"Sources of REAL Encouragement In Difficult Times” - Pastor Greg Addison - Oct. 15, 2023

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

One of the reasons that it is such an honor for us as a church family to give you this window in our services and to bring this into your homes and into your lives, whether it's through your television or whether you're watching this live on the internet, it is our desire to encourage you.

Encouragement is something that everyone needs.

It is a biblical principle and discipline that God's people are to encourage each other and be an encouragement to the people around us.

And encouragement in today's world is especially important.

I mean, everything you read, there's so much of it that is doom and gloom, and things are terrible, and the world's falling apart, and we're heading into an election cycle, and both sides of the aisle, whichever one you're on, both sides are telling everybody how terrible this is, so they have something to blame on the other side.

And what we get from that is the world is falling apart and things are awful.

We do live in a time where economics are tough.

Costs are high, gas prices and food prices are up.

There are a lot of things going on in the world today.

But I want you to know that God is there.

And he always has encouragement for us through the promises in his word and through the person of Jesus Christ.

In fact, in the Bible, the folks in the New Testament, they were going through difficult times, and God understood that and need and knew their need for encouragement.

And so many of the books in the New Testament are actually letters of encouragement written to the church.

Here in 2 Timothy today, I want to give you this message, sources of real encouragement in difficult times.

Not just a pleasant word or, hey, how are you doing?

Or hey, I was thinking about you today, but I'm talking about tangible anchors that our faith is rooted in, in the person of Jesus Christ, in the blessing of salvation, and in the promises that are included in God's Word.

Now, here, this book, 2 Timothy, if you've been in church any amount of time, you would know it has that name Timothy because it's actually a letter that Paul the Apostle wrote to a young man named Timothy, who is a pastor and a protege of Paul.

He has mentored Timothy.

He knows Timothy and his family, and they have traveled together and done ministry together.

And so he is writing him letters to coach him as a pastor.

And in chapter 3 of 2 Timothy, the chapter begins this way.

But know this.

And you can almost hear Paul as an older guy talking to that young man, that young pastor, son, know this.

Hard times will come in the last days.

So he is not sugarcoating life.

He is letting Timothy know, hey, I know that there are going to be times that are hard, and you, for your people, Timothy, that you're pastoring, you need to know that they are going to go through tough times.

He describes some of that, which sounds a lot like today.

People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, all of that culture that goes on when life is hard.

And you and you see that in our world today.

But then he begins to move from hey, I know times are tough, Timothy, but here's what I want you to know, son, there are real sources of real encouragement in times like that.

I want you to know them, and I want you to pass them on to your people.

So here's what he says in verse 10 You, Timothy, have followed my Paul, teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance, along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in these cities, he describes.

What persecutions I, Paul, endured, and yet the Lord rescued me from them all.

And he says, in fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

We will go through times where people are persecuting us, and we will go through times in life that are hard and they press us down.

And here's what he tells them.

But as for you, Timothy, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed.

You know those who taught you, and you know that from your infancy you have known the sacred scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

And then that famous verse that if you've been in church, you know, all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

You see, Paul through this scripture is telling us God wants you to flourish even in difficult times.

He wants to equip you and to step into your life and help you not just be successful, but be strong and be able to impact the people around you.

The way he's telling Timothy, son, I want you to be encouraged so you can encourage your people.

He's telling him through the word of God, tell your people, I want you to be encouraged so you can encourage your family, so you can encourage the people around you, so that you can impact the people in those difficult times rather than the difficult times having their way with you.

And so he tells him, here's how you're anchored.

Timothy, here are three significant, tangible, real sources of encouragement for you to have.

And I want you to know these in your life as well.

Here's the first thing he tells them.

In the light of those difficult times, as for you, Timothy, number one, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed.

See, the joy of the Christian life is that when you're saved and you give your life to Christ, you begin to learn things.

God begins to do things in your life.

He begins to share promises with you.

You step out in faith, and then he honors that obedience.

And here's that first source of encouragement.

He says, I want you to remember God's active faithfulness in your life.

When you hit a tough time and you begin to have questions, struggles, doubts, frustrations, the first place you can turn if you're a follower of Christ is you can immediately look back to those times that you know God was faithful.

And when you are reminded of how faithful he has been, it tells you how faithful he will be.

And so, man, we get down, and what happens is we tend to begin to look at what is bringing us down.

We begin to look and see, I don't know a way out of this struggle because I'm seeing this struggle and it looks difficult.

Man, I got this bad uh report from the doctor.

I have my family member who's gotten there.

I have this situation at work, and man, they're starting to lay off people, and I don't know what's happening, or I have a child that's got this struggle, or whatever it is in your life, and we begin to look at those circumstances, and the more we look at those circumstances, the more we begin to get focused there and we get fixated on there, and then all of a sudden everything begins to look bleak and negative because we're only looking at those things.

Paul says, look, we know hard times are gonna come.

Listen, you also know, Timothy, God's been faithful in your life.

He saved you, he taught you, he's used you, he's placed these people in your life.

He's given you the opportunity to see him work and plant churches.

And Timothy, in those hard times, don't focus on what the struggles are.

Don't get bogged down in what your questions might be.

You continue in.

Look at what he says.

Continue in.

You place your focus on, remind yourself of, stand on the character of God.

You've seen him do this, you've seen him do that.

He has spoken to you here, he has answered these prayers, he's provided this way, he's put this person in your life, he's given you that message.

Continue in what you know has been the faithfulness of God.

If you know Christ is your Savior, just hearing that encouragement, I bet you are rehearsing some of those things in your life already.

The Holy Spirit is saying, hey, remember, remember, remember.

And he's encouraging you to continue in those.

Now, some of you watching today, you may not have a personal relationship with Jesus.

That may not be real to you.

You may be tuning in because you were just looking for some hope, or you accidentally hit this channel in this moment and got stuck with me.

Or maybe you're searching.

Here's what I want to tell you.

When Jesus Christ comes into your life, he is always faithful.

You, if you will give your life to Christ, you will begin on a journey.

When you surrender your life to him and you say, Lord, I know I'm a savior and I can't fix what I broke, but you can forgive me, and I place my faith and trust in you as my Savior to save me.

Here's the first thing you can be convinced and firmly believe in Jesus will save you in the moment that you cry out to him to save you.

When you ask him to forgive your sins, he will forgive your sins.

When you ask him to come into your life and give you a sense of presence, he will do that.

And you will immediately have your first thing that you can continue in for the rest of your life.

You can know and will be firmly convinced that Jesus saved you.

And then life is a journey of watching Him unfold the life that He's planned for you, guide you through experiences, forgive you of struggles, heal things in your life, open doors in your and every one of those becomes another life lesson that you have confirmed, that you've seen God do.

And if you do not have Christ, you are missing out on the foundation of that relationship with God and what it means in every one of those difficult times.

Man, when you have seen God be faithful and you hit another struggle, you have that to draw back on because you've been there and you know and you have the testimony of God's faithfulness in your life.

So if you've never accepted Christ in a few moments, I'm going to tell you how to be saved.

But I want to encourage you, this can be yours if you'll give your life to Christ.

Friends, if you're already saved, this is already yours.

And Paul says, you are encouraged when you continue in the foundation of the faithfulness of God.

He gives them a second way to be encouraged.

He says, As for you, Timothy, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed.

And then he says, You know those who taught you.

And you know that from infancy.

So what he's telling him is, listen, the second source of encouragement in your life are people that you know and trust who have reminded you of the faithfulness of God.

They have modeled the faithfulness of God.

They have taught you who Jesus is and what he does.

Now, I love this book because in the very beginning of this letter, when he writes it to Timothy, he says in verse 4 of chapter 1, I remember with tears, and I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.

I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.

And now I'm convinced is in you also, Timothy.

See, he tells me, I know your family, I know your mama, and I know your praying grandmama.

He said, Listen, you need to know the people that love you most are the people that you've seen love Jesus the most, and their testimony and their work in your life should be a source of encouragement and confidence in you.

I'm blessed, and not everyone has a testimony like Timothy, that they were raised with a praying grandmother and a mama who loved the Lord.

I'm blessed, I do.

You know, we don't get to pick the family that we're raised in.

And I know that God probably looked at me and he thought, you know, I'm gonna have a lot of trouble with Greg, so I'm gonna put him in the most Jesus-filled family I could possibly find.

You probably didn't need that safety net, but God decided I did.

And I had grandmothers that prayed.

Uh one of my dad's mama, her name was Annie Lou.

We called her Annie Lou.

She was one of the greatest prayer warriors I've ever known.

Boy, she is a strong, stout woman who believed in Jesus.

And she'd tell you, she was funny, she'd tell me, son, listen, I've lived enough life, I've learned, I've earned the right to tell people whatever I want to tell them.

And then she'd tell us how she is praying for us.

And I'm telling you, when Annie Lou prayed for you, stuff happened.

And then my mom, she loves the Lord.

My mom is the first one who taught me how to study my Bible.

And she would post scriptures all over the house and she would guide us and teach us.

And I can tell you today, as I preach this message for you, my mom has prayed for this message because she prays for me, and it is incredible to rely on the people.

Because I know my mom would never, on purpose, lie to me or tell me a story.

She would always tell me the truth.

And so when my mama tells me that God is a plan, when my mom reminds me that Jesus loves me, I'm telling you, it's life-changing.

We've also been blessed with some great friends.

I mean, I had a great family, but sometimes they'll describe that friend, as the Bible says, it sticks closer than a brother.

They'll say, uh, sometimes you'll hear people say, friends are God's apology for the family that He raised you in.

It's a blessing to have friends like that, mentors who are role models, and their faithfulness shows you faithfulness.

It is the lessons they learn in their lives and they share with you that impact us and draw us.

Multiple times in the book of Proverbs, the Bible says, there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors.

And so that's why Paul reminds Timothy in verse 10, you have followed my, and he gives that list.

He's not just trying to say, look at me, I'm special, and Paul, but he's saying, Timothy, you know how much I love you, son.

And you have seen God do this, and you've heard the things that I've taught from you, and so you know because I've taught you.

Remember what I've taught you because I love you like a son.

And he is drawing on that mentor relationship.

Listen, that's one of the reasons that our church family is at the river today, because we're spending time together as a family.

A church is a family, and we want those relationships and we want them to be able to cross-pollinate the old and the young and the mentors and the people who are struggling and asking questions and sharing with each other and building that relationship.

The Bible is built on an understanding that when you got saved and gave your life to Jesus, you were not just adopted with God as your heavenly Father, but you were adopted into the body of Christ.

And one of the most important things that we have to encourage us in life are the people that believe in the same Jesus, that have the same firmly believed experiences that Paul told Timothy, Rely on.

Because sometimes I need more encouragement just then to remember what God did.

Sometimes I need somebody to remind me what God did.

Sometimes I need that person who can say, Listen, Greg, I have been there where you have been, and I can tell you God is faithful.

And I listen to that person because I trust their life and I trust their heart and I trust their care for me.

He reminds them, listen, your mama loves Jesus and your grandmama loves Jesus, and you know they're praying for you.

Son, you know that I love you as your mentor and your pastor.

And so he is saying, listen, you continue in those who taught you.

In fact, he says, you know those who taught you.

So I want to encourage you, think about those people who you know love you and love Jesus and how they can be an encouragement.

So many times in life, I hear this, people don't want somebody to pray for them or they don't want them to know what's happening.

They don't want to share what's going on in their life, and they kind of get in this cocoon and they hide back from that because they don't want anybody to know what's going on.

Listen, that is Satan himself who is trying to separate you from these people that you know who taught you about Jesus and who can be an encouragement to you.

He does not want you to be encouraged, he is trying to separate you from the body, from people who love you.

And I'm telling you, the word of God clearly says you seek out those people.

You reach out and let them reach out into your life.

Let them speak into you.

I want to invite you, if you don't have a church home, this is why we want to be your church family.

If you don't have a church home, you come, become a part of us.

Listen, if you are homebound or it's hard for you to get out of home, we can still be your church family and love you and care for you.

Let us know how to do that.

That's why we are here.

And the reason we do it is the same reason that Paul told Timothy, do it.

In a difficult time, we need people who we know love us, and we know love Jesus, can bring that encouragement to us.

He's giving him three encouragements.

The first is that active faithfulness of God in our lives, what you've learned and firmly believed.

The second thing is those people that we know who know the Lord have modeled and taught us about who Jesus is.

And then he says this you know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred scriptures which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

And the third source of your real encouragement is your salvation in Jesus founded on the truth of Scripture.

Man, how do we know Jesus saves?

Well, there's two real ways that we can share that.

The first is this, because the Bible says Jesus will save you if you'll call out to him.

John 3 16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever will believe in him will never perish, but will have everlasting life.

That is a promise of God.

And so Scripture tells us Jesus saves.

That's how we know he's the Savior, because he was identified as the Savior.

We see the picture in the Gospels of His life that he is really the Son of God.

He did miracles where he touched every part of Christianity.

Creation.

He calmed the storm to let us know that he is the creator overall of physical life.

He healed people and raised them from the dead so that we will know as the creator, he is the author of life and human life, and he understands human life, and he is the creator of us, and he understands that death came from sin, but as the author and creator of life, he can bring resurrection life and salvation.

We see stories where he rebukes the devil, he fights back temptation, he casts out demons, and we understand in the spiritual realms of life, he is God.

Jesus is the Savior, and he is in control over all, and he is above all, and he has the ability to save, and we know that because of Scripture.

And so he anchors him back.

Son, listen, when you're in that struggle, if you have questions, if Satan or something is body is whispering in your ear, trying to tell you it's not real or God has left you or whatever kind of thing that we feel in those difficult times.

He says, listen, it is the truth of scripture that tells you that's how you know Jesus saves, because his word cannot lie.

We know that Jesus is the Savior because of his word, but we also know that Jesus saves because of our experience in walking with him.

When you give your life to Jesus Christ, it becomes a real and a personal relationship.

In the book of Romans, chapter 8, he describes it this way.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

He said, When we give our lives to the Lord, we are adopted as his sons.

And then he says, the Holy Spirit, we are given the Holy Spirit, and he comes into our lives and he guides us and he speaks to us.

And so he says this his Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are his children.

And so our salvation is not just anchored in the truth of God's word, but your knowledge of your salvation is rooted in your relationship with Jesus and his personal activity in your life through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

When we hit those difficult times, like Paul is telling Timothy about Romans 8, he says this that in these difficult times, there are times that we do not pray as we ought to know how to pray.

And we struggle praying because in our weakness we don't know how to pray.

But it's the Holy Spirit that steps in and guides us in our prayers.

You see, this walk with Jesus is really that it is a personal relationship with Jesus.

And if you want to know who the Holy Spirit is, is part of the Trinity, part of God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, think of it this way: Jesus for us on the cross.

That's God for us on the cross, and the Holy Spirit is God in us.

And so that's how he bears witness with our spirit.

And so in these three areas of encouragement, he gives them the times and the anchors where you've seen God be faithful.

The people that you know who have taught you about the Lord, but then he brings them back to his salvation relationship.

And he says, I want you to remember what it means to be saved.

And I want you to remember how you know salvation is real.

It is grounded in the teaching of the Word of God.

How do we know Jesus saves?

Because the Bible says so.

Well, Greg, how do you know?

How do you know that Jesus saves?

Well, number one, because the Bible says so.

And number two, because when I was a nine and a half-year-old boy, I gave my life to Jesus.

My parents raised in a Christian home, just like the testimony described here with Timothy.

My parents would teach me in our lives as a little boy, hey, listen, son, you talked back to your mom.

You lied about, you know, hiding what you did wrong.

You were mean to your brother and sister.

You uh disrespected your father, whatever it was that I did as a kid that I messed up.

And they began early in my life to teach me, hey, listen, son, God loves you.

He has a standard for life.

You have to do what's right and you can't do what's wrong.

The Bible calls that sin, and you did wrong.

And so we're gonna have to punish you because we need you to know that sin is punished.

But we also want you to know, and one day you'll be old enough to understand that Jesus loved you so much, he stepped out of heaven and he took your punishment for your sin.

He died on the cross and rose again to offer you forgiveness and eternal life.

And when I was a nine and a half-year-old boy, all of that teaching began to click.

Just like it says here that Timothy had known from his infancy the sacred scriptures which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through Christ Jesus, my mom and dad taught me the same thing.

And when I was a nine and a half-year-old boy, I learned, man, Jesus loved me.

Nobody ever loved me that much.

Jesus went to the cross and died in my place.

He took my punishment for my sin, and he saved me.

And I can tell you, since that time, I know what it means for the Holy Spirit to bear witness with my spirit that I'm his child.

I know what it means to be in a spot where I don't know how to pray.

And the Holy Spirit gives me a sense of his presence and he guides me.

And through the word of God, I can explain and recognize that's the person of God.

So if you're going through a difficult time, I want to encourage you, if you already know Jesus as your Savior, rely on those things that you've learned.

Continue in them.

Number two, be connected with the people who taught you about the Lord, that you know love him and can point you to him, and let them be an encouragement.

And if you need a church family to do that, we're here for you.

But third, I want you to rest in your salvation.

And if you have never been saved, if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, it is my prayer for you today that what we have taught and pointed out from God's Word has stirred your heart.

Right there, where you are today, you can become a Jesus follower.

You can give your life to Christ.

You can trust Him as your Savior, as Timothy did, as Paul did, as I did, as I shared my testimony.

If you'd like to be saved, just right there where you are, I want you to bow your head.

And just tell the Lord, you know that you've sinned.

Tell him the situation that you're in and how difficult it is.

He knows, but tell him anyway.

Share your heart with him.

Tell him you believe Jesus loved you, stepped out of heaven, took God's punishment for your sin on the cross.

Tell him that you believe he did that for you.

Ask him to forgive you of those sins.

And place your trust in him as your Savior.

Right here.

You can have that first moment where you begin that what you've learned and firmly believed.

If you've trusted Christ as your Savior, we want to help you.

Call us, write us.

Let me know how I can help, how I can pray for you.

And I want to hear your salvation testimony.

Thank you for spending this time with us today.

It is our joy to talk to you each week, but it's a special joy today just to get to look in the camera and talk to you and tell you we pray for you.

We love you in Jesus.

And we pray as blessings for you.

Thank you for joining us.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.