Friendship Pastor Kile Baker June 23rd, 2024 2023-24’ Fiscal Year Update Our Fiscal year is from July 1st, to June 30th We base our budget off of last year’s giving Our staff have been great stewards 2023-24’ Highlights You helped inspire 68 people to get baptized, including 43 at Easter. You stepped into leadership, where 15 people became deacons. You read through the entire Bible in a year. You supported five/six local & global missions partners. You pledged $52,795 at our first Night of Missions. 2023-24’ projected Giving: $1,450,000 2023-24’ actual Giving so far: $1,167,069 2023-24’ giving gap: $282,930, or 20% You all want to be generous, but not all of you can be generous. Next Steps for everyone: Begin giving. (https://lifepointnv.church/give) Switch to automated giving. (through your bank or through us) Become a growing giver. (grow into 10% tithe, 5% offering) Pray about giving a big gift. (you can’t outgive God!) Attend the next family meeting onJuly 21st. (stay informed about your church) Three invitations for men in this series: Go on an adventure. Get in a group. Grow at a retreat Oct. 11-13. The world needs more men; but more importantly, it needs more men who follow Jesus. Series Question: What makes a man? A man is made by the quality and intentionality of his friendships. The Five Types of Friendships With God With your spouse With your kids With other Christians With everyone else Friendship with God Having a relationship with God requires us to worship Him; but He has also invited us into friendship with Him. John 15:15 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. A Biblical definition of true friendship: A true friend will sacrifice for you, always tell you the truth, and help you pursue God. Friendship with your spouse Ephesians 5:25-28 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. Biblical headship is leadership that serves and sacrifices. Friendship with your kids Ephesians 6:1-4 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, because this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life in the land. Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. You should become friends with your kids eventually, but not immediately. Friendship with you kids later is only possible if you train and instruct them in God’s ways now. Friendship with other Christians Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching. Someday every Christian will be together for all eternity in Heaven, so why not be at peace with one another on Earth? Friendship with everyone else Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” A Christian’s relationship with non-Christians is to show them how their friendship with God influences everything they do. A Biblical definition of true friendship: A true friend will sacrifice for you, always tell you the truth, and help you pursue God. You can have casual friends that only do one or two; but your close friends should fulfill all three. The friends you don’t have are just as important as the ones you do. Next Steps: Talk to God as a friend. Serve your spouse in a small way. Prepare for friendship with your kids. Reconcile with and encourage other Christians. Reflect on your circle of influence.