very end of the chapter, Paul says, "Now abide these three: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love." So we've heard that. We know that 1 Corinthians 13 talks about faith, hope, and love.

Paul discusses this in 1 Thessalonians and refers to it again in 1 and 2 Timothy. In the book of Hebrews, the last three chapters focus on these themes. When you get to chapter 10, there is an exhortation to continue in faith, hope, and love. Chapter 11 is about faith, chapter 12 is about hope, and chapter 13 talks about continuing in brotherly love. It's interesting how Hebrews is structured, with an exhortation in chapter 10 to continue. These are marks of Christian maturity: faith, hope, and love. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 focus on these aspects.

This is a significant theme in the scriptures, emphasizing that we as Christians should be growing in our faith, growing in our love for God and one another, and growing in our hope. Our hope should be increasing until the day we see Christ Jesus. There are several things in our lives that encourage that sort of hope. One thing we may not recognize as encouraging hope is trials. Romans chapter 5 makes that very clear. One of the outcomes of challenges in the Christian life is increased hope. We may not like that, but it is one of the truths revealed in scripture.

It's important to recognize that you can be where you should be on this day, January 5, 2014, and yet, a year or two later, you may find that you've drifted. Every single one of us knows this. This is one of the reasons why Peter would say, "I’m going to stir you up by reminding you. I will not be negligent to put you in reminder of these things, though you know them, and be established in the present truth."

What we're going to look at here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, beginning in verse 14, are some exhortations—some exhortations that I've taught on before. I’m stirring you up by way of reminder, my brothers and sisters at Cross Connection. You've heard these things before; you know these things. As I go through them, you might think, "Yeah, I know that." But sometimes we can fail to realize that although we know it intellectually, we're not applying it. So, God, enable us by Your Spirit to apply these things. Amen?

1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 14.

1 Thessalonians 5:14 states, "Now, as I've given every other exhortation, now as I've spoken these things about the sureness of the prophetic coming of the Lord, at one point, now we exhort you." The word "exhort" is the Greek word "perakaleo," which means to come alongside with a call. It is the idea, the concept that we can kind of understand in our day as a coach or a trainer.

If you ever played sports and had a coach over you, or if you made a New Year's resolution and decided to go to the gym, you likely had a trainer. That person is there to exhort you to press on in whatever it is that you're doing, to push through and continue when the time gets tough and it is hard.

I remember my senior year in high school when I played football at Orange Glen High School in Escondido. We had a good season that year, not because of me, as I actually played second string. Despite that, we were doing really well and were heading into the playoffs. If you know anything about high school football, the playoffs begin at the end of November and go into December.

During that time, we had practice on Thanksgiving night. Our coach told us the Wednesday before Thanksgiving not to eat too much because we were going to have practice, and he warned us that he wasn't going easy on us. Sure enough, we all showed up to practice, and it was a normal practice, but to give it the extra push because it was playoff time, I can remember our coach, Rob Gilster, who now coaches at Valley Center High School, saying, "All right, everybody to the line; we're going to run sprints."

We ran 100-yard sprints for about 15 to 20 minutes, and I seriously thought I was going to die. I was not the only one who felt that way. There comes a moment when you think, "I can't do this anymore," and all the coaches are standing there saying, "Come on, you can do it." I remember very clearly that our coach, Rob Gilster, stood on the line with us and said, "I'm going to run with you." He beat every one of us, and I couldn't stand him for that.

But he said, "I'll run with you," and that's the idea of someone who is exhorting. They come alongside and say, "Let's go. We can do this. I know that it's difficult." Why? Because you're going to face a bigger trial in the future, and there will be every reason to give up and throw in the towel. We need that exhortation.

If you've been around the Bible for any length of time, you know that in the book of John, Jesus proclaims that when He ascended to heaven, He would send another comforter. The word "comforter" is the exact same root word as this word "exhort" here. It's "parakletos," connected to "perakaleo." He is going to send the Holy Spirit, who is that exhorter.

And so, Paul, inspired by the Spirit of God here in this passage, says, "Now we are exhorting you, our brothers and sisters at Thessalonica. We exhort you to do four things." In verse 14, he outlines these four things. First, note that he is speaking to those who are brothers and sisters within the body of Christ.

He instructs us to warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, and be patient with all. These four actions are directed toward four different groups of people. It is important to notice that these groups are within the body of Christ. They are not necessarily people who are outside the church; they are people in the church. There are unruly people in the church, faint-hearted people in the church, weak people in the church, and a whole bunch of people in the church with whom we just need to be patient, as Paul says.

If we think about it and really look at ourselves, every single one of us, in some way, is characterized by these traits: unruliness, faint-heartedness, weakness, and we can be those who need to say, "Well, you've got to be patient with me."

Looking at some of these things, I want to break a few of them down. The New Living Translation translates "those who are unruly" as "those who are lazy." The English Standard Version says to "admonish those who are idle." Again, returning to the illustration of drifting, you don't have to do anything to drift; you just maintain idleness. Just kind of kick back, and that's a dangerous place to be.

There is a rip current in this world that will pull you in the wrong direction—the flow of this world. Paul talks about it in his letter to the church at Ephesus, stating that we all, in our former life before we were transformed by the saving power of Jesus, went according to the course of this world, the current of this world. In another one of Paul's letters, he tells us not to be conformed to this world. To the church at Corinth, he says, "Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed." Is it Romans chapter 12?

So, don't be conformed, pressed into the mold, flowing according to the current. Paul says to warn those, to admonish those who are idle, who are not engaged, who are not connected, who are not plugged in.

Next week, we are going to start a series called "Life in Connection." Our church is called Cross Connection. What does that mean? What's that all about? Well, we want to be a people who are living this life in connection.

We will be looking at all those things over the next several weeks, beginning next week. The idea is that if you are a part of this church, or any church, whatever church it is, and the only involvement you have—your engagement of talents, time, and energy in the church—is that you just show up on Sunday, then I would warn you and say you are in real danger of backsliding. That is just idleness.

You might say, "Well, I show up. I come." Okay, but there are a lot of people who show up and go to churches, and they have no real depth of faith, hope, and love. Paul says to warn those who are living in this idle sort of place. They are not engaged, not plugged in, and not connected to the body. They have no involvement in anything of ministry, mission, outreach, or community. They are just there; they just show up. While it is better to be here than not be here, the reality is that we need to engage. We need to plug in and get involved.

Apparently, the church at Thessalonica had a real problem with laziness. I can prove this. Turn to the next book, 2 Thessalonians. Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 10. Paul says in his second letter to them, "For even when we were with you, we commanded you of this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat." He continues, "For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies."

Now, those who are such, we command and exhort. There is that same word that he used back in chapter 5, verse 14 of 1 Thessalonians. We exhort through the Lord Jesus Christ that they work, re-engage, get involved, and get connected and plugged in. They should work in quietness and eat their own bread. They need to step it up and re-engage.

The church at Thessalonica had a problem with unruliness, laziness, and idleness. The fact is, at our natural state, our default nature is to be lazy. All of us. If we just give in to our default nature, it is to be lax and not engaged. This is why there is the exhortation to warn those who are unruly, that is, to admonish those who are idle.

Then he says the second group is the faint-hearted: "Comfort the faint-hearted." Again, this word "comfort" is connected to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Just as the word "exhort" was, so is "comfort." He is chiefly the exhorter; He is chiefly the comforter. However, He works in and through His church to do these things, which is what Paul is connecting here. God is saying, or Paul is saying, that God wants to use you to be a person who may need to encourage or admonish someone who is lax.

Maybe now they've drifted. Perhaps you know of someone who was engaged but is no longer engaged. The Lord may use you, by His Spirit, to give them a call, knock on their door, and say, "Come on. It's time to re-engage. It's time to get in the game again." The time is short, whether it is the time until the Lord returns or the time until He returns personally for me or you. We all have a very short time upon this earth.

Paul says to those who are idle, who are not engaged, to warn them. But to those who are faint-hearted, he says to comfort them. You see, there are some people who are not connected or involved because their hearts have been heavily weighed down with distraction and discouragement. They are not engaged because they have made a decision not to be involved anymore. They may not want to be a part of it, but they are so discouraged, so beaten down, and so distracted by things that have come into their lives.

This happens for people within the body of Christ. We experience a multitude of challenges, trials, and difficulties. Some of you, I see you nodding because you've been there before. You've gone through this where the weight of daily life, combined with the weight of living out the Christian life, has come upon you to the point where you feel discouraged. Your heart needs to be encouraged; it needs to be comforted.

Paul's exhortation to the church is to comfort those who are in that place of being heavy-hearted and weighed down. Comfort the faint-hearted. There are a number of places in Scripture that I think are helpful in comforting those who are faint-hearted. One passage that has been a comfort to me when I find myself discouraged and faint-hearted is the reminder of who I am and what I have in Christ.

I can think of no better place in the Bible than the book of Ephesians to deal with that. In fact, turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1 just for a moment, to the left of 1 Thessalonians. Ephesians 1, beginning at verse 3. Notice all the things that we have in Christ. Blessed be.

Ephesians 1:3 states, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ." Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. This means it was God's good pleasure; it is pleasing to Him to make us His.

To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved, in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us. In all wisdom and prudence, He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself.

Look at all these things that we have in Christ. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing. He has chosen us, predestined us, adopted us, and made us accepted. His grace has abounded toward us. When I am discouraged and facing trials, and we all do, sometimes they may be big, and sometimes they may be small. The trial you are going through may look really small to someone else, but for you, it is the biggest thing you have ever faced in your life.

As you go through that, this is a good place to be reminded of all that we have—the riches that we have in Christ. The next verse, Ephesians 1:10, says that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, as God unfolds the fullness of the times into eternity, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him.

In the future, He will gather us to Himself and will be revealing the manifold riches of His grace to us throughout eternity, as stated in Ephesians 2:7. This is a great place to go for encouragement when you are faint-hearted.

However, there is an important exhortation for us in the body of Christ. We need to look around for those brothers and sisters who may be idle and not engaged. We should come alongside them and say, "Come on, let's go. Let's get engaged." It is not necessarily about telling them they need to get engaged, but rather about coming alongside them. This is the idea of an exhorter—coming alongside and saying, "I am going to run this leg of the race with you. Let's do this together. Let's get involved. Let's plug in."

Then, we should look around and see if we have not seen someone for a while. You might find out that they have been going through a trial and are feeling discouraged.

And it's going and knocking on their door, encouraging them, and sitting down and praying with them. Lord, encourage my brother and my sister in the Lord. So, you're comforting the fainthearted and warning the unruly. The next thing he says is uphold the weak.

Uphold the weak. There are people who are not connected; they're not involved because they made a decision to just be idle. This is a dangerous place because they will very clearly backslide. Then there are people who have been discouraged and distracted by manifold difficulties, hard times, troubles, trials, and the cares of this world. Whatever it is, it chokes them out.

But then there are people who are weak—weak physically and weak spiritually. They are not connected and not engaged because of this. Paul says that the church is to come alongside them and uphold those who are weak. I have said it before, and I genuinely mean this: I am so thankful that the concept of natural selection and survival of the fittest has no place in the church. In this sense, there is no such thing as survival of the fittest in the faith.

It's not as if you get saved and Jesus says to you, "Alright, well, you're on your own. Figure it out." In fact, quite the opposite. Jesus said, "I will not leave you comfortless. I will not leave you alone. I will send you another helper, the Holy Spirit, who will guide you in all truth and teach you all things." God works through His church, the assembly of the brethren, the fellowship of the body of Christ, to uphold those who are weak.

In Romans chapter 15, verse 1, we looked at this when we were finishing up the book of Romans last year. There, Paul says, "We then who are strong"—and we all like to think, "Yeah, I'm strong"—"ought to bear with the scruples, the weaknesses of those who are weak, and not to please ourselves." We are to come alongside them and encourage them.

In another one of Paul's letters, Galatians chapter 6, he says, "You who are spiritual"—and again, we like to think of ourselves as strong and spiritual. So when we read Galatians chapter 6, "You who are spiritual," we all say, "Yep, that's me." You who are spiritual are to come alongside that brother or sister who has fallen by the wayside and restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. He goes on to say, "Bear one another's burdens." This is Galatians chapter 6. "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."

When we find someone who is weak, we are to uphold them, come alongside them, and bear their weaknesses. On this same point, would you turn to Philippians? You're in 1 Thessalonians, just a few books to the left. If you're still in Ephesians, it's just a book to the right. Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2. Look at verse 2. Paul again says, "Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind." Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind and humility of mind, let each of you esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look not out only for his own interests, but for the interests of others.

Then, in verse 5, he says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ." To be like-minded with Christ is to uphold those who are weak. It means to come alongside that person who, because of physical, spiritual, or emotional weakness, is not engaged and connected. We are to uphold them and say, "Come on, we're going to run this together." Even though you don't have the strength to run it, I will bear you up on my shoulder. We will be yoked together.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Matthew 11:28. I think about it often because my birth date is 11/28. It speaks about those who are weary and heavy laden. What are we to do? Jesus says, "Come to me, be yoked to me, and I will give you rest." He is stronger than we will ever be, and He invites us, even in our weakness, to come and be yoked to Him.

The idea of a yoke is that a master craftsman would build a wooden piece to yoke two oxen together so that they would ultimately bear the same load. Even if one ox is stronger, he might bear more of the load, but the other would be strengthened and built up in the process as well. Jesus says, "Come be yoked to me. My yoke is easy, my burden is light, and you will find rest for your soul."

As we are led by the Lord and by His Spirit, we are to reach out to others within the body of Christ who may be weak and in danger of falling away. We come alongside them and say, "Hey, I want to run this race with you. I want to show you the way so that you will be strengthened." It is for their good and their building up.

So again, we are to warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, and finally, be patient with all. Just the other day, I was at a store here in town, and a guy walked in wearing a black shirt. On the back of the shirt, it said, "Under construction." I have seen a shirt like that before; in fact, there was a junior high youth camp.

That we did years ago. The theme was "Under Construction." The concept was that every single one of us is under construction. All of us. I think on the shirt they had at this camp, it said, "Under Construction. Expect Delays." That’s a reality. If we take an honest assessment of where we are in our walk with the Lord, we’re not completed.

Even the Apostle Paul, whom so many of us look up to, acknowledges this in Philippians chapter 3. He says, "Not as though I have already attained or am perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me." He recognizes that he is not yet what Christ wants him to be, but he is pressing on, knowing that God is working in him to will and to do His good pleasure.

If we take an honest assessment of every single one of us, each of us individually will say, "I'm not there yet. I'm under construction." In saying this to someone else, we need to be exhorting ourselves to be patient with others.

Now, we live in a culture where patience is not highly valued. We hate to wait. Anyone else here say, "Yeah, that's me. I hate to wait"? Did any of you see the 60 Minutes segment a few weeks ago on Amazon.com? They are creating octocopters that will deliver your packages in 30 minutes. Why? Because we hate to wait. I don’t want to wait. When I buy something on Amazon, I want it now. That’s why Amazon Kindle is amazing. I don’t have to go to the bookstore or wait; I just go online and there we go. I have bought so many books that I haven’t read; it’s terrible.

But we don’t want to wait. You might think, "I need to go get a coffee," but you don’t want to walk into Starbucks because then you have to wait in line. So, you go to the drive-thru, and when you get there, there are two cars ahead of you. You think, "I don’t want to go in there. Forget it. I don’t want to wait."

There are so many areas where we cater to impatience in our world, and as a result, we are trained to be impatient people. We are impatient with others. I’ll confess, I’m a very impatient person, and God is constantly speaking to me that I need to be patient with people. Because we’re all under construction, in the same way we would want people to be patient with us, we need to be patient with them.

So, God, give us the ability to be patient and to fulfill what we see here: "Warn those that are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all." Verse 15.

See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone. But always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all. Again, Peter would say, "I will not be negligent. I will put you in reminder of these things." Though you know them, be established in the present truth.

You might say, "Yeah, I've heard all this stuff before, Miles. I know that we need to warn those that are unruly, comfort the weak, uphold the weak, comfort the faint-hearted, and be patient with one another." I've heard that too. Don't render evil for evil. Yeah, I understand. I've read that in the Bible before. I think Jesus says something like that too. Paul says it in a couple of other places. That's great, but I know the Scriptures.

Back there in the book of, well, in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, three times it says, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." So, I have the right to my retribution. Sadly, there are a lot of people within the body of Christ who think that we're justified in our anger and our retribution towards people because they did this to me, and I get to do something back to them. They believe the Bible justifies it: "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."

But Paul says here, "Render no one evil for evil." We saw this in the closing chapters of the book of Romans as well. Render no one evil for evil to anyone. Not just those that are in the body of Christ. You don't extend this as a benefit to Christians only and then say, "Well, all those people outside, they're on their own." No, it applies to everyone. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone. But always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all.

We still try to justify our anger, our desire for justice, and our desire for retribution towards people by saying, "Well, you know, the Bible says Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, Deuteronomy 19:21." Three times in the Pentateuch, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." If you've been here before when I've talked about this, you know that I have taught before, and it's very true: those words are often misunderstood and misapplied.

They're misunderstood and misapplied because those words are a limitation and not a prescription. They're a limitation because prior to God speaking those words as a command, they were given in the book of the law. Before those words were given as a command in God's law, it was kind of an anything-goes society. The idea was, "If you wound me, I'll kill you." So God says, "I'm going to limit that so that the punishment must fit the what?"

We understand this concept, and that's what those words are. They're not a prescription for justice and retribution on our part. "So and so said this to me, and now I'm going to do this to them." That's how we all are by nature.

Every single one of us who are parents has seen this in our kids, and my, does it escalate quickly! What happens here? You come into the room, and you have two or three kids crying and screaming. What's going on? Well, he hit me, and she pinched me, and then he bit me, and then she pulled my hair. It escalates, escalates, escalates. Who can get the last punch in before someone says, "Mom"? You always want to be the first one to call Mom, although you are often the last one to put in the hit. That's a little word of advice. My mom just said I was good at that—well learned in the art. I've got a PhD in disrupting my siblings' lives. Being a middle child, I've seen this.

This behavior is a limitation, and I can prove it. Go in your Bibles to the first book of the Bible, Genesis, chapter 4. How many of you remember Cain and Abel? How many of you remember Lamech? There are fewer people who remember Lamech in the same chapter. In Genesis chapter 4, look at verse 23. Then Lamech said to his wives—plural, that's for another study—Adah and Zillah. He said to his wives, "Hear my voice, wives. Listen to my speech. For I have killed a man. Why? For wounding me. A young man for hurting me. I've killed a man for wounding me. He punched me, so I killed him." That was the mindset before God said, "No, we're going to limit this. The punishment should fit the crime."

Later on in the Scriptures, we find that vengeance is mine, says the Lord. He is the one who acts justly. We are told in Micah chapter 6, verse 8, "He, God, has shown you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: but to do justly, to love mercy." We like to mix those things up. We like to say, "I love justice. The Bible says so." No, you mix it up. It says, "Love mercy. Do justly." We know that our nature is to love justice because we all do. I get to see it here quite a bit, as people get pulled over off the freeway all the time into our little parking lot down here. You go, "Yes, got him!" We love justice. But when it's you getting pulled over, you're going, "Please have mercy on me."

Do justly, love mercy, and walk in humility with God. We recognize that our nature is to take vengeance.

And here, Paul says that we are to render evil, not render evil for evil, just as Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount. Now, I've got to hurry up because we're running out of time, and we're going to partake of communion. But these verses are an important reminder to us that we are to be kind towards one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us, as Ephesians 4:32 says.

Then, in verse 16 of 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul says, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks. Rejoice, pray, give thanks. You may say, "I’ve heard this before. I've been in church for a long time." It's good that I remind you of these things. Why? So that we not be discouraged, that we not be weak in our faith, and that we not be distracted and led away by idleness. We need to rejoice. We need to pray. We need to give thanks as a people. Rejoice, pray, and give thanks.

In verse 18, he says, "Give thanks for all things." In everything, give thanks. In Ephesians 5, he says, "Give thanks for all things." There are many things that we will go through this year and into the years ahead that will be difficult, and it's hard to give thanks in those situations. But he says, "Give thanks in all things." God gives us His divine power to do these sorts of things, to fulfill these commands. He says, "This is the will of God." This is the explicitly stated will of God for us: to give thanks in all things, to rejoice, and to pray.

Just this last week on New Year's Eve day, we received a call here at the church. One of the brothers in the church, Ron Hendricks, called about his neighbor, who also goes to the church. His neighbor, Dave, and his wife, Patty, were in a difficult situation. Patty was rushed to the hospital because she had a bleed in her head, possibly a stroke or an aneurysm. So, Pastor Mark, Ron Hendricks, and I went to the hospital to pray with them. God is doing a great work. Patty is not released from the hospital yet, but she will be soon.

I received a text message from Dave, her husband, just yesterday. He told me, "As I was in the emergency room, I was looking at my wife of 30 years, and I thought, I may not have my soulmate with me anymore. My heart is breaking." He continued, "But in all of this, God has done an amazing thing. He has restored some family relationships that have been broken. A friend of ours, with whom we had not had any communication for a long time because of some problems in that relationship, God has restored that relationship through this difficult trial." So, Dave was giving thanks in the midst of something challenging.

That was the most difficult thing that he's faced in a long time. He is saying, "I'm giving thanks because," and I just say that's a fulfillment of the word of God. Now, how has that happened? Well, I guarantee it's the work of God working in us to make it a reality.

But we also need to not be idle. My exhortation, my encouragement as we begin this year is: don't be idle, church. If you've been discouraged, look for someone within the body of Christ to pray with you. Look back to the Scriptures to be encouraged. The Lord is the one who encourages the faint-hearted. He is close to those who weep and who are weak, and He will come alongside us in the midst of those things to strengthen us.

Re-engage and get connected. Over the next several weeks, we'll be talking about this quite a bit from the Scriptures about living this life in connection. All of this is possible because our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. Knowing that we are feeble-minded and weak of brain power sometimes, and that we have event boundaries, we forget. He gave us something very tangible.

The God who says, "You shall not make for yourself any image or likeness," gave us something very tangible that we can hold, see, smell, and taste, engaging all of our senses as a reminder: the bread and the cup.

I'm going to ask the worship team to come back up, and they are going to lead us in worship. The guys are going to come forward, and we will pass out the bread first. I want you just to hold on to it. As we do, it's a reminder—a very tangible, physical reminder—that He gave to us, knowing that we're weak in our memories, to remind us on a regular basis of what He did for us to enable us to have the power needed to accomplish these things.

Father, we thank You for Your great word. We ask that You would strengthen our hearts. Lord, give us today, as we remember Your body that was broken for us, a reminder in a very clear way of the strength and power that You have for us. You who endured the shame and suffering of the cross, something we will never be able to comprehend because it was more than just physical; it was spiritual.

God, speak to our hearts now as we worship You. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.