Help the Weak

We are to warn the idle, comfort the discouraged, and help the weak. When you think of weakness, what do you think of? Do you think of some indulgence that you enjoy? Do you think of being unable to do something? Do you think of emotional or psychological instabilities. Do you think of spiritual weaknesses?

I always think it is odd when you are in a job interview and you are asked to tell them your greatest weakness. Does anyone else think it is weird? I mean, I am not going to tell you. I am trying to get a job. Why would I tell you my weakness? So then, the person takes some character trait and tries to turn the weakness into a strength. Like this:

Interviewer: What’s your greatest weakness?

Candidate: Well, my greatest weakness is that I am such a loyal and dedicated employee.

Come on, man.

Interviewer What’s your greatest weakness?

Candidate: Well, my greatest weakness is that I care too much about doing a good job.

I am not brave enough to do it, but

I mean really. You are going to go with that.

The society in Paul’s day did not have any tolerance for the weak. In the Roman world, the weak were fodder to be ruled over or destroyed. Soranus was a doctor in Ephesus he said that only certain children were worth raising, listing the various tests one could perform on a child to identify disabilities which might render them not worthy of living. The Twelve Tables, which would be like our federal law, included a law that said disabled or deformed children should be put to death, usually by stoning. Furthermore, it was recorded that many Roman women kept people who were hunchbacks as pets.

This is where the divergence came between Roman society and followers of Jesus Christ. Followers of Jesus cared for the weak. One of the things that the early church was known for was for caring for babies who had been discarded by their parents. Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of Rome, clearly understood the power of these Christians when he wrote the following:

Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of Rome, clearly understood the power of these Christians when he wrote the following:

“These impious Galileans (Christians) not only feed their own, but ours also; welcoming them with their agape, they attract them, as children are attracted with cakes… Whilst the pagan priests neglect the poor, the hated Galileans devote themselves to works of charity, and by a display of false compassion have established and given effect to their pernicious errors. Such practice is common among them, and causes contempt for our gods (Epistle to Pagan High Priests).”

The early church understood that pure religion was to help those who could not help themselves. The word “help” in presents a graphic picture of the type of support that the weak need. The word means to “hold onto or cling”

Help - “hold onto or cling”

You might even say it this way, “Put your arm around them”. Look at what Paul wrote in Romans.

Romans 15:1 CSB

Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves.

The strong are to support the weak. These people are different than the idle and the discouraged. The weak are trying, but are having a hard time gaining ground in their difficulty. We don’t leave the weak behind. We help them.

The strong are to support the weak. These are different than the idle and the discouraged. The weak are trying, but are having a hard time gaining ground in their difficulty. We don’t leave the weak behind. We help them.

The weaknesses that Paul is referring to in Romans and 1 Thessalonians are not specific. The weakness could be moral or spiritual weakness. Weakness could be failing to stand strong in hardships or difficulties. Sexual immorality was rampant in the 1st century as it is today. The weakness could be referring to the challenges of overcoming sexual temptation. Weakness could come from abuse, poverty, oppression, or even racism. Some weakness are internal like fear, anxiety, and covetousness

I think the word is not specific because, if we are honest, each one of us is weak in some way. Your weaknesses are different than my weaknesses. Your strengths are different than my strengths and you know what, that is a good thing. Our diversity makes us stronger. Each one of us brings something to the table that we can use to help others.

Let me give you an example of how this works in my family. I have a weakness for chips. I do. I love them and I will eat them all given the opportunity. I will put them on my sandwiches. I will use them as appetizers. I think they are wonderful. My wife likes chips, but she can control herself around them. She doesn’t need them to survive. So, you know what she does when ordering the groceries? She doesn’t buy chips because she knows that I don’t like going to the store more than I like chips. Her strength helps me in my weakness. Now, let’s talk about chocolate. Nope, I am not even going there.

In our lives and our community, there are bigger issues than not indulging a fondness for chips. Who are the weak in our community? What struggles are you seeing in our community? Are you even aware? Do you see the struggles with gambling? What about the struggles with drug or alcohol addiction? How about anger? Pornography is everywhere. Sexual immorality is rampant. Where are the weaknesses? They are all around us. Some of them may even be in you. We need to see our community the way that God sees our community.

One of the key to victory over your weaknesses is to be

How do we help the weak? How do we help each other? What can we do to help the weak in our community?

Make deep and personal investments in young believers. ()

Make deep and personal spiritual investments. ()

1 Thessalonians 2:8 CSB

We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.

Paul made personal investments in the lives of the young believers at Thessaloniki. This is not “young” as in physical age, but “young” as in spiritual maturity. He gave them the gospel, but he didn’t stop there. He shared his life with them. This is not simply speaking of his physical life, this is about the totality of the depth of his being. We might say, “Paul held nothing back from them”. This is making yourself completely vulnerable to someone else.

Paul taught them the ways of God. He taught them what it meant to follow Jesus. He taught them the importance of keeping away from sexual immorality. He taught them to love one another. Look at these verses.

1 Thessalonians 4:9–12 CSB

About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in the entire region of Macedonia. But we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do this even more, to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, so that you may behave properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.

Paul made personal investments in the lives of the young believers at Thessaloniki. I think it should be the goal of every believer to have those kind of relationships in our lives. One of the goals for this church is for personal discipleship. Over the coming weeks and months, you are going to be hearing more of this. God willing, when he sends us an associate pastor, we are going to be headed full steam at personal discipleship because those who are mature in Christ need to be making investments in those who are new in Christ.

Paul invested

Just out of curiosity, how many of you can point to a person or multiple people in your life who invested spiritually into you? You had a person or people come along side of you and they personally taught you the things of God. Raise your hands. I am just curious. I did. I can tell you their names. If that was done for us, then we need to do this for others. We need to help the weak. We need to help those who were recently born into the family of God. We don’t leave babies alone, neither should we leave those who are young in Christ alone.

Here is what I want you to do. First, if you are interested in making personal spiritual investments in young believers, on your connection card in the blank that says “other”, I want you to draw a star. If you are interested in having someone help guide you and teach you more about following God, in the blank that says “other”, I want you to draw a cross. If you are interested in both, draw both. We are going to do this together because I know that this community is starved for people who are passionate about following God with their whole heart.

Teach them the ways of God. ()

Paul helped the weak by making deep and personal investments in their lives. Our community is full of people we need to help. Laredo, like every community in this country, has molested children, pregnant and homeless teens, opioid addicts, alcoholics, gamblers, new mothers who have no parenting skills, newly divorced, widows, orphans, people shunned because of illnesses like HIV/AIDS, individuals and families who deal daily with mental illness, the homeless, the hungry..... and on it goes......

How do we help them?

We help them the way Jesus helped them. He saw them. While everyone else in society was ignoring them, shunning them, hushing them, or even killing them, Jesus saw them.

Open your eyes and see the weak.

We need to open our eyes and see the weak.

This is the first step. You must see them. This is what Jesus did. He didn’t ignore them. He saw them and then he helped them.

Remind other believers of Jesus’ imminent return ()

1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:5 CSB

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. About the times and the seasons: Brothers and sisters, you do not need anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. When they say, “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the dark, for this day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness.

Living in the reality of Jesus’ imminent return helps us in at least two ways. First, we gain strength in knowing that the way things are today is not the way they will always be.

Gain strength in knowing that the way thing are is not the way things will always be.

One day soon Jesus will return and when he does he will judge in righteousness. The dead in Christ will be raised and taken up to be with Jesus. Those who are trusting in Jesus as their Savior will be taken to forever be with the Lord. Those who have passively or actively rejected the salvation offered by Jesus Christ will be judged for their rejection and be thrown into the Lake of Fire. One day, the curse will be over. One day the sky with Jesus’ glory will shine. One day he is coming. It will be a glorious day.

Second, the coming of the Lord should motivate us to holy living.

Jesus’ return should motivate us for holy living.

2 Peter 3:1

2 Peter 3:10–13 CSB

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed. Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness as you wait for the day of God and hasten its coming. Because of that day, the heavens will be dissolved with fire and the elements will melt with heat. But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

Holy conduct is about not doing what God forbids and doing what God commands. Holy living is about listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in your life. Holy living is about growing in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. Holy living in about helping those in need and caring for others. Paul gave a list of things in 1 Thessalonians.

Jesus saw the leper. Everyone else would have avoided the lepers, but not Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:15–22 CSB

See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Don’t stifle the Spirit. Don’t despise prophecies, but test all things. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil.

1 Thessalonians 5:

I want you to hear this and internalize it. Holy living is about pursuing the heart of God.

Matthew 8:1–3 CSB

When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. Right away a man with leprosy came up and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Holy living is about pursuing the heart of God.

Matthew 8:1-

As we were going through these passages of Scripture this morning, I hope you realize that we need each other. We need each other. We shouldn’t think that we can do life alone. We shouldn’t neglect being together. It is no surprise to me that the Internet is a cesspool. It was predicted to be so because of the isolation and lack of human contact. I wonder if you can really help anyone hiding behind a keyboard. I think true help is going to take personal interaction. I think we are to be like redwood tree. Do you know the secret of the redwood? How can it last so long and endure so much? Unlike the palm tree whose tap root goes down into the ground as deep as the tree is tall (30 feet up... 30 feet down), the redwood has no tap root at all. That's why you never see a redwood standing alone. Never. They are always in groups called groves. For every foot in height it grows up, the redwood tree sends its roots, not down, but three times that distance out! If the tree is 300 feet tall, its roots go 900 feet out intertwining with all the groping roots from the other redwoods in the grove. By the time a few hundred years go by, those roots are so woven with one another, there is no way a tree could fall down. It is held up by the strength of its brothers and sisters.

This man probably hadn’t felt a physical touch in years. Jesus touched him and he was healed.

This a beautiful picture of what the church is supposed to be. Alone we are vulnerable and can easily fall, but together, our lives woven and intertwined and through time strengthen each other and support each other. We all have weaknesses, but together in Christ, we are strong.

Jesus saw the faith of the centurion and healed his servant in . The Jews would have hated the Roman centurions. They were an occupying force. Jesus didn’t avoid him. He saw him and met his need.

Further down in chapter 8, Jesus saw Peter’s mother-in-law with a fever and he healed her.

At the end of , Jesus comes in contact with two demon-possessed men. I would have probably ran away from them. Not Jesus, he cast out the demons.

He saw the paralytics. He saw Matthew sitting in his tax collecting booth. Tax collectors were a special kind of hated class of people. The tax collectors were worse than sinners, but Jesus saw him and made him a disciple.

We could go on and on, but hopefully you get the picture. Jesus saw the weak and he helped the weak. What they needed varied and so he saw them and met them in their weakness. This is what we are to be doing. We are to be meeting people in their weakness and helping them. What they are going to need is going to vary, but we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus to our community.

Let’s get practical and personal. What will you do to help the weak this week? Look at this verse from Romans again.

Romans 15:1 CSB

Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves.

It is easy to go through life keeping your heads down and the blinders on. It is easy to ignore the plight of those around us. If we don’t pay attention to those in need around us, we sleep a little better because ignorance is bliss, but this is not how we are to be.

Acts 20:35 CSB

In every way I’ve shown you that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, because he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

Acts

Do you believe that it is more blessed to give than to receive? Well, maybe at Christmas we do. At Christmas time, we sing songs that say things like “I wish the spirit of Christmas was kept throughout the year”. Here is the thing. It totally can be. It is a choice that we make after Christmas to put the blinders back on, bury the spirit of generosity in a hole, and prioritize ourselves first. Brothers and sisters, people around us are hurting. We need to help the weak. This is why we host the adoption picnic, operate the Pantry of Hope and Hope Embedded, give out the shoe boxes at Christmas, and give you opportunities to help the weak around us. We need to help the weak.

Once again, I want to urge you to come with us this afternoon to our mission church at El Cenizo. You will see a community that is in need of our help. Open your eyes and see the weak. Then, do what is in your power to do and let Jesus do what only he can do. We don’t have the power to change lives, but we know who does. His name is Jesus and we are his representatives on this earth. Don’t underestimate the power of the gospel to change lives, communities, and cities. Jesus has planted you here for a reason. One of those reasons is to help those in need. Meet their needs and give them the gospel. This is the power of Christ in us.

Pray.

Father God, bind us together in a spirit of unity. Protect our unity. As Jesus prayed, may we be one, just as you are one with the Son and the Holy Spirit. As we grow together, let others see our willingness to help each other and bear one another’s burdens. As they see how we love each other, draw people to yourself. Use us to grow your kingdom. Open our eyes to the needs of our community. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

As we continue praying, perhaps you are here this morning and you have never made the decision to follow Jesus. You have never made the decision to give Jesus control of your life and right now, you are just living for whatever makes you happy. You are running from one relationship to the next, one experience to the next, and one empty promise to the next. You can’t find happiness and you can’t find satisfaction because you are trying to find peace and happiness apart from Jesus. Let me tell you. You will never find what you are looking for unless you give your life to Jesus, unless you place your faith in him.

Let me tell you, you can have hope and peace. Jesus, the Son of God, took on flesh and came to earth. He lived a sinless life and then Jesus, who was without sin became sin for us. When he did, his Father God look away and He cried out in anguish, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He never walked away while being beaten. He never called on the hosts of heaven while being tortured. He never called off the mission when he was being mocked and crucified. The Scriptures say, he endured all of this because he loved us and for the joy set before him, he endured the pain.

The joy set before him is when you come into a relationship with God. You are Jesus’ joy! Jesus endured all that pain because our sins separated us from him, but in his love and mercy God sent Jesus to endure the pain of the cross for you. When you call on his name, every sin you have ever committed will be forgiven and you will be brand new.

Romans 10:9–10 CSB

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.

When you call on the name of Jesus, he will hear your prayer, forgive you of your sin, and make you new. Will you call on his name this morning and receive the forgiveness he offers.

CSB

9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.

When you call on the name of Jesus, he will hear your prayer, forgive you of your sin, and make you new. Will you call on his name this morning and receive the forgiveness he offers.

If that is you today,

Pray with me, “Heavenly Father, forgive me for my sins, make me new. I ask Jesus to be my Savior and to be the Lord of my life, first in every way. My life is not my own, I give it to you. Thank you for new life. In Jesus’ name, I pray.”

If you just prayed that prayer for the first time, would you raise your hand?

If you prayed that prayer, I want you to do two things. First, on your connection card, check the box that says you want more information about becoming a follower of Jesus Christ. In just a moment, we are going to stand to sing. Some of the deacons are going to be in the the back of the worship center. If you prayed to receive Christ, I want you to slip out of your row and come and go talk to them. We want to meet you and pray for you. Also, we have some information that will help you understand more about your new life in Christ.

As we stand and sing together, respond to the Holy Spirit’s call on your life.

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