#497 Uncomplicated Series# 1, Ready For Relationships

Uncomplicated Series# 1, Ready For Relationships
By: D. Karl Thomas

For beauty and clarity to be revealed you need context.    Example: Diamond in setting.
The Family of God is the context where the Nature and Kingdom of God are best displayed.

Matthew 6:9    “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.”
Ephesians 3:1  “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,…”

Many people think that Christianity is a belief system, but it’s really a belong system.
John 13:35  “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 15:12  “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

“Communion is strength; solitude is weakness. Alone, the fine old beech yields to the blast and lies prone on the meadow. In the forest, supporting each other, the trees laugh at the hurricane. The sheep of Jesus flock together. The social element is the genius of Christianity.”    C.H. Spurgeon

Genesis 1:31  “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”

Genesis 2:18 “And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.ʼ”
helper:— (ezer) strong help  comparable:— (kenegdo) as in front of him; perfect match, same nature.

Psalm 142:4  (NLT)  “I look for someone to come and help me, but no one gives me a passing thought! No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me.”

Psalm 25:16  (NLT) “Turn to me and have mercy, for I am alone and in  deep distress.”

Dr. Les Parrot    “If you try to build intimacy with another person before you have done the work of getting whole on your own, all your relationships become an attempt to complete yourself.”
Your relationships are only as strong as you are.

Niel Clark Warren Founder “E Harmony”
Asked if you could just give one word of advice what would it be?
“Get yourself healthy before you get yourself married.”

“Love and intimacy — our ability to connect with ourselves and others, is at the root of what makes us sick and what makes us well, what causes sadness and what brings happiness, what makes us suffer and what leads to healing. If a new drug had the same impact, virtually every doctor in the country would be recommending it for his or her patients. It would be malpractice not to prescribe it.”   Dr Dean Ornish — Ornish Lifestyle Medicine

God’s Set Up For Relational Success
1. Placement
Genesis 2:8  “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.” 

John 17:26  “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,”
1 Corinthians 12:18  “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.”

2. Provision
Genesis 2:9 “And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.”

3. Purpose
Genesis 2:15  “… Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.”
“Keep It” (Shamar):— to keep, guard, keep watch and ward, protect, save life and protect.
Guarding against God’s Enemies.

Genesis 1:28 “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it;”   “Subdue” (kabash) :— conquer, keep under, subdue, bring into subjection.   You have a job!!!

4. Personality
Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…’”
Romans 8:16 “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,”

5. Parameters
Genesis 2:16-17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”

“Original sin” was eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The sin of pursuing LIFE (our identity, worth, significance and security) for ourselves. SELFISH — An attempt to know what only God can rightly know.   MORALISM RULED!

God did not in any way change because they ate of the Tree of Knowledge.
Man Changed!!!
His View Of Himself Changed
His View Of Others Changed
His View Of God Changed

John 17:20-23 “…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one,…”

Uncomplicated Series# 1, Ready For Relationships, Sermon notes to print, PDF