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Nov 17, 2024

We Live or Die By Encouragement

We Live or Die By Encouragement

Passage: Proverbs 12:18

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: General Topic

Keywords: joy, word, life, healing, encouragement

By it we grow, persevere, and recover. Those who offer it are like skilled surgeons, excising what’s necrotic and fostering healing. We underestimate its power and its necessity. We’re talking about encouragement. Among the many words of wisdom in Proverbs we find how it must be sought and shared as often as necessary.

 

CENTRAL TEXT:  Proverbs 12:18, 25; 14:10, 13; 15:4, 23 (NET)

Prov. 12:18 Speaking recklessly is like the thrusts of a sword, 
but the words of the wise bring healing.

Prov. 12:25 Anxiety in a person’s heart weighs him down, 
but an encouraging word brings him joy.

Prov. 14:10 The heart knows its own bitterness, 
and with its joy no one else can share.

Prov. 14:13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, 
and the end of joy may be grief.

Prov. 15:4 Speech that heals is like a life-giving tree, 
but a perverse speech breaks the spirit.

Prov. 15:23 A person has joy in giving an appropriate answer, 
and a word at the right time —how good it is!

 

PREPARATION:   Psalm 27:1, 13-14

LEADER:  The LORD is my light and my salvation; 
whom shall I fear?

ALL:  The LORD is the stronghold of my life; 
of whom shall I be afraid?

LEADER:  I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD 
in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD;

ALL:  be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the LORD! 

 

PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH Matthew 12:9-21

LEADER:  He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

Matt. 12:15   Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all 16 and ordered them not to make him known. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:

Matt. 12:18   “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. 

19 He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;

20 a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench,  until he brings justice to victory;

21 and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”

 

CONFESSION OF SIN:  

LEADER:  Beloved, let us confess our sin to God.

ALL:  Father of Mercies, we are a mystery to ourselves. But not to You.  We often think ourselves self-sufficient. But You do not. We seek to find our stability in what is shifting sand. We live by lies we tell ourselves and forsake the grace that could be ours. Forgive us for looking for strength in where it is not found. Forgive us for holding back the words from others in need of courage and strength. Help us hear your encouragement and believe it, that we may be for others Your Voice, Your Strength.

 

ASSURANCE OF PARDON:   1 Thessalonians 5:10-11

LEADER:  For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

ALL: Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

 

BENEDICTION: Ephesians 3:14-16, 20-21

LEADER: For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever..

 

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES

  •  1 Thessalonians 5:9-11

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. Can you remember a time when someone said something you desperately needed to hear? Are you willing to share what it was about? Why did it matter? How did it affect you?

  2. What from these words of wisdom do we learn about the heart? About what a good word spoken at the right time can do?

  3. Why might offering encouragement be as joy-giving as the one who receives it?

  4. What’s difficult about receiving encouragement? What’s difficult about offering it?

  5. What are the most fundamental encouragements we have from Christ? What is a time when one of his encouragements stabilized or healed something broken in you?

  6. How could it become a new habit for you to offer to others?

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

 

 

 

QUOTES  

  • What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.
    - Thomas Cranmer
  • Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.  
    C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
  • Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
    - Ian McLaren

  

BOOKS / DOCS