Richard Ellis Talks

Guest (Male): Today on Richard Ellis Talks.

Richard Ellis: And I'm telling you, for a church to survive and thrive and grow and people to grow and even to stay together, there has to be this going on. You have to connect. You have to build relationships, so when you go down, somebody's there to pick you up.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Thank you for allowing us to share this time with you. You may be stuck in traffic or stuck in life. Either way, today's message is going to help you get on the right track as you learn how much God loves you right where you are.

Richard's unique style checks all the boxes, with a lot of hope, insight, truth, and of course, humor. Today's talk with Richard will get our conversation started, but we want to keep it going with you. So let's stay in touch through our website, richardellis.com. But right now, let's go ahead and get right into today's talk. Here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title today's message is Life Support. And I want you to turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 if you've got a Bible with you. We will probably start with verse 1 and work our way down to where we're going to camp out a little bit today.

You know, it's interesting to me that a lot of people's, Christians in particular, have a lot of good intentions. Sometimes, certain times of the year, we make resolutions and we're going to do this and do that and lift weights and not eat that or whatever it may be. And within a few weeks, if not days, it doesn't happen. And you get discouraged and then you say, "Well, why bother even making a commitment or decision because I don't keep them anyway? And I claim to be this and I'm that, and that makes me a hypocrite, and I don't want to be a hypocrite." So you just kind of step farther and farther back and almost give up.

There are phrases that people use, some of them being these: I'm hanging on by a thread. Ever been there? I'm down to the last straw. My life is kind of hit and miss, off and on, up and down. I kind of have a no-can-do, not a can-do, but a no-can-do attitude. I'm barely hanging on, or an old fighting term, boxing term, I'm just ready to throw in the towel. I can't do this anymore.

Now, how do you make it through all this, and especially starting a new year? A lot of new things coming. Who God only knows some of the stuff that's coming. It's great, the good stuff, but the tough stuff. I mean, you don't know who's going to die in your family, who's going to live in your family, who's going to be sick, whether you're going to live or die or be sick, or whether the economy's going to change some more. You're going to have your job, you're not going to have a job. People struggle with addictions of any kind. Maybe you've been sober forever and you slip on something on the wagon and pretty soon you're on your butt off the wagon.

Then I want to start in verse 1 of 1 Thessalonians 5 and hopefully take us through some verses where we can help each other make it not just through another year, but in some cases through another day. 1 Thessalonians 5:1 says this: "But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape."

"But you, brethren, are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep." And this sleeping is not about dying. Sometimes sleep in the Bible refers to death. This is about being spiritually lax. This is about just like, "Oh well, whatever. I'm a Christian, I die, I go to heaven. Who cares about anything else?"

He says, "Let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and of love and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." And the word wrath here refers to the end when God's wrath will be delivered and declared upon those who denied him.

"But to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." And I usually do this at some point, but let me just start out because it's here. The whole thing, the whole gospel, and most of what I'm going to say today is directed more to believers, people who claim to know Christ and are trying to live the Christian life.

But you may be listening here beyond today and say, "You know what? I don't get it. What is this whole God thing? What are you talking about? I've been searching, nobody'll talk to me." I had a conversation with a guy who's been coming to our church, and he said he saw a woman at the place where he works out, just kind of an unhappy-looking woman. And he was kind of staying away from her. It just seemed like something's wrong with this lady.

But then God started to change his heart and said, "You know, what about this? Why are you judging her? Why don't you talk to this woman?" So he started saying, "Okay, God, if I'm the one to talk to her." So he ends up in the hot tub one day and this woman gets in the hot tub after he'd worked out, and there they sat. And I'm trying to remember the exact phraseology, but she said something about something. He said, "Well, you know, my life's been changed, or I have, you know, the reason for living is Jesus," or, "my relationship with God." And she said, "Tell me about that."

And long story short, this guy sat in a hot tub at this workout place with this woman he didn't even want to be around a few weeks before, and she prayed and became a Christian. Now, there are people out there, and he said he kept talking and she kept asking questions trying to figure out, "What is this? I've been looking for this." We are surrounded maybe here, but everywhere we go with people who see and know there's got to be something worth living for and an answer when you die, and they don't know where to go to ask.

Somebody says, "Well, you've got the winning ticket and you don't know where to redeem it. You don't know where to take it and cash it in." And I'm telling you, it's very simple. The relationship that you have maybe observed in somebody else, hypocrites notwithstanding because we all are that at some point, but when you see someone or hear of this God who supposedly loves people enough that he gave his son Jesus to live and die on a cross and shed his blood to pay for our sin and be buried and raised from the dead, this whole relationship is the simplest thing to get into. You cannot even begin to imagine how close it is.

If you simply cry out to God and say, "God, I've screwed up, I'm a sinner, I get it, I see it now, I need your forgiveness. I've tried to be good, and the more I try to be good, the worse I am. I just can't do it anymore, God. If this thing is a gift from you, I accept this gift. Come live in me, come live through me, change me. You know what a screw-up I am, you know everything, you've seen my past, you know what's coming ahead, you know what today holds for me. I don't want to live anymore without you. I certainly don't want to die without you. Save me, rescue me, come get me." And just like that, he'll do it if you put your trust in him to rescue you and not in yourself.

Now, let's say you crossed that line and you make it and you say, "Okay, God, you're in me now. Now what do you do?" I talked to a young guy, he's been a Christian a short period of time. I said, "It's kind of like when you give your life to Jesus, all hell breaks loose." And some people will tell you, "If you become a Christian, you're going to be rich and you'll never have any problems. It's all going to be wonderful from now on." Let me tell you something, I don't live on that planet. I don't know where those people are living or what they're smoking or what they're doing, but that has not been my experience.

When you try to live the Christian life, you are going to get hammered because you were a POW before. Now you're on God's team and you are fighting the enemy. You're going completely the other direction, and that doesn't go over big in hell or with the devil and all his angels. So you are going to have some challenges unless you end up a prisoner of war again in his camp.

So he talks here a little bit in 1 Thessalonians about this day coming back when Jesus would come back and don't be asleep when it happens. Watch, pray, be alert, be sober. And then in verse 11 he says, "Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing." And the word here comfort means just to do that: to come alongside somebody and exhort and comfort and encourage, maybe even instruct or teach them. And we're going to have to do this together.

And the word here for edify is a word that could mean to build a house, to erect a building, to build up from the foundation, to restore by building, to rebuild, to repair or metaphorically to found, establish, to promote growth in Christian wisdom, affection, grace, virtue, holiness, blessedness, to grow in wisdom and piety. So he says there to them, "Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing." They were doing this already.

And I'm telling you, for a church to survive and thrive and grow and people to grow and it even to stay together, there has to be this going on. You have to connect, you have to build relationships so when you go down, somebody's there to pick you up. And it seems that this is a recurring theme in the scripture, and from time to time I come back to this for our sakes. Why? You can't do this by yourself.

I personally over the last few months have had some moments when out of nowhere, as a pastor, the phone will ring. Sometimes it's a simple call just to say, "Hey, I just called to say I love you." You say, "Well, what's the big deal with that?" When you're on the other end of it and you're going through a tough time, you tell me what that's like.

There are times in your life when you need someone to encourage you. You need someone to come alongside you and say, "You know what? It's going to be okay." And if you're not a part of a fellowship, a part of a family, a part of a community of believers where that's going on, and I'm not talking about support groups because you can go to a support group and get sober, get clean, get whatever you're trying to do, and that's all that happens. I think that's a great thing. You may live longer as a result of that.

I'm talking about life support. I'm talking about your whole being: emotionally, physically, and spiritually as well, where people will cut to the chase and be gentle when they need to be gentle but be firm when they need to be firm. And we'll see that in a minute that he encouraged them to do that. Paul is saying to them, "You're already doing this, but keep doing it. Keep on comforting, keep on edifying one another, just as you are doing."

Now, look at verse 12. "And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake." I'm usually very uncomfortable going over this, but I'm going to take a stab at it. I love the fact that he uses the word recognize those who labor among you.

And whether you're aware of this or not or know this or not, our church, many churches, there's different structure in them. Our church is run by elders. When the Bible talks about elders ruling, it is not a lording it over. It is a serving thing. Our job is to be here and to get to know you and for you to know us and to do everything we can to try to guide you and protect you and see that the enemy doesn't come in like a wolf in sheep's clothing and snatch away sheep.

And it is a very ominous responsibility. In the scripture what Paul says to them, "We urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake." Now, I try to say this from time to time, but I'll speak on behalf of the elders that we have at this point and anybody else in leadership in this church: you don't do this for money. You do it for love.

And if we didn't love you, there are enough challenges in churches that you'd quit on a dime if it weren't for God's love for you and your love for sheep, because it's just not worth it sometimes. It's too challenging, it's too much. We are all dumb sheep, me included.

Now, it's fascinating in verse 13 that he ends up by saying this. He uses an imperative and said, "Be at peace among yourselves." It's not a suggestion, it is a command. Be at peace among yourselves. And it is something that will not happen without God himself, because there are too many things that can happen in churches that just blow the lid completely off of it. But Paul says to them, "Be at peace among yourselves."

Now I want to spend quite a bit of time on verse 14, and let's start and go almost word by word here, phrase by phrase. He says, "Now we exhort you, brethren." And the word here for exhort, to address, speak to, which may be done in the way of exhortation, entreaty, comfort, instruction. It means to admonish, to exhort, to beg, entreat, beseech. He says, "We're coming alongside you basically and I am begging you, I am talking to you about this, brethren. Warn those who are unruly."

The word unruly is translated disorderly, out of ranks, often so of soldiers. So he says, "Warn those who are unruly." One commentary said the idle need to be warned. Those who neglect their daily duties need to be stirred up to action. So part of the responsibility we have as Christians loving each other, whether it's elders or just each other, is when you see somebody who needs to get with the program, you warn them and say to them, "Hey, what are you doing?"

So the context here is Christian love. It's brothers and sisters in Christ. It's watching out for each other. You warn someone so that they're going to be protected from something that could hurt them, not warning them to hurt them in the action itself. So Paul says to them, "We exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly." And that could be idle. They neglect their daily duties, they just need to be stirred up. Let's get with the program. Encourage them, warn them. Why? Why would you warn them? There's consequence to just letting it slide, because one day turns to another day and things can get out of hand and you just drift slowly but surely.

The second thing he says: comfort the faint-hearted. And the word here for comfort means to speak to, address one, whether by way of admonition and incentive or to calm and console, to encourage, console. Comfort the faint-hearted. There are times, there are situations we've got them here, you've got them at the office, you've got people you know, and the Holy Spirit as sure as I'm standing here will prompt you and there are times when you say, "Why in the world would I call this person out of nowhere?"

God knows everybody everywhere what they face, what they're going through, and if you get prompted, just obey. And if it's to go see them, go see them. If it's to call them, call them. If it's to write them a note, I'm telling you in the last few months I've had people call me out of the blue at times they could never have known. It's just absolutely a God thing what was going on. And those words of encouragement: "I was thinking about you. Just called to tell you I love you. You know, are you okay? What's going on?" And it's just a huge boost and you realize, "You know what? I'm not by myself. I'm going to be okay. This is a group effort, and somebody out there cares."

And it takes some people a while to get it out and it takes some people a while to get on with it, and some people go a little ways and then fall on their butt and they just quit. And they need to be warned not to be unruly or to quit, and then we need to comfort them when they're faint-hearted. "I can't do this." You know what? We are children. When you're a new Christian, you are basically a newborn. You grow up a little bit, you're a child, and we need to be as patient with each other as believers.

You look at somebody and say, "Well, the guy's 50 years old, she's 60 years old, she's 40 years old, she's 20 years old. You ought to know better." You know what? We don't. And we are all basically small children who need encouragement. We have in our church especially very few very mature believers who can hold it on their own by themselves at any particular time.

The distinguishing factor and a characteristic of whether you are really one of those very mature believers, if you are so mature, you're going to have a tremendous amount of patience with the immature, with the young, with those who can't do it on their own, because you realize somebody had to carry you, had to encourage you, had to get you to this place of maturity, so you're there for other people. This is messy work. Raising kids is messy work, and you don't quit.

You make a kid, you take it home. There are situations where children abandon you, maybe one of those. You know what? God doesn't abandon his children and he puts churches and people in place to say, "You know what? We're in for the long haul till you're dead or Jesus comes. As long as you're here, we're going to do this."

And people quit, people flake out, people go back to drugs and alcohol and sex and whatever else they thought was going to fix them before. They go back to it and you want to grab them by the ears or grab yourself by the ears and go, "What am I thinking?" And they feel bad enough as it is, and there's a way to gently come along and warn them, and there's a way to gently come alongside, the words here literally can mean this: to come alongside and comfort somebody and say, "You know what? It's going to be okay."

I know of a guy right now who's back, he's been clean and sober for a while, he's back in a rehab somewhere. You know what? He probably doesn't need a bunch of people to go and write him letters and say, "You're a screw-up!" He knows he's a screw-up. You know what he might need? Some little notes of people saying, "Hey, it's going to be okay, and I'm going to love you no matter what." And maybe there's consequence, and he knows that, or you know that in your own life. There is hope. If there is breath, there is hope. Comfort the faint-hearted.

Look at the next one: uphold the weak. And the word here for uphold means to hold before or against, to hold back, withstand, endure, keep oneself directly opposite to anyone, hold to him firmly, cleave to, paying heed to him. And people say, "Well, I can worship God out under a tree somewhere." Well, who's going to help you get up off your butt under that tree when you fall down? That's what I want to know.

And when you cry out and there's nobody there, you have got to get connected to a community of believers, get to know people for their sake and yours, because sooner or later it's going to go the other way and say, "God, use me here to help somebody else and when I go down, they're going to be there to come after me." Uphold the weak. And the word here for the weak simply means weak, infirm, feeble. Physically you can get that way, spiritually you can get that way.

From time to time in a conversation, you know I forget because I don't feel this way much, but there are people who just live depressed. Depression is a huge issue. People take medication for it, they struggle with it, they can't get up, they can't get going. And sometimes they need somebody to come along and just talk them through it and to pick them up by the hands and say, "Hey, you know what? Let's go. I'll take you shopping. Let's go eat. Let's go somewhere. Get up, let's get going again. It's going to be okay." And that little bit of encouragement, that consistent encouragement helps them to get back up on their feet and get moving again.

Now let me tell you something, what I'm describing is not the rah-rah-rah church where everybody comes in and looks great and "How are you doing? Great! Praise the Lord, God bless you, God is good all the time." You know what? God is good all the time, but things are not good all the time. And it doesn't mean we have to be depressed all the time either, but there are times when life is tough, things are challenging. It is reality. And if you're feeling great and you are mature, then you say, "Lord, I'm on top right now, help me be aware of those who may need a helping hand and I'll throw a rope and I'll pull them up," knowing that at some point it could be me on the other end of that.

Comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak. Another commentary said the weak need help. These have not yet learned to lean on the Lord as much as they should for their spiritual needs. Until they do, they need strong support from other believers. And the last one, which is probably one of the most important ones: he said, "Be patient with all." You will not do church without patience because it is messy stuff.

And if I started right over here and went down the rows and we took the time and spent one day, two days, however many hours it took and handed microphones and went one person and said, "Are you a Christian? Yes. Tell me what's been going on in your life. All the details, specifically. What are your sins? What's going on?" You know what? It is a mess in here, beginning right here with me. We all struggle. And you say, "Well, I don't like that. I don't want to be around a bunch of screw-ups." Then what are we going to do with you?

Because see, if you are so perfect and you are so spiritual and you are so godly, you know what you're going to be? Right in the middle of a mess trying to help people get where they need to go and do what this is talking about. And if you are holier than thou and so self-righteous and got it all figured out, you've got jack figured out, or you'd be in the middle of people with problems helping them get where you are. So if you want to try to figure out a way to tell the real spiritual, mature, godly, real godly people from those who just claim to be, all you've got to do is watch them. If there's a mess around them, they've got people hurting around them, there's a good chance they really are godly because they get it.

Because this is work. It is every day work. In fact, turn to one other passage, Hebrews 3. Hebrews 3:13 says this: "But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." There is a place for literally daily.

I know guys, and it seems we're talking a little bit today about rehab and some of those issues that come up. I know guys that have been addicted to stuff, men and women, who literally go to three AA meetings a day. Now, why do they do that? They are so desperate to get off of that drug, to get clean, to be sober, to have a life, to not lose their family, everything they've got, they'll do whatever it takes. And if you are in relationship with somebody and you claim to love them and you know they struggle and it dawns on you and God says, "You know what? This person is trying to make it through life one day at a time," then you find yourself at some point of the day picking up the phone going, "Hey, how are you doing? I called to do what? To exhort you daily." Email people if that's what it takes. "Was thinking about you, prayed for you this morning, praying for you right now. Are you okay? What's going on? Is your marriage going to make it? Hang in there." Something. But every day.

And it's going to take a lot of patience. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. This whole chapter about love. Chapter 13 verse 4: "Love suffers long and is kind." Love is long-suffering. You say, "I am so tired of my child or my husband or my wife doing this same stupid thing. I'm done. I'm going to get rid of them. I'm going to take them back, I'm going to turn them in, I'm going to do something." Be patient. Long-suffering.

And Galatians 5:22, when it talks about the fruit of the spirit, and by the way, fruit is not plural, it is one fruit, the fruit of the spirit. When you get the fruit, you get all these sections of that fruit, and they are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. You cannot live the Christian life without Christ, and when you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit in you, living in you and through you. You cannot live it without him. The fruit of the spirit are these things. And if you are not filled with the spirit where he is controlling and manifest in your life, you are not going to love, you are not going to have joy, you are not going to have peace, you are not going to be long-suffering. So if you're about to wring your husband or wife's neck or your children or whatever you're thinking, you are not going to be a Christian without Christ. You're not going to be long-suffering without the fruit of the spirit in your life and the Holy Spirit controlling your life. Be patient with each other. Be patient.

Guest (Male): Before Richard comes back to wrap things up for us today, let me encourage you to take a minute and check out our website, richardellis.com. You'll find today's talk right there in the talks page along with all of Richard's audio and video messages. You can even forward them to a friend so they can hear them too. You'll also find the prayer wall to add your prayer requests, a link so you can connect with us, the contribute page for you to be able to give to this ministry, all of our social media links, and much more. So check it out: richardellis.com. And Richard's back now to wrap up today's talk.

Richard Ellis: Let me read through this one verse one more time. "We exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all." And look at verse 15. "See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all."

I looked up on a website, healthatoz.com, and read some risks of life support. The risk and consequence of life support are enormous. These risks include physical dangers, emotional suffering, financial costs, societal discord. And it occurred to me that the risk of no spiritual life support can be exactly the same thing. If we don't provide the life support that people need in a spiritual situation, there are physical dangers, there are emotional sufferings, financial costs, societal discord. Same things apply.

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