Friends

Friends

2/12/20

Key Verse: Proverbs 13:20 (Read)

The people you surround yourself with have a direct impact on the decisions you make and the actions you take

The right friends always add value to who you are

Intro: How much time do you spend thinking about what you have??? I bet most of us spend more time focusing on what we think we need...

ME: I overlooked what I had when I was younger

1: What did I have?

My potential: having or showing the capacity to become or develop into something in the future. Having something will always be more than having nothing; if you have something you have potential (never underestimate your something)

My purpose: the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists; this why I’m here (I tried to make myself fit into things that weren’t made for me)

My place: a portion of space available or designated for someone or something: this is where I belong (I always felt like nothing was available for me)

Application: I have something, and for the longest time I based my something off of others something, but there something wasn’t my something, so the potential, purpose, and place were always hidden from me because I believed it was found in others…

You: You may not believe this, but you already have everything you need to find your Potential, your Purpose, and your Place.

You don’t need anyone else to find it, but it sure does help when you have others that see what you can’t see and believe for you when you can’t believe it.

2: Matt 13:1-9 Parable of the sower

Four outcomes in the parable

Wayside is where it gets devoured, that’s the path where everyone walks so the ground is hard and compacted. The seed is meant to be placed in something, not on something

The stony place where the soil is shallow, things grow quickly in shallow soil but they don’t have the roots to sustain them in the dry and hot season. Some of you were in love with someone at one time, but now you don’t speak or acknowledge one another. You based your beliefs on shallow feelings so when things get dry and uncomfortable the thing you thought you had died.

Thorns, you grow together but soon it gets sticky and painful, thorns eventually overtake the seed, they slowly steal all the nutrients and sustenance and in time choke out the seed. This is a slow-burning building that can’t be extinguished, you just can’t seem to get over it, because you're stuck in the briar patch, and you don’t realize it until the entire relationship is dead.

Good Ground, this is where the seed is supposed to be, the ground is prepared which allows the seed to be planted deep so the roots develop first. Anything worth something takes time, it’s worth the hard work and the preparation, harvest never happens without intentional planning, planting and praying. You will never get what God intended for you to get out of your relationships without first having a deep relationship with HIM.

Application: how many of you are really where you’re supposed to be in your relationship with God and your relationships with others???

God: Matt 13:31-32

3: Heaven is like a mustard seed (hand out seeds)

3 things about this parable you need to see

1: Someone did something with what they had, Someone sowed the seed, someone planted the seed in their field (HIS field, that’s the place the seed is meant for)

2: The mustard seed looks insignificant when you don’t know the true purpose of the seed

3: It becomes a tree (that’s the full potential of the seed)

Application: That seed in your hand represents your potential, purpose, and place, I told you, you have everything you need already. You have to decide what you do with what you have.

WE: We have to take inventory of who we have in our circles

4: Friends help us find Good Ground

Someone took and sowed in HIS field V31

The right friends always want to add value to us

The right friends are just as serious about your potential, purpose, and place as they are their own

Application: Anyone that you’ve allowed access in your life that doesn’t do those things is not your friend.

Those people would rather watch you be devoured when they should be helping you draw closer to God.

Those people would rather have a shallow relationship and blame you when it burns up.

Those people will allow you to stay around long enough for them to get everything they can get from you and when you realize it they’ll hurt you when you pull away.

SO WHAT: The right friends help me draw closer to God…