What does First B Jackson teach about encouraging others?
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 encouraging others grows out of how John writes to Gaius in Third John. Pastor Mark pointed out that John's opening words to his friend were not a formality. Caring about how someone is doing physically, not just spiritually, and being genuinely approachable when people walk through the door, sets the tone for whether someone lets their guard down or keeps their guard up. Encouragement begins before a word is even spoken.
Pastor Mark made a direct point about naming what people are doing right. He and Ray do not always see everything happening in the congregation, but when they do see it, they want to say so. Criticism for its own sake does not build a church up. Encouragement does. John did not only correct Gaius; he told him what he was getting right, and that pattern is the one First B is meant to follow.
The teaching also tied encouragement to the way the church receives people who come through. Jackson seems to be a regular stopping point for missionaries heading to hard places, and Pastor Mark held up the congregation's willingness to sit with, engage, and pray with those visitors as exactly the kind of thing worth naming out loud. Encouragement and hospitality, in this teaching, are two sides of the same posture toward other people.
Taught from Jeremiah 17
The passage taught · Jeremiah 17
1 “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond. It is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars.
2 Even their children remember their altars and their Asherah poles by the green trees on the high hills.
3 My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a plunder, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.
4 You, even of yourself, will discontinue from your heritage that I gave you. I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you don’t know, for you have kindled a fire in my anger which will burn forever.”
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- September 28, 2015 Monday Nights @ First B (17) A short letter with a lasting message: how greetings, hospitality, and faithfulness shape a church that reflects Christ to the world.
Mentioned along the way
- September 10, 2023 Draw Near With Confidence A Moroccan taxi driver, a prayer hip-to-hip, and Hebrews 10: The preacher's message on humility, grace, and what it means to draw near to God together.
- March 17, 2015 Living As a New Creation - Who do You say that I am (Wk. 5) (3) A Wyoming pastor leads a small group through the biblical foundation of prophecy, what it is, how to test it, and how God uses it to speak life into people.