Friend Part 2
As Christians, we should know that Jesus is our friend, but we also need to make sure that we introduce the surrounding people to Him. One of the talks in a Christian weekend retreat that I work with on occasion, says “Make a friend, be a friend, and bring that friend to Jesus.”
I have this penned in the back of my Bible
“If I just do my thing and you do yours, we stand in danger of losing each other and ourselves, we are fully ourselves only in relation to each other, and the “I” detached from the “thou,” is disintegrating. I do not find you by chance, I find you by an active life of reaching out” by Walter Tubbs
Did Jesus not say in Mark 16:15 …” Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. NKJV
All the world and let everyone as you come in contact with them know about Jesus. As it has been said, “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
I love the Randy Newman song for “Toy Story”:
“You’ve Got A Friend in Me”.
You’ve got a friend in me, You’ve got a friend in me,
When the road looks rough ahead, And you’re miles and miles,
From your nice warm bed, You just remember what your old pal said,
Boy, you’ve got a friend in me, Yeah, you’ve got a friend in me.
You’ve got a friend in me, You’ve got a friend in me,
You’ve got troubles, I’ve got ’em too, There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you,
We stick together and we see it through, Cause you’ve got a friend in me,
You’ve got a friend in me.
Some other folks might be A little bit smarter than I am,
Bigger and stronger too, Maybe,
But none of them will ever love you, The way I do,
It’s me and you, boy.
And as the years go by, Our friendship will never die,
You’re gonna see it’s our destiny, You’ve got a friend in me,
You’ve got a friend in me, You’ve got a friend in me.
The word friend is found some 58 times in the NKJV, 22 of those are in the New Testament. Jesus used the word 14 of those 22 times.
Why does one need a friend, Solomon said in Ecclesiastes that two is better than one, and we need to make sure the one with our one is the one that God desires for us to have in our lives.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (NKJV) 9 Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. 11 Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? 12 Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
I saw this and was compelled to add it to this chapter;
“It occurred to Pooh and Piglet that they hadn’t heard from Eeyore for several days, so they put on their hats and coats and trotted across the Hundred Acre Wood to Eeyore’s stick house. Inside the house was Eeyore.
“Hello Eeyore,” said Pooh.
“Hello, Pooh. Hello Piglet,” said Eeyore, in a Glum Sounding Voice.
“We just thought we’d check in on you,” said Piglet, “because we hadn’t heard from you, and so we wanted to know if you were okay.”
Eeyore was silent for a moment. “Am I okay?” he asked, eventually. “Well, I don’t know, to be honest. Are any of us really okay? That’s what I ask myself. All I can tell you, Pooh and Piglet, is that right now I feel really rather Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. Which is why I haven’t bothered you. Because you wouldn’t want to waste your time hanging out with someone who is Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All, would you now.”
Pooh looked at Piglet, and Piglet looked at Pooh, and they both sat down, one on either side of Eeyore in his stick house.
Eeyore looked at them in surprise. “What are you doing?”
“We’re sitting here with you,” said Pooh, “because we are your friends. And true friends don’t care if someone is feeling Sad, or Alone, or Not Much Fun to Be Around At All. True friends are there for you anyway. And so here we are.”
“Oh,” said Eeyore. “Oh.” And the three of them sat there in silence, and while Pooh and Piglet said nothing at all; somehow, almost imperceptibly, Eeyore started to feel a very tiny little bit better.
Because Pooh and Piglet were There.
No more; no less.”
(A.A. Milne, E.H. Shepard)
We must be very careful not only to whom we call friends but to whom we let in our life as a friend.
I like what a young preacher in our Church once said in one of his first sermons, and that is if you take a white glove and put it on your hand and then submerge that hand in mud, the glove gets muddy. It is never said that the mud got glovie. (I know that glovie is not a word, but do you get the point.)
So, we need to be very careful who we accept as a real friend, if the person brings you down, and takes you away from the ones that once lifted you. If that person takes you places that you once would not go it would hurt your testimony. If that person uses language that brings dishonor to God and makes you look cheap. So, if that person has more influence on you. Then you start emulating them instead of representing Christ. There should be warning horns going off big time in your heart and mind. You should step back and look and see if you are getting muddy or if they are getting “glovie.” My bet is the mud is winning, if you step back from real friends and start following this kind of people you are not doing them any good, and you are not doing you any good either.
Well, Jesus hung out with sinners and bad people. Yes, He did, and he showed them love and brought them around to His way, by the example that He led. Not by acting like them. I am not saying you cannot have bad people in your life as friends, I am saying do not let them lead you away from the witness that took you years to build up. Satan would have nothing better than to tear you down.
Remember “Make a friend, be a friend, and bring that friend to Jesus.” Not make a friend, be a friend, and let that friend take you away from Jesus.
So, here is the question, are you getting muddy, or are the ones you are hanging with getting “glovie?” If you are a Christian and you allow someone to take you down the wrong road, and you are allowing them to tear down the witness that God had in you then I say it is time to do as Joshua said in the book that carries his name:
Joshua 24:15 (NKJV) 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
You must choose whether to follow God or follow the world! Sometimes the one that is leading you down the wrong road may be waiting for you to make a stand and say NO, I’m going to follow God. Just so they can see if this Christian stuff is real in your life and if, so then they may want to follow Christ themselves.
James 4:4 (NKJV) … 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.
As I have said in the past and am sure I will say again and again. When God is talking about neighbors and friends, I don’t think he is talking about what kind of friend you have but what kind of friend your friend has namely YOU. Are you loving that friend enough to say to them, I will serve the LORD! Do you love them enough to let them leave, because Jesus did? He gives us a choice, to love them and live for Him and lead them out of hell. Or watch them go on their way while destroying your testimony and your witness.
I beg you to love them enough to bring them to Christ. “Make a friend, be a friend, and bring that friend to Jesus.” That is real love. They are worth your love, but not at the expense of taking away the love you once had for God and his word.
Let them see the Love of the Lord in you and they may just want it too. It has been my experience that most people living a Godless life are looking for something or someone and I promise you that something is God himself and that someone is you showing them the Love of God.
I heard a preacher say once that he could tell the ones not as close to God as they once were. They were in the Church down front, then about halfway back in the Church, and then in the back, and then in the overflow, and then they were gone. It is always gradual. One small step at a time away from Christ and for every step you take away it is one more step closer to Satan and his way of life, which leads to destruction.
I once had a great quiet time and now my time is quiet. I once went to Church religiously (did you see what I did there?) now my religion is anything except Christ. I once went to Sunday School or Small Group and now I am in places that I know that God is heartbroken over. Does He stop loving you? NEVER!!! But there will come a time when someone who once watched how much you loved God and how you would not compromise your belief in Him. They are seeing something different, and they may say if that is Christianity, I want no part of it. Is your moment of enjoyment worthy of their soul?
As I stated at the beginning, I have several people that I know, but I only have a few people that I call Friends.
The classic 1993 Western Tombstone is full of memorable quotes from Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the infamous Cowboys of Southern Arizona. After a major shootout at the river, our heroes are regathering themselves, and Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) walks over to the side of the river leans over, and coughs, and Cactus Jack Johnson (Buck Taylor) Says, “Doc what are you doing out here, you should be in bed,” in which Doc’s reply was, “Wyatt Earp is my friend.” Then Cactus Jack said, “I got lots of friends,” here is where I can relate to Doc because he said, “I don’t.”
God calls everyone his friend. Are you in need of a friend let me tell you where to get a friend.
Proverbs 18:24 (NKJV) A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Can we find a friend so faithful? Whom will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; Are we weak and heavy-laden? Cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge—Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer! In His arms, He’ll take and shield thee. Thou wilt find a solace there. Blessed Savior. Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear; May we ever, Lord, be bringing All to Thee in earnest prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful? Yes, His name is Jesus!!
I hope and pray that the ones who call me a friend and that I live up to their expectation. I hope that when my name is spoken people can say he is my friend.
I hope that I follow the example set before me in Christ Jesus.
I hope if you ever have called me a friend you still can.
But I know me, I know that I have let people down, and I know that I probably have said or done something that I shouldn’t have said or done. And hope and pray that my friends can forgive me and that I can forgive my friends who have let me down.
I was recently removed from a post and blocked from adding anything to the page on Facebook. The post was my home Church that I have been a part of since I was five years old, at the time of this writing I was sixty-one. So, I was not happy, it wasn’t anything bad I posted it was just an old picture of the Church and I said I miss that, Church. After I put a rebuttal on my personal Facebook page and about 50 people commented on my post, I received a message apologizing and said the block was removed and ended by saying “God bless my friend.” I do not know who misinformed the person writing me that we were friends, because we are not. I have never talked to the man who messaged me. We are not friends, not my definition of a friend. We think because we add the word friend that makes us friends. But in my book, it does not.
The example that is set before us is Jesus himself. He forgave us even before we let him down and keeps loving us anyway. Let us try to live that way and remember:
“Make a friend, be a friend, and bring that friend to Jesus.”
