Participants: Jon Paulien & Jon Ciccarelli
Series Code: TBOTB
Program Code: TBOTB000010B
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00:01 Welcome back.
00:02 Want to say just a little bit more 00:04 about verses 14 and 15, and that is the idea 00:07 here of balance, a balance on the one hand 00:12 of speaking highly, thinking highly of leaders, 00:15 on the other hand holding them accountable, 00:17 its a very important balance. 00:18 Pastor Jon, if anything more you want to say about it? 00:21 We know, and-- I like also the balance of, before 00:25 you hold somebody accountable, 00:27 they are not to be in that relationship, which Paul has. 00:29 Yes. He spent the bulk of the letter of front part, 00:31 reminding them about the relationship 00:34 and building them up and then, the admonitions. 00:36 And so sometimes you know, we can come at people, 00:38 once my calling to hold them accountable, 00:41 you know, and I don't even know the person and then, 00:43 it's hard for them to receive that, so, relationship is, 00:45 is a big part of this admonitions. 00:49 Good point. You know, if you will. Good point. 00:51 Lets move, yeah, lets move on to verses 16 through 18 00:54 and I'll read those for us. 00:56 Paul says, "At all times rejoice, constantly pray, 01:01 in all circumstances give thanks, 01:03 for this is the will of God for you in Jesus Christ." 01:07 And you notice how the verb comes at the end, 01:09 I translated these in such a way, that the cadence 01:12 of the original would be there, so three things here, 01:17 rejoice, pray, be thankful. How do you pray always? 01:23 You know, something I've been challenge in my church in, 01:26 just recently few months back, and I said, 01:29 you know part of God's will is for you to pray continually, 01:32 to pray constantly and so, you know, being aware of God and, 01:36 and having a conversation with him all throughout the day, 01:39 you know, not just maybe when I sit down to eat, 01:42 but all throughout the day. 01:43 One of the things I've asked the church to do is, every noon, 01:46 everyday at noon if people on our church would just paused 01:49 to pray and know that they're in conversation with God 01:52 as a community, even though we're scattered, 01:54 we're not gathered, but as a church we're scattered 01:56 we pray everyday at noon, and there are some other things 01:59 that we do, we have active prayer ministry at our church, 02:02 that is available to pray with people after the services. 02:05 We have people praying during the services, 02:07 you know, while I am preaching, while the worship is going on 02:09 and we see things happening in people's lives, 02:12 wasn't happening before, and we gather for prayers 02:15 at church during the week, once a month just to sit 02:17 at the feet of Jesus and be together. 02:19 There's so much, so much that you can do, 02:21 but, you have to be intentional, because prayer 02:23 is one of those things that is talked a lot about, 02:25 but I don't think practiced a lot. 02:28 I read one time that, that next to the Bible books 02:31 on prayer were the second highest, 02:33 people want to know about prayer and understand that, 02:35 but we have to be intentional in it, as, 02:38 as disciples of Jesus in doing that. 02:41 One of the things I've, I've reckon with here is the idea 02:44 that I find when I am closest to God, there are times 02:49 when your mind is sort of a nothing, when you just sort 02:52 of checked out a little bit and when I focus on that, 02:56 I find almost always there's some kind of spiritual song, 03:00 one morning it was just Jesus loves me, 03:02 I don't know where that came from, 03:03 I hadn't thought about that in years and yet it was like 03:07 a soundtrack in the back of my mind, I, I didn't put it there, 03:10 I wasn't think about. 03:12 When, when I am close to God that, that music background 03:15 sometimes is the way the continual prayer comes in. 03:19 It reminded me of a statement by my favorite author 03:21 outside the Bible, Ellen White, in a book Desire of Ages. 03:25 She says, "As a child Jesus carried into His labor 03:29 cheerfulness and tact. 03:31 Often He expressed the gladness of His heart 03:33 by singing psalms and heavenly songs. 03:37 Often the dwellers in Nazareth heard His voice raised in praise 03:40 and thanksgiving to God. 03:42 He held communion with heaven in song, 03:44 and as His companions complained 03:46 of weariness from labor, they were cheered 03:49 by the sweet melody from His lips. 03:51 His praise seemed to banish the evil angels, 03:54 and, like incense, fill the place with fragrance. 03:57 The minds of His hearers were carried away 03:59 from the earthly exile, to the heavenly home." 04:03 And I think music can play an important role to keep us 04:06 in touch with heaven. 04:08 One other thing is, is thankfulness. 04:11 When did you last thank God for the air 04:13 you're breathing, where would you be without that? 04:16 When did you thank Him for the color of the carpet, 04:18 or the cat or you know this is-- Right. 04:20 That the wind that just blew by had this refreshing breeze. 04:23 We have so many gifts from God, 04:25 and we don't thank Him often enough. 04:27 You know, its God's activity is around us all the time. 04:31 You know, it just His Holy Spirit, 04:33 Him through spirit is always trying to reach and connect 04:37 with us in so many ways, you know, 04:39 I love even just this morning, you know, open up 04:41 the front door and watching the sunrise, 04:43 hearing the wind through the trees, you know, 04:45 watching the clouds go side, no many can do that, 04:48 you know-- only God. 04:49 Just learning to say thank you God, whenever, 04:51 whenever you touch base with those realities. 04:54 Yeah, and you know, in prayer one other things 04:57 that I try to pray more, we often say God be with me, 05:00 God be with so and so, but, really my prayer is God 05:03 help me to be with you, I need to be aware of you, 05:06 help so and so to be with you today. 05:08 Yes. 'Cause He is always there. 05:09 Yes. Let's go on, verses 19 through 22. 05:15 Paul goes on to say, "The Spirit do not quench, 05:19 prophecies do not despise, all things test, 05:24 the good retain, from every form of evil abstain." 05:30 Now, couple of things I want to point out here, 05:33 the words that he is saying here are stop 05:36 despising prophecy, stop quenching the spirit. 05:38 Apparently the Thessalonians were spectacle of new light. 05:42 They were spectacle of messages 05:44 that they hadn't heard before. 05:46 And Paul says, stop doing that, 05:49 so I want you to be open, here's what you do. 05:52 Some new teaching comes along, 05:54 you know, don't just check out, test it out. 05:57 The point here is not about prophets, prophets, 06:01 it's about prophecy, it's, it's the neutral word. 06:05 He says don't despise prophecies, 06:08 but rather test them, test them out, and you know, 06:12 you have to do that, even when it's a true prophet, 06:14 even when it's scripture, you have to test how that scripture 06:19 applies to your situation. 06:20 Imagine if a prophet is writing two letters, 06:23 one letter to a lazy person, the other letter to a person 06:26 who is a workaholic, what would the prophet have to do, 06:30 give opposite advise. Right, sure. 06:32 And if the letters got crossed in the mail, 06:36 big trouble did you see, so that's where discernment 06:39 comes in, that's where testing comes in, 06:42 that you don't simply read the prophecy, okay, that's it, 06:45 that's what we got to do, you apply it to the situation. 06:49 You think about it through the Holy Spirit. 06:51 How you can best use it, hold faster that which is good 06:54 for that situation. 06:56 So Paul is saying, be open to new ideas, 06:59 definitely always be open to scripture. 07:02 I think sometimes we tend to just go to the Bible 07:04 to support what we already believe 07:06 or what we already think, and that's dangerous, 07:09 that's dangerous, but when we go to Revelation, 07:12 we go to the prophecies, when we go to what the Bible 07:15 has to say that were open to it, 07:17 but we're also testing, we're careful. 07:20 We say, don't just take the first application 07:23 that comes to mind, but maybe see if God 07:25 has something else in that text, that you need to hear. 07:28 Yeah. It's not balance, on the one hand the balance 07:32 between tradition on the one hand 07:34 and new light on the other, a balance between revelation 07:38 and reason both of those. 07:41 I think you ran across a quotation, 07:42 not too long ago that, that might be helpful here. 07:45 Yeah, here's this saying, 07:47 "Become like skillful moneychangers, 07:50 who reject much of what they examine, 07:52 but hold fast to whatever is genuine." 07:55 You know, that was actually 07:57 an ancient tradition about Jesus. 07:59 We don't know for sure if Jesus made that comment, 08:02 but, is very, very possible, it's, it's a very early 08:06 text that says that. 08:08 And then I think also, you know all of this, 08:12 that Paul would warn us to be careful, to be studious, 08:16 to be thoughtful. 08:18 We have many lessons to learn, many, many to unlearn, 08:22 this is again from Ellen White, 08:24 Review and-- Herald July 26, 1892, 08:28 "Many lessons to learn, many to unlearn. 08:31 God and heaven alone are infallible. 08:34 Those who think that they will never 08:35 have to give up a cherished view, never have occasion 08:39 to change an opinion, will be disappointed." 08:42 So as we hold on to our own ideas and opinions 08:45 with determine persistency, we cannot have 08:48 the unity for which Christ prayed. 08:50 Wow, that's powerful. So, let's go the last verses, 08:54 the time is almost running out. 08:56 All right. Verses 23 through 27. 09:00 "May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, 09:03 and may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved 09:06 blamelessly at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 09:09 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it, 09:12 Brothers, pray for us. 09:14 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. 09:17 I charge you before the Lord to have this letter 09:19 read by all the saints, brothers." 09:21 What a great, great scripture. 09:24 Yes, there are couple of things we want to mention briefly, 09:26 first of all spirit, soul and body. 09:29 Some people have try to be really precise, 09:32 you know, psychologically and simple logically, 09:36 you know, what part of you is body, 09:38 what part of you is spirit, what part of you is soul. 09:40 The ancients were not that precise. 09:42 I think when you see how these terms are used 09:44 throughout the Bible, all the great scholars 09:47 would agree that Hebrew mindset is were whole person's, 09:50 we're not a mind without a body, 09:52 we're not a soul without a body. 09:54 The body is the place where God has put all of us together, 09:58 and we are whole persons and so, Paul is saying here 10:04 whole person submission, just go all out every fiber 10:08 you're being submitted to God, that's the place, that's, 10:11 that's readiness for the second coming. 10:13 Yeah. One other thing I want to point out here is, 10:15 in this text it says preserved blamelessly 10:20 at the coming of our Lord Jesus. 10:22 In some translations it suggest that maybe 10:24 at the second coming of Jesus, people will be more blameless 10:28 than they are now, that isn't what this text is saying. 10:31 In the original language it says, preserved blameless, 10:34 now as Paul is saying, I want you to stay 10:36 where you are now, all away through to the end, 10:39 the faithfulness where you are now, yes more and more, 10:41 grow and grow, but you are faithful now, 10:44 I want you to stay faithful till the end, 10:47 be preserved blameless, are these guys messed up, 10:50 yes there, yet he is encouraging them, he says no, 10:54 he says what you have is important. 10:56 At every stage of our life we maybe submitted to God. 11:00 At every stage of our life we maybe as perfect 11:03 as we can be at that stage, and I think that's, 11:06 that's what he is talking about here. 11:11 Well, it's, its amazing to see how Paul 11:16 calls us to this balance, this balance of in relationships 11:22 and so forth, but do you, are you actually denying 11:27 character growth when you're saying that or? 11:28 No, not at all, the Hebrew is extremely practical and so, 11:32 he, he gives us very specific. 11:34 The Thessalonians are in a good place 11:36 in spite of their problems, but he's also saying 11:38 more and more, grow and -- grow, and those of us 11:43 who are walking with the Lord, 11:44 we're never gonna stop growing. 11:45 I constantly have to confront, you know, in my own life 11:49 things that, that aren't where they ought to be. 11:53 So he encourages us to be faithful 11:55 to what we have, but keep on growing. 12:00 Yeah, well, well, well, this has been rich 12:02 as always with you, Dr. Paulien always been rich. 12:05 But, we want to thank you for being with us 12:08 and it's been so great. 12:09 I want to encourage you, maybe there are areas 12:11 in your life that God is calling you to balance, 12:13 maybe it's understanding scripture in the different way 12:16 than you have or how you work 12:18 with your leaders and so forth. 12:19 We want to invite you to join us next time, 12:21 when we begin Second Thessalonians. 12:24 Until then God bless you, we look forward to see you again. |
Revised 2023-01-25