Thank you. I want to express gratitude to those
of you who prayed for me this last week as I
ministered in the Bible Conference in Grand Rapids,
Michigan. The conference was on the campus of
the college where I attended. I graduated from
there over 20 years ago and so it was most interesting
to see a number of friends that I hadn't seen
in many, many years. One of the current students
came up to me one evening after the service and
said, are you from Valley Falls, Kansas? And
I took a step back, not knowing how to respond
because that's where I was born and raised. I
said, why, yes. She said, do you remember Nora?
I said, I sure do. That was my first love back
in the first grade. There were three of us in
our country school. Three of us in the first
grade in our country school. Two boys and a girl,
Nora. The odds weren't very good for the two
of us. For her, it was great. And she said, well,
I'm Nora's daughter. And she introduced me to
her brother who's also a student there. It was
interesting to meet them and get acquainted.
Someone on the faculty came up and said, my,
you have matured well. I thought, what a diplomatic
way of saying you're looking old. But that's
part of life, isn't it? That's part of life.
Would you open your Bible with me, please, to
1 Thessalonians 5 as we conclude our study? in
this epistle from the pen of the Apostle Paul.
We have a need to be meaningfully related to
other people. Barbara Streisand did a song a
number of years ago now in which she said, people
who need people are the luckiest people in the
world. Well actually luck has nothing to do with
it. The fact is that all of us are created with
a normal and healthy need to belong to some kind
of a family system. To be a part of a community
of acceptance, nurture, and discipline. And when
you think about it, that's not a bad working
definition of what a church ought to be. A community
of people where there is acceptance, nurture,
and discipline. And just as in a natural family
there needs to be responsibility and duty, so
in God's family, God's community, there is the
same. There is duty. There is responsibility.
And that's what the apostle has been writing
to these Thessalonians about as he concludes
this book. Beginning in chapter 5 verse 12 he
explains to all of us our duty. First, our duty
to leaders in verses 12 and 13. Our duty to other
people, verses 14 and 15. Our duty to God the
Father, verses 16 through 18. And we've been
looking now, this being the third week, at our
duty to the Church of Jesus Christ in verses
19 through 28. Our duty, he says, is threefold.
Our duty is in the first place to be sensitive
to the Holy Spirit and His working in our midst.
And then he says our need, our duty to the church,
is to be serious about our calling. God has called
us to holiness in lifestyle. We need to be serious
about that. God has called us to belong especially
to Him and to be used by Him in the world. We
need to be serious about that. And as we conclude
the book, we see that our duty to the church
is finally to be sincere with one another. Genuineness
and loyalty to the people of God and to the work
of God in the local church is an imperative.
Genuineness and loyalty. Those two things are
essential for a family, aren't they? A family
really won't function as a family unless there
is genuineness and loyalty there. And the same
is true of a church. It cannot function as God
intends it to as a church unless there is sincerity
with one another, unless there is genuineness,
unless there is loyalty. Being sincere and devoted
will characterize us as a church only to the
extent that you and me determine in our hearts
to be sincere and devoted. It seems to me that
in these verses, which really are a collection
of closing comments, Paul lays out for us at
least three areas where our sincerity toward
one another really shows up. Let's read what
he says. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the
brethren with a holy kiss. I adjure you by the
Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you."
The first area where he points out the need for
our sincerity is in the area of intercession
for one another. When he writes his second letter
to the Thessalonians, the third chapter and verse
one of that letter, he says, finally brethren,
pray for us. Intercession is an area where you
and I need to be sincere in our relating to other
people in Christ's body. The apostle says, brothers,
it's emphatic the way that he writes this. He's
emphasizing the fact that They have come from
the same womb, which is what the word brothers
means in the Greek language. They've come from
the same womb of God. They have been born into
the same family. And he says, based upon our
familyhood, pray for us. Paul had already prayed
for them. He made this clear as he began his
book. Turn back to chapter 1. And look again
at verse 2 where he says, we give thanks to God
always for all of you, making mention of you
in our prayers. So Paul has indicated that he's
prayed for them. And in chapter 3, he tells us
something about the way he prayed. He says, now
may our God and Father, verse 11, may God our
Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our
way to you. And may the Lord cause you to increase
and abound in love for one another and for all
men, just as we also do for you, so that he may
establish your hearts unblameable in holiness
before our God and Father at the coming of our
Lord Jesus with all of his saints." As I look
at that, I see here at least a couple of prayer
requests that the Apostle Paul obviously had
already offered to God. He prayed that the Thessalonians
would be deeply in love with each other. That
their love would abound and increase. And not
only toward each other, but toward all men. Even
toward those outside of the family of God. What
was it that Jesus said would characterize us
as His disciples? That's what He prays for. He
also prays for their holiness in lifestyle. He
says that when Jesus comes, your hearts may be
found blameless before Him. In this book he talks
about the eminence of Christ's return. That Jesus
could return at any moment and the fact is he
could have returned back there in the fifth decade
AD when he wrote this letter. But he didn't return
then. He didn't return in the first century or
the fifth or the tenth or the fifteenth. He may
return before the twentieth century is over.
And as we look into the mid -east, we see a lot
of indication that things are developing pointing
toward the end times and the return of Christ.
Paul has been praying. He says, I pray that your
hearts may be found blameless before God. That
your lifestyle will be such that God will be
pleased when Jesus comes. He calls them saints.
As you and I pray for each other, those are two
things we can always pray for and never be out
of the will of God. Now the apostle invites them
to share his battles and his burdens. He says,
pray for us. Every now and then someone in the
congregation here will come up to me and say,
Pastor Galen, I want you to know that I pray
for you every day. I can't tell you what that
means to me to have someone say that and to know
that that's the truth, that they pray for me
every day. The fact is that the greatest and
best gift that any of us can give to anyone else
is to pray for them on a regular basis. That's
the best gift we can give. Nothing more meaningful
can be done for anyone than to pray for them.
That's why I appreciated what was emphasized
this morning that we might be a praying church.
Oh, it's good for us to write down our requests
and to share them. Ask others to pray for us
as we do on the back of our registration slips.
But you know something? It's even better for
us to come and pray for those requests at five
o 'clock on Sunday afternoons. or other times
when we gather for prayer. If we're going to
be sincere, and we want to be sincere, then it
means that this area of what we're about as a
church needs our attention, intercession, for
one another. And if we're going to be sincere
with one another, it also means that we must
look after this area of affection for one another.
exhorts us here in this 26th verse to greet all
the brethren with a holy kiss. Affection for
one another. Several other times in his epistles,
Paul says something about this. Romans 16, 16,
1 Corinthians 16, 20, 2 Corinthians 13, 12. And
Peter joins him in 1 Peter 5, 14, greeting one
another with a kiss of holiness or a kiss of
love. Christian affection. The point is that
if we are sincere with one another, we need to
be genuine in expressing our affection for our
brothers and sisters in Christ. The holy kiss
that he talks about here was the culture of that
day. It is a little foreign to us to go that
far. We Westerners are somewhat more reserved
than that, but if you watch television at all,
you see people in other parts of the world who
greet each other with a kiss on the cheek once,
twice, three times. And that was the custom in
Paul's day to these people that he wrote to.
We need to be effusive in expressing our affection
for our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.
In a holy way, not a passionate way, obviously,
but a holy way. Apparently, the custom in that
day was that men greeted men this way, women
greeted women this way. I think it's important
for us to be open in our demonstration of Christian
affection. That may be through a hug. Some people
are comfortable with hugs. I don't mind hugs
at all. Some people are very uncomfortable with
that. They prefer a handshake. Some like the
high five. However you wish to do it, however
it's comfortable for you, the point is don't
be a loner. Don't just come and be isolated and
walk out, leaving others untouched and being
untouched. But be free to give that warm handshake
or that embrace, that brazo as they call it in
South America, that indicates that We are more
than just acquaintances. We're family. And because
we're family, we want to be affectionate. Of
course, it's more than a hug. It's more than
a handshake. It's measured really by what I do
for the benefit of somebody else. Sometimes hugs
and handshakes can be only superficial. The real
measurement of our affection is how far we're
willing to go to help another, to sacrifice for
another. But the point is this, that if we're
going to be sincere toward one another, it needs
to involve our affection for each other. I think
it's important for us to be open in our greeting
of each other and I want to press it beyond that
to say we need to be open in our accepting of
newcomers into the family of God. That we must
not allow our church to become a closed system
of relationships. But that is a natural tendency
in human dynamics. That we get our friends around
us and when that compliment is filled, whether
it be a half a dozen or a dozen or twenty, that
we tend then to seal off that circle of relationships.
Oh no, no no. We must try to avoid that. And
as a church, whether it be our large body or
in our smaller groups, to remain open to newcomers
coming in so that we can assimilate, we can enfold
them into the family of God. As I think about
us as a church, that's one thing I want to characterize
us. I want us to be a praying church. But I want
us to be an affectionate church too, a loving
church that's willing to demonstrate its love
openly and without embarrassment. And then if
we're going to be sincere with one another, he
tells us it needs to involve exhortation to one
another. He says, I adjure you. It's a different
word, isn't it? To adjure means I charge you.
It has the force of an oath behind it. The meaning
of it is that God would discipline them if they
failed to do what he was about to ask them to
do. So with that in mind, let's see what he asks.
I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter
read to all the brethren. He says, pass this
word around. Exhort each other with what I've
said in this letter. You and I are to admonish
one another with what comes to us from the Word
of God. This letter, of course, was a part of
the Word of God. It was inspired as it fell from
the lips of the Apostle Paul and as it was written
down. The Spirit of God caused these words to
be written, and He says, now read it among all
the brethren. Pass the word. Our goal, of course,
as a church is not to conform others to our image,
but it is rather to see all of us conform to
Christ's image. And brothers and sisters, this
is where we find out what that image is all about.
And so it's important for us to be a church that
remains focused on the Word of God, the teaching
of the Word of God, the exhortation to life that
comes from the Word of God. As I think about
the future of our church, I want us to be a praying
church more than we are now. I want us to be
an affectionate church even more than we are
at this point. I want us to be a Bible -focused
church. A group of people who love the Word of
God and who are getting the Word out. You and
I have a solemn obligation, a charge before God
to keep the Word of God in our focus. and to
measure our lives and our ministries by it. Our
duty to the church is to be sensitive to the
Holy Spirit. It is to be serious about God's
calling in our lives. It's not frivolous, it's
not a game. It's to be sincere with one another.
It's our duty. God calls us to that. Our duty
to the church, to be sincere, requires God's
grace in our lives. That's why he says, the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Not God's
grace as some doctrine that we learn about intellectually.
Not God's grace in a song that we may enjoy singing
together as we do wonderful grace of Jesus, but
God's grace in the sense of an active, dynamic,
potent force in our lives enabling us to be sincere
with one another. God's grace enabling us to
be faithful in praying. God's grace enabling
us to be open in our affection. God's grace enabling
us to be honest in our exhortation to one another.
The Christian life is a mingling of duty and
delight. The two are not contrary. Just as Jesus
obeyed and did his duty by offering himself on
the cross for our sins that we might have eternal
life. Just as he did his duty, he found delight
in doing it. He said, I delight to do thy will,
O God. The scripture says, who for the joy set
before him endured the cross? You see, duty and
delight are not opposites. They work together.
When you and I are faithful to our duty, God
fills our hearts with delight. It is a delightful
thing to be dutiful to God. Let's pray together.
Our heads bowed, our eyes closed. I'd like for
you, just where you're seated, to respond to
God's call to duty. Would you ask the Lord to
enable you to be sincere in your relationships
to others, in prayer, in affection, in exhortation?
Would you ask God to strengthen you by His grace?
to be a faithful member of the Church, the body
of Jesus Christ in this world. Lord, do this,
we pray, and as a result of it, may the next
ten years of our ministry, should Jesus, Terry,
be even more fruitful and more glorifying to
you than we've experienced in our first ten years.
In Jesus' name, amen.