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October 14, 2007
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Relationship
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Pastor Brian Shimer
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"Walking in Encouragement"
1 Thess 5: 1-28; Heb 10 19-25
- I was talking to Willa Hayes yesterday and she wanted you to know that she would be here except that her children ask that she take it easy for another week.
So, instead of picking her up to bring her, Marilyn Brechheisen went to over to Willa's place this morning to attend her worship service there at her community! Willa has felt kind of isolated there - disconnected from her true family, us, so this gesture of Marilyn's will go a long way to encourage Willa today.
Willa also told me the reason for her long life. Now all of you may wonder what the secret is of a healthy 100 years so are you ready? It is drinking great quantities of water. I don't doubt that may have helped, but the picture that gave me of taking in plenty of water reminded me of this - we need water. That is a given. When I was in Israel there were daily articles in the newspaper of folk who died of thirst in the wilderness. Daily people were foolish enough to wander in the Judean wilderness without water and met their demise.
Like a neglected houseplant the human body dries up without water.
But equal to the physical need of water, indeed perhaps greater than that need is our need for encouragement. By that word I am referring to any action or word offered in order to benefit another person.
Here in the passage in 1st Thessalonians Paul wrote: "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing" (5:11).
- How were they to encourage one another? Paul wrote them to do so by speaking the truth-- Jesus died and rose and will return - he died so we may live. It is a life-message. It is a message that tells the hearer not to become downcast because of what they "do not see" of God's presence in the world, but to be confident in the promise of God. "You are not of this world - you are a child of light, you belong to the day, you are destined for salvation". These are the words Paul suggests they use as they build one another up.
In the Hebrews passage such encouragement comes through the means of encouraging the hearer to not neglect worshipping together in the body of Christ, the meeting together in worship. To pull yourself out of the worshipping community weakens you as it weakens the physical body to not drink water. Within the community God has destined for us to experience His plan of grace and mercy in our lives. We are called "into" community not apart from it so it is essential for us to not neglect meeting together as the body.
- Like Marilyn going to be with Willa in worship today, many of you are adept at encouraging others. You phone, drop cards in the mail, visit one another all of which are aspects of this walk in encouragement.
But did you remember that as you do such things you are actually participating in the character of God?
God is not dour-faced with crossed arms, sitting on a throne in heaven ready to cast all of humanity into hell. That is not the picture Jesus gave of God.
If God is like Jesus than God the Father is joy-filled, loving, kind, powerfully gentle, inviting all into His loving embrace and rebuking those who are too religious to follow in order that they may hear. In growing to love the Lord, I have been astounded at the grace and mercy God shows to me. God is the kindest, most loving, most wonderful Person I have ever met.
And you are a participant in loving as God loves as you encourage those around you.
God loves first by living in constant loving relationship as Father, Son and Holy Spirit - each member loving the other members of Trinity with other directed love. But in addition to the love God is, God delights to demonstrate that love into our lives. We find Romans 15 gives testimony to that fact that the writings of Scripture were even given in order to warn and encourage us - God loves us in tangible ways.
It is God who encouraged Abram with the promise that he and his wife Sarai would have children as many as the stars of the sky or sand of the seashore - and counting all those children of Abraham's faith like you and me, God's promise is coming true!
It is God who wanted to encourage his fainting warrior Gideon and so sent him into the enemy camp in order to overhear a conversation that strengthened him for the battle ahead.
It is this God who spoke to Joshua quaking in his boots to follow in Moses' footsteps by telling him in no uncertain terms to be strong and courageous, even very courageous, and then told him how, saying: "the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." (1:8,9).
It is God who came to David through the prophet Nathan giving him a message that encouraged his heart to hear how God would work in and through his life and the lives of his children to follow him in a prophetic Word about the Messiah.
It is this God who God sent Jesus to the earth as an exact expression of His love so that all who believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.
It is this God whom Paul describes as the "God of all comfort" in the book of 2 Corinthians - that word being the same word that elsewhere is translated "encouragement". Indeed this same word is the description given to God theHoly Spirit - the "paraklete" - the "one called alongside to help" is the ultimate picture of God's encouragement of us.
- Our God is the God of encouragement. Jesus took the judgment so now we can encourage, uplift, build up and strengthen others around us. And as we are doing so, we are participants in who God is in their lives. Our actions: to go to worship with Willa at the home where she lives, to take flowers to a shut in, to write a card, to make a phone call, to speak a word to another that they may be able to "take heart" in their lives, all these are actions that transmit the grace of God into a life.
I remember once watching a young mom show great patience as she sought to round up her children and get them to the car after church on a Sunday. I was struck with how much she was keeping her cool even though they were not exactly responding quickly to her directives. I was proud of her for the restraint she was showing, knowing that her children were learning tons about how to keep their cool under pressure, how to speak kindly even when frustrated, how to live in love with one another from her as they sought to obey. As I passed by I just said, "you know, you are a great mom." That's all I said. But she wrote me a note to tell me how those few words on a day when she was not feeling like a good mom so encouraged her in her parenting and she thanked me for them. I knew I had simply spoken God's thoughts to her and God has spoken hope and life into her through my words.
You and I are called to such lives that encourage, that bear witness to a God of all encouragement whose "kindness leads us to repentance" (Romans 2:5).
IV. So, when should we be speaking such encouragements?
The Book of Hebrews' passage reminds us that it is when we don't see folk in worship. Do you notice someone not here, do you wonder where they are? That is a prompt from the Holy Spirit for you to reach out to them. You could simply write them a note found in the pew back and put it into the offering plate. You could write a note on your calendar to give them a call or drop by for a visit.
You encourage when someone looks downcast - reach out - ask: "are you okay today?" and insist on an honest answer.
Hubert Humphrey had sought to run against Richard Nixon for president in the 1968 election but had lost. In the last weeks of his life, he phoned many former friends and acquaintances, and placed on call to this former foe Richard Nixon only to learn the depressed state of the Nixons. Humphrey was disturbed by this and called Nixon again, this time to invite the former president to attend his upcoming funeral! Imagine! Those calls were acts of encouragement which strengthened Nixon to abandon his self-imposed exile and attend the funeral which was attended by folk from around the world. All were welcome there but former President Nixon. As eyes turned away and conversations ran dry around him, Nixon could feel the ostracism being ladled out to him. But it was then that President Jimmy Carter walked into the room. Carter was from the opposing political party, but was well known for his honesty and integrity. As Carter moved to his seat he noticed Richard Nixon standing all alone. Immediately Carter changed course, walked over to Richard Nixon, held out his hand, and smiling genuinely and broadly embraced Nixon and said "Welcome home, Mr President! Welcome home!"
The incident was reported by Newsweek magazine, which wrote: "If there was a turning point in Nixon's long ordeal in the wilderness, it was that moment and that gesture of love and compassion." (Source: Reported in Maxie Dunnam, The Workbook on Living as a Christian, pp.112-113, Abingdon Press, ubp)
Who knows when a word that you speak or I speak will save a life, pull someone back from the brink of depression, turn a sinner to the saving Grace of Jesus. Who knows when a gesture we make may be used to change a life?
One simple way we can encourage someone is by using one of the encouragement notes in the pew back. During November we are going to have a time of encouragement in our time of worship. At that point in worship you will be invited to take a piece of paper provided and write someone a note to touch their lives. But you don't need to wait until then - as I know you don't.
One thing I find helpful to think about is this: "What of your grace and mercy, Father, does this person need to experience in order to be more open to you and more able to receive your love?"
Sometimes the answer to that question prompts how I pray but it also leads in how I reach out.
Friends mimic God in encouraging one another!
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