The Importance of People
Even though relationships aren’t easy, life would be pretty dull and lonely without them. In spite of our high-tech world, people remain an essential ingredient in life.
Even though relationships aren’t easy, life would be pretty dull and lonely without them. In spite of our high-tech world, people remain an essential ingredient in life.
A sermon will not meet our needs—we need someone to hear, someone to feel the blows in our life, someone to help us cushion the heavy weight when it drops down on us. We need to assimilate into the body of Christ.
Prejudice is a learned trait, but it can be unlearned. It takes a renewed mind to remove the blinders of prejudice and see people for who they are...instead of what they look like.
There is more than one kind of stealing. Sometimes we have to confront one another but be careful of how you do this because you may be guilty of the same thing! Pay people what you owe them. If you don't, you are stealing—that's how it works!
Ever heard of the cookie jar syndrome? It’s when there is a set of beliefs very carefully in place but there isn’t the behaviour to give it authenticity. Belief and behaviour always go hand-in-hand. And they go in that order.
Because of the weak believer’s human tendency to judge those who don’t embrace his or her customs and convictions and also because of the strong believer’s decision to discount judgments passed by those who find fault in his or her expressions of freedom, conflict emerges and persists. The solution? Put grace into action.
God’s desire is that we, His people, fully enjoy our freedom in Christ. However, there must be self-imposed boundaries or we will become self-serving, independent-minded, and careless rebels with no regard for others. The last 11 verses of Romans 14 address this issue.
Through this story of the rescue of two trapped whales, Chuck points out how eager we are to help in these situations, but how slow we are to set one another free from our own lists, inhibitions, restrictions, and expectations.
It’s so easy to focus on the non-essentials. We can become so preoccupied with the details we completely miss the big picture. Relationships become fractured when we only focus on the small stuff.
In this lesson, let's turn our attention to that horizontal dimension and learn to help others find the same freedom God grants us, as we accept them as they are and release them to learn and grow.