Rx For A Thriving Congregation Pt. 2

Let's take our Bibles this morning and let's turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 as we continue our study in this book. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, reading verses 12 through 15. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you, 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 disorderly, 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. Let's pray. Father, now as we come to your word, we pray that you'd open our ears to hear it, that you give us understanding, and more than that, that you would motivate us to obey.

Father, let this be a day in which we make some actual steps of change in light of what your word says. Lord, as the word goes out today and your people hear it, Lord, I pray that you would give them the desire to do what it says for the good of your church and the glory of your name. So help us now to hear these things and to do them. Help us not to be hearers of the word, but doers.

And as you do that in our hearts, we will thank you for the joy that is ours because of the obedience that you work in us. Thank you now, in Jesus' name. Amen. What do you see as your responsibility as a member of the church? Well, that's easy. I need to show up.

Okay. That's a good start. You need to be here. Say, okay, put money in the offering plate. Okay, that's good. it's another step in the right direction you might say well okay some of us maybe teach Sunday school class maybe some of us will clean the church that good good but what about the responsibility to care for one another you might say well wait a minute that why we pay you isn it Isn't that what you're supposed to do?

Yeah, that's true. But all of us as members of this congregation actually have duties to fulfill to one another that contribute to a thriving, vibrant, alive congregation. You recall in these verses the Apostle Paul is telling us what we need to do for a thriving congregation. And we saw last week in verses 12 and 13 that we are called to fulfill our responsibilities to our shepherds.

We ask you, brothers, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. So we saw last week that that's the duties that we need to fulfill towards the leadership. But then he goes on to say in verses 13 and 14, as he now changes the focus of the camera, as it were, and he points it at you and he says, and we urge you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, 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. So now he turns the focus to fulfilling your duties to one another. How do you fulfill your duties towards one another? We see three things in this text this morning. The first is recognize your responsibility for a thriving congregation. Recognize your responsibility.

Number two, help one another with your struggles. And then lastly, number three, pursue good with one another. So in those three areas, then, we see how you fulfill your duties to one another. Let's look at the first. Recognize your responsibility for thriving congregation. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, implied, we urge you, brothers and sisters.

Now, once more, the Apostle Paul makes an urgent appeal to all the members of the congregation. those members, they are responsible to do what follows. The well-being of a church, the well-being of a congregation does not rest solely in the hands of the leadership. That clear that he says that here You who sit here today you are looking up at me you have a responsibility to help one another to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord All of you, all of you have been called to admonish, to encourage, to help, and to pursue good, not just the leadership.

Someone might say, but isn't that why we pay you? Isn't that what you're supposed to do? And the answer is, yeah, but not entirely. Look at Ephesians 4 for a moment. Ephesians chapter 4, in verse 11 through 16. Talking about Jesus, it says, And he, that is Christ, gave apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love now notice all the things that he says they're growing up the congregation should grow up so that the congregation looks like jesus grown up into full manhood so that they're not tossed to and fro who's responsible for doing that everyone what are the leaders supposed to do there to equip you to do the ministry so that the church ends up the way it's supposed to be in maturity It is the leadership. Yes, the leadership can't stand back and say, we're going to delegate it all to you. They have to show by teaching an example.

But you are the ones who do the work that builds the church up into maturity. It is the leadership job to lead you in that. You will see a thriving congregation not when the leaders do everything. In fact, I would suggest to you that when the leaders do everything, you have an unhealthy congregation. So a thriving congregation is not when the leaders do everything, but when they help you become what you should be.

And that what the Apostle Paul is saying here Ephesians he wrote later he puts it in more graphic terms but here in his early writings he saying already look, you have responsibility. Why does that seem so rare in Bible-believing churches? Why does it seem so rare that people are doing the things that he tells them to do? Well, I think one is people are just afraid to do it.

They're afraid to do it. Can I tell you something? I'm still afraid to do it. when I'm driving to somebody's house and there's a huge fight going on and I know it's waiting for me at the other end of this drive I'm not happy about that there are times when I say I kind of wish I was driving somewhere else right now but you do it you can be afraid and still do it but too often we let our fears dictate to us here's another reason we don't understand that we are family We do not understand that we're family.

Isn't it interesting that the scriptures call Christians brothers and sisters? That's the most normal phrase used of them. And through Jesus, we're all related to one another. Jesus is like all of our older brother. He's our older brother. We're all related to one another.

In our call to worship from 1 John today, it says, The apostles proclaimed Jesus, why? So that you also may have fellowship with us. By coming to Christ, we come into fellowship with one another. So we forget we're family. We've got to think that way. We are family.

Would you let your little brother go off and do something dangerous? No. No, you wouldn't. And that's the way we need to look at one another. You know what else? Here's another reason why Bible-believing churches don't do these things, aren't fulfilling their responsibilities to one another.

Our culture has molded our thinking. our culture has molded our thinking in tremendous ways particularly this our culture says over and over and over every day consistently the culture has the same message no one has the right to tell you what you should be nor what you should do the freedom of the individual is the highest goal of everything And if you want to be what you want to be, no one has the right to tell you you shouldn't be that. No one has the right to tell you you shouldn't do that. And that is so infiltrated. that we walk around saying, well, it's none of my business.

We don't love each other like we should. We just don't love one another like we should. We're not just that concerned about others. You know, I think we can learn a little bit of a lesson from my granddaughter, Feifei. When her parents take one of her brothers into the bathroom to spank them, you know what she does? she stands outside the door and cries.

And when the spanking is done and her brother emerges she feels obligated to hug them. Alright? That's the way we need to be with one another. That's the way God wants us to be. We need to love one another. So if we want a healthy, alive congregation we need first of all to look to Jesus who gave himself for you out of love so that you will give yourself in love to others.

And you step out in faith. You know what I've learned over 34 years of ministry of doing those difficult things? You step out in faith. You believe that when God tells you to do something, he will give you the strength to do it. Now, by the way, that strength doesn't arrive ahead of time. It arrives at the moment you need it.

That's where faith comes in. You've got to believe it's going to be there when you do it. You step out in faith and you say, I've got something difficult to say to my brother, but God calls me to do it. I'm going to do it and he'll give me the strength to do it when it's necessary. Now that brings us to the next point. So you're responsible to do those things, but what things?

Four things are noted for us here in verse 14. and God says help one another with the struggles of life. Help one another with the struggles of life. That's what we're called to do. That's our duty to one another. It's not just up to the pastor to do that. Right?

The first thing is admonish the disorderly. Now who are the disorderly? Now in our text it's translated as idle or lazy. And the reason for that is because many scholars believe that the particular element of disorderliness in the Thessalonian church was this idea of idleness of people not working of people being lazy All right How do we know that Well he picks it up remember as we were in chapter 4, verses 11 and 12, he says, and so, and to us, you're to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you so you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. all right so he's already picked up the theme that you must work you got to live a life that's not dependent on someone you know always giving you a place to live and putting up all your money all those sorts of things he's saying don't aspire to that aspire to live quietly and work hard when you come to second thessalonians evidently the problem is still a major big problem because he devotes a lot of time which we will see in a number of weeks but if you turn over to second Thessalonians chapter 3 beginning in verse 6 notice what he says now we command you brothers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you receive from us for you yourselves know how we how you ought to imitate us because we were not idle when we were with you nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it but with toil and labor we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you it was not because we did not have that right but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate for even when we were with you we would give you this command if anyone is not willing to work let him not eat for we hear that some among you walk in idleness not busy at work but busy bodies now such persons we command and encourage in the lord jesus christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living so you see it's still a major problem that's why it's typically translated idle or laziness but if you look if you if you have the english standard version the bible we typically use here if you look you will notice a footnote and it does say disorderly or undisciplined.

That's what the word means. Idleness and laziness is just one form of disorderly or undisciplined conduct. So he says, admonish the disorderly. He's talking here about folks who are involved in the high sins You know what I mean by high sins They the sins that you can really see The lazy rebellious manipulative deceitful willful stubborn brothers Those who at times step outside the lines of God's good purposes.

This is a brother whose issue is clear-cut. It's clearly a sin. Okay? You say, well, doesn't that describe me? Yes, but when you're clearly, yeah, you're all disorderly to some extent. We all step out of God's lines, don't we?

I can wait as long as I can for you to answer in the affirmative to that question. Yes, we all do step outside the lines. All right? Sometimes you step out and it's clear. It can be one who's become lazy. Maybe one who's decided not to be part of the fellowship of believers.

One who's broken fellowship with another believer. One who's decided to end her marriage. However you want to put it, it's those clear-cut things where someone needs to come and speak the truth to them. And he says you've got to love those folks by admonishing them. Now that word admonish is the same word used in verse 12 that we saw last week about counseling.

It's not just teaching. When you see that word admonish, it's the word nuthateo. It doesn't just mean teach. It means that your words are directed at a person in order for them to change their behavior, to line up their lives with the will of God. They're going in the wrong direction. And your words are intended not just to give them information, but to change the direction of their lives.

It's even used to warning them, you're headed in the wrong direction. That's where you're going to end up. Stop now and turn the other way. It's the word that we would typically call counseling. And what he's saying is here, when a brother or sister gets to this point, where they're refusing to conform to what God says, you must speak candidly and constructively to them, and identify what the problem is and what they need to do about it.

It usually calls for repentance. I love what Dave Powelson has said. when you need to help someone straighten out, talk straight. You give it to them. So you walk up to your dear sister and you say dear sister you cannot end this marriage God forbids you to do that You can do that Jesus says let no what God put together let no man put asunder You can't go on with this, what you're thinking about.

You have that responsibility. Talk to your sister who's doing that. And you say to her, remember the Jesus who demands that you keep your vows is also the Savior who promises you an abundant life by following him. And look, I'll walk with you through all this. I'll help you keep your vows. But you have to do what God says.

That's what he's talking about here. And listen, no matter who it is, you always show them Jesus, the one who forgives the repentant, humble sinner who's willing to come to him with a broken heart. Then he says to us, you also have the responsibility to encourage the faint-hearted. Who are the faint-hearted? These are our brothers and sisters who are prone to fear and discouragement and anxiety.

They're the ones that are often overwhelmed by the pressures of life or disheartened by their own shortcomings. Right? You ever been there? By the way, we all fit into all three of these categories in one way or another. but sometimes one comes to the top and some of us are prone more to some than to others so you come to the faint-hearted to encourage them these are the ones who are overwhelmed by the pressures of life who who think that they have to prove themselves who are prone to give up because of either the circumstances of life or even prone to give up because all they see is their failures to these god says love them by encouraging them come alongside them tenderly give them hope give them hope all right by the way you know i say that just offhandedly that's one of the when i'm teaching counseling that's one of the okay what are the seven elements of good counseling one of them is give your give who you're talking to give them hope well how do you give somebody hope.

Here's how you give them hope. You encourage them by giving them hope by saying, look at the character of God. What is God like? What does a faint hearted person need to know about God? He needs to know that he's faithful, that he's steadfast, that he's compassionate and kind and good in all that he does. They need to find hope They need to find hope in the promises of God.

That no matter what seems overwhelming to you at this moment, it's overwhelming to you. Yet you must believe when God says, I'm working all things for your good. And you must believe Him when He says, this is the way that you're going to gain maturity. And look at the promise of God. It's to strengthen your faith. James chapter 1.

You show them the promises of God. You give them perspective. You encourage them by giving them perspective. You're not the first one to go through this. Others have been through it. They've depended on God.

You can turn to Scripture and show them all kinds of people. You can give them perspective of the perspective that God is good. But no matter how you do it, you encourage them. And you always show them Jesus, the one who has experienced everything that they have experienced. You ever think about that? There isn't one thing that you've gone through that Jesus hasn't experienced.

Jesus is not some far-off deity sitting on a throne, barking orders at you, saying, Will you do this? It's for my glory! Get it! Will you? Oh, you're so stupid. That's not your Lord.

The one who gives you those commands is the one who has walked where you have walked. And you ask yourself the question, How was it that he was not overwhelmed by the pressures that he faced? he entrusted himself to him who judges justly you see you show them jesus he did not give up how did he do it find out and encourage your brother or sister the last thing he said well not the last thing but the third thing he says here is you must help the weak these are the ones what does he mean by weak these are the ones who may be disabled these are the ones with great limitations. These can be the physically disabled, our autistic friends, the elderly struggling with Alzheimer's, the mentally handicapped people that we know.

It can also be people who've been abused and misused, the impoverished, the victimized, those who have been through so much that it's unbelievably difficult for them to go on. These are the ones who need help. You love these folks by helping them. Now that word help has the idea of hanging on to them has the idea of persevering in helping them not giving up You just constantly helping them These are the folks who seem to us who always need help And we have to take the initiative to keep on helping, because change may be extremely slow, And it may be change that is very, very little over a long time.

These are the folks that need help a lot, if not all the time. Now, almost all of you here know my sister, Miriam. My sister Miriam, we're not sure, but the smallpox vaccination, we think, gave her encephalitis, which mentally handicapped her for the rest of her life when she's about 18 months old. Mentally handicapped her for the rest of her life. You can tell when you see her, her motor coordination isn't what it should be and so forth.

But she will never recognize letters. She can never recognize numbers. She couldn't write a sentence or add anything or even know what the numbers mean. And so she needs help all the time. If she's going to go to one part of the city, someone has to get her on the right bus. She won't ever get that down. if she doesn't know what her bank account says, right?

And she's buying something at the store, someone has to be there, so making sure she hands out the right money. She's kind of a person that's going to need help until the day she dies. That's the kind of people he's talking about here. These are the kind of folks that always need help. At this point, you need to remind yourself of who Jesus is. You know?

You know why? He's the one who never gives up on any of us. Anybody here who need help from Jesus? Like, all the time? Well, let me ask you. Let me make it simpler.

Who doesn't? All right. Look to Jesus. He's always giving help. And so he tells us that we have a responsibility to help the weak. and then he says which is so to me the fourth thing he says here is just not amazing but so true and what? Be patient with all be patient with all be patient with them all Be patient with the disorderly Stubbornness is hard to take isn it Stubbornness is hard to take But you patiently minister the word of God, asking God to grant repentance.

You continue to minister, you patiently minister, asking God to grant repentance. They may walk away from you. They may even end up in excommunication for refusing to listen, but you remain patient. You may get a chance to minister two years from now, maybe ten years from now, but you stay patient. You need to be patient with the faint-hearted. It seems that they keep forgetting that God is good.

They seem to keep forgetting that God is faithful. And they grow disheartened in the face of the same old pressures. It says, oh, didn't we just talk about this yesterday? Right? And we certainly need patience with the weak. Those who seem unable will cause you to give up.

When you don't see much change over a long period of time, you want to give up. And you will if you're not careful and you don't see Jesus. You know, patience is nothing fancy. you know, we always want great stories and wonderful ways about how God suddenly did this and suddenly did that. We love those stories, but you know what? The work is done when we're patient with each other.

We just keep plodding along. You just keep at it. You don't give up. What does the Bible say? Love is patient. And you love them when you're patient with them all.

Now one thing you need to see here, and see it clearly, one size does not fit all. Different approaches for different people. Right? if you admonish the faint-hearted you'll discourage them even more. Right You discourage them even more You say to this person who faint don you know that God is sovereign Don you know that God is good Do you want to keep thinking those thoughts before God?

What's wrong with you? That's really going to help a faint-hearted person, isn't it? Yep, they'll say, of course, God is sovereign, how could I have forgotten? Because they do forget. you encourage them you don't admonish those and you don't encourage the stubborn ones either as again as if you come along a a stubborn willful person who's saying i'm gonna do this i don't care what god says you don't say well you know god is so kind it's not time for that yet i love what dave pallison says he says when you do that you only reinforce the impression that you and God are sentimental dupes.

Not a holy God who says, no, that's not what my people do. Right? You don't encourage the rebellious. You admonish them. Right? We love others in various ways in order to fulfill our duties to one another.

Okay? And listen. All of us have particular bents. Some of you are bent hard towards admonition. And you may walk up to a fainthearted person and just start pounding them into the ground. Right?

Some of you are more in the encouraging mold. And you don't know what to do with a stubborn person. Right? The point is, no matter how you're bent, you minister to the person in the way that he needs. right it's not the same approach for everybody so keep that in mind as you see how we fulfill our responsibilities to one another so here we are we fulfill our responsibilities to one another by admonishing encouraging helping and being patient one last thing he says to us and that is in verse 15 pursue good with one another Pursue good with one another.

Notice what he says in verse 15. When I first, as I wrestled with the text, when I first came to this, or whenever I would read this, it always struck me funny. It was always unusual to me. Why? See to it that no one repays anyone evil for evil. but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Don't repay anyone evil for evil.

Wait, isn't he talking about people in the church? We know better than that, right? I mean, we're always told to love our enemies because we're really tempted to avenge ourselves against our enemies, but people in the church, we don't do evil against one another. And I say, really? Really? I think he means what he says here.

Don't repay evil with evil within the church. He is talking to us here. We have subtle forms of revenge. Right? We know we can't take out the knives to get our revenge. So we're more subtle.

We're more subtle in making a point. Right? So someone offends you. So what do you do? If someone in the congregation offends you, what do you do? Do you do good to that person? or do you find yourself avoiding her?

I'll just avoid her. She sits there, I'll sit over here. Or you talk to everyone else about how she's hurt you but you never talk to her. That's returning evil for evil. You work behind her back so that her ministry endeavors don't succeed. You're very subtle with it and you can even deceive yourself.

Well, I need to tell the elders about the problem that she has. They shouldn't entrust her with that ministry, right? I was just talking to a pastor the other day. He called me on the phone. And he was telling me that one woman has been offended at another woman. And so the one who's been offended has just stopped going to the small group study that they've been a part of.

Because she just wants to avoid her altogether. and she's been talking to other people about it. Right? That's doing evil. That's returning evil for evil. Listen, maybe someone hasn't done evil. You're just annoyed with them.

You're just annoyed. You have... He annoys you for some reason or he has a personality that's hard to take. And so you just get annoyed. And so what do you do? Well, you see him at school and so you just kind of stay away from him Just stay away from him Don engage him Don engage in conversation Avoid him in all social situations Just you know I just he just so irritating I just won have anything to do with him Right Or maybe you got everyone else annoyed with him too, and so he's alone and ostracized.

See? Don't repay evil for evil. Don't do that. what are you supposed to do he says pursue good pursue the good it says here what does he say always seek to do good by the way always seek to do good does not mean well at least I made the effort that's not what it means it means to strive for to pursue it with great effort that word seek there? In some context, like in Acts chapter 9, that same word is used in a different context.

It's talking about how Paul persecuted the church. Okay, so you know what that means? That means hot pursuit. It means hunting down. And so what he's saying here is, oh, give it your best effort. No, what he's saying here is hunt down those opportunities to do good to one another. pursue it hot pursuit don't be satisfied with just giving it a shot go after all of you are supposed to go after all of you with good you're to go after each other with good and always do this it doesn't matter if you've sustained some injustice or some injury you do it always you do it on every occasion, and you do it in every situation.

Do you see what he's saying here? All of us here, with all of us here, no. You, with everybody else, you being the you, you singular with everybody else, you should be pursuing doing good to one another. Everybody to everybody. you say wow that's hard you know what I tell folks all the time there is an infinite chasm between hard and impossible hard is hard but it's not impossible you do it you say yeah but Pastor Tim some people are so hard to love like you not I bet I bet every one of you if I brought every one of you up here and I said okay, and I'm not even going to give you a name, alright, I'm looking at you, I could grab a name, I won't do that.

So here's Tim, let's grab that one, right? Nice guy? Some of you may raise your hand. Do you have a difficulty liking this guy? And some people will certainly say, yeah, you know, he's just kind of irritating sometimes. Right?

Someone can always find something wrong with you. Yeah, everyone's difficult to love. But here's what you need to remember. When did Jesus die for you? You know what it says in Romans 5? While we were yet sinners, sinners, Jesus gave you the ultimate expression of love.

Right? And if it's really hard for you, I got a booklet called How to Love Difficult People. If I'd been thinking ahead of time, I would have ordered it and handed it out today. Since we're all difficult people. Listen. What we need to do.

You say, how do we do this? There's so many people here. Okay, so here's what you can start doing. Get out of your comfortable groups. Get out of your comfortable group. Start engaging people in conversation.

Just start engaging people in conversation. Set this as your goal, okay? These are just beginning steps of how to do good. Find someone in this congregation that you don't know very well and determine that you're going to learn two new things about that person before you go home. That's simple enough. Start there.

And then find ways, find needs, and start meeting them. That's the next step in how to love people. Discover a need and meet it. Okay? Point is, start hunting down opportunities to do good. In fact, he says, do good to everyone.

Here he's saying, even to those outside the congregation. You saying oh God if it not hard enough to be good to everyone in the congregation now you want us to be good to everyone outside Yes Absolutely Absolutely You know what that requires don't you? That requires supernatural grace. That's going to drive you to your knees. That's going to say, God, if that's what you're telling me to do, it's impossible, but if you give me the grace, I'll do it.

I'll do it. And you start praying God for grace. And so you hunt down and you pursue vigorously doing good to those outside when you meet someone on the street, some acquaintance, as you walk down to the post office, or as you're at the store, or in the barbershop, no matter who it is, think, I've got to find some way of blessing this person before we part.

Some way of blessing that person. Some way of finding out what I can do for that person. Some way I could just say something kind and gracious to that person. I've got to figure out something before we part. That's where you start. That's where you start.

Listen, clearly God says, His disciples, Jesus' disciples, must be the most loving, most kind community of people anywhere in the world. That's what He's telling us. well you know what two verses like that are enough for one day aren't they yeah yeah they are but let me say something to you I cannot tell you how many times visitors have come here and have said to me wow your congregation is alive your congregation is vibrant how do you do it and my answer is always the same you know what it is I don't know we haven't strategized this we haven't found the perfect 40 days to a wonderful congregation program we haven't done any of that stuff I said this is the only thing I can tell you we preach the word and we love one another that's it that's all I can tell you Let me say to you, we should love one another enough to say difficult things to difficult people. We should love one another enough to encourage those ready to give up.

We should love one another enough to pour our hearts into those who always need help. We should love one another good enough that we'll pursue good to one another on every occasion and every situation. and I can say with the Apostle Paul do that just as you are doing and do so more and more Father thank you for your word sometimes we'll sit here and think God your word just won't leave me alone and yet Lord we know that it tells us what we need to do and it shows us Jesus and how we can follow Him and the joy and the vibrancy and the life that comes from it Father I thank you for this congregation I thank you that I can say with the Apostle Paul, just as you are doing, but God impress upon us to do so more and more. Thank you for your spirit. which brings the word of God to bear and then changes us in light of it.

Help us to line up with Him and to do those things that you've told us to do. Thank you for your grace which you offer so freely so we can obey. And so I pray, continue to work here. help us to be this kind of a congregation help us to do so more and more for your glory we will thank you in Jesus name Amen