Everyday Community | Week 2 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

In 1923, there was a young man who boarded a train heading west, and in his pocket, all he had was $40. In his hand, there was nothing more than a battered box of drawings.

What was behind him was a failed studio, a mountain of debt, and a long list of people who told him it was time to to quit. Ahead of him, he had no guarantees at all, but what he did have was an older brother who was lying in a veteran's hospital currently recovering from tuberculosis.

Most people would tell the young man to just get a steady job, to forget about this foolish dream that he thought that God had put in his heart, but not his brother. His brother just kept saying,

let's try again. So together, they make a decision to start over. One brother dreams in vivid color. The other brother works in black and white, balancing every column of numbers. One leaps headfirst into the impossible, and the other makes sure that there's somewhere for the two of them to land. The one dream just keeps growing. At first, it's a studio. No. Now it's an entire park, and it's a park that's gonna be built on a swampland.

The problem is there's there's no investors. There's no proof that it's gonna work. The banks only laugh. The advisers only shake their heads. But the brother the brother leans in even harder, working back channels, convincing lenders, stretching every dollar until it screams. He walks beside the dreamer through ridicule,

failure, and wild ambition. And then one day and then one day, the gates open, the crowds flood in, and laughter fills the air, and the dream is alive.

But dreams have a way of outliving the dreamer. See, the younger brother dies far too soon, the older one, still grieving, puts off retirement to finish what they had started. He pours every ounce of himself into the final project, and when it opens,

he refuses to put his own name on it. Instead, he names it after the brother that he loved and believed in. Maybe maybe you've heard of the brother. This this is the brother that we're talking about, Walt Disney.

See, part that's amazing to me about the story, all of what I just read to you, is a true story about how Walt Disney was almost a failure had it not been for his brother Roy.

And the reason that I start there is I believe that God wants to do something powerful through every single one of our lives. That I don't think we're here randomly. That God wants to use the time that we've been given on this earth to make a huge impact.

And I don't think that it's just Walt Disney that has a dream and a vision for what he wants his life to be. Now again, your dream, your vision might not be as grand and as big as Walt's was, but here's the principle that I want us to see today, that without a Roy Disney,

Walt Disney never actually walks into the purpose and calling of God on his life. That without Roy, Walt is just a dreamer, but with Roy, with the right friend, with the right brother, God can accomplish the impossible

through our lives. I love this quote from Roy Disney talking about his brother. He said, Walt dreamed it, but I made sure that he had the encouragement to make it happen.

What we looked at last week was this idea that you find all throughout the scriptures that it's impossible for us to live the right life if we have the wrong friends. But what I wanna show you today is the power and the potential of what just one or two

really important friendships can do for us in a in a culture where we're losing the art of friendship, where we're we don't really know how to be friends with people anymore. I want to kind of talk to you today about this idea

of of really powerful friendships that can impact the course of our destiny. Again, we'll find our story today in first Samuel chapter 18. We're gonna look at the life of David and this chance friendship that he built with a guy named Jonathan. Again, the story begins first Samuel chapter 18 verse one.

It says that after David had finished talking with Saul, he met Jonathan, the king's son, and there was an immediate bond between them for Jonathan loved David. From that day on, Saul kept David with him and wouldn't let him return home. And Jonathan made a solemn pact to David because he loved him as he loved himself.

Now again, Jonathan is the son of king Saul.

The nation of Israel, God told him, you don't need a king. I will be your king. But they said, no. No. No. We want a king because everybody else has a king. So God gives him God gives them Saul as their king. Saul eventually loses his mind, disobeys God, and the anointing and the authority of God leaves Saul, and it goes to David.

This unlikely friendship forms between Saul's son Jonathan and the future king of Israel named David. We will see here shortly, Saul is going to try to kill David, which is why God in his omnipotent plan built this unlikely friendship between Jonathan and David. But what we just read

what we just read is a chance encounter between two guys that don't really understand the potential of where their friendship is going to go. Now again, just because of the culture that we live in today, I've got to just kind of address it. Like, you can read the verses that we just read and go, well, it sounds like there's something weird going on with Jonathan and David. Again, it's because we're reading it with a filter of twenty twenty five and how our world works today, the the perversion of our culture. There there was nothing sinister in their relationship. These were just two guys that for some reason, god said that they're gonna need each other, and they they built an unlikely friendship. And, again, I wanna show you today some of qualities of what we see in their friendship. But I wanna talk to us this morning about what I believe are these life saving and life giving friendships that that all of us need.

It's alarming to me that the data says that people 40 years old, about twenty five percent of them report having no close friends at all. Now for some of us, it's that we have the wrong friends, but for others of us, it's that we have no friends at all. And this is the hard part. Right? We live in a cultural moment where it seems like we're more connected than ever, but at the same time, we're more relationally

disconnected than ever before. And what I wanna try to show you is that you potentially sitting here today just like David in this chance encounter with Jonathan,

this relationship is going to completely alter the course of his destiny, but I believe that you you might be one relationship away from changing the entire course of your destiny as well.

The reason that I would encourage you to consider joining a crew is not because I think you need something else to do during the week, but I do believe that maybe you're one or two friendships away from literally changing the entire course of your life.

As I look back over how God has used friendships in my life, I'm telling you it's one of the most powerful things that God has done. Again, my story was, you know, kind of unique in that I I wasn't really raised in church. At 19 years old, I was in a fraternity because I went to college and I was like, wait, there's a club that you can join where you become professional partiers? I'm in. That sounds like my people.

Eventually, the problem was the drugs and alcohol, they kind of stopped working for They they weren't as fun anymore. And all of a sudden, the drugs and the the alcohol that I used to have control over, all of a sudden started to have control over me. I didn't wanna do them anymore, but I found myself continuing to do the thing that I I didn't wanna do any longer, and I realized that I had I had a problem. And so I I started going to like AA. I started going to meetings. I started to get sober, and in the same kind of time, I walked through the doors of a church, and I heard about the gospel, and I heard about the the reconciliation that was available for humanity through what Jesus did on the cross, and it it literally felt like a bombshell and went off in my life. And all of a sudden, God started to change me drastically.

And all the stuff that I used to desire, I didn't desire anymore. And God started to make me into a new creation.

The problem was is he didn't bring new friends into my life yet. So I didn't know like on Thursday and Friday nights as a new Christian, probably wasn't the smartest thing to still go to the sorority and the fraternity parties. Right? And I would show up and all my friends were like, bro, you're boring to be around. Like, stop just staring at us and just either drink with us or go somewhere else. And eventually,

because I think God knew that I wouldn't be strong enough to walk away from my friendships,

he had them ask me to stop showing up to the parties. And so my friends just said, hey, You're just a buzzkill. Like, just don't show up anymore. And so at 19 or 20 years old, I found myself as a new Christian with literally no friends.

And and what God started to do is he started to strip away every relationship from my life, and what he began to do slowly is build them back up. And what started as me serving in high school ministry, it was all it was all an opportunity for God to introduce me to this guy named Glenn. Glenn is still one of my best friends to this day.

He was the guy that I was asked to colead a small group with because the youth pastor was at least smart enough to know, like, bro, you don't need to lead anything for quite a while. You just spend time with Jesus and let him clean you up a little bit, but you can colead with Glenn. And I just remember there was something about Glenn, the way that he carried himself, who he was. I said, man, that's that's what I want my life to look like. And Glenn invited me into a bible study on Monday nights that happened with a bunch of dudes. That bible study, I would be in for the next ten years, met some of my best friends in there. It's in that bible study that God started to birth a vision and a calling for ministry.

And most of what I'm sitting in today is a fulfillment of what God started in one friendship almost fifteen years ago with a guy named Glenn.

I don't mean it theoretically. I I genuinely believe that you potentially are one friend away from changing the entire course of your destiny. That sometimes if you don't like what your life is producing, we've gotta start to look at who are the people you're spending the most time with. And this is the good news is we don't need five or six friends that change everything. We just we just need a few of them. We just need one or two of them that really believe in us and are pursuing the same things for us. The reason it's so important for us to understand this is there's a guy named Jim Rome that studied how humans interact with each other and leadership principles, and his general consensus is something you've probably heard before. But he says that you and I, we are essentially the average of the five people we spend the most amount of time with. If you wanna know where your future is going, they say, look at two things. Look at the books that you're reading and the friends that you're spending the most time with. It's a great indicator of where you're going. So the logical question has to be asked, who are you spending time with? Do you want to have a marriage like the people you're spending time with?

Do you want your relationship with your kids to look like their relationship with their kids? And sometimes we think that somehow we will be the exception to the rule, but it's just it's just not true. It's why the author of Proverbs in chapter 13

says that if you walk with the wise, you become wise, but if you associate with fools, you will get in trouble. Says, you and I can only sit in a barbershop long enough before eventually you're gonna get a haircut.

You can't sit there and go, I'm just here for the good views. And then eventually, you're gonna go, wait. How am I getting my haircut? I swore I wasn't gonna do this again. Like, you you can only be in your environment long enough before eventually your environment begins to affect

you. And the danger is is you will sit here today and believe that you are the exception to the rule. And I'm just here to tell you, I'm here to remind you, you're not.

I wish that at some point that we outgrew peer pressure, but here's the truth I need you to see this morning is that you and I will never get to a place of spiritual maturity where we're exempt from peer pressure.

It just isn't true. It's different. In junior high, I was peer pressured into forking my principal's lawn. Have you ever forked a lawn before? It's a great way to spend a Friday night. Right? The the peer pressure is different today, but I'm still tempted because I go on Instagram and I look at my friends and I'm like, man, I'm smarter than these people and yet they have a boat. Like, God, I need a boat, bro. Like, it's I don't know what I did in life for you to be upset with me, but it's it's time for me to get a boat. And all of sudden, I'm sitting there, like, potentially talking about walking away from what I think God has called me to so that I can pursue some material gain. Why? Because peer pressure is real, and it affects all of us, and we just gotta be honest about that.

We just gotta be honest and say, sometimes when I pull up Instagram, it's really hard to not look at all the things that I don't have and to compare my my everyday average life to people's highlight reel. And sometimes we just gotta admit, man, peer pressure can be we it it can be real, and it can push us into some things. It's why who you surround yourself with is so important. It's why biblical community is such a big deal. Again, here we call them crews. We run them in three, ten week cycles that we're in the middle of assignment for right now. They'll start in a couple weeks. They'll go right before Thanksgiving, and I believe that potentially you could find the people that could alter the course of your destiny by signing up for a crew. But don't just take my word for it. Wanna show you a video of a couple who signed up to lead a crew that actually did it before we were even in church. They started in the pre launch phase, and look at what God did through theirs. Take a look at this video.

Come

on. Can we just give it up for the swarms? They're definitely the best looking couple we have in the church, so that doesn't that doesn't hurt. They've got their best kids in the world too. Their three kids are hilarious, but I don't I don't think their story is the exception. I think it's what God wants for for all of us. And so in the time that we have left, what I wanna do is I wanna show you three qualities

of life giving and life saving relationships or friendships that we find in this unique relationship that David and Jonathan had. Again, keep reading with me in first Samuel chapter 18, the very next verse, verse four, says that Jonathan sealed the pact by taking off his robe and giving it to David together with his tunic, his sword, his bow, and his belt. Whatever Saul asked David to do, David did it successfully. So Saul made him a commander over the men of war, an appointment that was welcomed by the people and Saul's officers alike.

Here's the very first thing that Jonathan does for David that sets him up for more success than he could ever dream possible.

Jonathan shows up, and he's not there to be served by David. No. No. No. Which you would think is what he was doing because this is this is the king's son. He's the one that based on royal lineage, he's he should be the heir to the throne, but he understands

that God's favor is actually with David. So Jonathan makes a decision

that he's gonna show up and do something that you and I need to do for the people who we're closest with, and it's one of the attributes. It's one of the qualities that we need to be looking for in people that we're gonna bring into our inner circle. It's called it's called sacrifice.

Jonathan was willing to take off what was his authority, take off what was his God given gift,

and give it to David. Why? Because he understood that David had a calling on his life and that Jonathan was in a position to bless him. He takes off his royal robe, gives it to him, and says, bro, I'm with you. You have all my authority. You have all my blessing. And do you see what happened? The very next verse. Because of Jonathan's sacrifice for David, it sets David up for success. Everything he does,

his father Jonathan's father, Saul, is impressed by. He keeps getting promoted. David's success is directly connected to Jonathan's willingness to sacrifice for him. Yet so often, what we do is we walk into relationships and we ask, what can I get out of this thing?

How can you serve me? How can I leverage your network to get a deal for my business? Or how can I move my agenda forward? No. No. One of the greatest qualities in real life giving friendships that I promise you all of us need is somebody that's willing to sacrifice for us. And it's not just in friendship. Every single relationship that we have in our life, sacrifice is a key component of it. If you're struggling in your relationship with your spouse, maybe it's because you need to be willing to sacrifice more for that person. My wife and I were having this conversation the other night and just kinda talking about this, and I was like, hey, how do we how do we sacrifice for each other? We just started to kinda laugh at the different ways. Right? For me, on Fridays, if I was a single person, every Friday, which is my day off, I would I would go play golf. That's what I would do. But most Fridays, I don't play golf. Why? Because my wife's love language is time spent. So instead of playing golf, I go to breakfast, and then I go to a place where I'm convinced the presence of God does not exist. It's called Goodwill. I don't know if you've ever been there. K? And

I walk into the store where my my wife just comes alive. She's like, can we please go to Goodwill? And I'm like, why don't we go to a store where they sell new clothes? You know, like, I have enough old clothes that smell. I don't I don't need more of those. But my wife, she's like hunting for a deal, and she's like, do you see the and I just I don't get it, but I don't have to. I just sacrifice, and I go to Goodwill. Right? I I let my wife keep the air conditioning at 74 degrees even though everybody knows 70 degrees is what you should sleep at because it's way too warm at 74 degrees in the name of Jesus. Right?

And then my wife, I'm like, what do you sacrifice for me? She's like, well, I'll go to Chipotle when you want to. I'm like, you gotta do more. You gotta work harder. You know? I just don't. I think my sacrifice is much higher than yours. But it's the same it's same thing with our kids. Right? Like, it's in every season when your kids are little, you've gotta sacrifice your wants. You gotta get down on their level and just do stuff that you're like, man, I I don't I don't wanna play Star Wars right now, but I'm willing to do that so that we can build a bridge together, so we can we we can live life together. Right now, I'm in the season where I'm teaching my daughter how to drive.

Oh my goodness. I don't think sacrifice can ever get higher. You know what I mean? Like, I'm digging into the handrails, I'm just like, dear God, like, hope we don't die. And and my daughter's amazing. Right? But like, it's just it's a scary season and there's sometimes we like almost hit a median and somehow at the end of it, it's like, it's my fault. I'm like, bro, you're behind the wheel. You know what I mean? Like, you're gonna yell at me. And then it's like, you just gotta sacrifice because you can't just magically wake up one day and learn how to drive. Somebody has to teach you. I'm telling you,

sacrifice is one of those things that is a core quality

of real life giving and life saving friendships. I love the early church. The early church in acts chapter two, it says that those who believed what Peter said, they were baptized and they were added to the church that day about 3,000 in all. I wanna show you what they were devoted to. Verse 42 says, all the believers,

they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals together. See, from the very beginning, the church was committed to doing this thing. This is where we gather and we do the apostles' teaching. K? You guys can call me apostle Daniel because this is me teaching. Right?

This is where we get together and there's authority and there's teaching that happens and it's amazing. But what happened almost instantly afterwards was a separation back into people's homes where there was gathering, there was devotion to fellowship and to breaking bread together,

and yet we live in this church cultural moment where people come together to do something like this, but then we go back and we do our own things throughout the week and we're never connected to other believers. And I'm telling you, the idea of a relationally disconnected follower of Jesus is a biblical anomaly.

You won't find it. We're devoted to doing this thing on Sundays. Yes. But we're also devoted to each other. Why? Because we because we need each other. The picture that I always think of right away when I think about the power and the potential of real biblical community

is the Redwood Forest. I don't know if you've ever been to the Redwood Forest and seen these redwood trees, but they're incredible. You've gotta see them in person. They're 300

feet tall. They've lasted hundreds of years. And I'm like, in Arizona, we can't get through one monsoon without all the trees getting blown over. Right? And so what is it about these trees that has allowed them to last hundreds of years, survive storm after storm after storm?

Why are they so strong? What's really interesting is if you look, they have some of the most shallow roots of any tree system in the world. Most trees for comparison, their root systems go about 50 to 100 feet below the surface.

Redwood trees, their roots only go about five to 10 feet below the surface. So how are they so strong? What's amazing is when you study the root system, what they do is the redwood tree's root system, they actually begin to tie together. And the reason that the tree is strong is because the forest is strong.

The reason they're able to withstand the storms of life is because they connect to each other. They're interdependent on each other, and I'm telling you, God's plan for humanity is evident in nature. You and I need each other, and not just superficially,

to a point that we're willing to sacrifice for each other. The first quality of what I believe are life saving and life giving friendships

is sacrifice. Here's the second one we'll see. You gotta flip with me to first Samuel chapter nineteen, one chapter over. It says in verse one, Saul now urged his servant and his son Jonathan to assassinate

David. Talk about things escalating quickly. Right? But Jonathan, because of his strong affection for David, told him what his father was planning. He said, hey. Tomorrow morning, he warned him, you must find a hiding place out in the fields. I'll ask my father to go out there with me, and I'll talk to him about you. Then I'll tell you everything that I can find out. The next morning, Jonathan spoke with his father about David, saying many good things about him. The king must not sin against his servant David, Jonathan. He's never done anything to harm you. He's always helped you in any way that he could. Have you forgotten about the time that he risked his life to kill the Philistine giant and how the Lord brought a great victory to all Israel as a result? You were certainly happy about it then. Why should you murder an innocent man like David? There is no reason for it at all. So Saul listened to Jonathan and vowed, as surely as the Lord lives, David will not be killed.

That is a vow that Saul lived up to for about twelve minutes, and then he's like, never mind. He's gotta die. Like,

we're gonna kill him. Here's the second thing that we see in this relationship between Jonathan and David that I think every single one of us needs. The second thing that Jonathan was to David, that we need to be for people in our life, that we need people to be in our life, is this attribute, this quality called loyalty.

I love that Jonathan, when David's not around, what is he saying about David? He's saying the exact same things that he says to David's face.

And sometimes one of the most dangerous people that we can have in our life, some of the most dangerous people that we can have in our life are people who say one thing to us and then they say a whole another thing about us. And it can be one of those things that's hard. How do you measure that? How do you know? Well, one of the greatest ways to know is I promise you, if they gossip to you, most oftentimes they will gossip about you.

And I love that Jonathan, when David wasn't around, he spoke good things about him. Even to his dad that he knew was crazy, that he knew hated David,

Jonathan was gonna stand up and say, no. No. This is a good guy. This is a dude that's trying to honor God. He's doing his best. He's trying to be who God has called him to be. He's not who you say that he is. Jonathan was loyal to David. And I know for some of us, we're like, yeah, that's what I needed. I just need I need blind loyalty.

Now again, this is the tension of what what this loyalty is and what it's not. We do need people who are loyal to us, who are willing to just not betray us, and betrayal is heartbreaking if you've walked through it. But it's also not just blind loyalty.

See, we're living also in this cultural moment where people are saying, what what I need is I just need I need blind affirmation.

Whatever I think, whatever I feel, whatever I believe, whatever my heart leads me to, I just need you to come alongside and say that that's okay and that's good for me. That is not biblical loyalty. See, the other part that I love about this story

is Jonathan wasn't the only person that heard about Saul's plan to kill David, but Jonathan was the only one that was willing to tell David the hard thing that nobody else wanted to say to David. What you and I really need, though we don't always want it, it doesn't always sound fun,

we need people who are willing to speak the truth to us. We need people who are willing to tell us, hey, man, you're you're off right now. You need people in your life that can tell you, hey, when you walk into a room, this is how you are received.

You gotta understand what it's like to work with you. It's one of those things that I'm also learning in this season. The higher up you go on an organizational chart,

the harder you will have to fight, the more permission you will have to give for people to be able to speak truth to you. Why? Because your position comes with assumed authority, and if you don't give people permission to speak to you truthfully,

you will never have anybody tell you what's really actually going on. And all of a sudden, you'll become one of those leaders that looks up and goes, man, how did I lose all authority? How did I lose

all integrity that I had? It's because you had nobody in your life that was really loyal to you. And what we want is affirmation without the correction, and I'm telling you they go hand in hand. We need people who are loyal to us, but not just not just blindly. This is what Proverbs chapter 27 says, that wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.

Wounds from somebody that loves you are better than a million kisses from somebody that's your enemy. You need people who are willing to tell you the truth, and this is where I think real biblical loyalty is. True loyalty is found in both correction and confidentiality.

I need friends in my life. I need to be the friend in people's lives that is willing to make sure that what is said to me stays with me,

but it also doesn't mean that when you're wrong, I'm not gonna tell you. I'm telling you man, I've had some tough moments where there's people that are in my life where I just I've gotta tell them something hard,

and I don't want to. It's easier to not say the hard thing, but if I really love them, if I really want what's best for them, then I have to, out of love, be willing to come to them and say something difficult to them. The the second quality that all of us need in life giving and life saving relationships is is loyalty.

Here's the last one. Again, flip with me over to first Samuel chapter 23.

David has been on the run from Saul. Saul's been trying to kill him. He's had some horrendous moments. He's gotten close to death multiple times. And in first Samuel chapter 23, we see David in one of the lowest moments of his life. It says one day, in verse 15, one day near Hresh,

David received the news that Saul was on the way to to Ziph to search for him and to kill him. Jonathan went to find David, and he encouraged him to stay strong in his faith in God.

Don't be afraid, Jonathan reassured him. My father will never find you. You are going to be the king of Israel, and I will be next to you as my father. Saul is well aware.

The third attribute that we see in the relationship between Jonathan and David that I promise you all of us need is we need a friend at times who just comes in that can give us some encouragement.

I love that in his lowest moment when David thinks because of the circumstances of his life that God has left him, that God has forgotten about him, what does God do? God does what he does most of the time, and he sends a really loyal friend to him to say, remember who you are.

Remember the calling of God in your life. Just because the marriage fell apart doesn't mean that God's plan for you is done. Just because you lost the job doesn't mean your best days are now behind you. No. No. No. This is who you are. Don't forget it. Don't let the enemy take your destiny from you. And I love that Jonathan just shows up, and he just begins to remind David, no. This is who you are. You're gonna be the king. I'm gonna be there at your right hand. God's plan, he who started this thing in you, I promise you he's gonna bring it to completion.

You and I I've heard somebody say one time that encouragement, it's like a shower. It's it's a big deal and you need it like at least once a day. Right? Like it's you need it all the time. And and I know it seems kind of silly and insignificant,

but we need people in our life who encourage us because we live in a world that tears us down. And the definition of encouragement is literally to put courage in to somebody. I love Paul, this is his reminder to the church in Thessalonica,

first Thessalonians chapter five, he says, so encourage each other and build each other up just as you are already doing. Keep encouraging

each other. The three qualities that I see in the relationship between David and Jonathan that all of us need, it's somebody that's willing to sacrifice, somebody that's loyal, and somebody that's willing to encourage you. I promise you, you find a couple friends like that, it can change everything for you. But I know you're sitting here saying, dude, man, that sounds amazing. I just I just don't have friends like that.

And here's the truth that I need you to hear this morning, is that if you want a friend like that, you've gotta become a friend like that. The truth is is that all of us, we we attract who we are.

I don't always like it, but it's just a principle that is true in almost every arena of our life. You don't attract who you want to be. You don't attract who you're aspiring to be. You will always attract who you are. And there are times to get into leadership principle as well. There's times where I look at things and I'm leading and I go, I don't like the people that I'm leading. And God's like, look in the mirror, bro,

because you attract who you are. If you don't like what you're seeing, you're the fruit of your life, take a look at your own hearts. If you want a friend that's encouraging, be encouraging.

If you want a friend that's loyal, be loyal. If you want a friend that's willing to sacrifice for you, be willing to sacrifice for other people. This is

God's plan for humanity, that we need each other. And you've gotta be willing to go first, and I promise you, if you put it out into the world, I I I promise you, you will get it back in space. Here's one of my favorite verses that I close with. Proverbs chapter 18 verse 24. It says, one who has unreliable friends soon

comes to ruin. Gotta understand if you're living here today and you've got unreliable friends, ruin is coming. But but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

This is the good news of the gospel. It's that all of this, the only reason that we can know what the characteristics and the qualities of real life giving and life saving friendship looks like is because we we know about one who sticks closer than a brother. There's only one person that I promise you will always be loyal to you, who will always sacrifice for you, who will be your greatest encourager in times of despair,

and his name his name is Jesus. And if you are here today and you have not started a relationship with Jesus, I'm telling you that is the friend that you need more than anything. Crews can be helpful, but they are only a byproduct of what we already have in Jesus.

This is what I love about who Jesus is. You realize Christianity is the only world religion that says that what God wants from you is friendship?

He doesn't want you to be a servant of his. He doesn't want you to work to achieve your relationship with him. No. He wants to be friends with you. And here's the beauty is he's already proven

his friendship for you. He's already proven his willingness to sacrifice for you. That two thousand years ago, God realized that there was a problem between us and him that we couldn't we couldn't bridge the gap that we all have between a holy God and us. This thing called sin,

it has to be dealt with. It has to be ransomed. It has to be dealt with on the cross. And so what God did is he actually became human. He lived the life that the Bible says that we can never live. He was perfect, not just in deed, but in thought and in motive as well. He was never he never sinned one time,

and yet he died the death that the Bible says that we all deserve. Because the penalty for our sin is death. And the beautiful part is that Jesus was arm stretched wide on a cross. Right before his life was given up, he yelled out, it is finished. What was finished?

What was finished is you and I having to live in our shame for another day, for our past to be the primary thing that defines us today. What was finished was us having to do this life on our own, trying to figure this out, going through life without a a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Here's what I believe this morning. I believe that some of you, the greatest relationship that you need, the friendship that you need more than anything is a friendship with God himself. So I'm gonna ask if you would. I'm ask everybody you would as we close our service. Just stand to your feet with me.

I wanna create a moment in here right now, a private moment between you and God. And I know that it feels like, man, there's hundreds of people in this room. This is anything but private.

But I'm gonna ask every single person here if you would just close your eyes and bow your heads. I wanna create a moment because I believe that some of you, you are here today on purpose. Today is the day that your name is gonna be written in what's called the lamb's book of life, where you will move from death to life, from darkness to life, from being lost to being found. And if that's you today and you've never surrendered your life to Jesus and you wanna start a relationship with the best friend that you could ever have, the one that wants to encourage you in your darkest days, if that's you today and you wanna just say yes to Jesus, let me just tell you, it's not that difficult.

You don't have to earn it. You don't have to achieve it. All you have to do is receive it by faith. The scripture say if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. And if that's you, I wanna give you a moment right here. I'm gonna count to three in just a second. I'm gonna ask you to throw your hand up right where you are just so I can see and know who I'm praying with. If that's you and today you say, you know what, God? I'm turning from my past. I want you to come into my heart and set me free. If that's you on the count of three, just throw your hand up. One, this is your moment. Two, there's already hands going up in this room. Three, throw your hand up right where you are. Don't be ashamed. There's hands going up all over your room, all over this room. I see your hands all over in the front, hands going up in the back, hands over here on the side. God God sees every single one of you right now. Father, we thank you for hearts that are saying yes to you.

You can put your hands down. If that was you, would you just pray a prayer like this with me in the quietness of your heart? Say, Jesus, with all the faith that I have, I give you my life. I give you my heart. I ask for you right now to become my savior,

my lord, and my king. Jesus, I believe that you are the son of God, and I ask right now for you to come into my heart and set me free. In the mighty name of Jesus, all God's people said, come on. Can we just celebrate with all the people who said yes to Jesus right now in this place?