Habits for Healthy Churches

Introduction

The last 5 Sunday mornings, we’ve been discussing what Jesus expects of His church and what we value as a church that strives to be Christlike. Tonight as we prepare to wrap up our study through 1 Thessalonians, we arrive at a text that lists several of these same habits and values that we’ve already talked about - so in some respects this is a review time for us! Gone is the encouragement about the return of Jesus Christ. Gone is the hope about Christ’s power in you in times of suffering. Gone is the challenge to continue loving others. What we find in our text tonight are continued applications to live a holy life. In concluding his letter to this young church, Paul wants to anchor how this future hope of Jesus’ return must impact their present life and ministry. He wants these people and this church to be a beacon of light in a community of darkness.

Isn’t this our prayer for our church as well? Most every church wants to be a healthy church. It would be strange to be a part of a church that claims to believe in the Bible and Jesus Christ, but actively desired to not follow Jesus or be the type of church that He expects. No church sets out with that desire, so why do some churches not follow Jesus or stand on His Word? Often because they get distracted. We know what its like to get distracted. You don’t set out wanting to get distracted, but it just happens and you end up missing out on something or doing something that you later regret. Think about what a grocery store puts by the checkout lanes… a billion different things! Why? Someone is in front of you and taking a long time to check out and you get a little distracted and you cave in and get something that you and your family really don’t need. But you get it because you’re distracted.

This is how our lives are and the same can happen in the life of our Church if we take our eyes off of Jesus and stand on anything other than His inspired, authoritative, and sufficient Word! Let’s read from 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22 tonight and see 4 habits for healthy churches as Paul lays out several commands for this community of Christ-followers.

1 Thessalonians 5:12–22 CSB

12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to regard them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we exhort you, brothers and sisters: warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray constantly, 18 give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Don’t stifle the Spirit. 20 Don’t despise prophecies, 21 but test all things. Hold on to what is good. 22 Stay away from every kind of evil.

There are 15 imperative commands in the Greek in these 11 verses! This is a short passage that packs quite a punch! Let’s pray that the Lord guides us as we study and challenges us to be the Christian and Church that He would have us be.

Healthy Churches Have Godly Pastors (12-13)

Think about the perfect church for a moment! The perfect church always makes people happy. Always does the right style of songs. The building is always set to the right temperature. Always has sermons that are 10 minutes long, but spiritually nourishing. Everyone always gets along. There are Bible studies and ministries for all ages every day of the week and every hour of the day. This church gives 110% of their budget to missions. This is the perfect church! Except for the fact that it isn’t real. Church would be easy, as the saying goes, if it weren’t for the people. But without people you don’t have a church! There’s no such thing as a perfect church because churches are comprised of imperfect people - sinners like you and me. The fact that we’re able to come together and have 300 people on any given Sunday and have different ages, backgrounds, preferences, personalities, and styles, and fulfill the Great Commission and worship together each week is a miracle because you bring that many people together and undoubtedly problems ensue!

Every person at FBC Salem has a role to play. In order for our church to be healthy, we all have to do our job and do it well for God’s glory. What is the first habit for healthy churches in our text? Verse 12 and 13 tells us that a healthy church must have Godly leaders. Paul isn’t saying that these leaders are to be treated as rockstars or that everything they do is perfect - neither of those things are true. But Paul is saying that these church leaders, specifically these pastors, are to work, lead, and teach within the local church and the church is to respect and follow those Godly leaders. This church was young. This church was called to support their leaders. Recognize them. Support them. Let them lead you in the Lord and follow their leading. This is a habit for healthy churches as they have Godly leaders who actually lead. I have friends in ministry today who are in churches where they are not permitted to lead. They are permitted to preach on Sunday but they report to the deacons or the men’s ministry coordinator or the committee chairman first thing Monday morning. In fact, one individual pastored a church where the deacon chair had a standing meeting in the pastor’s office every Monday morning at 8am to critique Sunday morning’s sermon - something he wasn’t told about in the pastoral search process. What happens whenever the pastor isn’t able to lead? The church gets sick. Pastors are called overseers in the New Testament meaning that they are to oversee the ministry of the church because they are responsible for the ministry within the church. This doesn’t mean that pastors do all the ministry in the church, that’s impossible! But it does mean that pastors lead and oversee those ministries. Healthy churches have Godly pastors who lead!

Sometimes that means that pastors have to do things that aren’t always popular or easy. But that’s the cost of leadership. This is the call that the Lord gives to pastors and the call for the church is to recognize those individuals first for their labor - their hard work. We live in a community that is familiar with hard work. I look out tonight and see many men and women who work hard. I look at home and see my wife who grinds each day with 2 ornery and at times, stubborn and dare-devilish boys, and I see someone who works hard. You deserve a pastor who works hard. This is what healthy churches require. A pastor who gets into ministry for a 9-5 desk job to collect a paycheck every other week is in the wrong field - this is a calling, not a job. Spurgeon once told a group of students interested in pastoring, “If you could be content doing anything else, go that way. But if you could not dare do anything other than preach the Gospel, you must do that.” This is the pastoral calling and it requires hard work. I’m reminded of my dad here - growing up as a PK, you have lots of stories to share. Whenever we arrived at FBC Ozark, I was in 3rd grade, and one of the things that the Senior Pastor at FBC wanted was for my dad to launch an Upward Basketball program that he had lead at FBC Springfield before. We launch this ministry that has since ballooned to include nearly 400 participants, from Kindergarten thru High School. Each Saturday we’d have 1,000-1,500 people come through FBC Ozark. We had so many games and people that we had to add games on Friday night just to make this work! This was and still is an incredible ministry of FBC Ozark that has seen tens of thousands of people hear the Gospel and hundreds join FBCO as a direct result. My dad would never say a word because God gets the glory, but that is the fruit of that this ministry he launched as children’s and recreation pastor. Some people saw the kids and parents on Saturday, others would see new visitors come to church on Sunday, hundreds of church people volunteered a few hours a week to this program, but do you know what I saw? I saw my dad work 70 hour weeks for 3-4 months straight from the end of November to the first of March and his paycheck didn’t change one bit. Pastoral ministry is a calling and a healthy church has pastors who labor among their people and, second, lead their people.

The picture in the New Testament of a pastor is that of a shepherd in places like 1 Peter 5:1-3

1 Peter 5:1–3 CSB

1 I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory about to be revealed: 2 Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed for money but eagerly; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

Shepherd God’s flock - not your flock. Not your ministry. Not your program. Not your people - it’s all God’s! He has a plan and He has a structure in place. God’s design is for under-shepherds to lead God’s people in part through example. Back during 2020 for COVID, some congregants expected their pastors to overnight turn into epidemiologists, Fortune 500 CEO’s, and professional authors as church life changed in the blink of an eye and for many it still looks completely different! The pastor has oversight and responsibility, but where is that grounded? Verse 12 - in the Lord. That is where and how pastors lead. There were many pastors who made fools of themselves 4 years ago trying to lead in areas they are not qualified to lead. There were people “declaring” COVID gone and powerless. There were others saying that if you just enough faith then you’ll be cured and healed, but some of those proponents still wear glasses whenever they talk. How do pastors lead? In the Lord. That is all the authority that God has given to these pastors/elders/overseers. One of my theological heroes, GK Beale shared this, “This position of authority is not to be performed in a dictatorial or sinful way, but the elders are over the rest of the believers in the Lord… They are commissioned by Christ to carry out their oversight of the flock according to His will and not their own.” This is the leading that healthy churches must have - pastors who lead and oversee not according to their ideas but according to the Will and Word of God!

Finally, a healthy church has a pastor who admonishes God’s people. The word admonish is similar to that of preaching or teaching which echoes 2 Tim 4:2 to us as pastors are to

2 Timothy 4:2 CSB

2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching.

Encourage? Yes! Rebuke? Yes! Why do we need this? Why is this a habit for healthy churches? Because we need this. If pastors aren’t godly or if they lead in an unBiblical manner or if they are jerks or if they are dictators, that’s not God’s intent and that’s not healthy. That does happen at times, sadly, but as we continue to grow as a family at FBC, our prayer must be that we would remain healthy and that God would give us pastors who work hard, lead well, and admonish through the Word out of a place of love. This is what we need!

Healthy Churches Have Active Members (14-15)

In this church with these leaders, the members of the church are to highly regard them. Not only respect them, but to obey them in so far as what the pastors teach and say aligns with Scripture. A healthy church has Godly leaders and caring members who follow their leaders who live out Mark 10:42-45

Mark 10:42–45 CSB

42 Jesus called them over and said to them, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. 43 But it is not so among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave to all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

We must serve. We must live at peace with one another. As we do these things as members of the church, we are exhorted to do 6 things in verses 14-15: Warn, Comfort, Help, Be Patient, See, Pursue what is good.

First members warn those who are idle. Think of the issue that stagnant water has. We are blessed to live in a beautiful area with moving rivers and streams, but stagnant water is stinky. It’s dirty. It sometimes can make you sick! So it can be in our lives if we are idle. We’re called to grow in our walk with the Lord and to run our race with our eyes fixed on Jesus. If we are idle, that is indicative of a larger problem. An unhealthy problem. Think of Matthew 5, we are to be salt and light. We are to warn those who are idle as being stuck in neutral is where many churches are at but that is not a habit of a healthy church. Later this year is the Olympics in Paris, France and I always look forward to watching the Olympic games and cheering on our athletes as they compete in lots of events and fight for gold. Think about this: If pew sitting were an Olympic Sport, would we be competing for a Gold Medal as a church? I don’t think so! But there’s always a danger for us to become stagnant and instead of serving, we just sit. Instead of giving generously, we give sporadically. Instead of contributing, we consume. We must fight against this and this is the responsibility of each of us in this process to encourage one another who are idle.

Second, we comfort the discourage and third we help the weak. In life we get discouraged at times. In Psalms there are 40 lament Psalms that express sorrow and ask God for help or guidance. Whenever we are struggling, it is a blessing to have a congregation to help us and to encourage us. It’s a blessing to have a family that loves us and comforts us and helps us in our time of need and one of the ways that we help our church is by being patient with one another. Notice this next imperative, fourth, be patient with ____ who? Everyone! THat’s not easy. We love it whenever people are patient with us, but we usually have a hard time being patient with others! We’re tempted to put our needs first and if someone lets us down, we have a human nature that makes it hard to be patient with someone else. Aren’t you thankful that we serve a God who was patient with us?

Fifth, we don’t repay evil for evil, we act in the best interests of the other person through humility and consider them as more important than ourselves. Think of what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5:39 CSB

39 But I tell you, don’t resist an evildoer. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

If we’re not careful, we bottle things up and we hold grudges. I told this story a few weeks ago of the pastor who after being at a church for years finally was told that a member had disliked him for something he did his first week at the church! He had no clue but she held this grudge for years and years. That’s not a healthy thing spiritually or physically! We are, sixth and finally, to pursue what is good for one another and for the whole body. We don’t seek to get even as Christians - that’s a secular practice, not a Christian one. We seek what is good not only for our friends, but for our whole church family. Sometimes that means that we have to bite our tongue and pray for the person who we have a problem with because it’s really hard to have a perpetual problem with someone that you are persistently praying for. As the members of the church are active in doing these things, we see that others take notice.

1 Peter 2:12 CSB

12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.

Notice the flow here - as Christians conduct themselves honorably even though they are slandered and persecuted, non-Christians take notice and eventually are under conviction and eventually are converted to Christ! This is a habit of healthy churches. Having members who walk the walk and love one another well.

Healthy Churches Praise the Lord (16-20)

Lindsey and I love watching medical movies and shows that help you get a glimpse into the world of medicine and surgeries. As one who wanted to be a neurosurgeon for years and years, I could tell you what a healthy and an unhealthy brain look like. Some of you are in the agricultural world and you can look at 2 cows and immediately say which one is healthy and which one is not. Others can listen to a car engine and immediately tell which one has a problem and which one is healthy. As you and I think about the Church and as we look in this chapter, in verses 16-18 we find 3 quick things that healthy churches do. We could say, sounds that healthy churches make. Looks that healthy churches demonstrate. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything! Let’s look quickly at these 3 imperative commands and the 2 that follow in verses 19-20.

Rejoice Always

From a human standpoint we know that we won’t always have happiness and there are times where our joy seems to be under attack as well. How can we have this “At all times, joy” that the Greek commands? Because joy is a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. We have to understand this. We have joy because of our newfound status in Christ Jesus. Joy is the fruit of being connected to the root of Christ. We are no longer children of darkness. We now longer have no hope. We are in Christ and a new creation. As you remember who Jesus is, what Jesus has done for you, and how you are secure eternally in Christ, this produces a joy that this world can’t touch - and if we believe that God is working all things for His glory and our good in Christ and if God doesn’t make mistakes, then we truly can rejoice always knowing that God is working.

Pray Constantly

Does anyone else have difficulties with this one? Think about how this is mathematically impossible, though. Say you’re talking with a friend or at class or at the store, you’re not praying for every single moment you’re doing that thing. Think about when you’re sleeping, while there are moments that we do pray, we don’t pray every moment either. What does this command mean? We do this continually! We don’t mimic Muslims who pray 3 times a day in a certain direction. We don’t just pray at church and repeat the Lord’s Prayer every morning and call it good. We have the privilege to pray to the King of the Universe. We are to go to Him in prayer with boldness and urgency and know that He hears and answers us.

Give Thanks in Everything

This is difficult… Is Paul saying that we give thanks to God for tornadoes and hurricanes and cancer? That’s not Paul’s direction - he says give thanks “in everything” not “for everything.” There are evil things that happen in this world and we shouldn’t be thankful for them - but in the midst of them, we are to be a thankful people. A glass-half-full people because God is with us in the valley of the shadow of death. Even in the midst of anxiety, loss, waking up at 3am because of high blood sugar or anything else, I can give thanks because I have Jesus and Jesus is working in my life and giving me grace every minute of every day that is sustaining this heart. We can all give thanks for the providence of God that we so often take for granted.

The Christian life was never meant to be easy, but it is one marked by joy and thanksgiving as James 1:2 and Romans 8:28 remind us! God provides and in that provision we rejoice and are thankful. I love the way that Piper defines God’s Providence: Providence is God’s “seeing-to” everything! In God’s provision, we can give thanks in everything.

This is a habit in healthy churches! Understanding that God has a plan and that we are to be thankful that we are given a role to play! Am I giving thanks to God today?

The final 2 imperatives in verses 19-20 are to not style the Spirit or despise prophecies.

There is always a healthy tension in following the Holy Spirit as we first have to figure out if what we feel led to do is of the Spirit or if it is from ourselves. Next we have to actually follow through and the Holy Spirit often takes us out of our comfort zones. I’m forever thankful for the pastors of FBC Ozark for allowing myself and other pre-teens to have opportunities to serve and even to lead in church and exercise the gifts that God gave me and other friends. Do you think it was nerve wrecking to have 10-11 year olds praying in service, leading on praise team, reading Scripture, and welcoming people to worship? You’d best believe it was! Yet, through God’s provision and prompting, it was clear that God had gifted students in these capacities and some of the most fruitful services I can remember are from children not only participating not leading in the service. We can’t stifle the Spirit. We must be active and involved and obedient.

Second, we are to not despise prophecies. We’re not talking about prophetic words and utterances here in context. Walter Kaiser shares that when we see prophecy it can either mean foretelling (about the future) or forthtelling (speaking the truth in the present). More than 2/3 of prophetic activity is forth-telling, not foretelling. Here we see an example, likely, of forthtelling as Paul instructs these believers to not despise the preaching and proclamation of the Word of God. In many places the Word of God is treated as an afterthought. That doesn’t praise the Lord, though. The Word is to be the main event - to put it in secular terms. Not junk food and not an afterthought. In this world of spiritual famine, where more and more despise the Word, we must heed Paul’s exhortation and command to run to the Word, even when it steps on our toes and to praise the Lord.

Healthy Churches Produce Christlike Fruit (21-22)

As we do these things, as we have godly pastors, active members, and as the church gathers to praise the Lord, we produce Christlike fruit! How do we produce this fruit? Verse 21-22 - by holding onto what is good and staying away from what is evil. How do we know what is good and what is bad? By testing all things.

We must be Bereans here as we test all things with the Word of God. There are somethings in life that are good, but often good is the enemy of great and a good plan is sometimes the enemy of God’s plan! We must be obedient and weigh all things with the Word. We stay away from people who just tickle our ears. We stay away from people who refuse to reckon with hard topics and texts. We stay away from people who those who celebrate what is evil and wicked. Paul likely has in view sexual immorality - what does he say elsewhere about this issue?

1 Corinthians 6:18 CSB

18 Flee sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.

Flee from it! Stay away from it. Speak the truth about this in love. Doing so produces Christlike fruit because to participate is to produce worldly fruit. A healthy church stands on the Word and tests all things through the Word. As we do this, we must live out what the Word says. We can have disagreements over secondary and tertiary issues - later this month we’ll begin going through the BFM2000 and we’ll see what we as Southern Baptists believe based on the Word of God - there is room for some disagreement about specifics but on the primary things we will agree. There will be secondary things that we will disagree about. I have pastoral friends and mentors who I disagree strongly with on soteriology, eschatology, and pneumatology - but you know what? I love them. I’d worship with them. I’d follow them. I’d go to bat for them. Why? Because we are called to speak the truth in love, to be humble, to share the Gospel, and to hold onto what is good.

In a world full of discouragement, we are to be Barnabas’ and encourage one another. This is a mark of a healthy church and this fruit is tasty to a world marked by darkness and divisiveness. As we continue onward in 2024, let’s live out these commands. Let’s be marked by joy. Let’s share the Word. Let’s be thankful even when life is difficult. Let’s test all things with the Word of God. Let’s help those in need. Let’s be patient. Let’s warn those in danger. Let’s follow our leaders and let’s glorify Christ in all that we do individually and as a church!