May 24, 2026

Do you have someone in your life who speaks truth into you — and someone you're doing the same for?

Pastor Dave's sermon begins at 19:12 min into the video. The music “Jesus Messiah", "His Mercy Is More", "Holy, Holy, Holy!", and “Goodness of God” are licensed under CCLI Copyright #2723035 and Streaming Media #22024223 licenses.

Pastor Dave continued his series on the ‘One Anothers’ of Scripture this week, drawing from Colossians 3:12–17 and 1 Thessalonians 5:11. The message was a warm but direct challenge: followers of Jesus are not meant to do life alone. We are called to community — and that means deliberately teaching, admonishing, and encouraging the people around us.

1. Start with the Character of Christ - Before anyone can teach or correct someone else, Pastor Dave said, we need to check our own heart first. He pointed to Colossians 3:12–14, which calls believers to put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, and longsuffering. That phrase "put on," he explained, is intentional — it means to be as deliberate about developing those character qualities as you are when you get dressed in the morning. He had us chuckling when he added, "Some of you men, I know, stood at the closet thinking, 'I don't have anything to wear.'"

He got personal by recalling his mother's well-meaning but sometimes sharp tongue: "You know, Mama, the problem is I don't feel much love. I'm not denying you're saying the truth. I just don't feel much love in that." He's met plenty of people with deep theological knowledge who don't have much care for people, and he was direct: "You can be really right about your theology and still be really wrong in your activity with others."

2. Let the Word Dwell in You Richly - The foundation for all of it, Pastor Dave said, is Colossians 3:16 — "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." That means letting the message of Christ fully take up residence in your thinking, emotions, and daily choices. When the Word is genuinely living in you, it will overflow naturally into the lives of others.

He encouraged everyone to watch for what he calls "nuggets" — those light-bulb moments when a truth suddenly clicks during a sermon or personal reading. "Have you ever thought that nugget quite possibly was given to you so that you can share it with someone else?" Sharing that moment over coffee with a coworker, he said, is teaching one another in its simplest form — no pulpit required.

3. Encourage, Comfort, and Build Up - Moving to 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Pastor Dave unpacked the call to encourage one another. The Greek root behind "encouragement," he noted, is the same word as Paraclete — the name for the Holy Spirit, the Comforter who comes alongside. "When you and I encourage one another, we are being the hands and feet of Jesus literally." He walked through a list of powerful phrases — "I believe in you," "You're making a difference," "I see Jesus in you" — and followed with practical actions: show up, listen, pray with someone in the moment, and give the one thing no one can manufacture more of. "When you give somebody time," he said quietly, "you're giving them the one precious commodity you can't replace."

He shares names of people who encouraged him at key moments in his life and proves that a few well-chosen words can change someone's trajectory forever.

Pastor Dave ended by asking everyone to reflect on five personal questions from the bulletin outline (see YouTube description) and to find someone this week to teach, encourage, and build up.