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.
And perhaps the most compelling one to focus on this morning is the moment that Jesus Himself models for us this component of service with His own circle.
John 13:14
“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet."
God Himself stoops down and washes the dirty, nasty feet of his sandal clad disciples. He doesn't just talk about serving. Instead, He throws off His robes of divinity and the most powerful, gifted, anointed one, not only in the room, but the universe literally shows us that for our circles to be what they should be that we must meet each other at our dirtiest points and serve each other. He has said this in Mark 10 . . . "I did not come to be served, but to serve." But now He proves that it is more than just a slogan, a cliche, a motto. No, He meant it. He serves His circle. This is the approach and posture we must take to have effective circles.
Can we do any less? Whose feet are you washing? Whose dirt are you handling carefully? Whose pain are you lessening? Whose heartache are you healing? Whose tears are you wiping away? Circles are where this should happen!
I want you to know some things about service.
1. Service is the mortar.
If love is the glue that must bind us together, and I believe it is - Galatians says we have to serve in love, then service is the mortar. Think about it like this . . . the rocks on the outside of this building are not attached with mortar. There is a backing mixture that attaches them to the wall. However, it is mortar that connects them and finishes the look. It fills in the gaps. It is what keeps them in place. The backing begins to let go when the mortar is missing. Service is what connects us and holds us in place!
Serving keeps you circled. People who don’t serve will uncircle. Yeah, but they are being served. Haven’t you noticed that the people who have the most done for them but never serve anyone else uncirlce? I can testify that the people who have been served the most in this body, every need met, prayer when they need prayer, financial help when they need financial help, attention, applause, counseling, encouragement, food . . . you name it they received it, with all of their own needs met they leave because they never shifted their focus off themselves. Service is the mortar. We all have two basic things we all need to feel fulfilled . . . we want to be known - my needs known, my gifts known, my name known but without the other part of the equation, which is to be needed, it is incomplete. We need to be needed. In other words, we need to find a need and serve.
Our best bet to stick together, according to the coaching commands, is to serve! Meet the needs of those in your circle. Check on your circle. Carry their burdens. Help them through tough times.
2. Service is about meeting needs!
This sounds like an obvious and silly statement. However, let me explain. I think one of the biggest challenges we face as circles today and the reason that so many never stay in healthy circles is that we want to serve but our approach is backwards. We approach the concept of service based on the wrong question. We ask what is my gift? When we ascertain our gift we then only want to serve within the confines of that gift. I can't do anything outside of that. Service is about meeting needs. So, the question must change if our circles are going to function effectively. The question we should be asking is "What is the need and how do I meet it?" This question means some of your talented musicians end up in the parking lot leading that team. This means gifted teachers clean up the sanctuary or serve on the safety team rather than standing behind a pulpit. This means anointed singers work with children rather than handling a microphone. The question is not "what is my gift?" The question is "is there a need that I can meet even if I don't feel called, gifted or anointed to pull it off?" We make a determination that we are committed to meeting needs period! This removes the "That's not my gift" argument.
This isn't about giftedness this is about neediness. This isn't about skill, this is about service. I have discovered that if you faithfully and cheerfully serve outside the area of your giftedness that God will open doors for you in the area of your giftedness.
Our circles must be constantly and deliberately looking for needs that need to be met. We should constantly be asking the question, “Is there anyone in my circle that has an issue I can resolve?” And while you are asking that question someone in your circle will be asking the exact same question and noticing that you have a need that they can meet!
I also want you to know that corporately we must remain in a constant state of looking for needs that we can meet. The reason we must do this is the same reason we must all do this - if we don't, then we naturally and unintentionally slip into self-centeredness. Church becomes about getting mine. Church becomes about me. However, I want to remind you that you can be a Christian and be self-centered, but you can't be Christlike and be self-centered. I want our church to always be Christlike! Therefore, we must be intentional about serving. We must identify needs and meet them.
I have been trying to be aware of the needs around us and I have been asking the question how can we meet the need? Have people in our community been served? I have talked to you in the recent past about my growing concern about the number of medical marijuana stores around us (between Reno and Hefner, MacArthur and Council close to 50). I am concerned because I believe this gives us a glimpse into an underlying issue. When you add to this obvious issue, the issue of prescription pill addiction, the ravaging effects of alcohol, then I just can't help but think we need to help. It is overrunning our society. It is overrunning the church. I have a friend who has just recently performed 12 funerals at his church of church folks who have died during the quarantine due to overdoses. There is a need. I have had family members who have been impacted by this. There is a need. You know people who are in trouble. There is a need. People are trying to find answers. The question is what are we going to do about it? How are we going to serve? I don't have the skills. I don't have the ability. But there is a need!
So, today, I am thrilled to announce that we have found a way to serve. We are partnering with Hope Center Ministries to open a Bethany Hope Center. We will be the host church.
What is a Hope Center?
Hope Center Ministries provide men and women with the opportunity to overcome their drug and alcohol addiction through their faith. Hope Center shows these individuals how to find peace and lasting freedom from their addictions through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Hope Center Ministries is headquartered right here in Bethany on 39th Street and our own Teresa Thornton is the CFO for this organization.
In 2019, there were 19 centers. In 2020, that jumped to 27 centers across the nation and some overseas (because there is a need). In 2019, there were 722 admissions but in 2020 there were 1076. There were 250 residents in these centers in 2019, but now over 400. 190 graduated from the ministry in 2020! Since its inception there have been over 1000 graduates of the program. Hope Center access success differently than most programs. A person is a successful graduate if and only if they remain in church after they graduate. Hope Center has a 58% success rate. That is incredible compared to the normal programs that hover between 5-21% success rates and those programs don't use church attendance as an indication of their success.
What does being the host church mean?
It means that we will have ample opportunities to serve. Each week these men and their families, who can only visit them on Sundays, will be joining us in worship. For 8 months to a year, we will get to love on them, pray for them, encourage them, disciple them. We will have opportunities to cook for them, minister to their kids, teach them and do weekly devotions for them. There will be hundreds of ways, big and small, for us to serve.
Financial - We will raise $100K to help get the Hope Center opened. We currently, through the diligence of the finance team and some pledges/donations, have been able to secure $32,873.22. Our goal is to raise the rest by the end of March so that we can open the center by December. $67K sounds like an impossible figure, but I am convinced God is in this and will help us as we work with Him.
We need your help. We must operate in love. We must remember we all need grace. We all need forgiveness. We must be willing to serve outside our area of giftedness. We need you to give. We will not meet the financial goal without sacrifice on all of our parts. I am asking you to dig deep. If you can give thousands, then please do. If you know someone who can give, then approach them. If you can give hundreds, then give hundreds. If you can give 10, then give 10. Together we are going to serve!
Again, it is time to do a circle check. Are you serving your circle? Are they serving you? This isn't about skill or gift this is about need! Let's grab a towel and join Jesus and wash feet so that people can walk in freedom! Let's move from self-serve to full service!
