Help for Troubled Souls

Mutual Ministry in the Church

We'll turn, please, in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. The text for preaching will just be two verses in the midst of what I will read. Verses 14 and 15 will be the preaching text, but I'll read from 12 through 22.

12 to 13 will remind us of where we've been, and then 16 to 22 to tell us where we will, Lord willing, eventually go. So, this letter to the Thessalonians is drawing to a close and the Apostle Paul has been giving instructions to the church about their body life, about how they're to live together as the church, and his concern here is how four church members relate to one another.

In verses 12 and 13, it was how you relate to your pastors, and now how you relate to one another, how we grow together in the image of Jesus Christ, how we live a life here as members of the body together in a way that brings honor to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, if we're to grow together in the manner and towards the goals which God has set forth for us, then it is of paramount importance that we relate properly, biblically to one another, because only then can we do as the Lord would have us to do, which is to grow and build one another up in that image of Jesus Christ who redeemed us.

So, it must be in the church of Jesus Christ, this constant cycle of mutually beneficial ministry, one to another, the receipt and the provision of this mutual aid is of equal importance whether you receive or give this aid.

The one in need must be as willing to accept as the one who has the resources must be to give the help. So, with that brief introduction, please stand for the reading of God's Word, 1 Thessalonians 5, beginning at verse 12 through to verse 22.

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves, and we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. God bless the reading, and now the hearing of God's Word. Please be seated.

Two Kinds of People in the Church

You know, in such a diverse assembly as we have here, and of course, you're all looking at me, so you don't see what I see. I see many different kinds of people. People of different sexes, people of different ages, people of different ethnicities.

I see all sorts of different kinds of people, but you know, ultimately, there's only two kinds of people that are in view here in the Scripture. No matter where you come from, where you're going, where you've been, there's only two kinds of people that are in view here, really, in the Scripture.

There are those who need help, and there are those who are to help those who need help. There's two circles, if you will. Those who need assistance, and those who are to give the assistance. And at one time or another, you've been in one of those circles.

You've been in need of help, and God willing, in the church, you've received help, or you've known those who need help, and God willing, you have given the help. Yesterday, you may have been in one. Tomorrow, you'll be in the other.

But it's this constant cycle, this ebb and flow in the church of these two kinds of people. If we can break it all down into just these two, those who need, and those who provide. And so the Apostle Paul, in closing this letter to the Thessalonians, giving these final instructions, and here regarding body life, is concerned that in this body life, that the church would grow together, that they would help one another, build one another up, as he said earlier, just as you are doing.

And how is that doing accomplished? It's here in this ebb and flow as you go back and forth between these groups according to God's providence, and where he and his sovereignty would have you, the circumstances of your life you either need, or you provide.

And those in need must be as willing to give and provide the need, be it material or be it spiritual, as those who are in need must be to confess their need, and to come forward and ask for, not to say, receive what they need, be it spiritual, be it material.

If you need to be held up in prayer, if you need to be held up and coached along because of a certain sin, whatever the case may be, to help you grow into the image of Christ, you must come forward. And the church, God willing, will have the one who will come to you and help you in that need.

And if you're in a material need, the need of the material, the physical, the temporal resources of the church, is the same transaction. We must be as willing to come forward as those in the church must be willing to meet you and help you out.

This is the call of the Apostle to the church in Thessalonica. This is the call of the Apostle to the church in the 21st century, to be those who recognize and confess their need, to be those who recognize and provide for those needs.

Cannot ignore the needs of others. We cannot fail to provide in this way for each other. We cannot fail, we cannot falter in our commitment to one another, and because of what? Because of our commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that commitment to Jesus Christ, if you are in Christ, by repentance for your sins, by the faith that God has given you to believe in his cross, if you are in Christ in that way, then this is our duty in both the receipt and the provision.

We cannot falter in our commitment in this way. We must actively seek opportunities to do what the Apostle Paul would have the Thessalonicans to have done and us today to continue to do. We urge you, verse 14, and we urge you brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak.

Admonishing the Idle, Encouraging the Faint-Hearted, and Helping the Weak

Three commands, to admonish, to encourage, and to help for three classes of people, the idle, the faint-hearted, and the weak. And those three are existing within that sphere of need that I talked about, just the two types of people.

This is the one type, these three groups of that one type of need. There's three commands that we have of them. Admonish, encourage, and help. We need to discuss first who these are and what these different commands are for our help to them.

And we need to see the way that this is done, the attitude, the demeanor that you as the provider, if you're in that sphere today to provide for another, the attitude you must have towards them. And finally in verse 15, we'll talk about the overarching principle that brings us about.

He says we urge you, brothers. The same basic syntax that we had up in verse 5 when he says we ask you brothers, and there we ask you to respect those who rule over you, those who proclaim the word to you.

And there he asked. It was sort of an entreaty. It was something that there was no obvious sin. There was no obvious failing on their part, so he asked them to implement this, if you will. And now in verse 14, it's more formal, and there's a bit more apostolic authority behind it.

It's something that needs to be done or needs to be corrected. It sort of rises a bit more to the fore, if you will. It's something that has to be implemented in the church. This admonishing, this encouraging, and this helping.

We urge you. It's more urgent. It's more imperative. It's more has to be done. Admonish the idol. Let's start there. What does it mean to admonish the idol? Well, if you look at the major English translations, if you look at R-E-S-V, I just read it to you, admonish the idol, the N-I-V, the New King James, would say warn the unruly, and we just take those English translations.

We have to understand that they're all pretty good translations of the words that are behind what we have in the English. You see, where we have admonish, and the other translations would say warn, those are both good translations of the Greek word nutheteo.

Now, you don't have to remember that, but nutheteo means to warn, to encourage, to counsel, to admonish. It's where we get nuthetic counseling, by which we mean biblical counseling. It's nuthetic. It's from that very word.

It's from Romans 15, 14, where Paul says, I am satisfied of you, brethren, that you are full of all goodness and wisdom and are able to admonish, or nutheteo. That's the word we have here. You are to admonish the idol.

Okay, so that's the first thing. We have in that group those who are idol and need to be admonished. So what's the need? I said there's two groups of people. There's the ones who need and the ones who provide the need.

We have the idol. You need to be admonished. So someone in the church should come along and admonish or warn you. But he says admonish the idol. What do you think of when you hear the word in English, idol?

What do you think of someone who's lazy? You think of someone who's not doing something. You think of the the proverbial man who Solomon says is so lazy he can't even lift his food to his mouth, but he just lets his face fall into a soup bowl and slurp it up that way.

That's an idol sort of man. Don't you think something like that? But those other translations I mentioned, which are good translations, say unruly. Well, the word is a military word, and it has to do with a soldier who's out of rank, who's not keeping step.

In the Roman days, they had a flank, sort of like what they learned from the Greeks, where the shields would be locked together as they marched to attack the enemy. And you had to march in sync with the man on your left and right, shoulder to shoulder, legs moving at the right time, so the shield stayed together.

And if you weren't in sync, you may have been working very hard. You weren't idol. You're holding this heavy shield. You're marching. You're carrying your sword or your spear, whatever your weapon was.

You're not idol, are you? You're doing something. But you may as well be idol, because you're out of step. You're not doing your part. So you'd be working very, very hard. You could be busy as a bee, as we say.

And yet, in terms of accomplishing anything for the church, in terms of accomplishing anything in yourself for growing into the image of Jesus Christ, you're idol. You ever see the beginning of Gomer Pyle?

It's an old black-and-white show. It's a gentle show. I never thought it was that funny. But Gomer Pyle was kind of the backwoods guy, became a Marine, and the beginning scene, they show the Marines marching, doing the parade march as they go past the stand, and they're practicing the drills and stuff like that.

And there's Gomer, and he can't get his feet in sync, and he can't get his rifle straight, and he can't get his shoulders to stop wiggling. He's not idol at all. He's just not doing anything that's worthwhile.

And that's what this is about here. Admonish the idol. Are you growing in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you, today, closer to that image? Though we'll never get to that image in this lifetime, but we're always striving and reaching after the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, as the Apostle says to the Philippians.

Are you growing in the Lord Jesus Christ? You could be working very hard at memorizing verses. You could be doing a lot of things, a lot of stuff, a lot of activities. But are you growing in Jesus Christ, or are you idol?

A lot of times it takes that humility. Do you have the humility to confess that, well, I am busy as a bee, and I'm like Gomer Pyle here. I'm marching, and I'm sweating in the sun, and I'm carrying all this equipment, and I got my shield up, and all these other images that we could put in place, but I'm just not quite with the rest of them.

And thereby, not advancing in the gospel, not growing in holiness and sanctification. The model of this church is a deeper knowledge of Christ, which we take from 2nd Peter. Do you have a deeper knowledge of Christ?

Are you working at it? Are you working very hard, but not growing? That's what idleness is. So let's have you in this group. Let's just ask ourselves, am I in that part of this first group that needs something?

What do we do about it? Well, first of all, by faith you trust that within the church, within the brethren, your blood-brought brothers and sisters, there are those who not only have the maturity, and the knowledge, and the insights, but the willingness to come to you.

You need to come. You need to confess this need. You need to come to one. You need to come to your pastor, and have somebody recommended to you, or go to that person yourself. Someone who you see with that maturity, that would solve this idleness, that would get you marching in step with the rest.

I don't mean lockstep. I mean growing with us as we build one another up. It takes humility. It takes faith. You need to come forward. And you who have that maturity, remember that I said you're in one group of the other, and yesterday you were one, and tomorrow you might be in the other.

It's an ebb and flow. Remember that you were in that same boat when this person comes to you. Or when your pastor, one of your pastors comes to you, and says, you need to go to this brother, and I want you to meet them once a week, and pray with him, and help him along in this or that regard.

Or you with a sister. You need to be willing to come forward, because this is an imperative. This is an urging of the Apostle. That's the first. Admonish the idol. Point out to them where they're working so hard, and they're sweating like crazy, but they're just not getting anything really done for the Lord, or for the church, or for their own personal growth.

Or point it out to them for yourself. I'm not growing. I'm not advancing. That's first. Admonish the idol. The second group, we have encourage the faint-hearted. Encourage is just the word we'd expect it to be.

Encourage, come alongside, be with them, help them out. Be sort of a cheerleader, though not rah, rah, sis, kumbah, not like that. Encouraging them in the Lord through the scripture. Who are the faint-hearted?

In the context of the Thessalonian letter, it could have been those, it was probably those, I should say, who were worried about the fate of those who had departed before them. Those who Paul says were asleep.

We don't want you to be unaware, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep. That the Lord hasn't forgotten them. The Lord will not forget you either. And those people who are faint-hearted, the King James, unfortunately, says feeble-minded.

And it's not that at all. And if you were raised with that in the the old King James translation, get that out of your mind. It does not mean feeble-minded at all. It means faint-hearted. The word actually is small-souled.

It means to have a small soul. Not a different soul qualitatively from anyone else. A soul that has not expanded. A soul that, by testing and proving the Word of God in life, hasn't grown in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and confidence in His Word.

That's what it means to be small-souled. The Thessalonians were worried about the fate of their loved ones who had died before them. That's what it is to be small-souled. Why? Because the Word of God is so clear.

The word Jesus Christ said, no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. And all whom the Father has given me will surely come to me. And Jesus Christ said, I go to make a place for you. And if it were not so, would I not have told you so?

And He will call all those to Himself. To not believe these things is what it means to be small-souled. To not step out in faith and practice and believe and implement the Word of God in your life, no matter how hard it is and how against the tide it goes, is what it means to be small-souled.

Are you one who is big-souled? Have you tested the Word of God? Have you put it in practice in your office, in your marriage, in your relationships, and seen that God will honor you by the strengthening of His Spirit and in His sovereignty bring providences about that will show that His Word is true.

And so your soul expands as it were. And you're the one who needs to go this one who hasn't had that confidence to test God's Word in that way. I don't mean test God as we read this morning in Matthew chapter 4.

I mean His Word. I mean like it says in Romans 12. Testing God's Word and proving that it's true and good and perfect. You who have tested that Word, you have seen it is true. You who have put it to the test in hard providences, in your financial life, in your married life, in your professional life, and seen that is true.

You're the ones who provide to the others who need to come forward, you small-souled people, you faint-hearted ones. Because the Spirit of God in you is the same Spirit of God that is in that one who is big-souled.

Qualitatively no different. Come forward and you, to whom they come, be there for them. Help the weak. To help the weak. The word weak is used in relation to physical infirmity, physical weakness, and it's used in the more metaphorical sense, spiritually.

Help the weak. Help is hard to ask for, is it not? It takes the same kind of humility. I would say, argue, sometimes even more humility to confess a weakness than these other needs that the Apostle Paul is so urgently bringing to the church.

To help means to stand alongside. It means to stay with. It means to commit to. Now it's hard to confess our need. What kind of weakness do they mean? Let's make it all-inclusive. Let's make a physical weakness.

Help the weak. Like the Boy Scout who opens the door for the elderly, that sort of thing. Help the old lady across the street as the proverb goes. Helping the weak, to admit that you're one who needs help, that needs that assistance.

You know, my multiple sclerosis, sometimes when I'm heading towards a door, and it's not one of those automatic doors, which is kind of rare today, isn't it? Usually they just open for you. Now stand there if I'm having a particularly rough day, and I'll have to consider the strategy of actually opening that door.

Now for someone who used to climb rocks and go backpacking for three weeks at a time, that's a hard transition to make. Now stand there looking at the door and say, okay, I can get going this way, and I have to get my left foot behind me, and then lean on my kin this way, and then I can push the door, and I won't fall over because I lose my balance so easily these days.

Sometimes I have to confess that weakness and let that little old lady that when I was a Boy Scout, I was supposed to help across the street, actually opened the door for me. Let me tell you, it's a humbling experience.

You need to help. You need to come forward with these needs, whether it's a spiritual need, a weakness in your growth in the Lord Jesus Christ, a lack of faith because you haven't proved by testing and trying God's Word, whatever it is.

You need to look at yourself, and you can look at yourself in comparison to others, not that anybody else is better than you, but that one who models Christ and growth in him more and say, you know, compared to that one, I am weak, and I need to confess that and seek the help, and you, the one who's strong.

When they ask for help, remember what the Apostle Paul says here in this word help. Stand alongside. Commit to. You now have a brother or a sister who's come to you and asked you for specific help. You dare not let them go.

This is the ebb and flow. This admonishment, this encouragement, this helping, this confession of my idleness, my unruliness, if you will, this confession that I am faint-hearted, that I haven't had the confidence, the big solidness, if you will, to test God's Word and put it into practice in every circumstance, and my weakness.

There's a overlaying principle that the Apostle Paul gives here to you who will help. He said, be patient with them all. Be patient with them all. Now, this is an interesting thing that he says here. It has to do, I think, it plays off that last word, which is help.

In other words, you're gonna stay with them. You're going to help them. You're gonna stand alongside. You're committed. You're not gonna let go of them. It's not gonna be three easy verses, and I gave him that chapter, and off I go to the next town, like the cowboy riding off in the sunset.

So be patient. Now, patience has to do with endurance. It does. I think patience has more to do with the attitude. In other words, you who are strong, you who are today in that provision sphere, remember that yesterday you're in that needs sphere, and if not, then tomorrow you may well be, and it could be that the Lord's going to put you there because you need to learn this kind of patience.

And what is this patience? Well, again, it's endurance. It's long-suffering, but I think it's mostly an attitude. It's an attitude of remembering, and such were some of you, and this one who is timorous about the things of the Lord, this one who today needs this help, this one who is fainthearted, who is small-souled, I look at as a brother or sister in the Lord.

I look at as who I was yesterday and who I may be tomorrow, and by helping them, I will grow in the Lord, and they will grow in the Lord, and Jesus Christ, not I, not unto us, not unto us, but you. To you be all the glory, as the psalmist says.

Be patient with them all. This is speaking to the provision. This is speaking to the strong. This is speaking to you who are mature and requiring this patience. And I have only one example of patience, and I'm going to bring it straight from the Bible.

It's in Matthew chapter 18, and it's the well-known parable of the unforgiving servant. You remember this. We're not going to read it. I'm just going to go through it very quickly to you, where this, Jesus says there was a servant who owed, I don't know how much money it was, 10 ,000 drachmas or whatever it was.

Let's just call it like Forrest Gump did, about a gazillion dollars, an impossible debt. Let's say the interest was something relatively high, like 80 percent, something like this, just an unbelievable amount of money.

And of course we all know that the master who represents God forgave that servant who represents us, and then that servant goes and tries to choke one of his fellow servants who owes him a few pennies after he'd been forgiven these gazillions of dollars at this high interest rate.

And the master was very displeased, and we know the end of that parable. But how did the servant receive the extra time or the forgiveness? He said, have patience with me, and I will repay all. Well, the master had a patience.

That didn't mean he's going to wait a long time. He's going to take six months of the interest away or anything like that. The patience was to simply forgive. I think this is the kind of patience that the Apostle Paul would have, you who are strong, and we who are strong.

We who have those stronger, more domineering personalities need to really think about this, what it means to be patient with them. It means to not be judgmental with them. It means to look at them as a brother or sister for whom the Lord Jesus Christ also died.

It means to treat them the way we would be treated, as Jesus Christ himself says, be patient with them all. So this is the first thing we have here. It's an urging. It's an imperative. It's an urgent matter that we have admonishment and encouragement and help for the idle, for the faint-hearted, and for the weak.

That you confess your need and you provide for your need. And all that overlaid with this precious medal of patience. Patience as the Lord Jesus Christ is patient with you. Patience as with God, who doesn't treat us according to our iniquities or as our sins deserve, as the psalmist puts it.

That kind of patience that trusts God to work in that person and bring them along in whatever the need was, whether it be their idleness, their faint-heartedness, or their weakness. That God can and will use you insofar as you, by prayer and submission to his Spirit and following his word, bring this ministry to others.

No Repaying Evil for Evil

Verse 15 then, says, see that no one repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Now that on the surface of it makes good sense to us. We know what it means. It means don't retaliate.

And even though I'll talk about a few of the verses where this comes from, I think many of us, if not most of us, know where it comes from. And interestingly, many of the go-to commentators, and I would agree with them, hold verse 15 to be part of the thought of Paul with verse 14.

So verse 14 and 15 go together as a unit. And I look at that and I say, okay, these men who've written these books that we refer to to check ourselves and make sure we're on the right track, they're smarter than I could ever be.

They know the Bible. They know the languages. And I agree with them that those two verses go together. What they don't tell you is how do they fit. If the Apostle Paul is saying, and we urge you brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

We understand that. I think I've explained it. I think we can follow it now. What does it mean to throw in, not throw in, but to add to that, see that no one repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

Where does this come from? Well, it's the idea of retaliation. It denies us the right, if you will, to any retaliation. It comes from Exodus chapter 21 verse 24, really, where Moses is speaking to Israel and saying, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, wound for wound.

That's repeated in Leviticus 24, 29. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, wound for wound. And there it would seem to say, it would seem to advocate this sort of thing. Now Jesus Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, he spoke of it this way.

He said, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. There's the principle of retaliation. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

Well, what was happening, excuse me, in Exodus and in Leviticus, what Moses was commanding them was there would be no personal vengeance. That the people of Israel were to trust the administration of justice as the judges and priests follow God's law.

And rule that that would be the final arbiter, as we like to say. The scripture is the rule of all practice and faith. So he's saying, no, you don't get to go yourself and get an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and so forth.

You go to the court of law. You go to the elders. You go to the council. Those men who would raise up to that position, and who will listen to the situation, and then look to the scripture to arbitrate it.

That's what that's what Moses was saying there, and that got all twisted out of context, and got all kinds of sinful interpretations placed upon it until you come to the Pharisees whom Jesus was arguing against.

Paul spoke about this in Romans 12 17, where he says, see that no one repays evil for evil. More importantly, I think, not more importantly, but more to our immediate case, the Apostle Peter. He says in 1 Peter 223, speaking of Jesus Christ, he says, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to the one, to him who judges justly. So after that little analysis, short analysis of this principle of retaliation, let's go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 15.

What's it doing there? What does it tell us? Well, let's begin this answer by reminding ourselves. The Apostle says, and we urge you, brothers, this imperative, this paramount, important thing. We urge you to do this, and be patient with them all.

We've got those, right? We've got those locked down. That's our duty. This is how we grow together. What's verse 15 now with that brief background that I gave? I think what verse 15 is doing here is saying exactly this, that we're not to repay anyone evil for evil.

What would the evil be? I think that's the question. What would the evil be? The evil would be to not come forward and confess the need. The evil would be to say, no, not me. I'm not weak. I don't need some lady who also has a cane who's 15 years older than me to hold the door for me.

I don't need that. That would be evil. That would be pride. The evil is to not look at yourself and say, you know, I am unruly. I am, in the sense of growing in the image of Christ with these others, idle.

I do need the encouragement because I am faint-hearted and I'm, frankly, scared to step out in faith and put God's word to use in every aspect of my life. The evil, do not repay evil for evil, would be to not confess that need.

That's if you're in the one sphere, the need. If we're in the other sphere, the provision, the evil there is pretty obvious, isn't it? It would be to say, well, I don't have the time. I don't have the inclination.

And another thing might happen here, and this relates to be patient with them all, might be to say, well, you know how they got in that place? By not listening to the sermons, by not studying the scripture, by not praying enough, by not taking advantage of the means of grace, as we say.

So they kind of deserve to be there, don't they? Why should someone like moi take such time with someone like that? Well, we wouldn't ever think that way. We wouldn't ever write that down. You wouldn't respond to an email to the pastor and say, hey Joe, I need you to help this person out.

You wouldn't write back with that, would you? Of course not. Would you think it? Would that incipient thought be anywhere within? That would be to return evil for evil. That would be to return the evil of not confessing the need and finally coming out and just putting your toe in the cold pool and seeing how it is.

Okay. Yeah, I need some help to return that evil restraint with equal evil restraint. I think that's what the apostle Paul's saying here. You need to be willing to go forward. You need to be willing to make the commitment, to take the time, to come alongside that one.

You know, the disciples, when they saw the blind man, what was their first question? They wanted to know who sinned. Let me put it this way to you. They see this man. They say to Jesus, well, who sinned, this man or his mother or his parents, that he is born blind?

Now, if I apply that to what I'm trying to say here in 1 Thessalonians 5 .15, the question would be this. Who sinned? Well, you sinned. And because it's your fault, and because you didn't pray enough, because you didn't follow the verses that I gave you, because I don't see you at every Sunday meeting, therefore, you deserve to be in the pickle you're in, to be small-souled.

You deserve to be weak. And it's your own fault that you need all this help. I think that's the evil that gets returned, that the apostle Paul is so distinctly and so urgently denying us. We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Are you one who needs the help? I would urge you, brother, sister, come forward, let us know. Don't take these categories as the only three and say, okay, I don't need any of those three particular helps.

Okay, let's get on with it. No, please. Don't make it silly. Come forward. Are you one to whom that person would come? Do you know how hard it is for a small-souled person to act like a big-souled person and come to you?

Be patient with them all. And do not return the evil of that restraint that held them back for so long with the evil of denying them your ministry. Psalm 30 and verse 11 says, you have turned my mourning into dancing.

You could be the one that turns someone's mourning into dancing. And that not of yourselves, of course. Jesus Christ gets all the glory. His word is the only guide we have. You may be the one that he uses.

He by his spirit may be stirring one who is in that I need help group right now. Someone who is idle, someone's faint-hearted, someone who is weak. And right now the Spirit of God might be telling you that you are this one.

And right now the courage is welling up within them to go timidly to you and ask for help. Will you help? You may be the one that Jesus Christ uses to turn their mourning into dancing. You may have the blessing of seeing that one take that great step of faith and grow in confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He may use you even for that. But that won't happen if you don't ask. That won't happen if you don't help. You know our opening hymn sounds like it could be almost a dirge in a way, couldn't it? Let me find these words again.

Pensive, doubting, fearful heart. Hear what Christ the Savior says. How those first words sound to you? I don't sing very well. I don't know what tune to put that to. But if it was a dirge, it would be pensive, doubting, fearful heart, something like that.