Encourage One Another - Clover Sites



Encourage One Another --- Bear One Another’s Burdens

MidWeek #3 March 7 2012

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1Thessalonians 5:11

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

Lenten Series: The One Another’s Of Scripture

Tonight we continue our series on the One Another’s of Scripture from the New Testament. As we saw last week some pastors and writers have described the one another behaviors as the basic of the body of Christ which make it beautiful. When the church is viewed as beautiful by the folks out in the world, then they just want to be a part of it, and it grows as more and more people come and join and become a part of the body.

We are going to look at two more of these tonight…

ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER

Actually in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 it is “encourage one another and build each other up,”

Encouraging one another doesn’t come naturally.

That was the situation at the church in Thessalonica. Although for the most part they lived a model Christian life, there were some problems. There were problems of immorality, of men not respecting their wives, of some believers taking advantage of others, problems of some nosy busy bodies, and the problem of some who just got lazy and didn’t work, thinking Jesus was coming back right away. And so it is in that context that Saint Paul shares these words with the church in Thessalonica.

Encouragement is very necessary in the body of Christ.

Jesus was an encourager. The Apostles practice encouragement. It is a key component of the pastoral gift, that is, pastors should have at least a healthy degree of the encouragement gift.

There are two levels of encouragement within the Church.

First, it is a one another for every one to practice. But secondly, it is a spiritual gift to some members of the body to be exercised in a special way. It is included in the spiritual gift list in Romans 12:8. In that respect it is sometimes called the counseling gift. The well known Christian counselor Dr. Larry Crabb actually wrote a whole book on it entitle Encouragement: The Key to Counseling.

A wordsearch of the exact phrase “encourage one another” brings up four verses:

2 Corinthians 13:11 Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

1 Thessalonians 4:18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Hebrews 3:13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

All four of these injunctions by Paul the Apostle are directed to specific churches where they needed to hear these words and change their behavior so that the blessings of continued spiritual growth and attraction of unbelievers would continue.

The best example of an encourager is Barnabas, the “Son of Encouragement.”

Barnabas saw the good in Saul and defended him before the Aposltes in Jerusalem (Acts 9:26-27). It was Barnabas who the Apostles sent to check out the church in Antioch and help them (Acts 11:22 and following). And it was Barnabas who defended John Mark when Paul kicked him off the second missionary journey team (Acts 15:36 and following).

In his book, One Anothering: Biblical Building Blocks for Small Groups, Dr. Richard Meyer says that every church needs to have a group who are of the “Order of Barnabas” and gives five mottoes to follow for those in the order.

The Order of Barnabas Mottoes:

1. Be vocal in the affirmation of others.

It is not easy to try to encourage someone silently. That’s why in the spiritual gifts lists it falls in the category of speaking gifts, not servant gifts. It is a given that if we are to be an encourager we need to use our speaking ability to give them affirmation.

2. Affirm people for who they are, not who you want them to be.

This is so true in parenting our children. You know, some parents want their kid to grow up to be a football star, or gymnast, or whatever, and the kid is happier tinkering with building blocks or Legos, and will one day be an architect or engineer. Affirming in the wrong way only causes consternation and confusion on the part of the child.

So it is in the Church. Let people be who God has designed them to be and affirm them.

3. Grab a crab.

Richard Meyer describes the difficulty of grabbin a crab safely, a live crab, out of a bunch of live crabs at the seaside market, and doing it safely.

The point is that there are “crabs” in almost every church. People who it seems nothing will ever satisfy them completely and they make it known to everyone else. Those who are members of the Order of Barnabas, those gifted with encouragement, will have an incredible knack at affirming and encouraging the most disagreeable and critical sorts of people, so that the good is brought out in them, instead of the crab!

I think every church needs as many crab grabbers as they have crabs because crabs can suck the joy out of any church.

4. Be a rainbow, not a cloudburst.

People in the Order of Barnabas do not rain on other people’s parades. Rather, they hold up people’s unlimited possibilities. They are optimist, not the pessimist. In any situation they are able to see how it could have been worse and are able to focus people in the direction that is better and give thanks for the blessings that are.

5. Allow others to be your balcony people.

He describes that there are basically two types of people, basement people and balcony people. Basement people are the perennial pessimists that see things in the worst way and tear others down. “You can’t do that. That’s a stupid thing to do. When are you ever going to get it right?” Those are kinds of statements that basement people make about others.

On the other hand, balcony people are encourages. Like folks in a balcony shouting chants of encouragement to a team playing a game. They are full of love, they cheer us on. They sit in the balcony of our lives like a heavenly cheering section saying, “You can do it! Go for it!”

The point here is that Barnabas people should be balcony people, but that they also need to have others who will do that in return for them. We all need encouragement.

So think on these things. What can you do to change the way you interact with others to be more encouraging? Encouragement builds up others, and builds up the church, the body of Christ. Basement people don’t, instead they cause trouble in the church.

The second on another we look at this evening is…

BEAR ONE ANOTHER’S BURDENS.

Bearing one another’s burdens doesn’t come naturally!

We are all by nature very self-centered people, so we have to be born again, because it is a part of the new nature that the Holy Spirit gives us that begins to look beyond ourselves and take on the interests of others.

Just for your information, the Bible does give us some of the one anothers that come naturally. In Galatians 5:26 it says: Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another. And in Galatians 5:15 it says: but if you act like wild animals hurting and harming one another then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another.

I guess you could call those animal behaviors, you know, like pecking order in a pen of chickens? That is not the way the church is to operate.

Question? How do we bear one another’s burdens?

There are two prerequisites for this to take place: Self disclosure, and Confidentiality.

1. Self Disclosure.

We can not bear one another’s burdens if we do not know what they are. Even Jesus asked for help. In Mark 14:33-34 Jesus began to be deeply distressed and troubled. ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.’

Jesus openly shared with the disciples His feelings. This was another side of Him which they didn’t see much of. He was usually the strong one, the faithful one.

The disciples slept! Nevertheless, even just sharing with others can help us deal with our struggles and overcome them.

This is a challenge for American men. It has been said that only 10% of men really have a friend close enough to share their thoughts and feelings. The risk of not allowing others to know us loneliness, and we have many lonely people today!

We are deceived into thinking that self-disclosure is weakness. No. And God can even use our weaknesses! He told St. Paul 2 Corinthians 12:9 My power is perfected in your weakness.

Weakness can be a great blessing because it brings us to our knees and gives God room to work in our lives. And it is weakness that rives us to God in prayer and submission.

2. Confidentiality.

The other prerequisite for bearing one another’s burdens is confidentiality. It says in Proverbs 11:13 A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.

Benjamin Franklin said: Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead!

And here’s a verse from a poem that also describes this:

Our vigor wanes with middle age,

We find our footsteps lagging;

Our backbones creak, our sight grows weak,

And yet our tongues keep wagging!

Then there’s the Epitaph on an English tombstone:

Beneath this stone, a lump of clay, lies Arabella Young, who on the 24th day of May began to hold her tongue!

Here’s the point:

It is upon the foundation of confidentiality that is built the freedom to express one’s personal thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Therefore, for the person who is carrying a heavy burden, in order that they may be helped, need to let others they can trust to come alongside and share in the burden.

Required of all, but the spiritual gift of some.

Like encouragement, all Christians are enjoined to bear one another’s burdens, but there are some who have the special spiritual gift. It is called the gift of showing mercy, it is listed in Romans 12:8.

This is a powerful gift which when used properly in the local church can be a means to reach out and touch others in the community so that they are inspired to want to come and belong to that church. It was in evidence in the church in Jerusalem in Acts chapter two.

We help others through the benevolence ministry, through Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets, and the youth drive-by lead raking, and such of other kinds of servant events we are practicing this injunction to bear others burdens and show mercy.

Conclusion:

As with the other one another’s these are law statements, not Gospel. And our encouragement to obey them comes from hearing the Gospel and feeling it work in our lives.

We can help carry other’s burdens and encourage others because Jesus carried of all burden with our sins to the cross, and He promises to carry all our burdens to come, even now.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus said, Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matt.11:28-30)

Prayer: Lord make us better at encouraging one another and at carrying one another’s burdens, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download