Did you know that you were made to be known? You were made to be able to lean on others, and you were made to thrive in community and in friendship. One of the things that is most important in the body of Christ actually isn’t miracles, signs and wonders, but it’s actually the body of Christ loving one another.
One of the marking words of Jesus at the end of His life to His disciples was, the world is going to know that I’m God because of how you guys love each other. And so we do ourselves a disservice when we pursue these big, immaculate things that are good and they are of God, but we forget the person on our right and the person on our left.
And sometimes what’s unique is that the person that you would least expect is actually carrying the breakthrough that you need yourself. I’m a youth pastor here in Austin, Texas, and I’ve been preaching to our students about friendship and how important it is. And two powerful quotes I shared with them. One was, “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” And the other one was, “You are the result of the five people that you spend the most time with.”
I just took five young men out camping this past weekend, and it was so unique, because I had the most diverse group of five young men from our group that I could have asked for. And we were there sitting around the fire and one of the boys started to open up about some things that he had been dealing with in his life. And they were very personal things. And what was unique is that these two more popular, well dressed, very well liked boys intently listened to this young man who was a freshman, and these guys are older, and they just began to love on him and listen to him and spend time there just sitting around the fire. After we had these conversations, what was unique is, one of the boys commented, “Man, I can’t wait to do this next year. This has been the most, like, the deepest I’ve ever talked to the other guys in our youth group.” And I got to tell him, “Hey, we’re not waiting until next year. We’re gonna do this in the next couple months again.”
And so I want to encourage you today, one, believe that you are worth being known. Believe that you’re worth being known. And two, find others that you can lean on. Find somebody that inspires you. Find somebody that loves Jesus more than you do, and go ask, “Hey, could I just grab a coffee with you and pick your brain?”
So I just want to pray that open doors would happen in your life for friendship and for mentorship to happen in this season of your life. So, Lord, I just thank you for every person watching. And Father, I ask that you begin to make supernatural connections with others in their life that they’re meant to be partnered with, for encouraging and to be encouraged in this season. Amen.