Today, we’ll look at another characteristic of forever friendship: forgiveness. 

If you're going to be good close friends, you need to learn to forgive, because even Christian friends are sometimes imperfect. 

Is there someone who needs your forgiveness? Is there someone you need to ask for forgiveness? 

Today, we’ll look at a second characteristic of forever friendship: being unselfish. 

A spirit of unselfishness is essential for a friendship. 

When you look at Paul’s post script at the end of Colossians, some patterns emerge that can serve as characteristics of lengthy friendships in our lives today. The first characteristic is loyalty. 

Paul didn't have many loyal friends at the end of his life, but Aristarchus was one of them.

Aristarchus reminds us of three things Proverbs teaches about being a loyal friend.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the many churches he helped to plant in the first century, and we get to read his letters in the New Testament, including their PS’s (post scripts). This week, we’ll explore the post script found in Colossians 4:10-18 and share four characteristics of forever friends. 

The last focus is to have a Jesus-centered ministry.

We want to always be known as a church that is head over heels in love with Jesus and centered on Jesus. 

We urge you today, out of love for Jesus, to demonstrate these things, because everyone matters to God. Eastside will always be a Jesus-centered ministry, because no matter what happens, the gates of hell will not prevail, and Jesus will build His church! 

Our mandate is to go and make disciples who, like Jesus, pursue God, build community in small groups, and unleash compassion in our communities and world that need hope.

The world and our methods have changed, but our mission has not. In 2025, we are going to continue to be flexible in our methods to achieve our mission.

Grace-saturated unity is so important to Jesus, our lives and our mental health. 

Unity doesn't happen unless it is saturated with grace, because we all make mistakes. 

In the kingdom of God, we are not part of cancel culture; we are part of cross culture. The cross of Jesus cancels our shame and guilt with love and grace.

Instead of canceling each other, let's be people of grace and give each other what we don't deserve, just like Jesus does for us.

Today, we’ll start with grace-saturated unity.

One of the devil’s greatest strategies is to divide us. We believe Jesus cares, and turning to Him will open the door to discover help and hope. 

Now more than ever is the time to pursue a grace-saturated unity. Jesus says the world will believe when we are united as one in the belief in Jesus Christ as Leader and our Savior.

How can you begin to feel and experience the presence of God in a real way in 2025? 

This week, we’ll explore a prayer request in Jeremiah 42:3 and three answers to Jeremiah’s prayer: grace-saturated unity; mission-driven strategy; and Jesus-centered ministry. 

These will help us sense and spread an awareness of God’s presence.

For love to have any value, it must be expressed. This could be the most pivotal year of your life if you make loving others your legacy builder and you start expressing it as a lifestyle. Nothing will make you more like Jesus than that.

If you haven’t invested much in exploring the faith dimension of your life, why not start today and make it a regular part of 2025? Ask questions, open the Bible, and seek God. If you don’t know why you have hope beyond the grave, become an expert on the answer to that question. As you get to know Him, you experience His love.