Who Is In Your Inner Circle Series

We will be looking at why friendships matter, we will look at how Jesus modelled intentional relationships with us, and how to have christ-centred friendships. I want to ask you today, how many friends do you have? I want to point out this verse. Proverbs 17:17 FBV: A friend is someone you may or may not know well that accepts your friend request on Facebook. This person is born to like and comments on your posts to make you feel good about yourself.

Ok, that is the Facebook version, and it is FAKE, but I want to point out that it is what we these days see as friendships. We define it like that. We have friends by the thousands, and they like our things and photos and so forth but only make us feel good. There is no real-life happening here. Nothing not sharing a meal, no doing life or circle or bible study, nothing, but we seem to think that this is friendship on the top surface and as long as you do ok, we good friends, but as soon as life gets tough I am out, I even hear people say this "I do not have time for that negativity in my life."

Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. Would it not be amazing if we had 5 or 6 friends that loved us just as we are? Not only for better but also for worse. I am talking about decades, not only years, where we spend time investing in each other marriages and children, where we do life together, serve Jesus together, go on Swaziland missions together, and build God's kingdom together. Where I learn from you and you from me, where we can love you enough to tell you the truth when you doing something stupid, where I can l love you enough to kick your backside when you are about to do something that is about to hurt you, not playing the not my circus, not my monkeys rule?

But Social media is redefining what friendships are. Let us be honest, none of you phones your friend and goes, GUESS WHAT? YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE what is happening; what happened? I AM HAVING YOGHURT FOR BREAKFAST. You see, we fall into the trap of friendship on social media 5 minutes a day. We do not go out together, we do not help each other, we sit back on our phones and scroll and like a scroll and like, and we are more concerned about how we look in photos than what we feel in real life.

Guys the devil is selling us a lie that friendships are more likes, more Facebook friends, more followers, more retweets, more TikTok, more online but less offline. Still, we are lonelier than ever before, and we are more depressed than ever before. Why? Because we do not have human contact like Jesus wants us to, we replace it with fast food quick fixes only when we have happy friendships.

I clearly want to say that I am not against social media. I am called the social media stalker of the church, but I also love sharing God's word on Facebook and Instagram. We are addicted to Facebook, Instagram and social media, and we need to stop because it is not friendship; it is faked. Social media must not be the replacement but the supplement. In gym terms, you can take all the accessories you want, but if you do not do the work, it will not help. You need to WORK on friendships, and when you do the job, you can use the supplement to further it, not the other way around.

So I want to look at Jesus and how he shows us what an inner circle must look like. Why is it essential for all of us to have an inner circle? So I want to start off by reading Luke 5:1-11 (CSB) As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God's word, he was standing by Lake Gennesaret. 2 He saw two boats at the edge of the lake; the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the land. Then he sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat.

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch."

5 "Master," Simon replied, "we've worked hard all night long and caught nothing. But if you say so, I'll let down the nets."

6 When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.