Building Relationships With Others

by Rodney Hogue

Our Relationships With Others

The Lord did not create us in a vacuum. Our destiny is not accomplished by being isolated and separate from other people. To the contrary, it is accomplished in relationship to them. In fact, relationships are very important to Jesus. We see this in Matthew 22:38-40, where He said: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

To summarize, Jesus said that our greatest duty is being in good relationship with God and our second greatest duty is being in good relationship with other people. God doesn't not want us to pull apart from the people that He puts around us, but to interact with them in a loving manner. In fact, many of our destinies share a common component of positively effecting other people, such as to encourage or strengthen them in their own walk and destiny. And our ability to fellowship well with others is an important part of that.

So we are going to start looking at fellowship and relationship with each other. I'd like to start by sharing some things that our owner's manual (the bible) has to say about this. Hebrews 2:10 says that "God is the One who made many things, and all things are for His glory. He wanted to have many children to share His glory" (NCV).

What that verse means is that God wants a family. He just wanted kids, and He wants us to be a part of His family.

It says there in Ephesians 1:5 that "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure." God's objective is to bring you into relationship with Him, to bring you into a family, His family. The whole Bible is the story of God building a family.

The first commandment says that we're to love the Lord, and the second commandment says that we are to love our neighbor. So let me ask you a question: where God is going to teach you and train you in how to love your neighbor? Where's He going to begin? The answer is that we start by learning to love each other, by learning to love the people in the family of God. In short, we need to learn to fellowship together and get along well with each other.

So let's look at "fellowship." What does it mean? I believe that this is a very misunderstood word. Let me ask you, what comes to mind when you hear me stay the word fellowship? Food? Or do you think of a party?" Oftentimes when we think of fellowship, we just think of connecting or talking to somebody. And that is true--that is involved in fellowship. But it's also something that really goes deeper.

If a couple of believers were standing out in the little area outside before church and they're drinking their coffee and their visiting, they might say, "What about them A's." And the other guy goes, "How about them A's!" And he goes, "Those A's aren't doing so good, are they?" "No, they're not doing so great. I'm not doing too bad." "Yeah, yeah." "Well, how you doing?" "Well, I'm doing OK." "You alright?" "Yeah, I'm doing alright." "Yeah, OK." "How's the family?" "Yeah, the family's doing OK." "Yours?" "OK." "Alright, well, I guess we'd better get to church." "Yeah, well, you know its great fellowshipping with you." "Yeah, me too. Same to you."

Now, was that fellowship? No, that was communication--a little bit, at least. But it was just surface communication. It is what is on the top. It could lead to fellowship and oftentimes fellowship may begin on that level. But fellowship really goes a lot deeper than that.

The Greek word is "koinonia" and it means connecting and relating and partnering with other people. God is building a family and I want you to know something that your physical family on this earth, one day is going to disintegrate and fall apart. But, your spiritual family will last forever. Some of your family is already doing that (falling apart). But God wants you to know that you have a spiritual family that is going to last forever. God wants us to love His family that He is putting together, and that is called fellowship.

1 John 4:21 says, "The person who loves God must also love other believers." That means that if you're going to love God, you're going to have to love His family. If you're going to love God, you're going to have to love the other believers as well. Many of us say, 'I love you God' but those other people, I don't know about.' It's not an easy thing.

1 Timothy 3:14-15 says, (Paul is writing), "I'm writing so that you will know how to live in the family of God." (That family is the church.) He says that because we don't always know how to have relationship. And the place where God is going to teach and equip us in relationships is in the family, e.g., in the church. The church is not the building. The church is not this petition, the church is not a business; it's not an organization. It is family. We don't always see it like a family. But God wants us to see it like a family.

As we come into this family with God there are levels of relationship that God brings us into. They are

The first is kind of a beginning, kind of a surface thing. We have to start at the beginning and progress to the end stages. The last is a deep and meaningful relationship. I would like to look at these four levels over the next few lessons. Let's start with the first.

Level 1 -- Membership

This is the first level, the beginning level. I call it the level of "membership," It is the level of choosing to become, choosing to belong. Ephesians 2:19 says, "You are members of God's very own family. And you belong in God's household with every other Christian."

When you gave your heart to Jesus, you entered into the family of God. By faith, you came into relationship with Jesus and when you made that commitment to Him, you were also inducted right into His family.

The family of God is manifested in local congregations and it is manifested in believers--that is where it happens to be manifested. The Christian life is not just a matter of believing; it is a matter of belonging. We have to make a choice that we are going to connect with other believers.

A Christian without a church is like an oxymoron. I mean, a believer is to be connected with other members of God's family. It's kind of like a guy that says, "I'm a football player. I just don't want to belong to any particular team." "I'm a tuba player. I just don't want to belong to any band or any orchestra." Have you guys ever heard a tuba solo? It's bad, isn't it? I mean, it makes sounds like umpa, umpa, umpa, umpa. The tuba needs the other instruments. It sounds better when you have the other members of the band playing. When you're playing by yourself, you sound really bad.

Likewise, the Christian needs the other members. Even though you are in the family of God by virtue of a relationship with Jesus Christ, you still need to choose to connect. You need to choose to be a part of, and relate to a church. That is very important.

Romans 5:12, says, "In Christ we who are many form one body. Each member belongs to all the others." In Christ we form one body. Now what that means is that if I'm not connected with other people, I'm not able to fulfill my purpose or do my function. For example, a hand just needs the other parts, right? The hands needs...it needs an arm. We function better when we are connected with each other. And the bible calls the church "the family of God." He calls it the "Body of Christ."

What this means is that we make a commitment, we make a choice that says, "I'm going to choose to be a part of a local church. And I'm going to choose to fit and to belong. That's a decision that I make."

But in America (and some other Western countries), we have this consumer religion. We have a lot of Christians that fall into the category of being "cruise-matics." They just cruise from church to church. They go here, and they go, "Oh, its hot here. I'm going to go here this week." And they say, "OK, it's hot over here. I'm going to go over here this week. It's going to be hot over here this week. I'm going to go there." I mean that would be like me saying, "You know what, John? I think I'm going to go live with you next week." And I'd spend 3 or 4 days with him, and say, "That guy can't cook worth a hoot. I'm not saying in this house. I'm going to go to Marsha's house." You know, and see how they do. And then after a while, I'll think, "I'm going to go to Dan's house and spend some time with Dan."

If I tried to do that, then John and Marsha and Dan are not going to let me do that--anyway, not for long. My wife and I have a pretty good relationship, so they don't have to worry about that, she's not kicking me out. (Smile.) But you understand a lot of people treat the Body of Christ like that: there is no commitment. There is nothing stuck; there is no resolve. And then they say, "Well, just don't like every church." I mean, how does that make Jesus feel?

Mike Warren talked about that in his book Forty Days Of Purpose. He said that church is a love issue. How would you like it when somebody says, "I love you but I can't stand your body?" That wouldn't make me feel good. Or, what if that say, "I love you. I just can't stand your wife." Well, if someone said that to me, it would really offend me.

Unfortunately, that is the way we treat Jesus a lot of times. "I love You, Lord, and I just love being with You. I just hate the church. I could really enjoy being a Christian, if it weren't for all those other Christians You want me to connect to." It's a love issue.

We have been talking about the first level of relationship, which is choosing to belong and choosing to connect. It is choosing to relate to others in the body. We know that we already belong in the bigger picture, but we need to recognize it in relationship to our own local church as well. We need to be connected with a church, connected with a body. We need to get connected in covenant with other people. That is the first step.


Growing Deeper in Relationships

As we come into this family with God there are levels of relationship that God brings us into. They are

We talked about level 1 (making a commitment) in our last lesson. Now let's look at the second level.

Level 2 -- Friendship

The second level is that of friendship. It becomes a little deeper here than what we saw in level 1. Friendship is when I'm learning to share and the Bible talks about sharing in Acts 2:44. This is the very first church. It's talking about what they did, just a thing that came naturally as the Spirit of God came upon them. It says, "All the believers met together constantly and shared everything with each other."

Now, a lot of us, that "they were sharing" kind of makes us uncomfortable. Now if you don't have anything, you like that. "I'm a void of all this stuff. I believe we all should share. Can you share that boat? You aren't going to be using it next weekend, are you? Can you share that car?"

Those who are kind of lacking in material things like that word "share." But those who have plenty go, "I'm sure that's not what He meant. I'm sure he meant something else there." Well, we are going to be a person who shares. That is how relationships are built; that's how friendships are built. If you know somebody who has had a friend for 20, 30, 40 years, somebody in that deep of a friendship, you're talking about a lot of sharing that has taken place.

But one thing that has happened to build that relationship is that they had to choose to meet together and share their time. They shared their resources; they shared a lot of things among them. But they had to get together to share.

There are several habits that we have to have in our life for us to grow. We need quiet time; we prayer; we need Bible study. These are different habits that we have to grow. And another one of the habits that I will talk about is the habit of fellowshipping with other believers. I think it has to be a habit, and you have to build this habit, because you want to do it even when you don't feel like it. Fellowship is a hard thing, and not all of us are built for it.

There's a lot of the people that are outgoing. They are extroverts, and they get their energy by being around people. They are always smiling and greeting people. They are jumping in your face, and saying things like, "Hi, can I come over today?" They can do that because they are extroverts and they love people. But not everybody is that way. In fact, a large number of people are not that way, they are not that way at all. (In fact, I am not one of them either.)

I get my energy by getting off by myself, and at times I like people to leave me alone. When you put this in a relationship context, it makes things very difficult, because you won't naturally gravitate to relationships. Just the opposite, you will tend to pull away from relationships. And I tell you what, once the enemy gets you alone, he has got you. Isn't that right? When he gets you alone, he cuts you off. Then he takes you out, because you are alone and there is no one to support you.

Fellowship is something I have to choose to walk in, whether I feel like it or not. A lot of times, I don't feel like it. But it is a choice I make. Why? Because if you are going to stay healthy and grow and mature in the Lord, fellowship is a critical part of it. You are going to have to learn how to connect and how to relate with other people. If you are going to be successful and overcome, you are going to have to know how to do that and part of it is going to be sharing.

Now, what does God want you to share? First of all, He's going to want you to share your experiences. Now I'm not talking about just sharing our testimonies. I'm talking about sharing your failures, your successes, your victories, sharing the things that you've gone through.

The Bible says in Proverbs 27:17, "People learn from one another, just as iron sharpens iron." We learn from one another. There is an old saying that you are probably familiar with: "It is wise to learn from your own mistakes but, it's even wiser to learn from other people's mistakes." You see, you don't have to experience everything to learn it on your own. God has given you people around you with a variety of experiences with their successes and their failures to learn from.

If you look around you at church next Sunday, the people next to you know things that you don't know. You know things that they don't know, because nobody knows it all. You don't have enough years in you lifetime to learn it all by yourself. You need to learn from the people around you. In your church, there is a wealth of information because of the experiences that we have--and God wants us to share our experiences with each other. Why? Because He wants us to grow and we need each other to grow.

Maybe God just simply made you deficient? He didn't give you everything. He made you to need other people. Not only must we share our experiences, but we must share our homes. Open your home to each other. God wants us to share our homes. I don't know if you knew this but when the church was birthed, they didn't have buildings. For 300 years they didn't have buildings.

In Acts, chapter 2, that they met in the temple and then they met from house to house. In fact, several places in the Book of Acts, you'll find that they met in the large group which is what we're doing now, and they met in the small group, because you see, it was in the small group that relationships are built. You'll see some in the Bible, it says for the church that met in the home of...you see, they met in homes. Why? Because that's where genuine fellowship takes place.

We can attend church and do the things that make it "church" -- teaching, worship, etc. But real, genuine fellowship is not going on in those things. For instance, during the sermon, the pastor is talking and no on else is. This is not really fellowship. You really need the relationship of the people in a smaller setting--and the natural place where God has given us is our homes, because we all have homes. We all live some place. He has given us these places that we can connect and relate with people.

Many of you are in churches that have small groups called things like "home fellowship groups," "Kinship groups," "cell groups," etc. If you are not currently involved in one of these groups, maybe you should seriously think (and pray) about joining one. I know it can be scary, but it is a good way to start building relationships.

You may have concerns like: what are they going to do? Did I bring the right thing or should I have brought anything? I didn't anything and should I? Was I supposed to bring something? Are they going to like me? Are they going to accept me? What are they going to make me do there? What are they going to make me share? And so you might freak out; sometimes it can be a scary thing.

Some of you don't like going to groups because you had bad experiences in going to groups. Let me tell you, I've had some bad experiences in restaurants. But it doesn't keep me from trying other ones out. I'm not going to say, "I'm never going to eat at another restaurant again for the rest of my life." I got to say the food was bad there; I got food poisoning or something. No, I'll go to another one. If you've had a bad experience...just keep at it. Eventually you'll find a good one. There are plenty of great people here and God wants to you start connecting with them.

So we're learning to share our experiences. We're learning to share our homes; we're learning to share out problems because all of us have problems. Nobody here is problem free and we need a place where we can talk to people about the things that are going in our life.

The Bible says that we need to weep with those that weep and we need to rejoice with those who rejoice. And when I share a joy, it's like it's doubled. Everybody else gets to share in it. We're all bubbly over this thing. But when I share a problem or a hurt or a pain, it's like it gets cut in half because somebody is helping me carry that load for me. Somebody is carrying this thing for me. So I'm able to share the things that are going on in my life, and I need encouragement. We all need encouragement here.

Galatians 6:2 says, "Share each other troubles and problems." Now, we are supposed to be doing that, sharing these things with each other. Let me give you another verse. It says Hebrews 10:25, "Let us not give up the habit of meeting together. Instead let us encourage one another."

Let us encourage one another and we all need to be encouraged, right? We're not always up all the time. There are times when we're going through stuff and I need somebody to go through the stuff with me. I know somebody is going to feel this with me. Somebody is going to endure this pain with me at least that's what we want. We want somebody to feel it with us and go through it with us. We're not always looking for somebody to fix our problem. But it's awesome whenever somebody will go with me through my problems, my issues, or situations that I'm facing.

So the first level is I'm just going to commit, I'm going to choose to belong. I'm going to enter into a relationship. I'm going to be a part of this particular body and this particular church. The next thing is I'm going to choose to build friendship and relate to people. And I'm going to do that by sharing. And as I share, I plan to develop and build my friendship. I'm going to choose to do that.


Building Partnership and Kinship

As we come into this family with God there are levels of relationship that God brings us into. They are

We talked about level 1 (making a commitment) and level 2 (staring to build relationships) our previous lesson. Let's continue with level 3.

Level 3 -- Partnership

The third level that we move into is a higher level of commitment, and that is of partnership. Partnership means that I am going to be doing my part. And that's the way it is in any household, in any family. Let me give you an example. As the kids grow up, you give them more chores to do--at least that's the way it supposed to work, isn't it? I know you have family jobs and responsibilities. It is not supposed to be one person doing all the work. Sometimes you feel like you're doing all the work, but if you're in a family, you share responsibilities; you all have a part and you all have a place. That is the way families are to be operated, where everybody has a part, everybody has something to do in order to contribute to the family. When you do this in your church relationships, you are moving to a level of "partnership."

1 Corinthians 9 says, "We are partners working together for God, partners working together for God." In fact, the word for fellowship is the Greek word "koinonia" and many times or sometimes, is even translated as "partner." It means, "I am coming along side and I am relating to people in an awesome way there and I am pulling my weight and they are pulling theirs."

There's a mental picture that comes to me, it's kind of like a dog sled team. In other words, everybody on the team is pulling their weight. What happens if a dog decides he doesn't want to pull his weight? First of all, he's going to get jarred around and everybody else is going to have to pull a little harder. You see, we all have a talent and when God made you, He designed you in a certain way. He fashioned you in a certain way.

But if one decides that they are not going to do their job, then they are going to lag behind and they end up causing greater drag for everybody else. I think God wants you to know that when He made you, and designed you. He fashioned you in such a critical way and unique way that nobody else can fulfill the job that you have. Ephesians 4:16 says, "The whole body is fitted together perfectly as each part," (that's you)and "each part does its own special work it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love."

Each of you has a unique part. And if you are not fulfilling your part, then your part is being missed. I mean, we have to compensate for your absence. I know some people say, "Well, you know, if I don't go, somebody else will do it." In a way that is true, but then the dog sled team will have to pull some more. Your vacancy is felt. God made you. He fashioned you and designed you in a very special way, so that he could bring a very unique contribution to the church and to His family.

Nobody else can fill the spot that you can fill! So don't believe the lies that say, "Well, somebody else will do it--somebody else will fill in the blanks here." If you are not in your spot doing your part, then we are compensating for that. We would much rather have you be in your place doing your part. And that's what being a part of the family is about, sharing responsibilities, entering into a partnership. The truth is we can do a lot more together than we can do alone.

Level 4 -- Kinship

Level 4 is kinship. It is loving believers behaving towards each other like family. God wants to move us to the next level and in the next level. I enter into a new relationship with the people around me. I begin to see them as family. In fact, you know, some churches actually call their small groups "kinship groups". I like that, 'cause it talks about "kin" and a lot of it is that word "kin," "kinship," "kinfolk."

We don't use that word that much nowadays. Sometimes when you think of "kinfolk," what kind of images that pop up in your mind?

The bible says that we are like family to each other. You know, the bible tells us that we are family, therefore we have to learn how to love the other members of the family of the Body of Christ, as family.

Romans 12:10 says, "Be devoted to each other like a loving family." I don't know if you know what loving family looks like. I don't know if you had a loving family, if that was your history. But you may have a perception of what a loving family is to be like, but that is how God wants us to relate with each other in the church. He wants us to be committed to each other, like a loving family, You may be committed to our blood family, but how committed are you to the family of God? How committed are you to the other people in the Body of Christ?

That is what God is teaching us and telling us to do here. You may not be familiar with John 3:16, but not familiar with I John 3:16. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world..." Here's I John 3:16. It says, "We know what real love is because Christ gave us His life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters."

We like that first half of that verse--we are glad that Jesus gave His life up for us. But that other part looks like a lot of work. In fact, it looks like a lot of commitment here. It might even require a little sacrifice. Do you see the word "sacrifice" in that verse? I mean, it may not be spelled out like S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-E, but it's in that verse. Do you see it in there? It's in between the lines: commitment.

You'll never fulfill God's purpose for your life unless you learn how to love and relate to your brothers and sisters in Jesus because you need what God has given...there are some gifts to use. We are gifts to each other, And we need to learn how precious our brothers and sisters in Jesus really are. We don't always see their value. We have value in other things. I mean, if a person is lying on their death bed and they are getting ready to die, and they're just got a few minutes and moments left, they don't say, "Could you bring me my diplomas? I would kind of like to look at them one more time." They don't say, "Could you bring me my trophies? Where is that watch I got, that gold watch, when I retired?" And you don't hear them say, "Bring me my palm pilot." I mean, these are things that we hold dear to us in this life until right before we are about to die.

But who are you going to call next to you when it is your time to leave this world? You want your family and your friends, the people that you are close to; the people that you love. They are the ones who you are going to bring close to you, and they are the "things" that have really value. Unfortunately, we don't always see them as being the things that have value in our life until the very end.

In this life we see all these other things--accomplishments--and all these other things that have high value. But what has the highest value are people, your brothers and sisters in the Lord.


Becoming "Family" In Our Local Congregations

We have spent the last three lessons talking about how we cannot fulfill our destiny if we are not in relationship with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. We discovered that some people are naturally outgoing and find it very easy to form relationships, but most of us have to work at it. We need to be proactive in reaching out to others in our local church body, to build relationship with them, instead of waiting for them to reach out to us. (A lot of people are starving for relationship, but they are not good at reaching out to others.)

1 John 4:7-8 tells us, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." Verses 20-21 go on to say, "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also."

In short, part of our destiny involves being in right relationship with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. That means that if we are not in good and loving relationships with others in the body of Christ, then we can't fulfill our destiny.

Building relationship does not come instantly, it takes time. I shared four steps or levels that we go through in the process of building these relationships. They were

We talked about the first three levels in previous lessons, and we began to discuss level four--kinship or deep belonging to each other. We already talked about being a family, in our previous lesson, but I'd like to say a bit more on that topic.

Building Family In Your Local Congregations

God wants us to fulfill that second greatest commandment, which is to love your neighbor as yourself. And how are you going to do that? Where is God going to train you to love? It's going to be in the church. That is going to be the beginning place.

John 13:35 says, "Your strong love for each other will prove to the world that you are my disciples." Make that personal. Your love for each other in your local church will prove to the world that you are Jesus' disciples. It will prove to the world that Jesus is real. It will prove to the world of the truth of the Gospel.

What kind of testimony is it when the church is always killing each other and not loving each other?

The bible has some things to say on this topic. Let me share a few of them with you. I John 3:10 says, "Anyone who does not love other Christians does not belong to God." I John 4:20 says "Those who do not love their brothers and sisters whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have never seen." This is one of the ways that God is going to teach us to love Him, is by letting us practice by loving each other with what real love is. Next verse, in John 3:14. "But if we love other Christian brothers it proves that we have passed from death into eternal life."

The evidence is love.

If I were to pinpoint one thing that I think should be a characteristic of the church, it would be love. I mean, if people say, "Well, I'm just coming to hear great sermons," it falls short. They are going to be disappointed from time to time. If people came just because we had great programs, programs come and go, and they will eventually be dissatisfied. I don't think I would want the reputation of a good teaching or of a good program. That's not what I think we need to have.

I think we need to it to be a reputation of love. We need to learn how to love each other. We need to love each other like Christ loves us. That is the key. We will not function or fulfill our purposes if we do not learn how to love, and we begin that by learning how to love each \ other--right here in our local churches. We learn how love as we get connected with each other and build relationship with each other. You will not succeed, and you will not fulfill your purposes without other believers to be connected in a covenant relationship with. You need them to be able to fulfill your purposes.

One piece of our destiny is our personal relationship with God, based on obeying Him because we love Him so much, and also based on worshipping Him because of Who He is. When we do that, we build a quality vertical relationship with God. But God also expects us to build horizontal relationships with each other. E.g., another piece of our destiny is to love His people, loving His children, loving the family of God.

Let's look at this a bit more. How do you get into the family of God?

Galatians 3:26 says, "You are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ." Faith in Christ Jesus is the very first step is in a relationship with Jesus. That's step number 1. When you invite Jesus to come into your life, at the moment that you say "Jesus, here's my life," and you give your life to Him, there is a transformation. A change takes place. Then, by His Spirit, you're now inducted into the family of God because you're a new creature, you're a new creation. You just entered into it by faith, and you're part of His family.

The next step is then, "I'm going to commit myself to be a part of a church family; I am going to belong. I am going to develop that moving up to the next level by becoming friends with people here. I'm going to develop that friendship by sharing, sharing my experiences, sharing my home, sharing my problems. I'm going to share my life with others."

Then we grow to a deeper level by saying, "I'm going to partner with you, I'm going to come along side of you, and together as a team we're going to be able to fulfill the purposes that God has for my life and for your life together. In that process, I'm going to learn to love you, and you are going to learn to love me. And we want to have such a relationship with each other that when I see you, you are my family, and I feel that love."

I assume that most of you reading this teaching are already believers. But if you are not, you can fix that right now. You can give your heart and life to Jesus, and enter into His family. That's step one. You can't build the type of destiny-fulfilling relationships if you are not a part of God's family.

I'm going to lead you in a prayer where you can pray this prayer and God will hear this prayer if it's coming from your heart. He will come into your life; He will induct you and adopt you into His family. If that is your passion, if that's your desire today, and you've never done that, just invite Him in faith. If you talk to Him right now, He will hear you. Just say to Him:

"Jesus, I have blown it. I have sinned against You, and I'm sorry. And, Jesus, I'm going to turn, and I'm going to follow You. Forgive me of my sins. Come into my life and be my boss. And I will follow You forever."

Now if you've prayed that prayer, Jesus is in your heart. He's in your life. And you're in the family of God and you've taken the first step today. If you prayed that prayer, could you tell somebody you did that?

I would like to pray for those of you who are in God's family--regardless if you just joined it or if you've been a member for a long time.

Lord, I pray that You will help us to love our brothers and sisters in Jesus. Please enable us to remove every barrier, every hindrance, every issue that we have. Lord, that we'll just begin to work it through and let Your love rule our heart. Teach us today to love. Help us to begin with our brothers and sisters in Jesus. Give us a passion to connect.

Father, for those who've just simply cocooned themselves so far away from others, I ask that You would break them out of that, and bring them into deep and good relationships with others.

Father, I pray that You'll just begin to build friendships. And Lord, continue to get us connected with other people.

Father, reveal to us our place where we fit in the body. Show us that. Expose how you made us and shaped us. Father, let us be willing to share, to build friendships with people. Father, just enable us to share our spirits and our homes, things we're going through in our lives. Father, we just want to move up into this level of friendships with others in Your church. Lord, we just love You.

We pray this in Jesus' Name. Amen

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