Ep 73: Wounds, Kisses, and Echo Chambers

0:00 Hey, good morning, I'm Daniel Dalp and this is for your Sunday morning drive. The short podcast with the goal of providing some motivation, Dr. encouragement and maybe even challenging you a little on your way to worship and helping you recenter your mind on those spiritual things on a hectic Sunday morning. We are brought to you by the Ministry League network of podcasts. You can always check out the great podcasts and resources that they offer through ministryleague.com or you can download their app. Let's go ahead and get the show on the road this morning. This is episode 73. Wounds, kisses and echo chambers. Let's go to church. Are we there yet?

0:53 Have you ever gotten stuck in an echo chamber? I feel like all of us have at some point. It is really easy to do because we surround ourselves, sometimes even unconsciously and unintentionally, with people that we mostly agree with, whether that is theologically, politically, culturally, or academically. We align ourselves in certain camps or with certain individuals with certain mindsets. We even tend to pick out which national news networks we watch based on if we agree with what they tell us rather than if they report what's factual. And then there's the digital echo chamber, the one we are all stuck in, whether we want to believe it or not. You see, we are primarily fed the content that we want to hear, not what we need to hear.

1:40 And that's not a radical idea. In fact, test it for me. When was the last time that your timeline, your FYP or your Instagram page showed you something that you really disagreed with? Let me say that another way. When was was the last time the algorithm told you that you were wrong? Probably not a ton of examples coming to mind, right? I'm right there with you. And if we're not careful, we can do the same thing with the people in our lives, our friends. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about what it means to be a good friend and what a good friend looks like. And one of the things that I keep coming back to is that a good friend is not an echo chamber. Now we may share some fundamental beliefs.

2:22 So that is to be expected and, and it's a good thing, especially if we are brothers and sisters in Christ. But a good friend will tell us what we need to hear regardless of if we want to hear it. In short, a good friend will tell us when we're wrong. And we don't like that all the time, do we? Because it can hurt. It can hurt our feelings, our egos, but it doesn't have to hurt our friendships. In fact, I'd say that Scripture supports it. Proverbs 27 verse 6 says faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. What are those wounds? Hard truths. Maybe it's what Scripture is designed to do according to Paul.

3:04 Second Timothy 316 says all Scripture is inspired for God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Maybe it's a rebuke. Maybe it's simply being blunt and telling us to get our act together. Maybe it's lovingly holding each other accountable, especially when there's a recognition of a shared struggle. And maybe it's a moment where we see a friend drifting away from faithfulness and instead of a betraying false word of affirmation, we offer instead a loving and concerned word of correction. Yeah, it might sting in the moment, but at the end of the day, what truly makes a better friend now, it goes without saying, or at least it should, that these wounds are not out of malice, but are, for our friends, ultimate good.

3:49 And there are a few things I appreciate more in a friend than when they tell me how it is for my own benefit. Why is that? Well, I've come to find friends that rarely are we as self aware as we think we are. Sometimes we are blind or purposely ignorant to both hard truths and the encouraging ones. A good friend will tell you both those hard things that we don't want to see about ourselves, but also those positive attributes that we might also ignore. And the goal here, of course, is to love each other. Like Jesus, that's what agape love is like that sacrificial, unconditional love. The goal is always for the benefit of our friend's best interest.

4:32 And of course God, not us or anyone else, gets to decide what their best interest is. Proverbs chapter 28 verse 23 says he who rebukes a man will afterwards find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue. The truth is always the best course, even when it's hard. Yes, friends, echo chambers and algorithms make for bad friends. The question is, are we willing to be good ones? Are we willing to offer loving wounds instead of deceitful kisses? Because you know, deceitful kisses. They were offered to Jesus too. Remember Matthew 2649 through 50 says immediately Judas went to Jesus and said, hail Rabbi and kissed him. And Jesus said to him, friend, do what you have come for. Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. We see the betrayal of a false and deceptive kind act. Ah, but then there's Jesus, the one who we are supposed to mold our lives after.

5:31 A true friend. You know Jesus said many things throughout his earthly ministry, and many were hard truths and few, if any were accepted by all that heard them. But you know, every word He spoke was for the ultimate good of His people. It might have been a teaching, a rebuke, A chastisement, A condemnation, or a command, but He still spoke them all the same. If we want to be good friends, if we truly want to love one another like Jesus, then let's take a page out of his book. Speak the hard truths. Let our friendships not be echo chambers, but instead let them echo the relationships modeled by Christ. After all, a good friend always points to Him. Well, those are my thoughts for your Sunday morning drive. Now it's time to hear yours.

6:14 Our discussion questions for this week are, are we good friends? Do we surround ourselves with honest friendships or do we seek the comfort of the echo chambers around us? Do we tend to give faithful wounds or deceitful kisses? What were some of the hard truths that Jesus spoke to his friends, and what can we do to be better friends to those around us?