Well, today's message is geared for everybody. But for those graduates, I really wanna tailor this also for you as well because I think it's gonna be so important as you move into this new season of life. And I came across this study recently from the America Survey Center and they did a research study in 2021 to see if the pandemic impacted relationships and friendships. And what they found was actually deeper information that goes well beyond just the effects of a pandemic on our relationships. And so they used questions from 30 years ago and so they used the same questions from 1990. And that's crazy to me that 1990 was 30 years ago. I didn't feel like that and, and they asked people questions about their friendships and then they asked the same questions now in 2021 and the numbers that came back were pretty staggering. And that is overall, the number of friendships and relationships that people have today is dramatically decreasing. And it sounds crazy, right? That we live in a world where connection has never been easier with the technology and things that we have available to us. But at the same time, the number of healthy close relationships is on a massive 30 year decline. See, in 1990 when they ask people about how many close friends you have, and I'll let you decide what a close friend counts as. But 27% of people who answered in 1990 said that they have three or fewer close friends. But what's interesting is that 33% actually answer that they have 10 or more close friends. Now, we go to the 2021 version of that same study and 49% of people said they have three or fewer friends, close friends and of those who said they have 10 or more close friends, only 13%. So the number of people who have three or fewer friends almost doubled and the number of people that have 10 or more close friends actually went down by about 60%. Why is this happening? Well, I think there are two reasons, there's more than two, but two that I wanna focus on today. And the first one here is that I think we live in an age where we really celebrate self sufficiency and that we love to, to be on our own, to be self reliant, to be able to get what we want when we want. We want our, our TV shows and our movies immediately. We want it instantly. We wanna order things through prime and have it delivered. Within the hour. We want our food delivered, we want everything delivered like we want it, we want what we want, how we want it, individ individualized and customized for us right now. And that we don't need anything from anybody. But the basis of relationship and friendship is admitting that you have a need, you know, when you think about, um, you know, the movie, um, uh, the classic movie where they say I have a need for what speed? Ok. And so it's a great movie and a great line. But here's the thing you could have just simply stopped that I have a need because that's really what relationships are about. It's about admitting that you have a need and we don't like to do that as Americans anymore. We don't like to admit or open up or be vulnerable. And then another thing that I think is interesting that is compounding the effects is that we live in a very divisive world now, whether you take politics or other issues that you throw it out there, that it seems way more divisive than ever. And then if you disagree with me, then I can't be friends with you with that. It really doesn't have to be the case. And so here we are in an age filled with technology and filled with opportunity and yet we're more isolated and overwhelmed and anxious than ever before. And so as we continue our series soundtracks, we are in week four of this study and we defined a soundtrack as a thought that often gets repeated in our minds just like a good song or maybe even a bad song gets stuck on our head and we just keep singing the lyrics over and over or humming the tune. There are thought patterns, both positive and negative that get repeated in our minds. And in week one of our study, we talked about how we have the opportunity to proof your playlist. You might not have put the thought in there. You might not have put the song in your playlist, but you get the opportunity to edit and proof the playlist and decide what stays there. And then in week two, we looked at the category of our work life. And we shared from the very beginning of creation that your work matters to God and therefore God should matter and influence your work. And then last week, we talked about family dynamics about how life can feel unscripted, but that our parenting can actually be intentional. And so today we focus on our friendships and our relationships with a message entitled Friends and Future. You might have heard the saying before that if you show me your friends, I can tell you your future and studies actually show that for the most part, you are the average of your five closest relationships that means health wise, financially, spiritually, emotionally, physically. That if if you look at the accumulation of your closest relationships, chances are that you will be a reflection of those relationships. And so I believe that to be true that if you show me your friends that I can tell you or predict your future, and so our relationships really matter to God. And so we wanna try to offer you a better soundtrack because the world and, and Satan himself will try to give you a broken soundtrack and tell you things like you're never good enough. People won't accept you, they won't like you, but we wanna retire those broken soundtracks. We wanna replace them with biblical ones and then allow you to put them on repeat enough to where you start to live out what God says when it comes to our relationships. And so if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down today that when it comes to friends and relationships, good friends carry burdens and they cultivate blessings, good friends, great friends even carry burdens and cultivate blessings. We're really gonna focus in and zoom in on those two concepts of burdens and blessings. And we're gonna land. If you have your Bibles open up to Galatians chapter six, we're gonna end up at verses 1 to 10, but I wanna give a little runway or lead way to understand how we get to. Chapter six. Paul is writing the Apostle Paul who was a complete antagonist of Christianity as a radical salvation experience. Now, is preaching and planting churches. And he writes to this group of churches, house churches in around Galatia. And there is these religious um guys who are trying to have Jesus plus rules and regulations. So they, they had old rules and regulations that they followed. They get saved and now they're trying to practice this Christian faith, but they want to keep all the rules and regulations from before and they're trying to enforce those on people. And Paul is gonna come in and you're gonna see this here that, that really, he focuses on Christianity and he focuses on four things. It, it's about Jesus, it's about our faith and belief in Jesus. Then it, which leads to our love for other people and all of that is done in his spirit. So you have Jesus Christ, what he did that leads to our faith in Him, which then allows us to love others and all of it is done in the power of the Holy Spirit. And then he gets real practical at the end of his letter. And so in Galatians chapter two, verse 20 Paul writes, he says, I am crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. So it starts about, it starts with Christ. And then in chapter three verse five, he says, does God, he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do that by works of the law. Or by hearing with faith. In other words, you get saved by what you did or do you get saved by believing what Jesus did. And then he, we don't have time to dive into it. But he actually uses an old Testament example. It says it's not about the law, it's not about uh the 10 commandments that it predates that. And he uses the example of Abraham who lived 400 years before Moses in the 10 commandments and says, Abraham was blessed because of his faith. So it's always been about faith from the beginning and salvation is about believing. It's about faith in Jesus. And then he says in here in Galatians 51, it says for freedom, Christ has set us free, stand firm therefore and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. It's not about a list of rules. It's about a relationship with the God who saved you. And then he says in a couple of verses later in Galatians 56, it says for you or call or it says for in Christ, Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love. And this, it really is the great commandment to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, to believe that fully and then to love others as he has loved us. So beyond just loving your neighbor as yourself Jesus. Actually in John 613 says, actually, you're gonna step further and says that you are to love one another as I have loved you. So it's faith and love. And he repeats this idea in verse 13, he says, for you are called to freedom. Brothers only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. In other words, don't use that license to do whatever you want. He says, but through love serve one another. So it's not that we have a freedom to sin. It's actually that we have a freedom to serve. If you wanna show people that you are truly free in Christ, you will show that with how you love and serve one another. This means that your relationship with God being a Christian and maturity is not about not sinning, but instead about how you receive and how you give love. And are you becoming more loving as Jesus does? And then he gives an example and one of the greatest passages we have in the Bible about what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He actually describes the fruit of the Spirit in verse 22. And then also shares this in verse 25 as well. He says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. He says, if we live by the spirit, then let us also keep in step with the spirit. So all over the letter we see it's about Jesus and what he did for us, that we have faith in him and our faith in him leads us to love other people as Jesus did. And we can't do that on our own strength, but only through the power of the Holy Spirit. And now we get to the end of his letter in chapter six and he's going to get super personal and super practical and he's going to say this is why it matters in our relationships in graduates. I wanna tell you here that when you go into this next season that you're gonna need the right people next to you and you're gonna need to be the right kind of person for those people that you cannot and will not be able to go through life alone. And so to set up the passage that we're studying today, it really breaks down into two categories. Galatians chapter six verses one through five talks about burdens and then verses six through 10 talks about blessings. Again, our main idea is that good friends carry burdens and then cultivate blessings. And so we see both sides so in tough times and then at all times. So let's dive in and see what Paul writes to us today. So Galatians chapter six verse one, it says brothers, if any is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual, should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Now notice the tone and have you ever gotten in trouble for not just what you said, but how you said it, your tone matters, doesn't it notice the gentleness here? He says, if anyone is caught in any transgression, in other words, you can end up in a place where you didn't intend to go. You might have made some bad choices, but you can admit that you didn't mean to end up where you ended up, right? You can make a wrong turn. Like man, how did I get here? And he sees that and then he says, then you who are spiritual, it doesn't say you who are better but you who are spiritual, who are walking in the spirit. It says restore him. That word restore is actually used in the gospel of Mark to describe the mending of nets. Fishermen would mend their nets. And so there's this gentle, correcting and fixing so it can work properly. That's the same word here in other places that word restore is used as a medical term like a doctor like Luke who wrote the Gospel. Luke. There would use to describe someone who a doctor who is fixing a broken bone that if something is broken, you wanna restore it to its original purpose in the same way. A good friend reaches out to someone in the spirit of gentleness, not a ah got you or I'm better than you, but instead to come alongside someone and say, hey, here's what the word says. Here's what's possible. Let me help mend, let me help, come alongside you to restore you to God's original purpose for your life. And it says, but then keep watch of yourself, lest you two be tempted. So, yes, Jesus was a friend of sinners. Jesus befriended tax collectors and many others. But just because you're a friend of sinners doesn't mean that you join them in their sin and that your closest relationships, you invest in those and those matter. And it says in verse two, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. What is the law of Christ? Well, it's summed up in what we talked about to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength to have faith in him and then to love others as Jesus loved us. So that when you bear one other's burdens, that word burden here is bear us, which means to carry a heavy burden. And that's important because a similar word for burden or load is used in verse five, but it's actually a completely different term. And so I'm not necessarily promoting the show, but if you are a pagan heathen and you've enjoyed the show, Friends, you may have seen an episode where a gentleman was carrying a couch upstairs and needed help and they got stuck and he was like pivot. All right. And he's getting stuck, right? And he needs someone to help carry some heavy furniture up the stairs. All of us have some type of situational, emotional relational couch, that's too heavy for us to carry. All of us have a circumstance or situation that we need somebody else to help carry the weight or share the weight with us. That word for uh burdens in this verse is also used to describe the Pharisees and the gospel, except in not in that passage. It was said, oh, Pharisees, you place heavy burdens on people. In other words, you place heavy expectations that they cannot meet. So sometimes our burdens are situational or relational or emotional or financial things that we cannot carry on our own. Sometimes there are expectations placed on by other people. But whatever situation you're walking through, we called as Christians as a good friend to then carry that burden to share that weight with someone else. And then it says for verse three, for if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. That's a great verse. So if you just have somebody in your life that uh just irks you just that jerk, you know, you can just be like, hey, I was having some quiet time. I read Galatians chapter six verse three and thought of you today. You know, if someone doesn't read their Bible, you can just get them like an engraved mug or something with Galatians 63. Hey, this is you, God loves you. There's a verse, right? And so this is, we're gonna dive more into that verse in a little bit. So hang on to that verse. But then in verse four, it says here, let, but let each one test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. We're gonna explain that in a moment. But then he gets to verse five and he says, for each will have to bear his own load or his own burden. See the word in verse five is actually different. That word is ft which means to carry your own pack. If you think about a soldier that's going into a war that each one has to carry their own pack when you go through or a group of people are hiking, you have to carry your own supplies. This is very different because in verse two, the word for burden and load actually means to help someone else. The word in verse five is to be accountable to God. Modern translation, keep your eyes on your own paper, keep your eyes on your own test, right? You're, you're walking through the life, walking through life, you're facing a test. You can't be like, oh, what do they have? Oh, what do they have? And I love this tension because if you think about it, we can find ourselves in one of two camps on one side. There's a, well, not my problem. That would be this half of the room. Ok. But then on this side, out of empathy and sympathy, you make everyone's problem, your problem. You know, I'm talking like, oh and you're just like, broken about everything everywhere and you're like, oh man, I can't or you enable someone and like, and we struggle and so so both have good intentions. But Paul comes in the middle and says it's a both and not either or so we can carry the burdens of others, Share the weight, help them. But then at the same time, you have to take responsibility for yourself. You might not be able to control what has happened to you, but you do get to control your daily actions and response. And so yes, seek the help that you need. Look for things that you can do, but then it matters, it changes things, doesn't it? So here in these first couple of verses, when it comes to handling burdens in difficult times, tough times, what we find is that in tough times, good friends do three things. Number one, good friends look to restore good friends, look to restore, to mend the nets, to fix the broken bone in a spirit of gentleness. That's accountability. A long time professor at Dallas Seminary Howard Hendricks to a lot of uh and taught a lot of the pastors and churches all over the country for for decades. And uh once he gave a sermon and talked about how it's gonna be difficult for pastors to have friends. And then he came back later and actually said, no, it is essential for pastors to have friends. Because as a, a major professor at a major seminary, he would do a lot of counseling. And he said, one of the most common characteristics of people who have a major failure of some kind is the lack of accountability in close friendships is that when you're isolated and alone that can lead to dark things. So it's important for us to look for accountability and the and to gently restore the ones we love. And it's hard to restore and hold people accountable if you don't know them and if they don't know you right? Do you allow people in and do you get close enough to where you can have some accountability? Look to restore? The second thing that tough and tough times good friends do is that they lift to reinforce, they live to reinforce. This is encouragement to share the weight that looks too heavy for you. Let me come and help. That could be a text message that could be a meal. I could be babysitting kiddos. That could just be a phone call. I, and what I found is the heavier, the burden, the less you have to say, the less there is to say. So sometimes it's just being present, being there. Hey, I'm thinking of you and praying for you. What do you need? What can I do? How can I help do we live to reinforce, to carry some of that weight? But then the third thing here is that we have to live to represent that's responsibility, that's responsibility that we have to take responsibility for our own actions. Now, I shared earlier when we read that passage about the value of verse three and verse four in Galatians chapter six, and I think those verses are put in there because they share with us the top two barriers to relationships. You ready? The first barrier to a healthy relationship is pride because he wrote in there, he said, if anyone thinks he's something, when he's nothing, he deceives himself, the number one barrier to healthy relationships is pride. And then the second biggest barrier to healthy relationships described in verse four of Galatians six is comparison. He says, let each one test his own work. We have to stop comparing our families, our finances, our friendship, relationships with what the world says because we live in an area where you're always competing and either you feel better than someone else or you feel not worthy of other people. And Paul is coming in to say that it's not about that, that if you put aside your pride, if you put aside comparison, it allows you to lift up the burdens of the people around you and then to take responsibility for your own own choices. And so what do good friends do in tough times? They look to restore they live to reinforce and then they live to represent, to represent the God who saved them and to represent to the world why they do what they do and who they are as Children of God. So we've addressed the burdens. But let's move to the all seasons category verses 6 to 10. When it talks about how can we be a blessing? Verse six, let the one who has taught the word, share all good things with the one who teaches, there's a generosity there. Now, in this particular case, he's talking about resources within the church body. And so can you describe yourself as someone who shares with your resources, someone who is generous within the church with each other? There's give and take back and forth, humbly, giving and serving one another and freedom. So there is a sharing of resources and a heart of generosity behind this verse seven says, but do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever one sows. He will also reap verse eight for the one who sows to his own flesh will from his flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. And it had just described the fruit of the spirit. And then it says in verse nine, and let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season, we will reap if we do not give up that word for in due season. In due time is Kairos, which means God's appointed season or time saying, don't give up if you are doing good, do not give up. Because in God's timing, you'll see the harvest that you've been praying for. So then as we have the opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith. So verses one through five, we see what it means to carry burdens. But in these verses, verses six through 10, we, we learn what it means to be a blessing at all times. So in all seasons, at all times, good friends do these three things. Number one, they share. That's our treasure. The Bible says in the gospel of Jesus says, where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. So then I ask you, where is your heart? Do you have a spirit of generosity? Do you share your resources within the church to the church? But with the church and with each other, can you describe yourself and your attitude as one of being generous? That's our treasure. But the second thing that good friends do is that they sew, they sew. That's our, our talents and our gifts and our abilities. Here's an interesting thing and it sounds so simple, but it really is profound. You will never grow what you do, not sow, you will never grow what you do not sow. I I'm not saying that growth happens easily. I'm not saying that things don't come and restrict your growth. But I can promise you this, that you will never grow what you do not sow. I will never have apple trees in my backyard. You know why I've never planted apple seeds anywhere. Like I've never thought like some of it. Here's what's interesting though. Some of you want that you want the growth in an area of your life that you've never planted, you want a healthy physical body, but you've never sowed that, right? Your heart says whole foods, but your pantry says mcdonald's. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? Like here, like we've never made you like, what's your routine like, oh, I wanna be physically fit. When are you working out? Oh, I don't know. I, I thought I was like gifting, the thought that counts, you know, OK, we take this to parenting and your relationships, man. I want the best marriage. What are you sowing? I want the best kids. What, what are you doing to invest in them? I want the best relationships, the best friendships. What are you doing? What seeds are you planting? You will not grow what you do? Not first sow. And so the encouragement is to start by sowing today in the relationships that you want to cultivate and grow. And the last thing here is an encouragement to us and that is to serve because that's our time. So I love like Paul is so intense in this letter. But he pauses to offer encouragement. He says, look, and if you have been sewing, stay faithful, don't give up serve, continue doing good. Because in God's time and God's moment, I promise you, you will see fruit, you will see response and maybe you don't even see that to till eternity. But in God's time and God's way, it'll be worth it. So do not give up. So when you look at your relationships, can you honestly say that you share of your treasure, that you are sowing your talents and gifts and abilities investing and what you're called to do and the people around you and then are you serving with your time? Right? Because that's what relationships take. They take treasure, talent time. You need to invest in those because healthy relationships, good friendships, good friends, they carry burdens and they cultivate blessing. And as we're wrapping up, I want to challenge you with this. It's very easy to listen to a message like this and to begin to replay in your mind, some broken soundtracks or broken relationships of the past like that person, they did that they did this thing and we tend to focus on others. But what I want to challenge you and encourage you to do today is that don't walk out of your focus on what other people have or haven't done to you or with you. But instead the challenge is to be this because if you want healthy relationships and friendships, it starts with your choice to be this right now right here. Are you willing to start sowing better seeds? Graduates as you go into this new season? Are you gonna make commitments to your relationships because your relationships matter, show me your friends. I can tell you your future. You know how I know God values friendship because Jesus in John 15 looked at his disciples who he knew was gonna doubt deny tray these imperfect people in a conversation he had right before he was gonna go to the cross. He looked at them and he says, I call you friends. So can you carry someone's burden today? Can you cultivate a blessing? Can you fulfill the law of Christ to have faith in Him? Believe in who Christ is and what God has done and through the power of the Holy Spirit, go and love people the way that Jesus did. Because if you can cultivate those relationships, if you can invest in them, it changes everything. Let's pray dear heavenly Father. We thank you for the value of friendships. God help us to carry the burdens of those around. I don't know what the emotional relational or situational couch or piece of furniture that's too heavy for someone to carry right now. But when we come alongside and lift up those people around us and then at the same time, God may we carry our pack, will we carry our load and take responsibility for our own choices and actions. But then we can share of our resources that we can sew and invest and plant our abilities and gifts and passions to, to use our freedom to invest our time to serve one another with honor and with love. And at the end of the day, Jesus, we just long to have healthy relationships that reflect a relationship in you. We give up our friendships and our community and our church family to you. Now, it's in your son's name. We pray. Amen.