September 12, 2021 - Weekend Service

oh [Music] i am gave me a voice brothers and sisters gave me a family i'm [Music] i'm [Music] i'm yours [Music] um i am righteousness [Music] waters i'm yours i'm yours [Music] i'm [Music] i know us [Music] [Music] i'm [Music] of yours [Music] on yours yourself [Music] thank you hi welcome to community fellowship church in lancaster pa we're so glad you're joining us on our live stream today you can find us here every sunday at 9 00 and 11 a.m our service begins in just a few minutes if this is your first time tuning in we'd love to connect with you click on the link in our description to fill out our connection card to let us know you're here ask any questions you may have and let us know how we can be praying for you if you would like to find out more about cfc visit our website communityfellowship.com here you can find out about our mission as a church download weekly lessons and videos for kids in preschool through fourth grade connect with the student community for grades five and up find out about upcoming events getting connected with a community group and so much more we are active on instagram and facebook you can follow us at facebook.comcfc lancaster and our instagram handle is at tfc lancaster if you are a regular attender of cfc or cfc live stream be sure to download our alexio community app to receive our weekly email updates access our online directory or give to the mission of cfc if today's service is a blessing to you please consider sharing it with your family and friends you can also click the subscribe button and if you click the bell you'll be notified the next time we are live on youtube thanks again for joining us today [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right well good morning cfc it's good to be with you this morning uh if you're new today my name is dan this is my wife lauren this is my buddy jordan and his wife jenna we'll be leading you guys with our team this morning we also want to welcome those of you that are online thanks for tuning in and being with us this morning we hope that you just enjoy participating from home uh we brought out the dunk tank to this weekend we thought it'd be fun to just do something different and dunk some people in the water i'm just kidding we're not gonna just dunk random people but it is baptism weekend and uh we are excited about celebrating new life in christ and that's really important as the life of the church to celebrate new life in christ and so we have a baptism this morning that we'll be celebrating together i have two other quick announcements for you as well some of you uh have probably been waiting to maybe dedicate your child um in the last through covid through the last year and a half so we wanted to make sure that you knew that that was available coming up on october 2nd and 3rd so you can register online at our website communityfellowship.com and register to dedicate your child on october 2nd and 3rd uh the second thing last thing i wanted to mention today is if you're new today you've been checking out cfc for a few weeks and you want to meet pastor bobby and get to learn a little bit more about the church we have a newcomer drop in after the service if you have kids downstairs you can leave them downstairs for a little bit just come up front at the end of the service and connect with pastor bobby and learn a little bit more about the church that is a great next step just to get to know us a little bit better and we get to know you a little bit better all right well we're going to worship together because we believe that is an important part of the life of the church so would you stand with us as we worship as we sing and we give glory to our god and father [Music] so [Music] there's nothing is [Music] your presence is [Music] [Music] becomes free and my shame is [Music] holy spirit [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] let us experience the glory of your oh yes [Music] [Music] is [Music] just remind us of your goodness this morning as we sing these words sing these truths and just remind us of who you are and your very nature as we celebrate you in jesus name amen amen well this time you can grab a c and we're gonna take some time to celebrate baptisms this morning all right well good morning cfc i've already got a tear in my eye here just from uh celebrating together the presence of god jen's my wife's birthday was yesterday 20 years ago we were having cake in austria and a friend called me and said turn on the news your country is under attack and when i was watching some of that footage yesterday i was reminded it was just interesting to see the dispatcher on the phone with someone on flight 93 as they're crashing as they're going down and people are she said i could hear people reciting the lord's prayer and saying jesus save me save me and uh we know we're just here temporarily right like you've got to accept christ as your personal savior and when the heat gets turned up and that moment comes a lot of people they wake up to it and they realize you know the real truth and what's necessary so thank god that um he has placed the church here to point people in that direction and so we're thankful for that i do want to welcome those of you who became members you went through our discover class i would ask you just briefly if you would stand i would like to pray for you if those of you who were in that class if you're in this service today just briefly stand and we want to welcome you to our body so yay just stay standing for a second [Music] all right let me pray for you guys lord thank you for our new members who have joined our fellowship lord thank you that we can support each other that we can encourage each other that we can pray for each other love each other admonish each other thank you for the gifts that you have brought to the body and that we can equip each other and i just pray lord that you would bless those who have joined us that you would help them to be strengthened and encouraged by the body of christ and we just thank you for this journey that we can be on together in jesus name amen amen well welcome guys glad to have you on this journey um we're going to uh we have um a baptism this morning i've had one last night which was beautiful um and uh i love i love these services where we can witness someone's personal testimony there's so much power in that testimony and the the the beautiful imagery of going under i i've died with christ and i've been raised to walk in in a new life from now on i want to listen to him and follow him and it's just beautiful to see that imagery and so we want to we want to be able to follow through on that if you um have accepted christ and you have not yet been baptized i want to encourage you to make that uh make that a real thing for you and and uh check in with us and we'd love to walk through that with you all right so i'm going to ask chris if you would come and just share your testimony with us my name is chris ramos i was born in brooklyn new york city i had a tough early childhood with experiencing and seeing things no child should have to go through my father ultimately ended up in prison by the time i was eight years old my mother was too sick to take care of all my siblings and i my mother ended up passing away in january 1994. my siblings and i all got split up through foster care but that summer my wonderful parents here in lancaster had adopted me and taken me into their family without even seeing or meeting me at all i did not know at that young age that my life would forever be changed by christ my dad used to read children's bible stories to me every night before bed and pray with me and share the love that jesus had for me even at that early age of 8 i could not even read on my own yet but i could comprehend that jesus truly loved and cared for his children i accepted the lord into my heart one night after one of our daily bible story readings fast forward to today i am now married to my wonderful wife who has pushed me even further and deeper in my walk with christ i also have my mentor and good friend wes smith that has been a fine example of jesus in my life he holds me accountable and we learn together how to not only read the bible but how to pick apart chapters and verses to truly understand what they mean and what god is calling us to do i'm here today to get baptized to not only publicly profess my faith in jesus christ which he commanded i am also here to get baptized to show that i am making a lifelong commitment to trusting and obeying god's command and following in his steps to teach other people about his unfailing love for them [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] christmas faith in jesus christ so [Music] all right that is awesome let's stand together and let's celebrate that victory in christ that we have amen church [Music] [Music] is [Music] just can't win the fight [Music] [Music] he told me [Music] [Music] i changed [Music] [Applause] [Music] my gosh [Music] you just can't keep [Music] is [Applause] [Music] me [Music] i am free [Music] [Music] i am free [Music] i am free [Music] [Music] [Music] i think you hate me [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] let's sing again of his faithfulness we taught this song last week that he is faithful now let's be reminded of that truth this morning [Music] i don't know [Music] is [Music] [Music] now [Music] i'm [Music] [Music] me [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] god we know that you are faithful and you are faithful despite our constant sinfulness our brokenness god we know that you are completely in love with us you foreknew us you knew we were gonna mess up you knew we were gonna be sinful and you still loved us you still sent your son to die for us you remain unchanged you remain faithful so let's rest in that fact we thank you god amen well thank you for singing with us this morning you can go ahead and greet the person around you to take a seat [Music] hi welcome to cfc i'm ruth operations manager and i'm christina operations assistant we're glad you're joining us if you are checking out cfc for the first time please fill out one of the connection cards in the back of the seats or scan the qr code to let us know you are here you can take your card to the welcome desk on your way out and we have a gift for you ladies we are excited to announce our fall women's ministry bible study being held here at cfc on tuesday evenings and throughout the week in host homes beginning september 28th this is an eight-week study in genesis chapters 1-12 in the beginning for more information and to register please visit our website we are sending a huge thank you to our awesome volunteers both those that have been faithful servants and those just joining us through plug-in this weekend we were able to reopen community kids for elementary students for saturday nights and on sunday mornings we are now able to reopen community cafe all proceeds from our coffee sales will go to cfc's mission partner north star initiative based here in lancaster north star works to restore women who have been victims of sex trafficking so stop by the cafe if you get a chance plus this weekend we are giving out donut samples you won't want to miss it the student community kickoff is this weekend sunday night from 6 30 to 8 30. all students entering grades 7 through 12 are invited to come for a meal games and a great time with other students and ministry leaders community services is hosting our next donation collection for treasures market september 25th and 26th the treasurer's truck will be in our parking lot collecting for the upcoming winter season other items are welcome but winter items are our focus so bring your extra hats gloves boots blankets and coats lastly if you'd like to support the mission of cfc financially you can do so at the offering boxes on your way out at our website or by using our alexio app all right well good morning cfc we're glad to be able to um spend this this time together to encourage each other um if you are visiting i'm pastor bobby and um is this your first time here or have you been here a couple times you're kind of new if you could just raise your hand briefly it's great to see you anyone else just say hello yeah there you go that's awesome if you if you want afterwards i'll just hang out here for a few minutes i'd love to just shake your hand and say hi you could just drop in right here and and we'll connect for a minute all right we're in the last of uh a three-part series called equip this is something that we've said as a church we want to focus on for about a three year period that we look at what we're doing through the lens of equipping each other and the key passage in ephesians chapter four uh is what we've been working our way through and so uh just by way of summary for you we talked about the idea that god actually equips the body infused through spiritual gifts that he gives you right that he gives me that he gives us the main equipping gifts in the bible that we looked at were the the gift of apostle the the gift of the prophet the gift of evangelism the gift of the shepherd teacher and god has designed uh for these gifts to help build up the body for two different areas for the external work of the ministry and for the internal building up of the body so the external work of the ministry is basically that jesus would go around from town to town and as he would run into people he would see people and that's the encouragement for the for us as believers when we wherever god places you in your workplace or whatever it's very temporary but to see people with with a soul that have an eternal destiny and and in some cases you might just say oh god have mercy on their soul you might pray for them you might invite them for coffee or or to connect with them in some way but to see people uh and not just to be doing tasks all the time that's sort of how jesus went along and did the work of the ministry that way um the building up of the body these spiritual gifts are there to strengthen you and to build you up and we said last week that these are there to equip you towards unity and the beauty that we have to have a whole diversity of people with all different thoughts and beliefs but we are united in christ and that shapes us that that sharpens us right but then we also grow into maturity and fullness the full experience of christ we ended last week with this idea that the body of christ is the church from ephesians 1 where you will experience the fullness of christ and some of you say well where is jesus he feels distance he's here he's the church we are the hands and feet of christ and we experience christ in our experience with each other and so where i want to go today uh is a little bit along those lines that we are the the main mechanism shown in the bible of equipping is that we are actually equipped by speaking truth to each other by speaking truth it's it's truth that leads to growth and if we don't speak truth to each other then nobody's going to grow right and so this is the big idea today is basically that truth leads to growth truth leads uh to growth and that's how we as the body are able to equip each other have you ever been part of a like a a house group small group community group and um and you say well well we meet together because it's the right thing to know we know we're supposed to and then we start dropping off because it's like i've got too many other things that are contending for my schedule and you go to the group and you're cordial and you're like i know i should meet but um you never really connect well with the people well let me we had our community group huddle uh on thursday for our leaders right and so the levels if you think of a baseball diamond the level of relationship is you start in with acquaintances right then you go to uh friends and uh you start uh supporting and encouraging each other then third base is brothers and sisters in christ where you like you give each other permission to speak into each other's lives to hold each other accountable to have some of those very real and frank discussions that can lead to maturity and growth and then the home run is that we all become more like christ through that all right so you're walking through and and the goal is to actually have some really deep and meaningful relationships and in your community group experience it often doesn't happen until the second year is what jen and i have found often in the second year people start getting a little more comfortable start opening up a little bit more and so that's that's where we are um the context of uh ephesians 4 15 how many of you are familiar with that verse just speaking the truth and love have you heard that phrase before so the context of that phrase speaking the truth in love i'll go to verse 14 to show you uh where where where that comes from it says in verse 14 so that we no longer be children tossed to and fro by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by human cunning and craftiness and deceitful schemes so what that where where speaking the truth and love comes in is that we need to be speaking the truth and love to each other because we are growing up in the midst of deception there's deception all around you uh you've been raised in a culture of deception we're swimming in deception all right and so that's why truth telling is actually critical uh to to a flourishing society if we want to have civil cooperation we need to be a a group of people who walk in truth um to treat people with dignity and respect involves truth-telling and it protects us from calamity right we know there's absolute truth there's there's the idea of the red light green light if if you see a light a traffic light and it's red then stop right if you drive through you're gonna get hit right and so so we need to be uh telling the truth to people say there is truth and uh here are some of the dangers and so we want to be uh be sharing with each other you can be super excited and be going 100 miles an hour in the wrong direction right we need to get back on on the right track again and so the ephesians four passages is important on this um right now in the room uh we all have perceptions of things right all of us um i actually had this perception even getting older jen my wife is in rn and so she'll hand me like i have a if i have a cough she gives me some cough syrup right i drink that cough syrup and i feel it go down my throat i said oh it feels so much better oh thank you for that cough syrup so the thought is oh as the syrup goes down it's healing my throat have you ever thought that it has nothing to do with that it actually has medicine in it that'll take a few minutes right to start working but in my mind i'm like oh yeah that just really that felt good that's and so i i like there are these little mental uh things where we kind of focus on something and we're actually wrong but we just assume that we're right that we're correct and uh so just to highlight the deception there is there is that there are winds of doctrine out there that are going to toss you from here to china okay and so satan is behind it and his first words were what were his first words did god really say and so from then satan is still doing that today he's he's casting doubt and wants to bring in false teaching to mess you up and you'll hear it with people people will talk and you're just like divorce him already just get rid of him or or there are multiple ways to heaven you don't have to be so narrow and you hear these little these little things that are said and then so there's wind of doctrine there's human cunning so people intentionally deceiving and then there's craftiness and deceitful schemes where satan is crafting something and trying to deceive humanity so here's an example for you um remember after the vietnam war there was a slogan that came out and it said it said what make love not war and that was the sexual revolution here in the 70s so what is so everybody's like yeah that's so true why are we killing people let's make love and not war and so then we took the war to our marriages right and so so now sex is no longer part of a covenant relationship and and and statistics have shown that 90 of those who cohabitate they end in divorce there's so much pain for the children who grow up in that uh couples can't trust each other anymore because who are you having sex with now and there's all this there's all this oh make love not war right just a simple slogan moves a culture in a direction there's a slogan today i don't know if you guys have seen this it just says love wins love wins right so so that's so true actually love does win but what does that mean in our culture today it doesn't that mean lust wins doesn't it mean that we're telling culture it's okay to use someone else's body to fulfill your sexual lusts take someone else's body you're not married to them it doesn't matter what gender they are just take their body well what was god's original design in this and are you getting off on a right track so is that a cultural slogan that begins to deceive people um so there's another common sentiment out today about uh about the idea that that we are building a utopia here on this earth and so we have to be all in to make sure that this experience here works out well for us right and we don't realize what the bible is saying that life is just a vapor it's here for a moment what really counts is eternity but yet we get all angry about this experience here when actually we're not focusing on that experience so these are subtle things where there is deception all around us let me take you to what some psychologists tell us about how this how deception how you deceive yourself there's actually this new trend where people tend to draw conclusions with only limited understanding it's called the dunning-kruger effect all right and so there's a high level of confidence here in the united states i found in austria in my experience the educational system in austria is is one of the top in the world but they have no confidence they're like i don't know like maybe they're they'll do it better here in the united states our educational system is sort of in the middle compared to the rest of the world but but we have a high level of confidence in the u.s so we'll look at a situation and we'll just assume that we're an expert and it takes you to what we call mount stupid right and the dunner dundeen kruger effect and then we go through the valley of despair and then eventually the slope of enlightenment and and so we know a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing and it shows the inability to recognize a lack of skill inability to recognize lack of skill and mistakes in oneself that that you're you don't recognize in yourself that maybe i don't have enough information to make a judgment so here's what's behind this effect it's called heuristics and heuristics is basically this idea that you and i in in order to bring order out of chaos have the tendency to make mental shortcuts that allow us to make decisions quickly all right so what we will do is we will look at a certain scenario and because it's recent or it's frequent or it's extreme or vivid or negative or because you have pain associated with it right you will look at a situation and you will pass judgment on that situation quickly because you're wanting to bring order out of chaos and so what happens is you have americans who want to be an expert in every area passing judgment on things that that they're really probably not experts in and shouldn't be making final conclusions on and so i'll hear things from physicians who will say someone will come into my office they'll say you know i read read this on this website or on this website and now they're the expert in you know whatever it is for their own well-being and it's interesting to watch that someone will go into the read a little bit in politics uh read a few things and then i'm now i'm the expert a good rule of thumb is that if you haven't been in that role of leadership then be careful in how you judge that because you may be the fool like you may be off in your conclusions on how you're judging things and so that's where our culture is uh continually moving us in a direction to to be judging things and to be deceived by things on a wrong path the book of judges actually says it this way everyone did what was right in their own eyes so at some point when i'm not really filled with god's spirit and seeking his wisdom then i just begin to do whatever is right in my own eyes and make those kind of judgments now let me take that to the church experience kevin harney put out a book called organic outreach and in one of the chapters about loving the church he actually says that and i haven't personally experienced a lot of this but maybe you've you've experienced some of this we're increasingly members of christ's own body the church slander criticize and malign his bride the church so so the new trend then for the up and coming generation is i don't do church like i just do community right like so imagine um sheep in a flock a couple of them stand up and walk up to the shepherd yo i just wanted you to know like i'm done with the whole flocking thing like i'm gonna move on over here you know and and say okay well there may be some wolves over there but you know go ahead you can do that and so we can draw conclusions on things we can be deceived on things through our own culture and it can lead us in into the wrong direction so as far as church do you think church was a human idea or is that god's idea right um is the church supposed to have qualified leaders or is it just groups of people sort of doing their their community um do you think that you need shepherding in your life do you need accountability in your life right and so there's this whole idea of um of people taking their culture and how they view things and then just kind of saying i'm gonna i'm gonna go and do my own thing and there's a danger that's associated with that now the problem with those kind of church experiences is there could actually be really bad shepherding happening very bad church leadership some of you have experienced abusive toxic uh situations that in the name of christianity and you've experienced that you say i don't want that and you you walk right but some of you in your posture towards church and spiritual authority right even the word spiritual authority whoa like uh the idea of accountability or someone even having where you say hey i want to i want you to speak into my life i can't tell you how how blessed i am with our elder board that there's a there's a covering there for me right because bobby in his own head can tell himself whatever he wants to tell himself but with a group of seven of us whoa like we are holding each other accountable we're accountable to harrisburg to our superintendent who's accountable to columbus to our headquarters so there's there's there's a there's an importance of building that safety around you right so we my point today is from verse 14 that we are literally being tossed and turned and tumbled all over the place and you are you're welcome to go and enjoy that journey like i don't need you to you know to do anything for me i'm just saying the church could be a place where you could find some protection in a culture of deception and so now let's look at verse 15 on what that protection looks like rather okay instead of being tossed and tumbled speaking the truth in love we're to grow up in every way into him who is the head into christ so the the journey within a fellowship of believers is to become more christ-like through authentic relationships where we have permission to speak into each other's lives now what is speaking the truth and love let's just talk about that for a minute i want to talk about what it's not so speaking the truth in love is not where you come into a church setting or you come into a community group and week after week after week you experience shmoopies movies movie oh you're so oh you're so wonderful and and so all of the discussion the talk is how great you are how wonderful you are and nobody ever would ever say anything negative or bad or anything like that right so it's all like okay and then the other experience um could be you come in and this happens mostly in new jersey what is wrong with you right and uh so so there can be there can be people here in lancaster who who dominate or they could do it in a very passive way like henry the hinter oh that's kind of nice you know it's like what's you know and so they hint at things but there's very much speaking the truth uh the in love part is sort of in the shadows okay and so the way one way of expressing it is um people can be passive or aggressive with each other right a passive person um and so this this can be my tendency and so just so you know uh cfc i'm talking to myself on this topic as well so it's not just you speaking the truth in love so um the passive individual i'll give up anything to avoid conflict or to gain approval i'll give up anything to avoid conflict conflict makes my postcode i don't want conflict so my idols what i worship is security and comfort right that's what i worship um my goal in life for the passive person is i just want to get to the end with no problems no no no no problems no problems everything's good everything's good you're good everything's good everything's good no problems and i worship comfort and security i don't want uh another problem right and so so that's the passive person the aggressive person somehow in their mind feels like they have the right to go in and tell everybody else what's wrong with them right and so they can do it in in in subtle ways or very aggressive ways to insult use profanity be sarcastic blame and some of the some of the um the idols that are there could be pride um it could be um that power it could be a fear thing that if you tend to dominate um you're afraid of being dominated and so so you'll just push through that and make sure that you're ahead of it right and so you can get aggressive and dominate in that way but speaking the truth in love is something that we can investigate on how that works because jesus did it perfectly the bible says in john 1 that he was full of grace and truth he was filled up with both he was full of grace and truth jesus when you when you read in the gospels and observe the life of christ you start to see that jesus was able to live this balance so beautifully we would say ken hawk in his book actually talks about this that uh speaking the truth and love he jesus was assertive so that instead of being passive or aggressive he was assertive and so what does that mean some of us would assume that that jesus was sort of um this self-sacrificing uh passive and he walked around a little bit effeminate uh being pushed around a little bit taken advantage of and eventually they arrested him and killed him but when you look at the life of christ yes he was compassionate okay and so but then he would stand and and say publicly to the religious leaders you're a brood of vipers woe unto you and he would he would uh he would publicly accuse them that took guts right so and then you see him being very gentle and then he'll make a statement like i didn't come to bring peace but a sword what yeah when you confront culture with truth it's going to be divisive it's going to be divisive you see him being very meek and humble and yet he scolds the disciples for not staying awake to pray you see him interact with people that when people are suffering right he finds solutions for them and he would heal someone on the sabbath to the rich young ruler i love here's here's an example of being assertive it says to this rich young ruler jesus looked at him with love okay so he looks at him he loves him to the ultimate degree and then he says to him sell all that you have and give the money to the poor and come and follow me and the bible says that rich man was so discouraged he walked away with his head hung low and he's trying to think how how could i follow jesus i have all of this and i'm supposed to give it to the poor right so jesus really spoke truth but he did it because he loved this person the goal in speaking the truth in love is that you look at someone through the lens of wanting their best you pray for them you don't you don't speak uh immediately uh sometimes you just need to wait uh and and pray about it before you say something um the goal is for their best it's it's like someone who has cancer um you need chemotherapy right somebody has to tell this person otherwise uh it's going to go badly for them and so so there's got to be this this sense of being assertive someone who genuinely cares the assertive christian is free to tell the truth i'm free from idolatry i don't i don't i don't need your approval i don't need a certain uh scenario uh i don't need um something i'm actually free to just speak the truth into a situation that's someone who's assertive and jesus modeled that um you're free to do god's will so as you're interacting with people in your groups um you're free to pray and say god uh fill me with the knowledge of your will in this situation i'm free to do the will of god i'm not sort of tied and afraid of a relationship you're motivated by love because you've experienced the love of god for you you've been entirely forgiven you've tasted the grace of god you know that you're not perfect yet either you're on a journey and so you're able to love a person freely and so it's beautiful i want to give you an example i've put this out in the past this these three the three images i'm showing in this sermon are up on our website in the notes section if you need them but um this is something you can do with your spouse but it's also something you can do with another person so it starts with hurt feelings let's say you come into your community group and there's someone who comes in they never contribute right they don't bring dessert they don't help cook a meal they don't they don't and when they come in they just are talking constantly not letting other people talk or whatever you might whatever you experience eventually you're like hurt feeling so the the natural thing to do is i'm just going to back away from the relationship i'll go somewhere else where there's a better relationship and nobody ever like interacts with this person to share anything and as a good christian you're supposed to forgive not seven times but seven times okay so that's 490. i don't even know if i can count that high and so it's always i i have to forgive i have to forgive well there's a difference between forgiving someone and actually loving them to the point where it's time to like talk so the anger begins to stir inside the frustration is there and then you have a choice to make i'm going to either flee and withdraw or i'm going to let this problem fester and then usually it leads to isolation in relationships right if you choose to face the conflict then don't go into the conflict assuming that you have 20 20 vision right don't go into the conflict thinking i have the answer i'm gonna i'm gonna demand i'm gonna accuse the person put him down i'm gonna fight oh man i'm winning this argument baby i got this one down and so as they're talking you just see their mouth move there's a little piece of spinach in his teeth and everything and he's just mouth is going going going just wait when he stops talking i got i got the answer to this one right and then you just pounce on it and so here in the united states like from the government all the way down that our leaders have there's a tendency to be a little bit jv in the way we interact with each other this is a great tool right to be able to say you know what i have a choice to make am i going to shoot at this person over the problem or am i going to invite the person on my team to say there's a situation here and i don't know if i see it correctly or not but this is what's happening and because i care about our relationship i care about you i care i want to grow through this can we try to identify this problem together and then find a solution you never bring dessert to our group you never contribute so let's figure this out it seems to me that everyone else is contributing you don't contribute is there something going on in your life that you're like overcrowded over booked like what what's going on over here that uh that we we could understand so we are now inviting into talking together right and then we what happens is the goal is to gain it gain an understanding of each other i want to figure this out let's understand this i want to be willing to offer forgiveness where that's necessary we need to find some compromises where it's necessary and so we're moving in a direction and now we can actually allow some truth to surface but do it in a loving in a gentle way you never want to be the expert pushing someone in a corner forcing them to have to change right but you want to be someone who's on the journey together and you're processing together this is you know the way i see it is this would this be a possible solution you're kind of working together and they get the sense then that you care about them that they're cared for and peop when you do this well it's beautiful to see how people can move in a direction and can grow grow through that so that's the conflict cycle jesus actually asked people a lot of questions to let them process and to let things surface for them a lot of times people have to sort of figure it out on their own and they have to be able to see it in order to move forward now that little cycle there works a hundred percent of the time just to follow through the steps and you'll be fine so right it's messy isn't it isn't it messy speaking the truth in love is messy and sometimes i wonder have i been loving enough right sometimes there's a breach and then it takes a while for for someone to come back around some people will walk right but the the problem is that if if if we're just about peacekeeping and not truth-telling then what happens then we be we become uh pseudo communities right fake communities uh if if peacekeeping is all there is then and there's no truth telling then there's no growth and we just become uh pseudo communities all right so it's important to be willing to walk through that one other key that i've found in this that we have an advantage if you're a christian your identity is in christ right you are loved and you are forgiven and you're in an environment of grace what does that mean that means that i know i'm not perfect i know i'm on on a journey um help me figure this out help me to move forward help me to become a better version of myself and we're support we're in that environment other people who don't have their identity in christ when you try to uh speak to their situation some of them will get really angry because you're attacking their identity right you're like you're of this political persuasion or you're you're you're on this career path that's who you are that's your identity um you have this sexual identity or you're an american first and whatever that is that you become really angry when those things are attacked now those things can spill into christians and christians can have other things as idols as their identity and then when they get really angry about something you can tell whoa like there's something here that's too important to you right now let's talk about that and let's grow through that all right it's beautiful when relationships get to that place where people say i give you permission um to speak into my life i would like you to be a second set of eyes for me and to walk with me and it's beautiful when you can build some of those trusted relationships because what happens then in our verse is we grow up in every way into him who is the head into christ and that's what that's what happens um let's wrap up with verse 16. this is the result here that we are built up so you've got the whole body we're all joined and held together um every joint is equipped each part is working properly and the body is growing and we're we are becoming more christ-like and it's beautiful to see that that if if you're here today and you're a believer if you're watching online and you're a believer you actually have a key role to play in the body of christ everyone working together we would be a group of people who are maturing together when we see that we have a key role now how does that actually work here at cfc um it cannot work by just attending for an hour right or just watching online for an hour like it that can't work um we're we're expanding the cafe to hang out afterwards to make connections you've got community groups and mentorships and people in community groups who say hey let's grab coffee sometime and there are a lot of connections made and there are very sacred moments and so that's how how it can work but here is what we're up against you and i have been raised in a very individualistic culture and i struggle with this so when i get up in the morning by default my tendency is uh this is my day and what do i want today right oh i think i'll start with a cup of coffee and i'm always thinking what do i want next and so i'll bring it into church and again we're in an individualistic culture and we will come to church and say here i am i hope this experience helps me to grow okay so the average american christian will come to church and say i'm going to be a part of this church and i hope this helps me to grow all right but what if the next level of maturity is i actually come to church to see people and help them to grow whoa that's taking it to another level of maturity right i come to church instead of saying i feel like coming to church i don't feel like coming to church that we say by conviction i'm going to make it a priority to connect with others because i have a key role in helping them to grow we want to be a group of believers who are equipping each other and growing what a beautiful thing when there are relationships that are built right where we can support each other and and uh not just be fake but actually speak into each other's lives and pray for i love it when i see that happening and you you get little glimpses of it people are are holding each other accountable praying for each other supporting each other in in a grace-filled environment um anyone here who's who's perfect in all your ways if you could just stand for a minute tell us how you got there right look we're not all there yet we all have our stuff and we're on this journey together but let's let's be real with each other and support each other all right let's pray together lord thank you that you love us we're just not there yet but we thank you that we're covered by the blood of jesus thank you that you gave yourself for us in that way and i just pray that we would be able to grow up together as a body where we can be full of grace and truth where we can develop strong relationships and and give each other permission to speak into our lives we can support each other i just pray in the name and in the power of christ that you would break isolation right now anyone who in the room who is in a place of of being isolated and alone with their struggles that you would break that through the power of your spirit develop a brotherhood and a sisterhood develop those relationships in us god thank you that you've provided the body of christ to do that let us equip each other let us strengthen each other in that way we pray in jesus name amen amen church let's say that worship together one last time before we head out let's sing with joy in our hearts [Music] [Music] cause he opened the prison doors he parted the raging season [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] who always [Music] my god [Music] [Music] let the house of the lord together is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah we give you glory and honor and praise god help us to be the church that you've called us to be in this place and time in history god that we would walk out of here god worshiping with all we have not just with our lips as we're here but with our lives as we go god help us to share love help us to to show peace and bring hope god is such a broken world in such a time as this because it's in jesus name that we ask all these things and that we sing and all god's church said together amen all right i was good to worship with you today church uh if you're new again and want to connect a little bit more we'd love to get to know you so please come on up front and uh stop by for the newcomer drop in otherwise god is walking with you every step amen all right have a great week [Music] is [Music] okay [Music] you are [Music] you have one [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] when the sun was lifted up i saw my shame where he was when the sun was lifted [Music] when the sun was lifted up [Music] [Applause] [Music] space [Music] another song [Music] [Music] [Music] ride around situations [Music] me [Music] you are [Music] me me [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] even when the light is [Music] shaking you are with me [Music] is i [Music] [Music] day i will say my god all right [Music] no longer [Music] now jesus

Channel: Community Fellowship Church

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Id: QObpdwvxJ_4

Length: 80min 35sec (4835 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021