Basics | Week 3 | Message

This is super creepy. Right? Like, don't look in the eyes. Something weird will happen. It looks like me with a small nose. I know God is spirit, and and so just pretend with me for a minute. Just go along just for the sake of this, for just a second.

I want you to pretend that this is God, and we get into a relationship with God, and he desires that closeness. He wants to have an actual relationship where you communicate with each other, and there's this this amazing blessing of what it is to kinda be close with God.

And I hope you've had those moments where you've experienced what it is to be in close relationship with God. But if you're also like me, then you've had moments where, I don't know, it sounds bad, you wanna date other people. And you never would say that,

but but there's moments where you're like, well, love you Jesus, and I'm super thankful that we can be in this relationship. But, Jesus, this weekend, with those people, I think it's gonna be pretty great.

I don't get the sense this is the type of place that you would like to hang out or you would like to be, so I'm gonna go do my own thing this weekend, Jesus. And sometimes it's like willful like that. And sometimes it's not. Sometimes like all of a sudden you find yourself halfway through the weekend

before you realize like you've started to behave this way. And you're like, well, Jesus, okay. I I there's there's stuff that I'm gonna say that's gonna come out of my mouth when I'm with them. And I'd rather I'd rather just just for the weekend, Jesus, you don't don't listen.

Please don't don't listen to the words that are gonna come out of my mouth for the next few days. You know, we'll check back in on Monday, Tuesday maybe. But in the meantime, don't don't listen to the words that are coming out of my mouth.

And honestly, now that I'm thinking about it, it's probably not just gonna be words. It's probably gonna be stuff that I'm gonna be doing that honestly I'd rather you not see. Okay? So forgive me Jesus, but, don't don't listen to me and then over the next couple of days, don't watch what I'm doing either.

There's like hundreds of millions of people, Jesus. You can listen to them, you can watch them, but for me, just kinda look the other way, listen to somebody else. I wanna go do my own thing. And and really, I don't know if you've noticed this, Jesus, but you've got this way of, like, always having something to say. And,

for the next few days, Jesus, I I just don't really want to hear from you. Zip it, Jesus. Don't talk to me. Don't listen to me. Don't look at me. And please, don't talk to me. Now, like, you see how ridiculous that is right off the bat or uncomfortable, but kinda awkward it sounds to even describe it.

And and then you start to come to the realization that like, who am I to even tell God, don't listen to me or don't watch me or don't talk to me. I don't have that ability. I don't have that that power to control. He's gonna be able to see what he wants to see and listen to what he wants to listen to.

So then maybe we adopt a different tactic. Okay. Jesus, I'm so sorry. I I didn't I'm in no position to tell you what you could do. But the weekend's the weekend, and those people I really wanna be with. So Jesus, this weekend, I just don't wanna hear from you. I I I'm gonna tune you out this weekend. And

I also don't really wanna watch what you're up to either. I I don't wanna hear you for a few days, and I don't wanna, like, see any of your activity over the next few days. I don't wanna be aware of how you're leading or what you're up to. And now that I'm thinking about it,

should have done this in a different order because now I where is it? There we go. I don't wanna listen to you, and I don't really wanna see what you're up to, and I don't wanna talk to you either.

Not until Monday, maybe Tuesday.

And unfortunately, guys, like, we go through so much of life like that. On again, off again, trying to control God, tuning out ourselves from God, and you realize, like, this sort of thing, it's not relationship, is it? It's not a healthy one. It's certainly not a healthy friendship

if I'm treating God. If if you treated a close friend or spouse or family member the same way that we were just kind of mimicking there, how good a friendship would you have? How good a relationship would you you would not have a good one. It would be a real challenge.

And so when it comes to a relationship with Jesus, like, he really does wanna grow it and want to be close with us. And as the God of the universe, then he's given us these these practices whereby we can really experience his friendship. There are private practices that he has given us. Things like reading the bible, praying,

fasting, maybe Sabbath rest, meditation, solitude. There's a number of these private practices that when you and I engage in these things, they have a tremendous impact on our relationship with God. Now private practices, that sounds pretty good. What what we used to call them were spiritual disciplines.

Discipline sounds like punishment. So I already don't wanna do them. And then other people, more athletic Christians came along and said, well, let's call it spiritual training. No, I don't like training either. I'm not pastor Bill. Look at me. I don't train for anything. Pastor Bill, however,

he's got muscles in places I don't even have places. And he's got these two huge bumpy things right here on his chest. But if you talk to him, he can make one go up and down individual at a time. That takes training. It's fantastic. It's wonderful. But when it comes to these private practices that God has given us,

what if these things that God has given us are not just there to make us better Christians, but rather, what if these private practices are are a means where we can develop a better relationship with Jesus Christ? I think the things like reading your bible and praying and repentance and solitude

and fasting and Sabbath rest are all really, really important in as much as they draw us deeper and closer into an actual friendship with Jesus. Do you know that's what he wants? He wants a friendship with you.

John chapter 15 verse 13, it's the words of Jesus. He says, there's no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. Those are his words, and they're gonna be followed by his actions that are gonna do the exact same thing that he just said. He came, took on flesh to lay down his life, to move

us from being enemies of God to being friends of God. Our sin was in the way, and so he said, I'll come and I'll deal with the sin so that you could be restored to relationship and have an actual friendship with the God of the universe through Jesus Christ. What a huge gift and huge blessing. So how's the the the friendship

that you have with Jesus? One, do you even have a friendship with him? If not, just know it's a free gift being offered to you. He wants to sit in the driver's seat of your life. He wants to rid you of a whole bunch of junk, but then he wants to walk with you for all of eternity as your friend.

If you've already made that step, then how's the quality of your friendship with Jesus? Would you say, I'm I feel really close, close, close friends with Jesus right now. He's my best friend. Or would you say, you know what? It depends on the day.

Sometimes we're doing okay and sometimes not so good. Or you go, you know what, this has been a long season where our friendship feels distant and I don't really know how to grow that or develop that or get back to what it was at one point. He's really interested in the friendship.

And as Christians, it's so easy for you and I to get wrapped up in doing stuff for Jesus that we stop doing stuff with him.

There's a famous story, if you've around the bible for a while, in Luke chapter 10.

Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem and he stops at the house of two sisters, Mary and Martha. And he goes into their house, and now Martha, she's she's going crazy with all this activity. She's got Jesus in the house. She wants to be a good host. And so she's busy and frantic with this preparation for this meal,

where Mary, her sister, chooses to just sit down at the feet of their guest, Jesus, and soak up everything that's coming out of his mouth. Well, this upsets Martha, it irritates her. And she actually comes out and goes up to Jesus and says, hey, does this seem fair to you?

I'm here doing all this work and my lazy, no good, my translation, sister is just sitting here doing nothing, hanging out with you. Tell her to help me. And what's Jesus' response? Luke chapter 10 verse 41, but the Lord said to her, my dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details. There's only one thing

worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken from her. What's the one thing? It's an actual relationship with Jesus. It's actually positioning herself in a place just to soak up everything in relationship that he has to offer. And doing stuff for Jesus is good, but doing stuff with him

is the one thing, foundationally speaking, that is the core basic that you and I must learn to do stuff with Jesus. Develop this friendship. You think about your friendship right now and whether you've even got the room in your life to befriend Jesus,

and whether or not you're participating with him in some sort of friendship. It poses those questions. What do I need maybe to eliminate in my life right now? And what do I need to engage in right now? So that I could have a better relationship next month with him than I do today.

We do that in regular friendships. It's very similar to our earthly friendships. If you wanna be friends with someone, you've gotta have space or make space for that relationship. And then once you made some room, then there are things that you engage in. You spend time, and you talk.

And over the course of that, you build trust, And you love each other and care about yourself each other, have fun with each other, enjoy that friendship. Well, in that regard, it's very similar to our walk with Christ.

We gotta spend the time, we gotta talk. So I just would love to go through a couple of things. There's a number of ways that I think you and I can develop an actual friendship with Jesus.

I'll just talk about three today. One, I'd say, still yourself with him. You wanna develop a friendship with Jesus, you and I gotta learn how to quiet ourself on a regular basis with Jesus. Two, I'd say communicate with Him without ceasing and without censoring.

And then three, I'd say figure out what it is to align your heart with His.

If you start there with those three, your friendship with Jesus, whether it's just starting or it's drifted or it's been going on for a long time, you come back to these things, and it's going to develop a friendship with Jesus in a way that's super beneficial to you and beneficial to everybody,

around you. You might take a look at that right now, and just between you and the Lord, just be thinking, which one is it, Lord, there that might help me? You might look at a list like that and already see like, oh, I know, I never do distilling myself with Him. Or I talk to Him occasionally, but it's like twice a month.

Or whatever it is. He might already start identifying some areas that would help develop the friendship at a deeper level than you've been experiencing lately. Let's start with the first one. How you develop this friendship with Jesus, still yourself with Him, quiet yourself with Him. You guys, we live in an incredibly

loud, noisy, busy world and culture. And I think God speaks to us primarily through His word, through the Bible. Yeah, he can speak through his spirit and he can speak through creation, but primarily, God's gonna speak to you through his word. And so if we

we have such a loud life, if the ambient noise of our life is so loud, we'll we'll miss the whispers of God. If we never stop and open up his word, quiet ourselves, still ourselves with him and his word, then we're gonna miss a tremendous amount of what He's wanting to communicate to us in the context of friendship.

In Psalms,

Psalm chapter one, it says, oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers, but they delight in the law of the Lord. There are people who delight, enjoy, are hungry for,

the the law of the Lord. And here, that's kind of a broad reference to the whole counsel of God, to all the word of God that they had at their disposal at this time. And they meditate on it day and night.

They seek it out, they're hungry for it, they enjoy it, delight in it, but then they they ponder it, they soak in it, marinate it in a day and night. And and and when they do that, this is what they're like. Look at verse three. They are like trees planted along the riverbank

bearing each fruit in season. Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all that they do. This is what we want. We wanna be people like that who who like the have the roots of our life deep down into something rich and refreshing and healing and good, life giving.

Well, that stuff comes from the Lord. It comes from God. It comes from Jesus through his word. In in John chapter one verse one, it says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And then it says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus.

Jesus is the living word, you guys, and so this book right here was not meant to be read just for information. This book was written for transformation. This is the living word of God. It is living and active, and it is really a sum total of Jesus. And so when we open this up,

this is actual, like, relational time with Christ. This actual relational time with Jesus. It's not just checking off, oh, did my devos this week. It's like, no, this is a means by which we we enjoy our friend Jesus. He's gonna speak to you and reveal stuff about himself, and about history, and about the future,

and about you, and about your hurts, and answer tough questions. All of it is right here as you relate to Jesus through his word. This is so key and so crucial. Pastor I heard a while ago, years ago, said his regular practice was this, with regard to the word. He said, I divert daily, I withdraw weekly, and I abandon

annually. And what he meant was, I divert daily. On a daily basis, I divert from my regular plan, my regular schedule, my regular calendar every single day, and I divert over to spend time with Jesus. I open the word on a daily basis. And then, on a weekly basis, I withdraw. I don't just stop for 10 or fifteen minutes,

but for an entire day, I really focus. I really enjoy my relationship with God. In the Old Testament, the people of God observed the Sabbath, and it was a day that they they committed to rest. They were following the pattern that God set in creation.

And they committed to cease from their labors and their working and their striving. One day a week, every week, stop this, eliminate this. But it wasn't just about eliminating something, when they freed up their day from the labor, it's so that they could rest in a deeper relationship with God.

And so this this pastor would make like an actual regular practice of that. And he participated on a regular, but weekly, longer than fifteen minutes. He'd take a day and slow down and really enjoy his friendship with Jesus, opening the word, going out on a hike and and really being intentional

and aware of God working around him. And then he'd abandon annually. And that's kinda like you and I take vacations, or we go on, long weekends. We go with some friends, or we go with family, or whatever, and enjoy that. What if we calendar in

a long weekend every year? It's not fifteen minutes and it's not just an eight hour workday, but we we say, I'm gonna go away for like three or four days so that I can turn down the volume

on this crazy loud world and just spend time cultivating my relationship with Jesus. I'm gonna read more. I'm gonna pray more. I'm gonna just be in solitude and silence and stillness. I'm gonna enjoy him. I can worship him. Whatever He lays on your heart for that extended period of time

can be really powerful as you still yourself, in particular around His word. I had this college professor that meant everything to me. He really became like a mentor and second dad. And his daughters told me that they have no memory in their entire life growing up where they didn't come downstairs in the morning

and find their dad already there at the breakfast table with his bible open, spending time with Jesus. Every single day of their memory, all of their childhood, they'd come downstairs and see their dad spending time with his friend Jesus. And I can tell you now, like, I got to experience him later,

And the fruit of what Jesus had done in all that time with him, it was so evident. And I wanted to be like that. And I have not done as good a job at that for my own kids watching. But it was so inspirational and moving to me to think of someone doing that, and he was just doing that on a regular basis.

He would always wear collared shirts, and he had a pocket. And in the pocket, he would put a pen, and he'd have, like, a notepad in there. And it stuck way out. And and we would be hanging out. We'd go get breakfast or something,

and, all of a sudden, he'd pull out the notepad and he'd jot something down and he'd put it back in his pocket. We'd be grabbing coffee together and he'd, all of a sudden, pull out the notepad, jot something down, put it back in his pocket. Be taking a walk and

he'd pull out that notepad, jot something down, put it back in his pocket. We were in the mall once, walking down a busy mall, all these people around. All of a sudden, he pulled out the notepad, jotted something down, put it in his pocket. And this is like seven years in now. I'm finally like, okay, dude, what is up with the notepad thing? I've been watching you do this for years now. We've never talked about it. Why why do you do that? What's going on?

And he said, well, every single morning when I'm hanging out with Jesus, I I ask him to give me eyes to see the way that he sees people throughout the day. I ask him to give me eyes to see certain situations or dynamics or appreciate

what he's up to. I wanna see him at work throughout my day. I ask him that when I spend time with him. And then as I go throughout my day, if there's something that he shows me, then I write that down. That's what I'm doing. And then at night, I go back through that list, and we just talk about it again.

Did you want me to do something with what I saw earlier? Am I supposed to learn something from that thing that you showed me today? What was going on with the thing over here? And we just talk about it. I'm like, man.

You see, you hear the difference there between just reading your Bible and now, like, stilling yourself and now walking with him all day long, what started in the morning in solitude, in stillness there, he has an odd sense now where he's learned to still himself with Jesus even when there's all these people around.

What a beautiful gift and blessing, walking with Jesus in that regard. So develop that friendship by learning to still yourself, quiet yourself. I know it's easier said than done, but it is a must. Second, I'd say, work on developing the friendship by communicating with God

without ceasing and without censoring. If he's gonna speak primarily to you through the word, then, we are primarily going to talk to him in prayer without ceasing, without censoring. Ephesians chapter six, it it says, pray in the spirit at all times. Stay alert. Be persistent in your prayers for believers everywhere.

So we we learn here here in other places in scripture, we're supposed to pray without ceasing. Pray continually. Just never stop. You don't have to close your eyes or bow your head to pray. You can pray while you drive. You can pray while you're walking. You can pray right now.

You you can pray all sorts of ways and all sorts of places. But what what God's inviting us to is also pray for each other. I'm sad to say that in in long seasons, I I have really failed at praying consistently. And then when I do think to pray, I pray for myself. There's a whole bunch of other people

that I think would be blessed and benefit from our prayers, brothers and sisters in Christ that need us to be praying for them, as well as people who don't know him in this world all around us. I'll tell you, if you start praying for that friend that you have who doesn't know Jesus,

it's gonna change your heart first because now you're like participating in conversation with your friend Jesus, that they would come to experience a friendship with him the way that you've got. Now when you're with that friend or talking with that friend, because you've been talking to Jesus about it,

your words are gonna be different, your heart's gonna be softer, everything changes when we're talking continually to Jesus in that regard. You read some of these Psalms, which a lot of them are prayers, and these Psalmists were pouring out their heart to God in prayer.

They're talking about good stuff, but they're often praying to God very honestly. They're praying about the bad and the ugly stuff of life, or their doubts, or God, where are you? Or I'm hurting God, or God, why is this going on? It's permission, you guys. We can can talk to God without censoring about anything.

Anytime. He already knows what you and I are thinking. So talk to him. The enemy would love nothing more than to put distance between you and any sort of relationship with God, much less an actual vibrant friendship with Jesus. And if he can just get you stop listening and stop talking, that's a win for the enemy.

My my dad passed away super suddenly of a heart attack at 48 years old, and it sent me into a couple of months of a real tailspin. You talk about wanting to put the blindfolds on and the tape I didn't wanna talk to God. This wasn't like a because I'm choosing sin. It's because I was upset.

I was upset at God. I was hurting. I felt it again this summer just kind of rear up again. I lost this super dear friend of mine I've known since he was nine years old, and, he got a cancer diagnosis in April. And then in July 31, the Lord called him home. He's 38 years old with five kids. And it just, like, killed me.

Felt so heavy hearted for his wife and his kiddos and his mom and his grandparents. And, I mean, just really awful. And in that moment, the enemy would love for me to just blindfold up and disconnect, blame, or recognize that any junk like that in this world, that's not coming from God. That's a product of our broken world

and what the enemy's up to. And to make this choice to talk to God about it. To say, Lord, I don't know why and why Him. I I don't know what this is all about. I don't know

what it is about death, but it just kills me. I can't stand this. This is the worst possible thing. I don't know why you keep allowing it. Well, there's some health in that, right? Because you're talking. If you've got a healthy relationship, the healthiest of relationships are able to talk about anything.

And and you can share anything with your God. He loves just to hear, crawl up on his lap, have the conversation. It's really, really key and important. So develop that friendship,

stilling yourself and communicating constantly. If you want a book on prayer, grab Tim Keller's book, Called Prayer. You can get it anywhere. Real biblical deep dive on on prayer if you wanna have a little extra resource in that regard.

To wrap it up here, just talking real quick about what it is then to align our hearts with His.

You develop a friendship with Jesus when you align your heart with His heart. Proverbs chapter four says something kinda interesting. It says, my father taught me, verse four, take my words to heart, follow my commands, and you will live. God's wisdom, God's word has been given to us,

and we are to receive it like at a heart level, in the deepest parts of it, of us. And we are to receive it, but then to put it into practice, like actually obey it. But it's a challenge, because our hearts are crowded.

Our hearts are often hard, and the seed of God's word is trying to get in and find some good soil so it can bear fruit. But in the busyness or the disconnect, then we've got this soil of our hearts that isn't always real great to receive that sort of seed. And so we have to pay attention to our hearts.

Chapter four verse 23 says, guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Everything that you say or do really starts with your heart. It comes from there. Out of the overflow of the mouth, the the heart speaks. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, rather.

And that's that condition. Whatever's going on in here, it's gonna make its way out. And so how we guard our heart is by allowing this friendship with Jesus in conversation and primarily through his word

to to soften our heart and shape our heart. It's constantly for me saying, God, I can tell my heart's way over here today. And I can see your heart's over here. Would you help me, Jesus, close the gap between my heart and your heart? Help me close the gap. If you think about your life right now, is there is there a gap?

Is there an area of your life where you're not following the commands? The heart that you've got and his heart are really far apart. There's a there's a closet that you've locked of your life back there. You're just not allowing Jesus access to.

That's really not gonna bode well for the friendship because a part of this has to do with obedience. And you go, well, that's kind of weird. That's lame because I don't have to obey my my spouse. I don't have to obey my friend if I don't want to. So why should I have to obey Jesus? Well, because He's God.

He's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He's your creator. He's your maker. He knows way better than you. But also because it's obedience at its core is just basically saying, we're on the same page. We're going the same direction. Right? You think about any friendship that you've got, earthly friendship,

if you're not on the same page and you're always going separate directions, you're always desiring different things, valuing different things, it's not gonna be a great friendship. But obedience is just saying, Jesus, I'm on the same page with you. I desire to be. And in times where I'm not, let me sense your friendship

and your kindness and your gentleness so that you can pull my heart back. Because I don't even know if I can get there, so I need you to come for me. I need you to be that kind of friend to me, even when I'm not that kind of friend to you. And praise God, He is. He's a better friend than I'll ever deserve,

and He's always coming for me and patient with me. John chapter 15, He says this, verse 14, you are my friends. That's what Jesus said. You are my friends if you do what I command. Oh. Okay. I no longer

call you slaves because a master doesn't confide in his slaves. Now you are my friend since I've told you everything the father told me. This is key. He is reinforcing this idea that the best friendship that you'll ever experience with Jesus is when you're trusting him enough to obey him,

When you're on the same page, headed the same direction, it's always gonna be a better friendship. Now in seasons where you're not that way, praise God, he's gracious, and he'll come for you, and he'll be patient with you.

But if you're wondering maybe why you don't have a strong relationship or feel like you have a good friendship right now, and there's really willful habitual sin of some nature, whatever, that you're just going your own direction, going your own way, that that might be part of the problem. So just keep that in mind.

You wanna develop a friendship, instill yourself, communicate without ceasing, and really, on a daily basis, seek to have your heart and his heart on the same page. It's a big deal. For me, I'm in the word a lot. As as a preacher, as a pastor,

but I'm also in the word just on my own that doesn't make its way anywhere except just for me between me and the Lord. But I've also had trouble reading the Bible. Anybody had trouble reading the Bible before? Sweet. There's like four of you, so that's cool. No. I I I get it. It's it's not always easy.

What I found was this. I would open up the Bible and I'd I'd read a little portion, and then I'd I'd go, oh, that's pretty cool. Leviticus. Sweet. And then I close the Bible, set it down, and I walk away from it. I wouldn't think about it again.

And then a couple days later, I might open it up and I read another little passage and, oh, that's pretty cool. Great. Close my Bible, set it down, never think about it again. Or I would come to the word and I'd open it up and I'd read and I go, what? What in the world does that mean?

I don't get this at all. Close my bible, set it down, walk away, never think about it again. And what it had in common was I was spending very brief moments in time shutting the bible, walking away, never thinking about it again. Now, if that's just a book,

okay, that's one thing. But when you think about, again, a relationship with Jesus, that's not a good pattern to get into.

And so this is what's kinda helped me. It's not a formula. If you've already got a regular consistent time with Jesus, then just keep doing that. But if not, this is kinda what what ended up work for me. But it it might help with you if especially in moments where you're stuck.

What I started to do was this. I'd find a passage of scripture that I could read in, fifteen minutes. And, like Philippians. The actually, the whole letter to Philippians is four chapters long. You can read the entire letter of Philippians in fifteen minutes or less. I'd read all of Philippians on Monday,

and I'd wake up on Tuesday, and I'd read of Philippians all over again. I would read the exact same passage of scripture every single day for two weeks straight, fourteen days in a row.

And what was interesting, this is interesting, you know what happened about five days in to reading the same passage over and over and over? Nothing. Nothing. It was kinda the same. It was like, oh, okay, alright. But on the sixth day or seventh day, I'd I'd be reading again, and I'd start anticipating,

oh, here comes that part I like, or oh, I remember this, or oh, I'm almost memorizing this. On day eight or nine, I've read it in the morning, and now at like 03:34 in the afternoon, verses pop into my head that I've been reading for the last ten days. It's starting to be like meditating

on it. It wasn't just where, you know, I had left the book behind, but the book hadn't left me behind. It it was still percolating. That's this relationship with Jesus still speaking and communicating. By day ten, eleven, 12, I'm looking for ways to now apply

what I've been soaking in for two weeks straight. How can I put this into practice? And wouldn't you know that that consistently, late into that second week, God would bring someone across my path with a question

or a hurt or a need, that the exact passage I'd been marinating in with Jesus for two weeks was the answer to their question, or the solve, or the healing that they needed from Jesus himself. See, that's such a beautiful thing when we can experience a friendship with Jesus like that rather than just reading the Bible.

I I put together a list. This isn't like a master list or anything. If you go to rockpoint.io or scan the the QR code there, it'll take you there. And you'll find a list of passages in the scripture that you can get through in about fifteen minutes.

And there's enough there that if you read each one of those for two weeks straight, that'll get you through a whole year. And you might try it and just see if Jesus meets you in a kind of interesting way or a fresh way straight from his word,

and and cultivates and grows that friendship with him in a way that really blesses you and the people around you. I guarantee it will in some way, shape, or form. So when you go to the word of God, first and foremost, you're gonna learn a whole lot more about your Jesus, about your best friend.

You look at the word of God and we discover Jesus is our savior. Jesus is our teacher. Jesus is Lord. He's king. He's messiah. He's Christ. He is the way and the truth and the life. He's our wonderful counselor. He's mighty God. He's prince of peace. He's our mediator. He's the light of the world. He's our good shepherd.

He's the bread of life. He's the alpha and the omega. He's God with us. He's our brother. He's our creator. He's the eternal word. But he has also declared me and you his friends. Woah. What a privilege and honor that the king of kings and the lord of lords, the god of the universe has made everything possible

to be friends with me and you. And some of these practices that he's given us give us opportunity to develop that friendship. And it is a friendship unlike any other friendship. It's a friendship that you didn't earn, you can't buy, you don't deserve. It's a friend that'll be there even in the midst of your faults.

When you go the other direction, he'll still be there. He'll still be your friend for the long haul, for all of eternity. And so rather than just being a religious person who comes and attends some things, what if you had a regular, consistent

relationship with God, stilling yourself with him, talking with him, having heart aligned with him so that a friendship with Jesus is what you have. That's his heart's desire for me and you. I'll pray that it's so.

And so gracious heavenly father, thank you. Thank you so much for loving us. Thank you for being patient with us. Thank you for befriending us. Help us carve out some space. Help us quiet ourselves, still ourselves with you and your word. Prompt us to put our radar up, our antenna up

to see how you're moving and working around us. Prompt us to talk to you all the time and in areas where our heart starts to drift. Would your kindness and goodness, your friendship be so vivid and so real that we would just wanna run back to you so that you could work on our heart.

Pray to that end in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Love you guys. Amen. Hey, before you guys leave, I have a couple things for you. But first, can we thank Ron for joining us this weekend? So

good. Hey, I hope you walk out of here feeling encouraged. I know just over the last few weeks we've been in this series, God has begun to stir in my heart and I'm hoping the same for you. And like Ron said, we begin to know Jesus more personally when we spend time with him. So I wanna invite you to do the Bible reading plan with me. I'm gonna start this week. I know it's Sunday, but I'm gonna start tomorrow.

Hey, let's do this together and see what God begins to do if we commit to it just over the next several months. Amen? Thanks so much for joining us online today. Make sure you're following us on social media to stay connected to everything happening here at Rock Point.