 Welcome to Foundations of Faith. Today I want to talk to you about Christian relationships. I want to talk to you about friendship primarily because when we read the New Testament, what we catch really quickly is that community was a core value and expression of what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. See in our American culture today, we value very highly individualism and independence. We like to think that we can become self-made people, individuals. We like to be isolated. We want to pull into our garage, shut the door, and live our lives either online, binging on Netflix, or kind of being by ourselves. And we're very selective about when we want to expose ourselves to other people and open up our hearts to relationships. We live, as has been said, in one of the most connected generations, but also one of the loneliest generations that the world has ever seen. When we read the New Testament, especially the Book of Acts, right from the beginning of the church, in Acts chapter two, we see friendships and community and the importance of it developing. It says in Acts 2.42 that from the very beginning, believers were getting together in their homes day by day, breaking bread, praying for one another, remaining steadfast in the apostles' doctrine, studying the scriptures, and it says that there was a sense of awe and wonder that was taking place in their friendships and relationships. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 that all of us are members of the body of Christ, but none of us are the body by ourselves. We are individual members that together, we make the community of the church or the body of Christ, that we need one another. Because there's certain things that each of us bring to the table and adds to the other, friendship is a vital value of the Christian faith. The Bible says in the Book of Proverbs, that it says if you wanna be wise, then walk with the wise. It also says that just as iron sharpens iron, that's what friends and friendship does to one another. We actually sharpen one another because we need one another. It will be very, very difficult for us to live out our Christian faith without strong friendships. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, he says that bad company corrupts good character. So who we are close to and the relationships or the friendships that we have that are closest to us actually determine whether we're strong in our faith, whether we're living and flourishing in life or whether we're being drawn off course or we're lonely and isolated. Again, Proverbs, which is just such a book full of immense practical wisdom, says that the man who isolates himself seeks his own desire and rages against all wise counsel. Greatest mistake we can do is isolate ourselves from others and think that we can live out our faith without strong friendships. We desperately need strong friendships, the kind of friendships that lift us up, encourage us, edify us, provoke one another to good works, study the scriptures together, serve God together, laugh and have fun together, raise our kids together. That's the joy of life. What we find in who God is is God has eternally dwelt in community, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the bond of love. And what we find that he wants for us is for us to have strong friendships. It's been said like this, you wanna know where you'll be at in five years, show me your five closest relationships. It's because those friends that we let closest to us impact us in ways that we can't even imagine. How can we develop strong friendships? How can, if this hasn't been a normal part of our life, how can we practically begin to develop some strong Christian relationships? Well, one quick way that you can do it is join a small group at church. That's one practical way. You show yourself friendly, you actually end up with friends. So you sign up, it may be awkward on the first week, but you're gonna get to know some people who are in the same place in life that you are. A second thing that you can do is find a place to serve in a local church. Because if you just walk into a church and worship and walk back out, you might bump into somebody, but the odds of developing a friendship are minimized by how quick you come in and go out. If you find a place to serve, you're gonna find yourself side-by-side with some other people. And as you do that, you're going to develop rapport and friendship. The most important factor that determines whether we have friends or not is whether we open up our hearts and we actually invite people into our lives. Whether it's a small group serving in a ministry or just talking to people out in the lobby or finding some people at work or in your school, that also are trying to follow Jesus in the Jesus way and grow in relationship with God. If you find people like that, what you will find is that there's a principle called spiritual drafting where we draft off of one another and we're able to go further, faster, stronger, with more longevity when we do it together than when we try to do it on our own. Friendships are so important and let me just encourage you today. If you feel isolated and you feel alone, take a practical step in opening your life, whether it's a small group serving in ministry, going to an event or inviting a friend to lunch just to talk about life in general or to talk about the word of God in general and develop a friendship today. Your life will be impacted greatly and you'll be a stronger believer because of it.