Sand Mountain Sermonette 31
John 15:13-15; 2 Chronicles 20:7
Sand Mountain Sermonette 31
The Gift of Friendship
“Greater love has no one that this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his mater’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:13-15
My mother presented me with lots of gifts over the years. Many gifts were tangible, but the most important gifts I received from her were both life-changing and roads God used to lead my heart to the cross of Christ at the age of sixteen. One such gift was the gift of friendship; a gift that prompts my heart to remember a special Christmas of long ago when was in Middle School that I learned the value in receiving a friend and being a friend.
Christmas was drawing near, and my mother had a burden for a dear friend of hers she had known since High School by the name of Melba. Melba was a single parent with several children who lived in a small and humble home out in the country near the area where my mom grew up. Her eldest child was a boy in High School, and the youngest was a daughter who was preschool age. And although this family did not have very much in the way of material possessions, they were one of the kindest families I had ever met.
Mother worked for the State of Alabama Employment Office and had previously helped Melba find a job, but her heart longed to help Melba’s family that Christmas because she had understood these children wouldn’t be able to receive any presents this year due to financial concerns. So, my mom went out and purchased presents for each child and my brother and I helped my mom wrap them at home and then take them over to Melba’s house a few days before Christmas.
I will never forget how humble and thankful this dear mom and her children were. The only gift I remember was the one my mom had picked up for the son in High School: an electric football set; vintage now, and oh so neat! I remember his inviting me to play with him and we had a good time that night; a time that last for a couple of hours or so before we went home. And the wonderful thing was—this opened the door to several more visits with this family over the next few years. A friendship had been born out of love: the love of a mother’s sacrificial heart for her friend!
Ezra the priest and scribe records King Jehoshaphat of Judah’s prayer in 2 Chronicles 20:7, “Did you not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever?” In Christ, the covenant word of God declares you are God’s friend (“beloved”) forever through Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross for you! I can assure you from personal experience, the best friend you will ever have now and forever is Jesus! He is the only cure for the lonely soul, and you can trust Him all the way! If you haven’t done so, won’t you invite Him in, this Christmas?
Pastor Louie