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PreachParsly
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Joined: 2005/1/14
Posts: 2164
Arkansas

 Are Your Friends God's Friends?

Hello,

I wrote this a long time ago as you can see from the date. It was suggested that I post it here. I hope that it is of some benefit to someone. I'm not sure of my comments on phileo and agape love as I wrote it here, but hopefully it will still be of some benefit.

- Josh

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Are Your Friends God's Friends?

Thursday, July 07, 2005


Friends... The word may bring a smile to some or a tear to another. What does God think about friends? Are our friends God's friends or God's enemy? I believe many people have friends that are not really friends at all but really dragging them away from God. First of all let me say that there are friends and there are acquaintances. My definition of friends in this post would be someone you bare your soul with, not just those who you speak to every so often. I guess the word I would be looking for is one that you joined affinity (A natural attraction, liking, or feeling of kinship. According to dictionary.com). I'm talking about the one who you freely talk about anything with.

What should a Godly friendship have? Well, the obvious would be God. What does the typical (NOT OUT OF THE ORDINARY!) spirit-filled life consist of? The fruits of the Spirit. What does a typical non spirit-filled life consist of? The works of the flesh. It is my personal belief that a Christian relationship or friendship should have the fruits of the Spirit and not he works of the flesh.

Gal 5:16-26 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

A good friendship will have love. A love of choice. Agape love differs from phileo love because phileo may or may not be by choice. Phileo love is a love of common. You would phileo someone because you have something in common. Agape is a love of choice. If you agape someone you choose to love them. God so loved (chose to love) the world He gave them a way to have a relationship with Him. He did not have to. He chose to. There should be joy and peace also. Not that you will always be jumping around smiling and have an awesome sense of peace just because they are around but there should not be that disturbance in your spirit when they are around. You should feel confident and secure. Gentleness and goodness should be self explanatory. Faith might not be though... I would say you should have a trust with them. Meekness and temperance are the last 2. There should be a respect between the 2 that you would meekly (A calm temper of mind, not easily provoked) approach each other. Temperance means self control.

A bad friendship will have the works of the flesh. Adultery and fornication. A friendship should not produce lust. This does not necessarily mean a lust between the two. The friend could provoke the other into lust. Let’s say you have a friend that likes to look at dirty magazines from time to time. You might not at first but the lust building inside the other will be placed in you the more you bare you soul to one another (remember I'm not talking about just an ordinary acquaintance but a close close friend). Uncleanness and lasciviousness. Lasciviousness is unbridled lust or animal desires. Does your friend bring out animal desires in you or godly attitudes? I could go one with each one but I'll let you do your own study on the works of the flesh and let you ask yourself if your friendship brings that out of you or if the works of the flesh are in you.

We need to be very picky about who we are friends with. Let me again stress that we all have acquaintances and co-workers. These are not the friends I am talking about. God is fascinated with you whole life. Fascinated in the sense that He looks intently on every aspect of you. Not fascinated in the sense that he doesn’t know how you work. A friend is an important thing. Make sure your friends are drawing you closer to God. Make sure your friendships are God-honoring.

Are you friends God's friends?


_________________
Josh Parsley

 2011/4/17 16:27Profile





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