Today's sermon text is verse Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 14 and 15. That's verse Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 14 and 15. And we urge your brothers and monitor the idol and 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. This is God's Word. I had the privilege of or came across a slideshow on the internet and it was detailing some extravagant mansions. I mean elaborate and extraordinary mansions but this slideshow was unique. It was depicting these mansions that were left to neglect. They were neglected. And it was kind of fascinating to see the deterioration of these once fascinating and extravagant architectural structures where we had grown in and the cracks that start to form in the building and what once was beautiful was now dilapidated and under disrepair. These mansions had been neglected. Whether it is in schoolwork, relationships, a house, car, a job, if you fail to care for things, neglect begins to show. If you don't, couple on, weeds grow. If you don't do the dishes, take out the trash, wash the clothes, you might start to have some little friends start moving in. If you are not communicating, encouraging, appreciating the other party in a relationship, distance begins to form and that relationship is soon lost. It succumbs to neglect. To neglect something is to not care. It's to let it go, to ignore, to simply let things be as they are. Our text this morning has to do with caring, caring specifically for one another. Paul, in continuing with this rapid fire exhortation that we see at the end of First Thessalonians essentially says, brothers and sisters, I want you to care for one another. The one another passages in the scriptures just can't be ignored. There are 59 references to how we are to treat one another in the Bible. What Holy Spirit is communicating to us is that we have a responsibility towards one another. We are linked, connected, joined together. The church is not like a family, the church is a family. It is a family and so we are called to act as a family, a family who cares for one another. Here is the deal, brothers and sisters, if we do not heed Paul's exhortations here, his instructions here, we are essentially saying we don't care about one another. And it will be no time before neglect accepting. And what was once a thriving and growing family will become dysfunctional family. Because we neglected to care for one another. Once again, Paul does not leave us guessing. He sees wonderful like this and then that he encourages us. He tells us how we ought to do these things that he calls us to. He clearly lays out some specific responsibilities for how brothers and sisters ought to care for one another. And he brings to our attention three types of individuals that he believes are within the Thessalonian congregation. But what should be of note to us is that these categories are not just limited to the church at Thessalonica. I think we can easily say that most of the people that we will talk about, that we will see in our texts are in all congregations. Categories that Paul mentioned, these people that are in Thessalonica and in this congregation and other congregations around the world, are the idol, the weak, and the discouraged. Paul starts with the idol, with the idol, and he says, admonish the idol. Now, we made mention of this before when we were preaching through Thessalonians. But it is clear that Paul was addressing issues that were going on in the Thessalonian church. There were some members there who were considered idol or busy bodies, men and women who were stirring up strife, and who are just not with the program. Some some translations render these individuals as unruly. In other words, everyone is going right, and they just insist on going left. They're just not with the program. They're not in step with the rest of the congregation. They are busy bodies and medallers, because the reason this is the case is because they have failed to make good use of their time. The idol, Ephesians 5, 15, and 16, says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Because the sisters, the idol here in this congregation, the idols in Thessalonica, the idols in all congregations are not heating this verse. To be idol is to walk contrary to your calling. It is to be counted among the unwise rather than the wise. These men and women Paul says need to be warned. They need to be challenged to turn from cast causing trouble and to get busy attending to the things of the Lord. He warns them to get in line. That's right, they are not simply to get busy doing any old thing. Paul's point is that they would be admonished to walk a life pleasing to God. Pleasing to God, pursuing righteousness, killing sin, growing in wisdom and understanding, serving the body, playing. Paul uses the phrase that he loves to use, that they are to be admonished to walk a life pleasing and a walk in accordance with the life that they have been called to. When you are a sister, idol is dangerous. When you are idol, in that moment you are exposed to the wild and the schemes of the devil. And if not attentive, he will pounce on you and try to destroy you. He will have you taking up your free time, getting involved in useless debates and stirring up controversy. The idol, busy body. You see why warning the idol shows that you care. If your brother or sister were walking and you saw impending danger ahead of them, wouldn't you want to warn them? What if you do everything in your power to keep them from heading in that direction? If you didn't do that, what would that say about you? What would that communicate? It would communicate. It would actually scream that you did not care about them. We admonish because we care that our brothers and sisters are not taken over by the evil one. And so when there are those who are stirring up strife among us, when there are those who are idol and they seem to be getting into things that they shouldn't be getting into, Paul says, admonish them, warn them. Live according to the life you have been called to. But Paul doesn't just address the idol. He next turns his attention to the discourage. And he says encourage the faint hearted. Encourage the faint hearted. Rather than this, his discouragement is no respecter of person. In a fallen world full of brokenness, of sin, full of sadness, discouragement runs rampant. I am not naive to think there are some in here this morning who are fighting you this week. You know, not just fighting it, but in fact has been overcome by discouragement. Perhaps you receive bad news this week that just turned your world upside down. Maybe you've been fighting a sin and you thought you had it beat, but this week it crept back in. And you're just discouraged because you feel like you're never going to get rid of that. And sit on another rough spot. Perhaps your grades aren't what they are supposed to be. Perhaps the things aren't going so well on the job. It's just a discouragement. It is real. And no one is immune to it. Paul understands this. That's why he says brothers and sisters encourage those among you who are faint hearted. This is why your presence in the community on Sunday, Wednesday, or whenever the church gathers is so important. In the body of believers, you have two types of people. Those who need to be encouraged and those who can encourage. So everyone should be coming. When we gather together, everyone should be coming expected. If you need encouraging, you need encouragement. You need to be coming into the fellowship expecting to be encouraged by your brothers and sisters. You shouldn't have to go anywhere else to be encouraged. On the other hand, you are not disturbed. You need to be coming into the fellowship of the saints expecting to encourage someone. You should be on, that should be your mission. You should be thinking and looking out when you come into the gathered congregation. Who can I encourage today? Who can I show that I care for them by encouraging them? No one should leave the gathering of the saints not having heard an encouraging word. If you are not sure how to encourage them, the Bible gives us a plethora of ways to do so in our time. Through our Thessalonians, we have covered a few of these ways already. Remember, we talked about praying for people and how encouraging that is. That when you are going through something, when you are struggling to hear that somebody, one of your brothers and sisters is actually taking the time to pray for you, that is encouraging because they are besieging the one who has the ability to do something about your situation. So, it's encouraging to pray. We also talked about Thessalonians, how we ought to encourage one another by reminding each other that Jesus is coming back. That He's coming back again to take His right home and we will be with our husband and our Savior for eternity. That is an encouraging word. There are other ways in which we can encourage the faint hearted. Did you know that you can encourage the faint hearted with your voice? With your voice. Most every church liturgy or order of service includes a time of singing together. This time of corporate worship and song is a response to God in Christ for all that Christ has done for us. We sing our praises to Him, thank Him and sometimes lament Him through song. Many times we think our sing is our offering to God and it is only for Him. But our singing also has horizontal benefits. We sing to one another. We encourage one another with our voices in song. Colossians 3 and 16 says let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing hymns and songs and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart to God. We encourage one another with our voices. Brothers and sisters I'm not telling you something that I have not experienced. I have been to places that don't sing where people just don't sing. And it is not encouraging. Don't you know what the Lord has done for you? Don't you want to lift up your voices and praise Him? Then I have been in the midst of congregations where I have come in discouraged, downtrodden. And then we begin to lift our voices and sing great is thy faithfulness or how great is our God or Jesus at the center of it all. And my heart is well done with encouragement. As the sisters we sing to one another. We encourage one another with our voices. So, oh, lift up your voice when you come and sing. Right Alan, you want them to sing, right? You want them to sing. Sing out loud. Sing joy and passion because you know that it encourages your brothers and sisters who are around you. Oh, lift up your voice and encourage the faint hearted. But you can also encourage the faint hearted by your presence. And we've talked about this. We've talked about this already but I think it is worthy of overemphasis. Your presence among the saints matters. Sometimes it's just encouraging to see people's faces. I know that's how it was for us when we first started. I mean there was just a few of us and then when people would show up, oh wow, that's the people coming. You know, it was encouraging. This though, people showing up is particularly encouraging, particularly true. When you know that for that person to be present, it wasn't easy. Life is dealing them body blows. And the role to get in the door was full of potholes and barriers and difficulties. Come 10, 30, 11 o'clock. There they are. Strong into the door. Come into the gathered things to praise the Lord in spite of all that has been discouraging and difficult throughout the week. That is encouraging. The writer to the Hebrew says in chapter 10, verses 24 and 25, and let us consider how to stir one another up to loving good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day approaching. You cannot do that if you are not showing up to the gathered congregation. You cannot encourage your brothers and sisters at home by yourself. You and I encourage the fainthearted by being present. There are several other ways to do it but the last way we will look at how we can encourage the fainthearted. We encourage them by helping them to consider Jesus. You know sometimes as God would have it the fainthearted are encouraged by the congregational thing. Others it is seeing the saints just being amongst the saints. They see people smiling and rejoicing and they are just encouraged. Then there are those who need extra care. They need one on one time. And in that one on one time you encourage them by helping them to consider Jesus. Listen to the writer of the Hebrews again in chapter 12, verse 3. Consider him. Consider Jesus who endured from sinners such a hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. You encourage the fainthearted by helping them to consider the one who died for sinners so that they would not be discouraged. Listen the reason why we get discouraged is because we lose hope. We are discouraged because we think the bad word we heard is the last word. We get discouraged because we think nobody cares. We get discouraged because we think it is never going to get any better. Sisters. When we are around those folks. When we are around people who we see downtrodden and despair. When we see people like the Psalmist talked about in Psalm 6 who drenched their pillow at night because of their tears. We are to go to those people and whether we have to scream it, whether we have to whisper it, whether we have to text it to them, whatever we have to do, we need to tell them. Consider Jesus. Consider Jesus. He died for you. He cares for you. In him there is hope. Jesus has the final word. And he is making all things new. Consider Jesus. The sisters do not ever. As Christians we should never ever say that we don't know how to encourage people. We don't know how to encourage other believers. Consider Jesus. If you don't know what else to say when somebody needs encouragement, tell them to consider Jesus. Go to the word find Jesus and consider him. Oh brothers and sisters, he will be encouraged. We are to encourage the saint party. Paul has told us how we are to deal with the idol. He told us how we are to deal with the saint-hearted but he gets to the final group and addresses them and says that we are to help the weak. Help the weak. Only the fittest survive. That is what Darwin says. Those who can't fend for themselves, get stepped on, dominated and eventually discarded. This is not so in the kingdom of God. The weak are to be helped. And in fact brothers and sisters in Christ, those who are strong have an obligation to help the weak. God expects you to do so. That is what Romans 15 and 1 says. We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please our selves. We are to care for the weak. There is a wonderful illustration going out on the internet. It came out several years ago and when I saw it, I said, oh man, that is a beautiful ceremony illustration. And as the load has it, it happens. I can use it this morning. So praise God. But it is the video of nature and there is a herd of buffalo and they are drinking at a river sign. And they notice that a pack of lions is watching them and waiting to pound. And the herd of water buffalo begins to move away from the lions. Or there is one weak little water buffalo who can't make it with the pack. And the lions pounce on that weak water buffalo. And as you notice, as you are watching this unfold, you are saying, this water buffalo is not going to make it. The herd has left him. After several minutes there, that little water buffalo struggling to send off this pack of lions that is about to devour them. All of a sudden, here comes the herd of water buffalo. And they are coming back to rescue the weak one, the one who was not able to get out of the clutches of the lion. And do you know those that herd of water buffalo scared off all those lions and saved that weak little water buffalo? Oh, brothers and sisters, that is how the community of the saints work. That's how the kingdom of God works. We are to care for the weak among us who are under the grips of the lions of the evil one. We don't care for them. Help them in their time of need. Oh, and if we can't help them by ourselves, go get the pack and bring them back. But we are not going to leave the weak. We are going to help the weak because we are called to do so. We help the weak in a couple of ways. We help them with their physical needs. We help them with their spiritual needs. Physical needs. This is utterly contrary to Darwin's thought. Those who cannot spend for themselves are thought of as less than and not to be helped. But in the kingdom of God, in the church, we are going to help the physically weak. Isaiah 11, 17, learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless. Read the widows. Help those who are struggling to help themselves. Galatians 2, bear, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. That's how we help each other. That's how we help those who have physical needs. We bear their burdens. It's also not just physical, spiritual needs. There exists within every congregation men and women who are weak in their faith. They are struggling in their knowledge of the Bible and they are in need of someone to come alongside them. They need help. They need to know how do I walk this journey? How do I get by? How do I get from point A to point B? I need help. The goal with these brothers and sisters is not to make them feel inferior because of their spiritual needs. But to actually help them grow. To seek to build them up. To walk alongside them. Romans 14 and verses 1 and 2 is a clear example of this. As for the one who was weak in faith, welcome him. But not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains and let not the one who abstains has judgment on the one who eats. For God has welcomed him. Listen, we don't help our weaker brother or sister in Christ by forcing our freedom on them. This is what Paul is saying here. We don't force our freedom on the weaker brother. We help them by not binding their conscience, by helping them to honor Christ. And not our rules and our regulations or even our freedom. What a privilege to help a brother or sister who needs help spiritually. God is not saving so that you could only be about yourself. It is so that you could look to the need of and the interest of others ahead of yourself. You help the weak. You help those who need help. See brothers and sisters, this is how we are to care for one another. To see these type of people in our midst, the idol, the discoverers, the faint hearted, the weak, and to not do anything about it is to neglect the body. But we also must resist the urge to ignore them. There is another urge we must resist. And that is to grow impatient with these individuals. To grow impatient with them. Paul says, be patient with them all. Why does he say that? Because to care about the people I mentioned in the ways I mentioned is not easy. I know I listed off these things like they were no big deal but the fact remains caring about the idol, the faint hearted and the weak is hard. It will indeed test your patience. Believe me, I know it will test your patience. You will think you are a patient person but then you will realize, wow Lord, I am not patient. These are our brothers and sisters in Christ. And therefore we need to be long suffering. We need to walk with them. We need to care for one another. You know what it reveals when we grow impatient with people? It reveals that we don't trust God's tentative. Patient says, I trust God with my brother or sister's soul. I trust his wisdom and plan for their sanctification. What I am going to do, I am just going to point them to Jesus. That is what patient says. I am going to pray for them. I am going to trust them to the Lord because he does the work. These are the ways in which we care for one another. Question is, why do we care for one another? Well yes, I said it. We care for one another because we are family. That is what family does. We care for one another. But there is a deeper underlying reason for our care. There is something that motivates us when it is difficult to care. There is a narrative running through that is the catalyst for our care for one another. We care for one another because Jesus cares. That is why we care for one another. It is because Jesus cares. First Peter, 5, 6 and 7, humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God. So at the proper time, he might exalt you. Casting all your anxieties on him. Why? Because he cares for you. Because he cares for you. Christ cares about the discouraged. And he cares for them by encouraging them. Romans 15 and 4. But whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance, through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. God encourages his people through his scripture. He has given us his word so that we might be encouraged by it. He cares for the weak. For while we were still weak in the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. He cares for us that while we were weak, while we could not help ourselves, while there was nothing that we could do. We could have pulled up our boots by our own boots. Perhaps we needed help because we were weak and Christ cared for us by dying for us. Jesus cares about us. We care for one another. We're doing that. We are imitating Christ. That's what we're doing. We're imitating Christ. Paul helps us further to follow in the footsteps of our Lord with a catch-all verse in verse 15. He catches it all. He says, see that no one repays anyone evil for evil. But always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Paul is clear here. Don't retaliate. Don't seek to exact revenge. Don't take matters into your own hands. It is amazing how quickly our desire to repay evil for evil kicks him when we have been wrong. I can't let them walk all over me like that. But let them get away with it. They will take a full advantage of me. I must repay evil for evil. Let's listen to the example of our older brother. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten. But continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. This is what Jesus did. If anyone had the right to repay evil for evil, it was Jesus. But he didn't. It says that when he was reviled, he did not revile. When he was sinned against, he did not sin back. But he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. When we entrust ourselves to the one who judges justly, we can do good to one another and to everyone. Because in the midst of me being good to all, if I am wronged or taken advantage of because of that goodness, I trust the judge who judges justly. And you know what that judge declares? Here's what he declares in Romans 12, verse 19 to 20. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord, to the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he thirsts, give him something to drink. For by doing so, you will keep burning coals on his head. Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. In other words, those sisters don't pay evil for evil. You just worry about doing good to everyone. You good to everyone. That's the call. That's our example. We have a responsibility to one another. Can't neglect the idol. Cannot not encourage the discouraged. We must help the weak. We are to imitate our Lord Jesus in showing patience and being good to all. Because that's how Christ treated me. That's how He treated us. And in Him we have an example. 1 Timothy 1-16. But I receive mercy for this reason that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life. In Christ, we have our example. The name of our sermon series through the book of 1 Thessalonians is the imitation of Christ. When you and I care for one another, we are imitating our Lord. We are imitating how He has love and how He has cared for us. So as family, we have a responsibility. But not neglect each other. But to care for one another. Admonishing the idol. Encouraging those who are discouraged. And helping the weak. Being patient. And loving and showing good to all. May Christ help us. May He be our example. May He be our catalyst. I love each other well. And may what God has begun here. Not be neglected so that it looks like those mansions that were once beautiful architectural designs. Now overtaken by weeds and overgrown windows broken. And that will never be set of these point jobs. Because we care for one another. Let's pray.