Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Today I feel to talk about friends – having friends – being a friend needing a friend and the Biblical concept of friends.
Jesus had a group of friends around him they were very close and This was the inner circle but there was an inner inner circle of which we can see Peter James and John who were somehow close to the heartbeat of jesus. If friends were important to Jesus then it probably is important that we consider how important friends are in our Christian walk.
A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.
The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand “Today my best friend slapped me in the face”.
They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone “Today my best friend saved my life”.
The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?” The other friend replied “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”
That seems to epitimise what it is to be a Christian friend!
Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
In my life I have found that I have been privileged to have many friends. I have found that in most cases I have friends when I cultivate the friendship. When I was a young man I was in business and I had a group of friends who didn’t really know God and pretty much did what they chose. They were what My parents described as fairweather friends – Friends who were there when things were going well but soon disappeared into the shadows when the theme of my life changed from self to God. I remember as the secular friends vanished into the background that a new group of friends emerged friends who wanted to follow Christ no matter what who served him then and serve him now and who have walked through pains and trials with me always supportive and when we reunite after sometimes decades apart the friendship is still fresh and new.
Why are Christian friends important?
I think you become like the people you hang out with.
Proverbs chapter 13 verse 20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. You see you become like the people you spend time with so it is important that you choose your friends carefully.
1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
This morning I would like to point out some key concepts that will encourage you to grow good friendships.
1. They will help you in times of trial.
In the bible there were three friends who used to hang out together their names were Shadrach Meshach and Abednigo
These three men lived in a nation called Babylon and the King had given the order that every one should worship this 90ft high statue when music was played . These three men Shadrach Meshach and Abednego refused – individually they like Daniel – may have had the courage to refuse but together, as friends, they, were able to support each other and resist the King even though it meant certain death.
any burns, no hairs on their head burned, all their clothes perfectly fine, and no smell of fire on them at all.
At that moment Nebuchadnezzar knew that they worshipped a real God not some fake statue. God had sent an angel to protect them from harm, and even more importantly he realized that they truly believed and trusted in God. They were willing to die rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.
So from that day on the king made an announcement that all the people, people of all languages could not say anything bad about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's God or they would be badly punished.
. Friendship is at the very core of what the Church is about in this sense 1 Corinthians chapter 12:12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Good friendships give you courage and strength. They help you in times of trial. Many times in this church Heather and I have felt wonderfully strengthened by the many friends we have made in this parish.
2.Friends – true friends will sacrifice for you. And you for them Jesus is a true friend and his example of sacrifice is frankly incredible. In fact his death on the cross is the greatest act of friendship the world has ever seen. Jesus himself once said 13"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14"You are My friends if you do what I command you.… and we read in the book of 1 Peter 2 verse 24 "He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed." Therefore we should see the same dynamics revealed in the lives of Christian sacrificial love for one another. The story is told of a mine worker in Ireland during the great potato famine of 1847. He brought his lunch each day to work; but he ate alone. Stealing away from his coworkers, he would then open his lunch pail.
The other workers burned with curiosity wondering why he was hiding his lunch. They assumed that he had some delicious morsels that he refused to share. Finally, they could stand the suspense no longer. Someone opened his lunch pail to find that it was full of potato peels. While his children were given the potatoes for their lunches, he took the peels.
His great sacrifice was actually assuring him that he would get most of the vitamins and minerals that are contained in the potato. Not understanding what science has revealed to us in recent years, this father was enriching himself–rather than his children–with his sacrificial giving.
Being friends with people means that you leave your mark on them and them on you. Sometimes we have the privilege of visiting other churches and one thing that I have noted is that the people of that church reflect having rubbed against one another in Christ. Sometimes it may be an emphasis on love and caring other times it might be an emphasis on evangelism or a number of things but the culture is infectious and you see it in the folk who attend that church.
Marjorie William’s children’s story book, The Velveteen Rabbit tells the story of a stuffed toy rabbit given to a young boy as a Christmas present. The velveteen rabbit lives in the nursery with all the other toys, waiting for the day when the boy will choose him as a playmate.
In time, the shy Rabbit befriends the tattered Skin Horse, the wisest resident of the nursery, who reveals the goal of all nursery toys: to be made “real” through the love of a human. One night we get to overhear their conversation..
‘What is REAL?’ asked the Rabbit one day, as they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, just before Nana came in to tidy up the room. ‘Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?’
‘Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’
‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.
‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real, you don’t mind being hurt.’
‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’
‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off; and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real, you can’t be ugly except to people who don’t understand.’
Source: Quote from Marjorie Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit.
Friends forgive each other. There are plenty of stories about friends refusing to forgive each other. But that is not the Christian way – We read in Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Robert E. Lee, after the Civil War, visited a home in Kentucky. The lady of the house pointed to a limbless, battered tree trunk standing on the front lawn, and said, "Before the Union army came through here, that was a beautiful, magnificent magnolia tree. Then they blasted it with their artillery, and that's all that's left. What do you think about that?"
She expected the general to sympathize with her and criticize the Union Army. But instead, he looked at her and said one sentence: "Cut it down and forget it."
Do you have some trees of bitterness standing in your life? Bitterness toward God? Toward others? Toward yourself? Cut them down and forget them.
Resolve to deal with your bitter spirit. "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."--Eph.4:31-32.
Former friends can quickly become enemies but we need to keep short accounts with each other!!!
As Carlo Coletto once said, I can only say, “Live love, let love invade you. It will never fail to teach you what you must do.”
The kind of Friendship that existed between David and Johnathan was very special it was more than most friendships – there was a spiritual link!!!
David and Jonathan
1 Samuel 18:1-3 As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.
Finally Have you ever said – I don’t have any friends or nobody loves me???
Have you found that sometimes been avoided by people and you know that your deodorant is working.
You might be able to put it down to persecution but either way it ultimately our friendship with Jesus that will define all our other friendships. Cultivating a great friendship with Jesus will make us a great friend to others.
I’ve noticed people who are close to jesus tend to be popular. If they are not at the beginning they certainly are as time goes on because the friendship transforms them both parties become more and more like Jesus and the friendship deepens.
The whole message of the New Testament is that god is trying to be our friend
Jesus was a friend of Lazerus and we learn in his friendship things not to expect from a friendship with Jesus.
The first thing is don’t expect it to be free of expectations like a friend on facebook because Jesus said:
John 15
14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
Secondly don’t expect it to be predictable – because it won’t be – Jesus was friends with Lazerus yet he waits until he is dead before he comes to his rescue.
Don’t expect it to be dull – at every turn of the road Jesus surprises his friends with incredible adventures of faith.
Don’t expect to be lonely because God will be with you always
Matthew 28:19-20
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Don’t expect to be fearful or worried for God has not given you a Spirit of fear but one of love power and a sound mind.
Don’t expect to be lonely because many will be attracted to Christ in you.
As you grow in friendship with Jesus and are transformed by his company you will not only neve r be lonely because friends will flock to you you will be an excellent friend.
God Bless you Friend!!!!!
What a Friend you have in Jesus.
Jimmy
I don’t know the year but I was once in charge of building a very large childrens playground at a school we built a bridge – it was concrete made for children to run over. I met this kid on it – I mean he wan’t the kind of kid you would necessarlily be attracted to – he was isolated lost and lonely. As I talked to him I realised that his home situation was – well broken like the kid. Other kids sensed his awquardness and to be honest I felt a little powerless. I was working for Youth for Christ at the time but I didn’t know what to do. I talked to him about Jesus and how he loved him and all he had to do was to go to church – but he told me he had no one to take him – I didn’t know what to do so I stood there. He stood there too – Me wondering what to do him waiting for the love of Jesus to come from me. So there we were the two of us. Waiting. Eventually feeling powerless muttering words of sympathy and empathy I turned back to my work he turned to his class. I kind of realise now that it was my task to be Jesus to him asn when I did I would be being a friend to Jesus and Jesus to me but I failed that time but have since learned that when I did it to one of the least of these I did it to my friend Jesus and we are friends then him and I jesus and me – Jesus in Jimmy and me like Jesus to Jimmy.
Sigh
What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to beart.
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