Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to the Crema Chaj podcast.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: I'm excited to speak to you. I want to talk a bit about friendship, actually.
We've been looking at the Old Testament characters, and I promise I'm not going to stray too far from that because I don't like breaking the rules. So we are going to look at some Old Testament characters and some friendships in there. But I, I really, I felt a pill on my heart to talk about friendship this evening and kind of to set the stage for that. You can't talk about friendship without underpinning everything on the truth that Holy Spirit is our best friend.
He is our best friend.
He is the one who comes and fills us. When we give our life to Jesus, our sin is washed clean and then his love just engulfs us and fills us. There's something about his name, the name of the Lord, where we live in this relationship with Him. You know, loneliness is a lie when you're friends with God.
Now, if you're here and you've given your life to Jesus, then you know this. But if you're here and you've never actually committed your life to Jesus, you may have had an encounter with Him. So we talk about the manifest presence of God like it's the dancing hand of the Lord. And in his mercy, you know, maybe you visited church a number of times and you found yourself here this evening and you've encountered something of his love. That's because in his mercy, it's like his hand rests on us and we encounter him for a moment and it's beautiful.
But when you leave here, he doesn't go with you because he doesn't live in you.
That's the truth. If you have not given your life to Jesus, but it is he is available to us, you know, if you're here and you have given your life to Jesus, then there's nothing that separates us from his love.
It is true that you, that whether you feel it or you don't, you are a dwelling place for His Spirit. He comes and lives in you and he will never leave you. Never. Forgive me, forsake you. You know, once upon a time, your sin did separate you from Him. Once upon a time, there was this barrier between a relationship between you and the Father.
But then Jesus came. He died on the cross we sing about. The veil was torn. That's basically this big curtain that was stopping people from getting into the holies of holies, holy of holies. That that curtain was torn by Jesus, by the blood of Christ, so that we could see step into the holy place and live in that place of his presence. And we get to do that with him as our best friend. He cheers for us. He loves us, he encourages us. He doesn't get bored of us. He doesn't roll his eyes at us and give up on us. He lives in us.
Yes.
And we know that as we give our lives to Him. You know, God in His nature is a triune being. So he is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So he, even in Himself, it is impossible for him to be alone.
Because the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, they talk, they cheer each other on that. It's like this community between them. And we, as we give our lives to him, we're engulfed in that. We have Father, Son and Holy Spirit surrounded by Him. And nothing in all creation, nothing in life, nothing in death, not our fears, not our worries, not any power can separate us. So if you have given your life to Jesus, loneliness is a lie.
You may feel like you sometimes are separate from God, but the truth is he lives in you and nothing separates you.
Romans chapter 8 says this. I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today, nor not our worries about tomorrow. Not even the powers of hell can separate us from the love of God. No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
If you ever feel like you are separate from the Lord, pin that verse on your toilet door or your bedroom post or whatever.
Remind yourself of the truth that Holy Spirit lives in you. He is your best friend.
Even right now. Why don't you just thank Him? Why don't you?
Lord, we thank you.
I thank you that you are faithful. Like we've talked about that, Lord, your goodness chases us down.
Holy Spirit, I thank you that you never leave us, forsake us. I thank you that you've never got tired of me.
I thank you that you have been faithful and merciful.
Lord, I love your voice.
I love your presence.
Holy Spirit, you are my best friend.
Thank you, God.
It has to start from that foundation.
If you don't know Holy Spirit as your greatest friend, as your best friend, you will try and find someone else to fill that spot.
Because you were made for relationship. Deep, intimate relationship with the one who made you.
And if you don't find him and you don't receive him, trust me, you'll look elsewhere. Just like many of Us have.
And those people, whether however good they are, you know, they will let us down because they're not perfect, because they're not God. Because you were made for that relationship with your maker. And I know in the worst cases that can be, you know, relationships that are just full of unhealth and brokenness. But even in the best cases, you know, when I've put Joel in that place, Joel is my husband, you know, he's my best human friend.
So he's my best friend on earth. It's like a living being.
But if I'm separate, if I've not gone to the Father, if I've not sat in the presence of the Holy Spirit, I'll still look to him for affirmation. I'll still look to him for my security or whatever it is. But actually, as we stand on the truth of Holy Spirit being our best friend, being dependent on what he says above anyone else, then our fear feet are firmly rooted in the rock and we can't be shaken.
And so we must know that. And he has more for you, friends. He has more for us. He does.
Secondly, the second thing I want to say is it's not good to be alone. So we are also made for good godly relationships. You were created to have friends. Praise God. You know, in creation, we see this account in Genesis where, you know, God makes all the different things. And he says, and it was good, and it was good and it was good. And the first time he says it was not good was when it says. When it says for man to be alone. Do you remember that? He makes the stars and he makes the everything, but it was not good. The first time it was not good in creation was when Adam was alone. It's not good for man to be alone. And yet I don't think he's referring to marriage in here alone. You know, many people might see that as well, we're all intended to be married. But I think the scriptures are really clear that actually it's not. It's not God's intention for every person to be single.
Some of you are like, not me, God. I desire a husband or a wife. That's fine. You can tell the Lord your heart's desires, but not everyone.
It's not God's intention for every single person to be married. And so this can't just be this, this, this statement. It's not good for man to be alone. Can't just be about marriage, you know, it's not good to be alone, full stop. You and I were designed to have intimate human relationships. We were made to have a helper. You know the word when Eve is created and she's his helper. The word is A, which is the same word that's used for Holy Spirit on other occasions.
Which means we were made to have a helper. Holy Spirit. But we were also made to have a helper in a human form who was filled with the spirit. Spirit. We were made for that.
Is this making sense? The whole point of the cross, right, is that that God restored him. God restored right relationship between heaven and earth. But it's also symbolic that he restored relationship between a b.
Friend. Friend.
We're supposed to live in. This is the priority. Holy Spirit is my best friend. But we were also made to have friendship side by side with one another, full of the Holy Spirit. And that's God's promise to you. So if you are feeling alone, if you are feeling like you're doing this race on your own, there's good news. His promise is saints are coming. Saints are coming to stand alongside you.
The kind of friendship that is helpful. They support you and encourage you and challenge you sometimes and celebrate you.
God's design is that we would live in those covenants. And I want to look. So there's lots of friendships I could have chosen this evening. So I want to look at some examples in the Bible, you know, all the way through this book, there's this, like, there's, you see these like, heroes of the Bible, this kind of main character energy. But behind them there's always a good friend. Have you noticed that there's always like a Robin to the Batman or like an Elsa. No, an Anna to an Elsa. You guys are too. You're not. You're not parents, so you don't know that one. Or there's the Iron man one. What's the.
What is it?
Jarvis to the Iron Man.
No one watches Iron man here. That's just me and being geeky. Anyway, behind these kind of main character people, there's always like a brother or a friend or like you've got Esther and Mordecai. Do you remember that one? Like, there's always someone else who's not necessarily looking for the limelight or has the main story.
But if it wasn't for the friend, they would never have been able to fulfill the destiny that God has for them.
And for some of us, we were made to be the friend.
And God still has an incredible story for us, but sometimes our name is only known to him. And that's okay. It's all for his glory anyway, right?
Actually, we live for an audience of one, so it doesn't matter if our name is known with anyone else.
If we're obedient to the people in front of us, then we are fulfilling what God has on our lives. So there's Moses and Aaron. That's the first one I want to look at. Aaron was Moses's older brother. And I don't know if you remember that, really. I find it so funny, the conversation with Moses and God where he's like, you're going to go back to Egypt and you're going to set my people free. And Moses comes up with all these excuses. He's like, wow, I don't know. I don't know. Like, who am I going to say you are? And God says, well, tell them I am the I am. And then he's like, well, I just don't know enough. What am I meant to do? And then God says, well, my power. I'm paraphrasing. God says, my power will go with you. And then Moses is like, but I'm slow of speech. And God's like, I'll be your words. And then he goes, well, can you just send someone else? Do you remember that? Moses is like, can you just send someone else? And then God says, I'll bring your brother Aaron to come and help you. And so they get to go in this mission together. And it's beautiful. And the. The way that it works is that God speaks to Moses. Moses, who is a bit slower of speech, speaks to his brother Aaron. And then Aaron speaks to like, Pharaoh and all of the Israelites. So it's almost like Aaron is this mouthpiece from. From God to Moses, to the people. Makes sense. So if it wasn't for him, if he was disobedient, if he didn't do what God had asked him to do, no one would have got the message.
No one would have been free.
And so he strategically placed, but absolutely essential to bring God's plan forward.
And some of you here need to know that this evening that you are strategically placed and absolutely essential in bringing God's kingdom and his plan in. Into action.
And no one might ever know your name.
But trust me, that's a good thing because they'll all know his name.
They'll all know the name of Jesus. As we live our lives, surrendered to his will and to his story.
He is the one that's famous. He is the one that gets all of the glory.
And so, you know, when. When God sends the plagues, I Don't know if you know this, but do you know who actually turns the Nile into being blood?
It's not Moses, it's Aaron.
Do you know who performs the first three plagues? It's not even Moses, it's Aaron. And I never knew that until I'd actually started looking at this friendship. Like, what's Aaron's role in all of this? He gets the privilege of seeing the miracles of God firsthand, because he didn't say, well, I'm the older brother. I should have been picked. He doesn't get bitter. He chooses to get low, to be humble, to understand that Moses was called, and I'll serve this man. And in doing that, in taking the lower position and being obedient to the Lord, he gets to see firsthand what God will do. How cool is that?
And then later on, again, I don't have time to talk about all of it, but they get to.
There's a battle that's going on, and I think it's the Amalekites. They come and they try and attack the Israelites. And Moses is like, joshua, you go down and fight the battle, and I'm going to stand at the top of the hill and I'm going to lift my banner up to the Lord. And as Moses lifts his arms up unto the Lord, the battle is being won. But the battle goes on a little bit, and he gets tired and his arms start to go down. And he realizes that when he drops his arms, they start losing.
So then he says, aaron, come. I don't know if he asks him to come, but Aaron comes and he lifts Moses hands up in the air. And as he does that, side by side, brother to brother, the battle is won.
The best friendships are formed on the battlefield, on the mission field.
So as you're going after the Lord, as you're seeking him, first look to the left and look to the right. That's the wrong way around. That's my left and right.
Look who's next to you. Run with them, encourage them. Who is the Lord calling you to be side by side with in this season? You've got Ruth and Naomi, the loyalty there. You know, where you go, I will go. And where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God. My God.
You've got Elijah and Elisha, Esther and Mordecai. I mentioned earlier, Esther's gone through all of these again. I know. I'm speaking quickly because they're amazing stories. I want to give you a taste to go home and read these for yourself. But Esther is just finds herself after all these kind of beauty pageant things, and she finds herself basically being the queen to this king who basically sets a decree to kill her nation, the Israelites, her family. And Mordecai, the uncle, is outside and he sends a message to Esther and he reminds her, don't forget that you were brought to this place for such a time as this. You know, sometimes we need friends that go, hey, remember that promotion that you prayed about that you're now in? Maybe you're there for such a time as this. Don't forget the original calling. Don't forget why God has placed you there. Don't forget the influence that you have. Don't forget it when the cost becomes too high. Don't forget it. And we need friends to remind us that.
And then you've got David and Jonathan. We're going to stay here. After David trusts in the Lord and defeats Goliath, there's this moment where Jonathan sees David's faith and he's like.
He has this like kindred spirit with David and we're going to read about it. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn there.
It's in 1 Samuel, chapter 18.
And again, I'm just going to kind of give you a taste of their friendship tonight because it runs all the way through 1 Samuel and even into 2 Samuel. So 1 Samuel, chapter 18. You can go home and read the whole thing. But why don't you stand for the word of God?
We honor his word.
And I'm going to read from so chapter 18, verse one. So you all know the story of David and Goliath. Hopefully. It's an amazing story. David has just beat this beast Goliath, and he's held his head up like in front of the.
The enemy. Okay, chapter 18. After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan, who is Saul's son, Jonathan became one in spirit with David and he loved him as himself.
From that day, Saul kept David with him and did not let him return to his father's house. And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.
Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David along with his tunic and even his sword and his bow and his belt. Then the story goes on. I want to pick it up in chapter 19.
In the middle of that, Saul is pretty cross with David because he's jealous and he's just tries to kill him. Right? Chapter 19, Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan was very fond of David and warned him, my father Saul, is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard. Tomorrow morning, go into hiding and stay there. I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I'll speak about him. I'll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.
Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father, and said to him, let not the king do wrong to his servant David. He has not wronged you. What has he done?
And what he has done has benefited you greatly. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?
Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath. As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death. So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before.
He can take a seat.
I'm jumping a bit around the story, but I want to focus on this beautiful connection, this covenant relationship that Jonathan and David started start to have.
You know, Jonathan again, doesn't think there's this. There's. There's this theme, actually, of not getting bitter and not being entitled. Jonathan could have been like, who is this guy David, who's, like, taking my place as the son of the king? You know, I'm meant to be prince. I'm meant to be important and chosen. And yet he doesn't say that. Jonathan says, wow, this man, David, has been sent by God. Look at his faith. And I want to make a covenant to look after him, to protect him. He literally gives him his robe. Jonathan gives David his robe. And he's saying, what covered me is now going to cover you.
What protected me is now going to protect you. He preferred David. Jonathan gives David his sword and his bow and his belt, and he says, what protected me is now going to protect you. There's this beautiful, beautiful loyalty that Jonathan gives to David. Now, I don't know how many friendships there are in 20, 26 that are like that, but we are meant to be set apart and to stand out from the crowd, to love one another with a love like that, with a love where we go, what protected me will protect you? You know, when there's that conversation that Jonathan's having with his dad, and he's like, dad, what? Or king, why are you trying to kill this innocent man? Jonathan speaks well of his friend despite the cost that might come to his own life.
He could have been killed for saying that, you know, you're meant to go along with the king, not meant to oppose him and challenge him. And yet he does, because he knows that David is innocent. He knows that David has been sent by God. And the favor that comes upon Jonathan for being loyal to David is incredible.
Maybe in this season we're being called to be someone's friend, to speak well of them, no matter what the cost, to love them and prefer them more than we prefer ourselves. And I want to live like that. I want to have good godly covenant relationships with people. And I just have some hopefully quite quick practical things that we can do to maintain this kind of godly friendship. Is that okay? This is just from experience.
I would just want to go through a few practical things.
So firstly, I've written out with the old, in with the new. That sounds really harsh, doesn't it? But I know that sometimes we need space and time for whoever the Lord wants to bring into our lives.
Now, we can't be.
We can't have a hundred friends and do that really well. We have to actually ask the Lord, who is it that you're bringing into my life? You know, when you first give your life to Jesus, your friends might change. I remember that so clearly when I started actually living for Jesus. You know, a good question is, are they influencing how you behave or are you influencing how they behave? And there's that balance, isn't there? I remember I grew up as a Christian and I knew God and I had a relationship with the Lord, definitely. I would pray and all of that, and I would know his presence. But when I came to university, I've shared my story lots of times, but I kind of did my own thing for a bit. And I remember my housemate, she knew that I was a Christian. She knew that I went to church. And, you know, I did have my Bible out and things like that. I'm not sure I read it that much, but it was out. And I remember we would go on nights out and things like that. And when I came home one day, she said to me, rach, what? This was in the morning after the night before, you know, she said, rach, what do Christians believe about getting drunk?
I was like, oh, it's not good. It's not a good thing at all. No, you shouldn't get drunk. You should be drunk. And I knew the. I knew the scripture, right? You know, you should get drunk on the Holy Spirit and not on beer and wine, you know, because that's so much better than going out and getting wasted. And she's like, that's really interesting. So why do you get drunk all the time?
Like, Dagger, like, convicted? From a non Christian, you're not even allowed to do that.
Like, my pastor can do that. You can't do that. I was so, like, I'm laughing that it wasn't funny. I was so convicted, it was like a knife through my. My heart because I knew the word of God, but I wasn't living it. So my words just felt empty. And I knew at that. Well, I knew kind of at that moment. Then I had a radical encounter with the Lord where he basically said, it's time to stop lukewarm living. And I recommitted my life to him in my. In my room. And I had this power encounter with the Lord. And I knew from that moment on that I couldn't be in certain spaces where everyone was getting drunk. I loved to dance and I love to go out. And, you know, I loved, you know, going shopping and going on a night out and being with friends and having fun. But I knew I had to have a break from that because everyone else only danced when they were drunk.
So I had to remove myself from that moment for probably about a year. It was. I didn't go out until then. My Christian friends wanted to come out, and I was like, yes, Joel Burnet wants to go clubbing. Let's go. And he didn't have one drink. So there was all these Christian friends that then started coming out with us, and they didn't get drunk at all, but they danced just as wild as I did with no alcohol.
And they wore trainers and joggers, not silly skirts and heels. And so we would, like, go out and we would have so much fun. And then my friends who were getting drunk realized that there was a better way to do it. And then they started coming to church and they heard the gospel and many of them got saved. And I got to baptize two of them because they gave their life to Jesus. The balance.
Are they influencing you? If they are, then you probably need a space from them.
But if you can be the influence, then go to the dark places. Go to the places where you need to be the light. Don't shy away. Don't be in fear, but do protect yourself and be wise. Does that make sense? Ask Holy Spirit, your best friend, the question.
Ask him.
And I want to say, do. Do those conversations in love. Don't cancel, whatever that means. Your non Christian friends. It's okay to Say to them, hey, you know, while I'm on this journey with Jesus, I don't want to smoke weed anymore. And because you do that, I'm going to have to remove myself from you for a season. You can speak in love. Hey, God wants that for you too. But when you're ready, call me.
You can have those conversations in love. You can speak to people where you, you actually share the gospel with them because you're saying, he's got something better.
Don't take counsel from people who are unbelievers.
Now, if it's like your car or your oven breaks up, like, packs up or whatever, like, it doesn't matter who you go and get advice from, right? But if you're going to come and get advice about your mental health, about your relationships, about your giving, don't go to someone who isn't spirit filled.
It's just silly. They're not going to give you good advice.
I was away in Gran Canaria a few weeks ago, and there was this guy in a shop and he had a cross tattoo upside down behind his ear. So obviously I was really excited. I was like, in my broken Spanish, I was like, you were Christian. You love God.
And he was like, looked at me all funny. And thankfully he spoke English. So he was like, no, I'm not a Christian. I said, but the disciples got, you know, crucified upside down. I thought it was like some kind of, like, I don't know, maybe that's really ignorant. But he. Some of you are laughing.
It was really ignorant of me, but I thought he was a Christian. Anyway. Do you know what he said to me? He was like, it's actually a demonic symbol. My friend had that same tattoo and he died in a car crash. So I, I got the same tattoo kind of in memory of him. And I was thinking, why? Okay? And then I sort of went into Pastor H and I was really sorry to hear about your friend. Like, how has that affected you? And then he was like, oh, my friend actually had the tattoo because he followed a rock singer who had the same tattoo, demonic tattoo, and was also killed in a car crash.
So I said to him, are you guys with me? I said to him, so this rock star got a demonic symbol on his neck and died in a car crash. So your friend got the same demonic symbol and died in a car crash and you've decided to get the same demonic symbol.
I was like, I'll pray for you. I will pray for you. Like, where do we go to get our advice?
Am I on my Own with this.
Why would you go and follow the same crazy blind counsel from people?
It blows my mind that people go to all of these different places to get advice, to get counsel.
Especially as believers, as Christians, as spirit filled lovers of Jesus. We are surrounded by gold in this church and in lots of churches where the person next to you can encourage you and equip you and prophesy over you and pray for you, you and give counsel. And if you know someone who is two steps ahead of you, go to them and say, you know, would you pray for me in this area?
Would you give me counsel in this area? Ask some questions. Now we're created to live side by side, iron sharpening iron in the beautiful body of church. It's time to surround ourselves with spirit filled, passionate lovers of Jesus. I'm going to do a shameless plug. We've got Chroma discipleship starting I think in two weeks time.
And this is where you download kind of weekly Bible material and you basically delve into the word of God. You learn what it means to live with your new identity in Christ and you understand the scriptures. But one of the best things about it is you also get a mentor. You get someone to cheer you on, to run this race with you, to answer your questions. And so there's still a few spaces if you want to sign up to that. But maybe you feel like actually I have something to give, give. I could mentor some people. Come and chat to me again. You know, we're meant to look and go, who's two steps ahead that I can follow, that I can, I can learn from and who's two steps behind or a step behind that I can help build up, that I can encourage, that I could read the Bible with, that I could pray for. Yes.
Yeah, this is godly covenant relationships.
Okay. Get around people who you want to be like if you want to get healthy. If I want to get healthy, I'm not going to go and hang around McDonald's just to say I saw at least 20 people there after the glory night last week just outing you.
But if you, yeah, if you see someone who loves Jesus, maybe they love worshipping or dancing or praying and you love that about them. Go and ask them.
Don't rush off as soon as church ends. That's a big one.
I know it can be daunting. There's lots of people here, but stick around and meet someone that you've never met before. We're going to lock the foyer doors so that you can't get out and you have to chat to someone.
I know introverts. You just want to run away. And you've done your social battery, I get it. Kind of bit of an extrovert. But stick around, meet someone new, be bold and start a conversation. Hi, I don't think I've met you before. What's your name?
Don't say we've never met before when you might have. That's really awkward.
Maybe you could do something like host a party or a movie night. I remember there was a girl, a young student here, and she did the best night ever. She basically invited 10 girls around her house. And it was a testimony evening. And all of them, one by one, just shared how they gave their life to Jesus. Their testimony. You know, how beautiful is that? That actually straight away, you have your house fit. You know, we're way past covert now. We can open our homes up, get them around your house, bring some food. That's always a good shout.
And then share what Jesus has done. Rejoice. Like Juliet was saying, rejoice. Remember what he's done. Celebrate together. Pray for one another.
I remember you might even find your husband this way. I remember I ran a movie night one time and. And I invited lots of people and everyone was definitely really excited to come. And then Joel was the only one who turned up before we were together.
He definitely called everyone and told them not to come.
Definitely. I'm like, that was definitely. His story is that I told everyone not to come. No, he went round and he told people not to come and he was the only one who showed up at my house. So I'm just giving you a free tip. That is what you can do.
And we got together that evening, so it worked.
If he tells you otherwise, it's not true. He's lying in the house of God. He did.
Okay, I've got to move quickly.
Pray, ask God to highlight people to you. Okay? Thirdly, this is how we go after covenant relationships. It's about quality, not quantity. We have to be vulnerable.
We have to be open about what's going on in our lives. Now hear me, ladies. Sometimes we can over share.
Don't do that.
No one's laughing, but I know that this is true.
Don't get offended. Don't get offended. Girls. We can over share sometimes, and sometimes we just need to, like, hold it back a little bit. Guys, if you're going to have a conversation sometimes you might want to fix something. Like, I don't want to be sexist, but definitely if I want to talk to Joel about something, I'll pretend that there's batteries that need changing and one of the kids toys or you know, sometimes he just finds it easier to like be doing something while I'm speaking to him. But we need to find ways to have these conversations. I, I just think it's so interesting how Jesus washes the disciples feet. And I know there's, there's tons of things that, that, that mean, that that means in the story that Jesus got low and he was our servant, but he also got in the dirt of like Peter's toes.
He saw like what was going on. And then he says, you are to love one another as I have loved you.
He gets low and he serves them and he washes their feet. And then he says go and do the same. He even says, the world will know you're my disciples by the way you love one another.
The world will see Jesus by the way that we have friends, friendship and relationship.
And that cannot be just surface level.
If you are only ever surface level known, you're only ever surface level loved.
We must take our shoes off. We must be vulnerable and open, talk about what's really going on.
You know, sometimes if I'll meet with someone and they've got, I know that they've got stuff going on, but they'd rather just talk about their day. It's because that's comfortable, isn't it?
But we have to get to the nitty gritty. Hey, have you had any doubts about the Lord recently? What are you struggling with?
What's he saying to you about your future? How do we encourage? How do we build up? But let's be real with one another. Let's be open and vulnerable so that we can cheer each other on. Is this okay?
Sound good?
The enemy will creep in if you are only kind of sharing the surface layer of your heart and what's going on. What the enemy will do is he'll say that person only likes you because they don't really know what's going on.
They're only really your friend because they don't know your sin. If they really knew what you were like, if they really knew, then they wouldn't be your friend.
And I want to break that in Jesus name because he sees all of our mark and he died on the cross for us to still and as we love like Jesus loved, we're to know each other's stuff. We're yes. To go on a journey of freedom and pronounce each other forgiven and walk into life abundant together. You know, I have people in My life, who I will confess my sin to regularly. I have people in my life who. There's an amazing couple in this church, she works for a bank, and we're like, can we just ask you where you invest your money?
You know, I have families in this church who I see their kids worshipping, reading the Bible. You know, what are you doing with your children? What's the routine that you do? Ask questions, be open. These are the things we're struggling with.
And as we talk openly and honestly with godly spirit filled people, we get to build each other up and step into all the Lord has for us.
Be reliable. Yeah. Proverbs 18. One who has an unreliable friend soon comes to ruin. But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Love them and prefer them. Yeah. John 15. Greater love has no one than this. That someone lay down his life for his friends.
Some of us won't even buy our friends of five guys because we don't have enough just calling it out.
If you have a car, be generous.
If you have money to host, buy people food. What does it look like in 2026 to lay our lives down for one another to surrender, no matter what the cost?
Some of you are chatting now. Who's the most generous friend? They're probably the most blessed friend.
They're probably the most blessed friend because. Because the Lord wants us to love one another and prefer one another. You know, a friendship can diminish your ministry or multiply it. It's the same with a marriage.
Now choose your friends wisely. Are they pulling you out of community? Are they isolating you? Are they pulling you away from what the Lord wants you to do? It's probably time to cut them in love.
Or is a friend multiplying what you do? Yeah. Go, Rachel. So you prophesy for that person. I saw them. I saw them leave happier. You know, I saw how you loved that person. I saw how you raised your child. I saw, like, encouraging one another and multiplying what they're doing. Yes.
Okay. I'm aware of time, so I'm going to summarize. Holy Spirit is our best friend. Holy Spirit, you are my best friend. And no one can replace him. I don't depend on anyone other than him alone.
But I know also that it is not good for us to be alone. He has called us to godly covenant relationships where we're fully known, fully seen, challenged and celebrated. It's both.
And as we run after Jesus, as we find our friends in the midst of the battlefield, you know, one they hold our arms up. Yes.
But two, we get to see the victory be won and then we get to go and get some cheesy chips and celebrate because like friendships can't be too intense. You know, if you're just praying together and you're just, you know, deep in thought and all your feelings then it can become too intense. Have lots of fun with your friends but you are meant to stand side by side holding each other each other's arms up and watching the battles be won together.
Yes.
Sound good?
I've gone over time. Why don't you guys stand and we're going to pray.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to the Cromer Church Podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship and how to donate, visit our website at Crema Church.
