Friends | Tyrone P. Jones | House of David | Full Service

So So Go ahead and stand with me Well welcome to another beautiful Sunday in the house My name is Kyla and I'm here to welcome you If it is your first time gathering with us this morning We would love to get to know you and help you make CTC your home So please be sure to stop by the connect table on your way out of service And our team will help you get plugged in if you're joining us online. We want to welcome you as well If you want to get connected, please tap that digital connect card in the chat Well, we want to start our morning with scripture and we're going to be reading out of the book of Isaiah Isaiah 43 verses 18 through 19 It says see I am doing a new thing Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams In the wasteland. Come on church as we come into service this morning Can we just believe that God is going to do a new thing in the house today Can we believe that he's going to do a new thing for each and every one of you? Can we believe that he's going to do a new thing this morning? Amen All right. Let's go ahead and go before the lord God we thank you so much for just another Sunday in your house got another Day in your presence and we thank you lord that we get to gather week after week as one body Lord we thank you that you are constantly working for our good We thank you for the things unknown that we don't even know about yet that you are preparing for us We thank you for the new things that you are getting ready to do in our lives lord We lift up this morning to you We lay our morning at your feet. We say yes and amen to whatever it is. You have in store for us We love you jesus and we pray this in your name. Amen All right church. Let's get ready to worship together So With a thousand tongues to lift one cry

And from north to south and east to west Where the whole earth echoing his eminence His name From rivers to the mountains We hear cries be magnified Oh Christ be magnified Let his birds arise Let his birds arise Christ be magnified in me Oh Christ be magnified The altar of my life Christ be magnified in me Yeah We sing Fire Christ be magnified Christ ♪ Be magnified from the altar of my life ♪ ♪ Christ be magnified in me ♪ ♪ Oh be magnified in me ♪ ♪ Worthy is your name, oh worthy is your name ♪ ♪ Oh be magnified in me ♪ ♪ You know I will embattle idols ♪ ♪ I'll stand strong and worship you ♪ ♪ And if it puts me in the fire ♪ ♪ I'll rejoice cause you're there too ♪

♪ I won't be fooled by feelings ♪ ♪ I'll hold fast to what is true ♪ ♪ And if the cross means transformation ♪ ♪ Cause death is just a doorway to resurrection life ♪ ♪ And if I join you in the suffering ♪ ♪ Then I'll join you when you rise ♪ ♪ And you return in glory as all the angels and the saints ♪ ♪ My heart will still be singing my soul will be the same ♪ ♪ Oh Christ be magnified let his praise arise ♪ ♪ Christ be magnified in me ♪ ♪ Oh Christ be magnified you are saving my life ♪ ♪ Christ be magnified in me ♪ ♪ And oh Christ be magnified let his praise arise ♪ ♪ Christ be magnified in me ♪ ♪ And oh Christ be magnified from the altar of my life ♪ ♪ Christ be magnified in me ♪ Come on just give Jesus praise this morning. Come on just give Jesus praise. ♪ On solid ground Jesus be my cornerstone ♪ ♪ On earthly things Jesus be my all in all ♪ ♪ First belongs to you your kingdom you are all that matters ♪ ♪ You're all I'm chasing after ♪ ♪ All the wealth and power a king could want ♪ ♪ Could never satisfy my heart so I'm laying down my titles ♪ ♪ I'm surrendering my castles ♪ ♪ The only throne I seek is where you'll be ♪ ♪ I'm casting all these crowns at your feet ♪ ♪ And I will give my life to the cause of Christ ♪ ♪ Jesus you're my all in all ♪ ♪ You're all I'm chasing after ♪

♪ You are all that matters ♪ ♪ All the wealth and power a king could want ♪ ♪ You're all I'm chasing after ♪ ♪ Could never satisfy my heart so I'm laying down my titles ♪ ♪ All my dreams and all my seeking ♪ ♪ First belongs to You, Your kingdom ♪ ♪ I'm surrendering my castles at your feet ♪ ♪ You are all that matters ♪ ♪ And I will give my life to the cause of Christ ♪ ♪ You're all I'm chasing after ♪ ♪ All the wealth and power I keep You are ♪ ♪ It never satisfied my heart ♪ ♪ So I'm laying down my titles ♪ ♪ I'm surrendering my castles ♪ ♪ The path is narrow, there's an open door ♪ ♪ How could I meet You here and still walk on? ♪ ♪ I'm in all of You, I'm in all of You ♪ In all Your majesty, oh Jesus ♪ Though the path is narrow, there's an open door ♪ ♪ How could I meet You here and still walk on? ♪ ♪ I'm in all of You, I'm in all of You ♪ In all Your majesty ♪ I'm in all of You, I'm in all of You ♪ ♪ I'm in all of You, I'm in all of You ♪ In all Your majesty ♪ And though my treasure's torn on shores of heaven ♪ ♪ It always are where I've kept them ♪ ♪ You are all that matters, You're all I'm chasing after ♪ ♪ All my dreams and all my seeking first belongs to You, Your kingdom ♪ ♪ You are all that matters, You're all I'm chasing after ♪

♪ All the wealth and power a king could want could never satisfy my heart ♪ ♪ So I'm laying down my titles, I'm surrendering my castles ♪ ♪ So I'm laying down my titles, I'm surrendering my castles ♪ All to Jesus, I surrender Hallelujah We rest in Your presence, Lord Thank You, Jesus Thank You, Jesus Thank You, Jesus And make Yourself at home Lost in Your beauty, amazed by who You are To take in the comfort of Your Holy Spirit's arms I just wanna wait on You I just wanna stay with You This secret place with you make yourself at home. Let this be your dwelling place Lord, we just wanna be where you are And Holy Spirit come rest here and have your way Lord won't you come and be our guest And make yourself at home Come on church, let's turn our attention to the screen and celebrate someone going public with their faith this morning My name is Mia. Before Jesus, I was very isolated and had no community. I spent a lot of time alone I struggled with self-harm, depression, and an eating disorder. The first time I encountered Christ was at Youth Conference 2026 I felt his presence and knew that he was real But I didn't know if God was talking to me or if it was just my emotions I fell back into sin after conference. I went to youth camp and on night three is where I undeniably encountered God. During the altar I poured my heart out and surrendered everything I was struggling with I could feel the Holy Spirit and come past me and in that moment I surrendered my life to Jesus. Since giving my life to Jesus, I feel free I'm living for him and sharing his word with people who need it

I still struggle but I know I can go to God with anything I know my struggles aren't something to be ashamed of but they are a testimony of God's goodness and glory. Today I'm going public with my faith Mia Jesus said every disciple should be baptized in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and because of your confession of faith today I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and according to Scripture You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit He arrested Want you to rest here Want you to live here? Want you to move in Lord? have your Bring your anointing come set of fire One you to move in Lord Have your way have your way in this place have your way in this place Make yourself Have your way in this place have your way in this place Lord make yourself at home want you to Rest here want you to live here want you to move in Bring your anointing come set of fire One you to move in Lord Have your way have your way in this place have your way in this place Lord Make yourself Have your way in this place have your way in this place Make yourself at home. Let this be your dwelling Lord we just wanna be where you are You are

Holy spirit come rest here and have your way Lord won't you come and be our guest and make yourself at home? Have your way in this place have your way in this place Lord make yourself at home Have your way in this place have your way in this place Lord make yourself at home All right church, let's take a minute to mingle find someone you haven't met before find your seats and we'll prepare for the message You to you. Welcome to Church for the City, where we'll teach the Word of God. We're going to encounter the presence of the Lord and spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for being part of this. We want to help people that are far from God find life in Christ, so I'm so, so grateful that you've committed to being part of us. First of all, I do want to give a shout-out to the worship team. That was another original song that they did there on the end, Make Yourself at Home, and I'm just so thankful for everything they're producing. I want to give a shout-out to a... It's a ministry that is one of those ones that's behind the scenes that you don't really see, but what they do is tremendous. It's called our Care and Support Ministry. It's led by Pastor OJ and Candy, and I'm not sure if they're here now, but yeah, they do a great job in so many areas. And this ministry is, you know, based on Galatians 6-2 about bearing one another's burdens. And so this ministry actually exists just to provide some relational and support, some practical stuff for members who might be in need of helping hand, single parents, widows, widowers, people that are homebound, elderly folks that really do depend on people to help them through seasons. It's not always ongoing, and it doesn't take the place of community, but it certainly is present where people need them to be, whether it be sometimes some light housekeeping or some small repairs or hospital visits, et cetera. There's about 25 people on that team, and they just sent me some data of just some recent stats. You know,

they feed 50 seniors, completed 11 yard projects, 24 meal trains, 44 flower bouquets, six times they've actually transported people out of town for appointments, just tens and dozens of hospital visits and 60 people that's on their home care visit list. I'm so thankful, honestly, and so grateful that we have a team of people that have that kind of heart and that kind of care for the body. So those of you, if you're in this room and you're part of that team, just know I am so, so grateful, so grateful for you. Now, I want to thank you for your generosity. Every time you come into the building, you can give. There's opportunities to give with the offering boxes on the walls, but you see the ways to give through the app and the text and scanning, even the tap disk in front of you. I love to send out cards, Lady V and I, to first-time visitors. Thank you all for, if you're just engaging in CTC and give for the first time, we enjoy sending those cards out to you, just handwriting them and thanking you for not only being here with us, but engaging in the mission. So thank you for that. We do have a team, this will be on the screen, that's going to be...they were actually going to be heading out to South Africa today. We just got word that their flights got pushed to tomorrow, but they're going to be heading to Guyane, South Africa. It's Kingdom First Assemblies pastored by Pastor Rabonda. We planted that church in 2013. We've sent a team there every year since then, and this team now will be leaving tomorrow. But part of what's happening also is that we're taking $10,000 worth of AV and production equipment to establish them so that they can also livestream their services from their location. And so again, that's actually because of your generosity. So thank you so much for doing that. All right, I'm going to pray, and we're going to go right on into the word. Father, I want to thank you now for this opportunity to be in your house, to be with your people. We love community, we love the fellowship, we love what you're doing in CTC. Lord, it's a wonderful church and, Lord, full of wonderful people. So thank you for allowing all of us to partner together by the word and the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish what we believe you set

before us in this part of the vineyard. Lord, we do pray for every church, though, in our county, though, also. We do want churches to grow. We want churches in our county to... safe places. So we ask that every pastor and their leadership teams will be healthy. That when those who are broken and wounded will come into the house of God, they'll go into a place where they'll be accepted and ministered well. Father, my prayer also goes out, of course, for those that are serving our country, military personnel that may be in various places, keep them safe and out of harm's way, and those that are in harm's way, protect them, help them to complete the mission and be able to return home. And Lord, I lift up every level of government leadership, national, state, county, city, that people will make wise decisions and know, Lord, that their first responsibility is aware for the people that they serve. So Lord, we thank you. I want to also, Lord, there may be some among us that maybe they're grieving a loss, maybe lost someone close to them through passing. Some, Lord, may even be grieving the loss of a relationship. And so, Lord, I just pray that you would be with everyone who might be in that place, that they may know the comfort that comes from you, that you being present is what helps, that you truly are a friend. And so, Lord, be there for those who need you most. Father, we love you and we thank you. In Christ's name, we pray. May the people of God say amen. Do you mind standing one more time? And you're going to go to John Chapter 15, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. It's the fourth book of the New Testament, also the fourth gospel. And we're going to look at verses 12 through 17 out of John Chapter 15. Thank you, Philip. Good job today. You and the team, as always. Verse 12 of John Chapter 15. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I've called you friends. For all that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me,

but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. Can you say amen to the reading of the word? Amen. You may be seated. I'm going to talk...my message today is Friends. It's nothing sexy about the title, I guess, at all. It's just called Friends. This would be the last message I do that focuses and centers on David particularly. We don't like to do, you know, movies at church, church at movies or whatever. But I've been using some clips for this from the House of David, and I'll use three today as we wrap this up. Next week, I'm going to go into the Book of Acts, and we still will be referring to David because of the number of times that David is in the Book of Acts, but that's what actually got us into this mini-series that we're doing. But I want to talk about Friends. I was in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, preaching at a men's camp and stayed over to preach on the weekend. And Pastor Jonathan Owens, J.O., who's been here with us, he gave a message on brotherhood that had a tremendous impact on me. But he started out by talking about, or somewhere in the message, about survival skills. Now, there, you know, Idaho is, you know, woods country, wilderness, a lot of outdoor stuff, hunting, fishing, etc. And he was speaking about when he was going, he wanted to go hunting by himself, big game hunting. He said that's not something he would normally do, but for some reason or another, he determined he was going to go hunting on his own. And so he talked about that when you're in, you know, backwoods country and wilderness, there are certain survival skills you've got to know, right? Dealing with fire, water, shelter, food, navigation, etc. But he went on to say that that's not the biggest thing that you should have. Here's a quote from him. He says, but one of the most crucial and often overlooked survival skills has nothing to do with equipment, or tents, or GPS units, or navigation.

It has everything to do. you with people. He went on to say that whenever you're in the wilderness, or you go hunting, or whatever the case, the biggest survival skill that you need is a group of friends who know where you are. People who know when you went in, who know where you are, or where you're supposed to be, when you're supposed to come back. And these people know if you don't show up, if you don't get back when you say you're going to be back, then they know how to find you. They know where to get you. They know where to look for you. That's the thing. He shared this story because something happened to him while he was out there hunting, and he called his friends and they knew exactly where he was supposed to be. Someone needs to know where you are. Someone needs to be able to come look for you if they need to find you. And so that's where I'm going in this message on friendship. And I think one of the most powerful friendships you'll find in all of Scripture is David and King Saul's son, Jonathan. And I want to talk about a few goals and just, I guess, some objectives based upon friendship. They're going to tee up clip one, but I want you to hear the big idea of this message. God never intended for you to do life alone. He never intended for you to do life alone. Let's see this first clip. Now, this is right after the battle with Goliath and the rest of the Philistine army, and you can note that Saul is very much paying attention to this relationship that's developing between Jonathan and David and the love that they are developing one with another. 1 Samuel 18, 1 through 4, you'll see that on the screen. It says, when David had finished speaking with Saul, Jonathan was bound to David in close friendship and loved him as much as he loved himself. Saul kept David with him from that day on and did not let him return to his father's house. Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as much as he loved himself. Then Jonathan removed the robe he was wearing, gave it to David, along with his military tunic, his sword,

his bow, and his belt. Some translations said Jonathan loved David as much as a man could love a woman. So, it describes their love here. Now, unfortunate, and I won't spend a lot of time on this, but I do want to address the erroneous teaching that depicts Saul and Jonathan and David's relationship as one that was homosexual. There's a lot of so-called Christian pastors and leaders, and you can go on YouTube and search them any given day, and you'll find where they use this text, this passage, to establish that same-sex relationships or couples are accepted in the scripture. I have several sermons that I can note. I'm not going to bore you with all of them. I actually won't bore you with any more of them. I'll just tell you that they use descriptive language from these passages to talk about their love and their kiss and their tears, and how they embrace one another to express that they had an inordinate affection, what we would call an inordinate affection toward one another. One pastor even suggested that this passage is the divine support for same-sex couples. The problem with that is a whole lot of folks will come to a pulpit and teach something based on their own preference or their own desire, and won't even study the Bible. They won't study the text. If you study these passages, you'll see that that's not what the scripture is depicting at all. The word bound in the Hebrew is the word kashar. It means knitted together. It means allied. It means bonded in soul. It's a close attachment, but by no means is saying that that attachment is sexual. It's a close relationship and friendship with social affection that two people have for one another. The word loved here is a word ahav, which means genuine, powerful affection and loyalty. Again, not sexual in nature at all, but absolutely a deep, deep affection that one person can have for another. The problem that I think we have is that nowadays we don't even know how to define love and people being bound together in their... soul without thinking that it has to be attached to some inordinate affection. We don't even know how to define love in that manner anymore. The word aha that's used here is the same word that's defined for a man or a woman

loving wisdom, loving wine, loving peace, loving truth, and loving tasty food. There ain't nothing gay about none of that. As a matter of fact, if that's the kind of love that defines being gay, then I'm as queer as a $3 bill because I love all of that. And so, the word is used to describe God's love for people. It's used to describe our love for people. It's used to describe our love for God. And so, in this case, here is a love that two men have deeply as friends. It's an intense love, sure, and it's unquestionably deep. But again, you cannot dismiss the fact that that can occur when people have that kind of love for one another. Because of that, unfortunately, we have shunned the real meaning of brotherhood because we're afraid of how people will define our love one for another. We have a hard time defining brotherhood. And so, I want to show you another clip here, and then I want to give you just a few things about loneliness. This is clip two. That's a very intimate conversation. I mentioned earlier that when David, in that first scene, when he went to Jonathan and he says, is there something you want to ask me? He had a suspicion that David was understanding that he was the anointed one. But of course, David wasn't free to share that then and certainly wasn't going to share it to the king's son because of what that statement would mean. But here, Jonathan didn't even basically respond to the question. He just went right into it. He just got intimate with David, letting him know, I know you're the anointed one. How does that feel? And though David wasn't to speak about that, he had a guy here that he could trust. So much so, he could tell him the very feeling of being anointed and the fears that he had. And of course, he made the statement, because of this anointing, I feel alone. But Jonathan said to him, but you're not alone. And he wasn't talking about God, he was talking about him. I was on a phone call with some pastors that I coached this last week, and I said to every one of them, I said, you need to hear me about this. Every one of you needs to have a friend that knows enough about you that they can destroy you, but they love you enough not

to do it. You got to have that kind of friend. There's a researcher by the name of Dan Cox, he identified what's called the social friendship recession. He said, since the 90s, the number of close friends that we of Americans have has been decreasing. It's been decreasing. He said, that's of every age group, every gender, every income level, every race, every marital status. It's not to any particular demographic. Men now will spend seven times more time in front of a TV than they will with a close friend. Women will spend more time with their pet than they will face to face with people who happen to be their own species, by the way. I just thought I'd throw that in. You can build and live a life without talking to people now. Go through a drive-thru at the bank, or have DoorDash deliver your food or your groceries. And this has had some disastrous effects upon the human body. Social isolation, it's proven, I won't go into all of the stats and studies. You can look up the name, Dan Cox, if you want to get more about it, but it weakens your immune system. And all of the ailments that people have, so much of this they're tracing back to this whole issue of social isolation. I noted in my book, Gripped by Hope, that loneliness on your human body is as bad on your human body as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Loneliness has that kind of effect on you. The worst punishment you can do for someone in prison is to put them in solitary confinement. That's the worst thing you can do to them. And yet, many of us... are choosing to live our life in solitary confinement. We're choosing to live our life that way. First Samuel chapter 20, I'm actually gonna read quite a few verses here. This won't be on the screen. A lot of it I'll actually share what's happening. This chapter 20 is before, I think I showed you a week or so ago

where David went to Nob to be with the priest and ended up getting Goliath's sword. This is the chapter before that. But he's already on the run from Saul. And Jonathan knows that he's on the run and it's gonna set up another clip that we're going to do. But David, this first few verses, then David fled from Nioph and Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, what have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father that he seeks my life? And he said to him, far from it. You shall not die. This is Jonathan responding. Behold, my father does nothing, either great or small, without disclosing it to me. Why should my father hide this from me? It's not so. But David goes on to say, but your father knows the relationship that we have. He knows our friendship. Certainly he's not gonna tell you what he's thinking about me. And Jonathan said to David, whatever you say, I will do for you. And David tells him, there's only one step of death between you and me, and that's your father.

So he says, listen, this is David. He says, now tomorrow we got the feast day. I'm supposed to be there. But I'm basically afraid of your father. And so he says, what's gonna happen when I don't show up? And Jonathan says, well, this is what I'll do. When we get together, if my father asks, where are you? I'll tell him that I released you to go to Bethlehem to be with your family. There's something going on with your family. If he responds in a normal manner, then I'll let you know everything is fine. If he doesn't respond in a normal manner, if he gets angry, then I'll let you know everything is not good. So we would drop all the way down to verse number 35, because this is chapter 20 again, because this is what Jonathan said. You hang out here in the hills where you are. I'm gonna go out tomorrow. I'm gonna take my armor bear and I'm gonna shoot arrows. If my father responds in a negative way, if I shoot an arrow past you, then you know you better get going. If I shoot my arrows like normal, when I finish shooting, I'll let you know that everything is safe. Well, that next day, sure enough, Saul acted up because David wasn't there. And he goes out with his armor bear

and he shoots the arrows. And he shot an arrow past David, which let David know what's happening. You'll see the result of that in this clip. In all of the series, that's probably the most emotional scene for me, because again, you have two people that have a deep affection for one another who realize now that they're probably not gonna see each other. And Jonathan has understood what this means, that David indeed is going to be king. And you notice that he tells him about his son first, which is going to be born, who turns out to be Mephibosheth that he names after kindness and mercy. And then he says, I know what happens when kings step in. They consolidate their rule. In other words, they gotta get rid of all their enemies when they step in. So he's saying, I'm asking you not to harm my family, not to harm my family. Now, again, he's emotional and he's asking that of someone who he believes is gonna be loyal and covenant with him. And of course, David assures him that he will not do that. And if you read 2 Samuel chapter five, you will sure enough see where he did indeed

rescue Jonathan's son. But what Jonathan recognizes is God's hand upon him. And he loves him enough. Mind you, Jonathan was the one in line to be king. Saul was losing his mind. He was definitely going to be replaced, if not killed. And Jonathan was going to be the king. But he recognizes enough of what God is doing in David's life that he absolutely surrenders his own rights to the throne. Surrenders his own rights that the purpose of David would prevail. He protects David from Saul. He recognizes that David is gonna be king. He relinquishes his own dynasty, his own future, and extracts these promises out of David, which was to later be fulfilled in Mephibosheth. I want you to know this. Real friend doesn't just merely celebrate what God is doing for you, but a friend is able to celebrate what God is doing in you even when your blessing costs them, even when your blessing costs them. Proverbs 20, verse 6 says, many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is truly reliable? C.S. Lewis, who's obviously a great writer over the years with Mere Christianity, Chronicles of Narnia, Screwtape Letters, you can go on and on and on, The Problem of Pain. He had a group of friends, they called The Inklings. They were all writers, C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien and G.K. Chesterton. They were all doing their thing in Oxford, but they would meet together at the pub

in London, in Oxford, sorry, at the end of their day, and they would enjoy their time together. C.S. Lewis wrote about it so much. He said, that kind of friendship should be a man's chiefest pleasures, to have that kind of friend. Proverbs 27, 10 tells us, never abandon a friend, either yours or your father's. It's because of this that I think regardless of how hard it is and how many excuses we should make, we should all fight to have some real face-to-face friendships. Some real face-to-face friendships. I want to just give you four benefits of friendship, and you probably can come up with a lot more, but I do believe your life will be better for it if you can embrace this. The four things, why we need friends. Number one, for navigation of life. Decisions are murky. All of us have tough decisions that we have to make. We need someone like a Jonathan who can fire arrows and give us some direction. We need friends. I need friends who can help me see where I'm going. Help me see where I'm going. Proverbs 11, 14 says this, where there is no wise, intelligent guidance, the people fall and go off course like a ship without a helm. But in the abundance of wise and godly counselors, there is victory. Some translations, in abundance of counselors, there is safety. We need people to help us see where we're going. Jonathan shot those arrows, so David would know whether to run or stay. The question is, who is shooting arrows for you? Who's shooting arrows for you?

Because every one of us can listen to the wrong voices. And if we listen to the wrong voices, we're going to end up in the wrong places. We got a great example in Exodus where the Lord had told Moses and the people, I'm leading you to the promised land. It's all set up. There's houses there you didn't build. There's trees. There's fruit. It's a land flown with milk and honey. All you got to do is listen to my voice, follow the man that's leading you, and you'll get there. You remember how they got? They were like, well, we don't know if we can trust the man. We don't know if we can trust God. We don't know if we really want to do this. It's too hard, too much, et cetera, et cetera. We'd rather be back in Egypt. So the Lord allowed him to send some spies. And so he sent 12 spies. Two of those spies, Caleb and Joshua, came back and said, it is exactly as the Lord has said. The land is ours. We can go right in and take this land. The Lord has given it to us. But 10 of the spies was like, no, afraid, full of anxiety, all kinds of issues, can't trust him, can't trust God. Because they listened, the people listened to the voice of those other ones. Instead of this being a journey of about 20 days, they end up walking in the wilderness for 40 years. Why 40 years?

Because the ones that was over the age of 20 years old had to die before God can take them into the promised land. Why? Because they listened to the wrong voices. You listen to the wrong voices, you're going to end up in the wrong places. Can you say amen? So you need friends for navigation of life. Here's number two, you need friends for formation in life. I need friends. We need friends who help us become who God has called us to be, who God has called us to be. I shared with the earlier services, you know, during my years of Yuma High School, I wish I could say I was a saint, but I was truly a criminal. That's just the bottom line. Wasn't walking in fellowship with the Lord at all. Although I was raised in the church, I was baptized when I was nine years old, committed my life to Jesus. But those years of... of high school, I was doing a lot of things that I shouldn't have been doing. With my friends who knew me, who I grew up with. There was numerous times when I was doing debauchery like the rest of them, and it was inevitable at a time when I didn't expect it. One of my friends would turn to me and says, Tyrone, why are you here? You don't belong with us. This is not who you are. Why are you hanging out doing this stuff with us when you know this is not who you are? We need friends to do that.

We need people who want to help us become who God has called us to be. Proverbs 27, 17 says, as iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. You need people who'll smooth out some of those rough spots in your life, and people who'll also let you smooth out some of the rough spots that they have. We need those friends for formation of life. Number three, we need friends that keep us from drifting. Drift happens. All of us can get distracted. All of us can get our eyes on the wrong thing, and it's not that we wake up and do that. It's not like any of us wake up one morning and says, you know what, I'm gonna get my life so off track that I'm just gonna jack it up. We don't do that. We just don't always pay attention to the things that we're doing, the things that we're saying, the way that we're thinking, some of our behavior, and so we need friends who love us enough to tell us when we're drifting. Proverbs 27, six says, wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy, and this is counterculture, because unfortunately, we have been cultured in this society, social media will prove it to you, we wanna be liked, we wanna be loved. Some folks have a nerve to have meltdowns.

Man. I gotta, I forget it, but we have meltdowns because we watch when we notice somebody blocked us or somebody, and people have meltdowns. If you put out a post and certain people don't like it, you get all jacked up, why? We love those kisses, but a lot of those kisses ain't coming from friends. A lot of those kisses is coming from the enemies, and the scripture says it's better that somebody loves you like a friend and says something that hurts you than you just to overwhelm yourself with a bunch of kisses of folks who don't really, they don't, can I tell you something? Everybody doesn't matter. Don't let them affect your life that way. Don't let them do it. Wounds from a sincere friend are better. Paul confronted Peter in, I think it was Galatians two or Galatians three. Peter was the chief apostle, but Paul noticed that Peter was doing some real funky things. On the one hand, he was hanging out with the Gentiles, eating with them, living the life they were living, but then when the Jews came, Peter wanted to act like the Gentiles was the enemy, and Paul said, no, no, what you're doing is wrong, man. The way you're doing it is wrong. If you don't let people inside your life like that,

you're gonna end up on the wayside. Here's the fourth thing and the last thing, and team, you can come. We need friends for collaboration. Paul was a great apostle. Some of the greatest writings, of course, come from him and those 13 epistles that we read, but he's wrapping up, to me, his magnum opus, which is Romans, and chapter 16, knowing that everything that Paul, knowing everything people were saying about him, he wraps it up by, and it's 23 verses, I certainly won't read them all, but Paul says, you folks act like this is all me doing what I'm doing. He listed 35 people in Romans 16 who were saying, they're the ones that's with me doing the work of the ministry. It's collaboration. Ministry, by no means, is a solo act. We need friends that help us accomplish what we can never accomplish on our own. Tolkien writes about the fact that he would have never finished The Lord of the Rings if it wasn't for C.S. Lewis. He said he talked to him for hours, for long periods of time. C.S. Lewis was his only audience for his writings on that book, and it was so long, and he didn't know where he was gonna go with it,

how he was gonna land it, what he should weave in it, but so he wanted to give up, and Lewis kept telling him, no, no, no, man, you're going somewhere with this. He eventually wrote this about C.S. Lewis. The unpayable debt I owe him was not influence, but sheer encouragement. Sheer encouragement. Just having a friend that will come alongside you, of course, in the early part of Lord of the Rings when Frodo gets the command from Gandalf. off to take the ring and go to Mordor. His friend with him is Samwise Gamgee. Frodo hears everything, Samwise hears everything that's going on, and Frodo tells him, then, I'm going to go to Mordor, and I love this. Samwise Gamgee said this, of course you are, and I'm going with you. That's a friend. Of course you're going to do this, and I'm going with you. You know, that researcher I talked about, Dan Cox, he listed all of the effects of loneliness, all the matters that was going on since the 90s with this friendship recession. But you know, he says, I only found one group of people who are not losing friends, who are actually making more friends than all the rest of society. He says, the Americans who attend church regularly have more close friends than anybody else. People who actually attend the house of God and know this, that is no accident. That's by design by God. That's by design. It was God that says, He sets the solitary in families. The church ain't just a place where you learn about friendships, it's where you find them. So, why are we next week? We're doing a small group fair, the city life group fair. It's a very, very place. If you're not in a small group, you can find one, and I assure you, you're going to find some friends in those groups. It's a great witness, I think, that the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ can have an impact in this next generation of people being less lonely and more around people who care for them. I mentioned earlier Pastor J.O.

and his church is called The Heart in Coeur d'Alene. Every service, I was there for the three services, every service when he gets up and greets the people, he welcomes them to The Heart and he says, this is the church where everybody knows your name and we're all glad that you came. This is the church where cheers without the beers. I love that. Where cheers without the beers. Proverbs 18.24 says this, the man of too many friends chosen indiscriminately will be broken in pieces and come to ruin. But there is a true loving friend who is reliable and sticks closer than a brother. You've got to have them, you need them. Who will come looking for you if you get lost in life? Who knows you well enough that they notice when something isn't right? Who is the person that can tell you, man, something is going awry, that you're pulling away, or your marriage is struggling, or you're just getting cold in your faith, or you're making decisions that are just not like you? Who is the person that will come to you and won't just say, I'll pray for you, but they'll actually come after you? They'll come after you. They'll go where you are and get you where you ought to be. Now, if you've been coming to CTC any length of time, you know that this message is not really about Jonathan and David's friendship. You know that was a head fake, right? You know that was a head fake. You know this message wasn't about Jonathan and David's friendship. You know this message was really about the friendship of Jesus. That the greatest friend that any of us can have is our Lord Jesus Christ. That He's the one that will indeed stick with us. He's the one that'll stay close. David had Jonathan. Everybody needs somebody who will go looking for him. David had Jonathan. Paul had all those folks in Romans 16. Tolkien had Lewis. Frodo had Sam. But I tell you who every one of us can have. That's the God of heaven. Because before we even look for Him, God came looking for us. He came looking for us in His Son, Jesus Christ. When we were lost, Jesus came. When we wandered, Jesus came. When we let sin take us farther than we should have went, Jesus came. Because He is that friend. No one has greater love than this, than to lay down for his friend, lay down their life for their friend.

Jonathan was willing to surrender a throne for his friend. Jesus left the throne so you could be his friend. Jonathan risked his life for David, but Jesus gave his life so that you can be his friend indeed. John 15, 15 says, I do not call you servants anymore because a servant doesn't know what his master is doing. I've called you friends because I've made known to you everything I've heard from my father. Friends here on earth, I'm encouraging you to shape that, to develop that, open yourself up to that, find that. person. Let that person. And that person might be already in your circle, might already be in your life. The problem again is we got such a twisted view of love and brotherhood that I can assure you there's probably people in your circle right now who would love to truly be a friend to you but you just won't let them. Let them. Let them. We all need someone that we can fall apart in front of and we know they love us enough that they'll put us back together. You got to have that. But I'm telling you the friend above all friends is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who will never leave you and he'll never forsake you. Everybody stand if you would. Prayer team come. Just going to pray that the Lord will open up your heart and mind to this and you will allow the Lord to guide you. You will make the effort. You'll put yourself in the right place, the right position to develop and cultivate the friend that you need here on earth. But above all, if you haven't connected with Jesus Christ, this can be the day that you can leave here with the greatest friend that you've ever had if you trust him. Father, I want to thank you now for this opportunity Lord to bring forth the gospel. I pray Lord Jesus that everyone in this house would really relish and take this message to heart, knowing, knowing, knowing that it is important that they have friends here on earth, face-to-face relationships, that they can be true to one another and honest with each other. And not be afraid of the vulnerability but would truly, truly allow themselves to be a friend and to be befriended. But Lord, also I pray that if there's anyone in this house that has not opened themselves up to the greatest friend of all, which is your son Jesus Christ, today will be the day that they say, I want a friend. I need Jesus. I need him as my Lord. I need him as my Savior.

I repent of my sins. I turn and surrender my life to him that I may have a friend that sticks closer than a brother. In Christ's name we pray. May the people of God say amen. God bless you. Have a great day. I want you to move in. Lord, have your way. Have your way in this place. Have your way in this place. Lord, make yourself at home. Have your way in this place. Have your way in this place. Lord, make yourself at home. Want you to rest here. Want you to live here. Want you to move in. Lord, have your way. When your anointing comes set on fire. Want you to move in. Lord, have your way. Have your way in this place. Have your way in this place. Lord, make yourself at home. Have your way in this place. Have your way in this place. Lord, make yourself at home. Let this be your dwelling place. Lord, we just want to be where you are. And Holy Spirit come. Rest here and have your way. Lord, won't you come and be our guest and make yourself at home. God bless you church. We love you so much. We'll see you next week.