You and I | Ps Ryan Brewer

Hey, welcome to the City Point Church podcast.

Thanks for joining us. Every day is an opportunity to

take hold of. So we hope this message inspires

you and build your faith, but it helps you have more of a God

perspective for your day. Enjoy.

This month we've been focused, well, we've just started

focusing on relationships, which is really, really awesome.

And if we're going to be honest, relationships are the most

important parts of our life and but they can also be the most

confusing parts of our life as well.

And see, sometimes people are confusing and sometimes we're

confusing. And even something as simple as

saying hi to someone can be just the most interesting moment.

And so you say hello to someone, then they don't hear you.

And so your brains gone. All right, right.

What do I do next? Do I say it louder?

And it's like, oh, now I feel like I'm young.

I'm like, hello. It's like, oh, no, it's not how

I should respond. And then do I like, do I just

wait? And I'm like awkwardly waiting.

So I'm like, I'm probably just not going to say anything.

And that's just one moment. And what if it's a passing

moment here in church or down, down the cafe and it's about

friendship and you see someone, you're like, yes, this is it.

This is my purse. And we're going to hang out, get

food up deep chats, change the world.

It's going to be amazing. And then you don't see them for

hear them for three weeks. You're texting them, no reply.

And then you start replying the conversation in your head.

You're like, did I laugh too loud?

Did I say that joke too much? Did I say bless you idly?

I don't even know. And then they finally reply and

they're like oh hey, sorry I've been busy and for them nothing

has changed. And for you you've already

processed grief in those moments and I'm usually the one as well

that doesn't reply. So I'm sorry to anyone that has

been feeling those things. I still love you, I just forgot.

My bad. But because relationships are

confusing, and even with the awkwardness and the overthinking

and the moments where we question everything, we still

want friendship to be loved and to ultimately be long.

And why? Because God had designed us like

this from the very beginning. We were created for connection,

not isolation. To know and be known and to love

and to be loved, but in relation.

But if relationships matter that much, then we can't just drift

through them accidentally. We have to be intentional about

the you and I. So tonight the title and message

is called you and I and I want to talk about two areas that

shape every relationship we have, which is friendship and

love. So our first point tonight is

the influence of friendship. Can everyone say the influence

of friendship? Love it.

I do it with the youth every time I grab their attention in

case they were drifting off somewhere with friendships.

We can have many different friendships and many different

seasons of life and these groups and but each one plays an

important part of our, of shaping who we are today.

And it seems pretty important to God as well that we have good

friendships because the Bible's full of many different examples

of them. And there's one example of them

and it's in First Samuel 19, not on the screen because there's a

lot of it. And it's where the guy named

Jonathan and David. Now Jonathan was good friends

with David and we were getting along quite well.

And there was a situation where Jonathan was in where his father

was saying, hey, jealous and his father's king Saul is his name.

And he's going, I'm jealous of David getting really mad and

frustrated. And so he's like, I'm wanting

you to assassinate him and get some the guards as well.

And so Jonathan is like, this is not good.

I really like David. And So what he does is he

actually warns David, lets him get out and out of that moment

as well and sets him, continues him on the path of what God

called David to go to, which is the throne of Israel as well.

And ultimately through this act of showing that true friendship,

God was able to continue to use that.

And I would love Jonathan as my friend who's got my back.

And it's important to know who our friends are.

And you're probably not going to have a situation like that.

And I'm really hoping that never happens.

But to know those friends that have got you there in

Ecclesiastes 4, verse 9 to 10, and the new Living Translation

Ecclesiastes 4:9–10

is what I'm going to be talking about tonight.

If you've got your Bibles, that is very good as well.

And it says here, two people are better off than one foot.

They can help each other succeed.

If one person falls, then the other can reach out and help.

But if someone who falls alone, they're in real trouble.

These type of friends who these type of friends know who you are

and help give good wisdom and encouragement to making better

decisions and they ultimately help realign you back on the

right way of living how Jesus called us live because if

someone really loves you and they're willing to have those

tough conversations because they actually care about you.

And sometimes those conversations can be tough and

sometimes they involve a little bit of a whack on your head.

And I've had plenty of those and I'm very grateful for them.

And but they love you because of that, that if they didn't love

you, they wouldn't have that conversation.

Because if your world, it's full of people saying you're the

best, you're great, you're doing nothing wrong.

There is you're the perfect person right now.

That's probably a problem because there's a chance you've

not allowed anyone close enough to speak into your life or

someone has actually spoken into your life to do correction or

anything and you've gone, no, that's not for me.

But I want to let you know what the Bible says in one

Thessalonians 511 says so encourage each other and build

each other up just as you are already doing.

We are called to build each other up to encourage and be

doing it in love as well. Because anyone can point out

someone elses problem. But Jesus mentions to be careful

not to judge someone for the speck in their eye and ignore

the log in your own eye because who you walk with determines

where you walk. There are times in life where

you have to recognize when a friendship or even a whole group

is slowly leading you away or from Jesus or affecting who you

are. See the Apostle Paul says in one

Corinthians 15 verse 33, Bad company corrupts good character.

Many people make the mistake of associating with the wrong

crowd. And I want to let you know it's

not wrong that being around people that are not living

according to the word of God, we're actually called to reach

the lost, to bring people to Jesus.

That is what we're called to do. But is there signs of your

character or your relationship with God being affected?

See, Pastor Craig Rochelle says this, I can tell who you will

become like just by looking at who you are hanging around.

And there's been many moments in my life where I've had these

groups of friends around me who I've hung out through the years

of my years that I'm at now. And and with those groups, they

were good, good guys, but they weren't living a life for Jesus

as much. And and it was actually it's

time to affect who I am. And I could see I was separating

myself away from God just ever so slightly because it's not

something an immediate thing. It's a gradual because the enemy

is going. I'm I'm going to wait.

I know that I can if I can get this one little thing because

with it, where is it? There we go, because my

definites that I had my definites of this is not what

I'm going to ever do. Started turning to maybes and

started turning to, oh, it's actually OK, That's just a bit,

you know, religious thinking or like, you're just too strict

with it. And I could see my world

starting to shape in a different direction.

And I'm so grateful for this. I'm so grateful for the Lord

that I recognize that I had to separate myself from them.

And I didn't want to be mean or anything, but I knew this wasn't

good for my life because ultimately I didn't want to

jeopardize my relationship with Jesus.

And I could see that who I was was beginning to drift slower

and slower away. And wise people around me, they

were telling me, but my proximity of the friends that

were around me were closer. And so it was making that

decision to separate myself from the proximity of those around me

that weren't leading me closer to Jesus.

I had to step away from that to allow other people to come in.

And so from that decision, there was a gap in which God then

placed, or more so revealed good and faithful men in my life who

has shaped me and pulled me closer to Jesus, which I'm so,

so grateful for. Now this is all good.

This is all true. Great wisdom as well to take on

as well and make your life better.

But without this one very word, it's all meaningless and

pointless. And that word is love without

love. So the second point tonight is

unconditional love and if you could get anything from tonight,

it is in the scripture in Matthew 22 verse 37 to 39.

Matthew 22:37–39

This is Jesus speaking and Jesus replied, you must love the Lord

your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your

mind. This is the first and greatest

commandment. A second is equally important.

Love your neighbor as yourself. If there could be anything, it

would be in this verse. And I pray that you get a

revelation as well with it and God reveals more.

But when we're trying to love someone without you yourself

filled, it's conditional. It becomes self focused and you

keep trying to give out of an empty well, which means there is

a disconnect. But when your heart is

connected, it is full of God's love.

It overflows true love and that love is an agape love which

means unconditional and Jesus calls us to live like this.

In John 1512 he says this is my commandment that you love one

other one another as I have loved you.

Jesus loved us unconditioning and he was calling us to love

unconditioning because he loves us all unconditioning and there

man there is so many verses on how much he loves us.

We actually cannot fully understand or comprehend the

love that God has for us and I I was chatting with one of Josh at

the back there going man. I don't want to cry in the

moment because I'm just so in awe of how much he loves us and

there's such power in the love and what he does done for us.

And but to help us unpack what this love is and we're so

grateful that God spoke through the apostle Paul.

And this was Paul talking about love in one Corinthians 13,

verse four to seven, it says this love is patient and kind.

Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.

It does not demand its own way. It's not irritable and it keeps

no wrong record of being wronged.

It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever

the truth wins. Love never gives up, never loses

faith, is always hopeful and endures through every

circumstance. Now we can understand what love

is and through this way, but also we're human, we are needy

and we're going to fall short and we have a good chunk of the

Bible in the Old Testament showing how we cannot do it

alone. And that is why being connected

in relationship with Jesus brings the this overflow of love

as the worship team can join me as well.

Jesus says this in John 15, five Yes, I am the vine, you are the

branches, those who remain in me, and I and them will produce

much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing.

See, we cannot do it alone. We need him in our lives.

We, we need to have these forms relationships to be intentional

on who's speaking in our world and who we are speaking into

this because with that verse going God as number one, that we

love God first. Then through that love, that

connection with God, our love is able to be overflowed and poured

out to others so that we could love each other in those

moments. Because that is a that is what

God is commissioning and calling us to do that we love one other,

but first we love God. We have that relationship

connected in those things because without him, without

that relation, without being connected to the divine, we

cannot do those things. We cannot give out of a love

that we do not have because we need that divine love, that

agape love because it's he's the author of love.

He's the one that made it. And so if we're chasing things

of this world, that's not that type of love.

That is a falsified love. The real love is through God

alone because for our city, we are wanting to bring a social

and spiritual transformation of the lives around us.

So we have to be connected. We can't be doing it alone and

in this moment as well. God interrupted me during the

week and I love it. I love when God does it.

It's so beautiful and hey, he was told me just these 3 words

and and if you're here tonight listening and you've been

listening saying you don't understand my situation, you

don't understand what's going on this.

It's like you just don't know. God wants to let you know these

words they gave me and it's just three words and it's just saying

just let God, that's it. And I'm going just like God.

This is like, no, it's just just let God.

And I don't know who it is for, whether it's in this place where

someone listening, but God's just wanted to let you know, to

just let God. That's it.

Just like God, whether you're doing it in your own strength,

where you're holding it all just like God because He is the love,

He is a divine love. And you don't have to carry

these burdens alone. He is there with you.