Companionship (and not just marriage)

Introduction

Good evening to everyone tonight. It has been a great night of praise.

There are so many things going on here at Calvary that I won’t take time to list them all but I do want to highlight that “The Pumpkins are Coming” Our Pumpkin Patch outreach is a huge event that just keeps getting bigger and better every year. Come out and support, volunteer, buy some pumpkins, come for dinners on friday night. There will be so much to see and do. For the rest of the activities, you have to come back Sunday morning and see the announcement slides or go to the church website.

I want to thank each of you for coming tonight and I especially want to thank each member of the Praise Team that was able to make it this evening. Debbie, our Minister of Music and outstanding husband Angelo, who also is the Executive Pastor of the Church, Carla, Hayleigh, Jesika, our Jill of all trades who is embedded in so many things, her wonderful husband in the back, Preston - together they lead our military ministry.

Adam is joining us on drums tonight, Carson might switch out a little later, Sakura, Hayleigh’s sister is working the slides in the back - a huge thank you to Michelle Conway for bringing the family to practice and being such a dedicated minister in our church.

And finally my wife Amy, who is not only lucky enough to be married to me, but is also my best friend.

Which is a great segue, because we want to talk about Friends, Companions and Companionship

What is a Friend?

Webster defines a friend as:

1 : one attached to another by affection or esteem 2: one that is not hostile

3: one that favors or promotes something (such as a charity) 4: : a favored companion

5 Friend : a member of a Christian sect that stresses Inner Light, rejects sacraments and an ordained ministry, and opposes war called also Quaker 6 : a person included in a list of one's designated connections on a social media service

What's the difference between friends and acquaintances?

People often distinguish between an acquaintance and a friend, holding that the former should be used primarily to refer to someone with whom one is not especially close. Many of the earliest uses of acquaintance were in fact in reference to a person with whom one was very close, but the word is now generally reserved for those who are known only slightly.

What is a Companion?

1 : one that accompanies another : COMRADE, ASSOCIATE traveling companions also : one that keeps company with another his longtime companion And for Debbie - our resident NASA rocket scientist

: a celestial body that appears close to another but that may or may not be associated with it in space

Friendships as childen/youth

Think about the friendships that you had has a child. I am sure that you had plenty of Friends and Acquaintances. (use those words however you want). I remember that I had a good friend when I lived on 8th street in the little town of Los Fresnos, but my family moved to another part of town when I was 7 and coupled with eventually moving to another school, that friendship drifted apart.

It wasn’t until around 5th grade that I met the person that would be my best friend until I left for college in 1990. Michael Rodriguez came to the school I was attending, First Baptist Church School in Brownsville, Texas and he was awesome. He was brave, a little reckless, and just an all around good person. The school was in Brownsville, but we both lived in Los Fresnos. There were a number of families that had children going to school in Brownsville, about 20 minutes away and they all got together and got a school bus (and yes it was a moderately short bus) to take us kids to school. I don’t remember how many of us were on the bus, but it was all ages and the bus had a few stops in Brownsville as kids were dropped off at the various private schools we attended.

Michael and I were the only ones in our direct age group and we became fast friends on that bus ride. We told jokes, made up songs, harassed the other kids (not too much because we both had parents that believed in spankings....and usually with belts, yardsticks or whatever was handy....and we earned our licks)

We were great friends and over time we became best friends.

o Finish each others sentences

o Tell the same lies without prompting

o Cover for each other

o like the same shows, music, movies

o sleep over all the time.

Most of my very fondest memories of my youth and childhood involve Michael and our shenanigans.

But like most childhood friendships, ours ended. Ours parted amicably as although we started school in the same grade on year Michael was held back, I got a girlfriend, I graduated a year early and went to a different college. Life moved on

Companions as Adults

Who has a best friend?

Who has a close friend that isn’t their spouse?

Talk about Debbie and Angelo, Carl and Stayce, Treg and Elisse

What keeps us from having Friends and Companions today?

Time

Money

Time and money go hand in hand - In our society today, time = money.

Story about Wednesday night and Amy and Kevin

Families

Other Commitments

Marriages

Our individual desire to put in the work to make and maintain friendships and close companions

What Makes a Good Companion?

The Bible Gives us a blueprint of a Good Companion in the history of Paul and Barnabas that we have recently been studying in Acts.

Generosity -

Acts 4:36–37 (ESV)

Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Encouragement

Acts 9:26–28 (ESV)

And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord,

who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.

Engagement

Acts 11:25–26 ESV

So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

Human Friendships are Fragile....

Acts 15:36–40 (ESV)

And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark.

But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

We Always Have a Friend/Companion.

God is our Friend

James 2:23 ESV

and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.

Jesus is our Friend

John 15:9–17 (ESV)

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends,

for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.