Authentic Relationships
This year, 2025, is the year we Engage with God and Engage our Faith.
Engage with God!
We want you to have daily encounters with God. What does that look like?
o Prayer – More than talking, you ask questions and listen for an answer.
o The Word – More than reading the Word, you are studying and memorizing the Word.
o Worship – Singing is good, but take time to express your adoration for Him.
o Fasting – Not just abstaining from things but pressing into someone.
o Invite God into your moments.
Engage my faith!
Engage your faith by doing personal evangelism. You are not inviting people to church; you are inviting Jesus into the moment.
We always want to lead people into an encounter with God that results in LifeChange.
There are four categories of people we want to engage. Everyone fits into one of these four categories.
We want to engage the Dedicated, Detached, Drifted and those who Don’t Know.
Engage the Dedicated.
We don't just want you doing what "gives you life." We want you to plug into life itself. Our heart is for you to have a deeper engagement with God, who is life.
Engage the Detached.
The Detached are the ones who were once close to Christ, but PAINS (Problems, Attacks, Incidents, Negatives, and Seasons) have derailed them.
Engage the Drifted. The Drifted are those who have been diverted by distractions.
Engage the ones who “Don’t Know.” Don’t come to us… we are coming for you.
50% of our region may have an affiliation to church, but only 10% have an active relationship with Christ. We have 90% of the harvest waiting on us.
Place these two things at the top of your prayer list for the year.
1. “What is the 1 big objective we are called to accomplish at TWBC in the next 10 years?”
2. Jehovah Jireh – The Lord who supplies brings in the funds to pay off this building, so we are free to ministry.
We want to change obligation into Opportunity.
Our focus in 2025 is to ENGAGE!
Authentic Relationships: By creating an environment for divine connection, we develop quality relationships and experience life in Christ together.
Mark 5:24-34 “24 And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
Divine Connection
"By creating an environment for divine connection."
Our one purpose in everything we do at TWBC is to create an environment for us to connect to the Father.
The very “issue” in your life that you are trying to hide maybe the one thing that makes you realize you need to “Connect.”
. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus…”
She heard how others “Connected” with Jesus!
When the need for “Connection” is realized and embraced, not the embracing of the issue, it will drive us to get into an environment that is different than what we have settled for.
When we are satisfied with existing, we’ll stay where religion says, but when we find the need to live, we'll go where a “Connection” can be made.
28 For she said, “If I touch (Connect) even his garments, I will be made well.”
She knew who she was trying to connect with.
The Gospel of Matthew says “And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:”
Numbers 19:38-39 “38 “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners [hem] of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. 39 And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD…”
Historically, nobility always wore tassels. Combining the blue thread of the priesthood reminded them that they were a Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation.
I Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
She heard what Jesus was doing and said, “If I can just touch or “Connect” with what God has told us represents his Kingdom, I will be made whole.”
Her faith was so great she knew she didn’t have to touch God, just what He said represents his Kingdom.
A Development
When she decided to “Connect” a development occurred.
“We develop quality relationships"
As we read this story, we often read vs. 33 but don't read vs. 33.
“33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.”
When a "Connection" is made, a relational development occurs.
"Quality relationships" are developed on the truth. The truth of "who she was" and the new truth of "who she is!"
We read this account chronologically, but the occurrence didn't happen like this.
The occurrence was a “Connection” first, then the whole truth of her story came out in the development.
God is not trying to expose you. He is trying to “Connect” you with his love, and then you'll tell your story of "Connection."
A Forever Moment
“and experience life in Christ together.”
When you take an experience and connect it with an emotion, you remember it forever.
She experienced “Life”!
John14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The word "life" in our Core Values in John 14:6 is not life as existence. It is the zoe God life he breathed into man in the garden.
Zoe - of the absolute fulness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God.
The event you are powerless to change could be your divine "Connect" moment. That moment is more than the start of a fling, it is a “quality relationship” with Jesus. You experience Zoe in Christ.
Together
I am more concerned that you “Divinely Connect” than “Socially Fit.”
Most people pick and choose the church they attend based on whether or not they fit. You need to make your “getting planted” decision based on how you “Connect with the Father!”
How you “Connect” with the Father is more important than if you socially fit.
Our life in Christ “together.”
What brings us into relational alignment as “US” is how we “Connect” with each other because of our Divine Connection with the Father.
Do you have an Authentic Relationship with Christ?
Have you “Connected” with Jesus?
This morning I am asking you to ENGAGE your faith.
Authentic Relationships: By creating an environment for divine connection, we develop quality relationships and experience life in Christ together.
Faith in Motion: We live unashamed and uncompromising in our beliefs of scripture and follow through with corresponding actions.
Eyes Open: We look for every available means, at every available time, to reach every available person through service and giving.
Empower: We embrace all individuals by honoring people for who they are, not what they can do.
Impact: We LOVE! Therefore, we invest in others and develop people to see life change and community transformation.
Advancing: We commit to daring and fearless expansion of the Kingdom.