OGBC Joseph: Son of Encouragement 07/23/17 AMActs 11:19-26

Introduction1. Jean Nidetch in the early 1960s was a 214-pound homemaker desperate to lose weight. She went to the

New York City Department of Health where she was given a diet devised by Dr. Norman Jolliffe. Two months later, discouraged about the 50 plus pounds still to go, she invited six overweight friends home to share the diet and talk about how to stay on it. Eventually she founded a group known as Weight Watchers. Her circle of weight watching friends has grown to millions of women and men around the world from Brazil to New Zealand. Why was Nidetch able to help people take control of their lives? To answer that, she tells a story. When she was a teenager, she used to cross a park where she saw mothers gossiping while the toddlers sat on their swings, with no one to push them. "I'd give them a push," says Nidetch. "And you know what happens when you push a kid on a swing? Pretty soon he's pumping, doing it himself. That's what my role in life is—I'm there to give others a push."

2. Joseph in Acts was a Jew, a Levite, originally from Cyprus. Like Nidetch he liked to give others a helpful push. People recognized this in him and gave him the nickname Barnabas, “Son of Encouragement.”a. He worked in the background but kept popping up at critical moments throughout the Acts story.b. The Holy Spirit (Gk., parakletos) is an encourager; Barnabas was an encourager; We should be too.

A. Five Characteristics of an Effective Encourager1. Generous Giver

Text: Acts 4:32-37 (Focal 4:36-37)Push: Sold landEffect: Physical needs of others were met, and others were encouraged to give generously.

2. Effective AdvocateText: Acts 9:26-28Push: Stood up for PaulEffect: Paul was accepted in the Christian community and continued to grow and minister.

3. Godly Match-makerText: Acts 11:19-26 (Focal 11:25-26)Push: Brought Paul and Antioch believers togetherEffect: Paul and Antioch believers grew, and an effective ministry team and mission base were formed.

4. Gospel ProclaimerText: Acts 13:1-3Push: Went with Paul on a missions journeyEffect: Paul and Barnabas obediently carried the gospel “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

5. Sensitive ReclaimerText: Acts 15:36-41Push: Stood up for John Mark, his cousin, who made mistake (Acts 13:132 Tim. 4:11; Mark’s gospel)Effect: Two effective ministry teams were formed (Paul-Silas and Barnabas-Mark), the gospel was proclaimed, and John Mark’s life and ministry were reclaimed for Christ.

B. Be an Effective Encourager Today1. Joyce Landorf Heatherly has been a Christian singer, speaker, writer since the 1960s. She suffered a

traumatic head injury in 2001 which has limited here ministry in subsequent years. Her life has been marked by tragedy in the death of an infant son, a divorce, and chronic pain from TMJ and her head injury. But in the midst of all these difficulties she continues to encourage others with her testimony and her books.

Read excerpt from chapter 2 of Balcony People.2. As Christians we are to give others “a push,” like Barnabas did, to be an affirmer like Joyce described, to

love one another as God has commanded.a. Who has been an encourager to you? Who is an encourager to you right now? Thank God and them!b. I am encouraged by work teams such as our friends from Oaklyn Baptist who are with us today.c. To whom is God calling you to be an encourager—a generous giver, an effective advocate, a godly

match-maker, a gospel proclaimer, a sensitive reclaimer?d. Do you need encouragement today—to believe, to join, to serve?

Excerpt from Balcony People by Joyce Landorf Heatherly (Balcony Publishing 1984)

As I write about our relationships with others, our expectations of our own gifts and abilities, and our perception of these subjects, I have about concluded that there are only two basic types of people in the world: the evaluators and the affirmers (i.e., encouragers).

I am sure, if there were a way to view a movie and see instant replays of all the strategic change points in our lives, that we'd instantly spot the people who either broke our spirits by critical or judgmental evaluations, or who healed us by loving, perceptive affirmations.

To be honest, I seem to be able to remember the negative comments of evaluators faster and more clearly than the positive remarks of the affirmers. I'm not alone in this ability to recall the negative, as immature as it is, for many of you have verified that you, too, think along those same lines. I suspect that not far from anyone's conscious level of thinking lies the memory of an evaluator who pulled on his or her spiked boots and stomped deliberately over our bare soul and personhood. . . .

We all have the choice to replay the harmful remarks from evaluators, or we can choose to let them pass on. We can even choose to make allowances for their discouraging, destructive words. But best of all is the choice to willingly focus our minds and hearts on today's person who is affirming us.

Let me ask you. Who is the affirmer in your life, who by one small sentence or more, has changed and lifted your opinion of yourself? Who was the person early in your life who recognized the first sparks of originality in the labyrinths of your mind and soul, and saw what no one else saw? And who is the special affirmer who catches quick glimpses of the flames from the fires of your potential and tells you so? Who, by his or her words, helps you to respect and believe in your own value as a person? And who is the affirmer who encourages you to stretch and dream beyond your self-imposed limits and capabilities?

Whoever these people may be, I know their name, for they are called Affirmers, with a capital A. I have known only a few genuine affirmers, but one affirmer is worth a thousand evaluators. . . .

. . . I must be affirmed, and I must be an affirmer to others. Otherwise I miss one of the main concepts of the New Testament - to love one another and to bear one another's burdens.