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WHAT KIND OF FRIEND ARE WE?
II Samuel 13:1-14
Sunday Morning Sermon
February 14, 1999
Fair Avenue Baptist Church
Today is the second Sunday of our Winter Campaign titled “For God So Loved.” Last Sunday we started off with “Love Your Neighbor Sunday” where people invited their neighbors.
Today is “Love Your Friend Sunday” so I want to preach about friends. The Bible has a lot to say about friends and I want us to look at some of those passages and ask ourselves an important question, “What kind of friend am I?” In fact, that is the title to my message.
There are several types of friends mentioned and several comments about friends.
There are references to bad friends, and even evil friends, such as Amnon’s friend, Jonadab, the one we read about a few minutes ago.
There are comments about friends.
I want to take a few minute and read some passages and then we can ask ourselves that question, “What kind of friend am I?”
1. BAD FRIENDS
We read in II Sam. 13 about a young man named Jonadab who convinced Amnon to rape his own sister.
Jonadab put together a scheme for Amnon which allowed Amnon to rape his own sister, Tamar.
We want to holler out and say, “What a horrible thing. How could Amnon do such a thing?”
Simply put, he had the wrong friend.
I wonder how many horrible things we have done at the prodding or encouragement of a so-called friend?
I wonder how many people smoked their first cigarette because a “friend” encouraged them to do so.
I wonder how many people took their first drink of alcohol because a “friend” handed it to them and told them to take a drink?
I wonder how many women lost their purity because of the influence of a “friend?”
You better be careful of those kind of friends.
2. A GOOD FRIEND
Prov. 27:6, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend...”
27:17, “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”
Simply put, a good friend will tell what is necessary to keep you in line.
A good friend will encourage you to do right.
A good friend will do everything in their power to help keep you straight.
Sometimes they tell us what we don’t want to hear.
Sometimes what they say hurts but it is absolutely necessary.
Their presence and their words keeps us “sharp.”
That’s the kind of friend we need, but the sad part is that that is kind we seldom have.
If we are not careful, we will end up with a bad friend instead of a good friend.
1. Bad Friends
2. Good Friends
3. THE FRIEND
Prov. 18:24, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
Notice the last phrase, “there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
There are bad friends,
There are good friends,
But there is only one Friend,
And that is Jesus Christ.
John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Some 2,000 years ago, that Friend, the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother, He died on Calvary’s tree for you and me.
He lay down His life for His friends,
And those friends were you and me.
We can do without bad friends,
We can do without good friends,
But we can’t do without this Friend.
Romans 5:7-8 sums it up best, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
BUT God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
This Friend,
This Jesus,
died for us,
while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
Don’t leave here this morning with this Friend, Jesus Christ.
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