Reset My Safe People

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected], dot. We would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Now. Enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Speaker B: Well, good morning again. And we are in a series called Reset. And we want to do the series this time of the year as school is starting back and football season is starting and the weather is getting cooler because life can get complicated. Life can get confusing. Life can really get jumbled up with schedules and such. What? And so we wanted to simply take a series to where we encourage people to slow down, evaluate and assess how we're doing. Life. You know, our life is on a certain trajectory. We're moving in a certain direction. And it's good from time to time just to ask yourself this question, where am I going to be when I get where I'm going? Because you're moving somewhere. You're going somewhere. You're headed towards something. And sometimes in life, if you don't like where you are and you don't like where you're going and you don't like where ultimately you're going to be, it's important that you realize I'm large and in charge of me. And if there's going to be any significant change in life, I need a reset. I need a reset. So we've tried to hit different aspects of life that are important to establish a reset. This morning I want to talk to you about this subject, and that is a reset in my safe people. A reset in my safe people, causing us to evaluate who is it that we're allowing into our circle? Who is your circle of friends? Who are the people who you allow into the closest parts of your life that you share details and secrets with? That person that your dog doesn't even bark at when they walk through the door? That person that knows your passcodes? That person that you trust more than anyone in the world. And I'm gonna tell you, the older you get, the smaller that circle is because you realize that in your life and in mine, you're gonna have a lot of acquaintances. You're going to meet a lot of people, but you'll have very few friends. We joked about this before. We say on Facebook, you know, they refer to the people on your Facebook page as your friends. I get that. That's sweet, and that's endearing. But not all those people are your friends. Somebody say, I got 500 friends. No, you don't. No, you don't. You may know 500 people. You don't have 500 friends. There's not 500 people in your world that cares enough about you to walk into your world if everybody else decides to walk out. I want to talk about safe people. I want to talk about some people in your world that love you and will be with you, not just when you're right, but they love you, and they'll be with you when you are wrong. They're people who will love you more than anything else in the world. Who are your safe people? The late, great zig Ziglar, a great christian motivator, a great businessman, he used to say that the most significant difference that will happen in your life and mine over the next year is tied to two things. Number one, it'll be tied to the things that you learn. The things that you learn. You see, we're all ignorant. We're just ignorant on different subjects. So it's in the things that we learn. And then, number two, it'll be in the people you meet. The people you meet. And I would say kind of a subset to that idea. It is the people you meet and allow to get close to you, allow to influence you, the people that you allow those to have access to you, the people that you are relying on. You see, everyone is created with equal value. We all would agree with that. Everyone in God's eyes are created with equal value. But listen, not everyone will bring equal value into your life. Though they have equal value, God created them with great value. They will not bring equal value into your life. Now, you and I should try every day to bring value into the lives of other people that we come in contact with. It's the idea of ministering to people. We should be, as the old saying goes, we should be thermostats and not thermometers. A thermometer registers the temperature in a room. A thermostat regulates the temperature in a room, and we should change the temperature in the room when we walk in. People should be better because they know us. People should be blessed because they're around us. And so not everyone in your life or in mine will bring that level of value. Though as a Christian, we should try to bring that value to the people that we encounter. Friendships we make are essential. They're essential to who we become. Someone has well said. Association begets assimilation. You and I will become like the people we hang out with. The proverb, there is proverbs, chapter 13, verse 20. It says, if you walk with wise people, you will be wise. And we are either wise or otherwise. And sometimes that's tied to the people we hang out with. Remember that old saying, if you're going to soar with the eagle, you can't hang with the turkeys. And so you have to evaluate some of the friends you have. Now, understand, I'm not saying kick anybody to the curb, but I am saying, and then we're going to cover this in the message this morning. Learn how to differentiate between those people that pour into you and the people you pour into. Not everyone you pour into will pour back into you. There is a law of reciprocity that, you know, you kind of receive what you give. The Bible says, teaches that, in fact, that principle. I'll get to it in a moment. But what I'm driving at for you this morning is you have to have relational intelligence. You know, we have IQ. You have Eq as emotional intelligence. But let me tell you, as important as those things are, is relational intelligence. You have to have some sense of who you are allowing close to you. Who are you allowing to pour into you now? And let me give you a disclaimer here. You're gonna get burned along the way. There are gonna be some people that you will allow to have access in your life who will betray you, who will hurt you. In fact, just the idea of being betrayed is very illustrative of the fact that they could not betray you if they were not close to you. And I promise you, if we had a minute, I could survey this room, and everybody in the room has a betrayal story. There's someone you allowed into your life who absolutely just ran over you and stabbed you in the back and betrayed you. You've heard that expression, as I have as well. There's a sucker born every minute. Well, that actually originated from PT Barnum. Remember the famous Barnum Bailey circuses back in the day? Well, PT Barnum had a business partner of his that this guy talked him into investing a huge sum of money into a business prospect. And he did. And the guy simply betrayed Barnum. And Barnum said of himself, he said, well, there's a sucker born every minute. And so we kind of picked up on that. And I think all of us from time to time have felt suckered. We felt drawn into things and deceived by people that, that we trusted. And if I can help you with that, it's helped me, is to know that Jesus had twelve guys that he chose to be close to him, and one of them betrayed him. And if Jesus, the perfect son of man, who never did anything wrong, said anything wrong, thought anything wrong, if he could be betrayed, then don't beat yourself up if you've been betrayed. Here's a problem that happens when I'm talking to you about a subject like this, is I'll have someone say, well, Bill, I've tried to pull some people in. I've tried to have a close circle. I tried to have my safe people. It didn't work for me. So now I'm just gonna isolate myself and insulate myself from everyone. Now, I understand that tendency, and I understand that there may be moments in your life when that needs to happen. When you're hurt, for example, I mean, you try to help an injured animal and it will bite you. Even if it loves you, it will bite you, because that natural instinct that God has built within all of us is self preservation. We all have that. And when you've been hurt, there may be a season, a period of time when you really do isolate and insulate. Might be grief, I get that. It just might be some soul crushing experience you've gone through in life. And for a period of time, you are hurting. And so the best thing you can do for you is you need to isolate and you need to insulate. But let me say, that's good to go there, but it's not good to stay there. If you stay in that condition, it is not good for you. Isolation, psychologists will tell you, is a potent killer. In fact, the Bible teaches the principle in romans 14 that we are made for relationships. It says this, none of us live to ourselves alone. None of us die to ourselves alone. We actually need each other. We need relationships. There is not a person in this room that doesn't need someone. In fact, if you think about it, in the garden of Eden, the first issue God dealt with when he created mankind in the Garden of Eden was not sin, it was solitude. You remember, he said, it's not good for a man, that he should be alone. So solitude was the first issue God dealt with before he ever dealt with sin, with solitude. You know, in the penal system, they have a punishment for the worst of offenders. It's called solitary confinement, and it is designed to put someone alone with nothing else but themselves and their thoughts. And sometimes it will run a person completely insane to be left to simply think about nothing but what is in their own mind. Because if you can get outside yourself and interact and relate to someone else. It has a detrimental effect on your emotional and mental health. I'm just driving at the fact that you need other people. And I get it. When you're hurt, you isolate and insulate. I said a moment ago, you can go there, but please don't stay there. Sometimes you have to venture out. Open your heart, buy a puppy, be willing to try again. Be willing to trust. Or a cat. God help you if you buy a cat. But anyway, start willing. Start willing. Be willing to help somebody. You gotta get to that stage, and you have to get to that place in life where you allow your heart to trust again. Oscar Wilde says, you need a good friend, because a good friend is that one who will stab you in the front. And proverbs says, faithful are the wounds of a friend. A friend is someone who will be honest with you. And we need people to be honest with us. We need someone who will, as the Bible says, speak the truth, but speak it in love. Tell someone what they need to hear. Tell someone the hard truth about the reality, but say it in a way that you know they care. They care about you, and they speak the truth to you, and they speak the truth in love. By the way, romans 1215 says, you need a friend who will rejoice with you when you rejoice and will weep with you when you weep. Do you have somebody like that? Do you have a safe person that is happy for you when you're happy, and sad for you when you're sad. You ever called someone, you had something great happen in your life, now you get a new car, you buy something, you're all happy about it, and you call me, well, I'm glad somebody got a new car, I got a new house, I'm so sad. Well, I'm glad somebody got a new house. Like saying, dude, you know how many cars are out there? Go buy you one. I didn't get the last one. You know, me being blessed doesn't diminish you. God didn't take something from you to bless me. Why do you become that attitude? Not everybody's gonna be happy about your success. Not everybody's gonna weep with you when you weep or rejoice when you. When you rejoice. But let me tell you, your safe people should. I mean, the people closest to you ought to be happy when you're happy, and they ought to be sad when they're sad. And I'm just saying you need a reset. If that isn't the case with the people you think are close to you sometimes you need to clean out that friend list, and you need to have some relational intelligence to know where to put them in your life. You need them, and they're important. God brought them into your life. But maybe, maybe the law of reciprocity isn't working for them. And so what you do is you say, you are now an acquaintance of mine. You're not really one of my safe people. Now, you don't have to tell them that. I mean, be nice. You don't have to say, you're out. You're off my list. Right? You can do that. You don't have to announce it. You just say, I've decided. In this room, some of you are already cutting some people off your list. I can tell them looking at you, dear Lord, don't blame me with that now. I'm just trying to help you. But let me give you the principle for my message this morning. Look at ecclesiastes, if you could find it. If not, look at the screen. It'll be in that part of your bible where the pages are stuck together. But psalm, proverbs, ecclesiastes, if you're looking it up. If not, look at the screen. I want to give you some great principles for friendship, and we're going to talk about it. The safe people. Notice what he says, verse nine. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him out. But pity the man. Pity the fool. Pity the man who falls. I know, my mind goes there, too. Pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up, and then jump down to verse twelve. Though 1 may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. And I love this. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. So Solomon is using a very great principle, and a great, good thing to get your eye focused on the fact that another person in your life, even three in your life, who are your safe people, make you better. Let me give you the first thing to do when we're talking about safe people. Number one, I would tell you, find them. Find them. Locate them. I said a moment ago, there's a locked in law of likeness, a locked in law of likeness that says whatever I want, I have to give away the law of reciprocity. For example, Galatians six seven. It teaches the principle of sowing and reaping. So in other words, if I want friends in my life, I have to find them. Proverbs 17 says, if a person would have friends. Now, what is indicated in the wording of that is some people won't. But if you're one that would have a friend like this, remember I said you need it. And if you can get yourself to the point where you can accept this, then you have to be proactive. If you would have friends. Proverbs 17 says you have to take the initiative. You must first show yourself to be friendly. In other words, the way to have a friend is first and foremost to be a friend. You got to put yourself out there again, you got to try, you got to trust, you have to be vulnerable a little bit and realize I might get burned again. What is there, 52 cards in a deck of cards and there's only four aces. You're going to go through a lot of cards to find the aces. There's going to be a joker in there, there's going to be some things in there you're not going to like. But if you're going to find the aces you have to work through the cards. And I'm just saying that your safe people are people that you're going to have to find. You're going to have to locate them. And probably, if you think about it, the safe people, and I have some in my life and the safe people I have in my life were at one time a complete stranger to me. I didn't know them. And so you have to locate them. You have to be willing to be a friend to someone in order to have that friend. Think about the ministry of Jesus. Jesus ministered to 5000 people on one occasion. In fact they believe that was back the way they counted in the Bible. They counted the men but there were women and you get 5000 men and women, you got a bunch of kids somewhere. So a lot of scholars believe there's probably the feeding of the 20,000 is what he actually fed, but they call it 5000, call it 5000 families. So we talk about like yesterday we fed. This past week our CRC took care of 1285 families. Well yeah, that's incredible. You realize that's three to five people per family and now you're up to four or 5000 people that were, you see the difference there? So I'm just suggesting to you that when they have the feeding of the 5000, it's probably the feeding of the 20,000. So my point is Jesus ministered to thousands of people but he was only close to twelve. And out of the twelve, check this, he was only really close to three, Peter, James and John. You see this when he went up on the mount of transfiguration and he had the other guys to stay behind. And he took Peter, James and John. What's the point? Jesus had relational intelligence, and he realized his safe people need to be that closest circle around him. Now, here's something to consider. It doesn't matter the size of church you're involved in. Statistics show that regardless of the size church you're involved in, you will never probably personally know more than 50, 50 to 60 people. If somebody says, man, this church is huge, and I don't know if I find a place in the church. Well, you could go to a church of 100 and you're still not, you're gonna same percentage. You're not gonna know more than 50 or 60 people if you go to a small church of 100 people. So being in a big room like this, you may not ever know anyone. And even if you're an usher, a greeter, you get to know people. You probably really won't ever really know more than 50 or 60 if statistics are true. And out of that group, you will not be close to only a handful. And that's okay, because you're safe people. To develop that, the circle has to be smaller and you have to be intentional and purposeful to find them. And it is, the first step to having them is you have to put yourself out. In fact, Andrew Carnegie, who was a famous businessman, he had several millionaires that worked for Andrew Carnegie. And an interviewer was asking him one time, how in the world did you have all of these millionaires working for you as your salespeople? You know what he said? None of them were millionaires when I met them. He said, what I learned is the principle, if you're going to find gold, you can't look for the dirt. He said, when I'm looking for gold and I'm looking for the best in people, I have to discard the dirt and go for the golden well. That's true of your safe people. You're not going to find any perfect safe people because we're not perfect safe people. Everybody's flawed. We're all broken, just in different places. So don't let that discount someone because they've had a past or they have difficulties that they're dealing with. It's just you're looking for, you're trying to find those safe people. That's why I can tell you getting involved, I'll give a plug for the church. But getting involved in serving gives you access to people who have a lot of things in common with you that share values. And so many times friendships have been formed in the life of a church. We have people that have moved away, or they're even in other churches now, but their friendships were formed when they were a part of our church family. You ask some of them, they'll say, well, I met them when we went to the church together, and we were in a group together, and now we were great. We're still great friends. So I'm saying church is a great place to meet people who have the same values, maybe the same struggles, but you have to. My point is, and I hope you don't miss this, you have to be proactive. Listen, you can never do big things if you surround yourself with small people. You need people who think bigger. You need people who will make you better. They need to be your safe people. Here are three types of people that you'll have that you need. Relational intelligence. On. Number one, you're going to have what I call constituents. Constituents. How do I define that? They are for what you are for, but they are not necessarily for you. You work together, they're for what you're for, but they're not necessarily for you, their constituent. You have mutual goals. You have a lot in common. They're for what you're for, but they're not necessarily for you. So I'm saying relational intelligence helps me define that relationship. Okay, I get that. They're never going to be any of my safe people. That's okay. I love them. We work together. We have mutual goals. They're for what I'm for. We're for the same things. They're just not for me. And I understand that. Here's the second type. You're gonna have Confederates. What do I mean by that? They're not for you. They're not what you are for, but they are against what you again. Or what you are against. In other words, they'll team up with you for a cause, to fight something, to be against something. And you need those types of people from time to time. You need confederates. You need someone who's willing to fight for you or to fight for a cause. They're not for you or even for what you're for. They're just against what you're against. Does that make sense? Here's the third one, and this is the best one. Confidence. Confidence. They love you unconditionally. They are there for you. They will pour into you as you pour into them. We talk a lot about draining friendships and replenishing friendships. And when you're trying to find a confidant, you're trying to find that person, that is the person who will pour in you as equally as you pour into them. You know, one way you can find out about that person is when you spend time with them. How does it. How do you feel after you've been with them? Just making it as practical as I know. How have you hung out with somebody and you're just ready for them to go? How does that mean? You're just like, tick tock. For the love of God, could a meteor hit the house right now? I mean, you're just. You're ready for them to go. The whole time you're with them, you feel life being drained out of you. You're like the witch on Oz. I'm melting. You know what I mean? Well, you may have been pouring into them, and that's beneficial, but you're getting nothing in return, which would be reciprocal. That's why you feel that way now. That's great. You're going to have people, I'll have people we minister to. That's part of what we do. But you have to have relational intelligence to know they're not a confidant, because it's all going one way. I'm pouring into them. Ain't getting nothing out of this. Now, that replenishing relationship is when you could be with someone, and all of a sudden, it's not tick tock, it's cock a doodle doo. They've been there a long time, and it's just like, we stay another hour or two. Let's go get breakfast, right? I mean, you're just hanging out, and the time flies, and when they leave, you miss them, and you can look forward to the time, you get to spend more time with them, because you were blessed and benefited by them, by their presence, and it was replenishing. That's the kind of people, that's the kind of person that you really want in your life. Let me touch on one more thing, and I gotta hurry. If someone can leave you, if someone can leave you, it's because they could not stay. But if someone stays with you, it is because they could not leave you. So sometimes you're better. If somebody walks out of your life, you're better to let them go, realizing that they're walking away from me because they couldn't stay, because if they were supposed to be here, they would still be here. Right? Relational intelligence. Find them. Number two, and I'll go quick. Now you have to filter them. Filter them. Listen, if you're the smartest person in your circle of friends, you need some new friends. You need some people who add something to your life. You need some people who are smart, where you aren't, who see things you don't. The Bible says iron sharpens iron. You know what makes iron sharp? Resistance. Now, I don't mean just to be confrontational with people, but I mean to give them the honest appraisal and honest evaluation that iron will sharpen its. Iron will sharpen iron whenever there's some resistance there. And so you need to filter them. A couple of months ago, I shared this with you. So some of you are here that take notes. You may already have this in your notes, but for those of you that didn't, I want to give this to you again. There are five kinds of people that you cannot help. I mean, you remember Judas? He was with Jesus, walked close to him. I mean, Jesus couldn't. You know why Jesus refused to receive help? There's some people that will get close to you that you cannot help. So you have to understand, there are steps you need to take when you have somebody who's very toxic in your life. And what I want to share with you is the principles that you'll find this if you'll break it down. And look at the relationship between Abraham and his nephew lot in Genesis 13. All four of these things I'm going to share with you quickly are found there. Number one, if you're dealing with a toxic person in your life as you filter them. Number one, you have to have, first and foremost, a conversation with them. You have to tell them how their words and their behavior is affecting you. Give them the benefit of the doubt. They may not know. They may absolutely clueless. Now, I will tell you. If someone is very narcissistic, if somebody, they won't receive it anyway because they don't see it. But at least you start there. You start with a conversation and you say, look, love you, man. Love you, gal. But this is how those words and that conduct, this is affecting me, and I need to be honest with you. Number two, if that doesn't work, second thing after conversation is limitation. Limitation? That means you set boundaries. That means you deal with them in dosages and you determine the dosage. So you have limitation. What's the third step if that doesn't work? The third step is separation. Separation. That means the termination of a relationship. That means you release them to the care of the Holy Spirit. Meaning you still pray for them and you still love them, but you simply say, God, I can't help them. I'm completely turning them over to you. Separation. And it just may be for a while. But during that, you know what? You'll find out. You'll find out during the separation period if the relationship was worth salvaging. You can't always see it because of the fog. But once the fog lifts, you'll see, okay? Was this worth. Is this worth an investment in the future? Is it not? Am I dealing with a narcissistic person who will not change? If so, move on. And number four, conversation limitation, separation. Number four, elimination. Elimination. That is the complete, permanent termination of that relationship in my life. I've told you this before. Love is given, but access to you has to be earned. Did you hear that? You give love to everybody, but access to you has to be earned. You earn trust in God. We trust. And beyond that, everybody else has to earn it. And when somebody violates your trust, it's okay to say, you're gonna have to earn that trust. I love you, but you're gonna have to earn that trust. So you have to filter them. Number three, form them. Form them. Once you've found them, once you filter them, begin to form them. What do I mean by that? Cultivate that relationship with time, with effort, cultivate that relationship. What you'll find the principle of Matthew seven is you will begin to attract what you are. If you're a loving person, you're a forgiving person. As you begin to cultivate that relationship, you'll find that there is some reciprocity in these safe people that you're developing around your life. You begin to draw them to you. Remember proverbs 1320. Walk with the wise, and you will become wise. Here's the fourth one. Forge them. Forge them. In other words, be slow to walk away from that kind of friend. Proverbs 27 three, do not forsake your friend. Can I tell you from personal experience, and I think everybody might agree with this, the greatest friendships in your life will be formed in the fires of adversity. Just as steel is hardened, just as steel changes in the fire, so does a great friendship. When you go through an experience in life. And that friend is there for you and walks through that experience with you, who does not judge you or does not spread lies about you and receives what you're going through and does their best to help you, you've got a friend. And sometimes the friendship doesn't involve saying anything. Man, I can tell you when Cindy went to heaven, there was a period of time that no one could really say anything to me that would really help me. Meaning that I knew the verses I mean, you sit down with me and say, oh, Bill, we're going to see her again in heaven. I get that. But right now I'm grieving that she's not here. I mean, I get heaven. I believe in heaven. I hope all that's right. I've choose to believe it is. I believe it is. But you know where I was at that moment, I said, you know, but you know, the friends that really helped me the most were the friends that just didn't really say anything, just showed up and just sat with you. And when you're going through something, sometimes, you know, if you've got a friend that's going through a crisis, don't feel like you got to be there. And I. I guess what I'm saying is, don't answer questions they're not asking. Don't feel like you need to fill the silence with words. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just sit and stare. Just be there for them and be sensitive. You know, just say, hey, you know, I'm gonna go now, but I love you. I'm praying for you, and I'm always there. You know that, and just walk away. And I'm just saying, man, when you go through, whether it's grief, maybe a divorce, maybe the loss of a job, maybe a health challenge, I don't know what the challenge is that you're going through, but I'm just saying, when you walk through that, notice who those people are that come around you and that love you. I said a moment ago, that kind of friend will not only be with you when you're right, they will be with you when you are wrong. They'll bring a shovel and want to know where to bury them. I'm just kidding about that now, sort of. But I'm just saying that's the kind of safe people. And guys, please hear me. Those kinds of friends are forged in the fires of adversity. There's a beautiful principle in Hebrews twelve, verse 27, it says that there is a shaking that's coming, and when the shaking is finished, everything that is permanent will remain. Think about an earthquake. You have that massive earthquake, and all of a sudden, you see the integrity of a facility, but what's still standing? Engineers will study that, and they learn from that. They learn from hurricanes and storms. And listen, it is only the hurricanes, it is only storms. It is only the earthquakes that really prove the integrity of the structure. You don't know how strong the structure is till it's shaken. That's what Hebrews twelve is. Saying. And then it says, after the shaking is done, what remains is what is permanent. So I'm saying, when your life is shaken, look and see who remains, who's still standing, who's still with you, who's still there, or who walked away, who left you, who turned, and that's okay. If they could go, they weren't supposed to stay. And if they stay, they weren't supposed to go. There are people that will be in your life. You know what they're like? They're like scaffolding. And I'm not being disparaging. I'm just saying they're like scaffolding. You need scaffolding. If you're building a building, right? You need scaffolding. You get scaffolding, and you can begin to do the structure, and you can do the drywall. And there's a lot of things, you can't reach those things without scaffolding. You got to have it. But when you don't need it anymore, guess what? The scaffolding goes away. There are people in your life and in your business that are going to be that way, and you need your relational intelligence to know God sent them in. I needed them while they were there. I've worked with people that aren't here anymore, but they were necessary when they were here. And I look back at the people God has sent, even that I've worked with through the years, and I've been doing this nearly 50 years. I've worked with hundreds of people, and obviously, God moved them on to other things. Sometimes I moved them on to other things, but I'm just saying, you can't fix it with a shot. You got to fix some of them with a shot. So some of those people you bring out, but every one of them brought value, and every one of them was necessary for a season. And that's true in your life, it's true in your business. And you have to have the relational intelligence to know, there are people that will be here. God will send them in your life. You need them when they're here, but it doesn't mean they're permanent, and they're gonna be there forever. That's okay. That's okay. God's gonna move them on to bigger and better things, and you pray for them and want them to do better, but they were not supposed to be with you, or they'd still be here. So you have to have the relational intelligence to know that when the shaking is done, what's permanent will remain, and you have to be okay with that. And you have to realize that those great friendships, those amazing friendships, are forged in the fires of adversity. You know how to evaluate them. Three words, and we're done with this. Second time I've told you, we're done. So you know I'm right there. We're almost done that much. Give me a skinny minute. Number one, love. Proverbs 1717. A friend loves you at all times. Love. Number two, second word, loyalty. Loyalty. Proverbs 1824. One who has an unreliable friend will soon come to ruin, but there is a friend that will stick closer to you than your own family. Loyalty proverbs 1113. A friend will keep your confidence. Third word. Longevity. Longevity. Love, loyalty. Longevity. That's the forging of a friend. Proverbs 27. As I said, I gave it a moment ago. Do not forsake your friend. God's blessed my life with some great friends, some people that he sent into my life that have stood with me through the fires of affliction and adversity. And I know if you think about your life, you've got friends like that, too. You've got people in your world that are like that, too. And if you don't, I hope the message will be a time for you to reset, and to reset the people closest to you, the people you need more than anyone. You're safe people, and you need safe people. You need those people where you can say some things sometimes that aren't real sanctified. Can I be real? I've said some things that weren't real sanctified. I've said some things I was ashamed to say. I've go so far out on this limb since I'm confessing this morning. I got your attention now, didn't I? I've said things I don't even believe. When my heart was broken and my soul was crushed, I've gone through that period of time where I. But, you know, I had to say it. I was thinking it might as well said it, and that's okay. You know what? You know what I found with my heavenly father? He loves me. He lets me say stupid stuff because he loves me. And the people that are your safe people, they need to let you say some stupid stuff sometimes. Do you have anybody like that? Let you say something stupid, something that you don't even believe, something that you might be ashamed that you said it later, but you needed to say it and they needed to hear it. That's your safe people, and you and I need them. So, friend, reset those people. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word. Your word is so profound, sometimes we can't see the top of it and we can't reach the depth of it because it is so profound. And sometimes, like this morning, your word is extremely practical. It just makes sense. It's common sense. We just read it and go, duh. Yeah, but your word is always powerful. Because if we take the principles and the precepts of your word and apply them to our life, it changes things. So I pray we'll walk out of this room after worshiping and after giving and after receiving communion and after hearing your word, I we'll take something from this service that will make us more effective this coming week. And lastly, Lord, I pray for my friends, who may never have trusted you as their personal savior, that this might be the moment where they're in this room or watching online, or they'll watch this service later in the week or a podcast where they just simply say, Lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all I know about you. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. I receive you today as my savior. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. [00:39:11] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.