Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / June 2, 2019 | Turnaround Time - Investing In Relationships

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June 2, 2019 | Turnaround Time - Investing In Relationships · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning TBC and good morning to you guys over there in the College Avenue building.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you guys are doing well.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I just want to welcome you.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new here, if you're visiting us for the first time, I just want to welcome you here to TBC.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're glad that you're here this morning.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: We're glad that you've joined us in the series that we're in.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I also want to say welcome back to you guys who have been um who have been traveling for graduation season and who have been traveling for Memorial Day weekend.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Our family just got back.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: When I say our family, this is uh our family.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, you can ooh and aw, uh, but these things are not as cute when they're running around your house.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um our family just took a trek down to the beach, and I'll tell you what, it is uh it'll be something that we never do again.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we uh we went down to the beach and we ended up driving.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought the TV in the back of the car would entertain these little people longer than it did.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And what made it what made it doubly hard is that uh our our last leg of the trip, uh on our way there and on our way back, we uh stayed with a friend in Memphis, Tennessee, got to hang out with some people, and um and our way back from Memphis to Topeka is supposed to be an eight and a half hour drive.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um we left at 7.30 in the morning and we didn't get back until 7 o'clock at night.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Eight and a half hours turned into 11 and a half hours.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um what made it worse is these two ISIS recruits right here on my lap and on my wife's lap conspired their last day at the beach.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, hey, why don't both of us, we're gonna get pink eye, and uh, I'll get the ear infection, and we'll just make sure that we never come back here again.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: So um, needless to say, we're glad to be back here in Topeka.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Glad to be back home.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you are joining us for the first time, we're in a series called Turnaround Time.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this series is based upon a book written by a guy named Greg Brenneman.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Greg is a Kansas native, grew up in Teston, Kansas, Washburn grad, who's gone on to have a ton of success in his career.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in the business world, he's known as the king of the turnarounds.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Him and his private equity firm have been known to go in and turnaround companies that were failing uh miserably, or the companies that were just satisfactorily underperforming.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: For years, Greg was asked, hey, would you would you write a book?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Would you write a book?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And for years he just said no.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Until he realized one day that his life was like one of these companies that he turned around and was satisfactorily underperforming.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: So what Greg sought out to do was take these five principles from his book and that he's used in these companies to turn them around, tweak them, apply them to his life.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: He said he tweaked them and applied them to his life, and they changed his life.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: They enriched his life.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Finally, I have something worthwhile to write a book about.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so he did.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: You might be wondering, what's the what's the big rah-rah with this guy?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why is he so important?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Greg, well, the way that Greg writes the book is really interesting.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you were to crack open the book, what you'll find is that Greg spends a chapter on business.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you're a business-minded person and you love that kind of stuff like I do, uh, it's really interesting.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then he spends a chapter on personal.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just that he spends a chapter on personal, it's that Greg is very intentional.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's that he shares his testimony of his faith in Christ and his principles of one, two, three, four, and five.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he shares scripture about why this is so important.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's in hopes that someone would pick up this book and read it and might find faith, might, might come to faith in Christ, or he might encourage us as believers, that if there's an area of our lives, if our lives have grown stale, if we're in fact in need of a turnaround in our lives, that we'd be able to pick up this book and apply these principles that we get from Him and that we get from Scripture.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've made it through the first four.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: This week, we're gonna be number five, investing in family and friends.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I've titled this message uh Investing in Relationships.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give you guys the three Ps, my three P's of what it takes to invest in relationships.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hope you guys will take these um these uh thoughts, um, these three P's I'm investing in that you would apply them to your life.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then maybe in your life that you would have a turnaround in how you invest in relationships to those around you, those friends and family, close friend, um uh close neighbors, co-workers, that we would begin to invest in our relationships.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, before we get started, uh I'd like to pray for us and pray for our time.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So if you would join me in a in a word of prayer.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I uh I thank you for today.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you for an opportunity that we get to be sharpened by Greg and we get to be uh encouraged and exhorted from your word.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I confess that if you do not speak during this moment, nothing of significance will be said.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, I pray that your word would be high and lifted up, that we would come to it, we would submit to it.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, if we're in need of a turnaround, that we would begin to take steps to invest in relationships differently in a way that would honor and glorify you for what it is that you've done for us in our lives.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, we ask and we pray these things in your son's name.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's a story of a man and of Mother Teresa.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: A man found out what Mother Teresa was doing with the orphanage in Calcutta, India, and was so moved by what it is that Mother Teresa was doing that he sold off his possessions, bought a plane ticket, boarded a plane, and headed over to India.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Upon arriving there, he he couldn't find Mother Teresa, and so immediately he just started getting plugged in and serving in the ministry with his orphanage, cleaning up after them, investing in them.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: After a couple weeks, Mother Teresa arrived on the scene and he ran up to her and said, and told her his story.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: After he had finished, Mother Teresa looked at him and said, Son, I know your story.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard it before.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to tell you, you're terrible at this ministry.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: God had called me here to Calcutta, India to minister here.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Son, you need to go and find your own Calcutta.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we look at the first P of investing in relationships.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: The first P is for us to invest personally.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: What it looks like for us to invest personally is twofold is that the first step is for us to invest in ourselves.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: That there's a scripture in Psalm 139 where God talks, uh, where the Psalmist is talking about how God has knit us together in our mother's womb, like he knows our inmost parts.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's a specialness and uniqueness to each one of us.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: That God didn't make you like me, and he didn't make me like you.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: That God has given us each a platform for us to live in.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh for my generation, maybe the generation right before me, and certainly the generations that are coming behind me, I think this is hard for us.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is hard for us to realize that uh that God has created each one of us uh special, uh, and it's hard for us to appreciate the differences in our lives.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh what makes it so hard is as soon as we log on to Instagram, we log on to Facebook, and we start scrolling, all of a sudden we see what everybody else is doing.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: We see what everybody else's lives is doing, and we and we and we start to question and we start to doubt, God, uh, did you make a mistake in making me the way that you made me?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like my life doesn't look as cool as their life.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I love this quote by uh Ogman Dino in his book, Um The Greatest Salesman in the World.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: He says, uh as he's writing, he says, since in the beginning of time, never has never has there been another with my mind, my heart, my eyes, my ears, my hands, my mouth.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: That none became before, none that live today, and none that come tomorrow can walk, talk, move, and think exactly like me.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: So what am I gonna do?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna capitalize on my difference.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: For that's an asset to be promoted to the fullest.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Vain attempts to imitate others no longer will I make.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, I'm gonna put place my uniqueness on display.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna accent my differences.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: So part of us investing in relationships, investing personally, it first begins with us investing in ourselves.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why we invest in ourselves is so that we can do step number two, is that we can invest with ourselves.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: That if we don't even know who we are and who it is that God has created us to be, that we'll never get to step number two where we can invest with ourselves, our gifts, our passions, our strengths, those things that God has uniquely wired for us in the platforms that He's given us.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now let me stop you before you think that I'm just up here trying to give you some motivational speech, some rah-rah, just blowing smoke.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the scripture is very clear on this when it talks about in 1 Corinthians the body of Christ.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And allow me, if you would, to read this for us in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 12 through 27.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: For just as our body is one, it has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is Christ.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 14.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: For the body does not consist of one, but of many.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body, if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: As it is, God has arranged the members of the body, each one of them as he chose.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's made you as he's chosen to make you.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: If all were a single member, where would the body be?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again to the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: On the contrary, parts of the body that seem to be weaker aren't as cool.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get a lot of attention that we think less honorable, we bestow greater honor.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts don't require.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: God so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there would be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because if one member suffers, all of us are gonna suffer together.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if one member is honored, all of us are gonna rejoice together.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you, us here at Topeka Bible Church, we are the body of Christ.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we're individually members of it.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we need to invest in ourselves so that one day that we can invest personally with ourselves, with the gifts, with because I because here's the truth.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I need you, and you need me.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: You guys need each other.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's what happens when we start to live in our giftings, when we start to live in how God has made us to be.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I've seen this to be true uh with a couple people that I know personally, some uh the person that lives here uh in Topeka and and uh somebody that lives in St.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Louis, I uh we have people in our lives who who care deeply about foster care, about helping parents of kids who are in foster care and helping those kids.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And when when I get a time with them, when I've gotten time with them in the past, and I've just asked them, hey, what is it that about foster care that that just spurs you on?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: That you're so passionate about?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: When I start to hear them speak, you know what happens to me?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm encouraged.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm spurred on.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: I start to think differently about the way that I'm living my life.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I need them to walk into their giftings.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need them to be like somebody else.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: I need them to be them because in them being them, I see more of Christ.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I see more of his love, see more of how he's created everybody.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I live my life differently.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm spurred on.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you this.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh do you know your platform?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: What is your platform that God has given you?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe for you it's in the business world.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're great at leading people, you're great at leading teams, you're great at leading people.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe for you it's in nursing, maybe for you it's in ministry, it's in it's in service and hospitality.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Will you walk in your gifting?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: I beg you to walk in your gifting.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we might more experience the body of Christ at work and in action.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you question number two: in what ways can you invest personally in yourself?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe take a step outside of your comfort zone to develop some skills, some gifts and abilities that God may have gifted you.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that you would invest with others, we invest with our family, invest with our friends, us honestly and us personally.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe even the local body of Christ here at TBC.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a way that you can get involved here at the church, that you would get to know somebody else, that the body here would be spurred on by you?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: The uh second peer of relationships is for us to invest patiently.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um I came across this verse a couple years ago.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: This verse says, What is what is desired in a man is steadfast love.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's true of my life.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's something in me that I just want to be loved for who I am, regardless of what I do, how I act, um, in the mess that I live in sometimes, and my successes and my failures.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to be loved steadfastly.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: I want somebody to walk with me through life.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And um I think that's not only the desire of my heart, I think this is a desire of a lot of people's hearts and a lot of people in this world.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: We just desire somebody to love us patiently.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, my point number two is that we would invest patiently.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um, scripture for us calls us to a very high standard that once we look at what it is that Christ has done for us, we're it's supposed to change the way that we do relationships with everybody, not only believers, but non-believers.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but if we're honest, this is really hard.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like this area of relationships, twofold, is is really hard.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's in the nitty-gritty of it, and we all have people in our lives that just kind of rub us the wrong way.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, golly, he just gets on my last nerves.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I wish that I could just do away with him.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Or we have people in our lives who have hurt us, people in our lives who have wronged us.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we're we're ready to give up on them.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: And scripture gives us, he doesn't, but scripture doesn't give us suggestions, gives us commandments for us to live by, that we're to live with humility and gentleness and patience, that we would bear with one another in love, that we would be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Colossians put it this way, that we're to put on for us compassionate hearts, that we would be kind and again, humble, meekness, that we would be forgiving one another, that we, in our relationships with people closest to us, non-believers, our family, people that get on our nerves, that we're to invest patiently in them.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think the second thing that we need in order for us to invest patiently is that we need to know our enemies and we need to be prepared to deal with them.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's the second part of this, is that for us to know what it is, sometimes that sometimes life gets messy, does it not?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Life gets messy.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you were to ask my wife what it is that uh the thing that I uh dis dislike, I don't want to say the most, but sometimes that I get most irritated about, is uh she say uh he doesn't like people who are clumsy.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd say, yes, I'm working on that.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's why God gave me three kids, four and under.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because in our lives, it's bound to happen that our kids are just gonna be clumsy.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, and and what happens is when they're clumsy, let's say my oldest daughter, uh, we're sitting at the table, and I'll just say, Hey, watch out for your drink, watch out for your drink.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: You keep reaching over this, you keep doing that, and all of a sudden she just uh she's not paying attention, she spills it all over the place.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: What she'll immediately do is she'll look at me, and my reaction determines how she responds to the situation.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: If I look at her and I just go, oh, like, and it's very obvious that I'm annoyed with her, water works.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it just makes it worse for me.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, not only did you spill it, now you're just crying over nothing.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, just get over it, like let's move up.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: But her response to it is totally different when I look at her and I say, Hey, it's okay.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go get a towel, let's clean it up.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: She she doesn't cry.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: She'll skip and go get a towel and go clean it up.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think, I think no matter what, you know, it doesn't matter if you're four or if you're dealing with somebody who's 34.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: We need to be aware of our enemies.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people are gonna spill their stuff.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Life is gonna come, it's gonna throw you a curveball.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we need to be prepared to deal with those enemies of our lives, those things that might annoy us, those things that that people get into.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so let me ask you this.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh how do you respond to someone who who's fallen into infidelity?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna invest patiently with them?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna walk through that season with them?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna quickly just let them go about their own ways?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: How do you respond with people who fall into addiction?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: You invest patiently as they struggle with alcohol, as they struggle with drugs, as they struggle with a sexual addiction.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Are you quick to just kick into the curb?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: I love this quote by Isaac Manning, and he says, uh, don't think, however, for a moment that uh that Christ is a silver bullet for all of our problems of modern life.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Last time I checked, all of us are still human.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're still human, I'm still human, and we're deeply fallen.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: None of us are perfect yet.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we're prone to do foolish things.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: When we come to faith, what gets removed is a crushing weight of our inadequacy through God's grace and God's forgiveness.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing, depression.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys may even struggle with it in this room.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know someone who struggles with it.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to invest patiently speaking the truth to them in love?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think oftentimes we can be one or the other.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: We can be very truthful without being very loving, or we can be very loving without being very truthful.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Speak about how do we navigate relationships, especially with people who are depressed?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: How do you manage relationships with those who are discouraged?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: We all go through seasons of our lives where we would want somebody just to walk with us through it.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm discouraged.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Life is hard.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: I feel no hope.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's light at the end of the tunnel.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: We walk with people through this.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Lastly, lack of appreciation.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us feel this at at times.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: I know I feel it.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know my wife feels it.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Those closest to us feel it.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Are we willing to walk with them?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when someone does step into number one or number two here?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or what is our what is our response to people scripturally?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Galatians 6, 1 would say, if if anyone's caught in sin, you guys who are so spiritual, you know what you should do?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: You should restore them.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Spirit of gentleness.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's there's this there's this aspect of our lives that we're to keep watch on ourselves, but we're also called to bear one another's burdens.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: We don't kick people to the curb.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I love what he says here that we're let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due seasons we will reap if we do not give up.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially those who are in a household of faith.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you this thing will come up.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Is there someone in your life that you maybe need to forgive if they've hurt you and you've given up on them?
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: You haven't been very patient.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to show a little bit of grace towards that you need to reconcile with?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: If there is, the Lord is laying that person on your heart right now.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta you gotta take some sort of action.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, do you know someone who's in a season of hurt, depression, discouragement?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: How is it that God would call you to patiently invest in their lives?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um I was reading the other day, I don't know where I was reading this about, uh, but I was reading.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: About Chinese bamboo.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting about Chinese bamboo is when you plant it, you're supposed to plant it, just dig up a whole plant, and then you're supposed to water it and you're supposed to fertilize it just like any other plant.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: But what's different about this strand of Chinese bamboo that's uh that sets it apart is that you're supposed to do this for four years.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: What happens in uh what you look at in year four looks exactly like it looks like the day that you planted it, that nothing has happened.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's not until year five that there's a shoot that finally pops up out of the ground.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's a in a matter of weeks, this bamboo shoot can grow from anywhere from 80 to 135 feet, all in a matter of weeks.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: That if you're faithful to do what it is that the plant needs, watering it, fertilizing it, investing in this plant, that one day it will shoot up, and one day it will sprout into what it's called to be.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Bamboo.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think a parallel could be drawn to our lives as we invest patiently in people.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And scripturally in 1 Corinthians 3, we're called to plant, we're we're called to water.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we're called to water.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's all we're called to do is just to water the seed.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Invest patiently in non-believers, invest patiently in believers.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't know when the shoot is gonna come up, but it all we do know is that God is gonna cause the growth in someone's life.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: I just think how sad would it be if we were to just give up on people so quickly, so easily, that we would never see the growth of us investing patiently for the long haul with people.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: The third P of investing in relationships is to invest purposefully.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Last week, Jim talked about um the uh when Jesus was coming out of um the his season of temptation in the wilderness.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, right after that, he called his first disciple.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I just love the purposefulness of Jesus investing in the disciples.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: He says, he had an end game in mind.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: He says, hey, hey, he said, you, you come follow me, and here's what I'm gonna do for you.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make you a fisher of man.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: In Mark 3, 14, it says that he appointed the twelve that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus knew as these guys are just with him, that Jesus being very purposefully, that as they spend three week years with him, he would get to the end of the life of his time here on earth, and he would come to them and he would say this: he would say, Hey guys, now that I've done this, all authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think these guys at this point were wondering what is it what does he mean by go and make disciples?
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think they would have seen it through the last three years of Jesus investing in them, that they were then to go and make disciples of somebody of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and then teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: He was purposeful.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: He started with them.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm gonna make you this.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: He poured his life into these guys, these guys who would change the world.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: I love the example that uh of Paul and Timothy.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: When we meet Timothy in the scriptures, he's a he's a timid man.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Paul takes him with him and starts investing in him.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: In Paul's last letter to Timothy, he says, Hey Timothy, what you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, and trust the faithful men who will also be able to teach others.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: There was a purpose behind Paul taking young Tim and Timothy and developing him, pouring into his life.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and you can see it.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You, Timothy, however, have followed my teaching.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: You've seen it.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: You've seen my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, and my steadfastness.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: My persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, Aconium, and Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet the Lord rescued me from them all.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Timothy, Timothy had a front row scene in Paul's life because Paul was purposeful with him.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: I love the the example that we get from Paul to the Thessalonians.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says this, he says, We were gentlemen, like we were like a, this is how Paul did it.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: You were like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, you know, we were so affectionate affectionately desirous of you that we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, like we we just didn't share the Bible, didn't share what Jesus did, but we also shared our own selves.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like you guys were involved in our lives, you saw us because you had become so dear to us, like he cared for them enough that he gave them not only gospel, but himself because he loved them so much.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: The bookends of it was love.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to see them grow, he wanted to see them mature in the faith.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: I love this part.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: He says, like a father with his children, like with me with my girls.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: This this is how Paul walked with these people.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: He said, We exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charge you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his kingdom and his glory.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's a way that we're supposed to invest in people's lives.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to invest in younger believers.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, first people we're first we're supposed to invest in.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh let me pause for a moment and say this.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're we're blessed here at Topeka Bible Church.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why I say this is because we have we have uh incredible amount of older people, wise, who've been walking with the Lord for a number of years.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: My encouragement for you would be that you would go and find someone who's younger in the face.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe find someone who's in their 40s, somebody's in their 30s, who's just walking, and you would you would come along beside them and you would share with them your life and also the gospel, what it is that God has done in your life, that you might encourage someone.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, young guys like me need older guys like you to come and speak into our lives, to give us hope, to offer us encouragement, that you would be purposeful with how you spend your time.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: We need you.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a great blessing that we have.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: People who have been walking with the Lord, have seen the Lord's faithfulness and his steadfastness.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: That you would invest purposefully in those who are who might be behind you spiritually.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: You would bring them up to faith and maturity in Christ.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: The next thing we're supposed to do when we invest purposefully is we are supposed to invest in each other.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, let us consider how to stir one another up towards love and good works.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: We wouldn't neglect meeting with each other here in church, outside of church.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: We do life together.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some people were in the habit of doing this.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: We would be uh encouraging one another.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: All the more as we see Jesus, as our day coming closer to meet Jesus and Him coming back to take us with Him.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the last way that we're supposed to invest purposefully, not only with younger believers, not only with believers who are at the same stage of life as us, but invest purposefully in this world.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Those people who don't know Christ, those people who don't have any hope, who are far from God, who are alienated from God, with nothing to do with God.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: I love what Paul says uh specifically in verse 22.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um he says, To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: That I've become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Are you intentional?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Those people who don't know Christ invest purposefully in their lives?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: There are people at your work that you could go out to lunch with, get to know them a little bit, figure out what's going on in their lives, maybe open up an opportunity for you to share what it is that you believe, share the hope that we have in Christ.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that I might share with them in the blessings of the gospel.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: We've been blessed by the gospel, have we not been?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you this.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Who has God placed in your life that you can give them your life, an example for them to follow, an example for them for the for them to see, and the gospel?
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord's faithfulness, your walk with the Lord.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Question number two, are you in community with other believers?
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Are you doing this regularly?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is the gathering of God's people a priority in your life?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Not only here at church, are there people, you know, I'm not saying that you need to go and have 15 people that you meet with regularly, but at least a couple that know what's going on in your life, that you're investing purposefully to encourage them and spur them on.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, is there a non-believer that you can invest purposefully in?
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: Take a step outside of our comfort zones and offer them the hope that we have in Christ.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: See, these are the three P's of relationships that we would invest personally.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: We would know ourselves.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: After knowing ourselves, we would invest with ourselves, we'd invest patiently across life, that we would be steadfast, just as the Lord is steadfast for us in our lives, and we would invest purposefully in young believers, believers of the same age, same walk, and with those people who do not know Christ.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: As we transition uh into a time of communion, um, I think it's really interesting.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've as I've been studying, I I've I've uh I've seen this.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've seen this trend that Paul does in his letters when he's speaking, uh when he's writing to his audiences.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um specifically, it's very obvious in Romans, you see in Romans that Paul spends the first 11 chapters, and what you'll see after he introduces is he he just kind of goes into his theology and the gospel and just the vastness and the richness of the gospel.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then in chapter 12, he says, okay, now therefore, this is how we should live.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: We see it in in Ephesians.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 1, 2, and 3.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is just, he's just, it's almost like he's rambling on about the goodness, about the faithfulness of God, about all the blessings that he's lavished on us.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then he gets to chapter 4 and he and he did he does the same thing.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, he goes, therefore.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think Paul has his theology, right?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: If I was anything like Paul, I would have started this message with the gospel.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what Paul knew is that if we weren't first entrenched with the gospel, if we aren't first reminded of the gospel, if we aren't first overwhelmed with the gospel, then the way that we live our lives won't change.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: What the gospel is supposed to do is it's supposed to remind us of where we were, that we were alienated from God, and that God will send his son on a rescue mission to rescue us, that he turned the lights on in each one of our lives, and and and we're supposed to look at the gospel and we're supposed to go, golly, like how is it then that I'm supposed to live?
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how can I respond?
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I love what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 3.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: My hope for us would be this is that he says this, he says in verse 5 in verse 14, he says, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have the strength, that we would have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, what is the length, what is the height, and what is the depth to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's more than us just reading the Bible, like the gospel would penetrate our hearts, that it would change the way that we live, that we would begin investing in relationships differently.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul gets to chapter four, and he just goes, Therefore, as a prisoner of the Lord, I urge you to live in this manner.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: So the same thing is true for us, that we need to be reminded what is the height, what is the breadth, what is the length, it's the depth of the love that Christ has for us.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: And hopes that maybe that would change the way that we live.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we've gone through this series that it would change the way that we're intentional, things that are most important to us, change the way that we live, the way that we handle our money, faithful stewards of it.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: We would give it.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: Change the way that we surround ourselves with people who are going to help push us towards Christ.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: It would change the way that we live, investing in relationships.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: That our lives would be simply a response.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: That we would live a life worthy of a calling, that we that we have received in Christ, and we would walk in the fullness of life that we've been promised in the church.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: As the men come down to take communion, uh, let me pray for us.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um Jeremiah's gonna come up and play, and uh he'll dismiss us at the end.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Father, I uh thank you for this time that you've given us, Lord, and I pray that that we would be reminded of your son's sacrifice.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: That none of us deserve to be forgiven.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you have lavished your love upon us in ways that we can we don't even uh can comprehend yet.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: That we have to have strength to comprehend that.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I pray that we would, and that it would change the way that we live our lives, that we would be intentional, specifically in relationships, that we would invest patiently, personally, and purposefully, so that we may see people come to you and see people experience life.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um we thank you for your son, we thank you for our sacrifice in his name we pray, amen.