Gifts That Guide Us to Tomorrow III, Gift of Encouragement and Mercy

Hebrews 12, and once again as I always do, I want to encourage you to use your North Way notes outline that I, with the help of our committed support staff, put together every weekend. So, this is for you to help remember some of the things that we're going to share here for the next few minutes. Alright, Hebrews 12, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." I want you to picture yourself at a track meet. How many of you have been to a track meet at one time in your life? Easy picture. You're now in the grandstands and someone you love is going to run this race. It's a mile race. Jim Ryan, world record holder in the mile, is going to be here in a couple of weeks. Probably not quite that caliber, but it's a friend of yours or a loved one that's running this mile race and you're in the stands to support them. Got it in your mind? Alright, now this person takes off and they start out leading the pack around the track. Four laps. At the end of the first lap, they go past the grandstand and they're leading the race. What are you saying? Picture yourself right now. What are you saying to them? Yeah. What are you saying? Boy, if you're sitting there like that, they're going to think you're sleeping. Yeah, you're cheering them on. Right. Go. Go for it. Keep it up. Turn it on. Right? So you watch them and they keep going. In the second lap, they seem to be getting stronger and you're getting excited. As they come past the grandstand for the second lap, picture yourself now. What are you saying to them? Yes. Keep it up. Turn it on. You're really excited. Halfway through the race, they're leading. But as they go into the back straightaway in the third lap, you notice that they're starting to lose their stride and it appears maybe they're losing some of their stamina. And you notice that two of the other runners are starting to catch them. And much to your surprise, as they round that third bend and head down the home stretch in front of you again on the third lap, those other two runners pass them. What are you saying right now as they begin to fall behind? Losers. Wimps. Give it up. Is that what you're saying? No. You're saying, come on. Turn it up. Don't let them catch you. Get back on. But as they go around the track one more time, you realize something seriously wrong is happening. And they start to hold their side. And when the race finally ends, they're walking across the finish line visibly hurting. What do you say then? Oh, man. Boy, are you a loser. Boy, just give it up. You know, hang up your spike. What are you saying to them? Oh, I'm really, gee, what happened to me? You see, everything in you wants to do what? Encourage them. It's the nature of competition. I've never been to a track meet where parents have sat there and said, you loser. Never been to one. But you know what? The Bible just described a race that we're running. And if you noticed, all the pronouns are plural. We, our, us. We are running a race around life's track of faith. A race that God has set before us with a cloud of witnesses watching. And some of us are out in the front of this race going like crazy. And others of us are struggling just a bit. And it's a race that God has called us all to finish. And I want to talk about that this morning. Because it has to do with the body of Christ being all that God has designed it to be. This race, as you all know, is not a sprint, is it? How long is this race going to take? The rest of your life. You're in it for a long time. It's a marathon. We had a race in college that we used to call, it was a cross-country race, we used to call it the turkey trot. I think it was because of the nature of the runners, not the animals that we saw. And it was a long course up and down. It was brutal. And it reminded me of this journey that we're on, this race as Christians. The idea, you see, dear ones, is to finish the race. To grow in maturity and fullness and wisdom and holiness and righteousness that it talks about later in Hebrews 12. And to go out at the end of life pleasing God. That we can say with the Apostle Paul, I have finished the race. I have completed my course. But dear ones, it's tough. And as I look around, there are lots of runners on this track that don't seem to be keeping up. And the church has a tendency, instead of encouraging those runners, the church, you and I, people of God, we have a tendency to kind of get down on the other runners. In fact, I've heard it said this way, the church of Jesus Christ is the only army in the world that shoots its wounded. And that tends to be the case in my experience. God wants us today to learn how we can change all that as we unleash in the body of Christ the gifts, the spiritual gifts of encouragement and mercy. Look at your teaching outline. I quoted just a portion of Romans 12. Read it with me. We have different gifts according to the grace given us. Read it out loud. If a man's gift is encouraging, let him encourage. If it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. Dear ones, these gifts of encouragement and mercy are absolutely essential in such a time as this. I'm happy to say something I know quite confidently. More of you have these gifts working in your life than any other spiritual gift. We had about 25% of you who had said the gift of helps two weeks ago was working in your life. Only a small percentage comparatively. Maybe 7 or 8% the gift of giving. But I want to say about 33% of you, about a third of you have the gift of encouragement and mercy in your life. Why is that? Just a little question. Why do you think that is? Why would God give that gift so prolifically in the body? Why? That's right. It's desperately needed. It's desperately needed. There are many hurting people. Go ahead, Debbie. It's desperately needed in the body of Christ. And if we don't marshal up that gift, many of the runners are not going to be able to finish the race. Now, I want to talk about this because, dear ones, this little church, this little expression of God's body here in Wexford, we are, by all accounts that I know, we are an emergency room. Many people come to this church who are in need of encouragement. In fact, many of us who have been here a while today find ourselves in need of encouragement. And God has given us the gifts necessary to do exactly that. The word to be encouraged is para kaleo in the Greek. There's two words, kaleo, to call, para, alongside. The gift of encouragement is simply someone who's called alongside to help another finish the race. You see that picture? The Holy Spirit is what? Come on, Holy Spirit people. He's the paraclete, the helper. That's the noun form of that verb. The Holy Spirit comes alongside. And the gift of mercy is the word for compassion, for care, for the bowels of compassion. So God says, I'm going to give you people who come alongside of you who really care about you. How many of you know I need someone like that and so do you once in a while? A caring person who comes alongside. Now every week I've been giving you some descriptors. Can we have those, Debbie, please? The 15 descriptors of the gift of encouragement and mercy. Here's the first one. Now if you see one that describes who you kind of are naturally in your spirit, then just note it. Don't try to write them down. I left a little space in the back of your page, but you have to be able to speed write to do this. Number one, a person who has this gift has the tremendous capacity to show love. I mean, they just always seem to have something positive to share and to show others. Number two, they love to encourage another to live victoriously. They don't ever want to see you under the circumstances. They want to tell you that you're more than a conqueror in Christ. Number three, a person with this gift mix is attractive to people who are hurting. They see someone that's down and they're just drawn to them like, can I help? It's just in them. Number four, they take action to remove hurts and relieve distress. They don't just allow them to lay there. They're like the good Samaritan. They take a step to do something about it. Next, they're people people. They focus on working with people. Don't put them in a room with a computer. Put them in a room with hurting people and they'll be really happy. Next, they're motivated to help have right relationships. Help people have right relationships because they know that many times relationships cause the greatest hurt and discouragement on the track. Number seven, they love opportunities to give preference or place to others. They want to elevate others. Next, they view trials as an opportunity to produce personal growth. In other words, when they see someone going through a trial, they're quick to say, well, wait a minute, God's behind this. You know, Dwayne and Cindy, God knows what he's doing. He hasn't forgotten you. He's helping you to grow. Next, they easily detect insincerity or wrong motives. They can tell when somebody's kind of doing it for themselves. Next, they're greatly loved because they have a positive attitude. People with a gift of encouragement are attractive and appreciated. Next, they accept people as they are without judging them. You know, they don't mock people who have fallen in the ditch. Next, they usually avoid conflicts and confrontations. Not always, as I'll share in a minute. Thirteen, they're typically cheerful and joyful. Sometimes they need to be reminded of the spirit of joy in their life. Fourteen, they rejoice to see others blessed and grieve when others are hurt. And finally, they are praying people. They intercede for the hurts and problems of others. People with this gift, listen, often keep a prayer list. Do you have a prayer list? If you do, with names on it, there's a good indication that you have the gift of encouragement. What are some of the problems? Well, you might want to write these down. Number one, they can get over-involved very easily. I mean, the whole track is cluttered with people. They're out there, you know, night and day, helping out. Number two, they can give too much advice. Sometimes, you know, they're just always in your face. Number three, they can often take up another person's offense. They're easily hurt. If not appreciated, they get hurt. And number five, they are prone to carrying others' burdens too far. In other words, you know, they'll just care-give until they fall over sometimes. Now, don't put your hand up yet. But how many of you, this was describing you. I mean, this is who you naturally are. This is who God's created you and gifted you to be. Well, if so, let me describe the kinds of people that you are prone to help. The Bible basically gives us three kinds of descriptions of people on this track. Number one, this is Roman numeral one, it's the wanderers. Folks, let's face it, on a long race, people tend to get distracted. In fact, they tend to drift sometimes. Things happen in their lives. About a year ago, I was going to Atlanta, and I was met at the airport by a friend in a blue minivan. I rented a car because I had other places I had to go later on. He said, just follow me. We're going to go quite a ways around the perimeter beltway and go to a hotel to eat. And then I had meetings, and he was going to go home. So I got behind his blue van, and I'm traveling. It was kind of rush hour-ish, and it was really hectic. It was a long way from Hartsfield around to this place in the northeast quadrant where we were going to be eating. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I got distracted by the traffic and something in the radio, or my seatbelt was pulling, or something like that. I fuddled around with it a little bit. When I looked up, the blue van had gotten off to the right, so I got behind it and kept going. We were in this traffic, and we kept going and kept going. Finally, we got off at an exit, and the van went right past every hotel and started going out into the country. Then it dawned on me. It was the wrong blue van. So I was just a tiny bit embarrassed. I called the hotel because I fortunately knew where we were going to be. I had gone 40 minutes past where we were supposed to be. I know, I'm going to Sherlock here. What happened, though, is I had gotten distracted by something that was going on, and because it was a long time, I got entangled. Hebrews uses the word. Look at it. Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us. You see, dear ones, some of us running on this track have gotten entangled in sin. We've gotten caught up in things that we shouldn't be into. I want you to listen now. And we become hard-hearted. We become a little indifferent toward those around us, toward the call of God, toward the needs that are around us. In biblical times, there's all sorts of references to idols and to things that happened that people got after in other religions. When the people of God got off and got distracted, they got hard-hearted. In Christ's time, the church became hard-hearted because they were sort of indifferent about working toward the end because they thought Christ was going to return. And dear ones, I see this all the time. I see us getting distracted. I see the church in general losing its running edge. And you know what we need when that happens? We need some admonishment. The word for encourage, those of you who know the language, would also know that that word also means to exhort. And the word to exhort means to challenge another with a bite. A person who gives admonition comes along and sort of bumps you a little bit and says, hey, wait a minute. You need to get back on the track. You're starting to drift. Scripture shows us many illustrations of this. Samuel admonished Saul. Paul admonished Peter because he was vacillating in front of the other Christians and Galatians. But the greatest illustration was David. King David, who was riding the top of his game, you know, victory after victory. What happened to him? You know the story. What happened? He fell into adultery with Bathsheba and then had Bathsheba's husband murdered. And he was totally off track, hard-hearted toward God. And Nathan, the encourager, came along. Don't usually think of him as an encourager, do you? But what did he do? Did he come in and did he yell at him? Did he shake his fist? What did he do? He told a story, very perceptive. A little word picture. And David got all indignant. He said, that person deserves to die. And Nathan looked at him and said, you are that man. And David was cut to the heart. But you know what? Nathan saved David's life. And David repented and was restored back into the race. And much good continued to happen in his life after he'd been restored by Nathan, the encourager. Dear ones, it takes courage to challenge someone else. It takes people with a gift to know how to speak the truth in love. And I'm here to say to you, we all need that once in a while. We all have a relationship that maybe gets a little out of balance. We all have a commitment level that maybe gets a little out of balance. Maybe it gets too deep or too overextended. Or our attitude gets a little wrong. And dear ones, thank God for the people with the gift of encouragement who can come and just bump us a little bit if we start to wander. That happened to me yesterday. Let me tell you about it. One of our elders, we were kind of walking past each other in the parking lot on our work day. And this elder said, you know, I just kind of talked to you for a second. And he said, last Tuesday at morning prayer, he said, you probably didn't know this, but what you said that morning to me about a certain situation, it really kind of hurt me, he said. And when he described it, I could see exactly why it had. I hadn't meant for it to, but it sure wasn't a very sensitive thing that I said to him. And he said, I just don't want anything to happen in our relationship, and I know that you wouldn't want this to be the way that you're being perceived. And I, you know, I repented. I said, thank you for telling me about this. Thank you for showing me. And you know what? As I walked away, I said, thank God for someone who just was willing to bump me back on the track. Because how many of you know, if you just keep doing this and you get away with it and that, pretty soon you're not even aware of the way you're hurting people. He reminded me, really, have you ever been on a go-kart track and they have those rubber tires along the sides? That's what he was. He was a rubber tire yesterday. He bumped me back on the track again. Got a little bruise here, actually. But it was worthwhile, and I appreciated it. We all need it once in a while. Number two, the second group of people on the track that are falling behind are the weary. The weary. In America in 1994, this represents the largest group of runners, doesn't it? How many of you today couldn't do one more thing if you had to? You feel stretched out. You feel burdened by all you have to do. Over-committed, over-extended, over this and over that, in-debt, over your head. And many of us feel guilty about how far in we are. These runners find themselves just losing strength. They're not hard-hearted. Listen, they're faint-hearted. They want to go on. They want to be in the race, but they feel they may have to quit. It reminds me of a time that we were away on a family vacation a few years ago with Gary Beasley out in Nevada. We were up near the Lake Tahoe area, and Gary invited us all to go out with his family to go mountain climbing a little bit and see some of the beautiful sights out there. And Gary said, Now, if we can get up to the top of this trail, we can look out over the Tahoe Valley and see 50 miles. It's gorgeous. It's great. So we all started pumping up here. This was maybe three years ago or so. And the two boys were fired up. Dave and Jonathan, they said, This is great. And, you know, the trail started. I noticed the higher up we went, the more narrow it got. And I also noticed that the drop-off next to it. We were like at 6,000 feet. And I began to realize that there was some risk involved here. And I had Carol and Amy, and I was helping encourage them up the hill. But Dave and Jonathan were running. They said, Come on, come on. And I suddenly realized that with the rocks and the trail, this probably was not a great plan. In fact, I was risking my entire ministry, my entire future, and possibly my family. And they got up there and said, You've got to see the view. And finally, we got to the point where we said, Why don't you just go right on ahead? We wanted to finish the race, but we got to the place where basically we just couldn't do it. It was just too treacherous. I remember thinking to Carol, They'll never come back. We'll never see them again. They're going to turn over the hill and fall down and go down 6,000 feet or whatever it was. I wanted to catch the vision, but really I just couldn't keep going in the race. Have you ever been like that? Have you wanted to go on with God and found that you just couldn't keep it up? Some of you have. Some of you right now are in a marriage and you want to go on and you just don't know if you can keep paying the price. Some of you have kids right now that are just giving you such a hard time. You say, God, I can't keep going. Some of you are in a financial thing that's just squeezed the joy out of your life. Dear ones, there are people with the gift of encouragement who God wants to send around you right now to help the faint-hearted renew their strength and keep pressing on. Now, what happened in that scenario? Gary came around and said, There's another way we can go. Aha! We went around a long way, but it was safe and we got to see the view. And I'll never forget, it was worth it, but I never would have gotten there if I had to be a mountain goat. And that's what these two guys were, just basically climbing the side of the hill. Dear ones, there are people today that you'll encounter in the coffee time and in the parking lot who need you to encourage them to keep running the race. It takes encouragement and God has given this body that kind of support. You know what? I can't tell you how many times I wanted to quit doing this building. Did you know it's been six years since we started? 1988, we started the process of Prelude to a Promise. And we had so many obstacles and we had so many people that didn't agree and this and that and the township. And finally, after three years of that, we found the property that we were finally purchased. 1991, October 91 is when we bought that. And then there was all these obstacles and all these regulations and all these DER things and that thing. And then some of the folks that didn't agree and some that left. And all along the way, I wanted to just get off the track and say, forget it. But God sent me encouragers, some of you, who came alongside and said, just keep going. We're going to make it, just keep going. Just keep your eyes right in front of you, keep going. And now in just a few weeks, God will have fulfilled that promise. How many of you today, maybe you need that kind of encouragement? I believe that some of us here are going to be that to you today. Number three, the third group of people are the wounded. There's the wanderers, there's the weary, and there's some today that are just wounded. These are people who are in deep pain. They've stopped running. They've fallen on the track. They want to go on. They're just not able to. They're not hard-hearted. They're not faint-hearted. They're broken-hearted. When has there ever been a time when broken-heartedness has been so apparent in this country, and even in the church? How many of you have had your heart broken this week? Again, the news always seems to just put its finger on the rawest part of our fallenness. I mean, hearing these stories about 11-year-olds shooting other 11-year-olds. I mean, the pain that that must cause God to know that that kind of violence is in our culture. But I don't need to point to some problem that's a thousand miles away. I can point to pain here today. I can point to some of you who this week have experienced pain of rejection or loneliness. I can point to some of you who cannot break an addiction. And you're sitting here basically faking it in church today, hoping that no one really asks you sincerely how you're doing. Because if you were honest, you'd be embarrassed. But you know what? People like you belong in God's track. He loves you. And He has sent around you people with the gift of encouragement and mercy to come alongside and help you to get back up on your feet to finish the race. Dear ones, may it always be true of North Way that we'd be a place where people come who are wounded to find healing. I rejoice when I get the letters from you who after two years of sitting out there finally have the courage to say, I've been here for two years and I've never met you and I don't want to. I understand what they're saying. I just want you to know that I've been healed because somebody cared for me. To me, you're descriptive of the group of people in Mark chapter 2. One of my favorite stories as a young Christian was Mark chapter 2, where the man, the man who was lame, was laying on his pallet, his cot, and he wanted to go to Jesus to be healed, but he couldn't move. So he had some friends carry him along. Just get the picture in your mind, okay? And they carry him to this house where Jesus is teaching, and they come to the perimeter of the house, and it's so packed with people, and by the way, I think that's going to happen in our new building, that they couldn't get in. You can write that down. They couldn't get in. But these four encouragers weren't wimps. They took that cot, climbed up on the roof, and peeled off the tiles. Now, that wouldn't happen in our new building. They'd dig through the steel somehow and lower him down, but they would find a way. And they lowered this crippled man down. I just, every time I think of it, what a picture. Here's Jesus teaching, and stuff starts falling out of the ceiling, and you know, tile and dirt, and this man comes down, and he's roped right in front of him. Now, he had to be a little bit embarrassed for just a minute, and all of a sudden he realized that his dream was coming to pass. He was in the presence of Jesus. Because, not because he got there himself, not because he got up and dusted himself off, he couldn't move, but because four people with the gift of encouragement wouldn't give up. And do you remember what Jesus said? He looked at the man on the pallet, the lame man, and he said to him, their faith. Jesus said, when he saw their faith, whose faith? The encouragers. Their faith brought healing to the broken man. Encouragers, listen. Sometimes you are the difference between someone giving it up forever and finishing the race. Your faith covers my need in times when I fall. And I want you to know that's a wonderful gift. May God give us many such encouragers in our body. Dwayne and Cindy Swalsky, that's a gift of mercy that wouldn't give up. Some of you here today, you'll never break that habit. You won't overcome that addiction. You won't break free of that pain until someone carries you through. Finally, how do we administer this gift? If you think you have it, how do you do it? Three things, three words. Number one, focus on one need at a time. Listen, church, the tendency is those of you with the gift of encouragement, you see needs everywhere. I mean, you see the whole track littered with people. So you do this one, then you run over here. And I have to say, I think it's much better if you just find a need and stick with it until it's met, until that person's back on their feet. Then go on to the next one. Focus your energies. And may I also say this? Focus your encouragement, whether it's in action or in words. Focus it on the fear of the person that you're ministering to. You know what I'm saying? Your love speaks to their fear. Your action relieves the fear that they have that it won't happen. Someone told me of a person in the church who called them and said, I want you and your husband to get away and my husband and I are going to watch your three kids for the weekend. Go anywhere you want to. We'll pick up your kids and keep them for the whole weekend. Well, you see, that was a great encouragement because for this couple, they hadn't been away in a year and a half and they were burning out. And that word and that action of encouragement spoke right to the fear that who's going to take care of our kids and who's going to watch our family? And their marriage was refreshed. You see, when I walk off this platform, I can tell you this. Every weekend, somehow I'll hear this whisper to my ears like, oh, you bombed, or this didn't get through, or that person wasn't paying. And I'll hear these lies, you see, those fears that, hey, I'm not getting a job now, but someone will come alongside and not patronizingly and not with, well, that was nice, but someone, they'll just say something simple like you really spoke to me. And that word speaks right to my fear and it encourages. Let's be that for one another, shall we? Number two, find creative ways, creative ways, like the person who took care of the kids. Don't just say it, but show it some ways. Listen, encouragers, you're creative. Use your gifts. Number three, fix your eyes on Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Encouragers, sometimes you wonder, does anyone really care what I'm doing? How many encouragers here have gone out of your way to help somebody and no one even said thanks? Didn't even say no. Sometimes the runner just kind of got up. You know, it's kind of like a bird or an animal that you help out of a trap. They just run off. They don't stop and say thanks. But you know what? The Lord sees. And encouragers, fix your eyes on Jesus and know that you'll hear His approval, His pleasure, as you exercise your gift. You know, church, this whole body, and it's a large body, has so many runners. And I have a sense in my heart that God's going to add hundreds more to us in the coming months and years, maybe thousands more. We can never make it unless we're all functioning in our gifts. And I have one great desire. When God finally calls us home, that those who've been wandering, those who've been weary, and those who've been wounded, will all be up, running the race, arm in arm together with the rest of us, so that when we come before the Lord, we'll cross the finish line together and hear Jesus say, well done. Well done, church. Let's stand, shall we? Father, I thank you right now for the gifts that are laid to me in this body. Gifts, God, that you have given that move us. Around the track of faith's journey, I pray you'd move us even this day, Lord. Stir our hearts with your words. Speak into our spirit. Soften my heart, Lord. Soften my heart.