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lesson that may sting because it may rebuke us for our sin. But at the same time, we need to be built up to have the courage to live the way God wants us to live. c.Elders, pastors, overseers and bishops%u2014Titus 1 is a chapter that lists a criteria for elders, the kind of people they need to be. \been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.\that people are built up. That is extremely important. I have found invariably that churches that have leaders whose members do not respectthem are discouraged churches. The converse of that is true; churches that have leadership they do respect are inevitably encouraged churches. It is incumbent upon elders to be encouragers.d.Those who are gifted to encourage.Romans 12:5-8 lists areas of spiritual giftedness. As you go down through the list, one of those gifts is encouragement. Notice the gift of encouragement is listed separately from the gift of teaching. In other words, teachers are encouragers, but you don't have to be a teacher to be an encourager. There are some people who have been gifted and talented by God to be able to share that buoying spirit in the life of another. One Biblical example is Barnabas but that was not his real name. His real name was Joseph of Cyprus, but they named him Barnabas which means son of encouragement. We read about Barnabas first in Acts 4, when he went and sold a field, took all the proceeds, and laid it at the apostles' feet. Don't you know that put courage in the apostles' hearts? Then we read in Acts 9 that a fellow by the name of Saul of Tarsus hadbeen persecuting the church. He had been converted, but no one trusted him early on. A fellow by the name of Bar-na-bas, the son of encouragement, went and stood at his side and put courage in his heart. Next, Barnabas goes to help a fledgling Gentile church in Antioch. (Acts 11) Barnabas appears to have been putting courage in somebody else. He had the gift of encouragement. e.The entire body ultimately has the responsibility.Sure, not everyone is as gifted as some, but each of us has the responsibility to encourage. \each other up.\the entire body. Some parts are better at it than others. But as with our physical bodies all the members of the body come to help that body part in need. The same thing here%u2014the entire spiritual body encourages those members in need. Frankly, it's not healthy for an entire church to be dependent upon a few members to do all the encouraging. You need many, many, many people building up what a few are constantly trying to tear down. So we're all in this ministry of encouragement.3. When do we encourage?