[music] Dr. Charles Stanley: What
type 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. And 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. I just--me, myself and I; and
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. 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've passed on before us. When Christ comes, the Bible
says they shall 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 are awake or
asleep, we will live together with Him." Then 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 also are 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 on the basis of
all of that, there are 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 who was encouraging you. Look at all those hands. Yes, someone encouraged you to
trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. So, the first point I simply
want to make is this: we as believers cannot rightfully
ignore our manifold responsibility to fellow
believers. We can't ignore that. We have a responsibility. And it's interesting when you
read through the Scriptures, somebody says, "Well, I don't
see where I have to be this, that, or the other. 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, because think about
the Christian life is a life of relationship: relationship to
God, relationship to His Son, relationship to the Holy Spirit,
all of that in order that you and I might be relational to
each other. And in a world that's so mixed
up and fouled up as we are, and so much distrust and unrest and
all the rest, 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 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 to 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. And Paul made that very clear in
Ephesians when he said, "Be ye kind one to another,
tender-hearted, forgiving each other, even as God for Christ's
sake has forgiven all of us." 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 in 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 about--the Bible
says a kind man, and I think that saying is 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? And it doesn't mean they have to
be, listen, doesn't mean they have to be physically
attractive. There are 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 one another. And I think a lot of people
think they love than don't love. 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. That is, for example, on your
job, 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. So, think about this. Here are eighteen ways you and I
are to respond to each other. Why? Because in the Christian life,
we are a family. And you just think, for example,
in your family alone, you say you have two children or five or
six or whatever it might be, and all of you practice those
eighteen, you'd think you'd died and gone to heaven. Amen? If everybody practiced those or
you probably even half of them, but we don't think that way. We think, we get up in the
morning, it's 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, out on
a little island: me, myself, and I. That's not the way
we're to 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. It's, when you think about how
many times 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, 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're wondering, "Where are my friends
and where's this and where's the other?" Because you created an island
for yourself, which is certainly not of God. Now, if you look around, you ask
yourself the question: are you a relational kind of person? Are you I'm self-contained, "I
don't need you." There's not 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. So, let's clarify the meaning of
what we mean by encourage, and that's simply this: to encourage
is to call to one's 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're 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 they, 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, and
I want you to look at this passage in the thirty-sixth
verse. Remember, this is God in 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 and distressed." Now, watch this. This is the 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, 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, 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 play--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 toughest time in my life. And he'd hear my voice and say,
"I'm--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 when I think about that, I
think about, I can remember the first person who's ever--whoever
encouraged me. Now, I was six years old. That was seventy-five years ago. I know exactly where she was
standing. I know exactly what color dress
she had on. I knew she had dark hair, 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." It 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. Ha! May grades probably proved that
I--ha, ha, ha, ha! 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 or
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. And so I didn't see him very
often except here's what he would do. He--I delivered newspapers, 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're you doing?" and, "Just want you to
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 him. 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, lot of times we
encourage people we don't realize how meaningful that is. I wonder if you ever take the
time to encourage somebody. 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 say--and see,
she didn't say that to me. She said it to another teacher. I remember her name. Her name was Mrs. Crockston, and
this is Miss Ferrel. She didn't even say it to me,
except to that other teacher and I overhead 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 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, never crossed
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 why I know you will? If you really care for them,
God'll say to you what to say. You'll encourage them. Sometimes all you have to need
to say is, "I've just been thinking about you," if you
really have. And you know when somebody says
that, you can tell whether they mean it or not. We're to be encouragers. And God knows how to make us
encouragers. Now, I want to give you two
biblical examples. How many of you know who
Barnabas was? Well, poor Barnabas, he was not
known by many of you. But let's put it this way, he
was called the son of encouragement. And that was the way they named
him. And let me tell you what he did. And the reason for my telling
you this is because I want you to remember this: you never know
whose life you're going to impact and the awesome impact. Barnabas, when he heard that
there were lots of people in need in the early New Testament
church, he brought a piece of property and laid the money at
the feet of the apostles, Barnabas. First time you hear of him. And so, the next thing you know,
Barnabas is used by God to do an awesome thing. When Saul of Tarsus was
persecuting the Christians and killing Christians and tearing
them out of their homes and putting them in prison, then he
got saved on the Damascus road. Well, the Christian church at
that time would have nothing to do with him. They were scared of him, and
when they said that this Saul of Tarsus had been converted, they
didn't believe it and they wanted nothing to do with him. Barnabas talked to the Apostle
Paul, who was only Saul of Tarsus at that time and began to
get ahold of his heart and recognize that he was genuinely
saved. That his Damascus road
experience was a true experience, and that he had now
had changed and he was a friend of the church and he was a
Christian. He was the one who stuck out his
neck for the Apostle Paul, introduced him to the apostles
and went to bat for him and said, "This man is saved. He's called of God. Let's accept him." Barnabas. And so, I ask you: who was
Barnabas? "I don't know who Barnabas is." I'll tell you who he was. He was an encourager. That's why his nickname was
Barnabas, Son of Encouragement. And what I want you to see is
this: Barnabas didn't--he didn't know all that. Of course, he went with Paul on
these missionary journeys and so forth, but he would never have
imagined what would happen. And he would never have imagined
that his willingness to take the courage and the motivation to
help this man, who was rejected by the church, to be accepted,
and then look what happened to the Apostle Paul. What was he? Well, most all of this we just
talked about was his words: admonishing and forgiving
and so forth. And so, when I look at Paul's
life, he was an encourager. Remember when they stoned him to
death and left him for dead in Lystra? He got up, and next few verses,
he's encouraging people. In Acts, when the whole account
of the shipwreck takes place, here's what you find Paul doing. He's encouraging them to eat,
encouraging them to, you know, stay on board because if anybody
escaped, the Romans would kill ever who's in charge. And so, four times, what is he
doing? He's encouraging, encouraging,
encouraging. And when you read the epistles,
that's who he was. You don't see him condemning. The only folks he condemned are
the same folks Jesus condemned, that was the Sadducees and
Pharisees who were just hypocrites anyway. But he was an encourager. And so, we ask the question:
well, why all this emphasis about encouraging? Well, first of all, it's a major
theme in the Scriptures. It's a major theme in the
Scriptures. And we just read about eighteen
different ways we're to encourage. And then, of course, Jesus was
an encourager. And I think one of the most
dramatic times was when He was walking along out of Jericho,
and this poor blind beggar, now a blind beggar was rotten poor
and you just didn't want to get around them, and they were
always scattered around the gates. And I love the King James
Version when it says, "Jesus was passing by and they were telling
Bartimaeus to be quiet, shut up, because he was saying, "Jesus,
Son of David, have mercy on me." And finally, the Bible says, in
the King James Version, "And Jesus stood still." Not for some officer or some
politician, but for a poor blind beggar who was on the bottom
rung of society. Jesus stood still and He said to
him when Bartimaeus came, "Bartimaeus, what do you want me
to do for you?" He said, "I want You to heal me,
give me my sight." And that's exactly what Jesus
did. Because you see, He was
sensitive. He was an encourager. And what that did, it not only
encouraged Bartimaeus, it encouraged everybody else. Jesus, the Son of God, taking
time to heal a blind beggar. And then, you remember the woman
who was caught in the very act of adultery, so as not to
question about that. And they got the stones, all
ready to stone her, a bunch of hypocrites, really, they were. And they were getting ready to
stone her, and what did Jesus say? He said, "Neither do I condemn
you, go and sin no more." What an awesome response. We're to be encouragers. it's the Gospel, it's the New
Testament, it's the--these are the principles. And the truth is all of us need
encouragement to walk the faith. There's nobody here that doesn't
need encouragement at some time or the other for some reason or
the other. When you make a mistake, don't
you want to be encouraged? You may blow it bad, you didn't
mean to, but you don't want somebody to condemn you. You want somebody to at least
understand why you did it. Maybe something going on in your
life you don't even understand yourself. And then of course, isolation
from the encouragement of godly friends is very dangerous. The devil is always there to
trap you, to trip you up any way he can. And it's the encouragement of
godly friends who sometimes see things we don't see, and they
warn us lest we find ourselves falling in Satan's trap. We have--we need to be
encouragers. And sometimes you may have to
say to somebody, "I know this is not my desire to get into your
life, into your business and so forth, but I'd just like to give
you a word of encouragement. I don't know anybody who would
reject genuine encouragement, unless somebody is absolutely
committed to living a life of disobedience. And what it means is this: if I
encourage somebody, I want to build them up. I want to build them up in some
way, in--somehow. In other words, if there's an
area of their life in which they are weak, I want to help build
them up. And the truth is, what I do
every Sunday in my heart, my heart's desire every Sunday, is
to build you up by the Word of God. To build you up, to lift your
spirit, to get you confident and bold and brave and emboldened
about your testimony and your witness because of what Christ
is doing in your life. I want you to understand the
truth, which is the foundation of it all. I want you to have the courage
to stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to have the courage
to speak out when you need to speak out, be wise enough to be
quiet till the right time to speak out. That's what I'm about. And all of us ought to be about
the same thing to the degree to which God has given you the
circle of friends or people you work with, whose life your life
can influence and impact. And it also means showing caring
concern for people. If I really and truly want to
encourage somebody, I need to show some kind of genuine
caring. That is, I'm not going to do
this for you because I want you to do this for me. That is not what we're talking
about. What I'm talking about is that I
see something in you that I can help in some way, some fashion,
that's what I want to do. And then of course, as we say,
it's a positive motivator. It makes the difference, and I
think this is true in any walk of life. What makes the difference in the
lives of many people, whether they succeed or fail, is the
encouragement of someone else. And I can remember the times my
mom would encourage me when I didn't do very good in some area
of school. She never said, "Shame on you. You should have done better." She never--she'd say, "Now, I
just want you to do your best. You just do your best and
that'll be okay. She never condemned me for
a poor grade. And I didn't always have poor
grades, but I'm telling you back there when I did early, she
never condemned me. She just said, "I just want you
to do your best. What did that do? It made me want to do my best. My best wasn't nearly as good as
my fellow students in lots of ways, but my Mama said she
wanted me to do my best, and if that's what she wanted, that's
what I was going to do. It wasn't the best, but it was
my best. And sometimes you don't need a
sermon. You just need the opportunity to
express it, and the courage to express it to somebody who needs
just the word from you. And we're living in a society
when most people have major problems, difficult problems of
all kinds. And if ever the church, the Body
of Christ, needed to be an encouraging body, this is a time
we certainly need to be that. And, think about this. Sometimes your encouragement
could make the difference between somebody's eternal life
and their eternal separation from God. And this is why it's a dangerous
thing to be quiet when you should speak up. When you see somebody heading in
the wrong direction, they may not like your encouragement,
that's not the issue. You and I are responsible to be
encouraging. Now, there are many ways to show
encouragement. I'm going to give you
twenty-five so that when you walk out of here today, you are
totally inexcusable for not being an encourager. And the first one is this: you
can call someone and encourage them on the phone. I'll just give you one word. Or secondly, you can text them,
if that's the best you can do. And that's better than nothing. But you can text them. That's not my preference, but
that's what you--one way you can do it. Then of course, you can
write a letter. You say a lot more in letters,
more personal. And then of course, there's a
sincere compliment. Then of course, you can say to
somebody, "What would you have me pray for you about?" That's a whole lot better than
saying, "Well, I'm praying for you. But, what would you have me pray
about? "Or, you can just let somebody
know that you're praying for them. Then you can fulfill a need in
someone's life. You know that there's maybe a
financial need or some emotional need, and one of the ways you
want to encourage them is let them know you're going to help
them at that point. And then, give somebody time. You want to encourage somebody,
give them time. It's one thing to say, "Well, I
hope you get along well and so forth," and never have any time
to sit down. And sometimes, a very brief
conversation, ten minutes, changes somebody's whole
direction in life. And then of course, point them
to some applicable Scripture. And you, listen, you ought to
have a few Scriptures on your--tip of your tongue that
you can hand out any time. And I'll tell you one of mine. Doesn't make any difference who
I meet, if they bring up something, I can give them this. Psalm thirty-two, eight. "I will instruct you and teach
you in the way which you should go. I will guide you with My eye
upon you." Everybody needs to hear that. "I will guide you with My eye
upon you." Psalm thirty-two, verse eight. And so, some applicable
Scripture is very, very encouraging. And then of course, just tell
them the truth. Sometimes somebody asks you
something, just tell them the truth. And oftentimes you'll hear them
say, "Well, thank you for being truthful about it with me." Because lots of times people
want the truth, and listen, now watch this. Sometimes they won't like the
truth, but he didn't say I'm to encourage those who like. I'm to be truthful and honest no
matter what. Then you've got to be forgiving. If I really want to be an
encourager, I've got to be forgiving. And then of course, you've got
to love them. There are different ways to love
somebody. And one of the ways you love
somebody is you can tell them. There's something about "I love
you" that comes from a sincere heart that's powerful. And I say that to my friends. I say it to my staff member
friends that I love. I say it to other people. I just love you. If I don't know somebody, I
probably wouldn't say that. But if I say that, I say it
for a reason. I've seen something in them that
really moved me or stirred me, encouraged me in some way. And so, if you say to someone,
"I really love you." For example, you have children,
and there are children who grow up in this country and in the
whole world who never hear that: I love you. Parents take for granted that
their children understand that. Kids don't take it for granted. They either hear it or they
don't hear it. I love you, three words, that
takes about a second to say that: I love you. I can say, "I love you. I love you. I love ya." You can say it in all different
kind of tones, and it means what you say. And if I really want to
encourage somebody, and sometimes people will be so
sweet to me about different things, and my response is, "I
just love you." You know what, they've
encouraged me in some way, and I have to express it. I could say, "I thank you," but
that doesn't--I do love them. I love their expression. I love their spirit. I love their attitude. I love their courage to say what
they mean and what they feel. Then of course, be a good
example to them. You want to encourage somebody,
be a good example because, listen, everybody's looking for
a good example of other people in some way. They want to see a good example,
whether it's of a pastor or their boss or another mother or
another father or another young man or woman. Be a good example to them. Then likewise, give godly
correction to them. In other words, if you love
somebody and you really care, you want to give them godly
correction. Sometimes people are in the
process of making a mistake. And you may say to them, "I
just--I really care for what's going on in your life, and I'm
thinking about you. But I just want you to know that
I've been praying for you. And if you keep heading in the
direction you're going, you're going to make a terrible
mistake. There are ways that you can say
something to correct somebody's direction. You say it lovingly. And then of course, if you want
to show encouragement, listen to them. And not many folks have
listeners. Sometimes the only thing a
person needs is to be able to speak and know that you
heard them. Sometimes they don't want
any correction. Sometimes they don't even want
anything except they just want to be heard. And I think the one thing that
really got my attention one day in this family that I happen to
know about, and this young lad told me, he said, "You know, one
of my problems is nobody listens to me in my family." I said, "What do you mean?" Said, "Well, you know, I'll
start talking and they interrupt me, and next thing you know, I
might as well just go away." Just to be listened to. Now, you think about this for a
moment. Suppose nobody listens to you. You may have something important
to say or it may be something that's not important. But would you not agree that
just to have somebody listen is awesomely encouraging? And as I said to you when my
friend would call me and he'd just hear my voice and say, "I'm
coming over. And he didn't come over to talk. He came over to listen to me
express what I was feeling, and knew that I needed an
encouraging word at that time." And then of course, you give
them your full attention, and the best way to do that is to
look them square in the eye and say, "Happy to meet you," "Glad
to see you," "Thanks for coming," or whatever it
might be. And so, it makes a difference
when we do that. And then of course, be patient
with them. We have to be patient with
people. They have to be patient with us. And to be patient means I'm
willing to wait till they say what they want to say, or till
they have the courage to express what they're feeling. And then sometimes you may have
to cry with them. If you're going to encourage
them, you may have to cry with them, not have to, but find
yourself weeping with them because of what they're going
through. And then agree with them when
it's appropriate. Yes, you're exactly right. I think that's a fantastic idea. Agree with them. And all of us need some of that
at times. Then, give them a
meaningful gift. Give them something meaningful. And I'll tell you, someone gave
me, this week, a very meaningful gift. Now, if I took the pieces apart,
you wouldn't think that was meaningful at all. A piece of wood about like that
and about like that, and so, put a leather top on it and it was
tapped all the way around. And it's a kneeling bench. So, I can just kneel down
on that. There's brown leather. It's absolutely beautiful, just
the right size. It didn't cost a lot of money,
but it was one of the most meaningful gifts I've ever been
given. Somebody knew enough about me or
heard me say enough about kneeling to pray. They took the time to find this
old piece of wood, polished it all up beautifully, wrote on the
back, on the bottom of it, "Obey God and leave all the
consequences to Him." So I'm kneeling on that
principle every day. Praise the Lord! And you know what, what does it
say? It says they were thinking about
me. That person wouldn't have to say
a word, but it was an absolutely very, very appropriate
meaningful gift. Then, an affirming look. You've had people, you've had
people do this. What about when they said--they
affirmed what you were saying or what you were doing and you can
look at people and see that. And then, sometimes they just
need for you to pass on some helpful information. And my friends and I were
shopping the other day, and I saw this young lady, and she had
one of these things on her hand, it's to control her hand. I--and--my hand had been hurting
me for some time, and I said, "What's that for?" She told me, and what had been
going on, and this, that, and the other, it was hard for her
to do her job. She had this brace on and so
forth. I said, "I can help you,"
because I had the same kind of problem and somebody's really
helped me. And so, somebody took the time
to share something with me, then I want to pass it on to somebody
else, very helpful information. And then to express loyalty to
somebody. "You know what, I really
appreciate what you do. I just love that. You know, count on me." Whatever it--just loyalty. And there are not many folks, I
think, today who are really all that loyal. And then loving those whom they
love and care for. For example, if you're my
friend, I love you, I'm going to love the folks who love you. And I think about children. And I think about the society we
live in and how many of them feel very little love. We have--we need to take
advantage of loving people who are related to people we love. Then I think assisting somebody
in an area in which they feel inadequate is a very helpful way
to show encouragement. And I have some staff members
that if they weren't right by my side at times, my work on the
computer would be a total disaster because I don't
understand some of that. Some of it I do and I keep
learning, but they're people I depend upon. And I think we--there's
something healthy about good interdependence on each other,
not just somebody wants to do everything. If you love somebody, you want
to be helpful. And then the last thing I would
say--you want to be an encouragement? Say amen. Here's all you have to do,
and that's smile. That's the easiest way I know to
be an encouragement. And so, let me just say this to
you: you encourage me. In fact, I can't wait to get
here on Sundays, because I can't wait to share with you what God
has shared with me, because I know it'll
transform your life. And in the process of your
listening, taking notes, that just motivates me for
the next week. And so, I go home on Sunday
afternoon, start working on next Sunday, because I'm motivated to
give my best. You motivate me by your
attention and by your writing and your--and by your living and
by your giving and all the rest. Well, if you'll think about your
life, take your life out of the church and put it where you
live, for example. There are people around you that
if you encourage them, they're going to encourage you. And I would say to you, wherever
you are and you're listening to this message, it doesn't make
any difference who you are or where you are. You can be an encourager when
Jesus Christ is in your heart because there's something that
just bubbles up and flows out when He's there. You can encourage the people
around you to trust Christ as their Savior. You can encourage your family. You can encourage people
you work for. You can encourage your friends. You can encourage everybody. And one of those twenty-five
ways, surely you can be an encourager. It begins with trusting Jesus as
your personal Savior. That is, asking Him to forgive
you of your sins, based on what He did at the cross. He shed His blood. He died on the cross. He made it possible for you
to be forgiven. What we do is ask and surrender. What He did is die and
resurrect. And I would encourage you
to do that. He will encourage you every day
of your life, if you'll let Him do it. And Father, how grateful we are
that You're such an awesome God. And I pray that You'll sink this
message deep in the heart of every one of us. And Lord, that we'll always be
an encourager through the last day of our life. In Jesus's name, amen. male announcer: If you've
been blessed by today's program, please visit us at intouch.org.
