My message this morning is an
exhortation. I want to encourage all of us
to do something. Our text here is 1 Thessalonians
5, look at verse 16. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. May God enable us to do these
things. Rejoice evermore. What does it mean to rejoice?
Be happy, be glad, be full of joy, be cheerful. Why should
we be this way? Why ought we rejoice? We have
every reason to rejoice. I mean, we have every reason
to rejoice. We're blessed of God. We have
heard the joyful noise. Our pastor just said something
about the light, the light that the power company knows nothing
about. God has given us that light. We have a place where we can
come every single week to hear about the light, to see the light,
for the light to shine in our hearts. God has done something
for us that he has not done for everyone. God has saved us. God has called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace. which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. God's done that for us. How can
we not rejoice? I mean, how can we not rejoice? We ought to be the happiest people
in this earth at all times. Now sad to say, we're not. How often we're not happy, how
often we find ourselves in a miserable state. But that's why we need
to be exhorted. That's why we need to be reminded.
Our pastor just brought a couple messages over the past week,
things that are, verses that are very familiar to us, but
that we need to be reminded of all the time. And that's the
same way for these verses we're looking at today. Rejoice. Rejoice evermore. I wanna give
us a few things to rejoice in. Turn with me to Psalm 13. Psalm
13, verse five. But I have trusted in thy mercy.
My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the
Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. What shall we rejoice
in? God's salvation. We get downcast. Remember what David said? He
said, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Oh, may we
rejoice in God's salvation. Don't you love to come here and
just hear these words, it is finished. You are complete in
him. What a reason to rejoice. Turn
over a few pages to Psalm 31. Psalm 31, verse seven. I will be glad and rejoice in
thy mercy, for thou hast considered my trouble, thou hast known my
soul in adversities. We worship a God who delights
in mercy, the God of mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ, he said,
I will have mercy. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. He said, I will have mercy. Rejoice, oh brethren, rejoice
in the mercy of our God. Turn over to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10, verse 17. And the 70, these are 70 disciples,
messengers that the Lord sent out, and the 70 returned again
with joy saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through
thy name. They were so excited that they,
the Lord had given them power to cast out devils, all right?
Verse 18, And he said unto them, The Lord said, I beheld Satan
as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power
to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the
enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you, notwithstanding
in this rejoice not. Don't rejoice in that. They got
carried away with that. Here's what we're to rejoice
in, all right? Notwithstanding, in this rejoice
not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice
because your names are written in heaven. Our names are written in heaven,
written in a book called the Lamb's Book of Life. They've
been there forever. You talk about a reason to rejoice. Turn over to Philippians chapter
three. Just before Thessalonians, Colossians.
Philippians chapter three. Verse one. Paul said, finally my brethren
rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me, indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware
of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision, for
we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. What are we to rejoice in? Rejoice
in the Lord. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We don't rejoice in ourselves.
By God's grace, we don't have all this confidence and hope
in ourselves. Our hope is in Him. And this
ought to sum up our rejoicing right here. Rejoice in Christ
Jesus. Oh, I pray God will enable everyone
here to rejoice in Him. How often? How often shall we
rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ? Look down at Philippians 4, verse
4. Rejoice in the Lord always, always. And again, I say, rejoice. I pray God would teach me this. You know, things happen. I just
heard about a brother going through something very difficult, and
we all have times of trouble. But in our times of trouble especially,
if God would just let us rejoice in Christ Jesus. Before I complain, I need to
remember, God hath dealt bountifully with me. We just read that. How
has God dealt with you? According to your sins? No? What's
the matter? He hath dealt bountifully with
us, brethren. I don't know how your week has gone. It's been
kind of a crazy week for myself, but all I can say is praise God. Praise God. Whatever has taken
place for you, I urge you to rejoice in the Lord. God help
us to rejoice, no matter what. He has done exceeding abundantly
above all that I could possibly ever ask or think. He hath done
all things well. He performeth all things for
me. All things are for our sakes. What was that you're upset about
again? Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter four. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 8. If we're not there right now,
at some point in our life, I know this is how we're gonna feel.
2 Corinthians 4 verse 8 says, we are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. persecuted but not forsaken,
cast down but not destroyed. The Lord said, I'll never leave
you. I'll never forsake you. Look down at verse 15. For all
things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through
the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God, for which
cause we faint not. But though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. Our pastor just preached on this
a week or two ago. If we hope for that we see not,
then do we with patience wait for it. Run our race looking
to our hope. The Lord Jesus Christ, we just
heard this, we know that all things work together for good.
To them that love God, to them who are called according to his
purpose, I don't know about you, but that makes me rejoice like
nothing else. Rejoice every morning. We ought
to wake up rejoicing in our God. This is the day which the Lord
hath made. Whether we have light in here or not, we have Christ
the light. Let us rejoice and be glad in
him. Look back in our text, 1 Thessalonians 5. Verse 16, rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. What does it mean to pray? Prayer can't be explained. It must be experienced. Just
like you find yourself believing. Isn't that how it was for you?
You find yourself believing God, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we're His, we find ourselves praying. See, prayer is pouring
out our heart to God. Pouring out your heart. You see,
prayer is not from the mouth. Our Lord said concerning religious
Pharisees, He said, they honor me with their lips. They're praying
outwardly, but where's their heart? It's far from me. Prayer
is from the heart. Prayer is intimate. Prayer is
private. We pray here in public, but when
it comes to God's people, that's private. Seriously, that's private. Prayer is intimate, private conversation
with God. That's how we communicate with
Him. And I rejoice to know that our Lord prays for us. He prays
for us. But prayer is not to be taken
lightly. Religion takes it so lightly.
I don't want to take it lightly. I don't want to take it lightly.
In prayer, I mentioned you find yourself praying. Here's how
prayer happens. Prayer is born out of a need. No one ever prayed who didn't
have a need. You recall in Luke chapter 18, it said two men went
up into a temple to pray. One of them was a Pharisee. And
here's what the Pharisee, here's what it says about him. It says,
the Pharisee stood and thus prayed with himself. He said, God, I
thank thee that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust,
adulterers, or even like this publican. I'm not like him. That's not prayer. And I'm glad
it tells us he prayed with himself. It was no prayer at all. And
then we're told that that publican, that Pharisee, he stood right
there in the middle of the room for everyone to see. And then
that publican, here I can just see him standing afar off, hiding
in the corner. It says he would not lift up
so much as his eyes unto heaven. He was ashamed. But he smote
upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. You see the difference? That's
prayer. That man's prayer was born out
of a need. He was a sinner. The Pharisee would have said,
yep, look at him, he's a sinner. You remember Simon the Pharisee,
he had the Lord over for dinner, and this woman, which was a sinner,
was in his house, and he said, don't you know this woman is
a sinner? And here's our reason for rejoicing, he's the friend
of sinners. He put sinners' sins away. Prayer is born out of a
need. That Syrophoenician woman, what
did she pray? She ran to the Lord. She cried,
have mercy upon me, oh Lord. She said, help me. That's what it is to pray. Prayer is an act of faith. When
these people we read about in the scriptures and when we find
ourselves praying to God, here's what we're confessing. Lord,
I can't do anything. Without you, I can do nothing.
I'm helpless. I'm needy. And I believe you're
able. I believe you and you alone are
able to meet my every need. That's what it is to pray. Lord, teach us to pray. The disciples
said that. Lord, teach us to pray. How often
should we pray? It says pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing to pray. Pray whenever you have a need.
And we already know this, but for the child of God, that's
always. Our pastor stands up here to bring the message, and
he says, pray for me. Does that mean we're supposed to sit there,
close our eyes, and start praying out loud? No. Pray from the heart. Pray from the heart. As long
as we're needy, helpless sinners, we will find ourselves praying.
I wanna just mention a few things that we should pray for, all
right? First, let us pray for faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Faith is crucial. We must believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ or we shall not be saved. Lord, give
me faith. Increase our faith. It's another
thing the disciples prayed for often. Lord, increase our faith.
We come here desiring, Lord, strengthen us. Increase our faith. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the word of God. Lord, cause me to trust you.
Cause me to believe you. Cause me to come unto you and
rest. Pray for forgiveness. Lord, forgive
me. Forgive me of all my sin. I'm
exceeding sinful. My sins are ever before me. Please
forgive me for Christ's sake. And after you pray to be forgiven,
pray, Lord, teach me how to forgive others. Poor Peter, Lord, if
a brother transgress against me, how many times should I forgive
him? Seven times, that's the perfect number, right? Our Lord
said, nope, seven times 70. What he's saying is you can't
forgive your brother enough. If we've been forgiven, we'll
forgive others. That poor woman I just mentioned
that Simon said, don't you know she's a sinner? She sat there
crying, watching our Lord, She loved him because he first loved
her. She'd been forgiven much, so
as a result, she loved much. Pray for that. Pray for the Lord
to cause us to likewise love and forgive much. Pray for grace. Today's a new day. I need grace
for today. Pray for grace in the midst of your trials. He
giveth more grace. He giveth more grace. And just
like our brother Paul, when he was afflicted with that thorn
in the flesh, he asked for the Lord to remove it. He said, no,
I'm not going to remove it. You need this. This is for your good.
He said, my grace is sufficient for you. Don't ever forget that. My grace
is sufficient for you, Lord. Give me a special portion of
your grace. Shed your grace on me. Pray for your brethren. Right
here in verse 25 of our text, Paul said, brethren, pray for
us. Pray for us. Not just the one who's gonna
speak and bring the message. We certainly need your prayers,
but we all need each other's prayers. I covet your prayers. I'm so thankful that we don't
have to go through this life by ourselves. We're one big happy
family. We're the family of God. Heirs
of God and join heirs with Christ. Pray for us. Pray for one another. Pray for the salvation of others.
When our Lord told the disciples, pray after this manner, he said,
you pray like this, thy kingdom come. Lord, save your people. Save as many today, such as should
be saved. Reveal yourself to lost sinners.
Show people what they are. Reveal to him who you are and
how gracious you are and how you're able to save to the uttermost
those that come to God by you. Pray for that. Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done. Pray, make your petitions and
requests known unto God. But never forget, thy will be
done. And don't just say it, I pray that we'll mean it. I
may pray for a burden to be lifted, but God may not be pleased to
lift it yet. Even our Lord, he took the cup of God's wrath
for our sin. He said, if it be possible, let
it pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine be done. Oh, I pray God would teach us
to pray. Teach us to pray for what we ought. Here in our text
again, rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything,
give thanks. For this is the will of God and
Christ and Jesus concerning you. May we give thanks to our God. Again, what is prayer? Giving
thanks unto God. Psalm 92, verse one says, it
is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises
unto thy name, O most high. Psalm 103, verse one says, bless
the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his
holy name. May God help us. How often should
we give thanks unto Him? It doesn't matter how bad a day
you have. If we know Christ, is there really
such a thing as a bad day? Remember, this is the day He
made. God purposed for us to believe on Him. Is that bad? Oh, no. Every day, in everything,
may God enable us to give thanks and praise his holy name. I love this, Psalm 145, verse
one and two says, I will extol thee, my God, O King, and I will
bless thee. I will bless thy name forever
and ever. Every day will I bless thee.
And I will praise thy name forever and ever. May God help us to
praise his name forever and ever. I wanna close by giving us a
few reasons to give thanks to our great God. Here's the first
one. Let us thank him for his grace. People, you go to just about
any funeral and they'll sing Amazing Grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. And then they'll say, I once
was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. But
the fact is, you just hear what people preach. You hear how people
talk. It's obvious they've never been lost. It's obvious they've
never been found. It's obvious they don't know
we're born blind. We can't give ourselves light.
We can't make ourselves see. God has given us life. I once
was lost, but Christ came and he found me and he set me free. Thank God for his sovereign grace
that reached way down for me. Where would we be had he not? Where would you be? Paul said, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. He said, before I was a Pharisee
of Pharisees. I persecuted the church. I did
all these things. I was more exceeding zealous of the traditions
of my fathers. I was blameless, touching the
law. But then he said, I count all that done. It's all lost.
But I might know Christ and be found in him, not having my own
righteousness, but his. He said, that's all by the grace
of God. He said, by the grace of God, I'm the chief of sinners.
I'm less than the least of all saints, I'm nothing. That's grace
that teaches us that. Thank God for his grace, amazing
grace. Let's thank him for the gift
of eternal life. Our Lord told that Samaritan
woman, he said, if you knew, if you only knew the gift of
God, and who it is that saith to you, give me to drink, thou
wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living
water. He went on to tell her, you're
a sinner. Go get your husband, bring him out here. I don't have
a husband. Yeah, but you've had five, and
the one you're with now is not your husband. Well, I perceive
you're a prophet. How do you know this about me?
And then they started talking about religion, and then she
said, our fathers worshiped in this mountain. You say Jerusalem's
the place where men ought to worship. He said, you don't even
know what you worship. You know what he was doing was,
he was revealing himself to her. He was revealing to her the gift
of eternal life. She said, I know that Messiah
cometh, which is called Christ. When he has come, he'll tell
us all things, right then. I love thinking about this, trying
to picture this in my mind. I just, our Lord looking at her,
saying, I am. She knew who it was that was
talking to her. And she knew eternal life because she now
knew Him. She went out into that city and
she was crying, come see a man which told me all things that
ever I did. Is not this the Christ? And then many people of that
city believed because of her saying. And then they came to
hear the Lord themselves and they said, now we believe. Not
because of what you said, because we have heard Him ourselves.
Just like Peter said, we believe and we're sure that thou art
the Christ. What do we deserve? The wages
of our sin is eternal death. And yet what has God been pleased
to do for us? He's been pleased to give us the gift of eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let's thank Him for that. Oh, may we never stop thanking
Him for that. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
salvation, He became poor to make us rich. He was made sin
to make us the righteousness of God in Him. May we thank God
for Him always. Turn back with me to 1 Chronicles
16. 1 Chronicles 16, verse 34. O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. And say ye,
save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver
us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name,
and glory in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
forever and ever. And all the people said, amen.
And praise the Lord. Let us give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good. God is good. and his mercy endureth forever.
It'll always be enough. God's mercy will always be enough
for you. Always will. If you will turn with me to 2
Thessalonians chapter two. As our text says, and everything
gives thanks for this is the will of God. Let's be sure to
understand whatever happens is God's will for us. May he give
us grace to trust his will. May he give us grace to trust
his perfect will in all things. And may we give thanks that His
will is for us to be in Christ Jesus. It says, this is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. God's will is that we're
in Christ. Of God are we in Christ who's made unto us all things. Wisdom, He's all our wisdom.
He's all our righteousness. He's all our sanctification and
all our redemption. And we glory in Him, don't we?
Let's thank God for that. Thank God for Him. Now here in
2 Thessalonians 2, look at verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel. to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether
by word or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Let us thank God for one another. I thank God for you. You're my
brother, my sister. God has saved you. Praise God. Praise God. And lastly, turn
with me to Colossians chapter three. Colossians 3 verse 15, And let the peace of God rule
in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body,
and be ye thankful. We ought to be thankful. Why? Because we should. God has given
us every reason imaginable to be thankful to Him. Now be ye
thankful. Look at verse 16. Let the word
of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do
in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God and the Father by him. In just a few minutes,
we're gonna sing some songs of praise. And when we do, may God
enable us to sing unto him with grace and thanksgiving in our
hearts unto him. Rejoice evermore, pray without
ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. Amen.