3 Relationships - Relationship with the World

For the past month we have been talking about what it means for us to follow Jesus.  Following Jesus means living like Jesus and when we look at Jesus’ life we see three significant relationships that Jesus gave himself to.  First and foremost, Jesus gave himself in relationship to his Father in heaven.  While Jesus was the fullness of God in human form, so he was God himself, he was also fully human and so while on earth Jesus intentionally spent time connecting with God the Father.  Jesus sought out times of prayer to speak with God.  He went to God for guidance.  He went to God for strength.  He went to God for comfort and rest.  He turned to God constantly and showed us that a relationship with God is vital if we want to experience the fullness of life.  David used the image of a vine and said that if we want to produce fruit – if we want to be spiritually healthy, happy, and living the life God wants for us – we have to stay connected to the vine – which is God.  We have to pursue a relationship with God if we are going to follow Jesus. 

Last week we saw how Jesus not only lived in relationship with God, but he also formed a community of faith and established relationships with those he called to follow him.  Jesus created the church and a relationship with the church is essential if we are going to follow Jesus.  In fact, just like redwood trees can’t grow alone because their roots need the root system of other trees, so we need one another if we are going to remain strong in our faith.  We can’t live a life of faith on our own, and we don’t have to because we have been given the family of God, the church, to be a support.  When we give ourselves to this relationship it makes all the difference. 

Yesterday I returned to Altoona to celebrate the life of a woman from my first church who passed away on Wednesday.  She and her husband lived a few houses away from the parsonage and they became my biggest supporters, cheerleaders, advocates, and friends.  They stood up and fought for me when the church had some conflict, and they opened their home to me when I couldn’t be with my own family on holidays.  As I reflected on Jane’s life, what amazed me was that I only lived near them, and knew them in the church for 7 months before they moved away.  It doesn’t take long when we live in a relationship with the church to have God’s people make a profound impact on our lives. 

My life and ministry was shaped by Jane and I would not be who I am today if it were not for her faith, faithfulness and love.  When things got hard and I thought about giving in and giving up, Jane and her husband had my back, gave me inspiration, courage, and faith I needed to keep going.  That is why a relationship with the church is essential.  It is the church that helps us stay focused on God when things get difficult, and it is the support of others who keep our faith strong.  We need this relationship with the church.

Today we turn to the last of the 3 Relationships - a relationship with the world.  While we often think that Jesus only lived and ministered among his own people, the reality is that Jesus reached out to all the world.  Roman soldiers and officials, as well as gentile women, were all part of Jesus’ life and ministry.  He reached out to all people and after his resurrection Jesus gave a mission to his disciples to reach out to the people of all nations.  Actually it wasn’t a mission as much as a command.  Matthew 28:18-20 & Acts 1:8.

Jesus makes clear that being a witness and making disciples is not optional.  We are commanded to go, and in both cases we are told to go to all the world.  In Acts, we see a model for what our relationship with the world might look like: Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth.  Judea is where the disciples lived.  Samaria was the larger region that surrounded them, and then the boundaries moved to the ends of the world.  To follow Jesus means we are to have some kind of a connection with our neighborhood, our region, and yes the entire world. 

As with the other relationships, we are going to look at 5 rhythms that help establish and grow this relationship.  Again, this is not a to-do list of things we need to check off once and then say – I’m good.  These are ways of living that shape all that we do and are. 
● Readiness – I continue to prepare my mind and heart for interactions with others
● Engagement – I look for opportunities to introduce people to Jesus
● Blessing - I find ways to make the world around me better.
● Sharing – I communicate the gospel to others
● Global – I am involved in making disciples worldwide. 

You will notice that 3 of these rhythms have to do with sharing our faith, introducing people to Jesus, and making disciples.  When we hear these words, many of us get uncomfortable because we think of evangelism – which you will notice is NOT a four letter word - but it does make us uncomfortable because it leads to images of going door to door and telling people about Jesus.  Or maybe we think we need to stand on the street corner and pass out Christian pamphlets with information about how to be saved, or maybe we envision those awkward conversations with family, friends, coworkers, and strangers about why they need to accept Jesus. 

It is my prayer that by the end of worship today, none of us will see a relationship with the world in those terms, but instead that we will be challenged to see it in a much larger context and a different light. And it is my prayer that we will all have the courage to take the step of faith needed in order to be more intentional in this relationship, because the world needs us and it needs us because it needs Jesus. 

What is important to understand at the beginning is that God has always had a passion for the world.  God has always loved all nations and all people.  In Habakkuk 2:14 it says, For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.  I love how the prophet says, as the waters cover the sea.  What percentage of the sea is covered by water?  100%.  All of it.  God wants all the earth, meaning all people on the earth, to come to the knowledge of God’s glory, which means knowing about God’s love, God’s grace, and the salvation that is ours through Jesus. 
1 Timothy 2:4 says, God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.  God’s heart is truly for all people.  God loves every tribe, every nation, every person on earth the same way and his passion is for each one of us to know him.  God has called us to take this good news of God’s love to all the world and we do that by intentionally developing and deepening a relationship with the world, and it all starts by getting prepared.

Readiness.  What I like about this rhythm is that it acknowledges that we might not be ready to interact with other people in faithful and significant ways so we need to get ready.  We need to reflect on our lives and consider all the relationships we have with people now.  How and where do we interact with new people?  What is our comfort level in meeting new people?   Where might God be leading us and wanting to use us in meeting new people?  Reflection, prayer, and discernment are all a big part of readiness.  How is God asking us to get ready and how has he already prepared us? 

This rhythm really needs to be seen as simple as getting to know our neighbors?  Do I know the people I work with?  How well do I know the parents of my children’s friends and teammates?  What about the people we see over and over again in the stores and restaurants?  Can we simply get to know the people around us and the people God places in our lives and let those relationships grow and teach us how to connect with others?  When we intentionally focus on these relationships and start praying for these people, it helps us see how and where God can use us in the lives of others. 

Readiness needs to lead to engagement.  We don’t just build relationships to have a lot of friends, we also build relationships so that we can shine God’s love into people’s lives.  This does NOT mean all of our relationships are projects – not at all.  We build relationships because of love.  God’s love for us and our genuine love for people, but that love for others has to include sharing in different ways the knowledge of God’s love and grace. 

But it is important to understand what this rhythm is saying and not saying.  It is not saying that introducing people to Jesus means going door to door.  Some people might do this and might do it well, but that is just one method of sharing.  It also does not say we need to stand on the corner and preach or pass out information.  Again, some people might do this with authenticity and passion, but it is just one method.

What it does say is that we need to look for opportunities to introduce people to Jesus, and this often just starts with prayer.  God show me who is already in my life that I can show and share with them your love.  Who can I simply take a step of faith with and invite to worship, or share how God has been a blessing in my life? 

It’s not always preaching and teaching that introduces people to Jesus, it is often words of forgiveness, kindness, and grace that touch someone’s heart and gets them thinking in new ways.  Many times people will want to know more about our faith because they see us living a life of peace in the midst of storms, or joy in the midst of pain.  When people ask us what gives us help and hope - that is an opportunity to introduce people to Jesus.  But let’s be clear – it also means sharing.  It means communicating the gospel with others. 

In Mark 16:15 Jesus says, Go into all the world and preach the gospel.  Matthew 28 says teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.  At some point God will give us all an opportunity to speak and to share what we know of Jesus.  Again, this often makes us uncomfortable and we begin to say, I don’t know enough to teach, and there is no way I can preach – but we can, because what God is asking for here is simply sharing what it is we know of God and what we have experienced of Jesus. 

The best example of this is found in John 9 when Jesus heals a man born blind.  Jesus heals the man and then slips away into the crowd.  The blind man is then asked, who did this?  Who healed you and why did he do this on the Sabbath?  They ask the man all kinds of questions and the man simply says this, Look… this is what I know.  once I was blind but now I see, and that’s the guy who did it. 

Sharing what we know is simply communicating what we can about Jesus.  Has he forgiven us?  We can share that.  Does he love us?  We can share that.  Have we seen his power at some point in our lives?  We can communicate that. Has he given us hope, peace, joy, or purpose?  We can let people know.  Sharing is simply stating what we know about God. 

If this seems too overwhelming, then let me encourage you to do this one exercise.  Take some time this week and write down what God has done in your life.  Find one thing that you can clearly see and say to yourself, God has done this.  Then write it down.  Rewrite it.  Revise it.  Add to it.  Read it daily.  If we do this we are getting ready and God will then give us both the opportunity and the courage to share it with someone.  Sharing is simply learning to tell our own faith story, and how God has moved in our lives. 

The rhythm of blessing is similar to the rhythm of generosity we discussed last week, and it is just asking ourselves how we can make our world a better place.  Start by asking how you can make your world better.  Where can you go right now and what can you do to make life better?  Start small, and then allow God to show you more ways you can be a blessing, and then don’t let any boundary hold you back but truly go global.

Make disciples and be a blessing world-wide.  Many times we do this by supporting missions and ministry in places like Sierra Leone and Belize.  We can support people or organizations that are involved in disaster relief, well drilling, medical missions, educational missions, church development, child welfare, or economic freedom.  Next month we will all have an opportunity to do something to share God’s love globally through Operation Christmas Child.  Each shoebox goes to a child in a different nation.  Each shoebox is a blessing and makes a child’s world better. 
Each shoebox also shares the story of Jesus because there is a booklet that shares the gospel.  In fact, there are ways we can enhance the sharing of the gospel through the shoe boxes by giving to a program called “the Greatest Journey”.  This is a 12 lesson course on following Jesus and costs $6 per child and you can add this to your shoebox to help children learn more about Jesus and you will be hearing more about that in the weeks to come. 

So a relationship with the world is not sharing our faith door to door, or standing up at work or on the streets and giving our testimony.  It is a way of living that focuses on our thoughts, words, and actions on the people around us and around the world.  We focus on others because God loves them and it is God’s desire that they know about this love.  We focus on others because it is God’s plan for us to share God’s love with them.  God wants his love and grace shared with all the world, and God has only ever had one plan to make that happen – his people sharing this love and message with all the world.  There is no plan B.  It is our relationship with the world that is to reveal God’s love and shine God’s light and truth in a way that blesses people and brings us all closer to God.

There are 3 Relationships that help us follow Jesus and 15 rhythms that can deepen our faith and trust in God.  Learning to live this way can never be a checklist of things to do, this is a complete way of living and moving and being.  I invite you to find just one rhythm in one relationship to focus on during the next month.  We are going to focus on generosity and giving in November but you can choose any rhythm and any relationship, but pick one and every day focus your heart, your mind, and your will on that rhythm.  Read scripture and pray about that rhythm and give yourself to growing in that rhythm and watch your faith grow and the blessings into and through your life. 



 

Next Steps
The Relationship with the World

1. Think about your own life.  What series of events (people, events, circumstances) helped lead to the relationship you have with God today?

2. Read 1 Timothy 2:3-4.  What does this tell us about God’s desire for the world?  Who is excluded from the list of people the Lord desires to have a relationship with?

3. What makes it hard for us to share our faith with folks who don’t follow Jesus?  How do you think Jesus would respond to our concerns? 

4. The 4 Rhythms of a strong relationship with the world:
● Readiness – I continue to prepare my mind and heart for interactions with others
● Engagement – I look for opportunities to introduce people to Jesus
● Blessing - I find ways to make the world around me better.
● Sharing – I communicate the gospel to others
● Global – I am involved in making disciples worldwide. 

5. There are 15 Rhythms that make up the 3 Relationships that followers of Jesus are invited to deepen and develop.  What is ONE rhythm you have a desire to grow in?  What is one thing you can do in the next month to help you grow in that rhythm?  Tell someone about your goal. 

3 Relationships - Relationship with the Church

Many years ago I traveled to Kings Canyon and Sequoia NP in CA and saw some of the giant redwood trees.  Redwood trees are some of the tallest and oldest organisms in the world.  The trees can grow over 300 feet high, that is higher than a 27 story building, and the trees can live thousands of years.  In fact it is believed that some of the old growth redwood trees in CA have been around since the time of the dinosaurs, certainly some of them were around in the days of Jesus.  They are a true natural wonder in our world. 

What is interesting about Redwoods is that they really only thrive in groves with other redwoods and that is because their root system does not go deep - it spreads out wide, maybe 100 feet in every direction, but it needs to intertwine with the root system of other trees to give it stability.  If a Redwood grew 300 feet and there were no other trees around, it wouldn’t take much of a storm to knock it over because the root system wouldn’t be able to hold it up under the pressure, but when those roots intertwine with the roots of other trees, large and small, they form an incredibly stable and solid foundation for all the trees to flourish.  Redwood trees need other redwood trees if they are going to thrive. 

And that is the profound truth for all of us who follow Jesus.  We need other followers of Jesus around us if we are going to thrive.  We need one another if we are going to grow strong and remain standing up in faith under pressure.  We need one another to be the best that we can be and the best person that God created us to be.  We simply need each other so our Relationship with the Church, with other people of faith and followers of Jesus, is one of the three primary relationships that we are looking at this month. 

As we explore what it means to be a disciple, how to grow in our faith, and become the people God truly wants us to be, we are focusing on three primary relationships that were seen in the life of Jesus: a relationship with God, the church, and the world. 

While Jesus was always in a relationship with God, because he was God in the flesh, when he walked this earth in human form, Jesus maintained that relationship with God the Father through intentional times of prayer.  Jesus sought direction from God, strength from God, and often just desired to commune with God so he went off to pray.  Jesus’ prayer life was so dynamic and personal that his disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.  The disciples didn’t ask Jesus how to turn water into wine, calm the wind and waves, or heal the sick, but they did ask Jesus to teach them to pray.  They understood that conversation with God overflowing into their lives would fundamentally change their lives and help them truly be more like Jesus. 

Jesus not only maintained a relationship with God, but he actively worked to develop a relationship with other people of faith.  Jesus gave a big part of his time to developing a community, a family of faith, a group of people who became the beginning of the church.  The first thing that Jesus did when he began a more public part of his life was to call people to follow him.  He called people to walk with him, travel with him, learn from him, pray with him, eat with him, and live life together with him.  He formed a faith community and instilled in them values that would help keep the community healthy and strong.  While Jesus may have gone off to be alone to pray, he never went off alone to live. 

There are many people who say they can follow Jesus and not be part of the church, I would disagree.  While you can believe in Jesus as the Savior of the world and not be part of the church, you cannot follow Jesus and live like Jesus and not be part of the church because Jesus gave himself completely to develop this kind of faith community.  We can’t be a follower of Jesus and not follow him into a community of believers and a family of faith. 

Maybe Jesus formed the church and calls us into relationship with one another in the church because he knew that we are all like giant redwoods.  If we stand alone, we will fall during the storms and stress of life.  Or maybe Jesus knew that we are like the embers of a fire.  If we are separated and alone, we will burn out quickly, but if we can remain close to one another - we will burn brighter and longer.  If you want to put out a campfire, what do you do?  You begin to separate out all the remaining pieces of wood or coal because in time, if all alone, they will burn themselves out.  The same is true with our faith.  Left alone, we will die. 

Think about the images that are used for the church in the New Testament.  The church is talked about as the Family of God, the Body of Christ, and even the Bride of Christ.  If God loves the church enough to consider us his bride, his family, and his very body, then how can we neglect it or reject it?  To say that we don’t need to be part of the church is to say that we don’t need to be part of God’s family, or that we don’t need to be part of Christ himself, which not only cuts us off from one another but cuts us off from God as well.  We simply cannot experience the fullness of life and faith apart from a relationship with one another in the church and there are 5 rhythms that help us maintain this relationship.

● Accountability - I allow open & honest feedback in my life.
● Generosity - I use my time & treasure to further the Kingdom of God.
● Community - My interactions with the church are rooted in love & are mutually beneficial.
● Service - I use my gifts & talents to grow the church.
● Family - My faith overflows first & foremost in my home.  

Once again, you notice that these rhythms are not a checklist of things to do, but a way to live and be.  They are rhythms that will lead to specific actions certainly, but the checklist of activities is not the goal.  We are going to start at the bottom of this list and work our way up because faith in God has always been meant to be lived out first and foremost at home and in our family. 

God first called a family to be the community of faith, the family of Abraham.  The promise given to Abraham was that he and his descendants would be great and that through them all people would come to know the truth and glory of God.  The community of faith started as a family ministry and so our faith has to be lived out at home. 

I was blessed to be part of a family that took faith seriously at home.  We not only prayed at meal time, and we did Advent devotions on Sunday afternoons, but we attended worship each week together, we went to Sunday School and youth group and sang in the choir.  Being active in the larger faith community wasn’t something my parents made sure we were involved in, it was something they were involved in.  We lived out our faith together and our parents set the example.

My mom was active in the life of my home church.  She sang in the choir, played in the bell choir and served in leadership.  My parents set the example for me.  Being part of the larger community of faith was a value I saw lived out at home and so it became an important part of my life.  Parents, you are already doing this because you are here with your children today, but don’t encourage them to be part of things in the church beyond worship, show them the value by being part of it yourself.  Come and learn and grow and serve so they can see the value, the joy, and the benefit that being part of the community of faith truly is.  Let them see you commit to these rhythms so that they can follow them in their own lives.  As important as it is to talk about faith at home, what children really need is to see faith modelled at home by parents and grandparents. 

The rhythms of Generosity and Service are the easy ones for us to connect with because they call for us to share our time, treasure, talents, and gifts with the larger community of faith.  They call us to do something and so this is easier for us to identify and give ourselves to.  What is it that you can offer to the church to help us grow? How can your generosity others in the family of God? 

One of the blessings of Faith Church is that people take these 2 rhythms seriously.  When help is needed for a project, all we have to do is ask, and people show up.  People offer help in so many areas, and often the overflow of service and gifts is clear to see, like in 40 pumpkin pies.  A few years ago it was the week before Christmas and we still needed many pies for our Christmas Day Dinner.  I just stood here and said, we need pies and we got so many that week that we had 40 pies LEFT OVER.  To this day I have to watch what I ask for because while we may have a real need for something, the giving of time, treasure, talent, and service in this church is so strong and that it can truly overflow. 

While it is easy to focus on the activity of giving our time, treasure, gifts and service, we also need to make sure that we are doing it for the right reason - and this is where the rhythm of community comes into play.  Community is not about coming together for fellowship, we are talking about making sure that all we do in the life of the church is rooted in love.  Are we serving out of a genuine desire to love God and others?  Are we giving because we truly love and have a desire to love God and others more deeply? 

Where this rhythm really needs to become part of our lives is in our thoughts and words.  In every community we are part of, family, work group, circle of friends, or church - there is brokenness, failure, hurt and pain.  How will we respond?  The church, like any family, is a place where feelings get hurt easily, and where unintentional words and actions can cause pain and bring division.  In these moments are we willing to work for community and offer love.  That love means we need to extend grace and offer forgiveness to those who have hurt us, or even the larger community of faith who may have let us down.  Love means we make the choice to overlook offenses and be patient with people in an effort to keep the peace and help others learn and grow. 

There is no perfect church that gets it all right all the time.  As a community we often fail to notice someone in need, or recognize all those God has brought into our family, but if we can love one another through the problems  - the community will experience healing, strength and peace and we all experience the life that God has for us.  A loving church that forgives not only stays strong but is a beacon of hope in our broken world. 

So I have saved the hardest rhythm for last - and for a reason.  We cannot engage in successful and healthy accountability until we have a family that is committed to serving one another and giving to one another in love.  Accountability without love is nagging and intrusive.  People speaking into our lives without us seeing them as part of our family, or who are not willing to give their time to serving us, just becomes harsh criticism.  Accountability is important, we need people who love us enough to speak truth into our lives, but we will only hear that truth and allow it to shape us if we know that we are loved first, and we won’t know we are loved until we have experienced people serving and giving themselves to us in love as part of a larger community. 

Accountability is difficult and in our society because we don’t have a good model of how this looks.  For the most part, accountability today looks like twitter wars as people call each other out on every word, action, and perceived motive behind every word and action.  Accountability looks like calling people on the carpet, embarrassing them in front of others, calling for boycotts, and making vicious comments or reviews online.  We need a model of accountability that is filled with grace and is committed to making sure people are served and helped and the community remains united and strong.

Perhaps the best model we see for accountability comes from support groups like AA.  When a member of AA is concerned about another member, they might speak into their lives, but they speak the truth in love, and with humility and understanding, and then they back up those words with support and care.  They walk with the person in need through the difficult time and don’t just point out the problem.  This is the model that the church should be showing the world.  Accountability includes a commitment to walk with people in love. 

Can we, with love and grace, allow people to speak into our lives?  Don’t ask if you are willing to speak into someone else’s life, ask if you are willing to allow someone to speak into your life.  If you aren’t, then don’t even start to speak into someone else's life.  Will we allow people to speak into our lives, and will we then ask them for help, assistance and support?  Are we willing to seek out this kind of accountability with a desire to grow stronger in our own faith by allowing people to walk with us? 

While accountability may be the first one on our list, we need to understand that real accountability can only come when we are willing to generously give to, and serve the family of God, the church, in true sacrificial love.  When these 5 rhythms become how we live our lives, we will experience a community that will not only change us, but a community that will fundamentally and forever change our world.  These 5 rhythms help us become the body of Christ and experience the blessing of community which God created us for.  These 5 rhythms also help create a community that reveals to the world the kingdom of God. 




Next Steps
3 Relationships – Relationship with the Church

1. God created us to be part of a family and a family of faith.  How was faith part of your family growing up?  How is faith lived out in your family today? 

2. Where have you been able to experience a real sense of community in a church setting?  What helped make that happen?  What have you learned from past church experiences (both good and bad)?

3. The 5 Rhythms of a strong relationship with the church:
● Accountability - I allow open and honest feedback in my life.
● Generosity - I use my time and treasure to further the Kingdom of God.
● Community - My interactions with the church are rooted in love and are mutually beneficial.
● Service - I use my gifts and talents to grow the church.
● Family - My faith overflows first and foremost in my home. 

4. Read Acts 2:42-47 and identify these 5 rhythms at work in the life of the early church.

5. Which of these rhythms is a strength for you? How can you continue to grow in this area? 

5. What’s one way God is asking you to use your gifts, talents, time, and treasure to further the Kingdom of God and grow the church?  What do you need to take this next step?  Who can you ask for help? 

3 Relationships - The Power of Relationship

I want to invite you to reflect for a moment and think: what has made the single greatest impact on your life?  What is the one thing that has done more to shape you, form you, and make you who you are today?  My guess is that right now you are not thinking about a movie.  You’re not reflecting on your favorite TV show, song, vacation, or job.  Most of us are probably thinking about a person.  If you’re not, it may be because of how I asked the question.  I didn’t want to give the answer away by saying who has had the greatest impact on your life, but the reality is that what makes the greatest impact on our lives are not the books we read, jobs we have, or trips we take, it is the people we know. 

I shared last week that one of the greatest influences in my life was my Grandmother.  She taught me to love nature, to be generous, to work hard, to care for others, and it was her desire for me to be a pastor.  But that is just one relationship that has influenced me.  My parents have been an influence as well as my sisters, the youth leaders at my church, my friends in college, and all the people in the churches I have served who have inspired me, encouraged me, and helped me become who I am today. 

It is our relationships that have the greatest impact on our lives.  Whether it is our family who has loved us, teachers who have inspired us, friends who have supported us, spouses who have chosen to walk with us in love, or coaches, pastors, church leaders, employers or employees, it is the relationships we have had and still have with others that make the biggest difference.  Relationships aren’t just important to who we are, they are everything.

If we go back to the very beginning, we see that the world is really all about relationships.  We were created by God for relationship.  God chose to create the world and God chose to place us in the world because God wanted to be in a relationship with us.   God wanted to experience the joy of fellowship.  God wanted to walk in the garden with Adam and Eve.  God wanted to love and lead his people.  God has always been about relationship, in fact, when we turned away in sin, God was so committed to having a relationship with us that he sent his son Jesus to forgive us and make a relationship with God possible once again.  Knowing that relationship is really the key to everything in life and in faith, it makes sense that for us to grow in our faith we need to think about relationships and not rules, we need to think about personal relationships and not programs.   

When we look at the life of Jesus, we can identify three primary relationships that he focused on, a relationship with God, a relationship with the Church, and a relationship with the World.  Our focus on these 3 Relationships this month is not random, it is intentional.  If we want to truly follow Jesus, we need to live like Jesus and focus on the things that were important to Jesus.  These 3 relationships is what Jesus gave his life to.  First and foremost, Jesus was in a relationship with God because he was the fullness of God in human form.  He was God incarnate.  Jesus said that he and the father were one and so to be like Jesus and to grow deeper in our own faith we have to commit to a deeper relationship with God.

Jesus also took the time remain connected in his relationship with God the Father.  Jesus sought out times of prayer, he remained committed to the public worship of God, and he turned to God for direction and strength when it was needed.  Jesus always gave himself to that primary relationship with God and did all to reveal God’s love and grace and give glory to God in all things. 

Jesus’ entire public life and ministry was also devoted to the relationships he had with his disciples.  The first thing Jesus did in ministry was to call Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow him.  This was no small thing.  In Jesus’ day, rabbis did not choose their followers, it was the followers who would choose the rabbi they wanted to learn from.  But here it is Jesus who calls his followers.  Jesus invites people to be in relationship with God and one another by following him, and he didn’t call the best students and the most promising people to be his disciples to make himself look good, Jesus chose ordinary people because he truly believed that they could be just like him. 
Do you know what this means?  It means that when Jesus calls us to follow him, it is because he believes we can be just like him.  And let’s be clear, Jesus still chooses us today.  John says that it’s not that we first loved God but that God first loved us and in that love God called us.  Jesus is calling us today because he believes in us, but we have to be willing to follow, and to follow means being in relationship with God and those who walk with God - the church. 

Not only did Jesus make a relationship with his disciples a priority, but when Jesus left his disciples he didn’t leave them alone, he gave them the Holy Spirit to hold them together and it is the Holy Spirit that still holds the church together, and what is the church today but a complex set of relationships centered on Jesus.  In Acts 2 we get the very first picture of the church and what we see are relationships.  Acts 2:42-44. 

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teachings, which meant spending time with the apostles, the first followers of Jesus.  It says they spent time in fellowship and breaking bread together.  This probably means both worshiping together and eating together.  It says they prayed together and shared what they had with one another and those in need.  The church is really just a set of relationships that go deep and wide, and the more we invest in these relationships, the more we become like Jesus. 

But Jesus didn’t just come to form the church and care for a small group of people, he came to make an impact in the world, and once again Jesus did that through relationships.  Jesus reached out to a wide variety of people.  He loved and called Jewish fisherman, but he also loved and called Gentile women.  He reached out to help Roman soldiers and even a Syro-Phonecian woman, a woman whose background is in many ways a symbol of all people in the world.  And then the mission Jesus gave his followers was to make disciples of all nations.  Not some nations, not a few nations, but all nations - all the world.  Matthew 28:18-20. 

Jesus told his followers to go and baptize and teach people.  He told them to go and share his life and love and story with everyone, and the best way to do this is to do what Jesus did and invest in relationships.  It is our relationship with the world - a relationship focused on the love of God and the grace of Jesus Christ - that is most formative in helping people learn about God.  When we talk about a relationship with the world, we will not be talking about just reaching out to help those in physical need, that’s part of it, but the bigger part for us to consider will be how we can share Jesus with the world - for in so many ways it is a relationship with Jesus that is the answer to the problems we see around us.

Let me go back and ask you my first question, but in a different way.  What has had the greatest impact on your faith?  My guess is you are not thinking about the movie, The Passion of the Christ.  You aren’t thinking about your favorite hymn or the newest song you just heard on KLOVE.  And as powerful as the Bible is in our faith development, you may not even be thinking about a book or verse you know in the Bible - you are thinking about a person, a person who loved God, a person who loved Jesus, and a person who then turned around and loved you.

My parents loved God and shared that love with us by making sure we worshiped together, prayed at home together, and even did Advent devotions as a family.  During the summer, my grandmother took me to a very small one room church that honestly looked like it came out of the Andy Griffith Show.  Ed and Joanne Foster loved and nurtured me during High School in the youth group, Dave DeGraff prayed with me and showed me the passion, power, and joy there is following Jesus.  Gene and Jackie Ross stood up in faith with me when conflict hit our church in Altoona, Bill, Linda, and Jessica helped give me the courage to stand up, and then stand up again, and work to start a new worship service in Lewisburg, and I could give you a list of people right here at Faith Church who continue to shape my life and faith and ministry. 

What I learned in seminary, read in books, and hear at conferences, pales in comparison to what I have learned from God’s people, and my faith has grown because of relationships.  Our faith grows through relationships and so for the next three weeks we are going to explore how to be intentional and dig deep into these three all-important relationships: God, the church, and the world. 

As we begin this journey together, we want to be clear that these 3 relationships are truly a gift given to us by God.  God created us for relationship with him, so having a relationship with God is a gift.  Jesus is the one who calls us into relationship with him and Jesus is the one who loves and forgives us so that a relationship with God is even possible.  Jesus is also the one who calls us into relationship with one another - so our relationship with the church and the world is gift give to us by God and sustained by the Holy Spirit.  These relationships aren’t burdens to bear, and please hear this, it is not a program to work through so we are better Christians.  These 3 relationships are truly gifts given to us when we accept the love and grace of God.  They are relationships we can give ourselves to in order to be experience all the fullness of life as we become more like Jesus, our Savior. 

We believe these three relationships are so important to our faith development that we want to provide everyone with the opportunity to evaluate and explore these relationships in more depth.  As you know, we have many small groups that are going to discuss the importance of these three relationships and it is not too late to join one of them. 

We also want to invite you to take a personal self-evaluation that can give you some markers about where you might be strong in these relationships, and where you might want to invest some time or get some help and support.  The evaluation is done online, it is free, and the results are private.  What is so great about the evaluation is that it will help us see where we are strong so we can expand on our strengths, as well as where we might be weak and need some help and support.  Even if you are not part of a small group, we would invite you to take this self-assessment.  If you need help accessing this please contact the church office. 

Relationships are not the key to faith development, they are faith development itself.  When God chose to come into this world to show us His love, draw us close to him, and show us how to get the most out of life, God didn’t come as a best-selling book, award winning song, hit movie, new curriculum, or 10 step program, God came as a person, a human being, a man named Jesus.  God chose to come as a person because it was going to be through a personal relationship with Jesus that we would be saved and it was going to be through personal relationship with Jesus that we would be able to receive these three great gifts that will bring us life abundant and life eternal - a relationship with God, a relationship with the Church, and a relationship with the World. 

 
Next Steps
3 Relationships - The Power of Relationships

Powerful Relationships
● Who have been the most influential people in your life?
● Who has been important in your faith development?
● Take time this week to reach out to these people if you can and thank them for their love and influence.

Relationship with God
What do these passages tell us about Jesus’ relationship with God?
● John 1:1-14, Luke 11:1-4, Mark 1:35-37

Relationship with the Church
What do these passages tell us about Jesus’ relationship with the Church?
● John 13:1-5, Mark 6:7-13, 30-32

Relationship with the World
What do these passages tells us about Jesus’ relationship with the World?
● John 4:7-15, Mark 7:24-30


Self Assessment
To learn more about these three relationships in your own life, and which "rhythms" (or patterns of life) can help you grow, we invite you to take the 3 Relationships Self-Assessment.  It is free and your results are confidential.  You can find a link to the self-assessment at bellefontefaith.com/3r.