The only way you know, Kurt, someone is receiving the grace that you are giving to them is that it is changing them.

Where there is no change, that tells you that grace has not been received.

Dr. Brian Lawrence is the teaching pastor at the Summit Church and an award-winning author of eight books.

He spent the bulk of his ministry serving and resourcing the multi-ethnic church.

And it's my honor to be with him here today at takeaways. Thanks, brother.

Oh, good to be with you, Kurt.

So good to be with you.

I have heard you preach and teach and my kids have been receiving your words of wisdom at their high school graduations, and they're so excited that we get to be here, and I get to talk to you today.

Well, it was surprising to hear you say that to me. I didn't realize your kids were in the audience, and glad to be an encouragement. Absolutely.

Yeah. Well, thank you. And I'm so

excited that we get to talk about enduring friendships today. You've got this great new book

that we're going to be discussing. And when I think of friendships, you're some of the most

important things in my life. The people that I care about, the people that I can trust

and open my heart to and receive wisdom from. And we haven't known each other that long, but you just

seem like you would make a good friend. And I don't know why I get that sense, but I want to hear

what you have to say about how to find good friends,

how to be a good friend. And I guess the first question I want to ask you is, why are relationships

so difficult? Why are they so frustrating? I mean, it's like some of the most frustrating things in

the world and heartbreaking things are when relationships don't turn out the way that we

want. Absolutely. Well, I think you really hit the nail on the head with that question. Friendships,

community, it's our deepest longing. I think it's part of what it means to be made in the image of

God. We have this longing to be in relationship with other people, but it's also our deepest

...