How to Be God's Friend - Part A

A friend in the Bible is a whole lot more than just a buddy you just hang with.

It's deeper than that. It speaks of a close and trusted companion. So though on one hand the concept of being God's friend boggles the mind, it's an oxymoron, it delights our hearts. We love that concept that Jesus said, I call you not servants, but friends. No matter how many friendships you have, there will be one friendship that rises above them all, a friendship with our powerful Creator. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shows you how you can follow Abraham's example when it comes to being God's friend. And at the end of today's program, Skip and his wife, Lenya, share practical insight on how you can cultivate a deeper friendship with the Lord. I would also recommend personal retreats. I've had a few of those where I remember early on in our marriage, I said, Lenya, can I go camping overnight and I backpack up into the mountains and I, you know. I'm mystified that camping can make anyone closer to God. No, just kidding.

No, because you've been doing it lately and you've been enjoying it. Thanks, Skip and Lenya. Be sure to stay tuned after today's message to hear the full conversation. Now we want to tell you about a resource that will help you get a full picture of God's character and nature so you can draw closer to Him. Can you imagine reading a biography about your life only to find details about your life that were wrong?

Well, it would be frustrating, wouldn't it? And God's nature, character, and motives have often been poorly portrayed and even intentionally misstated. And that's one of the reasons I decided to write the book, The Biography of God, to open your eyes and heart to a larger picture of God. I hope you will go on this journey with me as we ask and answer the universal question, can we know God? Here's how to get your copy of my newest book, The Biography of God. The Biography of God is our way to say thank you when you give $35 or more today to help expand this Bible teaching outreach to more people.

Request your copy when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Okay, we're in Genesis chapter 18 as Skip Heitzig starts today's study. Sometimes you hear a statement or a phrase that is arresting, it stops you and you ponder it because it doesn't seem to make sense. Words put together, though they are together, seem contradictory. We call that an oxymoron. When you have words in combination that are contradictory or incongruous, a self-contradiction is an oxymoron. And I have a list of what are called the 35 top oxymorons.

Some of them are true, some of them I think were placed in there for fun. For example, legally drunk. That's an oxymoron. An exact estimate. Another one. Act naturally. Found missing. Resident alien.

Genuine imitation. That's an oxymoron. Airline food. Government organization.

Sanitary landfill. Alone together. Small crowd. Plastic glasses.

Terribly pleased. Political science. Tight slacks. Pretty ugly. Rap music. No comment.

Working vacation. And the number one top oxymoron, Microsoft works. I just love that part. It's a jab, I know it. But perhaps the top of top oxymorons is this phrase, God's friend.

Now follow me here. Friends enjoy mutuality, commonality. And when you're a friend with another person, you're on that same level with that person. How could we possibly be on the same level with God? What do we share in common?

What do we add to the relationship? We've studied the attributes and the characteristics of God for the last several weeks. We've discovered that He's in a class all by Himself. He's very unique. He's uniquely holy. He's the only one who's omniscient, knows everything, omnipresent, everywhere present. He's omnipotent, all powerful, all sovereign.

What do we have in common with that? And yet, in some way, we are called to be God's friends. Jesus said, no longer do I call you servants, but I call you friends. Now there is only one person in all of Scripture that is actually given the title friend of God, and that is the one we're studying this morning, Abraham. Three times in Scripture, that title comes up for this individual alone. He is the friend of God. First appearance is 2 Chronicles chapter 20, when King Jehoshaphat is facing the impending invasion of the Moabites and Ammonites. He calls Abraham God's friend. Another time is in the book of James chapter 2 verse 23.

And the third is, to me, the most significant. It appears in Isaiah 41, when God Himself uses the title about Himself. In Isaiah 41 verse 8, the Lord says, you Israel are my servant. You are descendants of Abraham, my friend. God calls Himself the friend of Abraham. Abraham, my friend. But something you ought to note about biblical friendships, a friend in the Bible is a whole lot more than just a buddy that you just hang with.

It's deeper than that. It speaks of a close and trusted companion. So though on one hand, the concept of being God's friend boggles the mind, it's an oxymoron, it delights our hearts. We love that concept that Jesus said, I call you not servants, but friends. In fact, if you think about it, if God is your friend, you don't really need a whole lot else in life. If you can get your heart around the concept that God is my friend and I am His friend and He invites me into this relationship, this ultimate knowledge, it'll just carry me through so much. In fact, think of it this way, wouldn't you rather have God as your friend and everybody else as your enemy rather than everyone else as your friend and God as your enemy? It's the ultimate possible friendship and relationship.

When Mark Twain was traveling through Europe, it was at the peak of his career, everybody knew this great author, Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, and wherever he went, whatever country he was in, whatever city, dignitaries, royalty, people from the who's who recognized him and wanted to get close to him. It impressed his nine-year-old daughter who was traveling with him and at the end of this European tour, she just blurted out, Daddy, you seem to know everybody but God. And what good does it do if you know everybody but God? But for us today, what does a friendship with God look like? How could we possibly become His friend? What are the characteristics of this divine friendship?

I'll give you four characteristics based on the life of Abraham and the first is spontaneity. Look at chapter 18. Let's just look at the first few verses. Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre. As he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day, so he lifted his eyes and looked and behold three men were standing by him. When he saw them, he ran for the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the ground and said, my Lord, if I have now found favor in your sight, do not pass on by your servant.

What I'd like you to notice is verse one. And the Lord what? He just appeared. He just showed up unannounced. He was just there. And verse two says, behold or hey, check it out. Three men were standing by him, by Abraham. The text tells us it's the heat of the day.

So the time when no one travels in a Middle Eastern summer, you would travel early in the morning or late in the afternoon. So Abraham was not expecting anybody to be traveling and showing up at his tent. He just suddenly was suddenly was there unannounced. Sarah didn't have enough time to vacuum the tent or clean up Abraham and Ishmael's dirty socks. Just there they are unannounced spontaneously appearing.

Now, really quickly, let me just cover this and move on. Some see in this text a picture of the Trinity because you have three persons, but they're addressed as one. And that's why the Church of England, the Anglican denomination every year on Trinity Sunday reads Genesis chapter 18 because they see this as a shadow, a prefigurement of the Trinity in the Old Testament even.

It's best to see this as God and two angels, a theophany, some sort of human apparition of God in the flesh. One is addressed as the Lord and the other two seem to be angels. If you'll notice in verse one, the word Lord is all capitals, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Whenever you find that in the Old Testament, it's the covenant name of God.

It's not just Sir, Lord. It's not our term of respect like it is down in verse three. This is the covenant name, Yahweh. One of them is the Lord.

And let's just follow this. Go down to verse 22. Then the men, plural, turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord, Yahweh.

So those two men turned away, leaving Abraham and the Lord conversing. These two men must have been angels because chapter 19, verse one, now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening. When I read this passage, I can't help but think of that tremendous encouragement in Hebrews 13, where we read, don't forget to show hospitality to strangers because some have entertained angels without recognizing it. Maybe they were referring to this very story in Genesis 18. But Abraham was not just entertaining angels, but God. By the way, how do you, what do you feed an angel?

I know you're going to say angel food cake, but. The point is God just showed up unannounced and friends can do that. Friends can be spontaneous.

They can just show up without announcing themselves and a good friendship can withstand that kind of spontaneity. I had a friend years ago, actually I had a few friends like this, but one in particular who would just show up at my door. Anytime he felt like it, there'd be a knock at the door. Sometimes he'd even go all the way around back and find wherever I was, just showed up. But he was a good friend.

He could do that. The friendship allowed for that kind of spontaneous behavior. When my son was growing up here in this church year after year, he was my little buddy. He was my friend and I told him, Nathan, because we have a special friendship, that means you can come to me anytime, no matter what I'm doing, you can barge right in and we'll hang out. And he took me up on it. Sometimes he'd barge right into a counseling session.

Nathan and his dinosaur. And the person could be crying and carrying on and all he knew is that he had access. He could spontaneously enter at any time. And even Jesus gave a great analogy of spontaneous friendship. In one of his parables he said, suppose one of you has a friend and he goes to him at midnight and he says, friend, lend me three loaves of bread.

Talk about spontaneity. Knock at the door, it's midnight, you're in bed and your buddy's going, hey, you got any bread? I'm hungry.

I want some sandwiches. Friendship can withstand that. Well, if you're God's friend, get used to this. You cannot always predict his visitations, his appearing, his testings, his changes. He doesn't always warn us first, I'm going to come next week, get ready.

He just shows up, spontaneously acts. We've all heard of Isaac Newton, a great scientist in his era, a great mind. And Isaac Newton, besides being a great scientist, was a great Christian man, a great believer. And one of the things he added to the body of knowledge were the laws of motion. And listen to the first law of motion. I'm going to apply this to the friendship for just a minute, but here's the first law of motion according to Isaac Newton. Everything continues in a state of rest unless it's compelled to change by forces impressed upon it. It's the first law of motion. Well, that could easily be the first law of friendship with God. Everything just sort of continues at a state of rest unless it's compelled to change by forces impressed upon it. We like that in science, we just don't like that in our personal lives. But how many times have we made our plans, had our feet up, we're at rest, we're relaxing, we've got it all wired, and God goes, no, I don't think so, and shows up and provides a testing, a good beatitude to remember, though it's not in the scripture, I think it's wise, blessed are the flexible. They shall not be broken. I think that's good.

To be God's friend is to be open and willing to change and to avoid ruts. There's a man down in Nashville who bought a radio, took it home, took it out of the box, plugged it in, put it on his refrigerator, tuned it to WSM. If you're from the Nashville area, you know what that is. That's Grand Old Opry radio. So he turned it to WSM, Grand Old Opry, then he pulled all the knobs off the radio and threw them away.

You know what he was doing, right? There's only one frequency we need in this house, and that's the Grand Old Opry. It's great in your kitchen, but you cannot do that in life with God.

You cannot tune into a frequency, i.e. your plans, your direction, because as we said last week, God has editing rights. He has the right to barge in and to change our plans. As one wisely said, God speaks to us through the regularity with which he disappoints our plans. I've had that. I've had God disappoint my plans, change my course.

Anybody else have that? That's friendship, spontaneity. The Lord appears suddenly. The second in verse 2 is humility.

Now watch Abraham. So he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and he bowed himself to the ground.

I'm focused on the word bow right now. Shacha in Hebrew, shacha, to incline the body, to pay homage, to get face down, prostrate before. Why did Abraham do that? Well, it was a typical Middle East greeting, but especially reserved for royalty. If somebody's higher than you are and you recognize and you recognize that, the proper response is humility. You bow.

There was even a protocol. You get on your knees, you gradually incline the body till the forehead touches the ground, hands on the ground, and that was humility. Notice in verse 3, he refers to him as my Lord, capital L, small o, r, d, Adonai. You are my Lord, and I am your servant. And also in verse 3 and 5, he calls himself a servant. Here's something you should know about Abraham to make an impact here. Abraham was a wealthy, powerful statesman. He had on his payroll 318 paid, trained servants. He was the CEO of Abraham Inc. with a payroll of 318 people. He would be known today in the Middle East as a sheikh, the ruler of a tribe, the ruler of a clan, somebody really important. And yet this really important guy realizes I'm in the presence of somebody really, really important. So the response is humility.

He bows. I've always loved the story about the preacher who survived the Johnstown flood of 1889, Johnstown, Pennsylvania. If you know anything about that, it was a horrible event that took out the whole region, destroyed it.

I've seen old photographs of that from that era. Well, he survived the Johnstown flood, and he loved to tell the story of how he survived the Johnstown flood. And when people would get together and they'd tell their stories, he would always pull out this one, sort of a, you can't top this kind of a story.

Have you heard how I survived the Johnstown flood? Well, this old guy died, went to heaven. And in heaven, after he was there a few days, Peter announced that everybody's going to get together and share their life experiences. He runs up to Peter, Peter, I got the coolest story, how I survived the Johnstown flood. It's like the greatest story you've ever heard. Can I share that today?

Peter hesitated. He said, yes, but just remember, you will have Noah in the audience today. You can't top Noah's story.

I don't care how good a survivor of whatever flood you have. Here's Abraham. He's great, but he recognizes God's in the audience.

Proper response, bow. Worship. Worship is the proper response to a divine friendship. Because worship is a selfless act. If I'm truly worshiping, my focus is not on me. How do I look?

How do I sound? It's on him. I'm worshiping him. But how many times have we caught ourselves, even in a worship service, when we're supposed to be thinking about him and all of our attention is on him. We're very distracted by personal thoughts that steal away our minds.

Or we just mouth the words and our minds in neutral. Charles Spurgeon wrote, I believe a very large majority of churchgoers are merely unthinking, slumbering worshippers of an unknown God. But when I remember God's in the audience, in fact, when I remember God is the audience, I bow. The natural response is humility. Humility comes from two things, recognizing who God is and recognizing who I am.

And I might think I'm pretty great. And then God steps in the room, he shows up and it's a change, right? Isaiah, the prophet, he was a prophet. He was Isaiah till he saw a vision of the Lord high and lifted up. And what did he say?

Woe is me. That's the proper response, humility and worship. That's Skip Hyten with a message from the series, The Biography of God. Now let's go in the studio with Skip and Lenya as they share practical insight on how you can cultivate a deeper friendship with the Lord. Today, we learned about several qualities that will help us grow closer to the Lord so that we can know him as our friend.

To help our listeners, what are some practical things that you've learned and applied over years to cultivate a friendship in your relationship with God? Well, first of all, I've had a morning routine for years, getting up in the morning, coffee is being made, or I purchase it somewhere and I have my Bible. So I used to do that at the beach when I lived there. I used to go every morning to the same spot, sit down with coffee, looking at the ocean, and I would pray and I would read. So I don't have an ocean as much anymore, but I do keep that routine up. Another thing that I find helpful are walks. I like to pray while I walk, sometimes out loud, sometimes privately. I would also recommend personal retreats. I've had a few of those where I remember early on in our marriage, I said, Lenya, can I go camping overnight? And I'd backpack up into the mountains and I'd, you know. I'm mystified that camping can make anyone closer to God.

That's, no, just kidding. No, because you've been doing it lately and you've been enjoying it. But so those personal little retreats of getting away and intentionally trying to hear his voice. Another thing that's helped me is reading older books.

You know, I call them old dead guys, dead pastors' society. I love reading what people who walked with the Lord a century or two ago said and did when they were unencumbered with modern society. And then a final one is journaling, though I'm not great at it. I'll confess that right now. I do it very, very sporadically.

I'm very inconsistent. But when I do it, it helps clarify what God is doing. You know, somebody said that reading makes a man broad, writing makes a man exact. So it helps me exactly formulate what I'm feeling or dealing with. Well, also, when you keep a journal, you don't remember every prayer that you've prayed, at least I don't. And some of my prayers are spontaneous. When I write them down, I can go back and go, goodness, the Lord answered that prayer. And so that friendship, I can trust Him more, and then I want to talk to Him more. Thank you. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heisig wraps up our series, The Biography of God, sharing more encouraging insight on how you can be God's friend. Connect with Skip Heisig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.