Encouragement

I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Sunday morning, 23rd of April, 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start off in the Old Testament, Isaiah 50:4

"A word in season to him who is weary."

This is a time for you and me to encourage one another. Then we go straight to Matthew 11 and I'm reading a very well-known scripture starting in verse 28, this is Jesus speaking:

"Come to me all you who Labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."

Folks, it's a time for us to encourage one another. Now, I looked up the meaning of encouragement - it means to support, to cheer up, it is morale-boosting. Many years ago as a new Believer, we went down to Durban to a children's home and took out a whole group of young teenagers. We brought them up to the farm and they stayed with us for 10 days. Part of that time, I got my old Mercedes Benz truck and took them up to the Drakensberg mountains, those mighty mountains. Now these young men had never been into the mountains, they were city boys and I wasn't a very experienced mountaineer, to say the least being, a farmer - but off we went. We left the farm at 3:00 in the morning... We left half of the food behind, and we left most of our stuff behind but we were so excited.

We got to the base of the mighty mountains and we started our trek up the contour paths. As we went higher and higher the path got more and more narrow and the gorges were steeper until, just before we got to the top, we looked down on one side was a sheer drop, and on the other side was a wall, just a sheer rock. The path was wide enough just for one person at a time. Well towards the top the boys were getting tired, they were getting short of oxygen and things were looking a bit ugly. I said to them: "Boys we need to keep going." They said we can't go anymore. I said you have to, they said we can't. I said you must. I said: " Just at the top there is a beautiful tearoom and there are some lovely hot hamburgers waiting for you and beautiful milkshakes and Cokes, keep going..." Of course, there wasn't but they kept on and eventually, they got to the top. I want to tell you that they were so relieved.

Folks we encourage them to keep going, they got to the top and you know when we got back to the farm, they sat on the lawn, we gave them 2L of Coke each, they could eat as much food as they wanted and they came to me and said to us that was the greatest time of their lives. They were pressed hard but with encouragement, they made it to the top. That's what Jesus Christ wants to do for you and me - He says "Come unto me all of you that are weary and heavy Laden and I will give you rest"

Go out today and encourage somebody to keep on, we are nearly at home. Jesus bless you