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Grow & Go - May 204

Be An Encouragement

My wife and I have been married for 29 years now and the first half of those years together we were not followers of Christ. But then God, in His sovereign grace, stepped into time and space and transformed both of us by the power of the gospel to have a desire to follow Him. Due to the unmerited grace that I/we have both received because of what Christ paid on the cross, she and I both take seriously the imperative to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk 12:31). This desire exists because the Holy Spirit led others to encourage us in the faith. Other Christ followers showed us what it looked like to encourage and because of this, we now exist to give Him glory and be the encouragers.

In the years that I have been a follower of Christ, there has been nothing more encouraging to me than someone who offers encouragement. The apostle Paul encouraged the church at Thessalonica exclaiming “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (1 Thess 5:11). At every turn of adversity or trials in my life as a Christian, there have always been those believers who have offered encouragement to me. They breathed life into me, I remember them, and I want to emulate the same encouragement in the lives of others.

Intentional Encouragement

Some of you just heard my wife speak at the Ladies’ event recently when she shared testimony of how God has created a culture of hospitality in our home. Let me say, that hospitality and encouragement were not something that came naturally before our lives and hearts were transformed by the gospel. Since others have shown us what it means to be an encouragement and we have experienced this outpouring of love ourselves, there is an intentionality that has occurred from that fruit. More importantly, being an encourager flows from the fruit of a life that has been redeemed by Christ.

- Being an intentional encourager requires denying self. This means that we must set aside any motives that we have other than as Paul stated to “build one another up” (1 Thess 5:11). Ask yourself as you are in conversation with someone “Am I making this about me”? Or, am I “counting the other person more significant than myself” (Phil 2:3) just being a good listener, then responding in such a way that encourages them? If we are to be the encouragement that others need, it requires us to be more in tune with our selfish ambitions and learn to deny them. Being an intentional encourager means that other’s needs are simply more important than our desires, wants, and ambitions, and then seeking ways to elevate them instead of ourselves.

- Being intentional in encouraging others is led by the Holy Spirit. We should recognize that being an encourager is Spirit-led. With the Holy Spirit as our helper, comforter, guide, and even challenger we can know that God will equip us with the right words to say at exactly the right time to offer encouragement. I can say with certainty that God has without question worked in the life of another to give me an encouraging word when I
needed it most. Let me offer to you also that if we desire to be an encouragement, be intentional that God will present people to you who need your uplifting words. Pray that God will present people for you to offer encouragement.

- Words of encouragement are contagious. I am aware of several Life Groups here at Oakhill that make it intentional each week at the start of their groups to encourage each other toward evangelistic conversations. After they share these conversations the groups pray for those people that heard and rejoice about when the Spirit of God begins to move in their lives. There is nothing more encouraging for us than to hear how God is using gospel conversations to bring people to Himself. When we are encouraging one another to “stir up one another to love and good works”
(Heb 10:24), we have no opportunity to fill our time with issues and things that just stir each other up. It is also helpful to other Christians who do not have the gift of encouragement and for them to see what being hospitable and encouraging looks like from someone who has this gift from above.

- Set your mind to encouraging often. Who have you offered an uplifting and encouraging word today? Is there someone on your mind you need to check on? The greatest gift you can offer to your pastors is to encourage them, to pray for them, and to partner with them in offering support to others who are in need. You can offer encouragement to others by sharing the amazing fruit of God’s work in your life. Rejoice with others when good things happen in their life.

In reading this I hope it encourages you to be an encouragement to those in your life and sphere of influence. My prayer is you recognize at least one simple thing from this article that will inspire you to encourage and elevate the life of someone else. For each of us to grow more into the image of Christ and to grow spiritually, we need our church family, our brothers and sisters in Christ to encourage us “as you see the Day drawing near” (Heb 10:25).

Grow & Go - April 2024

In Christ, We Are Called to Give Counsel

Early on as a new Christian, there was much valuable counsel that was given to me by my pastor and others that shaped my theological understanding of what it meant to follow Jesus. Good books were given to me while others were suggested, key doctrines were explained, sound preaching was heard every Sunday, and more importantly, all my questions (and there were many) were answered. All these questions were being answered through the lens of Scripture while in fellowship and discipleship with my brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all giving counsel to others whether we are in our homes with our spouses, while at work, in church, dealing with our children, or even our parents. Each of us is giving counsel all the time in all that we do. The question that we must ask ourselves in Christ is this; is the counsel we are giving informed by and according to the Scriptures?

On one such occasion that I was counseled early on as a believer, my pastor knowing that I was a fisherman, had asked me to meet in his office. He typically had stacks of thumb-tabbed books on his office desk preparing for sermons. On this given day, however, I walked into his office and he had only one book on his desk, the Bible. He said, “There is likely nothing I could probably ask you about a fish that swims around here that you couldn’t tell me. How to catch it, with what bait to use, the best time of year, etc. Am I right”? I answered, “You’re probably right”.  He then grabbed the Bible from lying atop his desk, held it up high, and paused for a moment. My pastor and friend then said, “That Paul, is how you need to know God’s Word”. He then explained how God’s Word is sufficient and that it will provide all we need, all that I needed, that pertains to life and godliness referencing 2 Peter 1:3. I had no idea at the time how valuable this counsel would end up being in my life, and it was the counsel that I needed to hear at the perfect time God ordained. 

Numerous places in Scripture inform us as believers that we are all to be counselors using the Word of God to speak into other people's lives.  Since the beginning of time, our Sovereign Creator and Lord uttered counsel to Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:16-17 “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” The apostle Paul gives us a picture of what a community of believers giving counsel in action looks like when he said, “Brothers if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Gal 6:1). All Christians are to give the whole counsel of God’s Word and be prepared to share the gospel with others. The Book of Psalms provides us with wisdom and the words to pray and praise back to our Holy God because they are about our Holy God giving glory to the Holy God who created us. All Christians being counselors, are to be counseling others by witnessing “the fruit of the spirit” (Gal 5:22-23) and speaking truth into the lives of believers in the theologies of sin, suffering, salvation, and the Church.

Since all Christians are counseling someone in all that we do, our aim should be what Paul exhorted in Colossians 1:28 exclaiming “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ”. Four things are communicated by Paul here that we should recognize from this text alone; proclaiming, warning, teaching, and finally, that people would be viewed as mature Christians. The second of these is what stands out when looked at in the Greek, “warning” which means nouthetountes, translating into the word “counseling”. Paul was speaking to ordinary people here that it was his desire for all of God’s people to give
counsel to others for when they stood before God in judgment they would be seen as “mature in Christ” (Col 1:28).

My prayer is that as you have read this, you will be encouraged to know that as Christians, others are looking to you for wisdom and counseling. There are people everywhere in our sphere of influence who are more anxious, hurt, worried, and scared than seemingly ever before. What people need, what I need, is not self-help, self-diagnosis, or
self-medication. We need the Words of our Redeemer who speaks life into every situation. Every person has the ability as a born-again Christian to be the mouthpiece of the Word within this lost and dying world needing biblical counsel.

Let me encourage you that as one who has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit and given power in Christ, you can give counsel from God’s Word. I pray that it be from “the knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 1:2) and a transformed life this counsel flows from.