Part 1 - An Intentional Walk

Opening

I want you to consider that throughout the bible we are challenged or commanded to live at a higher dedication to Christ than what life the world has chosen. We, as followers and believers of the Lord Jesus Christ, have chosen to lay down our life for who we believe is the one true God… The King of Kings… The Father of Life!

Our life… Is it our life to begin with? It was given to us, yes… but it was given to us to live as Christ. To live in relationship with God. Now, relationship is a very popular subject. Many us have good & bad memories of people we are in relationships with.

Relationships look different, have different complexity and require different responsibilities based on their value to us personally. We call some family, best friend, friend and acquaintance. God is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (family member). He is someone you can talk to about anything, anytime, anywhere.

But relationship is not my subject today… rather, this life we live. What is the purpose of our life? To glorify God in all we do, so that others will see His love and be drawn to Him by how you honor God. Love God and Love His People.

I want you to go on a journey with me today and evaluate your commitment and relationship with God. I would like you to consider your walk with Christ today. Are you intentional about representing Christ? Are you intentional about looking like Him? Are you intentional about producing the fruit of the Spirit in your life?

I’m starting a new series today called The Surrendered Life. And today is Part 1 of this series and I want to talk to you briefly on An Intentional Walk.

When we go on walks we enjoy it more when we do it on our own. When we want to walk. When we do it intentionally. We also enjoy it more when we can see the results of our walk, or when it’s profitable. We see we are going somewhere or accomplishing what we intended to to accomplish with our walk. So we enjoy our walk when it’s intentional and when it’s profitable. But our walk will be enjoyed more when it is a powerful walk. When it becomes a powerful walk it will make the intentionality and profitability more enjoyable!

Part 1 - An Intentional Walk

Part 2 - A Profitable Walk

Part 3 - A Powerful Walk

Scriptures

1 Thessalonians 5:16–22 (NKJV)

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.

The Message (Chapter 5)

16–18  Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.19–22  Don’t suppress the Spirit, and don’t stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don’t be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what’s good. Throw out anything tainted with evil.23–24  May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it!

Body

7 Steps of an Intentional Walk

1. Rejoice

He first instructs his readers, (“rejoice always”). This is an integral part of Christian living, as other Pauline texts such as Gal. 5:22 and Phil. 4:4 reveal. The subject of joy or rejoicing has come up in 1 Thessalonians several times already. In 1:6 we read how the Thessalonians “received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit.” And the Spirit is portrayed as the source of their joy. Their joy was closely associated with their confidence in future salvation and vindication as part of the community of God’s people. In 3:9 Paul asks the rhetorical question, “What thanks are we able to give to God concerning you for all the joy with which we rejoice on account of you before our God” (cf. 2:20). Paul’s rejoicing is grounded in his knowledge of God’s working among the Thessalonians and is directed toward God. Although Paul does not spell out the source or basis of Christian joy in 5:16, the instruction to “rejoice always” derives its meaning from the earlier passages in the letter. To rejoice always is to see the hand of God in whatever is happening and to remain certain of God’s future salvation. Without such conviction joy would not be possible in the face of affliction, suffering, and death.

2. Pray

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Epistles to the Thessalonians (General Exhortations: 5:12–22)

5:17 Not surprisingly Paul wished his converts to be people of prayer. He himself was devoted to prayer as a fundamental activity in his life (cf. 1:2f.; 2 Thes. 1:11; Rom. 1:10; Col. 1:3, 9). In several of his letters he instructs his readers to devote themselves to prayer (cf. 5:25; 2 Thes. 3:1; Rom. 12:12; Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2, 3). Undoubtedly he believed it was the Christian’s duty to engage in prayer regularly. Since the next injunction concerns giving thanks, which is an integral part of Christian prayer (cf. 1:2f.), when Paul writes ἀδιαλείπτως προσεύχεσθε (“pray without ceasing”), he may well have in mind intercessory prayer (cf. 5:25), though the term is actually a general one for prayer. Obviously he does not mean this to be taken literally, but he does expect his converts to remember continually to pray for their own needs and the needs of others. This was presumably to be done both privately and in the corporate prayers of the church.

3. Give Thanks

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Epistles to the Thessalonians (General Exhortations: 5:12–22)

5:18 Paul’s third injunction, ἐν παντὶ εὐχαριστεῖτε (“give thanks …”), requires the interpreter to decide whether ἐν παντί is temporal (“at all times”) or expresses the circumstance (“in every situation”) in which thanksgiving should be made to God. In favor of the former is that temporal adverbs qualify the previous two instructions and that in 1:2 and 2:13 Paul employs temporal adverbs with εὐχαριστοῦμεν (“we give thanks”). Against it is that temporal use of ἐν παντί does not seem to occur elsewhere in Paul (Best, 236). While the temporal understanding is to be favored slightly, the sense of what Paul is saying is not appreciably affected. To thank God at all times is to see God working in every situation to bring about the divine saving will. This is not to say that God causes suffering and affliction, but to acknowledge, as Paul does in Rom. 8:28, that God works for the good of the elect through every situation. For this reason the Christian is obliged to give thanks to God at all times.Paul concludes the three commands of vv. 16–18 with the motivational observation, τοῦτο γὰρ θέλημα θεοῦ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ εἰς ὑμᾶς (“for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”). There is no good reason for limiting this statement to only the last of the three injunctions. The parallel imperatival form of all three indicates an equal stress on each one. It would be indeed peculiar if Paul thought only giving thanks was the will of God, but not rejoicing and especially praying. Somewhat surprisingly Paul almost never grounds either ethical or what we might call spiritual behavior in the will of God (cf. 4:3, the only other instance). That he does so here places a very strong warrant on the behavior commanded by him. This in turn indicates how much importance he places on it for his converts. For Paul praise, intercession, and thanksgiving were not optional for the Christian, but were required just as much as proper ethical conduct.

Paul now moves from the spiritual activities to the issue of the Spirit in the life of the individual who is Intentionally walking a Christian walk.

4. Honor the Holy Spirit

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Epistles to the Thessalonians (The Unity and Purpose of 5:19–22)

5:19 Paul first instructs the Thessalonians: τὸ πνεῦμα μὴ σβέννυτε (“do not quench the Spirit”). Clearly this prohibition involves the manifestations of the Spirit in the lives of individuals and the community. The succeeding verse shows that Paul is not primarily concerned with the role of the Spirit in ethical reorientation, as in Gal. 5:22–24. Rather he is concerned about charismatic signs, so-called charismata or gifts of the Spirit. These included not only prophecy (see v. 20) and speaking in tongues (cf. 1 Cor. 14:1–19), but also utterances of wisdom and knowledge, great faith, the power to perform miracles and healings, and to interpret manifestations of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:7–11). Elsewhere Paul describes Christians as possessing “the first fruits of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:23) and as having received the Spirit as “a down payment” (2 Cor. 1:22). Apparently Paul understood the Spirit as a sign or proof that God’s final salvation was to be given to the Christian community. Both speaking in tongues and prophetic utterance had a role to play in this. The former was a sign to unbelievers and the latter to believers (cf. 1 Cor. 14:22–25). To quench the Spirit was to suppress or restrain the Spirit from manifesting itself in charismatic activities like speaking in tongues and uttering prophecy within the life of the community (see F. Lang, TDNT VII, 168). This was tantamount to hindering the role of the Spirit as a guarantor of God’s final salvation.

5. Desire the Moving of the Spirit

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Epistles to the Thessalonians (The Unity and Purpose of 5:19–22)

5:20 In this verse Paul offers a specific example of the way in which the Spirit should not be thwarted. Following the negative format of the previous directive, he tells his readers, προφητείας μὴ ἐξουθενεῖτε (“do not despise prophecy”). The noun προφητεία may refer either specifically to the gift of prophecy or to the utterances of a person prophesying. The accusative plural form of the noun here and the lack of an article favor the latter. From 1 Cor. 14:1 it is apparent that Paul placed a high value on prophecy in the life of the Church. The revelation given to a person who prophesied was primarily intended for the “edification, exhortation, and encouragement” of the Christian community (1 Cor. 14:3, 31). To treat prophetic utterances as of no account was to refuse to listen to God’s word and God’s will for the community. Paul qualifies his directive not to despise prophecy in vv. 21f. to prevent any possible abuse of prophecy in the church assembly.The present imperatives of vv. 19f. do suggest some hindrance to or disruption of what Paul considered normal Spirit-inspired activity. To the extent that any group within the community stood to gain from suppressing the manifestations of the Spirit, it would most likely be the emerging leadership. They may have sought to control spiritual gifts like prophecy and interpretation of tongues. Because it is difficult to challenge what is uttered or done in the name of the Spirit, so-called spiritual gifts are open to abuse by those who wish to manipulate others. Spiritual gifts also give authority and status to those outside the ranks of traditional leadership. Thus, in order to prevent competitors, the patrons and leaders spoken about in 5:12f. sought to suppress spiritual gifts.Jewett (Thessalonian Correspondence, 175f.), who holds a somewhat similar position, goes beyond the evidence, however, in finding an organized “charismatic” opposition to the community leaders and patrons. If problems were as serious as Jewett suggests, it is unlikely that Paul would have provided the “charismatics” with the support for their position offered by 5:19f. Jewett appears to be reading the Corinthian situation into the Thessalonian correspondence. If 2 Thessalonians was written prior to 1 Thessalonians, Paul himself may have been partly responsible for the suppression of prophecy because of his statement in 2 Thes. 2:2 that the Thessalonians should not be troubled by pneumatic utterances. But Paul immediately moves in vv. 21f. to put limitations on claims made in the name of the Spirit and deeds done in the Spirit. He does this so that excesses can be curtailed if they go beyond the norms of proper Christian demeanor.

6. Test all things

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Epistles to the Thessalonians (The Unity and Purpose of 5:19–22)

He charges the Thessalonians: πάντα δὲ δοκιμάζετε (“test everything”). The contrastive conjunction δέ is missing from some important manuscripts and witnesses, but was probably original. It may have been lost either by assimilation to the δ of δοκιμάζετε or because a scribe failed to see the connection with the previous verses (Best, 240). In the context the πάντα almost certainly refers to manifestations of the Spirit in the words and deeds of the members of the church. People were capable of abusing the gifts of the Spirit in various ways, such as making unchristian pronouncements (cf. 1 Cor. 12:3; 1 Jn. 4:1–3) or even self-aggrandizing statements (cf. Did. 11:12) in the name of the Spirit. Thus Paul exhorts the community to evaluate what is said or done in the name of the Spirit or under the supposed influence of the Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 14:29). He does not specify what criteria should be used in determining whether something is good or evil, but presumably he expected his readers to weigh supposed Spirit-inspired words and deeds against the doctrinal and ethical norms they had received from him. While Paul does not say so here, it is the Spirit who enables a person to determine the genuineness of a word or deed done in the Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 12:10).The command τὸ καλὸν κατέχετε (“hold fast to what is good”) explains what is to be done positively with those deeds and words tested and found acceptable and beneficial for the lives of individuals and the community. They are to be accepted and made normative for Christian self-understanding and behavior. On the other hand, in case anything should fall outside Christian norms, Paul instructs his readers in v. 22: ἀπὸ παντὸς εἴδους πονηροῦ ἀπέχετε (“keep away [or abstain] from every kind of evil”). Although the three imperatives of vv. 21f. go specifically with the statements regarding the Spirit and its manifestations in vv. 19f., Paul’s readers would almost certainly not have limited their applicability to this alone. The need to test everything and then either accept or reject it on the basis of whether it was good or evil had general relevance to every aspect of Christian thought and behavior.

7. Throw out evil

Closing

Altar