Living the Disciplined Life

Introduction:

1 Thessalonians 5:19–22 ESV

19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

Pray.

1. Don’t quench the Spirit (v.19)

1 Thessalonians 5:19 ESV

19 Do not quench the Spirit.

The word to quench means to stifle or extinguish the Holy Spirit.

How many of us have quenched the Holy Spirit at some point in our lives. How terrible it is that so many of our churches have extinguished the flame of the Holy Spirit’s passion rather than letting Him move in our midst to ignite our hearts in the fires of revival!

Clearly we don’t want this for our church. But before we can repent of quenching the Holy Spirit, we must examine how we do this in the first place.

So what are some of the ways we quench the Holy Spirit?

Disunity

Unbelief

Hard Heartedness

Acts 7:51 ESV

51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

Sinful Lifestyles (Eph. 4:25-32)

Neglecting Spiritual Gifts (1 Tim. 4:14)

These are just a few of the ways that we can grieve the Holy Spirit.

Illustration:

As a parent or a friend, have you ever watched someone you love bring pain and heartache to their lives because they didn’t listen to advice that you gave them? Maybe you warned them about what they were doing and what would happen if they continued, but they wouldn’t listen to you. They may have even gotten mad at you or questioned your loyalty as a friend to them. They might have even cut you off!

That’s, in many ways, what it is like to grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a Person, the Third Person of the Godhead. He isn’t simply some force or power. He is grieved when we don’t listen to Him or ignore Him in our lives.

We live powerless lives often because we aren’t plugged into Him.

Application:

What about you? Are you grieving the Holy Spirit? If you are human, you have in some way at some time grieved Him.

Thing about it and pray. Confess your sins to the Holy Spirit and repent. Make a more conscious effort to be aware of His presence in your life.

2. Don’t Despise Prophecy (v.20-21)

The second thing Paul warns the church of if they are to live a disciplined life is not to despise prophecy.

1 Thessalonians 5:20–21 ESV

20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.

There are two parts to these instructions.

Don’t despise prophecy.

Hold on to what is good.

Just like with grieving the Holy Spirit, we need to understand what prophecy is if we are to not despise it.

Prophecy is simply proclaiming the word of the Lord.

It occurs primarily in two ways in the Bible:

Foretelling - this is what is going to happen

Forthtelling - this is what God says

Foretelling was often used to affirm a person as having been sent by God.

Today, prophecy is essentially the same as preaching.

Paul is telling us that we should not despise preaching in the church and should actually give it primacy.

There is, however, a caveat. We must TEST THE SPIRITS.

There are deceiving spirits out there.

1 Corinthians 14:29 ESV

29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.

1 Corinthians 14:32–33 ESV

32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. 33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,

We must be very careful not to presume and say that God has said something that He hasn’t. We also must realize that there are people who want to deceive and will disguise themselves. Therefore, we must be on our guard.

Paul says hold to what is good.

In other words we have to learn to spit out the bones. Sometimes even a bad, misguided preacher can say something that is good and correct.

3. Abstain from Evil (v.22)

Finally we are told to abstain from every form of evil.

1 Thessalonians 5:22 ESV

22 Abstain from every form of evil.

This is pretty straightforward. Rather than seeing how far down the line we can go, we need to stay as far away from sin as we possibly can.

We must crucify the flesh and live above reproach.