You believe 100 college students put College in here.
Raise your hand if you are, don't be shy.
I mean, 7500 college students. I was in, it was two years ago
at a salt kind of event and they let us go to one of the college
nights or one of the salt nights.
It was like 2500 and that was one of the best nights ever of
worship that I experienced. So I'm, I'm hoping they're
having a lot of fun. I get some.
Can I get it like a little? Is there a table or some sort of
music stand or something I can get?
Sorry. Oh, right here.
Here we go. One second.
OK. As Brandon said, my name is
Seth. I am a lead pastor at
Christchurch and I serve in Peoria and so happy to be here.
I love your pastor. He is a good man.
He's a wild dude. I mean, he's wild man.
He is. He's become a, a quick friend of
mine. We've known each other for a few
years. We kind of grew up in the same
environment. We're both from Chicago.
We, we kind of grew up in that church, but I got to know him
here in Arizona. And one of the things I do I, I
lead our Peoria congregation, but I also work with Vintage
Mission, the coach church planners and the trained church
planners. And I've had the opportunity to
walk alongside Brandon now for probably about a year and
coaching him ever since you guys launched at on August 3rd.
So it's been a such a privilege. You got a passionate pastor,
you've got a man who loves Jesus, you've got a family
pursuing Christ. You have, he's so teachable.
I just want to, I want to share this because he's not going to
get up here and share this kind of stuff.
He, he is passionate. He is pursuing Christ.
The, the guy is so teachable and he's so humble.
And we meet every week. We, we do a coaching call every
week and I'm able to hear about you and pray for you.
So such, such a privilege and such a pleasure to be with you.
And I feel the burden, I feel the weight of bringing God's
word in its context to you this morning.
So I want to do, I'm going to kind of do a double prayer.
So we're going to pray again and ask the Holy Spirit to work in
our lives through my voice in his word as we continue Heavenly
Father, we want, we cannot do that part from your spirit.
And we ask that your spirit would be present among us that I
would not be a distraction to the word, but I would be a
compliment to it as we open up and study it in the First
Thessalonians this morning. So we, we ask your blessing, may
we lean in, may we tune our hearts to receive your word, the
only word, the living word that transforms.
We pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.
Amen. So take your Bibles.
If you would take your Bibles and turn to 1st Thessalonians,
that is in your New Testament. If you're not familiar with your
Bible, hit Matthew. Go all the way past the Gospels.
You'll go through books like first, Second Corinthians,
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians.
If you go on to Hebrews, just take a quick left and you'll be
in First Thessalonians. We're going to be looking at
this passage of Scripture this morning and really love this.
Really love what Paul says to us in the inspiration and in the
power of the Holy Spirit. We got a whole list of things
we're going to see this morning for our church, for Saint City.
But before we do that, remember our group projects in high
school. Anybody you remember those group
projects? I mean, they were great for some
of us. I mean, if you were an
overachiever, you always had a couple in the group.
You know, the Stargazers, they didn't really bring in much.
They brought the vibes a little bit, but that's about all they
brought. And you were kind of left with
all the work and group projects. I was, I was the stargazer, by
the way. My wife was the overachiever for
sure, in every one of our group challenges.
That's my wife, Laurie. She came in with me today,
actually. We've been married for 25 years.
Isn't that great? 25 years?
We have two kids. We have two kids.
One's in college, one just graduated from college.
Macy and Gabriel, 20 and 22, happy to be here today.
But my wife, she was the overachiever in the group
projects. I was the sort of stargazer.
I didn't get much done. Group projects were sort of a
double edged sword, right? Because in one sense, in one
sense, if you're anything like me, they're A+.
You don't have to do a lot of work.
You just kind of got to get to sit and hang out.
If you're like my wife, they're they're hard because guys like
me affected every person's grade.
And and I want to tell you, like the church is kind of like a
group project. We're talking every member
ministry. And the thing about group
projects is the health of the projects depends on everybody
contributing and doing their part in the whole.
And the health of the body of Christ is really a shared
responsibility. You're not a consumer if you're
part of Saint City today, in 2026, in this new year, you are
not a consumer. You are part of the whole, and
every part has a job, a responsibility, and it requires
each person faithfully doing their part.
This is what Paul addresses this morning in Thessalonians chapter
5. We're going to be looking at
verses 12 through 21, and I want to read these verses.
Be before us. You can follow along as I read.
And then we're going to take a few moments this morning and
we're just going to unpack them together.
Here's what Paul says. He says, we ask you, brothers,
to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord
and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because
of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.
And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idol, encourage the
faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.
See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seeks
to do good to one another and to everyone.
Rejoice always pray without ceasing.
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Verse 19. Do not quench the Spirit, do not
despise the prophecies, but test everything.
Hold fast to what is good. These are the words of God.
And I want to give you a simple sentence this morning that kind
of hangs over the top of this section that I want you to take
home with you. So if you take a nap today, just
get this sentence down. Just make sure, make sure you
have this sentence here it is gospel hope thrives in a healthy
local church. We're talking about a healthy
church today. That's it's, that's perfect,
right? You all just launched August
3rd. You're a new, you're a fledgling
church. You're young.
By the way, the people in Thessalonica, this Paul's
writing to a church that was young.
It isn't long established. This is a very young church,
very young congregation. This is actually brand new.
They were planted in the middle of pressure.
Persecution was real. Confusion is present.
This is kind of the context of First Thessalonians and the
leaders. They're just still learning how
to do things and they're learning how to lead well while
people are still learning how to follow Jesus.
And then you get to the end of First Thessalonians.
This 2 Pauls writing to you and you see in verses 12 through 21,
it kind of kind of felt like a rapid fire, didn't it?
When I read it kind of felt like, like it was like a, it was
just like a checklist. It felt like sort of one of
those kinds of lists. These aren't random commands.
These aren't checks just to check off their relational
instructions. In fact, Paul closes this letter
and he's saying basically, if if gospel hope is going to survive
in a church like St. City, is what he's saying, he's
saying you, you got to you got to have a healthy church.
And here's what health actually looks like on the ground.
Which brings us really to the real question that we're asking
this morning. And here's a question.
How can we make sure St. City Chapel functions in a life
giving way? That's the question we're going
to answer in the next few moments.
And from this tech I'm going to, I'm going to show you 5 aspects.
Just I have six, OK, but I cut, I cut it down to 5 because I
know you don't want to be here all day.
So I'm going to show you 5 aspects, 5 aspects of a healthy
local church where gospel hope thrives.
Every member contributes to the health of the whole.
The first one is just simply valuing our leaders, valuing our
leaders. Gospel hope thrives as we value
our leaders. Now you all know, you all know
about value you all. You all know what you value.
The stuff you value you protect the stuff you value you, you
prioritize you. You don't forget exists.
So that tool that you really value doesn't live on the bottom
floor of the garage, right? You have a special place for
that thing. I, I collect, I'm a bit of a
musician. I collect guitars, acoustic
guitars. It's an expensive habit.
And I'm telling you what, man, I never forget not to humidify
those things. I take care of them.
Every one of them is in it's blasphemy to have a guitar out
of the case for any period of time in Arizona.
I take care of because I value it.
It is think about relationships, a relationship that goes the
extra mile doesn't give sort of like a emoji thumbs up in
silence. They get treatment and they're
valued and that relationship and friendship is valued.
That's exactly what Paul's talking about here this morning.
He's saying these these leaders that lead you, they should be
valued by you. They should be prioritized.
They should be protected. This is what Paul's talking
about. And at its heart it's really
obedience to Christ because how we treat those he's appointed
reflects really how we treat Jesus Christ.
And so these verses show us how how we value our leaders.
Look at what it says. The first one is really respect.
We respect them. We ask you brothers, to respect
those who labor among you and are over you and the Lord and
admonish you that word translated respect some
translations, I believe the NASP it it says appreciate and I like
that. That's what it means.
You appreciate your leaders, you respect them.
Really in the Greek, the word no, So not like I just know
their name, but but I know them deeply.
It's a deep experiential knowledge.
So it's it's like I appreciate them.
I know them in that I'm watching their lives.
I'm understanding the sacrifices they're giving day in and day
out. By the way, so awkward for
preachers to preach this. If you ever come to this text in
your own church and you're like, hey, value me, value me.
It's a good thing Brandon's gone because I could do that for I'll
take the bullet and I'll handle that for him.
You need to value your in this case leader, but soon to be
leaders. He says respect.
Why? Look at the three reasons here,
3 reasons Paul gives for respecting or appreciating they
labor among you. You know what ministry is?
Exhaustion ministry. Ministry is hard work.
It takes a lot of effort when you're in pastoral ministry.
Anybody who's not tired in pastoral ministry, I'm not sure
they should be a pastor. Pastoral ministry is exhausting.
It's labouring. Shepherding is not distant,
right? Shepherding is not detached.
Shepherding is personal and it's present, it's teaching, it's
applying, it's confronting, it's warning, it's counseling, it's
helping. We see in Acts chapter 20,
there's a whole section. Paul hangs out with the Ephesian
elders before he goes to Jerusalem.
And we see in Acts chapter 20, Paul is showing them going house
to house, pouring their lives into the flock that is faithful
shepherding. They labor among.
And I meet with Brandon every week or bi weekly now on the
phone and he gives me this list. We go through this an agenda.
I got to tell you that guy is such a hard worker.
He goes 90 miles an hour all the time.
The guy's got no governor right. You got to you got to slow that
guy down a little bit, you know, in order to have him take a
breath once in a while. But he really laborers on your
behalf. All the things that we're
talking about and all the things that we're praying for and all
the things that we're going through really do impact and
affect your lives. Your leaders love you and they
want to shepherd you and you should know that and respect
them. The second thing they have
charge over you, that's another reason they have spiritual
oversight. This is not dictatorship by the
way. This is an authority that comes
from God's word. This is an authority that comes
from faithfully handling the word of God.
So I got to tell you, the only authority any pastor has over
you is thus says the Lord. He has no authority to go, hey,
move here, get a job here. You belong over there.
He has zero authority. I have 0 authority in your
lives, Brandon, and whoever will pastor over you alongside him
has zero authority in your lives.
But for thus says the Lord, they have charge of they have charge
over you, they're over you. Meaning when you step beyond the
word of God use, oh, you've overstepped and they have a
charge to help you understand that they have charge over you
and then they admonish you. Do you see that that word
admonish, this means to instruct.
That's what it means, the good and the bad, the hard and the
easy to instruct. Sometimes we get the idea that
pastoring is like running around and having coffee and lunch with
everybody. And whether public or personal
instruction from God's word is pastoring.
Coffee is optional. OK, coffee is on the table, but
it's optional. This is a this is a admonishing
role. This is an instructive role.
Nothing is more valuable to a church than the faithful
handling of the Word of God. And, and listen, your leaders
work hard on that. They work hard on that.
You all know Preston, Preston was part of our preaching
meetings for almost a year, really working hard on
faithfully handling the word. We, Brandon and I, we meet on a
regular basis just studying God's word together, faithfully
handling so that they can instruct and admonish.
That's respecting. But there's a second thing.
You see it in the text. Not only respect them, but
esteem them. Paul moves from appreciation to
esteem. Now notice the intensity.
It says esteem them. What does it say?
Esteem them very highly. I love that.
Appreciation is in the mind, right?
Esteem is in the heart. It's affectionate.
It's love rooted in gratitude. I love that.
Superlative, extraordinarily high.
It's like when you were a kid, you know, you added superlatives
with everything. I was super duper awesome,
right? That was incredibly, incredibly,
wonderfully awesome. You're right.
And this is what Paul is doing. He's like, he's like, esteem
them. Like super duper like, like
extraordinary. I like, I love you to the sky
and beyond. Like, like esteem them.
This is what he's saying. And his point is that we owe our
leaders exceptional honour because they labour in the
gospel. Their work is a gospel work.
In fact, in Galatians, Paul wasn't.
I don't know if you know about the life of Paul, you kind of
get some idea. What do you look like?
And he wasn't exactly winning any cover of men's health
awards, that's for sure. The guy was like, he, he looked
pretty bad. Evidently.
Paul even says my condition. He's talking physically here.
My condition was a trial to you? Like, that's Yikes, isn't it?
Yet these Galatians received him as an Angel of God.
And that's what Paul means by steaming someone in love.
Not for charisma, not for works, not for charm, not for looks,
but for faithful service to Christ.
I mean, the take away is like, do you speak words of
encouragement to your leadership?
Do you express your heartfelt gratitude for your leaders?
Do you protect their hearts from criticism and discouragement?
This is what it means to esteem. He has one more here though.
Be at peace. Do you see that?
Live, live peaceably among them. So y'all get along.
One of the reasons is for their sake.
If you truly value your leaders, you will actually be a
peacemaker. You want to know what breaks a
pastor's heart? Kind of than anything.
When their people cannot get along, When there is discord,
when there is disunity, when there is whispering, when there
is gossip, when their ego fights and turf battles.
Anything that disrupts peace in the body of Christ.
Man, that is heartbreaking to a shepherd.
The Bible calls us over and over again.
You could do your own Bible study, but it's all over the
place in Scripture. Romans 12, Matthew 5 calls us to
be peacemakers first and foremost among each other.
How are they going to know that? Remember what they they asked
Jesus. How are they going to know that?
We're with you if you love one another, if you love one
another, if you get along, if you pursue peace.
Hebrews 13 says let them do it with joy and not grief.
So, so let your leaders minister to you and shepherd to you in a
way that's going to cause them joy and not grief.
Because pastoral grief doesn't just doesn't just weigh on the
shepherd itself. It kind of ripples through the
congregation. You want a happy congregation,
you got to have a happy pastor. You want a happy pastor, you're
going to have a happy congregation.
And part of the reason is if we just live peaceably with each
other, and when that flock values, that your leaders will
lead with joy, and that joy is going to shape everybody around.
Gospel hope thrives in a healthy local church.
That's just the first one. We're going to blaze through
these other ones. But I think that's really
important. Do you love, do you value your
leaders? Secondly, here's the second
aspect. Gospel hope thrives.
We want hope because hope is really one of the themes of
First Thessalonians. Paul's trying to give the
Thessalonian Church hope. Gospel hope is going to thrive
not just when we value our leaders, but when we minister
with awareness. That's the second thing.
This is every member of ministry.
This is not just the pastor's job, not just the ministry team
leader's job. This is everybody's job in the
life of Saint City Chapel is to minister with awareness.
So if you want to build up the body of Christ, we need
together. We need eyes of awareness.
We need to see people where they really are spiritually.
Paul starts here because, I mean, to be honest, people are
messy, right? We want to vote on that.
Like people are messy, you're messy, I'm messy.
People are always in the ditch. I mean, you go to any sort of
church, there's always people in the ditch battling sin.
And and what Paul is saying is we together as a local
expression, the church need to get in the ditch and need to get
them out of the ditch. We need to do this together.
We don't just need to leave them and ditch them.
We need to help them. Gospel people getting involved
with messy lies. But he says it's going to take
an awareness in fact. In fact, in verse 14, he
highlights three kinds of sort of you can call them problem
people, three kinds of people in the church.
You need careful attention. You know the first one is the
first one is the idol. You all know that phrase, right?
The idol's hand is the devil's playground, right?
Right. The idol hand is the devil's
playground. This is this word actually is a
military word in the Greek. It was used for a soldier who
got out of line. So whether it was failing to
carry out his duty or whether it was laziness, whether it was a
rebellion, over time it came to refer to any person who just
failed to do what they were supposed to do.
They fell in their responsibility.
They were lazy. They neglected what they needed
to uphold. They there was deliberate
rebellion. Paul says they're out of step of
the body. You got to get them back in
step. That's what he's saying.
He's not just saying it to the pastors of the Thessalonian
church. He's saying it to you guys.
He's like, you got to get them back.
You got to call them back into alignment.
In fact, in Titus one, Paul uses that with the the Titus with the
Crete elders. He says you got to you got to
get some elders here to put in order the things of the church.
Now I was thinking about that. Here's here's the picture.
Imagine if you're hiking with somebody, you're hiking with a
friend and they fall and you realize, well, this is not a
walk it off kind of fall. This is like a your, your legs
not supposed to bend that way kind of fall, right?
What are you? What are you going to do?
You're going to say just suck it up and get up and let's walk.
Or you're going to shrug it off and just say whatever you're
not, you're going to help him. You're going to put that thing
in order. You're going to call the help
that they need. You're going to give them the
care that they need. You're going to help them walk
again. That's your job as a friend.
And this is the picture Paul is showing us for the church when a
brother or sister falls. And we all do, every single one
of us do. When we fall, when we stumble,
when we struggle, we don't ignore.
We go to that person and we put things right.
We set the bone. Setting the bone is ultimately
the most healthy thing to do, but it's sometimes the most
painful thing to do. By the way, this is not
legalism. This is truth and love.
This is this is mercy. Legalism punishes failure.
That's what legalism does. Mercy pursues restoration.
So this isn't like rule keeping. This is rescue.
And when done right, guess what happens in the church.
Church becomes healthy because relationships are restored and
strengthened in a way that glorifies Christ.
Here's the second group. This is the faint hearted.
Do you see that they're not on the edge like a lot of people
are, you know, just one step away from falling off the Cliff.
Cliff. They're in the middle of the
huddle. These are the, these are the
faint hearted. They're in the middle.
They're trying not to get too close.
Paul says these faint hearted people, you got to encourage
them. Now that's an interesting term.
Faint hearted means it's 2 words, small and sold.
Faint hearted means small sold. It means these are people that
hate change, right? These are folks that love
tradition. They fear the unknown.
They're they cling to what is safe.
These are the people who often worry, they're often
discouraged. I was reading 1 preacher this
week on this one commentator. He said these are the people who
see the manure pile in every field.
These are the that kind of people, right?
It's always imagining the worst, afraid to step out, stuck in
safe routines. So what do we do with these
people? Paul says we just help them we
by encouraging them that word literally means to come
alongside. Do you know that that that word
there's it's in the same family of language Jesus uses for the
Holy Spirit in John 14 through 16 means to come alongside.
It means no shortcuts is a faint hearted person.
You got to help them. It means sit with them.
It means speak to them. It means console them and
comfort and strengthen and reassure.
Whatever. Encouragement means cheer,
refresh. So encouragement isn't cheering
from a distant, it's actually walking with someone right in
the middle of it, idle, faint hearted.
And then we see the weak. This is the third group.
Paul calls him weak at first. You're like, that's offensive.
What does he mean pathetic? Like what does he mean?
He doesn't mean pathetic. He doesn't mean no get it
together. He just means people who don't
have much margin right now, specifically when it comes to
sin. These are the morally fragile
Christians. These these are the immature
Christians. A lot of new believers, these
are inconsistent in their discipline.
They're easily pulled back into the same sins.
Paul's like you dust them off, you admonish him, and then
before long they're back ended again.
Paul says, listen, they're struggling to obey God
consistently. They demand attention, then they
demand correction and care. Paul says don't ignore them, go
into the ditch and help them out of the ditch.
And when they go back into the ditch, go into the ditch again
and help them out. Don't go frustrated with them,
but support them by helping them grow.
Support them by pointing them to the power of the gospel in daily
life. The idol, right, the faint
hearted and the weak. And to round it off, Paul's like
it's going to take patience. Do you see that it's going to
take a lot of patience, which is awesome because I'm impatient at
the at the microwave like my my, my patients level.
It needs to needs to expand greatly.
And I imagine you're with me. I imagine that you're, most of
you me live with a short fuse and are low on patients, which
doesn't this doesn't happen accidentally.
It takes effort, It takes honest awareness.
This is where the gospel thrives though, when a church becomes
healthy by ministering to one another with awareness, by
exercising the patience of Jesus Christ himself.
So you got to ask yourself, who in my life right now needs that
kind of awareness? Who?
Who is it? Who around me?
Or, or maybe you're hearing this today and you're thinking, hey,
man, that's me. Like I'm like one of these
people. And I would say to you, that's
awesome. The Spirit's convicting you and
you're, you're, you're, you're digging in.
You understand it. That's the Spirit's conviction.
The real question is, is what are you going to do about that?
What are you going to do about that in 2026?
Because gospel hope thrives in a healthy local church.
And a healthy local church depends on every member doing
their part for the whole. Here's the third aspect.
Gospel hope thrives also as we live out gospel culture.
There's a massive gospel culture here that we see here.
I want to show you in verses 15 through 18, you know what
culture is, right? Culture is just really like
shared values, their shared beliefs that are made visible in
in your community. And everything is about the list
here. Rejoicing and praying and giving
thanks and avoiding evil. All of these things point to
Christ's grace at work in your life, developing and cultivating
a culture. Here's what hits US in the face
often. We love getting God's grace
right, but we struggle dispensing it when we love
getting it, we love getting it, but the temptation is is not to
give it away. The hardship that often times is
dispensing that grace. So Paul is calling us as
recipients of that grace to more than enjoyment.
He's actually holding us accountable to live that out.
Look at verse 15 and he just shoots a list here all the way
through verse 18 repaying on evil.
So that's awesome. Don't mirror the world.
That's how they that's what they do.
Someone slaps you, that's karma, right?
You slap them back, break that cycle.
The verse 15 seek to do good. So this is this is seeking.
This is like actively pursuing ever actively pursue something
pretty intentional about that, right?
You're pretty intentional. You're pretty you're pretty
vigilant about that. This is what this means, to
pursue what blesses others, even at your own cost.
Then he says in verse 16, he says, rejoice always.
Oh, that's a hard one, because joy isn't first and foremost a
feeling. Joy is a supernatural delight in
the person of Christ. Joy doesn't depend on what your
circumstance is in a particular moment.
It is the choice. It is the will to choose Christ
and to choose joy anchored in Christ, in the moment when you'd
rather not rejoice always and then pray without ceasing.
Let's stay connected. I mean, praying is a
relationship, right? It's communication.
Let's not make prayer hard. Prayer is not hard.
Prayer is talking with the One who's over you.
Prayer is a child communicating with their Father.
Prayer is connection. So let every moment be lined up
with God. That's what he means.
He doesn't mean get in the closet and pray 24 hours a day.
He said, listen, God's thoughts should be in your mind all the
time, interacting, connecting with the Lord.
And then he says give thanks in all circumstances.
I love that in all circumstances, you know, in
another place, Paul says not just in all circumstances, but
in for all circumstances, not just in but for, which means
gratitude in a believer in a local church is the lens for all
of life. Now, as I said earlier, this is
not a checklist. This is a way of life.
If you count this whole section, there is around 13 imperatives.
I mean just boom, it's like 1 after another 13 imperatives
packed in this whole section. But that's Paul's not meaning to
have this as a rule factory. This is the character of Christ
being formed in you. If you go back to chapter one of
First Thessalonians, the Thessalonian Church, as I said
earlier, they didn't have APR plan.
They didn't have a staff, they didn't have a budget, they
didn't have their own building. They were young, they were new,
but they were known for one thing.
And Paul said that the word of the Lord sounded forth from them
everywhere. This small little fledgling
church, the word of the Lord. That means, that means the
Thessalonian church wasn't subtle.
They were loud in their faith. That means they trumpeted the
gospel clearly and boldly and unashamedly.
And people everywhere knew exactly who they were and
exactly what they believed, not just with their lips, but with
their life. That's gospel culture in action.
Not perfect people, but gospel shaped church making a loud,
unmistakable noise for Christ. Which means that our life
together at Saint City Chapel, that means that means our life
together isn't driven by preferences, it's not driven by
personality or or control, but by the by our identity in
Christ. So the question is, is like
what? What kind of culture am I
creating around me? What does that look like?
Is it one that seeks good? That is it?
Is it one that rejoices often? Is that one that lives on
ceasing the independence on God? Is it a life that overflows?
These are the rhythms. These are the rhythms.
This is, this is, these are the rhythms that make the character
of Christ visible to others. And this is the kind of place
where a gospel hope thrives. All right, I want to show you #4
#4 4th aspect, not, not none of this is possible apart from the
Spirit. That's number four.
We celebrate the Spirit. None of this is possible.
This church meeting today is not possible apart from the Holy
Spirit, That engagement that we had to worship this morning.
That you feel that? Did you feel that?
I felt that that vertical engagement that we shared
together is not possible apart from the work of the Holy Spirit
in the life of His church. Paul, actually, his command here
is in the negative. Look at it with me, verse 19.
Verse 19 says don't quench the Spirit.
Don't quench the Spirit. Here's what he's saying.
He is saying inappropriate, joyful relationship with the
Holy Spirit actually increases the health of the church.
Romans 5 Paul says that the Holy Spirit, God's love, has been
poured out into us through the Holy Spirit.
And we think of the Holy Spirit. We think of the one who comes
and baptizes us and fills us and adopts us and seals us and
empowers us and gifts us. All of those things are true.
But running through all of that, the primary ministry, maybe
maybe you didn't know this. I want to shed some light on
this this morning. The primary job, the primary
ministry of the Holy Spirit. You know what it is?
It's a spotlight ministry. The job of the Holy Spirit, the
whole job of his, his whole being is the spotlight on Jesus
Christ. And if you've ever been in a
play before, you know, you go and you sit down and you, you
kind of luckily they have the light somewhat on so you can
find your seat. But there's some point before
the play starts that all the lights go down.
You can't see anything except what the spotlight is shining.
Everything else fades away and the spotlight is shining on that
person or that thing that is the, the, the, the, the main
agenda of the night. And that's the only thing you
can see. You can't even see the people
beside you. You can't see the people beside
the person being spotlighted on. That is the job of the Holy
Spirit. It's the spotlight Jesus.
In fact, Jesus says he's going to take when he's Speaking of
the Holy Spirit. He says to the disciples, he's
going to take what is mine and declare it to you.
He's the ultimate preacher. That's how you know if the
spirits that work in your life, what Jesus is saying to you,
what Jesus is doing in you, who Jesus is becoming to you, the
Holy Spirit is spotlighting that he is you are his spotlight
ministry on Jesus Christ. So how does Jesus look in your
life? Little by little he keeps making
Jesus look bigger in your life. He keeps making look, making
Jesus look clearer in your life, making Jesus look sweeter.
Now the opposite happens. When you're not spotlighting,
when you're not allowing the Holy Spirit to spotlight, you're
actually quenching. Quenching just simply means to
put out the fire. That's what it means.
It means to extinguish, it means to snuff out.
Ephesians 4 says we can grieve the Spirit.
And that's just think of it this way.
Grieving is how you do it. Quenching is the result of it.
So Jesus told his disciples, He said, I've been with you, He'll
be in you. I've been a fire around you.
He's going to be the fire in you.
You're like, well, how do we quench that fire in US?
How do we quench his power, his work in US?
I mean, there's a bunch of ways, right?
But a good way to quench him is to ignore him.
Resist him whenever he feels conviction, whenever he
illuminates on your life, you just sort of ignore.
You resist his leading. You keep doing your own thing.
Another way is just to deny his reality.
How do you do that? Well, by minimizing him, we deny
his reality by by using his name to excuse behavior, behavior he
actually opposes, sinful behavior he actually opposes.
We just sort of use his name to justify what we're doing.
That's quenching. If that's done over and over and
over again, just flat out resisting as well, resisting his
work of sanctification through His word.
See, the core problem in a believer's life isn't the
absence of the Holy Spirit. When you get the Holy Spirit,
you get all of the Holy Spirit. You get them forever.
Amen. The core problem isn't the
absence of the Spirit. It's the Spirit being sidelined
in our lives and in our church through our sinfulness and
through our preferences for for human solutions or our spiritual
substitutes. But the opposite opposite
opposite quench to celebrate the Spirit.
It's the welcome, the Spirit. It's the respond to the Spirit
in obedience. It's to rejoice in the Spirit as
he makes much of Christ in me. So the question, am I
celebrating or am I quenching? Am I celebrating every choice,
every word, every action? Either fans of flame.
Of God's work through the Holy Spirit, or it snuffs it out.
Where am I? And as the church celebrates,
and as a church that celebrates the Spirit, that is a church
where Jesus has seen clearly and that our goal anyways,
everybody, right? Isn't that why we got up today?
I don't know why you got up today, but that's why I got up
today. And I'm pretty sure that's why
you got up to come to Saint City Chapel to worship together, to
open God's Word together and study together, because you just
want to see Jesus more clearly known and seen in your life.
That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
He's really good at his job. Let him do his job, and he never
does his job apart from his Word.
And that's the final aspect this morning.
Gospel hope thrives as we love the preached Word.
You love it when you open up God's Word.
You love it. Do you delight?
Blessed is a man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of
the scoffer. What does it say, Psalm one.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law.
He meditates, he ponders, he soaks day and night.
That is loving the preached word, the declared word.
Actually, just quick footnote for for anybody who's a Bible
nerd in here, I hope there are a few quick, quick footnote in
each of these commands from verse 19.
We're not going to hit verse 22 today, but all the way down
through verse 22. The the subject is the object.
So the subject is coming first in the Greek.
So in the Greek, the subject is always first.
So, so the spirit do not quench prophecies, do not despise what
is good, hold fast. That's that's how it reads in
the Greek evil abstain and so right here Paul's being
intentional. He's like pay attention, pay
attention to the object, pay attention to the subject.
The emphasis is on what you're responding to and here right
here in verse 21 in verse 20 and 21 is the preached word.
Look at what it says it says don't despise the prophecies.
The prophecies is the subject don't despise them.
So, so in New Testament context, prophecies were were the
proclamation of God's word. That's that's prophecy.
Prophecy was the declaration of God's revealed truth.
So when we read, when they read scripture and in their assembly,
when they explain the Scriptures in their assembly, they heralded
to God's people God's truth. So Paul says don't despise,
don't downgrade. Don't just read the parts you
like. Don't be offended by the parts
you don't like. Don't just read the comfortable.
Don't downgrade it. Don't look down on revelation.
Don't diminish the words authority over your life.
In short, fill your life Psalm one, fill your life with the
word God and and notice what it says in verse 21.
Test you see that test everything.
I love that and hold to it every message, every claim, every
impression by the revealed word of God, tested by the revealed
word of God. Don't, don't test it by
preference. Don't test it by personality.
I'll tell you, most people will spend their whole life reacting
like like like a knee jerk reaction to whatever, whatever's
bouncing around. That's that's how most people
respond, knee jerk to whatever's bouncing around, doing whatever
the mood indicates them to do Why?
Because they never learn. They never discern.
They never throw these things through the filter of truth.
They are not Psalm one kind of people.
They don't ponder and meditate on the scripture.
So when something comes their way, it feels good.
They don't put it through the filter of scripture and
therefore they're deceived. I love them.
What Martin Luther. You know who Martin Luther was?
He lived a few years ago in Germany.
He's the guy who nailed the 95 thesis on the Catholic Church
door. And he said, I want to quote.
I want to quote him. He said I study my Bible like I
gather apples. I shake the whole tree 1st that
the ripe may fall. Then I shake each limb.
Then I shake each branch, then every twig.
Then I look under every leaf. Isn't that awesome?
The only way to examine carefully, the only way to truly
hold on to what is good, is to be a person rooted in truth.
And I'm so thankful for the Saint City Chapel.
Y'all are fired up about that. Y'all are fired up about the
truth. You are committed to the Here's
the thing. Here's the thing, most people,
it isn't about the danger isn't rejection.
I mean, it's not like you guys are sitting here right now and
going I reject, right? You're not, you're not doing
that. For most of us, it's not about
rejection. It's about indifference, right?
So do I love the word now the way I once did, or have I heard
it so long? It's just sort of a sort of a
gone. It started to lose its edge.
It's familiar. It's no longer treasured.
As we close, let's zoom out for a moment.
As a brand new, this is a brand new church.
And as a brand new local expression of the church, Paul's
given some pretty clear markers on how to have a healthy church.
You got to value your leaders. You got to minister with
awareness. You've got to cultivate this
sort of gospel culture. You've got to celebrate the
Spirit always, all the time. You've got to love, treasure,
cherish the preached word. Not perfect.
We're not perfect, OK, not flashy, but alive.
And when you pursue these, you pursue these, you can't go
wrong. And they won't just shape you,
they'll shape that culture. You guys talk a lot of culture
around you. Brandon and I spent a lot of
time talking about the culture around you.
He has a heart for the culture around.
And I know that you do too. I'm telling you, if you do these
things, this will shape the culture not just in you, but
around you for the sake of the gospel.
One more thing, and I'll be done.
Reality of it is you may be here today.
I just want to share with you this important but critical and
critical truth. You you can go through church.
You can be a church person. You can go to church every week
without ever being transformed by Christ.
You can admire the culture of Saint City, right?
You can, you can benefit from community, community.
You can even mimic Christian Church behaviors and still never
be shaped by Jesus. You need Jesus.
You don't need a bunch of rules, you need Jesus.
You don't need an event to attend every week, you need
Jesus Christ. Gospel hope doesn't start with a
bunch of dudes. It starts with a person.
And some of you, if you're honest, you're, you're on the
outside looking in because you've never surrendered your
life to the King of kings and the Lord of Lords and the only
person who can make these things happen in your life.
This is the person who came down to live the life we could never
live and died to death. Each one of us deserved to die
and rose again from the grave to conquer death and sin.
The Bible says if you surrender and you receive him, you wave
the white flag and declare him as your Lord, you will be saved
and these things will be true in your life.
So I want to encourage you with that as we end.
Today's such a very good day. This is stop hovering and
finally step into the gospel experience.
Hope thrives in a healthy local church.
Father, we thank you that the gospel is not just a suggestion,
but the power for life and transformation.
So shape, shape us. May we be willing to be shaped.
May we be pliable and moldable. I pray for the people in here,
maybe this morning, who have not come in connection with the King
of Kings and the Lord of Lords. May they surrender their lives
to you. May they run from their sin and
run to Jesus for hope, and may Gospel hope thrive at Saint City
Chapel as they do the work of the mission of Jesus Christ.
To the glory of God. We pray these things in Jesus
name, Amen.