Page 12 - Demo

Every Christian cannot be personally connected to every other Christian on a daily basis. That's why it's everybody's responsibility to encourage daily. You need to be connected to somebody, and they need to be connected to you to such a degree that you have virtually daily contact. We need to have brothers and sisters in the Lord who love us and know us, spurring us on every day.4.Why encourage?We're talking about really getting into people's lives and building each other up. Why do we do it? a. We need to encourage one another because of the deceitfulness of sin.(Hebrews 3:13) Never underestimate the power of Satan and his determination to discourage us to the point of quitting and turning away from God. Body members severed from the body die. What were to happen if my big toe were cut off from my foot? You know what will happen, it's going to putrefy and decay. The old devil knows that if he can just get a child of God isolated and cut off from circulation, then he will get spiritual gangrene, and he will die.What temptation is Satan trying to use on you right now? Is he trying to use pride, lust, just old discouragement, fear, uncontrolled anger, doubt, guilt or rebellion? What's he trying to work on you with? Whatever the temptation, his ultimate goal is to pull you away. He is trying to cut you off from Christ's body and the flow of His lifesaving blood. The other members of His body are clutching on to you saying, \because you've got to be part of the body, and you are important.\We make a grave mistake when we assume that everybody's spiritual health can be taken for granted. Nobody's spiritual health can be. That's why we need to encourage one another to help overcome the deceitfulness of sin.b. The reality of trials and troubles.It's no surprise to you that this world is just filled with suffering, pain, trial and trouble. That's here because we live in a fallen world, but God has allowed it to stay. That gives some people some problems. We can't get off talking about the theology of why there is suffering and pain in our world, but one thing God has made clear. \badly you need me.\how badly we need each other.Not very many of us have our lives as neatly ordered as our apparel. There are people who desperately need encouragement. But they'll only take off the veneer, open up and let you know they need encouraging if they really sense that the ministry of encouragement is taken seriously. We need to encourage brothers and sisters because Satan is trying to pick us off one by one.5. How do we encourage?It's not simply by little trite expressions or flattery. How do you really encourage one another as long as it's called today?