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REACH, GATHER, GROW

Gather - Encouragement

Caleb Combs · Sunday, 14 September 2025 · Romans 1:12; 14:19; 15:2 · 47:15 · 6,351 words

Romans S21 · 1:12; 14:19; 15:2 Holly

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

Encouragement is the focus, urging believers to be ministers of encouragement to one another as the church gathers. Drawing on Romans, preacher points to three passages where Paul calls community to build each other up with words and actions, even amid storms. A story of a race shows how strangers cheer each other on, challenging the church to create that same spirit of mutual support. Listeners are invited to practice words of affirmation, seek accountability, and join a ministry of encouragement that reflects the gospel and points others to Christ.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

encourage 41 encouragement 27 accountability 11 atmosphere 8 affirmation 8 bike 7 gather 22 discouraged 7 shelter 5 church 46 challenge 13 victorious 5

Topics

The Gospel 5 Prayer 4 Hope 2 Faith 2 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Sin 1 Grace 1 The Body of Christ 1

Scripture referenced 10

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Matthew 28 1:15 Romans 1:11-12 7:46 Romans 14 8:56 Romans 15 9:15 Hebrews 3:13 18:44 Ephesians 4 19:44 Romans 5 25:30 Proverbs 27 26:51 Hebrews 10 28:39 2 Corinthians 1 32:32

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:44. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

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Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

We are going to continue in our series on Romans.

We've been going at it since, I think, the beginning of May, and so super excited about that.

We've taken a little bit of a hiatus in chapter and verse each week in the month of September

And refocus us on the mission God has given us, and so we really try to focus on that as a church

to look and see how and what God has directed us, commissioned us.

The Great Commission, as Matthew 28, is to go into all the world

and really be ambassadors, representatives of Him.

And so last week, we really talked about a love for the lost, a love for the broken,

a love for those that are without Jesus, and such an important,

heartbeat of what God has called us to be, a passion to see people saved,

transformed by Jesus and the gospel, not by, as we kind of reiterate,

is not by a church, not by a pastor, but by the power of the Holy Spirit

working in their hearts.

We believe that wholeheartedly.

Well, today we are going to really, I'd say, highlight gatherings,

but you'll see where we're going in a couple minutes.

But I love the gathering.

I love the gathering of the church.

I love getting together.

It is so important.

We believe there's power in the gathering of the church.

The Bible implicitly says we're two more gathered.

Jesus is among us, and so we're gathered in His name.

He is here, okay?

And so that is something that we preeminently must focus our minds on.

Wow, we get to praise Jesus, and He's not some distant God.

He is a part of our lives, and so we believe that.

The Bible has called us to gather together as the church.

We need one another.

Whether you like that, whether you agree with that,

I don't know what to tell you.

The Bible is very, very clear not to forsake the assembly together.

It is so, so important.

Whether today is maybe your first time ever walking in a church building,

clicking an online link,

we believe the gathering of the church is so, so important.

God has given us one another.

It is so important that we remember that

as we focus on realizing that we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

And yes, we have the crazy uncles around here.

We're not going to point any fingers.

Your family has them.

Our family has them as well.

But this morning, I want to focus on one aspect of the gathering of the church.

One aspect, but I think one aspect that many churches,

I won't say the church as a whole,

but many churches are not good at,

or we as Christians are not very good at.

I think we probably go in ebbs and flows moment by moment,

can find ourselves in doing this well.

But this year, I really felt as I was praying,

you're kind of focusing on some different things in my life,

asking God to challenge me.

This was a highlight for me where I felt the Lord's like,

hey, you need to do this better.

And I'm thinking, okay, sounds good.

Well, I didn't say that.

I probably argued a little bit.

Back and forth.

You do it.

I do it.

That's okay.

But I just felt the Lord just said,

hey, this is something that you need to start doing better.

And so I titled this message this morning,

be a minister of encouragement,

a minister of encouragement,

or be in the ministry of encouragement.

Paul in Romans gives us three times where gathered together,

we've been called to encourage one another.

I was thinking,

I was thinking through this message this week.

And I remember back to one of my first sermons.

That's probably 10, 15, almost 20 years ago now,

where I begin to highlight the church as a shelter,

as a shelter from the storm.

Ultimately, that is Christ.

But the reality is,

is knowing that as you walk through the doors

or as you gather with the church

or as you come in and sing songs and lift up Jesus,

realizing, yeah,

there's a shelter from the storm on the outside.

We realize that,

and I know I'm not having to newsflash anyone.

The world is broken.

The world is broken.

And we realize as Christians,

we are in this world,

but not of this world.

And we find ourselves in this parallel,

trying to reconcile in our own brains,

but realizing God has given us this vehicle of the church.

He has given us this,

this instrument.

He's given us, if you will,

this safety of the church,

realizing that no matter how big

and the waves may get and the wind can happen,

when we get together with one, two, three,

or several hundred, several thousand,

we know we are sheltered,

realizing God, you are in this place

and our focus is on you.

And for us, it's hard to come gather as a church

because we have all these distractions,

we have all these different things

and some not necessarily bad distractions.

I had a Dunkin' Donuts stop this morning.

It was a distraction.

My four-year-old wanted chocolate dipped with sprinkles.

We had to stop.

And so I had to remember

because I'm the absent-minded father sometimes,

I'll just keep driving.

Hey, you forgot the donuts.

So we had to go back and get donuts.

A distraction, not a bad distraction.

These stupid things, right?

And so we can intermix in things.

Think through all these different things.

But then we've been called to come gather

with a focus on Jesus.

And then we can get in an argument

with a spouse or a kid in the parking lot.

I realize that happens not only here in the family,

but it happens to my family as well.

And then we've got to come sit in a seat

or sometimes even preach a sermon

or sing a song.

And our mindset and our focus is going,

how can I find this gear?

There's so many things going on.

help me to find this shelter.

And Paul in Romans challenges the church,

challenges believers.

He challenges Christians to be encouragers.

Romans 1 verses 11 through 12.

He says,

for I long to see you.

This is the apostle Paul writing to these Christians.

What is he begging or what is he longing for?

He's longing to be with the church.

He's longing to gather with the church.

You hear that verbiage or phrase around?

We want to gather.

You may come from a place that has services

or a place that has called a mass

or a place that's called an experience.

The reason we call it gathering

is because we believe that is what we're doing.

We're not necessarily trying to figure out

or have some fancy name.

We want to call it what it is,

the church gathered.

And so that's what we're doing today.

And we believe the church gathered

should be a ministry of God.

So Paul in here is saying,

I long to see these brothers and sisters in Christ

to see some spiritual gift to strengthen you.

That is that we may be mutually encouraged

by each other's faith,

both yours and mine.

Later in Romans chapter 14,

he says,

so then let us pursue.

Again, he's talking to Christians here.

Let us pursue what makes for peace

and for mutual up building.

Or if you want,

we build one another up by encouragement.

And one last one in Romans 15.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good

to build him up.

See church, we've been called to build one another up.

The New Testament says to,

and the King James says to spur,

or NIV I think says to push to good,

to encourage one another,

to build one another up.

The sad reality is church has not been that.

And I know many of you are great encouragers

and I appreciate that.

And I'm not kicking anyone here specifically,

but this is maybe a challenge for us

is to realize an encouragement is needed.

A few years ago,

I got a call from a friend of mine.

He said, Caleb,

I would like you to do a half triathlon with me.

This was the dumbest decision of my life.

I want you to know this.

All right, sure.

Why not?

I'm a middle-aged man out of shape

and I can do this.

I'm sure right now, right?

Like, and it's like,

Hey, I'm going to have you ride the 54 point,

something miles on a bicycle.

I said, what?

Like 54.

Like that's the reality is just riding a bike

from here to Saginaw.

Okay.

All right.

If you want to do the quick math,

not an exact, but try it, go for it.

All right.

Some of you are like,

and so I remember trying to like half-heartedly prep

for this thing.

And, and I had a friend who's now in heaven with Jesus.

Say, Hey, you know what?

I got a bike for you.

I got shoes for you.

I got like, no, I don't want all this,

but he,

I actually have his bike in my office now,

which is a cool Testament of my friend Paul.

And so really cool.

But I remember going over to the West side of the state

and participating in this torture chamber.

Okay.

All right.

That's what we're going to call it.

All right.

And so I remember my,

my cousin did the bike and did the swimming

and had to swim like 1.2 miles or something like that

in the water.

I told him if I would have done the swim,

I would have drowned and no one else would have to do anything.

So, and so I remember getting,

getting on the bike and my adrenaline rushing

and, and, and just pumped to be able to do this.

And so I remember biking and experiencing something

that honestly I had never experienced.

I've been a part of team sports my entire life

and played a lot of basketball and other sports,

but this race atmosphere was something I had never experienced.

I don't know if you've done anything before.

My buddy ran the crim last week and Pastor Noble ran.

It was just, it's the race atmosphere is something

that I think other sports can't even comprehend.

In other sports, you're competing against others.

Yes, you're doing that in a race atmosphere,

but in this atmosphere, this was the most,

hey, encouraging atmosphere I had ever been a part of.

It really was people encouraging one another.

I remember biking and struggling and cramping

and people throwing me like, hey, drink this.

I'm like, what's in this thing?

So like,

trying to encourage, they would give things out.

People stop if you're falling down to help you.

It was something that I think the church

should take some notes on.

And it was not just the racers.

It was the stands.

They didn't know anyone else in the race.

They may have just had a parent, a friend, an aunt, an uncle,

a child racing, but guess what?

They had a poster cheering everyone else on,

encouraging others.

And I thought to myself,

can you imagine if the church was like this?

Can you?

Can you imagine if we had an atmosphere of encouragement,

an atmosphere to really honestly push others to succeed,

cheering when good things happen to others,

celebrating when God does something in someone's life,

just praising God and go, wow,

I can't believe what you did for them.

I'm super excited for them.

The sad reality is, I think many of us may think it.

We don't.

We don't verbalize it.

We don't act on it.

I don't think we are cold-hearted to go,

they didn't deserve that.

I think there's some of that.

This morning, I want to, just for a few minutes,

challenge us to be encouragers

and hopefully give you some encouragement

and give us some encouragement.

So let's pray and we'll jump into what that looks like this morning.

God, we love you.

We praise you.

We honor you.

God, thank you for this morning.

Thank you for being the hope that we have,

the solid rock that we can stand,

the cornerstone of our lives, God.

God, when the winds and the waves of this world rage,

may we be built on you.

Thank you for giving us the church.

God, your bride.

God, as we seek to be encouragers for one another,

not be silos separated by the busyness of life,

really lean into being at peace with one another,

being willing to build one another up

with our actions, our responses.

God, I pray that you encourage us this morning through your word.

God, we praise you.

We love you.

In Jesus' wonderful name, amen.

Begin to sit down and think through

what would encouragement look like

and no longer ask the, well, what if we were to do this?

No, I want to give you some practical biblical challenges.

How about this?

I want to give us some practical build biblical challenges,

some truths that I believe God has called us to live.

Live out as the body of Christ.

The first way we can encourage one another is with words.

With words.

A few years ago, I read the five love languages by Gary Chapman.

I don't know if you've ever read that,

but it is a really solid book

and really trying to understand relationships.

I got some for kids as well

and tried to understand your kids.

And so it's really, really solid.

Every time I do premarital counseling, I'm like,

hey, what's the love language of?

Your spouse and or what's the love language

of the person you are going to be married?

And I always love when they know.

And but I also am realizing that we really don't know.

And one of the love languages is words of affirmation.

Words of affirmation.

I'm not necessarily it's not.

It's probably one of my top ones.

It's not the number one, but some of you are like,

hey, I don't need words of affirmation.

But others of us enjoy.

And I.

It's a nice word of affirmation.

Somebody going, hey, I want to encourage you with my words.

I want to not just think, wow, that person did that.

Well, I want to speak it practically.

Parents, your kids need to hear words of affirmation.

Dads, I'm going to say this specifically.

Your daughters need to hear words of affirmation from you.

Grandparents, guess what?

Your kids, your grandkids need to hear words of affirmation with you.

We just did a.

That was fun.

I really enjoyed it.

I love Dave trying to wrangle you.

That's why I lit the candle and left.

Right.

Like let's start at the chaos and bounce.

But it's great.

But what is that?

Hopefully it wasn't just simply, hey, good to see you.

No, no, no.

Hopefully some relationships had began to start because we don't want to be silos.

Individuals that come just sit in a seat and then leave and then and then go through our week and then come again.

Sit in a seat.

Sing a song, hear a sermon and then leave.

No, no, no.

That's not the body of Christ.

The body of Christ is one that is spurring, pushing, encouraging one another to live more like Jesus.

And so when you see someone do this, you don't go, oh, that's great.

No, no, no.

You tell them, hey, thank you for setting an example for me.

Living that out and communicating with words.

Hebrews 3, 13.

But exhort one another with.

Or exhort one another every day.

Exhort and courage as long as it's called today that none of you may harden by the deceitfulness of sin.

We may say, well, you know, my love language is not words of affirmation.

I know no one in my life.

And I know a lot of people that would say, hey, I don't like when someone tells me good job.

It means it.

I think that if you do, you'd be lying.

Like, I don't know.

It makes you feel good.

It makes you want to repeat it.

We want to highlight that with.

With one another.

This quote this week, encouragement is like water to the soul.

It makes everything grow.

Encouraging one another with words.

Ephesians 4 deals with this in a specific way.

It says, but let no corrupt communication come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as it fits the occasion.

It may give grace to those who hear.

Are you telling me Ephesians says communicating encouragement gives someone grace?

What a great truth.

Showing someone grace is communicating encouragement, giving them a word.

I love this.

Encouragement with our words should.

I'll give you some practicals.

If you're taking notes, these are ones that have been, I've been trying to get better at not perfected.

By the way, I want you to know this one.

Listen to flee to acknowledge the other person.

That one's a hard for me.

I was listening, but I was also watching this game by the way.

All right.

That's just my problem.

Nobody else is in this room.

All right.

Three, remind them of their strengths.

Focus on something good in their lives for offer praise for effort, not just results.

And five, offer hope for the future.

I love those practical steps as we can verbalize encouraging one another as Christians.

Here's what I want you to know.

One thing that we can verbalize that will always encourage us is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What is that?

The one that gives us hope.

The one we can cling to the realization that without the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, we were dead in our sins, separated from God.

Yet God in his great love and his great mercy sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.

He lived a perfect life.

It was a perfect sacrifice.

Died on a cross for you, for me, took our sins.

Colossians says he nailed into the cross.

It gives us an opportunity for forgiveness, but didn't just stay.

He rose again three days later victorious and is coming back again that we can look forward to seeing our savior face to face.

That's the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.

And we should be encouraged with that.

First Thessalonians says, encourage one another with these words with hope for the future.

Guess what?

Jesus has overcome.

He's victorious and he's made you an overcomer.

He's victorious so that we could be victorious.

That's what Romans.

Eight says, right?

We're more than conquerors.

I think some of you are more happy about Michigan's victory than Jesus's victory yesterday.

Come on.

Think about that.

Yeah, sounds good.

If we go, we'll get nuts at the lions looking terrible last week, by the way.

Sorry, wrong platform.

I'm seeing a counselor.

No, I'm just kidding.

All right.

Well, think about that.

Do we encourage one another with our words at the victory that Jesus has won?

Sometimes we need reminded that there are days where we.

We feel defeated.

Guess what?

There's a lot of days I feel defeated, discouraged, broken, and I need to be pulled back.

We need to be pulled back, realigned.

This says, no, Jesus has won the victory over death, hell and anything in this world, and he has reigned supreme and we can trust him.

We can cling to him that no matter what the world throws at me, he's won the victory and I'm a child of God and I'm just clinging to him because he's victorious.

That's what we have to cling to church.

So as we encourage one another with words, the second one is not a popular one.

And some of you may say, well, that's doesn't seem like it's encouragement.

Well, I'll explain.

We encourage one another with words.

Second, we encourage one another with accountability, with accountability.

I thought encouragement was only all good.

No accountability.

See, some of us need, I'm going to rephrase that.

I'm going to rephrase that.

All of us need accountability.

A few years ago, a buddy and I did a weight loss challenge with the two.

And it was great.

And so we said the loser had to go buy the other food, by the way.

It makes no sense if you're trying to lose weight, but we're not the smartest two guys.

He's smarter than me, but that's okay.

But it was great in the accountability and the communication.

We would hold one another accountable.

We would text every single day.

Hey, how are you doing today?

Just checking in, making sure you're still doing it and holding strong and staying accountable.

It was helpful.

I knew I needed that.

It's not fall off the track.

And head to McDonald's and buy a double quarter pounder with cheese times two, right?

And so the reality in our lives is we need accountability.

And the church has been called to hold one another accountable.

You know what?

Not just the pastor.

It's not the pastor's sole job to hold everyone accountable.

James chapter five says, therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous man is great power as it is working.

We have been called to confess our struggles to one another as a church.

And some of you are terrified at this moment.

Don't worry.

I'm not passing on a microphone.

But the reality is, is I just got done a few minutes ago talking about growth communities.

That's a great vehicle and venue to say, hey, I'm struggling with blank.

Will you pray for me?

I'm struggling in this area, that area.

I need some encouragement.

Would you be my encouragement?

Would you be my accountability?

Because I know I need it.

I'm susceptible to this sin and I need help.

Guess what, church?

Every single one of us needs help.

Every single one of us.

That's what the church has been designed to be.

Help for one another.

To build one another up.

To speak truth into one another with love.

So that we can live out for Christ to glorify him with our actions, our thoughts.

Proverbs 27, right?

Iron sharpens iron.

One man sharpens another.

Two are better than one.

It's pointing towards plurality.

The church was never meant to be a silo.

Individualistic.

Yet, for some reason, that idea that I need no one, I can live and die to myself.

Actually, the Bible says you can't do that.

It's a lie from the devil.

And so being separated and being by yourself is a bad thing.

But the sad reality?

The sad reality to this is I've watched this happen to the church.

When someone's struggling or battling a sin or going through a difficulty in life,

what happens is, you know what?

I'm going to step away from church for a little while until I figure this out.

Guess what?

That's the biggest mistake you can make.

The biggest mistake you can make.

How about stepping in, leaning in to your brothers and sisters in Christ?

Knowing that, hey, if we judge, that's the worst thing a church can do.

That's not what accountability is.

Accountability is not gossip.

It's not a free train to go, hey, we can tell everybody what you're going through.

That's not there.

But knowing that, hey, you know what?

They're going through this.

I'm going to encourage them, text them, pray for them, do everything I can to help them.

That's what Galatians says, right?

Bear one another's burdens as we are holding one another accountable.

For three, not only with words, with accountability, with actions.

I mentioned Hebrews chapter 10 earlier.

And let us...

Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works,

not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some,

but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

I love that posture as described by the writer of Hebrews.

We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

We keep our eyes fixed on the return of Christ.

Church, that's what we have to do.

But knowing there are difficulties, knowing there are struggles,

knowing there are things in our homes, knowing there are things in this world,

knowing all these things are happening as we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus,

the author and perfecter of our faith.

We've been called to not only keep our eyes, but to help one another with encouragement.

I love that word, consider.

That word, consider, takes preparation.

It's not just a spontaneous thing.

Not saying spontaneous encouragement is a bad thing,

but I'm saying it's a...

It's a deeper, more thought-out, prepared idea of encouragement.

And I thought about this.

Are we considering, are we preparing before we gather as the church,

how to encourage someone else?

I'll tell you that.

What a mindset shift.

Are you going, hey, you know what?

I see this person sitting alone every single week.

We all sit in the same area every time, so I know they sit alone every time.

Have I ever asked them to sit with me or sit with my family?

Have I ever asked if I could pray for them?

Are we considering ways to encourage someone else?

Not just a simple handshake and a superficial interaction.

And this is not a challenge for me.

This is a challenge for me as well, not just for you.

This is, I felt like, man, are we considering ways to be the church God has called us to be?

Not just a superficial interaction, that handshake, a hug, hey, good to see you, have a great week.

No, am I really engaging with my actions into encouraging others?

Am I really engaging with my actions into encouraging others?

And I'll say this, that's not just the sole job of the pastor.

My calling is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, but more importantly,

I want to create an atmosphere or be a part of creating a culture of, man,

the place I walked through the door and felt so encouraged because somebody said something to me,

somebody cared, somebody loved me, somebody followed up, somebody is a part of the body of Christ,

and I long, I know I can get through my week because I've been encouraged.

So how are we considering, pairing, preparation?

To encourage someone is to walk beside them, those actions.

The last one this morning, and there's others, I know there are, I just came up with these four,

is to be an example or a testimony.

Our testimony and our example, what God is doing in our lives is encouraging to others.

2 Corinthians chapter 1,

Bless me to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comforts,

who comforts us in all of our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction,

with a comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Here it is.

God, you have guided me, you have comforted me, you have been with me in my deepest, darkest, broken moments of life.

You have encouraged me.

Now I'm going to be a vessel of encouragement.

Receive and pour out.

Isn't that just like the way God has called us in anything?

I receive the gospel and I communicate the gospel.

I receive love from God.

He loved, I love because he first loved us.

I received the love of God and now I love others.

Become that instrument, the reflection of the character of God.

That's what the Christians, that's what the church has been called to be.

And so as we realize that our story helps others, it's so important.

This week has been a crazy week in the United States.

I don't know about you, but seeing visuals of a public assassination.

Seeing visuals of a young woman stabbed on a train in Charlotte.

Hearing another school shooting.

Personally have been shaken.

Maybe I shouldn't say that as a pastor, but you know I'm going to be honest with you.

I was glad I teach a class on Wednesday nights for men and I take questions.

And I was glad no one asked me a question about it.

Because I'm not sure what I would have said.

Honestly, I was still...

Still am processing lots of the events of this last week.

Processing Charlie Kirk's assassination is just brutal.

Thinking about some of these visuals, these craziness of our world.

And that's just a small snapshot because the brokenness of our world can be discouraging.

And now you're like, wow, that's the simplest thing you said.

No, I just want to be very clear and honest.

I don't want to be a church that comes and goes, hey, you know what?

There's no difficulties in this life.

Everything's easy.

We just sing some songs, preach a sermon, and then go live.

No, that would be not the truth.

Those are just some of the things that we've visibly seen on the news, in social media.

That doesn't even get close to some of the health things that are going on in some of your lives.

The broken marriages, dealing with kids, grandkids, loss of jobs, health.

This world can be discouraging.

Some of you sit here today.

Join us online.

Listen in another time.

Feel discouraged.

I'll be honest with you.

Feel discouraged.

The weight of sin around me.

The lawlessness.

The chaos.

I say this to you.

I felt the Lord lead me to this passage as Jesus is speaking to his disciples.

He's getting ready to be crucified.

He's getting ready to lay down his life.

And Jesus says, take heart.

And then he follows up.

I have overcome.

He has overcome.

Church, I want to say this to you very, very, very concisely and clearly.

The only way we are able to navigate the difficulties of this last week, the last month, last year,

the last you fill in the amount of years, is through the hope of the world Jesus Christ.

It's it.

You're sitting here today.

You've wandered in.

You've clicked on a link online.

I don't know.

And you're going.

Man, there's so much going on.

I'm looking for a hope.

Guess what?

The River Church is not your hope.

Jesus Christ is your hope.

It's finding and realizing that if you don't know him as your savior, it's coming to that

clear, concise realization that you can't do your life on your own.

None of us can.

Not one of us.

We're all broken, lost sinners.

The sad reality of our broken, lost sin is this.

We're heading to hell.

And then God said, I love you in spite of it.

I'm going to send Jesus to die on a cross and take your sin, take your brokenness, take

all the struggles that you're ever going to have, your past, your present, your future

sins, and I'm going to offer you forgiveness.

And so that when it comes to you in this world, you can be sealed as a child of God, knowing

that we have hope, knowing that you can have a future.

So the Bible says this.

All you have to do is confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus came,

died on a cross and rose again.

And it's coming back again.

You can be saved.

It's that simple confession.

It's not a religious moment.

It's a relational moment that God is seeking right now.

You can be sitting in your seat right now, joining us online.

You can do it right in this moment.

God, I confess that I'm a sinner.

I'm broken and need you in my life.

I feel hopeless and I can find hope grounded solely on you.

And you may feel broken and feel discouraged.

You may feel.

You may feel overwhelmed.

But may I encourage you, follower of Jesus.

May I encourage you, child of God, take heart.

He has overcome.

And that's what we cling to.

So we as a church hold fast.

We encourage one another.

Be that shelter of encouragement, not blind encouragement.

That's why I put accountability in there, by the way.

But knowing that when I walk through the doors on a Sunday or a Wednesday or on a group that

I know that no matter what struggle, storm, battle, overwhelmed feeling I'm experiencing,

I know that I will be encouraged because there's other believers, brothers and sisters in Christ

that have battled, have struggled, and I know they're going to speak truth, love, encouragement

into my life.

May we be that church.

May we be that place.

May we be that body, not just in conversation, not just in a sermon, but in reality.

May we all.

May we all be enlisted in a ministry of encouragement.

I read this this week.

I highlighted when I read stuff online that I really like highlighting.

And I thought maybe you'd be encouragement.

I'm going to pray and we're going to come out with a song.

And I'm going to have a baptism this morning.

Close out our gathering to encourage you, by the way.

Dear Christians, through the storms, through the grief, through the tears, through the trials, through the pain,

through the struggles, through the doubts, through it all, God is good.

I'm going to read that again because I know I need to read things twice.

Dear Christian, dear child of God, through the storms, through the grief, through the tears, through the trials,

through the pain, through the struggles, through the doubts, through it all, God is faithful and God is good.

I'm going to ask you to do this.

Would you bow your head and close your eyes around the room?

Just feel led to pray for someone directly.

You're not going to embarrass anybody.

That's why there's nobody paying attention.

Stay online with us.

I'm going to pray for you as well.

You're sitting here and you say, Caleb, man, I feel discouraged, feel overwhelmed.

Would you pray for me?

Just in a moment of declaration, you can put your hand up and put it down.

Put your hand up and put it down.

More and most importantly, God sees it, but I see your hands.

You're not by yourself.

There are hands going up around the room.

Thank you for trusting me.

Thank you for trusting me.

If this is a public confession, says, God, I am struggling.

I feel discouraged.

God, I come to you right now.

Right now, we connect.

And feel overwhelmed.

Feel discouraged.

God, you saw the hands in this room.

It was not one or two.

It was many, God.

Right now, I ask for your hand of encouragement to be in their life.

God, may your Holy Spirit bring comfort and strength in a way that not a sermon, not a

pastor, not a human being can even get close to bringing.

God, the visuals of our world can be taking our lives.

We need you.

May we be reminded.

May we be refocused on the good.

Good news of the gospel.

Reality that you're coming back to get your children.

That we can long, we can look for a heaven, a place where none of this garbage will be

there.

God, this morning, cling to you.

But God, may we also be challenged just as you've encouraged us.

May we be encouragers of others.

Every single person knows that when they walk through these doors at any moment, when they

gather with the church in a home, when they gather with brothers and sisters in a restaurant,

they will be encouraged.

God, may you challenge us to be that, to live that out.

Not just on a Sunday morning when the pastor's preaching about it, but on a daily basis.

God, thank you for giving us the church.

Thank you for giving us one another.

May we be the body that you've called us to be.

God, thank you for this morning.

God, I pray for Charlie Kirk's family.

I pray for the families of those that are involved in the school shooting in Colorado.

I pray for the young woman's family who's killed Charlotte.

Even praying for the ones that committed these atrocities.

God, praying that the gospel may transform.

God, we sang it a little bit ago.

You are a hope.

You're the only hope for our world.

God, we pray it.

We preach it.

We sing it.

We declare it this morning.

God, with everything we have, you're a hope and we need you.

God, I pray for those that are sitting in this room dealing with other broken things in this

life, us around them to encourage them as well.

We love you.

We honor you.

We seek to live for you.

And God, we say thank you that we have hope that we know we will see you again.

Jesus, wonderful.