Landon Pickering

Landon Pickering | September 3, 2023

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Transcription

Well, good morning everyone.

Excited to be here. This is a special place. This is my first time speaking here. It is an honor to be here this morning. It's an honor to serve this church as an elder in this season as well. I get the opportunity to pastor a church called Trademark Church over in Fort Worth, Texas, and it's just a joy to be here. And I've got the opportunity over the years to speak in different environments. And I'll tell you, this place already feels like home. This place is awesome and I just want to honor you, pastor Tim, I love you. You are more than a friend, you're a brother, and I am just excited about what God is doing in you and what he's doing in this place and what is to come for the years ahead because you're stuck with me. So we're going to do this for a long time together, and right now our boys are up in their kids' class, so if you know anybody, they might need reinforcements up there because my son Nixon and Zion, when they get together, there's nothing they won't climb on. Jump over throw. Zion was standing on the chair, I guess with a sticker on his face looking through the door saying, where's Nixon?

So y'all might need to give some gift cards or something to the teachers up there after today. But it is a joy to do life with you and Janice. And guys, if you will, press in into what God has anointed this man to do in this place. I promise you, you will see the glory of God. You have seen it, and as we were singing, there is a destination that God has taken you toward and the best days of Embassy City are ahead and I can't wait to see it all unfold. And so if you have your Bibles, I want to jump into it this morning. First Peter chapter five. We're going to just look at one small verse this morning, and as you find that, and before we jump into it, lemme just pray. God, you are in this place. Yes, your presence has manifested itself among us. And as we were singing about a cloud by day and a fire by night in that journey of leading the Israelites to the Promised Land, there was a moment in Exodus 34 where you told them your name. You are Yahweh, the God of compassion and mercy.

You are filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. You are the God that is slow to anger, the God that forgives, sin, rebellion and iniquity,

And you want to pour out your unfailing love on a thousand generations. So God, speak to us today. Pour out your love and your mercy upon us this morning. Teach us to walk in your ways and to know you so that your name can receive all the glory and your son's wonderful name we pray, amen and amen. We got anybody that likes nature shows, national Geographic, shark Week, those types of things. Anybody be proud, be proud. My son who's up with Zion right now, and he's four and a half and he's really into this show on P B Ss kids. It's about these two brothers and the show's called the Wildcats. Okay? People know we got some Wildcats fans in the house. He's totally into the Wildcats and he starts telling me every day about these different animals. And I'm like, what kind of animal is that?

I don't even know that name. And I'm encouraging him. I like these types of shows as well so we can kind of get into it together. But I was like, son, when you get a little bit older, I'm going to introduce you to real nature shows. When you get a little bit older, we're going to teach you what a lion really does. Remember watch those shows and we're on the African plane and there's the beautiful zebra and gazelle and they're grazing and they're herd, and there's kind of this nice elevator music. And then the tone changes and the camera just pans into the tall grass and there's that lion and just creeping through the grass. And then at the right moment, that thing bolts out of there and the herd scatters. Now that lion is strategic, instinctively within that lion, he is trying to do something.

He's not going after the strongest. He's not going after the leader of the herd necessarily. He is trying to isolate one of the young zebra or the gazelle, one that might be injured, one that might be a little hurt, one that might be on the fringe of the herd. He's trying to isolate one of the animals from the herd because the lion instinctively knows that you're safe in the herd, but when you're outside of the herd, you're vulnerable. You're an easy target. And so the lion, as he circles around and as he chases down, he isolates one of the animals from the herd, and then his goal is to devour that animal. The Bible tells us in one Peter five, eight, this is a warning to followers of Jesus. Stay alert, watch out your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. You know what kind of Christians get devoured? Christians get devoured by the enemy when they don't have the right community. Followers of Jesus professing Christians, those that are trying to move in the direction of God, they get devoured by the enemy when they don't have the right community. The reality is when you look at the evil one, the devil, whatever title you want to put to the spiritual force that causes havoc within our world, he's not going after people that are already far away from God. He's already gotten them.

He's going after the followers of Jesus, the Christians, those that are trying to get to where it is that God wants to take them, but who are doing community outside of the herd. He's trying to pick them off, devour them. When you look at scripture, when you study the whole of the Bible, there is a theme throughout scripture and it is doing life together with people who are following God.

Look throughout scripture beginning to end, God emphasizes doing life together as his followers. In fact, the first thing that God said that wasn't good was for man to be what alone. Now I understand the context is Adam Eve partnership, marriage. That's the first and foremost primary message of that. But God on this creation journey throughout Genesis begins to call everything good that he creates. This is good. That's good. This is good. Then he sees man that he created and he says, oh, wait a second. There's all this beauty. There's all this glory. Even myself I walk with this created being who's been made in my image, but it's not good for him to be alone. God, even within his own existence has relationship one of the most crucial components to your life as a follower of Jesus, as having the right people in your life. And you go on from the Genesis story and you go throughout the people of God, God gives this mandate to his people, serve no other gods, follow my ways, be obedient to me and it will go well for your life. And what you see throughout scripture is when the people of God begin to do life with people who are not following God, things begin to fall apart. Then you jump into the New Testament and you see what Jesus says in John chapter 10 10. He says, I've come to give you life in life to the full. The enemy only comes to kill still and destroy.

You want to be protected from the enemy, the prowling lion. You've got to have the right people around you. And so I'm going to build my church, which is not just a building you meet in, but a people you belong to. And then you see all throughout the New Testament church, when you study the Book of Acts, they met together daily. They did life together. They broke bread together, they shared finances together. There was this whole community in which God's people existed and there was great persecution. The church spread out throughout the world. But what you found is wherever a Christian went, they established community with other Christians, churches were built, people did life together. There is a mandate upon your life as a follower of Jesus to do life with people who are following Jesus.

But I don't know along the way where we bought into this idea or notion, I don't know exactly what point in church history or what point in time maybe in the American church history that we bought into this idea that we can follow Jesus. We could show up to church on Sunday but not do life with the people that we go to church with. We can walk through these doors, we can sit in these seats, we can worship, we can read our Bible, we can pray, and that's enough for us to thrive as followers of Jesus. I've been in pastoral ministry for almost 15 years. I grew up as a pastor's kid. I've been around church my entire life when I was born. Nowadays, wait a couple weeks till you bring your baby. I don't know what the healthy time span is, man. Back then you're just born in that church and you were there on Sunday morning and on Sunday night. Then you were there on Wednesday night, then you had you things, then you had potluck, which I'm not an advocate for anymore. I like catered food, but barbecue is different than potluck. We have a barbecue potluck. No, but the whole idea, listen, all of that was created because throughout church history, there has been an understanding that we need community.

But somewhere along the way, a lot of Christians, a lot of people who love Jesus and they want what God has for them, have bought into this live from the enemy that I can love Jesus and I can get to heaven, but I don't really need to have community within my local church. And I'm telling you, it's dangerous. It's a dangerous thought process. It's a dangerous ideology to adopt because you do not see that throughout scripture. I want to give you some verses and I'm going to run through them pretty quickly. The Bible that appears to me gets a little bit more aggressive with this idea of relationship. As scripture moves on, you have the great book of Proverbs and you have Proverbs 27 17 that says, as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. We love that verse. We put it on coffee mugs and t-shirts and we quote it. But have you ever really thought about that verse? When I think about ironing sharpening iron, it is not really a coffee mug verse because if you've ever watched anything like medieval where they used to make swords and or forging steel, what happens when iron is sharpening iron? Sparks fly. So you know what that means for you as a follower of Jesus, you need some people in your life who are going to cause some friction in your life every once in a while because they hold you accountable to the things of God.

But we live in a culture now where it's like, you can't challenge me on that. Only God can judge me. I love Tupac. I've probably quoted that many times to my parents in my life. However, the reality of scripture is that is not what scripture says. It says, as followers of Jesus, we are to hold each other accountable to the things of God. You want that in your life. If you don't have that sharpening in your life, you are not growing as a follower of Christ. Proverbs 1226 says, the Godly give good advice to their friends. The wicked lead them astray. One Corinthians 15, 32 and 33 says, let's feast and drink for tomorrow. We die, right? Yolo. I don't know if that's a popular thing to say anymore. Probably not. Whatever the equivalent of that is, we just live once. We're just here today, gone tomorrow. So let's feast, drink, let's party. Let's seek the things that we desire for our life. But scripture says, don't be fooled by those who say such things. For bad company corrupts good character. Two Corinthians six, 14 through 15, this one's heavy. Don't team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?

Then you get to James and James just lays it out big time. He says, you adulterers, don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? Then he doubles down and he says, I say it again. If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. You see, the relational goal for the follower of Jesus should be this. It should be to do worship, to do bible study, to do recreation, to do family, to do joy, to do sorrow, to do the whole of life with those in your local church community because the community we surround ourselves with ultimately affects the outcome of who we become. Now, listen, I'm evangelistic by hearts.

The blood that runs through my veins loves to be around people who don't know Jesus in the hopes of leading them to Jesus because I was once lost and then I got found right? I was blind. And now I see, and there are millions of people that we're surrounded by even collectively with the group of people in this room. Every day you go to work, you go to school, you go into different environments that God has called you to bring light into the darkness. So what I'm not advocating for today is that we begin to get into holy huddles where we exclude people from the kingdom of God where we take on this mindset of it's us four and no more, and we turn our back on a world because the Bible says, Jesus said, I came to safe sinners, but here's where we get it twisted. Here's where we get it messed up a little bit because you'll hear this right? Well, Jesus was a friend of sinners. Yes, but you are not Jesus. I mean, I've always found that to be quite the arrogant statement. Well, I hang out with sinners because Jesus hung out with sinners. So you're saying you're Jesus.

Listen, I understand the thought behind it, but what I have found so often in people's journey as a Christ follower is that's actually just a mask, a shield so that people can live how they want to live instead of turning, repenting and being who God has called them to be. The reality of Jesus' life is Jesus didn't hang around sinners. Sinners hung around Jesus. Jesus wasn't out there looking like, Hey, what bad environment can I go to? What you see is sinners saying, there is so something so amazing about this man, something so different in the way that he lives something so different in the way that he communicates. I have to invite him into my world, and it was at dinner tables and at parties with tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners that people's lives were changed and transformed because he is the light of the world. So yes, there is a part of our existence as Christians that needs to go into dark places to be a light. But the reality of our relational life, the people that we do life with, the people that we raise our kids with, the people we do dinner with and go on vacation with, the people that become our best of best friends need and must be followers of Jesus if we want to live in biblical obedience, and we do truly want to thrive relationally because nothing thrives unless it's done the way God has created it to be done. And for his people, he says, do life with my people. Now, maybe you've heard a few expressions before. Show me your friends and I'll show you your future.

Let me look at the people that you hang around and I can predict with probably pretty good accuracy where you will be five, 10 years from now. Oftentimes you see people who get in trouble or their life didn't go the way that they wanted. And oftentimes it begins with like, how did you get here? Well, I had these friends. Rarely, rarely in my life have I ever gotten in big time trouble on my own. Who we hang around is important. Maybe you've heard another one that you're the sum total of the five people you hang around the most. It's a pretty popular one. Well, I started to do some research on that statement because I was curious about it. What's the data backing that up? Is that an accurate statement? Are we truly the sum of the five people that we hang around the most?

And there's a lot of research behind this. Now, in looking this up, I found an article and it caught my attention and I started to read this article because the title was a little clickbait, and it was convincing me that maybe this isn't true. So I click on the article, I start to read it. It's by a guy named David Burke. He wrote a book called Friend of a Friend. If you're a business person, you're a networker. I would read this book. I would highly encourage you to pick it up. Now, I don't co-sign it from a moral standpoint or anything like that, but the information in it is beneficial.

In this article that he's writing about this book that he's putting out, he talks about this study. It's one of the longest running. It lasted over three decades, one of the longest running and largest medical studies ever done, involved thousands of people over 30 years. Now, they were researching all different types of things about heart conditions and all sorts of different medical things. Well, a couple of other guys got ahold of the data and they wanted to see if there was a correlation between relationships that affected people's health and behavior. So they started to break down this data in different ways, and here is what they discovered, that it is so much deeper than the first five people that we hang around. In fact, we are influenced three levels deep of relationships. Now, here's what I'm talking about. You have friends. They have friends who have friends. Those friends influence your friends and your friends influence you. So there's layers of relationship that were affected by. And some of the things that they discovered as they were breaking down this data was that if you as an individual have however many close friends around you and one of those friends or a couple of those friends become obese, they gain 15, 20, 30 pounds over the course of your friendship. That inner circle of relationship means that you'll have a 45% chance of becoming obese.

Now, they broke that down further. You have yourself, you have your friends, none of your friends gain any weight. They stay about the same, but that second layer of friends have friends who you don't even know in one of those people in that circle becomes obese. You still have a 20% chance of becoming obese, and then it goes out to the third layer, a 10% chance. What they're getting at is that we are affected three layers deep by relationships, smoking, if your inner circle of friends somebody smokes, there's a 61% chance that you are going to become a smoker. If none of your close friends smoke, but they have friends that smoke, there's a 29% chance that you become a smoker. And then the third level, 11%. And so I started thinking about this, reading through all of these stats, reading through all of this data, all the different things that they broke down. There was one on happiness. It very interesting that would anybody like $10,000 a today, would that make you happy? Would you leave church happy today if I gave you 10 K? Oh yeah, I'm not going to do that. Sorry.

However, did you know receiving $10,000 increases your happiness? 2%, 2%. Now you're like, nah, my happiness would go up like 10%, 15%, I'd be so happy. But for how long? Because money doesn't buy happiness, but $10,000 statistically speaking increases happiness by 6%. Do you know how much your happiness will increase if that second layer of people are happy people? It increases 6%. So having happy people around you increases your happiness more than money. That's what the data says. So I started to think about this because I'm a preacher and I was like, God, I felt like it was a Holy Spirit moment as I was reading through this article. If this is true in the natural, how much more true is this in the spiritual right? If I'm affected in my health, if I'm affected in my finances, even though finances can be spiritual as Pastor Tim talked about a few weeks ago, listen, if this stuff can affect my life, if friends of friends of friends who smoke could potentially cause me to become a smoker or increase my weight or whatever that might be, if I'm affected by these relationships in my physical world, how much more is my spirit affected by the people that I have around me?

And listen, this is where I think a lot of Christians miss it because we just kind of wander through life. We kind of fall into relationships. We're just friends with the people that we've always been friends with because we grew up together or we know these certain connections or we do work together and that's how we became friends. Or our kids play soccer together, whatever it may be. But listen to what Proverbs says in the living Bible. Proverbs 27 19, A mirror reflects a man's face, but what he is really like is reflected by the friends he chooses.

You want to know who you are. Look at the people around you. You really want to know who you are. Look at the people around you because relationships affect us more than we realize. And so today I want to give you something really practical and I hope this will help you because one of the things that as a pastor probably disturbs me more than anything is when I see people who get on fire for Jesus, they get saved. They begin to want to grow in the things of God. And then they are somehow some way pulled away from those things. And it almost always comes back to the people that they have in their life.

I believe if in faith they truly believe that Jesus is the son of God, that he died for the sins, that three days later he rose again, that they will have a place in heaven, but they will miss out on the fulfilling life that Jesus wants them to have now. And so my prayer today, in a very practical way as I lay this out for you, I hope this is beneficial to you, and I hope this challenges you because I want, even though this is my first time preaching to you, I want what God wants for you.

I want you to thrive in your relationship with Jesus. I want you to discover purpose. I want you to grow as the Bible tells us from one degree of glory to the next to where two years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, you look back and you are closer to being like Jesus than you ever have, and you find joy on the journey. And so I want to break something down for you that I just simply call the relational ecosystem. We have ecosystems in the environment. They function a certain way. I think it is true for our relationships. We need to have the right relational ecosystem as a follower of Jesus because it's more than just having a couple Jesus friends. If you actually look at the life of Jesus, Jesus operated this way as well. He had an inner three, he had a 12, and then he had outside of that, and they were all people that were moving aside from Judas. We all got one in there aside. They were all moving in the direction of God. They yearned for the things of God. They wanted to grow in the things of God.

And so I want to break this down for you. Here's what I would encourage you to do. Try to take some notes or even just take some pictures of what's coming up. It's not going to distract me. If you want to hold your camera up, just maybe keep the flash off. So I'm going to use myself as an example. You have me. That could be you. And all of us in this room have friends who have friends who have friends. We all have these layers of circles. Listen, and I understand that loneliness is a major issue. In fact, loneliness is the number one emotional problem that we have in our country today. It's in fact an epidemic. And the problem with loneliness, if it is not met with community, it will turn into isolation. Isolation turns into darkness and despair, and then people's lives are utterly destroyed. And I know that it is the heart of Pastor Tim and Janice that you find community in this place that no one who comes through these doors at embassy does life alone.

But we all to some extent have these layers, whether we fully are aware of it or not. We have friends that have friends that have friends. Now, here's the reality. In all things of life, there are only two options. So when it comes to your life relationally, there are only two options when it comes to your life in all sorts of different scenarios, all sorts of crossroads. There's only two options. We can go God's way or we can go the world's way, God's way or the world's way. That are the two options that we have. Now, most people, most people even most Christians that I know tend to have relational circles, that have worldly friends, who have worldly friends, who have worldly friends. Now, what I mean by this, and I want to define worldly for you, I think a lot of times when we think of sinful people, like maybe your mind's like I don't have worldly friends in my life, we tend to think of the most heinous of things. I'm not talking about evil. The Bible's very clear about the levels of sin, if you will. We kind of just broadly labeled things sin. Well, that person sins or that sinful sin is actually just missing the mark. There's a mark that God has for every single one of our lives to love the Lord of God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our strength. There's a direction that God wants us to go. Sin is missing the mark. Like God wants you to hit that mark. You missed it. There's rebellion and there's evil. Rebellion is knowing that's what God wants for me, but I'm not going to do it.

Evil is I defiantly want to go against God and destroy the things of God. So I'm not talking about people that are necessarily evil or rebellious. I'm talking about worldly people. They're just not moving in God's direction. God has a mark for 'em. You know it. I know it, but they just miss it. And maybe they're indifferent to it. Maybe there is something there that bothers them about it and they want to get their life on track, but they're just not going to commit or surrender their lives to Jesus and they're not moving in that direction. It doesn't make them bad. It just doesn't make them a Christian.

This is the reality of a lot of people that I see who are trying to pursue the things of God, but all of their circles are worldly friends that have worldly friends, that have worldly friends. But then something begins to happen oftentimes in people's lives. I know this was true for me. The Holy Spirit begins to stir something and it's for something more. I want more for my life. I want more for my family. I want more for my marriage. I want more for my finances. I want more fulfillment. Why do I not feel fulfilled? There's something, I want something more. And you know what? That is the things of God. The Holy Spirit is prompting you, encouraging you, guiding you toward the things of God. And so something in you is like, that's what I want to pursue. I want to get from where I'm at to the things that God has for me. But if this is your relational ecosystem, worldly friends that have worldly friends, that have worldly friends, when you want to move from where you are to where God wants to take you, those people in your life are going to prevent you.

And they may not even intentionally be doing it because I would say there's worldly people that do have your best intentions in their mind. And so when you go through that marriage problem or you're struggling with that child or whatever the scenario may be, you are going to these friends, these people that are in your life. But what can they offer you if they are not moving in the direction of God? They can't offer you godly wisdom. All they can offer you is worldly wisdom and it fails. And as good as their intentions may be, and whether they fully realize it or not, they are actually preventing you from getting to the place that God wants you to be. And so for our lives, as followers of Jesus, what we've got to try to do is build our life with godly friends who have godly friends, who have godly friends, that every layer of these relationships from the people I'm closest with, to their friends, to their friends, their Godly people, doesn't mean they're perfect. Does it mean they're saints? It just means that they are truly sincerely trying to pursue the things of God.

They want what God has. Now, the fallacy sometimes that we can buy into is that if I do that, if I get godly friends all around me, and if I live the life that God has called me and I'm obedient, I'm at church every Sunday and I'm reading my Bible and I'm praying and I'm doing life with other godly people, then I am going to have an easy life. But here's the reality that we all need to know as Christ followers is there will always be the things of the world. We live in spiritual warfare, and what is happening is that things that we're unaware of are trying to destroy us, trying to get to us, trying to get to our marriage, trying to get to our family so forever, the things of the world, even if you have all these Godly people in your life, even if you're following the Holy Spirit, you love Jesus with all of your heart, the things of the world are still going to try to get to you. But here's the difference. Now you have people that are protecting. You have people that are praying for you. You have people that are encouraging. You have people that are sharpening you. You have people in your life that are saying, no, no, no. I recognize that Pastor Tim, that's not good for your marriage. I'm protecting you, standing in the way of the things that the enemy wants to use to destroy you. Now, this is not something that you're going to walk out of here today and automatically be able to implement for your life. It takes a lot of time to build a godly relational ecosystem for your life. It's hard work. But lemme tell you something, because my life has not always had this, but right now at age 42, it does. And I see the goodness of God in it. I see the value of it,

But I had to work to get there. There's things that we have to do as Christ followers to be able to build this. And so I want to help you in a practical way to try and start building this as you even leave today. And so there's three things that I want to give you this morning. They're three. We're an embassy city. So we've got three E's for you. This should be easy. There's a holy spirit. These were not in the notes originally, three Es. So the first thing that you need to know, and I would highly encourage you today even because here's what happens sometimes, and I want to encourage you with this continually as a church, every time your pastor preaches whatever he preaches in the form of application, put it into application immediately. Don't say I'll start that next week. Start it Sunday afternoon talking about money. A couple care if I go there. Go ahead, come on. If you heard your pastor talk about giving generously and yet you are still waiting, you are living in disobedience. You got to take the word of God because what will happen, like the seed scattered, the enemy will come in and he'll take the seed that was planted in your heart because you did nothing with it.

And so when it comes to this, I'm encouraging you today.

Begin to take some of these steps. The first thing you have to do is you have to evaluate, then you have to eliminate, and then you have to establish, those are the three E's. Evaluate, eliminate, establish. Now, lemme talk about those. I would highly encourage all of you today if you do not have this godly people who have godly people, that have godly people, that are protecting you in your life from the things of the world. If you don't have this, go home this afternoon, this evening and begin to evaluate by name the people that are in your life. Because again, so often we just kind of go through life and I have these friends and these people and this is who we do dinner with and this is where we met and we've just always kind of been friends. If you want to get to the things of God, you got to get serious because you can't fix what you don't identify. So you've got to identify in your life by evaluating the friends in your life. I would just call it do like a friend inventory, take an inventory of your friendships by name, write them down. And then this is what I do. And I know we're so anti labeling people these days

Don't label anybody. I would start labeling them,

Right?

Alright, did they get a W or did they get a G? Are they worldly or are they oddly? Are they pursuing the things of God? We're not looking for perfection, but does this person exemplify what it means to be a Christ father? Do I see them actively pursuing this? Because there's plenty of people that'll get tatted up with Jesus stuff where cross around their neck, amen, everything, quote a scripture to you even. But they're not actively pursuing the things of God. So take your friend inventory, evaluate the people in your life. If you're with your spouse, you guys need to do this together. Who do we do life with together? Husbands, if your wife got to check about somebody, they got to go, now I don't like him. He may be godly, but I don't like him. He's got to go take the inventory, begin to label people in your life or they helping me get to the place that God wants to take me, or are they preventing me from getting to where God wants to take me? Then you got to start eliminating people. You got to through that list and listen, this is hard. It's not easy.

You will have this propensity from our cultural standpoint to say, well, not being friends with somebody is mean. But what I would encourage you is there's certain seasons in your life where you need to actually be selfish with your faith because your relationship with Jesus and where he's taking you is more important than somebody you've known just because of X amount of years. You got to make hard decisions. Christianity, listen to me. It is a joy. It is a privilege. There is blessing and there is favor in it, but there is hard work to it. John 10 10, I'll give you life in life to the full. That word Zoe, life. That's the word Zoe. It actually means the highest quality of life. But the thing is, we just think sometimes that's going to magically happen. God only operates in partnership with the people that he's created, partner with God in this, do the hard work of trusting God if I eliminate this person from my life, listen, I'll give you some freedom in this. You don't even have to have a conversation with him. Just delete the number. Right? Seriously, why are we so sensitive? Because we got to understand what do I want? Do I want more of God who created my soul? Who could do more for me in a moment? Or do I want to hold onto this thing that isn't a help to me, it's an anchor to me. It's holding me back.

We got to get serious about this. Then we have to establish community in our local church. We have to find people. We have to put ourselves out there. We have to take a step and listen, there will be seasons Where you doing this? I've evaluated. I've eliminated, I'm trying to establish, but Landon, I'm still lonely. I believe it was the prophet Jeremiah who pins. He says, I did not go out with the Mary makers. I did not hang out with the parters, but I set alone, but your hand was upon me. Listen, there may be seasons in this journey as a Christian where you don't have all your best friends, you don't have all of these circles. You're trying to get to it in your lonely. Know that God is with you. He sees you in the darkness. He sees you in the quiet of your room. He sees you at that table that you just pray and your friends are out on Friday night or those couples are going out and you feel alone. God's hand is upon you and he will bless your obedience. How do you know this? Because this has been my life.

I gave my life to Jesus when I was three years old. I grew up in a pastor's home. I didn't truly surrender my life to Jesus till I was 23. I had an awesome encounter with God. I pulled over on the side of the road in Southern California and I said, Jesus, if this is you, then I give you my life. I went, got involved in an awesome church, very similar here to embassy. It was great. The Holy Spirit was moving. The Holy Spirit was stirring, landed. There are things that God has for you. There's a destiny that's awaiting you. There's good things that God has for your life. Well, a few weeks into this new relationship with Jesus, I was on fire. I was excited. I was pumped about the decision I made. I was pumped about the church I was going to. I got baptized. I was ready to go,

But I didn't have any Christian friends. I just had the friends that I'd always had, the guys that I played basketball with, the guys that I grew up with, the guys that I just hung out with all the time. We worked together, we hung out together, we partied together, we went everywhere. And the Holy Spirit was stirring something in my life. Well, these guys called and they were like, Hey, the tournament's coming up. March Madness. Let's road trip from San Diego to Arizona. We'll go watch some games, some of the first round games, it'll be awesome. And I'm like, okay, yeah, sounds great. Basketball friends, this is great. I'm a Christian. You know what I did? I packed my bag. I stuck my Bible in there. I was like, I'm leading them to Jesus.

It’s happening. God's going to use me. It's going to be incredible. So we get there, we get to the hotel room. I'm kind of unpacking. I'm one of those weird people that actually takes my clothes out of the bag and puts them in the thing. I don't know how you just leave everything dirty in the suitcase the whole time we're there. You got to fold them, put 'em in the drawers. That's what they're there for. And I'm unpacking and I'm doing that. And then I see my Bible in there and I'm like, oh no, I'm just leave this in the bag. I left my Bible in the bag. So I did disappoint anybody that was like, he's going to lead him to Jesus. Didn't happen. The next three days of that trip were anything but Jesus. I'd confess my faith in Jesus. I'd been baptized. I was crucified with Christ. I was raised to a new life. No longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. But like a dog returns to its vomit. I return to my sin. And nothing good happened over those three days. And you know what? I came back with guilt and shame

And I had to make a hard decision that I believe was now looking back the pivotal moment of whether I was going to move toward God or just simply stay where I was at. And here's the reality. You're never really staying where you're at. And so I had to make a decision and I called my dad. I was weeping. It's one of those moments of I just don't want that life anymore, but I don't know. And that's when he gave me those verses in Jeremiah. He said, Landon, I remember feeling that same way when I was 17, when I gave my life to Jesus. I had to let my friends go. And there was many nights when everyone in school was out doing things and they were at this and that. But I sat alone and God's hand was upon me. And so there was a long season where I sat alone, but God's hand was upon me. And then I started to take those steps within the church and I joined a group. And the group system wasn't very organized. So I just signed up and they put me in a group and I was in a group with people that at that time I thought were much older than me. Here I was 23 years old. People in this group are like 42. That's so old.

I'm 42 and it's not that old. It's pretty great. And there was this one couple and the husband, his name was Jeff. And I remember Jeff pulling me aside one day and he said, Landon, here's my phone number. I know hanging out at my house isn't the coolest thing to do that a 23 year old wants to do. But I was you once. And I just want you to know that the invitation to be in my home on any Friday or Saturday night is always available. So there were weeks after, weeks after weeks that on Fridays and Saturday nights, just because I didn't want to be alone, I hung out with Jeff and his family and his three kids. And there were many times I left driving home thinking, what am I doing? But I look back and I'm so thankful for Jeff and his family, moved to Texas, didn't really have any friends here. My family was here and got involved with the church and I joined another small group. I was like, I got to find people. And I signed up and I remember pulling into the apartment to park for this small group. It was a single guy's group. We're going to study this book, meeting this apartment. And I remember just everything inside of me was like, just turn around and go home.

Just turn around and home. But I didn't. And I went inside the apartment. I surveyed the landscape really quick and I realized very quickly, I'm not going to be long-term friends with any of these people, but I committed to it. 12 weeks I'm going to be in this group. I don't know anything about Call of Duty. They got headsets on they got, and I'm like, bro, I got to play basketball. I don't know. But I stayed and we studied this book. And at the end of 12 weeks, you know what? I was a better Christian. I was a better man because listen, we didn't have a lot socially in common, but we had Jesus in common. There were godly people who had godly people, who had godly people who were moving in the direction of Jesus. And I look at my life now almost 20 years later, and I got not a friend in Pastor Tim. I got a brother in Pastor Tim. We got another brother, Pastor Zach. I've got three other guys that every single month on the same day at the same time, we hop on the phone for at least an hour

To talk about our life ministry, what God is doing, what we need prayer for, and you know what the best part is. That would be good enough. But you know what I know about your pastor as your pastor has those people for his life. And so I know that they're influencing him as he's influencing me. And I know that he has enough wisdom that he has this in his life too, that he has godly friends, that have godly friends, that have godly friends. And so I know the influence is coming three layers deep.

It takes time to get here. But if you will take the initial steps of evaluating, eliminating, and then establishing relationship right here in this place. Get into a group. They call 'em parties here. I did my research before I got here. There's over 20 parties that you could be a part of right here at Embassy. And I guarantee you, I would bet good money on it, even though I'm maybe not supposed to do that. I'll bet good money on it that you're going to sign up for that. Somebody's going to email you, somebody's going to call you, you're going to walk into that apartment, survey the land and be like, ah, these ain't my people. And you're going to grow in Jesus. Or you may walk in and you might meet your spouse. You might meet your best friend. You might find people that your lonely family can now do life with. Your kids are going to connect with their kids. One of my greatest joys in this friendship is that my little boy is friends with his little boy, and they're both going to grow up to the glory of God.

You can have this. You just got to take a step. Ladies, show up to the tea. You are cordially invited is what the video says. I'm going to be a little bit more preacher on you. You're not cordially invited. You need to show up because you might just sit at a table or meet somebody that then you walk for the next 20 years of your life with you never know. And so the Holy Spirit has maybe spoken to you this morning about this and maybe deep within you, you just know, man, I need to walk away from that relationship. Maybe you're sensing loneliness and you're like, I need friendship. Whatever the scenario or situation may be that you're walking through, would you just be so bold to do something for me? If you need godly community, godly relationships, you know need to take a step, would you just raise your hand so I can pray over you all across this room? Listen, there's nothing to be ashamed of. There's nothing to worry about, and this is safe space. This is holy ground. Lemme pray for you this morning as we close God, God of compassion and mercy. Good God.

My prayer right now for everyone whose hand is raised is that your Holy Spirit would come and you would begin to give strength to those who need to walk away from certain relationships. You would give them boldness, you would give them power. You would supernaturally allow them to move away from those relationships that are moving them away from you. God, I pray that through the power of your Holy Spirit, there would be divine appointments within the groups here at Embassy City, that in this house, in this place, in these groups, that people would go to the website right after church today, they would sign up and Father, they would walk into rooms and they would meet people that you have ordained since the beginning of time for them to do life with. I pray God, as the women's tea takes place, that there would be divine appointments in that room, that not only would they grow in your word and grow in wisdom, but Father, that they would find deep, meaningful lifelong relationships in the community of Embassy City with Thrive Holy Spirit, would you meet every single person where they need to be met relationally in the wonderful name of Jesus and men and amen. Thank you God so much.