He Who Calls You Is Faithful

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0:00 For the rest of us, we want to think about love this morning. It's this advent we're thinking about that. And I've been pulling text from our little advent book. Remember, advent is the start of the church year. So it's the four weeks that lead up to the celebration of the incarnation at Christmas. And it's the beginning of this church year where we start the year together by remembering that the fact that Christ came once

0:32 means that he'll come again. And his coming in both instances is good news for us. And so we together as a church, we put together Carol coordinated this little advent book, which some of us have been going through. We have some copies here. If you hear this morning, I don't have one. If you are not here and need one online, we could send one to you. But they have little readings for each day with a little family devotionally might do after you have dinner together

1:04 or something in your home. And I've been pulling text from there. And the text that I want us to look at this morning comes from First Thessalonians. It's a fun thing to say. Thessalonians. First Thessalonians. It's towards the back. I mean, all the way towards the back, if you have a paper copy of the scriptures. The relations of the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First and Second Thessalonians. Right towards the end. Did Paul does this thing a lot of times?

1:35 This is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a gathering of people following the way of Jesus in this town called Thessalonica, which was a relatively important city in Asia Minor. There was a lot happening in Thessalonica. A lot of trade, some government stuff. And actually Paul spent some time in Thessalonica. You know, most of Paul's life, he spent walking around this one section of the Roman Empire all around the northern

2:07 side of the Mediterranean. Some traditions say he made it as far as Spain. We don't have evidence of that in the scriptures. He finishes in Rome. But he walked around Asia Minor several times. And he would have this pattern, Paul would, where he would go to a market place and stand on a corner and announce the good news of Jesus of Nazareth. And it's a real bummer to be that we don't have any of those first sermons written down. The closest thing we have to it is in Acts where they record

2:38 some of this talk that he gives to a group of philosophers. But he's talking to this group of philosophers in their language. It's not like him standing on the corner place and announcing the coming of Jesus of Nazareth. That Jesus of Nazareth is the messianic king promised by Israel but for the whole world. I'd love to see that sermon. All of the letters, remember, are what happens after he's preached that sermon several times. He would start on the marketplace. And then he'd also go in the synagogue and preach something similar,

3:12 but with a Jewish flavor, right? Because he was learned in the way of first century Judaism. And he preached Jesus of Nazareth, the gospel, in both settings. And then from both settings, from the Greek marketplace and from the Jewish synagogue, a group of people would gather around Paul and they would begin, the Holy Spirit would work in them to accomplish faith. That Jesus of Nazareth was the delivering king, that they had the capacity to live under his reign now, and that he would return and establish his reign unmitigated

3:44 forever in a new heaven and new earth. And they began to live in ancient Rome as though Jesus were their preeminent king and they would put up with Roman authorities. This is what the church is, and it's available for you and I still today. The same notion of church that the Apostle Paul had in ancient Rome as he walked around Asia Minor preached in marketplace corners and in synagogues gathered people together, this same notion of church is available to us that Jesus of Nazareth is the promise delivering king.

4:18 From ancient days of old, come through the Virgin Mary, born Sufferin under Pontius Pilate, crucified that it was very descended into heaven and will return with new heavens and new earth. This is the promise of the church that you and I are a part of. This is what Paul would start with, he'd gather a group of people. And then in Thessalonica, he had success, he gathered a whole church of people, they were meeting regularly, so much so that the Jewish remnant started halfling Paul

4:49 to the point where he had to flee for his life. And so his relationship to the church in Thessalonica is continued only in letters, two of which we have. He writes back to them his little missives, these little educational pieces. And the more of Paul's letters that you read, whether it's first Thessalonians or second Thessalonians or Philippians or Corinthians, you see a lot of times he'll finish with this like flurry

5:20 of instruction. And he does that in our text for this morning, right at the end of first Thessalonians, the first time you read it, it sounds kind of lovely. But then when you read again, you're like goodness Paul, that is a lot of work to do. Let's look at it first as the lovely part and then we'll look at it again as a lot of work to do and we'll see how we handle it. First Thessalonians chapter 5, the section here starts in verse 12.

5:51 If your publication is similar to mine, it has a little heading that says final instruction and benediction. The reading that Carol gave us that she found in the lecture, starts at verse 16. It says, rejoice always, pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

6:24 Do not crunch the spirit. Do not despise prophecies. But test everything. Hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil. And now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it. That's beautiful, right? I think it's beautiful.

6:54 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise the prophecies. But test everything. Hold fast what is good abstain from others evil. OK, it starts to feel like a lot of things that you're told to do. They're not even whole sentences. They're just clauses of things to do. I started pulling out the like action words always, without ceasing in all circumstances. Do not quench.

7:24 Despise. Do not despise prophecy. Test everything. Hold fast. Restain. This second half of the year coming back after summer, I really thought by the end of summer, we'd have this little virus under control, you know? I really thought by the end of summer,

7:54 we'd have the virus under control. I remember when we were talking about school and it was like, well, we'll see if we'll go back. And I was like, we'll see if we'll go back, please. This is the whole summer. We'll figure it out. We have science, you know. We'll figure it out. And of course, we didn't. And I had to adjust. I'm sure all of you. I had to adjust how I handle my day in order to not go crazy a little bit. Like, live in this halfway of like,

8:25 am I supposed to like work and do things? Or am I supposed to like hibernate and hide? I had to like, and we've all been doing this dance, right? One of the ways that I have measured my stand B, at the beginning when we were like locked down in the house, I had this whole routine that I would go through every day where I started the same, the middle was the same, and I knew my end of the workday was done.

8:57 I'd go out and do a little yard work. Just every day. I would go out and do a little yard work. This was for about a month there when we were really locked down. And then I had the yard looking about as nice as ever and realized we had to replace our septic field and they came with a bobcat and tore the whole thing up. But I had this rhythm. Then after the summer when we went back, I had this, I found an app to manage sanity. It's called Tick Tick. It's a little to-do list app.

9:27 And I just realized at the beginning of the day, I wasn't going to do any long-term planning. The to-do list would just be for the day. And I wouldn't be allowed to plan more than two days out. If something occurred to me, I could move it one day. But then in the morning, before I started any work, all these things would flood into my head that had to be done. And I'd put them on my tick tick. Let's have them in. And then I wouldn't have to worry about them. And then when I got a lull in the day, I'd go look at my tick tick. And when you check something off your tick tick,

9:59 you have a very satisfying little ring. And then the rule, the most successful way to manage my tick tick is to get the task really small. So I don't have to solve a whole problem. I just have to send an email that initiates the solution to the problem. Put writing the email on my tick tick. Don't write the solution to the problem. Figure out how to apply for forgiveness for your PPP loan. Don't put all of that on there.

10:31 Good heavens. Just put, hey, ask best of me how we're going to solve this problem. To do this, like I imagine that you all have different ways you're managing, cultivating a feeling of success. The most reason that I found that I like my little tick tick is most days I get the whole list done. And I win.

11:02 Each little ding is a small win, right? One little success, right? But when I get all the whole tick tick done, I've won for the day. And I am a success. I can come home. I walk into the house, hands on my hips, satisfied. I have conquered the world, right? I'm ready for the evening. What needs to be done? Children, food, dinner? I can do it, right?

11:33 And so when I saw this list at first, I read it at the house. Beautiful. Then I started reading it again. I was like, Paul man, cut me some slack, right? Rejoice always. It's easy to pick on rejoice always this year. But remember that when we like self-quarantine, it's with the Netflix and the air conditioning, right? And delivery of food. The Paul fled Tesla and I because of persecution.

12:03 We went over a couple of weeks ago. And Paul is saying rejoice always. There's something Paul knows. You know, there's a lot of the gratefulness science out there. Like if you cultivate gratefulness, what happens to it? Paul is, this is a refrain. He tells it to the Philippians in their letter. He tells it, he says this over and over again, which is fasting to think about when you remember Paul's life, that Paul is on this. He's like, listen, people of faith, we rejoice always.

12:33 This is little myth of at the end. He's saying, hey, take these words of encouragement and keep going until I write you again. Here's a list of things you ought to be doing. And like I said, we are the same church as the Thessalonians. Our circumstances are different, but the word of God endures forever. The gospel of God is the same. The opportunity, the spirit available to us is the same. Rejoice always, Paul says, in all things and all circumstances

13:10 he'll say in other places. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing, that's absurd. That's abstention, right? I don't know if Paul uses hyperbole, really. I've thought about that before a lot with Jesus, because I want sometimes Jesus to be like being facetious. But I don't think Jesus was sarcastic.

13:40 And I don't think Paul really is either. I don't know if he's necessarily a literalist. He uses metaphor places. But I think there's something here he means, actually, when he says, pray without ceasing. I think there's something there. I feel like we can cultivate the type of relationship with God through the spirit, dissatisfied person of Jesus,

14:10 where there is an awareness of each other. That Paul realizes, this side of his Damascus road experience, that he has immediate access to the God who makes the world. To the God who sustains the world and saves the world. That Paul realizes that he has the capacity

14:44 to be aware of the God who's secured his future all the time. That it doesn't have to be merely a thing he comes back to once a week. But that he can be aware of the presence of God all the time. I don't want to add to your two lists, but so can you. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.

15:16 Give thanks in all circumstances. OK. Put that out the next list. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Paul saying, it's not my idea. This is yours that you would rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. And give thanks in all circumstances. Keep track of these. Do not quench the spirit. This is an interesting one. This is consistent, the story throughout scripture. You find that the spirit of God is not like oxygen in the world.

15:51 Meaning it's not like it's there no matter what, but the spirit of God has personality and comes with intent. Which means that you can cultivate the spirit of God or grieve the spirit of God, the story of scripture tells us. And we can make choices to cultivate and fan and to flame the spirit of God so that the presence of God is active around us and in us. And we can, Paul says, quench the spirit of God.

16:22 Meaning we can push down, extinguish, remove, separate ourselves from the spirit of God. And Paul says, don't do that. Do not quench the spirit of God. Do not despise prophecies. We talked about prophecy last week. Remember God speaks in poems to Isaiah, comfort my people. Right? Comfort, comfort in my people. The one is coming.

16:53 And it's hard to believe that it's coming. Paul is saying, don't dismiss prophecy as though the things that the story of God says are happening, will not happen, don't do that. Look, there's a lot of things he tells us. I'm going on. Test everything. Hold fast to what is good and abstain from every form of evil. This one is hard because evil is alluring by nature. It would be nice to kind of stoke our penchant for revenge,

17:33 to kind of wallow in the wounds we've been given and harbor unforgiveness, to respond from hatred with hatred. Paul says, don't do it. This list, as we're starting our year and maybe this year more than many, might feel like a few too many things on your tick tick, on your to-do list. It might feel like a few too many things,

18:05 and so forget it, Christmas music and presents. Just turn it up louder. And shiny wrapping paper and bright twinkling lights. Paul does not give you this list to overwhelm you or run you away. Go it nay. Paul gives you this list because he knows.

18:40 He knows where faith is found in the midst of all things. He's saying, faith that sustains, love that endures, joy that perseveres is found in rejoicing always and giving thanks in all circumstances, in abstaining from evil, in not despising the prophecies. He's given you an allen, a choice. You can make choices here.

19:11 And as you make choices here, you will fail. Right? I'm not rejoicing always. I pray pretty well. I have a recognition of the presence of God, but heaven's not without ceasing. I have made choices that quench the spirit in my life. Hopefully not as often as I've made choices that fan,

19:42 but who knows, right? I don't know enough of the prophecies to know whether or not despising, though my heart believes them. The return of Jesus, Jesus among them. And I have not abstained from every form of evil. This is why Paul gives us this next paragraph. Here is the answer for us in Advent season that keeps us from throwing up our hands in despair.

20:14 Now may the peace of God himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept shameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it. Oh my. All of a sudden, this little list that felt like this to-do list

20:48 adding on top of all my days where I would fail, rejoice in all things abstained from every form of evil. He says, made a peace of God sanctify you. He who is faithful, he who calls you is faithful. He will do it. This is not a to-do list for me. These are markers of the growth of God in my life. As I move forward in the world with the God of Christmas,

21:18 I'll find I rejoice more regularly. I give thanks more often. The words of the prophets make sense, and I find the capacity to believe. I have the strength to abstain from evil. We remember these encouragements from Paul. We hold on to the notion of what holiness looks like in life, not because we can grit our teeth and get it done,

21:50 but because we want to be able to see where God is taking us. He's taking us the same place he's taking all of his people. To sanctify living prepared for eternity with him. Paul just gives you a little list to look for. Hey, as you move towards Christmas, look for these things. I'm a person who rejoices and gives thanks.

22:20 Who prays without the scene? When Aaron and Meghan and I were in college, we went to this church that was a very high church. We used this old book of common prayer from 1928 or something. The priest of that church seemed like an old guy at the time. I'm finding out he wasn't that old, but I was in college and everybody older and me seemed old.

22:55 But he had this deacon who was kind of amazing. He was probably in his 70s at the time, and he was retired, and his name was Jack, and he had this amazing radio voice. This amazing radio voice like think if you were to hear an old Southern Baptist creature radio voice. At one time this guy, Jack, was a Southern Baptist preacher in California,

23:30 and he was in a passage of one of the largest Baptist churches in the country. He retired to Gainesville. I don't know why. He had some family there, made friends with this priest, and so he was the deacon on the side, which was kind of a joke because he had been so successful in his passage. Such large churches, and the church we went to had like 50, maybe 100 people on a Sunday morning, and this guy Jack is the deacon for our young friend. And he's doing this 28 book of common prayer when he had been a Baptist preacher his whole life.

24:01 But part of the 28 book of common prayer service would be a gospel reading. They had a lot of circumstance around it. They had a big gospel Bible, and Jack would walk down the middle aisle and stand in the middle of the congregation of the pews and read in his great amazing radio voice, which I won't even try and do for you, the gospel. And you just knew Jack had this way of praying where he wouldn't ask you requests. He'd speak first person to you as the voice of God, and almost without fail every time Jack prayed for me,

24:35 he would know why I had come to receive prayer. He would not take prayer requests, but you'd kneel at the kneeler, he'd put his hand on you, and speak with the radio voice of God and tell you what God would think about the reason you were kneeling in front of them, some Holy Spirit cool thing, right? And I remember, I didn't hear about this, but our friend Albus talked about visiting Jack in his house, and Jack had this room where he would do all of his praying every day he would pray. And Albus said he went into that room and he felt like he could feel the presence of God,

25:09 and he asked Jack what would be a sign that things were going bad? How would you know things were going bad for someone? If you started to get worried about someone, because Jack was talking about the grace of God and how safe the grace of God was, and Jack said, I start to get worried about someone. He didn't say when they're not rejoicing enough. He didn't say when they're not praying enough, right? He didn't even say when they're not abstaining from evil enough. He didn't say when they're sinning too much.

25:40 Jack said, I start to get worried about someone when they stop confessing and repenting. We need this to do this for joys always, of staying from evil, pray without ceasing, not to know what we need to do, but to know what we need to confess. Lord, I have fallen short. Forgive me and make me this person again.

26:13 Lord, in this season, I have only fear and anger. Forgive me my lack of faith and give me joy again. Lord, in this season, I run to unforgiveness and self-medication. Forgive me my lack of faith. Give me the courage to trust you again and abstain from every evil. You need this list, not to wear you down in a season where you already have so many things.

26:47 But to know what to ask God to make you into. To know what to ask God to do for you because he who call you is faithful, he will do it. Ask God to make you joyful. Ask God to give you the courage to abstain from evil. I hope this season we can be people who are in prayer, who consistently and persistently continue on the cycle of repentance, forgiveness and restoration.

27:24 Repentance, forgiveness and restoration. It held Paul through a life of challenge. It can hold you today. Let me pray. Hey Lord, make us people who believe in your capacity to sanctify us. !