Friendship 预览

You Are a Friend

I want to finish this plan with four points that Christ showed us in His friendships that we can do in our friendships as well. 

Number one: Compassion. The more you know and reflect Jesus Christ, the more compassionate you will be towards others. Whether you befriend saints or sinners, you will be able to come around them with compassion, not judgment. Jesus looked out on the crowds with compassion.

Number two: Conversation. Jesus had deep and meaningful conversations with others. As we grow in our relationship with Christ, and we have Christian friends and friends who do not know Christ, we should be able to ask others how they are doing. It is ok to interact with each other on a surface level, but we should be able to have real conversations, ones that touch the soul. We should be able to build one another up. 

Number three: Be loyal. If we walk with Jesus as our Friend, we’re going to be loyal friends. When you text somebody who is going through a hard time and tell them you are praying for them, or you get a cup of coffee with a friend, you are a loyal friend at that moment.  We have all gone through difficult times. If you run in when it feels like everybody else is running out? That makes a huge difference.

Number four: Growth. If you are walking with Jesus as your number one friend, then there’s going to be growth in your life of being a friend. The people you interact with in your friendships should also be motivating you to grow. You should have friends in your life that challenge you to be better. My wife and I will sometimes be around older couples and say, “Let’s be like them.” 

Jesus loves the saints, the sinners, the crowds, and the close. He wants to be your Friend. When I came to know Christ as my Savior at 16 years old, I had all these friends and was so worried that the Lord would take my friends away. But I took that step and believed that there was a Silver Dollar there. I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, and 31 years later, I want you to know that I did lose some friends. You are not going to walk with God and not lose some people along the way. But let me tell you, those friends that I lost were probably not going to stick around anyway. I almost got off of not walking with God because I wanted to keep this crew together that—guess what?—wasn’t going to stay together anyway. 

Trust Jesus because He is your friend. He will give you the strength and ability to be a friend to others. Allow God to do His work. People need friends. You need friends. We have to be able to walk these things out as followers of Jesus Christ. 

Please look for the next plan of the Follower Series called: Lamb of God.

We adapted this plan from https://houstonsfirst.org/message/friendship-1#