“I wrote you in my previous letter asking you not to associate with those who practice sexual immorality. Yet in no way was I referring to avoiding contact with unbelievers who are immoral, or greedy, or swindlers, or those who worship other gods—for that would mean you’d have to isolate yourself from the world entirely! But now I’m writing to you so that you would exclude from your fellowship anyone who calls himself a fellow believer and practices sexual immorality, or is consumed with greed, or is an idolater, or is verbally abusive or a drunkard or a swindler. Don’t mingle with them or even have a meal with someone like that. What right do I have to pronounce judgment on unbelievers? That’s God’s responsibility. But those who are inside the church family are our responsibility to discern and judge. So it’s your duty to remove that wicked one from among you.”
1 Corinthians 5:9-13 TPT
1.) God wants you to build with your parents
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:1-4 NKJV
But what if I don’t have good earthly parents?
When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me.
Psalms 27:10 NKJV
2.) God wants you to build with your Pastor
Thrive is a church where we want to build together, where you can love and be loved, given and be given to, pray for and be prayed for, care for and be cared for.
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
Hebrews 13:17 ESV
One of the first things that God tells us in Genesis is, “it is not good for man to be alone” Genesis 2:18
The enemy doesn’t want you to be close to your church, yet God calls you to be planted in the House of God.
3.) God wants you to build with your spouse.
“What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Mark 10:9 ESV
God didn’t call you to brokenness in your marriage, but to build your marriage on Him.
Sometimes, it’s not another person that separates our marriages, it’s us, through unforgiveness, meanness, cruelty, anger.
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.”l
1 Peter 3:7 NIV
Your prayers are hindered when your marriage is hindered.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
Ephesians 5:25 NKJV
We should love our spouses the way Jesus loves us.
For wives, this means being devoted to your husbands like you are tenderly devoted to our Lord, for the husband provides leadership for the wife, just as Christ provides leadership for his church, as the Savior and Reviver of the body. In the same way the church is devoted to Christ, let the wives be devoted to their husbands in everything.
Ephesians 5:22-24 TPT
4.) God wants you to build with your siblings.
From the first family, in the first book of the Bible, we see sibling rivalry: Cain and Abel.
Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.”
Genesis 4:8-11 NKJV
5.) God wants you to build with your friendships.
