1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 - God's Will for Your Life
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Introduction:
What is likely the most popular question that is asked among Christian circles?
What is God’s will for my life?
I think we have all heard this question and probably asked this question countless times! It seems like such a big question. What does God want me to do? What is His ultimate will for my life.
None of us want to miss out on what God’s will is for us, right?
Yet this mystical way of thinking leads many to paralysis in making life decisions. They won’t commit to a spouse because maybe it isn’t the will of God for their life. They won’t commit to a career because maybe it isn’t God’s will for their life. Some may not even be able to pick out a breakfast cereal because it might not be what God wanted them to eat that morning!
Ok, maybe that last one was a stretch - but we have created this mystical idea of a hidden plan of God for our lives.
There are most certainly wise steps we need to take in making decisions. Yes, we should seek the Lord in the decisions we make. Yes, we should pray for His Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us which He will if we are walking in obedience. And yes, we should always be searching and studying His Word to help us make our decisions because many times we don’t need to pray about a decision - God’s Word addresses it head on and we just need to be obedient! But it’s like we feel as if God has this plan for us and hides it from us and makes us play hide and seek until we find it!
Brothers and sisters - this is garbage. Yes - I said garbage. If I was a proper Englishman I would say rubbish.
God is not in the business of stringing you along and playing mind games with you. He has wired you and designed you from the beginning to do what He wants you to do. Once you are saved - He fills you with His Holy Spirit who guides you and leads you.
The real way that we find out God’s will for us - is by obeying what He teaches us today through His Word.
I can promise you that if you a born-again believer and follow the commands in these three short verses well, you will most certainly fulfill God’s will for your life.
Let’s get into today’s message:
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Let us pray.
Prayer.
Today we will see three ways in which we follow and obey God’s will for our lives as believers. The first is...
I. As a Christ Follower, God’s Will for Your Life… Requires Rejoicing (16)
I. As a Christ Follower, God’s Will for Your Life… Requires Rejoicing (16)
Rejoice always,
The previous sermon was on the healthy church family. It involved instruction on how we should relate to one another in the church. While the verses for today are more about worshiping the Lord than interacting with others, obeying the instructions of these verses will most certainly aid in a healthy church family and make our relationships better with one another as well. However, the main thrust of these verses is worshipping God.
Starting with verse 16 we see that we are to rejoice always.
A fun fact before diving into the meat of this short verse - This verse is actually the shortest verse in the Bible if we just look at the original Greek. It only contains 14 letters in the original Greek. However it has 13 letters in English. While our common answer for the shortest verse in the Bible is ‘Jesus wept.’ (which is found in John 11:35) and only consists of 9 letters in English, it actually has 16 letters in the original Greek.
Although this may be the shortest Greek verse in the Bible, it comes with quite a charge. Rejoice always. That is quite a command isn’t it? What exactly does Paul mean here?
When we take a step back and study this book alone, we see that joy is found 4 times in 1 Thessalonians while rejoice is found once as seen here in our Scripture for today. These references refer to having joy in the midst of affliction (1 Thessalonians 1:6), joy in considering the second coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 2:19), and joy with thanksgiving (1 Thessalonians 2:20, 3:9).
The word rejoice is very similar in the Greek to joy. The word rejoice is chairō (he-yeah-dro) and means to be glad or rejoice. It is interesting that although Paul speaks of the persecution of the Thessalonian church often, he uses the words joy and rejoice 5 times in this short letter. He does a similar thing in the book of Philippians which was written to a church that was also in Macedonia and was persecuted greatly. In fact, Paul uses the words joy and rejoice in the book of Philippians 7 times in 4 chapters!
Obviously, Paul is trying to tell us something. We need to have joy and we are commanded to rejoice.
But then we come to the second word in our verse which is always. This word literally means at all times. How does that practically look in our lives today?
When you lose your job… Rejoice always.
When your marriage is struggling… Rejoice always.
When you are ill… Rejoice always.
When you lose a loved one… Rejoice always.
When you have financial struggles… Rejoice always.
Some of you may hear this and quickly kick back on rejoicing in these bad situations. And with a contemporary understanding of rejoice, you would be right in doing so. Today’s culture equates rejoicing to happiness. We have cheapened true joy and have replaced it with a temporary feeling that comes and goes with the wind.
But that is not the Biblical definition of joy. If you remember last week, we saw Paul teach on the need to be patient with one another and be at peace with one another. We referred to the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 and that these two commands are only possible by the working of the Holy Spirit in us. We cannot be fully patient or fully at peace with one another in our own power. And in the same way, we cannot be full of joy without the Holy Spirit.
True joy is found irrespective of one’s circumstances. True joy is found in Christ. When we have the fruit of Spirit - namely when we have true joy - we realize that our joy is irrevocable because we have been saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). We have been forgiven and accepted by our God and Father through Jesus Christ. We have the promise of eternal life with Christ in heaven as we saw a couple of weeks ago and as we just sang about in our new song, “On That Day.”
This does not mean that we are happy to go through bad circumstances. We are not to hope for trials. That isn’t healthy as well. But we should have such joy in Christ because of our promised salvation and eternal life with Him, that we can have true inner joy and peace despite what is going on in our lives. Our joy should be driven by a relationship with our Savior which allows us to persevere and express joy even in the worst of situations. Through our glorious hope in Christ and because of our love for Him and because of His love for us, we can respond like the Apostles did in Acts 5:40-41:
and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
The Apostles would not have their joy stolen. They actually rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Christ!
Brothers and sisters - what is stealing your joy today?
Pastor John MacArthur gives a great admonition in his commentary on this great book.
Therefore, no event or circumstance in the Christian’s life, apart from sin, can or should diminish his true joy.
John MacArthur (emphasis mine)
Sin is the only thing in our lives that can diminish our true joy. And that is because it creates a barrier between us and our Savior. When we have unconfessed sin in our lives, our joy will not be complete. We will not be able to fully experience the joy God offers us.
If you find yourself struggling for inner peace and joy, I urge you to examine your heart and mind and see if there be any sin that is in you. As the Psalmist David so wonderfully said:
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
The Lord promises to reveal your sin to you and He will forgive you of your sin once you repent and turn from it.
Once our sin has been confessed and repented of, we may be sure that we may have freedom with joy and peace in Christ in any and every situation.
If you are not a true believer in Christ - if you have not placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and repented or turned away from your sins. If you have not confessed Jesus as Lord - the one who came to earth as fully God and fully man and died on the cross for your sins. The One who raised three days later and now offers eternal life through His sacrificial payment on the cross. Then I can promise you that you will never have true joy. True joy only comes to those who are saved by the blood of Christ.
Only then can you truly rejoice always.
Next we see that...
Scripture References: John 11:35; 1 Thessalonians 1:6, 2:19, 2:20, 3:9; Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 2:8-9, Psalm 139:23-24
II. As a Christ Follower, God’s Will for Your Life… Requires Relationship (17)
II. As a Christ Follower, God’s Will for Your Life… Requires Relationship (17)
pray without ceasing,
If you recall back in June we addressed this verse as a parallel of Colossians 4:2
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
So in today’s Scripture we see that we are to pray without ceasing and in Colossians we see that we are to continue steadfastly in prayer. In other words, we are to persist in and persevere in prayer.
But what does Paul really mean when he says to pray without ceasing in 1 Thessalonians 5:17?
At a risk of repetition by quoting the same man twice in one sermon and repeating a quote that I brought up this summer as well - I must give this quote again because I find no better explanation of this verse. Pastor John MacArthur, when addressing this wonderful command, states:
“Praying at all times is not necessarily limited to constant vocalizing of prayers to God. Rather, it refers to a God consciousness that relates every experience in life to Him.”
John MacArthur
In other words, we should be relating to God at all times. We may not be in conversational prayer at all times, but we should be conscious of God at all times. And the reason that this is so important is because our relationship with Christ is so important.
A relationship without communication is no relationship in all. If we claim to be followers of Christ and yet do not seek to relate to Him - how strong is our faith? Or better yet, do we even have a faith?
As we walk through our lives day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute - we need to be cogniscient of our Savior walking with us.
We should always be aware that we are fully reliant on God for all things. We need to understand our need for God. He is our sustainer. He is our Savior. He is our Redeemer. He is our Wonderful Counselor and Prince of Peace.
Sadly, many struggle with prayer today because they do not grasp just how great God is.
If you are married - I am sure that when you first started dating or courting your spouse - you desired nothing more than to communicate with him or her. Watch a new couple and you will see pursuit in action. They don’t have to be reminded to talk. The desire for relationship is strong.
How much more should we desire to communicate with our Lord Jesus Christ? He is infinitely more beautiful than any human being. He is infinitely more interesting than anyone we can converse with on earth. He is infinitely more wonderful than anyone on earth.
I am afraid that our prayer problem is actually a problem with our view of God. We do not pray without ceasing because we do not see the beauty and magnificence of God the way we should.
The Psalmists understood the beauty of God and magnificence of God. Listen to the writers in the Psalms:
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
As you read these words from the Psalmists, you see their awe of God. God is beautiful. He is mighty. His works are amazing.
I think that our prayer problem is often a worship problem. It is that we do not have the high view of God that we should have.
I challenge each of you this week to spend some time in praise and worship of God. That doesn’t necessarily mean singing praise and worship songs although you can do that as well. But spend some time praising God for all that He has done. Take a look at the stars and stand in awe of the greatness of God and His creative handiwork. Take a look at the mountains and see his power and majesty. Take a look at a deciduous tree and see his wisdom in how it loses its leaves in the Fall and yet survives into Spring only to bloom anew.
The question we must ask ourselves is, “Why do we not relate to God in prayer and communication more often?”
In that same vein, “Why do we not notice the greatness and beauty of God as regularly as we should?”
I think one of the main reasons for our relational struggle with God is the same as our relational struggle with people. It comes down to busyness. We get so task-oriented that we neglect our Creator and Sustainer. And we continue moving about in our busyness until we are no longer able due to fatigue. And finally, we turn to God in prayer.
And at the heart of our busyness lies the old sin of selfishness. We are so focused on getting done what we want to get done, that we ignore our Savior. And we do not submit again to Him until we run out of energy.
Brothers and sisters, how much better would our lives be if we continually stayed plugged into our Sustainer and Savior? How much better would our lives be if we didn’t pridefully seek our own selfish desires with all of our own energy and instead sought after Christ continually in prayer and worked through His never-ending power?
Again, I challenge you this week to re-calibrate your life and focus on the worship of God and relating to God consistently. You won’t regret it.
Finally, we see that...
Scripture References: Colossians 4:2, Psalm 27:4, Psalm 104:24-25, Psalm 50:2
III. As a Christ Follower, God’s Will for Your Life… Requires Recognition (18)
III. As a Christ Follower, God’s Will for Your Life… Requires Recognition (18)
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
We all know what it means to give thanks. Most of us have been trained since we were little to say thank you after being given something or served something.
However in this context we are told to give thanks in all circumstances. Now this is not something many of us have been taught! And it is most certainly not a normal response.
I’m sure most of us don’t tell a police officer thank you for a ticket (although we probably should!). And I’m sure most of us don’t tell our employers thank you after being laid off work.
There is actually only one Greek word for the phrase ‘in all circumstances.’ This Greek word is pas and literally means ‘all’ or ‘everything.’ Give thanks in everything. The preposition in is in this original Greek so it is either in everything give thinks or give thanks in everything.
I personally like the clarity regarding the translation of the ESV - in all circumstances - because it more clearly portrays what the original is saying.
We are to give thanks to God no matter what the situation. But how do we move forward and give thanks in all circumstances?
This must start by recognizing that everything comes from God. And this should drive us to thankfulness.
And this command to give thanks in all circumstances requires the utmost of another Biblical concept - namely contentment. Last November, I preached a sermon entitled, ‘The Secret of Contentment.’ During that sermon we learned how we could be content in all circumstances. Three of these verses highlight this teaching:
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
The key to learning contentment is through being thankful in Christ. Paul mentions his hard times and his good times. But he ends with verse 13 - he can do all things through who? Through Christ who strengthens him. And this strengthening given by Christ is the cause of Paul’s thankfulness.
Prayers of thanksgiving are key to us remaining content and joyful in this life.
Most people spend much of their time in prayer asking for something they do not have. Whether it is financial, health-related, or something else. Yet getting these things does not offer the contentment and joy that they seemingly promise.
A prayer life dominated by these types of prayers breeds discontentment and gives rise to a heart of unthankfulness.
We absolutely are able to go to our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ for requests. In fact, we are encouraged to as seen in Philippians 4:6:
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Yet notice the important word there before making your requests known to God. Thanksgiving. We need to spend time in reflective thankfulness before we make any requests known.
Our praise and thankfulness to God should be the anchor for our prayers.
Each Wednesday morning, a few of the men of this church gather and pray. By the way - I’d love to get more of you men out as it is a great midweek prayer and fellowship time. But as we begin, we intentionally start off our prayers with praise and thanks to God. Why is this so important?
Because it reminds us that we can trust that God will come through for us when we need Him because He has before! It helps us more clearly see how much He has already blessed us. We can praise and be thankful to God by reflection. Just the fact that you have been given your breath today - oxygen - that fuels your body. The fact that you had a meal this morning or something to drink this morning. The warmth of the sun on beautiful day. Or the rain that falls and helps plants grow so that we have food.
Thankfulness encourages us to praise and worship of our God. And this leads to us being in the will of God.
And that leads us to the end of the Scripture today that we have been discussing this whole sermon:
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV)
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
This statement refers to the previous three things that we have discussed. To rejoice always, to pray without ceasing, and to give thanks in all circumstances is God’s will for you.
God has not made His will for us hidden. He has written it clearly in His Word. May we seek Him and obey Him by following His commands here.
Scripture References: Philippians 4:11-13, Philippians 4:6
Conclusion:
As we come to a close, I think Robert Picirilli summarizes these three verses well. He refers to the descriptive words - always, without ceasing, and in everything and describes the emphasis on consistency in the life of the believer.
A true believer who is following God’s will for their life is a consistent believer. They are obedient to the Word and consistent in their reading of the Word. They are consistent in prayer. They are consistent in giving thanks. And they are consistently joyful because they are in a right relationship with the Lord.
This world around us is always changing. Truth becomes relative. Right becomes wrong. Moral becomes immoral. But we can remain consistent because our God never changes. And if we continue walking with Him in consistency, we can know that we are in His Will.
Let us pray.
Prayer
If you would like to learn more about salvation through Jesus Christ or want to obey Jesus by obeying the first commandment of a believer in going through the waters of baptism - please let me know.
Have a blessed week.