Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: There's something quietly irresistible about certain people. You can't always put your finger on it, but when you're around them, you simply feel better, more hopeful, more alive. That's no accident. God actually designed his people to be a kind of sweet aroma in the world, drawing others in, not driving them away.

But somewhere between Sunday morning and Monday afternoon, many of us lose that fragrance. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll shows us the path back to a life so compelling it simply demands an explanation. We begin in 1 Thessalonians 5:11.

Chuck Swindoll: I want you to notice that this list we're looking at kind of evolves out of a statement that Paul makes in verse 11: "Encourage one another, build up one another." I think if I were to paraphrase it, I would say, "Be contagious with encouragement." When you get to verse 16 down through 20, you come upon things that are continually appropriate. See the way it reads: "Always rejoice, unceasingly pray, in everything give thanks, stop extinguishing the Spirit, and stop turning off messages from God, spoken through the throat of a prophet." And then there are finally, well, there's one thing that's occasionally uncertain, and so as we're going to see, we need to examine it carefully. If it's good, stay with it; if it's bad, get rid of it. We'll look at that in a minute.

Now, some things that are continually appropriate. If you want to be contagious, work on these things. "Always rejoice." There is in this a well-developed sense of humor, an optimistic outlook on life, a focusing on the healing rather than on the difficulty of the problem. A person who is rejoicing always is lighthearted in spirit, one who on occasion really enjoys a good laugh.

The only way to have a heart that's full of joy is to have a heart that's free of the burdens, and to have a heart that's free of the burdens means you've got to release them. And you release the burden how? Prayer. See the way he puts it: "Pray without ceasing." What's the genius of this discipline? Number one, it is tremendously therapeutic, and number two, it is a direct pipeline to wisdom. That's why prayer works. It's a therapy that sends the burden from my shoulders to God's, and second, it sends back to me perspective, which is called in Scripture wisdom. Works. I've never seen it fail, never.

When I say to my Father, "Help me here," he does, and when he helps me, he also sends along in the package insight I need, perspective that I need, wisdom that I need. I'm freed from the anchor that drags me down. And as a result, guess what? Verse 18 happens. "In everything give thanks." Did you notice this? It's an always matter of rejoicing, it is an unceasing matter of prayer, it is an in-everything matter of giving thanks.

There are some times when things occur in my life that I simply am baffled. Do you have that same experience? I just am baffled. But then three months later, looking back, I'm not at all baffled. I'm amazed at my insight three months later as I look back. But it took the loss of three months earlier for me to gain what I got three months later. Sometimes the gratitude happens to me following a time of sin.

Ruth Harms Calkin writes in "Lord, It Keeps Happening and Happening" these words: "O God, you have driven me into a corner where I cannot escape. I come to you penitently, for today I have sinned grievously. I have betrayed my highest ideals. I have been false to my inner convictions. I know I have broken your heart. Thank you." Get the gratitude? "Thank you for dealing with me in the privacy of your personal presence, for my sin has been against you alone. Cleanse me, Lord, change me. Sin is so hideous, so outrageous. Renew me until I am spiritually contagious."

In that act, I become increasingly more contagious. Contagious people aren't perfect people; they're forgiven people. They're people who claim the forgiveness God grants, and they live in the light of it. Now, you'll notice the first three are positive: rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks. This is God's will.

Now the negatives. And interestingly, the adverbs aren't emphasized now, but the subjects. Earlier it was always rejoice, unceasingly pray, in everything give thanks. Now it's the Spirit, do not extinguish. Prophetic utterances, do not despise. For emphasis' sake, now it turns to the Spirit, and I think it has reference to the Holy Spirit who lives within the believer. Don't extinguish him. Stop putting out the Spirit's fire. Phillips' paraphrase refers to damping the Spirit of God. Don't damp his presence.

Now, the child of God cannot lose the Spirit of God; I'm convinced of that. So it's not a question of living my life separate from the Spirit of God, but living my life with—may I say it this way—with him on hold. Allowing my life to become so self-serving, which is simply sinful and stubborn, that he, having worked and worked to bring me back in line, steps away, folds his arms, and waits for me. Ever had that experience?

I'm going to show it to you in Hosea's words. Turn back, if you will, from Thessalonians to Hosea chapter 5. If you have trouble finding Hosea, it's just before Joel. I'm sure you know where Joel is. Hosea 5. He calls a group of people Ephraim. Ephraim. And he's worked with Ephraim and worked with Ephraim and worked with Ephraim, and they have bowed their neck like a stubborn mule. And we're going to notice the progress, which might be called the regress here.

God says, verse 2, "And the revolters have gone deep into depravity, but I will chastise all of them." God says, "I'll go to work on them. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me. For now, Ephraim, you have played the harlot; Israel has defiled itself." Now drop down to verse 11: "Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to follow man's command." Notice that. That's usually when we get off track, when we listen more to man than to God. We're all culpable.

Therefore, God says, "I am like a moth to Ephraim." I just found this this week, and it's one of those discoveries you make and you think, "When did that go into the Bible? I have never seen it." It's been there for centuries; we just haven't seen it. Ever been camping and had a moth bother you around the lantern? You just can't get rid of it. And then another one comes. Moths talk to each other. "Come on over here, Ralph, this is a good light." And then Johnny comes in and Shirley joins them, and then there's a whole family of moths. "I will be like a moth to Ephraim." Nothing big, just tormenting, staying at him, working with him.

Verse 13: "Ephraim saw his sickness." And when he did, he ran down to Assyria. And he says at the end of 13, "He's unable to heal you and to cure you of your wound." So God says, "I'm going to change from a moth," verse 14, "I will be like a lion." Look at this. There's a little difference between a moth and a lion, wouldn't you say? "Like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away and carry away, and there will be none to deliver." Scraping and clawing and snarling and haunting and hunting, I'll be like a lion with him.

But you know there are some that still get away from a lion. Look at the last verse: "I'll go away." Why? Because he's been extinguished. "I'll return to my place." How long? "Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face. In their affliction, they will earnestly seek me." Wow.

You know what that affliction is? It's divine silence. It's lack of God's assistance. It's the horror of loneliness. It's knowing that life need not be like that, but it is like that because I choose to make it like that. The moths are gone and the lions are gone, and there's nothing in my day but the cold, barren loneliness, no contact with God. Verse 17 of chapter 4: "Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone." I tell you, we have a lot of fun together, but there are times we get really downright serious, and this is one of those times. You don't want to play with the Spirit of God. You really don't want to do that. He's not a fun and games guy. That's blasphemy.

There's something about the boiling firework of the Spirit of God that heats up a life and makes it contagious, and licks away the wrong as those flames continue to rage in the life and keeps that heart softened to God and concerned about the lost and in touch with the hurting and tender and sensitive to spiritual things and insightful to spiritual truth. That's all work, the work of the Spirit. But you can push him away and push him away and walk in your carnality until he'll back off. And he'll say, "Okay, you go on your own." And you will hate it. Don't extinguish the Spirit of God.

And while on the subject, he adds, "Do not despise prophetic utterances," 1 Thessalonians 5:20. Literally, stop treating prophecies with contempt. This has a background that we need to explain. The Thessalonian church had been ripped off with false prophets. By the way, every time there is a true prophet, you can count on this: nearby there'll be a false prophet. One man writes, "Wherever God plants wheat, Satan sows tares. Wherever God establishes a church, the devil erects a chapel." And so too, whenever the Holy Spirit enables certain men to perform miracles of healing, the evil one distributes his lying wonders. And wherever the Paraclete brings a true prophet on the scene, the deceiver presents his false prophets.

That happened in Thessalonica. There came false prophets who said, "Don't worry about your job, Christ is coming. It's imminent. I mean, any day now. And you don't even need to work." And so they quit their jobs and they stood around idly leaning on others for their life sustenance, and they became busybodies. And Paul wrote them and said, "You've gone to the extreme." Well, others saw that happen, and they decided on the other extreme, "We'll listen to nobody. No one is a prophet. If that's the result of prophecy, we don't want to have anything to do with any of the prophets."

This rebuke is to them. You see, in those days, prophets were the secret of hearing God's voice. They didn't have a Bible complete in their language. They had to rely on men who could speak ex cathedra the very oracle of God, who spoke without error the truth of God's revelation. And so I think what he's saying is, don't become suspicious; be sensitive to God's voice. Because there are false prophets does not give you reason to believe that all prophets are false.

By the way, not all prophecies come in the form of divine revelation. I got a definition—I think it's from the Lord on this whole thing. I would say that prophecy is the declaration of God's mind, spoken forthrightly in the power of the Spirit at just the right time. Sometimes it's a practical prophecy. Prophets have a way of speaking forthrightly and penetrating through the facade, don't they?

I had a man call me this week who's a very dear friend. We were on the subject of the failing marriages of some individuals in ministry, and he said to me, "I can't hang up the phone, Chuck, without asking you, how's your marriage? How's your home? And I count on you to keep the fires hot." I said, "I'm glad to say things are great. They've been tough and they will be tough again, but right now I need that exhortation." Then he said to me, "I want you to know that I believe you, but I just—there's something within me that couldn't rest until I heard it from your lips, because I want you to know I'm counting on you to honor God in your private life just as much as in your public life." I call that a prophecy, and I needed to hear it, and I was not to despise it.

You see, it's in that context that the next section is written: "Examine everything carefully." Now, don't lose the train of thought. This is a whole paragraph of links in the chain that fit together in a life that becomes contagious. "Examine everything carefully." See, sometimes things will be uncertain. You'll not know if it's of the Lord or of the devil. You'll not know if it's of the flesh or of the Spirit. So when it comes to you, you have to make an examination of it. Examine everything carefully. I think the command is, be discerning, which puts to bed the idea that living spiritually is living with gullibility.

Keep your head on straight, my dad used to say. Even though the Lord has entered your heart, he hasn't cut off your head. And I see some Christians who live as though they have no head. Wake up! Wake up! Look closely. Don't believe every person who says, "I speak to you from God." Then what are the criteria? How do I know the things I'm to accept, as he says in verse 21, "Hold fast to that which is good," and 22, "Abstain from that which is evil," every form of it?

Well, I think whatever comes from God is consistent with the truth of Scripture; that's one thing. Second, it is obedient to the lordship of Christ; that's the second. And third, it is in agreement with your inner spirit. I know that's subjective, but you'll know. You'll connect. If you're that yielded to the Spirit of God, you'll sense, "That's exactly what I need to hear right now." It doesn't contradict Scripture, it doesn't pit down the lordship of Christ—if anything, it upholds it, it lifts it higher than I thought—and third, it connects with my inner spirit. I call it making spiritual sense. I know it comes from God. The best counsel I've received has come through those criteria. To the good cling; from the evil abstain.

I asked you as we started: Do you have the courage to be contagious? I close with three statements: something to remember, something to resist, and something to release. Remember the goal. You want to be contagious? The goal is to build up, to encourage others. 1 Thessalonians 5:11, that's the goal: to encourage. Remember that. You want to be contagious? Then you need to resist cheap imitations. The cheap imitation of joy is a silly laugh all the time, a nervous laughter, the need to joke about everything. That isn't joy; that's insecurity. That's superficiality. You're revealing that you're nervous with who you are and you're not sure who God is. That isn't joy. That's a cheap imitation.

A cheap imitation of prayer—you can go right down through it—is finding the need to talk about how much you pray rather than simply praying, or to make up for a long lapse by having an hour in prayer once a month. That's a cheap imitation. Watch out for that. Resist that. Third, release the fear of what others may say or think. Contagious people don't care. If you're convinced it honors and pleases God, you don't care what others may think or say. I kind of like the counsel from Davy Crockett, to quote a great saint from the past: "Be sure you're right, then go ahead." That's great counsel.

From his book "Run with the Horses," Eugene Peterson writes: "Life is difficult, Jeremiah. Are you going to quit at the first wave of opposition? Are you going to retreat when you find that there is more to life than finding three meals a day and a dry place to sleep at night? Are you going to run home the minute you find that the mass of men and women are more interested in keeping their feet warm than in living at risk to the glory of God? Are you going to live cautiously or courageously? I called you to live at your best, to pursue righteousness, to sustain a drive toward excellence. It is easier, I know, to be neurotic. It is easier to be parasitic. It is easier to relax in the embracing arms of the average. Easier, but not better. Easier, but not more significant. What is it you really want, Jeremiah? Do you want to shuffle along with the crowd or run with the horses?"

Then he concludes: "The euphoric impetus of youthful enthusiasm no longer carried Jeremiah. He weighed the options, he counted the cost, he tossed and turned in hesitation. The response when it came was not verbal but biographical. His life became his answer: 'I'll run with the horses.'"

May we bow together. Please, just for a moment, just for a moment. You running with the horses? You're contagious or dull? You settled for mediocrity, or have you decided to be different? Not to play the game, not to traffic in unlived truth, to be distinctly Christian, even if it ruffles some feathers. Go back to this list: rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks. Don't extinguish the Spirit, don't turn off God's word from human voices, examine everything carefully, and carry that out. You'll be contagious.

Chuck Swindoll: How grateful we are, our Father, for the way your word addresses specific areas of our lives, always in need of attention. Even today, you've talked to us about rejoicing at all times, not necessarily for what is happening but through it all, you have been faithful, and we rejoice in that. We've learned that the surest sign of your presence is joy. So enable us to live that out, Father.

And also to pray with the frequency of a hacking cough. Frequently, often, and without necessarily bowing our heads or closing our eyes. Thank you for that reminder today, and the attitude of gratitude. How important is a grateful spirit? And that we not quench the Spirit, that we not hold back your leading, and at the same time, that we be open to truth as it is presented and not despise your word as it comes to us.

Father, thank you for your lordship over every phase of our lives. Our hearts ache for those who don't know your Son, and I close by praying for them now. And Lord, should there be any listening at this moment who've never trusted in your Son as Savior, that you'd bring them to their knees. You'd show them that there is no other one who has the answers for eternal life.

Thank you for the privilege of communicating your truth today. May it run now and have free course in the lives of those who have heard it and those who will now be living it out. We ask this together in the great name of Christ our Lord and Savior, amen.

Bill Meyer: Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll was teaching from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. He titled his message "Germs That Make Us Contagious, Part 2." It's number 11 in a 12-part collection of studies. They originate from Chuck's verse-by-verse study through Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians. The series, which concludes Monday, is called "Contagious Christianity."

If you're part of a small group at your church, did you realize that Insight for Living offers an in-depth Bible study workbook for 1 Thessalonians? It's part of our Searching the Scriptures studies that use the same method Chuck uses for preparing his sermons. It's perfect for your small group or to use in your private devotional times with the Lord. Before the series concludes, we encourage you to call or go online to order a copy. Look for the Bible study workbook called "Contagious Christianity" at insight.org/offer or call 800-772-8888.

Also, if you haven't read Chuck's classic book called "Laugh Again," you're missing out. For a few more days, we'll send you a copy of that book when you include a contribution to support the ministry of Insight for Living. Think about it. When was the last time something made you genuinely laugh? Not a polite chuckle, but a real caught-you-off-guard belly laugh. Well, Chuck believes that kind of joy isn't frivolous. It's actually a sign of something deeper, a soul that's anchored in the goodness of God, even when life isn't cooperating.

In "Laugh Again," Chuck draws from Paul's letter to the Philippians to show you how to cultivate outrageous, contagious joy, not someday, but right now, right where you are. You can request "Laugh Again" when you make a donation to support Insight for Living, and rediscover what it feels like to really laugh. Call 800-772-8888. You can also send your donation in the mail by writing to us at Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas, 75034, or go online to insight.org/donate.

I'm Bill Meyer. Chuck Swindoll presents the final message in this teaching series, "Contagious Christianity," Friday on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, "Germs That Make Us Contagious," was copyrighted in 1984, 1985, 1993, 2003, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindoll, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.