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

[Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] how's it going twin river's 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] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [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] all right good morning to rivers we're so glad that you're here with us today can we let my stand your feet welcome everyone joining us online hey we're gonna start the day off right we're gonna give god the highest praise we're gonna give him our very best today so come on focus our attention our affection on the one who's worthy of it all that silence is the enemy let raise be a weapon that conquers all anxiety oh let it rise let praise arise we say we sing your name in the dark and it changes everything [Music] we sing with all we are and we play your victory [Music] you cannot survive when we praise you the kind of breakthroughs on our side forever lift him high with all creation cry god we praise you see let it rise [Applause] [Music] the kind of breakthroughs on our side forever [Music] and this is what freedom feels like this is what heaven sounds like we praise you we praise you sir 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 with all creations oh we praise your name jesus yeah hallelujah we praise the god of the breakthrough this morning come on he takes dead things to bring them to life and that's why we praise him that's why we bless them come on give god a shout out for i search the world come on if you know what keep singing with me but it couldn't feel me yeah man's empty braids and treasures that fade are never enough [Music] then you came along thank you jesus and you put me back together and every desire is now satisfied hearing blood and we thank you for jesus come on let's sing this out oh there's nothing that's better than there's nothing is better than you we believe [Music] to show you my weakness yes my failures it falls lord you've seen them all and you still call me [Music] [Applause] and there's not a place that your mercy and grace [Music] nothing that's better than you lord there's nothing better than you or there's nothing nothing is [Music] dance if you get beauty for ashes yes you turn shame into glory but you're the only you is better you nothing better than jesus [Music] [Music] okay [Music] into highways [Music] you're the only jesus we thank you lord hallelujah [Music] could we sing that one more time oh there's nothing that's better than you there's nothing that's better than [Music] oh there's another is [Music] better [Music] jesus today we sing and we worship and we praise you because we believe that truth that there is nothing and there is no one that is greater than you are and so this morning we worship full of faith knowing that you are greater than anything we've ever faced and anything we ever will face and that you have overcome the world that's why jesus we give you our worship this morning [Music] you are here moving in our midst i worship you i worship you you are here you're working in this place i worship you i worship you you are here [Music] i worship you [Music] you are here [Music] make a miracle work promise keep night in the darkness my god that is who you are we [Music] you are here touching every heart i worship you i'm worshiping you you are here [Music] you [Music] you are here every heart [Music] is is who you [Applause] who you are you know we believe today that the bible tells us that the god that we're singing to is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask think or imagine so i don't know what's going on in your life i don't know what's happening right now let's raise our level of faith when we declare that he's a waymaker when we declare he's a promise keeper let's believe that as we sing that he's working on our behalf even now come on let's sing this even when i don't see it even 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 you never stop working you never stop worrying that is the way we make miracle work promise keep right in the darkness by god that is who you are [Applause] who you are amen amen that's the god that we serve that's the god that we praise well church why don't you find someone around you maybe you've never met them before we got a lot of guests here today greet them welcome them come on let them know that they're welcome here in this house come on [Music] well good morning twin rivers man i hope you guys are having man such a good day so far can you guys do me a favor can we welcome our online campus and we're so glad that you guys are part you're tuning in you're a part of our church family so glad that you are but hey if we haven't had the chance to meet you my name is justin goodson one of the pastors on staff here man it's just a good day to be with you today we call it our after party so after service we're just gonna have a ton of fun but real quick if you're new around here i'm gonna challenge you to do something i might give you something and here's here's the challenge take our three week challenge this is where you come three sundays in a row and what we found is churches are similar to relationships it just takes time to get to know someone takes time for us to get to know you for you to get to know us so give us those three weeks and we just believe at the end of those three weeks you will know if this is a church family for you also we i'd love to personally meet you and uh we've got a free gift for you you can just go out these doors to the end of service to my left there's a table there we call that connect central we'd love to connect with you and just give you that free gift as well so uh one of the things i love about our church and about you is that we are a generous church so we thought today it'd be fun to give away some free stuff how many of you guys like free stuff anybody like free stuff if you didn't clap you get nothing like that you know i'm kidding they're going to put a phone number on the screen and this is what you're going to do you're going to text the word free to the phone number on the screen so text the word free right now get out your phone get out your phone get out your phone text the word free to that phone number how it's going to work you're going to get a text back from us click on that form fill it out it's just your name number email fill that out and you'll get a text back from us and that just lets us know you are registered to win and you're like what am i winning what do you want to sew in the lobby there is a brand new barbecue grill and so you could win a brand new barbecue grill we're trying to hook you up today also if you've never had a waigu steak i'm going to change your life and so you could win that uh we have some barbecue grill utensils as well just we just want to give some stuff away we just want to bless you guys today and so uh to text the word free again to that phone number on the screen you know uh like i said we're we love being generous we love just serving our community and helping out and so we put a video together just about some of the things that you've been doing all this year to reach and to help the next generation we actually paid for you paid for every child and every student to go to summer camp this summer it was 100 free and so we put a video together we just wanted to show you the impact that you're making once you check out this video [Music] this june over 110 kids went to a week of summer camp totally free 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] yeah it is because of you you're messing with all these students and they just want to say thank you so thank you so much for doing that um it's great to see you today everybody doing good yes give me a nod yeah yeah everybody's doing good great to see you we're gonna eat some food here in just a minute uh so i realized listen there's a clock on me i get that you're hungry i already realized it so i get it um so why don't you turn in your bible to the book of second timothy uh the new testament book of second timothy and while you're doing that i want to tell you um i need everybody's attention i want to tell you about um a series that begins next week it's a brand new series a brand new series and i i've got you've got to know about it um because it's it's going to be one like unlike any i've ever done next week i'm gonna start a series on the topic of sex okay um it's funny to watch your faces some of you like somebody over here just choked on their their cough drop and then about 10 of you set forward for the first time ever like you're just uh immediately like first time i've had your attention a long time uh listen um this is the reality i really feel this um uh you were created by god um as a sexual being and the bible has an enormous amount to say about sex but for most of us we would think this is the last place that you would talk about something like that and that's the problem i want to tackle i believe that it's a huge part of your life that god wants to frame your thinking in and so we're going to spend several weeks talking about the topic of sex now here's what that means for you number one um you need to need to be here because it affects every single person in this room because we're not just talking about present we're talking about past and future all of it number two you need to know we have some incredible child care opportunities okay so uh if you got young ones in the room uh maybe you want to check out tr kids or your teenagers you might want to check out uh you know the tr student ministry which is available at this campus at 11 so i want to give you a heads up on that um some of you are considering joining and going to tr kids like some of you finally gonna volunteer because this makes you so uncomfortable okay um but here's the deal the last thing is this be very considerate who you set beside because this is gonna be spicy okay so uh you you're gonna be blushing and then no it's going to be a great series i'm so excited culture has so much to say about this so much of how how we think about this is is not aligned with god's word and so we're going to open our lives up open his word up and i promise promise promise you are going to be better because of this series so that begins next week i hope you'll join us for it okay so today i want to finish up this series that we've been in for several weeks called keeping faith in a world gone crazy um and if you haven't caught any of the messages um but you've caught the news then this is a series for you you should go back and listen to it um because we've just been studying lesson after lesson out of the book of second timothy on how to keep a strong faith in a world that seems to be turned upside down how do we follow christ how do we love well how do we stand strong in the midst of all that is going on in the world that was the goal of the apostle paul when he wrote to a young pastor named timothy who was struggling with the the way he saw culture devolving and and the way he saw people treating one another and so paul writes what we call a book is actually his final letter and and it's his final letter so that means at he's come to the end of 20 000 miles traveled as a missionary he's come to the end of 30 years of church planning and he's come to the end where he's written 13 books of the new testament i mean he's got a huge resume but this is his swan song to what what he wants us to understand and it's interesting to me that as he is awaiting execution under nero he makes sure to prioritize a very specific part of his life his relationships now scholars will tell you this is paul's most personal letter absolutely 100 is most personal letter and it's interesting because he's writing it in what is probably his most difficult relational time and it's as though he's telling timothy hey timothy there are going to be seasons that try your resilience to remain open to relationships and it it's catching paul at a unique time because he's went through great relational laws for example he's lost some people to distance his incarceration has made it where he cannot gather with people he had relationship with and that lack of gathering has caused a fade to many of those relationships then he's lost some to ideologies he's clear to tell us that there's been some false teaching that's erupted in the church and it's caused some people to believe so much in this viewpoint they're willing to give away years of friendship and then he's lost some to division because just because you got the title apostle doesn't mean people don't get offended doesn't mean people don't don't have disagreements and some people have just thrown up their hands and thrown away their relationship with paul over division and then he's also just lost some friends to death the roman world at the time was going on through a great famine and there was also within the church great persecution people paul knew had died and hit the grip of grief he had had to wrestle with now if you were to take any one of these it would be challenging but when you combine all of these it's unbearable and it was unbearable for paul and hey this has been unbearable for you over the last two years there's not a person in this room that hasn't lost someone to one of these hey i'll be the first to raise my hand as a pastor my life's people now i know for some of you maybe you're a guest here today and you would think well you know a church multiple campuses and large crowds you know you probably don't even know no no no no kayla and i love every single one of you and that means we live with every single loss i'll be the first to tell you in this past two years i've lost people to distance people who've relocated from cities people have relocated churches people who've relocated in in different places in life i've lost people to ideologies people who've been swept away into political or social ideas that that they so hold on to they're willing up to give a relationship i've lost people to division offense over something i've said or not said something i've done or not done something we we did in a service something we didn't do in the service and i buried way too many people so listen i know what you're feeling and what what i would tell you is is i like you have been tempted to just throw up my hands and say i'm not i'm not i'm not gonna do this anymore i'm not gonna open myself up to people i'm i'm not gonna i'm gonna disconnect i'm gonna withdraw but i keep coming back to this truth that hopefully you'll you'll grab on to today which is this um life is never better alone life's always better together it just doesn't work alone as much as we would like to be self-sufficient as much as we would like to be independent it just doesn't you're not going to find satisfaction alone and and that's because god designed your life to be a group project not an independent study that you remember in school like that there were group projects and there were independent studies how many how many of you loved independent like just individual assignments you you love individual science these are all the smart people look at them these are all the smart people right how many of you love group assignments come on show me these are all the people the smart people hate okay because you you you would just you know you let them do all the work in the group project listen listen um life is built you you cannot become who god wants you to become your life it's a group project you're not gonna pass the test that you face without other people you're not gonna graduate to your next level without the other people you're not going to enjoy all that this world has to offer without other people you know it was this week just yesterday that as a nation we paused to commemorate what happened 20 years ago on september 11th as a nation it wasn't that long ago that i was just this past april i was in new york and and and i was at ground zero and and and i saw the memorial for 9 11 and i saw these massive massive craters that that are there where these buildings used to stand and it's just it feels like a just a holy place almost so many lives were lost and so much destruction took place and as you're standing there you just you just see how rubble must have covered for for square miles but you also see in in the same picture what they call freedom tower freedom tower is the the building that was built in response to the terrorist attacks and it's the tallest building in america it was built faster than any skyscraper its size and it stands there as a monument as a reminder of this that crisis is going to come that we mourn when it does that we then clear the rubble and we rebuild that's why it's there and i just felt that do you you are in a pivotal moment as i prayed for you this week and here's the pivotal moment you have experienced crisis in your relationships the last two years have swung like a wrecking ball into the relational structures of your life and most of you are looking at some place in your life that looks like rubble to friendships rubble to family rebel to what it looks like and i'm just here but by god's spirit to say to you that yes we mourn what happened but it's time to rebuild those relationships it's not time to stay just pulled back it's not time to cut yourself off it's not time to just huddle with the few that are left it's time for you to build a larger than ever community of people that will enlarge you spiritually that god wants to use it to bring life into you that he wants to use others to bring joy back to your life that he's not meant for you to live life alone then if you'll listen to these next few minutes and you'll actually apply them i believe this with all my heart you're going to find some new friendships that are godly and make you a better person and you're going to find some renewed friendships that bring joy and peace that's been lost in this back season but to do that you're gonna have to roll up your sleeves and begin rebuilding and so that's what paul's kind of conveying to timothy in the wake of all this this this relational rubble you got to roll up your sleeves we've got to get back to it and he and he kind of names four specific relationships four relational steps that you may all four may not be for you but but i think one of them's for you and so i want to share them with you and and i want you to take into consideration and really just ask over the next few minutes holy spirit which one of those is for me which one of those in the in the wake of all that i've been through is for me as i start rebuilding our relationships okay here's the first one um the first one is some of you need to find some refreshing friends refreshing friends refreshing relationships here's what paul writes in second timothy chapter one he says may the lord show you show mercy to the household of omniphrasis 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 now what he's referring to here is that under nero if you went to visit a christian in prison you would have yourself been arrested so a lot of paul's friends the moment that threat came up they abandoned him but not not this guy he he loved paul he was so committed to paul in their friendship that he in spite of his own his own threat to his own life he found paul and here's what paul said he often refreshed me now in the greek that means um it means that he put life he put breath back into me don't you want some friends that do that i mean i want that i want friends who refresh me with wisdom when i'm in confusion i want friends who refresh me with encouragement when i'm struggling with fear i want friends who who refresh me with humor when life just gets too heavy i mean listen we all want this and we all need this so why are we why are so many of us missing this why i'll tell you it's because we avoid asking we live with this this idea when it comes to relationships in our lives that somehow they're just gonna all fall into place it's just gonna happen but can i tell you this that people add value to your life when you give them permission to and by asking someone for their friendship that's how we give them permission um you see many of us here today we're alone simply because we we have not conquered the obstacles to asking for someone to come into our life for some of us that that means that we just we don't want to feel weak i don't want to feel like i have to ask somebody for help i'd rather feel strong and be alone than feel feel weak and have to ask someone for some of us that means that you have trust issues that some past pain now has caused you to be skeptical of any potential relationships so therefore you're not going to invite anybody in based on what happened in the past for some of you it's shame you feel so um poorly about yourself you couldn't imagine anyone else would want to spend time with you and then for some of you you just don't want to be a burden to anybody you just see yourself as a chore so you would never ask someone to to coffee ask someone to to hang out because you you just felt like that you would be a chore to them here's what i'm trying to say no matter which of those excuses you pick here's what i've noticed that um when we don't ask we inadvertently start wearing masks it runs with a story there was a guy looking for a a job and he applied at a zoo he sat down with the head of hiring and the head of hiring said well we only have one position open and it's pretty unconventional he said a few months ago our gorilla died and we don't have the money to get a new one so we've got this gorilla suit and if you'll you'll wear this and you'll act like a gorilla you can have the job today the guy said um are you serious he goes yup yup that's the job he said well it's not what i had in mind but sure gets the job the first few days were awkward i mean he's out there trying to act like a gorilla and it's kind of awkward but then he kind of gets into it like he really gets into it and like like he he gets he becomes such a great gorilla that he becomes like one of the top attractions that people come to see and on one particular day he's swinging from vine divine and he gives it a little too much gusto and he swings to the neighboring cage beside him and when he's in the neighboring cages it's it's it's housing a large african lion and he's now standing face to face he knows he's a goner and just out of reaction he immediately starts screaming help help help all of a sudden the line whispers shut up you idiot or we'll both be out of a job [Applause] now listen listen listen here's there's a point to that here's the point here's the point listen we're all hurting and we're all hiding so why don't we just take off the masks we're all hurting and we're all hiding so why don't we just take off the masks why don't we just get to the place where we go you know what it doesn't matter everybody needs somebody and i'm willing to ask and and and if you do that you're gonna you're gonna be blown away with how god can use that um for instance a family in our church recently shared with me how they went through a very difficult season some time ago that that that one lost their job and the other lost a ton of sales in their job and it was it was just a bad situation and and you know they're doing their best to make ends meet but this is becoming financially you know detrimental and their their faith is dropping while their bills are piling and and out of desperation one day they ask for prayer from an elder and they just explained the situation they were just brave enough to say here's where we are it's so touched the elder's heart that that he he kind of he reported it and immediately you know we we sent a check to help with their bills that month but someone else heard about it and they sent an encouraging message just to keep up the faith it's not it's not this is not the end it's gonna it's gonna happen and then someone else heard about it and they knew someone who was hiring and so they made a connection between someone who was hiring and and these people and they ended up getting a job that they now love and and here's my point god delivered everything they needed under one roof through one relationship your relationships are the delivery system that god chooses to use most of the time so here's the only question have you closed off or opened up that delivery lane through your honesty listen have you i here here's what i'm some of you closed off it's time to get some new relationships some of you got some people you always hang out with on friday but it's time to go to someone and say i need you to help me spiritually grow listen hey some of you it's just you you everybody thinks you got it fine it's time to take off the mask and admit you need someone else's help listen that's why we work overtime in this church you if you're a guest today you may assume we're once a like a one day a week church we're a seven day a week church because of a thing called life groups the best part of twin rivers is not this the best part of twin rivers is when you join a life group which which have just begun you can still get in one when you go in and you can walk into a room of people who all are pursuing christ together who all come with their masks off who all come just saying this is who i am and i need god and i need you guys in that kind of community you will find something just incredible that god can use and and if you're saying here today i i don't even know how you find life-giving people we can help you that you're not too late you can go to connect central today you can go online today and join a life group but here's what i'm going to tell you in this church in this church if this happens to be your church this church you're only alone because you want to be it's not because we haven't designed it to help you find refreshing relationships here's the second one some of you you got to release some relationships you got to release listen to no people is to no pain and we all know that but we handle pain poorly kayla and i were in london a few years ago and we were touring you know some museums and and we came across an exhibit that um explained the english civil war of 1649. um if you're not familiar i wasn't there was a guy named um cornwall cornwall who who basically led an insurgency against king charles the first and they arrested king charles the first and took over his crown and 59 members of parliament signed an order to have him publicly executed so these 59 people signed this order he's publicly executed the problem is cornwall's rain doesn't last very long it's only about 11 years and charles's son comes back and charles the son takes over power again and he's bent on making sure those 59 people are are held accountable for what they did to his dad so he comes and searches him out well 15 of them have already died so you know what he does he has them dug up puts them on public trial and then sentences them to be re-hanged or re-deathed and they say at the trial he would ask them questions like and what do you have to say for yourself and of course the corps just sat there and he says no defense guilty now that sounds crazy doesn't it it sounds crazy until you consider that many of you multiple times a week dig up some old thing and in your head you hold a trial of the person who did it and then you sentence them to what they deserved the only difference is it doesn't hurt them it just kills you hey you only got two choices when it comes to pain you can continue to resent people or you can release them if you resent them it perpetuates the pain you have if you release them it god replaces that pain with peace which is why look what paul wrote alexander the coppersmith did me great harm but that's no connect concern of mine for the lord will repay him according to his actions oh i wish you could get this paul just gave you the secret to forgiveness do you know what the secret to forgiveness is it's this it ha it's that you have full confidence in god's justice see many of us think that forgiveness is all about the offender it's not about how you think about the offender it's how you think about god do you think he saw it do you think that that he was blind to it do you think that he understands how you feel do you think he saw the wrong when no one else did do you think he's just do you think that he has the capacity to execute that justice see if you can't forgive someone you actually don't your issue is not with the other person your issues with god you don't have enough faith that he's your defender paul says i'm not worried about alexander because i have full confidence in god and his justice now let me be clear i'm not asking you today to forget what they did i'm not asking you to trust them again i'm not even asking you to go back into the relationship i'm asking you to stop carrying it and instead trust god with it he said how do you do that how do you do that how do you do that i'll tell you it's called prayer see forgiveness is never a one-time decision it's an exercise a prayer like this every time you feel that that that that that anger to come back to your heart you're going to pray heavenly father you know all you see all you justly rule over all therefore i release fill in the blank maybe some of you need like a longer blank there's a lot of people to you and i receive peace from you men and you're going to pray this a thousand times but here's what my promise is on the 999th time you'll notice more peace than you've ever had and you'll notice that the pain is less toxic than it's been and here's here's the result of this if you'll do this god makes you a promise here's the promise it's it's in luke 6 30. he says do not judge and you will not be judged do not condemn and you will not be condemned forgive and you will be forgiven here's what's going to happen if you do it 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 you thought that was about money it's about forgiveness god says the amount you pour on mercy on other people i'll pour on you here's what he's promising this is amazing he says if you'll release what they did i'll release what you need it might be joy it might be peace it might be friends it might be partners but if you'll release them i'll pour in more than you could ever imagine so here's what this means this is incredible you're one moment of surrender away from receiving what you need some of you need to release some people here's the next one um some of us need to reconcile some relationships and by reconcile let me speak plainly you need to take responsibility for the pain you call someone else you need to take responsibility in acts 15 we're told that paul had a group of people that traveled with him on a missionary journey and one of his name was barnabas and another's name was john mark and and one particular trip it got real serious and challenging and john mark had a lot of fear so john mark kind of said i'm getting out of here i'm not hanging in this thing john mark left and paul was so mad at john mark leaving that he he openly said he can never go on another trip he's disqualified for ministry he let everybody know what he thought of this deserter well paul's words weighed heavy and they felt heavy on john mark and he was hurt and what what we learned is that there was a tension between the two for years but as paul's coming to the end of his life and he's looking at his relationships he also steps back and goes it's not just about what what people have done to me there's also some things i've done to people and he writes this in second timothy this is amazing only luke is with me but get mark and bring him with you because he is helpful in my ministry he says hey i messed up with mark said some things i shouldn't have said did some things i shouldn't have done and i want to make it right hey hey hey this is a letter paul sent some of you need to send a text message some of you need to send an email some of you need to say hey well let's have coffee i want to apologize now that doesn't come naturally to us listen i know i'm raising a bunch of kids i can tell you getting them to say i'm sorry is one of the most difficult things on the planet like like you say now you know one offends the other now you say to your sister that you're sorry just stand there man i'm not saying it well you're going to lose this i'd rather lose things than then you go through a word and then they the first attempt is like a grunt you don't even know and then when you finally and then you like punish them and it's more and it's threatening and now you got your match you're going to apologize later and you say you just tell them you're sorry and what you get is i i can't even look at them i'm sorry that's the best they can do now that's funny but we're not that much different our pride wants to deny minimize move past quickly here's what you've got to get about this offense gets stored it accumulates in our relationships and it can and our relationships can only take so much until one day the offense comes over the side it overflows and a toxicity ruins the relationship and and this is in every relationship there's no relationship that doesn't have this but the relationships that matter and the ones that last people have learned that an apology is how you you it's it's how you empty the bin and so so let me tell you how to apologize some of you have never been taught this i was not taught this let me let me tell you first thing you do is is that you own up to what you did you don't defend what you did you own up to it second thing you do is that you explain you understand how they feel you don't discredit their feelings you say i i see why this would have bothered you then the second thing you're going to do is you're going to ask for their forgiveness and then the last thing you're going to do is explain how you're going to do your best to make sure this doesn't happen again that's what an apology sounds like an apology don't sound like well i'm sorry you feel that way that's not an apology that's just this deflection no no it's owning what we did it's asking for their forgiveness it's explaining i'm gonna work on this and here's what here's what i've discovered the litmus test for real spiritual power is not can you avoid conflict it's can you navigate through it in a godly way listen conflict's inevitable reconciliation is divine because when you reconcile with someone it gives a fresh start so powerful was this moment paul had with mark mark felt released to go on into his purpose and you know what he did he wrote the gospel of mark from a deserter to a gospel writer because someone gave him a fresh start come on you got to reconcile some relationships here's here's the last one you need to recognize the most important relationship relationships with people are important relationship with god is priority because he's the only one who can never leave you or forsake you listen other people they'll promise but they just don't have what it takes to stay with you there will be a moment even the most committed person will abandon your life but god will not here's what paul wrote this verse touched my heart more than any other at my first hearing no one stood up in my defense everyone abandoned me and i pray that it won't be held against them however the lord stood by me and he gave me so that i could finish spreading the good news for all the nations to hear hey some of you have been through the toughest season of your life you have had to wrestle with thoughts you never dreamed would enter your mind you have had to to to struggle through the loss of people you never thought you'd lose and i don't want to minimize at all and i'm just telling you it's all been encapsulated even worse that it feels so isolating but listen to me i'm not minimizing what you've been through but i am making sure you understand you have never been alone the lord has stood by you and and i know that some of you the way that hits you you go you have a pastor i'm going to be honest i mean i've done a lot of wrong stuff in this last and and i've not really put much into my relationship with god i'm just i'm going to be honest take the mask off i'm i haven't done the thing so i'm not sure that's true no no no no don't miss this god doesn't stand by you based on your performance he stands by you based on his unconditional love that means he stands no matter what when that he was standing there when you wake up and he's standing there when you go to bed he's standing there on good days and he's standing there on bad days he's standing when you're surrounded by people and he's standing when you are all alone he he's standing when when you you're at your best and he's standing by you when you're at your worst listen he's standing when you are on a 10-day streak on your reading plan and he's standing when you're still three years ago on your reading plan he is standing with you in every single moment and it's all motivated out of his love which is why 2000 years ago he stood in your place receiving your sin that you should have gotten it's why presently he stands with you even though you may not even have thought about him until today and it's why in the future when you enter eternity he'll be the one standing welcoming you into eternal life it's motivated by his unchanging unwavering unconditional love but i want you to notice this notice this knows this you've never been alone because he's standing with you but paul says he was doing more than just standing he was also strengthening now that's the difference though god stands by everyone but you can only receive his strength through a personal relationship with him for some of you he's present but you're not receiving the strength because you don't have a personal relationship here's what i've discovered about life you can tell where your relationship with god is based on how tired you are and some of you are very very very tired and you keep thinking a nap a day off a vacation will fix it but it won't because you're out of strength and you need his strength and that means you need to focus on your relationship with him so his strength can begin to flow in you will you bite your heads close your eyes i just i want a moment of reflection more than any message in this series i've just sensed that this is one like that i would share almost with you if we were sitting at a coffee table more than principles there's just man god's speaking specifically to some of you and you're here today and you're very tired and you're with the mask off you're openly admitting i'm not in a personal relationship with christ because a personal relationship's not going to church all the time it's not having a label it's not you know religion it's not it's none of that it's it's like i know him and he knows me there's evidence of our interaction in our lives my heart longs for him and and i know that he's working on my behalf moving in my life and some of you are just absent that and that's why you're so tired but you don't have to stay tired because he is standing with you in every moment but he also wants to give you strength but you have to have a personal relationship and so while every head's bad and every eye is closed i want to give you a chance to make that decision today to say god i'm going all in with you i'm putting you back in priority i'm focusing back on the one that matters they gotta i just believe if i put you first that all these other relationships will fall into place and so if that's you today i don't want to embarrass you but i do want to pray for you it's just my pastoral heart and um so with every head bowel and every eye closed if you're here but you're saying pastor joe i want you to pray for me i'm choosing today to follow jesus i'm going all in i'm choosing today to that personal relationship's gonna be number one if that's you would you just i'd love to put a face with a prayer would you just stick your hand up pastor i'll pray for me i'm choosing to follow jesus come on just stick it up i want to say i want to see you before i pray this prayer i see that prayer see that hand pastor i'll pray for me today i'm choosing to follow jesus whoever yep i see you in the back pastor you'll pray for me today i'm choosing to follow jesus i'm going to take my time i want to see you yup i see you in the back i see you yup pastor joe pray for me today i'm choosing apologies what about the balcony anybody pastor joe pray for me today i'm choosing to follow jesus anybody anybody i see that hand yep absolutely absolutely hey if if that's you and you this is your moment i want you to look to the screen i want us to pray this prayer together there's really nothing magical about these words it's just it's a way to put words about what's going on in your heart like the holy spirit's speaking to you today and so i want to lead you in this deciding prayer that you're choosing to follow jesus put in that relationship number one here it is here's the prayer on the screen right now heavenly father i admit that i am a sinner and that i am lost without you i believe that christ died in my place making a way for us to have a relationship and i choose to follow jesus and his way for the rest of my life father you saw every one of them you've been standing with them through this whole season but today they're going to receive your strength because they've opened their hearts to you now you're going to pour in the peace and joy the love of god and god they're never ever ever ever ever going to be the same because they have made you first and now your strengths gonna flow in their life so i pray you bring people around them give them a hunger for the things of god let them keep you number one and everything else will fall into place i bless them today and i honor you for your gift of salvation to them in jesus name amen amen hey why don't you stand your feet and celebrate with these folks who just made this incredible decision come on that's a big deal this morning and we celebrate with them that they've chosen to make christ first listen we're gonna have a good time but but right now can we just turn our hearts back in worship come on let's give him the best we got a few seconds left the best of our hearts this morning [Music] [Music] darkness my god that is who you are this is [Music] [Music] such an encouraging message just an encouraging word that you and i need relationships we need people we weren't created to do life alone you know there's uh a next step for every single one of us in this room we're about to go have some fun we're gonna party we're gonna eat some free food we're gonna have some fun together but if you're in this room today there's multiple next steps for you for for some of you may just need someone to pray pray with you and to pray for you and so we have our prayer teams up here we would just love to pray with you whatever is going on there's nothing too big there's nothing too small and if you just need someone to pray with you we'd love we'd love to do that for those of you who made the decision to follow jesus today your next step we have a free gift for you the back of the room we just love to give you that gift and just congratulate you we're so excited that you chose to follow jesus today just want to give you that free gift and also if you're a guest here today i'd love to personally meet you we got a gift for you as well but uh i just wanted to pray for you as we close today's service and again we're gonna we're gonna go have some fun together let me pray for you father we love you god we're grateful for what you're doing in our lives in our hearts god we pray that you move among us that you have your way in us god that you would connect us to relationships with others connect us more deeply in our relationship with you that we would receive strength from you in jesus name and everybody said amen well hey we love you guys you need prayer come forward everybody else see you later 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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Id: erqWD_-s-d8

Length: 69min 59sec (4199 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021