Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[Transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube^[1], February 2021]

As we approach the end of our teaching series ‘Me and my Big Mouth’ we ask the question why we should encourage. After all, isn’t there a danger that we’ll end up lying, or being insincere in order to make someone feel better? Is there a bigger picture to consider?

I must say it’s been lovely having all this talk of building people up and using encouraging words, to be careful what we say because we don’t want to upset someone, do we, but isn’t it all sounding a little bit PC, a little bit politically correct. Are we in danger of lying to encourage people rather than speaking the truth?

Could we end up with those X-Factor candidates, those people who have auditions because they think they’re the best singer in the world, because their family have told them they’re the best singer in the world, and yet Simon Cowell comes along and tells them that actually they’re absolutely dreadful and please don’t sing a note again. Or do we just end up with a bland insincere encouragement where we say nice things to people but we don’t really mean it, there isn’t any sincerity behind it, or do we only ever encourage someone when actually they’ve done something worth praising? Do we stay silent all the time? What what balance do we strike, how do we get this right, how do we encourage people in a good way? How do we build a community of encouragement that doesn’t end up either too PC or too insincere?

Well, first of all we’ve got to think about why we’re encouraging someone. We we want to encourage someone, not to make them feel better but to help them be better. We want them to be a better version of themselves, we want them to be who God has created them to be because the reality is for all of us there are so many obstacles that are stopping us from reaching our potential. They can be external obstacles but also, in fact, in most cases, they’re internal obstacles. Our worst enemy is ourselves. Those lies that we continually tell ourselves, that put ourselves down. It’s not so much the words others say, although that might have been the case in the past, but it’s about us perpetuating those lies that have been spoken over us. So all of us need encouragement from others to help us to be better.

Sir Edmund Hillary, who famously conquered Mount Everest, said these words “It’s not the mountain that we conquer, but ourselves” and we, nine times out of ten, need help to do that. We see, our help comes from external sources. I don’t want to go down the self-help route where it says “all you need to do is reach within yourself, every resource that you need is within you you just need to learn how to access that”. I’m not into that but what I am into is the power of community, and also the power of the Holy Spirit. Actually God can help us to break down and demolish those strongholds within our lives, those obstacles that need removing, so that we can be a better person. But also the power of being with like-minded individuals that have created together an environment of encouragement, not to perpetuate lies, not to make us feel better, not to placate us, not to be PC but instead to encourage one another, to build one another up for a purpose.

You see, the writer of Hebrews said a verse which is famously quoted but usually out of context. He says “Do not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing” and we say, well that shows you that you have to go to church because the writer of Hebrews says you shouldn’t give up meeting together, but actually in those same verses the writer of Hebrews gives a reason, gives a purpose for meeting together and that purpose is to encourage one another, to love and to do good works.

» to encourage one another, to love and to do good works «

Do you see that’s what the church should be? The church should be not a place, not a building, but a group of people who build one another up, who journey with one another, who support one another, who help each other to be the best that they can be, to encourage one another to love and to do good works. It’s a community that can do more than the sum of its parts. There’s a word for that, it’s called synergy where you get more out than you put in and I believe that the church is a community that has the potential to be just that. So let us continue to meet together, let’s continue to encourage one another, help us to continue to help each other to love and to do good works, to be Jesus in our community.

Hey guys, thank you so much for listening. Do remember to subscribe to our Youtube channel and to share this video on social media and do remember this is all part of our sermon series ‘Me and My Big Mouth’ which comes to its conclusion on Sunday morning with its fourth and final parts so do join us for that. You can find out on our YouTube channel – just search for Horley Baptist and also at eight o’clock on Sunday evening on YouTube you can come along and hear myself and Neil and Helen talk about this sermon series, to delve a little bit deeper and just to ask some broader and deeper questions and how we can apply these practical teachings to our lives. So do tune in^[2] and it’ll be great to have you involved with the discussion so thank you. ’bye

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[1] YouTube link: Why Should I Encourage?
[2] YouTube link: Going Deeper
Bible references: Hebrews ch10 v25
 

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