“A FRIEND”

Good morning. We are at the beginning of another week. Another week to be alive, to get excited to see what God is going to do in us and through us. I pray as you start this week off, you were able to be in church yesterday and received a full tank of the Holy Spirit and put on the whole armor of God’s protection so that you are ready to face whatever may come.

We had our monthly men’s prayer breakfast on Saturday, that along with the movie Courageous on my mind, has inspired this weeks topic. Let me ask you a few questions, and before you answer, I want you to stop and think for just a moment and really give some thought before you answer. What is a true “friend”? How many friends do you have and are they listed in some sort of good, better or best list? Are you a true friend? To how many people are you a true friend? God’s word has something to say that should help us out some on the issue.

John 15:13-18 says, “13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.” John 11:11 says, “These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up." James 2:23 says, “And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." And he was called the friend of God.” James 4:4 says, “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

So, with the scriptures mentioned, and the questions listed above, what answers have you come up with? What does someone have to do, to be a friend to you? Are you the type that looks to see what they can get out of someone before you are their friend? Are you the type of person that only wants to hear someone agree with you and go along with you in whatever you say so there is no friction? Are you the type of friend that wants a friend to speak to you honestly?

If you were holding a “friend fair”, looking for some new friends, what would the requirements be to become a friend of yours? Would it matter what they wore, where they lived, how much money they made, who they hung out with, how they wore their hair, who their friends were, what color they are, if they belong to the right clubs, if they smoked or not or how they talked? Would they have to go through some kind of probation period to see if it was going to work out before you made up your mind? Would you be swayed by special favors they could or would do for you?

I have ask you all these questions and provoked you to thought to make this point. God created us to be His workmanship, His servants and to have fellowship with us. Then, He went on to go as far as to call us His friends, and then to die for His friends.

Now, I want you to think about the questions above and how you answered them. Then, I want you to think about what you have done for Jesus today, this week, month, year or with your life. Now, knowing what it takes to be a friend of yours, I want to ask you, have you met your own qualifications to be a friend with Jesus? Have you been and done all that a friend should be and do, to qualify yourself as a friend of Jesus? If someone treated you, as you have treated Jesus, would you still be their friend?

Remember: It is a honor and privilege to be called a friend of The Creator of everything. Knowing what you know now, will you work harder at being the friend to God, that you expect others to be, so they can be a friend of yours?

Until next time, please continue to pray for each other, and me, as I continue to pray for each of you.

Love in CHRIST,

Brian Hanvey
Associate Pastor
Bethel Baptist Church