Welcome to the Weekend Sermon. I hope that you have all had a very good week. I have been feeling better, and I thank the Lord for this.
Last week, we looked at a few of the more familiar verses in the book of I Thessalonians. In today's message, I want to focus on four verses beginning with 5:19 that says, "Do not quench the Spirit." This is a short verse with a lot of meaning in it.
One of the ways that I believe that we can quench the Spirit is by not listening to the direction that the Holy Spirit gives to us. When the Spirit instructs us to do a certain thing, we have the choice to obey or to disobey. If we do not listen to the leading of the Spirit, we are quenching the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
We also quench the Spirit when we do not heed the Spirit's warning about what is sinful. One of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of sin. When we ignore the Holy Spirit's conviction and warnings, we will only fall deeper into sin and farther and farther away from the Lord.
One other way that we can quench the Spirit that I would like to point out is that we do not follow the moving of the Holy Spirit in our worship services. We can have everything so programmed and choreographed that we are not open to the Spirit taking us in another direction.
Finally, there is a way for unbelievers to quench the Holy Spirit. When the word is given to those who are without Jesus in their hearts, the Holy Spirit convicts the sinner of his or her need for a Savior. By resisting the conviction of the Spirit, the Spirit is being quenched.
Verses 20 and 21 tells us not to hold prophecies in contempt but to test them. Whenever someone gives a word in a service, we as believers have to test everything by the revealed will of God found in the Bible. If anything that someone preaches, predicts or teaches does not line up with the Bible, it should be rejected. God will not contradict His word.
On another note, if someone utters a predictive prophecy that does not come true, according to the Scripture, that person is not to be listened to again. A lot of people in my country said that God told them that a certain person would be elected president. That didn't happen.
We now come to verses 21b and 22 that state, "Hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil." We need to cultivate as much good as we can in our lives. We need to focus on what is pure, good, lovely and wholesome. We need to focus on being good and doing good. The Bible tells us not to have any association with the unfruitful works of darkness. We are even called upon to avoid the appearance of evil. If we are doing as much good as we can in this world, we won't have time for evil to enter into our thoughts and actions.
In all we do, we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. He will lead us into what is good and what is right. Amen.
Prayer Requests
I am feeling a lot better. Keep praying that I will continue to improve. I thank you for your prayers.
Please continue to pray for those nations that have experienced damage from storms. Pray that they will get the help that they need to recover.
Pray for Haiti. That country is having a lot of trouble right now.
Continue to pray for an end to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ukraine, Yemen, Libya, Ethiopia and Syria all need our prayers for peace.
I would ask that you pray concerning the economic problems that are facing many nations and people. There are a lot of people worried about how they are going to heat their homes this winter due to the high inflation. Pray that God will give wisdom to the leaders of the world during this difficult time.
For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those in the nations of Chad and Israel. Pray that many will come to know Jesus.
Next week, we will finish our series in I Thessalonians. I will post the verses on Monday. I will try to have a midweek post. May God bless you all.
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