Have you ever wondered what exactly it is that a pastor does? I mean, after all, doesn't he just work on Sundays? Just what is the pastor's job description? I thought I would start this evening with this summary of what I heard was a computer response. So, the pastor smiles all the time with a straight face. because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work. The perfect pastor preaches exactly 15 minutes while condemning sin but never upsetting anyone. The perfect pastor is 28 years old with 30 years of experience, whose burning desire is to work with the youth while being fully committed to each family as he plans and goes on weekly excursions with the senior citizens. The perfect pastor makes 15 calls a day, shut-ins, and those who are hospitalized, while constantly being involved in evangelizing the community, and he's always available in his study for whoever might stop by for counseling. The perfect pastor makes $100 a week, wears the latest fashions, drives a new car, while giving away $150 a week to the poor. Well, I hope you heard at least some of that. I heard some giggles because you realized how foolish that is. We try to put our desires on what a pastor should be. Thankfully, the Word of God speaks to our job description. Here's one portion. I don't know if you know this, but it's an interesting portion. It's in the book of Ephesians. It says, And God gave shepherds and teachers. Shepherds and teachers, those are your pastors. God gave them. We're a gift to you. Oh my Lord, thanks a lot. And God gave shepherds and teachers, that is pastors, to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Wait a minute, didn't we hire you to do ministry? What is, what's going on here? No, your pastors, your elders are supposed to be teaching you to do the work of ministry. If the church is going to grow, it isn't because you have great pastors that are out doing the work of ministry. But you have great pastors who minister to you and show you what the work of ministry is. And people come because of your opening the scriptures to them, sharing the gospel, and loving them for Christ's sake. Did you hear it? I've said it a couple times. The Lord has given your pastors in scripture to equip you for the work of ministry. And this evening we're going to find out from God's Word what is the work of ministry that He calls you who are in the pew to do. Last week we looked at seeing how we're to love those who are pastors and our shepherds, our elders. This week we're looking at how we're to love others for the work of ministry, and Lord willing, on the second Sunday in July, when I preach again, I'm scheduled to preach again in the evening, we'll be looking at how we love those who sin against us, whether in the church or outside the church. But this evening, we're gonna be looking at what God has called you to do. He has a clear job description. We're gonna look at one verse. In this one verse is enough job description for you to do for ministry for the rest of your life. So it's an important verse to look at, to underline, to mark and to go to God before. Well, let's stand before Him and pray for His work amongst us. As we see the job description that He's given to each one of His people. Let us pray first. Our Father in God, so many times we turn things around because we desire to be served. And instead of loving you, the giver of the gifts, we want the gifts. We desire to be served rather than serving. But you have called us, Lord, from being slaves of sin to be now slaves of righteousness. from being children of the devil now to the children of the living God. And so our work is not that You would serve us, O God, but we are blood-bought so that we now serve You. And we thank You that this evening that You have laid before us a job description impossible on our own. But resting in Christ, we might work unto this for Your glory. Would You make it clear to us, Lord, but not just make it clear, And not just make us feel guilty, but oh God, would you open our eyes to this great joy of serving you in these very duties that you've given us in your church, to serve and love you, to glorify Christ, and to love our neighbors for Christ's sake. For we pray in his name. Amen. Well, we're in 1 Thessalonians. Chapter 5. We're continuing there. We've been there in the evening. 1 Thessalonians 5. We're only going to be looking at verse 14, opening that tonight, but I want you to see the context. So I'll be reading verses 12-15. 1 Thessalonians 5. We ask you, brothers, We ask you, brothers and sisters, we ask you, church, 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. Be at peace among yourselves, and we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, Be patient with them all, and see that no one repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Amen. Well, we've looked at the call that God has given job description for all of you is that the pastors are to train you for the work of ministry. And verse 14 of the fifth chapter speaks of that. First it says, brothers and sisters in Christ, here you're called to ministry and we urge you brothers. Now I said last week when he talks about the brothers in scriptures, he's talking to the church, the believers, brothers and sisters, ones who are God's children by faith in Christ. And the word he says, I urge you to do this. I implore you. I entreat you. I command you. to be involved in ministry in this way. I urge you. This word is so strong. It's the same word that Peter used in the book of Acts when he's preaching at Pentecost. And he's calling, he's exhorting the people to repent, to turn from their sin and follow Christ. Just with that same strength of calling. Turn out, or you're burned. Come to Christ. Don't go to hell. As he was preaching the gospel and urging them for the sake of their souls to love and trust Christ, here he's urging you who are in the church to be involved in ministry. Your work is fine. Your family is fine. Your hobbies are okay. But you have a higher calling to be in ministry. I urge you, brothers. And we've seen how the brothers here speaks of us all. It's talking about those who are in the church. It's not talking about perfect people. The church we talked about today is a hospital for sinners. He's urging people that aren't perfect. We don't have to wait until we get our act together. We're redeemed by Christ, but because we are Christ, He calls us to go out, even in our brokenness. John MacArthur reminds us that the church is not a place for perfect people, but a hospital for sinners, those who know they're ill. This is interesting. Listen to this. He says, the church is the only society in the world in which your membership is based upon a single qualification. Do you know what that is? One qualification that you know you're unworthy to join. Not that I've got this much money, not that I have this degree, not that I'm from this family, not that I have these skills, not that I can do this. Your only qualification to join the church is I'm unworthy to join. And I need the head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, brothers, sisters in Christ, you now, because of Christ, come from the same spiritual seed, the Holy Spirit. You bear the same name, Christian, and you share the same hope, home in heaven. Now, what are these duties? What is the ministry that God calls you to do? You're ministers. If you're in Christ, you're to be involved in ministry. Tonight, we're going to look at three duties that God gives you, especially in His church. particularly in the church. There are other ministries that he gives us to reach out, but this is among each other. Three specific duties that we are to do with each other. The first is, we urge you, the first duty is to admonish those who are idle. Now, it's easy to think, well, that's just the slackers. You know how the church is, right? 20% of the people do 80% of the work, right? You have a sign-up sheet. You know those 20% that are always going to sign up to do and to help, but those 80%, you always got to drag along like an anchor, right? It's not talking about just that. There were the idol in Thessalonica because they knew that Jesus was coming back and they heard it was soon, so they said, I don't have to go to work today. Jesus is coming back. So there was that measure of idleness that they had to encourage those who had stopped working because they were hoping Jesus would return soon. But the word idle means more than that. Idle refers to someone who refuses to follow the commands of Christ. Someone who actively disobeys Jesus. I know what God's Word says, but I won't do it. We are called with each other's brothers and sisters. We have a ministry to each other when someone is sinning to admonish them. Now, wait a minute, Pastor. I hired you to do that, the hard work. We talked about that this morning. You need to do that. No, no, no, no. He says, brothers and sinners, you are to admonish the idol. The Apostle Paul, in knowing the church of Rome, he spoke to them and he said this in Romans 15.4, I myself am satisfied about you, brothers, that you are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct or admonish one another. Now, sadly to say, the church, the first parish in Concord was started in the middle of town. There's this big white building that's now, sadly, a universalist church. But it started off as a reformed biblical church. And they had a covenant with each other. In 1635, before they even built their own homes, they lived in caves that they made in the dirt and the ground and the banks by the river. They started a church and they made a covenant with each other. And in this covenant with each other, they understood that their ministry to one another was to admonish each other. In 1635, this is what they wrote and signed as they joined themselves to the church. They said this, that we may better be kept in holy subjection to God and His will, we will both watch over each other in the Lord, admonishing one another, both to prevent the evils into which we might fall and to recover ourselves out of those who've been overtaken with sin. You see, they covenanted with each other. They pledged with each other that when someone had gone into sin or gone off the way, stopped believing, started chasing after the world, they would go after them and admonish them. That is our work with one another. If you know someone in the church that's struggling and being rebellious, our job is to go after them. Not just to say, it's the pastor's job too. Pastor, did you know Pastor, didn't you see? Oh, Pastor, no, you're the one that has a relationship also and love them. You're called to go and say, oh, Susie, I'm so sorry. What's going on? Is that really? You don't even know. You go quietly and carefully. But if they're rebelling, they are brought back because he has given you and me that ministry to go after them, admonish them of what God would have them do to admonish the idol. Matthew Henry says it this way, there will be in all churches some who walk disorderly and it's not only the duty of ministers but of private Christians to warn and admonish them. They should be reproved for their sin, warned of the danger and told plainly of the injury they do their own souls and the hurt they do to others. They should be put in mind of what they should do and be proved for doing otherwise. What's your first duty as a member of the church with each other? To admonish the idol. The second duty that you're called to do in 1 Thessalonians 5.14 is we urge you brothers to encourage the faint hearted. Encourage means to come alongside someone who is struggling, faint-hearted, and give them courage because you are walking with them. You are praying with them. You don't just say and come up to someone, you know how we prayer gossip? Now we know we're not supposed to gossip, right? But we come up to each other, did you hear about so-and-so and so-and-so? We better pray for them. We don't want to pray for them at all. We just want to spread the news and say we're not caught in that sin. You know we do that. But it says we are to come alongside those who are faded to give them courage. Hebrews 10, 23 and 25 says just what we're doing tonight, what we're supposed to do. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. For He who had promised is faithful and let us how to consider to stir up one another with love and good words. Not neglecting or meeting together is the habit of son, but encouraging one another all the more till you see the day of Christ drawing near. Now, who are the fainthearted? The fainthearted, literally in the Greek, means those who are small-souled. They're timid. Now, in Thessalonica, it happened often because they had suffered persecution. Some had lost their jobs. Some had lost their family. Some had lost their lives. They were fainting. It was under the pressure and the difficulty of the day. Those who feared that the ones of their loved ones had already died might not go home to be with the Lord. But today it might be those who are fainthearted who've lost a family member. Those who are having difficulties in their family. Their children aren't picking up the slack. Children are rebelling. Maybe it's that a husband and wife are just being roommates. It's a nice show to everybody else, but if people knew it, they'd find out that they're passing in the dark. One's taking care of the family and one's working, and they never talk about anything important anymore. Or maybe it's a loss of job and income. It's easy to become fainthearted in a sinful world. Life is hard. You might hear a prosperity teacher on the television, come to Jesus, it'll be all right, you'll get a new car, you'll have a big house, just having a faith. Well, you know, that's not true. God might be gracious to give all those blessings, but they're never promised. The blessing is that he'll keep your heart strong in him and it won't become fainthearted. These individuals who are faint-hearted are contrasted to the rebellious. They have an earnest desire to walk with the Lord, but they're beaten down by the difficulties of life in a sinful world this side of heaven. Sometimes they're only holding on by the thinnest of threads. They won't be telling you that, but they come and, you know, you ask them how they're doing, and they just sort of don't say anything. Oh, okay. But if we don't go on and ask some more questions, we don't know that it'll allow them to say, I'm just holding on. Would that shock you if someone told you tonight, I'm just holding on? It shouldn't. Because there's some here tonight that probably are just holding on. They're wondering if God is true. Since I have all these burdens and it seems that others don't, why me? To be fainthearted can happen very easily. And when we give them courage, it's much like the passage that I read this morning from the Apostle Paul. His ministry to them should be our ministry to our brothers and sisters, saying, it's okay to be fainthearted. I'll come along and believe with you. I'll come alongside you and pray with you. We'll hold on to the Lord together. You can call me. You don't have to lie. You don't have to say, be a little praise the Lord parrot. How's it going? Praise the Lord. How you doing? Praise the Lord. Rather than saying, oh, it's hard. I'm not sure I even want to come next Sunday. And some go through that. 1 Thessalonians 2, 7 reminds us, but Paul says, but we were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care of her children. And sometimes all of us just need that kind of care. And we need to be able to say to each other, I'm needy. I just need help. I'm not sure about tomorrow. What are your duties? Admonish. Be idle. What's your second duty? Encourage the fainthearted. Now let us look at the scripture. What does God say your third duty of ministry is? 1 Thessalonians 5.14. And we urge you, brothers, help the weak. To help. Come alongside and lift up. To be part of a buddy system. You've done that at camp, right? You're going swimming, the lifeguards can't watch all the kids in the pool or the lake at the same time, so everybody gets a buddy. And he blows a whistle and everybody has to find their buddy. You know? You have to look out for somebody else and make sure they're not drowning. And we need to help one another. Come alongside each other. Be buddies in Christ. And say, I'll stand with you. I'll help you. You help the weak rather than throwing them aside because they're weak. The Marines have that great motto when they fight, leave no wounded or dead comrade behind. But in the church, we leave them behind all the time. We say, well, they must not be very spiritual. They're just weak. We just keep on going, and they stop coming to church, and no one calls them until it's too late. If you wait to call somebody and notice they're not here for a month, it's too late. Well, it's not. Still go after them. But what happened the first week and the second week when they weren't there and you didn't know if they were on vacation or something else? And they become weaker and weaker. And when you're weak, did you ever notice when someone's drowning, you know, I used to think when someone was drowning, you know, you'd see all this thrashing. I'm drowning, I'm drowning, help me. It doesn't happen that way. They just silently go down to the bottom of the pool. That's why the lifeguard has to be looking. He's not looking for thrashing. He's looking for the bodies on the bottom that have sunk down there because they're weak. We need to be looking out for our brothers and sisters that are on the bottom and go after them the way a lifeguard jumps in after them. We're to help the weak. The weak are those who are burned out, wrung out, worn out, either spiritually, physically, mentally, or emotionally. It may be those who have not grown much in the Lord or learned how to make use of their faith or to live for Christ. Sometimes it's those who are struggling to abandon sins that have entrapped them. They used to live this way before they're in Christ. They know there's hope, but they don't know how to change. Their sin has so heavily grabbed them that they need someone to come along and pray with them and encourage them and ask them about accountability. Romans 15 says this, remember we're to help the weak. It says this, we who are strong have an obligation to bear the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. You see, if we please ourselves, we go on with our own life and say, I have enough burden. Sometimes I'm idle. Sometimes I'm fainthearted. Often I'm weak. Let them take care of themselves. I'm just, I can barely get by. That's not the body, is it? Matthew Henry says this, some are not able to perform their work, nor bear up under their burdens. We should support them, help their infirmities, and lift up one end of the burden so to help them bear it. It is indeed the grace of God that must strengthen and support such, but we should also tell them of that grace and endeavor to be a minister of that grace to them. What's your job description? What's your calling, brothers? What's your job description, what you're calling this evening, sisters? Admonish? Who? The item. Encourage the? Fainthearted. Help the weak. And Romans 15 says not to please ourselves. And we want to please ourselves. We want to look, well, I've got some free time. What can I do with my hobby now? Rather than saying, what are my brothers and sisters in Christ doing? Who do I know that's idle? Who do I know that's fainthearted? Who do I know that's weak? The last thing it says for all three of these groups of people that we are sometimes, and are in our church, as a minister to your brothers and sisters Christ, you are to be patient with them all. Be patient, and being patient is slow to anger and long suffering. You know, I don't mind helping someone who's idle and admonishing them once, or, you know, someone who's fainthearted, okay, I did that last week, I went beside them, or, you know, that guy was weak, and yeah, I gave up that television show, and I went over last month. But that's not being patient and understanding that change in people takes a long time. and many repeated visits and care and dying to ourselves. John Calvin comments on our difficulty to be patient with all three of these groups, to be patient with each other. He says this, this patience is contrasted with a feeling of irksomeness. I like that word because it just describes, you know, you're just irked. Why haven't they gotten better? Why has it changed yet? What's taking so long? After all, I'm not having that problem. Now, we don't ever say that out loud, do we? But boy, I say it in here and in here, right? This patience, John Calvin said, is contrasted with a feeling of irksomeness. For there's nothing we are more prone than to feel worn out when we set ourselves to cure the diseases of our brethren. The man who has once and again admonished the idle, or encouraged the fainthearted, or helped the weak, if he's called to do the same thing a third time, he will naturally feel indignation. Come on already. How long's it gonna take? How many times do I have to give myself for you? Do you find yourself like that? Maybe you've done all three of these at one time, right? Yeah, I have admonished someone that was idle or sinful, but they didn't change. And you know, I knew someone who was fainthearted, and I went once or twice, but they came back glum the next week, and it just made me glum. And there was someone who was weak, and our family took things to them twice, and come on already. When are they going to help us? How do we, how can that be changed in us, right? How can irksomeness be changed to love? And it's when we consider three different things. First of all, we consider the character of God with us, the gospel. Turn with me please to Psalm 103. Psalm 103, and we'll look at verses 7 to 14. And you know, even this evening, God, I trust by His Spirit, may be bringing that you who are part of this congregation, even people to your mind. Yeah, that person's the idol. That person is fainthearted. That person is weak. How do you go again? What will get you there? It's not just that I'm giving you these duties tonight. That won't work. Yeah, the pastor said we gotta do these three things. I better do them. He's gonna come after me. No, that's not gonna work. I don't have enough time or energy or memory to come after you. It's not my job. It's to encourage you, it's to enable you to minister, but What changes us is the gospel, what God is doing in us and has done for us. So we have to consider these three things. When you have these three things before you, it'll enable you to do this and love your brothers and sisters who are struggling in this way. The first thing is Psalm 103, verses 7 to 14, when we consider God's character to us. He, Psalm 137, God, made known His way to Moses and His acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious. slow to anger, long-suffering, abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens above the earth, so great is his steadfast love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame, and he remembers that we are dust. See, it's God's character that he knows that we're sinners. He knows how often we rebel, and he continues to steadfastly love us. When those who are rebelling, the idle, when those who are fainthearted and can't seem to get up again, when those who are weak and need us to come by one more time, what allows us to do that? We see Almighty God as He continues to care for us and that moves us to be able to do. That's the first thing we have to consider, the character of God. The second thing that will move us is how the Lord has demonstrated His patience to us in the gospel with Christ. Turn to Colossians 3, please. Colossians 3, verses 12 to 13. As we consider Christ's death for us, He calls us to actually do something, to put on. He's telling us to behave this way, and it's only because of what He's done for us. But we have to consider it. Our hearts are moved not because someone tells you, do it. But God says, remember who I am and how I've loved you. Therefore, love them in that way. That's what moves us. Colossians 3, 12 and 13. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against each other, forgiving each other. How do I do that? Do you see what the last phrase says? That's the only way. This is not supernatural, natural, it is supernatural. As the Lord has forgiven you, you must also forgive. First thing are we to consider God's character, His grace and mercy to us. The second thing is to consider His care in the gospel. that He has died for us and we should forgive one another and love one another. The third thing is to consider the crop. What? Yeah. God has given to us, He's growing a crop, it's called the fruit of the Spirit. And one of the things is love, joy, peace, Patience. And so when he calls us to be patient with all men, we say, God, give us patience. This is how he does it. He gives us idle people to admonish. He gives us fainthearted people to encourage. He gives us weak people to help. And he says, you have to come to me, and I promise to give you the patience that you need with all of them. Be patient with all men. I haven't seen a Charlie Brown comic for a while, but I knew that in one of the little frames, Linus had said this, I love humanity. It's just people I can't stand. It's easy for us to become impatient with others. We've been there and done that, and they haven't changed yet. All men actually describe the rest of the people with whom you easily become impatient. Certainly included here are the idle, the fainthearted, and the weak, but also others that God has brought into your life to try your patience. Might be a husband or a wife. Might be your children. Probably the people you work with and the people God has you going to school with. God's put all of them there for us. One of the pastors that I've looked to over the years and enjoyed his writings and preaching and teaching has been John MacArthur. I think he's been the pastor of his church now for 47 years. It might be longer now. And if you know anything about John MacArthur, he doesn't take any prisoners. He just preaches the word and says that's the way it is and, you know, deal with it. I appreciate that. So that was a conference one for pastors. And there was this opportunity for some of the pastors to get alone with him and ask him questions. So there was a couple hundred pastors, but I heard about this opportunity and I jumped at it as quick as I could. So we got in this room, it was about 30 of us, and we're all asking John MacArthur questions. And someone asked him, John, Pastor MacArthur, what do you do with people that just won't change? What do you do with the idol? What do you do with those people that are always fainthearted? What do you do with the weak? And we're all waiting because we know how tough nut John is. MacArthur, man, he just doesn't take any, he just says it the way it is. And so we're waiting for him to say, oh yeah, I love a backdoor revival. What's that? That means you get rid of them. They go out the back door. You don't have to shepherd them anymore because they're just hard. They don't have their life together. You know? Get rid of them. Then you can go on faster. There's no anchors and dead weight to pull, right? And we're waiting to say, yeah, backdoor revivals you need for those kind of folks. And he looks at us, and gentlemen, he said, we do what Jesus does with us. we do what the scripture says. Because of the love of Christ, we are patient with them all. And all this young guns, you know, at the time I was younger and full of energy and I thought, yeah, yeah, go, and he said, it just knocked all the wind out of our sails. He said, go back and love them. Go back and admonish them. Go back and encourage them. Go back and help them. For Christ's sake, the way He's admonished and encouraged and helped you. Amen.