1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Like Matt mentioned, reminder to pray for Pastor Robert and Mary as they get back. I'm sure a word of encouragement wouldn't hurt in that instance either. But as we make our way to God's word proclaimed this morning, I want you to picture the most intense burning fire. Scientists at the University of Illinois. So, I mean, can't be that great, but probably be better, but sorry if you are from Illinois, but you got here as fast as you could, didn't you?

Jenny says amen to that. Anyways, scientists at the University of Illinois did the study about fire and kind of came to the conclusion that those orange red flames burn about 7 to 900 degrees Fahrenheit. The white flames are about 1100 degrees Fahrenheit, and then the blue flames 1600 degrees Fahrenheit. And if you picture that fire that's burning, roaring hot, all that to say could be. Those are just.

We have no way to conceptually understand just how hot that is. But if we took a tongs, not a long piece of stick, but a tongs, and reached out and pulled something from even that blue flame, pulled it out and then set it to the side, after a while we know it's not going to keep burning, right? It's not going to keep going. It's not going to certainly going to go from 1600, it's going to drop rapidly because all those embers, all those coals need each other to stay lit. They need each other to keep warm and keep going.

Friends, the absolutely same thing is true about the Christian life. We need each other. We cannot do the Christian life well without each other. The other day, Piper and Leah and I were walking down the street and a guy stopped us. And people usually once they.

What's one of the first questions you ask? Like, oh, what do you do for a living? And people, when they hear what I do for a living, they either get interested or get real interested in their shoes. And so. And they stop cussing almost every time, but they get, they get interested sometimes.

And he starts going on, I don't need the church. I don't need to go to church for God to love me. I said, you're absolutely right. You don't need to go to church for God to love you. But the church needs you and you need the church.

You guys know the phrase one another is used 90 plus times in the New Testament. One another. We need the body if we want to grow, if we want to serve Jesus, well, we need the body. We need each other. That's a big idea.

From our passage this morning. Grow together. Grow. Sorry. Grow as a body of believers.

Grow as a body of believers. Four ways the text gives us to do that. Recognize your leaders. Take responsibility for the growth of others. Seek spiritual growth and trust the Lord to help.

Again, recognize your leaders. Take responsibility for the growth of others. Seek spiritual growth and trust the Lord to help. Our text as we finish our study through First Thessalonians is chapter 5, verses 12 through 28. It's on page 1048 of the Few Bibles.

Would you turn there with me now? First Thessalonians 5, 12, 28. And we've kind of gotten the tone throughout this entire letter of how Paul feels about this church with a fatherly, tender care towards them. And that's the lens we should be reading all of this through, but especially these parting commands. First Thessalonians 5, 12, 28.

God's word here says, now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you, and to regard them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we exhort you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, help the weak. Be patient with everyone. See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone.

But always pursue what is good for one another and for all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, Give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Don't stifle the spirit. Don't despise prophecies, but test all things. Hold on to what is good.

Stay away from every kind of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful. He will do it. Brothers and sisters, pray for us also.

Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss. I charge you, by the Lord, that this letter be read to all the brothers and sisters. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. This is the word of the Lord. Grow as a body of believers are a big idea.

One way the text gives us to do that, to walk that out this morning, is to recognize your leaders, we said in verses 12 through 13. And so a natural question we approach that is, why should we do that? How do we do that? Well, if we're going to grow as a body of believers, we need to recognize who our leaders are. Why?

Well, we know our God is a God. Of order. He's not a God of chaos. Every human society that's functioning well, and especially a church, is going to have God given authority. And the two offices given in the New Testament church are the office of deacon.

And we would say that a powerful way to think about deacons is deacons lead by serving. They are the front of the line to either help coordinate or to help serve in a particular area. Deacons lead by serving, and they're incredibly helpful. I believe that Paul is really addressing this here to the elders of the church. The elder word in the New Testament for elder is also the same word as pastor or overseer or bishop.

And so he's really addressing this here to those who lead the church, those who are, in lack of a better word, in charge. And so we don't know all the details as to why this church needed this command, but the point stood for them then and us now. And this passage doesn't stand alone in scripture. Hebrews 13:7 says it similarly. Remember your leaders who have spoken God's word to you as you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.

And I'll be honest, I feel weird standing up here as one of your pastors and one of your leaders of the church and telling you, hey, recognize us. But friends, this is God's word. And so we're not going to shy away from teaching through any passage of scripture. And it's not really Hunter telling you to do something, it's quite literally God speaking through his word to you today. And so as we're looking at this, why.

Why do we need to recognize them? Well, not only has God given them authority, but then how do, how do we do that? Well, the text says these are the people who labor among them. They admonish them, they labor among them. They faithfully guard the word of God, make sure the doctrine is taught rightly.

They care for those who are hurting, they shepherd them, they rule among them, but also uses the word here, admonished. I'm guessing that's not a word I certainly don't use in my vocabulary a lot. And it means to encourage, to do the right thing or to avoid the wrong thing. And friends, you've heard me say this before. What keeps your pastors and elders up at night is we want to help everyone who walks through these doors know and enjoy Jesus more.

That is at the heart of why we do what we do. We want to help each and every one of you who walk through these doors know and enjoy Jesus more. And sometimes it's so hard when we want this so badly for people who don't seem to want it for themselves. But that is our burden. And just know that that is what gets us going.

That's why we do what we do. Please hear me say that. And it's part of the reason why Paul is giving this command. Then it's true for any church leaders who are functioning rightly. We have this deep burden to see people grow as followers of Jesus.

But how do we recognize our leaders? The text says to regard them very highly in love. And so it's not as a. It's not just a submission just because the Bible says that's a good way to live. If the Bible says something, do it.

But it says not just do this like out of an obligation, but out of a very high regard and love. We should know that our church leaders love us. And if you don't have that feeling, you please let us know. But it's not a, I guess I have to. But it's, hey, I respect them because the text says, because of the labor they're doing for me, their heart for me, how they're modeling Christ to me.

And it's a very important concept to know that your church leaders do everything with your best intent in mind, not only to speak highly of them, but think highly of them. And what does that look like? Boots on the ground. Even when we disagree with the decision that church leadership makes, trust that we have what's best in mind. Your church leaders are not afraid of questions.

But what does grow frustrating is when we're approached with contempt or when our motives are assumed. Because, like the passage here is saying, we want to help everybody come to know and enjoy Jesus. We're doing this for the good of the body. Bear with me through a couple examples here. Church member X goes to Elder Y after service, maybe this morning and says, hey, just so you know, the coffee tastes terrible.

The thermostat, I saw you had it set to 70. And you know that I like it set to 68. And worst of all, somebody sitting in my assigned pew.

That's not obviously an extreme scenario, but that's not showing respect to the church leadership. Maybe think about how it would go this way if somebody said, you know what? I've noticed there's an issue with coffee. I know a vendor. Can I look into finding a better coffee vendor?

Well, I saw the lights are flickering, but I'm pretty gifted in electrical work. Or maybe just dealing with the temperature not being what we want it to be, or the favorite Pew situation. And can I tell you something? None of those things are an elder's responsibility.

The text of God's Word says that the main three primary responsibilities of an elder, of church pastors, of church elders, is to preach and teach God's word faithfully, to rule and to pray. That's it. There's oversight, of course, in all these sorts of things, but those day to day things are not really the responsibility of an elder. And so if we want to grow as a body believers, we need to recognize our leaders. Another mark of a church seeking to grow in grace is to take responsibility for the growth of others, move our attention to verses 14 and 15.

Take responsibility for the growth of elders. Well, how do we do that? The text here says we take responsibility for the growth of others by warning those who are idle, by comforting the discouraged, helping the weak, and being patient with everyone. Friends, if we knew somebody was sliding off a cliff, whether it's at 1 mile an hour or 100, we'd tell them to stop or we'd do everything we could to help them stop. We probably just wouldn't watch them idly by.

And so when Paul uses the word that we translate here as idle, that's an ironic sort of statement because there's no such thing as being idle in the Christian faith. Jesus says, you're either for me or you're against me. We don't naturally drift to becoming more like Jesus. I don't know about you, but if I'm just sitting there and I'm neglecting my walk with the Lord, I don't naturally just become more like him on accident. No, the concept of sitting idle, sitting on the fence, that just doesn't really exist.

And so he says, warn those who are idle. Because a lot of times we don't even know if we're becoming idle. We don't know we need other people to see. Hey, I noticed I haven't seen you in church in a while. Hey, you haven't been a part of small group.

Hey, it sounds like you're spending time looking at this thing or going and making this more of a priority and all God gives us good gifts and God gives us things to enjoy and there's valid reasons for seasons or times. But if it looks like we've become idle or we've become complacent in our Christian walk, it is the duty of the church to look out for each other and to point that out to each other. It sounds like a ridiculous example because a lot of times we don't even Know that we're drifting, but I got a picture of just a massive buck on my camera yesterday morning, and I had to text my friend Chip, hey, man, I can think about nothing except for this buck, who's a wonderful 18 and he's got a split main beam. And I just know. And he's like, yeah, you are being ridiculous.

But I said like, that got my heart beating so fast to the point where it was all I could think about. We need other people to point these things out to us. Hebrews 2. One puts it like this. For this reason, we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard, so we will not drift away.

A lot of us don't realize when we're starting to drift, and so we need each other. There's to warn us, to help us, to know us well enough to say something when we're not actively pursuing righteousness. And to some, it might feel unloving or unkind to point out sin, but the text here is saying, to actually be unloving, to not point it out. Do you need to go looking on a witch hunt for everyone and everything? No, but we should have people that we know well enough to say, hey, come back.

I know you're starting to drift. Here's the truth of the gospel. We're also called to give comfort to those who are discouraged. One way we do that is just simply showing up. Showing up and sitting with them.

Showing up and being patient, reminding them what's true of them in Christ.

Helping the weak should involve doing tasks that they're no longer able to do. Being patient with everyone. I'm guessing this one is not your first instinct. It's becoming more mine. But man, I'm still a work in progress.

Being patient with everyone means to assume the best and to give them another chance. Because if it comes down to who deserves another chance, none of us do. Not one. Being patient, Assuming the best. Giving another chance even when they don't deserve it.

Friends, when we become members of a church, our business is no longer our own. That is incredibly countercultural. There's no other organization where you have where when you sign up to become part of it, that so much of your life is vulnerable and gets to be known, at least if we're doing this thing rightly. Because Western culture is kind of governed by two isms, individualism and consumerism. Individualism is this rugged idea that it all comes down to what's best for me at all times.

What can I get out of it? If we were to summarize what is the western secular gospel. It would be what's in it for me? How can I get the most out of this thing? And it comes down to serving myself.

Yeah, I might have relationships where I give myself, but it's ultimately so how it makes me feel. It comes down to I'm the most good. For me, this concept of self realization is thought to bring about self fulfillment. In an individualistic society, there is little time for being too involved in the lives of others if it doesn't directly benefit you.

The other ism that marks the west is consumerism. The idea is buy this thing or this service and your life will be infinitely better. You just are looking for just that one thing, that one service, that one time, that one vacation. My life will be better. Just listening to this list of company slogans.

Save money, live better. We know that's Walmart. That was easy. Staples, the happiest place on earth. Disney World.

I'm loving it. McDonald's, have it your way. Burger King. And the list goes on and on. I can tell you, friends, none of those things in themselves are bad.

None of those companies are inherently bad. But they're selling an idea, selling a dream that my life will be just somehow infinitely better. I mean, I've had some great cheeseburgers, but never any that are truly life changing.

Some of you are like, I'm so happy for Pastor Robert to get back.

He doesn't mention McDonald's nearly as much anyways, they all sell this idea that we can just buy a service or thing and we'll be better. But again, notice what's missing in this consumerist idea. Serving others, living sacrificially, signing up to go last.

These should be at the forefront of our thinking because when we sign up to go last, when we live in humility, when we want to genuinely serve others and get nothing out of it, this is the way of Jesus.

We take responsibility for the growth of others by seeing to it that no one repays evil for evil. But always pursuing what is good for one another and for all. It can be so tempting. A lot of our impulse reactions are just to, oh well, they wrong me, I'm going to wrong them. I think if somebody cuts us off on the highway, a lot of us, maybe not everybody, but I'm gonna be real tempted, if not actually doing, just lay down that horn to let them know, have a piece of your mind for the next quarter mile, that what they did to us was wrong.

What does that actually solve? Nothing. But it's gonna be so tempting because we're like, I gotta get even, because we don't trust the Lord to take vengeance for us. And I could give other, worse examples, but I don't think I need to, because a lot of us can think of a lot, a lot of times where we've repaid evil for evil and we've tried to quote, unquote, get even.

But this is where having other faithful followers of Jesus who know us, who know our lives, the good, the bad and the ugly, is going to be huge sanctification. This process of becoming more like Jesus, absolutely a group effort. We need each other, because these other followers, Jesus, not only hold us accountable, but point us to what's better. And notice in the second half of verse 15, it says we should pursue what's good for one another. We should point each other to what's most deeply good.

Going back to the traffic example, we don't have to lay down on the horn or maybe if somebody does wrong you, I'm sure there's people that have wronged us within these walls right now. When that happens, we don't have to seek to get even on our own. No, we can remind each other what's most deeply true of us, of who we are in Christ.

The traffic example, we can just pause and say, God, thank you for safety and for breaks that work. But when people do wrong us, it's great to seek reconciliation. Because if we sit and let it fester, not only do we grow to hate them in our heart, but it starts to have ripple effects in the rest of our life. And once we start doing one person, it's really easy to do with a lot, and eventually it can spread into the entire church. And it really hurts the cause of Christ.

Put simply, as people saved by grace, we should be quick to extend it and to lean on it.

Taking responsibility for the growth of others is one way to grow as a body of believers. Making spiritual growth a priority is another. Move on to 16 through 22. There's a lot of. A lot of parting reminders from Paul here.

And again, like I said at the beginning, he's writing this with a pastoral with a fatherly concern of, hey, remember this thing? Hey, don't forget that. Hey, remember, you really, you do a good job of this. And so read that these verses through that lens. He has these concerns for him, and there's a list of things to do, ways to grow in grace.

But it's important whenever we approach the commands of Scripture, to have in mind that these are not marks of how we receive Grace, but these are marks of us being transformed by grace. We cannot do these things if we don't know Jesus. Somebody who doesn't know him will look at these things and say, I can try a lot of these, but I know I'm gonna fail. And a lot of us, even if we do know Jesus, are going to fail. So we look at these things and say, okay, these are marks.

These are ways to grow.

And it starts. It starts here, saying, how do we seek spiritual growth? The text says, we seek that by rejoicing always, praying constantly, and giving thanks in everything. You see the word here, rejoicing. That's a theme that runs throughout the Scriptures.

It's very rare. If ever just use one time, it's no, it's rejoice, rejoice, Rejoice. Or I'll say it again, rejoice, Rejoice always. And this concept of rejoicing is a full body. Maybe it doesn't have to be like a physical shaking, excitement.

For some of us, we really are the frozen chosen. That's okay. But to rejoice as a full body, to be so consumed with, yes, I have my hope in the Lord. But very rarely do people say, like when it says, rejoice always. It doesn't mean to sit there and just constantly giving verbal praise to God.

I mean, if you can do that, great. But we don't see that example. It doesn't appear to be commanded here. And Dr. Charles Wanamaker, writing for the New International Greek Testament Commentary, puts it like this. He says, to rejoice always is to see the hand of God and 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. Similarly, praying without ceasing doesn't mean to be constantly on our knees or being constantly fully prostrate. No, it's if you can do that, that's fantastic. But what is prayer? Ultimately, it's admitting a need, a dependence on God.

And so it's being in a constant heart posture of God, I need you, God, I can't do this if you're not in it. God, my hope and my help don't come from the mountains, they come from you. And so that's what it means to be praying without ceasing. And yes, it's praying constantly, talking to God throughout the day, but just to live in this heart posture of God, I need you. God, I need you.

God, I need you.

The third of these always commands is to give thanks and everything, which is just as it sounds. Regardless of what comes, we give thanks. And that's. How's that for countercultural? How is that for what feels natural?

The Apostle James writes in chapter one, verses two and three of his Epistle. He says, consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that testing your faith produces endurance.

We can only hope to do any of these always commands. If we are constantly growing in our awareness of our need for God's grace, the more we realize not only how much we need God's grace, but also how much grace we be given, only then can we change. Paul's not pointing this out to say, hey, get with it. Figure it out. I mean, there's some exhorting going on here, but he's saying, if you're.

If you're growing, this is how to do it. This is how. This is. These are the marks of a believer. This is what you need to do together.

Paul's pointing these out, that these are behaviors of those who have been transformed and are being conformed from one image of glory to the next. Because to someone who doesn't know Christ, these would be impossible. But, friends, not for the believer. Do you know that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in each one of us who call on the name of the Lord, that is our union with Christ. These things for us are not impossible.

We also seek spiritual growth by not stifling the Spirit or despising prophecies, by testing everything so we can hold on to what's good. Stifling the Spirit is this concept of maybe you're familiar with quenching the Spirit basically to anything. When we get to the point when we have sin pointed out to us and we don't feel bad about it, our heart has grown hard to the point, like, I know that's wrong. I don't care. That's how we quench the Spirit.

That's how we stifle the Spirit. It's how though God is sovereign, he is not coercive. He's not gonna make us do that. So when we stifle the Spirit, we inhibit his work. He wants a willing participant, and so we.

How do we stifle the Spirit? Well, it says the answer is given in verse 20. It says we despise prophecies. These aren't prophecies in the same way that prophecy function in the Old Testament. If you want a deeper study that, read First Corinthians 11 through 14.

But prophecies were just a way of God speaking through his Spirit to build up his church. And they're supposed to test everything against this, against the Word of God, because the Spirit of God is chiefly concerned, or he is chiefly concerned with bringing glory to the Son of God. But he's never going to contradict the Word of God. And so he would use people, especially at this time, to bring about words of encouragement, ways to build each other up. But it needs to be tested against God's word.

Some Christians think that these gifts have ceased to. I don't find that position convincing, but you're certainly welcome to believe it and still be orthodox. But I would be cautious and say as long as it's done biblically, this is a way that we can build the body up. But Scripture also says it can't contradict God's word and we have to have an interpreter. I know.

I just realized I opened up a whole can of worms. I'm just going to put that shut because that's not the main purpose of the text. But if you want to study more on that. First Corinthians 11 through 14, those three chapters say a lot more about prophecy. But the text here keeps reading that once we test everything, we can hold on to what's good.

And the greater point still stands. If something's proven to be true, then we should rejoice in it because it's good. And we know that every good gift comes from above.

We just read a lot of commands, a lot of things to do. Long list of application. Let's reiterate, why are these here? Do we do these things to get favor with God? No, absolutely not.

We do these things as marks, as evidence of God's transforming power. Because the Spirit of God is making us more like the Son of God, because we are growing in grace, because we have been transformed.

Like we talked about earlier, idleness does not exist in the Christian life. We either actively seeking growth towards righteousness or away from it. These are practical steps for the believer to take to make space for that growth to happen. They're not. They're not the end, but rather they are means to an end.

We do these things because we love God. Maybe think of it as. It's helpful to think of it as like a family sort of situation. Whether you're parents, whether you're a kid, or whether you've been either one of those things.

Children don't obey parents in order to stay in a right functioning family. Okay? In a good family, obedience is not the main cause of what keeps you in the family, certain situations. Circumstances, sure. But generally speaking, obedience is not the mark that makes you part of the family.

It's the love that your parents had for you and hopefully still do have for you. So we don't obey God to make him love us more. We obey God because it's who we are. And like my parents have said so many times, since we didn't give you chores just because we wanted you to get great at vacuuming the stairs, we gave you chores to show you and help you grow as a person. These are marks of what God is trying to hopefully do in and through and for us.

So too, we should seek spiritual growth if we want to grow as a body of believers. Another way to do this is to trust the Lord to help move on to 23 through 28. Trusting the Lord to help is another way to grow as a body of believers. But why? Why would we trust Him?

Can't I do this myself? Kind of. He's faithful and he'll do it. And let me just say, there's no better source of help than the one to whom we belong. He's the God.

He's called the God of Peace. And it says here, will he do it? No, he says he's faithful. He will surely do it. I want to come back to that, but there's a cultural thing that I think we need to address.

Verse 26. I noticed that not a single one of you this morning greeted each other with a holy kiss. Not one. Please don't. I don't think it'd be sinful.

It'd just be weird. But how does that. That's an important thing. Like, how do we know if this applies to us or not? There's a few different hermeneutical tools, and hermeneutics is just a Latin phrase for how to study the Bible or the science of interpreting the Bible.

There's three markers. There's more than this, but these are just three. Kind of like pretty quick catch things. How to know if something still applies today or if it was kind of just a cultural thing at the time. If something is tied to creation.

So something that's timeless, God set up his creation. How good. So if something's tied to creation, we know that this still applies to us. A prime example would be first Timothy 2, talking about men's and women's roles tied to creation. It's timeless.

And two, if something's tied to God himself, go to Ephesians 5, talking about marriage, relationship. God ties it to himself. He doesn't Change. He's still the same. Yesterday and today.

Yesterday, today and forever, like Becky said. And then also too. If there's a moral command, if there's a moral command, we know that's timeless, because God's morals, God's law, don't change.

So I'm not going to kiss anybody here except for my beautiful blonde bride and my sweetheart of a daughter. And I don't think that this applies, that you and I need to kiss each other either. The short answer is the principle behind why are they giving a holy kiss? It was a sign of peace and fellowship. And so more important than the physical act was what it represented, this spirit of unity, of we are.

Maybe it's a similar to how we would shake hands and say, I'm glad that you're here. We are, we are, and we belong to one another.

But speaking of things that are for us today, trusting the Lord to help, which is really the essence of the Christian life, isn't it? Do I trust God or do I not? Do I trust God? He is faithful. He'll surely do it.

Because we should look at all these commands, or really any commands of Scripture, and we should look at these things and like, there's no way I can do that. There's just no chance. We look at Matthew 5 through 7, Jesus, Sermon on the Mount, his longest message in all of the Gospels, and we should look at those things and think, those are great principles to live by. If that's the mark that we have to measure up to, there's no shot I'm going to be able to do it.

We realize that we need Him.

We realize we need God and we need his grace. Let's look at verse 24.

He who calls you is faithful. Say, some of the time. Most of the time, 50%. No, no. He is faithful.

He will do it. He is faithful. He will do it. He will help sanctify us. He will make sure that we're found blameless.

He will help us grow as a body of believers. He has said that he will do it. He is faithful and he surely will. Friends, do we trust God? He has proven himself time and time again.

Look at the whole arch of the Old Testament, how he was faithful. Especially think about, like the book of Hosea, the picture of he's faithful to a very, very unfaithful people in the New Testament. His faithful, sending His Son and the faithful promise of he's going to come back one day, maybe. Just think about your own life for. For 10 seconds.

How has he shown up? How has he shown to be faithful in a situation where you would have never thought before? There's no way I could have thought God filled in. In this sort of situation. He is faithful not always in how it's the way we would want or expect, but in the way we would ask for if we knew everything that he knew and everything that he did and is.

Put simply, we have no chance of growing as a church if we don't trust the Lord to help. And this doesn't mean being irrational, but it does mean taking a step of faith that it's so big that we can't possibly do it on our own if God's not in it. One practical way we do this as a collective body here is we set a budget for the church every single year. We ask God. It starts by asking God, what do you want us to do?

And then, okay, how is this gonna work? How much is it gonna cost? And we set the budget here. If we believe that God is in it, that's what sets our budget. It's not like a business where we do it based on forecasting.

There's some of that, like, what are the trends? We don't wanna be irrational, but if we believe God has called us to do X, Y and Z, we'll trust that he'll fund it. If God desires it, he will fund it. He'll take care of it. Maybe there's a situation that he's inviting any of us to right now to step out in faith and say, God, are you calling me to this?

Okay, I'll trust you, provide the means for it. I will step out in faith. It means taking the step of faith. That only makes sense if we believe that God will really show up for us, grow as a body of believers. This is the big idea.

Paul's closing words in his first letter to the church, Thessalonica. These things wouldn't have been natural to them in the way that they're not natural to us. People don't often meet, need to be told, hey, make sure you eat dessert today. They're just going to do that. People don't need to be told to do something they're naturally going to do.

But if we want to grow as a body of believers, one path the text gives us is to recognize our leaders lovingly submit to spiritual authority because God has placed it over us and know they have their best in mind. Also, too here, seek the spiritual growth of others because they're our responsibility and we're theirs. Know them, encourage them where they need to Be encouraged. Warn them where they need to be warned. Take care of them and they'll take care of you.

Actively seek spiritual growth. Take practical steps that can only happen by the grace of God, and do this as we trust the Lord, because none of this is possible without Him. There's no other scenario where we take these steps of faith if it doesn't revolve around Him.

Brothers and sisters, we have seen this morning this importance of growth. And we don't exist in isolation. We can exist in isolation. There's no. No Christian can thrive if they don't have other believers.

Hopefully we've seen that. We cannot grow in serving, we cannot grow in building one another up if we don't have the one another's. We need each other. Also we doesn't. That's not an invitation to stay stagnant.

The church then was made up of Jews and Gentiles who was just, quite frankly, default setting, hated each other. Think about some of the worst racial divides you can think of, or economic or political divides. That sort of situation they would have by default, hated each other. But Ephesians 2 says there's no longer two, but one in Christ. And so they're figuring this out with the person they aren't naturally bent to like, but because they're one now in Christ, they grow with each other.

And that's the picture that he's giving for our church today. We don't. Hopefully we like each other a bit more than that, than what their default setting would have been. But if you remove Jesus from the equation for us, this group of people is never hanging out in any other situation.

We owe it to each other, not because of how great each other are, but because of who we belong to. And some of us might be tempted to think, yeah, that's great, but it's not for me, that's optional.

No, that's not true. That is wrong. We get to function as a body of believers here because of how wonderful the body is, because of whose body we are. Yes, we are the body of Christ, but He is the head.

We don't rejoice just to rejoice. We rejoice because of our joy in the Lord. Let that be our strength. We don't recognize our leaders just to recognize them. We recognize them because of who put them over us and because of whose heart they're supposed to reflect.

We grow as a body believers because of the great love King Jesus has for us, because we are his and because we trust him. Because he will carry us home, because we are being made like him. Friends, because he is faithful, he will do it.

In a moment. We're going to move to a time of responding to God. But just consider, how is the Spirit leading you to respond this morning? And if you'd like to pray with somebody, they'll have a name tag on the back. We invite you to be a part of responding to the Lord this morning.

How we can grow as a body of believers for the sake of his glory and our good. Let's pray. God, we need you and we love you. We thank you for the gift it is to be called yours, be called the Son, be called Daughter of the Most High God. And we thank you for the church.

Because the gates of hell will not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ. We thank you for that. And we thank you for the ways you're going to grow us. By the power of your spirit, you will use the word of God to make us more like the Son of God. Help our hearts to be open to it.

Help us to avoid idleness, but also to run so deeply to you and your gospel God. We need each other and we need you. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Would you please stand as we sing?