Encouragement from Ephesians

I put a lot of thought into what do you want to say to an area that's been home for a while? What do you want to say to people who've supported you through difficulties, through trials, who've been your biggest fan when you started giving sermonettes?

What do you say to these type of people who've been so much a part of your life and put a lot of thought through it? And something that just kept coming back was the Book of Ephesians.

Because in the Book of Ephesians, the church in Ephesus, Paul was writing a letter of encouragement. Unlike a lot of his other letters, that would be there's something going on like in the different churches, and he would write a letter trying to correct an issue or to help them out to join and become tighter together, the Book of Ephesians is a letter of encouragement. And it kept coming back to me that, well, how else to leave an area but then to leave them encouraged, leave them to continue to move forward? Well, I'll tell you why, putting about as much effort into thinking on that last message, I've put about the same amount of effort into this first message here as we've moved up here. But something that hasn't changed is the Book of Ephesians. It's a book that, like I said, offers encouragement, something that we all need often in our lives. And so if you can say farewell with encouragement, I feel like you can say hello with encouragement as well. And so today we're going to kind of dive into the Book of Ephesians at different points because we are here to stay and we are happy because this is our new family. And we're going to extend this family that we once had in Cincinnati. It's now been expanded out to everybody here and the other congregations we get to serve. And this is very exciting to us. And so what better way to say hello than to offer encouragement to remember that who we are is God's people and to encourage all of us to continue to press on. So today I'd like to have my first official message be one of encouragement from my heart to yours that we each remained established in the faith, encouraging one another always. So if you like, some people like titles. This title for this message is encouragement from Ephesians. So what is encouragement? Encouragement is what we offer to others when we want to strengthen them or give them courage to do something. A practical example is you have a friend that's running a race and maybe this is their first race they've ever ran and you know they've trained hard for it and they're kind of nervous about it, but they're also excited at the same time. And so on race day, you decide you're going to get up at 4 30 in the morning because you know these races, they start way too early. But then you get up at 4 30 in the morning and you get in your car and you grab a coffee along the way and you find a spot on the course because you want to be there as your friend passes by so you can shout out their name. Tell them to keep going, don't quit, and then you jump in your cars after they run by and you drive about two miles down the course and you jump back out and you wait for them again because you want to continue to offer that encouragement. You want to continue to strengthen them as they're going through this very difficult thing that they've never done before.

The English word for encourage comes from the old French word on courgere, which means to make strong or to hearten. To make strong or to hearten.

None of us are immune to trials or even persecutions at times. If we read the New Testament accounts of the early church, they were not ones who just get or skip by without being persecuted either. So this is nothing new or special for you and I, but we do suffer our trials and our persecution. Life isn't always easy. It's never ever perfect. That is just the way that life is. Encouragement is something needed for all ages and is something that all ages can give. I think one of the neat things is when you see our children from even an early age, just when they can start to communicate to other children, and they first take that toy away from another kid, but then you see a change where they're like, you know what, I want you to have my toy as an offer of encouragement or here you can play with it too. And then as they talk more, you'll even see children encourage each other as far as maybe a sibling. Well, maybe not a sibling. I don't know about that. No, our siblings even do that. Maybe somebody's learning how to ride a bike and these are awesome ways that we can, our children can do it, but it goes all the way up to teens and young adults and everybody of all ages need to be encouraged from time to time and we all can offer encouragement to others. We must remain in a constant relationship with others in the church and this is why gathering together on the Sabbath is so powerful, so important, why we try not to miss a day because this is how we gather together on his day, not only to worship God, but to also offer encouragement to hear how somebody's week has been, to see what's going on in their life and when they tell you it's been a rough one, to be like to understand where they're coming from and to say, well, do I have anything, any words? Sometimes it's just a hug is all we can get, but that's what is so powerful about us gathering every week here, trying not to miss a day, realizing that the strength and the encouragement that we receive from this day is so important into our lives. It's one of the aspects of giving a sermonette when I first started speaking that I really enjoyed. A sermonette time is usually, it's not supposed to be a time for correction for the congregation. Correction is reserved to the pastor to decide how and when that should be handled from the pulpit. And so sermonette messages are supposed to be encouraging type of messages straight from God's Word, scriptural, but oftentimes pointing people down the road, a direction they can go, a way that they can be encouraged that we can all overcome, we can all work on this and get there together. And so I always enjoyed giving sermonettes because I like to be an encourager. That's a fun aspect that God has put into my heart. And so as we, as I continued to develop messages and then got put on the sermon schedule, I wanted to always say, you know what, sermons need to be encouraging as well, because we all have very difficult times. Who doesn't need encouragement? We all need it from time to time. We all need it so desperately in other moments of time. Encouragement is listed by Paul as a spiritual gift. Let's start looking there first in Romans chapter 12 this afternoon. Here in Romans 12, we have an account of Paul listing spiritual gifts. It's one of the the sections of Scripture that has the gifts that come from God.

And here in Romans 12 and verse 4, Paul starts to go down down a list.

In Romans 12 verse 4, for as many, for as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.

Let us prophesy in proportion to our faith or ministry. Let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches and teaches. He who exhorts in exhortation. He who gives with liberality. He who leads with diligence. He who shows mercy with cheerfulness. I like the New Living Translation for these verses. It shines a little bit of a different, I use some different words in a different light. I'll read it from that translation. Verse 6 in the New Living Translation says, In his grace God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is in giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. But does this mean that only these attributes are either gifts? Like that if you have them in your life, it's a gift from God that only you have or that you only have certain gifts. Maybe somebody's an encourager, but they have none of the rest of these. Or that if you have none of these, then the Scripture doesn't apply to you. Because if we look at this and we look at the aspects of what each one of these words say, I think we have to realize that leading is something that we all should be able to do. That giving is a requirement of God. We have to be givers. We have to be one who showers kindness on others. God doesn't just say, well, only those I give the gift of kindness to need to be kind. Everybody else can go their way. He doesn't give us that freedom. He doesn't say that that's all we have to do. So when we get to the gift of encouragement, this is something that we are all to do. Something that we are all to build and to put into our life. As the fruit of the Spirit goes through so many, even of these types of traits, we are to build these in our lives and to work on these and to pray about them and ask, God, how can you give me more of this gift so I can use it in my life? These are all aspects of our Christian calling, and so they're some, therefore, something that we must be doing daily.

We have been blessed to be in a congregation where we were able to see a lot of these traits shown in a lot of different people. But you know what? I've heard amazing things about the congregations here in Michigan, too. Word gets out. You guys think you're up here and just enjoying your winter all snowed in? No. Word gets out. When people found out that we were coming to Michigan, we kept getting positive feedback on, do you know this person? You've got to meet this person. They are an amazing encourager. You've got to meet this person. They will always be there for you when you need something. You've got to meet this person. They are a natural leader in the congregation, but they do it with so much love. There are words that got back to us before we even hit the ground here. And it's things that you've seen also in this congregation yourself. You know somebody sitting here today who's a good encourager, somebody who's done things for you over time to help you when you've had a rough week. You know someone who serves well here. You know someone who teaches well. Maybe I haven't been here long enough to know if there's a Sabbath school program or anything like that. We had some in Cincinnati, but we saw good teachers there who could really share God's Word in an effective way. We have amazing givers in this congregation. You know who they are. Givers of their time. Giver of their resources, their money, things that have come up over time. And there's everybody who showers kindness because that's something that we all work on. Maybe we have a rough day from time to time, but we get back to realizing that kindness is so important and we have to be willing to share that kindness with everybody we encounter. So you can think through all these examples we just went through, and you know there's people here. And that's wonderful, and that's the power that we have as a unified body to share in these gifts that God has given to each of us, including the gift of encouragement. Because God has put us into each other's lives for wonderful reasons, and I've said so many times already, and one is for encouragement. This has been the case since God created Eve to be a helper for Adam. Part of her responsibility was to be an encourager to Adam, and in turn Adam would have encouraged his wife, and that's the beauty that we have in marriage. Another powerful example we have recorded for us is the relationship between Moses and Joshua, and we can read this account in Deuteronomy 3.

Because here in Deuteronomy, Moses was told by God to encourage and to strengthen Joshua as he was about to lead Israel into the Promised Land.

This is Deuteronomy 3.

We'll start in verse 28.

But command Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him, for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.

So here we see right from this verse the connection between encouragement and strengthening. God knew what was in store for Joshua and what he would be asking him to do.

So first he said to Moses, give him encouragement. God wanted Moses to be an instrument that would provide Joshua the encouragement he would need to go forth in the role he was being asked to serve him.

It's the same for us in that God allows us to work intimately in each other's lives, not just at a far-armed distance away that you shout across your room, hey, have a good week, hope everything goes fine. He allows us to be intimately involved in each other's lives as we open our lives to other people. Because if you have a rough week and you don't share that with someone, that kind of shuts the door that they can offer encouragement to you or be that support. But as others open their heart up to you and share that they've had a problem that they've been dealing with or something just didn't go right at work this week, you can maybe empathize and say, yep, been there. I've had those rough weeks at work when the boss, which is nothing I could do, would make the boss happy. And so this is an amazing opportunity that we all have to offer encouragement. The second thing Moses was instructed to do was to strengthen Joshua. True strength comes from God, and Moses was to remind Joshua of God's promises, his mighty hand, his deliverance.

Anytime we are given a big task to do, could you imagine Joshua? I try to think through some of my tasks and the weight I feel from them, and then I think, wow, Joshua was asked to lead Israel into the promise land. That's one that I'm not sure I could do. But it was never on Joshua's own might that he was going to lead Israel into the promise land. And so Moses was to encourage him and to strengthen him, reminding him that it's not by your might, it's by my might that you will lead Israel into the promise land. And when these things come to me, when I've been given a task to do, it usually, the pressure and the stress usually sits right about here, right on my shoulders. I can feel the tension in my neck and things like that. Because I like to have a plan when something new comes into my life. I like to know how I'm going to do it, when it needs to be done, what order, get my ducks in a row to work through the process. I like to wrap my mind around it. And when I'm doing all these things, here comes the pressure, here comes the stress, here comes the how am I going to do this? And so for Joshua, I think it's a similar thing, that he would have felt this pressure. I remember the first time I was asked to give a sermonette in Cincinnati. This is back in, I believe it was 2011. And Denny Luker was our president at that time, and he moved to Cincinnati. And that was the first time we'd had a chance to meet him and his wife. And we got to know them, and just a beautiful, wonderful couple. And he was always one that had a smile on his face, if you knew Mr. Luker. He always was smiling, always ready to pat you on the back, to shake your hand. More times than not, it was a hug. And I remember one day he came up and he goes, Mike, we're going to get you on the sermonette schedule. And I looked him right in the eye and said, that's not really how I serve. I said, I work with the teens, I work with the young adults, I work at Winter Family Weekend, I go to Camp Buckeye. I feel like that's the gift that God's given me. And Mr. Luker looks right at me and says, we're going to get you on the speaking schedule.

And knowing if you knew Mr. Luker, you're not going to argue that one with him, because the way he says it, it's with a smile, and you're not going to get yourself out of that one. I hope that he would somehow, the connection between him and I believe it was Gary Antin at the time was our intern pastor. I was hoping that communication would break down someplace, an email would get lost, something would happen. But the schedule came out, and I was on it. And I said, okay, here we go. Because when these doors open and you realize that you got to walk through it, you got to walk through it. And so I put a message together, praying over it, wondering how do you stand in front of your home congregation where people have seen you grow up, people have seen your bad attitude on a basketball court as a teenager. I was super competitive with no talent. That combination does not bode well on a basketball court. And so some of these members had seen me grow up there. They'd seen me from a little kid on a blanket to be someone who became a teenager at times with not the best example, but then to see someone who got married and had a family and was serving and doing other things, and to stand in front of them, and then to be able to use God's Word and to teach. That's a daunting task. And before the sermonette started that day, I was in the back and Mr. Luecker found me and he came up and he said some really encouraging words to me. He says, I prayed for you this morning. It caught me kind of off guard. Not that I didn't think he would or that he's not somebody who prays, but here's the president of the church who took time out of his day, his prayer time with God, to take time to pray for a guy that's given his first sermonette in his home congregation. I'll never forget that example that he did for me that day, and as I'm standing similar to this at the pulpit, him and his wife would sit in the very first rows in the corner right down there. And I remember talking and sharing the message that God had inspired and I prayed over and I looked and made eye contact with him at one point and he's smiling and nodding. And I'll tell you what, that's the biggest shot in the arm I think I've ever had. The president of our church agreeing with what I'm saying, that means I must not be too far off base for him to be nodding. But those are just two examples that I'll never forget in the way that he helped me. He encouraged me, a young speaker, somebody who's in their home congregation getting up for the first time. It's powerful and it's impacted my life to this day. It can be really tough to do something new when you feel like it's all in you to accomplish. Like you have to be the one that does everything. God knew what was being asked of Joshua and he most likely felt the weight of the role before him. So God instructed Moses to encourage, to strengthen Joshua. This is a little bit of speculation because it's not recorded in our Bibles. But Joshua and Moses, they were human.

They were like you and I. They put their pants on one leg at a time. They dealt with a lot of trials and in persecutions and difficulties, times of fear in their lives. And I bet there were times that Moses and Joshua shared some intimate conversations in a tent someplace when it was decided that Joshua, it's your turn. Maybe Joshua said things like, I don't know how I'm going to do this. I don't know how. What am I going to do when this happens? What am I going to do if this happens? What am I going to do when this king comes up here and tries to do this? There might have been these moments where Joshua was having some intimate conversations with Moses and maybe Moses shared some stories like, well, there's this one time at a burning bush when I told God that I couldn't speak well, but I went forth because he said I needed to. Or that time that I had to lead or that the plagues came and I had to witness that. I had to stand in front of Pharaoh, not knowing what my life was going to happen with my life. Or when they led Israel out of Egypt and not knowing how you get that many cattle out of Egypt. How do you move that size of a group of people out of that country? Maybe he talked about the time when it was he was standing at the Red Sea. Pharaoh's armies are approaching. What do you do in that instance? And then he gave the deliverance. The guy brought the deliverance. These are similar stories, speculation, but they were human like you and I were. They probably had their moments of doubt. They had their moments of, I've got to have my ducks in a row, so what do I do in this instance, in this instance, in this instance? But Moses would have reminded Joshua and said, I know what's going through your mind right now, but you can do this. Not by your might, but by the mighty hand of God. You can do this.

We see later in Deuteronomy 31 where Moses brought Joshua before the sight of all Israel. Let's turn to the back of Deuteronomy, because he brought him before all of Israel to offer, again, encouragement and to strengthen Joshua at that time. This is Deuteronomy 31, verse 7.

Then Moses called Joshua and said to him, In the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, he is the one who goes before you, and he will be with you. He will not leave you, nor forsake you. Do not fear, nor be dismayed. Moses most likely did this to share publicly this encouragement, this strength with Joshua. Not only did he get it maybe in a private conversation, but then in front of all Israel, in front of the elders, in front of the leaders, it was said to be strong, be courageous. In doing this, Moses continually pointed back to God as the ultimate authority in which Joshua would operate. And Moses reminded all Israel would be God who would do all things, all these mighty works before them, so that they could inherit the land God had promised to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and to all their descendants. This past year, I had an opportunity to teach at ABC a little bit, when the instructors would have to go and do some beyond today recordings, or they were out of town for a trip. Mr. Preston and myself, Dan Preston, would sometimes fill in for a class or two, and it was a neat opportunity. It's a tough crowd. It's when you teach, and when you... it's an interactive kind of session, where it's like a classroom environment. It's not here where I get too many people that raise their hands asking questions in the middle of the sermon, but you'll get that teaching at ABC, and it keeps you on your toes, and you have to really know in depth what you're teaching, because they'll ask questions. And you get the ones you can't answer, and you tell them, I'm going to have to research that. I'll get back to you in the next class. But the cool... it's an amazing environment, and the students were great this past year. And at the closing, the graduation banquet at the end of the year, they were giving some gifts to different faculty, and they presented Mr. Preston and myself with a small gift as a token of their appreciation for the ways that we taught. And I'm not sure if Laura gave them this or not, or the scripture, but they gave me a little plaque, something that I'm going to actually put on my desk, because it's one of... it's my favorite... it's right up there if it's not the top... my number one favorite... it's right up there with it... is Joshua 1.9, which reads, Be strong and courageous, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. It was something that they gave that means a lot to me, and that's why it's going to go on my desk when we get this set up here in a couple weeks, when our things arrive on Tuesday, and I start getting my bookshelves out, and I start opening the boxes, and I get a desk. This is going on it, because this is what I need to hear, because life gets tough at times. Anytime you take a move, and you go a different direction, and life can get heavy, and I need this as much as we all need this to remember, be strong and be courageous, for the Lord goes with you wherever you go. It's a wonderful reminder, and it's what Joshua was told here, not only by Moses, or by... yeah, by Moses, but actually by the Lord Himself. In Romans, chapter 1, Paul addresses the strength that comes from encouragement. Let's begin turning there to Romans 1. He also mentions the source of true strength here in Romans. This is Romans 1, in verse 11.

For I long, and this is Paul speaking, for I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established. That is, that you may be encouraged together with you, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. When we see something established, we could also say that it is strong. In the Greek, the word established could also mean to fix, or to fix steadfastly set, or to strengthen. Many times we see this with companies, though they'll advertise, we've been established since 1905.

They do that because if you've been around since 1905 as a company, you're doing a great job. You're doing some things pretty good, and you probably got a strong financial backing behind you. You know what you do, and you're good. You're established as a business in that community, if you've been in business since 1905. Paul desired to strengthen or to establish those in Rome through encouragement in the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. And in turn, Paul desired to be encouraged by the believers themselves, because he knew if he gave out the Gospel message and shared what he had been taught and what he knew, he knew it would come back in return back to him. How many times have you offered encouragement to somebody from God's Word, yet you left encouraged yourself? Because you can't just read these encouraging scriptures and then just wash it out of your mind. It stays with you. So if you encourage somebody with scripture, the scriptures stay with you. And Paul knew that. He knew if he came and encouraged them with the Gospel message of Christ, he in turn would be encouraged by them and by that same message. And so he wanted that encouragement. He wanted to give that encouragement. We also see this in Ephesians 3. So if we want to flip forward to Ephesians 3. It's not the same Greek word for established that we just read through, but the principle is very similar. This is Ephesians 3 verse 14.

Ephesians 3 verse 14. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through the Spirit in the inner man. The new giving translation for this section says, he will empower you with the inner strength through his Spirit. In verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, being rooted and grounded in love. Rooted here could also mean to become stable. Grounded could also mean to lay a base for, to lay the foundation, to ground something, to settle something. So Paul could have said here that you be established in love. Do you see that connection between established and being rooted and being grounded? I bring this up because in all of this Paul was using encouragement to help set firmly, to help establish those in Rome in Ephesus on the hope that comes only from faith in God through the love of God. There is a special power that comes from encouragement and I'd like to again continue to look at Ephesians as we consider this aspect. Let's turn one chapter forward to Ephesians 4 verse 1. Ephesians 4 in verse 1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. Here in verse 1, we have each been chosen, it expresses, we have each been chosen by God to be His ambassadors to this world, to represent His way of life to our families, to those co-workers that we have, to our kids' teachers. We have been called to be this example, not only in the things that we don't do, but equally as powerful, the things that we do daily to represent His way of life to those around us. And a quick read of verse 2 again, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, no one will ever be perfect on this earth.

I'm not perfect. I don't know if that is news to you guys. I'm not perfect. None of us are perfect.

It's easy for us to find fault with others and to see their weaknesses. This is why Paul says that we have to be patient. We have to be gentle. This is why we have to find ways that we can encourage someone through their weaknesses, because we all have our weaknesses, don't we? We all have those times when we just can't live up to our own standard, much less God's standard, that we fall short, that we trip, and we need encouragement from others. And it's when these weaknesses show up that we need that encouragement the most. This is that power of encouragement to get back up, to continue the fight, to continue working hard at something, to push forward, to not quit.

And this is where the Holy Spirit will step in to help us find the right type of encouragement that another needs if we open our hearts to be motivated by true love, the love that comes from God. We do this by focusing more on them and their needs, not on our maybe own selfish motivations, not on our things that we have in our mind about something, but we focus on them in Christ-like love. We focus on the love that we are to have for one another, and then the Holy Spirit steps in, and it prompts our thoughts, it prompts our words, it prompts our actions, and says, this person can really use us right now. And then we're moved, and we offer this encouragement, we offer them in a way that they could use some help. And so many times, this is exactly what that other person needs, and it ends up being that encouragement that helps them move forward. This is that oneness that is referenced so many times through this passage in Ephesians. It's also one of my favorite sections of the Bible because of that oneness. One Spirit, one faith, one Lord. There isn't two groups, there isn't five groups, it's one group, and it's the body of Christ, which we are all part of, and that is the power that we have that we fight for each other, we continue moving forward.

We don't fall down, or somebody doesn't fall down, and the group just moves forward without them. But when you have oneness, there is strength in that. That this oneness moves forward, the group, the congregation, the body of Christ moves forward together with strength. That if one person falls, we keep moving forward. We pick that person up. We don't leave them behind. We pick them up, and we continue to press forward. We continue to move forward. That's the strength that we have in unity. That's the strength that we have in one body. And so when you read through Ephesians 4, and you see all the oneness that we have here, one body, one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all, oneness, and that is what we have. And that's where encouragement is so powerful. That's the love that binds us. Love is what binds us together, and so we stay as a group. And that's where encouragement also applies that bonding effect, that we are all in this together. There's a finish line out there for you. There's a finish line out there for me. I want to help you get there. You want to help me get there. That's that oneness that we share, and that's when the encouragement is so, so powerful. Continuing on in Ephesians 4, verse 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 and 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.

Individually, we each know our weaknesses. We know where we fall short. But as a group of believers, we form one body in Christ. And in this one body, we can find the encouragement, the strengthening that we need to handle walking each of us a similar path in life. We're all human. As I mentioned, we put our pants on one leg at a time, each one of us, and that's where we are in a similar path. We are all united in purpose, and that purpose is to fulfill our lives and to live our lives as children of God. And as a gift we receive is eternal life from God the Father and Jesus Christ.

We have to think about it sometimes and realize that is the gift that's being offered to us, as we continue to push forward and we continue to battle through life and why we need encouragement from others to continue this battle is because we have the promise of eternal life set before us.

Is there anything greater? Is there anything else but to be a child of God for all of eternity, to be in His home, to be a helper, and to be part of the joy that He has and everything that He has in store for us? And that's why when we hit our low spots, we need somebody to say, keep it up, keep it up. And then they hop in their car and they drive two miles down the race course and they hop back out and as we're running by they say, keep it up, keep it up, and they shout out our name. That's what we have to be willing to do for one another because that is the calling that we have. And this is why verse 16 is so powerful and is so needed for each of us to believe.

Verse 16, once again, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint surprise, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. The growth of the body is that moving forward as the body in one spirit and in one unified form. And to build on the aspects of being knit together, I want to turn to Colossians because here Paul again offers encouragement showing that unity, that unity that exists in the body in the fullness of God the Father and in Jesus Christ is what we are to strive for. This is in Colossians 2 and verse 1.

Colossians 2 verse 1, For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding and to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Here the word knit in Ephesians 4 verse 16 can also be rendered compacted. So if you think of a garbage truck that takes all the trash and it compacts it together, there's not a lot of air left in there after that's compacted together. It's pushed together. It's coming together in a firm union. That's this knit together aspect that is referenced here in Ephesians 4 verse 16. A tightly woven fabric, and there's another example, like those really nice sheets at that really expensive hotel that you got to stay in once in your life. You slide into those sheets and they're soft because they're so tightly knit together. Their air doesn't even really get through much. That's that tight woven aspect that we are to have as one body. That tightly knitted together, not an arm's distance away, not with a big hole in between you and I, but knit together in love, tight. In Ecclesiastes 4 verse 12 references a braided cord. I'll just read the scripture here. Ephesians 4 verse 12, though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a three-fold cord is not quickly broken.

This is a great analogy because we've all bound something up with string, and we wrapped it up tight, that bundle of whatever it was, and we picked it up by the string, we started walking, and then what happened? It breaks. You end up dropping everything you had bundled up, and the thought goes through your mind, I needed a bigger rope. I needed a tighter woven rope. I need a higher quality rope, one that is intertwined, one that is braided together, that can hold this load that I need to carry. Sometimes we encounter others who have broken under the weight of their own trials. They need to be reinforced, they need to be made stronger, and we can be part of that process as we come to their aid and we offer encouragement.

Again, ultimate strength only comes from God, but God has placed us in each other's lives to be a tool in His hand, and to be a sharp tool, a straight tool, a non-rusted tool, we can be an encourager, because encouragement is part of the aspects that we are to develop in our lives.

God has given each of us a charge. Late in the book of Joshua, we have recorded an account of Joshua issuing a charge. We can start looking back there in Joshua 23. Because Joshua's life is nearing its end. He has fulfilled all that God had wanted him to do, and now he's, so to speak, passing the baton onto the next wave, who's going to come after him. Moses encouraged Joshua, and now Joshua is going to encourage those who will follow his footsteps. This is in Joshua 23, and we'll start reading in verse 6. Actually, let's read verse 1 first. Joshua 23 verse 1, Now it came to pass, so long time after the LORD had given rest to Israel from all their enemies, round and about, that Joshua was old, advanced in age. And in verse 6, this is Joshua speaking before Israel. Therefore, be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the wall of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left.

Unless you should go among these nations, these who remain among you, you shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them. You shall not serve them, nor bow down to them. Verse 8, But you shall hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day. For the LORD has driven out from before you great and strong nations. But as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the LORD your God is he who fights for you, as he promised you. Therefore, take careful heed to yourself, that you love the LORD your God. It's a beautiful passage we have here, because as Joshua encouraged them, we are also to do the same and encourage others to stand fast, to be strong, to pass along this encouragement. Because once Joshua was somebody who was given a charge by God, and he needed encouragement, he needed strengthening. And now what is he doing? He's passing that along to those who are going to follow behind him. Same encouragement, the same strength, the same focus that he was once given. And that's the beauty of encouragement. It's something that we all need, and oftentimes we pass on to others. Whether it's a generation behind us, maybe two generations behind us, but we pass it on. We tell them to persevere, to keep going. Life gets heavy, life gets hard, but we can't quit. We never quit. God has set before us a path that we must all walk towards, and that is what Joshua is doing here. We are to depend on God to fight our battles and to be our defender. We aren't to take things into our own hands. Joshua didn't do that. We can't take things into our own hands because God is the one who avenges his people, and we are to love God with our whole heart and our mind and our soul. And this is the encouragement that we must continue to pass along to those behind us, just as Joshua did. It takes strength to hold fast, as was mentioned in verse 8, and sometimes our strength can waver. This is again why encouragement is so needed for each of us during these difficult times. We are called to be strong and courageous, as Joshua was told to be, and as we pursue our charge from God, we must also be encouraging to others to remain strong, to remain courageous. Over the years, Laura and I were offered encouragement at different times of our life. We've had some tough times. Life doesn't always come easy, health-wise. Laura's had some difficulties, and she didn't mind me sharing some of them with you. It's a way that we can help you to see inside our lives a little bit, to understand some of what we've been through.

But Laura has had different health trials at different times. One of our biggest was secondary infertility. It was a tough time. We were blessed tremendously to have a beautiful girl, one that I would never take for granted. There's a lot of people who miss out on having children and things like that because of life. And we were able to have one, but that was a trial that came on us that was hard. One that you have to realize that sometimes your hopes and your dreams that you have for life, they're never really ours to have. God is in charge. God knows what we can handle and what we need in life. And this is one that we had to work through. We had to pray through. But, you know, there were people who were praying right along with us. People that were offering encouragement, saying, well, we don't know what the future holds, but God does. And we had to be reminded of that. And we remember those moments and those different things like that.

We also have had a tremor at different times in her legs. You may notice she didn't mind me sharing this either. You'll see that sometimes she has to sit down when she talks with you. And that's because we don't know where it came from, but she developed a tremor in her legs. We spent quite a few years in doctor's offices, and we ruled out the scary ones. The MS and the brain tumor. Those are the ones that racked up there pretty high on our list. You get the MRI, and then you've got to wait a couple weeks for the result. And you're praying about it. Your friends are praying about it. Other people from other church areas are praying about it. And you realize, once again, it's in God's hands. It can't be in mine. Whatever it is, He will provide. He will help strengthen us.

And we ruled out those scary ones, and that was a huge blessing in our life.

But they finally just diagnosed it as an orthostatic tremor. It's a big word, but it pretty means, pretty much means it's an unknown tremor. They're not sure exactly where it comes from or how to get rid of it. And so we've had to work through and persevere through different things. And as you know, when your loved one goes through something, it becomes a trial for you as well, because this is something that has affected our life. But in it all, God kept drawing us closer to Him. He kept saying, trust me more. Trust me more. And then you think, I can't trust anymore. This is the furthest I can go with trust. This is the furthest I can go with difficulties with the trial. And that's another one comes. And then you hear that voice, trust me more. And our friends are offering their encouragement. We're reading encouragement from God's words, reminding each other and saying, we'll get through this. And we didn't hit the low days on the same. That's a gift from God. My low days, Laura was strong. Her low days, I was strong. But that was also days when people called us on the phone. People sent emails. And it has been tough at times to work through these. And so when you see Laura leaning up against something or needing to sit down, that's why.

But you know what? People have encouraged us to keep going. Keep going. Because that's what we needed to do. We can't, none of us can get stuck in life and just say, well, this is where I'm at. I'm not going to move forward. I'm going to quit. This is, I got a bad hand dealt to me in life.

So where do we check out? Where do we exit? That's not an option. That's not an option for any of us.

And so what we have to do is say, okay, how do we move forward?

So, but we can't go mountain climbing anymore. Not that we did it already.

So we can't stand in lines at Cedar Point all day because it's just, it doesn't work. Standing in grocery lines is tough when you have a trimmer in your legs. But you know what? We can adjust. We can make changes to that. And as a congregation, we have to battle through problems that pop up from time to time in each other's lives and us as collective group. Because we can't quit either.

God has called us to be family. He's called us to be unified, to fight for each other, and at times to cry with each other through tears to work through our problems. But we can.

We can. Because He gives us that strength, that unity. We are all one in God, one baptism. We all have that one baptism. We're not under different Holy Spirits. We're not under different baptisms. It's one baptism. One Spirit. One faith. One God. And when we know that, then we fight for each other because quitting is not an option in life. Quitting is not an option for this church or any congregation out there. This same message applies everywhere. That's the beauty that we have in God's word, is that together we're unified. Together we offer encouragement. Together we move forward, and we always will. And so while we have our trials, the Lord and I have had them, they've been gifts from God because it's empowered us to continue to go forward. But we didn't do it on our own.

God was that ultimate encourager, but He used people in our lives to be that one to give us that encouragement when we hit our low spots sometimes. That card that came in the mail and those types of things. We've all been there. We've all had problems, and we've seen the hand of God work through others here, and we've got to remember that. That this is a beautiful thing that we have.

And so I leave you kind of with that as a personal thing. It's going to be fun getting to know you more as we go over the years. You're going to continue to get to know us, and we'll get to know you. And so I wanted to share a little bit of that with you as just part of our intro, part of who we are as Mike and Laura, because this is, and Kelsey, can't forget Kelsey, she's giving me a look right now.

But back to Ephesians once again. Let's look at chapter 5. We're going to have to flip back there, because I'm in Joshua. You'll have to give me a moment. This is Ephesians 5, where Paul continues to encourage those in the church to continue their walk in Christ. In this we have a practical example of how to encourage others. He encourages them in three ways. So if you like to take notes and write down maybe some points, there's going to be three points here, and that we have from Paul himself kind of outlined in three separate ways.

The first is in Ephesians 5 verse 1, where Paul encourages others, or Paul offers encouragement to walk in love. Encouragement to walk in love. This is Ephesians 5 verse 1. Therefore be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

For this, you know, that no fornicator unclean person or covetous man who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Paul here is saying that as children should be imitators of the parent's example, we must be imitators of God. God so loved us and the world that he gave his own son so that we may be brought close to him.

Our life must also be lived as a sacrifice for others and offer an encouragement as we all strive against selfishness and become more self-sacrificing. It's a hard road to travel sometimes because we get in our own way, but here we have to walk in love, and when we do that we can offer encouragement. There's no room for uncleanness or bad speech among the body, but edifying words that build someone up that encourages them. The second way that Paul offers encouragement is to walk in light. To walk in light. Here in verse 8, as we continue on in Ephesians 5 verse 8, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light for whatever makes manifest is light. I've often spoke about this concept of light and darkness because it's a really interesting one.

I might have even shared it. I can't remember if I shared it in a message which you already a while back. But darkness can't exist where there's light. It just can't. It's physically impossible. You walk into a room, you flip on the light switch, where does darkness go? It's forced out. It disappears. It's the power of light.

It's a wonderful example that God has given us, this physical aspect of light and darkness that we can experience today. You see how darkness gets forced out when the sun comes up. You see how, even with the eclipse, that we were able to witness the other day.

The moon gets in the way, but once that light comes back, how quickly everything around starts to brighten back up. It's a powerful example that we have physically in our life. We are to live a life of light, radiating God's light from the inside out and offering encouragement to others to see that light from God as part of our calling to be that example.

The third way that Paul offers encouragement here in Ephesians 5 is to walk in wisdom. To walk in wisdom. This is starting in verse 15. See then that you walk circumspectly, my margin says carefully, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, or it's a wasted way of living your life, but be filled with the Spirit.

And then notice in verse 19 how they were to speak to one another. Speaking to one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God, the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Psalms and hymns. Now, those are encouraging ways to offer encouragement. We do that as part of our hymns here, as part of our service, to praise God and offer our praise to Him. But how many times have you been encouraged by some of those hymns when you sing those words, and you think through the scriptures that are represented in these hymns? It's a beautiful way to be encouraged, because Paul is speaking with a sense of urgency here, recognizing that we don't have time in our life to just waste away. There needs to be a sense of urgency. We don't have time to fill our lives with foolish things, but we double down our efforts because life can be difficult for us, and it's very difficult for others. Acting wisely and encouraging others to do as well protects us from outside influence that can take hold of our lives, leading us down a path away from God.

Things of the physical world may produce a temporary high or a good feeling like wine might, but being filled with the Spirit produces a lasting joy and unites and draws believers together.

In life, it's not always easy to give thanks. Sometimes life gets really hard, as Paul references there in verse 20. It's not always easy to give thanks always. As we have already mentioned, sometimes life adds a weight that seems too heavy for us to bear, and when we see the weight in others, we must offer our help and our assistance to be an encourager to them to see if that weight can be lifted just a little bit by encouragement that comes from us. Once again, it's the power of God working in us, but we can be part of that process. Maybe we can relate to things because, you know what, I've been in your shoes at one point. So I can say, yep, that really stinks.

But if I haven't been in your shoes, I can empathize and understand that, you know what, if I was in that situation, what would I do? Where would I go? What would I turn to? Who would I turn to? What steps would I take to try to overcome? And if I'm thinking through this, imagining being in your shoes, then I know some of the things that I could probably use. And that's the power of empathy when we work in other people's lives. And the experience that I've never had, but I put myself in your shoes, and you put yourself in my shoes, and then you say, I can only imagine the weight of that. If I was going through that, I know what I would probably hope that somebody would do. And then that's the encouragement that we each can offer to someone else. So as Paul encourages them, we must be also encouraged to walk in love, to walk in light, to walk in wisdom, as you have demonstrated the godly fruit that I've heard about already.

Continue to develop that, and continue to display that, continue to encourage others.

Because I would be amiss if I finished this message without giving a reminder that in our lives, God is the ultimate encourager. God is the ultimate encourager for every one of us. Let's look at a couple passages. The first is in 2 Corinthians 1.

And this will be in verse 3, and we'll read verses 3 through 6. 2 Corinthians 1, verses 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now, if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and 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.

We recognize that God is the one who comforts us in our tribulation. He's the one that gives us the encouragement because when you or I do something good, that's the power of the Holy Spirit working in us. That is the power of God. That comes from Him. And so we do get to play a part in that role because God works through us, but ultimate comfort, ultimate encouragement, comes from God. We can see this again in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

And this is verses 16 and 17. May our Lord Jesus the Messiah Himself, and may God our Father, who loved us and by His grace, gave us eternal comfort and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good action and word. Because we see that we know, as we've reviewed already, that God is that ultimate encourager. Through His grace, He gives us eternal comfort and good hope, as it says in verse 16 and 17. And He's the one who encourages our hearts, and He's the one that strengthens you and I.

If we only had this encouragement from God, if He was our only source of encouragement, we'd be fine because we wouldn't need any other types of encouragement or anything else.

But He has chosen to work with others, as He has done so much in our lives.

He gives us His chance to be together and to work through problems. He gives us His chance to be together and encourage one another to remember those who can't go to the feast, those who are going to have to stay in Michigan, unable to travel even one state away, but possibly for the feast. To remember those who are unable to go as we get to go forward and enjoy that time wherever we're going, because He wants us to remember and to offer encouragement to others. He's brought us each together and He's put into our heart the ability to share encouragement. He has given us the gift of encouragement to use for the benefit of ourselves and for other people, more importantly for others. So God has brought each of us together and into the lives of each other. We are the body of Christ. It's a wonderful blessing to be a part of something so special and so priceless and that only God can build. Encouragement should never be something that we take lightly or for granted. It's a gift from God that He gives us and one that we must freely give to others. It offers us the ability to fight against the attacks that we encounter daily. And as we are unified in the love of God, it provides the power we need to remain strong and in the faith. As I said earlier, we have looked very forward to coming to Michigan.

This is a wonderful state and we've heard wonderful things from others about the congregations that we're going to get to serve in here. This is a fun place to be. We're excited and we look forward to the relationships that we're able to build and the places that God takes us as a congregation and as His people and as His body. And so I hope we leave you with a few words of encouragement. As a reminder, it was a good way for me to say farewell to Cincinnati, hoping that they continue on steadfast and strong. And now it's a great way to start a new chapter in our lives up here as we get to be part of your family and you get to be part of ours. And as we all continue moving forward in the grace and the love of God working strongly and powerfully in our lives, but as we stay unified and we seek Him daily and forever.