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now if you've been around the church and the Bible
for a while you'll
you'll notice that what we're talking about in this series of messages are
the one anothering passages
the passages in the Bible that
that point out and describe for us how we are to relate one person
to another
today we're looking at the mutual command of encouragement
we're to
encourage and buildup one another Paul writes
that means we're to affirm them
we're to exhort them
we may even be called to comfort them
different kinds of gestures
for different
types of settings in life
no matter the setting in life
we need encouragement
Paul writes encourage each other and build each other up
just as you are doing
we encourage one another because I think there are two important occasions
where we really need encouragement
and affirmation
one is when we face the
the problems and the difficulties the adversity
the rejection of life
and we all face those
situations in life, don't we?
I mentioned that once
in a small group
and the man kind of to my left look at me and he says well you don't
I said I don't he said no, you're a pastor
you don't experience any of that kind of stuff
I said why do you think that? well you know you're a
pastor
you don't live a normal life
and I said no
live a very normal life
I have children that
don't do what I asked them to do
oh, every once in awhile my wife and I
don't agree
loudly
I have a crabby neighbor across the street
I get bad reports from the doctor just like you
he looked at me and he said
really
I said yeah I just come hang out with me for a day
and you'll see how the normal my life is
even pastors
they need encouragement and they need building up
because we're facing the same things in life
as everybody else
we all need
encouragement from others as we face
opposition in life
and opposition will come I was
watching a videotape of a pastor and he was talking about being a Christian
and you know when you become a Christian you're gonna
you know you're going to be just wealthy and you're going to be so
blessed and everything is going to go so well in your life
I thought man, I want to join his church
it's interesting to look at what the Bible has to say about difficulty
Jesus says when trouble or persecution comes
notice it doesn't say if
its not an issue of if it is just an issue of when
how many whens
James says when trouble comes your way
Paul writes in Romans and since we are His children
if we are going to share in His in Christ glory
we must also share in His suffering
I don't wanna
suffer
I want all of the land of
positive thinking
where everything is good and everything is easy
and everything is blessed
but it's not always easy
it's not always blessed
it's not always positive
and Christ was
straight away with us when he said they'll be suffering in this world and
you will not be exempt from it
and he didn't have to say that to us
because we know that we're not
exempt from it
one area where we need encouragement is when we face
the oppositions and difficulties of life
the other is when our faith
is waning or dry and that happens
even to pastors
sometimes we need
to borrow the
faith of someone else
because were not feeling of all that
faith filled in the moment of bad news or difficulty
and our faith is weak
and when our faith is weak if it's interesting we kind of
drop out a little bit
sometimes we hit a dry patch
David says you know we do go through those valleys those shadowy valleys
the Christian faith is not all a mountaintop experience
sometimes we're in the valley
and in the valley we need to be encouraged
now listen to what Paul says
Paul says
so my dear brothers and sisters be strong and immovable you know why he says
that
because Corinth was in place there was anything but strong and immovable
read the first twelve chapters of first Corinthians
and one of things you realizes there was a lot of egos
there was a lot of pushing and shoving in that church
they lacked harmony and unity why do you think Paul wrote first Corinthians
chapter thirteen
now in good Paul fashion
he doesn't beat them with that
he holds the crowd of Christ just a little bit above their head
and he prays them into it
which is what he does for us as well
be strong and immovable and to do that sometimes you need the help
the help of others
always work and enthusiastically for the Lord for you know that nothing you do
for the Lord is ever useless
even if it is
in a weak time
a waning time, a dry time
everything we do for the Lord
God uses in a wonderful way
see,those are the two I think
big occasions
where we need encouragement from other people
I think encourage becomes not just from other people but it comes from God
God does want to encourage us
in the difficulties and the problems of life
in fact the truth is God is very aware of your feelings
we often think God is way up there and
maybe he really doesn't care and then there's the issue of
we have our own self-esteem issues
because we know we're sinners and we really haven't been
doing the church thing very well
we think God gets kinda mad at us or indifferent to us
and so now we're in trouble we're dealing with difficult things we're
depressed
and we think God
doesn't care
or we don't deserve to be cared for
listen to what David says
David says you God
keep track of all of my sorrows
you have collected all of my tears in your bottle
he's got a bottle with your name on it and he's collected all of the tears
you've ever shed
that more than I can do
even try to do
there is not a deep
dark
difficult time in your life that God is unaware of how you're feeling
of how you're struggling on how do you feel alone
he knows because he cares
you are the object of his affection
and he cares
deeply for you so much so that he's collected every tear you've ever shed
in his bottle
Revelation twenty one
he will wipe
everything every tear from your eyes
and there will be no more death no more sorrow no more crying
or pain
God desires
to wipe away our tears
he wants to help us get from what is making us tearful
to that which will make us joyful
in life
God can and God will empower us
with His Holy Spirit
so that we can persevere, have you noticed when
a series of things come your way you have trouble persisting
preserving
it's so easy to want to just kinda throw in the towel
give it up move someplace else
get a new group of friends
in those moments where we feel like giving up God wants to empower us
with his Holy Spirit
Philippians two twelve to thirteen for God is working in you
giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him
last night I was
sit in my bathrobe
getting ready to go to bed and a pastor friend of mine
texted me
and he said you know I've had a really hard week and I'm really not ready for
what
tomorrow is going to bring
preaching
multiple services to thousands of people
so I
texted him back a little
a little prayer
the God's Holy Spirit would give him
the fullness of his power
as he preached today
he texted me back one more time and
thank me and said you know that's just what I
that's just what I need
and pulled out my message outline and I typed
into my phone
for God is working in you
giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him
blessings
I'm old I've got to go to bed
little smiley face
yeah pastors have tough weeks
people
have tough weeks
and God is a source of our encouragement
God desires through his Holy Spirit to empower us in a way that is truly
supernatural it does not add up
there's not formula for it no matter what some people say
you will never get the Holy Spirit into some formula
because the Holy Spirit is
beyond
definition
beyond experience not that you can't know him
and experience and you can bet he's way bigger than we are
he's much larger
than any difficulty or opposition you face
that's why Jesus says
nothing is impossible for me
and they seem impossible for us
that's why
spiritual
disciplines are so important
you know being in worship
reading in the Bible all the things we talk about in class
two zero one
the one that pastor Tony teaches
how to have a Bible study how to pray
listen to
to
what the writer of Hebrews says
he says let us strip off every weight that slows us down
he is not talking about a diet
he is talking about life
all of these heavy things they weigh us down and we can make the progress
that we were intended to make
we have to strip that off
let us run with endurance all that's what we need more we face opposition and
difficulty, isn't it?
difficult circumstances, difficult people
and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us we do this by
keeping our eyes on Jesus
the champion
who initiates and perfects our faith
see Jesus understands what it is to live in the real
human
earthly world
and as we keep our eyes
fixed on him
it's amazing
Holy Spirit things begin to happen in us
and instead of throwing in the towel instead of giving up the race
we're able to persevere
and move forward in life
God does want to build us up
he wants to
encourage us if will let him
the other source are people
yes, we need other people don't we?
I read this great phrase the other day it says
a candle loses
nothing
by lighting another
that is true about encouragement
we don't lose a thing in fact I think we gain
when we are willing to encourage another person
when we build up another person
a great example of that are there
the twins
that were born
not identical twins fraternal twins
the boy was thriving very well but the girl had
a heart condition
tiny enough to doctors weren't even really sure everything that was going on
with this little girl's heart
the nurse who took care of the infants
noticed over couple of days that
the little girl
was not thriving well still having problems
she had a great idea
let's put
her brother
in her crib
that's a great idea notice a woman thought of that by the way
but it wasn't easy she had to go to the supervisor
and then the doctor and then the parents
and she made a case for
for taking the brother and putting the brother with the sister
which she was finally able to do
and it was amazing what happened
all of a sudden
the blood pressure of
the sister began to rise in fact at one point
the brother actually put his arm around
his sister
and somewhat miraculously each of the things that were issues with her heart
began
to resolve themselves
in just a few days later they were both able
to leave the hospital
and go home
see we
need one another
when we're down we need someone else to put their arm around us
and hold us up
help us up
we are to encourage
one another
the Bible says
Hebrews three thirteen
but encourage one another daily as long as it's called today it was like eleven
o'clock last night when I was texting
it was still day so I did
Paul writes Ephesians
I have sent him
Tychicus to you for this very purpose
to let you know how much you
how we are doing and to encourage you
it's alright
it's spelled right it's just the wrong word
encouragement of other people is an art
and as an art form and terms of encouragement it's getting really is
best expressed
through personal relationship
and here's why
I think
when on a good day we love other people the same way we like to be loved
so we want to encourage someone else
we go down and
purchased tickets to the Seahawks game
and send them to her
and that's just well it's nice but it's
not really what she wants
so it's interesting when we know someone we learned the art of
how to encourage them in the way that they need to be encouraged
sometimes it's writing a note
sometime it's an act of service for that other person
it might be buying them a gift it might be taking them out and
entertaining them
in might
be simply calling them up and
sharing
a joke with them, a clean joke with them
just to bring a little smile to their face
in a downtime
we're all capable of it
we can all encourage others
all it takes from us is a little awareness a little study of that other
person
and we'll know
how to encourage them in just the right way because he sometimes it's about
affirming
sometime it's about exhorting and yes sometimes it's about comforting
those are all definitions of encouragement
and the art
of encouraging someone else is to know
which it is
what is it that
this person needs in this moment
we should look to God
and we should look to others for the encouragement we need
but we don't always do that
one of the things that pains me most as a pastor
is to see people
looking for what the church has to offer
what God has to offer someplace else
in a less functional
place
in a less healthy
way
Paul says do not copy the behavior and the customs of this world I've got a
problem I'm having a bad day let's go to Vegas
yeah and when we're there we'll gamble and lose all of our money
wow, that will make me fell better
won't it
no longer plunging into the flight of wild and destructive things others do
you see when we need
other people
and we either don't
have them around us
or don't know to have them up around us
when we're alone it's amazing
the unproductive ways we go about dealing
with that lack of community
that lack of encouragement
sometimes we just try to avoid it
I really don't feel that way we
you know we just change your circumstances you know
Life is no good I'm going to a different bar tonight
I'll sleep with a different person tonight that that'll make me feel better
I'll go on a more expensive vacation
that'll do it
and we just tried to avoid we try to run
from our inner need
many of us are very good at agonizing about our inter need we worry we're
stressed out we're depressed
and we'd be
less in all categories
if we just had somebody else around us to encourage us and build us up
there's more than a few people in society that
well they they try to anesthetized themselves from their emotions
I had a woman in my office a few months ago she said I knew something was up
when I was on about my
hundreds bottle of wine
I'd come home from work every night with my cat and I'd have
literally an entire bottle of wine
and about a hundred I finally realized
I don't think this is healthy or productive
and if it's not alcohol its pills
and if it's not pills it is
thrill seeking
anything to get our adrenaline going so that we'll forget about what's really
going on in our life
the best we do at times is just adjust to it well that's just the way life is
God never
created me to actually be it a happy person in life
this is just my lot
and I've got to take and live some
low level of existence instead of
thriving
enjoying
what God has in store for us
we all have a choice
we can in our times of need and we all have them we can turn to God he's there
he knows how you feel he knows your circumstances
actually better than you do you know why because he knows
he is the light at the end of the tunnel
he's the alpha and the omega he knows exactly how it's going to go
we need to look at other people we need to have a few other people around us
that know us and
can encourage us
we need to be around and be the person that's encouraging other people around
us
it is a mutual command
to encourage and buildup one another
now I know as I've been speaking
you've gotten a picture of someone in your mind's eye that
needs encouragement in fact
some of you that picture is you staring at yourself in the mirror
and I would encourage you in this moment of prayer
draw yourself into the presence of God to fix your eyes
upon Jesus
the champion
the perfector of our fate
let us pray
Lord I lift those
here today who
who are low who are facing difficulty obstacles and odds in life
Lord give them your Holy Spirit
empower them Lord so that they might persevere
that they might persist in life
as difficult
as life is
and Lord I ask that you would bring relief to them
that you would lift the heavy load that is upon them
Lord I also wanna pray for those of us that have a
a picture of someone else someone else who's close to us
most often
Lord help us learn the art of how to encourage them
how to build them up
and Lord we do pray that for them that
that your presence and power would surround them
that we can leave here today and we can
practice the art
of encouragement
to that person
Lord what you do for us is more than we deserve we admit it
and Lord we're thankful but that's just the kind of God that you are that you
give us what we need
instead of what we deserve that you lavish us with grace
so that we might be graceful
to those around us
and so we pray these things Lord in your name Amen.