Encouraging One Another - Part 1

Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, November sixteenth.

God expects believers to look beyond our personal needs and desires to the needs of others. Today's podcast highlights the importance of encouraging one another. What type of person do you consider yourself to be? Would you say that you are outgoing and friendly, easy to know, confident? You're very comfortable in a crowd.

People like you. You like being in a crowd. Or you can be just as happy being by yourself. But there's something about you that's sort of contagious.

In other words, people like to be around you. Or would you say, no, I'm sort of self-contained. I don't need all that. I just sort of like to keep my religion to myself and my faith to myself. And I just sort of like to do my own thing. I don't want really anybody getting too personal with me. I'm not very comfortable with a group. I may stand on the outside, but that's okay. That's sort of who I am.

And I don't have to have a bunch of friends. You know, as long as I get along and I have what I need and I know that I've been saved back yonder somewhere, then that's the way I am. That may be the way you are, but that's not the way God intended you to be. That's not who He created us to be. But the question is, what kind of person does God intend for us to be? And is the Scripture specific about that?

In other words, not just in some generality, but is the Scripture specific about the kind of person we should be? And it is. So, I want you to turn, if you will, to First Thessalonians and the fifth chapter.

And I'll give you a little background here. We're going to read those first eleven verses together. But Paul had just been talking about what happens when Jesus comes for all of us who are saints and who are alive, and about what's going to happen to our loved ones who passed on before us.

When Christ comes, the Bible says they should be resurrected first, and then we who are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, having settled that question for the Thessalonians, then he moved to this subject in the fifth chapter and verse one. Now, as to the times and the epochs or seasons, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you.

In other words, just trying to figure these things out, he said that's not necessary. But, he says, for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains upon a woman with a child, they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness that the day would overtake you. For you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness. So then, let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.

But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we live or wake or sleep, we will live together with Him. And having said all that as a warning, look how he concludes, Therefore, on the basis of all that, encourage one another and build up one another, just as you are also doing. So, he's simply saying, you know, when Jesus comes, here's what's going to happen to our loved ones and to us.

And those who remain, those who are lost, here's what's going to happen. He says, and so, in the basis of all of that, there's some things you and I need to deal with. We would agree that God is our great encourager. But also, it's very important that you and I become encouragers to others. And let me ask you this. How many of you can name someone that was an encourager to bring you to Christ when you were saved?

Someone encouraged you to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. So, the first point I simply want to make is this. The first point I want to make is this.

The first point is this. I'm going to give you fourteen, listen, fourteen specifics from the apostles. So, I'm going to give you fourteen. So, I'm going to give you eighteen.

So, I'm going to give you eighteen. Listen, eighteen specifics from the apostles of how you and I are to relate to one another. And in a world that's so mixed up and fouled up as we are, and so much distrust and unrest, God's people need to just be living out who God intended for us to be. First of all, we are to accept one another. Secondly, we're to admonish one another.

That is, sometimes we all need admonishing and correcting in some way. Thirdly, we're to accept one another. Thirdly, we're to build up one another. Not tear each other down, but to build up one another.

There are many ways to do that. Then He says we're to comfort one another. And then, of course, we're to confess our sins one to another. That doesn't mean that's the only time you confess sin. Doesn't mean you have to confess everything to everybody. But we must be open enough to say, you know what? I really made a mistake or I really hurt you.

I really should not have done that. We confess our weaknesses to one another. Then, of course, we're to encourage each other. Encourage each other. And we'll give that definition in a moment, but we're to, by encouraging each other, we are motivating them in an upward way. We are to be forgiving toward each other. And that means that no matter what happens, I forgive this person who says this or that person who says that or does this or does that, we forgive each other. Then we're to greet each other, the Bible says, with a holy kiss. Somebody says, well, define that. Well, let's put it this way. A good handshake may be just as good.

And today when it comes to kissing people, that probably wouldn't work the way it did in those days. So, we are to greet each other. We're to be hospitable.

That is, we're to be open and invite people and be inviting in our spirit as well as maybe invite them in your home or wherever it might be. And then we're to be kind one to another, tenderhearted, he says. And you know, but the Bible says a kind man, and I think that seems true of a woman, a kind man or a kind woman is attractive. And if you'll think about people that you know are kind, aren't they attractive?

They're people who are not necessarily physically attractive, but whose kindness gets to you. They're kind. He says we're to live in peace with one another. We live in peace with one another. And we're to love each other. If I love somebody, I'm looking out for what's best for them.

I'm going to express that love in one way or the other. But we're to love one another, accept them as they are. And then we're to be patient with one another. And all of us have had to be patient with others. And we've had people who had to be patient with us. You remember how many times did your parent say, how many times have I told you the same thing?

And you know what? You do that to your children. Then we grow up and we become impatient.

That's not right. So, we're to be patient with each other because we all make mistakes in life and we will make them through the days of our life. We're to pray for one another. Then, listen to this, we're to serve one another. And we don't pick and choose who we serve. We're to serve one another. If there's a need, we want to meet that need.

That's the way the New Testament church absolutely shattered the thinking of the Roman Empire. When it was all authority and power and stomp on you and kill you if necessary, Christians served one another. We're to stimulate one another, which means we're to motivate each other. And we are to help folks, for example, do their best, motivating them to do their best, best we can. We're to be subject to one another. Like, while I'm subject to the husbands and you and your business, you have authorities.

You're to be subject to the authorities on your job. And so, likewise in the church. Then He says we're to be tenderhearted one toward another. Why? Because in the Christian life, we are a family. If everybody practiced those, well, you probably even half of them.

But we don't think that way. We think we get up in the morning and say, What am I going to do? Where am I going? What do I have?

What do I need? What are they going to say about me? People live in a little island, me, myself, and I. That's not the way we live. And if that's the way you live before long, you'll feel like a stranger. Because you shut people out. And oftentimes people want to get close to us.

Watch this. Not because they want something, but because they see something in you that they like that's attractive, something that is godly. We're to relate to each other in a way that does what? We build up each other. We help each other. We love each other. When you think about how many times one another, one another, one another, one another, one another, one another, one another, it's all about relationships.

And if you'll think about it, we're living in a world that's getting further and further away from that. And proof of that is texting people. Everywhere you go, and I've watched this in restaurants here lately more than ever, four people can be sitting at a table. You got a meal in front of them, all four of them are texting.

And I'll tell you something worse than that is seeing a husband and wife sitting across the table and both of them texting, and I'm thinking, y'all don't have anything to talk about, there's something wrong with that relationship. And I'm here to tell you, when you do not build relationships, you build yourself an island. And when the time comes and you get to hurting and you wonder, where are my friends and where is this and where is the other?

Because you created an island for yourself, which is certainly not of God. Now, if you look around and you ask yourself the question, are you a relational kind of person or are you, I'm self-contained? I don't need you. There's no such thing as not needing anybody, not really.

And God doesn't want us to live that kind of way. And so, when you encourage somebody, you give them something. If I encourage you, I'm going to want to motivate you to either get something, achieve something, go somewhere, whatever it might be. You're building up the other person. It's one another. And over and over and over, He says that to us. So, let's clarify the meaning of what we mean by encourage.

And that's simply this. To encourage is to call to one side. You remember when Jesus said to His disciples, I'm going to leave you another comforter?

The whole idea is I'm leaving, but I'm going to send someone you can relate to. He says to call to one side to console, to strengthen, to put courage in, to inspire, to motivate with courage. So, all of us need to see ourselves that way. And you think about this, your children are growing up.

You need to teach them that they are to be relational with people, because when we relate to people, for example, we can all gain something from somebody, and we can all have something to give to other people. And the Christian church, the New Testament church, when there was a need, they all got together to help each other. And as a result, they absolutely transformed the Roman Empire.

It was something about them that was different. And so, when I think about all those passages of Scripture and how God worked in their lives, and somebody says, Well, Jesus didn't need any encouragement. Well, let's see if He did. Turn to Matthew chapter twenty-six for a moment. Matthew chapter twenty-six. I want you to look at this passage in the thirty-sixth verse. Remember, this is God in the human flesh.

He had all power to do all things. And now He's coming to Gethsemane, and the thirty-sixth verse says, Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane. And He said to His disciples, Sit here while I go over there and pray. And He took with Him Peter, the two sons of Zebedee, Peter, James, and John, and began to be grieved in distress. Now watch this, this is Son of God has all power. Then He said to them, My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.

Remain here and watch with Me. Why do you think He said that? Because He needed their presence. And when I read that passage and think about if the Lord Jesus Christ was in need and He was asking someone to encourage Him, to encourage Him, that's what they were to do. Come get, you listen, they're over there, but I want you closer to Me.

There's something about knowing that you're here. Let me ask you a question. Do you have any friends that when you're going through a tough time, you want them to be close? Do you have any friends that, you know, they don't have to say anything, you just want, see, He didn't ask them to say anything. He just said, Would you all come over here with Me? He wanted those three to be close by when He was going through the agony of His life. What does that say? It tells me two things.

Not only was Jesus God in the flesh, but He was man. The physical, human side of Him felt the very same things you and I felt. When we go through tough times, what do we want? We don't want just anybody by us. We want somebody who can encourage us. And all of us have been there, and I can think of people who have encouraged me in my life and going through very difficult times, somebody who was always there that I didn't have to call and say, Would you please do so and so? One of my friends, I could call him on the phone or he could call me when I was going through a tough, probably the toughest time in my life, and he'd hear my voice and say, Build a fire, I'm coming over and let's talk. I didn't have to say a word. He was a very stalwart part of getting me through the most difficult time of my life.

He was just there. And I can remember the first person who ever encouraged me. Now, I was six years old. I know exactly where she was standing. I know exactly what color dress she had on.

I knew she had dark hair, it must have been black or brown or something. And I walked out the door as a six-year-old in the first grade, and I heard her say three words that still ring in my mind, and I know the expression with which she said it. She said, I like Charles. He was my first grade teacher. She didn't like me because I made good grades, I can tell you that.

She said, I like Charles. Why would I remember that for seventy-five years? Because at that moment in my life, I didn't have a father, my mother was gone most of the time working.

At that time, I didn't have anybody close by. And so, here's this teacher who is this awesome authority. And I remember she was tall and overpowering to some degree, and that didn't matter.

I don't remember a thing else she ever said. My grades probably proved that. But I remember that.

I like Charles. Six years old, never forgot it. The second person who encouraged me was my Sunday school teacher when I was an intermediate of thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. He was my Sunday school teacher. And I moved from the church I was in where he was my teacher and to another church. So, I didn't see him very often except here's what he would do.

I delivered newspapers in this one long, straight main street. And so, he left his work and drove up that street naturally to get home. He'd pull over to the side and park when he saw me. So, he saw where I was coming. And he would just roll his window down and say, How you doing?

And, This won't you know I'm thinking about you. He'd talk about little stuff that really wasn't that important. And he'd always buy a newspaper. But he always paid me two and a half times what the paper cost. He didn't need to buy a paper. And I knew every time he bought one, he had one at home already waiting for it.

But you know what he did? He said to me as a teenager, I was significant. I was important enough for him to catch me on that day delivering papers. And he'd pull over to the side and wait till I got there. And all he wanted to do is to encourage me. Craig Stowe. He encouraged me. And you see, a lot of times we encourage people and we don't realize how meaningful that is. And you see, I couldn't do anything for Craig Stowe. I couldn't do anything for my teacher. They just encouraged me.

They did something for me. They didn't realize, and my teacher would never have thought that just simply saying it. She didn't say that to me. She said it to another teacher. I remember her name. Her name was Miss Croxton. And this was Miss Farrell. She didn't even say it to me, except to that other teacher. And I overheard it. You know, sometimes you can horribly discourage people by what you say.

And sometimes you can greatly encourage them. What does that say? Think about this. This woman said, I like Charles, probably wondering if I'd ever get out of the first grade or the second grade. Never did she realize that she'd have an impact on my life for seventy-five years to preach the gospel.

She never thought it, never crushed her mind. You don't know who you may be passing by who needs something that you might say. And so, somebody says, well, I don't know that I'd say the right thing. Yes, you will. You know who I know you will? If you really care for them, God will say to you what to say. You'll encourage them. Thank you for listening to part one of Encouraging One Another. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.