 Here are some reasons why we fail to understand our neighbors:
Fear: "Neither despise or oppose what thou dost not understand" - William Penn We tend to fear what we do not understand. Fear can lead to hate and discrimination so we need to see our neighbors as created in the image of God. Self-centeredness: People normally aren't self centered on purpose. The best way to overcome this is to start seeing things from your neighbor's perspective - from their viewpoint. It's called EMPATHY. Failure to appreciate differences: We need to learn to respect and recognize everyone's unique qualities. Our job isn't to cast our neighbors in our image but to celebrate our uniqueness. When we combine our uniqueness we win. Failure to acknowledge our similarities: We need to recognize we often share the same feelings and drive. Those things can often lead to competition and disagreements. When we open ourselves up and learn to work together, our similarities can fuel our heart for the community and see things shift in our neighborhoods. WORKING TOGETHER MEANS WINNING TOGETHER
John Maxwell teaches that people won’t go along with you unless they can get along with you! It’s as simple (and as difficult) as that. In this episode, John describes the reasons for conflict, the types of team relationships, and why working together increases our chances of winning together.
Check out his 2 part podcast on building relationships:   John Maxwell is a leadership guru. He has helped business leaders and churches make the connection beyond what you do to being real with people. Basically- How to be good humans to each other - whether that be as an individual, business or as a church. Check out his five steps for making a connection with others:
Step One: Set aside your agenda If you want to connect with other people, you must make their agenda your priority in that moment. Genuine connection isn’t about making sure people understand you; it’s about making sure you understand other people. Clear your mind of your own worries, fears, ambitions, and plans, in order to focus on what the other person has to say. Step Two: Ask curious questions This goes hand in hand with my first point, because the practical step for getting out of your own head is to ask questions that help you get into the head of someone else. Curious questions have a layering effect; they build on one another and help drive the conversation to new and interesting places. Curious questions also help the other person know you’re engaged with them and want to keep the connection going. Step Three: Lean into the conversation This is the mid-point of connection, and it’s where self-discipline is most important. Leaning into a conversation is NOT the same as taking over a conversation. Leaning in does not mean shifting the rest of the conversation to you and your interests. Leaning in means increasing your curiosity and adding in thoughts that spur the connection deeper. It’s renewing your interest in your connection with the other person. Step Four: Make a memorable moment Memorable moments don’t need to be manufactured, but they do need to be sought. A connection becomes memorable when both parties walk away with something positive to hold onto. Making a memorable moment doesn’t require a lot, but it does require authenticity on your part. You can make a memorable moment by zeroing in on a significant lesson you learned, or a statement that impacted you. It could be a shared laugh, a moment of grief, or a deep sense of community with the other person. Step Five: Keep the connection alive While it’s hard to create a connection, keeping one alive is considerably easier. It’s an intentional decision to keep the other person with you in some way. You might exchange encouraging texts or send one another helpful emails from time to time. Maybe it’s just the courtesy of remembering that person’s name so you can greet them and quickly reconnect the next time you see them. Do what you need to do to keep the spark alive, so you can build on it in the future.  1. Respect
You can't make people feel important when they are with you if you think lower of them. showing respect to others, even if they haven't done nothing to warrant it, is a paradigm shift for your neighbor and you and build a deeper trust. 2. Open To Shared Experiences Life happens in your neighborhood - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Learn to live it together. Celebrate the wins. Grieve when there is loss. Mourn with those that mourn. 3. Trust Trust is a hard thing to do, especially in this climate. Trust begins when we value each other, when we see the creator in every human. Respect and walking out shared experiences together will build trust. 4. Reciprocity As good neighbors, we need to learn how to give, but also receive. Sometimes giving is way easier than receiving. We like to give advice, encouragement, even warnings or set boundaries, but it's hard to receive those back. Learn to listen. Be open to change. Be open to learn. 5. Learn To Enjoy Your Neighborhood With the craziness of life and all the busyness we sometimes forget to stop and enjoy what's right around us - even our neighbors company. Stop, Breathe, and Enjoy - it's ok - You're allowed. 
"If you treat every person you meet as if he or she were the most important person in the world, you'll communicate that he or she is somebody to you" - John Maxwell
We are starting a brand new series on our Sunday Virtual Gatherings (SVG!). September 28th is World Good Neighbor Day and we thought it would be a good idea to talk about what it means to be a good neighbor this month (especially in this crazy climate we call 2020). This week we look at 1 John 4 and how loving your neighbor begins with LOVE! Things Everybody needs to understand about people
1. Everybody wants to be somebody.
We all want significance, to be regarded and valued. 2. Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. The moment people know you care is the moment the way they feel about you changes. - We need to learn to CARE NO MATTER WHAT! 3. Everybody needs somebody - Community. There is no such thing as a self-made person - We need each other to accomplish our dreams. We all need friendship, encouragement and help. Doing things together brings contentment. 4. Everybody can be somebody when we believe and understand them. Belief and understanding leads to confidence. 5. Helping people is the greatest way to influence people When we help our neighbors we are actually impacting our communities.
Luke 21 can be confusing at times. So much has been said about when these things in the passage will take place. Whole books have been written about that one chapter. It can get confusing and discouraging. One key verse to look at is verse 32 "I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these things have taken place." This Generation is the key phrase the Time Text so to speak. Jesus is speaking of events that will take place in the next generation.
Here are some great resources that talk about some of the events that Pastor Mic brought up that shows fulfillment of this text. The Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem 
The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War, in which the Roman army captured the city of Jerusalem and destroyed both the city and its Temple. The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been controlled by Judean rebel factions since 66 CE, following the Jerusalem riots of 66, when the Judean provisional government was formed in Jerusalem.
The siege of the city began on 14 April 70 CE, three days before the beginning of Passover that year. The siege lasted for about four months; it ended in August 70 CE on Tisha B'Av with the burning and destruction of the Second Temple. The Romans then entered and sacked the Lower City. The Arch of Titus, celebrating the Roman sack of Jerusalem and the Temple, still stands in Rome. The conquest of the city was complete on approximately 8 September 70 CE. The Romans burned the temple to the ground and tore it apart brick by brick to get to the gold. Read More about the destruction of the temple here: Eye Witness History You can also check out this video: Martyrdom and persecution of chrisitans
The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire occurred intermittently over a period of over two centuries between the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD under Nero and the Edict of Milan in 313 AD. Persecution of the early church occurred sporadically and in localised areas since its beginning. The first persecution of Christians organised by the Roman government took place under the emperor Nero in 64 AD after the Great Fire of Rome. The Edict of Serdica, issued in 311 by the Roman emperor Galerius, officially ended the Diocletianic persecution of Christianity in the East. With the publication in 313 AD of the Edict of Milan, persecution of Christians by the Roman state ceased.[7] The total number of Christians who lost their lives because of these persecutions is unknown. The early church historian Eusebius, whose works are the only source for many of these events, speaks of "great multitudes" having perished.
More Books and Resources
Here's a great video introduction on having a positive, Hope filled view of the future. It's said that the way we view the future determines how we approach the present. HOPE is the present reality of victory that gives us an unconditional assurance Father's goodness prevails. That being the case, maybe the future of history won't conclude in chaos, but perhaps scripture shows us we can expect history to conclude in glory. We'll share the major perspective most taught about the future and see what our understanding of hope leads us to embrace
Here we go - Week 6
Each Wednesday we will post an episode for you and your family to watch. Pick a time where you can all gather together and see what we've been reading in Luke come alive on the screen. We will have some discussion questions posted to start conversations with your family to help make the memorable. Once you have watched the episode comment on the post some of the things that stood out to you and your family. This is going to be awesome! SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES ‣ Matthew 8:1-4 ‣ Luke 12: 36-48 ‣ Matthew 6: 1-18 ‣ Luke 18:1-14 ‣ Mark 2:1-12 CHARACTERS Jesus, Mary Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, Simon, Andrew, Tamar, The Leper, James, John, The Paralytic The Big Question: What captured your imagination most? There was a LOT of compassion emphasized in this episode. How did Jesus preach about and show compassion? Do you think there is a difference between compassion, giving, empathy and good will?
The Chosen: Episode 4 Watch Along
Here we go - Week 5 Each Wednesday we will post an episode for you and your family to watch. Pick a time where you can all gather together and see what we've been reading in Luke come alive on the screen. We will have some discussion questions posted to start conversations with your family to help make the memorable. Once you have watched the episode comment on the post some of the things that stood out to you and your family. This is going to be awesome! SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES ‣ Matthew 13:47-52 ‣ Luke 8:10 ‣ Matthew 3:1-7 CHARACTERS Jesus, Matthew, James & John, Andrew & Peter, Nicodemus, John the Baptist, Joseph of Arimethea, Zebedee The Big Question: What captured your imagination most in this episode? What quote from this episode was the most meaningful/impactful to you? Why?  “We have to resolutely put away our attachment to natural appearance and our habit of judging according to the outward face of things. I must learn that my fellow man, just as he is, whether he is my friend or my enemy, my brother or a stranger from the other side of the world, whether he be wise of foolish, no matter what my be his limitations, ‘is Christ.’ … “Any prisoner, any starving man, any sick or dying man, any sinner, any man whatever, is to be regarded as Christ–this is the formal command of the Savior Himself. This doctrine is far too simple to satisfy many modern Christians, and undoubtedly many will remain very uneasy with it, tormented by the difficulty that perhaps after all, this particular neighbor is a bad man, and therefore cannot be Christ. “The solution of this difficulty is to unify oneself with the Spirit of Christ, to start thinking and loving as a Christian, and to stop being a hairsplitting pharisee. Our faith is not supposed …to assess the state of our neighbor’s conscience. It is the needle by which we draw the thread of charity through our neighbor’s soul and our own soul and sew ourselves together in one Christ. Our faith is given us not to see whether or not our neighbor is Christ, but to recognize Christ in him and to help our love make both him and ourselves more fully Christ. … “Corrupt forms of love wait for the neighbor to ‘become a worthy object of love’ before actually loving him. This is not the way of Christ. Since Christ Himself loved us when we were by no means worthy of love and still loves us with all our unworthiness, our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. … “What we are asked to do is to love; and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbor worthy if anything can. Indeed, that is one of the most significant things about the power of love. There is no way under the sun to make a man worthy of love except by loving him. As soon as he realizes himself loved–if he is not so weak that he can no longer bear to be loved–he will feel himself instantly becoming worthy of love. He will respond by drawing a mysterious spiritual value out of his own depths, a new identity called into being by the love that is addressed to him.” – Thomas Merton More From Thomas Merton
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Hope is hereAt Hope Community, we believe that when you see Jesus without the religious baggage you’ll find someone undeniably life-changing and worth following. We hope you see and experience Jesus through these thoughts, videos and messages. Archives
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