In the Chat: Who has been the most powerful influence in your life?

The Four Essential Functions of Emotional Health:
1. Relational Connection
2. Relational Disconnection
3. Processing Pain
4. Adult Competencies

How do you grow a human?
God is Love and Love only finds expression in relationships.
There are only two human realities in the world: Life and Death.

Ephesians 4:3-6

Why is this so hard for us to achieve?
● Because our core emotion is FEAR
● Because our core motivation is NAKEDNESS
● Because our core strategy is to HIDE

Response:
● What will I do in the next 24 hours to move toward connection?

John 8:2-12

There was a HUGE crowd - “all the people gathered around Him.”

What did He write in the sand?

They kept questioning Him.

Jesus caught everyone!

The crowd was also condemned.

I am caught, too.

Luke 9:52-56
Matthew 22:36-40

● If we love people, we love God.
● If we do not love people, we are not loving God.

Luke 13:6-9

God’s process of restoration: Grace + Truth + Time

Grace
Philippians 1:3-11
Ecclesiastes 7:1-4

Truth
2 Peter 1:2-11

1 Peter 4:8-10

Time
2 Corinthians 3:16-18

MY RESPONSE:
• I will give myself to the Grace of God and begin to process my brokenness
• I will pursue the Truth about God, me, and my restoration process.
• I will embrace the process of healing with patience and hope.
• I will extend grace to those who need the grace that I need.

John 4:13-14

John 6:30-35

The Questions We Must Answer:
● What did Jesus mean and am I experiencing it?
● What hungers and thirsts does Jesus intend to satisfy or eliminate?
● What do my appetites tell me about the condition of my faith?
The key may be to replace our appetites, not eliminate them.

Psalm 42:1-2

Matthew 5:6

Revelation 7:13-17

Genesis 3:6-10

Big Idea: God’s best is better than my best.

Judges 21:25

Genesis 3:6

Genesis 3:7-10

• We can trust God with our past.
• We can trust God with our future.

God’s best is better than my best.

Ephesians 4:17-18

Zechariah 4:1-14

1. The presentation of the vision. (v. 1-2)

2. The purpose of the vision. (v. 3-5)

3. The power of the vision. (v. 6-7)

4. The application.

Revelation 1:12-20

1 Corinthians 6:16-7:7

There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.

7 Now, getting down to the questions you asked in your letter to me. First, Is it a good thing to have sexual relations? 2-6 Certainly—but only within a certain context. It’s good for a man to have a wife, and for a woman to have a husband. Sexual drives are strong, but marriage is strong enough to contain them and provide for a balanced and fulfilling sexual life in a world of sexual disorder. The marriage bed must be a place of mutuality—the husband seeking to satisfy his wife, the wife seeking to satisfy her husband. Marriage is not a place to “stand up for your rights.” Marriage is a decision to serve the other, whether in bed or out. Abstaining from sex is permissible for a period of time if you both agree to it, and if it’s for the purposes of prayer and fasting—but only for such times. Then come back together again. Satan has an ingenious way of tempting us when we least expect it. I’m not, understand, commanding these periods of abstinence—only providing my best counsel if you should choose them. 7 Sometimes I wish everyone were single like me—a simpler life in many ways! But celibacy is not for everyone any more than marriage is. God gives the gift of the single life to some, the gift of the married life to others.

1. Sex is good and from God.
2. Healthy sexuality is a management issue whether single or married.
3. God gives us freedom of choice; the “better way.”

● John 3:17

Prayer & Worship

Jesus washes his disciple's feet, our feet, and commands us to do the same for others.

John 13:1

2 Timothy 3:16-17

The Lies Today:
● The Bible has changed radically over time.
● The Bible Constantly Contradicts itself.
● The Bible is open to any interpretation.

The Truth About the Bible:
● It is textually accurate.
● It's God's Word, preserved by God.

Three Keys to Reading the Bible:
1. Remember it is a library, not a book.
2. Treat it as God's Word.
3. Distinguish between Descriptive and Prescriptive.

A portion of the audio is missing starting at 1:19 and returning at 5:50. Apologies for the inconvenience!

Nehemiah 1:1-11

“Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer
IS the greater work.” -Oswald Chambers

Nehemiah identified with the exiles in their trouble and disgrace.