The Model Friend, Part 1

If you have your Bible, turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. We're going to talk to you today about the model friend. 1 Thessalonians is about modeling the way. Chapter 1 was about the model church. Chapter 2, the first half was about the model leader.

The last half was about the model follower. And now, we're going to look at the model friend. And ask yourself this question. Are you a model friend? Are you any kind of friend at all? That's a good question. There have been a lot of books written about friendship over the years. Too many of them, I suppose. But one of the books said this about friendship. Instead, a friend is one who knows all about you and still will be seen in public with you. That's pretty good. Another book says this. A friend is someone who doesn't mind that you didn't call before you dropped by their house.

I guess that would be a pretty good friend. One person said a friend is a person who does his knocking before he enters rather than after he leaves. That's probably pretty good. They want to not talk about you after they left your presence. It was Richard Nixon who said what you learn when you fail is that you hear from your friends. He should know. One other person said if you really want to know who your friends are, make a mistake. One person said a friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of his heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands take and sift it, take what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness throw the rest away.

That's interesting. In England, they had a contest as to who could provide the best definition for a friend. These were the final four. Number four was this. A friend is one who multiplies joy and divides grief. Number three.

A friend is one who understands my silence. Number two. A friend is a volume of sympathy bound in the flesh. And the one that won goes like this. A friend is one who comes in when everyone else goes out. What kind of friend are you? Do you have any friends? Would you be a friend to someone else? Solomon said a lot about friends. In the book of Ecclesiastes, in the book of Proverbs especially, there are six different Hebrew words that make up the word friend or companion or brother or neighbor, excuse me, friend, companion or neighbor.

And Proverbs 13 times defines it as friend and 19 times defines it as neighbor. But Solomon in the book of Proverbs talks a lot about friendship. That's because I think he was a lonely man and he wanted to encourage his son to understand what friendship was all about. So he says in Proverbs 17, 17, a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 27 verse number six says, faithful are the wounds of a friend. Proverbs 27, 17 says, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Proverbs 22, 11 says, he who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend. Almost as if Solomon's saying, I'd like to have a friend and if I can have a friend who has grace on his lips and purity in his heart, I'll be his friend. And then Proverbs chapter 12, verse number 26, it says, the righteous should choose his friends carefully for the way of the wicked leads them astray. Solomon would tell his son, look, you choose your friends carefully because if you choose the wrong ones, they're gonna be wicked, they're gonna lead you astray.

You can tell a lot about a person by the friends they choose, can you not? Who they hang out with the most, the kind of people they're around, interesting. After the service was over today, I was walking that direction and my son Cade was coming out with his son Carson and said, Dad, what's all over your face? I said, what do you mean? He goes, you got chocolate on both sides of your face. I said, no, I don't. He goes, yeah, you do, both sides of your face, right here and right here. I said, no. He said, Dad, you do.

He says, no one told you that before you preached today? Do you have any friends? Do you have anybody who cares about how you look? He said, I care enough to tell you, Dad, your face looks a mess, clean it off. Interesting, and I began to think to myself, do I have any friends? I had a professor in college, in seminary, who had a beard and one day he took some Elmore's glue and rolled it up in a little ball and stuck it on one of the sides of his handlebar mustache and left it there all day to see if anybody would bring it to his attention.

He went the entire day with no one saying to him about what was on his mustache. It looked like a booger. It did, it really did. It wasn't until dinner that night when he was waiting for someone to come that the waitress came up to him and said, sir, do you know that you have a booger on your mustache? He said, thank you. I've been waiting all day for someone to point that out to me. And it makes you ask the question, does anybody really care enough about you to deal with the issues surrounding you?

Or in this case, the issues that are on you. Are you a true lifter of people? There's a story about a man who fell into a pit. Maybe you've heard this before. He could not get himself out of the pit. So a subjective person came along and said, I feel for you down in the pit. The objective person came along and said, it's logical for someone to fall into the pit. The Christian scientists came along and said, you only think you're in a pit. Pharisees stopped by and said, only bad people fall into pits.

The newspaper reporters dropped by and said, I'd like to have an exclusive on life in the pit. The fundamentalist said, you deserve your pit. The Calvinist said, if you had been saved, you would have never fallen into that pit. Well, the Arminian said, you were saved and you still fell into the pit. The charismatic said, just confess that you're not in the pit. The realist came along and said, now that's a pit. The IRS man asked, are you paying taxes on the pit? An evasive person came along and decided to avoid the subject of the pit altogether.

A self-pitying man came along and said, you haven't seen anything until you've seen my pit. The optimist said, things could be worse. Where the pessimist said, things will get worse. But seeing the man in the pit, Jesus reached out, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit. Are you a lifter or are you a drifter? Do you drift by and make comments about those in the pit or do you lift them out of the pit? Psalm 103 tells us that it was God who redeemed our lives from the pit. Psalm was said in Psalm 40, verse number one, I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined to me and heard my cry and brought me up out of the pit of destruction.

Out of the miry clay and he set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to my God. Jesus is called the friend of sinners. In fact, it was used in such a way, it was a derogatory term used toward Christ because he would eat with tax gatherers and he would eat with those people who were prostitutes and be associated with them. And so he was a friend of sinners. In fact, Christ even said to his disciples, I no longer call you slaves, but I call you friends.

Abraham was a friend of God. Bible also says that any man who's a friend of the world is an enemy of God. We know that Jesus is the ultimate friend because he's the one who truly cares enough. The song goes, what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. He truly is our friend. But in the natural realm, we have a person who demonstrates to us model friendship. His name is the Apostle Paul. And so when I read chapter three of 1 Thessalonians, I see certain characteristics that describe the model friend.

And so over this week and next week, I wanna give to you those characteristics and give you the opportunity to ask yourself this question, am I a model friend? Am I a true biblical friend? Am I the kind of person that people can count on? A lot of us would say that we are a friend of others or that we have friends or that we are great friends. But are you really? And the only way to measure that is to measure it according to the scriptures. What does the Bible say? So if you have a Bible, I wanna read to you in 1 Thessalonians 3, this is the first five verses this morning because that's all the further we're going to get.

It says, therefore, when we could endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone. And we sent Timothy, our brother, and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith. He said, no one would be disturbed by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. For indeed, when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction. And so it came to pass, as you know, for this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith for fear that the tempter might have tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

Let's begin this way. A true friend, a biblical friend, will sacrifice themselves personally. They will sacrifice themselves personally. Notice the Bible says, therefore.

And of course, when it says therefore, you ask, what is it there for? And you go back to verses 19 and 20 of the previous chapter where Paul says that you are our joy, you are our crown of exaltation, in you we rejoice. Why? Because they were his crown. They were the sons of his. They were brought to the Lord through the apostle Paul's ministry. And so those in Thessalonica were his joy, were his crown of rejoicing. And because you are, he says, these words, we could endure it no longer. We couldn't stand it any longer.

We had to know exactly what was happening in your life. We had left you alone. We had gone, we had been, they had been, remember, run out of the city by the Jews that were there. Chased to Berea because they wanted to persecute Paul, Silas, and Timothy. So they weren't there for a very long time, but when they were chased out, they had no way to know what was happening with those in Thessalonica. They were concerned about them. We could endure it no longer. It's not like you could pick up the phone and call them.

They could FaceTime them, right? See their faces. This is an age where you had to write a letter and it would take weeks, months, to get to its location. And so they were wanting to know what was happening with them. There was this longing to understand what had taken place in their lives. Now notice, at this time, Paul was being persecuted.

He was running out of Thessalonica. He was being run from city to city. And he himself was being persecuted. But that's the essence of true friendship. Notice this.

True friends are not consumed with their problems, but concerned with your pain. That's a true friend. A true friend is not consumed with their problem, but is concerned with your pain. Have you ever talked to somebody and in the course of a conversation, they can't wait to turn the conversation back to them again? You're telling them about your struggles. You're telling them about your troubles and difficulties, your hardship, and they just can't wait to get at words. If you didn't wait, say, well, have you heard about what's happening to me?

Do you know what's going on in my life? And they go on and on and on because they got to talk about themselves. Why? Because they're not concerned about your pain. They're consumed with their problem. That's not your friend. That's not your friend. That's somebody who's only concerned about themselves. They're wrapped up in themselves. All they can think about is themselves. And all they can think about is you thinking about them as well. It consumes them. Paul was not that way. He was so concerned about their pain.

He was willing, as the text says, to be left alone in Athens. It means to be abandoned, to be isolated, to be left alone, which he was. And Paul was one who always had cohorts with him because he was ministering alongside of other people. And he was willing to be left alone in Athens to face the philosophers that were there all by himself, without Timothy, without Silas, and to do his ministry all alone because he had a concern for those in Thessalonica. He was willing to sacrifice his own ministry for the sake of those in Thessalonica by sending Timothy to them.

But Timothy was a unique person. Paul would send Timothy to Philippi. He would send Timothy to Corinth because Timothy was not like everybody else. Philippians 2 tells us that. This is such a powerful testimony to young Timothy. Chapter two, verse number 19 says, but I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly so that I may also be encouraged when I learn of your condition. For I have no one else of kindred spirit who would genuinely be concerned for your welfare. For they all, that is everybody else, seeks after their own interest, not those of Christ Jesus.

That's why Timothy was so good. I want to send somebody else to you, but I can't because there's only one guy I know that's only concerned about your welfare and only concerned about what Christ thinks. Everybody else is concerned about what others think about them. They're out for their own selfish interest, but not Timothy. He was a unique person. He had learned from the apostle Paul not to be consumed with his problems, but be concerned with other people's pain. See, that's a very hard thing to overcome in our society because we want to be the center of attention.

But to be a true biblical friend, your attention is unnecessary. Your attention is set aside. A true biblical friend sees himself as irrelevant and sees the other person as more relevant than they are. That's a true biblical friend. That was the apostle Paul. He saw others as more important than himself. He knew his life was not nearly as important as someone else's life. That's what freed him up to sacrifice himself personally for others. So he would send Timothy away. If you read on in Philippians chapter 2, it says these words.

I thought it necessary, verse number 25, to send you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier who is also your messenger and minister to my need because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. He wasn't distressed because he was sick. He was distressed because you heard that he was sick. And how sick was he? Well, if you read on the text, it says he almost died. That's how sick he was. He was so distressed that others knew that he almost died that it upset him because he wasn't concerned about his life.

See, that's just not us. We're like, man, I'm on death's door. Come see me. Come pray for me. Come help me. That's us, right? Not Epaphroditus. He didn't want anybody to know he was sick. If we're sick, we want everybody to know. You got everybody knows. I got everybody knows. Things are bad. My nose is falling off my face. Somebody's got to know. Somebody's got to pray. Pray till why? Why? Well, we're to pray for one another. Yes, we are to pray for one another. But sometimes we can be so consumed with ourselves that we cannot be concerned with anybody else's pain around us because all we can see is us.

And that's sad. That's just very sad. But not Timothy. Not Epaphroditus. In fact, this is what Paul says about Epaphroditus. He says, Verse 29 in Philippians 2, We see him, then in the Lord, with all joy, hold men like him in high regard, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. Hold this guy in the highest regard, esteem Epaphroditus, way above everybody else. Why? Because even though he almost died, he wanted to sacrifice himself to minister to you.

He goes, and there are very few people that will do that. How about you? Are you a model friend? Do you sacrifice yourself personally? Over in 2 Timothy 1, there's a story about a man named Onosiphorus. If you're pregnant and you're having a son, name him Onosiphorus. Great name. It means bringer of profit. So, if you're pregnant today or looking to have a son in the future, I think that's a great name to name your son. I would have named him that, but it didn't begin with an A, so it wouldn't fit in my family's alliteration.

But it says in 2 Timothy 1, these words, verse 15, And you know how very well, what services he rendered at Ephesus. Onosiphorus would leave his family, would go searching for the apostle Paul until he found him, so he could bring profit to his life. Here's the one who would sacrifice himself personally so that he could minister to the apostle Paul, willing to leave his family and do a ministry that would bring profit to the apostle while in prison. Who do you bring profit to? How many Onosiphoruses do we have in our assembly that want to bring profit to others because they're willing to sacrifice themselves personally because they are not consumed with their problem, but they are truly concerned with your pain?

That's a true friend. That's a biblical friend. And let me tell you something, that's very convicting.

Is it not? Very convicting. But number two, not only do you sacrifice yourself personally, but you want to strengthen, strengthen them spiritually.

You want to strengthen them spiritually. Look what the text says. It says, so we sent Timothy our brother and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, that's a great phrase. Remember in chapter two, it was the gospel of God, three times, gospel of God, gospel of God, gospel of God. But now it's the gospel of Christ. So which is it? It's both. God is the source. Christ is the subject, right? That's the gospel. So he says, we sent him to you to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith. Isn't that great?

Very specific. Very directive. We are sending Timothy to you. I have no one better to send to you. He's the best guy possible. I'm going to sacrifice myself to give him to you because you need him more than I do. Your needs are greater than my needs are. You need to have him with you. And this guy is going to come. He's going to strengthen you. Sterezo is the word. It means to firmly grasp, to strengthen, to establish, to buttress. It's a word that causes you to be strong. Someone needs to strengthen you in your faith.

Someone needs to encourage you in your faith. Wait a minute. Isn't this the model church? In chapter one, we read about the model church and this is the church at Thessalonica. How they turned to God from idols to serve the true and living God and to eagerly anticipate the return of Christ. These are the ones who sacrificed and they imitated the apostle Paul and they imitated Christ himself. They were imitators of God and the apostle and they were followers of the Lord. This was the model church.

Yes. But they were a baby church. They were a new church. They were a fresh church. And Paul knew they needed to be strengthened. They needed to be built up. They needed to be established in the faith and encouraged. In other words, learning how to live out the faith, apply the faith. You see, it's very important that you understand that as a friend, your number one objective is to strengthen your friends spiritually.

That's number one. Think about it this way. You're a husband. You're a husband. And you should be, number one, strengthening your wife spiritually.

Because if you're her friend, and hopefully you married your best friend, right? And if she's your friend, you wanna strengthen her spiritually. And if you're a father of children, what's your objective? To strengthen them spiritually. That's the number one objective.

Because you wanna build into their lives the truth of the word of God because you are truly their friend. Yes, you're the father. Yes, you're the husband. But you're the friend of your wife and the friend of your children. And you show that by strengthening them spiritually. And listen, if you don't do that, your marriage will be weak and your family will be weak. Why? Because everything about strength centers on how much you know and understand the true and living God. Remember Daniel 11.32? Those who know their God will display strength and take action, do great exploits.

In other words, if you don't know your God, you're not gonna display any strength and you can't take any action. So you have to know the Lord. You have to be solidified in your walk with the Lord. That's what true friends do. They say, look, let me lead you into a deeper knowledge of who Christ is, what he did, growing them in their walk with the Lord.

This was Paul's method of ministry. This is what he did. In fact, if you go over to the book of Acts, it says these words in Acts chapter 14, verse number 21. After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Same phrase, strengthen and encourage. Strengthen and encourage.

And then it says in chapter 15, chapter 15, verse number 31 or 32. And this is my favorite verse. Okay, so mark it down. Acts 15, 32. Judas and Silas also being prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brethren. Same phrase, but how did they do that? With a lengthy message. Isn't that a great verse? That's my favorite verse. So if you're planning on lunch at 12 o'clock, cancel it. Cancel all your plans. We're staying here till 5. We're staying. We're going to stay all afternoon. A lengthy message.

They knew that they couldn't strengthen them with a short message. They couldn't strengthen the Christians with a sermonette. They had to give them the truth, the body of truth that would build them up in the faith and give them the strength that they needed to stand strong in the Lord. And then the Bible says over in chapter 15, verse number 41, and he was traveling through Syria and Sicily, strengthening the churches.

Same thing. Chapter 18, verse number 23. And having spent some time there, he left and passed successively through the Galatian region and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. Then in Romans chapter one, verse number 11, for I long to see you, so I may impart some spiritual gift to you that you may be established and encouraged. Same thing. Paul's whole ministry was about strengthening and encouraging the saints, giving them the truth that would solidify their belief in God, that they might live out those principles on a daily basis, and he was encouraging them to do so.

It was so important. I love what the Bible says over in 2 Peter 1, verse number 12, when referring to the believers who were established, same word, in the present truth.

In other words, it was the truth that established them. Over in 1 Peter 5, verse number 10, it's suffering that establishes you. It says, after you have suffered for a little while, that the God will perfect you and establish you, strengthen you, solidify you. Over in James 5, 8, be also patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. So you have the scriptures that establish you. You have the second coming that establishes you.

You have the fact that suffering establishes you. Why? All those things solidify your faith, bound you together, that you may be strong and not weak, not feeble, not frail. See? That was Paul's concern of those in Thessalonica because he knew they were going through difficult times. He says, so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. You know this. Well, how do they know? Because he told them. This is so important. He told them that they were destined for persecution.

And remember in chapter 1, they received the word with joy amidst much opposition, amidst much persecution. But you know what the Apostle Paul did? He made sure that they understood that affliction and persecution and tribulation that would come because of the faith was a normal part of Christianity. We don't do that today. And that's unfortunate. We don't tell people when we present the gospel to them the difficulties that lie ahead. Why don't we do that? Because we want somebody to say a prayer or say that they believe or make some kind of altar call or make some kind of verbal commitment and we feel better about ourselves that they do instead of telling them the whole truth from the beginning.

That's what Jesus did. Jesus was that way. Remember what he says over in Luke chapter 14? I love this. Luke 14 verse number 25. Now large crowds were going along with him and he turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. What kind of gospel invitation is that? Who says that? Jesus does. Who says that to a crowd of people? Who says that at a gathering of people who have come to hear the gospel and tells them, If any man wants to come after me and doesn't hate his father, mother, brother, sister, yes, even his own life, he cannot be one of my followers.

He just can't. Why would Jesus say that? Why would Jesus be so hard with the gospel? Jesus isn't looking for nominal followers. He's looking for people who are committed. Right? So he's going to warn you out front. He already warned you in Matthew 10. Remember Matthew 10? We said these words. Verse 37. He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his own cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

He who has found his life will lose it. And he who has lost his life for my sake will find it. Wait a minute. Christ has already said, Look, you can't love your father or mother more than me. Your love for me must be so strong the love you have for your physical family looks like hate. Why? Because he says in verse number 34. Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. Again, what kind of presentation of the kingdom is that? Well, he's the king. He can present the kingdom any way he wants.

So this is how he presents it. I came to bring peace. I came to bring sword. For I came to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. Wow! So Christ has already said this. Your enemies are going to be the members of your household. Why? Because I came to divide families. I came to see, Are you true to me? Are you committed to me? Are you sold out to me? Do you love me more than anything and anyone else?

Even your own life. And then back to Luke 14. It says verse 27. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Here I said that too. Luke 9.23 If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. You've got to be willing to lose your life in order to keep your life. If you want to keep it, you're going to lose it. Are you willing to lose your life for my sake? So he tells them to count the cost. He gives a parable for which one of you when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it.

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. But what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to encounter the one coming against him with 20,000.

Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then none of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his own. You've got to calculate this. You've got to sit down and consider the cost. I'm glad you're following. I'm glad you're on the Jesus bandwagon. I'm glad there's thousands of people following. And there were thousands of people following him. I'm glad you're here. But listen to this. Calculate the cost in following me. Because this is what's going to cost you.

It's going to cost you your life. It's going to cost you your family. It's going to cost you your friends. It's going to cost you everything. Are you willing to pay the price? Why? Because I want all of you. Are you willing to give away your life for mine? Are you willing to give away your dreams for mine? Are you willing to give away your will for my will? What are you willing to do for me? Because I gave my all for you. I gave it all. I sacrificed my life for you to have me. What will you give?

That's why the Bible says, what will a man give in exchange for his soul? It's a word of transaction. What do you give in exchange for your soul? Because in Christianity, I am exchanging my life for his life. So here's Paul telling people, we've already told you about this. We told you well in advance that we were destined for this. This was going to happen. So it wasn't like he didn't forewarn them. He told them up front. So they knew exactly what they were getting themselves into when they gave their life to Christ.

Because he wanted to strengthen them spiritually. So he'd send Timothy back. That he may be a part of that ministry once again. As you read on, you're going to see just the good news. It's all about the faith. Remember five times it says the faith in 1 Timothy chapter 3. It says, encourage you as to your faith in verse number 2. Verse number 5, I also sent to find out about your faith. Verse number 6, good news of your faith and love. Verse number 7, comforted about you through your faith. Then verse number 10, that may complete what is lacking in your faith.

It's all about your faith. Says our friends too. They're concerned about your faith. Your walk with the Lord. Your belief structure. What do you believe in? And if you're a true friend, that's what you believe in. That's what you're concerned about. What do my friends believe about Christ? What do they know about Christ? Do they understand Him? Are they followers of Christ? And how can I strengthen them? It's a never ending ministry. It doesn't end. Look what it says in chapter 4. Finally then brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk, that you excel still more.

Now you're walking with the Lord. But we want you to excel all the more when you walk with the Lord. Then down to verse number 10, for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia, but we urge you brethren to excel still more. See, it's always moving them to the more side. There's more to know. There's more to learn. There's more to grow in your faith with the Lord. We want you to excel all the more. That's what friends do. If your friend's not helping you excel in your faith, they're not a true friend.

They might be an associate. They might be a close associate, but they're not a biblical friend. A biblical friend says, I want you to excel all the more. A biblical friend says, hey, come to my church and grow with me in our walk with the Lord. We'll study the Bible together. We'll go to church together. We'll be involved in men's studies and women's studies. We'll just grow together. We're going to excel in our faith. That's what a true friend does. Because he wants you to be a part of something that's helping you grow spiritually.

So Paul tells us he's willing to sacrifice himself personally. He's willing to strengthen them spiritually. That's the model friend as we begin our study in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. I want you to ask yourself today, am I that kind of friend? Am I that kind of father or husband to my children, to my wife? Do I sacrifice for them personally? Do I strengthen them spiritually? Because let me tell you something, if you're not doing it at home, you're not going to do it anywhere else.

Because the home is the truest indicator of where you stand spiritually with the Lord. It's your home. And I would trust that that's the case for all of us. That's my prayer. That we would become the kind of model friends that God wants us to be. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for today and this is the opportunity you give us to spend a brief moment together in your Word. Truly, Lord, you are a great God and you alone are worthy of praise. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to be here today.

We thank you, Lord, for what you've done in our lives personally. And we pray, Lord, for anybody here today who doesn't know you, that today would be the day of their salvation. They would come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, King, Messiah. They would embrace you and serve you and follow you. And for all of us, Lord, convict us, Lord, where there needs to be conviction. Challenge us, Lord, where we need to be challenged. Because, Lord, all of us can be better friends than we are. We can be much better than we are.

And we want to exemplify true Christianity. We want to be able to move others on toward maturity in Christ and be willing to give our lives away. As Paul said, quoting you, remember the words of our Lord Jesus, it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. May we be true givers of ourselves and not receivers. For the glory of your kingdom, until you come again, as you most surely will. In Jesus' name. Amen.