We'll be getting some leaflets this morning, a handout, and the first thing I want you to do with it is put it on the seat and don't look at it until I've finished. There's a lot more there than what I'll have on the slides because it's a big subject and I just want to touch on the main points in the message today. You know, if you could just bear with me for a little bit, and you'll be able to get a lot more information as you read this 12 pages there, so I wasn't going to speak that long. So, hope and consistent living. We're in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and we're in the last section. We touched on the coming of the Lord, the day of the Lord last time, and that takes us down to verse 12. at the end of chapter five. So I'll read through that. We ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and who are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves and we urge you brothers admonish the idol Encourage the faint-hearted. Help the weak. Be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. 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 prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast to what is good. abstain from every form of evil. And now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it. Brothers, pray for us. Greet the brothers with a holy kiss. I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers, and then the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. So I put a title here as Hope and Consistent Living. And as we've been going through this book, we've been seeing a lot about the church of Thessalonica, how the Apostle Paul had only been there for several weeks. And in that time, a little church was established. They had elders already established in three weeks, which is amazing, perhaps because there were a lot of rabbis in that synagogue. who knew the Old Testament very well. And when the gospel of the Lord Jesus was presented to them, they already had a good understanding of scripture. They didn't have any other scriptures at that time. And don't forget, the church didn't have them either. But when the prophets came and spoke the word of the Lord, when the Jews that knew the Old Testament could put it together that this was the Messiah that he was talking about, They came to believe, and so there would have been those who were in control for many years themselves. And it was good to see that there were these men who were able to take the leadership in that particular church. So the Thessalonian church, as you remember, was new, was also very vibrant. It was a very energetic church. They were going on really well. The believers became role models, we saw in first chapter, verse three, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." So here you see that they're a vibrant church, and they became role models for many others in that whole area around where the church was. In spite of affliction, they continued on strongly. Verse 6 says, "...you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word with much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit." They were being persecuted by the people who had been persecuting Paul. They had followed him down from Philippi and they were trying to break up this new little church which was beginning to understand the value of the Old Testament prophecies and teachings about their coming Messiah. And they didn't like that because they just wanted to impose on everybody all of the rules of the law and those types of things. And so it brought along a lot of affliction and difficulties and problems for the local believers at that time. But in spite of these things, they had a very strong witness. Verse 8, your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything. And so right back at the beginning, we see the progress of this very new church that they had a testimony for the Lord. people began to talk about it all over, not only the city, but in the whole areas around that, the different dominions and the different countries. So we're thankful for what was going on there. But then as we get into this portion today about respecting those who labor among you, who are the leaders? And 1 Thessalonians 5, 12 and 13 tells us, respect those who are over you. Respect those who are leaders, who are governing and working and serving They labour and teach, and the teaching there is admonishing us in the local church. So this is a job that these leaders have. Esteem them highly in love because of their work. They might be charismatic people, but if they're not teaching the truth, you don't have to honour them for teaching wrong doctrine. But when you see those who are labouring for the Lord, they're serving the Lord honestly, using the Scriptures as the basis for their teaching, for their building up, for their encouragement, and all of those things, we need to esteem these people who are leading in the assemblies. There's different names for the leaders, as we find particularly in Acts 20, verses 2, 17, and 28. They're referred to as elders, first of all, verse 17, and then as leaders, who are over you, people who are over you, and then there's bishops, which is another word for overseers in the original language, and that's developed into a very high grade of priest in some churches. But you know, it's just an overseer. You get an overseer in the job, and he's just making sure the work's getting done. And that's the idea of a bishop, he's an overseer. Then there are shepherds or pastors, people who are caring for the flock, who are feeding the flock, who are bringing them to water, and building them up in the faith, and so on. So the elders have a very important position. 1 Timothy 3, verses 1 to 17, there were qualifications which the church needed to recognize. Believers should make sure that the elders have the qualifications as set out in 1 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 7, and also in Titus 1, verses 5 through 9. They must be men that believers can look up to and respect. They're people who are not just anybody who comes along and wants to talk a lot and say a lot of things, and they're a bit charismatic and they're having fun and everything else, and people like to follow them. But no, we have to follow the people because they are respecting the Word of God and they're people that we can understand following the Word of God. In 1 Thessalonians 5.12, Paul gave a very important insight into the position and the authority of an elder. They were told that the elders were over them, over them in the Lord. So, in other words, people had to make sure that they were understanding that I'm under somebody, I need to respect, I need to obey the teachings that they're giving from the Word of God, and as they live so, I must see And the congregation submits to the Lord and to his servant inasmuch as the servant is submitted to the Lord. That's an important thing to keep in mind. There are some people who just want to be the boss, and they think they want to be in control of everything, tell everyone what to do. That's not what the Bible is talking about. A leader, one who is in a position of having a pastoral work, somebody who's a bishop, an overseer of the work to make sure it's functioning well, He's somebody who was submitted to the Lord and His Word. And if he's not submitting to the Lord and His Word, we don't need to submit to somebody like that. But when we see them doing these things, we can submit to them, and thankfully, then we find that there's a work that they have to do, a work that they are involved in. With the reason we see that there's a very important factor here, that there is a plurality of elders. In many churches, they just have one pastor, and he has to sort of set the goals for the whole church and everybody else. He tells everybody else what to do. He's over them. But you know what? There's a plurality of elders. Why? Because we all have different gifts. Some have a gift of teaching. Some have gifts of pastoring and going and helping the poor. So many other things. And so they're told here in this chapter to admonish. In verse 12, they admonish people. If there's a need to help somebody who's got a problem, they can go to them and say, look, what part of your problem is this? You need to think about so-and-so. Or you might be preaching and admonishing the whole congregation. We need to get up off our seats and serve the Lord because we can just come to church. And what does it really mean to us? They must live in peace, particularly amongst themselves. Why do churches have divisions and problems? Because perhaps a couple of the elders in the church have disagreements and they don't get along together, and then they begin to form a following and a division. The Apostle Paul ran into that in Corinth, where there were some who were saying, I'm of Paul, I'm of Jesus, I'm of Apollos, I'm following somebody and I'd rather have his teaching, not yours. And divisions began. And so the elders are those who need to work together, loving one another, being in subjection one to another, the elders. And so they live in peace with one another. Warning the idol. In the time of this letter, many of these believers had heard the talking about the rapture, the Lord Jesus is returning soon, and many of them gave up their jobs and said, okay, I'm not gonna work anymore, the Lord's coming soon, I'll just go and sit with my brethren and have a nice time together. And then they began eating food from all of the other people who were working, and Paul has seen it, now that's not the way it goes. We all have to have a responsibility to work and serve, and don't be idle as far as living is concerned. And in the assembly, we shouldn't be idle, bench sitters, as you find in some places. We need all to be together, working and serving the Lord for the blessing of the whole. And then encouraging the timid. Some people are just a bit afraid to do things. Well, how do you help that? Well, you get together and you give them a job to do. If we did something like that with the Seven Mile Fair, many of you may not have thought it was behind a lot of this, but we decided that the best way for people to learn what it is to evangelize is to tell them about evangelism, give them steps from Scripture, how to evangelize, and then go and talk to people at the Seven Mile Fair. And a lot of that, I can remember, many of the brethren would come back and say, or before would say, I've never really spoken to a lot of people about the Lord. I just get nervous about it. They're afraid of what the other person might say back to them. But they went to the seven mile fair and they had to do it. And they began to use what they had. And they would come back, I spoke to somebody today and it was wonderful to see the reaction that they had. They became enthusiastic about evangelism. So you encourage the timid. Helping the weak. There are some people who are weak physically and they need to be helped in many ways. I've had a little bit of that over the last four weeks. Without mentioning names. But you have to help the weak. Get their dinner and make the bed sometimes and things like that, washing dishes. Well, you know, that's all part of life. But that's an extreme situation. The main thing is, in the assembly, there are people who need help. There may be a widow who needs something done in the home and somebody here is a plumber. I can go and help you with that problem in the bathroom or the washroom, wherever it is. It's so important. But we need patience. It says we need much patience in 514. Patience. What is patience? I don't know. I've never had much patience. I've always taken the bull by the tail and whatever. Not the horns. And you know, I like to get going with something and I get a bit frustrated with people who don't get in line and follow. Well, you can't just force people to do things. You have to wait on them. And then you find there's all sorts of reasons why they can't do this, they can't do that. Some people have got problems and they want to talk about their problems rather than talk about the Lord sometimes. That's important. that type of thing, but you know what? We need to have patience. Anybody who's an elder will know you need patience. Why? Because it's very hard. I remember in Costa Rica when I was learning Spanish there, one of our teachers in the Spanish class, he said there was a pastor here in San Jose, and he used to go down by the train crossing just down the road from the church. And the train would come through every afternoon at four o'clock and he would stand there and he'd clap and say, hooray, hooray, hooray. And we're all wondering what on earth is wrong with this guy. And finally they got up courage to come to the pass and said, why do you come every day and clap and shout hooray and all these things? Well, this is the only thing that moves in this town without me having to push it. You know, if you're an elder you'll find that there are those sorts of situations. It's hard to get people motivated. And not seeking vengeance, we don't look to cut one another down, right? And particularly among the elders, they have to work in a way that is encouraging one another. And they have their regular elders meetings, that's important. And if they get some ideas or needs or whatever, they can talk to other people in the assembly who they know can help them. And this does happen, I know. So, you know, it's not just a matter of being an elder and telling everyone what to do. living for all the local church. So we've dealt with the oldest, and they've been put in their place now. No, not that way. We work pretty well together here. I'm thankful for that. But what we need to do now is think, well, we too have a responsibility as members of a local body of Christ. So these verses be rejoicing and so on. Well, our joy is in the Lord. We're told in Nehemiah 8.10, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Now, when we have a problem, do we just walk around long-faced and cranky with everybody, or can because it's in the Lord that we have our joy. And we're reminded when we come to the meetings, as we open the word and as we speak together, we're talking about the Lord and how wonderful is the Lord. We had a wonderful meeting this morning with lots of good thoughts about the reasons why we can shout out, praise the Lord. Why? Because he's our joy for what he's done. And as we think about him and what he's done, this encourages us to likewise just keep moving forward with the joy that he gives. Joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, a part of it. Galatians 5.22, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, one fruit. And it's interesting, it doesn't say the fruits of the Spirit, but the fruit of the Spirit singular. And so this is something that is in one person, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit is in us, and he's trying to produce some of that fruit in us. Fruits that would recognize us as being part and members of the body of Christ, those who are imitating Christ, those who are seeking to live for the Lord Jesus Christ. And these should be some of the attributes that we would end up using and being as we allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in our lives. The indwelling Holy Spirit is an integral part of our being. Paul and Silas were in prison, and what were they doing? Growling and complaining. Why do we get here all the time? No, they were praising the Lord and singing. Their backs had been whacked with a rod and their feet were in fetters, and they're singing praises to the Lord at midnight in the prison. They couldn't sleep, they couldn't lie down, they were in the stocks. And what happened? There was an earthquake and the jailer got saved. Why? Because he heard the message of salvation through the songs that they were singing. What must I do to be saved? You see, this is the joy of the Lord that we can have even in a difficult situation. James 1. 2 and 4 says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet various trials. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and that steadfastness has its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. So count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds. How many of us can say, I honestly believe that that's a fact? When you're going through a time of trial, are you really joyful? You know, it's difficult, but you know what? Sometimes we really get down because of what's happening in our lives, maybe an illness, maybe a family member, maybe all sorts of different things that are happening, and we get down a little bit. Then we must look to the Lord, because He is the answer to this difficulty of being down. I can look back on many problems in my life and think that, you know, the result of that was drawing me closer to the Lord. At the time, I tell you, that's my little boy, Alan, at the age of two in Costa Rica. That was the biggest blow to my life that I had ever had to that point. Nobody close to my family had ever passed away. And my little boy, at two years old, just had his second birthday. He was climbing up a bookshelf that had a marble top, fell on him, and killed him. Well, I can tell you there was no joy in it, but the Lord gave my wife and I an inner peace that was tangible during the funeral service. So much so that the two of us were the only dry-eyed people in the chapel there with all of the students from different mission foundations, and even the ambassador from the United States was there because I was the student body president, and I'd had to visit all of these people American students. And so there were a lot of people there. But the peace was such, so profound that both Anne and I, we could say, we were dry-eyed. Everybody else was crying. I signaled to the to all of these people. And I said, the reason why we dry out today is because the Lord is truly His Word. And we have found the joy and the peace of the Lord in the midst of this trial. The Lord said, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives its goodbye unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither be afraid. So that was the lesson. And later on, there were effects of that when I got to Columbia. But it started off with a peace there that I wasn't really joyful. It was difficult. Romans 8.28 says, We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purposes. So God calls us and he gives us a job to do. That doesn't mean that we're never going to have a problem anymore. I thought I would never have a problem because the Lord called me from Australia on the way to the mission field as a missionary. I'm 28 years old. protect me, and then my little boy gets killed. The first thing Satan does is, if the Lord can't look after your family here in Costa Rica, a peaceful country, how's he going to look after your family in Colombia, where there's so much violence? You know? But then working through those things, you come to trust the Lord. You come to realize that He is in control. It's difficult at the time, but He had a purpose in all of those things. And I can be thankful for it now, although it still grieves me about what happened. First Thessalonians, maintaining the lines of communication open for us. What's the next one here? American businessman. Oh, that's Pray Without Ceasing. Sorry, I missed the verse. Pray without ceasing. And I've got a story here about an American who was down in Colombia. It came out in the newspaper. It was the biggest fund bill that the country came down to negotiate with a company, and he had the phone open all day. He was there, the phone was open, and someone was on the other end of it. And when they were discussing what was going on, it wasn't Trump, it was someone who was a lot longer than him, and they had to juggle back and forth, what are we going to do? We have an open mind to God and we need to realize that we're in touch with Him at all times. We're always in touch with Him and we should be praying about things as we walk, as we drive, and all those sorts of things. It's important we do those things. We can be praying and He writes about an Egyptian manuscript that was around the Apostles' time, and they had the same word for continually, pray continually or without ceasing. You stop for a while and then it comes back again and you cough and you cough. And that's the idea. It's not a fact that you cough for three days running, but there's an incessant cough during those three days. And that's the thought that's here. It's not an uninterrupted prayer, but constant recurring prayer is the thought we have here. Specific prayer. That's important for the ministry. I think I may have told you about the time when Andrew Roethlisberger and I were involved in some new ministries in Bukuramanga. Andrew had been given permission by the government. They gave him a block of land with an old adobe house on it that had to be knocked down to build a school. He wanted to start a school in Bukuramanga. And I had a new printing operation going. And I just bought a Heidelberg printing press from Germany. I imported it. That's part of my blessings of working with a shipping company. I learned all about importing and exporting and things like that. So I imported this huge printing press. And I still needed a paper cutter. We had one that you pull down with your hand, you know, and cut that big, thick paper. And the poor little Colombian guy who built the thing, he'd be swinging in the air. He didn't have enough weight to pull it down. or your books or whatever we were printing. And so we were both praying, Lord, we need a lot of money for the things that we needed. A photographic camera as well for the plates, the burnt plate burner and all those things. So anyway, we're praying about this. And then one day, every Thursday we had prayer together, Andrew and I, every morning, Thursday mornings. And we'd be praying for and he wanted to have the school up and running by January. And of course, I needed to build up my equipment. So we're praying, fervently, Lord, you know, we need a lot of money. One day I got a letter from New Zealand, from a lawyer, and he said, Mrs. So-and-so has passed away, and she's left you with her inheritance for $76,000. Wow, I called, got on the phone to talk to Andrew. I said, what do you think? in the office just praying, Lord, the only way I can possibly see we get enough money to do this is if there's an inheritance in the phone ring. We got together and we prayed. We had a time of joy until two weeks later when another letter came from the lawyer saying, sorry, but the brother of the deceased is contesting the will. He wasn't a believer. He had a car factory where he sold cars. The lawyer said, split it up between the three of you and see what happens. You might just let you have two-thirds of it. So Andrew and I prayed. The lady was a believer. We knew her very well. She was in the assemblies in New Zealand. We said, she gave that to the Lord, not to us. So I wrote back and I told the lawyer, I said, we're not going to do anything. We're going to leave it in the Lord's hands. And a few weeks later after that, a letter came from the lawyer again, and it was a check for $76,000. Yeah, that's great. Andrew, a year later, took photographs of the kids in school with their new clothes. They had to provide clothing for the children because it was in a very poor area of Columbia. And he had photographs of my equipment that I purchased. And so he's in New Zealand and fell over, And knock on the door, the lady came to the door, and she said, look, I'd like to speak to Mr. Simon. So I said, oh, I'm terribly sorry. He was crossing the road to go into court on a case he had a year ago. The car hit him and killed him. We put it in the hands of the law. It's a dangerous thing to fall in the hands of the law, isn't it? We didn't expect that. I mean, I didn't try to do that. I wasn't trying to manipulate God. When you meet with trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and that steadfastness has its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. So the Lord has promised that even though there are trials and difficulties, He will provide, out of all of these things, something that is a blessing. Now, a lot of the things that happened to me, the loss of my first wife in Colombia after 26 years of marriage, leaving me with three kids still at home, and why I didn't want to leave Colombia, but the Lord used that to redirect my ministry, and I ended up here in the United States of all places. And from Florida, where I was living for eight years with my wife Sue, I was visiting Cuba, I was visiting Dominican Republic, I was visiting down through Mexico and down through the Central America, into Ecuador and Peru and Venezuela and Colombia. I mean, it was a new opening and it was a bigger area of service that I'd had previous. Before it was mainly Colombia, one place. and she was already diagnosed with breast cancer, and they did the surgery on her then. And then three years later, she passed away and left me with two little ones, a five-year-old and a three-year-old. Lord, what are you doing? And you wouldn't believe it, but I went to a conference in Toledo and bumped into a woman who I'd been pumping into for many years. She was always at the desk doing the registrations for camps and conferences and everything else. And, well, anyway, one of the story is, short of the story is, is that this young lady here was brought into my life and I ended up coming to Kenosha, of all places to live. So, and then with that, I got involved with the Mayans Worldwide and the Mayans University. And you know, it's worldwide, it's truly worldwide. We're going into over 200 countries now at the moment. It's been building up over the years that I've been there. And we've got something like three and a half million people now who are doing our courses either online or on the written copies of the courses. And so now we're going into all of these countries too, over 200 countries in different ways. So the Lord has expanded my ministry And I could never have planned that. And I could never have planned I was going to get married to Barbara. You know, the Lord works out all of these details. And sometimes we go through a time of trial so that he can bring good out of it for us. And he just loves to do those sorts of things. So we can count it all joy, particularly when you can look back on it and say, I can see the Lord's hand in that situation. Sometimes at the time it's happening, it's not very joyful. Okay, prayer is a sign of dependence. When they prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Ephesians 5, 20, giving thanks always and for everything for the God and Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Give thanks in all circumstances. Give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus in you. Quite often just used to asking God for things, for help, for guidance, for things, for needs. Do you know what? Do we give God thanks for the things that we get, for the way that He leads, for the way that He guides? Or do we just take it for granted that that's what He should do? You know, these are things that we need to think about. We give thanks in all circumstances. 2 Corinthians 12, 10, for when I am weak, then I am strong. When we're depending on the Lord, we have difficulties, we have problems, and that weakness is a place where the Lord can meet us. It's a time when the Lord can show His strength, and His guidance, and His blessings in our lives. So we should always think about that. And then, verse 19, do not put out the Holy Spirit's fire. What is it talking about here? Fire gives heat, light, and power. The Holy Spirit is forming the character of the Lord Jesus in the lives of believers. So the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit is forming the character of Jesus in our lives. Ephesians 6, 16 says, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. So what is it that causes us to be victorious over the evil one, over Satan? It's the shield of faith. and to withstand the fiery dots. You notice that? We resist, and we court Satan's power in our lives. The same thing happens when we resist a tremendous thing. Resisting the Holy Spirit's direction, correction and application of the Word results in spiritual weakness. The Holy Spirit's fire is quenched and failure in our walk with the Lord. There will be failure in our walk with the Lord. 1 Corinthians 2, 13 and 14 relate to the unsaved words of not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit. interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. What does that tell us? That means that we should be reading Scripture and allowing the Holy Spirit to give us guidance in our thoughts. That doesn't mean that we form our own particular doctrines about the way we read things. No, it has to be in conformity with the general teachings of all of Scripture, and we put all of these things together, but the Holy Spirit gives us the illumination to understand what we're reading, and he opens up our minds to not only understand it, but then to be able to work with whatever it is he's teaching us through the Word. They're spiritually discerned, the teachings of Scripture. An unsaved person, why is it an unsaved person can't believe he's getting saved by faith, just by accepting a gift? How can you be saved by that? You have to do something for it. When the Holy Spirit comes and works, and the person understands that Jesus died for my sins, what's the result? It's a conversion experience. And then that person gets light, more light, and the word is able to grow in that person's mind, heart, and life. The people who keep rejecting the Lord, rejecting the Lord, rejecting the Holy Spirit, they're gonna quench the Holy Spirit's fire. You remember what happened to Pharaoh? All the way up through the judgments that came up to about the sixth, I think it was, he resisted and he said, no, I'm not going to do it. He rejected, he rejected. And then finally, after that, it says, and God hardened his heart. He hardened his heart up to that point. The next and the last of those judgments, Pharaoh's heart was hardened by God. Why? Because he had resisted. What did God say in the time of Noah? My spirit will not strive forever. So these are things that are important. The Holy Spirit has a job to do. There it is, my spirit shall not abide in man forever or strive with man forever. Important factors. So let's see. 1 Thessalonians, the gift of prophecy was an original gift don't get upset about it. Ephesians 2, 20 and 22, the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. Jesus is the gift of prophecy. Now there are all sorts of prophecies and a lot of people who are inventing their interpretations of prophecy in scripture. You hear all sorts of funny things going on. A lot of people are just giving away the idea of prophecy altogether. They just say, well, these things aren't going to happen. It hasn't happened for 2,000 years, so why should we continue to believe it? No, we just need to live and see what happens, and hopefully we'll get to heaven when we die. But you know, Jesus is the gift of prophecy. As we read scripture, we come to know the Lord Jesus. We get to know him in a fuller and deeper way. And the result of that is that we begin to understand his life, his way, his word, his character. We want to obey Him because we've come to love Him who died for us and saved us. Revelation 19.10, I'm a fellow servant with you and your brothers. the Lord Jesus. All of Scripture is really about the Lord Jesus. All the different types and shadows that are there in the Old Testament and the fulfillment of those types in the New Testament and so on, they talk to us about the Lord Jesus. We learn about his love, we learn about his care, we learn about his dying, we learn about his sacrifice, the value of his blood, the propitiation that comes because of his work. All of these things we begin to understand learning about him more and more every day. So that's fantastic. In verse 21, test everything and hold fast to what is good. We're going to hear all sorts of funny doctrines. We can test them, but we always test them on the basis of scriptural learning. And there needs to be a backing in scripture for anything that we hear and not just some man-made interpretation or idea or philosophy or whatever hold fast to that which is good. Study the word to have it in your heart and your head. Listen carefully to what the preachers are saying and then check what they have said with scripture. The Bereans in Acts 17.11, Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining Carefully weigh out the teaching of those who preach. False prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will scarcely bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who brought them bringing upon themselves swift destruction. So you see, there will always be false prophets. There will always be those who are trying to twist the word so that it makes them feel better. Why is it in many of the churches, even the Church of England and some of those places where they have women pastors who are lesbians and so on, all of these things, they say, well, you know, love is love, and if there's love, God is love, and so everything's okay as long as there's love. Well, the scripture doesn't say that. It doesn't say that at all. Reject all forms of evil. Many just think of sinners, sexual sinners, as the only evil. Well, I'm honest, I'm faithful, etc. But we must put all that is contrary to the Lord's will and purposes aside to follow what is good. So, you know, it's not just a matter of one thing. We could begin to go into little things as well. who hate and all these sorts of things. David had failures, but he corrected what was wrong before God and was considered upright. David would then say in Psalm 18, 23, Because his sins had been forgiven. He had confessed his sins, and for us it's the same thing. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just and forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So these are the things that we need to remember and put into practice. Titus 2, 7 and 8, show yourselves in all respects to be a model of good works. And in your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. In other words, we need to live as a real Christian, not just on Sundays, but every day and every moment. We should be living the life the Lord would have us to live. Correct sin, then continue to practice what is good. Ephesians 2.10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So we don't get saved by good works. A man can't get to heaven by doing good works, no matter how good they are. But the result of our salvation is that we will begin to do the good works that God has prepared for us to do. OK, closing salutations. Pray for us, he says. That's important. Holy kiss was something very interesting. We don't have too many holy kisses here today. We have a good handshake, though, and that's important. A kiss of greeting was ordered here. It doesn't have any evil connotation or sexual overtone. This was purely a common form of greeting. between persons of the same sex. The main point in stating this was to help the Thessalonians understand their relationship to one another and to make sure that they would show equality among the believers and not just greet those whom they might regard more mighty. So these are the closing arguments that he has in this Godfather, we thank you today for your word. We thank you for the teachings that are there. Help us to understand them. Help us to put them in practice, what we hear and what we read. And we pray that you'll make our lives a means of blessing to everyone. We thank you for your love, for your care, for your goodness. We commend ourselves now to you in the name of the Lord Jesus.