(Notes from his Teaching Series)

 

All believers are ministers for reconciliation (2 Cor 5:20). Believers urge unbelievers to be reconciled to God. All believers are also ministers of encouragement. This is an offensive ministry, countering the “deceitfulness of sin.” One believer urges another to faithfulness, obedience, and perseverance. This list describes it (cf. Heb 3:12-15):

• Encouragement is imperative.
• Encouragement is ministry.
• Encouragement is lifetime ministry.
• Encouragement is mutual ministry.
• Encouragement is family ministry.
• Encouragement is powerful ministry.
• Encouragers obey.
• Encouragers go.
• Encouragers love.
• Encouragers give.
• Encouragers receive.
• Encouragers return.

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. ¹³But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, ¹⁵while it is said, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.” Hebrews 3:12-15 NASV95

 

Mike Sanders is former minister of Buechel Church of Christ and a retired UPS Pilot.