#3
(The Church’s Stance While Awaiting Christ’s Return
Series)
“BE
MINDFUL!”
TEXTS: 1 Thess.
5:14-15; Rom. 12:17-19
INTRO: When God
created man the very first institution He made was the family. Nothing man has ever come up with has
improved on this design and nothing new in the future will ever be an
improvement on the family unit.
Because nothing can be better than the family concept God used the same
basic idea when creating His church ... it is to be a family. Nothing can bring more pleasure or
more pain than being in a family.
If a family is based on God's design it is one of the most pleasurable
experiences in life. Nearly
everything we become in life is shaped by our family experience, and this has
parallels in the church family.
Just
as a natural family needs its members to be mindful of building their
relationships and keeping them healthy, so too those who are members of the
family of God need to be mindful of building and developing their
relationships with one another.
PROP.
SENT. A major responsibility of the
church while it is watching for the coming of Jesus Christ is to be mindful of
relationships, to seek the growth and development of one another in the family
of God.
I. MINDFUL OF FAMILY
DYNAMICS 1 Thess.
5:14
A.
Correction 1 Thess.
5:14a
1. One of the beneficial things about
being in a family is that you are challenged to live right, the real you is most
transparent in your family!
a. In the best of families this
process happens all the time.
b. Especially as we are growing
up!
c. You can hide flaws in a public
setting but they will show up in the home!
2. "Training" takes place in the home
more than anywhere else!
3. Some people think that a loving
church never experiences conflicts!
a. This is so
wrong!
b. The healthiest churches are the
ones where a "real" family atmosphere exists, where our relationships are much
more than just surface!
c. Healthy churches are full of
conflicts; they are healthy because those people within those churches
learn to work through their conflicts, where they are committed to
each other in love!
d. We are to really see each other as
"BROTHERS & SISTERS" in Christ!
4. Painful correction sometimes is
necessary to keep us growing and awake spiritually, this is one of the roles of
being the church or family of God; that we correct one another when we are
wrong!
ILLUS: A
young child accidentally swallowed some sleeping pills, the family quickly
rushed him to the doctor and after pumping the child's stomach the parents and
the other brothers and sisters were instructed to keep him awake for the next
several hours ... if necessary to even slap him to keep him awake, the pain
would act as a stimulus to ward off the effect of any of the medications that
might have passed into his blood. If they loved him they wouldn't allow him
to just drift off to sleep!
– Source Unknown
5. Sometimes it becomes necessary for
us to wake a saint up that is drifting off to sleep! BUT OF COURSE IT SHOULD BE DONE IN
LOVE!
6. As we are watching for the return
of Jesus we should be ever mindful to correct our brothers and sisters who
might be falling asleep spiritually!
a. It is interesting to note that the
term used in this verse, “IDLE” in Greek literally means,
“one who
breaks ranks as in the military.”
b. As such it does not mean to correct
those who have differences of opinions from our own, or do things differently;
it means those who quite literally break ranks with everybody else; they get
out of line in a serious way!
c. Paul's use of this military word
gives the idea of how destructive it would be for the whole army if
soldiers broke rank. Thus the
issues would have to be serious enough to cause harm to the church or
themselves!
B. Comfort
1 Thess. 5:14b
1. Of course, not all our ministry to
one another should be correction.
a. It would produce a spirit of pride
in us if all we did was look around for who we could
correct!
b. There are enough "spiritual critics" around on a full
time basis already; we don't need the "GIFT OF
CRITICISM" in the church! (Besides, it doesn’t
exist!)
2. Fortunately, Paul continues the
list, and the next item mentioned is "ENCOURAGE THE
TIMID!"
a. The Greek word translated here "TIMID" literally means, "The
faint-hearted."
b. It meant those who lacked courage,
either from a natural reality such as their personality, they are just the type
of person who is afraid more … or
c. It might also mean those who had
become faint-hearted or worn down from frequent
trials!
3. We could use more men like Barnabus
in the Bible, his name "BARNABUS" literally means, "SON OF
ENCOURAGEMENT" ... something for which he was well known in the Book
of Acts!
4. This is also true in a family ...
when a member of the family has had a rough time everyone rallies around them to
encourage them!
a. Even brothers and sisters who might
not always get along too well have been known to be there for each other in the
midst of a struggle!
b. One of the important roles we need
to live out in the family of God when we see saints who are our brother or
sister in Christ when they are afraid or worn down is to encourage
them!
c. We need
to distinguish between the saint that is rebellious and the one that is
discouraged.
ILLUS: In
1849 when Nathaniel Hawthorne was fired from his government job in the customs
house he went home in despair. His
wife listened to his woes, went and lit a fire in their fireplace, put a pen and
paper on the table, then wrapped her arms around her husband and said, "NOW YOU
WILL BE ABLE TO WRITE YOUR NOVEL."
Hawthorne did just that with her encouragement and the result was,
"THE SCARLET LETTER;" one of the masterpieces of literature
today!
– Source Unknown
ILLUS: The
great painter Benjamin West decided to become a painter from a very unusual
event of encouragement: When he was
a young boy he decided one day while his mom was not home to paint a picture of
his sister, he got out the bottles of ink and paper and began, soon he had made
a terrible mess! Instead of
scolding him when his mother got home and saw the mess, she picked up the
portrait and declared, "WHAT A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE OF YOUR SISTER!" Then his mom kissed him, ignoring the
mess. Later in life he recalled,
“With that kiss I became a painter.”
– Source Unknown
5. Let's remember to give one another
large measures of encouragement when we are worn down, or to those who have more
fears than others.
C. Community 1 Thess.
5:14c
1. The next statement of Paul's is "HELP THE
WEAK."
a. The word “WEAK”
here clearly means those who are weak spiritually, not
physically!
b. This might include new Christians,
those who have been damaged by bad examples, those who were worn out from severe
trials, or those whose faith has been shaken through some
experience.
c. The word "HELP"
means to "CLEAVE" or "SUPPORT."
2. Paul's statement here means to help
hold up those who are weak spiritually!
a. Like helping a baby stay up when it
is learning to walk.
b. Like helping to support someone on
crutches.
ILLUS: In
May, 1987 the National Geographic show featured the artic fox and the musk
oxen. The fox likes to eat the
oxen, but because of size and strength will only go after the young and
weak. The way the oxen protect
themselves illustrates the way the church should work. When an artic fox approaches, the adults
will close a circle around the weak members, usually the young, by facing head
in toward the young in a complete circle.
This way their powerful rear hoofs face back toward the circling fox, no
fox in their right mind would try to enter that circle! It would be dashed to pieces by those
rear hoofs if it tried! The
stronger oxen then support the weak this way, just as Paul wrote here! If even a single adult breaks rank
however the circle might break up and the weak would be fair game for the
fox! The strong must stand together
in protection of the weak, all of them!
– Source Unknown
3. Nothing is more beautiful than a
church where the weak feel protected and helped from those who are strong in
it!
a. This is what "COMMUNITY" means in
the church!
b. This is what it means when the
Bible says, “that if one member suffers, all the body
suffers.”
c. We need to take under our wings
those who are afraid or weak; they need our spiritual and emotional
support!
II. MINDFUL OF FORGIVENESS
DOMINATING 1 Thess.
A. Condonation 1 Thess.
5:15a Rom.
1. The word "condonation" means, "forgiving an
offense."
2. What makes all 3 of the injunctions
in verse 14
possible?
a. Large measures of forgiveness in
the body of Christ!
b. Like any family, its members need
to learn the fine art of forgiving as well as being
forgiven!
3. Healthy churches are NOT free
from discord, but they do know how to heal from
discord!
a. They have learned how to handle
faults and offenses, they forgive one another!
b. Loving
families are filled with forgiving and forgiven
people!
ILLUS: One
man wrote this about his parents:
“In the middle of one of my parents memorable disagreements my father
jumped up from the table and grabbed 2 sheets of paper and said to my
mother: 'let's make a list of
everything we don't like about each other.'” Mom started to write. Dad glowered at her for a few moments
and then wrote on his paper. She
wrote again, he watched her, each time she wrote something so did he! Finally they stopped, dad then said,
“Let's exchange lists now.” And so
they did. As soon as mother saw my
father’s she yelled, “Give me my list back now!” All down the page my father had
written, "I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU!" Forgiveness brought a real
healing! Who can resist this
kind of love!
– Source Unknown
4. As long as the church or family of
God is on this side of eternity it will need to learn to master the art of
forgiving and being forgiven if it is to be the family of God it ought to
be!
a. While a church might not be
perfect, it should be moving toward the goal of loving more and more, of
forgiving more and more.
b. In a forgiving church anyone can
feel welcome and loved!
c. When we learn to forgive others we
will experience the joy of being forgiven also!
5. To the church in Rome Paul gives
similar advice about forgiveness: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the
eyes of everybody. If it is
possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but
leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will
repay,' says the Lord.” Rom.
12:17-19
a. Notice Paul says, “If it is
possible, as far as it depends on you...”
b. There may be times when you can't
settle a broken relationship, but be sure it is not because of your failure to
do so.
c. Paul seems to indicate here that
there might be people who just won't respond, you can only be responsible for
your own actions, you can't force healing on others!
d. Your forgiving will increase the
possibility of others doing so however, do your part!
B. Compassionate 1 Thess.
5:15b
1. The motivation for
family:
a. Challenging the
Rebellious
b. Encouraging the
Fearful
c. Helping the
Weak
d. IS
LOVE! (Compassion!)
2. Without compassion the commands of
Paul in verse 14 wouldn't be
possible!
3. God's family is often well versed
on love, we know a great deal about love, we talk about it, our theology is
based on it; but what we need is to PRACTICE IT!
ILLUS: Like
the man who was passing a used book store.
He saw through the window a book titled "HOW TO HUG." Being a man interested in love he went
in to purchase the book; to his chagrin he discovered that it was the 7th volume
of a set of encyclopedias, covering alphabetically "HOW TO HUG." How many people come to a church hoping
to find a love that is demonstrated but instead discover an encyclopedia on
theology!?
– Source Unknown
4. Love is the power that drives a
family and keeps it healthy, without it we are weak and
powerless!
ILLUS: Like
a car battery, if it is kept in the cold it loses much of its useful power, only
those which are kept warm or frequently charged can get the car started. This charge must come from a source
outside itself; it can't hold it long on its own!
– Source Unknown
5. The church needs to have a warm
environment to demonstrate real power and we need to be "charged" with power
from on high on a routine basis to be useful and to give power to the
church!
CONCLUSION:
As we watch for Christ's return we are reminded not to wait just idly, we
are to be always mindful of the ways we are to love one another in God's
family. The church is to love in a
real way and not just in a surface
way!