Encouragement – the sunshine

If I was to ask you what are the two most important things that  help a plant to grow, what would your answer be ?     (sunshine, water, pruning, fertilizers……)  But if I were to ask you what are the two most important things that you could do to help a church and the people in the church to grow, what would you say :   (good preaching, prayer, encouragement, worship, …….) If  prayer is equivalent to watering then  I think encouragement is like the sunshine : it warms us up and brings the sap to the tip and allow it to flourish and grow as God has intend it to do so. 

Have you ever thought how bulbs buried in the ground know when to send its shoots forward ?  They tell me that it is due mainly to the warmth of the ground that comes with the longer and stronger sunshine on the surface, as winter recedes and as spring begins.  If  plants are encouraged to grow with the warmth of spring, how much more will people flourish with the warmth of encouragement.    
A Japanese proverb says:  One kind word can warm up three winter months…… 
Mark Twain, a well known American writer , (who wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn)  was reported as saying :  he could live for three weeks on a compliment.  
Our own scriptures in Proverbs 12:25 says:  Anxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad. 

Who then needs encouragement ?  
You may as well ask me which plant needs the sunshine.  The plain answer is we all do…..  Not just those who feel weighed down : they need an extra share, but we all can do with plenty of encouragement.   Some of us show it and some of us don’t show it but we all feel down, discouraged and desperate at times.  We all long to be appreciated, feel wanted, feel loved.   We live in a society which major on criticism.  People find it much easier to pull one another down in order to feel better themselves.   By placing blame on others they feel vindicated themselves.

Unlike the Americans which seem to thrive on complimenting one another all the time, and admittedly sometimes over the top, New Zealanders seem to be better at the other extreme, knocking ourselves, and levelling criticism at ourselves, at our kids and at our family members.  As a result I believe that New Zealand youths have a huge problem of self-esteem. It is amazing how sometimes a small action of recognition, of praise, of encouragement can help a person a long way.  

One of my former student from Malaysia wrote to me recently from Canada.  She said Mr Yung I am now one of the chief meteorologist in Canada and I think the reason I am here was partly because of your encouragement to me.  I was then teaching her in the 7^th form.  She was a very bright student but very poor. Her name was Ang Mo Hon.   Towards the end of the year, I asked her what she wanted to do after leaving school.   She said my family is very poor.   I cannot afford to do further studies.   I will probably work as a shop assistant or work in one of the offices as a clerk.  I said to her : Mo Hon, you have a wonderful talent, do not waste it.   See whether you can get a loan to study from your relatives and friends.  Whatever happens, you must do some further studies. I never saw her after she left school. But  she took me seriously, and went and borrowed some money, studied at the university, got top honours in her subjects, and ended up with a brilliant career.       

Discouragement
One of the most powerful and deadly weapons the devil uses against us is discouragement (by the way, he also uses doubt, despair, deceit and he tries to discredit God’s servants.) But as people of God we must show the world that we do treasure one another and we do love one another.   And one of the most effective way of doing so is to give praise, to give encouragement, to offer support.    

We often think that only ordinary people like you and me need encouragement.  What about spiritual giants like our pastors, evangelists like Billy Graham, do not need encouragement.  It is definitely not true.  On the contrary, by ministering to others and giving out to others,  they often feel exhausted spiritually which could lead to a spiritual depression. 

A very good example is the Prophet Elijah :   (1 Kings 18:16ff)
As one of the most outspoken and powerful prophet of the Old Testament,  Elijah was summoned by God to deal with the spiritual decline in Israel. At that time, both the king of Israel Ahab, and Queen Jezebel were encouraged the people to worship false gods, in particular Baal and Asherah. The people left the worship of Jehovah and were  practising idolatry & sexual perversions as well infant sacrifices that are linked with the  worshipping of Baal the fertility god.

The practice was so prevalent in Israel that there were 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah, and many of the prophet of Jehovah were either killed or were in hiding. around the nation.  Not wanting to beat around the bush, Elijah faced the problem head on and issued a challenge to King Ahab and the 450 prophets of Baal to meet him on Mount Carmel.  The purpose was to try and prove whether Baal or Jehovah was the true and living God.  The challenge was simple the prophets of Baal must call on their god  to bring down fire to light the sacrifice on the altar. In spite of their best and frenzied prayers, from morning till noon, and then onto late afternoon, for nearly nine hours, dancing around and even cutting themselves up, Baal failed to present himself.  And at the time of evening sacrifice, as Elijah prayed,  God proved his presence and his power by sending fire from heaven and burned up all the sacrifices including the stones with which the altar was built. The people saw and returned to the worshipped of Jehovah, and at the command of Elijah,  killed all the prophet of Baal. 

Because of his faith in God, Elijah won a  wonderful victory and single-handedly brought a nation back from idolatry to the worship of the one true God.  Elijah was on a high, filled with the Holy Spirit, he ran 32 km back to the King's palace from Mt Carmel overtaking the chariots ridden by King Ahab. But soon afterwards,(see 1 Kings 19:4-5) he was physically and spiritually drained and he went into a deep depression and he wanted to die when  he was pursued by Ahab’s wife Jezebel who wanted to avenge the death of the prophets of Baal.

What would you have said to Elijah…come on, get over it, you are the respected prophet of Israel, you have seen the mighty hand of God vindicating you over a powerful band of prophets. What's happened to you that you are now afraid of the threats of Jezebel. But God did not tell him off, nor told him to get over it.  God understood Elijah's vulnerability and He gently and patiently brought him the encouragement that he needed.  He first sent an angel to provide him with food and drink which prepared him physically for a special encounter with God. Then God came to him, not in the way he expected, not in a noisy destructive wind, nor in a rock shattering earthquake or even fire. God came to him in a gentle whisper, very gently reminding him that he was not alone and that God was in control of the whole situation and with such an encouragement Elijah was restored to his confident self again.  

Many great preachers of the past, including David Watson and Charles Spurgeon (and you can probably think of more) have revealed in their own biographies that they often plunged into a depth of depression and dark despair right after a magnificent preaching tour in which God has done wonderful things.  Some of those despair are so dark and deep and significant that they often despair of living.  

Next time when you have been encouraged by Andrew's preaching,  or by a worship leader, or the ministry of another servant of God, please let them know, phone them, write them a note saying how much you have appreciated their ministry. If you don't do it probably nobody else would. And I promise you, it will not be wasted.   They need as much encouragement as any one of us, and more.  These servants of God are more exposed to the attack of the enemy than most of us, and one of the biggest weapon Satan uses is : discouragement. 

One pastor of a congregation in America in fact believed encouragement for one another is so important that he included a whole stack of  post cards in the pews and in the middle of worship he would paused for 10 minutes so that each member of the congregation could take time to write a note of encouragement or appreciation  to someone else, particularly those who were sick, or absent, or going through a hard time.    These notes are then collected during the offering and then posted or taken in person by pastoral teams the following day. Imagine the reaction of the person receiving a whole stack of these when they were visited. 

But let us not wait until someone is sick, let us regularly (once a week or once a month) think of one other person in the congregation, or someone in our family, or someone in the parliament, or someone on the mission field, or simply someone God brings to your mind and write them a short note of appreciation or encouragement.   That will transform their day !  

A  man who was struggling in his work place because of a fellow worker who was making life difficult for him, was getting ready to drive off to work as usual one morning but feeling a bit down and apprehensive. As he got into the car, he found a note stuck to his steering wheel : It was from his young son.  The note read:   “ Hi Dad , just to let you know that I am praying for you and for the man who is causing problems for you at your work.”  Wow, what a lift it gave to the Dad.  And what a difference it made to his day.    

What does the Bible teach us about encouragement ?
Interestingly enough, in the Bible the word  to encourage is Parakaleo  where the word para means coming alongside (parallel = 2 lines side by side)  and kaleo means to call.   So the word literally means calling for someone to come alongside.  And the Encourager (or more familiar to you, as the word Comforter, a term ascribed to the Holy Spirit) is Parakletos. 

The Holy Spirit as our encourager or comforter is literally at our side, giving us the encouragement, giving us the strength and help that we need, each moment of the day.   He reminds us of God’s promises and he enables us to share God’s love to another person, and as we struggle to pray, he prays within us with words that we don’t even understand and know.    

We too are called to be Parakletos : encouragers, helpers, comforters  for our brothers and sisters.   To be an encourager we don’t need to be a pastor, we don’t need specialized training, we just need sensitivity to people’s needs and a willingness to come alongside people. In fact one of the most important qualifications is the fact we ourselves have gone through hard times……and most of us, as human beings, qualify…..

Paul was making the same point.   In writing to the people at Corinth, Paul was sharing with them of the very difficult times he had gone through.  And yet it was precisely during these hard times that he experienced God coming alongside him. Now that he has experienced God’s comfort and encouragement, he was able to come alongside others who are going through similar hard times.  (see The Message)  Words of Encouragement are powerful.  But sometimes God will show you other ways.  

In fact the most powerful thing to encourage someone is simply to be there for them.    As parents we know how crucial it is for us to try to be present when our children have their cricket match, or debate or drama production. or as they grow older when they have emotional or other crisis. Words at these times are unnecessary and may be counter productive. They are not looking for advice.   They are looking for support.   But a good hug and a box of tissues handy and a listening ear backed up with lots of prayer are all important.

In the account from Luke 24, of the two disciples who walked down-heartedly and wearily to Emmaus after their beloved Master was crucified, I was struck by the verse: Jesus himself drew near or in a modern translation :  Jesus himself came up and walk alongside them  (Luke 24:15) .  You would have thought that he would say, don't grieve, I am here.  No, not at all.  He didn’t say much at all, but just a few simple questions as to why they were grieving and then listened and allowed them to pour their heart out, all the time shielding his own identity.  Eventually gently and lovingly in the breaking of bread, he revealed himself as who he was….and then he left,  the disciples heavy hearts burst into joy……  Notice Jesus did not intrude on their grieving, he allowed them time to grieve and he encouraged them by being with them…….

I used to be very nervous about visiting someone who is grieving because I didn’t know what to say. But I realize now that I don’t need to say much at all, just being there to listen, to ask simple questions to help them verbalise how they were feeling, and put my arms around them and show that we care:   

One man who has lost three sons in a freak accident,  and he recalled the visits of two people:
"I was sitting torn by grief.  Someone came and talked to me of God’s dealing, of why it happened, and of hope beyond the grave.  He talked constantly; he said things I knew were true.  But I was unmoved, except to wish he would go away.  He finally did.  Another came and sat beside me.  He just sat beside me for an hour and more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, and left.  I was moved.  I was comforted. I hated to see him go.”

How would you like to be called Mr or Miss Encouragement.   Well one person in the NT is called just that.  That person was Barnabas.   Barnabas was originally called Joseph (Acts 4:36)  He was a Levite from Cyprus and the apostle gave him a new name: Barnabas because of what he practises: because Barnabas means Son of Encouragement.

As an encourager he often looked out for those that he could help.  One of them was Paul.  You might remember that Paul was formerly Saul and he persecuted the church and brought Christians to prison until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.  After his conversion, Saul began to preach for Christ instead of against him.   But nobody trusted him.  Except of course Barnabas.  Barnabas took him under his wings (at great risks to himself) and brought him to the apostles who then recognised how genuine his conversion was.   (Acts 9:26 to 28)  and that gave Paul the freedom to speak in Jerusalem that he otherwise would not.  Because he was such a good preacher, he had to flee for his life to Tarsus because of the Jews. 

But Barnabas never forgot Saul.   At the right time, when he needed someone to pastor the church in Antioch, Barnabas went and looked up Saul, not a easy task by the way, but Barnabas succeeded.   (Acts  11:25-30)   And their ministry flourished — encouragers they were, so much so that the disciples were given a nickname :  Christians, Christ ones, first in Antioch.   Then in Acts 11:30 they were sent by the church in Antioch to bring relief to Jerusalem.   Which they did, but what is significant is that in Acts 12:25, they brought back John Mark to Antioch from Jerusalem.  

Then when Barnabas and Paul were sent by the church on their first missionary journey, John Mark was taken along as their assistant (Acts 13:5).    For some unknown reason, Mark did not finish the journey.  He went home half way during the trip.    The next time around, during  the second missionary journey, Paul refused to take Mark along because he felt he could not be trusted, but Barnabas insisted to give Mark a second chance.  They had a big quarrel over Mark, and in the end Paul and Barnabas parted company.   Paul took Silas, another young man and Barnabas took Mark.   Barnabas was no longer mentioned in the scriptures after that but Mark has proved his worth.   He not only went on to write the second gospel, but was also praised by Paul as someone who was helpful. (see 2 Tim 4:11   “Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry)

I think Barnabas serves to tell us about the heart of an encourager: 
a.  on the look out for people who need us to stand by them   
b. continue to give them credit even though they may seem to fail us. 

Could you imagine a NT without Paul and his contribution ?   Could you imagine us without the second gospel, the gospel of Mark ?  Well without Barnabas we would almost certain be without Paul or Mark.    So praise God for encouragers. God needs you to be the Barnabas for our up and coming Pauls and Marks.   They need you to take them under your wings…..to care for them, to teach them, to nurture them to encourage them…..to stand by them even though no one else would. Young and old, strong or weak, new Christians and older Christians, we all can all do with a bit of encouragement. Whether it is a word, a letter, a card, a hug, a listening ear, a practical help, anonymous $100 in an envelop, or simply coming alongside us in times of need.   Like Daffodil bulbs buried under the soggy wintry soil, we all long for and wait for the warmth and the sunshine of spring so that we can lift our heads high and stand tall in the breeze.   You can be that sunshine.   

(preached at LHBC   2^nd Sept. 2001/30^th Dec 2007)