Mark of Spiritual Friendship ... A Friend Loves All the Time. July 27, 2024. Sermon by Carl Chin.
Willis left his farm, with a load of wheat, headed for the market. His wagon load turned over. A farmer close by saw Willis and the overturned wagon. "Hey Willis, forget about your troubles. Come have supper with us and then I will help you with your load."
"That is very nice", says Willis, "but I do not think my father will like me to." Willis smelled the food. "I guess I could but I don't think my dad would like this". Willis enjoyed the supper and thanked the farmer. "My dad is going to be very upset", Willis said.
"Where is your dad?", asked the farmer.
Willis answered, "under the wagon".
What is spiritual friendship?
We want to be good neighbours, and to be neighbourly. We have changed from a collective to a cocooned community. From the dining room to the living room. From fine food to fast food. People don't drop in to visit any more or call to say they are coming over. And generally we don't want people to just drop in.
We are desperately in need of community.
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong? (The Beatles)
Christians need community. The church is community. It is not God's plan for us to be alone or lonely.
And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Genesis 2:18
It is not good to be alone. God does not want us to be alone. God expects us to have friends and show friendship. We need people to show friendship to us and to befriend us.
There are seven principles of Spiritual friendship.
Spiritual friendship has consistency: A friend loves at all times,
And a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17. Can you depend on your friends and can they depend on you, even when it is not convenient? Donald went golfing with his friends. He had a fatal heart attack. Hs friends called 911. The golf course tried to call his wife. The workers put a sheet over him. While waiting his friends decided to continue playing 7 holes. One said "life goes on". Are friendships real or hollow? A prisoner, after being claiming he was innocent of a crime of homicide, acknowledged he did do it in a moment of passion and anger. Why did he not acknowledge it at first? He feared the loss of his friends.
"A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity". Proverbs 17:17.
We must be consistently counted on by our friends. Friendship includes mutual encouragement and support. Jackie Robinson, a famous baseball player, was best known as the first African American in a major league. On the field, he faced boos, insults and taunts. One game he came out of the dug out to first base. People in the crowd were booing and taunting loudly and unrelentingly. Pee Wee Reese called for a time-out, joined Jackie, put his arm around him and faced the crowd. The "fans" crew quiet. Jackie said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.
How often do we need friendship? We need a friend at big events in life and on miserable lousy days for no obvious reason, and everything in between. We need to encourage one another and build each other up. An article in Focus on the Family magazine focused on our need for a Christian buddy during hard times.
During the war in Vietnam, at an army officer school at Fort Benning, a sergeant told his pupils "the next 9 weeks will be the toughest". He went on to explain that this training was tough so lives could be saved. He explained they would face their greatest fears. Their first step was to find a buddy. These Ranger Buddies were never to leave to each other. They were to encourage each other, to be thee for each other.
"Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. ' Galatians 6:2
Two are better than one,
Because they have a good reward for their labor.
or 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.
Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm;
But how can one be warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.
And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Philippians 2:4 .
Two are better than one. We need friends.
Spiritual friendship has honesty, authenticity. It is real. It shows who you are and how you feel. Do we spend energy and time displaying something we are not to others? On holidays, away from home, we would say grace at at a restaurant but were conscientious of what others would think. Would they feel embarrassed? We observed a restaurant another guest say grace out loud, holding hands. We reflected why we were ashamed to do the same. Was it because we were ashamed to be different? In Europe we prayed grace at our meals. On the second day someone approached and asked if they could join us. On the 4th day two more couples joined us. We can stand up for who we are.
Sometimes we want to be seen as important. A Colonel moved into a makeshift office during the Iraq war. A soldier was coming his way. He wanted to establish his importance. He picked up the phone and started to talk and say Mr. President. He asked the young soldier, "what can I do for you?" The soldier responded that he was there to hook up the telephone.
Why do we put up these fronts?
Jesus admitted to his closest friends when he was struggling. " My soul is crushed in grief to the point of death". He was real, honest, even when in deepest despair.
"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." James 5:16
Are you ready to embrace spiritual friendship?
Spiritual friendship includes the presence of God. All kinds of organizations have community, but not all have the presence of God. Prison has community. A man was in prison for a long time. He developed relationships and friendships in prison. He was released. He missed his friends in prison. He no longer had friends outside prison. He went to a bank and asked a teller for all the money at the till. He then told her he would be in his car to smoke a cigarette. This is where the police found him. He simply wanted to go back to the only community he knew.
The community of a church is a much better place to find Christian friendship. It is good to be with friends. It is not good to be alone.
Why do we sometimes choose to be alone? Be someone's friend. If you have a friend who is there for you at all times, don't take it for granted. Appreciate them.