Jan. 8, 2023 1 Thess. 5:16-24 “How to Have a Better Life!”

06 Jan Jan. 8, 2023 1 Thess. 5:16-24 “How to Have a Better Life!”

Jan. 8, 2023    1 Thess. 5:16-24        “How to Have a Better Life!”

Well, the time is getting where we are just getting over the Christmas season.  I know that there are some of you who are last minute shoppers and that is always interesting.  Grocery stores are always super busy right before Thanksgiving and Christmas.  And, of course, there are always the people who begin to shop for Christmas now, after Christmas is over.  They will be ready for Christmas next year.  Anyway, we have all sorts of people with all sorts of shopping habits.  I remember years ago when I was one of those last-minute shoppers.  All that really did was to add to the stress of the season.  Today, I’m one of those people who shop way ahead of time.  But no matter, however you do it, if it works, do it.  This is the season when Jesus came to us in the form of a tiny baby.  Think about the last tiny baby that you have held and you will get the picture of our baby Jesus.  He had to learn to walk, talk, eat and do all the things that kids have to learn to grow up.  I have often wondered why Jesus had to come in the form of a baby.  I guess that is just one of the many things that I will learn upon my arrival in heaven.  I don’t mean to question anything what God does, but I am just curious.  I know that sometimes some of the readings from the Bible get to be a little hard to understand.  But today’s reading is straight forward.  We are called to be good Christians and Paul is giving us several ways for this to happen.  The more of them that you can internalize, the better your life will be.  Let’s see if you can improve your life in this new year.  Maybe you have a couple of thoughts about this but I want you to listen to what Paul and Jesus say about this important topic.

Tom Shepherd tells of a woman was sitting on her living room couch one day when a snake slithered past. The woman who was deathly afraid of snakes, dashed to the bathroom to get her husband from the shower. He grabbed a towel and put it around his waist and also grabbed a broom. The wife then went to the bedroom and locked the door. The husband took the broom and using the handle tried to get the snake out from under the couch.

The family dog woke up and wondered what all the commotion was about. He touched his cold nose to the back side of the man’s bare foot. The man jumped thinking he had been bitten by the snake and passed out. The wife, not hearing any more sounds from the living room came to see what was going on. Believing that her husband had a heart attack, she ran to the neighbor’s house to call 911.

The ambulance drivers arrived and ran into the house and placed the husband on a stretcher. As they were carrying the man out of the house, the snake came out from under the couch. One of the attendants, who was deathly afraid of snakes, dropped the stretcher and ran. The husband fell off the stretcher and broke his arm. The wife seeing the broken arm and the snake going out the door, fainted.  It was just one of those days.  We all have days like this once in a while and that is just how life is.  But there are people who have days like this and it seems like they bounce right on ahead without ever looking back.  Paul is going to give us a few suggestions as to how to have a better life and be a better Christian.  This sermon will be my New Year’s present to you.

The first one is one that many people just feel they can’t do.  They cannot rejoice in everything.  No matter what happens to you, you are to rejoice.  Praise the Lord.  Here’s a quick story about a famous author who was invited to speak at some outdoor event.  They had some sort of portable stage set up for her and all the other speakers.  Everyone was gathered and the stage was crowded when suddenly the stage collapsed.  Our speaker ended up on the ground with her dress up over her head.  Her dress was ruined and the hosts figured that she would be angry.  When they finally freed her, she popped right up, all disheveled and cried out, “Praise the Lord!”  You see, she was ok except for the stuff that was ruined, but that was only stuff.  No one else was hurt so she praised the Lord.  When these types of things happen to you, you must realize that there are other people far worse off than you.  They may need your help.  Another thing that I have discovered is that you feel so much better when you are praising the Lord.  No one wants to hear from some old crabby person.  Just about everyone would rather hear you praise the Lord, so do it.

The next betterment is to pray without ceasing.  If you follow me at all you will realize that this is one that I mention all the time.  This does not mean that you have to have your head bowed in prayer all the time.  What Paul means here is that anytime you are thinking about Jesus or God, you are actually in prayer.

There are many kinds of prayer.  There are the ones that everyone knows where you bow your heads and prayer.  This can be done alone or in a group and it’s very effective.  There are also breath prayers.  I like to say the name Jesus to myself.  I will say Je on my breathing in and sus on my exhale.  You can also picture something in your mind as you are talking to Jesus.  There are so many ways to pray and all of them are good if they work.  If you aren’t successful with one form of prayer, then try another.  Don’t give up.  Jesus wants to talk to you and you had better believe that it’s important.

The next one goes along with rejoicing always, praying without ceasing is to give thanks in everything.  In our world where we have instant gratification in everything, it seems to be hard for many people to give thanks for anything.  Schools are negligent in teaching this as are many parents.  There is nothing nicer that getting a thank you from someone you have helped in some way.  To me it is just a natural response.  I always feel great when someone thanks me for a sermon or some kind act.

Maybe some of you have heard me preach.  Many people thank me for the message and that is just fine, I guess.  But I respond a little differently.  I will take note of your thank you with a you’re welcome or another thank you.  I believe that there can’t be too many thank you’s in our lives.  Then I redirect the praise to Jesus.  I will usually say “Thank you and praise the Lord for that.”

I used to know a man who would thank you for anything and everything.  No matter what happened, he would thank you somehow.  Many people didn’t like this for some reason and sometimes they would pick on him a little.  However, he was considered to be the nicest of men by many of his colleagues just because he said thank you in all situations.  I would like you to try this sometime.  Even when someone doesn’t deserve a thank you, give them one any way.  Try to make thank you the words you say most often.  You might be surprised by the results.  And if possible, deflect the thank you to praise Jesus.

The next sign of a good Christian is that they don’t quench the Spirit.  This means that you don’t try to not do what the Spirit tells you.  You are to keep the fire of the Spirit going at all times.  And you do this by doing what the Spirit tells you to do.  One of the main reasons why the Spirit’s fire gets put out is that there are so many people that really don’t know how to pray.  To many, prayer time is a time to ask for all you want.  Now it may be good things or it may just be selfish stuff.  This isn’t the wrong part.  The wrong part is that you don’t listen to the Spirit who talks to you.  You pray your wish list and then you are done.  But you are not done.  You are only half done.  It is very important that you finish your prayer by learning to listen for the answer or instructions.  And please don’t be afraid of what the Spirit might tell you.  He will never give you more than you can handle.  Maybe he wants you to go down the street and visit someone who is home bound.  Usually, listening and following Jesus is pretty simple.  That is why a person like me can do it.  So, keep your channels open so the you don’t put the Holy Spirit’s fire out.

The next sign of a Christian is that you don’t despise prophetic utterances.  Of course, the big picture here is about all the prophecies we find in the Bible.  During the Christmas season, we have so many prophecies that came true at about the same time.  Some of these were told to the people hundreds of years before the birth of Christ.  If you do the research on this, you will find that all these prophecies came true.  Lee Strobel was an atheist who set out to disprove all Christian beliefs.  He researched and researched.  He found that he couldn’t disprove anything.  All he ended up doing is proving all the prophecies.  This ended up in Mr. Strobel becoming a Christian.  And there are many other stories like this.  Always remember that the Bible is the book of truth.  It has never been disproven.

There is a little lesser-known facet of this.  Many of us are called to be prophets.  I am a prophet when I tell you that if you don’t get into a right relationship with Jesus, you will be going to hell.  That statement is totally true but you can imagine the hot water I’ve gotten into over this.  But it’s true because we believe in what the Bible says.  Far too many people feel that they can interpret the Bible to say whatever they want it to say.  They try to change the Bible so that it reflects society.  There are many churches and whole denominations that do this.  We all know that this is terribly wrong.  God doesn’t change no matter what some of our mainline churches try to tell us.  Remember that.  God doesn’t change and He is always right.

The next one is just plain common sense.  You are called to examine everything carefully.  Most of us are adults and we know that if something is too good to be true, then it is probably false.  When you get to be as old as I am, this is a big deal.  Every year we hear of older folks getting things stolen from them because they are not vigilant.  Always check things out very carefully before you invest your hard-earned money.

On more of a daily basis, always check to make sure that what you are doing is in line with the Bible.  If you aren’t or are doing something that might hurt someone, then don’t do it.  The 10 Commandments can be a good starting point for this.  The Proverbs is another place to look for good behavior.  Be careful because Satan can read the Bible also and he will lead you astray.  That is why you need to check things out carefully.

The last two are again just common sense and they form the backbone of Christianity.  You are to hold onto whatever is good. This begins by reading your Bibles.  That is the best way to know what is good or not.  Now you may think that this is pretty easy but it’s not because we have the ruler of this world prowling about like a hungry lion. Satan is always leaning into your ear to tell you what is good or not and it’s all a lie.   If you feel that you really can’t hurt anyone or yourself because someone is saying that it’s ok, when you know that deep down inside, you know that it is not ok, then don’t do it.

Another of the lies that we hear all the time is that it really doesn’t matter what we do because will all end up in the same place anyway.  There is nothing farther from the truth than this.  One way of looking at this is to go down to your favorite lake and take a big rock and a life jacket with you as you go onto the waters.  Now pretend you are drowning.  Which one will save your life?  Certainly not the rock but the life jacket.  Do you think that Satan has any interest at all in saving your life?  He doesn’t.  He could care less.  But God on the other hand is only interested in saving your life.  He wants you to be around Him forever.  Please don’t ever forget this.

And this brings us to the obvious last trait.  You are to abstain from all evil that is around you.  This may be harder than you think because Satan runs this world and his only objective is to get you to go along with him.  One of the problems many of the younger people have is that their friends are following evil.  Then they think that if they could only go to them and show them the good way.  This might work if you just go to them and then come right back.  But if you go to them and stay there, trying to get them to change their ways, chances are you will end up mired in evil just like your friends.  Satan has got all this figured out and he is far, far smarter and more cunning than you can ever be.  Always, always beware of Satan.

So that in a nutshell are the traits of a Christian. I give you these from Paul in the hope that you will be that good.  Go back to our reading and read it over and over until it becomes a part of your life.  When this becomes a part of your life, then you will be well on your way to a better life, a much better life.  Remember that Jesus loves you no matter what and that Satan could care less about you.  Chase that scoundrel out of your life and live.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.