Fueling Faith Through Encouragement*

Everyone needs encouragement, whether they realize it or not. In this message, Pastor Chris Teien explains how God uses ordinary believers to strengthen one another through words, actions, relationships, accountability, and the hope found in Jesus Christ.

The New Testament repeatedly commands Christians to encourage one another because following Christ is not meant to be a lonely journey. This message explores how encouragement builds faith, restores discouraged believers, develops meaningful relationships, and helps the church reflect the love of Christ to a hurting world.

In This Message:

1. Encourage One Another by Growing in Faith Together

The hope of Christ's return gives believers confidence to persevere through life's greatest challenges. As Christians worship, study God's Word, disciple one another, and share their faith, they strengthen each other to remain faithful until Jesus returns. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; 5:1-11)

2. Encourage One Another Through Godly Relationships

God often places people in our lives to strengthen, comfort, challenge, and inspire us. Like Paul receiving encouragement from Titus, believers experience God's care through faithful friends, mentors, and fellow Christians who walk alongside them. (2 Corinthians 7:5-7; John 14:16, 26)

3. Encourage One Another by Spending Time Together

Presence matters. Whether visiting someone in need, sharing a meal, serving together, or simply showing up, God uses personal relationships to refresh weary hearts and strengthen His people. (2 Timothy 1:15-18)

4. Encourage One Another Through Grace Instead of Judgment

Christ calls believers to restore rather than condemn. Instead of tearing others down over past failures, Christians are to extend grace, speak truth with humility, and help others move forward in their walk with Christ. (Matthew 7:1-5; Galatians 5:15-16)

5. Encourage One Another Through Loving Accountability

Biblical encouragement includes helping one another remain faithful to Christ. By speaking God's truth with love, praying for one another, and addressing sin graciously, believers help each other grow in holiness and spiritual maturity. (Hebrews 3:13; Psalm 139:23-24; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Takeaway

Be intentional about encouraging others. Strengthen fellow believers through your words, your presence, your prayers, and your example, remembering that God often uses ordinary acts of encouragement to accomplish extraordinary spiritual growth.

Illustrations

• A football coach who inspired his players by calling them "lions" demonstrates the life-changing power of encouragement over criticism.

• Felix Baumgartner's record-breaking skydive, supported by mentor Joe Kittinger, illustrates how encouragement from someone who has walked the path before us builds courage and confidence.

• Paul being strengthened by Titus and Onesiphorus reminds believers that God often encourages His people through faithful Christian friendships.

Key Quotes

"Encourage each other and build each other up."

"God often encourages discouraged people through other people."

"We can't keep shooting our wounded."

Search Topics

encouragement, one another, Christian fellowship, discipleship, accountability, 1 Thessalonians, Hebrews 3, church, Christian relationships, Pastor Chris Teien

Full Episode & Transcript:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/16335675

17m1017der Fueling Faith Through Encouragement

I hope this message helps you understand and apply God’s Word. Find sermon transcripts at Well.faith, learn more at ChrisTeien.com, or come visit us at Rockwell Church in Virginia, Minnesota. If this message encouraged you, I’d love to hear from you at wellfaith24@gmail.com.

Transcript

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Chris T 0:16

There's people all around us that are going through their everyday emotions, living a dry life. They are working, taking care of their kids, doing all this stuff, but something's missing in their life. Something is not right. And they are godless. They don't have Christ in their life. They don't have God's compass, His Holy Word. They don't have the Holy Spirit empowering their life. They don't have a relationship with Christ, and that's the most important thing in the world. And as you know, our church is about worshiping, encouraging, learning, and loving. And if we live a life of worship, we'll focus our time and our resources on worshiping God, not just coming to a worship service, but in the things that we do all week long, the things that we prioritize, the things that we do with our money, with our time. We want to encourage people. We want to be worshipers because God is so valuable. We love God so much we want to share Him with others. And we want to love people, we want to learn and help them to learn. And encouraging is a huge deal. Encouraging is something that everybody needs. There's so many discouraged people out there that need to be encouraged. There's so many people around us that we know or that we hear about on the news, even in our own town, that are going through some really terrible things. I mean, you read through the paper, and there's like we prayed during prayer time for teenagers that make poor choices that lead to legal troubles and long-term penalties and felonies and everything else. Reading the paper of a kid that was caught with drugs, you read in the paper of a girl that accidentally ran someone over while she was Snapchatting on her phone. And how do these people go on? What kind of town do we have? What kind of church are we to help these people find forgiveness, a new life in Christ, and then give them a pass, give them our love and blessing as they move forward? Because on average you get 70 years of life. And if you mess up one day, you know, when you're young or 20 or 30 or 50, you mess up one day, you realize it was a mistake, try to make it right, and then move forward. God lets you move forward. The church needs to let you move forward. You need to encourage each other and build each other up. And this is the end of our one another series. So there's like, I don't know what there's like 59 different times in the Bible where it says like one and another one another. But there's only 52 weeks or 52 Sundays in the in the year, so we'll move on after this one. But I encourage you to look up some of the other one another passages, especially if they greet one another with a holy kiss thing. And I'm pretty sure the greeters were doing that at the door, or maybe they didn't get the memo, I'm not really sure. But that'd be kind of weird. So my granddaughters, especially when they're little, you know, they'd walk in the door and jump into my arms and you know, want a big hug. So I'm helping the greeters out the door, and there's some new people coming in, and one of my granddaughters comes running up, and she like gives me a big hug and everything like that, and the people are looking at me like, that's weird. Do that to all the kids that come in the door? I'm like, oh, she's my granddaughter. Oh, that makes sense. Okay. Okay, I guess you can shake his hand a little Billy. I guess it's okay. But to encourage each other is huge. If we could be encouragers, if we could be encouragers, that would be awesome. So 1 Thessalonians 5.11 is a statement that has all sorts of really important stuff in the Christian life before it. So packed before it in the context is this whole thing about Jesus' returning, Jesus is coming back, he's gonna take his church with him, great days ahead. All these things about the rapture and Jesus coming back is all in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Thessalonians 5. And you can read that, but it repeatedly in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and here says, These things are gonna happen. The Lord is going to return, he is going to grab believers and they are going to be with him. What a great time that we'll be. Encourage each other, even when you go through how it stuff, encourage each other with these words. And it talks about living the Christian life and how important it is to live in a way that honors God. And then it says that we are to encourage each other with these words and to build each other up. So, do you see ways that you can build each other up, that you can come alongside of people and encourage them and to help them grow or to share something that maybe you learned? Maybe you're having devotions or something like that, and God spoke to you, and then you just share it with other people, and they're encouraged too. What a great thing. So, first Thessalonians 4, 16. The Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First the Christians who have died will rise from their graves, then together with them, we who are still alive and remain on earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. Verse 18. So encourage each other with these words. Doesn't matter how bad your life has been, or what your finances look like, or how much you hate your job, or how bad your health problems are. Those are encouraging words that say there is a future, there is hope. Jesus is coming back. Or if I die, I'm going to be with Jesus, and I look forward to that. And if you truly believe that, if you truly believe that encouragement, that what you've got in this life isn't all you get, that what you do in this life isn't all you do, then it should change the way that you live your life, the way that you invest your life. So when we say we'd like to get more junior and senior hires in the youth groups, because we've got people there to lead youth groups, it's not just to make ourselves feel better or say we're a bigger church or blah, blah, blah. It's because someday Jesus is coming back, and we would love to see all those kids in a close, tight relationship with Jesus, leading their friends at school to Jesus, and living a life that makes a difference, a life of faith, a life of hope, and a life of encouraging others. Then you get to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 1, and it says, Now concerning how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters, we don't really need to write to you, for you know quite well that the day of the Lord's return will come unexpectedly like a thief in the night. When people are saying, everything is peaceful and secure, then disaster will fall on them, as sudden as a pregnant woman's labor pains begins, and there will be no escape. But you aren't in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won't be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief, for you are all children of the light and of the day. We don't belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like the others, stay alert and be clear headed. Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk. But let us who live in the light be clear headed, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation. And then after that it says, so encourage each other and build each other up just as you are already doing. To encourage each other is huge. So we encourage each other in faith. Encouragement. Encouragement, the prefix N means to cause to be. Courage means confidence. So to inspire people to have confidence in what they believe, to inspire to have confidence that if they're living the Christian life, if they're prioritizing Christ, that what they're doing is the right thing to do. The encourager causes others to have confidence to do what needs to be done and to make needed changes. The Lord encouraged Joshua to be strong and very courageous in leading the Israelites to inherit the land God promised to give them. Encouragement also means to comfort or counsel. So to come alongside someone and to encourage them and to comfort them. And the Holy Spirit is an encourager, is a comforter. John 14, 16, Jesus says, I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate who will never leave you. And down to verse 26. When the Father sends, the advocate is my representative, that is the Holy Spirit. He will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you. I'm leaving you with a gift, peace of mind and heart, and peace I give is a gift the world cannot give, so don't be troubled or afraid. Jesus repeatedly said that we are going to be persecuted, that living for him was going to be tough. If they Jesus said if they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you. There is lots of persecution going on in the world right now. A matter of fact, even for us, I mean, they don't come to our house and interrogate us and search for Bibles and take those away or anything right now. But if you stand for Christian principles right now, it can affect your career, it can affect the way people think of you, it can affect the way that some people in culture view you. But on the other hand, if you stand for Christ and do what's right, it's the right thing to do. And you might actually by doing that be encouraging more people to step up, to stand up, and to live for Christ. So if you're the only, if you think you're the only Christian at work or at your school, the only person that wants to live for Christ in your club or your team or whatever, stand for Christ and see how many other people are sitting on their hands and trying to keep their heads down that don't want to be noticed or recognized, that will stand with you if you are the one that stands up for Christ. And be encouraged. Encourage through growing in faith together. Encourage each other and build each other up just as you are already doing. Do you know that if you lead someone to Christ and they so they get saved and they don't know anything about Christ, so you disciple them, you help them grow in their faith, so you help them to see how to understand the Bible and how it's 66 books instead of just one. And maybe you use like one of the discipleship books that we have and you help them to grow and they ask you questions and things like that. That's not just a labor to take your time, that's mutual encouragement because as you're helping them to grow, then you know that you're being used by God, and they often ask you questions or apply scripture in ways that you didn't realize, and it ends up being a growing thing, especially when they ask you questions you don't know the answer to, and then you go find the answers to the question, or you learn different ways to explain faith, or you share your faith story, your testimony, and as you do, you're being encouraged because it's like you're telling the story, and it's like, yeah, God did this in my life, and God did this in my life, and I'm not the same person I used to be, praise God, and it ends up being a mutual encouragement. So let us encourage each other through growing in faith together. Number two, you can be powerfully encouraged through the people God puts in your life. So sometimes God puts people in your life that aren't exactly like you, they might not even believe every specific thing that you believe just the way you believe it, but they are still an encouragement to you. So they are in your life and they are around, maybe it's a coworker or a neighbor or a family member or whatever. And so either they can encourage you to grow in Christ, or they can encourage you to learn a lot about apologetics and how to defend your faith because they're constantly asking you questions, trying to ridicule you and criticize you as a Christian. But God can use people in your life to be an encouragement. So Paul in 2 Corinthians 7 says, When we arrived in Macedonia, there was no rest for us. We faced conflict from every direction, with battles on the outside and fear on the inside. But God, who encourages those who are discouraged, encouraged us by the arrival of Titus. He sent Titus on a special mission to deliver a letter to Corinth that says, You guys are doing this wrong, this is messed up, you need to change. And Paul is concerned about what the response of that was going to be. He was concerned, you know, what where is Titus? What happened to Titus? And then so Titus comes back with an encouraging response from the church, with an encouraging message to Paul. Paul was in prison. That was an encouragement to Paul. But God who encourages those who are discouraged, encouraged us by the arrival of Titus. And so many times when you're discouraged, God encourages you through communication from or through the presence of or a visit from somebody else. So you can be encouraged in so many ways. Now we have face chat and all these different things where we can kind of be in people's presence. It's not like we're able to like touch each other, but you can still be communicating and things like that. And that still counts as a way to be encouraged. When you have a friend who lives far, far away, or maybe you've got like a true Facebook friend that you've never met, but when there's trouble, you contact that person. I actually have one of those that I found off of Facebook, and I don't know why I have his ear, but there's a megachurch pastor out in California who's also teaches at a seminary, and whenever I have questions about anything, and he's quick to answer me. He's got all sorts of other people to talk to, invest in. So that's somebody that God has put in my life to encourage me. And some issues and things that I was really didn't know what to do or how to handle it. He was the answer man that God provided. But I hope that you have people like that too. Let's see here. By the arrival of Titus, his presence was a joy, but so was the news he brought of the encouragement he received from you when he told us how much you longed to see me and how sorry you are for what happened and how loyal you are to me. I was filled with joy. Paul was down, he was concerned, he was probably having sleepless nights. Man, I sent Titus on that mission. I sure hope it worked out. I hope he's okay. I hope they didn't chew him up. I hope that he comes back. I hope that they respond well. I'm praying about that, and sure enough, he was encouraged. You can be encouraged through the people God puts in your life. A matter of fact, when God puts people in your life, you can do so much more than you could do on your own. You can be inspired to do things. I haven't done it yet, but I have a friend who memorizes entire books of the Bible. So I see him do it and I know it can be done. And someday I'm gonna probably do that. I always say that, but then it doesn't happen. It's cool. It's like, what are you doing? I'm memorizing James. Sweet. That's good. I should do that. You make me feel guilty. I hate you. No, no, you encourage me, you encourage me. So on October 4th, or October 14th, 2012, the Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner broke two world records that had stood for over 50 years. He smashed the previous world record for the fastest dive, breaking the sound barrier and reaching a velocity of nearly 834 miles per hour. He also broke the world record for the highest freefall, jumping out of a balloon 128,000 feet or 24 miles above New Mexico. But the 43-year-old Baumgartner gladly admits that he couldn't have done it without the help of his mentor, the previous world record holder for both records, 84-year-old Joe Kittinger. Kittinger, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, has been an integral part of Baumgartner's team. Months prior to Baumgartner's record-breaking dive, Kittinger provided him with advice and encouragement whenever the younger man doubted his ability. Right before the actual jump, Kittinger told Baumgartner, All right, step up to the exterior step, start the cameras, and our guardian angel will take care of you now. During the fall, Kittinger's reassuring voice for mission control guided Baumgartner through the dive, especially during one particularly tense moment. Early in the dive, Baumgartner started spinning out of control. The same problem that had nearly killed Kittinger during his dive, Baumgartner kept talking to Kittinger, whose deep voice offered reassurance. In fact, Baumgartner didn't allow any other voice than Kittinger's in his helmet. When the dive was finished, Kittinger had only praise for Baumgartner's new world records. Kittinger said, Felix did a great job, and it was a great honor to work with this brave guy. In an article in National Geographic, it highlighted the special bond between the two men. Prior to the jump, Kittinger said, I'll be the only one who knows how Felix feels at that moment when he jumps from that step, because I've done it before. Baumgartner agreed. Joe knows how lonely you are at that altitude. And he added, It feels like if Joe's there, nothing can go wrong. So you have two guys. One guy was the record holder, and another guy wants to become the record holder, and you think they're in competition, but they weren't. One guy that knew how to do it, how it was done, had experienced before, was there to encourage the other guy to do more than he had ever done before. And where can you encourage somebody? How can you encourage somebody to accomplish more, to do more, to be more, to achieve new heights or depths or levels of knowledge, to accomplish more, to be more significant. When you get older, I always thought that when I was the age I am that I would consider myself older, but now I've changed my changed it all. Now 80 is old. When you're 80, you're old. Yeah. But anyway, they say that you should think about you know who you're gonna pass your ministry off to. If you're a pastor of a church, who are you raising up to take over for you? Who are if you're gonna, if you got a if you have a business, who are you training up to take over for you? What's your succession plan? And we need to do that in the Christian life. Wouldn't it be great if you led someone to if you knew how to lead someone to Christ? So you led someone to Christ and then you helped train them up in their faith. You discipled them so that they led someone to Christ and then discipled them, and so you started this whole thing, so you reproduced yourself basically to the point that the person that you were invested in could reproduce themselves, and what a great thing. So maybe God is using you. Someone's discouraged, and God's putting you in that person's life. So mutually encouraged, powerfully encouraged through the people God puts in your life. Number three, encouraged through spending time together. Time together. So Timothy 1.15. So again, Paul writes, As you know, everyone from the province of Asia has deserted me, even Figlius and Hermogenes. May the Lord show special kindness to Anesphorus and all of his family because he often visited and encouraged me. He was never ashamed of me because I was in chains. When he came to Rome, he searched everywhere until he found me. So Paul had someone, when he was in prison, had somebody that actually sought him out. There were so many people that didn't want to be identified with Paul. Didn't want to be there with him in prison and chains, didn't want to maybe face persecution themselves. It might be hard to find somebody in Rome to get through the political red tape and who where is Paul being kept? So Anesporus found Paul, searched him out, and was there in person to encourage someone. Isn't it great when someone comes a long distance to come spend time with you? Isn't it great when somebody comes to spend time because they care? Isn't it great when people show up because they care and want to encourage you? When you show up at church on Sunday, you encourage me and Dan and everybody else who set up and hopefully the other people around. When you bring your friends, that encourages us. So today, two people sitting here in the front row, stand up, say hi to everybody. It wasn't their time to set up, but the two people that were supposed to set up after these people showed up sent a text and said, I'm here, I can't come, we've got this going on, I can't come. But these two special people on the front row said, We don't know whose day it is to set up, but we just thought we'd show up. Well, that was perfect, because yay, they were definitely needed. And so that type of stuff encourages people. So when you call, send a message, do things to they say relationships are like plants, right? You have to water them to keep them growing. So spending time together is huge. Paul was encouraged. He could have received letters, cards, texts, all sorts of things. Couldn't have received text. But he was encouraged most by the person who showed up, the person most who was willing to go through all of the difficulty to actually figure out where Paul was and visit him in prison. We can be encouraged through spending time together. Do you spend time together? There are certain people in my life where I make like a in my mind like I'm gonna call that person once a week. I value that relationship, and so I'm going to do what I can do to make sure that I connect with that person once a week. Spending time together is huge. So encouraging one another, spending time, go out for coffee, go do stuff, time. Children or teenagers spell love T-I-M-E. They want time with their parents. Encourage each other through spending time together. Encourage through withholding judgment. Through withholding judgment. Now, this is a very popular passage for people that want Christians not to judge them for their lifestyle or what they do. They're like, Don't judge me, man. The Bible says you're not supposed to judge others. So Jesus said in Matthew 7, Don't judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite, first get rid of the log in your own eye, then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye. So that passage is not saying that you should never be discerning or try to size people up to figure out where they're at. Especially if you're trying to hire someone to help run your business, or if you are trying to figure out if you should make an investment with somebody, it's a good thing to be discerning. And even in this passage, Jesus talks about be careful of the wolves of false teachers. So this isn't saying that you shouldn't be discerning. But what it is saying is that you shouldn't permanently cut people off, you shouldn't size them up by the way that they look, you shouldn't reject them because of their history years ago, but you should give them an opportunity. And it sure is hard to talk to people about sin in their life and call it out and be all like a Pharisee when you've got your own stuff going on. They might not know it, but God knows it. So maybe if you're gonna talk to that person about that sin or that thing that they're doing, maybe you don't say, God says this. And it's so wicked, and how could you do that when you're doing the same thing? Instead, you maybe could come alongside and still address the same thing and say, many people struggle with this, and it is like a huge issue, and it can, I know personally, it can lead to heartache and all sorts of stuff. And so you're doing this, and God's word says it's wrong, and it's just it's getting you're gonna end up getting hurt, and I care about you and encouraging through withholding judgment. We need to be encouraging, and it is so hard to not be in a relationship where you know that the person is judging you, or you know that when you see that person that they are going to hammer you. That it's like here's that person coming, and you're like, oh, they gossip about me, they tell stuff to other people about me, they hate me, I did something wrong two years ago and they still bring it up and they can never get past it. What a terrible way to treat someone, what a terrible way to live. Mike Howerton describes how different were the motivational methods of two men who coached his high school football team, Coach Crow and Coach Rush. When his team was losing during halftime, the two coaches would give two very different pep talks. Coach Crow would come in growling, spitting disdain from his words at us. What a bunch of losers! Let's get your girlfriend suited up. They'd do a better job. Your flimsy arm tackles make me want to puke. I'm gonna go look for some diapers for you babies to wear in the second half. Maybe then you won't embarrass yourself so bad. He'd leave, and absolute silence would descend, virtually no sound except for the muffled sobs of Monty or kicker in the corner. Then our defensive head coach, Coach Rush, would come in. He'd look each of us in the eyes with a steely glint. When he began to speak, you could feel strength flow into your limbs. He would begin with something like this, measured, masculine, and building an intensity. I don't see high school students, I see lions. This locker room is filled with lions. A bunch of lions is called the pride. The pride of lions hunts together, the pride of lions kills together. Lions are majestic to behold. Lions are the king of the land, and this is your land. You are the pride here. But there's one thing I haven't heard you lions do tonight. I haven't heard you roar. Now we're gonna go out there, and everyone in this two-bit town is gonna hear you roar because you are lions and lions roar. We'd erupt in an ear-splitting roar, even Monty. Because we weren't seniors or juniors, we were lions and lions roar. We'd go out to an evitable victory, and when Coach Rush died unexpectedly, a few years later, he was so beloved that there was a motion and named the stadium after him. So you have two coaches both given the same opportunity. One chose to tear down and one chose to build up. I can't imagine that was their plan. I'll be the I'll be the bad cop, you be the good cop. I don't think that's the way that it worked, but if that's the way it worked, then Coach Rush, the one that built up the kids that inspired the kids, was the one that was looked to, the one that was loved, the one that motivated the kids to do what's right. What can you do to encourage others? What can you do to be the ones that can help people that are messed up, we're all messed up, to go beyond themselves and to do more, to serve more, to love more, to serve Jesus more, to take more risks and to really live the Christian life in a way that honors God. Galatians 5.15 says, if you're always biting and devouring one another, watch out. Beware of destroying one another. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives, then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. So we can't keep shooting our wounded, we can't keep tearing people down because they're not perfect, because nobody's perfect. What's really cool is when the person that definitely wasn't perfect and everybody knew it becomes somebody that is a world changer, somebody that takes their past and all the hardship and then goes out and then tries to make a difference in lives, in teens' lives, in adults' lives, people that suffered through a broken marriage, realized maybe they were wrong in their the way that they live their life, they come to Christ, they change their ways, and then they lead like a divorce care group, a divorce recovery group to help others going through the same thing, or someone that was an addict that is now recovering, that God help, invest in the lives of other people that struggle with addiction. What a great thing. And then number five, and this is the last one, being encouraged through holding each other accountable. So Hebrews 3.13 says, But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. To have somebody in your life that has permission to speak into what they see, to see the way that you live your life, and then to encourage you, to look at script, to take scripture and use it to encourage, to teach, to correct you, to rebuke. Rebuke doesn't necessarily mean criticize, but it means to strongly disagree or to oppose something. So to have people in your life that you're accountable to. There's lots of books, men's books that talk about men's accountability, which is a great thing to have an accountability partner as long as you're gonna be honest with that accountability partner. A lot of times the accountability partners lie to each other and then it doesn't really have the same effect. The idea is that you don't want to do the wrong thing because you're gonna have to tell your accountability partner about it. So it's supposed to help you to more likely do the things that are right. But encourage one another, as long as it is still called today. So when Jesus comes back, all of the things that are defective in us will be fixed. So when we go to be with Jesus, he will finish the work he has started in us, and things will be great. We should encourage each other with those words. There's also lots of encouraging words that help us to really walk in the Lord correctly. Psalm 139 Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts, point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. You should pray that. Maybe at night, when your day is spent, you can pray that and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any sin in your life that you need to confess to him so that you can change. Look into Scripture and see what it is that you need to change. Again, 2 Timothy 3.16, all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what's right. 1 John 5.16. If you see a Christian brother or sister sitting in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life, that there is a sin that leads to death. So we should pray that people do not go through this whole life rejecting Jesus, that people will not go through this whole life and not come into a right personal relationship with Jesus. We should do all that we can to hold out the truth, to share Bibles, to share scripture, to bring them to Christian concerts, Christian events, and things like that. And the worship team is gonna head up here, but again, in the list of one another's, spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Do not slander one another, confess your sins to one another, love one another deeply from the heart. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love, honor one another above yourselves, live in harmony with one another, stop passing judgment on one another, accept one another then as Christ has accepted you. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, and in your humility consider others better than yourself. Lord, help us to be humble encouragers. Lord, help us to think about the way that we live among one another. Lord, I pray that you would take something that was read from your word, said, and that the people here would apply it and walk out being encouragers, looking for someone to lead to Christ, to disciple people, to help them grow in their faith and to make a difference in the world. In Jesus' name. Amen.