Well, it is a blessing to be with you again. I'm not glad of the reason that your pastor isn't feeling well, but thankful for the opportunity to minister the Word of God to you and certainly bring you greetings from Grace Baptist Church in Essex, Ontario. Please take your Bibles and turn again to that passage that Pastor Bernard was reading earlier, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. At home, we have been looking in our morning worship at the one and others of the New Testament. And so the words of Paul here tonight help us to take up one of these themes. If you again look in this text, I'm not going to reread it, but at the end of the section in chapter four, Paul says, therefore encourage one another with these words. And then down in chapter 5 and verse 11, the end of that section, therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing. Now let's look to God in prayer. Our Father, we again bless you for this privilege of being able to come and worship you We thank you for your great love to us, manifested in the gift of your son, displayed at the cross of Calvary. Thank you that it's because of that love that has come to us that we are here tonight to worship you. We ask that you would be our helper as we have your word before us. Our God, we ask that your spirit would take it and use it. Grant us understanding and grant us grace, our God, that we would desire to do your will, whatever you tell us to do. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. It was 41 years ago, and I was a young seminary student in Mississippi. And I was privileged to be teaching a Bible study in a home in rural Mississippi connected with the church that we were attending. And I was in my systematics class studying the order of salvation. Some of you have read John Murray's book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, the applied section of that book. It's really an excellent work. And I was so thrilled with what I was learning, I thought, that's what I'm going to teach in the Bible study. So week by week, we were going through how God saves sinners. And I can almost picture it in my mind. We were in the living room of these people's home. The couches were filled, the chairs were filled, the floor was filled. There's about 30 to 40 people. There were even people sitting on the stairs at the end of the room, eager to study about how God saves sinners. And afterwards, we would always have a time of just eating and fellowshipping together. And then gradually, people would go back to their homes. We were pretty much always some of the last to leave. And before I left, the host, the head of the home, would say to me, come here, John, I want to tell you something. And we'd walk down the hallway where nobody else was around. and he would stick something in my pocket. It was gas money. We were seminary students. He knew we really couldn't afford to travel up 45 minutes and back, so stick some money into my pocket and then say, I just wanted you to know that I love you. Week after week, He did the same thing. It almost became a joke. Come here, John, I just want to tell you something. I knew exactly what he was going to tell me. Stick some money into my pocket and then tell me that he wanted me to know how much he loved me. 41 years later, those words still ring in my ears and bring great encouragement to my heart. That's the kind of ministry that God intends his people to have towards each other. Encourage one another is the call of the Apostle Paul to the church. It's one of those practical aspects that shows us what church membership is all about. The Church of Jesus Christ is made up of people who are committed to Jesus Christ. But because of our union with our Savior, we are also to be committed to one another. And part of that commitment is the pledge to minister to each other in this area of encouragement. And may God grant to us the determination to live out this practical aspect of the Christian life. Well, let's begin tonight by considering, first of all, this simple question, what is encouragement? What is encouragement? Well, as you know, it's a very common word, even in our secular society. Your dictionary will tell you that encouragement means to inspire someone with courage, with spirit, with confidence. You might think of the common picture of a high school coach. and they're coming up to a track meet, and one of his best athletes is just down in the dumps. He doesn't think he can win his race, and so he's fearful to go out and just lose it. And so the coach comes along and reminds him of what a good athlete he is, what a great runner he is, how he's even broken the record before, and seeking to inspire him to go and do even better this time. That's encouragement. We all know that. The New Testament is filled with this word, which is behind our English word, encourage. Let me give you a simple Greek lesson. The word encourage comes from a compound word, parakaleo. Kaleo means to call to someone. Pretty common. Para, the preposition, means beside. So it's to call beside. It gives us almost a very visual picture, which is common in our society. Someone comes up to his friend, maybe puts his arm around him and seeks to build him up, to give him courage, to inspire him in the difficulties that he's facing. Well, this is the meaning of this word, this duty that the Bible is calling us to as Christians in the local church. We're to be coming alongside each other. In other words, we cannot remain aloof from other Christians. If you are a Christian, you can't simply come to church, enter into the worship, and then sneak out the back door and not spend time with fellow believers. We have to be beside each other. We have to be with each other. We have to be speaking to each other words that will be helpful in the Christian life. and we cannot remain quiet. We cannot use the excuse, well, I'm not much of a talker. Here's a commitment that a Christian is called to in the local church, to draw alongside your brothers and sisters and speak to them in such a way that will encourage them as they seek to live for the Lord Jesus. Here's a commitment that each Christian must take up in the local church. Now, when we think of helping one another, we might naturally think of doing things for each other. And that is certainly part of our commitment one to another. But here, the emphasis is on helping one another with words, using words as an instrument in the hands of God to be a blessing to each other. Now, the most beautiful uses of this word in the New Testament, which should be a great encouragement to us, are when they are used to describe God. Many of you will be familiar with that English transliteration of the Greek paraclete, the noun of our word parakaleo. It's a word Jesus used for himself and for the Holy Spirit. Sometimes translated helper or comforter, we could even say encourager. Jesus used it most in the upper room with his disciples. when he knew what they were going to be facing and the sadness and despair that they would experience as they watched their savior, their hope, be arrested and then be put to death thinking that it's all over. And so he sought to encourage them, to inspire them with courage and boldness in light of what they were going to do. And as he tried to do this in the upper room, Jesus said to his disciples, familiar words in John 14, 16, and I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. Jesus had been a helper and a comforter and encourager to the disciples. And we can think of our Savior traveling the roads of Israel with these men and spending time with them individually, sitting down with them, coming beside them, speaking to them, comforting them, encouraging them. He had been a helper. But now he was going to be leaving them He would die and be buried and raised and spend a few more weeks with them, but then physically he would be gone. And so he said, I'm gonna ask the Father to send you another helper, another comforter, another encourager. And so the Spirit of God would come and take up this ministry to God's people. Now, both Jesus and the Holy Spirit had been sent by the Father to be encouragers or comforters because that is the very character of God. Listen to these familiar words that Paul wrote to the Corinthian church in the second letter that we have. When Paul was explaining to them the great difficulty that they had been through a trial where he thought, we're gonna die. Our lives and ministry are over, and God came and did a great work. And so now he's telling them this, and speaking of the ministry of God to them during this trial. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, encouragement, who comforts us in all our affliction, So that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. What an amazing passage. As Paul talks about this trial, the despair that they were facing, their discouragement, their thinking, it's all over, there's no hope here. And God himself, the God of all comfort, came and ministered to their hearts, and encouraged them, and helped them to go on, and actually rescued them out of this trial. And he says, one of God's purposes is, as he has worked comfort in us, Now we can come and be your encouragers. We can comfort you in the midst of the trials that you face. So Paul in highlighting this ministry of encouragement reminds us that our encouragement of one another flows out of the encouragement that we have received from God. As in every aspect of the Christian life, whatever we are called to do, it begins with God's work in us. God magnifies his grace in our lives and the overflow of that is our ministry to each other. And so the application is plain here as we consider this call of God in the scriptures to us to encourage one another. If you have no concern to encourage other Christians, you can't be a Christian yourself. Because a Christian is a person who has known the ministry of God in their own hearts. If you know the work of God encouraging you, then you will have a burden to respond when you hear God telling us from his word, encourage one another. So there we have, I think, a biblical answer to this question, what is encouragement? Now secondly, let's go on and ask another question. Why do we need to be encouraging one another? Why do we need to be encouraging one another? Well, as we study through the Bible and observe all of the examples and exhortations to encouragement, it becomes pretty clear why Christians should be committed to this ministry. The root problem, of course, is the fall of man into sin, Genesis chapter 3. And I trust you're all familiar with that story from the book of Genesis. As Adam and Eve living in that beautiful garden, where they knew companionship with God and they served him day after day, made the most wretched choice to disobey God and to take that piece of fruit that, to their senses, looked good to their eyes. So how could it be bad to do something like that? And so Eve reaches out and she takes the fruit. She eats it. She passes it to her husband. He so irresponsibly takes it and eats it. And mankind at that moment is plunged into sin. And all of the misery and heartache that every one of us experiences in this life flows out of that fall into sin. God's solution, as you know, is found in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's remedy to rescue us from the guilt and shame of our sin. That makes the gospel the greatest encouragement in the world. For here we are by nature because of that original fall and our own individual transgressions. We're rebels. We deserve God's judgment. We know the penalty is everlasting death in hell and torment. And God comes with this message. I've given my son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to rescue you from all of that shame and guilt and punishment. And not only that you might escape hell, but that you might become my child and dwell with me in heaven eternally. That's the greatest encouragement that anyone can ever hear. That's what God brings to us in the gospel. Now in the church, that encouragement of the gospel should be front and center. Week by week, as we're reminded of the victories of Christ to bring us out of sin and death, there's this message to lift our spirits and give us hope for the future. Jesus has died for us. Jesus had paid our great debt. He has brought to us forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. Now, this encouragement is intended by God to come from his word through the preaching of the Bible. But it's also intended by God to come from his people as they minister to one another. That's the reason for this exhortation, encourage one another. So we know that the root issue of why we need encouragement is to be seen in the fall. Let's consider some actual examples of why, as believers, we need this ministry. And this isn't a complete list, but I think some of the most clear and important matters. Why do we need encouragement? Well, first of all, even as Christians, We are surrounded by sickness and death. Even as Christians, we are surrounded by sickness and death. Now thanks be to God, we've been delivered from the reigning power of sin. But we still know its presence in our lives, and we still feel the impact of it on our human experience. It's not only a physical impact, It's also an emotional impact, one that can affect us in the deepest levels of our souls. Who here has not known the reality that something is wrong with your body? And so you go to the doctor and you say, you know, these are the symptoms. What's wrong? What's happening to me? or you've watched as a loved one has struggled with sickness. Whether it's an overnight sickness, like one of our grandkids recently, they're in the bathroom all night throwing up, and you just grieve over that, even though it may be short-lived. Or maybe it's a loved one that the illness just goes on and on and on. There doesn't seem to be any end in sight. who here has not experienced the pain of standing by a grave and knowing the grief of being separated by someone that you have loved. Just a week ago, Friday, Kathy and I were in Toronto at the funeral for the mother of a pastor friend. And she herself had been a pastor's wife and just had served the Lord faithfully. So in many ways, it was a glorious time, thinking that she's in heaven now, she's with the Savior, she's been reunited with her husband who had preceded her. And my friend gave the message, and his wife gave one of the eulogies. But there were still tears streaming down their faces. They felt that pain of the separation from one that they had loved so dearly. Well, in the midst of sickness or death, there's a great need for encouragement. And that's the point of Paul's writing here in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5. These were baby Christians who didn't know a lot about the Christian life, and perhaps they had forgotten about what Paul had taught them about the future. And they had loved ones who had believed, who had died, and they thought, well, they've missed out on the coming of Christ, they've missed out on the resurrection, and they were sorrowing. And so Paul lays out to them, this is what's going to happen when Christ comes again. This is what's going to happen to believers. This is what's going to happen to unbelievers. And then he gives the exhortation, encourage one another with these words. Take these truths about what's going to happen to believers and use them to encourage one another. We should be taking the words of scripture, Paul says, and using them to build up one another, encourage one another, as we go through the trials of life, and then that last great trial of death. A second reason why we ought to be pursuing this ministry We need encouragement as we face the trials of this life. We need encouragement as we face the trials of this life. Now there's much more that we have to experience beyond the realities of physical sickness and death. There are financial struggles that can weigh our spirits down. Time when the bills seem to be pouring in and piling up and we wonder how we're going to pay them all. There are often problems in marriages, problems in families that can be crushing to our spirits. Children who have grown up in the church turning away from the gospel that they've been taught. problems in families that can blow them apart. Christians can lose their jobs, experience their homes being robbed, and the list goes on and on, the trials of life. And to top it all off, we can face great disappointments in the place where we would expect to get the most encouragement, in the Church of Christ. We have a wonderful example of one believer encouraging another in the story of David and Jonathan. You remember that David had been anointed to be king, but Saul was determined that his family was going to become a dynasty, so he was determined to kill David, and David knew that. We find Saul hunting David like a dog through the mountainous regions of Judah. David despaired for his life, and we're told that David went out and sought for him and found him and ministered to him. Listen to these words from 1 Samuel 23. David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh, and Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this. And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home. Now, you don't read the word encouragement in that passage. But you know that's exactly what's being described here. As Jonathan knew the despair that had gripped David's heart, and so he went and he sought to strengthen him in God. He was reminding him of God's promise and exhorting him not to be afraid. It's a wonderful picture of one believer putting his arm around another believer and directing his eyes to God in order to lift his spirits. Brethren, as we go through life, we need this kind of encouragement as we face various trials. May God make us sensitive to each other. and may God grant to us an openness with each other so that we can be aware of the trials that we are going through. I remember reading one of Don Whitney's books, I think it's about spiritual disciplines, and he made this statement, there's a hurt in every home. And just as a pastor, you know, looking out at a congregation, seeing people, you know, come to church on Sunday and everybody looks well and dresses well and looks like we're at the top of our game. But you never know the sorrows perhaps coursing through the heart of the person sitting beside you. And we need to be eager to minister to one another. May there be a determination to minister to each other by these means of encouragement. A third and final reason in terms of why we should be encouraging one another. As believers in the Lord Jesus, each of us knows the struggles with sin. Each of us knows the reality of struggles with sin. I don't think that there is any misery in this life that compares to the experience when a believer has to say with David, I have sinned against the Lord. You all know that in your own lives if you're truly walking with Christ. You know what that's like when you're overwhelmed with a sense of your sinfulness against the Lord and perhaps grieved most that you're doing something again. That numerous times before you've brought to the Lord and you've sought repentance and to reject that sin, And here it is in your life again. I could look back over my life and remember times when in the pit of my stomach I was just sick. I had sinned against the Lord. Or to be brought to cry out with Paul after a fall into sin. Oh, wretched man that I am. Paul wasn't sitting at the desk in some ivory tower like a scholar, an academic. Let's say a few things about how bad sin is. No, surely Paul's words came from an inner life that knew that misery, that shame. I've been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ and here I am sinning all over again. What a wretched man I am. If sin could only be limited to once in a while, if it could just become a rare occurrence. But every day, as the reality dawns on us again that we're still sinners, the need for encouragement in the struggle with sin becomes obvious. Turn with me to the book of Hebrews, chapter three. I'm sure you're familiar with these people that were being written to this Hebrew church. People who had left Judaism and come to a bold confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had been gathered together into a local church, but now because of intense persecution, they were thinking of giving up on Christ and going back. Hebrews 3, and beginning at verse 12. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt, led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. So here are people tempted to turn back from following Christ. And the example set before them was certainly sobering. The Israelites who had been brought by the mercy of God out of Egypt and had experienced the great power of God both at the Red Sea and then in their wanderings through the wilderness and all of the provision God had made for them. And yet, despite seeing all of that, they rebelled and turned away from God, and ended up being buried under the sand in the wilderness. And the writer to this church says, you're in danger of the same thing. Beware, brothers, lest there is within you an evil heart of unbelief. Now I think, We read a passage like this and our natural response is to say, that couldn't happen to me. I'm not turning away. But that kind of thinking is a warning signal that you may have already started down that path. Remember Paul says to the Corinthians, if you think you're standing, look out. lest you fall. The person who knows their sinfulness, who understands the potential within them for great sin and waywardness, is going to be listening to that warning, that cry, and coming to God in prayer for mercy and pursuing the means to avoid such a fall. What are the means? Well, one of the most important is this ministry of encouragement. In verse 13, but exhort, encourage, it's our word parakaleo, call to one another, call beside you to your brethren and encourage them to keep following the Lord Jesus faithfully. were called upon to be in each other's lives, speaking words that will spur each other on to faithful discipleship. So if you're a Christian and you know your own propensity to sin, you're going to want to be around other Christians who will help you and you can help them to remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ and to fight against sin. This morning, I think, it was announced to you the death of Pastor Randy Pazina. And this afternoon, I saw some posts just some friends had put up. One post was from a friend in North Carolina. And he said they talked to each other on the phone every week. Even when Pastor Pazina was in Africa, they'd talk on the phone. And every week, they said, To each other, we've got to finish well. We've got to finish well. And the comment of this brother was, Pastor Pizzino has finished well. But that's an example of this very thing, isn't it? understanding the sin in our heart, understanding the fact that we could be the ones falling away, and so needing the encouragement of one another. You've got to keep going. You've got to be faithful to Jesus Christ. We've got to be in one another's lives, helping each other to press forward by the grace of God. Now, these are just three examples Sickness and death, the trials of this life, battles with sin, many other things we could think of. We need to be encouraging each other. Thirdly, finally, and just briefly, how to encourage each other. Well, we've already heard from Paul, encourage one another with these words. We've got to be speaking to each other, and not simply speaking to each other, but using the scriptures to encourage one another, inspire one another, cause us to be eager to move forward. So that's pretty simple. Doesn't take rocket science to figure out what we're to be doing to encourage one another. But let me ask you this question. Why are we so afraid to do this? Why are we so afraid to do this? You know, we get together on the Lord's Day after worship. We talk about the weather, we talk about the work, we talk about family matters, we talk about all other things. Are we bringing the Word of God to each other, to encourage each other in the Christian life? Why are we afraid to do this? And then, are we willing to receive this? If one of your brothers or sisters came to you to share a verse of scripture, would your immediate thought be, what are they doing preaching to me? Your immediate thought should be, please share with me from God's word what you have, I need that. Why is it when someone's sick in the hospital and people go and visit them? It's only the pastor who reads the scriptures and prays with them. Why is that? I hope that's not the case here, but often where I've been, that's what happens. Other church members visit, you know, they talk a little bit about the surgery or whatever, but why is it only the pastor who cracks his Bible open and reads words of encouragement? I've never been in the hospital overnight. I thank the Lord for that. But if I am, if I'm sick, if I'm facing surgery, if I'm facing death, I want people to come and read the Bible to me and say, John, God is in control. God is the sovereign Lord. And whatever happens to you, you know you're safe in the hands of Christ. I need that. Why are we afraid to do that with one another? Are we willing and eager to receive that? Do we let others know? Listen, if you've got a word from scripture to share with me, please go on. I want that. May God help us to be like him, the God of all encouragement. And what does he do? He speaks his word into our ears. And we need to speak his word into each other's ears. Let me just conclude tonight by asking you this question. Have you received the encouragement of the gospel? We all need encouragement. Many circumstances that say, boy, I need encouragement. But have you received the encouragement of the gospel? Have you seen your greatest need and the greatest danger that you face? And have you heard the message of God? He sent his son, who has suffered and died in the place of sinners, that we might be forgiven, that we might escape what we deserve and be given the most glorious reward. Have you received that? You can even tonight by calling on the Lord Jesus and asking him to save you. Let's bow in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you that you are committed to encouraging us And we can look back over our lives and acknowledge not only in our conversion, but many times you have drawn near to us, and you have spoken words of comfort to our souls, and we bless you. Our God, give us grace to be like you. Help us in our commitment to one another. O gracious Father, that we might take up this ministry Not to be afraid to speak the Word of God to one another. That we would be eager to receive it. That it would be a ministry, one to another, going back and forth, that will glorify your name and reveal to people around us what it means to be a member of the Church of Christ. Thank you for these things. Bless your word to our hearts. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.