1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

for this is the will of God, your sanctification.

Pretty clear. We move on to chapter five, and it's really no different. And I'm really blessed today in chapter five, because I get, so to speak, the meat and potatoes, if you will, of this chapter. I get the verse that everybody really knows about. And in this chapter, think of it this way. He says, verse 23,

now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus.

So clearly we see that sanctification is a resounding theme in the book of Thessalonians as I've demonstrated in every single chapter. What I want to touch on today is if you're taking notes, Fuel for Progress is the title. We're gonna look at three main points in this section. The first point is our reason for progress. The second point is the disciplines of progress. And the third point is the attitude in progress. Again, that's reason for progress, disciplines of progress, and the attitude in progress. We'll start with the reason for progress. The reason for progress is quite simple. If you go right back up to the surrounding context of chapter five, you clearly see that Paul is just talking about the hope of Jesus Christ's imminent return. The hope is what drives us daily. Just like that hope of being the best track runner that I could be drove me daily for progress, the hope that we have for Jesus Christ's return should drive us daily in sanctification for progress. There really is no difference with that respect. The only difference is, is this is something far greater than a track meet. This is eternity. And with eternity in view, it's really important that we see hope as the driving factor. Hope is also layered throughout this epistle. In verse 10 of chapter one, it says,

for themselves reported concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven.

To wait for his son from heaven. So hope is definitely something that continues to drive us. Again, chapter five, verse nine,

for God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him.

Our hope is the reason for the progress that we make every day in sanctification. It's so important that we see the surrounding context that's in view here and not kind of just isolate the text and just make it what we wanna make it, but that we understand that hope is really surrounding this. The hope of Jesus Christ, going back even to that same verse,

may the God of peace sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at his coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you will surely do it.

Praise God. Praise God that we have a hope. Praise God that that hope gives us a reason for fueling this progress in the Christian faith, for continuing to move forward in sanctification and never giving up in our walk with Christ. Moving on to point two, which is really the meat, like I said, in potatoes of this text, and I'll read the text to you.

Rejoice always,

verse 16.

Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

This really is the meat and potatoes, like I said, the disciplines of progress. The first one we're gonna talk about is rejoicing always. And I'm briefly just gonna cover this. Rejoicing always is really important in the Christian faith. But the reason why I called it a discipline tonight is because it's not always easy. It's not always easy. And often Paul calls us not only to rejoice in our moments of blessing, but in our moments of affliction, which makes it all the more difficult. If you feel, if you'd like to, you can turn into your Bibles to Romans chapter five, And just briefly, I'll read this. And I just wanna briefly talk about our grounds for rejoicing. The first ground for rejoicing is our fellowship with God, Romans 5, one through two. And what's interesting is, is you're gonna see rejoicing in every single one of these verses.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

There you have it. Our ground for rejoicing is first our fellowship with God. In our next section, 1 Peter 1, verses three through six, It says this, the second grounds for our rejoicing is our inheritance, our inheritance. First our fellowship and then the inheritance that comes with it.

Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Verse six,

in this you rejoice.

You rejoice. And lastly, Matthew 5, 11 and 12. What is the third ground for our rejoicing? Our reward, the reward that comes for believers in heaven. Matthew 5, 11 through 12 says just this. We see rejoicing so far all throughout.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

We can clearly see great grounds for rejoicing, can we not? We see grounds for rejoicing in our fellowship, Romans 5. We see grounds for rejoicing in our inheritance, 1 Peter 1. And we see grounds for rejoicing in our reward, Matthew 5. Lastly, I wanna talk about the extent of our rejoicing. Notice that word there, always. Always. As we have kind of covered through this text, we can see that in both blessing and trials, we are to rejoice in the Lord God. This is not sometimes, this is not occasionally, this is not when you feel like it, this is always, always. Might we listen to that text very clearly and rejoice always in the Lord. Second aspect of this second discipline rather is pray without ceasing. Our methods of praying Right here, very obviously, is continually. Praying without ceasing is often a misunderstood verse in the text of scripture. People often think that praying without ceasing involves never stopping to pray, right? So if you're anywhere, you're praying constantly every minute of the day, every second of the day, you can't do anything but pray. That's not what this text is meaning. Pray without ceasing, the Greek refers to continually be in prayer. The idea is, is that we are to continue on in prayer constantly throughout our day at every opportunity. This isn't that we need to pray every single second of the day, but rather that prayers to continually mark our life and our daily activities. If we're being honest, I think this is one of the disciplines that we as Christians lack the most. At least it is for me, if I'm being honest with you. This is a struggle sometimes to pray continually in our walk with Christ. Now, praying without ceasing, I just wanna touch on three methods. Continually, which with regard to frequency, or to pray continually, we just touched on that. Persistently, and just to briefly cover that, persistently refers to continuing on in prayer even when you haven't got the answer that you desire. Jesus gives a parable in the gospels of an unjust judge and a widow who continues to go to this unjust judge night and day and knock and continue to make her petitions and requests known. Well, eventually we know the end of this parable. The unjust judge grants her petitions and Jesus says,

how much more will your heavenly father give to you when you ask him?

So what a beautiful truth that is. So we've got continually, persistently, and lastly, expectantly. I go to a strange passage to make my point on expectantly. Luke chapter one mentions Zechariah, Zechariah. And if we're familiar with Zechariah, we know that Zechariah was blessed with the beautiful gift of being John the Baptist's father. What most of us overlook though in Luke chapter one is that when the angel Gabriel goes to Zechariah, he says to Zechariah,

your prayers have been heard.

This is a prayer of Zechariah. This has been a continual prayer of Zechariah. And later we find out in the same chapter of Elizabeth, his wife, this is not a prayer. that is, or this is not something that the angel just shows up one day and Zachariah wasn't wanting a son, never prayed for a son. never prayed for a child, and all of a sudden the angel bestows this child. This is a prayer from Zechariah. The reason why I'm using Zechariah as an illustration here for expectantly is that Zechariah is actually made mute because Zechariah did not wait with expectation for this prayer. It's revealed quite implicitly in the text that Zechariah was not expectantly waiting, and it even began to deny the ability of the Lord to carry out his petition. This is essential to us as Christians that we do not fall into this trap. Mary, however, amazingly is praised by Elizabeth only a chapter later for believing the angels words and believing the word from the Lord. Often we understand why Mary questioned God the same way, but she did not. Mary said,

how will these things be?

Zechariah, however, said,

how can I even be sure that this will take place?

That is a much different question, my friends. So my encouragement to you is to pray continually, to pray persistently, and to pray expectantly in your walk with Christ. Consider Elijah and how he prayed for rain. Lastly, We talk about the attitude, point number three, the attitude in progress. The last part of this verse says this,

give thanks in all circumstances.

Give thanks in all circumstances. This should be the Christian's attitude in their progress. It's one thing to understand our reason for progress, And it's another thing even to apply ourselves to the discipline of progress. But what about our attitude within the progress? Perhaps you're praying. Perhaps you're even seeking to rejoice. But do you have a thankful and grateful attitude to the Lord your God for all that he has done for you? in both justification and sanctification, and ultimately what he will do for us in glorification for that hope that we await. This attitude is important, and I think that our thanks needs to be rooted in three aspects of God. The first one is the rightful rule of God. Rightful rule of God. And I think this is quite implicit in Romans 1. It says that they do not, they refuse to worship him as God and give him thanks. They refuse, talking about unbelievers in this context, who refuse to honor God, worship God, or give him thanks. The rightful rule of God, God is our creator and our sustainer. He is the one who is sovereign over the universe, and he deserves all praise, honor, and glory. He deserves all thanksgiving because of the very essence of who he is and the very position of which he is enthroned. And so my encouragement is make sure that when we are giving thanks to God, that we understand his rightful rule and his right to expect our thanksgiving to the position that he has. Secondly, the character of God should make us give thanks. The character of God. It's not hard to understand that if we'd simply turn to our Psalms, we can see a continual resounding theme, can we not? In Psalm 92,

it is good to give thanks to the Lord.

And verse two tells us why,

to declare your steadfast love in the morning.

Chapter 95,

oh, come let us sing to the Lord.

for he is a great God,

verse three. And he is just. So we've got constantly these in the Psalms infused, these ideas, these characteristics of God, justice, mercy, steadfast love, and it continues to motivate and should continue to motivate our Thanksgiving. And lastly, we thank God for his gifts. First, his gift of salvation, most importantly, which is obviously the resounding theme of all of Paul's letters. Secondly, his spiritual gifts of spiritual blessings. We know according to a previous brother who had preached a lesson out of 1 Thessalonians 5, that in Ephesians 4, the calling to pastorate evangelist and various functions are God giving gifts to men. We know according to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, that the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts. And according to Romans 14, we understand as well that God doesn't just give us spiritual blessings, but he gives us earthly blessings. He gives us earthly blessings. He gives us the blessings of family, of food and provision, Matthew 6. God gives us astounding and amazing blessings every single day. And we know that also we should praise God and thank God for the gift and the rewards that he will offer us in heaven, where we will be able to partake with him for eternity, walk with him in glory and enjoy all of the fruit of everything that we committed to now in sanctification. So what is my hope and what is my prayer for you? And I know that I've went over just a little bit, My hope and my prayer for you is that you will apply yourself to progress, that you will see this passage tonight as fuel for progress in your walk with Christ, that you'll understand that you've got the meat and potatoes here of how you can walk with God, how you can grow with the Lord, that you would remember that prayer and rejoicing are really important because God has all power and it originates with him. that he is the vine, that you are the branch, that apart from him, you can do nothing. That also applies to furthering your sanctification. So my prayer and my hope for you is that you will grow with Christ through this, that you will be fueled for progress, and that you will be blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this lesson. Thank you so much for how much it has blessed me. Thank you for using me as a vessel at all within your will. Heavenly Father, we see that your will is our sanctification. We pray that we would make progress in the faith and that we would understand that it starts with rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ for us. Heavenly Father, please help us to be ready and prepared at your coming. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen.