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August 28, 2005
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Christian Love
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Pastor Brian Shimer
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"ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER"
1 Thess 5: 1-28
- Hubert Humphrey was a former vice-president of the United States. When he died hundreds of people from across the world attended his funeral. All were welcome, but one - former President Richard Nixon, who had not long previously dragged himself and his country through the humiliation and shame of Watergate. As eyes turned away and conversations ran dry around him Nixon could feel the ostracism being ladled out to him.
Then Jimmy Carter, the serving US President, walked into the room. Carter was from a different political party to Nixon and well known for his honesty and integrity. As he moved to his seat President Carter noticed Richard Nixon standing all alone. Carter immediately 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)
Look at the power of encouragement! Friends, we are called to encourage.
Of the 107 times the NT tells us to take some action with one another, 14 verses specifically tell us to become encouragers. But when you look at some of the other actions commanded: to love, to forgive, to build up, to edify, to admonish, to comfort, to teach, to serve, you realize that really the majority of commands deal with an action which if taken will result in encouragement.
So Paul's concluding statement in chapter 5:11, "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing," expresses a basic overall command from the whole of the New Testament. God has called us to become people of encouragement, who build up one another in the faith, who act like our God in relationship to others.
You see our Triune God who lives in constant loving relationship as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, encourages his children. God delights to encourage, indeed, Paul wrote in Romans 15 that God gave us all of the scriptures in order to warn and encourage us.
God told Gideon to go overhear a conversation at the enemy's tent in order to bring him encouragement.
God spoke to Joshua saying: "Be Strong and Courageous" and then told him why, saying, "the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." (1:8,9). Do you think Joshua was discouraged to hear that God would be with him wherever he went? No!
God told Ezekiel to stand on his feet, but the prophet was too overcome to do so, so God sent forth His Spirit into Ezekiel and he stood him on his feet instead.
God sent Jesus to the earth as an expression of His love for the purpose of finding life, but doesn't this incredible gift also provide the means to encourage us? If God would go to such lengths, doesn't this prove His love?
Indeed it is like Jesus walking in the fire with the three Hebrews in King Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. The action guarded them through the flames, witnessed to the power of the Living God, and has continued to encourage hearers of the story through all the ages that God is able to save to the uttermost.
- All three persons of the Trinity delight in speaking words and in taking actions to encourage his people to stand in the faith.
Our God is the God of all comfort, which is an English translation of the same word translated "encouragement" in today's passages (2 Corinthians 1:3); the Holy Spirit is called the Counselor or the Comforter by Jesus in John 14:16-17, which again is the same word as is used here for Encouragement. Our God is the great encourager and you and I are invited to similarly use words and actions to strengthen, inspire with courage, give hope, hearten, spur on, or give help to those around us.
The New Testament word for encouragement means one "called alongside to help," so that is what we do when we encourage by word or deed, we come alongside a brother or sister to help strengthen their lives. The idea of being called alongside to help someone presumes - that God has called us into this position and that the one receiving the help is under some pressure, perhaps fearful, weak or overwhelmed, so needs the aid given. The word was used by ancient Greek authors to describe a military reinforcement during battles.
Biblical encouragement presumes that Christians live under intense pressure-not just the normal pressures of everyday life in a broken world, but also the pressures of serving Christ in a spiritually hostile environment-and they therefore need to be spiritually strengthened on a regular basis. (Insight of Greek usage here from www.xenos.org/teachings/nt/1thes/gary/1thes5-1.htm)
And that is the role of encouragement: a spiritually transforming work in people's lives. It is the means by which we are personally strengthened to follow God's will for our lives. In Acts 11 Barnabas is encouraged to see the people loving the Lord with their whole hearts and continues to teach them as a result; in Romans 1 Paul says he and the Roman Christians can mutually encourage one another in the faith once he arrives there; in 1 Corinthians 14 the gift of prophecy is defined as a gift by which the speaker encourages, strengthens and comforts the hearer; in 1 Thessalonians Paul says he and his companions had encouraged the Thessalonians so that they would walk worthy of the God who had called them into his kingdom and then invites the Thessalonians to similarly encourage one another with words about the hope of Christ's return and their future together.
- God uses our mouths to encourage those around us. We find Paul telling us in Ephesians 4:29:
"…speak what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen." (NIV)
And we are warned by Proverbs that: "Reckless words pierce like a sword,… (12:18) that "the tongue has the power of life and death" (18:21), so may be have the tongues of the wise that bring healing. (Proverbs 12:18, NIV)
We are called to encourage, learning to speak those "life words" with our tongues, building up those around us, speaking in order to strengthen others.
Since I am one who tends to remember the "discouraging" things longer than the encouraging things, I keep notes of encouragement that I have received and I re-read them. See my box of cards and notes that I have received over the years and it is just a good remembrance that "something sometime went right."
In my file in the office on "Encouragement" you would find many, many other examples of encouraging words, but one of the most precious is a copy of a letter sent by one of my seminary professors in 1996 to my dear friends who pastor south of Eugene. They photocopied this letter and shared it with me. It is a letter of counsel and comfort sent to them during a very tough season of ministry. With heart-wrenching honesty Steve encourages them to not seek to find fulfillment in the work of ministry, but to frequently turn aside from ministry's demands to the Lord.
He wrote, "That is where you will find your joy anyway. Your experience of discouragement at least has saved you from the illusion that the ministry is where you should find joy…. Actually, what I am telling you to do is the hard thing, not the easy thing. It will force you to deal with all the garbage in your life, all your fears and insecurities, all your idolatries."
With such honest words from his heart in answer to their cry, they were so encouraged. Someone had heard them, come alongside them to help, and strengthened them to carry on.
To spur someone on with words of encouragement does not mean to only say pleasant, nice things, but it does mean to hear them and to respond to them where they are in life.
Who has greatly encouraged you in your life?
How did they encourage you? What did they do or say?
Call that person to mind and then take a moment and share your experience of encouragement with someone near you.
Would anyone like to share such an experience of encouragement with the whole body?
There is such power in encouragement. You see the little blue slips in the backs of the pew are actually powerful vehicles of the Holy Spirit to empower the lives of others. They are tools of God through the Body of Christ to change lives around you.
Friends I called Helen Schuman this week and asked her how many she sends out week after week and do you know what she said? From this group of about 65 to 70 people, she often sends out just one or two notes in a week, and sometimes none at all. Now I know this is not the only barometer of our encouragement of one another, but I wonder how encouraging are we? Have you told someone how you appreciate them lately? What if that person were to die this very day, would you wish you had said something that would be left unsaid?
Today is the time to act. Write a note. Make the call. Reach out. Let us be encouragers.
So, as Husbands and wives - are you practicing encouragement in your marriage? If we were to record how you speak to one another when in your home, when in the company of perhaps close friends, would be hear uplifting, encouraging words coming from your lips? Or would we be shocked to hear caustic, demeaning comments revealing a heart filled with old resentments?
As Children and parents, grandchildren, grandparents, how are you encouraging? I have heard of tape recorders being placed on parents for a day to see how many of their comments built up rather than tore down their children. What would happen if that tape was played back to you?
As singles with friends in many parts of your life, are you using your words to strengthen and build up their lives?
As members of the Body of Christ, are you walking in encouragement?
I once heard the statement that when we arrive at the pearly gates we will be asked just two questions: 1. What did you do with what you were given? 2. Who did you do it for?
Friends, we are called to encouragement.
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