Sharing Bread: Let Your Works Bring You Praise Proverbs 31:25-31 Proverbs 27:2 Ruth 2:11-12 Ruth 3:11 John 15:4-5 1 Corinthians 4:7 Hebrews 6:10 Colossians 3:23-25 Colossians 3:17 05.22.20

LET YOUR WORKS BRING YOU PRAISE

²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. ²⁶ She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. ²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. ²⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ²⁹ “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” ³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. ³¹ Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. Proverbs 31:25-31 (NIV)

² Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips. Proverbs 27:2 (NIV)

¹¹ Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband--how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. ¹² May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” Ruth 2:11-12 (NIV)

¹¹ And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character. Ruth 3:11 (NIV)

⁴ Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. ⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5 (NIV)

⁷ For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? 1 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV)

¹⁰ God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. Hebrews 6:10 (NIV)

²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, ²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. ²⁵ Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. Colossians 3:23-25 (NIV)

¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17 (NIV)

BUTTER

“All work is sacred work for the child of the King. There is to be no difference between the secular and the sacred. The believer brings the glory of God and the sweet aroma of Jesus to every job – every encounter - working wholeheartedly as unto the Lord – not for man - through the achieving power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. All jobs from motherhood to medical to janitorial to legal to businessman to student to server to whatever – makes no difference the “what” rather the motivation behind why we do what we do which is to bring God all glory. It is His desire for us to work and take care of His world – just as He told Adam before the fall – and bring the Good News to others in our spheres through both our actions and words. This is for our ultimate good btw, satisfying both heart and soul. We live our lives for an audience of One and our goal is to hear a ‘well done good and faithful servant.’” BHY

“We are intended to live with an eye fixed on him. His desires for us. His pleasure in us; which, praise God is sealed by the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. We’ve been accepted before God, he’s called us his children as we saw in John 1. So we live for him alone. Why would we live for anybody else? Sure, live for others in the sense of wanting to love others and wanting to point others to God, but in that, our concern is not what they think about us. Our concern is what they think about God. We are intended to live with eyes fixed on the glory of God, not on glory that comes from people.” David Platt

“God can work wonders if He has a suitable man. Men can work wonders if they let God lead them.” E.M. Bounds

“Work designed for eternity can only be done by the eternal Spirit.” A. W. Tozer

“Every act of kindness and compassion done by any man for his fellow Christian is done by Christ working within him.” Julian of Norwich

“Culture that is fixated on stardom misses the rising sun of extraordinary people doing holy, ordinary work….The soul was never made to carry the weight of Fame. Fame can only be carried by the One who could carry the weight of the world on that Cross.”   Ann Voskamp

“Daily I’m given the opportunity to recognize the gift of obscurity, trusting Christ is doing invisible kingdom work in the stairwells of my everyday life.”   Emily P. Freeman

“Joy, not grit, is the hallmark of holy obedience. We need to be light-hearted in what we do to avoid taking ourselves too seriously. It is a cheerful revolt against self and pride. Our work is jubilant, carefree, merry. Utter abandonment to God is done freely and with celebration.”   Richard Foster

“The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the prideful self-satisfaction of a past experience, but is not working that experience out in his everyday life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it shows in your life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent or self-gratifying; that belief came from the pit of hell itself, regardless of how beautiful it may sound.” Oswald Chambers

“Though salvation is not by the works of the law, yet the blessings which are promised to obedience are not denied to the faithful servants of God. The curses our Lord took away when He was made a curse for us, but no clause of blessing has been abrogated. We are to note and listen to the revealed will of the Lord, giving our attention not to portions of it but to ‘all these words.’ There must be no picking and choosing but an impartial respect to all that God has commanded. This is the road of blessedness for the Father and for His children. The Lord’s blessing is upon His chosen to the third and fourth generation. If they walk uprightly before Him, He will make all men know that they are a seed which the Lord has blessed.” Charles H. Spurgeon

“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

HEART SAVOR