Your Best Friend Forever

We’re going to be in Psalms 139:16-18 today. Did you know, that God wants to be your best friend? He wants to be YOUR best friend! How does that make you feel? It makes you feel good. You have a glorious, all powerful, all knowing God and despite all that, he still wants to be your friend. Psalms 139:16-18 (NLT) says “16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! 18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!” There are three points we can learn from this particular passage.

The first is God has a purpose for all of us. Verse 16 says “16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” There’s nothing that is hidden from God. He has already made provision for every struggle in our life, every thought, every desire, and every feeling that we will ever go through in our entire lives. He knows it all, He’s known us since before we were even born. One thing that always strikes me is that, if you look throughout the course of human history, there’s a lot of philosophers, and it’s typical of unbelievers, to ponder and to think and to philosophy about “What’s the meaning of life?” We’ve all heard this, from Socrates to Aristotle to modern day philosophers; everybody says the big question for humans is: “What is the meaning of life?” It’s because they don’t get it that if you take God out of your life, there is no reason for life. Because, as believers, we understand specifically and clearly that the meaning for life is to bring Him glory. We are here for His glory. Isaiah 43:7 (NLT) says 7 Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.’” That’s a clarity in our life, God has a purpose, our purpose in our life is to glorify Him. He has a special purpose for everyone of us. His kingdom has a place for all of us. That’s the reason why we go through our trials, our tribulations, our victories; they all have a purpose for us that serves God’s ultimate purpose. But God makes provision for His own purposes. He’s not restricted by human standards. A good example is you think about when you were a teenager in high school and you’re thinking about what you want to be when you grow up. You had to figure out what you were going to do with your life. And when you think about that, there’s a lot of roadblocks to it. When you want to do something specific with your life, a certain career path, you’ve got to figure out what it is you want to study. Then you’ve got the hurdle of, if I’m going to college, how am I going to pay for it? Then once you’ve figured out what you want to study and how to pay for it, you must figure out what college you are going to. Now you must worry about getting the grades. You must study, stay in college, and actually graduate. Now, after you through all those hurdles, you must figure out if there are any job openings, can you even get a paying job for what you want to do? So, from the time that you decide what you want to be to the time that you get to fulfill that purpose, you’ve got hurdle and hurdles that you have to overcome. If we stay on God’s path, He will provide. It is when we stray from His path that we start to feel like we are alone. Isaiah 46:9-10 (ESV Strong's) says “9 … for I am God, there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’” Stay in God’s purpose and He will provide, He will accomplish, He won’t fail, He CAN’T fail. So, all the details are already laid out before us when we stay on God’s path and there’s nothing that can stop God’s purpose.

We also learn here that God is a personal God. In verse 17 He says: 17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! God is thinking about you all the time! He thoughts about us, you can’t even count them. He is thinking about you all the time! Whether you are thinking about Him or not, He is thinking about you. He wants to know what’s going on in your life, He wants to see what your doing. He is thinking about you ALL THE TIME! When, we bring ourselves into personal relationship with God, we gain His personal protection. There’s a story in Numbers 12:6-8; I’ll give you a little background because the story is much longer, but we aren’t going to go through the whole thing; but the backstory to this is: This is after Aaron has been anointed as High Priest of the Jews and Aaron and his wife Miriam go and criticize Moses because he doesn’t have a Jewish wife. Remember, Moses took his wife when he was in exile before he went back to save the Jews. They are criticizing him because the Jewish law that was laid down to them was not to marry with the Gentiles because it contaminates the Jews. So they are accusing Moses of being unholy, and Aaron is reinforcing his arguments by saying “Well, I’m the High Priest, God speaks to me to. So, since I’m the High Priest, I’m speaking for God right now when I’m rebuking you Moses.” But what happens? What happens is God comes before them, calls them all to the tabernacle and God comes before them and He says this in verse 6: “6 And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. 7 Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” God uses these words for a reason, He doesn’t just say that Moses was one of His people, all of the Jews were God’s people, Aaron was the High Priest; but He singles out Moses as His servant, because God had a personal relationship with him. He had a personal relationship with Moses. Even Aaron as the High Priest, who was the only one among the Jews, besides Moses, who was allowed to come into the presence of the Lord. He was the only one who was allowed to enter into the room containing the Ark of the Covenant; and even then, he could only do it one time a year. And Aaron had to go through an enormous ceremony just to be able to do that. I f you want to read about it, you can read in Exodus and Leviticus. But to summarize it, Aaron had to sacrifice like seven lambs and seven bulls, and he had to sprinkle blood all over himself and the tabernacle, then he had to go into the Holy of Holies and he had to sprinkle the Ark with blood and beg for forgiveness of his sins. Then he had to go back out and do it all over again; and then he could go back into that room and he would sprinkle the Ark for the forgiveness of Israel’s sins; this was called the Day of Atonement. That was the most he was allowed to enter into God’s direct presence; and, as the High priest, he was the only one who could do that. Not so with Moses, you can read through Exodus and Deuteronomy, Numbers, Leviticus; Moses is in God’s presence all the time. Not once, does Moses have to go through some ornate ceremonial cleansing process to come into His presence. Why? Because God has a personal relationship with Moses. There’s a personal relationship there. God wants to have a personal relationship with you too. That’s what He wants.

Follow me to Mark 15:37-38 (ESV Strong's) tells us about Jesus’ last moments on the cross: “37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” Let me explain to you first what this curtain was. The curtain was in the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a huge tent of worship, it was the place of God within Israel as they wandered through the desert. It contained the Ark of the Covenant and they would set it up in the middle of their camps. The outer perimeter was about 150 feet long and about 75 feet wide, it was a good-sized area. There was this outer perimeter that had a courtyard in it and then inside that was a tent that was about 45 feet long by 20 feet wide, that was the tabernacle tent that within the Holy place, where the incense altar and the lamp stand were located. Then there was a curtain at the back of there, that created a smaller room that was around 12 feet deep; and in there was the Holy of Holies, the place of the Ark. Separating the Holy of Holies from the Holy place where the priests would go in and burn incense, was this curtain. The curtain designated that they were separated from God. This curtain was approximately 18 inches thick. Not wide, no long, THICK. This thing did not tear! There was an ancient torture practice of quartering, where they would tie horses to each of a man’s limbs and have the horses tear the man literally limb form limb. It was said of this curtain that it would stop the horses in their tracks, they could not tear it. God specifically had this curtain give the realization to the Israelites that, though He is with them, there is still a separation. There was a distinct separation between the Israelites and God, even though He was in their midst, there was a separation, and again, only the High Priest could go in there. And this curtain, it could not be moved, did you that, in order for the High Priest to go in there that one time a year, he had to crawl under the curtain? It was so heavy and so unmovable that he had to crawl under it, you couldn’t pull it to the side, you couldn’t push it and walk through it, you had to crawl under it. It was a portable wall. So when Jesus utters His loud cry and breathes His last breath on the cross and the curtain of the temple is torn in two from top to bottom; that wasn’t an accident. That wasn’t the temple shook, some ground broke, this thing just kind of ripped. This curtain was purposefully made so that it would not rip. It was a deliberate act of God. He was tearing down that curtain. He was telling us that he wants us to be in His presence. Jesus’ sacrifice atoned for our sins for eternity. At that point, Jesus now says, you are no longer separated from Me. You can now freely enter into my presence. I want to be personal to you. I want to be with you. Hebrews 10:19-20 (ESV Strong's) says “19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,” Jesus’ flesh, the persecution of His flesh, the tearing of His flesh was the tearing of the curtain. It was that ultimate sacrifice, that final day of atonement, where He became our High Priest that made it to where we could not come into the personal presence of God, at will. We are cleansed!

We have a lot of different types of friends. We have what I call just friends; those are acquaintances. You know who that person is, you talk to them every once in a while, you’re friendly when you see them. People at work, you say Hi to them small talk. Etc. Then we have trust friends. These are friends that you have fellowship with them, you know about them, you have a good relationship with them; but they aren’t necessarily part of your everyday life. These would be like mentors at work, mentors at church, people you have fellowship with at church that your talk to. You have a relationship with them, but they aren’t an integral of your day in and day out life. But they are people that you trust and know you can talk to. Then we all have the rust friends. Everybody has one rust friend, I believe. The rust friend is the guy who you haven’t heard from in two years but calls you up because he needs a favor. He’s that guy who only shows up when he needs a favor. When you need something from him, he’s gone. He won’t answer the phone, he won’t answer his texts; but when he needs something, they blow your phone up. All of a sudden, they’re your best friend. “Hey bud, remember me? Yeah, how are you doing? Great! Hey, by the way, I know you’ve got a truck, can you swing by? I’m moving, I need some help.” You’re thinking in your head, Man I haven’t heard from you in three years; I forgot who you were, I didn’t even know you were alive still; where do you even live now? You just don’t ever hear from this guy unless he has a need. That’s a rust friend. Then you’ve got your must friends. These are your best friends; they are core to your life; day in and day out. Your spouse, hopefully, is in this category. The we’ve all got our best friends, that person that we know, no matter what, they are the one we lean on. We talk to them all the time, maybe not every day, but we talk to them on a continuous basis. We share our lives with them, we tell them our innermost secrets, sometimes before we tell our spouse. Often, we treat God like a rust friend. We come to Him when something bad is going on in our lives, we have some need and then we come to Him. The we come to the altar, the we pray to Him; and say “Lord, help me. Lord, bills are getting bad, could you just double my paycheck? I promise I’ll tithe better. Lord, I’ve got this serious affliction. Please just heal me, I promise I’ll pray more and read the Word more. I’ll be around.” Thank God, praise the Lord that he is not like us. Even when we help our rust friends out, we usually do the bare minimum to get them off our backs and depending on what they are asking for me might just flat out turn them down. Because, they aren’t really your friend, you know their name, you know they used to live down the block when you were five years old, but really are you my friend? Thankfully, God is not like that with us. He will still grant those requests. But we are missing out on so much more. How much more of a blessing is your best friend to your life? How much more reliable is your best friend? How much more do you know that when you ask your best friend for something, you know you are going to get their 110%, you know that they will go through hell or high water to make it happen for you. You know that, not matter what you’re standing in, no matter what you are going through; they are going to be right there. They are going to be there; they are going to go through it with you and they are going to make sure you come out ok on the other side. That’s your best friend. And through our best friends, a lot of times we stay out of trouble. We often ask them for advice, and they give us advice that ends up keeping us from bad choices.

So, how do we spend time with God? How do you build relationships with people? You don’t just go sit in a room with a stranger, never say a word to them, and come out saying they are your friend. We make friends through communication. We make friends, we build relationships through talking and listening. So, how do we talk to God? We pray. Often when we pray, we think they need to be these elaborate, evangelical, prayers. Where, Lord, holy are you, blessed you be, bless us for these things. But it doesn’t have to be like that, just come to the Lord and just talk to Him about your day. Just tell Him what you did today, “Hey Lord, you know, I just wanted to tell you, I know you already know, but I had a little struggle today. My heart felt heavy, my thoughts kind of drifted back where they shouldn’t be drifting.” “I had a struggle at work Lord, somebody made me very angry, and it was hard not to act out, Lord.” Tell Him about your everyday life, make small talk. “Hey Lord, the weather was nice today, thank you for that.” He wants to hear from you. Tell Him about your needs. He tells us, bring your needs and desire before me. He wants to hear those. Going beyond that, it doesn’t have to be a formal prayer. You don’t have to sit down, close your eyes, bow your head, and pray. Talk to Him in your thoughts, you know, you have a long drive, you’re just driving, let your thoughts wander to Him. I’ll tell you personally, a lot of times, some of my biggest communications with God happen when I’m just randomly thinking about Him. When I’ve got downtime driving home from work or, I work in Charleston a lot, and just kind of let my thoughts wander, I’m sitting on the couch watching TV and I just let my thoughts fix on Him. Often, my messages, I start working on them Monday evening; by Friday most of it looks different and it’s not anything that I’ve done. I’ll just kind of lay down an outline and I’ll think on it, think about the Bible passages I was to talk about; and as I think on them, I start to get thoughts that just pop into my mind and I’m like “Why didn’t I think of that?” God says “Because I didn’t tell you to think about it yet”. So, just in your thoughts, it doesn’t have to be a formal prayer, just in your thoughts, think about Him. Whatever verse you read that morning, just keep it in your mind, think on it, ponder it’s meaning throughout the day and how you can apply it. That’s how we talk to Him.

How do we listen to Him? To even understand what He’s saying, we have to know that He talks to us through His Word. He calls the Bible His Word for a reason. He doesn’t call it His Word just because it sounds nice. He calls it His Word because it is God speaking to you. So you have to be in His Word and you have to have it fresh in your mind. Now, I’m not saying you have to have the whole Bible fresh in your mind, but you have to have His Word fresh in your mind. I’ve talked before about doing a daily devotional, spending some time with Him. Having something daily that you read in the Word and having that fresh in your mind all day. Having His Word fresh in your mind throughout the day so that He can speak to you through that, that’s how He speaks to us. A lot of times, going back to having your thoughts on Him, I’ll have my daily devotional or my lesson verse on my mind and He’ll bring something into my mind, my thoughts will go to something completely different. But it’s because I had that open channel of communication with Him, I was listening to Him and I had His Word in my mind, that I was able to hear and understand what He wanted to say to me. Pray and read His Word, that’s how you build the relationship. God wants to be your best friend. God has a purpose for everyone of us. His desire is to have a personal relationship with us and to be present in our everyday lives. HE WANTS TO BE YOUR BEST FRIEND! I can’t say that enough. He wants to be your best friend. Not your rust friend. The true power of God is through being His best friend. Through reading His Word and prayer, we can bring ourselves into a relationship with God and that is How we realize the true ultimate purpose of our lives.