I’ll Be Your Wingman Anytime!

Introduction

First Thessalonians, the first chapter. That’s what we’ll be doing the majority of our study this morning is in First Thessalonians. I welcome everyone here this morning. If you’re a visitor, we thank you for stopping here, visiting. I am not the normal preacher here. Tony’s out on a meeting, so I appreciate your attention for the next 30 minutes or so. Hopefully, I can get through this lesson without losing my voice first.

I’m hearing all the coffin around here. I’m involved in that also. You can probably hear the raspiness in my voice, and I apologize for that. So again, hopefully I don’t normally drink water up here either, but I did bring a little bottle just in case I start going down. And I told Terry, if I pass out, just ignore it. Just get up and sing. We should be getting through this lesson just fine. You know, the Oscars, Lauren mentioned the Oscars this morning in class. I started thinking about that a little bit because one of my favorite movies, I know it’s kind of a cheesy movie, is way back a long time ago. It’s a Navy movie, unfortunately, it’s Navy, since I’m Air Force, but it’s Top Gun.

And it’s about a couple of Air Force, or I’m sorry, Navy pilots. There’s some sharp pilots, they’re elite, and they’re attending this what they call the naval fighter weapons school. And of course, the stars Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer. Tom Cruise being his call sign is Maverick and Val Kilmer is Iceman. And you know they’re competing for the top gun spot. These are the two elite pilots out there. And yes, I like it, but it’s a little corny movie, but it’s it’s fun to watch. And it’s a little love story, but there’s a lot of action in it. Well, to make the long story short, if you’re if you haven’t seen the movie, these two compete again against each other for the top gun spot.

And of course, some things happened throughout the movie, but at the end of the movie, the two got together and they fought the bad guys, killed the bad guys, knocked them out of the sky, and they became fairly good friends afterwards. But when they landed on the on the aircraft carrier, they had all this cheering going on from all the crowd, all the all those Navy guys, you know how they like to cheer around and give high fives and all that kind of stuff. We’re sitting out there, and then all of a sudden Tom Cruise gets off the or Maverick gets off his F-14, Tom Cat, and I mean these are incredible planes. And he gets on there and he’s he’s sitting up there and he’s yelling and screaming, going, Yeah, this is great.

Got all his buddies around there, and then Bal Kilmer, he gets off his plane and he comes over there and he just stands there. And then Tom Bob Kermer goes, You could be my winged man anytime. And then Tom Cruise says, You could be my wingman anytime. Well, wingman is a concept that we use in the military long time ago. I believe it was back in World War I by some fighters, some pilots back then, and they watched after each other. One Air Force pilot had said some of the things about being a wingman is that you gotta have a couple of concepts involved in it. One of the concept is have mutual support. You gotta know and understand each other because if you’re gonna be somebody’s wingman, if you’re flying in a formation, the guy to the right is usually the wingman.

You gotta have mutual support. The other thing, you gotta have a situational awareness. What’s going on around you? What’s the situation like out there when you’re especially when you’re flying around? The other concept is individual reliability, which by the way, this was an Air Force pilot. And if you wonder about those planes, I love those planes. Those were my favorite in the Air Force, the A-10 Warthog. They were awesome. I was deployed with them back in Kuwait during a during Afghanistan of the enduring freedom. But anyways, I love this plane. We watched them take off every single day, and they just kept flying. That’s the A10. But anyways, this Air Force pilot, this is what he said mutual support, situational awareness, and individual reliability.

These are some concepts that we as Christians can learn about being a wingman. That this these are some of the concepts that we need also, that we need mutual support, situational awareness, and individual reliability. Now, where I’m going with this in the in the church with Thessalonica, as the Apostle Paul wrote, he commended them on their works that they were doing. And in 1 Thessalonians, the first chapter, we’re going to read, starting in verse two, the apostle Paul says, We give thanks to God always for you all making mention of you in our prayers. Remember without ceasing, your work of faith, labor of love, impatience of hope in our good Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father. Knowing beloved brethren, your election by God, for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in the power of the Holy Spirit and much assurance as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.

And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word of much affliction with joy, the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believed. For from the word of the Lord has sounded forth not only in Macedonia and Achaea, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that you didn’t we do not need to say anything. For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you and how you turned God, turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his son from the heaven when he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come. So that’s one of the works that we like to talk about whenever the apostle Paul is talking about the works that the apostle that the church of Thessalonica is doing.

Verse 3 says, without ceasing, your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. But now let’s turn to 1 Corinthians the fifth chapter and verse 14. I want you we’re going to go ahead and read starting verse 12. The apostle Paul writes, and he says, We urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and over you in the Lord and to monish you, and to esteem them very highly and love for their work’s sake, but be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, from warn those who are unruly, comfort the hate, comfort the faint hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. Now we’re going to stop right there. One of the things that the apostle Paul is doing, we’ve got to remember that there’s this church over here at Thessalonica, they’re doing pretty good right now.

1. Warn Those Who Are Unruly

And that’s where I go with this with the swinging man concept is that we have three concepts right here in 1 Thessalonians, the fifth chapter, verse 14. We have exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. One of the things that we have to realize in our life that everybody in here in this decapory church in this congregation here, we’re all human and we all make mistakes. Because last time I checked, we’re we’re not perfect. I know I’m not by far. And I believe that’s what the apostle Paul is here telling us, this congregation here, or the people over here in Thessalonica. First one, of course, is warn those who are unruly, as we see right up there on the board here.

And when we start thinking about that, who are the unruly that we’re talking about? Well, it could be anybody who’s going against God. Whenever we sit here and think, look at 2 Thessalonians 3rd chapter and verse 6, the Apostle Paul says, but we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received us. And going on down to verse 11, he says, For we here, there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but all are busybodies. Now, those who are such, we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.

But as far as you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person, do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Now, this is a this is a topic that gets very touchy at times. We mentioned it several times here at Decapary about withdrawing from brethren. Those who are walking disorderly among us. Sometimes when we sit there and we think about this, and I remember a long time ago when I first became a Christian, people says, Well, those are people that you don’t have any association with. Those people are marked. They’re walking disorderly. We don’t have anything to do with them.

I don’t believe that. I believe you’ve got to be real careful with this, though. Because some of the brethren that do walk away from us, they’re not going to have any association with us at all. And I believe that’s one of the things that when we did when they are marked, or when they’re called that they are withdrawn from, that we got we they’ve already withdrawn themselves from us. So what do you do with them? You just ignore them if you see them out on the street or at a store. You just walk away from them and not admonish them like we’re supposed to, like it says in Galatians the 6th chapter and verse 15. That we are, or I’m sorry, I wrote 15, it’s supposed to be Galatians the first chapter 1 through 5.

But here’s a tricky thing. When we have family members who are not walking orderly with the with the church, or we have really close friends, brothers, sisters, or whomever, what do you do with them? You just don’t admonish them because they’re marked. I have a hard time with that. Because of the fact that when the Apostle Paul says in verse chapter in 2 Thessalonians, the third chapter in verse 15 said, Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. So, how are you going to admonish them if you’re not having anything to do with them? I don’t know. That’s why, whenever I sit here and I looked at my daughter that walked in this building a couple months ago, and nobody had met her.

For 12 years, it was having a hard association with her. She wasn’t talking to us. She walked away from us. But yet we tried to keep in contact with her because of the fact she’s our daughter. Even though she’s walking disorderly, when she came into this building, because she was here a couple times, one time during the holidays with our grandchild, and then the second time when my dad passed away, the warm welcome that she got was so overwhelming, it was unbelievable. Because of the fact that occurred, she went to church a couple times up in Oregon on her own. And that was really hit us hard because of the fact, 12 years, almost 13 years. Now, if we did what some people say, don’t mark them, don’t have anything to do with them.

She wouldn’t ever step foot in the building over there in Oregon. If she would have sat right up here with us, and everybody ignored her because of the fact that she looks a little bit different, carries herself a little bit different, she wouldn’t have never gone to services again. And that’s a sad thing to say because of the fact my daughter has a soul. Just like every single person in here has a soul. All these little children right here, all these teenagers over here, all the adults among us. We all have souls. And we’re not perfect. But again, we’ve got to be real careful sometimes when we talk about those who withdraw, we withdraw ourselves from them or they withdraw from us. And we have to follow what the scriptures say we need to do.

2. Comfort the Faint Hearted

Because again, it can be very touchy on that. But the reason why I’m saying that right here is because the Apostle Paul, in this third chapter in verse 14, he says, he says, if anyone does not, I’m sorry, 1 Thessalonians 4 3 14, but we exhort you, brethren, that we exhort them. And there’s only one way to do it. And that’s by talking to them every now and then. So again, the Apostle Paul says, warn those who are unruly in chapter 5 and verse 14. He also says on the second portion right there, he says, Comfort the faint hearted. Now, whenever I sit here and I start thinking about the faint hearted, we’ve been going through our zeal class for the last couple of months.

And every time I sat there and think about the zeal class, just like this morning, we were talking about the things that we’re challenged with every single day. We have problems that occur, such as somebody who walks away from us from our family who walks away from God. The faint hearted, we tend to get faint hearted at times. Yes, Terry and I, we got faint hearted. When we say faint hearted, we’re meaning feeble minded, we’re meaning this dispirited. So I believe when he’s addressing that, he’s talking about us Christians that when we do get faint hearted, things happen to us in our life. That we tend to have that little moment, brief moment, where it’s like, I’m hurting right now. My heart’s not right. Even though we’re still a strong Christian, we just got that faint heartedness because I got a bill in, my car broke down, someone passed away, my daughter left the congregation.

Somebody may have said something over here that really offended me. The elders may have gotten on to me for no apparent reason. I’m sitting here struggling, working hard as I can as a child of God, but yet an elder gets on to me for some minute thing. We tend to get faint hearted. Because Tony gets up here and he may preach on something like modesty or drinking or smoking or chewing or whatever, euphemisms. You name it. Well, he touched me. He hit me wrong. He stomped on my toes. Wear your steel toe boots. If he stomps on my toes, I’m happy. Because that’s making me think. That’s making me gonna be, that’s making me be a better Christian. To get my life from faint heartedness into a stronger heart.

I told Tony one time, he laughed about it. He preached on something, and I’m telling you, I was sitting up here and I was kind of moving around. I went home and he laughed about this. The next day I got my steel toe boots. I work in the old field. I don’t really need to wear steel toe boots. I just wear them because I want to impress the higher ups. But the thing is, I do have steel toe boots and they’re all worn out. So I took a picture of them and went like that, and I said, I’m wearing these next time you preach because you stomped all over my toes. Thank you, Tony. He goes, text me back, my pleasure, brother. The reason why we do that is because we love you.

We don’t want you guys to get faint hearted. We want you to stay strong. Just like the apostle Paul says. Now exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint hearted. It’s so important. How do we do that? We pray for them. Just like in Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 17. We don’t stop praying. We keep on praying again. As Tony says, pray without ceasing. That’s not meaning we’re going to sit here and just 24 7 pray all the way across. We continue to pray day and night, whenever we possibly can. We’ve got to pray for the faint hearted. We’ve got to pray for ourselves when we are faint hearted. We need God on our side. We need to be strong with Him.

He also says that we comfort each other in 1 Thessalonians the 5th chapter and verse 11. He says, Therefore comfort each other and edify one another just as you are also doing. These Thessalonians, they’re comforting each other. That’s what Paul’s telling us right here. He’s saying that we pray for each other and be there for them. Be their winged man. In 1 Thessalonians 4 chapter verse 9, he says, For God did not appoint us to, I’m sorry. But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. And indeed you do so with all the brethren who are in Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more.

3. Uphold the Weak

And he goes on, he says, that you also aspire to lead quiet life, to mind your own business, to work your own hands, and as we commanded you, that you walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you lack nothing. We be there for them. We’re their ring man. We help them as much as we possibly can. We comfort the faint hearted. Anybody ever felt faint hearted before? Is it just me? I know. It could be a difficult question to answer sometimes. The other thing is what the apostle Paul said, he said to, he said to uphold the weak. This was a little bit, I kept going back and forth on faint hearted. I probably needed Aaron’s Aaron’s thoughts on some of this with the faint hearted and the weak.

I’m kind of going with that. This is these are when it says uphold the weak, because they’re basically almost the same. When you start thinking about new Christians, that’s where I think I might be going with this on this one, that we uphold the weak. Because when you have a new child of God, they’re new. They’re brand new. In Hebrews the fifth chapter and verse 12. The Hebrew writer says, For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again first the principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. In other words, we’re not going to sit here just like I did whenever I became a Christian. Hey Terry, here’s what I want to do.

I want to study Revelation. She was like, it’s not a real good place to start. Well, how about half of Daniel, the back half of Daniel? Why don’t we start there? I didn’t even know Daniel existed at that time. I’m just kind of saying that because I studied it before with Tony. I was so confused, I was like, please don’t do that or do that again. Because it was very confusing. That’s not where we start. We started the basic principles, the basic oracles of God to get that Christian good and sound and grounded. Because of the fact I was blessed. Because when Terry and I got, when Terry and I were married, I wasn’t a Christian. And a couple years later, however long it was, I was baptized, became a Christian.

I had her as my wingman. She was there with me. She kept me grounded. We studied, we kept going to services, we kept getting involved. Some people aren’t blessed that way. Some people come here, they come on their own. They became, I hear Mike’s and Jackie’s story all the time. They had a wingman. If they didn’t, what do you think would have happened? Who knows? It appears that they’re strong enough that they would have kept on going. But the fact of the matter is, not everybody’s like that. Some people, they become Christians. They’re young. They may be a teenager. They may be 20, 22 years old. They’re of the world. They come in here, they study, and then they become Christians. And then all of a sudden, they’re gone.

Why? Because they came weak, because they didn’t get grounded. They got fed with meat of instead of milk. And that’s what we need to do, brethren. We need to watch over them. We need to be their wingman and help them. In 1 Corinthians 3rd chapter and verse 1, the Apostle Paul says, and I, brethren, could not speak to you as a spiritual people, but as to carnal as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food. Or until now you were not able to receive it. Now you’re still not able.

For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like men? They were saying, I’m of Apollos, I’m of Paul. No, you’re of Christ. You need to be of Christ. Teaching the wrong things. Let’s get to the basics. And we’ve got to keep those new Christians, uphold them, get them strong, get them grounded. And I believe that’s what the Apostle Paul tells us here. Because this is a fairly new church over here in Thessalonica. They were worshiping idols. They were going completely the wrong way. And Paul goes over there. If you never read 1 Thessalonians, take about 25 minutes to read the whole the whole letter. Maybe 30. Let’s push it because I’m a slow reader. But the thing is, brethren, it’s it’s so uplifting to see a church like that.

Of course, it gets a little bit different in 2 Thessalonians. But we’re not going to go there in this lesson. So he says, warn those who are unruly, comforted, faint hearted, uphold the weak. But this is what we can do. We can keep them involved. We can invite them to studies, and we can visit them whenever we need to. You know what, brethren? I’m sitting here telling you all this stuff about this, as far as what Paul’s telling those Thessalonians here. A lot of this hit me at home also. I’m just as guilty of it also, of neglecting some of these things. And I’m hoping to change that. I’m hoping all the time that I could change it. The other thing the Apostle Paul says, which is very important to us in our life, is to be patient with all.

4. Be Patient With All

He goes on in there, uphold the weak and be patient with all. I’m going to tell you something. One of the things that we I sit here and I study about with being patient. I’m not that much of a patient person. I mean, whenever I go to Oklahoma, it takes me seven or eight hours to get there. I know it takes a list of five. I’m just kidding, Alyssa. Five and a half. But anyway, she I want to get there. I mean, when I get on the road, I want to get there. When I’m in traffic, I’m like, oh. I live in Houston, of all places. But you know, being patient is actually in the Bible all over the place. I couldn’t believe all the scriptures that we’re about patience.

James, the fifth chapter and verse 11. James says, indeed, we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seeing the in and seeing the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. And another one talks about 1 Timothy 6 and verse 11. But you, O man of God, flee these things to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Talking about the men right here, and it goes on with the women on this. The thing is, patience. Of all the concepts that God tells us to be is be patient. Because we’re going to deal with the unruly. We’re going to deal with the fainthearted. We’re going to deal with the weak. We’re going to deal with wives.

We’re going to you’re going to deal with husbands. And most of all, you’re going to deal with kids. I can remember whenever I said, Dear Lord, please grant me the patience I need to be a good servant of God. You’ve heard this story. I became a school teacher. For seven years, I lost my patience. That’s why I’m out of it. I’m back in the oil field again. Now I’m ready to go back to teaching. Anyways, patience. It is something. In Titus 2nd chapter in verse 1 through 3. But as you for you speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanders, not given to much wine, teachers of good things.

Conclusion

And that’s patience. One of the things we’ve got to, there’s been many times I’ve been up. We’re closing. Be patient with me, please. In the past, I preached on proving our self-spirituality. I preach on base on things what I need, just like I said. Today’s lesson is based on what we need as an individual and as a congregation. I believe that Deca Prairie Church here is very strong. I believe we do have our wingmen, wing women, whatever you want to call it politically correct, and I believe we watch each other’s back. And the reason why I say that, because whenever I remember when I was faint hearted, I remember when my dad passed last month, I couldn’t believe the overwhelming love that was shown here at this congregation.

The food just kept pouring in, and I ate it. The desserts kept pouring in, and I definitely ate that. But the cards kept coming in. Just one after another.

But I really believe we can become stronger. And if you’re not participating in some of these things that I talked about, from the unruly or those that maybe need to be admonished. And if you’re not helping somebody that’s faint-hearted and somebody that’s weak, might want to reach into your chest and grab your heart right here. Because I tell you, it works. It really does work. When you’re talking about people like that. Those who are unruly, faint-hearted, and weak. It does hit home. It hits home hard. Because I know there’s been times besides just that some people have touched my heart even deeper. I won’t get into it because kind of like Mike said this morning, get a little emotional. I’m not, it’s not a time to get emotional right now.

So I’ll just leave it at that. Now we’re here in just a few moments. We’re going to sing a song of invitation. But before we do, I want to read this right here about what the Apostle Paul writes to those in Thessalonica. He says, Now may our God and Father Himself and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you. So that he may establish your hearts, blameness and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. And that’s what I hope we can do. Continue our love toward God, continue his work. Continue to support the elders, continue to support Tony, and continue to support each other.

Now, with that being said, that’s the lesson for you. We’re about to sing a song here in just a moment. There may be somebody in this audience today. I just want to give a short invitation on this. Because there may be somebody in this audience today who has been studying and they are ready to become a child of God. We don’t want you to walk out of here not knowing that you could have been baptized into Christ. That you could have become a child of God. Confess Jesus that He is the Son of God, repent of your sins, be buried in the water and grave of baptism. And again, it doesn’t stop there. That’s when the walk really starts, right here. Just like the Apostle Paul said in 1 Thessalonians, the whole the whole chapter, the whole book, the whole letter.

That we need to be strong, watch after each other. And we’ll watch after you when you become that Christian. And if you are that Christian, you feel like that your heart has been wrong. That you feel like you need the prayers of the congregation. And you need us to come up there to be your wingman to help you in any time that we possibly can. We’re going to support you as strong as we can. If you’re subject to one of the invitations, please come forward as now sing the song that was chosen.