Being An Encourager – Dr. Charles Stanley

Encouragement is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. Learn the art of encouragement from the best: Jesus Christ. Dr. Stanley outlines practical ways we can follow Jesus’ example in word and deed. As Christians, we cannot afford not to encourage one another.

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And the son of god, Jesus, the lord said, I am the way the truth and the life.
No one comes to the public, but by me. Therefore, go into all the world.
He and preaching the gospel to every single president that are modest parts of the earth.
In touch, the teaching ministry of Doctor Charles Stanley.
Next on in touch, being an encourager. Who is the encourager in your life?
The person who supports you when you need it?
The person who stimulates your mind and you’re thinking to say you can keep going.
The person who sort of fires you up motivates you, when you need to be fired up, motivated, everybody needs an encouragement.
And the truth is all of us need to be encourages that people do not need to encourage, and all of us need to be encouraged because all of us go through those times in that life, whatever the situation may be, where we may feel a little bit down, or maybe some experience came along, that, uh, disappointed us, maybe disappointed somebody else.
So whatever it might be, everybody needs encouragement And when I think back over my life, I can tell you who was the most powerful, consistent, encouraging in my life.
My mother. She encouraged me even when she whipped me because she reminded me of why she was doing it.
I was not impressed at all at the moment, but as I look back and realize what she was saying, I’m would say this because I want you to grow up and be a good boy, or I want you to learn not to disobey me, but of all the people I’ve ever known she was always there for me no matter what.
And I wonder if you’re that kind of encouraged her to anybody.
Is there anybody in your life that’s always going to be standing there no matter what happens?
Because we all need somebody like that. All of us do.
And I thought, what could be more helpful and more encouraging than to title this message being an encourager.
We all need to be, and we all need it for ourselves.
So I want you to turn, if you will, to 1st Thessalonians chapter 5.
1st thessalonians chapter 5 and the apostle Paul in these first ten verses is explaining and encouraging the people in Desilonica about the return of Christ and what they’re to expect and so forth.
And then he comes down to verse 11.
Therefore, on the basis of all I just told you, therefore encourage one another build up one another just as you also are doing.
Then if you slip down to verse 13 and that you esteem them very highly, in love because of their work.
Live in peace with one another. We encourage you, brethren, admonish the unruly encourage the faint hearted.
Help the week be patient with everyone.
And so Paul talks about encouragement in lots of ways, but I want us to think about it in terms of how we not only need encouragement, but we need to be an encouragement.
And if you look in the Greek language, for example, the word uh, that is used for encourage you is the word para Klaitos.
Parra means blesside, Claitos call.
And so and then Carja is one who is called to be by your side.
When Jesus spoke uh, with his disciples the night before he’s crucified in the 14th, 15, 16 chapters of John, he said, I’m leaving you, but this is the way he encouraged them.
He told me that all the things that are gonna happen, he said, I’m gonna send you an encourager, uh, that is the Holy Spirit.
So the he was very much aware of their need of being encouraged because he called them.
They’d walk with them for 3 years, and then he’d say, I’m leaving.
And besides that, the way I’m gonna leave it, it’s not gonna be very pleasant.
But I want you to know that I’m gonna be with you because I’m gonna send you one like me, and he’s gonna be with you, uh, paracletas.
A helper Jesus called.
So when I look at that passage and think about what Jesus said, encouraging his disciples, I think about Jesus himself.
So let’s think about it for a moment. Jesus was an awesome encourager.
And if you’ll think about how he encouraged, he encouraged in his teachings, but also he was an encouraging and hit his encounter with other people.
He was always encouraging. Didn’t mean that he didn’t say some strong things.
But he was an encouragement to them. For example, let’s just think about what he taught.
When he gave them the sermon on the mount, What an what an encouragement that was to them to hear him say all these wonderful things?
When he talked about prayer, for example, He said we could pray and expect an answer.
Ask him it should be given you, seek an issue, you’ll find knocking it should be open to you.
When he talked, for example, about, uh, forgiveness.
He talked about forgiving others just the way he had forgiven us.
And then when he talked about anxiety, don’t be anxious about anything, but he talked about the birds and the flowers and so forth.
Everywhere, Jesus had the opportunity What was he doing? He was encouraging his disciples.
Even when he had to mix that with the future of things that were gonna happen, and the way people treat us and so forth, he was always underlying it with a word of encouragement.
So when you think about the things that he said, He was always encouraging.
But what about the way he acted? What what what about his actions, for example?
And so can you imagine how encouraging it was when they were out in the storm and they thought they were gonna sink and they saw this light, and then here’s Jesus.
Not swimming. Praise God, he was walking on the water. Coming to them to do what?
To rescue them and to encourage them. Be not afraid.
And then I think about uh, when Jesus was walking along, and he was somebody’s wedding service.
I mean, I wouldn’t have got to come back this way again, and his old, blind bartimaeus, of poor, blind, bigger, ragged, bigger, sitting on the roadside, and you heard that Jesus was coming, and he began to cry.
Jesus son of David have mercy on me and they try to tell him, you’re talking about a discourager now The folks around him were doing their best to discourage bartimaeus, and the more they said shut up, the louder he got.
Until finally, Jesus stopped. And he said to Bartamels, Bartamels, what do you want me to do for you?
Bartemails said, I want you to give me my site, and they gave him exactly what he asked for.
Jesus was this awesome encouragement.
He could find ways to encourage situations and circumstances when nobody else could.
But when I think about the apostle Paul, he was an awesome encourager because he had indwelling him the great encourager.
The Holy Spirit. He is just as real and true today as then he’ll do just what you and I need him to do in our life today just like he did in their lives.
He’s the encourager and he indwells us and it’s interesting that Jesus called in that.
He said, I’m gonna send you a helper, the parrotcletos, the one who stands beside you, who is there for you, you can you can count on it.
And then I think about how the apostle Paul encouraged and all the letters 0.
So think about this for a moment. He wrote the book of Romans.
He wrote all these books I’m gonna talk about.
In the book of Romans, he encourages us with saying nothing can separate us from the love of god, which is in Christ Jesus, our lord.
To the Galatians, he wrote, The Holy Spirit who lives within you will manifest through you what you can’t do yourself.
Love and peace and joy and goodness and all the rest.
When I think about what he said to the Corinthians, he said, I want to describe to you what’s going to happen in the resurrection.
I want to talk to you, I want to encourage you about your loved ones who’ve gone on before, and I want to encourage you about when your time comes, your body will go to the grave, but your spirit will go into the presence of almighty god.
And then I think about, uh, what he said to the ephesians, how he encouraged them, and encouraged them by saying you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And then he followed up by saying, that the Holy Spirit has sealed you as a child of god.
Imagine how encouraging that must have been to them.
And then I think what he wrote to the Philipp.
My god shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.
And then to Timothy, he wrote to Timothy.
Both of those epistles were encouraging times for Timothy.
So look, Jesus who is our savior, great encouragement.
The apostle Paul, the great apostle, was the great encouragement.
So I would ask you, is there anybody who knows you would say that you are an encouragement?
Anybody you live with, anybody you work for, anybody you work with, in your would your friends deem you and encourage you?
Not just somebody that you work with or somebody you know, or enable this, uh, or even even a good friend, did they see you as an encourager?
Can you, in your mind, identify instantly who is an encourager in your life?
You may be seated here this morning, and you may be one of those persons who says, I can’t think of anybody like that.
Well, think real hard.
It may be true that you grew up in a sit the situation of circumstance that nobody’s ever encouraged you.
Now, you may not even be a Christian, but I wanna tell you why Jesus isn’t encouraged you because He got you here this morning, to hear this message, and I wanna tell you how to be saved in a few moments, and so that your life will never be the same again.
So that ought to be an encouragement to you.
And even if you are a Christian, And you listen to this message, you ought to begin to be a watch this a purposeful encourager.
That you intend to be, that you want to be, and that you, by your speech and by your actions like Jesus and the apostle Paul, you want to be an encouragement, likewise.
So when I think about that, I think about how how does a person become an encourager?
What what do you say? What do you what do you do to be an encourager?
There are two ways to encourage by your speech and by your actions.
And so, first, I wanna talk about in just a moment. I wanna talk about your speech.
How do you encourage somebody? And I encourage you to write these down.
You can choose the ones you want, of course, uh, and I want you to think about for just a moment who in your life this moment right now that you know needs encouragement?
You got that?
You may be thinking, well, here I sit. I need it. Okay. Fine.
So first of all, I wanna talk about how to encourage people in your speech that this is not this is not a final list.
This is just a suggested list.
So I wanna begin by saying, one of the ways that you can encourage somebody is by a sincere compliment when you love people and you accept people, you want them to know it and so you give them a sincere compliment maybe how they look, what they said, what they did, how they performed all those things.
Secondly, always tell them the truth. If you’re gonna be an encouragement, yes, speak the truth.
Now the truth is not always easy for some people to accept, but if you’re a true friend, I really encourage you, you speak this truth.
You speak in the manner in which they can accept it. Thirdly, You agree with them when appropriate.
If in a conversation that you need to express your feeling about something.
If you’re a true friend, you agree with them. When it’s appropriate.
If it’s not, you don’t have to agree with them.
Then, of course, if you’re a true friend, you pass on information to them, that is helpful, not gossip, but information.
A true friend is going to pass on to others uh maybe something that they’re working on or something about their job or something about their car, about their job, and whatever it might be.
You you, in other words, you don’t keep information to yourself.
And I think as I think about my friends and people who are the closest to me, I love listening to them and what they’re learning, and I love telling them what I’m learning, and passing on helpful information.
Then One for certain, you pray for them.
If you really have a true friend, if you really wanna be an encouragement, you pray for them.
Now please don’t raise your hand, but let me ask you a question.
I wonder how many people seated here have a prayer list.
I don’t mean all the things you want.
But a prayer list of people you pray for at least every day or some time of the part of the day.
Or often whenever you pray. So I have people you pray for.
Well, if you do if you don’t have that list, you need to develop one today.
And you will encourage people?
Only when you can honestly say, I’ve been praying for you.
I prayed for you yesterday. I prayed for you last night. I’ve I’ve been praying for you.
Listen, when you’re praying for people, you’re encouraging them, then you might wanna quote an appropriate scripture.
Well, you know what? Somebody is really worried about something, and, um, you say to them, don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything about prayer and suffocation and so forth, you’re encouraged with the word of scripture.
Now there’s a lot more ways that you can say I love you than that, but I just wanna give you something to start with.
Then what about actions? Sometimes all it takes is a smile.
You’re saying something because watch.
You can’t if you’re angry, you can’t, uh, you you can’t even think anger and smile.
But if you love somebody and you want to encourage him, maybe maybe you’re not close to, but a a smile, it says that you’re thinking about them.
One way to express love and express encouragement is to be quiet while they speak.
Don’t always interrupt them. Sometimes we just be quiet and just let them say what needs to be said.
And then one way to encourage somebody is to hug them.
Now you have to be careful who you hugging.
I do understand that, but my friends I hug them.
And so there’s a way to hug somebody in a gentle way because you just love them.
And it’s sincere. Then you wanna serve them in some fashion.
If you have a real true friend, you wanna encourage them, you you find some way to serve them to be helpful to them.
And then you always be honest with them at all times, even though it may hurt.
That is if I want to encourage you, I’m not gonna be a false witness to you.
I’m not gonna tell you that you’re right when you’re wrong.
And then, uh, if I’m gonna encourage you, I’m gonna point you in the right direction.
This is the direction you need to go in in your life. You need to rethink this.
And one thing for sure I’m gonna do is I’m watch this.
I’m gonna seek to motivate them to be their best in life no matter what they’re doing.
I want you to do your best.
I I I encourage you to do your best, and they will do whatever’s necessary to help you do that.
And then if if at all possible, you may want to reward that person with something.
Rewards work. And everybody needs to be real.
Eve even if it’s to say you did a fantastic job, and you made it sincerely, That’s a reward, or you could give them something financially or whatever it might be.
Now think about this. Encouragement has kept a lot of people alive.
Words of encouragement have kept a lot of people alive. Thought they were gonna die.
In the hospital doctor said this is him and you come to see them and you encourage them with whatever words and you pray for them, and you say to them, we’re gonna trust god.
We’re gonna trust god through this. We’re gonna help you. We encourage them in any way we possibly can.
And I think many people have been inspired to succeed in life by somebody’s encouragement.
I think most people who’ve succeeded in life they’ll tell you that so and so encouraged them at a particular time, and they never forgot it.
You see, it doesn’t take a whole lot to be and encourage you.
So all of us should be because Jesus was and taught it.
Paul was and taught it. And all of us need to be encourages because we live in a world full of people who are discouraged.
Amen? And I wanna say to you, if you’ve never trusted Jesus as your savior, the most the most life changing thing that you’ll ever do.
The most wonderful thing that you’ll ever do, the thing that has eternal consequences in your life right where you are, no matter where that may be or seated here, You can say to the lord Jesus, I need your encouragement.
I need to ask you to forgive me of my sins.
I do believe that Jesus went to the cross and died for my sins.
And I’m asking you lord to forgive me. I’m surrendering my life to you.
And, lord, I do pray that you’ll help me to be an encouragement to someone else as others have tried to be to me.
Your life can be changed right where you are, right at this moment, simply by asking for the forgiveness of your sins, placing your trust in Jesus as your personal savior.
Amen? And father how grateful we are.
You’ve never failed to be on time for our need of encouragement.
You always there. So we just all would like to surrender ourselves to you a fresh human due today.
To be encourages that the people we meet, the people who need us, the people who are hurting, the people who are lost.
And we thank you for the privilege in Jesus name.
Amen.