Last week we learned that John the Baptizer traveled about the countryside of Israel preaching a message of repentance. He did this as a preparation for the ministry of Jesus Christ to begin. Jesus carried on with the same message of repentance at the beginning of His mission here on Earth.
Today, our Epistle reading from the Apostle Paul to the church at Thessalonica tells us that after we have repented and given ourselves to Jesus Christ, we will be able to more fully understand and live out God’s will for our lives. Is that possible? Can we really understand God’s will for our lives? Many people feel like that is an unanswerable question. They ask, “How can I know God’s will for me?”
A man and a woman board a plane in New York for a long flight to Los Angeles. The man leans over to the woman and asks if she would like to play a game with him to pass the time, but the woman really wants to just take a nap. So she politely declines. The man persists and tells her that the game is lots of fun. He explains, “I’ll ask you a question and if you don’t know the answer, you pay me $5.00. Then you ask me a question and if I don’t know the answer I’ll pay you $5.00.” The woman again politely declines and tries to go back to sleep. The man still won’t take no for an answer, so he decides to raise the stakes.
“Okay, if you don’t know the answer you pay me $5.00, and if I don’t know the answer to your question, I’ll pay you $50.00!” Now that catches the woman’s attention, so she agrees to the challenge. The man asks her the first question, “What is the distance from the Earth to the moon?” The woman doesn’t say a word. She just reaches into her purse and pulls out a $5 bill and hands it to the man.
She then asks her question, “What goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four?” The man is perplexed. He calls some friends on his cell phone. He takes out his laptop computer and searches the Internet for about an hour, and having had no luck finding an answer, he gives up.
Meanwhile, the woman has fallen asleep. So the man takes a crisp $50 bill from his wallet, wakes her up and gives her the money. The woman politely takes the money and goes back to sleep. After a short time, the man can no longer take it. He shakes the woman awake and says, “Well, what is the answer? What goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four?” Without a word, the woman shrugs her shoulders, reaches into her purse, hand the man a $5.00 bill and goes back to sleep.
You ask, “What has that got to do with God’s will for me?” Many of us treat God’s will like that unanswerable question. We may search for a while, usually in all of the wrong places, but decide it is too hard and go to sleep. But if we search in the right place, God’s Word, we find that it is not too difficult to find the answer. When it comes to God’s will for us, He has made it very clear and easy to understand. For instance, in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, we read, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified; that you should avoid sexual immorality.” And in today’s reading, verse 18 ends with, “For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Remember, although we get all wrapped up in questions about our vocation or location, God is much more interested in our transformation. God cares much, much more about who we are, than He does about what we do for a living, or where we live.
One of the greatest stumbling blocks that keep people from giving their lives to Christ is that somewhere, somehow they have come to believe something along the lines of, “If I do what God wants me to do, I’ll have to give up everything that brings me joy. I’ll be miserable. I won’t have any fun anymore.” Nothing could be farther from the truth! God wants us to live a life overflowing with meaning and joy. Everyone should be able to tell that we are Christians because of the love that we show toward one another, and the joy that flows forth from our lives. Yet sadly, there are far too many Christian churches in the world that show forth very little, if any at all, of the joy of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. That is not the way it is supposed to be!
In verse 16 today we read, “Be joyful always.” In the Greek it is “always rejoice” with the emphasis on the adverb; at all times rejoicing. I dare say that each and every one of us has the desire for more joy in life, but there often seems to be a constant flow of stumbling blocks laid in our path to happiness. Our encounters with joy may seem to be the exception, rather than the rule. Yet the Bible is very, very clear that joy is to be the way of life for those who believe in their Savior, Jesus Christ.
Before we go on, we need to understand something very important. Joy and happiness are not the same thing. Happiness is directly related to happenings, while joy can be expressed and experienced in all circumstances, even when we are involved in one of the many trials or tribulation that life will throw at us. Paul was able to be joyful even while in prison, being persecuted and whipped by his own people and wiped out with weeping in 2 Corinthians, where he said, “Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” “Yeah, but that was Paul”, you say. “He might have been able to do that, but that was him and I am me.”
How was Paul able to do that? How can we be able to do that? We need just remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:12, where Jesus tells us, “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in Heaven.” Yet many of us are only “joyful” when things are going our way. However, with Christ in our lives, we should understand that there are no events or circumstances that can occur in our lives that should diminish our joy!
Friends, we are commanded to rejoice always – no matter what is going on, no matter how good, or how bad, things are around us. Understand this. To be joyful always is not natural. It is supernatural. The ability to be joyful in all circumstances is a gift of the Holy Spirit. However, our choice, our will, is involved. The journey to rejoicing starts with a deep, deep conviction that God is indeed in control of everything and that He is working all things out for our good and glory in eternity.
Christian joy is not some blind, wild emotion or giddy feeling. It is a fruit based on a fact. It is our response to what we know to be true about God. But what do we do if our hearts possess little or no joy? Receive what God offers to us actively. Focus on the faithfulness of God and cultivate some disciplines in our lives. Focus on the promises of God. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is coming back and if you receive Him as your Savior and Lord, you will be with Him forever. Do those things and we can drink from God’s unending reservoirs of rejoicing!
Paul continues on in verse 19 by telling us, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.” Can we do that? Can we extinguish the fire of the Holy Spirit in our lives? Unfortunately, the answer is yes, we can. It is possible for us to squelch the influence of the Spirit in our lives.
Have you ever noticed how new believers act? The term most often heard to describe them is that they are “on fire for Christ”. They are willing to go anywhere and tell everyone about their Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. They will try anything to get the word out. Unfortunately, many older Christians in our churches today may douse the newcomer’s enthusiasm, pour cold water on their fire and extinguish the flame. Oh, it is usually not done on purpose and even may be done with the best intentions, but the result is the same. The fire of the Holy Spirit is reduced to smoldering ashes at best, totally extinguished at worse. No fire, not even the fire of the Holy Spirit of God, can continue to exist without the burning fuel to keep it going.
New Christians are God’s fuel and keeping His fire burning hot is His will for their lives. How about you? Is God’s Spirit burning bright in you life, or is it flickering? Through neglect of daily discipline or downright deliberate disobedience, many Christians today are spiritually smoldering instead of hotly blazing. Many of us, individual Christians and whole congregations alike, are wayward, worried, or weak. We can definitely use some fresh wind, some fresh fuel. Paul tells young Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:6, “I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God.” We too need to blow some fresh air into the smoldering embers, because the good news is that a smoldering wick can burn with a white-hot passion for God again. Once again fan into blazing flame that which once burned bright. Don’t squelch the Spirit. We are the keepers of the flame. Don’t let it go out! Keep it burning bright!
So today we see that God’s will for us is to be joyful always, and to keep His fire burning brightly in our lives and to pass that fire on to others. Can we do it? Yes, we can, because we do not have to do it alone. Jesus Christ, Himself, through His Holy Spirit, will be with us every step of the way! How do I know that? Because God tells us through Paul in verse 24, “The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it.” Those four words, “He will do it” are simple and direct, with no qualification, no doubt. It is not “He might do it” or “He may do it” or “Perhaps He will do it” or even “He will do it if He feels like it”. It is simply, “He will do it.”
It is because of that promise that Paul tells you, and I echo his words given Him by God, “Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Amen.