The man I delight to call my pastor and my dear friend is back from his trip to Africa, which has been a great success by all accounts. The audio of the sermon he preached this morning entitled "the importance of friendships" is now available online.

We as a church are so priviledged to have him as our leader- I want to spend the rest of my life following him as he follows Christ. I know that many will benefit from hearing his sermons as much as the guy who sent him an email which he began todays sermon . If you like this blog, you will LOVE his preaching.

We are doing an interesting "double act" in our preaching these days. He is doing a series entitled "This is your life" which is based on Pauls command to "watch your life and doctrine closely". Tope is foccussing on life issues, whilst I am focussing on doctrine whilst preaching through Galatians. However, our messages are very much building on one another and comments to me have reflected that my messages have been very much focussed on life as well, whilst his are very much grounded in doctrine. I have no embarrassment in commending them to you.

Todays talk followed on so well from the one I preached last week on rejection. I closed with encouraging people to realise that whilst we must not be people pleasers, we should not allow the rejection we have experienced to cause us to reject others- it is not good to be alone and one of the best cures for rejection is to jolly well go out there and show some love.

Tope's brilliant description of the different levels of friendship we should all be aiming for and the grounding of that in the biblical command to simply "Love God and love each other" was outstanding. Go listen to it.

If you are not in a church where people love you and where you are building true friendships go find one. This blogosphere is no substitute for personal accountability in a local body of Christ. You will end your life bitter, alone and not having accomplished all you should if you will not learn to allow God to do everything he wants to in your life through the friends he sends your way.

If listening to Tope's talk makes you feel that you do not have friends like these and that you are all alone and rejected, please listen also to both mine on rejection and his entitled "One Thing" Then, having resolved to make God your friend and primary source of acceptance ask him to guide you and provide the friends you need then start reaching out in friendship to others.

You may need to change churches if your church genuinely isnt a place where such relationships can blossum. More likely you may need to seek change in yourself and begin to reach out to others instead of waiting for them to reach out to you.