Have you ever noticed that sometimes the harshest and most critical people are inside the church!
One little girl was heard to say, "Dear Lord, make the bad people good and the good people nice."
I believe what the 21st Century church needs is fewer critics and more encouragers! People who know how to be nice, whose desire is to lift people up rather than tear them down.
Listen to some of these quotes about the importance of encouragement:
Someone has said, “More people fail for lack of encouragement than for any other reason.”
George M. Adams said, “Encouragement is oxygen to the soul.”
Another person said, “We blossom under praise like flowers in sun and dew; we open, we reach, we grow.”
Henry Ford once said that, “the ability to encourage others is one of life’s finest assets.” Mr. Ford attributed his success at building a gas-powered engine to encouragement he received from Thomas A. Edison. (Tan, Paul Lee, Encyclopedia of 7,700 Illustrations, (Garland, Texas: Bible Communications, Inc.) 1996.)
Charles Swindoll said, “The lack of encouragement is almost epidemic. To illustrate this point, when did you last encourage someone else? I firmly believe that an individual is never more Christ-like than when full of compassion, for those who are down, needy, discouraged, or forgotten. How terribly essential is our commitment to encouragement…” --The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, Charles Swindoll, p.179
William Barclay said, “One of the highest of human duties is the duty of encouragement…It is easy to laugh at men’s ideals; it is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many times a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the man who speaks such a word.” –The Letter to the Hebrews, William Barclay
Some people are so negative that even when they try to be encouraging, they come across negative.
Illustration: The story is told about a young girl named Mary. She was having a tough day and had stretched herself out on the couch to do a bit of what she thought to be well-deserved complaining and self-pitying. She moaned to her mom and brother, "Nobody loves me -- the whole world hates me!" Her brother, busily occupied playing a game, hardly looked up at her and passed on this encouraging word: "That's not true, Mary. Some people don't even know you." What a lift!
What people need today is encouragement and God has commissioned each of us to be encouragers.
“So encourage each other and build each other up...” (1 Thessalonians 5:11 NLT)
“Encourage each other every day while you have the opportunity. If you do this, none of you will be deceived by sin and become stubborn.” (Hebrews 3:13 GW)
“We should not stop gathering together with other believers, as some of you are doing. Instead, we must continue to encourage each other even more as we see the day of the Lord coming.” (Hebrews 10:25 GW)
Let me introduce you to a biblical character that exemplifies the ministry of encouragement. His name is Barnabas but that wasn’t his given name. Originally he was called Joseph (Joses), but the Apostles and church had noticed something about him that caused them to give him a nickname. Everywhere he went he spread cheer and encouragement and so they named him Barnabas meaning “son of encouragement.”
The book of Acts gives us five snapshots of the encouraging ways of Barnabas:
Look at the…
1. Sacrifice that he made. (Acts 4:37)
He sold a valuable piece of property and donated the proceeds to help the saints in Jerusalem.
2. Risk that he took. (Acts 9:26-31)
When no one else would befriend Paul because of his notorious background, Barnabas listened to his story and bridged the gap into the church at Jerusalem.
3. Joy that he shared. (Acts 11:22-26)
When asked if he would visit the church at Antioch to see if the reports of Gentile conversions were genuine, he rejoiced with these non-Jewish believers.
4. Words that he spoke. (Acts 11:23)
The only hint of any words spoken by Barnabas is recorded here. They were encouraging, motivating and inspiring words.
5. Lift that he gave. (Acts 15:36-39)
When it came time for his second missionary trip with Paul, he wanted to give his nephew a second chance. Mark went on to be a wonderful servant of God and writer of the Gospel of Mark. It seems that Paul later forgave Mark as well (2 Timothy 4:11).
Our churches need more men/women like Barnabas: PEOPLE OF ENCOURAGEMENT.
When was the last time you…
- Took the time to visit someone who lives alone?
- Wrote a letter to someone who crossed your mind?
- Read the Bible to someone too ill to read for himself?
- Spoke a kind word to someone struggling in his/her marriage?
- Offered to help a single mother wrestling with the demands of life?
- Told a teenager that you were proud of him/her?
- Complimented your spouse without having to be prodded?
- Thanked a nursery worker for watching your children?
- Sat with a bereaved widow or widower?
- Bragged on your husband when your girlfriends were listening?
- Smiled at people as they crossed your path of life?
- Listened to heartaches of fellow saints?
- Prayed earnestly for someone who was faltering?
- Encouraged a new believer to keep following the Lord?
- Fixed a meal for someone who lost his job or that’s seriously ill?
- Prayed with a parent whose child has gone astray?
- Etc., etc.
Discouraged people don’t need more critics. They’re already wounded and bleeding. They have enough guilt and distress. Darkness engulfs them in a pit of despair. What they need is someone to encourage them. There are a thousand ways you can encourage people in your life.
Closing:
Author Robert Fulghum, when attending lectures as a student in college, would respond in an unusual way to the final question sometimes asked by his professors: “Are there any questions?”
“Yes,” Robert would reply. Then he would ask, “What is the meaning of life?” Most of the time his classmates and the professor would simply laugh as they gathered their belongings to leave for their next class.
One day he was in Dr. Alexander Papaderos’ class, a Greek philosopher and founder of an institute on the island of Crete, when, before closing his class he asked his students, “Are there any questions?”
Robert responded as he had several times in other classes, only this time Dr. Papaderos responded as no other professor had done and held up his hand motioning for the students to stop where they were as if he were going to answer the question.
He drew from his pocket a small round mirror about the size of a quarter and he began telling the story how that as a boy growing up during the war, his family was very poor, and he had few toys. One day he found the pieces of a mirror left over from the wreck of a German motorcycle. He said that he tried to piece it back together but he was unsuccessful and so he discarded all except for the largest piece.
He told that by scratching it on a stone he had made his little mirror round. As a child he said he became captivated with the fact that he could reflect light into the most inaccessible places—crevices, deep holes and closets. As he grew older he continued his fascination with this little mirror using idle times to continue the challenge of the game he had created as a boy. But, when he became an adult he came to realize that this was a perfect metaphor for what he might do with the rest of his life. He felt that he could spend his days reflecting the light into the dark places of men’s hearts and change some people’s lives.
Having said that, he took the small mirror and holding it carefully in the rays of daylight streaming through the windows of his classroom, reflected them into the face of Robert Fulghum’s.
What does it mean to be an encourager? It means that you will act as a mirror reflecting God’s love and kindness into the darkest places in people’s lives.
God wants to use you to reflect His light into the darkness of people’s present existence!!
