How To Give Encouragement
II Timothy 4:19-20,21b
Purpose: To show how believers can show encouragement to each other.
Aim: I want the believer to look for ways to encourage others no matter how difficult.
INTRODUCTION: It isn’t easy to follow Christ and Timothy was not the bold outspoken person that Paul was. Timothy’s heart was right, but he trembled at the task that was before him. Because Paul’s life was almost over Timothy needed courage now more than ever. Paul knew this as he wrote his final letter.
Let’s look at the last four verses of this book and see why Paul was so successful at encouraging Timothy.
REVIEW:
1:1-2:13 I. How Should a Christian React to Stress?
2:14-26 II. How Should a Christian Relate to Fellow Believers?
3:1-17 III. How Can a Christian Reside in a Hostile Culture?
4:1-22 IV. How Can a Christian Remain Faithful to Christ?
Vs.1-5 A. Put first things first “preach the word”
Vs.6-8 B. Focus on the joy of our reward “crown of righteousness”
Vs.9-15 C. Ask others for help “come to me soon”
Vs.16-18 D. Have confidence in God’s plan “The Lord stood with me and strenghened me”
LESSON:
Vs.19-22 E. Encourage fellow believers
The theme for this whole book is summed up in 2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity,[or fear or cowardice] but of power and love and discipline.[or sound thinking] (NAU)
A careful reading of this book shows that Paul comes back to the ideas of power, love, and discipline over and over again. I want to show you that he ends this book alluding to these three truths again as he prepare to lay down his quill for the last time.
Vs.19-20,21b 1. Encourage them to display God’s love “Greet...”
Paul lived his entire Christian life wanting to see the whole world changed by the Gospel, and yet he never lost sight of the importance of individuals. Here he takes the time to mention some close friends by name. A good shepherd deals with his sheep individually. Jesus said He, “calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” (John 10:3 NAU)
Prisca and Aquilla were longtime friends of Paul’s. He met them in Corinth and then later in Ephesus. At one point they met him in Rome and were now back in Ephesus. Onesiphorus was one of his most faithful friends. 2 Timothy 1:16 The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains; (NAU)
Erastus lived in Corinth and was the city’s treasurer. (Romans 16:23)
Paul met Trophimus in Jerusalem, but he was from Ephesus. (Acts 21:29)
The people that Paul listed in verse 21 were probably Roman Christians. Eubulus is not mentioned anywhere else. Prudens may have been a Roman senator, according to secular history. Linus may have been the man who became a pastor in Rome several years later. Some historians believe that Claudia was Prudens’ wife who was the daughter of a British king.
Have you ever gone to visit someone who was suffering and walked away getting more encouragement than you gave? That would have been the case if you had gone to visit Paul while he was in prison. Notice that Paul not only ends his letter encouraging Timothy, he has been doing it consistently.
How Can We Display God’s Love to Others?
1:2-4 Verbalize your love to them
2 Timothy 1:2-4 2 To Timothy, my beloved son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy. (NAU)
Paul was a man’s man, but he did not mind saying how much he cared about Timothy. There is the joke about two old farmers who were talking about a friend of theirs. One of them said, “He loves his wife so much that he almost tells her.”
Paul not only appreciated Timothy, he was careful to tell Timothy how he felt.
Paul had the advantage of knowing that he was going to die soon. How tragic to appreciate someone, but then wait too late to say it. Clarence Macartney preached a very famous sermon here in Philadelphia in the early 1900’s titled “Come Before Winter.” I have a copy if you would like to read it. The point of that sermon was to highlight the danger of waiting to obey. We don’t know if Timothy came to Rome “before winter” of if he got busy and wound up coming to Rome after Paul’s death.
1:13-14 Focus your faith on God’s love
2 Timothy 1:13-14 13 Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. (NAU)
✔ When we focus on how others are loving us, we will get discouraged. ✔ When we focus on how God is loving us, it frees us to love others.
We cannot love others properly until we are secure in God’s love for us. Let me explain. God has made all of us with a need to be loved. When we are depending on other people to fill that need they will fail. Even when they don’t fail, we live in constant fear that they might fail.
But, when we are only looking to Christ to fill our need for love, then we won’t need other people to meet our need for love and acceptance. Once our need for love and acceptance is met in Christ, then we are free to love others. At that point we aren’t looking for what other people can do for us. We can be free to love them unconditionally because our need for love has already been met. This frees us from the trap of loving others with an agenda. Without complete security in Christ’s love, we tend to “love” others expecting that some need of ours will be met.
But, when we focus on how much Christ already loves us we have a fountain of joy and security that will not run dry. Romans 8:35,38-39 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NAU)
There is also another benefit from getting our love needs met in Christ. The more we become aware of how weak our love for others is, the more we will love others in spite of their weakness. In other words, we should identify with their failures. When another person shows their selfishness, we should be reminded that we too are often selfish. It is arrogant to think that we are much better at loving than those around us. The key is to compare how we love others, to how God loves us.
Every time we feel bad because someone doesn’t appear to appreciate us, it should make us check to see how we are doing at showing the Lord that we appreciate Him.
2:24-26 Be willing to risk their friendship
2 Timothy 2:24-26 24 The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. (NAU)
Paul warns us: Galatians 1:10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. (NAU)
When we risk someone’s friendship in order to show them how they can walk closer to God, we are showing that we love God above all else. We often fail to help a fellow believer because we are more concerned with how much they love us than we are with how much they are loving God. Proverbs 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. (NAU)
4:8 Long for Christ’s approval
2 Timothy 4:8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. (NAU)
Jesus is the only one who will be handing out rewards. We must stop looking for approval from others. ✔ What we think we need, we fear. ✔ What we fear controls us.
We fear losing, or never getting, what we think will meet our needs. Then we can also find ourselves living in fear of “messing things up” and losing what we think will make us happy.
For example, if we think that we NEED the approval of another person in order to feel worthwhile, then we will live in fear that they will withhold that approval.
When we fear the Lord, on the other hand, we can know that His love will never change. When Isaiah was consumed with the awesome glory of God in chapter six of his book, he forgot his personal needs and volunteered to serve God by proclaiming His message.
CONCLUSION: Are you secure in God’ love for you? Until we are fully assured of God’s love for us, we cannot love others sincerely – and that is the only way that we can encourage others like Paul did Timothy.
