C. THE DAY OF THE CHURCH. 5:12-28 1. The Concluding Prescription. 5:12-22 2. The Concluding Petition. 5:23-24 3. The Concluding Postscript. 5:25-28 1. Our duty to workers - v.12-13 2. Our duty to the needy - v.14-15 3. Our duty to ourselves - v.16-18 4. Our duty to truth - v.19-22 1. The Concluding Prescription. 5:12-22 V.12 a) Recognize - I. 3rd Command - Recognise those. II. Recognise those that labour, are over you and admonishes. 1. The Workers - Those that labour. Everyone that do ministry among them. 2. The Watchers - Are over you. The elders and leaders. Heb.13:17 3. The Warners - Admonish you. Elders, Five-fold ministries, preachers and spiritual fathers. V.13 b) Regard - I. 4th Command - Esteem the workers. II. 5th Command - Be at peace among yourselves. III. Wholehearted and Weighty love for the Workers. The recognising and esteeming would result in peace among the brethren. V.14 c) Respond - Those that are hurting I. 6th Command - Warn the unruly, the weak willed. 1. Unruly (Gr. ataktos) means disorderly. It is often used of soldiers who fall out of line. 2. Those that do not walk according to the divine rule - Scriptures. Those that lack spiritual discipline. II. 7th Command - Comfort the fainthearted, the weak heart and mind. 1. Fainthearted (Gr. Oligopsuchous) means little souls. 2. Embrace the weak heart with your own strength and cheer it up. Those that easily quit and drop out. III. 8th Command - Uphold the weak, the weak in strength. 1. Share your strength with those that lack it. 2. Be a strong support to the weak, be a pillar in God’ s house. IV. 9th Command - Patience with all. Perhaps you are strong but give believers time to attain the level of your strength even as God and others gave you time. V.15 d) Repay - Those that are hurting others I. 10th Command - Repay not evil with evil. II. God is the Judge and He has not appointed us for that task. III. There are 3 classes of man: 1. The man of the devil that returns evil for good 2. The man of men that returns good for good and evil for evil 3. The man of God that returns good for evil IV. 18 points playing with the letter “ p” of why we should not do evil. 1. Be evils Pew and soon you will be the Preacher. 2. Play with evil and it will Pursue you in your game. 3. Be evils Percussion and it will Parade joyfully with you. 4. Be evils Pedal and it will find for you the Passage that leads to Perdition. 5. Go under evils Parasol and be Protected from good. 6. Make evil your Partner and it will be your Parasite the rest of your life. 7. Stay in evils Palace and you will soon become one of its Pillars. 8. Let evil Personify you and soon it will Posses you. 9. Be evils Pet and it will name you Panic. 10. Put evil in your Pocket and soon you will have it in your Palm. 11. Feel the evils Pulse and soon its Pale color you will have. 12. Allow the evils Pipe in your house and soon you will become its Pump. 13. Allow the Presence of evil and soon you will smell of its Perfume. 14. Shoot with evils Pistol, just remember you can be its next Projectile. 15. Be evils Piston and soon you are his Petrol. 16. Let evil be your Physician and he will give you the Plaster of Pity. 17. Jump into the Pool Practicing bitterness and you will be swirled into the Perishing Pit. 18. Promote “ I will not Pardon” as your Principle, then Promised to you are Prison and Penalty. Matt.18:21-35 V. 11th Command - Pursue good for yourself and all. Overcome evil with good. Rom.12:21 V.16-22 Contains principles for the life in the Spirit - 8 principles. 1. First 5 principles concerns our relation with God. 2. Next 3 principles concerns our relation with man and spirits. V.16 e) Rejoice - I. In Greek this verse is the shortest verse in N.T. In English John 11:35 is the shortest in N.T. II. This is originally the shortest verse in N.T but also the hardest verse to keep. III. 12th Command - Rejoice always. IV. The difference between happiness and joy: 1. Happiness has do with the outward - the Happenings, if it’ s against you then you will not be happy. 2. Joy has do with the inward - the Heart, it is a position in Christ that can be experienced by recalling all we have in Christ. V. Believers should be known for their Attitude of Gratitude. VI. There are about 70 commands to rejoice in N.T. V.17 f) Request - I. 13th Command - Pray without ceasing. II. Paul thanked God without ceasing 2:13, now he exhorts them to pray without ceasing. III. Paul did not mean praying Audibly always but the continual praying Attitude Prayer is not the moving of the lips but an elevation of the heart to God. IV. Outside the N.T the Greek word “adialeiptos” (without ceasing) is defined as a hacking cough, a person with a hacking cough does not always cough audibly, though the tendency is always there, so with the believers’ prayer life. V. This does not mean that we should pray audibly every hour, but that there shouldn’ t go one hour without praying (Elevating our hearts to God). V.18 g) Return - I. 14th Command - Thanksgiving in everything. II. All experiences of life: evil or bad, painful or satisfying can be experiences from the ankle of a joyful heart, if we chose to view it from God’ s perspective we will see them in the right perspective, in the right settings, from the right eternal view: 1. Evil and painful experiences become opportunities to show faith, true love, growth and receive eternal rewards. 2. From His perspective we see the Truth, from ours only the true. From His perspective it makes sense from ours nonsense. From His perspective we are Soaring, from ours we are Souring. From His perspective it gives light, from ours it steals true sight. Jam.1:2-4; Rom.5:3-5; Isaiah 6:3 III. Consider the unthankful soul of Rom.1:21. IV. The more thankful we are, the more prayerful we will be, the more prayerful we are, the more joyful we will be. V. What v.16-18 is actually saying: Be careful for nothing, Be prayerful in everything, Be thankful for anything. V.19 h) Resist - What not to do. v.19-20 I. 15th Command - Quench not the Spirit. II. There are three ways believers can hinder the Holy Spirit: 1. Quenching the Spirit - Involves not doing what He wants us to do. A. Not giving the fire oxygen, covering or replacing His work or program with our fleshly works and programs. B. Pouring water upon the fire, stopping verbally His work. C. Not cleaning the wick, uncleanness in our lives. D. Not refilling with oil, carelessness, lack of faith and relationship with God. 2. Grieving the Spirit - Involves doing what He wants us not to do. Eph.4:30 3. Resisting the Spirit - Involves the act of willingly and knowingly not Acts 7:51 doing what He wants us to do and doing what He wants us not to do. III. V.20 gives us an exhortation against quenching the Spirit. So quenching the Spirit is also stopping His manifestations through spiritual gifts. 1.Cor.12:7-11 V.20 i) Refuse - I. 16th Command - Despise not prophesy Receive prophesy from the foolish, the weak, the base, the despised and the one that is not among you, for God will use whom He choose. 1.Cor.1:26-28 V.21 j) Remain - What to do. v.21-22 I. 17th Command - Test all things 1. Sniff only do not Swallow. 2. Scriptures are believer’ s ground of Truth whereby they test the spirits, the opinions and doctrine of man. 1.Cor.2:13; 14:29; Isaiah 8:20; 1.John 4:1; Gal.1:6-9; 1.Tim.4:1; 6:3-5; 2.Tim.4:3-4; 2.John 9; Deut.13:1-5; 18:20-22; Heb.5:14 II. 18th Command - Hold fast, Eat the meat and spit out the bone. Rom.12:9 III. God doesn’ t demand foremost believers to Trust every word that comes from His servants but to Test every word. IV. Prove the Professed Prophecies. V.22 k) Reserve - I. 19th Command - Abstain from all evil, Separate your mind and heart from evil, desire good, exchange your values, grow up and be a discerner of evil and good. Heb.5:12-14 II. There are counterfeit gifts, gifts worked out with a demonic occult spirit. There are also genuine gifts of the Spirit that are worked forth for selfish gain. III. In v.21 good is singular, the problem is not with good, but with evil it takes many forms and shapes in its deception. Acts 20:29-30; 2.Cor.11:14