February 20, 2011 Romans 15:1-13 Creekside COB Building Better Relationships - Sermon Series: “To Be Real” Trust JOKE There was once a little native American boy who was about to cross a river and a rattle snake came up beside him. The snake looked at the boy and said, Would you be as kind to take me across the river? The boy looked at the snake and said no way, you bite! The snake said, No, I promise, I will not bite you. So the boy trusted the snake, picked the snake up and took it safely to the other side. As soon as the boy put the snake down, the snake rattled and bit the boy. The boy said, Hey you promised not to bite me! The snake said, You knew what I was when you picked me up, what did you expect? Trust – that is what we are talking about today. SERMON SERIES PROGRESSION In this series we talked about welcome and acceptance and how this form of hospitality built Kingdom Relationships. And then the second week we talked about the importance of encouragement and when people are encouraged their lives change. And today we are talking about trust. Trust is a natural progression from acceptance and encouragement. When we are accepted and encouraged we know that we are loved and cared for. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU THINK OF TRUST? Not being betrayed, not being rejected, being loved Trust Is A Place Where Truth Presides And A Place We can Be Real. WE SEEK TRUST IN OUR RELATIONSHIPS BECAUSE WE NEED THE TRUTH IN LIFE – WE NEED A PLACE THAT WE CAN BE REAL ILLUSTRATION: COCA COLA COCA COLA KNOWS WHAT WE NEED TO

Coke spends their brand on building trust in the world of soft drinks. And in that trust they speak to what we need. Let me show you a commercial that shows Coke knows all about what we need. SHOW ADVERTISEMENT http://www.thecocacolacompany.com/dynamic/press_center/avcenter.html?assetId=4059 1&assetTag=advertising http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWwg_5-ou0A&feature=related The Coca-Cola Company brands themselves as a company that can be trusted. Trust is a basic human need and in trust we are able to be true and to be real about who we are. FOR ME TO HAVE A PLACE OF TRUST IS A SACRED PLACE. There is something sacred about trust. It is sacred to be in a place Trust is sacred because I know when I am with someone I can trust, I know I can be who I am. A sacred place is where a person knows and accepts me in my shortcomings and weaknesses. A place to be real. TRUST IS A SACRED PLACE OF WHERE TRUTH REIGNS IN LOVE AND WE CAN BE REAL. OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS ONE OF TRUST. That is why trust is so sacred because it comes straight from God. Our relationship with God is a relationship of trust. A trust, where we can walk in truth – a truth about ourselves and God’s truth. A place where we can be real PSALM 139 Our relationship with God is a sacred space. God knows all about us. Psalm 139 , my favorite Psalm, says how God knows all about us and loves us. And because we are loved and accepted by God and because God encourages us and knows us - we find trust in God. In our sacred

space of trust with God, God’s love and acceptance moves to seek and build that same kind of relationship in our human relationships. That is why we seek them in our human relationships. IN OUR HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS WE SEARCH FOR THE SAME SACRED SPACE OF BEING REAL. WE SEEK A PLACE OF AUTHENTICITY – WE NEED TO BE AUTHENTIC AUTHENTIC To be Real in our relationships is to be authentic. Our relationship with God is authentic so we look for authenticity in our human relationships. Authentic is that we do not have to wear masks of everything is Ok in my life. Authentic is a heart-to heart sharing of their lives. They share their hurts, reveal their feelings, confess their failures, disclose their doubts, admit their fears, acknowledge their weaknesses, and ask for help and prayer. A place where there isn’t any judgment. JOKE: ILLUSTRATION A mother said that after watching the Cinderella movie, her five-yearold daughter was pretending she was a fairy godmother. She got her pinwheel out for a magic wand and told her mom that she could make three wishes and the fairy godmother would grant them. Her mom first asked for world peace, and with a slight wave of her wand the girl proclaimed it done. Then her mom asked that all the sick children in the world would be cured instantly, and once again with a slight wave that request was granted. Since mom was overweight, her third request was that she would have a trim figure. Her daughter began wildly waving the wand up and down saying, "I don't know mom, I may need more power for this one. No one will make fun of you or condemn you for what you are going through. Being authentic is being honest without any judgements.

In our relationship with God we can confess our sins and be forgiven. We yearn for that in our human relationships. ILLUSTRATION: Joe Gibbs, the former Head Coach of the Washington Redskins, tells a true story about a friend of his who owned a fine Labrador retriever. The friend, whom we will call John, looked out his window one morning and saw his faithful obedient dog sitting on his haunches near the front porch. John thought he saw something hanging from the dog's jaws. Sure enough, a closer look revealed it was his neighbor's pet rabbit that was now dead. Well, John was not only stunned, he was scared. Not exactly sure what to do, he worked through several solutions until finally landed on one that he felt would be best for all parties concerned. He gingerly pulled the rabbit from the dog's mouth, brought the thing into the kitchen and washed off all the dirt and the gunk. He then took it into the bathroom, pulled out a hairdryer and spent several minutes blow-drying the dead creature until it was nice and fluffy. That night after it was dark and quiet in the neighborhood, John crawled over the back fence, slipped across the neighbor's backyard, opened the door on the rabbit hutch, placed the dead rabbit back in the cage and snapped the door shut. He then slithered back through the darkness, hopped the fence, went home and said to his dog, "Well, I saved your bacon." Well, next morning there was a loud knock at his front door. John opened it, and to his surprise there was his neighbor holding that dead rabbit, and he was steaming. He said, "John, we have a real sick person in our neighborhood." John nervously said, "Oh really, why do you say that?" He said, "Well, you see, my rabbit died three days ago and I buried it. Some idiot just dug it up, cleaned it off nice and neat and stuck it back in the hutch. John, we're talking about a real sicko!" I imagine this guy couldn’t be real with his neighbor. When we are in a trusting relationship we are free to be honest and confess are sins to one another.

JAMES SAYS "Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed" (James 5:16 MSG). When we begin to be whole and healed, we grow TRUST GROWS US SPIRITUALLY AND IN COMMUNITY Paul knows full well what it means to be the body of Christ and what it takes to get there. Here is how the Message puts it. 5 May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. 6 Then we'll be a choir - not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus The Message Isn’t that the Coca-Cola company is saying in their song. I liked to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. For our lives to be in unison. The more we are growing spiritually the more we grow in community. The more spiritually mature we become it is easier to allow others into our circle of trust. We are more free to accept and encourage them and in turn they stay. It is the way we become a more solid body of Christ. CLOSING: A sacred place allows me to grow in spiritual maturity and helps me built a community of love inside that relationship. God’s gift to us is the ability to live in community with one another. To live in a place that is real and honest and authentic. Paul understands how important community is. Community gives us a sense of belonging - a place where we feel safe. RELATIONSHIP SERIES IS ALL ABOUT HOSPITALITY That is what Paul is saying in this passage of scripture.

To be welcome and accepted, to be encouraged and in a place of trust in all our relationship is all about hospitality. TRUE HOSPITALITY IS SACRED – IT COMES FROM OUR SACRED RELATIONSHIP WE HAVE WITH GOD