Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC's - Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost - 09/18/16 Sermon - “Exhortation" (Encouragement) "Spiritual Gifts" Series (Part 3 of 7)

Sunday 09/18/16 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s

Sermon Title: “Exhortation” (Encouragement)

                   (“Spiritual Gifts” Series – Part 3 of 7)

                            

Old Testament Scripture: Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

                                            

New Testament Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:1-7

Gospel Lesson: Luke 16:1-13

          My friends, my sisters and brothers, welcome again on this, the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Eighteen Sundays after the Holy Spirit moved, and the Christian Church was born. From the first day of the Christian Church on Pentecost, to today, part of what made the church so successful was and is people utilizing their spiritual gifts. Our spiritual gifts, are gifts that God gives us all in different amounts, and in different ways.

          As many of you know, two week ago I started a spiritual gifts preaching series, in an effort to remind us, or to have us for the first time, discover what our spiritual gifts are. For a few weeks now I have made available our spiritual gifts survey and chart, so that you might discover, or rediscover your own spiritual gifts.

          Depending on what you consider a spiritual gift, scripture can list as many as twenty-five, or much fewer. Our spiritual gifts survey includes sixteen spiritual gifts, and I am preaching on just seven of them. The list that I am preaching is again from Romans 12:6-8. Also once again, many of the spiritual gifts are attributed to the Apostle Paul’s Epistles or letters, and perhaps one of the Apostle Peter’s Epistles or letters, and are eluded to in the Old Testament.

          If someone in this church, or a friend, or a family member were to ask you, “what are your spiritual gifts,” would you have an answer for them? What are your spiritual gifts? As I said, I am just preaching on seven of them, but there are many spiritual gifts.

          So far in the preaching series I have talked about the spiritual gift of “giving” or “generosity,” and how God has given some us the gift of “giving” our time, our talent, and our resources. We must really have deep faith in God to give a lot, as we need to trust that God will honor our giving.

          Last week I talked about the spiritual gift of “mercy,” of showing forgiveness, love, compassion, caring, empathy, and concern, even when it is not expected or deserved. “Mercy” is a gift from God, and as I heard Rev. Bob McCune say once in a sermon, “When you forgive people, you disarm them”. Showing people “mercy” when it is not expected, can cause someone to break into tears, or to change considerably. Do you have the spiritual gift of “mercy”?

          This week, I want to talk about the spiritual gift of “exhortation,” or “encouragement”. In defining the word “exhortation,” it says according www.merriam-webster.com:

1. An act or instance of exhorting.

2. Language intended to incite and encourage.

         

          In some Bible translations however, when you read Romans 12:6-8, instead of the Apostle Paul listing the spiritual gift of “exhortation,” it says the spiritual gift of “encouragement”. Now these two words are pretty much the same thing, but the word “encouragement” is much more common to us today than is “exhortation”. For this reason, let me also give you the definition of the word “encouragement”, according to www.merriam-webster.com. The definition is:

1. The act of making something more appealing or more likely to happen.

2. Something that makes someone more determined, hopeful, or confident.

3. Something that makes someone more likely to do something.

          For those who have heard of Zig Zigler, one of his famous quotes is: “Encouragement is the fuel on which hope runs.” Based on the definitions of “exhortation,” and “encouragement,” it would seem that anyone who can motivate and get someone feeling better could be defined as an encourager, or a motivator.

            Sometimes the people we have known with the greatest amount of the spiritual gift of “encouragement” have been coaches from our sports teams, teachers, salesmen, and maybe even clergy. These are sometimes people that when they speak they seem to have a God given ability to motivate, inspire, and to yes “encourage”. People with large amounts of the spiritual gift of encouragement are sometimes people that inspire you, people that you would follow as a leader, and people often times that you respect greatly.

          For many of us we might say that a parent, or a grandparent, or another family member or friend gave us a lot of “encouragement” growing up. Maybe we were lucky enough to have parents, or grandparents, or others who would encourage us when we were down. People who would pick us up, when we have fallen.

          I have found for me that the best encouragers that I have encountered in life were people that were optimistic and seemed to liven everyone else up. These tended to be people for me who no matter how bad things got believed that God was leading and guiding them.

          One of the biggest and strongest people in my life that I know has a whole lot of the spiritual gift of “encouragement,” is mother Susan. My mom was single mother for a number of years, went back to school at night, and worked her way up the corporate ladder. She retired from IBM in a low level executive role and had many men and women reporting to her. For many years she was treated differently in the business world because she was a woman, but she was and is tough. I call her mom, or “Judge Judy” depending on the situation.

          While my mom has struggled, she always could see the silver lining in every single situation, and her spiritual gift of “encouragement” has been so helpful for me. Do you, or does someone you know have the spiritual gift of “encouragement,” or “exhortation”?

          When we heard the scripture this morning from the prophet Jeremiah, we heard deep discouragement. Jeremiah says, “My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick” (Jer. 8:18, NRSV). Jeremiah, the great prophet of the Lord is deeply grieved as he knows that God’s judgment is coming the Jewish people. Jeremiah knows that God will purge the sinful, and then drive the Jewish people into exile. Jeremiah is discouraged and grieved over this, yet God has called Jeremiah to among many other things, encourage his people in the truth of God’s love.

          In our reading from 1 timothy, the Apostle Paul is instructing and encouraging his young friend “Timothy”. Though the Apostle Paul is responsible for countless people coming to know Jesus Christ, Timothy might have been his biggest success story. Church tradition holds that first bishop of Ephesus, where the Apostle Paul wrote the Epistle or letter to the Ephesians, was Timothy. Clearly Paul had great hope and trust in his young friend, and clearly he believed in how Timothy could effectively use the gifts that God gave him.

          The first thing that the Apostle Paul tells his young friend Timothy in this morning’s reading, is to pray for people, and for our leaders, so that all might come to know Jesus Christ. So that all might live righteously before God.

          What the Apostle Paul then tells young Timothy, I think was to encourage him. The Apostle Paul says, “there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5-6a, NRSV). The Apostle Paul is encouraging young Timothy to have faith in Jesus Christ, and believe in what is possible through him. I think that I can safely say that the Apostle Paul had the spiritual gift of “exhortation,” or “encouragement”. The Apostle Paul seemed to be able to inspire, motivate, and encouragement so many people.

          Our gospel reading from the gospel of Luke this morning, Jesus tells us the parable of the “dishonest manager”, who was praised for being shrewd (Lk. 16:1-9, NRSV). You see in the parable a rich man had a manager, who poorly managed his property and possessions (Lk. 16:1-9, NRSV). The rich man then fired the manager, and then manager invites in all of the rich man’s debtors in, and then the not fired manager he lower their debts (Lk. 16:1-9, NRSV). The manager did this to curry favor with the debtors, as he was just fired, and would now need friends more than ever (Lk. 16:1-9, NRSV). The rich man then commended the now fired manager for garnering support from the debtors by being prudent and shrewd with his debtors. Now perhaps the debtors who now owed less were encouraged by owing less, but other than that, I don’t think that this parable of “the rich man’s manager” is largely about the spiritual gift of “encouragement”.

          Yet this scripture from the gospel of Luke ends with a challenge from Jesus Christ, that says: “You cannot serve God and wealth” (Lk. 16:13b, NRSV). This statement is certainly a challenge, but it can also be “encouragement” to follow God and to not put our trust in the things of this world.

          So my friends, brothers and sisters, do you have the spiritual gift of “exhortation” or “encouragement”? Has God given you the spiritual gift of being able to lift people up when they are down, to motivate them, and to make them feel like that can what they are called by God to do?

          I would like to bring this message to a close this morning with a story on, yes you guessed it, “encouragement”. This story is called “Cory Weisman’s Basket,” and this story is taken was reported by Frank Record, called “When there’s more to winning than winning.” NPR Radio, Feb 22, 2012.

          Here is how the story goes: “In February 2012 Cory Weissman led out the men’s basketball team of Gettysburg College for their last game of the season. Four years earlier he had suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on one side. Four years of rehab and he was able to walk with a limp, but was still not able to play competitively. But before his stroke he had been on the varsity team and the Gettysburg coach wanted to give him a few seconds on court as a senior. So Cory was nominated captain and led out the starting five for what was both his first and last game for Gettysburg, for he was now due to graduate.”

“Knowing the struggle it was just to be there, the crowd and the players from both teams greeted him with wild applause. The Gettysburg coach gave him a few minutes on court before benching him.”

“With one minute to go Gettysburg was well ahead and the coach sent Cory back out on court. The Washington coach called time out and instructed his players to foul Cory Weissman. For those who don’t know basketball this was a very generous act, for it meant Cory would be given two shots at the basket.”

“Cory takes his place at the free throw line, feels the weight of the ball in his hands, lifts and shoots. It misses badly. But he has a second and final shot left. Again he feels the weight of the ball in his hands, lifts and shoots. This time the ball flies straight through the hoop, and the crowd breaks out in thunderous applause.”

“The assistant vice president for athletics at Gettysburg, David Wright, later wrote to Washington College: “Your coach, Rob Nugent, along with his … staff and student-athletes, displayed a measure of compassion that I have never witnessed in over 30 years of involvement in intercollegiate athletics.”

The spiritual gift of “exhortation,” or “encouragement”. Do you, or does anyone you know have this spiritual gift? May we all be encouraged and filled this day with the love of God, through Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.