Sunday, July 13, 2025

“O Magnify the LORD with Me” [Matt's Messages]

“O Magnify the LORD with Me”
Lanse Evangelical Free Church
Family Bible Week Finale
July 13, 2025 :: Psalm 34

“O MAGNIFY the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.”

That’s an invitation.

This whole Psalm is a beautiful lyrical invitation to join King David in knowing and praising and trusting in the goodness of God. Verse 3 says:

“O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together” (King James Version).

Now, as the adult class learned this week, there are many different excellent translations of the Bible out there that, together, help us understand what it means. The NIV (the New International Version) which is what our Pew Bibles are says, “Glorify the LORD with me.” The CSB (the Christian Standard Bible) says, “Proclaim the LORD’s greatness with me.” So that’s what it means to “magnify” the LORD as the King James and the ESV (English Standard Version) put it. To “magnify” the LORD does NOT mean that the LORD is really small, and what we need is to beef Him up some.

“Poor little ‘god,’ let’s get some magnification on that guy.” No! It doesn’t mean that God’s goodness is microscopic.  It means that our understanding is microscopic and that we need to expand our understanding, and that we need to show more and more just how good and glorious our God is. Amen?

“O MAGNIFY the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.”

Do you feel how that is an invitation?

King David wants everyone who reads his song in Psalm 34 to join him in magnifying the goodness of God. Let’s look at the whole thing, starting up in verse 1.

[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]

Interestingly, Psalm 34 is an acrostic poem. One of those A-Z sort of things where the psalmist starts each line with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Aleph, Beth, Gimel. A, B, C. You can’t see it in the English, but this is a carefully constructed poem from A-Z. This week in the adult class, I passed around my Hebrew Bible, and you can see the pattern there.

It actually deviates from the pattern in two places, and I’m not sure why. There is no 6th letter and the 17th letter is out of order, coming at the end. But the point is that King David has spent a lot of time and effort to craft this particular song just the way he wants it to invite us to magnify the goodness of God with him.

The first invitation of Psalm 34 is an invitation to join the psalmist in unceasing praise. Look at verse 1.

“Psalm 34. Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left. I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.”

I have four points of application for us to consider today from Psalm 34, and they are all about how to magnify the goodness of the LORD. The first one is this.

O magnify the LORD with me:

#1. BY ALWAYS PRAISING HIS GOODNESS.

David starts his song with a commitment to unceasing praise.

“I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.”

“You can count it. I plan to always praise the Lord.” What does that remind you of? It reminds me of what we just studied last Sunday in the last section of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. Paul wrote, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:16-18). Remember that? I wonder if Paul had been reading Psalm 34?!

King David said he would always be praising the goodness of God.

Not just when things are going well, but when things are decidedly NOT going well. It’s much harder then. That’s why we have to decide in advance that our lips are going to always have praise on them.

And just like we said last week, that doesn’t mean that all we ever do is praise the Lord. Sometimes we lament. Sometimes we confess. Sometimes we confront. There are lots of other kinds of righteous words on our lips.

But every day and never far away, we who belong to the LORD can and should have praise on our lips. Because He is so good! We boast about Him. Did you see that word in verse 2?

“My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.”

Now, that’s a strange group to rejoice! “The afflicted.” The suffering. The downtrodden. The distressed. King David invites them to hear his song and to join it! V.3

“Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.”

Praise is contagious, and it loves company! “With me!” David says. “Glorify the Lord with me!”

Praise doesn’t stay confined in one person. Someone who is praising wants other people to join in the praising with them. 

Like if you see a good movie, most of the time, you want to tell somebody else how good that it is and encourage them to watch it, too. Or a good restaurant? Or a great piece of music? 

“You’ve got to listen to this song. It’s so good!”

King David is inviting everybody to sing about the goodness of God! King David wants everybody to sing in concert with him, boasting in the goodness of the LORD. All the time.

There’s a call and response originating in the Black Church that goes, “God is Good...All the Time. All the Time...God is Good.”

Have you ever done that?

Leader says: God is good!!
People say: All the time!!
Leader says: All the time?!
People say: God is good!!

Let’s do it.

God is good!! [All the time!!] All the time?! [God is good!!]

King David would say, “Let us exalt his name together.”

In verse 4, we begin to see what David was so happy about. He had been rescued. He had been saved from his enemies. Verse 4.

“I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.” 

Like many other psalms, this one has a backstory. The superscription up in verse 1 tells us that it was written out of the time when David “pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left.” 

You can read that story in 1 Samuel chapter 21. It’s really wild! David was in trouble (as usual) and on the run from King Saul, and he ran into even more trouble trying to live under a Philistine king while carrying the sword of the giant Philistine Goliath whom he had killed earlier. 

David was in a pickle, and he used a clever ruse to get out of it. But his own cleverness was not the point of the story that David himself got out it! When David thought about his own story, he didn’t give himself the glory. He gave the glory to the LORD. David recognized, when it was all over, that God had rescued him. That Yahweh had delivered him. From all of his fears and all of his troubles. That’s his testimony! Look at verse 6 again.

“This poor man [this afflicted guy with no resources on my own] called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.”

That’s why David is praising Him! That’s how good the LORD is!

God is good!! [All the time!!] All the time?! [God is good!!]

I love, love, love how verse 5 describes the people who look to the LORD for their salvation. They don’t look terrorized even if scary things are happening to them. Verse 5.

“Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” 

I want that for myself, especially as I age. I want to be radiant. And I want that for all of us, too. I want us to be radiant.  I’ve seen some radiant faces up here on the platform as the kids have sung the songs this week! If I were going to plant or rename a church, I think I’d want to call it, “Radiant Church.” Shining with praise for God’s deliverance in our lives. Because, verse 7:

“The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.”

That’s an unseen spiritual reality intimated in this song lyric. Right now, those of us who fear God have the angel of the LORD encamping around us. 

You are surrounded right now! Did you know that? If you are in Christ, you are surrounded. You are spiritually safe from the world, the flesh, and the devil’s rage–make war against you as they will. “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.” Greater is He that encamps around you than he that is in the world (see 1 John 4:4)!

And if that’s true, why wouldn’t you want the LORD in your life? V.8

“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”

O magnify the LORD with me:

#2. BY TASTE-TESTING HIS GOODNESS.

Do you feel how much this psalm is invitational?

King David is like a satisfied customer who is saying, “You’ve gotta try this for yourself! C’mon. Taste and see that the LORD is good.”

Notice that the metaphor in verse 8 alludes to two of our physical senses, both of which when something is truly wonderful indicate for us great pleasure! Both taste and sight. “Taste and see that the LORD is good.”

What was the best thing you ate at Family Bible Week out there under our brand new pavilion?

The Hospitality Team served around 400 meals over the four nights we had together, and there’s plenty of leftovers for the picnic today. Everybody stick around for the party!

Monday night was Hotdogs.
Then it was Taco Tuesday.
Wednesday was Mac-N-Cheese and Chicken Nuggets.
And Thursday was pizza and ice-cream night.

And I would ask kids in the line, “Do you like tacos?” And some of them would nod “yes,” and some would nod “no.” And for the “no’s,” I’d ask, “Have you tried it? Or do you just stick to PB&J from Amy over there?” Because this stuff is so good! 

That’s a taste-test. Somebody who has experienced the goodness of something invites others try it out and see for themselves how good it really is.

And in Psalm 34, it’s not just a hot-dog or a chicken nuggie. It’s a Person. It’s God Himself. It’s Yahweh, the God of Israel. “Taste and see that the LORD is good.”

The Hebrew word translated “good” is “tov.” We’ve seen this word before in our Old Testaments. “Tov” is same word Moses used in Genesis 1 to  express God’s pleasure in the world that He had made. God saw that it was “tov.” “Tov” is the way things ought to be.

It’s not just morally good. It’s good and complete and sweet. “Taste and see that the LORD is [tov].”

King David says, “See for yourself. Don’t just take my word for it. Jump in yourself. The water is so good! Judge for yourself. Take a bite of the goodness of belonging to the Lord. You won’t be disappointed!” Because here’s what you’re going to find: blessing. Verse 8.

“Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”

That’s the same word that starts off the whole book of Psalms. “Blessed.” Happy. To be in a state to be congratulated. In a good place.

As the hymn says it’s, “Life and rest and joy and peace. 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.” Try it! Verse 9.

“Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.”

How about that image?! Yes, even young lions who can eat anything they can catch will still get tired and hungry. But if the LORD is your shepherd, you shall not want (Psalm 23:1). If the LORD is your sun and your shield, He will withhold no good thing from you (Psalm 84:11). Everything you really need will be yours if you put your trust and fear in the name of the LORD.

God is “tov”!! [All the time!!] All the time?! [God is “tov”!!]

Now, David has used this phrase, “fearing the LORD” a few times already in this song (verse 7, verse 9). The LORD has delivered Him from all of his fear except for his fear of the LORD. That’s a good fear. And it’s one that we need to learn. The fear of the LORD is...what? “The beginning of wisdom.”

Where you do you get that? In verse 11, King David offers to teach us. He speaks as the “father” of Israel and offers to be their teacher. Verse 11.

“Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.”

He kind of sounds like one of our terrific Family Bible Week teachers for the kids. They have done great job this week of coming every night and getting those squirrelly kids to settle down and listen and teach them the gospel. They are back there doing it now! Make sure you thank them.

Do you feel how invitational this song is? David invites them to praise God for His goodness all the time with himself. David invites them to taste and see God’s goodness for themselves. And now David invites them to learn to fear the LORD for themselves.

And it basically boils down to living out God’s goodness. To living out God’s will in the sight of God and pursuing goodness like God himself. Verse 12.

“Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”

O magnify the LORD with me...

#3. BY PURSUING HIS GOODNESS.

The fear of the LORD looks like living a good life in the sight of God. It’s living out your faith before a holy God. It’s not being perfect, but it is being obedient by faith. Pursuing goodness. Look at verse 12 again.

“Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days [tov days, days filled with the goodness of the LORD, ... DO THIS:], keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good [tov]; seek peace and pursue it.”

It’s that easy. Or it’s that simple. It may not be easy, especially for broken people in a broken world. But it’s pretty simple.

Watch your mouth. “...keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.”

I’m not very tempted to outright lie very often maybe because I don’t want to get caught. But I am tempted to exaggerate. If I’m in a conversation, and I say something that really gets a good reaction, I’m tempted to blow it up just a little bit more. And magnify myself instead of the LORD.

How about you? Is your mouth marked by truth? Gossip, slander, obscenity, cursing, manipulating, quarreling. There are lots of ways that our mouths can get us in trouble.

There are so many Proverbs that warn us that the fear of the LORD means that we keep our tongues from evil. And not just our mouths, but we should watch the whole direction of our whole lives.

“Turn from evil and do good [tov]; seek peace and pursue it.”

What does that remind you of? That reminds me of what we just learned in 1 Thessalonians a few weeks ago! I think Paul must have been reading Psalm 34. 

Paul said, “Live in peace with each other...Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else” (1 Thess. 5:13&15). The word for “kind” there is a Greek word that often gets translated, “good.” Do good for each other and everyone else.

King David says in Psalm 34 that to learn the fear of the LORD, we actually have to pursue His goodness in our personal relationships.

“Seek peace and pursue it.”

Does that describe you and your life? Remember, it doesn’t say “fake peace,” it says “seek peace and pursue it.” You and I are supposed to be peace-seekers, peace-pursuers, peace-makers, reconcilers.

Some of us just like to stir the pot, though. When Christians do not pursue Gods goodness like verses 12 through 14, we give Christianity a bad name. 

That was the point the Apostle Peter was making in his first letter when he quoted these very lines of Psalm 34! 

And Peter said we should do it even when we’re being persecuted! He said, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For, ‘Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it” (1 Peter 3:9-11). That’s Psalm 34!

We still supposed to live this way today. Even when we are being persecuted. We need to pursue the goodness (the tov-ness) of God.

With our mouths.
With our lives.
With our relationships.

We are to repay evil and insult with blessing so that we may inherit a blessing. Because our God is so full of blessing, so full of goodness. So full of attentive care.

That’s how David ends this song–with a litany of beautiful images of God’s goodness up close and personal. One on top of another.

O magnify the LORD with me:

#4. BY TAKING REFUGE IN HIS GOODNESS.

Because when we live in the fear of the LORD knowing that His holy eyes are on us so that we want to please Him and live in accordance with His goodness, we also know that His holy eyes are not just on us but on our enemies, and He will deliver us from them. V.15

“The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry; the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned. The LORD redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.”

This afternoon, take out a piece of paper and a pen and make a list of all of the goodness that this song ascribes to the LORD. And just revel and rest in it!

Look at all of those sensory words! Its not just our mouth and eyes with which we taste and see. It’s the LORD’s eyes, and ears, and face and personal presence, and closeness. 

He is near and He cares.

I think that’s the message that the kids really got this week. Every night we sang the new song, “God Sees Me.”

“God sees me and He knows what I’m thinking.
Every doubt, every hope, every dream.
God sees me, and he cares how I’m doing.
It makes me smile, knowing that God sees me.

He watches over you and me.
He cares about the little things.
It makes me want to shout and sing
and give the glory to my king!”
[Paul Marion and Jeremy Johnson, Lifeway Worship, 2024]

“The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry...”

At Family Bible week, the kids learned:

1. God sees me.
2. God cares about me.
3. God loves me.
4. God forgives me.

And right now they’re back there learning that [5] God is faithful to His promises. Promises like (v.18)...

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted...” Are you brokenhearted today? “[He] saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Now, He does not promise us a trouble-free life (v.19).

“A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.”

For great King David, that was a metaphor of God’s overall protection, but of course, for great King David’s greatest son, King Jesus, it was literally true.

They did not break His bones (John 19:36). Though they did pierce His hands and feet. And He did die on the Cross.

There is a tension here, isn’t there? This psalm cannot promise that we will win every single time. That Christians will never lose, never really suffer, never really die. Our Lord did all of that. But even as He died, they did not break His bones, and that pointed to the ultimate deliverance that came in just 3 days when He came back to life and life forevermore.

And verses 21 and 22 point to our ultimate deliverance, our ultimate salvation. Which is “no condemnation” for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). 

There is condemnation for those outside of Christ Jesus. V.21 

“Evil will slay the wicked [it will catch up to them]; the foes of the righteous will be condemned.”

Judgment is coming. Flee the wrath of God! But Jesus absorbed the wrath we deserve so that we can be redeemed. Verse 22.

“The LORD redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.”

So take refuge in Him! Take refuge in His goodness! All who take shelter in King Jesus can say, “I will never be condemned.”

“O MAGNIFY the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.”

God is good!! [All the time!!] All the time?! [God is good!!]


***

Astute readers will recognize that significant portions of this message were adapted from my message “Taste and See that the LORD is Good” first preached for LEFC Sunday April 25, 2021.

Sunday, July 06, 2025

“This Is God’s Will For You” [Matt's Messages]

“This Is God’s Will For You”
Eternal Encouragement - 1&2 Thessalonians
Lanse Evangelical Free Church
July 6, 2025 :: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28  

Do you want to know God’s will for your life?

Careful how you answer that. Sometimes we say we want to know what God’s will is for us, but we really don’t. We only want to know God’s will for us if it’s also our will for us, right?

“Well, give me a peek, and then I’ll decide.”

But when we are at our best, all Christians do want to know God’s will for our lives. I have Christians ask me all the time to pray with them to discover God’s particular will for them.

“What job should I pursue?
Whom should I marry?
Should I sell my car?
Am I doing the right thing here?
What is God’s will for me?”

Those are really good questions to ask and to ask God to answer. Most of the time, the particular answers are not in the Bible. This book does not say whether or not you should sell your car, or marry that guy or gal, or take that particular job.

But every once in a while, the Bible comes out and directly says, “This is God’s will for you.” This is what God wants you to be and to do. And to not do! 

And when it says that, we should sit up and pay attention.

In verse 18, the Apostle Paul writes, “This is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” There is no question about this. God wills it for the Church of the Thessalonians and, by extension, to the Free Church at Lanse. So we better sit up and pay attention.


We said last time that Paul has not changed the subject. In this last section of his letter, he’s still talking about how we should live in light of the return of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is coming back soon. We don’t know when, and it’s better that way. We don’t need to know when it’s happening. We need to know that it’s happening and that it’s happening for us. We need to know Who we are and where we’re headed.

We are Children of the Day, and we are headed for salvation. We are not Children of the Night, and we are not headed for wrath. We are Children of the Day and we are headed for salvation when Jesus Christ returns so that we are together with the Lord forever.

And so we wait in active patience. We patiently wait in faithful, hopeful, active love.

Remember that? How do you get ready for the return of Jesus Christ? 

Three things: Faith, love, and hope. Faith, love, and hope. Every day, putting on the body armor of faith and love, and the helmet of the hope of salvation.

In the last section (verses 12-15), Paul double-clicked on the idea of love. He said that we need to love our church leaders and our church family and even our enemies.

And now, in verse 16, he turns to loving our God. Listen to verses 16 through 18 again:

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”

I have three points to summarize our passage for today, and here’s the first one:

#1. BE FULLY HAPPY IN CHRIST JESUS.

This is God’s will for you! Be fully happy in Christ Jesus.

The thing that jumped out at me the most as I studied this passage for this week was all times that the word “all” appeared in all these verses. Or some variation of the word “all.”

You see it in these 3 short verses: “always, continually, all circumstances.”

There’s a globalness, a fullness to these commands. It’s not partial. It’s not limited. It’s not half-hearted.  It’s whole-hearted. And here it’s whole-hearted happiness.

“Be joyful always.”

That sounds so good, but it is so hard to do. It’s hard to rejoice all the time, isn’t it? Because there are so many things against us. We have enemies–the world, the flesh, and the devil. We have problems. We have struggles. We have difficulties. We are broken people living in a broken world. There is much to be sad about.

And guess what? The Bible is not saying that we should never be sad. Or mad. The Apostle Paul was sad and mad at times. The Lord Jesus Christ was sad and mad at times. God wants us to be sad and mad at the appropriate times, but He also wants us to be glad all. the. time.

“Be joyful always.” The King James says, “Rejoice evermore.”

Under and above and through all of the other emotions and attitudes that we have, there should be a deep and abiding joy. Not just a fleeting happiness that is dependent on happy circumstances, but a deep happiness that is derived from eternal blessedness.

“Be joyful always.” Because we always have something to be joyful about!

The Apostle Paul didn’t just say to do this, but he did it himself, didn’t he? Paul was a model of this.
Just a few months before he wrote this, Paul was in prison with his teammate Silas. He was imprisoned in Philippi, less than a hundred miles from Thessalonica. You can read about it Acts chapter 16.

Paul was not a criminal. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He was just preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and rescuing people from demonic oppression. And a crowd attacked him, and he got arrested, and they beat him. They flogged him severely. And they tossed him in prison.

And you know what he and Silas did that night in prison? Well, they probably cried. They probably felt sad and mad at the pain and injustice. But what Luke tells us in Acts 16 is that they sang in their prison cells! 

They were glad! The rejoiced. They sang in prison. 

Maybe something like:

“Though sometimes He leads thru waters deep
Trials fall across the way,
Thoough sometimes the path seems rough and steep,
See His footprints all the way...” [Luther B Bridgers]

“Be joyful always!” This is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Are you singing in your prison? Is there within your heart a melody in all of life’s ebb and flow?

“Be joyful always!” This is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Now, just because we are rejoicing doesn’t mean that things are as they should be and that we shouldn’t be doing something to change how things are. And one of the key ways we do that is to ask God to change things. Verse 17 says, “Pray continually.”

That means to keep on praying all the time. To ask for things and not give up.

Interestingly, all of these commands are plural. This is something we’re supposed to do together. We’re supposed to pray for one another and keep on praying for one another.

I don’t think that Paul envisions us all mumbling all the time. The Lord Jesus said that we aren’t supposed to just mindlessly babble our prayers.

And I don’t think that Paul is asking us to get on our knees and never get up. Whatever he means has to fit withing the active loving working lifestyle that he also tells us to do in this letter. But I do think that he’s saying that we should have an attitude of prayer all of the time.

I like think of it as like the speaker mode on your phone. When you get up in the morning, you dial the Lord and then you “hit speaker” and talk to Him all day long. He’s listening all the time anyway, right? Why not talk to Him? We should be relating to the Lord all the day long. Telling Him our needs. Telling Him our desires. Bringing Him our problems. Confessing our sins. Lifting up our concerns and cares. And not just ours but our family’s, our church family’s, our community’s, our nations.

“Pray continually.” This is God’s will for you! Are you praying?

Paul did this one, too, didn’t he? Remember back in chapter 1 when he wrote them, “We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually [same word!] remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 1:2-3).

Paul never stopped praying for them, and he asks them to never stop praying, as well. And while praying continually, they were supposed to thank God continually. Look again at verse 18.

“...give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”
 
Now, notice that it doesn’t say that we have to give thanks for all circumstances. We do not have to love everything that befalls us. 

But at the same time, it does say that whatever befalls us, we can be grateful. We can (and should) give thanks no matter what. Why? Because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Now, that phrase, “in Christ Jesus” is very important. It means that this command to give thanks (and to rejoice always and to pray continually) comes from the very highest authority. It comes from Jesus Christ Himself Who has all authority in heaven and in earth. We need to do this. This is God’s will for us!

But I think it means more than that.

I think it also means that we find in Christ Jesus the power to obey these commands.
Because we are in Christ Jesus, we have every reason to rejoice.
Because we are in Christ Jesus, we have all access to pray before throne of God above.
Because we are in Christ Jesus, we have every reason to give thanks!

I’ve been processing some hard things recently. People I love are going through very difficult times. I’ve gotten some bad news that I have to work through. I see a lot going on in my country and my world that troubles me.

And it’s easy to get down about those things. And it’s okay to be sad and mad (in the right way). But I was reminded this week that this is God’s will for me: 

To give thanks in all circumstances. 

Because in all circumstances there is always something to be thankful for. Just think what we can be thankful for, no matter what:

We are saved!
We are children of the day!
We are not destined for wrath but for salvation!

Jesus Christ “died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him” (1 Thess. 5:10).


“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Because of Christ Jesus, we can be fully happy all the day. 

And not just fully happy but fully holy. This is God’s will for you:

#2. BE FULLY HOLY IN CHRIST JESUS.

In verses 19 through 22, Paul urges the Thessalonians to practice discernment. He wants them to make wise choices about what they hear and what they do with what they hear. 

Listen to these verses again. He’s still giving these little short staccato instructions. Verse 19.

“Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.”

You can tell that Paul wants them to be careful with how they live their lives. He wants them to be holy. They are to “Hold on to the good” and to “Avoid every kind of evil.” And that means being able to tell the difference between the two.

“Test everything.” Being holy takes discernment.

Paul starts in verse 19 with the instruction, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.”

Or probably better to say, “Do not quench the Spirit” (because we can’t put out the fire of the Holy Spirit!). The word for “quench” means to “stifle” or “extinguish” or “suppress” a  fire or a light. And the Holy Spirit is pictured as both a fire and a light elsewhere in Scripture, so this is a call to not resist the work of the Holy Spirit in their church family. 

Don’t do something (don’t do anything) that resists the work of the Holy Spirit to make you all holy!

For example, if the Holy Spirit is convicting you of some sin in your life–perhaps joylessness or prayerlessness or ungratefulness (the opposite of verses 16 through 18), then don’t ignore that conviction! Don’t stuff it down. Don’t put your fingers in your ears. “Don’t quench the Spirit.”

Is there something that you know is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus that you are actively rejecting?

“Not right now, Spirit. I don’t have time to work on that right now. Life is hard. Leave me alone.” 

Paul says, “Don’t do that. Do not try to put out the Spirit’s fire. He wants to make you holy. Let Him!"

Last week, Jim Panaggio told us about how the Holy Spirit is in the business of transforming us into the image of Christ. He’s making us more and more like Jesus. Don’t try to get in His way!

Paul says in verse 20, “Do not treat prophecies with contempt.” 

The Holy Spirit was trying to speak to the Thessalonians through prophecies, and Paul says, “Do not put your fingers in your ears.”

Now, I don’t think these prophecies were Old Testaments prophecies like Jeremiah or Daniel. And I don’t think they were New Testament Apostolic prophecies like the book of Revelation or what Paul predicted in chapter 4.

In New Testament times before the Scriptures were completed, the Holy Spirit sent words of “strengthening, encouragement and comfort” through prophecies given to church members (see 1 Cor. 14:3). You can read about that in the Book of Acts and especially 1 Corinthians chapter 14.

Paul taught the Corinthians that those prophecies needed to be carefully “weighed” (see 1 Cor 14:29).

In verse 21, he says, “Test everything.” 

The Thessalonians were not supposed to be gullible and fall for everything that came down the pike under the name “prophecy.” Notice that word “everything.” There’s that “all” word again! “Test everything.”

But even though they weren’t supposed gullible, they also weren’t supposed to be cynical. God was still speaking to them, and they needed to stay open to the Holy Spirit and not treat prophecies with disdain and contempt.

Now, Christians today disagree on whether or not God still sends prophecies now like He did then before the canon of Scripture was completed.

If He does, they need to be carefully tested when they come. Are they compatible with the Scriptures? Do they properly glorify the Lord Jesus Christ? Because the Holy Spirit is all about glorifying Jesus and never detracting from Him. Do they strengthen, encourage, and comfort? Do they help us to become holy or do they bend us in the wrong direction?

“Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.”

When we get to 2 Thessalonians, we’re going learn that some people were prophesying in Paul’s name[!] that the day of the Lord had already come (see 2 Thess 2:2). Which was a flat-out lie. And if believed, it was going to do all kind of damage to the spiritual lives and holiness of God’s people in Thessalonica. 

That kind of prophecy needed to be avoided at all costs. And there is a lot of that kind of “prophecy” out there in the world today. Beware. Test everything.

But notice that Paul does not say, “Because prophecy can go wrong, we should avoid it all together.”

No, he actually said, “Do not treat prophecies with contempt.” Just test everything. And that’s true whether or not the Holy Spirit still sends prophecies in the exact same way that He did in the first century. Regardless of that, the Holy Spirit is still speaking to us today, and we need to listen. We just need to listen with discernment.

We need to pray continually and we need to search the Scriptures diligently to test everything we hear.

And that includes everything you hear from me in this pulpit! In Acts 17, after Paul left Thessalonica in the middle of the night, he and his team went to a little town called “Berea.”

And he planted a church there, but the Bereans never took Paul’s word all by itself. Luke says that the Bereans were “noble...for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).

Now, if they had to do that with the Apostle Paul, then you need to do it even more when it’s me!

“Test everything.” Including Pastor Matt’s teaching.

That’s why we need to study our Bibles and know our Bibles. That’s why we have Family Bible Week because we don’t just listen to our spiritual leaders (though we learned in verses 12 and 13 that they are supposed to work hard at admonishing us).

But we also need to check on everything they teach.

“Test everything.” Why? So that people feel tested? No, so we know what is good and we do that. V.21

“Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.”

There’s another “ALL” word. “Every kind of evil.” Avoid it. Run from it. Abstain from it. Let go of it.  “Avoid every kind of evil.” Be fully holy! This is God’s will for you.

Paul is sure of that, and he even prays for it. In verse 23, Paul switches from commands to prayers. He gives a benediction or a blessing where he writes out his prayer for the Thessalonians.

And it’s a prayer for total holiness. Look at verse 23.

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What a beautiful prayer. How encouraging that must have been for the Thessalonians to read! Because they might have been daunted by the call to “Test everything...[and]...avoid every kind of evil.” That’s hard to do. So Paul prays that God Himself would make them holy!

That’s what it means to “sanctify.” That’s the word we use to mean “holy-fy.” To sanctify something means to set it apart as holy.

And Paul prays that God Himself would make them holy.

How holy? “Through and through.” ESV says, “Completely.” NASB says, “Entirely.”  Those are “ALL” words, aren’t they?

He goes on pray, “May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” There’s another “ALL” word. “Whole.”

And he includes the spirit, the soul, and the body, not because we are made of three parts, but to say every part of us. Paul prays that every single part of us would be kept or protected blameless for that coming day when Jesus Christ returns.

There He goes again, talking about the Lord’s return! Paul prays that God Himself would make them fully holy on the day that Jesus Christ comes back for His people. “Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And here’s the most encouraging verse in this entire section. Verse 24.

“The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”

There’s “eternal encouragement” for you! The Apostle Paul says that God Himself is trustworthy, and He Himself will make them holy. 

That must have been so encouraging for them to read. And it is for us, too, right?

This is God’s will for you:

#3. BE FULLY HOPEFUL IN CHRIST JESUS.

We don’t have to save ourselves. We don’t have to sanctify ourselves. Not ultimately.  

It is God's will for us, and it is God's work in us that saves us and sanctifies and makes us holy.

Our hope is not our own efforts. Our hope is the One who calls us to all of this. Yes, He’s calling us live this way, and it’s not easy. It’s not easy to be fully happy in Christ Jesus. We have reason to be sad or mad and not just glad. It’s not easy to be fully holy in Christ Jesus. It’s hard to avoid every kind of evil.

But ultimately, it’s not up to us. It’s up to the One calling us to accomplish it in us.

And “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”

Put your hope in Him.
Put your hope in His work.
Put your hope in His faithfulness.
Put your hope in His return.

Earlier in the service, we proclaimed our unity in Article 9 of our statement of faith. “We believe in the personal, bodily, and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service, and energetic mission.”

He is our hope! We fully hope in Him.

In the last four verses, Paul has a few final requests to make of the Thessalonians. 

First he asks for prayer.  Verse 25.

“Brothers [and sisters], pray for us.”

While they are praying continually, Paul asks that they pray for him and his team in particular.  He prays for them. He asks that they make it mutual.

And he wants them to greet each other. Verse 26.

“Greet all the brothers [and sisters] with a holy kiss.”

Make sure it’s holy! This is a sign of family love. Treat each other like the spiritual family that we are with culturally appropriate signs of affection. For us it might be hearty handshakes and fist bumps. 

Notice he says, “all” the brothers though. There’s that word “all” again. That includes the idle and the weak and the timid from verse 14. We don’t just greet the church family we like or gravitate towards. We greet them all. Who do you need to go out of your way to greet today before our time together is over?

Paul uses the word “all” again in verse 27. 

“I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers [and sisters].”

That’s pretty strong words! To insist that his letter gets read he must believe that it is from the Lord through him. And we believe it, too! This letter is holy Scripture. And so we read it to all here this morning. Here we are obeying verse 27 in this very room! This is the Bible. And we accept it, not just the words of a man, but “as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in [we] who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13).

And Paul concludes (v.28):

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

And that’s exactly what we need. We need the grace of Jesus. Our hope is in Him.

This is God’s will for you and me in Christ Jesus.

Let’s sit up and pay attention.


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Messages in this Series:

01. "To the Church of the Thessalonians" - 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
02. "We Loved You So Much" - 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16
03. "You Are Our Glory and Joy" - 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:13
04. "Do This More and More" - 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
05. "Encourage Each Other With These Words" - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
06. “We Belong to the Day” - 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
07. "To Each Other and To Everyone Else" - 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15