“Fighting to stay best friends with God” What kind of relationship does God really want with you? God is your Father. He is your creator. He’s your judge. He’s your Lord. He paid a great price to reconnect with you. Young Isaac Reed and I were talking a couple of weeks ago about how big the universe is and that we thought scientists will never find the end of it. He was talking about how God must be so big if He can hold the universe in His hand. I agreed with him and we both agreed that it is truly amazing that an all-powerful, Creator God wants to be friends with us. I mean, we must look smaller than a speck of sand to Him. But it’s true. God Almighty, Creator, Judge, Holy God wants you and I for His friends. James 4:8 says “Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you.” From the very beginning of time God set us up to enjoy a friendship with Him. He placed two champions, strong, Godly people in the garden of Eden and said that there is only one rule, don’t eat of that one tree. If any two humans were going to live a sinless life, when the only sin was to eat fruit from one tree, when there were thousands of other non-toxic trees, these two could have done it. Love, worship demands a choice but He set us up to win, because the first two people and you and I were made to find our greatest enjoyment in relationship to God. Those first two were made to live in God’s presence continually and so were you and I. But sin broke that original friendship and the friendship was lost. Throughout the Old Testament, very few people are called God’s friends. Would you turn to the person beside you and see if you can name a couple? I got Abraham, Moses, David, Enoch and Job. In the whole of the Old Testament, two thirds of the Bible, I can recall only four people that God describes as His friends. In fact, in the Old Testament the people mostly feared God and even the priests who were allowed in His presence once a year spent weeks preparing themselves in case they died. Fast forward to the new Testament and we see Jesus being willing to die in our place for our sins, so that we all could become God’s friends again. The ancient curtain separating God and man is torn from top to bottom, and through Jesus, only Jesus, we can be connected with God again. Romans 5:10-11 (CEV) 10 Even when we were God’s enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life. 11 And in addition to everything else, we are happy because God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to make peace with us. If I were to translate that verse for our Anna, I would say “because Jesus died for us, dealing with the sin that separated us from God we can now be ‘besties’ with God.” Incredible. It almost feels irreverent. But I am sure that is what it means. You and I can’t buy God’s friendship, we can’t bargain for it, we can’t earn it by being super good. The only thing we can do to become friends of God is to accept by faith that Jesus has dealt with our sin and because of Jesus our relationship has been restored with God again. John 15:15 “I no longer call you servants ….. Instead, I call you my friends! Do you realize how radical that is?... For God of the universe to say I want you for my friend? Let that sink in for a minute. The God who created entire galaxies says that I want you for my friend. Now the word friend here in John 15 in the Greek is not referring to a casual acquaintance. It’s a word that is used to refer to someone with whom you have a deep, close, personal friendship. It’s the word the Greeks would have used to describe 1 the relationship between the bridegroom and his best man at a wedding. Very close mates. God wants you for His friend. That kind of friend. Wow. Exodus 34:14 “… He is a God who is passionate about His relationship with you.” Hosea 6:6 God says this, “I don’t want your sacrifices – I want your love; I don’t want your offerings – I want you to know Me!” The Bible tells us that there are two primary reasons that God made you: One is to love Him and put Him first and the other is to evangelistically love others. If God is not first in your life, if you are not fighting the pressures of this world to keep Him first, then you are missing the very purpose for which you were created! In Acts 17 Paul is preaching to the people in Athens and he says this

“24 This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn’t live in temples built by human hands. 25 He doesn’t need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people. 26 From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be.

27 God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him.

God had done all this, made a world that is just right for humanity to live in and enjoy so that we will look for Him and reach out and find Him.

God’s number one plan is for you to know Him as your friend then to speak to others about that friendship.

So how do we fight to stay ‘best friends’ with God?

1. We make knowing God our number one priority.

You are never going to become a friend of God in your spare time. You make knowing God your number one priority. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God. Do that first.

I don’t know what goes through your head when you jump out of bed in the morning. My first thoughts are usually, Lord help me walk in your presence today, and may I be useful to your kingdom.

Now I am a list maker, and I love ticking off all the to do list as the day progresses, but success to me is mostly about staying close to God and doing what He wants me to do. Philippians 3:8-9 (CEV)

8 Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ 9 and to know that I belong to him. I could not make myself acceptable to God by obeying the Law of Moses. God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ.

This verse suggests to me that even if I could outrun Frojer or David Nielsen in a race or even if I could sing better than Lana and Heather, even if I owned more property than Donald Trump, it’s all worth nothing unless I have a close friendship with God through Jesus.

Write this down; I am as close to God as I choose to be.

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You can’t blame anyone else. You can’t blame your wife, your husband, your parents, your kids. You are as close to God as you want to be. If you are feeling far from God right now, guess who moved? You didn’t make your relationship with God your number one priority.

How do you know if God is not your best friend? What is the sign that you don’t really have a close friendship with God? Matthew 6 tells us that the mark of a person who is not close to God is that they will … begins with W, 5 letters.

I person who is not close to God will ... worry. So you might know lots about God but you are not close to God if you are prone to worry. If you worry that indicates that you have forgotten who He is and what He has promised to do in your life. You are acting like it all depends on you. Every time you worry you are saying, I don’t really know God at this moment. We are not close.

Make your relationship with God your first priority. Secondly,

2. Slow down and be quiet.

Slow down and be quiet. I find that all of us have a variety of devotional pathways, maybe being in the bush or on the beach or listening to the words, or worship helps you get close to God. We are all different and we have different ways of getting close to God but whatever works for you, you need to include being still and silent.

How many of you have heard God say this to you recently? Psalm 46: (NIV) 10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;..”

Psalm 25:14 (NIV) The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.

It’s when you are quietest that God is most likely to give you revelation and insight.

When you ask God, “Lord what do I do about this relationship or about this job, or about that daughter?” the first thing that God is most likely to say is “Be still.”

If you are to fight to stay best friends with God, make that friendship your number one priority, secondly, slow down and be quiet.

3. Maintain a constant conversation.

You are never going to keep God close, know Him as your close friend if you just go to church on Sundays or watch the odd Message on TV or the internet. You have got to learn to maintain a constant conversation. God wants you to talk to Him all the time about anything and everything, whatever you are feeling and thinking and going through 24 hours a day. Just have a running conversation with God and allow Him to talk to you through dreams if He wants to even when you sleep.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 says Pray some of the time? ..... no it says 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NIV) pray continually,

I think that all of us can learn to be aware of God’s presence and voice even when we are talking to someone else or hanging up the washing.

Muslims say pray to God 5 times a day.

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Christians pray to a very different God, not 5 or 6 times a day but all the time. And God has a habit of talking to us, dropping thoughts into our minds, giving us pictures, feelings, awareness of his presence, all of the day. John 16:13 (CEV) The Spirit shows what is true and will come and guide you into the full truth. The Spirit doesn’t speak on his own. He will tell you only what he has heard from me, and he will let you know what is going to happen.

So God is speaking to us, guiding us all the time through the person of the Holy Spirit. Jude 20 (CEV) Dear friends, keep building on the foundation of your most holy faith, as the Holy Spirit helps you to pray.

In context this text is talking about us communing with God as the Holy Spirit speaks through our prayer language to Him, and our faith becomes stronger and we become closer to God as a result. I would suggest to anyone that if you can’t feel God’s presence during the day or you are struggling to hear His voice, choosing to pray in your prayer language always helps.

Maintain a constant conversation. Talk to God all the time. And number 4 if you are going to fight to stay best friends with God;

4. Trust God in your pain

Trust God in your pain. Every friendship is built on trust. If you don’t trust someone then they are not your friend! You might spend 8 hours a day with them but if you don’t trust them they are not your friend.

The foundation of any friendship is trust and that is true of your friendship with God as well. You have got to trust Him. And you and I need to trust Him even when things don’t make sense, when life seems all messed up, when things are going sideways and you think that you might be going under for the last time. Psalm 55:22 (CEV)

22 Our LORD, we belong to you. We tell you what worries us, and you won’t let us fall.

The old version of this Psalm I learnt was cast all your cares on him and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall.

Now when I cast a line out, it’s not long before I wind it back in. That is not the kind of casting that God intends here. He wants you to tell Him what is concerning you and then let it go, trust Him.

God often will let you and me go through pain to cause you, to invite you to draw closer to Him. Passion is the fuel of passion. When you are going through a hard time suddenly your prayers get a whole lot more intense. Have you noticed that? And those awfully hard seasons in life, if we go through them with faith, seem to change us, leaving us stronger and closer to the Lord.

Now I have never been one of those people that could talk disrespectfully to God in my prayer life, I am not going to complain and criticize Him but I will respectfully be honest with Him. Because I think that when you are honest with God you deepen your friendship with Him. He knows what you are thinking before you open your mouth anyway. God loves you being real and God can handle your honesty. God is never looking for flowery or fancy prayers. He just wants 4

us to be real and honest. He would say to us, “when you are hurting tell me.” “When you are scared, tell me”. “When you need my help, just ask.” Psalm 91:14 (NIV)

14 “Because he[a] loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

When you are in trouble God will rescue you, but He will do that if you know Him and you trust Him. Job 29:4 (NIV)

4 Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house,

I wonder if some of us would feel today as Job did on that day. You remember how good it was when once you were close to God and a real friend with God. You remember the days when God’s intimate friendship blessed your home. Jeremiah 15:19 (NIV)

19 Therefore this is what the LORD says:

“If you repent, I will restore you

Maybe for you God was your priority once, you felt close to Him once but since then work and family and health and challenges have become your focus and your friendship with God is no longer your priority.

God said through Jeremiah, “If you repent, (that is say sorry and make a change of direction) I will restore you.”

If you have lost that first love, that intimacy with God, today you can come home.

God is not finished with you. I don’t care what you’ve done, I don’t care who you’ve done it with, I don’t care how long you’ve done it. What matters is not where you’ve been but the direction your feet are headed right now. God is not finished with you.

If you return to Him, make a decision to change direction today, God will restore you and you can step into His great purposes for your life again.

Are you fighting the pressures of this world to keep your friendship with God as your first priority? If you are, awesome, I hope what we have shared today had been an encouragement to you.

But if you have been listening to the Word this morning and you know that God is no longer first in your life, other things have gotten in the way and now you worry and find it hard to trust God; if that is you, I want to invite you at the close of this service to do two things.

1. Tell the person beside you or someone on the prayer team what you are going to do differently from today, so that your friendship with God will become your priority again. 2. Then ask that person to pray for you.

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