Good morning, everybody. Thank you, Pastor. And it's a privilege to be here this morning and to share information and teaching about exhort one another as part of reciprocal living. And I want to encourage you to make sure you have the handout. If you're in Sunday school, make sure you've gotten a handout. If not, take time now to go get one. I think it will really help you. There are four pages. I have a handout, it's either four single pages or two front to back pages. And I think it'll really facilitate your listening. Our format is about the same, introduction, command, definition, examples, the great examples, which I'm excited about sharing with you, and then principles and applications and New Testament exhortations, attitude and importance. And we'll be sharing information about that. And I thank the Lord for allowing me to share these truths about His command that we should be exhorting one another, and may God bless the sharing of his word, and let's pray. Father, I thank you for the privilege of coming here this morning to share this information, both with those in Sunday School, my brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as those that are listening from the live stream and also the recorded stream. Father, we pray that you would bless our time together, that you would help me to be clear and concise in my explanations, and that people could understand the teaching and draw what you would have them to get out of it, and that it would not return unto you void. I pray, Father, that you would bless this time of study and bless each one that's listening. In Jesus' name, amen. When I first started this study, I had a little bit of fear because, and that's not biblical, okay, because it's not that you say to someone every day, let's get together and exhort one another. It's a term that it's a little bit not as well known as say, let's, Let's share or let's bear one of those burdens or let's build one another up. So it is a term that I want to take time as we go to explain But welcome to Sunday School for November 15 2020 and I'm thankful that everyone is here. I wish I could see you. You could see me, but I can't see you. But I can imagine that you're here, and I'm glad that you're here. Introduction. There are three bullets here. Now, the first part of the introduction is really a summary of some things that we have learned in the past and before. In the church, there are believers with many trials and tribulations. So many people have spiritual needs and difficulties that are heart-rendering, and they have physical needs that are life-threatening, and some that are not, but just make their lives miserable. The struggles in 2020 of our brothers and sisters in Christ have been phenomenal. There are those that are out of work. My own son is out of work because of the pandemic. There's economic needs, personal needs, health needs, spiritual needs, so many things that have really had a significant impact on people. And all of these things really focus our attention on trying to resolve them and actually take our attention away many times from our Lord Jesus and we get distracted. And I could understand why. Do we have a responsibility, bullet number two, do we have a responsibility to help our brothers and sisters in Christ and their struggles and afflictions? And really that should have been a statement because we already studied that in previous weeks. Yes, we are in the body of Christ and with that we're members of one another and that comes with responsibilities that we have to one another. We are obligated because we are all part of the body of Christ of which he is the head. And we have learned in reciprocal living that we are responsible to help each other and to do everything that we can to meet each other's needs and to help people remain strong. And what does God want us to do? That's the third bullet. What does he want us to do? And I think that's a great summary question. What does God want us to do? So look at Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. And we have read this before, but I'm going to read it again. And I'm going to read it for emphasis. And I want you to look at what you think God wants the Christian to do. And He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. He and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, "...for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love. may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body into the edifying of itself in love." We actually grow in the body of Christ. We can get stronger. So, the idea is, verse 11, those, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, the pastoral ministry in the church is designated to, the first part of verse 12, for the equipping, the perfecting of the saints, the thoroughly maturing of the saints. And now for the work of the ministry is what the saints are to be doing. The saints are to be equipped by the pastoral ministry, those in the evangelists, pastors, teachers, and they, the saints then grow as they are taught and learn and they minister to one another and as the leadership minister to them. And then they do the work of the ministry. So often in the American church, we think of the pastor does the work of the ministry, and it's us, the lay people that do the work of the ministry. And well, how long do you do that? Well, you do it for the edifying of the body of Christ. And then we do it until we all come into the unity of the faith and the knowledge of God unto a mature man under the measure. And here's the reference point, the measuring rod, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what that does is it keeps us from being attracted by every wind of doctrine is, oh, that sounds good. Oh, that sounds good. You're able to know what is right. And you're able to help people know what is right. And then we're not tossed around. And then in verse 15, speaking the truth in love, we do it in love. And then verse 16 is what results. We get stronger and we grow and we're mature. and the body is able to edify itself in love. So what does the Lord want us to do? He wants us to do the work of the ministry. That is what we are to do. Now, the scripture, the command for exhort one another is found in 1 Thessalonians 5.11. Now, I want to see if you can figure out where the word exhort is. So verse Thessalonians 5.11, wherefore, exhort yourselves together and edify one another even as you also do. And you're probably saying, Scotty. We did edify already. Why are you doing that? Well, the word comfort here is really the word that is translated exhort. And we'll talk about it in just a minute. But that is the word. So wherefore exhort yourselves in the form of comforting one another and edify one another even also as you do. In Hebrews 3, 12 and 13, that's the next passage. There are two verses that we are looking at. Now, the writer of Hebrews says, take heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. That's a sober warning from the writer of Hebrews. Now, exhort there is plainly spoken, exhort one another daily. And that means to urge and encourage. And we're going to look next at the definition of exhort. So, middle of the first page on your handout, definition. Exhorting one another is a three-part ministry of believers or saints that are in the church. Number one, they encourage each other through a knowledge of scriptural truth and how it applies to their lives. Number two, they comfort each other through the application of the scriptural truth to their needs and problems. And then number three, they urge each other to action in applying scriptural truth specifically in obedience to God. So that's encourage, comfort, and urge that that word means. And those are the three major shades of that word, exhort. Okay, now, if you notice that at the end of each sentence, I put the aspect of our being that that aspect of the word exhort, like encourage, affects the intellect or the mind. And comfort appeals to the emotions of the heart. and urge the actions and will. And I like to think of it like that. It kind of makes it neat and easy for me to remember and understand. So I also looked up these words individually and to see what in the dictionary to see because we use words differently and the meanings change. So encourage means to inspire with courage, spirit or confidence. Comfort means to soothe. or console, remember console, we're going to talk about that in a minute. Reassure, bring cheer, support, aid, and encourage. And then finally, urge means to impel, to constrain, or move one toward action, insist, or assert with earnestness. And remember those because I think they will help bring that meaning of that word into better focus. Okay. So let's look at some examples from the scripture of each one of those, and the first one's encouraging, and that's Barnabas at Antioch at the bottom of page one on your handout, Acts 11, 22, and 23. This is Barnabas at Antioch, and that then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem. And they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch, who, Barnabas, when he came, had seen the grace of God, and was glad, and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cling to the Lord. And Barnabas was an encourager. I love that. He exhorted them all. Now, sometimes, I have this down for encouraging, but sometimes the difference between encouraging and urging is very thin and they may overlap. And that's okay. The same word is used, but it's as if he were beseeching them or encouraging them or stimulating by his approval or inspiring them with confidence Asserting earnestly that they should continue to cling to the Lord. He's exhorting them. So that's encouraged. Now comforting. Paul was comforted by Titus. Now I want you to watch how many times the word comfort is in these two verses. These are great. And this is, only Paul could do this. Well, the Holy Spirit did it, but Paul was the author, human author. He was comforted by everything that happened in these verses, and it's wonderful. This is 2 Corinthians 7, 6 through 7. Nevertheless, God that comforted those that are cast down, and that word means to be humiliated, dehumiliated, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not by his coming only, but by the consolation." That word is also the same word that's used for comfort. "...wherewith he was comforted in you when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me, so that I rejoice the more." So briefly what's happened here is the coming of Titus, the actual presence of Titus with Paul was a great, great encouragement to him and it was comforting. And also comforting Paul was the comforting report that Titus gave concerning the repentance of the Corinthians and their positive response to the first letter that was carried by Titus. And then Paul was also comforted that the Corinthians comforted Titus and gave him such a wonderful response. even though he wrote a confrontational letter, maybe the most confrontational letter that Paul had written. 1 Corinthians is frank, which it should be because he was addressing sins in the church. But Paul was encouraged by their repentance and their reactions and Now we're gonna look at urging. And we're gonna look at a passage which we have looked at several times before, and I make no apologies, because it's Philemon 1, 8 through 20. And that's the perfect illustration of Paul urging Philemon to the person who the church held their, his house, the church was held in his house at Colossae. And Paul is saying, Brother, I would like for you to take back your servant, Onesimus, who ran away and stole money from you, but I want you to receive him as myself. And I want you to look for the word exhort as I read this. And I'm going to read most of the whole thing from 8 to 20, because it's that powerful. And I think the reading of God's word is an important thing for us to do. Verse 8 of the first chapter of Philemon, there's only one chapter. Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds, which in time past to thee was unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me. whom I have sent again, thou therefore receive him, that is my own vows, whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered to me in the bonds of the gospel. But without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season that thou shouldst receive him forever. Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord. If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. If he hath wronged thee or oweth thee aught or anything, put that on my account. I, Paul, have written it with mine own hand. I will repay it. Albeit, I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me thine own self besides." He says, you really owe me everything. So I'm not going to mention that, but I did, right? Yea, brother, let me have the joy of thee and the Lord refresh my bowels in the Lord. This is such a wonderful story of reconciliation. And Paul doesn't want to say I'm his apostolic authority. I'm keeping him here. Live with it. He's good. He's saved. You know, put what he owes you on my account. No, he sends him back for face to face reconciliation, which is great. So did anybody find where the word exhort. So I almost said, okay, what is it? But okay, it's verse nine. Yet for love's sake, I rather urge thee, beseech thee. And that word is the word that's translated urge, encourage, or comfort. And urge is what we're looking at. Being such a one as Paul, the agent, and now also a prisoner of Christ, he kind of throws that in there. Remember, I'm a prisoner. And you need to think about that. I'm aged, and he throws in all the weight for his argument. Paul is just masterful. I urge thee, verse 10, for my son Onesimus, who I have begotten my bonds. He ran away, stole money, ran away, and then he runs into Paul. Now that's God's design. And now Paul is sending him back to make restitution. I love that story and thank you for bearing with reading that again. And on page two, if you turn to page two, I would like to share with you some things that I found that just absolutely thrill me spiritually. And so I'm gonna share that, but before I start, I'm gonna tell you the bottom line. So you think, where are you going with this, Scotty? Simply stated, the two great examples are God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. They are examples of exhortation and we need to obey this command that we're studying today to exhort one another, we need to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and obedience to that command. And we need to follow their example. And so with that, that's all it, that's it. This whole page is what I'm trying to say. Okay, the Greek word, first paragraph under great examples, the Greek word that we've been using for urge, and courage, and comfort, comes from a word called, spelled parakaleo in Greek p-a-r-a-k-a-l-e-o parakaleo. The literal meaning of this word is to call alongside and the root word is a noun the one a person that does it is a parakletos p-a-r-a-k-l-e-t-o-s and it's used to describe in the bible this word, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. It means literally the one called alongside to help or consoler. Remember, we talked to us there, remember console? A consoler. Okay, let's look at the Holy Spirit first. The Holy Spirit in John 14.6 and also in John 14.26 and John 15.26 and John 16.7 The Holy Spirit is described by the Lord Jesus as another Comforter or THE Comforter sent by the Father in response to the Lord Jesus Christ's prayer in John 14, 16. And in verse 17, the Lord identifies Him as the Comforter and as the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of Truth, which is the Holy Spirit, who now dwells within us, believers. And so I'm going to look briefly at those verses, John 14, 16 and 26. And I will pray the Father. The Lord is preparing to leave. And he says, I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. And I thought maybe that word comfortless meant, maybe that was the parakaleo again, but no, it's a word orphanos, which means orphan. I will not leave you as orphans alone, friendless. And so I wanted to share that. Love those things, 26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, from whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." And then John 15, 26, he says, But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. And then 16.7, John 16.7, he says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. The Holy Spirit is often called the paraclete. because of this word in parakletos. And he helps us in many ways by his manifold ministries. And when I said that, that's an understatement. If we were to take the rest of the day, not the rest of the Sunday school time, you could not describe all of the things that the Holy Spirit does in operation and his ministries and his work. It's incredible the things that the Holy Spirit does. And I appreciate the fact that the pastor came here, he emphasized the work of the Holy Spirit. And so often it's misunderstood. But in this case, the Holy Spirit is figuratively at our side, one called alongside to help. But actually He dwells within us as Christians. It wasn't true in the Old Testament, but now He dwells within us to help us every day and every hour. Okay, that's the Holy Spirit. Now, I want to say that in essence, practically speaking, paragraph one, the second paragraph, in essence, practically speaking, the Holy Spirit is a divine exhorter. One, He's that by name. He's called by this same word that we're using for exhort, to urge, encourage, and comfort. He is called the comforter. And also, number two, by his ministries and his work that he does, he is an exhorter. Again, figurative, he's at our side. Now, number two, the Lord Jesus Christ is also called the Paraclete. And in 1 John 2.1, he's actually an advocate. Likewise, excuse me, my little children, these things write unto you, 1 John 2.1, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. That word advocate is the same word. It's an exhorter, parakletos. Romans 8, 34, Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. And Hebrews 7.25, Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them. And then Galatians 2.20 reveals that the Lord Jesus Christ lives in us too. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. So since Christ is a Christian's paraclete with the Father and lives within us, in essence, he also is our divine exhorter and advocate, a paraclete. So here's the whole point as I started out in the beginning when we start talking about page two. Item number three on page two. Note, now notice this is in bold, it's in a bigger font, it's underlined, and it's italicized, because this is the point. If God the Son and if God the Holy Spirit are divine examples of exhorting, and we are commanded to exhort one another, how can we do any less than earnestly obey this command? If we love Him, John 14, 15 says, we will obey Him. The Lord equates obedience with love and we are to obey this command to exhort one another and our great examples are the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. So let's look at principles and applications on page 3. All Christians need the help of other believers in their lives and daily living. We have tried to really stress that we are not alone. We are not John Waynes and whoever the female John Wayne is. We are not John Waynes. These believers, Believers and Christians are empowered by the Holy Spirit and the church to exhort one another, encourage comfort and urge. It's unscriptural for us to say we do not need the help of our brothers and sisters in Christ because God has ordained that we help and minister to one another. He's given us special gifts to do that. And Acts 2.41-47 that we read several times earlier in previous lessons, stresses that the Christians in the early days, they met together almost every day. They ate together, they studied together, they read the Bible, they studied the word together. They listened to the apostles. They had such a testimony before the outsiders that people actually came and were attracted to the ministry because the love and unity that they displayed. So we don't, we should never forget that. We were designed to work together, just as it talked about in Ephesians, where we strengthen each other. I have a quote from all people, of all people, Charles Schwab, the person that owns the brokerage house and or runs the brokerage house. And he said, I have never seen a man who could do real work except under the stimulus of encouragement and enthusiasm and approval of the people for whom he is working." Charles Schwab. In the church, we're working for the Lord. We're working truly, like the soldiers say, I'm working for the guy next to me to save his life. We are working for the person next to us to save their lives, to help them, to help them to grow stronger and to not stumble and to bear their burdens and to strengthen them, to exhort them, to encourage them, to urge them on, to comfort them. We're working for God. We're working for each other. Let's look at number two under principles and applications. Exhortation is primarily a ministry of the Word of God. We are to help each other understand what God as revealed in His Word what God wants us to do and apply His Word to our daily living as well as our trials and tribulations for His glory, not our glory, His glory, and to stimulate growth and maturity. It's primarily a ministry of the Word of God. We use the principles and truths and standards of living that are gleaned from God's Word and we apply them to every aspect of our lives. Let's look at number three. The type of exhortation that is encouraging, comforting, and urging is determined by the needs of others, not by my needs. I'm the one that's supposed to be encouraging others. It's determined by the needs of others. And then in love, we need to look for the need and then ask the Holy Spirit to guide us to how to help. And number four. Exhorting one another requires that we be actively involved in the lives of other believers. How can we exhort someone we don't know or even somebody we don't care about because we don't know them? I used to work at a place and I shared an office with a gentleman, I'll call him Don, that wasn't his name. Withhold the names to protect the innocent. And Don, I ensured an office and really enjoyed having him as a friend. One day he usually went down the freeway and I usually went home to Vacaville coming, this is from Fair, actually from Sassoon, coming down the back roads. Well the back roads were all clogged I saw, so I went down the freeway and sure enough I stopped and got to admire all the cracks in the freeway concrete and And, but it was really slow. And I saw an accident. I said, Oh man, that's, that's too bad. I hope that person's okay. And I felt, you know, you felt a little twinge of sadness. And I got home and talked to Cindy, ate, went to bed, got up the next morning, came back to work. And I noticed my, my, my office mate wasn't there. I said, Hey, where's Don? And they said, he had an accident last night. I said, are you kidding? What happened? Is he hurt? Did the ambulance come? Did he wreck his car? Did he have to tow his car? Is he okay? Anybody else hurt? Did he hit the car he hit? Was anybody hurt? Was it his fault? I mean, I'm asking a million questions. And they said, hold on, he's okay. And the difference there from my first reaction and the second reaction is that I knew this person and had a relationship with him. And their welfare was important to me because of the relationship and We need to further the relationship that we have with our brothers and sisters in Christ, because it's important for us to know them, to be able to love them, and to be able to minister to them, and to be able to exhort them. Number five, exhorting also requires that we actively pursue knowledge, understanding, and the application of God's Word that is used for exhorting one another. Now, how could we share what we don't know? If a brother and sister in Christ that we're talking to is despondent or discouraged, what do we say to them? Get over it? No, we tell them, about God's love, and then you read to them verses of how God provided for people, and we show them God's blessing, and we help them as God allows us to do. But we need to know, in God's Word, what is there so we can share it with them. We need to always be ready. Now I wanted to share with you an illustration that may not ring true but this rang true for me. I used to be a navigator and a navigator in an airplane decides where we are and then the plane and then in accordance with the clearance that they've been given, keeps them on the track and meeting the standard FAA standards on that track headed to wherever you're going. And especially over the ocean, a navigator is helpful. But now we don't need them because they have a global positioning system and inertial navigation and all the satellite things, everything. So really, you don't need them anymore. But it cost a million dollars to replace me though. But anyway, sorry, you need to know where you're going and how long it's gonna take to get there and if you have enough gas to get there and all that type of thing. So I used to be an instructor and after being a navigator for a while, I would help others attain the standards. that they need to achieve to be able to navigate. And I would, what's interesting is, when you're doing the work yourself, you're caught in the middle of not being able to see the trees for the forest. But when you're standing back and you're watching somebody from afar, with that perspective, you could see the mistakes that they make. Maybe they added instead of subtracted, or they plotted something the wrong direction, or made another, added two and two and got five. And those are the kind of mistakes that would generally happen. And as a result, I was able to give perspective and train my student to follow the standards and help them with that perspective gain insight on what mistakes you can make and then how to rectify them, how not to make those mistakes. And you know, that's the same thing that we need to do when we're exhorting one another. We need to be able to help people to navigate their lives in a way which is in accordance with the standards of God. The standards are God's word, and we need to help them stay on the course, stay on time, and make sure they got enough gas to make it to the end. We need to really help people. For our brothers and having that perspective. I don't know about you, but sometimes when I'm in a big trial or tribulation or issue, sometimes I can't see the forest for the trees. And I'll say, hey, Cindy, help me here. Think about, what does this mean? I'll ask somebody else's help because they'll have a perspective on the situation. And that's the type of thing we need to do to help one another. And that's priceless. 6. Exhorting normally occurs in the context of the church. because the people of Christ are in the body of the church. It's between individuals and groups, classes, Bible studies, Sunday schools, youth meeting, I'm exhorting you now, prayer meetings, and worship service. It may be provided by an individual layman, an individual or a layman, or a deacon, or elder, missionary, minister, pastor, and so on. And there's a wide scope of opportunity for people exhorting one another in the church. And also it could be from Christians that are in the same body that don't know each other, and that's the story I'm gonna tell you in just one minute. We are commanded to do it, number seven, and as we used to say in the military, it is not optional. This is mandatory. Okay, so the example I said I was gonna share is A lady down in Oakland, this was some years ago, was an elderly widow. She was restricted in her activities and she was eager to serve Christ. So after praying about this, she realized that she could bring blessing to others by playing the piano. The next day, she placed this small ad in the Oakland Tribune. That's why I said this was a long time ago. Pianist will play hymns by phone daily for those who are sick and despondent. The service is free. Now, the notice included the number to dial when people called, then she'd say, what hymn would you like to hear? And this story is not about her, but it's about somebody that related their story to her. So, within a few months, her playing had brought cheer to several hundred people. Many of them freely poured out their hearts to her. She was able to help and encourage them. She was truly... a person that really was a blessing to them, and a widow, I can see the senior widow that was such a blessing to people. Anyway, one man who was ousted from his profession because of an indiscretion, lost his job because of something he did wrong. He talked to her and he told her this story. He took work as a hod carrier. Now I didn't know what that was I had to look it up. It's a mason's assistant that carries a portable trough of of mortar or actually carries the bricks or the concrete blocks or whatever up for the building. So it's hard hard work. And he took it just to put bread on the table. He was suddenly plunged into a drastically different world from his office. Instead of going to an office each day, he was hauling loads of concrete up to the fifth level of a construction site. Gone was the piped-in music in the corridors. Now he had to endure blaring boom boxes. And any girl who walked by, unfortunately, was subject to rude remarks and whistles, not by him, but the coworkers. Profanity shot through the air, especially from the foreman, whose primary tactics of leadership were whining and intimidation. Can't you do anything right? I never worked with such a bunch of idiots in all my life. Near the end of the third week, the new employee felt like he could take it no more. I'll take I'll work till break time this morning. He told himself that's it. I'm going home He'd already been the object of more than one joke when his lack of experience caused him to do something foolish They went stories would retold constantly Thereafter and made they made fun of him. I just can't handle any more of this a while later He decided to finish out the morning then leave at lunchtime. He's ready to go. I He's telling the widow this story. Shortly before noon, the foreman came around with the paychecks. As he handed the man his envelope, the foreman made his first civil comment to him in three weeks. Hey, there's a woman working down in the front office who knows you. She says she takes care of your kids sometimes. Who, he said. He named the woman who sometimes helped in the nursery of the church where the man and his family worshipped. The foreman then went on with his rounds. When the hod carrier opened his envelope, he found, along with the check, a handwritten note from the payroll clerk, when one part of the body of Christ suffers. We all, we all suffer with it. When one part of the body of Christ suffers, we all suffer with it. Just wanted you to know that I'm praying for you these days. So that affected me that way, and I wasn't even there. Can you imagine how it affected that guy? So he stared at the note, astonished at God's timing. He hadn't even known the woman worked for this company. He didn't know she was there. He didn't even know this woman very well. Here at his lowest hour, she gave him the courage to go on, and the courage to continue to push another wheelbarrow of mortar up that ramp. And he stayed, and he told her that story later on. That story was written by Dean Merrill, who is a Christian author. He wrote for Zondervan, and that was from 1981. I don't know how old the story is, but I believe it to be true. So, let's look at the top of page four, New Testament exhortations. And I want to briefly mention these. I'm not going to look at the scriptures associated with this, but I put them in there for you to look at. These are other places in the New Testament where there's exhortation, and I want you to know that they're there. First of all, we are exhorted to pray in the New Testament. We are exhorted to avoid false doctrine and false teachers. to avoid division, to be unified, to imitate Christ and have a godly life and example, to be subject to authority, to comfort those in distress, to work hard and respect your supervisor or superior, to assemble together for worship and ministry, to avoid sin and worldly lusts, to abound in loving each other, to walk worthy of our calling, and many, many, many, many more examples of exhortation. What is the attitude with which we are to exhort? I think it was important to put this. Exhortation is a positive ministry, not a disciplinary one. There should never be a desire or intent to harm, criticize, aggravate, but only to affirm, encourage, and stimulate. It's not to be done harshly or in anger. It should be accomplished, number two, by the love of the Spirit. Philemon 1.9 states it should be done for love's sake. And number 2, or B rather, under number 2, with the meekness and gentleness of Christ and as a father would his own children, as a son to a father and with great patience and instruction." Now, I don't know about you, but if I'm dealing with somebody and I've been in a certain place mentally, and then I come and I'm dealing with somebody and I don't have the right attitude and the Holy Spirit led heart, I'm going, I'm thinking, what is the matter? Can't you see this? What's the deal? Can't you figure this out? And yet the Lord is really patient with me when I don't get things. So we have to be patient with others and be tolerant of their lack of understanding. If they're trying, especially we need to be, even if they're not, we need to be patient and loving and caring. We need to love them in as we exhort them. So what's the importance of this? Well, the importance is the Christian's great desire should be to be like Christ, and by exhorting one another, we enable each other to fulfill God's will that he has for all of us to be like Christ. God has given us the privilege and responsibility of helping each other. What's our job? To do the work of the ministry. And we need to help each other in the trials and troubles and also help ourselves become more like Christ. Obedience to this command, second paragraph, will not only result in greater personal holiness and believers, but it will strengthen the witness of the church to the lost world. Remember, many people came to Christ in Acts 2 when the people did the work of the ministry and they worked together and they loved each other and they displayed that unity. People wanted to be a part of that and they came to it. So I'm going to end this time with a quote from Charles Spurgeon, called The Prince of Preachers. And he wrote something about Thanksgiving, but I want to kind of do a take on that. And he said, I think that there is a better thing than Thanksgiving. He said, it's thanks living. How's this to be done? I like that. Thanks living. I love that. How is this to be done? by a general cheerfulness of manner, by an obedience to the command of Him, by whose mercy we live, by a perpetual, constant delighting of ourselves in the Lord, and by a submission of our desires to His will. Amen. cheerfulness of manner, obedience to the command of Him by whose mercy we live, and by a perpetual, constant delighting of ourselves in the Lord by a submission of our desires to His will. Showing love by obeying God. we should be loving one another and obeying His command. And thanksgiving, we should live every day and everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. We should be thankful all the time, but not only thankful, we should be obeying all His commands and that we should be exhorting one another. Let us be Christians that celebrate thanksgiving every day. And May the Lord bless the teaching of his word. Thank you for watching. Thank you for being here in Sunday School. The Lord bless all of you. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the privilege of sharing these words regarding exhortation. I pray, Father, that you would drive the truth of your scripture home to our hearts and that we would be more like Christ. We would be a church where people wanted to come because of the love and unity that we display and the caring that we have for each other. And I pray, Father, that you would bless this time, bless all of our brothers and sisters in Christ here at Elmira Baptist Church, in Jesus' name, amen.