David // The Importance of Friendship // Pastor Josh Evans

Have you already been blessed today? I tell you, God is so, so good, and He has chosen just to meet with us here this morning. And man, don't you love coming to church? All right, I got 10 excited church members.

Let me say that again. Don't you love coming to church? Okay, some of you maybe have never said amen in your life.

That's a good time to do it, okay? And no, it is so good to to be here, and man, I just, this is this is the place I want to be, and I love coming here, and it's just it's just awesome, and just just refreshes my soul, and and I hope that it does the same to you. I want to echo what Pastor David said, and we had a busy weekend here at Union Grove, and I know many of you have spent your weekend with us already, and I just want to say thank you for for that, and ladies, I know you guys had a great time. My wife just enjoyed the weekend hanging out with each one of you, and we had I believe like I think there was about 65 to 70 ladies who who spent the weekend just challenging themselves and allowing the Lord to speak into their life, and just had a great time here over the weekend, and so if you missed it, ladies, I let me encourage you when we do these things again, and we will be doing stuff like this again, let me encourage you to to be the first ones to sign up, and I promise it will be good for you, and and then we can't forget about the men. We had our men's breakfast down at Arcadia, and and listen, I had I felt like if we had food that men would show up, and they did, and and so everything we're gonna start serving food on Sunday mornings now just to get more men in the building, and just kidding, but no they showed up, and we had a great time, and and Arcadia down here on 150 just did a great job serving us, and and it was just just a fun time getting together with some men in the church, and it was it was just a great weekend, and so I'm excited about just some of the fruit that is going to come from this, and and I wanted to say I was debating on on talking about this, but since so many of you have ragged me all morning, I am going to say I came down front, and on top of my Bible there was a napkin tissue with the word sorry on it, and and now listen I hear you I don't know who did that, but I believe firmly in church discipline, and I'm just kidding just kidding, but no it's it's good I like to like to pick, and some of you are mad maybe because if you if you texted me if you're if you're new to this church I am a Duke fan, and and so I know we lost last night, and that's probably a good time aren't you guys supposed to say like tar whatever y'all say I don't know it's like I just thought it's kind of one of those mantras anytime you say something about it half the room just knows you got a chance or whatever, and but no if you're wondering if you're a new church member I just want you to understand something about me I am not an unfriendly person, but I do not text after those games, and so if you texted me last night I'm sorry I did not respond, but I did see it okay, and and deleted your numbers out of my phone. Nobody cares about stuff like Duke and Carolina, so if we lost you showed up at church the next day, and people like oh that was last night, I'm like it is so refreshing, so last night I was on Zillow looking for homes in Jacksonville just kidding, and no I I love I love kidding around, and and no but it's it's been a great weekend here at Union Grove, and if this is your first time here I want to welcome you as well, and I do appreciate you being here my name is Josh I'm the pastor here at the church, and and let me encourage just like Pastor David said if this is your first time let me encourage I would love to meet you after the service, and and then also you can stop by the Welcome Center, and we'd love to get a free gift in your hands just as our way of saying thank you for being here today, because we recognize you could have been there's a ton of good churches in our community I'm grateful for every single one of them, and and so you chose to be here today, and we just greatly appreciate appreciate that. Let's go to 1st Samuel chapter number 18 1st Samuel 18 the last couple of weeks we have been in a series through the life of David the life of David, and and David is one of my favorite characters I love I love studying the life of David just because at some level every single person in this room if you're a if you're a teenager in here if you're a a older person in here if you are somewhere in the middle or if you maybe want to do right and find yourself falling into sin or or whatever I'm just telling you that you can relate to some degree with the life of David he had ups and he had some big up some moments of success moments where you know the Lord was so proud of him and everything and then there was moments where he had some moments of weakness and and isn't that all of our our lives and and and I know it is yours because I know it is is mine as well and so I love studying the life of David and just to kind of catch you up to chapter 18 last weekend we looked at David and Goliath which is the most talked about story many of you when you say the life of David that's probably the first thing that pops into your head is is Goliath and his victory over over Goliath and but if you if you kind of rewind it two weeks ago we learned that Saul had been doing some things that were not pleasing to God in other words he just disobeyed the direct command of God and and so God rejected Saul and his leadership he told Samuel to go and anoint a new king Samuel goes to the house of Jesse over in Bethlehem and he goes there and and and he ends up anointing David the run of the family the one who didn't even get invited to the party when Samuel showed up the first time and and and so they had to go find him out in the field and and David comes in he's young he's a teenager and in Samuel he looks at all these brothers of his warriors big guys that look hey these guys have to be the next king and sure enough it ends up being David the unlikely one out of the out of the bunch he gets anointed with oil and Samuel goes back to Rama and on David heads back to to the field soon after the Philistines are are wanting to fight the Israelites and and nobody from Israel's camp would would fight and David goes and he's delivering some food to his brothers and sure enough David sees the battle we see something totally different than what anybody else could could see and he noticed the main thing that this army the Philistines were defying the name of God which David was like that's something I'm gonna be fighting for and I knew and I should be fighting for that even today by the way and and that's what they did and David fought and we know the story and he did everything including chopped off the head of of Goliath pretty pretty intense and after that Saul he he obviously is impressed he wants to talk to David he goes to to Abner and that's found in chapter 7 or chapter 17 and Abner was the captain of the host and and he asked Abner he said whose son is this youth says in other words who is this this kid that just defeated Goliath right the guy that nobody else was was willing to face and and he asked Abner he says who is this I love Abner's response in verse 55 of chapter 17 he says this to the king he says Oh King I cannot tell he says man I've never heard of this guy and and so they they inquire of him and David goes before King Saul he says I'm the I'm the son of thy servant Jesse and and Saul invites him here in chapter 18 to come and leave Bethlehem and go work for him which was interesting because you had to be 20 years old to be in the army of Israel and and David was just below that and so in verse 18 or verse 1 of chapter 18 is where we're going to kick things off I want to say this up front that this message I really believe this is probably one of the most practical messages that that I have I have preached maybe ever but probably here it applies to every single person in the room and so I want you to lean in a little bit to maybe what God has for you because what we're going to talk about today is what all of us were were made for and built for and that's the idea of friendship verse 1 chapter 18 says and it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul that the soul of of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his own own soul and Saul took him that day David and would let him go no more home to his father's house then Jonathan and David they made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul and Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him he gave it to David and his garment even to his sword and to his bow and and his girdle so I want you to understand we're gonna look at some other scripture through the life of David here in just a moment but I'm really speaking on these four verses if you were in our service last week we were in David and Goliath there was a complete opposite we looked at 54 verses of Scripture today's only four but here's what what I want to talk about is the idea of friendship Jonathan and David were were friends now let me tell you something about about Jonathan by way of introduction Jonathan was the first son of Saul the first son of Saul so in other words he he was going to be the guy like you have to understand and kind of put yourself in in the story here he was going to be the next king or he could be the next next king of of Israel we see a few chapters back I believe in in chapter 13 we know Jonathan was old enough to be in the army because he was actually defeating he had a battle with the Philistines and he ended up defeating them just a few chapters before David even comes onto the scene and so Jonathan was this warrior and there was nothing really on the surface that would say that Jonathan was not fully prepared and willing to take the throne so you can imagine if it was his throne to lose I mean it was his his job have you ever been there where you know you feel like you are in line for something and then out of nowhere God has a different plan and he chooses to anoint a completely different person not from Saul but here comes here comes David Jonathan could have you know been upset he could have you know allowed his anger to get the best of him he could have allowed his his pride to get the best of him but but we see here that in verse 1 there their souls were knit knit together they were close they were friends Jonathan loved David just like himself he was a dear a dear friend to David verse 4 that when he stripped himself of of his robe and and he laid down his sword you say why why was he doing that you see that was implying to him that he is laying down his rights to possibly one day take over Israel he's laying them down to David and honestly he is giving the approval David you're the next king of Israel this is God's plan Jonathan cared much more about God's plan for Israel than he did his plan for for himself I want to talk for a few moments today about about friendship about friendship we all need good friends today right okay everybody in here you who didn't say amen I hope your friend is not sitting next to you okay we need good good good friends everybody in here it doesn't matter how young you are doesn't matter how old you are everybody in here needs relationships in fact if you go all the way back to Genesis it says that it's not even good for man to be alone and you say why is why is that it's because everybody in here was actually born with the with the need for relationships in their life every one of us you know that's the that's the reason that that God even you know sent Jesus it's more than just we get to be in heaven that's a huge part of it and we should amen and be hallelujah all day long about that but the truth is God wanted a relationship with you you see that is that's a big part of the Christian life you know I feel like I grew up in church my whole life like many of you so if your experience is similar to mine I used to for the longest time think that Christianity is like a get out of hell free card you know it's kind of like hey I'm I did it now I can go to heaven but it's way more than that you say is that a piece of it of course it is and I'm grateful for that but the big piece of it is is is God knows that you were born into this world needing a relationship with him and that's what we need and we were born for relationships he understands that that's why friendship is so so important and this idea of friendship I was thinking about this as I was studying this and we're gonna look through the life of David at some friends that he had but I really believe this statement I want you to understand this and if you're young in here I really want you to lean in as well because this is super important friends it's really the big idea today friends determine the direction that you are heading let me say that again friends determine the direction that you are are heading now you say pastor Josh that cannot be it cannot be true let me just say this this is not something new this is something that all of us in here have experienced in fact I bet if we went around the room and we don't have time to do so but if we went around the room we could all find this to be true we could probably all tell a story of somebody that we know maybe personally who was really doing well and then they got mixed up with a group of people and started going down a different different path you say why does that happen it's because our closest circle of influence our friends determine the direction in which you are heading in fact Solomon he talks about this in the book of Proverbs he says in Proverbs chapter 13 verse 20 he says this he that walketh with wise men shall be wise how many of you want to be wise raise your hand okay a few of us in here a few of you're kind of like no I'm pretty cool with being a fool no it's fine just kidding but we all want that right nobody in here when it comes down to it's like man that whole wisdom thing it's really not my not my game I don't want that but no we all want wisdom and and there's a promise here he that walketh with wise men shall be wise you see the Bible is very clear about the importance of friendship if you want to be wise it's very simple it's not rocket scientists I'm not the smartest guy in this room but I can figure this out if I want to be wise what do I have to do surround myself with wise people right you see the idea that friends determine the direction that we're heading it's not nothing new in fact Solomon understood that if you even look at his life which you know the book of Proverbs was written later in the Solomon's life and Solomon he's like talking to his son throughout the book it's such a a fantastic book to study because it's really the instruction of a father to the son and he's given him all this wisdom and if anybody understands the importance of friends determining the direction you're heading it's Solomon Solomon was doing great right and and then he allowed a lot of the influences of the women that he was going after in different places he allowed them to influence him and completely changed the direction of his wife you see the friends that you and I have doesn't matter how old you are they are going to determine the direction in which you are going he that walketh with wise men shall be wise but listen that's a promise but there's also a warning attached to the end of it you say what's the what's the warning the verse goes on but a companion of fools shall be destroyed that's strong like if you think about it that is a very strong warning a warning that every person in here should lean in a little bit and decide who's your closest circle of influence are they ones that are helping me become wise or am I surrounding myself with fools friends determine the direction that you are heading and if we all all lean in and understand if that be true and I think the Bible is very clear that it is true then I think it's important for us we all want to end up in the right place right you can't you don't talk to any elementary age kid or any middle school kid and and and you talk to them and say hey where do you want to end up when you're 25 none of them are gonna say well you know I really want to when I get into high school I want to start experimenting everything and I want to you know make some really poor decisions I want to drop out of school I want to you know become an alcoholic and and I want to you know be on my third marriage or whatever you see what I'm saying nobody wants that direction for their life when they set out but you see if we're not careful at the sphere of influence that we put into our life we can end up in places that we do not want to be but if you are really careful at the influences that you allow into your life you can end up somewhere better than you could have ever imagined for your life you see it's all about who we allow to to influence because we want to end up in the right place we want the wisdom of God in our life it's important that we put the right people in our lives you see David he did that I want to give you three people in David's life that he allowed to come into his life to help him get to where you and I know him as a man after God's own heart the first one is we just learned of him Jonathan I'm gonna call Jonathan the encourager let me just say this you need someone who can encourage you in your walk with the Lord you need a friend in your life that can lift you up all of us need people that we surround ourselves with like Jonathan who can help us first Samuel 23 we find David he's hiding for his life and we're gonna learn as we journey through David's life we're gonna learn that Saul gets extremely jealous of David doesn't he he wants to kill him as the opportunity several times and as he's wanting to kill him David had left and and was finding some hiding in a place called Huresh in 1st Samuel 23 and you know who shows up in a moment of distress a moment of discouragement a moment of fear Jonathan says in verse 16 and 1st Samuel 23 and Jonathan Saul's son arose and went to David into the wood and what did he do he strengthened his hand in God he strengthened his hand in God I want you to think about Jonathan and his relationship with David Jonathan sacrificed a lot to be friends with David you got to understand that his dad wanted David dead you ever wanted to hang out with someone that your mom and dad wanted dead okay maybe not right I know that's a little bit strong but I want you to think about it I know when I was I was looking at this and studying this I was thinking about growing up and and my parents were strict and when I say my parents were strict I mean we had rules like for our rules right we had a list of rules like don't do this don't do this don't do this and and then there was like 10 sub rules to all of them so I couldn't do a whole lot of things and my parents were super careful about who I was around and your parents probably were that's why this idea that friends determine the direction that we're heading is nothing new under the Sun because all of us had a mom or a dad or a guardian at some point that told us hey where are you gonna be tonight and when you said it they were like you're not going there right not the only one with parents like that Thank You mom and dad if you're watching but you see what I'm saying like that we had parents like that no I was thinking back to my parents and my parents were you know they they would say hey you can't go there you have to be home you can't spend the night at this place you know we had rules it's because my parents knew that some of the people around me would determine and influence the direction that we're heading if you look at this story saw the king of Israel his son Jonathan who who could have been in line for this Jonathan becomes best friends with Saul's greatest enemy that's pretty intense that's pretty risky for Jonathan to show up when Saul is looking for him to kill him and Jonathan pops up and not only protects David but he strengthened his hand in God let me say this that we need encouragement in our life every person in here I don't care how strong you think you are every person in here needs a friend that can encourage them you see at our church one thing that that I love about our church is we have these things called Bible fellowship classes and and I get it I understand it makes for a longer Sunday morning sometimes to come to that and stay for church and and everything but let me just say this that that that's where some of the greatest relationships happen within our church you know we got a big room in here and you know I grew up in church and and one thing that you know was always cool was when I was growing up and I guess COVID just kind of did away with this and most churches a couple years ago but you remember the days was kind of like alright greet greet one another shake a hand music's playing choirs coming down you know and you shake hands or whatever listen in a room this size you're probably not gonna get to know people really really well in the 40 seconds that you get to ask them how they're doing right that's not a time where it's kind of like me and how was your week you know no it's a time like hey you go around I used to count how many people I could shake their hands you know in 30 seconds you see it's not a time for that why because this is a a big room with a lot of people it's impossible for you to really get the kind of friends that you need in your life in moments like like this in a large group room that's why we ask you to step out of of the rows in here and find a Bible Fellowship class which are much smaller than this so that you can get to know people and have people that when your life's falling apart they can show up like Jonathan did in David's life and they can strengthen your hand in God that's the reason for relationships in a church listen I do not understand and I'm not harping on anybody this your philosophy about church I'm not harping on I just don't get it I don't understand why we like there's people in churches who like to slip in and slip out nobody ever notice them I'm thinking man some of the weeks that that I have I can't wait to get in here and somebody lift my spirits I think that that's what we should we should be running to relationships in a local church not running away from it and you see this idea Jonathan he sacrificed everything he risked everything to show up when life was bad for David just to strengthen his hand in God let me say this you need friends and you need to be a friend who walks in when everyone walks out we all have difficult moments right we all have tough times there's gonna be times in your future where you're gonna lose a loved one there's gonna be times in the future where something's gonna happen at your work maybe God forbid this happened but you lose your job or something happened in your family you get a terrible diagnosis at the doctor and you're gonna need relationships that are gonna encourage you that's what the church is for it's family you don't walk out in your family when life gets hard do you now we stick together don't we I know in our family like we're dysfunctional sometimes not me my wife and my kids the rest of them they're wild you have how many of you have a family group chat right man you want to talk about messed up families getting a family group chat on your phone like we have sub chats you know like where we are like man I don't want I don't want them in this one so we have a another chat where it eliminates them then it's like you have another one that eliminates now I'm just kidding but you see what I what I'm saying okay there is some truth here I don't want to lie right but here's the thing we we we are like family and when you have a family like when life gets bad man family shows up we show up to strengthen one another if life gets tough like I mean if something happens in Jacksonville Florida I'm dropping what I'm doing and I'm heading to my family down there if life gets really hard you would do the same for yours we need that in our churches we need that type of loyalty that type of relationship in our church David had that with Jonathan that when he's running for his life Jonathan risked it all to show up when life was tough to strengthen his hand in God are you that friend do you have the Jonathan in your life the second friend that that David had was with Samuel we learned about Samuel and I want to call him the sharpener he was a a guy a prophet that showed up and he anointed David he anointed David it's the second friend that that he needs so he had Jonathan the encourager now he has Samuel the sharpener we see later in in our stories through the life of David that that Samuel actually protected David he protected David when when David flees from flees from Saul man I tell you David needed some friends man he's running for his life he was running for his life and and people like like Jonathan and people like Samuel they just continuously protected and God used the friends in his life to protect him from what Saul wanted to do in his life Samuel he made David better he sharpened him in Proverbs 27 17 it says iron sharpeneth iron so a man sharpeneth accountants of of his of his friend let me just say this you need friends in your life who who will sharpen you you need friends in your life who who will sharpen your life in other words you need friends in your life that you surround yourself with that will help you become better a better follower of Jesus by the way if you I mean everybody in here we come in how many we want to be I don't want to raise raise hands in here for this one but we all come in here and we want to be better followers of Jesus right well the way to do that is surround ourselves with people who are gonna help us become better followers of Jesus you want to become a man you want to become a good a good dad in here surround yourself with really good dads that that can help you and rub off on on you you want to be a person that's wise in here surround yourself with people with wisdom you want to be a a good mom in here surround yourself with ladies and find places that you can get around ladies who are going to challenge you to be better in your relationship with God you see David had this David had his encouraging friend Jonathan but then he also had guys like Samuel who who were being used by God to raise David up you know one thing I was talking to somebody just a couple months ago about this a month and a half or so ago at my house and and we were talking about Union Grove and and one of the things that I love about our churches is there's so much spiritual heritage and spiritual maturity in our church like if you're really looking for somebody who's wise and and a hero of the faith or someone like a saint that that you're like man I would love to one day be where they are in their relationship with with God Union Grove is full of them we have men in our church and and when I was thinking about coming back here that was one of the one of the exciting things about about this church is is the men and and the women in our church that have walked with God for for many many years longer than I've been alive and I get to pastor them and and do life with people around me that I want to be like one day what better opportunity so if you're attending here there's there's no reason to pop in pop out don't know anybody and get out as soon as possible no this is a place that that we should as a church we should welcome people wherever they're at in their faith journey and try to get them plugged in with people who can sharpen them to become a better follower of Jesus than when they walked in the first time that's what our churches is about you see David he had Jonathan the encourager he had Samuel the sharpener then he has number three Nathan the truth teller I want you to flip over real quick we're not gonna look too deep we're gonna look at this and another week of this series but the first same or second Samuel chapter 12 I want you to see so these stories that we're going through through the life of David many of them are not are not new I mean many of you are gonna know these stories so this isn't like you know something brand new or somebody in here probably came in not knowing about David and Bathsheba and so David you know he sends with Bathsheba he sees her bathing on a rooftop and he should have been away a battle he calls for his guards to go get her they end up sleeping together and they have a child together and and so his life is spiraling out of control he tried to hide his sin so many different times you know he tried to erase it so that nobody would know about it and then what did he do he ended up hiding it to the point where man if I if I can put her you know husband on the front lines of battle he could die and and then it'll just make sense I'll just marry her and and then we'll show up pregnant nobody will ever know what really went on by the way that's a terrible philosophy at life because we all know that God knows everything if you're trying to hide things today there's one person that you can never hide anything from he knows your heart he knows where you're at today and I want to encourage you don't hide from God and we're not talking about David as the teenager anymore we're talking about the king of Israel at the time he's like maneuvering things trying to you know make sure nobody knows about the sin that he's committed let me just say this God knew all along so what did he do he killed Uriah God sins Nathan so David he's thinking I did it nobody knows about my sin we've got it Nathan knocks on his door chapter 12 and verse 1 and he says this Lord sent Nathan unto David came unto him said and then David there were two men in one city one rich one poor the rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds but the poor man had nothing save one little you lamb which he had brought and nourished up and it grew up together with him and with his children it did eat of his own meat drank of his own cup lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter his traveler came unto the rich man he spared to take of his own flock and his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was coming to him but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to him see what the rich man did terrible David's listening to the story first of all I'm just surprised David's not like interrupting him hey why are you at my door to begin with right Nathan just shows up and he starts telling him a story David's response to the story as he kind of was drawn into this story David's anger verse 5 was greatly kindled against the the man he said to Nathan as the Lord liveth the man that had done this thing he shall surely die David's like man what a terrible person that was he shall restore the land fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity and I want you to look at this next verse because super important David had people like this in his life and we you I we all need them Nathan looked at him and I love this Nathan said to David as David's mad he's like what a what a sorry story what a sorry rich man man that guy needs to die David looks at him thou art that man David ends up repenting of a sin and let me just say this about this story when we think about relationships we need encouragement that's that's kind of the easy one that's the one that everybody wants we all want people to come and just speak in our lives and encourage this makes feel really good that's a good one we need people who are gonna sharpen us like Samuel people like pastors and and and seasoned men or women of God who can who can help you be better and challenge you in your relationship with God but we also need to surround ourselves with people like Nathan the truth teller who's willing to tell us not what we want to hear but what we need to hear you see some of us we don't ever surround ourselves with people like this because we never want to hear anything bad about our life and if that's you and you're like man I'm just putting people around me that just want to say yes sir yes ma'am perfect idea great that's awesome that's what we need if you're like me and that's the only people that I want in the circle of influence in my life I would say this that man those people might be really good but you are missing an element of your Christian life that may be a difference in the direction that you are heading today there's a lot of people that made a lot of bad decisions and ended up somewhere that they did not want to be because they did not have somebody who would say you need to stop doing what you're doing you need to stop living like you're living and you need to get back to where you were once heading you see we need people like that now we don't like it trust me I don't like it I have two men in Florida that call me once a month and they challenge me and sometimes they have to ask me about pride I'll start talking about our church and how something win and and they'll say well just be careful that you don't become you see they they're willing and I've given them the authority because I don't want to end up somewhere that I don't want to be I don't want to head down a direction that I don't want to go down in a road that I don't want to go down so I've allowed a few people to speak into my life to help me get to a place that I want to be one day let me say this that telling the truth is not always easy but it is always right it's always right and you need somebody in your life not who's just going to encourage you when you make poor decisions you know like I'll keep going doing good I want to make the same decision you need somebody that's gonna say hey knock it off that's a bad decision say man that's not a friend no that's probably the real friend that your life needs you see that's what we need in our life we need somebody like Jonathan it's gonna show up when life gets tough and encourages strengthen our hand in him we need a sharpener like Samuel maybe it's a pastor maybe some of you who are maybe younger in your faith and you need to just grow you need to find somebody in this church and go to them and say hey listen I need you just to meet with me once every couple weeks and disciple me I need somebody to help me I can't get victory over this and that and this and this and I'm trying and I'm trying I'm trying and I just can't I just continuously fail I need some help you see we have people all throughout our church that can get connected with you and help you make better decisions in your life and then some of you need somebody in your life who's gonna just be the Nathan and say hey listen you don't need to do that you don't need to go there you don't need to be around them and you need to make better decisions than what you're what you're making the decisions are the friends that you have today they'll determine the direction that you're heading I want to ask you two questions by way of conclusion what kind of friend are you you know we're talking a lot about friends around us so it's easy to be like man that person over there and the pew next to me whoo I'm dropping them after church what if you're the one that somebody else is saying they need to drop think about I don't say that to hate on anybody in here all I'm saying is what kind of friend are you are you an encourager do you show up when life gets tough for people or do you criticize ridicule complain are you a sharpener some of you who have been saved for so long you need to start finding people in this church and sharpen and allow some of the wisdom that God's blessed you with to rub off on a lot of other people around you that's sharpener that's Samuel and then some of you Nathan we need some Nathan's in our life who had in Nathan had a relationship with David and it was it was helpful so when he came to tell him the hard truth David listened and mourned over the sin that he had committed what kind of friend are you and then the second question is what friend is missing from your life is it the encourager is it the sharpener or if it's the truth teller and I would tell you all of them are found in this room you're like me and how can I find these people man I tell you they would do my heart well to help you get plugged in and relationships in this place and all those friends can be there for you that's what the local church is for your friends determine the direction that you're heading so we have to choose our friends and the relationships around us in our circle wisely would you bow your heads with me head bowed hearts lifted in prayer I'd like to ask everybody in here to stand at this time nobody looking around seriously this is what we call here an invitation or response this is a moment where we can take in what the Word of God has said and by the way listen I know I was the communicator in the preacher today but I don't want you to hear what I have to say I want you to hear what the Word of God has to say you don't need to hear from me you need to hear from him if you're in here today I want you to answer what kind of friend are you and I want you to think I want you to think about which friend is missing from your life I'm gonna pray and then I'd love for you to make a decision you can come down front and pray this altar about some of the relationships in your life or you can make a decision there father we love you I pray that you'd bless in this response this invitation God I pray that we would be a church who who wants to put our circle with people that are wise so that we can end up where we want to be and head in a direction that we want to go for it's in your name we pray and then if God speaks to you come