The Life Of An Encourager

The life of an encourager

Romans chapter 12:1-12:8

Introduction-

Romans chapter 12:1-8

We are honored to have with us this morning the Girls Scouts.

We have a Daisy troop and a Brownie Troop.

Girl Scout Sunday was started so that the place where the Girls worship would honor and recognize them.

The Daisy Troop led by Mary Root meets in our building every week and we are glad to be a part of them meeting the needs of these girls.

Girl Scouts motto is “Be prepared” and the Girl Scout slogan is “do a good turn daily.”

Brownie motto is “Lend a hand”

That is what I want to draw out of these Scriptures I just read.

The Lord is directing us to be encouragers. All of us!

A kind word and a smile can change a person for life

Attitude adjustment turns hostile to caring.

Kind words melt a hardened heart

Encouragers can be defined as “someone who offers a word of encouragement to someone who has fallen or someone who stumbles.”

In the Greek, encourage means to comfort, to console, to strengthen.

It really means to offer courage.

At the time of Apostle Paul writing these words to the church:

They were under great persecution.

They were discouraged.

They were thrown out of their game.

They just needed someone to come along side of them and encourage them.

Illustration- (SermonCentral) You might have heard the story of the married couple asleep in bed on a stormy night who were awakened by a loud knock on the front door. The man crawled out of bed and grumpily went downstairs. When he opened the door he found a man dripping wet and obviously very drunk who said to him. “I can’t get my car started. Can you give me a push? To which the man of the house replied sharply, no, go and sober up and we will sort this out in the morning. He slammed the door and stormed upstairs. When he got back to bed and explained what had happened to his wife she was indignant and said to him, that was not a very Christian response. He could be in trouble and you have just sent him out into the storm for the rest of the night. Reluctantly the man got out of bed a second time and put on his coat and went downstairs. He figured he wasn’t going to get any peace until he did something for the man out in the rain. When he got to the front door the rain was stopping and he couldn’t see the man. He could hear a faint noise out in the front yard so he called out, hello? Are you still there? What can I do to help? To which the other man replied, could you give me a push? I’d be happy to if I could see you, where are you? I’m over here on your swing!

Here is what I am saying this morning-

maybe you’re here this morning and you could just use a push.

May be you’re here this morning and you could give someone else the push they need.

One study shows that 75 % of what people say is critical of someone else. That it takes 4 positives to offset one negative comment.

The day of please and thank you is quickly going away and an attitude of expectation is roamed upon us.

“Have it your way”, “Just do it”, “It is all about me” have replaced our ability to show compassion to each other.

Acts 13:15-

“The synagogue rulers sent word to them saying, brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak.”

We all need to learn to speak words of encouragement to others.

It is easy to discourage someone or put them down

But what about lifting them up?

If you have a message of encouragement please speak!

Ephesians 4:29-

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of our mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

Colossians 4:6-

“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Speaking words that build people up should be our goal.

If we have words of encouragement speak up- or….. don’t speak. Gotch you !

Illustration-

President Calvin Coolidge was known for not talking much. A women bet her friend that she could get Coolidge to speak to her. She went up to him and said, Hello Mr President, I bet my friend that I could get you to say three words to me. “You Lose” he replied and walked away.

Ann Landers once said- “The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven’t thought of yet.”