Good morning. It's usual for the speaker to say, I'm glad to be with you this morning. And that's true. I am glad to be with you this morning. I didn't make that up, or I'm not trying to be nice. It's a very good congregation to preach to, because you've been taught over the years by men who have fed you, by Gordon and more recently by Chuck. And so you're looking up at the preacher, and your eyes, like baby birds in a nest, are looking up to be fed. And that's encouraging to the speaker. I once had a man speak in my congregation in Atlanta and afterwards I'm escorting him to the back and he had tears in his eyes and I said, what's the matter? That was a great sermon. He goes, your people, they were all looking at me expecting the word of God to be given to them. He said, my congregation hardly anybody does that. And he was trying to reform a congregation. So you're encouraging me just to show up and to look at all the baby birds with their mouths open and hopefully I'll give you something better than a worm. How about that? There's a handout, some of you may have seen it next to the bulletins, Drowning in a Notion of Encouragement. So if you think the sermon's a real stinker, you can go ahead and read that and tune me out. But it's an excellent article on encouragement by a man who lost his son and has grown in unusual ways and unusual depth. And I think it's a very important article on encouragement. I hope you read it this afternoon. I was asked what I would like to speak on and I said I'd like to speak on encouragement. Why we need it, what is it really, and how would one begin to go about doing it. And there's two verses or two passages I'd like to read from the word of God. First one is Hebrews chapter 3 verse 13. Encourage one another daily as long as it is called today so that none of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Encourage one another daily as long as it's called today so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin's always working on you in the midst of the best sermon you've ever heard, in the midst of the best devotional time you've ever had with the Lord. Sin is always digging in its heels, seeking to resist whatever your plans are to follow the Lord. And so we're encouraged to encourage one another because of the deceitfulness of sin that's always working on each one of us. And then later in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 24 and 25, he says, let us consider, let us think about how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Coming to church, even when you're tired, or even when you're not feeling the greatest, I'm not talking about you have COVID symptoms, I'm just talking about when you're not feeling great, you go, oh, I just rather lay in bed or do nothing, but you show up being faithful, that's encouraging to other people. You're not the only person who gets tired. You're not the only person who gets discouraged, who would rather stay home and just phone it in, so to speak. But the Lord wants you to be faithful. And he says, considering how to stir up one another, not neglecting meeting together, but in this way encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day of Christ drawing near. So why we need encouragement. There's only maybe three, four, five people in this whole room who think they don't need encouragement. I'm fine. I've got my life together. I'm a pretty blah, blah, blah person. And they are a pretty blah, blah, blah person, but they don't have their life together and they don't. They don't have a lack of need of encouragement. Every person in this room sometimes gets discouraged. Everybody gets tired. Everybody gets, oh, I don't know if I can put one foot in front of the next. I don't know if I can go through another day. We all need encouragement. And sometimes we don't think about why do we need encouragement? What kinds of things happen? So for those of you who aren't Christians or for those of you who are growing up in Christian homes and you go, what is so hard about living in this fallen world that we need encouragement? Well, first of all, we do live in a fallen world. We live in a fallen world. The first reason we need encouragement, live in a fallen world. Every single person you will ever meet on this planet, every single person who's been on this planet since Adam and Eve, including them, are fallen people. They're bent and twisted by sin. You've never met a normal or regular person. And don't be clever and look at the person next to you and go, uh-huh. You know, this person obviously is not normal. None of us are normal. There are no people that were as, there are no people who as we were meant to be at original creation. We've all been bent and twisted by the fall. We're all deformed people. The raw material out of which anything is built on this planet among people is based upon building in the lives of sinners. Should we ever wonder that living around people who are bent and twisted people, that at times things are difficult, things are discouraging. But a second reason we need encouragement living in a fallen world is this. Every institution, every amalgam, every group of individual people is also bent and twisted because of the sinfulness of the people who make it up. Every institution, every single one has been polluted by the fall. Marriage, not intended as it should, is not like it was intended to be. There's a helpful book and video series you might want to read or take advantage of, particularly if you have struggles, entitled, What Did You Expect? Here's Two Fallen Bend People. Hey, let's get together. Well, that's going to have problems. Churches are not as God would have them to be. You can look in Christian catalogs and there's a thousand and one books on how to improve your church. It ought to begin with improving myself because I'm the biggest problem in my church because I'm a bent and twisted person. And lest you be too coy and smile at me, so are you. We're all bent and twisted people. And we are the raw material that God is making into this temple of the living God. I won't dwell on this too long unless we break out in chanting, government is not as God would have it to be. We won't even go there. Every school from kindergarten to postgraduate is impacted by sin and not what it could be. Every job, every occupation, every company, every corporation is not really right. It could be better, it could be different, but it's composed of sinful people. As I frequently tell men in churches I work with, every job is great if it just wasn't for the people. Machines don't give me the trouble, the people do. Every social group, every club, every fraternity, sorority, bowling league, every PTO, every hunting club, every union, every treehouse gang of kids has been marred by sin. It's the pollution that's infected the whole planet. And that can become discouraging. Why is it that people go, oh, it's Monday, I've got to go back to work tomorrow, or I've got to go back to school tomorrow? Apart from the fact that you don't like algebra if you're in school, but the fact that sometimes the people that you have to work with, the people you go to school with, are just not very stimulating or encouraging people to be around. And if that's not enough to slow you down and make you a little bit discouraged, if you're a believer, because you live in a fallen world, you live in a world that's hostile to your God and hostile to you as a person who loves the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, if you pay attention to the scriptures, there's all kinds of verses that say, it's just going to be hard. For example, 2 Timothy 3.12, I'd be willing to bet, if I was a betting man, 50 bucks that none of you have claimed this promise. It's a promise. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Has anybody ever claimed that promise? Lord, I want you to make this real in my life. I claim this promise. God's own word promises suffering. John 16, 33, the Lord says, in the world you will have tribulation. You will have struggles. You will have pressure. God's own word promises all kinds of trials to believers. First Peter 4.12, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you as though something strange is happening to you. It's like, hello, welcome to planet Earth. Welcome to a world that's hostile to your God and hostile to you. Jesus said, if they love me, they'll love you. If they want to follow me and obey me and listen to me, they'll do the same to you. But how did it go with our Lord? And I think the last thing, and not the last from lack of importance, but sometimes the last thing we think about, you have a traitor in your own heart. We're all Benedict Arnold's. We're all Quisling. If you're older than 55, you might know who Quisling was. In World War II, he betrayed the nation of Norway and sold it out to the Nazis. And Norway was taken over with hardly a shot being fired initially because he betrayed his country. Romans 7, Paul says, what I want to do, I just don't get around to doing it. And what I don't want to do, I just too much do it. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? My own heart is one of my biggest problems. I mean, if you didn't have a fallen planet and you didn't have fallen institutions, if you didn't have people who were against you, you know, your own heart would slow you down. Your own heart would make you struggle. Have you ever wished that you could just cut out your heart or just exchange it for something else because you're, you know, you're tired of disobeying the Lord, you're tired of sinning, you're tired of having to confess your sins, you're tired of dishonoring the Lord, tired of hurting other people. So all these things put together could make a person discouraged. You should all say amen to that. Anyway. So we get worn down and greatly discouraged. What does that look like? Well, we get overwhelmed. And then we're in despair. And then, just then, tragedy strikes. Our bodies are wearing down. You saw me take the steps slowly. I have dreams when I played high school sports and I'm running and catching balls in the outfield and doing things and I can't run anymore. I'd just be thankful to walk. And other things, you know, your body breaks down. It doesn't do what you want it to do. Sometimes our dreams die. Things don't turn out as we hoped. You know? I hoped to be Brad Pitt, but I turned out to be Alfred E. Newman. If you don't know who Alfred E. Newman is, you can talk to Jonathan. He'll fill you in on that. He was the guy on the cover of Mad Magazine when I was growing up. Anyway, I'm not a real sharp guy. My life didn't turn out the way I hoped it would. People disappoint us. We disappoint ourselves. Our resolve and our perseverance flags. Our spiritual perception grows dim. It doesn't take much sin and discouragement in our lives for us to be kind of like someone described it as a calf looking at a new gate, just standing and staring. Or some of my work projects when I'm standing there trying to figure out what's the next thing I'm going to do. Our perspective grows dim. We find ourselves doing things we wouldn't normally do. And then, like I said, Romans 7 is a difficult place to live, but that's where we live. So we become dull and joyless. We become deeply discouraged. And sometimes it can almost seem like I'm pretty much ready to give up. Well, obviously the Lord doesn't want us to do that, and he encourages us. But one of his major, if not the major way he encourages us, is through other believers who are made and remade in his image. And as small versions of Christ, so to speak, we're to be encouragers. The most encouragement that's ever come to my life was becoming a Christian. I was a junior in college and God intervened in my life when I wasn't looking for him and my life did a radical 180. I'm not the person I used to be. Thank God. But yet frustratingly at times I'm not yet the person I still want to be. And that gap between who I used to be and what I want to be is still frustrating at times. I was encouraged by the opening of the service by Kim's introduction to the chapter in Jeremiah and reminder of what the Word of God does in a person's heart. I can remember I was just short of my 21st birthday, and I wasn't looking for God. I wasn't depressed. I wasn't a drunk. I wasn't a druggie. I wasn't anything terminally yet, except I was a lost sinner. And if you'd say, can you see yourself in the future in church singing God's praises? Can you see yourself speaking for God in churches? I go, I don't even go to church. But God transformed me, and so singing a hymn like John Newton's first hymn we sang, what a delight to sing about being in the household of God, being with God's people, having Jesus Christ as your savior, having the Holy Spirit kind of booing you up and carrying you along. Being a Christian, coming to know Jesus Christ has been the greatest encouragement in my life. And then being around other Christians encourages me. Now, I don't always say this to every person I meet, but I study other people. And I try to learn. Don't look at me like that. I try to learn from other people. I don't say, I'm learning from you. I'm taking notes. But I do try to learn from other people. And so being around other Christians who are walking with Christ is very encouraging. So let's get into it. What is encouragement anyway? If you were to encourage them, like your dress, dear, that's more of a compliment than encouragement. Did you get your hair cut? No, I did it myself. Oh. There's ways you can think it is encouragement that isn't necessarily encouragement. What is the definition of encouragement? Well, we don't look it up in a dictionary. We like to see it in the flesh. But if you looked up in a dictionary, to encourage someone means to give fresh courage to someone when they're in the midst of tough times, to give a person renewed hope. I'm tired. I'm thinking of quitting. But since this happened, since you said this to me, did this toward me, I have new strength and new courage to go on. The Bible doesn't give dictionary definitions, but instead gives multiple examples. Example after example after example of encouragement. In the various books of the New Testament, the Holy Spirit puts it into the hearts of the human authors to give all kinds of examples of encouragement. For example, to encourage a person means you help them regain a sense that God's in control, things will work out, you can go on living for Christ. Biblical encouragement shows others how the Word of God applies to their life and gives them insights into ways they haven't seen how it applies and helps them to go on. To give biblical encouragement is to stand by someone with the resources of the Word of God at hand and the Holy Spirit working in your heart just to engage them. Case in point, in John chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, that's all the stuff that our Lord Jesus taught his men the last night. He intensifies his relationship with them. He intensifies his teaching with them. And you talk to pastors who preach through John's gospel, you can do pretty well motoring through the first 12 chapters, but there's so much in chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17. And what does our Lord teach in there? One of the main things is, I'm gonna leave. They go, we don't want you to leave. I'm gonna leave. I'm not gonna leave you like orphans. I'm sending someone in my place. He doesn't use this phrase, but the third member of the Godhead, God, the Holy Spirit. He's been with you. He will be in you. Has it ever dawned on you fully that you are actually indwelt by the third member of the Trinity, that God the Holy Spirit literally actually lives with inside you? Not metaphorically, not an idea. God the Holy Spirit lives inside you and the reason your life has changed and is changing and is kept is because God the Holy Spirit lives in you. And he said, that should be such an encouragement to you. Now think about it. When Jesus was in the south in Judah, he wasn't physically in the north in Galilee, was he physically? So you could physically miss him, but the Holy Spirit doesn't have a spatial problem, a spatial orientation. So he can be in this congregation here. He can be in Perth and Western Australia with congregations meeting there. He can be in people back in Indiana, my church there. He can be down in Georgia, my church there. In other words, God the Holy Spirit can be in many believers at once, and to be a source of strength and encouragement. And the word that Jesus used in the Greek is translated different ways in our English Bible. Sometimes the Holy Spirit's called the helper. Sometimes he's called the comforter. Sometimes he's called the teacher. It's always the same word, but the context determines the little twist they give it to make it more applicable. And the underlying word is the paraclete, the one called to your side to help you. The Holy Spirit is the paraclete. Now some of you are going, yeah, I had a paracletes when I played baseball. No, it's not that kind of paracletes. A paraclete, singular, is a Greek word for someone who's called to your side to help you. And so the context determines, has the Holy Spirit been called to my side to teach me something I don't understand? Is he being called to my side to comfort me when I'm discouraged and distressed? Is he called to my side for any one of a number of things? Well, that's the word that is used for encouragement throughout the rest of the New Testament. The word for encouragement or encouraging is just the verb form of the noun that Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit. So in some ways, encouragement is a ministry of the Holy Spirit that he fleshes out in the people of God. What are some biblical examples of encouragement? I've written down eight. Chuck said I could go to 130. I'll try to finish by noon. I'll try to help Chuck keep his job. In Hebrews chapter 3, which I read, we are to encourage one another as long as it's called today. Each believer has remaining sin. This can lead to unbelief. We need encouragement from other believers to keep on going. Sometimes it's not even intentional, just being a Christian, just walking with the Lord. And you might say something in the foyer, you might pray something in a prayer meeting, and someone else picks up on that, and that was the word they needed to hear that day. Hebrews 10, we also read that, 24 and 25. There's a long passage of how Christ is the greatest of all and the final high priest. And he himself is the sacrifice and the high priest. And by one sacrifice, he has perfected for all time those he is making holy. And then he goes on to say what? You have this high priest who is both the sacrifice and the high priest who's offering sacrifice, and you come to him and you can encourage one another. Didn't we just read that? Encourage one another and not be discouraged and failing to assemble, but encouraging one another by coming together, by expecting Christ to meet you on the Lord's day, expecting church to be not just church, But God the Holy Spirit is here manifesting, revealing, mediating the presence of Christ to believers in a hundred different ways. I'm guessing there's 80 people here, maybe a hundred, I don't know. But each of you has slightly different needs. We all have needs in common, but we all have slightly different needs. And God the Holy Spirit mediates the ministry of Christ to each of us as he sees fit. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We're going to do a little bit of a Bible drill, they used to call it, and I never went to Vacation Bible School, but if you did, they had Bible drills, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we'll have a Bible drill, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. This is Paul's second letter, and he's describing There's an ant up here, just to let the person in charge of ant control, there's a big ant on the podium. Okay. That was just a freebie. 2 Corinthians 4, beginning in verse 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, cracked clay pots, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. In other words, people say, how do you go on with your life, man? You got problems like everybody else. You got laid off like everybody else. You didn't, you know, all the things that go wrong in believers lives that we have. That the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. For we're hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We're perplexed, but not in despair. Yes, we're persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always caring about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then, death is working in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith according to what is written, I believed and therefore I spoke, we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sake that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, you go, doesn't feel like a light affliction, feels pretty heavy to me. You ever had an anvil on your head? For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. We go through a really hard time physically, family wise, job wise, life wise. It doesn't seem to go away anytime soon. It's gone on for a couple of years. But you're going to live for eternity. And whatever God is accomplishing in your momentary, it doesn't seem momentary if it's gone on for a couple of years. But if it's a momentary affliction compared to eternity, A friend of mine was witnessing to a gal at the front desk of the Hilton in downtown Indianapolis. It was a long marble counter, it was black marble, it was about 20 feet long and the different people stood behind the counter and he was trying to engage the gal behind the counter in a conversation about spiritual things. And she didn't really want to have a conversation about spiritual things, but he persisted. And he bent over on the carpet and found a little grain of sand or something, put it on the black marble counter where it stood out. He goes, because she had an eternal life ring, and he was trying to make the connection. Do you see this grain of sand? She goes, yeah. That's your life. Look at the length of this counter. Compared to this grain of sand, the rest of this counter is eternal life. Don't you want to live for eternity with God? Do you want to live for eternity under the wrath of God? And he tried to engage her, but showing her the difference between this speck of sand, which is your momentary life, Well, I don't know. It doesn't seem momentary. I've lived X number of years. It's been a long time. But compared to eternity, it's nothing. It's just it's not even a snap of the finger. And so Paul's encouraging the Corinthians because I know what trouble is. I know what grief is. You know, he lists all the things he went through. It's temporary, but it's going to yield an eternal weight of glory. That's encouragement. How about 2 Thessalonians to turn over there? You know, it's good to know that, yes, things aren't gonna last forever, but Paul also goes on to say, if you're being treated poorly, there is a day coming when all wrongs will be righted. 2 Thessalonians 1 3-10. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith and all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is manifest, obvious evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. In flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he comes in the day, in that day, excuse me, capital D, in that day, judgment day, the end of time, to be glorified in his saints and to be admired among all those who believed because our testimony among you was believed. There is a day coming when God will judge those people who are or have treated you terribly and if they never repent, You will see them being cast into outer darkness where there's wailing and gnashing of teeth. C.S. Lewis had a sermon entitled The Weight of Glory, and he said if you could see a person a millisecond after they've been in hell, you would flee from that person as you would from some scary things you see in nightmares. And if you could see a person after they've gone to heaven, you'd be tempted to fall down at their feet and worship them like they were some kind of a god. Judgment Day will have that separating impact. It will have a glorifying impact for some and a denigrating impact for others. You are going to pity those who give you a hard time now and treat you terribly, for they do not know what they're storing it from themselves. You will be vindicated. God will have the last word, not your opposers. First Corinthians chapter 10. Let's go back there. First Corinthians 10. I should take my watch off as a sign that I really am keeping time. Okay. First Corinthians chapter 10 verses 1 through 13. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud. This is referring to being out in the wilderness with Moses. All passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now, these things, what things? The things he's just talking about, the stuff that happened to the children of Israel. These things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted and do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did and one day 23,000 fell. Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents. Nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples. And they were written down for our admonition, or some versions say instruction, upon whom the end of the ages have come. Therefore, let us give thanks. I'm sorry. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able. But with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Other people have gone through what you're going through, and you're going through what other people have gone through before you. And God enables his people to make it. Reformed believers believe the Bible teaches the, what, the perseverance of the saints. God preserves you and you persevere. God enables us to persevere. And we don't have to give up. You may have fallen 40 times. Well, he'll help you with 41. The point is, you will make it. And you don't have to think, well, I'm so weak, and I just keep falling into these things. God will help you to make it. I was sharing with the Pauls last night a story that I read in a missions magazine. If you've been a Christian very long, you're aware of the martyrs in South America in the 1950s. Jim Elliott and others, who were not quite as famous, were there to reach a tribe of Indians. The Indians mistook their landing and their attempts to engage them as hostility and slaughtered them all. And they found their bodies on a sandbar and floating in a river and all five of the missionaries were killed. And it was on the cover of Look Magazine or Life Magazine. It was a big deal. And one of the men who was killed was Nate Saint. And his son, Steve Saint, is a pilot with Missionary Aviation Fellowship. He flies missionaries to hard-to-get-to places. You know, you can do six weeks walking and paddling a canoe, or we can fly you in in a few hours. So Missionary Aviation Fellowship's become a big deal. And Steve Saint was flying to West Africa, if you have an idea of what Africa looks like. There's a bulge on the left side, and that's East Africa. And over there is a nation called Senegal, and he was flying there. And he looked on his map, and he goes, wow, look. It's not too far to Timbuktu. Now, if you're growing up in the old days, Timbuktu was like the end of the world, you know, from Munsee to Timbuktu or from Rock Island to Timbuktu. I mean, it's way out there. And he said, I've always wondered what Timbuktu was like. I got some extra gas and I've got a couple of days. I'm going to fly over to Timbuktu. So he scheduled it, got it, and flew to Timbuktu, and he landed in the middle of Mali, in the middle of the Sahara, where none of the buildings were taller than two stories, and they're all mud. Mud brick. Dusty, dry, inhospitable place. Everybody was a nominal Muslim, and he wasn't accorded a brass band at the airport or any kind of warm welcome. People didn't harm him, they just kind of Gave him the cold shoulder. He was obviously not from around here. And so as the day wore on, he realized he needed to spend the night someplace and wondered where he could. And he was getting a little uncomfortable and over a door of what seemed like a normal little building was a little cross. He said, well, that's a good sign. So he knocked on the door and persevered. And finally, someone came to the door and let him in and found out this man was trying to pastor a little church in Timbuktu. And you go, well, that's nice. But the story goes on. See, Steve St. was struggling. I get that my father died. I get that he was a martyr. But why did he have to die? Why couldn't he have just been hurt or injured or wounded? Why did my dad have to die? I'm sure any kid in this church might ask the same question if their parents were martyred. So he spends dinner with this man, the man affords him a nice local meal, and they sit up talking. And the pastor of this little, almost non-existent church, talks about his great struggles to plant a church in Timbuktu. He goes, nobody cares, nobody seems to be open, the spirit of God doesn't seem to be drawing people at this time. I've really struggled with encouragement. I almost gave up a while back. But I came across this book about these five missionaries who were martyred in South America. And he said, if these men could die for Christ in Ecuador, then I can die for Christ in Mali, in Timbuktu, and I've decided to stay. And Steve Saint goes, I had to fly to the end of the world to meet a man who persevered at being a Christian and a pastor because my dad died 50 years ago. So God uses the struggles of saints of the past to teach us and to realize that we're not alone. Other people have had these struggles and they persevere. In Galatians, what's the whole point of the book of Galatians? Jesus plus nothing is Christianity. If you add anything beyond Jesus to what it means to be a Christian, you've not understood the gospel. Jesus plus nothing equals Christianity. Well, what about, and then people want to tack on all their tack-ons, add-ons. And it's not Jesus plus your little, I got a smidgen of good works, you know, I'm a pretty nice guy. I'm kind of trusting in this little smidgen here. Maybe Jesus can give me a hand up, you know, to get over the fence. I can't quite make it, but Jesus will help me over with my effort. On Judgment Day, the only thing that God will require of you is that Jesus Christ is in your place. He's your stand in. Jesus Christ is your salvation. He is the gospel. And the whole point of the book of Galatians is, you know, Paul's very angry in the first chapter. You stupid Galatians. Now, most pastors don't introduce themselves to a congregation if I came in. You dummies in Sycamore. It's like, you might want to change your language. That's not really making me feel warm and fuzzy toward you. Well, Paul's angry. How could you do this? You've heard the gospel. I gave it to you straight. And now these Judaizers are coming along and saying, that's fine to begin to be a Christian, but to be a real Christian, to be a really deep Christian, to be a real whatever Christian is you need to keep Jewish law. You need to keep a Jewish kitchen. You need to be circumcised, et cetera, et cetera. You go, well, that's not a problem anymore, sir. We're not tempted to get circumcised or have kosher kitchen. Au contraire. How many Christians in this room have heard people say, that's great that you really love Christ and he saved you, but, have you, and then they have all the tack-ons. A whole, I've been a Christian since 1969. The number of add-ons that I've heard people try to sell over the years has been huge. You're walking through a smorgasbord at a church supper. Lady next to you says, you know, if you let your kids eat white sugar and white flour, it's a form of child abuse. You need to stop that, be a better Christian. Who knew? Do you vote the right way? Where do your kids go to school? How do you school them? And dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. I'm not saying you can't have individual convictions about any of these things, but none of them make you a better Christian. None of them are going to be on judgment day. Jesus isn't going, whoa, look at this person. Me plus their personal convictions have made them this outstanding example of Christianity. Jesus Christ is your Christianity. If you're not satisfied with him, you need to go back and examine your heart. Years ago, I had a lady visit my church. She was 30. She was on her second marriage. And when she applied for membership, I listened to her and her second husband's testimonies. Her testimony was so telling. She said, I grew up in North Georgia in the hills. And there's a denomination in the Appalachians. I'll name it because it's not a good one. The Church of God based in Cleveland, Tennessee, aka the Snake Handlers. And their motto is holiness unto the Lord. And they take verses from Leviticus and say you ought to be holy. And that's true. But you're not going to be holy without Christ. And Christ will ultimately be your holiness to let you stand the test before the Father. But they combined legalism and their understanding of holiness with speaking in tongues and handling snakes and a dozen other things. And she said, I was, my dad and I were hammered from the pulpit every week. Be holy as I am holy. If you're not holy, you're a sub-Christian. And of course, people responded that different ways. If you try to be a really compliant person, you try really hard to be holy and acceptable and you can't do it and you try so hard and you get so depressed. And the others said, you're not going to tell me what to do, and they rebel. I'll show you, I'm going to cut off my own nose to spite my face. She said, I was married, had two kids, and divorced by 17. I was a rebel. My dad was depressed and just about to be instituted, and I was a rebel who had ruined their life, apparently. And a minister came to town who preached the grace of God in Christ. And we heard about this church and we went there. My dad's sanity was returned. And the Lord saved me and took the rebel out of my heart. How important it was to hear the truths of Galatians, for example. God saves people by his grace, not by their efforts, not even their attempts to save themselves with Christ's help. Christ doesn't save you with your help. You don't save yourself with his help. He saves you, period. Jesus Christ saves sinners. A last example would be in Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6 is about God's making promises. Let's read verses 13 through 18. This will be the last example. Hebrews 6, 13 through 18. For when God made a promise to Abraham, Because he could swear by no one greater, the Bible says you have to have two witnesses for something to be true. In courts of law in England and America, for something to be said to be true, you have to have two witnesses. If it's my word against yours, just throw it out. There's no corroborating witness. But if there's two witnesses to say that something is true, then it's going to be true. For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself. Well, that stands to reason. There's no one greater in all of existence than God. So not only do I promise to do this, I solemnly swear, may I seek to be God if this isn't true. Because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end to all dispute. Thus God determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise, you and me, the immutability, the unchangeableness of his counsel. confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable, unchangeable things, which it's impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us." What's he saying? God made a solemn promise, I will be God to you and you will be my people. Well, how do I know that's going to happen? Well, I solemnly take an oath. I swear by myself that this will happen. I promise to do it and I swear to do it by two things that cannot be changed. May God cease to be God if this isn't true. Now, what's the point? The highest assurance you have of anything is what God says in his word. If he makes a promise to you, it's good. You can bank on it. Charles Spurgeon, the last book practically he wrote, Checkbook on the Bank of Faith, or sometimes it's called Faith's Checkbooks. Maybe you have that in your home. The reason he wrote it was, if you've been to London, the Thames River cuts London in half. North of the Thames is where all the rich people and the cool people live. South of the Thames is where all the people who work and make the city run live. And Spurgeon's Tabernacle was on the south side of the city. And they were all working class people. And you get tired, you get under the pile. So he wanted to encourage them. And he said, what I'm going to do is go through the scripture. And we have 365 days in a year. Hundreds and hundreds of promises. I'll just take 365 of them, write down a few comments, and put it in a book. And so that was his final encouragement to his congregation. Checkbook on the Bank of Faith. You can take this to the bank. This is the point of the promise. God, you said, you said. Does God lie? Does he go, oh, I got my fingers crossed, fooled you. What do you understand your God to be? John Brown was a pastor in Scotland, and he was in the deathbed of an older woman in his congregation named Janet. And he was questioning her about her assurance of where she was spiritually. He said, well, Janet, you're going to die soon. We both know that. What if God lets you drop into hell? And she answered back, well, I can't imitate a Scottish accent, but she says, I'll lose my life, but he will lose his reputation. He promised, if I trust in Jesus Christ, I'm as secure as anybody can be. And that's all my hope. I don't think he lies. I don't think he welches. I don't think he goes back on what he promises to do. By two things, a solemn promise and a solemn oath, what more validation do we need? You talk about trusting God. Trust God. He made a promise. He's made an oath. Well, how can you and I begin to encourage one another? Lots of more illustrations I could give in the Bible of encouragement. I think the last one, though, is God says, I promise to be God to you, and I will take care of you, and no one will take you from me, and I'm not going to cast you away. And to show you that I really mean it, in case you wonder, I take a solemn oath. What can we do to begin to encourage one another? Some of us may be spiritually born again with the gift of encouragement. That could be true. God gives some people the gift of encouragement. But everybody can work in encouragement. You can get better at it. And I was going to put it at the end. I think I'll stick it in here. There's two groups of people that need encouragement in this room, especially. We all need encouragement. I tried to make that point initially. But two people especially. First of all is mothers. This is when the mothers go, amen brother, but apparently you were sleeping. But, I was reading an article by a professor at Puritan Reform Seminary in Grand Rapids, David Murray. He's a professor of Old Testament, professor of practical theology, including preaching and counseling. was a medical doctor in Scotland where they were both from. They emigrated to the States for him to teach at the seminary and she hasn't redone her medical certificate in order to practice in the States. So she, they have five kids and she homeschools their kids. And they were having one of those late night discussions and she wasn't complaining but they were discussing the need for encouragement. She said, I think the most needed people when it comes to encouragement are mothers of small children. because small children take for granted everything you do for them. Well, of course the meal's going to be around the table. And of course it's going to be a nutritious, healthy meal. And sometimes we even like it. And of course you throw clothes in the magic hamper and it appears two days later washed and folded in your dresser. Of course, that's the way life works. Of course we come to an orderly house. Of course the things are clean and decent around here. What's the old saying? Messy enough to be fun but clean enough to be healthy, something like that. Kids rarely, if ever, thank their parents for all the stuff, but especially moms of small children rarely get any positive feedback. And she said, you know, I can see why a lot of moms get depressed. And David Murray goes, I'm not really smart, but when my wife says something like this, I need to pay attention. And so if you're a husband, please tell your wife of small children all the things you appreciate her, not I told her I loved her the day we were married and it's in force until the day I revoke it. Well, that's probably not going to warm too many hearts, is it? Seriously, if you went to work and nobody ever gave you a raise, nobody ever gave you an attaboy, nobody ever appreciated anything you did, how hard is that going to be? I mean, after a while, it would just be drudgery. And so many moms get stuck in the cycle of drudgery because nobody ever appreciates all the little things they do of dying to self to help other people. So please express appreciation to your mother and to your wife. The second person who needs encouragement are pastors. And Chuck didn't slip me a 20 and go, say something about the pastors. OK? But I know this for a fact. We supported a church planter in another country. And he was there for a number of years. And he went there because some people in this country requested a church be planted there. Not unlike Brett Shaw going to England, but this was in another country. And the person who requested we send a church planter, I'll just say, was not a well He had mental confusion, shall we say. And he told the people before the church planter came, now don't praise him for his preaching and teaching because that will give him a big head and he'll fall. So it would be better if we didn't say anything. So his wife said for seven years we would walk home every Sunday after church and nobody said boo to him about his sermon. Seven years. We walk home, my husband would have his head down, me and the kids are walking behind him, and I felt so bad for my husband. Now, I'm not saying this is a problem here. I'm not saying that Chuck cried before he asked me to come up. Some people are paranoid, they come up with weird, oh, I know, Chuck told him. But it's just a fact of life. I've never met an over-encouraged pastor. I've never met a pastor who said, oh man, can you come and tell me some bad news? Because I'm so up today and things are so awesome that I just need to be brought back to reality. You know, policemen and pastors know too much. We know about the human heart. We counsel people about their problems. We help people with their sins. And if you're not careful, this can just be overwhelming to you. And so it's important to pray for your pastor and to tell him that you appreciate his teaching, his preaching, his counseling, his leadership with the elders. Tell Kim, tell Jonathan, Tell Chuck, I'm so thankful that you're here, that God brought you. We need you. Thank you so much. Well, these men aren't perfect. Well, newsflash, you're not either. And if you're waiting for a perfect pastor, well, he's not Martin Lloyd-Jones. He's not Charles Spurgeon. Let's see, how many Martin Lloyd-Jones and Charles Spurgeons have there been in church history? Have there been? I don't remember too many. One of each. And so I actually know churches that are waiting for that man to appear in their pulpit. and they virtually damn everybody else who shows up. That's terribly short-sighted. That's terribly foolish. Appreciate these good men that God's given to you. I've been edified just at the introduction to the service today was tremendous. I was, I'm going to preach today. That's great. Okay, first thing you need to do is pray and ask your Heavenly Father to help you be more encouraging. You go, well, duh, that's not, that's kind of obvious. Well, double duh. How often do we not pray for things because we're just self-sufficient? Okay, I'm going to write these things down and go do them. And that lasts until tomorrow and then by Wednesday you've forgotten and you've moved on to other things. But actually to pray, say, Lord, would you work this in my heart? We don't have things because we don't ask for things, right? Ask him to give you a loving heart and a creativity and expressing it to others. I can remember one of the biggest things that when I first noticed when I became a Christian in college was my fraternity brothers, who I thought were jerks, They all had monogrammed shirts, J-E-R-K, and I would despise them in my heart. That was my sin. We were all sinners, but I had to despise some of them because they weren't like me or they were different from me. And God began to give me a sensitivity and compassion for them. The guy's lost. What can I expect from him? He doesn't know the Lord. He doesn't have any hope. He doesn't have any supernatural power source. Ask the Lord to help you to die to self-centeredness. When my best friend, who was a co-pastor with me for 28 years in Atlanta, he and his wife have said many times, we have all these people over for dinner, and we'll ask them questions, and they'll tell us all about their lives. They will not ask us a single question, and they'll leave not knowing anything about us. They wanted to talk about themselves, and that's fine. We were there to get to know them. But you know, if only I ever think about myself, then it's a really small ministry, me, myself, and I. Make it a priority to find someone, anyone to encourage. Like I said, everybody needs encouragement in some way. I was encouraged just listening to the call to worship and the introduction to Jeremiah 26. Find someone, look around, pray for discernment. It says in Isaiah, know well the faces of your flock. How does that translate? Well, think of you as a mother who knows your kids, and they come home from school, or they finish their work, or they're out doing something. They come in, and you know by looking at their faces, usually, if something's wrong. Even if they're good at hiding it, even if they're like this, but you can tell something's not right. And knowing the faces of people, looking them in the eyes, how are they doing? So the first thing is to really pray and ask God, Lord, make me an encourager to others. Make me to see some way that I can help people to encourage them. Guys, if you've listened at all, I would suggest maybe you practice on your wife. She would probably pass out and you'd have to put the defilibrators on her and recharge her heart. But after she gets over the shock of you encouraging her, that'd be a great place to start. A second thing to do, and you kind of go, these things are so obvious. Well, I'm the master of the obvious and live in the word of God. Why is that? Because as I'm being cleansed by the Word of God, you know it says in Ephesians 5, husbands are to wash their wives in the Word, the Word of God renews us. Second Timothy 3, 16 and 17, all scriptures God breathed, profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God will be thoroughly equipped for every good work, good word, work. Colossians 316, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. And then he says, these are the ways you'll see it in your attitude. If you really have the word of God circulating through your head, then you're going to have it expressed in your attitude. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks and all things. Well, wow, what happened to them? They used to be crabby and negative and morose and the Word of God is recycling itself in their mind and heart and they become a much more positive and edifying person to be around and you can minister to people just by being in the Word. Jesus said, sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. I ran across a verse this week, and I've been meditating on it. 1 Thessalonians 4.18. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. He's just given them some teaching. He says, I want you to encourage each other by the words I just wrote to you. that you had read aloud in the church. The Word of God is a significant source of encouragement. Dale Ralph Davis is known by some of you as a great expositor of the Bible. If you want to take away a tip from this service, go out and buy everything you can by Dale Ralph Davis. Is anybody here besides Chuck and Jonathan read Dale Ralph Davis? Oh, what an impoverished congregation. You go, Steve, I thought you were just doing a hyperbole, you know, that pastor thing. But it's really true. He is that great. There were times I was tempted to put Dale Ralph Davis' book here and hold my Bible up and just preach him. And people think, wow, Steve's gotten better. But it's great stuff. It's edifying. It's clear. The Word of God, boom, opens up to you. This is what he says. We best encourage, not by being cuddly with people, but by reminding them of the promises of God. Encouragement from God for the people of God comes from the word of God. I'm not depreciating the helpfulness of the personal touch or personal care, but in an age that wallows in caring and sensitivity on every hand, believers need to know that solid encouragement comes not from emotional closeness, but from God's speech, God's word. If you're full of the word of God, then you have all kinds of stuff to give to other people. A third aspect of this is look to the Holy Spirit for insight and strength of purpose to encourage others. James 1, 17. All good and perfect gifts come down from above from the Father of lights, with whom there's no shadow of turning. You've heard that verse. Wives, when your husband's being loving to you, you go, wow, it's so great to be loved by my husband. God put it in his heart to be loving to you. All good gifts. Probably wasn't a perfect husband, but if he's a good husband, all good gifts come down from above. God put it in his heart. Same with husbands receiving love from their wife, children receiving love from their parents, and vice versa. And God, the Holy Spirit, puts it in our heart to give out of the overflow. John 7, 37 through 39, Jesus stood up at a feast day in a desert country and said, if any man is thirsty, And if you live in a world without water bottles and water fountains, everybody's thirsty half the time at least. Because you had to go get a bucket and drop it in the well and pull it up. And people just had to deal with being thirsty a lot. So what in the world is he saying? If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. And out of his inmost being shall flow a thimble of living water. Isn't that what your Bible says? A thimble of living water? No, I'm sorry. Out of his inmost being shall flow a cup, a full cup of living water. Come on, Pastor, you're jerking us around. Out of his inmost being shall flow a bucket? No. A trough? No. Rivers of living water. And then John adds, and Jesus spoke this about the Holy Spirit who was yet to come, but Jesus had not yet been glorified. He said he likened the Holy Spirit working in a person to like rivers of living water. Now, we're right by the Mississippi. It's a big body of water. It carries a lot of volume. Rivers in the Middle East are not like that. They're more like streams. But you're not going to lay down like this and open your mouth and say, OK, let it go. I mean, that's just not going to happen to you. There's too much water. But the idea is, if you're really walking with the Lord and the Holy Spirit's filling you, then you're going to have an overflow. If you're a husband, you'll have enough to give to your wife. If you're a wife, you'll have enough to give to your husband. If you have kids, your husband and wife have enough of an overflow to give to your kids. He's not giving you a thimble. He's not giving you a cup. He's not even going to give you a bucket. It says rivers of living water is the overflow of the Holy Spirit. I expect each of you, as you look to Him to enable you, to have an overflow in your life. In Ephesians 5 is the longest chapter in the Bible on marriage, going into chapter 6. How do you do that? How do you be a husband, or wife, or kid, or parent, or employer, or employee? And Paul says in Ephesians 5.18, do not be drunk with wine, that's dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. And it's plural. If this was a southern Bible, it says, you all be filled with the Holy Spirit. But we read it as a singular, meaning you individually. It's a plural you. I want all y'all to be filled with the Holy Spirit and you can perform. You can have a Christian marriage. You can have Christian parenting, Christian kids, Christian employers and employees, because the Spirit of God makes you different. Finally, speaking the truth in love. Encouraging people doesn't mean you always say warm, cuddly things. Ephesians 4.15, speaking the truth in love. Now there are some people who, I'm not sure what the problem is, but I just speak the truth to people. I don't pussyfoot around. I just shoot straight with people. So you always want to make sure you wear your Kevlar vest when you're around these people. And they have a hard time encouraging, but they don't have a Hard time being blunt and sometimes unkind. Proverbs 27.5 says, better is open rebuke than love that is concealed. Passive aggressively withholding love from people is not encouraged by the Bible. Better is open rebuke to spit it out than withholding your love from that person. But it's important that we speak the truth to one another and not pretend nothing happened. And I think this is true from pastors from the pulpit. You know, we all want people to like us. I want you to like me and I want you to listen to what I say. Right. And I'm supposed to tell people, and you're totally depraved and you're going to go to hell unless you turn to Christ. And surprise, surprise, not the whole world doesn't do somersaults because I said that because people don't like to hear the truth. You don't go to the doctor to have him say, you're a fine individual. Right. But what's wrong with me? You're a great guy. Right. What's wrong with me? But people don't go to Christ for salvation because they don't think they're sick sinners. Again, Dale Ralph Davis wrote, you can end up in grave sin by thinking it's very important to be nice to people. how easy it is to practice a gutless compassion that never wants to offend anyone, that equates niceness with love, and thereby ignores God's law, and essentially despises His holiness. We do not necessarily seek God's honor when we spare human feelings. You know, if I'm having a really besetting sin that's really harmfully affecting my life, and you know me well, and you don't say something to me, that's not loving. I mean, certainly you should pray for me. I hope that I get it. But if you say, well, he doesn't appear to be getting it. Somebody should say somebody, something to him. Who should that somebody be? So pray for him or her first and then go to speak the truth and love to them. I would hope that the Lord would make this an even more encouraging congregation. Like I said, I think it's an encouraging congregation. I've enjoyed my time as I've been here. Y'all have been very gracious and kind to me. Certainly it's a privilege to know your elders. But I think there's even more encouragement that we can learn to give to one another. Is there anybody in the group, and this is for the sake of the tape that's going out around the world after this, is anybody here that's over-encouraged that would like people not to give them encouragement? Let the tape report that nobody raised their hand. So that means that we could all use more encouragement, right? Let's pray. Father, this was not a fix-it message. I didn't nail exactly everything that needs to happen, but the basics are here. I pray that you'd help my brothers and sisters to be more of what they already are. Each one of us has been, in small ways already, in some ways as Christians, encouraging. Help us to be more encouraging. Help us to see things we don't normally see. Help us to pray for people we don't normally pray for. Help us to speak a word of encouragement to those who need it. And if those words of encouragement need to include a rebuke, may I pray about it seriously before I ever get around to the rebuke. As Tim Challey says in the article that I passed out, that a word of encouragement will buoy us for a day, but a hard word can burden our conscience for a week. Lord, help us to be encouragers to one another. May people who know of this church and know of its doctrine and think the people here are weird, but may they hear that there's no better place to be. Those people encourage one another in Christ. May it be said of us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.