Circle Check
Pt. 4 - Circle Component 3
I. Introduction
Circles are everywhere. Entertainment. Games. And one of the most obvious place you see circles is in sports.
Holes
Balls
Goals
Pucks
Hoops?Huddles
Scrums
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.
We dealt with one of the most difficult of the orbiting components which was (SLIDE 4) Confess/Forgive.
In a safe circle, we are able to confess and forgive. If we don't confess, then we can not 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.
The second orbiting component that must be a part of our circle was serve. Serving one another keeps us circled. Serving is about seeing needs and filling them knowing that as we do this others are seeing our needs and meeting those.
So, let's continue.
The third component, that orbits around love, is pray for one another.
There is one direct mention of this coaching command. There is a secondary mention that I believe infers this command.
James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
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. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.
The secondary verse is one we mentioned last week in Galatians 6:2 - Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
So, let's talk about this third component a second. There are some interesting things to point out here for us to consider.
1. Prayer can't be a cop out.
It is interesting to me that in the 59 circle coaching statements that serving one another is mentioned 8 times and prayer is only mentioned once. Should we assume from this that prayer isn't important? Should we conclude that prayer is nonessential? Should we decide then that prayer doesn't matter? I would certainly argue that you have made a serious error if you make this conclusion. Instead, what I would suggest is that the emphasis on service actually positions us for more effective and powerful prayer. How? Glad you asked. It is as you serve that you are also going to discover needs that you can't meet. You are going to find out that there is sickness that you can't heal. Hurt that you can't resolve. Brokenness that you can't mend. Lack that you can't resource. It is at this juncture that you suddenly come to the realization that only God can do this.
It is as we fulfill the order prescribed in 1 Corinthians 15:46 which is first the natural, then the spiritual that we are better positioned to pray.
However, I want to challenge you. I think the reason that service is mentioned 8 to 1 is that the writers are trying to keep us from making prayer a cop out. We take things to God that we can't fix. We don't take things to God that He has already empowered and enabled us to fix!
I think too many of us use prayer as a get out of helping free card. "I will pray for you" too often means I don't want to get involved or I am too caught up in my own life to stop long enough to assist you in your need even if I have the answer you are looking for.
James is very clear that prayer is powerful. However, I wonder how many of us who are praying for people's answers and solutions already have what we are praying for but it has bottlenecked in us? We can't use prayer as a cop out when we have been entrusted with the answers that we would be praying for God to provide! Serve, then pray! Prayer should accompany our service, not substitute for it! We must learn to invite God to do what only He can do while we do what we can do! I think we would be witness to many more answered prayers like this.
2. Powerful prayers are birthed from deep relationship.
Deep prayer requires depth of relationship. Could it be that the effectiveness of our prayer is determined by the depth of relationship? I don't know but I do believe that our prayers are more effective, precise, laser focused and fervent when we are in deep relationship with the person that we are praying for! Haven't you noticed that your prayer changes when you know the person you are praying for? Haven't you noticed the intensity goes to a different level when you are in close relationship with the person who is in dire straights? I am not saying that you can't be used by God to pray for someone you don't know very well. However, I believe that we must ask this question . . .
Are most of our prayers surface level? Do they ever graduate to James 5:16 level . . . powerful, effective, fervent? If not, could that then be a glaring indication that your circle relationships are equally shallow and meaningless? Our prayer life may do more than just give us a glimpse or grade when it comes to our relationship with God. Our prayers may very well grade our level of relationship with our circle mates! I think we are being challenged here to dive deep in relationship so that our prayers will deepen.
3. We are only able to bear up as we pray up!
Remember we are instructed in Galatians 6 to carry one another's burdens. Would anyone in here admit that you probably have enough burdens of your own that adding someone else's burdens to your shoulders isn't that attractive of a proposition? I have my own bills. My own worries. My own problems. My own issues. My own sickness. My own fear. My own anger. How can I possibly make room for someone else's burdens? I submit to you that this is why we must pray for one another. It is as we pray that we are able to effectively carry one another's burdens. If all you do is worry as much as I am worrying, fret as much as I am fretting, freak out as much as I am freaking out, then you haven't helped me with my burden at all. However, in the middle of my worry, fret, freak out if you are carrying my issue to God in prayer, then you are helping me! Haven't you ever been so deep in a problem that you couldn't pray? It is at those moments that we need our circle mates to "Take it to the Lord in prayer!"
If we try to carry our burdens alone, then our burdens will destroy us. If we try to carry everyone else's burdens alone, then those additional burdens will destroy us. However, if we learn to carry all of those burdens to God He will hear, answer and lighten not only our load but the load of the person we are praying for. You will remember in week 1 we talked about love. I read to you the command to be devoted to one another in love. There is another instance in Scripture where we are instructed and commanded to be devoted. It is . . .
Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving…
I think we need to become devoted to one another in prayer. As we serve one another we learn how to pray for one another. We carry our close folks to God in prayer.
Let me ask you to be honest today. How often are you praying for the people that you are so glad to see on a Sunday morning? Maybe God is calling you to not only worship with them but to pray for them. This is a critical component that must be moving through all of our circles.
Practical - pen and paper and look around the room - who in here should you be praying for daily?
