What does First B Jackson teach about encouragement?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on encouragement starts with its most literal meaning. When Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, Pastor Ray and Pastor Brian have both pointed out that to encourage someone is to fill them with courage when they are worn down. Paul names Timothy's grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, affirms the faith he is certain lives in Timothy, and only then urges him to kindle afresh the gift God has placed in him. The pattern matters: the specific, named affirmation comes first, and it is the ground for the call to keep going. That kind of encouragement is not flattery. It is one person seeing what God has already done in another person and saying so plainly.
Hebrews 3 pushes that further. Pastor Stan worked through the warning and the encouragement side by side in that passage, and the instruction that landed at the center was from verse 13: encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today. The reason the text says every day and not just occasionally is that sin is deceitful, and each small act of hardening becomes slightly easier than the last. The community is the safeguard. Treating faith as a private matter, Pastor Stan noted, leaves a person without the daily voice that can call them back before drifting becomes something worse. The assembling together that Hebrews 10 commands is connected to exactly this, provoking one another toward love and good deeds rather than toward division.
The figure of Barnabas runs through several messages here as the clearest picture of what encouragement looks like in practice. His name means son of encouragement, and the teaching from Acts 4 and 11 shows it was not just a title. When the church was frightened and scattering after Stephen's death, Barnabas traveled to Antioch and urged the believers to remain true to the Lord. He then found Saul and brought him into ministry. Carl and Pastor Jon both noted that the gift of encouragement, used faithfully in that moment, had consequences that shaped the entire early church. The point the teaching keeps returning to is that encouragement is never merely emotional support. It is a serious, purposeful act that holds people steady and moves the work of God forward.
Taught from 2 Timothy 1:3-7 · Hebrews 3:13 · Hebrews 10:24-25 · Acts 4:32-5:11 · Acts 11:19-30
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 3:16
16 Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- December 1, 2024 One of Heart and Soul A sermon from Acts 4:32-5:11 on the early church's unity, generosity, and faith, with lessons from Barnabas and the sobering story of Ananias and Sapphira.
- December 1, 2024 Barnabas, Ananias, and the Fear of the Lord Acts 4-5 traces the early church's unity, generosity, and the contrasting stories of Barnabas and Ananias and Sapphira, with a call to encourage, stay alert, and fear God.
- December 1, 2024 One of Heart and Soul Carl walks through Acts 4:32-5:11, showing what a Spirit-filled church looks like through the examples of Barnabas, Ananias, and Sapphira.
- November 10, 2019 Let Us Draw Near With a Sincere Heart Hebrews 10 calls believers to draw near, hold fast, and stir one another toward love and good works as the day of Christ's return draws closer.
- August 18, 2019 Today, If You Hear His Voice Hebrews 3:7-19 warns against hardening your heart toward God. The preacher's sermon traces Israel's wilderness failure and calls believers to hold fast to Christ today.
- December 30, 2018 God Has Not Given Us a Spirit of Timidity The pastor opens 2 Timothy showing how God gives believers not timidity but power, love, and a sound mind to face the future boldly as the new year begins.
- December 30, 2018 Power, Love, and Discipline Paul's final letter calls believers forward with power, love, and discipline. A New Year's message on 2 Timothy 1 from First Baptist Jackson.
Mentioned along the way
- May 10, 2026 Easy to Understand, Hard to Do A Mother's Day sermon on Ephesians 4:25, 5:2, calling believers to speak truth, guard anger, work honestly, tame the tongue, and imitate God as His beloved children.
- May 10, 2026 Put Away Falsehood, Speak the Truth in Love Ephesians 4-5 examined: put away falsehood, anger, theft and corrupt speech, and walk in love as imitators of God, just as Christ gave himself for us.
- October 5, 2025 They All Were Brought Safely to Land A sermon on Acts 27 traces Paul's shipwreck voyage to Rome and asks what it means to trust God when storms, delays, and loss of control pile up around you.
- October 5, 2025 We Must Run Aground on a Certain Island Paul's storm-tossed voyage to Rome in Acts 27 shows what it looks like to trust God when you've lost control, hit despair, and can't see land.
- March 2, 2025 Gospel Carriers in Word and Deed Acts 11 traces how scattered believers carried the gospel to Antioch. Pastor Carl walks through what that early church moment means for how we live and give today.
- February 23, 2025 Gospel Carriers in Word and Deed Acts 11 shows a young church carrying the gospel outward through scattering, sacrifice, and ordinary witnesses. A sermon on staying true to the Lord and joining what God is already doing.
- February 23, 2025 Stay True to the Lord A sermon from Acts 11 on how ordinary believers carried the gospel outward, and what it looks like to take, remember, rely on, encourage, and participate today.
- November 17, 2019 It Is a Terrifying Thing A verse-by-verse walk through Hebrews 10 on the weight of willful sin, the faithfulness of God's promises, and what it means to say yes to Christ as Lord.
- October 30, 2011 Secrets of a Lasting Love A sermon on lasting love from 1 Corinthians 13, exploring how extending grace, expressing faith, expecting the best, and persevering keep love alive.