Encouragement

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to try this. I'm not I'm not very hopeful I have I'm very skeptical that this is going to go well, but we're going to give it a try. All right. Is that's the best I can do? So good afternoon everyone. It is Thursday, February twenty seventh, twenty twenty five. It is currently five three pm Central Time, and I'm coming to you from the Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. I almost wanted to call this the Discouragement Studio, the discouragement Headquarters, or maybe I should say the Encouraging the encouragement Headquarters, but no, no, no, no, there's no encouragement to be found here today because we're going to be talking about discouragement.

0:59 But I'm supposed to be talking about encouragement. Actually I don't know what I should be talking about. But here we are. You were there, I'm here, I'm live, so we're going to do our very best. Now. Earlier today, we had kind of a discussion about encouragement. Discouragement the church, is it encouraging discouraging? And we kind of had a discussion about that, ladies and gentlemen. That discussion did not go as planned. In fact, there was a moment in the middle of that discussion where I picked up my iPad I looked at my analytics screen to see how many people were actually listening to me live, because I was very tempted at that very moment. I think I was thirty minutes into the broadcast, just stopping the broadcast, just stopping. If one or two people were listening, they wouldn't know what happened, just star up, delete and say, you know what, let's just move forward. But once I looked at the numbers, I'm like, there's way too many people listening. I've I've got to keep going. I don't want to keep going. But by the time, the more I talked, the more well discouraging it became, the more discouraged I felt. Even though I was trying to talk a little bit about encouragement and discouragement, I was becoming more discouraged as I was speaking. Now, why did that happen? Well,

2:34 let's do this. Let me define discouragement. Now I know we're gonna talk about encouragement here, and we're gonna we're gonna listen to an illustration about encouragement that I was supposed to play in the last broadcast, which I never got to. But let's let's talk about what discouragement is you ready, discouragement? Discouragement is the loss of confidence, hope, or motivation due to difficulties, failures, or negative influences. Discouragement is the state of feeling disheartened, defeated, or weary. Discouragement is the state of feeling disheartened, defeated, or weary. Now, one of the questions I asked in the last broadcast, what are your greatest sources of discouragement? What are the great sources of discouragement in your life? And one of the great sources of discouragement for me, one of the great ones, and many of you know this about me, is I have obviously a seizure disorder. Everything that happened to me in the military. I'm not going to tell the long story, but I have a seizure disorder, and coming with that, all those seizures are neurological issues. Yeah, you see, I can't even speak correctly today, and well That's exactly one of the things that happens when I'm having I don't know, I want to call it a spell.

3:58 When I'm going through this like a peereriod of time where my head is not quite feeling right. Everything seems fuzzy. I describe it as being like underwater. I can't seem to get clarity of thought, Like I'm talking, but I don't feel like I'm I don't know if what I'm saying is making sense. There's just like it, and it feels like you have all this pressure in your head and you just feel like you don't feel confused, but you just you feel pain, like the head hurts. You don't feel clarity. You feel like you're underwater. You can you can see the surface, but the more you swim, you can't quite get there. So if I'm talking, it's like I feel like I'm trying to get to I'm trying to get to the top of the water, but I can't quite get there. So then I get frustrated because I'm trying to get my point across. But then even if I'm getting my point across, I don't feel like I'm getting my point across because now there's now you got a feeling and your head's hurting and it's all fuzzy and foggy, and oh man, you talk about discouraging it can be. Oh, I mean, there's no other way to describe this. I mean, hey, that's okay. I mean.

5:07 The good thing about being a podcaster is I can I can offend people. Like there's things you're not supposed to say in church because we all have to pretend that everything is wonderful and great and we can't be honest and real. But I can be honest and real. There's times I just want to I just want to smack this side of my head with my fists. I just want to. I want to just start pounding myself, Go what is wrong? Snap out of it? What is wrong? Because you can feel that it's not right, but you're like, maybe if I just hit it real hard, it'll it'll do a reset. Sometimes the only thing that can happen is drop have a seizure, and then it's like it resets the brain and then it's like now you know, for twenty four hours, forty eight hours, it's miserable, but then it's like, oh, I'm not underwater anymore. The sun is shining. I have clarity of thought. I can think, I can think like and when you're broadcasting, you want to be able to you want to be able to pivot right there. You want to be oh, this thought, this, this, you want to be able to do that. But when your brain is not quite working correct, you can get very, very discouraged. It's a feeling of being disheartened. It's you feel defeated, you feel weary. So for me, I have this medical condition that is a constant source of discouragement, in fact, one of the primary sources of discouragement. It's up there. Okay, I don't know. I probably could list three things, but that one is very is up there, and it's been I mean, I've been having the problem.

6:30 I try to explain it to people. Everything that went wrong with me in the military. Everything happened was what January of two thousand and three, If I remember correctly, it was Friday. It was a Friday afternoon, and then by by that Monday, I mean I thought it was going to die before the weekend was over. By Monday, yeah, I mean, everything went horribly wrong. But from that moment that January two thousand and three, I don't think there. I mean I have basically had a migraine since two thousand and three without ever any serious relief. Ever, it just goes from less to intense, mild to intents like it never it never stops. And for the most part, hey stop wanting about it, stop complaining about it. This is the way life works. Deal with it. Just do it, and I do a good job. Right, I turn on the microphone, I broadcast, I broadcast. I don't let it control me. I don't let it stop me from doing what I want to do. I don't try to let my seizure stop me. But sometimes I'm not smart right because what I have a tendency to do when I feel ah, I feel my head's not right. Then I get mad, then I get ticked off. I'm like, you're not gonna stop me, So I'm gonna go sit in front of that microphone and I'm going to broadcast. And now, almost inevitably, it doesn't go right. Now, even if from your side, I don't know what you hear, you may say, well you sound. You have more clarity when you're going through one of those problems than when you don't go one of those problems. Okay, fine, you can say what whatever you want. But for me, no matter what I do,

8:03 it doesn't matter if I talk for thirty minutes, forty five minutes, an hour and fifteen minutes, it doesn't matter what I do. When it's all said and done, it's gonna feel like a train wreck, a disaster, because in my mind things are I'm sitting there while I'm talking, having this debate. Wait, does that sound right? Does this even make sense? What point am I even making? I don't even know if I remember what point I'm making. And it's like I think I'm gonna have a seizure, right, like all of that's going on. So it can be discouraging. So for me, one of the greatest sources of discouragement is a medical condition that is not ever going away. As the doctors have often said to me, you have a seizure disorder, and it will probably be the thing that kills you. You're gonna drop have a seizure, and that's gonna be the end. Okay, well, wonderful, thanks, that's very encouraging. I very much appreciate your honesty. Okay, right, But but it can be it can oh, it can drive it can drive me crazy. And and because I have this, and just remember discouragement as a state of feeling disheartened. It's a state of feeling disheartened, feeling defeated, or feeling weary. It can become I can become very weary in it, just like, oh man, what am I doing?

9:16 And it just because yeah, all these thoughts. Some of the key aspects of discouragement a sense of hopelessness or despair. I mean, there's been times with my seizures, because I mean there's been times I've gone through periods of time where I've had so many. You talk about hopelessness, you talk about despair, feeling way down by failure, setbacks. Well, it's not so much failure, but it's setbacks because you have this happening, a loss of motivation or will to continue. Oh I've been there. Okay, Being criticized, rejected, or ignored, Now, that can happen. You can get discouraged with, especially in broadcasting, right. You get criticized, You get emails telling you you're trash your car, you're stupid, you're an idiot, you're wrong, you're a heretic, you're you know, getting death threats, Okay you yeah, that can be that can way you do being rejected? Well, yeah I felt I felt that being ignored. Yeah, you can feel that experiencing disillusionment, disillusionment due to unmet expectations.

10:21 If you have an expectation that, well, this is going to go this way, or this is going to go this way. I mean, this is one of the things that can be Life itself can be a source of discouragement. Why because you have unmet expectations. I think wherever it can be in a relationship, it can be a stage in life, it can be a job, it can be a career, it can be a hobby. You have certain expectations that this is the way it should be, and when all of all of those expectations just blow up in your face and yet it's not that way, well then there's disillusionment. It can depending on your stage of life. You may be in a perpetual state of well I did not expect it to be this way, and you live in a perpetual state of disillusionment, which is a form with just a state of discouragement. So what is your source of discouragement? So going full blown you just confession times that's definitely one of mine. Definitely, and I hate it and I loathe it. But at the same time, then I could you know then and see this is where people are gonna get irritated with me. See people will say, well, look to Christianity, look to God, and it will remove that discouragement and give you encouragement. But at the same time you got to remember, Wait, Christianity says to do all things without grumbling and complaining. Well, I just spent eleven minutes grumbling and complaining about my situation.

11:42 So am I committing a sin? Wait? Be content and whatever state you find yourself, am I content? No? I'm not content? So am I in sin? See? Sometimes Christianity can even be more discouraging because you can be discouraged and then find yourself in a state mentally, emotionally then that you're not in line with God's word. So then now you have more guilt and sin heaped upon you. That was some of the points I was trying to make is that inherently sometimes not just the church. I mean I didn't get into just Christianity itself, but you can find yourself like, man, I know I'm discouraged, but I should be doing this, and I should be doing this, and I should be doing this, and I should be doing this. Well I'm not doing this. Well now I'm discouraging that I'm not doing this, and now I feel guilty and fore shame. What is your source of discouragement? Now?

12:34 In contrast to discouragement, we have the idea of encouragement. Now, encouragement is defined as encouragement is the act of giving support. That's you being encouraging, the act of giving support, confidence, or hope to someone. Now, So, in a sense, let's kind of change us up a little bit, because it's funny that the definition of encouragement goes not with the state of being encouraged, it goes with the idea of encouraging someone. So just remember in your life or my life, let's just go ahead and state this. We, as human beings, we are a source of discouragement or encouragement. Right. We are a source of leading people to a loss of confidence, destroying their hope, destroying their motivation, helping them feel disheartened, helping them feel defeated, and helping them become weary. We can become the source of literally making things horrible for someone.

13:37 We can literally be the thing that just discourages someone, breaks them apart, tears them apart, tears them down, puts them in a horrible situation where they constantly have to feel And well, no, you should not want to be a source of discouragement. I should not want to be a source of discouragement. I think sometimes as Christians we like to justify that I'm just offering rebuke, I'm just offering I'm just being godly. Well there's a time for that, But there's a time you're just being discouraging and destroying someone and you know, kicking them while they're down. So are you a source of discouragement? Am I a source of discouragement? I think a lot of times I am a source of discouragement. But yeah, that's because I tend to be negative and jaded. But just just just make sure this is very important. You don't want to just try to be encouraging by offering people false hope and lies and misrepresenting reality. That doesn't help either. Okay, so how about being encouraging, Well, we go back to Encouragement is the act of giving support or confidence or hope to someone. When you are encouraging, you are supporting someone you're building up their confidence. You're giving them hope where there is no hope. But again, don't give them false hope.

14:50 See now I do not. I get very frustrated. And this is another thing I have a problem with the church in Christianity. I think a lot of times it offers fraudulent hope to people. It gives them, it rips versus out of context. It gives them hope and promises that are never going to come to the way that you're being sold them, which you give them a temporary sense of encouragement, which only leads to even worse discouragement. Encouragement involves strengthening, uplifting, are reassuring a person in times of struggle, uncertainty, or hardship. Now, it's interesting. Encouragement really is to find here more and being encouraging than being encouraged.

15:32 So I think if we try to work this definition out a little bit better, then if you are encouraged, if you if you are in a state of being encouraged, then then I think you would you'll feel uplifted, You'll feel confident, you'll feel you'll feel strength, You'll I think it'll be the op obviously be the opposite of being discouraged? But are you and couraging? Now, when we talk of encouragement as something you do, you're providing emotional or spiritual strength. You're offering hope and reassurance. You're affirming someone's worth, ability or potential. You're reminding someone of truth and purpose, and you're motivating perseverance through difficult situations. Now, okay, what you see.

16:23 What is if I put encouragement, we're gonna get the same thing. What is it to be encouraged encouraged? Let's see what happens here? What is it to be encouraged? To be encouraged means to be strengthened, uplifted, or given renewed confidence, hope, or motivation. So, if you are in a state of encouragement, you have emotional strength, you feel uplifted, you feel more confident to face challenges, You gain a refreshed perspective or c and difficult situations. If you are in a state of being encouraged, if you are encouraged, you're in a state of that. You have emotional strength, you have mental renewal, you have motivation to continue, you regain the will to persevere through struggles. You have hope and reassurance. You find peace or comfort, often through truth or support, and then if you're encouraged, you receive affirmation, guidance, or confirmation from someone else encouraged or discouraged. Now, what is your source of encouragement? I talked about my sources of discouragement, right, what then are our sources of encouragement? Now?

17:43 I think inevitably we tend I think this is true. I think we tend to look to I think we tend tend ten we tend we tend to look to others for encouragement. I think that it's constantly where we look to encouragement. So I wonder if this here's kind of a question. Should we find encouragement in others or should we find encouragement in objective truth? Because I think in evil I mean, maybe I'm wrong. Inevitably, whoever you look to for encouragement, can they always provide it, especially if they're going to be honest, because sometimes I mean, I mean, I wonder do we get more encouragement from someone telling us the truth? Or do we get more encouragement from someone making us feel better? Things are going to get better? Well, if I'm being honest, with you.

18:56 I don't know if anything's going to get better. Well, God's going to do this. I don't if God's going to do anything to help you. Right, Hey it's all gonna work out? Well, no it may not. You may die. But if we have someone come along who just tells us yes, see, that makes it very difficult. So what is your source of encouragement? What is your source of discouragement? I shared my source of discouragement, encouragement. There's a part of me that wants to say, what's going to encourage me is truth? Right, What's going to encourage me is is the reality of God and the truth of imputed righteousness, because see, those things are immutable, those don't It doesn't matter what anybody else says, It doesn't matter what anybody else does. And maybe I'm nervous to ever consider people as a source of encouragement, even though and maybe in some ways I want to, But maybe there's a part of me that doesn't want to. And maybe because maybe because of the way I was raised, Right, I mean, we won't go through the horrible stories, right, because then it just sounds like I'm trying to get sympathy, right, But I mean whoo, there was no encouragement happening, And I don't to even call it discouragement would be the biggest understatement in the history of the world. It was almost mental and physical torture at times. Right, So, so then if you can't look to your parents for encouragement,

20:26 then a good portion of the things I experienced in school. Now I did have some teachers I would think would be a source of encouragement, but the most part, the entire public education system was nothing but one big source of discouragement. And then when I got into the church, I really but I can look at periods of my church life where it's been absolutely some of the most discouraging moments in my life. I mean absolutely message, So is it fair to look to people to be the source of encouragement because their center sinners, they have their own problems. I don't know. Now, why are we talking about all of this? Well, not only because I wasn't happy with the last broadcast, because this all started at about four o'clock this morning listening to Insight for Living with pastor Chuck Swindall Charles Windall, and I was I think it was I don't know, maybe it was two days old, two days old episode, three days old episode, and well to be fair on the insight for living For those don't know, Charles Stanley's like, I don't know, eighty ninety years old now, right, So they're the broadcast is still pulling from his older stuff, you know, from the seventies, eighties, nineties, don't.

21:43 I don't know how. I don't know what their what their art guives look like. But they're pulling from a long time ago. And this is a message he was doing on encouragement encouragement. It's broken into three parts. This was part one. I skipped all of the introductory material, all of that, and I'm just going to begin where the sermon begins and he's going to give a definition about encouragement. All right, So I want to play this. I want you to hear it, and then we can just we'll just kind of throw out some additional thoughts here on encouragement and discouragement, and well we can see if we come to if I can come up with some good concluding remarks. Here are you ready? Here we go, Jock title today's message, strengthening your grip on encouragement.

22:30 In a large church, there are times that we have to simply take a long look at where we are going and determine some direction so that we might remain a family, a meaningful, functioning, healthy family. For this reason, we've dedicated the present series to the purpose of helping us remain healthy, giving us some direction before God as we search his word for hope and direction. Two sundays ago, we talked about priorities as a local assembly, and we landed on four of them that are essential for us to remain healthy. We must remain biblical, We must be authentic.

23:19 Our ministry must be characterized by a graciousness and compassion, and of course, we must remain relevant in touch with our times. Last time we were together, we talked about the value of involvement. We discussed spontaneity, we discussed accountability. We saw in the scripture even the basis of our being vulnerable with one another, not keeping each other at arms distance, but remaining close to one another, having a gesture that reaches out rather than pushes people away. This is very, very important as we think about involvement in our growth and in our ministry. Today, I want to talk about encouragement. The basis of this message is in Hebrews chapter ten Versus nineteen through twenty five. As some of you know, I took a few days off last week.

24:19 To all fascinating points those four things the church needs fascinating. But now he's going to talk about encouragement. Now, I think he's going to be kind of structuring this. And again it was around four o'clock in the morning, but so I just want to play the opening illustration. But I think he really is going to structure this. And because he's quoting from Hebrews chapter ten, I think this would be an I think what I'm saying here is an accurate representation. He's going to look to the church, the institution, with this place where we come as the source of a place where we come for encouragement. Right now. Again, I challenged that in the last broadcast. Only the hell the church I think is more. I think the church tends to be an institution of discouragement more than encouragement.

25:06 And sometimes it's not even what is intended, it's just the way Christianity is. I know. I think we like to say, well, Christianity is encouraging, Christianity is encouraging. I think we have to define what we mean by that right, Christianity is encouraging. If I'm looking for this kind of encouragement about eternity, about salvation, about the forgiveness of sins. We like to say, well, no, it's encouraging because we have these promises about what God is going to do for us here, what God is going to do for us now, how God is going to deliver us, how God's going to protect us, how God's going to do this. But the problem is you're giving people false assurance because you don't know if God is going to be is going to do anything for you. You don't know if He's gonna help you in any way, shape or form.

25:46 We even got the Scripture to demonstrate that, right. We had situations in the Bible where God steps in, he intervenes, and you're like whoa. And then you've got situations God doesn't appear to be anywhere. He could stop it, He could intervene nowhere. He shows up to raise Lausars from the dead. John the Baptist gets his head chopped off, and he doesn't Jesus doesn't even bother to show up to visit him in prison. I can go on and on this situation he steps in stops anything from happening. But in this situation, God's not there and lets a woman's husband be murdered and God doesn't intervene at all. I mean, there's all these situations, so even in biblical times, we don't there's no clear caaring tea. And then of yeain we go to promises, many cases, promises that are directed towards Israel based off the covenant he made with them.

26:31 Grab those promises, try to give them to people, say hey, be encouraged. Well, when the church offers encouragement, that's a false assurance. Then you're gonna you're actually going to become a source of discouragement. In fact, when it comes to what I think we need to understand this, When it comes to encouragement, encouragement is not offering false assurance. It's not offering false assurance. Okay, my neighbor is a police officer and I guess he's testing his sirens. But that just scared me to death. Okay, all right, so yeah, thank you. He's probably telling me to be quiet. All right, here we go. So encouragement is not false assurance. We don't say everything will be fine when reality suggests otherwise.

27:15 It's not empty positivity. We don't give shallow encouragement without real substance or truth. And number three, we don't deny struggles pretending suffering doesn't exist. That's not what we do. So we don't offer false assurance. We don't offer empty positivity, and we don't deny struggles. And I think sometimes the church is structured to almost offer false assurance, as if God's going to do Something's God. I mean, hey, God, God loves you, and God wants to help you, and God wants to do this, and God wants to do that. Well, you can't you. God may love you, but you don't know how He's going to intervene in any waysh your perform. However, I can give you full assurance that God sent his son to die for you, and when you put your faith in him imputed, his righteousness is imputed to your account.

27:59 And then you're only secure and there will be a time there will be no more pain, no more suffering, and no more death. And glorification, a new having, a new et cetera, et cetera, a glorified body, et cetera, et cetera. Now that I can give you on the basis of God's word. If I start offering some of these other promises, well then I start ripping versus out of context, false assurance. I don't want to give people empty positivity, some shallow encouragement with no real substance and no real truth. Hey, the sun will come up tomorrow, you know, you know, just offering you know everything's gonna be all right, Okay, I mean just no, no, no, no, no, or And I don't want to try to create this idea of denying struggles. So he's going to point to the church as kind of being the place where we come for this encouragement. And I'm going to argue the church historically has been a place that's offered fraudulent encouragement, it's offered false assurance, empty positivity, and almost deny the reality of struggles. Well, then that that is going to put people in a worse place than they are in.

29:08 Now he's going to really emphasize that the church is where you come for encouragement. I think the church is where you come for encouragement if the encouragement is offered correctly. But if you offer the couragement that's incorrectly, you're not going to be offering the encouragement that most people will offer. I mean, man alive. I've heard Christians try to offer me encouragement during very difficult times, and I had almost every single time. The encouragement is just it's so just what what are you talking about? Like? What? Just stop? Okay, that's not encouraging. First, what do you why are you be quoting that scripture? What are you even talking about? Like? I just want to I just want to start screaming. So he's going to say the church is a place for encouragement right now, we can talk about that again.

29:51 I think it can be if it offers the right kind of encouragement. It's when it offers the wrong kind of encourage encouragement, and I believe, based on what we talked about in the last broadcast, I and demonstrate throughout church history the church has been a place of discouragement. All right, But let's see what he does. Here minister in a very concentrated manner with the singles single adults up in Keystone, Colorado. Now I kind of broke that up a little bit. He had an opportunity recently to do an extensive period of ministry to the singles in Colorado, right. So that's the setup here.

30:32 The first time in ten years on Thanksgiving that I had chosen to be away. It was a tough decision to make, but it seemed as though it was God's direction. I am so glad I was a part of that. For several days, most of my family was allowed to go with me, and we experienced a warmth and a delight with a number of people in the campus Crusade for Christ Ministry, among their single adult staff. You know, when you're married, it's easy for you to think you understand the lifestyle of the single but it is not fully possible unless you were with them for an extended period of time, which was my privilege to be. I worked hard through the week communicating to these who were so responsive and so teachable, so much so that by Friday I decided I would take most of the day off and do something that I have never done. Ski.

31:33 Did I ever ski? Well? I think some would call it skiing, but most would say it bears no resemblance to what should happen on the slopes. It had snowed all day Thanksgiving, and so there was a beautiful powder all over the ski slopes on Friday and it was unbelievable what I did on the slopes that day. I did the most creative, innovative things coming down the hill where most people would ski. I did all things but that you have heard of the elephant man. I am the rhinoceros man on the ski slopes. One of the reasons I stayed at the task more than fifteen minutes is because I had the world's most patient kind of teacher.

32:38 Okay, so he's gonna he's shaping this encouragement within the church and in the church. Oh we're gonna, I'm gonna say. He doesn't really maybe define it as an institutional thing, but the church and then people. So he tries to ski. And the reason he continues more than fifteen minutes because of his teacher, of his instructor. So he's going to find encouragement in a person. A person is going to be the source of encouragement. Now, I and I again, I'm very conflicted on this. I very much struggle with this right because I don't know what people wrote down.

33:24 Like I almost wish I would have done the first, you know, the first message on this, you know, in front of a live audience, because it would be really interesting. I wouldn't have asked for people to turn in their paper, but if I could see their paper, it would be interesting to know what people wrote down as their greatest sources of encouragement, their greatest sources of discouragement. And I wonder how many cases where because if I was going to put some of the greatest sources of discouragement in my life my seizures, and then number two, but people, people have been some of the greatest sources of discouragement in my entire life. I would start with my parents, okay, and the horrible stuff if they did all right, so that would be right there, right, and then things that happened to me in school, things I mean people people by the sheer number, Like if I just count how many people have been sources of discouragement, the number of people who've been discouraging versus the number of people who've offered me encouragement in my life, like it would be like it wouldn't even be it would be within the same ballpark, Like one number would be like I'm just throwing out just using hyperbole. You know, ten million discouraging and you know a half of one being encouraging. Again, I'm using hyperbole. I'm not giving you exact numbers or anything along those lines, right, I'm not doing that, Okay, So just make sure you understand that. So and so.

34:47 In some ways, I would see there's a greater potential because the church is made up of people that the people in the church. To me, this is just my view, there's a greater chance that the people in the church will be discouraging, not encouraging. The people you work with, there's a high probability many of them will be more discouraging than encouraging. Now, you may have lived a wonderful life. You've got family around you who encourages you and supports you. You've got a great relationship. You've got a husband or spouse who's there to support you. They love you, they and you've got all of that. And if you do man, so, you may be sitting there going no people are encouraging and it's wonderful and it's great, and it's like mister Robertson's or mister Robertson's neighborhood, what is the name of that, mister Rogers neighborhood? They see, Okay, I'm gonna get discouraged with myself I know it's mister Rogers neighborhood. I've said it a million times, but all of a sudden today because of neurological issues, I can't even speak correctly. So but it's like, mister Rogers neighborhood, right, it's all wonderful, It's great everyone. Don't you want to be my neighbor?

35:56 It's all perfect. You've had a so Now I'm not saying that means there's never been anything bad in your life. I'm just saying, if you've got that structure all around you, you've been encouraged by people. So hearing people as a source of encouragement makes sense to you. For me, people as a source of encouragement. The people who have discouraged me outnumber the people have encouraged me by astronomical numbers. Levels are like, there's levels to this thing, mister Roberts, the neighborhood. What in the world Now, I'm mad at myself, mister Rogers neighborhood? What what am I doing? Okay? All right, see now say I'm getting discouraged Sam. Now when this is over all, I'm going to remember, is that mistake right there? Not all the other ones. I'm going to remember that when the most because there was no reason to mess that up and destroyed the whole thing I was trying to do there. Right. So, but the point is is I have when when I hear a sermon, illustration, and it's going to be going to try to be the church is the place of encouragement. I already get a little nervous because I've seen the church be such a source of discouragement in my life, massive levels of discouragement in my life. And then people, people, people, I wonder,

37:26 hang on, all right, hang, I'm gonna ask Ai this all right? If we look at all the relationships and personal interactions in the scriptures, in the scriptures, hang on, if I can type correctly in the scripture, would we find that people are a source are more are more often hang let me get figure, are more often a source of encouragement or discouragement? This is this is an interesting thing to consider, right, Oh, here we go, Here we go, okay, and I'm asking Ai here. When we examine all the relationships and personal interactions and scripture, we find that people are far more often a source of discomfort, conflict, and discouragement rather than encouragement. While encouragement exists, The Bible presents human relationships as deeply flawed, often marked by betrayal, failure, and hardship, rather than constant support. The pattern of human relationship and scripture more discomfort than encouragement. Did I say

38:58 discomfort in my thing? No? I said discomfort? All right, let me do this again. Hang on, gotta copy, hang on, I'm gonna I'm gonna go down here. Okay, Well it's going on. Ay. I was writing a book right now. Hey, I was gonna get ready to get really mad at me. Well it's not gonna get mad at me, but I'm gonna ask it to do it again, all right, Okay, all right, so I'm going so I'm gonna go back here discouragement. Okay, there we go. All right, Now I'm gonna ask it to do it again. All right, So here we go. When examine, for some reason, I typed in discomfort, imagine that, all right. So, when examining all relationships and personal interactions and scripture, we find that people are overwhelmingly a source of discouragement, conflict, betrayal, and failure rather than consistent encouragement. While moments of encouragement exist. The Bible record record shows that human relationships are deeply flawed.

39:54 Often they often cause more pain than comfort. Throughout scripture, conflict, betrayal, and disappointment are far more common than encouragement. The pattern holds across family relationships, friendships, religious leaders, political rulers, and even among believers. From the earliest pages of the Bible, family dynamics are filled with strife and brokenness rather than support encouragement. Adam and Eve, the first human relationship, results in blame, shifting and expulsion from the garden. Cain and Abel the first siblings, and with jealousy and murder Jacob and Esau. Deception and betrayal define the relationship Joseph and his brothers. Joseph has sold into slavery by his own brothers.

40:36 David and his sons a household filled with rape, murder, rebellion, and division. Encouraging moments very very few. Discouragement, betrayal, violence, and family dysfunction dominate, and that's even among those who believe in God, those who are followers of the True God. Even among friends and trusted companions see repeated failure rather than unwavering support. Job's friends, David and his trusted adviser hit the fella I think is how you say his name betrays him In Absalom's rebellion, Jesus and his disciples. All his disciples abandon him when he is arrested. Well, John stays Peter's denial. Peter, one of Jesus's closest friends, denies him three times Paul and Demas. Demus wants a fellow worker, abandons Paul out of love for the world.

41:30 Encouraging friendships some David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi, but they are very rare. Discouragement friendships often feil and critical moments all right, instead of being When it comes to religious leaders, instead of being spiritual guides, many religious leaders in Scripture burden, oppress, and to see people rather than offering a true encouragement Pharisees and the scribes. Jesus condemns them for burdening people with legalism while being hypocritical themselves. Eli and his sons, the corrupt priests. They abuse power and lead Israel into judgment. The High Priest and Jesus. The religious leaders plot against the Messiah and falsely accuse him. The false prophets in Jeremiah twenty three and Ezequel thirteen.

42:12 Many spiritual leaders give people false hope and misrepresent God. Encouraging religious leaders few, but exceptions include Moses, Samuel and some faithful priests. Discouragement. Religious leadership is often corrupt and misleading. Political leaders and rulers are usually oppressive. Most political rulers in scripture abuse their power, oppressed people, or rebel against God. Pharaoh, Samuel and David are Saul and David Saul is jealous and tries to kill David, Ahaben, Jezebel Herod, and John the Baptist pontious Pilot, all of these most likely. When it comes to leaders, Most rulers are self serving and oppressive.

42:52 Even among believers, there is more failure than support. Even within the community of faith, people fail one another frequently. Moses and Israel. The people constantly complain, rebel and test Moses's patients. Paul in the early churches, many churches fall into sin division false doctrine. Despite Paul's teaching Jesus and his followers, many of his disciples abandon Jesus when the teaching becomes difficult. Are there encouraging moments, yes, but they're temporary. Often mixed with struggle. Sin and failure remain common even among believers. So then when you frame encouragement like he's getting ready to do hey, we're in Hebrews ten, and he's going to frame that in the context of the church.

43:37 And now he went skiing and he was going to give up. But hey, it was because of a person. So now that's pointing to the institution and then maybe pointing to a person as a source of encouragement. Let's see how it plays out. This young woman just simply dedicated herself to the assignment of helping me learn how to ski. What is interesting is that when I snapped on the skis, I said to her, I am going to be one of the one of the few people you ever taught to ski who never falls. She laughed out loud and said that will be great. But I must tell you I did not set that record. I set other kinds of records, but that was not one of them. Never once did she laugh, Never once did she poke fun at me, Never once did she make a snide remark. Never once did she give up, even though I failed miserably on the slopes. In fact, there was one occasion if I had kept going, I would have hit a herd of buffalo in Denver, several miles away. I'm confident I tried to snowplow as you that ski understand, and I didn't.

45:02 I plowed, but not as was planned. And what is amazing is that my ten year old and my thirteen year old were skiing all around me, laughing like mad while I was trying to get up. Can you imagine having a one hundred pound teacher try to help a four hundred and fifty pound rhinoceros off the slopes without losing a life. It is the most embarrassing thing in the world to try to get up on skis on snow on the slopes. The only thing that was of any redeemable value out of the entire experience is that I got a perfect illustration of encouragement last Friday during the day, I would have quit easily in thirty minutes, but there was that faithful, caring patient well who stayed with me. Stayed with me, kept saying to me, you can do it. Hang in there, don't give up. That's better.

46:12 Try this next time, do this a little differently. That's the most tactful thing in the world. Is to do something a little differently. I came down in a bowl of snow on one occasion. She said, that's not bad. That's not bad. It was dreadful and she knew it, but she said, that's not bad. Now, that's hilarious, and I love the illustration. But at the same time, it's like, see, that's the whole point. Encouragement's not supposed to be false, right, it's not bad now in that situation. I understand you're trying to encourage people to keep going. I understand, but easy, that's the thing with people. And then okay, well, let's see where the skirl. Let's see where the sculls.

47:01 What is true of a novice on snow once a year is true continually among members of the family of God, we need encouragement. Harassed by the world, bruised by worry and anxiety, broken by failure, disappointed by defeat, bleeding because of sin, we come together, often giving off an air of false confidence that says, I don't fall, I'm on my feet. We dress well, we look good, we respond positively to the things going on around us, and we give.

47:48 Off that mask. That says I've got this thing wired I've got life down to a skill. But in reality we fail, we tumble, we fall very very badly, and we need one thing more than any other thing, aside from contact with God, when we come together, we need encouragement. We need somebody to say to us as they hold out a hand, I believe in you. Get up, Come on, Let's try it again. Let me reassure you, let me help you.

48:39 Let me tell you some things that I observe that you really do well. And courage it's a French word, simply means to put courage into. Webster says it means to inspire with courage, spirit or hope, to hearken, to hearten, to spur on, to stimulate. I do not care how influential, how well dressed, how mature, or how old any person is that comes for worship. Encouragement is always needed and appreciated. Always.

49:27 Let me shift gears and ask you a question, as if you and I were in a classroom and I were in to grade your paper. Let me ask you the simple question, why do you gather with other Christians in a church service on a given Sunday. Ristee, Now he's bringing this to the church. He's used an illustration of a person that we all need encouragement. We all need it, we all need this courage put into us, this building, this up, doing this because we all mess up, fall or broken, beaten down that you know, we're we're human beings, We're we we're sinners, we're sinful, we make a million mistakes. We need to be the place to The church needs to be the place where you're built up, you're encouraged now, Okay, So when it comes to people already again, I mean, even the Bible demonstrates that when you take the entire Bible and all of its stories about people and personal interaction, the Bible says that people are not a source of encouragement, that over and over there are a source of the opposite.

50:37 All right, So then can we really count on people here? Right? And then what about the church? Is the church the source of encouragement? Well, this is really hard for the church to balance out, right, because the church also has to be the place we preach truth, we preach against sin, but at the same time we're to be encouraging, and it's hard for the church to admit, Hey, look, everyone here is a broken center. Nobody has it together. We're all in a perpetual sin that goes against the church's teaching that no, no, no, when you become a Christian, you became basically perfect, you become basically transformed, even though we all know that people are sinners. So because we have this one teaching, then it's hard to keep people encouraging, and we know what happens you fall into the Now we've got our list of mortal and venial. We know this.

51:24 If you commit the venial, people may be there to encourage, hold out their hand and say, let's get up and try again. But you commit some sins too much, or you commit one on that list of the mortals, the venial sins, those are the insignificant ones. You know you're okay there, but once you cross a certain line, Oh it's over, it's done, you're finished, the end, Get out, gone, get rid of move We don't want nothing to do with you. It's not like whoa, whoa, whoa whoah, this was wrong, this was horrible. Okay, now what can we do here? What can we do? No, it's just immediately what you can't do immediately. It's about disqualification, removal, deletion, silence, gone, it's not about no, no, no, no no. This person isn't going anywhere. This person is a part of us.

52:15 We're all sinners, we're all dropping our rocks and we're gonna Now. People say, oh, you're just excusing sin, and you're just no, no, no, everyone nobody's excusing anything. It's an acknowledgment that as a body of sinners, someone committed a sin that we haven't committed. But it's a sin now we got. Obviously, is there gonna be repentance? Obviously, there's a lot of questions to be asked there. But the thing is is we have a tendency just to remove and just move on. Oh, well they failed, I'll move on to someone else. Yeah, you're gonna move on to someone else who is still in a perpetual state of sin. Well, they didn't commit that sin, so they can commit fifty sins and you're okay with they just can't commit that sin once. Well, all right, got It's just so crazy the way the church plays this game.

52:58 So I don't think the Church is a source of encouragement this way people. The Bible is clear people are going to fail. The people are a source of discouragement. The people are a comfort, are a source of pain, frustration, to betrayal, deception, I mean all the things AI listed. AI says the encouragement comes from God, not people. That's what AI says. AIGs don't look to people, look to God. Well that's great, but we sometimes need the encouragement from people. It would be great that people can be encouragement. But look what happens if I preach this sermon right or where he's going. We need to be people to encourage.

53:44 We need to be people to encourage. We need to be people to encourage. Well, now what is that doing that makes me? Then you have to that makes you have to look at yourself going, am I an encouraging person? I think I'm falling and encouraging. So now you're gonna be trying to be encouraging and then you're going to fail and being encouraging. So then are you going to become discouraged? Well, then now it becomes a performance based thing. Let's just let him go a little bit further. Just to answer that question on your imaginary sheet of paper, I think I am correct, and assuming most of you will put down simply to worship my God, to meet with him to hear his word, to praise his name.

54:26 The imaginary question was, why do you come to church to hear the word of God? Preach, to worship, to pray, to praise. Now he's going to say, there's something else you come to church four four or to do. Let's see how he answers it. And you hand in the paper, I would give you an incomplete You got fifty percent right. According to scripture, that is one of the two major reasons we worship. We come together. The other reason and the other fifty percent, is to stimulate and encourage one another. Maybe you didn't know that. We don't come to sit isolated before God, not touching anyone else, not relating to anyone else, only to hear from him. That's not healthy. That isn't all there is to worship.

55:32 Now turn with me to this ten. Okay, So what he's going to do is going to say, hey, you don't come to church just to hear the word of God, and then you hear it and you leave. What we've got to have, we got to find a way to interact with one another. Why, Well, he's going to go to Hebrews chapter ten, where we read verse twenty four Hebrews ten twenty four, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Now he's going to take this idea that to exhort one another is to encourage, to build up. That we come to church not just to hear from the preacher, but we to hear from one another, so that we are let me go through this again, so that verse twenty four that we consider one another. So we are to consider one another, and then we are to provoke unto love and good works.

56:32 We are to consider one another so that we can provoke one another to good works and to love. There's a provoking element to it, a challenging element to it. It's we're we're in a sense pushing and provoking and really trying to get and this is not just this is different than encouraging, but we're trying to get people to love and trying to get people to do good works, and that we're supposed to be doing that with for one another. Now, this is where it leads to people going, oh, okay, see see, if you just come to church and you just hear sermons and you're not going to the potluck, and you're not going to the to the baseball game, and you're not going to the chili cookoff, and you're not going to the small group, then we're not. That's why we have to have small groups. That's why this is what leads to small groups. But again, in all of those situations, I can go to a fellowship, I can go to a potluck, I can go to a picnic.

57:27 I've been to a bazillion of them in my church life. I've never been provoked under good works, provoked under love at any of those events. It's just talking about what, talking about their job, talking about Oh they like to hunt. They got a new gun and they shot Bambi, and oh they got a new truck and it's got a new engine, and they do this and they did that, and then oh when I worked here, and then I worked here, and then my boss did this, and then oh what about the weather, and da da da da da da did you see the football game? Da da da da da da da da da. Now, typically if they're all talking about the things they're interested in, which basically doesn't interest me. Because I was going to talk about the things that I'm interested in, they wouldn't be interested in if I wanted to talk about music. Well, the church audience is not the people to talk about music with. R if I want to talk about now, sometimes I've been around Typically if I'm in a church with a lot of men who feel called to ministry, then those are the men you could get around in talk theology. But in many cases, everyone's talking about something that I'm not remotely interested in. They're not remotely interested in what I am interested in, so we don't have anything in common. Or someone starts talking about something political, which I'm definitely not going to be on the same page as most anyone, so I'm not being provoked unto good works. So then people say, well, we need small groups, and then small groups are do they accomplish that? Well, after all of the years of small groups, there's no evidence that it's doing anything anywhere close to that. And then we have not only do we have to consider one another to provoke, not forsaking the assembling ourselves together as a matter of some but exhorting one another as so much more as you see the day approaching. Now again,

58:59 the context here is seventy a D. We won't get into all of that, but the encouraging, well, then how do you encourage one another? And again this is where people will say, well, the church, you canna have small groups. You gotta have small groups. You can't do this just on a Sunday morning in the congregation. You can't you get a couple of minutes to talk between Sunday school in the morning worship. Maybe you'll get a greeting period, maybe after you can sit around and talk. And a lot of people will say, we've got to have this because some people really really really desperately need the They need that, they need people. They gotta have people. Like if they don't have people there, I don't know. They're like, they're they're gonna flyl like you and they're gonna die.

59:45 They have to they need people, all right, they've got to have it, And okay, great, But then they'll tell everyone else we've got to have it. We gotta do more. We can't just walk into church and walk out. So what do you want me to do? Preach a sermon for twenty minutes and then have everyone just sit around and talk. What do you want me to do? What do you want? What do you want me to do? What we need relationships? Well, then go make friends? How am I supposed to be? And so it's always weird, like how people want the church to do this. Now what's weird is I think people love the superficial idea of encouragement or the superficial idea of provoking one another do good works in love. We like the superficial idea. And what do I mean by that? What we create an event? Pot luck? Well, so everyone sits around kind of talks, well, say we did it? What you did?

1:00:34 What you got together and ate food? You needed the church to plant it? You needed the church to or again, I don't believe that's even a church function in any meaningful way. Paul condemned that people at Corinth for having their what someone we called the Agape face. He said, don't you have homes to eat in? You come to church for something different? Right, So, but some people say we need that, and they would point to a passage like this, But does that really end now to me? If you come to church, you meet people and you become friends. Now within that friendship now you can get the provoking and the encouraging, but I don't know if you can just make that happen. How does that supposed to work within the church body? How do you pull this up? And so people for two thousand years, people have come up with all kinds of programs and plans and ministry. We're gonna have men's prayer breakfast, We're gonna have a breakfast. We're gonna have a quilting club, We're gonna have a hunting trip. We're gonna and it's always we're gonna have a camping trip. And it's always like this is gonna be the thing that's going to accomplish it.

1:01:43 I don't I don't to me, I don't think you can schedule it. I don't think you can force it to happen. But then what it turns into then is okay, well, this is what I was going to say. We like the perception, we like to facilitate it, or we like the idea of making it happen. And I think we make ourselves feel better about ourselves because we have some events that we're oh, see we're doing it, We're doing it. But when I think the real test is when the wills come off right, when everything when someone falls into sin, where's the encouragement? Where's the building up? Where's the helping?

1:02:31 When things go way wrong in someone's life? Where's the encouragement? See now see now it's a pot Luck's not going to fix it. I get together. It's not going to fix it. Now some people say it will. Now that comes down to individuals. Now, those individuals who are willing to go to a pot luck, are they on their own? Not because the church instructs them to. They on their own call, They are on their own show up, They on their own. And that's where everyone fails. Because now I'll show up to a potluck at six o'clock and bring a casserole. But whenever thing falls apart. But I think the inevitable result is if you look at the Bible, people will always fail. So because people always fail, the institution is always going to fail. Now can I church?

1:03:34 How does the church now? Again? If we read a Hebrews ten twenty four through twenty five, do we understand the provoking happening from the pulpit. The pulpit is supposed to provoke good works, but we're provoking one another because I'm challenging or whoever's preaching is challenging, and that the pulpit is where you do the exhorting or the encouraging. Now, we like to break this down to no, no, no, this is the people. Well, is this the people doing it within the context of the institution the church, or is this the people doing it in the context of relationships that they've made with certain individuals. Now, preaching can do the provoking. Preaching can do the encouraging, but that preaching has to do the encouraging based on biblical truth, not ripping verses out of context. And it can do the provoking, but it inevitably will come down to, Okay, people in the church, are you encouraging or discouraging? Well, now it becomes now this performance based thing, and then you're gonna find yourself that you're never truly encouraging enough, so then you're discouraging. So now you're gonna feel bad.

1:04:43 So you're gonna become discouraged and feel defeat. Well, then I just get right back into the performance, hamster will and we're never gonna get anywhere. Here's what we know, even within the pages of the Bible, going from Genesis to revelation, it's not even close, not even close. When the Bible speaks of people interpersonal relationships, whether it's believers, whether it's family, doesn't matter the context. The people are constantly seen as a source of discouragement, betrayal, pain, suffering, difficulty over people are inevitably I mean, it's unmistakable that the people are overwhelmingly described that way in scripture. It doesn't matter who this person's gonna let this person, now, this person, lets say this. They are a source of conflict, pain, difficulty, trial, I mean, suffering, hurt, I mean just so much. I mean the even AI acknowledges all of that. So people already are going to do that. Now, people are already going to do that. Well, then the institution itself is always going to fall short. Now, can the truth of Christianity serve as encouragement when Christians and the institution that preaches Christianity is a source of discouragement? Can you allow

1:06:16 yourself to be encouraged by the truth of Christianity? Well, Christians and the Church is a source of discouragement overwhelmingly. All right, I'll stop there now, I know what you're asking, So do you feel encouraged. No, are you discouraged? Yeah? I went sixty six minutes trying to get my place from discouragement to encouragement. Still there. Why Well, because neurological feelings, can someone encourage me to make me feel better? I doubt it because it's a a neuro See, things are always more complicated than it is. I don't know. Nobody can just say, well, hey, it's all going to be better. Well, may may not. Twenty four hours from now, I may have a seizure and be dead, So you can't tell me it's going to be better. Well I think it was pretty good. Well that's I'm grateful for that. Anyone who says that, well, I think the message was good, that's great because you may have a better perception of the quality of the message than I will. But I guarantee you someone will message me, Someone will email me or message me or somehow contact me and tell me, hey, that the message was good, the message was good, or it was great, it was wonderful. But then there'll be you know what, emails or comments on YouTube that it was trash. So then you know, then that one neutralizes you see how that all works. So again, if I look to people and alli that if you look to people,

1:07:47 then does that not become then you become a burden to the people, because then people feel like they've got to encourage you. And see, then that becomes a burden. So then they are discouraged because they're spending all their time encouraging someone else. Yeah, I see, It's but if we could make encouragement based on something other than I don't know. All right, thanks for listening, everyone, have a great night. Oh my head hurts. I don't even know what I've said. I've talked for sixty eight minutes, and I honestly probably right now if you ask me what was that about, I barely could tell you. All right, thanks for listening. God bless