The Power of Encouragement

This is the sermon given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12.

            One of the easiest sins to fall into, and one of the most dangerous, is the sin of arrogance.  Thinking that we’re better than we are, and letting everyone know how good we think we are.  Putting out our opinions as if they were the gospel, and looking down on anyone who disagrees with us.  Acting like we have it all figured out, and all those other dopes just cannot get with the program.  Arrogance.

            Arrogance may be the sin the Bible talks about the most.  If not, it’s definitely in the top five.  And the reason the Bible talks about arrogance so much is that it takes us away from God.  Arrogance convinces us that we don’t need God, that we can take care of ourselves and do whatever we want, because we’re so great and so good.  And sometimes, by the time we find out that it does not work that way, we’re in serious trouble.

            And so, you hear preachers talk about our need to be humble.  To humble ourselves before the Lord, to come to God with the knowledge of how unworthy we are.  To know that it is only by the grace of God that we’re able to approach God at all.  Humility is considered a virtue, and a very important one.

            And it is.  But we can carry anything, even humility, too far.  If we’re too humble, it can get in the way of serving God.  We need to recognize that God has given us some talents and abilities, and God wants us to use them.  And we also need to know that it’s okay if we feel good about using our talents and abilities for God.

            In our reading for tonight, the Apostle Paul is writing to people who live in a town called Thessalonica.  That’s why they’re called Thessalonians.  And Paul is really complimentary to them.  Paul says that he and others should always thank God for them.  Their faith is so strong.  Their love for each other is so obvious.  And that faith, and that love, is always increasing.  In fact, the people of Thessalonica have so much faith and so much love that whenever Paul goes to other churches, he always brags to those other churches about how great the church in Thessalonica is.  He holds them up as an example to all the other churches.

            And Paul does not stop there.  He keeps praising them.  He says, you have done this despite the fact that you have not had an easy time of it.  You’ve been persecuted.  You’ve endured trials.  And still your faith has stayed strong.  Paul says, this just goes to show that God did the right thing by calling you to His church, and that you are worthy of the kingdom of God.

That all had to make the people of Thessalonica feel pretty good, right?  I mean, it sure would make me feel good.  To have someone as respected as the Apostle Paul bragging about your church to other churches?  To have him holding your church up as an example to all the other churches?  To hear him bragging about how you’ve kept your faith strong in spite of persecution, and that you are worthy of the kingdom of God?  That would be awesome, right?  I mean, I’d be happy to just have the District Superintendent say that.  But the Apostle Paul?  How great would that be?

            I’m sure Paul knew it would make the people of Thessalonica feel good to hear all this.  That’s the point.  Paul wanted them to feel good.  Paul wanted them to know that he appreciated their faith.  He wanted them to know that God appreciated their faith, too.  Paul wanted to encourage the people of Thessalonica.  He wanted them to keep doing what they were doing.  He wanted them to do even more.  He wanted his words to inspire them to go further, to continue to please God with their faith and their love.

            We all want that kind of encouragement.  We all want that kind of inspiration.  Not only do we want it, we need it.  We need to hear that what we’re doing is noticed.  We need to hear that the things we do are appreciated.

Have you ever felt like you were being taken for granted?  I suspect you have.  It’s not a good feeling, is it?  

Now, as I said last week, we should do the right thing just because it’s the right thing.  We should not do the right thing because we want a reward, either from humans or from God.  We should do the right thing--the right thing in God’s eyes--because that’s what God deserves.  But still, when someone notices that we’ve done the right thing, when someone appreciates that we’ve done the right thing, when someone compliments us for doing the right thing, it makes us feel good.  We all like compliments.  Mark Twain once said, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.”

So, knowing that, what should we do?  We should be like Paul!  We should look for people whose faith is strong.  We should look for people who show love to others.  We should look for people who do the right thing just because it’s the right thing.  And when we find those people, we should tell them how proud we are of them.  We should tell them that we can see God in them.  We should tell them that we see what they’re doing, and that we appreciate it.  Telling them that just might encourage them and inspire them to do even more.

And there’s one more thing we should do.  We should pray for them.  Because Paul did that for the people of Thessalonica, too.  He prayed for them.  And he told them he was praying for them.

How did he pray?  He prayed that God would make them worthy of God’s calling.  Now that’s an encouragement, but it’s also a reminder.  It’s a reminder that they’re not actually worthy of God’s calling, and they cannot make themselves worthy.  The only way they can become worthy of God’s calling is if God makes them worthy of it.  So, while it’s fine that they feel good about what they’ve done, they need to not be arrogant about it.  They need to not think they’ve done these things on their own.  They’ve done them with God’s help.  And the only way they can keep doing them is with God’s help.

That’s a good reminder for us, too.  It’s fine for us to appreciate compliments.  It’s fine for us to respond to encouragement and inspiration.  But at the same time, we need to remember, too, that we are not doing anything on our own.  We have no right to feel arrogant about how great we are, because we’re doing anything because we’re great.  Any good things we do are with the help and the inspiration of God.  

But Paul follows that reminder with some more encouragement.  He says he is praying that, by God’s power, “He will bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.”  In other words, Paul is telling the people of Thessalonica that he’s confident that they want to do the right thing.  They have faith, and they want to do good.  And so he is praying that God will keep that desire strong in them, so that, with God’s help, they can continue to do more and more.

These are things we can pray for each other.  And you know what?  We can pray them for ourselves, too.  We can pray that God will keep the desire to do good strong in us, too.  We can pray that God will help us do more and more--again, remembering that we cannot do those things on our own, that we can only do them with God’s help.

And Paul closes this section with this:  “We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

And that’s the clincher.  That’s the desire we really need--a desire to have Jesus be glorified in us.  A desire to do things that help people see the glory of Jesus in us.  If we have that desire, we will feel God acting in and through us.  Then, we truly will be worthy of God’s calling and of God’s kingdom.

So pray that way.  Pray for God to give you that desire.  Pray for God to give others that desire, too.  Pray that we will all have the desire to do things that bring glory to Jesus name.  

We all need encouragement.  We need to hear encouragement, and we need to give encouragement.  But most of all, we need to pray for God’s encouragement.  Because if we have that, Paul’s prayer for the people of Thessalonica will be answered in us.  Jesus’ name will be glorified in us, according to the grace of God and our Lord Jesus Christ.