So, I’m a couple days late with this message as Thanksgiving week has passed, but I hope it still reaches everyone well.

It has been my experience, over my years with God, that He has often used specific people in specific ways at specific times to encourage and sustain my faith.  God has a plan for each of us, each of us is invaluable.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13 – “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”

Each of you is unique.  You have a background that is uniquely your own, yet God has a plan for it, both the good, and especially the bad.  While I can comfort a woman who has lost a child, I would never be able to comfort her like another woman who has lost a child could.  While I can encourage someone who struggles with alcoholism, I can never encourage them like someone who has been through that.  I have my own sin struggles, and mistakes from my own life that God has a plan to use, and the same is true for all of us.  To those who say that faith is private and personal, their faith will be dead soon enough.  We were made to exist and be sustained by one another as Children of God.

Hebrews 10:23-25 – “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

My encouragement today, is two-fold.  First, immerse yourself in the people of God.  Find a church, get into a small group, and start meeting up with people regularly, if you’re not already.  It’s hard, it is inconvenient, and it’s going to be messy, because they’re messed up sinners (just like you are).  But God can and does use messed up people, to accomplish His perfect will, and He absolutely has a plan to build up and sustain your faith through His people.

Second, consider how God has used people in your life to encourage and sustain your faith.  Each of you has at least one story, because each of you had the gospel preached to you by someone at some point in your past.  Do not think too highly of yourself that you do not need the people of God, and do not think too lowly of yourself that they do not need you.

1 Peter 4:7-11 – “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.  Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.  Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.  As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:  whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” 

Grace and Peace,

Adam