Hebrews 10:24-25 / 1 Peter 2:5
The label Under Construction applies to more than roads and houses and buildings.
And you are living stones that God is building into His spiritual temple. (1 Peter 2:5)
We're under construction.
Our goal is to be the church seven days a week.
1. Relationships have a way of making life messy.
The things-that-make-life-messy list.
There will be conflict.
There will be growing pains.
There will be a variety of opinions and perspectives.
"It is inevitable that offenses will come."
"Christ works on us in all sorts of ways. But above all, He works on us through each other."
2. Relationships also make life manageable.
Without each other we don't stand much of a chance.
"I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things."
Together Everyone Accomplishes More.
"Shared sorrow is half sorrow. Shared joy is double joy."
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 Corinthians 12:26-27)
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)
3. Relationships Make Life Matter.
We weren't made to live in solitude.
It's not the things that we accumulate, it's the people we know and the people we love.
Solitary confinement.
An abandoned adult may find a way to survive, but they won't thrive.
He realized that the Christian life was not meant to be lived in seclusion, but in community.
The Christian life isn't about being able to live out in the middle of nowhere and not sin, it's about caring for others.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25)
This is where God shapes us and forms us, as individuals and together.