The Church: Why Bother? Part Three - Encouraging

So you think you’re having a bad day?

Two German motorists were driving their cars along a two-lane highway in a heavy fog one day near the small town of Guetersloh. The fog was so thick that they could barely see where they were going. Each car was moving at a snail’s pace near the center line of the road. Both drivers were leaning their heads out of the driver’s side window in order to see better. That’s when they smashed into each other—or rather, their heads smashed into each other. Both men were hospitalized with severe head injuries. Their cars escaped without a scratch.

Kind of gives a new meaning to “head on collision”, doesn’t it?

Or how about the Italian motorist who was driving in a terrible storm near Naples Italy… A fierce gust of wind blew his small Fiat off the road, where it plunged down an embankment and into a raging river. The driver managed to break a window, climb out of the car, and heroically swim to shore. That’s where he was sitting, shivering and gasping from his ordeal, when a nearby tree blew over and killed him.

Or how about the unidentified English woman whose story was featured in the London Sunday Express…

This woman was climbing into the bathtub one afternoon when she remembered that she had left some muffins in the oven. Naked, she dashed downstairs and was removing the muffins when she heard a knock at the back door. Thinking it was the baker, and knowing that he would come in and leave a loaf of bread on the kitchen table if she didn’t answer his knock, she darted in panic into the kitchen broom closet.

A moment later, she heard the back door open, and to her absolute mortification, she heard the sound of footsteps coming directly toward her hiding place. The closet door opened and she found herself face to face with the meter man from the gas company, who had come to read the meter.

As she fled from the closet, the poor woman blurted out “Oh my goodness, please excuse me! I was expecting the baker.”

There are some days when what we need most is a little encouragement! Life can be pretty discouraging at times. Things don’t go as planned. Reality often falls short of our hopes and expectations. The significant people in our lives can be exasperating and frustrating and downright ornery. And what we need from time to time is a little encouragement.

And if that is true of life in general, it is especially true when it comes to our spiritual lives. The battle of discouragement is one of the greatest battles a Christian will ever fight. Discouragement is Satan’s secret weapon to keep us from following Christ. It’s like a Scud missile that he lobs into our lives to drag us down spiritually and keep us from being effective.

But the good news is that God has designed an anti-missile defence system for us. It’s called encouragement, and believe it or not, it’s one of the four key missions of the church.

We’ve been talking about the role of the church in the modern world. Why bother with the church? What good is the church? Is it really relevant for my life today?

Well, it’s relevant—but only if it fulfills the mission that God has designed for it. And that mission, according to the book of Acts, has four components:

1. The ministry of EQUIPPING - the church is to teach the Word of God to the people of God so that they can be equipped to live for God.

2. The ministry of EXALTING - the church is to lift up the name of the Lord in worship and prayer so that God’s power and glory can be seen by everyone.

3. The ministry of ENCOURAGING - the church is to be a close-knit fellowship—a community of faith—so that believers can build one another up in the Lord. (This is what we want to talk about today)

4. The ministry of EXTENDING - the church is here on earth in order to reach out with the Good News of Christ to a world that desperately needs him.

Now the Lord must have thought that the ministry of encouragement was pretty important, because the idea of encouragement is all through the NT. The word encourage, encouraging, encouragement keeps popping up.

It’s all through the book of Acts. Paul’s letters are saturated with encouragement. We don’t know who wrote the book of Hebrews, but whoever did thought it was pretty important because he said “Let us encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today” In other words, if it’s today, it’s a good day for encouragement!

Heb 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

That verse contains a very important concept - the concept of “together”. When you read the NT, you get the idea that whatever Christians are supposed to do, they do it better together. The Christian life is not meant to be lived alone, in isolation from other Christians.

We live in a culture and a society that glorifies individualism and individuality. Even though technology makes it easy for us to “interface” with more people than ever before; it’s all too easy for us to drift through life without really “connecting” with people in a deep, meaningful way.

And that can be a danger in the modern church. Even though we attend a church with hundreds of other people, how many of them do we really know? How many of them really know us? What kind of relationships are we building? Are they shallow and superficial or deep and durable?

God intends for us to live in community with other believers. One of the great benefits of living in community is that we can encourage and support one another. We need to be able to say to each other: “Hey, I’m here for you. I believe in you. I care about you. I want to help you to grow in your faith. I want to help you to be useful to the Lord.”

There are a lot of ways to be an encouragement to one another. Let me give you an example…

A few weeks ago, our congregation went through a time of real grief and loss as we said farewell to one of our own members. Her funeral happened on a Saturday and we buried her that cold, snowy afternoon. For all of us it was a sad time, but a joyful time as well because we knew that she was with the Lord.

But it was an emotionally draining time. And I was going to be involved in two more funerals that very week.

When Carolyn and I returned home that Saturday after the service at the cemetery, there was a surprise waiting for us on our front doorstep. It was a large aluminum serving tray full of lasagna. On top of the tray, which was covered with foil, was a note which said: Dear Pastor McKnight - thanks for all your love and service at the Chapel.

And it wasn’t signed! We still don’t know who did this! There is an anonymous lasagna-maker on the loose in our congregation. And I tell you, that lasagna was some of the most delicious lasagna I think I’ve ever had. So whoever you are: Thank you.

You encouraged us with your generous act of love!

God loves us. He knows our lives. And he knows exactly when we need some encouraging. Just this past week, I heard a tremendous story of someone in our congregation who had been really discouraged, really down, but then all of a sudden, God brought a tremendous encouragement into their life. And I thought “Isn’t that just like God!” Just when things seem dark and hopeless, he does something that proves that he’s been there all along.

You say: How does God do that? How does God bring encouragement into our lives? Where does this encouragement come from? Well, God has several channels…

1. The encouragement of the Holy Spirit.

John 14:16f And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

When Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “the Counselor” (or “the Comforter” as in the KJV) he is using the exact same Greek word from which we get the word “encouragement”.

The word in Greek is the word “parakletos” and it comes from two words: “para” which means “alongside” and “kaleo” which means “to be called”. So the Holy Spirit is an Encourager who has been called alongside us.

The Holy Spirit lives within us and, according to Romans 8:15, one of his ministries is to remind us that we belong to God.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. By him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

And when we’re going through rough times, according to Heb. 12, the Holy Spirit comes alongside and says “Hey you still belong to God. You’re still his son, you’re still his daughter. This is just discipline and the Lord disciplines those he loves. If he didn’t love you he wouldn’t discipline you. So don’t lose heart, don’t be discouraged.”

The Holy Spirit himself is one of the chief ways that God encourages us to keep living for him. In Acts 9:31 it says:

Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.

And one of the things we want to see happening here at Erindale is that the Spirit of God would have freedom to do his work of encouragement. We want Erindale to be an encouraging fellowship to be a part of.

And by the way, we want you to be a member of Erindale Bible Chapel, not just an attender. As a member, you’re saying “Hey, I believe in what this church is doing, and I want to identify myself with it.” You can get membership information today in the foyer.

2. The encouragement of God’s Word

Romans 15:4 - For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Are you discouraged about your Christian life this morning? Ask yourself: how much time have I been spending recently in the Word of God? The Bible is one of the chief means God uses to encourage us. His Word is true, and his truth is uplifting.

There have been times in my life when I have been really down; really discouraged. And I have found that when I go to the Word it has a way of changing my perspective, changing my outlook on life.

That’s why Jesus said “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Now when we come together as a community of believers, one of the things that should be happening is the ministry of teaching; the ministry of equipping. And one of the by-products of that ministry is that we will be encouraged.

Paul gave Titus instruction about the elders of the church in Titus 1. And one of the roles of elders is that they should “hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that they can encourage others by sound doctrine”. Sound doctrine; solid Bible teaching is meant to encourage us! It’s going to have an uplifting impact.

In 1 Thesalonians 4 and 5, Paul taught the church about the Rapture, about the end times. And he didn’t do that primarily for knowledge purposes; he wasn’t trying to turn those people into a bunch of end-times prophecy experts. He says in 1Thes. 4:18 that his teaching aim was so that they might “encourage one another with these words”.

God’s truth is meant to edify. To build up. So often in the church, we take Bible doctrine and we use it to bludgeon each other; to hammer each other, when what we’re supposed to be doing is to encourage each other.

If you’re discouraged, get back into the Word. Get under some solid Bible teaching and you’ll find that pretty soon, God’s truth will lift you up and give you a sense of hope and purpose for living.

3. The encouragement of fellow believers.

Heb . 10:25 - Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

The reason that we’re supposed to keep meeting together is in the previous verse (v. 24)—it’s so that we can provoke one another. You say “Yeah, I agree with that. Whenever I’m around old Mr. So and So at the church, he really provokes me.” Wait a minute—it’s not that kind of provoking! It’s provoking, or spurring one another, toward love and good deeds. That’s why we’re to keep meeting together - to build each other up.

Paul said something very interesting in Romans 1:11

He said “I want to come and see you folks there in Rome. I’ve been planning for a long time to come and I’m just waiting for the Lord to open the door. And I want to come so that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” Did you get that?

“So that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith”

Next time you’re tempted to skip church, think about that verse. If you don’t show up, you’re going to lose out on the encouragement of being around other believers. And your brothers and sisters in Christ are going to lose out as well, because you’ll be missing—you won’t be there to encourage them.

The encouragement of fellow believers is one of the great tools that God uses to build us up in our faith.

6. The encouragement of the Holy Spirit

7. The encouragement of God’s Word

8. The encouragement of fellow believers

4. The encouragement of gifted individuals

Some people have the spiritual gift of encouragement. In Romans 12:6-8, Paul says:

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage…

There are some people who have a God-given spiritual gift for encouragement. Believe me, they’re great people to be around, and every church needs a bunch of them!

There’s a good example of just such a person in the NT - his name was Joseph, but we know him by his nickname: Barnabas, which means the Son of Encouragement. He was a great guy to be around because he made you glad that you were a Christian.

In Acts 4, he sold a piece of property he owned and he took the money and gave it to the apostles so that they could use it to help others who had needs.

In Acts 9, Saul of Tarsus became a Christian. But the Christians were terrified of him because he had been persecuting them—hunting them down and arresting them. After his conversion, Saul showed up in Jerusalem and tried to join the disciples, but they wouldn’t let him in. They were afraid he was a spy. Only Barnabas believed in him, and Barnabas became his sponsor and that is how Paul joined the church.

In Acts 11, the apostles sent Barnabas on a special mission to check out how the church was going in Antioch…

When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

This guy was a professional encourager! He had the gift of encouragement. He was always lifting people up. And his ministry contributed directly to the growth of the church.

And I think you will find that there are people like that here at Erindale. I can think of several of them. People who build up rather than tear down. People who leave you feeling better rather than worse. People who are like Philemon, of whom Paul said in Philemon 1:7…

Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

If your spiritual gift is the gift of encouragement, then USE it! You can bring great blessing to others. You can help our church to grow.

But even if you don’t have the spiritual gift of encouragement or not, there are things you can do to encourage other people…

And that’s what I’d like us to do right now. We’re going to do an exercise in encouragement.

In your bulletin, there is an orange sheet with the word Encouragement at the top. What I’d like you to do is to take that sheet, grab a pen or a pencil, take a moment to pray and ask the Lord to lay someone’s name on your heart—someone you think might need some encouragement this morning.

Just one stipulation—don’t choose me. I’ve got all the encouragement I need this morning!

Write a brief note of encouragement to that person. You can sign it or not - I’ll leave that up to you.

After the service, go to the back, find that person’s mailbox and put your note in there. And while you’re back there, check your own mailbox, because you might find a note of encouragement in there for you!

We’re going to have a supply of these encouragement forms available on the literature table in the foyer, so that you can keep doing this in the coming weeks. It’s really amazing how much a little word of encouragement can mean to someone.

Benediction:

2 Thesalonians 2:16-17…

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.