THE POWER OF POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS

6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Follow the Lessons and Applications from Timothy’s example:

Philippians 2:19–20 NASB95

19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 20 For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.

Timothy shows Paul’s teaching in action.

Philippians 2:1–5 NASB95

1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

The things you must do to develop and be in healthy relationships.

I must give and receive encouragement. (v. 19; v. 1)

Ephesians 4:29 NASB95

29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

a. Work at solving problems, don’t become a problem..

Words have a powerful impact.

b. Don’t fall into the pattern of complaining.

Philippians 2:14–15 NASB95

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing; 15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

2. I give and receive comfort. (v. 20; v. 4)

One of our members had an emergency appendectomy. People checked on him. Randy and Amy Gregory stopped by to give them a basket of comfort food and goodies. He shared in Experiencing God, hey we’d been in a large church for years and no one checked on us or just dropped by a basket. That really gave us comfort.

Don’t just go to church be the church. Be people of comfort.

Be open and honest about your troubles.

Just recently, I met with another brother over breakfast. We prayed for each other. I shared something on my heart that troubled me and I just couldn’t seem to find a solution to it.

Then I shared with the prayer group on Sunday Night Experiencing God. They listened to me and joined me in prayer. Things didn’t come together right away. In fact, I really struggled. But then there was a break through.

Don’t be afraid to rely upon others.

Be alert for opportunities.

Pastor Pedro

Give and recieve motivation.

Richard Campbell rented a gym so he could help me get ready for basketball tryouts.

3. Commit to the time and energy habits of belonging.

Hebrews 10:24–25 NASB95

24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

There has been a movement away from valuing the Body of Christ. You know if my hand said, hey foot, I don’t need you any longer and I’ve got a gig with these folks called the Adam’s family. They’ll call me thing. You’d know it was a joke.

Same thing if the lung said, I don’t need you heart. I’ve got to get more breathing room. You’d go no way you will last long.

Well it’s the same spiritually. You are not the Body of Christ on your own. In fact, just like the physical body needs the parts to work together to live, in order for you to live positively in Christ, you need the other parts of the Body. You can check out Rom. 12 and 1 Cor. 12 (and note right after the Body chapter, Paul goes into love. You can go to church without really loving, but you can’t really love God’s way without being part of the church.

Today, we will give you an opportunity to connect. We are making it easy for you. We have several life groups for you to join at different times and days as well as Sunday.

Because I know it’s vital you connect, I want everyone here and online to sign up for one that works for you.

You may say, “Well, I can’t make it EVERY week.” That’s OK. You have work, family commitment, a special event. But when you can attend go.

Let’s be honest here, you need to anchor yourself in a small group. You need to have people who know you by name. They’ll be there if you have emegency surgery. You will start to build trust. You need to be able to give and receive comfort. You need to get out of the fast food mentality about church.

Paul and Timothy had invested time and energy in one another. They passed that on to the church at PHilippi.

You need a place to give and receive encouragement.

So sign up at the tables, scan the QR codes, or go online with the church center app.

But today, you need to connect.

Commitments:

I will look for God working around me and seek to join Him by encouraging and comforting someone this week.

I sign up for a Small Group/LifeGroup. You can do that in the Foyer.

I will pray that Easter will connect many people with Jesus and His church.

I will start on Next Week’s Sermon, the Power of Positive Service, by stuffing Eggs this afternoon.

Don’t Set yourself up.

Don’t Settle.

Don’t think you are being helpful

Don’t cast your pearls before swine.

You are not helping them.

You are not helping yourself.

Back in the thirteenth century, the German king, Frederick II, conducted a diabolical experiment intended to discover what language children would naturally grow up to speak if never spoken to. He thought it would be German. Some things are just obvious, right? So King Frederick took babies from their mothers at birth and placed them in the care of nurses who were forbidden to speak in their hearing. But a second rule was imposed, as well: the nurses were not allowed to touch the infants. To his great dismay, Frederick’s experiment was cut short, but not before something tragically significant regarding human nature was revealed. As you may have guessed, the babies grew up to speak no language at all because they died. In the year 1248, an Italian historian named Salimbene di Adam recorded, with an air of scientific observation, “They could not live without petting.” The babies literally died for want of touch. Astounding! Modern medicine calls this phenomenon, “failure to thrive.” For some reason, we humans flourish under the influence of love and we gradually die without it. The implications of this fact are huge. Consider the research of Dr. Dean Ornish. In his national best seller, Love and Survival, Ornish presents study after study demonstrating that love is a chief influence for mental, emotional, and even physical health. On page 29 he summarizes the unexpected message of the rapidly accumulating body of data: “Anything that promotes feelings of love and intimacy is healing; anything that promotes isolation, separation, loneliness, loss, hostility, anger, cynicism, depression, alienation, and related feelings often leads to suffering, disease, and premature death from all causes” (Dean Ornish, Love and Survival, p. 29). Modern science is now proving through controlled studies that human beings are literally engineered for love. We are made for love, as if our DNA contains the message, “You must love and be loved in order to survive.”

The studies that René Spitz conducted in the 1940s were the first to show more systematically that social interactions with other humans are essential for children’s development. Spitz followed two groups of children from the time they were born until they were several years old. The first group were raised in an orphanage, where the babies were more or less cut off from human contact in their cribs, or where a single nurse had to care for seven children. The second group of babies were raised in a nursery in a prison where their mothers were incarcerated. The mothers were allowed to give their babies care and affection every day, and the babies were able to see one another and the prison staff throughout the day.

At age 4 months, the state of development of the two groups of babies was similar; the babies in the orphanage even scored a higher average on certain tests. But by the time the babies were 1 year old, the motor and intellectual performance of those reared in the orphanage lagged badly behind those reared in the prison nursery. The orphanage babies were also less curious, less playful, and more subject to infections. During their second and third years of life, the children being raised by their mothers in prison walked and talked confidently and showed development comparable to that of children raised in normal family settings. But of the 26 children reared in the orphanage, only 2 could walk and manage a few words. Since the time of Spitz’s pioneering study, many other experiments have shown what catastrophic effects sensory and social deprivation at certain critical periods in early childhood can have on children’s subsequent development.

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THE POWER OF POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS

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