This is the last week of our Fight Club series. We have talked about weapons that we can use against the enemy, weapons that God has provided us with. Why?
Let’s look once more at our series verse, John 10:10. It says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Whether you know it or not, we are at war. We have an enemy, the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion, wanting to destroy you. Jesus said that Satan wants to steal, kill and destroy your life. The enemy wants to take every good thing from you and he wants you to play the part of the fool. The good news is that God did not leave us in this battle defenseless. He gave us weapons to use to not only fight but to win the battles that we face every day. So it's time to fight.
One of the best weapons that God has given us to defeat Satan is the weapon of godly friendships. Every one of us needs help. Some of us need more help than others. So when it comes to your friends, do you have friends who love God and who live their life to please God, or do you have friends who really don't take their relationship with God or their faith seriously? Do you have friends who help you be the person God made you to be, or do you have a bunch of friends who are trying to bring you down?
We become like the people we hang around with. The Bible puts it this way, “Bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Corinthians 15:33) That is true. Look at your school. There are a bunch of different friend groups represented at your school and each group looks the same, they talk the same, and they are interested in the same things. It’s kind of funny and sad at the same time.
Everyone is trying to be unique while also trying to fit in.
Who you pick to be your friends is huge because you will become like them and they will become like you.
Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.
Here is my question– What are your friends like? What are they into? Do your friends care about Jesus? Do your closest friends go to church? Have your closest friends decided to follow Jesus?
If you and I are going to really live for Jesus we need a group of people in our lives that will help us to live for Him. That is what the disciples had. Jesus picked 12 guys and those 12 guys did life together. They followed Jesus and they looked out for each other. They had each other’s backs and those 12 guys changed the world.
Here is the bummer about friendships. Some of you have great Christian friends that help you live for Jesus, but most of us don’t. Most of us don’t have any true friends.
We have traded friends for followers.
In our culture, we have wrongfully replaced God’s plan He gave us for godly friendships with non-relational followers. There’s no real relationship, just dependency on social media validation and interaction online. And the people we actually hang out with aren’t leading us closer to God. A lot of us probably hang around a bunch of people who don’t take God very seriously and if you think about it, all they do is bring you down.
That is why every single one of us needs to be in a small group where we can find friends who are trying to seek a strong and solid relationship with God. Jesus had one, right? The early church had them. We need each other and you know that to be true, so why do people avoid small groups?
Let me talk to the guys here for a second. Guys don’t like to open up to someone else about what is really going on in their life. In the world that we live in today, guys are taught to not cry, to not show weakness, and to only depend on themselves.
And that is why most guys don’t have one single true friend. Or, we have friends that we talk about school or sports with, but we don’t have anyone in our life that we can share what's really going on.
We say everything is fine when it isn’t. Guys are taught to never show fear, even though many times we are scared to death, and we act as if we have it all under control. In many ways we are alone.
Girls, you are often much more relational than guys, but that doesn’t mean you are any less lonely. I mean girls love to talk. Girls can talk about anything. They can literally talk to a wall. They talk about who is seeing who, and who is doing what with who, but that doesn’t mean that they have let their guard down enough to really let another person know who they are.
Honestly, most people don’t really know us, and we kind of like it that way. We like to pretend. We pretend that we are happy, but we’re not. We pretend that everything is great when everything isn’t.
Hide your imperfections, maintain your image, and whatever you do, don't admit to anyone that you struggle, that you are weak. Don’t admit to anyone that there are habits that are hurting you and that there are addictions that control you. Put on a happy face and act like everything is great.
But let me tell you something interesting. Here is the reason ALL of this is wrong. God did not create you to be independent. This might shock some of you because our culture has told you the opposite. Do it yourself. Don’t rely on others. But that is not God’s way, it’s the world’s way. God didn’t intend for you to be independent. God created you to be DEPENDENT upon Him and His people. Let me give you an example.
Just hours before Jesus faces death by crucifixion, He finds Himself in the garden of Gethsemane. In John 17:11, Jesus, in the most famous prayer recorded in the New Testament, prays for His disciples. He doesn't pray that their life will be easy. He doesn’t pray that they will be rich or powerful or famous. Look at what Jesus prays for. He says,
“Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.” (John 17:11)
Jesus prays that His followers would be so close to one another that they would lean on each other for strength. He prays that they would never do life alone. And when you read the book of Acts, you will find that the first group of people who made up the church did exactly that. They became so close to each other and to God, that other people wanted what they had.
In the first church, they met together in the temple courts and worshiped God like we do here on the weekends. But they also gathered together in small groups in each other’s homes and opened up the Word of God and studied it together and prayed together and shared their hearts with each other. It was in their small group that they found a depth of friendship they never knew existed.
What can you expect from a small group? A small group is a place to–
Wouldn’t it be something if you could find a group of people who you could share your struggles with, and they felt comfortable sharing their struggles with you? Wouldn’t it be great to have a group of friends who won’t judge you and make you feel worse about what you have done? Wouldn’t it be great to have a group of friends who support you and pray for you and help you?
Again, in the first church that is exactly what they had.
Acts 2:44 says, “All the believers were together and had everything in common".
They were sharing, talking, and revealing; they were not holding anything back. We need someone to be there for us to help us through.
Small groups are also a place to–
2. ENCOURAGE AND BE ENCOURAGED.
Every human being needs encouragement. Every person wants the best drawn out of them. Motivate me, believe in me, and encourage me when I am tempted to quit. Help me achieve my greatest potential. Tell me again what God has called me to be.
We need a group of people who will encourage us to be the person that we know we need to be and who God wants us to be. We need a group of people to lift us up when we feel down and remind us that God is still in charge.
We need a group of people who will walk through the difficulties that we all face in life. No one should face a tragedy alone. No one should do life alone.
Life has a way of punching us and knocking us to the ground. What we need are people who will help us and encourage us to get back up again.
What else can you expect from a small group? Small groups are a place to–
3. READ, UNDERSTAND, AND APPLY THE WORD OF GOD.
Every time you have ever gotten into trouble, every time I have gotten into trouble is because we did the opposite of what God would have us do. We need a group of people who will not only show us what the Word of God has to say about doing life, but a group of people who have the guts to ask us if we are actually doing it.
We need a group of people who will encourage us to not merely listen to God’s Word but to actually do what God’s Word tells us to do.
James 1:22 puts it this way. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourself. Do what it says.”
Finally, a small group is a place to–
4. LOVE AND BE LOVED
Jesus, when He was with His small group on His last night, gave one command over and over.
In John 15:12 He says, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
And then a little later on He says, “This is my command: Love each other.” (John 15:17)
At another point, He says, “By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples. If you love one another.” (John 13:35)
Look out for each other. Have each other’s backs. Be there for each other. Stand strong together.
Here is the big, big question today. Are you ready to let down your guard and give this a try? I hope that you will, because having friends like this will help you fight when life gets hard. None of us were meant to figure all of this out on our own. We need each other, and together we can kick Satan’s butt.
In service, we have papers for you to fill out to join a small group. If you are reading this online, you can always go to sagebrush.church/remix-connect or text the word “remix” to 97000 and fill out the form to join a group.
Be that friend for someone else right now. Encourage your friends to get in a group with you. Every one of us needs friends and Remix should be the place where you find the best friends you have ever had because you have in common the most important thing. You both love Jesus and want to live your life for Him.
©2024 Sagebrush Church
