The Church of Eleven22 - S02E27 - Encourage One Another

Episode Date: October 11, 2021

This week we have a special guest, hearing from Pastor Ryan Britt about encouraging one another. Our words have power; how are you using yours? You never know what kind of impact your words of encouragement might have on someone’s life. We encourage YOU to encourage someone this week. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. - 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Welcome to Deepen with Pastor Jobi Martin. The Church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And we're praying this message helps you deepen your relationship with him. Now let's dive in. Welcome to the Deepen podcast with Pastor Jobi Martin. I am obviously not Pastor Jobi Martin, but I am glad to be here and I'm privileged and honored that he would ask me to sit in his chair. I am Ryan Britt. I'm one of the pastors here at the Church of 1122.

and I'm excited to encourage us today with a Deepen podcast. This past weekend as a church, we walked through John chapter 19 and John chapter 20 as we're looking in the last hours of Jesus' life as we finish the teaching series, the gospel according to John. And two things that I would encourage you with today that stood out this past weekend to me. Number one is that the truth of Jesus' resurrection, it changes everything. Jesus's resurrection changes everything. And it doesn't just change everything one day out in our eternal future. It changes everything today. It changes everything for everyone who believes in the name of Jesus. The Apostle Paul tells us in the book of Romans that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you and me. That is a lot of power. Think about the same essence, the same spirit that breathes. life into Jesus's dead body in that tomb and rolled that stone away. And then by the power of God,

Jesus walked out alive with victory over death. That same power lives in you and me. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead truly changes everything. So that's one thing that stood out. Another thing that stood out is something that we say here all the time, which is this, if the tomb is empty, then anything is possible. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. If the tomb is empty, anything is is possible. It is possible because of the empty tomb to see the deadest of hearts raised a new life in Jesus. It is possible to see the darkest of minds renewed by God's glorious spirit. Isn't that good news? It is possible to see the most hopeless of situations come under the redeeming and the restoring power of God's glorious spirit in our lives. If the tomb is empty, then truly anything is possible. And so if you're listening today,

and you're walking through a season of trial. You're walking through some tough times. You've got some stuff going on in your life that's got some anxiety stirred up, you've got some worry. Maybe you're going through a season, and it just feels impossible. And if you're walking through that season,

no matter what it is, and it qualifies in the anything category, and you're just looking down the scope of life, and you're like, man, I just don't know how I'm going to make it through. Let me encourage you that what seems, seems impossible to man is possible for God, and the empty tomb of Jesus Christ proves it. The empty tomb of Jesus proves that anything is possible through the power of God. And so as we head toward the end of the study in the Gospel according to John,

I just want to offer you a quick encouragement today. And let me ask you a question. What is the most encouraging thing anyone has ever said to you? what is the most encouraging words you've ever received right time right words right place from the right person and it just changed the trajectory of your day changed the trajectory of your season or even of your life what is the most encouraging thing anyone has ever said to you the most encouraging person I've ever met is a former boss of mine his name was mark and I met Mark in a really unique season in my life I was very tired of

I was struggling. Honestly, I was struggling with my calling and I was struggling with my purpose. And I didn't really know where I was headed. I had just come off a series of a couple of failures in life, some financial failures, some ministry failures, some things that I thought were going to go one way and they went another way. And man, we're just struggling through identity and I get a new job at a new place. And I'm under Mark's leadership, who is a new boss to me. And I really didn't have my bearings. At the right time, God and His grace gives me Mark as a leader in my life. And Mark is the most encouraging person I've ever been around. He always knew the exact right thing to say and the exact right time to say it.

Mark and I were very different. We came from different backgrounds. There were even some things that we didn't necessarily agree on. But Mark chose day after day after day after day to believe in me and more importantly to believe in God's work. in my life. And this choosing of faith in me and choosing to believe that God had great things planned for me on my behalf, he believed that even when I didn't believe it for myself. This encouragement that he offered, it really changed my life. He was the first person to believe in me truly

that had no reason, no cause or no merit to do so. And he did it over and over and over again. Proverbs chapter 12, verse 25 says this, anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. You see, words have power. Your words have power. And what we choose to say and when we choose to say it often reveal the power that we're working from or we're operating from in our lives. You and I can choose to bring gladness to other people's lives with the power of our words. we can choose to give good words to them, as the proverb says. We often don't know when we meet people what anxiety they're carrying, but we can rest assured that they are carrying some, just like I am and just like you are.

There's no end of things to be worried about. There's no end of things to cause concern or to get our emotional attention and our emotional energy. These things are endless. And when we come to crossroads with people in our life, We can choose to ignore those anxieties they may be carrying around. We can choose to focus, try to focus the conversation on our own worries and our own concerns, or we can choose to offer a good word to them knowing that it has the power to bring gladness to their heart.

So right now I would encourage you, wherever you are, pick up your phone, call somebody, text somebody, offer a good word to them. Offer an encouraging word. putting this together, I grabbed my phone and I text my old boss, Mark. We don't see each other a lot, but I just shot him a text and I said, Mark, thank you for your investment in me. Thank you for encouraging me. Thank you for believing in me when I didn't even believe in myself. You have no idea the impact that that's had on my life. I hope that was a good word to his heart. And right now, I'd encourage you, text a good word, call a good word, have a coffee with someone, and offer a good

word of encouragement to them. The Apostle Paul tells us to encourage one another, and he does this in various forms, and mostly what he focuses on is the most powerful kind of encouragement there is, that there are different kinds of encouragement, and that one kind of encouragement has more power than any other kind of encouragement. First Thessalonians, chapter 4, verse 18, Paul says this, therefore, encourage one another with these words. And then again, in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5, he says, therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing. What pattern of behavior, what words is Paul encouraging this church to put on repeat? It says, keep encouraging each other in these things and with these words. Well, what words? What Paul

is teaching and reminding the church is this. For the Jesus follower, the most encouraging words in the world are this. Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ is coming again. You see, in Paul's letter, he's specifically talking about the second coming of Christ, the return of Jesus Christ, the glorious day, the coming of the day of the Lord, our God, Jesus, when he comes back for his church. And he's saying, use these words to encourage each other. Say these things over and over and over again. Christ has come. Christ has risen.

And Christ will come again. You see, to encourage someone is to speak courage into them. To encourage someone is to speak courage into them. See, encourage is activated hope. It's when our hope becomes active in. in our life, when fear raises its voice in our life, when the world tries to intimidate us through our situations and our circumstances, when I mess up, when we mess up and we feel ashamed and guilt and those things begin to creep up in the shadows of our life, it is easy at that

point to default into kind of resigning back, into falling back, into taking a step back from living our faith out loud and living our faith out in public, we just trying to hide in the shadows of our own, in our own shame and our own struggles. And when we do that, what happens in our heart is that hope begins to get deferred. And Proverbs tells us that when hope is deferred, it can make a heart sick. And so sometimes when our heart gets sick, what we need to do is to reactivate our hope and encouragement. Speaking courage into each other's life activates hope. In our heart, it is in these times where we need courage, when we feel like we've taken and a step back from living out our faith. We need to be encouraged, have courage spoken in

to us, and we need more than anything to hear these words. Christ has died. Christ has risen, and Christ will come again. One time a few years ago, 2018, my father had been sick for a very long time, and he had battled a mental terminal brain disease, and it had played out in various forms over his life, and we had come to the end of his life. And I'm working in my yard one day, and I get the call for my brother. My brother lives north of Atlanta. We're here in Jacksonville, and my brother says, you need to come on. I think it's time. So I grab my stuff, and I jump in a car, and I drive to Atlanta. And I've got six hours to think about what I'm going to say and how I'm going to handle this situation, knowing that I'm walking into what are the last moments of my dad's

life and six hours for anxiety to build, six hours for tears and a lot of discussion with the windshield. And as I pull into the hospital, first I call my wife and she tells me she loves me and she's praying for us and then I call my good friend and I call our pastor. I call Pastor Joby. And I say, Pastor, honestly, I'm scared. I know I'm walking into a really difficult situation here and I just, I just will you pray for me? he does. And when he prays, he says, he says some version of these words. He says, Jesus, because of you, we don't fear the end of life because we know true life is just on the other side. And that was it. That was the word I needed to hear on a soul level. I knew and I was reminded,

my hope was activated that as followers of Jesus, we don't fear death. We realize that passing from this life into the next life is just that, that we don't actually experience death. We just pass from life to life with nothing in between. On a sole level, I was reminded that Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again. You see, our faith is in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and our hope is in what he is going to do in the future. And so when we hear the words Christ will come again, it activates our hope that comes from an eternal place. And that hope activated is how we walk forward in courage. That is the courage that we need

spoken into our life. And so let me do my best to speak some courage into you. Maybe you're experiencing some feelings of loneliness or some sadness right now. And I would just say, brother or sister, lift up your head. You're not alone. You have been bought at a Christ. No one loves you or can love you the way that Jesus does. No one is closer to you or can understand your needs better than he can. He died for you. He died to close the gap between you and him and he rose again to secure for you an eternal destiny beyond your wildest dreams. Jesus is coming again and when he comes again, you will be fully a part of the forever, family of God with absolute acceptance and unconditional love. You will never experience loneliness.

You will never experience fear again. Put your hope in him. Maybe you're experiencing some life frustration. Maybe you've got some anger brewing beneath the surface and you're carrying a lot of tension around and I would just say this to you. Breathe deeply, brother. Breathe deeply, sister, slow down. Think for a second. Think on the scars of Jesus. It is by his stripes that you are healed. It is by his wounds that you are being healed. He has died. He has paid the price for sins, both the sins we've committed and the ones that have been committed against us. And because of the price he's paid, we are free to forgive. We are free to walk in forgiveness and to receive He has risen from the dead.

And so the sting of death and bitterness and anger, they don't have a place in our life anymore. Lay them down, throw them into the ocean of God's grace and receive his peace. Christ has died. Christ has risen. And Christ will come again. Today, we encourage one another by putting our hope

in the finished work and the future work of Jesus Christ. Thank you for joining us for Deepen with Pastor Jobi Martin. If you're looking for additional resources to help you further deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ, visit co-e-22.com slash resources. We're praying this message you heard today helps you experience God in a unique and fresh way. And as always, be free.