Relationships (Session #1 - Necessary & Possible)
Relationships • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 6 viewsNotes
Transcript
Intro
This week we are here to talk about relationships. We all come from various backgrounds and have different ideas about a lot of things, including relationships. My goal this week is not to convince you to agree with me. My goal is that you would:
• See and value relationships the way Jesus does.
• CHOOSE to walk out in HIS way of doing relationships.
• Change the world.
God’s Desire for Healthy Relationships
Relationships aren’t a small thing. When we look at the Bible, we see that relationships are a big deal to God. So much so that when Jesus was asked to give the greatest of God’s commands, He responds with this:
“Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
Jesus made it clear that God’s priority is relationship:
• Relationship with Himself: “Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.”
• Relationship with Others: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
I want to suggest something to you all: Every problem we see in the world is the result of us breaking these two commandments. Every problem in the world is a problem of relationships:
• Friendships
• Family
• Others/People different from us
• Romantic Relationships
• The way we relate to power
The Root of the Problem
All of these issues come back to a failure to love God (as He’s told us to love Him) and love people (as God has shown us to). Part of the issue here is that we have decided to swap out the ways that Jesus tells us to love for the way our culture tells us to love.
The Church’s Role
This is not just a world problem. Would you say that the church has always done the best job with this?
• The Crusades
• Salem Witch Trials
• Slavery
• Seeking power over kindness and love
• Abuses within the church
We have not prioritized relationships God’s way, and because of this, we have added to the problem the world has. This is the most important thing in the world—if we don’t get this, we add to the problem.
A Big Deal
This is a big deal. As people who have been redeemed by Jesus and made a new creation, we must be different. We are robbing ourselves and the world of the beautiful way of Jesus. If God’s greatest desires are relationship with us and right relationship between humanity, we must take this seriously and grow in our desire to do this His way, not the world’s.
Discussion Questions:
• What do you guys think? Do you want to do this God’s way?
• What areas has this been a struggle for you?
God’s Commands Have Purpose
God doesn’t give commands without a reason. He isn’t on a power trip. His law and direction are always from a place of love. These commands are given as a declaration by Jesus Himself that relationships are necessary—not simply as a command but as God’s provision for abundant life and fulfillment.
Relationships are Necessary
Things are always related to based on their value. Who is the most valuable being in the universe? God! Because of this, His thoughts, opinions, and actions are the most important. So, we relate to Him based on the ways He’s outlined for us to relate to Him because of His supreme or unchallenged value.
Why God Wants Us to Love Him
You reveal the path of life to me;
in your presence is abundant joy;
at your right hand are eternal pleasures.
He desires us to love Him not primarily for His own benefit but ours. By loving Him, the Author of life, we come alive and are most satisfied.
Why God Wants Us to Love Our Neighbor
-
Who is our neighbor?
Parable of the Good Samaritan - Luke 10:29-37
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’
“Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
“The one who showed mercy to him,” he said.
Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”
Our neighbors are not just the people who look like us, think like us, vote like us, are the same age as us, or believe like us. Our neighbor is anyone who reflects the image of God.
• Who reflects the image of God? (Everybody—Duh)
Value of People
So, that means our command is to love _____? But why?
This brings us back to the idea of value, right? If people have value, they are worthy of relating to.
• Money on the floor vs. Paper
• Baby on the floor vs. Cockroach
Two Reasons to Love People
God wants us to love our neighbor—or you could say have a right relationship with our neighbor—because:
1. We show that we represent Jesus and belong to Him.
“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
2. We show that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior.
“I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.
This is massive! This is not just a feel-good idea that the world came up with. It is not about shallow tolerance of people but sacrificial giving of ourselves to each other and the world for the sake of love. These are the instructions Jesus has given us to change our own lives, our families, and the world.
What Gets in the Way
If the world’s problems are so simple, why haven’t we fixed them? While the problem may be simple to diagnose, the solution requires us to look in the mirror and do things that aren’t fun or comfortable. While every problem is a relationship problem, the ingredients that lead to relationship problems are almost always what?
The Root Problem: Sin
Sin!
As we talked about last week, what is the root of all sin? Pride.
• Arrogant pride: “I’m better than because…”
• Inferior pride: “I’m not good enough.” / “I’m not important.”
Just as bad and a barrier to relationships as arrogant pride.
Humility vs. Pride
Pride is having a wrong concept of yourself in contrast to God and others. Humility is a correct assessment of yourself in contrast to God and others. Humility is simply the truth (Sober Judgment).
We can have confidence in our ability to do relationships right if we say yes to humility. If we operate in humility, it is impossible to have relationship problems because we will correctly value one another even amidst conflicting views. Our world needs this.
Discussion Questions:
• How do we see ourselves not operating in humility in our own personal relationships?
• How do we see our culture/society doing this?
Unity Requires Humility
Unity in a situation is corporate humility. We see in Scripture Jesus praying for unity. Unity is different from tolerance. It’s not just getting along or brushing things under the rug.
“I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you, and they have known that you sent me. I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”
Unity exists only if individuals in a group choose humility. In other words, unity is corporate humility. When I choose to walk in the reality of who God has made me to be, I will help cultivate humility.
Do you guys want to be a school that walks in unity? A church that walks in Unity?
We must choose humility.
What does this look like in our lives practically?
Appreciation for Differences
Another issue is our lack of appreciation for difference and variety. We are at a moment in history where we have pushed away and put down people that think differently than us. Whether it’s race, politics, theology, or religion, we have put up walls that have left our world divided and hostile towards each other.
Have we seen this affect the church? In what ways?
I have friends that have decided not to be my friends because of this. It breaks God’s heart.
Difference in Uniqueness
How does humility affect the way we view differences? God created different genders (2, lol). God created different ethnicities. God created nationalities. God created different personalities. God went crazy. If we view different as weird or, dare I say, inherently wrong, we will miss out on God’s good design. That doesn’t mean every difference is right—sin will always be sin.
Unity and Diversity in the Body
Diamond Analogy
For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink. Indeed, the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. And those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect, which our respectable parts do not need.
Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
If we are going to see all the beauty that is present in God, we must be committed to and appreciate the input of people who are different from us. We need each other. Humility is having the posture that everybody I ever meet will have something to teach me.
There’s nothing new under the sun. We aren’t inventing new ways to sin. Uniqueness is not found through selfishness.
Everybody I ever meet has something to teach me.
Summary
So we know that (REWORD AND RESTRUCTURE):
• God desires relationships.
• Value makes relationships necessary.
• Humility is the solution to the problem of relationships.
Relationships are Possible
Jesus has made relationship possible. While we were distant from God, Jesus died for us. Jesus has done the heavy lifting.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household,
God reconciles us to Himself and to each other, squashing hostility.
Grace is giving someone something they don’t deserve. Through grace, Jesus has bridged the gap between God and humanity, making it possible for us to have right relationships with both God and others. This grace extends beyond our relationship with God to our relationships with those around us.
This should be more compact with clear sections that Logos Sermon Builder will recognize. Let me know if there are any further adjustments you need!