1 Thessalonians 5:14-15

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15

Encouragement

INTRODUCTION: Every once in a while there come along a really good coach for little league or PeeWee football. They happy enough to win games if they can, but they are happier if their teams are winners. They teach, they hope, and pray that each child will make a breakthrough that season. Billy finally caught a ball, Sally through all the way into home plate. Kenny ran to first base. Tim made a block.

What would it look like if the church was about making winners instead of winning, not as worried about the size of our budget, the numbers on our rolls, or the size of our building? What would it mean to be winners? John learned to really pray, Tom shared his faith, Kimmy accepted Jesus, Ron has finally quite drinking, and Mark is going to teach a Sunday school class. That kind of coach is about three things that our scripture says the church should be doing.

1. ENCOURAGE THE TIMID

A. Encourage those who hold back to get in the game.

a. Keep your eyes wide open

b. Swing at the ball

c. Keep the glove in front of you

d. Use both hands

e. Go for the ball

f. Hit hard

B. You can do it

C. Take a chance

D. Don’t hold back

E. I am backing you up

2. HELP THE WEAK

A. Help those who are weak grow in strength

a. This is how you run

b. This is how you use your weight to hit the ball

c. This is how you build stronger mussels

d. This is how you need to eat

B. This is how we read our Bible

C. This is how we pray

D. This is how we share our faith

E. This is how we avoid temptation

3. WARN THE IDOL

A. Keep them all growing and playing

a. Warn those with natural talent not to rest on it

b. Keep working and keep growing

CONCLUSION: Have you been more worried about winning the game yourself than making the people around you winners. I wonder about that often. Would we see a winner, know what it means for each of the people around us to play the game?