Jesus As Our Friend part 3 - More About Helping Others

 How have you been? Do you have any questions or prayer needs as school starts?

Friendship means knowing people who can have different backgrounds or personalities, though friends are often rather similar in at least one of those. This means we should talk with and strive to understand others. Friends share goals; loving a team, for instance. We need to be unified as the body of Christ despite different backgrounds, etc. the same way. We share the goal of bringing people to Jesus & helping them through a sin-stained world. We should share prayer needs, too.

Our closest friends should be saved people if possible so we can share spiritual goals. We should never let friends turn us away from God. Some very nice people are unsaved – my friend Sander was unsaved till last year. That’s fine if you’re a leader with such a friend - I’ll explain below.

Sander never put me down. In fact, he was intrigued by my faith; it was part of how he came to Christ years after I broke my leg. We’re important to each other; he always considers me his best friend. I didn’t push my faith, but mentioned it at times, like sharing about Youthquake. The key is we had much (college, sports – albeit different ones, etc.) in common. We’re very similar. We have some different interests but love to learn about each other’s. He’d never knowingly do something to hurt me; if he did and I explained why it hurt he’d stop.

I have saved friends, too. My closest, Rick, died of cancer in 2017. I keep in touch with our mutual friends. Rick was much more outgoing, always setting up game nights, pizza parties at his house for Packer games, etc.. He made sure everyone had a ride (another friend, Don, has cerebral palsy so can’t drive either). It’s harder for me to do that. Being saved didn’t make us friends, silly senses of humor, love of family friendly comedy, sports, etc. did, like with Sander.

But my saved friends and I could help each other spiritually and talk about the Lord in a way I couldn’t with Sander; and, his girlfriend (the person there each day for him I prayed for) and I are still helping him as a young Christian, doing things like book studies over the phone, etc. (We did “The Lion, the Witch, and the wardrobe” recently. Do you want to do a Google Meet with him and his girlfriend? I’m sure they’d enjoy it a lot. It’d have to be a weekend for her.)

Sander, like Rick, never drank, never did raunchy stuff, etc.. But, spiritually, Rick encouraged my walk with God so I could be the leader Sander needed so he could come to the Lord. And, I encouraged Rick with friends. He made a lot through the Packers that would never have come to church or listened to the Gospel while Rick was here. But, at Rick’s funeral, the Gospel was shared. Well over a dozen trusted Christ as Saviour. A pastor at Canton Baptist shared how we knew where Rick was and why. Rick had trusted Jesus as Saviour at age 12, and they could now. And, many did. He used Godly wisdom to know when to share and when to wait for God’s timing, like me with Sander.

Of course, Jesus is the friend we need for everything. He gives peace and joy to get us through the hardest times in our lives. He gives wisdom to know what to say when we pray for it, like above. It’s neat how I’ll start a topic and sometimes the sermon helps complete it – the Holy Spirit working in everyone. Pastor Frazier spoke on Phil. 2:15-16, how we should live as children of God so we can shine as lights in the world – like I did for Sander & Rick did for his friends. Read the verses on your own, and listen to the message at cantonbaptist.org.

People like P & Bob from the last lesson drag us down if we’re not careful. We need to give friends grace and mercy since we all go through problems. Bob was nice through high school – I shared how some trauma may have caused lots of issues - though my mom thinks in retrospect he maybe didn’t value friends much. We shouldn’t tear others down but build them up, to get to the bottom of problems, of course. It’s like Jesus shows us mercy and grace all the time. Still, at times we must separate from people going down the wrong path. Saved friends, like parents, youth leaders, etc., are crucial to help us pray about and discuss how to help unsaved people (friends and others) in our lives and advise when we might need to distance ourselves and how, among other things.

Think about people in your life. How can you be more of a light to them? People need to see we’re different from the world, but also see it’s fun to know Jesus. Some have had bad experiences with religion, but Jesus was persecuted and sentenced to death by them. A relationship with Jesus is what we have to offer the world. We need to pray for the hurting to trust Him to heal that pain.