Audio File: 

2012-01-08 AM - Ps Gebhardt Berndt.mp3

Sermon Notes

Introduction

God wants us to have healthy and Godly relationships. Relationships can either bless you, or be a vehicle of great displeasure to you.
The golden rule of any and every relationships is:

Love your neighbour like yourself  - Luke 10 : 27

Treat others like you want to be treated – Matt 7: 12 "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

When we enter into relationships with LOVE as our foundation and SERVING as our motive, all our relationships will be healthy.
When we honor God’s principles in relationships, He honors us by blessing us and helping us by His Spirit. If we dishonor God, we are only heading for trouble.

We must understand that all humans want to be loved, accepted, cared for, and have security. These are the basic essentials for all of us.

1. The 3 Must do’s in ALL relationships

a. Love God, and out of that love you can love the people you are in relationship with

If you love God and experience His love for you, you will be able to duplicate that love for others.
Remember it is the Holy Spirit that sheds abroad His love into our hearts (Rom 5: 5), therefore the Spirit enables us to love people.
You cannot love people if you violate God’s Word. Many people find themselves in great difficulties because they have somehow violated God’s Word. The good news is you can repent, and change your ways.

b. Let love be your Foundation and Servanthood your motive

Jesus Christ must be our foundation in all relationships that we have.
The principles of the Word of God must be our guidelines as we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us.
If we honor the principles of Christ , Christ will honor and bless our relationships . Therefore the Scripture says “SEEK FIRST HIS KINGDOM”  and this also includes our relationships.

We all need to be less selfish and serve more. Less critical and more gracious. Less opinionated more merciful. Less difficult to please and more easy to please.
When we have an attitude of a servant, our viewpoint changes completely.

c. Receive input, learn and don’t be unwise

When we stop learning we stop growing.
When we stop receiving input, we become nearsighted, limited and opinionated. People that are wrong are most of the times people that have the strongest opinions about things.

 When we don’t take the advice of others it shows that we have taken on a character trade that is totally inconsistent with the Nature of Christ. Christ was in submission to His Father, and He commands us to be is submission towards one another (Eph 5 : 21), towards leadership (Rom 13), and because we are the Body of Christ we cannot afford to have an individual spirit in terms of how we conduct ourselves .

Proverbs 11: 14 For lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisers make victory sure.
Proverbs 15:22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

2. Destructive things people do in relationships

I want to list some common destroyers that people activate inside their relationships, that only has negative fruit as an outcome:
Words spoken in anger and without thought.

Prov 18: 21 The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.

Acts of selfishness, not considering others.

Phil 2: 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Proverbs 29:11 A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.

Decisions taken in anger.

Psalm 37:8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret--it leads only to evil.

Saying something, but doing something else. This leads to a lack of trust , a lack of consistency , and a lack of security.

Matt 5: 37 Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Allowing bitterness , and offense to creep into their hearts . The end result : Blindness and deception.

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.