Feb. 28, 2025

Encouragement

Encouragement

A discussion about encouragement.

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A discussion about encouragement.

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Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

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the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. All right, ladies

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and gentlemen, we're going to try this. I'm not I'm

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not very hopeful I have I'm very skeptical that this

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is going to go well, but we're going to give

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it a try. All right. Is that's the best I

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can do? So good afternoon everyone. It is Thursday, February

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twenty seventh, twenty twenty five. It is currently five three

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pm Central Time, and I'm coming to you from the

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Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. I

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almost wanted to call this the Discouragement Studio, the discouragement Headquarters,

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or maybe I should say the Encouraging the encouragement Headquarters,

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but no, no, no, no, there's no encouragement to be

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found here today because we're going to be talking about discouragement.

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But I'm supposed to be talking about encouragement. Actually I

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don't know what I should be talking about. But here

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we are. You were there, I'm here, I'm live, so

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we're going to do our very best. Now. Earlier today,

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we had kind of a discussion about encouragement. Discouragement the church,

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is it encouraging discouraging? And we kind of had a

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discussion about that, ladies and gentlemen. That discussion did not

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go as planned. In fact, there was a moment in

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the middle of that discussion where I picked up my

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iPad I looked at my analytics screen to see how

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many people were actually listening to me live, because I

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was very tempted at that very moment. I think I

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was thirty minutes into the broadcast, just stopping the broadcast,

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just stopping. If one or two people were listening, they

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wouldn't know what happened, just star up, delete and say,

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you know what, let's just move forward. But once I

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looked at the numbers, I'm like, there's way too many

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people listening. I've I've got to keep going. I don't

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want to keep going. But by the time, the more

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I talked, the more well discouraging it became, the more

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discouraged I felt. Even though I was trying to talk

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a little bit about encouragement and discouragement, I was becoming

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more discouraged as I was speaking. Now, why did that happen? Well,

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let's do this. Let me define discouragement. Now I know

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we're gonna talk about encouragement here, and we're gonna we're

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gonna listen to an illustration about encouragement that I was

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supposed to play in the last broadcast, which I never

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got to. But let's let's talk about what discouragement is

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you ready, discouragement? Discouragement is the loss of confidence, hope,

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or motivation due to difficulties, failures, or negative influences. Discouragement

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is the state of feeling disheartened, defeated, or weary. Discouragement

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is the state of feeling disheartened, defeated, or weary. Now,

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one of the questions I asked in the last broadcast,

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what are your greatest sources of discouragement? What are the

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great sources of discouragement in your life? And one of

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the great sources of discouragement for me, one of the

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great ones, and many of you know this about me,

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is I have obviously a seizure disorder. Everything that happened

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to me in the military. I'm not going to tell

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the long story, but I have a seizure disorder, and

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coming with that, all those seizures are neurological issues. Yeah,

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you see, I can't even speak correctly today, and well

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That's exactly one of the things that happens when I'm

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having I don't know, I want to call it a spell.

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When I'm going through this like a peereriod of time

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where my head is not quite feeling right. Everything seems fuzzy.

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I describe it as being like underwater. I can't seem

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to get clarity of thought, Like I'm talking, but I

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don't feel like I'm I don't know if what I'm

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saying is making sense. There's just like it, and it

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feels like you have all this pressure in your head

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and you just feel like you don't feel confused, but

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you just you feel pain, like the head hurts. You

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don't feel clarity. You feel like you're underwater. You can

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you can see the surface, but the more you swim,

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you can't quite get there. So if I'm talking, it's

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like I feel like I'm trying to get to I'm

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trying to get to the top of the water, but

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I can't quite get there. So then I get frustrated

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because I'm trying to get my point across. But then

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even if I'm getting my point across, I don't feel

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like I'm getting my point across because now there's now

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you got a feeling and your head's hurting and it's

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all fuzzy and foggy, and oh man, you talk about

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discouraging it can be. Oh, I mean, there's no other

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way to describe this. I mean, hey, that's okay. I mean.

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The good thing about being a podcaster is I can

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I can offend people. Like there's things you're not supposed

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to say in church because we all have to pretend

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that everything is wonderful and great and we can't be

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honest and real. But I can be honest and real.

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There's times I just want to I just want to

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smack this side of my head with my fists. I

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just want to. I want to just start pounding myself,

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Go what is wrong? Snap out of it? What is wrong?

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Because you can feel that it's not right, but you're like,

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maybe if I just hit it real hard, it'll it'll

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do a reset. Sometimes the only thing that can happen

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is drop have a seizure, and then it's like it

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resets the brain and then it's like now you know,

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for twenty four hours, forty eight hours, it's miserable, but

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then it's like, oh, I'm not underwater anymore. The sun

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is shining. I have clarity of thought. I can think,

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I can think like and when you're broadcasting, you want

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to be able to you want to be able to

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pivot right there. You want to be oh, this thought, this, this,

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you want to be able to do that. But when

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your brain is not quite working correct, you can get very,

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very discouraged. It's a feeling of being disheartened. It's you

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feel defeated, you feel weary. So for me, I have

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this medical condition that is a constant source of discouragement,

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in fact, one of the primary sources of discouragement. It's

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up there. Okay, I don't know. I probably could list

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three things, but that one is very is up there,

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and it's been I mean, I've been having the problem.

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I try to explain it to people. Everything that went

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wrong with me in the military. Everything happened was what

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January of two thousand and three, If I remember correctly,

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it was Friday. It was a Friday afternoon, and then

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by by that Monday, I mean I thought it was

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going to die before the weekend was over. By Monday, yeah,

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I mean, everything went horribly wrong. But from that moment

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that January two thousand and three, I don't think there.

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I mean I have basically had a migraine since two

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thousand and three without ever any serious relief. Ever, it

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just goes from less to intense, mild to intents like

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it never it never stops. And for the most part,

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hey stop wanting about it, stop complaining about it. This

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is the way life works. Deal with it. Just do it,

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and I do a good job. Right, I turn on

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the microphone, I broadcast, I broadcast. I don't let it

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control me. I don't let it stop me from doing

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what I want to do. I don't try to let

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my seizure stop me. But sometimes I'm not smart right

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because what I have a tendency to do when I

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feel ah, I feel my head's not right. Then I

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get mad, then I get ticked off. I'm like, you're

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not gonna stop me, So I'm gonna go sit in

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front of that microphone and I'm going to broadcast. And now,

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almost inevitably, it doesn't go right. Now, even if from

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your side, I don't know what you hear, you may say,

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well you sound. You have more clarity when you're going

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through one of those problems than when you don't go

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one of those problems. Okay, fine, you can say what

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whatever you want. But for me, no matter what I do,

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it doesn't matter if I talk for thirty minutes, forty

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five minutes, an hour and fifteen minutes, it doesn't matter

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what I do. When it's all said and done, it's

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gonna feel like a train wreck, a disaster, because in

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my mind things are I'm sitting there while I'm talking,

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having this debate. Wait, does that sound right? Does this

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even make sense? What point am I even making? I

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don't even know if I remember what point I'm making.

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And it's like I think I'm gonna have a seizure, right,

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like all of that's going on. So it can be discouraging.

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So for me, one of the greatest sources of discouragement

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is a medical condition that is not ever going away.

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As the doctors have often said to me, you have

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a seizure disorder, and it will probably be the thing

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that kills you. You're gonna drop have a seizure, and

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that's gonna be the end. Okay, well, wonderful, thanks, that's

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very encouraging. I very much appreciate your honesty. Okay, right,

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But but it can be it can oh, it can

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drive it can drive me crazy. And and because I

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have this, and just remember discouragement as a state of

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feeling disheartened. It's a state of feeling disheartened, feeling defeated,

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or feeling weary. It can become I can become very

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weary in it, just like, oh man, what am I doing?

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And it just because yeah, all these thoughts. Some of

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the key aspects of discouragement a sense of hopelessness or despair.

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I mean, there's been times with my seizures, because I

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mean there's been times I've gone through periods of time

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where I've had so many. You talk about hopelessness, you

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talk about despair, feeling way down by failure, setbacks. Well,

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it's not so much failure, but it's setbacks because you

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have this happening, a loss of motivation or will to continue.

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Oh I've been there. Okay, Being criticized, rejected, or ignored, Now,

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that can happen. You can get discouraged with, especially in broadcasting, right.

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You get criticized, You get emails telling you you're trash

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your car, you're stupid, you're an idiot, you're wrong, you're

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a heretic, you're you know, getting death threats, Okay you yeah,

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that can be that can way you do being rejected? Well,

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yeah I felt I felt that being ignored. Yeah, you

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can feel that experiencing disillusionment, disillusionment due to unmet expectations.

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If you have an expectation that, well, this is going

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to go this way, or this is going to go

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this way. I mean, this is one of the things

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that can be Life itself can be a source of discouragement.

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Why because you have unmet expectations. I think wherever it

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can be in a relationship, it can be a stage

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in life, it can be a job, it can be

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a career, it can be a hobby. You have certain

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expectations that this is the way it should be, and

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when all of all of those expectations just blow up

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in your face and yet it's not that way, well

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then there's disillusionment. It can depending on your stage of life.

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You may be in a perpetual state of well I

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did not expect it to be this way, and you

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live in a perpetual state of disillusionment, which is a

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form with just a state of discouragement. So what is

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your source of discouragement? So going full blown you just

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confession times that's definitely one of mine. Definitely, and I

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hate it and I loathe it. But at the same time,

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then I could you know then and see this is

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where people are gonna get irritated with me. See people

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will say, well, look to Christianity, look to God, and

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it will remove that discouragement and give you encouragement. But

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at the same time you got to remember, Wait, Christianity

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says to do all things without grumbling and complaining. Well,

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I just spent eleven minutes grumbling and complaining about my situation.

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So am I committing a sin? Wait? Be content and

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whatever state you find yourself, am I content? No? I'm

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not content? So am I in sin? See? Sometimes Christianity

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can even be more discouraging because you can be discouraged

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and then find yourself in a state mentally, emotionally then

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that you're not in line with God's word. So then

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now you have more guilt and sin heaped upon you.

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That was some of the points I was trying to

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make is that inherently sometimes not just the church. I

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mean I didn't get into just Christianity itself, but you

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can find yourself like, man, I know I'm discouraged, but

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I should be doing this, and I should be doing this,

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and I should be doing this, and I should be

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doing this. Well I'm not doing this. Well now I'm

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discouraging that I'm not doing this, and now I feel

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guilty and fore shame. What is your source of discouragement? Now?

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In contrast to discouragement, we have the idea of encouragement. Now,

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encouragement is defined as encouragement is the act of giving support.

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That's you being encouraging, the act of giving support, confidence,

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or hope to someone. Now, So, in a sense, let's

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kind of change us up a little bit, because it's

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funny that the definition of encouragement goes not with the

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state of being encouraged, it goes with the idea of

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encouraging someone. So just remember in your life or my life,

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let's just go ahead and state this. We, as human beings,

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we are a source of discouragement or encouragement. Right. We

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are a source of leading people to a loss of confidence,

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destroying their hope, destroying their motivation, helping them feel disheartened,

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helping them feel defeated, and helping them become weary. We

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can become the source of literally making things horrible for someone.

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We can literally be the thing that just discourages someone,

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breaks them apart, tears them apart, tears them down, puts

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them in a horrible situation where they constantly have to

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feel And well, no, you should not want to be

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a source of discouragement. I should not want to be

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a source of discouragement. I think sometimes as Christians we

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like to justify that I'm just offering rebuke, I'm just

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offering I'm just being godly. Well there's a time for that,

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But there's a time you're just being discouraging and destroying

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someone and you know, kicking them while they're down. So

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are you a source of discouragement? Am I a source

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of discouragement? I think a lot of times I am

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a source of discouragement. But yeah, that's because I tend

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to be negative and jaded. But just just just make

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sure this is very important. You don't want to just

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try to be encouraging by offering people false hope and

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lies and misrepresenting reality. That doesn't help either. Okay, so

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how about being encouraging, Well, we go back to Encouragement

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is the act of giving support or confidence or hope

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to someone. When you are encouraging, you are supporting someone

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you're building up their confidence. You're giving them hope where

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there is no hope. But again, don't give them false hope.

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See now I do not. I get very frustrated. And

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this is another thing I have a problem with the

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church in Christianity. I think a lot of times it

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offers fraudulent hope to people. It gives them, it rips

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versus out of context. It gives them hope and promises

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that are never going to come to the way that

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you're being sold them, which you give them a temporary

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sense of encouragement, which only leads to even worse discouragement.

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Encouragement involves strengthening, uplifting, are reassuring a person in times

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of struggle, uncertainty, or hardship. Now, it's interesting. Encouragement really

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is to find here more and being encouraging than being encouraged.

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So I think if we try to work this definition

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out a little bit better, then if you are encouraged,

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if you if you are in a state of being encouraged,

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then then I think you would you'll feel uplifted, You'll

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feel confident, you'll feel you'll feel strength, You'll I think

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it'll be the op obviously be the opposite of being discouraged?

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But are you and couraging? Now, when we talk of

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encouragement as something you do, you're providing emotional or spiritual strength.

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You're offering hope and reassurance. You're affirming someone's worth, ability

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or potential. You're reminding someone of truth and purpose, and

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you're motivating perseverance through difficult situations. Now, okay, what you see.

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What is if I put encouragement, we're gonna get the

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same thing. What is it to be encouraged encouraged? Let's

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see what happens here? What is it to be encouraged?

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To be encouraged means to be strengthened, uplifted, or given

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renewed confidence, hope, or motivation. So, if you are in

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a state of encouragement, you have emotional strength, you feel uplifted,

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you feel more confident to face challenges, You gain a

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refreshed perspective or c and difficult situations. If you are

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in a state of being encouraged, if you are encouraged,

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you're in a state of that. You have emotional strength,

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you have mental renewal, you have motivation to continue, you

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regain the will to persevere through struggles. You have hope

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and reassurance. You find peace or comfort, often through truth

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or support, and then if you're encouraged, you receive affirmation, guidance,

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or confirmation from someone else encouraged or discouraged. Now, what

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is your source of encouragement? I talked about my sources

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of discouragement, right, what then are our sources of encouragement? Now?

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I think inevitably we tend I think this is true.

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I think we tend to look to I think we

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tend tend ten we tend we tend to look to

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others for encouragement. I think that it's constantly where we

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look to encouragement. So I wonder if this here's kind

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of a question. Should we find encouragement in others or

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should we find encouragement in objective truth? Because I think

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in evil I mean, maybe I'm wrong. Inevitably, whoever you

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look to for encouragement, can they always provide it, especially

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if they're going to be honest, because sometimes I mean,

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I mean, I wonder do we get more encouragement from

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someone telling us the truth? Or do we get more

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encouragement from someone making us feel better? Things are going

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to get better? Well, if I'm being honest, with you.

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I don't know if anything's going to get better. Well,

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God's going to do this. I don't if God's going

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to do anything to help you. Right, Hey it's all

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gonna work out? Well, no it may not. You may die.

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But if we have someone come along who just tells

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us yes, see, that makes it very difficult. So what

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is your source of encouragement? What is your source of discouragement?

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I shared my source of discouragement, encouragement. There's a part

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of me that wants to say, what's going to encourage

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me is truth? Right, What's going to encourage me is

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is the reality of God and the truth of imputed righteousness,

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because see, those things are immutable, those don't It doesn't

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matter what anybody else says, It doesn't matter what anybody

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else does. And maybe I'm nervous to ever consider people

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as a source of encouragement, even though and maybe in

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some ways I want to, But maybe there's a part

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of me that doesn't want to. And maybe because maybe

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because of the way I was raised, Right, I mean,

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we won't go through the horrible stories, right, because then

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it just sounds like I'm trying to get sympathy, right,

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But I mean whoo, there was no encouragement happening, And

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I don't to even call it discouragement would be the

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biggest understatement in the history of the world. It was

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almost mental and physical torture at times. Right, So, so

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then if you can't look to your parents for encouragement,

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then a good portion of the things I experienced in school.

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Now I did have some teachers I would think would

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be a source of encouragement, but the most part, the

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entire public education system was nothing but one big source

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of discouragement. And then when I got into the church,

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I really but I can look at periods of my

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church life where it's been absolutely some of the most

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discouraging moments in my life. I mean absolutely message, So

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is it fair to look to people to be the

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source of encouragement because their center sinners, they have their

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own problems. I don't know. Now, why are we talking

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about all of this? Well, not only because I wasn't

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happy with the last broadcast, because this all started at about

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four o'clock this morning listening to Insight for Living with

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pastor Chuck Swindall Charles Windall, and I was I think

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it was I don't know, maybe it was two days old,

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two days old episode, three days old episode, and well

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to be fair on the insight for living For those

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don't know, Charles Stanley's like, I don't know, eighty ninety

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years old now, right, So they're the broadcast is still

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pulling from his older stuff, you know, from the seventies, eighties, nineties, don't.

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I don't know how. I don't know what their what

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their art guives look like. But they're pulling from a

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long time ago. And this is a message he was

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doing on encouragement encouragement. It's broken into three parts. This

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was part one. I skipped all of the introductory material,

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all of that, and I'm just going to begin where

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the sermon begins and he's going to give a definition

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about encouragement. All right, So I want to play this.

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I want you to hear it, and then we can

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just we'll just kind of throw out some additional thoughts

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here on encouragement and discouragement, and well we can see

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if we come to if I can come up with

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some good concluding remarks. Here are you ready? Here we go,

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Jock title today's message, strengthening your grip on encouragement.

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In a large church, there are times that we have

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to simply take a long look at where we are

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going and determine some direction so that we might remain

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a family, a meaningful, functioning, healthy family. For this reason,

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we've dedicated the present series to the purpose of helping

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us remain healthy, giving us some direction before God as

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we search his word for hope and direction. Two sundays ago,

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we talked about priorities as a local assembly, and we

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landed on four of them that are essential for us

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to remain healthy. We must remain biblical, We must be authentic.

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Our ministry must be characterized by a graciousness and compassion,

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and of course, we must remain relevant in touch with

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our times. Last time we were together, we talked about

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the value of involvement. We discussed spontaneity, we discussed accountability.

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We saw in the scripture even the basis of our

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being vulnerable with one another, not keeping each other at

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arms distance, but remaining close to one another, having a

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gesture that reaches out rather than pushes people away. This

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is very, very important as we think about involvement in

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our growth and in our ministry. Today, I want to

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talk about encouragement. The basis of this message is in

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Hebrews chapter ten Versus nineteen through twenty five. As some

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of you know, I took a few days off last week.

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To all fascinating points those four things the church needs fascinating.

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But now he's going to talk about encouragement. Now, I

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think he's going to be kind of structuring this. And

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again it was around four o'clock in the morning, but

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so I just want to play the opening illustration. But

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I think he really is going to structure this. And

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because he's quoting from Hebrews chapter ten, I think this

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would be an I think what I'm saying here is

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an accurate representation. He's going to look to the church,

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the institution, with this place where we come as the

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source of a place where we come for encouragement. Right now. Again,

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I challenged that in the last broadcast. Only the hell

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the church I think is more. I think the church

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tends to be an institution of discouragement more than encouragement.

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And sometimes it's not even what is intended, it's just

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the way Christianity is. I know. I think we like

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to say, well, Christianity is encouraging, Christianity is encouraging. I

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think we have to define what we mean by that right,

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Christianity is encouraging. If I'm looking for this kind of

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encouragement about eternity, about salvation, about the forgiveness of sins.

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We like to say, well, no, it's encouraging because we

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have these promises about what God is going to do

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for us here, what God is going to do for

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us now, how God is going to deliver us, how

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God's going to protect us, how God's going to do this.

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But the problem is you're giving people false assurance because

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you don't know if God is going to be is

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going to do anything for you. You don't know if

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He's gonna help you in any way, shape or form.

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We even got the Scripture to demonstrate that, right. We

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had situations in the Bible where God steps in, he intervenes,

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and you're like whoa. And then you've got situations God

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doesn't appear to be anywhere. He could stop it, He

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could intervene nowhere. He shows up to raise Lausars from

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the dead. John the Baptist gets his head chopped off,

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and he doesn't Jesus doesn't even bother to show up

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to visit him in prison. I can go on and

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on this situation he steps in stops anything from happening.

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But in this situation, God's not there and lets a

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woman's husband be murdered and God doesn't intervene at all.

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I mean, there's all these situations, so even in biblical times,

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we don't there's no clear caaring tea. And then of

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yeain we go to promises, many cases, promises that are

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directed towards Israel based off the covenant he made with them.

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Grab those promises, try to give them to people, say hey,

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be encouraged. Well, when the church offers encouragement, that's a

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false assurance. Then you're gonna you're actually going to become

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a source of discouragement. In fact, when it comes to

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what I think we need to understand this, When it

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comes to encouragement, encouragement is not offering false assurance. It's

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not offering false assurance. Okay, my neighbor is a police

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officer and I guess he's testing his sirens. But that

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just scared me to death. Okay, all right, so yeah,

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thank you. He's probably telling me to be quiet. All right,

447
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here we go. So encouragement is not false assurance. We

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don't say everything will be fine when reality suggests otherwise.

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It's not empty positivity. We don't give shallow encouragement without

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real substance or truth. And number three, we don't deny

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struggles pretending suffering doesn't exist. That's not what we do.

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So we don't offer false assurance. We don't offer empty positivity,

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and we don't deny struggles. And I think sometimes the

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church is structured to almost offer false assurance, as if

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God's going to do Something's God. I mean, hey, God,

456
00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:42.160
God loves you, and God wants to help you, and

457
00:27:42.200 --> 00:27:44.599
God wants to do this, and God wants to do that. Well,

458
00:27:44.680 --> 00:27:48.160
you can't you. God may love you, but you don't

459
00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:50.400
know how He's going to intervene in any waysh your perform. However,

460
00:27:50.440 --> 00:27:53.480
I can give you full assurance that God sent his

461
00:27:53.519 --> 00:27:55.359
son to die for you, and when you put your

462
00:27:55.400 --> 00:27:59.160
faith in him imputed, his righteousness is imputed to your account.

463
00:27:59.279 --> 00:28:01.440
And then you're only secure and there will be a

464
00:28:01.480 --> 00:28:03.039
time there will be no more pain, no more suffering,

465
00:28:03.079 --> 00:28:05.319
and no more death. And glorification, a new having, a

466
00:28:05.359 --> 00:28:08.000
new et cetera, et cetera, a glorified body, et cetera,

467
00:28:08.039 --> 00:28:10.720
et cetera. Now that I can give you on the

468
00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:13.920
basis of God's word. If I start offering some of

469
00:28:13.960 --> 00:28:16.240
these other promises, well then I start ripping versus out

470
00:28:16.279 --> 00:28:19.759
of context, false assurance. I don't want to give people

471
00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:24.359
empty positivity, some shallow encouragement with no real substance and

472
00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:27.279
no real truth. Hey, the sun will come up tomorrow,

473
00:28:27.599 --> 00:28:31.240
you know, you know, just offering you know everything's gonna

474
00:28:31.279 --> 00:28:34.240
be all right, Okay, I mean just no, no, no, no, no,

475
00:28:34.359 --> 00:28:36.240
or And I don't want to try to create this

476
00:28:36.440 --> 00:28:41.440
idea of denying struggles. So he's going to point to

477
00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:44.039
the church as kind of being the place where we

478
00:28:44.119 --> 00:28:47.720
come for this encouragement. And I'm going to argue the

479
00:28:47.960 --> 00:28:55.119
church historically has been a place that's offered fraudulent encouragement,

480
00:28:55.480 --> 00:28:59.799
it's offered false assurance, empty positivity, and almost deny the

481
00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:05.720
reality of struggles. Well, then that that is going to

482
00:29:05.759 --> 00:29:08.200
put people in a worse place than they are in.

483
00:29:08.279 --> 00:29:10.400
Now he's going to really emphasize that the church is

484
00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:12.720
where you come for encouragement. I think the church is

485
00:29:12.720 --> 00:29:15.799
where you come for encouragement if the encouragement is offered correctly.

486
00:29:16.279 --> 00:29:18.599
But if you offer the couragement that's incorrectly, you're not

487
00:29:18.640 --> 00:29:21.039
going to be offering the encouragement that most people will offer.

488
00:29:22.880 --> 00:29:25.160
I mean, man alive. I've heard Christians try to offer

489
00:29:25.160 --> 00:29:28.480
me encouragement during very difficult times, and I had almost

490
00:29:28.480 --> 00:29:31.519
every single time. The encouragement is just it's so just

491
00:29:31.880 --> 00:29:36.759
what what are you talking about? Like? What? Just stop? Okay,

492
00:29:37.160 --> 00:29:39.480
that's not encouraging. First, what do you why are you

493
00:29:39.480 --> 00:29:42.319
be quoting that scripture? What are you even talking about?

494
00:29:42.519 --> 00:29:42.599
Like?

495
00:29:42.640 --> 00:29:44.200
I just want to I just want to start screaming.

496
00:29:45.079 --> 00:29:47.359
So he's going to say the church is a place

497
00:29:47.400 --> 00:29:51.079
for encouragement right now, we can talk about that again.

498
00:29:51.119 --> 00:29:53.440
I think it can be if it offers the right

499
00:29:53.559 --> 00:29:55.759
kind of encouragement. It's when it offers the wrong kind

500
00:29:55.759 --> 00:29:58.160
of encourage encouragement, and I believe, based on what we

501
00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:00.839
talked about in the last broadcast, I and demonstrate throughout

502
00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:03.640
church history the church has been a place of discouragement.

503
00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:05.839
All right, But let's see what he does.

504
00:30:05.799 --> 00:30:14.039
Here minister in a very concentrated manner with the singles

505
00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:17.519
single adults up in Keystone, Colorado.

506
00:30:19.160 --> 00:30:20.640
Now I kind of broke that up a little bit.

507
00:30:20.799 --> 00:30:23.720
He had an opportunity recently to do an extensive period

508
00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:28.559
of ministry to the singles in Colorado, right. So that's

509
00:30:28.640 --> 00:30:29.480
the setup here.

510
00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:35.319
The first time in ten years on Thanksgiving that I

511
00:30:35.359 --> 00:30:38.640
had chosen to be away. It was a tough decision

512
00:30:38.680 --> 00:30:41.920
to make, but it seemed as though it was God's direction.

513
00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:44.559
I am so glad I was a part of that.

514
00:30:44.640 --> 00:30:47.720
For several days, most of my family was allowed to

515
00:30:47.720 --> 00:30:51.400
go with me, and we experienced a warmth and a

516
00:30:51.440 --> 00:30:54.720
delight with a number of people in the campus Crusade

517
00:30:54.759 --> 00:31:00.480
for Christ Ministry, among their single adult staff. You know,

518
00:31:00.920 --> 00:31:03.319
when you're married, it's easy for you to think you

519
00:31:03.400 --> 00:31:07.720
understand the lifestyle of the single but it is not

520
00:31:07.960 --> 00:31:11.119
fully possible unless you were with them for an extended

521
00:31:11.119 --> 00:31:13.920
period of time, which was my privilege to be. I

522
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:17.200
worked hard through the week communicating to these who were

523
00:31:17.279 --> 00:31:21.920
so responsive and so teachable, so much so that by

524
00:31:21.960 --> 00:31:24.920
Friday I decided I would take most of the day

525
00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:30.000
off and do something that I have never done. Ski.

526
00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:36.920
Did I ever ski? Well? I think some would call

527
00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:42.880
it skiing, but most would say it bears no resemblance

528
00:31:42.920 --> 00:31:47.880
to what should happen on the slopes. It had snowed

529
00:31:48.119 --> 00:31:53.960
all day Thanksgiving, and so there was a beautiful powder

530
00:31:54.759 --> 00:32:02.480
all over the ski slopes on Friday and it was

531
00:32:02.599 --> 00:32:06.519
unbelievable what I did on the slopes that day. I

532
00:32:06.559 --> 00:32:11.920
did the most creative, innovative things coming down the hill

533
00:32:12.839 --> 00:32:17.799
where most people would ski. I did all things but

534
00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:21.599
that you have heard of the elephant man. I am

535
00:32:21.640 --> 00:32:27.559
the rhinoceros man on the ski slopes. One of the

536
00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:30.960
reasons I stayed at the task more than fifteen minutes

537
00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:36.720
is because I had the world's most patient kind of teacher.

538
00:32:38.799 --> 00:32:43.319
Okay, so he's gonna he's shaping this encouragement within the

539
00:32:43.440 --> 00:32:48.759
church and in the church. Oh we're gonna, I'm gonna say.

540
00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:51.599
He doesn't really maybe define it as an institutional thing,

541
00:32:51.640 --> 00:32:56.400
but the church and then people. So he tries to ski.

542
00:32:56.799 --> 00:33:00.359
And the reason he continues more than fifteen minutes because

543
00:33:00.400 --> 00:33:05.160
of his teacher, of his instructor. So he's going to

544
00:33:05.160 --> 00:33:09.279
find encouragement in a person. A person is going to

545
00:33:09.359 --> 00:33:15.680
be the source of encouragement. Now, I and I again,

546
00:33:15.799 --> 00:33:19.559
I'm very conflicted on this. I very much struggle with

547
00:33:19.599 --> 00:33:24.640
this right because I don't know what people wrote down.

548
00:33:24.680 --> 00:33:27.079
Like I almost wish I would have done the first,

549
00:33:27.400 --> 00:33:30.759
you know, the first message on this, you know, in

550
00:33:30.759 --> 00:33:32.880
front of a live audience, because it would be really interesting.

551
00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:34.839
I wouldn't have asked for people to turn in their paper,

552
00:33:34.880 --> 00:33:36.400
but if I could see their paper, it would be

553
00:33:36.440 --> 00:33:39.319
interesting to know what people wrote down as their greatest

554
00:33:39.319 --> 00:33:42.599
sources of encouragement, their greatest sources of discouragement. And I

555
00:33:42.680 --> 00:33:45.279
wonder how many cases where because if I was going

556
00:33:45.319 --> 00:33:47.920
to put some of the greatest sources of discouragement in

557
00:33:47.920 --> 00:33:50.599
my life my seizures, and then number two, but people,

558
00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:55.720
people have been some of the greatest sources of discouragement

559
00:33:55.759 --> 00:33:58.680
in my entire life. I would start with my parents, okay,

560
00:33:58.880 --> 00:34:01.000
and the horrible stuff if they did all right, so

561
00:34:01.039 --> 00:34:03.920
that would be right there, right, and then things that

562
00:34:03.920 --> 00:34:08.599
happened to me in school, things I mean people people

563
00:34:10.199 --> 00:34:13.239
by the sheer number, Like if I just count how

564
00:34:13.280 --> 00:34:16.719
many people have been sources of discouragement, the number of

565
00:34:16.719 --> 00:34:20.360
people who've been discouraging versus the number of people who've

566
00:34:20.360 --> 00:34:22.679
offered me encouragement in my life, like it would be

567
00:34:22.760 --> 00:34:25.199
like it wouldn't even be it would be within the

568
00:34:25.239 --> 00:34:28.480
same ballpark, Like one number would be like I'm just

569
00:34:28.480 --> 00:34:32.679
throwing out just using hyperbole. You know, ten million discouraging

570
00:34:32.760 --> 00:34:36.880
and you know a half of one being encouraging. Again,

571
00:34:36.920 --> 00:34:40.039
I'm using hyperbole. I'm not giving you exact numbers or

572
00:34:40.079 --> 00:34:42.639
anything along those lines, right, I'm not doing that, Okay,

573
00:34:42.840 --> 00:34:47.159
So just make sure you understand that. So and so.

574
00:34:47.320 --> 00:34:50.239
In some ways, I would see there's a greater potential

575
00:34:50.760 --> 00:34:52.880
because the church is made up of people that the

576
00:34:52.920 --> 00:34:56.000
people in the church. To me, this is just my view,

577
00:34:56.280 --> 00:34:58.320
there's a greater chance that the people in the church

578
00:34:58.360 --> 00:35:07.480
will be discouraging, not encouraging. The people you work with,

579
00:35:07.599 --> 00:35:09.960
there's a high probability many of them will be more

580
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:13.280
discouraging than encouraging. Now, you may have lived a wonderful life.

581
00:35:14.639 --> 00:35:18.559
You've got family around you who encourages you and supports you.

582
00:35:18.559 --> 00:35:21.559
You've got a great relationship. You've got a husband or

583
00:35:21.599 --> 00:35:24.199
spouse who's there to support you. They love you, they

584
00:35:24.840 --> 00:35:28.719
and you've got all of that. And if you do man, so,

585
00:35:28.840 --> 00:35:31.800
you may be sitting there going no people are encouraging

586
00:35:31.840 --> 00:35:35.119
and it's wonderful and it's great, and it's like mister

587
00:35:35.320 --> 00:35:38.719
Robertson's or mister Robertson's neighborhood, what is the name of that,

588
00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:42.000
mister Rogers neighborhood? They see, Okay, I'm gonna get discouraged

589
00:35:42.039 --> 00:35:44.639
with myself I know it's mister Rogers neighborhood. I've said

590
00:35:44.679 --> 00:35:46.760
it a million times, but all of a sudden today

591
00:35:46.880 --> 00:35:49.880
because of neurological issues, I can't even speak correctly. So

592
00:35:50.119 --> 00:35:53.760
but it's like, mister Rogers neighborhood, right, it's all wonderful,

593
00:35:53.760 --> 00:35:56.599
It's great everyone. Don't you want to be my neighbor?

594
00:35:56.639 --> 00:35:59.119
It's all perfect. You've had a so Now I'm not

595
00:35:59.119 --> 00:36:01.360
saying that means there's never been anything bad in your life.

596
00:36:01.400 --> 00:36:04.960
I'm just saying, if you've got that structure all around you,

597
00:36:04.960 --> 00:36:11.920
you've been encouraged by people. So hearing people as a

598
00:36:11.960 --> 00:36:17.119
source of encouragement makes sense to you. For me, people

599
00:36:17.199 --> 00:36:20.239
as a source of encouragement. The people who have discouraged

600
00:36:20.239 --> 00:36:25.400
me outnumber the people have encouraged me by astronomical numbers.

601
00:36:25.559 --> 00:36:30.000
Levels are like, there's levels to this thing, mister Roberts,

602
00:36:30.039 --> 00:36:33.039
the neighborhood. What in the world Now, I'm mad at myself,

603
00:36:33.199 --> 00:36:37.079
mister Rogers neighborhood? What what am I doing? Okay? All right,

604
00:36:37.159 --> 00:36:39.400
see now say I'm getting discouraged Sam. Now when this

605
00:36:39.480 --> 00:36:41.599
is over all, I'm going to remember, is that mistake

606
00:36:41.679 --> 00:36:43.239
right there? Not all the other ones. I'm going to

607
00:36:43.320 --> 00:36:45.159
remember that when the most because there was no reason

608
00:36:45.159 --> 00:36:47.159
to mess that up and destroyed the whole thing I

609
00:36:47.239 --> 00:36:49.599
was trying to do there. Right. So, but the point

610
00:36:49.719 --> 00:36:53.920
is is I have when when I hear a sermon, illustration,

611
00:36:54.400 --> 00:36:56.280
and it's going to be going to try to be

612
00:36:56.679 --> 00:36:59.280
the church is the place of encouragement. I already get

613
00:36:59.280 --> 00:37:02.039
a little nervous because I've seen the church be such

614
00:37:02.079 --> 00:37:05.599
a source of discouragement in my life, massive levels of

615
00:37:05.639 --> 00:37:24.800
discouragement in my life. And then people, people, people, I wonder,

616
00:37:26.760 --> 00:37:30.039
hang on, all right, hang, I'm gonna ask Ai this

617
00:37:30.280 --> 00:37:40.719
all right? If we look at all the relationships and

618
00:37:41.559 --> 00:37:52.159
personal interactions in the scriptures, in the scriptures, hang on,

619
00:37:52.239 --> 00:37:58.559
if I can type correctly in the scripture, would we

620
00:37:58.840 --> 00:38:06.360
find that people are a source are more are more

621
00:38:06.360 --> 00:38:11.760
often hang let me get figure, are more often a

622
00:38:11.960 --> 00:38:20.039
source of encouragement or discouragement? This is this is an

623
00:38:20.079 --> 00:38:28.320
interesting thing to consider, right, Oh, here we go, Here

624
00:38:28.360 --> 00:38:31.480
we go, okay, and I'm asking Ai here. When we

625
00:38:31.599 --> 00:38:35.280
examine all the relationships and personal interactions and scripture, we

626
00:38:35.360 --> 00:38:38.760
find that people are far more often a source of discomfort, conflict,

627
00:38:38.840 --> 00:38:42.760
and discouragement rather than encouragement. While encouragement exists, The Bible

628
00:38:42.760 --> 00:38:47.800
presents human relationships as deeply flawed, often marked by betrayal, failure,

629
00:38:47.960 --> 00:38:53.000
and hardship, rather than constant support. The pattern of human

630
00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:58.280
relationship and scripture more discomfort than encouragement. Did I say

631
00:38:58.280 --> 00:39:01.880
discomfort in my thing? No? I said discomfort? All right,

632
00:39:02.119 --> 00:39:07.679
let me do this again. Hang on, gotta copy, hang on,

633
00:39:08.239 --> 00:39:12.320
I'm gonna I'm gonna go down here. Okay, Well it's

634
00:39:12.360 --> 00:39:15.679
going on. Ay. I was writing a book right now. Hey,

635
00:39:15.679 --> 00:39:17.079
I was gonna get ready to get really mad at me.

636
00:39:17.119 --> 00:39:18.519
Well it's not gonna get mad at me, but I'm

637
00:39:18.559 --> 00:39:21.280
gonna ask it to do it again, all right, Okay,

638
00:39:21.519 --> 00:39:24.199
all right, so I'm going so I'm gonna go back

639
00:39:24.239 --> 00:39:30.920
here discouragement. Okay, there we go. All right, Now I'm

640
00:39:30.960 --> 00:39:33.960
gonna ask it to do it again. All right, So

641
00:39:34.320 --> 00:39:37.719
here we go. When examine, for some reason, I typed

642
00:39:37.760 --> 00:39:40.639
in discomfort, imagine that, all right. So, when examining all

643
00:39:40.679 --> 00:39:43.639
relationships and personal interactions and scripture, we find that people

644
00:39:43.639 --> 00:39:47.079
are overwhelmingly a source of discouragement, conflict, betrayal, and failure

645
00:39:47.159 --> 00:39:50.960
rather than consistent encouragement. While moments of encouragement exist. The

646
00:39:51.000 --> 00:39:54.719
Bible record record shows that human relationships are deeply flawed.

647
00:39:54.960 --> 00:40:01.239
Often they often cause more pain than comfort. Throughout scripture, conflict, betrayal,

648
00:40:01.320 --> 00:40:05.280
and disappointment are far more common than encouragement. The pattern

649
00:40:05.320 --> 00:40:11.000
holds across family relationships, friendships, religious leaders, political rulers, and

650
00:40:11.119 --> 00:40:15.599
even among believers. From the earliest pages of the Bible,

651
00:40:15.639 --> 00:40:18.800
family dynamics are filled with strife and brokenness rather than

652
00:40:18.840 --> 00:40:22.800
support encouragement. Adam and Eve, the first human relationship, results

653
00:40:22.800 --> 00:40:26.000
in blame, shifting and expulsion from the garden. Cain and

654
00:40:26.079 --> 00:40:29.159
Abel the first siblings, and with jealousy and murder Jacob

655
00:40:29.159 --> 00:40:33.280
and Esau. Deception and betrayal define the relationship Joseph and

656
00:40:33.320 --> 00:40:36.519
his brothers. Joseph has sold into slavery by his own brothers.

657
00:40:36.760 --> 00:40:40.840
David and his sons a household filled with rape, murder, rebellion,

658
00:40:41.000 --> 00:40:49.199
and division. Encouraging moments very very few. Discouragement, betrayal, violence,

659
00:40:49.199 --> 00:40:53.159
and family dysfunction dominate, and that's even among those who

660
00:40:53.239 --> 00:40:56.639
believe in God, those who are followers of the True God.

661
00:40:57.480 --> 00:41:01.440
Even among friends and trusted companions see repeated failure rather

662
00:41:01.480 --> 00:41:07.840
than unwavering support. Job's friends, David and his trusted adviser

663
00:41:09.199 --> 00:41:10.760
hit the fella I think is how you say his

664
00:41:10.880 --> 00:41:15.519
name betrays him In Absalom's rebellion, Jesus and his disciples.

665
00:41:15.559 --> 00:41:18.519
All his disciples abandon him when he is arrested. Well,

666
00:41:18.840 --> 00:41:23.480
John stays Peter's denial. Peter, one of Jesus's closest friends,

667
00:41:23.480 --> 00:41:27.480
denies him three times Paul and Demas. Demus wants a

668
00:41:27.480 --> 00:41:30.320
fellow worker, abandons Paul out of love for the world.

669
00:41:30.840 --> 00:41:35.639
Encouraging friendships some David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi, but

670
00:41:35.760 --> 00:41:39.880
they are very rare. Discouragement friendships often feil and critical

671
00:41:39.920 --> 00:41:42.760
moments all right, instead of being When it comes to

672
00:41:42.800 --> 00:41:46.719
religious leaders, instead of being spiritual guides, many religious leaders

673
00:41:46.719 --> 00:41:49.400
in Scripture burden, oppress, and to see people rather than

674
00:41:49.440 --> 00:41:54.760
offering a true encouragement Pharisees and the scribes. Jesus condemns

675
00:41:54.800 --> 00:41:58.599
them for burdening people with legalism while being hypocritical themselves.

676
00:41:58.960 --> 00:42:01.960
Eli and his sons, the corrupt priests. They abuse power

677
00:42:02.119 --> 00:42:05.159
and lead Israel into judgment. The High Priest and Jesus.

678
00:42:05.239 --> 00:42:08.599
The religious leaders plot against the Messiah and falsely accuse him.

679
00:42:08.760 --> 00:42:11.840
The false prophets in Jeremiah twenty three and Ezequel thirteen.

680
00:42:12.079 --> 00:42:15.880
Many spiritual leaders give people false hope and misrepresent God.

681
00:42:16.039 --> 00:42:20.920
Encouraging religious leaders few, but exceptions include Moses, Samuel and

682
00:42:20.960 --> 00:42:26.800
some faithful priests. Discouragement. Religious leadership is often corrupt and misleading.

683
00:42:27.320 --> 00:42:31.519
Political leaders and rulers are usually oppressive. Most political rulers

684
00:42:31.559 --> 00:42:36.000
in scripture abuse their power, oppressed people, or rebel against God. Pharaoh,

685
00:42:36.440 --> 00:42:39.679
Samuel and David are Saul and David Saul is jealous

686
00:42:39.679 --> 00:42:44.119
and tries to kill David, Ahaben, Jezebel Herod, and John

687
00:42:44.159 --> 00:42:48.400
the Baptist pontious Pilot, all of these most likely. When

688
00:42:48.440 --> 00:42:52.039
it comes to leaders, Most rulers are self serving and oppressive.

689
00:42:52.760 --> 00:42:56.159
Even among believers, there is more failure than support. Even

690
00:42:56.199 --> 00:42:59.880
within the community of faith, people fail one another frequently.

691
00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:04.320
Moses and Israel. The people constantly complain, rebel and test

692
00:43:04.440 --> 00:43:08.119
Moses's patients. Paul in the early churches, many churches fall

693
00:43:08.159 --> 00:43:12.840
into sin division false doctrine. Despite Paul's teaching Jesus and

694
00:43:12.880 --> 00:43:17.119
his followers, many of his disciples abandon Jesus when the

695
00:43:17.199 --> 00:43:21.760
teaching becomes difficult. Are there encouraging moments, yes, but they're temporary.

696
00:43:22.159 --> 00:43:25.880
Often mixed with struggle. Sin and failure remain common even

697
00:43:25.880 --> 00:43:32.519
among believers. So then when you frame encouragement like he's

698
00:43:32.559 --> 00:43:35.360
getting ready to do hey, we're in Hebrews ten, and

699
00:43:35.400 --> 00:43:37.360
he's going to frame that in the context of the church.

700
00:43:37.559 --> 00:43:40.280
And now he went skiing and he was going to

701
00:43:40.360 --> 00:43:43.360
give up. But hey, it was because of a person.

702
00:43:43.719 --> 00:43:46.760
So now that's pointing to the institution and then maybe

703
00:43:46.760 --> 00:43:50.280
pointing to a person as a source of encouragement. Let's

704
00:43:50.280 --> 00:43:51.280
see how it plays out.

705
00:43:53.599 --> 00:44:01.440
This young woman just simply dedicated herself to the assignment

706
00:44:01.599 --> 00:44:05.719
of helping me learn how to ski. What is interesting

707
00:44:05.840 --> 00:44:08.400
is that when I snapped on the skis, I said

708
00:44:08.400 --> 00:44:11.039
to her, I am going to be one of the

709
00:44:12.079 --> 00:44:15.039
one of the few people you ever taught to ski

710
00:44:15.800 --> 00:44:20.280
who never falls. She laughed out loud and said that

711
00:44:20.360 --> 00:44:23.079
will be great. But I must tell you I did

712
00:44:23.079 --> 00:44:26.320
not set that record. I set other kinds of records,

713
00:44:26.320 --> 00:44:29.440
but that was not one of them. Never once did

714
00:44:29.519 --> 00:44:33.159
she laugh, Never once did she poke fun at me,

715
00:44:33.639 --> 00:44:38.360
Never once did she make a snide remark. Never once

716
00:44:38.559 --> 00:44:44.639
did she give up, even though I failed miserably on

717
00:44:44.719 --> 00:44:47.119
the slopes. In fact, there was one occasion if I

718
00:44:47.159 --> 00:44:50.639
had kept going, I would have hit a herd of

719
00:44:50.679 --> 00:44:56.360
buffalo in Denver, several miles away. I'm confident I tried

720
00:44:56.400 --> 00:45:01.440
to snowplow as you that ski understand, and I didn't.

721
00:45:02.039 --> 00:45:07.559
I plowed, but not as was planned. And what is

722
00:45:07.599 --> 00:45:10.159
amazing is that my ten year old and my thirteen

723
00:45:10.239 --> 00:45:14.280
year old were skiing all around me, laughing like mad

724
00:45:14.639 --> 00:45:16.800
while I was trying to get up. Can you imagine

725
00:45:16.960 --> 00:45:20.559
having a one hundred pound teacher try to help a

726
00:45:20.719 --> 00:45:25.800
four hundred and fifty pound rhinoceros off the slopes without

727
00:45:25.920 --> 00:45:28.480
losing a life. It is the most embarrassing thing in

728
00:45:28.519 --> 00:45:33.159
the world to try to get up on skis on

729
00:45:33.400 --> 00:45:37.800
snow on the slopes. The only thing that was of

730
00:45:37.840 --> 00:45:41.880
any redeemable value out of the entire experience is that

731
00:45:41.920 --> 00:45:49.400
I got a perfect illustration of encouragement last Friday during

732
00:45:49.440 --> 00:45:54.239
the day, I would have quit easily in thirty minutes,

733
00:45:55.440 --> 00:46:02.320
but there was that faithful, caring patient well who stayed

734
00:46:02.360 --> 00:46:06.480
with me. Stayed with me, kept saying to me, you

735
00:46:06.559 --> 00:46:11.440
can do it. Hang in there, don't give up. That's better.

736
00:46:12.119 --> 00:46:16.079
Try this next time, do this a little differently. That's

737
00:46:16.119 --> 00:46:18.400
the most tactful thing in the world. Is to do

738
00:46:18.480 --> 00:46:22.039
something a little differently. I came down in a bowl

739
00:46:22.079 --> 00:46:25.360
of snow on one occasion. She said, that's not bad.

740
00:46:25.480 --> 00:46:30.440
That's not bad. It was dreadful and she knew it,

741
00:46:30.519 --> 00:46:31.880
but she said, that's not bad.

742
00:46:35.639 --> 00:46:38.519
Now, that's hilarious, and I love the illustration. But at

743
00:46:38.519 --> 00:46:40.920
the same time, it's like, see, that's the whole point.

744
00:46:41.199 --> 00:46:45.599
Encouragement's not supposed to be false, right, it's not bad

745
00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:48.199
now in that situation. I understand you're trying to encourage

746
00:46:48.199 --> 00:46:54.280
people to keep going. I understand, but easy, that's the

747
00:46:54.320 --> 00:46:57.039
thing with people. And then okay, well, let's see where

748
00:46:57.079 --> 00:46:58.159
the skirl. Let's see where the sculls.

749
00:47:01.440 --> 00:47:04.440
What is true of a novice on snow once a

750
00:47:04.519 --> 00:47:10.000
year is true continually among members of the family of God,

751
00:47:11.519 --> 00:47:16.719
we need encouragement. Harassed by the world, bruised by worry

752
00:47:16.760 --> 00:47:23.320
and anxiety, broken by failure, disappointed by defeat, bleeding because

753
00:47:23.360 --> 00:47:30.519
of sin, we come together, often giving off an air

754
00:47:30.599 --> 00:47:37.400
of false confidence that says, I don't fall, I'm on

755
00:47:37.480 --> 00:47:45.239
my feet. We dress well, we look good, we respond

756
00:47:45.400 --> 00:47:48.960
positively to the things going on around us, and we give.

757
00:47:48.800 --> 00:47:51.280
Off that mask.

758
00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:57.000
That says I've got this thing wired I've got life

759
00:47:57.039 --> 00:48:02.719
down to a skill. But in reality we fail, we tumble,

760
00:48:04.639 --> 00:48:11.239
we fall very very badly, and we need one thing

761
00:48:11.440 --> 00:48:17.559
more than any other thing, aside from contact with God,

762
00:48:18.239 --> 00:48:24.840
when we come together, we need encouragement. We need somebody

763
00:48:24.840 --> 00:48:27.119
to say to us as they hold out a hand,

764
00:48:27.360 --> 00:48:33.199
I believe in you. Get up, Come on, Let's try

765
00:48:33.239 --> 00:48:37.679
it again. Let me reassure you, let me help you.

766
00:48:39.559 --> 00:48:42.199
Let me tell you some things that I observe that

767
00:48:42.239 --> 00:48:48.320
you really do well. And courage it's a French word,

768
00:48:49.880 --> 00:48:55.920
simply means to put courage into. Webster says it means

769
00:48:55.960 --> 00:49:02.639
to inspire with courage, spirit or hope, to hearken, to hearten,

770
00:49:02.840 --> 00:49:08.840
to spur on, to stimulate. I do not care how influential,

771
00:49:10.159 --> 00:49:16.360
how well dressed, how mature, or how old any person

772
00:49:16.639 --> 00:49:25.639
is that comes for worship. Encouragement is always needed and appreciated. Always.

773
00:49:27.559 --> 00:49:29.840
Let me shift gears and ask you a question, as

774
00:49:29.880 --> 00:49:31.880
if you and I were in a classroom and I

775
00:49:31.920 --> 00:49:34.880
were in to grade your paper. Let me ask you

776
00:49:34.920 --> 00:49:39.039
the simple question, why do you gather with other Christians

777
00:49:41.000 --> 00:49:47.000
in a church service on a given Sunday.

778
00:49:47.239 --> 00:49:49.360
Ristee, Now he's bringing this to the church. He's used

779
00:49:49.400 --> 00:49:52.320
an illustration of a person that we all need encouragement.

780
00:49:52.440 --> 00:49:54.599
We all need it, we all need this courage put

781
00:49:54.599 --> 00:49:57.559
into us, this building, this up, doing this because we

782
00:49:57.679 --> 00:50:01.760
all mess up, fall or broken, beaten down that you know,

783
00:50:01.800 --> 00:50:06.519
we're we're human beings, We're we we're sinners, we're sinful,

784
00:50:06.599 --> 00:50:09.880
we make a million mistakes. We need to be the

785
00:50:09.880 --> 00:50:12.480
place to The church needs to be the place where

786
00:50:12.480 --> 00:50:23.320
you're built up, you're encouraged now, Okay, So when it

787
00:50:23.360 --> 00:50:26.679
comes to people already again, I mean, even the Bible

788
00:50:26.760 --> 00:50:29.920
demonstrates that when you take the entire Bible and all

789
00:50:29.920 --> 00:50:33.320
of its stories about people and personal interaction, the Bible

790
00:50:33.360 --> 00:50:35.360
says that people are not a source of encouragement, that

791
00:50:35.480 --> 00:50:37.280
over and over there are a source of the opposite.

792
00:50:37.280 --> 00:50:40.400
All right, So then can we really count on people here? Right?

793
00:50:40.719 --> 00:50:44.079
And then what about the church? Is the church the

794
00:50:44.159 --> 00:50:46.920
source of encouragement? Well, this is really hard for the

795
00:50:47.000 --> 00:50:49.679
church to balance out, right, because the church also has

796
00:50:49.679 --> 00:50:52.000
to be the place we preach truth, we preach against sin,

797
00:50:52.159 --> 00:50:55.000
but at the same time we're to be encouraging, and

798
00:50:55.039 --> 00:50:57.960
it's hard for the church to admit, Hey, look, everyone

799
00:50:58.079 --> 00:51:01.880
here is a broken center. Nobody has it together. We're

800
00:51:01.880 --> 00:51:04.679
all in a perpetual sin that goes against the church's

801
00:51:04.719 --> 00:51:06.559
teaching that no, no, no, when you become a Christian,

802
00:51:06.599 --> 00:51:09.960
you became basically perfect, you become basically transformed, even though

803
00:51:09.960 --> 00:51:13.400
we all know that people are sinners. So because we

804
00:51:13.599 --> 00:51:16.679
have this one teaching, then it's hard to keep people encouraging,

805
00:51:16.840 --> 00:51:20.840
and we know what happens you fall into the Now

806
00:51:21.039 --> 00:51:23.719
we've got our list of mortal and venial. We know this.

807
00:51:24.559 --> 00:51:27.519
If you commit the venial, people may be there to encourage,

808
00:51:27.679 --> 00:51:29.440
hold out their hand and say, let's get up and

809
00:51:29.480 --> 00:51:34.519
try again. But you commit some sins too much, or

810
00:51:34.599 --> 00:51:37.320
you commit one on that list of the mortals, the

811
00:51:37.400 --> 00:51:40.280
venial sins, those are the insignificant ones. You know you're

812
00:51:40.320 --> 00:51:43.159
okay there, but once you cross a certain line, Oh

813
00:51:43.199 --> 00:51:47.480
it's over, it's done, you're finished, the end, Get out, gone,

814
00:51:47.840 --> 00:51:50.840
get rid of move We don't want nothing to do

815
00:51:50.920 --> 00:51:54.679
with you. It's not like whoa, whoa, whoa whoah, this

816
00:51:54.840 --> 00:51:59.199
was wrong, this was horrible. Okay, now what can we

817
00:51:59.239 --> 00:52:03.559
do here? What can we do? No, it's just immediately

818
00:52:03.719 --> 00:52:09.880
what you can't do immediately. It's about disqualification, removal, deletion, silence, gone,

819
00:52:09.960 --> 00:52:11.920
it's not about no, no, no, no no. This person

820
00:52:12.000 --> 00:52:14.840
isn't going anywhere. This person is a part of us.

821
00:52:15.079 --> 00:52:17.880
We're all sinners, we're all dropping our rocks and we're

822
00:52:17.920 --> 00:52:20.840
gonna Now. People say, oh, you're just excusing sin, and

823
00:52:20.880 --> 00:52:24.440
you're just no, no, no, everyone nobody's excusing anything. It's

824
00:52:24.480 --> 00:52:27.599
an acknowledgment that as a body of sinners, someone committed

825
00:52:27.599 --> 00:52:29.719
a sin that we haven't committed. But it's a sin

826
00:52:29.920 --> 00:52:33.719
now we got. Obviously, is there gonna be repentance? Obviously,

827
00:52:33.719 --> 00:52:35.760
there's a lot of questions to be asked there. But

828
00:52:35.800 --> 00:52:38.719
the thing is is we have a tendency just to

829
00:52:38.760 --> 00:52:42.719
remove and just move on. Oh, well they failed, I'll

830
00:52:42.760 --> 00:52:44.599
move on to someone else. Yeah, you're gonna move on

831
00:52:44.639 --> 00:52:47.639
to someone else who is still in a perpetual state

832
00:52:47.679 --> 00:52:50.119
of sin. Well, they didn't commit that sin, so they

833
00:52:50.119 --> 00:52:52.440
can commit fifty sins and you're okay with they just

834
00:52:52.440 --> 00:52:55.920
can't commit that sin once. Well, all right, got It's

835
00:52:56.039 --> 00:52:58.559
just so crazy the way the church plays this game.

836
00:52:58.760 --> 00:53:00.800
So I don't think the Church is a source of

837
00:53:01.400 --> 00:53:07.960
encouragement this way people. The Bible is clear people are

838
00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:11.599
going to fail. The people are a source of discouragement.

839
00:53:11.639 --> 00:53:15.800
The people are a comfort, are a source of pain, frustration,

840
00:53:16.320 --> 00:53:21.880
to betrayal, deception, I mean all the things AI listed.

841
00:53:23.239 --> 00:53:28.480
AI says the encouragement comes from God, not people. That's

842
00:53:28.480 --> 00:53:31.480
what AI says. AIGs don't look to people, look to God.

843
00:53:32.920 --> 00:53:35.719
Well that's great, but we sometimes need the encouragement from people.

844
00:53:35.840 --> 00:53:37.679
It would be great that people can be encouragement. But

845
00:53:37.719 --> 00:53:41.559
look what happens if I preach this sermon right or

846
00:53:41.559 --> 00:53:44.079
where he's going. We need to be people to encourage.

847
00:53:44.119 --> 00:53:45.719
We need to be people to encourage. We need to

848
00:53:45.719 --> 00:53:47.840
be people to encourage. Well, now what is that doing

849
00:53:47.880 --> 00:53:49.840
that makes me? Then you have to that makes you

850
00:53:49.960 --> 00:53:52.519
have to look at yourself going, am I an encouraging person?

851
00:53:52.679 --> 00:53:55.199
I think I'm falling and encouraging. So now you're gonna

852
00:53:55.239 --> 00:53:58.440
be trying to be encouraging and then you're going to

853
00:53:58.480 --> 00:54:00.760
fail and being encouraging. So then are you going to

854
00:54:00.760 --> 00:54:03.800
become discouraged? Well, then now it becomes a performance based thing.

855
00:54:05.920 --> 00:54:07.559
Let's just let him go a little bit further.

856
00:54:09.400 --> 00:54:12.000
Just to answer that question on your imaginary sheet of paper,

857
00:54:12.639 --> 00:54:15.239
I think I am correct, and assuming most of you

858
00:54:15.320 --> 00:54:19.960
will put down simply to worship my God, to meet

859
00:54:20.039 --> 00:54:23.840
with him to hear his word, to praise his name.

860
00:54:26.000 --> 00:54:28.519
The imaginary question was, why do you come to church

861
00:54:29.760 --> 00:54:32.440
to hear the word of God? Preach, to worship, to pray,

862
00:54:32.639 --> 00:54:36.880
to praise. Now he's going to say, there's something else

863
00:54:36.920 --> 00:54:41.599
you come to church four four or to do. Let's

864
00:54:41.599 --> 00:54:43.400
see how he answers it.

865
00:54:44.840 --> 00:54:47.079
And you hand in the paper, I would give you

866
00:54:47.119 --> 00:54:55.480
an incomplete You got fifty percent right. According to scripture,

867
00:54:55.800 --> 00:54:59.840
that is one of the two major reasons we worship.

868
00:55:00.199 --> 00:55:04.880
We come together. The other reason and the other fifty percent,

869
00:55:05.559 --> 00:55:10.119
is to stimulate and encourage one another. Maybe you didn't

870
00:55:10.159 --> 00:55:15.519
know that. We don't come to sit isolated before God,

871
00:55:15.920 --> 00:55:19.840
not touching anyone else, not relating to anyone else, only

872
00:55:20.119 --> 00:55:28.719
to hear from him. That's not healthy. That isn't all

873
00:55:28.760 --> 00:55:29.760
there is to worship.

874
00:55:32.159 --> 00:55:36.760
Now turn with me to this ten. Okay, So what

875
00:55:36.840 --> 00:55:39.039
he's going to do is going to say, hey, you

876
00:55:39.039 --> 00:55:40.800
don't come to church just to hear the word of God,

877
00:55:41.360 --> 00:55:44.159
and then you hear it and you leave. What we've

878
00:55:44.199 --> 00:55:46.000
got to have, we got to find a way to

879
00:55:46.039 --> 00:55:48.280
interact with one another. Why, Well, he's going to go

880
00:55:48.280 --> 00:55:52.960
to Hebrews chapter ten, where we read verse twenty four

881
00:55:53.039 --> 00:55:56.800
Hebrews ten twenty four, and let us consider one another

882
00:55:56.920 --> 00:56:00.840
to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking

883
00:56:00.880 --> 00:56:04.119
the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is,

884
00:56:04.159 --> 00:56:07.639
but exhorting one another, and so much the more as

885
00:56:07.679 --> 00:56:10.559
you see the day approaching. Now he's going to take

886
00:56:10.559 --> 00:56:14.039
this idea that to exhort one another is to encourage,

887
00:56:14.159 --> 00:56:16.679
to build up. That we come to church not just

888
00:56:16.719 --> 00:56:18.760
to hear from the preacher, but we to hear from

889
00:56:18.760 --> 00:56:22.719
one another, so that we are let me go through

890
00:56:22.719 --> 00:56:27.039
this again, so that verse twenty four that we consider

891
00:56:27.079 --> 00:56:29.440
one another. So we are to consider one another, and

892
00:56:29.480 --> 00:56:32.719
then we are to provoke unto love and good works.

893
00:56:32.880 --> 00:56:34.960
We are to consider one another so that we can

894
00:56:35.039 --> 00:56:40.000
provoke one another to good works and to love. There's

895
00:56:40.039 --> 00:56:44.760
a provoking element to it, a challenging element to it.

896
00:56:44.360 --> 00:56:48.880
It's we're we're in a sense pushing and provoking and

897
00:56:49.599 --> 00:56:52.360
really trying to get and this is not just this

898
00:56:52.400 --> 00:56:54.599
is different than encouraging, but we're trying to get people

899
00:56:54.679 --> 00:56:58.599
to love and trying to get people to do good works,

900
00:56:58.639 --> 00:57:00.280
and that we're supposed to be doing that with for

901
00:57:00.320 --> 00:57:06.519
one another. Now, this is where it leads to people going, oh, okay,

902
00:57:06.519 --> 00:57:08.360
see see, if you just come to church and you

903
00:57:08.440 --> 00:57:10.639
just hear sermons and you're not going to the potluck,

904
00:57:10.679 --> 00:57:12.920
and you're not going to the to the baseball game,

905
00:57:12.960 --> 00:57:14.920
and you're not going to the chili cookoff, and you're

906
00:57:14.960 --> 00:57:17.400
not going to the small group, then we're not. That's

907
00:57:17.440 --> 00:57:19.320
why we have to have small groups. That's why this

908
00:57:19.360 --> 00:57:21.480
is what leads to small groups. But again, in all

909
00:57:21.519 --> 00:57:24.400
of those situations, I can go to a fellowship, I

910
00:57:24.400 --> 00:57:26.239
can go to a potluck, I can go to a picnic.

911
00:57:27.119 --> 00:57:29.360
I've been to a bazillion of them in my church life.

912
00:57:30.199 --> 00:57:33.480
I've never been provoked under good works, provoked under love

913
00:57:33.519 --> 00:57:35.920
at any of those events. It's just talking about what,

914
00:57:36.199 --> 00:57:38.920
talking about their job, talking about Oh they like to hunt.

915
00:57:39.000 --> 00:57:41.000
They got a new gun and they shot Bambi, and

916
00:57:41.199 --> 00:57:42.880
oh they got a new truck and it's got a

917
00:57:42.880 --> 00:57:44.679
new engine, and they do this and they did that,

918
00:57:44.960 --> 00:57:47.559
and then oh when I worked here, and then I

919
00:57:47.599 --> 00:57:49.679
worked here, and then my boss did this, and then

920
00:57:49.800 --> 00:57:51.639
oh what about the weather, and da da da da

921
00:57:51.719 --> 00:57:53.559
da da did you see the football game? Da da

922
00:57:53.639 --> 00:57:55.280
da da da da da da da. Now, typically if

923
00:57:55.280 --> 00:57:57.320
they're all talking about the things they're interested in, which

924
00:57:57.360 --> 00:57:59.559
basically doesn't interest me. Because I was going to talk

925
00:57:59.559 --> 00:58:03.000
about the things that I'm interested in, they wouldn't be

926
00:58:03.039 --> 00:58:04.920
interested in if I wanted to talk about music. Well,

927
00:58:05.400 --> 00:58:07.199
the church audience is not the people to talk about

928
00:58:07.280 --> 00:58:09.639
music with. R if I want to talk about now,

929
00:58:09.719 --> 00:58:12.800
sometimes I've been around Typically if I'm in a church

930
00:58:12.800 --> 00:58:14.679
with a lot of men who feel called to ministry,

931
00:58:14.880 --> 00:58:16.360
then those are the men you could get around in

932
00:58:16.360 --> 00:58:19.280
talk theology. But in many cases, everyone's talking about something

933
00:58:19.320 --> 00:58:22.719
that I'm not remotely interested in. They're not remotely interested

934
00:58:22.760 --> 00:58:25.199
in what I am interested in, so we don't have

935
00:58:25.320 --> 00:58:28.519
anything in common. Or someone starts talking about something political,

936
00:58:28.639 --> 00:58:30.199
which I'm definitely not going to be on the same

937
00:58:30.239 --> 00:58:34.800
page as most anyone, so I'm not being provoked unto

938
00:58:34.880 --> 00:58:37.599
good works. So then people say, well, we need small groups,

939
00:58:38.480 --> 00:58:42.159
and then small groups are do they accomplish that? Well,

940
00:58:42.199 --> 00:58:44.599
after all of the years of small groups, there's no

941
00:58:44.679 --> 00:58:48.599
evidence that it's doing anything anywhere close to that. And

942
00:58:48.639 --> 00:58:51.079
then we have not only do we have to consider

943
00:58:51.119 --> 00:58:54.360
one another to provoke, not forsaking the assembling ourselves together

944
00:58:54.360 --> 00:58:56.920
as a matter of some but exhorting one another as

945
00:58:56.960 --> 00:58:59.239
so much more as you see the day approaching. Now again,

946
00:58:59.320 --> 00:59:02.000
the context here is seventy a D. We won't get

947
00:59:02.000 --> 00:59:05.159
into all of that, but the encouraging, well, then how

948
00:59:05.199 --> 00:59:14.480
do you encourage one another? And again this is where

949
00:59:14.480 --> 00:59:16.079
people will say, well, the church, you canna have small groups.

950
00:59:16.119 --> 00:59:18.199
You gotta have small groups. You can't do this just

951
00:59:18.239 --> 00:59:20.559
on a Sunday morning in the congregation. You can't you

952
00:59:20.599 --> 00:59:24.199
get a couple of minutes to talk between Sunday school

953
00:59:24.239 --> 00:59:26.840
in the morning worship. Maybe you'll get a greeting period,

954
00:59:27.119 --> 00:59:29.239
maybe after you can sit around and talk. And a

955
00:59:29.239 --> 00:59:31.480
lot of people will say, we've got to have this

956
00:59:31.840 --> 00:59:35.480
because some people really really really desperately need the They

957
00:59:35.559 --> 00:59:38.840
need that, they need people. They gotta have people. Like

958
00:59:38.880 --> 00:59:41.079
if they don't have people there, I don't know. They're like,

959
00:59:41.159 --> 00:59:45.159
they're they're gonna flyl like you and they're gonna die.

960
00:59:45.239 --> 00:59:48.199
They have to they need people, all right, they've got

961
00:59:48.239 --> 00:59:50.360
to have it, And okay, great, But then they'll tell

962
00:59:50.400 --> 00:59:52.800
everyone else we've got to have it. We gotta do more.

963
00:59:52.840 --> 00:59:55.239
We can't just walk into church and walk out. So

964
00:59:55.280 --> 00:59:57.280
what do you want me to do? Preach a sermon

965
00:59:57.320 --> 00:59:59.320
for twenty minutes and then have everyone just sit around

966
00:59:59.320 --> 01:00:00.719
and talk. What do you want me to do? What

967
01:00:00.719 --> 01:00:01.960
do you want? What do you want me to do?

968
01:00:02.079 --> 01:00:05.480
What we need relationships? Well, then go make friends? How

969
01:00:05.519 --> 01:00:08.280
am I supposed to be? And so it's always weird,

970
01:00:08.320 --> 01:00:12.440
like how people want the church to do this. Now

971
01:00:12.480 --> 01:00:16.840
what's weird is I think people love the superficial idea

972
01:00:17.519 --> 01:00:22.440
of encouragement or the superficial idea of provoking one another

973
01:00:22.440 --> 01:00:25.119
do good works in love. We like the superficial idea.

974
01:00:25.159 --> 01:00:27.199
And what do I mean by that? What we create

975
01:00:28.440 --> 01:00:31.679
an event? Pot luck? Well, so everyone sits around kind

976
01:00:31.679 --> 01:00:34.320
of talks, well, say we did it? What you did?

977
01:00:34.360 --> 01:00:38.840
What you got together and ate food? You needed the

978
01:00:38.960 --> 01:00:41.400
church to plant it? You needed the church to or again,

979
01:00:41.440 --> 01:00:43.679
I don't believe that's even a church function in any

980
01:00:43.679 --> 01:00:47.559
meaningful way. Paul condemned that people at Corinth for having

981
01:00:47.559 --> 01:00:49.719
their what someone we called the Agape face. He said,

982
01:00:49.760 --> 01:00:52.079
don't you have homes to eat in? You come to

983
01:00:52.159 --> 01:00:55.559
church for something different? Right, So, but some people say

984
01:00:55.639 --> 01:00:57.800
we need that, and they would point to a passage

985
01:00:57.840 --> 01:01:01.480
like this, But does that really end now to me?

986
01:01:02.119 --> 01:01:04.480
If you come to church, you meet people and you

987
01:01:04.559 --> 01:01:08.920
become friends. Now within that friendship now you can get

988
01:01:08.920 --> 01:01:11.519
the provoking and the encouraging, but I don't know if

989
01:01:11.559 --> 01:01:17.800
you can just make that happen. How does that supposed

990
01:01:17.840 --> 01:01:22.880
to work within the church body? How do you pull

991
01:01:22.920 --> 01:01:25.719
this up? And so people for two thousand years, people

992
01:01:25.719 --> 01:01:28.119
have come up with all kinds of programs and plans

993
01:01:28.199 --> 01:01:31.199
and ministry. We're gonna have men's prayer breakfast, We're gonna

994
01:01:31.199 --> 01:01:34.440
have a breakfast. We're gonna have a quilting club, We're

995
01:01:34.440 --> 01:01:36.679
gonna have a hunting trip. We're gonna and it's always

996
01:01:36.679 --> 01:01:38.679
we're gonna have a camping trip. And it's always like

997
01:01:38.920 --> 01:01:41.480
this is gonna be the thing that's going to accomplish it.

998
01:01:43.559 --> 01:01:45.880
I don't I don't to me, I don't think you

999
01:01:45.920 --> 01:01:49.559
can schedule it. I don't think you can force it

1000
01:01:49.599 --> 01:02:02.079
to happen. But then what it turns into then is okay, well,

1001
01:02:02.840 --> 01:02:04.559
this is what I was going to say. We like

1002
01:02:04.679 --> 01:02:08.119
the perception, we like to facilitate it, or we like

1003
01:02:08.199 --> 01:02:11.000
the idea of making it happen. And I think we

1004
01:02:12.039 --> 01:02:15.079
make ourselves feel better about ourselves because we have some

1005
01:02:15.199 --> 01:02:17.480
events that we're oh, see we're doing it, We're doing it.

1006
01:02:17.800 --> 01:02:20.320
But when I think the real test is when the

1007
01:02:20.320 --> 01:02:25.360
wills come off right, when everything when someone falls into sin,

1008
01:02:25.519 --> 01:02:29.760
where's the encouragement? Where's the building up? Where's the helping?

1009
01:02:31.159 --> 01:02:34.400
When things go way wrong in someone's life? Where's the encouragement?

1010
01:02:34.519 --> 01:02:36.840
See now see now it's a pot Luck's not going

1011
01:02:36.880 --> 01:02:38.639
to fix it. I get together. It's not going to

1012
01:02:38.679 --> 01:02:44.880
fix it. Now some people say it will. Now that

1013
01:02:44.960 --> 01:02:47.679
comes down to individuals. Now, those individuals who are willing

1014
01:02:47.760 --> 01:02:50.480
to go to a pot luck, are they on their own?

1015
01:02:50.760 --> 01:02:53.519
Not because the church instructs them to. They on their

1016
01:02:53.559 --> 01:02:56.039
own call, They are on their own show up, They

1017
01:02:56.119 --> 01:02:59.199
on their own. And that's where everyone fails. Because now

1018
01:02:59.480 --> 01:03:01.559
I'll show up to a potluck at six o'clock and

1019
01:03:01.639 --> 01:03:14.679
bring a casserole. But whenever thing falls apart. But I

1020
01:03:14.679 --> 01:03:17.280
think the inevitable result is if you look at the Bible,

1021
01:03:17.320 --> 01:03:20.559
people will always fail. So because people always fail, the

1022
01:03:20.599 --> 01:03:33.960
institution is always going to fail. Now can I church?

1023
01:03:34.599 --> 01:03:37.440
How does the church now? Again? If we read a

1024
01:03:37.480 --> 01:03:40.760
Hebrews ten twenty four through twenty five, do we understand

1025
01:03:40.760 --> 01:03:46.400
the provoking happening from the pulpit. The pulpit is supposed

1026
01:03:46.400 --> 01:03:49.599
to provoke good works, but we're provoking one another because

1027
01:03:49.639 --> 01:03:53.440
I'm challenging or whoever's preaching is challenging, and that the

1028
01:03:54.440 --> 01:04:00.159
pulpit is where you do the exhorting or the encouraging. Now,

1029
01:04:00.199 --> 01:04:01.679
we like to break this down to no, no, no,

1030
01:04:01.760 --> 01:04:03.760
this is the people. Well, is this the people doing

1031
01:04:03.800 --> 01:04:06.760
it within the context of the institution the church, or

1032
01:04:06.800 --> 01:04:08.559
is this the people doing it in the context of

1033
01:04:08.599 --> 01:04:16.639
relationships that they've made with certain individuals. Now, preaching can

1034
01:04:16.679 --> 01:04:19.920
do the provoking. Preaching can do the encouraging, but that

1035
01:04:19.960 --> 01:04:23.199
preaching has to do the encouraging based on biblical truth,

1036
01:04:23.280 --> 01:04:25.599
not ripping verses out of context. And it can do

1037
01:04:25.679 --> 01:04:32.960
the provoking, but it inevitably will come down to, Okay,

1038
01:04:33.000 --> 01:04:35.880
people in the church, are you encouraging or discouraging? Well,

1039
01:04:35.960 --> 01:04:38.679
now it becomes now this performance based thing, and then

1040
01:04:38.679 --> 01:04:41.159
you're gonna find yourself that you're never truly encouraging enough,

1041
01:04:41.159 --> 01:04:43.599
so then you're discouraging. So now you're gonna feel bad.

1042
01:04:43.679 --> 01:04:46.039
So you're gonna become discouraged and feel defeat. Well, then

1043
01:04:46.079 --> 01:04:49.480
I just get right back into the performance, hamster will

1044
01:04:49.480 --> 01:04:57.840
and we're never gonna get anywhere. Here's what we know,

1045
01:05:00.320 --> 01:05:03.760
even within the pages of the Bible, going from Genesis

1046
01:05:03.800 --> 01:05:09.079
to revelation, it's not even close, not even close. When

1047
01:05:09.079 --> 01:05:14.440
the Bible speaks of people interpersonal relationships, whether it's believers,

1048
01:05:14.480 --> 01:05:18.440
whether it's family, doesn't matter the context. The people are

1049
01:05:18.599 --> 01:05:25.239
constantly seen as a source of discouragement, betrayal, pain, suffering,

1050
01:05:25.679 --> 01:05:30.920
difficulty over people are inevitably I mean, it's unmistakable that

1051
01:05:31.000 --> 01:05:35.000
the people are overwhelmingly described that way in scripture. It

1052
01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:37.320
doesn't matter who this person's gonna let this person, now,

1053
01:05:37.360 --> 01:05:41.840
this person, lets say this. They are a source of conflict, pain, difficulty, trial,

1054
01:05:42.159 --> 01:05:46.960
I mean, suffering, hurt, I mean just so much. I

1055
01:05:46.960 --> 01:05:50.679
mean the even AI acknowledges all of that. So people

1056
01:05:50.760 --> 01:05:52.679
already are going to do that. Now, people are already

1057
01:05:52.679 --> 01:05:56.199
going to do that. Well, then the institution itself is

1058
01:05:56.280 --> 01:06:05.039
always going to fall short. Now, can the truth of

1059
01:06:05.119 --> 01:06:11.840
Christianity serve as encouragement when Christians and the institution that

1060
01:06:11.880 --> 01:06:16.599
preaches Christianity is a source of discouragement? Can you allow

1061
01:06:16.639 --> 01:06:19.440
yourself to be encouraged by the truth of Christianity? Well,

1062
01:06:19.920 --> 01:06:23.519
Christians and the Church is a source of discouragement overwhelmingly.

1063
01:06:27.239 --> 01:06:36.880
All right, I'll stop there now, I know what you're asking,

1064
01:06:37.159 --> 01:06:41.320
So do you feel encouraged. No, are you discouraged? Yeah?

1065
01:06:41.679 --> 01:06:45.360
I went sixty six minutes trying to get my place

1066
01:06:45.400 --> 01:06:53.639
from discouragement to encouragement. Still there. Why Well, because neurological feelings,

1067
01:06:55.960 --> 01:06:59.239
can someone encourage me to make me feel better? I

1068
01:06:59.280 --> 01:07:02.679
doubt it because it's a a neuro See, things are

1069
01:07:02.719 --> 01:07:05.360
always more complicated than it is. I don't know. Nobody

1070
01:07:05.360 --> 01:07:07.840
can just say, well, hey, it's all going to be better. Well,

1071
01:07:08.280 --> 01:07:10.039
may may not. Twenty four hours from now, I may

1072
01:07:10.039 --> 01:07:11.880
have a seizure and be dead, So you can't tell

1073
01:07:11.880 --> 01:07:13.760
me it's going to be better. Well I think it

1074
01:07:13.840 --> 01:07:16.599
was pretty good. Well that's I'm grateful for that. Anyone

1075
01:07:16.639 --> 01:07:18.360
who says that, well, I think the message was good,

1076
01:07:18.480 --> 01:07:20.480
that's great because you may have a better perception of

1077
01:07:20.480 --> 01:07:22.599
the quality of the message than I will. But I

1078
01:07:22.599 --> 01:07:25.519
guarantee you someone will message me, Someone will email me

1079
01:07:25.639 --> 01:07:28.599
or message me or somehow contact me and tell me, hey,

1080
01:07:28.719 --> 01:07:32.480
that the message was good, the message was good, or

1081
01:07:32.519 --> 01:07:34.960
it was great, it was wonderful. But then there'll be

1082
01:07:35.039 --> 01:07:39.039
you know what, emails or comments on YouTube that it

1083
01:07:39.440 --> 01:07:42.239
was trash. So then you know, then that one neutralizes

1084
01:07:42.559 --> 01:07:44.679
you see how that all works. So again, if I

1085
01:07:44.679 --> 01:07:47.480
look to people and alli that if you look to people,

1086
01:07:47.920 --> 01:07:52.119
then does that not become then you become a burden

1087
01:07:52.159 --> 01:07:54.039
to the people, because then people feel like they've got

1088
01:07:54.039 --> 01:07:56.079
to encourage you. And see, then that becomes a burden.

1089
01:07:56.079 --> 01:07:58.000
So then they are discouraged because they're spending all their

1090
01:07:58.000 --> 01:08:03.199
time encouraging someone else. Yeah, I see, It's but if

1091
01:08:03.239 --> 01:08:10.400
we could make encouragement based on something other than I

1092
01:08:10.440 --> 01:08:12.880
don't know. All right, thanks for listening, everyone, have a

1093
01:08:12.880 --> 01:08:18.000
great night. Oh my head hurts. I don't even know

1094
01:08:18.000 --> 01:08:21.279
what I've said. I've talked for sixty eight minutes, and

1095
01:08:21.319 --> 01:08:24.399
I honestly probably right now if you ask me what

1096
01:08:24.479 --> 01:08:26.880
was that about, I barely could tell you. All right,

1097
01:08:26.880 --> 01:08:29.640
thanks for listening. God bless