One Another: Encourage One Another

Take Your Pills: Follow the Prescription (the one another verses)

Mt 22:37-39 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
1 Thess 5:7 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

1. Focus on the good. Find opportunities to speak life into every situation or person you encounter. Phil 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Mt 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter,  and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
2. To encourage others well, you have to encourage yourself well first. Start with myself. Lk 6:45. Tell myself who God says I am.
3. Share your testimony. Rev 12:11 A testimony is us lending our faith to someone else.

One Another: Carry One Another's Burdens

Gal 6:1-2 - caught in sin, overtaken by sin
How do we carry each other's burdens in a way that it fulfills the law of Christ? Mt 22:37-39.
1. By first recognizing that all Christians sin. 1 Cor 10:13a; 1 Jn 1:8. Every one of us is vulnerable.
2. By allowing the Spirit to direct our steps. Gal 6:1 "you who live by the Spirit." Gal 5:16, 19-23a
3. By aiming to restore, not reprove. We don't have to restore others, but point them back to the ultimate restorer. 1 Pet 5:10
4. By not forgetting the grace of God we've each been and continue to be shown. Gal 6:1 "watch yourself, or you also may be tempted." Jn 8:7-11

One Another: Comfort One Another

2 Cor 1:3-11
1. God comforts us in all of our troubles. 2 Cor 1:4.
2. Affliction is a part of the human experience. 2 Cor 11:23-26; Jas 1:2-4
3. God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but he comforts us to make us comforters. 2 Cor 1:4. Comfort: to come alongside. God will come alongside us, even as we walk through the most painful things. He uses our pain, and wants us to comfort others.
4. Don't waste your pain. Acts 16:30-33. Paul was wounded, but he was praising Jesus and comforting others.
5. Our hope is in God. When you really need comfort, lean in to God. 2 Cor 1:8-9.
6. Put a little praise on your pain.

One Another: Forgive One Another

It's easy to love forgiveness when I'm the one being forgiven. It's hard to forgive others.

Reasons we give for not forgiving others:
1. I can't forgive, it's too big, too painful.
2. I need some time.
3. I'll forgive when they say they're sorry.
4. I can't forgive if I can't forget.
5. If I forgive, they'll just hurt me again.

Col 2:13-14, 3:5, 8, 12-13; our sins were forgiven through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.
Mt 18:21-35

1. There is no scorecard in forgiveness. We need to have a heart of forgiveness.
2. Unforgiveness with affect you.
3. Unforgiveness will affect everyone around you.
4. Unforgiveness will affect your relationship with God. Mt 6:14-15 If you forgive others, your Father will forgive you.
5. Because we've been forgiven much, we forgive.
6. Forgiveness is a command, not a suggestion.

One Another: Love One Another

Jn 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

How Jesus loved us:
1. Jesus Loved Conspicuously: (standing out so as to be clearly seen) Agape - love is an action, a choice (i.e. healing the sick, being a servant, stood up for the outcasts and spent time with sinners). Eph 5:1; 1 Jn 3:18; 1 Cor 13:1-3
2. Jesus Loved Sacrificially: Jn 3:16; 1 Jn 4:8. To love sacrificially the way Jesus loved, is often inconvenient.
3. Jesus Loved Unconditionally: Rom 5:8; Jn 6:32, 35; Lk 6:35; 23:34
4. Jesus Loved Deeply: The woman at the well - Jn 4; 1 Pet 4:8

What is the distinguishing mark of my life? What characteristic would people say about me?

Reconciliation

2 Cor 5:17-21
1. The definition of reconciliation: the restoration of friendly relationships, putting a broken relationship back together.
2. The need for reconciliation: Col 1:21, Eph 2:1-2. We are in desperate need of reconciliation with God due to our sin.
3. The process of reconciliation: 2 Cor 5:18-21. Reconciliation comes through Jesus' death and resurrection. He lived a life that we could never live and he died the death that we should have died. The righteousness of Christ was deposited into our account so that we could be reconciled to God. God takes all of the steps toward us to reconcile the relationship.
4. The result of reconciliation: 2 Cor 5:19 "He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though we were making his appeal to us."

Breathing Room: Don't Blink

Mt 25:14-26a
v14 The man going on the journey is Jesus, we are the servants.
v16-17 We want to use what God has given us well, and give it all back to God. v21,23 "We'll done, good and faithful servant!"
v18 I don't want to be the servant that buries my gifts, isn't prepared, and doesn't use them. v26 "You wicked, lazy servant!" I don't want Jesus asking me "What were you thinking?!"
Random thoughts from Ron:
1. Believe in Jesus.
2. Know that every day is a gift. Ps 118:24, Josh 24:15
3. Live for God. 1 Cor 10:31, Gal 6:14. Everything points back to God. Live my life with an eternal perspective, don't waste it.
4. Trust in God. Rom 8:28-30
5. Fight hard. 2 Tim 4:7
6. Rest often.
7. Be still. I need to stop and listen to God.