The Roller Coaster of Godly Relationships Inner Circle (Part 2)

1:04 God is doing something amazing in our church and in our midst, and I am so excited about what God is doing. I have a word to share with you right now. So I want to go right into this thing. get out your notes and let's get into God's word. Father, do something in this place today that changes us. I thank you, Father, that it won't just be my words. It'll be the words that you gave, Father, and nothing can glory in your presence. So God, I thank you for your Holy Spirit that makes the difference. Thank you for your anointing that changes things. And we thank you for this word penetrating our hearts and changing the way we live. In Jesus' name, we agree? Amen. Okay, so last week we talked about a message called the missing link. And if you have not heard that message, I want you to go back and watch it. Because basically what we said is that God's desire for every person is to reach purpose. And there's a circle of purpose that we called it.

1:59 There's four raw elements that every person needs to reach purpose. The first one is you need to have a relationship with God. The second one is you need to discover and cultivate, work on your gifts. The third one is you need to answer the call of God. Like there's a specific way that God wants to take what he's given you and he wants it to impact the kingdom of God. And so if you if you do nails or you do makeup, that's good. You've beaten people's face, but we need to figure out how that has a kingdom purpose. And God wants to take all your gifts and give it a kingdom purpose. And then there was one more link that a lot of times gets complicated because we try to fill it with a whole bunch of stuff. So for me to reach purpose, I need connections and god's like nope, you don't need that because i'm the one in charge of promotion uh, well, maybe I need I need uh Some networking uh-uh because i'll put you in front of the people. I need you to get in front of Maybe maybe I need a bigger platform and god said you don't need any of that For all the great men and women of god who reached and completed the circle of purpose That fourth element was godly community They needed godly community to be able to do what god had called them to do And I want to challenge you in this place Who in your life is that godly community that god has called you to walk with so that you can reach purpose?

3:21 Because if we're honest a lot of us have friends and followers, but we don't have godly community A lot of us have acquaintances and people who are around us But we don't have people that have the sit down and shut up card in our life Oh, y'all know who I'm talking about. The people who will hold you accountable to what you said and you still are going to be in relationship with them after they made you mad.

3:44 Oh, yeah, this whole crowd faked today. Amen. Glory to God. I'm just saying that God wants you to have an inner circle or a godly community that helps you reach purpose. And if you do not have that i'm afraid that there may be a missing link and what god wants for you If you have people in your life that aren't pushing you towards purpose, even when you decide to do something different You do not have all of the ingredients you need to reach purpose And so today I want to I want to take this a step further because Okay, I got my relationship with god and you know what i'm saying? I'm discovering my gifts and, and you know what? I'm answering the call. Like I'm coming to church. I'm doing some different things. I'm moving forward in that. Um, and God, I'm going to try godly community and let me stop and just say, I am so proud to lead a church that doesn't just hear me talk, but they actually are doers of the word. Last week, hundreds of you signed up for small groups and are meeting all across the city. Can we give God hundreds of people and many of you are going to do it today. And I encourage you because people like, I love transformation church.

4:57 I love it. You're only experiencing a half of what we can give you until you get into small groups. Because when you get into small groups, that's when this church comes alive. And the most beautiful thing is in transformation nation, people who are watching all over the world last week, it was so crazy that during the message, people were so convicted by the word that they started forming groups by themselves online. They literally said, is anybody in London that I can meet with? Is anybody in Los Angeles? Is anybody in Atlanta? Oh, y'all don't hear me. Is anybody in Kenya that I can meet up with? And they started exchanging email addresses and have met up through Google Hangout and FaceTime and they are discussing the, oh, y'all don't hear me. They're discussing the word of God in community. That's an Acts 2 42 church that we didn't even put it out, but they said, what must I do? And so I'm so proud of every person out there and everybody in here because God wants godly community for us. But once we get it, like this is my dilemma, because I've seen people start godly relationships, but I don't see a lot of people finish godly relationships. If we're honest, what happens is whenever we put God in front of something, somehow subliminally we think it should be easy. So I'm going to have a godly relationship. So it should be an easy relationship. It should be a relationship that there's no problems in.

6:25 This should be a relationship that I don't really have to work for. I mean, I could understand if I was in a relationship with somebody who didn't know God, but these are Christians. Come on. These are people of God. I can't believe she said that and she's a Christian. We have a dilemma in godly relationships, and I want to explain it to you, is that if we're going to have godly community, godly community is made up of godly relationships. And godly relationships are made up of regular people. and regular people have real problems are there any regular people in this place this morning okay okay so so so somebody lifted both of their hands and they leg like it's me okay so what i'm saying is people are like i can't go to that church because there's just so many hypocrites there whatever church you show up at then it's not a perfect church anymore We're here.

7:17 We're here. We're here. We're here. because when we when we when we divorce god's plan in the garden then we got this fallen nature and so we have to deal through our humanness through our experiences through our culture through all of these other things and what a lot of people do is they get out of godly relationships because they experience the humanness of people and what god is saying is I need some people to commit to be in godly relationships, even though this relationship is going to be like a roller coaster. And that's the title of today's message, the roller coaster of godly relationships. Because I want to help you see that it's not going to be as easy as we think it's going to be, but it's necessary for us to reach purpose. And a lot of people don't have it because they've been hurting relationships before, or I tried to tell people my stuff and they use it against me.

8:15 And so we're sitting here not reaching purpose because we gotta have godly community to reach purpose. Ask David, ask Adam, ask even Jesus, our example. He chose community. If anybody could have lived this thing without having community, it was the son of God. But he stopped and he walked with disciples and he walked at a pace that they could do life together. And my question is, if it was the son of God had to have community, what's your excuse? Like I'm too busy. He had to save the world.

8:49 Do you understand what I'm saying? And so what I want to challenge us today is that we have to go on this rollercoaster ride of godly relationships and it's going to end up being what God wants for us. But I know everybody hasn't ridden a rollercoaster, but let me ask this. How many people have? How many people ride rollercoasters? Okay. All right. I love them. How many people have not ridden a roller coaster ever in your life. Okay. Yeah. We're going to pray for your faith, Pastor Barbara. And, uh, okay. So, so today as I use this analogy of a roller coaster, I want to, I want to take you through some of the, the, the dips and, and, and the Zenas and the different things that happen on a roller coaster to see what a godly relationship. Now hear me, I'm not just talking about anybody that you're doing this with because there's some people that are not even worth getting on the ride with There are some people that you should not even commit to.

9:49 We don't need to do anything together except say bye. Because you're not good for me. I'm not good for you. You're not going where I'm going. You're actually going the opposite direction of where I'm going. And many of us have friends and bros and besties that we are committed to because of time served. we've been together so long and and we got all these memories together but what they're keeping you from is your purpose because when you go to them in the midnight hour or when you're about to make a life-changing decision what you're doing is being led by their feelings and not by their faith y'all know y'all got some of those friends who if you ready to go kill somebody they're like bro where we at like what we doing bro you just tell me cock cock i got you and you got your girlfriends like Jerome is so mean to me and I'm gonna do something you like where he at where he at like what you're not even ghetto like that but something just it rises where he at That was a white girl.

10:55 She'll do that. You understand? Like, where he at? These are bloody shoes. Like, y'all, y'all just, y'all just go crazy. so what i'm saying is the people who are in your inner circle cannot be led by their feelings they have to be led by their faith so that already disqualifies half the people you've been telling your business to because if god can't lead them you shouldn't be leading me you shouldn't be speaking into where i'm going and what i'm doing because you're not you're not anchored to the thing that never changes. So when life comes, you move and then you telling me to move with you. No, no, no, no. I have to be around people who are in my inner circle. And so when we go on this rollercoaster ride, what's the first thing that you do when you get on a rollercoaster ride?

11:51 You have to commit to the ride. I know some of y'all, we see you in the lines at the amusement park, you're like, oh my God, no. I'm not doing it. I'm like, yeah, I'm about to, no, no. Do you hear them screaming? And you get all the way up to the front and the little person's laughing at you because you're like, you ready to go? And what you have to do is when that gate opens, when you make those steps, you're committing to get on this ride. And what I'm saying to you is by going to a belong group and by getting in godly community and committing to this church what you're doing is you're committing to go on the ride what you're doing is saying i'm not just going to test this out and jump off when i don't like it because if you ever see somebody jump off of a roller coaster in the middle of the ride it could be fatal because they they they didn't realize that they had to commit i don't care how much you got to scream i don't care how much you feel like you're going to throw up, don't get off the ride before it comes to an end. And many people are getting off of godly relationships because they don't like what comes with it. And what I'm challenging you to do is to see, I want to help you see these punches coming. I heard somebody say, nothing hurts like a punch you don't see coming. But what happens is when we give godly wisdom like this, you can say, I'm committing to godly relationship. And then there's a term they have in boxing, they say, roll with the punches. What that means is I know your tendency. I know what comes with this. And so when it happens, I see the punch coming and I can lean with it. So it does not hurt me as if I didn't know it was coming. And it still may hurt a little bit and it still may leave a bruise, but it has nowhere as much impact as it could have had if I didn't see it coming. And many believers, for some reason, you act like football players that get put in the game by the coach and you get tackled and then you get mad because you got tackled. It's a part of the

13:57 game. In the same way, when you get in the godly relationship, because you're dealing with real people who have real problems, that God is still transforming us into the image of who we are created to be. When you get in there and you get offended, you get upset and you should know offense is probably going to be a part of this game. And once you know that, you don't get off the ride prematurely. So first point to the roller coaster of relationships, I want everybody to write down, commit to the ride. Yeah, commit to the ride. Because when you commit to the ride, then you know that God can do something specific in your life. And this is the thing that I want to parallel because somebody is like, are you just motivationally speaking? No, no, no, no, no. I'm going to take our example, Jesus, and I'm going to show you his relationship with one of his disciples, one of the people he chose to walk with. And I'm going to, I'm going to, I could have used anybody, but I'm going to use Peter because Jesus and Peter were boys, but they went through all kinds of stuff in their relationship. And I want to try to use the parallel of their relationship and give us just a few keys of what we need to do in godly relationship, what we need to see coming so that we can finish the ride and reach purpose. Even when we're going through it with godly people, with people who are going the same direction and know that God is going to sustain us on this ride the entire time. So the first thing we got to do before the ride even starts is we got to commit to the ride. Look at Jesus and Peter committing to the ride in Matthew chapter four, verse 19. It says, Jesus called out to them, hey bro, come follow me and I'll show you how to fish for people. Look at verse 20 power. And they left their nets at once and followed him. How do you know they committed to the ride? Because Peter had to sacrifice something to have this type of relationship. See, many of us aren't willing to sacrifice anything to have a godly relationship.

15:58 And he had to leave his business the way he made money. He said, I got skin in the game right now. I'm not just doing I'm committing to walk with you no matter what's going on. We are going to walk together And most of us will not commit because we won't even give up time To have a godly relationship. We won't give up habits We won't give up other people who are taking us the wrong direction and god says if you want godly relationship If you want an inner circle a real one, you're gonna have to commit to sacrificing something so that you can have this and and that's what god is calling all of us to do in our relationship with others and and i want everybody to hear me say this this is why this type of relationship can't be with a bunch of people like you can't have an inner circle of 50 people like that don't make sense i want you to see who jesus was around he had 500 disciples then it says then he had 72 and then he had 12 but then he had an inner circle of three. Peter, James, and John. And I don't know. You know what I'm saying? I know that we try to take the word and do a whole bunch of things, but I believe that we're a church that just doesn't follow the message of Jesus, but we're trying to follow the method of Jesus. So in your entire lifetime, if God gives you three people who were in your inner circle, you're in good company because that's all Jesus needed. Some of y'all just, y'all, oh my God, but Rebecca, like hear me hear me though if they're not a part of helping you reach purpose what are they there for and so this is who jesus committed to these three guys and so we go further on the roller coaster of relationships and i want to show you the next um thing that we have to be ready for um in having godly relationships you have to embrace the incline of encouragement And you know when you start at a place and you start one way, the first thing you do on any good roller coaster is you start going up.

17:58 And I don't know if you've been on a roller coaster, but that's the scary part for me because it's just like click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. And you start seeing the hotel you stay in there and you like click, click, click, click, click. You know what I'm saying? Like you get way up there. but but but what i'm saying is if you're gonna have a godly relationship you have to have a climate of encouragement in that relationship you can tell if somebody's a part of your inner circle if they really are encouraging you to climb to places you never thought you would be i'm gonna help you right now see see jesus and peter had this relationship in john chapter 1 verse 42 it said then andrew brought simon to meet jesus okay and you say who's simon that's Peter, but watch how this all works together. It says, looking intently at Simon, this is Jesus. He said, yeah, your name is Simon, son of John, but I'm going to call you Cephas, which means Peter. And Peter means rock. Let me help you understand this. Simon means wavering one.

19:01 and peter means rock so when jesus committed to walk this out with him he saw the condition he was in but didn't address him as who he was he addressed him in to who he would be if you're gonna have an inner circle and godly community they need to be able to speak more to who you will be not who you are right now oh y'all better come on they they need to be able to look at you and say you're a faithful man of God who's standing even though you're inconsistent now. I know you acting a little hoey.

19:37 Y'all know some of y'all got little hoey tendencies. But they need to be friends that say, I see you pure. I see you whole. I see you, oh, come on. I see you walking in your purpose. I see you. My question is who is in your life that's speaking to you about who you will become, not just who you are. So so i'm just helping you to be able to identify some of the people who shouldn't be in your inner circle Because if every time you come to them like I don't know if that's gonna work Or brah, you know i'm saying I mean, I mean that's cool if that's what you want to know They should be speaking like yeah, I see it I see what you're talking about and I know you can get there and I see god work matter of fact I'm a fast with you I know you're believing God for these certain things. I'm gonna get in it with you. Call me every day at noon. Let's pray for two minutes on my lunch break. Come on. Who are the people that can see where you're going and will speak that into existence? Because life and death is in the power of the... And we got to have people around us in our inner circle. Now, I'm not talking about acquaintances and friends and people around. I'm talking about people who are in your inner circle. They got to be able to speak life. I have people in my inner circle that when I feel like nothing is working. When I'm in the back, like, God, does this make any sense? They come in and be like, bro, you're called to the nations. Like, what are you talking about?

20:53 You're talking about what? No, bro, you're going to do this and you're going to do that. And they can speak life into me. All I'm saying to you is for the roller coaster that you're going to go through in relationship, you have to have people who will encourage you and be on that incline to your eyes. Amen. Amen. So, so, so let's, let's just think about this for one second. Your inner speak inner circle speaks to who you will be more than who you are. So you need to see that. And I love the fact that Jesus even chooses to use Peter as a foundation member of building the church. He literally says to him, he says, Hey, um, Peter, which means rock Petra. He said on the revelation that you have gotten, that God has revealed through you, I'm going to build my entire church through what God, what I allowed you to see in me. What I'm saying is, do you have people in your life that you can see them in a wavering state, but you can walk with them long enough that they can develop into something that you can build something on? Like their life, you didn't give up on them on the first time they messed up. Like you didn't give up. Y'all got to remember, This is the same Peter that cut somebody's ear off.

22:10 Like this is the same Peter that God's using, but somebody rolled up on Jesus. He was like, shwank, shwank. he still was rough around the edges but jesus was like yeah let me pick this ear up man my bad bro peter sometimes he looked crazy but jesus didn't throw him away because he was in process see who are the people that are going the same way you're going see you can't do that with people who don't look for god in their lives but with people who are going the same way there's some people that you're that jesus always worked in grace and truth and many times believers we become pharisaic and we start judging people for where they are and we just this is the truth this is the truth this is the truth but baby god looked at you and he poured out his grace and he said hey, the woman that was caught in the act of adultery, what was his things? He said, those of you that are without sin cast the first stone. And he identified with that woman. He sat with her. And when all her accusers were gone, he worked in grace. He didn't let nobody kill her.

23:18 But then he said, hey, woman, where are your accusers? She said, they're gone. She said, exactly. I'm with you. So go away from here and don't live like that no more. grace and truth when the church can start dealing in grace and truth we can walk with people through the roller coaster of relationship and that's what god wants for every single one of us so the third thing that you have to realize when we're going through the roller coaster of godly relationship and this is probably one of the hardest ones to go through but you're going to have to go through the drops of disappointment see one of the craziest things is you commit to the ride and then you go up and you're encouraging each other but everybody knows as soon as you get over that zenith or that peak there's a drop coming and in every relationship it's almost a test of the relationship that that there is going to be some drops that are so disappointing in your relationship and it doesn't mean that you're supposed to abort being in relationship with that person because you're disappointed because Jesus and Peter went through this.

24:24 Jesus is facing, get this picture. Jesus is facing the hardest moment of his life where he's fighting his humanity and his divinity. And he has to make a decision that he's actually gonna go through with the plan of God and go to the cross. And he says, yo, fellas, I don't need everybody right now. I just need my inner circle to come get with me. I know you can't do this for me, but I need you to be close enough to me that while I'm going through this, that I know you're there for me. Like who are those people that'll say, I know you're going through that, you're going through that divorce, you're going through depression. I can't go with it, I can't go through it for you, but I'll be right here close to you while you're going through it. And he says, I got to go to Gethsemane and I got to pray that this is the thing. And literally Jesus is in anguish right here. And he says, I need y'all, Peter, James, and I just need y'all to sit here just while I go pray.

25:19 And he said, y'all, y'all got to understand that. Like, bro, are you okay? Is everything all right? He said, man, this is something I've never dealt with in my life. He said, my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. But if y'all could just stay here and keep watch with me, if y'all would just pray with me, if y'all would hang with me. Look at Matthew 26, verse 39. So it says, and Jesus, he went a little further and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, My father, if it is possible, please let this cup of suffering be taken from me.

25:52 Yet. I want your will to be done in my life, not mine. And that's the place you got to get to in your life is that you're saying, you know, I'm going through some crap right now, but I'm not just going to let my gifting keep me. I'm going to answer the call of God on my life and I'm going to say not my will, but yours be done. And Jesus in this moment is crying out and he goes back to check on his boys and make sure they're standing with him. Because sometimes you just need encouragement that somebody standing with you in the situation. Look at verse 40. Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. now now you in my inner circle and i'm telling you i'm going through the hardest time of my life and all i ask you to do was stay with me for one hour and i done cried out yeah and i done all that stuff and i just i just need some encouragement from my boys and i walk up and they like Jesus was disappointed how do you know look at his next statement Peter I cannot bro couldn't you have just watch with me for one freaking hour he said freaking I just in my spirit that's what he said and and and and I want you to see this because God is human in Jesus and what this shows us is that he was disappointed in their relationship like bro you you didn't do what you said. I bet when he went off, there was like, aye, aye, we're going to be here an hour, just prayer circles. And we're just going to pray for you. And we're going to believe and we're going to call on heaven. Heaven come down. Like they were, they were, they were probably like super. And then they just, yeah, you know how you get sleepy when you're praying. God, let your will, let your will, let your will be. You just start repeating things. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. But watch, their intentions were good, but what they did disappointed him.

28:04 And I bet right after Jesus expressed his disappointment, he was like, don't even worry about it. Don't even worry. I'm up. I'm up. You know what I'm saying? I just need a little cap nap, a little power nap. I'm back. Go pray. We got you. We're going to stand here. Come on, guys. Come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Can I tell you that it happened two more times? Like he went to pray, came back, they would sleep again. Came back, they would sleep again. Now, most of us, if we would have got disappointed three times in one night, we would have cut the relationship. Yeah, Peter, you know what you can do? Your name is rocks, right? That's what it means. Kick rocks. Like get out of here. Like, like, you know what I'm saying? We would have been done. But look what Jesus does. He doesn't end the relationship because in your inner circle, Jesus addresses disappointment, but does not abort the relationship.

29:00 And many of us don't know how to do that. We don't know how to address disappointment. Hey, you said you were going to be here for my wedding and you said that you were going to do this and we don't talk about it. We internalize it. And then we build up all this unforgiveness and we build all this toxicity. And God's saying, what I need you to do is in godly relationship, I need you to go to that person. I need you to talk to them. I need you to tell them when there's a seed of offense, stuff like this. Hey, I'm so excited kind of for you getting married. But honestly, when I saw the engagement, it made me feel low self-esteem about myself. And so the seed of jealousy came into my heart. Even though I'm supposed to be your maid of honor, I'm really mad that it's not me. Oh, y'all don't want to do godly relationship. See, because it takes being vulnerable. It takes people saying, hey, and then saying, but I know that's not what God wants for me. So can you pray for me? Because I'm jealous of you, but you're in my inner circle. Can you pray for me? I've seen people need gas money and be around the people they call inner circle and literally like don't say nothing because of pride and then we see them come back around and they pushing their car up the highway and like bro why didn't you tell me i just need to get my workout in today i just like no you're full of pride and you won't be transparent and honest with where you're at and god's saying i don't bless that i bless people who get honest in front of other people and say this is what i'm struggling with and this and they address disappointments but they don't abort the relationship.

30:40 And what I'm saying, if there's people that God is going to send you, that you can't just be quiet, and I'm cool, especially men. How you feeling? I'm good. Y'all know. Like, you know what I'm saying? Is everything okay? Knowing you're disappointed. I'll be all right. Like somehow you get a gold star for being all right.

31:07 At somehow how god is applauding you for holding it all together He said if you were supposed to be the savior, I would have sent you to die But but because i'm the savior I need you to come to me He said god is close to the brokenhearted and the downtrodden. I don't care if you're a man or a woman There's some times I don't know how to do this And i'm hurting and I need to know somebody's here for me, but if you never address it A lot of times the enemy is able to sow seeds of division and all this other stuff and it comes in and creeps in And what god is saying is if you're going to commit to the roller coaster of relationship You have to be willing to go through the drop-offs of disappointment Let me give you another one If you're going to commit to the roller coaster of relationships godly relationships, you're going to have to go through the loops Of love and lies Yeah, yeah those that love and lies i'll flip you upside down Like like you'll be in godly relationship with christians with believers with people who give and tie and because you have a sin nature there are times where you're gonna have to evaluate do they really love me and man even though maybe it wasn't their intention they lied to me like how do you deal with it well jesus and peter did these are our examples and and there was a time i remember it in john 21 that jesus this is after he had died on the cross and he had risen and he had 40 days on the earth and he appeared to his disciples again. And the disciples were distraught because they lost their savior. They like lost the leader of the pack. And so what did they do? They went back to what they were doing before he came.

32:49 They went fishing. Like a lot of us, when we lose certain people in our relationships that were taking us the right way, we go back to what we were doing before. Okay, we'll leave that right Stay. Stay. so they're out fishing and um they're looking it's like bro that looked like jesus it's like there's no way that's jesus he died like that's not jesus and then john the one he loves the bible says he said he looked at peter and said no bro that's jesus and and and and they begin to have a conversation and they're talking and jesus look i just want to show you look at John 21 verse 15. It says, after breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And look what he says. He says, yes, Lord. Peter replied, you know I love you. He said, all right, then feed my lambs, Jesus told him.

33:46 Jesus repeated the question. Simon, son of John, I want you to remember what Jesus is calling him. Jesus is calling him Simon. Remember what Simon means, wavering one. So he's not talking to who he was going to be. He's talking to his old nature right now. Jesus is intentionally calling him a wavering one. Look at it. He says, Jesus, verse 16, do you love me? He said, yes, Lord. Peter said, you know I love you. Then take care of my sheep, Jesus said. And then a little time went by and Jesus just looking at him intently. It's like, yeah, let me ask him one more time. Because I don't know. Simon son of John Do you love me? And at the third time he asked him He said You know, I love you But peter was hurt that jesus asked the question a third time And I love that it puts this in here because in the roller coaster of godly relationships. It's okay to be hurt Like it's okay to be emotional inside of what's going on You just don't get off the ride. You can go through and walk through this thing And he said he says he said lord, you know everything You know that I love you then jesus said feed my sheep See see what you got to realize the revelation in this moment Is that jesus knows everything and and and simon peter just said it but he was speaking to his old nature And he was saying see see you claim to love me But but I need to make sure that your love is real and it's not based on what i've done It's based on who I am to you And in godly relationship, there'll be times that you got to go to those people You call your inner circle and ask them. Do you love me just for me?

35:33 Do you love me without what I bring to this relationship? Do you love me not because of my instagram likes and we go out and have fun? Do you just love me because what jesus knew is that peter had lied to him And he went back to his old nature and was acting like a wavering one And so he was coming to ask him after everything had happened. Hey, bro I know our relationship has been a little rocky and it's been wavering. You went back to your old nature and you start depending on what we had. But I just got to ask you, do you really love me? Like, will you represent me when nobody's around? Will you defend me? Will you work with me for the purpose that God has called us to? And he was like, yeah, what are you talking about? But he didn't even know Jesus already knew he denied him three times. and this is why I say you got to be willing to go through the loops of love and lies because Peter lied to Jesus and didn't even know it like he he didn't even know he his intention was good I'll prove it to you let's look at Matthew chapter 26 verse 33 this is when he's telling disciples y'all I'm about to be crucified I'm about to be killed and it's the last supper and he's telling them. And he says, all y'all are going to basically sell me out. Peter's like, that ain't never going to happen. Look what he said. He said, even if everyone else deserts you, Lord, I will never desert you. Jesus is like, lie. Look at verse 34. He said, Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, Peter. Now he's speaking to the one who actually does love him, the rock at this moment.

37:08 He says, I'll tell you the truth this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny that you even knew me three times. Do y'all know how devastating that is in a relationship? When somebody doesn't just act like you're not important, they act like they don't know you. Like if I was like, hey, if somebody said, hey, DeMario, do you know Pastor Mike? Who? no no no no like pastor mike the the guy y'all let don't y'all lead transformation church together transformation church i i don't even know what you're talking about here's a picture of you and pastor mike together um do you know and he'd be like man i'll take pictures with a lot of people i don't know See, it's one thing to have people who are not in your inner circle to deny you, but it's another thing to have people who walk close with you, act like they don't even know you.

38:06 And Peter's response to him was like, nope, that will never happen. I will not deny you. And all the disciples said, yeah, we won't. We ain't going to do that either. All of them did it. and what i want you to realize is that even though there was people asking about questions of love and even lies people told jesus never gave up on his relationship with peter that's what i want you to understand when you commit to this right that's why you can't make this trip with just anybody this is why the bible tells you not to be unequally yoked Like you can't just get on and ride with people. No, no, no I gotta make sure that the people that i'm linked with are going the same way are praying to the same god Are moving in the same direction are calling out things in me that I don't even see Because we're gonna go through different things in our relationship. Can I just sum it all up your inner circle?

39:10 Loves you enough to challenge who you used to be while giving you grace to become oh yeah come on can i talk to husbands and wives some of y'all aren't seeing the the change and the growth you want to see in your spouse because you will not let them be freed from what they used to be and they do not have the grace to become around you and that's why people get divorces and they see them people five years later like why are they doing so good because they got away from you Thank you. Because in the midst of the relationship you couldn't let God work on your heart to be an extension of his love that he's been to you You can't be to them. So you're like the person that got ten million dollars of debt. I'm canceled out of yours But you holding somebody hostage for ten cents and what god is saying is that that's why i'm telling you that you should be forgiven seven times 70 a day 490 times a day and and and that's why until the church gets this and we're holding people hostage um for things they did to us 10 years ago 15 years ago 10 minutes ago and god says if you don't let them go you can't complete your circle of purpose it's like taking and drinking venom and hoping they die.

40:29 And you're like, look at you. Look at you. You're killing yourself because of unforgiveness. And that's why we have to be ones that give people grace to become. If you're gonna go on this godly ride of godly relationships, you gotta be ready for the turns of trust. See, there's things on roller coasters where it's going one way and it looks like it's doing something and it just turned. And it's going one way and it looks like it just turns. and what you got to realize is that that peter and jesus went through so many turns in their relationship that god was able to use it to say yeah yeah no matter what turn we go to we're committed to this right and i keep saying these things because a lot of you need to realize that as you join these small groups and as you form godly community that there are going to be things where you go to and it's going to be dips and turns and loops and but don't get off the ride don't don't give up on godly hear me when i say this godly relationships because it takes some work and investment to go through them because if our example jesus had to do it you don't think that we're going to have to do it. And so many of us, we can't hang with people through the sixth stop, the bumps of belief and the bumps of unbelief.

41:56 See, this is the great thing about godly community is even when you're off track, your godly community can help you get back on track. Peter was inside of a boat and they were on the water and Jesus appears to them and he's like yo is that Jesus said Jesus if that's you tell me to come and you need people in your inner circle who will have faith to call you out of the situation that you're in right now and and and challenge you faith-wise bro you you've been needing to start that business for six years now, but you're gun shy. Step out of the boat. Come on. And they're like, if it's you, matter of fact, I'm so, I believe so much in what you're doing. Here's a thousand dollars. Do you got anybody in your inner circle who invest in your drinks? Look at y'all. So some of y'all won't even get your friend McDonald's. Let alone be a friend that calls somebody out from the boat to walk on water. Jesus is calling his friend to come and walk in a place that nobody else has ever done.

43:06 God's going to call some of you to start businesses and come up with initiatives and write songs that the world has never heard. But you're going to need godly communities to say, come on, you can do it. Come out of that boat. I know it's never been done before. I know you don't have the resources, but I'm with you. So Jesus gets the courage because he has godly community to step out of the boat. And it's like, bro, this is crazy. And the other dudes on the boat was like, bro, he about to drown. He can't even swim. You know, this is not about to work. And that man started defying every law of physics as he kept his eyes on Jesus. But then he started looking at the waves in the wind. And he started to look at all the other stuff that was going on. And when he got his eyes off of Jesus, he started to drown. You can read the text later. And what do we do usually as godly community when our friend starts to drown after they stepped out on faith? I told you.

44:01 Oh, come on, let's be honest. We say stuff like we say stuff like they should have listened Well, they're gonna have to deal with it now When if you're going into foreclosure in your house, your godly community shouldn't be like I knew they shouldn't have got that big old house Your godly community says hey, I got a room you can stay in at my house Like we'll we'll shut the game room down for a little bit You you can you can come stay with us, but then when we get there we have to have a finance meeting See because i'm not going to just condone what you've been doing and keep you in that same place because i'm your real accountability I'm in your inner circle. There are things you did I saw what you did at christmas and you bought them four hundred dollar shoes and you went on that vacation And we got to talk about that because I love you too much to let you stay in this situation But I love you too much not to reach out and help you in this situation.

45:01 Oh, I want you to see it. I want you to see it in Matthew chapter 14. And I want you to look at verse 31. Look what Jesus does when he starts drowning. It says Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. And then he was able to be honest with him after he's exhibited grace. man, you got so much. You don't got no faith, boy. Why'd you doubt, man? You were supposed to write that book, man. You were supposed to go after that. And when they climbed back into the boat together, I want you to see that Jesus didn't leave him there. They climbed back in the boat together and the wind stopped. The thing that was distracting him went away when they both got back into a place where they could regroup together. You need an inner circle and godly community because there's times when the winds of life come and you need somebody when you're drowning just to say, hey, I'll pick you up. Let's get back in the boat. Let's reset. But they didn't give up on the relationship. Y'all hear what I'm saying? The last thing is how are we going to ride the roller coaster of godly relationship? We have to be ready for the rise of reconciliation.

46:14 like like like we have to be quick to reconcile when things go wrong can i break it down even further you got to be able to forgive quickly like you you can't hold things i talked about it just a minute ago how many times are we supposed to forgive and it's a funny because we say that but what you don't understand is the culture behind it so when they were talking about this um one of the disciples said you know it's it's good if if the the religious leaders and they teach that if you forgive three times, boy, you get a gold star. So one of the disciples said, so God, you know, we're doing this new kingdom thing, so we need to take it up a few notches. What if we forgive seven times every day? Yeah, yeah, that was good. I thought that was good.

47:02 And he said, I'll tell you the truth. You should be forgiven seven times 70 a day, 490 times a day you should be forgiving somebody And be willing to reconcile because you know that our godly connection is better than disunity It's only when there is unity that there is a commanded blessing in anything that you do So i'm going to keep the lines of community. Yeah, you hurt me, but we're gonna discuss it We're gonna talk about it and we don't even have to see eye to eye But I know that we have to forgive and even if you don't want to do it, i'm gonna start I'm going to be the one. And let me show you the example of it in John 21 verse 7. And you can read it later. But long story short, it's again when the disciples see Jesus for the first time. And John says, I think there's Jesus on the shore. And that's all Peter needed. Peter did not wait for the boat to come into shore.

47:59 He had lost connection and betrayed his friend. and at the moment there was an opportunity for reconciliation the bible says that peter jumped out of the boat and swam to the shore he initiated reconciliation he did not wait for everybody in the boat to come and let's all do this together he said if that is the person i committed to ride with and i thought that this was almost over i got to go see he jumped out and went to him it's the same way that many of you need to jump out of your pride. And you need to go say i'm sorry And many of you maybe you didn't do it, but you need to say I forgive you and they're like, what did I do? I didn't even do it doesn't even matter no more I just can't let this vinter run through my veins anymore And i'm releasing you of the offense Well, tell me what it is since you don't i'll tell you this is what happened This is what happened, but I know the purpose of our relationship is bigger than what I feel right now and so I will be the offensive in forgiveness not the defensive I'm gonna push I'm gonna try at any and when we become a church that can be ones that that do what the words say and go to people and forgive and reconciliation becomes more important than our reputation oh he's a punk or she's just soft no no no I'm just godly Like i'm using meekness. Yeah, I know stuff that I could really but that's not my heart I committed to this ride with you and we're going to reach purpose together Even if you're delusional, even if you're going i'm gonna pray for you. I'm gonna stand with you I'm gonna do that and that's why you have to let god direct your steps to godly community Because we're not committing to this ride with just anybody We're committing to this ride with people who are going To places that god has called us to go and that's why we need an inner circle.

50:02 So why are you saying all this, Pastor Mike? I want you to see it coming. If it hasn't already started for you, and even some of you who have been scared to give godly relationship a chance again, God's saying, hey, I'm giving you a blueprint right now so you can know that these are signs that I'm with you. Like when, oh, that's the loop of love and lies. I see it. I ain't going nowhere. Oh, those are the turns of trust. I see it. I'm not going nowhere. And that's why God wants you to have godly community. I want to pray for every person. That's under the sound of my voice that God, through this message, would encourage you. Because you're going to need courage to get on this ride again. See, the reason people don't ride roller coasters is because they did it once and they got scared. Or they heard the screams of other people. Think about it. You've heard the screams and the agony of other people that have done relationships.

50:56 So you said, I don't even want to try. but today I'm going to pray that God would encourage you so that you would have the courage to stand and get in godly community. Father, I pray for every person under the sound of my voice that today you're doing something, Father God, that would revolutionize our hearts, our lives, our minds, and God, you would change us from the inside out. Father, I thank you that we would be ones to commit to the ride. I thank you, Father God, that we would be ones, Father God, that would be able, Father God, to know that when the drops of life come or we have to go through the incline of encouragement. Father, are the loops of love and life come, lies come. Father God, that the turns and all the different things that have to happen, Father God, even to reconciliation, I thank you that we will stick on the ride with people you've called us to. Father, let us have a relationship like Adam and Eve and Jonathan and David and Jesus and Peter.

51:50 Father God, that will help us reach purpose because we've committed to this inner circle. And Father, I thank you for making clear those who need to be removed from our lives. God, take the blinders off of our eyes. Let us not be stuck because of time served. I thank you, Father, that you're changing the trajectory of every person's life because you're giving them an inner circle. God, give them courage to step out and try again. In Jesus' name, we agree? Amen. Can we give God...