The Value of Connection

• Sin broke our connection with God

It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. Isaiah 59:2 NLT

• Jesus came to earth to restore our relationship with God.

For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19 NLT

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Tim. 2:5 NIV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

…the Son of God has come… so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life. 1 John 5:20 NLT

Christianity is not a religion but a restored relationship.

• When we connect with Christ, we connect with each other.

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13

There is no relationship without connection.

Proximity does not constitute connection.

…so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Romans 12:5

• It is a heart-to-heart connection.

That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 1 Cor. 12:25-27

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven… 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name… and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you…’ ” Matt. 7:21-23

• Are you truly connected?

And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works, 25 not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day drawing near. Hebrews 10:24-25 NET

• Be present and engaged.

• Our Spiritual growth is dependent upon our connection to each other.

…may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Eph. 4:15-16

• Take the initiative to connect with someone.

º Connect to grow – Life Groups

º Connect to minister – Ministry Teams

A man’s gift makes room for him… Proverbs 18:16

• Desire and anticipate a greater anointing.