Encouraging
Notes
Transcript
We live in a negative world. We are consistently bombarded by voices of discouragement. It’s not just about global, political, or economic issues either. Kids at school get made fun of for not being the smartest in the class, not being the most popular, or simply being different. The internet is filled with negativity. Social media is probably the single worst place to go if you are looking for positive messages.
You finish a tough project and feel like it was some of your best work, but the customer disagrees. The neighbors tell you that you’re not raising your kids right and your kids agree. You get new clothes, but your friends just look at you like, “Huh...” Every time you look at Facebook so and so is on vacation AGAIN, some of your other friends get to go on date nights and post pictures of their food, and your best friend is throwing a party but you weren’t invited. Here you are sitting at home alone in the dark eating Cheetos while you read about everyone else’s fun lives on Facebook and think, “my life STINKS!”
It’s easy to get bummed out when we are caught up in the negativity. Today we are continuing the “Stay Positive” series we began a few weeks ago. We’ve already talked about optimism and gratitude. God is also calling you to be an encourager! While the world is hard at work tearing people down, God is calling us to build others up!
Have you ever struggled with how to serve God? You want to serve God, but you just aren’t sure what He wants you to do. You want to be more spiritual, but you don’t even know where to begin. One of the most spiritual things you can do is encouraging and building others up. Why? Because that’s exactly what God does. If you are taking notes…
OUR GOD IS AN ENCOURAGING GOD.
OUR GOD IS AN ENCOURAGING GOD.
Encouraging is not just something God does. It is who He is. Our God is an encouraging God. One of my favorite stories in the OT is Elijah’s. After Elijah confronted the king and the prophets he was probably pretty exhausted spiritually. After sharing on Sundays with a small group of like minded Christians, I usually feel pretty exhausted, so I can only imagine how wiped out Elijah must have been.
After that encounter, Jezebel threatened to kill him so he ran for his life. Even with the miracles that Elijah watched God perform, the constant stream of negativity was getting to him. Ready to give up, he laid down and told God to kill him. Instead, God sent an angel to encourage him. Then God himself encouraged Elijah.
In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes God as an encourager of the discouraged…
5 When we arrived in Macedonia, there was no rest for us. We faced conflict from every direction, with battles on the outside and fear on the inside. 6 But God, who encourages those who are discouraged, encouraged us by the arrival of Titus.
When you are down and feeling overcome by whatever negative thing you face, how good does it feel to know that someone cares! To know that God cares! To know that He cares so much that he actually sends someone to you!
At the risk of sounding cheesy, I know without a doubt that in the most negative moment of my life God sent so many things to me to encourage me. I even married one of them! God sent messages, verses, songs, prayers, and people to me to encourage me when I felt worthless and broken.
When you need encouragement, God might make sure we play the song you need to hear at church or on the radio. Maybe someone will share a verse that you needed to hear or your verse of the day fits to well to be coincidence. You might happen to hear a sermon on the radio, participate in a bible study, or show up here on Sunday and God makes sure you hear something that you didn’t even know you needed to hear.
God will even speak to you through a text message on your phone or while you are sitting in your own thoughts. You may hear a prayer and it resonates with you. When you start to pray, sometimes you don’t even know what to pray for, but God cares so much that through the Holy Spirit He prays for you.
Our God is an encouraging God and He calls us to be encouraging. Today we are going to look at three of the most spiritual things we can do to be encouraging…
ENCOURAGE OTHERS DAILY.
ENCOURAGE OTHERS DAILY.
If you want to follow God’s spiritual calling to encourage others, then you should work to encourage someone every single day. Why is this so important? Everyone hears the voice of discouragement every single day and most of the time the voice is in our own heads.
The other day I was at the lumber yard and while I was looking at stuff, an employee was hovering around me trying to help. While he was standing there his radio started going off. Whoever was on the other end started complaining about several different things, and after each complaint she would say, “That wasn’t a job complete or a job well done!” Her final transmission was a request for help with something. About 10 seconds later she came back on, “Did anyone hear me? Who can help with this?”
Sometimes the voice of discouragement is on a walkie talkie. Sometimes it comes loudly from the other room. Sometimes it’s in your own head. “That really wasn’t very good. You left the dishes out again. You will never be able to do this.” Sometimes you hear the same voice Elijah listened to, “I don’t have much more to give. No one appreciates what I do. Everyone is out to get me. I’m all alone.”
13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Bible teacher F. B. Meyer once said that if he could live his life over again, he’d spend much more time encouraging others. There is a proverb that teaches us that being an encouragement to others does far more than benefit someone else. When you encourage and build up others, you will find realize how much it builds up and encourages you to do so…
25 The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.
The author of Hebrews knew the importance of consistently meeting together with fellow believers in order to encourage each other. He even challenges us to do more than idly pat each other on the back and say, “keep up the good work.” Instead we should come up with new ways to motivate each other…
24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
Encourage each other. In the spirit of “thinking of ways to motivate one another” I found a website called “thelife.com” that exists to share Christ with people online. On that site there is a post by Jeanne Zornes called “The Power of Encouragement.” In that post she lists 8 simple ways to practice encouragement:
Verbal ministries
1. SPEAKING
Proverbs 16:24 says "pleasant words bring healing to the bones." Bring healing to someone by telling them how you appreciate a certain positive quality you see in them. When I was discouraged halfway through holding seven estate sales, a neighbor boosted my spirits by simply saying, “You have things so clean and nicely arranged.” When appropriate, share a verse from Scripture that helped you in a hard time.
2. WRITING
Have you ever considered how the New Testament epistles are “encouragement notes” to the churches? Ours don't have to be lengthy — even a postcard will do. But a note saying “I care” or “I’m praying” will mean much to someone who is lonely, grieving, or discouraged about wayward family members, unemployment, or health issues. Be creative with your family, like writing things like, “I love you” on the banana in their lunches.
Emotional ministries
3. PRESENCE
Psalm 34:18 says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted." But often the Lord sends someone on his behalf. Remember the observation of social scientists who state that only one-fourth of communication is verbal. Even when we don’t know what to say, just being there can be an encouragement.
4. TOUCHING
During his earthly ministry, Jesus constantly touched people, including “untouchables” like lepers and a bleeding woman. Scientists have now documented the positive effects of touch. God has wired us to be that way! Anything from a light touch on the forearm to a tight hug can communicate that you care.
Practical ministries
5. HELPING
Sometimes people feel like laden ocean liners needing a tugboat to nudge them into a safe dock. Helpers use ordinary skills to encourage others. They may sew or mend, do odd jobs or shopping, rock a baby for a harried new mom, drive someone to the doctor, or show up with an old pickup when a friend needs to move.
6. GIVING
Proverbs 21:26 says "the righteous person gives without sparing." Givers recognize situations where money, food, clothing, or the loan of equipment will help lift people out of their discouragement. Some simply give beauty, like a bouquet of flowers from their yard in a vase.
Spiritual ministries
7. HOSPITALITY
This ministry is best defined by its Greek word, philoxenia, which literally means “brotherly love of strangers.” So defined, it changes from “entertaining” to simply loving people by providing a meal or bed in the name of Christ. This ministry can target people whose life situations make them “emotional strangers,” such as those hurting from marriage breakups, financial problems, or physical challenges.
8. PRAYING
“You help us by your prayers,” Paul wrote (2 Corinthians 1:11). No matter our circumstances, we can — and must — pray. God hears the prayers of his people, and wants us to pray for each other. Jot prayer needs in a small notebook, and follow up with a note or phone call.
One of the most spiritual things you can do is to encourage others daily. Second…
ENCOURAGE OTHERS SPIRITUALLY.
ENCOURAGE OTHERS SPIRITUALLY.
Spiritual encouragement is deeper than casual encouragement. “Good job on that project! Your house looks nice! I love your haircut!” These are all great ways to be encouraging, but encouraging others spiritually lifts people up to God.
When I was a youth minister I absolutely did not like praying in public. For me, my prayer time has always been my personal time with God. Praying in front of people was not much different from inviting you to watch me get dressed in the mornings. I was always nervous and self conscious. One day, I think it was at Falls Creek church camp, I was put on the spot and asked to pray with a group of ministers for the service. I immediately panicked. I was sweating, shaking, and my mind was racing.
I finally closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and just focused on God. As I started talking to God all my nerves went away and everything went fine. I couldn’t tell you what I said in that prayer, but afterward one of the guys turned to me and commented on how great that prayer was. That simple act of spiritual encouragement completely changed my outlook on prayer, and especially public prayer. It’s not that I feel like I am great at it, in fact I don’t think I am any better or worse at praying today, but his encouragement made a huge impact in my life.
Paul looked forward to sharing and receiving spiritual encouragement…
10 One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. 11 For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. 12 When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.
Living a spiritual life can be an immense blessing and spiritual encouragement to someone. The way you love your spouse can be spiritually encouraging to another couple. Your passion for Christ could be a blessing for someone who is timid about sharing their faith. Telling someone that you love seeing their passion when they worship could be spiritually encouraging for them the next time they celebrate God’s love in their life. Telling someone how their prayer impacted your heart and meant the world to you could change the way they see prayer. Telling someone that you are blessed by their generosity.
You can even make something normal spiritual when appropriate:
“That was a great game. The goal you made was awesome. God gave you a gift for that!”
“Congrats on the promotion. You are faithful in small ways and God blessed you in a big way!”
When someone is hurting, don’t preach down to them. Encourage them spiritually and lift them up! God didn’t put us in people’s lives to tell them they must not have enough faith. “If you want God to heal you, you need to have MORE FAITH!” God put us in their path to encourage them. To lift them up. “I can’t begin to imagine what you are going through, but I am here if you need me. I am praying and believing with you.”
Encourage others daily. Encourage others spiritually. Sometimes, you need to encourage yourself…
ENCOURAGE YOURSELF IN THE LORD.
ENCOURAGE YOURSELF IN THE LORD.
One of our biggest enemies is often ourselves. Our thoughts and fears can cause us to wallow in our own misery. One day you may even find yourself in a similar situation as David where you don’t have anyone around you that will encourage you. At one point David was very distressed because all of his men were mad at him and started talking about stoning him…
6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
It may be time to preach to yourself. To strengthen and encourage yourself in the Lord. Preach to yourself, “I have faith for this. My God is with me. My God is for me. God has given me everything I need.”
File encouragements to look at again later. Write encouraging notes to yourself. Write down something someone else told you. Save the voice mail. Save the letter. Save the text message. Remember the moment.
If you are comparing responses, don’t be like Elijah who ran away, gave up, and prayed to die. Do what David did and seek God first. Encourage yourself in the Lord.
God is calling you to be an encourager. Encouraging daily. Encouraging spiritually. Even encouraging yourself.