Encouragement

All of us have people in the Bible that we identify with more than others. And they become sort of our heroes. You know, David, the warrior poet, who's also a king, is one of my heroes. And others, you think of Esther standing up to an empire, just a young woman, by herself, for the most part, standing up with God's help to an empire. I mean, there's all these people in the scripture that we look to, and we see them as inspirations in our lives. And you probably have certain people in the Bible that you look at and say, yeah, I identify, or I really respect that particular person for what God did in them, and what they allowed God to do in them, and what they accomplished.

Well, I was looking through some of the requests that people have made over the last year for sermons. And there was one that I thought, I need to give that one. You know, I've been talking about a lot of different things here over the last couple months, a lot of different subjects, but I need to give that one. And I started to immediately think about some of the Bible that's one of those people I look up to. But it's a person that we don't think about much. In fact, I went back and I said, when was the last time I talked about this man?

And except for a couple brief mentionings, the last time I really talked about this man was over nine years ago in a sermon. And yet, because he's not like a, it seems like a major player in the New Testament, and yet he had a profound effect on the development of the New Testament church. He became a mentor to people like Mark, people like Paul. And he became known for something very peculiar about who he was as a person, and it's great impact that he had.

And it has to do with what I want to talk about today, is that a couple people have asked about this subject. So let's go to Acts 4, because I'm going to use him as an example of something that we all need and we can all learn to give. We all need God and others to give this to us, and it's something that we can give to others. Acts 4, let's start at verse 33. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. So we talked about last time about how grace is more than just God's forgiveness. Grace unleashes this power from God, that He gives to us through His Spirit.

And grace is a very big subject. So here, grace was happening in the church. God was working in the church through His favor. Nor was anyone among them who lacked, for all who were possessions of lands or houses, sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and lay them at the apostles' feet, and they distributed each as anyone had need.

And Joseph, or Joseph would be in Hebrew, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated Son of Encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. Now here's interesting. You have a man from Cyprus. He wasn't born in Judea, but he is a, you know, an Israelite. He's not a Jew. He's a Levite. And because of his impact on people, they give him a nickname.

His given name wasn't Barnabas. It was the nickname, which means Son of Encouragement. All of us need encouragement. All of us can learn to give encouragement. You think, well, wow, I need lots of encouragement. I can't give encouragement. Well, when we receive encouragement, we can learn to also give it. We're going to have to look at that as a spiritual thing that God will do in us. Encouragement. In English, that's a very interesting word.

Discouragement needs to be without courage. It means you don't have hope. You just don't feel positive about the future. You don't have the courage to face things. So you're discouraged. Now we all suffer discouragement. Encouragement is when you receive courage, and you receive hope, and you receive what you need to be able to keep going on, to keep living the Christian life. So this man had such an impact on other people that they gave him the nickname as the Son of Encouragement.

When we're around him, we receive, you know, people...he just made them feel closer to God. He made them have more courage to face what they were facing. Now, he would face some discouragement in his life, too. But this was one of the great gifts that God had given to him. And we've all met people like that. You know, there's the Pollyannish person that always seems happy, but it's too happy to be true. I mean, they can't really pass on their happiness. But the encourager has a very specific kind of personality, but a very specific kind of gift that is developed in that person by God to give the rest of us something when we need it.

But you can also drain an encourager until they become discouraged, because everybody goes to them for encouragement, and pretty soon they're discouraged. So we're going to look at what it is to be an encourager. We're going to look at a lot of Barnabas, but we're also going to look at how we all can learn to be more encouraging to others, because it is something that we need inside the church.

It's we need encouragement in the world that we live in. And even the most shy person can at times give a little encouragement. Even when you're having difficulties, you can sometimes help somebody else in their difficulties simply because encouragers understand. They understand. Now, empathy is an important part of this.

I'm not going to talk about empathy much. I am putting together a sermon about empathy and how it is a quality we have to learn. The Bible tells us that, but how empathy can also be used for wrong. We can become so empathetic that we actually accept evil. So we have to know that where that line is. So we'll be talking about empathy here sometime in the next couple months.

But encouragers have some empathy. They have some understanding of what a person is going through, what they're feeling. Now, what's interesting is to understand, proper empathy, proper encouragement is something that comes from God because it's part of His nature.

It's unfortunate that we many times think of God only in terms of the negative. Oh, He's upset. He's going to punish me. God doesn't like this. I can't make it because I just don't have the ability. There are so many bad things in my life where something terrible has happened and I don't know how I'm going to get over this.

I mean, all of us face times in life where we just don't see a future, right? An illness in your life, the death of a loved one, just sometimes extreme loneliness. We get to the place where we just don't feel like I can go on and we need encouragement. But then, where does that come from? Well, let's first start with the concept of God. John 14.

This is where we as Christians begin our—we need encouragement. This is where we go first. This is where we go first. John 14 verse 16.

Jesus said to His disciples on that night He was going to be betrayed and die as the Passover. If you love Me, keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father. In other words, I'm going to go to the Father for you in this. I'm going to intercede for you. Encouragement sometimes is interceding with the person. So I'm going to do this. I'm going to pray to the Father, and He will give you another helper that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you and He will be in you. He's talking about the Holy Spirit here that comes from the Father and actually comes from Christ too. So the Holy Spirit comes from both of them, and He says here to them, you actually know this in part because you're receiving help from God's Spirit now, but it will eventually be in you. And then verse 18, a little statement that's really important here. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Christ says, I'm going to be leaving. They didn't understand where it was going or what was going to happen. He said, but I will be able to interact with you and the Father will interact with you. You won't be an orphan. You won't be without family. You won't be fatherless. God is going to come to you. The saying that I won't leave you orphans means there's going to be stress. You're going to feel like an orphan from time to time, but He says I'm not going to leave you that way. When I leave, I will come back to you in the form of God's the spirit that emanates from the Father and the Son and comes into us. It's very interesting the word here that is translated helper, paracletus.

Paracletus is sometimes in English translated as counselor, comforter. Here we see it helper. And the word in Greek encompasses all that. He said when I leave you, He's telling them, the Father, I'm going to go to the Father and we're going to send you a power that can give you comfort, a power that can be a counselor to you, a power that will be your helper. In other words, God will encourage you and He will give you what you need. Now there are times where it's like, I don't get it, God. I'm not getting what I need. Well, that's because we're physical and the link between us and God, you know, sometimes it's pretty weak. But God will give that to us. That's why Paul writes that he and his discouragement, he said he received a peace beyond understanding. He said, God gave me a peace I could not have on my own. God gave me a settledness that I could not have on my own. And the trials that we face all the time, this is where we start. God can give us what we cannot have. Now, we struggle with that. If you're alone and you're struggling with peace from God and help from God, and that he's going to come be your counselor and he's going to be your comforter, and you say, yeah, but I would like, you know, a flesh and blood person to talk to. He understands that. So encouragement starts here. But remember Barnabas was so powerful in this gift that the entire church in Jerusalem was affected by him. So God does say he is our encourager, and we go to him for help. So then we become partakers of his encouragement. Now, once we become a partaker of God's encouragement, we're supposed to share that. Barnabas was called the son of encouragement. Paraclesis. Yes, that's related in Greek to the word we just read. God, the Holy Spirit, comes as the helper and the comforter. And there's another word that was used for the nickname for Joseph, Barnabas, and it means that he is the son of encouragement. The Father is the giver of encouragement. Jesus Christ is the giver of encouragement. Because of God's interaction in his life, he became the son of encouragement. The word son there is important in that nickname. It comes from God, and he shared that. When we receive comfort and help from God, we are to share it. Sometimes when you receive a little help, you don't even have the energy to share it, right? When you're discouraged to a certain point, you don't have the energy to share it. The interesting thing is when you share a little bit of encouragement, something happens in us. It happens in you as you share it.

Because once you step a little bit outside yourself, you get a little break. Our problems don't go away. They still come back. You know, the issues in your life today will be there tomorrow. But when you receive encouragement from God, you pray about it, you're reaching out to God, and He gives it to you, look around. Because there may be some way that God's going to let you share that a little bit with somebody else. Because it's part of the healing that takes place in encouragement. It's sharing what is given to you. So there are two basic ways that we do this encouragement to others. The first is found in 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 1.

So we have to think about this. We have to wrestle with God, so to speak, to receive help and encouragement and purpose and love and sometimes just a little peace. Just let me have a little peace. Take away some anxiety. And when God does that, you now and I, we all have this responsibility to share that a little bit. To share that with others. 2 Corinthians 1. And let's go to verse 3. So Paul here starts with a greetings to the church of Corinth. And then he launches right in to an encouraging statement for the church there. Bless be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. To be encouraged, there has to be some comfort. We have to take the stress level, we have to take the anxiety level and it has to be brought down some. And that's what God can do. He can bring that down. I mean, we are in extreme stress, extreme discouragement, depression, what happens. We actually have a chemical reaction to that. And God has to do some healing here and bring that down so that we can get some control of our own thoughts and control of our own emotions. And have the courage to get out of bed. I mean, I've, I've counseled many people that didn't have the courage to get out of bed one morning because it just, it was too much. How do I get out of bed today? And with God's help they do. And as they work through that, as they grow in encouragement, they'll always share it somewhere, someplace with somebody else. God did this for me and I learned to do this. I learned to change this way. You can too, with God's help and the courage. Who comforts us in all of our tribulations. So this is what God does. He didn't say we won't have bad times or not have tribulations. It says He gives us some comfort. It's still uncomfortable. It's still difficult. No one says, yay, I'm having a bad day, right? That's not how this, but we receive comfort from God who comforts us in all our tribulations. Now notice what He says next, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. We have to pass it on. And that's sometimes what we don't do. We don't realize, I understand you're having a hard time. I went through something like that myself. Or I can't even imagine what you're feeling. Now sometimes when someone says, I know exactly how you're feeling, you know, I can imagine it. I don't know it until I have it myself.

So you say, I can imagine and share a little bit with what you're feeling. But it's not using a good idea to say, I know exactly how you're feeling. Unless you can say, yes, I too lost a child. Now you can say that because you've lost a child. So you can actually, there's an empathetic level that you can have that someone who hasn't lost a child can only say, I find what you're going through horrifying to me. Because I can only imagine what it's like. But you share. When we are comforted by God, when we're encouraged, we are then required to share that with others. For as the suffering of Christ abounds in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we're afflicted, it is for your consolation. Paul says, you know what? I'm going through a lot of problems in my life so that I can give you comfort and salvation. Paul says, you know what? I don't like being stoned. I don't like being put in jail. I don't like having to be put in the arena and fight an animal, you know, some vicious animal with a sword, which he had to do. He said, I don't like that. He says, I'm only doing this for you because God wants me to. So that you can be comforted and so that you can receive salvation, which is effective for enduring the same suffering which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. He says it again. And our hope for you is steadfast because we know that as you are partakers of the suffering, you shall also partake of the consolation. In other words, yes, God isn't going to take away all the trials. Sometimes He does. We all like it when He does. But what He says is, but I will give you the encouragement you need and that you will share that with others because everybody else is in one way or another in the same boat that you are in. What happens when you like to think nobody else suffers like me. Nobody else, everybody else seems to have such confidence. Everybody else just seems to never have struggles. That's not true. Everybody is struggling. Everybody is in the same boat. Everybody needs consolation. And God gives it. And when He does, He says, now go give it to somebody else. And in these cases that we're reading about, every case we read about today is inside the church. That doesn't mean we're not to comfort others outside. But these instructions are specifically for us. We are to be available to listen, help, console others, and to realize that if we've received it, we're supposed to also give it. If we've received it, we're supposed to give it. Which is hard because when you or I, I'm this way, when I need help, the last thing I want to do sometimes is listen to somebody else's problem. Of course that's what I do every day. And then my poor wife hears my problems, right? And she's so patient. She's just so patient with it. And every once in a while, it's like it's my turn, and I'm going to tell you my problems. And then I have to listen.

So this comforting is to be shared. The other thing is exhortation. Now that's an interesting concept too. Let's go to Romans 12. So we exhort others. This is different than comfort.

Romans 12.

And let's start in verse 6.

He talks about gifts that are in the church in verse 6. And then he talks about in verse 7, some of them, well he actually starts in verse 6 listing all these different gifts God gives. And then he says in verse 8, he who exhorts an exhortation. In other words, if this is one of the things that God's developed into you more than maybe other people, you exhort others. There's a difference between comfort and exhortation.

Comfort. You're dealing with something that's happened. Right? When we comfort somebody, it's not because they're having a good day. We're comforting them because they've lost a job, or they have some kind of illness, or somebody they know has died, or they're just, you know, they're having financial problems. We're dealing with some kind of loss or pain. Sometimes we're dealing with a loss or pain that happened years ago, that they never received encouragement over. And sometimes people get stuck in something that happened 20 years ago, and they don't get out of it. And they're sort of trapped in this discouragement. And sometimes I don't have the courage to move on because of what happened 20 years ago. And so that's what comfort is. It's working and helping people turn to God to receive His comfort and to move forward. Exhortation is all about moving forward. Exhortation is helping a person move towards the future. Here's the, that's the problem with so much psychotherapy. It may help you define, and that, you know, I'm not talking about, I'm talking about psychology. Psychiatry, some of it's based on drugs, but psychology, okay, let's find what's caused your issues, and then you can learn to deal with them. That's what it is in theory anyways. The problem is sometimes you just, okay, now I know what's wrong with me. What do I do?

Scripturally and spiritually, how we move forward is different than what maybe some psychologists would tell you because it's spiritual in nature. You're moving forward in the way of life that God gives us. So exhortation is, okay, comfort is, I would understand. Exhortation is, let's look what God wants to do. Let's look where God wants to take you. In fact, exhortation can include correction, you know, in a positive way. Well, that won't work. You're going to have to change this to move forward because here's what the Scripture says. Here's what God wants to do. So comfort and exhortation are both part of what encouragement is. It's not just about sitting around understanding or having empathy because people can share empathetic experiences and nobody is comforted except in the short run and nobody moves forward. They're stuck in that place where they are. So these are the two goals, if you will, of this encouragement. Comfort, exhortation. And this isn't just something that's supposed to be preached from the pulpit. All these examples, every one of them is either about Barnabas who did these things or explanations of how to do it as the people of God.

So what are some of the traits of encouragers? Well, let's look at Barnabas. Acts 4.

Now, Barnabas was an unusual encourager. I tried to be an encourager, but I haven't even begun to match Barnabas, okay? I've been here long enough you all know that. So, you know, I don't have to tell you that. But we look through these traits and we see how being an encourager, seeing this desire to encourage people, to help them be comforted and move forward, how that shaped how he lived and expressed itself in his actions. Acts 4.36 talks about how he took this property and he sold it. Now, we read that a minute ago because that's how they changed his name. I want to come back to this and just mention, I won't read it again, look what he did. He took action. He wasn't just, oh, there's people in need in the church. I will pray about that, which I'm sure he did, which he should have done. That's good. That is part of the encouragement because you realize all encouragement for us, so much of us is going to have to come from God to deal with the inner issues that we have in this fallen world. So, pray, but he took an action. They are doers. Encouragers are doers. When they see a need, they tend to step into it. Now, sometimes encouragers, one of their biggest problems is they can step into too many needs. They get over-involved, over-dedicated, and that's not good either. But this is part of what we have to learn as encouragers. If I see a need for comfort, exhortation, I will if it's my place in time. You pick these places in times too. You go try to comfort someone who doesn't want to be comforted, and you don't help them at all. You just hurt their feelings. You go exhort someone when they're not ready to be exhorted, you're not going to achieve anything. So, we look through this. Okay, this is their doers, so they're looking for these things. And as we see, though, as we go through this, they also know when and when not to do things. Encouragers give with those strings attached.

In the middle of this story about Barnabas in this part of Acts is, of course, the story of Ananias and Sapphira. When Barnabas sold some land and gave it to the church, he became, you know, everybody just loved Barnabas. He became famous in the church, not because he was seeking it, it's just because he was so encouraging. You know, it was part of his character and his personality. Ananias and Sapphira wanted to be part of that. They wanted that kind of recognition. So you read their story, and you have two people that sold land and then lied about it. Look, we sold everything we had. They take it to Peter, some money, we sold everything we have. He says, that's not true. It's not true. You sold part of what you had, but you didn't have to sell everything. It was yours. You didn't have to sell anything. It wasn't a command to go sell your land or your goods to donate money to the poor. You didn't have to do that. Barnabas did it because it came from his character. It came from who he was. This is just what he did. They did it for glory. They did it because they wanted recognition. They did it because they would be considered someone important in the church. And what's amazing in that story is God killed both of them.

They were willing to lie and cheat in order to receive status in the church, and God was real unhappy with that. You don't find too many stories, even in the Old Testament, where God just killed people. You've got Sodom and Gomorrah. You do have the flood. But in the New Testament, there's not a lot of where God carries out immediate punishment on people, but He did here. And this is in the context because it's comparing people who do things for power and glory in the church, and people who do things because they love God and they love their brethren. It compares these two. So part of us becomes the model here, and he would not have seen himself that way. He would have never even thought of himself that way. And that's why he's used as the model. So, encouragers then, when they look at other people, they look how is God evolved in their lives, not what are their faults. Now, this is just common for us to look at each other and see each other's faults. That's common human nature. Barnabas didn't do that. Now, he could see people's faults, but he looked at people and said, what is the potential God wants for them? Let's look at a couple examples. Acts 9. This has to do with Paul, who is still named Saul, and how Saul was, of course, rejected by the church. Now, I want you to think about this. This man was in charge of the squads that would go out and arrest Christians. He stood by and gave permission as he was an agent of the Sanhedrin. He would stand by and give permission to stone people or put them in prison. Before the Roman government, they weren't legally supposed to stone people, but the Jews continued to do that. And so, we know Stephen was stoned and Paul was there giving permission to do so, supporting what happened. Now, you can imagine if you were a friend of Stephen, or maybe it was your grandmother that got hauled off and put in some prison some place. And believe me, prisons of that day make even the worst prisons here look like country clubs. And now he shows up at church. Well, you know what everybody thought. Oh, he's infiltrating so he can get us all arrested. Barnabas saw him, interacted with him and said, no, God's working with him. Look at verse 26. This is Acts 9. And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him and did not believe he was a disciple. No way! We don't want anything to do with you. No, you can't come to one of our meetings because you'll know who everybody is. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road that he had spoken to him and how he preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. Barnabas took him to the apostles and said, no, God's working with this man. And he put his reputation on the line. So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out.

And so what happened now? Paul has the ability to be seen as a Christian and go out and preach. So verse 29 says, and he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenist, but they attempted to kill him. So when the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus. In other words, now you have the church protecting him. The very man that had arrested them is being protected by the people he was trying to arrest. And what is the catalyst God uses to bring us together? Barnabas. Barnabas says, no, God's actually worked with this man. And what he's done, I mean, he wouldn't have condoned anything he did. He just said, he's one of us now. And the church accepted that, or the disciples accepted that, and then the brethren on what? The word of Barnabas. That's remarkable. It shows you what happens to this man who's the son of encouragement, just the effect he had. Not because he was in great leadership, it's because of who he was.

Acts 15. Acts 15. Verse 36.

So now Paul and Barnabas go around to different churches. It's very interesting. For a while, it's Barnabas and Paul. Barnabas was the leader. Over time, it became Paul and Barnabas. Paul became the leader. So it's interesting that the name, who's first in all the stories, changed a little bit. Luke. That had to be on purpose. Luke could do that just by accident. So it says, so Paul said to Barnabas, let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord. We see how they're doing. So they had gone around together, this older man who's now a mentor to Paul, because he's older than Paul. And he's taking and he's taking him around and teaching him and helping him. And they're setting up churches all over Asia Minor and different places. Now Barnabas was determined to take with him John, called Mark. This is the Mark who wrote the gospel. But Paul only saw the weaknesses of Mark. Now you read Paul's life and you read his writings. He had a proclivity to do that, but over time you see he changed. But he has a proclivity to just look at people's weaknesses. Then you see his writings after a while. It's like, no, no, no, God will help us with our weaknesses and you can repent and you can change. But here he's still sort of this stubborn Paul.

But Paul insisted that they should not, just verse 38, take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia and had gone with them to do the work. All we know is Mark had gone with them as a younger man now to be mentored by these two men. And Mark, on this journey, said, I've got to go home. We don't know what happened. He got homesick. Maybe he got ill. Maybe he just got exhausted. We don't know what happened. But Mark returns back to Judea. And Paul says, write that man off. He can't be a true minister of God to give up on a journey like this. We're starting churches wherever we go. Barnabas, on the other hand, looks at him and says, yeah, he's got some growing to do, but this man, this man God's working with. It's interesting that Barnabas wouldn't back down on this one. You know, Barnabas was the son of encouragement. That doesn't mean that Barnabas wouldn't make a stand when he needed to make a stand. I mean, you think about it. He brought Saul to, you know, before he went by his Greek name of Paul, took him to the apostles and said, oh, my word, this man is of God. That's a pretty bold statement to say. They could have excommunicated him from the church, and he'd have been outside of Christianity. So Barnabas was a strong man, and yet he had this ability to have an empathetic relationship with other people. Verse 39, then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another, and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and departed, being commanded by the brethren in the grace of God. And so he goes on. Verse 41 says he goes on to all the churches where they had started and strengthens those churches. Barnabas takes Mark and trains him. Mark turns out being a really good story. In fact, there's a point in the future where Paul mentions Mark in a very positive way. He was willing to throw him away at one point. Barnabas said, no, no, tell you what. You go back, I'll take this man, and I'll work with him. And now we have a gospel written by Mark. And once again, it's the son of encouragement that takes the young guy and works him through his problems, works him through his issues. You know, when you think of the great leaders of the early church, you usually don't think of Barnabas. Yet you keep finding him place after place after place, where what he decides to do is what is actually best. Here Paul was wrong. Well, you can't say he was wrong. He needed to go there. But somebody had to work with Mark. Now, they said they had an argument. They had a contention. That doesn't mean they separated from each other. If you read through the rest of the story, the two of them continued to converse, continued to work together. But they had a bit of a—I mean, I imagine Paul could be a real hard-headed, in-your-face guy, right? And Barnabas was just like, you don't intimidate me, Paul. Just back off. I'll take care of it. The son of encouragement was going to be encouraging to the man here who needed encouragement.

Encouragers then, they tried to understand. See, they look at what is God doing here? We tend to look at each other only in terms of our weaknesses and our faults.

And that's why he had such a remarkable impact. Encouragers are filled with—in this sense of what we're talking about here—they're filled with a passion for God. You know, there are certain people that are just encouragers, and they tend to be nice people to talk to because they listen. But this was, no, how do I encourage people in the purpose of God? Acts 11. Let's go back to Acts 11.

I had read some of these little snippets about Barnabas in a long time. We just read over them and didn't think about them. But I thought, yes, you know what? I'm going to be more like him. That's why I've always looked up to him. I thought, you know, have I been an encourager like I should be?

Acts 11.19.

Now, those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who when they had come to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists or the Greeks, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was on them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. So the apostles are just basically going to Jews. Paul was going to some of the Gentiles, but except for him, the messages are being spread among the Gentiles. They just go to the synagogues. There they would meet proselytes and God fears who had actually converted to Judaism. They would go tell their fellow Gentiles. And you'll see a number of places in the book of Acts where they went out of the synagogue, went to their pagan friends and relatives and said, wow, we found something even greater than what we're being taught in Judaism. And many of them started to come to the Christian church. But it was because they were passing it on. Verse 22, and the news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem. So who did they send out? Okay, we got this new thing happening where we just have growth in the church that's not being created by the apostles. And someone's got to go interact with all these different people. So they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them that all with purpose of heart that they should continue with the Lord. He encouraged them. He gave them courage. He gave them hope. But with what? Not just because he understood. We can understand and not help anybody. We can empathize and not really help somebody. He encouraged them with God. Let me tell you what God's doing through Jesus Christ. Let me tell you how this can change you. Let me tell you how this can heal what's inside of you. Let me tell you how you can be forgiven and converted. That message was his source of encouragement. The source of encouragement was God in the gospel. And they sent Barnabas to do this. Verse 24, Luke makes a very interesting point here. For he, talking about Barnabas, was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord. Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. Hey, what about Paul's doing? Let me go find him. See if he needs a little help, maybe a little more teaching, a little more, you know. Encouragers tend to be mentors.

They just want to help teach others through both comfort and exhortation. They want to exhort too. They want to move people towards what God is doing and towards the future. And so they are always then motivated by the Spirit of God. So we see here that Barnabas encourages new people in the church. He encourages them to keep going forward. He encourages them to learn.

So what can we do to have a little bit more encouragement in among us?

First of all, you have to experience some encouragement. You can't encourage people if you don't have any. And since this all has to do with our relationship with God, God as the great encourager, we become sons and daughters of the encourager. Right? That's why Barnabas is the son of encouragement. We can become the sons and daughters of the great encourager, the promises of God. And we have to stop replacing...yes, God gets angry. Yes, God punishes. Yes, there's a lake of fire. We're not to take lightly the righteousness and goodness and justice of God, but His whole purpose is what? To get us someplace. He wants to take us someplace. That's encouraging.

And that's His motivation. We talked about grace last week. That's the motivation of God. I want to save you and make you my eternal child. That's what motivates Him.

And so we can see here that we need to go ask God. The first thing we have to do is go ask God to encourage us with purpose. You have to ask for encouragement in the trial that you're facing. Ask for encouragement in what you're going to have to do, you know, we're all facing. All kinds of hard decisions in life all the time.

Sometimes the encouragement is, I made a bad decision. I need some help.

So, oh, I made a bad decision. God's now just going to ignore me. No, I need some bad, I made a bad decision. I want to repent. I need some help. I need encouragement from you so that I can do what you want me to do. When you find someone who is discouraged, remember we are to share. So we seek God's encouragement. That's the first thing. Sometimes we have to fast for it. We have to pray about it. Sometimes it happens in the middle of the night.

I just, I can't face this one more day. You have to give me the strength to do it. And sometimes He doesn't fix the problem. He gives us the strength to go on.

I wish He would just fix all the problems. That's my personality. If He just fix everything and be fine, and He says, no, it wouldn't.

Well, I'm starting to learn finally as I hit almost 70. Yeah, fixing everything isn't actually what's best for us. I just wish He would still do it. But I know it's not what's best for us.

Growth requires stress. It requires difficulties. It requires this struggle.

Let's go to Romans 15, because we sort of need to wrap this up. Romans 15.

Just a couple more scriptures.

Paul writes, we then who are strong, those who are prepared and have, you know, it's your day to be encouraging. Tomorrow may not be. So if you're having a strong day, we ought to bear with the scruples or the weakness. It could be, literally this would be translated, the weakness of the weak. We have to bear with the weakness of each other and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please His neighbor for His good, teaching to edification. What are we doing this for? For the good of others. And sometimes we're teaching them for their edification. I mean, sometimes there's a place in time to say, you're discouraged because your solution is not biblical. What you're doing isn't right.

That's exhortation. That's the exhortation part of this. For Christ, even Christ did not please Himself, but it is written, the reproaches of those who repose you fell on Me. In other words, He took the hard road to be able to give us comfort and salvation. For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Ah, here's another place we find comfort that we can share. Sometimes you just say, this Scripture helped me, and you give it to somebody else.

This helped me in my low point. Maybe God can help you at this low point, and you just give them the Scripture. And God talks to them through the Scripture, just like He maybe talked to you through the Scripture that day that it helped you. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus. We're going back to this sermon about comfort and everything. Is it more important right now? Let's talk about...I almost did a prophecy or commercial prophecy sermon today. I always did a prophecy sermon. I was going to pound away at the beast and the false prophet and everything, and then I got changed around, and then I ended up with this. No, there's a time to do the other. Yes, we need that. But there's a time to remind us. This is so important. The Paul says, may God grant you the ability to comfort. Right? May God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded towards one another. So this is one of the things God expects. As He teaches us this, we give it to others. That you may be one of one mind and one mouth glorify God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It comes from God and it's given out. And what we do, we glorify God. God wants us to do this. And then we also, when you need an encourager, I mean, sometimes you say, God, I need your help and thank you for calming me down. Could you send me another person that might understand? A friend? There's a time to ask for an encourager. Could you send me an encourager? Could you send me a Barnabas? 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7. Verse 5. Paul said, there was a point in his life where so many negative things were happening. He was, he doesn't use the word discouraged, but he was. How do I move on? How do I keep doing this, God? You know, he started churches and then almost everybody in those congregations left him. He saw all kinds of things happen. He says in verse 5, for indeed when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. But we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears. He said, we got to Macedonia, people outside the church were in conflict with us all the time. Inside the church, everybody was in fear because of the conflict with the, outside the church. And he said, our bodies were exhausted. He says, I just, I just reached an exhaustion in all this. And one of the great reasons we become discouraged is because we can, we can be physically exhausted. We can become so physically exhausted, we just don't have the energy to keep going. To keep one more day, one more push, one more, you know, thing we have to do. Facing one more trouble. You know, it's, it's maybe you've had a day where you'd say, I just can't get out of bed, go to work today. I can't stand going to work one more day. I can't stand working where I work. And you pray about it, and you get out of bed, and you do it one more day.

But then he says, nevertheless, God who comforts the downcast, he said, you know, God, when I was, I was just downcast. I just, I was just laid out saying, I can't do anymore. I can't get out of bed this morning. And look how God covered him. Covered at us by the coming of Titus. This young mister showed up. He's full of energy. He's excited. He wants to do what God wants him to do. And Paul says, man, I remembered what it was like to be like that. And I was comforted. Sometimes God sends a person. It's okay to ask, could you send somebody to help me too? Somebody who understand. It's not that you're denying God or rejecting God. It's a recognition that comfort and exhortation. God gives it to us, and we share it. Ask God to, somebody that he's given some comfort to might come along and give you some comfort because they've been through the same experience. Sometimes you just ask for that, and God will send somebody that says, been there. You know, it's like, oh, I know what you feel. No, they do know what you feel because they've been there. But God helped me. But God helped me, and He'll help you. He set him tightest. It's okay to say, I need somebody. You know, that's what's good about a great marriage. You comfort each other and you exhort each other. And in that, there's a stability. That's why, you know, it's hard to obtain into today's world. But when you do, when it happens, in those moments where it happened, where you're encouraging each other, it's an amazing thing. But even side of marriage, sometimes you can't help each other. You can't give them the comfort they need. And then you say, hey, why don't you talk to so-and-so, your mother, or, you know, somebody. Maybe they can help you. All of us need encouragement.

All of us have been comforted by God. All of us have lost ourselves drowning in discouragement. All of us, probably without even knowing it, have helped somebody with their discouragement. When you receive discouragement from God, find somebody. I don't mean go around asking, what's your problems? I mean, how can I encourage you today and lift you up out of the pit you're in? No, that's not what you do, right? But somebody will say something and you can simply say, wow, that's tough. Just that much. Just, I understand. A little bit. I don't understand everything. I'm not going to pretend to understand everything. But I understand that's got to be tough. And they say, yeah, maybe that's all that's needed. I'll pray about that. But pray about it. You know, when you tell somebody I'm going to pray about that, make sure you do it. Take it to God so he can give comfort. God is the great encourager. And he has sons and daughters of encouragement that are learning that trait of his and sharing it with others. Let's finish by going to Isaiah 40.

We have to be out here at one-on-one. Okay. Well, it's only noon, so we're okay. Isaiah 40.

Because there are a lot of verses. You know, when you have verses like this throughout the Bible, you realize this isn't in there by accident. God has these things written down throughout the Scripture because they're supposed to be read. They're supposed to be looked at as important.

Isaiah 40.28.

He says, have you not known, have you not heard, the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary, his understanding is unsearchable. God never gives up. God doesn't get up. God doesn't look at your life at some point and say, oh, I don't even know how to help that person. He doesn't look at you and say, oh, that's beyond my abilities. That never happens. It's our submission to Him because it's what He wants. It's our submission to Him that He does these things. He says, He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint to be weary, and the young man shall utterly fail. But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Now, those metaphors are meant to teach us what God is willing to do, what God wants to do. So, we need encouragement, and we go first to God and to Jesus Christ. But always remember, we've gone through the verses in the New Testament. This is just as important as a lot of other passages in the Bible, but the ones that are overlooked. Like Barnabas, we can be the sons and daughters of our father of encouragement. And when He gives us these little bits of encouragement, be sure to pass it on.