Genesis: Made for relationship

Genesis 2:18-25 ESV

Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

"This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Rev. Dwight Yoo

Made for relationships

Consider creation up to this point. Everything is good. But then God says that Adam's alone-ness was NOT good. Adam goes through all the animals... Not one was suitable. So we can say this verse was to show the first feeling of loneliness. Not good. There is an innate need for relationship within us. This is from our creation in the image of God. God is himself a community, relating between the Trinity. Man is meant to live as a community with relationships. It is part of what makes us human. We want to be vulnerable, accepted, and loved faithfully. Not only in marriage, but also our friendships.

Mangling of relationships

We hurt others. Rejection, self-centered, not sharing and hiding ourselves, etc. That is what we do and what is done to us.

We are meant to be in relationship with God first.  When our relationship with God is broken, our relationships with others break down. As we will see next week, Adam and Eve reject God going into shame and divisiveness. One generation later, the culmination of broken relationship in the murder of Abel by Cain.

Mending relationships

Jesus died to repair relationships. Both our relationship with God and with others. He empowers us in our friendships and in our marriages. God is always with us. So in all these things God is with us. That is our Jesus. We move towards others as Jesus moved heaven and earth to be with us. So those of us who have seen and understand, can move towards others. We can be vulnerable because all our sins and weaknesses are covered by the blood and righteousness of Christ. We no longer have to care about what others think of us. We can be accepting. Considering that we are all sinners before God, we can accept others. Their struggles, their sins. We can forgive and be with them. Through all things.

Even when others are not loving in this way, we are still called to love this way. Persist in living this way, and we may have a softening effect on others. The other person may mature and emulate our way of loving others.

Maturing and modeling effect of relationship

We were created for relationship. When we entered into relationship with God, we have also entered into relationship with all others joined with Christ. All other christians! This is not voluntary.

It is through deep relational investment that you mature and grow. (Hebrews 3:12-13) Sin deceives. This deception hardens us. We have sins not yet uncovered. These deep relationships uncover our blind spots.

"intentional intrusive, Christ-centered, grace-driven, and redemptive relationship" - Paul Tripp

We are to mirror Christ, each in a different way with different spiritual gifts. Not a single person on mission, but teams of people working to reflect the glory of God. This will attract non-christians. A group that loves radically, shares intimately, accepts fully is different from the world.

John 13:35

The triune God

Mark 1:9-13

9 In those days Jesus scame from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw uthe heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son;1 with you I am well pleased.”

12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and bthe angels were ministering to him.

Rev. Steve Kim

Before Jesus starts ministry, there is a holy huddle. God the father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus, the son meet up. They are loving and delighting one another.

We are made in God's image.

This means we have this longing and desire for community. We want to be in a loving, selfless, other-centered community. 

In our sinful state, we desire people to circle us rather than loving others. We are selfish. We want more from others.

Our goal in life should be people.

Love is a core essence of God. He was loving before all of creation. Joy comes from relationships! That gives us fulfillment. Yes, there is the kingdom of God. But relationships are also important.

Jesus makes a way to take part in the community of God

John 17:20-26 speaks of the love of God. Jesus is making a way into the divine dance between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. He invites us into the community.

Prayer of Faith For the Community

[James 5:13-20]

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

{Rev. Dan Whang}

This is the wrap up for our James series.

Call for the Individual to Pray

"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray."

This is not a command. It assumes that one will pray. Are you going through tough times because you are a Christian? because you are trying to live a life of faith? It is an exhortation for prayer. This is not necessarily a prayer for the tough situation to go away.

"Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise."

Cheerful doesn't mean a celebrating spirit. But rather having peace of mind, peace with God... as one who is content in the midst of severe trials. Are you able to find joy in times of trouble? This is the cheerfulness meant by the verse.

Call for the Community to Pray

"Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him"

The sick should be prayed over. We should ask for the LORD to raise him up.

"if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven"

But there is also a spiritual connection. Sometimes, God uses sickness to reveal our sin. Not always, but we need to be mindful that God may be showing us our heart. This also needs to be prayed over.

Promise of Results ins Prayer

We are told to pray for each other when there is sickness, there is peace, or there is sin.

"the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven."

"confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed."

The prayer of faith is not a prayer without doubt. It is a prayer rests on the person of Jesus and His power. I want us to picture the father of the demon-possessed child. "I believe; help my unbelief!" It is not our righteousness that brings power to our prayers. It is dependent upon Jesus' righteousness. He is the one who constantly intercedes on our behalf.

We must remember the root reason why we pray... to save. "whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins."

Building a Discipleship Community

[Mark 3:13-14]

And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach

{Rev. David Skinner}

If you are interested in the Men's trip to Haiti, please send me an email.

My dad had pastored alot of churches. And he said his most successful church was the last one. He told me he didn't do much different, but he made a commitment to invest in eight men. He invested his life into these men.

Jesus invested in 12 men. That was how he started a world-changing movement. Jesus, God incarnate, Emannuel, lived with these 12 men. God could have changed the world any way he wanted, but the way He chose was incarnational discipleship. They followed Him and watched Him and became like Him. The end goal of discipleship is trying to change the world. But it is not the flood-the-market, event-driven, attempt to change the world. It is the slow, steady, & regular investment of people into other lives.

1) Building a discipleship community begins with a calling.

Jesus comes to Levi and he says, "Follow me." After Jesus dies and comes back, He comes to Peter and restores him with these words, "Follow me." Jesus is saying follow me and I will show you how to live in my Father's kingdom. Jesus comes to save and show His disciples how to live.

If you call yourself a Christian, then you have accepted this call. Being a Christian doesn't mean just a relationship with Jesus, but also a relationship with the church. We aren't supposed to imitate everything of our fellow christian, but when we see Christ, we should imitate those things. Not everything, but the Christ-likeness we see in others.

Discipleship is like interference. It means letting people nose around in our lives. To speak into our lives.

2) Building a discipleship is a journey.

Verse 14 says, "so that they might be with him." What does this mean? It means Jesus was going to teach them. He was going to invite them to live with Him. They would see how He ministers, see how He lives, see His life. Jesus would also ask them to do things. To get a donkey, to get a room for Passover, to make disciples, to cast our demons...

you know, that trip to Haiti... I don't know any Haitians. I want to reach out to them and minister to them. But one of the reasons I want to go on this trip with men, is that 12 men from Devon campus have signed up to go. I get several days to spend time with these guys. We need discipleship. When you come to church on Sunday, we are getting re-calibrated. It's a great thing. But there is no back and forth, no interaction.

a) Word-centered

But where are we supposed to find Jesus' commands? It is in the bible. The bible records all the things Jesus has done and commanded. The Word is powerful. We need to pray the Spirit will reveal the meaning of the Word. We need to pray for God to change our lives to be more like Christ. All discipleship needs to be word-centered.

a) Gospel-centered

Discipleship shows us how to apply the gospel to our lives. It shows us places where we are not applying or are misapplying the gospel in our lives. How we are not living out the gospel in our lives.

c) Mission-centered

"I will make you fishers of men." The catalyst is not that Jesus would do this. But that God has come incarnate and walked with them. He fished for their heart. By doing this, He was showing them how to fish. He showed them how He cared for them. After He had done this, He told them, ok... you go do some fishing yourself. So this fishing for souls can manifest itself in many ways. But this fishing is one of the goals of discipling. He taught people to fish; to prepare them to fish. We are to do this until there is fullness...

Summary

To those who are called to discipleship, they are called to die. It is not self-centered. We are not saved just for ourselves. We are called to die. We are not called to suffer without purpose. We are to deny ourselves and follow Christ. This self-denial kills our plans, drives a stake through our ego, our desires to control everything & everybody. But isn't it our plans, our goals, our desires that drive us crazy? Jesus tells us to hand all these over to Him... Die, and He will give us life.

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." - Matthew 11:28-30