We can live on the horizontal way. God calls us to be holy, to have a vertical toward Him. The Blood of Jesus has atoned for us. We can live in faith by grace. Isaiah 1:3-4

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12280
7:00 PM on 4/6/2022

P. Scibelli –

Good evening. Great to be here. I have the great privilege of introducing a man who has two greats. He was one of
the greatest goalies in hockey. He had eight shutouts in a row. No one scored on him eight
games in a row. Am I right? Eight in a row. The thing about that is he’s never played against me
and P. Love. And that would have been broken for sure. That would definitely have him ducking
for cover. P. Steve Morello is a great friend. He’s been 40 years in this ministry from way back.
Way back. Way back. So would you welcome P. Steve Morello for this introduction.
P. Steve Morello – Good evening, Body. How’s everyone doing tonight? I’m going to speak a
little about edification. About five minutes.

Edification isn’t something that is really tangible. Just look around at one another for a second. Just look around at each other just for a second. Are we edified to have such a Body as we have here? We have a great, great Body. We have
pastors that just study, read the Word of God, dedicate their lives to the Word for one reason,
two reasons really. To get the lost saved. To give a word of encouragement and hopefully they
will get saved, and to build us up daily.

We get encouraging words. We get encouraging words from each other. I mean I’m encouraged
when someone comes by and says, hi. Did you have a good day today? That’s encouraging
when it comes from the Body. We do fight against an enemy. We do have an enemy. A lot of
times we are discouraged. We can’t help it cause we are still in the flesh. But we don’t fight
against flesh and blood. We’re not fighting against flesh and blood. We’re fighting against
powers and principalities in high places. That’s why it’s so good to be around the Body and get
encouraged and get built up.

There’s just a few verses I want to read about encouragement. The first one would be – by the
way, P. Love can score on me. But me and P. Scibelli are going to put on the skates. I’m going to
play one more time. Before the Rapture, I will have the skates on. Alright, I’m saying it. I might
not get puck shot happy, but I’m going to try. P. Scibelli said – I want to say it in front of
everybody – that if I put the skates on, he’s going to put them back on. Gotcha! Gotcha! Right?
Alright. Oh boy. I don’t know if I’m going to get edified on the ice at my age. We’ll see. We’ll
see.

In Isaiah 40:31, anything else that comes against us is a lie. It’s a lie from the pit of hell. Shadrack,
Meshach, and Abednego with joy on their faces going into the fiery furnace. Why? They
believed the Word of God. They believed that even if they made their bed in hell, God was
there with them. That’s the same for us, too. God will never leave us. God will never forsake us.
He will always be with us. It’s not a work we do to get that privilege. It’s a finished work. He has
finished it. Last words on the cross. It is finished.

So many times, you get caught up – myself included – we get caught up in the works. We think
we can work and maybe get edified by doing something. I get edified by when I go soul winning and I speak to somebody about God and they have a smile on their face and it’s an anointing
from God and a divine appointment, you can tell the difference. I see a smile on that person’s
face or tears coming from their eyes, I am so edified. I couldn’t be more edified than that. It’s so
beautiful. In Isaiah 41:10, He’s there for us. He’ll never leave us, never forsake us. Even sometimes
maybe we’ll have a little disagreement with one another but God is in on it. It’s over in a
minute. It’s over with…We give it to God. And it’s over. That doesn’t happen in the world. In the
world, they shoot you or stab you. Over here, we say we’re sorry. We have so much to be
grateful for, so much.

Then in 2 Corinthians 12:9, not our strength. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. Vs. 10.
Knowing God is there and his righteousness is enough for me. These words are so beautiful. For
God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love, power and of a sound mind. I think I said it
earlier. I don’t know. But these are the things we can really be edified about. Just walking by
saying hello to somebody. Somebody is giving you a hug. Walking by and saying, how are you
doing? Did you have a good day? This is the Body. This is our family right here. People don’t go
through what we go through. The good things I’m talking about. All the things that the Body has
for one another. Not all of us can do great things but we all can do small things with great love.
It’s a beautiful saying. I got that from a book I read a long while ago.

In conclusion, I just want to read something. “Once we have crossed over into the land of God’s
promises, we face many enemies. There certainly will be challenges in our lives. But we have
the guarantee of victory.” Guarantee. Before we get to the end zone, we have the victory. “We
have the promise that Christ will never leave us nor forsake us. Feelings of rejection cannot
hinder us anymore. Each place the soles of our feet touch is ours.” Every place that we touch
with the souls of our feet are ours. “We have gone through the Red Sea, haven’t we? Through
the wilderness of carnality.” We’ve been there. “Over the Jordan River and now we are walking
in the land of God’s promises. Let’s accept those promises. Put our feet down and refuse to
return to the rejection and lies.” We refuse that.

God gives us all the courage and his strength and his promises that he has us covered. We are
covered by God, front, back, sideways, and back of us in case we fall backwards. In front of us,
beside us because he doesn’t want to look like he’s way higher than us. He wants to be right
beside us whatever we’re going through. He wants to be beside us not above us, not below us,
but beside us. So, I just wanted to say those words and let’s just bow in prayer. (prayer)

P. Scibelli –

He’s reading the Bible because when you have glasses and you use a magnifying
glass and you still can’t read cause the letters are too small. He’s reading. Turn in your Bibles to
1 Samuel 30:6-8. Thank you, Woody, for the “amen.” Aren’t those lights bright? Is it just me?
Bright lights. Bad eyes or bright lights? There’s the question.

There are three things said in this portion of Scripture. We could look at this and say okay,
recover all. Recover all. But there is a spiritual and scriptural formula for how to recover all. And
he gives it to us right here. It isn’t just “recover all” and see you later. Recover all. Get it all
together and catch you later. It’s very simply these three principles: #1. Encourage yourself in
the Lord. #2. Enquire, seek and pray to the Lord, and #3. By faith obedience pursue. Pursue.
I want to start with the first one which I think is very important and how vital it is for all of us to
encourage ourselves in the Lord. Even if no one else is doing it.

There has been a time in my life when it seems like there was nothing going on as far as receiving any encouragement. I learned a spiritual lesson to encourage myself in the Lord my God. We have to encourage ourselves,
build ourselves up. Jude 20-24, in a time in vs. 8 or 9 or 11 where there is the way of Cain and
the rebellion of Korah and there’s the gainsaying of Balaam, that they were told to build
themselves up. There were three trends in society. And there’s a world out there that is not
going – have you noticed the world is not going to encourage you? Have you noticed that? I
mean once in a while they will encourage you but it’s not really encouragement. It’s just to get
you to do more that will benefit them.

Hello? Get you to do more to benefit them. Someone will encourage you at your job and what not. What is the motive behind the encouragement? It says David – now listen to what David was faced with. First of all, his wife, his second wife, – whatever. I don’t want to get into that tonight. And his children were taken away by the
Amalekites. His whole family was taken away. Stolen. #2. The mighty men turned on him to
stone him. Your best friends, your army, your people have been with you for 25 years. They say
enough is enough. Let’s get rid of him as a leader. He lost his family. He lost his mighty men.
Very interesting. He lost his king, King Saul. He lost his best friend, Jonathan. He lost even his
self-respect. It seems like at one point he was so grieved he lost his mind. He just about lost
everything. I’m not praying that any of us come to that point although a few people here have!
I’m saying, in the middle of losing everything, he gets a promise from God without fail you will
surely recover all. Amen. Are you with me tonight?

You’re not like laid back on a Sunday night are you? Huh? Hello? Come on! I mean he encouraged himself in the Lord his God. Listen to this one. Simon, Simon. Satan has desired to have you that he may sift you like wheat.
The Greek language is amazing there. Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded you back for himself.
That’s what the Greek says. He wants you out of that kingdom and into his. Sorry, Satan. Can’t
happen. Can’t happen. Sealed by the Holy Spirit. Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you
to sift you like wheat. And I’m praying for you. And listen to this word, “when” you are
converted. Not “if” you are converted. Not I hope you’re going to be converted. But when you
are converted, strengthen your brethren. Amen. When. That’s edifying. That’s building him up.
That’s encouragement. You’re going to make it, Peter.

Peter had some interesting things happen in his life. Cutting a guy’s ear off. I don’t think anybody here would do something like that, would they? I’m looking at a few of you. Could be a possibility. Ivar. He might be able to
do that. Cut a guys ear off. He did all kinds of things. Everybody else is going to leave you. Not me. I will never leave you. Sorry about that. But you did it three times. You denied you knew me
three times. How to encourage ourselves in the Lord. This is so vitally important for our walk with God as
believers in this world. I got to encourage myself. There’s a couple ways that can happen. I can
be around people that are encouraging me and then I learn and develop an ability through the
Holy Spirit to encourage myself. Amen. Or I just read the Bible and I learn from God to
encourage myself in the Lord.

I was thinking I got the two greatest secretaries in the history of Christianity, Ulla and Pirjo. And
what a great missions office I got. It’s not I got it’s the ministry’s missions office. P. Gary
Groenewold. P. Renaldo Brown. Am I missing anybody? P. Duane George. Can you say amen the
two of you? Huh? You can hear me. It’s your son. Huh? He’s amazing. He’s amazing. Had him
with me for years in Uganda and in Ghana. What a pair we made. Let me tell you! We had to
just keep encouraging each other because it wasn’t happening – it wasn’t going so much
around us.

One day I looked out of a restaurant – we were sitting in a restaurant with our shoes off
because – you heard the story – we had our shoes getting shined by some school boys. Well,
guess what? The shoes never came back. Cause you can sell shoes. While we are sitting there
barefoot, the army starts to fight the police. There is a war on the streets, the army against the
police. I’m looking at him and going, what is going on? Here we are not only with no shoes but
look what is happening in the streets. He just started laughing and says, give me another cup of
tea! I’m like huh? We crossed over the huge lake that’s there. I can’t think of the name. what is
it, P. Eugene? Lake Victoria, a 20 hour boat ride. I hate boats, but there was no other way to get
to Tanzania but by boat. I wasn’t flying because you’re not getting me in one of those two seat
jobs. That when they flip upside down. I was in a plane one time and it was upside down. I
thought to myself, that’s the end of these kind of flights!

So, I’m taking a boat. And I’ll tell you me and boats. I’m like this, hanging onto the side. He’s
singing. He sang for ten hours. I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back. I’m like would
you stop? Enough is enough, okay? He’s smiling away. I’ve turned green. I’ve got another color
to my face. Things are coming out of me that I never expected would ever be there. He
encouraged me. I needed him to encourage me continually to go on. We need to encourage
ourselves in the Lord and just be around.

I love Kathy Ryan. I mean I think as long as I’ve known her, I don’t think she ever misses church
or evangelism. Anything like that. She’s very edifying, especially to me. She better be! She’s an
encourager. It’s not just encouraging people only with your words. I think about the Lynches
and how Pat and – let’s see. What’s your name again?! Jen Lynch. It actually almost slipped there for a minute. I’m really sorry. How they’ve been year after year after year pastor’s
secretary, working in the gym and with young people. Just their lives. They don’t have to say
anything. They just have to be people who live the life of encouragement. Amen. Are you with
me? Is anyone here tonight? Okay. Thank you. I just have to do a prayer check on that. Lorraine
Matulla. Stand up. Stand up. She’s an encourager. I’ve never heard a discouraging word from
her mouth. Hallelujah!

The Ellises. Look at the Ellises there. P. Fred and Leah Ellises. Stand up. I
mean they are so encouraging. Huh? She just allows him to travel to India. Sometimes! And
they’re encouraging. They’re Body life people, vision people. They love missions. They give.
They’re always in church. They’re a great encouragement to us.
So, I need to and you need to not only receive encouragement from other people but
encourage ourselves in the Lord our God. You know what I said to myself tonight before I came
down here? Nobody is a better preacher than I am. I’m sorry. If I don’t think like that – you
should say the same thing about yourself, okay if you are a preacher. I don’t want to get up
here and say, I don’t know if this is going to come out alright. I don’t know. How did I sound?
Did things come out the right way? Gee. Did I miss a verse? Did I say the wrong thing? No, we
need to encourage ourselves. Right, George Hayes. We encourage ourselves in the Lord our
God. I’m a great Christian.

Do you know what Nehemiah said in Nehemiah 6:3? The King James says, “I’m doing a great work.” It
doesn’t say – the word “doing” is not there. Nehemiah said I’m a great work. I’m a great work.
That’s what he said in the Hebrew. Say that to yourself. I’m a great work. The devil says you’re
no good. You mean nothing. You’re useless. You have nothing to give. That’s the devil, the
accuser of the brethren. That’s the old sin nature cooperating with him and that’s the world
believing it. And you know what? Three stupid liars. All three of them. Liars. Right? Are you with
me? I was thinking about the Colban’s. There they are right over there. What a couple. Amen!
P. Bob. He’s here. He’s available. They love. They are together. They are in the Body. The
Colban’s encourage themselves. And if they don’t, start tonight. Encourage yourself.

How can I encourage you if I am discouraging myself? Are you with me? The Bible says and you
know the verse, “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” If you don’t love yourself, how are
you going to love anybody else? Hello? I’m not talking about weird self-pride or self-love. My
wife and I went to a Persian restaurant the other day and I thought about you two. They told
me they always go there. Right Lynn? Wasn’t that great food? I encouraged the young man that
served us the food. That was amazing. I never had a meal like that before in my life cause it’s
the first time I ate Persian food. No, but it was great. I know you encourage your husband,
amen! Huh? Yes, you do and he encourages you. This is the key. It’s very easy to sit back and
pick out situations that are problems in people’s lives or their deficiencies or things that just are
not going right or how about love covering a multitude of sin and weaknesses.

Hallelujah! When we went to Africa – think about this. I know there’s other places. He’s always talking
about Africa. Build me up and just be quiet. I mean people are poor. The average person makes
$50 a month. There’s illiteracy, poverty, warfare, famine. There’s trouble on every side. What
do you think they need? Huh? What do you think people in Asia and Africa and poor people and
people that are down and out and uneducated, illiterate people need? “You need to get an
education, brother. You need to get more money. You need to get a good job.” You need this
and you need that. No, they need to be encouraged, amen. They need to be built up.
Do you know that our African churches and the poverty and difficulties you find there, yet
there’s 278 churches in Africa. You know why? Cause we go there because of the message we
have received from Jesus Christ, Dr. Stevens, P. Schaller and this ministry has always been one
of encouragement. Building us up.

We go out – we may come in like this. You come into some
churches and you go I’ve had a rough week, a rough day, a rough marriage and you go out of
the church like this. You get beat up instead of built up. If you come in like this, you should go
out built up. Amen. You should go out encouraged no matter what’s going on. You get
discouraged because you have nothing in your pocket to give. So what? Right? Pull some lint
out and put it in there and just pretend by the grace of God it’s going in.

Encouragement. Vital. So, key. And this is how – I was thinking about these things. How God
encourages us. He gives us the person of the Holy Spirit. Is that encouraging? He gives you
himself. That’s encouraging to me. He gave me his Word, his mind. That’s encouraging. He gave
me his Body. That’s encouraging. He gave me an eternal purpose. That’s encouraging. He gave
me a finished work. That’s encouraging. He gave me the love of God that is unconditional,
eternal, and personal. That’s absolutely encouraging. Look at how he’s encouraged us. Some
people will sit back and say, God doesn’t encourage me. Did you just hear what I said? He gave
you the Spirit, the Word, the Body, the purpose, the gospel, the finished work and his love. Got
that Woody? He’s encouraging us. This is what he’s done already. Already. If he never did one
more thing for me, I would be very thankful for what God has done. Amen. What more could be
done in the vineyard that hasn’t already been done?

School teachers in Christian schools. I’m not going to talk about other places. Encouragement.
Encouraging a student. I don’t think – don’t take this wrong- I don’t think I ever gave out an F in
my life and if I did, see me later. I’ll change the grade. I don’t give failures out. What am I going
to do? Am I going to judge or evaluate the capacity that God has given somebody as a student?
Talk to me.

By the way, I’m a four-year degree teacher, and I was a head master of a school. So, I know a
little bit about education. But what I cannot stand is when teacher’s belittle students and they
say things and make them feel small. They embarrass them in front of other students. That is
out of the question. Are you with me? We’re to be encouragers. I’ve been in the public school
system and I see what can happen to certain people. Do you know one time what one of my teachers did? He told me to bend over and kicked me down a flight of stairs. That was
encouraging. I’ll tell you what it encouraged me to do, flatten his tires. I wasn’t saved. Probably
would have done that if I was. I don’t know. That wasn’t very encouraging, right?

Somebody said to me today, how much longer are you going to keep doing what you’re doing?
Aren’t you kind of like getting up there in age? I didn’t do that. That would not be encouraging.
Don’t tell me about my age. What are you talking about? Who cares about that. I got to take
seven airplane flights starting tomorrow. I don’t care. I encourage myself in the Lord my God. I
can do this. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. My God shall supply all of
your need according to his riches in glory. I want to encourage myself and not say, here we go
again. This is going to be so long, so tiring, so difficult. You got to conferences with 15 countries
coming to the conferences with all kinds of people, massive amounts of people, a hundred
pastors will be coming.

What are you going to say to all of them? I don’t know. And I don’t care.
I’ll just say what God says, amen! How are you going to do that? How are you going to do that?
Isn’t that a lot? Aren’t you taking on too much upon yourself? Knucklehead. Encouragement.
We need encouragement. Amen. This is so key. I’m encouraging him to grow his beard longer.
Yes. Maybe you’ll laugh even louder, right? I don’t know what your wife is saying but I’m
encouraging you.

I’m encouraging the choir. Where is P. Steve Paragello? I changed his name. Instead of
Paragello I like Paragello (accent on the second syllable). That’s encouraging. Cause I knew a
Paragello. Isn’t he a great choir leader? Isn’t he a great Christian? Isn’t he a great pastor? Isn’t
he been faithful from New Jersey on down? Hallelujah? Can any good thing come out of New
Jersey? Take a look. Right over there. Hallelujah! Encouragement. Encouragement. “I think one
of the people in the choir is a little off key.” Shut up! You’re not helping anybody. You’re not
being key to anybody at all. Got that, Roland? There’s Roland League and his wife Isabelle. They
are an encouragement to me. And I travel and they’re there helping P. Steve Morello, great
friend of mine. Encouragement. You say, how come they’re going? Even if they just come to
encourage me, isn’t that enough? Hello? If they did nothing else but that, isn’t that enough? If
you do that in a church. What, do you have to do something? I’ll tell you what it is. You are
encouraged and you encourage others.

Maybe I come to a ministry and I find out it just isn’t happening. Something is wrong. The pulpit
is not encouraging at all. Be an encourager. Rather than pointing out the problem in a church or
in a person or in place of business or a family, lift up Christ. And let Christ point them upward
instead of you pointing at them, pointing at them to point them downward. Lift them up.
Believe the best. Remember P. Stevens used to always say that. Believe the best. Isn’t that
good? Hello? Believe the best. Say it. I’m a great Christian. You’re not even saying it convincing
enough. Come on. I’m a great Christian. I’m an awesome believer. My prayers reach the throne
of grace. Hallelujah! Why do you think God said, come boldly to the throne of grace where you will get grace and mercy in your time of need? Why? Come to the throne. But I’m a mess. I’m
weak. I’m a failure. I’ve sinned. Come boldly. You come boldly regardless of your condition.
Your condition is not even seen by God.

By the way, do you know what the Bible says? God’s eyes are too pure to behold sin. You tell
me what that means tonight at the rap? You tell me what that means? That means God cannot
let sin enter his mind otherwise he’s not the perfect sacrifice. “God saw that.” No, he didn’t.
“God saw that. God saw that.” I don’t know what kind of preachers we have in this world today.
All they want to do is “God saw what you did.” He saw what you did. He saw that evil. He saw
you shooting heroin. No, he didn’t. Can you imagine if everybody’s sin even in this room was
even in his mind? Wow. What an encouragement.

I have the mind of Christ. What an encouragement. I have eternal life. Say it. I got eternal life.
And I will never perish. Are you with me? I will never perish. No man can pluck me out of his
hand. That’s encouraging. That’s encouraging. He’ll pick me up when I fall down. All the
promises of God are yes and amen in him unto the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 1:18-20, all the promises
for me, for you. Are you with me? Don’t lose it now. It’s only 7:35. All the promises.
Look at the Cannon’s. See the Cannon’s there. Two amazing people. They encourage me. I get
encouraged just seeing their faces. Seeing their faces. Wow! That’s enough. You say some
people’s faces are – whatever. I don’t want to hear about that. Where is Atul Singh. Are you
there? Put your hand up. He always encourages me.

He’s never said a mean word to me because the first time he did, I punched him in the mouth. I’m just joking. I’m only joking. That wasn’t encouraging. No, he’s always encouraging. He’s an encouraging man of God. Are you
with me? Hello? You say, they might say it when you’re not around. I don’t care what they say
when I’m not around. I’m not there. That’s okay. Say whatever you want. But God hears it so
don’t worry about it.

Encouragement. I didn’t think anybody could play defense on the basketball court better than
me and to prove that – I don’t want to talk about hurting people. It’s the game, right Pat Lynch?
It’s the game. It’s the game. Encouragement. Encouraging people on a team, on a sports team.
Encouraging people in the classroom. Encouraging people at your job. You say they’re not
Christians. You don’t think they need encouragement? Unbelievers. Do you think anybody ever
says anything good to them unless they want something from them? No, they need to be
encouraged. Wow! That’s awesome what you do.

Children need it. Teenagers need it. Pastors need it. Do any of you think we are under any kind
of attack at all? Hello? He didn’t say, Thomas, Thomas, Satan has desired to sift you. He said
Simon, Simon. Simon was the leader. The demons are coming after the leaders more powerful
than anybody else. If you don’t believe that, you don’t know the Bible. They’re coming fast, hard, heavy and with the most intense attacks you can even imagine. We need to be what?
Don’t everybody come up to me because of the message tonight and start encouraging me. I’m
not asking for that. I’m just saying that P. Schaller needs to be encouraged continuously. Dr.
Stevens needed to be encouraged. I felt when I was in the ministry and he was here that it was
just my portion to encourage him. Great pastor. Awesome man of God. Great messages.
Powerful messages. Encouraging somebody that does a Bible study. Encouraging a leader.
Encouraging a school teacher. Just plain always doing what? Encouraging people. This to me is
so key.

Then he inquires of the Lord. And then God says when you are encouraged, you do what? You
pursue. I can’t pursue if I’m discouraged. I can pursue if I’m encouraged. I want us to pursue a
thousand churches. Does that sound reasonable? How many? A thousand churches. I want us
to be in a hundred countries not just eighty. And I’m not out after the numbers, but more
churches means more souls, right? Hello? More souls means more Bible college students and
then it goes on and on and on. This is amazing. We’ve seen this happen with 768 churches
around the world and having this as an operational base and it’s a place for people can be built
up. What? Built up.

How many times does it use the word “build” in the epistles to the Ephesians? So many times.
2:20, 22, 4:7, 4:10-12, 4:16, 4:29. 1 Timothy 1:3. All about Ephesus. God was edifying and
encouraging and building Ephesus. This is what we need in the last days. You think you need
more money? You think you need a better job? You think you need more – no. You and I just
need to be what? Encouraged. Be what? Encouraged. Encouraged in the Lord. Not in the flesh
but in the Lord. It seemed like David lost all. But you know what? Without fail, you will surely
recover all. I don’t care what you condition or situation is or what’s happening by sight or
experience, God made a promise you will sure recover all. Recover all.

We were with the Arman family on Face Time today in Malawi having a great time just building
them up and edifying them. Thank you, God. Help us, God. The Holy Spirit is called the what?
Comforter. Parakletos. Encourager. Strengthen. Comforter. The Holy Spirit. Releasing the Holy
Spirit in our lives to build us up and encourage yourself in the Lord, in the Spirit and then
encourage other people. Not flattery. Not anything other than the Holy Spirit encouraging.
Then we can pursue. We can fight the good fight. God has not given you a spirit of fear he said
to Timothy. We heard it tonight. But of love, power, and a sound mind. That’s encouragement
from Paul in the Spirit to Timothy. (Prayer)

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.