Get Together

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. We are nearing the end of this series called Resolve. What we've been talking about since the beginning of the year is how to bring about resolution or solving issues in our personal lives, conflict resolution, which is a skill I believe every body needs to learn, and honestly, you don't, at least not naturally. It just doesn't come to us naturally. Conflict resolution is one of those things that takes a lot of work, kind of goes against our broken, fallen human nature, and it's tough. It's really death, resurrection stuff, and I think that's appropriate. So today, we're looking at another area of this, we're coming to the end of it, and we're going to be focused on a phrase simply from the letter of Ephesians, chapter 4, and it's this phrase, members of one another. Members of one another. That's what we're going to be kind of rotating around this entire time, because what's the point? First of all, what's the point of conflict resolution? Is it to be right? Is it that you want to win? Do you want to win an argument, or do you want to win a friend? That's kind of some of the issues that we have to deal with. Are you looking at resolving, reconciling a relationship, or are you just trying to get over it, whatever that is? And I think in our society, there are a lot of people who would say, why even try resolving conflicts? I mean, why bother? It's just much easier these days to drop them, move on, and get on with your life. And a lot of people have done that. But it goes against this whole idea of being members of one another. It also kind of defies the reality, we're going to be talking about reality a little today, the reality of how God has made us, and the reality of how this world actually works, and how you are who you are, and how I am who I am. Paul, who wrote Ephesians, would be astounded if you thought, well, you know what? Why should I even try? He would kind of scratch his head to figure out why you would want to try to live independently of everyone else and just do your own thing. Because what we've been experiencing in our society is what I call hyper-individualism, where it's all about me, it's all about what I want, it's all about what I feel, it's all about what I do. Since the Enlightenment, it was a period of time in Europe where they broke free from quote external authority, especially the church, and they were looking for the authority placed right here. From speakers like Descartes, who said, I think therefore I am, to Freud, who basically told you that the things that are wrong with you are because all the people around you are oppressing you, suppressing you, and you need to break free of everyone else and everybody else. Don't let anybody tell you what to think, what to feel, what to do. No, you have to be in charge. You need to be in charge of yourself, you need to push yourself, you need to assert yourself, define yourself, fight for yourself, market yourself as if you are who you are by what you feel, think, and do. And you know where our hyper-individualism has led us? Michael Bonner wrote recently, it's kind of a long quote, but I think it's going to be a good one for you to understand. He says this, social networks are getting smaller. Time spent alone is rising. Three in 10 households consist of one person. Only 30% of Americans think they can readily trust one another. And 16% of Americans feel strongly attached to their local community. Wow, only 16%. The number of men with no close friends has increased fivefold since 1990. Guys, we're in trouble. Homicides have increased in the United States since the end of the 20th century, as have deaths of despair. In 2016, Europe was found to be the most suicidal region in the world by gross rate. Average life expectancy in America has begun to decline. This is before COVID. This is all before COVID. Young people too are increasingly unhappy. The percentage of teenaged Americans who claim not to enjoy life, who believe that their lives are not useful, is now just under 50%. Half of teens aren't enjoying life at all. Is that a... Nearly 20% rise since the 1990s. Hopelessness, despondency, and a sort of flatness have been invoked to describe the dominant feeling of our time. Now, Paul and other biblical writers would not be surprised at these statistics at all because that's what happens when you're not dealing with reality. And what I mean by reality is I'm not who I am because of what I've made of myself. I am who I am when I am with you. I was made for relationships. You were too. We were created by a God of relationships, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to live in relationship with God and with others. There is never... I mean, from the beginning in Genesis chapter two, God says, it's not good for man to be alone. Somehow we think now it is. Huh. Isn't that funny? How is that? How have we gott...