Encourage One Another, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. How many of us have strained relationships, dysfunctional families, dead-end jobs, financial hardships, spiritual dryness, emotional struggles? Because life isn't fair. Some of the unfairness of your life is your fault. You reap what you sow.

You don't even have to sow it in this world to reap it, because life isn't fair. Pain and struggle was part of living, and what God understands about that is we need to be encouraged. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Collectively, as a congregation, we just participated in the Lord's Table. Each time we do, it's a time for us to reflect. It's a time when we look back to the cross and what Jesus Christ did there for us, and it's a time when we look ahead to the second coming. It's a time when we look up to God and a time when we look into our own hearts. And it's a time when we look around at our brothers and sisters in Christ. Periodically, I believe what we need to experience the encouragement that we receive when we partake of the Lord's Table. After all, the cross is where our sins were forgiven. And the second coming of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Will rectify and straighten out everything in this very disturbing world. An opportunity to look up to a God who loves you, an opportunity to look into your own heart and to measure its sincerity. And it's a chance to look around at your brothers and sisters in Christ. Who are to love us. Just as we love them.

You know, it was precisely that last point. That the Church of Corinth was so disturbing. And they didn't love one another. In fact, they even disdained. One another.

They didn't encourage each other at all. And in fact, the truth of the matter is that every single time that we assemble as a church, every time, we should be encouraging one another. It is instrumental and part and parcel of what it means to worship as a congregation. Open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10. The book of Hebrews chapter 10.

The context of chapter 10 is the same as the context for the entire book of Hebrews. These are a group of believers. Just like us, except they're Jewish. And when they came to Jesus Christ as their Messiah, they found that even though their heart, I'm sure, was filled with gratitude and love for the Savior and their Messiah.

They found out that the people in their families and in their neighborhoods and where they worked did not like it at all. In fact, they began to be persecuted by the Jewish community as well as the Greek and the Roman communities. And so the whole book is about the idea that apparently many of them said maybe we ought to just sort of ease back into Judaism. I mean, after all, then people would accept this, we can still believe in Jesus and the whole book is a warning never to do that. And so when we get to chapter 10 and verse 19, the writer of Hebrews writes this. He says, Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is his flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, he's making these three conditions for them, and it was probably hard for them. He says that they should have confidence to go into the holy of holies. Now, that means metaphorically in their prayer, go boldly, he says earlier in the book, into the holy of holies.

They didn't have that confidence. From their point of view, only the priest could be in the holy place and only the high priest on Yom Kippur could be in the holy of holies. But the writer says, No, you and I can go right into the very presence of God. And the reason we can, as he says in verse 20, is because he inaugurated for us a new and living way because of the work of Jesus Christ. Remember, the veil in the temple was rent.

It was torn in half so that access to God was open. And also in verse 21, because he is our great high priest, he intercedes for us. And because of all that, since all those things are true, he gives us, in a sense, three commands and gives them three commands. The first one in verse 22, Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having a heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and from our bodies washed with pure water. Let us draw near to God because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. We can draw near.

It's finished. And then he says in verse 23, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, he says, for he who promised is faithful. Let us draw near to God and let let us hold fast to our faith. Let's not waver as they were doing.

And then he says this. And let us consider how to stimulate one another. To love and good deeds.

Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Not forsaking our own assembling together is the habit of some. Apparently, some of these Jewish believers said maybe it's better not to worship together.

That way, people wouldn't know who we are. But because we worship together, they see us together and they know who we are. And we're getting ostracized and persecuted because of that. The writer of Hebrews says, don't do that. He says, not forsaking our own assembly together as the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

And all the more as you see the day drawing near. He's describing them in the presence of God coming into the holy place. In a sense, he's describing worship. It's astounding when you read it, because when he is describing worship, one of the key elements of worship.

Notice there's not a mention in there of music. He's not talking about, well, that's what worship is. He says one of the key elements of worship here is encouraging one another.

You see, whenever you come together and there's good reason for that. The main reason, in a sense, in a generic way is this, in their world and our world, the same thing is true. Life isn't fair. It's never been fair and it never will be fair until Christ comes back. Life is not fair. And because life wasn't fair to them, they were being persecuted. They found themselves ostracized.

They realized how difficult life was for them. And the same thing is true with us. It's not fair for us either. We're not persecuted to the same degree.

But think about it. How many of us have strained relationships? Dysfunctional families?

Dead end jobs? Financial hardships? Spiritual dryness?

Emotional struggles? Because life isn't fair. Some of the unfairness of your life is your fault. You reap what you sow. You don't even have to sow it in this world to reap it.

Because life isn't fair. Pain and struggle was part of living. And what God understands about that is we need to be encouraged.

And we need to encourage one another. You see, otherwise we try to cope differently. When life is unfair for some of us, we cope by just staying in bed.

I'll just stay in bed and pull the covers up over my head and it'll all hopefully go by. For others of us, we take pills and medication. And we say, maybe I could just numb myself enough so that I don't have to deal with these unwanted feelings that I have. When life is unfair, some of us run into very unwise relationships. Others of us run to drugs or alcohol because life isn't fair. All that does is leave us angry and fearful and cynical and detached and anxious, distracted. There's all kinds of ways we try to cope because life isn't fair.

But escapism and indulgence are not the answer. One of the most important things about dealing with life when it's not fair is encouragement. You need to receive encouragement and you need to be an encourager. I want to give you a definition of encouragement, simply using the scriptures. If you look at the word encourage in the Old Testament, it's chazak is the Hebrew word. And chazak means to strengthen. In fact, I remember reading a passage just last week where David was talking to one of his generals and he was telling them to stay the course and be ready for the fight. And the scripture translates it, and David encouraged him. In other words, he said, look, you're strong enough.

You can do this. The idea of strengthening. When you get to the New Testament, it's a different word. It's the word parakletos. And parakletos is a word you're probably familiar with because when the Holy Spirit is being described by Jesus, he calls him the paraklet.

In other words, parakletos means one who comes alongside you to comfort you. And so when you get the Old Testament and the New Testament idea of encouragement, you get this idea of strengthening and comforting someone. That's what encouragement is. Chuck Swindoll says this is his definition. He said, the act of inspiring others to have renewed courage, spirit, or hope.

That's encouragement. I want to look at a picture of encouragement for our lives as well as theirs. I want to look at Hebrews chapter 12 now. Hebrews 12, just a page or two away. Hebrews 12 verse 1.

In between the passage that we looked at in Hebrews 12, that's right, it's Hebrews 11. And Hebrews 11 is the hall of fame of faith. These are all of these people that were considered the most faithful, sort of spiritual giants. And the irony of it is when you read this hall of fame of faith, you come away with a conclusion that's a little bit mixed. Some of these people, because they were so faithful, reaped tremendous blessings from God because they were so faithful. But others of these people were just as faithful and they didn't really reap anything except persecution.

In fact, he goes all the way to the head to live in caves. He said some of them were even sawn in half. He might have been referred to Isaiah, who is by tradition sawn in half with a wooden saw for his faithfulness to God. In other words, he uses the hall of fame of faith and now he wants to speak to them and to us. And in chapter 12, verse 1, he says this. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance in the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Wow, this is really an interesting picture. First of all, do you know what it really takes to live in a world that's so unfair? Endurance. That's what it takes more than anything. In fact, he says the hallmark of faith is that it endures. That's what faith really does. It is able to endure.

And the picture he uses is kind of interesting. He has the picture, I would view it as sort of a coliseum, sort of like the Olympic games. And we're on this sort of long marathon except going through the city.

We're not going through the city. We're just running around lap after lap in the stadium. And that's what he said is your life. And he said, now, the key to you running this race right in your own life is this. One thing you have to do is you have to give up anything that, you see, encumbrance upon yourself. You have to deal with that. And you have to deal with the sin that so easily entangles your legs. He said, so you have some responsibility.

Encumbrances could be living with wrong priorities. Sin speaks for itself. But he says something else. We have this big group of witnesses around us.

These are all the people who were believers who lived their life before we did. And the picture that he's using is, in a sense, they're in the stadium to encourage us. And what he means by that is it's not how fast I run, but what we know because of encumbrances and sin that entangles us, we fall from time to time. And so whenever we fall, we need somebody, and there they are sitting in the stands, saying, get up, get up, you can do this, get up. And the reason they can tell us that is they've already run the race. They got up. The other thing is we're all running together.

And so it's sort of the one anothers of the New Testament. So whenever I fall, what I need is I need you to come by and say, come on, Bill, get up, get up, you can do this. You see, you can do this. You want me to run with you for a while?

You want me to help you for a while? I'll do what I can, but you can do this, and I need to do that to you. All of that is simply called encouragement. You see, we need to be encouragers, and we need to receive encouragement.

The reason is life isn't fair, and we really need this in order to cope. He continues with the picture in verse 2 and says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and he sat down at the right hand, he said, of the throne of God, for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. See, what did it take on Jesus' part to do for us what we could never do for ourselves? It took endurance. He had to endure it. He had to endure the shame. He had to endure the mocking, the beatings. He had to endure the cross. He had to endure the wrath of God, and it says, and he endured all of it for the joy that was set before him.

The irony of all that is you're the joy. He was willing to endure all that for the joy set before him, a people of his own. He says, all I want you to do is when you're running, fix your eyes, not on each other, but on Christ. You see, he's the author and the perfecter of our faith. We utilize his power to run this race. So what a picture that he gives.

What's the scope of this idea of encouragement? Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 12. Now, the irony of 1 Corinthians 12 is that it occurs again after 1 Corinthians 11, but 1 Corinthians 11 is about how they had distorted and destroyed the Lord's Table. God was so unhappy with the way that they participated in the Lord's Table, Paul says, many of you are sick and many of you are now asleep, which means they're dead. They had mocked the Lord's Table. And the way in which they mocked the Lord's Table was it was sort of like the haves and the have-nots. They would have an agape feast at the end of the day, usually on the Lord's Day, and what they would do is they would get together and have the feast, but the slaves were believers in Corinth.

They couldn't get there till later. And so those who were the haves, they had the whole feast and they ate all the food and drank all the wine before the slaves got there, and God was not happy with them at all. You see, they saw people as different, were aristocratic, were affluent.

They are nothing but slaves. And that was really at the heart of their problem. And so he writes in 1 Corinthians 12 that what they really need to do is they really need to understand what the church is about. And in verse 12 he says, For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, and so it is, and so is Christ. He says there's only one body, the body of believers, Christ himself, and we're all members of that body. He said, For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether we were Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, we were all made to drink of one spirit, for the body is not one member, but many. We're all in this together, he said. And in the Lord's eyes we all have exactly equal footing.

And he goes on and sort of uses analogies that are kind of funny. He said, If the foot says, Because I am not a hand, I am not part of the body. He said, It is not for this reason any less part of the body. He said, And if the ear says, Because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body.

It's not for this reason any less part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, that's an interesting thought. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?

He said, If the whole body were hearing, then where would the sense of smell be? He says, But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he desired. If they were all one member, he says, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, he said, It is much truer that the members of the body, which seem to be weaker, are necessary. And those members, he said, of the body which we deem less honorable, he said, On these we bestow more abundant honor. And he said, And our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to the member which is lacked. Now, stop there for just a moment.

It's an interesting analogy. How many of you, before you came to church today, really wanted to make sure that, for instance, your large intestine looked really good for church service today and that your liver and your pancreas and you were really concerned about how they... Nah, where were you spending your time? In that mirror, weren't you? There is nothing more important in this face.

This is it. My hair and my... That's what Paul's talking about. By the way, I'd much rather hear bad news about my face than bad news about my heart or my liver or my pancreas. You see, what we deem as almost not important, he says, are the most important parts. And the analogy he's making is really simple. We have this tendency to think that the people who are the face of Christianity, the mouth of Christianity, these are the most important people of Christianity.

He said, No, they're not. It's all the other people. It's all the people who serve. It's all the people who pray.

It's all those people. You see, it's the part that, nope, doesn't get any of the recognition that's the most important. And then he says this. He said in verse 25, So there may be no division in the body, but that, he says, the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.

And if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. You see, we all are together. That's why we need to mutually encourage one another. We need encouragement. You know, if you're an appendix, you need encouragement.

You need people to encourage you. You have an important role. Medical science hasn't figured that out. That's exactly what the appendix is there for. But you have an important role. It's the same thing.

There's no bias in the body. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .