Is your life an encouragement to God’s people or a discouragement? In this special New Year’s Eve sermon, Pastor Babij goes to the book of Numbers to examine the sin of discouraging others. Pastor Babij discusses three main ways Christians can become discouragers and then looks at four qualities of the truly encouraging person.
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okay let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to numbers chapter 32 numbers chapter 32 of course I’m not in first Peter this morning I will pick that up next week and I do want to remind everyone next week we immediately after our service we had a we have a wedding so we have to accommodate that next week so things are going to be running a little tight next week service so numbers chapter 32 in the Pew Bible it’s on page 178 and I thought I would just this morning preach on to be an encourage in the church in the body of Christ but I’m going to do it in a way from the Old Testament that I’m going to bring out something that maybe you never thought of before and so in light of this coming year I would like to ask you two questions the first question is when did you last encourage someone else in the things of the Lord and secondly is the matter of your life one that is more discouraging or encouraging to yourself and others so let’s make sure that there’s no lack of encouragement in our relationships with others this next coming year and let us pass encouragement around as if it is good tasting candy that adds sweetness to our fellowship see from time to time we all need some kind of encouragement someone to believe in us someone to lift us up when were cast down someone to notice us when we seem to have been forgotten someone to encourage us when we are truly discouraged and that encouragement usually comes from people see this Lord’s Day I want to bring to your attention the reality that you can either be a discouraged ER or an encourage your in Christ Church and you may not even know it to put the first more strongly I would say this it is sin to discourage the Brethren also it is significant to know that in Satan’s bag of deceptions maybe discouragement is his best tool maybe it is a favorite tool I read I ran across this antidote once where it said that I read once that the devil was having a yard sale and all his tools were marked with different prices there were they were a fiendish lot there was hatred there was jealousy there was the seat that was lying there was pride all that had expensive prices but over on the side of the yard on display was a tool more obviously worn than all the other tools and it also is most costly the tool was labeled discouragement when questioned the devil said it is more useful to me than any other tool when I can’t bring down my victims with any of the rest of these tools I use discouragement because so few people realize it belongs to me so this morning in order to hedge against committing this sin and I am calling it a sin because scripture does that is the sin of discouraging the Brethren consider with me three ways that believers can be in danger of committing the sin then if time permits I’ll look at about four different elements related to the characteristic of an encourager but first looking at our passage in numbers chapter 32 the first thing is the three ways believers can be in danger of committing the sin of discourage discouraging the Brethren and the first one is this by an inconsistent life by an inconsistent life a life that doesn’t match up with the will of God and where the Spirit of God is taking us now before we look at the passage let’s pray Lord this morning I just pray then ask you that you would use me as your servant to bring forth the Word of God that the Word of God may be impressed upon our heart so Lord that we examine ourselves and that we make the adjustments needed in the sanctifying process of the Spirit of God that we would be encouragers in our relationships with others in the body of Christ and I pray Lord that if we in any way have lived in a way that we have been discouraging to others I pray Lord you allow us to repent of that and put that off so Lord we can walk in righteousness and holiness and I pray this this morning in Christ’s name Amen now if you look at verse number one through five of our passage it says this now numbers 32 verse 1 now the sons of Reuben the sons of God had an exceedingly large number of livestock so when they had to saw the land of jeiza in the land of Gilad that it was indeed a place suitable for livestock the sons of again the sons of Reuben came and spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the congregation saying after auth D’banj acer nimrod heshbon alula saebom Nebo and beyond the land which the Lord conquered before the congregation of Israel is a land for livestock and your servants have livestock and they said they said if we have found favor in your sight but this land be given to servants as a possession now I want you to look at the last part of verse number five do not take us across the Jordan now that’s very significant to the passage in the context of this particular passage because what God was doing was giving the people the promised land they weren’t there at the promised land yet they were heading there that across the Jordan to get there and this group of people these two tribes come and they say listen don’t let us go over to the promised land which has been God’s will the whole time let us stay here on this side of the Jordan because we have a lot of flocks and we have a lot of animals and this is great grazing land so let us stay here and we won’t go don’t let us go over to the other side of the Jordan now of course in that statement there is a great apparent inconsistency in the request of the sons of Reuben and the sons of GAD C because they have they ought to have valued God’s promise and have wished to settle within the limits of the promised land along with everyone else that’s where God was taking them see the sons of Reuben and the sons of GAD their attention was no longer on entering the land that God had promised them instead their hearts were focused on the rich pastures for their livestock on settling down to build their own houses and to build their own cities see they were thinking about themselves and not and their needs and not the needs of the nation they were they were being very incredibly selfish in their statement they were not thinking about God’s will or the good of all the people they were not thinking that there was any sin involved in making such a request see their request was not consistent with the purpose God had for Israel but was consistent with the sins of their forefathers that’s what they were doing they were just going back committing the sins of the forefathers now look over to chapter 32 in verse 23 let me just bounce forward a little bit it says this if you will not do so behold you have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out so in this particular matter we could see that what they were doing is they were actually committing sin before God and going backwards instead of going forward the sin that they were committing was no little sin as far as the nation of Israel was concerned Moses knew at once the effect that this kind of thinking would have upon the hearts of the brethren where he says in numbers chapter 32 verse number 7 look what it says there it was a heart piercing question Moses asked them after the request and verse seven says now why are you discouraging the sons of Israel from crossing over into the land which the Lord has given them so that’s the question he asked them I don’t think they ever thought they were discouraging anyone but by their inconsistent request with the will of God it comes out here from the mouth of Moses that you’re discouraging people from doing the will of God in fact the construction of this verse in the Hebrew is worth mentioning the Hebrew uses two verbs the same word but different constructions and one of the word means to hinder or to hold back or to restrain the heart of someone and the other verb just simply means to discourage but it means to discourage in the seat of courage putting that all together it would be this he was saying to them you’ll hold back your people and you will cause them to be discouraged in their heart to enter the promised land and to receive the gift Jehovah promised to his people you would do that so this kind of mindset drips of worldliness and selfishness this is how it is like with those who live for Auto lui living for heaven who profess to be looking forward and yet there set their affections on things below on the creature on the temporal and not on the eternal see living contrary between what you say and how you really live cannot but otherwise be a stumbling block and a discouragement to those who look on your life so brethren it’s really no small sin to discourage our brothers and sisters in Christ and the only way to avoid this sin is to walk with the Lord to live by faith to live by his promises to live according to the Word of God so I prayed today for a life that is consistent with God’s will in a heart dead to the world or dying to the world and alive to God through Jesus Christ seeing an inconsistent life can manifest manifest itself in many different ways in the church it could be just not attending the assembly of believers on a regular basis it’s it’s you do it on a whim you’re there sometimes you’re there you’re not there other times and when worldly things go on you end up going that way and not being consistent in your worship of the Lord it could be not being consistent serving the church body in some way especially in the use of your spiritual gifts it could be not just practicing a godly lifestyle you’re just not practicing what you already know you’re not putting in other words you’re being hear of the Word of God possibly but you’re not being a doer of the word and so those comes those things come out in the life of the church as possibly being discouraging to someone instead of encouraging to them you don’t realize how many times people just want to see you there I mean I’ve talked to you that day they may not even have anything to do it you that day but they see you there and buy they buy them seeing you there they’re encouraged to want to be faithful to the Lord just in simple things like that and so we have to look at our life what to say are we living in any way are we thinking in any way are we speaking in any way that actually discourages people in nodding and doesn’t encourage them in the Lord that’s what we have to ask I believe that in the New Testament when Paul recorded something I believe with great discouragement when he reported demas leaving him it says in 2nd Timothy for demas having loved this present world deserted me and gone to Thessalonica see that was a discouraging action by someone that was ministering with Paul and so he records it in the Word of God and why did he do it he left because he loves something other than God’s will and God’s Word and the person of of the Lord himself and so he departed and that departure causes in discouragement so and a kid an inconsistent life has to be looked at and changed for the sake of you being an encouragement now let me further probe into this sin and see how it may manifest itself in fact to various other ways in numbers chapter 13 let’s go back for a minute because this is the context of what he was saying to them and I’ll pick it up back again in chapter 32 and the second way to discourage the Brethren is by half-hearted faithless despondent attitudes and actions and words where it says and Moses of course reminds them very sternly what happened the last time they had that attitude in the nation their fathers discouraged Israel from going into the land so look at numbers 13 look at verse 31 and verse 32 it says but the men who had gone up with him said we are not able to go up against the people for they are too strong for us so they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out saying the land through which we have gone spying it out is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size so the Bible says that because of that report they gave actually a bad report or another way of saying a bad report is an evil report because it fails to maintain faith in the promise of God to actually give his people the land of Canaan the promised land even though that land yes had mighty men and large walled cities and strong armies God says I’m gonna defeat those armies for you I’m gonna give you those cities I’m going to give you that land but they came back with something opposite of what God had already said and planned to be sovereignly so and what do they do they came back with words of doubt that God can’t pull this off what he had promised us these people are too great there’s too sophisticated there’s too skilled in war they have walled cities and then tremendous armies they have horses and chariots how are we a bunch of people in the desert which staffs are gonna fight against those people how are we going to win see what did that do it just discouraged the people in which way God can’t do it we looked and we saw with our own eyes and God he’s not going to be able to do this this is impossible this is gonna take a music miracle absolutely that’s that’s right it’s gonna take a miracle for God to do things it takes a miracle for God to bring you to faith in Christ right it’s a miracle the miracle of being born again is definitely that a miracle because you’re not going to come on your own you can’t save yourself you can’t do any of those things God has to do it and that’s a miracle so even the toughest person in your family the more the most obstinate person in your family is the is the person you may say to yourself God will never save that person and you doubt that he could ever do it and yet looking back on your life you realize some of the people that did become believers were the most stubborn obstinate sinful people that you knew how is that because God does miracles and so if we doubt God well you won’t see those miracles and not only that our doubting actually discourages discourages people you know they don’t think God’s great when we’re doubting him they don’t think God can do things way beyond what we could ever ask or think if we’re living in a way that God doesn’t do anything great see that’s just discouraging now let’s go back to numbers chapter 32 and then I want to now fill in what Moses says to these people in verse number eight of Numbers chapter 32 I’ll pick it up there in verse eight it says and this is what your fathers did when I sent them to Kadesh Barnea to see the land for when they went up to the valley of Eshcol and saw the land they discouraged the sons of Israel so that they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them so the Lord’s anger burned in that day and he swore saying none of the men none of the men who came up from Egypt from twenty years old and upward shall see the land which I swore to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob for they did not follow me fully except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and the kenan site and joshua the son of nun for they have followed the lord fully so the lord’s anger burned against israel he made them wander in the wilderness forty years until the entire congregation the generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the lord was destroyed now behold you have risen up in your father’s place a brood of sinful men to add still more to the burning anger of the lord against israel so in other words he was moses was definitely putting in their face that you guys are sinning against us like your forefathers sinned way back when they doubted god to go into the land and now a part of the generation is not going to go into the land because of that sin and you’re doing the same thing at the end of the the wilderness journey you’re doing the same exact thing what’s that going to do to the people it’s just going to discourage them he calls them a brood of sinful men that you’re gonna still add more to the burning anger of the lord so so to see this sin of discouragement always thinks of self first and when committed against our brethren and actually rips out the guts of a person it’s like tearing out the guts of a machine the functioning moving parts which make the Machine go and just leave an external skeleton Satan loves to use this tactic against the Saints usually he does it through words and actions of others such as people who cannot discern between what is of men or what is an evil report and what is of God what is a good report so living half-heartedly hypocritically doubting God is the very seed of committing the sin of discouraging the Brethren so discouragement actually breaks people’s spirits instead of prodding them on in the work of the Lord and in spiritual growth and maturity it actually stifles them and causes them to look down upon what who God is and what God is doing a third way believers can’t commit the spin is also found in numbers chapter 32 and in verse number 6 I want you to see that it says this and here’s the third reason before I read the passage by shrinking or appearing to shrink from service and duties because there are difficulties look what it says in verse 6 but Moses said to the sons of God and to the sons of Reutimann shall your brothers go to war while you yourselves sit here another question piercing question a probing question brother and I I just have to say this going to war is hard living the Christian life is hard continuing in the battle until the job is done is even more difficult the thought of getting out of battle to a more peaceful and comfortable life is very enticing to any one of us to all of us the sons of Reuben and the sons of GAD wish to settle down in a land already one instead of sharing the dangers and the difficulties of war with the Brethren see if some easy work is proposed to them which is accompanied by no great difficulties and which involves no real self-denial they may be ready for it but remember this it is usually God’s way to surround his work with difficulties and often with such difficulties that only he alone can remove Moses said to them very pointedly and leaves the blame squarely at their feet notice in verse 14 and 15 where he this now behold you have risen up in your father’s place a brood of sinful men to add still more to the burning angered Lord against Israel and for if you turn away from following him he will once more abandon them in the wilderness and you will destroy all these people so in other words you never thought that encouraging someone could be so important in the church and amongst the Brethren and how destructive discouragement really is especially if it’s coming from you or me and the way we say and do and live for the Lord so he is Moses is saying to them if you try to get out of the war you will greatly inflame the anger of the Lord and destroy your own people why would you want to do that if you get out of this the battle this would mean that you’re turning away from following the Lord therefore further discouraging the Brethren you don’t have that privilege in other words he’s saying you don’t have that privilege can a person tell the Lord they will not minister anymore because there’s difficulties see he is saying to them figure out a way to stay in the battle figure out a way to accomplish this mission that God promised the people figure out a way because you’re not getting out of it not until Moses confronted them in this manner did they come up with a plan to stay in the battle and prevent incurring the anger of the Lord casting the Brethren off to further discouragement notice what it says in verse 16 of numbers 32 it says then they came near to him and said we will build here sheepfolds for our livestock and cities for our little ones but we ourselves will be armed ready to go before the sons of Israel until we have brought them in to their place while our little ones in the fortified cities because of the habit in the inhabitants of the land verse number 18 we will not return to our homes until every one of the sons of Israel has possessed his inheritance verse 19 for we will not have an inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond because our inheritance has fallen to us on this side of the Jordan toward the east verse 20 so Moses said to them if you will do this if you will arm yourselves before the Lord for the war and all of your armed men crossed over the Jordan before the Lord until he has driven his enmity enemies out from before him and verse 32 verse 22 and the land is subdued before the Lord and then then afterwards you shall return and be free of the obligation toward the Lord and toward Israel and this land shall be yours for a possession before the Lord so in other words when they did what was right they came up with a plan Moses was not letting them out of it they came up with a plan when they did what was right no one was discouraged God’s promise was realized and their request their request was granted for a claim of inheritance on the other side of the Jordan see that’s what happens when we do things that are right before the Lord so let’s not discourage people by shrinking or appearing to shrink from service and duties because there are difficulties rather not I found this out in ministry and in life itself there’s always difficulties there’s always issues there’s always all kinds of people problems and not yet sanctified attitudes there’s time restraints there’s doctrinal tensions all those things are always present but let’s let us be faithful right beside each other in spiritual warfare because that’s what it is it spiritual warfare God is for us to encourage us and to finish our battles he’s there to fight for us so as we do that what what are we to do we’re to be an encouragement to others besides us were to continue to follow the Lord to put his word at the practice to hold to his promises and when we do that and we do that faithfully that is probably the greatest encouragement you know the one of the greatest encouragement you can have as a believer is to know someone who’s been faithful year after year after year after year through thick and thin through troubles through this man and their state still have joy that in their attitude they still have a delight when they speak about the Lord they’re still encouraged about reading and hearing the Word of God and sharing the gospel those those are the probably the greatest blessings of people that I can remember in my life and I think they are the same for you to find someone who’s just downright faithful no matter what’s going on just continue to in their walk with the Lord though those are the greatest encouragement I remember Ken our missionary Ken Newton who spent 40 years in Colombia very tough ministry I mean he used to work with the school where they would have the school children come and of the missionaries who are doing tribal work and they would teach the kids and they said one time the guerrillas came down there pushed him out of the school took over the school and they never did go back and yet they continued on and Ken Newton stayed there 40 years and every time I met the man and his wife he was always a tremendous encouragement to me and he you know I would say you know you’re probably the greatest encouragement that I know in the missionaries that I know out there and I said just simply because you’ve been faithful and I know your issues I know your problems I know the difficulties that you had to deal with on the field and there was nobody there to go and rescue them they had no they they didn’t even have family there to rescue them there’s there’s no coming home and they just stuck with it year after year after year after year after year see to me that’s been current that encourages me to keep going when trouble comes and when life gets difficult just to continue to put one foot in front of the other to breathe in and out and to do the next thing as a believer right that’s encouraging and so if you’re doing that and the next person is doing that and I’m doing that then you know what we’re going to be encouraged by each other right but you know it happens when somebody drops off where they been they’re not consistent in and you know just a fellow believers what happened to them you know that’s not encouraging when you find out too that it’s not really a a real good reason why they’re not there anymore maybe because their job got more busy or maybe they just followed more the line of making more money or what it whatever it is or maybe it’s a sport sports that pull them away from the Lord and and when they’re done with that they get back to it whatever it may be whatever it may be we do all have to look at ourselves and say listen and is my life a life that people can look at that I can encourage someone or is it if I’m being honest with myself is there anything in my life that can cause someone to be discouraged by how I live you know and if you’re honest with yourself take care of it and put things back into perspective because I believe that when you do that you’re gonna find out that from the book of Proverbs and encourage err is someone who is a healer where it says in the Word of God pleasant words are a honeycomb sweet to the soul and healing to the bones also an encourage R is a refresher they know how to refresh people where it tells us in Proverbs also like the cold of snow in the time of harvest as a faithful messenger to those who send him for he refreshes the soul of his masters see and encourage your refreshes people when Timothy was when Paul was in prison Timothy writes while Paul writing the Timothy in the pastoral epistles says the Lord granted mercy to the house of no NIST’s no Anissa fruss for he often refreshed me and then it says this and was not ashamed of my chains he wasn’t ashamed that when I was in prison so encouragers are people who refresh people they have the ability to warm in in a winter they have the ability to give a cup of cool water in the hot summer refreshers warm and cool because because they have certain qualities to them one of the qualities of of an encouraging is they care they care they’re caring they they they want their eight have the ability to pull people who are discouraged out of the holes by showing them somebody does actually care also an encouragers someone who is affirming they affirm a person and help them build a in Gua godly qualities into the life and they usually do that by verbal affirmation see those kind of things should be taking place with us with people verbally encouraging people everyone needs someone in their life to encourage them at some time or another also and someone who is an encourage or is someone who knows how to exhort people they prod push move people along they they are end up being healers refreshers and also encouragers our instructors their mentors their Shepherds proverbs 1621 says the wise in heart will be called discerning and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness that word persuasiveness is the word that means to promote instruction so a an encourage or somebody who comes alongside someone to teach them maybe possibly how to overcome a certain sin to disciple them in the things of the Lord maybe just to come alongside them to pray with them very practically about what’s going on in their life or maybe just to invite them over for a cup of coffee or to meet them somewhere to have a cup of tea or coffee or whatever you drink right for the very reason No Agenda just to encourage them because you noticed something in their life that maybe they’re downcast there’s that you see a downcast countenance in in the way they look and you want to just come alongside hey what’s really going on you know a lot of times people won’t tell you what’s going on right away well they it takes a few conversations to find out what’s really going on because we all want to say well I can work it out myself well no one encouraged your comes along and they want to instruct they want to mentor they want to Shepherd people because they notice those things and then I think also an encourage or is someone who comforts people it says in proverbs 12 verse 25 anxiety in the heart of man weighs it down but a good word makes it glad I remember her hearing reading one time Mark Twain said he once confessed that he could live three weeks on a compliment he says I’m often lifted up by a good word I must admit that I am too when someone gives us a good word it encourages us and some that sometimes that’s all we need we just need a good word someone to notice something in a good work Helen Cole SAR who’s Carol Graves sister now with the Lord used to say with a big smile I have the most wonderful pastor and she really did you really did feel wonderful when she said it she knew how to encourage people with compliments that came out of her heart and you knew it wasn’t phony it wasn’t at all manufactured it was something that you walked away encouraged every time you talk to this lady she may be what some may call bottled sunshine some people are like that and I think encouragers are like that and believe me more than anything else the church needs this kind of person someone who can comfort and bring good news to people and of course a comforter and encouragement will also bring good news of the gospel probably the the greatest news a sinner could ever hear is to be how to be reconciled to God right how will they hear without a preacher who’s going to tell them about the gospel well it’s going to be someone who understands what the gospel is so they can go tell someone else because that’s what people need today they need a gospel of Jesus Christ more than anything else and then one last scripture talks about a man in Scripture I for the sake of time I’m not going to look at all the passages because there’s too many and the person is called the son of encouragement and his name of course you may know his name his name is Barnabas but Barnabas was a flickering light in the dark wilderness and how essential his light was what was he he was called the son of thunder or the son of encouragement and so if you’re reading through the book of Acts you’re gonna find up find out that Barnabas pops up three times in the book of Acts in Acts chapter four he pops up and when does he pop up well when the young church in Jerusalem was forming and it was started a persecution came upon the people in Jerusalem specifically the Jews who were coming to Christ because of the gospel and the Jews were losing their homes and their work and their place in society being kicked out of the synagogue stripped financially and being made desperate in all kinds of ways what does Barnabas do to encourage his suffering brethren you know what he does he sells a tract of land brings it the proceeds all of it to the and distresses distributed to those who have need that’s that’s the first time we hear about Barnabas the son of encouragement do you think that encouraged people when he did that act yes it did it encouraged them and encouraged them in the things of the Lord in the the power of God to meet needs through people second time you find Barnabas is in Acts chapter 11 this time he finds a new convert called Saul of Tarsus who was an outcast because he persecuted the young church so the church didn’t trust his character or his words when he actually did become a believer Saul was shunned and feared by his Christian countrymen so who comes along Barnabas comes along and what does Barnabas do it encouraged his outcast friend he sticks his neck out and puts his own name on the line and he brings Paul before the church and with a big voice proclaims this is our brother he is now a believer he’s now a Christian and we know what happened with the Apostle Paul Saul became the Apostle Paul right well most of the New Testament is written by this man but what if that act of encouragement didn’t happen what if then didn’t happen how much of that how much of that encouragement did Paul did how did it help Paul go on to be what he would become in the church so we don’t realize how little acts of encouragement actually prod people on in holiness godliness and the work of the Lord we find Barnabas popping up a third time in the book of Acts Acts chapter 15 second missionary journey is about to start and Paul and Barnabas are deciding who to take with them Barnabas says let’s take John mark with us now John Mark did go with them on the first missionary journey and the Apostle Paul says absolutely not he deserted us on the last journey he went back to the church in Jerusalem Marx failed once if we take him on the second journey he’s gonna fail again well Barnabas understands the weakness that dwells in the heart of man and so he does he goes to bat for John Mark right so what does Barnabas do they encourage his young friend in spite of his failure he separates from Paul and takes this young friend with him to mentor him he lifted up the failure with encouragement it paid off why did it pay off John Mark ended up writing the Gospel of Mark right so what did that act of encouragement do when when even the Apostle Paul was ready to kick him aside and say I can’t use that man right now and Barnabas says I’ll take him aside I’ll teach them some of the things he needs to learn and that act of encouragement coming alongside of him and rescuing him from himself and from his own failure what did you think that did in the life of Mark where he went on to write the Gospel of Mark but not only did he go on to write the Gospel of Mark it says in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse 11 right where it says this Paul says only Luke is with me and then he says this pick up mark and bring him with you for he is useful to me for service well now Mark is matured he’s encouraged he’s got more theology he understands the battle part of ministry and Paul is now saying bring him with you because he’s profitable to me for service that one little act of encouragement I wonder what it did and how it brought mark to where he was and what he became so ask the Lord this morning to make you an encourage her so that you may be equipped to heal the brokenhearted some young couple that you meet maybe they’re up against it in their marriage and you can come alongside of them and help them maybe you can become a refresher of a weary soul maybe a student who is in their last year of college and they’re just burnt out with school or maybe a military person who’s on who’s been on a long deployment and been away from home or a fellow believer who’s just under the weather maybe you can come and refresh them you know enough that you can come alongside of them or maybe you need to come alongside of somebody to instruct them maybe somebody who’s living or speaking in a foolish way you want to come and show them what the Word of God says about how we’re supposed to act and how we’re supposed to live and how we’re supposed to speak and what a wise person looks like as opposed to what a foolish person looks like so you may you may want to come alongside somebody and disciple some young believer about what God taught you and just a very fact for the motive of encouraging them or maybe just a comfort someone that you come in contact with maybe it’s a divorcee struggling to gain back self-acceptance I don’t know any there’s a multitude of issues that we can detect in people and just come alongside them for encouragement you didn’t think encouragement was so important in the church but remember this discouragement and living a life that causes discouragement is sin you didn’t know that before let’s pray Lord this morning I pray and I ask you Father that we may be encouragers that we may find some glimmer of your promise that we may go forward with a good word with a word of comfort instruction of refreshment of healing Lord and that we can be like Barnabas who watches out where he can encourage who watches people that need encouragement who comes alongside eaving to to the point where he’s willing to separate from friend other friends for the sake of taking someone who is less mature and making them there helping them become more mature so I pray Lord that you may encourage us to grow in generous words of commendation I pray Lord that you would give us a perspective and an insight to respond to thoughts that may touch the soul as well as the body of someone else Lord mature us so that our lives are growing in this characteristic of encouragement and let us be encouraging to those in the body that we’re responsible for in the church that we have people we have contact with and I pray Lord if there’s any inkling of a way in our life that has been a characteristic of discouragement help us Lord to remove it to put that thing out of our life so Lord that by our words our thoughts our actions we can be an encouragement to those who are at different levels in their Christian walk and be able to prod them on to greater works and greater ministries and I pray this this morning in the name of Jesus Christ amen