Episode 567: Episode 567 - Paul's Foxhole Friends - Part 1

OK, so let's jump into Paul's forever friends.

Who are the guys that surrounded the Apostle Paul? I mean, we know that Paul and Barnabas and and Paul and Silas were kind of partners in ministry.

But what about the guys that just stayed with him all the way? I mean, I'm talking like, OK, Paul gets arrested and we're going to join you there in prison as opposed to this.

This list of guys here, this record of men being like just a laundry list at the end, kind of an add on or kind of an addendum or kind of like here's the fade out to the record.

No, no.

This is an integral part of what Paul wanted to communicate to the Colossians.

And I am the kind of guy that I have a whole lot of online friends and acquaintances and people like that.

But then there's an inner circle.

Obviously, my family's a big part of that, but there's an inner circle of people, both guys and girls, sisters and brothers, that I'm connected with in some way that form a strong network.

and you know it reminds me of the uh this tree we used to have in our backyard when we lived in mobile alabama we had this massive spreading like live oak tree and uh there were swings on it there was a tree house built to i mean all these things were attached to it there was a zip line coming out of it you know why and and then we we endured five hurricanes and this tree like didn't budge at all And I discovered the reason why is because the roots of those trees not only go down, but they go out.

And when they go out, they actually interconnect with other trees' roots.

And so under the surface, The trees are stronger together than they are by themselves.

You want to be the kind of believer that is intricately life connected with other believers.

Now, I think sometimes we get a little bit this guilty feeling that we don't know and love everybody in our church because our church has 500 or 1,000 or more people in the church.

Or maybe it's just a small church.

Maybe it's a church of 100.

But you're like, I don't really know those people.

I don't really care to know all of them because I don't have time, right? But you do need to have some small group of people that are in your life and you're in their life and you share life together and you feel like there's an open door to not only go through the highs and lows of life with, but also to connect with spiritually and to create a spiritual bond between you.

Like I said, there's a small circle for me and there really should be for you as well.

And I think that the Apostle Paul is a great example of this.

So let's look at who are these unknowns, some of them, of Paul's life.

If Paul looks back and he goes, OK, you guys, you're in the highlight reel of my life.

Who are they? All right, here's number one.