Friends 1
Friends • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro
Intro
Students! We are starting a new series today called “Friends”
Something interesting that I believe to be quite true, in a world that is vastly connected via social media, we are one of the most disconnected people
We have followers, snapchat friends, facebook friends, we subscribe and feel somewhat connected to a community of people that all like the same things
But like do we have friends?
Better question, do you have friends?
I would venture to say that many of us today would claim that we have friends, but that we don’t actually know what that means
Or we have friends, but they just aren’t good.
Friendship is important for us, way more important than we realize
17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
The Bible tells us that our friends should be sharpening us and helping us grow
Last week finishing up the ghost series we talked about Community and I shared how your community should be like iron that is sharpening you
So today I want us to look at friendship, and see what we should be looking for when it comes to having friends
Loyalty
Loyalty
The first characteristic I want us to look at is:
Friends must be loyal
17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
According to Proverbs we see that Friends are to be loyal
They are called to love at all times, to literally be with us in the good and bad
They are to be brothers to built for times of adversity
They are meant to be with us and help us
This makes me think about how Barnabas stuck with John Mark
36 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.” 37 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
The disagreement arose when earlier on, John Mark was with Barnabas and Paul on a Missionary journey and ended up fleeing leaving them high and dry
When it was time to go for round two Paul didn’t want to bring John Mark, but Barnabas did
Ultimately Barnabas left and went to Cyprus with John Mark, and Paul took Silas and went to Syria
On the outset this looks like a bad thing between Paul and Barnabas, but through reading the story of Acts we see there is no animosity between them
Instead Barnabas shows us the kind of loyalty that the Bible calls us to have
Loyalty to stick with someone even if they aren’t perfect
John Mark utterly failed them, and rightfully should have been left
Yet Barnabas stuck with him
Students when it comes to friends we need to make sure that we are friends with people that are going to stick by us
Life is hard, things happen, sometimes we fail, and we need friends that are going to stick by us in the bad as well as the good
We need friends that are with us
Encouragement
Encouragement
Another aspect of friendship that we cannot ignore is:
Friends must be encouraging
Friends must be encouraging to us
11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
Paul tells us that friends should be encouraging one another
They should be seeking to help each other
In another place Paul tells us:
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
That friends are meant to come around us and help us when things are going bad
They are meant to be there and encourage and build us up
Friends should be seeking to help us and build us up
10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
Paul tells us that we should be seeking to outdo each other in showing honor
One of my favorite things is to listen to Podcasts
I have a couple that I listen to regularly
However, my favorite is a podcast called “Southside Rabbi”
In the podcast KB and Ameen start off every episode by showing honor to each other
They use elaborate wordplay to give each other compliments and seek to “win” the complementing game
That is something I have admired because they are seeking to live up to what it means to be encouraging to one another
They are seeking to show love and outdo each other when it comes to life
They are with each other when good things and bad things are happening
They are bearing burdens and waving the flag when things are good
This is the type of friendship we should be looking for Students
Friends that are seeking to encourage and not discourage
I remember being in middle school and the most popular thing was to tear each other down
To bully so that you looked cool
And pick back and forth with each other
I’m not saying playing around isn’t okay, but you need people in your circle that are building you up more than they are tearing you down
Honesty
Honesty
The last characteristic I want us to look at today is:
Friends must be honest
Friends must be honest with us
Listen to how Solomon puts it
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Solomon tells us that wounds from a friend are faithful — they are loving
But the kisses of an enemy are profuse
What does that mean?
When you friends are being honest with you and calling you out, it’s a good thing
We need friends in our life that are willing to look at us and be like “bro what you said/did, thats not okay”
This is something I think about a lot:
5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God. 6 And when he sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,” 7 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. 8 Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. 9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
Jethro is the Father-in-law to Moses
We see that he is close with Moses and cares about him
Earlier we see that Moses’ family stayed with Jethro while Moses was off in Egypt setting the people of Israel free
They are clearly close and Jethro rejoices to God for all that God is doing for Israel through Moses
But listen to what happens:
13 The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” 17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone.
Jethro the father-in-law of Moses, looks at Moses and tells him a hard truth “you can’t do it”
“What you are doing is not good”
Think about that
The man that loves Moses, that cares for Moses, that is with Moses, that sees how great of a leader and man of God Moses is, looks at Moses and tells him “bro you’re wasting your time, stop doing what you are doing”
The reality is that Jethro was right, Moses needed to hand off those responsibilities to someone else
But what this teaches us about friendship is that we need people that are honest with us
We need people that we can talk too, ask questions, and hear what they have to say and then listen to them
We don’t need a bunch of yes men that are going to lead us in a bad place, we need people that we help us follow God and change bad habits/actions/behaviors
We need people that will tell us the truth
Students when you look for a friend, find someone who will tell you the truth
I have a couple people like that, and I am that person for a couple of people
It’s not evil to disagree/tell them that they are doing something wrong
Proverbs tells us that it is faithful and loving to be honest and correct our friends
Conclusion
Conclusion
Students think about your friends and who you hangout with
They impact you
They change you
They make you into who you will become
Look at your friend group and evaluate them today
Are they loyal? Would they stick with me if crap hits the fan?
Are they encouraging? Do they build me up, or always tear me down?
Are they honest? Would they look at me and tell me I’m wrong?
This is what true friendship is
