Circle Component #2 Series

Circle Check

Pt. 3 - Circle Component 2

I. Introduction

We can't escape the fact that our entire world revolves around circles. Our entertainment is built on them. Even our games are built around them.

Ring around the rosies. Pocket full of posies. What is a posey?

Duck, Duck Goose

Musical chairs

Hula Hoops

Ring Toss

Washers

Marbles

Wheel of Fortune

Corn Hole.

Circles surround.

These circular games result in people gathered around to play. Circles are another way of saying relationships.

We instinctively seem to know that our circle determines our course. Our friends determine our future. We agree that those close matter most.

We have declared that we must know how a circle is supposed to function. If we don't, then we either never fully tap into or harness the benefit of a circle or we exit or sabotage the circle available to us because we are unwilling to pay the price of transparency, vulnerability and submit to accountability that is necessary for the circle to be meaningful. The result is we either suffer in isolation while we call it independence, or we hop in and out of circles, groups, or churches looking for fruit that we so desperately desire and even envy. However, we never recognize that this fruit can only be obtained and secured through intentional and long-term investment of time. So, in time of need, distress, pain we blame everyone who doesn't respond for being shallow or uncaring or we silently wonder why our relationships lack the roots necessary to sustain us.

If we know function, we then have appropriate expectations and demands. There are some things we should expect from our circle and if the circle doesn't provide these things, then we must either demand and develop it in the circle or we need to do a circle check to determine if it may be time for a circle change.

So, I informed you that right in plain sight in Scripture there are 59 different "one another" statements giving us circle coaching. Then at closer examination, I discovered that all of these statements can be clustered into 6 components wrapped around one core component.

As we work through this, I want to encourage you to do a circle check. I caution you again . . . the tendency is to ask this appropriate question . . . Is my circle doing this for me? However, if we are not careful, then we will fail to ask the equally crucial question . . . Am I doing this for my circle?

We have stated that the core component around which the other 6 components orbit is . . . love.

17 different and distinct occasions out of the 59 statements is the instruction to love another. 28% of the list is a command to love one another.

I tell you again that the other 6 components are impossible if we don't first love one another with love that binds and motivates us.

So, last week we dealt with one of the most difficult of the orbiting components which was Confess/Forgive.

In a safe circle, we are able to confess and forgive. If we don't confess, then we cannot be healed or whole. We must find confidential and careful circles where the circle mates are aware of their own need for forgiveness so that we can confess, be met with grace and together dislodge the sin and struggles of our life. If our church can be made up of circles like this, then our church will always be a bastion of grace for those who are wounded and broken.

So, let's continue. The second orbiting component that must be a part of our circle is . . .

Serve

So here are the 8 coaching commands regarding serving one another. . .

Romans 12:10

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

1 Corinthians 12:24-25

God himself has put the body together in such a way as to give greater honor to those parts that need it. And so there is no division in the body, but all its different parts have the same concern for one another.

Galatians 5:13

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Galatians 6:2

Help carry one another's burdens, and in this way you will obey the law of Christ.

Philippians 2:3

Don't do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves.

1 Peter 4:9-10

Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.