Back Off, Buck Up & Play Nice
Back Off, Buck Up & Play Nice
1 Thessalonians 5:12-15
1. Intro: Moving… Moving Leadership
2. Scripture, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15
3. Back Off
Ø Point-1 has the idea of give them respect & room to lead, not disrespect.
Ø There were multiple leaders, not just the pastor, but others sacrificing to serve well as leaders.
A. Leader’s Responsibilities
Ø Based on Jesus’ example & teaching, you have the right to expect me & other leaders to learn to lay down our lives for you & to value your spiritual progress more than our own comfort.
Ø 1 Peter 5:2-3; Shepherds of God’s flock… eager to serve… not lording it over.
Ø Leaders must serve and work hard. If not, there will be no peace in the church. It’s tough to follow a worthless scoundrel peaceably.
B. Follower’s Responsibilities
Ø “Respect/know” leaders has the gist of pay attention to, respect them enough to listen well, appreciate their role and burden.
Ø Value and appreciate them uber beyond bunches.
Ø In Love: (1 Cor.) commit to be patient, kind, humble, forgiving, trusting, persevering, etc.
Ø Obey leaders… submit... so their work will be a joy, not a burden… Heb 13:17
Ø Follow them, within reason. Don’t get your back up when they exercise leadership gifts.
C. Difficulties in Following Them
Ø All leaders are flawed; Some much more than others. Their minor sins must be confronted carefully & w/multiple witnesses. Most sins otherwise treated as all folks. Public – publicly.
Ø Sometimes gifts, issues we bring from our past, and unequal growth cause someone to be given leadership with less time in the fellowship than one who is not. Respect can be hard to give.
Ø Leaders are imperfect, but they’re working for you, or should be, so don’t be impossible to lead.
D. Reasons for Following Them
Ø Failing to respect leadership will bring strife in a church. A leader is charged by God to lead. She can’t just throw her hands up and say, ok, whatever. God requires leaders to lead.
Ø Leaders need to be able to lead w/o a fight every time. Honest disagreement is healthy. So is not following blindly. Still, it’s hard to lead someone who is argumentative, resistant or stubborn. A true servant leader hurts in this situation. They choose to lead only for the benefit of those they serve. They refuse to bully. They are left to ache over being more dominant than is healthy or leaving the sheep in danger, or withdrawing from the relationship to end the pain.
Ø The well-being of the Christian community is dependent on cordial cooperation between followers and leaders. Wycliffe Bible Commentary
4. Buck Up
Ø If we don’t get the unproductive productive, the productive spend all their time tending our own and the world goes to hell waiting on us.
Ø This call is not just to leaders. We must take some responsibility to help each other each other to grow & to buck up when we’re not cutting it.
Ø Admonish the idle to get on board.
Ø Some versions have unruly instead of idle. It has a military origin & so may mean they were breaking ranks; idle as regards the group goals, instead busy only with their own.
Ø Other passages talk of disciplining the idle and divisive. Titus 3:10-11; Warn a divisive person once… twice & out.
Ø Come alongside and encourage the timid to keep at it and not quit. They discourage easily.
Ø Some are unsure or unable to move forward on their own. The less mature who have less ability to draw deeply on the Lord on their own need help, instruction, mentoring and partnering to enable them to help.
Ø Some won’t, some can’t, some are afraid, but somehow we gotta get ‘em going… & B patient.
5. Play Nice
Ø Brothers will wrong you, but play nice anyway.
Ø Losing the patience listed last in the verse above leads to taking it out on each other.
Ø Even EGRPs need whatever it takes to help them help the church… to a point.
The Hulk, Ch. 26 Start: 1:50:10 End: 1:57:47
Scene Setup: The Hulk has ripped up the streets of San Francisco & is surrounded by helicopters & SWAT.
Scene: Betty tells her father, General Ross, that trying to destroy the Hulk only feeds his rage & makes him stronger so she must go to him to stop they cycle.
shrinking back to normal size he says, "You found me." She replies, "you weren't so hard to find." "Yes, I was."
Application: Angry hurting people are easy to find. To penetrate the rage & truly find those lost in brokenness and lead them out to real life of joy & purpose is tough. It takes patience and kindness rather than evil for evil.
Ø No matter what happens, no matter how hard it is to make it work, we need to treat people kindly and for their benefit, not with “payback.”