AAA Church - Authentic, Accepting, and Accelerating

Accelerating Christianity - growing and causing others to grow on!

Here’s the BIG question that shapes this sermon this morning -

On the whole, are you a “giver or taker” in this world?

Everyone of us is either making an emotional deposit or a withdrawal when we interact with others, aren’t we? Some people just suck the oxygen out of the room when they are around for a minute... others walk away and we feel energized!

This happens on all levels of interaction!

ill.- When I buy my gas at a local station, I like when one special guy is tending the pumps. I don’t understand much of what he says because of his heavy Indian accent, but almost always he has a smile on his face. He always thanks me for stopping at his station. By contrast, there is another Indian gas station owner a few miles from here who scowls menacingly when he takes my credit card. I’m sure he doesn’t intend to look so angry, but when I drive away I am almost relieved that the transaction is over! So in a 30 second transaction, I experience a lift from one person, a drain from another.

On a whole different level, here’s another illustration.....

Ill.- One of the reasons that I find meetings with our GSCA Administrator, Cindy Weaver, so enjoyable is that she is one of those people who consistently looks for a way to bring energy and enthusiasm to the room! I have seldom seen her interact with someone, even in a situation where she must correct or direct in a way that demeans or hurts the person. She actively looks for ways to build up the people who work on her team! I’ve heard her praised again and again by the staff in her building.

We can just chalk it up to personality and forget about how we effect others,

or we can take up the challenge to become encouragers!

I am not at all reluctant to make this statement –

IF you are not consistently encouraging others, there is some lack in your Christian experience.

To be sure, seasons come into our lives when we are knocked down by circumstances. In those times we need to make withdrawals from the accounts that we have with others allowing them to minister to us. However, on the whole, Believers should be encouragers, people who bring out the best in others.

TEXT - Hebrews 10: 19-25 Pew Bible page4 1873

I will not take the time to ‘unpack’ that whole passage, but the reasoning is basically this -

Christ opened up a direct line of communication to God for each and every one of us.

We can walk right up to God to find all the resources we need to deal with life.

With such rich resources at hand, we should live liberally, generously, and encourage each other

to higher and greater achievements for God’s glory!

Re-read. v. 24-25

There are two action phrases in those two verses each describing a different way that you and fulfill the command to bring out the best in our fellow Believers, ways that we help them to accelerate, to grow on in Christ.

The first is ‘spur one another on.’ The KJV uses the word, “provoke.” It’s not a nice word in the original text of the Bible, NT Greek. It is a word that means to ‘irritate, or to contend with another sharply.’

Today we might say, ‘get in your face!’ If we really love each other, we won’t accept lazy, half-hearted, or insincere expressions of faith from those we love. We will challenge each other to do the best possible, to be holy.

There is an example of this in the Scripture involving Peter and Paul.

ill. The early church, for the first couple of decades of her existence, was primarily made up of converted Jews, who continued to observe Jewish religious customs. But God wanted the message of Christ to go beyond being just for descendants of Abraham. The Spirit spoke to Peter in an amazing vision and sent him to preach to Cornelius, a Roman officer. Peter saw that household receive Christ and took note that they were filled with the Holy Spirit. So, he knew, first hand that it was God’s will to take the Gospel to the whole world. Paul, likewise, received instruction from the Lord to preach to the world. He also came to understand that the Jewish rituals such as Sabbath observance, circumcision, and keeping a kosher diet was not required of Gentile Believers. On one occasion, Peter was having dinner with some Christian Jews from Jerusalem and he gave into their pressure not to eat with the Gentile Christians, discriminating against them. When Paul heard about it, he would not let it pass! He expected better of someone like Peter and he got in his face about it

READ- Galatians 2: 11-17

Back to Hebrews 10....

The second word in our text that describes the way we bring out the best in others is ‘encourage one another.’ It has a very different connotation. The NT Greek is one that means to come alongside of another to offer support when they need assistance. It is the same word that is used as a name for the Holy Spirit, when Jesus called Him, The Comforter.

Often what we need is not a kick in the seat of the pants or someone in our face, but rather a word of affirmation, an arm around shoulders, someone who prays with us or for us! A man who has been a good friend to me did just that this week when he sent me an email that was short and to the point in which he affirmed my ministry to him in the delivery of the message. His note was like a pat on the back.

When we see others with the eyes of Jesus, we will wisely know when they need to be affirmed. We will take delight expressing our hope that they can successfully complete the work that God has called them to do. We will help them shoulder their burdens, even as Jesus helps us shoulder our burden. It is not by accident that the church is called a family in the New Testament. Loving, functional families provide support, encouragement, and protection as we ought to do for each other.

The people of the church that I grew up in always used the term, “Brother or Sister,” when they addressed each other. It may seem quaint to us today, but it was an expression of esteem and connectedness, a constant reminder that we were family and needed to treat each other in a loving way! Maybe we ought to bring that form of address back? (Smile!)

There is a short letter in the Bible that is packed full of encouragement. It is a model for us in our desire to be accelerating Believers who help others to grow on in Christ. It is Paul’s letter to Philemon. You can find it in your Pew Bible on page 1860.

Here’s the story that gives this letter context. While Paul was in the city of Colosse, a man named Philemon had come to Christ and become a church leader. He had a household slave named Onesimus, who stole some money and ran away to Rome. While Paul was in prison in Rome, he somehow met Onesimus. The runaway slave became a Christian and a good friend to Paul, helping him in many ways. Paul realized that Onesimus needed to go back to Colosse and settle his debt to Philemon. This is the letter he wrote to his friend and sent with Onesimus.

READ

What stands out to me as much as anything in this letter is how Paul deals with a very sensitive issue in such a gentle way. He models a kind of encouragement that I want for my life. As an apostle and as a spiritual father to Philemon, Paul could have written in a commanding style, demanding that Philemon act in a specific way, but he does not take that approach! Instead, he speaks truthfully and invites his friend to act in a certain way towards his errant slave.

Some of us mistakenly think that to be an encourager, we must always concern ourselves with ‘good feelings’ and make sure that no one is ever challenged by our words. But that is not what Paul does in this letter. His concern is greater than helping Philemon to feel good about himself. He wants Philemon to act in a way that pleases God for Paul knows what we all need to know - the way we truly find self-esteem is to align ourselves with God’s purposes and gain His approval of our way of life!

Paul encourages his friend towards the right choice in specific ways, things that ought to instruct you and me about the way we encourage growth.

1. He expresses his interest in Philemon as a person!

Paul uses very personal language in this letter. He does not speak of himself as an apostle. He calls himself, “an old man... a prisoner of Christ Jesus.” He calls Philemon, his “partner” and a “brother.”

Encouragers are not phony flatterers who use empty praise to gain compliance!

ill. - the car salesman who paid Bev and I all kinds of personal until the moment we signed the sales contract, and then he lost interest in us. We weren’t persons, we were just a paycheck!

Do you see others as persons or as tools to use to accomplish your agenda?

Real encouragers love people, they don’t use them.

2. He affirms the good things he has heard about his faith.

If you are about to encourage someone in the sense of ‘provoking’ them to good works, as I spoke of a few moments, you would be wise to take note of their positive accomplishments first! Also, by taking note of the successes, the accomplishments of others, we gain their trust.

I don’t know anyone who does not desire to be useful and worthy. If we only correct, we diminish a person’s self of worth, but if we note what they do, how they do it, and provide honest feedback, our very words let them know that we consider them a person who is useful and worthy.

3. He makes his appeal from love, not authority.

Love is always a much more powerful motivating factor than force! Force produces quicker results, but love produces lasting results. In the church, we are always tempted to use our positions of authority to ‘force’ others to do what we want them to do, but if we do, we will likely only win the battle even as we lose the war.

Ill. - A common mistake that parent make is to use the appeal to force first when trying to make their kids comply with their wishes. Of course a parent is in authority over his child, by God’s design, but a child cannot just be pounded into submission by harsh words or threats of harm! If that is way a father trains his son, that child will almost certainly reject his father’s ways and training as soon as he is old enough to stand on his own two feet. However, if a father builds a relationship of love with that son, he creates a strong desire for obedience in his son.

Believer, we need to build strong ties of love to one another. This love will provide a strong motivation to work together, for each of us to set aside our own convenience and/or preferences for the sake of the Body of Christ.

4. He sees a positive result and creates ‘vision’ for Philemon.

Encouragers help us with vision! They see as God sees, what can be, not just what is.

Some of the most discouraging words in the world are ‘I always knew you would turn out to be a failure.’ Or

“You are as worthless as .....” Or “You will never amount to anything because ...”

Sometimes it is true that a person is a total failure, that they mess up - and we cannot ignore the truth. But, even as we confront, we can help them see a new vision of life as God does!

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God desires that the church be a place of possibilities, not limitations!

He has given you and me the gifts of His Spirit so that we can live inter-connected lives that build His kingdom and bring Him glory. We need to be encouragers, not in competition, but learning to cooperate for the greater good. In Galatians, Paul writes:

It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom.

Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence:

Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness.

Are you an accelerating Christian - growing and encouraging others to grow?

Amen