Jordon Gilmore

Theme:

• Today’s focus is not just on bad friends, but on discerning between good and bad friendships.
• Scripture calls us to steward our relationships wisely as part of our Christian walk.

Today’s Focus

1. Discern friendships
   • Take inventory: Is this friendship healthy, harmful, or in need of attention?
2. Steward friendships
   • Nurture the godly relationships God has entrusted to us.

Key Scriptures

• John 15:12–15 – Jesus calls us friends, shifting the relationship into deeper covenant love.
• James 4:4–6 – Warning about friendship with the world. But note: James also reminds us of grace; we can’t simply cut off all “worldly” relationships in pride.
• Romans 12:1–2 – Don’t conform to the world; be transformed by renewing your mind. Through testing, we learn discernment.
• John 17:14–21 – Jesus prays for us: not to be taken out of the world, but to be sanctified in truth while living in it.
• Mark 2:15–17 – Jesus dines with tax collectors & sinners. He models how to engage relationships with grace and purpose, not isolation.

Key Insights

• Friendship = Spiritual Formation
  • Relationships shape holiness, sanctification, forgiveness, and love.
  • Big biblical commands (“love your neighbor,” “forgive,” “lay down your life”) become real only in relationships.
• Spectrum of Friendships
  • Some friends are unsaved, some are spiritually immature, some are mature.
  • God calls us to engage across the spectrum without conforming to ungodliness.
• Discernment Through Testing
  • Immature believers may need clear boundaries (cutting off bad influences).
  • Mature believers, with renewed minds, can discern through testing and experience.
• Jesus’ Example
  • Didn’t isolate himself to only “safe” friends.
  • Entered into relationships that others criticized, yet influenced people toward God.

Practical Takeaways

• Ask: Is this friendship sharpening me in Christ or pulling me away?
• Remember: cutting everyone off is easier but not biblical. Growth comes through discernment.
• Friendships are not just for our personal benefit—they bear fruit for God’s Kingdom.
• Like Jesus, we are called to engage, love, and influence—not to withdraw in fear.

Joshua Boyd

I’m going to open with a question today and ask a few more in the message:  in your house, does everything you say, go?  Does every command get obeyed?  Why or why not?  

I pray that this series has not only brought light on how to parent your children but also opened your eyes to how the Heavenly Father relates to us as His children.   God seeks those who obey Him.  He selected and blessed Abraham because Abraham believed God and obeyed Him and he trained up his children to do the same.  

Genesis 18:19

19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

In Abraham’s house, was his will being done 100% of the time?  Did Abraham follow God’s will 100% of the time?  

There doesn’t exist someone who has fully done the will of the Father, other than Jesus Christ.  The Scriptures repeat the line in Old and New Testament: “there is none that does good, no not one.”  Because of sin being present in our hearts at birth, people are not inherently good.  We inherently want to do our own thing.  We want my will to be done.  

To summarize the responsibility of the parent: to remove the child’s desire to do their own thing all the time.  It is the same thing that God is working in us to change.  It doesn’t stop.  

Let’s turn to Matthew 6. 

Matthew 6:9-13

9 Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

10 Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts,

As we forgive our debtors.

13 And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

CEV - Come and set up your kingdom, so that everyone on earth will obey you, as you are obeyed in heaven.

YLT - Thy reign come: Thy will come to pass, as in heaven also on the earth.

When God gives the command, love your neighbor as you love yourself, His expectation is that it begins to be done, it comes to pass in us.  That is His will.  When He tells us that He hates pride, hates lying, His expectation is that we begin to not lie, not have pride.  That is His will.  Is that being done 100% in every Christian?  Paul had to tell the Ephesian church to put away lying.  Christians were lying, regularly. 

When the Holy Spirit prompts you to take a different route to work today, He expects us to finish that way.  That is His will.  When we start reasoning, “I always go this other way, it is shorter, faster, more convenient.”  If we don’t listen to His voice and go our own way, we can’t excuse ourselves or more importantly, we cannot blame God for anything that might happen by going our own way.  His will was known but not followed.  

Jordon Gilmore

Friendship Series – Part 3

Main Text: John 15:12–15

• Jesus calls us friends, not just servants.
• Friendship with Jesus is both a gift and an example for how we should live with one another.

Key Recap from Previous Messages

1. Friendship is a gift from God.
2. We are called friends of God.
3. Jesus is the perfect example of friendship.
   • True friends know and understand each other.
   • They genuinely like each other.
   • They share common interests.
   • They desire to spend time together.
   • They help and protect one another.

Transition to Human Friendships

• God designed us for companionship (Gen. 2:18 – “not good for man to be alone”).
• Friendship runs as a theme throughout the whole Bible—from Genesis to Revelation.
• C.S. Lewis: “Friendship is unnecessary … it gives value to survival.”

Challenges with Friendship

• Many resist friendship due to hurt, fear, or personality defense mechanisms.
• We often default to family ties (“blood is thicker than water”), but Proverbs reminds us:
  • “A friend sticks closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24).
  • “Better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away” (Prov. 27:10).
• Real friendship requires vulnerability and effort.

Biblical Example: David & Jonathan (1 & 2 Samuel)

• Unlikely friendship: Jonathan (royal heir, trained warrior) & David (youngest shepherd boy).
• Despite natural rivalry, Jonathan loved David “as his own soul.”
• They formed a covenant, symbolized when Jonathan gave David his robe, armor, and weapons.
• Their friendship endured family conflict, jealousy, and political tension.
• David later honored Jonathan’s son (2 Sam. 9) because of this covenant.

Joshua Boyd

Continuing our series Parenting 101 this morning, let’s build off the previous topic of imitating those who imitate Christ.  If you aren’t sure how to act or what to say, watch someone else who does.  Just as a child imitates their parents, we should both be the proper example for others to imitate by finding examples to mirror.  

In church, imitate those who are imitating God.  Listen to their testimonies and learn their patterns. Find those in the Bible who trusted God in situations and were triumphant, then imitate them.  It takes humility to do something someone else is doing.  Pride wants to do its own thing, it wants the credit.  Humility submits.  

God is a God of order.  In creation, in the church and in our homes, order brings His presence.  Chaos and strife send Him away.  God keeps order in His house.  Like a good parent, He expects His children to listen and obey.  We can find that the vessels who God selected for the Master’s use, were the ones who kept their own house in order.  Don’t think that it is important?  Let’s take a look.  

Abraham

Genesis 18:17-19

17 And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;

18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

God needed someone who would pass down the commands and teachings of the Lord.  He knew that what He promised Abraham would take generations to complete, so if those generations were trained, God’s purpose could continue through them.  What was the defining trait that God was looking for on the earth?  Someone who was faithful to train his children.  

Jordon Gilmore

Jordon Gilmore

We are friends of God when we believe in Him and obey Him

John 15:12-15
You and I are friends of God even as we serve the Lord. 

When we think about friends or friendship, many phrases come to mind. 
- Birds of a feather flock together. 
- You can tell a lot about a person by who their friends are. 
- Get into trouble and you’ll see who your real friends are. 

Who are your friends and how do you know they are?
They share a common goal or purpose. 

- Being a friend requires time spent together
- Friendship is important because life is a challenge (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

Jesus is our friend, and what wouldn’t you do for your best friend. 
Knowing you are a friend of God, you have confidence that your friend will be there to help you.  

Jesus has connected us back to the Father. When we pray and ask God to give us guidance, we can connect with God because of what Jesus has accomplished. We have access to the Father. 

Hebrews 10:24-25

Joshua Boyd

People like to joke and say “don’t do what I do, do what I say” indicating that they are doing the opposite of what they are telling others to do.  That isn’t God-like. He always does what He says and says what He does.  Jesus fully followed His Father’s Words and actions. 

Paul expected this too because He practiced it very well. He wrote to the church at Corinth, whose people were acting like toddlers, giving into their desires rather than growing up spiritually. What was the instruction to stop that?  Imitate me. 

1 Corinthians 4:16

So I urge you to imitate me.

1 Corinthians 11:1

And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.

Ephesians 5:1

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.

Imitation is the earliest form of learning for anyone.  If you aren’t sure how to act or what to say, watch someone else who does.  Babies do this instinctively which is why Paul says imitate God because you are His children.  In church, imitate those who are imitating God.  Listen to their testimonies and learn their patterns. 

Find those in the Bible who trusted God in impossible situations and were triumphant, then imitate them.  It takes humility to do something someone else is doing.  Pride wants to do its own thing, be unique. Let you be you.  Humility submits.  

Joshua Boyd

In the early days of the church, the disciples acted so much like Jesus that people started calling them by a new name:  Christian – little Christ or follower of Christ.  They were talking, acting and doing the same things that Jesus did.  And people noticed.  

Acts 11:26

When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people. (It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.)          

Today is part 3 of the Parenting 101 series, ‘Made in His Image’.  Turn to Genesis 1:27

Genesis 1:27

So God created human beings in his own image.

    In the image of God he created them;

    male and female he created them.

You and I, all humans, were created in the image of God.  We aren’t even just talking about Christians.  Think about that.  The worst sinner is still created in the image of God.  He has a spirit, a soul and a body, a triune being just like the Creator.  He has the capacity to use his words to get things done on the earth, just like God.  

That doesn’t make God his Father.  In fact, every human is born with Satan as their father.  Not my precious baby!  

The sinner isn’t acting like God. The sinner’s words have power, but are being used to bring darkness and death, not the light and life the Words of God bring. This is why Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of the time, and offended them, by telling them they were acting like their father Satan.  They were lying just like Satan, the father of lies.  

No all humans are not all God’s children.  There is a special process for being accepted into the beloved – making Jesus Christ the Lord and master of your life, accepting His sacrifice for your sins and receiving His salvation.  Then you are born – again into another family!  

When we are born again, our spirit becomes a new creature created in the image of God’s Spirit.  We no longer have the blemish of sin that comes with being a natural born human.  Our spirit is now a spotless perfect container that the spotless perfect God can inhabit.  He dwells in us.  Oh what a powerful life we can live when we begin to understand where we stand with our Father.  

As Christians, our number one responsibility is to reproduce ourselves.  Be fruitful and multiply.  Go and make disciples.  

Proverbs 11:30

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who wins souls is wise. 

Joshua Boyd

How To Have Successful Kids

Parents, imaging that you are away on a trip talking to your kids on FaceTime or phone. There are things that you want done around the house before you get home so you give your kids instructions and expect them to carry them out. What you find when you return depends on how well you’ve trained your kids and how well they obey. 
In order for the will of God to be carried out on this earth before He returns, He needs people to carry out His instructions, obey His voice. Multiply the coordination and obedience by billions of “kids” that need to listen, trust and obey. This shows us how important obedience is to God and why He emphasizes it for parents to teach our kids. 
You want successful kids? Teach them to be obedient. This goes against so much of the way of the world which emphasizes “be your own person” and “don’t listen to ‘the man’”. 
Our message today in Parenting 101: How to Have Successful Kids. In light of the dual purpose of the topic, we could also subtitle it “how to be a successful Christian”. 

Ephesians 6:1-3
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
2 Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;
3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.” Scriptures say that when we honor God, He will honor us. Here are two ways He will honor you: things go well and you live long. How many want that? How many want that for our kids?

Joshua 1:8
Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

Jordon Gilmore

With increased capacity come increased responsibility. 

Hebrews 5:12-14

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
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If we are taking in a lot of “meat” and not doing anything with it, we become spiritually obese.  We aren’t exercising in the things we are in taking. 

Where are we on this spectrum?  
- Do we engage with God just enough to get a measure of Kingdom life
- Or are we trying to out into practice the things we are learning

Our primary engagement with the things of God should be giving, not receiving 

In the beginning there is a lot of people taking care of you, same at the end. They are pouring into you. 

In the middle, you should be growing, transitioning and giving out. 

To get more energy, we need more fuel

Matthew 25:20-21
We all want the reward, but if we must spend the energy that belongs to the responsibility. 

Are we not growing because we aren’t being fed the right food? Or is it that we are not exercising the responsibility we have.