Building Genuine Relationships Through Prayer and Community

1. "But you couldn't show them. You were just telling them about it. Anyways, that worked in grade four. But it began a pattern in my life of putting on masks. So, you know, you get hurt. And we've all been hurt. And a very common response to that hurt, you know, I mean, some of you might have just really matured. You know, you process it with those that are close to you and that you love. And when necessary, you confront those that hurt you and that sort of thing. And you forgive perfectly with Christ. It's wonderful. But then the rest of us, we have all sorts of other ways that we deal with hurt. And one of the more common things that people do, human beings, is we build up walls to protect ourselves." [34:22] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "My point is, though, what I ended up doing is instead of building walls to protect myself, I actually built a prison that locked myself in. I was inside of a prison of my own making. Now you fast forward because you give your life to Jesus, and those things just all disappear. Right? Isn't that how it works? No. No. Yeah. Some of you know already, but it doesn't work that way. And it's the most wonderful part of the best journey of your life that lasts for eternity. You give your life to Jesus. Okay? So it's that. But this whole process of sanctification, though, takes time, change. It takes time, and we grow and become more like Jesus until the day that we see him face to face and we become like him." [34:56] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "I wonder though, how many people here today are in a room full of people. We're laughing together. We're worshiping. We're praying together. We love each other, but you're still living in prisons that you erected years ago to protect yourself. I don't think the Lord wants you living in a prison. That those prisons are surefire ways. To struggle with loneliness, anxiety. They are a breeding ground for addiction and a whole host of other dysfunctional things. But I think our series on being the church actually has the answer." [40:00] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "The church is actually the vehicle through which God is going to reveal his manifold wisdom to even the principalities in the heavenly realms. There is something he does through the church that reveals a part of him that nothing else had shown up until the church existed. That's what Paul is saying. So a very quick recap, parts one, two, and three, like very fast. In the beginning, we talked about church, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. After that, I preached a series on being the church and in part one, we talked about the ecclesia, the called out assembly of God, which is also called the family of God. So it's an assembly, a family gathering, it's a gathering. So we talked about viewing church as a family gathering. It has a completely different connotation and way of thinking when you look at passages about the church when you see it through the eyes of family." [40:57] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Do not neglect meeting together. Relationships seems rather basic, but relationships, if you think about, you know, Paul talks about the church being like a body. We've talked about it being a family. In either way, my members of my body all have a relationship together. They're attached together. But families are all about relationship, a specific kind of relationship, right? We know family relationships are different than other types of relationships. Same is true with the family of God. I know it's basic, but I think it has to be said, and we're relational beings. Whether introverted, extroverted, it doesn't matter. Without relationships, and good relationships, we suffer. Studies have even shown that loneliness increases your mortality rate." [43:30] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "So, meeting together wasn't optional. It was an essential part of being the church. So today, we're going to look at the importance of small group gatherings of believers. It's crucial, according to Scripture. But I also want to look at practically, you know, how they help us overcome some of the key problems we're facing in society and in the church today. moving to problems that the church is facing. Now, first off, problems the church is facing. I know, you guys probably want to be a part of a perfect church, and that doesn't exist. It never has. You know, often we want to go back to the way church was, right? Back to the Acts church. And I certainly would love that. That'd be amazing. Some of the things we read about in Acts are absolutely amazing. Absolutely incredible. So, who wouldn't want to be a part of that?" [48:24] (52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "Individualism and loneliness are linked, because I think expressive individualism, which is what's preached in our culture today, is actually linked to individualism and loneliness. And it's actually, at the core, responsible for a lot of the loneliness that we're experiencing today, because we're taught that it's all about you, do what's best for you. Well, a society that's built on people that do what's best for them is a society that becomes lonely. It was interesting when we're, you know, across the sea, it's very, very different, and people are thinking more… They don't think… They think less what's best for me and more what's best for my community. It's just an entirely different approach to how they view life. Sales, how you encounter people on the street, and so on and so forth." [51:28] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "We actually find out who we are best in the context of a relationship with God and a relationship with people. You guys can tell me a lot about who I am, right? That's why often those personality assessments, they say, do this yourself and then have someone close to you evaluate your answers. Yeah, they're often different. Yeah. Anyways, individualism, that's one problem. Problem number two, rising rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide. Now, who's to blame for that? I am not going to give the full answer. I don't actually know all of the nuances that are to blame, but I will name a couple of things, or at least we'll look at one thing that someone in our current culture says, because people are asking that very question. Who's to blame and what's the solution?" [54:46] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "Healthy churches, healthy churches, produce healthy families. Healthy families produce healthy societies. But none of those can prevent people from malfunctioning because we are all born with a sin nature. The real problem in society isn't pointed at any one specific group or organization. It goes right back to what we find in Genesis 3, the fall of mankind, sin. Any problem or solution that doesn't address that is off. Okay, let's look at problem number three. So, so far we looked at first problem was individualism and loneliness. That's one problem that we're seeing that's common in our society and church. Then we're seeing rising rates of anxiety, depression, suicide inside the church too, not just outside. So we're seeing it in both spots. And we also see the third one now is immorality and impurity." [58:51] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "The church offers the solution for all of the problems that we listed above in more ways than one. But one of the primary ones is actually through the relationships that we are called and commanded to grow and instill within the church body. Those relationships actually form the foundation upon which we can find healing and growth and be strengthened together. So, let's look at three types of relationships that we need if we're going to be the church. First one, and I've stolen, by the way, the idea of upward, inward, outward. I stole it from a guy named Mike Breen. He wrote about it in a couple of his books that I really enjoyed. But upward, the idea of upward. So, three directions of relationships. Upward, our relationship with Jesus." [01:07:19] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)