How to Be an Encourager | Be a Barnabas

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Learn more and sign up at harvest.org. There's nothing as refreshing as an encouraging word or deed. It's like a fresh drink of water on a hot summer day. The gospel can be an uncomfortable message. It's a message of sin and its consequences, but of course the remedy found in the Lord's sacrifice. But that discussion can be so effective in an atmosphere of encouragement.

It's what their heart needs wrapped in what their heart wants. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out how to be an encourager in the tradition of Barnabas. As we study the book of Acts today, we'll see how we can follow in his reassuring footsteps. So I heard about a group of frogs that were walking through the forest. Why you're laughing already. Everything told the story. Anyway, a group of frogs are walking through the forest and two of the frogs fall into this pit. The other frogs look over this side and they yell to the frogs at the bottom of the pit, you're as good as dead. You're never going to get out of there. Well the frogs didn't want to stay in the pit. They started to jump and jump and jump and the frogs up on the top said, you're not going to make it. You're not going to get up here. You're never going to get out of that pit.

You're going to die. And one of the frogs got so discouraged he just laid down and died. But the other frog would not give up. He kept jumping, jumping, jumping, jumping. Finally he jumps out of the pit. The other frogs say, didn't you hear us? We told you you couldn't get out of the pit.

He said, sorry I'm hard of hearing and I thought you were cheering for me. This is a true story. And then I stepped on the frog and killed him. No I did not. So that's sad isn't it? It's all fake. Okay. I bring this up because we live in a time now where there's just so much discouragement. So many people discouraging you and me each and every day. If you don't believe me just go on social media and specifically on Twitter. All the trolls out there with their just their anger and hostility and attacks. You'll never make it. You'll never succeed.

You'll never be the person you want to be. They bully you online and on and on it goes. And this is why so many people are affected in an adverse way. I think it's affecting the mental health of our nation. Especially young people. Depression rates among 14 to 17 year olds has grown 60 percent from 2009 to 2017.

That's really a lot. Suicide rates among young people have doubled in a decade. And 43 percent of millennials and gen z's are very concerned about their mental health. But it's not just young people that are facing this depression. It's affecting older people too. People who are getting on in years feel left out. Forgotten.

Unappreciated. They're seeking hope. Wanting their lives to matter because they're dealing with struggles. Maybe their health is failing.

Maybe they've lost a mate or they're struggling with some kind of an illness. Suicide is up among older folks as well. Men who are 65 or older are the highest risk of suicide today.

Adults 85 and older are the second most likely age group to die from suicide. So what do all these people need? Young people. Middle aged people. Older people. They all need a word of encouragement.

They need to know that their lives matter. I can still remember discouraging things that were said to me as a kid when I was in high school. I didn't get very good grades I have to tell you. And so one teacher wrote this little commentary on my report card right next to D, C, D, F, etc. Greg Laurie spends too much time sitting in the classroom staring at the window daydreaming and drawing cartoons and then she offered this encouraging word he will never amount to anything.

Thank you for those encouraging words. When I was in elementary school I became a little bit of a troublemaker. I was sent to military school for a few years and boy I tell you what they they got me in shape. I mean I was a good boy because you'd get into big trouble including being swatted with a giant wooden paddle if you got out of line. I was on the honor roll. I was a good cadet marching around in my little uniform. But then when I got out of military school and went into the public school system of California and realized how much I could get away with I went I went from honor roll student cadet to juvenile delinquent. And it was so bad that one teacher in a classroom next to mine hearing of the constant harassment I dealt toward my teacher said to her class I'd like to take Greg Laurie and bury him up to his neck in the sand in the blazing sun and watch the ants eat him alive.

The kids told me this after the class and I actually thought that was kind of cool. I don't know what was really she said that about me but you know encouragement really matters. So I want to talk about a guy in the book of Acts that was known for encouraging others. Actually his given name was Joseph but he was given a nickname and his nickname was Barnabas. Which means the son of encouragement. Or another way to translate it he was known basically as Mr. Encouragement. Mr. Encouragement.

I love that. And he steps in at a critical time in the life of the Apostle Paul. Before he was the Apostle Paul. When he was still Saul. The notorious Christian killer. The man who hunted down followers of Jesus Christ. The man who met Christ on the road to Damascus. The problem was a lot of people weren't buying it.

They weren't believing that Saul was actually now a Christian. Enter Barnabas. Enter Mr. Encouragement. Barnabas says oh you are a believer for sure. I have talked to you.

I know your conversion is real. That brings me to point number one. An encourager sees the potential in others and cheers them on. An encourager sees the potential in others and cheers them on. So Barnabas Mr. Encouragement takes Saul of Tarsus under his wing and encourages him. And he even says let's go on the road together.

Let's go share the gospel together. So Barnabas is helping Saul. He is discipling Saul. He is teaching Saul later to become Paul.

He sees the potential. Acts chapter 9 verse 26. Go back a few verses.

Chapters. When Saul arrived in Jerusalem he tried to meet with the believers but they were all afraid of him and they did not believe that he had truly become a believer. Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them Saul had seen the Lord on the road to Damascus and the Lord had spoken to Saul and he told them that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

I love that. So Barnabas takes his credibility and he had a lot of it. He was loved by everybody. And he put it on the line for the newly converted Saul to listen I am vouching for this guy. He is a real Christian. And that is something that we all need in life. We need a Barnabas. Or you need to be a Barnabas.

Let me say that again. We all need a Barnabas or an encourager or we need to be a Barnabas encouraging others. And your words matter and your encouragement matters.

And let's review the Great Commission. Jesus speaking. Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo I am with you even to the end of the age. It is given to every Christian. It is given to you. It is given to me. And it is interesting because in that statement lo I am with you even to the end of the age contextually in the original language it is implying that Jesus will be with us in a special way when we are fulfilling the Great Commission.

That is not to say He won't be with us all the time because He said I will never leave you or forsake you. But it is to say Jesus speaking I will be with you when you do this. I will open doors for you. I will put words in your mouth. I will direct you to the right people.

I will be with you. So your job, your mission should you decide to accept it is to go and make disciples teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. So Barnabas did this for the newly converted Saul. And God wants you to do this for somebody else. Because there are people that need your help right now. People that are hurting. People that have fallen spiritually. James 5 19 says brothers if any of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back remember that whoever churns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover a multitude of sins.

I love that. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Emails, phone calls, and social media messages from listeners are so encouraging to us and they let us know the effectiveness of these studies. Pastor Greg I'm a cop and listen to you every day from my police car. God bless you. Pastor Greg I listen to you all the time and even heard one of your sermons when you were only 24 years old. I appreciate that you speak the truth and your ministry has been instrumental in combating my anxiety. Thank you Greg. We're so grateful to hear how these studies in God's Word are helping people.

Would you share your story? Email Pastor Greg. Send it to Greg at harvest.org. That's Greg at harvest.org. Well we're getting some good counsel on the importance of encouragement today.

Pastor Greg continues his study based in Acts, chapter 11. You know sometimes what people need is just a friend. You don't have to know all the answers. They think we think oh I have to be a theologian.

No you don't. You can get on the job training. You can learn what you need to learn as you need it but you can get in there and just engage in what I like to describe as a ministry of presence just being there. Let's say someone's in a hospital room and they're in pain and they're in need.

Sometimes just being there. You don't need a sermon. Everything isn't a sermon. You might be surprised to hear me say that because I'm a preacher right. But there's a time to sermonize and then there's a time to just empathize and just care and offer the appropriate scriptures at the right time.

And here's another thing to think about. Whatever you're going through in life is preparing you for something else and he can take the pain of your life and use it. Look I wouldn't wish my childhood on anyone but now I use it as a tool to help other people because they'll tell me about their upbringing and I'll say well here was my upbringing and here's what God did for me and he can do this for you. And having my son go to be with the Lord in 2008 if I could bring him back to the Lord if I could bring him back I would do it in a moment. But I realize that this happened.

I don't know why it happened but I will not waste my pain. And I use it as a tool now to help other people who've heard the devastating news that their child has died or their spouse has died or a loved one has died. And so I know that I can come and just help them through that. I don't really have that much to say but if I can in some way shape or form help them through that difficult time that's what I want to do. We all want to be that encourager because there's nothing as refreshing as an encouraging word or deed.

It's like a fresh drink of water on a hot summer day. Proverbs 25 25 says good news from far away is like cold water to the thirsty. I think encouragement may be the greatest need in our world today.

That brings me to my second point. If you want to be an encourager you will help other Christians grow in their faith. If you want to be an encourager you will help other Christians grow in their faith. So Barnabas and Paul went on a missionary journey together. And it became pretty clear that Paul had a great gift great gift to preach.

Even greater than Barnabas's gift. So Barnabas sort of stepped aside and let Paul do what he did. He was doing his job well. Now they did have a conflict and we will talk about this later.

And they parted ways as friends but they did part ways. But the point of it is Barnabas had done his job. What was his job? To disciple Paul. To help Paul get acclimated to the church.

To help Paul discover cultivate and use the gifts that God had given to him. Once I was done now Barnabas can exit the scene and go do it again. That is our job. It is sort of like wash rinse repeat.

Right. In the same way preach encourage disciple repeat. Preach encourage disciple repeat. You just do it over and over again for as many people as you can.

Mr. Encouragement. Here is an instance in Acts chapter 11 now. The verse we turned to. When they dispatched Barnabas for a special project. God was working. People were coming to Christ. And they said let's send Mr.

Encouragement over there. Acts 11 22. When the church of Jerusalem heard what had happened they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw this evidence of God's blessing he was filled with joy and he encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord. Barnabas was a good man. Full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. And many people were brought to the Lord.

I love that. He was a good man. Full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. Let that be said of you that you are a good man.

A good woman. Full of the Holy Spirit. Encouraging others. And I love the word that Barnabas gave to the believers there. He encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord. And I want to encourage you to do the same right now. Stay true to the Lord. Hold the course that you are on.

Don't deviate from it to the left or the right. I have mentioned Chuck Smith a couple times in this message. There is one left.

Last story. I was having lunch with him once. I said we are sitting there. I said Chuck if an older Chuck could speak to a younger Chuck what would you say to yourself? And Chuck said Greg will you stop asking me these stupid questions.

I just want to eat my food. No he didn't say that but he should have. He said hold the course. What he meant was just stay on that path that you are on and don't get off that path. And that is what Barnabas was saying to the believers.

He encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord. Let me close with this. Hold your course. I know it is hard. Maybe you have hit a rough patch. Maybe there are some problems.

Maybe you have stumbled and you have fallen and get back up again. God gives second chances and He will see you through whatever you are going through because He is bigger than your problem. It is going to get better. But you know I mentioned in the beginning of this message that there are some that are so down. They are so discouraged.

They have even thought of taking their lives. And let me just say if I am talking to anyone who has entertained those thoughts please reject them. Push them out of your mind because you are loved by a lot of people.

More than you know. You are needed. You are wanted. And best of all you are loved by God. And no matter what things you have done wrong He will forgive you.

But you must come to Him. Don't even think of taking your own life. Instead give your life to Jesus Christ. And you will find life. Jesus said whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it. What does that even mean? To lose your life means I take my dreams, my aspirations, my hopes and I say this is what I would like to do but Lord I want your will more than my will. Even if there is a conflict.

I want it. And here is what you will discover. You will discover God's plans for you are far better than your plans for yourself. But it starts with giving your life to Jesus Christ.

And so I am going to close by extending an invitation to anybody here. If you are not sure if Jesus is living in your life. If you haven't asked Him to forgive you of your sin it can happen right here right now.

My whole life changed on a Friday in 1970. I didn't wake up in the morning and say hey I think that I will change my entire course of living and become a Christian and then maybe one day I will even become a preacher and lose all of my hair. That is my goal.

No. That thought did not cross my mind. But that is what God had in store for me. Who knows what God has in store for you. So we are going to close in prayer.

And if you don't know Jesus yet this is your moment to come to Him and believe. Let's pray. Father thank you for your word to us.

Thank you for your encouragement to us. And thank you for your promise to us. The promise to forgive us of all of our sins.

It will turn from them and put our faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sin and rose again from the dead. I pray for any person here if they don't know you yet Lord let this be the moment they believe. If you want Jesus Christ to come into your life and forgive you of your sin just pray this simple prayer. Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for me. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow you. I want your will for my life. I ask this now in Jesus name. Amen.

It's an important moment in the lives of so many people listening right now. Pastor Greg Laurie praying a prayer with those who are asking Jesus to be their Savior today. And if you've just prayed that prayer and you've meant those words sincerely we want to help you begin to live this new life of faith. Pastor Greg would like to send you his new Believer's Bible. It's free of charge and it'll help answer many of the questions you might have and get you started off right as you walk each day with the Lord. So ask for it when you call 1-800-821-3300.

We can take your call anytime that's 1-800-821-3300 or write a new beginning box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or go online to harvest.org. You know Pastor Greg all of us as parents or grandparents we feel the responsibility and privilege of of bringing our kids to the Lord. You know train up a child on the way he should go. Yes. But many of us frankly could use all the help we could get and we have something that's a lot of help and at the same time a lot of fun. Isn't that right?

That's right. We have these been born again cartoons and we have a new episode called never kiss a jellyfish goodbye and really the theme is how to resist temptation. And there's a scene from the cartoon that we're going to play for you in a moment but let me set it up.

A lot of these things that happen in these cartoons are based on my own life and sometimes you maybe have heard me talk about these things in my sermon. So you may have heard me talk about the fact that when I was a young boy I was sort of a junior herpetologist. That's someone that studies reptiles and I really loved reptiles.

I love snakes and lizards and turtles and such but especially snakes. So I got my mother to buy me a snake. We drove to the pet store and we bought the snake and we put it in the little terrarium in the little cage in the trunk of the car. By the time we arrived home somehow that snake got out and was loose in the car never found that snake and then a little bit later my mom was at an intersection and she was aware of the fact that that snake could still be in the car and a cold coil dropped on her ankle and she jumped out of the car screaming thinking it was the snake when in reality it was a loose hose in the car. But she never drove the car again and I got a free car out of it.

So that's kind of cool. It was a very old car for you car people out there. It was called a Ford Starliner. Google that.

Back when the cars were really big and kind of had fins. Anyway so I brought that idea into this into this Ben Born Again cartoon. So in this instance Ben's mother is taking him to the pet store to get a snake and this is what happens. It sounds very similar to what happened to me.

Check it out. Remember that one time when your mom bought you a snake at the pet store? How can I forget? On the way home it got loose in the van. We never did find it. When your mom felt something tickling her ankle she almost drove the car off the road. That wasn't even the snake. Just this old garden hose on the floor. She still would never get in this old thing again.

Well at least you got your very own van out of it. And then we just come out and talk about how to actually resist temptation and we have seen from the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve going there to the tree and where the forbidden fruit was and of course the serpent speaks to them. So I've sort of raised the idea of the serpent the snake being like the devil and now I'm just talking about how to resist that serpent when he whispers his temptations into your ears. So these are resources we develop. We want them to be fun. We want them to be entertaining but most of all we want them to be truth given to children in a way that they can understand. So there's sort of a Ben Born Again universe if you will. We've got these animated cartoons.

We've got printed materials like what we call the Living Water comic book which is an update of the Living Water track. If you saw the Jesus Revolution film you remember the story when I first came with that little cartoon booklet and gave it to Pastor Chuck and he wanted to print it up so more people could see it. And by the way if you haven't seen the Jesus Revolution film you really got to watch it. It's on all streaming platforms right now including Netflix.

In fact I just found out that it's on Netflix in India and that's a giant audience that it's reaching now. So we're so excited about how God has used that Jesus Revolution film but anyway uh so this little booklet was produced and so we have a lot of resources we're spinning off from Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog which brings me to our newest resource which is called the Ben Born Again growth book and what it is is a little cartoon booklet that is designed for a young person elementary age and tells them how to grow spiritually. It sort of lays the foundation for them in their life of what it means to be a Christian deals with topics like why the Bible is important why being involved in church matters how to pray how to know the will of God how to resist temptation and a whole lot more. So we'll give you one of these to enjoy to share with a child in your life but you might want to get a few more copies and share them with others and be generous in what you send as we continue to reach people of all ages including kids and we have a heart to reach this young generation that needs to hear about Jesus Christ. So order your copy of the brand new Ben Born Again New Believers growth book. Yeah that's right it's our privilege to send it your way to thank you for partnering with us and reaching people of all ages with the message of the gospel and when you send your donation today we hope you'll ask for the new Ben Born Again New Believers growth book. It features the latest Ben Born Again and yellow dog design it helps kids get well grounded in the Lord so get in touch with your investment and be sure to ask for the Ben Born Again New Believers growth book.

You can call us at 1-800-821-3300 that's a 24 7 phone number again 1-800-821-3300 or write A New Beginning box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or go online to harvest.org. Well next time Pastor Greg addresses a challenging subject. Tune in for a message called Why Do Christians Have to Suffer? Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Lord. A New Beginning is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners helping people everywhere know God. If this show has impacted your life share your story leave a review on your favorite podcast app and help others find hope.