 Let's get into our study, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, beginning at verse 19, and I'll read to verse 22, and we'll get into our study. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, beginning at verse 19, and reading to verse 22, do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, test all things, hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil. And so let me give you, as I normally do, a bit of a recap and a direction so we can establish a context here in this particular installment of our study of 1 Thessalonians. We know that in chapter 5, the apostle Paul has been giving final exhortations to the church there in Thessalonica, and as we've seen, he's been giving them commands. He says, do not retaliate. He commands, pursue what is good. Rejoice always, pray continually and be thankful. Now those are great and very powerful commands, very important commands, but the question is, how is this kind of life going to be made possible? How can you, how can I resist retaliating? How can I pursue what is good? How can I learn to rejoice, pray? How can I learn to be thankful? You see, this is not something that we seem to be able to do consistently. So what is it that can make it possible for these things to be the core of our lives? Now as I was preparing the study, I began to consider the fact that when I read my Bible, there are many commands that are given to Christians. A lot of times people will say, well, you have commands in the Old Testament, but you really don't have commands in the New Testament, but that's simply not true. Then recorded something like 1,050 commands that are found in the New Testament, 1,050 New Testament commands. There are commands to abstain from certain things, commands to avoid certain things, or to ask for certain things. There are commands to be something, to not be something, to consider something, to continue in something, or to do something. The list of commands seems endless. I see so many commands, but at the same time, I have so little ability to obey them. The desire is there, but often there's a resistance, and that resistance to these commands comes from within me. This reminds me of something that the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7, 18 and 19, when he said, I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do, no. The evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing. And so there's a struggle within. So how is it possible for us to do what the Bible so clearly instructs us to do? What do we need to make obedience possible? You know, Jesus did say this, if you love me, keep my commandments, and the bottom line is that I do love him, but what do I need in order to be able to keep his commandments? Well, we need to be filled by God's Holy Spirit. We need his power in our lives. We need to remember that the simple truth is that the Christian life is a supernatural life. It's not simply a system of thought or a philosophy. It's not just positive thinking or principles of success. The Christian life is a life that is made possible by the Spirit of God living inside of us and empowering us. Now Jesus spoke of this when he was teaching his disciples about being one of his followers. We know that on the last night he was with his disciples that he was celebrating the Passover with them. And as they were together, he was teaching them many things. You see it in chapter 13, 14, 15. You see it in chapter 16 of the Gospel of John. And as he was speaking to them, he was teaching them that he was going to depart. In John 13, verse 36, he said, where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me afterwards. Well, when he's saying these things, Peter and the other apostles became upset, they became concerned. And so that prompted Jesus to give them a word of comfort. In John 14, verse 1, he said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. And so he made it clear through that promise that he would sustain them. He wanted to encourage them. And he made it clear that he wasn't going to abandon them. He wasn't going to leave them without support. In John 16, 7, he continued by saying, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. So he's telling them, listen, I'm leaving, but I'm not leaving you orphans, I will come again to you. I will send the Holy Spirit and he will dwell with you and he will be in you. So we need to be reminded of the promises that Jesus gave and the promise that he gave, one of them is that he would send his Holy Spirit to dwell with us, to be in us. You see, the Bible says that when we are born again, we become God's temple. The spirit of God himself comes into our lives and he lives within us. In 1 Corinthians 3 16, the question is asked. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you? In 2 Corinthians 6 verse 16, what agreement is there between the temple of God and idols for we are the temple of the living God? As God has said, I will live with them and walk among them. I will be their God. They will be my people. Christianity isn't just a logical system of systematic theology. Christianity is a relationship with God. It's God with us dwelling in us. It isn't simply reading the Bible. It's living through the Bible and the Bible living through us. It's us taking God's word, him imprinted it in our heart and us by faith because we have the power by the spirit to do these things, obeying him. So it's, you know, there are people who say, I don't know. Christianity is too hard. It's impossible. It's not too hard. It's impossible. It's impossible without the power of the Spirit of God. And so Jesus Christ gave the Holy Spirit to us that we might be able to be obedient to the things he commanded. Now, the church is by creation spiritual. It was birthed by God's spirit on the day of Pentecost. On Jesus's after Jesus's resurrection, Jesus told the apostles to go to Jerusalem. In the book of Luke, chapter 24, verse 40, 90 said, I'm going to send you what my father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. So he said, stay in the city to receive the promise. In Acts, chapter one, verse eight, he said, you shall receive power. After that, the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And so he said, you need to tarry and you're going to receive this promise. And so the promise that he would that he was keeping was that he would fill them with the Holy Spirit. It's a promise that you find in the old as well as the New Testament. In the Old Testament in Joel, chapter two, verses 28 and 29, it says afterwards, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, which I've been doing a lot of lately. Your young men will see visions even on my servants, both men and women. I will pour out my spirit in those days. And so the promise was to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, tarry in Jerusalem till you receive power. And so in the book of Acts in chapter two, verses one through four, we see that the apostles were waiting for the promise to be fulfilled. And it was on the day of Pentecost in chapter two, one through four. The book of Acts, when the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven. Filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them, all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. That is what is called the birthday of the church. The followers of the Lord Jesus Christ were baptized by the Holy Spirit and the church was born. Question is, have you been baptized with the power of the Holy Spirit? So Holy Spirit not only come upon you and resident within you, but is he empowering you? Is he filling every aspect of your life? Are you walking in the power of the Holy Spirit? Because that's what is required if I'm going to be able to live a life that is pleasing to him. You see, the birthday of the church came on Pentecost, and when the Holy Spirit came and rested on them and empowered them, it reveals that the church is not just a group of people that meet in a certain location. It reveals that the church is a divine institution. It's a family of believers in Jesus Christ. The church is a group of believers who have become the temple of the Spirit of God. Now, you would think that being God's temple would make us just flow through life. God dwells in us. What could keep us from praying, from rejoicing, from being thankful? Well, though we're the temple of the Spirit, it's possible to resist him in our lives. The fact is, we can quench the Holy Spirit. And that's what what Paul is addressing at this point. And that's why he had just said, look at verse 16, rejoice always. He had said, pray without ceasing. In verse 18, in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. And then he went on to say, and do not quench the spirit. Do not quench the spirit. So at this point. He's commanding them to not quench the spirit. The word quench means to suppress. It means to stifle. He's saying, do not suppress or stifle the spirit's influence and power in your life. See, this is what empowers me to resist retaliating. This is what gives me the strength to pursue good or to prayer, to rejoice or to be thankful. The influence, the presence and the power of the spirit of God. And when we're walking in the spirit, these are the fruits of his work in our lives. But these things can be quenched. These things can be quenched when the fire is not kindled. This this can happen when the fire is neglected, when it's extinguished. Because fire can be smothered. Fire can go out when it's drenched in water. It can be it can cease being alive, a flame when there's nothing there that's inflammable when the materials are withdrawn. The the Holy Spirit in my life can be suppressed. He can be stifled. How can I do that? How can that happen that I that I stifle the Holy Spirit? Because notice again, he's saying to us, do not quench the spirit. But there's a lot of quenching of the Holy Spirit today. There are a lot of people who are quenching what God has told us in his word to do, who are not moving and flowing according to the spirit. How can that happen? How can I quench the spirit? Well, let me give you a few ways that it does happen. One, we can quench the Holy Spirit by taking a theological stance that denies the spirit of freedom to move. We can adapt beliefs that that belong to our favorite teachers, but they may not be scriptually correct. There are teachers who believe that spiritual gifts are no longer inexistent. And what they'll do is they actually exalt natural gifts. I heard somebody teaching on, for example, the gift of tongues. And they said, well, the gift of tongues is the ability to learn many languages. And that's not true. They'll say the gift of knowledge is is the ability to go to college and gain great understanding, great knowledge. That's not true. They took a natural gift and made it into a spiritual gift. And you can quench the Holy Spirit by simply making the natural gifts equal to the gifts of the spirit. And that's not how it works. A.W. Tozer said, if Christians are forbidden to enjoy the wine of the spirit, they will turn to the wine of the flesh. Christ died for our hearts and the Holy Spirit wants to come and satisfy them. You see, you can go to your Bible studies expecting information, but not expecting transformation. And in reading the word, we can fail to fellowship with and become acquainted with the works of the Holy Spirit, because we're called to have communion with the spirit. And so we can fail to realize that spiritual truth is revealed by the Holy Spirit. It isn't simply by going to a Bible study. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. Spiritual truth is imparted by the Spirit himself. And when a person doesn't have a relationship with God, this book here makes no sense. But when you get saved and you begin to read the word of God and you rely on the Holy Spirit, he by the spirit through the word begins to instruct you. In John 16, verses 13 and 14, Jesus said, however, when he, the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority. But whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. So we can theologically remove him from even our Bible studies, if we're not careful. Second, we can quench the spirit by going beyond what Scripture teaches about him. And that occurs very often by adding our personal experiences to what the Lord's word has already declared. And there was a time, and I think it may still be happening today in some places where people were claiming that they were drunk in the spirit. Maybe some of you have been around for a while long enough to remember when that was on TV, there would be people were saying that I am drunk in the Holy Spirit. There was one guy who used to call himself the Holy Spirit bartender. Seriously, that's what he called himself, the Holy Spirit bartender. And then you would see people kind of staggering around in church services. There were there are other extremes going on that were not scriptural whatsoever. There were there was one church that had this revivalist there. And they were they were barking. Some some people were barking. And then some others were meowing like cats. True, I'm not making that up. They were meowing like cats and barking. So they fought like cats and dogs in that church. But they actually they actually were doing that. They actually were doing that. And they were saying that the Holy Spirit makes me do that. Anything that is claimed to be provoked by God should always be tested by the word. We'll see that in a moment. Charismatic excess has caused people to avoid seeking his power. You see, denying the work of the spirit will quench him. But going too far will grieve him. Third, we quench the spirit by trusting in our own strength and intellect. We think that through our own efforts, ideas or whatever we can do, the work of God. But it's the spirit who energizes and inspires us as we serve the Lord. We're not to attempt to live the Christian life and the resources of our own flesh. We need to rely on the Holy Spirit. We need to trust the Holy Spirit. We need to be seeking God's Holy Spirit to work in our lives. We don't want to quench the Holy Spirit. We want him to be present and fruitful. If the Holy Spirit, someone said, was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. But if the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop and everybody, everybody would know the difference. I remember before my pastor, Chuck Smith, went to be with the Lord. We would have our meetings and all. And I remember one of the last meetings that we ever had where Chuck was asked the question, Chuck, what are you concerned? What are you concerned about? What is it that you're concerned about with the Calvary Chapel Ministries and the movement? What is it that you're concerned the most about? And he said what he always said. He quoted Galatians chapter three versus two and three. He said, this only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? When you begin to make manmade ordinances and rules and regulations preeminent, when you begin to say my ideas that I'm gathering by reading all these books and by reading all these magazines and going to these seminars and all of that, that's going to help me to build up a large body, a good sized church and all of that. That is operating in the flesh. We need to remember that it's the spirit who energizes and inspires as we serve the Lord. Then a fourth thing, we can quench the spirit by the way that we live. We can compromise, live unholy lives. We can neglect prayer, reading the Bible. We can avoid fellowship, neglect our walks, yield to pride. We can yield to our culture and we end up quenching the Holy Spirit. We can indulge our desires to the point that our hearts get calloused. It can come to the point that we no longer hear or care to hear what the spirit is saying. We need to be careful never to become attached to anything that quenches the spirit of God. And then a fifth thing, we can resist his promptings because we doubt or because we're filled with pride and in doing so, we quench his leading. We can fear stepping out in faith. We can resist what he's prompting us to do. And as Christians, it's our desire to know the Lord in a deeply personal way. So we should cultivate a desire to to know him every day. We want to learn to hear his voice like it says in Psalm 63, verse one. Oh, God, you are my God, early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there's no water. God, I want to hear your voice. I want to know what you want from me. And I want to I want to respond in obedience to your promptings. It's easy to quench the Holy Spirit. It's easy to neglect that. But our souls will be satisfied by spending time with them in his word in prayer. You see, even the midst of noise, even in the midst of a commotion in life, you can learn to hear the voice of the one that you love the most. If I'm in a room and there's several people talking and then it gets loud. I still hear my my wife's voice when she walks in. I can still hear it in the midst of 20, 30, 40 voices. I can hear her voice because I can hear the voice of the person that I'm in love with. And Jesus said in John chapter 10, verse four, when the shepherd brings out his own sheep, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. So you spend time in prayer, you spend time meditating on the word of God and you learn his voice. We need to remember that a fire can be put out by simply withdrawing the fuel and neglecting the things of the Lord will give place to the flesh and quench the Holy Spirit. So instead, instead of quenching the Holy Spirit, we need to spend time with them. And in second Timothy one, verse six, it reads, I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the lane on of my hands. What we need to do is we need to continue to allow the Holy Spirit to work through us, to know him through the word in prayer and to be quick to return to the first love when we begin to walk away from him. Do not quench the spirit. Then he says in verse 20, do not despise prophecies. The word despise means a holding contempt. It means devalue. We need to remember that the church is a spiritual body with various gifts of the Holy Ghost. In first Corinthians 12, verse seven, it says the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the prophet of all. And in the church, there are members who have the spiritual gift of prophecy. That's found in first Corinthians chapter 12, verse 10. Now, when you see the gift of prophecy and all, there are two applications to it. One is when someone has a prophetic mantle or capacity, they can speak forth things that will occur in the future. And you see that in both the old as well as the New Testament, an example of speaking concerning what will take place in the future is found in Acts 20, verses 22 through 24, where Paul said, see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may finish my race with joy and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. So he's being forewarned that this is going to take place. When the gift of prophecy is exercised, according to first Corinthians 14.3, the gift of prophecy is a gift that edifies it, it exhorts, it comforts the church. It very often is exercised in Bible studies. The prophetic gift can be used when an illustration is given or something is said that cuts to the heart speaks to the soul in a way that awakens them because not only is prophecy the foretelling of future events, it's also been referred to as the foretelling of the mind of God. And so when prophecy comes, especially as the word is being divided and illustration is being used given or whatever and people will hear something that specifically is applying to them. The spirit of God is moving in that way. We are not to disregard it when we know the Holy Spirit is speaking. You see examples of how the gift of prophecy was exercised in the ministry of Paul by looking at Acts 13, 2, where it says, as they, certain prophets and teachers ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Undoubtedly, that word separate I have a work for them came through those who were exercised on prophetic gift. In Acts 16, verses six and seven, when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia after they had come to Missia. They tried to go into Bethany, but the spirit said, no, go into Chino. No, I'm sorry, that's that was a note I gave myself. They tried to go into Bethany, but the spirit did not permit them. Now, the gift is intended to guide and strengthen believers as they serve the Lord. It may very well be used to prepare for future events. I remember when the church was less than a year old, we were meeting in a small fellowship in Ontario. And I was wrestling with what to teach next because for the first several months of the church's history, I had been doing topical studies and I felt that the Lord was saying, I need to go into a book study. And so I started praying and saying, Lord, what do you want me to teach the church? And I kept getting the impression that I should begin teaching the Gospel of Mark. And I remember arguing with the Lord. I still remember arguing, saying, no, I the God. And I sense the Gospel of Mark. And I sense, well, why I if I start the Gospel of Mark and somebody joins us in the fourth, fifth chapter, there's already five chapters I've done and they don't have any information on. And I was actually wrestling with the Lord. And I was praying because I was coming to the end of a Bible study and I was about to begin the new one. And so I was finishing off the study and I went down at the end of the service and I was standing talking to people and a lady I've never seen since and I'd never seen before walks up to me. I'll never forget it because she walks up and she looks at me and she was waiting, people filed away and now it's her. She walks up to me and she says, teach the Gospel of Mark like that. And I looked at her and I go, who? This is God because it was like she said the way she said it was like, are you going to fight with him? Teach the God. It was one of those things. Teach the Gospel of Mark. So we began Mark the next week, you know. There are times the Holy Spirit speaks in ways like that. And that's exactly what I needed to do. And so we're not to quench the Holy Spirit because he wants to move. We're not to despise prophecies because he directs to this day as long as it lines up with Scripture. But then you have to test all things and hold fast to what is good. So when someone speaks a word of prophecy, the word must be tested. The thing declared as being from God must line up with God's declared word. In 1 Corinthians 14, 29, following two or three prophets should speak and the other should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop for you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. God is not a God of disorder, but of peace. So two or three prophets could speak, but the others should weigh and consider that simply means that you test it. Just because somebody says something doesn't mean that's God speaking. You test it by the word of God. Does it line up with Scripture? I had, again, another lady, different lady approached me one time. We were here on this campus. We were meeting in the chapel at that time before we built this building here. And we had three services. They were very, very full and the Lord was doing some great things. And a lady walks up to me after the service and she says, this is my first time here. And I said, well, it's nice to have you with us. She says, thank you. I have a word from the Lord for you, she said to me. So I said, what is it? She said, the Lord is saying that he is blessing you here on Sundays. But if you move your services to Saturday, he will bless it even more. And I said, no, I said, no, he's not. You're saying that because God didn't command us to meet on Saturday. And what you want us to do is simply meet on Saturday, because that's what you think churches should meet. You tested the word of God doesn't teach that we're supposed to meet on a Saturday. The early church met on the first day of the week, the resurrection of Christ, the first day of the week. The church has always met on the first day of the week. And why would I meet on a Saturday and hold the Sabbath because the Sabbath was not given for the church. The Sabbath was given as an everlasting ordinance for the nation of Israel. It isn't even given to the church. So why would I begin to meet on a Saturday when just because a woman is saying so what you need to do is study and look at the scriptures and have the answer because you need to not quench the Holy Spirit. But at the same time, you need to test and hold fast what is good. See, I know how to quench the spirit. I've done that more than once. I do it as a habit, to be honest with you. It's something I have to learn not to do. And I still remember many years ago now I was in a church service and and the pastor was giving a an invitation in. And I had a cousin who was who lived in Corcoran and he was actually living with my mom and dad. I had just gotten out of the military. I was 23 years old and we were going to church and we took our cousin, my cousin Ray, and we went to church and and I was seated next to him in the church service and an invitation to come and give your heart to Christ came in and the Spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart and said, tell him you'll go up with him. And I remember saying, no, that can't be the Holy Spirit. That's got to be my own. I'm just talking to myself and and I heard it again. Tell him you'll go up with him. And I said, no, no, I'm already saved. If I get up and walk up, they're going to think that I'm getting saved. And my goodness, I've already been saved almost three years. Why would I do that? And I argued with the small voice in my heart and the invitation came. The invitation went. We went home and while we were home, he was seated across the table from me and Ray looks at me and he says, you know, when that pastor gave the invitation today, I said, yeah, he said, I was waiting for you to ask me to go forward to give my heart to Christ. And I looked at him and I said, oh, now you're going to hell. No, I said, oh. I said, Ray, to be honest with you, I said, forgive me. The Holy Spirit was telling me to turn to you. And I didn't. So I know how to quench the Holy Spirit. I don't stand up here as somebody who says, oh, I never quench the Holy Spirit. I know how to do it. And that's why I can preach the way that I do. So warning when the Holy Spirit's prompting you, don't quench him and don't despise prophecies when someone speaks, listen, test it to see, is this of the Lord? Does it line up with scripture? You test all things, then you hold fast what is good. And then finally, he says in verse 22, abstain from every form of evil, abstain from every form. The word form speaks of an appearance or a manifestation. He's saying avoid or keep at a distance all moral evil of every kind and any kind. This calls for spiritual discernment. So if a supposed prophetic utterance does not lead you to Jesus, demonstrating love and purity of lifestyle and a hunger for things that glorify God, it is to be avoided at all costs. Do not go in a direction that does not honor the Lord. Hold fast what is good. When I got saved, there were, not only was the Holy Spirit moving, but the enemy through a counterfeit spirit began to move. This is a long time ago. Most of you, not almost all of you, won't know this or remember this. But there was a movement that started in almost a counteracting of the Jesus movement. And there were people in it. They were in cults, the children of God being one. And what they were doing is they were prophesying and saying things that they said that the Holy Spirit was telling them to say. And they began to invade churches and began to draw away young people after themselves. One of my friends was actually not kidnapped because he went voluntarily, but he was convinced to go into this cult called the children of God. And there were things like that that was taking place. And in the children of God, they had a leader named Moses David. And what he ended up doing is he ended up printing tracks that were red letter edition tracks as if God was speaking through them. And he started telling people to be prepared for the great comet Kahutek and various other things. And he ended up inspiring young women in the movement to become what they called flirty fishes. And they would go flirty fishing, which meant that the young women in his cult, in his commune, would go out, pick guys up and have sex with them to bring them to faith in Christ. It was that perverse. And so when you see, test all things whole fast, what is good, there's some reality to that because had these young kids had proper Bible teaching, they wouldn't have followed a man like that. He ended up destroying so many lives. And his followers continue, by the way, to exist to this day. The children of God, they changed it to a different name, the family of love, but they may have changed it from then. But that's how it, that's what was going on. So we don't want to quench the spirit. We don't want to despise prophecies, but we will test all things and we will hold fast what is good. And we will abstain from every form of evil. And then finally he says this, now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I tried you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. And now he closes. This is his closing blessing. May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May God completely set you apart for his service. May every element of your entire being be made ready to see Jesus Christ when he comes for us. In verse 24, he who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. Only God can answer this kind of request and God is faithful and God will do it. Keep that in mind. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. There are times that you may wake up in the morning and you may feel I'm not even a safe person. I think that I'm not a good person. I'm not a good husband. I can say that to myself. I'm not a good husband. I'm not a good father. I'm not a good grandfather. I'm not a good pastor. I wasn't a good son and I'm not a good brother to my brother and my sister. I can tell myself, my heart condemns me quite frequently. I can wake up and I can say within my own heart, I can say, you know, you're not a good person. You're just not good. But you know, the Bible teaches me otherwise. The Bible teaches me that my God is faithful and my God will do it. The Bible teaches me that in Christ I can do all things. The Bible tells me that I'm an overcomer. I'm a new creation in Christ. All things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses you from all sin and God will work in your life. The enemy will whisper into your ear and He does it and you know this, He does it. He will say, you're nothing. You're no good. You have no gifts. You have no talents. You have no value. If you didn't go to church, nobody would even notice. You're not needed. You aren't necessary. You might as well give up. That is a lie. Every person in the body of Christ means something to God. So much so, He sent His Son, Jesus, to dine across for you so that you could have eternal life with Him. He loves you. He hasn't given up on you. He will work in you. He will have His way because our God is faithful and He will do it. Don't forget that. We're living in a tough time when you can believe that evil is working. No, in the darkness, the light shines brighter. There are people desiring to know truth. Don't hold back. Open your heart. Share the truth. Love people. Now there are people that we come into contact with. Let's face it. They're difficult, but they're not necessarily your enemy. Sometimes we think, oh, these people, oh, they get on my nerves. They're just, they're, oh, you have a cubicle you work in. The person next to you likes to eat those hard corn things and they crunch them all day long and you're going crazy. You put on earphones or earplugs. You can't handle it anymore. You just want to stand up and just, oh, shut up, shut up. They're my enemy. They're doing that to irritate me. Maybe they are. You never know. But remember, you know, you do have an enemy and it's not necessarily that person you work with. It's not necessarily that neighbor who keeps sign cleaning up their yard and throwing the dog mess into your backyard. It's not necessarily that person. It's the enemy. The enemy of your soul. He wants to seal your joy. He wants to undermine your testimony. He wants to make you the biggest hypocrite on the job site. To shut you up so that you don't talk to people about the grace of God. He wants to make you so upset with yourself that yourself is the only thing you see. You need to begin to identify yourself for who you really are. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I once was blind, but now I see. I once was deaf, but now I hear. I once was filled with hate, but God has given me His love. I once was useless, but now I'm a tool in the hands of God to be used to win the loss. I'm a brand new person in Jesus Christ. And I identify with the work of Christ every day of my life. People ask me, how have you made it? Almost 48 years walking with the Lord. How every day I wake up, I remember who I am. You know, there's this old saying that the devil will remind you of your past. All you need to do is remind him of his future because in Jesus Christ we win. He loses, we have what God would have us to have. We need to understand that. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us. In other words, I need your prayers just as much as you need mine. Please pray for us. Then he says, greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I must confess when I was first saved, I was only 20. When I heard you could kiss Christians, ooh, ha ha, to come to single girls, the little hippies with those granny dresses. And I said, oh, you know, I wouldn't be a Christian if I wasn't kissing, but really it was kiss the brethren. So I decided to backslide, show one another love, show one another affection. When you greet one another with a holy kiss, it's something that reveals a relationship. Have a loving spirit towards one another. Greet the church. And then he's saying also, and give him my love. And then he says, verse 27, I charge you by the Lord that this epistle, this letter, be read to all the holy brethren. So somebody said the epistle was to be read to the whole church on some occasion when it was assembled together. It was not merely designed for the individual or individuals into whose hands it might happen to fall. But as it contained matters of common interest and was designed for the whole body of believers at Thessalonica. So this was to be read to the church, which incidentally we have done as we've gone through this study together even to this day. And then finally, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. This is his final blessing and his usual manner of closing the letter. May God's grace be with you. Somebody said, such grace is with us when it constantly attends us. When it forms the atmosphere, we breathe the light by which we see and the guiding and sustaining influence in our whole lives. May this grace be with you. May God's grace overflow your soul. May God pour his love and his goodness into you. And may his grace be the guiding principle of your life in the name of Jesus. Amen.