The Mayo Clinic research says friendships have a major impact on our health and well-being:
• Increase your sense of belonging and purpose
• Boost your happiness and reduce your stress
• Improve your self-confidence and self-worth
• Help you cope with traumas, and the hardships of life…
• Reduce the risk of many significant health problems…

RECAP
Wk1:
*to walk in someone else’s shoes*
empathy/compassion: the ability to feel with people.

We are hard-wired by our Creator to feel for others; to feel with people. Jesus modeled this so well. God feels WITH US and we’re to feel with others. Compassion and Empathy are some of the basic building blocks of healthy friendships.

Wk2:
Elisa reminded us about FRIENDING – being a Full-Time pursuit. “Always On” ...We’re to stand with people always – through the thick & thin in life.

Proverbs 17:17
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

So as we continue to look into some essential ingredients that help healthy friendships thrive… today: I want us to explore this ingredient of HUMILITY

My friends, the beauty of a healthy church is that its members live in loving harmony with each other. That's what Jesus prayed for the night before he was crucified: "My prayer is that they may be one." That's why he told his disciples, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

But what exactly makes this happen? What causes this harmony to occur?
Be humble.

There's harmony in the church when there's humility in the people.

To summarize the real cause of division and strife among people we would need only one word: SELFISHNESS
Selfishness is the root problem, and the cause of selfishness is pride.

For most of us, bringing our “self” under control is our greatest challenge.

Humility is the remedy to selfishness.
It’s learning to YIELD our will, to another.

Quote:
“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less." - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

*if friendships involve 2 or more people – then a self-centered attitude can not seek the best for the other person, if it’s only seeking what’s best for me.

Mutual humility is a necessity for friendships to be downright healthy.

Jesus modeled humility (see Philippians 2:5-11) and the Apostle Paul is calling us to adopt his same mindset. That is so opposite to what our world calls us to have...so fostering humility is learning to ‘swim upstream’ within our culture.

To be more LIKE Jesus – means we must be more UNLIKE the world.

It is a great challenge to grow and foster humility within our hearts and not drift toward the selfishness & self-centered ways our world encourages.

Humility within our hearts keeps our focus off ourselves alone and we’re looking out for the interests of others… YIELDING OUR HEARTS to others

It’s imperative that we have a heart of humility within us as we seek to build healthy, godly and good friendships! Humility becomes the WD40 if you will, that keeps friendships functioning well, greased up to help one another succeed and experience life-giving hope, love and joy.

Bottom line:
There's harmony within friendships when there's humility within each heart.

NEED PRAYER? ....we've got some of our prayer team and pastors available following service to pray with you. You can also submit your prayer request via our app. We look forward to partnering with you in prayer.

IF YOU'RE NEW: we throw a 10-minute party immediately following the service in the back corner of the room, if you're new, we'd love to meet you and welcome you! We invite you back next weekend as we continue this series on FRIENDING...