Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone. Thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch and in today's episode, we're asking the question, what does it mean to be friends? This is prompted by a really interesting kind of opinion Ask the editor piece that I read in the Atlantic by James Parker. A guy had written in to, uh, James Parker, saying to him that for the last 10 years, once a week I've been getting a beer with the same group of guys. And he was lamenting the fact that for 10 years, these guys have not changed at all. They've not really accomplished anything great. They haven't really undergone any kind of personal revelation or transformation. And he was asking, should I leave the group? Is this friendship broken? And Parker had a really interesting response. He said that friendship is really about shared time amid the chaos of life. He. He argued that no person is the same person they were 10 years ago. That people change, but they don't maybe always do it in big ways, they do it in little ways. And friendship is kind of being in the boat with someone as they go through those choppy waters. And I really want to use this as a launching off point for a conversation. Friendship for two reasons. One is, I think friendship is a crucial issue in our culture and in our generation. People are more isolated than ever. They're lonelier than ever. We've never needed friendship more than we need it right now, by the way. That's not just individually relationally, that's spiritually. I do not believe a person can outgrow a lack of godly friends. But second, we, we need a theology of friendship because I think sometimes people think, uh, they need too much friend friendship. That's the person who wrote this saying, I need to be part of some major life change or they think too little of it. And that's probably Parker saying, hey, that's just hanging onto each other amidst the chaos of life. What does the Bible say about friendship? And take this not just as theology, but as a challenge. Do you have these things? Because if you're listening to this as a Christian, you absolutely do. Let me give you five things the Bible teaches about friendship. Here's the first one. True friendship requires sharpening, not just sitting. Proverbs 27:17, a well known verse says, as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. You need to be friends with people who are better than you at areas of your life you want to improve in. If you don't spend time daily with Jesus, you need to be friends with someone who, who does. If you need to get better as a father, you need to be friends with someone who you aspire to be like. That's because those people challenge us, and the challenge is what changes us. By the way, they don't just do it verbally. Hey, uh, you could have done better. You should be more like me. I'm not talking about that. They do it by example, by watching and seeing and going, oh, that's what that looks like, or, hey, I can do something like that. When's the last time being in the proximity of a friend actually made you want to be a better person? If you can't answer that, you need to get more friends or even different ones. Here's the second one. Uh, friendship requires you to push them. It's not one direction. Hebrews 10:24 says, Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. You want to be friends with people who look to be challenged by you. If you find yourself consistently in spaces where you can't have honest conversations, where you can't point out a way that someone has stepped out of bounds with Jesus or with people aren't saying to you, hey, I've noticed the way you do this. Could you teach me how to do that? Then you need to find new friends. Because one of the ways you'll know that God is working in and through you is the help he gives through you to your friends. There's an affirmation of assistance, hey, look at what God used me to do in that person's life. But the spirit really is working within me. The third is that we need friendships where comfort is not complacency. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says that bad company corrupts good character. And you know, one of the ways it does that? In the context of that passage, it takes our eyes off of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Too many of us are friends with people we just like to waste time with. They're good to drink a beer with or to play golf with. They don't challenge us. They don't want to be challenged by us. They're not comforting to us. We don't go to them when we're hurting. They're simply alongside of us while we waste time. That isn't friendship. That's complacency. The fourth thing is that friendship is meant to carry burdens, not just beers. Galatians 6:2 says, to carry each other's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Listen, this guy's talking about getting together every week with the same group of guys to grab a beer. And that's a vehicle of friendship if that time is spent actually coming up under the weight. When's the last time you went to friends with something heavy and walked away a little lighter, not because it was solved, but because your hands weren't the only ones up underneath bearing the weight? Are your friends praying for you? Are they asking for updates on things that are plaguing you? Are they checking in with you? That's what it means to carry the weight. And then fifth, friendship urges us towards purpose. Ecclesiastes 4. 9 says two are better than one, for they have a good return for their labor. When, of course, they're pushing in the same direction, Friends call us into action in the mission of Jesus. They show up and show out when we need them to get where we need to get and where Jesus is, is taking us. Listen, you will not outgrow the absence of these five things, so go to your current friends and ask for more, offer more, or find new ones. Don't settle for a weekly beer as a substitute for actual biblical friendship. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

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