Sermon Recap: In Good Company Pt 4
Speaker: Pastor Pierre
Read: Ecclesiastes 4:12; Mark 12: 30-31; Romans 7:24-25
We live in a world that has given us a superficial way of connecting. It is projected that the average person using social media spends over two hours a day scrolling through the life of people they barely know, yet spend little time having a deep, intimate life-giving conversation with family and friends. God created us with the capacity for relational connections and desires that we develop and nurture them as we are not to live in isolation. Scripture exhorts that we love God, love ourselves and love our neighbors. We say we love God and love ourselves, but sometimes find loving other more challenging. It is true that developing relationships can be risky and is based on a level of trust. Most of us consider ourselves to be trustworthy, but tend not to see others the same way. We often suspect that others want something from us rather than seeing them as investing in us or being genuine towards us. We may also think that if they really knew us, they might not like us or we feel that we just don’t measure up. So often we create a false self – an image that we think is expected or is more socially acceptable. While this may give us affirmation or praise, at our core it is not the real “us.” Even in the Christian community our false self creates a “Christian image” to protect ourselves from what others may think of us.
The good news is that we can be healed from our alien false self and learn to cultivate authenticity in our relationships. It starts with the heart and our trust in God. Through Jesus and the Holy Spirit God makes change possible. First, we must recognize and repent of the images we have created. Then we must understand that we do not need a false self to be accepted, for God loves our real self just as we are. We are His beloved and we can trust Him to remove the barriers and to show how to take the risk in developing meaningful relationships with others, for we cannot grow to our full potential without such connections.
GROUP QUESTIONS:
1. What resonated with you as you listened to this sermon and reviewed it?
2. It was said that the way we trust people was formed in our early years. What did you learn about trust in your early years? Explain how you learned it.
3. Trust has layers to include:
Integrity – honesty in words and actions
Dependability – delivering on promises and responsibilities
Affinity – open and vulnerable to develop closeness
Benevolence – deferring to others and avoiding self-centeredness
What are some specific ways we can live out these characteristics to demonstrate trustworthiness?
4. It was said that we all have an internal voice that keeps us behind the barb wire. What does this mean to you? What is your internal voice saying about you? How kind is it to the real you?
5. It was said that we are sometime “fruit-inspectors.” What does this mean to you? When are times you have been such an inspector?
6. It was said that relationships are destroyed in the questioning that breaks the trust, for example: What do they really want? Or why is she looking at me like that? What are some questions you have had about others that caused mistrust or a broken relationship?
7. What are some practical things we can do to begin our healing of mistrust and reverse our apprehensions about developing meaningful relationships?
