Did you know that God is an encourager? Did you know that He comes alongside us to help, encourage, comfort and cheer? And then He calls us to do for others what He’s done for us.

December 1-2, 2018

Introduction:

ILL:  When my daughter Sally was about 5, she asked me to play with her.  She said, “Let’s pretend I’m a ballerina. I’ll dance for you, and you clap and say, ‘Wonderful!’”  My whole role in the game was to be her fan! “You’re wonderful!” And she is.

And the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.  Sally’s 7 year old daughter, Malya, danced in the Nutcracker this week.  Laina and I went to cheer Malya on. We’re still clapping and saying, “Wonderful!”  

Everybody needs a fan.  Everybody needs to be cheered on and encouraged.  And if we all need encouragement, we all have to be willing to give it.

One of my favorite sayings is, “If you see a turtle sitting on a fence post, you know he had help.”  The turtle might think he’s the hero, but he had help!  There was a hero-maker that helped him up on that fence post!

We are all turtles on fenceposts.  Each of us has gotten where we are because there were other people who were willing to be hero-makers, who were willing to come alongside us to help and e