Friends and Friendship with God (Mission
“May 13, Sixth Sunday of Easter; Friends and Friendship with God
Cycle B. Readings:
1) Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
Psalm 98:1-4
2) 1 John 4:7-10
Gospel: John 15:9-17
Friendship. In the US
matters most in your life?” 95% answered what? Me.
make friends. With a click of button you can make friends. You can talk anytime
you want on your cell telephone. You have communication 24 hours a day. Yet the
greatest disease in our time is loneliness.
We are created for friendship. The whole point of life is friendship. We are created
for friendship with God. Adam and Eve walked with god in the cool of the day.
They had a deep friendship with Him.
God created everything as good. He created man and all the animals. Everything
was good. Then there was something not good. It was not good for man to be
alone. (Genesis 2:18)Therefore God made a helper a friend. Marriage is part of the
answer to loneliness but it’s not the most important answer. Because even in the
best marriage, couples can be lonely. What is the answer?
Friendship is the answer. Yet we know we need friendship but at the same time in
friendship we can hurt each other. We all want friends. We may be very lonely
because we don’t have friends. We all need help to understand what friendship
is. Jesus came to help us become true friends. He came to heal the broken
friendship with God. He came to heal the broken friendships we have with each
other. He came to restore our friendship with God and with each other. It is
amazing to me that Jesus had close friends. He loved everyone but had close
friends.
He had friend’s special friends. He had Martha, Mary, and Lazarus; He had Peter,
James and John. He said these words. One scripture scholar said these are the
most important words in John’s gospel. John 15.14.” I no longer call you servants
I call you friends.”
It is strange to say but we don’t really pay much attention to friendship do we? If it
is the main point of my life to have friendship in God then we must ask how I can
do this better. What does friendship mean with people? What does friendship
mean with God? These questions are good questions for all of us. Do you have
friends? Do you want friends? Do people just bother you? Do you think friendship
is an extra? I don‘t really need friends. You are wrong. You are not living a full
Christian life if you don’t have friends. Many people don’t think friendship is
important for life. They think friendship is optional. You can have friends if you
want. I choose not to have friends. That person will never know what love it. This
person will never really know how to trust. Because we learn trust when we trust .
When I lay my life down for another as Jesus says I learn to trust. Ask yourself
right now. Can you trust another person with your heart? Is there in your life such
a friend? If not you of course are going to be lonely. Friendship is a necessary part
of life. If we don’t have friends. We will always answer the question what is most
important in my life? ME ME ME. We won’t learn to love, or forgive which is the
two most important lessons we are required to learn in this life. IF you don’t have
friends you need to learn to open up and find friendship. If you are afraid to make
friends you need to ask God to heal you.
Do you realize that marriage is for this life only? The married couple says until
death do us part. Friendship is eternal. Let’s look at friendship with St Paul
Philippians is called a friendship letter. Paul says 2; 12 “So then dear friends…”
He is talking about friendship with his friends. He spoke to Timothy and
Epaphroditus. Timothy was like a son to Paul. And Epaphroditus a good local
friend. In this passage we see 3 ways to develop great friendships; friendship with
others and friendship with God. We can apply these principles at the end to our
relationship with god.
First look at vs.19-20. A friend really cares for you. love your friends
1st Corinthians 13:4-8 gives a clear picture of what the love of your friends should
look like.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It
is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always
protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails.
This is how real friendships are formed. When someone really shows he
cares. Friendship is about the other person. You need to be genuinely interested
in other people. It is better than trying to get people interested in you. You know
when someone is listening to you or not. You know when someone is really
interested in your problems or not. Everyone is like a deep well. The friendship
draws out what is in that person’s heart. You help the friend discover what is deep
in them. How are you? What is going on in your life? These are good questions
but then you must give time to listen. How to show you are a friend. One real way
is how we talk about people in general. Gossip destroys friendship and the person
who gossips will never know what friendship is. Proverbs 16:28 - “A perverse
man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.”. Friendship is about
loyalty. It is about keeping secrets. It is about not judging. It is about trust. If you
want to be a friend, my mom said you have to learn to play with their toys. You
must be willing to say they are more important than I am. Friendship helps us with
our loneliness. What is the best act of love we can show a friend? We can pray for
them.
Second look vs21.Help someone first. We are all born selfish. We think the
world is ours. We need to learn to share. We need to learn not to be selfish. Look
at two children with one toy. What happens? One of the children will not be able to
play. We teach our kids to share. And it is a lesson every day. That is why friends
help us to be less selfish. You say I am not selfish. OK. Here is a group photo.
What person do you look to find first? Why do we look so often in mirrors? To see
yourself. Friendship say here is the mirror let’s see how you look. Or friendship is
not looking at a mirror but through glass at each other. I see you first then I see
myself. The church should be a place where people can feel they are important.
That others care what they think and feel. It’s not easy. We hurt each other. We are
human beings and we hurt each other. I want a perfect church. Well join the
perfect church and it won’t be perfect anymore because you have just joined it. But
is how we deal with forgiveness. The Christian community must be place where
we constantly forgive and don’t hold onto to hurts. We have to do this over and
over again. Remember what I said last week. The person who is angry or offended
and holds on to these feelings is like the person who drinks poison and thinks the
other person is going to get sick. The other person does you but you do. LET GO
OF YOUR ANGER, AND OFFENSES AND BECOME FREE. Chapter 4;2.
Here is conflict in the church. These women are in the bible. That is amazing but
these women are in the bible for arguing. Fruit of the spirit is not love, joy, and
grudges. Only harms us.
The amazing truth when you ask forgiveness your will love more. When you have
a broken relationship and you ask forgiveness that relationship becomes stronger.
Do something for the gospel. Vs 22. “Two people are better off than one, for
they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and
help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble" (Ecclesiastes
4:9-10). Friendships come when you do something together. But a deeper
friendship is based doing good together. When someone is depressed I say go help
someone and your depression will be less. When you have a friend and you do
some good work together that friendship depends. How can I do this? Ask your
friend how can we love others in our friendship? Paul loves his friends and cares
about them. See verse 27. Do you know Christianity grew in the first century
because Christians helped the sick and the dying. No one else would help.
Christians said we will. Faith is to risk. Faith means to act. To love and to forgive
but also to do that with your hands and feet.
The Christian friendship says I give without asking something in return. The
world does not understand this. The world does not understand mercy. WE do so
we give what we receive away. If you forgive someone don’t expect for them to
necessarily forgive you. Do it without expectations. That is Christian friendship in
Jesus.
Jesus said I call you friends. He does and he helps us in our life to make friends .
How? Christianity is about trust; Christianity is about letting God lead you.
Christianity is about friendship. Jesus said I will be you friend if you trust me and
let me lead you.
Here are two different ways we can live. Let say you don’t know how to get to
Ola. And I know it is so hard to find. You ask someone and they draw you a map.
Now you know how to get to Ola. But say the person says I will ride with your and
show you the way. I will be next to you. I will tell where to turn and where the
most dangerous part of the journey is.
You not really don’t know where Ola is but you trust the person next to and
believe he will show you the way.
Christianity is letting Jesus into your life .
Christianity is letting him become the friend you trust and letting him in too all
your decisions.
But you say wont it better to have a map? One way you are directing your own life
and that leads to the loneliness. The other way God is and that leads to friendship.
Loneliness is a disease that can only be cured when we trust another and say come
into my life. I want you to show me the way.
Jesus said I am the way and he is. He is the way to true friendship with god and
each other.
CONCLUSION: Friends are God’s cure for loneliness. But to have good friends -
you’ve got to be a good friend.
1. Choose your friends
2. Love Your friends
3. Protect your friends
4. Correct your friends.”
Sursa : pagina web a Bisericii Nasterea Domnului Isus din Magadan, Mission
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