Building Three-Dimensional Relationships in Christ

1) "We are blessed with what we have here. And I'm very grateful for you guys and the contributions that you give to making this. This church feel like a family for me. So, thank you for that. And thank you to the many of you that I don't get to thank personally. What you do matters. Each part of the body matters. It matters to me. It matters to the rest of us in here. We all like to be able to just show up and have a nice place to sit and all that stuff, but it matters most, and most importantly to God. That's what he's called us to. He said, the church, ephesians 310 is his body, through which he was going to reveal the manifold wisdom of God, not just in the earthly realms, but even in spiritual and heavenly places. Amazing." [34:35] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "If we could be really good at one thing, if you could get one thing right, pursuing that would be the right, would be the right focus of your life. But there's other relationships that matter, and that's what we're going to be talking about today. In fact, we're going to go right back to a sub point I had last week. I talked about the inward, sorry, the upward, the inward and the outward relationships that we are, that we are supposed to have within the church. And Jesus modeled that. And that's where we're going to start today. We're going to go back to that. And I didn't come up with those, those terms. I actually took them from Mike Breen. He's written a lot, so I might not be presenting them in the same way he did, but I love the idea because it makes it clear sometimes, sometimes for lack of clarity, we just kind of, okay, love God, love people." [37:21] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "Jesus did say this would be the thing that you'd be known for, not your perfection and your ability to accomplish great things, because he could have said that's what you'd be known for, your ability to accomplish great things. I'm going to empower you to do that. He does say, we will do great things, but that's not what you're going to be known for. What we're called to be experts in is not perfection. It's love. That's what we're called to be experts in. You will be known by your love. And so it's important for us to know that love scripturally, because it matters what the Bible says and what Jesus modeled is a three dimensional or a three directional type of relationships that we're supposed to be pouring into love. First one upward, then inward. Inward, just meaning my family, my church family, my friends, I need those intimate relationships where I'm. Where I am known and I am able to know others." [38:30] (57 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "Three kinds of relationships. Prioritize being given to the relationship with God. But then you see him pouring his life into and doing life with, allowing himself to be known and knowing these twelve at a different level than all the crowds. But yet he had margin. There was space. He still had room in his life to then give to the crowds. He had something for the crowds, too, in all three directions. Okay, so church is God's family. It's a family of God. I'm gonna keep emphasizing that because we belong to each other, we belong to the church, we belong to God. But when I say that, sometimes it feels cringy because it feels institutional. It's not supposed to be like that. It's supposed to be family, right? Me and my kids, I think of them and I'm like, oh, we belong to each other. I never feel cringey on that. It's family. We're family. We belong to each other." [47:52] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "If you are missing the upward, probably the word that will define your life is powerless. You're disconnected from the power source. I mean, that's. John talks about that. I'll get to that one in a moment. Jesus modeled. Truly, truly. I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself unless he sees the Father doing it. For whatever the father does, the Son does. Also, Jesus modeled that our doing in this life comes first out of the upward relationship with God. There is that directional. So that's where our power source comes from. And I don't like I use the word powerless, but I hesitated on it only because I'm really trying to get this thing idea of relationships entrenched in us. When we think about our faith and when we think about church and when we think about God's mission, and powerless doesn't really lead to relationships." [49:27] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "We don't have time to get into that, but believe in him. But we love him and we obey him, but it all comes from that center on him. He saves us, he redeems us, he empowers us. He will be the one that allows you to get to know him, but he won't force you through the door. He will invite you into a relationship with him. So let's do some reflection. We have three reflection times today. First one, is it up there? These are the questions I want you just ask yourself if you want to write it down. You can. Or write down your answers, or you can just think about it. They're written in the personal. Do I know Jesus? If you do not, today is the day you can give your life to him. You don't know how you can talk to me or talk to any one of our ministers here afterwards. Do you hear God through Bible and prayer? Do you make time for this? Am I living in the power of the Holy Spirit?" [52:26] (91 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "We need each other. It's biblical. Confess your sins to one another and be healed. We talked about that last week. So Jesus prioritized the twelve. He totally did. Well, what's he doing with the twelve? That's different than what he did out here? I mean, he taught the crowds, but he didn't have one on one conversations. He walked with the twelve. He would set them up for bizarre, like life lessons. Sometimes that would trip them up and ask them questions. And he got into their I lives and they were able to ask him close questions and they, they got to know him and he knew them. Like, I mean, he's God, he already knows them, but they were known and they got to know each other, right. It's pretty powerful. But then what do we see as he goes into a deeper trial? He takes from the twelve, he has three. He takes the three aside. Then on the cross, what's he doing? He's taking care of another inward relationship, his mom. He takes out of the three, John, one of his best friends, and he says, john, take care of my mom." [01:01:08] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "We are called to something greater. We are called to be a part of his family. This is the family he called church ecclesia. This called out assembly, his family gathering, that he was going to use a bunch of broken people, us, to display the manifold wisdom of God on the earth, in the heavenly realms and to the spiritual beings. There was something he was going to show them through us and the way we lived that they could not see without it. They were going to see his brilliance. And only God could do what he's doing. So you might feel safe and comfortable if you avoid this one, and you can live that way. But I would argue that you will fail to fulfill the purpose for which you are created. And I think even if you feel safe, that leaves a hole inside that gnaws at you, that makes you want to drown your evenings with media. Or not think about it, because you don't want to think about what I might have to do. You just want to escape that. So don't let's engage it." [01:17:17] (73 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)