The Gift Of Encouragement

00:01 Greet each one this morning in the name of Jesus. We want to give glory to God and give thanks to God for a special, beautiful morning, Lord's Day morning. And for each one that's here this morning, we welcome our visitors and welcome each one that's here. And we are in a series right now, actually, on ministry, on ministry in the church, 00:22 taking from our theme about ministering and equipping the saints, equipping the saints for the work of ministry. 00:34 That's what Ephesians chapter 4 says, "For the work of ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ." And so the only way that we can see the church grow and the kingdom of God extend and expand is that as the people of God get involved in ministry, 00:54 both within the church and outside of the church, until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man or a mature, complete man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. 01:08 And then verse 16 of Ephesians 4 says, "From whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share." Every part does its share. And so we talked about that several weeks ago. And after that, 01:28 within the last week or so, I ran across a picture. I'd like you to put that up on the overhead there, Brother Todd. And think about this. It says, "The church is not a cruise ship where a handful of people serve everyone else who is relaxing. 01:49 But the church is a battleship where it's all hands on deck and everyone serves the mission." That's everyone doing their share. And God defines what their share is. And we respond to ask God what our share is. 02:08 What are we to be doing? Lord, how are we to reach out? Because we've said for many years that if you depend on the pastors to do all the reaching out, we're going to have a pretty limited church because we're just men. And you know what? I found out that as just mere men, we get depleted. We get depleted. 02:28 Our emotional abilities get depleted. Our spiritual strength sometimes gets depleted. And certainly our physical energy gets depleted. And so if you look to people as the source of your source, you'll find some depleted people sometimes. Sometimes it's overflowing, running over, running over. 02:49 My cup is full and running over. And sometimes it's like Sister Emily said this morning, it's a loss of passion and compassion. But when we go to God and when we are allowing God to flow through us, we can have an endless source. 03:05 I'm thankful for that this morning, that we can go to the Lord Jesus Christ and receive from Him everything that we stand in need of without 03:17 depleting His strength and His resources in any way. There's a limited number of resources when it comes to people. But there's an unlimited number of resources when it comes to God. 03:28 Now then to be a part of God's work and to ministry, we talked about helping other people as we get a hold of God to help other people get a hold of God and connect each other with the Lord as the source of ministry. 03:45 Then we talked about the ministry of intercession and praying for people and being less inhibited about our prayer life for people. And it took me a while to get comfortable with praying for people on the telephone. But sometimes that's the closest we can get to them at the time. 04:02 And just praying for people on the phone and just praying for people in our private prayer closet. Letting people know we're praying for you. Prayed for you this morning. Prayed that God would give you courage. Whatever. And that also then leads us to this ministry of encouragement this morning. So would you turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 1? 04:23 I want to share with you on the ministry of encouragement. Now some of you have the gift of encouragement and encouragement just kind of comes out. You have the gift of exhortation, encouragement. Others of us have to work, have to work at encouragement. We have more the gift of criticism. 04:44 That gift doesn't come from God, by the way. 04:46 We have more the gift of kind of setting the record straight and getting people right with God. And that's always the goal. But sometimes people need encouragement rather than rebuke. Now there's times when we need rebuke and there's times when we have to rebuke. But then there's just times that we encourage. 05:07 Ran across this scripture in Isaiah 41:2-6. "Everyone helped his neighbor and said to his brother, 'Be of good courage.' So the craftsman encouraged the goldsmith. He who smooths with the hammer inspired him who strikes the anvil, saying, 05:26 'It is ready for the soldering.' Then he fastened it with pegs that it might not totter." And so we see ministry happening in each of its 05:39 all in their stations move and in their courses move. So Joshua was encouraged and he became an encourager. Chapter 1:1. "After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, 'Moses, my servant, is dead. 05:58 Now therefore rise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses, from the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, 06:17 all of the land of the Hittites and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong." Now this is God talking to Joshua. 06:38 "Be strong and of good courage." That's a word of encouragement. It's a word of encouragement. "Be strong and of good courage. As I was with Moses." No, verse 6. "For to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 06:58 Only be strong and very courageous." He doubles down on that encouragement. "That you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left. That you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. 07:19 But you shall meditate in it day and night. That you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you, 'Be strong and of good courage.' Do not be afraid nor be dismayed. 07:37 For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, "Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, 'Prepare provisions for yourselves.' For within three days you will cross over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. 07:58 And to the Rubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua spoke, saying, 'Remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying, 'The Lord your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land. Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But you shall pass before your brethren, 08:20 armed, all your mighty men of valor, and help them until the Lord has given your brethren rest as He gave you. And they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them. 08:32 Then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave you on this side of the Jordan toward the sunrise.' So they answered Joshua, saying, 'All that you command us, we will do. And wherever you send us, we will go. Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you. 08:52 Only the Lord your God be with you as He was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words and all that you command him shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage.'" And so that's the theme there. "Be strong and of good courage." It comes from God to Joshua. 09:12 It comes from encouragement from Joshua to the people. And then it comes from encouragement from the people back to Joshua. Everyone doing their encouraging as they have opportunity. What is encouragement? Encouragement is the urging to keep on keeping on. 09:33 For this word here in the Hebrew, this word "be strong," it means to be bound fast or attached, to be resolute, to make firm, to strengthen, support, preserve, to be firm, strong, courageous, to hold fast, to encourage. It also means to harden. And it's the same word, 09:53 incidentally, that's used of Pharaoh in the book of Exodus of 12 times when Pharaoh's heart was hardened. The same word there as what he's doing here. Harden your heart. Not in a negative sense where you're hardening your unbelief, but in the positive sense of hardening and your resolution, 10:14 your commitment, your courage, your perseverance to make firm your resolve. And someone has said that the men who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticize. 10:31 One person said, "Encouragement is the oxygen of the soul." Another person said, "Correction does much, but encouragement does more." Encouragement after censure or rebuke is as the sun after a shower. 10:47 And I've talked to people already and probably been in this case and conditioned myself who are when you encourage them, it's just like a flower just opens up and the person just kind of blossoms and blooms in a word of encouragement. Word of encouragement. The need for encouragement. Joshua needed it. 11:07 He needed it from God. The people needed it. They needed to be reminded of their commitments. And Joshua needed it from the people. And so we have this thing of encouragement. We all need it. One of the highest human duties is the duty of encouragement. 11:24 In fact, the Bible says that we through comfort and through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. The scriptures, much of it is written to encourage faithfulness, to make us resolute and firm, and to harden our commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the purposes and plan and promises of God. 11:46 The Bible also says in Hebrews chapter 12 that being surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, "Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. 11:58 And let us run with patience or endurance the race which is set before us looking unto Jesus." Notice he's using some encouragement there as he ties chapter 12 of Hebrews into the end of 11 where all these witnesses, 12:13 all of these people from the past and their faithfulness are an encouragement for us to lay aside sin and the weights and run with patience and look to Jesus. And so there's much in scripture that is an encouragement. It is easy to pour cold water on people's enthusiasm. It is easy to discourage. 12:34 A word of rebuke or a word of lack of appreciation or someone when I remember somebody doing something one time in a meeting that I was at, not here. And they did their best effort. They did their best effort. And the leader of that meeting said, "Now how can we make it better?" Well, 12:54 we always want to make things better. Amen? We always want to make things better. But there was not enough of appreciation, words of encouragement for what had been done. And so that person needed encouragement. I felt bad at the time for that word of insufficiency. It was communicating you haven't done enough. 13:15 And there's times for that and there's times when we really need to encourage. And finding something, this is a challenge to find something that is positive about everyone and about every situation. We want to think soberly and we don't want to lie to people by any means. 13:34 Don't ever lie to people in your encouragement. And don't ever be dishonest or deceitful or flattering. Flattering. And there's a difference between encouragement and flattery. Flattery is for the purpose of making you look good to them. 13:54 Encouragement is for the purpose of them being challenged and moving forward. And so the story is told of a pastor's wife. She was known for her ability to make positive comments about every person. And in that kind of the way you'd like to be, make positive comments and see the best in people, 14:15 I would like to be that way. When I get old, I'd like to be that way more than what I am. And I really have to work at it. I come from a family of negative people. And so to ask God, "Lord, make me positive. Make me an encourager. Help me to see the best in those around me." So this elderly pastor's wife, 14:36 she was a pastor's wife and the church choir was made up of mostly seniors. It was down in Florida. And the seniors, their voices would warble and then tremble and they didn't get on key very much. And the choir was just kind of a sore a lot. And she struggled to find something positive to say about this choir. 14:57 And so this particular Sunday morning, she leaned over to her husband and said, "They sure are walking good this morning, 15:02 aren't they?" So something good can be found. Now where does encouragement come from? It comes from being encouraged by God. Joshua could only encourage the people as he had received encouragement from God. Now Joshua needed encouragement. 15:23 Yes, he did. "Moses, my servant, is dead." Do you realize the weight of that statement? Moses, the man who led us out of Egypt, the man who talked with God, the man whose face shone like the sun when he talked with God, the man who was able to turn water into blood, the man who went and administered the 10 plagues, 15:45 this great man of God, the great prophet Moses who has gone down in history as the greatest of the Old Testament prophets next to John the Baptist who kind of bridged the gap. But nevertheless, here Moses is dead. And Joshua, you are being looked to for the next leader. You are the man. 16:06 And Joshua, you're going to need some encouragement. And I want to encourage you, God says. Here's the plan. Here's the vision. Here's the responsibility. And here's the promise. You can't encourage people with pie in the sky. 16:23 In other words, there has to be truth to real encouragement. You can't just encourage people with no substance. And so what is our substance when we encourage people? It's the promises of God. It's the promise of God. It's the word of God. It's the word of God. 16:42 Recently, someone, the Lord just laid on my heart a word for somebody. And I said, they were struggling or needed a word of encouragement. And he said, "Philippians 1:6, God's going to finish it. God's going to finish it. Whatever he's doing in your life, the way that God is working in your life, he's going to finish it. 17:01 For he who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." And so we encourage with the promises of God. Verse 6, "I will divide this inheritance of the land that I swore to your fathers. I'm going to do it. 17:19 But don't sit around without doing your part." And so Joshua's encouraged. You do your part. You encourage the Rubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to do their part. You remember they had been given their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan. And they were told, "You leave all of your stuff here. 17:39 And then you go in and you fulfill your obligation to your brothers." They helped you. Now you help them. When they have taken their inheritance, then you can go back and enjoy theirs. They made a commitment. And these two and a half tribes said, "Yes. We're reminded of that, Joshua. We're in. We're going to do this." And they're all reminding each other of the promises of God, 18:00 the commitments that we have made, and that God has got this and it's going to move forward. That's encouraging. That's encouraging. So encouragement comes from, first of all, from God. 18:16 1 Samuel 30:6, "David was greatly distressed." The Bible says David was distressed because he had had a military defeat. I believe it was in the village of Ziklag where he had gone out and then came back. And the wives and the families had been kidnapped and the city burned. 18:36 And they were ready to stone him. The Bible says the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughter. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. Now sometimes we wait for other people to encourage us. 18:53 But one of the marks of maturity is that we can go to God and we can receive encouragement directly from God's word, directly from God's promises, directly from God's divine working in us. Now sometimes we need that word of encouragement from somebody else. Let me tell you, if you're focusing on your need for encouragement, you're probably not going to be an encourager. 19:15 Did you get that? If you're focusing on your need for encouragement, you will have all of your focus on that and miss the opportunities to be an encourager. And that's what we really want to be, an encourager. And so then we have encouragement from the older to the younger. 19:36 Moses encouraged Joshua in Deuteronomy 1:38, "Joshua, the son of Nun, which stands before thee, he shall go fither; encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it." And then God told him again, "But charge Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him, 19:53 for he will go over before this people and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see." I thank God for the men in my life who are older than I had the privilege of—you heard me share this before—but I've had the privilege of sitting with some older men who have encouraged me in my ministry through the years. Brother Levi Mass, it's good to see you here this morning. 20:14 But Levi was an encourager in the early years of my ministry when we'd go down to Georgia with Gospel Echoes. Thank you, Levi, for words of encouragement, for being a friend, for being a supporter, and for encouraging. He probably didn't even know he did it. Maybe he didn't even mean to. 20:35 But he was an encouragement nonetheless. Encourager. I think of different men in my life through the years and women as well who have encouraged us. You as a church know that we've gone through a very difficult year. And as I shared with the church at the business meeting the other night, 20:56 our storms aren't over, but they're at least a little bit more manageable than what they had been. And I remember one of the overseers in BMA called me about a church matter in another state. 21:13 And I said, "Now, I wonder what this brother will think of me and our family and so on." He didn't say anything. He didn't say anything. He didn't say anything. We talked about church matter. And his older brother, who's about the age of my dad, my dad isn't able much to be an encourager anymore. 21:32 He needs encouragement. But his brother's kind of like a dad to me, has become that, a father figure being the age of my dad. And he said, "Now, Todd." He said, "Let's—" at the end of the conversation, he said, "Let's talk about the matter at hand." Okay, Brother Sam. 21:55 Let's talk about the matter at hand. He said, "Todd, you're going to get through this. You're going to get through it." I just about could have sat there. 22:06 It was not a lot of words, but it comes from a father's heart to a younger pastor saying, "You know what? God's got it. You're going to get through it." And that was such an encouragement. Such an encouragement. And so it comes from the older to the younger. 22:27 And then it comes from the leader to the people. 1:10-15, we've already mentioned this about Joshua's encouragement to the Rubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. And then it comes from the people to the leader, a willingness to work, a willingness to follow, a willingness to be faithful to God's work, 22:49 a willingness to grow and to change, 22:54 a willingness to follow God and God's call and God's instructions, 23:04 a willingness to get their head or their shoulders to the plow and pull this week or this election cycle, if you want to call it that, of a church reorganization. We had those opportunity sheets and praise the Lord for those of you. Thank you for those of you that filled those out. 23:24 If you didn't fill one out, you're not off the hook. You need to fill one out next year's another year. We'll keep them. One of the brothers wrote in there, I don't even know if he put any places. He just said, "We're willing to serve wherever the church asks us to serve." Wow. 23:44 That is an encouragement to a pastor. That's encouragement to us pastors. Bless the Lord. Now, if you didn't write that, that's fine. But you're willing to serve where God calls. And so it comes from the people to the leader. And so many of you are gifted with writing notes and words of encouragement. 24:03 There's a sister in the congregation that every time we preach, we get a note in our mailbox of thanks and appreciation for that message. Wow. Some people have different ways of encouraging. Your offerings, your prayers, your words of encouragement, it just means so much. 24:23 And then the people to the people, the people to the people need to encourage. And so over in Joshua, Judges 21, why don't you turn there? Judges 20. 24:37 Judges 20 gives the gruesome account of—we won't go into the account—except that it was a gruesome murder that ended up with body parts being distributed to the 12 tribes of Israel. Now that you can go home and read the rest of it. And so the children of Israel went to war with the children of Benjamin. 24:59 And children of Benjamin outmatched the children of Israel. I mean, we had 400,000—we had 400,000 men of Israel and about—I'm not sure how many—about 26,000 maybe, 40,000 at the most, maybe about 40,000 men of Benjamin. 25:20 And Israel went to war against Benjamin because they wouldn't deal with this sin in the tribe of Benjamin. And so they said, "Lord, should we go up?" Lord said, "Go up. Clean house. Discipline. Rebuke." And the children of Israel got beat up. That first day, 25:39 22,000 of the Israelites died at the hand of the children of Benjamin. 22,000. Lord, we're trying to do the right thing here. We're trying to do the right thing. In verse 22, they came back and they regrouped that night. 25:54 And the people—that is, the men of Israel—encouraged themselves and again formed the battle line at the place where they had put themselves in array on the first day. They encouraged themselves. In other words, they encouraged each other. There was encouragement going on. We don't know what went wrong, but God told us to go. 26:16 And so we're going to encourage each other to keep moving forward. So they went the next—they asked the Lord, "Shall we go?" "Yep, you should go." So they went the next day and battled, went to war with the children of Benjamin and again got defeated. 18,000 people were killed that night or that day. 26:37 18,000. 40,000 people, 10% of your military being wiped off and struck down. And again, it doesn't say that they encouraged themselves again, but they came back to God and said, "God, do we go the third time?" He said, 26:57 "Yes, go the third time because this time I'll give you the victory." And so they went the third time and they were victorious. But what I want you to see is that the people encouraged one another in this civil war. They sought the Lord, were confident they were doing God's will, 27:18 and they encouraged each other. Now sometimes encouragement involves discipline. Sometimes it involves rebuke. Sometimes it involves a word of correction. I remember reading the story about a man who had a company, 27:38 and there was an employee by the name of Sam. This company signed up for a new health insurance plan, and everybody signed up. They needed to have 100% participation in order for it to go. Everybody signed up as Sam. Sam, he didn't want to pay the dues. 27:55 He just kind of drug his foot and drug his heels and just wouldn't cooperate. He didn't think it was the right thing to do. Finally, the company president called Sam in his office and said, "Sam, here's a copy of the new pension plan, and here's a pen. I want you to sign these papers. 28:15 I'm sorry, but if you don't sign, you're fired." Sam picked up the pen and signed. He said, "Now Sam, you just signed this document. 28:26 What took you so long?" "Well, nobody had ever explained it quite like that to me before." So sometimes it takes correction. It takes rebuke. And someone has said that a pat on the back is only a few vertebrae away from a kick in the pants. And sometimes it takes both. 28:47 But it's for the betterment of the person, not to make us look good as encouragers. So what is the content of our encouragement? The hand and act of God. The hand of God is the content of our encouragement. I remember reading—and we could turn to it this morning—Nehemiah 2:17. 29:09 When Nehemiah went back to rebuild the wall, he said to the people, "You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach." And I told them of the hand of my God, which had been good upon me, 29:29 and also of the king's words that had spoken to me. So they said, "Let us rise up and build." Then they set their hands to this good work. He was able to inspire through encouragement, encouraging the people, "This is what God is doing. This is what God has said. These are the circumstances that are in our favor. 29:48 Let us rise up and possess the kingdom," as it were. Jesus said, "It is your Father's will to give you the kingdom." It's your Father's will to give you the kingdom. He said, "Fear not and live a flock. Flock. Where is your Father's desire to give you the kingdom? How do you possess the kingdom, Joshua? 30:09 How do you possess the kingdom, Nehemiah?" You possess the kingdom by laying hold of the promises of God, the hand of God, the acts of God, and reminding each other what God has done, the direction of God. 1 Samuel 30:6-8. 30:32 David and Jonathan. David and Jonathan. David was discouraged. He's on the run. Jonathan is there to encourage him. Now there were times when David had to encourage himself in the Lord. Then David brought Jonathan—or God brought Jonathan into his life. 30:48 And the Bible says that Jonathan encouraged him 30:56 and strengthened his hand in God. We can be encouraged through circumstances, seeing that God is at work. Sometimes you have to look hard, but nevertheless, God is at work. Do you believe that God is always at work? When we commit our way to the Lord, is God always at work? 31:17 You see, God doesn't work like we do. Here's a project. We work till it's done, or we kind of lay it aside and we put another project. And we can't do two things at once. And so we work on that project till another project. We got to get back to the first project. God can work all the projects together at the same time. God is at work, 31:37 especially when his people commit their ways unto the Lord. What does it take to be an encourager? What kind of a person makes a good encourager? 31:49 Well, one of the best encouragers is one who knows the promises of God and is able to see into a person's life and to give a word fitly spoken. The Bible says, "A word fitly spoken is as apples of gold in settings of silver." And so we find those positive things. 32:10 We find what would God want us to encourage somebody. That means you have to be in the Word. It means you have to be in prayer. It means you have to ask God, "God, give me a word today that I can share with someone to encourage them." But there's another thing of a person who can be a good encourager, and that is one who is secure in who they are. 32:31 You see, a person who's not insecure in who he is may feel like he can't do anything. And a person who's insecure will have a hard time encouraging someone else because maybe they'll get an advantage over him, and he can get jealous. And so it's hard for a jealous person to be an encourager. Amen? Jealous people are not encouragers. 32:52 Jealous people are discouragers. 32:56 But then there's also people that arrogance and pride flip-flops the other way and where they have an overinflated view of their abilities. And they say, "Well, why could I encourage you? How can I encourage anybody else? Because they're less than perfect." You see, and I'm kind of arrived up here. 33:15 And so how can somebody up here help somebody that's down here and encourage them? Well, what we have to do is we have to love them more than we love ourselves. Love them more than we love ourselves. God, encouraging us, being secure in who we are as a person. God made Joshua secure. 33:36 "Joshua, my hand is on you. It's going to be okay. You're going to get through this." And then Joshua could turn around, being secure, not having an inflated view of himself, not being proud, not having a deflated view of himself, being jealous, Moses being jealous of Joshua, 33:56 Joshua being jealous of 34:00 Abiazar or whoever else was on the scene. But just praying God's best for people. Praying God's best for people, loving people, encouraging them that they can fulfill the purpose of God for their life, 34:19 that God has got them, and he's going to take them through, that God loves them. God has a plan. God has a purpose. God has a reason. Not in a glib way. We don't say that as a glib way. You don't go through a funeral line and say, "Well, God has a reason for all things." I mean, Romans 8:28. 34:41 No, we enter into people's pain. You can't encourage people if you're not real with them. 34:47 And don't enter into their pain. Erigo was the first astronomical mathematician of his age. He was encouraged by the words inside the cover of a book. They went, "Go on, sir. Go on. The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, 35:08 and light will dawn with shine and shine with increased clearness on your path." He said that was the greatest—he was the greatest master in mathematics—but following what encouraged him to keep going was the word, "Go on, sir. Go on." And in a sense, that's what God is saying to Joshua in this passage. 35:27 In a sense, that's what Joshua is saying to him, to the people. And in a sense, that's what the people were saying to Joshua. "Go on, sir. Keep going. Don't give up. Don't quit. Give it another try. If that's what God has called you to do, keep doing it, 35:46 even if you do it imperfectly." So many examples of encouragement. Years ago, William Wilberforce—and I don't necessarily agree with being involved in politics—but God used the man William Wilberforce. If you haven't read about his life, do so. William Wilberforce, without blood being shed, 36:06 almost single-handedly saw slavery outlawed in Great Britain before it was outlawed in the United States. We fought a bloody war, one of the bloodiest in history, in American history. 36:21 They did it through persuasion and legalities and mostly persuasion and a lot of prayer. And so William Wilberforce was the one who God had raised up. And his elderly friend, John Wesley, heard what he was doing. And John Wesley was on his deathbed, and he called for pen and paper. 36:42 And with a trembling hand, Wesley wrote, "Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them stronger than God?" Then he went on to write, "Oh, be not weary of well-doing. 37:04 Go on in the name of God and in the power of his might till even American slavery shall vanish away before it." Wesley died six days later, but Wilberforce fought on for 45 more years. And three days before his own death, saw slavery abolished in Britain. Needed encouragement. 37:24 Needed encouragement. Encouragement. Whatever God's called you to do, do it. Do it. Do it to the best of your ability, and do it with a lot of prayer and a lot of faith. And let God worry about the increase. Charles Schwab was a man who was the first man to ever earn a million dollars a day or a year. 37:43 And he had a philosophy about encouragement. It went something like this. He said, "I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among the men the greatest asset I possess. And the way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement. 38:05 There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of man as criticism from his superiors. I never criticize anyone. I believe in giving a man incentive to work, so I'm anxious to praise but loathe to find fault. If I like anything, I'm hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise." Now the world gets that. 38:26 Do we get it? Do we get it? 38:29 Now again, I remember that not everybody has that special kind of personality that just wins friends and influences people. But we can all do a little bit more to encourage than what we have. Robert Shuler tells a story. And I don't endorse the theology of Robert Shuler, 38:50 but I do endorse what he did. He told the story of a banker who went by a legless beggar every day for years on his way to the bank. 39:03 And this beggar would sell pencils. And quite regularly, this banker would stop, toss in a coin, and take out a pencil. Now he wasn't interested in buying the pencil, but he wanted to instill the man's pride of getting something, 39:23 of purchasing something for his donation. And he said, "Sir," he said, "I always—" "You're a merchant," he said, the banker said to the man. "You're a merchant. And I always expect to get a fair product for a fair price." After a while, the man kind of disappeared and didn't—the banker didn't know where he went, 39:44 where he was, until one day he found him with a little shop, a little roadside stand where he was selling all kinds of pencils. 39:56 And the man pulled him off to the side and said, "Sir," he said, "I want to thank you because you were my inspiration for starting my own business because you saw something in me that I didn't see in myself." That's encouragement. Encouragement. It's a biblical principle. 40:15 It's a biblical principle. It's part of the body of Christ. It's a gift that each one of us can develop more aspects to, even if we don't necessarily have that specific spiritual gift of exhortation. We can all encourage. Amen? Let's bow your heads this morning. 40:37 I just felt coming up here this morning that I need to do something 40:43 because I know that 40:46 we do get discouraged. 40:49 And sometimes we just need a word or a hand on the shoulder or a hug or a word, a verse, 41:04 or somebody to call or text. 41:07 And this morning, I think I would miss the opportunity if I didn't follow up on this, that if you're discouraged this morning, I want to say something to you specifically. So if you are one this morning who sits in need of encouragement, just be honest. 41:30 Maybe you're not to the place where you can really be an encourager right now, but you need some encouragement. I'm going to invite you to stand just right where you are. We've got our heads bowed and eyes closed. Just stand. I want to say something to you this morning. God bless you. 41:49 God bless you. God bless you. Anyone else? God bless you. 41:58 Anyone else? Not going to embarrass you. God bless you. You just need some words this morning. You need God to put His arm around you. Somebody else maybe to put their arm around you. If you're close to a person that's standing, 42:17 just reach out and put your arm around their shoulder. 42:27 Now I want you to think about what God has called you to do. What's God calling you to do? What's God calling you to believe? What's God calling you to embrace? What aspect of the kingdom is God calling you to possess this morning? 42:45 For it's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He wants you to press on. He wants you to press in. He wants you to continue to move forward, to strengthen your resolve, to strengthen your hand in God. 43:06 I want to read you verse 9. This is specifically for those of you who are standing this morning. Everybody else can listen in, but this is for you. 43:18 "Have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage. 43:29 Do not be afraid. Neither be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you whithersoever thou goest. 43:45 To this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 43:53 Only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you." This is still for you. 44:08 "Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may prosper wherever you go. 44:17 And this book of the law, the Word of God, shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate on it day and night that thou mayest observe to do whatsoever is written therein. For then you will make your way prosperous, 44:39 and then you will have good success." Now I want you to look at me. I want you to look at me. Eyeball to eyeball, you're going to get through this. God has got it. 45:00 You're going to make it. Let's pray. Father, we forget so often what encouragement does and how powerful it is. Thank you, Lord, for encouraging us this morning in the gospel, in the person and work of Christ, in the presence of God, 45:21 in the work of God through His Holy Spirit in us so that it can work through us. May God be praised, the saints strengthened and encouraged. 45:37 And as we receive from God, may we just be channels for that to flow to others. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.