The Church You’ve Always Longed For … Is An Encouraging Church! - Hebrews 10:19-25
Series: The Church You’ve Always Longed For #1
I once read somewhere that the average person meets some 10,000 people during the course of their lives. Most of those encounters are unremarkable – people that don’t really impact our life at all. There are others though whose lives may deeply, or even profoundly, touch our own.
I can think of two such people right off the top of my head and both were teachers of mine in elementary school. The memories I have of the one bring a sting with them even today, all these years later. She was my grade five French teacher and one day when I answered a question incorrectly and she mocked and ridiculed me in front of the whole class. The shame of her words and that experience wounded me deeply and although I’ve long since forgiven her, those memories are still vivid, and sharp, even today.
The other person I distinctly remember is my grade three teacher. Her name was Mrs. Pegnucco and she invested in my life. Every school day we would be required to write a few sentences in our journals – sharing our thoughts, our hearts, our hopes, our fears – and at the end of each day we would hand them in to be read by her. And each night she would pour over all those journals and write a few words in response. Her replies were always encouraging, always personal, always caring and she had a way of helping you believe in yourself. Some 30 years later I still have that journal. Her life touched mine.
William Ward once said this: “Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. [But] Encourage me, and I will not forget you.” And I imagine that many of the people who you remember as influencing your life are remembered because in some way they encouraged you. And today we’re going to look at what the Bible says about encouragement because The Church We’ve Always Longed For … Is An Encouraging Church. And as we look into God’s word this morning I’ll invite you to open your Bibles with me to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 19-25.
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” [Hebrews 10:19-25]
It has been said that “discouragement is a thief.” It steals your joy, your zeal, your peace, your passion and it robs you of hope. It leads to discontentment, disillusionment and disarray in one’s life. Preacher Matthew Slicker says that “Discouragement is dissatisfaction with the past, distaste for the present, and distrust for the future.” And I think he’s right for discouragement leads to despair, to depression, to frustration, to exhaustion and often to bitterness of one’s very soul and if it endures long enough, it can even rob you of the will to live.
Now contrast that with encouragement, which the dictionary defines as being “to inspire with courage, spirit or hope, … to spur [another] on.” Encouragement enables us to look beyond the difficulties of the moment to a better future. It leads to excellence and passion as it inspires us to push ourselves beyond what we thought was possible. It results in boldness as we step forward in faith in the promises and provision of God. Encouragement can go a long way to healing the hurts of the past, to moving beyond the pain of the present, and entering into a hope filled future.
Yet we live in a world in which there are many discouraging voices. And they say things like this: “You can’t do that. This isn’t possible. What were you thinking? You’re no good. Can’t you do anything right? You’ll never amount to anything. You’ll never change. Why bother? What’s wrong with you?” We might hear these things in people’s voices, we might see it etched on their faces or in their actions, and if we’re not careful we might begin to believe them about ourselves. And you may have heard such things from your own families, from your friends, or from the world in general – but we should not hear them coming from the people of God for the admonition of Scripture is that we “spur one another on to love and good deeds, … that we encourage one another and all the more as we see the Day [of the Lord] approaching.”
The truth is a little bit of encouragement can make a tremendous difference in someone’s life. Now I’m not a football fan at all but I am a fan of a university football coach that I read about a little while ago. At the start of every year this coach would take aside each new player and have a word with them. “I’m very impressed with your ability,” he’d tell them. “If you work really hard this year, I think you’re good enough to make it to the NFL.” Now it turns out he told this to every player on the team, but do you know what? That coach has had the highest percentage of players of any University to make it into professional football. That’s what encouragement can do for someone.
Or take the discouraged youth of 14 years old who thinks he’s good for nothing but who’s Sunday School teacher takes him aside one day and said, “I believe you have significance; your life is going to amount to something.” A number of years later that young man became a pastor of a church of about 300 people. Within five years the church grew to a thousand and had called six more pastors to join the ministry. When asked how it had all come about the pastor said they had taken seriously Scripture’s admonitions to encourage one another and that the church had become a “church of encouragers.” People actively sought to spur one another on to love and good deeds and people wanted to be a part of that because they saw the love of God in action as these people encouraged one another, and it all began in his life because he received that first little bit of encouragement to believe in himself and trust God.
I like the story of a young fellow named Jamie. Seems Jamie had some learning difficulties and school wasn’t easy for him. But one day he came home with a great big smile on his face. He’d never looked happier. And when he bounced in the door, he said, “Mom! Mom! You’re not going to believe it, but I got the best part of all in the school play!” And his mother said, “You did, honey! That’s great! That’s wonderful. What part is it anyway?” And Jamie said, “Mom, I’ve been chosen to clap and cheer for all the others!” Isn’t that a beautiful story? We could all probably do with being a little more like Jamie, couldn’t we? Willing to clap and cheer for all the others, to encourage them daily, to spur them on to love and good deeds.
Our verses this morning caution us not to give up meeting together. Evidently some had stopped gathering for worship, had allowed other things to come first, had stopped meeting for fellowship and these things had become habitual. And the author of Hebrews says, “No,” do not let it be that way, “keep meeting together and encourage one another.” Worshipping together is one of the ways in which we are able to encourage one another and to spur one another on. How inspiring it is when the church is full, when songs of praise and worship are sung with our hearts and not just our lips, when the needs of people are prayed for, not out of duty, but out of a passionate desire to uplift the afflicted, to comfort the grieving, to bring hope to the hurting. We encourage one another through our presence together in worship – a reminder that we’re not struggling through life alone but as part of the body of believers who care.
We encourage one another as we share our struggles, our failures, and the testimony of God’s mercy, His grace, and his faithfulness in our lives. We encourage one another as we learn and grow together in the faith we share and so the church is built up. I was personally challenged by a question I read recently which asked pastors “Do your sermons beat up or build up?” You can answer that question better than I since you are the ones who listen to me week after week, but my sincere hope is that they “build up,” for the word of God not only cuts to the truth of who and what we are, but it encourages us with who we have become in Christ and what we will be one day in His presence. It is a word which fills us with dread as our deepest needs and motives are exposed and laid bare, but it is also a word which encourages and builds up and restores us as it offers hope as we encounter the Son of God.
In Hebrews, chapter three, we find these words: “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” [Hebrews 3:12-14] When we encourage each other in the Lord we help ensure that none may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. What does that mean? It means we encourage one another to identify themselves completely in Jesus Christ, to resist the temptation to walk as the world walks, and instead walk in newness of life in Jesus Christ. It means we have a special ministry to one another when we confess the reality of sin in our lives. For when one stumbles and falls, a criticizer will condemn and say, “I told you so.” And then they’ll turn away, or, if they offer to help, it will be a help that comes from a hardened and uncaring heart. An encourager, on the other hand, will come alongside the one who stumbled, remind them of who they are in Jesus Christ, and build them up, and then help them to move towards wholeness in Christ. Let me ask you this: Which one of those two, are you? The Criticizer or the Encourager?
We have a wonderful example of an encourager in the pages of the Bible, a man by the name of Barnabas. Barnabas wasn’t even his real name – but it’s what all the disciples called him, because “Barnabas” means “son of encouragement,” and Barnabas was a great encourager, a tremendous encourager. When Saul, who had persecuted the church, accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior, and became known as Paul, the rest of the believers rejected him. They feared him, they doubted him, they avoided him and would not welcome him into their fellowship. But Barnabas came along side of him during this time and encouraged him in his faith and presented him to the church as a brother in the Lord.
See, an encourager looks beyond what a person was in the past, sees him as he is in the present, but also has a glimpse of what he can be in the future. Later Barnabas and Paul embarked on Paul’s first missionary journey. They took with them a young man by the name of Mark. Mark got cold feet along the way and left them. Paul was furious and later when Mark wanted to join them again, Paul refused, but Barnabas stood by Mark. His stand split the team for Paul would have nothing to do with the one who had earlier failed them so miserably. So Paul left with another disciple and Barnabas took Mark with him and it is well he did for from him we have the Gospel of Mark. Now later in his life Paul came to appreciate Mark as Barnabas did and the rift was healed. In fact Mark himself had become something of an encourager to Paul by that time – probably because he had experienced the grace and love and hope of such encouragement in his own life.
Sometimes it is easy for us to encourage another – a few words might make a world of difference. At other times though there might be a cost to such encouragement just as there was when Barnabas supported Mark. But it’s worth it, because think how both Paul’s life, and Mark’s life, might have turned out if it had not been for an encourager such as Barnabas.
Friends, encourage one another daily as long as it is still called today. It’s true that we often appreciate the people around us, sometimes we can see the hand of God at work in their lives, occasionally we can see when they are hurting or in need. But how often do we come alongside them with a word of encouragement – a note, a phone call, a visit, a Scripture verse, an act of love and kindness? Scripture tells us that such encouragement can turn one from sin to salvation (Hebrews 3:12), it moves the timid to boldness (1 Thessalonians 5:14), builds others up for the work of the kingdom (1 Thessalonians 5:4-11), comforts the afflicted (2 Corinthians 1:3-5), consoles the grieving (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) and spurs others on to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). Such encouragement as that should not be postponed even a moment for we never know what the future holds or what a simple word or act of kindness on our part might mean to someone else.
Let us encourage one another daily for as we become a church of encouragers it becomes more and more difficult for anyone to fall through the cracks. Take a moment and look at the people around you today. Are there faces that are missing from our fellowship? Is there someone whom you haven’t seen here for days, weeks, or even months? Maybe they’re longing for the church that you’re longing for – an Encouraging Church. And perhaps what they need is a little bit of encouragement, to know that someone noticed they were gone, that someone cared enough to drop a note, or to visit and inquire how they are doing.
There are trees in California known as Sequoia trees. They tower as much as 300 feet above the ground. But for such large trees they have surprisingly shallow root systems. Instead of digging deep the roots stay shallow and branch out in all directions. For that reason it is rare to see such a tree by itself because it would be easily uprooted by a strong wind. That's why you find them growing together. Their roots intertwine and support one another against the battering of the storms. Together those trees are stronger than they ever could be on their own, able to weather the severest storms they might face. That is a good picture of how it should be with the body of Christ, for as we encourage one another we help one another through the trials we might face in this life. We console the lonely, comfort the grieving, help the afflicted. We remind the despairing of the hope we share. And we build one another up for the work of the kingdom as we spur one another on to love and good deeds, as we encourage one another to use the gifts that God has given them, and as we walk together by faith.
That is why it is so important that we encourage one another while it is still called today and that we don’t stop meeting together for regular worship. For we are told that if one part of the body suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and how easy it is to stumble and fall away from the faith, and from the church, if we do life on our own. How much more difficult it is to fall away when we are all connected as the body we are meant to be! When we are being encouraged daily in our faith by the family of God!
How do we go about doing this? Let’s look back to our Scripture passage. There are 5 “Let us” statements there that show us the way. First, “Let us draw near to God.” This is where we need to start, each of us, is to draw near to God, to seek Him with everything we are and have and ever hope to be. Secondly, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess.” Take God’s word to heart and stand firm on it’s truths and it’s promises. Live it out daily. Thirdly, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” And fourthly, “Let us not give up meeting together,” which would be the act of the discouraged, but rather, “Let us encourage one another,” for the day of the Lord is coming – the day on which we will stand before the Lord and be called to give an account of our lives. In other words consider the moments of each day in light of the coming return of Jesus and the life we have in Him.
In 1989 an earthquake that registered 8.2 on the Richter scale rocked Armenia. Over 30,000 people were killed in less than four minutes. In the midst of the horror and the destruction a father left his home and raced to the school where his son was. It took time to make his way over the rubble that filled the streets. Everywhere he looked buildings had crumbled and lives were shattered. It was no different when he got to the school. Like so many of the buildings that day, it too, had been flattened. In the midst of his growing fears he recalled the words he had spoken to his son some time before. “No matter what,” he had told his son, “I’ll always be there for you.” If there was a time when his son ever needed him – surely it was now.
Picking his way through the debris he worked his way to the corner of the school in which his son’s classroom had stood. Reaching what he figured must be the right area he began to dig with his bare hands. Others, including parents, firemen and police officers, tried to pull him away. “It is no use,” they said, “there is nothing that can be done for them.” But the father paid them no heed and he kept digging. 8 hours passed and still he did not stop. 24 Hours swept by and still he did not pause in his labors. 36 Hours and … nothing. Then in the 38th hour he pulled back a piece of rubble and heard his son’s voice. “Dad, Dad it’s me!” his son cried out. “Dad, I told the other kids not to worry because you’d never give up on me. I knew you’d save me and when you saved me, they’d be saved as well.” 14 Children were saved that day because one man would not give up when everyone else had. [Source Unknown]
That child was encouraged to have such hope because he knew his father’s heart. What is the basis for our encouragement in this life? Maybe you’ve been that person that everyone else has written off. “He’s no good.” “She’ll never amount to anything.” Perhaps you’ve thought those things of yourself. “I’m worthless. I’m beyond hope. I’m unlovable.” Perhaps you’ve thought, “My sin is too great. What would God want with me?” If that’s you this morning I hope this story I’ve shared gives you a renewed hope because that story gives us a picture of how God loves us. A picture of how He relentlessly pursues us. For the truth is that we were created to have fellowship with God, to be connected to Him through faith. When Adam and Eve walked the Garden of Eden Scripture tells us that God walked with them. He spoke with them and they enjoyed fellowship with him – right up to the moment that sin entered the picture. Our sins sever our fellowship with God. It separates us from him. And there is no way back from that except through faith in Jesus Christ.
And the cross, as terrible as it is, is an emblem of God’s love for us. It’s a symbol of our hope in the Lord for as Romans 5:8 says “God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” God has pursued you to the cross and beyond. He has sought you out in some of the darkest moments of your life, He has eagerly anticipated being joined in fellowship with you, and like that Father who did not give up on his son, neither has God given up on you. And He invites you to come to Him, to be joined with Him in His kingdom through faith in Christ, to be identified with Him through His son, to acknowledge Him as God and turn your life over to Him, and turning from sin and embracing the things of righteousness.
It’s an invitation extended to all – but not all will receive it. Some will spurn, scorn it, or ridicule it. Yet that does not change the heart of the Father who calls us to be his sons and daughters. And God is pursuing you, seeking you, calling you. Our encouragement starts with knowing the heart of the Father. As we read today let us draw near to God that we may know the Father’s heart, that we may hold unswervingly to the faith we profess and spur one another on to love and good deeds as we meet together and encourage one another in the life that we are called to in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let’s pray …
