Proverbs Week 3 | Wisdom in Relationships

Sunday, January 21st | Beau Bradberry

"A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." — Proverbs 18:24

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Beau Bradberry

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Well, good morning.

If you've got your bible, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join me in proverbs chapter 14.

This morning we're continuing on with our series where we're committed and joined together to reading through proverbs, one chapter of proverbs a day through the month of January.

And then we're taking us some time on Sunday morning and looking at these and assessing these and drawing some truths from God's word as we go through that.

As you turn there, God changed me this morning.

Right?

That's a good thing.

Here's what happened.

All right.

About ten years ago, Aaron and I started watching tv shows about Alaska.

Just kind of fell in love with Alaska, had an opportunity about five years ago to go and visit Alaska.

And as we've been watching tv shows through the comfort of our house and the warmth of our bed, we'd say statements like, you know what?

One day, I bet it would be cool to move to Alaska.

We got into gardening, y'all know, about five years ago, really gotten into it, and it's kind of taken off.

And we could probably survive if the world shut down for at least a week.

You know what I mean?

And so it'd be cool.

We watched a lot of tv shows.

It'd be cool to move to Alaska.

And homestead in Alaska, right?

We could go out, we could hunt, we could farm.

We could do all of those things.

Then this morning, I woke up, I.

Walked outside and I looked at my phone, and it said, at your house, it feels like nine degrees.

And I thought, nope, not Alaska.

That's not what God has for us.

In fact, we need it to be, I think, like Thursday here, it's supposed.

To be 70 degrees.

We welcome that at this point in time.

But glad that you guys are here as we're starting off with these, share with you guys.

As I read through and study this for each week, it's finding like a thread through the chapters that we're to read that kind of draw us together for God's truth, for us as a church body.

But I also want to share in my individual quiet times, like things or.

Different proverbs that were standing out to me.

So this morning, just really quick as.

We kind of get into this, where.

We'Re going, one, I apologize.

They're not on the screen.

I didn't get them to burger early enough, but.

Proverbs 1426.

In the fear of the Lord, one has strong confidence.

I love that fear of God is.

Not one that creates us, to make us afraid of him, but in the fear of the Lord, one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.

Just love.

The promise of what Lisa talked about, like God before, God now, and God for our future, past, present, and future, the hope that we have for him and the fear in him is the goodness of that.

Proverbs 1517.

Better is a dinner of herbs where.

Love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.

Right now, I love meat.

So this one I had to wrestle.

With for a little bit, but just thinking about the beauty of what that is and the beauty of family and being able to break down and to see all that, what we really have, and this is what God has for us.

And then proverbs 1624, just to kind.

Of a reminder, even what we talked.

About last week, that gracious words are like a honeycomb.

Sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

Right?

The goodness of what we can do with our words, how we can bless others, and what that does for us and what that does for them.

I love proverbs.

I love the practical nature of proverbs.

I love because when we wrestle with God's truth and God's commands and what God has for us, I want to be careful that we all understand and agree with and that we continue on this, that when we read proverbs, these are these practical principles that God gives us.

These aren't promises.

But I've been saying from week one that while these are principles and not promises, we promise the principles are true of what God gives us, just this practical nature of our life.

Because I think sometimes we disconnect our faith from our reality, sinfully.

We do that.

We talk about our faith, our eternity, our salvation is set and secure in.

Christ and the hope that we have in him.

But then everything else is just kind of how we want to do it.

And what I love about proverbs is that proverbs reminds us that, yes, God does save us.

Our hope, our eternity, is set and secure in him.

But on that journey of life that God gives us of every day, that God gives us is a gift from him.

And that in that, that God's working to change us, to transform us.

And he doesn't just change the way we view him, but he changes the way that we view ourselves, the way that we view others, the way that we view the world.

And this is why I love proverbs so much that we can take from some of these basic ones that God gives us.

And maybe we were a little sharp and hurtful and painful with our words yesterday.

And now God, in his grace and his kindness and his mercy, he reminds us of the truth of this in proverbs 1624, and that our words could be sweetness to the soul of those who hear them, and they can be.

Healing in action amongst us.

And so we're given today.

The word was maybe bitter yesterday, but the words have an opportunity to be sweet today.

And I love the practical nature of proverbs this week.

This is the verse that kind of hit as a launching point for me this week as I was studying through for us in our message this morning.

And we'll start proverbs 14 four.

It's a little different than what you thought we were going to start with, but where there are no oxen, the manger is clean.

But abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.

I liked it.

Let's hang out here for a minute.

I got kids in my house.

Stuff's dirty.

I'm dirty.

I see this, and it's this imagery of what's painted and what proverbs is teaching here.

It's this imagery of work that's being done.

It's this picture of progress that is happening, but that in this, what comes with work, what comes with progress, what comes with all of this, as we work through, is sometimes what is created, what is a fruit of that is mess, or a little bit of disorder that you have to deal with.

So I started reading one of my commentaries that was dealing with this, and the commentator began working through in this, that we could take proverbs 14 four, and it's how we look at relationships.

It's how we look at the mess, the work of relationships.

God has called us to the work of relationships.

If you're going to be a farmer and you're going to want to accomplish things, and you want to make sure that you have crops and you want to make sure that you have fields that need to be ready, guess what happens?

There's got to be some dirty work that's involved.

The oxen are going to be there.

And in fact, I was reading, the guy was talking about during this time, when this has been written, that the oxen would have been the most highly valuable farm animal that was there because of all of the work that they could accomplish.

They could pull, they could push, they.

Could till they could do all of the things that needed to be done.

The issue was they're messy.

They're needed, they're valuable, but they're messy.

And so this morning, what I want us to look at is God has called us, you and I, as we look at the world through the lens and the focus of the gospel, that God has called us to the work of relationships, plural.

God has called us to the work of relationships.

God has called us into a relationship with him.

God has invited us into this wonderful, beautiful relationship that you and I have with him.

He's called us into the work of that.

If you're in here this morning and you're married, God has called you into a relationship, into the work of relationship with your spouse.

If you have kids, all of these coming from scripture.

If you have kids, in a relationship with your kids, God's calling you into a relationship with men and women of faith who have put their faith, hope, and trust in Jesus Christ.

And God's put you in relationship, strategic, missional relationships with non believers so that.

You can share the hope of the gospel, the goodness of Jesus Christ with them.

The Bible is filled over and over and over again with relationships and the work that God has called us into.

Here's the tension for us.

Oftentimes we want relationships to be neat, and oftentimes relationships are messy.

Aaron knew that our relationship was going to be messy when we got married.

Tell you what I did.

I've told this story before.

She stayed with me, right?

We've been married.

A couple days back from our honeymoon, she had gone to work.

She was in school.

She was off for the summer.

She was still, I think, your junior year of college.

She fixed a meal, been gone at work.

I think it was the lasagna that you had fixed.

Air makes a wonderful, wonderful lasagna.

I come home, open up.

I bought this little town home.

Open it up.

And the smell, just wonderful.

And she had the table, right?

She had a nice pan of lasagna laid out.

She had the plates set out.

She had a salad that was there.

She had the fork, she had the knife, she had the spoons.

She had the glass of tea was already sitting there.

And just in that moment, I was like, this is what marriage is, right?

And I sat down, blown away, and we ate.

It was a great meal.

It's a wonderful meal.

We smiled.

She just raised her eyebrows at me, right?

We smiled.

We talked.

Food was so good.

And I got done.

And as typical can be with me.

Sometimes I ate too much.

And I decided after the meal was over with, I was going to move from the table to the recliner, and I was going to watch sports center.

And I got up, I thanked her for the meal.

I told her how good it was.

And I left my plate, my bowl, my glass sitting right there on the table.

And I went and sat down and turned on the tv.

And she, in her grace and her kindness and her goodness, came over and she sat down beside me and she said, you forgot something.

Your mess is still at the table, right?

It's not hard when we get into a new relationship, especially a relationship like.

A marriage, that we understand that relationships can get messy.

But the truth is, not only can they get messy, but they need to get messy.

You and I need to have messy relationships.

We need to have relationships where work is being done, where we're dealing with things.

We're moving through what God has for us.

We just listed a bunch of relationships from the very beginning.

And let's begin by saying they can all get a little messy.

The first one that we talked about is a relationship with God.

You're like, whoa, my relationship with God can't get messy.

I think if you're honest with yourself, you'll realize that if you're diving deep into a relationship with God, it absolutely can get messy.

Here's how it gets messy.

Has God ever called you to something and your response to him is no?

When you run from his calling, I guarantee you, your life gets messy.

Has God ever found you in sin and broken you for it and brought you to repentance?

Let me tell you, that process is beautiful, and it is sweet, and it is necessary, and it is needed, but it is messy as we unpack the depth of sin in our heart and we confess it and we repent and we come before him.

You working your relationship out with God and the power of the spirit can get messy.

Can your relationship with a spouse get messy?

Absolutely.

And it should.

Two people, selfish and sinful at their core, coming together and ironing out what God has for them, to challenge one another and to grow one another and to speak truth and hope and love into existence and work things out, all for a great purpose that the world sees the love that Christ has for the church and the love that the church has for Christ.

You don't think that gets messy?

It gets messy.

May we not have sterile, clean marriages?

Can they be messy because of two people working together for what God has for them?

Can relationships with kids get messy?

Absolutely right.

Things get rough when there's positive aspects that going on.

Like we want to take all the credit.

But when they begin to rebel, when.

They begin to act out, what do.

We want to do?

We just want to blame them.

We want to take credit for what.

The good that we have done for them and dismiss the bad for what they've chosen for themselves.

But it gets messy.

When we see our kids as primary.

Area for evangelism and discipleship in our life.

We have to deal with their.

Sin, but in that process, we got to deal with ours as well.

It gets messy.

Can relationships in church get messy?

Oh, absolutely.

Galatians six one through two.

See this from scripture, brothers.

If anyone, as Paul speaks to the church, if anyone is caught in any.

Transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill.

The law of Christ.

Like loving God and loving others is a lot deeper than sometimes what we want to think that it is.

It means that we confront one another.

With what Paul says.

It means that we correct one another.

So we don't just point out what.

They'Ve done wrong, we point out what they should do under guidance of the Lord.

But that in that there's care for one another, that we work to restore.

Each other when a brother or sister.

Is found in sin, and that we bear the burden of one another literally.

We take them on our back.

That gets messy.

How about non believers?

You think that gets messy?

Let me say, if you're living in.

Safe relationships with non believers.

The appearance.

Is that it's not messy, but it is messy.

It's sinfully messy, because what we're ignoring is the gospel in those relationships.

But the gospel, when we share the gospel, it's the good messy.

It's the good work that is needed.

Because in these relationships with non believers, our primary goal that God gives us is to see them come to faith in Jesus, which means we have to tell them about Jesus, and we have to tell them why they need Jesus and that they're a sinner that desperately needs him, just like we need Jesus.

And what begins to happen as the gospel confronts them?

We have to examine their life.

It confronts them.

It can offend them, and in that, it gets messy.

So God calls us into these relationships.

We could take each one of those relationships, and we've done that before and lined out.

Week one, we're going to talk about our relationship with God.

Week two, we're going to talk about our relationship with spouses.

Week three, we're going to talk about our relationship with kids.

Week four, we're going to talk about our relationship with those of us in the church, believers.

Week six, we're going to talk about our relationship with non believers.

We could break all of that out, but what we find in the beauty of the practicality of wisdom in these relationships is in so many of these proverbs, what we find is these nuggets of truth that we can apply to.

All of those, and that we see the wisdom in relationships that God has.

For us, one of our most common ones of what we think.

And I'm breaking the rules a little bit.

I jumped ahead from where we were supposed to be this week.

But it's proverbs 20 717.

Iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens another.

It's this picture of what we get when it comes to relationships.

And this is going to explain, I think, what I mean, and I hope, I hope you're tracking with me when I talk about that.

Relationships can be messy.

Relationships can be messy because relationships often require conflict.

Relationships can be messy because relationships often require conflict.

Now, I'm not talking about they always, like, we're running straight toward conflict, and we can't wait to just have another moment of conflict after another moment of conflict after another moment of conflict.

But what we see in here, in this picture that we get, is that these relationships, they often required the conflict that was there.

Iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another.

Do you know how iron sharpens iron?

You take two pieces of iron, you set them down near one another, you walk away, and you come back the next day and they're sharp.

No, that's not at all.

Iron sharpens iron through striking.

Iron sharpens iron through friction and with sparks.

The blacksmith would make his hammer out of iron and then would take a piece of iron on a sword and go at it, and go at it, and go at it to make it sharp.

Conflict, sweat, sparks, sometimes fire, definitely friction.

A man and a woman in Christ can be used to sharpen, to improve and to develop his friend for the Lord.

But it's oftentimes going to be based in the friction that God calls us to.

And here's what's beautiful about this.

Jesus modeled this for us.

Jesus modeled this for us.

I want to point you to.

We're going to jump over into the New Testament.

Matthew, chapter 16.

There's two stories of an interaction that.

Jesus has with Peter that's linked up in this, and I want to start reading in verse 13.

Now, when Jesus came into the district.

Of Caesarea, Philippi he asked his disciples.

Who do people say the son of man is?

And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

And he said to them, but who do you say that I am?

And Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

He gets it right.

17, verse 17.

And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.

But my father who is in heaven, and I tell you, you are Peter.

And on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of h*** shall not prevail against it.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

And whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Then he strictly charged his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Peter gets it.

Peter gets it.

He shares that he's gotten it.

And then Jesus does something right here in the midst of these disciples who were constantly battling, jockeying for position of who could be the most important.

And he says, in front of all of them, he's like, it's not that.

I snuck off and told Peter this.

It's not that he's just been paying.

Closer attention than the rest of.

No, no.

You have been revealed this truth by my father who is in heaven.

He says to Peter and the disciples, and everyone around you know this because you heard it directly from the Father.

And then he says, and this upon which you say.

And he also says to Peter and the man of God that he is, and the work that would be done in acts on this truth that you've proclaimed is what I will build my church on.

And, Peter, you're going to be one of the instruments to make this happen.

That's the type of relationships we want.

That's what we like.

Man, if people could just always tell.

Me when I get it right, and.

If they could really always tell me.

When I get it right in front of other people who think that I.

Get it wrong, right.

We would all love that relationship.

But that's half of a relationship here.

Verse 21.

From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

So Jesus gets with the disciples, he takes them away, and he says, look, here's what you got to understand.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to pay for the sins of the world.

This is why I'm here.

I will be resurrected.

I will be resurrected.

The power of God.

Now, Peter, you know, the one who got it right, the one who heard from God, Peter, the one who's been entrusted.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, is what Matthew 16 tells us, saying, far be it from you, Lord.

This shall never happen to you.

Let's pause here.

Peter, with a heart bigger than his brain, draws him over and I don't know, I don't know.

I've wrestled with this.

I don't know Peter's motivation.

I don't know if Peter thought he was being arrogant.

I don't know if Peter was looking out for himself because he didn't want to see his, no, no.

Jesus.

I mean, all of Peter's livelihood, he's left everything to follow Jesus.

I don't know if he's wrestling with that.

I don't know if he's wrestling with his love for, right?

Like, if Aaron came to me and said, I've been told that I'm going to suffer.

And no, no, I don't know what brought him to this moment, but I know, whether intentionally or unintentionally, he corrected Jesus and he put his plan ahead of God's.

And Jesus could have said, hey, buddy, thank you.

But no.

He could have said, man, I appreciate your concern, but no.

He could have said, peter, I know you're nervous, bud.

I know that you've got a lot of concerns.

I know you left everything to follow me, and I appreciate that.

But, man, you're going to be all right.

That's not what he said.

Verse 23.

But he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan, you are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

And in that moment, Jesus didn't excuse him.

He confronted him.

And I bet you could cut the tension in the moment of what's here.

And that's what it begins to do when we see the work of relationships, that oftentimes confrontation is necessary.

It's needed, it's godly.

So what's your goal?

We use the phrase, I say this.

Sometimes my kids, like dad, we don't say that phrase.

You say, we say this phrase.

So let me rephrase this.

Sometimes I say this phrase, people my age, I'm going to call them out.

I'm going to call them out.

If the goal of your confrontation is this, I just want to call them out so that I can be right.

And so that they know it.

Then you're like me, and I would bet your motive is wrong, and you.

Need to repent, just like I do.

And I don't think Jesus in that moment is like, oh, watch this.

But if your goal in that moment is their godliness and their purity and their obedience to the Lord, then here's what I would say about your motive.

It's godly.

And proceed.

Proceed.

Work in the conflict.

This is what we begin to see over and over and over again.

Proverbs 17 nine.

Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.

There's a time, and there's a place for conflict, for exposure of sin.

But often the sins of others in conflict should be done with tact and lovingly covered.

It's not a moment to embarrass.

It's not a moment to expose, for the world to see, to uncover.

And I find this is so often the motivation of our hearts in our actions.

To uncover someone's sin by repeating it to others will ruin relationships and divide friendships.

It's what God's word teaches us.

So what God's given us to be used for his name, for his kingdom, we destroy.

We destroy.

Second thing that we see within these what gives us the right to do this?

What gives us the right to say the difficult things?

What gives us the right to do the confrontation that God calls us to?

And is this.

Relationships require intentional faithfulness.

Relationships require intentional faithfulness.

Proverbs 1824 a man of many companions.

May come to ruin, but there is.

A friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Proverbs 1717 a friend loves at all.

Times, and a brother is born for adversity.

If you are friendly, you will get friends.

If you are a faithful friend, you.

Will obtain something much greater.

The example that I would give is marriage.

Is marriage.

We think that marriage is based and.

Rooted in a feeling, and a feeling.

Is a big part of that, the feelings that we feel when we meet, the feelings that we feel when we walk through life together.

But if we stay in the feeling world when it comes to marriage, then folks in the swimming pool, that is a marriage.

Like we're standing there at the top step, dipping our toe into it.

Because marriage moves beyond the feeling.

Marriage is a covenant, and it is love, and it is a choice.

And when the commitment grows deeper, then what begins to happen is the relationship grows sweeter.

The key, in my opinion, to the healthy relationship of what we see and this intentional faithfulness that's here is the faithfulness of time.

The faithfulness of commitment, the faithfulness of choice, of battling through the difficulty that marriage can be so that we can live in the sweetness of what God's doing in the life of a husband and a wife.

Jesus speaks to the intentionalness of marriage.

I mean, I'm sorry, the intentionalness of relationships.

In John 1334 and 35, he says, new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you.

You also are to love one another.

And then I love this.

Verse 35.

By this, all people will know that you are my disciples.

If you have love for one another.

You ever thought about.

We have given Jesus every reason under the sun to leave this relationship.

We've given him every reason, every reason in our rebellion, every reason in our pursuits, every reason in our sin.

But he chooses in the covenant relationship that he's made with us, to choose us, to love us, to keep us, to hold us, and that's how he loves us.

And then he says, and just as I've loved you, go in love one another.

What do your relationships show about your.

Love for your relationship with Christ?

Lastly, begin to understand that relationships are a gift from God.

Relationships are a gift from God.

Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love.

But a faithful man who can find God gives you relationships.

He's given you the relationship with himself.

He's given you the relationship with those that are here.

He's given you the relationships with those outside of here in God and his plan as he places us, the difference as we look at these relationships and understanding that they're a gift from God.

It's the move to the quality over quantity.

So many of us find comfort whether.

You'Re introverted or extroverted.

So many of us find comfort in relationships that are a mile wide but an inch deep.

Even if we've got a thousand friends or ten friends, we want to know as many as we can know while keeping others at a safe distance.

But what God wants us to dive into is the quality of relationship is found in the depth of relationship.

It's what we see with Jesus and his disciples.

They came and they went with him, and that number would grow and grow and grow and grow to the difference in the crowds of Jesus.

But it always got back to those smaller few and those smaller few, where Jesus would invest in the quality of time that he could spend with them in the depth of what's there.

There's people that say, man, I've got a thousand friends, but are they found.

In the depth of relationship with friends?

When we look at quality of relationship, we see that quality of relationship does.

Love me right where I am, but speaks truth about where I need to be.

A quality of a relationship desires God's best for me even when I don't desire God's best for myself.

A quality of relationship, the quality of a relationship, what we see in God's word, they share, they partake, they join, they partner with me in my joy.

And in my suffering.

What I love about what Paul, when he describes the church and he talks about this, we share alongside one another, right?

What that means is when someone you're in relationship with, when good things happen to them, you're not jealous of them, but you celebrate with them.

When people that you're in relationship with, when they go through the difficulties and the burdens that they carry in life, it doesn't mean that from a distance we show them pity, but it means in relationship that we carry and go on the journey with them.

When we see the quality of relationships.

It means that we've got those in and around us and those, that we do this for them as well, that we pray for them even when they haven't asked or we haven't asked for it on the mind.

Quality of relationships means that in that, as I speak truth in hope of the gospel, that my goal within that is encouragement of you to take another step of faithfulness, of walking with Jesus.

And that in that the quality of relationship, it means the requirement of.

It means a requirement of time.

And that's what we have to examine within our lives, is God, where do you have me?

And some of us know so many, but very few know us of who we truly are.

And it's in the investment of saying, I'm willing to open up my life to be vulnerable to you, so that.

You can open up your life to.

Be vulnerable for me, so that we can move beyond a Friendship and move into a relationship of brother and sister in Christ.

And what is amazing about this is that when we live in these quality of relationships that God has for us, what it shows is the love that we have for God and the love that God has for us.

You may feel like there's no one.

In this room or no one that you know that you can have the depth of relationship that you desire, that you can't open and share your life and share your burdens, that they would run from you if they knew.

But what's beautiful in this is we can have that relationship with Jesus.

He will love you unconditionally, right where you are.

While leading you to God's will and God's best for your life, he will take on your suffering.

And he took it on, on the cross of Calvary.

And in response to taking on your burden, he gives you his joy.

He is.

And he will continue to intercede on your behalf to the father.

He gives you his spirit to live in, to dwell in you, to do, among many things, to encourage you in the walking of obedience and in the difficulty of life.

And here's what I love.

You ever call somebody and you hear it rain a couple of times and then it goes to voicemail?

You may ever do that to anybody else, right?

It's been done to us.

We do it to people.

Here's what they're saying to you and here's what you're saying to them, for good reasons or for not good reasons.

Hey, right now I don't have time.

I don't have time.

We'll catch up later.

Maybe on my ride home I can give them a call back or maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

You.

I've walked through the journeys and the struggles of life.

I've felt that I've been surrounded by a group of people who love me, who encourage me, and who will be there for me.

But there are points and times in my life.

In the 44 years that God has.

Blessed me on this earth, in the 22 years that I've had the privilege of knowing Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior and the group of people that have surrounded me, in spite of knowing all of the things that I know, there's been points in times in my life where I felt alone.

I felt no one understands.

I felt no one will listen.

And I've even believed the lie from Satan that no one cares.

But here's what I can cling to and what you can cling to.

If you're sitting here this morning and you're like, but, Bo, I'm so insignificant.

I'm so small.

No one has time for me.

I feel like in every relationship I have, it's sent to voicemail.

Sent to voicemail.

Sent a voicemail.

Here's what I'm going to tell you.

If you hear anything else this morning, hear this.

Jesus has time for you.

Jesus has time for you.

For every worry on your heart, he's got time for you and he's got compassion for you.

For every battle that you face, Jesus is there for you.

And he wants to carry you through the battle as you walk through it.

For every moment of loneliness, Jesus wants you to know that you're not there by yourself, that he's there with you, that Jesus always has time for you.

Jesus values your time in you so much, so much that just like he told Peter, he died on the cross for you, for you and for me, and for every moment when we feel in this world that we're insignificant.

He spread his arms wide on the cross to show the significance that we can find in him and in him alone.

Would you pray with me?

God, I thank you, Lord, for the joy of what you give us oftentimes, Lord, in the messiness of relationships.

Lord.

I thank you for the blessing that you give us other people, a spouse, kids, that you give us friends, that you give us the church, that we can come together, Lord, and work to sharpen one another for the goodness and the glory of Christ.

God, I thank you that you give.

Us people who do not know you and you call us to be their friend, you call us to be their neighbor, you call us to be their.

Coworker, Lord, so that we can witness to them, that we can share with.

Them, that we can teach them the truth of your word.

So that one day, Lord, they move from being the non believer friend that we have to the brother and sister in Christ, that we've been adopted into the family of God.

Lord, I thank you for that.

And so, Lord, I pray that we would be willing to invest in these relationships, Lord, I pray that in truth and love we would speak the hope of the gospel to one another, whether that's in an encouragement or whether that's in correction.

But, Lord, above all, I thank you.

I thank you that what we have.

First and foremost in primary is a relationship with you, a relationship initiated by you, a relationship made possible by you, a relationship grown by you, a relationship of sacrifice by you.

And Lord, in that it fuels everything that we have.

So thank you.

Thank you, God, for becoming our father and calling us into relationship.

Lord, I pray if there's anyone here.

This morning and they feel alone, they feel lost, they feel broken.

They feel.

That the choices and the decisions that they've made have cost them greatly.

God, I pray what they would hear, what they would sense in the drawing of your spirit is that there's a.

Savior who paid the price for every sin that they've committed or that they will commit.

There's a savior who took on the.

Penalty for the wages of their sin and took that on himself, and that's Jesus.

And today, Lord, I pray, as your.

Spirit draws them and leads them, they'll.

Surrender their heart and their will to.

You, and they'll form the most important relationship of their life, one with their savior and Lord Jesus.

Lord, would you rule and reign in this place?

And it's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks again for listening, and be sure to check back next week for another episode.

In the meantime, you can visit [e-mail] or by searching for Willowridge Church on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.