Studies

Son of Encouragement - Lesson 1

'To be known as an encouraging person can be as easy or as hard as you want to make it, but think of how much better it would be if we had a church full of Barnabases.'

Mark Lefebre is known for his ability to encourage his brothers and sisters in the Toronto Church of Christ. His friends also know that he spends all day at home in constant pain. Only God's power and Mark's faith can explain how this could be true.

Baptized in the very early years of the great Toronto Church of Christ, Mark Lefebvre is, today, a happily married disciple living a victorious life in Christ.

At the age of 29, he suddenly and inexplicably began to have trouble walking, standing, sitting or lifting. Now, at the age of 41, he suffers from incessant pain. His ability to do anything physically (such as attending meetings of the body) is severely curtailed. As yet, the cause of his increasingly debilitating condition is undiagnosed.

God and His Church have taught Mark the joys of encouraging others and of being encouraged.

Mark is often asked by people to explain how he is able to encourage others the way he does and in the series of lessons he has written, we see him motivated by his love for God and the Word.

Thank you Mark for inspiring us to use everything in our lives to glorify God and to turn our weaknesses into strengths in order to love our brothers and sisters in the Church more effectively.

Encourage One Another
By Mark Lefebre

Lesson One

TO ENCOURAGE: to give courage or confidence to || to raise the hopes of || to help on by sympathetic advice and interest

The word ENCOURAGE from the Hebrew means to make strong and courageous - to strengthen, cure, help, repair, or to fortify. This has to do with one's spirit or one's heart.

Do I Want to be Encouraging?
Just how do you encourage someone in a way that will keep them encouraged? There are some people who always seem to be in need of encouragement. Is it just that they like or want to be served? Is it that they like to be the center of attention? What does the Bible have to say on the subject of encouragement? There are many passages to look at, and when we do, we see that when the words 'encourage,' 'encouraged,' 'encouraging,' or 'encouragement' are used, it has to do with bolstering one's heart or character, or to bring about a change in a person's character or personality.

Jesus the Encourager
What can we do to bring about the same type of change in the lives of the disciples in our lives, and those whom we are around each day? Our best example is, of course, Jesus. How did he influence the lives of the people around him?

Jesus Believed in People
John 1:42. And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas'(which, when translated, is Peter).

In this passage, we see Jesus encouraging Simon, even if Simon did not know it at the time. Jesus changes Simon's name to Peter or 'the rock'. We know that at the time, Peter was anything but a rock, but Jesus was seeing him as he some day would be, not as he was. In the book of Acts we finally see the 'rock', as Peter gives his first sermon after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus - the day that would see 3000 baptized. Can you imagine how encouraged Peter must have felt, after all his failures, and after denying Jesus three times? I am sure he looked back at these times in his life and felt totally in awe of God.

Often, our lives do not make sense to us while we are going though hard times. We ask ourselves,' Why me?' It is only after we have persevered though the bad times, and reflect on them that we can see God's hand at work in our lives.

Body, Mind and Soul
We often think that to encourage someone we must serve them in a physical way. While this is true - we do need to serve them - we must remember what the Bible has to say on the subject.

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Proverbs 12:25 An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.

Proverbs 14:30 A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

Proverbs 15:15 All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast.

Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 28:14 Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

In each of these scriptures, we can see that the heart plays an important role. As Jeremiah points out, we are not the best judges of our own hearts. There will be times when we think or feel that what we need is encouragement, when in fact, what we really need is discipling! The heart or spirit can be lifted up by words or even a smile. Or it can be the root of the problem. As we set out to encourage someone, we need to stop and try to get a look at the condition of the person's heart. If we can get a handle on that, it will give us a helpful insight into the best way we can go about encouraging them.
Matthew 8:36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

Encourage the Heart
We must remember that a person's spiritual well being is more important than their physical one. What good are we doing if we are only meeting the physical needs and letting the spiritual ones slide? I think this is why some fall away after awhile. We are left standing, scratching our heads, and asking ourselves: 'Why did they leave?' They said they needed encouragement that they needed this or that, and we gave it to them! The more we gave, the more they seemed to need. What went wrong?

We are quick to blame them for having unrepented sin in their lives, or a lack of gratitude. All of this may be true, but when we were trying to encourage them, were we focused on the right thing(s): their hearts and where they were at spiritually? Or did we try to take the easy way out, and just meet a few surface needs? Did we take the time and effort to really dig into their lives, to get involved, to find out what their needs truly are? Our acts of encouragement can have a life changing impact, and truly strengthen the heart.

Dare to be Vulnerable
Let's face it: it is hard to open yourself up to others and to pour your life out for them when knowing all along that there will be no guarantee that they will respond in the way we would want them to. It hurts to pour your life or heart out for someone and have them turn their back on you. If you have had it happen to you once or twice, you may want to shut yourself off, to bring up your defenses and make sure that you do not put yourself in a position where you can be hurt again. Pray and ask God for wisdom to identify those who need encouragement. Pray and set up a plan on whom and how you will encourage, physically and spiritually.
Points to Remember:

Proverbs 12.25.

Encourage the heart.

Pray and repent.