What Does The Bible Say About Friendship?

hey what's up guys faster fired here and you're watching this week's ten minute message designed to help you grow on the go and this week's theme is the subject of friendship new studies have come out that shows the average American only has one true friend that's why this study is so important for us well the American Sociological Society came out with the study last year and what they discovered is that the average American only has one true friend not people on Facebook or through social media we're not talking about co-workers or people you have different hobbies with we're talking about real friends true friends people that you can open up to trust confide in share the most inner parts of who you are take off the mask and just be honest with the average American really only has one true friend and we would think that with social media and YouTube and Facebook and Instagram and that we would become more connected but what research is showing over and over again is that we're becoming more disconnected more lonely more isolated than we ever have in the history of society and so that really begs the question what does the Bible have to say about friendship and what does this mean for us as a church you know I think about our church where we have about 300 people between three services on any given Sunday and what that means to me as a pastor is that every single week people are walking through the doors of our church they're checking their kids in lifting their hands for worship they're sitting under the sermon tour taking communion receiving prayer and then going home and they still feel lonely because the truth is is we don't really have a lot of friends so what does the Bible have to say about the subject of friendship you know we talk a lot about theology but we don't really talk a lot about friendship we talk a lot about doctrine but we don't really talk a lot about friendship and as I was preparing for this study and I was going through the library at my house I have about 500 books but it was interesting that I don't really have any books over the subject of friendship and I've preached a lot of sermons but I don't really think I've preached the sermon over the subject of friendship and so let's go to the Bible let's see what the Bible actually has to say about friendship and you know to be honest the whole Bible really is a book about friendship it's one of the major themes that we find in the Bible which is really why it's so confusing that the church doesn't really talk a lot about the subject of a friendship because if we just start in the book of Genesis we really begin to see this theme of friendship begin to unfold I mean Genesis 1:1 the beginning right and we see that in the beginning God put a pause right there and just think about it before the beginning there was God before time and energy and existence before all of those things God God he existed and some people say that God made mankind because he was lonely or because he needed a friend or because he just wanted somebody that's actually not sure within the Trinity we know what's called the the friendship of God that's what we see that God is one God three persons Father Son Holy Spirit there's mutual relationship adoration worship communion community and there's a friendship that God the Father his friends with God the Son God the son is friends with God the Spirit God the spirit his friends with the father and the spirit in the son they're all friends there's a perfect friendship designed within the Trinity that the very nature and essence of God is that of a friend and so whenever God made mankind he didn't make us because he wanted a friend he's perfectly satisfied within himself but he wanted to share this friendship with us that's the reason that he made men and what God made everything he said it is good everything except for man because it's not good for man to be alone so you're designed you're gonna be needing a friends for life and so God created mankind to be first in friendship with him and then also to be in friendship with one of the first friendship was a marriage because your spouse is to be your best friend and just think about this this is one of the things that really differentiates humanity from every other aspect of creation that plants and animals and stars and moons and mountains well they don't they don't need friends okay animals they don't need friends I know you think dog is man's best friend okay well dogs existed for thousands of years before mankind even began to domesticate them dogs aren't necessary and lick themselves that's not a good good friend that's a dog to pet but it's not what a friend is supposed to be we need people in our lives to fill that role of friend we were made to be friends with God and we were also made to be friends with one another God would walk with Adam and Eve he would spend time with Adam and Eve he would talk with them and that was the essence of their friendship and you think Byron that's amazing we were made for friendship well then how come I don't have any friends where's everybody at what went wrong in the world the answer is sin that sin came in and sin ruined everything that Adam and Eve they sin they fell they rebelled they separate themselves from God and that's exactly what send us sin separates separates you from God but it also separates you from other people this is why when somebody lies about you cheats on you steals from you this is why when somebody fails you sins against you what happens the the friendship it becomes broken and here's what you need to know that sin is not just the breaking of the law sin is also the breaking of a friendship since the reason that there's war and injustice and famine and death and plagues and sin is also the reason why it's so hard for us to have a friend to be a friend and to trust and other people as friends because we're all sinners and we've all been sinned against and so friendship becomes very complicated well what does God do in Genesis whenever Adam and Eve they break the friendship he goes to reconcile that friendship he goes to them and he makes him a promise that from the seed of the woman is going to come one who's going to reconcile the friendship with God and the friendship with one another and so the Bible really begins with this promise of friendship and we see it play throughout all of the scripture in Genesis 9 we meet a man named Abraham who receives favor from God and God says that Abraham was a friend of God we see that in the book of Exodus as God sends Moses to deliver his people in Exodus 33 it says that God would meet with Moses face to face just like a friend we see it with a man named David who writes the Psalms he's a worshipper and a murderer he's a man after God's own heart but he also has a very divided heart he writes a book of the Bible called Psalms and in Psalms he talks about how through the Covenant through the loving-kindness passion do the promise of God we have a friendship and then we see the promise fulfilled with Jesus as Jesus is fully God fully man he comes to reconcile the relationship between God and with man he comes to bring true friendship to the world and the first thing that Jesus does is he calls twelve men to come and follow him and to be his friends see Jesus knew the importance of friendship jesus knew that life was hard that he was gonna be you know betrayed and he was gonna be lied about cheated on he knew that he was going to be you know beaten and mocked and spit on and murdered and ultimately crucified and he knew that if he wanted to do the things that God had for him to do then he was gonna need some friends and just think about it if Jesus being fully God fully man also needed friends how much more important is friendships for people like you and me and so Jesus he lives the perfect life he's surrounded by friends and they let him down and they fail him but he comes to show us what true friendship actually looks like and then after his death burial resurrection he ascends to the right of the Father and then he gives us the Holy Spirit the church explodes in the book of Acts it really is a book about friendship not only friendship between the Apostles and the church they the churches they plant but it's also a story of friendship between the Holy Spirit and the church how the spirits blessing loving encouraging strengthening forming the local church because the Spirit is friends with the church and then as we go forward to the book of Revelation at the very end of all of human history when everything unfolds Jesus returns writes all of the wrongs he forgives and pardons all sins Satan's destroyed at the very end of your Bible Jesus sits down he prepares a big table and guess who's at that table all of his friends Jesus prepares a meal he prepared there's a table he has dinner with his friends and this echoes all the way back to the very beginning in the book of Genesis where God designed us for friendship both with him and with one another Jesus comes as the full promise of that reconciled relationship that in very ends we're gonna be friends friends with God and also for insta there so it's in the beginning and it's in the end and it runs all throughout the Bible and then right in the middle of your Bible there's a book called proverbs and one of the massive themes through the book of Proverbs is the subject of wisdom for friendship so we see that this theme is so important for God and so it should be so important for us and here's the reason why is because as a church we should be the place where people go to to see what real true genuine friendship looks like and just think about it everywhere you go and everywhere you everyone you meet well they're struggling to know what friends are one american has a friend okay just think about that out of all of the people in our nation in our country people feel alone people feel isolated people feel insecure and they don't really feel like they have anyone that they can call a friend but in the Bible we see that God's people are supposed to be who those who people come to learn to see what a real true friendship looks like and so we're gonna continue this week looking at the subject of friendship I hope you enjoyed this week's ten minute message it was just a big overview but I hope it was a blessing and an encouragement to you if you enjoyed it click subscribe like comment share help get the word out invite a friend to watch it with you and I'll catch you next time on the ten minute message

Channel: Redemption Church

Views: 21,138

Rating: 4.9395971 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: kcW5NmapQno

Length: 10min 49sec (649 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2019