Encourage One Another

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected] we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter now. Enjoy the message. [00:00:25] Speaker B: All right, good morning everybody. I'm glad you are here. Wonderful to have some rain and cooler weather. Are you ready for that? [00:00:32] Speaker A: That? [00:00:33] Speaker B: Holy cow. It's so funny though, we already heard people complaining about it like, you know, we went for so long, you know, like two months without any rain. When's gonna rain? When's it gonna rain and then starts raining. When's it gonna stop? When's gonna stop? You know, the Lord must be looking down outta heaven, going, what do you want from me? What's up? I can't make you people happy, but anyway, I'm grateful. I love the seasons. This is a great. It'll be a short season because we're about to go to about 20 below here in a few weeks and. But I am so glad to see all of you this morning. We're in a series, as you know, where we are talking about the instructions that God has given on how a church, particularly how the Christ followers within a church should respond and relate to one another. In fact, when you look in the New Testament, they're like 59 one anothers, love one another, comfort one another, and so forth. So we've been kind of taking a selective passages of examples of things that we feel are pertinent to how you and I are to relate and respond to one another. And this weekend I felt led to talk about this because I think this was probably one of the most needful one anothers that you could study. And it is simply this one. Encourage one another. Encourage one another. One of the values of coming to church and one of the values of being here. We're not here that long. We're together in this assembly probably about an hour on average. I know it probably takes you more time to get ready and get here than you probably spend time here. But one of the objectives that we have when we are together is to encourage one another. I really pray every weekend when we gather that God will allow the people who attend here to leave better than when they came. I want you to leave more hopeful and more forgiven and more loved and more prayed for. And this weekend I would say more encouraged than when you came, the church is unlike any other assembly, any other gathering that you can attend, because there is a supernatural element when you come together as a church family. The presence of God is here, the spirit of God is here. We brought him here through our presence in our own hearts and lives. And so it is important that we see and understand that the value, one of the values of gathering together is to encourage one another. And we need that. It's interesting because when you look at the word encourage in a biblical context, the word literally by definition means get this now. To infuse courage into another. To infuse courage into another. Conversely, when you think about being discouraged, it means I have lost my courage, I've lost my will to fight. I've lost my vision, I've lost my energy, I've lost hope. I mean, there are levels of discouragement that can hit a person's life. So when you and I, when we assemble and we encourage someone, we are basically infusing courage back into that person. I'll tell you another interesting thing. A few weeks ago when we talked about comfort one another, I told you that when Jesus promised the comfort of the Holy spirit in John 14, that the Greek word for comfort is paraclete. Paraclete. Para is to. Is parallel. We got the idea of parallel. Something coming alongside of another. A railroad track is parallel lines. So a para cleat is someone who comes alongside to comfort. Well, the same root word for comfort is the word. We find this word encouragement. So when you think about encouragement, it comes from the same root word as comfort and it is a description of the Holy Spirit. So think about the role of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to comfort us in times of need and he comes to encourage us when times that our courage has been depleted. It's interesting because you can't have courage without an element of fear. There has to be a fear factor in your life or you never see courage. So sometimes the fear will enter your life and if you're not careful, the fear will cause you to be discouraged instead of encouraged. And sometimes you can't find that on your own. So God will supernaturally provide that through his presence. Or sometimes he'll use another person to come alongside you in those fearful times to infuse you with new courage. It is the role of a church, it is the role of a Christ follower to be encouragers. And we ought to seek people who are struggling so that we can encourage them. There was an American writer by the name of William Arthur Ward, and he once said if you flatter people, if you flatter people, you compliment them, they may not believe you. He said, if you criticize people, they may not like you. But he said, if you encourage people, they'll never forget you. There's something powerful and meaningful about being encouraged. There's something about gathering in an assembly like this and walking away going, I don't know what happened, but something in the worship or something in the message or listen, something in interacting with other people just gave me some encouragement. Those of you who volunteer, have you ever thought about your role as being an encourager? People roll onto the parking lot. We have people out there. We have people who are greeters at the doorways and ushers in this room, and volunteers who serve in every area of ministry. And one of the goals, one of their objectives, each and every week is to try to encourage people. That's why we want you to know we're a friendly church and we try to go out our way to make you feel at home, because that's a part of encouraging one another. I always want to bring a message that I hope will encourage you. My. My job as a pastor is not to put you under anything. It's to help you get over everything. The Bible says we are more than conquerors. But I'll also say this about that sometimes before God can put a person over, he has to put them under. But that should be the work of the Holy Spirit, not the motive of the pastor. Sometimes before God can get our attention, sometimes he has to allow us to go through the hard times. He'll put us under something to put us over something. I had a man in our church tell me one time. He said, bill, it's doubtful that I'd ever turned to Christ had I not hit rock bottom. He said, I got so far down, I had to look up to see the bottom. And it was in that experience and in that season that I turned to Christ. So I'm saying sometimes this thing of encouragement means God may put somebody under something so that he may ultimately put them over something. But that's the role of the holy sp. Know what you need. Only God knows that. So when I go into a service, my goal isn't to put you under something. My goal is to help you see how you can live in victory and you and God kind of work out what that looks like. In fact, when you look at the people in your life who have encouraged you along the way, I promise you there are some people who stand out. Maybe a teacher, maybe you came from one of Those homes where you were encouraged as a child, maybe you had a coach that stands out in your mind. That was a great encouragement to you. I promise you, if you took a moment and you thought about people in your life who, at critical moments in your life, encourage you, you've never forgotten them. In fact, listen to what Solomon wrote in Proverbs 12:25. Anxiety in one's heart weighs it down. Anxiety. What is anxiety? First cousin of worry. You got anything you're worried about this morning? You have at least one thing. Well, the first cousin of worry is anxiety. And Proverbs 12:25 says, Anxiety weighs your heart down. Think about that. You ever have a heavy heart in the back of your mind, you're trying to live in victory and you're trying to be an encouraging person, but you've got these burdens that you carry and these challenges that you're facing, and all of a sudden you find in your mind you're overwhelmed and anxiety is weighing your heart. Your heart now is heavy. And you're sitting in this room this morning or you're watching online and you have a heavy heart. But keep reading. Proverbs 12:25 says, Anxiety in one's heart weighs it down. But a good word makes it glad. You realize you can be someone in someone's life to lift a burden off of their heart. Sometimes it's a text, sometimes it's an email, sometimes it's just a word, a quick phone call. I mean, you don't have to write War and Peace. You can just send them a quick word and say, look, I had you in my mind. I had you on my heart today. I prayed for you. And you never know the impact and the effect that that might have in lifting the anxiety off of someone's heart. That's what it means to be an encourager. An encourager comes alongside to infuse courage back into someone who may have lost courage. And so we are called upon to be encouragers. Listen to Psalm 46, verse 1. God is our refuge and strength. He is a very help in times of trouble. The greatest example of being an encourager is our Heavenly Father. He works through the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to come alongside of us, to encourage us and to comfort us. So the church collectively should be what we are individually, and we should be an encouraging body. I looked at this topic this past week and I was trying to think of examples in the Bible and I found a great example I wanted to share with you and to really set up what I wanted to share with you, when you look in Hebrews and you understand in the book of Hebrews the oppression that the people of God were going through, the opposition the people of God were facing, you see the value and the power of encouragement. The church was new. The church hadn't been formed very long. And one of the things that were happening with these young Christians as they stepped out to follow after Jesus is they were being ostracized. In fact, if you were a Jewish person who followed after Jesus and believed him to be the Messiah, and you committed your life to following him, and then you took the next step of going public through baptism, you would be desynagogued, you would be excommunicated. They would not do business with you. In fact, if you followed after Christ, not only did you pay a price in a religious context, you paid a price in a governmental context. Rome had outlawed Christianity. I mean, they had absolutely killed any effort or they're attempting to kill any effort of a church in order to express faith in Jesus Christ. It was outlawed. You couldn't gather in a corporate setting like we're gathering in this morning. It was outlawed. That's why the church went underground and the church were in groups, because you couldn't meet corporately. So what's my point? My point is when you made a commitment to follow after Jesus, you paid a religious price. You paid a price in your business life, you paid a price with the government. You were literally. You talk about a target on your back. You were driven underground to express your faith. So when the writer of Hebrews is communicating and trying to encourage this young church, he says, look at it in Hebrews chapter 10. Look at verse 23. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. He's encouraging them. He's saying, loosely translated, hang in there, baby, you can do this. Don't you give up, and don't you give in and don't you give out. You hold fast to the confession of your faith. You believe in Jesus, you've committed to him, and it doesn't matter what the rest of the world does, you stay faithful to your faith. Note now without wavering, I mean, stay solid, stay grounded, stay committed. You just keep believing. And what God has poured in your heart, don't stop. So the writer of Hebrews is encouraging this church, who on one hand was facing opposition and on the other hand facing oppression. Look at verse 24, Hebrews 10. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. He said, let's get our heads together. And let's strategize. How do we encourage these people who come to our church? How do we encourage them to two things, to love and to good works. How do we encourage them to love people? How do we encourage them to love people who don't know Jesus? How do we encourage them to do good works, to do good things, to get involved in their community, to get involved in their life, to get involved in every aspect, to be salt and light in our world. Jesus has said that's what the church is to be. We're to be salt and light. So he said, let's get together to church and figure out how to do that. And in the midst of that, look, verse 25, don't neglect meeting together. Your translation may have it. Don't forget the assembling of yourselves together. What's he saying in the middle of all this? We need each other. That's the appeal to being committed, to coming to church. It's when we are gathered together as a group, we find encouragement from one another and we find instruction from God's word of how to go out and live our lives more effectively. Don't neglect that. He's saying, man, don't neglect assembling yourselves together. Notice it now as the habit of some. And that's true. Church attendance is habit. You get in the habit of going, or you can get in the habit of not going. And it takes, what, seven weeks or more to form a habit? Someone has said, so it's a habit. I run into people all the time. I'll see them in the grocery store. Oh, I gotta get back in church. I watch you online, but I gotta get back. Yeah, get on back in church. Come on, come on, come on. We're still here. So it's just. It's a habit. So he's saying, look, don't get out of the habit of attending because you need encouragement. You need instruction on how to do love and good works. And we need each other. God designed us to be a part of a church family, he said, but encouraging one another. You see that in verse 25. Encouraging one another all the more as you see the day approaching. Well, what day is he referring to? He's referring to the coming of Jesus. Isn't that crazy? They were looking for Jesus to come in that day, just as we're looking him to come in this day. Look, the coming of the Lord when it happens, will be immediate. It will be immediate. First, Thessalonians 4. The Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, the trump of God. Those who died will be raised first. We which are alive at that moment will be called. That's the idea of rapture, to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord when he comes. It will be immediate. But the reason we're looking for his coming any day is that it is imminent. The coming of Jesus is imminent, just as imminent today as it was in that day. And he's saying, as you see, prophecy fulfilled, and believe me, we've seen so much prophecy fulfilled, I don't have time to get into all that. But there's great studies if you're interested with it, shoot me an email. I'll put you into some great studies. If you're someone that really wants to get into eschatology. I'm just saying every prophecy, in my estimation, that speaks to the coming of Jesus has been fulfilled or is in the very process of being fulfilled as you and I are assembled today. And I believe the only thing lacking is the actual return of Jesus Christ for his own. Let me give you one. Chase this rabbit a little further. Here's what I think he's waiting on. God is sovereign. He knows when the last person will receive him or not. When the body of Christ is completed. I think the only thing keeping him from returning today is there's still someone somewhere out there known in the mind of God who will receive Jesus who has not yet received Jesus. And when the last one is in, I think the Father will turn to the Son and say, the bride is complete. Go get him. And until that moment happens, that's why every weekend when I preach, I wonder, what if that person was in this room? What if that person is watching online? What if that person is being impacted by a missionary somewhere in our world? And once they receive Jesus and the body is complete, so what is he driving at? He's saying, when we see all of these prophetic things happening in our world, that should drive us together even more than ever before, as you see the day approaching. So one of the things he said to the church there in Hebrews, he said, we are to encourage one another. We gather to encourage each other. We're to be encouragers. When I look into the Bible, I try to find examples of what things that I'm studying, what it looks like. And it's wonderful when you can find a character that really exemplifies what you're studying. And I found one. And for the few moments we have left, I want to share with you a man whose Name meant encourager. His name was Barnabas. In fact, as we're going to see in a moment ago, the name Barnabas in the Aramaic meant encourager, son of encouragement. How would you like to be so uplifting that you were known by that? Every time you're around somebody they say the most encouraging lady I've ever been around in my life, that's the most encouraging guy. What an amazing thing to be known for. That was Barnabas. And Barnabas was of the tribe of Levi. He lived and was raised on the island of Cyprus. And many theologians believe that Barnabas would have been present in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost when peter preached and 3,000 people were saved and that same day they were baptized. Many theologians believe Barnabas was in the crowd that day. That Barnabas gave his heart to Jesus that day and went back to the island of Cyprus a changed man. Now he knew about Jesus relationally, he knew about Jesus practically, he knew about Jesus personally. He wasn't just a story, a historical figure. He absolutely had a personal faith in Jesus that changed his life. So when you read about Barnabas in the New Testament and I'm gonna show you five important times we see Barnabas and how that God used him to encourage people. He's a good examp of a good example. The first thing I would point out when Barnabas first gets on the radar, it's in Acts chapter 4, verses 36 and 37. And Barnabas is encouraging the church through his stewardship. Barnabas was a successful man. Barnabas was a generous man. And Barnabas used his generosity in order to bless other. And I'm telling you God has blessed us. And sometimes God can use our generosity as a means of blessing other people. Look at Acts again, Acts chapter 4. Look at verses 36 and 37. Barnabas, the son of encouragement. Notice what he did. He had some land, he sold it, he bought the money and he laid it at the apostles feet. Now nobody was asking him to do that, nobody was pressuring him to do that. I mean when Paul later gave instructions to the church on how we should give in 2 Corinthians 9, 7, he said you don't give grudgingly or of necessity. That's not the motive. You give because your heart is telling you to do that. And I'm saying one of the things that Barnabas did, the son of encouragement here in Acts chapter four is he said, I see a need within the church and I'm gonna respond to it. Many of you did that in the life of Our church just recently, it is a sign of a encouraging church. It is a sign of a generous church. And one of the things that Barnabas did was he said, I see a way whereby I can help. So I'm going to help out of the generosity of my heart and I'm going to encourage the believers in the life of that church and I'm going to contribute in this way. And he did. And it was amazing how God used his generosity to encourage and to bless that church. So one of the first things you see about Barnabas that is encouraging is God used his stewardship to encourage others. Here's the second thing you see, not only by stewardship, but God used Barnabas to be an encourager by him extending friendship. In Acts chapter 9, you have in Acts chapter 8 the conversion of Saul. Remember Saul of Tarsus that was putting Christians to death. And once Saul was saved on the road to Damascus, you have this period of time where Saul is not really believed. Nobody is really buying that his conversion is genuine. In fact, look at in Acts chapter 9 when Saul came to Jerusalem. Now this was three years after the road to Damascus. Paul comes to Jerusalem and he tries to join the church. He tries to join these disciples. But note now they were afraid of him. Now wait a minute, I'm not critical of them. I mean, if this man was charged by Rome to put Christians to death and now he wants to join the church, would some of you be a little nervous about that? I mean, he was the first religious terrorist. Can you imagine some notable terrorist that we've heard about in the news? And all of a sudden we hear some rumor that this terrorist has given his heart to Jesus. And you look around on that church some Sunday morning and there he sits right in the middle of the church. Would that make you a little nervous? That gave you a little holy heartburn. I'm just saying these people were a little skeptical. They thought, is he a plant? Is the government sending him in here to try to expose us? And then he's going to kill all of us. That was the environment. Notice now they were afraid of him and they did not believe that he was a disciple. But look at verse 27 of Acts 9. But Barnabas, Barnabas took him in and brought him to the apostles. He vouched for him. What did Barnabas do? He befriended him. Barnabas took a new Christian that people were skeptical about, that nobody trusted a new Christian that only had 10 foot pole marks all over his body. I mean, they were not buying it at all. And Barnabas the encourager befriended him. What is the example of Barnabas? Not only is it an example of stewardship, of being generous, but there's also the example of loving people, of befriending people, especially people that are new to the faith, reaching out to people who may have just become a Christian and they're just a baby Christian and they don't know all about serving God. They don't know what that looks like. They're new to the faith. And Barnabas said, I want to come alongside this brand new Christian and just encourage him. I want to come alongside this brand new Christian and just help him in his journey and in his walk with Jesus Christ. Barnabas, the Bible said, took him in and brought him to the disciples and he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, that he had spoken to him and he preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. What did Barnabas do? He showed his encouragement through his friendship. Third one, we have stewardship, we have friendship. Here's another way. Barnabas encouragement was shown by building partnerships. Building partnerships. Look at Acts chapter 11, verse 22. They sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch New Church in Antioch. And when he came, he saw the grace of God. He was so glad. He saw God working in this young church. He was so glad. And notice what he did. He encouraged them all with purpose of heart that they should continue with the Lord. Man, don't give up, don't give in, don't give out. You're doing wonderful things. And look at the next verse. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And the Bible says a great many people were added to the Lord. Why? Because Barnabas encouraged them. What was he doing in Antioch? He was building partnerships. He was networking. We use that term today, networking. You know what a net is? They used to fish with nets in the Bible. Jesus said you're to be fishers of men. And back then they didn't use a rod and reel, they used a net and they used the net. So the Bible uses this concept of casting nets and washing nets and mending nets a lot of times to illustrate the role of a church. Do you know what happens when you network, when you build partnerships as he was doing in Antioch? A net is a bunch of little things that are tied together to make a big thing. Meaning that yes, I could serve God as an independent person and I could go out and I could do my best individually to try to carry out the Great Commission, but I do so much better When I'm networking within a church family, we can pool our resources. That's stewardship. We can love new people that are coming to the faith. That's friendship. We then can build partnerships. We can do more collectively and more together than we can individually. That's why God left his body, the church, here on the earth. And so what we are as a network, we're a bunch of individual things that are tied together to make a big thing. A net's just a bunch of little individual strings that comes together, ties them together, and makes a big thing. And when you have that big thing and you throw that big thing out in the water, you catch fish. And what was happening in Antioch was something incredible is that you had a man whose heart was to encourage, and he's encouraging new believers to get involved in the life of church with some of these people that have been believers for a while. And he's spotting talent and he's getting these people involved. He's building a network. And the Bible says, look at verse 24 again of Acts 11. The Bible says, and there were many people added to the Lord. The net was working. The partnerships were effective. People were being added to the Lord. So track with me now. You have stewardship, you have friendship, you have partnerships. Here's the fourth quality of an encouraging man. He develops leadership. Stay with me. In Acts, chapter 11, look down at verse 25. Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. He brings him back to Antioch. And when he brings him to Antioch, it was a whole year. He was assembled with the church. And notice what he's doing. He's teaching people. And the Bible says the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. What was happening? People were stepping up into leadership. What was going on in Antioch through the leadership of Barnabas and the mentoring of the Apostle Paul was a dynamic that you see in Ephesians 4, where he was equipping the saints within that church to do the work of the ministry. And people were being developed, and they were taking on rows of leadership, and they were leading by example. They were making a difference in the community. They were making a difference in the life of the church. And here's what's significant. The Bible says they were first called Christians at Antioch. Did you see that? Now we use the term Christian today. It's pretty descriptive of anyone who claims to know God. Well, I'm a Christian. Everybody claims to be a Christian, right? But back in that day, it had significance because the title Christian was not A compliment. The title Christian was meant to be a derisive term. It was meant to be a threatening term. Basically, when they called them Christians at Antioch because of the work of that church and the mentoring and the leadership of Barnabas, what they were basically saying is, you remember that Jesus Christ that we put to death on the cross. If you keep acting like him, the same thing that happened to him is going to happen to you. It was a threat. Now we wear it as a badge of honor because we know that there was enough that was being seen in the life of the church that looked like Jesus. Enough for where they said, you're acting just like Jesus. Well, that's what a church is supposed to look like. That's why it's the body of Christ. It ought to look like Jesus. And so you start saying, is my life really reflecting the commitment I have to Christ? Can somebody see Jesus living in me? I heard one time someone made this statement and it's pretty powerful and convicting. They said, if you were to be arrested for being a Christian, and there's places in our world where people are being arrested for being a Christian. They said, but if you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? And I'm just saying that here in Antioch, this church was becoming such a reflection of who Jesus is that they were called Christians in Antioch for the very first time. What was the influence? Who was responsible? What was the human agency that brought that transformation around? A man who was encouraging others named Barnabas. He was building networks, he was developing leadership, he was encouraging friendship. He was demonstrating stewardship. He was the biggest encourager in the life of the church. And God was using this remarkable man to transform lives and to build that early church. Here's the last thing you see in Acts, chapter 15. He was restoring relationships. He was restoring relationships. Let me read the scripture and I'll give you the context Barnabas was determined to take with him. John called Mark, who was his cousin, but Paul insisted that they don't take him. And they don't take him because he's the one that had departed from them in Pamphylia and not had gone and he had not gone with them to the work. Let me give you the background so this will make sense. Paul took John Mark, who was Barnabas cousin, with him on his first missionary journey. He invested a lot in this young man. This young man was a new leader. He was new to leadership. He wasn't a veteran. And Paul had invested a lot of time, attention and probably resources in this young man partnering with him. And in the middle of this missionary journey, John Mark quits. Man, there's never a good time to quit. And he quits on Paul in the middle of this missionary journey. Paul was counting on him. Paul needed him. And he melded in. He just quit. And Paul said, you know what? I love him, but I'm done with him. Remember that old thing? You know, you hurt me once, shame on you. Hurt me twice, shame on me. That was Paul. Paul was a type A personality. He was a aggressive builder, very successful man. And John Mark was this young novice, inexperienced. And he burned Paul. He just burned him. And later on here, Barnabas is the encourager. He's trying to get them back together and get them to work together again. And Paul went, uh, I've already been burned once, not doing it. John Mark was kind of willing, but Paul said, eh, I'm not there yet. Sorry. And so they're kind of going in different directions. And sometimes that happens. Sometimes you work with somebody until you can't. And that doesn't mean anything's wrong with them or nothing's wrong with you. It just means it's a different season and you do different things. That's okay. And in Paul's case, it just like he had gotten burned by John Mark. So he wasn't gonna. He wasn't buying it anymore. And so what you have happening when you look at that second missionary journey is Paul. Paul's going with Silas and Barnabas takes his cousin John Mark, and they go together. But here's what I don't want you to miss. This is so important. This is beautiful. When you look in two Timothy chapter four, you have Paul in the closing months of his life. Paul is not long for this world. He's going to go to heaven before long. And listen to what Paul said. 2 Timothy 4:11, he said, Get John Mark, go get him. Bring him with you because he is helpful to me in the ministry. Wow. Isn't that incredible? He saw the value of John Mark. Even though there had been hurt, even though there had been disappointment, even though they had not worked together, Paul had a chance to process it. And he realized John Mark is a good guy. He made a mistake, but he's a good man and he wanted him back in his life. Toward the end of his life, he had a way of reconciling that relationship. And who was the person that put that together? Barnabas. Barnabas the encourager. All these years, Barnabas has been trying to get these guys to make up and all these years, Barnabas has been trying to get them to, you know, you guys need to work together. You're valuable for the kingdom. You don't need to carry this animosity. It's not. And finally, Barnabas the encourager, he was able to see those guys be able to work together and be able to fellowship together once again. What's my point? My point is, guys, when you look at those five incredible things that describe Barnabas the encourager, we can take something from each one of those things. Something from our generosity and our stewardship to our friendship, to our partnerships, to our leadership, to our restoring fellowship. There's qualities about being an encourager that we can learn from. And I'm just saying this week, as we go throughout our week, find somebody. Find somebody to encourage. I mean, find somebody, send them a little text and just say, hey, prayed for you today. I love you. I just want to encourage you. You never know. The Bible says words fitly spoken are like apples of gold and pitchers of silver. Solomon said sometimes the most beautiful thing you can give to someone is a fitly word, a timely word. Encourage them. I mean, you can get upset about it. Don't stay upset. You can get mad. We'll get over it. Life's too short to bear grudges and heavy thoughts against anyone. Let that stuff go. Let it go. Instead, find yourself aligning on the side of being an encourager. God will bless you, the church will benefit, and somebody may actually come to Jesus because of the encouragement you shared. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. It is so encouraging. It sets the standard and sets the example for how we should live our life. And Father, thank you for Barnabas, the son of encouragement. Thank you. How he exemplified encouragement through, through the resources he shared with his church that encouraged him through the friendship he shared with a new Christian that encouraged him to the partnerships that he built in the life of the church that encouraged them to the Lord, to the relationships that he mended with brothers and sisters that had fallen out with one another, that encouraged them. Help us as we leave the room this morning to determine to be like Barnabas, to be an encouragement in someone's life, might be a spouse, it might be a child, might be a parent, maybe someone you work with or someone you work for, maybe a neighbor, someone going through something, it may be somebody in this room, you just feel led to put an arm around them and say, hey, man, before you go today, I just want you to know I'm going to pray for you this week. I hope it's a great week for you, Father. Help us. Help us to encourage one another. Thank you Lord, for the joy of knowing Jesus. I pray for my friends this morning who may never have trusted you, that this would be that moment when they humble their heart and they say, lord, with all that I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart, forgive my sin, and I trust you today with all that I am. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. [00:35:42] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.