The Gift of Friendship

Message Transcription

Well, if you have your Bible with you this morning, invite you to turn it over to acts chapter two and you can put a finger in for will be there as well. Briefly, as we think together about the power of friendships, we believe here at Broadway that we were created to do life together. In fact, that's why I'm convinced you never hear about a grand prize winner. All expenses paid vacation for one. It's always for two. Or at least two. Uh, we believe that's not an accident. We believe God designed us. He created us to be connected to one another and not on accident. In fact, we believe that you can't be all that God created you to be. Apart from living in community, being a part of a connection. Uh, last Sunday was Easter and a huge Sunday for us. We celebrate the resurrection every Sunday. But but especially Easter Sunday. So? So it felt really right to us to say, well, what if we had a friend's day the Sunday after Easter? Because certainly, just like that early church, after that first Easter, the world had been turned upside down. So much was unknown. These, this ragtag group of followers were trying to find their way in life. How are we going to live now that Jesus is alive? That the tomb is empty? So many of them had made incredible sacrifices. They had given up homes and families. Some had been chased out of their communities, and so they were really dependent upon their friends and leaning into and taking care of one another.

And the early church. We see some beautiful pictures of this. In fact, in acts two, Luke tells us that they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and held everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who has need. Right? This passage has been so inspiring for the Broadway church ever since we showed up here on the South Plains in 1890, almost 134 years ago. This passage has been inspiring and compelling us to try to live into this commission that Jesus gives to his disciples. Soon after he's raised, he tells them, I want you to go into the world, and I want you to tell everybody you find about me. I want you to tell them all about all that God has done. I want you to be a part of what Paul would call the the ministry of reconciliation. And so we've taken our vision statement from that idea that that we want to partner with God in his reconciliation of all creation. Like that's what we're trying to do. We've been trying to faithfully live into that for the last 13 decades, going on 14 decades, trying to live into that beauty. And so most recently, we've we've worded it in this way to help us think about how we do it.

And that's we want to equip every person to pursue God through genuine worship, to build community through intentional relationships, and to unleash compassion through generous service. We believe that life is lived best in community. We want to be the kind of church that helps every person find their place in God's family. And so that's what we're trying to do. When Jesus was asked, what's the most important commandment? What's the most important thing that we could do with our lives? What matters the most? He answers this way in Matthew 22 he says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. It's the first and it's the greatest commandment. And the second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says, the number one thing we can do is love God and right connected with it. In fact, the way that it's embodied in our lives is loving our neighbors, he says. Loving God and loving people are connected. And so we connect them here at Broadway as well. We believe that you can't reach your full human spiritual friend potential disconnected from the body being apart from relationships. We believe, number one, that you were created to have friends and to be a friend. We believe God hardwired that into your DNA. In fact, if we go back and look at the creation story back in Genesis, we're told this amazing thing about God.

We're told as he is creating. He says, let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness. Have you ever noticed that before that God Himself exists in community, father, son, Holy Spirit, three distinct, separate parts and yet fully one God? And God says, let us make mankind in our image that we were created in that incredible image. Together they have community. You see, you were hardwired from the very beginning to be connected to other people, to friends, to be a friend and to make friends. Life is lived best in community. In fact, if you think about the five most important moments of your life, let's give you a moment to draw those to your awareness. How many of those were done by yourself? And if maybe there was 1 or 2 of those that was done by yourself, how quickly was that first thought, man, I wish someone was here to to experience this with. Me. In 2016, Kaylee and I got to take our kiddos to the Grand Canyon. I'd never been to the Grand Canyon before. I had heard it was amazing. I heard it was incredible. It is. But there was no way to prepare me for what I saw that that evening when we showed up and the sun began to set and these colors just began to explode on the scene, I was overwhelmed. It was an incredible experience, and I was so thankful to have my family with me there to experience that.

In fact, one of the days that we were there, that bottom right hand picture, it's kind of hard to tell, but there was a rain shower moving through the Grand Canyon, so we're standing up like eye level with the clouds, watching the rainfall. It was incredible and we got to do it together. It was amazing. We were created for community. Jesus understood this. He understood the power of community. He called 12 disciples to follow him around. And even amongst those 12, there were three Peter, James, and John that he was most close to. And Jesus understood the power of the connection of community, that we can't be who God wants us to be when we're separated from when we don't have community, he calls us. He created us to have friends and to be a friend. But not only that, that community there in community and friendships. That's the primary place that God develops us into his fully devoted followers. You see, our greatest spiritual growth happens in the context of community. I mean, if you want to be a better person, if you desire to be better at anything, a better dad or mom, grandparent, worker, student, one of the best ways to see that happen is to gather around you, some other folks who can help you, who will challenge you and encourage you, who can equip you and mentor you, and who can help you become what you aren't quite yet.

Proverbs 2717 says this as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. See, it's in the community of relationships, often in friendships, where we are sharpened and shaped into the person, the man, the woman that God has created and called us to be, to become. Now, if that's really true, then we have to understand how God designed community to work in church, because the answer may surprise you a little bit. You see what we're doing right now? We're we're sitting in rows. We're in worship. This isn't the primary place that God shapes and forms us into the people he wants us to be. Now, I know you may be thinking that's a crazy thing to hear the preacher say. The worship service. Not now. I'm not saying it's not important. All right, don't get me wrong. It's very important. Right. But if we understand how community works, the primary place where God shapes and forms us is not in the worship service. And Gary and I put a lot of effort into every worship service that we plan because we want you to experience God. We want you to worship and connect with the work that God's doing. But we understand that little one hour or hour and a half of time that we spend together a week, it it doesn't compare to the 166 other hours of the week, right. The only time that we're living this out is in this little one hour, 1.5 hour time that we're together.

We understand there are other forces that are shaping and impacting us, and so we recognize the need to be in community to gather around us, people who know us and love us, who can hold us accountable, who can challenge us, who can equip us. Community is way more important than any sermon that I've ever preached. Now, again, I know some of you are going, how could you say that, Carl, your sermons are all that we talk about over lunch every Sunday. We just meditated on each week. I was talking to Miss Lynn. She's so sweet. Works in the office. And she said, Carl, your sermons help me sleep every night. And I said, I thank you, thank you. Right, but I can prove it to you. So if you would just turn to your neighbor and tell them the five most important sermons you've heard me preach in the last 12 years, right? Just take a second. I know they're okay. All right, well, then try this exercise. Turn to your neighbor and tell them the five most important, impactful people in your life. The five people who have impacted you the most, even most recently. And that's not hard to do. Why? Because we understand the value of relationships, of being connected, of having someone who is for us, who loves us, who doesn't just settle for our mistakes, but they hold us accountable and they call us to a better way.

Why? Because God created us to be connected to other people in the primary place that he helps shape and form us is in the context of a friendships. And if you're a friend here today, I hope you you receive that as a blessing, like you were invited here today because you're our friend and we care about you, and we're so thankful to have you in our life like we wouldn't be the people we are today if you weren't here. So we thank you. That's part of this day is celebrating you and the and the work that God has done in and through you to shape us into the people that we are, again, sitting in rows. It's not that that doesn't matter, but some some something about sitting in a circle together just has a way of taking all that worship and that study and that learning, and it helps it settle and sink down into our hearts. We begin to talk about what it really means. In fact, in just a couple of minutes, we're going to go downstairs and we're going to gather around some tables over some really good food, and we're going to think together about the power and the impact of a good friend. In fact, you may be sitting next to one of those good friends that you invited today, and you may just want to reach over and give their hand to squeeze or shoulder or squeeze and just kind of make eye contact.

Like, man, I'm so thankful to have you in our life and some of you may be sitting next to a real attractive stranger. Don't touch them right? Don't do the weird eye contact thing. You'll freak them out, right? But we know we all have experienced the power of a relationship, a friendship that has that has changed us. You heard Larry and Vic this morning talk about those moments in our life where at some point in our life, we're all going to step in a mud puddle and we're going down. And maybe it hadn't happened to you yet, but it's going to happen and did not have a friend there to help you up. Well, that's a hard thing. Jesus understood. It's so important. The primary place we get shaped and formed into the man, the woman that God wants us to be is in the context of community. When we gather in circles, when we get open and honest and real with one another, we look back again at the early church, what we're told again in acts chapter two. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts. They continued to meet in rows in the temple courts every day. They they met just like we do every week they met. But they also gathered in circles. They gathered around tables. They broke bread together.

They they shared, they fellowshipped. They prayed for each other. And an amazing things kept happening. And so a Broadway, we're committed to creating these little circles, to creating opportunities for these circles, to forms. And some of those circles meet here every week on Sunday mornings before we gather for worship. A lot of them meet on Sunday nights in different homes around the city. Some of them meet in the middle of the week. Some are centered around Bible study and prayer, others around service or ministry. Some are around a common interest or activity, but each and every one of them is rooted in this belief that God created us to be connected to other people. And the primary place he forms us is in the context of community. Uh, my friend Jean Apple, who preaches at a church in LA. He says, when you stop at the Ro, you'll eventually stop to grow, and that we can't be who God created us and called us to be without being connected to other people. God created us that way. Now, some I know think, well, I don't need I don't need more friends, I don't I'm okay. I'm. I'm a lone ranger. Well, let me remind you, even the Lone Ranger had Tonto, right? Right. Every one of us needs a friend. And the reason is God. God created us. For it is a primary place. We're formed. But. But not only that, God created us to make a difference. You were made to make a difference.

In the early church was all over this. I mean, it's incredible, as we've heard already from acts two, of the kind of circles that were forming, the way that people were responding and treating each other. It was powerful. By the time we get to chapter two, Luke tells us this amazing thing about the early church. He says all the believers were. One in heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of their possessions was their own. But they shared everything they had, and God's grace was so powerfully at work in them that there were no needy persons among them. I just think about that for a minute. There were no needy people among them. Why was that happening? How could that happen? Well, it happened because of community. And these little circles were forming and they were growing and they were saying, hey, you need to be a part of this, come be a part of this. And they said, okay. And some of them were going, I don't really believe what you believe, but man, I sure am glad that you're here. And we're told that they enjoyed the fellowship of the city, that the the city looked at that community and said, that's so powerful, that's so transforming, that we're glad they're part of who we are. They were convinced they were created to make a difference. And so anytime a need came up in their community, someone would just say, hey, I can meet that.

I could, I could help with that. I had a friend this week who has helped me. I can't tell you how many times this person has helped me, and if I say his name, he'll get mad at me and won't help me anymore. So I'm not going to say his name, but he spent a couple of hours with me taking some stuff apart, helping me figure out how it goes back together again. And I said, man, thank you for. He goes, I love doing this. I love being a part of church where I get to use my gifts to go and bless other people. And he was talking about me like, he gets to use his gifts to bless me, to say, that's the kind of church we want to be where each and every one of us discover our gift, and we get a chance to use it to build relationships that really matter, that can help us and help our church be what we couldn't be on our own. I mean, it's an amazing thing when God gets a hold of a community who wants to live that way, who understands the power of being a friend and making friends, that he transforms lives. And if you've been with us the last couple of weeks, you've heard testimonies from a couple of our ladies, Lisa and Tracy, just talking about the power of an invitation. Would you sit by me? Would you come to church with me? How incredible and life changing those simple invitations for friendship were in their lives.

In fact, every one of you today, you're here as a testimony, a living testimony to God's powerful work through friends. Again, some may say I've got enough friends. I don't need to add another thing to my already busy schedule. I get it, life is moving fast. But friends, I promise you, life's not a sprint. It's a marathon, right? And if you have a pulse or a body, or if you're single, or you're married, or if you have a job or you go to school, if you have a grandparent or someone that you really care about. We all understand at some point a speed bumps coming right, a mud puddle is out there waiting to be stepped in. Life happens, and if you don't have a circle of friends around you, it can be devastating. You see, being in community, my friend Jean would say, is like saving for retirement and you got to invest today in order to to reap the benefit of it tomorrow. Like we've got to give our hearts. We have to be engaged in community. And again, we see in the early church amazing things were happening for folks who are willing to say, I've got that gift. I can help with that. Can I get to know you? Can we spend some time together? The early church came together and they broke down racial walls and gender walls and ethnicity walls.

And this community just sprang up and it began to be infectious. And it spread over and over and all over the world. Today, we're a living witness of that again. People who are alive at that time, said I. I'm not sure I believe everything they believe. Man, I'm so glad they are here. I'm so glad they're in our community. I mean, friends, where else in the world could you find a community like ours all in one place? It's not based on your economic level. It's not based on where you live, your marital status, your IQ level. It's not based on your gender or your alma mater, though some might have a few qualifications on them. It's only in the Lord's church that we can find our home together where we remember God created us to be connected to others. Not only that, that's the primary place that those connections, those relationships, those friendships, they're they're important, right? They shape and form us into the person, the man or the woman that God wants us to be because God created us to make a difference. We pray. We do. Now, you hear in our announcements each week. We hope that being here will bless and encourage. Your life and to each and every guest. We pray that that was true for you today, that you have been blessed and encouraged. We hope that you won't leave here hungry, that you'll come and join us for fellowship and jump into a circle.

So a couple of groups I want to talk to you just before we finish. Uh, number one is if you're not in a small group, if you're not in a circle, we invite you. Would you step out of a road today and join a circle? We got all kinds of circles, all kinds of shapes. Uh, we got all kinds of opportunities where you could find others who have the same heart, same interest. We'd love to connect you with one of those. Michelle will be in the back. Uh, Lori will be back there at our welcome center. We'd love to. Just to connect you with a small group, get you connected to a circle. Or maybe you haven't been in a while. It's been a long time. We'd love to invite you back. Uh, to those who are already in the circle, just want to challenge you. Hey, would you help us create another circle? And we're always looking for more opportunities to get more people connected. Because, again, God created us not just to find friendly people, but to find friends. And we hope and pray that you'll do that here today. God, would you bless us now as we head out into the world, to a world that has a hard time sitting in circles, Lord, we can see the division and the anger and the hatred that's so alive in our community, in our cities and our country. So much division and disunity, disharmony.

God, would you do the work that only you can do by shaping and forming us more into the people that you've created us to be created, to be connected? Yeah, but you use our community and our friendships to be a light to those who are longing for more, something deeper, something truer. God, they may see in us that grace and that peace and that love God. One day we would we aspire to be that kind of community. And in acts four, where there's nobody needy among us because people just give and they share and it just happens. God, we want to be those men and women. So, father, help us to be a friend this week. Would you give us eyes to see the people around us who are longing for a real friend? Yeah, that's going to happen in the lunch room around the lunch table. Maybe it's in our classroom. God, it's going to happen by the water cooler, if that's even a thing anymore. Yeah, it's going to happen in the hallways. That's going to happen in the grocery store. It's going to happen all over. God, would you give us eyes to see those people who are longing for a friend? And would you help us to help them get connected back to you? God, you're so gracious to us. You're so you're so amazing. Thank you for the grace that you've poured out into our lives through our friends. Would you bless them? Today we pray in Jesus name. Amen.