Become an Encourager

Thank you again, Mr. Kester, and good afternoon, everyone. I wanted to mention I received a text, a text announcement, so literally this just in.

As we were in the song here, it says, We're asking you to save the date for the Salem Family Social, which will be occurring on February 29th.

So if you could jot in your notes somewhere, February 29th, Salem Family Social, starting after sunset, lasting until about 9 o'clock p.m.

The gist of the social, there will be more details coming, but the gist of the social is, once upon a time, Palooza.

Okay? Hang on. Look forward to food, minute-to-win it games, board games, kid activities, a bit of dancing, and an opportunity to dress up as your favorite book or movie character, but don't tell anyone, because part of the evening fun is to guess what character everyone is dressed up as. Okay? So that'll be kind of fun. It'll be neat to see what everybody decides to do, but there will be more details coming for this point, or at this point, I should say. Please mark down the date on your calendar, February 29th, for the, once upon a time, Palooza. Okay? So make sure we got that announced and got that all set up. Well, it is good to be here with you all today. We're enjoying, you know, a degree of Oregon sunshine.

We have, apparently this is an atmospheric river, is what they call this, where it's just a pile of clouds full of moisture, lined up like a big set of train cars coming our way.

We didn't get the main hit. It sounds like that hit north of us a little bit, but we're getting some of the effects. I looked into my backyard today. There's small ponds in various places, which is nice. Now we know where we need to work on getting some drainage taken care of, but, you know, fun stuff, as we get all the rain and all of the things that at least keep everything nice and green here in the Willamette Valley. Well, some of you may have come across this story this week in the media, whether it was on the news or whether it was within social media, but it was one of these stories that kind of stood out among the news cycle, particularly because this week's news cycle was pretty dominated by one particular story for the last three weeks, really. But it was interesting in that it stood out in a very, very positive way.

The story itself took place during the finals of the Miss World pageant. Miss Naikachi Douglas, who represented her native Nigeria, stood on stage with two other finalists, Miss Jamaica and Miss Brazil, and it was time to announce the winner. Now, I don't know a whole lot about pageants. Be honest. Never seen one. They're not my cup of tea.

But in doing a little bit of backdrop to try to figure out how these things work, because, you know, trying to figure out, like, what level is this Miss World thing? I mean, this seems important. It's the whole earth, right? The whole world? Well, in order for these ladies to get to that stage, they had to compete their way through local and regional competitions, to reach the top of their local and regional competitions.

They had to then compete through state and provincial competitions, through the national competition, to be recognized as Miss whatever country they represent. And then, from there, those top representatives are narrowed down to two representatives per continent, then narrowed down to one representative per continent, and then represent or taken there from down to three, and then eventually down to the winner. So at this point, we are the second to last announcement as to who the winner of this particular thing is.

And this is a culmination of a lifetime's work for many of these ladies, so the announcement of the winner is a pretty big deal. The announcer opens the envelope, read the winner's name. The winner was Tony Ann Singh, Miss Jamaica. She stared straight ahead in shock. You can see little clips online. She stares straight ahead in shock. Miss Brazil smiles and puts her arm around her, but the story was Nai Gachi's response to the situation.

She let out a huge scream, huge scream, jumped up and down, ran around in circles, and then wraps her in this giant bear hug as to how happy she was, and so excited and just exuberant for this co-competitors win. If you would not see what was actually going on there, you would have assumed she won. I mean, the response was exuberant enough it looked like she had just won the competition, when in fact she had lost. The reaction went viral. It turned it on Twitter earlier in the week. And I believe that things go viral for a reason.

I think that they go viral many of times because they're humorous and people like to share humorous content. But in a situation like this, when it's more of a feel-good story, I think it trends and I think it goes viral because it is so vastly unexpected and uncommon. You know, in this particular situation, the expected reaction is frustration, anger, maybe disappointment, a fake smile. Not a real smile, but a fake smile.

Oh, goodie. Congratulations, Miss Jamaica. I'll get you next year. You know, that's what we expect in our own brains, right? That's what we think the response is going to be. So to see someone who is genuinely excited, genuinely happy for a co-competitor like this, after losing the competition, is frankly counterintuitive.

And so I think it's because it's counterintuitive, because it's unexpected, that it catches our attention. And when you add to that kind of the honest and joyful exuberance, which is really only possible sometimes through individuals from West Africa, they're exuberant about everything. Breakfast, they're exuberant about breakfast at camp. You know, there's cheers and dances and other things. But it catches our attention and we notice. Frankly, the response was a breath of fresh air. You know, it really was a breath of fresh air.

Someone made the comment on Twitter, they shared the little video, and it got shared through media outlets. It says, in 2020, when your friend starts a business, a podcast, therapy, or anything that enhances their life, be her Miss Nigeria. Be her Miss Nigeria. Numerous others commented that they wish they had their own Miss Nigeria, someone who was cheering them on and was happy for them and was supportive, and provide them with the encouragement that they needed in life. Someone else made the point that everyone wants a Miss Nigeria in their life, but not too many people are really willing to be that Miss Nigeria in somebody else's life.

Her reaction struck a chord with people, as evidenced by the number of comments and the number of shares and the number of, you know, news outlets that picked it up. And it kind of indicates that there are a number of people out there in the world right now that don't have somebody like this in their life, and they're craving it. They don't have somebody like this in their life, and they're craving it.

They want someone who supports them, someone who is helpful, and someone who is cheering them on, and kind of that personal life coach, so to speak, in a way. You don't have to look very hard to realize we're living in a time where the attitudes of many are negative. And I don't mean occasionally when somebody's having a bad day. I mean consistently. You know, we've entered a time in history where pessimism and cynicism has grown to shocking proportions. In fact, since about 2011, following 9-11 and the economic downturns of 9-11 and 2008 and some of these other issues, there were a number of studies and articles that were looked at, looking at the rising pessimism in America.

And it's like you can go back through and look, and it's like 2002, 2004, 2006, that number just kept ticking further and further and further and further north as things got harder and more difficult in the United States, and people's attitudes got worse and worse and worse. Now, America has generally been a nation of optimists. Somebody tells you, you can't do it, and you say, yeah, hide and watch me. Right? I'm gonna do it. You'll see. But after 9-11, and in the subsequent years and the difficulties that came out of that, it seems that that pessimism has continued to grow.

And frankly, I think we've reached a point where that pessimism has really boiled over societally. I think you can just take one look at what we saw the spectacle of this last three weeks or so to see that pessimism in its rawest form. So now we're experiencing cynicism, we're experiencing sarcasm, we're experiencing vitriol that, frankly, is celebrated. It's retweeted. It's shared. People see somebody roast somebody else, and they go, that's hilarious, Cher! That's really funny. They put them in their place. And this sarcasm and this vitriol and this cynicism is celebrated.

Their clapback is shared. Clapback is a mean-spirited response to somebody. It's retweeted. It's shared. It's shown. They go viral. Sometimes even news outlets pick them up, and they put them on the news. Look what this person said on Twitter about this person. That's newsworthy, apparently. People get into Twitter feuds where they spit insults back and forth to one another in 280 characters or less. Consistently, some individuals get into a lot more than others.

YouTube, actually, has been a platform that's been notorious for cynicism and harassment over the last several years. In fact, just a week before last, they enacted new anti-harassment rules on the YouTube platform. Basically, it consists of any harassment against race, gender, or sexual orientation. Those comments in those videos will be speedily removed. Many have looked at it and said, look, it's completely and totally un-enforceable. Because there's no definition as to what makes it harassment. It's purely subjective. A person looks at it and says, oh, that's harassment. Delete. But there's no metric for what that actually is in the current rules that YouTube has.

So a number have said, look, this is unenforceable. These changes are going to cause the platform to be unusable. They were saying, under current definitions, you would have to take down three quarters of the videos that late-night talk show hosts post during their opening monologue when they just sit and roast political candidates when the video begins. Is that what YouTube's going to do? Probably not. What is going to get taken down are ideas that disagree with whomever is the person pushing that delete button.

Because it's so subjective. It's not just YouTube. There's a degree of anonymity on the internet that allows people to say things they wouldn't ordinarily say in person, though, admittedly, that's changing. It used to be that many of these things used to be anonymous comments that people would never say in front of people, but I think they've become emboldened as time has gone on.

And now they'll say them right in front of somebody else with no concern whatsoever as to what that individual thinks or sees. By way of example, I tried to come across something that would be bring out passionate comments, trying to find something specifically that would bring out passionate comments. Some of you may have heard the newest Star Wars movie is out. I haven't seen it, but the Star Wars fan base is about as passionate as they come. I want to be clear, again, I haven't seen it, and I had to do this very carefully to avoid spoilers.

Because they're everywhere right now. But if you type in Rise of Skywalker Review into the search board online, if you type in Rise of Skywalker Review and check out a few of the headlines that come up, here are some. Forbes.com said, worst Star Wars movie ever.

The critic goes on to say it is a bad movie and an absolutely miserable finale. By the way, you may not want to see it after I'm done here. I'm not trying to do that, but I'm just saying. Nerdist.com said, the movie leaves fans without hope. You're going to walk out with no hope, is what they're saying. Slate.com says it capitulates to the franchise's most toxic fans.

Polygon.com said the movie is a defeat even in moments of triumph. Wow, what do they really think? Now granted, I'm going to give you this. Movie critics literally get paid to write this stuff. That is their job. This is what they do. But on the other side of that coin, thousands of people poured several years of their lives into the scripts, into pre-production, the shooting, the post-production, the marketing. And what it really comes down to in many of these critics' minds is that isn't how I would have done it. That's not how I would have ended the story. And so I'm mad. And I'm upset. I had a different ending in mind. I would have done it this way. I think it would have been better if... Why did they do it like that? I think... Why did they do it like that? Because it's their story. That's how they wrote it. That's how they shot it.

You don't like it, write your own story. Right? I mean, it's really simple when it comes down to it. But people get very upset about these sorts of things, and they criticize. There's no problem with not enjoying something. There are a lot of things I don't enjoy. No problem with not enjoying something. There's no problem even with disagreeing with something. I'm not advocating for a Pollyanna-type thing where nothing is ever criticized and everything is just rubber-stamped okay.

But criticism has to be done appropriately for it to be functional and for it to be something that actually allows for change to occur. Like most things, the attitude behind the criticism is the problematic part.

It's the pride that's hidden behind the criticism and the cynicism, the I in those statements. I think. I want. I did. I this. Right? It's almost as though criticism and cynicism have become socially acceptable ways to mask a prideful heart. That it is a way for us to mask a prideful heart through our cynicism and through our criticism.

By tearing others down in what they do, we feel better about ourselves. We get an ego boost. Because after all, we would never do something so stupid. We would never say that. We would never do that. We know better. That's pride, brethren. That's pride-talking. And if we're not careful, we can easily fall victim to these attitudes. Negativity, criticism, cynicism, pessimism, gossip. And I'll be the first to admit, I've been there myself.

I have had all of those things in my life. And so this is not a you-you-you. This is an us-us-us. Okay? This is just something to bring this to our attention. Because it really is easy to fall into these attitudes. It's really easy to fall into negativity. In fact, many companies are starting to notice the detriment of this and have actually made them into fireable offenses. I was talking with the young adults. We did a Bible study back in the last Young Adults Study on gossip. And Dave Ramsey's LAMPO group is one of those organizations. He actually will fire someone for workplace gossip. It is a fireable offense.

And the reason is, he said, if a person is found complaining or gossiping about something or someone to a person who doesn't have the power to fix the problem, then all they're doing is stirring up strife. They don't have the power to fix it. So all you're doing is complaining to someone who can't take care of it. He said they get one warning and after that they're out the door.

And the reason that he said is, he said, we spend, in our company, LAMPO group, we spend financial capital, we spend money, cold hard dollars, we spend operational capital, we spend manpower to be able to build a certain kind of work environment, a certain attitude that occurs in the workplace. He said, when you've got an individual or a group of individuals that consistently undermine that, that criticize and gossip and are generally toxic, many of the companies are beginning to realize you remove that individual or that group of individuals and you can get a lot more done.

And so it's become a fireable offense. When you're surrounded by negativity and pessimism and cynicism and criticism in society, in the workplace, and sometimes unfortunately even in the church, how do we counter it? How do we not become a part of it? How do we not let it into our lives?

Dave Willis, who is an author and a pastor, he wrote, Be an Encourager. He went on to say, the world already has plenty of critics. Is it that simple? Is it that simple? Is encouragement the antithesis to cynicism, to criticism, to pessimism and the like?

What if all of us approached all of our interactions with other people, every time we talked to somebody, every time we interacted with someone, with the intentional question of, how can I encourage this person today? How can this person walk away from this interaction being built up, being strengthened, being ready to now go out and take on the world?

Through encouraging others, can we defeat pride? Can we defeat gossip? Can we heal the toxicity that comes from it? I toyed with titling this message, Be a Miss Nigeria, but I thought that'd be weird, so I didn't. I went with a different title. I've titled this message, Become an Encourager. Become an Encourager. And I deliberately chose the word become because being an encourager is contrary to human nature. It's not something that we do naturally. It's a gift of God. It's a fruit of the Spirit. And I'll show you that kind of generally.

It comes from the Spirit that God provides us. Let's go over to Romans 12 and turn over there real quick and we'll start digging into this. In Romans 12, the Apostle Paul is writing to the believers in the church in Rome. It's a mix of Gentiles and Jews. And in that, he's expounding on a number of concepts that are related to grace, related to law, repentance, baptism, and just generally living a Christian life.

In Romans 12, he's discussing the gifts that God provides through his Spirit. In verse 3, he cautions them not to have a prideful heart or to think of themselves maybe more highly as they ought to. But instead, he said to be sober, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith. And in verse 4 of Romans 12, and I have to beg your pardon, I had to get a new Bible and it's got a different...my old one started falling apart. Pieces started falling out of it because apparently it doesn't have the right kind of binding to last forever. Turns out you need a smith binding to last forever so it'll lay flat. So I now have one of those, but it's a different layout. It's a Pit Minion layout. So my old Bible used to have like 10, 11, 12...really easy to find scriptures. They're all buried in the paragraphs now. And so I'm looking, where is it? And I don't have my little marks to know where stuff's at. So bear with me. Be patient, please, as I find things today. Romans 12 and verse 4 says, Notice that section in there says, The Greek word that's used there is parakalon. It's parakalon, which is translated to exhort, and then parakalisi, which is translated there to the idea of exhortation. Both of those words are forms of the word parakaleo. It's forms of the Greek word parakaleo, which means to call near. To call near. To call someone from afar near to you. Now, you look through scripture, you look through the majority of the New Testament, frankly. It's translated as beseech or entreat most of the time. So if you call somebody near, you're beseeching them to come to you. You're entreating them to come alongside you. That's kind of the gist of the word itself. But what's really fascinating is the Apostle Paul, over and over and over again throughout—in fact, 2 Corinthians is one of the largest places where he does this—uses that word for encourage or comfort. Over and over again. In fact, in more usages in that area than in many of the rest of the New Testament in that regard. And so in those particular sections, it means, again, to call to one's side or to summon. God's Holy Spirit in Greek is referred to as paracletos. Paracletos, the comforter, as we've often heard that described. Which describes, again, what is summoned and or called near. You're summoning this Holy Spirit to you, calling it near to you, dwelling within you, right? Dwelling within you, utilizing it. Like in English, there are words in Greek that serve multiple functions because they're descriptive of the action that's occurring. Paracletos can actually be translated to call a witness in a trial. It can mean to summon someone near to comfort them in their difficulties. It can mean to exhort someone, like by encouraging them really strongly and encouraging them to do something. Because all of those things are done in the action of calling someone near, calling them alongside you in that process. The context really determines the use. So when we see in Romans 12, this particular word utilized, the context is needed to help determine the translation. We're told one of the gifts of God's Holy Spirit is the gift of calling to one side. If we take the literal translation, one of the gifts is the gift of calling to one side. Is it a gift of God to call someone to testify in a trial? No. It's probably not referencing that use of the word. Is it a gift to beseech or to treat someone? Maybe. Depending on what you're beseeching or treating them to. Is it a gift to be able to call someone aside to provide consolation and comfort? Definitely. So that word can be used in that context quite easily. Let's go over to Luke 2. We'll see an example of this particular word in use again.

Luke 2. We've reached a point now where Christ has been on this earth now in human form for 40 days. He had been born 40 days prior to this point in time. Mary's time of purification was done in accordance with Leviticus 12, and she ultimately came to present Christ at the temple. He'd been circumcised already. This is after her time of purification needed to be up. In this particular section in Luke 2, we get a couple of little clues here, kind of as an aside.

It's kind of interesting. Joseph and Mary didn't have a lot of money. They were young, they were starting out, and didn't have a lot of money. The way we know that is what offering they gave when they brought Christ to the temple. They gave the offering of two turtle doves or two pigeons, which is the poor person's offering instead of a lamb, essentially. So we can kind of get a little bit of their idea. Perfectly acceptable, totally okay. It's actually outlined in Scripture back in Leviticus 12, that they were able to do that. But when she came to present Christ before the Lord, they were supposed to bring a lamb.

But you could either bring a pair of pigeons or turtle doves in the event they couldn't afford it, and that's the offering that they made. So as they bring Christ into the temple court, they meet the first of two witnesses to Christ's Messiahship, one of which we'll go ahead and look at here in Luke 2, verse 25.

Luke 2 and verse 25, we meet Simeon. Luke 2 and verse 25, it says, So he came by the Spirit to the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms. And he blessed God and said, According to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people, Israel.

Simeon was waiting to see Christ, who was in this passage referred to as the consolation of Israel, the Pericleson. Again, that root Pericleo, the Pericleson, the one who calls near, the one who comes alongside, the one who comforts and encourages Israel. Why did Israel need to be comforted at this point in time in their history? They were under Roman occupation. They were under King Herod's rule, generally a pretty terrible individual. At least from history, we can see some of the different things that he did. They were taxed, they were oppressed, and they were desirous of the coming of Messiah to deliver Israel.

And so Simeon looked forward to that greatly and was given the opportunity to see Christ before his death. He was given the opportunity to see that consolation of Israel. And now he could depart in peace. Now, through this Comforter dwelling in us, through the Spirit of God, through the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, we have an ability to encourage and to comfort someone above and beyond what is ordinarily available. We're better able, through that Spirit dwelling in us, to be able to call someone alongside, to be able to provide comfort, to be able to provide consolation and encouragement in someone's time of need.

And this is more natural to some than others, you know, I'll be honest. You know, this is more natural to some than others. You've probably had individuals and you can think of in your own life who is just a natural at encouragement and at comfort. You sit down and you talk with that person, and they are a joy to sit and talk with.

And you can just tell them all the things you're dealing with and all the issues that you're coming up with, and they give you good counsel and you get done with the conversation and you feel like you've just had a huge hug. And you walk away from that conversation and you're built up and you're ready to go and you're ready to tackle another week. Now, it's more natural for some, others of us, myself included, have to learn and grow in this skill.

This is a skill we have to learn and grow in. It's an area that we have to recognize we have to grow in. It's a skill that's wrapped up in empathy. It's a skill that's wrapped up in concern and in love. And sometimes individuals that struggle with these sorts of things sometimes struggle to understand what people are going through. Struggle to be able to be in that person's shoes as a result of maybe not experiencing that in their own lives. It doesn't mean it's not possible. It just means that it's a growth area and a recognized growth area for many.

If you turn over to 1 Thessalonians 5, this particular book, the book of Thessalonians, at least the first book, is one of Paul's earlier letters. This is one of Paul's earlier letters. General consensus kind of puts it written roughly the early 50s, 51-52 AD.

It was likely written from Corinth, at least from what we can gather, as a result of Paul and Silas needing to leave Thessalonica in a hurry. And you can look in Acts 17. It kind of tells the story. Basically, there were some troublemakers that stirred some things up, and Paul and Silas had to escape from Thessalonica to Berea. So from Thessalonica, they went to Berea, and then unfortunately there was some agitation in Berea, and he had to flee Berea for Athens. The story of Paul's life, in some ways, is hanging out for a little while until people stir some things up, and then kind of head out from there to wherever he could go from there. We don't know whether Timothy stayed. Timothy was there with him, at least at the beginning. We don't know if he stayed or if he went with him. He was requested to join Paul and Athens, along with Silas, when it was time to come to Athens. Regardless, what it meant was that they left a fledgling congregation in Thessalonica. Paul was there. He was doing some work. He was getting things going. Things were starting to pick up, and then boom! Problems. He had to flee. He had to take off. He had to get out of there. So, 1 Thessalonians, this letter is written to a congregation full of recent Gentile converts out of paganism. He mentions, in fact, he commends them from coming away from their idols to the living God. He talks about coming out of that paganism and commends them for that.

These guys now were left, in many ways, without that support network needed, in this very critical beginning of this process. As they're coming out of this world, as they're coming out of these things, as their families are grabbing onto them, trying to keep them in what they know and what they believe, and they're trying to leave at that critical juncture, Paul is not there. And so, that letter is being written from afar, because it's really the only option that he had. Well, what does he write to them? 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 1, it says, And then there's a slight break in the thought, and he says, in verse 11, He says, in verse 11, He says, Be circumspect, be sober, be thinking about these things. Put on that breastplate of faith and love. Put on the helmet of the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. That whether we wake or we sleep, we should live together with Him. And then there's a slight break in the thought, and he says in verse 11, Therefore, once again, as a result of all these things we just said, comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. And so, essentially, in light of all of these things, in light of the times that are happening and the ramping up to the day of the Lord, in time, you know, as a result of all of these things, all these things that you know, all these things that you learned about the difficulties, the need to put on the breastplate of faith and love, the helmet of the hope of salvation, to face these difficulties head on. He says, comfort one another, encourage one another. That word, comfort, is paraclete, which again is a form of paracoleo, to call near. It says, call near one another, bring people alongside you, strengthen one another, build up one another, edify one another, and encourage one another. Be there for each other. Be there for each other. It says, especially as that day of the Lord approaches. There's a similar concept. You can jot it down in your notes. We won't turn there. But a similar concept outlined in Hebrews 10 and verse 25, which talks about not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, which in this case is paracolontis, which is again a form of the word paracoleo. Calling one another near, encouraging one another even more, he says, as you see the day approaching. These concepts are connected.

As things become more difficult, our brethren will need encouragement. Your brothers and sisters will need encouragement, especially as persecution begins to ramp up and other things begin to ramp up. What they will not need is our negativity. They will not need our sarcasm. They will not need our cynicism or our gossip. They won't need those things at all. They've got plenty of that out there. They don't need it in here. They don't need it. What they need is encouragement. They need edification. They need to be built up in word and in deed and strengthened. That's what they need. A person should be able to leave those doors every Sabbath, bolstered and ready to take on the world.

They should be able to walk out those doors ready for another week's fight against the forces of darkness that are out there, assailing them all week long.

Encouragement is not just in people's time of need. Obviously, people need it in their time of need, but people need that support regularly.

That's one of the whole goals of this experience. The whole goal of us coming together, aside from learning more about God, is to encourage one another and strengthen one another.

Let's go to Ephesians 4.

In Ephesians 4, Paul records—this is one of those passages that, if you ever chain reference anything, it passes through Ephesians 4 a whole bunch of times.

It just ends up in this passage a lot.

Paul, again, is recording a number of things here that have a great deal of importance.

We're going to start in the passage near the end, and then we're going to go back to the passage near the beginning. So we're going to start out in verse 25, and then we'll take a step back up to the upper portion of it and look at the role of the ministry in that process.

Ephesians 4 and verse 25, speaking very specifically here to the members—and to all, really—that are part of the body of Christ, it says, Verse 29, That word corrupt in Greek is the word sapros.

It means rotten, worthless, or bad.

It's a form, actually, of the Greek word sepo, which is decay or rot.

So you talk about a body of corruption, as it mentions in Scripture, a body susceptible to decay, susceptible to rot.

That's what it's kind of getting at.

What it's saying is that these are words, these corrupt words, these are words that are putrid, and they're unfit for use. They're corrupt.

What happens when you bring something into contact with rot?

Get rots in return, right? Eventually the rot spreads.

You ever notice, if you spend a lot of time with a negative person, how difficult it is to remain positive?

You ever notice that I have sometimes been that negative person.

You ever notice how if you spend a lot of time around a person who's a gossip, how easy it is to fall into the trap of gossiping?

How easy it is to just slide right in there, and pretty soon you're sharing those juicy tidbits, too?

Rot breeds rot.

Corrupt breeds corrupt.

We have to avoid these sorts of words. We have to avoid these sorts of things and consider the value of what it is that we take the time to say.

What is the value of it?

In the next breath, Paul writes, verse 30 of Ephesians 4, in the next breath he says, In this case, it's blasphemy, is what it's referencing.

So we are to let all bitterness and anger and wrath and clamor and evil speaking be put away from us, not even to entertain it.

Putting away criticism, putting away cynicism, putting away anger and bitterness, and instead being kind to one another, tender-hearted, and being forgiving towards others as God has forgave us.

The expectation of us as people of God is that we don't speak words from a place of bitterness and anger and wrath.

You know, it's a growth process for sure. Those of you who have been living this way of life for a long period of time, you know it's a growth process.

And you know that it's something where you grow as time goes on. But we need to be on that path. We need to be ensuring that we're heading in the right direction.

The words that we speak to one another should be spoken for necessary edification. They should be spoken to build up our brothers and our sisters.

As members of the body, we judge righteous judgment. It doesn't mean we put up with sin. It doesn't mean that we excuse sin and pretend that it's not happening. What it means is that if somebody is living their life in accordance with the law of God and happens to be doing something we think is silly, it's none of our business.

Really, if they're not breaking the law of God, you know, if they're not doing something that's going to cause major harm to their family, it's not our business.

We have no reason to put our nose in the middle of it.

Move up the chapter in Ephesians 4 to verse 11. We'll see that I have a role to play in this process.

Ephesians 4 and verse 11. Once again, I told you Ephesians 4. We've got a whole bunch of stuff in here.

Ephesians 4, and we'll read verse 11.

It says, And he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.

And note the reason why. Verse 12 gives us the reason why.

For the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

And so God ordained specific roles to administer within the body.

There were apostles, there were prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. But note, regardless of the role, regardless of the role or the function of that particular individual, the ultimate goal was twofold.

Number one, it equipped the saints for the work of ministry.

In other words, it prepared the individuals to minister to, and when we use that word, we say serve, minister to, serve others.

As a minister, I'm a servant. Nothing more. I'm a servant. I am your servant.

That's what it means to be a minister. That's what it means to be a pastor. I'm your servant.

My role is to serve you and to prepare you to serve others.

The second thing that it was to do was to edify the body of Christ, to build up and strengthen the body.

To build up and strengthen the body. And this is partly done through the first of these goals.

Everybody's serving everybody. You know, it's partly done through the first of these goals. But in addition, as a pastor, my role is to help build up and strengthen the church.

To provide opportunities for growth. To preach messages that encourage you to draw nearer to God and to one another.

To preach things that sometimes maybe challenge you where you may be at.

According to Paul, that's the task. And we're to be doing these things, essentially, until the return of Jesus Christ.

Again, as a pastor, as a servant, my role is to build up. It's to encourage. It's to edify the body.

My role is not to tear down, to divide, and to pit one group against another.

It's not to be cynical. It's not to be negative.

It's to be positive and encourage everyone to grow in their relationship with God and with one another to become more like Jesus Christ.

I hope, I hope and I pray, that that effort comes across. I truly do. I hope and I pray that that effort comes across. But that's the goal. Strengthening the body. Strengthening the body.

Verse 14, he goes on, As you strengthen the body, we reach a point where it gets to 14, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

But speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effect of working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

The work involves everyone. It involves every joint, whatever joint supplies.

And when every part does its share, when every part is working together, it causes edification of the body.

It causes building up and a strengthening of the body.

Thankfully, God didn't make the eclasia a one-man band.

God built a symphony.

He built a group of musicians, essentially, who play together in harmony, who are working to achieve the same goal, who complement one another—not complement, but complement.

They are adding to one another's efforts instead of working against one another.

Mr. Gothel says, mutually excel. They mutually excel one another, is the term that he uses.

They help one another grow, and they become more than we are now.

I am truly thankful to serve you guys, to have the opportunity to serve you as a congregation.

I really am. I thank God for you. I pray for you.

And I'm very thankful for the opportunity to serve you.

The work that has been done here throughout the years in this particular congregation over the last 25 years, of the United Church of God—it's hard to believe it's been 25 years this May.

25 years this May.

But even before that, the work that was done here, back going into worldwide, and back into even the radio Church of God, the groundwork and the foundation of love that has been put here by Mr. Duncan and Mr. Sephoric and Mr. Stiver, you can tell, you take the time, if you haven't done it lately, pull back out of a conversation and just sit on the sidelines and watch.

Look at the love that the brethren show for one another.

Look at the tenderness and the care that they show.

That's what we should be exhibiting. That's what we should be seeing.

That's the measure of us as Christians, is that love that we have for one another.

When you take the time to step back and look, the spirit of God is evident in the manner in which you interact with one another, and how you serve one another.

You've served one another for many, many years. Again, this year marks 25 years of the United Church of God. 25 years in May of this year.

The next 25 years are critical. Absolutely critical.

Because that encouragement, that love, and that service to one another will be even more important as we grow nearer to the return of Jesus Christ.

The world around us is changing rapidly. It's changing rapidly.

It was prophesied to be so, and frankly, we can see those prophecies being fulfilled right before our very eyes. Men have become scoffers. They become lovers of themselves. They become boastful. They become proud. They become arrogant.

They're happening right before our eyes. These things.

Cynicism, criticism, pessimism, clapbacks, roasts, insults. They become normal. Standard.

Honestly, celebrated behavior in society around us.

And as these things increase, and as they continue to grow, as we've talked about before, when we live in a society that's around us, it requires us to be on guard even more to prevent these things from creeping in as it becomes worse and worse in society.

God desires, encourages. He desires people who build up and support and encourage one another, as opposed to individuals who tear down, criticize, and ultimately are negative.

Miss Nigeria surprised the world this week with her response to losing the Miss World competition.

She celebrated like she just won the Super Bowl. And she was second place or third place or whatever it was.

It didn't even matter. She wasn't upset that she lost. She was over the moon excited for her co-competitor winning.

Brethren, our spiritual life isn't a competition. It's not a competition. We are all in this together.

Please be someone's Miss Nigeria. Please. We're all in this together. We're supporting one another.

We're encouraging one another. We're building one another up. We're being excited for one another and enthusiastic for one another and what's going on in their lives. For what they're doing and the spiritual growth that they're having.

We're helping one another become more and more like Jesus Christ.

And some have said, as time goes on, so goes the church, so goes society, or vice versa. So goes society, so goes the church.

Those trends in society find their way in. They do. We cannot always prevent it.

We can't always prevent it. It's a slow and gradual assault from outside.

But we have to do everything in our power to prevent that culture from creeping in. Stopping it in its tracks. At that door. Not letting it in.

Brethren, can we commit to doing everything that we can not to let that assault happen?

Can we commit to one another as a congregation to become more encouraging?

To make the choice in the face of adversity and difficulty and issues to be supportive, to be excited, and to be enthusiastic for one another.

There are plenty of critics. Become an encourager.