- Well, hey everybody. I wanna welcome you to Highlands today. We're so glad you're here. And let me just say this, from all of our locations, those of you online and TV, man, every week, you guys are incredible. And God just uses you to encourage me in so many ways. And some of you recently have asked, is our church really welcoming to anybody? I would just say, you may be the 17 year old here today at one of our locations. And the only reason you're here is because mom and dad said, "If you're gonna get the keys to the car, "you gotta go to church with us." You don't even wanna be here. Or maybe you got a relationship that you're struggling with, or maybe you're here today and you're a single mom and you're thinking, how in the world am I gonna get to the end of the month? Maybe you're here today and you're just a skeptic. You don't even know if Jesus is real, if the religion thing is for you. You just got some questions and you're seeking. And somehow you ended up here. Maybe you're a college student. You're trying to figure out what your future is. I just wanna say, Democrat, Republican, Independent, here's the thing, the church of Jesus Christ, which we are, you're welcome here. It's a safe place for you. We're so glad you're here. We wanna value you. We wanna honor you for being with us today and just make yourself at home. We're in a series that I get to finish up today called At The Movies. It's been a great series. Actually, we've seen folks come to know Christ every week during this series. It's been amazing. And then Pastor James, man, our youth pastor down at our Bristol campus did a phenomenal job last week with a movie I'd never seen before. So he inquired it so much, I had to go watch that movie, an awesome movie. I'm so glad we have these young guys that are just the next generation that we have the opportunity to invest in and raise up. And I thought, what a great job he did. So today, I wanna finish up with this movie, really a series of movies, the "Toy Story" movie. And I wanna specifically zero in on "Toy Story 3". Now, I know all of you have watched these movies, right? I mean, unless you've been living under a rock somewhere, you've watched "Toy Story", and you probably started out with "Toy Story 1". And now there's four. They're probably gonna be 15 one day. I don't know, but very, very popular series of movies. And there is a concurrent theme throughout the entire series of all the "Toy Story" movies. And we know what it is, right? It's the theme of friendship. Now, I'm an only child. So those of you have big families, you got siblings. And those were most of the time your closest, closest friends, but if you're an only child, and some of you can relate to this, man, friendships, those are extremely important to all of us, whether you have siblings or not, but especially as an only child. I am the result of the friends that God has placed in my life. And so, this movie just really resonated with me. I love the theme song, "You Got a Friend in Me". I have sung that song my whole, ever since I saw "Toy Story 1". And it's just an incredible little song that just reminds us of the importance and the value of friendship. Well, if you go all the way back to "Toy Story 1", we find a little boy, Andy. And he has some incredible friends. Now, he had some toys. And I understand they're a little different than maybe what we think of our friends today. But his toys were really some great friends. And you may remember, they were there for him. And man, when he was bummed out, they comforted him. And when he was celebrating, he celebrated with his friends in the midst of all the good times. His friends were always there for him. And I bet some of you, when you think back over your early years, you think about some toys that you had that were there for you. I know when I was growing up, I had a couple of toys that I sorta kept with me and they were always there for me. Matter of fact, I asked our staff this week to bring in some of the toys that they're special to them when they were kids. And it's interesting. Deb Cross brought me this for Pastor Dave. He wanted to always be a fireman. And this was something that Dave just loved, man, he grew up with. Heather, she gave me this. This was Pastor Steve's best toy when he was growing up. That sorta helps us understand why the Bristol campus in the shape its in. I understand that Brad McMillan, this is his. So Brad, I guess you're a dog guy. But anyway, up in Bluefield, we're grateful that our campus pastor loves dogs. That's awesome. My kids, I wanted to share a few, this is Timmy's. And probably one of the reasons that I wanted to do this movie is because just last week, we loaded Timmy up. We moved him over to college, which is the occurrence of "Toy Story 3". And Timmy's had this rabbit for years and years and years. He slept with this thing every night. And he didn't take it to college with him. And I said, "Why not, dude?" And he said, "Dad, I gotta grow up." So he said, "I decided to leave it back." But he'll probably come and get it. Now, this is Bella's bunny. And she's loved the stuffing out of this one, all right? I mean, as long as I can remember, since we've had Bella, Brenda got her this bunny, she calls it Bunny. This thing's gone to Tanzania, Africa with Bella. Every night, man, you'll find Bunny in bed with Bella. And this is Chris's. Chris, he's the helicopter guy. And when he gets mad at Brenda and I, and we've had the discipline or something, he just goes up in his room. He gets in his helicopter. He takes a flight to another family. And this helicopter's had lots and lots of flights at our house 'cause he gets upset a lot. So you can relate. When you think back in your childhood that you've had a toy or two that probably is extremely special for you. So here we have in the movie, Andy, this boy who comes to love these sacred friends. But when we get to "Toy Story 3", Andy is now grown up and he's about to head off to college. So he's got this big decision to make. He has to decide, what am I gonna do with all these friends that I've had growing up in my whole life? What am I gonna do with all my friends? Well, initially, he thinks, I'm gonna put 'em in storage. I'll put 'em up in the attic. I'll always have 'em. They'll always be here for me. Maybe I can pass 'em on to my kids or something like that. Now, Woody, of course, was his all-time favorite pal. And he thinks, I'll take Woody with me. So he starts to go through this process. He labels a box and he puts attic on the side of the box. But the more he thinks about it, he realizes, oh my gosh, these friends, they've been so incredible to me. They can be friends to someone else. So why don't I find a child that I can bless, and I can give this new child all of my friends that have been so special to me. And almost sacrificially, because he would've loved to have kept 'em. But Andy decides, no, I need to part with 'em. And I need to give this joy that these friends have given to me, I need to give them to another child. So realizing the power of friendship, realizing what this can mean to another child, before he leaves town, before he heads over to college, he drives across town and he gives 'em to this little girl. So as Andy heads over to this little girl's house, I have a sequence of pictures here that we're gonna look through. Here he is, he's got his box of toys in the front seat. And as we go through these screens, he comes up to Bonnie's house, okay? And he has them labeled, attic, 'cause of course, he was just gonna preserve 'em and keep 'em. When he came home, he would have 'em. But then he opens the box, and here's little Bonnie, and she comes over with her mom, and he begins to individually explain the toys, and he shares a little bit about each toy. So here is Jesse and Bonnie, of course, is taken with Jesse, and here's Slinky Dog that's been a great friend to him. Buzz Light Year. That's been one of his all time favorites, for sure. And man, she looks in the box and there's one still in the bottom of the box. And it's Woody. Now, honestly, Andy's like, how in the world did Woody get there? I'm gonna take Woody with me, but you can tell, Woody has been his pal forever, right? And then it occurs to him. I probably also need to part with Woody. Bonnie wants Woody desperately. And so, he gives Woody a couple other glimpses, and he reflects about how much Woody has been an encouragement to him. And then he hands over Woody into Bonnie's hands. And she just, she's taken up with Woody right from the get-go. She loves Woody for sure. And they have some communication about how these friends have impacted Andy in his life, and how Woody's just been there for him through thick and thin. And she enjoys all the toys that Andy has given him. And she begins to probably become friends with him right out of the gate. And in the process, Andy goes back, he waves goodbye, and he heads off to college, leaving Bonnie with all of his sacred, sacred friends. When you think about this movie, every time I watch it, I mean, it gets me, it just sorta gets me, as he introduces all of his friends to little Bonnie, and how he knows now that she's well taken care of, that he hopes that these friends of his are gonna give her the same enjoyment that they have given him for all these years. And when he departs with Woody, it's interesting. Woody has been with Andy for as long as he can remember. And I love the phrase. And you may remember this. When he gives Woody over to Bonnie, he says, "I want you to understand, Bonnie, "he will always be there for you no matter what. "He'll always be there for you no matter what." And then he parts with his beloved childhood friend, Woody, and places him in Bonnie's hand. That line, he will always be there for you no matter what. He will never give up on you. I think about that. And I think what a great image of friendship. And that's what I wanna talk to you about today. Today, as we look at the movie story, we always wanna connect a movie story with a similar story from Scripture. Now, it's so interesting that friendship is one of the themes also that runs concurrent in the Scripture, all the way back in Proverbs, right? Let me give you a couple of verses out of Proverbs. This is what it says. "A friend loves at all times "and a brother is born for times of adversity." Another verse in Proverbs. "A man of many companions comes to ruin," catch this, "but there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother." When I share that verse with some of you, you would say, absolutely. That is true. Some of my friends really are closer than my family. Now, that's not to dismiss family at all, but just to say, there is a significance in great friendships. There's another proverb, lots of proverb things about friendship. There's another proverb says this. "An open rebuke is better than hidden love. "Wounds from a sincere friend "are better than kisses from an enemy." It really means that true friends can actually help us when they speak the truth to us, however hard it is to hear at times. We all need some true friends to speak truth in our lives. Now, those verses in Proverbs tell us a lot about friendship, but in a much more significant way, Jesus himself speaks about true friendship in the gospel of John. This is an amazing passage of scripture. These are the words of Jesus. And I want you to hear these words from Jesus. This is what he says. He says, "As the Father has loved me, "so I've loved you. "Now remain in my love. "And if you keep my commands, "you will remain in my love, "just as I've kept my commands and remain in his love. "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, "and so that your joy may be complete." Now, catch this. "My command," Jesus says, "is this. "Love each other as I've loved you." It's a high command. And then he says, "Greater love has no one than this, "to lay down one's life for one's friends." And then Jesus tells us, his followers, "You are my friends. "If you do what I command, I no longer call you servants, "'cause a servant doesn't know his master's business. "Instead I have called you friends, "for everything that I learned from my Father, "I have now made known to you. "You didn't choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, "so that you might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. "And so that whatever you ask in my name, "the Father will give you. "This is my command." He reminds us. "Love each other." Now, here's what I think. If Jesus Christ himself spoke this strongly about friendship and the power of friendship, I think we better pay attention to what Jesus says. And when I say he speaks this strongly, I'm referring to this phrase right here where he says, "Greater love has no one than this, "to lay down one's life from one's friends." I mean, those words are honestly so significant because, first of all, they point us to the kind of love that we are to bring into our friendships, into our relationships. It's this love that Jesus says that we have the capacity to bring called sacrificial love, where we actually would consider laying down one's life for our friends, for those relationships that mean so much to us, the same love that God has offered to us. And then it says, we're gonna bring that kind of love, that kind of aspiration, that kind of actual connection into the friendships and the relationships that we have. So with that in mind, I wanna give you some real simple concepts. You've heard these before. There's nothing new under the sun, but I wanna talk to you about how do you actually give sacrificial love into your friendships? How do you do this? We all want great friends, right? We wanna have friends in our life. We know, those of us who have tremendous friends, we know what a blessing they are. And I don't want you to take your friendships for granted. I want you to have great friendships. Jesus wants you to have great friendships. So I wanna look at five things here as we wrap up this series and this message about how to have some great friendships, how to be sacrificial in the friendships we have. Here's first thing. If you're gonna have a true friendship, then you gotta be authentic. You gotta be real in your friendships. I mean, you might say, well, duh. Sure, I knew that. And a lot of these are gonna sound simple. Again, I'll tell you this, but most of us, let's just be honest, even in our close friendships, it's pretty easy for us to keep a wall up, isn't it? I mean, it just is. And we say, yeah, I kinda wanna put myself out there, but not really too much. There's a few things that I know about myself that I'm not gonna share. I don't want another person to know that about me. And why do we do that? Why do we build these walls when we actually desire to have true, real, authentic friendships in our life? Because it's risky, isn't it? I mean, it's truly risky. If we really put ourself out there, if we really come clean, it's risky to be completely real and authentic with somebody else. But here's what Jesus teaches. Unless we're authentic, unless we're real, he says, hey, we can't truly be the presence of Christ in someone else's life. Think of how authentic and real Jesus was. Have you ever thought about this? I mean, I've studied this a lot. I mean, Jesus, man, there was nothing hidden. He just lived an open life. He was always a truth teller. He did it in love. He took risks over and over and over to be real in who he was. He did this, not only with his disciples, not only with Peter, James and John, but Jesus was authentic with every person he came in contact with. I mean, that's the lead, Jesus is, of who we're to follow, right? I mean, he's the one we're to follow. Was it risky for him? Absolutely. I mean, Judas, right? He knew what Judas was gonna do, but he remained real, even knowing what the risk would be. That really speaks to me, because I think sometimes we wanna guard ourselves and we wanna protect ourselves, and yeah, we say we want real friendships and we wanna be authentic and we wanna be real. And just ask yourself, do you have some truly real, authentic friendships where you haven't built the walls, where you're just who you are and you found somebody who has accepted you and loved you? 'Cause we're all a work-in-progress, right? We all have some flaws in our life. And nobody here is perfect that I know of. If you are, I'd love to meet you after the service today. But anyway, we're all sort of struggling. We need each other. But the first thing, if you're gonna have real, authentic friendships, you just gotta be real. You gotta be authentic. It's risky, absolutely. But I would say, and Jesus would concur, it's worth it. Here's second thing. If we're gonna have great friendships, we gotta be willing to listen. Now again, you say, well, I get that. Hey, I understand that. I mean, but when you think about really listen, because in our culture today to actually have a friend who is willing to listen, it's a gift. We do not listen very well in our culture. Now, I think it's gotten worse, but obviously, this is something that's been around for a long time because in James 1:19, all the way back in the New Testament, James says this, he says, "Be quick to listen, slow to speak." If we go farther back, you remember Job's story. When Job had just gone through all this crisis and all this chaos, and man, it was so awesome that in the midst of Job's great despair, his friends come and they just listen, right? And that's what Job needed. He needed somebody just to come and listen. And you're thinking, he's got some great friends. And then they begin to talk. And you know the story, when they begin to talk, it would've been much better had Job's friends just listened. But we think that somehow we can solve the problems. We can give the advice. We can make the challenge, and often in a friendship, we just need to listen. When you're listening to somebody, Brenda has really helped me with this 'cause I'm definitely not the good listener. I'm a preacher, I'm a talker, but here's just a couple of things I've learned. It's really good to make eye contact with those you're listening to. That seems to really help my wife know that I'm paying attention. She would love for me to put the remote down and my phone down when we're trying to have a conversation. When she tells a story that she wants me to hear, she doesn't really want me to follow up with a story of my own. She wants me to listen. And when you think about your relationships, you gotta learn to listen. When you think about truth, great friendships, man, a gift that we can give to our friends is listen. Think for a moment about the people in your life who listen to you best. Are they not gifts from God to you? I mean, who are those people who really listen to you? And I bet as I've share that, there are some faces that come across your mind and you begin to realize they're the kind of friends that I'm so blessed and I'm so encouraged to have. Here's a question for you. Are you doing that for others? Are you a good listener? If you want real friendships, you gotta get to the place where you're willing to listen. Here's the third thing, great friends encourage you. They encourage you. Now, again, you might say, can you not gimme something new today? But here's what I know, that we all struggle with these things, right? I mean, we're in the rat race so many times in our life. We're so busy. We often take the people who love us the most, and a lot of times, that's our closest friends, for granted. I just wanna try to get you to step back today and to really appreciate those people that God's brought into your life that are sincere friends. Of course, you encourage a friend. And when they come to you and when they say, "Hey, I need some encouragement." Man, what a joy it is to be an encouragement to 'em. But you encourage your friends, even when they're not asking you to encourage them. When you just know maybe they're having a hard day or when they're struggling, you just are always willing to be an encouragement. What I'm saying this is encouragement should just be built in our friendships. How would people describe you? Would people describe you as, you know what, man? He, she, they always are an encourager. I mean, they just always are willing to encourage me, but rather somehow you're the kind of person who brings encouragement in some form in every interaction you have, because you know it just makes life better. And you know it's something you've been called to do as a friend in their lives. I love the author of Hebrews. What this author tells us in Hebrews 10:24, my favorite verses. And this is what he says. He says, "We should keep on encouraging each other "to be thoughtful and to do helpful things." Now, here's the thing, guys. God actually calls us to be encouragers to our friends. I mean, we live in a culture today that every person I know needs encouragement. I mean every one of us. I need encouragement. Now, we get criticism all the time. We understand how deprived we are and how fallible we are, how we've messed up in all these different avenues, but isn't it nice when somebody just comes along and encourages you? When somebody comes along and listens and says, "You're gonna make it. "You're gonna get through this time. "It's gonna be okay. "God's with you. "He's there to encourage you." And I wanna tell you, I'm here to encourage you. As your pastor, I wanna encourage you. I think all week long, you get beat up. You get knocked down. We live in a tough world. When you come into the doors in our in-person locations, or you watch online or on TV, we're gonna be people of truth. We're gonna teach you the scripture. And sometimes that's a challenging thing to do. But here I want you to know, God loves you. We wanna encourage you. We wanna bandage you up. We wanna help you. We wanna do everything we can to make you the man or the woman that God wants you to be. And hey, we talk all the time about what the church is against. I wanna talk about what the church is for. We're a oasis of hope, man. When we are living for Jesus Christ and he is first and foremost in our life, life doesn't get any better than that. So I just want you to know that it is a joy that we can encourage you with God's word week after week after week. All of us need encouragement. Here's the last thing, great friends make a one-way commitment with you rather than a form contract with you. Here's what happens a lot of times in friendships. We make this contract friendship, and it sorta looks like this. You do this for me, and then I'll do that for you. And as long as we live up to these terms, we'll be good friends. If not, if you let me down, if you don't own up to the contract we've made here, I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine, there's gonna be trouble. Now, you know why we can never bring the contract mentality to a friendship? Because that's not true friendship. That's not how it works. Instead, true friendship always says, I'm gonna be there for you. I'll always be there for you, just like what Andy and Woody, the relationship they had, no matter what. I go back to that thought when I watched that movie several times, true friendship never says, you make me mad and I'm gone. You disappoint me, I'm outta here. Instead, true friendship says, I'm with you no matter what. I'm gonna be with you. I'm gonna be in your corner. Now, where do we most find that kind of friendship in our lives? By the way Jesus treats us, right? I mean, my goodness, how many times have we broke the contract with him and his great love for us? How many times have we disappointed him? How many times have we let him down? But I love what Romans 8:35 says. It says, "Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?" No. Despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loves us. He loves us. Nothing can separate us from God's love, because God hasn't made a contract with us. He has made a one-way commitment, and thank goodness that his commitment never fails. In that example, what do you find? Well, I think we find that we're to bring this love into the friendships that God has given us. And I would say that you could probably add one final thing here, if you wanted to tack on one last thing. If you're gonna give gifts in your friendships, give gifts without ever expecting anything in return. I mean, that's kind of friends you want, right? I'm not talking about giving physical gifts. I mean, I know that there are times we should all do that, but what kind of gifts can we give to our friends? I think it's the gift to engage in a meaningful conversation. That is so rare today. I think the gift of when we have a friendship to challenge a friend, when we know they're caught up in self-destructive behavior, it's not gonna end well, or even just to do the things that we talked about today, to listen, to encourage, to be courageous. Those are just great gifts that we can bring into our friendships. But I think the key is to bring those gifts without ever thinking, now, what am I gonna get back? What am I gonna get back? Great friends aren't thinking, what's in it for me? But we offer our gifts because God has abundantly blessed us. And we're not a reservoir to keep 'em all in. No, we're a river. These things are to flow through us, into our relationships and our friendships. How amazing it is to me that Jesus Christ would say to us, as we strive to lay down our lives for others and we would ever lay down our lives, probably never be called to lay down our physical lives for our friends. Now, it's probably not gonna happen, but as we strive to live and lay down our lives for others, man, what an awesome opportunity to create friendships of lasting value. So in my life, man, I look back over my life and I'm just so thankful that I've had those kinds of friends. I mean, I've got some real friends. I've got some friends who have challenged me when they've seen me heading in a bad direction. I've got some friends who have been encouragement to me. I've got friends who have given me truly amazing gifts, not so much physical gifts, but they've been mentors or they've invested in me. They've helped me in so many ways. And they've never, ever expected anything in return. But the greatest friend is Jesus, right? I mean, how could you ever top the friendship that he's given? And I would just say that Jesus says, go into this world of chaos, and toxicity, and anger, and so much stuff outta COVID that has divided us and depressed us, and be the light of Jesus Christ into the lives of others. Church, our greatest opportunities are right now. I mean, there are so many people, even lots of young people, lots of millennials, lots of Gen Xers who are just knowing there has got to be something more to this life I'm living. What an opportunity to be a friend, an encouragement, to listen, to actually be real and let them know you don't have it all together. You need God every day in your life. We're desperate for him, right? And those friendships can just be such a joy in our life. Well, the greatest friendship you can have is with Jesus. And if you've never made a friendship with him, I'm gonna give you that opportunity today. The Scripture says today is the day of salvation. And maybe you're here today and you know that you're not a friend of Jesus, but somehow his Holy Spirit has spoken to you and you would like to become a friend of Jesus, man. He says that he stands at the door of your heart and he's knocking. But our Jesus is not somebody who forces his way into your life. But I promise if you'll just open your heart's door today, you'll have the best friend that you could ever imagine, one that will always be there for you no matter what. Well, let's pray. God, I thank you so much for movies that we can look at and we can be reminded of scriptural themes. That Lord, we got a friend in you. Hey, what a joy it is to be friends with Jesus. And maybe today there's somebody here who, you've been skeptical, you've got a lot of doubts and questions, but you'd like to sort of step across the line of faith today and enter into a relationship, a friendship with Jesus. You say, how do I do that? Just simply ask Jesus to forgive you of your sin. Acknowledge you've made mistakes. We all have. And ask him to forgive you of those mistakes. You trust what Jesus did on the cross for you. And the Scripture says, when his body was beaten and broken and his blood was shed, that his blood actually covers our sins. He paid our sin debt on the cross. And would you just trust him and invite him into your heart, surrender your life to him, and just begin that friendship with Jesus today. Man, if you have done that online, just click that little raised hand button that today you became a friend with Jesus. He has forgiven you. We wanna help you. We wanna encourage you. All heaven rejoices. And in one of our in-person locations on your way out today, you grab somebody and let them know that you trusted Jesus, Lord, thank you so much for being our friend. At all times in our life, no matter what, you're always there for us. We love you. Thank you for loving us. In Jesus' name. Amen.