Built for Family: Finding Godly Community and Belonging

Some of the translations say, so a friend sharpens the countenance of a friend or sharpens the face of a friend. And I always like, what does that mean? And I'll explain it here. These two words for friend are not the same word in the Hebrew. They're two different words. So the first one says, so a friend, that's the word ish, which means a man or a person. Okay? The second word is the word panim, which means to get in someone's face. So as iron sharpens an iron, sow a friend can get in the face of their friend. Do you have any friends that can get in your face? It's an interesting way to it means basically, it means to say, hey, grab your cheeks, what are you doing? That kind of that's what that word means. It's it's a word that that is that is unique. A piece of iron can sharpen a piece of iron, but when it does, it there's striking, there's friction, there's sparks. It's it's pretty it's pretty dramatic. Right? It's pretty dramatic. And and how many of guys have some iron sharpened iron friends? Anybody have those? If you do, you should be so grateful for them. How many have butter knife friends? [00:43:15] (68 seconds)  #FriendsSharpenFriends

Don't let offenses or disappointments cause you to separate from church or your Christian friends, but do be quick to forgive always and reconcile if possible. I know that's a lot of words. I'm gonna read it again. Don't let offenses or disappointments cause you to separate from church or your Christian friends. Do be quick to forgive and reconcile if possible. That's part of what it looks like to live in family, doesn't it? Forgiveness has to happen because here's the thing. Satan in Revelations 12, it says Satan's full time job is to accuse you. He's gonna accuse he's the accuser of the brethren, which means he's gonna accuse God to us, us to God, and then us to each other. [00:47:02] (44 seconds)  #ForgiveAndReconcile

what happens? I'll have to I'll walk up the stairs to one of my boys' rooms and I'll be like, hey, I am sorry I yelled at you. Will you forgive me for losing my temper? Because I have to be the example. And what I said might have been true, but how I said it in my tone and my my the anger was not okay because we're called to speak the truth in love. [00:50:07] (23 seconds)  #SpeakTruthInLove

And it's easy to neglect Christian community. It's easy because there are so many other things trying to demand priority in your life. Isn't it true? So many other things. And God's calling us to to to get into spiritual family. And the enemy listen. The enemy doesn't have to get you to sin. He just has to get you isolated. And he doesn't he's not gonna work. If if you've been a a follower of Jesus for a long time, he knows it's not gonna work to knock on your door with a with a tail and a pitchfork and be like, hey. Here's some here's some pornography. Would you just go ahead and take all this? You're like, no. Like, he's not gonna show up a blatant sin. I'm like, hey, here's some drugs at your front door. But he is gonna say, like, hey, you don't need to go. [00:52:20] (40 seconds)  #IsolationIsTheEnemy

On the flip side, I have seen a lot of good hearted with good good good hearted gifted Christian people that slowly begin to isolate themselves, maybe because they were unwilling to give up some things, maybe an unhealthy relationship, or they were unwilling to be to have the courage to step out and connect and be in a local church and in in a community of believers, I've seen those people fall away over and over and over again. And it's a tragedy because they were good hearted people, good intentions. Right? Great gifting, had great purpose and and potential for the Lord, and they just kinda fade away into the darkness. And then you see them, you don't even hardly recognize them. And it's a tragedy. It breaks my heart because they separated from the body of Christ. [00:55:16] (46 seconds)  #StayConnectedDontFade

with carrying a huge burden on your own. See, most people don't quit the hike suddenly. They quit it slowly over time. Most people don't quit walking with God suddenly. They quit by wandering away slowly over time. And that's why God calls us to do this because, listen, the church is supposed to be a people, a family that redistributes the weight. They're supposed to be a the people that can come alongside you and say, hey. I notice when you're falling behind. They notice when you're when you're down, when you're not doing well, and they say, hey. Let me carry that for a while. [00:58:02] (33 seconds)  #ShareTheLoad

So it's important to make these steps even when you even when life is going good because there'll be a time when life isn't going so good. When life's going good, you might find someone else that you can carry a little bit of their burden. And when life's not going so good, you need to be humble enough to let someone help carry yours. [01:00:10] (20 seconds)  #HumbleToBeHelped

That takes humility, doesn't it? Because a lot of us think we can do it on our own. It's the American way. We're so independent, but it's not the kingdom way. Never was. It's not God's way. See, God did not create you to be an orphan. He created you be a son and daughter. [01:00:30] (18 seconds)  #CreatedForFamily