Do Not Quench Him – Sermons – Matt Chandler – 8/1/21

hi guys pastor matt chandler here pray that this sermon this resource uh be used by god in conjunction with you belonging to a local church to grow you and sanctify you in your faith if these resources bless you would you consider giving back to us here at tbc you can do that either through the app or you can go online to tbc resources and give there again pray that this blesses you and grows you in your love for jesus christ good morning my name is ellen and i have the amazing privilege of leading the grief recovery group on thursday nights our scripture reading is from 1 thessalonians chapter 5 verse 16 through 21. rejoice always pray without ceasing give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of god in christ jesus for you do not quench the spirit do not despise prophecy but test everything and hold fast to what is good this is the word of the lord thanks be to god well good morning if you have your bibles go ahead and grab those this will be our primary text for today uh we are kind of doing some biblical theology right now which means we're going to jump around uh but this will be the anchor text want you to be able to see it uh and interact with it uh as we walk through so uh we i've been trying to kind of continually keep before you and stir up in you uh the confidence that the church of jesus christ was built for a moment like this as we look at the chaos of the world around us we we we think that that god has shaped us and mold us and put us in this moment of human history uh for his good uh or for his glory and our good and so i i believe that and so i'm continually trying to stir that courage up in you and and i and i said last week that if we really were going to step into this there were going to have to be a try people that believe in the triune god uh and the reason why uh i i wanted to kind of pull on one of the members of the trinity uh is because he's kind of the the one that we don't know a lot about he kind of wigs us out a little bit and so i said last week that man if i were to ask you about god the father you'd be able to say all kinds of things if i ask you about jesus all day long if i ask you about the holy spirit my guess is you want to downshift immediately into tongues or prophecies or but but the holy spirit's so much more than that uh and so if we're going to be the people of god in our day it cannot be god the father god the son god the holy bible because that's not what the holy bible gives us gives us god the father god the son god the holy spirit and so last week i just said hey this is what this is who the holy spirit is right the holy spirit is not an energy he's not a force he's not a wind or or fire although he is described as wind and fire because that's what he does but who he is the holy spirit is god he is a he he is a person he's not an energy right we're not we're not witches and warlocks we're not tapping into energy he is god he is a he he is a person and he is god and so to know god rightly is to understand who the holy spirit is and as i'll cover today not grieve him not grieve him and so he said last week that we see the holy spirit at creation that he's hovering over the formless void chaos of earth and he orders it to flourish so that the holy spirit orders to flourish we saw last week that the holy spirit does the work of illumination here's what that means no one in here is a christian except for the holy spirit showing you your sin and showing you how wonderful jesus and his salvation is like you didn't become a christian because you did a pros and cons list you you didn't do you didn't become a christian because your parents were christians you didn't become a christian because of this or that you became a christian to the person whether you got saved out of religion or irreligion because you got to be saved out of both of those you became a christian when the holy spirit showed you your sin and then showed you the beauty of jesus there's no other way in which any man must be saved so if you're like oh no no i'm i'm saved because of jesus absolutely but the only reason you know that is because the holy spirit did the work of illumination and here's what's crazy about the holy spirit the holy spirit loves him some jesus he's always like look at you i mean jesus amazing jesus is incredible let me encourage you with jesus like the holy spirit's answered everything is jesus he's just wild about jesus which is why if you ever get uh so caught up in the holy spirit that you only want to talk about the holy spirit i got some i'm concerned because the holy spirit is never like look at me the holy spirit's always look at him right now we also saw that the holy spirit is the presence and power of god both in the church and in our individual lives that the holy spirit is the presence and power of god in the church and in our individual lives and so we walked through all of that last week and then there's this weird thing it's not a weird thing it's something that we have to to deal with that the bible actually lays in front of us the reality that although the holy spirit is god that the holy spirit does the work of illumination that the holy spirit is the presence and power of god in the church and in our lives we see on multiple occasions our ability to grieve or to quench or to say no thank you to now the reason why i love this passage although i'm going to focus on verse 19 to the end is how the passage begins kind of describing the life of a believer before he gets into don't quench this so let's look at the passage together this is first thessalonians 5 16 through 21 rejoice win all right it's going to be that kind of morning you're with me rejoice always pray without ceasing give thanks in all circumstances now don't miss this for this is the will of god in christ jesus for you what should your life be marked by my life be marked by as followers of jesus christ as a community of faith how should we be seen and known those who reject the anger suspicion and cynicism of our day because we're rejoicing always we're praying without stopping and in every way we give thanks like how odd is that going to make us in 2021 well like how cynical is the day that we're in how angry is the day that we're in and yet the book says no my people now they rejoice always they they rejoice always i'm not saying life's easy i'm saying we rejoice always they pray without ceasing they're always intimately communing with the father not saying it's easy they give thanks in all circumstances that word all there you want to do some greek work it means all of it right like all it's was this means all every bit of it tough season of your life give thanks the antidote for tough seasons is gratitude right so but listen this ain't my sermon yet this is just setting us up with this is god's will for you in christ jesus so now my question is your life marked by that right like i'm just asking that's god's will for you in christ jesus and who empowers that kind of living the holy spirit unless do not quench the spirit don't extinguish don't snuff out don't ignore don't bury don't cut off do not despise prophecies but test everything and hold fast to what is good now i want to root this in its context this passage has to do with prophecy which would be an umbrella term for the way the spirit does the work of illumination right so in this passage prophecies are about the holy spirit revealing to a man or woman and that man or woman speaking that prophetic word over the congregation and what it appears what appears to be happening is that there are those in thessalonica that don't like that they don't want that and if you follow the new testament there's probably reasons they didn't like it a lot of false teaching in the first century a lot of false teaching in 2021 right and so there are those that despise this we actually read i'm going to say that prophecy is an umbrella term that you can fit all sorts of things under whether that's impressions or words of knowledge or that whole list in in first corinthians i think they fit under the umbrella of the prophetic or prophetic ministry like let me read to you its purpose this isn't a message on prophecy first corinthians 14 2-3 for one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to god for no one understands it but he utters mysteries in the spirit everybody breathe this is about the holy spirit you're fine this is the bible i'm just reading the bible on the other hand the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation so this is interesting uh because when you and i think about prophetic most of us always think about future telling but the bible in the new testament don't talk about it like that way it says that the prophetic is for what for encouraging for building up for consolation you weary got a word for you so prophecy isn't me showing up going thus saith the lord which is why if somebody says that to you i would just i just turned that thing off right and and so this is going on in thessalonica and some people don't like it in fact the word used in our text is despised it and again i've already said there's probably reasons to despise it plenty of false teachers in the first century plenty of false teachers today what's to stop anybody from just making up some nonsense and saying the lord said huh right so so here's our solution the solution is actually in the passage the solution here look at verse 21 but test everything hold fast to what is good this is not the only place that we're told to test and not just accept without discernment without testing any kind of prophetic word that just because you feel like you heard from the lord don't mean you heard from the lord just because you think you've got a word doesn't mean you've got a word how are we to find out we test i love even how um john puts it to the church at ephesus this is first john 4 1-3 beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they're from god for many false prophets have gone out into the world by this you know the spirit of god every spirit that confesses that jesus christ has come in the flesh is from god and every spirit that does not confess jesus is not from god this is the spirit of the antichrist which you heard was coming and now is in the world already you and i test i've got a word for you with the scriptures they become the litmus test for whether or not you just had some weird pizza or maybe the holy spirit placed an impression on your heart to encourage build up or console a brother or sister in christ which is why i love you but if you come to me talking about some nonsense that flies in the face of the bible i think one of you is lying i think if you had a very vivid dream about something that goes up against the word of god your dream was not from the lord i don't care how vivid it was or how it made you feel right but again i think this passage is bigger than just prophetic i think what's happening here is that what we see more than just despising prophecy is it has to do with what we do when the holy spirit speaks to us like what we do when the holy spirit makes known the will of god what we do when the holy spirit shows us jesus shows us our sin and invites us into life in god so if the holy spirit does the work of illumination you and i have the capacity to say no thank you to that illumination and and let me talk about elimination on two fronts the first would be one i've already mentioned salvation in and if you studied doctrine which i would encourage you to do doctrine matters there's something called the effectual call of god this is the salvific call of god where the holy spirit lose you into the kingdom all right what c.s lewis called the hound of heaven right he just lose you in like you don't even know how he got you sis you just you're already a member i forget our processes you're in now here's the way like it worked in my when i first went uh the guy that was sharing the gospel with went to church with him if anybody got anybody get saved in 90s youth group just a testimony of the sovereign power of god get that hand up like you ain't baptist right thank you now like i walk in on a wednesday night and they go i got joy down in my heart deep deep down in my heart spell it j-o-i you remember that like there ain't there never been a time in human history where 15 year olds look at that and go oh i want to be a part of that and so i would come to church it felt kitschy it felt like a saturday live sketch and i couldn't stop coming not having anybody else like the guy that was taking me give me a ride home i was like bro or if i need to translate that for you younger it's bro and and i would get like i would just dog it the whole way home we'd get to my house and he's like so you want to come again next week i was like yeah of course pick me up like what was that listen i went on a friday night i went and saw in houston texas run dmc beastie boys the next night saw michael w smith run d or not michael let me smith dc talk i some of y'all don't even know what i'm talking about and that's fine i don't need you to research it i'm just saying one of those is not like the other and it didn't matter there was something in me being drawn in and i didn't even realize it until he got me this is the effectual call of god and the holy spirit does it it's the work of illumination like some of you are here today because life ain't working like some of you are here today because you got a little bit of loneliness in you some of you here today because you're done wrestling with anxiety somebody don't know why you're you just woke up and said thought i should go to church well that's the ghost see a loom that's the draw of the holy spirit wooing you through jesus to the father wooing you home it's almost like romancing you back to where you were designed to be this is what he does he illuminates and if you say no to that you grieve the holy spirit and rob only yourself you you grieve the holy spirit and rob only yourself the second thing that happens in illumination is is we see clearly the word of god you cannot understand the bible without the holy spirit you just can't you could memorize the book of romans and if it's not leading you to greater love for god and others i'm saying you ain't never read the book of romans the holy spirit shows us what's in the word of god other words it's otherwise it's just a textbook to weaponize for our own ends but the holy ghost can reveal to us the nature and character of god the beauty of jesus the wickedness of our sin and the safety that's found in his salvation you and i live in a day where authority any external authority is questioned and deconstructed i don't know like there's every every 60 years in u.s history there's been massive upheavals where all the authorities have been torn down and the new ones put in their place the last time was in the 60s and 70s some of you were there the time before that was in the 20s i don't think any of you there right this happens every six years we're in the middle of it right now and there is a complete deconstruction of authority nobody gets to tell me what to do but me that is the god of our age but he here's what's here's what's crazy about the the book here's what's crazy about that bible in your lap or on your device that the truth i need you to hear me now truth is not inside of you and it's not fluid your feelings towards what is true and what is not true have no bearing on what's actually true or not true right and the holy spirit does the work of illumination and he shows us through the word of god what is most true and it is almost always confronting the word of god confronts people because we want to be our own gods we think we know what's best for our lives despite the fact that a lot of us i'm looking around got 20 years of regret still confident in our sovereign reign it's madness right you just got like scorched earth behind you still think you're nailing it it's wild it's what sin does you justify the brokenness of your presence uh present by blaming everybody else for the scorched earth you created by trying to be your own god the scriptures confront this the holy spirit shows you that you're doing it truth is outside of you and it's fixed thank god because there's no way to navigate if something's not fixed right there's no way to navigate if something's not fixed but god gave us the scriptures they're fixed he's not changing his mind he's not looking at 20 21 and going didn't see this coming let me tweak how i design things that's not how this works now i love this quote let me give you this quote on the scriptures and the holy spirit doing the work of illumination because i think we can get cloudy here because we over complicate it my boy george mcdonald he ain't gonna let us instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not ask yourself whether you have this day done one thing because he said do it or abstain or once abstained simply because he said do not do it it is simply absurd to say that you believe in him if you do not do anything he tells you see mcdonald's just like ah you know we're like i don't know maybe i'm a believer maybe i'm not mcdonald's like how about this are you obedient you're not obedient well then it's absurd i love his word like absurdity like so dumb there's not another word for it like i'm a follower of jesus do you follow no hey but i'm in the bible belt south but i'm in the bible belt south the holy spirit does the work of illumination in the scriptures which is almost always a confrontation there's almost always a confrontation we quench the work of the spirit when we say that doesn't apply to me we quench the work of the spirit when there's delayed obedience you know what i'm talking about that i'm gonna get around to that i'm gonna confess that i'm gonna eventually do that i just need these things to line up so i can be obedient my guess is that doesn't fly in your house if you have kids hey when you get around to it son no just uh don't be in any kind of rush it's whenever you get around to it would you do these things i i hope you don't parent like that your kid's gonna burn down the western hemisphere they they need a little like now do it now daddy said now right delayed obedience is just disobedience delayed obedience is just disobedience we quench the spirit when the bible becomes a suggestion and the culture slash our feelings become our authority we grieve the spirit when we neglect the work of illumination the second thing the holy spirit is the presence and power of god in the church and in our lives let's start with the the church the way that the bible talks about and this is important for our day and age the way that the bible talks about quenching the spirit in the context of a family of faith is over and over again through the language of division over and over the language about starting controversies of loving ideology more than the gospel of jesus christ let me show you this romans 16 17-20 i appeal to you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught avoid them now look at me we gotta have a conversation the doctrine that you have been taught in romans 16 is talking about the gospel of jesus christ his atoning death his resurrection and ascension our new life in him it is not talking about secondary issues that we choose to create division among us you with me so this word doctrine isn't you becoming kind of like a doctrinal warrior anyone doesn't line up exactly where you are gets slain or gets accused of heresy like you know heresy has a specific meaning and it's against orthodoxy not that they just don't line up where you line up on soteriology or the role of women or even the holy spirit that's not what this is it's the gospel so this is what he says for such a persons do not serve our lord jesus but their own appetites and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive for your obedience is known to all so that i rejoice over you but i want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil the god of peace will soon crush satan under your feet the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you i'm down with that crush satan under our feet kind of thing as a church but did you hear the warning don't associate with stay away from the divisive overly critical gossipy slanderer person among you for they are not with jesus here's how he says it in first corinthians three two through three i fed you with milk not solid food for you were not ready for it and even now you are not ready for you are still of the flesh for while there is jealousy and strife among you are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way um so we're starting to get it hadn't landed yet we're going to need a few more years we're starting to get data in on what happens what's happening post covet uh even though it doesn't i mean i don't know what's about to happen but i i know what we're gonna do we're gonna worship jesus and gather right but anyway the um the the data's coming in here's what it looks like it looks like if you pastor a church a third of your people that were with you before they're deeper in than they've ever been they're more committed they're giving more they're serving more they're like these are my people this is my church another third is like i don't know i mean maybe this is us and then that other third is gone now what we don't know about that last third is where they're going because there were some other points uh in the research that's actually showing some really troubling things among evangelical christians in the united states and here's here's what's happening that that more than ever before you can measure and see that people are starting to pick churches around their ideology not their theology in fact on many points we've got people that are willing to join an ideological tribe even as it flies in the face of their theology which means we're not picking churches based on who's preaching the gospel faithfully but whether or not they line up with our political ideology like this is now these are this is math now it's people that don't even know they shouldn't even admit that out loud so man i'll go to this church i mean they don't i don't think they really land where the scriptures land on this but man they feel the same way i do about these issues like how are we supposed to stomp the devil under our feet if we just gather in ideological tribes we're actually to show off jesus christ by gathering across ideological traps like have you ever thought like jesus's disciples just it wasn't a great home group to put together have you like dude have you ever thought about it you've got a zealot in there so a guy who's kind of made an oath to kill tax collectors and then you put him with a tax collector and that's not going oh you're an alcoholic we've got a guy that runs a bar i think he would work great there like why would you but this is what jesus does because he's showing off the grace trump's ideology that the gospel of jesus christ overcomes ideology and actually puts us together as a new kind of people even as we might disagree with one another like for many of you i won't be able to go far enough and for others of you i will go too far and where we need to land is there this thing that binds us to one another that's not our ideology but the blood of christ that's what binds us together that's what makes us give one another the the benefit of the doubt and and how we refuse to quench the spirit among us as a family of faith is to not gossip or slander to not be overly cynical to give the benefit of the doubt and seek to understand even as things get more and more polarized in the world around us there need not be the fear in us that's in everyone else there need not be the fear in us that's in everyone else if somebody says something crazy you ask for clarity you don't meme them right help me understand have you ever asked that question can you help me understand hey i'm i just i can't i don't know maybe it's the way i grew up or how can you help me like that you would land there on this is like really confusing to me i know it's not personal i know you don't hate me i know what binds us together but can you help me understand and then here's what's crazy you don't have to be convinced you're gonna be like all right well that's crazy okay i wouldn't do that i wouldn't do that you gotta say crazy under your breath you just back out right so so this is what makes the church of christ the church of jesus christ though it binds us what you and i have most in common it's not our upbringing not where we land on specific social issues what holds us together is that i was lost and now i'm found just like you that the spirit is dwelling in me like he is dwelling in you and that we get to show off the glory of jesus and how we agree on that and how we just might disagree on a lot of other stuff but i still love you and care for you and you still love and care for me how again how low is the bar for showing the beauty of christ in 2021 that's why i'm telling you we were made for this moment right like and you select how do we show jesus the world be kind to one another that's not presuppositional apologetics anymore nobody even cares about what's true it's just how they feel so what would it be like just to be kind and prayerful and unapologetically spiritual and to walk in the power of the holy spirit and to like the bar is low just don't grieve you grieve the spirit when you gossip slander and refuse to give the benefit of the doubt when your base posture is one of cynicism and criticism look at me brother sister that ain't discernment it's demonic it is not the spirit of jesus christ making you overly harsh and critique and criticize everything around you homework or church don't cover that in spiritual language repent for grieving the holy spirit not just in the church but in our lives i love this passage let's look at this romans 8 11 the power and presence of god in our lives if the spirit of him who raised jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised christ jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you so hard for us just near impossible for us to believe the spirit capital s that raised jesus from the dead resides in you and i as followers of jesus it's okay let's do some eye contact which means tell me again what sin has power over you remind me again how you can be stuck tell me again one more time how you can't seem to break out or break through the spirit who raised christ jesus from the dead lives in you here here's the mistake i think we make uh i think we we have for way too long just heard about how wicked our hearts are and how bent and broken we are all that's true but when the spirit lives inside of you that is no longer your primary identity that's not how the bible talks about you once you're a christian i gotta watch out for my heart or you can surrender to the spirit of god dwelling in your heart as he illuminates the beauty of jesus in the scriptures and walking the power of god like that's why i think you're stuck that's why i think we can look at secret sin in places we're all jammed up we're like i can't get myself out and i'm telling you you can't get yourself out the good news is you don't have to remember when we looked at last week that jesus said i'm going to send a helper to you i will not orphan you gosh it's like you're choosing to be an orphan who does that who chooses to be an orphan you don't have to there's help there's healing there's hope you don't have to stay stuck i i just don't think there's any addiction or any bent that the spirit of god won't lead you out of that won't break through and lead you into life concerning and i've got thousands of years of history with men and women testifying that it's true the bible filled with all the grimy brokenness of humanity and god making a way i'm not saying it's neat and easy it's messy and hard but it's there for you let me end with this passage for this reason i remind you to fan into flame the gift of god which is in you through the laying on of my hands for god gave us a spirit not a fear but of power and love and self-control two postures here one quenching the spirit two fanning into flame the gift that's been placed inside of you how do you fan into the flame it's not complex at all here just look at me obedience to what you know it's not obedience to what you don't know it's obedience to what you know this is not overly complicated stuff where has the spirit of god prompted pushed revealed that you should be this and stop this and where have you said by the power that illuminated that to me i'm gonna step in and do that and where have you said well not yet or eventually or i just don't think that actually applies i think god's maybe tweaked some things since then i think the church has not read that like they should have read that over 2000 years i think there's new revelation today being ushered out where the things that god's called evil he now goes actually i got that wrong that's actually really good i mean you're giggling but tell me we don't have a front row seat to that right now so what does it look like to not quench the spirit but fan into flame because if you really want that kind of heat vitality in life we get there by being obedient to what the spirit illuminates either through the word or by prompting alongside the word that leads us into rejoice always pray without ceasing give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of god for you in christ jesus won't you do me a favor why don't you close your eyes bow your heads there where you are nothing weird's about to happen i'm just going to touch you or anything i just want to ask a question and i find that this posture helps people i wonder even as i've been preaching this morning and we've been singing this morning if god the spirit in his kindness has not revealed to you in very specific ways where you have been quenching the holy spirit maybe it's that delayed obedience thing you you know like god has called you to this and the answer's been not yet i've got to get these things in line first maybe it's the confession of a sin maybe it's um stepping into a thing that makes you nervous maybe if there's some issues that you have relationally maybe you've been just kind of at the peripheral of a community of faith maybe you've never said yes and been baptized maybe you've never really surrendered your life to jesus fully maybe you've been in church but but man you by the grace of god the holy spirit has done some illuminating work right now and you know like a specific i have been quenching the holy spirit if that's you in this place or you're watching at home would you just raise your hand like you're not a baptist and like man i've been quenching the holy spirit in my life yeah just get that thing out the lord sees he knows this ain't about me it's just about you okay praise god won't we put our hands down now it's important to know that the holy spirit does not illuminate and reveal what he will not empower you to step into how cruel would he be if that that were the case but instead the spirit now has shown you as an invitation into something better listen conviction is a sweet gift from god conviction lets us know that there's something better waiting for us conviction is god saying no no son no no daughter i've got something better for you if we would only surrender to that conviction and so here's what i'm asking you to do whether you whether you raised your hand or not i'm going to ask you just like we did last week if you just cup your hand and put that put them out in front of you like this again this isn't meant to be weird i don't think anybody's going to drop anything in your hand right now but just as just a way of saying i want to receive from you holy spirit spirit of the living god you have done the work of illumination those things that we can't do if you have shown us what we can't see i thank you that there are men and women hundreds of them now who have just said i know specifically where i've quenched i know specifically where i've said no thank you i know specifically where i've chosen to be my own god rather than surrender to your sovereign reign and now i pray spirit of the living god that you would encourage and activate in the deepest part of their souls delight in you obedience to you just pray your power would blow the circuits of their hearts and minds pray to be all the more captivated by jesus all the more led into holiness all the more surrender to your power day in and day out in their lives you have shown now will you empower and strengthen so as the enemy even in this moment tries to come in and and distract and remind and so fear in i just pray against that fear pray against father continually trying to manage their own world rather than just surrendering to you as the king of kings and lord of lords spirit do those things that only you can do i'm about to pray and say amen we're going to stand and sing a song about the holy spirit resting on us coming and moving again and doing those things that the spirit has done since the beginning of it all and today if the the spirit has shown you um this is where you have quenched the spirit that i'm just gonna invite you into repentance and into steps of obedience where you line yourself back up with where god is leading you to maybe that's somebody you need to confess to maybe that's some step you need to start taking you but but i want you to make that move and if you're here today amen the spirit of god this week or as we gather is kind of open your heart to believe like he's done the work of illumination listen we'd love to celebrate new birth who doesn't love new birth and so man we we're ready to just baptize you today and just celebrate the new life that the spirit of god placed inside of you and so uh we've got men and women in the back that are that are ready to to pray with you to to talk with you to if you want to be baptized today to to pull you around we got shorts for you a towel a t-shirt we're just going to get it today but i am hungry to see our church shaped all the more with a glad surrender to the illuminating empowering strengthening work of the holy spirit among us father we praise you jesus we love you spirit help us for your beautiful name i pray amen

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Length: 40min 20sec (2420 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 02 2021