Rejoice Always

Today, Sermon Tex will come from 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 16 through 18, as 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 16 through 18. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus for you. You know, beloved Adam, I'm really encouraged by this text this morning, and the reason that I'm really encouraged by this text is because it confirms in me what I intuitively know. And that is that attitude makes all the difference. Now I learned that growing up in plain and sports all the time, and having plates and sports all throughout college, and then the Lord saved me, brought me into the knowledge of Jesus Christ, gave me a lovely wife and marriage, and that was the confirmed again, and then that he gave me, gave us children, and again he confirmed that truth. The attitude makes all the difference, and then that he called me into the ministry, and put me into the pastor, and the pastor, and even this church can confirm again, and again, that attitude makes all the difference. In fact, I am confident that if you were to ask most people who you've been to be successful in this life, and even in the life of faith, you will find them saying over and over again, that the biggest difference that has been made in their lives, has been in a court with their attitude, attitude towards life, attitude towards the things of God, might argue that, is it the biggest difference between success and failure? Chuck Twin and all many of you might know him at the pastor, and well known radio teacher has said, I am convinced that life is 10% of what happens to you in 90% of how you react. The only thing we really control is our attitude. Sir Walter Scott said, for success, attitude is equally as important as ability. Attitude. When some Churchill said that attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference, the right attitude. God Hamilton said the only disability in life is a bad attitude, at when Louis Cole, that attitude determines the altitude in life, attitude. The fact that it matters this, men and women with the right attitude, often the power over others who are more gifted, but the fact that they have the right attitude, in case you haven't learned it already, your life attitude makes a big, huge difference in the life that you experience and the quality of it, beloved. And because this is true in our natural lives, you and I should understand that therefore if it is so true in our natural lives, it is rooted in our spiritual lives. It is rooted in grounded and spiritual importance, and therefore having the right attitude in spiritual things becomes even more magnified. The Christian life, success and growth and strength, in spiritual truths rooted in having the right attitude. So Chuck Swindall, beloved is so right, so right. It's not so much of what happens to you, it's how you respond to it, and it really makes it different. The Bible gives us some encouraging examples along this. The Bible has not, God has not left himself without a witness concerning this, all important understanding of attitude in the Christian life, with those who serve God most faithfully, provide for us examples of those who had the best attitude, and remember Joe, when he had lost everything, children, possessions, even his health, what was Joe's attitude, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's attitude, beloved. That's three Hebrew boys. Shadrach and Abinnego, when they were throwing the end to Ebuchadnezzan's fire. And Abinnego said, all you got to do is announce your God and worship our God, and you'll be relieved from the fire. What did the Hebrew boy say? He's a Christian king, our God is able to deliver us from this fire, but even if he doesn't, he is still worthy of our play. That's attitude. We could go on and on. What about Joseph? Unrighteously persecuted by his brothers, lied upon and thrown into jail, unrighteously accused, a friend, persecution, for reasons unknown to him, could easily have felt neglected and forgotten, could easily have been felt like he was wrong. What did he say? They're all comes to hand. Look at that as brothers and say. What you meant for evil? God has decreed for good. That attitude, beloved. That attitude. And we could go on and on and on. What I want to suggest to you this morning, as to Paul, the Apostle Paul is wrapping up this letter, this first letter to the Thessalonians. I want to suggest to you that what he does in these three small verses is he wants to make sure that before he ends it, he gives them just a little attitude adjustment. Without his attitude screwdriver, just want to turn that screw on your attitude just a bit, so that you have success in your spiritual, I'm fast and furious, beloved buddy comes at him. Oh, so much. He encouraged them. He encourages them. This is what it means to have the right attitude to develop the right habit. To develop the right habit, so what we might call spiritual discipline, that would create in us an attitude that is representative of the Christ that has redeemed us. Have the mind of Christ. You want to have the right attitude? Have the right attitude to Jesus. So Paul says in the flipping chapter two, right? Verse five. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. In other words, have the same attitude in yourself that we see was the attitude of Christ. And you think of it in those terms. When you begin to think that I am to have the same attitude that Jesus had. And I am to be of the same mind that Jesus had. Then you understand that all of us from time to time need an attitude adjustment. So we don't get this morning. Bible tells us, shall I have the two we ought to have? I have to call it the Trinity of faithful attitude, right? Be joyful. Be joyful. Be joyful. And be grateful. Be joyful. Be joyful. And be grateful. And those with the Bible says here is that these attitudes of joy and prayer and thanksgiving, we ought to have all the time. This ought to be the defaults of the Christian life. We ought to be those who are known for joy. You ought to be the one who is known for being prayerful. You ought to be the one who is known for being thankful. You know the absolute nature of these commands kind of gives some of us pause. They're troubling to many. They're probably troubling the most. If you look at this and you say, it says, rejoice always. How am I supposed to rejoice always? It says pray without seeking. How am I to be praying without seeking? It says give thanks in every situation in circumstance. How am I supposed to be thankful for all things? The first thing you need to understand, beloved is that when you think of it, you need to think of it from God's perspective first and not your own. And you do understand that when God gives command, He gives commands always. Did you hear that? What God commands, He always commands. He doesn't give situational commands. He doesn't give occasional commands.

So when God commands a man to love his wife, He doesn't command him to love him sometime. He doesn't command that man to love his wife only when he feels like it. When he says, love your wife, he means that every moment of every day. I thought God commands. He doesn't command occasional commands. When he says, honor your parents. What are you to honor your parents? You have to honor your parents all the time. It's kind of commands that the Lord gives. You don't give occasional ones. They're not relatives in a relative world. God doesn't. When God commands you to be holy, beloved, when does He command you to be holy? Only when circumstances fit to holiness. The command to be holy is for you to be holy all the time. It is not contingent on whether or not you can do it or not. This moment, God says, love God, with all your heart and all your strength. When are you supposed to do that three moments? Therefore, as you read these commands to pray and to rejoice, then to be thankful, put it in the context of the commands of God. And understand that if God has told you to rejoice, He is not telling you to only rejoice when you in circumstances that you deem worthy of joy. It says rejoice. By everything else He says. He means it all the time. When He says pray, when He says, be thankful reasons for that, but He not only gives us the reason to rejoice all the time. And the reason to pray all the time, and the reason to be thankful all the time, but He also has given us the power to do it. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our law. I can see as I can see us not pursuing these things if God has not given us reason to do them and the power to do them. But if the Holy Spirit is alive and true in the lives of God's people, then the Holy Spirit is a power. And is that power that causes us to rejoice? Is that power that causes us to pray? Is that power that causes us to call upon God and rely on dependence upon Him? It is that power to give faith in all situations. I only give the reason. But He gives us the power to say, here's the attitude that this should have. Rejoice all the way. Rejoice all the way. Joyful. We have noted before. Is that joy? Fruit of the Spirit? Is the Spirit is abiding in our lives? And if we are walking according to the Spirit, then what will be the fruit of that walk? And what is joy, beloved? Joy is the pleasure of God, expressed in a heart set free. The pleasure of God, expressed in a heart set free. It is the pleasure of God. In fact, I would argue that it is inherent in the image of God. For our God is a happy God. Our God is a joy filled God. And every human being, therefore created in the image of God, had this desire for joy and delight and happiness placed down in them. Joy is God by nature. This is true. We were created to rejoice. And our hearts naturally run after those things that bring us happiness. Our hearts naturally run after those things that bring us delight. Everything that we do, beloved, in one way or another, is in pursuit of happiness. Everything. The only problem now is that sin has perverted that. It has perverted that. And now we pursue those things that we think will bring us happiness. We pursue those things that we think will bring us joy. And therefore we do, as the prophet Isaiah says, what is good we call evil. We don't pursue the right good. We pursue the evil. They can, that's going to bring us good. We call darkness light and light darkness. But we do all those things, thinking that those things are going to bring us some joy. Happiness, fulfillment, the desire, the joy, and the light is bound up in our hearts. When God tells you to rejoice, He is not saying anything foreign to us. But what He is saying now is to take your natural inclination towards joy and happy and rather than have them directed by the flesh, now have them directed by the Spirit. Why? Because Spirit directed desires, spirit directed inclination of joy always lead you to God. That's why the psalmist could say. In Psalm 16 and verse 11, in his presence is the fullness of joy and at his right hand our pleasures forevermore. His will that brings us joy. There you will find your strength. And it says in the Amire, so joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength. You know, joy is joy by nature, but it's not only us by nature, but it is ours too by a redemptive gift. So this joy that we are to have now that we are to be expressing and always have been given to us through our Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why he could say we rejoice always, because God has given to us not only the ability to do it, natural inclination, but now he has given you the reason to rejoice. This was what the angel said to the shepherd. In the promise of his Savior's coming, we hope I bring to you good tidings of what? Great joy for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, a Savior. And Jesus went joy to those who trusted Him. Every way He went, He brought joy to those who trusted Him. Every time He went through a few, it never stayed a few. Nobody who trusted in Jesus ever left His presence. Sorry, down, always left Him. You is what our Savior does and so when you become a Christian, beloved, contrary to what some people think in, God is not saying no more joy. But on the contrary, now you have reason to be filled with joy all the time. When actually before you didn't have reason, reason to be filled with joy all the time, before you only had reason to be filled with joy when things were going the way you wanted them to go. But now because of Christ, and all that Christ has done, now because of the Spirit, and the promises that God makes to us in His Word, then now we have reason to rejoice all the time regardless of the circumstances. Don't get me wrong. This doesn't mean that we don't have that day. Because we do. Another means that we never experience sorrow or loss or pain, because we do. But what it does mean is that our sorrow is always with hope. What it does mean is that our pain and loss in this world is always in the context of a resurrection of Jesus Christ that our darkest days, even on our darkest days, the light is never completely out. The light is never completely when our kids were small. We used to have to put a night light in the hallway, bedtime. We had to put a night light in the bathroom at nighttime. Some of you probably still use night light. That's okay. I understand. The dark can be a scary place. But you put that night light in the hallway so that if they have to get up in the night they can make their way without stepping and stumbling on anything. You put that night light in the bathroom so that when they get in there they can look and they don't need to be afraid of the dark because there is light there. The love of Jesus is the night light. He's the light in the night. And oftentimes as the darkness of this world engulfs us it is keeping our eyes on Jesus who is our night light that keeps us from stumbling through the dark. It means that you won't ever be awakened in the middle of the night and find yourself enveloped in darkness. It means that if you would open your eyes there's a night light in the hallway. There's a night light in the back and there's really nothing in it. Love it. Is that night light? You can remember that he has gone before you. And in the midst of his pain and trial, he rejoiced. The writer Hebrew says for the joy that was set before him and endured the crawl. As dark as the cross was there was a joy that our Lord knew and the Dean of the people. There's that joy that he gives to us as the Bible reminds us that weeping and endured for a night. The joy is coming in the morning. There is a reason you have to rejoice always. And that is because God doesn't change. See? If you set your joy based upon circumstances like you did before you were saved, then your joy will fluctuate. You will not have reason to rejoice always because your circumstances change. And that's why you think that you can't rejoice always because you are tying your joy to your circumstances. But when the Bible says rejoice always, the Bible is saying, don't tie your joy to your circumstances. Tie your joy to God. Tie your joy to Jesus. For then you will know you can rejoice always because he says, I am the Lord your God and I change not. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And therefore, you can rejoice always. When Jesus changes, stop rejoicing. When God changes, stop rejoicing. Until that happens, rejoice always. And again, I say, rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. That is not just a song to be sung. That is an attitude to be lived. He joys in the Lord always. And again, I say. And again, I say, because you need to just add to it a little bit on your joy and to screw a little bit more. It says, oh, by the way, pray without me. You see this second exhortation in this attitude, trinity of its prayer. Be prayerful. And again, remember what God command. He always command. Prayer and rejoicing. Did you see how they go together? You should. You see why the command to rejoice is coupled with the command to pray. We would rejoice more if we prayed more. We would rejoice more if we prayed more. Prayer, beloved, is communion with God. That's what it is. It is communion with God. And you understand that worship and praise is the natural outcome of intentional prayer. Anybody who spends time communicating with God seriously and intentionally will and cannot help but well up in praise. And be overwhelmed with the joy of the Lord. We should rejoice this couple with the command. You're going to rejoice always. You need to be praying always. You need to be praying always. And this is important too. I speak of none of us pray as we should. I'm sure if I took a poll this morning and asked does anybody in here pray as often as they should or as fervently as they should? I'd say there probably would not be a hand up in the field. We all would acknowledge this morning that we could pray more, that we could pray more fervently. And so I want to dismiss out of your mind altogether this morning and looking at this command to say this command that says pray without ceasing and to begin to debate within your mind. But can I pray all the time? I would simply say, have you even tried? Have you even tried? Rather than wondering if you could pray all the time, ask yourself just how much doubt diligent it had you been in prayer. Prayerful, beloved, when you think about it is not really a sometimes relative occasional discussion with God. And really isn't, as Paul said in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 18, pray all the time in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. Pray all the time in the spirit. Why? Because if you are walking in the spirit, you know what the spirit is calling you to do. Have a conversation with God. Tell it to Jesus. I'm not sure all the theological truths within the song, but I do understand the sentiment when it says every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Well, hopefully you feel the spirit every day all day long. Prayer, beloved, in a way of life. Prayer is an attitude. It is an attitude of dependence. It is a daily conversation, a moment by moment conversation with God. But a life in the spirit is a life of prayer. And this is why Jesus told his disciples in Luke chapter 18 and verse 1, be constant in it. Persevere in it. Be constant at it. You do that by being willing to pray about everything. Just be willing to pray about everything. There is nothing too big as some of us believe. And there is nothing too small as others of us believe. You are not less significant than God than others. Your issues do not catch God of God. And therefore, stump him. He cares about everything. And therefore, you can pray. You can pray about everything. You don't have to think. Anything that you bring to him is too big, or too little for him to have. He cares. He cares about everything. Philippians chapter 4 and verse 6 says, don't worry about anything, but instead pray about everything. Pray about everything. And why don't we love it? I would suggest to you this morning the reason we don't pray about everything is because we don't believe God can do it. The reason we don't pray about everything is because we don't believe that it is possible for God to do anything. And so, we left it off prayers because we sometimes believe that what we are concerned with is beyond prayer. That just isn't true, beloved. That just isn't true. And so, we don't pray because we don't believe and we have lost our wanton and our makeonon, our big and glorious and powerful and loving and intimate God is. We've lost our ability to wonder and be amazed and stand at all. We've lost our perspective on the greatness of God. Again, when my children were little, whenever they wanted something and daddy would say, well, you know, they don't have any money for that. They would say, well, why don't you just go to the bank? May since to them, the bank has the money. You go to the bank on occasion and when you come out, you have money. So, if you don't have any money today, daddy, why don't you just go to the bank? Seems simple enough to them. I think this is why the Bible tells us that we should have a child like this. Why don't you just pray? If you need it, if it's that difficult, if it's troubling you, why don't you just go to the bank? Breathe and you don't go to God. It's because like my children, you have grown up and you have lost your wonder. They don't tell daddy to just go to the bank anymore. They don't just tell each other because we've lost, we've grown up and we no longer have a child like that. But I'm here to tell you this morning that you can just go to the bank. You can, again, just go to God. He is able and He's willing in any circles, to heal you, to answer your prayers. When I was a little child growing up in church, I used to hate the song what a friend we have in deep. I hated the song, not because I was in theological dining. I don't understand anything about it. I hated it because I didn't like the way our church sang it. The old people in there, I don't know, sad when they sang it and the music was so slow I was racking it. I hated it when they placed it on Sunday morning. But when I grew up and I listened to the gear and I heard the word, oh, what seems we want that? Oh, what needless pain deep. All because we do not carry the God and I love that song out. We have, you know, you ought to pray about everything. You ought to pray at all times. I mean, just be praying all the time. You know, prayer is not something that you simply do in intentional times that you go away into your closet and pray and you only bring it out when no one else is around. We ought to be praying at all times, praying at all times because there is never a time when you can't or you shouldn't be talking the God. Never a time when you can't or shouldn't be talking the God. And this is important, beloved, because the reason we need to be having ongoing conversations with God is because the world is trying to have an ongoing conversation with you. At every moment of every day, that conversation is being had. It is talking to you and you're talking back. You may not realize it and you may not be actively conscious of it, but if you stood back and listened to your thoughts, you are having a conversation with the world. Wow, doesn't she look good? Yeah, she does look good. When does she mention in talking to me? Yeah, she might. That conversation is going on all the time. How don't you go over here and do this? Yeah, that might be a good idea. I wonder who else is going to be there? Yeah. That conversation is going on all the time. You got time to sit down and watch that. So, Sam, have you missed this? Yeah, did you see that move? Yeah, I need to go see that. That conversation is happening all the time. Sam, you drive down the street. Every billboard you see is talking to you. And you're talking back. Every time you watch a commercial on television, commercials having a conversation with you and you know what you're doing, you're talking back. In fact, they pay a lot of money. They talk to you because they know. You're talking back. This is why, beloved. What do I need to be having a conversation with God at all times? Every time the world says, hey, what about this? You ought to turn and say, hey, God, what about that? Every time the world pops up and says, hey, tell me what you want to do about this. You ought to turn and say, God, what do you think? What are you doing now? You're having a conversation with God. Every moment of every day. You're talking to him, seeking his wisdom, seeking his advice. He's so quick, aren't we? To talk to others. We get on the phone. Can't wait to tell somebody. Some good, some, some, some salacious news. Talk to them about some hot topic, the latest gossip. How about before you talk to anybody else, you had that conversation with God. How about before you burden somebody else with your problems, you burden God with. How about before you dump on somebody else, you dump it on God. When I was a little boy growing up in the church, I used to sing in the youth choir. Why do you think that's funny, brother, brother? I had skills, man. I still have them. I just look too humble to express myself. I used to be in the youth choir. I used to lead a song. I never forget it. You think that's funny. I used to lead a song, I never forget it. My song that I led, when they said, Tony, we're going to sing your song. But have a little talk with Jesus. Tell them all about your trouble. He will hear your famous cry. And he will answer, buy and buy. Can you feel a little prayer with your burning? And no loving 5 We feel the prayer is turning and you know if I were burning, you have a little talk with Jesus makes it right. And I used to say, now I led a song. And the choir would say, had a little talk with Jesus. And I said, after mat newsletter trouble they said, hear your famous cry. Then he will answer, buy and buy. avoit I'll tell you this morning. Have a little talk with Jesus. He will hear your face pop, and he will before you have a talk with anybody. You have a little talk with Jesus, and you know what I find? After you have a little talk with Jesus, you probably don't need to burn nobody up. If you would have a little talk with him, what it means to pray without seeking, having that conversation with God. Prayer becomes the background music of our lives. That's what it is. Just try to be playing in the background all the time. You know you're at home. You got music on something you can't even get in the car without throwing a radio. You got to have some playing. That's fine. That's fine. You're at home, you always got to have something in the background. That's fine. Let prayer be the background music of your life. So that is always playing. And then you know when you listen to that background music, and all of a sudden your favorite song will come on, and all of a sudden you start singing right along with it. Now you, that music, been playing all the time, but something just jolted you, and you started singing along with the background music. And now it's no longer in the background. It's in the foreground. That's what prayer should be, a lot of it. That'd be playing in the background. Then all of a sudden something pops up, and it shakes you, and it is not hard for you to be searching around for a prayer closet. You just automatically start praying with the background music. But that's what's been going on in the background, and you just naturally flow right in. Then it came time for you to sing your favorite song. When we pray when I'll be praying with love, you have to give thanks at all. You know, I'm not sure if there's anything more important than having an attitude of gratitude. I mean, thankful people are what Christians are. And therefore, thankful people are those people who give praise to God. And people who are giving praise to God are prayerful people, and prayerful people are thankful people. And now you see how this trinity of attitude works together. Those who praise, praise those who praise, give thanks, those who give thanks they, and this is the attitude of the Christian life. thankful people, pray more, and grumble less. thankful people, praise more, and complain less. The one thing that we love in our children is ingratitude. I mean, if any of us have children, we understand that. There is one thing that we love to see in them. It is ingratitude. How much more is God? You think you are good parents? And your children should be grateful to you. How much more? God's children. Thanks for this. Thanks for this. For no one is more worthy of Thanksgiving than God. And we told this over and over again. You just read the songs. Psalm 107, Psalm 118, Psalm 106, Psalm 136. Again and again, we are told that we are to give thanks to God. In fact, the Bible couples Thanksgiving with praise and Psalm 100. And in verse 4, you are to enter his gates with Thanksgiving and enter his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. So you see how these character traits and these attitudes form the Christian life and development that our character and our attitude for the prayerful saint, beloved, is the joyful saint. And the joyful saint is the thankful saint. And the thankful saint is the prayerful saint. And for you all to do this all the time. Be given thanks for everything, everything, everything. Give thanks for everything. Now I know you, again, you look at that and say, we give thanks for everything. That just sounds flip it. And it sounds unreasonable. Again, until you put it in the context of God, put it in the context of who God is. And what God has done, then you can give thanks to him for every situation because there is always something to thank God for. Always something to thank God for. I think they're going back. You can thank him because God is working all things out for your good and for the glory. Give him thanks. If it is a sad time, then you can thank him because he is working our momentary affliction into a greater weight of glory. Give thanks. If it is a difficult time and you are suffering persecution and you are being ostracized. And Jesus says in Matthew, chapter 5, and verse 12, rejoice for great is your reward. I know the plans that I have for you. Trust me. Give thanks at all the time. Why become God is not indebted to anyone. We are debtors to His mercy. Every moment of our lives and all of us, if you would just take a moment to realize the worthy of His grace and undeserving of His goodness. We are on worthy servants. Being on worthy of His grace and being on worthy of His goodness and His mercy. If we would just stop assuming for a moment that we deserve goodness in this life, if we would stop just for a moment assuming that we deserve any moment of joy in this world. If we would stop assuming upon the goodness and the mercy of God, we would stop and give thanks. This is particularly true, beloved, if you are Christian this morning. You are a Christian this morning. I'm a mission and encouragement to give thanks at all times in every circumstance really should have hit you hard. Because if nothing else is going right in your life according to how you think right is, the one thing you can always say is I'm saying. Now the reason that you don't rejoice in that is because we think lightly of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm saying, but my car broke down. I need a new car. Excuse me. Do you understand that whether or not you have transportation, you are not going to hell. Do you understand that? Do you understand that the penalties for your sin will not be heaped upon you? Do you understand that? Do you understand that God has plucked you from the fires of eternal punishment and it placed you on the road to eternal life? And it promised to have you with him in the heavens for eternity? Do you understand that? And if that is the case, I'm giving thanks. I'm giving thanks. Yeah, my wife isn't acting right, but I'm saying. Yeah, my husband is being a knucklehead, but I'm saying. Yes, my children have gone astray and they have gone wayward and they are out there in the world, but guess what? I'm saying. I'm saying and I can give thanks because I'm saying. You don't give thanks for anything else, beloved. You ought to give thanks. That Jesus is yours. And you are here. And you can sing, Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. For you do understand, beloved. That God hasn't promised you anything. He has not promised you anything, but if that you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, then you should have eternal life. And the fact that he's going to keep that promise should make you thankful. Should make you thankful. When you realize that you've got reason to give thanks to God at all times, when you realize that you have a reason to pray about everything, when you realize that you have reason to rejoice, and you can come and you look up and you see that reason as Christ, who is the center of your joy, who is the soul of your prayer, who is the source of your thanksgiving. Up there, we not have the right attitude. We add to the judgment this morning. Give thanks. Be proud. Enjoy. In the Lord. Let His joy be your strength. Amen. Amen. Amen.