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Encourage One
Another
Hebrews 10: 19-24
Recently, a
young man in another state graduated from high school. 13 years of
school was coming to an end and they could see the end of the path that
they had taken from Kindergarten to 12th grade. The whole family was
excited as aunts, and uncles, cousins, and grandparents all made plans
for the big day. But in the midst of all of the excitement there was a
small complication.
For some reason, that I still have to figure out, it was decided that
Graduation would be held a 6:30 on Wednesday night. The small church
where this family had attended for years offered to move their mid-week
services to either Tuesday or Tuesday night so that the family and the
rest of the church could all be present at this mile marker event
without feeling guilty. It seemed like a reasonable idea at the time.
The young man’s grandparents, who were the oldest members of the
congregation and held considerable power, vetoed the schedule change.
They had decided years ago that they would have a mid week Bible service
and that decision would not change for any reason. And on that
Graduation night, at that small little church, services were held as
they have been for the last 50 years or so at 7:00. There on their pew
sat the grand parents -- at church. That evening their grandson received
his diploma without their support and without their blessing.
That night two different sets of people went to bed. The grandparents
went to bed confident in their compliance to Hebrews 10:25. While their
grandson went to bed that night confused about whether or not his
grandparents really cared about him at all.
You know what Hebrews 10:25 is don't you? It's the "go to church or
else” passage.
not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but
encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing
near. Or as most of us learned it, "Not forsaking the assembling of
ourselves together as the manner of some is."
Many of us grew up with a rather limited understanding of that verse. We
were taught that the Hebrew writer simply wanted to say, "You need to go
to church every time the doors are opened. Don't be like some, who skip
church go fishing or watch the Superbowl or some other poor excuse." And
so, church attendance became one more notch on our Bibles.
If we went three times a week, we were in compliance with this passage
and ready to move on and master whatever was next. Now while I believe
that church attendance is important, and obviously that is a part of
what this text says. But like so many other passages we have made sure
that we make technical compliance and then we still miss the meaning.
Church, technical compliance is a poor substitute for the intent of the
command. The intent of this command is not church attendance. It is
encouragement. So as we come to an end of our look at the One Another’s
in the Bible I thought that it would be good for us to talk about what
it means to encourage one another.
There are a lot of discouraging things that happen to people every day.
Newton's third law of motion says, "For every action there is an equal
and opposite reaction.” I would like to offer another law for you; for
every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.
Did you know that the average person growing up in an average household
hears "No," or is told what they can't do more than 148,000 times by the
time they reach age 18. We live in a discouraging world.
Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather was being interviewed and began to
discuss his fascination with the sport of boxing, even though he was
never good at it. He said, "In boxing you're on your own; there's no
place to hide. At the end of the match only one boxer has his hand up.
That's it. He has no one to credit or to blame except himself."
In high school, he said his coach's greatest goal was to teach his
boxers that they absolutely, positively, without question, had to be
"get up" fighters. "If you're in a ring just once in your life,
completely on your own, and you get knocked down but you get back up
again, it's a never-to-be-forgotten experience. Your sense of
achievement is distinct and unique. And sometimes the only thing making
you get up is someone in your corner yelling for you to get up one more
time."
That’s what Encouragement is. It’s standing in someone's comer, yelling
for them. Will Rogers said we can't all be heroes because someone has to
stand on the sidelines and clap for them. Encouragement is cheering for
the people on the field.
So if we are to be encouragers how do develop the habit of encouraging
one another? If the point of Hebrews 10:25 is encouragement, doesn't it
make sense that the rest of the passage might help us understand how to
do that? Let’s read what the writer is saying before we get to verse 25.
Look in 10:19 - 24. (Read).
Today I want you to leave here with three things everyone needs to know
about encouragement.
1. Encouragement flows from godly confidence.
In vs. 19, the writer affirms that we can enter the Most Holy Place, the
presence of God, with confidence.
The writer is talking about Godly confidence, not that type of
confidence that notches a Bible every time we think we've mastered a
particular command. Godly confidence is confidence based on what God has
done, not on our performance.
When we think back on our lives, we can remember how great and powerful
the God we serve is, and how He has gone to extreme lengths to bring us
back home to Him. It is those memories of what God has done that should
instill confidence in our lives.
In vs. 20, he says we confidently enter the Most Holy Place by a new a
living way opened for us through the body of Christ.
That is a reference to the crucifixion. Once again when we think back to
the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, we are reminded how deep His love
is for us.
In vs. 22 he says we can draw near to God with a guilt free conscience.
We approach him guilt free not because we haven't done anything wrong,
but because our hearts have been sprinkled and our bodies have been
washed with pure water.
That is a reference to baptism. You see we remember how God has provided
for us in the past, we remember the sacrifice that was made, and we
remember our Baptism we understand how great God’s love for us truly is
and that’s what gives us confidence.
Remember what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:31-39 What then shall
we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who
did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not
also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge
against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ
Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the
right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is
written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are
regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that
neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in
all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
There is the source.
So how does having godly confidence enable us to be encouragers?
Well to answer that first we must ask ourselves if we have ever known
anyone who was insecure and able to affirm others?
I haven’t. If we're insecure in our ability to perform some activity,
we're not going to celebrate the success of others. We're going to envy
that success. And come up with all kinds of reasons why they can do it
better than we can. We're going to find as much wrong with what they do
and how they do it as we can.
On May 1, 1999 Forty thousand fans were on hand in the Oakland stadium
when Rickey Henderson stole second and broke Lou Brock's career stolen
base record. According to USA Today Lou, who had left baseball in 1979,
had followed Henderson's career and was excited about his success. The
day before the game Lou was asked what he thought about someone breaking
his record. Brock said, "I'll be there. Do you think I'm going to miss
it now? Rickey did in 12 years what took me 19. He's amazing."
That kind of encouragement can only come from someone who has asked the
question, "Am I okay?" And answered it with, "Yes." The reason many of
us fail to encourage others is because we answered the question, "Am I
okay with God," with something other than, "absolutely." We say Maybe. I
hope so. I think so. No.
We can't celebrate someone else's success, we can't cheer for them to
succeed, if we don't think we already wear God's victory crown.
Mark this down; the degree to which a church is populated with
encouragers is directly related to the degree to which they believe in
the grace of God. Encouragement flows from godly confidence.
2. This passage teaches that encouragement is rooted in God's
faithfulness.
Vs. 23. "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who
promised is faithful”
If you can trust God to be true to his promises, then you will be an
encouraging person. The writer of Hebrews actually models the principal
I'm talking about. Look down a few verses to vs. 36. "You need to
persevere."
Stop right there. He could go in a lot of different directions with that
statement. Here's where heads.
"You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you
will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, 'He
who is coming will come and will not delay. '"
The writer bases his encouragement on the faithfulness of God. He
operates by a very simple formula.
Your perseverance + His faithfulness = reception of His promises.
He's writing like a man who has experienced the faithfulness of God.
Almost like he's saying, "I've been where you are. I was in a tough
circumstance and God delivered me. If you follow through, he'll deliver
you, too."
Encouragement isn't simply minimizing the negatives and focusing only on
the positives. The writer doesn't shy away from warning. He gets very
specific and very graphic in verses 26 - 31 where he ends by saying, "It
is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." But that
isn't final note. That isn't the dominant theme of this chapter.
The final note is in vs. 39. "But we are of those who believe and are
saved." There's the formula again. We believe. He saves.
3. Finally, encouragement is focused on celebrating success.
Look at vs. 24. "And let us consider how we may spur one another on
toward love and good deeds."
Instead of trying to catch people making a mistake, the writer urges us
to look for opportunities, to consider, ways to celebrate and spur
people on toward loving relationships and righteous living.
You might feel superior when you take the opportunity to find some one
in a fault and let them know about it, but you won’t feel better long.
Because no one does everything wrong. But if you get the opportunity to
praise someone for doing something good then neither of you will be
disappointed. You always get more mileage out of catching people doing
something right.
A city in the Netherlands had a problem with litter. The sanitation
department tried doubling the littering fine and even increasing the
number of litter cops who patrolled the area, but to no avail.
Then someone suggested that instead of punishing those who littered,
they could reward people who put garbage in trash cans. The first plan
to devise a trash can that could dispense coins when litter was inserted
was rejected as too expensive.
But it led to another idea: the sanitation department developed a trash
can that played a recording of a joke when trash was deposited!
Different cans played different kinds of jokes, and the recordings were
changed every two weeks.
Citizens went out of their way to put garbage in trash cans, and the
streets were clean again.
Here's another place where the writer models this very principal. Look
at verses 32 - 34. (Read).
He remembers and celebrates a time when they did exactly what they
needed to be doing now. Standing firm. Instead of griping at them
because of what they were not doing, he celebrates what they had done in
the past.
It comes down to this. Most of the time when we fuss and gripe at
people, when we are negative or nagging, we really do want to help. We
are trying to motivate them to better living. We just get frustrated.
And we've been programmed to fuss. But negative criticism just doesn't
work as well as positive encouragement.
Marion Gordon tells the story about one day when she opened the door to
get the newspaper and was surprised to see a strange little dog with her
paper in his mouth. Delighted with this unexpected "delivery service,"
she went to the kitchen and got the puppy some treats.
But the following morning she was horrified to see the same dog sitting
in front of her door, wagging his tail, surrounded by eight newspapers.
She said that it took her the rest of that morning trying to find the
rightful owners and returning their papers.
All she had to do was turn the paper on the dog and that dog would never
have returned. It works that way with our relationships, too. We swat
people one time too many and they don't come back to us emotionally.
They may still be there in body, but they'll be somewhere else in
spirit. If you've tried everything else, try encouragement. It not only
works, it's God's will.
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