It is not a matter of knowing what God's preceptive will is; it is a matter of obedience out of love.

Three Specific Things That are Unarguably God's Will For Me to Do

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon)

 

Please turn to 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. As you are turning there, I want to mention one of the most sought after areas among Christians. It can be seen in a typical question, or in a statement. The statement goes something like this:

"I really wish I knew what God's will is."

And the question:

"How can I know God's will?"

Now, the easy answer is that God's will is recorded in the Bible. We should all know this already; but, then people want a little more help in determining what God's will is for themselves in respect to their life decisions, goals, and actions. Based upon God's word, I decided to do a short sermon series once on How to Always Know God's Will For Your Life Decisions, Goals, and Actions. It was a two part series. In the first sermon in that series, I gave seven biblical principles for determining how to always know God's will for your life decisions, goals, and actions. I used two foundational passages:

"5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

"4 Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

Based upon these two foundational passages, you do the seven things, and you can always be assured that whatever you do, you are in God's preceptive will to know God's will. In a nutshell, the seven principles that lead to the assurance, can be outlined as:

Number One, you must be spiritually saved. In other words, it is God's express will for you to be saved for you to be someone who walks in His will. Of course, being saved is important for more than one reason. But, for what I am explaining, when you are saved, it is an aspect of your nature to be led by God's Spirit. All who are led by the Spirit, which are all who are saved, are people who are the ones who can know they are walking in God's express will.

Two, it is God's will for you to recognize and pursue Christ's Lordship over your mind, and emotions.

Three, it is God's will for you to recognize Christ's Lordship over your body by seeking to submit your body to God in sanctification.

Four, it is God's will for you to be seeking to obey God's ordained authorities.

Five, it is God's will for you not to be joined together in fellowship with unbelievers.

Six, it is God's will for you to be manifesting the love of Jesus Christ to others.

Seven, it is God's will for you to be seeking to do all to the glory of God.

Each of those seven things has direct Scriptural support, and they lead to the fact that while we are making it our desire to do all those things, we can always be assured that we can do whatever else our heart desires--trusting God by faith in the midst of the details.

Why is that?

Because in doing so, we are in God's will, doing God's will already; so, continue to do, plan, and go, according to your heart. It is God's will, where you are being led by the Spirit.

These are great principles, but great principles concerning God's will, knowing it, and doing it, can always be expounded upon even more. There is always reminder, nuance, and encouragement, and all these kinds of things to get us more in tune with God's will. For example, Paul writes earlier in our 1 Thessalonians epistle,

"1 ... we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. 2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;" 1 Thessalonians 4:1-3

What Paul is wanting us to get more in tune with, is not just abstaining from immorality, but that we excel still more in our Christian walk. It is God's will that you advance. It is God's will that we not be satisfied with our current growth level, but that we reach forward to the higher goal of more Christlikeness. On the other hand, God wants us to rest in His righteousness that has been given to us. We are to relax in His grace. We are to be sure of our salvation. All of it's God's will. Yet, while we rest in grace, God wants us to excel. There are ways to do this, and they are expressly God's will as stated in our passage this morning. Read 5:16 with me now,

"16 Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; because this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Please prepare your heart to learn, along with me, from the preaching of God's word in this sermon titled,

Three Specific Things That are Unarguably God's Will For Me to Do
[pray]

As we begin gleaning from this passage, we should know that it is coming at the end of a list of requests--The apostles are requesting and exhorting as to how the Thessalonians ought to walk and please God--to excel still more. It is God's will made evident for the doing side of your Christianity. They are specific outward love-manifestations of the Spirit that lives in us. Just like claimed faith without works is really meaningless, claiming love without works is meaningless. Coming into our passage, Paul gives more requests,

"we request of you, brothers, that you appreciate those who labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, 13 and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another. 14 We urge you, brothers, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people." 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15

@1 God wants me to always seek after ______________ for others. (1 Thessalonians 5:12-15)

Notice that all of those things are manifestations of Christ being brought out of us, and applied to others. These are love things. It is God's will coming out of us, and it flows to other Christians. What I want us to notice is that Paul makes a shift after this. He goes to another aspect of the doing side of our Christianity. He goes from this out to others focus of all these things he requests that we do, over to a more you and God focus. It is distinctly a you and God focus that Paul seals with the official words that magnify the importance of what he is saying. Paul tells us to do three you and God focus things based upon this statement:

"... because this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Do you want to know what God's will is?

Well, this is it. As a fundamental starting point, I want us all to notice, that you can not do any you and God focus things unless you are in Christ Jesus. You must be saved to do these things, otherwise you are simply doing religious activity that any unsaved person can do. Further, while in Christ Jesus, disobeying God is not an option. In other words, if you are truly in Christ, then you really are expected to do these things. Another important thing for us to recognize, is that they are not philosophical suggestions. They are not self-help gimmicks for making your life better. These things are not something that Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, came up with to better our relationship with God. They are not legalistic things either. These things are, in fact, simply God's will. Paul clearly says to do these. Why?

"... because this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

@2 God reveals His ___________ to us who are in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

This means that you don't say,

"Well maybe I feel like doing it, but then again, maybe I don't feel like it."

No, God is talking. He tells us what to do, and so there is no option but to do it. This leads us to the three important things that you and I must do because it is God's will for us in Christ Jesus.

/1/
The first thing that the Spirit wants us to do, is

"16 Rejoice always; ..."

@3 God wants me to _____________ always. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

To rejoice, means to have joy in something, and God is saying that we are to do it all the time. Contextually, Paul is talking about rejoicing while in the midst of the pain, sorrow, and suffering that the Thessalonians have for simply begin saved among a lost world. The Thessalonians were experiencing intense, crushing, persecution for being saved. It was heavy. But the suffering they experienced, is a blessing, (as Christ said) even though it is something that hurts. Remember what Jesus preached in His great prophetic sermon,

"10 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:10-12

Persecution for Christ hurts, but the joy comes from the blessing of having the eternal perspective. Jesus says to rejoice because our reward in heaven is great. Your reward is bigger and greater than anything you are going through now. Your spiritual salvation is much greater than the sorrow that comes from the world. We may ask,

So, where does the joy come from for us who are in Christ?

It comes from the Spirit, in Christ, and Paul says that God's will for us is to rejoice always. Now immediately another question arises--because it always does with these kinds of verses--

"Does always, always mean always?"

The answer is,

"Yes, always, always means always."

You say,

"But how can I do this?"

There are times when I don't feel very good.

There are times when I hurt, and I am sorrowful.

Everyone of us knows exactly what I am talking about. We also understand that it is easy to have physical happiness expressions that look more like you are rejoicing than when you are sorrowful--right? When you are happy, and there is nothing weighing heavily upon you from the circumstances of the world, you can smile and be giddy. You can even laugh.

But, we all know that we sometimes get distressed, and we get sorrowful, don't we?

When we are distressed, we are not being giddy. When we are sorrowful, we are not typically smiling and laughing. And yet, we also know that always, always means always concerning God's will that we rejoice. So it can be confusing. It gets even more confusing when you contemplate that you have the Holy Spirit in salvation, and you know that the joy of the Spirit is something that you have in the Lord, and you know that the joy of the Lord is your strength; and so, what we really want to know is what this means--"rejoice always." Really folks, this is not very deep; and if it is God's will for you to do, then you should be able to do it any time--right? And, we must do it at any time. We must do this, when we find out that we are about to die. We must do this when our loved ones die. We must do this when we lose our business. We must do this when our country goes into a financial crises because of the foolish selfishness of our age. We must do this when there is intense pain shooting through us. We must do this when people walk away from us in our friendships and fellowship. But, you say,

Kerry, I just don't get it. I mean, I hear what you are saying, and I can read the Bible too, but what does this mean, because I can not seem to be happy all the time, where I am giddy, smiling, and laughing.

What is going on is that a lot of wrong definitions of the kind of joy that Paul is talking about are being thought of concerning the joy of the Lord, and so people get confused about it. They even condemn themselves over it; and worse, they will condemn others. Paul is not confused, and we want to know how he understands it. So let's look at what Paul says about rejoicing. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 6. Paul, and the apostles are true servants of God. We are going to see what it means for them to rejoice always. Paul makes his defense of being an apostle. He says,

"in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships,
in distresses,
5 in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger," 2 Corinthians 6:4-5

These are intense things to go through. Does it sound like Paul was able to go through these things without distress? This is faithful, godly, Paul, and he is making his defense of being a true servant of God, and look at verse 4. He went through all these things, and was distressed. Paul wrote this epistle way after he wrote 1 Thessalonians. We would rightly expect that Paul should take his own advice and not be distressed, if, in fact, being not distressed is equated with rejoicing? Remember, Paul is not confused. He knows how to defend his apostleship as a man who is continuously anointed and consistently full of the Holy Spirit, with the Spirit's presence always abiding in him. Next, Paul says that in his ministry, he operated,

"6 in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness,
in the Holy Spirit,
in genuine love, 7 in the word of truth,
in the power of God;
by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left," 2 Corinthians 6:6-7

Paul was clearly "in the Holy Spirit," and "in the power of God," so how can Paul be distressed and be joyous at the same time? Is it possible to be both? Is it possible to rejoice always, when sometimes you are distressed? Let's read on,

"8 by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; 9 as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death," 2 Corinthians 6:8-9

Now, folks I don't know about you, but I see that as being some intense stuff to go through. Now, let me ask you:

Was Paul sorrowful?

Or,

Was Paul rejoicing?

Let's step back a moment, because maybe I am asking the wrong questions, which are the same wrong questions that a lot of folks who have a wrong definition of spiritual joy tend to ask. Instead, I'll ask,

Was Paul both sorrowful, and yet always rejoicing?

Let's look at the next verse,

"10 as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, ..." 2 Corinthians 6:10

Paul was both at the same time. You see folks, when the Scriptures speak of rejoicing in the Lord always, what is being said is what I said earlier, which is easy to understand. Essentially, like Paul, you have the Holy Spirit in salvation, and the joy of the Spirit is something that you have in the Lord, and you know that the joy of the Lord is your strength, as you live in the joy of your salvation. The strength is that we rejoice in the Lord in our inner man, because we are saved in the Lord, and the reason we can do this always, even in being sorrowful, is because this is the deep inner joy that has to do with your spiritual state that always exists, even in the midst of the hardships of everyday life. In other words,

You are glad God saved you and you know Christ!

What is going on here is what Paul and Silas (Silvanus) demonstrated just before they arrived in Thessalonica. They were in Philippi, and as they ministered for the Lord,

"22 The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off [Paul and Silas (Silvanus)] and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. 23 When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into ... 24 ... the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 But about midnight Paul and Silvanus were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, ..." Acts 16

In other words, they rejoiced. The point is that rejoicing in the midst of distresses, and as sorrowful, means that we talk to God and give Him the praise He deserves for who He is, for His goodness, and for being our Savior. Paul and Silvanus did this by singing hymns to God Himself. We do this because we have the Holy Spirit. When we are distressed and sorrowful, we can, and should, praise God for our great blessing of being saved, and being in His plan. It is rejoicing because we are the ones who know why there are problems with the temporal world. We Christians have the revelation. We know the world's problems are because of sin. We rejoice in the Lord, because we know that we are saved from sin, and its eternal penalty. We may be sorrowful in our condition right now, but in our inward man, we are urged to rejoice always, because we always have the huge reason to rejoice always. So, we can praise our God in the midst of it all, and we can encourage one another with the facts, which is to manifest true spiritual joy.

/2/
This leads to the second thing that you and I need to be doing as God's prescribed will for us:

"17 pray without ceasing; ..."

@4 God wants me to _____________ without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Okay, right here we are faced with the same kind of question:

Does "without ceasing," ever cease to mean, without ceasing?

The answer is that: Without ceasing never ceases to mean without ceasing.

So, as a starting point, it seems pretty clear. Paul is talking about the practice of ongoing prayer. Paul means that we should always be people who pray, and we must be about God's will of practicing prayer on a regular basis. The sense is to be constantly praying. Paul used the exact same Greek word earlier in 1:2-3, when he said,

"2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; 3 constantly [same Greek word] bearing in mind ..." 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

And again,

"13 ... we also constantly [same Greek word] thank God ..." 1 Thessalonians 2:13

Just as rejoicing always has a distinct, continuos, sense that does not let us slack off, this urging is the same way. Without ceasing means that it is God's will for you to pray even if you get to the point where you want to give up. Without ceasing also means that you can not over-pray. You can not think that if you continue to pray then you are showing lack of faith, and so you are somehow over doing it. Without ceasing also means you keep on praying, knowing that God is sovereign over everything. It is because God is sovereign--determining the end from the beginning--that we should continuously pray. We are children of God and our Father tells us to ask for things, and He assures us that He will answer with either yes answers, or no answers, or He may have you wait in patience, or He may give you alternate provision. In the meantime, our Father is urging us to keep the conversation going. Prayer is important to God, and prayer is also something that is a barometer of what kind of relationship you have with your Father in heaven. Ask yourself:

Do I like to talk to my heavenly Father about my desires?

He tells you to do it in His word. He empowers you to do it.

Do I talk to my heavenly Father about my failures?

Do I ask my heavenly Father for provision?

Am I comfortable with talking to my heavenly Father about anything?

Do I pray continuously, or do I come up with excuses not to pray?

These are important questions. One reason why they are important, is because God not only wants us to pray continuously, but He wants us to talk to Him about everything. God does not want us to relate to Him like meeting someone for the first time. You know what I am talking about. When you first meet someone, talking to them is awkward. Sometimes, you are stumbling around trying to figure out what to talk about. But we should be more comfortable talking to God than we are with talking to our best human friends. God should be your best friend. You can't hide anything from God anyway--plus He commands you to pray, and since you are already in the Spirit, you are enabled to do this according to Ephesians 6:18. So, when we are weak, we should pray because the Holy Spirit is enabling us to do it. The point is that we have both the privilege, and responsibility, to pray as God's true people, but we also have the ease to do it; so if we are not in the habit of practicing ongoing prayer, we need to recognize that God is speaking to us this morning. We need to start the practice right now.

By the way, lost people pray all the time, and what is so ironic is that they are not even talking to God. They are just wasting their words. But, they don't have a problem with praying continuously. They will even set aside blocks of mental time, and personal effort, to regularly focus upon communication with false gods. There are even people who address their prayers specifically to Satan. It is shameful to Christians, who are God's true people who can barely find time to utter a few words of prayer once per day, when God wants us to pray all throughout each day. This reminds me of an incident that I first heard about years ago when I was doing some short term missions work. It is the story of an experience that happened to the President of an organization called, Youth for Christ. How many of you have heard of Youth for Christ? The president at the time was Jay Kesler. Currently, Dr. Kesler is the President Emeritus of Taylor University in Indiana. Right now I believe he also serves as a Pastor in Indiana. What happened was that Dr. Kesler was on an airplane sitting next to a young man. Eventually the time came for the lunch to be served by the flight attendants. When the flight attendant offered lunch to Dr. Kesler and the young man, the young man declined the meal. During the whole time that everyone else on the plane was eating, the young man sat with his head bowed down, apparently praying. He seemed to be fasting. Dr. Kesler was immediately impressed with the spiritual devotion of the young man, and so Dr. Kesler asked the man if he was a Christian. Sure enough, the man was praying and fasting; but to Dr. Kesler's surprise, the man was not a Christian. In fact the young man's answer to Dr. Kesler was shocking. The young man proceeded to explain that he was a Satan worshipper. He and the members of his, so called "church" had agreed to fast and pray every Friday at noon. The young man went on to explain that during their prayer time, they would pray that the leaders of the Christian world will fall. They prayed that Christian leaders will fall into sexual sin, and that their family lives would crumble. It is an amazing story on many fronts, but my point in repeating this encounter is that it demonstrates the dark devotion to the practice of prayer that people who are lost will have on a consistent basis, and yet they are blinded by sin, and are living in spiritual death. Their lives are futile, and in respect to the One true God of the universe, they actually have no reason to pray. But we do, and so we should. I saw Hindus continuously praying in temples all over India. Muslims bow and pray continuously in ritual prayer every day. It is called salat. They stop everything to do it. And listen, they don't just do this once every day; they do this prayer ritual five times throughout each day. This is amazing when we consider that none of these people know the Father. We, on the other hand, have the power, the adoption, the privilege, and the pleasure of praying to our Father, Who is the One True God of the universe. He actually hears you and answers you when you pray. So, we can not use some lame excuse, like we can't find the time. To say that is to sin against what God tells us in our passage. Or we can not use the other sad excuse, that we do not know what to pray about. To pray without ceasing, means to pray continuously (for example) for the church. It means that you and I should be praying for our loved ones. Pray for revival to occur among God's complacent, despondent, culturally saturated church of our age. Pray for government leaders. Keep praying. Pray for finances to be met. Pray for your job. Pray for you boss. Pray for your employees. Pray that God will bring a harvest of souls in salvation. Pray for boldness to minister. Pray for wide doors to be opened for ministry. Pray for your family--your spouse--your children. Pray for your parents. Pray for me. Pray for this church. Pray, and keep praying, and don't stop the wonderful God ordained habit of prayer. This unarguably, is God's will for you;

/3/
which leads us to the last thing in our passage that the Spirit is telling us to do;

"in everything give thanks; ..."

@5 God wants me to give _____________ in everything. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

One of the first things we notice, is that we have this kind of big language again. So, we ask the same kind of question:

Does in everything, really mean, in everything?

The answer is that in everything, really does mean, in everything.

And again, there is a precise definition to what Paul is talking about. When Paul says in everything, what he means is in all circumstances, and in all situations. Of course, Paul is not talking about being thankful for sinning. But, we are to be thankful to God in the midst of our sin filled world. We must remember that Paul is talking to the Thessaloninans. Paul knows about the tribulation for Christ that they are going through. God's will is that we are thankful to Him in the midst of the good times, and in the midst of the bad times. This is the context. Again, in gleaning the principles here, we notice that the Spirit is telling us something that doesn't seem like it gives us any room for a compromise concerning the command. That is because there is no compromise. But to do this, it is going to have to be a matter of our Christian faith.

So, this is a faith issue, isn't it?

We base our faith upon truth. What I mean is that we Christians know God; and as people who know God, we also begin to learn about Him and about all of His sovereign control in this world. We have intelligent faith. We do not have blind faith. We base all of our areas of faith on what we learn by the Spirit Who opens our eyes and teaches us. Doctrine drives your actions. And so once we get all the sovereignty of God things straight, we understand why we should thank God in each and every situation; even those situations that don't feel good, or seem like nothing good can come out of them. The faith issue has to do with what Paul says to the Romans that they already know;

"28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

6@ God causes __________ things to work together for good to us who love Him.

If God causes all things to work together for good, then we Christians, thank God in all things because we realize, in faith, that He is bringing about the good He desires, whether we realize what the good actually is, or not. We are the ones who know our wonderful Father. We are the ones that He has purchased to be the body of Christ. We are the ones He has adopted. We know He is good.

This last week, we were with some family members, and we were discussing giving thanks to God in all things, and someone brought up a recent baby miscarriage that occurred in the family. People started saying that we don't thank God for things like this, but my 10 year old son, Isaiah, explained that we should thank God for everything, because God has a reason for everything. Isaiah, said that God had a reason for taking the baby even if we don't understand it. Isaiah had the kind of insight that Paul is talking about. It is to understand God Biblically. We know God Biblically, as Jerry Bridges describes so well in his book, "Trusting God," I've quoted it before, and I absolutely love what he says. He says,

"In the arena of adversity, the Scriptures teach us three essential truths about God--truths we must believe if we are to trust Him in adversity. They are:

God is completely sovereign.
God is infinite in wisdom.
God is perfect in love.

Someone has expressed these three truths as they relate to us in this way:

God in His love always wills what is best for us.
In His wisdom, he always knows what is best,
and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about."--J Bridges

So, we are the ones who should trust that in whatever circumstance we happen to be in, God wisely has it happening for our good in love. The main point is that God works it all together for good according to His understand of it all. In each situation in this world, God has the body of Christ in mind. This is amazing, and has profound implications for your faith, which has profound implications for giving thanks in everything. If you do not believe that God is causing all things to work together for good to us Christians, then you will not thank Him for it. So it is a faith issue, where we trust His sovereignty, and we trust in His wisdom, and we trust in His love, that He is doing the best thing possible, and we honor Him for it all by being thankful in all things. The world does not do this. They are lost, and they don't thank the One true God for anything. They may give thanks, but not to Yahweh and His Son. They don't thank God for their existence, for His provision, or for the way the world exists. We read of the attitude in Romans 1:21,

"21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened." Romans 1:21

People in the world do not honor God or give Him the proper thanks He is due for His sovereign orchestration of all things. They really love to honor themselves and their so-called, personal achievements in the flesh. Or they will blaspheme God and accuse Him of doing things wrong. It is sinful ignorance of the Father. Or they honor circumstances and say things like,

"Wow, I was really lucky."

The world will thank anything but the Person of the One true God. But for you and I, the Holy Spirit does this work in us; giving us the ability to have faith in the true God in all things. It is up to us then, to honor Him in thanks. It is worship. Unthankfulness is dishonor. It is the opposite of worship. It is a sinful unbiblical attitude that needs to be repented of. This reminds me of my own attitude:

That very same night that our family had the conversation about thanking God in all things, later, I started complaining, in my heart, to God about a whole list of things. Finally, after thinking like a fool, and having a sinful attitude, God convicted me of my lack of faith, and my lack of thanks. It was then that I repented, and thanked Him for everything that I had been complaining about before. I went from faithless thoughts, to thoughts that worshipped, and glorified God.

This morning I want to urge you-- You already know God's will; now it is a matter of doing it. God's Spirit is telling us that He wants us to rejoice always. When you are distressed, rejoice. When you are sorrowful, rejoice. Rejoice always, because you are saved. Rejoice because you have the Holy Spirit. Rejoice because you can. You have been enabled to praise God for Who He is, and for His goodness, no matter what happens in this temporal world. Pray without ceasing. Keep on praying, even if you don't feel like praying. Pray and ask God to help you to like, enjoy, and look forward to prayer. Pray, expecting God to answer you. Pray like God is your best friend, because He is. In everything give thanks. Trust God with whatever is going on around you, knowing that he is causing all things to work together for good to you who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Trust God and give thanks in your trust, knowing that God in His love always wills what is best for you. In His wisdom, he always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about. This brings honor to Him and this is what we want to do in all these things that we know are God's will for us in Christ Jesus. amen.

@1 God wants me to always seek after ______________ for others. (1 Thessalonians 5:12-15)
@2 God reveals His ___________ to us who are in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
@3 God wants me to _____________ always. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
@4 God wants me to _____________ without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
@5 God wants me to give _____________ in everything. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
6@ God causes __________ things to work together for good to us who love Him. (Romans 8:28)