Support The Weak

Temple Baptist Church - 3-6-2016

1 Thessalonians 5:14

Introduction:

A.  Support the weak.  This can mean:

1.  Someone who is weak in the faith.  Romans 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.  (I find it interesting that the “weak” one in Romans 14 is the individual that says, “You can’t do this” or “you can’t do that!”  We are certainly not at liberty to commit sin but we are at liberty instead of under law.  Though we are to receive such a weak one, I do not believe that this is what the verse refers to.)

2.  Or it can mean someone who is going through a trial that has “taken the wind out of their sails!”  2 Corinthians 1:8  For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:  (Though God gives both grace and strength in trials, we are still human and often have a disquieted soul in the midst of troubles.)

Psalms 42:5  Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.  (Three times in Psalms 4a2 and 43, we find this verse.  The Psalmist wasn’t too spiritual either, was he?)

B.  In all of my 39+ years of being saved, I have never seen such malicious attacks being made against God’s people. 

1.  If God’s people ever needed each other and the fellowship of the church, it is today.  It is of no wonder that the Holy Spirit said, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching!” 

2.  Satan hates you; Satan hates the family; Satan hates this church!  He does not worry about the liberal churches or the apostate churches.  He controls those.  He hates conservative, fundamental, Bible believing, sin hating, soul winning, straight preaching churches because, if he can destroy the church, he can destroy you.  If he destroys you, he can destroy your family.

C.  A man once used the phrase “men of quiet desperation.”  We will never know the extent of another’s burden. 

1.  I need you, you need me, and we all need each other!  I do not have the power, in most instances, to take a burden away from you but I can help, to some extent, to bear a part of your burden. 

2.  I heard this somewhere: “A burden shared is half a burden.”  There are times though when I cannot help you, either because of the magnitude of the burden or because of the privacy of the burden but I can pray for you.

1.  There Are Burdens Of Sin

2.  There Are Burdens Of Sickness

3.  There Are Burdens Of Sorrow

4.  There Are Burdens Of Poverty

D.  How can we support the weak?

1.  By having compassion on them. 1 Peter 3:8  Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:  (Just a shoulder to lean on.)

2.  By praying for them.  James 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  (It is the best thing that I can do for you.)

3.  By just being there with them and for them.  2 Timothy 4:11  Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.  (Often, in the midst of a great trial, one has a tendency to feel alone.)

4.  By being a “listening ear” for them. Galatians 6:1-2  Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.  (2)  Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.  (A listening ear, not a telling tongue!  Learn to listen and then to keep what you hear in confidence.  Sometimes, people just need to “unload” a little and get something off of their chest.)

5.  By doing what we can to strengthen their faith.  Job 16:5  But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.  (Letting them know that they are not alone in their trial: God loves them and will not forsake them, neither will their brother or sister in the LORD.  There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.)

6.  By exhorting them to continue in the faith. Hebrews 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.  (Your being faithful to church exhorts the weak.  What a blessing it is when, in the midst of a great trial, you can come to church and see God’s people!  My family has been there and want you to know what a blessing it is to just come apart [church means a called our assembly] from the world for a little while and worship the Lord together.)

7.  By weeping with those who weep. Romans 12:15  Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.  (Sometimes, you just cry with them.  I have been with families that are hurting and, when I tried to pray for them, I just cried with them.  Let me give you an Old Testament example of something to do and something not to do.)

Job 2:11-13  Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.  (12)  And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.  (13)  So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

Job 4:1  Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,  (Job’s three friends were just that, his friends.  They hurt for him and with him but would have been much better off to listen and not say a word!  When you do not know what to say, just be there and say nothing.)