Friendship and Fellowship

Original URL   Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Transcript

this class is on the topic of friendship and fellowship and just a heads up I kind of want this to be a little bit discussion based so feel free to interrupt me anytime with questions or comments

and we're gonna also have some specific discussion portions a couple times throughout the class

so yeah

Okay so

why is this topic of friendship and fellowship so important

well the Bible is full of warnings and examples of friendships both good and bad I've had major impacts on people's lives

um here's some verses do not be just misled Bad Company corrupts good character and then proverbs

12 26 the righteous choose their friends carefully but the Way of the Wicked leads them astray

and proverbs 18. the one who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother

so there's this like saying that you're the sum of The Five People You spend the most time with and I'm not don't totally buy into that but it definitely has some truth to it and you can see from these verses that it's definitely true

your friends can be some of your greatest influences for both good and evil in your life

okay so to start I think it's kind of interesting to look at what the world how the world would Define friendship versus like how the Bible would Define friendship so here's just some funny definitions I found online

some of them kind of serious some of them funny but

it kind of just revolves around pleasure or fun

or I get in the top one non-existence

but yeah um

yeah so this is kind of how the world would Define friendship

you know kind of silly but yeah

and

yeah so

how so this this is kind of the first discussion portion what comes to mind when you hear the word friend

just the first thing that pops into your head leave it in Jonathan yeah we're going to talk about David and Jonathan you know what yeah Jesus said you have my friends if you keep my Commandments yeah and uh Abraham was a friend oh God

I think if you're just talking in general terms Gabe I think a friend is somebody that you can rely on because you can count on to be honest and open with you and care for you yeah

help in gay Bible somebody you can relate to someone you can relate with yes

so here's a second question what do you think the purpose of a friendship is

Fellowship yep

there has to be mutual benefit yeah yeah sometimes yeah yep

anybody say support

mm-hmm

yeah

anything else separation from loneliness

yeah okay so yeah those

oops come on oh there we go I think a friendly central time so those are all really good so here's a couple things that I came up with

so the first thing

following Jesus example of laying down our lives for each other so

uh John 15 verses 12 to 13. my command is this love each other as I have loved you greater love has no one than this than than you what to lay down one's life for one's friend

so this can kind of have double meanings because you think of like Jesus laying dying for our sins but then not only that but he also lived for us so laying down one's life can kind of have a double meaning like because we don't often have to just straight up die for somebody but we can lay down our life in the sense that we can dedicate Our Lives to being there for someone and helping someone inconveniencing ourselves

to be with someone

and the second kind of idea I had was encouraging each other in our walk of faith

Hebrews 10 24 and let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works

yeah there's a lot of different ways that friends can help each other to stay encouraged

um next one speak the truth In Love sometimes

we have to hear stuff that we don't want to hear and friends can be good for that so Proverbs 27 verses 5 and 6 says better is an open rebuke than hidden love wounds of a friend can be trusted but an enemy multiplies kisses

so

yeah

um the final example is to help us when we fall oh Ecclesiastes 4 verses 9 and 10. two are better than one because they have good return for their labor if either of them falls down one can help the other up but pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up

so these are kind of there's probably there's definitely other things but these are kind of poor kind of General I guess ideas that kind of graphs the person that try to grasp at the purpose and the friendship

Okay so

the next thing we're going to look at is some examples of friendships in the Bible like I think Jim said David and Jonathan that's kind of the first thing that comes to my mind and

so here are some different examples

different examples of friendships both good and bad in the Bible

so we're going to start with David and Jonathan I think this is kind of the go-to example that everybody thinks of in the when you think of a friendship in the Bible

so their story gives a really good example of the first purpose on the list which was

following Jesus example by laying down our lives for each other because here I'll show you what I mean

reading from First Kings 12. David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life David was in the worldliness of

zif at horish and Jonathan Saul's son Rose and went to went to David at horsh and strengthened his hand in God and he said to him do not fear for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you you shall be king over Israel and I shall be next to you so my father also knows this and the two of them made a covenant before the Lord and David remained at horish and Jonathan went home

so not only had Jonathan likely risked his life to protect protect David here and but these verses also highlight how he was willing to lay down his life in a different way he says you will be king over Israel think about what that would mean for Jonathan he probably grew up his whole life the prince knowing that he would be king one day prepping his whole life to be king by willingly giving the throne to David he was giving up his life for his friend

okay

so our next example is rehoboam and his friends

this is kind of both a good oops a good and bad example

so I'll show you what I mean

um

reading from First Kings chapter 12. then the king then King rehoboam took counsel with the old man who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive saying how do you advise me to answer this people

and they said to him if you will be a servant to this people and today you will serve them

and speak good words to them when you answer them and they will be your servants forever but he abandoned this Council that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young man who had grown up with him and stood before him and he said to them would you advise that we answer this people who have said to me lighten the Yoke that your father is putting us

and the young men who had grown up with him said to him thus shall you speak to this people who said to you your father made her yoke heavy that you lighten it for us thus

you shall say to them my little finger is thicker than my father's thighs and now whereas your father laid on a heavy Oak I will add to your yoke my father disciplined me with whips but I will discipline you with scorpions

so one of the main purposes of a friend as I said before is to tell you stuff that you don't want to hear sometimes to help lead you on the right path and rehoboam almost did that

he went to the people that were older than wiser than him to get advice

but rather than taking the good advice he went on to find it advice from somebody that would tell him what he wanted to hear his friends

ironically the old people who he Whose advice you despise were better friends to him than the young men he had grown up with

and we all know the consequences that arose from this situation

um

the next example I'm going to look at is another kind of good example of a good and bad friendship is Job's three friends

so when job's three friends I'm reading from Job chapter two

now in job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him they came from his own place ifas the team and I at Bell had the shoe height and Zoro the nahem a fight

they made an appointment together to come show him sympathy and comfort him

when they saw him from a distance they did not recognize him and they raised their voices in wept and tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads towards heaven

I sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights no one spoke a word to him for they saw that his suffering was very great

so job's friends here have demonstrate that aspect of that we talked about before of helping each other through hard times

they came here to comfort him and build him up in a time of need if all they had done was sit there in silence and grieve with him that it would have been a great example but as we all know as soon as they open their mouths things went wrong

so these were just a few examples that came to mind

oh

when preparing this does anyone else have any examples they can think of any general shocks or comments some good examples or bad examples

so in conclusion a friendship is a precious gift from God that can bring joy support and encouragement to our lives well we have to be careful because man can so easily twist good things into tools for evil

as we seek to cultivate friendships based on Godly principles we have to remember these examples like God gave us and have to work together to follow Jesus the ultimate example of friendship laying down his life for us