Friendships are fantastic aren’t they? But how often do we come at this whole friendship thing with a rank consumer mindset – asking what’s in it for me? May be the question we need to be asking is … what sort of a friend am I?   The Friend Who Failed We have been chatting these last few weeks about the whole subject of friendship. It isn’t something we talk about that often; it’s something we kind of … I don’t know, take for granted. And yet friendship, relationship, love, sacrifice are at the very centre of God’s plan for this world. As we have seen over these last few weeks, God looked at Adam when He created him and He said, "Hey, it’s not good that this man should be alone. I’ll make him a helper as his partner." Why? Because you and I are made in the image of God – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – three persons in one God; a God of relationship and community and of love for all eternity. I have heard some people postulate that the reason God created us – you and me – was that He got lonely. God was never lonely because God is three persons in one and that’s a mystery that I think we will spend the rest of eternity wrapping our minds around. No, God created us so that He could show us His great love; so that we could behold His glory. That’s why God created us. And He created us in His image. Genesis chapter 1, verses 26 and 27: God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” So God created man in his image; in the image of God he created us, male and female he created us. See, we have been created in the image of a relational God, “… male and female he created us.” But although we are created in His image, there is one big difference between us and God … one difference that God allowed to happen in order that we should have a free will – either to love Him or not to love Him – for without freewill, love can’t be love. As A.W. Tozer writes in his book, “The Pursuit of God”: You and I are in little (our sins excepted) what God is in large. Being made in His image we have within us the capacity to know Him. In our sins we simply lack the power. You see, our sin is what sets us apart from God, in more ways than one. And our sin means that our capacity for love and friendship and relationship is marred; twisted and often perverted. That’s why people have arguments and disagreements. That’s why marriages fall apart. That’s why beatings happen. That’s why exploitation happens. That’s why wars happen. Because through our rebellion against God – and that’s precisely what sin is – we lose the ability to live together, to work together, to honour one another in perfect love and perfect relationships, as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit honour and love one another in the perfect relationship that we call “God”. You see this time and time again throughout the Bible. Over the past few weeks we have talked a lot about the friendship between Jonathan – King Saul’s son – and the heir to the throne of Israel, David. Now Jonathan eventually gave his life in order to be David’s friend but only because Saul’s sense of friendship and loyalty became so twisted and so perverted and so jealous that he set his heart on killing David, whom God Himself had chosen to be the next king after Saul. Why? Because Saul was jealous of David’s success and popularity. Have a listen to this – First Samuel chapter 18, beginning at verse 5: David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him; as a result, Saul set him over the army. And all the people, even the servants of Saul, approved. As they were coming home, when David returned from killing the Philistine, the women came out of all the towns of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. And the women sang to one another as they made merry, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” Saul was very angry, for this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David tens of thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands; what more can he have but the kingdom?” So Saul eyed David from that day on. The next day an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand; and Saul threw the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice. Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence, and made him a commander of a thousand; and David marched out and came in, leading the army. David had success in all his undertakings; for the Lord was with him.” Do you see how our own selfishness and pride and anger, births something in our hearts that unlocks a powerful evil in the spiritual dimension? Do you see how our sinful nature and our thoughts can lead to a breakdown in God’s perfect plan for perfect love and unity and friendship? See, this is why friends fail; this is why sometimes people turn against us – because their sinful thoughts and desires have unlocked a spirit of evil that grips them and leads them to sinful acts. And whilst we might say, "Well, yea, right, this is a bit extreme here. I have never tried to kill anyone with my spear before today," have a listen to another example – a much more recent one. One that happened about a thousand years later after this Saul/David incident, in the first century AD; one that a few of us may well relate to just a bit more closely. It comes from the Book of Acts chapter 15, beginning at verse 32: Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. After they had been there for some time, they were sent off in peace by the believers to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, and there, with many others, they taught and proclaimed the word of the Lord. After some days, Paul said to Barnabas, “Come, let us return and visit the believers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to take with them John also called Mark. But Paul decided not to take with them one who had deserted them in Pamphylia and who had not accompanied them in the work. This disagreement became so sharp that they parted company; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and set out, the believers commending him to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.” You know what we have just witnessed there? The very first church split. Paul and Barnabas had this big argument and they went their separate ways. Let me ask you – can you imagine God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit doing that? Nooooo! But Paul and Barnabas did – even though they had been through a huge amount together in ministry already, in the name of the Lord. Why? Why didn’t they go to God and ask God to reveal what they should do and which way they should go and whom they should take? Perhaps God wanted them to go their separate ways. So why didn’t they figure that out and do that in love? Why did they have to have an argument? Why did they have to have a fight? Because we as friends, sometimes get on our high horses and we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. See, friends are supposed to make us stronger. Friends encourage us; friends help us … friends help us see when we are...

Released on 17 Jan 2021