This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to our look at 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 this week in Daily Drive Time
Devotions. Day 3 verses 12 to 14, I am very excited about looking at these
verses. They are verses as we walk through them that I think will help you to
understand the people in your life and what you can do to meet their needs in a
new way.

They're really verses that are about how to live as a person of light. Today we
talked about the fact that we are people of light in this world. We walk in the
light.

How should I live if I'm a person of light? Well in these verses 12 to 14 there
are two character qualities that are found in people of light and encouragers.
Appreciation and discernment.

If I've got light in my life, light in my heart, I'm free to appreciate others
and I'm also wise enough to discern the needs of others. First of all, let's
look quickly at appreciation. Verses 12 to 13 say this.

Paul talks about here the need to appreciate people, especially spiritual
leaders he's focusing on. It's interesting that when I'm walking in the
darkness, I don't have much strength to appreciate other people. I use all of my
energy trying to get other people to appreciate me, but when I have the light of
Christ in my life, I'm able to encourage others and appreciate others because I
have a confidence in my relationship with him.

Paul just simply walks through here and says if people are helping you,
appreciate them. He says appreciate them for three things. Appreciate them for
their hard work, for their leadership, for their teaching.

Their hard work, when you see it, appreciate it. Their leadership, he says them
being leaders over you, that phrase there has the idea of being out in front of
you. When somebody is doing that, they're out in front of you and they're giving
you a model to follow.

They're giving you a way to live the Christian life. They're showing you how.
Appreciate them for that.

Appreciate them in prayer. Appreciate them personally. Appreciate them with a
note.

He says appreciate those who teach you. Admonish is the word that's used here.
The idea of someone who warns and teaches you.

Now, by the way, teaching doesn't always have to be done in a large group or
even in church. You can teach one-on-one and anytime someone has taught you
something about the truth, about living a godly life, appreciate that. When you
do that, you're living as a person of light.

You take notice. You give value to people and you appreciate them. As Paul walks
through these verses, he says there's another quality that's a part of our lives
when we live as a person of light.

We not only have the new freedom to appreciate other people because we're not so
focused on ourselves, we also have a new kind of discernment of the needs of
others that are around us. If I'm going to encourage other people, I have to be
able to discern how to encourage a particular person at a particular time. One
of the most important lessons to learn when it comes to encouraging others is
that encouragement often means different things at different times.

If I go into a doctor and the doctor sees that I'm sick and it's obvious that
I'm sick and the doctor says to the nurse, "Give that guy drugs," and the nurse
says, "What kind? " The doctor says, "I don't care. He's sick.

Just give him drugs. They'll help. " I want the doctor to have some discernment,
the right drug.

Well, when it comes to our faith and helping other people to grow in faith, be
encouraged in faith, discernment has to do with the right words at the right
time. We need to have that kind of discernment. The particular word, the
particular encouragement that that person needs at that moment.

You can't encourage everybody the same way. You can't encourage the same person
the same way every time. It depends on the need of the moment.

Let me focus in on what I'm talking about here by reading verse 14. In this
verse, you're going to hear three specific groups mentioned and how to encourage
them and then something you can do for everyone. Verse 14 says, "And we urge
you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak.

" Be patient with everyone. Warn the idle, encourage the timid, and help the
weak. Let's walk through those three because it gives you some discernment in
how to encourage people.

Warn the idle. Literally, the idle means the disorderly, the people who are
living life just on their own terms. Remember, we looked at in 1 Thessalonians 4
that these people had quit working to wait for the second coming.

They were living off the gifts of others. The word idle also has the idea of a
soldier who's left the ranks. Warn the quitters.

Remember, in 1 Thessalonians 4, 11 to 12, do all that you can to live a peaceful
life. Take care of your own business, do your own work as we've already told
you. If you do, then people who are not believers will respect you, and you will
not have to depend on others for what you need.

I want to give a term to these three kinds of people that we're going to look at
today in this study. The idle, I would call them the won't-do people. We're
going to look at three different kinds of people, and this is the won't-do
people.

What do they need? What particular encouragement do they need to take the next
step in their life? The won't-do people need clear direction.

You can't beat around the bush with somebody who's idle. They need to clearly
see the next direction they need to take. They need to be motivated.

If somebody won't work, if somebody won't change, if somebody won't be the
leader or the parent that they should be, someone needs to love them enough to
say, "Change. " But it needs to be a clear direction. Have you ever thought
about that maybe some people need to change sometimes?

No, you need to look them in the eye and say, "You really need to change the way
you're parenting. You're going crazy. You really need to change the way you're
parenting.

You're letting them control the situation rather than you controlling the
situation. " Now, it's interesting that these verses are written to every one of
us as believers. I would love it if these verses were just written to a certain
group of believers.

I didn't have to do this part because it's difficult, but this is written to
everyone. So I can't act like, "Well, somebody else warned them. I don't have
to.

" Truth is, none of us like to do this warning part. I often see, I often see
this, well-intentioned believers ruin the work of others by comforting someone
who needs to be warned. They've been warned about a sin they're getting involved
in or a wrong direction they're taking in life and some other believer comes by
and just because they don't like to warn people and they want to feel good about
themselves, they put their arm around them and say, "Oh, it's okay.

I love you no matter what. " They need to be warned. Don't tell someone that
they're all right when they're all wrong.

Don't tell someone that it's going to be okay when it's definitely not okay.
Don't tell someone God will forgive you when in that moment they need to hear
you and your family and everyone is going to suffer for this sin if you continue
down this road. Yes, God will forgive them, but they also need to be warned of
the consequences.

You warn the idle, the person who is not acting, the won't do person. Warning is
for all of us to do and like I said, I don't like the emotions that go with it.
But it's something for all of us to do.

Truth is the only person I don't want to be warned by is the person who loves
warning other people. I hate those kinds of people because they take such
delight in making me feel terrible. I love being warned by people who although
they might feel a little uncomfortable about it, have the courage to say, "You
need to take a look at this and watch out for not acting in this area of life.

Warn the idle. " And then he says you encourage the timid. Timid means
small-souled, person who is feeling inadequate, ungifted.

Paul did this often for his friend Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, 7, "For God did not
give us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline. " These
aren't the won't do people. These are the scared to do people.

Encourage the timid. The scared to do people need gentle motivation. It won't do
to give them a strong direction, a strong push.

They need a gentle motivation. They need encouragement. They need a gentle pull.

The world is filled. It is filled with people who need just one person to look
them in the eye and say, "Did you know you were gifted by God? You're unique.

You have a powerful purpose in this world. " In fact, I know that's true of
every one of you listening to this right now because God made you. Even though
I'm not looking you in the eye, I know it's true of you because God made you.

You encourage the timid, the scared to do people. You don't just let them sit
over in a corner and be timid. You encourage them to get up and make a
difference in the world with the gifts that God's given to them.

Then He says you help the weak. This could relate to physically weak, and it
does need to relate to that, but the focus here of all these verses is the
spiritual side of our lives. This is also the spiritually weak.

This isn't the won't do people or the scared to do people. This is the can't do
people. They are so weak they feel like they can't even act.

The can't do people, they need practical help. They need practical action. How
can you help someone who needs this kind of practical action, somebody who feels
like they just don't have it in them to act?

Well, when it comes to the weak, spiritually weak, people who need to grow
spiritually, you can help them buy some things you choose not to do, and you can
also help them buy some things that you choose to do. The Bible says you can
help them in both ways. Let's start with what might sound a little confusing at
first.

How can I help a weak person by what I choose not to do? There's a lot about
that in the New Testament. First Corinthians 8 and 9 is just one of many verses.

Be careful that your freedom does not cause those who are weak in faith to fall
into sin. One of the ways that I can help the weak, that you can help the weak,
is not take certain freedoms with a lifestyle that although it might be
biblically okay to do, I know would tempt a weak person towards sin in their
life. I might have a clear conscience to do something, but if I know I do that
thing and it might tempt somebody else, then I can help the weak by not doing
that.

I might be able to say, I know the Bible teaches it's all right to have a drink.
There's nothing wrong with drinking wine in the Bible, but I can also say if
somebody who is recovering from alcoholism sees me, particularly as a pastor,
having a drink in a restaurant, they might think, "Well, I guess it's okay. A
pastor can do it.

I should be able to handle it. " And all of a sudden, it has hurt them. I have
hurt the weak rather than helping the weak.

That is why at Saddleback, everyone on our staff has made a commitment not to
drink. It's not to be legalistic, it's to help the weak because we care about
the weak. What we've chosen not to do can help the weak.

You can also help the weak, and you need to help the weak by what you choose to
do. Sometimes we're all weak. Let's just admit it.

We all need help. We need someone to carry the burden of life with us. When you
find someone who is at the point in their life where they're saying, "I just
can't do it.

I just can't go the next step. I don't think I can make it," then you find a way
that you can help. The word "help" here has the idea of putting an arm around
someone, of grasping hands with someone, of giving them the strength that they
need to make the next step that they need to make.

Helping the weak isn't carrying them through the rest of their lives. It's
helping them to make the next step. Think of the times in your life when someone
was there at the right time to give you the strength that you needed to make the
right decision.

That's what we're talking about here. You help the weak. This is one of the main
reasons you need to be in a small group of other believers that worship together
and talk about God's Word together.

As you go through times of weakness in your life, you usually are so weak you
don't reach out to others for help. But if you're in a small group, they're
going to recognize that you're in a time of weakness, and they're going to come
alongside you to help. As we talk about these different kinds of people, we're
talking here about can't do people.

They don't have the strength. They don't have the knowledge. And these can't do
people need practical help.

They need someone to do something for them that helps them to make the next
step, to give them the strength to do what they need. Now that's different than
won't do people or scared to do people. Won't do people need clear direction.

Scared to do people need gentle motivation. Can't do people need practical help.
The amazing thing to me, as I've looked at how I treat people sometimes, and you
may relate to this very strongly, is I often get it all mixed up.

I give the wrong kind of encouragement to the wrong person. Instead of warning
the idle and encouraging the timid and helping the weak, I warn the timid and I
try to help the idle and I try to encourage the weak. I give them the wrong
thing at the wrong time.

And then we wonder why it doesn't work. These are very simple directions from
God's word, but they work. When I do the right thing to meet a person's need at
the right time, then God blesses that in a way that changes their life.

The truth of the matter is all of us have a favorite way of encouraging others,
of motivating others. And if you're a helper, you like to really dive in there
and do something practical, then you try to use that method with everybody. If
you're an encourager, you try to use that method with everybody.

But these verses are reminding us that the more mature we become as believers,
the more we learn there are different needs for different times with different
people and we ask God to give us discernment. That's part of walking as a person
of light in this world. You need to learn discernment.

I need to learn discernment because discernment is a part of encouragement. It
takes all of us encouraging together to make it as believers. And if you think
I'm stronger in one of these than the other, well then bring people alongside of
you that are stronger than the other when you see a need in somebody's life
because we do this together.

As we pray today, I'd like to pray about people in your life because as I talked
about these three kinds of people, people who won't do, people who are scared to
do, people who can't do, my guess would be that some names may have come to
mind. Let's pray for those people right now. Lord, we pray for somebody we know
right now who just won't do what you called them to do.

It might have to do with a family decision. It might have to do with a business
decision. It might have to do with a decision about their faith and growth in
their life.

And they're choosing right now not to do it. It might be a stubborn choice or it
might more often just be procrastination, but they're choosing not to do it.
God, would you send someone to warn them that the path that they're headed on is
a path that's going to lead them to loss of faith with you and loss of
fellowship with others?

And God, I pray this prayer very, very tentatively. If you could use me to warn
them, would you show me how? Would you open the door for the right words at the
right time?

Lord, we also pray for someone in our mind who is scared to do something right
now. It's not that they won't. They're scared.

We can see the fear in their lives. God, I pray that you would use your word. I
pray you would use us.

I pray you would use other people in their lives to help them to know that
greater is he who is in us than he was in the world. And we can rely on you. And
then, Lord, we pray for that person who feels weak right now, who feels like
they just can't do it.

God, give us wisdom. Help us to know the one practical thing we might be able to
do to help them to take the next step. God, we know we can't do everything for
them, but we also know we can do one thing.

Help us to see what that would be. In your name, I pray, amen. Join us tomorrow.

We're going to be looking at verses 15 to 18 of 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5.