Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those. that you share it with.

God bless you.

Praise the Lord.

It's good to be in the house of God this morning.

I hope you're I hope you're doing well.

Amen.

I hope your family is doing well.

Praise God.

God is good.

Come on, one more time.

All the time.

Has He been good to you this week?

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

Um Man, I'm excited to be behind the pulpit again, bringing the bringing the word.

I'm still I got a little bit of residual like Congestion, you can kind of hear it, but um we're gonna we're gonna preach the word this morning and uh before that I I wanna I want to announce this this coming Saturday uh we have our our men's uh breakfast um so you can come by and And get fed some of the best tacos, um, some of the best tacos I've I've had.

I I I don't know why, but I I just love these tacos, right?

So come.

There's going to be good fellowship and um and good word.

Amen.

So that's this Saturday.

I want to take you to John chapter 15.

We're going to go ahead and get into the into the word.

I wanna I also want to say, I feel like I have to say this every Sunday.

I feel like I have to apologize on behalf of our parking lot.

Because I know it's rough out there, man, and and we're we're trying, we're doing everything we can to see how we can make it happen.

Um But but thank y'all for bearing with us and thank y'all for You know, walk some of y'all walk like half a mile just to just to come to church and and and praise the Lord, man.

So every Sunday I'm praying for good weather so you don't have to walk in rain.

But thank you.

And that's just I believe a testament, you know.

I've in the beginning I was always worried, God, what if what if they stopped coming?

Just can't find a parking spot and and God was like, just let my presence take care of it.

And um the presence of God is evident in this place and And so I praise God for that.

John chapter fifth uh John chapter 15 verses 8 through 17.

You can go ahead and stand with me.

And I'm gonna tell you this right now.

This might not be a sermon for the majority of you.

Some of you I think you got this down pretty well.

You don't need to hear this word.

But for those of you that this is for, I believe that it's going, if you take this to heart, you apply it to your life, you will see yourself draw closer to God.

In ways that you've never experienced before.

I hope that's what you want.

If it is, then pay attention and lock in to this word.

Amen.

This is Jesus speaking to his disciples.

There's a lot that he says here in this section, but these few chapters are dealing with Jesus, speaking to his disciples, and he's preparing them for what is to come.

Jesus is getting ready to leave.

He's better he's getting ready to go to the cross and he's gonna go and ascend to heaven.

And so he's got some very important things that he needs to leave with his disciples if they're gonna be successful in their walk and in their building of the church.

And so he says this, John 15, 8 through 17.

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.

Abide in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

Just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you And that your joy may be full.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

A greater love has no one than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends, if you do what I command you.

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing.

But I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father, and I have made known to you You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask, the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

These things I command to you so that you will love one another.

Amen.

Let's pray, Heavenly Father, I thank you For this word, my God, that you have uh given, spoken over your servant, my God, I pray that as I've received it, Lord, your people would receive it this morning.

I pray, Holy Spirit, that you be on my lips, my God, that That it would be as least of me as possible, my God, and the most of you as possible this morning, Father God.

I pray that you speak and uh transform lives today, Father, through this word.

In Jesus' name Amen.

You can take your seat.

I've uh I've entitled the sermon Friends of Jesus.

Any friends of Jesus in the room?

Amen.

Friends of Jesus, when we get into February, I like to kind of touch on relationships a little bit.

So that's what we're going to do today, and that's what we'll do next week.

Talk about relationships.

God created us to be in relation.

He created us for relationships, right?

The very first negative thing that God said concerning his creation was that it was not good.

For man to be alone.

I don't know what Adam was doing down there by himself that caused God to say, man, we need to get this guy some help.

But um He quickly noticed that it was not good for man to be alone.

Man is not made to live in isolation.

We are meant for community.

And now just like everything else that was affected by sin, community was corrupted by sin.

And so you can You can have the right community and you can have the wrong community.

And it's pretty simple.

The right community are those that are going to lead you closer to God.

The right community are those who might inspire you or encourage you and edify you.

They're going to hold you accountable to things.

And then the wrong community is going to do the opposite.

They're going to draw you away from God.

They might tear you down, they might tempt you, they might discourage you.

Maybe they don't do any of those things, but ultimately they drift you further from the person that God is calling you to be.

Your community matters.

You're gonna hear me say that a lot this morning.

Your community matters.

This is one of the things that we tell every single person when they first come to PNEUMA and they're looking to get closer to God.

We say, hey, your circle matters.

You need the right people.

And so if I meet you for the first time, I'm going to try to get your phone number, I'm going to try to connect with you, or connect you to Pastor Larry or Pastor Brandon.

If you're a female, I'm going to connect you to my wife or Pastor Pastor Heather or Pastor Demaris because we genuinely believe That we are a godly community and we want you to be a part of it.

We're not a perfect community, and nobody's claiming that we're perfect.

We if you're looking for the perfect church, keep on looking, because this ain't it.

And everybody's got their issues, but I truly believe that we are people who love the Lord and we love the people of God and we want to see the people of God draw closer to God.

And so your community it matters.

And the truth is and many people they they they come to church, but um they uh they come to church On Sundays, but they don't have a godly community like outside of Sundays.

I don't know who that is, but that's what I've seen.

I've seen a lot of people who come to church and they're plugged into the church on Sundays, but outside of this, they don't have a godly community.

And and so you're connected to God through the church, but you're not connected to God through godly relationships.

And that's not always sustainable.

Scripture says it, and Pastor Danny alluded to the scripture earlier, that bad company corrupts good character.

If the company that you keep is not godly company, It's going to be really hard to grow spiritually in an environment that is not suitable for growth.

And maybe you say, well, Pastor, but I I go to church.

Why do I need a godly Godly friends outside of church.

Listen, if you come to church on Sundays, maybe you come on Wednesdays and you think that this is community, I would disagree.

There's community in here, but this is not community.

This is gathering.

This is where the community gathers to listen to the word of God and praise the name of God together.

Your community is who you came here with.

Your community is who you go out to eat with after church.

Your community is who you hang out with, who you grab coffee with, it's who you text and talk to all the time, it's who you hit the gym with, it's who you vacation with.

Who you got riding shotgun with you wherever you're going.

That's community.

And if you don't have a godly community that you're immersed in, one that was specifically designed for you as a child of God, in a sense, you're alone And God says it's not good to be alone.

Because even if you have the wrong kind of community, maybe you say, I do have community.

But if they're wrong, if they're the wrong kind of community, it's going to be very difficult to draw closer to God.

And when I say the wrong community, I don't mean you got a bunch of evil people in your life like spoon-feeding you drugs or doing witchcraft on you.

That's not what I mean by evil.

Maybe you have some people in your life who are genuinely loving, kind-hearted, caring people, and you love them and you have fun with them.

But you know what?

You also need that friend who's gonna offer to pray with you When you're hurting and you're having a really hard time in your life, and they're not just extending a shoulder to cry on, they're extending a prayer for you You need somebody in your corner who is who is when your faith is is failing you, they remind you of how good God is and how big God is, and they remind you of everything that God did for you in the past and they hold you accountable to your faith.

You need that friend who is is able to rebuke you in love when you're doing something spiritually dumb or who can give you some godly advice.

Whenever your husband cheats on you and they're begging for your forgiveness and they're saying, hey man, I want one more chance.

Give me one more chance.

But instead, you go to your homegirls. at the office who are saying, hey, let's go to the club tonight.

He don't deserve you.

Let's go get lit.

Your community matters.

Too many people run to their non-believing friends to get the advice that your believing friends should be giving you in a godly way.

Your community matters.

Your friendships matter.

See, I I want my daughters to have friends, but I want them to have good friends.

You know what I'm saying?

Like I I don't want Leila influenced by friends who dress a certain way, talk a certain way, have crazy attitude, believe in crazy things.

And it's got nothing to do with judgment, it's got everything to do with protecting the influence that's in her life.

So God cares about the types of friends that you keep in your community.

I'm telling you, church.

And again, I know this isn't for everybody.

Some of you got this locked down, but for those of you who don't know, There is such a difference between a person's spiritual growth and their spiritual stagnation when they have the right or the wrong community in their corner.

It's very hard to grow when the people around you don't also want to grow.

Scripture tells us that iron sharpens iron.

We all need people who will sharpen us.

If you don't have anybody in your life who's going to sharpen you in the Lord, then the weapon that you carry, which is your faith, is only going to grow duller and duller every single day, weaker and weaker, and it's going to become less effective.

There's a there's a quote that says you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

So I want you to look At your circle, I want you to think about the people that you keep in your company.

I want you to ask yourself if you need more godly influence in your life.

I want to very briefly kind of touch on four types of friends, godly friends, that I believe every believer needs in their life.

I want to kind of give you a practical piece.

And this is not in any way like an exhaustive list.

I think that we can think of so many different types of friends, godly friends that we need.

But um I think these these are the bare minimum for those that we should keep in our corner.

And let me also say this, okay?

When I say friend I mean friend.

What is a friend?

Someone who is dependable?

Someone that you can be yourself around.

You're not pretending to be anybody else that you're not.

A friend is somebody that you feel safe around.

You know they've got your back, you've got their back.

Somebody that you enjoy being with.

It's low social pressure.

Us introverts value low social pressure.

Let me tell you right now If I'm hanging out with you and none of us are saying a word, I don't want the pressure to have to come up with the conversation.

Okay?

I'm totally fine with saying nothing That's low social pressure friendship right there.

That those are the friends that I'm talking about.

That's who you need in your life, a friend.

I also don't mean Pastor.

When I say friend, I don't mean pastor.

When I say friend, I don't mean mentor.

I don't mean counselor I need somebody to hear me today, okay?

Because as important as those relationships are to all of us, every pastor needs a pastor, counselors need counselors, mentors need mentors.

Mentors, but you can have all three of those people in your life who are the godliest of people.

But if the friends that you have who you spend the majority of your time with are acting a fool and they're foolish and they're wicked, there's not a lot that your pastor can do.

You're gonna you're gonna come once a month because you're bleeding from all the chaos that your friends have caused you.

And you're gonna come and get imparted some wisdom, but then you're gonna go back to the five friends that you hang out with the most This is really about your friends, the people, and your company.

Now, if if your pastor also happens to be your friend, hey, praise God.

You got a great friend.

You're welcome.

And I I uh I I thought about whether or not I wanted to say this, but I'm gonna I'm gonna say it.

Because I consider all of you my friends.

I really do.

I love all of you.

I consider y'all my friends.

But not to the extent that I'm talking about friendship.

And and and vice versa.

So I'm I'm sure some of you consider me your friend, but probably not your bestie.

And that was hard for me in the beginning.

I wrestled with it because I wanted to be the pastor that was everybody's friend.

So I I would I would I would overwork to be a part of conversations And be one of the guys and be everybody's friend.

And if you were going somewhere, I wanted to be invited.

And God was like, that's stupid.

You're dumb.

He's like, you're gonna go to 600 birthday parties every year?

You're gonna have 600 people at your birthday party?

What what do you what are you doing?

Nobody needs 500 friends, 400 friends, 100 friends, even 50 friends.

Nobody needs that And that's something that I in the beginning I just I felt like I needed to be everybody's friend.

I wanted to be their pastor and their friend.

And then God said, I didn't call you to be their friend, I called you to be their pastor.

Be their pastor.

The more of a friend I am to you, the less of a pastor I'll probably be to you.

See or no?

See you know, Pastor Damien.

I tell Pastor Danny sometimes, this was this was a couple years ago, I meant having been a great pastor to you.

And it's because this is one of my best friends.

It's weird.

And so I've got a handful of very close friends here at at PNEUMA, people I've known for years, people who were my friends when I was still Ryan Citum.

And when we hang out, they don't call me Pastor, they call me Ryan.

Those are my friends.

And can I tell you that my friends have shaped and influenced and impacted my life in more ways than my mentors have I don't vacation with my mentors.

I don't invite mentors to come and have game night with me to watch me act a fool.

No, that that's those are my friends.

Only my friends can see that So you might have a great leader, you might have a great counselor, you might have a great pastor.

We we all need that, but but we all need godly friends.

Tell the person next to you, you need some friends.

Some of y'all sunk y'all's teeth in that one Alright, so real quick, real quick, I want to go through this really quick.

Again, this is not this is not an exhaustive list, but but but when you are thinking about some of the closest people in your life, these are some of the people that I believe every Christian needs.

Number one, you need the wise friend.

You need a wise friend.

Everybody needs a man or a woman in their life, in their corner, in their circle, who has plenty of wisdom to offer.

I think we can think of plenty of examples in scripture, but the person that comes to mind is Mordecai.

Mordecai was Esther's cousin, and at least for a time in her life, he was one of the closest people that Esther had.

And if you read through the book of Esser, you'll remember the setting is that the Jews are they're in uh Persian uh captivity and they're literally on the brink of annihilation in Mordecai encourages Esther to be courageous and to speak up and to go to the king on behalf of the Jews and that maybe by her favor the Jews would be spared.

And so his famous words of wisdom are, Who knows it may be that you were called for such a time as this.

We all need friends like Mordecai We all need a friend who can speak godly wisdom in us.

We need friends who can model wisdom by the way that they live, by the way that they handle certain situations.

If all your friends are fools, guess what?

You you probably want them fools.

I've I've got some friends, man, who who model wisdom in so many areas of their life They are marriage goals.

There are parenting goals.

There are business and finance goals.

There are ministry goals.

All because they've chosen to live their life In the wisdom of God.

And you know what?

They don't even have to talk to me about their wisdom.

That's more of a mentor relationship.

All I've got to do is witness them walk in their wisdom and be inspired by it and want to increase in my wisdom.

That's what you need.

You need somebody who just inspires you by the way that they live and walk in godly wisdom.

Everybody needs a friend who displays wisdom in their speech.

They're not so quick to anger.

Because when they're quick to anger, you want to back them up.

You're ready to fight with them.

You need somebody who is not so reactive to things, who is who is a good steward of the resources And so if that saying is true that we're the average of the five people that we spend the most time with, that means that we might need to distance ourselves some from some foolish people Foolish people, foolish friends, man, what they may love us, you might love them, but they're not contributing to your spiritual growth.

I want you to lean in here because I know all of us have some foolish friends in our lives.

And you love them.

They're a good time.

It's just, it's just Todd.

I don't know why I said Todd.

Carlos, that's more appropriate.

It's just Carlos.

It's Carlos being Carlos.

Everybody everybody loves that foolish friend, right?

And when you hang out with him You're having a good time, but you'll you'll notice that there was not one mention of God unless they were drunk.

Everybody starts talking about God when they're drunk But there was not one ounce of edification.

And and if these are the people listen that you spend every single day with, it means that your spiritual growth rate is incredibly slow.

And the only source of growth that you're getting is the Sunday morning service.

Monday through Saturday, you're hanging out with Todd.

Carlos.

You need some spiritual, spiritually wise friends in your circle.

Number two, you need the faithful friend.

What Jonathan was to David, what Ruth was to Naomi.

These are the friends who are going to stay by your side when it hurts, when it's inconvenient, and when it's hard.

See, the difference between a faithful friend and a faithful pastor is that a friend is likely to stay by your side the whole time.

Can I just be real with you?

Pastors want to be there.

I want to be there.

I want to be by your side.

I want to be the best pastor that I could possibly be.

I want to be the pastor that God has called me to be.

But it is literally impossible to take every phone call.

To be everywhere at one time, to make every visit.

It's not sustainable.

And so the way that we've you know set up PNEUMA is with all of our pastors and our leaders is that you know I've encouraged them to help me pastor.

So that we can cover more ground.

Because one person alone cannot cover all that ground.

But this is what's so special about a friend.

They're there with you the whole time.

A friend is by your side even when you don't want them to be there.

And you're like, bro, go home.

And they're like, I I brought you soup.

I got friends man.

Well I'm sick they send me soup.

A lot of it.

And I don't want it.

I don't like caldo.

And maybe they're not really my friends, because they know that.

But they're there with you the whole time.

That's what a friend is.

That's what a faithful friend is.

Listen, these are the people who are gonna go home with you after church after the church service ends and continue to be with you and encourage you even when you feel the people at church hurt you.

They're going to treat you the same when you're in the Lord.

And when you fall away from the Lord, they're not going to stop being your friend because they love you the way that Jonathan loved David.

Like Ruth and Naomi.

They will go where you go.

Because they're not leaving your side.

I don't care if you want to send me away.

I don't know if I don't care if you're trying to send me back home with my family.

Where you go, I will go.

I am here for you.

I'm your friend.

I'm faithful to you because I love you.

Everyone needs a godly, faithful friend, and if you have one, it's time to tell that person that you're grateful for them.

Number three, you need a real friend.

I'm not talking about real as in a true friend.

I mean you got a friend that keeps it real with you.

That's what I mean.

Pastor Demares, Pastor Maritza, they're some of the realest friends I've got.

They're not afraid to tell me, hey bro, you're gaining some weight.

They ain't afraid.

They ain't afraid.

They're savage.

Especially Pastor Demares, bro.

She'll tell me, hey, I noticed you untucked your shirt today.

Is that because you're feeling a little self-conscious?

Can't even grab an empanada without her giving me some looks, man.

Those are some real friends.

That's that's that's what you need.

A real friend who isn't afraid to call you out and and to tell you, bro, you're in sin.

And sis, maybe maybe don't move in with him before you're married to him.

See, a a pastor can tell you all these things, and many times we do, but sometimes the reaction is he don't know my life.

He doesn't know my situation.

If he knew my situation, he would be more understanding.

He would give me more grace.

He's judging me, but a friend knows you.

A friend knows your situation.

You can't say that about a friend because they know who you are.

They've earned your trust.

And so they can keep it real, real with you.

We all need friends like Paul who rebuked Peter when Peter was being silly.

We all need friends like Nathan who told David, the king, hey, maybe you should repent.

And if you're too sensitive, listen, if you're too sensitive to have some real friends in your life, you especially need a real friend.

And maybe you gotta take that to the Lord.

God make me a little bit more tough.

Because I I don't I don't need somebody to to tell me to live my truth I don't need somebody to tell me to follow my heart and do what makes me feel good.

I need a friend whose Holy Spirit slaps me when I'm shutting down my own Holy Spirit.

That's the real friend that I need.

Because they are concerned for my spirit.

They care about me.

Get yourself a real friend.

And they ain't gonna be nice sometimes.

But you need one.

The last one I want to talk about.

Number four, the faith friend.

The faith friend.

I need friends like that paralytic man who in Mark chapter 2 he was trying to get to Jesus, but the crowds were too dense, they were too thick to get through.

And so this this man's four friends had Hey, I got a crazy idea.

Let's do something crazy.

And so they take this man who can't walk and they're carrying him.

And they see a house where Jesus is preaching out of.

And they say, let's climb the rooftop to get to Jesus.

And so they climb the rooftop.

And I don't know how they do it, but they may maybe they take some tools with them and they dig this hole in the roof and they lower this man just to get to Jesus and it was probably really awkward and really embarrassing and it probably violated a lot of property laws but the dude's friends were like man you're getting your healing today bro Today is the day because because we're over here trying to walk down the corner and we have to carry you.

You're getting your healing today.

Because just leaving you at home is not an option because you're our friend and we love you So we're gonna take you and we're gonna take you to Jesus and you're gonna get your healing today.

I don't care if I gotta go to jail for a couple days.

I don't care if I gotta pay a fine.

You are getting your healing.

Get some friends like that, man.

Everybody needs a friend whose faith is strong when yours is not.

And I'm telling you today, there's gonna be season in your life where your faith is not strong, your faith is weak.

And if you've got faithless people in your life, they're not going to help you grow.

We all need somebody like my brother Mikey, man.

My brother Mikey's always rolling deep, always bringing somebody to the altar.

And I don't know if they want to come to the altar, but he brings them here and I pray for them.

They might come kicking and screaming, but but but but that that's a friend right there.

That's a real friend.

Everybody needs somebody who is gonna bring them to the feet of Jesus so that they can encounter Jesus.

When everybody else is blaming the church and they're blaming your pastor and they're blaming they're blaming the people of God and they're wondering why you're still worshiping even though your life is is is down in the dunk.

You need a faith friend who says God is not Failed you, God is still with you.

Get up and let's get to Jesus.

I feel strongly about this one, man, because I tell you, man, I've got some faith friends in my life.

Who have probably saved my life, man.

If I am ever on life support fighting for a miracle, I am confident that the people I have praying for me know how to move the heart of God.

I don't have to sit with them and be like, okay, hold on.

You really need to pray in faith.

Now I trust them.

I trust them.

And I'll never be afraid to ask for prayer for those I know carry the gift of faith.

Can I tell you there's some there's some things, there's some prayer requests that I'm too embarrassed to ask for.

But then God tells me, I've put some friends in your life as a gift.

How dare you not ask for prayer How dare you try to carry this burden alone when you've got a circle of men and women who can carry you with their faith?

Church, I love you.

I love I love all of you.

I love you immensely, as a pastor should.

And many of you know that when you when you call me and you ask for prayer, I'm gonna pray with you and I'm gonna pray with authority, and I'm gonna call down heaven to earth, and and I'm gonna believe that God is going to move mountains.

That's what I'm gonna do, and many of you know that.

I will pray the most bold prayers with you, the prayers that you're not even praying.

I'm gonna pray them.

But can I tell you this?

I probably don't love you as much as the four or five people that you have in your inner circle.

Just like you don't love me as much as your best friends.

I probably don't love you as much as Your best friend loves you.

And so imagine the power of a faith-filled circle of friends who aren't just saying a prayer for you.

They're praying for you nonstop.

They're not getting discouraged.

They're saying, you know what, let's fast for him.

They're believing with you.

They're calling prayer meetings.

They're calling all of their friends, the friends that you don't even know, asking you, asking them for prayer on your behalf.

Something happens to me, I know that my wife, my dad, my mom, my sister, and a handful of some of my closest friends will be praying nonstop for me all day long.

You need some friends of faith in your life.

So I say it again, your community matters.

Your community matters.

And maybe you're looking at this list and you're like, man, I don't have any of these people in my life.

So my my challenge to you is that you would find them because there is community here.

But you have to look for them.

Stop stop running off to church like like like you or from church like you just checked off a box.

Okay, went to church.

Now let's go to Nefus or wherever you go.

Stick around and find the community that God has gifted you with.

A community of people who are full of wisdom and full of faithfulness.

And full of full full of directness and full of faith.

I want to end, I'm almost done.

I want to end by looking at this passage from John.

You're still with me, right?

Okay, I don't want to dismiss you yet if you're being baptized.

I don't want to dismiss you yet because I want you to hear this.

This passage that we just read, it it can be It can be a little confusing because John's gospel is often confusing.

It's very deep and theologically rich, and it makes us wonder a few things.

One of the things that this passage makes us wonder.

Is why Jesus would say, I no longer call you servants, but friends, only if you obey my commandments.

Doesn't that still sound like a servant?

Like like I'm your friend on the condition that I obey you.

That's kind of confusing.

Which hey, I'm cool with.

Jesus, if you want me to be your servant, I'm cool with that.

I've got a shirt that says servant on the back.

We sell those here.

I'm a servant.

I'm a servant of God.

But but but Jesus here in this very intimate moment with his disciples, he says, he seems to graduate his disciples from s from servants.

To friends.

Read verse 15 one more time.

It says, No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I've called you friends.

For all that I have heard from my father I've made known to you.

So interpretation, Jesus is saying this.

He's saying, I now call you friends, because now you know what's up.

Now you know some things.

See when the disciples first started to follow Jesus, they weren't following the Son of God, they were following the Messiah.

They in their mind they were following a man who they thought was going to be an earthly king and overthrow the Roman authorities and establish his reign on earth They believed that he was anointed, but they had no clue the level of anointing this man carried.

And then Jesus began to speak to them.

And he began to teach them things about himself.

And he and he and he demonstrated miracles and signs and wonders that that verified everything that he was saying about himself as the son of God.

And the Bible says that when Jesus would preach these things to the other crowds, many of the other disciples walked away.

They walked with him at one point, but then they walked away because they could not accept what Jesus was saying of himself.

But these 12 men they stayed.

They stuck around.

Please don't miss this.

I don't want you to miss this.

And so in John chapter 6, John chapter 6, when Jesus preaches the most controversial sermon.

In the Bible.

He says, if you do not eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you have no part of me.

The Bible says that those who were walking with Jesus, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

That's what the Bible says.

And then Jesus he asks Peter, and I imagine he gets in Peter's face like this, and he asks him a question.

He says, What about you, Peter?

What about you?

Do you want to leave too?

Everybody else is walking away.

Jesus just says some crazy things about his identity as a son of God, and everybody's walking away.

What about you, Peter?

Do you want to leave too?

And do you know what Peter says?

It's one of the most beautiful verses.

I mean, Peter just clocked it with this response.

What about you, Peter?

Do you want to leave too?

Peter looks at him.

He says, Lord, to whom shall I go?

Your words are of eternal life.

Your words.

And he says, and we have believed, and we have come to know that you are the Holy One.

Of God.

And so when Jesus says, okay, I can't I can't call you servants anymore, now I've got to call you friends.

It's for this reason.

Because now you know what I'm doing, it's not a mystery to you anymore.

And maybe you didn't have the right agenda to begin with, but now you know who I am, and you're choosing to stay, you're choosing to love me.

You're choosing to abide in me.

You're choosing to obey me.

And that's why I call you friend.

How many friends of God do we have in the room?

See maybe when you first came to church, you came to church looking for a miracle, but you stayed for the miracle worker.

You came looking for what Jesus could do for you, but you fell in love with the man, the Son of God, who saved you.

You're not a servant anymore.

You're a friend.

Because you stayed by my side.

That's who you are.

See, you're either a friend of Jesus or you're still a servant And maybe you're saying, Pastor, what we're all servants of God.

Yes, yes, yes.

But some of us have never graduated from servant, from servant to friend We haven't.

We haven't.

And so you're either here at church today because you feel like you have to be here.

Because because you could use some more Jesus in your life.

Because you know that some things in your life are pretty messed up, and and and you know that some Christian instruction are some things that you can benefit from.

You're treating Jesus solely as a master.

And so you honor him here.

But when you're outside of church And you're with ungodly influence, and they're saying things about your master, they're they're doing things that are calling you away from honoring your master, you go along with them, but not a friend.

Not a friend.

A friend says, to whom shall I go?

What choice do I have but to defend this faith that I have what what choice do I have than to defend the man that I love who is my friend?

What choice do I have?

Than to be faithful to him who's been faithful to me.

Or maybe you are here and you are a friend of God.

And while you do serve him and you do obey him, you also desire to go deeper with him.

You desire to go deeper with him because you've already experienced the love of God and you want more of it.

You're a friend of God.

His commandments aren't a burden to you.

It's exactly where you want to be.

Can I tell you there was a point in my life where his commandments were a burden to me?

Where I felt like I just I was I was just falling in line because I felt like that's what I had to do to be a good Christian boy.

I just had to do, I had to go to church, I had to read my Bible.

I had to study the word of God.

I had to know the Christian songs.

I had to refrain from all the worldly stuff because that's what I had to do.

But it wasn't until I had a real encounter.

And I know and and I and I I knew who he was as a friend and as a father.

When I went through seasons of my life where I needed a provider, my friend was there But when I was broken and I was brokenhearted, and there were some things that I didn't understand, and my faith was being tested, I knew who my friend was In those most broken moments of my life, but if he was just a master to me, I don't think I'd be where I am today A friend of Jesus is one who sticks with him when everybody else walks away.

And so Jesus is is speaking to this core group, his 12 disciples, his 12 friends.

And what does he say?

Y'all need to love each other, man.

That's what his commandment is.

Y'all need to love each other.

Because this, this, this, look around you, look around you.

Look around you.

This is what you have This is what I'm leaving you with.

Stop trying to do it by yourself.

Stop trying to do it alone.

Stop thinking that you are so holy that you don't need the person next to you.

This this is the commandment that I leave you that you love one another.

And can I tell you, church, in this walk, you're gonna need friends like Jesus You're gonna need friends who look like Jesus because if you keep reading, Jesus begins to prepare them for the tribulation that is to come He tells them that the world is gonna hate you for my name's sake and they're gonna they're gonna flog you in the streets, they're gonna beat you, they're gonna call you names, they're gonna hate you And yes, they had the Holy Spirit, but they also had community.

Community that was formed by Jesus for the sake of glorifying the Father with the love and fruit that they bear.

So my challenge to you, church, is that Get the right community.

That's it.

That's my message.

I don't even have an altar call for you today.

That's just my challenge.

Get the right community Because you can't do it by yourself.

You can't do it with just a pastor.

You can't do it with just a mentor or a counselor You can't do it just with the Sunday morning.

You need a godly community who loves you and who will build you and who will edify you and who will sustain you.

We stand this morning.

And I'm asking the prayer team to come up.

And there's no I don't have an altar call, but I I do want to invite you if you if you need prayer this morning.

We have a prayer team who is ready and willing.

To pray with you.

But right there where you're at, let me just, if you're going to be baptized, you can go ahead and be dismissed to get ready.

Let me just pray this over you.

Heavenly Father.

Man God, thank you for being such a faithful friend, Lord.

My God, when everybody else failed us, my God, you never have.

You've always been there, Lord.

And I pray, Father God, that we could at least model your friendship for everybody else in our life, Father God, for this community that you've put us in, Lord.

I pray that you lead the people without the community to the right people, my God.

Open up doors for them, Father God.

Your word says, ask.

And it shall be given to you.

Seek, you shall find, knock, and the door will be open.

I pray, Father God, that as people search for wisdom.

As they search for that friend who's gonna be faithful to them, my God.

As they search, my God, for some accountability, my God.

As they search, my God, for somebody to pour into them and keep their faith accountable, Father, I pray that they would find it.

Edify your body.

Jesus' name.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mypneumachurch. com.

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Thanks again and God bless.