I am grateful for you, for the honor and privilege to share God's Word with you today.
I am so incredibly blessed.
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for everything and all things we praise You
For this congregation, today, I give thanks!
For this gathering today in Your name;
for hungry hearts and thirsty minds,
for the heavy-laden, the broken and the light-hearted,
for the fervent and the bored,
for those who come to give and those who only take,
for voices lifted in joy and for those with their mouths closed tight,
for the clear-eyed, the dry-eyed and those who's eyes are filled with tears,
for the faithful and the merely habitual,
for the new born babies in arms and seniors in wheelchairs,
I give thanks for each of those here today, of all ages worshiping gathered here today,
For those who are present,
For those joining by website and social media,
Gathered together, we are Your church
Lord, I pray for Your wisdom to interpret scripture,
the courage to speak the truth,
the ability to touch even the coldest hearts,
for patience when people won’t listen,
for kindness for those who irk me,
strength to shoulder difficult stories,
discretion to know when to speak,
self-control to remain silent,
hope in the face of hopelessness.
But above all these, Lord, give me sincere love for all your people
In Jesus' name
Amen
Ok, now that I've emptied my heart, I can be filled with the Holy Spirit..
Who's ready to hear a Word from God?
"A man who has friends must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."
Proverbs 18:24
Today's message, I want to talk about My Best Friend
"Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt."
1 Samuel 18:3-4
I don’t think there is a better example of friendship in the Bible than the friendship of Jonathon and David.
David is the one who as a boy killed the giant Goliath.
He also then fought and defeated many of Israel’s enemies..
Jonathon also was a great warrior. In 1 Samuel 14 we find him and his armor bearer fighting against an entire garrison of Philistine alone. Jonathon was kind of a tough dude.
Later on we read in 1 Samuel 20 that when Jonathon’s father King Saul wanted to kill David, that Jonathan risked his own life and reputation to help David escape unharmed.
Saul hated David because the people loved David.
They made songs about David.
They would say, “Saul has killed his thousands, but David his 10 thousands.”
Saul was jealous of David.
Saul feared the popularity of David.
And Jonathon, being the Kings son would be the next to sit on the throne.
It was a sure thing
The eldest son of the king always became his successor to the throne.
And there was nothing stopping this from happening except for one thing.
David.
The people loved David
And only thing Saul could do to defend his throne was to Kill David.
But Jonathon and David’s friendship was bigger than the throne.
Neither of these two great friends would allow something as simple as a throne to stand in the way of their friendship.
‘Who was going to be king’ didn’t enter the equation when it came to their love for one another.
So in 1 Samuel 20 we find Jonathon risking his own life to help David.
Realizing full well that the man he was helping to escape Saul’s death sentence may take the throne in his place,
Jonathan implements a plan to help David escape Saul’s rage unharmed.
Friendship
Baltasar Grecian a Spanish Philosopher who lived in the early 1600s said…
“True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island... to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.”
As much as a relationship between family members can be incredibly powerful, a true friendship can be an amazing bond because it’s a relationship of choice.
Real friends…
Face problems together.
They give what they can because they truly care
They make time for each other.
They offer each other freedom.
They communicate compassionately and effectively
They accept each other as is and help you to become better
They are genuine, and expect genuineness.
They sacrifice and compromise.
They support each other’s growth changes.
They believe in each other, even when you don't believe in yourself.
They maintain realistic expectations of their relationship.
They honor each other in small ways on a regular basis.
They listen
They keep their promises.
They show up when all others have left and they stick around.
In Genesis 18:17-33, we read about God sharing His intentions with Abraham. Abraham responds by telling God his own thoughts and feelings about the situation. God and Abraham are able to do this because they trust and respect each other.
In 1 Samuel 20, it focuses on the friendship of David and Jonathan. These two men truly cared for each other and had great trust and confidence in one another. David was running for his life from Jonathan's father, Saul. Jonathan recognized that David was innocent. Because of the true friendship they shared, David survived Saul's assassination attempts and went on to become one of Israel's greatest kings.
Real and true friendship involves freedom of choice, accountability, truth, and forgiveness. Peter and Jesus give us this example: Peter, afraid for his life after Jesus is led away from the Garden of Gethsemane, denies knowing Jesus, John 18. As He is led away by His accusers, Jesus casts a look toward Peter that says, "I knew you would deny Me, and I forgive you", John 21.
Once two friends argued, and one of them slapped another.
The man felt a pain, but said nothing and simply wrote in the sand:
Today my best friend slapped me.
They continued walking and found an oasis, in which they decided to swim.
The one who had been slapped, started to sink, but his friend saved him.
When he regained consciousness, he wrote on the stone: "Today my best friend saved my life."
The friend, who both slapped and saved his friend’s life, asked of him:
When I hurt you, you wrote on the sand and now you are writing on the stone. Why?
His friend said:
When someone hurts us, we should write it on the sand, so that the wind could erase it.
But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it on the stone, so that the wind can not erase it.
Real friendship looks at the heart, not just the "packaging."
Genuine friendship loves for love's sake, not just for what it can get in return.
True friendship is both challenging and exciting.
Isn't that true?
It risks, it overlooks faults, and it loves unconditionally, but it also involves being truthful, even though it may hurt.
Genuine friendship, also called "agape" love, comes from the Lord.
The Lord Jesus calls us His friends and He laid down His life for us, John 15
God's Word tells us that a friend sticks closer than a brother.
Hebrews 13:5 tells us that Jesus said, “I’ll never leave your or forsake you.”
Jesus is that friend that sticks closer than a brother.
He is that one that you can talk to when you can’t talk to anyone else.
He will listen when no one will listen.
He’s there when no one else is there.
Understand - A best friend is the only one that walks into your life when the world has walked out.
You know, if you're like me, sometimes in life it feels like no on cares.
Sometimes it feels like no one understands.
Sometimes it seems like no one gets you, but understand this today,
“…there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.”
There is a song sang by many of God's people, I Am A Friend Of God.
one of the verses says, “He calls me friend.”
Proverbs 18:24 lets us know that if we want to have friends, we have to “be friendly to other people."
Friendship takes time:
Time to get to know each other,
Time to build shared memories,
Time to invest in each other's growth.
True friendship requires certain accountability factors.
Real friends encourage one another and forgive one another where there has been an offense.
Genuine friendship supports during times of struggle.
Friends are dependable.
In true friendship, unconditional love develops.
We love our friends no matter what and we always want the best for our friends.
James 2:23 tells us that Abraham was called a Friend Of God.
Evidently, Abraham was friendly to God.
So what does that mean?
That means he wasn’t wishy washy in his relationship with God.
He wasn’t one-way one day and another way the next.
Abraham took his relationship with God seriously.
God wasn’t just some sugar daddy who Abraham went to when he went and prayed to when he needed something.
He was a friend that Abraham spoke to all the time.
God was someone that Abraham worshiped in spite of the situations of his life.
His relationship with God was not a forced relationship, but it was a bond of choice that resulted in one of the deepest friendships between God and man that the Bible ever recorded.
"What is true friendship according to the Bible?"
Answer: John 15:13: Jesus gave us the definition of a true friend:
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
What we know about Jesus Christ today is that he did indeed lay down his life for you and I.
What held him to that cross was not the nails in his hands and feet, but it was the love that he had for you and I.
Greater love hath no man…
One of the things you and I can rest in when this world seems bent on destroying us is this,
“I am a friend of God and He loves me!”
“He loves me so much that He gave His life for me.”
You can’t tell anyone you love them more than that.
You can’t repay someone when they have given you their life.
All you can do is love them back.
The title of my message today is My Best Friend.
Who is your best friend today?
I know we all have friends and even what we would consider best friends, but what about Him?
Have we considered what He has done for us to show us His willingness and desire to be our Best Friend?
Some think of God as some mean and vengeful judge up in the sky somewhere, who doesn't care about what is happening to us, when in fact, in reality He is indeed our greatest hope of a Best Friend.
Who else could say…
Ask and it shall be given
Seek and ye shall find
Knock and the door shall be opened.
You and I have a direct line of communication with God and that is because He considers us His friends if we would just love Him.
And all that He asks in return, is for us to just love Him back.
And like all forms of love, it cannot be forced, it must be given freely, willingly.
"But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
"We love him, because he first loved us."
1 John 4:19
And how do we know he loved us?
Because he laid down his life for us.
Now THAT’S a friend!
That's someone you can count on.
That's someone who will be there for you when you need them to be.
That's a True Best Friend.
This friend says to you today…
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
Let me introduce you today to My Best Friend...
His name... Is Jesus Christ
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries