Part 4 - The Encouraging Community

The Good & Beautiful Community

By Ivan Cooper, August 20, 2023

Part 4 - The Good & Beautiful Community - The Encouraging Community

Study by: Ivan Cooper

Sermons can be viewed on the Hope Valley Church YouTube Channel.

GATHERING / WORSHIP / PRAYER

Take a few minutes to catch up with each other and build community. If you have new people present, give time to getting to know each other.

Possibly listen to the hymn ‘Be Thou My Vision’

Pray that God would build us His church as living stones who build one another up upon Christ our cornerstone.

FOCUS

Our series ‘The Good and the Beautiful’ is based on three books by James Bryan Smith. Our focus throughout August is on the third book 'The Good and Beautiful Community’, helping us to know how to live in relationship with others as apprentices of Jesus.

SETTING THE SCENE

The term here translated as ‘encourage’ in the New Testament came from a combination of two words in the Greek, para + kaleó. Para refers ‘to the side’ and kaleó ‘to call’. It draws an image of calling someone alongside to encourage, exhort and admonish by word and example with a future looking perspective. As the body of Christ, we are called to walk life together, bearing each other's burdens, building each other up, strengthening each other's faith, speaking words of truth, meeting together and spurring each other towards greater love and good deeds. Encouragement is a vital ingredient to our walk of faith, also helping us to overcome hardships, persist through struggle, find hope despite circumstances and trust God through difficulty. Encouragement opens our eyes to a glimpse of God’s love and truth in the lives of our brothers and sisters around us. Though worries can weigh us down, an encouraging word can make us glad (Proverbs 12:25). May we seek to be like Barnabas, whose name means - son of encouragement, who was a great blessing to all around him (Acts 4:36).

OPENING GOD’s WORD

Warm Up Question: Share a time that someone’s encouragement has greatly impacted your life?

Read: Hebrews 10:19-25 Take turns reading these verses from several translations.

  1. What first caught your interest or stuck out to you as you read this passage?
  2. What is the source of our confidence to draw boldly towards God?
  3. The phrase “Let us” is repeated 4 times in the New Living Translation (3x in NIV, ESV, NRSV); what are the actions that ‘we’ as a body are called to practise? What do we discover when we practise these actions?
  4. What is the goal or goals of encouraging each other?
  5. In what ways do these verses challenge you to be an encourager, who helps build the faith of others?

LIVING OUT GOD’s WORD

  1. How can we practically motivate each other towards love and good deeds?
  2. When and to whom can you share words or actions of encouragement?

PRAYER

  • Pray that as a community we could hold unswervingly to the hope we profess in Jesus.
  • Pray we will find opportunities to share the love of Jesus with others through our words and actions of encouragement.

Contacts If you would like more information or further help, please contact: scott.button@hopevalleychurch.com.au