A loaded [SUV] pulled into the only remaining campsite. Four teenagers leaped from the vehicle and began feverishly unloading gear and setting up a tent. The boys then rushed off to gather firewood, while the girls and their mother set up the camp stove and cooking utensils. A nearby camper watched in awe and remarked to their father, “That sir, is some display of teamwork.” The father replied, “I have a system. No one goes to the bathroom until the camp is set up.” (James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, p.384)
Wow! What a way to encourage your family to work together.
I wonder if that would work with the church family: “No one goes to the bathroom until all the work is done.” Probably not, so the question remains: How do you encourage teamwork in the church? How do you motivate one another to meaningful service? How do you help one another excel in these difficult days before Jesus returns? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 5, 1 Thessalonians 5, where the Bible shows you how.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore [in light of Christ’s soon return] encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
So how do you do that?
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13a We ask you, brothers, to respect 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. (ESV)
If you want to encourage your church family to excel, first of all...
APPRECIATE YOUR LEADERS.
Respect them for their hard work. Lovingly honor them for their direction and determination to serve.
Now, that’s easy to do when you have a good leader, one who never preaches a bad sermon, one who is always there when you need him, and one whose administrative skills are second to none. But what do you do with the average leader? He has a good sermon some of the time. He is not always available, and he would rather be torn apart by wild beasts than administer anything. That’s the kind of pastor you might be tempted to dismiss.
M. R. DeHaan, founder of the Radio Bible Class, which produces the Our Daily Bread devotional, talked about a time when a group of people came from a neighboring church to see him. They were looking for advice on some convenient and painless way to get rid of their pastor. He said, “I’m afraid, however, that I wasn’t much help to them.” Later on, he pondered the matter a great deal and decided that the next time anyone came to him for advice on how to get rid of a pastor, he would tell them:
1. Look the pastor straight in the eye while he’s preaching and say “Amen” once in a while and he’ll preach himself to death.
2. Pat him on the back and brag on is good points and he’ll probably work himself to death.
3. Rededicate your life to Christ and ask the preacher for some job to do, preferably some lost person you could win to Christ, and he’ll die of heart failure.
4. Get the church to unite in prayer for the preacher and he’ll soon become so effective that some larger church will take him off your hands. (You and Your Pastor, Radio Bible Class)
The congregation makes the pastor as much or more than the pastor makes the congregation. When a congregation appreciates their pastor, he becomes a great pastor. However, when a congregation does not appreciate their pastor, he is at best a mediocre pastor.
Let me just say this: You do a good job showing your appreciation for me. Sandy and I are often overwhelmed by your expressions of love, so much so that I don’t want to give you anything less than my best. And if there’s anything “great” about this preacher, it’s not because of who HE is what HE does. It’s because of who YOU are and what YOU do to encourage him along the way.
If you want your church family to excel, 1st, appreciate your leaders. Then 2nd...
APPRECIATE ONE ANOTHER.
Get along with each other. Help each other grow in the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 5:13b Be at peace among yourselves.
In other words, live in harmony with each other. How?
1 Thessalonians 5:14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. (ESV)
To live in harmony with each other, you must admonish the idle or the unruly. Warn those who are disruptive.
Gordon MacDonald talks about the time several years ago when he was in Japan on a close speaking tour with a close personal friend, who was much older than he. As they walked down the street in Yokohama, Japan, the name of a common friend came up, and MacDonald said something unkind about that person. It was sarcastic. It was cynical. It was a put-down. MacDonald said, “My older friend stopped, turned, and faced me until his face was right in front of mine; and with deep, slow words he said, ‘Gordon, a man who says he loves God would not say a thing like that about a friend.’”
MacDonald said, “He could have put a knife into my ribs, and the pain would not have been any less.” But those words served him well over the years. MacDonald says the words of his friend saved him from “making a jerk of myself” ten thousand times. So that when he’s tempted to say something unkind about a brother or sister, he hears his friend's voice say, “Gordon, a man who says he loves God would not speak in such a way about a friend.” (Gordon MacDonald, in the sermon “Feeling As God Feels,” Preaching Today audio #196; www.PreachingToday.com)
If you want to live in harmony with people, you need friends like that. You need friends who are not afraid to get in your face every once in a while and warn you about inappropriate language or behavior. Admonish the idle or unruly.
Then encourage the fainthearted. Come along side and help those who are discouraged and ready to quit.
It’s what nine miners at Quecreek did several years ago when they were trapped for three days, 240 feet underground, in a water-filled mine shaft. They decided early on they were either going to live or die as a group.
The 55 degree water threatened to kill them slowly by hypothermia, so according to one news report “When one would get cold, the other eight would huddle around the person and warm that person, and when another person got cold, the favor was returned.”
“Everybody had strong moments,” miner Harry B. Mayhugh told reporters after being released from Somerset Hospital in Somerset. “[When] one guy got down... the rest pulled together. Then that guy would get back up, and [help] someone else that felt a little weaker. It was a team effort,” he said. “That's the only way it could have been.”
Those nine miners faced incredibly hostile conditions together, and they all came out alive together. (“Teamwork Helped Miners Survive Underground,” CNN.com, 7-28-02; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s what the church is all about. Admonish the unruly. Encourage the fainthearted.
And help the weak. Take care of those who are struggling in their walk with Christ.
The church is not a trophy case for the pious and proud. The church is a hospital for the spiritually sick and needy. In fact, I like to think of it as a teaching hospital like the KU Medical Center. We not only care for those who are spiritually sick. We train those who have been helped to do the same. We’re wounded healers, people who have been wounded, but are learning how to promote healing in others.
John Knight and Denise Knight were happily anticipating the birth of their first child, a son. They had already decided to name him Paul. But when Paul was born, there was a big problem: Paul was born without eyes. John and Denise would later discover that their son had other serious issues, including severe autism and a growth hormone deficiency.
Two months after Paul's birth, as John was looking at his son hooked up to tubes and sensors and surrounded by medical professionals, he quietly told God, “God, you are strong, that's true, and you are wicked. You are mean. Do it to me—not to this boy. What did he ever do to you?” Shortly after that prayer, John and Denise quit going to church.
But one couple from the church refused to give up on them. Karl and Gerilyn never pressured John and Denise about spiritual issues. Instead, they would often stop by and leave simple gifts, like a loaf of fresh bread or a basket of soap and shampoo for Denise. John said that it was like Karl and Gerilyn were saying, “I notice you. I see you. I know you're hurting and I love you.”
Eventually John and Denise accepted a dinner invitation from Karl and Gerilyn. During dinner John told Karl, “You can believe whatever you want. I don't care. I have evidence that God is cruel.” Karl softly replied, “I love you, John. I have regard for you, and I love your boy.”
Karl and Gerilyn's four children also displayed unconditional love for their son. John described it this way:
They'd throw [my son] up in the air and make him laugh and do funny bird sounds and—and that was confounding, because most people, most adults couldn't do that. And so I would have this extraordinary expression of love and affection at the dinner table here, and I would turn to my left—and there would be at least one of these children playing with my boy like he was a real boy. I wasn't even sure he was a real boy at times.
Based on this family's quiet, persistent love, John and Denise finally returned to the Lord and to their local church. And when they returned, Karl and Gerilyn stayed by their side, making sure their son made it into the nursery. John would later say, “They persisted. That was a big deal that they persisted with us.” (Tony Reinke, editor, Disability and the Sovereignty of God, Desiring God, 2012, pp. 30-36; www.PreachingToday.com)
My dear friends, that’s what God calls us to do for each other.
I like how Ken Medema put it when he described the church.
If this is not a place where tears are understood,
Then where can I go to cry?
And if this is not a place where my spirit can take wings,
Then where shall I go to fly?
I don’t need another place for tryin’ to impress you
With just how good and virtuous I am.
I don’t need another place for always being on top of things.
Everybody knows that it’s a sham.
I don’t need another place for always wearin’ smiles
Even when it’s not the way I feel.
I don’t need another place to mouth the same old platitudes
Everybody knows that it’s not real.
So if this is not a place where my questions can be asked,
Then where shall I go to seek?
And if this is not a place where my heart cry can be heard,
Where, tell me where, shall I go to speak?
So if this is not a place where tears are understood,
Where shall I go, where shall I go to fly? (Ken Medema)
By God’s grace, Faith Bible Church is that kind of a place, a place where we appreciate one another. To do that, we must admonish the unruly; encourage the fainthearted; help the week;
And be patient with everyone. Don’t be quick to criticize. Instead, give people space to grow.
That means do good to all whether they deserve it or not. Demonstrate grace, not revenge.
1 Thessalonian 5:15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. (ESV)
Romans 12 puts it this way: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). It’s the way God loved us from an old rugged cross.
In 2009, during the pennant race between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Washington Nationals, Phillies fan Steve Montforto was sitting with his three-year-old daughter Emily in the upper deck when a foul ball came their way. Montforto leaned over the railing to catch his first and only foul ball—every fans dream. But when he handed the ball to little Emily, immediately she threw it back over the railing and down into the lower deck. Everyone gasped. Monforto himself was as surprised as anyone to see her throw the ball away. But rather than getting irritated with his little girl, he wrapped his daughter up in a tender embrace.
That’s the way God loves us. Phil Ryken says, “He puts gifts into our hands that we could never catch for ourselves. Without realizing what we are doing, sometimes, we throw them away. Yet rather than getting irritated with us, he loves us again. Then he gives us the freedom to go love someone else with the same kind of love. He even gives us the grace to go back to people who throw our love away and love them all over again.” (Phil Ryken, Loving the Way Jesus Loves, Crossway, 2012, p. 58; www.PreachingToday.com)
Wow! That’s hard to do, but with God’s grace you can. To encourage your church family to excel, 1st, appreciate your leaders; 2nd, appreciate one another; and 3rd..
APPRECIATE GOD’S PLAN.
Be grateful that God is in control even when your life seems out of control. Look beyond your circumstances to the One who controls those circumstances for your good and His glory.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (ESV)
Always praise, always pray, and always give thanks IN all circumstances, not FOR all circumstances. You see, you may not be grateful FOR a particular circumstance, but you can always be grateful IN that circumstance.
Pamela Curry, from San Rafael, California, says that she and her 6-year-old daughter Julie, every night, thank God for one thing about the day. One evening Julie was breaking out in chicken pox, Pamela had the flu, and her husband was out of town. As Pamela tucked Julie into bed, Julie said, “Mommy, I can't think of anything to thank God for today. It was a horrible day.” They thought for a while more and little Julie finally said, “I know. We can thank him that the day is over.”
So they did. Pamela prayed, “Thank you, Lord, for the gift of life. No matter how difficult it is, we take comfort knowing you are there to help us make it through horrible days.” (Pamela Curry, San Rafael, CA, Today's Christian Woman, “Heart to Heart,” www.PreachingToday.com)
Someone once said, “I have learned that God's silence to my questions is not a door slammed in my face. I may not have answers. But I do have him” (“Dive in When You Can't Come Back,” Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 12; www.Preaching Today.com).
If for nothing else, you can be grateful that you have Jesus! You can be grateful that you have Jesus, who is with you in every circumstance, and who has promised to work all things together for good.
In these difficult days before Jesus comes, if you want to encourage your church family to excel, 1st, appreciate your leaders; 2nd, appreciate one another; 3rd, appreciate God’s plan; and finally...
APPRECIATE GOD’S SPIRIT at work in each other.
Admire what He is doing even in the weakest believer. Respect the Spirit’s work in anyone who seeks to serve in the way the Holy Spirit has gifted them.
1 Thessalonians 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit. (ESV)
Don’t stifle the Spirit’s work in someone else’s life, and don’t stifle the Spirit’s work in the church.
1 Thessalonians 5:20-22 Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. (ESV)
When you despise what people try to say or do in dependence upon God’s Spirit, you quench the Holy Spirit in their lives and in the church. Don’t do it! When somebody tries to serve the Lord, however imperfectly, don’t criticize their efforts. Don’t look for the flaws. Instead, appreciate the effort.
Rod Cooper says he almost flunked the first grade. He was a terrible reader in a school which had three reading groups. The highest group was the Owls. They were in the trees above everybody else. The next group was the Giraffes—head and shoulders above everyone else. Rod was in the third group, the Humpty Dumptys. They were on the wall, off the wall, in the wall, and out! They couldn't get it together. Rod says, “My mom saw me coming home discouraged and down every day.”
Then she started reading with him every night. He came home one day with a C on one of his papers and gave it to her. She smiled and started to cry. She said, “Oh, Rodney, I'm so proud of you.” She made his favorite dinner and let him stay up late. Rod says, “I'm thinking, Gee, if this is what a C will do! What do you think that did for me? It spurred me on to want to do the best.” That's what encouragement does. It makes you want to move on when you feel like quitting.
Rod never made it to the Owls, but he got to the Giraffes, and he got out of first grade. Today, when his mom introduces him, she says, “This is my son,” putting her arms around him. “This is my son, Doctor Cooper." Then she'll look at him and wink just to remind him from where he’s come. (Rod Cooper, “The Kiss of Encouragement,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 141; www.PreachingToday.com)
When people are struggling, they don’t need criticism; they need encouragement; they need somebody to appreciate their efforts.
In these difficult days before Jesus comes, if you want to encourage your church family to excel, 1st, appreciate your leaders; 2nd, appreciate one another; 3rd, appreciate God’s plan; and 4th, appreciate God’s Spirit at work in each other.
Let’s learn some lessons from the geese.
1st, They fly in a V formation, because it takes 71% less energy than flying solo. We can do so much more together than we can by ourselves.
2nd, The lead goose has the most difficult job, because he has to break the wind. So when he gets tired, he slips back in the formation and another goose flies point. It works best when you share the hard jobs.
3rd, When a goose is hurt in flight, two others accompany it to the ground to help and protect is as best as they can. In fact, they stay with the injured goose until it is either able to fly or until it dies. Then they launch out on their own or with another formation to catch up with their original group. If our church had a reputation like that, if people know we stand by those who are hurting, then they would flock like geese to get into our doors.
4th, Geese honk when they fly. Do you know why? They honk from behind to encourage those up front. So my dear friends, instead of griping from behind, honk as much encouragement as you can, so that together we can fly to the heights to which God designed us to fly.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it (ESV).
