Refreshing Others Refreshes Proverbs 11:25 Proverbs 11:17 Luke 6:38 James 2:14-17 Matthew 6:1-4 Matthew 22:36-40 04.24.15

REFRESHING OTHERS REFRESHES

BREAD

25 A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.  Proverbs 11:25 (NIV)

17 A kind man benefits himself, but a cruel man brings trouble on himself.   Proverbs 11:17 (NIV)

38 “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”   Luke 6:38 (NIV)

14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.   James 2:14-17 (NIV)

1 “Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”   Matthew 6:1-4 (NIV)

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV) 

BUTTER

“You would often find that in trying to water others you gained instruction. Go talk to some poor saint to comfort her, and she will tell you what will comfort you. Oh what gracious lessons some of us have learned at sick beds! We went to teach the Scriptures; we came away blushing that we knew so little of them. We went to talk experimental truth, and we found we were only up to the ankles while here were God’s poor saints breast-deep in the river of divine love. We learn by teaching, and our pupils often teach us. You will also get comfort in your work. Rest assured that working for others is very happy exercise. Comfort God’s people and the comfort will return into your own soul. Watering others will make you humble. You will find better people in the world than yourself. You will be astonished to find how much grace there is where you thought there was none, and how much knowledge some have gained, while you, as yet, have made little progress with far greater opportunities. You will also win many prayers. Those who work for others, get prayed for, and that is a swift way of growing rich in grace. Let me have your prayers, and I can do anything! Let me be without my people’s prayers, and I can do nothing. You will thus be a blessing to yourselves. In watering others you will get honour to yourselves, and that will help to water you by stimulating your future exertions.”  Charles H. Spurgeon

“But when the psalmist said, ‘All my springs are in you,’ he meant that all his innermost resources were found in His ever-flowing and overflowing Lord – all his courage, all his joy, all his resilience, all his optimism, all his hope, all his love, all his wisdom, all his patience.  The Lord Jesus is the source of that which refreshes our personalities and of all that makes our personalities refreshing.”   Robert J. Morgan 

“What is more elevating and transporting than the generosity of heart which risks everything on God’s word?”   John Henry Newman

“It is not the business of the servant to decide which work is great, which is small, which important or unimportant – he is not greater than his master.  If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider ‘not spiritual work’ I can best help others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love.”   Amy Carmichael

“God employs His people to encourage one another.  We should delight that God usually works for human beings with other human beings.  It forms a bond of friendship, and being mutually dependent on one another, we are fused more completely into one family.  Work to help others, and especially strive to encourage them.  Talk cheerily to the young and anxious inquirer, lovingly try to remove obstacles out of his way.  When you find a spark of grace in the heart, kneel down and blow it into a flame.  Leave the young believer to discover the roughness of the road by degrees, but tell him of the strength which dwells in God, of the sureness of the promise, and of the charms of communion with Christ.  Aim to comfort the sorrowful, and to animate the hopeless.  Speak a word in season to him who is weary, and encourage those who are fearful to go on their way with gladness.  God encourages you by His promises; Christ encourages you as He points to the heaven He has won for you, and the Spirit encourages you as He works in you to will and to do of His own will and pleasure.  Imitate divine wisdom, and encourage others according to the Word.”   Charles H. Spurgeon 

“He (Bonhoeffer) felt that what was especially missing from the life of Christians in Germany was the day-to-day reality of dying to self, of following Christ with every ounce of one’s being in every moment, in every part of one’s life…Christ must be brought into every square inch of the world and the culture, but one’s faith must be shining and bright and pure and robust.”  Eric Metaxas

HEART SAVOR

• ·       As I refresh others, I am refreshed.
• ·       I cannot out give God.
• ·       I am to live my life for an audience of One - 9 For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. 2 Chronicles 16:9 (NIV)