Grove Women LIVE // We Are Family... who GROWS in small groups.

Good morning, ladies, and welcome to week two of We Are Family.

Today we're going to focus on another G concept or theme.

Um, last week Missy talked about gathering, gathering and corporate worship, gathering as a church, and she just shared from her heart why attending church, why being part of a body of a local body of Christ, why that's so important to her.

And today we're gonna look at the next G, which is grow.

And this is something I'm so glad I got to do this week because it's something that I'm very passionate about, that I totally believe in.

Um, we're gonna just share with, I'm just gonna share with you um just my experiences and why this concept of growing together, why it's so important.

Um, so let's just open up in a word of prayer, and then we're going to get right into um scripture and just I'm gonna share just what God has laid on my heart.

Dear God, we just um are blessed to be able to be together again, and we're so thankful for every woman who um has a desire to grow, that they are investing time either watching live or listening to the podcast because they want a deeper relationship with you.

I just pray that you would just bless our time together today.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Um grow.

When I think about the word grow and I think about what it means, obviously it means to increase, it means to expand, and I think about areas in um my life where I have grown, or areas in all of our lives where we have grown.

And I think just physically, we can think about um just a baby, just in a couple years, how much a baby changes, how much growth takes place.

So we see physical growth.

Now, as women our age, we're not gonna see the physical growth anymore, but there's still areas that physically we can grow in.

If we want to increase our strength, we can grow in our strength.

If we want to increase our endurance in something that we're doing, we can um show physical growth that way.

So physically, we can see how we grow.

And that's something that we've all had experience with or that we've seen in other people.

Another area of growth that when I think about increasing or expanding is relational growth.

Just think about how relationships have grown.

Relationships that you've experienced in your life.

It could be a significant other, a spouse, it could be a parent child, a sibling, friends, co-workers, um, just such a variety of different kinds of relationships that we can see growth in.

And then I also think about growth professionally.

Anybody who has been in, you know, who has worked, well, even inside the home.

I was gonna say outside the home, but but you grow as a homemaker.

And so it's not just outside the home, but but any profession that you have, you think about the growth that you have experienced there.

So you might learn a new skill.

Maybe there's um a project that you're working on and you're developing, and that is new, you're growing in that.

Maybe it's gaining knowledge.

I particularly think um if your profession per se is a student of any kind, you grow by gaining knowledge.

So there's all kinds of areas in our lives that we grow in.

And when I think about just the idea of growth, I think of a couple things.

Number one, it takes work.

Any type of growth takes work.

I think that it can be costly, it can come with a price.

And then I also think that often it's very uncomfortable, and that's not abnormal about any kind of growth.

So just think about our physical growth.

Um, I'm sure you all have heard of the phrase growing pains, and that's a real thing.

And probably some of us can remember back to where we experienced growing pains as a child.

Our bodies, the cells are working together, our body systems are working, and we experience this uncomfortable feeling of growing pains.

I can remember probably 10, 11, and 12, kind of around that age where the joints in my legs would just hurt, my legs would hurt, and those are growing pains.

So that um just shows that even physical growth can be an uncomfortable thing.

And ladies, if you have done any type of strength training or you've worked on building your endurance, you know that sometimes after a workout, that next morning when you get up out of bed, it's very uncomfortable.

You're very sore, you have to work that lactic acid out of those muscles and get moving again.

So even physical growth can be uncomfortable and it does take work.

Anybody who, you know, you're working up to um competing in any type of race or just for your own sake, you're working up to walking so many miles, it takes work and it takes time and it can be uncomfortable.

So physical growth, we see um just that it does cause that there is a price.

And then you think about relationships, thinking thinking about how relationships can grow.

And you know, you think about if there's conflict, just that resolution.

Talk about something that can be uncomfortable, talk about something that takes work.

Um, in a relationship, often we have to realize this is not all about us, that sometimes we're second and sometimes we're third, fourth, and so on down the line.

We have to realize it cost us often our pride and our comfort that we have to put other people before us.

But that's how we build a good relationship.

And as we work through relationships and as um we work through conflict and we learn to value others above ourselves, that's when those bonds really grow.

And that's um, that's how that relationship builds.

So then professionally, once again, it can be uncomfortable, it can be costly, and it takes work.

And I think we all um we can relate to that.

I know sometimes getting feedback about your performance can be uncomfortable and and it can be a lot to take in.

Um, also, if you um didn't get a promotion or you didn't get a position that you wanted, that's hard.

That hurts, but that can be a time for growth.

It can be um something that's costly, it cost you something that you wanted, it's an uncomfortable feeling.

You have to work harder to get possibly this other position or this promotion, but you can learn from that.

I can remember when I was um in college and I was studying, I was in college of education studying to be a teacher.

You know, the test um they they stressed me to an extent just because I back then I was so much more perfectionist than I am today.

But I, you know, I could study for the test, I was in control of that.

At least I thought I was in control of that.

I could go teach a lesson.

That was not the issue.

The hardest thing for me to do was to go teach a lesson, have it videotaped.

That wasn't so much of a stressor, but it's what happened with that video tape.

Then we would have to go back in our classes, the videotape would play, and my friends, my fellow students in the room had to critique how I did.

And that can be uncomfortable and that can be hard.

That was probably through all of my college experience, probably one of the hardest things I had to do was just to get that feedback.

But yet, that was an area that really added to my growth as a teacher.

And even as I became a teacher, getting feedback and getting critiqued, that really helped me to grow.

So, growth is not always just kind of sitting back and just letting it go and it all happens and it's all rainbows and sunshine.

It's hard, it takes work, it costs, and it can be very uncomfortable.

And, you know, spiritual growth is the same way.

It's gonna take work, and um, it can be uncomfortable at times, and and it can definitely cost.

When I think about spiritual growth, I just have made just a quick list of what really it entails.

And for me, and this is just from my experience, and this list is not, you know, all inclusive.

There's just so many more things.

These are just things I jotted down quickly.

But first of all, for us to grow spiritually, our old nature has to die.

And, you know, when we follow Jesus, when we accept him, we do have a new nature, but boy, that old nature likes to just to creep in and just, you know, we have to work.

Um, we we just have to work at getting that old nature to the side.

And, you know, if and and that's not to say that God can't um just miraculously change the way that you are, but I think for most of us, it's a struggle.

It's something that we have to work at.

And if pride was an issue before, you're gonna have to continually probably to work on that, to work on the issue of pride.

If anger was an issue before, you're probably going to have to continue to work with that.

The key, though, is you're not doing it on your own.

We have um the Holy Spirit that that is gonna empower us and help us to work through those things.

Um, I mentioned pride and I just mentioned anger, but but sin has to be confronted.

And often the first step in confronting sin is just being convicted of the sin in our life.

And you all, that's hard.

That's very uncomfortable, and it takes work and there is a price to pay, but it's just something that is going to need to be done if we're going to grow spiritually, just like these areas of growth that I mentioned in our everyday lives now.

This is gonna have to happen for us to have spiritual growth.

And this is not a one-time thing.

Like this, you know, often sin has got to be confronted, it's got to be dealt with daily, and often many, many times a day, that we're gonna have to deal with that.

But, you know, we just need to ask the Holy Spirit just to show us where the sin is in our lives so that we can deal with that.

And then also discipline is gonna have to be implemented.

And I don't mean discipline as in we're just doing it to put a check in the box.

Ladies, I guarantee you that if you spend time in God's word and you spend time in prayer and you spend time serving and giving and practicing these disciplines of a Christian life, that there is going to come a time where it's not a check in the box that you desire these things, that you cannot wait to give and serve others and spend time in God's word and spend time in prayer.

It's going to become the desire of your heart to do these things.

And then also, I think for spiritual growth, we're going to need to be able to see people and situations the way that Jesus did.

And this is not always a natural thing.

You know, you've got that neighbor or you've got that coworker that just grinds on every nerve that you have.

And, you know, it's not our nature to be loving and to um to give to that person at all costs.

But that's what Jesus would have done.

And just to be able to see that person or to see a situation like Jesus did, to see a person as Jesus died for that person just like he died for me.

He loves them just like he loves me.

And I think just changing that outlook, that's really going to aid in our spiritual growth.

And, you know, we think about what makes spiritual growth so special.

And what makes it special is those things I mentioned before, the physical growth, the relational growth, the professional growth, they're all on this side of heaven.

And some of those things are ever changing.

We probably have relationships today.

In fact, I would say that we do that we didn't have 15, 20 years ago.

We, some of us are at retirement age where we don't have the profession that that we had years ago.

I don't, I'm not teaching anymore.

I don't have that profession anymore.

So those things change.

But spiritual growth, why it's so important and why it's so special is it's eternal.

What we invest in now to for the kingdom, we will be um we'll be rewarded for that when we get to heaven.

Like it's eternal.

It's not just for a short time, a short time like those other areas that I mentioned.

And you know, ladies, I can sit right here.

I'm out on the deck.

Um, this is one of my happiest places to be.

This is probably my favorite place in my house, is just to be out here, even on this crisp August morning, which I'm enjoying this.

This is wonderful.

Um, can't believe in August I'm sitting out here with a sweatshirt on, but it's wonderful.

And I'd love to be out here.

And I can be out here and spend time in God's word and spend time in prayer, and that's wonderful.

And I need that.

We all need that individual time with God.

But I would argue that we can grow in our spiritual life, we can grow in our relationship with God exponentially more when we do it in community, when we do it with one another.

And I know Missy and I have said um many times before how we are meant to do life together.

And what we're doing now, our Facebook Live, or if you're listening later on the podcast, that is a form of doing life together.

It's probably a first step.

And there, I think there's other steps that we can take.

But it's so important for us to be connected with one another and to do life together.

I I often think about the verse in um Genesis chapter one.

I'm thinking it is verse 26, maybe 27, but I think it's 26, where it says that um let us make man in our image.

And I look at those pronouns there.

I look at the us, that's plural, and I look at our, which is plural, and I think right there, community.

Ladies, we were the idea of creating humans.

We were created with this idea of community.

So here we are created by community: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

We're created by community to live in community.

God has never attended for us to do life alone.

And I know you've heard that here before, but I think it's just so important for us to wrap our minds around that and to realize yes, there is a time for individual growth, spending time with God individually, but it's just so important for us to do it together.

So we need to be in community with one another.

And one way for us to be in community with one another is through small groups.

So you might think, well, small groups, what's so important about small groups?

And Sunday our pastor shared um Galatians 6, 1 to 10.

And I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'm just going to pick out a couple verses to share with you.

And these are areas of small group that have really meant a lot to me.

Um, just areas that I would not want to do without in my life because I'm just so passionate about women, men too, but in our regard, women doing life with one another.

So in Galatians 6, verse 2, it says this share each other's burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2

So just the idea of sharing one another's burdens.

Ladies, when you're in a small group and we know we're verbal, we are talkers.

And if you're like me, if something's bothering you, you just need to share it.

And small groups are not therapy sessions, they're not counseling sessions.

So that's not the purpose of them, but just being able to share what is on your heart and to know that you're seen, you're heard, you're valued, you're loved, it can make all the difference.

And to know that you're not going through whatever you're going through alone.

You've got people praying for you, you've got people checking in on you, you have people who know what you're dealing with and who really truly care about you.

And that's just so important.

And, you know, chances are being in a small group and sharing your burden and having people come alongside you, that's not gonna fix the situation.

But you're going to know that burden is gonna be lighter, probably still gonna be there, um, until God does some work in that area, but you know that you're not dealing with that alone.

So just sharing one another's burdens is huge.

And then in verses four and five, it says, pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done.

And you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else, for we are each responsible for our own conduct.

So small groups can help us to be accountable.

And and I don't mean in um an accusatory kind of way, anything like that.

But just if you share something that you're struggling with, something that you're dealing with, and the next time that you meet together, someone says, Well, how's such and such going?

You know, that is a way of holding you accountable when you can share with them.

Like, I really felt like God was working in my heart, you know, this last week or so, or it's still really a struggle, but it's just a great way to hold us accountable, to know that someone's gonna check in with us.

And then in verse nine, it says, so let's not get tired of doing what is good at just the right time.

We will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up.

And I love small groups because of the encouragement.

And, you know, sometimes you just feel like, I just don't know if I can deal with this situation anymore, or, you know, I just don't know what to do about this, and just to have people to encourage you and just to kind of just get you going and maybe put new life into a certain area just through their kind words and their love and their encouragement.

And then also to be able, when God answers prayer and we see that God's working in an area, to be able to come together and see what God has done.

That to me is just one of the best things, just to, you know, when you have prayer time and just to see how God has answered prayer.

And then finally in verse 10, it says this therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone, especially to those in the family of faith.

So another just really wonderful thing about small groups is just that we can love one another, we can serve one another, we can love others out in the community, we can serve others out in the community.

And a great example of how um a small group really has impacted our community, and it's not my small group, it's not a small group that um I was associated with at the time, but the nonprofit that I work for was started by a small group.

And to me, this, you know, this is not an isolated thing.

I'm sure this happens many, many places, but this is just something that I know of.

And this was a small group that was meeting, and they found out that at their children's elementary school, there were some kids dealing with food insecurity.

So they decided that they were going to come together as a small group.

And for that school year, those seven students, so they started with seven students, those seven students.

Students, they were going to make sure that they had food on the weekend because during the school year, the students had breakfast and they had lunch at school, and hopefully they had something for dinner.

But they were going to make sure that those students had had food over the summer.

Well, 14 years later, that's what that small group started because they were serving and loving others in their community.

That um nonprofit that I'm a part of, we feed over 1,200 students a week.

And that just started in a small group.

And you all the these are not any like special people.

They're special to me, but they're just everyday people.

Just, you know, it was just a small group that met together and they saw a need and they met it.

So small groups can make a difference, they can change.

And one thing that a small group can do is to love and serve others, obviously, people within their group and then people in the community also.

So you might be thinking, okay, you've shared with me a couple things that are great about a small group.

That sounds wonderful.

But what do I look for?

What do what do I need to look for in a small group?

Because, ladies, I will say not every small group is for every person.

Like there is a small group for you.

But I will preface all of this by a couple of things.

Number one, there is no perfect small group.

Just like last week when Missy was talking about church, there's no perfect church.

There, a small group, a church.

We're probably not going to check every single box that we want to check.

But that doesn't mean that there's not a place for you.

So there's not perfect small groups.

We're made up of imperfect people.

And then also, I would encourage you if you go to a small group, don't just go one time.

It could be you could go a time where maybe it's an off-night.

Maybe the facilitator or the leader was not there, someone else was doing it.

Maybe the dynamics of the group were different because people, you know, some people were missing.

Don't just go one time.

Give it, give it a chance.

Just try it and just see what happens and just pray about it and just ask God where you need to be.

So I want to just kind of lay that groundwork right there that no small group's going to be perfect, and we need to give it more than one chance.

So, here, what do you need to look for?

First of all, I think you need to look for a shared purpose.

Now, every small group, if we're looking at a small group to grow spiritually.

So I'm not talking like your neighborhood book club or something, and those are all wonderful, but that's probably where you're not going to grow spiritually.

But if you're looking at a place to grow spiritually, obviously the foundation, those building blocks, you need to that needs to be based on we're here to glorify God and we're here to love and serve other people.

So that's kind of like a given.

But then you need to think about, okay, what kind of small group do I want?

I know this past spring, and I wasn't able to participate in this because of my injury, but we hit a small group that was an exercise small group.

And I like, you know, right away, I'm like, oh my gosh, I so wish I could do that because that's just right up my alley.

But there was a prayer time, there was devotional, and you talk about getting to know people.

You work out with people, you get to know people.

So what a great thing.

So you've got to look at what is the purpose of the small group.

It might be something like that.

It might be more of a um, let's really get to know each other, let's, you know, pray for one another, let's fellowship together.

And there might be a short, you know, devotional time or prayer together, but maybe it's more fellowship, but you still grow with one another.

Um, it might be more of a Bible study kind of small group.

It might um be a small group that meets every week.

It might be a small group that meets like my small group meets every other week.

It might be a once-a-month small group.

So you've got to look at what what is the purpose of the small group.

And then also you've got to, you've got to find a connection.

Now, like I said, you don't have to find that connection on the first time in the small group, but there does need to be a connection.

And let me caution you about this.

You want a connection, but you don't want a mirror image of yourself.

So if I think about a world made up of all lorries, I think, oh my gosh, we would all have our to-do list, we would all have our schedule, there would be no spontaneity, everything would be scheduled, planned, and we would go through and we would check off what we have to do.

And I know I've shared with you all before how sometimes I can be so blinded by the task at hand because I'm a very task-oriented person.

And we don't want to just be with people who are just like us.

We want a variety of people.

Um, there's someone I work with that I just love working with her, but she's so different than I am.

She is spontaneous and she is creative and she's fun.

And when we first started working together, I'm just like, oh my gosh, how am I going to work with this person?

Like I loved her as a person, but I'm like, how am I going to work with her?

I'm a numbers person.

I want everything counted, everything in its place.

She's a, oh, we can just put it here or we can estimate this number.

Like, that's just how her creative mind works.

But she has helped me grow because she's so different than I am.

She's our social media person, and she'll have us do these silly videos and, you know, just do all this wild and crazy stuff.

And it's so not me, but I have learned to do it and I have grown in that way because she's different than I am.

People that I work with who are like me, I love working with them.

Obviously, we think so much alike, but I can't say there's a lot of growth there because we're we're all so alike.

We want to be around people who are different.

And then finally, we need a group that is safe.

We need safe space.

We need a space where confidentiality is so important.

We need a space where we can be real.

We need a space where there's no judgment.

Now, that's not to say that there's not correction or there's not sharing what God's word has to say about things, but not in a judgy way.

There's a lady in my small group who um I just this probably just made my day when she came in and said this, this one particular Saturday morning.

She came in and she said, Um, I I don't have a lot to share today.

I've had a rough couple weeks, didn't do my lesson.

I'm here just for the fellowship.

And you all, that was like, I love that.

Like obviously I'm sharing it with you.

I've not forgotten it.

Because I thought, you know what?

She knows she's not gonna be judged.

She knows that we all care about her, and she knows how important it was just to hang out with us for an hour and a half, just to be together.

And I love that because she could be real.

She knew that she wasn't gonna be judged, and that's so important for a small group.

So you might say, Well, where do I find a small group?

Maybe I'll give it a try.

Where do I find one?

And I would say you need to contact your local church.

If it's Hickory Grove, please contact Missy.

Like this would just make her day if you reached out and said, Missy, I want to be connected to a small group.

This is what I'm looking for.

She would love that.

Um, you're welcome to reach out to me.

I just don't have the resources that Missy does.

She would, she would be the person to reach out to.

And in any local church, and even in areas, probably some of your bigger churches, even if you don't go to that church, you can reach out to them and say, hey, I would like to be part of a small group.

And they could give you um, you know, some ideas about a small group.

And ladies, this is probably the next step, but maybe God is just laying on your heart the desire to start a small group.

It could be a neighborhood small group, it could be a small group with your friends, it could be a small group with your coworkers.

Don't just shut that door.

I mean, that might be a door that you're meant to go through that's meant to open.

And, you know, that might be something that you want to consider.

So this is just in a short amount of time.

Um, I hope I've been able to convey just how important small groups are, how important doing community with one another is.

And like I have said before, our time with God individually is so important.

We need that.

But we can't stop there, ladies.

We've got to get together in community and do life with one another because real growth is gonna take place and we're gonna grow individually when we spend time with God, but we're gonna experience growth that we're not able to experience just alone because we need to do life with community.

So just consider a small group, consider joining one, maybe consider starting one.

Um, there's just so many resources out there.

I would be more than happy just to, you know, if you wanted to contact me to share with you just some things I have done, um, just some pointers.

I would love to do that.

I just it's just so important to me that ladies are connected with one another because we need that.

So next week, Missy is gonna be with us at eight o'clock, and she will be talking about the next G, the G word, the G theme in our um We Are Family.

So, ladies, let's close in prayer and then we're gonna go make it a great day.

Dear God, um, we just thank you that we have one another, that we have community.

And dear God, I just pray right now that any woman listening who is just desiring um just to be connected with other women, that you would just open doors um for her.

Just give her courage to reach out.

And and I pray that um that our that we would just as women continue to grow as we spend time with one another, that you would be glorified and that we would um have as our purpose just to love one another and serve one another.

Dear God, we just um thank you for this gorgeous day.

I just pray a special blessing on every woman who's listening now or who will listen later.

And I just pray that you would just watch over us throughout the day and just um thank you again for being who you are and for loving us so much that you have designed us to be in community.

We ask all these things in your name.

Amen.

Ladies, have a great day, and we will see you next week.