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[00:00:24] Speaker B: Well, good morning, everybody. This morning we're closing out our series on one another, and I want to talk to you about something that we all need. Everyone in the room needs this. Everyone watching online needs this. And that is we need encouragement. And the Bible says we are to encourage one another. And along with that, he says we are to motivate one another. Now, that's not something that comes natural to most people. Most people are not naturally just motivators or encouragers. Have you ever met any someone ever met someone and they just seem to be down all the time. I mean, just. It's just. It's bad and it's crazy to get worse, no matter what the circumstance is. I had a guy in my former church that was the most negative person I've ever known. Love him to death. He's in heaven now, I'm pretty sure. And he just. He was just, hey, don't, don't, don't, don't throw at me. When we see each other, we're both going to be surprised. We see each other there one day. But he was the most negative person I've ever been around. No matter what was going on, he always had something negative to say about it. Now, it was the tradition of our church. We typically would call on someone to pray at the close of the service. Now, a couple of reasons. Benediction is great. It's a wonderful way to close out a service when you have prayer. But there was also a practical reason because it was our custom to stand at the back door, the main entrance exit as people were leaving, where you could shake hands with people. So I needed enough time to get from here to there. So having somebody to pray, I could get out there and shake hands. And it was a wonderful thing. It was a spiritual thing, but a practical thing, right? And I always thought one of the things I could do was call on him one day and just say, hey, brother, we've had such a wonderful service. Would you come forward and lead us all in a word of discouragement before we go home today?
We're feeling pretty good and would you discourage us? But my point is, I need encouraging. You need encouraging. Everybody in the room needs encouraging. And we are challenged in God's word, as we'll see in a moment, to encourage one another. And when you look at it, our heavenly father was a great encourager. He was constantly encouraging his children. One of the most beautiful examples I could give you this morning by way of introduction, would be the example of young Joshua, who was about to follow his predecessor, Moses, and assume an incredible role of leadership in the life and history of Israel. And God told Joshua, one of the first things he told him in Joshua one, when this young man stepped into that huge role of responsibility, he said this, as I was with Moses, I will be with you. Be not afraid. You see, encourage means to put courage back into someone. And the reason courage goes out of someone is because of fear, the fear factor. So when you encourage someone, you are putting courage back into them. You're telling them, you got this, you can do this. There's nothing that God has called you to do, that he will not equip you, that he will not enable you, that he will not empower you to do. If God's called you to it, you can do it. And so here God was encouraging this young man, as I was with your predecessor, Moses. I'm going to be with you, so therefore, do not be afraid. And the reason he said that is there's two dominant reasons why people get discouraged, particularly when they're looking at the prospects ahead of them. Sometimes people discouraged because they just feel inadequate. You just feel like I've outpunted my coverage. I just simply am not capable. I'm not able to do the thing that I've been called upon to do. You feel inadequate sometimes you feel inadequate because you compare yourself to other people, and that's a terrible thing to do. In fact, he warns us about this in two corinthians ten, verse twelve. He said, if you compare yourselves among yourselves, it's not wise. It's never a wise thing to look at your ability and compare your ability with someone else's ability. Yes, they may have gifts that you don't have. They may have abilities that you don't have. But God has uniquely given you gifts, and he has uniquely qualified.
So never allow feelings of inadequacy to draw the fear out of you and to discourage you from doing what God's called you to do. I'm sure Joshua faced that. He's following Moses. And the Bible says there wasn't a greater man that ever lived up until that day than the man Moses. And that's the guy whose shoes he's now trying to fill. And so I'm sure there were great feelings of inadequacy which caused God to tell him, just like I was with Moses, I'll be with you. So inadequacy is a great thing you have to try to overcome. Another thing is insecurity, feelings of not only inadequacy, but feelings of insecurity. And sometimes that's linked to a past failure. Sometimes people have trouble getting over their past, and it hampers them and it hinders them from walking into their future and fulfilling their God given destiny. And so they'll feel inadequate. They're intimidated by their past. God couldn't use me. God will never be able to help me get through this or get over this or get beyond this. And listen, there's nothing farther from the truth. I tell you all the time, once God has forgiven you, forgive yourself. I talked about how great Moses is. But can I tell you? Moses was a murderer. You remember he killed the Egyptian. He hid him in the sand. And before he killed him, the Bible said Moses looked this way and that way. Now let me tell you something. You know what you're about to do is wrong if you have to look this way and that way before you do it. There's your clue. He looked this way that killed him and buried him, thinking he'll never be found out. But Moses was found out. He goes on the run for a period of time, and God brings him back from that disaster. He brings him back from that failure. And God used him tremendously. My point is, anyone in scripture that God has ever used greatly has a past. They have something that they've done, something that they did that they're ashamed of, that they had to confront and faced God with. And God brought them through it. He got them over it. They confessed it. They moved beyond it. So never allow your past to take away what God has for you in your future. Because I want to this morning try to encourage you. And I'm pointing out the fact our God is the great encourager. He encouraged Joshua to move forward into the destiny that God had for him. Now, I can tell you, sometimes the best thing you can do to be encouraged is to encourage yourself. To encourage yourself. Do you try to encourage yourself? Let me give you a proof text for that. First Samuel, chapter 30 and verse six. The Bible says David was greatly distressed. And then it talks about all the problems that David was facing. But listen to what it says. First Samuel 30, verse six. But David encouraged himself in the Lord, his God. David said, there's nobody else around me to encourage me right now, so I'm going to encourage myself. And can I tell you on a Monday morning when you're facing a difficult week or you've got some hard decisions to make and there's no one else around to encourage you, sometimes you just got to encourage yourself. You say, how do you do that? You do that by reminding yourself of God's word. I've told you before, when you find a promise in the Bible, you write it down. If you don't write it down, you'll forget it. So you write it down. Then the next thing you do is you pray it in. You pray it in, Lord, help me to claim this promise. And the third thing you do is you live it out. You say, God, I'm going to stand on your word. Your word said this to me, and I'm going to encourage myself in your word. Do you need providential help? Do you need help in some area of life? The Bible says, I shall supply, God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Now, he did not say out of his riches and glory according to Christ Jesus, because that would lead you to believe that the supply is being depleted every time God allows a demand to be met. He didn't say out of, because the supply would be depleted. He said, according to meaning that God can meet your need and my need and the needs of everyone else on this planet, and it never touches the supply. Isn't that a beautiful thought? So if you're going through something and you need supply, remember, God is the God of supply. He's the God of Providence. He's the God who cannot fail. When Abram was called to the mountaintop to sacrifice his son, and God provided a ram in the place of his son, you remember what Abraham did? He praised God and he said, you are Jehovah Jireh. It means, you are the God who supplies. You are the God who cannot fail. So I'm saying, when you wake up on Monday morning and you need to make a sale and you need to meet a need, you remind yourself, encourage yourself and say, God, you've never failed. You've never failed me. You won't fail me now. I don't know how, I don't know where, I don't know when, but I do know that you are going to come through. You will not, cannot fail. Encourage yourself in the Lord. And I say that because you cannot encourage others. I cannot encourage others. If I am discouraged. It is hard to give something that you don't have. I've told you, you can't give what you don't have any more than you can come from where you've not been. So before, I can encourage you. I have to be encouraged. So if I sense that I'm discouraged and I can't find encouragement from anyone else, I try to encourage myself, because what I do is important to encouraging everyone else that I come in contact with. So I'm saying you have to keep yourself encouraged. Now, let me also give you this, because this is important that you understand. There are some people that you cannot encourage. There are some people you'll encounter in life you cannot motivate. There are some people that you will run into in life that you cannot help. I gave this to the church a few months back, and I just thought as I was preparing this weekend, this might be good to share this with you again. Let me give you some types of people that you truly, sadly, you cannot help. Number one, you cannot help people who do not think they need it. You can't help someone. You cannot encourage someone. You cannot motivate someone if they do not believe that they need it. In fact, the apostle Paul in Ephesians 118, when he was dealing with people who didn't think they needed help, you know what the prayer of Paul was for them? He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart be enlightened. Now, get the phrasing of that. The eyes of your heart. Did you know your heart has eyes?
We talk about being enlightened. That's what it means to be enlightened, to be lit up from the inside, the eyes of your heart. It's called an epiphany. It's called the moment that all of a sudden you understand something you didn't understand before. And Paul was saying, concerning the believers in Ephesus, they need the eyes of their heart to be enlightened. They need to be able to see with the heart what I'm trying to teach them and what God is trying to speak into them. But there are some people, guys, that will not receive encouragement from you if they do not think they need it. Second type of person you cannot help are those who know they need it, but they do not want it. Have you ever met somebody they'll admit, I know I need help, but they will not receive it. They do not want it. In fact, in John, chapter five and verse six, you remember the scene at the pool of Bethesda? The man had been there for a period of time. Waiting on the angel to stir the waters so someone would help him into the waters and he could be made whole. When Jesus came by and saw the man in that condition, the question Jesus asked is remarkable. He said, would you be made whole? Do you really want to be healed? Now, you would think a guy laying there by the pool for that period of time, waiting on that experience, would absolutely not even be asked the question. But what is implied in the question is the man had an opportunity to be helped, and he had refused it before. And now Jesus comes along, who knows all, who sees all, who reward all, and who holds all accountable. He looks at the man and says, do you really want to change your condition? I mean, I'm here. He's the healer. There's nothing God can't do. But he was looking at the men, asking the man, is this really what you want? Now, what's interesting about that exchange is it tells me there are people who know they need help, but they simply don't want it. Those are people you can't help. Here's a third type, a person who doesn't want help yet. They don't want it yet. Yeah, they know they need help. They just don't want it yet. You remember when Paul, standing before King Agrippa and Paul shares his story of conversion in acts, chapter 26. And Paul tells Agrippa how God had saved him and how God had changed his life. And you remember the response the king Agrippa gave to Paul? He said, paul, almost.
Almost, you have persuaded me to be a Christian. He said, look, I know I need help. I know I need to become a Christian. I know I need to give my heart to God. I know I need to quit carrying this on my own. I know I need it. I'm just not there yet. And that's the type of person that you can't help, someone who will acknowledge that they need help, but they're not ready to receive it yet. Here's the fourth kind, someone who doesn't want help from you.
You try to encourage them, and you try to help them, but they just don't want help from you. Now, if that's the case, let me tell you, you're in good company. Listen to what Jesus said in Mark, chapter six, verse four. A prophet is honored everywhere, except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family. Jesus said, I'm acknowledged, and I'm honored everywhere, except among the people I grew up around. And now they just, they don't realize who I am, and they don't realize what I'm capable of doing. And what it was simply saying is there are people who need help, people who know they need help, but they just don't want to receive help from me. And that'll be a person that you'll come in contact with. Here's the last type of person you can help, and that is people who are not willing to do what it takes to get help.
[00:14:34] Speaker C: You can't fix people.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: You can't change anyone. You can try to motivate them, but if they do not receive that, and they're not willing to do what it takes to maintain that, there's nothing you can do. Here's a proof text. Matthew, chapter 17, verse 27. When Jesus told them how to get their taxes paid, he said, I want you to go and catch fish. And once you caught the fish, there's going to be a coin in the fish's mouth. Pay your taxes. And by the way, there's enough there to pay mine. Now, what he was telling them is, before you get help, there's a little.
[00:15:05] Speaker C: Work you're gonna have to do.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Before you get that need met. You're gonna have to do something. You see, you pray as though everything depends upon God, but then you go work as though everything depends upon you. We are interdependent upon our heavenly Father. There are some things God simply will not do without us. We have to participate in that. We have to be willing to do what it needs to do what it requires in order to receive what we need to receive. And there are some people, there are some people who will not do what it takes in order for them to get help. Now, I say that up front, but just to help you understand, there'll be certain people in your life that you'll try to help, but you simply cannot help them. Now, let me give you the encouragement from God's word concerning motivating and encouraging one another. Look at Hebrews chapter ten. I think we have this for you in your notes. Hebrews ten, verse 24. The Bible said, let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love, and I'll talk about why that's so important. And good works. The writer of Hebrews said, let's think of ways. Let's get creative. How can we motivate people to acts of love and to good works? Now, this happens in the home a lot of times with your kids. How do I get creative in motivating my children to do things that will benefit and bless other people? And Paul said, this is a great one. Another to motivate one another to do acts of love. Here's the second verse I wanted to give you. Hebrews chapter three, verse 13. But encourage one another. That's what we're talking about this morning. Encourage one another note now, daily, we need that daily. You can't just come to church on Sunday and get all the encouragement you need to get you through the week. I would say you can't just come to church on Sunday and get all the encouragement you need to get you through the day. I wish that were the case, but it just not happening. That's why you got to learn to be around people who will encourage you. And if they're not encouraging you, you got to learn how to encourage yourself. Encourage these. He said, daily, as long as it is called today so none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. He said, man, if you go down that road and you live a life of discouragement, sooner or later you're going to be deceived, you're going to make some bad choices, and sin will be a proponent of your life that will take all the joy out of your life. And that's what he's warning against in Hebrews 13. So encourage one another. Hebrews 1024. Motivate one another. And Paul was a great encourager. Over half of the Old New Testament, rather, was written by the great apostle Paul. And so the new testament is replete with examples of how Paul encouraged the people that was helping him and the people that was working with him and the people that he was ministering to, how Paul loved them, how he motivated them, and how he encouraged them. And one of the great examples I want to share with you this morning before we go, is the example in Philippians chapter one of how the great apostle encouraged the believers in Philippi. Look at verse three of Philippians one. I thank my God every time I remember you. Isn't that a sweet way to greet someone? Every time I see you, man, I just. I'm grateful for you. Thank you for what you mean to me. Thank you for what you're doing, and thank you. I just want to affirm you. I want to appreciate you. You know what happens when you appreciate someone, you add to their value. I mean, when an item that you own appreciates, that means it's increasing in value as opposed to depreciating, right? You buy a car, you drive it off the lot. They say the thing's already depreciated. But one of the things you and I can do to one another every day to encourage and motivate us to appreciate one another. We can say, I thank God for you. I just want you to know you are appreciated. You affirmed them. You are adding to their value. He said, I think about this every time I remember you from time to time. It's good to write someone a note, send them a little text, someone in your circle as they come to mind. You won't be able to do this with everyone you know, but as certain people come to your mind, have you ever thought about just taking a skinny minute out of your day and just drop them a note and say, for some reason you came to my mind and I stopped for a moment to pray for you, and I hope this.
[00:19:05] Speaker C: Is a great day?
[00:19:06] Speaker B: I would tell you that's a great habit to get into. That's a wonderful thing to begin to do, because you'll find that is encouraging others, that is motivating others. And so this is, I think, what Paul had in mind. They have cell phones back then. If they did, I think Paul would have shot him a text. I just want you to know I thought about you, and you came to my mind, and I just thank God for you. I want to just appreciate you and value you. He said, look, now I have you in all my prayers. I always pray with joyous because of your partnership in the gospel from the first days unto now. And note now, Paul said, I'm confident of this, that he who began a good work in you, he's going to carry it on to the completion until the day of Christ Jesus. And so I'm setting the table for you to tell you in chapter one. There's some beautiful, wonderful encouragement that Paul gives to the believers at Philippi, and I want to continue through the chapter and touch on a couple of things for you to think about. Number one, Paul encouraged the philippian believers to employ the right force. He said, one of the things that should motivate us, it should come from the right place. And the most powerful force, the most powerful force in the life of the believer is love. The love we have for God, the love we have for one another. If I don't love God and I don't love other people, I'll never encourage them and I'll never motivate them. Look at Philippians one, verse nine. And this I pray. Paul said, here's what I'm praying for you, that your love may abound, that it may grow, that it will grow more and more. Paul said, the first thing I have to do if I'm going to encourage you? The thing I want to encourage you in is that your love will continue to grow, that it will abound more and more. Here's why that's important.
Everything we do in life will be tied directly to our motivation. To our motivation. The lowest level of motivation in life, the lowest level, is this. I do what I do because I have to. That's the lowest level of motivation. I would call that, in a spiritual context, legalism. The only reason I do what I do is I have no other choice. Now. That's a terrible place to be in a job. I'm just doing this because I don't have any other thing. I doing what I do because I have to. Now, we've all had jobs like that before, right? We've all had those jobs where we have to say, this is not great. I'm doing what I do because I have to. And I'm saying that's motivation. But I'm also telling you that is the lowest level of motivation. If the only time you talk to your significant other is you feel you have to, that ain't gonna bless anybody. If the only time you do for others that are in your circle is because you feel compelled because you have to, that is a very low level of motivation. But it's motivation. But it's the lowest level now, just above that level is the second level. Not that I do what I do because I have to get this now. I do what I do because I need to. I need to. If the lowest level is legalism, the next level up is guilt. I just do what I do because I feel guilty if I don't. I gotta be nice to these people. Cause I feel bad if I don't. I gotta do this because I feel bad if I don't. It's a good thing. But I'm not really motivated. I'm just doing this. I'm motivated to do it. It's not that I necessarily feel that I have to, though. I have to. I'm doing this because I really just don't have a choice in the matter. I need to do this. The next level up is higher than the other two. The next level up is I do this because I want to. I want to. Now that's a higher level. It's the level of desire. It's better than legalism, you know? It's better than the sense of guilt or obligation. It's desire. But it's tied more to how I feel about it. If I'm having a good day, you're having a good day and I'll make sure that we get along well. If I'm having a bad day, I'm probably not going to be good for you. And so it's going to. And whatever I do for you, I'm only going to do out of a sense of guilt. I just got to do this. It's a low level. And so you learn to do it because you are tied more to your emotions. I do what I do because I desire to. Here's the highest level. This is what I was driving at. The highest level of motivation is this. I do what I do because I love to. That's devotion. That's devotion. It doesn't require legalism. It's devotion. And I've given you this illustration before, but it's like taking care of your kids, right? The highest level of taking care of your children is the level that I do what I do for my kid. I didn't think about it. I do what I do because I love these kids. There's not a parent in the room that will feed your kids in a little while when you get out of here because you have to, right?
You won't do that because you have to. Well, maybe some, but not all the time.
Now, I will tell you legalism. Legalism will tell you that you have to if you don't feed them, there's an organization called Child Protective Services that will come along and determine you are not a good fit for this kid and they'll put them somewhere where you get a better fit. So you have legalism. It's the, it's the. Think about the law is the bumpers on the road, you never know they're there. The curbs, you never know they're there until you swerve. The road is grace, the road is obedient. And as long as you're on the road, you know. But if you don't think law's there, swerve, you keep swerving, and there'll be a curb over there that'll knock you silly and send you back out into the middle of the road. Well, legalism is there. The law is there. Jesus didn't abolish it. He came to fulfill it. But the law is still there. There is a requirement that we take care of our family. The Bible says if you don't provide for your family, you're worse than an infidel. That's the law. But I'm just suggesting you, it's the lowest level. If I do what I do, just simply go, well, I got to give to my church. I got to serve these people. I got to read the Bible. I got to pray. Oh, my God, if that's not as your pastor, I'll tell you, do that anyway.
Do that anyway. I don't care. The Bible says, God loves a cheerful giver. You can give grouchy, I don't care.
You can throw it out at the church. I do not care. That's not my standard. But God's standard is he loves cheerful. Why? He wants people who do what they do because they love to. Paul said, I want this love. This is the force. It's the right force that motivates us to do what we do, and that's because we love people. Now, let me tell you something. You'll never love other people if you don't first and foremost love God. You remember when Jesus said, when he was asked in Matthew 22 by that lawyer, the lawyer said, what's the greatest commandment? You remember when Jesus answered and he said, the greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and all your mind. And the second command is like unto it, love your neighbor. And then. Whoa, wait. Don't stop reading as thyself, love your neighbor. So there's a love of God, there's a love for yourself, and there's a love for your neighbor. Now, put that together. What he's saying there is that if I'm going to employ the correct force, this force of love, which is the greatest force, it's an irresistible force. Love your enemies. That's a powerful force. Love is irresistible. Somebody may not like you, but if you love them, that's a powerful thing. And love is a powerful thing. And so I'm just suggesting that the way I develop that type of love for people that I don't particularly love is I, first of all, have to make sure I love God, and then I have to be comfortable within my own skin, right? I have to love my neighbor as I love myself. Now, again, that's nothing. Narcissism. That's not some narcissistic weirdness. Remember, Narcissus was the greek mythological figure who fell in love with his reflection in a pond. Oh, enough about me. Now you talk about me. You know, it's that single guy that could date a mirror. You ever known anybody like that?
That's not what it's talking about. It's talking about a healthy self image. It's talking about being comfortable in your own skin. It's talking about realizing we are fearfully, wonderfully made according to the 133rd psalm. It's being comfortable with how God made you, with who God made you. It's not having issues, because if you aren't comfortable in your own skin, you're not going to be comfortable with other people. And so I'm saying, as we get healthy and we love God and we have a healthy self image where we can love ourselves, it will affect how we love one another. You love your neighbor. The Bible says, as we love ourselves. And it is, guys, and please don't miss this. It is the most powerful force.
You know, light, light diffused, will still illuminate a room. But what makes light so powerful is when it is focused, the focus of light. In fact, light can go from a light bulb to a laser. It can penetrate steel simply because light has found a focus.
And love has to have a focus, which is the second point. And Paul talks about this. He talks about not only the right force, but he talks secondly about the right course. How do I direct this love that I am to have? Look down in Philippians, chapter one, again, verse nine. We are to direct our love according to knowledge and all discernment.
[00:28:11] Speaker C: Now I'm going to explain that.
[00:28:13] Speaker B: Think about love as the river that is flowing out of our life. Love God, happy in my own skin. I'm loving one another. And how am I direct that love? What should it look like when I love other people? It should be directed through a channel. On this bank is truth, knowledge, truth. In church world, we call it doctrine. It's the body of belief. It is what we know to be certain. That's on one side. What is on the other bank? Discernment. That discernment is essential.
It's knowing how to apply the love. So he's saying, channel the love that you have through the banks of truth and through the banks of. And here I put this together in a statement, so this would make sense. I hope it makes sense. Love is motivating me to help someone in a crisis. But listen, truth is instructing me on how to help them. Let me stop. I love this person. And according to truth, what is truth? What is knowledge? Knowledge is understanding what they're going through. Knowledge is having enough facts on my side to know how I can adequately help them. So if you're going to channel love, you need to have some truth associated with that. You need to know the truth about their situation. You need to be able to have a little more information if you're generally going to help them. So my love towards someone else in a crisis and how I respond to the person in crisis is first and foremost according to the truth that I know about them and that I know about their situation and then notice it now. And discernment. Discernment is informing me not to enable them to continually to stay in crisis. So when I'm helping someone, I'm helping them according to knowledge and discernment, because you have to discern. Am I dealing with someone who is going through a season or am I dealing with someone who is going through a cycle? And, boy, that's important.
Seasons will end. Seasons come and go.
[00:30:03] Speaker C: Seasons change.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: Everybody has bad seasons. I've been through a few where you are just, you're just not yourself. You're off your game. And by the way, that's true in agriculture, a lot of the bible, God uses practical illustrations in agriculture to help us reap what you sow. Things of that, if, you know, you sow to the wind, you reap the world. All those things, all those ideas of scripture, the agricultural in nature. And, you know, there's seasons you plow. You have to plow the field under. Well, you're not gonna make a lot of money when you're plowing. You're gonna spend money when you're plowing. You're gonna exhaust yourself. You're in a season, some of you getting your field plowed under. You're in between jobs. You're starting something new. You're not receiving, you're investing, and you're putting more into it. Plowing. Then there's planting. There's the investment. Then now you're planting into something. All right, I know this is going to work. It's not working yet. I've plowed my field under. I've quit that old job. I've started a new one, and I'm planting into the new job. Then you nurture. Nurturing is watering it. Nurturing is sometimes having fertilizer.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: It happens.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: And then you've got that fourth season, which is now you're reaping. Now you're reaping, right? It's only one of the four seasons, by the way. You don't live in a season of reaping all the time. Everything's just not great all the time. So I'm just suggesting to your heart, you have to understand, is this a season this person is in? And if that's a season according to truth, you can have the discernment to say, you're going to get through this. I'm telling you, you're going to get through this. You've been through hard times before. I've seen you go through, you're going to make it. And sometimes the best way to help someone going through a hard season, sometimes how to have that discernment is to remind them of how God blessed them before, how he brought them through before. When I'm going through a hard time, guys, I'll tell you, sometimes I remind myself that God has never failed me. Sometimes I look at, encourage myself and say, bill, God has. When can you point a finger at God and say, you failed me?
[00:31:53] Speaker C: He's never failed me.
[00:31:55] Speaker B: Never. He scared me to death.
And there's been times when I wondered, there's been times when the way in which he took care of me was not of the way in which I thought he was going to take care of me. But I'm saying he's, he's never failed. Or you have to ask, is this a cycle? Is this a bad cycle they're going through all the time because they're making bad decisions and they're just refusing to change. And then go back to what I said earlier about people you can't help. So you have to ask yourself, and what will help you with that truth and discernment? Paul is saying, when you are dealing with people and you are distributing love, you have to have both. You see, love without truth is just emotionalism.
Truth without love is legalism. So you have to have love according to truth, and you need discernment to know how to help the people that you love and how best to deal with them. So you have the right force, you have the right course.
[00:32:50] Speaker C: Let me close with this.
[00:32:51] Speaker B: You have the right source. Paul said, here's how you test it. Look at verses ten and eleven. That you may approve, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere without offense until the day of Christ Jesus being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ, to the glory and the praise of God. He said, first of all, this is the way you approve. What does approve mean? What does that mean in the Greek? It literally means it doesn't mean to test the things that oppose. It means to test the things that difference.
[00:33:24] Speaker C: Let me explain that.
[00:33:26] Speaker B: If when you approve something, you're not testing the things that oppose, what opposes one thing that opposes the other is good and evil. Good and evil. Those are the things that oppose. And that's not what needs to be tested. Most of us know the difference between good and evil. I've told you before, the kids over there and met kids and some of the kids in this room, they know the difference between good and evil. I mean, I've got a seven year old grandson knows the difference between good and evil. I mean, you don't have to have a lot of years experience to know the difference between good and well, those are the things that oppose. That's not what approved means. Approve means to test the things that differ. Differ means good as opposed to best, you see? And what he's saying is, as you walk in this level of discernment according to truth and you love people, God is going to give you a sense of knowing what is good or what is best. The hardest decision you'll make in life is not good and evil. That's important, but that's not hard. The hard is what's good for me as opposed to what's best for me. That's hard. Who's good for me as opposed to.
[00:34:25] Speaker C: Who'S best for me.
[00:34:26] Speaker B: That's hard. So that's where you need discernment. And the Bible says here, a wise person will approve these things. And then he says, and then what you're going to see is that you want to see sincerity. You'll see the things that are sincere. That word sincere is interesting. It actually has its roots in the Latin. When they were translating the Bible into English, it's Sennachera. In Latin, sennachera, the expression means without wax. Now, I'll have to explain that. So it makes sense. When they were making products back in the first century, furniture, for example, or they were making pottery, a lot of times a piece of pottery, for example, would be cracked, and so they would go and they would melt wax, and they would put wax in the bottom of that pottery, and then they would paint that to disguise it from a consumer? And so when the person brought the pottery home and maybe they put that piece of pottery over a fire in order to heat something up, they were cooking, the wax would melt away, and the pot would begin to leak. And so they were obviously angry at. Angry at the person that sold it to them. And so they said, you sold me a defective product. So the good housekeeping seal of approval for the first century was this latin expression that you could find carved on the bottom of pottery or even etched under furniture. Sennachera. Sennachera. And sennachera means without wax. It means it's been tested by light. It's been held up to the light. And this product is without wax. It is true. It has integrity. Have you ever realized that's when you sign a letter.
[00:35:56] Speaker C: Sincerely yours.
[00:35:58] Speaker B: You know what you're saying when you sign that letter?
[00:36:00] Speaker C: You're saying, without wax, there's no wax.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: This has integrity. This is. This is the real. I haven't lied to you. I'm not telling you something isn't true. Sincerely, your name. And so he's saying, as you move forward in expressing love according to truth and discernment, you learn how to do that by testing the things that, that differ. And you learn by being sincere, you being honest with people and sharing with.
[00:36:26] Speaker C: Them the integrity of your heart. Let me share this with you.
[00:36:31] Speaker B: We're done.
One of my favorite stories is the.
[00:36:35] Speaker C: Story of William and Catherine Booth.
[00:36:38] Speaker B: They lived a life of loving, encouraging, motivating, and their target audience were people that society had pretty much dismissed, society had overlooked, and society didn't care about anymore.
[00:36:51] Speaker C: Prostitutes and drug addicts and people with all manner of problems. That's who they loved.
[00:36:57] Speaker B: They were a part of the wesleyan church, and they started a ministry out of the wesleyan church, not unlike what.
[00:37:02] Speaker C: We have with the CRC.
The ministry was called the Slum Brigade in London, the slum brigade.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: And they were dealing with people that society had pretty much forgotten about, overlooked. There was no social net for people back in that day.
[00:37:17] Speaker C: If churches did minister to them, they didn't get ministered to. And most churches didn't want those kinds of people in their churches.
But not William and Catherine Booth. They loved God, and they loved who God loves, and God loves people. And so they gave their life to helping people many had completely forgotten about. But William got sick and William died. And many wondered if the ministry would die with him. But Catherine instead stood up and she said, no, I'm going to continue this ministry. I believe strongly in it.
[00:37:45] Speaker B: She changed the name of the ministry.
[00:37:47] Speaker C: From the slum brigade to the Salvation army.
And she spent her entire lifetime loving people and helping people.
[00:37:56] Speaker B: They said when Catherine Booth died, they lay her body in state in the.
[00:38:00] Speaker C: Congress and Olympic halls in London, England. And over a period of time, for 24 hours, people would walk by to pay their respects to her little body as it lay in state. They estimated over 80,000 people came to view the body of Katharine Booth.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: They said people would come and they would stop and they would linger over.
[00:38:20] Speaker C: Her body, and they would weep, and their tears would fall into that casket and land on the little shroud that she was wearing.
One lady particularly lifted her first and second and her third born child up to look into the casket to see that little body of Katherine Booth and the officer was there to say, ma'am, you have to move. You have to move along.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: There are thousands here that need to see.
[00:38:40] Speaker C: You can't linger.
[00:38:41] Speaker B: You must move.
[00:38:41] Speaker C: She's weeping into that casket. And the lady looked at the officer and said, you don't understand what this lady means to me. She said, I was selling my body on the streets to anyone who could afford to buy me. And she said, she found me. And she placed the first pure kiss on my cheek that I'd had since my mother died. And she told me about someone who loved me, and he loved me in.
[00:39:04] Speaker B: Spite of me and who would completely.
[00:39:07] Speaker C: Cleanse me of all my sin.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: And she said.
[00:39:09] Speaker C: She told me about Jesus. And she said, I received him as my savior. And my children are being raised in a christian home because this little lady gave her life to help people like me.
A man came by, and he gripped the sides of the casket, and he wept. And his tears were falling into the casket. And the officer said, you got to move along. There are thousands here that need to see. And he said, sir, you don't understand what she means to me.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: He said, I was in prison.
[00:39:34] Speaker C: He said, I was convicted of a crime that I did not commit. And he said, she came and saw me in the prison, and she believed me. The first person to ever believe in me.
[00:39:42] Speaker B: He said, she believed so strongly in.
[00:39:44] Speaker C: Me that she gained a pardon for me. And more importantly than that, she told me about somebody who went to a cross one day who would pardon me of all my sins. She told me about Jesus. He said, I'm a christian minister today, sharing the gospel with Jesus, because this little woman cared enough to love somebody like me.
They said when Katherine Booth little body was lowered into its final resting place. Listen. That her little death shroud was as wet by the tears of thousands of people who came to see her that day as though it had been dipped in Thames river.
That is the value of someone who genuinely loves people, who are willing to encourage them and motivate them and live a life sacrificially to make a difference in the lives of someone else. Never underestimate how God could use you to love others, encourage one another, and to motivate people. God help us to do that. Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for the power that it possesses.
And yet, Lord, I know the tendency we have is to hear it and never enact it. So help us not just to be a hearer of your word, but to be a doer of it. As James said, thank you for the opportunity we have through a ministry like the CRC to be able to help thousands of people. Over 1100 yesterday alone. We were able to help.
Thank you, Father, that we're doing a part of helping hurting and broken people.
Help us as a church to realize that many in this room and many watching online will have an opportunity to.
[00:41:26] Speaker B: Minister to people that I'll never be able to meet.
[00:41:29] Speaker C: So, Lord, help us not to underestimate the power of love and the power that our lives can make in the lives of other people.
And finally, Lord, I pray for my friends who may never have trusted you as savior. They may have never come to the place where they have just finally said, Lord Jesus, I give everything to you.
I pray now, Father, you'll give them the courage right where they are to say, Lord Jesus, with all that I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart.
Forgive my sin, Father, I pray that you'll give them the assurance that you've heard that prayer. Thank you for these precious ones who have gone public with their faith. Thank you for their families and friends who are here to celebrate their baptism. God, we have so much for which to be thankful. And we walk out of this room giving you praise in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:42:26] 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.
