Latest / Citipointe Church Caboolture / You and I | Ps Ryan Brewer

Transcript

You and I | Ps Ryan Brewer · Citipointe Church Caboolture

• 0:02
  Hey, welcome to the City Point Church podcast.
• 0:04
  Thanks for joining us. Every day is an opportunity to
• 0:07
  take hold of. So we hope this message inspires
• 0:10
  you and build your faith, but it helps you have more of a God
• 0:13
  perspective for your day. Enjoy.
• 0:18
  This month we've been focused, well, we've just started
• 0:20
  focusing on relationships, which is really, really awesome.
• 0:24
  And if we're going to be honest, relationships are the most
• 0:27
  important parts of our life and but they can also be the most
• 0:31
  confusing parts of our life as well.
• 0:34
  And see, sometimes people are confusing and sometimes we're
• 0:37
  confusing. And even something as simple as
• 0:41
  saying hi to someone can be just the most interesting moment.
• 0:45
  And so you say hello to someone, then they don't hear you.
• 0:49
  And so your brains gone. All right, right.
• 0:51
  What do I do next? Do I say it louder?
• 0:53
  And it's like, oh, now I feel like I'm young.
• 0:55
  I'm like, hello. It's like, oh, no, it's not how
• 0:57
  I should respond. And then do I like, do I just
• 1:00
  wait? And I'm like awkwardly waiting.
• 1:02
  So I'm like, I'm probably just not going to say anything.
• 1:04
  And that's just one moment. And what if it's a passing
• 1:07
  moment here in church or down, down the cafe and it's about
• 1:12
  friendship and you see someone, you're like, yes, this is it.
• 1:15
  This is my purse. And we're going to hang out, get
• 1:18
  food up deep chats, change the world.
• 1:20
  It's going to be amazing. And then you don't see them for
• 1:23
  hear them for three weeks. You're texting them, no reply.
• 1:27
  And then you start replying the conversation in your head.
• 1:30
  You're like, did I laugh too loud?
• 1:32
  Did I say that joke too much? Did I say bless you idly?
• 1:35
  I don't even know. And then they finally reply and
• 1:38
  they're like oh hey, sorry I've been busy and for them nothing
• 1:41
  has changed. And for you you've already
• 1:43
  processed grief in those moments and I'm usually the one as well
• 1:48
  that doesn't reply. So I'm sorry to anyone that has
• 1:51
  been feeling those things. I still love you, I just forgot.
• 1:54
  My bad. But because relationships are
• 1:57
  confusing, and even with the awkwardness and the overthinking
• 2:00
  and the moments where we question everything, we still
• 2:03
  want friendship to be loved and to ultimately be long.
• 2:07
  And why? Because God had designed us like
• 2:10
  this from the very beginning. We were created for connection,
• 2:14
  not isolation. To know and be known and to love
• 2:18
  and to be loved, but in relation.
• 2:20
  But if relationships matter that much, then we can't just drift
• 2:24
  through them accidentally. We have to be intentional about
• 2:28
  the you and I. So tonight the title and message
• 2:32
  is called you and I and I want to talk about two areas that
• 2:36
  shape every relationship we have, which is friendship and
• 2:41
  love. So our first point tonight is
• 2:44
  the influence of friendship. Can everyone say the influence
• 2:47
  of friendship? Love it.
• 2:50
  I do it with the youth every time I grab their attention in
• 2:53
  case they were drifting off somewhere with friendships.
• 2:57
  We can have many different friendships and many different
• 3:00
  seasons of life and these groups and but each one plays an
• 3:04
  important part of our, of shaping who we are today.
• 3:08
  And it seems pretty important to God as well that we have good
• 3:11
  friendships because the Bible's full of many different examples
• 3:15
  of them. And there's one example of them
• 3:17
  and it's in First Samuel 19, not on the screen because there's a
• 3:21
  lot of it. And it's where the guy named
• 3:24
  Jonathan and David. Now Jonathan was good friends
• 3:27
  with David and we were getting along quite well.
• 3:29
  And there was a situation where Jonathan was in where his father
• 3:34
  was saying, hey, jealous and his father's king Saul is his name.
• 3:39
  And he's going, I'm jealous of David getting really mad and
• 3:41
  frustrated. And so he's like, I'm wanting
• 3:43
  you to assassinate him and get some the guards as well.
• 3:46
  And so Jonathan is like, this is not good.
• 3:48
  I really like David. And So what he does is he
• 3:51
  actually warns David, lets him get out and out of that moment
• 3:56
  as well and sets him, continues him on the path of what God
• 4:01
  called David to go to, which is the throne of Israel as well.
• 4:04
  And ultimately through this act of showing that true friendship,
• 4:11
  God was able to continue to use that.
• 4:13
  And I would love Jonathan as my friend who's got my back.
• 4:17
  And it's important to know who our friends are.
• 4:20
  And you're probably not going to have a situation like that.
• 4:23
  And I'm really hoping that never happens.
• 4:26
  But to know those friends that have got you there in
• 4:29
  Ecclesiastes 4, verse 9 to 10, and the new Living Translation
• 4:33
  is what I'm going to be talking about tonight.
• 4:35
  If you've got your Bibles, that is very good as well.
• 4:38
  And it says here, two people are better off than one foot.
• 4:42
  They can help each other succeed.
• 4:44
  If one person falls, then the other can reach out and help.
• 4:48
  But if someone who falls alone, they're in real trouble.
• 4:52
  These type of friends who these type of friends know who you are
• 4:57
  and help give good wisdom and encouragement to making better
• 5:01
  decisions and they ultimately help realign you back on the
• 5:05
  right way of living how Jesus called us live because if
• 5:09
  someone really loves you and they're willing to have those
• 5:14
  tough conversations because they actually care about you.
• 5:18
  And sometimes those conversations can be tough and
• 5:21
  sometimes they involve a little bit of a whack on your head.
• 5:24
  And I've had plenty of those and I'm very grateful for them.
• 5:27
  And but they love you because of that, that if they didn't love
• 5:32
  you, they wouldn't have that conversation.
• 5:33
  Because if your world, it's full of people saying you're the
• 5:36
  best, you're great, you're doing nothing wrong.
• 5:40
  There is you're the perfect person right now.
• 5:43
  That's probably a problem because there's a chance you've
• 5:46
  not allowed anyone close enough to speak into your life or
• 5:49
  someone has actually spoken into your life to do correction or
• 5:53
  anything and you've gone, no, that's not for me.
• 5:56
  But I want to let you know what the Bible says in one
• 5:59
  Thessalonians 511 says so encourage each other and build
• 6:04
  each other up just as you are already doing.
• 6:08
  We are called to build each other up to encourage and be
• 6:12
  doing it in love as well. Because anyone can point out
• 6:16
  someone elses problem. But Jesus mentions to be careful
• 6:20
  not to judge someone for the speck in their eye and ignore
• 6:23
  the log in your own eye because who you walk with determines
• 6:29
  where you walk. There are times in life where
• 6:32
  you have to recognize when a friendship or even a whole group
• 6:35
  is slowly leading you away or from Jesus or affecting who you
• 6:40
  are. See the Apostle Paul says in one
• 6:43
  Corinthians 15 verse 33, Bad company corrupts good character.
• 6:49
  Many people make the mistake of associating with the wrong
• 6:52
  crowd. And I want to let you know it's
• 6:54
  not wrong that being around people that are not living
• 6:57
  according to the word of God, we're actually called to reach
• 7:01
  the lost, to bring people to Jesus.
• 7:03
  That is what we're called to do. But is there signs of your
• 7:07
  character or your relationship with God being affected?
• 7:10
  See, Pastor Craig Rochelle says this, I can tell who you will
• 7:14
  become like just by looking at who you are hanging around.
• 7:19
  And there's been many moments in my life where I've had these
• 7:22
  groups of friends around me who I've hung out through the years
• 7:27
  of my years that I'm at now. And and with those groups, they
• 7:33
  were good, good guys, but they weren't living a life for Jesus
• 7:36
  as much. And and it was actually it's
• 7:39
  time to affect who I am. And I could see I was separating
• 7:43
  myself away from God just ever so slightly because it's not
• 7:48
  something an immediate thing. It's a gradual because the enemy
• 7:51
  is going. I'm I'm going to wait.
• 7:53
  I know that I can if I can get this one little thing because
• 7:58
  with it, where is it? There we go, because my
• 8:03
  definites that I had my definites of this is not what
• 8:06
  I'm going to ever do. Started turning to maybes and
• 8:10
  started turning to, oh, it's actually OK, That's just a bit,
• 8:13
  you know, religious thinking or like, you're just too strict
• 8:16
  with it. And I could see my world
• 8:18
  starting to shape in a different direction.
• 8:22
  And I'm so grateful for this. I'm so grateful for the Lord
• 8:25
  that I recognize that I had to separate myself from them.
• 8:29
  And I didn't want to be mean or anything, but I knew this wasn't
• 8:32
  good for my life because ultimately I didn't want to
• 8:35
  jeopardize my relationship with Jesus.
• 8:38
  And I could see that who I was was beginning to drift slower
• 8:41
  and slower away. And wise people around me, they
• 8:45
  were telling me, but my proximity of the friends that
• 8:48
  were around me were closer. And so it was making that
• 8:53
  decision to separate myself from the proximity of those around me
• 8:57
  that weren't leading me closer to Jesus.
• 8:59
  I had to step away from that to allow other people to come in.
• 9:03
  And so from that decision, there was a gap in which God then
• 9:06
  placed, or more so revealed good and faithful men in my life who
• 9:11
  has shaped me and pulled me closer to Jesus, which I'm so,
• 9:14
  so grateful for. Now this is all good.
• 9:19
  This is all true. Great wisdom as well to take on
• 9:23
  as well and make your life better.
• 9:25
  But without this one very word, it's all meaningless and
• 9:29
  pointless. And that word is love without
• 9:32
  love. So the second point tonight is
• 9:35
  unconditional love and if you could get anything from tonight,
• 9:39
  it is in the scripture in Matthew 22 verse 37 to 39.
• 9:45
  This is Jesus speaking and Jesus replied, you must love the Lord
• 9:50
  your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your
• 9:54
  mind. This is the first and greatest
• 9:57
  commandment. A second is equally important.
• 10:00
  Love your neighbor as yourself. If there could be anything, it
• 10:04
  would be in this verse. And I pray that you get a
• 10:06
  revelation as well with it and God reveals more.
• 10:10
  But when we're trying to love someone without you yourself
• 10:14
  filled, it's conditional. It becomes self focused and you
• 10:18
  keep trying to give out of an empty well, which means there is
• 10:21
  a disconnect. But when your heart is
• 10:24
  connected, it is full of God's love.
• 10:27
  It overflows true love and that love is an agape love which
• 10:31
  means unconditional and Jesus calls us to live like this.
• 10:37
  In John 1512 he says this is my commandment that you love one
• 10:42
  other one another as I have loved you.
• 10:46
  Jesus loved us unconditioning and he was calling us to love
• 10:49
  unconditioning because he loves us all unconditioning and there
• 10:53
  man there is so many verses on how much he loves us.
• 10:58
  We actually cannot fully understand or comprehend the
• 11:02
  love that God has for us and I I was chatting with one of Josh at
• 11:08
  the back there going man. I don't want to cry in the
• 11:10
  moment because I'm just so in awe of how much he loves us and
• 11:17
  there's such power in the love and what he does done for us.
• 11:20
  And but to help us unpack what this love is and we're so
• 11:25
  grateful that God spoke through the apostle Paul.
• 11:28
  And this was Paul talking about love in one Corinthians 13,
• 11:33
  verse four to seven, it says this love is patient and kind.
• 11:38
  Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
• 11:43
  It does not demand its own way. It's not irritable and it keeps
• 11:48
  no wrong record of being wronged.
• 11:51
  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever
• 11:55
  the truth wins. Love never gives up, never loses
• 11:59
  faith, is always hopeful and endures through every
• 12:02
  circumstance. Now we can understand what love
• 12:06
  is and through this way, but also we're human, we are needy
• 12:12
  and we're going to fall short and we have a good chunk of the
• 12:16
  Bible in the Old Testament showing how we cannot do it
• 12:19
  alone. And that is why being connected
• 12:22
  in relationship with Jesus brings the this overflow of love
• 12:27
  as the worship team can join me as well.
• 12:30
  Jesus says this in John 15, five Yes, I am the vine, you are the
• 12:36
  branches, those who remain in me, and I and them will produce
• 12:41
  much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing.
• 12:45
  See, we cannot do it alone. We need him in our lives.
• 12:49
  We, we need to have these forms relationships to be intentional
• 12:53
  on who's speaking in our world and who we are speaking into
• 12:56
  this because with that verse going God as number one, that we
• 13:01
  love God first. Then through that love, that
• 13:05
  connection with God, our love is able to be overflowed and poured
• 13:09
  out to others so that we could love each other in those
• 13:12
  moments. Because that is a that is what
• 13:13
  God is commissioning and calling us to do that we love one other,
• 13:17
  but first we love God. We have that relationship
• 13:21
  connected in those things because without him, without
• 13:24
  that relation, without being connected to the divine, we
• 13:27
  cannot do those things. We cannot give out of a love
• 13:30
  that we do not have because we need that divine love, that
• 13:34
  agape love because it's he's the author of love.
• 13:37
  He's the one that made it. And so if we're chasing things
• 13:41
  of this world, that's not that type of love.
• 13:43
  That is a falsified love. The real love is through God
• 13:47
  alone because for our city, we are wanting to bring a social
• 13:53
  and spiritual transformation of the lives around us.
• 13:56
  So we have to be connected. We can't be doing it alone and
• 14:03
  in this moment as well. God interrupted me during the
• 14:08
  week and I love it. I love when God does it.
• 14:10
  It's so beautiful and hey, he was told me just these 3 words
• 14:16
  and and if you're here tonight listening and you've been
• 14:19
  listening saying you don't understand my situation, you
• 14:23
  don't understand what's going on this.
• 14:25
  It's like you just don't know. God wants to let you know these
• 14:29
  words they gave me and it's just three words and it's just saying
• 14:33
  just let God, that's it. And I'm going just like God.
• 14:38
  This is like, no, it's just just let God.
• 14:42
  And I don't know who it is for, whether it's in this place where
• 14:45
  someone listening, but God's just wanted to let you know, to
• 14:49
  just let God. That's it.
• 14:53
  Just like God, whether you're doing it in your own strength,
• 14:57
  where you're holding it all just like God because He is the love,
• 15:04
  He is a divine love. And you don't have to carry
• 15:07
  these burdens alone. He is there with you.