Talk

The Ideal Community

Landon Lacy
March, 13, 2023

When it comes to the church, many of us imagine an idealized version of what a community should be like. But reality can be messy and difficult. As we study through 1 Thessalonians, Paul gives the church some guidance and encouragement on how to care for one another in a way that points back to Jesus.

Key Takeaway

To admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, and help the weak, we need to be patient, present, and prayerful.

  1. Admonish the idle. Calling someone out, not to shame or embarrass, but to call you up into something greater.

  2. Encourage the faint-hearted. Speak words of comfort.

  3. Help the weak. It's way more about the physical presence than about physical help.

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Three Ingredients We Need

  1. Be patient with each other.

  2. Be present. You need to be in people's lives to understand them.

  3. Pray for one another. Prayer invites in the presence of God.

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"The existence of pastors and leaders in the Church doesn't excuse people from pastoral care for each other."
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Landon Lacy

Discussion Questions

  1. Do you have people in your life that can call you out and call you up? If yes, are you honest about your struggles? If not, how can you find someone to help keep you accountable?

  2. How can you speak words of comfort and encourage someone in your life who is grieving?

  3. When you are hurting and weak, what do you want people to do for you? How can you implement that moving forward?

  4. How can you practice more patience in your own life? Is this a fruit of the spirit that you struggle with at all?

  5. Why do you think it is important to be present in people's lives?

  6. When is a time that you have felt the presence of God in prayer?

  7. Is prayer a part of your daily rhythm? How can you invite God into your life more through prayer?

Scripture References

14And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
15Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
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.”
23This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
10For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.
8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
37Jesus replied:
“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
38
This is the first and greatest commandment.
39
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
26Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
28God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,
29so that no one may boast before him.
30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
Landon Lacy
Landon Lacy
Coordinator of Passion Students at Passion City Church, Washington D.C.