Choose Your Circle Wisely | Cornerstone Church | Pastor Linn Winters

And, we've spent most of this time talking about king David because here's what's remarkable about his life is that his life left to itself would actually have ended up being relatively ordinary. It's his friends, it's his friends who in just the right moment came alongside

and did for David what David most needed in that moment. There were moments in which David was off the rails, he's getting ready to do something that he shouldn't do, it was gonna bring him a lifetime of regret and there were friends who intervened and just said, David, David, Dave, don't don't go there.

He had friends in the moments when he became depressed and lost sight of what God was doing in his life and was ready to give up and friends who came alongside don't said, don't forget the promises of God. Don't forget that he's said you'll eventually be king. Don't don't lose heart in a moment like this. Stay faithful.

And literally, it's his friends that changed the story of David into something remarkable. And here's why that's such a big deal. Your friends, your friends will help write your story. Have the wrong friends and you'll end up with the wrong story. Have the right friends and your story is forever, forever changed for the better.

Friends is a big, big deal. Today, we're gonna meet a remarkable woman who when David meets her instantly, instantly becomes her friend and changes his life.

Her name is Abigail. Here's the interesting thing about us. Most often you and I fall into friendship. In order to hear what I mean by that. We didn't plan it. It just, it kind of happens to us.

We're living in a neighborhood. There's a neighbor kid down the street who's about the same age as our kid, and they became friends, and they're playing together. So we find ourselves walking to the neighbor's house to pick our kid up. They come to our house to pick their kid up and we begin to talk and finally someone says, what if we went to dinner together and before you know it,

they're our friends. We fell into friendship. We were picking up pickleball

and one of the struggles was sometimes you'd be matched against a couple that couldn't play very well and so you're kind of standing there waiting for the ball to come back. The next time you're paired up with somebody who's way more advanced than you and you're just humiliated and slaughtered,

and then you run into a couple that's about at the same level.

And you go, hey, this is good because you're challenging enough to help us get better, but you're not so much better than us that, you know, it's just horrible to be there. So you start arranging, hey, could we make, you know, make appointments to play pickleball together? And as you're hanging out and doing that, you realize, hey, we love going to movies. You love go. Let's go to movies together and before you know it,

they're your friends. You fell into friendship and then and then your friends are not so friendly. There's the moment in which they say horrible things about you and wound your heart. There there's the time when they're incredibly selfish at your expense. There's the moment in which they betray

and here's the answer at the end of the day, we didn't screen them. We we didn't say, hey, in order to be my friend, here's the qualities that you should have. We fell into friendship, we never actually interviewed them for the job And would it not be wiser for you and I to say, hey, look here's the deal,

you can be my casual friend, but but if you wanna be in the inner circle, if if you wanna be a friend who is closest to my heart and somebody who has the opportunity to influence my life, the reality is there are some character traits, there are some things that have to be true about you

and who you are if you're gonna be in my inner circle, and I'm gonna interview you to be there.

So real quick, just think about what are some of the character traits? What are some of the qualities that you would wanna have on a friend who would be in your inner circle? Just put up your hand, what would be some of those qualities? Way in the back. Honesty. Honesty.

Yeah. If you're gonna be in my inner circle, I need you to be honest. I don't I don't I don't want you deceiving. I want you to be honest with me all the time. What else? Understanding. Understanding.

Because here's the deal. I'm a little weird and you know, you need to understand that if you're gonna be my friend, right? So I need someone who's kind of understanding. What else? Loyal. See, need a friend that when it gets hard, you're still my friend and I can still find you because you're loyal. What others? Yeah. Loves

Jesus. Yeah. If you're gonna be my friend because you're this is what what do you what? I said respect. Respect. Yeah. Yeah. Not quite loves Jesus, but okay. Alright.

No. You're right. I I won't respect there too because I'm a dude and, yeah, that's what we want, but and then alright. So you get it right. All these things we've said, they're legit. The truth is I think they ought to be on your friendship card. You ought to say, hey, if you're gonna be one of my closest friends,

these things belong in your life. If you're gonna be in my inner circle. When David meets Abigail, he instantly says, this gal belongs in my inner because the attributes that she displays on that first encounter with David are so remarkable. He says,

this is gonna be my lifelong friend. Matter of fact, do you wanna be surprised? Before it's all said and done, David will marry Abigail. So here we go, we're gonna look into that incredible encounter, but most of all, we're gonna look into what were the attributes that just absolutely

so inspired David so over that he said, you've gotta be one of the people in my inner circle. So grab your Bibles, go with me to first Samuel. First Samuel is in the old testament. And, and if you're not familiar, you simply start at the front of your bible, start working to the left.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, first Samuel. First Samuel chapter 25. So let me set this up so that we all get what's happening in the moment. So David is still on the run from king Saul, And now he's he's accumulated about 600 men who are following him.

And, they happen to be in proximity to a guy, his name is Nabal, who is hugely wealthy. He's got massive, massive, massive herds of sheep and of goats, and David, as just a kindness to Nabal, says to his man, hey, you're gonna join his shepherds and you're gonna help to guard the flock.

Make make sure that no wild animals can get in there and kill any of Nabal's animals. Make sure that no bandits come and steal part of the herd. It's now shearing time. And so what happens at shearing time is, you know, the

sheep are all overgrown, the goats are all over, and you bring them in, you shear their wool off and then you sell it at market. So they've done the shearing and typically now you've ended with this huge pile of wool, you know you're gonna make tons of money, so you throw a festival, a celebration

of what's about to happen. David sends word to Nabal and says, hey, we watched over your flocks. We helped you to take care of them. And we know you're having, you know, a festival. How about if you share some of the food with me and my men? As these men come to Nabal, Nabal says, I didn't ask David to watch over my sheep.

Why why why would I do anything for him? That's his tough luck. Tell David to get lost. So now these men that David sent come back to David and they report how Nabal has acted and David is out of his mind. David in that moment, rather than saying, hey, we're gonna go in there and take the sheep we want,

he makes, he says this, we're gonna go to Nabal's house, we're gonna kill every male in Nabal's house. We're gonna kill uncles, we're gonna kill cousins, we're gonna kill male servants, we're gonna kill every male in his house. Now here's why you do that,

because you literally wipe his name off the face of the earth. You took his family tree and it stops and he will have zero descendants to carry on his name. David is that incensed, that angry over Nabal's slight. Some of Nabal's servants come to his wife Abigail and they say to her, hey, your husband just treated these guys

horribly. I guarantee you, they're mad as hornets. Abigail says, go get me, go get me a bunch of the lambs that have already been slaughtered, they're ready to be cooked, bring me hundreds of raisin cakes and loaves of bread and date cake, we're we're gonna take them out

And so she does, she takes literally the feast and begins to go out to meet David before David can get to Nabal's house. And this moment is the moment of that encounter. So here we go. First Samuel, chapter 25, we're gonna begin in verse 23.

When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him. She fell at his feet and said, I accept all the blame in this matter, my Lord. Now think about that. Wait, wait, wait, wait. She doesn't have any blame. She's not the one that insulted David's men. Her husband did.

And yet in this moment, she takes responsibility for it. In other words, here's the deal. She sees a problem and rather than dismissing it and going, well, I didn't do it. So that's somebody else's problem. She sees the problem says, I'm gonna fix this. I'm gonna intervene before something horrifying happens.

I'll take responsibility for it. Please listen to what I have to say. I know that Nabal is a wicked and ill tempered man, which simply means he came from New York.

All the Jersey people in the room are going, yeah. Yeah. I

know Nabal is a wicked and ill tempered man. Please don't pay any attention to him. He is a fool just as his name suggests. Now here's the interesting thing. In those days, you would name your child after the traits you saw in him and the name Nabal actually means fool.

But I never I never even saw the young men that you sent. Think about the remarkableness of what Abigail has just done. Her husband has made a horrible mistake. It's not her mistake. And yet she steps into the gap and just says, look, put the blame on me. I'll take responsibility for what happened

and I'll do what is necessary to recover it, to fix the moment. Responsible friends are willing to go the extra mile. Even when you're ready, the first mile wasn't theirs either. We've

got a young man on staff. His name is RJ. RJ is responsible for, like, everything technical that you see. All the screens on the entire campus, all the lights in all the buildings, all the sound systems, here that they're all RJ.

And, about a month and a half ago, the women were getting ready to go to retreat up in Williams, Arizona. Williams is beyond is past Flagstaff. And they came to RJ and they said, hey. Is it possible for you to assign some guys that are on your team to come up to retreat

and run sound for us? Because we wanna be sure when we're doing worship, there's no hiccups. And when the speaker's speaking, you know, the mic doesn't go in and out. Could your team come and help us do that? And RJ said, you know what? I'll find some guys. We'll get that done for you. Now comes the weekend of retreat.

RJ's already found a team to go up. It it's ready. They're going. But RJ gets up early Friday morning. He puts his wife in a car and he puts his brand new little daughter who's less than a year old in a car. He drives all the way to Williams. He doesn't have to do that, he's already got a team going.

He gets there, he helps his team set up, make sure that everything is working perfectly for them so that nothing will go wrong. He then spends the night, the next morning he gets up, drives over three plus hours back here to Cornerstone, so that he can be ready for Saturday night services here.

Here's what I'm thinking, If RJ is that responsible with his job, I wonder what RJ is like with a friend. And guys, I'm just telling you, you and I want a friend. Here's how you know when you found that kind of friend. If you find yourself saying, hey, you you didn't have to do that. You may have found an RJ.

You may have found an Abigail. And you find that kind of person, need to seriously think about, hey, they may belong in my inner circle. If that's the way they're gonna treat me, maybe they can be one of my closest friends. Here's the thing. You are also going to run into just the opposite.

You are going to run into irresponsible people who want to take their irresponsibility and place the burden of it on you. In other words, I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do. I'm not fulfilling my own obligations and I'm going to ask you to pick up my slack.

Here's why sometimes that's hard to figure out because scripture talks to us about and says, hey, if you see a brother or a sister who's struggling, then you and I in Christ, we should minister to them, right? We should step in and help that brother or sister who's struggling. So that's what we're supposed to do, right?

Yes, but no. Let me explain. Take your Bibles, turn with me to Galatians chapter six. And again, if you're not familiar, go to the back of your Bible, start working left. Keep your finger in first Samuel because we're coming back to Abigail. But Galatians chapter six, back of my bible, working left.

And it's gonna bring clarity to when should I help a brother in need and when should I turn down a brother or sister in need? Here we go. Galatians chapter six, starting in verse two. Here's what it says, carry each other's burdens

and in this way, will fulfill the law of Christ. You go, well then that's just exactly what we said, right? I see my brother, I see my sister struggling, I'm supposed to get in there and help. I'm supposed to help them with their burden. But now jump to verse five and verse five says this,

for each one should carry their own load. Well, wait a minute. If that's their load, they're supposed to carry. How, how do you, what's the difference? How does that work? Verse two said, when you see your brother or sister with a burden, what's a burden? Something has happened to them.

In other words, they didn't cause it, but something has happened to them. The company that they work for decides to downsize,

and now they find themselves without a job. It's not because they were a bad employee. It's not because they broke the com. It's just because the company decided downside. They were last one in, first one out. It's a burden

and so you and I should respond. Maybe we go to them and say, hey, I know right now financially, it's tight. Let me pay your electric bill for the next month or two because I'm coming to help carry the burden.

You have a friend and their spouse ends up in the hospital and now they're trying to navigate, how do I go spend time with my spouse, but I got little ones at home, How do I find someone to watch them? And you go to your friend, you go, hey, don't worry about it. I'll come to your house. I'll pick up your kids. They can spend the night with me. You go be with your spouse.

Because see they didn't cause that wreck that happened to them. It's a burden in their life that came upon them and God says, when you see that happen, you and I should lean into our Christian brother or sister and you and I should be part of the answer. We should help them.

Years ago, I took a group of young people, up hiking in Colorado, and, we were gonna be there for an entire week. Now here's the thing, when you get ready to go and be backpacking for an entire week,

you end up with a lot of stuff in your pack. You you end up with not only the pack itself, but you have to have a sleeping bag, you have to have a cooktop, you've gotta have an entire week's worth of food. You have to have changes of clothes. You've gotta have the tents you're gonna sleep in.

It ends up being matter of fact, it's pretty normal if you're gonna be backpacking for your backpack is about 70 pounds. So we go up. We get to Colorado. The first day, we walk on pretty, flat ground because here's the deal, we're at altitude, and Arizonans don't know how to deal with altitude.

So we're just trying to break everybody in. Second day, we just literally camped the entire day in the meadow. Again, just trying to get everybody acclimated to altitude because what we knew was gonna happen the third day is we had to go up this horrendous grade, this unrelenting

grade up the side of a mountain till we got to the top, could go over, and actually get into the rest of the hike. So here comes morning, we all put our 70 pound packs on, and we start up the grade, and it goes something like this. One step, two step.

One step, two step.

Just trying to get oxygen. And after a little while, we started realizing that the smallest of us were really, really we they weren't gonna make it. And without saying the word, I watched young people walked over to the ones who were struggling and say, hey, give me the heaviest thing in your pack,

And they put it in their own pack, and we all made it to the top. That night, we were at the campfire and we said, guys, you understand what just happened. That was Galatians chapter six verse two. When you see a brother or a sister with a burden, go help them.

Go rescue the moment. And you guys, that's exactly what Jesus has called us to do.

Couple years later, we experienced Galatians chapter six verse five. Each one should carry their own load. So we're backpacking again. We're getting ready to go up a really, really steep grade. We start up the grade, people are struggling. But the interesting thing was that one of the people who was struggling

was a guy by the name of Eddie who was actually one of the most athletic guys on the trip. It was surprising that he was struggling

with it, you know, and and so the same thing happened again. People went over to Eddie, said Eddie, give me the heaviest thing in your pack and they put it in their pack and we all made it to the top. That night, we had that campfire. Boy, that was so great. You did exactly what Jesus would want you to do. You helped out Eddie.

Till we got to the end of the week. We get to the end of the week and Eddie reaches down in his backpack and pulls out a six pack of cokes. Now here's the thing,

a six pack of Cokes is horribly heavy. No backpacker in their right mind would put a six pack of Coke inside of their backpack. The reason he was struggling is because he made a stupid decision to bring a six pack of coke. If we had known the reason he was struggling was because we

carried his heaviest, are you kidding me? Do you think Eddie shared the coke with any of the people who helped him carry the pack? You see, here's Eddie's struggle was because of Eddie's bad decisions in which scripture would say, hey, you put yourself there, you did something, then carry your own load.

That you brought that into your own life. So deal with it yourself. Nobody's obligated to make up for your poor decisions.

Parents, I'm going to give you this one for free. Your kids, your kids have something in their life that happens that's unfair, in other words, they they get a burden in their life. Rescue them, rescue them, that's what you do as a parent. Rescue them all day long.

Your kid is dealing with something because they made a stupid decision, make them carry their own Coke. Let them learn the lesson that making stupid decisions has consequences to it. And the problem is that if you go into rescue mode when what they're struggling with is their own bad decisions,

and you now spare them from the consequences, two things happen. Number one, you become God to them because whenever they have a problem, even if it's a problem with their own making, guess who saves them? Their parents, which means they never have to develop a relationship with God because you're the savior and not him.

Second problem, they do not learn a lesson. If they don't have to carry the weight of their bad decision, they'll do it again. I guarantee you Eddie would have brought a six pack next year

because people helped him out and he didn't have to carry the weight of his bed. When you carry the weight, when you rescue your kids from their own bad decisions, guess what? They don't learn anything and they will do it again. Let them carry their own coke so that they learn that's a bad decision.

Okay. No one's clapping, but okay. Alright. Alright. Alright.

Back to the package. So first attribute that Abigail brings is she's the type of person who takes responsibility even when even when the mess is not her mess. So back to first Samuel chapter 25. Second attribute. Second thing that David sees in this remarkable woman that day, starting in verse 26. Here we go.

Now since the lord, this is her speaking to him. Now since the lord has kept you my master from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands as surely as the lord lives and as you live, may your enemies and all who intend to harm my master be like Nabil. May may they just be like fools. And let

this gift, which your servant, remember she brought him a festival, has brought to my master be given to the men who follow you. Please forgive your servants offense for the Lord will certainly ready, Make a lasting dynasty for my master. What's she talking about when she says, has been promised he will be king.

And she says to him, it is surely coming. It's surely gonna happen. Because he fights the Lord's battles, let no wrongdoing be found in you as long as you live. Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my master will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God,

but the lives of your enemies will be hurled away from the pocket of a sling. Did Abigail know about David and Goliath? I don't know, but it's interesting that she uses that metaphor with him to remind him that God is with him.

When the Lord has done for my master every good thing he promised concerning him, and you ready? Has appointed him leader over Israel. What does she just say? David, you're gonna be king. Today would be a great time to start acting like one.

And literally what Abigail does in this moment, Abigail encourages David to live up to his calling. David, don't be this ruthless angry man. Be the king that God has called you to be. Live up to your calling David.

It's interesting to me. She doesn't she doesn't put him down. I mean, how would you say, David, what's gone wrong with you? How come you're out of your mind? He didn't give you some sheep and you're gonna wipe out his entire household. She doesn't reprove him. Instead, she says, David, remember who God has made you to be

and start living like that person. You're going to be a king, live like a king should live. I'm serving in a church in California, I'm a youth pastor there and the senior pastor of the church, man, when he preached on Sunday, we used to say he glowed.

I mean it was something special to see, and there was a warmth when he was preaching, everybody in the room had the impression they were like his best friend. But he'd walk off the platform, and it was like someone turned a light switch, and the reality was he was a painful, painful, painful introvert.

He'd walk off the stage, he'd go to his office, he'd close the door, and he wouldn't come back out till next Sunday. I remember going to him and knocking on his door and said, hey, I'm going to lunch. Do you want to go to lunch today? No. Do you want to go to lunch tomorrow? No. Would you like to go to lunch sometime? No.

And now I'm now I'm in this thing of going, I've got a leader who has no desire to have any sort of relationship with me and that just feels empty.

While we were there at that church, Lisa and I were literally living hand to mouth. I mean, literally, it took every bit of our paycheck to survive. If anything went wrong, we were negative. We were in the hole, and I'd gone to the lead pastor several times, said, can you please speak on my behalf? Can you just get them to help a little bit so we're just not constantly

struggling financially? And he would go into the older board at budget time and he would speak for himself.

And so finally, I was done. And I and I went to my mentor. You've heard me talk about George Bedlam before, and I just said, George, look, I'm I'm I don't have to put up with this. I'm out of here.

And here's what George asked me. Hey, Len, when God called you to this place, did he call you to be comfortable? And I said, no. He said, what did he call you to? He said, he called me to work with the young people. And he said, isn't that just going amazing?

Aren't lives being changed just left and right in the youth group? Well, yeah. Don't miss your calling. He said, Lynn, look look what's happening around the church. This church is growing and a lot of it's because of that man when he teaches.

And you're right. There's gonna come a moment when people are gonna realize, boy, this guy doesn't know how to have relationship or a friendship, he's a really painful introvert, but what if you and I stood in the gap? What if we lifted up his arms and we became the heart of the church? What if we became the relationship

within the church? What could God do?

And I turned my heart and I watched that church just literally explode. What did George do for me? He reminded me of God's calling in my life and said, Lynn, just just live your calling.

I know there's some of us in the room and you said, well, I don't even know what God's calling is for me. I haven't figured out what God's purpose for me is. And that's okay, that's okay. A lot of times that's a journey, but here's what you need to know. There are some callings

that are true for every one of us who are Christ followers, and you can do those while you're waiting to find your specific one. For instance, maybe you're employed somewhere and you just go, Lynn, it's dark.

It's I mean, it's dark. I mean, there's not one person where I work that's a Christ follower, and so they're always telling jokes or stories, and they're just horrible. When they start doing things, a lot of times it's not ethical, and Lynn is just a horrible environment, I hate it.

Did God call you to be comfortable, or did he call you to be light in darkness? Live your calling. You're in a marriage and the marriage isn't going the right direction and here's what you need, your calling is not to fix your wife. Your calling is not to fix your husband. Your calling is to be the husband

that God asked you to be. Let the holy spirit deal with your wife. If you're a wife, your calling is not to fix. Your calling is to be the wife, the kind, gracious, loving wife that God called you to be. Let God fix your husband. Live your calling.

There's a passage of scripture and you hate it. You're like, God, I don't know why you commanded that. I don't know why you said that we were supposed to do that. And the truth is I have I have zero desire to obey that passage.

What's your calling? Obey. Obey, maybe even especially the passages you hate because here's the deal. It doesn't say much about your commitment to Christ when you obey the passages you like, but it says a heck of a lot about your commitment to Christ. When you obey the passages, you don't live your calling.

And the second amazing, amazing attribute that Abigail brings, she reminds David of its calling. And when you find a friend like that that says, hey, in a moment like this, don't do what your heart wants to do. Don't keep living in your, sadness and just live

what God has called. You find a friend like that, they probably belong on your inner circle. Attribute number three,

go back to the passage verse 31. Here's what Abigail says to David. My master will not have on his conscience, the staggering burden of needless bloodshed. Now she said, David, what you're getting, I mean, it's so over the top, it's so out of bounds and I'm telling you that if you go through with this, it's wrong.

It's just wrong, it's sinful and if you do this, there's gonna be a day that you'll be sitting on your throne and you'll go, oh, if I had the opportunity to live that moment again, I would live it differently. She says, Abigail literally stands in front of David and between him and what he wants to do

And says, David, I don't go to that sin. Attribute number three, Abigail stands between David and sin.

David, don't go there, don't go there, don't go there. And here's the deal, you're gonna have friends in your life who actually encourage you to sin. They push you to and that's not because they're vile or horrible people, it's probably because they're naive.

See, here's the thing, they haven't experienced the consequences of sin yet. Right now it just seems fun. Scripture says, whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. They're sowing right now and sin looks great. They haven't experienced the reaping side yet.

And so they go, Hey, come on, I'm enjoying this, you can enjoy, come on. And they'll actually encourage you into sin. And those people don't belong on your inner circle. My son Joshua gets to his senior year of high school and he's got a friend, we'll call him Adam. And

at first glance, Adam was like this great kid, he'd come over to the house, he'd go, Mr. Winners and Mrs. Winners. We knew that Adam went to another church, which maybe that was the problem. It was another I'm teasing. But

what we didn't realize is Adam had kind of a second life and he was just kept encouraging Josh to get off the rails with Jesus. And it a rough senior year for Josh. Adam ends up turning 18 and he goes to Josh and said, here's what I've been waiting for till I got to, I wanna go to a strip club.

I don't even know if 18 year olds can get it, he goes, I wanna go to strip club. And Josh just says, no, no. That's kind of where I draw the line. Couple of weeks later, says, Josh, come on, be a friend, come celebrate with me. You go with me just once. Josh goes, no, I can't do that.

So a couple weeks later, Josh is over at his house. Adam goes to his mom says, hey. We wanna go to Downtown Phoenix. We're gonna skateboard. And his mom says, that's fine. Just take your little brother.

So Josh piles in the car. Adam piles in the car. The 13 year old brother piles in the car. He drives to Downtown Phoenix, pulls into a strip club. He says to Josh, I knew you wouldn't come if I told you, but now, hey, be a good friend, come inside with me. And Josh said, I can't.

And so he sat in the car with the 13 year old brother for seven hours.

But here's the good thing, somewhere in those seven hours, Josh came to the conclusion Adam isn't the right kind of friend and it was literally the last time they hung out. There's the opposite kind of friend. There's a friend who's gonna stand between you and sin,

Stand between you and the mistakes that you're getting ready to make. Couple years ago, there was a guy who super hurt me and he hurt the church and it just so happened that I had the opportunity to cause him great pain. And I said, this is really good. God has delivered into my hands my enemy. And

here's how I justified it. I told myself, I'm gonna cause him pain to teach him a lesson. He'll learn to never do that to someone again and not to do that to a church. But there was a check-in my heart, was something that went and so I called my friend.

I called Cal Jernigan, and I don't know if you know, but Cal Jernigan was a long time pastor over at Central. He's retired now, and doctrinally, there were some things that Cal and I didn't agree on, but he was a good friend.

And I called him up and I explained the story to him and how I was gonna teach this guy a biblical lesson. And Cal said to me, he said, Lynn, I can hear in your voice the frustration, and I can hear in your heart the anger. And, Lynn, I I don't believe you're doing this to try to help him. I

believe you're doing this to get revenge. And so I'm saying to you as your friend, don't do it. I stand in front of you today and I go, man, if I hadn't had a friend like that, like Cal, I'd probably stand in front of you today with regret. But you find a friend that'll stand between you and sin,

they probably belong in your inner circle. They probably are your Abigail.

Here's what here's what I'm gonna ask you to do with our conversation today.

I'm gonna ask you to start screening your friends. Hey, do you qualify to be in my inner circle? So when you leave here today, I'm gonna ask you, would you take ten minutes and write on a card the qualities it takes to be in your inner circle? And I know I know I know. A whole bunch of are gonna go, but

here's what here here's I am all about doing something for ten minutes that may change my story for the rest of my life. And guys, how powerful if as you encounter people you know, here are the qualities it takes for you to get to my inner circle. So will you take ten minutes maybe to change the story? Write them down.

Some of you some of you in here and you go, Lynn, I I don't have anybody in my inner circle. Nobody who qualifies. Or or maybe you go, Lynn, I got like one. What do I do?

You are sitting in a church that is literally built to build your inner circle, but you'll never find them sitting in this room. You'll find them when you join a group and when you join a small church, and you're gonna find a room full of Christians who are chasing Jesus, who might just qualify

to be your inner circle. So here I'm gonna encourage you is that literally when we let out you go over to the guest services desk that's right there in the back and you just say, tell me again about groups.

Because your friends have the potential to change your story. Pick the right friends. I'm gonna pray. If you need prayer, you can come here to the front. Let's pray.

Hey, dear God, if if we're honest, we've we've spent most of our life just falling into friendship. They people just came into our life where there was a connection of some sort, and we invited them to be our friends. But in the end, not all of them were qualified,

and we felt betrayal, and we felt woundedness, and we felt hurt because we weren't screening our friends. We we weren't asking, do you have the depth of character? Do you have the attributes in your life that make you the right person to be on our inner circle?

And so God, we're gonna do some cleaning house. We're gonna go in our hearts and say, you know what? That that person can be a casual friend. They just can't be an inner circle friend. And maybe there's some casual friends who actually have the right type of care and ought to be in my inner circle because my friends

have the capacity to change my story. God, give us wisdom. In Jesus name, amen.