Five Practices to Belong in our community of Influence:
• Priority – Dealt with commitment issues.
• Chemistry – Connecting well to your people.
• Vulnerability – Lowering the wall of shame.
• Empathy – Supporting others well.
• Accountability – Being accountable for connecting to others.
John 13:34 (ESV), A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
• We must be fully known and truly loved.
How do the five practices lead to wholeness?
- The Open Self
- Hidden Self
- Unknown Self
- Blind Self
Mark 12:30-31 (ESV), “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.
• Jesus gives us the answer to our emotional and spiritual health.
Psalm 86:11, Teach me your way O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name.
1 John 4:12, No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1) Self-inflicted Isolation.
Proverbs 18:1 (ESV), Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgement.”
Numbers 11:11 (ESV), . . . And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of the people on me?
Number 11:14-15 (ESV) 14 I am not able to carry all this people along, the burden is to heavy for me. 15 If you will treat me like this, kill me, at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.
Numbers 11: 16-17 (ESV), 16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Gather me 70 men of the of the elders of Israel, that you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. 17 I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.”
Self-inflicted Isolation:
- Disconnection
- Delusion
- Dissatisfaction
2 ) God Invited Isolation.
Mark 1:35 (ESV), . . . Very, early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
God invited isolation:
- Examination
- Communication
- Preparation