Okay, let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10. This is going to be our key scripture for tonight. We'll look at others. But just as we get started, Hebrews chapter 10, familiar passage, verse 24 and 25. You'll recall, back when we were having Wednesday nights, we were studying cultivating covenant community. And we've been looking at the one another commands of the Bible. And so we've been talking about how do we relate to one another within the body of Christ. And tonight we come to encouraging one another. We all need encouragement. And so we're going to be thinking about how we can encourage one another in the church. Good. That's what people always say after they hear sermons like feasting over the flames of hell. That was very, very encouraging, Logan. But we are, We are going to be encouraging one another, hopefully, as we study these things. Hebrews chapter 10. Let me go back to verse 19 for the sake of context. So you see kind of the flow of thought. But let's read Hebrews 10, verse 19 to 25. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we come before you and we acknowledge that you are holy and throned on the praises of Israel. We thank you for the words of the hymn we just sang together. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, And we know that you are the one who is and the one who was and the one who is to come, the eternal God. And we thank you that you have spoken to us clearly in the person of your son and also in the scriptures. And we pray that you would write these truths on our hearts. May we not only learn. Truth, but may we put it into practice in our lives. Help us to be doers of the word. Help us to be like the wise man who built his house upon the rock, who heard the words of Christ and put them into practice. We confess our sins to you. We know that we all miss the mark in many ways. We sin and stumble, and yet you are gracious and a merciful and forgiving God, and we thank you that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. May your Holy Spirit help us to love one another well in the body of Christ We pray that you would help us to encourage one another and all the more as we see the day drawing near. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So really three questions tonight, as you can see on your notes here. One, what does it mean to encourage one another? And we're primarily going to look at the Hebrews 10 passage for that. And then secondly, what are some biblical examples of encouragement? And see what we can glean from that. And then thirdly, ask the real practical question, how can I become a better encourager? We all ask ourselves that question, how can I become a better encourager? So first of all, what does it mean to encourage one another? So in that Hebrews 10 passage that we just read, Jesus is the great high priest. paid the full price for our sins through his death on the cross. He has ascended into heaven and he sits at the right hand of God. And because that is true, the author of Hebrews starts giving these exhortations of what we're supposed to do as a result of Christ being our great high priest. So, for example, in verse 22 he says, let us draw near to God through our mediator, through our high priest. Verse 23 he says, let us hold fast to our confession of hope in Jesus. And then in verse 24, our text, he says, let us consider. And so these imperatives, these exhortations, flow out of the truth that Jesus is our great high priest over the church. And so in verse 24 and 25, we're really talking about, because he's our great high priest, we're to encourage one another. And notice some things about encouragement from those two verses. One, encouragement is thoughtful. It says, let us consider how. That concept of considering how means that it doesn't just happen automatically. We should give thought to it. We should ponder how we should encourage one another. We should think about individuals and we should ask, how can I encourage this person? What could I say to this person to encourage them? This person in these circumstances, what could I do that would be a blessing to them? And so just the way it's structured there, let us consider, implies that we have to give thoughtful attention to encouragement. It's probably not something that's just going to come easy, but we'll have to think beforehand how to do it. And then notice also encouragement is purposeful. It says we're to consider how to encourage one another. But specifically, it says we're to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. And that word, stir up, is an interesting word. It means really provoke. And in the Bible, it's used both in positive and negative contexts. So for example, when it says fathers don't provoke, your children to anger. There's a negative context. You can provoke to anger, right? Don't do that. Here, it's provoking others to love and good deeds. So it's the idea of provoke, stimulate, stir up. Or a good word would be catalyst. Now, maybe you don't remember your chemistry class from high school, but a catalyst is added to a reaction, and it speeds it up. Or it's added to a process, and it speeds it up. And so you want to speed up. love and good works in other people. You want to make it happen. You want to stimulate it, stir it up. So Christian encouragement, then, is really purposeful. It promotes holiness. It promotes good deeds. It promotes love in others. Sometimes we think of encouragement as just, what can I do to make someone feel better? And when we're encouraged, we do feel better, hopefully. But just the subjective feeling better is not what we're talking about, when we talk about biblical encouragement, we're trying to fire someone up to serve the Lord, to love and good deeds. We're promoting something in them, stirring that up, fanning it into flame. So it's purposeful, it's thoughtful, it's also communal. It says here, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, and then it explains how that's going to happen, not neglecting not abandoning, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together. And so Christian encouragement, we could say, is a community project, right? We're in it. We're in the church. We're in the body of Christ. We're supposed to be regularly meeting together for worship, for fellowship, for encouragement. And as we gather together, the Greek word is actually the same word from which we get the word synagogue, a gathering together of people. As we're gathering together, we're supposed to be stirring one another up to love and good deeds. So when you think about the communal aspect, when you're not present in church or the worship of the church or the fellowship gatherings of the church, you're missing out on encouragement. when you're not present, but also you may be depriving someone else of encouragement because your presence is a blessing to another. And so it works both ways. And one of the things that we need to remember about just showing up is encouraging. Being your presence in the church, your being here is a source of encouragement to others. Sometimes just visibly seeing another Christian is a source of encouragement. Think about when we had to stop meeting during COVID, how discouraging it was to be isolated, right? And just wanting to be with the church, wanting to sing praises, wanting to hear the preach word, all of those things, wanting to be together and see your friends, all of that, is part that happens in community. And so he says, don't neglect to meet together. And he acknowledges some people were doing this even in the first century, as is the habit of some. But actually, as we get closer and closer to the day, that is the day of Christ's return, we should actually be meeting more, and we should be encouraging each other more as we get closer and closer to the return of Jesus. And so this passage, there's a lot of places we could have started, but kind of lays out some of the basic guidelines of what we're talking about when it comes to encouraging one another as Christians within the church. Let's think about some of the biblical examples of encouragement. One example would be Moses. If you turn to Deuteronomy chapter one, Deuteronomy means second law. This is when Moses gave the law to the people of Israel. right before they were going to enter the promised land. So Moses is not able to go in there. Joshua is going to have to do it, right? So Moses is passing the baton to Joshua, who's going to have to lead the people of Israel into the land of Canaan and conquer the Canaanites. So you might say Joshua has big shoes to fill. He's the successor of Moses. I've often thought about these really well-known pastors who pastor these large tall steeple churches and just imagine the guy who follows so-and-so, right? Like, who has to follow Derek Thomas or Sinclair Ferguson or whoever it is at these churches? It's just, you have big shoes to fill. And so it might feel extremely overwhelming for that reason. Then Joshua has to do this impossible task of taking this ragtag group of people and going in and defeating all these Canaanites. So he's in need of encouragement. And look what it says in Deuteronomy 1 in verse 34. It says, the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children, I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord. Even with me, the Lord was angry on your account. This is Moses speaking. Even with me, the Lord was angry on your account. and said, You also shall not go in there. Joshua, the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Now watch this. Encourage him. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there, and to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn journey into the wilderness and the direction of the Red Sea. So one of the last things that Moses is going to do is encourage Joshua, like this is his last pastoral task, to encourage Joshua. Moses can't go into the land, but he's able to pour into the man who is going to lead the people into the land. So that's a good example of encouragement, equipping someone, empowering someone, telling them they can do it with the Lord's help, that sort of idea. What about Jonathan? Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 23. Jonathan was, remember, a son of Saul, but he was friends with David. And that was kind of awkward because Saul wanted to kill David. And David was running for his life in 1 Samuel 23 and verse 15. And look what happens, 1 Samuel 23, verse 15. David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh, and Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and underlined this phrase, strengthened his hand in God. If you have a really literal translation, that's what it's going to say. Strengthened his hand in God. That's encouragement. We'll unpack that in a second. And he said to him, do not fear. For the hand of Saul, my father, shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul, my father, also knows this. And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home." So the language of Jonathan encouraging David is one of strengthening his hand in God, We might just translate that, encouraged him, but it's really the idea that Jonathan took David's hand and put it in God's hand. It's the idea of David was so beaten down, he was so tired and exhausted that Jonathan, to encourage David, was to connect David to God, to encourage him to trust in God, to strengthen him in God. And how did he do that? Well, one of the first things you can see that he did there is he went to David. Of course, he couldn't send an email. He couldn't send a text message. He couldn't do something like that. But he went there and he was physically with David. So his presence with David alone would have been a source of encouragement. Not only that, but he tells David not to be afraid. And so he calms his fears. He says, don't fear. And then when he calms his fear, it's not just a matter of kind of Don't have these bad feelings of fear. But Jonathan reminds David of the covenant promises of God. He says, he says to him, don't fear. See, where is that? I lost my place here. Verse 17. The hand of Saul, my father, shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel and I will be next to you. Why? Why? Why could Jonathan say you shall be king over Israel? Because that's what God said. God said that to David. God had entered into this relationship with David where he said that he was going to replace Saul. And then there's also the idea of not just a friendship, a relationship, but they made a covenant. Jonathan was committed to David. He was on his side. And so this is another picture of encouragement, the way Jonathan encouraged David. There's another one in Acts chapter 9 with Barnabas. And Barnabas is probably a really obvious example because Barnabas' name means son of encouragement. That's what his name literally means. And in Acts chapter 9, we read, starting in verse 26, of kind of what happened after Saul was converted on Damascus Road. And remember, after Saul was converted, he went into the synagogues and he was preaching Jesus. And but then after that, he tries to join some disciples in Jerusalem. And when he tries to join these disciples in Jerusalem, they're not necessarily super excited about that. Why? Why? Because Saul has been killing Christians. Saul has been going place to place, killing Christians. And so he was a terrorist. to the Christians. And so, yeah, okay, so it sounds great. Yeah, he's become a Christian. Well, let's just invite him in. Well, he could be tricking us. He could be pretending to be changed. And look what happens in Acts 9 in verse 26. It says, And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, this is Saul, and they were all afraid of him, understandably so, for they did not believe he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord who spoke to him and how Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. So you see what happens there. Saul has been converted. He goes to the disciples. They're suspicious of him. And Barnabas throws his arm around Saul and says, hey, guys, let me tell you about this guy. He's been preaching about Jesus. He's truly changed. He vouches for him. And then what does Paul do? He goes out and he keeps preaching the gospel. He's able to do what God has called him to do because Barnabas came alongside him and encouraged him by defending him and by saying what God had done through him. When other believers were suspicious of him, Barnabas was a friend to him. So there are other examples. And maybe tonight, as you have your discussions, you can talk about other maybe biblical examples that come to mind about encouragement. But these are just the variety of situations where people need encouragement. A new convert in Paul's case. a man who's afraid, fears for his life in David's case, a new leader in Joshua's case. These are the kinds of people who need encouragement, people who are seeking to serve the Lord, but need someone to come along and bear them up. So how can we be better encouragers? How does this, how does this practically affect the way we relate to one another in the church? That's what these lessons have been all about. First of all, be present. Your physical presence, as I said, is a source of encouragement. You can see this in Romans when Paul is writing to the Romans, Romans chapter 1. And he is wanting to come to Rome, and then he wants to go on to Spain for missionary purposes. But he says early on in the letter in Romans 1 how he wants to come to Rome. And he says in verse 11, I long to see you. that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine." So Paul wants to get to Rome, impart to them some kind of spiritual gift. I'm not going to speculate what the spiritual gift is. It doesn't matter. He wants to go see them, be with them, so he can pour into them and encourage them. But he also wants to receive encouragement from them by being together and being present. You see other places in Paul's letters where he just speaks of the presence of another believer being a source of encouragement. Ephesians chapter 6. Remember, Paul's in prison, so he can't go see the Ephesians, because he's in prison for preaching the gospel. And in Ephesians 6, in verse 21, he says, So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts. So Tychicus is going to go to the Ephesians and he's going to give a report and his presence Even though Paul can't be there, he's going to report on what's going on in Paul's life, and it's going to be a source of encouragement to the church. Just his presence being there is so important. And so it's important for us to be present. Obviously, encouragement is always stronger when you're physically present, right? Sometimes a phone call will do, a text message will do, a letter. when we can't get there, right? But being face-to-face has a stronger sense of encouragement. And so obviously being present, for example, in the gatherings of the church is going to be more encouraging to you, it's going to be more encouraging to others. And so showing up really is half the battle when it comes to encouragement, just being present. Secondly, be perceptive. Notice what it says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 14. I put this in here so you don't have to look it up. But 1 Thessalonians 5, 14, it says, And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. In that way, Paul is giving that exhortation. Notice he's referring to different kinds of people. And different kinds of people need different kinds of things. So there are idle people, they need to be admonished. There are weak people and they need help. There are people who are irritable, irritating, be patient with them, or whatever it might be. But with people, who needs to be encouraged in this passage? Those who are fainthearted. So when you think about being perceptive, if you're going to encourage the fainthearted, you have to be perceptive, you have to be observant. Who's fainthearted? Who seems like they're burning out? Who seems like they're tired? Who seems like they look like they're about to give up, right? You ever stood on the sidelines of a race and said, man, that guy, he's about to be done. He's just exhausted, right? Who needs help? Who's faint hearted? Who needs to be lifted up? So one of the questions we should ask ourselves when we come to church or when we're in church gatherings, even informally, just with each other, we should say, who needs to be encouraged here? Who do I need to be pouring into? Who do I need to be speaking a word of affirmation, or showing appreciation to, or offering prayer, or offering to serve in some way? It's not always words, right? It's something that we do. But being perceptive about who needs it. And the reality is, everybody needs it. But you see times where people are especially fainthearted and they need to be stirred up, they need to be fired up. We need to be a catalyst for them. Thirdly, be positive. These are interesting verses also from 1 Thessalonians 4.1. Paul says, finally then, my brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. Now that might not stand out to you at first, but the people who live in Thessalonica were extremely sexually immoral. It was a very sexually immoral culture. And just like when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, there was a lot of sexual immorality. And so the fact that Paul would say, let me encourage you to pursue sexual purity just as you're doing, do it more, He's affirming what's good. He's being positive about the things that he already sees happening in the Thessalonians lives. You see the same thing he says about encouraging there in chapter five, verse 11. He says, therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing. In other words, I'm not saying you're not doing this. Keep doing it. Let me stir you up to love and good deeds. Keep on serving the Lord in this way. I mention that because sometimes we detract from our encouragement by making unnecessary qualifications. So my favorite one is the story of the lady at the door talking to the pastor, and she says, your sermons have been a blessing to my husband ever since he lost his mind. It's like, that's not quite an encouragement, is it? are the one I put down in my notes here. You're a great dad when you're not losing your temper. Is that encouraging? No. But sometimes we give with one hand a word of affirmation or encouragement, we take away with the other. And so sometimes we talked about overlooking offense. So sometimes we overlook an offense and we look for what we can affirm and what is good and be positive. and fan in the flame more of what is good, to stir that up. But we also want to be honest. So that said, we also do want to be honest. Flattery is a sin. 1 Thessalonians 2.5, Paul says to the Thessalonians, we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with pretext for greed. God is witness. So we want to encourage with truth. Right? We don't want to tell lies. It's amazing, even just looking at illustrations like in sermon books and teaching resources for encouragement, how many of them were like, just try to say something that builds someone up. It's not true, almost. One illustration that I read was a guy's in a hospital bed, and a man came to see him every day. And there's a window beside the hospital bed, but the guy who's so sick in the bed, he can't see out the window. And he says, tell me what's out the window. And the guy goes, he describes all this beautiful things out the window. And then the nurse comes in and she's heard him encouraging this guy. And she's like, looks out the window and it's a brick wall. Like he was just telling him stuff to make him feel better. And that's an example of encouragement. That's not what we're talking about. Encourage people with truth. What did Jonathan do with David? He reminded him of what God had said. He reminded him of what God had done. He put his hand in God. He didn't say, don't be afraid. My dad's not trying to kill you. Well, he was. Don't be afraid. You're in a safe place. Well, he's kind of in Philistine territory. No, that's not something. He reminded him of what God had said and what God had done. So that's important to remember that our encouragement is actually truthful. We also have to be intentional with this. Like anything else that we've talked about, we have an idea sometimes as Christians that true spirituality is spontaneous. It shouldn't really require any effort. It shouldn't really require any discipline. It's just going to happen automatically. If I believe the gospel, then all these things will automatically happen in my life. Well, we're called to be intentional in our sanctification. We're called to be intentional in our community life. Some people do have the gift of encouragement. They almost automatically think how to encourage others. They automatically do it. Most of us regular mortals, if you don't have the gift of encouragement, you're going to have to be more conscientious in your obedience to these commands. And it is a command to encourage others. It says, encourage one another. So if we're not encouraging one another, we're disobeying the Lord. So it is a command. It's not an option. Well, that's what the people who have the gift of encouragement have to do. We all have to do it in terms of our loving one another well. So who have you encouraged recently? Who have you intentionally pursued to try to say something to build them up in the Lord or do something for them to stir them up to love in good deeds? Another thing I've learned here is be specific in your encouragement. Like we said, you should give thought to what you say and do. Often, I find that we settle for generic encouragement. And so examples would be, let me ask you, which of these, kind of like when you go to the eye doctor, you're going to say one or two, one or two, one or two. Which one of these do you find more encouraging? So imagine you're part of our kitchen crew here on Wednesday night. We love and appreciate the kitchen crew. If you were a member of the kitchen crew and someone came up and said, thanks for serving in the kitchen, that's A, okay? Thanks for serving in the kitchen, A. Or B, they could say this, I really appreciate the delicious meals you provide because they really enhance our church fellowship. Is A more encouraging, thanks for serving in the kitchen, or B more encouraging? I really appreciate the delicious meals that you provide because they enhance our church fellowship. Which one do you think? B. B, yes, yes, B, right? So A and B are one or two. Yeah, that's right. What about this one, A or B? A. I appreciate you stepping up to teach children's Sunday school. Ah, that would be a good thing to hear. I appreciate you stepping up to teach children's Sunday school. That would be encouraging to hear, right? But what about B? It may not seem like it, but you're really getting through to my son in the Sunday school lessons you're teaching. On the way home from church, he tells me about what he's learned, and he seems so excited. Thank you. A or B? Right. B, yeah, for sure. All day, every day, right? What about this one? A. All the right answers are going to be B, sorry. Not very challenging. Thanks for greeting our visitors, right? Thanks for greeting our visitors, that's A. And then B, I've noticed that you always speak to new people, and you show genuine concern for making them feel welcome. I think you're one of the reasons visitors stick around here. B, right? So my point is, so those kind of all the A ones were wrong, the B ones were right. Yeah, surprise, surprise, surprise, right? What's that? So if, you know, think about those, okay? The next question I would have is, what is the one we normally settle for? The A's, right? Because they're easy, they're quick, you can say them as you're just passing by. And one of the ways I realized it was I kind of asked myself, What did I find encouraging? What do people encourage their pastor? It's often his preaching, right? So people would say something encouraging about preaching. And I realized, you know, often I would hear, great sermon, pastor. That was really good. Enjoyed it today, right? And that was good. That's great. It's great that it was great. But then people would say to me things like, man, I really appreciate how you said this because it really is helping me with this challenge at work or something like that. And that would be so much more encouraging. Right. And part of that specificity. So make the necessary changes for your life. Think about, you know, Jesus tells us love one another as you love yourself. Right. And so we the golden rule think you have to put yourself in their position and think about What would be a source of encouragement to them? So again, consider how, think how to stir up one another to love and good deeds. And then finally, we need to be persistent in these things. You've heard this 100 times, but it's true, and we need to be reminded of it. Most people need more encouragement than even constructive criticism. There's a lot of common grace wisdom in the How to Win Friends and Influence People book, right? And one of the things that is hammered home in that book, and not everything in that book is biblical, but one of the things that is hammered home in that book is just how people who influence others constantly are affirming them, constantly encouraging, constantly providing positive feedback. And so keep encouraging others, keep stirring up one another to love and good deeds. Because a lot of us are discouraged a lot of the time. We live in a fallen world. We have our own sin that can be discouraging. We're discouraged with things in our family. We're discouraged maybe with the way our jobs are going. We're discouraged with our own performance. And so we need encouragement. And so one of the things that's supposed to happen in the body of Christ is that we're supposed to encourage one another, even as the Lord has encouraged us. So we are to encourage one another. We're going to discuss these things tonight. Let's pray as we go to our discussion groups. Father in heaven, we thank you for the people that you've used in our lives, other brothers and sisters who have been encouragement to us at critical moments in our life. Whether it's when we were newly married, or when we were trying to raise our children, or when one of our children had gone astray, or when we had lost a loved one, or when we felt defeated, we thank you for those that you have given us to Come alongside and put an arm around us and encourage us. And we pray that as you have encouraged us through the body of Christ, that so we also would encourage others. Help us to consider how we might stir up one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as the day draws near. Grant us the grace to be better encouragers. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. All right, the men are in 107 and the ladies are in the parlor.