ENCOURAGEMENT,
NEED FOR

ONE OF the immensely popular shows of our recent past has been the show Cheers. The show was centered around folks hanging out at a bar. Now, people just don’t go to bars to drink. They can drink at home. People go to bars to drink in an environment of encouragement. In fact, they have a name for it; it’s called a happy hour. Happy hour is designed not only to give you drinks at maybe a little cheaper rate but also to bring people together and to create an environment. The establishments figure that if people are not receiving happiness from their jobs or in their homes, it works to provide an environment where people get what they are missing out on.238

[Fellowship]

1 Thess. 5:11

MANY churches are in need of what every football team has: cheerleaders. The job of a cheerleader is to tell everybody “we’re going to make it.” No matter how bad things look on the scoreboard, there is still hope. Cheerleaders cheer all the way to the end of the game and will act like the team is winning by a big score even when there may be no way that a victory is possible. Their job is to be a cheerleader.

When folks come into today’s sanctuary with broken lives, they need to run into some cheerleaders, folks who are willing to cheer them on and tell them that they are going to make it.239

[Encouragement; Praise]

Eph. 4:29; 1 Thess. 5:11