He is My Friend
HHM 02- 9-03
Pastor Jim Parisi
Today I would like to explore true friendship. So many things are based on Friendship in our lives.
True friendship, where you can trust another with your life.
Not the Trust like the kind that two people share in a moment of time.
Say in a foxhole in war. Or a fireman carrying you out of a burning building.
More then the kind of trust a man and woman experience which leads to love.
The kind that enters you into the true fellowship with God.
A love affair which you depend on Him… for your whole Life, all you do and all you need.
A place you can fellowship in the Spirit,
Where a person can communicate with God and Their Creator.
We Take Our Friendships for granted most times.
Letting long periods of time pass before we call or write one another.
Sometime so much time passes that we totally lose touch with someone who at one time was so close to us or a major part of our lives.
And sometimes this happens also with the Lord.
We need to be more like Him. Mirror ourselves in His Image
We need to spend more time with Him.
Fellowship is: association, community, communion, joint participation,
They share a place... in which one has in anything, total participation and intimacy with another.
To get to this place we must experience the same blessings and sufferings as our Lord.
Philippians 3:8-10 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
How can we experience His Love if we don’t experience His Life?
Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
I say no…. what was the old Indian saying….. To know a man you have to walk a mile in his shoes….
Is that any different them Amos 3:3?
It’s not a superficial or isolated relationship either.
There are no lone rangers in Christianity.
But many think they are called to be.
They feel this because they refuse to die to self, and embrace their own mortality… then end up in rebellion.
We have to experience and become part of His death… so that we may live.
The steady discipline of intimate friendship with Jesus results in men becoming like Him.
Christianity is a discipline not meant for everyone.
You have to live a certain way… you have to live your life like Christ would.
Conform to His nature, teachings and understanding.
Most Christians fall away because they don’t want to abide by the rules that are set forth for our lives by God.
The Rules of living and a lifestyle that is in the BIBLE.
No doubt it is much easer to live a riotous life in the world as the scripture says.
Then to live a Righteous and Virtuous life before God.
We as men and woman are ruled by our emotions.
Ruled by what others think and say to us.
We are led like lost sheep being ready for Hell’s great slaughter.
I don’t know how many have been lost from the benefit of this Gospel and eternal life because of Bad fellowship or influence?
And I’m not only speaking about the world… it’s in the church too.
How can we leave ourselves so vulnerable as to let ourselves or others decide our destiny?
We as people are always being consumed with our own Lusts and needs.
Ephians 4:14-15 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ
It’s hard to line up with the Lords walk… because He is so unselfish.
He gives His all…. He Gave His Life for humanity..
He loved us so much… and there was no charge for this…
No bill is going to come in the mail later this week for your salvation.
It was a free gift from the Lord JUST Because He loves you.
And what does he ask in return for all this.
All He Asks you and I for is our Love and fellowship.
A small price for eternal life I would say.
Minimal payment for a great gift.
His Love is everything we need.
It should satisfy us to Become more like Him
The Enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be fulfilled.
The enjoyment and the pleasure we receive in knowing Him.
The world wants to rob you of this experience….
and pans off to you false pleasures and ideals to fill the voids.
The cracks in life.
The devil will send people in your direction to lead you away from your call in God
Worldly Parasitical Relationships were people feed off each other are counterfeit and offensive to God.
C. L. Lewis once said. The Relationship between God and Man is more private and intimate then any possible relationship between two fellow creatures
What greater relationship is there then the one between God and A man?
Joan Baez the singer once said. The easiest kind of relationship for me is with ten thousand people. The Hardest is with one.
Believe it… in a concert of ten thousand people no one can feel or touch your heart.
The one on one relationship presses you and redefines who you are.
It’s pretty hard to fool someone when they are always with you and know everything about you.
Remember how you could never figure out how your mother knew all you secrets?
She was able to be because she knew you. And she knew you well
How do you do it? How do you get to know him better….
All you have to do is open up you heart, and let Him In.
Build a personal relationship with Him.
You can never establish a personal relationship without opening your own heart first.
And if the world mocks and scorns you remember this…
I would say to you today
It is better to be hated for what you are…
Then loved for what you are not….
Amen
