well. We began this passage last Sunday evening, and I've entitled it, Three Commands for a Peaceful Present and a Bright Future. And I mentioned to you that in this section of verses 16 down through verse 22, there are approximately seven commands. We're looking at three of them. But in going back and reading over this passage, I counted up, and if we back up a few verses, into verse 12 and read through verse 22. There are approximately 20 commands. They are what we call present active indicative, or many of them are also present middle indicative, we would call it. But all of them are imperatives. In other words, they are commands that Paul is, again, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He is saying, these are things that you need to do. These are not suggestions. Nor are they things that the Apostle Paul, again, on a personal preference or whim, is telling the church at Thessalonica, these are things that I really think that maybe you ought to consider doing. Again, we need to understand that he's writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, and so these things are commands that believers are to be putting into their daily lives. They are all verbs. They are action words. You remember that, at the very least, from your schooling. And again, that's important because we are living in an age where there are those within Christian circles who basically are saying that because of God's grace, we really don't need to do a whole lot. Let things happen, okay, and let life come to us. And there is such a movement called the hyper-grace movement, and they're all part of that. And I think it's a shame because I think it tends to not only produce shallow Christianity, it produces lackadaisical Christianity as well. There are those who say, well, we don't have to do anything in life, and that's very true as far as our salvation is concerned. We don't have to do anything and we just let, again, life come to us because of God's grace and we don't have to prove anything. No, we don't have to prove anything. We were talking last week about the fact that there's no condemnation. Remember how Romans 8 starts? There's no condemnation. And Romans 8 says there's no separation from the love of God. That's very right. Christianity is not performance. But when we are born again, when we are truly, genuinely saved, when we have that genuine faith for which we spoke about this morning, It's not a matter of saying, well, we need to incorporate these things because we're going to earn some special merit from God if we don't. No. It comes and it is motivated by the fact that we love our Savior so much and so deeply that we are going to want to do things for Him. And so it is an active quality on the part of Christianity. It has nothing to do with our salvation. And so I'm going to back up and let's read this passage. Again, we're only going to look and sample three of them. It could be a rather lengthy series, but I'm not going to do that. We're going to still stick to just a sampling of this and look at three of them. We've looked at one, but let's back up and read the entire passage just to get an idea of the context. of what we're talking about here. And notice again, as he's closing out his letter, this first epistle to the church at Thessalonica, we note what he says in verse 12. And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those that labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you in esteem and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly Comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things. Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil." So in that passage that we just read, there are 20 imperatives. And as you read that, maybe you think like I do, wow, what a paragraph here. If we as the church could only do half of these things, it would bring about a revolution in the church, so to speak, or spiritually speaking. What a list that is. And again, isn't it amazing, folks, that God gives us commands, not suggestions in Scripture? We know them, we've studied them, we've learned them. But how often do we fail to really live them and practice them? And that is part of the difficulty that we have. So, let's get back to the three commands that we're focusing on. And I think these three, out of all of those in particular, they will provide for us if we do them. Yes, I said do them. They're action words. They are verbs. We're supposed to be doing these things. Again, I want to emphasize, not for spiritual or eternal merit that we do them. But one of the benefits of these things, if we put them into practice on a consistent basis in our lives, they will bring about a peace to our soul. They are, in essence, the antidote to anxiety. And there's a lot of that in our day. They will bring about the looking forward to the future which we have in Christ Jesus. And these are things that we need. And so the first one, again, that we're looking at is in verse 16. Rejoice always. We looked at that last time, and we looked at some of the things that are necessary for that. The second one that we want to look at this evening is pray continually. Pray continually, and this is very, very important. We should strive to be in a constant mindset of prayer. Now, again, Paul is not saying here that we are to be walking around with folded hands in some sort of trance and some sort of literal thing where we are praying, and I've always told you when I've said, you know, that we need to be constantly in prayer, you know, don't do that with your eyes closed while you're driving, okay? In Greenville, okay? Don't do that, all right? Some people act like they are doing that, maybe, or other things, but that's not what he's saying here. And whenever we come across these things in Scripture that says we should always be doing these things, it is the spirit, it is the inner man that is in that mindset of prayer. In other words, prayer is to be, listen, prayer is to be really, in essence, a way of life. It's a way of life for the believer. There's another verse that reminds me of this, and it's kind of in the same idea. In Psalm 1, which we believe was probably written by David, he says that he meditates in the law. He says, I meditate in the law day and night. And again, it's that same idea. Did that mean that David was constantly, 24-7, 365, studying and meditating on the law? Well, of course not. What David is meaning by that in Psalm 1 is, in essence, the same thing as praying continually. It's the mindset. It is the spirit of prayer so that at any moment, at any given time, even when we're driving, even when we're doing our work, and even when we're doing things, we can go into the presence of God at any moment. And by the way, I think we should do that more often than not. Many times, again, we live life, and we go through the demands and responsibilities of life, and we go through the things that we have going on in life. And you know, the wonderful thing is this, is that our Lord God has provided access. He's provided access into the very throne room of God so that we can have that access, and we're praying to a holy, wonderful, awesome God, and we're in His presence, Even when we're doing other things, and we are praying, and we are in that mindset, folks, listen, we are praying to a holy God through whom Christ sacrificed Himself, so that we can have entry into the presence of God. Do we understand that? How significant is that? We saw that many months ago when we looked at that wonderful verse in Hebrews 4. that talks about the fact that when we go to the Lord, that great high priest, and again, I think the author is again comparing, remember we talked about he compares and he contrasts the old and the new covenant and the benefits that we have, especially in the new. And the one thing that we have in the new that they did not always have in the old is we have complete 24-7, 365. We have access to the very presence of God. There were those in the Old Testament that did not have that. Now certainly he was there with them, but as far as that goes, they had to go through what? The great high priest, or they had to go through a priest, I should say, to get into the presence of God and all that involved the tabernacle. And yet we have the capability and the ability to go into the presence of God, listen folks, at any moment. Any time of the day. For anything. And I'll admit to you, I'll be transparent tonight. There are many times in life where you go through things and things come up and sometimes they seem they seem kind of mundane or even, you know, small on our part. But you know what? Nothing is too small for the Lord. And we can pray for those things. I'll give you an example. The other week, I made the mistake of giving in to one of my granddaughter's challenges to have a race in the backyard. It was worse in more ways than one. Let me just tell you that. And so we were sprinting from the patio to the back fence. And so as I got to the back fence, I hit the fence. And all of a sudden, my class ring popped off. Gone. And that was really upsetting, as Kelly could probably tell you. And so I hired Lewis to come out with his metal detector. And he worked and worked and worked, and he couldn't find it. And my father-in-law, who was visiting at the time, he was down on his hands and knees outside in the grass looking for it. Yes, I make him work when he comes to Greenville. And so we had been looking for it for probably about an hour and couldn't find anywhere, had no idea which way it went and all this kind of thing. And Kelly prayed because we were about to give up. And right about that time, Joe, on his hands and knees, said, oh, here it is. I couldn't believe it. I never wanted to kiss my father-in-law so bad in all my life. And you know what? That seems like a little thing, but you know what? The Lord also, in Luke 15, those lost things, the lady who lost the coin, you know, that was important for her. And there was prayer involved. The point is this, is that many times we go through, again, the ritual, the daily things in life, and there are things that we think, well, I'm not going to bother God with that. Do you think that we are bothering our Heavenly Father who cares deeply about us about anything? No father or mother or parent worth their salt will demean a child who comes to them with something and say, you know what, that's just ridiculous. Don't ask me or tell me about that. No, we listen, we hear, and we love. And that's exactly what our Lord God and Heavenly Father does. Even in the small things. that we think are unimportant. Praying without ceasing is a part of who we are. It is what we do. And again, it means without interruption. How can that be? Again, it's the spirit of our prayer. It's the inner man who again has that idea, Lord, whatever I'm doing, the job that you've called me to do, Lord, help me to do it competently, but Lord, help me to do it with Your strength." Again, we may not have the answer many times with the situations that come up, but again, it is, Lord, help me to be able to figure this out. Lord, help me to be able to solve this problem. Lord, help me to be able to deal with this person. And we are constantly, you see, we are constantly going into the presence of God. Constantly in the presence of God. And what does he say? Again, I refer back to that verse in Hebrews 4 where he says that we may find grace to help in time of need. Are we ever needy? Oh yes. We are needy people all the time, whether we like to admit it or not. And so again, I hope that we understand that. One commentator, D. Edmund Hebert, he says this, he says, the practical demands of life make it possible for believers to give themselves to constant praying. But they are to live in a spirit of constant communion with God. In the Christian life, the act of prayer is intermittent, but the spirit of prayer should be incessant. And that's a very good point. Again, we have to live and do the responsibilities of life, and this is very practical here. And Paul knows that. He knows that, again, we cannot be in the position of prayer on our knees all the time and doing those things because we have to live. There are responsibilities that God has called us to. But that does not mean that, again, the attitude that we have is, Lord, I know that today, that if anything comes up, I can enter Your presence at any moment at any time. And you know what? He's going to hear me. He's going to hear me. What a wonderful privilege and blessing that is. How do we know that God hears us? Well, Psalm 34, 15 says, The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are attentive to their cry. Isn't that a good verse? The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. He knows those who are His. He knows those who are His children, and He pays attention to them, and His ears are attentive to our prayers, to our petitions. Think about that for a moment. Think about how, again, and I use this word, it's sometimes overly used, but folks, that's an awesome thought. that the God of glory, the holy God of all eternity, the creator of the universe, listen, He hears me. He's attentive to me. What a wonderful blessing. And it's almost overwhelming, isn't it, to think that, that when we pray, we have a God who hears us. Or here's another one in the psalm. Psalm 66, verses 19 and 20. But God has surely listened and has heard my prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love from me. Wow. How often do we miss that? How often do we not think about that? And sometimes when we are in the doldrums, we don't think about that fact. And don't you love that last verse where he says again, praise be to God who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me. Well, Pastor, doesn't that mean that he is always answering our prayers? Yes, he always answers our prayers, but that verse does not mean that he's always answering our prayer in the affirmative. Now, most of you have been here long enough to know whenever we have a priest or taught on prayer, What are the three main responses that we have from God? It's yes, no, and what's the third one? Wait. Okay. But we have to understand that God always answers prayer, and He will do it in one of those three manners. We rejoice and we're happy and we're joyful as His children when it's yes. And I believe, folks, that we have a God who wants to say yes, but we have a God of love who sometimes says no, because He does love us. Love, true love, is not always affirming what the child wants to do, or the desire that they have. You as parents should know that. That true love, true love, true genuine love, is sometimes saying no. It's saying no. Sometimes we don't like that or parents don't like that, but if you really love the child, we will do it. And sometimes God does that with us. In fact, he does that often with us. And folks, it comes down to one thing. Are you ready for this? Okay, here it goes. It's because whether we like to admit it or not, God always knows better than we do. We think we do. But we need to understand that God knows best. God knows best. And of course, as we have preached on before, the third one, I think sometimes is actually harder than no, which is waiting. Is there anybody here who likes to wait? How many of you are a fan of the doctor's waiting room? OK, you know, when you go there, I just love to go to the waiting room. Because you know, because it has the word on there, you're gonna wait. Okay, who likes that? And then they take you from the big waiting room to the little waiting room. Okay, and sometimes they take you from that one to an even smaller one. And you wait. And you wait and you wait and you wait. The doctor comes in for two minutes, writes a prescription and you're done. Okay, that's medicine now. Okay. But we don't like to wait. We're a very impatient people. We are a people of an instant society, are we not? We want everything instant. And we have technology and machines and cookware and all that that makes things instant. I mean, some of you, and I think we even own one, an Instapot, okay? An Instapot. And we like things quick. We like things that are very quick. But sometimes God says, no, I want you to slow down. And I want you to wait on me. That's tough. That's hard. Especially when we have laid out our plans, our goals, our ways, and they don't really match up with God's timetable. And I'm going to tell you, folks, I would say that most of the time, or a good part of the time, God's timetable doesn't always match up with ours. It's always seemingly different. And the child of God has to say, okay, Lord, thy will be done. That, by the way, that is the bedrock. That's the bedrock and foundation of every prayer that we ever utter. Lord, thy will be done. Prayers are also not designed as we have some in our day and have probably for many decades now. There are some that teach and believe that prayer is some sort of magical formula. And if we just say the right things in the right way, that we will get what we want. God is not a cosmic genie, as some denominations try to make Him out to be. There was a book that was written in the year 2000, The Prayer of Jabez. Some of you remember that. It was a huge, huge bestseller in that year. The problem with it is that it's very theologically flawed. And we find that the guy who wrote it, he really did not get it right when it came to the theology of prayer. In essence, I read that book when it came out, and again, I wasn't overly impressed with it. But basically it was this, if you just say the prayer and you have the faith within you, and you have this thing that you say, and so forth and so on, then God is going to pretty much give you what you want. That is not biblical. You say, yeah, but pastor, what about the fact that Christ even said that if you ask, you will receive. Yes, you will receive an answer. It doesn't mean you're gonna receive everything that you want. Christ is not, and pardon me here, He's not a Santa Claus. And we should not bring Him down to that level. He is not, again, one that we can just say, Lord, okay, this is what, He's not that at all. God sometimes, He will say, no, you don't need that, or you're gonna wait. And in the waiting process, faith worketh patience. And maybe that's what he's desiring to do. Prayer, again, has been something that has almost become, in our society, it has almost become cliché. And the reason I say that is because anytime anything happens in our nation, around the world, what does the, even the mainstream media will use a phrase that, well, this person is in our thoughts and prayers. And every time they utter that, I wonder how many of them literally go into the presence of God and pray for that particular situation. Probably very, very few. And our politicians love to use that when it serves their ends. They love to use that phrase as well. Let me just go off the beaten path here for just a moment. Like my dad, my rabbit trails are all planned, okay? Or at least that's what dad always claimed. I do think it is legitimate, by the way, that you and I pray for the peace of Israel. especially as we see what's going on in Israel today. I think it's legitimate. I think we should pray for what is going on in the world. We should lift up that nation. That nation certainly is not perfect. But I fully believe that, with all my heart, and I believe this all my life, that God still loves that nation. God is still going to do great things through that nation. And we had better be careful, as a nation ourselves, that if we ever turn our backs on them, we are doomed. We are doomed. I am praying specifically at the moment, by the way, and I mentioned this Wednesday night. I am praying specifically that those leaders in Israel will absolutely turn a deaf ear to anything that the talking heads in the United States are saying and telling them to do. I hope they will not listen to any of them, these know-it-alls that have no context and they have no idea what they're talking about. these so-called experts in foreign policy. Listen, I'm going to say this, and I will say this until my last breath. You cannot understand what is going on in that part of the world and in Israel unless you do it from a biblical context. It is absolutely impossible. And that is why we have a whole large segment of our nation that doesn't see it, that is violently opposed to Israel. And the reason why is because they cannot see it from a biblical standpoint. You will never understand it apart from the Bible. Ever. There have been some who in the last couple of months here, or actually I guess since the fall, they have asked me, so are you surprised at the amount of anti-Semitism in our nation? And I say not at all. It does not surprise me one bit. And the reason why is because if you have a nation that, again, a large segment of it denies the Bible, doesn't believe the Bible, they think that it's strange to even read or believe at all anything in it, they're not going to believe that. They're not going to have any sort of context at all with this thing going on. It doesn't surprise me in the least. And so, again, I say that in this context of prayer, getting back on the path here a little bit, that we should pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for Israel. And I think we need to do so even more now. Well, again, prayer involves work. It involves action. Turn with me for just a moment here as we wind this down to Romans chapter 15. Let's look what Paul says as he closes out this book and in chapter 15 in verse 30. And notice what Paul says in verse 30 of chapter 15, Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, that I may come to you with joy by the will of God and may be refreshed together with you. So he uses a significant word here. The word strive means primarily to contend as an athletic or as an athlete in the athletic games or in a fight. In other words, the prayer that prevails with God is the prayer in which we put our whole soul stretching out towards God with intense and agonizing prayer to Him. It takes work. It takes work. Prayer is so significant in our everyday life. Again, another commentator said, those who live their Christian lives in joyful dependency on God will continually recognize their own insufficiency and therefore constantly be in an attitude of prayer. And it's where you and I need to be. As soon as we leave here, prayer should not be just that act in which we do and we get together in the church. Although, I will say this, unfortunately, and I think this has been for many, many, many, many decades, but the least attended service in our nation across the board, and it's not just Baptist churches, it's across the denominational spectrum, But the least attended services have always been the prayer service. The thing that is the lifeblood of the church, it's the lifeblood of believers, it is that which is so important when we commune with God, when we bring our petitions before Him, when we try and attempt, or we're supposed to be, bearing one another's burdens. It's the least attended, and always has been. I'm not preaching to those who have work commitments in which they cannot get out of. We understand that, and God does too. But the prayer service has gone the way of the dinosaur and become almost extinct. And you can go across this land and you will find that there are very, very few churches now that are even open on Wednesday nights. Well, Pastor, you need to understand something, and that is a lot of these things are man-made and they're not commanded in the Bible. Well, maybe not. Maybe not thou shalt have a prayer service. But we need to understand that this is not a 20th century or a 21st century invention. If you, by the way, if you begin to study the prayer concept or the believers gathering, there was such a thing thousands of years ago. They didn't just go to church once a week, one day a week. Even in the early New Testament times, there is evidence that they got together far more than that. We like to go back and say, well, these are just man's inventions and we're not really obligated to them. Again, we do things that, again, are not necessarily spelled out explicitly in the scripture. But can I ask this, is getting together and praying to our holy God, is that a bad thing? I've never understood that. I've never understood why it is the least of the kinds of services that we've had or that we as believers, generally speaking, it's the least attended. And it's as if we don't get excited about that very fact that we talked about at the beginning of this message. That when we pray, it should enter our minds that I am actually entering into the very presence of my God. My friends, that is a privilege. That is an honor. It is a humbling experience. And we need to keep that in mind. Can I just say this too? It is sometimes hard to even get preachers together to pray. We live, again, as I said, and it affects all of us, and we'd better do some introspection. We live, as I mentioned this morning, with kind of the mindset and the attitude of, well, I will do things for the church and for myself spiritually if it's convenient. I think we've got to get past that. I appreciate the fact that you're here tonight, and I'm not preaching to you. But you know what? Let me just say this. Coming to church on Sunday, either Sunday morning or Sunday night or even Wednesday night, can I just say this? Are you listening? None of that is convenient. None of that's really convenient if we want to get strict with it. I mean, you could be home and, you know, doing other things, right? Our pastor in Florida, he always used to use an antiquated illustration. He said, now, you don't need to be home loving Lucy, okay? And I always used to think, man, he is so far behind the times. He needs to update his television programs. He used to crack me up. But we all knew what he meant, okay? And he preached the same thing into us as well. None of it's convenient. It's hard. But I can honestly say over the years and even as a PK, I've been in church all my life. I've never really known anything else. But I can say this. I sure am thankful for every time and every moment I've been in church. And you know, folks, I'll give you this other practical idea and concept. And especially young people, you need to listen to this. There could come a day when we don't have these opportunities anymore. The window could close. The way things are going worldwide, the way things may be tilting in our own nation, the window of opportunity to come and to gather as we do here, it could end. I don't think that's too far-fetched. I think the church will not cease to exist. God has said that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church. It will always exist in some form. But I've wondered if the church As the Lord tarries maybe decades from now, who knows the timeframe, but will we be doing what the church in China has been doing for many, many decades? Meeting in places that are clandestine and, in fact, secret from the authorities. That may be the future for the church in America. And it may be, and I'm not trying to discourage you tonight, I'm just saying it's actually encouraging knowing that the devil and his emissaries are never going to defeat the church. It's always going to be around. It's always going to be a fateful remnant of God's people. Amen. But it may look different. And it may be different. And so I say to all of us, whether old or young in here tonight, let's take advantage of the time and the opportunities that God gives us while we can. And you know what? That also includes prayer. That also includes prayer. Let's take advantage of the fact that, again, as we said, I can go and at any moment of the day, and even on Mondays, and Mondays are sometimes very needful of prayer, right? Yes. We can pray to our God, Lord, help me through this week. Help me through this day. Help me through the problems that may come my way. Oh Lord, thank you for all of the things that you've given. We can enter into the throne room of his grace.