CHRISTIAN ENCOURAGEMENT
ILLUSTRATION
There is an old proverb about the leader of a city who would take daily walks to gain peace of mind and inspiration from nature. One day, the burdens of his position had his mind more disturbed than normal and the old man found himself walking much further than usual. Eventually he stopped to rest and as he was regaining his strength he spotted a great tree, which easily towered above all the rest. The tree was a wonder to behold and it lured the old man to investigate it in more detail.
The man continued to follow the path he was on until he finally stood underneath the great tree. Its branches spread so wide that the tree could easily have provided shade for more than 1000 horse. As the man stood gazing up at the majesty of the tree he wondered: "What kind of tree is this; its timber must be quite extraordinary." His mind raced with thoughts of how he could impress the people of his village with the story of this tree and all the wealth it would bring the village by cutting it down.
But, as he continued to study the tree he noticed that the branches were too gnarled and twisted to be of use for lumber. He took a closer look at the trunk of the tree and he could see where it had been split and damaged many time in the past; thus, making it worthless for lumber as well. The man exclaimed: “This wretched tree is completely useless. Why in the world did it ever grow so large?”
In disgust the man sat down under the tree and reflected on its worthlessness. As he sat there in the deep cool shade of the mighty tree, a slow smile crept across his face. He thought: “The tree grew to this mighty size because it is useless to those who would have cut it down. Its beauty and great shade would not have been if man had found the tree useful. Now, what seems useless to man is exactly the kind of thing that God puts to great use." The old gnarled tree became a great encouragement to the man and from its inspiration he found himself looking for Godly value in people; not worldly value. As a result his village was filled with peace and prospered.
SERMON
The Challenge
I suppose life can be a bowl of cherries for some people, but for most of us Christians life is a challenge. After all, it was the Apostle Peter who told us (1Pe 5:8): “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” Paul said that we are in a daily fight against the powers of darkness. So you see, it is understandable if a Christian sometimes feels that life is down right chaotic and confusing. Perhaps we can even reach the point where life seems to be mean and dangerous. Paul told Timothy (1 Timothy 6:12): “Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses.” Paul told the Ephesians (6:12): “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” So, in spite of all the warm and fuzzy sermons we may hear, life can be a challenge; life can get us down; and when this happens we all can use a bit of good honest Christian encouragement.
Winning Side
First and foremost, even when we get to the place where we feel overwhelmed by life, we must hang on to the truth; we are on the winning side. In the book of Revelations we will find that Christ is worthy to open the seals, which pronounces an end to Satan’s influence here on earth, and Christ will then sit in judgment as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So you see we are on the winning side; but of greater importance to those of us in the struggle today is the fact that we are not alone. Psalms 5:11-12 assures us that we are constantly under the protection of God if we will just turn to Him: “But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them that those who love your name may rejoice in you. For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.” We should all be encouraged by the knowledge that God is aware of our situation and when we turn to Him for help He is certain to respond with what is best for us.
We must be very careful that we do not turn to the world for encouragement. If we turn to the world, we will find people who are ready to give us advice at the drop of a hat; but all to often their worldly encouragement does not profit us one little bit. After all, what good does it do to have someone agree with us that the situation stinks? How does it benefit our situation to have someone reinforce all our negative emotions? Do we really feel better when someone agrees with us that we are suffering? The answer is no! We already are down and the last thing we need is someone adding another negative attitude to the situation. What we need is good honest Christian encouragement that does not shower us with pity. We need the encouragement to get up and get us beyond the current situation. You seldom find this kind of encouragement in the world.
Underpinning of Love
As Christians, we all need to lean how to be a source of encouragement to those around us. Christian encouragement is not idle chitchat or rambling platitudes because these do little, to nothing, in helping someone rise above the situation they are in. What a person needs from us is Christian encouragement, which is steeped in Christian love. Paul told the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13:2): I could have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries; I could possess all knowledge and have so much faith that I could remove mountains; but if I do not have love, I am nothing. Love is truly the basic essential of Christian encouragement; but, for our encouragement to be of real benefit, it must be fortified by a good knowledge of scripture. A Christian full of worldly wisdom is only slightly effective but a Christian bearing the wisdom of scripture can brighten the saddest spirit and save many a soul from darkest despair.
Structured Encouragement
When our heart is full of love, and we understand how to handle the word of God, we will find it most profitable to have a structured approach in encouraging. Paul told the Colossians (2:4-6): “I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.” There is nothing chaotic or confusing about God. There should be nothing chaotic or confusing in Christian encouragement. If we are going to be an encouragement to those around us we need to prepare ourselves so that we can present a calm and confident approach in helping others. There is a simple framework we can use whenever we are encouraging others: The first thing is to help the individual know where they want to be: to have a clearly defined Christian goal for the situation they are in. The second thing is for them to know where they are right now. Third, they need to understand what separates them from their goal. And, the forth step is to come up with a plan for reaching where they want to be. When we set out to be an encouragement to others, especially where we are called upon to help solve the problem, we need a structured approach, which will keep us focused on a solution.
We can have a far more effective influence on people’s lives if we encourage from within this structure. It is important for us to realize that the world is indeed full of chaos and evil, but we do not have to succumb to it. Paul told the Romans (15:4): “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The key to rising above the world’s chaos is to turn to scripture and use it in coming to an understanding of what we want as a Christian (Step 1). Once we have a picture of what we expect from life, or from the specific situation, we need to honestly understand where we right now. This can be rather difficult. We seldom are fully honest with ourselves; and thus, we have a hard time clearly seeing where we stand right now. But, until we are honest about our current state we can never move on to the place God wants us to be. Once we know where we want to be and we know where we are we can determine what stands between us and our goal. If you are going to be an encourager, now is when you will be put to a challenge. The obstacles between where we want to be and where we are can seem impossible to overcome. Remember Jesus Himself said (Matthew 19:26): “with God all things are possible.” As we encourage another we must remain in this positive frame of mind and then help them build a plan to reach their goal. Take it on step at a time. Let each step be an objective small enough to achieve. You cannot fix things in one day and you have to have a structure approach if the fixing is going to last.
Six Elements of Christian Encouragement
Not only do we need a structured approach to encouraging others, we must also follow a few well proven approaches.
1. Rely on Scripture – The world is full of people who will give you advice; and even though some of it is good, you cannot rely on worldly ways. There is no room for compromise. Remember what Paul told the Colossians (2:8): “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” We must encourage from within scripture: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:17).
2. Listen more than you talk – Listen with the objective of truly understanding what is being said. For some of us it is almost impossible but we need to try and This is understand emotions and thoughts as well as logic. The odds are very good that there may be not logic what so ever. This means that you must ask specific questions to dig out reality. Encouraging others, especially those with a problem, is best done by those with the gift to do so … some of us never master the ability to help people address emotional issues.
3. Don’t be judgmental – If we are going to encourage someone we cannot do it if we criticized their failures or point out their shortcomings. Jesus may have acknowledged the existence of sin in a repentant person’s life but He rapidly went forward to positive encouragement.
4. Think positive – We know that we are not alone. Psalm 10:17 says: “You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry.” We need to heed the advice of Paul when he told the Philippians (4:8): “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if any-thing is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
5. Speak positive – How you speak to someone else can totally set the tone for how they will react to your words. You may have all the right words but if they are spoken in a negative way they will produce a negative results. Paul wrote to the Romans (14:19): "Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification." You can discuss a negative issue but you can do so from a positive or at least neutral perspective. This might be the time to use a little bit of the “political correctness” that Washington bureaucrats are constantly throwing about.
6. Be a Christian comforter – you can be honest, firm and scripturally uncompromising without beating someone over the head with the Bible. Paul told the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 1:3-4): “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
Conclusion
Whatever the situation we must always have a genuine interest in helping the other person. We should always take the time to acknowledge their problems and let them know that we are concerned. Then, we must provide them with affirmation and scriptural validation about who they are and how much God loves them. Encouragement can range from simply saying: “I know you can do it;” to spending time helping a person address an issue over a prolonged period of time. In any case, we must do so with the spirit of Godly love and filled with the wisdom of scripture.
