FINAL INSTRUCTION’S
1 Thess 5: 12-28 November 25, 2012
INTRODUCTIONS
1) I’ll never forget Christmas of 2003….my Dad was battling cancer…we’d just found out it was through his entire body…..lungs, spine, lymph nodes…everywhere….He weighed 125 pounds soaking wet and didn’t eat a lot before this disease…Not much reserve fuel in the fork to fight it, but he did, for almost 2 months…I preached his funeral on March 4th, he died on March 2nd…2004.
But I’ll never forget that Christmas of 2003…it wasn’t the presents I remember…although he’d ordered me a Scottie Cameron putter from eBay and gave it to me…(I might use other clubs in my life time but I’ll die with that putter in my bag).
I remember my Dad sitting with each one of his grandchildren on the sofa during this Christmas and talking to them..he was, in his own stubborn, hard, loving kind of way trying to challenge them…and say good-bye…He wanted to give them some final instructions….
I think he knew they were his legacy after he was gone…It would be his children and grandchildren that would carry the torch…and he wanted them to know some of the priorities he’d discovered in life…He’d shared them before…but now he knew time was short…so, one final time he put them into a small packet of words shared on a couch…he knew what he was doing…and so did they….
Paul, the Apostle comes to the end of this heartfelt love letter with a chain of jewels of good advice…his final instructions to his children and grandchildren in the faith…
Listen to his words… Read text: 1 Thess. 5: 12-28 (p832)
Respect your leaders…live at peace with people, don’t take revenge, stay in the will of God, don’t dispose spiritual gifts remember the one whose called you….and, P.S….stay in His word and His grace.
The apostle Paul’s not sure if he’ll ever see these precious people again…he pours himself and his priorities into this first letter…There will be a second, but it is extraordinarily brief in comparison…Paul, Silas and Timothy all are living with death staring them in the eye and they know it.
It’s why he writes these words to Timothy, his son (or grandson) in the faith.
“For I am already being pour out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure” (2 Tim 4:6)
You see godly leaders know…we are always one generation away from extinction...our legacy is the people we leave behind.
There is no success in God’s Kingdom unless you leave a successor…
John Maxwell put it well “A leader who develops people adds…A leader who develops leaders, multiplies.
Fern Creek Christian Church is no different than any other church in the Kingdom when it comes to this…that’s why Paul begins.
I RESPECT YOUR LEADERS
And the reason for the respect is the “work they are doing” It’s not a question of personal prestige…It’s not the title that makes a leader great…it’s the ministry that the person is engaged in that is their badge of honor.
There is an unusual thing we do in American churches…we sometimes give titles, but have no real memories attached to them…So, do you respect someone simply because they hold a title…”Well, I could say “No…Scripturally it’s something Paul, or the other apostle couldn’t even fathom…
Except maybe when it came to Diotrephes in John’s 3rd letter…John the Beloved writes…
[I wrote to the church, about Diotrephes, who loves to be first (This is a leader who cares about titles, but not people)…He will have nothing to do with us…So if I can I will call attention to what he is doing…gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church…Dear friends, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good…” (3 John…p865)
Real leaders are identified by what they produce…like trees. A good tree bears good fruit…Bad trees bare bad fruit.
Respect leaders who produce good fruit…encourage them, love them, support them…and
II LIVE IN PEACE
Living in peace is easy if everyone plays nice…The problem is…not everyone plays nice.
What Paul is telling us…”It is impossible to preach the gospel of love in an atmosphere poisoned by hate.”
William Barclay writes in his commentary of 1 Thessalonians…Better for that a man should quit a congregation in which he is unhappy and in which he makes others unhappy and find one where he may be at peace.”
I’d say “Amen to that…but add a caviot.
“If you are unhappy because your church isn’t being shaped into your preferences…and you go to another one hoping it will be more to your liking…soon that place won’t measure up either…and about the 2nd or 3rd place maybe you’ll discover (but I doubt it) it’s not the place that needs changing…it’s you…
3rd…
III DON’T TAKE REVENGE
“Make sure nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.”
“Yeah, and whose gonna oversee this?”
What committee do we organize to bring this about? LOL
Folks this is a golden rule principle for godly leaders in every ministry and for every follower of Christ.
Matt 7: 12 “So in everything, do to others, what you would have them do to you..for this sums up the law and the prophets.”
[I’m not sure if this is exactly what Paul had in mind, but it’s one of my favorite stories…Period…
GO AHEAD AND GOSSIP Harriet, the church gossip and self-
Appointed supervisor of the church’s morals, kept sticking her
Nose into other people’s business.
Several residents were unappreciative of her activities, but feared
her enough to maintain their silence. She made a mistake,
however, when she accused George, a new member, of being an
alcoholic after she saw his pickup truck parked all afternoon in
front of the town’s only bar. She commented to George and
others that everyone seeing it there would know that he was an alcoholic.
George, a man a few words, stared at her a moment and then just
walked away. He said nothing. Later that evening, George quietly
Parked his pickup in front of Harriet’s house and left it there all night…
(Pulpit Helps, April 2003)
I’m not sure if the Harriet’s of the world will ever change, but not taking revenge doesn’t mean we don’t deal with sin….it just means that leaders deal with sin gently like it says in Gal…
Gal 6: 1-5 (p826)
You see Paul lets us know there are three characteristics to a genuine healthy church body…Listen…
“Be careful always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess 5:18)
Joy isn’t happiness…it’s the inner peace of God’s Holy Spirit…it doesn’t depend on circumstances or possessions…it’s by relationship to God…not because of the calmness of life. Praying is the conversation of a child to his father…whether that child is 100 or whether that child is 10…It’s vital to hear God through His word, but it also vital to feel him through His Holy Spirit…”The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We don’t know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” (Romans 8:26)
Let me be clear…I’m not talking about a public prayer for the congregation to hear…I’m talking about something much more essential…prayer from the inner heart and soul. And with this kind of relationship we will see the 3rd characteristic of a genuine healthy church…3rd) It’s thankful in all circumstances…because in this relationship of joy and pray we know that…”He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the spirit intercedes for the Saints in accordance with God’s will.” (Romans 8:27)
This is no superficial prayer…it’s much much deeper…and much more essential if you would believe the verse that follows…
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
You can be thankful in all circumstances if you really and truly have experienced God in this….
Because that purpose…always God’s purpose is revealed in Romans 8:29….”It’s to shape us into the likeness of His Son Jesus.”
Let me end with the last 2 points the Apostle Paul makes in his final instructions.
IV DON’T DISPISE SPIRITUAL GIFTS
“Don’t put out the Spirits fire! Don’t treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything, hold onto the good. Avoid every kind of evil.”
I believe this is written almost specifically to me and my role as lead minister here at Fern Creek…yes it applies to others but I have the responsibility and privilege of bringing the message of God to this congregation almost every week…Paul is saying.
“Rick if the Holy Spirit impresses on your heart something to say…say it!”
And to those who hold me accountable…
“Don’t stop him from saying it.” Don’t treat the message with contempt…Test it….and if it’s Spirit lead and spiritually inspired…support it, throw your weight behind it, run with him…not against him.
I will tell you there are ministers who are not in ministry any longer because they should not be in ministry, but there are many…I know their names, their hearts and their stories, who experienced God’s call, it was recognized by others, and showed spiritual insight in their preaching and teaching and said to a group of American leaders…”Come on…lets go forward in Christ…and time after time water was poured on their fire…others fire…finally it just went out…”at least for located meaning it did”.
My Conclusion:
[Remember the one who called you”…Paul wouldn’t forget would he? And would say to the Thessalonians…”He still calls me”, Timothy wouldn’t forget…Jesus, or Paul (nor his mother or grandmother, Lois and Eunice) the other apostle’s (even Matthews) wouldn’t forget their calling…nor the purpose for that calling…It was the gift of the Holy Spirit which allowed them to still hear the voice of the One they heard in the flesh.
I remember my calling…I remember the first time I shared my story…It was 35 years ago…and my story has grown, it’s included chapters I’d have never written ( As do the Apostles stories) But God has always been faithful…I still seek the Holy Spirit’s Voice and believe He still speaks, through His word, and in my discernment of people…I want to live up to Paul’s advice…I want our church to…If we do we’ll shine like a light in a dark place.]
