Encourage One Another, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

After it, we'll see where it goes and then we'll rejoice. He doesn't say that, though. He said, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Is that possible? 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. 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 of many. We're all in this together, he said, and in front of 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'm not an eye, I'm 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 a neat thing 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. Now, 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 is almost not important. He says are the most important parts in the analogies 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 doesn't get any of the recognition that's the most important. And then he says this.

He said in verse twenty five. 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 see, the encouragement should go everywhere.

And that's not always the case. Turn with me to James Chapter two for a moment. The book of James Chapter two. And James doesn't mince words at all.

He would be a terrible politician. OK, James is just going to tell you how he sees it. And if you don't like it, that's tough for you. That's just the way he writes. And that's the kind of man he was. And in verse one, he says, My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. Now, why would you think you'd say that?

Because people do that. People in the church do that. And James says, don't do that. He said, for if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, you pay special attention to the one who was wearing the fine clothes. And you say you sit here in a good place and you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down by my footstool. He says, have you not made a distinction among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man.

He said, is not the rich man the one who oppresses you and personally drags you into court? They play favorites. We'd never do that, would we? Christians today would never look towards celebrities. We would never see a celebrity come into church. And then we all stand in line to make sure you shake his hand. You know, and then you tell everybody that you go to a church where celebrity goes.

It's interesting, especially in the fact that there's only one celebrity in the whole universe. And it wasn't the person we're talking about. You see, that can be a problem, even when it comes to encouraging. The responsibility we have to encourage one another is everybody that we can touch. Now, obviously, you can't encourage a complete stranger, but you need to encourage people and go out of your way to do so. That's the whole idea. We all need to be encouraged.

Otherwise, we're only encouraging the mouth or the face. And it's kind of interesting because I'll say it felt great, but and the first service before the service and then after the service, I was encouraged. People encouraged me and that's wonderful.

And I liked it. But I often wonder how many other people were encouraged. How many other people did they encourage? You see, it's an important thing. There is no partiality here with the Lord. Tony Evans, the pastor in Dallas, says that many churches function more like a fraternity or sorority or a country club than they do the body of Christ.

I'm afraid he's exactly right. William Barclay says that we have a tremendous Christian duty of encouragement. It is easier to pour cold water, he said, on the enthusiasm of others. It's easy to discourage other others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. He says many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a person moving along and on their feet.

He's exactly right. The definition of encouragement is to strengthen our comfort. The picture of it is we run this race and all the believers who have lived before us encourage us to keep going. Jesus Christ is our model. And the scope of it is we all need it. We all need to do it.

What's the motive of encouragement? Turn with me to First John Chapter four. First John Chapter four.

It's pretty simple and won't be surprising. Verse seven of First John four. Beloved, let us love one another. There are so many great one anothers in the New Testament.

All of them fall under this category of love. Let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this, the love of God was manifested in us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him. For God so loved the world that he gave his son. The son so loved the world that he lived a perfect life and died a substitutionary death on the cross. He said in this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Now, verse 19. We love because he first loved us. If someone says I love God and hates his brother or sister in Christ. He is a liar. Well, worth reading again, if someone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar for the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

He said in this commandment we have from him that the one who loves God should love his brother also. It is really clear. You know, it is easy to do that too. I understand why it is so much easier. It is easy to love Christ. Once you know who Christ is and what he has done, it is easy to love him. He has never let you down. He has never sinned against you. You see, he is perfect in every way. Who would love Christ?

Look around the room. This is not exactly perfection. You see, when you look around, we are not. In fact, when you think about it, it would be much more, in a sense, honorable to love someone so imperfect as to love someone who is so perfect.

But he says, look, if you say you love Christ and you do not love your brother, then you are a liar. That is an important part. That is the motive of all this encouragement. Our love for Christ, which spills over on our love for each other, which spills over to become encouraging one another when we have opportunity. One last aspect of it is implementing encouragement.

How do we do that? Well, one of the things that is easy to do when you are encouraging people is just affirm them. Just affirm somebody. I found this list from one of the books I read this week on encouragement and it said these are the kind of things that this man said he looks for when he is going to encourage someone.

Punctuality, tactfulness, faithfulness, good attitude, loyalty, tolerance, thoroughness, diligence, honesty, compassion, good sense of humor, vision or faith. Just find something he said, you know, this is someone and affirm it. It will encourage them.

What are the methods that we use? This is really interesting. Depending on what you when you read a book, if you would read 50 to 100 years ago, it basically would always say, if you want to encourage someone, you need to have a conversation with them or you need to send them a letter. Handwrite your letter, encourage them or have a conversation.

Then about, you know, not that many years ago, it said you need to do those things, but you can also give them a call. You see, if you give them a call and now we live in the perfect time of encouragement. You see, we live where you can text and you do text and you text every day. But what a great thing to think every day, I'm going to pick out a couple of people and I'm going to encourage them with texting. And the text is almost better than anything because it stays right there.

It stays right there. You can text them, encourage them today. They look at it tomorrow.

They're still encouraged. And the advantage of texting is you can encourage them for a specific thing and then you don't have to have a phone call where you ramble one. Then you have the uncomfortable pause and then you don't know what to say. And that means the next time I'm not calling back because I didn't know what to say and I felt foolish getting off the phone.

This way you can text and just say, praying for you. You see, so proud of the way you handled that situation, so encouraged about your attitude, whatever it is, just encourage one another. And it's so important because we need encouragement. Life isn't fair. Life's a struggle for all of us. God knows we need to be encouraged to strengthen us or comfort us. The picture of it is this race that we run, the scope is all of us. We need to do it and we need to receive it. The motive is our love.

And we can implement it any way you'd like. But how about trying texting for a change? No wonder Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, encourage one another, especially the faint hearted. Those who are struggling. We need to be encouraged when we're struggling. I want to close this by encouraging you. And I'm going to use the word of God to do so. And it's a verse that God put right in the middle of the Bible to encourage us every single time. Turn with me to Psalm 118. Psalm 118. Verse 24. You know the verse.

But I'm not sure you utilize it the way you should. Verse 24, Psalm 118. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Wow. This is a day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

What an encouraging verse. But I want to look at it for just a moment, a little more intense so you get a sense of this. A couple of words that stand out to me. The first one is this. This. This. Is the day. This.

That's right. Today. Today. This is the day.

This. Now, usually when you think of encouragement and get all rejoicing and all that, this is not the day you're thinking of, is it? You're thinking of how about Christmas Day? I can be excited about that. How about my wedding day? How about vacation days?

How about if we ever get to a Super Bowl again? This is the day. You see, this is the day.

That's the kind of day you're, no, God says, no, no, don't misunderstand this at all. This is the day. Today is the day. Really? Yep, today is the day.

You see what this includes? This includes divorce days. This includes exam days. This includes diagnosis day. This includes surgery day. This includes tax days. This includes funeral days. This includes all the days. This is the day.

Now, he sort of makes it clear. He said this is the day the Lord has made. This is the day the Lord has made for you. This is the day he has made for you. The Lord has made this day.

Wow. He's not surprised by this day. He's not afraid of this day. He's not ashamed of this day. This is the day he's made for you. He still holds the conductor's baton. He's still in the cockpit flying the plane.

He sits on the only throne in the universe. And he made this day. Maybe we ought to give him a chance. You see, I think what happens to us is we sabotage this day. We sabotage. We drag into this day the regrets of yesterday. And then that ruins this day.

Or the worries and anxieties about tomorrow. And that ruins this day. God says, don't do that.

Don't do that at all. This is a day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. There's another word that we don't like. A little word, in.

We don't like that word. Here's what we want to say. This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad after it.

We'll see where it goes, and then we'll rejoice. He doesn't say that, though. He said, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Is that possible? Paul rejoiced in a Roman prison. David rejoiced being hunted by Saul in the wilderness. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego rejoiced, about to be thrown into a furnace. Paul and Silas were singing and rejoicing in a Philippian jail. Wow.

The apostle John was put in exile in Patmos. On one of his this days, he got the vision of heaven in the future. It's possible that we could rejoice today, this day. Now, I know what you're saying.

I'm neck deep in my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. God invites you. This is what this is, an invitation.

Here's the fact. This is a day that the Lord has made. Here's the invitation. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This day.

Wow. You see, tomorrow he's going to invite you again. Why would he do that? You know why? Because a joyful, hopeful, peaceful life is built one day at a time. It doesn't come all of a sudden.

It's not the way it works. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is hypothetical. All we have is this day. You know, in this very day, every day when you wake up, it's day one of the rest of your life. On this day, when you think about what we've talked about, what Pastor Brad talked about at the Lord's table, our need for a Savior, his love for us, his sacrifice on our behalf, his grace, his mercy, his patience with you, his forgiveness, his loyalty to you.

When you start thinking about all of that this day, no matter what else is going on in your life, all of the promises that he's made to you, how could you not rejoice? You see, he gives us this verse to encourage us, to help us rejoice this day. Just think how much better it would be if we spent some time encouraging one another. There's great encouragement from the Word of God, but God says, look, I want to give you more. When you meet a believer, when your lives touch, receive their encouragement, but more than anything, seek to encourage them. Encouragement, we all need it, and we all need to do it. Let's pray. Father, my prayer is simply this. I pray that each person here ask themselves, have I encouraged anybody today?

They don't have to have regrets about yesterday or the day before or last week, but they have an opportunity today to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ. Father, I know how much we need it because whenever we get it, it makes us feel so good. We know that life is difficult.

We know that there's pain and suffering. We know that there's a struggle, and Father, that's why we know that we need to be encouraged. Thank you for the tremendous model of Jesus Christ who endured so much so that he could be the greatest encouragement we could ever have, the sure hope of heaven and our sins forgiven. Father, I pray that as a body of believers that each and every time we have an opportunity, every time our life rubs somebody else's, we use it as an opportunity to encourage them. What a difference it'd make.

What a difference in the way we would approach the days of our lives. I pray, Father, that of all the different things a church can be, an outreach church, a worship church, I pray, Father, that we become an encouraging church for our good and for your glory. In Christ's name, amen. In Christ's name, amen. In Christ's name, amen. If 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.