Untitled Sermon

Years ago, Max Reich, who spoke in our church a number of times, was asked to describe his prayer life. “If you are asking me about getting by myself and spending long periods alone on my knees in prayer, then I would have to say that I am relatively a prayerless man,” Dr. Reich told us. “But if you accept praying without ceasing as a continual, humble communion with God, day and night, under all circumstances—the pouring out of my heart to God in continual, unbroken fellowship—then I can say I pray without ceasing.”

Psalm 63:6–8; Ephesians 6:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:16–17

Faith Beyond Reason, 151.

A. W. Tozer

Life in the Spirit is not on automatic pilot, for the battle against the flesh continues (5:17), so that believers must continue to walk by the Spirit (5:16) and be led by the Spirit (5:18)

Thomas Schreiner

1 Thessalonians opens a window on to a newly planted church in the middle of the first century ad.

John Stott

Prayer is the sweat of the soul.

Martin Luther

Prayer is the breath of faith. Prayer meetings are the lungs of the church.

Charles Spurgeon

Prayer is the pulse of life.

Andrew Murray

I know of no better thermometer to your spiritual temperature than this, the measure of the intensity of your prayer.

Charles Spurgeon

Thankfulness is a good test of our spiritual state.

R. Kent Hughes

Fire is quenched by pouring on water or withdrawing fuel; so the Spirit is quenched by living in sin, which is like pouring on water; or not improving our gifts and grace, which is like withdrawing the fuel.

Thomas Manton

The Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures will expect obedience to the Scriptures, and if we do not give that obedience we will quench him.

A. W. Tozer

God save us from being so afraid of the false that we quench the Spirit of God, and become so respectable, and so pseudo-intellectual that the Spirit of God is kept back, and we go on in our dryness and aridity, and in our comparative futility, and helplessness, and uselessness.

Revival, 79

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

How do you quench a fire? You dampen it down and don’t let it burn. To quench the Spirit means that you refuse to do the will of God; that is, you are not listening to the Holy Spirit. You refuse to let the Holy Spirit be your Guide to lead you. You and I quench the Holy Spirit when we take matters into our own hands.

J. Vernon McGee

It is putting the will of the individual above the will of God. That is what it means to quench the Holy Spirit.

J. Vernon McGee

To quench the Spirit means that you refuse to do the will of God; that is, you are not listening to the Holy Spirit. You refuse to let the Holy Spirit be your Guide to lead you. You and I quench the Holy Spirit when we take matters into our own hands.

J. Vernon McGee

either the spirit quenches your old desires or your desires quench the spirit....

Many of us are not thirsty for God because we have quenched our thirst at other fountains!

Erwin W. Lutzer

We can quench the fire of the Spirit by our doubt, our indifference, our rejection of Him, or by the distraction of others. When people start to draw attention to themselves, it is a sure quench to the Spirit.

David Guzik

Thirst must be quenched! If our desires are not met by God, we will quickly find something else to alleviate our thirst.

Erwin W. Lutzer

The Bible refers to this as resisting (Acts 7:51), quenching (1 Thess. 5:19), or grieving the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30).

Kevin DeYoung