God Is Our Friend

We'll hear from a local coder in our congregation, Mr. Greg Thomas.

Well, thank you, Mr. Henderson, and good afternoon, brethren. Welcome to Sabbath Services. And whoever put this light up here in this podium, God bless you. It makes all the difference in the world. Thank you for that.

Well, we're here in God's Sabbath day, and we all know of God by many important titles. We find in the book of Genesis, for example, that God is our Creator, that He's our Maker. We find in the book of Psalms that He is our Lord. We find in the book of Revelation that He is our Judge. We find in the New Testament Gospels that He is our Master.

We find that He's our Redeemer. We find through the words of Jesus that He's our Father. We find through the words of Paul that God is our Savior. But there is a relationship that God offers us that is far more rewarding and far more fulfilling than the titles that I have just mentioned. The title that God offers us, a very special relationship that He offers us, that He's always willing in His part, is that He wants every one of us to be His friend.

Now, when we hear that, our normal human instinct is to resist that, because who would want to be our friend? You might be saying to yourself right now, Mr. Thomas, sometimes I don't even like myself as a friend. Why would God want to be my friend? How could the omnipotent, awesome Creator of the universe, who holds all power and majesty and glory and might, why would He want to be my friend? Well, you might be surprised, but that's the context of our sermon today. That's what we'll be discussing, the fact that God wants to be, yearns to be, longs to be, not just the many titles that I mentioned earlier, including Father, which is a very powerful relationship, but He wants to be our friend.

Turn with me, if you would, to Isaiah 41. We'll begin today by looking at a scripture in which God mentions a relationship He had with a man who walked on the earth that He considered a friendship. The man, of course, was Abraham. It's going to say here in this scripture, as we already know and we could find out in Genesis if we looked at it, that Abraham was God's friend. Isaiah 41.8 The prophet Isaiah wrote, But you, Israel, are my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham my friend. So God had a friendship.

He had a relationship with Abraham. Verse 9, You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and this is a prophecy, and called from the farthest regions and said to you, you are my servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

And he would do all of these things for the descendants of Abraham, because Abraham was his friend. So God here clearly refers to Abraham as his friend. You might say, well, what does that have to do with me? Abraham was someone special. Well, like you, Abraham had flaws. I could right now divert this sermon, and we could examine the book of Genesis, and we could point out every weakness and flaw that Abraham had, and he had many. But you know what? He was God's friend.

So it had nothing to do with some great spiritual level of righteousness. If you have God's Spirit, if God has called you as one of his children, and we'll see a little more clearly in a few scriptures, then God's attitude towards you is that you are my friend. I guess the question is, are we God's friend? What is our attitude and perspective towards God? You see, God refers to Abraham as a friend. Abraham, indeed, he had flaws, and he had problems just like us. In Exodus 33, it said that when God spoke to Moses, he spoke to Moses as if you were talking to a friend.

It was a close, intimate, one-on-one exchange of ideas and things together, an intimate relationship. Moses and God spoke to each other like friends. Now, was Moses perfect? He certainly was a great man. He was a righteous man, and God used him in many ways, but Moses had flaws. One of them, which we could say led to him not being able to go into the Promised Land. So it's not as if God is offering friendship only to perfect people, only to people who are just so spiritual that God offers a unique and special relationship, only to that select class.

As we'll see in Scriptures, all of us, everyone sitting in this room, God considers us and he looks down upon us and says, you are my friend. Will you respond in like manner toward God? A friend is defined in the dictionary as one, somebody who has a close personal relationship of mutual affection and trust with another. That's one way that friendship is defined. Another one is someone emotionally close to another.

It may shock you, and sometimes when we first hear about this, it is shocking, but God actually yearns to be your friend. But to understand why he desires to be our friend, we have to go into the Scriptures and we have to see the character and the nature of God before we can get to the point and deeply understand why God is our friend. So let's go to Jeremiah chapter 9 and verse 24. Jeremiah chapter 9 and verse 24 will begin to discover what God's attitude is about you and what his attitude is about me.

What his attitude is about all of those whom he calls, whom he gives his spirit to, whom he considers to be his children. Jeremiah chapter 9 and verse 24. It's talking about bragging or glorying in something. You want to proclaim something God says, you want to broadcast something, you want to brag about something. Here's what Jeremiah was inspired to write. But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me. Now, of course, when it says here in the Scripture, knows me, it doesn't mean that you know of God.

Yeah, I know of God. I read about him in a book once. No, it means an intimate relationship. When it says, Adam knew his wife Eve, it doesn't mean that they had played cards together. It means that they had a very special bonding relationship on a physical level. Well, on a spiritual level, to know God isn't simply to know of God, or know a little bit about God by reading this book. It means, on a spiritual level, to have a relationship, an intimate, caring, loving, continuous relationship. So Jeremiah says that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight.

So people who understand and know God, he says, I delight in people, like these kind of people give me pleasure. I'm delighted to be associated with people who understand me and make an effort to know me. I'd like to read these verses from the translation of the New Century version, verse 24.

Quote, But if someone wants to brag, let him brag that he understands and knows me, let him brag that I am the Lord, and that I am kind and fair, and that I do things that are right on this earth. This kind of bragging pleases me, says the Lord. God is pleased. He is delighted to be associated with people who have committed their lives, who have changed their lives around, who have understood their own failings and weaknesses, and asked God to forgive them, and asked God to give them his spirit, and were baptized and received, laying on of hands, and have changed their lives around. God is delighted in people who have made an effort to do that, to know him, to understand him. Let's go to the book of Psalm, Psalm, chapter 147, verse 11.

So God wants to be, because he is delighted in us, because he is pleased in us, he considers us his friend. Psalm, chapter 147, verse 11.

The psalmist wrote, The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him.

He takes pleasure. It gives God joy to know that there are people who revere him, who honor him, who humbly acknowledge God as their Father, as their Creator, their Maker, their Lord. All the various titles that we spoke to begin this sermon. It gives God great pleasure to know that there are those who fear him. And those who hope in his mercy, praise the Lord of Jerusalem, praise your God, O Zion. Let's turn back just a couple of chapters to Psalm, chapter 149, beginning in verse 1.

Let's see again what God says about people who love him.

Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, and his praise in the assembly of saints. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king. Let them praise his name with the dance. Let them sing praises to him with the timbrel and harp. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people.

He takes pleasure in you. He takes pleasure in our lives. What's going on in our lives? What's going on in our hearts and in our minds? Continuing, it says, the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He will beautify the humble with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud on their beds. I believe the first thing that we need to understand regarding friendship with God is that God is not disgusted with us. When God looks at you, he doesn't hold his nose. He doesn't cover his eyes in shame. No loving parents don't require their children to be perfect to enjoy them.

When I hold my granddaughters, I love them even though there may be things oozing out of every orifice in their body. They don't have to be perfect for me to love them. I love them because of who they are in a very special way. In a similar way, God doesn't wait for you to reach spiritual maturity before he starts loving you and before he starts offering you friendship. He loves and enjoys you at every stage of your spiritual development. God isn't mad at you. God is mad about you, and he's waiting for us to draw closer to him and to become his friends. I wonder if we can understand and grasp the beauty and the power behind what God is offering us.

Let's see what Jesus Christ himself, the Son of God, stated. Let's see what his attitude was about his disciples, not just who were present at the time in John 15 here, but his disciples for all time because he makes a statement reflecting obviously what his Father felt. Jesus said, I don't do anything without my Father. My Father guides my thoughts. My Father guides my life. My Father helps direct my purpose. My Father and I are one. Let's see what Jesus said here in John 15 and verse 14. John 15 and 14. Will Jesus say that I can barely stand you guys? Why, every time I see you, I use my left hand to hold my nose, my right hand to cover my eyes.

And I say, oh no, here we go again. Well, let's see what he says. Jesus says in John 15 and verse 14, he says, You are my friends if you do whatever I command you, because friendships are built on mutual respect and concern. Do you have a friend in the world? It's probably because you have something in common. It's commonality that creates friendships. If you're married, it's the commonalities that you have in your mate that have made you friends. If it's a business relationship, it's commonalities you may work in the same department. You may have certain things in common. And that's the glue that nurtures that friendship and helps it to grow.

Well, respecting God's laws and obedience to God is the glue, is the cement that helps that friendship to blossom and develop. Verse 15, The longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all things that I heard from my father I have made known to you, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain. That whatever you ask the Father in my name, that he may give you. Now, do you think Jesus meant this statement only for the 11 individuals who were left at this time? This time the book of John Judas had already left and he was off betraying Jesus, so we know there are 11 individuals standing around him. What great spiritual quality did this 11 have? Were they converted? No. The day of Pentecost hadn't come. They don't even have God's Spirit yet. Were there just exceptional fine human beings that he calls friends? Well, shortly before this discussion and soon afterwards it's all going to be, Well, I'm in charge! No, no, John, I'm in charge! No, Peter's in charge! No, what about me? Where do I fit in? How important am I? So it wasn't because these 11 unconverted individuals who were following him were something special in God's eyes. They were to the degree that God had called them and they were responding to that call. That is what made them special in God's eyes. That's what makes you and I special in God's eyes. Not the fact that we're perfect because we are not perfect. We're certainly far from it, aren't we? God did not need to create us, but he did create us for his own enjoyment, for his own pleasure, for his own purpose, because it gives God joy. We exist for his benefit and his glory, and we exist because God delights in you and he delights in me. Jesus said that from his perspective, his disciples for all time—this wasn't written down just for the 11, as I just mentioned— there wasn't anything greatly spiritual about the people who were present with him when he said this. This was recorded forever in the book of John because it applies to disciples who will live throughout all time. And, my friends, that includes you. Jesus said, you are my friends. Let's now go to Romans 5, verse 9. Romans 5 and verse 9. I see a scripture here in which Paul contrasts the difference between being an enemy of God with being something else, that God has made possible through the death and the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Romans 5, verse 9. First, I'll read this from the New King James Version, which frankly is a kind of a mediocre translation of what Paul is trying to say. And then I'll read it from another translation. As you read this, keep two things in mind, this scripture. One is that what Paul is doing is he's contrasting opposites. He's saying before we were God's enemy, now because of what Christ did, we're something else. What is the opposite of the word enemy? It's friend. He's saying also that there's some type of reconciliation occurring here. Well, to be reconciled means that you had to be at one location, one stage of life at one time, have lost it, and then be restored to it. And of course, we know that in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, before they sinned, they had a friendship with God. He walked throughout the Garden in the cool of the day. They talked to one another. They literally had a friendship. And Paul is saying because of what Christ did, that can be restored now. Not just some nebulous day in the future, it can be restored in your life and in my life right now. Romans 5 and 9. Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation. Again, I have to admit that this is rather a mediocre translation. I'm going to read this from the New Century version because I believe it far more correctly translates it the way Paul originally intended it. So here's Romans chapter 5, verse 9 through 11 through the New Century version. Just listen if you would.

So through Christ we will surely be saved from God's anger because we have been made right with God by the blood of Christ's death.

While we were God's enemies, he has made friends with us through the death of his Son. Surely now we are his friends. He will save us through his Son's life. And not only that, but now we are also very happy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through him we are now God's friends again.

You see, mankind, represented by Adam and Eve, were friends of God before they sinned. They walked with God, they talked with him, they had an affectionate relationship with their Creator.

But they sinned and they were to send us all of mankind's relationships with God. But Paul is saying that it's been restored. A reconciliation can take place between you and God and I and God because of what Jesus Christ did. We can be friends like God originally intended for all mankind when he created Adam and Eve. God is pleased with those whom he has called and he has forgiven. And the truth is, brethren, that we can be as close to God as we choose to. God offers his hand out in friendship and he says through his word that I want to be your friend. I look at you as my friend.

And it's up to us. How do we respond? Friendship is a two-way street. Friendship has to be two people who are willing to invest the time to develop intimacy, who are willing to work together to develop that kind of an emotional bond.

Friendship with God is built by sharing all of our experiences with him. Any friendship requires an investment of time and emotion to remain healthy. And this means far more than just going to weekly Sabbath services. Being a friend of God and developing the kind of friendship that is possible means far more than just logging in prayer or Bible study every day.

It means an intimacy that goes throughout the day. It means it begins to permeate every area of our life. And I'd like to now talk about some of the things that we can do on our part to respond back to God and say, Yes, I want to be your friend because he certainly offers friendship to us.

He wants to be our friend, just like he wanted to be Abraham's friend and was, just like he was Moses's friend and was, just like Jesus said to the eleven disciples who were with him, that you were my friends. God is saying to you today that you are my friends. So how can we respond to that? Well, we can begin by realizing that friendship means constant open-ended conversation throughout the day. Traditionally, we look at prayer, for example, as an appointment that we make. We take a certain time aside and we turn on the stopwatch or we look at the clock and we say, I'm going to pray for 30 minutes or 45 minutes for an hour. And we kind of set an appointment to do something with God.

And that's fine, and it's good. But if you want to look at the biblical model, the biblical model of prayer isn't making an appointment with God. The biblical model of prayer is open-ended conversation throughout the day. If you read the overwhelming majority of the book of Psalms, which are prayers, most of them you can read in just a few minutes. Look at every prayer that Jesus ever said recorded, including the Lord's Prayer. Does it last 30 minutes? No. Most of them last a few minutes. But you see, Jesus, by His example, had constant open-ended communication throughout the day. When He ate, He would stop and He would thank God for the food that was provided. When He wanted to resurrect someone from the dead, like Lazarus, He would stop and He would just say a short prayer, Father, another open-ended conversation. When He would heal someone and He would ask for prayer, He would stop open-ended conversation. And that's very important if we want to develop a deep and lasting friendship with God. Turn with me, if you would, to 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 16. Paul understood this concept, that being a friend in God isn't so much in logging in prayer time, making an appointment with God, that I'm going to do this, that I must do this. It's not an appointment, it's an all-day constant attitude. It's a perception in our minds that God is constantly present with us throughout today. We may wake up in the morning and say the first thing is hopefully that enters our mind, thank you, Lord, for the gift of another day. I have consciousness, I've woken up, the sun is shining or it's snowing, whatever's happening, and I thank you for that, I thank you for being my God. We may take a little extra time for prayer, we may get in the car and see bad weather. Lord, please intervene and put your ministering angels about me and help me to get to work safely today. An hour later, we may be in the office and the boss says something that upsets us, Oh, Lord, this boss you gave me, whom you gave me, is really getting on my nerves. Please, Lord, give me the strength of your spirit, help me to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ. An hour later, maybe someone mentions they locked their keys in their ford, and you say to yourself, Oh, Ford, Ford, Bob Boyner worked for Ford. Oh, Lord, please intervene on Bob Boyner's behalf. Please heal him. He's recently been through surgery. You see, it's an open-ended communication that we have with God throughout the day. It's not an appointment. It's a lifestyle in constant things that occur to us and that we think about, that we take an opportunity to thank God for or to ask Him to intervene on someone's behalf or to do something. It's not simply an appointment. Paul wrote here in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 16, Rejoice always and pray without ceasing. Now, he doesn't mean quit your job, stop eating, and pray for 24 hours a day. That's not his point. His point is what I've been talking about. Have a constant open-ended conversation with God in prayer, in thought, throughout the day. And as opportunities arise, as you see things happen, as you see needs occur, just stop and say to yourself, much like Jesus did throughout His day, Father, thank You for this, or Father, please allow this to happen, or Father, please make this change in someone's life. It's a whole different perception, I know, than we're used to in our culture. But it's a biblical perception, and it's very, very important that we begin to tell God that you're just not a block of appointment time for me, that you are my God 24 hours a day. That I have an awareness of reality of your presence in everything that I do, and in everything that I say, throughout all the moments of each and every day.

We were made to live in God's continual presence. Before Adam and Eve sinned, they were delighted to have God in the garden. He would walk in the garden, and they looked at their Creator as someone who was in their continual presence, not as someone that they just established an appointment with. And when we think about being God's friend, and the fact that we have an open-ended conversation with God throughout the day, our attitude changes towards what we do, because we begin to see that we can do everything to bring glory to God. Are you doing something as mundane as washing dishes? Well, by washing dishes, you're serving someone else. You're either serving your children, or you're serving your spouse, or you're doing something. Do that in the glory of God. Serving someone is a godly concept, and God pleases God. You're not just washing dishes. You're doing something to the glory of God. No matter what your career is, or no matter what you're involved in, have an attitude, have a change of heart that realizes that everything I do, I can be an ambassador for Jesus Christ, I can do it with a cheerful attitude, I can be a light and an example, and I can bring glory to God. And if my job is to take this box and fold it and put a piece of tape over it, I can do it in a way that glorifies God. I can do it cheerfully, I can do it professionally, and I can do it in a way that reflects the glory of God in my life. And when we begin to think and realize that we can have an open-ended relationship, a conversation with God throughout the day, it changes how we think. Our goal throughout the day shouldn't be a feeling. People want feelings. But it's not about feeling, it's about a continual awareness that God is always present with us, that He's always there by our side as our friend, through every circumstance, no matter where we're at, no matter what we're doing, that His presence and His reality is there with us. And again, friendship requires an investment of time. And if you don't invest that time, a friendship stalls and it slowly dies. Thirty years ago, I had some very, very close friends, even in the Church of God. They were wonderful people. But they moved away. We no longer spent evenings together, we no longer watched football games together, we no longer had lunch together. And our friendships just slowly died. Some of them I don't even know where they are on earth now, because due to time or circumstance, we no longer made that investment of time for that relationship to grow. Isn't that true of a marriage? If you want your marriage to be healthy and vital, you have to invest time in one another. And that may be going out on a date once in a while, catching the movie, going out to lunch, just sitting in your rocking chairs and talking for a half hour while you slurp down a cup of coffee or a hot cup of tea.

It's an investment of time that creates the intimacy that develops that friendship and that relationship. And the same with business. If you have a business partner or if you work next to someone and you're friends, you're friends because you share some things in common and you spend some time with one another. That's what develops. It's that investment of sharing time or resources that creates the depth of that friendship.

And, brethren, it's also true with God. We have to be willing to spend the time.

And our friendship gets to another level with God when it's no longer that time is no longer considered an appointment, a duty for this certain period of time throughout a day, 30 minutes, 45 minutes. But when we realize that it's a continuous, ongoing relationship and conversation that we can have with God throughout our day, and if we understand that and accept that, it literally can change our level of friendship with God. You know, another thing that friends do? Friends share intimate secrets.

Friends tell each other things that they wouldn't tell anyone else, that they'd only tell someone that they're really close to.

And that's a kind of relationship that God has with us, and I hope we have with Him. If you begin turning to Ephesians 1 and verse 5, when you share intimate secrets, you tell God what you're thinking.

And then when you read His Word, He tells you what He's thinking. He responds how He talks back to us. He tells us what He's thinking. Is something bothering you? Well, tell your intimate secret to your friend who's God.

Is something happening that you don't agree like? Is something happening in the church or something that bothers you? Is there an event that happened to you that has made you bitter in life? Talk to your intimate friend and tell him your secret. Let him know how you feel, why it's bothering you, what are the roots of it. Ask your friend to help you. Do you know that He's revealed to you His most intimate secrets? Let's take a look here at Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 5. Paul wrote, So again, were we adopted? Were we made His children because He held us nose and closed His eyes and swallowed hard? No. It says, the good pleasure, it was His will that we become His children, that we are His friends. Verse 6, You know what? He told us. He revealed to us that He had made us accepted. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, which He has made abound towards all wisdom and prudence. Verse 9, You know what? He told us. He revealed to us His intimate secrets, the mystery of His will. He created you and all of mankind for a purpose. He is trying to create a family, and His plan is revealed in His holy days.

This is an intimate secret that God hasn't revealed to everyone. If you just walked out in the street and you said, you know that God's plan is revealed in His holy days, the average person on the sidewalk would look at you and say, Mr. are you sick? Do you have a problem? What are holy days? What holy days? But God has revealed to us the mystery, the intimate secret that He has for mankind. The New Century version says, beginning in verse 8, Now, if our friend is willing to tell us His most, intermost secret thoughts, are we responding in the same way to our friend? Are we telling him what's bugging us? Are we telling him candidly the things that are on our mind? Even if there are things that we don't like to admit to, as if God somehow has some hyperinflated ego, that it bothers Him, if we challenge Him or if we say to Him, I don't understand this? Think about it. We need to be honest with God. Its honesty and trust are the foundations of friendship.

When God said to Abraham that I'm going to destroy Sodom, what did Abraham do? What did His intimate friend do? He challenged God. He said, Lord, are you going to destroy the righteous with the wicked? And then He began, like the good progenitor of the Jewish people, to haggle and bargain with God, to get the number down on who, how many could be saved, and if there were this many, He would save the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. But He had an intimate relationship, and if He didn't agree with God, if He didn't agree with something that was going on, just between He and God, He said, God, I have a problem with what you said, and here's why. And somehow we have in our minds, unfortunately, that God has this hyperinflated ego, and that if we challenge Him in prayer, in that intimate relationship, if we question something going on, that the whole earth is going to quake, and a great tribulation will immediately occur. And brethren, He is our friend. Friends allow each other to vent. Friends allow each other to be disagreeable on a point, and they listen, and they have empathy, and they care, and they hear them out. Now, they might respond and let them vent, and then say, well, have you considered this, or have you considered that? But friendships are built on relationships like that. How about in Exodus 32, when God finally got fed up with the children of Israel, and He said, you know what, Moses? Stand aside. I'm going to wipe these people out. My anger is wrought with these stubborn, stiff-necked people. Stand aside. I'm going to wipe them out, and I'm going to fulfill my prophecies of a nation only with you. Now, there would have been a lot of people who said, Well, God, it's about time You recognize my superiority over everyone else. But no, thankfully, Moses was a meek and a humble man. But what did Moses say? What did his friend say? He said, Lord, what are the nations going to say who see You do? What example is that going to be? The nations are going to say that this God brought these people out of Egypt and let them die in the desert. Is that majesty to Your name? Does that give honor and glory to Your name? What kind of an example will that be? And God relented of what He wanted to do. Why? Because He had someone who was a friend who, in a respectful but powerful way, said, God, I just don't understand. It just doesn't make sense to me. Here's how I feel about it. How about the example of Jesus Christ in the garden of Gethsemane before He died? Didn't He see anything He knew from the foundation of the world, what His role was? But because He was God's friend, He said, If there's any way that this cup can be lifted from Me, if there's any other way aside from Me being arrested, going through a kangaroo trial, being beaten and humiliated to a bloody pulp, being nailed to a cross, being laughed at and mocked at and spit on, if there's any other way that people can be forgiven, that salvation can occur, then please take this cup from Me. But if not, then I'm willing to do your will. I'm willing to do what has to be done. Now, why could He say that? Because He was a friend of God, and they had a relationship in which they could express their concerns, including their fears and their doubts, with one another. That's what friendship is all about. Every time we do what God says, and as I said a little earlier, our friendship, the glue that holds that friendship together is obedience, is respect for God's law and His commands and His values. Every time we do what God says, and every time we trust in His wisdom, we deepen our friendship with Him.

When we make mistakes, God understands He doesn't stop being our friend. Let's go to Psalm 37 and verse 22. Psalm 37 and verse 22. Even when we flounder, even when we make a mistake, when we sin, God doesn't stop being our friend.

He doesn't stop loving us. Psalm 37 and verse 22.

The psalmist wrote, For those blessed by Him shall inherit the earth. Amen. And may that day come quickly, my dad. But those cursed by Him shall be cut off. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in His way. God delights in a good man, a good woman, who makes us good. Jesus Christ is our righteousness. Jesus Christ inside of us makes us good. Not because of anything we can do on our own. But let's read on.

I may have used the analogy in the past of walking with my oldest granddaughter, and sometimes she's a little bit wobbly, and I hold her hand. And if three or four times she literally stumbles and would fall down flat on her face, and I have her hand as her grandfather, I love her. I'm not about to let go. I'm not about to, well, that's third time, let go and let her fall on her face.

What kind of parent or grandfather would that be? I hold tightly onto her hand, so if she trips and her entire body loses balance instead of her falling, I am able to uphold her with my hand. And that's the same way that God is for us. When we make a mistake, when we do something stupid, he upholds our hand. Obedience is a way that we worship God, and we give him pleasure when we obey his laws and his commandments.

Did you ever consider the fact that obedience teaches us more about God? Doing something that we would rather not do teaches us more about God than a lifetime of Bible discussions. Because character is developed. Bible discussions are intellectual. That's interesting. But choosing emotionally to do something you really don't want to do because it's obeying changes who and what we are. It changes our character. We will never understand some of God's commands until we obey them first. Obedience often unlocks understanding. I'll give you a classic example.

Mr. Armstrong and his wife Loma Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong read from a man who was a predecessor of his named Gigi Rupert. Gigi Rupert had a publishing house, and he wrote very firmly that the Hebrew Holy Days should all be kept. Before Mr. Armstrong founded the Radio Church of God, he read that and came to see that that was correct. But Gigi Rupert, nor Mr. Armstrong, understood the meaning of all the Holy Days. For many years, Mr. Armstrong and his wife Loma observed the annual Holy Days alone. Not with anyone else. Not even knowing what they fulfilled.

Not even knowing that together those Holy Days picture God's entire plan of salvation. You see, obedience unlocked understanding. He read it. God said it. God said, I should do this. He was willing to do it. And it was that obedience, without even totally understanding why. Yet it was that obedience to a friend that unlocked the understanding that God's Holy Days picture his entire plan of salvation. We should obey God. Once we realize the power of our friendship with God, we should obey him for the same reason that we do something that a friend asks.

If you have a loving, intimate friendship with another human being, and I pray that you do, and that friend asks you to do something, do you do it out of fear? Do you do it out of horror? Do you do it out of thinking, well, something bad is going to happen to me if I don't do it? Well, no. You do it because you love that person. You do it out of respect. Even if you don't totally understand or agree that it's the best thing to do.

If an intimate friend asks you to do something, and it obviously doesn't violate God's law, you do it because you love them, because you care for them. And God wants us to get beyond the point of obedience out of fear. That's a master-slave relationship, right? Slave, if you don't do something right, I'm going to beat you.

He wants us to grow beyond that, because fear is only ever a short-term motivator. To that of being a friend, in that we do what God asks us to do because we love Him and we respect Him, and we know that our lives please Him. That we bring joy and happiness into His heart, His spiritual heart and soul. And we do it because we love and respect Him, and we go beyond doing something simply because we fear Him. That's what a friendship, a relationship of friendship between ourselves and God can do for us. Obedience as a friend isn't out of fear or duty, but it's out of gratitude for all that God's done for us.

Father, You've blessed me, You've given me life, You've given me breath, You've protected me, You called me, You offered me Your Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ died and shed His blood so I can be forgiven. You have called me into Your family. I have new brothers and sisters. I am so grateful for all the things that You've done for me. And when You ask me to do something, even if I don't totally understand it, I'm going to do it because I deeply love and appreciate Your friendship and all that You've done.

That's much more powerful, my friends, than doing something simply out of fear. Because again, fear only motivates people short-term. When we become God's friend, we also value our values change. We value what God values. We care about the things that He cares about. We grieve over what He grieves over. We rejoice over the kind of things that He rejoices over. God's personal agenda then becomes our personal agenda. We push aside what we want and we say, Father, Lord, Master, Friend, what do You want me to do?

And I'll be happy to do it. If you go to John 11 and verse 35, we won't turn there, but we see a beautiful situation of how Jesus reacted to His friends. Lazarus had died and Jesus finally arrived. Lazarus is already in the tomb. And it says there in John 11 that when Jesus showed up and He saw Lazarus's sister and his friends weeping bitterly and wailing and torn apart, that Jesus was so touched by how much they loved their friend that Jesus wept. That's a value. And we should be rejoicing over the things that God rejoices over.

We should be grieving over the things that God grieves over and have the right balance of things. And when Jesus saw the mess that Jerusalem was in, His heart was touched and He was grieved. He said, Oh, I wish like a mother hen or a mother chicken that I could just put my wings around you and protect you. Because He realized the horror that Jerusalem was going to go through.

He was grieved, not angry, not furious, not condemning the people of Jerusalem. But He was grieved when He realized what they were bringing upon themselves because of their lack of obedience. Another important thing with friendship with God is that we must desire friendship with God as more important than anything else in life. Now, that's tough. I mean, that gets to the core of what Jesus taught us, to seek you first, the kingdom of God, and not just acquiring things and not being wrapped up in materialism.

And all the many things that occur in our lives tend to draw us away from God. But when you begin to develop that friendship with God, you realize that this is something that is so strong that I'm willing to die for it. This is a relationship that's so strong that I'm willing to die for it. You know, it's pretty awesome, I think, when you look at soldiers, who become just physical beings, who become so close that one is willing to die for his brother, his brother in arms.

That's pretty great love, isn't it? Well, it's also pretty great love in God's eyes to His friends when we're willing to die for what we believe. And most of us will not be called upon to become martyrs, but we may have to give sacrifices.

We may lose our job over the Sabbath. We may be persecuted because we don't keep the holidays, I should say, that the world keeps. We may get persecution. We may get flack in that. We may have young children, and a teacher gives us a hard time about taking them out of the school for the feast or tabernacles. We may go through all kinds of grief. We may not have to give up our lives.

But if we have a friendship with God, that becomes the most important thing to us. Psalm 63, verse 1. I'm going to read from the New Century version of the Scriptures because I think in verse 3 it makes it a little more clear and very powerful. Psalm 63, verse 1. The psalmist wrote, I thirst for you like someone in a dry, empty land where there is no water.

Now that's pretty passionate, isn't it? The thirst after God, like you're thirsting after water, like you haven't had water to drink for a week. I've seen you in the temple and have seen your strength and glory. Verse 3. Because your love is better than life, I will praise you. Again, verse 3. Because your love is better than life itself, I will praise you. I will praise you as long as I live. I will lift up my hands in prayer to your name.

Verse 5. I will be content as if I had eaten the best foods. So what's he saying here? He says, because I have God's love, I am now content in life. That's an important principle. Paul also said that he also learned to be content no matter what state in life that he was in. If he was well off, if he had coins in his pocket, if he suffered poverty, if he suffered affliction, if life and things were going smoothly, he had learned to be content no matter what situation Paul was in in life.

And this psalmist is saying here, because I love you and because your love is better than my own life, I will be as content with everything in life as if I had eaten the best foods. So it's no longer about just getting a bigger house or getting a bigger car. I mean, those things are good and right place and right time, but not just simply for the sake of doing it, not for the sake that I'm not fulfilled unless I get more and bigger and better.

But you become so content because of this friendship that you have with God. You say, I've really got everything that God wants me to have. I have a relationship with Him. I've got a wonderful destiny. And in essence, I've got it all. I've got more than any other human being could ever wish or hope for when you have eternity sealed and you have a relationship with the very Creator of the universe and He calls you friend. It doesn't get any better than that.

It doesn't matter how many refrigerators you have or how many homes you own or how big your 401K is or in my case, it's now a 201K, depending on what the stock market does in a given day. Those kinds of things don't matter anymore. Many people have been willing to face death because of their friendship with God. Because to them, it was more important than life itself.

We call them martyrs. People who were willing to be burned alive, to be beheaded, whatever. They were willing to do it because they considered friendship with God more important than their own physical lives. The Book of Revelation tells us that in the future, some of God's people will face martyrdom again because they desire friendship with God more than they love their own physical lives.

Another thing that's important about being God's friend, and this can be tough for some of us, is that we respect and love and honor God's other friends. Let me reword that. To be God's friend means that we care about all the people He cares about. Let's take a look at John 13, verse 34. In other words, spoken by Jesus Christ Himself.

God has called us as a family. We come from different backgrounds. We come from very diverse personalities. Frankly, some people are just easier to love than others, aren't they? They really and truly are. Here's what Jesus tells us, the same one that said, I consider you my friends. He says in John 13, verse 34, A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. How did Jesus show His love towards them? He said, as I have loved you, He was willing to give down His life for His friends.

He says, love one another, that you also love one another, as I have loved you. Here's verse 35, very important. By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have 100% of all doctrines correct. No? It's important to have correct doctrines. But that's not what Jesus Christ says. He says, but by this all you will know that you are my disciples, if you are 100% obedient. No? That's important. Obedience is a great thing, and we should strive to become perfect.

But He says, you'll know this, if you have love one towards another. What's the proof of my church? What's the proof of my body? Is it 100% correct doctrines? Important. No? That's not it. Is it everybody being perfect? 100% perfect? Good thing. But that's not it. The proof of the pudding, the example, the demonstration, the light and the darkness, is if you have love for one another. And that's not always easy. That's not always easy. But to be God's friend means we care about all the people that He cares about.

There's one other way, as I conclude the sermon today, I'd like us to think about what friends do in our friendship towards God, and that is worship. We come here every Sabbath day to worship, and that's a good thing. But as we develop a deeper friendship with God, we realize that worship is more than we do just one day a week by showing up to Sabbath services.

Worship is a lifestyle. It's like that open, constant communication that I spoke about earlier. Our praise of God should be the first thing that enters our mind when we wake up. You wake up, you get the sleepies out of your eyes, you get consciousness, and you say, oh, thank you, Father, for another day. I praise your name. I praise your greatness. You've given me an extra bonus day of life that I don't deserve. So I praise you and acknowledge you as my great God. And worshiping God and praising His name is also the last thing to do before we go to sleep.

As you close your eyes, say, thank you, Lord. I praise you that you have given me this day. I praise you and thank you for the lessons that I learned through this day, for making me a better person and through the good and through the bad, continuing as the potter, molding me and guiding me and directing my life in the way that you want it to go. Worship is not a single event to attend, but it's a perpetual attitude. And at tying back, it also includes our obedience, Romans 12 and verse 1. An act of obedience, remember that glue, that commonality that holds that friendship together, an act of obedience is an act of worship.

Have you ever thought of it that way? That an act of doing something right, particularly if you don't want to do it, is an act of true worship. Romans 12 and verse 1.

Paul wrote, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Let me read verse 1 from the New Century version. So, brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to Him.

Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to Him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship. Let me read the end of that again from the New Century version. It is a living sacrifice, quote, the spiritual way for you to worship.

We give honor and respect and worship our God because we obey out of gratitude for all that He has done for us, and respect and reverence for who and what He is. Nothing is more powerful than a surrendered life in the hands of God. It can do great things.

Also, speaking of worship, just one final thing as we conclude the sermon today. God has set aside a very special day that we know of as the Sabbath in which He invites His friends to come and to formally worship Him in public. We know, of course, it's very important. It goes back to the Old Testament.

It goes back to the example of the New Testament Christians who kept the seventh day Sabbath, and we do the same thing today. That's a good thing, and that's a right thing. As I mentioned in a sermon a couple of weeks ago, the word worship itself comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word, which means worth-ship.

It means that we love Him so much, He is so worthy of our honor and glory that we're willing to take time out and dedicate it to Him and praise His name. As a matter of fact, the Hebrew and the Greek words in Scripture that end up being translated worship means to revere God in an attitude of bodily and emotional humility. We do that in our opening and closing prayer. We typically put our heads down. We follow that example, and we acknowledge our great God in physical humility as well as hopefully emotional and spiritual humility. And that's good.

We, as God's friends, come together on the Sabbath day to worship. Yes, we come to church hoping to be inspired, hoping to be enlightened, and that is good and right. Every minister that I know spends time in prayer, meditation, and lots of hours to prepare their messages. And that is good. But when we are a friend of God, we realize that worship is not primarily for our benefit.

I often hear people say that I didn't get anything out of services today. If we feel that we're not getting anything out of services, we may be worshiping God for the wrong reason and the wrong motive. But, you see, worship services are primarily not for us. We come to adore and to honor and to give pleasure to the great God who has called us His friends. I remember many years ago, in the early days of the United Church of God, we had a young lady who attended with us, and she had grown up from a little girl into the church.

And unfortunately, sadly, she became disillusioned, and she got to the point where her constant refrain was, I'm not being inspired, I'm not hearing the messages I want to hear, please tell me about the red cow, tell me about cows that cough and have mad cow disease. These are the kind of messages I want to hear, and I'm just not being inspired. One particular Sabbath, I thought, was so sad, because while Sabbath services were, it was a Sabbath of a potluck, and while services were going on in one room, she was in another room, during services, playing with plates and putting silverware down and decorating and putting cups on the tables. And I remember at that time, I thought, how sad? How really and truly sad? Because primarily, we don't come here to get something we come here to honor and to give. We should primarily worship to bring joy and pleasure to our Father and to our friend. He's greatly pleased when his family reunion gathers on the Sabbath day to acknowledge him. To say that you, my friend, are so important to me that I'm coming here to praise your name, and I'm coming here to give you honor, and I'm coming here to give you glory. It's not about me, and yes, it's fine, and hopefully we are inspired, and hopefully we do hear messages that help us grow to the next level. But primarily, Lord, I am here because it's all about you. It's not just about me. He calls us as his friends, and when we worship, our main goal should be to bring pleasure to God and not necessarily to ourselves. And indeed, it is right and good that our worship hopefully is inspiring and fulfilling, and that includes fellowship and singing and listening and praying and all the things that we do during a typical service.

In conclusion, and if you'll turn to John 4 and verse 23, a final scripture, in conclusion, friendship with God is a choice on our part. It's up to us. God holds his hand out. It's always been there. And he says, You are my friends. You're special to me. You give me pleasure. You give me joy. I love you. I consider myself as your friend. Brethren, will we respond to God in the same way? Friendship with God isn't a choice, or it is a choice in our part. It's not by accident. It's not by just being lucky. It takes an effort to build that friendship with him. And final scripture, John 4 and verse 23. We read this a few weeks ago, but we'll read it in a little different context today.

That's what our worship is about. It's about giving honor and glory and praise to him. So, brethren, God wants us to worship him, not only as a creator, not only as a master, not only as a Lord, not only as our judge, not only as a master, redeemer, father, and savior, he wants us to worship the awesome Lord God who considers you to be his friend. Have great Sabbath day!