LIVING WITH CASTAWAYS
Learning To Accept Others
Lost Episode 5
Today we’re going to continue with the relationship series of messages called “Lost” based on the hit TV series where 48 people get stranded on an island. Today is Episode 5 and we’re going to talk about “Living With Castaways” and “Learning to Accept Others.”
A Navy ship was out on patrol, when the captain saw smoke coming off a near by island. He decided to send some crew members to investigate. As they approached the island they saw three grass huts and a man jumping up and down on the shore. They pulled up to the island and the guy ran to them and said, "Man am I glad to see you guys, I've been stuck here alone for over 5 years." The crew asked the man, "Why do you have three the grass huts ?" The castaway replied, "Well, I live in one and go to church in the other." The crew asked, "Then what’s the third hut for?" The castaway replied, "Oh that's were I used to go to church."
All of us are castaways who struggle with our relationships. We experience relationship problems in our marriages, our work place, our families, and even in our church.
Relationships can be a lot like a wild ride. They have their ups and downs. And sometimes they seem like they just go around and around. Kinda like the Tea Cup ride at Disneyland. Has anyone here ever been on that ride before? THIS IS WHAT IT’S LIKE. WATCH THIS VIDEO.
Relationships can either make you laugh or they can make you sick. If you have motion sickness, don’t look at the screen, look at me.
Sometimes you have joy in a relationship and sometimes you have sorrow. Sometimes it can cause you to feel exhilarated and at other times you feel regret. Sometimes you even ask yourself, “Why did I ever get on this ride?”
Relationships have a centrifugal force to them. They can either push you away or pull you in. What pulls you into a relationship is acceptance. We’re all drawn to acceptance. That’s because acceptance is one of our most important basic emotional needs. Your heart is always going to go to where you’re accepted. DOES THAT MAKE SENSE? That’s one of the reasons why so many people are workaholics; they’re not accepted at home but they are accepted at work. Acceptance is also what draws people into affairs, they aren’t accepted by their spouse, but they are accepted by another person.
The polar opposite of acceptance is rejection. Acceptance pulls you into a relationship but rejection pushes you away from a relationship. Sometimes rejection is real and sometimes it’s perceived. Rejection can cause you to wobble in your relationships to the point that you’re thrown out of sink with someone. Rejection causes us to feel like a castaway. All of us have felt like a castaway at some time or another in our life. All of us struggle with trying to survive in our relationships.
Our relationships are like the mad tea cup ride of life. We get into these circles called relationships and it can start out slow and fun and then turn into something that’s scary and causes you to want to throw-up.
Any time you put a group of people in a tea cup or on an island, eventually you’re going to have conflict and someone is going to end up feeling like a castaway. But while conflict is inevitable combat doesn’t have to be. That’s why we need to learn how to live with each other and accept each other.
I’d like us to go to the LOST island where 48 people have been stranded and watch some snippets of the kind of conflicts they’ve experienced in their relationships. WATCH THIS “CONFLICTS” (LOST)
How do we learn to live on the relationship island with people at work, in our families, our community and our church? How do we live with castaways learn to accept one another? We need to do three things.