KEY PRINCIPLES FROM THIS MESSAGE:
“exhort” – from parakaleo [para = “from close-beside” + kaleo = “to call”) – to “make a call” from being “close-up and personal”; to “personally make a call”; refers to believers offering up evidence that stands up in God’s court.
People love to be made church “members”, but they don’t always accept the responsibilities that come with it.
The Best Encouragement – blog 4/28/23
The best encouragement sprouts from love; however, there must be substance to the encouragement we give (e.g., even a well-intentioned heart can give bad advice). There must be a basis for our argument as we attempt to inspire others, to change their perspective, to make a difference. There must be a direction we can point others in that turns them around, gets them rightly oriented to God and back into the sphere of righteousness, where peace and contentment await them.
When we point towards deliverance, faith ought to be at the end of our fingertip.
A pure, loving heart’s great desire is that others experience the Lord’s peace. It wants others to trust in God for salvation, regardless of circumstances – it wants others to have faith. In a sense, godly encouragement is an invitation given through a vessel on behalf of the Lord to enjoy the benefits of faith. Faith is, after all, at the center of godly encouragement, as it is, preeminently, what a righteous person lives by.
“The righteous shall live by faith.”
-Romans 1:17b; Galatians 3:11
The best way to encourage someone is to use the Word of God, for that is the vehicle God uses to impart faith to us.
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
-Romans 10:17
If we truly wish to encourage a fellow believer, our greatest tool is the Word of God. A righteous person (who lives by faith) will always defer to God’s ability to deliver a person in time of need.
Faith is the end goal; love is the motivation.
True Love In Action – blog 9/27/19
If there’s one thing the Bible teaches us about love, it’s that, if it is truly from God, it bears remarkable fruit in the lives of others. Do you see that last word in the previous sentence? Others. True love (I’ll refer to it plainly from here on out as simply “love”) expresses itself in a way that is never void of sentimental affection towards those around it.
“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”
— 1 John 3:16-18
Jesus Christ is the greatest illustration of true love in action. He was perfect; and yet He placed Himself under such intense pressure for the sake of others that He literally sweat blood (Luke 22:44)! He knew that He was born to die, and He chose to become a man anyway. “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative” (John 10:17-18a). His life is a testimony to God’s love.
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
— John 15:13
Others. Love always accounts for others. It protects, it serves, it lays down all that it has for others. True love is selfless. It seeks to heal, to edify, to make right. It is righteous always. It is the purest of all emotions, though it is never dominated by emotionalism. It is divorced from the world and yet it dives headlong into the lion’s den to share The Good News with it. It is fearless, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18a). It is bold before God, ready to sacrifice, willing to substitute itself to save another. It has no boundaries, no reservations about how to express itself. When called to action, it simply acts, transcending all human reason and venturing into the divine.