Encouragement

We may not always be what we ought to be - but we are called to be an encouragement to each other.

Hebrews 3:12-13 – 12 See to it, brothers (and sisters), that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

I know we are not perfect. We are even far from it. But God's grace is sufficient to forgive us. If only others could and we could forgive ourselves. Paul battled with a thorn in his flesh and he proclaimed...

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 - 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When someone points out that we are not a perfect church I am encouraged. Because when we fail, when we are weak, that is when I know that the good we do is not of us but of God.

Part of my task as the pastor is to encourage the congregation to be the Body of Christ to make ourselves available for God to work in, through and in spite of, to His glory.

Hebrews 10:25 – Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

I pray that more and more folks at Mt. Oak will see that our task is to contend for the Gospel and to be available to be the hands, feet, and mouth for God as God works His work.

Jude 3 – Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.

See you Sunday!