iLife Part 4: iEncourage
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"i-Life: ENCOURAGE"
STAINED Youth Ministries
November 25, 2007
Review: God has called us to a very different standard of living when it comes to our RELATIONSHIPS with other people,
God says, I want you to do unto others as I have done unto you, I want you to begin taking your relational cues from me, your Heavenly Father, and as I have treated you that is how I want you to treat other people,
The health of our relationship vertically is measured by the DEPTH and maturity of our relationships horizontally
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A familiar life-rule: Mind your OWN BUSINESS A learned "Christian" response: I'll just PRAY I life rule #4: Get INVOLVED (encourage)
12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God, 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, Hebrews 3: 12-14
Your spiritual business is somebody else's spiritual business, I haven't called you to mind your own business, I've called you to mind one another's business because I don't want anybody to get into this trap of slowly DRIFTING AWAY from God.
Everyone has the potential to DRIFT. And the responsibility to keep one another from drifting is a GROUP thing, The sequence of drifting away from God: Behavior leads to UNBELIEF
Your behavior impacts your belief system When you drift away from your Heavenly Father you think your experience is unique
Behind the trap is the deceitfulness of SIN
It's not a decision, it is a path, and everybody has the potential to walk down that path.
The purpose of encouragement/warning is that none of you may be HARDENED by sin's deceitfulness. Encourage means to appeal, to BEG, to urge, to exhort,
To do this is always AW'rWVARD, But, it's part of your role in the Body of Christ. You're not called to be a lone ranger Christian, We're connected so that leads me to ask you two questions,
What Christian do you know that has started down that path?
You don't know what God is doing on the inside of them, You don't know that they haven't prayed God if this isn't your will, show me. You don't know that they haven't prayed God if this isn't your will send somebody, You don't know how many other people are praying God send somebody to talk to them. You don't know what's going on, on the inside, and you might be the person that causes them to get to get it together.
Who in your circle feels free and empowered to come rushing in when they see you beginning to drift?
Summary: Keep your eyes open for others, keep your life open to others, and keep your heart soft toward God.
Proverbs 27 say..st.his: "Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enem'L. " The truth from a friend, though it may hurt, that's what I want. That's what you want to keep you going God's way. Another passage in Proverbs 27 says this: "As iron sharpens iron, so one friend sharpens another." Let me just end by saying this. If you don't have anybody sharpening your life, your spiritual life will grow dull. If you haven't invited somebody into your life to sharpen you, your spiritual life will grow dull.
As we go to close in prayer, let me just hit everybody with something. f;v1aybeyou're here today, and, ygu're on the verge of drifting. you're on the verge. You know that, if it weren't for this camp, you wouldn't be doing what you're doing this week. You know that, before you came here to camp, you were
on the verge of spiritually drifting. Q: want to ask 'you, would you be courageous enough to tell somebody
in your group and say, "I'm on the verge of drift!ng. Wou,ld you throw. me a lifeline? Would you be involved in my life? Would you encourage me?'] 5'pln j,.."v/, (ot:>-.::. t-.
Or maybe you're here today, and as I've been talking, somebody's name has come to your mind and to y'our heart. And you've thought to yourself, "Somebody ought to talk to him. Somebody ought to talk.to Der." Guess who that somebody might be? You. Because that's how the Holy Spirit works. That name just didn't come out of nowhere. God's Spirit is saying to you, "It's you." I'm going to pray that you have the courage to do that. You don't have to do it with guns blaring, "I was given pastoral permission!" You don't need to do that. You do it with love and grace and tenderness.
Or maybe you're here today, and this whole idea about bein art of he bod doesn't really make sense tQ..yQj,I. You have re a Ions IpS with other people, but you don't have a relationship with God. So you're His creation, but you're not His child yet. I want to encourage you to be thinking about that today.
Maybe tonight when we get together and we talk more about what that means, you might open your life up to God and be a part of His body.
Here's the summary thought. Keep your eyes open for others. That's being alert. Keep your life open !Q
..others. That's inviting people in. And keep your heart soft towards God so it doesn't become hard and drift aw9.¥'.
Prayer:
God, for those in here who are on the verge of drifting, I pray that You would give them the courage to ask someone in Your body to help them. And for those who are thinking of a name and a story of somebody to talk to, would You give them the courage to not mind their own business and to gently care for them? And for those who are unconnected to You, God, I pray that they would discover how much You love them, how much You want a relationship with them, how much You want them connected and part of Your body. I pray that we wouldn't just be Christians who come and sit and listen and live in isolation, but we would be the type of people who get involved in others' lives. So that next year if we were to come together, when we talk about people spiritually drifting, not as many hands would go up in the air. Because we understood what it means to be involved and be responsible for other people's lives. Thank You, God, that You want to use us, as broken as we are,
ple. We're blown away by that, and we open ourselves up to being used. We pray
in the name of Jesus. Amen.