TwinRivers.Church is LIVE! Welcome to our Twin Rivers Online Campus!

[Music] [Music] how's it going twin rivers family and happy sunday we're so excited that you're able to be with us today now if you're new with us here at twin rivers church my name is kennan and i am the online campus coordinator and i'm so happy that you're here with us at church i want to invite you to text the word hello to the number on the screen so we can personally get connected with you and welcome you into the twin rivers family now while you're here with us let us know in the chat where you're all watching from we have many online campus members i would love to hear where you're all joining us from today now if you haven't had the chance to yet we would love for you to follow all of our social media pages we have instagram twitter facebook and even a youtube channel we'll be able to give you more information about upcoming events and more so go ahead and follow all of these while you're here with us today now also hit that share button on facebook with everything going on in the world we want to be able to share a message of joy and hope to everyone and anyone that we can today it is the easiest way to invite somebody to church so we would love for you to hit that share button on facebook we would also love to pray for you as well so simply click the link below in the chat so myself and our staff can be praying for you this week now have you ever wanted to join a team grow in a relationship with people and help others grow in a relationship with jesus then you should join our online dream team you see each week we interact with so many people online through encouragement and through prayer now whether you want to join our team by becoming a life group leader online by welcoming people online at our services or praying for people we have a place for you now if you want to learn more about your unique design and how god can use you to help others through our church you should go through connect track online simply go to www.twinrivers.church for more information well i hope you're ready for church like i am because we're about to get started in just a minute [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to twin rivers we are so glad you're here with us today if this is your first time here we're excited you've chosen to spend your sunday with us and we would love to give you a gift right after service you can head to connect central in the lobby and a member of our dream team will give you your gift this is a way to say thank you for joining us today and a chance for us to get to know you more today is the after party this year community matters now more than ever and the after party is the perfect way to make new friends you won't want to miss this after party today after service we're having a backyard barbecue at all of our campuses it's going to be so much fun and the perfect kickoff to the fall season each campus has something unique they're adding to their party so join us today for the after party if you have any questions or want to know more about what you just heard check us out online at twinrivers.church or stop by connect central in the lobby and we'll be happy to help you we're so glad you've joined us today and we're about to get started in just a minute [Music] so [Music] hey well good morning twin rivers we're so glad that you're here with us today whether in person or online welcome hey let's start the day off right we're going to give jesus our very best he is worthy of our highest greatest loudest praise so let's hold nothing back from him this morning let's get it all turned together let's go that crazy weapon that silence is the enemy let praise be a weapon that conquers all anxiety let it [Applause] rise we sing your name in the dark and it changes everything [Music] we sing with all we are and we claim your victory you god we praise faith be the song that overcomes the raging sea let faith be the song that calms us [Applause] [Music] you cannot survive when we with all creation cry we praise you this is what living looks like this is what freedom feels like this is what heaven sounds like we praise you we praise you this is one living come on sit down this is what freedom feels like this is what heaven sounds we praise you we praise you this is what freedom feels like this is with all creations we praise you we praise you come on let's keep that praise going this morning we thank you jesus that we serve a god who brings dead things to life come on if you agree with that come on lift up a shout out please this morning [Music] man's empty praise that faith are never enough oh then you came along thank you jesus and you put me back together and every desire isn't now satisfied hear it your love come on we sing this together as one accord [Music] do you believe nothing is better than you there's nothing better than jesus come on let's sing this together for i'm not afraid to show you my weakness and my failures and thoughts lord you've seen them all and you still call me fred thank you jesus yes he's the god of the valley [Music] cause there's not a place your mercy and christmas won't find me again come on with one voice come on let's declare it oh there's none that's better than you there's nothing more better than you though thank you jesus nothing is better than you there's nothing better there's nothing better come on [Music] nothing in this world can satisfy nothing in this world is like jesus hey cause you turned morning today and said come on you get beauty for ashes thank you jesus and [Music] you foreign [Music] [Music] season you're the only one [Music] from your heart [Music] is [Music] is jesus be the only one give god praise hallelujah hallelujah can we sing that one more time together oh there's nothing it's better than you there's nothing that's better than you jesus nothing is better than you one more time let's raise that up together [Music] oh there's nothing that's better than jesus [Music] [Music] jesus we believe that today that truly nothing is better nothing is greater than you are now that's why we've come here this morning to worship you to give you our very best our highest praise because you are great you are greatly to be praised god there is nothing on this earth that is better than you are that is more worthy than you are so we give you our full attention all of our worship this morning [Music] you are here moving in our midst i worship you i worship you you are here and you're working in this place i worship you i worship you you are here you're moving in armies i worship you i worship you and you are here working in this place i worship you i worship you let's sing it together church we make a miracle work promise keep light in the darkness my [Music] my you are here touching every heart i worship you [Music] let him heal you today i worship is is [Music] is you are you know the word of the lord tells us that our god this god that we're singing about is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think or imagine and so when we're worshiping today we're putting our faith together saying god i believe that you're a waymaker i believe you're going to keep every promise that you've ever made i believe that you can work a miracle in my life so today let's declare this in faith that even when i don't see it i know that that's the god i'm singing to you when i don't see it you're working even when i don't feel it you're working you never stop you never stop working you never stop you never stop working and even when i don't see it you worry and even when i don't feel it [Music] even when i don't feel it miracle work farm is is [Music] oh my god that is who you are [Music] that is we make miracle work promise keep come on i can't sing on behalf of your faith it's got to be your own way may miracle work come on i feel faith rising in the room come on sing it again we make a miracle work is [Music] but we believe that today that that's who we're singing to that we're singing to a waymaker we're singing to a god that keeps all of his promises that's never let us down he's never failed us and he's never going to lord we put all of our hope we put all of our trust in your name alone today knowing that you truly can do exceedingly abundantly involved all we could ask think or imagine so we give you the highest praise we give you all the glory we give you all the honor we worship your name come on is that on if you believe is the waymaker give him all that he's worthy of today amen they made what an incredible time worshiping and praising our incredible god hey we're so glad that you've joined us today why don't you find someone around you maybe you've never met them before i know we got a lot of guests come on welcome each other to church today [Music] well good morning twin rivers man i hope you guys are having an awesome sunday so far today can you guys do me a favor can we welcome our online campus man we're so glad that you guys are part of our church family no matter where you're watching from whether around the city around around the country even even around the world man we're so glad that you're choosing to spend your sunday with us but uh hey if we haven't had the chance to meet yet my name is justin goodson i'm one of the pastors on staff here man it's just so good that you're here with us today and uh want to talk to you specifically if you're new around here that you're a guest with us today i'm going to challenge you to do something i'm going to give you something here's here's my challenge take our three week challenge say what's that it's it's pretty simple we just ask you to come three weeks in a row and here's why we ask you to do that we found that churches just like relationships just takes time to get to know someone takes time for us to get to know you you to get to know us and so we just ask that you come for the next three weeks check us out because every service is just a little different and so come those next three weeks and we just believe at the end of those three weeks you'll know if we're the church family for you we hope and pray you are but hey there's a bunch of great churches in st louis we're one of them we hope you just commit to one of them and so also um for so here's my gift to you at the end of service we have a free gift just uh would love to meet you personally you just go out these doors to my left there's a table there we call it connect central we'd love to just give you that gift and shake your hand hear your story and uh find out a little bit more about you you know one of the things i love about our church and i love about you is we are a super generous church and so we thought today for the after party it would be fun just to give some stuff away and so then go ahead and put that slide on the screen you can text the word free to the phone number on the screen you say what am i winning well you could win a brand new barbecue pit so brandy barbecue grill come on we're going to give you some super fancy steaks i had some of these steaks they're called waigu steaks if you've never heard of it it's fine it's fancy you're going to love it so we're going to hook you up with that we got some grilling utensils different stuff like that so go ahead take out your phone right now i see i can see you i can see you you're not doing it i'm just trying to give you free stuff and so uh text the word free to the phone number on the screen they'll put that up you'll get a here's how it works you text free to that phone number you'll get a text back from us it'll say hey tell us about you you know we'll just ask your name phone number email and then you'll get a text back from us today if you want and you can leave well you can't leave with the stakes because i didn't want to give you lukewarm steaks and so but everything else you can leave with today and we just want to bless you and and and give you that today you know in the spirit of generosity you know we just wanted to show you a video uh this year we have been focusing on reaching the next generation and so something you did that was awesome we just wanted to highlight and show you you paid for every child and every student to go to summer camp this year and it was 100 absolutely free of charge to families and so your generosity made a way for us to do that man the kids experienced god many of them gave chose to follow jesus it was just an awesome they had tons of fun at the same time we just wanted to show you this video so check it out [Music] this june over 110 kids went to a week of summer camp totally free [Music] they had lots of fun got to meet new friends and countered the love of jesus 30 kids chose to follow jesus [Music] and in july we sent 70 students to the motion conference all for free new friendships began and old ones grew [Music] [Applause] the holy spirit moved multiple students felt called to ministry and 16 students decided to follow jesus lives were changed for eternity because of you you volunteered you prayed you gave we're making an impact in the next generation because of you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] how's everybody doing today good great to see you today who's excited to go eat right i know listen i know i know i am on a clock i get it okay i get it you're smelling it as you came in come on i'm gonna get you out so we're gonna jump right in um i want you to turn in the bible to the new testament book of second timothy i'd love for you to follow along new testament book of second timothy if you're a guest it's an honor to have you as well i just want to take the next few minutes to kind of just just build you up a little bit today um but while you're turning i need to tell you about a series beginning next week and i need everybody's attention on this um because i want you to know next week i'm gonna be begin a teaching series several weeks on the topic of sex i have just enjoyed that reaction all day like like for some of you you just choked on your mints and then there are about 10 of you that for the first time went did he say is and you leaned in like i i have your attention now um here's where i know i know sex is not the thing that you think we would be talking about in church and that's the problem and i want to tackle it and i was praying about it and i just felt like i dropped this this this need in my heart and i was almost like you sure you know um but here's the thing you every one of you were created as a sexual being and and the bible is full of sex talks about it from every which angle to help us live with god's view on it and so um there's more pain caused by it there's more uh people struggle with their past because of it people bondage in the in the present and also there's a blessing for the future when you have god's understanding of it so i'm gonna take the next few weeks to unpack that so here's what that means for you number one um you need to be here you need to be here because it affects every single person here every one of you you need to invite someone to come and this is the easiest invite ever you can say hey come watch this guy crash and burn as he talks about sex in church like it's the easiest invite ever and then and then listen i'm also letting you know because if you have children we have incredible child care every service that you can try twin rivers kids your students can go to twin rivers students it's an awesome opportunity for you to try that out some of you are so uncomfortable you're gonna volunteer in there next week okay i get it but but listen and here's the last one you need to be careful who you set beside because it's gonna be spicy so you know i don't want you getting all embarrassed if you're sitting beside your grandma sent her on the other side of the church on sunday okay that's all i'm saying is it's gonna be good gonna be helpful but don't set by your grandmother okay now so today we're gonna finish up this series that we've been in called um it's called keeping faith in a world going crazy just this idea that if we've watched the news over the last few weeks of the last few months of the last few years it just feels like things have gone crazy and scripture speaks directly to it from the book of second timothy and so we've been learning lesson by lesson of how to be a follower of christ in a world turned upside down and my prayer is this series which you can go back and listen to has been an encouragement to you it's brought you back to center but most of all here's what i pray i pray that now you can love well and stand strong and that was paul's goal when he wrote this letter it's not really a book it's his final letter to a young pastor named timothy who was struggling in his own culture as it walked away from god and paul writes him lesson after lesson to help him stand strong in following christ but to also love well now paul's coming to the end of his life as a matter of fact he's covered almost 20 000 miles as a missionary he spent 30 years planting churches and he's written 13 new testament books which we still hold today and he's coming to the end and he's giving us kind of his swan song and it's interesting the last chapter he spends the most time talking about one specific area his relationships and he's trying to to convey to timothy an important lesson this is paul's most personal letter written and he's trying to convey this that timothy there are going to be seasons that are so trying in your relationships you'll want to give up on the whole concept that your resolve is going to be tested in crazy times in your relationships but don't give up and he's writing this at the darkest season he's ever had relationally as a matter of fact you can you can kind of just pull out four things that paul is struggling with just in this moment the first one's this he's endured great relational loss because there's just some people who are now at distance from him his incarcerations have kept him from gathering with those he loves and those relationships have faded he's also lost some friendships to some ideologies he talks about that that false teaching starts to erupt in the church and there's some people who who he can't believe it but they've come to the place where they would rather hold a viewpoint and give up a friendship and it's it's caused him great pain he's also got some just plain out divisions just because you got the the phrase apostle on the front of your name doesn't mean you can't offend people or have disagreements and he's just lost relationships to just true differences and then paul's also lost some folks to death rome at this time has went under a great famine and and the church is under great persecution people paul loved have died and he's been gripped by the grief of it now here's the thing um paul's enduring not just one of these but all of these at the exact same time and it's almost unbearable i would say it this way you know how unbearable it is because so have you in the last two years there's not a person watching or sitting that hasn't lost somebody to one of these and and here's the thing most of us have lost someone to each of these i'll be the first to stand up and kind of hold my hand up as a pastor my my world's people and now you may assume coming in today or watching online that you know a church this size and campuses that like you know kayla and i just it's just a crowd no no no make no mistake about it it's people like people we love people we live and die with and every single loss we felt i could take you through people who have relocated and then the relationships that i always thought would be there that have already faded i could give you a list of people who have been swept away in a political or social ideology that after years of us walking together they've looked at me and said i just don't believe all that anymore i now hold to this i could take you to people who have been offended by something i've said something i've done something i haven't done some stance we've taken some stance we didn't take and who have walked away and i've buried way too many people and like you i've been tempted to just want to go you know what i'm just going to withdraw from all this relationship stuff i'm just going to disconnect i'm just not going to put myself out there as much because it hurts but i keep coming back to the truth that paul's trying to convey is this life just doesn't work alone it's only better together that that as much as we would like for to be self-sufficient and independent the truth is you'll never find satisfaction in any of that we it only works when we're together and that's because god in his wisdom designed us that our lives are to be lived as a group project not an independent study how many of you remember in school have had group projects in independent studies how many of you liked individual like assignments like you love the individual stuff right i see some of you this is the smart people in the room right you like the individual how many of you love group projects who love that that's the people who always that's the that's the people the smart people hate because you're the one in my mind i do all the work and you're just here right listen god in his wisdom here's what he decided he said your life is a group study you can't graduate to who you want who i want you to become without other people you can't pass some of the hardest tests without other people you can enjoy this experience without other people it's a group study and we have to commit no matter the pain to we're going to be in these relationships but more than any other time in this series i feel like that god just sent me here today because you're at a pivotal moment you're in a moment where you you've lost a lot and and and you've lost a lot of people and and you're kind of just considering you know what i just don't think i'm going to do this anymore and it's so pivotal because i just feel like the lord wants me to come in and kind of prod you along to this reality hey hey don't give up and the best way i could give you an example would be this yesterday we commemorated as a nation the events of september 11th obviously 20 years ago we all remember you remember where you were you remember the visuals in april i was at ground zero at the 9 11 memorial and and if you've never been there it's breathtaking to stand in the middle of of new york and see these these craters where these buildings used to stand i mean huge bigger than you could ever imagine and to stand there and think of of how far how wide how how deep the rebel of that destruction went it's just breathtaking i mean it feels like a holy place because of the loss of life but but but if you only look at what what happened you would miss part of of what makes the memorial so moving if you look across the memorial you also are going to see freedom tower now freedom tower was the building built in response to 911's attacks it's it's it was built faster um with no expense spared than nearly any other building like it in the world and it is the tallest building in america and the reason they put so much into it is because that they knew that this isn't just a building this is a statement this is a statement that crisis does come and when it does we mourn but we don't stand looking at the rubble we rebuild to show life goes on listen and i feel like that's what god sent me here to say to you today that hey in the last couple of months you've lost some people you've lost some friends you've lost family and there's this temptation to pull back there's this temptation not only i'm gonna get with my for and no more and and what i sense god saying to you is no no no it's time to rebuild it's time to build a larger community than you've ever had one that can enlarge you and your faith that god still has friends that he still has relationships that he still wants you to experience the joy and the peace that come from people that he puts into your life don't don't shrink back it's time to rebuild what you've lost it's no longer time to just look at the rubble it's time for you to roll up your sleeves and go i'm going to give this relationship thing a chance again in my life and i just believe that if you'll do that a year from now you're not going to be looking at rubble instead you're going to be looking at god's plan for your life unfolding through people in your life now so here's what i'm going to do this is paul's most personal letter um so i want to get really personal today i wish i wish if i had time i'd do it with every one of you i want you to think of the next few moments like we're sitting across a coffee table from each other and i want to talk to you not in principles or around you i want you to listen and as i talk i want you to consider holy spirit is that me is that my step is that what i need to do because i'm telling you i've just brought you action steps today that i think are not all of them aren't going to be yours but one of them maybe two are going to be yours and it's god's way of saying this is how you begin to rebuild okay here's the first one some of you need to find refreshing relationships um you need to find some refreshing relationships paul had them and he highlights them for us in chapter one when he says may the lord show mercy to the household of her nephew because he often refreshed me and he was not ashamed of my chains on the contrary when he was in rome he searched hard for me until he found me come on i need a friend who will search for me till he finds me don't you don't you want some friends that are listen what he's referring to is the fact that when under nero if you went to visit another christian in jail you were yourself arrested so paul lost almost everyone because they wouldn't put their life at risk but not this guy he said i'm gonna show up and be a friend even when it cost me something and paul said the fact that he would show up it refreshed me you know what that means in the greek it means he put breath into me man i need some people you need some people who put breath into you like who refresh you with wisdom when you're confused like who who refresh you with encouragement when you're fearful who refresh you with humor when the day's gotten heavy i need some people like that in my life and you need some people we want people like that so why don't you got them why don't why are they missing well there may be different reasons but i think the number one is this we avoid asking we avoid inviting we avoid saying i need help see there's this false number in life that that like people just fall into your life things fall into place things just come about but i can't add value to you until you give me permission and when i say i need you that's permission and some of us just have obstacles to asking for help some of us are here today and to ask for help makes us feel weak so we're not gonna do it i'd rather be strong and alone than i would be weak and with people some of you are here and and for you it's just trust issues you've been so hurt in the past that every other potential relationship right now and you see it through suspicion can't be that good they can't really mean that they're always going to do this for some of you it's shame like you have such a low opinion of yourself that you could never imagine another person wanting to receive you or accept you for some of you it's just you don't want to be a burden because you see yourself as a chore you think why you know they're so busy they got so much going on i mean for me to bring my problems to them that would just listen it doesn't matter what your excuse is here's what happens when you and i don't ask we inadvertently start wearing a mask we come to we come to to to every gathering with people every interaction acting as though we don't need what we really need it reminds me of um of a story there was a guy who desperately needed a job and so he applied for a position at a local zoo and he sat down with the head of hiring in the head of hiring said hey we've only got one position and it's unusual he said a few months ago our gorilla died and we don't have enough money to to get a new one so we've got this gorilla suit and we need you to dress up and act like the gorilla until we get enough money to buy a new gorilla the guy said are you serious i said that's the only job i got you guys well it's a job so the guy puts on this gorilla suit and gets in the cage and it's awkward the first few days i mean he you know he's struggling i mean but at night he's watching national geographic you know he's he's studying up and then he he hits his stride i mean he gets into the role and he becomes one of the largest attractions to the zoo like people come and stand around they look they cheer i mean he's killing it as this gorilla well one day he's swinging from vine divine and he gives it a little too much gusto and he swings into the neighboring cage which is which holds a large african lion and he is face to face with this lion and and and he can feel its hot breath and he knows he's a goner so he just instinctively starts screaming help help get me out of here help and all of a sudden the lion whispers shut up you idiot or we'll both be out of a job [Applause] here here's the lesson of that story is this we're all hurting we're all hiding so we might as well take off the masks listen we all might as well admit we need each other and that means for some of you you you need to just open up to people for example i there's um a family in our church who told me the story recently that um they had went through great financial difficulty the the one lost their job one sales plummeted and and um and bill's starting to pile up their faith's going down and they they carried it and did the best they could for a few weeks but then finally they came to an elder one sunday and just we're just honest this is just where i am this is what's going on will you pray for us the situation so touched the elder's heart that he reported it up and and when we found out about it we sent a check to help them with the next month's bills just to take a little pressure off but then someone else found out about it and sent him a card and encouraged him to keep standing in faith and that god's going to come through and then someone else heard about that and they knew someone in our church who was hiring and so they reached out to that person and they connected the two and one of them the one that lost ended up working for that person and loves their job now now here's all i'm saying under one roof god met every single need through people this is something you need to you need to always remember about god his his delivery system of choice is people that's the way he sends most of his goodness into your life so have you with your honesty closed that system down or opened it wide for what you need listen some of you need to get back out there and be open to friendships again some of you need to i know you got friends for friday but you need to get some friends that spur you spiritually listen i i some of you you come in like you got it all together you need to take off the mask and get get around some people who you can just say i don't have it all together listen that's why we work tirelessly on a thing called life groups if you're new to our church you may assume that this church is only open one day a week but you'd be wrong we are seven days a week this is not the best part of this church the best part of this church is what we call life groups which is a smaller group of people who get together around all kinds of different interests and and life stages and but here's the best part it's people who when you walk in they're all pursuing jesus and they've all already taken off their masks like the minute you show up they're going hey we need him and we need each other and that's why we're here when you choose a life group you're not just choosing something to do you're choosing the group of people god's going to work through in your life and that's why it's so important you can choose that today they just started you haven't even missed anything yet you can go online and choose one or you can go to connectcentral we'll help you find one every time every time slot day of the week interest age you can be a part of one here's how strongly i feel about it if you're alone in this church it's only because you want to be it's not because it's not because we don't have an opportunity for you to have some refreshing friends here's the second one some of you need to release some relationships you know to know people is to know pain right and we know that but here's the problem we handle pain so poorly kayla and i were in london a few years ago and we were going through a museum and we learned about the english civil war of 1649. and i didn't know much about it maybe you do but um what happened is is that king charles was ruling and an insurgency led by a guy named cromwell rose up they took him out of power and 59 members of parliament wrote a a declaration that king charles should be publicly and humiliated and executed so they so they did that they carried out this execution well the problem was is that cromwell and his 59 friends only ruled for about 11 years and then they got overtaken by charles's son king charles ii and when king charles ii came into power he so resented what they had done to his father that he got that list of 59 out and he had all 59 arrested except for there were 15 that had already died so you know what he had him do he had them dig them up out of the grave bring them into parliament and he put them on trial for treason they said that he would he would walk past the corpse like a lawyer and say and what do you have to say for defending yourself see obviously in a mission of guilt and then he sentenced them to death and had them all hung or re-killed now that i sound crazy i mean that's nuts until you consider that many of you multiple times a week dig up something that happened in the past and you put your offender on trial and then you convict them that the sentence they should have had but the only thing you're missing is it doesn't hurt them it just kills you listen when it comes to pain it's inevitable so you only got two choices you either learn to resent people or you learn to release people resentment resentment always perpetuates pain releasing them always replaces pain with peace which is why paul wrote alexander the coppersmith did me great harm but that is no concern of mine for the lord will repay him according to his actions don't miss this this is the secret if you've ever struggled to forgive anyone this is the secret see um paul just gave you the secret the secret to forgiving people is to have full confidence in god so what what do you mean i love god it's the people i can't stand no no no you're missing you're missing um forgiveness is a faith issue not an offender issue see you have to have faith that god is just that he sees all that he notes all and that he will bring to justice all and if you have enough faith that he does that you don't worry about what they did you can release them it does you no good the lord will repay them and and so so listen i'm not asking you to trust them again i'm not asking you to get a relationship with them again i'm not even asking you to forget it i'm just asking you to entrust god with it he said i don't even know how to do that it's simple it's called prayer this this is i i even wrote it out for you this is a prayer that will help you release someone every time that anger starts to break every time you start sending your mind to go dig up what they did you need to pray this prayer here it is it's heavenly father you know all you see all and justly rule over all therefore i release and you fill in their name now i know for some of you that's just like a short box some of you got it's like columns a b c excel sheet page page page i get it just there's enough room for you and i release them to you to receive peace from you amen and here's what's going to happen you're going to have to pray that 10 000 times but every time you pray it it moves your heart more towards god and less weight and further away from pain and eventually you'll get to the place where you're not digging it up anymore you're not thinking about it anymore and you've truly released them to god and there's a result by the way god didn't just tell us to do it he incentivized it here it is luke 6 37-38 these are the words of jesus do not judge and you will not be judged do not condemn and you will not be condemned forgive and you will be forgiven give and it will be given to you a good measure pressed down shaken together running over will be poured into your lap for with the measure you use it will be measured to you some of you church people thought this was about money it's about forgiveness he's saying hey when you release what they did i'll release what you need i'll release peace if you need peace joy if you need joy friends if you need friends partners if you need partners and i'll release it in such an amount that it will drastically overcome what you've lost that's what i said so you know what this means this means for you you're one act of surrender away from receiving exactly what you need from god because his promise is you release them and i'll release what you need here's the last one or excuse me the third one you need to reconcile some relationships how come it seems like preachers all they do is ever talk about what happened to us but you know what i know about this crew y'all done some stuff to people too so sometimes we need to take responsibility for what we've done to other people we need to reconcile some things in acts 15 which is earlier than than second timothy paul is on a missionary journey and he's got his team with him barnabas and a guy named mark will they get into some serious trouble and mark can't stand it anymore he gets gripped by fear and he deserts paul and barnabas well paul is like you're not going to be my my you know live and die kind of friend if you do that and he makes it very well known how much he how little he thinks of mark mark's a deserter he doesn't deserve to carry the gospel he's not going to be used by god i mean he really just lets him have it and it creates a lot of pain for mark and puts attention for years between mark's friends and paul's friends there's a division over it coming to the end of his life though paul looks at his life and he says you know what one of the things that i need to rebuild is i need to take responsibility for what i said to to mark and he writes this in chapter four he says only luke is with me but make sure to get mark and bring him with you because he is helpful to me in my ministry i thought you said he was a deserter no no no i'm taking that back he's helpful paul sent a letter to apologize some of you need to send a text message to apologize somebody sent an email somebody sent a phone call that says hey let's get together for coffee i need i need to take responsibility and i get like immediately your mind's filled with i can't you know that's because it's not natural apologies are just not natural they're just not as a matter of fact um i know this because i'm raising a bunch of kids and i can get them to eat broccoli before i can get them to apologize like i'm serious if i say you know apologize for what you did to your sister i mean there's just it's like obstinance like well listen i'm gonna take your toys if you don't i'd rather go without toys than say i'm sorry and then it's like no no apologize and then the first attempt is grunting that's not what nobody understands that what do you mean and then you keep pushing and keep pushing till finally the best you're gonna get is i'm sorry i'm not gonna look you in the eye i'm sorry and it's funny because kids are like that but we're not that different listen we've got our pride tells us to minimize it to look over it to deny it to blame them maybe nobody taught you i'm not sure that i was ever taught how to apologize i'm going to teach you today okay an apology is not well i'm sorry you feel that way that's not an apology here's an apology an apology first owns up to your own responsibilities and what you did it second acknowledges how they feel it then requires that you ask for their forgiveness and then finally you ensure them you're working that it doesn't happen again so it's not i'm just sorry no no no it's hey i'm sorry that i did this and it's on me i did that i reacted that way i did these things and i understand how it makes you feel i've seen the pain it caused you will you forgive me and and and and in your forgiveness i just want you to know i'm gonna do my best to do these things to make sure that doesn't happen again now there's power in that and here's why there's so much power in that because in your relationships there's a container every one of them and and the more that a fence gets put in put into the container the the more it grows and grows and grows until it starts to overflow and it causes a toxicity everywhere in your relationships and and every every relationship has this container and you can't get rid of this container and you can't not be offended because that's just what it is to know people so you know what you have to do empty the container to keep it from overflowing and toxicity and an apology is how you empty a container apologies give people a fresh start they're divine listen i i'm people that go around talking about spiritual power all the time i'm so tired of hearing that spiritual power is how well you sing or preach spiritual power show me how much harmony are in your relationships like i want to see because conflict's inevitable but reconciliation that's divine because it gives a fresh start listen it was so powerful that we don't have any record of mark doing any ministry before this moment after he was hurt no record of him ever doing anything for christ after this moment he goes full into his his his um purpose and you know what he does he writes the gospel of mark he goes from a deserter to a gospel writer because an apology gave him a fresh start this is the step for some of you here's the last one recognize the most important relationship listen relationships with people are very important relationship with god must be priority because he's the only one that will never leave you or forsake you listen i know i know you're in love and they said they'll always be there they they mean it they just don't have the capacity to fulfill it i know that we've been friends since grade school i love it continue on but one day there'll be a moment that you can't stand with each other but christ has a way of always standing with us that's what paul wrote this is my favorite verse of the whole whole series the whole whole book at my first hearing no one stood and stood up in my defense everyone abandoned me i pray that it won't be held against them however the lord stood by me and he gave me strength so that i could finish spreading the good news for the nations to hear listen to me some of you have been through the absolute toughest season of your life you've had to wrestle with thoughts you never ever thought would enter your head you've had to navigate the losses of people you never thought your life would be without and there is this compounding isolation that makes that even more difficult and in no way am i trying to minimize what you've been through but i need you to know you have never been alone because the lord has stood by you he said but pastor i'm going to be honest with you in this season i've made some really bad decisions not only have i made bad decisions i haven't put much into my relationship with god doesn't matter god's presence in your life is not based on your performance it's based on his unconditional love and he's decided that he will stand by you in every moment he's standing there when you got up this morning he'll be standing there when you go to bed tonight he's standing there on your best days and he's standing on your worst days he's standing there when you're surrounded by people and he's standing there when he's just been you and all you felt it was completely alone he's been standing there when when you you've been doing really well and he's been standing there when you've broken down he's been standing there when you you spiritually ten sundays in a row and he's been standing there when you only come for a hot dog listen he's been standing there in your life at every moment because of an unchanging unwavering unconditional love that is his motive listen to me it's the reason that 2000 years ago he stood in your place and took the sins that you deserved it's the reason today no matter how much you pursue him or how little you pursue him he stands by you even now and it's why in eternity as you enter into eternity he'll be the first one you see standing to welcome you into eternal life you can't shake his love for you so you've never been alone but let me point out that paul doesn't just say that the lord stood with me he said that he's given me strength now those are two different things though that's the dividing line between people in this room listening online listen he stands with everyone but he only gives strength to those who are in a personal relationship with him that you're not receiving that divine strength if your relationships went dormant so listen listen here's what i've learned about life you can tell where your relationship is with god based on how tired you feel some of you are very tired and you think i need a nap i need a day off i just need a vacation but let's be honest you've tried all that already you're tired in your soul and it's because you're depending on your own strength what you need is a personal relationship with the god who's standing by you and in that personal relationship as you put that priority his strengths gonna start flowing in your life in a way like you never could and oh by the way why is that important because no relationships work until your relationship with god is right he's the one that gives us strength to do the other things will you bow your heads and close your eyes just as a closing out a moment of reflection for you personally i don't want you wondering about what other people are thinking i don't want you wondering about what other people are are considering what's god saying to you just more than any other message in this series i've just i've wanted to set across from you and i wanted to talk to you about the relational struggles that you've been having and how god wants to work in them i want to talk to you about the losses you've been feeling if you're here today and you would say pastor joe i'm i'm gonna just own up to it no mask my relationship with god is not where it needs to be it's not priority and let me be clear i'm not talking about religion i'm not talking about like perfect attendance in church or giving or a label you wear i'm talking about a relationship you know him he knows you your heart desires him you you sense him speaking guiding your life if that's not present then your relationship with him is dormant but it only takes a decision to re-get to reopen it it's the most important decision of your life is your personal relationship with christ because for this world it gives you strength and for the world to come it gives you salvation and so here's what i want to do today i want to pray for you if you're here today and you say pastor joe i'm just going up to it i need to restart i need to recommit i need to commit for the first time my relationship with christ i'm moving it to number one it's going to be priority i'm giving it another go i'm going all in will you pray for me i want to pray for you i'm not going to embarrass you though um i i'm going to pray for you right in your seat but i'd love to put a face with the prayer so if you're here today and you say pastor joe pray for me i'm choosing today to put god first i'm tuesday to follow him would you um could you just stick your hand up so i could nobody's looking around it's just me i see that hand in the balcony come on pastor joe pray for me today i'm choosing to follow him come on come on put it up i want to see you i see you yeah come on pastor i'll pray for you i see that hand yep yep i see up there i see those three yeah i see yeah i see you on the right hold it up honestly i see you i see you i see you i see you i see you i see you i see you yep you and you yeah i see you over here yep you over there yeah pastor you'll pray for me today i'm choosing to follow jesus in the middle here i see you three yeah who else anybody else pastor will pray for me today i see you yes ma'am yes yes hey how you doing i see you i see you yep anybody else anybody else pastor i'll pray for me today i'm choosing one more pass one pass i don't want to miss you i see you over there yep now listen i want to pray for you but first i want us to pray together there's a prayer on the screen if you raise your hand that was your this is your moment listen nobody else matters right now it's just me and you and what god's doing in you i want you to look to the screen these are words but listen they're not magic this is just to put some some words to what god's doing in your heart he's speaking to you right now and so this is your response to him and i'm just i'm just giving it to you because maybe this is new so i want us to pray it together on the count of three one two three heavenly father i admit that i am a sinner and i'm lost without you i believe christ died in my place making a way for us to have a relationship i choose to follow jesus and his way for the rest of my life now i'm going to pray for you father thank you for every one of these people who had enough just courage to look at where they are and to own it and to take off the mask and say i need i need you i need this relationship i need your strength not just my own i need your peace not not just what my own i need your joy and father as they've opened themselves to you may you pour in your love your grace your mercy may god you pour in just their encouragement may today they they be changed on the inside i mean just just just different never the same and may god you bring the right people in to reinforce this moment with relationships as they join a life group as they they meet people today god just bring people around them in a perfect perfect kind of organization god of just like an air traffic controller caused them to come across the paths of the perfect people to help them grow this relationship with you god you're with them and now you are strengthening them and i pray they sense it today as they leave i bless them and i thank you for the miracle that is a new life because of your son's work on the cross in jesus name and everybody says all right so here's what we're going to do i want you to stand to your feet and i want you to give them the biggest god bless you for the decision they made today that is a big big big big deal big celebration that we're gonna throw a party over it now listen we're gonna let you go we're gonna give you some instructions hang in there just one second we love to end our services we're just telling god how good he is can you take just about 60 seconds and tell god how good he is as we enter back into this song my god that is who you are is [Music] [Music] that is [Music] come on today's message i i don't know about you but i just needed that i needed to reframe some relationships and and pursue some restored relationships and just believe god that he would heal and mend and restore and renew some some friendships so man we're just so glad that you're here it really is a privilege and honor that you chose to spend your sunday with us we know that you could be anywhere but hey if you're in this room there's a next step for you if you're one of those people who was many people who made the decision to follow jesus do me a favor and just stop by one of these tables in the back we just have a free gift for you we're not going to hassle you or harass harass you we just want to give you that free gift and in that gift it's just a path a map for your first 40 days following jesus we're going to help you with that we just want to give you that gift and you started the journey today and you needed help on that journey so we want to walk with you in that journey so that gift is going to help you with that this is your first time here your guest man i'd love to shake your hand get to know you we've got a free gift for you at connect central as well for everybody else maybe we got some great food out there we got some all kinds of fun some giant trampoline thing you can get on it's going to be a good time but i just want to pray for you as we close today's service father we're grateful for what you're doing in this service god what the the the friends that you brought the relationships that we can have the opportunity to begin and to restore and to renew father we pray that you just moved you have your way in our lives gather we as we leave here today god we pray you just a protection over each person god we everything we do we do for your glory and god we're grateful for what you're doing in our lives in jesus name and everybody said amen well hey we love you guys hope you have fun great i would love to hear what your favorite parts were so use the chat below and let us know what was the most impactful moment for you in this message now i want to remind you today that when you give two twin rivers you give through twin rivers we support and partner with multiple organizations in our city and around the world we always want to remember to put god first give him our absolute best and to give back to our communities and that's why we give now there's two easy ways that you can give today either online or through text message thank you so much for your generosity you're making a huge difference in the world well i hope you all have an amazing rest of your day and we'll see you here next week at twin rivers church [Music]

Channel: TwinRivers.Church

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Length: 77min 19sec (4639 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021