Ye Are My Friends

Proverbs 18:24
John 15:12-17

We all have friends - some folks we call friends, some we call associates.  But everybody needs a friend.  We have some friends that are good friends; someone that if you call them they will get up out of bed and come and see about you.  If you’re fortunate, you have some friends like that.

There was a fellow that used to work out here about 4 or 5 years ago.  He called me early one morning.  He lived in Boligee and he was up here to help his nephew out.  He and his wife left in a hurry and his wife forgot her purse.

They were up here without any money and when he got here he realized he didn’t have enough gas to make it back to Boligee.  So what did he do? He called me.  His wife asked him “Honey what are we going to do?” He was looking through his wallet and found a little card that I gave him, so he said “I’m going to call Mr. Tucker”.   He called me about 2:15 in the morning, on Saturday morning.  I got up out of my bed and went to help him out.  To make a long story short, I was able to bless that brother.  It’s about being able to be a friend - somebody you can turn to, somebody you can call on.

As I said, we all have friends. This is what Solomon is writing about in Proverbs.  He’s talking about a “friend that sticks closer than a brother”.  Some of us may not have brothers.  I have biological brothers and I have friends I would consider my brothers – people that I feel would be there.

But there comes a time in life when you can’t call that person - when you can’t get up with that brother. I don’t care if he is a biological brother or a brother of faith but there is a time when you might not be able to get up with them. But it tells us there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother and we know who that friend is - Jesus.

We can turn to him even when the cell phones don’t work. When we can’t reach our friends any other way we can turn to this friend.

Jesus was talking to his disciples in John 15:12, saying “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  Now there are some stipulations here. Jesus says you are my friends “if you do what I command you”. 

Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

Why did he make it known unto them – why did he tell them this?  Because they were no longer servants, they were friends.  He wants His friends to know the things that they need to know. 

Look carefully at the scripture: Jesus says “You are my friend if you do what I command, and He says “These things I command you that you love one another”.  The bottom line is if you’re going to be a friend of His; if you’re going to be a friend of mine you’ve got to love me.  And, I’ve got to love you.  I might not love what you do.  I might not like the way you act, but I’ve got to love you.

Jesus laid down His life not just for those 12 disciples that he was ministering to but the bible says God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.  Not only did he lay down his life for them but he laid it down for the world.  He even laid it down for those guys in the Middle East raising all that hell, ISIS.  He laid his life down so that they can come to the saving grace of Jesus Christ right now.  I don’t care what a person has done or where a person has been.  They can come to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. 

You know you have a friend when you see that he really truly loves you.  One that will encourage you.  One that will help you if you are struggling, and we all struggle in life.  We struggle with relationships, our family, our children.  A friend is one that will put an arm around you and say “Hey man, it will be all right, and I’m praying with you.  I’m standing in the gap for you.  I’m just believing God that He will take you through this thing, man. Be encouraged.”

A friend is one that is going to encourage you, will help push you on when others are standing around laughing at you. When others are saying “Ha ha, look at him” a friend will put his arm around you and say “Hey, I know you’re going through some tough times; I know you’re having some problems, but it’s all going to work out. I’m praying for you.”

In Jesus, we have a friend we can call on regardless as to what time of day or night; regardless of what we might be experiencing in this life, my brothers and my sister, we can call on him and He will come and see about you.

I do the bible study at church every Wednesday  and a couple weeks ago I told those that were there to make a circle.  I told them that as we joined hands we would pray for the Pastor and pray for each and every member in this church.  I encouraged them to visualize that those we prayed for were in that circle.  I also led them in prayer for those brothers and sisters that have backslidden and asked them to visualize them in this circle with us; I told them we would plead the blood of Jesus over them as we joined hands and prayed.

Then Sunday I was at church and there was a sister who came and she said that she had been out of church for a while and she was coming back to recommit her life to the lord. It made me felt so good! I even told her, I said I don’t know you but we’ve been praying that God would draw His people back into the fold.  There are a lot of people with “church hurt”. You know what I mean by church hurt? Folks in the church have hurt them or put them down and they strayed away.  But my prayer is that they’ll come back into the fold. Because as the old folks used to say “It’s getting late in the evening and the sun is going down.”  Meaning that time is running out for all of us.

Jesus said, You are my friends.  Jesus stands ready even now, ready to be your friend.  Reach out and take hold of His nail scarred hand.
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~J. T.