Like Royalty Summary

• We have come to our final week of our Like Royalty series
• We talked about
  • Love-Belle
  • Faithfulness-Lia
  • Patience-Cinderella
  • Self-control - Ariel
  • Joy - Ana
  • Kindness/Goodness - Rapunzel
  • Peace - Snow White
  • Gentleness - Pocahontas
• Is anyone noticing a theme?
• These are the fruits of the spirit. 
  • Galatians 5:22-23
  • the spirit is referring to the Holy Spirit, which is what lives inside of us after we become a follower of God
  • the Holy Spirit is what helps us in our walk and helps us remain a follower, if we listen to it
  • this verse calls these characteristics “fruits” of the spirit because these are the characteristics we develop when we are constantly connected with God 
    • just like a fruit tree will produce delicious fruit when it is firmly rooted in good soil. If you pick the fruit too early you will not experience it at its prime.
    • if we stray from God, we will miss out on the same kind prime experience
      • sure, we might have learned some things, and grown our character, but we will never reach the true potential of our character apart from God. 

Importance of Building Character:

• as a Christian we are an ambassador for Christ
  • this means that people will look to us for an example of what Christ is like
  • if we are caught doing anything less, that is what gives Christians, and God a bad reputation
    • street evangelists (condemning others)
• Sometimes, we might be the only glimpse of Christ someone may every get

We are getting ready to kick off all of our summer events this week.

Our focus is going to be on relationships

One of my passions is small groups (home groups)

• in these smaller groups we are able to talk about more serious things on a more intimate level
• my desire is that in these groups we will be able to help one another build these characteristics
• these groups are safe places for us to come together and help better each other without criticism
  • Proverbs 27:17 as iron sharpens iron, so one friend sharpens each other

Like Royalty: Kindness & Goodness

Both kindness and goodness are closely related, they both stem from love

• Firstly, let’s talk about Kindness:
  • According to the dictionary: Kindness
  • the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate
  • What about Scripture?
  • • if we look at the word kindness in Galatians 5:22, which is in the context of our character it comes from the Greek word chrestotes
      • which not only means goodness as a quality of purity, but also as a gracious disposition in character and attitudes. It encompasses tenderness, compassion, and sweetness.
      • sometimes in scripture, this word is translated to”good” rather than “kind
• Now let’s look at goodness
• Goodness
• (dictionary) the quality of being good, inparticular
• good--morally excellent; virtuous; well-behaved; kind, or friendly
  • In the Greek: agathousune, which is found only four times in the Bible
    • practice or expression of kindness, or doing that which is good
    • Romans l5:14—“I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness [agathousune]
    • It is the natural result of kindness—that inner quality of tenderness, compassion, and sweetness
    • service or ministry to one another, a spirit of generosity put into action
• Now to put them together
  • A kind person is also a good person; a good person is by nature a kind person
  • kindness as an expression of love from one person to another, and of goodness as a quality of being pure
  • Both kindness and goodness require action
    • which often will require some sort of sacrifice or act of generosity from us
    • remember, action can include words too (words of encouragements, compliments)

We all know who the people are who can be described as kind and good.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbVlGESh9Mc
• I showed you that clip because it shows that Rapunzel is able to look past the surface of the roughens and cares about their dreams
• What she is doing is listening to them, that is the most basic way to show kindness to others.

• Biblical kindness/goodness:
  • Jesus came to teach us how to be kind
    • woman at the well
    • tax collectors
    • “And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.’” (Mark 2:15-17, ESV)
• Jesus came to be our example
  • we are to be kind to those who don’t deserve it
  • there is more than enough evil in the world. 
  • a couple of weeks ago we talked about how evil cannot be fought with evil, it can only be fought with love, which is what kindness stems from
• I know this is such a simple concept, but how often do we choose to be feisty rather than kind?
• Challenge: Be kind...do one act of kindness this week.

Like Royalty: Self-Control

Sermon in a Sentence: We all face temptations, self-control is what will help us overcome those temptations.

Summary:

• We all face temptations that allow us to stray from doing what is right

• Even though these temptations are said to be bad, we still do them
  • why?
  • because we get some kind of good feeling out of it
  • if it were unpleasant, we wouldn’t be tempted to do it
• With all these temptations, there is one thing that can help us: SELF CONTROL!
• According to Websters Dictionary:
  • Self-Control: the ability to control one's emotions and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. As an executive function, self-control is a cognitive process that is necessary for regulating one's behavior in order to achieve goals
• According to Psychology Today:
  • Self-control separates us from our ancient ancestors and the rest of the animal kingdom, thanks to our large prefrontal cortex. It is the ability to subdue our impulses in order to achieve longer-term goals. Rather than responding to immediate impulses, we can plan, evaluate alternative actions, and, often enough, avoid doing things we'll later regret
• The key word in all of this is “self” 
• One of the most important things to remember in life, is that you are responsible for your own actions
  • as easy as it is to blame other people, ultimately it is up to you to decide what you do
  • that is why self control is so important
• If we can learn to master self control, we will save ourselves a lot of trouble and heartache in the future.
• The princess we are going to talk about today is Ariel
• We are going to talk about her in a little different light than we have in the past
  • unlike the other princesses, Ariel does not practice self-control
    • ultimately it costs her dearly
  • The Little Mermaid is the story of a Mermaid who longs to be a part of the human world
    • in Disney’s version, her infatuation with human objects gets her in trouble multiple times
    • She decides to go to a sunken ship to look for new treasures, and she ends up missing a party for her father
    • She then goes to the surface, which her father has forbidden of her to do
      • this fractures the relationship between the two of them
    • She ends up going to see the sea queen, Ursula and getting legs, but her voice is taken from her
    • because her father loves her so much, he decides to take her place
    • in the original version she does not marry the prince, but she ends up turning into sea foam
  • Ariels father had very specific instructions, to stay away from humans
    • and Ariel did not listen to him, but rather gave into her temptations of visiting the human world
      • ultimately this decision took her away from her family (even in the Disney version)
• When we do not practice self-control, we often end up hurting ourselves or others around us (often times both, even though we may not see it at the time)
• How does this fit in with scripture?
  • Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let himtdeny himself and utake up his cross vdaily and follow me
  • When we decide to follow God, we are saying that we are going to put God above everything, including our temptations

• So how do we practice self control?
  • 1. Avoid situations where you might fall into temptation
    • friends you spend time with/people influencing you
    • being alone
    • closing the bedroom door
  • 2. Make a list of things you need to control
  • Make a list of achievable goals 
  • Pray!
  
  
  • We are fortunate because we are not alone. 
  • God does not want us to fail. 
  • Our temptations are what keep us from him, so if anything he wants us to succeed. 
  • When we are able to practice self-control it results in us having better, more honest and healthier relationship. 
  • We cannot do it without a support system 
    • God is always there for us
    • But we also have our church community 
    • Find an accountability partner to check in with. 
  So what do we take-home from this?
  •  self control is not easy, but it is possible
  • find the people who can help support you, (not your parents or significant other!)

Like Royalty: Patience

Summary:

• Today we are going to be talking about patience, what older versions of the Bible called “long-suffering.
• The princess we will be talking about today is Cinderella
• Summary of Cinderella
  • Cinderella lives with her father 
  • father remarries
  • father dies
  • the step mother spends the family fortune on her to daughters, which allows the house to start becoming unkept
  • Cinderella becomes the servant in her own house
  • she constantly is waiting on the rest of her “family” hand and foot
  • one day, there is a ball to find the prince a wife
  • the step mother and step sister make it impossible for her to go 
  • at the last moment Cinderella godmother appears and transforms her rags into a beautiful dress angles slippers
  • she goes to the ball and falls in love with the prince
  • sadly she has to leave by midnight so she has to run out
  • the prince searches the kingdom for her using the slipper she left behind
  • when the kings men get to her house the step mother attempts to lock Cinderella in her room
  • but her little mice friends help free her
  • in the end she proves that it is her slipper and she lives happily ever after
• this is a great story, full of ups and downs
  • I love listening to this story because it is a wonderful story of patience
  • Cinderella was in a terrible situation with terrible people, but she was able to wait it out, even though she didn’t know she was going to be free.
  • in the beginning of the movie it says that Cinderella stayed ever kind and gentle through it all.
  • clip
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6gSiaAXz1c
• I am sure you have all heard the phrase, " Patience is a virtue"
• In order to practice patience we need to understand what it is:
• According to the Dictionary:
• Patience: the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like
• Let's look at patience in scripture
• Colossians 3:12-13New International Version (NIV)
• 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
• • The biblical word translated patience Col 3:12 is "makrothumia"– which means to be able to wait graciously and without overreacting when we are being afflicted by people.
  • You’ve heard about individuals who are said to have a “short fuse” when people bother them. 
    • This biblical word for patience means to have a “long, long fuse” with difficult people.
• As a Christian, there are two related convictions we have as Christians that should change the way we deal with difficult people 
  • Conviction #1: God is patient with troubling people 
    • Exodus
    • Of course, God is able to be patient because he knows – he knows everything.  He knows where everything will eventually lead so he is never in a hurry.  We do not know everything.  So, our patience is fully dependent on our trust of God.  You cannot be patient without faith in God to work all things together for a greater good.  And you cannot be patient without the hope that comes from faith in God
  • Conviction #2: Evil cannot be overcome by evil
    • Romans 12:17 & 21 “Do not repay anyone evil for evil…(v.17) Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (v.21).
    • Here is what we see in the world: When someone insults you, you insult back.  When someone hurts you, you hurt back
• What Patience looks like:
  • There is a rather broad spectrum of "difficult people" in our lives. 
    • 1) Some are people who don’t seem to like you 
    • 2) There are others who have wronged you in the past  
    • 3) there are also those who seem to have it in for you – who want you to fail.
  • Step 1:  Pray God’s Blessing on Them
    • Bless those who persecute you… (Rom 12:14)
    • often this will come in the form of forgiveness
      • Col 3:13, i.e., “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
      • forgiveness does not mean forgetting
  • Step 2: Get Into Their Shoes
    • When you begin to ask God to help you empathize with people in such a way that enables you to see their perspective, you will see that you will not be quite as impatient.
  • Step 3:  Stop the Harm But Let God Judge
    • our goal should never be to harm our enemies
    • it should be to stop the hurt
    • as we talked about earlier, evil cannot be overcome by evil
      • evil can only be put out with love and kindness
      • evil will only fuel more evil, which will propitiate the cycle further
• So what’s the point?
• We all have difficult people in our lives
• hopefully not as difficult as Cinderella’s step mom and step sisters
• or maybe just as difficult or worse but in different ways
• we all have difficult people in our lives.
• If we follow these steps we have learned today, we will be on our way to seeing things differently
• When we start viewing people from a different perspective from our own, it will help us become more patient towards them

Like Royalty: Love

This week we are starting a brand new series
We will be talking about developing our character using the stories of Disney princess'
Guys, I don’t want you to automatically tune out
I promise it will be relevant to you too.
Disney is really great at creating strong characters with some solid personalities.
Whether you like princess’ or not, I think we can all agree that most Disney princess’ have qualities that we all should strive for. And throughout this series we will be highlighting on those qualities.

- Open with prologue

    - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__x8CYAVMbk

This week we will be highlighting Belle and how she demonstrates what “love" really means

- Summary of Beauty and the Beast

    - Gaston wants to marry Belle
    - Belle’s dad is an inventor and he heads off for a convention
    - he gets lost in the woods and ends up at the castle
    - the beast doesn’t like visitors so he throws her dad in the dungeon
    - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZtmuwwY8Nk (1:54) Belle goes to look for him and when she finds him she takes his place

        - Beasts expression
- Storge (στοργή storgē) means "love, affection" and "especially of parents and children"

    - natural empathy, like that felt by parents for their children.
    - used exclusively as a descriptor of relationships within the family.
    - C.S Lewis: the empathy bond

        - empathy=the ability to understand and share the feelings of another
        - pays the least attention to those characteristics deemed "valuable" or worthy of love
- Summary cont. In the story of Beauty and the Beast we then see Belle explore the castle
- the beast with his short temper explodes at Belle for being in the West Wing

    - Belle runs away into the woods where she is attacked by wolves
    - the beast saves her
    - the begin to become friends
    - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwZEcdBMLLU
    - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozDUvkfb7Jg (with lyrics)
- In this clip we see the love called
- Philia (φιλία philía)

    - friendship
    - "affectionate regard, friendship," usually "between equals."[8]
    - It is a dispassionate virtuous love, a concept developed by Aristotle.philia is expressed variously as loyalty to friends (specifically, "brotherly love"), family, and community, and requires virtue, equality, and familiarity.
    - strong bond existing between people who share common values, interests or activities
- another love we don’t quite see is eros
- Éros

    - "intimate love.”—desire
    - appreciation of the beauty within that person, or even becomes appreciation of beauty itself (Plato)
    - Greek methology="love's arrows"

        - Eros=greek god of sexual desire (roman god cupid)
    - word “erotic” is derived from eros
    - used to express sexual love or the feelings of arousal that are shared between people who are physically attracted to one another
    - modern portrayal of love
- So now Belle and the Beast have a good relationship
- then the Beast gives her a mirror
- she sees her dad, very sick and wandering through the woods
- the beast allows her to go to him ever though he knows she will probably never come back
- after she gets her dad home she runs into some trouble with Gaston
- Gaston brings an army of villagers to pillage the castle
- Gaston fights the beast and Belle returns just in time to save him
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfTTiKZemow Transformation
- Here we see that the beast has finally learned to love
- Agápe

    - universal, unconditional love that transcends that and serves regardless of circumstances
    - the love of God for man and of man for God."
    - We see this word used in scripture in John 3:16
    - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

    - John 3:16,
- 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

    - 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8. Love Never Fails.
- This is what true love looks like
- I had a small group leader once tell me that if you want to know if you’re being loving replace “love” with your name

Back to Belle

- SO what makes Belle a good example of what love is?

    - yes it’s a cute love story, but it’s more than that
    - she is able to love the unlovable

how can we love the beasts in our lives?
Challenge: replace your name